The Fall of the Aftons

163: Michael Afton

Michael sang along with the song playing in the headphones of his Walkman—"Break My Stride" by Matthew Wilder—as he tweaked Funtime Freddy's headphones. Out of most of the Funtimes, Freddy's was the second most difficult. The personality that the kids were meant to see from him was a type of hot-headed comedian, so his programming was definitely complex. Though it wasn't nearly as complex as Circus Baby's, considering that she had numerous tasks for different commands. She had a string for commands, a string for actions, and others for personality and nighttime behavior. All of her long-as-shit code strings were what made him dread any repairs and updates for her.

A high-pitched scream scared him out of his working trance. Still wielding his tools, he rushed to his feet and sprinted in the direction that the scream came from—Baby's stageroom.

When he arrived at Baby's room, he shrieked. There was blood—fresh fucking blood—dripping from Baby's access hatch for ice cream claw. It dripped from the cracks in the hatch and onto the floor, a large puddle of it standing beneath her.

Elizabeth's hair bow was soaking up some of the blood on the floor.

"Elizabeth!" he shouted as she rushed over to Baby, dropping his tools on the tile. "Beth, can you hear me? Elizabeth!" He grabbed onto the edgs of Baby's claw hatch and tried to pry it open, but it wouldn't budge. "Beth! Beth, answer me!"

A pair of strong arms wrapped around his waist and started to pull him away from Baby. He started to flail and scream for his sister, but she never answered, and the arms wouldn't relent.

"Michael, stop," Noah's voice demanded quietly, his voice cracking slightly. "She's gone."

"No," he muttered as tears spilled from his eyes. "No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! She can't be gone. We need each other. Sh-She can't be gone!" He fell to the floor, pulling Noah down with him as he started to sob.