A/N: So how's it going everyone? Sorry I couldn't get this fic in by Christmas, I had a very busy past few days. I tried to upload this earlier, but the site wasn't letting me upload anything for some reason so I was forced to wait.
We've had a bit of light-hearted fun for the past few chapters, but now…now it's time to get serious. And I mean actually serious. This chapter mainly a conversation between Mike and the Marionette about issues that they will have to address in the future, and Mike introducing the kids to the Internet offscreen.
That, and I have one more character to introduce at the end…one that you should be very familiar to those who have looked deep enough into FNAF's lore.
Chapter 4 – Looking to the Future
Mike followed the Marionette up to his library, a small but comfortable space with a wall lined with bookshelves. There were two couches located on either side of a small table, and both of them each sat down in one.
"So, what did you need to talk to me about, Mary?" Mike asked.
The Marionette stroked her chin thoughtfully. "There are a few issues that we will have to address at some point if not now, Mike," she explained. "The main one that I'm concerned with is allowing the ghostly children to eventually leave the boundaries of this house and interact with the outside world."
Mike frowned. "I don't have an issue with it from a personal standpoint," he admitted, "but from past experience and pretty much any ghost story ever, letting the dead interact with the living world directly tends to…cause problems."
"The ghost children would never deliberately cause harm," Mary agreed. "But you do have a point. The thing is…these children have spent entire decades where they have been trapped in the same building for decades on end. They joked and laughed about it while they were playing board games, but I can tell that they will grow restless if they are forced to stay in this house. A gilded and comfortable prison is still a prison."
"Didn't they already spend some time in the outside world?" Mike asked.
Mary nodded. "I do not know the full details, but I believe at that time they were on their quest to search for a Night Guard as part of their atonement," she explained. "They could not stop and enjoy the beauty of the world, for all of its many flaws."
The older man nodded in understanding. "I guess I can see where you're coming from, Mary," he conceded. "If I had to stay cooped up in this house 24/7, I'd probably go crazy from boredom. But that still doesn't change the fact that letting ghosts interact with the outside world may cause problems. The ghosts aren't driven by vengeance and they wouldn't cause harm to an innocent person, I trust them completely in that aspect. But if a lot of people start thinking they're hallucinating seeing children around me all the time, if they start hearing voices in their head or see things moving around on their own, I'm going to be asked a lot of uncomfortable questions that I don't want or know how I'm going to answer."
"The ghost children are normally invisible and intangible to other humans," Mary answered. "The reason why you can see and touch them is because you have a slightly greater attunement to the paranormal than most humans, and because they want you to fully interact with them as their new father. But I will concede that the other two points are valid problems. It is much harder for a ghost to control his own sound than it is his visual presence."
Mike shrugged. "You've got more experience with supernatural stuff than I do. Do you have any idea on how to tackle this?"
Mary nodded. "Of all the ghostly children, I have had the most experience and power when it comes to magical proficiency. Given enough time, I could further mask the presence of the children so that they will not influence the outside world at all, which would grant them more freedom in their actions. But I only recently came up with this idea, and have not invested any effort or concentration yet to make it into a reality." She sighed. "Until I finalize that, however, they will have to discipline themselves to minimize the chance of accidentally causing problems."
"Let's handle that when the kids start getting restless," Mike decided. "Anything else?"
"I was wondering what your opinion is of letting the children communicate with other people outside of our family," Mary began, but Mike raised a hand to silence her.
"Before you continue," he interrupted, "are you talking about anonymously through things like the Internet? Or actually introducing them to other people directly?"
"Both."
Mike sighed. "I was kind of thinking about this too," he admitted. "I mean, in terms of things like the Internet, I don't think that would be too much of a problem. I'd need to teach the kids Internet Safety and what things they shouldn't mess around with, but I'd have to teach them that even if I was a normal parent raising normal kids so I don't mind putting in the time for that."
His face hardened. "Actually introducing these ghost kids to other people, on the other hand…that I do have a problem with. Just letting these kids near others invisibly could cause problems. Even one bad encounter, one thing going wrong, and there's a very good chance that we could have a complete mess on our hands." He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Mary, but I just don't think that this option is a good idea."
Mary wasn't ready to give up just yet, though. "These kids have had no one but each other to even so much as talk to for more than 30 years. Their bond is one of the strongest imaginable, and now extends to you. But they miss what they used to have. They miss playing with their friends, who by now are adults who have almost certainly forgotten about them. They've watched other children throughout the years hold birthday parties in the pizzeria, always wanting to join in but forced to remain in the sidelines without anyone knowing about their existence."
"I understand that, Mary, I really do," Mike sighed. "I know what loneliness feels like much more than most people can ever hope to claim. But it doesn't change the fact that the risks are just too high!"
"There has to be some way, Mike," the Marionette begged. "After enduring so many struggles and hardships, I just want my friends to be the normal kids they were meant to be."
Mike leaned forward and rubbed his hand against his forehead. Truth be told, he wanted the same thing that the Puppet did for the ghost kids just as much as she did. But he also understood the real world much better than she ever could, and just how unforgiving it could be to the unprepared.
"There may be a few people I can trust," Mike finally decided. "A few people that might be able to give you and give them what you're asking. But I'm going to take as much time as I need to iron out the kinks as thoroughly as possible, and until then they'll have to be satisfied with things like the Internet. I'm not budging on this, Mary."
The Marionette nodded, knowing that trying to get any more out of Mike would be a wasted effort and border on abusing his kindness. "Thank you, Mike. And I'm sorry for putting an additional burden on the already great responsibilities being forced upon you."
Mike brushed it off with his hand. "Don't worry about it, Mary. I care about the kids just as much as you do." He got up from his chair. "So…let's go see how they're doing, eh?"
Mary got up from her chair as well. "That sounds like an excellent idea, Mike."
Later, into the Evening…
Mike hummed to himself as he finished cooking his meal for the evening. His earlier conversation with the Marionette had inspired him to introduce the kids to the Internet, and he had spent about an hour basically lecturing about it and what to do/what not to do. The ghosts had then leaped at the chance to explore sites like Facebook, Google, and Youtube, all while the former night guard supervised them from the background to make sure things didn't go out of control. Mike had thought that it wouldn't have taken too long before they eventually lost interest, but he had forgotten that the kids had lived in a time when computers were still getting off the ground and could barely do anything beyond a couple of programs.
"First time I've ever seen someone go Google searching for 2 straight hours," he muttered dryly as he poured some teriyaki sauce onto the stir fry that he had been preparing. He stirred the plate around and was about to move his meal onto a plate when he felt a chill on his arm. He looked down to see two of the ghost kids, Jeremy and Susie, staring back at him. "What's up, kiddos?" he asked.
"We noticed you disappeared a couple of minutes ago," Jeremy explained. "We were just making sure you were all right."
Mike smiled. "I'm fine, Jeremy. Just making some dinner for myself. Still need to eat, after all."
Susie sniffed the air. "What you're making smells really good," she praised, then sighed wistfully. "I wish I could eat food like I used to."
Mike shook his head regretfully. "There's a lot of things that I can try and help you with the best I can, but unfortunately that one isn't something I can control."
Susie decided to change the subject before Mike started apologizing for something that wasn't his fault. "The Internet is so amazing!" she exclaimed, her eyes filled with awe. "How can so many things fit into one program?"
"Oh, the net is so much more than a simple program," her new dad grinned, then a thought occurred to him. "Have you talked to anyone yet?" he asked.
Jeremy shook his head. "The Marionette won't let us do that yet," he answered. "She wants to make sure we have enough experience on the Internet to know how to do things safely on it before she lets us start chatting with other people." He smirked. "We did sneak in a couple of Youtube comments in while she wasn't looking though. Fritz's idea."
His guardian gave him a deadpan look. "Please tell me you didn't use my email for that."
"Nah," Susie shook her head. "We made a collective email for all of us to use, and used that for our Youtube account."
"You guys are getting the hang of the modern world pretty quickly," Mike remarked. "Maybe it won't take them as long as I thought to get adjusted," he added mentally.
Both Susie and Jeremy grinned at the praise, and then Jeremy's expression turned thoughtful. "So how does Reddit work, again?"
Mike was about to explain, but was interrupted by the Marionette suddenly appearing in the kitchen entryway. "Jeremy? Susie?" she called to them. "The other kids are about to watch the next episode of Star Wars in Mike's TV room. Why don't you go join them?"
"Okay!" Jeremy and Susie eagerly rushed out of the room. "I heard Mary say that Empire Strikes Back is even better than A New Hope!" Jeremy excitedly told Susie as they floated out of sight. Once the Marionette was certain they were gone, she turned back to Mike. Though she couldn't express facial emotions well, Mike could tell immediately that either something very important or very problematic had just occurred.
"What's going on, Mary?" Mike asked as he turned off the stove.
"There's another ghost child," Mary's voice was barely above a whisper. "I sensed her presence arrive outside of the house a few minutes ago."
"Should we bring her in to meet with the rest of the family?" Mike asked.
"Not yet!" the Marionette fiercely hissed, and Mike almost flinched at the unexpectedly harsh tone in her voice. The Marionette seemed to notice it too. "I'm sorry," she continued in a much softer voice. "But the others must not know about her yet. They have not detected her yet, for their senses are less keen than mine."
"Why? What's wrong with this particular ghost child?"
"Do you remember what I told you about the end of the Fazbear franchise?" the Puppet asked quietly, her voice deadly serious as they snuck past the room where all of the ghosts were now watching Empire.
"As if I could ever forget something like that," Mike muttered back as they approached the front door.
"Then you must remember what I told you about the child who was corrupted into evil, through several tragic circumstances beyond her control," the Marionette whispered intently.
"I remember…it was that bastard William Afton's daughter…" his eyes widened in shocked realization. "Wait, you can't be saying…"
The Marionette wordlessly grabbed the front door and swung it open. Mike looked down and gasped at what he saw.
Standing (or floating) in front of him was the ghost of a young girl who looked slightly older than Susie. The girl had long orange hair and piercing green eyes, wearing a purple sweater and small blue skirt. But it wasn't her physical appearance that stunned Mike into silence, nor even the fact that she was a ghost.
What truly horrified him was the look in her eyes. A haunted, broken gaze filled with self-loathing and shame. He knew that look. He'd seen it on his own face in the mirror throughout the entirety of his late childhood and his early teens.
The girl looked like she was close to crying, and Mike quickly took initiative. "Shhhhh…" he spoke quietly and comfortingly. "It's all right. Nobody's going to hurt you. What's your name?"
The girl sighed, "Elizabeth," she answered quietly.
"That's a nice name," Mike commented gently. "You shouldn't be standing out here alone in the dark."
The girl shook her head. "I don't belong here," she whispered.
The Marionette reached out and put a hand comfortingly on her shoulder. "You aren't the first ghost child to find sanctuary here, Elizabeth. Mike has brought other lost spirits into his care, and he will gladly extend that welcome to you."
"You don't understand," Elizabeth Afton interrupted. "I don't belong here." She looked up at them, and Mike felt his heart sink at just how miserable she looked. But that was nothing compared to what she said next. "I don't deserve another chance. I should beburning in Hell with my father."
/
I think that's a good spot to end this chapter. Cliffhangers are so annoying, right? :P
I had planned on introducing Elizabeth Afton into this fic from the very beginning. Since I'm pretty certain that she didn't become evil by choice, the only way her character would make any sense would be if she had the most tragic backstory out of all of them. As to why she's now at Mike's doorstep instead of staying in Heaven, I'll let you guys mull on that one for a bit.
I wasn't kidding when I said it was time to get serious. Considering that literally every single major character in this fic has a horrible past in some way, shape, or form, it would be incredibly poor writing on my part if I didn't address that. And as you'll soon see, being the daughter of a murderer had some very, very nasty consequences for poor Elizabeth.
This fic is going to be the first time I attempt to legitimately write on dark topics, and the first fic in which I will use trigger warnings (for future chapters).
