Michael Afton x Reader

manifested nightmares

TW: mentions of blood and dissociating

-y/n's POV-

even with Michael, the nightmares still came. you woke up in a cold sweat, clearly remembering the dream. it was a short dream, and it wasn't scary, exactly. it was the crying boy again, except this time he didn't disappear when you ran to him, but instead he looked up at you and began to speak.

"why didn't you help me?" the child whispered to you slowly and quietly, but still with blame in his voice.

you looked around, trying to ground yourself to stop yourself from panicking due to the dream. before your eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, you could feel two things: Micheal's warm body curled up against yours, and his arm still around your shoulder. I guess that's just one thing I can feel, then. you thought as you felt around on the couch for your phone. eventually, you find it and squint at the bright screen, just trying to look at the time. dammit, it's 4 in the morning. you know that you can't wake up Michael, but you need to go. you don't know why. but you need to go to the pizzeria- you need to find the crying child.
you know there will be answers there, there has to be! even if it was just a hallucination, you need closure of some kind. you don't know what you're hoping to find there, but it doesn't matter. you have to go.

first, you need a plan. step one: don't wake Michael. you can't explain the dream to him, he'll think you're crazy, or worse, he'll worry about you more. he has enough going on, you don't want to make him feel responsible for your issues as well. slowly and carefully, you lift Michael's arm off of you and put it down by his side, then get off the couch. he didn't wake up, and you didn't realize you were holding your breath until you breathe out, relieved. then, you leave his house through the back door, as you don't have a key and don't want to leave his front door unlocked in the middle of the night. 

only after you begin walking back to the pizzeria do you realize you have no light, no weapons of any kind to defend yourself, and no idea what you're doing. feeling scared, you run to Freddy's quickly, and don't bother trying to get through the main entrance- it's locked and your keys are with Michael along with the rest of your things. you run straight to the back of the pizzeria, just trying to find the boy again. 

completely blind in the darkness, you crash into a trash can, causing a loud ruckus in the quiet night. you heat something scurry away, probably a raccoon. the unexpected crash made you fall to the ground, and you feel a burning sensation in your elbows and knees, but there's no time to worry about yourself. you get up immediately and look around in the dark, trying to find some proof of the crying child. suddenly, you hear a door bang open and a bright light blinds you.

"y/n? what the fuck are you doing here?"

it's Vincent. of course he's here, he's the night guard and you sounded like a burglar the way you crashed into everything.

"Vincent?" you cried out, now realizing how insane you've been acting.

"Jesus, you're bleeding. what the fuck, dude?" he states as he walks towards you, still shining the light in your eyes.

"i- I don't know, I just-" you have no way to explain yourself without sounding crazy, and you sigh, defeated.

"just get inside. you can explain later." he tells you, and grabs you by the arm. you follow him inside, as you don't have much of a choice. when you get to the security office, he takes a first aid kit out from a desk drawer and you sit in the spare chair.

"start explaining, now." he demands as he cleans up the scrapes on your arms and legs.
you're hesitant to tell him why you really came, but you know he won't accept a lie or no answer at all.

"I dunno. I had this... hallucination, earlier. Henry asked me to check the fire escape, he thought something was wrong with it. I saw a ghost." you say, and look up at him to see how he responds. strangely enough, he looks unphased after you claim to see the ghost.

"was it a boy, this ghost of yours?" he asked.

"y-yes, how did you know?" you reply. shocked. he doesn't respond immediately, and instead focuses on bandaging your arm.

"crying boy? blood dripping outta his head?" he questions you, still not looking up from what he's doing.

"yeah. it was so real, I don't know, I thought-" you can't find the words to finish your thought, sou you give up on trying to explain it. with a soft sigh, Vincent finally looks up at you.

"Shit. I thought it was the energy drinks making me see that, but if you saw it too..." he trails off, lost in thought. you make eye contact with him, and he looks... scared.

"Vincent, if we're not imagining the crying child..." you begin, but don't finish the sentence, afraid of what you might say. there's no way. he's joking, right? it was just a hallucination, it had to be!

he shakes his head. "it doesn't matter, we're not going to worry about it. weird things happen in this town, and if you don't want something bad to happen, you keep your head down and don't ask questions. it's late, you're going home. I'll call Michael to pick you up."

"I can walk, that's how I got here, I can get back. besides, he'll be asleep." you don't want Michael to know where you went.

"I know you're crazy by now, but I'm not letting you walk home alone at four in the morning. and don't worry about him, he almost never sleeps. he'll be awake." Vincent responds. you consider correcting him, but don't want to say you went home with Michael. your relationship isn't exactly a secret, but there's no point in telling the world. relationship? is that what it is? are we even dating? ugh, now is not the time for that. you think as Vincent dials Michael's number into the large landline phone sitting on the desk. 

exhausted and drained, you start to fade out of reality. it's been a while since I've dissociated. you think as the world melts away in your mind and your thoughts become empty. you don't know how much time has passed until all of a sudden Michael is next to you and Vincent has disappeared from the room.

"y/n! y/n, what the fuck?" he shouts, making you jump as you come back to reality.

"sorry, sorry I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell," he says again, softer this time. "are you ok? what's going on? I mean one minute everything's fine next thing I know you've disappeared, I've been worried sick. and then Vincent calls me saying you showed up here of all places?!" he keeps questioning, but you're too drained and scared to form an answer. the best you can do is whisper his name before the world fades black and you feel yourself fall.

this is fun lol

word count: 1234