To Be Human

Chapter Thirteen: One big happy family

~Freddy/Michael~

Michael walked over to the table where his mum and sister were cautiously. They were both now staring at him but neither said a word, instead they took a step back and turned to walk over to the Monty's Gator Golf sign that the Glamrocks were hiding behind. He already knew where CC was. So he knelt down in front of the table and lifted up the tablecloth. Just as he anticipated CC was hiding under there, tears streaking his small face.

He looked exactly the same as Michael remembered. For a moment Michael wanted to retreat and hide again. But he didn't run, Monty had a good point. Elizabeth probably went through a lot of trouble to bring him here, it would be unnecessarily cruel of him to not even try. Besides, even if he wanted to run away, his brother had looked up at him. His eyes were wide, full of fear. It didn't seem that seeing Michael made it any better.

"Hey...." Michael said quietly. "Can you come out from under here?"

"Mikey? What are you doing here?" CC asked, ignoring Micael's request.

"I'll explain that later, little man. Can you come out first?' He asked again.

CC shook his head, pulling his knees close to his chest and whispering. "They're out there."

Michael had a moment of deja vú. He must have been referring to Chica and Roxy, which would explain why they seemed to be hiding out of sight when he walked in. Michael held up his hand, extending a pinky towards his brother. "Who, that wolf and chicken? Trust me, they're harmless. Besides, your big brother is here now, I'll protect you from any scary animatronics. I promise."

After a second CC interlocked their pinkies and crawled out. He was frantically looking around, like he was making sure there were no animatronics in sight. As soon as he was out from under the table Michael pulled him into a hug.

"I am so sorry Carson. For everything." Michael started as tears formed in his eyes once more. "You have no idea how badly I've wanted to tell you this. I never ever meant to hurt you, I swear. I wish I could take it back. I wish I could take it all back. I'm sorry I wasn't a good brother, you didn't deserve what I put you through and I just...I needed you to know that."

CC didn't say anything, not at first. But he did hug Michael back which felt like a good thing. "I know, Mikey."

"You do?" Michael pulled away from his little brother and noticed tears swelling his eyes.

CC nodded, when he spoke again his voice was quiet and shaking. "I heard you...when I was in the hospital."

"...you could hear me?" It was as if a weight had been lifted from off of his chest. The tears started falling down his face, Michael had done more crying in the last hour than the last several decades of his life. "I was so scared...this whole time that you thought that I hated you and it was on purpose. I thought you would always hate me for it..."

"I did for a while.." CC started. He had tears in his eyes but hadn't yet started to cry. "I was really angry for a really long time and I wanted to hurt you like you hurt me. I knew you didn't mean it but I was still angry and confused cause I was trapped in Fredbear and no one knew and I was alone and scared. Until the other kids...but most of them didn't know what was going on. They just knew they were mad at daddy. And then one day there was a new night guard at Freddy's. I remember that the missing children thought it was daddy. They wanted him dead. But I knew that it was you, not him. You looked a lot different but I still recognized you cause you were the only person I knew that was never afraid of the monsters and you didn't look scared at all. At least not at first."

It took Michael a moment but he realized that his brother was referring to his time as the night guard at Freddy's Pizza Place. After its second reopening when they went back to the original animatronics. It was years after the scooping. His skin was purple and rotting and mostly concealed with bandages. His face was the only thing visible at the time, aside from the discoloration and soulless eyes he still looked somewhat human. He remembered the golden bear, the first time he had seen it there it nearly gave him a heart attack. It was withered beyond repair by that point, unused ever since the accident. He and that animatronic were alike in that way.