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Before they had given the children their happiest day, Mabel had assumed (or hoped) that Henry had shown some restraint.
That there really had only been two children.
Of course, she couldn’t really expect someone who killed two kids to not kill more kids, but some decency shouldn’t be that hard to ask for.
Aside from that, though, the day started out pretty well. Mabel and William had shoplifted lots of glitter and yarn the night before, and Mabel had somehow knit everyone a sweater within a few hours.
When Jack’s shift as a nightguard ended at 6AM, Mabel had handed him two sweaters. One for him and the other for Dee. He thanked her and broke the speed limit while driving away, crashing into a pole.
She was going to check on him, but he sped away again, so he seemed okay.
By 7AM, Mabel had knitted Blackjack a sweater. She forced him to wear it and he flopped over like a poorly made doll.
“I think you broke him.” William had said, watching the motionless dog with a coffee cup in hand. He had vehemently refused to try Mabel juice. It seemed like even the guy who cleaned dishes by licking them had standards. What a shame.
“I HAVEN’T WORN IN CLOTHES IN OVER 50 YEARS.”
“Woah, what a prude.” Mabel replied, helping him take the sweater off.
“THAT’S NOT WHAT THAT MEANS.”
“It is now. I make the rules.”
Mabel started William’s sweater next. Unfortunately, she forgot how tall the guy was. That meant that even with her superhuman knitting speed that had somehow doubled since she got to Reno, the sweater wasn’t finished till lunchtime.
“What’d’ya think?” Mabel asked, holding it out in front of him. The sweater she had knitted was purple in colour with Spring Bonnie in the middle, the words ‘coolest aubergine ever!!’ strewn on it.
William stared in awe. “... It’s perfect. I don’t think I’ll needa wear anything else for the rest of my life.”
“That’s the spirit! Now I think all that’s left is Spring Bonnie, Fredbear, oh, and The Real Fredbear too-”
“Hang on,” He interrupted. “Don’t we have some kids we need to save?”
“...”
“Oh, right. But there’s only two of them! We can give them their happiest day really quickly and then I can make more sweaters before I go home!”
“Right, sureee.”
Mabel paused, looking at William like he had just turned into a rabbit. “You’re acting weird.”
“Shit. I just feel like I’m forgetting something important.”
“Oh. Well, if you want, I can help you try to jog it!”
“I don’t think you need to do that. If it was that important, I wouldn’t’ve forgotten it to begin with.”
“Oh, it’s like when I forget all the answers on the math quiz! Because maths isn’t important anyway!”
They decided to tackle the kid possessing Fredbear first, as he had been dead the longest. Although, when the time came to try to help the kid, William backed out.
“Mabel, I don’t know if you’ve realised this, but I murdered these kids. They’re going to want my flesh.”
“I can’t blame them. But they’re ghost kids, what can they even do?”
“Beat me to death!? They possess giant animatronics. You know that, right?”
“It’ll be fine! Me and Blackjack will be there anyway.”
“IF THE KIDS DECIDE TO KILL WILLIAM, I AM NOT HELPING HIM.” Blackjack said, looking up from chasing his own tail.
“See, I’m on my own here!”
“No you’re not, I have a grappling hook!” Mabel pulled it out from under her sweater, shooting it upwards and clinging to the ceiling. She struggled to get down before letting go of the grappling hook and falling to the floor.
“Yeah, that’s very threatening.”
“It is!” Mabel paused. She should try a different approach. “Look, you want to tell the kids you’re sorry, right? Cause I think it’d be much better if they went into the afterlife knowing you at least felt guilty.”
“They’re not gonna forgive me anyway.”
“But that doesn’t matter! They don’t need to, heck, I wouldn’t forgive you either. But at least you said it!”
William went quiet. Mabel knew she had gotten through to him, but she also didn’t particularly blame him for not wanting to face them head on. But the kids deserved an apology. “I’ll tell them you’re sorry, then. Come on, Blackjack.”
Mabel was worried that they may have had to use an ouija board to talk to the kid’s souls, especially with the lack of a ‘happiest day minigame’. Fortunately, though, Blackjack simply had the ability to summon the kid possessing Fredbear, who appeared right in front of them. Another child followed quickly after, though, and stuck to the other one’s side.
“Uh, hi?”
The two kids looked younger than her, but slightly older than Dee, which she internally slapped herself for being glad about. The taller one was a blonde girl, who squinted at her and seemed to study her very closely before her eyes widened. “Woah! You’re the girl that killed that guy!”
“Woah, she is?” The other one – a shorter boy with black hair – asked.
“Yeah! That was so cool, are you gonna kill the other one too?”
“... Uh, no.”
Both of their faces fell. “What- why not? He’s in the other room! He’s probably gonna stab you when you leave!” The girl said.
“He wouldn’t do that, and I actually tried to get him to say this himself, but, uh- he's really sorry.”
And there was silence.
“If he was sorry, then he shouldn’t have killed us!”
“Yeah, I am never, ever forgiving that guy! It was my birthday!” The girl crossed her arms, and the boy looked at her and followed suit.
“Okay, you don’t have to forgive him! I just don’t want you guys to go into the afterlife without knowing he felt bad. Sorry, touchy subject, I know.” Mabel said.
The two kids looked away from her, looking as if they were about to dissipate into thin air again until her words registered. “Wait. Like, you wanna help us go to heaven?” The boy asked.
“Yep!” Mabel held her hand out. “My name is Mabel, and I’m the local kiddie-saver! And I have never done this before.”
The girl shook her hand, practically throwing her into the air. “Cool, my name’s Ellie, I’m the one in Spring Bonnie!” Ellie grabbed the other kid, shoving him in front of Mabel. “This is Joshua and he’s Fredbear!”
“Hi Ellie, hi Joshua!” Mabel smiled, and then looked towards Blackjack expectantly. “What do we do now?”
“IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE GOING INTO THE AFTERLIFE?”
“Can we kill the purple one?” Joshua asked.
“NOPE.”
“Aww, well, I don’t really know then.”
“Neither do I.”
“Come on, there has to be something! What do you wanna do on your last day on the mortal plane?”
“... You sound like you’re about to kill us again.”
“Oops.”
Joshua piped up again. “Uh, what’s the date?”
“Um, it’s the 27th Of June. 1973. I think, anyway.”
“June 1973... I kinda wanna listen to music. Like, what music is popular now and stuff, compared to 2 years ago. Is there a radio?”
“THERE SHOULD BE ONE IN HIS OFFICE.” Blackjack sat up, floating down the corridor to Henry’s office.
“Cmon, Ellie, what about you? There’s gotta be something! I could knit you a sweater if you want!”
“Knitting? You can knit?” Ellie perked up. “Ooh, can you show me? I always wanted to learn how to knit!”
“Ooh, finally someone who appreciates my craft! I’ll show you how to become a knitting master!”
They sat at a party table, all of them wearing party hats. Even Blackjack had swallowed his pride and swapped his silly top hat for a yellow party hat. There was a large birthday cake on the table that Mabel wasn’t quite sure of where it came from.
Mabel was showing Ellie how to knit while Joshua sat petting Blackjack while humming to some 70s song that was on the radio.
Ellie was really good at it; she was almost an expert in such a short amount of time. Mabel would even dare to say the girl was on her level. As she was about to tell her this, though, Blackjack nudged her with his snout. She looked towards where Blackjack was pointing to and saw William in the doorway.
Oh, yeah. Right. He wouldn’t really want to make his presence known to the kids. “Hold on, Ellie. You’re really good at this, by the way! I just have to do something reaaaallyyyy quickly!” And she sped away, leaving Ellie to look confusedly after her, not seeing William in the door because of the angle.
“Hi, what’s up!"
“I just remembered what I was forgetting.”
“Oh-” Mabel’s face fell. “Is it bad?”
“Yeah, well, I mean, I hope it isn’t true but knowing Henry, it probably is, uh... So he used to have this circus, and a lot of people went missing there.”
“Oh yeah, he definitely killed those people.”
“Yup, I didn’t believe it back then, but now it’s a bit harder to ignore.”
“So, where was the circus? We can help those kids too!”
“That’s the thing, it’s...” William fumbled over his own words. “It was a travelling circus. Wherever those souls are, they’re probably all over the damn place.”
“ ...Oh .”
“Oh indeed.”
Blackjack butted in, appearing right above Mabel’s head which startled her half to death. “YOU REALISE YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THAT, RIGHT? MY SOULLESS VERSION CERTAINLY DIDN’T.”
“What, and just leave those souls to rot? No thank you.”
“Really, Mabel? Blackjack’s right. Besides, don’t you have a brother to get back to? And an uncle?”
“Two uncles, actually. And it's time travel, so it's not like they miss me!”
“You realise how much the gas is going to cost to go across America?”
“Just steal it, what are the gas station workers going to do, chase you? Hit them with your car! Your car fuelled by the gas you stole!” Mabel exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “I never took you for a goody two shoes, William! Wow!”
“ I am not- would a goody two shoes know 14 ways to dismantle a security camera?”
“Lalala! I know 19 ways!”
Blackjack stared on, not falling for Mabel’s bait. William didn’t even realise she was just riling him up. Regardless, it seemed like he was going to have to tell The Real Fredbear the change of plans before he could open a portal back to 2012 and realise it was a waste of time.
God, he wished he fucked off to the afterlife in the very beginning.