A/N: The following author's note is a bit of a rant about the UCN. If you're not interested in my strongly held opinions on the WillHell vs. PurgaMike theory debate, I highly advise that you skip straight to the beginning of the chapter.
I'm gonna level with you guys – while I acknowledge that there is evidence to support the "Michael Afton in Purgatory" theory, I personally REALLY HATE the theory.
The collective story of FNAF 1-6 is, amongst other things, an excellent redemption tale. If we assume that Michael is the Foxy Brother to begin with, it is a tale of how a stupid teen made a terrible mistake with consequences that he never intended and dedicated the rest of his life to correct that wrong and atone for that mistake. This path of atonement would set him against his own father, his corrupted sister, and countless animatronics who wanted to see him die. And yet he never once wavered, even after death, because his desire to right those wrongs was that strong. That path of redemption would FINALLY be complete in FNAF 6, where he risks and ultimately gives his own life to destroy the evil his father has become and put the souls of all his victims to rest, earning his redemption in the process.
And you're telling me that this tale of redemption ends with him suffering even more in the afterlife, because his brother suddenly and inexplicably becomes a hypocritical asshole and decides to torture him in the afterlife with absolutely NO character buildup to this whatsoever?
Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit.
Here's some brutal honesty for you – if the Bite Victim is going to be a hypocritical asshole who becomes far worse than his brother ever was and wants to torture his brother more than 30 years after his death over an accident when his brother spent his entire life atoning for that mistake, then frankly he doesn't deserve to go to Heaven. I would even go so far as to say that the Michael in Purgatory theory would destroy most of my sympathy for the Bite Victim and make him even worse than Elizabeth or the vengeful ghosts of William Afton's victims – at least Scrap Baby didn't have a choice in her corruption, and the ghostly children were seeking vengeance against a sociopathic, unrepentant asshole. As both a Christian and a lover of fiction, the "Michael in Purgatory" theory is such an unsatisfying, unfair, and all-around atrocious ending to an otherwise excellent tale of redemption that spans over six games that it would honestly destroy my enthusiasm for FNAF lore if it turned out to be true, and I utterly REFUSE to believe that Scott Cawthon, who is himself a devout Christian, would end FNAF in this way. We as an audience DESERVE to see William Afton suffer for all the evil things he has done, and a game where he finally gets what's coming to him makes much more sense both logically and story-wise. For fuck's sake, I would honestly rather have Michael be the Crying Child than for the Michael in Purgatory theory to be true – the Logbook has provided substantial support for this to be the case, and it would make for a different but intriguing tale of a once cowardly boy who grew some titanic fucking balls to stop his evil father.
Not to mention the fact that (a) there are many more lines in the UCN that contradict the idea of Michael Afton being in UCN Purgatory than William Afton in UCN Hell (and after further analysis, I've realized that almost none of the lines supporting the PurgaMike theory outright contradict the WillHell theory - I don't include the people's interpretations of the decoded Fredbear quotes since they're a garbled mess and up to interpretation even after decoding) and (b) unlike the William Afton in Hell theory, the Michael in Purgatory theory itself depends on multiple theories and premises for it to be true, such as Michael being the Foxy Brother and not the Bite Victim, Bite Victim = Golden Freddy, and Bite Victim existing in some form in the real world instead of passing on, NONE of which have been confirmed. BV = GF has some SERIOUS holes in it, and the Logbook has recently opened vulnerabilities in Michael = Foxy Bro, which was previously all but unassailable. As someone who has taken a lot of humanities classes in college, I can tell you right now that a theory whose entire existence depends on other unproven theories is incredibly vulnerable to debunking – if even one of the foundation theories is proven false, or if other possibilities like William Afton experimenting on his own son by creating the Nightmares (with technology similar to that of the Twisted Animatronics in the boks) turn out to be true instead, then the PurgaMike theory becomes incredibly weakened at best or just completely falls apart.
And one more thing. Does Bite Victim even have the power to keep a soul trapped in Purgatory after death to begin with? I could understand Charlie being able to do it since she has magic powers, but BV? Seriously? If a vengeful child soul was that overpowered, then why the fuck didn't SIX vengeful children's ghosts punish William Afton more brutally when he first died as Springtrap?
So yeah. These are the reasons why I STRONGLY reject the "Michael in Purgatory being tortured by his own brother theory." But that doesn't mean I don't think Bite Victim has any imact in the FNAF storyline after his death. On the contrary, I think the Bite Victim might be HUGELY important, but it's not as the latest douchebag in a fucked up family. And this role shall be explained in great detail this chapter.
But who is the "one who you shouldn't have killed", assuming that William Afton is indeed in UCN Hell? I have my own theory on who that is…and it shall be explained in the future arc I talked about earlier.
Disclaimer: This chapter will have Christian themes.
Chapter 43 – Path of Atonement
"I'M SO SORRY, EVAN!" Michael sobbed as he buried his face in his brother's shoulder. "I never meant for my prank to kill you, I swear! I'm sorry for every mean thing I ever did to you! I'm sorry I made your life a living Hell for years! I'm…I'm…" his words trailed off and collapsed into inelegant mumbling as his tears fell freely from his eyes.
"Shhhhh…" Evan pat his brother's head with his hand. "I know, Mikey. I saw it all. I saw how the Nightmares tortured you so horribly, and how you let it happen." He suddenly gave his brother a fierce glare that took him completely by surprise. "What were you thinking?" he suddenly shouted. "Do you think I WANTED to see you suffer like that?"
"I…I thought it was the only way I could show that I was sorry…" Michael feebly explained, taken aback by his brother's unexpected fierceness.
"Maybe I wanted to make you pay a bit for what you did, but I never wanted THAT!" Evan countered, before his voice dropped to a sad whisper. "Nobody deserves that kind of cruelty."
"I did…" Michael thought in his mind, but he decided not to say the words out loud. "I know there's no excuse for the way I treated you, Evan," he offered an apology instead. "The Nightmares were cruel, but they were not wrong. I know that I can't take anything back. But I do want you to know, Evan…I truly am sorry for everything I did to you in the past."
Evan sighed and leaned into his older brother's chest. "I don't doubt that you are, Mikey. I know that you're telling the truth, there's no way you would've let yourself be tortured by those monsters otherwise." He stepped back and looked into his brother's eyes. "I want to forgive you, Mikey. More than anything, I want to just step back and put the past behind us. But even if it was an accident, a sin as serious as what you did to me requires more than just words to forgive. If I asked you to do something to earn my forgiveness, would you do it?"
"ANYTHING!" Michael almost shouted. "I don't care what it is, Evan, I'll do whatever you want me to! I ruined your life with that stupid prank I did, and it's only fair that I live out the rest of my life the way you want me to to make up for it."
Evan smiled. "You don't know how happy I am to hear that, Mikey." His smile suddenly faded, and to his brother's growing concern a nervous look appeared on his face. "Mikey…while you were fighting off the Nightmares, I've learned some terrible things. A terrible tragedy will happen in the future, one that will affect so many people."
"Another tragedy?" Michael gasped in horror. "Even worse than the one I did with my prank?"
The grave look in his brother's eyes terrified him. "Mikey, the tragedy that will happen in the future will make the one you did to me look like a complete joke. It will keep going for decades, and it will destroy so many innocent people, including Lizzie."
"Lizzie?" Michael could barely breathe out their sister's name. "But how…? How is that possible? She disappeared a year ago…" his voice trailed off at the look on his brother's face and he felt tears well up in his eyes again. "She's…she's dead, isn't she?" he asked. "And Dad has something to do with it, doesn't he?"
Evan nodded grimly. "The only thing I can tell you is that Dad is going to go completely crazy, Mikey. He's going to do terrible things, worse than you can even imagine. That's all that I can tell you right now."
"What?" his brother exclaimed. "That's it? Why won't you tell me what's about to happen? I can try to stop him, I can…"
"You can't, Mikey," Evan interrupted him firmly. "Dad was never a good person to begin with, but he would've passed the breaking point completely even if you hadn't done your prank with Fredbear to me, and he's definitely crossed it now. I know for a fact that if you try to stop him, he WILL kill you. And then nobody will be able to put an end to the tragedy that is about to happen. You can't stop it, Mikey. But you CAN end it. You're the only one who can, and you MUST. For the sake of so many innocent lives, PLEASE trust me, Mikey!"
Michael looked into his brother's pleading eyes. He had seen that same expression before, when Evan had been begging him to stop bullying him so much, and his only response then had been mockery and cruelty. He would not make the same mistake again, no matter what he felt about his brother's words. "I trust you, Evan," he declared solemnly. "You know more about what's about to happen than I do, and I'll trust that you know what you're talking about."
A wave of relief washed over his brother's face. "Thank you, Mikey. Thank you so much for listening to me. I know you, bro. If I told you the full details, you'd be so angry that you'd go after Dad even after your promise, and I can't let that happen."
"But here's what I don't get," Michael countered. "You want me to end whatever tragedy is about to unfold. But…how? I don't know where to even begin! I wouldn't know where to begin even if you gave me more information right off the bat? Whatever you want me to do, I'll gladly do it, but what do I do?"
"The answers will show up, Mikey," Evan promised. "Sooner or later, they will show up, and everything will become clearer. That's all I can say for now, but I promise that it's the truth."
Evan smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Mikey." To Michael's surprise, his body began to glow with a calming blue and white light, and he looked towards the "sky" with an expression of peace and acceptance. "I have to go now, Mikey," he said quietly. "I can feel Heaven's warmth calling to me."
A surge of panic and desperation burst inside Michael. "Wait! WAIT!" he called out frantically as he futilely reached towards his brother. "I don't want you to die, Evan! Please come back! I promise I'll be a better brother to you! I promise I'll never treat you badly ever again! Please!"
Evan shook his head sadly. "Mikey…if I could stay, I would. But there's something really important that Heaven wants me to do in the future, something that I can't do while I'm alive." He looked straight into Michael's eyes and gave him a reassuring smile. "But I can promise you this, bro…we WILL see each other again, much sooner than you think."
"I'll hold you to that, little man…" Michael answered weakly, lowering his arm as Evan's body flashed with the same heavenly light, and then faded from view. Left in the void, he began to ponder over the conversation the two brothers had had, as well as Nightmare's final warning. He wiped away the last tears, and then his eyes hardened into determination. "I won't let you down, Evan," he made his oath. "I promise."
Present Day…
"I meant every word that I said that night," Michael told his enraptured sister. "I promised I would end father's evil not just for the many lives that he would take, but for our brother most of all. No matter how long it took me, no matter what I had to go through, I would do it. And I lived the rest of my life on that one promise."
"It all makes sense now…" Liz murmured. She barely remembered anything about her past life, but the pieces were coming into place. Why Michael suddenly became much kinder after Evan's accident, why he had been willing to go through so much pain and misery to stop their father's evil. She couldn't help but feel touched at how he had promised to be her best friend as well as her brother.
It made thinking about what she'd done to him even more painful.
Part of her wanted to apologize yet again for all the evil things she'd done to her brother, but she resisted the urge. "Did you ever see Evan again?" she asked instead, trying to steer the topic away from their dark mutual past.
Michael's lips twitched. "I did indeed, Lizzie, but not in a form I had expected. When he finally came back from Heaven like had promised, he had taken on a different form. A dark and purple entity made entirely of shadows, looking just like Golden Freddy…"
"I SAW HIM!" Liz exclaimed, causing her brother's eyes to widen in surprise. "I saw Evan! I saw Shadow Freddy! Dad and I met him in the 1987 pizzeria when we were trying to find the bodies of my new family!"
"Shadow Freddy…" Michael repeated the name before chuckling. "I guess that would be an appropriate name for Evan's new form, huh…"
"But he didn't tell me who he really was…" Liz's voice dropped sadly, her voice barely above a whisper. "Evan knew who I was, he called me Elizabeth…but he didn't reveal himself to me. Why? Why wouldn't he…?"
Michael had a sinking feeling that he knew what Liz was about to say. "Lizzie…"
"It's because he doesn't consider me a sister anymore, doesn't he?" Liz asked, the self-loathing that she had been trying to suppress coming out in full force. She let out a bitter laugh before Michael could stop her. "It's not like I can blame him! Three siblings, two of whom spent years trying to do the right thing, setting souls free and stopping our old dad's insanity. But me? I go around trying to slaughter innocent children just like he did!"
"Lizzie…"
"I saw them, Mikey!" she continued her rant with tears pouring out of her eyes. "I saw the remains of my family at that pizzeria! I would've done the exact same thing to kids just like them, leaving behind a bunch of broken corpses and parents screaming for children that would never come home! No wonder Evan doesn't think I'm family anymore! I wouldn't want to be related to me either!"
"LIZZIE!" Michael's shout cut through her self-deprecation. He wrapped his arms around her in another embrace, and inwardly breathed a sigh of relief as he felt his sister slowly calm down. "I promise you, Evan's secrecy had absolutely NOTHING to do with you."
"Then why?" Liz rubbed her eyes. "Why wouldn't Evan tell me who he was? If he didn't hate me, wouldn't he want us to be reunited as a family again?"
Michael began stroking her hair to comfort her further. "I didn't learn about this until after the Fazbear nightmare ended, Lizzie, but Evan had made a deal with God so that he could return to Earth and help me end father's insanity. One of the conditions was that, while he could inform me of his identity and help me to understand what was going on, he could not reveal who he was to anyone else or directly impact events in the living world in any meaningful way. I can only assume that this condition still applied even after Henry and I released everyone and sent Father to Hell where he belongs." He looked down at her and smiled. "I'm certain that Evan would have wanted nothing more than to embrace you as your brother, but he was already bending the laws of the afterlife as it was and couldn't break them any further no matter how much he wanted to."
Liz sighed and leaned into her brother's arms. It was the best explanation she was probably going to get, and it wasn't like she deserved any special treatment from Evan to begin with. "How did you find each other again?" she asked.
He gave her a brief smile, but it quickly faded as a look of anguish and pain appeared on his face. "The day that I learned that Father was involved in your death was one of the worst days in my life. Part of me wanted to demand answers, but I had to restrain myself, so that I could fulfill the duty that Evan had demanded of me. I had rented an apartment not too far away from our old home with what little money I had saved up, and I had stayed away from father like both he and Evan had asked me to. But I had begun to hear dark things about Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria and Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental, Lizzie. The Missing Children Incident and, of course, your death because of Baby. But to answer your question, the first time I came across Evan again…was right after I carried out my most important responsibility."
Liz tilted her head curiously. "Important responsibility?" she asked, puzzled. "What could be more important than what Evan wanted you to do?"
Her brother smiled at her. "Setting you free, of course. One day when I was least expecting it, Father reached out to me," Michael answered. "He told me that you were down in Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental. I couldn't believe what I was hearing - you were dead. Killed by an accident involving Baby. But Father insisted that you were there, trapped in the dark. He ordered me to go down to Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental and do whatever I needed to in order to set you free." He let out a bitter chuckle. "I knew Father was involved in something dark and possibly even evil, but part of me wanted to believe that he wanted to reconcile. That maybe you weren't truly dead, and that the rumors were wrong all this time. I honestly believed that I could be the one to bring our family back together." A trace of loathing entered his voice, though Liz couldn't tell whether it was directed towards himself or their father. "What a fool I was."
Liz bowed her head in shame. "I'm sorry, Mikey..." she weakly murmured in apology. "I'm sorry I killed you that day. I'll always be sorry for what I did then, and what I did after."
Michael shook his head and kissed the top of her head. "You don't have to be, Lizzie. The path I had chosen for my life was set long before I found you down there, and that path didn't change after I became one of the undead." His gaze turned hard with loathing. "It was father who truly killed me. He knew that the animatronics down there were dangerous. He knew that I would have to die to set you free. He knew all of this, and yet he told me nothing. I might have earned his hatred with Evan's death, but it doesn't change the fact that he sent me to die under a false promise of hope and a twisted invocation of duty."
"Did...did Evan know about what would happen?" the question had been burning in Liz's mind ever since Michael had told her about his role as his guide. "Did Evan know you would be Scooped?"
A weak laugh escaped his lips. "I think...that was the only thing Evan DIDN'T know." The laughter quickly vanished. "At least, that's what I gathered from his reaction."
1985, Michael's Apartment
Ever since Evan had become the entity as Shadow Freddy, Michael had noticed a profound difference in his personality. The fearfulness and vulnerability were all but gone, replaced with a quiet but unshakable confidence and sense of purpose. The boy he had used to bully and torment had transformed into a self-assured young man who he would gladly follow to the end.
Or at least, that had been the case in every other time whenever Shadow Freddy had appeared to him and offered him comfort. But now, as Shadow Freddy's white eyes stared in undisguised horror at the broken, shambling corpse his brother had become, Michael could see his younger brother more clearly than ever before, even underneath the shadows of his ascension.
"What happened to you?" Shadow Freddy asked frantically as Michael collapsed onto his bed, exhausted beyond measure. "How...how did this happen to you?"
"Father sent me to set Elizabeth free..." Michael barely managed to cough out. "I did...I did what any good brother would do. I gave her the freedom that she sought so desperately for years. I did...I did what you wanted me to do, all those years ago."
"I didn't want this!" Shadow Freddy insisted. "I didn't want this to happen to you, Mikey! You shouldn't have gone through so much pain and suffering, even for Lizzie's sake!"
Michael lay on the bed silently for several seconds, not saying a word. Then, what he said next took his brother by surprise. "Nightmare was right, wasn't he?"
"What?"
"From...from the very beginning, Nightmare was right," Michael continued as though he hadn't heard his brother. "Do you remember, little bro? You will reap what you sow, he told me. I have no idea whether it was a curse or a prophecy he uttered that night, but it doesn't really matter now, does it? Just like I took your life with that stupid prank all those years ago, I've now been killed by a sibling in return. I always knew that I would pay for what I did to you, even without Nightmare's final threat. That day has finally come, and I...I deserve it. I deserve this fate, and in a way I'm glad I've finally paid the price."
Shadow Freddy blinked as he suddenly realized the horrifying truth. "You chose this," he choked out. "You willingly gave your own body to her. Why? Why would you..."
"Actions have consequences, Evan," Michael gently but firmly interrupted him. "This was just as much about trying to erase the stain on my own soul as it was about being a good brother to Lizzie. If this is the price that I needed to pay to set her free, then I'm glad I paid it."
"But it wasn't all your fault!" Shadow Freddy protested. "I'll admit I blamed you entirely at first, but I've learned new things since then! There was no way that Fredbear could have crushed my head in his mouth unless the animatronic had been designed to have that kind of bite pressure! Father INTENTIONALLY designed Fredbear to be that dangerous!"
Michael felt his body grow even colder than it already was. "He was that much of a monster even back then?" he rasped.
"And he was just as much to blame for my misery as you were, Mikey. He dragged me against my will to a place that he knew I hated every single day just because it was convenient for him, and he saw you bullying me all the time and did nothing to stop you. Not to mention the fact that as a security guard, he should have stopped you from bringing my head anywhere near Fredbear's mouth! The Bite of 1983 was just as much his fault as it was yours!"
Michael shook his head. "And yet I was the one who shoved your head into Fredbear's mouth, Evan. The only reason you ended up in that situation to begin with was because of me. No matter how many good deeds I do or how many evil deeds father does, that will never change." His brother looked like he wanted to argue even more, but the look on Michael's face made it clear that he would accept no argument. "What do I need to do now?" he changed the subject. "I know just how evil father has become, and I can't do anything about Lizzie right now, wherever she is. How do I stop father?"
Shadow Freddy sighed. "There is nothing you can do right now, Mikey. Freddy's will open a pizzeria soon, but that's not for a few years." He suddenly glared at his brother. "What you need to do, bro, is rest. You need to rest and gather whatever strength you can. Ending the nightmare that Father created would have been hard enough before you reduced yourself to this. You need all the strength you can get."
Michael let his head fall back onto the bed. Even though he still wanted to do something, anything, he knew that he didn't have either the strength or the knowledge to carry out his task. With a sigh, he closed his eyes and let the world around him fade to black. Evan was right - he needed to be in top shape to deal with what was to come.
Present Day
Liz's face became twisted with guilt, and Michael quickly rubbed her back to calm her down. "I said it before, and I'll say it again. The only person I blame for what happened to me was Father. By now, whatever love I once had for him had turned into hatred."
"I can understand why," his sister murmured.
"And this was back before I first started investigating Freddy's locations, when my hatred was largely personal. My horror and rage against Father would only grow as I learned more about the atrocities he had committed," Michael's eyes hardened furiously. "When 1987 came around and a new Freddy's opened, I decided that it was time for me investigate the pizzeria without father knowing about it. Perhaps that would give me a clue into the darkness that Evan claimed had consumed his heart."
"And he was right there, waiting for you, wasn't he?" Liz asked.
Her brother nodded. "I always had a feeling that the tragedy Evan talked about had something to do with Freddy's. But what he showed me when I began my investigation was more horrible than anything I could have ever imagined…"
Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, 1987
Michael grimaced as Withered Bonnie appeared in front of him and he shoved the Freddy mask on his face, not daring to move a muscle until the faceless animatronic departed from the office. The first two nights had been relatively easy to handle, but with the Withered animatronics joining the Toys in the assault on the office, it was becoming a lot harder than before to survive.
"Am I even on the right track to begin with?" he thought as he shined the flashlight down on Withered Foxy to force him to back off. Under the alias of Jeremy Fitzgerald, a name that was both a combination of one of the names of the missing children as a sign of respect and a last name he had made up to avoid his father's suspicions, he had taken the Night Guard job to try and conduct his investigations without being disturbed. So far, however, his only reward for his caution so far had been many hours of being continuously attacked by animatronics out for his blood.
Acting on an instinct, he opened the tablet and checked the Parts/Service Room to see if any of the Withered animatronics had returned there. But instead, he found his brother in his Shadow Freddy form, staring up at the camera and right into his eyes.
"You are in the right place, Mikey," a voice echoed in his head. It was deep and unearthly, echoing with an otherworldly resonance, yet once again it was unmistakably Evan's. "Now that you're here, I can show you the horrors that Father has committed as the nights pass. But putting an end to his evil won't be easy, and you must be tested and prepared to challenge him. Survive these nights, bro, and I can finally give you the answers that you seek."
Before Michael could even think about what his brother had told him, a clunking noise in the vents alerted him to the arrival of another animatronic. He put the monitor down and shoved the Freddy Mask on his head, a wise move since Withered Chica had tried to sneak up on him while he had been busy watching Shadow Freddy. As the lights flickered around him, he heard a chime suddenly ring, and breathed a huge sigh of relief. 6 AM. He had survived another night.
Withered Chica vanished from sight, and he threw off the Freddy mask. He was about to get off his chair, when his mind suddenly exploded in pain. "What the…" he spluttered as the world around him suddenly faded to black. After a few seconds, his vision returned, but he wasn't in the familiar Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria anymore. Instead, he was standing in a room, in front of a purple curtain. "This is…Pirate's Cove?" he asked, even though he knew nobody was there to answer him. Instead, Foxy suddenly stepped out of the cove and began walking to his right. With little other choice, Michael followed Foxy to the next room, where he could see five children smiling, laughing, and playing. Before Michael could say or do anything more, he suddenly found himself back in Pirate's Cove again. Only this time, he was standing right next to…
"Father?" he called out to him. But William Afton didn't say anything or move at all. Then, Michael noticed the look on his father's face. A terrifying expression of malice, savagery, and cruelty. "What's going on?" As if to answer his question, Foxy stepped out of Pirate's Cove and began walking to the same room he had last time. Michael followed him and…
"NO! NO! NO!" he screamed in horror and denial. The five happy children he had seen earlier were now all dead, corpses with their expressions twisted into fear and despair. "H…how?" he stuttered desperately. "How could something like this happen?" He thought back to the expression he had seen on his father's face, and the truth came crashing down on him like a wall of bricks. "No…" he whispered. "He couldn't have…"
"He did," Shadow Freddy's voice grimly confirmed, echoing from everywhere and nowhere all around him. "Our father murdered these children in cold blood, Mikey. He gained their trust and lured them with a false promise of happiness, and they were unable to see the darkness that lurked inside his heart and the death that awaited them."
"How…" Michael could barely think. "How could he do this?"
"He always possessed this incredible darkness within him, bro, and he has given himself completely to his demons. And this isn't even the full extent of his cruelty. After he slaughtered them, he stuffed their bodies inside the animatronics, so that nobody would be able to find them. An unnecessary act of cruelty in and of itself, but it would lead to consequences that nobody could possibly have imagined."
Michael shuddered again as he recollected the monstrous, evil look on his father's face. "What else has happened, Evan?" he asked, his voice strangled with the horror of all he had seen. "What could make the murders of these innocent children even worse?"
He could feel the world around him dissolve again and found himself back in the office of the pizzeria. "Keep coming back, bro…" was the last thing Shadow Freddy said in his mind before he felt his brother's presence leave him. "There is more I have to show you. And more trials you need to survive to prepare yourself for what is to come."
Present Day…
"As the nights passed and the animatronics became more aggressive, Evan showed me visions of the past just like he had on that third night," A shadow passed over Michael's face at the dark revelations he had seen. "He showed me how father had murdered Charlie when she had been locked out of Fredbear's Family Diner, how she had desperately banged on the door for someone to let her in before he dragged her away and butchered her. He showed me how, as the Puppet, she gave the gift of life to the murdered children whose souls were trapped in the animatronics because of the Remnant. And it was then that I understood that these were not simply animatronics with programming that had gone haywire, but vengeful ghosts after my blood."
"It doesn't help that you look like our old dad," Liz commented, eliciting a dry chuckle from Michael.
"That probably didn't help matters, you're right," he agreed. "At any rate, by the time my week at Freddy's was over, I finally understood what father had done and what Evan had meant by terrible tragedy. But before I could investigate any further, the Bite of 1987 occurred and the pizzeria closed down."
Liz shuddered. "My siblings really don't like talking about the Bite of 1987," she commented.
Michael grimaced. "I don't blame them, from what I heard it wasn't pretty. At any rate, I stayed in the shadows for the next six years, keeping out of both father's sight and the sight of the general public. "I don't know how I managed to stay hidden so well and for so long...part of me thinks that Evan helped out with whatever new powers he had gotten as Shadow Freddy, but I can't say for sure. I remained relatively inactive until the 1993 Freddy's opened..."
"...the one where I worked at," a new voice interrupted them. Both Liz and Michael looked up to see the door slightly ajar, with Mike peeking in from outside. "Sorry for interrupting you guys, I just wanted to check up on Liz," the man quickly explained. "We were all really worried about her after...you know."
Liz looked guiltily away from her father. "Sorry for worrying you," she murmured.
"Hey, don't worry about it, Liz," Mike smiled reassuringly at her. "I'm just glad to know that you've gotten better now." He turned his gaze over to Michael. "How are things going with you?"
Michael shrugged and smiled back at his sister's new guardian. "I was just going over the time I spent as Night Guard in the 1993 pizzeria, as part of my quest to undo my father's evil," he explained. "My brother had been helping me understand what was going on by showing me visions of the murders, as well as testing and preparing me for confronting him in the future through the nights I spent as Night Guard. There weren't any visions that he showed me during my shift. Instead, I took the time during the earlier nights to look up old articles that covered the tragedy of the missing children, and confirmed that their souls had indeed moved with the original animatronics to the 1993 location," he suddenly let out an amused laugh. "It's funny that you of all people are the one who has become the new father of my sister and the murdered children...because the false name that I chose for my position was Mike Schmidt as well."
Mike's eyes widened. "Holy shit..." he breathed. "This makes way more sense now."
Liz and Michael both gave him a confused glance. "Wha…?"
"Back when I first took the job at Freddy's, the manager who hired me said something very weird," Mike explained. "He asked me why I was coming back to Freddy's when I had already quit the job before, and he was also amazed at how quickly I recovered from my burn injuries. I had no idea what the hell he was talking about, and I made that clear to him after he asked those questions that seemingly came from out of nowhere. But now it all makes sense!"
Michael chuckled and Liz giggled. "I don't know if I should apologize for stealing your name, Mr. Schmidt," Michael joked.
Mike shrugged. "I don't care, it's not like Mike Schmidt is my original name to begin with either," he began to back away from the door. "Will you be all right, Liz?"
The girl smiled at him. "I'll be fine, dad. Thanks."
Mike returned the smile and shut the door to the bedroom, leaving Michael and Liz to themselves. "Small world..." Michael commented, and they both shared another brief moment of levity before Michael continued his tale. "Anyways, I left the pizzeria about a week after I had started, since I had all the information I needed. But unlike the 1987 pizzeria, I would eventually come back to the 1993 pizzeria long after it closed." He gave Liz a sheepish glance. "I, uh...I had to sleep continuously for the next few years after my shift to recover my strength. Sleep and hide in the shadows. Living as an undead corpse isn't exactly easy, you know."
He ruffled her hair to show that he didn't hold that against her, and was rewarded with a shaky smile. "When I was finally strong enough to keep going, Evan told me in my head to return to the closed 1993 Freddy's location." The good mood in Michael's demeanor quickly faded, and the tension returned. "A lot had changed, and not in the way I had wanted."
2023, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria (1993 location)
Michael shuddered as he shambled into the darkness of the pizzeria. He had thought that the place was creepy back when the animatronics were hunting him in the office, but seeing the place ruined and desolate was somehow even worse.
At least he wasn't alone, though. Shadow Freddy was there to greet him, a few feet away. Michael was relieved to see that his brother's personality had returned to its confident and assured demeanor - seeing Evan's fear at his ruined body had shaken him greatly, and he already felt more at ease now that his brother was there to guide him as he had done in the 1987 pizzeria.
Apparently, his brother wasn't in the mood to waste any time, a sentiment that Michael could agree with. "Follow me," Shadow Freddy beckoned to him, then began slowly floating away from him and towards the bathrooms. Michael was puzzled at what his brother wanted to show him there, but didn't question it. As he passed the center of the stage, he suddenly found himself being surrounded a bizarre illusion. He looked down at his arms, only to discover that they were being covered over by the arms of a very familiar brown bear animatronic.
"Am I Freddy?" he asked aloud. Evan gave him a barely imperceptible nod and ordered him again to follow, this time more agitatedly. Michael did so, and he swore that he could hear the clanking of metal footsteps echo from his feet as he did so. As he stepped into the bathrooms, he gasped in shock as he saw father standing a few feet away, his face distorted by a malicious grin as he held an axe in his hands. Michael lifted his hands instinctively to cover himself as the animatronic illusion reached out in front of him to try and grab William Afton. But Afton was too quick for Freddy, and he brought the axe down upon the bear, hacking him to pieces until only a broken robot body remained.
Michael closed his eyes and waited for the pain to come, but it never did. He slowly peeked them open to discover that both the Freddy body surrounding him and William Afton were gone. Instead, all he could see was the broken bodies of the Freddy Fazbear animatronics strewn and scattered across the floor...and his brother floating above them all, gazing somberly down at William Afton's handiwork.
"Father came back to destroy the animatronics once and for all," Shadow Freddy explained, gesturing towards the remains of the animatronics. "Maybe he wanted to cover his tracks as thoroughly as possible. Maybe he wanted to be even crueler to them than he had been already. I cannot truly explain his motives, but what I know for certain is that the ghosts inside the animatronics saw him. They had always mistaken other innocent Night Guards for their murderer, but this time there was no doubt whatsoever in their minds. They tried to go after Father, but they had been weakened since the pizzeria had closed, and Father had little trouble dismantling them with an axe, as you saw."
"But how, though?" Michael questioned. "Even if the pizzeria had closed, they were still metal animatronics. They should have been able to overpower father easily!"
"An unexpected twist of fate," his brother explained. "One of the last Night Guards in this place decided to take action against what he saw as hostile machines, and set all of their AIs to 0 before leaving. He did what he believed was right, and by doing so he ensured the near-certain survival of the few Night Guards that came after him before the pizzeria closed down." He shook his head sadly. "Unfortunately, however, his actions would have unintended consequences. Setting the AIs to 0 left the animatronics and the ghosts within them gravely weakened and vulnerable, and thus they were unable to carry out an effective offense or defense against father's savagery."
Even as Shadow Freddy spoke his words, Michael could see illusions of the other animatronics advance on the reappeared phantom of William Afton, each glaring at their murderer with undisguised hatred in their eyes. First Bonnie, then Chica, then Foxy, and finally Golden Freddy, all of whom met the same fate as Freddy at the hands of William Afton's axe. "If the animatronics are all here now, what happened to the ghosts within?"
Shadow Freddy reached out and touched Michael's forehead with his hand. Michael instantly felt the world dissolve around him, then reform again as it had done in his past visions. This time, however, the room wasn't empty. Above the broken bodies of the animatronics, he could see five ghostly children advancing furiously on his father, who was shaking and trembling in fear as he slowly backed away from them. As they started to corner him, William Afton found himself with his back against the wall, standing right next to the Spring Bonnie suit. Realizing that he could hide in the security of the suit, he quickly opened the suit and slipped inside it, laughing in relief and mockery as he taunted the ghosts from within. But he had forgotten just how prone to accidents those springlock suits truly were, and the mechanisms inside it activated, tearing his body apart from within and subjecting him to a brutal and most well-deserved death.
Michael winced and looked away in horror and disgust - even if he hated his father what he had done to him and to so many others, this was a fate that he wouldn't wish upon anybody. The images around him faded, and Michael found himself standing before Shadow Freddy once again. "It looks like Father got what he deserved, in the end."
His brother shook his head. "Not quite. Just as the children's souls were trapped inside the five Freddy's animatronics, so too has father's soul been trapped inside Spring Bonnie. For many years, he has been trapped in the safe room over there," he pointed at an empty room connected to the bathrooms, "stuck in the Hell that he created for himself. But now, he has gradually begun to take control over the animatronic that was once his tomb. And soon he will be ready to rise once more."
"WHAT?" Michael exclaimed in horror. "If Father comes back to life as an animatronic, he could do all sorts of horrible things! Even more than he's already done!" He looked frantically over at the safe room, and his horror increased when he discovered that it was empty. "Where is he?" he nearly shouted. "And where are the ghosts of the murdered children, for that matter?"
"They are all gone," Shadow Freddy answered with a sigh. "A group of people have aspired to create a horror attraction based on the Freddy Fazbear franchise. The fools..." Disgust and contempt burned in his eyes for the briefest of moments, before it quickly faded, "...they took Father away, preparing him to be the main attraction for Fazbear's Fright. And they took away several parts of the animatronics, not knowing that the ghosts of the murdered children were still bound to the heads of the animatronics." For the first time, Michael realized that all the heads were missing. "They have all been taken to that blasphemy of an attraction, not knowing that they have brought a murderer and those they have dishonored along with them. Father, or perhaps we should now call him Springtrap, will soon awaken fully, and if the attraction opens then he will have a new killing ground to carry on future murders. We CANNOT let that happen!"
"No," Michael agreed with determination burning in his undead eyes, "we can't." He looked directly into his brother's eyes. "What do you need me to do, Evan?"
"Fazbear's Fright requires a Night Guard to watch over the premises a week before it opens," Shadow Freddy instructed him. "You must take on that position and keep Springtrap at bay within Fazbear's Fright. Whatever humanity that was left in father has long rotted away with the passage of time. He hungers to kill, and his savagery will cause him to target you instead of trying to escape. Then, at the end of the week, you must burn Fazbear's Fright to the ground and, hopefully, father along with it."
"At the end of the week?" Michael repeated. "Wouldn't it be better for me to do it as soon as possible?"
Shadow Freddy shook his head. "If it was just Springtrap that you had to worry about, then yes. But the thing is...the souls of father's victims are there too. They are trapped in Fazbear's Fright along with their murderer, unable to escape or rest. I know that I'm asking a lot of you, Mikey, but if you can...try and free their spirits. I've seen two outcomes in the future, bro. In the first, the souls do not get freed for another year. But in the second, you can free them all by the week's end. I'm begging you, Mikey, as your brother," again, Michael could see the young boy Evan had been for a fraction of a second, "try to free them at Fazbear's Fright. I understand that you might not be able to, and if you can't then focus on defeating Springtrap. But at least try."
Michael reached out and touched his brother's forehead, but his hand phased through as he felt a sensation as cold as ice. "I'll do my best, Evan," he promised. "But whether or not I succeed in that second goal," his eyes hardened with resolve, "you have my word that I'll succeed in the first."
Shadow Freddy nodded his head in thanks. "One last thing before we go, Mikey. There is something inherently wrong with Fazbear's Fright," he warned. "There is a darkness in that place that didn't exist in the other Freddy Fazbear locations. Do not think that your mission will be easier just because you'll only be dealing with one animatronic. Otherwise, that may be the last mistake that you ever make."
Present Day...
"With my mission set, I made my way over to Fazbear's Fright and signed up as the Night Guard," Michael told Liz, before shaking his head in disgust. "That place was an absolute mess. Faulty wiring on purpose, an absolutely ABYSMAL ventilation system that failed every few minutes. I mean, FOR FUCK'S SAKE, the trap pizzeria was safer than that hellhole and it was DESIGNED to be burned down!" Liz couldn't help but laugh at her brother's rant - it reminded her so much of Mike's own dry humor. "The owners of Fazbear's Fright should be thanking me for burning down their failure of an attraction."
"What did Evan mean when he said that there was a darkness in Fazbear's Fright?" Liz asked once she and her brother had both calmed down. What Mikey had described was embarrassingly unsafe, but surely it didn't merit that dire a warning from their younger brother.
Michael's good humor faded. "For starters, the atmosphere. I could sense the despair and fear just by standing in the building. The Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria locations might have been creepy, but they never had an atmosphere so oppressive and disturbing," he shuddered. "But it was worse than that. Every so often, while I was trying to keep Springtrap at bay, hallucinations and phantoms would appear. Burned, spectral incarnations of the animatronics that might not have been able to hurt me directly, but rather sent my computer systems into catastrophic failure. Freddy, Chica, Foxy, Balloon Boy, Mangle, and Puppet, I think," he shook his head. "To this day, I still don't know what those Phantoms were. Maybe they were created by Springtrap to try and distract me so that he could have an easier time making it to my office, though I find this explanation unlikely since he never showed that kind of power while we were in the trap pizzeria. Maybe they were the ghostly children taking on those forms, trying to scare me away to save me from Springtrap. Or maybe they really were just bizarre hallucinations caused by the dark environment and inherent danger in that building. Either way, I had to deal with Springtrap AND the Phantoms in my struggle for survival."
Liz shook her head in amazement. "I'll never understand how you were able to survive the animatronics in so many different places, Mikey. I thought Dad was an expert when he told us about how he survived 20 nights at Freddy's, but you take it to a whole new level!" she praised.
Her brother chuckled, before sighing. "As odd as it may sound, I have the Nightmares to thank for my survival skills," he answered. "I suffered unspeakable agony and cruelty at their hands, but thanks to their twisted game I learned how to strategize and survive with very few resources available to me. Once I was able to form a strategy, I could practically guarantee my survival, assuming that I didn't get hit by particularly bad luck or screw up. And it wasn't just that, either. In a way, your new father and I aren't so different."
Liz tilted her head. "How?" she wondered.
"I had no fear," Michael explained, "though the reason why I had no fear was very different from your new father's. I didn't fear death not because I had nothing left in life, but because I knew that there were things that were far worse. What is death, compared to endless suffering at the hands of Hell's demons? What is a moment's pain on Earth, compared to the unholy fury of the Inferno's rage? The 1987 location was more difficult than scary, and the 1993 pizzeria, while creepy, wasn't that hard to survive once I got the pattern sorted out, as your father could testify. But I still remembered the Nightmares long after they first came after me, how they tore me to pieces and taunted me with the weight of my sins. The only thing that could possibly be scarier to me was the trap pizzeria, and that was for entirely different reasons."
Liz shuddered, both at the reminder of the Nightmares and of what she had become when she had come after her brother in the trap pizzeria. "What happened at Fazbear's Fright?" she asked, wanting to change the subject.
Michael sighed. "You can probably figure this out, Lizzie, but the thing is...I was only minimally successful at Fazbear's Fright," he admitted. "I was successful in that I was able to hold father at bay and burn Fazbear's Fright down to the ground, but the fire did not destroy him outright, and the constant struggle for survival against Springtrap meant that I simply had no time to try and set your new family's spirits free there." He lowered his head. "I felt as though I had failed Evan, though when I talked to him again he was just grateful that I had succeeed in the most important mission of them all, just like I had promised I would. He told me to rest for the next few months, and during that time he prepared me for the endgame."
"The endgame..." his sister repeated, knowing what was to come.
Michael nodded. "In the month that led up to the end of the Fazbear nightmare, Evan prepared me extensively for what was to come. He told me about what had become of the Circus Baby animatronics, the Puppet, Father, and...and you..." his voice wavered and Liz gently placed a hand on his arm, as if to remind him that those dark times had passed and would not return. Michael gave her a grateful smile as thanks before continuing, "He told me about how Henry had still been alive all these years, and how he would be designing a grand trap disguised as a pizzeria to lure all the remaining animatronics inside and burn them all down far more effectively than I ever could have at Fazbear's Fright. This would be the final stage before all of the souls would finally be set free and father sent to Hell where he belongs."
"How much did you work together with Mr. Henry?" Liz asked. That had always been something she had been curious about.
"Not at all, actually," Michael answered, surprising her. "Not even Henry himself knew that I was the volunteer who had put my unlife on the line to keep the animatronics inside the pizzeria, at least not at first. I did consider reaching out to Henry and offering to collaborate with him, but I ultimately decided against it. There was already a decent chance that father had recognized me at Fazbear's Fright, and that he might try to track me down. If I started working with Henry and father followed me right to him, then the entire plan would have fallen apart completely and we would have no other way to stop him. He was already suspicious as it was when I brought him into the trap pizzeria, though fortunately his bloodlust got the better of him and he didn't realize the true nature of the trap."
"Thank God I didn't suspect anything either," Liz muttered. She would forever be thankful that her brother, her intelligent, determined, and caring brother, had been the one to stop her evil from spreading beyond the walls of the trap that had destroyed her animatronic form.
Michael smiled at her and pulled her in to another hug. "I might have treated you as an enemy in that final pizzeria, Lizzie, but I never thought of you as one. I felt nothing but satisfaction at father's imminent destruction, but for you I only hoped that you would finally find peace and freedom from the corruption that was forced on you. And even though being burned to death might seem like a horrible fate to some, I wouldn't have wanted to die any other way. Especially since Evan joined me in my last moments, and we could share a final precious moment of bonding together on Earth before it all came to an end."
2024, The Trap Pizzeria
Michael leaned back onto his chair and sighed in relief as he heard Henry finish his speech over the intercom. At last, it was over. Flames raged all around him and in the other rooms of the pizzeria, a mighty furnace that was far more effective than his arson attempt at Fazbear's Fright ever had been. Soon, the animatronics would all be reduced to ashes and scrap, and every soul trapped inside would be released. The reign of terror and fear that his father had started would finally come to an end.
"It's finally over," his brother's familiar voice spoke next to him. Michael didn't even turn his head - he knew he would find Shadow Freddy next to him, standing by his side just like he had been for the past decades. "You did it, Mikey. You ended the nightmare that tormented the Fazbear franchise. Once these last animatronics are destroyed, there won't be any more victims, any more suffering of innocents. You've accomplished something truly great this day."
"WE did it, Evan..." Michael weakly corrected as the flames around him started to burn brighter and fiercer around him. "It was your guidance, your hand leading me towards where I needed to go, that gave me everything I needed to carry out our quest to stop Father's evil. I couldn't have..." he coughed vigorously before continuing, "...I couldn't have done it without you, bro."
"Soon, we'll all be together again in the afterlife," Shadow Freddy said as the animatronics in the corridors started thrashing and shrieking in pain and fear around them. William Afton's strangled scream of hatred and despair echoed from a room not too far to the left, causing Shadow Freddy to let out a dark chuckle, "well, except for one of us, anyway."
Both Michael and Evan allowed themselves a moment of savage satisfaction as what was left of their father's composure shattered completely. Evan's normally compassionate gaze was utterly devoid of warmth and sympathy as he stared pointedly in their father's direction, such was William Afton's depravity that even the normally gentle and kind-hearted younger brother despised him and reveled in his death. Michael had to suppress a mocking laugh as he heard Scraptrap throw himself at the walls in a fruitless attempt to break his way through. But the vicious joy they felt almost immediately faded as they heard another animatronic scream from the opposite side. A female scream.
"Lizzie..." Michael breathed out in a gasp of pain and regret.
Shadow Freddy saw the look of sorrow on Michael's face and reassuringly put a hand on his shoulder. In the heat of the flames, Michael couldn't even feel the cold sensation that he had whenever they had made contact earlier. "It'll only be for a moment, Mikey," he promised. "This brief moment of suffering and destruction is necessary to set her free from all the terrible things that father put her through. She will find happiness again once all this is done, I promise you."
"You never lied to me once, Evan. I don't have any reason to doubt you now." The two of them fell into a contemplative silence, thinking about all the experiences they had been through and how their relationship had evolved. The flames soared even higher and the thrashing of the animatronics started to weaken - their final destruction was about to begin.
"I haven't been entirely honest with you, Mikey," Evan suddenly confessed, earning a confused look from his brother. "Back when I first recruited you to take on the quest to stop father's evil and free his victims from their torment, I made it sound like I wouldn't truly forgive you for what you did to me until that quest reached its end. But the truth is, bro...I forgave you as early as 1987."
Michael stared at him in utter shock. "You...you forgave..."
Shadow Freddy's mouth stretched into as much of a smile as his animatronic-like head would allow. "I did, Mikey. Because from the moment you discovered the first secrets of the Fazbear tragedy and first started fighting for survival against the animatronics, I knew that you were honest when you promised that you would do anything to make things right for my death. I knew that you were fully dedicated to stopping father's evil from the very beginning." He let out a chuckle, a good-natured one that sharply contrasted with his treatment of William Afton seconds ago. "Back when I was alive, there were times when I wished I wasn't in the same family as you. But now, I couldn't have asked for a better brother to be here by my side." Tears began to form in Michael's eyes even as they evaporated away, earning a crooked smile from Evan. "And you called me a crybaby way back then, huh?"
"Oh, how the times have changed," Michael commented weakly, and the two of them shared what could very well be their last laugh together even as the flames started to close in. "If you truly have forgiven me, then every single moment of pain and effort was worth it a thousand times over," he continued once their laughter subsided. "It doesn't matter where I go now when the smoke clears, Evan. Whether I join you, mom, and Lizzie in Heaven, or burn in Hell with Father for what I did to you, I can be at peace knowing that the past is truly behind us."
Shadow Freddy's hand gripped his brother's shoulder tightly. "You better join us up in the sky, Mikey," he warned. "If you somehow end up down there, I'm going to beat the Nightmares up and carry your sorry butt up to Heaven myself."
Michael laughed despite everything. "With how much of a badass you've become, Evan, I don't doubt that for a second." All of the other rooms were completely engulfed with flames, the animatronics now silent as the last parts of their bodies were destroyed. The roaring inferno was now beginning to consume his room as well, and he could already begin to see parts of his skin char and catch fire. "Good...no," he corrected with a shake of his head, "not goodbye. See you later...Evan."
Shadow Freddy put an arm around his brother's shoulder and closed his eyes. "See you later...Mikey."
Michael smiled serenely and closed his eyes too, waiting for the end to come. To an outsider, the fate of being burned alive in a building separated from the rest of society would be one of the worst ways to die. But all Michael felt was peace and contentment. With the spectral form of his brother by his side and the knowledge that he had finally completed his duty and earned redemption in his brother's eyes, the last thought that Michael had on Earth was that the final moments of his life would be his happiest.
Then, the flames consumed the last room, and the legacy of fear and horror that William Afton had created out of the Freddy Fazbear franchise burned to ashes and oblivion. The nightmare was finally over.
/
A/N: Well, this was quite a doozy of a chapter. Possibly the longest I've ever written, and boy was there a lot to cover. Michael Afton has had quite a long history indeed, and a lot of work to do to undo his father's evil and earn his redemption.
Unlike Mike's nights at Freddy's and Michael's suffering at the hands of the Nightmares, I didn't want to focus a lot on the actual nights of the night shifts. You have the games for that, and since I didn't have much more to add I figured it would end up being tedious. Instead, I wanted to focus most of my attention on Michael and Evan / Shadow Freddy, and how they rebuilt their relationship to something far stronger than what they used to have while they were alive. They've truly come a long way from the times when Michael would torment his younger brother for being a crybaby, haven't they?
I know I spent the entire introductory author's note bashing the "Mike in Purgatory" theory, but I wouldn't be fair if I didn't acknowledge its merits as well. And one thing that I will gladly give the Mike in Purgatory theory credit for is giving the Bite Victim much more importance than "the kid who got bullied by his brother and died." I always had the feeling that the Crying Child had more significance than Scott was letting on, and I personally think that he became Shadow Freddy, acting as a sort of guide to Michael by showing him what William Afton did in the past (in FNAF3 and possibly even FNAF2, showing him the visions from the Death minigames in-universe since in the game itself you have to, well, die, to see them). I'm really happy with how my interpretation of BV/Shadow Freddy turned out, and how he worked together with Michael as a team to undo their father's evil and guide Michael on the road to redemption, while at the same time holding him accountable for the Bite of 1983.
I definitely won't be able to post a chapter next week, since I'll be spending 3 days in a row on a tropical island. I've also come across more information that suggests that there was a Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria earlier than 1987 (probably around 1985) and that was where the original 5 children were murdered. I believe I will spend some time updating previous chapters to accommodate for this change, though when I do that is entirely dependent on how much time I have.
I'm sorry if there wasn't enough Michael and Liz bonding for your liking. I promise you, next chapter there will be plenty of Afton sibling bonding to meet your needs, and then some!
Hope you guys enjoyed! Any feedback you can offer me is highly appreciated, as this chapter took the most effort to work on by far. A whopping 24 pages on Word, if you can believe it.
