Schizo Afton request

William Afton jerked awake, sweating and frantically reaching for something that wasn’t there. The words in the back of his throat died when he realized he had just been dreaming. An arm draped itself across his face, shielding his eyes from the sunlight peeking through his blinds. The thought that it was just a nightmare offered him no comfort. After all, there was no use denying a memory.

Movement in the corner of his vision brought his attention to his closet. A large figure, a monster of metal and red fur, stared back at him. William grit his teeth and threw his pillow with a yell, forcing the closet door shut. He groaned, a noise full of frustration, and slowly got out of bed.

The first order of business for the morning was to take care of his hygiene. First, William brushed his teeth. Then, he hopped in the shower. Get wet, lather, rinse, lather, rinse, and dry off. After he found himself suitably dry he applied some deodorant and got dressed.

Next up was waking up his daughter. She was sound asleep when he opened her door, and it required some shaking and calling her name to get her to wake up. When she did she yawned and snuggled down deeper into her pillow and begged for a few more minutes. William gave it to her. It was the least he could do, he reasoned. After all, she was all he had left.

Once his daughter was fully awake he left, trusting her to get ready on her own. It was time to make some breakfast. Toast was put in the toaster, bacon was starting to fry, orange juice was poured. Now all William had to do was wait. He drummed his fingers on the table and made sure to ignore the nightmarish yellow animatronic staring at him from next to the refrigerator.

When his daughter came down it was to a plate of food and a bowl of cereal. William brushed her still-wet hair and styled it into the pigtails she loved so much while she babbled as children do. Of course, he made sure to nod his head and hum in agreement at all the right times.

Like all good things, though, it had to come to an end. The two hopped in their SUV when it was time to go. It was summer, so William had to bring his daughter to work with him. He didn’t mind it. She grounded him, kept him sane.

Father and daughter reached the office of Afton Robotics rather quickly. They weren’t there for long, however. There was a birthday party happening that day and William’s animatronics were being rented out. As their creator, he had to be there. There were only a couple more parties before the trial period was over and his investors would fully commit to a restaurant, and then his true plan would be set in motion.

His daughter was bugging him again about playing with one of the animatronics. Just like every other time, William denied her. It was too dangerous, too unpredictable. He wasn’t worried that she would go against his orders. The mere idea of it didn’t even cross his mind.

William shooed his daughter away to go play with the other kids at the party and got to work. Almost immediately he began to get irritable, something he took out on the technicians working with him. He barked order at them and got to work monitoring the animatronics as they walked around entertaining children. The two technicians were more casual than him, discussing their plans to go out drinking that night. Neither bothered inviting him. They knew what his answer would be.

William ignored them and rifled through his disorganized notes. Fingers drummed a beat on his thighs while he searched. His brows furrowed. Where were the papers? Finally he found them.  Notes on the occult, specifically notes concerning combining flesh with man-made materials to artificially induce spiritual possession. All written with a cypher, of course. It wouldn’t do for anyone to catch on to his plan.

No matter what, he would reunite his family.

A disinterested look up at the party let him know everything was as it should be. Funtime Freddy and Bonbon were hosting a story time with Funtime Foxy. Ballora, always popular with the girls, was putting on a show of her own. The Bidybabs were running around giggling while they played tag with some of the children. Although he didn’t see his daughter or Baby anywhere, he wasn’t worried. His daughter knew better than to play with Baby, after all.

The sound of a child’s footsteps approaching him made him turn his head. William’s heart stopped. There, in front of him, was his son. He still looked just as he had in the hospital. His son opened his mouth and spoke, voice distant and echoing. “It wasn’t your fault, Dad.”

Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes, but William refused to let them spill. Instead, he blinked them away and turned his head. It was just another hallucination, nothing more. A remnant of a guilty conscience that didn’t want to admit that he was the reason one son was dead and the other was taken.

William swallowed hard and took a deep breath to steady himself. He needed a distraction. Luckily, he had an excuse to leave the technicians, still blathering on about nothing, behind. Baby had been in another room of the building for a while now. He could go check on her to make sure she was operating properly. As he walked through the crowd of children, William thought about his daughter. After the party, he decided, he would take her to get some ice cream. She loved it, after all, and he would do anything for her, because she was the light of his life.