1985

1984, December

Roughly one year after the tragedy that befell New Harmony, Utah, with the loss of two precious children- both well under the age of ten- Fredbear's Family Diner fell into despair. After successfully keeping the investigation away from the public eye, Henry Emily and his co-owner (and friend) William Afton weren't surprised to see the media grow suspicious of the establishment anyways; rumors spread, and some sneaky reporters were able to get a good close-up on the crime scene where a six-year-old's corpse was found.

But, because of the poor police station, he was able to get away with it. Whoever he was, was unclear, but everyone in the small town that had some rationality and didn't care about what the news said were fairly certain that it was not the trustable Brit, William Afton, co-owner of Fredbear's Family Diner.

But the police department, after investigating the crime scene, couldn't be so sure; they had found a knife wound, and aside from the report from Mark that Mr. Afton had driven away from the crime scene when the body was still fresh, there were no suspects. But William Afton didn't end up in any real danger; while a sheriff at New Harmony's police department had interrogated him aggressively enough to put the two at odds, Afton had gotten out virtually scot-free, aside from some minor public suspicion... although said minor public suspicion couldn't do anything to him.

New Harmony, Utah trusted William Afton (for the most part) due to Fredbear's Family Diner having a sheriff onboard- Mark Chandar, who had left Harmony's police department for a diner, and had turned around into something bigger than anything he would have done- though no bigger than anything he would have seen- otherwise.

Mark was the only reason that both William Afton and Fredbear's Family Diner were mostly overlooked by the police department. Henry Emily acknowledged this and had talked to Mark about it... after, of course, mourning over the death of his own daughter. He never would have imagined that William Afton would have done it... and he turned a blind eye to Mark.

The latter of the two was now off somewhere else; he was at a new house that he had gotten in that year. It was a large, two-story farmhouse out in the woods. That diner had surely made a profit before the tragedy that befell it. Jessica- his fiance- had come home from the hospital, finally. Mark never knew exactly what had happened during her stay, but it had to be serious if she had been there for a couple of months. But Mark was happy to have her back.

And in the present day, Mark looked over the forest that spanned across his backyard- the boundaries between his own home and whoever owned the rest of the land was very transparent. But at least he owned that little stream, with its small, beautiful waterfalls. He and Jessica had gone home the day she was allowed to come back from the hospital.

"What happened?" he asked her.

She had said nothing in return.

And in the present night, Mark turned away from the window on the second story, and walked back into the master bedroom on the same floor. He looked at Jessica- she was sleeping, tucked into her side of the bed. He supposed that he should go to sleep, too. He hadn't heard much from Henry and William as of late, except for promising messages that came out every couple of weeks. Too long.

He had just gotten one the previous day. It said that he should be prepared to meet with them soon. A year ago, Mark Chandar was forced back into the police station with an enraged Michael Schmidt yelling at him, alongside other head authorities at the department. But aside from that, ever since Mark had come back, hope had returned to the town's law enforcement.

The lower-level cops were happy to have him back, but everyone else hated his guts. Mark Chandar was in the middle of a political battle between the station's leaders and its workers. Not a place that he had any desire to be in, but he had gotten himself into this. When Mark Chandar accepted William Afton's invitation to the diner, that is. It was still a mystery to him, how and why William would have picked him out of every other person watching those featurettes at the convention more intently. He had barely given the springlock animatronics a passing glance, yet still... somehow...