The last of the crisp brown leaves snapped off the slim branches of the trees outside the window of Michael, Brendon and Sammy's room. Like usual, Brendon was fast asleep, the only movement coming from his side of the room being an occasional dream-induced twitch from his animalistic limbs. And like usual, Michael was wide awake. His eyes had been adjusted to the dark for forever now. His eyes kept drifting to the clock. 11:30. 12:04. 12:55. As the night grew longer, he stayed awake since his eyelids somehow kept refusing to close. He sighed and shivered, the loose clothes he wore as pajamas being inadequate shelter from the breeze that flowed into the room from the open window. It wasn't his fault the window was wide open on a blisteringly cold October evening - Brendon could hardly sleep comfortably without some cool air. Michael sat up and sighed, still unable to sleep. He looked over towards the window, where the giant shell of a bear named Sammy slept soundly. The wind let out a short howl outside. He stared out there for a minute, zoning out, when- Thunk. He blinked and shook his head, shocked by the noise. Something hopped between the window and the floor. He couldn't see what it was, though, as it was shrouded in shadow. He kicked the blankets off his bed and approached it on one knee, soon seeing the silhouette of half a fox's head - a mask. A Foxy the Pirate mask. The teenager muffled a yelp and scrambled back from that thing before he could touch it. He wasn't planning on doing that again. He dumped out a box of comics as quietly and hurriedly as he could, watching to make sure Sammy and Brendon were still asleep, and placed the box over the Foxy mask. His mind cluttered with horrifying moments of his birthday and his near-daily transformations - which, thankfully, hadn't happened tonight - before he shook the thoughts out and stood. As he approached the window where the mask came from and maneuvered around Sammy, he looked out and saw nothing besides a rusty car pulling off in the distance. He pushed the hair out of his eyes and leaned out the window a bit further. Out of the corner of his eye he was barely able to recognize the car as one he'd seen for years before. That was clearly the car that belonged to his father. "What the hell..." he mumbled to himself. "Was that-?" And then the sinking feeling came to him again as his fears flooded his mind and a stinging patch of red fur began growing on his shoulder. "Oh, god..." ---------------------------------------------------------- When Fritz Smith woke up, he was slumped against the scratched brick wall of Freddy's. The alleyway. The sun was shining too brightly on his round face and thus he rubbed his aching eyes as he came to his senses. His head was aching and throbbing on one side, as was his left arm, and as he stood up the pain almost weakened a bit. There was a small clump of dry blood on his beaten-up uniform and a scab on his cheek. "Oh, god, what happened...?" he grumbled before moving his hand up to chip some of the scab off. He looked down at the hand that was doing so, only to see a brown-furred, robotic paw in its place. "What the fu-" That's when he remembered what happened the evening before. He fell silent before he could say anything. All he could think about as the recollection came to him was William, that rabbit bastard William - or whatever that blue thing was - that made it happen the night before. He flexed his fingers, just in case they still worked, and his joints cracked as they moved oh so slightly. "Aghh- Shit, shit, shit!" Fritz yelped. Just moving his fingers burned like hell on earth. Shaking out his hand, he winced while the burning continued to pulse. He then clasped his hand by the wrist and glared at it, taking in the details under a lingering feeling of nervous repugnance. Like he'd found out earlier, his hand was now covered in shaggy brown fur. In the spots where the creases of his hand would be, there were gaps filled with robotic mechanisms. On the tips of his fingers were rimmed steel claws. Fritz clamped his eyes shut and turned his head away from the hand. He shivered. Thinking about William, his mind flooded with thoughts of anger, fear and submission. There had to be a way out of this. He placed his transformed left hand into his coat pocket and dashed off to his car, bumping into a very tired-looking Henry on the way. "What the- Fritz?!" Henry yelled, stumbling back. "What are you doing?" "I, uh... forgot some fix-ups for the robots at my house!" Fritz lied. "I-I'll be back at eleven-thirty!" He jumped into his car and slammed the door shut, causing the car to rattle. For a moment he sat there, his breaths heaving. "Oh, thank god, thank god.." he uttered, glad that his hand was still unseen. Dust floated into his eyes a few times and he blinked it away. It was completely silent in the car, but Fritz cared none. He placed his shivering human hand on the steering wheel, started the car, and began the shaky drive to his house. As he drove through the winding streets of Hurricane, he felt his spine crawl. Despite his hand still being hidden in his coat, he could feel the nonexistent stare of other people directly on him. His arm shook as he swerved around several cars on the way. Soon, he found his way back to his house which loomed on the side of the dead-end street he lived on. He halted the car sloppily but abruptly in front of it, causing the tires to screech in protest. He nearly kicked the car door open and was concerningly close to falling face first as he sprinted towards his house. Fritz grabbed his keys from his pocket and rattled the doorknob. Within seconds, he was inside the blank-walled, poorly furnished place he called his own. He entered the kitchen and flung drawers open with his free hand, digging through each one until he pulled out a roll of gauze bandages. He yanked his clawed paw out of his coat, wincing as his fingers straightened. The roll of gauze unfurled on the counter and that's when he yanked it away and tugged it around his hand. As soon as no strand of fur could be seen and half his arm was burning from the pressure, he sighed and glanced behind him, back towards the door and past that, his car. His chest tightened as he realized - if this was permanent, this was how he was going to live. Masked.