Die in a Fire (Across the Years Part Two)

Down the Road...

"It was dark, and cold," the old woman said, huddling down in her blanket a little further. "Part of me wished I hadn't forgotten to take the dog out for her walk, but I was already outside...that's how I saw it."

"And what was, 'it?'" Mike asked, quickly scratching down a few notes on his notepad.

"It was a beast! A monster!" the woman insisted. "Oh, no one believed me, but I saw it! It crawled its way off of the sidewalk, I'm telling you!"

"Right, right," Mike nodded, sliding a few photos from his jacket pocket. "Was it any of these?"

The woman took the photos, examining them. The first was of the Puppet, and the second was a shot of Ennard that Mike had managed to snag from the security cameras in the bunker.

The woman made a hmmm sound as she took the photos and looked over them. "I don't think so," she said, handing back the photo of the Puppet. "But it looked pretty similar to this one! I think it had the same mask, too!"

She held up the photo of Ennard as she said that. Mike let out a small hiss of satisfaction, taking the photo back.

"And you said it went..." Mike asked, cocking his head.

"It was heading northwest," the woman said. "And it didn't show any signs of stopping!"

"And this was last night? On the road just outside?" Mike asked, quickly scratching down the direction in his notepad.

"It was!"

Mike slid the notebook back into his pocket. "Thank you miss, that should be all the information I need."

As he stood up, the woman looked at him nervously and asked, "Are you going to kill it?"

Mike paused, thinking.

"I'll see what I can do. Thank you for your time." he replied, before turning and walking away, pushing open the door to the woman's house and walking outside.

It had been...a long time since the Scooping. A long time since that night, when his brother had left for good. Mike wasn't exactly trying to keep track, but when he looked at a calendar, he simply couldn't fathom the time that had passed.

Thirty years. Thirty fucking years since that night.

With all the victims of the MCI settled and gone, the only loose ends left were Ennard, the creature who had killed him, and Charlie, who should also be out there somewhere.

Before, when he'd started, Mike was also looking for someone else. His father, William Afton, the man who had started everything and the man who-as far as Mike could tell-was the origin point of everything. The man who had raised him. The man who Mike had never really known.

But, every potential trail he found was nothing more than a dead end. The last known sighting of his father was inside the Afton home, when the police had finally caught up to him. William had broken out, run into the woods, and disappeared.

Mike felt like he'd tried everything. He'd even managed to get his hands on the police report for the event, but all it said was that they suspected he stopped at the pizzeria before disappearing for good, and that Uncle Henry had apparently been key in finding him.

Mike thought about Henry sometimes. He would be much older now, entering his 70s or 80s, something like that. Mike felt a little bad for him, knowing how much Henry had suffered at his father's hands, but there was nothing Mike could do except clean things up. Tie up all the loose ends.

Well, Mike could tell Henry about what was going on. But then again, that would bring him into an already confusing, chaotic situation.

No, the only thing Mike could do was continue forward. Find Ennard, find the Puppet, and help them find rest. End them. Maybe even help them, in any way he could.