It was dark.

Mike could hardly see more than a few feet in front of him as he inched forward along the wall. The rank air carried the smell of smoke and undergrowth and the sound of flies. A small hand clutched the back of his shirt in a vice grip trying to leech the confidence that Mike always seemed to portray, and without turning he knew that her eyes were watching his every move.

They were an odd couple to be seen together. A twenty-some-year man with a five-year-old girl, but it was better than going alone.

And alone was not something you wanted to be, at least not anymore.

Mike froze as he heard the crunch of glass to their side and the small form behind him seemed to hug him. Carefully, Mike parted the overgrown lilac branches. He let them fall back into place just as fast when he saw the hunched figure of a woman kneeling over a broken flower-pot.

A tug on the back of his shirt had him turning to look at his companion. He felt a sliver of shame when he saw how bad she looked with darkened eye bags and matted red pigtails, but he knew he had to look even worse. Looking up at him with emerald eyes, she pointed towards the base of the lilac bush and Mike saw the molding form of what must have been a cat.

Doing his best to ignore the bile that stuck to the back of his throat Mike nodded and gave her a comforting pat before moving forward.

They hugged the wall, using the lilac bushes to remain obscure until they came to the corner. Peaking around, Mike could see a rundown front lawn, its picket fence hiding the street from view. The front door was hanging ajar and Mike instantly discarded the notion of spending the night there.

If the darkened stains on the threshold were any indication, the woman hadn't been living alone.

Confrontation was the last thing they needed. Confrontations were noisy, which attracted attention and eventually led to other confrontations. Mike was trying to get out of the city without any conflict, hence why it had taken them just less than a week to make it this far.

Gripping the crowbar tightly, Mike steadied his breathing before pressing out into the open. Behind him, he could just hear her whimper as she clutched his whole waist. It hurt him – even though he had only known her for a week – to put her through this. Morally he was beating himself up for allowing her to be exposed to all this. She was only five for crying out loud! Girls her age should be worrying about making friends, not about being torn apart. She shouldn't worry about dying, or even have to contemplate the concept of mortality. But she was.

Then again, he shouldn't have to either. Almost twenty-one, he should be worrying about getting decent pay and finding that 'perfect' girl, not about insuring that he and a child survive a night.

It was purely by dumb luck, and the stubborn will to live that they were still standing.

Pulling out the small flashlight that he had found, Mike flicked it on and kept its beam directed towards the ground. With the extra light he recognized the house. It was actually pretty close to his parent's house. They were only a few houses away.

Not wanting to draw attention to them, he quickly stashed away the flashlight and began moving towards the street.

Another tug on his shirt had Mike ducking down to listen to what she had to say.

Standing on her tippy toes, the red-headed child whispered, "I'm hungry."

"I know you are Alisha, I am too." Mike whispered back scanning around them. He quickly led her over to the fence, so that he didn't have to look over his shoulder. "There's a house not too far from here that I used to live in. If we reach that, I'll break out the graham crackers. How does that sound?"

Alisha nodded vigorously sending her pigtails into a crazy dance. "Can I have a sucker too?"

Smiling faintly Mike ruffled her hair and stood back up. "Of course," he whispered.

Determined to let her – and himself – get a decent amount of sleep, Mike peeked over the picket fence. This street, just like every other had several cars parked haphazardly in the road. With the moonlight he could see several shambling figures move sluggishly.

Pulling himself up to hop over, Mike suddenly saw a grinning face lunging for him. Shoving backwards he went tumbling into the overgrown grass with a grunt as an unearthly shriek came from the other side of the fence. Stumbling to his feet he grabbed the fallen crowbar and grabbed Alisha's hand. "Come on!" He whispered fiercely, heart pounding.

Sprinting away from the quickly growing group of screaming people Mike and Alisha ran around the corner of the house, and burst into the alley.

Shakily coming to a stop for a second, Mike forced himself to stop breathing so he could listen. Dread settled in his stomach when he heard the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. A quick glance was all he needed to see that Alisha wouldn't be running for long. With shorter legs, and a smaller set of lungs she was gasping. He could see her trembling from fright in the moonlight.

Shoving away the self-preservation that was urging him to leave her, he crouched down in front of her. "Okay Alisha, we're going to have to run. I need you to climb on, quick."

Small arms wrapped around his neck – slightly choking him – as she got on. Mike gritted his teeth as he heard garbled panting come towards them and painstakingly waited until he was sure she had her legs wrapped around his waist before he stood and started running. Kicking up gravel, Mike ran for their life. He heard a scream come from where they had stood just a second ago. It sounded angry.

It sounded hungry.

The alley was a jumble of echoing footsteps as he raced along doing his best to not jolt Alisha too badly. Dark shadows caused everything to jump out at him, and he stumbled several times when he kicked a garbage can, or hit a broken branch. Behind them he could hear they're pursuers gain on them.

The cold shiver wouldn't leave him when he made it out of the alleyway and burst into another street. His parent's house sat far to their right, out of sight and completely out of the question. Taking a brief instant to look behind them Mike saw that there were at least a dozen of them. All of them were wearing ragged clothing – some bloody – and glaring at him with predatory eyes.

Mike felt his heart freeze as an extreme case of déjà vu gripped him. He had seen eyes stare at him like that before, just… not from people.

Spinning around Mike sprinted for all his worth down the deserted street. Past fears and paranoia was making him jump at every sound and doubt every dark corner. He heard Alisha crying into the back of his neck but it sounded distant, and faint.

The tattle-tale signs of an anxiety attack began making themselves apparent. His chest began tightening until it hurt, he couldn't pull in enough air, and he was shaking so badly that it was almost impossible to run. Yet he pushed on, running for all his worth.

It took Mike a minute for him mind to process that they were out of the suburbs, as building rose sharply on either side of them. Glancing behind, gasping for air, Mike could see that he had put a little distance between them, but not far enough. He could still see those eyes.

Those horrible, bone-chilling eyes.

Whatever control he had managed to collect in that short time was lost when he saw them, and he stumbled around another deserted street corner. He knew he was going to pass out. A chill racked his body and it felt like he was choking. A fog seemed to fall over his vision making it impossible to see.

"A-Alisha!" he gasped dodging an overturned car that appeared directly in front of them. "I need you to… to direct me, I can't see." He felt Alisha shift somewhat and felt her grip loosen just slightly on his neck.

"Do you… see anywhere we could hide?" He panted, dots swimming in his vision.

For a moment it was quite before Alisha suddenly stiffened. "Mike, Mike we could hide there!"

"Where? I… I can't see!" Mike said.

"To your right, wait, no your left. Go, go, go… Move right or you'll hit the car! Now forward… jump the curb. Okay stop or you'll hit the d-"

Mike felt suddenly numb as his head smacked into something extremely hard. His balance took a vacation and he was falling. Faintly he could hear Alisha squeal as she went tumbling, and an even more distant scream. For several seconds, he just remained where he was, dots swimming in his vision so strongly that he couldn't even see the cement his face was pressed against.

Suddenly a small hand tugged on his shirt, and Mike forced himself to his feet.

"Come… Mike... It's s…."

Those small hands led the hyperventilating man through a door. Mike turned and blindly felt along, what he assumed was a glass door, until he found a small knob. Twisting it, he stumbled forward several steps before his earlier prediction came true and the ground rose quickly to greet him.

It's funny, in a sense, how much you can purposely forget. Those bad memories that make you cringe in sympathy, or those ideas that you realize were stupid. They can all be forgotten, or at least, ignored if you try hard enough. You can forget embarrassing moments, ex-others, dates, or just about anything you set your mind to.

Dreams however are something you just can't escape.

"Hello, Hello! Hey, you're doing great! Most people don't last this long! I mean, ya know, they usually move on to other thing by now… I'm not implying that they died. Tha-that-that's not what I meant… Uh, anyway, I better not take up too much of your time. Uh, things are starting to get real tonight."

"Shut up," Mike muttered, purposely hanging up the phone. The fan's unnecessary buzz just helped his paranoia as he strained to hear anything. The guy's messages were never good news, and tonight he just wasn't in the mood to listen to it.

Ten minutes went by with him periodically checking on pirate's cove. He could hear Chika in the kitchen doing God knows what, and Bonnie was in the closet staring at the camera with a sly look. Glancing at the desk, Mike grabbed one of the six energy drinks sitting there and downed half of it. He nearly chocked on it when he hear footsteps coming from his left and he didn't even check before slamming the door shut. Something immensely heavy slammed into the hydraulic door, and Mike flicked on the light to see Bonnie's shadow fall into the room.

Hyperactive fingers flew to the tablet and he glanced at the battery percentage. 72%... and it was only one in the morning.

A deep forbidding laugh echoed deeply throughout the building and Mike felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. That was his cue. Swiftly he slammed the right door shut and checked to see if Bonnie was still on his left. With no shadow present he grudgingly opened the left door. Checking the tablet again, Mike felt his breath leave him when he saw Foxy caught in the process of leaving his cove.

The air was heavy with the sickly smell of cheese as Mike checked the cameras to find Freddy in the dining room. He opened the right door and returned the camera back to the pirate cove. Foxy was still there, and Mike allowed himself a moment's respite as he downed the rest of his now flat energy drink.

The artificial taste stuck to his tongue as he threw the can away and checked the camera. Foxy was still in his mid-sprint position and Mike gave him a glare before quickly flicking the camera to see Chika staring straight at him.

Mike shuddered as he saw slack jaw, teeth-filled face inches from the camera and quickly checked the dining room to see if Freddy was still there.

That's how it always was, jumping from the slightest noise, going through camera feeds so fast that he almost missed an animatronic, feeling as if someone or something was watching him. Around and around he went, and there always was the threat of being stuffed into a Fazbear suit. It was enough to make him sick the day after his first night. And he had spent the majority of that morning next to the white porcelain bowl.

The second night had been a little better, he had some sense of how to make it, but the twist of Freddy, and now Foxy moving about was making him feel as if he was going insane.

The camera settled on pirate's cove and Mike saw his life flash before his eyes when he beheld the empty attraction. The tablet fell from numb hands and he hit the button so hard that his knuckle split. Not even a second later a dull boom echoed through the room as Foxy slammed against the door.

Hardly able to even grab his phone Mike checked the time on his phone. Three in the morning.

And he only had 49% of his battery left.

A/N: Hello everybody! Recently I've been going crazy about Five Nights at Freddy's, but there are so many good fanfiction's already out there! :/ So, to leave an impression and combine two things I really love I'm spicing up the whole FNaF idea. Yes, I know it's a little cliche, but bear with me. I think I've got this... And the second chapter won't be too long coming.

That aside, I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to read and to say I don't know how often I'll be updating this. I've got a few chapters I'm already polishing somewhat, but life isn't making anything easy for me right now. Hopefully I'll get a chapter out once every week or two. If not, by all means send me some flaming PMs.