Michael Afton x Reader

realization

"do you remember that night I snuck into the pizzeria, with Vincent?"

"sure, how could I not?" the brunette man replied.

"I can't move on." the other person in the room said. it confused the brunette, but he tried not to show it. to be blunt, he was the kind of man who gets confused extremely easily, he's know to be slow at times. still, he always tried to be understanding and comforting to others. no one would ever describe the brunette as a 'therapist friend' or anything of the such, but he wasn't far from that. he was reliable and trustworthy, he made sure to make people feel safe around him, especially them.

he cared for them more than he did most people- he didn't know exactly why he felt the way he did, but he had to protect them. it was a strange feeling, something he had never quite felt before.

only once had he known a person like them, but even that was nothing compared to his strong feelings towards them.

"did Vincent ever tell you about it?" they asked after a long silence. the taller one shook his head 'no.'

"Vincent hasn't spoken to me since." he told them. it was a lie on his behalf, but that didn't matter. it was a lie he needed to tell to keep them safe.

he loved them, which was something very difficult for a man like him to admit. he had never truly loved like this before without it ending in ruin, but he wouldn't let that happen this time. he would not ruin something so perfect ever again.

that was a promise he had made many years ago, although not in those words. it was the kind of promise that was impossible for him to say outloud, whether that was because he couldn't say it without breaking down or because he didn't have the vocabulary to perfectly express it, he didn't know. perhaps it was a combination of the two.

the promise in question had been made many years ago, in a small hospital room decorated head to toe in pristine clean white. white walls, white floors, white bed, white sheets, everything all perfectly clean.

except the body.

Evan was so pale from blood loss he could fit right in, he could've melted into the room and become part of the building. he was so lifeless even before he died. hours before, when he lay in that coma; but even before then as well. after years of endless guilt, Michael came to the realization that his brother was dead long before his skull had been cracked open like a nutcracker chomping down on a chestnut.

he had died mentally after months of abuse from his father and torment from his horrible older brother, and although that realization didn't lift any guilt from Michael, it helped hom manage somehow.

that wouldn't happen again.

not to anyone, and most certainly not to y/n.

he brought his attention back to the person in front of- or really, on top of him, and allowed himself to put an arm around them to help them relax a bit. the situation was tense, he knew y/n wasn't the type to open up to people, he knew they would deflect and try to ignore any concern he showed them.
that was one of many things the two had in common.

"I don't think I'll be good at explaining so I'll try to summarize." the other said, looking up at him. Michael nodded to show he understood.

"I saw a dead child, freaked the fuck out, Vincent said he saw the same things, I freaked out more, my nightmares keep getting worse and I think I'm going crazy because I keep seeing other shadowy figures as well." they stated quite bluntly. at first, the taller male was shocked by how calmly their partner was speaking, then even more so by the contents of which they were saying. it was a lot to take in, to say the least.

at first, Michael was unsure of how to respond to this information. the male was scared, not for himself but for y/n. he was worried about them, understandably. he was worried about the way they took care of themself (as in, the didnt) and he was worried even more about the chance that what they saw was real. it wouldn't be the first time someone claimed to see the dead walking at the pizzeria or any previous locations.

ghosts were the only thing the franchise couldn't shake. lawsuits, police cases, missing children's reports, safety and health hazards, incidents including death and major injury of staff and customers alike- all of that was easy enough to avoid. the ghosts never left. at every single location, there had been reports of staff and customers alike seeing the dead, and the worst part was they usually saw the same thing. five grotesque children standing together, their bodies bloody and unable to withstain life anymore. the children rarely did the same thing twice, however. some state they saw them playing with living children, some say they simply stood and stared at their victim, speaking words no one could hear or understand. sometimes they were angry, sometimes they could be mistaken for innocent children playing in the pizzeria.

Michael himself never saw those ghosts, but remembered quite vividly the time Vincent had come to him, absolutely terrified of what he had seen. a mangled corpse of someone who couldn't be older than 10 standing next to Foxy, watching the pirate move and speak. the child didn't say a word, didn't even move, and his eyes were glued to the animatronic according to Vincent.

ah, Vincent.

he seemed to be the dead children's main victim. perhaps it was because he worked the night shift, or perhaps they were drawn to his strange character. either way, he always saw the dead.
for a while the man relied on drugs to keep himself from going insane, and that soon turned to substance abuse as his situation kept getting worse and worse. Michael had helped him through his issues every day when they were still... close.

they had a solid friendship for many years, and when Vincent said he was seeing the dead Michael believed him whole-heartedly.

however, things happened.

after a minute of silence, Michael replied to his partner. "I'm sorry. could you.. describe the ghost to me? many people have said they've seen them before."

what y/n described to him was very different than what Michael had been expecting them to say. he had heard descriptions of the 5 usual children many times before, although he had never seen a single one of them he would know which they were talking about through description. no, what they described to him was none other than Michael's own brother, Evan Afton.
there was no denying it, y/n described him perfectly, down to the tooth he was missing and the color of his puffy crying eyes.

his brother wasn't gone.

his brother was, in a way, alive.

"oh god..." Michael whispered.

a/n: I MEANT TO PUBLISH THIS 2 DAYS AGO AND I FOGORT

word count: 1191