The Fall of the Aftons

016: William Afton

 "I can't, I can't, I can't!" Henry shouted hysterically. His eyes were open wide with hysteria, fear, and anxiety. "Why did we even go with through this?!"

William didn't answer his question. He didn't say anything at all. He had learned from earlier that morning to let the panic and fear and anxiety and hysteria run its course; it'll all be over in a few minutes.

Henry started to shake William by the shoulders. "Will, what were we thinking?! We can't run a restaurant!" He wrapped himself around William and started to sob. Again. For what felt like the thousandth time this morning. And the number of times he'd cried today wasn't anywhere near how much he had yesterday evening. But in a few minutes, he was back to his normal ball of optimistic energy again as he quadruple-checked that everything was running smoothly before they opened in an hour. 

Twenty minutes before the restaurant was to open, Henry had yet another psychiatric break--whatever that descriptive name was meant to mean, William had no idea. He kept himself wrapped around William, crying as quietly as he could at the moment. Which, surprisingly, was a lot quieter than expected.

By the time the diner was just about ready to open for the very first time, Henry was still being clingy even though his "break" was over. The mayor of New Harmony, the small town that Henry lived in and where Fredbear's Family Diner was planted, arrived. He didn't seem to notice Henry's clinginess, and if he did, he kept to himself. The mayor put up some red ribbon outside the building as a bunch of cars all started to drive into the parking lot. In a slow period of five minutes, William watched with an excited grin on his face as Henry used those huge scissors you often saw on the television to cut through the red ribbon. A photo was taken of him and Henry together in front of the restaurant's newly opened doors, then everybody who came to the ceremony darted inside. Everybody except the owners. William stood in front of the tinted glass doors, frozen in place.

Henry extended his hand. "We've got this," he promised confidently.

William stared at Henry's hand for a moment, unsure of what to do. Then he took it, their fingers intertwining. "Yeah. We do."

The two of them walked into the building, hands still interlocked as they took everything in. People laughing and talking, chatting and bantering. Children squealing. The tinkly voices of Springbonnie and Fredbear--which was Henry and William singing together--playing through the speakers mounted on the stage. The pinging, blooping, and beeping of arcade games. The bright stage lights pointed at the animatronics, lighting up their fuzzy faces. The smells of pizza and soda wafting through the air, as well as the scent of candle smoke for the first birthday party to be hosted at the restaurant. The kind sound of the happy piano and guitar accompanying the animatronics' joyful singing. 

"We did it, Henry. We opened our first restaurant!" William exclaimed quietly, smiling broadly.

~ ~ ~

A few weeks passed by so fast that William had barely processed that the weeks had passed. Henry had still been sleeping over, but the only difference from before was that Henry wouldn't stop reminding him that he was strong. Henry had been acting like he was so weak and wouldn't stop interrupting everything that William was doing to "help" him.

"Uncle!" Terrance shouted from the kitchen.

"Henry is fine. He's plenty strong!" William shouted. He just wanted to finish getting dressed before having to do anything. But all of a sudden, Henry and Terrance both screamed, nearly in unison. He chuckled at their acting. He was starting to find their constant reminders funny. He continued to dress, but when he was almost done, the smoke alarms started to blare their annoying scream. 

"Uh, Henry? Terrance? Is everything okay out there?" William shouted, starting to get worried when the alarms failed to turn off minutes later. 

All he got in response was more screams.

He rushed to the door and tried to pull it open. He tried so hard. It was jammed shut! Panic coursed through his veins as he began screaming at the top of his lungs for his nephew and his friend. No one answered by the time his voice gave out. He started to think the worst of things--unlike Henry, he didn't have the skill of always turning straight to the bright side. He tried kicking the door open, but it wouldn't budge. "Henry! Terrance! This isn't funny anymore!" he shouted frantically, his voice cracking from strain. He knew they didn't hear him. He tried the door handle. A burning pain shot up his hand and wrist and he yelped, yanking his hand back as he clutched it close to his chest with the other. He remembered this from back in school when the firefighters came to visit each year. There was a fire in his house. And he was stuck in the middle of it.

"No," he muttered. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!!" His knees buckled and he fell to the floor, then used his hand that wasn't burned to scoot himself as far away from the door as he could go. But his back ran into his bed, and he couldn't get himself to stand up. "This can't be happening!"