A/N: And here we finally answer the million dollar question! How did Mike Schmidt survive Five Nights at Freddy's when so many other night guards failed? It's amazing what six years of child abuse and four years of living in the streets can prep you for…
To answer one of the reviews, I think Scott did end the series on a pretty satisfactory note, even though it did kinda invoke a Happy Ending Override on the Good Ending of FNAF 3 if the children's souls did somehow end up in Molten Freddy or if the Bad Ending was the canon ending.
Also, apparently the official logbook confirmed that Mike Afton and Mike Schmidt are actually the same person. I had a feeling this was true to begin with, but as I said when I first started this fic and as I'll say again now, they're two separate characters for the sake of not having this story completely fall apart. The only way for this story to not be an AU at this point is if they both have the same first name (which is entirely plausible, given that Mike is a fairly common name) and if they both chose to adopt the same last name for different reasons as an odd coincidence (Mike Afton for a simple disguise, and Mike Schmidt in honor of his adoptive father).
DISCLAIMER: This chapter MIGHT help you beat the main five nights in FNAF1, but don't use it as a guide. I will not be held responsible for any death by jumpscares.
Chapter 14 – Courage in the Dark
"So here we finally are," Mike said calmly as the ghosts were still recovering from his revelation. "My shift as the Night Guard at Freddy's. I think we all know we were going to have this conversation eventually. Granted, I would've liked it if we'd waited a little longer than a week to talk about this, but eh, what can you do."
Gabe was the first to recover. "How…how are you so…not bothered by this?" he asked, confused. "We tried to kill you for 5 nights in a row!"
"Gabe, it was a lot more than just 5 nights," Mike corrected with a smirk, shocking and increasing the guilty feelings in the ghosts even further. "But let's go back to the beginning. Street Smarts Lesson 101, kiddos. You don't survive out in the streets for 4 years by being a brainless schmuck. I knew that pizzeria was a death trap from the very beginning. Under any other circumstance, I would've stayed the hell away from Freddy and friends as far as possible."
"But you didn't…" Susie murmured. "You…you were going to…"
"Put my own life on the line on purpose?" Mike finished. Susie nodded mutely. "The way I saw it back then, my life had almost no value. I didn't know exactly WHAT was in Freddy's that was so bad, but other than that my plan was simple. The longer I could survive being a Night Guard at Freddy's, the more people I could save since they wouldn't be there in my place instead. And when I finally messed it up, I could finally see everyone I cared about again. Either way, no downside."
"No downside? NO DOWNSIDE? No downside except you getting killed!" Fritz shouted. "What were you THINKING, dad?"
"You're too good of a person to die in that pizzeria!" Cassidy added fiercely. "What if we'd killed you! What if we'd trapped your soul in the suit like the rest of us!" By now, she was trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to flow out of her eyes. "I'm so tired of death. You don't deserve to die…" she finished weakly. "Not you…"
Mike reached out to give her a hug. "It's all right, Cassidy, everything's all right…" he soothingly reassured her as the Golden Freddy inhabitant buried herself in her dad's shirt. "You have to understand, Cassidy. The way I think about myself now is VERY different from the way I thought about myself back then. Right now? I have what I think is a healthy level of self esteem and plenty of reasons to live, with six more that came along the way at the beginning of this week." All the ghosts smiled at this. "But back then? I couldn't live well, so the only option I thought I had was to die well."
Gabe shuffled around uncomfortably. "Your idea of dying well was getting skewered by crossbeams and wires and having your body torn to shreds in one of those suits?" he asked, clearly disturbed.
Mike shook his head. "At that point, Gabe, why I would die was far more important to me than how."
"But that part of the plan didn't work out," Liz interrupted. "Thank God it didn't. But, dad…how did you do it? How did you survive when so many others failed? What set you apart?"
Mike smirked. "Want to know my secret?"
"Yes!" the ghosts all exclaimed.
"It's surprisingly simple," Mike began as he reminisced to his shift at the pizzeria. "I had no fear."
Night 1
Mike couldn't help but chuckle dryly at how easily he settled into the office. Two years with Oskar hadn't been enough to dull his instincts and cautious nature in dangerous environments, something which had stopped him from fully settling in in Oskar's house but was now something that he was very thankful for. As the Phone Guy delivered his message on the phone, Mike quickly scanned the different rooms in the pizzeria. His eyes narrowed at the closed purple curtain in Pirate's Cove. Something wasn't right about that place…he would have to check it every so often in case something unpleasant was hiding behind it.
He already knew the animatronics were hostile and would kill him if they caught him, he had figured that out even before Phone Guy started talking about stuffing him in a suit. He was alone in a dangerous environment with few ways to defend himself, just like he'd been for 4 years before Oskar had saved him. In other words, it was time for more of the fucking same.
No. That wasn't quite true.
He now had far more tools to defend himself in the pizzeria than he'd ever had out on the streets or against his father. The camera, the doors, the lights. If he used them properly, he'd have plenty to work with to keep the animatronics out of the Office. The trade-off was that if he DID screw up, the chance of him getting killed was certain instead of merely high. The rules of this little game had changed slightly, but the fundamentals were similar. What worried him more was the power drain. If he misused his resources and the power ran out, then he was screwed. "Better use what I have wisely, then." he thought.
He'd seen some of the hallucinations during his initial scan of the rooms, but while they were admittedly creepy, they were functionally harmless and irrelevant. The animatronics were the only enemy that mattered, and he needed to focus the entirety of his attention on them. The only thing right now that he truly lacked was intelligence on the animatronics and how they would try to reach the Office. He would need to figure out their strategies as soon as possible, and he needed to do it during the early nights. It was highly unlikely that things would be TOO dangerous on Night 1 or Night 2 – if people were dying that quickly, then there would be far too high of a body count for even the brainless management to hide.
2 AM had rolled around as Phone Guy finished his call, and Mike flipped up the tablet to see that Bonnie had disappeared from the Show Stage. "Let's get to it then," he thought as he smiled humorlessly. Time for the game to begin.
Present Day
"You weren't afraid AT ALL?" Jeremy asked incredulously.
Mike snorted. "I spent 6 years wondering every day if my dad would attack me when he came home," he retorted almost contemptuously, "and I spent 4 years out in the city streets where every year of survival was something you fought for and earned. Do you honestly think I gave a single flying fuck about a bunch of animal robots?"
Jeremy cringed. "Well, when you put it that way…"
"Even with a garbage power source, the pizzeria gave me plenty to work with. There were no cameras in my house or out in the streets, and no door was going to keep my dad from beating me in one of his drunken rages." Fury flickered in the eyes of the ghosts at the mention of Mike's abusive parent, but Mike progressed quickly to distract them. "You guys might have done the actual killings, but the real enemy was their own fear. Fear is what really killed them. It screws with your mind, causes you to panic, make mistakes, miss important details. And in that pizzeria, just one mistake at the wrong time, and that's it. You're dead."
Gabe sighed. "We probably didn't help with that with all of the hallucinations…" he muttered.
"Didn't bother me at all, cause they didn't actually do anything," his dad replied. "In a way, it was darkly amusing. By beating me half to death, my birth dad ended up saving my life in that pizzeria. Kind of funny how that worked out."
"That's not funny…" Fritz muttered. "That's not even close to being funny."
Mike shook his head. "Sorry about that, Fritz. I have a bit of a warped sense of humor after everything I've been through. Ten years in what might as well have been Hell, and the night shift at Freddy's was nothing impressive to me, let alone terrifying. And that's the thing. Because I had no fear, I could think clearly. And because I could think, I could analyze."
The former night guard's mouth stretched into a grin, and all the ghosts leaned in curiously to hear the third part. "And because I could analyze, I could plan."
Night 3
Mike leaned back in his chair as he listened to the Phone Guy's call. He was very glad that he had spent the first two nights gathering as much information as possible on Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy. His suspicions had been confirmed about Pirate's Cove – there WAS a fourth animatronic in there, and he needed to check on Foxy as much as possible to make sure that the fox didn't try to rush the Office.
He flipped the tablet and raised an eyebrow. Chica was the one who had gotten off the stage first tonight? "That's interesting…" he muttered, but he wasn't overly concerned. It didn't affect his strategy at all, a strategy that would greatly reward him for two nights of intel.
He had originally thought that using the cameras on Chica and Bonnie would help prepare him for their attacks on the Office, but by the end of the second night he had come to realize that he DIDN'T need to check on them with the camera. They could be anywhere from the Hall Corners, to the Dining Hall, all the way to the fucking Himalayas for all he cared, but if they weren't in the blind spot right outside of the doors when he checked the lights, then where they were simply didn't matter. Using the lights regularly would be enough to make sure he wasn't in any danger from them. What was more important was keeping the camera focused on Pirate's Cove and Foxy, making sure that the animatronic would be too cautious of the camera to risk an attack on the Office.
Mike leaned back and began to alternate between checking Pirate's Cove and the Show Stage with the camera to keep an eye on Foxy and Bonnie (who for some reason was slow on the uptake tonight) and checking the right door for Chica. The chicken animatronic showed up twice at the door at around the beginning and end of 1 am, but Mike had been able to block her out easily both times and she fortunately hadn't stuck around for too long.
Bonnie finally started moving about halfway between 2 and 3 AM. Mike wasn't overly worried – with the strategy he had set up, he should be able to keep Bonnie and Chica out just fine and keep Foxy stuck in Pirate's Cove. And for about an hour, he was able to.
Then, at around 3 AM, he heard deep, menacing laughter and the sound of running. Checking quickly to make sure that neither Bonnie and Chica were around, Mike immediately switched to the Show Stage Camera.
Shit. He'd forgotten about Freddy. The bear was gone.
Fighting the urge to panic, Mike flipped the Camera over to the Dining Area. To his relief, the animatronic was in the Dining Area, hidden in the shadows. But that didn't answer the question – why had Freddy moved?
He had no idea how the bear worked, and the only thing he could think of to do right now was to check on Freddy as frequently as he checked Pirate's Cove. If the bear moved again, he needed to be ready for him. He heard footsteps to his left and cursed, realizing that one of the animatronics was trying to sneak up on him while he had been absorbed in his own thoughts. He hit the lights on the left door to reveal Bonnie gazing emotionlessly at him.
"Nope," Mike slammed the door shut, blocking the animatronic out. "Not this time." He checked the right hall lights just to make sure that Chica wasn't at the door either, then opened the tablet to check Foxy and Freddy. The rest of the night thankfully passed by without any incident apart from the occasional Bonnie or Chica arrival, and Freddy never moved again before 6 AM.
"Wait a minute…" Mike thought, "Freddy only moved that one time because I hadn't bothered to check on him after Bonnie left the stage. So if I keep checking on him as much as I check on Foxy, I should be able to keep both of them trapped where they are and only have to worry about Bonnie and Chica." He smiled. He now had a complete strategy to deal with the animatronics. The only way it would fail was if the animatronics dramatically changed their behaviors, but if they did that, then he was probably fucked regardless.
"Your move, Freddy…" Mike muttered as he left the pizzeria.
Present Day
"I had a knife to defend myself out in the streets," Mike explained to his enraptured audience, "but my greatest weapon has been, is, and always will be my mind. I didn't just come up with a strategy to keep you guys out of the office. I noticed weaknesses, some of them small, some of them rather large, but in a battle for survival, every little bit counts."
He turned to Susie. "Susie, every time you walked into the kitchen as Chica, you made a lot, and I mean a LOT of noise. Enough for me to hear you all the way to the Office. Every time I heard those pots and pans banging, you pretty much gave me a free pass not to check on the right door at all. And by the time Night 4 and Night 5 came around, both you and Bonnie started making static twitching noises whenever you got close to the door. Creepy as hell, yes, but hey, thanks for letting me know when I'm about to get attacked!"
Jeremy and Susie stared at Mike and then at each other wordlessly for several seconds. "I…I don't…I don't even…urrrrrrrrrrgggghhhhh…" they finally groaned before facepalming, unable to come up with a coherent response.
He turned to Fritz and Gabe. "As for you two, it was so easy to manipulate you into staying exactly where I wanted you to be. I just needed to keep the cameras on you as much as possible. Foxy only ever attacked me like once, and Freddy never moved beyond the Dining Hall. But that's not even the worst of it, Fritz. That one time, I blocked you from rushing at my door, you knocked on it for a few seconds before leaving. That drained my power. Not a lot, but it did." He suddenly smirked. "So I just have to ask why – why, for the love of God, wouldn't you just keep knocking on that door over and over again until the power ran out?"
Everyone stared at the former Foxy inhabitant, who squirmed underneath their collective gaze. "Uhm," Fritz mumbled, "in our defense, when you're hellbent on revenge with absolutely nothing else on your mind, you tend not to think things through?"
Mike processed his answer for a few seconds, then shrugged. "Yeah, okay, fair enough," he nonchalantly replied. "It's like Oskar once told me: the stupidity of your enemies is the freest weapon they can give you. You guys used fear very effectively, I'm not gonna lie, but once I took that away from you, I found quite a few flaws that I could exploit. More than that, you never innovated your tactics – you always attacked from the same directions, in the same ways. I never had to change my core strategy even once after I finally ironed out the details."
Gabe couldn't help but smile dryly at how Mike had beaten them with seemingly minimal effort. "Or maybe you're just way, WAY too smart for us, dad," he commented, resisting the urge to chuckle despite everything.
Mike shook his head with a sardonic smile. "Thinking is something that you tend to do a lot of when your only company is yourself. Of course, that didn't make it easy. Especially by the time Night 5 rolled around. You might not have actually changed your attack patterns, but I'll freely admit that you guys really ramped things up. They say that knowledge is half the battle. On the one hand, I had already won half of the battle once I figured out how I could beat you guys. But on the other hand…that's still only half of the fucking battle."
Night 5
It had been a rough night, that much Mike had to admit. The core strategy he had used throughout the later half of the week had thankfully held strong tonight as it had for the other nights…if the animatronics had completely changed how they acted then he'd have no idea what to do. Both Chica and Bonnie had appeared at their respective doors with more frequency than they'd ever done in the past, though thankfully they also left more quickly than before.
Without a doubt, this was the battle for survival that he had expected when he had come to the pizzeria with the intent of sacrificing his own life. He could not make any mistakes when it came to checking the animatronics with the cameras and the lights, and he could make very few when it came to mismanaging his power. If he made a single screw up at the wrong moment, or if the animatronics ganged up on him like they had to the poor sod who'd come before him and he didn't have enough power to fend them off, he was doomed.
By the time 3 AM rolled around, he had exactly 50% power. He would have liked to have had more, but there had been a point where both Bonnie AND Chica had tried to gang up on him, and he'd had no choice but to keep both doors shut. Still, he could work with what he had.
He knew that he could give up the fight at any point. Simply leave the doors open, let the animatronics claim him and stuff him in the suit that would end his life. But the idea of giving up was unacceptable, just at it had been while he had been out in the streets. Every single night that he survived was a day that somebody else wouldn't be here in his place. Every single night that he stood his ground meant that somebody would live on instead of being killed here, living a life that most certainly had more worth than his. And so he would continue to fight, and hold his ground in this nightmare disguised as an innocent pizzeria, and he would fend off the animatronics for as long as possible. And when they finally killed him, and there was no doubt in his mind that they WOULD eventually kill him one way or another, he would be able to look God, his mother, and Oskar in the eye and say, without hesitation, "I did my best."
As 4 AM arrived, he decided to innovate to make his work a little easier. He deliberately ignored the Show Stage for a while, and focused on the rest of the animatronics. When Freddy's deep laughter echoed to the office, he saw that Freddy had moved to the Dining Hall as he had done before.
"Gotcha," Mike muttered with a cold smile. The bear had done exactly what he'd hoped he would. Now that Freddy was in the Dining Hall, he'd not only be able to immobilize him there, but also eliminate the need to check on the left or right doors whenever Bonnie or Chica showed up with him as well. He'd learned long ago that one of the animatronics tended to disappear from the cameras whenever two of them showed up in the same place. He didn't know if the animatronics were doing that on purpose or if it was an odd coincidence – either way, he wouldn't fall for it.
The sound of footsteps approached him from the right and he hit the lights to reveal Chica staring at him through the window with her mouth wide open in a voiceless scream. He slammed the office door shut and glared back at her, channeling all his defiance and refusal to surrender to a world that had spat upon him for 12 years into his next few words.
"If you want me, then come and get me!"
Present Day
"That night was the hardest one yet," Mike reflected. "If I hadn't come up with my plan, I would have lost for sure. By the time 5 AM rolled around, I had only 15% power left, and I wasn't sure if I was going to make it. Especially since both Bonnie and Chica decided to gang up on me for a second time when I only had around 4% of my power left. Just as my power hit 0% and the pizzeria went dark, the 6 AM chimes rang and my shift was over," he breathed a sigh of relief. "One of the closest calls I had in a LONG time."
"Sorry about that…" Susie murmured guiltily.
Mike smiled and gave her a "pat" on the head. "It doesn't really bother me, since part of the reason why I had come to the pizzeria in the first place was to die. At that point, I was either waiting until I got killed or waiting for a miracle, an act of God, to change everything about my life. Even I didn't know how long I'd survive in that pizzeria, but all my experiences in the past had apparently made me into ideal Night Guard material, considering that I survived the night shift at Freddy's for twenty days."
The ghost kids' eyes bulged. "You were there for TWENTY DAYS?" they exploded. "What…just…HOW?"
Mike shrugged. "I dunno. I expected things to get batshit insane after Night 5, but for some reason things never got any worse than that that last night of the first week. Oh, I had a few close calls, absolutely, and there were quite a few times I had to play dead when Freddy showed up to play his little jingle when the power went out." He looked over to Gabe. "That's another thing, actually. When your enemy is completely helpless and at your mercy, why don't you just, I don't know, ATTACK him? You probably would've killed me if you just got on with it instead of playing that jingle for God knows how long."
It was Gabe's turn to look sheepish. "I'm going to refer to what Fritz said earlier," he mumbled, which earned a few snickers from everyone.
"Wait, hold on…" Jeremy interrupted. "You said that you were going to stay at Freddy's until we killed you or if a miracle happened. But, you're still here, so…"
Mike smiled. "I'll get to that, Jeremy. After the fourth week of fun times at Freddy's, I was doing my shopping for the next week. When I came back to my apartment…I found something that had been slipped underneath my door. Something that ended up changing absolutely everything."
December, 1993
Mike readjusted the bag of groceries in his arms as he took the elevator up to his apartment. The night before had been Night 5 material, no doubt about that, and he'd only survived because 6 AM had rolled around while he'd been "playing dead" in front of Freddy's creepy glowing face. But whatever. Survival was survival. He took his key out and opened the door to the apartment.
The moment he did so, he noticed a simple letter on the doorstep in front of him. That immediately struck him as odd – people usually left their mail out in the mailboxes at the apartment entrance, didn't they? He put the groceries on the kitchen shelf and reached down to open the letter, which to his surprise was also entirely unmarked.
Growing suspicious, he turned the letter and opened it. Inside was a single sheet of paper, and a lottery ticket? What? Did somebody just give it to him as a pre-emptive Christmas gift?
He decided to focus on the letter first. A letter that, as he would soon discover, would transform the course of his life forever.
Mike,
You don't know who I am, but I was a very close friend of your adoptive father, the late Colonel Oskar Schmidt. Oskar served alongside both of my sons in the army, and both looked up to him as a superior, as a hero, and as a friend. During one battle gone wrong, my sons ended up trapped inside a building that had burst into flames. They would have burned to death alone without anyone to help them, but Oskar refused to abandon them. He charged into that building alone, found my children, and gave them the crucial aid that they needed to escape. If he hadn't risked his own life for those under his command, all I would have left of them would have been two graves instead of two families.
I know you've been taking on the night shift at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. I don't know why the hell you'd go anywhere near that death trap, but something tells me that you're fully aware of the dangers inside and doing that job anyway on purpose. I can't watch you risk your life anymore. Not Colonel Schmidt's son in all but blood. He saved my children's lives. Now I'm going to save yours.
This lottery ticket isn't any ordinary lottery ticket. I found it a month ago, and I have kept it completely secret ever since. Nobody knows that I had it, not even my family. I'm an old man, and have no need for wealth anymore. But you do, and this ticket is now yours. The ticket is for the Ohio Lottery, and it is the key to your salvation. But while it may change your life, the riches you now possess come fraught with dangers. Several have won the lottery in the past, only to find themselves thrown into danger and even death by the greed of others. The Ohio Lottery is one of the few states in which you can claim your reward anonymously. Do NOT, under any circumstances, allow anyone to know about this. Keep it as close of a secret as you possibly can, until you are ready to make a new life for yourself.
I wish you the best of luck, Mike Schmidt. Oskar always had an eye for greatness, and he told me he could see it in you. Go and make your dreams a reality.
Mike's pulse started racing as he picked up the lottery ticket he had previously dismissed, and his eyes bulged. The ticket was a winning prize for a thousand dollars, every day, for the rest of his life.
Present Day
Mike chuckled as the ghosts' jaws dropped. "I couldn't believe it, either, when I first saw it," he commented. "Even beyond the grave, Oskar had somehow found a way to look out for me. I never found out who gave me that ticket, and I didn't want to press the issue. Like the guy who wrote the letter had said, it was extremely important that I keep everything a secret."
"Wuh…buh…jee…wah…WHAT?" Gabe spluttered. It was rare for him to be at a complete loss for words, but this latest revelation had thrown even his mental capacity out the window.
"Good deeds can resonate through time just as much as bad ones," he replied with a shrug. "But just because I had the literal ticket to a new life in my hands, doesn't mean that I couldn't afford to be careful anymore. If anything, I had to be even more careful than ever. What the guy said in the letter was no joke – I've seen stories where lottery winners who blurted out the secret ended up getting murdered in their own homes by so-called friends and family members.
Fritz got up on his feet, fists clenched. "If anyone tries to hurt you, dad, they'll have to go through ME!" he declared.
"And me! And me!" Other voices echoed as the children got to their feet.
Mike smiled warmly at their protectiveness. "Isn't it supposed to be the dad's job to protect his kids, not the other way around?" he asked jokingly. "With guys like you around, who needs a security system?"
Everyone let out a gale of laughter at that, releasing tension that they didn't even know had been building up throughout Mike's story. "Anyway, where was I…oh, right. The way the lottery works, you cash it in whatever state you bought the ticket. Even though we live in Utah here, the ticket was bought in Ohio. Fortunately, I was already 18 by that time, so I met the minimum age for gambling. Whoever left that ticket was also generous enough to provide me with detailed instructions on how to claim my ticket anonymously, and I made sure to do it as soon as possible. I didn't rest easy until the first payment of seven thousand dollars showed up in bank account, and only then did I realize that I hadn't been dreaming."
"It sounds like you went through a lot of trouble to keep everything a secret, dad," Susie commented. "But then again, considering what we just heard right now, I can't blame you."
"When carelessness can get you killed, you have a lot of motivation to not be careless," Mike looked at the binder of the pictures, still featuring the hallucinations at Freddy's and closed it. "And with that, my time at Freddy's was coming to an end. I had been more than willing to give up my life, but that was when my life had no meaning or no value. For the first time, my life had purpose. It had significance. And I wasn't going to stick around any longer than I had to anymore." He suddenly smirked. "But I had one last card to play, one last fuck-you up my sleeve."
Liz gave him a confused look. "What do you mean by that?" she asked.
"Almost nobody knows about the tragedy behind Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, regarding both the Night Guards and you guys," Mike explained. "If they did, most of them would probably blame the Purple Guy, while some might blame you guys since you actually did the killing. But you know the third party that's to blame? Let's talk about the FUCKING management." He unexpectedly shouted the second to last word, causing all the ghosts to jump in surprise.
"You guys might have been the ones doing the actual killing as the animatronics, that might be true," Mike continued once they'd recovered. "But you were the enemy from the beginning, you were never my friends. Back then," he quickly added when he saw the hurt looks on the children's faces, which just as quickly disappeared after his addendum. "But the management? They knew what was going on. They knew that the pizzeria was a killing ground. But instead of shutting the animatronics down, warning people about the danger, or just doing the right thing in general for their employees, they let all these fucking killings happen. As far as I'm concerned, they're just as responsible for all of those deaths."
"My father was very disappointed with the management of the franchise he created, to put it very mildly," Mary added. It had been the first time she'd spoken in a while, having heard the story before and preferring to leave the questions to the other children. "And he was even more disappointed by the stupidity associated with Fazbear's Fright."
"And I pulled my last trick as a special thank you just for them," Mike now had a sinister grin on his face. "Cause the hour before the final night of my shift started, I sent all the AIs on the animatronics straight into the fucking abyss. Quadruple 0s. A final fuck you before they fired me, because I knew full well that tampering with the animatronics would get me fired. And boy, did that feel good."
Fritz burst out laughing at that, and the other ghosts couldn't help but grin too, even if their new dad's actions had derailed their vengeance against the night guards. Who knew that he had such a mischievous streak in him? "That last night was the easiest thing I've ever done in my entire life. Of course, I didn't get complacent. I didn't spend 20 nights at Freddy's and win a 1000 dollars for life in the lottery only to fuck it all up at the finish line. And I'm glad I paid attention, cause Bonnie showed up at my door at least once towards 5 AM. But I had so much power left that I literally just shut the left door for the entire last hour because Chica decided to screw around uselessly in the kitchen or bathrooms and Freddy never moved. And that was that. The next day I got a pink slip for…" he rummaged into the box and picked out a pink slip. "Tampering with the animatronics, general unprofessionalism, and odor," he read.
"Odor?" Cassidy asked incredulously. "What kind of reason is that?"
"That's not the one I have a problem with. The one I have issue with is general unprofessionalism," Mike replied with mock rage. "General Unprofessionalism? Are you fucking kidding me? I just turned the position of Night Guarding at Freddy's from a goddamn nightmare to something that's easily survivable if you pay attention at the cost of my job. I'm the most fucking professional night guard there is! But odor? Yeah, that one I have to give them. It's sweaty as hell in that office and that fan didn't do jack shit."
The ghosts had all collapsed into laughter at Mike's "analysis" of his pink slip. "Hope you took a shower after every night," Jeremy chortled. "Wouldn't want you to get kicked out of your apartment for general unprofessionalism and odor!"
"Maybe you got fired for cursing too much," Liz managed to add between laughs.
"No kidding," Mike replied dryly as the ghosts all calmed down. "I swear that useless fan is the single reason why the power kept going down even when I wasn't using anything. Anyway, with the lottery winnings pouring into my bank account, I was now making $365,000 every year for the rest of my life, which is more than most people in this country can dream of making even after taxes are factored in. I could do fuck all for the rest of my life and be fine. But you see, that wasn't good enough for me."
"You wanted to live your life to the fullest, didn't you?" Gabe asked sagely.
"Got it in one, Gabe. What was the point of finally having a new life if I couldn't take advantage of it? For most people, school and studying are boring as hell and a giant chore, but I wanted to learn. I found out about the GED, and I spent a year studying vigorously for it before I took the tests. And I did pretty well overall. Not amazing, but well enough for me to easily get into a college. And honestly, the rest of my life is…pretty much what you saw in those pictures. Went to college, went into robotics engineering. I kept the shadows of my past and my lottery winnings a carefully guarded secret, and while I made lots of casual friends there, I can count on two hands the number of close friends I actually have, Ryan being one of them. After I graduated, I took on a job as a robotics engineer until about a year ago, and here we are now!"
The ghosts all applauded as he finished his tale. "That's absolutely amazing, dad!" Liz exclaimed. "To think that your life changed that much and that you survived at Freddy's for that long! But, I have a question…"
"What is it, Liz?"
"…do you think it was worth it?" Liz continued. "Was living the rest of your life and winning the lottery worth all the pain you went through as a kid?"
Mike chuckled, but this time there was less humor and more thoughtfulness. "You know, Liz, Ryan once asked me that exact same question. And you know what? Yes. I think overall, I'm glad with how my life turned out."
"Considering that you're easily a millionaire by now, dad, I can easily see why!" Fritz exclaimed. To his surprise, however, Mike brushed that off with a wave of his hand.
"I'm not talking about the money, Fritz," he replied. "Honestly, I couldn't give two shits about the money. My bank account's hovering around 5 million right now, and the only reason why it isn't higher is because I usually donate most of the extra from my budget to different charities every year. Hell, I paid off the entirety of Ryan's college debt for him without blinking an eye as a thank you for keeping all of my secrets hidden."
"So THAT'S why he respects you so much!" Jeremy realized.
"If I'd stayed at home, I don't know what I would've accomplished. But because my life took the path it did, I've done several things I can say I'm proud of. I saved an old man's life and helped make his last few years of life as comfortable as possible. I pre-emptively saved how many night guards' lives at Freddy's since I had advantages nobody else had that kept me alive. I had a respectable job as an engineer. And now, even if I have zero experience whatsoever, I have more than enough resources to be a parent for seven kids who need someone to take care of them after God knows how much shit you went through."
The ghosts all got up to give their dad a group hug, which he gladly accepted. "You were wrong about one thing, dad…" Gabe said after they broke the hug. "Your life was NEVER worthless. In your own way, you suffered almost as much as we did, but even after all that you tried to help others as much as possible." He sighed. "I wish there were more people like you, and I wish we'd had you as a role model back then. Maybe then we would have tried to help kids out the RIGHT way instead of murdering innocent people we thought were our killer come back for more."
Mike shook his head. "You can't change the past, Gabe. Look to the present and the future. Afton is gone, and he won't be coming back. Your path forward is clearer now than it ever was, and that's something to be thankful for."
He got up from his couch. "It's well into the night, guys, and I'm exhausted after telling my tale. I think I'm going to hit the bed for the night. You guys can stay up if you want, but I'm exhausted. Good night, everyone."
"Good night, dad!" they all chorused as all of them started dwelling on what Mike had told them, and what lessons they could learn from his tale. All except for Mary, who followed him out the door.
As Mike approached his bedroom, he heard the telltale sound of Pop Goes the Weasel behind him. "Mary?" he asked. "What's up?"
"You didn't tell them the full story," she said quietly. "The reasons why you forgave your original father. You left out the biggest one."
"Because it's harder to forgive and let go of your hate towards someone who doesn't ask for it than it is to forgive someone who does," Mike replied quietly. "I wouldn't go as far as to say they should forgive people like William Afton. That guy was a monster through and through and I'm glad he's burning in Hell where he belongs. But most people aren't monsters like him, and not everybody who does something wrong asks to be forgiven for it. I'll tell them the full story one day. But not now. I want to give them a chance to learn the message without me making it easy for them."
Twenty Years Ago
Mike sighed as he waited in the lounge in the hospital. He had honestly forgotten about his birth father, after years of living life on his own. He didn't know how the old man had found him, but he had and he had requested urgently for his son to come one last time. Mike hoped that things wouldn't devolve into a mess like they had all too often when he was a child.
"Mr. Schmidt?" a nurse called out to him. "He's ready for you."
Mike got up from the chair and thanked the nurse, who guided him over to the hospital room where his dad was resting.
Even Mike was shocked by what a sorry state his father was in. He looked barely alive, like a corpse still drawing breath, and he could tell that he wouldn't be alive for much longer. The old man's eyes flickered open and looked over at his son.
"Mike…" he rasped. "You…you actually came…"
"I did," Mike replied calmly. "I don't know how you found me, dad, but…"
His voice trailed off as he realized his father was crying. "Mike…I'm…I'm sorry. I'm sorry…for every time…I beat you…when you were a child. You…you didn't…deserve that. I let my inner demons…and my drinking problem…break me…twist me…and you suffered for it. I'm, so, so sorry…"
"Dad…" he barely managed to breath out. He hadn't even known just how badly he'd wanted to hear this apology from him.
"That night…when you ran away…I realized…just what a fool…what a monster…I had become…" his father continued between heavy breaths. "I didn't follow you…I didn't chase you…because I didn't want to hurt you…more than I…already had. Whatever life you lived…it had to be better…than life…with me…and I'm sorry. I'm sorry…"
Mike cradled his father's withered hand in his own. "It's all right, dad. I forgive you," he murmured. "Your suffering is almost over."
The old man tried to break into a smile, but he erupted into a nasty coughing fit. "Mike…I don't know…if you'll ever have children…but if you do…please…PLEASE…treat them with the love and respect…they deserve. Don't…don't be like me."
"I don't know if that'll ever happen, dad…" Mike replied, "but if it does, I promise I'll do my absolute best."
His father smiled, and this time there was nothing to ruin it. "Then…I can finally rest…I can see your mother again…and tell her that at the last…I did…something right…" the old man's eyes closed, and Mike knew they would never open again. And the peaceful expression on his face, something that had never been present once during his childhood, was something that Mike would remember to his dying days.
/
Somehow, this chapter ended up being LONGER than the last one. I did NOT see that coming, to be honest.
I'm going to put up a quick warning and let you know that I might not post a chapter next week or even the week after that, because I am getting a TON of med school exams tumbling onto my head between the next two weeks. It was all I could do to get this chapter and the last one out in a timely manner so that they wouldn't intrude on my study time.
I tried to adhere to how the lottery works in real life as closely as possible, though I screwed around with some of the details just to make things a BIT easier for Mike and the story. And in case you were wondering, that bit about Ohio allowing winners to claim their prizes anonymously is actually true…as is the bit about lottery winners getting screwed over massively because they revealed their knowledge to the public, unfortunately. I dunno if that applies to the Win 4 Life lottery, but for this story I'm going to say it does.
Believe it or not, I originally didn't have either the lottery ticket as a gift or Mike's reconciliation with his father planned for this chapter. My original idea for the lottery ticket was for Mike to "unexpectedly get a feeling" to buy a lottery ticket while going grocery shopping, and that lottery ticket HAPPENING to be the one that gets him a win. But I think the way I actually did it in the final draft is much more impactful and might have even invoked a feel or two.
Lemme know what you guys thought about Mike's past, and how he tackled the night shift at Freddy's. I hope you guys enjoyed!
