Clay Burke

*Clay Burke* is a minor character of the novel, *Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes*, and takes a leading role in *Five Nights at Freddy's: The Twisted Ones*. He is the Hurricane Police Chief, former husband of Betty Burke and father of Carlton Burke. At first, he doesn't buy into the supernatural rumors surrounding Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, but by the time *The Twisted Ones* takes place, he's one of Charlie's fiercest allies and valued for his astute observations and sleuthing skills."

## Physical Appearance

### Novel Trilogy

He's tall and thin, and his light hair could have been either blond or gray.

### The Graphic Novels

Clay is depicted wearing a white button shirt, with black pants. He has brown hair, along with some gray hair. He also features some wrinkles on his face. In The Twisted Ones and The Fourth Closet, he is noticeably much thinner than in The Silver Eyes. This may be due to the artist changing their style or it could be something to do with his character starving himself intentionally or unintentionally. However the cause is unknown.

## History

### *Before The Silver Eyes*

Ten years prior to *Silver Eyes*, Michael Brooks, one of his son's friends, and four other children were murdered at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. It was the first murder that the department had to dealt with at the time. It was a 16-person department, who usually handled small complaints. Clay was also just a detective at the time.

The case got into the hands of the local police and Clay was one of the investigators. They took photos of the premises and statements from people involved at the scene, but they never found bodies. At first, Clay was suspicious of Henry, like most of the town; but Clay delayed his arrest and investigated his partner, William Afton. Not only did Clay knew he was the murderer, but the entire department knew it was him. All the evidence indicated that William was the culprit, but the absence of bodies set him free. The case was closed without any arrest. Freddy Fazbear's Pizza closed down, and William Afton left town and was never heard from again. Ever since, it has haunted Clay's mind.

### *The Silver Eyes*

Clay is first mentioned by Marla in Chapter 6, where Marla says they'll get him to help them save Carlton, since she doesn't want to take Jason back to Freddy's after what happened.

Clay physically appears in Chapter 7. The group (Charlie, John, Jessica, Marla, Jason, and Lamar) led Officer Dunn to the shopping mall, everything seemed to be normal for Dunn, except for the teenagers, as Carlton was taken by Spring Bonnie. When the group tell him his name is Carlton Burke and explain what happened, Dunn immediately orders his communicator to call Clay. Dunn escorts the group to the exit and drop them off in the parking lot. After a long wait, a car arrives at the scene. Clay gets out of it and greets everyone. He then told the group that it's one of his son's pranks. They were all silent, until Clay invited them to come over to his house for some hot chocolate.

When they all arrived at his home, they all sat in a living room while eating marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate. Clay explained to them that Carlton does these types of pranks, and explained one of them. Marla tells him that this time was different, that it would be too cruel to be just a joke. Clay then told the group that it might seem cruel, then continued explaining the prank from earlier. Jason then stated that Bonnie took him and stormed out of the room, and as Marla was about to move to follow him, Clay told her to let him rest. After that, he wanted to talk to the rest of them. In a serious tone, he told them that it wasn't a good idea to joke about Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, which is a very hard thing even for him, since he was the detective in charge of the incident of Michael and the other children. He was very surprised by Charlie and stared at her for a while. Lamar broke the silence asking if it was true that someone had been arrested. Clay replies that it is true that someone had been arrested; He was sure that he was the culprit, but that due to the lack of bodies, they had to release him. Charlie was enraged by this, but Clay told her that "Sometimes the guilty get away with terrible things, but it is the price we pay". As it was too late, he offered them to sleep in the two rooms they had available.

The next morning, Clay was preparing some pancakes, then served it to the group. Betty asked where Carlton was and Clay tells her it's another one of his pranks. Betty wasn't surprised and asks the group of teenagers what it was about this time. Not knowing what to say, they tell her what has happened. Betty then gets furious at Clay for waiting all night to not save Carlton, the two start to argue. Betty snaps right back at Clay, and tells him to get someone right away to save Carlton, with Clay to angrily accept.

Later, in his office, he opened the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out the "Freddy's" report, that has been plaguing him all morning. Clay was embarrassed to remember that he told Charlie that sometimes the guilty get away with terrible things. He then calls an officer if Dunn has reported back from Freddy's, with the officer to reply no and for Clay to angrily hang up. He then continued investigating some papers associating with Freddy's.

After Clay mentioned that all of the evidence led toward William, he pulled up two photos where Henry and William were both in. Clay suddenly felt a shock of recognition, something indistinct that he couldn't quite catch. Clay knew there was something familiar about William. He then shoved most of the photos back into the evidence box, keeping the photo relating to William with him, and took the stairs to the main floor of the station, and went to a filing cabinet. He went through the employee background checks from the last six months, and picked up a picture and held it up next to the one of Henry and William. He found that Dave Miller was William Afton. He then took out a photo in the aftermath of the missing children incident. He noticed that Freddy had one his eyes illuminated with a smear of light. He wondered how since there was no flash when the photo was taken. When he picked up more photographs, all of the other animatronics (Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy) also have one of their eyes illuminated.

Later during the day, Clay breaks into Freddy's with a sledgehammer, to save the group, until William grabbed Charlie by the neck. William told them that they are all staying, which Clay denies. Then William's grip tightened on Charlie's throat, threatening to kill her if they didn't do what he asked. Clay then accepted his demand. Charlie then triggered the springlocks, killing him. Then they all left the mall.

### *The Twisted Ones*

A year after the events of *TSE*, Clay and Betty decided it was better for Carlton to leave the city for a while, so Betty took him to his sister's house.

Clay took advantage of Carlton's absence to get to work. Clay and his team took Officer Dunn's body and discarded everything in the pizzeria, except the animatronics. Clay refused to disarm them or leave them free, as he knew that Michael and the other four spirits possessed them, so he decided to keep all five of them in his basement. However, the animatronics (except Golden Freddy) got damaged in the process. When Betty realized what Clay had done, they had a strong argument. The next morning, Betty left the house and never returned.

A year later, a series of murders begins to happen and Clay is in charge of the case. However, the victims have very familiar injuries, so he calls Charlie to help him investigate the facts, confirming that these people had died from springlocks, the same suit where William Afton was killed.

Then they discover that the creators of these animatronics are created by William, but not only that, but they also discover that Charlie is the target of these creatures. Knowing that more people could die, the girl decides to go alone to the next point where the animatronics were going to attack, being captured by them.

When Clay, John, and Jessica find out about Charlie's capture, John proposes to ask for help from Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and Golden Freddy who are kept in Clay's basement, to help them find and defeat the monsters and to rescue Charlie.

In the basement, John asks the animatronics to help them stop the twisted animatronics. However all five animatronics don't respond at first until John mentions William Afton. The name triggers the animatronics to go berserk and haywire leading them to escape. John, Jessica and Clay follow them with the hope that they will be taken to where Charlie is.

The three of them were guided to an underground pizzeria, where they finally find Charlie. However, they are surrounded by Twisted Bonnie and Twisted Wolf, Afton then comes out, who is still alive; With his new body, he calls himself Springtrap.

The four manage to escape, even managing to burn down Twisted Bonnie and Twisted Wolf. Then Charlie sees that Springtrap escapes and starts chasing him, leaving the others behind. John, Jessica and Clay are surrounded by Twisted Bonnie, Twisted Wolf, and Twisted Freddy. However, they are saved by the original Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, who destroy the twisted animatronics.

Taking advantage of Freddy Fazbear clearing the path of the Balloon Boys, the group meets again with Charlie, who is fighting against Springtrap. Suddenly the building begins to collapse and Springtrap escapes. Without another option, all begin to look for the exit. When they are about to leave, Charlie is captured by a damaged Twisted Freddy and introduced into the springlocks. Clay, John, and Jessica try to free her. However, the trap is activated and Charlie is crushed by the mechanisms of the suit. With nothing else to do, Clay gives the order to his officers to clear the place.

### *The Fourth Closet*

Clay first appears in Chapter 2, where he insists John to stay, however John refuses and leaves.

He is later seen again when John comes over. They talk about how Charlie's behavior is different lately, even mentioning how Charlie doesn't want Ella anymore. After John left, Clay felt as if someone was right behind him, using his gun he shoots at the random stranger, however no one is there, suddenly he is stabbed.

Later, when John comes back, he notices Clay half-dead. Clay is taken to a hospital. Marla, Jessica, Carlton, John, and Charlie are by his side. When the doctor says Clay will be alright, everyone is relived except for Charlie.

Clay is then last seen in the hospital again, however he is fully recovered and cured. Along with John, Marla, and Jessica. He is near Carlton's side as his son is recovering from his near-death injury.

## Trivia

* In the original novel, Clay’s hair is said to be short and either blonde or white in color, but in the graphic novel, his hair appears to be brown with a touch of gray.
* Clay’s police car appears to be a 1993-1994 Chevy Caprice.
* Clay’s gun appears to be a full size striker fired pistol either a Glock 22 or Glock 17.
* According to Carlton, two years before the events of The silver eyes, Clay ran for mayor but ultimately lost.
* Clay was the officer who arrested Afton and even placed him in handcuffs years before when he was the prime suspect in the missing children incident.