What lies in the shadows~~~ Michael Afton x Reader

Chapter 4

Mike gets up quickly, helping Gregory and I stand.

"Woo! Woo! Woo! Security alert! Security Alert!" Sundrop then quickly slams the daycare doors.

"Traitor!" I yell at Sundrop through the door.

"I heard a lot of commotion. Are you two-three... Ok?" Freddy notices Mike, and he is thrown off for a second.

"We are fine! I fear Sundrop has alerted the others of our presence, though. We need to get going immediately! Take Gregory, and keep him safe! We'll be right there with y'all, but just in case we have to split." I pass Gregory to Freddy and make sure he safely climbs into Freddy's chest compartment. I notice Mike Grimace, but I don't pay attention to it. I grab Mike's hand and drag him up the stairs, with Freddy right behind us.

The lights shut off as I swipe my key to raise the gate.

"You two need to hide, and Gregory and I need to get to a recharging station. The power is redirected to them at the last 5 minutes of the hour. The daycare attendant will be free to roam the building." Freddy rushes to the recharging station just outside the gate.

I lead Mike towards the fake bushes that line the wall, and just as we bend down behind them, within seconds of hiding, what seems to be a woman dressed in a bunny costume is skipping towards the daycare entrance.

"You see that, right, Mike?" I lean in close to him.

"Yea... the Pizzaplex doesn't have a bunny animatronic, at least not anymore. let alone a bunny costume." Mike whispers back.

We stand from our hiding spot and walk towards the recharging station.

"What was that?" Gregory's voice echoes from inside the station.

"I'm glad you saw that too. I thought we were going insane." I spoke as we approached the two hopping out of the recharging station.

"That is a fountain. A fountain is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water." Freddy replies.

"Not the fountain! You didn't see the dancing bunny?" Gregory dramatically exclaims.

"No. I did not. There is no rabbit at the Pizzaplex... Not anymore." Freddy solemnly says

I still remember the day Bonnie had gotten decommissioned. They had let a new hire work on Bonnie. The new mechanic hadn't even trained for two weeks by this time. The mechanic made a few wiring errors. The wires short-circuited, causing Bonnie's security protocols to fail. He became very aggressive. We were lucky this incident happened after close, but there was still tons of damage done. Bonnie ended up taking out a number of s.t.a.f.f. and map bots. The last he tried to attack was Monty. Monty's defense protocols kicked in. It didn't end well for either of them. I was put in charge of fixing the destruction caused. Monty was salvageable. There were a few dents, parts missing, and his chest cavity hatch was ripped off. Bonnie wasn't fixable, though. No matter how many times I rewired or replaced parts, he wouldn't turn on.

Part of me felt like I failed that day. Bonnie was a well-loved animatronic. He was on the more gentle side, surprisingly. It was a shock to see him become so aggressive. I think he was my favorite, and that's why it hurt so much to give up on trying to fix him. It was wasting my time, though, and I still had multiple bots to repair from the incident. Though I didn't tell management, I kept the unfunctional Bonnie. I have gathered multiple parts over the months that I didn't originally have or that the company refused to pay for. I'm determined to fix him, and after Gregory is safe and sound, that's my next priority.

"This is crazy! It's like this whole place is out to get me!" My eyes soften as Gregory talks.

"I am not. Neither is (Y/n)." Freddy reassures.

"Why?"

"I do not know. I want to help you. Maybe they do too."

"I doubt it. You're just different." I listen as Gregory and Freddy go back and forth.

Gregory is right, though. Every other animatronic in this building is after Gregory. For some unknown reason, though, Freddy has chosen to help him. Something in Freddy is different from the others'.

Whether that difference is in his AI coding, his wiring, or just something else, it baffles me. It just seems there's always something new to uncover in this place. Like an endless game of clue. forever wondering who is responsible for all the weird things that happen here.

~~~~

Goodevening! So I want to start off with: My TikTok fyp is nothing but Michael Afton. I want to discuss something. Someone pointed out that if Springtrap is back, that means Michael spent his life trying to put a stop to his father's reign and even died to stop it. All of Michael's efforts were for nothing. I want y'all to know that after seeing that, I felt like weeping. The boy did not deserve a lot of the shit he faced. In lighter news, I would like to inform you guys of the theory I saw on TikTok that Michael Afton is actually possessing Glamrock Freddy, and he's helping Gregory because he doesn't want Gregory to end up like Evan. While the theory makes me sad, it also makes my heart swell, and I am absolutely smitten with the theory. Anyways, aside from that, I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I can't wait to write more! :)

(P.S. I promise the fluff is coming; I just have to get through all the talking in the first bit of the game to get the story built up! :D)