Not Guilty // William Afton

nine

It was a Sunday. Freddys is closed today for the holiday, but Henry still wanted me and William to come in though I never come in on weekends.

"Is this alright?" I ask William, holding the banner.

"Hmm, move it to the side a bit." William gestured his hand to the left. "I'm gonna go get water, i'll be back."

I nodded and shifted a little bit in the ladder above the animatronics.

Tomorrow, an entire family rented out the whole restaurant for a day. When we told them we couldn't do that, they offered $6,000. Suddenly we do that. So Henry asked William and I to help set up the restaurant, and i'm just putting up a banner.

"We're warning you about him. If you could just listen!" a child's voice internally yelled at me.

I quickly let go and covered my ears.

Ever since William confronted me about my dream, this child's voice has been speaking to me, like in my mind. I want to tell somebody about it, but I know it's gonna sound absolutely insane.

This, stupid child keeps telling me to be careful around William and shit, but I don't even know what they're talking about! I'm convinced i'm going crazy, and it's from my mothers continuous nagging about me working here and the kids that went missing.

What happened to those kids is sad, I get it, but god, people need to shut up about it!

"Have you ever tried looking inside of us?" the child asked.

"What?" I very quietly whispered.

"Us, below you. Have you ever tried looking inside?" the voice spoke to me.

I slowly looked at the three animatronics below me. I'm literally going insane.

"Why would I do that.." I spoke a little louder this time.

"You might be quite surprised with what you might find. Please, look inside of us! We need you to!" the child cried.

I started stepping down the ladder as I could feel somebody's stare burning into my neck. I look around to see if anyone is there, but it's just me.

I step off the ladder and onto the stage, standing in front of Freddy, whose standing tall.

"Just there.. right in the chest plate. Open it." the voice suggested.

I felt obligated to do so. I feel crazy, doing what a voice tells me to do. It's only what crazy people do.

I placed my hands on Freddys chest plate, about to attempt to open it when the hairs on the back of my neck quickly jump up, sending me quickly turning around.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" William glared down at me, standing less than 4 inches away and his hands behind his back. He hadn't even looked down, he just glared at me while he faced forward.

"W- Uh- William! I'm just observing Freddy. He has a very unique design you know!" I lied.

William slightly smiled and tilted his head, still looking down at me. "Again with the lying, hmm?"

Why does this man always manage to make someone scared? He won't even do anything, yet he frightens me.

"I'm not lying! Freddy is just my favorite one out of them all." I nodded.

"Seriously?" one of the voices spoke.

It had startled me a bit that it had spoke out of nowhere. But I guess William had seemed to notice, because he now brought his head down to fully look at me, grinning more than before.