Being Human

I don't own Five Nights at Freddy's. Scott Cawthon does.

Summary: Mike checks the back room like Phone Guy asked. What he finds…is something that has to be seen to be believed.

Warnings: slight gore, dark themes, swearing, death frequently mentioned/discussed.

Notes: A story told in drabbles rather than full chapters.

…

Human being: noun. Plural: human beings. Definition: a person, viewed especially as having imperfections and weaknesses.

Mike once told me that he views a human as, uh, as somebody that creates. C-Creates life. Chance. Value. H-He said that's why he could always call me human, even in the state I was in - I had created life a-and I had saved his, g-giving him another chance (I-I still don't think I necessarily…saved Mike, b-but don't tell him that. H-He'll argue).

That's why it was so easy to say that Purple Guy wasn't a human being: he had…taken away life. Destroyed. Mike said, to him, that immediately means somebody's lost their humanity, as it's the opposite of what a human is supposed to do.

So, then…does that mean I'm not human? A-After all…what I did in '87, t-telling the man where…where the yellow suit was…didn't I destroy?

Heh…y-you know…a-as I told Junior way back then…I don't like that one.

Uh - Mike and I can't claim to know everything about being alive, or even being dead. Even…Even our experiences aren't enough. There's…There'll always be something missing. N-No matter what Mike believes, no matter h-how passionate he is about his views, h-he doesn't…doesn't know. N-Nobody does - what it means to be a human being.

A-And you know what?

…I'm okay with that. It isn't something I've ever…thought too deeply about. Not until my situation in that bear suit anyway, heh. I-I think Mike's okay with not knowing either. A-After leaving Freddy's that day, w-when Mike and I met again, we stopped all the theories of how a soul could attach itself to a suit o-or how durable it even was when locked inside of one. We just focused on living our lives a-and not what it meant to live them.

Even though we set out to free all the night guards, it was still our lives that we focused on. S-Selfish, p-probably, I know, but…well, if we hadn't become even a bit selfish in the years after leaving Freddy's for good, after all we'd experienced then and after all we'd experienced afterwards…there would probably be nothing left of us.

We had no idea what the future might hold for us out there in the world…but we'd decided a long time ago that there would be no going back.

And so, the day we left Freddy Fazbear's Pizza was the last time we ever saw it. Leaving behind all the familiar nightmares that had been created inside those walls.

Perhaps some things are best left forgotten, for now.

- Dr. Scott "Phone Guy" Edward Cawthon.

…

Author's note:

"We're all human, aren't we? Every human life is worth the same and worth saving."- J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

And, just like that, Being Human is over.

I can't even express to you what I'm feeling right now. I've been writing this since August of last year and it…feels so odd that it's just…over.

Thank you all so much for such support on this story. When I first created the idea of Phone Guy being a bear suit that Mike would discover in the backroom, I thought nobody would read something so silly-sounding. By its twentieth chapter (which, if you don't remember, was when Mike was stuffing Phone Guy in his closet to hide him from his mum), Being Human was my most popular story on - and I have been on here for years. Never before has one of my stories gotten such attention - thank you all so much for that.

Being Human was a huge milestone for me. It tested and demanded so many things of my person: my self-restraint in writing, my ability to update a story everyday, my compassion for a story and how long it could interest me. I was scared I'd lose interest in Being Human at one point and drop it, but I'm so glad I didn't. I'm also glad for how much I could cause suspense in my audience and how often I could give you guys a scare - I think that was the most fun part!

You know, throughout writing this, I got asked many times when Phone Guy and Mike would hook up and I got so many reviews and messages telling me how much people shipped them because of me. Well…sorry to disappoint, but, hehe, Being Human isn't a Phone Guy/Mike story. It never was. The guys are strictly platonic in this one, have no romantic interest at all in each other. Best friends, but not anything further. Sorry to burst anybody's bubbles, haha!

Now, something…negative to address that I've been wanting to say for a while: I know Being Human's format put people off reading it and I know that people very, very often wanted longer chapters. But, guys, I didn't make Being Human like this just so I could test myself; Being Human is in this format because it needed to be. It didn't work right with longer chapters, especially not as well as it does now. Honestly, the amount of times people requested long chapters only made me feel…discouraged from writing this at all. "Alone" had always been planned to be a long chapter, but the amount of people telling me to write long chapters almost made me split "Alone" into several drabbles. The only reason I didn't in the end is because "Alone" contains my favourite moment in all of Being Human and I didn't want to spoil it.

I hate to come across as a jerk but, please, if a writer's decided on a certain format and you don't like it, please, don't continuously tell them or continuously ask for it to be changed. Critique is fine, but outright telling them to change it all the time is rude and discouraging. Writers make these decisions for a reason; just trust them on it.

A similar point should be made as well about theories in stories: if a writer uses a theory you don't like - tough. It's their story, so please, don't spam them with negative comments for it. Like the former topic, it's rude and discouraging to a writer.

Now, for something a little more positive (depending on how you regard it): before I leave you all, I would like to make an announcement:

Being Human might just be getting a sequel.

Hold your horses! Don't react yet! I said "might just be"! A sequel is in the planning stage right now, but there is still every chance of it getting cancelled for whatever reason may arise. Things like this happen sometimes. But, hey, for now, feel free to react however you wish to this news.

If anybody has any questions about this story or its potential sequel, you can ask me over on Mike's blog on Tumblr (which is mikexschmidt). Over on there will be "Behind the Scenes" facts about Being Human, "deleted scenes" and a Being Human SONG that will (hopefully) be released in the upcoming months.

Well, that's all for me. Thank you all so much again for the support and attention this story has gotten. It's rebuilt my confidence as a writer and a storyteller.

See you on the flipside!

- BJXCBFOREVER.