In the Shadows

Five Nights at Freddy's Story

1. Slight Change of Pace

11:58 PM

"Evening, Sam." Mike said as he entered his office and spotted the spirit of the 6 year old girl, humming happily to herself, waiting for Mike. She turned and beamed.

"Evening Mr. Mike!" She sang as Mike sat down. "Oh!" She exclaimed, as if remembering something. "The next few nights are gonna be a little...weird..." Mike raised an eyebrow.

"How so?"

"Well...um...you see, every once 'n while, me and the others...kinda let other spirits, use the animatronics...So yeah..." Mike nodded slowly, admittedly confused.

"Other...spirits...?"

"Yeah..they don't like talking much about themselves, and I don't know if they'll try and hurt you like the others would...I mean last time they did that, I didn't really pay attention with what they did..." Sam looked at the ground and Mike smiled softly.

"I'll be alright, Sam," Mike promised. "After all, the manager got a new generator, meaning I can keep both doors down-er well, probably knowing our luck, probably not..." Sam giggled.

"Mr. Mike, there's no need to be so worried; it takes them at least a day to get use to working the animatronics. So you'll be good for at least tonight..."

"Yeah, that'll be good, especially-" Mike yawned and rubbed his temples. "Today's been a bit weird; I've been tired all day and I've had a lingering headache all day...I took medication and Advil and stuff, so I should be fine for the shift..." Sam frowned and crossed her arms.

"Miiiike..." She groaned in annoyance. "You are allowed to have days off, you know." Mike shrugged absently.

"I'll fine..." The clock rang, signalling that it was now midnight. "Let's get this night started, alright?" Sam rolled her eyes playfully, knowing that Mike was being stubborn.

"Alrighty then~"

.

.

Later

Sam frowned as she began to notice that something was definitely wrong; Mike seemed to be dozing off multiple times, only to be woken up when Sam yelled at him, or made a loud noise. And for some reason there was a strange spirit, not malicious or evil, but definitely not good, floating around the office. Sam sighed as she looked down the halls; no Bonnie, or Chica, yet. The others must be still getting used to using the suits again. Sam sighed in relief.

"Ok, ok...you're still good Mike..." She said before turning to see Mike slumped in the chair. "Mike! Mr. Mike!" She hurried over to him and saw that he was still breathing, a relief, but his eyes were glazed over. "Mike?!" She tried to shake his shoulders, but since she was a ghost, her hands went through him. "Mike!" She cried out, the all-too-familiar sense of panic rising in her. "Mike! Mr. Mike! Mikey! Please! Wake up!"

"He can't hear you." If Sam was still alive, she would've peeled out of her skin as she turned and saw the shadowy figure of a child, roughly 4 or 5 years old, sitting on the desk, looking at the two.

"W-Who...are you?" She asked timidly, staying in front of Mike as the boy shrugged before he hopped down.

"I have a lot of names." He said as he came over. "But that's not important...We need to make sure that nothing gets in here..."

"W-Why?"

"Cause Nightmare is here as well as the others...and he'll probably hurt him." Sam looked at this boy, unsure if she should trust this strange kid but he seemed to know what was wrong.

"Well, why is Mike like this?" The boy shrugged.

"Puppet probably knocked him out..." Sam looked at him.

"Who? What? H-How?"

"I'll explain it after we make sure that Nightmare doesn't-"

"Doesn't what?" The two spirits stepped back as they heard the deep voice as a black shadow-like creature appeared behind Mike's body before it took the form of a sharp toothed black bear with a yellow bowtie. Sam gulped as the other spirit stood in front of her protectively.

"You're not supposed to be here." The 4/5 year old said sternly and the bear rolled his eyes.

"And neither one of you should be dead; funny world we're in, huh?" The boy frowned.

"That's not funny." The bear shrugged. "And leave the guard alone, he's an innocent bystander." The bear sighed and rolled his eyes, reminding Sam of some of the over dramatic teenagers that never wanted to be at the pizzeria in the first place.

"You're no fun Jacob..." The bear said. "I just want to go out, see the world, and-" Mike made a soft groan sound, surprising the trio. "That's not a good human sound...is it?"

"M-Mike?" Sam asked timidly and the bear frowned and looked at Sam.

"Do you know what's wrong with him?"

"U-Uh, he said he had a headache and that he was tired..." Sam said, shakily, trying to keep calm. "I-I-I mean he usually has some breathing troubles...but he said he took medications for that tonight...Oh, he should've stayed home...He's gonna get hurt..." Sam managed out as she wrung her hands together. The boy smiled softly and 'held' her shoulder.

"Don't worry...we can figure it out..." He promised before getting close to the young man.

"Should you, or I, or us..." The bear started before they heard footsteps. "The others are coming..."

"I know..." The boy said before sighing and turning to Sam. "You said his name was Mike, right?"

"Yeah...Mike Schmidt I think is his full name..." The boy nodded, hiding any reaction he might have had.

"Ok, thank you..." He looked at the two doors. "Can you watch and make sure the others are distracted?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

"What are you going to do?" Sam asked innocently and the boy smiled.

"He and I are going to help him. Don't Worry, trust me...He'll be safe." Sam nodded slowly.

"O-ok...I'll trust you..." She turned and hurried off to check the others. Once she was gone the boy looked back at the bear, who was looking at him.

"Wasn't one of the kids you knew named-"

"Now's not the time." The boy said sternly. "We need to make sure that he can't get to Mike..." The bear frowned slightly but nodded.

"You're right..."

.

.

1983

"Go on, it's ok..." The woman said as she gently pushed the 7 year old towards the 5 and 10 year old brothers. The 7 year old shyly walked to them and the woman smiled. "You boys got this...I will be back in 10 minutes, ok?" The boys nodded and the woman quickly went went to run her errand. The 7 year old waved shyly.

"H-Hi..." The 10 year old stood up and went into the 7 year old's face, studying the boy carefully, and lifting his red fox mask.

"Huh...you're short." The 10 year old said after a few seconds before he frowned. "What do you think of Fredbear and his friends?" The 7 year old blinked slowly.

"Uh...who?" The older boy groaned in annoyance before the other boy blinked. "Oh, you mean the people from the pizza place?" The boy nodded as if the younger boy was an idiot. "I dunno, I've never been there,"

"Really?" The older boy said slowly, as if that wasn't possible and the younger boy shrugged.

"Yeah, there's not one where I live...it seems like a nice place I guess..."

"You guess!?" The older boy groaned over dramatically and stormed off. The 7 year old looked at the 5 year old.

"He's a little weird..." The younger boy shrugged.

"I suppose..."

"That's not a bad thing though...Momma says it's normal to have quirks..." The boy studied the younger boy before beaming. "Oh! I better introduce myself; My name is Michael! But everybody calls me Mike! Or Mikey! What's your's?" The little boy smiled softly, almost tiredly as if he hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in weeks.

"My name is Jacob...and this is my friend." He lifted the small yellow teddy bear in his arms.

"Oh wow..he's pretty cool looking..."

.

.

The Next Night

Mike hummed to himself as he entered the pizzeria; he didn't really remember much of last night, only that he talked with Sam, and that there was a shadowy creature near the office doors, though that might've been one of the animatronics. He yawned, admittedly still feeling a bit tired.

"Weird...I wonder why I've been having trouble sleeping..." He mumbled to himself before seeing Sam floating near the office and Jeremy getting ready to leave the office. He smiled and took a step forward before he felt a searing pain at the back and front of his head. "AH! Damnit!" He winced and clutched his head as he sunk to his knees. He grunted as he struggled to stand back up and get his coworker's attention. "P-Please..." Blackness and shadow-like tendrils crept into his diminishing line of sight as he heard a deep voice chuckling and a quiet music box melody playing. "W-W-What the...? Who's here?" He tried to figure where the sound was coming from before he blacked out, collapsing to the ground.

"Mike!?" Jeremy asked, poking his head out. "Oh shit! Mike!" He hurried over and checked the young man's pulse. He let out a sigh of relief. "Ok, ok...ok...he's breathing..." He checked Mike's forehead. "A little clammy...shit, what do I do?" He checked the time, 11:58; not enough time to call for the ambulance and have them show up before the doors locked down. He sighed and took his cell phone and called the manager. It took a few rings, but Christopher answered.

"Hello?"

"Chip, we've got a problem..." Christopher sighed at the nickname given to him by the owner of the place. "Mike's out cold, and it's almost time for his shift...is there anyway of unlocking the doors, cause I ain't risking his life being trapped here."

"No, unfortunately...You'll have to take his shift and keep an eye on him till 6...should be fine." Jeremy bit back a groan; the manager had a tendency to play 'innocent idiot' pretty damn well. "Well, keep me posted on Mike's condition in a few hours, and I'll be there as soon as the doors unlock, and we can go from there, ok?" Jeremy sighed as he realized it was pointless to argue with his 'boss'.

"Fine..." He hung up the phone and half-carried/half-dragged Mike to the office and placed him on the spare chair. "Gods, he gets on my nerves sometimes..." He sighed as the chimes rang through the pizzeria. "Welp...here's to a good night..." He looked at Mike and sighed softly. "Please be ok, Mike..." He pulled up the tablet, unaware of the dark eyes watching the two of them in the office. The eyes frowned in irritation it hissed softly to itself before sneaking back into the shadows; it was going to need some assistance from the others if it wanted his plan to work.

"Schmidt..."

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.

A New Story Begins, this time in a new AU.

This AU-

Set a brief period after FNAF 1, with Jeremy being rehired as the 'Dayshift' guard.

There are two sets of 'Missing Children' (the ones murdered in the pizzeria that was later abandoned and the ones that went missing in FNAF 2); they tend to switch off possessing the animatronics every once and a while. As of right now, only Sam is the only one who isn't bent on murderous revenge (or as she puts it, 'continuing the cycle)

The FNAF 4 Child/Player Character is NOT the Marionette/Puppet