FNaF: Extraordinary Definitive Edition.
Hello people of Deviantart! Sorry for the long wait for this little number but I just wanted to celebrate the completion of the story by overhauling FNaF: Extraordinary! This fanfiction has allowed me to look at the lore of the Five nights franchise in a completely new way! But before we get into it, I want to thank my biggest inspirations! My mom My brother @SoundBluster @Wrekiz @Mr-Consequences And just a small warning before we get into things! (This Fic tackles topics of abuse and murder if you don't like those things then don't read!) Now let's get into it!Prologue: Reunion: Side A“I sense frustration within you, child…” The child looked up at the fifteen foot tall, ironclad ethereal being as it stared back with its blindingly bright eyes, feeling a sense of both fear and safety in its presence as they both stood in a white void. “Yeah well to tell you the truth I am a bit frustrated, with my life being cut short and all.” The being got down on one knee. “I have seen this attitude before… I do not blame you for your anger. However, your energy is best spent in moving on.” The child was appalled at the suggestion. “But, my friends… I can feel their thoughts, their fear, I want to help them!” The being looked at him with worry. “I am sorry, but your friends are beyond saving, and your time is up.” The kid got on his knees. “Please! I need to help them! They’re lost…” The being took a deep breath. “Okay… There is a place you can pull them into if you wish.” With a wave of its hand, the entity opened a rift in the space that led to what seemed to be a strange beach cast in eternal midnight. He took a cautious step through onto blue sand, closed his eyes and thought about his friends. He envisioned them vividly, their faces, their hair, their eyes, and their voices; soon later, he opened his eyes and there they were. Two girls, one blond, and the other with black hair, they both looked around confused before looking back at him. “Sammy?!” The blond ran up to him and hugged him. “I can’t believe you’re here! What is this place, where are we, where’s Holly!?” Sammy stepped back, closed his eyes again and held out his hands. In his palms two gift boxes formed, after their formation he set them down in front of them. “I’m not sure, but I wanted to give you these. I know it isn’t much, but I hope it will help… the bodies I am providing you should contain your souls for a decent stretch of time. You will reveal yourselves only when you see the person responsible for your torment.” The two walked up to the cardboard containers and opened them. Inside one was a yellow chicken mask, and in the other one of a purple rabbit. They took the masks and put them on, disappearing right in front of him in an instant. The blond woke up on a stage, her body feeling heavier than she was used to. As she moved she could hear servos and motors moving inside of every part of her. Even still she was determined to explore her new surroundings, getting off stage and walking around the space. Steading herself as she bumped into tables and chairs, every step, it felt like she was about to fall over. She continued down a hallway on the left side of the stage, eventually ending up next to the window of what looked to be a security office. Inside was a girl looking through drawers full of security tapes. “March 11, 1984!” The girl opened the drawer to reveal only one tape inside. “WHAT!? Ugh, whatever…” She put the tape inside of a V.C.R that was hooked up to a monitor and began watching. Pausing to occasionally take pictures of some of the frames of the tape, eventually getting up after looking at the photos she had obtained. The blonde shuffled to look away from the window as the girl left the room. Although she still noticed her standing outside. “That’s odd, how did you get here, Chica?” The girl looked further, trying to see if something was wrong with the body she inhabited. Snapping a photo of her and then walking out of the building. The blonde felt relief for managing to stay relatively hidden despite the precarious circumstance. Sammy, meanwhile, woke up in a dark void surrounded by a large wall of fire. He already knew he was dead, so he tried to put his hand through the flames only to recoil in pain. “OW! What is this place? Where am I!?” A face formed from the flames, it seemed familiar to Sammy. “I hope you don’t mind, but I have some business to attend to, and I can’t have you interfering! Although I will cut you a deal, let me have my target… and I’ll let you go!” Sammy thought for a moment. “Who’s your target?”CHAPTER 1: ‘85*BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, Thunk* A dark tan hand arose from a bedsheet and slammed down on the alarm clock turning it off immediately. The person underneath rose up, stretched, and lethargically walked towards the mirror that sat on top of a pink desk opposite her bedding to observe herself.Her orange hair was unkempt, curling and sticking out in various directions.“New day, new you Elizabeth…” Elizabeth dryly laughed at the joke she made while grabbing a comb out of a drawer on her desk. Beginning to comb her hair until it was somewhat tidy, finishing up and smiling at her appearance with gleaming confidence. Just then, the room door was opened, through it stepped a boy with brown hair and skin a shade lighter than her own apart from the right quarter of his face which seemed to be made up of two entirely separate pieces of skin. “You look horrible…” She turned over to him. “And? I just woke up, obviously…” “Yeah, well you obviously need to get it together, and take a bath, you smell like a toilet!” Elizabeth picked up and threw a purple stuffed rabbit at him. “Fuck off Kenneth!!” He threw the toy back at her, but with more force. “You fuck off to the shower!” Kenneth slammed the door and walked away, his sister rolling her eyes and changing into a dress, t-shirt, and pink jean jacket. She got up and out of the room, going downstairs into a kitchen to see a tall person wearing a purple suit and tie cooking something in a pan. “Morning Michael!” Michael looked up at her with a delighted expression. “Hey! There’s my little boxer!” He patted her on the head, giving her a soft smile, she smiled back in response. “Where’s mum?” Michael put what was in the pan onto a plate, and handed it to her with a fork. “Oh! She’s at work!” Elizabeth sighed as she began to eat. “Where? The bank?” Michael grinned at his sister. “Nope, not this time! She is a building inspector, and from what she's told me it’ll be a more permanent fixture.” Elizabeth grunted. “Hopefully, ever since we moved to this country it’s been a hassle, and then dad left and it became more of a hassle!” Michael put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey! Don’t worry, things will be back to normal soon enough! Enjoy your breakfast by the way, I gotta dash!” Elizabeth put her food down and tried to stop him as he was about to leave. “What about Mr. Mc grumpy Gus? Did you cook anything for him?” Michael thought about his brother as he straightened out his suit and jeans. “You mean Kenny? No, he's having breakfast at his girlfriend’s place.” Elizabeth scrunched her face into a grimace.“Figures… Where are you going?” Michael slipped on his shoes. “To the Fazbear corporate office, dad gave me that managerial job, remember? Anyhow don’t let your breakfast get cold, I’ll see you later!!!” Michael threw the door open and left, Elizabeth walked to the living room with her plate of food, and sat on the floor. After a few minutes she had consumed the entire meal, getting up to take the empty dish and cutlery to the sink. Her path was interrupted by her brother walking up to her, wearing a helmet, knee pads, gray striped t-shirt, leather vest, shorts, and spiked wristbands. “I’m going out sis.” Elizabeth looked him up and down, sneering at his outfit. “Are you really wearing that? Ugh, I miss when you were a cry baby, because at least then your fashion choices made sense!” He rolled his eyes, shrugging off the snide remarks of his sister, exiting the house, and getting on a gray moped parked in the driveway.He started the vehicle and rode off from the suburbs into the rest of the town, dodging things thrown at him by other kids, and trying to ignore the comments about his face. He drove past various shops, and houses soon stopping at one. A large two-story brick house painted mostly black, surrounding it was an iron gate with what looked to be spearheads at the top of each bar. Kenneth turned the bike off, placed it next to an identical yellow one at the front of the gate, and walked to the residence. He took a deep breath in and knocked on the door. After a short while a girl with glossy black hair stepped through, her disheveled appearance and tattered night clothes made Kenneth look on in slight shock. “Whoa Cass… You okay?” She wobbled around in a delirious stupor before finally registering what he had said. “Huh? What? Oh… Hey, hello, ciao! Sorry if I look bad, I just woke up…” Kenneth tried his best not to judge the girl. “No, no it’s fine I literally just threw my outfit together this morning!” The both of them walked inside, went upstairs, and sat on the floor of her room, it was decently large with green walls and a boxy tv on a dresser that faced her bed. “So why are you here…?” Kenneth laughed at her question. “Are you serious, why do you think? To hang out with you silly!” Cassidy looked at her partner confused as she switched on the television. “Why here? Why not with Liz or your stupid twig of an older brother?” Kenneth shrugged. “I just want to be with you right now. I’ve been having constant dreams about… that day, and I don’t think my sister or Michael would understand.” She cupped his cheeks with her hands and made him stare at her. “Kenny, your dad can’t hurt you anymore. You’re strong… You’ll get through it! You always have.” He lightly brushed her hands away.“Thanks, but it still feels like he can, like he’s haunting us.” Tears began to well in Kenneth’s eyes as he tried not to think about the issues plaguing his life, to no avail. “Elizabeth’s been driving herself crazy investigating the missing persons incident from last year, and I don’t wanna screw it up so… I just try to stay out of everyone’s way, but I'm wondering now did I- did I-” Cassidy placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down. “Hey, How about you sit here for a sec, I’ll go get you something to eat, okay?” Kenny nodded sitting in the room while Cassidy ran to the kitchen soon coming back with a breakfast sandwich on a foam plate. Handing it to him and sitting beside him as he ate.“Wanna talk about what’s happening at your home now?”Kenneth finished, swallowing the last bite of the sandwich, as he did he shook his head.“Nah, things are too crazy to talk about, I just wanna hang out before I have to head out for work at the flower shop.” Cassidy tried to maintain a smile even as her concern and stress began to increase.“Oh, well that’s fine! Honestly, even just hanging out with you is special to me! You are my boyfriend after all!” Kenneth shyly moved away from her and towards the screen as Cassidy got closer to him. He took a glance at his spouse, something about what they had just didn’t feel right to him. It was like something was missing between them, but he just tried to shake it off.The pair sat for several minutes talking while shows played, eventually getting almost completely wrapped up in their conversation. “I’ll be at your place a bit. Liz invited me over to discuss the missing persons case.” Kenneth nodded at her. “That sounds nice, hope you find out what happened to those four that day, it sucks what happened to them.” Cassidy sighed at him. “Yeah, hopefully she doesn’t prattle on and we reach an actual conclusion this time.” They kept talking and after a while Kenneth looked at a clock on the wall, on it read 12:15, it became clear that the time had gotten ahead of him. Hurriedly, he got up and walked back downstairs with Cassidy and strapped on his safety gear. “What’s going on Ken?” He unlocked the door and made a break for the gate. “I’d love to stay Cass, but I gotta get to work in fifteen minutes!” Cassidy ran out and stopped him, grabbing onto his hand, clenching it tightly. “Be safe, alright? I don’t want you to end up like… him.”Kenneth nodded, slowly. “I won’t…” He pulled his hand away from hers, leaving the house, getting back on his bike, and driving away while waving goodbye to his partner as she got on the yellow scooter and drove off as well. Kenneth drove deeper into the town eventually getting to a large bright green shop with a sign that read ‘the 15 hour flower shop’. Kenneth went inside the marketplace and was greeted by the sweet aroma of several plants. Roses, Sunflowers, Lilacs, Dandelions, Daisies, Cacti, and other various assorted flora were scattered against the walls and windows with vines and stems creeping up against those surfaces. At the edge of the shop was a boy at a counter reading a magazine to himself, with scruffy, curly red hair, and freckles dotting his pale skin, he took notice of Kenneth as he stepped in .“Oh Ken, you’re here!” Kenneth took a floral print apron off a coat rack and put it on “Yeah… Hey Fritz, where's Gabe?” Fritz shrugged. “He won’t be here till your shift ends today, something about a funeral, so for now it’s just us two and John. You know what to do when it comes to the plants, get to work.” Kenneth nodded and began to walk over to a shelf on the far end of the room with gardening tools on it. Although before he could get to work Fritz stopped him. “Oh yeah before you get going… How's my ex?” Kenneth sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fritz, I would prefer we keep our conversations professional given the circumstances.” Fritz raised an eyebrow.“Oh, and when did asking about a friend become unprofessional?” Kenneth slammed his hand down on the desk Fritz sat at.“Look! The only things and people we should discuss are the job and the employee’s, you know scheduling stuff like that.” He said walking away and starting to perform his duties while Fritz refocused back on his magazine as Kenneth got to work. Meanwhile Cassidy stopped in front of the Afton residence, went inside and walked upstairs entering a room at the far end of the hall. Where she was greeted by Elizabeth and her friends, as they sat in her bedroom looking at a white board propped up on her desk.“Alright ladies, now that we’re all here let's assess the evidence we’ve gathered!” Elizabeth pulled the cap off a marker and began writing on the white board and circling several names. Carlton, Holly, Katlyn, Susie, under all of them were photos corresponding to them. “Last year some of our friends went missing and ever since then we have launched several investigations into their disappearances.” She looked around the room at all of her friends. Two brunettes, one who had her curly hair tied up in a bun with a green headband. And the other one who had pale tan skin and had her hair styled into pigtails. One with orange hair braided into a long ponytail and medium tan skin, as well as Cassidy. All four of them looked completely deflated, as if they all had lost something important to them. Elizabeth anxiously breathed in getting ready to address them all, hoping to somehow get all of them back in high spirits. “Look, I know it’s been hard for all of us, we’ve lost friends, sure… but we can still find them, we can still save them!” Cassidy raised her hand. “Yes Cass?” As Elizabeth acknowledged her, Cassidy lowered her hand and cleared her throat. “Pardon my interjection, but we don’t even have leads on three of them, and the ones we do are speculative at best.” Cassidy was shoved over by the girl with the green headband. “Stop being such a negative nancy!” Cassidy shoved her in retaliation. “I would if we had anything conclusive Charlie!” The girls continued to argue as Liz tried to get them to calm down, despite her pleas they continued. “I am sick of waiting around for evidence and having these stupid meetings. You want something conclusive, Cass?! Tell them what we did! At least then we would have one mystery solved!” Cassidy shoved Charlie again. “We don’t have to say anything Charlie!” Charlie looked at her flabbergasted as the other girls pulled them away from each other. “What are you talking about Cassidy?! It's one of the reasons we’re even here!” The tension between them all heightened as they all began fighting and trying to figure things out between themselves. Elizabeth grew angrier at the scene as further devolved into a miasma of anger. “Oi, you lot!!!” Everyone focused on Elizabeth as she stared them down. “I know we haven’t found the most earth-shattering evidence ever! But we’re getting somewhere in this case! We can’t just give up now!” The four girls nodded as they all refocused. “Now, based on the findings from the security footage I managed to photograph off of that one security tape, it seems that a costumed employee took Holly into the back of the restaurant.” Elizabeth pulled out a stack of photos, separating them and handing one to each member in the group. Then, she pulled out some notepads and pencils from the right drawer in her desk and passed them around as well. The girl with pigtails stared at the notepads, confused. “What’s with the notepads, Liz?” Elizabeth stared at her. “I just wanted to get them just in case we needed to do some on the spot analysis. Speaking of, I did invite you to come down to the Pizzeria last night, Mary, what happened?” Mary looked away from her friend shyly. “Some stuff that I don’t want to talk about, but I did thank my dad for letting you into the pizzeria.” Elizabeth was ready to inquire, curious about her friend’s predicament, but hesitated. Instead opting to rejoin the other girls as they scoured through the pictures writing down every detail of what they saw in them, Cassidy shook her head in disbelief at all of them as she observed.“All of this doesn’t make sense Lizzy… It was in broad daylight; someone should have noticed!” Elizabeth thought for a moment while looking at some of them herself. “They used the crowd as a distraction obviously! A way to blend in so that no one would get suspicious when a party guest was taken.” Cassidy nodded but was still skeptical. “Okay… but why take a six year old to the back room?” Charlie scratched her head while trying to think of an answer to her friend's question and then, it clicked… Her eyes widened and she turned back to the group. “Guys… I think Holly might be dead.” Everyone stared in disbelief at the statement and spoke in unison. “What!?” Cassidy grabbed onto Charlie's arms and shook her. “You’re messing around! Tell me you’re lying!!!” Charlie backed away from Cassidy apprehensively. “I can’t say anything definitive but based on what we’ve seen it seems like she was killed, we haven’t seen since her birthday and from what I’ve heard from my dad before he just left me with my aunt, the back room just leads to another storage room sooo…”Elizabeth clenched her teeth in anger. “What rubbish… What utter rubbish!!! If she’s dead then that must mean the others might be too!”The other girls stared at her as she tried to hold back tears. Everything in that moment felt pointless, the people she had been trying to find for months all seemed to have met the same fate. “What we’ve been doing it’s all been for-” She sniffed and wiped her eyes, she saw only one option left. “You know what, there's no giving up now, we can still do something about this!” Elizabeth picked the photo of Holly being led away. “Whoever did this… We’ll bring them to justice! For them, all four of them!” Cassidy scoffed at the lofty proposal. “How? We don’t even know who this dude is! Where do we even start?” Elizabeth looked at the picture again. “We find that suit… the suit is the key.” Charlie sighed and slumped over on Elizabeth’s bed. “So… Does that mean we have another investigation tonight?” Elizabeth nodded in response as Charlie and the others gathered up the photos and notes, arranging them in separate stacks. “Look… We’ll go to Freddy’s tonight at 1am and leave at three when the night guard gets there. Get in, take pictures and take note of whatever we can find and then get out.” The group anxiously looked away, the prospect of more evidence alluded them, but the time at which they had to go obtain it unnerved them. “I know it sounds scary, but these are our friends, can’t we do this for them?... Please!” Charlotte stepped up confidently with a glimmer in her eye. “I’ll go! Anyone else? Mary!” She pointed at her. “I need to be in bed at a certain time.” Charlotte turned her attention to the girl with a ponytail. “Sashley?” Sashley chuckled uncomfortably at the thought of even going out at night, trying to quickly come up with an excuse not to go . “I need to prepare for a bake sale at my Aunt and Uncle's restaurant tomorrow…” She tried to key on Cassidy, but her friend just shrugged while writing in her notepad. Her and Elizabeth stood, seemingly alone in their situation. “It seems I’m the only one willing to go with Lizzy, huh…” Elizabeth stood beside her friend. “That’s alright! We’ll go, get some evidence, and then we’ll all meet back here.” Mary got up and left the pair behind. “Well, you guys can have fun with that, but that time is too late for us, c’mon girls!” The other two followed behind her as they all exited the room and went downstairs. Encountering Kenneth as he entered the abode and walked back to his room laying down on the bed, trying to focus on himself. His thoughts were quickly interrupted by Cassidy stepping in and sitting next to him. “Hey man, how was work?” Kenneth put a pillow over his face and groaned, before pulling it off.“It was okay, Gabe let me off early, apparently I wasn’t supposed to go into work today, so now I don’t really have anything to do…” Cassidy sighed and tried to scoot closer to him, but he got up before she could get to him. “Why don’t you go see your sister? She probably wants to see you!” Kenneth crossed his arms, ignoring his girlfriend's attempt to get him to socialize with his sibling. “No… She’ll just yell at me for interrupting her oh so important work!” Cassidy once again tried to get to him again, and he walked away again this time turning away from her. “Look, Liz is just having a moment right now like always, we all are, this isn’t your fault.” Kenneth turned back to her. “But it always feels like it is, like I can’t go one day without pissing someone off!” Cassidy tried to calm him down as he began to pace around hyperventilating with tears forming in his eyes. “God! Maybe I should just go! At least then I’d stop being such a-a-AUGH!!” Kenneth got up, kicked the wall and threw toys and various other objects around widely, proceeding to lay down and sob in his sheets, soon looking back at Cassidy, they both stared at one another, still unsure of what to do.“No one’s happy anymore! Everything was good but then, I feel like it’s me…” Cassidy was beginning to get stressed as well, not knowing what to do in the situation. “No it’s not you Ken! You're fine just the way you are!” She quickly ran to him and gave him a hug before he could even stop her. He struggled before throwing her off of him. “Don’t coddle me, I don’t deserve it… I don’t want it…” He shook timidly as Cassidy tried to get back to him. “Well there needs to be someone here to remind you that you’re worth something!” She helped put back the stuff he threw around, leaving the room after a while. “Anyway I have to get going, please get some rest okay? I love you!”Kenneth laid back down. She left and went back to Elizabeth’s room; she was there sitting alone at her desk reviewing notes and photos. “The others left already huh?” Elizabeth jumped in surprise at her friend's sudden appearance “Christ, Cass! You scared the hell out of me! Also yeah… By the way, what were those noises?” Cassidy gritted her teeth, Elizabeth was just sitting here and Kenneth was in some state of anguish.“Well if you must know, my boyfriend, aka your brother, was having a mental breakdown!” Elizabeth stopped what she was doing. “Wait, are you serious?!” Cassidy was enraged further by her obliviousness.“Yeah! And not one moment of it did you show up… You know, you guys should probably spend more time together! Get out of the house, stop worrying about kidnappers for like maybe a second or two?” The orange haired girl furiously slammed her fist against her desk. “I’m sooooo sorry that MY time is taken up by actually important things!” “What! I never said that you should refocus on him! All I said that you should spend time wi-” Elizabeth cut her off, angered by her assumptions. “I do! I want to spend time with him, But I can’t, because if we don’t find out who did this then that killer will roam free…” Cassidy stood firm; eyes locked as Elizabeth approached. “I am trying to find people important to us, people that the cops have given up on!” Cassidy grimaced. “Well if that’s the case… then he can sleep at my place tonight!” Elizabeth was in shock. “What!? You can’t just do that!” Cassidy rolled her eyes. “Why not? Clearly he wants to be somewhere with people who actually care about him!” She walked out of the room and Elizabeth followed her before she got Kenneth. “Oi!” Cassidy turned to her, wondering what her friend would say this time. “If you take him, I'll Tell my older brother!” Cassidy smirked widely and laughed at the threat. “And what will he do, bore me to death with his corporate twig ass?” She looked away and continued her march to Kenneth’s room. Elizabeth tried to stop her, but was instead pushed out of the way, unable to do anything as she went to go get Kenneth. Elizabeth went back to her room and sat down ignoring the pair leaving the place as she continued working at her desk. Silently reexamining the clues, coming across something strange in the pictures of the footage.As she continued looking she kept noticing the same thing throughout.Katlyn, Holly, Susie, but no Carlton, it seemed impossible, he should’ve been with them that day. It all was becoming too much for her, too many, whos, what's, where's and whys. She put down the photos, and began to get ready for her venture into Freddy’s. Meanwhile in a dark room a boy wearing glasses and a white shirt under blue overalls sat in the center of a fire wall. It looked like the flame stretched endlessly into the nonexistent sky dancing with a wild yet hypnotic rhythm but that wasn’t the only thing there with him. “Samuel! Sammy!” A voice echoed out from the hollow sky as a face formed in the fire. “Why so glum, chum? Aren’t you happy to see me?” Sammy still sat in silence ignoring the face. “Y’know, I’ll tell ya what, I let you out and you stop guarding your sister.” Sammy looked up at it with a deadpan stare. No emotion, no anger, no hatred, simply apathy. “Just like I said last time, no… I’m not going to let you play out your petty revenge fantasy.” The flaming face smiled widely and laughed at Sammy despite his serious tone of voice. “You’re funny! Even with the same offer you still refuse? I really have failed to break you, haven’t I?” Sammy stuck his face in his palms before looking back at the flaming visage. “I’m not just going to let you kill her!” The face sneered at his response, this time growing larger as anger fueled it. “She’s a goddamned criminal!” Sammy grew frustrated, this scenario playing out so many times in the exact same way, he couldn’t take it anymore, swinging at the fire. He knew it was impossible to take down but he didn’t question his actions, only focusing on his fury. “So are you! You killed me so you could get to her, exploit her, hurt her! You have no say in this, no ground to stand on!” Each strike left not a scratch or bruise on either party, still at an impasse. “Sammy, we’re both tired. I want freedom and so do you, but the only way we’re going to escape this prison is if we get closure.” The wall of fire lowered around him as the face went from fire to smoke still retaining its shape. “Enjoy your freedom, but I need my closure. I hope you find yours.” Sammy had to think of something quickly, a mask, just like the ones he gave to the others. So with a long amount of effort and thought, he made it happen. In his hands was a white gift box with a red ribbon overlapping itself in a cross shape at the top. “Wait!” The smoke face reformed in front of him. “What?” Sammy held out the box. “Open it, I made it for you…” The smoke smirked as it found out what was inside, a mask that resembled a grizzly bear. “Seriously? Are you messing with me, Sam?” Sammy didn’t answer as he tried to hold in his panic. The smoke put on the mask trying to mock him, but quickly disappeared and Sammy sighed relieved. Chapter 2: Familial bonds, Familiar grudgesElizabeth and Charlie sat at the back of a taxi mostly in silence as they pulled up to a large beige building with a bright red roof. Both girls got out of the car nervous as they stepped out and walked to the door, an image of a cartoon bear wearing a top hat, and red overalls, sat atop the roof with the words ‘Freddy Fazbear’s pizza arcade’ bolted to the sign in colorful lettering.Charlotte ran up to and grabbed the handles of the front doors shaking them with no result. “How do we get inside?” Elizabeth pushed her out of the way.“Mary’s dad said he had left a key under the welcome mat of the pizzeria.”Liz lifted up the rug and pulled out a golden key from it, using the small glimmering object to unlock the door. The both stopped for a moment admiring the dark, yet colorful restaurant. Even if Elizabeth had been here before, the task of investigation still felt daunting, It . “Well, here we are, Charlie… Let’s start looking around here in the front, then we’ll split up. Do you have your camera?” Charlie nodded and looked inside the device to make sure that there was still film in it. “Mine's good, do you have yours?” Elizabeth nodded, and the pair pulled out flashlights from the pockets on pants and turned them on to get a better look inside, it was desolate seemingly with no one but them around and a few boxes on tables.They snuck past being careful not to knock anything over, stopping at the end of the room where they were met by three animatronic performers on a large wooden stage.There was Freddy, he looked like himself on the sign outside, but he wasn’t alone. On his left stood a purple rabbit in red shorts wearing a t-shirt that had ‘let’s rock’ written on it, in his hands was a guitar. On the right a yellow hen wearing an apron over a purple crop top and jean shorts, in her hands was a pink cupcake prop. All three stood still as Charlie walked up to them, gazing upon them as they seemed to gaze back with smiles sewn into their faces. “Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica… Christ, they look so creepy at this hour, did you know they can move?” Elizabeth snapped at her friend in an attempt to get her back on track.“Yes, but we aren’t focusing on them luv! We have to be out of here when Mr. Schmidt’s shift starts, remember?” The duo cautiously moved through the room not finding much in the space. ”C’mon there’s nothing here let’s keep going…”They continued moving through the building, shining their lights at whatever made noise. Going from room to room to see what they could find amongst the attractions and storage closets taking pictures of any items they found suspect. Even with their constant scouring they still kept turning up with nothing worth photographing.Stopping their search at a pirate themed room near the back of the establishment. In the center of the room was a small stage covered by purple curtains hiding whatever stood behind them. Charlie sat and looked at the photos she had taken. “We haven’t found a lot, and what we have found isn’t getting us anywhere. Do you wanna split up now Lizzy?” Elizabeth sighed in frustration. “Yeah, we’ll cover more ground that way, I’ll start here. Although if something happens make a b-line for the front, got it?” Charlie nodded as the pair went their separate ways through the dark pizzeria. Elizabeth wandered around the room searching high and low hoping to find anything that would help her get further in the case. As she moved around there was something off about the area that bothered her, so she stood in the center. Unable to figure out why she felt an irritatingly gnawing feeling in her gut she closed her eyes trying to sense with her legs and feet what could possibly be off about the room. That’s when she felt it, there was no true center to the area, she opened her eyes and scanned around for what could possibly be leaving the room off center. Walking over a wall where a set of pictures hung, she accidently stepped on her shoelace, untying the knot causing her to trip forward. Attempting to stop herself from crashing into the wall she extended her hands out and pushed against it. The wall that appeared solid suddenly gave way, revealing a door frame. To Elizabeth's surprise she fell headfirst into what appeared to be a large empty hidden storage area. Regaining her composure, she turned on the flashlight as she closed the door behind her and saw there were a few dusty empty shelves. Shining the light in every direction to get a better sense of where she was, She had never seen this part of the building before, She couldn't help but explore it. She proceeded forward and found there was a corridor that she had no clue where it led to.Elizabeth was about to see where it would lead when she heard a low humming noise coming from it.She shined her light inside and saw what looked to be the red torso of an animatronic thrashing around with an ‘out of order' sign on it. The eyes on its suitless head staring at her obviously triggered by the light. "What did they do to you, Foxy?"Sighing, Elizabeth shifted her focus back to the room she was just in. When something in the far corner of the room caught her eye, unable to identify what it was, she went over to investigate. Inching closer towards the object Elizabeth winced in fear, as it became clearer what it was. Now only a few steps away from it, she could see clearly that the object was a sledgehammer, with a strange semi dry substance that was splattered over the head of the blunt object.Alongside what appeared to be small clumps of bright red hair stuck to it.She snapped a photo and looked at it as it developed, noticing what seemed to be a splatter of the same stuff in the corner of the image.Elizabeth looked back at the hammer seeing what may have been a splatter lead into a trail that ended in a corner. In that corner were small teeth, fragments of bone, and more clumps of hair amongst more of the dried stuff. The sight made Elizabeth’s stomach churn as it dawned on her what she was looking at. She quickly took a picture and hastily ran to the women’s bathroom, rushing into a stall and upchucking in the toilet. Shakely, Elizabeth got up, flushed the porcelain throne, washed her face and hands in the sink, and ran to the other side of the restaurant to Charlie. “Hey, Liz, wha-” Elizabeth grabbed onto her friend’s shoulders. “We need to get out of here Char… We need to get out of here, turn in what we have to the cops and-” Heavy mechanical footsteps echoed through the hall they were in. *What’s this world like when everything’s right? I wish you sweet sorrows, I wish you good night…*The duo turned around to see where the source of the vocals had come from, behind them was Freddy standing still. “What in the bleeding hell… Aren’t they supposed to be off at this hour?” Elizabeth and Charlotte stepped back as the suited robot kept moving forward, as the corridor began heating up.. “They are… At least that's what my dad says, I don’t think-” An image of a burning body flashed through Charlie's mind at that moment. She staggered back as the robot seemed to finally be closing in on her. ‘I found you’ Charlie froze as the voice entered her mind without warning, it was a familiar voice, one she couldn’t mistake for anyone else’s. “Liz, we need to run!” Elizabeth was thrown off by the sudden change in her friend's mood. “What?” Charlie grabbed her hand and rushed down the hall. “WE NEED TO RUN NOW!!!!”The pair ran through the halls, scrambling to keep a steady pace as the machine homed in on them. The loud clunking of footsteps and screaming from the motors going speeds they weren’t designed for almost made them turn to get a look at their advisory. But the two girls remained steadfast, quickly wrapping back around to the front and running through a door next to the main stage. They huddled next to one another amongst all the costumes inside, it was dark and they couldn’t see a thing bumping into random costumes and each other. After a small period of searching Elizabeth turned on her flashlight so they could see. “What do we do? That sodding bear won’t stop until we’re dead as door nails!” Charlie quickly threw together an idea. “I’ll make a run for it?” Elizabeth considered the idea for a short second but shook her head opting to come up with something else. “No, I’ll run out, use myself as bait, and you escape with me following, not long after!” Charlie looked at her friend with disbelief, It seemed like a reach. “What?! No! That won’t work!” Elizabeth looked at her frustrated. “Why not? There’s only one way out of here!” Charlie looked away shyly. “Call it a hunch… but I have a feeling that it’s just after me.” Elizabeth sighed. “If it’s after you then why use yourself as bait? You’re just going to get mauled, I’ll go! Just watch!” She was about to go out but stopped and turned back to her friend. “Oh yeah, when this is over we take everything we have to the police. Got it?” Without hesitation Elizabeth began her sprint out of the costume room. “Lizzy! NO!” Charlie tried to stop her, but Elizabeth still managed to run out bursting from the closet and rushing past Freddy. Trying to get the robot to notice her, it instead ignored her and focused entirely on Charlie as she tried to flee. All the while Bonnie and Chica attempted to intervene, by grabbing at him and attempting to push him over. Although their attempts didn’t seem to amount to much as Freddy used the limited movement in his arms to shake them off and attack Charlie. Although his efforts proved fruitless, as Charlotte dogged away from the bear's slow swipes and punches. Seeming to get away, however, she was quickly snatched back, hair first, by the automaton, powerless to remove herself from its grasp. Elizabeth ran to Charlie with the purple rabbit close behind, Together with Bonnie they rammed themselves against the animatronic , nudging it back far enough to let Charlie escape. Now free, the both of them sprinted away as fast as they could, getting out of the pizzeria together. “What the hell was that!?!” Charlie shivered, unable to make sense of the situation they both were just involved with. “I don’t know Lizzy, I just wanna go home okay…” The girls recouped their energy and walked away from the place attempting to ignore everything that just happened. ‘You did this’ Charlie shook away the ghoulish voice refocusing on her walk home. Making it back to the suburbs and splitting off from there. Later in the morning meanwhile, Kenneth sat on the floor of Cassidy’s room eating cereal while watching T.V, whereas Cassidy was running upstairs and back to his side after finishing a phone call. “I called your mother, She’ll be here in a bit, she got off work early.” Kenneth sighed in relief. “Thanks, did you-” Cassidy cut him off before he could finish. “Yes I told her why you left, don’t worry about a thing just eat your cereal.” Kenneth heeded her words and continued eating, with little conversation between him and Cassidy. Although, it was silent for only a moment as Cassidy tried to start a new discussion. “What happened… on that day? You seem to remember a lot from it.” Kenneth swallowed the last portion of his cereal slowly as he tried to figure out in his head why Cassidy would choose such a thing to ask. “Why do you want to know?” Cassidy held his hands and brought his attention to her. “Because I want to understand what’s been going on, every time I get close you cut me off, I want to help.” Kenny put the spoon in the bowl and pushed her away. “He just snapped one day okay!?” Cassidy held his shoulders as he shook and began recalling everything. “Yelling and screaming and smashing things, and then Lizzy came in to check on him and-” He stared off at the ceiling for a brief period before looking back at her and continuing. “Everything just became too much I guess; I think it was me…” Cassidy was befuddled by his assumption, it didn’t seem to correlate with anything he had just said. “How? You’ve never done anything to him.” Kenny tossed her hands aside. “I guess I was loud and intrusive, interrupting his work. So I stopped talking to him when he was working, but he still broke down…” Cassidy was still staring at him, even as he deliberately avoided her. “So there was nothing you could do.” Kenneth took offense to the remark, his eyes flaring with hostility. “NO! I could’ve done something, been better!” It seemed like Kenneth was slipping away, similar to a horse that had its stable door opened for the first time ever. Pawing at the untouched ground ready to run, she had to reel him back in. “You’re making this sound like it was gonna happen anyway no matter what you did. Why are you so concerned with being what other people want?!” Kenneth began to cry as she attempted to prod further. “Because I don’t want them to hurt or break down… I just want the best for everyone, why is that so hard?!” The statement made Cassidy grimace uncomfortably, but she continued unwaveringly. “You can’t do that with everybody Ken.” He tried to rebuttal her argument. “I did it with you after Sammy was found! So I must be doing something right!” Cassidy was both surprised, appalled at the subject he brought up but took it in stride. “What we have together is different though… You’re family, they just don’t get you. I get you though, and if we’re together what do they matter anyhow?” Kenneth dragged his hand down his face. “Is it really? And they're my family, they kinda matter a lot.” Just as the pair were about to continue they were interrupted by a loud knocking from downstairs. “I think that’s my mom, I’ll see you later.” Cassidy nodded as he got up to leave. “Okay, just try to open up more, please?” Kenneth didn’t know if he truly wanted to, what would she do with the information anyway? “Alright…” He walked down and saw his mother at the door in a deep conversation with another woman. The other lady turned to him and gave a condescending sneer before turning back to his mother. “Anyways thanks for the help with those bills! I’ll see you later Clara!” Clara waved back as she took Kenneth to her car. “Don’t mention it, Chelsy! I hope you, Cassidy, and Gabby have a good weekend!” His mothers skin was dark, and her eyes matched his in their hazel coloration, she was also wearing a sundress. She quickly scooped him up in a large hug as they came closer to the vehicle. “Hey Sweety! How’s it been?!” Kenneth was once again at a loss for words as his mind seemed to be fighting itself as he tried to answer the question. “Uh… Um I-it was fine I guess…” Despite his monotone voice and dreary mood, Clara seemed to remain in high spirits. “That’s good to hear! C’mon let’s get going!” They both walked to the purple car parked in the driveway “To where?” Clara and Kenneth put seatbelts on and drove away from Cassidy house. “Home of course, where else?” Kenny sat back and rolled his eyes. “It’s just that Lizzy-” His mom cut him off, shifting in demeanor. “Say no more, I already know about it. I’ll speak to her when we get there.” Kenneth sighed, relieved at his moms reassuring words. “Is Michael gonna be there?” Clara huffed angrily. “No, he’s a Fazbear corporate, and will be there until three o’ clock today.” She looked through the rear view mirror seeing his scowl. “What’s wrong sweetheart?” “Nothing… I just didn’t think he was gonna be gone that long.” The car pulled into the driveway of a blue three story house. “Here we are, home!” They both exited the vehicle and went up to the front. Clara was about to take her keys out of her pocket when Elizabeth opened the door. “Oh! Hi mum…” Her face froze in shock at the sight of her younger sibling. “Oh… hi Kenny, look I’m sorry about-” Kenneth roughly pushed past his sister not saying anything to her. “What the hell was that about? HEY!” Clara grabbed her hand and began dragging her to the living room. “You know exactly what it’s about!” She sat her daughter down on the couch. “Why did you kick him out of the house?” Elizabeth rebuked the sentiment. “I didn’t! He left on his own with Cassidy, she told me that she was taking him last night!” Clara paused for a moment.“What? Cassidy had told me a fight broke out between you two yesterday and it ended with you telling her to take Kenny and leave…” Elizabeth crossed her arms as her mother calmed down. “Well, that’s not how it happened at all.” Clara calmed down and put a hand on Elizabeth's shoulder. “Alright I’ll sort it out, take care of your brother.” Elizabeth nodded. “Okay…” She got up and almost left but stopped and turned back to her mother. “By the way, where’s Michael?” Clara rolled her eyes. “He’s at his job, he’ll be home soon, by the way I got home at eleven yesterday, Where were you?” Elizabeth was frozen in fear of what could happen if she told the truth. Although she couldn’t lie either, it just wasn’t her. “I-uh can we talk about this later?” Clara huffed in frustration. “Alright… We’ll talk about it over dinner when your older brother gets back!” She smiled passionately, but Elizabeth could see the impatience growing in her movements. Meanwhile Fazbear corporate office Michael sat at the desk in his office reviewing various documents as time continued to pass. The stack of paper seemed never ending as he sorted each one into their own boxes labeled ‘keep’ and ‘scrap’ after reading them over. His work was soon interrupted by a knock on his door followed by a pale and frazzled employee stepping in holding a folder, laying it down in front of him.“Andrew, what is this?” Michael opened the plastic sheath as Andrew began to speak. “The security guard found these in his office last night, I thought we stopped printing off reports from the cameras ages ago…”Inside were several reports from motion detectors and security cameras detailing the doors opening twice along with movement from Freddy.“None of this makes any sense…”Everything that the report detailed seemed outlandish, Freddy running, vocalizing on his own without power, and a hostile demeanor. “Apparently someone busted in and started playing tag with one of the animatronics.” Michael threw the paper down angrily. “But they’re supposed to be off at night, they shouldn’t be able to move anymore after the incident of ‘83! What happened!?”“I don’t know, my theory is the night guard let them in to investigate, people do want to know what happened to those kids, but I say talk to your dad about it.”Michael sighed miserably. “I can’t! I haven’t been able to for weeks! He’s been busy with that ‘Brilliant Minds’ Inventor showcase or whatever that’s happening next week.” He sat unsure of what to do with information he had been provided. “Look Mr. Afton, I’m sure it’s nothing too serious, just beef up security a bit, do know that break-ins like this have been happening all over Utah recently, especially in Salt Lake.” Andrew was about to walk out, but stopped.“Oh yeah! Mr.Emily came by yesterday.” Michael sat up, hastily. “Really?! Why was he here!?” Andrew shrugged. “I don’t know he just swung by and asked us some questions about Freddy's being investigated, apparently someone found a crime scene. Well then, I’ll be off, cheerio!” Michael limply waved as the man left the room, continuing to ogle over the papers, but all the further observation and speculation did was confuse him more. So he put the papers away and was about to put the folder away but stopped when he noticed something sticking out in between two pages in it. A photo that was taken by the security camera, he pulled it out and took a look at it. Michael couldn’t see much in the blurry image but could make out the silhouette of his younger sister. “How did she… Wait…” He checked the reports again, eyeing one small detail. ‘No windows or doors damaged/broken.’ That information paired with the image made him put it all together, and it made his blood boil. And just as he threw the file in a drawer in his desk the clock stuck three o’ clock. He got up from his seat and exited the office, going down a flight of stairs at the end of what seemed like a maze of cubicles full of people discussing toy designs, making calls, and working on computers.As soon Michael made it to the lowest floor clocking out and going to the parking lot, there he saw a man that was similar to him in his stature wearing a purple suit, standing there with a large grin smeared across his face. “Look, don’t even bother with me, dad, just get in there…” His father patted him on the shoulder, saying nothing as he walked into the building. As he left, Michael walked to a blue phone box at the corner of the lot. Inside he slid a quarter, picked up the receiver and dialed a number on the keypad. After a few seconds of dial tone someone picked up on the other end. “Hello?” “Ey, mum… Uh listen I’m gonna be home for supper soon, but I need to know where Lizzy is because I want to talk to her about something.” “She’s at Mary’s house, why?” Michael rubbed his forehead. “Bloody hell… Look, just tell her to be home soon okay?” “Alright, see you soon sweetie!” Clara hung up on her side, and Michael did the same right after, getting out of the booth and walking away from the corporate office towards his moped. Meanwhile at Mary’s house Elizabeth was seated on a bean bag located on the floor of Mary’s room with half of her hair still a mess. The room was painted in a pastel yellow with accessories decorating the room.The area also seemed to serve as an art studio containing paintings, origami, and half-finished sculptures of various animals. Seated behind her was Mary on a stool finishing braiding the other side of Elizabeth’s hair.Which was platted into a long set of braids that ran down her back. Mary continued weaving. “So let me get this straight. Last night while you were gathering evidence, Freddy began operating on his own, chasing you and Charlie?” Elizabeth nodded. “Yeah… I don’t know why though, but he was after Charlie for some reason. And when we left she was really freaked out.” Mary finished the last one, and tied them all with a pink ribbon, bringing it all together in a bow. “There, how does it look?” She reached down next to what she was sitting on and grabbed a mirror, handing it to Elizabeth. Elizabeth took several glances at herself, smiling at the new hairdo. “Oh! I love it, Mary! Where did you learn to braid hair this well?” Mary shrugged and sighed. “I just learned from my mom and her barber friends, from there I practiced and kept practicing I guess.” Mary stared off at her art collection before getting up and walked over to an unfinished clay statue of a woman clad in a t-shirt and jeans. The lady was holding up an infant as if it was the most prized thing in the world. “Why did you have to go…” Witnessing her friend’s mood transition to a depressive state she sighed, getting up and placing a hand on her shoulder as her own self-doubt and worry turned into empathy.“You never told me what happened to her, you know.”The memories flashed in Mary’s head, the good ones, the bad ones, all now clocked in a layer of sadness. “I don’t like talking about it to be honest. No one in my family talks about what happened to her. I used to think they didn’t care but now I know it’s because it hurts so much.” She hugged Elizabeth tightly while she cried, and Elizabeth reciprocated, hugging her back. “I lost her, and then I lost Charlie…” The last part confused her, what did Mary mean by ‘lost Charlie’ she thought. “How did you lose Charlie? Aren’t you two still friends?” “Sort of… She was one of the only good things I had left and then she left me strung out in the rain one night.” Elizabeth let go of her also and looked at her in her eyes. “Well, maybe you two should try to talk to her about it?” Mary laid on her bed, the afternoon sun shining on her pale hazel skin. “If It’s anything I want back it’s not her it’s my mom…” She sat up and touched the window next to her and the bed. “Ever since I was six when my mom left us, I kept on hoping that one day, she’ll just come to the door… Her arms spread out ready to accept a warm hug…” She shut the blinds and the room darkened. “But she never shows up…” Elizabeth tapped her foot unsure of what to say to her. She couldn’t relate; she had never been in a situation even remotely close to hers, it was bewildering. Elizabeth didn’t want to do anymore damage, so she just consoled her further and hoped it would be enough. “Um… I’m sure that she’ll come back!” Mary looked at her friend with a dry, apathetic expression. “Thanks I guess… Anyway you should probably get going.” Elizabeth Began walking out of the area. “Yeah I should… Oh yeah! If you need to talk to anyone about anything I’m here!” With that she waved goodbye and made her way out of Mary’s home and back to hers, reflecting on what just happened as the day dragged on into the evening. She made it home, opened the door, and went inside to see her family. Her mother and younger brother were setting up dinner, talking and chatting happily. While her older brother was setting up the cutlery, unlike the other two, however, he looked upset about something. Although she tried not to worry about that as she took her seat and began to eat with her family after saying grace. The atmosphere at the dining table was tense, Michael glared at his sister with an intense fury while they ate. She looked away from her brother and focused on the pasta on her plate, but Michael didn’t let up. “Your hair looks nice..” Elizabeth paused at the remark, she knew the slow burn of questions he was setting up. “Um yeah, Mary did for me, it was a bit of a hassle but she managed. ” Just by the look in his eyes she knew that she couldn’t stall him. “Yeah, it looks better than when you were at Freddy's last night…” Elizabeth stopped eating and stared back up at her brother, she had to play dumb. “What are you talking about Michael?” Michael dropped his utensils and slammed the table with his fist, the entire room seeming to shake with his fury. “You know exactly what I’m talking about! Why were you in Freddy’s last night, and moreover how did you get in?! Because now the place is under investigation! What did you do?!” She tried to answer but was cut off abruptly. “Wait let me guess you used my sodding key!? Huh!? Why?!”Elizabeth stood up, throwing her hands down on the table as well.“The night guard let me in! Because I’m trying to solve the missing persons case! I couldn’t get to him, but I know he or someone else is behind this!” Despite the explanation Michael didn’t take a single word seriously, Elizabeth could see that, so she changed tactics.“Don’t you want to know what happened to all those people? What happened to Katelyn?! Or are you too busy with your new blond Swedish broad to care!?”Michael was made even angrier by the sudden ad hominem attack, the mere mention of his previous relationship leaving him almost speechless, Clara tried to interject but within an instant Michael got up just like his sister did, cutting their mother off. Kenneth protested by pounding his fist on the table creating a trifecta of aggression.“ Enough already, let her speak, there is no point ganging up on her!” Michael groaned deeply while Elizabeth took the opening. “Just admit that I know what I’m doing!” Elizabeth was ready to continue her rant when she was cut off.“Elizabeth, Shut up! And you, Kenneth, I was wondering how long it would take you to come to her defense. You probably helped her plan it.” Michael was sarcastic, he didn’t actually believe that. However, confronting his younger brother was too easy when he just threw himself into the frey like this.“Don’t be an ass wipe, of course I didn’t! And yeah? She's our sister, that's what we’re supposed to do.” Michael pulled the folder from next to him and put it down in front of everyone.“Well, I have proof right here that she broke into the place.”The trio only continued arguing for another brief moment when… “Enough!” Clara’s shout echoed throughout the room catching everyone off guard.“Elizabeth, your brother is right, what you did is wrong, and you’re grounded for a week!” Elizabeth was shocked. “But mum!” Clara pointed to her. “NO BUTS! What you did was reckless! You need to have more concern for your own life!” She turned her attention to her eldest son. “Michael! Don’t yell at your little sister!” Michael sat back down while Elizabeth frustrated, stomped off upstairs, her plate cleaned of food. Clara then looked over to Kenneth. “And you, I don’t want you seeing Cassidy any more.” Kenneth was confused. “Why?” Clara was quick to answer. “I don’t trust her anymore. She lied about you leaving after an argument with your sister that didn’t happen. No more going to her house, understand?!” Kenneth nodded while he and Michael finished their dinner in silence. Michael still tried to make small talk with his little brother, but alas, Kenneth refused to engage with him even as the meal was completed. “Well that was a nice meal! I’ll clear off to bed, how about you guys?” His mother nodded and wiped her mouth while Kenneth still said nothing, instead opting to follow Elizabeth’s example. “Kenneth? Where are you going little man?” He turned to his older brother. “To my room!” He was clearly frustrated; Michael had begun to think that the short argument between him, himself, and Elizabeth had upset the boy. He got up as his mother left the area and ran to his little brother. “Why? Is something wrong, was the yelling too much?” Kenneth sighed. “Yeah that and I hoped you wouldn’t take the job that… he offered.” Michael rolled his eyes. “We’ve been over this Ken… This is for the family” Kenneth grew frustrated, was his brother even being honest? There was no way he could tell, through his constant justification. “But after we moved here, to Christfield, you promised that he wouldn’t come back!” Michael rested his hands on Kenny's shoulders. “And he won't, I'll make sure of it! It’s just a job.” Kenneth looked away from his brother. “Will you though?” Michael put on a stern face. “Yes! You have nothing to worry about! Now go on, the sun's setting.” Kenneth did as he was asked running up the steps and to his room letting what little remained of the day pass into the night. He waited for his sister to barge in and say anything that even resembled an ‘I still care’. But as it seemed she would never come she stepped in. “Hey Ken, are you alright?” Kenneth sighed. “Yeah…” She walked over to him and gave a small hug. “It’s going to be okay, I know things seem crazy right now, but I promise it’ll get better!” Kenneth turned to look at her. “Are you still mad at me?” Elizabeth looked into his tear filled eyes solemnly. “No… I’m not, it’s just the investigation that's been stressing me out that's all.” She wished him a good night and left his room going over to hers, laying down in her bed and falling into a deep sleep. The rest was peaceful, and trance like at first but quickly devolved into a series of warping checkerboards and strange sounds. She shivered as the wind bellowed over her; the sheets were gone. Elizabeth tossed and turned feeling grass gingerly stroke her body to the wind's rhythm, her bed was gone. She opened her eyes to get a look at what had been causing the strange feeling around her. She woke up to a large dark forest, the grass was crimson and so were the leaves of the trees. The sky was black like the bark of the trees, her home, her everything it was all gone… She ran around the forest scared of what she might encounter, she looked back in her mind to a memory of a woodland tour she went on. All the creatures she saw even at that age she knew that even a bear cub could maim her. She constantly checked around herself for anything calming down when she reached a clearing with a pond in the center. There on a seat was a bright red Komodo dragon wearing a vest and fishing in the pond. “Now aren’t you an interesting case…” Its accent confused her at first but she soon realized it was one she was familiar with. A southern American accent coming out of a large lizard. “Excuse me mister… But where am I? How did I get here?” The creature laughed at the question clearly knowing the answer. “I think a spirit brought you down here darling, cause for starters you’re not dead.” Elizabeth was in shock, this where people go when they die, surely not. “Is-is this a dream?! Because I refuse to believe I’ve been hoisted off to some spirit world!” The Lizard laughed again. “No ya ding-a-ling… It’s just part of a larger afterlife. Spirits come and go as they please, and some bring folk down to have a little chat, finish unfinished business and all that jib-jab… But do know your time here is limited so find that spirit quickly!” She nodded, taking a mental note of what the lizard said and ran from the clearing further into the woods. Soon finding herself unable to move further due to a sea of bushes. “Lizzy!!!” Elizabeth’s head snapped up at the voice, this time it was a voice she was familiar with, a bubbly one. Through the thicket emerged a little girl, her hair was just as crimson as all of the foliage and arranged in a messy top knot barely held together by a scrunchie made of fake pearls. She was wearing a green shirt with short poufy sleeves that lead into a white dress with frills like a daisy. The girl ran up to and hugged Elizabeth, holding on with a vice-like grip, as if afraid to let go. “Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, you’re here!!!!!!!” Elizabeth smirked, clearly happy to see her but tried to push her away. “Yeah, I’m very glad to see you too, but please let go!” The child listened and let her go bouncing up and down. Excited to see her friend, and at first Elizabeth was happy to see her as well. But quickly took note of the ash gray skin and murky pupils. “What happened to you Holly?” Holly looked at her confused, like the question she asked made no sense. “What do you mean? I just woke up at Freddy’s one night, and I had the place aaaaalllllll to myself!” She danced happily as she recounted her experiences and went off topic. However Elizabeth quickly brought her back to focus, still needing answers. “Do you know what happened before all that?” Holly stood still and scratched her head trying to give her a response. “I-uh-hmm… no! Why?” A defeated look spread across Elizabeth’s face. “How can you not remember!?” She punched a tree trunk. “It all doesn’t make sense, what am I supposed to do now!?” She punched it again, Elizabeth reeled in for a third strike but fell to her knees. “I was supposed to figure it all out, solve the mystery, but I can’t!” Holly walked up behind her and wrapped her in another hug. “Don’t say that!!! Whatever you’re doing, I’m sure you’ll do it well!” Elizabeth hugged back she knew just by the look on Holly's face what had happened to her, but she didn’t say anything. “She’s right, you know.” They both looked up and saw a slumped over bear suit. It looked like Freddy and was the size of him too but was bright yellow and wearing a purple vest, top hat, bowtie, and white pants. “That’s who you are, a problem solver… Find the book, stop him, free us… That is all I can say for now, your time here is done, it’s time for you to go home.” It tilted its head towards Holly. “And it’s time for you to come with me, you absolutely don’t know how long I’ve been looking for you. Don’t run off like that again okay?” Holly nodded. “Sorry, but when I first got here this place looked so cool! It would be a crime not to see it all!” The bear laughed. “Yeah, I guess you could say that!” The voice that came out of the suit knew it all too well, although she didn’t even have the time to question it when she suddenly found herself safe in her bed again. It was still dark out, and now she went to bed harboring newfound tasks. Chapter 3: Old strugglesMary sat on a couch in a decently tidy office that had various colorful motivational posters littering the red walls around her. In front of her was a therapist at a desk filled with small knick knacks and puzzles holding a notebook. A clock on the wall next to the desk showed it was twelve p.m. It had been an hour since she first went in for the appointment. “Could you tell me anything about what happened back at the theater Mary? Do you still have nightmares about it?” Mary thought for a moment. “Only sometimes… Mainly just about that puppeteer guy, Vinnie…” She wrote that down. “So the accident? you acted on impulse Mary… have you ever heard of fight or flight?” Mary nodded. “Good, so that means you understand the way you reacted?” Mary nodded again. “It’s just that I don’t know if what I did was right though… Every time I think about what happened on that day it just-” Mary held her head in frustration. “It’s okay if you need a moment, from what I heard the memory can be stressful…” Mary tried to answer but found her tongue caught at the sight of what appeared to be a man in a closet next to where the therapist sat. The therapist stared in confusion as Mary trembled. “Are you alright Ms. Schmidt?” Mary looked back at her therapist bewildered and shivering. “Huh?! I- uh yeah I just thought I saw something…” The therapist took note of that. “A hallucination perhaps could you describe what you just saw?” Mary struggled to answer, still quivering in fear of the apparition. “A man I think… He was looking at me.” The therapist continued jotting down note after note. “A man? The man you tried to fight off when you were ten?” Mary nodded again. “I tried to run after he caught me in that costume room, with the corpses… ‘I won’t tell’, I said.” Tears welled in her eyes as she began to panic, the space around her slowly shifting into that of a storage area as the eyes in the closet shined brighter and brighter. Mary shook her head, managing to bring herself back to reality. “But I did tell my dad what he had done to those men, and I don’t think I should’ve.” The therapist's eyes widened in surprise. “Hey, it’s okay! It’s always responsible to tell people you trust. Now from what I’ve analyzed from your behavioral patterns in this session you seem to have no potential to develop any kind of dangerous ideations or mental disorders.” She wrote down one last note and closed the notebook. “It just looks like nightmares and visual hallucinations formed from a traumatic experience and mild depression. I’ll refer these notes to your father so he can figure out the next course of action, other than that our session is done, good day Mrs. Schmidt.” With that Mary got up and left the room going outside and meeting Fritz in what seemed to be a makeshift hot rod built out of model t ford scraps, strange contraption befuddled her, not to mention there was no glimpse of her father in sight. “Where is my dad? And just what the hell is this thing-a-ma-bob?” “Your dad and my mum are busy, so they got me to pick you up! And I made this puppy myself, with Jeremy's help of course.” Mary facepalmed but put away her concerns as she cautiously stepped inside the ‘vehicle’ and the two drove off. “We’re about to begin higher education in a year, why do you even want a car?” Fritz chuckled slightly. “I just wanted something to drive around town when my mum’s off at her coding job really. And I got my learner's permit last week so there’s that.”She couldn’t deny that despite his age he drove relatively well on the somewhat bumpy road. “You know I’m actually glad you’re here, I wanted to ask you about something, about your sister.”“What about her?”Mary sighed nervously, picking the words in her head carefully as not to offend Fritz. “That day, at her birthday party, what happened to her?”Fritz took a deep breath as he thought back to that day.“I don’t know… There were first graders everywhere, the place was overbooked by my dad, one moment I’m telling her off for trying to peek at her presents, the next I’m running around looking for her.” They pulled into the driveway of Mary's house, stopping behind a blue car.“Thanks for taking me home. Also before I go, was there anyone that noticed Holly disappearing?”Fritz thought back again, trying to pick out anyone that seemed suspicious in his memory.“There were a few day guards, and a costumed performer in a clown suit. Tall, lanky, weird guy, just waiting around for something, he asked me where the birthday girl had gone after the whole ordeal. ”Mary nodded, thanking Fritz for the information before walking inside to the kitchen where she picked up a phone on the far most wall to her right and dialed a number in. After a few soft hums of the tone it went straight to voicemail. *Hello! You have reached the Afton household, leave a message after the tone!* *Beeeeeeeepppp* “Elizabeth, we have another lead in the case, meet me at the library after your boxing lessons.” She hung up the phone and looked around for her dad, eventually coming across a note on the fridge that read: ‘working a double shift today, will be home at 7:00 pm!’ Mary, disgruntled, slowly walked upstairs to her room, placed a blank canvas on an easel, grabbed some paints, and sat down trying for several minutes to create something. But was unable to come up with anything substantial, only a few smears on a cloth slate. She looked around her unfinished art, was this it, all her talent amounted to. All because of some silly ghosts from the past? As she questioned she became further irate, wanting to just be done with it all. Staring at the nothing she had put on the canvas it started to morph, looking more like her mother with each passing millisecond. The puppeteer seemed to stare back with a disappointed expression, the sight unnerved her so much that she threw the canvas on the ground over and over again. Eventually, leaving it in pieces strewn across the floor. ‘What are you doing all alone, hiding again? Is that all you do, child? Your mother would be ashamed.’She nervously tried to move over and pick up the remains of the tarnished tarpaulin but was stopped by a blurry hand. Mary stumbled away catching a small glimpse of a figure with a blur all over his body. ‘Is it not enough to accept the mistake you’ve made? Why are you still running’Mary didn’t answer, all she could really do was stare, barely make out were blue overalls with black and white sleeves but just as he was like that he was gone. And Mary sat alone and unsure of where the figure was, all she could think of was Elizabeth and her dad. As well as hope that the both of them would come to help her. Meanwhile in a gymnasium, Elizabeth threw punches at a dark skinned boy who blocked them with foam pads strapped to his hands with Velcro. Exerting all of the muscles in her body more and more with each hit, it began to feel like she was going to rip her biceps apart. “C’mon Lizzy, just a little more!!” She pushed herself and her body further, her boxing gloves pounding into the foam even more, each jab each hit more cathartic than the last. Even as her body strained she still felt as if she needed to give it her all until her best was achieved but stopped as the pads were pulled away from her. “Okay, you know what, let’s take a break.” Elizabeth stared at her acquaintance in disbelief. “A break?! We started forty minutes ago, Gabriel!” Gabriel sighed at her over confidence. “Yeah… forty minutes look at you, you’re about to pass out. You need to learn when to quit it, you don’t need to hit every goal you’ve set for yourself immediately.” Elizabeth rolled her eyes at the remark. “Well you need to learn when to take things seriously!” Gabriel put his face in his palm at her assertion. “Oh my god! Why do you stress yourself out about things? This is just like that case you keep yapping on about…” Elizabeth huffed angrily, threw her gloves on the gym floor and sat next to Gabriel on the bleachers.. “Because it’s important! I have an obligation to people that were forgotten by most! I’m just supposed to abandon them?” Gabriel stared at Elizabeth, agitated. “Abandon? No I’m just saying you shouldn’t concoct all of these schemes, Lizzy.” Elizabeth crossed her arms in frustration. “I don’t make ‘schemes’, I make plans! And the plan I made actually worked. I got into Freddy's, there was just one minor hiccup, but Charlie and I got what we needed.” Gabriel pulled his hand down his face again. “Of course you did… You shouldn’t have done that, you could’ve gotten you and Charlie into some major tish. So my advice would be to stop here before someone gets hurt, before you get hurt!” Elizabeth, while understanding, was at the same time angered by her friend's attempt to have her halt her aspirations. “You wanna know why I stress about things? Because then things get done! It’s not that hard to understand. You can’t just trot about in the flowers forever; sometimes things get difficult and you need to think on your feet!” Gabriel huffed out of frustration. “So you’re just gonna micromanage yourself forever?” Elizabeth grimaced and looked at him sternly. “If that’s what you want to call it then sure I guess… now if you excuse me I need to meet my mum for an appointment with the headmistress!” Elizabeth walked out and through the halls moving passed all her other classmates who stayed behind for the extracurricular activities. Going to the front of the school to leave, everything seemed to go as she expected. Until she noticed her mother outside standing next to a tall man in a blue business suit with brown slicked back hair and pale skin. A smile was stretched tightly across his face like a rubber mask, he looked strange like he was holding back a fiery anger behind gritted teeth but at the same time had an odd inviting aura around him. “Now remember, when we get in there William-” He cut his wife off. “I know, I know… I can’t talk to my own kids… By the way Michael told me earlier at work you grounded Liz?” Clara clenched her temples. “Yes, but I loosened my grip a bit. She still needs freedom; however it does not mean that I’m not keeping an eye on her.” William laughed as they entered and got out of the car. “What are you laughing at?” “No it’s just… I’m starting to think that you’re spoiling her to keep her away from me.” Clara sighed again. “No, she doesn't particularly fancy you and the only reason you’re here is so that you can know something about her, so you don’t go crazy, or so Michael told me.” William silently relented as the pair came closer to the front of the building. Elizabeth couldn’t mistake one of the faces for anyone else; it was etched into her mind from birth. Bits and pieces of memories flashed in her head as she began to walk away, stumbling over herself feeling like he was closing in. What did he want, and why was he here? These questions swirled around her without an answer as she became more and more enraged. She was now unable to avoid this man she once called… dad. All she could do now was struggle to breathe as each small breath was pulled from her lungs in frustration and hatred. The other students stood over her looking concerned, not knowing what she was stomping from or towards. They tried asking what was wrong, but all Elizabeth did in response was mumble and push past them, still trying to rationalize the sudden appearance of her father.But before she could think any further a woman in a tuxedo stepped in front of her. “Ms. Elizabeth, you better have a good explanation for holding up the hall-” Elizabeth stomped in front of the woman. “Headmistress, I would like an explanation as to why my father is here.” The headmistress was thrown off by the request, but sighed as she helped Elizabeth calm down.“Your mother made a request for your father to be here.”Elizabeth was in shock. “I’m supposed to be here… with him?!”She groaned, thinking of all kinds of horrible scenarios, the last time she was anywhere near her father he was an unstable mess. “Not necessarily? I called them both hoping that at least one of them would show up at the private meeting I had scheduled…” Mrs. Danbury rubbed her temples for a short moment. “Look… I’ll let you wait in my office while I go and get them, is that alright?” Elizabeth nodded and followed the headmistress to her office. Inside she sat down while Mrs. Danbury went out to meet with her parents.Elizabeth could barely focus on anything as she constantly checked over her shoulder unsure of if or when her dad would come in. Meanwhile outside the headmistress walked up to the couple.“Hello Clara!” The two women shook hands for a brief period and then Jacklyn turned to William. “Hello Liam…” William spread his arms out. “Sister! You haven’t changed a bit!” Mrs. Danbury rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes, let’s just go in, your daughter is waiting for us.” Clara looked at Mrs. Danbury, confused as she led them into the school. “Um, what do you mean waiting for us?” The head mistress sighed reluctantly. “She doesn’t want to see her father at least for a while until we get there.” Clara looked at William sternly. “I knew I shouldn’t have brought you along for this, and stop smiling like that, you look demented!” William turned to Clara. “Well, let's at least try to look like we can co-parent.” They got into the office and they both sat on either side of Elizabeth while the head mistress sat in front of all of them at her desk and she pulled out some papers. “Let's start with something simple, your son, Kenneth, has managed to maintain his grades, despite certain antisocial behaviors. With that out of the way I wanted to focus on, let's get straight to the point, I am worried about Elizabeth.” She eyed the teenager suspiciously as she continued. “Both her arithmetic and literature teachers are telling me she has fallen behind in her studies. She is supposed to be taking her Finals soon and with the students that she’s going to be paired up with I am worried that she will be unprepared. I don’t have to tell you or Clara how important it is for Elizabeth to do well.” William nodded at his sister affirmatively. “No, you don’t. It is something that I take extremely seriously.” Clara followed up with vocal agreement alongside her husband. The head mistress turned over to Elizabeth.“So, Elizabeth, what do you have to say for yourself?” Elizabeth shook for a moment before responding.“I didn’t realize I was that behind, I mean I only failed one test. It’s not the end of the world is it?”The headmistress sighed.“Well actually the truth is you were not present, so it was recorded as a failure which is different from taking the test and failing, hence why I wanted to talk to your parents.” She looked back at Clara. “Are you aware that she went M.I.A during our last testing round?” William looked at her with a grim look on his face. “No, I most certainly was not!” Clara instead nodded sheepishly. "I was aware, but I didn't know until my eldest son had informed me. She had been investigating the disappearance of Freddy's." Mrs. Danbury looked at Elizabeth with an uneasy expression before adjusting her glasses and refocusing on her parents. “Well, I thought given your current domestic situation that you have chosen to exclude her without going through the proper channels. It is important that we all stay on the same page where these things are concerned.”She continued ignoring that William was becoming visibly upset with each word she uttered.“Jacquelyn, are you intentionally trying to mess with me? My daughter is not some punk hooligan!”Clara, seeing the argument that was about to unfold, attempted to stop him.“William, don't be so self-absorbed, she is making us aware of the situation that is occurring, who cares about how the information is delivered.”Clara turned back over to the head mistress. “Mrs. Danbury, I apologize for his behavior, her past and his present, and I am sure they wish to do the same.” Clara turned and looked at William who simply stared back at her. She gestured for William to do the same and after a short while of them arguing in whispers he relented. “Ugh, fine, I apologize for my outburst.” He choked out reluctantly. Satisfied with the result Clara turned her attention back to the headmistress.“Now how can we rectify the matter? Is it possible for her to take the test right now?”Elizabeth nodded as an indication she was ready to do so, but William interjected.“Hold on one minute, I think it would be better if she takes it in a few days, y’know preparation and what not.” Elizabet sighed in frustration. “Dad, it's fine, trust me I didn’t miss it because I was unprepared or overwhelmed, is it okay if I take it now?” Mrs. Danbury nodded. “Okay well that’s settled then. Elizabeth does not need extra time to prepare. Please take this note and make your way to the science lab.”The headmistress' annoyance and concern was replaced with triumphant pride. Elizabeth got up from where she was seated next to her parents and walked over to the headmistress’s desk and took a sealed envelope from her containing the test. It had her name on it as well as a card for the forensics club.She took the envelope and looked up at the headmistress, her eyes widening with surprise. Headmistress Danbury looked back at her with a knowing smile and said, “Hurry up before I change my mind oh yeah, Lizzy?” Elizabeth looked back at her. "Yes?" Mrs. Danbury sighed. "Look, I know you want to figure out what happened to the people that went missing at Freddy's, but there's a reason the things are handled by the police... It's to keep innocent kids like you out of danger." Elizabeth stood confidently."And, say I don't stop..." Mrs.Danbury stood up from her desk. "There's a whole room of people in front of you who will stop you because the last way we want to see you is hurt." Elizabeth ran back into the room and hugged the head mistress followed by her mother then her father. After that she left the room, closed the door behind her, and walked to the science lab. Meanwhile Gabriel stayed behind looking on in confusion at the scene about to go out and find out what was going on with Elizabeth. But his plans were interrupted by a tap on his shoulder, the boy turned around to see a girl with her hair tied into a long black ponytail. Across her face was a large grin and in her hands were a box of cookies. “Gabriella! Hey. What’s with the cookies?”She giggled at the question and held them closer to him.“I made these in the home etc. class with Sashley, and I thought you would want one before I go!” Gabriel almost took one but another girl who looked exactly like her suddenly inserted herself into the pair's affairs, taking the cookies. “We made these cookies for dad… not you and your idiot boyfriend!” Gabriella scoffed in frustration. “What the hell, Cassidy?! I didn’t know sharing was illegal now!” Cassidy groaned angrily. “Piss off with your ‘niceness’! Everyone here knows that all you want is attention for your spasms, you spazzing knobhead!” Gabriella became flustered with her sister. “I really was just trying to be nice! I get that you don’t like me Cass, but you don’t have to be an arse!” Cassidy huffed in response. “Well someone has to knock you down a peg after all the attention you get showered with, now let’s get out of here Gabby!”Cassidy turned around and left with Gabriella following close behind her. As the two stepped out they saw a small orange car driven by a large balding man in a tuxedo waiting for them. Gabriel waved goodbye, and Gabriella waved back as they left. “Soooo, what else are you doing today sis?” Cassidy rolled her eyes. “Why does it matter to you?” “Because we never really do anything together anymore…” Cassidy thought for a moment, and soon relented. “Dad’s taking me to the library to get a book before he comes back for the meeting the head mistress arranged with dad.” Gabriella smiled eagerly at the prospect, to her twin’s annoyance. “Ugh! Yes you can come…” Gabriella clapped happily. “Yes! Do you think Lizzy will be there?” Cassidy shrugged. “I don’t know… Maybe later after she’s finished with her test?” The car ride from there on was silent as Cassidy avoided any further conversation with her sister.After a short period the pair and their father made it to a library, looking as if it had been around for years. The broad square-esq man stepped out of the car with his children, going inside.The interior was a large open space filled with shelves upon shelves of books, all separated by genre and type, as well as a table near the reception desk.“So what are we looking for Cass?” Cassidy scanned around the entire main area of the library trying to look for what she wanted. “A cookbook, they should be in the back.”Cassidy turned to her father who was now having a flirtatious conversation with a blonde librarian at a reception desk, despite this she still walked up to the desk and tried to get their attention. “Hey, mum! Dad! Gab and I are going to the back okay?” Her dad nodded slightly before finishing his chat and leaving and her mother didn’t seem to notice her at first but then looked at her coldly. “Alright just be back so you girls can leave with your father.” Cassidy was about to walk away when her mom stopped her. “Oh yes, are you still dating that boy? You know, Kieth.” Cassidy growled in anger. “His name is Kenneth, and yes I am still dating him! Do you have a problem with that mum?!” Her mother glared at her. “Watch your tone young lady! That Kenneth, that delinquent boy, has clearly turned your mind to mush! I would sooner accept that you were gay and dating Eliazabeth, because she may be a bit aloof and falling behind in her studies, but at least she’s operating with a full deck of cards…” Cassidy became enraged by her mothers callous words. “He can’t help it! He wasn’t born that way, he was made that way by the accident that happened two years ago!” Her mother sighed and dismissed her. “Cassidy, darling, I'm going to need you to stop making excuses for a boy that needs to be in a mental home, and instead find a boy like… Gabriel!”Cassidy sighed in anger and was about to tell Gabriella to follow her, but her sister was gone, and she was alone… Meanwhile her sister was at the back with Mary. “I can’t believe you’re here! This is great, you can help me, and Cass finds a book!?” Mary stroked her hair nervously. “Oh, uh… Gabby, I’m actually waiting for Elizabeth… Sorry, but I can help you later if you want!” Gabriella looked disappointed but quickly accepted that her friends had their own things to do. “Oh… okay then I’ll see you around!” They walked away from each other, and after a while Elizabeth showed up walking through the door and waving to her.“Hey mary!” Mary waved and gestured t for her to come where she was sitting. “I’m here! What did you want to talk about?” Mary looked around for a moment trying to make sure no one could hear them. “There’s a new witness, Fritz was there at the party when his sister got taken, when he was driving me home he said at her birthday he saw a man in a clown suit.” Elizabeth sighed in disappointment.“So nothing new?” Mary groaned in frustration. “Let me finish… He said the place was overbooked by his father and the guards were too distracted.” Elizabeth thought for a moment, something wasn’t adding up. “But wasn’t your dad one of those guards? I remember that day, he’s too attentive to just let the birthday girl slip past him like that…” Mary stood in front of her.“I wasn’t there, maybe someone could’ve distracted him on purpose?” Elizabeth thought about her friend's words for a second. “That could be right, but we still need a proper answer!Given the circumstances of the evidence it would be wise to go and ask some questions.” Mary was tempted, but even with the supposed evidence, still rejected the proposition.“Lizzy, what do you possibly expect to get out of my dad?” Elizabeth tried to come up with something, but kept on drawing blanks. “I’m not really sure I just know that if he’s involved he might know something. Although first, I need to get a book.” Mary raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What kind of book?” Elizabeth shrugged. “Oh, nothing really, just a small book that might be… magical…” Mary’s look of interest turned into a grimace of concern. “Are you trying to get us run out of this town?! This place has zealots crawling in every nook and cranny!” Elizabeth put her hands on Mary's and looked her in the eyes. “I know it seems crazy, but I think there may be spirits haunting Freddy's, that's what I need the book for.” Mary was in disbelief, unable to make sense of her friend's ghost talk. “Where did you even get this guff?”“I think Sammy appeared in a weird dream I had, and told me to find a book to free him, Holly, and probably everyone else who disappeared at Fazbears.” Mary rolled her eyes.“I don't know what kind of dream you had but all I know is that Sammy and the others are dead, but if you want to talk spirits and magic then go to Charlie. Right now though we need more information we need to go to my house.” Elizabeth nodded. “Wait! I have to call my mum!” She ran over to the reception desk, dialed a number, picked up the phone and made the call. “Hey mum, It’s me! I’m going over to Mary’s place, I just need to do something. I'll be back soon!” She placed the receiver down, afterward she and Mary walked out of the library and down the street for a few minutes ending at a log cabin-esq abode. She knocked on the door and it opened to a thin man with medium tan skin and a soft smile. “Oh Mary! You’re back, and you brought Lizzy!” His expression was as passionate and happy as it had always been, Mary ran to her father and hugged him, he was confused at first until she began to cry. “Sweetheart don’t worry I’ll always be here just like she was.” Elizabeth smiled warmly at the interaction but redirected her attention to Mary’s dad. Not wanting to intrude on the moment she waited until all of them stepped inside. “Mr. Schmidt, we need to ask you a few questions… about a birthday party.” Mary’s dad was apprehensive at first but let them in anyway as Elizabeth pulled out a notebook from her bookbag and her tape recorder. She inserted a blank tape inside it, and turned the device on. “Hmm okay So what do you girls want to know?” Elizabeth paused for a brief period, unsure if the question she was about to ask was appropriate. “We-um-we wanted to know about the birthday you attended last year, Fritz’s little sister, her babysitter Katelyn and a friend of mine Susie went missing at that party.” The three of them stood at the center counter in the kitchen, in silence, Mike wasn’t really sure. “I don’t really know what happened, I was unplugging strobe lights per the request of Fritz’s dad, performing in a clown costume, and next thing you know your older brother's ex is in a panic looking for Holly and then she disappears too…” Elizabeth sighed in bewilderment. “You were the clown?” Mary’s father nodded. “Yes it was double shift since the actual clown called in sick, so I was tossed into the position. There were a few other costumed performers as well…” Elizabeth wrote that down in her notebook. “Alright, but did you see anything strange while you were on duty?” Mike hastily tried to come up with some answers. “A guy in a bear costume was running around like a maniac, that’s all really.” Elizabeth tried pressing him more. “Do you know where they went after everything fell into chaos?” Mike scoured his brain for a moment. “No… they just kind of disappeared, never saw him again.” Elizabeth continued to press. “What about Susie an hour after all that?” Mike began to grow more and more weary as the questioning continued, all the details while somewhat fuzzy in his mind, he wasn’t sure how to answer Elizabeth’s quarries. “I’m not so sure, look girls, girls please I would love to have all the answers, but I just don’t know, I was just the daytime security officer all I know is a man in a bear suit was hired and when Katie, Holly, and Susie disappeared... He did too.” Elizabeth tried to understand his plight but was overcome with grief, this man had seemed to make it easy for his own tracks to be covered. All of it was frustrating, so close yet so far, but she took a deep breath and relented. “Okay that’s all I need… goodbye Mr. Schmidt, goodbye Mary, if you need me you have my number…” She stopped the recorder, put her stuff away, left the house and closed the door behind her.Soon in front of where Elizabeth had exited the puppeteer appeared again but was slightly blurrier than before, but he was still there, nonetheless staring with nonexistent eyes. ‘What’s wrong Mary?’ She tried to snap out of staring at the apparition, but to no avail.“I-I-” ‘You what?’ She suddenly found herself in a storage room with a purple carpet, a desk and a corpse on her left, and another desk along with another corpse in front of her staring as if it was judging. She tried to leave the room, but it seemed she couldn’t reach the handle due to her height. She looked around for another way out, only to turn around and see Vinnie standing still, reaching out for her. However, the illusion was broken before he could do anything, allowing Mary to come back to her senses. “Hey, Mary are you alright? You’re shaking again…” All Mary could register as she became aware of her surroundings was her dads voice. “I-uh-yeah I’m fine… I’ll be in my room if you need me dad…” Her father looked at her with worry as she walked away from him. “Okay… I’ll be down here making tea.” As she climbed up the stairs she looked back at her father again and smiled as he stood. Meanwhile down the road Elizabeth walked down the street combing over what Mike had told her, the bear, the bear. It was obvious that the bear had taken people she knew but afterward he just seemed to get away and disappear. It didn’t make sense, none of it, is this where it ends? Then, she saw an unkempt man with a frazzled beard. He was skulking around while taking the occasional glance at her. “Uncle He-” Just as she was about to finish the man was gone, as she thought about the encounter, she bumped into Fritz who was carrying a box of mechanical parts. “Oh… I didn’t see you there, Fritz! How’s it going?” Fritz gave her a soft smile. “Fine… What’s up with you?” Elizabeth sighed and shrugged. “Nothing much… still investigating that mystery with the girls.” Fritz glared at her nervously. “Oh, huh, look I know this isn’t the most appropriate time, but I’ve always wondered… Why did we- what drove us apart Liz?” More memories rushed back, but good ones this time, a dance, a movie, a kiss, and in all of them, every single one, her friends were there, it was nice. But like mice in the tall grass one by one they were gone as she tried to hold on to them. “I… guess we just got too busy for each other, I’m sorry Fritz…” Fritz was shocked by the apology. “WHAT?! No, no, honestly I think it was me. When Holly disappeared I couldn’t talk to anyone, my one job as her older brother and I couldn’t even do that right.” Tears started to flow down his face. “Now she’s gone, and I left you when you needed me the most.” Elizabeth stopped him before he could continue. “No, you needed to take care of yourself, I’m sure your sister would be proud.” He stared at the box of parts anxiously as his tears dripped onto the cardboard. Although he regained his composure quickly, smiling. “Thanks! Y’know whoever you find next… I hope you’re happy with them.” He tried to walk away but Elizabeth stopped him again. “Wait! I visited Mary’s dad earlier about Freddy’s; He said something about a few mascots at the party, did any of them stick out to you?” Fritz stopped as he tried to recall the various costumes that he saw that day. “Oh… that, yeah one of them was tall and was wearing a bulky black bear costume. He seemed passively angry, like he was waiting to yell at or hit someone.” Elizabeth nodded and continued her walk home and Fritz did the same as well, going to the other end of town where a sunflower field stood in the middle was a shed. Next to it was a four story home just off center a few yards away from it.He went in and turned the light in the store house on, various bare animatronic skeletal frames were propped up across the wall on his left. On his right was a table with various parts and tools strewn around, but the table itself was fairly clean apart from something under a sheet.He pulled it off revealing an unfinished robotic doll that resembled a six year old. “Hey, I’m back…” The robot didn’t respond, it just sat that there and stared blankly with its copper colored eyes, nonetheless Fritz smiled at the small humanoid with eagerness. He dropped the box of parts, put on a pair of gloves, grabbed some of the tools, and began working on it. Installing various pieces into its metal body and replacing anything that he deemed broken or old. Hours went by as he continued installing and modifying things eventually concluding the project after a few hours. Fritz reached back into the box taking out a small red dress, and put it over the crude, gray mechanical torso, securing it with a white belt that had a gold buckle in the center. Now With the final touches in place he was finished with his creation. Nervously, he pressed a button on the back of its neck, instantly its eyes shot up and stared into his, the nanny cams inside them focusing on him. Fritz smiled as it spoke canned dialogue and began waddling on a preprogrammed path as he set it down, to him the doll was perfect.“Can we play now?” He was about to respond to the inquiry when the shed door was opened by a woman with short hair that was of similar coloration to his who was wearing a long purple dress.“Fritz, dinner is-” Her eyes widened in fear and confusion, she couldn’t believe what her son had made. The proportions of the face were slightly off in a cartoonish way, sure, but there was no mistaking who it was modeled after. “What in god’s name is that!?” Fritz was taken aback by the lady’s sudden appearance. “Mum, look don’t be afraid it’s Holly, remember?” She snatched the doll away and was about to throw it in a trash can that sat in the corner, but instead opted to put it on a shelf next to it at the far end of the space, covering the mostly porcelain clad automaton over with a cloth. “Fritz, whatever this is, isn’t healthy, you can’t just make a new sister… Now come on supper’s getting cold…” Dejected, Fritz followed his mother to the house. Sitting and watching T.V. in the living room with a plate of steak and macaroni while she worked on a computer program in the room next to him. As he finished his dinner he noticed something on a shelf just above the television. A golden gift box held together with a blue ribbon. “Hey, Mum?” His mother walked out of the room she was sitting in. “Yeah?” Fritz pointed to the box. “What’s that for?” She solemnly looked at the closed gift. “Oh, that was for your sister's birthday… Don’t touch it!” He nodded, ending the afternoon on the living room couch as the day led into dusk.For a few hours he slept fairly peacefully until a strange clicking echoed through the home. The noise was constantly followed up by a soft whirring sound that seemed to travel around. He got up and ran over towards the front door, it was opened with a few streaks of dirt on the ground.Fritz closed it slowly, trying to listen for any more noise.“Hello?!” No one answered his call, instead the clicking continued, it was almost comparable to dish ware knocking against a hard surface. However, it was in rapid spurts, like someone was running in glass shoes.All Fritz could do was continue looking into the darkness to find the origin of the noise before quickly coming across something small in an office space with the computer on a counter that his mother was working on earlier.It stood under a window, completely bathed in the reddish-orange light of the dusk sky.Just by the silhouette he could tell what it was, but how it got in was a mystery. “Fritzie!” He stepped back, he knew it wasn’t programmed to call him that. “H- Holly, it’s time for bed!” It ignored the vocal command opting to step closer. “But I’m not tired…” Fritz didn’t know what to do, it seemed more alive and independent than usual. He grabbed a book off the floor holding it in front of himself defensively while backing away from the machine. “Why do you look scared? I just want to-” He clenched the book with fury in his eyes, pulling his arms back, one way or another he would shut down the robot. “I said go to bed!!!!” Fritz threw the book at the doll's head, causing it to shatter on one side. Realizing what he did he ran up to ensure it was okay, and while it no longer seemed to function none of the internals of the head were damaged that much outside of a few split wires. Fritz cradled the broken humanoid in his arms crying over it as the moon rose over the two slowly. Holly on the other hand awoke back in Freddy’s laying on the floor in front of the main stage, staring up at the band as they looked forward to the front door.“I-I don’t get it… does he not like me anymore?” Just as she was about to dwell on the question a voice came out of the darkness. “What’s wrong?”Holly jumped up at the unknown person.“Who’s there?!” She looked around noticing a large Freddy plush below her. “Oh! Hello there!” Holly grabbed the toy, barely being able to hold the large plaything. “Hello Holly, are you alright? You look sad…” Holly was amazed at the talking toy but put her excitement aside hastily to explain her situation. “My brother threw a book at me… and now I’m back here, I wanna go home!” She accidentally tossed the plushie out of frustration rushing back to it after realizing what she had done. Crouching down to grab the bear. “I’m sorry Freddy… I didn’t mean to!” The stuffed bear got up and patted her on the head. “It’s quite alright, at least you apologized unlike that book chucking scoundrel. From what I’m hearing your brother doesn’t care all that much about you!” Holly looked at him confused at first, but quickly became further irritated, trying to remember her brother.“Why would my big brother-” The toy bear cut her off. “He did leave you here, and now he doesn’t even want to see you… think about it.” Holly began to panic if her brother didn’t care, did her parents? She began to cry at the thought of her potential abandonment. “It’s not fair! Everyone doesn’t even know I’m here!!! I just want them to see me, I thought he would care after my party! He tried so hard to make up for all the time he didn’t spend with me…” The Freddy plush moved over to her. “Hey, hey don’t worry! Not everything is fair… But I do know a way to make everyone see you! Here’s how…” He stepped away from the girl revealing a red fox mask behind him. “Put it on, with it they won’t be able to break their gaze… Never again will you be pushed into the background!” She went over to it, picking up the empty costume head. “Wait… before you put it on I need you to do something for me when you use this gift…” She looked back at the plush. “What do you need me to do?”Chapter 4: The hunt The sky was gray, and gloomy with the wind blowing steadily as Elizabeth made her way to the Pizza arcade. The building, which was once quite colorful, stood stoically still amongst the washed out landscape, A bright light came from the establishment that disrupted the dreary shadow of the late morning atmosphere baiting her to come inside. Elizabeth, unfazed by its appearance, held deep feelings of resentment towards the restaurant which most people in the town shared. The communal disdain was also reflected by the numerous missing posters stuck on the front windows of the place. Under the posters were the words painted on the walls in red that read ‘where are they?’ It felt like she asked herself that question everyday only to come to the grim reality, Elizabeth could feel the pressure of the investigation slowly mounting on her for the last two weeks. Even with the added mental strain of attaching her sense of worth to the successful outcome of the investigation which deep down she knew was self imposed did not ignite the urge to rethink her tactics. There was still a looming sense of guilt that hovered over her head, she knew that this case still had to be solved. Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth walked through the front doors and saw that the place was themed after an old western saloon. It was a change that took her by surprise. The very last time she had stepped foot inside the establishment besides the night of the break in, it had embodied an interior design more reminiscent of an old Italian restaurant. Inside the establishment she was greeted by a few employees wearing red overalls as their uniforms, some were roaming simply around, others were taking orders, and serving people food, while the animatronics stood on stage performing. Freddy seemed more unstable than the other animatronics, every other second he jittered with small sparks flying from him onto the stage. As she observed the mechanical entertainer a fear arose within her that he would come apart at the seams and site the entire stage a blaze. Although she managed to shake off the uneasy feeling of the mascot's potential destruction she could not diminish the sense that sooner or later someone would get hurt. Opting to ignore her feelings and not to draw attention to herself she continued to slowly walk.Despite that odd occurrence, the atmosphere in the building was fairly calm, with people sitting at their tables eating pizza, breadsticks, and drinking various beverages.It was typical fare for an establishment like this, with the only other odd thing being her sudden appearance there, which caught the attention of her friends. Who were stationed at their own booth. One of the girls seated at the booth spotted her and smiled, waving for her to come over. The girl had dark amber hair that was braided into a long ponytail veering off in two splits at the end. Elizabeth barely seemed to recognize her at first, having to search the recesses of her mind to remember the name. mistaking her to be a new face in the group. Seeing the gesture Elizabeth moved over to them, the girl's smile broadened, recognizing her right off the bat as she was walking towards them.“HEY LIZZY!”Elizabeth's eyes widened, realizing who the girl was as soon as she heard the familiar voice. Now excited she ran over to the booth to make sure it was who she thought it to be. “Hey Sashley! I didn’t even recognize you there! I almost thought it wasn't you for a second! Where have you been?” Sashley gave her a small smile back. “I was just helping my aunt and uncle with our restaurant a few miles from here. It’s been a busy week.” Elizabeth smirked deviously. “Ah, so gathering info on the competition I see.” Sashley was made slightly uncomfortable by the assertion. “Maybe a little yeah, but like, don’t be so loud about it!” Elizabeth realizing the error quickly made an attempt to course correct. “Oh! Sorry I was just trying to have a laugh!” Sashley sighed. “It’s fine, I just don’t like getting wrapped up in my aunt and uncles spying nonsense, they are expecting me to come home with notes though, so I might have to stay for a bit.”Elizabeth chuckled. “It’s been a busy week for all of us, huh? I mean I was lucky that my mum allowed me to come out today. She was so concerned with me doing my best on the GCSE’s.” Sashley nodded. “Yeah!”She stood in front of the group for a moment and noticed that Sashley didn’t come alone. Her friends were seated with her, enjoying themselves, and eating a large pizza divided up amongst them in many pieces. All of them were dressed in coats and pants of various colors, they were examining the contents of a notebook while they ate.Cassidy sat next to Charlie, who sat next to Gabriella, who was sitting next to Mary, who sat next to Sashley. Sashley looked over to Charlie with concern.“Did you tell her why we were meeting today?” Sashley asked.“I thought you did?” Charlie answered with a nervous smirk. Mary dismissed them both, annoyed with their antics. “That doesn’t matter! Sorry Liz, now that you're here, why don’t you come and join us?”The others smiled, exchanging glances and then looking at Elizabeth. She sat down and took a slice of pizza, biting it.“Hey girls! Soooo… What is this meeting about?” Cassidy sighed reluctantly and put down her slice.“Because we need to discuss the new lead, we're getting closer than we’ve ever been before!” Elizabeth looked at Cassidy confused, still thinking her conversation from the day before with Mary to be private.“How do you even know about the lead?” Cassidy rolled her eyes at the question. “Mary told me, obviously! A little before you got here actually.” Cassidy rolled her eyes at the question.“No I didn’t! You called this meeting and asked a few questions which I answered. But I never actually told you what Elizabeth and I discussed.” Mary told her angrily.Cassidy murmured to herself, picked up the slice on her plate and ate more of it quietly. “Anyway what were you saying Mary?” Mary groaned angrily, pointing to what was written in the notebook. “Have you even been listening to me Cass? Look! I was saying that we know what happened to three of the people that were there at that party.”She pulled out a small booklet of polaroid photos from her pocket and began to flip through them. The first image was of a young lady with black hair that was cornrow with pink extension streaks. She was wearing a blue jacket with brown jeans. Next was a picture of a boy with a large bright smile that was framed by his copper hair. The child was wearing a vest, after that was a picture of an albino girl with curly snow blond hair and blue eyes wearing a purple dress, and lastly Holly’s picture was revealed. “We know what happened to Katelyn, Susie, and Holly, but Carlton is the odd one out here.”Mary flipped back to the boy's picture as the other girls looked on with intrigue. “He’s the only one without a clear story to his disappearance, he just kind of vanished that night…” They all sat for a moment and pondered a potential answer to the inquiry while Cassidy continued to eat. Sashley soon broke the silence with her own theory.“Maybe the bear guy could have gone out after the party?” Elizabeth shook her head dismissively. “No, that’s not possible, Sashley… We reviewed some of the security footage after Cassidy took it from the party while the cops and security officers were busy looking around there; the killer made off after he took the three of-'' Charlie interjected, cutting off Elizabeth with her own thoughts on the matter. “Maybe he came back after a bit and then took Carlton?” Mary scoffed at the suggestion in disbelief. “That doesn’t make sense at all! Why would he return to the crime scene? Stop being daft!” Charlie quickly thought of something else in an attempt to quell her acquaintance's anger. “Maybe he was just sloppy? He did leave the safe room a mess.” Sashley turned over to her. “If that's the case then how hasn’t he been caught by now?” Gabriella piped up with her own idea. “Ummm… The cops aren’t always good at their jobs y’know.” Cassidy stared at her sister with confusion. “What? The place was being actively searched before he disappeared stupid!” Now irritated with her twin, Gabriella continued to defend her position. “Did they search the back room though?” Cassidy pulled her hand down her face in frustration. “How is that relevant Gabby?” “If they didn’t bother to look there, then that would leave an opportunity for him to get snatched without much resistance.” Cassidy sat on that thought, while they didn’t have the evidence for that theory, it did make some sense. “It’s not the stupidest thing you’ve said, but it’s still stupid.”Gabriella groaned at her sister's vain attitude. “There is no winning with you is there!?” Cassidy was about to argue back when Elizabeth slammed her hands down on the table, attempting to quell the argument and silence her friends. “Look, girls!” The others stared up at her in anticipation. “I think the only way we're going to figure this out is to ask questions. Carlton's father is still the police chief, he should know something. It’s his son, you all are free to join me if you want cause I’m going.” The other girls looked at each other timidly with Cassidy responding first. “I think we all have other things to do, unlike the boys. I guess it’s too much to ask just to go on a date with your boyfriend apparently.” Elizabeth looked at Cassidy confused. “Wait, what are you talking about?” Cassidy raised an eyebrow, questioningly. “Didn’t Kenny tell you? The guys are hanging out at your house.” Elizabeth scoffed in frustration with her friend. “And you didn’t tell me when I got here?” Cassidy smirked and shrugged smugly. “I didn’t know you wanted to know.” Elizabeth sighed, the conversation draining her of energy. “Why wouldn't I want to?” Cassidy shrugged again. “I just didn’t think you’d find it that important.”Frustrated with her constant horseplay, Elizabeth said goodbye to her friends and nothing more to Cassidy as she stood up and left the pizzeria sprinting down the road from there to her house. Stressful scenario after scenario running throughout her mind. Each one was more chaotic than the last, maybe it was her bias, but she couldn’t trust her brother to be alone with anyone. Thinking back to a time when she was younger, coming home from school to find her room a mess and in the center of the madness was Kenneth. Even with all that stress on top of her, she made it there and saw a blond woman at her door holding a tube of some kind of gel. “Oi! What’s the big idea, who are-” The lady turned to face her, but even as Elizabeth got a better look her attitude didn’t change.“Of course it’s you… Vanessa…” Vanessa smiled gingerly and waved to her, Elizabeth meanwhile sighed and just walked up to the front of her house, beginning to dig through her pockets. “What are you even doing here, Vanny? Wait a- ugh did I seriously-” Just as she was about to yell about the item she seemingly lost, the door was unlocked and opened for her. “Don’t worry, your mum and brother had a spare key cut, they hid it under the welcome mat.” Elizabeth stared at her as if she had just broken into her home. “Why did he give it to you if it was supposed to be hidden?” Vanessa giggled. “He trusts me silly, also because he called me to come and check on Kenny, and give him this ointment.” Vanessa held up the tube and Elizabeth snatched it from her hastily. “Don’t worry I’ll handle the ointment, he's my brother after all.” They both entered the abode together, the inside of the house was relatively clean, to Elizabeth's relief. But it wasn’t just Kenneth in there, it was him and three other boys sitting in front of a television. Gabriel, Fritz, and another one with a similar skin coloration to Gabriel that had a decently slim build wearing clothes with a punk aesthetic, and glasses. His head was shaved on one side with the other side being combed and curled over. Drooping over flat against his right ear.“Kenny what’s going on in here?” Kenneth looked over at his sister in surprise while mistakenly overlooking Vanessa. “Hey, I didn’t expect you to show up so soon Lizzy. I’m just hanging out with the lads, is something wrong sis?” Elizabeth sighed, now feeling embarrassed for her assumptions. “No, just tell me next time if you’re gonna do something like this okay?” Kenneth nodded, and was about to go back to watching the tv, but noticed the ointment tube in his sister's hand. “Um, why do you have that?” Elizabeth opened it, and put the cap in her pocket. “To put it on your head so it stops hurting, duh. You’ll get all irritable if you don’t have it slathered on there.” Kenneth got up and took the tube from his sister, trying not to embarrass himself in front of his friends. “It’s okay, I can apply it myself.” Vanessa tried not to interfere or stand out until Kenneth turned his attention to her. “Oh hey Vanessa, I didn’t see you there!” Vanessa waved in response as he sat back down and applied the ointment to his head. “Hey Ken! I see you’ve got the whole gang over! You even got Jeremy out of his house!” “Yeah! It took a bit of convincing, but he’s here! Jeremy’s going out to Charlie’s house to help her make something in a bit, although he’s not being very open about it.” Jeremy groaned in contempt. “It’s a surprise, I guess, at least that's what Charlie says. She’s being weirdly cryptic about it.” Vanessa continued to converse while Elizabeth ignored them and walked up to her room grabbing a notepad and pencil case out of her dresser. With the items in hand she walked out of the house not noticing Vanessa following closely behind. “Hey where are you going Liz? Don’t you want to stay for a bit?” Elizabeth continued walking away, trying to tune her out. “I need to do something important at the police chief's house.” Vanessa continued to follow her. “Well I’m sure I can-” Out of frustration she pushed Vanessa back a few inches. “UGH!!! Why can’t you just interrupt someone else’s life!?” With that Elizabeth stormed out of the driveway and began sauntering down the sidewalk into town, for a moment she regretted what she had said, but opted to refocus on her goal. She knew where the police chief lived, she couldn’t forget it, all the times she had to run to and from his residence to get Carlton out for sight seeing at the very far end of town. Soon she reached that place, a dark orange apartment complex caked in vines and mildew. Somehow unchanged from when she last saw it, as if frozen in time.She took a deep breath and knocked on the door a few times and at first didn’t get a response. But upon the next several someone answered, a secretary in running shoes and a neon green jumpsuit. Huffing, clearly having gotten back from a jog. “Excuse me, why are you here at this hour? We’re not taking any new tenets at the moment…” “I came to see the police chief, Clay Brooke. I’m investigating the disappearance of his son, and I want to do a short interview.” The secretary raised an eyebrow in concern and crossed her arms. “Did his ex-wife send you? He’s not the fondest of her or anyone related to her after the disappearance of his son.” Elizabeth tensed but remained vigilant, smiling, in an attempt to gain favor, while the secretary tapped her foot for a bit. “Uh no… I’m just here for an interview!” The lady scoffed but relented going back inside and to her desk, pushing a button next to a microphone that sat beside a speaker. “Mister Brooke there’s someone here to see you…” Elizabeth waited on the lowest floor taking in the still outdated 1960’s-esq scenery, the yellow wallpaper having several cracks through it. In the middle of the room were a few coffee tables arranged together into a larger surface. The chair she was in also sat next to three other empty chairs with a box of outdated magazines at the far end. All of this was her childhood, sitting in this room, waiting for Carlton to come out and see her, and Fritz. It all was old, yes, but she hoped it would never change, at least for her sake, even if she didn't know why she was feeling nostalgic all of a sudden. Eventually the receptionist got a response from the speaker. A gruff, and haggard voice that still had a slight ring of life to it, like it wasn’t fully ready to give up yet. *Send them up…* The receptionist walked to Elizabeth and handed her a key. “The room is 128, don’t be long.” Elizabeth nodded, grabbed the key, and went up a flight of stairs next to the desk, soon stopping at a room with numbers on the door that matched the ones on the small plank attached to the end of the key. She knocked for a bit, without receiving a response. “Mister Clay? It’s me Elizabeth!” She unlocked the door and entered a fairly neat living area with orange wallpaper. Out of a kitchen area stepped a man clad in a T-shirt and sweatpants with graying brunette hair, and a chiseled physique she could never forget. “Lizzy! I didn’t expect you to show up here again! I thought the previous month's visit would be the last. What are you visiting for?” She pulled out her notepad and pen. “I need you to answer some questions about Carlton.” Clay sighed and nodded, sitting down in a reclining chair next to a couch. “Take a seat.” She heeded his word and sat next to him. “So what did you come to ask about?” “From what I know, your son disappeared the night of Holly Smith's birthday, and that’s it, I have no leads. Can you recall what happened that day?” Clay laughed and shrugged dismissively at her query. “I don’t really have an idea either, that evening he just said he was going out with some friends and then… nothing…” Elizabeth sighed as she finished jotting down the miniscule amount of information on the page. “Anything else?” Clay stroked his chin, getting lost in thought for a short period. “Nope, although I tried searching around a day later, I got the whole squad out and still nothing.” Elizabeth nodded, taking that down as well. “Did he ever tell you where he was going with these supposed ‘friends’?” Clay looked up and stroked his chin again. “Yeah, the petrol station just near the woods next to Fazbear’s.” Elizabeth nodded again, beginning to put it together. She closed the book, seeming to get everything she could out of the man.“Alright! Is that all?”Clay nodded silently in response.“Okay then, I’ll see you around Mr. Brooke. Do you want me to leave your room key here?” He shook his head from side to side. “Um, no, just take it downstairs and leave it at the desk.”She nodded understanding and did as he said, leaving the complex afterward. “Alright now that that’s over, to Charlie’s place.” She left the building and began running down the street again while reviewing the evidence she gathered. It wasn’t much, but she knew it would get her closer to figuring everything out soon. Her walk continued on for a decent period as she tried to look for the place. Unlike the apartment, however, It had been several months since she visited Charlie's house and couldn’t fully visualize it in her head. Only able to work off what little she did remember of it. One thing did come to her mind as she thought about it, was its distinct lime green hue. With that she continued her trek soon ending up at a quaint two story cottage with that same green that her mind had held on to. Although she wasn’t entirely sure if it was the same place so she knocked, unsure of what or who would step through. The door opened and out of it stepped a woman wearing visor glasses, a Freddy Fazbear badge, and a suit . “Ah! Miss Jennifer! I was here to see your niece, is she around?” The lady sighed. “No, she’s at that French boy’s place, I think his name was Jeremy? You might know him. She also had me bring that old gift box for her, she never told me what it was for.” Elizabeth was miffed that her trip throughout town would be longer than expected, the only thing getting her through it was the thought of answers to her inquiries about magic. Even then a part of her wanted to go home this whole journey started to seem more and more like a wild goose chase. Nonetheless she remained determined, soon stopping at another house. A navy blue three story that she barely knew or visited, it looked blue at a glance, but seemed to shift to purple under the light. She looked through a window pane on the front door, and could see inside, Jeremy grabbed a toolbox before heading off into a basement. Where he, Charlie, and Fritz stood, surrounded by boxes of various parts and wires, and a large gift box in front of them. The two boys sat in anticipation of what could be inside as Charlie flicked a switch on its side causing it to open from the top. Out of the container raised a bare animatronic frame wearing a marble comedy mask with rosy cheeks painted on it. “So what do you think so far? I’ve been working on it for a while!” She smiled eagerly awaiting their reactions. Jeremy and Fritz stared at the metal frame unsure what to think as they tried to understand why it was brought to the house. “Well, It is certainly interesting lass, but it’s clearly finished…” Charlie huffed.“The frame is, but the mechanics… not so much. That’s where you two blokes come in!” Jeremy stepped up to the robot and looked for any hints towards its function. Only the closest thing to a hint were the empty eye sockets, which seemed to be carved out for small cameras. “What is this even for?” Charlie grabbed an empty box from the ground and placed it in the machine's hands. “It’s a mechanical puppet that gives gifts to children, but it also acts as a camera to watch the animatronics at night!” Fritz laughed at the concept. “What are you trying to do?” Charlie crossed her arms in anger. “I’m trying to get evidence that the robots of Freddy’s are haunted! Back me up here Jeremy!” Jeremy shrugged. “Ghosts? Are you sure you’re not just overreacting?” She became further frustrated. “No! I know for a fact that they’re haunted! This will be my one chance to confirm that…” Fritz sighed. “Well, I don’t know lass… Last time we worked on something was for-” Charlie put her hand on his shoulder. “I know… But if the robots are haunted-” She gestured for Fritz to finish the sentence. “Then that means I can say goodbye… to her?” Charlie stood back a bit, she wasn’t expecting him to say that. “Maybe? It depends on if she’s even haunting the place.” Fritz opened the tool box that Jeremy brought into the room. “Good enough for me! C’mon Jeremy, Charlie, let's finish this thing!” Just as the trio began working they heard a knock at the front door, Charlie ran out of the basement. “You two continue and finish it; I’ll be right back!” She walked up and out of the room, running to the front door. Opening it and seeing Elizabeth standing there. “Oh Lizzy! What are you doing here?” Charlie could see on her friend's face that something was dire. “The book? Mary told me you knew about a book that had a magic spell to banish spirits?” Charlie laughed awkwardly as the pair stepped into the abode. “So uh… What do you want to know?” Elizabeth crossed her arms. “Well, one: how did you find out about it, and two: Where is it?” Charlie looked at her nervously, not wanting to answer. However the confident expecting scowl of her friend forced her tongue.“Sammy and I first heard about it in primary school from one of our teachers, he said it was in The Dead Forest…” Elizabeth froze. “THE Dead Forest? That one place that people never come back from?” Charlie rolled her eyes in frustration. “Stop yapping! It’s not that people don’t come back from that place… they do… it’s just that they may come back having seen something that clawed their mind to shreds…” Suddenly the prospect of finding the book looked harder than ever, was she really going to risk her entire mental state for a book? She thought for a bit, it didn’t seem worth it… but at the same time she couldn’t just leave her friends behind. “I’ll still go… If the people at Freddy’s are still trapped then they can be released.” Charlie looked at Elizabeth worried that she may come back with a scarred mind.“Alright, just be careful and don’t stay out for too long. Spirits are said to roam there at night.” Elizabeth nodded and walked away before turning back. “Oh yeah! What are you even doing here Charlie?” “Oh just building something with Fritz and Jeremy, it’s a small project!” Charlie smiled passionately as Elizabeth walked out of the abode. As her friend left she went back down to the basement. “Oi lass, what are these empty eye sockets about?”“They’re for cameras, why?” Fritz chuckled with an idea on his mind. “Thought so, I’ve got just the thing to disassemble for this, but it’s at my house sooo.” Jeremy looked at him suspiciously. “You’re not going to ditch us now are you?” Fritz jumped in shock at the accusation. “No Jeremy, of course not! Ugh! Anyway Charlie I need to run out for a sec, by the way who came by just now?” Charlie shrugged. “Just Lizzy, She’s going to The Dead Forest. She should be fairly fine I hope…” Jeremy looked at her concerned. “What? And you just let her go?” Charlie tensed up. “Look, she wanted to go, she’s not a baby! I’m sure she’ll be able to take care of herself, now let’s just fish this thing.” Jeremy nodded and continued working while Fritz left to get the parts.Meanwhile Elizabeth continued to make her way down the road to what appeared to be the front gate to a cemetery. To the left of the gate was a sign that had visiting hours written on it going from 9am to 12pm all throughout the week with a clock underneath. ‘11:38’ it read, she had only so much time. Scrawled across a sign on the front were the words ‘Be wary of the Dead Forest’. It was unsettling, and dark but nonetheless she was undeterred and went inside. “Wait… When was…” There was no corridor past the gate, so for one to appear seemed odd. She stopped for a moment trying to make sense of her surroundings when she found herself in a familiar place, a forest clearing. Same pond, same Lizard creature, and Sammy. He was obscured by shadow, but Elizabeth could still make out the distinct shine of his round glasses “You’re making quite a mess for yourself little missy…” Elizabeth stood her ground. “What are you on about?” He stepped in front of her, the water splashing beneath him with an intense fury. “Magic… I sense you’ve used it, and I’m asking you to stop…”Elizabeth yelled at him in frustration. “Why? I’m already so close to being able to free Sammy and the rest!” Sammy came to her defense. “She's right y'know, like I’ve been telling you!” The reptile looked at him. “Quite you, this is about her!” He turned back to Elizabeth. “It’s time to get off this path now, or you will destroy yourself and everyone you care about if you continue to delve into this…” Elizabeth scoffed at the lizard's words. “I don’t need to be warned by a random lizard sitting on its hind quarters! I’m doing what’s best for my friends!” She walked away feeling nothing but spite, determination, and anger. “Alright then, but one way or another you will face consequences little missy… That book will be destroyed…” Sammy interjected again. “And I’ll make sure it won’t be.” Elizabeth continued to walk forward, her walk quickly became a run until she seemed to fizzle away in the distance. Ending up in the graveyard, through the gates. It was a fairly typical cemetery, an open field, with graves surrounding the dirt path she walked. Looking in small crypts and behind gravestones even still she just couldn’t find what she came for. It seemed impossible, was she led on by a spirit in her dream, was the book even real, it had to be if the bear made such a big deal about it in her sleep. She continued, expecting to see the path continue but it just cut off at a thick woodland composed of rotted willow trees, and dead rose bushes. She couldn’t even hear any crows calling or see any for that matter.Clearly no one had taken care of it for years, but looking at how sharp and potentially brittle the thorns on the shrubs were perhaps that was the point. With no other option before her she ran head first into the thicket and began searching through the decaying flora, finding nothing but shrubbery. The thorns, as Elizabeth had assumed, were snapping and digging into her skin. But she continued on, un-wavered even if some of it felt and looked charred, still embering with a twinge of heat as if it had been recently set ablaze. Still, to her it didn’t matter; she just wanted the one thing. The whole reason she had put up with any of this to begin with.Eventually she came across a small clearing that she stepped through going into a tiny but open area with a stone lectern in the middle of the space surrounded by a glowing red moat. On top of it was a book that had what seemed to be the Seal of Solomon on the leather cover. Its aura was enticing, she had clearly come across something forbidden. Elizabeth couldn’t help but go over and pick it up, it was hefty and had a lot of pages, but most importantly it was in her possession now.Just as she went to leave with it however, the air around her seemed to increase in temperature, and a ghastly voice echoed from the trees. “Drop it…” She turned around to see where the gravelly voice had come from, but it looked like no one was with or around her. Her vision just kept flickering back to Clay’s apartment, but she just shook off the visions. Beginning to leave back the way she came when a large wall of fire began to surround her on all sides. Through the flames stepped a boy with charred copper hair who was wearing a cyan shirt. It was him, one of her best friends. “Carlton?! It can’t be…” “Oh, but it can be! And it is!!! Sorry for my rather ‘overcooked’ appearance, but that’s besides the point I need that book!” His grin was large and cartoonish, full of flat teeth that, while individual, appeared to just be long strands of bone moving up and down as he spoke. “What are you doing here? how do you know about this?” “Do you think Charlie and Sammy are the only ones who partake in folk legends?!” Elizabeth stepped back while Carlton stepped forward, his skin cracking and flames seeping through. “What do you want this thing for?” Carlton giggled at her inquiry. “To destroy it stupid. So that someone like you can’t just toss me away before I’ve gotten my closure…” Elizabeth was left appalled by the proposition, holding the book tighter as he continued to stomp forward. “Why? I need it to free you!” Carlton laughed again. “So just let the person responsible for my undoing walk free? Let them go without any sort of justice!? No, I’m sorry, but I can’t let you do that!” Elizabeth approached him, definitely. “What if I try anyway?!” Carlton grimaced at Elizabeth's statement. “Well then you’re just an obstacle.” His hands exploded into bright flaming orbs and the skin on his face began to flake away revealing glowing orange cracks across his face. “And obstacles must be surpassed!” He raised his fist and threw a fireball at Elizabeth, seeing what was ahead she dodged, landing just a small distance away from the ensuing explosion still holding the book. With no other option she opened the book and scrolled through all of the pages stopping at one in the middle. The words were written in Latin, but an illustration of a spirit disintegrating after getting hit by a flame made it more than clear what it was supposed to do. She began to recite the words while avoiding attack after attack. Elizabeth began to speak but something else felt like it was taking over. “Engulf this spirit in a cleansing flare!” A scar opened on her palm and a purple flame began to form in her hand. She was caught off guard by Carlton grabbing the arm she was holding the book with, causing it to fly and land several feet away. “Nuh, uh, ah! I don’t think so!” Even as she was apprehended Elizabeth still managed to throw the purple flame in his face.He screamed and staggered backwards as Elizabeth made a run for the spell book, grabbing it. Carlton looked up at her, with a significant portion of his face burnt away, about to throw more fire but just stood and glared up as the wind blew opposite of where they stood. The flaming wall around the pair went out and in its place large ice crystals sprung up from the ground and through them Elizabeth saw not her reflection but a silhouette of someone familiar. “I guess it’s time for me to go, I’m needed someplace and obviously the call of that place isn’t enough…” Carlton smiled for a second at the shadowy figure in the ice as he began to fade away. “Y’know what, you can keep the book. I guess that just means I need to work a little faster.” He disappeared completely and the ice followed suit and as Carlton seemed to turn to ash In the darkness, however, Elizabeth caught a glimpse of an illusion of Charlie fading with faint shrieks of pain and terror. Elizabeth sat stunned at what just happened for a second, not even noticing the figure approaching her. Only taking notice as they stood in front of her, it was Clay. “Liz, what are you doing here? Your mother was worried sick! What's with the… book, what is that?” She didn’t know what to say to him just silently following behind as he led her to Clara. “What are you doing here Lizzy?!” Elizabeth's mother hugged and helped her up as she shook off the visions of recent events. “Hey, mum, how did you-” “You weren’t home for an hour! Vanessa said you had gone over to Clay’s, so I checked there, but still, so I checked in with Charlie's aunt, and then Charlie. Now I’m finding you here!” Elizabeth, seeing her mother panicked, tried again to respond, but found herself relatively unresponsive and was instead simply taken out of the graveyard by hand, not saying a word all the while as Clay left. She blankly stared into nothing until as they made it to the car where she saw Mary running down the sidewalk to her, coming back to full consciousness from her shock she ran over to her. “Mary! I found it! I got the book!!!” She held up the piece of literature in front of her, from Mary's point of view the book looked semi transparent, flickering in and out of reality. The sight of it caused Mary to step back in shock. “You-I-how-” She shook her head, trying to keep it together. “You know what, cool, just hide it please… anyways I need to go somewhere tomorrow, and I wanted to know if you wanted to go too.” Elizabeth looked at her friend confused. “Where?” “That old burger place, there’s something there I need to deal with…” Elizabeth was concerned Um, sure! I don’t see why not, as long as we're safe!” Mary shook her hand. “Thank you Lizzy!” Elizabeth grinned as Mary walked away seeming to disappear in the distance as they parted ways.Chapter 5: The Twisted ones Elizabeth and Mary sat across from Charlie at a coffee table in a dimly lit office area as they all sipped tea. The room constantly seemed to change around them to look as if it had been through a fire. And Charlie herself wasn’t faring much better, her hair looking singed as well. Elizabeth deactivated her tape recorder and scrolled through her notebook, looking at the evidence she had just jotted down. “So… You went out with Cassidy and John to the woods and petrol station near Freddy’s and that’s it? That’s all you did on the night of Holly's birthday?” Charlie nodded nervously while Mary stared daggers into her, not believing any part of the story. “Bullshit… All you did that night was go to some woods, and then Carlton just mysteriously disappears?” Elizabeth put her hand on Mary’s shoulder trying to calm her down, but it was quickly slapped away by her friend. “You’re a lying snake Charlie! You’re leaving things out and you know it!” Charlie tensed as the pair continued to press on about the topic. “That’s all I know! Really… I guess he must’ve just followed us?” Elizabeth thought for a moment while reviewing her notes trying to piece it all together. Coming up with no definitive conclusion. “How? Why would he follow you aimlessly?” Charlie looked around the room frantically, seeing an old school newspaper on top of a shelf behind her, causing her to think back to a deal she had made with Carlton. “He wanted to get more money out of me for the school paper, the Christfield Academy Editorial, before it was shut down last year.” Elizabeth took note of that. “Okay he was extorting you, but how did he disappear?” Charlie stammered for a second trying to think of something else to say. Mary, unconvinced by the attempt Charlie was making, rolled her eyes and got up. “This is a waste of our time Lizzy, I’ll be outside if you need me.” Elizabeth nodded and let her friend go. “Sorry about her, Charlie…” Charlie sighed. “It’s fine Liz it’s my fault, I had to leave her, she couldn’t know…” Elizabeth looked at her with a puzzled gaze. “Couldn’t know? What are you talking about? Wait, did you-” Charlie panicked, It felt like the walls were closing in around her. “It was Cassidy’s idea! That’s all I can say, please, don’t tell Mary. I already hurt her enough.” Elizabeth still stared at her confused. “Don’t tell her what?” Charlie stammered trying to answer the question her friend asked. “Look, just don’t, okay!” Elizabeth recoiled, shaken by the change in mood. “Alright, just one more thing before I go… What happened to your dad? He disappeared after Holly’s party.” Charlie scratched her head in confusion. “Why would you need to know that Liz?” Elizabeth pointed the pen at her. “Because Michael wants to give my dad an answer to the whole Henry thing since the old fart has been M.I.A for a year now.” Charlie thought for a moment, but came up with no conclusion. “I’m not really sure where he went… He just kind of walked out of the family. First the loss of my brother, then the Divorce, and after that a guy in a fursuit running around. Killing people at his restaurants, it all became too much…” Elizabeth took that down, nodding. “Anything else? Did him or anyone see the suit the person was wearing or the guy underneath?” Charlie shrugged not knowing. “Nope, funnily last time he was seen he was walking out of Freddy’s all panicky. At least that’s what Jeremy told me after he got home from the birthday…” Elizabeth nodded again, got up, and left, meeting Mary in the dandelion laden front yard of the house. “So what did she say?” She clenched her notebook, and gritted her teeth in frustration. “Not much, Just something about the whole thing being Cassidy’s idea? With the inconsistencies in the story she gave it sounds like her, Cassidy, and John either ambushed him or they were ambushed by him.” Mary stroked her chin for a moment, soon figuring out the path the pair should take next. “So it’s settled then, we bring pressure down on Cassidy.” Elizabeth smiled confidently as the two of them began to walk down the street and part ways. “Oh yeah before I go, Charlie said something about hurting you?” Mary turned back to face her from the look on her face alone Elizabeth could tell that the question was not easy for her to take in. “We used to be close, closer than most… Then she burned that bridge, and I just don’t want to get into it.” Elizabeth was tempted to press further but heeded her friend’s wishes. “I get it, I’ll be here for you, see you later!” Mary gave a soft smile to her friend and walked away, Elizabeth doing the same soon after. Hours passed as the moon faded and the sun rose giving way to an afternoon of clear skies. Kenneth stood in a brightly lit greenhouse room full of flowers, and other floral related products as Cassidy applied ointment to the top of his head. “Ow! Fucking hell Cass! Do we have to do this now?” Cassidy slapped the back of his head in frustration. “Yes! Your doctor told you and your mum that this stuff had to go on twice every other week ever since that little accident on your thirteenth birthday!” Kenneth groaned and defiantly threw his head back. “I know! Fredbear’s knees exploded, and he fell on me yeah, yeah, yeah…” Cassidy rolled her eyes at his apathy. “I don’t know why you didn't bother to apply this stuff again yesterday, Ken!” Keneth huffed angrily as his girlfriend applied more ointment to his head. “Probably because it fucking stings?” Cassidy slapped his head again trying to get him to cooperate. “Could you please take this seriously Ken?! I don’t want you to be in any major discomfort.” Kenneth shrugged her off as she finished. “Yeah but- ugh look I appreciate the help before work, but I really need to go okay?” Cassidy sighed frustrated as Kenneth walked away grabbing a floral print apron off a rack, and putting it on while Cassidy left ahead of him. “You know I’m one of the only people who can help you, so maybe stop being such an ass! Or go get Gabby to help you.” Kenneth sighed at his girlfriend's remarks. “I have a mum to help me Cass, and why couldn’t Gabby help?” Cassidy’s nose flared with anger. “Because she’s a spaz! Unlike me.” Kenneth sneered in disgust at the comment that she made, but opted to not engage with her. “Ugh… whatever Cassy…” With that he walked out into the main area as Cassidy left the store. Gabriel sat at the front desk tending to a customer, Fritz was restocking some flowers, and all that was left for him to do was clean, organize, and manage the plants. It seemed like the day would be relatively normal as he walked around and performed various tasks. But that notion quickly fell apart when the door to a room with a sign above it that said ‘first time florists’ on it was kicked open. Out of it stepped a boy with charred blonde hair with bags under his eyes, carrying a large trash bag and wearing a gas mask. “Could you be any more obnoxious, John? Also what’s with the bag and-” John threw a gas mask to Kenny. “Put that on, get in the first time florists room, and start up rooting and chucking the Poppy’s With Sashley.” Gabriel walked up to John concerned. “What’s wrong with the Poppy’s?” John tapped his foot impatiently. “Nothing, the smell’s pretty killer though…” Gabriel’s eyes widened at the information. “OPIUM POPPIES?! My dad was sent a crate of those! How did-” John snapped back, cutting him off before he could finish speaking. “The delivery people are stupid airheaded fucks who gave your dad poisonous flowers.” Gabriel groaned and moved back to the front desk grabbing a large red do not enter sign putting it in front of the room. “Kenny, get the clippers put on the mask and start shredding.” Kenneth nodded going into the room, and Gabriel got back to his duties as more customers came in. One of them stood out, a figure clad in a red sundress carrying a basket, Gabriella. She stepped up to the counter and greeted him with a smile and a wave. “Hey Gabe! Do you remember what we planned today?” Gabriel thought for a moment. “Um… Yeah, the picnic, why?” Gabriella smiled and put the basket on the counter. “Well, I just came in to say that everything is ready for it! So I was wondering if we could go now? Cause it’s going to-” Gabriel ignored her and kept rushing, tending to other things and people. “That’s nice Gabby, but I still have an hour of work left.” Gabriella frowned and tapped his shoulder. “But it’s gonna rain in an hour though…” The both of them stared at one another for a moment, Gariel didn’t want to disappoint her, but it seemed like the day had other plans. “Oh, I’m sorry Gabby, maybe we should do it tomorrow?” Gabriella thought for a bit and then smiled as she grabbed her basket off the counter. “Okay, I’m sorry I tried to rush you, it’s just that-'' Gabriel smiled passionately, not even being upset. “No sweat Gabby, I understand! who knows maybe we could even-” He was cut off by a person walking up to the counter. “Excuse me!” Gabriella moved out of the way as another person pushed passed. It was Elizabeth in a pink jacket and a long jean skirt and sweatpants looking rather unkempt and irritated. “Are you alright Lizzy? You look knackered…” Elizabeth clenched her forehead in frustration. “Yeah Gabe, I just need flower seeds.” Gabriel crouched down and pulled a small box in front from a shelf below him. He placed it down in front of her, it was full of various flower seeds. “Which ones?” Elizabeth rolled her eyes, seeming to not want to drag her visit out. “Any will do.” Gabriel was becoming increasingly annoyed with her demeanor, but maintained a happy facade. “Well since it’s your first time here, how about a free packet of sunflowers!” He handed her the bag with a smile. “Don’t plant them all in one pot!” Despite his friendly attitude Elizabeth said nothing, just taking the seeds and walking back home, and going inside of her room. Everything was in place for the most part except for the white board being missing, it seemed her family was serious about her not solving the case. She sighed and walked over to her desk. On it was a flower pot full of dirt and the spell book, under her bed was a set of jars full of blood. She grabbed one of the jars and put it next to the book, sitting down and flipping through it. As she did, the words inside began converting themselves from Latin to English. Though that wasn’t the only interesting thing about it, A lot of what was inside interested her. From blood clones, to healing spells, to even curses, she wanted to try them all. However she was looking for something else, flipping through the text to a page that had a picture of a group of three roots on it with a recipe below. With the center root being the largest and having a face, Elizabeth began to follow the recipe putting the blood and seeds into the pot, repeating an incantation on the page afterward. “Rise new life from seed and soil!” The pot and everything inside began to glow neon green. “For me only, your master, you shall toil! RISE!!!” Long green roots sprouted from the pot and the longest one in the center looked up at her with two small black eyes and a smile. It squeaked at her as she went up to make sure it would do as told. “Uhhh…Dance!” Unsure of itself the creature tried its best as it began swaying back and forth. Elizabeth laughed and began swaying with her creation while clapping a beat, it imitated and began to clap along as well. After a small period she stopped it. Grabbed some sheets of paper, rolled them into balls, and showed them to the plant. “Alright, see these?” The monster nodded, staring blankly at her. “Attack!” She tossed them all up in the air at once. Something took over when the plant heard that word, and in an instant it sharpened its appendages and threw them at the wadded up paper, Stabbing and tearing through them effortlessly. Elizabeth was shocked at how quickly it dispatched the targets, slightly unnerved even. “Okay, that’s enough, close that jar.” She pointed to the blood filled container and it did as told, stretching its arms, grabbing the lid, and screwing it on. “Yes! I can’t wait to show you to Mary! C’mon!” She put the blood jar back under her bed, covered the plant over with a small towel, snatched it and ran downstairs, but just as she was about to leave Clara spotted her while preparing a stew over the stove. “Where are you off to?” Elizabeth stopped and answered. “Mary’s house mum, I’ll be back in a bit!” Clara nodded and refocused on the dish she was making. “Okay, also if you can, go down to the hardware store and get some badger traps if they have them. Somethings been killing a bunch of small animals.” Elizabeth wiped sweat from her brow as she walked out. “Okay!” She smiled nervously and left, closing the door behind her running down the street over to Mary’s abode. Knocking on the door a few times and it opened, there stood Mike holding a cup of coffee. “Hey kiddo?, what are you doing here?” “I’ve come to see Mary!” He chuckled for a bit at the timing. “That’s a coincidence actually! She was gearing up to come over and see you!” He moved out of the way to reveal Mary walking to the front, she was wearing a black dress held up by suspenders over a green t-shirt. She looked on in surprise as Elizabeth went inside and greeted her. “Hey! Mary!” Mary was left perplexed by the sudden appearance of her friend. “Lizzy! I wasn’t expecting you here, why are you here?” Elizabeth smiled and walked up to her. “Because I want to show you something.” Mary was flustered even more but went along with it as she led her to the dining room that was on the other side of the kitchen, and the both of them sat down next to each other. “So why are you here and what’s with the plant?” Elizabeth placed the plant down on the table and uncovered it. Mary scooted away in disgust of the green roots as looked up at Mary, reaching out to her with its long arms. “Mary, meet uh…” She realized at that moment that she never came up with a name for the creature. So she thought of one on the spot. “Theodore ! His name is Theodore . I made him with magic!” The potted creature smiled and waved eagerly, like a child meeting a new person. Cautiously Mary did the same as Elizabeth starred on with a grin. “He’s cute but the weird thing is I had to make him with blood, like every spell in the book, is it just like a thing with the book I have?” Mary sighed. “All magic requires physical sacrifice through carnal flesh and blood. Just because you made a cute assistant plant monster doesn’t make what you probably had to do any less mortifying…” Mary’s words dug into Elizabeth's ears like knives, it seemed that her book wasn’t an isolated case after all. Even if the spell she used didn’t involve blood directly it still was tangentially related, there was no alternative, sacrifices must be made, these thoughts coursed through her head. “I didn’t know that.” Mary put a hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her. “It’s fine, just don’t get drunk off the power, anyway we should probably get going now.” Mary got up and Elizabeth rose with her. “Going? To where?” Mary sighed in frustration at friends lack of retained memory. “Candy’s remember?” Mary stared at her as she went completely silent. “Oh yeah! Wait, that old place? It’s scheduled for demolition next week after it gets cleared out, why there?” Mary took a deep breath as they both began to leave, leaving Theodore behind, covering the monster with the towel as they did. “Have you ever heard of poltergeists?” Elizabeth thought for a moment, the word was familiar to her, but she couldn’t exactly pin down where she had heard it before. “Sort of, tell me about them.” Mary nodded with an uneasy expression. “Okay, well, I’ve been haunted by one for a while, they’re spirits tainted by their own hatred. The only way to deal with them is either banishment or make them possess something so large that they can’t fight back.” Her plan became clear, and without the book it seemed like the only option. “How are we going to get a spirit like that to possess a building?” Mary thought on Elizabeth's question as they continued to walk down the street. “I honestly don’t know, I was in a small private school with Charlie and Sammy, when we were younger. Our history teacher would go on and on about magic and spirits. Then she got to poltergeists, but before we could really get into anything about them we graduated and were transferred over to Christfield academy.” It looked as if they had to plan out a strategy in their heads as neither of them really knew how to deal with a threat like this. They made it and approached an abandoned restaurant slowly, the wind howling as it went in and out of the place. Everything about it told a story of a building that was once full of life. Just as the pair began preparing themselves to enter, Elizabeth thought of something. “How about we wear him out to the point he has no choice but to take over this place! Make him think that he could turn the building on us!” She smiled at Mary confidently, while her friend thought about it. “That could work, Lizzy, but we’ll have to focus him on both of us, spread ourselves out and spread him thin, it’s going to be difficult.” The pair got there and walked to the front, its blue and red coloration having faded with time. Leaving the place as a shell of its former glory. Elizabeth and Mary could only speculate on long passed goings on, the food, the games, and possibly the animatronics if there were any. The pair took a deep breath and went inside, it was dark for a moment, but the place quickly lit up as Elizabeth flicked on the lights revealing what used to be a show and dining area with a stage up against the wall facing the door. It was now full of boxes that were dotted around the place, some big, some small. At the end of the area was a doorway that led to a small section full of arts and crafts supplies. “The front doors are just… unlocked? Do you think that this is a trap Mary?” Mary took a look around, it was abandoned sure, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. “Either that or the people prepping this place to be torn down didn’t care all too much.” They waited for a few minutes checking around the place, soon discovering tags on the larger boxes that read ‘Property of Fazbear Entertainment INC.’ Elizabeth sighed deeply at the sight. “Of course my dad has something to do with this… Well there doesn’t seem to be anything here so-” The lights flickered and blew out one by one soon leaving the girls in near total darkness. Only a few lights remained, and standing under them was a man dressed in blue overalls with a beret of the same color, with a black and white striped pants and shirt combo underneath. His face was painted white with blue cheeks like a mime or circus performer, Elizabeth and Mary stepped back, as they recognized the person, Elizabeth had a look of admiration smiling brightly in shock and while Mary had fear smeared across her face. “Vinnie Clark?! I loved your puppet show when I was small, and- Wait didn’t you-” Vinnie stepped closer to them, loud banging and smashing sounding throughout the area as he did. The sounds of wood splitting apart and crashing onto the floor. “Vincent Clark, age 34, was found dead at the rat and cat theater, having hit his head on a table after a struggle with a ten year old girl…” He slowly raised his head, but not at Elizabeth, at Mary, as whatever was causing the banging stopped. “The child admitted guilt and for the sake of her and her family their identities will be kept anonymous…” He was still gazing at Mary as Elizabeth turned back with a panicked expression across her face. “Mary… What did you do…?” Mary tried to explain but was cut off as the both of them witnessed Vinnie’s body lengthen and contort. His face was completely taken over by painted skin only for another one to emerge. Unlike the last one it didn’t have a nose, the mouth was stretched into a long frown with gritted teeth, and empty eye sockets that drooped down just stopping by his face. It looked like his body could barely hold itself together, like it was melting The lights came back on and almost all the boxes were vacant, some things had escaped from them, it was clear to the both of them now that they would have to seek some kind of hiding place. Before they could do so, Vinnie pulled his arms back and then threw them forward causing them to extend rapidly towards the girls. They both jumped to the left to avoid the attack, his tendril-like appendages hitting the ground next to them. As the girls got to their feet they could see one arm retract but the other didn’t instead it made a dash towards them. Elizabeth still managed to get out of the way but Mary wasn’t as lucky. Getting grabbed by her abdomen and dragged by the riggling arm being brought straight to Vinnie just a few feet away from his face. Mary tried her damndest to escape but to no avail, all she could do was look into his non-existent eyes as they began to glow white. Suddenly Mary found herself in an elementary school one she remembered but hadn’t been to in a while, she couldn’t even remember its name. She looked out the window and saw where she seemed to be, her mothers home, Nagasaki. She stepped away from the window in fear, it all started to come together. The people around her were brightly colored people. They were mostly shades of Green, blue, orange,she looked down at her hands. She was a shimmering silver unlike everybody else. She walked around and explored trying to ask anyone anything, they just ignored her, everyone did. ‘What's the matter? Didn’t you want to be alone? Didn’t you hate them!?’ Suddenly they were all gone, she tried exploring again, the classrooms were labeled with katakana and drawings seemed to line the walls. They were all popular manga characters immediately, with a smile on her face, she tried to find hers amongst them and she did. It was defaced and drawn over by other people with little to no regard for her. Even her signature was scribbled over with someone else's. She was sad and frustrated but ultimately didn’t pay much attention to it. Instead checking around for a bit before heading into a classroom after not finding anyone. As she entered something felt off, there were people but they were hidden in shadows. They quickly surrounded her and began making noise, it sounded like many voices all in one. However, It quickly became clear what the voices were, a miasma of insults and ridicule aimed at her. From her face to her grades, the shrill yells targeted everything about her. She tried to yell back but was quickly defended by the shouts and silenced by the dark. She couldn’t take it and attempted to escape, but something was wrong, her movements were haggard and stiff. Everything around was getting darker again, and it felt like a large pit formed in her stomach. She looked at her hands, they were thin, weak, pale, and boney and her breaths haggard. It wasn’t long before she collapsed, unable to pull herself up. ‘Pity… So full of hatred for those around you, yet so full of a desire to be just like everyone else…’ The voices became even louder, drowning out her thoughts and just as everything faded to black. She yelled. “NO I DON'T WANT TO BE, AND I NEVER WILL BE LIKE ANYONE ELSE!!!!!” She got up and looked at Vinnie as he manifested in front of her. “I. AM. ME!!!!!” Everything seemed to fade away for a brief moment until Mary woke up suddenly and found herself somewhere else again. Yet another familiar location, A small one room beach house, she walked out of it and on the sand laden ground. It was somewhere in Saint Lucia, somewhere, that to her, was still fuzzy in her head but still just as familiar and on the shore was Elizabeth staring at her, there was no one else, just them. She ran out, calling to her friend but attained no response. “Lizzy? It’s me!” She still didn’t respond, just continuing to stare off into the distance. Mary became frustrated, despite the warm sun the whole area felt cold, fake. Even in this strange empty land she couldn’t even find solace in her friends. With no other option she looked into the apparition's vacant gaze. “Please, hear me… I can’t do this alone, not again.” The apparition's mouth began to move. “Cleansing flair!” Mary opened her eyes to find herself back at Candy’s with Vinnie’s arm tightly wrapped around her, crushing her slowly. A plume of purple fire shot up in front of her and the puppeteer screamed in pain. Elizabeth was smacked away, Mary in response bit his arm and was thrown off as well. She rushed to Elizabeth's side and held her hand. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?” Elizabeth got up. “I’m alright… Are you okay?” Mary was confused by the question, it felt like the first time she was asked this by someone who wasn’t her dad. Vinnie recovered and stared down both girls, proceeding to scream at them. Both girls, keeping their composure, looked at each other and nodded, splitting off in different directions, as the beast hunted them. Mary ran through the door next to the stage into a space full of machinery tools, and a conveyor belt, quickly taking refuge behind it. Elizabeth ran through the entryway on the other side of the room ending up in an art room. Taking deep breaths as she attempted to rationalize the situation. However before she could get any more breaths in the mechanical hand of an animatronic chimpanzee slammed down next to her. Much like the puppeteer it wore overalls, but this time in green. She got up quickly and ran around the area trying to distract the mechanized beast as it gave chase. It swiped and tried to grab her missing again and again, the robot’s clunky movements were unable to keep up with her as she led it to colliding with some of the boxes in the show and dining area. It slowed to a crawl as its internal mechanics failed slowly. Meanwhile Mary hid from two robot bobcats in, one purple and feminine with a bowtie, the other blue and masculine with a necktie. She snuck around trying not to bump into various pieces of machinery while avoiding the felines. “Where are you Mrs. hider? C-candy and I just want to play a game! You can’t hide forever!” Mary ignored the female cat’s poor attempts to draw her out as she snuck around the room sweating profusely. Barely squeezing past the large machine she just clutched herself behind, Mary knew if she were to move from that spot it would all be over for her. So she went silent, not making a sound until a loud clanking noise rattled from under her foot. It was a steel pipe, immediately she grabbed it and held the blunt object next to her as the animatronics turned their attention. “Look Cindy we f-fou-found her!” Their white plastic faces were unmoving as they spoke cheerfully as if the game of theirs was completely innocent. Although she knew better, with a stern determination she clenched the pipe and charged at them swinging. Getting in as many hits as she could, managing to crack open the shells in several areas, they were damaged but not down. With backup to boot, as the conveyer and the arms on its sides activated scrambling in an attempt to pull something apart while there was nothing on the belt. The felines tried to push her towards it. But she managed to run around them, only to be met by the deformed puppeteer once again. “I’m going to finish what I started all those years ago…” His fingers extended into long needle-like points that scraped across the floor, Mary was left afraid for her life, tripping and falling on her back trying to crawl away. Her fear was made even worse when more machinery in the room activated, all of it chanting and beeping ‘murderer’. Vinnie stood over her, but his form was less recognizable, appearing how it usually did , a blur. She closed her eyes expecting the worst. However the worst never came to pass, all of a sudden the machinery stopped as she saw the puppeteer seemingly fade into nothing. Elizabeth in a similar predicament experienced the same thing, the pair regrouped in the main show area with one other looking around confused as other things began to move. Boxes, dust, floor tiles, but just as things picked up they quickly died down. “What?” Vinnie’s voice echoed throughout the building; the plan worked. Every single reflective surface showed not the reflection of the girls but Vinnie. “How did you do this, you insolent little whelps?!” Mary crouched down and looked at him on the floor with not frustration but apathy and malice. “You did this to yourself, you played right into our hands, I’m done being haunted by the past.” The pair left as the trapped spirit howled; both girls ignored his pleas as they left for Mary’s house While walking down the road. Although Elizabeth couldn’t get what Vinnie said off her mind. She looked at Mary not knowing how to feel now, it was strange. It seemed like she couldn’t be trusted. “‘Hit his head on a table’ huh?” Mary tried to ignore her as they continued walking, Elizabeth was not having it, the whole situation didn’t make sense to her. “Well, are you just going to ignore me?” They both stopped, time seeming to just stand still as Mary looked away. “Look, I did a bad thing, but it doesn’t mean I have to pay for it with my life.” Elizabeth's jaw dropped in confusion at the statement. “I’m not saying you had to pay with your life! I’m trying to ask, why? Why, even if it was an accident, would you kill him?” Mary turned to her stuttering as she tried to answer as she began to cry, the memories flooding back to her. “He tried to kill me when it happened! I was just defending myself! So what, I-I should’ve just died that day?!” Elizabeth stepped back in shock as tears fell down Mary’s face as it grew red with frustration. “Why am I always the bad guy? Why do I always have to be fine with being hurt!?” Elizabeth began to panic, it was becoming clearer that her friend was in a state of absolute distress. Muttering, shaking, and crying, she could barely say anything else as she tried to rectify the situation. “You’re not! I just thought that- I didn’t know that he actually tried to do that.” Mary seemed to calm down slightly, and wiped her eyes. “I uh- I’m sorry that wasn’t right of me… I shouldn’t have lashed out like that.” Elizabeth ran up to and hugged her, realizing the error she had made in her judgment. “No! You can get as angry as you want! It wasn’t right of me to make assumptions.” Mary returned the favor with a hug of her own. After a short period of that, Elizabeth let go, and continued down the road to a bridge over a desolate and abandoned street, while Mary followed behind her. She stopped and stared off into the distance for several minutes. “I’m sorry… This whole mess has left me frazzled! I thought I’d have this case solved by now.” Mary looked at her. “It’s okay! I’m sure we’re close to figuring it out, look how far we’ve gotten! We even got Freddy's put back under investigation.” Elizabeth continued looking off. “Yeah I guess, still though, am I making the right choice to continue? We still have almost nothing on the killer, not a trace!” She picked up a small, crumbling rock and tossed it into the empty lane below, watching as it split apart into tiny fragments. “I took a risk with this whole investigation. The drop into it was long and scary at first, but then it became comforting knowing that we’d eventually get something that would put somebody behind bars, until now…” Mary didn’t know how to feel, it seemed like a lot of what Elizabeth was doing was weighing on her, but she knew she had to remain steadfast. “I know that it feels like we’re going nowhere, but we can’t rush this. If we do then many people may end up suffering for it.” Mary grabbed onto Elizabeth's hand. “Including you. I don’t know how else to say it, but you can’t give up here.” Elizabeth turned to Mary. “Thank you, now c’mon! Let’s get you home!” Mary walked with Elizabeth to her house as they spoke, continuing to patch things up with one another. When they got in the duo smelled a sweet vanilla scent running throughout the house, curiously They walked into the kitchen seeing Mike and weedy finishing off a batch of cookies. Upon seeing its master the plant hopped off the counter rushing over on its arms towards Elizabeth, it bounced and beckoned her over with an eager grin. The two girls looked at each other, shrugged and followed it over to the kitchen. “Ah, girls you’re back! Welcome! Me and this plant thing made cookies!” He handed them a plate of the confectionaries and eagerly awaited to see what they thought of them. Elizabeth began eating, while Mary stared at them sheepishly, her dad pushed them closer with a concerned look in his eyes. “Sweetheart you have to eat something… You’ve skipped breakfast and lunch already.” She nodded and took a cookie, Elizabeth stared in concern and confusion. “Is there something you’re not telling me?” Mary sighed, and continued eating. “I’ll tell you later.” Elizabeth nodded, refocusing on her plant creature as it helped Mike clean up. ‘Isn’t Theodore supposed to obey me?’ She thought, thinking back to the spell she chanted earlier in the day to create Theodore , comparing its actions now to what the spell demanded of it. “You okay Lizzy?” Elizabeth took another bite of the cookie she was holding. “Yeah it’s just, I’m supposed to be Theodore ’s master right? Right?” Mary shrugged, unsure of how to respond. “Maybe you have to train him?” Elizabeth shuddered at the suggestion, now aware of its capability to learn more than just basic commands. “No! It’s obviously not a dog, it’s intelligent! So maybe I should teach, not train?” She looked at her friend with a pleading gaze, but all Mary did was shrug again. “Whatever works, just keep to studying magic instead of using it after this, okay?” Elizabeth nodded as she finished off her confectionery, but she knew she couldn’t make good on the request. Her friends were trapped, and she had to do something. Eventually the moon rose, its dim light seeming to overtake everything in its wake. The pizzeria was especially not spared from its gaze. It felt like every night at the pizzeria was getting longer, even though Katelyn knew the layout at this point, things seemed to change on a dime only to then return to normal. One thing that connected all the apparitions was fire, she knew she was seeing things. Although she couldn’t shake the feeling that in some strange way the visions were trying to tell her something. Katelyn got off the stage and moved around the pizzeria taking extra care not to break the mechanical internals of the rabbit animatronic she resided in. Looking around and calling out to someone in the endless darkness. “Holly?” With no answer, she continued walking until she came across Freddy standing still in the dark. “Oh… It’s you, what do you want, Carlton?” He chuckled. “Nothing, I just wanted to see if you found her yet…” Katelyn sighed. “No, and if you’re here to mock me then save it I don’t care.” Carlton was surprised, not expecting her to ask that. “Mock you? I’m here to try and make you feel better!” Katelyn rolled her eyes at him, it seemed like he didn’t care at all. “The only way I’m gonna feel better is when I find Holly and get out of here!” Carlton chuckled at the lofty prospect. “Oh, well that may take a while, I haven’t seen her in a bit, but good luck on finding her! I’m sure you will…” He patted her on the shoulder before walking away silently. She was about to talk back to him but deemed it not worth her time and walked away as well. Meanwhile Sammy sat in the back room alone and surrounded by darkness, in front of him was a broken down yellow rabbit animatronic lying flat on the ground. Next to him was a strange fox robot that looked like a clown, but for the most part it was just him and his thoughts. “God… what am I doing? Every second I don't keep him in place he gets-” He was cut off by the door, and the sound of footsteps. Looking up he saw the chicken animatronic standing there. “Wait? Since when could Chica- Oh right, hi Susie…” The mechanical avian moved in front of and looked down at him. “Hi Sammy! Are you alright? It took me forever to find you… These legs aren’t exactly the most mobile.” Sammy laughed for a moment, then sighed miserably. “Yeah, tell me about it… Anyway, have you found that guy yet?” Susie looked down in disappointment. “No, unfortunately, I checked the office, but it was just Mary’s dad again. It’s getting really, really old.” Sammy too, was disappointed but not surprised. “Well, then all we can do is wait.” Susie angrily knocked a Freddy suit head off a shelf, causing other things to fall off with it. “UGH! Can’t you move or something? We need help Sammy and not just with finding our killer!” Sammy groaned as he tried to move the suit. “I’d love to, but no, the knees of this suit are broken. I can’t move, but at the same time, I don’t see many reasons to leave this static hull other than keeping him at bay and away from our friends.” Susie thought of a way to get his assistance for a moment, without a reason he would just sit there. “Is finding Holly enough of a reason to help, she’s been missing for a day now…” Just then the two were interrupted by more sounds of movement as someone else entered. “Oh my gosh it’s bonnie! Or is that you Katie?” Katelyn groaned in anger at Susie’s comment. “First off: We’ve been over this, please don’t call me ‘Katie’, Second off: I still can’t find Holly…” Susie sighed in defeat at the information, the task was feeling more and more impossible. “You’re just about as lucky as me Katelyn, maybe we should just move on, staying in this grease trap is getting ridiculous! I miss going to parties.” Katlyn huffed angrily at Susie’s proposition. “But I can’t move on without her! She was my responsibility that day, and I just forgot about her after mum dragged me around town! I don’t want to do that again…” Sammy felt his heart ache at the statement Katelyn made, pausing for a moment to think of a solution. “I understand how you feel, Susie and I will be more thorough with our search…” The tone of Katelyn's voice changed at the response. “Thank you both! Please… find her” She walked out of the space, while Susie turned back to Sammy concerned. “Are you sure Sammy? You know what will happen if you let Carlton-” Sammy stopped her. “You let me worry about him and our friends. For now we search, tomorrow is another day…” Chapter 6: Save them Charlie awoke in a forest, breathing heavily trying to adjust to her surroundings. It was an unfamiliar place, full of red trees, and red grass, but it felt like someone she knew had already been here. Even the random disembodied voice seemingly coming from the trees was familiar as it was murmured to her. “Lizzy?” She shook her head, she knew she couldn’t dwell on the feeling for too long, it was clear from the surroundings that she couldn’t stay. She had to find a way out of the area before something or someone found her. Charlie roamed around for a short period, looking for some kind of gateway to escape. Despite her efforts she just came across more of what she had already seen. Impatient and annoyed, she continued walking, not knowing where to go. All it seemed she could do is call out for someone, even if it attracted the eyrir of an unknown person. She continued until she hit a clearing, Seated on a dead fallen tree log across from her was a bright red Komodo dragon wearing a vest holding a fishing pole. Dejavu set in, but a part of her still knew that this was an all new experience, even as she got brief flashes to what seemed to be Elizabeth's memories. Charlie asked the reptile some simple questions, and the lizard answered vaguely, seeming to dance around the questions more and more. Irritated, she turned around and opened her mouth ready to yell into the endless foliage but just as she was about to, the air around her suddenly rose in temperature. Charlie looked around seeing the grass, leaves began to ember and char, she stepped back and started to run as flecks of glowing ash began to fall on her skin. Charlie ran back the way she came, brushing the ashes off of herself as they kept clinging onto her flesh and clothes. “Ah! H-help! HELP! Somebody!!!” The reptile, hearing her pleas and seeing the incoming fire, and Charlie running back to him. He pulled up his fishing rod from the water, threw out the line into the forest, and yanked Charlie next to him. “Show yourself, poltergeist!” All the pair saw between the trees were glowing eyes and glowing scars, and strange chuckling sounded throughout the area. The reptile looked at Charlie with an intense glare as the figure in the trees disappeared. “You need to leave… NOW!” Charlie took his advice and ran, still continuing to call for help, and just as she was about to stop at what seemed to be another clearing before being stopped by what seemed the person that she saw before. “Oh yes, won’t someone help this sweet, innocent, victim!?” She closed her eyes, quickly opening them again, seeing the figure had disappeared. Charlie turned around trying to check for the entity that seemed to be pursuing her, only to get struck in the face by the entity in the darkness. She fell to the ground in searing pain, cradling the side of her head that was hit. The person stepped forward, revealing themselves in the light of the crimson red sky. “Aw… did the baby get a bobo?” From the burning shrubbery Carlton emerged with part of his face seeming to be scared from fire. Although it wasn’t the fire he was creating, it looked like it had come from some other worldly source. “Here a little heat will make it feel better!” He raised his fist over her and from it threw a fireball, Charlie scrambled away from the ensuing blast opting to hide behind a tree. She could smell the aroma of burning wood a short distance away from her as she thought of her next move. “Come out Charlie! I’m not gonna hurt you that badly!” The threat wasn’t lost on her, she got up and frantically ran as fast as she could, tripping over herself in the process. Charlie tried to get her bearings but was quickly cornered by Carlton. “You really thought you could just outrun me… This place is like a maze with no end, no matter where you run I’ll find you eventually!” Charlie tried to punch him, her fist recoiling from the impact, it did nothing. “UGH! Why can’t you ever leave me alone!?” Carlton laughed at her frustration, it was like she had forgotten why he was even here. “Why? WHY?! You and those other two IDIOTS- You know what… Forget it, you know what you did and now you’ll finally pay, you sick, little, degenerate!” Charlie guarded her face as he was about to land another strike down on her but was quickly stopped by a ball of ice covering his hand, and had it tied by the lizard's fishing line. He turned around to see where the blast had come from and saw A familiar pair of glasses shining through the dark. The figure emerged clad in a blue t-shirt and overalls of the same color. It was Sammy, walking towards him with the lizard. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the suit stuffer? Here to put me back in the bear? Cause it worked sooooo well the first time!” Carlton grinned with a tightly clenched fist attempting to escape the fishing line, while Sammy stared at him with a cold demeanor. “I’ll make sure it’ll work this time, now get the hell away from my sister…” The temperature of the air dropped as large icicles began to form on the trees. Charlie could feel the deadly freeze but somehow was left relatively unaffected by it, simply shivering in place. Even still she stared in disbelief as Carlton ran to engage her brother in combat, melting the ice around him as he did. The komodo dragon continued to pull him back, giving Sammy an opening to run to Charlie as Carlton tried to swing at him. He grabbed her hand, continuing to run with her until they both lost sight of Carlton completely in the thicket. Charlie smiled and began to cry at the sight of the person who had been out of her life for so long. “Sammy! You’re-” Sammy, despite his own happiness, shushed her, looking around to make sure that Carlton wasn’t near them. “I know! I’m happy to see you too, but you’re in danger and if right now hasn’t made it clear, I will! Don’t return to Freddy’s! I should have done a better job protecting you from that…monster even a year ago.” Charlie hugged him, while beginning to cry. “Don’t leave me again Sammy! Please!!!” He noted her pleas, but ignored them as he pushed her away. “I don’t want to leave you again either, but I need to protect you… I couldn’t save you then, so let me save you now.” Before Charlie could respond to her brother her vision faded and she woke back up in her bed jumping up from her slumber. Just outside she could hear some people speaking to one another, so she quickly got out of bed and peered out her window with a notebook. On the lawn were three people, she could recognize all of them, her aunt Jen, Michael, and William… She leaned into the window to get a better grip on what they were saying. “You have to address all of this stuff Mr. Afton… The evidence coming forward is damning.” William grunted in frustration at what Jen had just said. “Jenifer, I can’t… It’s all just coincidences and slander, I wasn’t even at that party! It’ll blow over like it did the first time no point getting chuffed about it… Look, we'll talk more about this tonight at the conference at Freddy's okay?” Michael scoffed at his fathers apathy towards the situation. “Dad, you can’t just keep on passing on this…” William was getting annoyed, the seemingly endless questions gnawed at his mind. “I know that I haven’t been the best person throughout my life, but I’m not some person snatcher!” Jen rolled her eyes looking back at Michael with a sneering expression. “Do you really believe that? After what he did to your siblings?!” Michael nervously stroked his chin, thinking. “I’m not sure…” William's smile began to bend into a frown, his final glimmer of hope that his son would at least sympathize with him seemed to finally be extinguished. “Look please you have to believe me, if you’re really unsure, all I can say is ask Henry, I may even be able to-” Michael cut his father off abruptly, utterly flabbergasted at the proposal. “Ask Henry? He’s been cooped up in a shed hopped up on happy pills since this whole mess happened!” William snapped back at him in anger. “If you would let me finish! I have a way to get to him, maybe even get him out of that little shack and at the conference.” Michael rubbed his forehead not believing his dad whatsoever. “Alright, at least we have that security puppet thing Charlie built, so the pizzeria should be more well-guarded.” Jenifer sighed as Michael and William departed. “It’s a glorified security camera that hands people prizes… Look, this little talk has been fun but I have a niece to take care of… Call me if you guys need anything else.” Jenifer went inside of the house while Michael and William walked away. “Charlie I’m home!” Charlie came running down the stairs, a notebook tightly clutched in her hands. “Hey auntie! Sorry, but I need to go over to Lizzy’s! I’ll be back soon!” Before Jenifer could get a word in, Charlie rushed past her and was already halfway down the street. Meanwhile Elizabeth stood in the living room of Cassidy’s house in front of her and Kenneth. The atmosphere was tense as Elizabeth glared into her eyes with laser focus. “After a brief run though with Charlie yesterday, I get the feeling that whatever happened with Carlton was your idea?” Cassidy attempted to remain calm as her friend continued to press about the topic at hand. “I don’t really know what you're talking about.” Elizabeth silently groned at her indifference, but tried not to show it on her face. “What? So he just ran away?” Cassidy shrugged, treating the interrogation as if it was just a normal conversation. “Maybe… Look Liz, I think you’re making too many assumptions.” Elizabeth shook her head, this was the final straw. “No, sorry but Charlie told me to ask you about something you did that night, and your response is you didn’t do anything?” Cassidy shrugged again, still apathetic to the situation. “I might’ve done something that day.” Elizabeth pointed at her with the pen she was holding.“So can you tell me what happened that night, or will you continue waffling on?” Cassidy sighed unfazed by her friend's interrogative tone, still keeping up her passive mood despite the pressure. “I have nothing to say to you, and whatever that fuck wit said to you is a lie!” Elizabeth slammed her fist on the small table, rejecting the assertion. “Bull! I’m not going to accept two different cherry picked narratives! So you need to tell me what is going on now!” Cassidy got up in defiance, her mood degraded and her tone shifting to one of contempt. “Ugh! Like I said before I have nothing, now if you excuse me, I’ll be going out! Kenneth c’mon!” Kenneth sat nervously, refusing to obey. “I said c’mon! What's wrong with you?” Cassidy got closer to him with a displeased expression across her face, even still he mustered up the courage to respond. “Nothing it’s just that I made plans with the guys to-” Cassidy rolled her eyes and cut him off, having no interest in what he had to say. “Hush! You always have something else to do! Just say you want to leave me alone again!” Kenneth jumped in surprise, quickly rebuking Cassidy's argument. “It’s not that!” She picked up one of the cushions that was on the couch and threw it at him. “Then what the hell is it then?” Kenneth nervously scooched away from her and shrugged. “I don’t know! I just can’t always be around, y’know? We’ve been out together three times this week already… You even followed me to work yesterday!” Cassidy's face scrunched into a grimace. “So? I just like being with you, I didn’t know it was a problem, but if I have to go to that big Fazbear inventors showcase alone tonight then fine!” Kenneth reached out and tried to calm her down but was smacked away. “Don’t even! Y’know Sammy was more understanding of me!” Kenneth became irate at the mention. “You always pull this! I just can't be, okay?! I’m sorry for not being Sammy!” Cassidy huffed, seeming to calm down. “I never said you have to be Sammy, Ken, I was just putting things into perspective.” Elizabeth interjected before her brother could fire back. “That's enough Cass! Kenny, go hang out with your friends. Cassidy, sit down, we’re not done here!” Kenneth got up and left, while Cassidy did as she was told. “Why are you even going on with this interrogation? It’s not like anyone misses him.” Elizabeth rubbed her forehead. “He has a dad who misses him, a dad who's still the police chief.” Cassidy was surprised at the notion. “What…?” “Yeah, so since I can't get anything out of you, We’ll just continue after I get him down here.” Elizabeth was just about to get up when Cassidy grabbed her arm, she looked at her, seeming flabbergasted and fearful. “Look, if you want to know things, fine! Charlie came to me about a problem she was having with the Christfield Academy EdItorial. Her relationship was being held over her head by Carlton, we led him out to a forest and he just disappeared!” Elizabeth wrote that down slowly, absorbing every little detail, and when she was finished… She chuckled lightly. “So he just vanished in a forest?” Her tone became more fiery as she stared daggers into Cassidy. “Cass, that’s not an answer, that's a lie, and by the looks of it a bad one. What reason would you have to lure him out to a remote and wooded part of town?” Cassidy sat silently, fed up with the lack of an answer Elizaeth packed up her stuff in her bag and left. “Y’know what, fine be that way I’ll just go over to Clay's place later!” Cassidy remained silent as Elizabeth turned off her tape recorder, packed alongside her other things and left the house, going back to her home. She was greeted by Theodore who invited her inside. The abode was clean, cleaner than it normally was. “Did you do all of this?” The plant nodded, but quickly ran and hid when it heard footsteps coming down the steps. It was Michael in an expensive suit. Elizabeth was surprised, she ever expected him to wear anything like it. “Oh hey Michael!” He smiled and waved at her. “Hey, Charlie popped by earlier, said she was looking for you, something about an interrogation.” She brushed him off as she began to make her way up the stairs. “Well it’s gonna have to wait, I have some stuff to piece together.” Michael nodded in understanding. “Alright, I’ll be out with Vanessa” Elizabeth seized at the mention of that name. “Oh… Her…” Elizabeth's snide, and hissing tone wasn’t lost on Michael. “What is with you and her?” She looked away, trying to not let her brother read her expression. “Nothing.” He raised an eyebrow in response. “Really? Because she told me that you told her to ‘interrupt someone else's life’ Liz I know this is about Katelyn.” Elizabeth stepped back with her teeth clenched in a flurry of anger. “It’s not!” Michael was shocked by her reaction and tried to calm her down. “Me and her used to babysit you and Kenny all the time when you were younger. I know you’re sad that she may be gone, but you’ve got to move on from this!” Elizabeth was still left furious by that statement and without thinking she ran back down and slapped her brother, only slightly wincing at her actions as she went upstairs. “I hope you enjoy that date, nobhead.” Michael sighed, got up and left, whereas weedy, caught in the middle of the exchange, followed and did its best to comfort their creator. Michael walked down the street soon ending up at a restaurant that had a latin american styling to it with a hint of Indian architecture reminiscent of a hindu temple applied as well. Above it was a glowing sign that read ‘The Big Pot’. He went inside and took around, it was slightly empty, with only a few families seated and eating. Over to the far left of the space was an open kitchen full of people putting together dishes from both India and South America. The styling from the outside was further expanded on in the interior. Colorful marble pillars stood tall around everyone with various animals molded into them. He moved around the space for a bit before finding Vanessa sitting at a table, looking down at a menu and taking a seat in front of her. She looked up at him in surprise as he took his seat with her. “I was worried you weren’t going to show up.” Michael chuckled and picked up another menu that was lying on the table. “Well, I had a little bit of a hiccup with my sister.” Vanessa pondered on that statement for a moment. “Yeah, her, she doesn't like me very much does she?” Michael dryly sighed as his smile faded, seeming to gaze more intensely at his menu. “I think it has something to do with Katelyn.” Vanessa scoffed in frustration with the situation, and threw her menu down. “I know, but I feel like there's something wrong with me!” Michael put his menu down and rested his hands on hers, attempting to comfort her. “Don’t say that… You’re fine, she's just grieving that's all, and to an extent I still am too. But that doesn’t mean I want to throw away what I have with you!” Vanessa smiled, humbled by his words. “Thank you Michael, that means a lot coming from you.” Michael picked his menu back up, and ducked back behind it. “Hey it really is no problem!” Vanessa sighed again, the dreary mood falling over her once more. “Although what she said still hurts. I want to connect with her, understand her…” Michael thought for a moment, it was a strange request but it seemed like it could be interesting. “You know what! I’ll arrange a day out for the both of you! You’ll get to talk and maybe even open up to each other a bit more!” Vanessa smiled brightly. “I guess that could work, but where would we go?” Micahle thought for a moment “I think I have a place in mind!” Sashley walked up to the couple with a notepad and pen. “What are you two love birds ordering?” Michael looked up from his menu. “Oh! Ummm…. the Pakora, how's that?” Shashly wrote his order down. “It’s pretty popular at this place, it's a fried vegetable fritter made with potatoes, onions. All that stuff.” Michael nodded in understanding. “Alright I'll have that with some taquitos.” Sashley turned over to Vanessa. “And you mam?” Vanessa gazed briefly at her menu, but was unsure of what to order. “Oh, just what he's having.” Sashley wrote down their orders and took the menus. “Damn, small meals, huh? Alright! Your food will be out shortly.” Vanessa and Michael nodded as Sashley went and entered the kitchen handing the piece of paper to a chef before hearing a knock at the door next to her. She walked up to the door and opened it, seeing Charlie standing there. “It’s not Liz’s dad, I don’t know who, but it’s not William.” Sashley glared confused, frustrated at the interruption of her job. “What are you talking about?” Charlie held up the notebook as she scrolled through it. “The investigation! I had assumed that it was Liz's dad but we may need to start finding ways to get through to my father.” Sashley sighed and rubbed her brow, still angry. “Alright, then get Liz and ask around, I’m kinda busy with waiting tables at the moment!” Charlie nodded and ran off to the afton house as quickly as she could, while Elizabeth sat with Mary in her bedroom. “All this evidence… the clown, the bear suit, all of it! What does it tell us?” Mary thought for a moment and was about to respond when several knocks sounded from the front door. Mary went down and opened it with interest, but was immediately apathetic to the person there. “Can you just piss off?” Charlie was taken aback by Mary's anger. “But mary I-” “No, no more from you, you daft cow, I wish to tolerate you no longer!” Elizabeth sprinted down the stairs to see what was going on. “Charlie, what are you doing here?” Charlie took a deep breath and began to explain. “This morning I overheard your brother, Father, and my aunt, Jen, talking about the party, and they said something that I need to tell you about!” Mary grimaced and looked over to Elizabeth. “Are you seriously going to let her in and waffle on?” Elizabeth began to get slightly miffed at her friend's hostility. “If she has something important to say then we need to let her say it.” Mary relented and let Charlie inside galring her down as she entered. “I’ve been running around all day trying to get someone from our group to see, but everybody was busy. So I came here hoping you wouldn’t be busy as well.” They all went back to Elizabeth's room. “So what did you come to tell us, Charlie?” Charlie handed Elizabeth the notebook. “You know how your dad was our main suspect? Well I feel that may not exactly be the case, I overheard him outside my house this morning talking about how he wasn’t even at the party!” Elizabeth and Mary sat shocked,dumbfounded at the possibility. “This whole time we’ve been following a red herring?!” Charlie responded to Mary with an affirmative nod. “What's more is that he got back in touch with my dad, and they’ll both be at the pizzeria tonight.” Elizabeth stroked her chin, puzzled. “Okay but if not my dad, who else could it have been?” Charlie put down and opened her notebook in front of Elizabeth to see what she had written down that morning. “Who else Lizzy? Think about it!” Elizabeth’s eyes widened, but quickly narrowed with skepticism. “It could be Henry, but we need some more than just assumptions and second hand info. My dad is a known liar, always saying things when it can help him… How do you think he got so rich?” Mary thought for a moment, soon coming to a conclusion. “We could go down to the Fazbear corporate office to interrogate them?” Elizabeth was thrown off by the suggestion, disgusted that she would even bring it up as an option. “No! My dad’s an utter nutcase! And we don't know if Henry is either!” Mary scoffed at her friend's hesitation. “Well, If not you then me, we’re going to get to the bottom of this!” Elizabeth was in shock at her friend's proposal, but after pausing for a moment she relented. “Ugh, fine! But I’ll be coming along with you, and doing the interrogating! How about you Charlie?” “Actually you won’t need to head to the office! There's an important meeting at Freddy’s tonight. I have to go back there, to get something of mine with Fritz, John, and Jeremy anyway.” Elizabeth nodded. “Alright, well Mary and I will be getting ready to go to that with you, by the way, can I borrow your notebook? I might need it to rebut some of mine or your dads answers.” “Yeah go ahead! Just make sure to bring it back to me okay?” Elizabeth nodded as Charlie left the room, Elizabeth turned her focus back to Mary. “So how are we going to get my dads attention, it's not like we can just corner him.'' Mary began to formulate a plan in her head. “I say we get him alone just before the event and ask some quick questions, this could also be our chance to free our friends using that book, also Liz.” Elizabeth looked at her friend puzzled “Yeah?” Mary pointed to weedy who sat on the dresser. “Can Theodore hurt people?” Elizabeth reached under her bed, pulling out a bundle of paper and throwing it over at the plant. “Weddy, destroy!” The plant beast obliged, cutting the bundle to ribbons with its arms. “Yep, we have a bodyguard.” Mary winced cautiously but was nonetheless relieved to have some form of assistance, should the worst come to pass. “Cool, keep him close, I’ll ask my dad if I can go.” Mary got up and left while Elizabrth scoured through her closets for something to wear, and just as her friend exited the abode she heard another knock at the door. She grabbed Theodore , the spell book, and the notebooks, put them in a duffle bag, and walked downstairs opening the door again, getting greeted by her brothers. Seemingly out of nowhere she hugged her older brother as he came up to greet her. “Um, you okay Liz?” She said nothing at first but glared at him with a look of shame across her face. “I-I’m sorry I-” Michael pulled her off of him and put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s alright… just don’t do it again.” Elizabeth nodded. “By the way. Michael, Kenny, what's this about?” Kenny grabbed her by the hand and ran over with her . “How about we show you!” She was brought over to a large yellow campervan. Most of her friends were there all clad in suits and dresses, Gabriel, Fritz, Jeremy, Gabriella, Cassidy, all standing and talking. Cassidy and Gabriella stood out as their dresses mirrored each other, both were predominantly black, but Gabriella’s had red hearts adorning her’s, while Cassidy’s had yellow spades on her’s. Elizabeth was dazzled by the clothing but still confused by their presence. “Wait, why are Cassy, and Gabby here, whose van is this?” Kenneth pointed to himself. “They’re me and Gabriel's Dates tonight, and the van? It belongs to vanessa!” Elizabeth groaned. “Really?” Vanessa stepped in front of her. Yes, really silly!” Her warm compassionate smile was met with Elizabeth's dull and quivering gaze. “What's wrong Lizzy?” She nervously choked out a response. “I just- why are you doing this?” Vanessa replied to her. “I thought it would be fun if I took you there, you can even ride in the front if you want!” She waited for a response from Elizabeth while still smiling. “Um, thanks, it’s just that-” Vessa jumped in surprise. “Did I say something wrong?” Elizabeth shook her head. “No, Vanny… It’s just- why are you trying to get so close to me?” Vanessa was left dumbfounded. “Because, I want to be a person you can depend on, a friend if you want.” Elizabeth paused for a moment. “I’ll think about it…” She got in the van with the others and drove off. The ride was mostly silent until it was broken by Vanessa. “Y’know you remind me of my cousin, Susie.” Elizabeth looked at her confused. “How so?” Vanessa's eyes seemed to droop a little as she reminisced. “You're both outgoing and care a lot about others.” She looked out the window longingly as she began to tear up, but quickly re focused on the road. “God, I miss her everyday… I just wish she was still here.” Elizabeth sighed, relating to the story. “I understand, she was my friend, one of the first people I shared anything with.” Vanessa smiled hearing that. “Really? She was never very open with me about her friends, I hope wherever she is, she’s fine.” Elizabeth couldn’t help but feel bad, knowing what she was going to have to tell her. “I’m really sorry for your loss.” Vanessa was surprised. “You don’t have to be sorry for anything kiddo, I should’ve been there.” Elizabeth nodded. “So what’s going to happen when we get there?” “A dance, then an announcement from the Fazbear founders, and then the investor showcase. Oh yeah! Michael and I have something special for you when we get there!” Elizabeth was intrigued, she thought of all the things that the gift could be, even if it was school supplies. “What is it?” Vanessa smirked, clearly awaiting her to see something. “You’ll see.” They pulled into the parking lot of freddy’s, the missing posters were still there. Reminding Elizaeth of why she agreed to this in the first place. All of them got out and went in seeing that the main area had been cleared out entirely. There were already a few people there that were dressed as well as they were, standing around tables and chatting. However, most of them stood around a large open gift box with a green eyed mime-esq robot. It seemed to be staring at them as they moved around. Elizabeth couldn't help but be unnerved by it though, its stark white face, paired with the blood red cheeks, and entirely black body. It looked like something out of a nightmare. But nonetheless Elizabeth refocused on what was planned for her. “The surprise is a fancy party?” She was confused and disgruntled as they all walked inside seeing everyone chatting about their own achievements. Vanessa pointed to a door at the far end of the room next to the main stage. “Not quite, go backstage, your brother and I hid it there!” Elizabeth wasn’t sure if she should as the door said in big bold yellow letters ‘employees only’, but she was curious. So did as she was told. Placing her bag down on a table that was on the left side of the room, and going past the door and into the back. Going Shuffling past boxes of spare parts and costumes unnerved by some of the staring party masks in the shape of the characters. There, in front of her was a large scarlett gift box, she walked up to it with an air of caution, reaching out, and opening it. Inside was a dress the same color as the box with a small crescent shaped emerald on the chest that facing up, but before she could even touch it she heard a man humming behind her, she whipped around locking eyes with none other than her father rearranging boxes. She was startled, and considered making a run for the door with the box but at the same time, this was it. He was right where she wanted, it was still her father, however, every push, every hit. It all came back in a miasma of bad memories, although she remained steadfast despite it. “What happened that day?” William looked over to her with surprise in his tone. “Excuse me? Why are you here Lizzy? A girl like you shouldn't be here alone, this is a staff only area.” She was losing hold of the situation, she had to keep questioning. “What I'm doing here doesn’t matter! All that matters is that day, at the party, Holly’s birthday, the evidence I’ve gathered and have given to the cops implicates you as a prime suspect!” William looked back at her with sadness in his eyes. “Well if that's the case then you might want to drop me. Because I wasn't at that party, sweetheart…” Elizabeth was left stumped and angered. “What?! Are you sure? Because for all I know you could’ve been as drunk as an albatross!” An even more desperate look crept across her fathers face. “I'm telling the truth Lizzy! I was at the office that day, I don’t know where the hell Henry was-” Elizabeth stopped him at the mention. “Wait… you didn’t know where Henry was?” Willam raised an eyebrow in intrigue. “Yeah… he was just gone, an hour after the disappearances I couldn't even get in contact with him.” Elizabeth pieced it together and the picture was clearer than ever. “In my last interview with Charlie she mentioned a black bear costume, there was a bear suit here! What happened to it?” William thought for a moment. “Most costumes were tossed out, or given back to their rental services, sorry to disappoint.” She took in the information, and was about to run out of the room with the gift box, her exit was stalled by her father. “Wait! Liz, Could you be on stage tonight? Michael and your mum already agreed to-” She grunted angrily at the suggestion. “You put me in the hospital… No…” With that she dashed back to her duffle bag, grabbed out the notebook and wrote down the things her dad had told her, she put it back in the bag and looked at Theodore . “Stay here, I’ll be right back.” The plant gave her a close approximation of a thumbs up with one of its tendril vines. She ran over to the restroom, got changed into her dress and walked around the pizzeria for a few minutes soon coming across Fritz staring at something in the back room. He stood, seemingly saddened by what he was looking at, but at the same time reminiscing fondly. “Hey whatcha looking at?” He sighed and turned to her.“Oh it’s Nothing Liz, I just can't believe that they kept her…” They both looked inside seeing a pink and white, clown themed fox animatronic laying face down, it sat next to Fredbear with most of the outer fabric and fur torn and decayed. Elizabeth recoiled in horror at the robot's decrepit, and withered appearance. “What is that thing?” Fritz stepped inside to get a better look at it, almost touching it, but wincing away as he tried. “It's just something Charlie and I made for my little sister’s birthday, she only got to see it perform once before she disappeared.” Elizabeth tried to think of a scenario to make him happy. “Well maybe you could get it up on stage? I’ll help!” Fritz sighed, disgruntled at the suggestion. “No it’s fine, they tore her to shreds anyways… C’mon the show starts in a few hours anyhow.” As the pair left Elizabth could almost swear she saw something staring at them from behind the purple curtains in the room. Chapter 7: You can’t The floor shined, the walls glistened, and renaissance era music filled the room as everyone danced the waltz. It looked like everyone was having a good time, but all Elizabeth was focused on was the animatronics on stage. She stood alone next to the table her duffle bag was on, taking the spell book out of it. Some part of her knew that her friends might be inside those performers. She looked back to the spellbook looking for any spell that would be able to get her friends out of their predicament. At the same time making a plan to confront Henry if he even showed up. Marionette as it slowly spun to the music, seeming to watch everyone while doing so. It seemed like it was just running through some pre-programmed motions. One thing she found odd, were its camera eyes, the move with the fluidity of a human eye. It was uncanny glancing back and forth from her book only to see it gaze around as if it was looking for somebody. Before she could question anything, Charlie hastily approached wearing a sparkling blue dress. “Hey, nice shindig innit?” Elizabeth couldn’t focus, the puppet was looking around at everyone, like it was alive, it was unnerving. “Yeah… What's this thing supposed to do?” Charlie turned to look at her creation as it looked back at her unmoving. “The marionette? Jeremy and I programmed it to give gifts, and watch kids with its camera eyes to keep them safe!” Elizabeth was impressed by her friend’s creation, but even still, she couldn’t help the feelings of boredom and unease creeping over her. “I’ll see you later for the showcase Liz!” Just as Charlie left for the arcade she felt a tap on her shoulder, she looked over to the person seeing that it was Mary clad in an orange and white kimono. “Oh Mary… I didn’t see you there.” Mary shrugged. “It’s fine, I just wanted to check on you, you’re not really doing anything.” Elizabeth sighed. “It’s just that this party is so damn boring, Bonnie and Chica are just twitching on stage, and I don’t even know where Freddy is.” She tried not to make the situation awkward, but couldn’t help but stare at what her friend was wearing. “What’s with your attire?” Mary was flustered by the question, but tried to answer anyway. “Oh, this is just what my grandma got me for my birthday, I didn’t have anything else…” Elizabeth smiled, understanding her friend’s plight. “Well, it's a very pretty kimono!” Mary chuckled and smiled at the positive comment. Thanks! Your dad’s gonna come out and do the big announcement thing in a bit so I thought we could kill time.” Elizabeth couldn’t think of many things to do, it didn’t seem like there was much to do. “By doing what?” Mary shakily held her hand out in front of Elizabeth, her body quivering, although she tried her best not to seem nervous. “B-by dancing.” Elizabeth looked away sheepishly. “That’s nice, but I think I’ll just stay here.” Mary took in a deep breath. “What are you? Scared?” Elizabeth was nervous as some people began to look only to turn away. “No, it’s just that… Is it normal for people like us to dance together?” Mary grunted in frustration. “Who cares? I mean do we have anyone else?” Elizabeth looked over to the other side of the room and considered dancing with Fritz for a moment. Although she didn’t want to take Fritz away from the other boys. Especially while they were having fun, and talking amongst themselves. “Sure… Why not.”She grabbed Mary’s hands and went onto the main floor with her doing the same dance as everyone else in the makeshift auditorium. Elizabeth wasn’t too focused on anyone or anything at first, but the occasional glances from others were off putting enough not to notice. “Mary, people are staring.” Mary blushed in embarrassment, although she brought herself back to her senses. “So? What are a few glances gonna do?” Elizabeth trusted her friend’s judgment and continued dancing despite everyone's glares. Comfortable with the dance Mary leaned in closer. “This is nice y’know, someone caring after the two years I spent in japan.” Elizabeth stared down at her in confusion. “What do you mean?” Mary looked back, trying to remember things from her childhood. “If I recall, after my mom was gone, my dad and I moved to japan for a while. I would get bullied constantly at school, I was the weird girl, the anomaly.” Elizabeth felt bad, thinking back to a time when everyone ignored her, even Kenneth. “Oh, I know how you feel, I was treated like that too for a bit, you're not an anomaly. You’re you and that’s all you need to be!” Mary started to feel slightly better even as people stopped dancing and more began staring at the pair. “Thanks, at least I have you and my dad now…” Elizabeth didn’t know how to feel, it was nice at first, but quickly became like a hot iron against her throat. To add on, peoples gazes started to feel like hands strangling her, never ready to let go. All she knew is that she had felt like this before, stepping away before the two of them could finish their dance. “Liz, are you alright?” Elizabeth distanced herself from Mary and began to back away slowly. “Yeah, I’m fine! I just need to cool off in the arcade.” She began to maneuver through the crowd away from running over to the far right side of the pizzeria, stepping into the neon lit game room. She looked back for a moment seeing Mary standing alone, part of her wanted to go back and continue the dance. Although at the same time she feared everyone staring, so she stayed in the arcade. Three of her friends were there, Cassidy, Gabrella, and Gabriel, Gabriel and Gabriella were in a deep conversation. Meanwhile Cassidy was playing a racing game, Elizabeth walked up to the couple. “I don’t mean to interrupt but, what are you all doing here?” Gabriella looked up at her and away from Gabriel. “I didn’t want to be near all the people, it was just too much.” Cassidy scoffed and gazed away from the game and over to her sister. “Everything is too much for you! You always need to be helped up by everyone else.” Gabriel stepped up to her, with a grimace across his face. “Leave her the hell alone Cass, she didn't do anything to you!” Cassidy shoved him back defiantly, not taking any of his anger seriously. “Well, maybe I would if you and my parents didn’t enable her problems.” Gabriella was not deterred by her words despite their offensive and combative nature. “Well, maybe you have those same problems.” Cassidy’s mouth widened in shock then she stormed off angrily, not saying a word to anyone as she did. “Sorry about her Liz…” Elizabeth sighed but then smiled. “It’s fine! She’ll sort herself out eventually, do you guys want to play any games before the show?” Gabriella checked the pockets on her dress. “I’d love to but I think Cassidy took all the quarters.” Elizabeth was annoyed by this development, walking out to confront her acquaintance on the dance floor, but stopped when she heard her talking to someone. She looked past some of the people and saw her chatting with John, stepping closer trying to listen in. Instead, bumping into the headmistress of her school, she tried to walk around her but stopped when Mrs. Danburry took notice of her. “Mrs. Danburry! I didn’t see you there!” She smiled awkwardly, hoping the interaction would be short. “Neither did I… I hope you’re keeping up on your schoolwork.” Elizabeth quickly put together an answer in her head, hoping that whatever came out of her mouth would make for a satisfying answer. “Of course I am, I would never skip past a good studying session!” The attempt to rush past her was not lost on Miss Danbury, her expression furrowed. “I'm serious young lady! This is your future, I know you’re trying to do some good for Christfield, but that should not come at the expense of your marks, understand?” Elizabeth nodded nervously, still trying to step away as she continued. “Anyway, I hope you have some fun at my older brother's little charaid he’s got going on here. He’ll be on stage in a moment.” Elizabeth was shaken at another mention of her dad. “Um, yeah! I’ll try… if you could excuse me!” She pushed past people as they stopped dancing and started looking towards the stage. Getting close enough to hear Cassidy and John, but not close enough to make herself known to the pair. This time however they had a third person with them, Charlie. “Idiot! Why, after I told you not to say anything, you try and spill it all!?” Charlie spat back in frustration. “UGH! Because I’m tired of living under your thumb, Cass!” John shoved her. “It’s either her thumb or a jail cell, take your pick.” Charlie was about to respond, but cut herself off when she noticed Elizabeth, the others followed where she was looking off to. Seeing this, Elizabeth tried to get away, but was snatched collar first by John and thrown to where he, Cassidy, and Charlie were. “Well, well, well, lookie here, an eavesdropper…” Elizabeth got on her feet, and stamped up to Cassidy, with an enraged expression. “You know what you did!” Cassidy chuckled and smirked, which quickly turned into a sneer. “So you heard everything? Lovely… Yes, but it would be a miracle if actually managed to prove anything.” Elizabeth scoffed in defiance. “I don’t have to prove, squat! I already have both sides of the story!” With that revelation Cassidy looked over to Charlie and gritted her teeth in anger at her. “You little blabbermouth minx!” Cassidy tried to grab Charlie but was unsuccessful as she ran into the crowd. “You know what, forget it!” Cassidy and John turned back to Elizabeth, even though they weren't expressing it, she could tell they were planning something. “All that matters now is making sure you can’t say anything!” Elizabeth smirked and laughed, thinking they couldn’t do anything to her. “And how do you plan to do that?” John cracked his knuckles. “How do you think?” Elizabeth’s smirk faded and she backed away cautiously while Cassidy and John continued stepping forward. Charlie on the other hand ran over to the party room, stopped inside, and checked for anyone else. Taking a defensive stance as two figures entered the area, calming down when she realized it was just Fritz and Jeremy. “I’m just saying, you have to get over Gabriel, lad, I’m sure there are others out there.” Jeremy sighed. “I know, but it just feels like I’ll never find the one…” Jeremy looked to the ceiling longingly. “Don’t be like that, I’m sure you will, for all we know it might be me?” Jeremy laughed at first but turned back to him. “Wait, are you serious, or?” Fritz jumped up at the realization of what he just said. “What!? No! I mean it’s cool if you- I-I don’t swing that way…” Jeremy snickered and patted his shoulder. “Are you sure?” Fritz looked into his eyes, and thought for a moment. “Maybe, I haven’t really been too sure recently.” Jeremy looked at him confidently. “Well, I’ll give you time if you need.” Charlie, while intrigued with the interaction, interrupted them. “That’s nice and all, but what are you two doing here?” The pair looked over to her with surprise, they expected her to be anywhere but where they were. “Oh, nothing much, just taking a breather while the speech goes on, you?” Charlie looked at Fritz nervously, trying to think of an answer. “Oh- um…It got too crowded.” Jeremy scratched his head at her response, not really believing it but accepting it nonetheless. “Eh, understandable, what do you want to do while we're here?” Fritz stroked his chin looking around, soon sapping up with an idea. “Let's look in pirates cove! It’s been out of order for a while.” Jeremy, seeing nothing better to do, went along with it, while Charlie reluctantly followed behind them. Fritz went up to the small stage and pulled back the curtain revealing a damaged fox animatronic, its head tilting off to the right. It only had one eye visible as the other was covered up by an eyepatch, it also wore brown shots and had a peg leg. Charlie looked at it nervously, it clearly was not cared for after a certain point, looking like it was about to fall apart. A sharp hook replaced its left hand and shone under the light, seemingly ready to tear into anything or anyone thrown its way. Fritz found her fearful reaction odd, as if a ghost had appeared right in front of them. “What's got you spooked? it’s just Foxy, y'know I thought they got rid of him.” None of them noticed it beginning to move slowly as it stared down at all of them. The trio continued talking amongst themselves as the animatronic creeped up behind fritz. “You wan-want to be a pirate? F-f-first you’ll have to lose an eye-eye and an arm!” The mechanical canine lunged forward, just barely missing Fritz. The red haired boy leaped out of the way as it made a b-line to Charlie with its jaw open ready to bite her. She was frozen at first, but moved out of the way as soon as the animatronic got close enough to her. However it didn’t let up on its chase even as it crashed into a wall. Jeremy frantically looked around for anything to stop its rampage, grabbing a picture frame from off the wall, throwing it at the fox. The robot turned to look at Jeremy for a moment before resuming to chase charlie. Fritz scrambled to find something to distract it, soon coming across a strobe light behind the stage. He grabbed it and pointed it to the fox. “OI!” The animatronic stopped and locked eyes with him as he turned the light on. Charlie covered her eyes as she ran away the fox however, couldn’t seem to look away. Beginning to twitch and thrash giving the trio some time to escape its murderous grasp.On the stage Katelyn kicked and jerked as the body she resided inside while standing in a dark corner With Susie. “What’s wrong Katlyn? Is Mr. Afton’s speech bothering you?” Katlyn became even more panicked in her movements. “No! It’s not that… I hear, I hear-” Susie turned to her with concern. “What do you hear?!” The sound around her became muffled and the things around her became a blur. “I need to get her somewhere safe! She's not okay! She’s-” Her vision went dark, but quickly returned as she found herself in a red forest. Although that didn’t matter because just up ahead in the woods was a clearing. A large lizard stood over Holly, Katlyn rushed forward ready to protect Holly from what she viewed to be a threat. “Let her go!” The lizard looked down at her. “I’m not doing anything to her… She just showed up convulsing, so I calmed her mind.” Katlyn grabbed Holly, and made her look into her eyes. “Holly?! Are you okay!?” Holly opened her eyes slightly. “I was trying to get Charlie because she hurt Freddy, and Freddy wanted me to hurt her back!” Katlyn was surprised and confused. “What?! And you just believed him!? Holly I’ve told before not to get involved in other people's personal vendettas, even if they ask.”Holly looked down in shame. but Katlyn raised her head. “Don’t be sad, it's not your fault we all get strung along sometimes, now come on let's get out of here.” As they began to walk Holly pulled back as she began to remember what happened at the cove. “Fritz was there, and he put a light in my face, where were you? I was scared and he didn’t even seem to care while he did it…” Katlyn grabbed her hand and started to walk again as she began to work. “We’ll worry about all of that later, let’s just go and-” Holly let go and ran off on her own. “NO! I’ve had it with everyone ignoring how I feel and what I want! If no one's going to help me, then I’ll just help myself!” Katlyn tried to run after her, but before she knew it Holly was gone again, disappearing into the darkness. Meanwhile Elizabeth snuck around the crowd in the main show area to the table her duffle bag was on slowly as her father seemed to finish his speech. He walked off stage as the audience applauded, stopping when her older brother walked on stage with several inventors that looked to hail from all across Europe. starting his, she opened it and shook Theodore awake. “Theodore , there are two people after me in this crowd, one of them has black pony tales and has a boy with her.” Theodore peeked out from the bag as Elizabeth tried to hide herself in the crowd.He jumped out, locking eyes with Cassidy and John as they approached. They both stared at him with confusion as he moved over to them. John charged forward ready for an easy fight, he pulled back his arm and fist about to land the first blow. However, when he tried to strike the potted creature, it dodged and wrapped its arms around the boy’s arm as his fist slammed down on the table. “Oi?!” John was pulled to the ground as Theodore leaped off the table. John struggled to get free of its grasp as Cassidy stepped over him focusing her efforts on catching Elizabeth. Theodore , seeing this, let go of the boy and tried to sprint over to Cassidy but wasn’t fast enough. Bumping into Mrs. Danury as the charcoal haired adversary faded into the crowd. Theodore looked up at her and in response she looked down at him and screamed. “WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS THAT!?!?” The crowd turned to the pair and began screaming as well, the people on stage, including Michael, stepped to the back. Elizabeth whistled loudly to get Theodore ’s attention, seeing its master, it made a dash to her. Even though he moved as quickly as he could he didn’t get to her fast enough, as Cassidy tackled her to the ground. The collar of Elizabeth’s dress was grabbed, and she was dragged up to her feet as Cassidy put her into a one armed chokehold and began rummaging through her pockets. Elizabeth struggled for a short period until she could feel a knife pressing against her neck. She froze, as her heart began racing, the person she once was friends with was now turning on her, Cassidy turned to face the crowd. Gabriella and Gabriel ran out of the arcade trying to figure out why all the comotion had ceased. Only to see the current display unfolding, they all stared in shock and confusion. Michael ran out of the back stage with his mother and father, they tried to step up to Cassidy. However, they were put into the same statue-like stillness as Cassidy turned the knife on them. “That's right! One more step… and she gets it!” Gabriella and Kenneth began to look at one another, formulating a plan in their heads, wondering which one of them would go first. Gabriella, while hesitant, was the first one, rushing Cassidy, trying to take the knife from her sister. Kenneth ran after her as the struggle between the twins continued, during the fight Cassidy let go of Elizabeth. She staggered back but was ready to get into the fray as Kenneth, just then, came to back up Gabriella, also attempting to restrain Cassidy. Elizabeth made an attempt to get to Cassidy but was held back by John. She kicked him in his shin and turned to face him. From where she was standing she could see her duffle bag just behind him, she had to get to the book. She knew that some spell inside of it would stop all of this. John covered her view with his face smiling eagerly as if he had been waiting for this moment. Elizabeth put her arms up and clenched her hands into fists, ready for anything he would try to do. He threw a right hook at her, she dodged and threw her own, managing to land it on the side of his face. She continued throwing and dodging blow after blow, getting several strikes on him. People were standing in shock and awe as the pair continued to fight, the scuffle getting more intense as they did.Clara was enraged at the sight of this and quickly broke up the scuffle between them. “I can’t believe you Elizabeth, you’re a young lady! Have some tact and some poise, you don’t just get into random scuffles with people!” Elizabeth, in anger, pointed at John. “John started it! Him and Cass were trying to kill me!” Cassidy looked at her intensely. “Because you know too much for your own good!” Clara pointed over to her “You! Shut it! Whatever you and my daughter know will be handed over to the police! Michael!” Michael nodded. “Already on it!” He called the police while William ushered the people out of the building. “Sorry about the inconvenience! We hope you enjoyed your time here!” He tried to keep up a happy appearance however, his expression became panicked as a bearded man with a stoic expression came up to him. “Henry!” The man remained stoic even as William tried to stretch his face into another grin. “We need to get out of this place, William.” William stood perplexed. “What? Why?” Henry looked around nervously, as if he was trying to check for some kind of threat, the pair continued chatting while. Amongst the chaos, Charlie slipped away with Theodore , going back to the arcade. Fritz and Mary, Seeing her run, quickly ran after her in curiosity. Elizabeth ran to her duffle bag and searched through it, pulling out the book out of the bag and scrolling through it. Meanwhile Cassidy struggled, her tears of anger falling to the floor. “WHY?! Why are you doing this Kenneth? I thought you loved me?!” Kenneth questioned himself on that notion. “I don’t know if I love anybody… I just wanted to be there for you after Sammy died! I-I don’t want this, I never wanted this! So I’m ending it!” Cassidy became enraged clenching the knife even harder. “You bastard!” Shoving her elbow into her twin's face as hard as she could. Outside Gabriel tried to rush in only to be held back by his dad. Meanwhile, inside the pizzeria Kenneth, in surprise and without releasing it, released Cassidy from his grasp. Taking this opportunity, she lunged at Kenneth, knife at the ready. Seeing what was to occur Clara and William made a sprint to stop her, but they were too late. The blade was forcefully shoved into his shoulder before being ripped out again, spilling blood on his suit and on her face. Kenneth staggered back almost falling before he was caught by horrified mother, William meanwhile clenched his fist and winded up his arm ready to punch Cassidy. However his attempted assault was interrupted by what seemed to be a very long exposed spinal cord that wrapped itself around Cassidy. It extended from a scar on Elizabeth's palm. With a mighty shout Elizabeth threw her to the floor while tears flowed from her glowing green eyes. “You're incapable of empathy, you just sit there and demand everyone pay attention to you!” Cassidy shook for a moment and stood up, while the spinal cord withered away. “Why shouldn’t I? It’s not like anyone gave me a chance!” Elizabeth scrolled through the book, landing on a spell she needed, as Cassidy ran at her with the knife, she knew that she didn’t have a lot of time before her former friend reached her. She yelled an incantation and raised her left hand in the air. Within an instant a large mass of blood formed in her hands, she threw it down in front of Cassidy and the rapidly congealing blood quickly got to work. Glowing pink, and spreading itself around Cassidy in a square formation, she stopped in shock and confusion. From the blood, bones sprouted from the ground, hardening and trapping her inside a makeshift cage. Elizabeth walked up to her as everyone looked on in horror at the gorey sight. “Why, why did you kill him!?” Cassidy stared back at her with a fury only matched by her own. “So he wouldn’t go on to slander more people with his lies, so that the entire student body would be free of his harassment and extortion, It’s not like anyone would miss Carlton anyway!” The room fell silent as police and paramedics entered the building. The paramedics began tending to Kenneth and Gabriella while the cops handcuffed Cassidy as the bone cage withered around her. It seemed that the situation was calming down, that Elizabeth could just walk away now with the rest of her family. Although deep down she knew things weren’t finished yet as she turned to Henry. “HENRY EMILY!!!!” Henry looked over to her with slight concern spread across his face. “Where were you on the evening of March 18 1984?” Henry staggered back at the question out of fear. “Do you really think I was involved with that?! If you must know, my dear girl, I was just taking a stroll around the grounds of the pizzeria when all of that mess went down!” Elizabeth’s nose flared in anger. “Then why did your own daughter say otherwise!?” Charlie walked out with Fritz and Mary, she trembled at the thoughts of what could happen to her father. “If you were just ‘taking a stroll’ then why were you seen stumbling out of the building?!” Henry tried to find more ways to counter her. “Coincidences! That's all they are!” Elizabeth knew he was lying, but she knew that she only had one question left. “There was someone wearing a bear suit at that party! What happened to that costume?” Henry smiled smugly and gave a hearty chuckle. “It was disposed of because it was stained, and couldn’t be washed.” William was confused, his smile became uneasy as he looked over to Henry. “What? No! it was washable wasn’t it?” Henry sneered at William. “No of course not!” William became uneasy in his movements. “Henry, we only threw out the damaged ones, the stained ones could be washed…” Henry stepped back as The police and William closed in on him. “Well, not all of them! There are some things you can’t get out of cloth you know!” William stepped closer to him. “What do you mean?! The only thing that you can't get out of cloth is-” He paused as Henry tried to leave, but before he could, he was blocked by two officers. William turned to him. “What did you do…” Henry moved to face him. “I beg your pardon, ol’ chap?” William grabbed him by the collar and started to shake him before the cops pushed him back. “WHAT DID YOU DO!? This is all your fault isn’t it! The tarnished brand, everything ruined by you! You just fucked off and left me to rot!” He pointed aggressively at him, continuing to make accusations stopping when the lights began to flicker. They all refocused their attention on the stage where the puppets box now resided. Chapter 8: Through the ashes, I remain Everyone in the building stared at the box on the stage and trembled, wondering what it would or could do. An officer approached it cautiously with a stoic expression, batton at the ready. He got on the wooden platform and tapped the seemingly normal container slightly, he himself did not expect it to do much of anything. However it did do something, it opened, and out of the cubic container rose the marionette. Charlie stepped close to it, but not as close as the policeman. She inspected her creation, it looked fairly normal at first but she backed away as she noticed its cloth overlay pulsating and gyrating, as if it were a living being. She was utterly repulsed by the sight, but before she could walk away it stared down at her and spoke. “Well, if it isn’t little Charlotte, running away as usual…” The voice was all too familiar to her. “However, this time there isn’t anywhere else for you to run now…” Charlie tried to leave the pizzeria alongside John and Cassidy, but just as the trio tried to leave they found that the front doors were locked. “No, no, no… NONE of you get to leave this place, not after what you’ve done! For two of you I will ensure your deaths are painless, although for one of you, I will make you suffer…” The lights flickered and the building began to shake, Elizabeth tried to keep her composure as she flipped through the book as the marionette laughed. “Oh Lizzy, don’t tell me you’re going to try to stop me now… When I am this close to having my f r e e d o m!” Elizabeth landed on a page she needed and called weedy to her side. “The only thing you’re going to achieve with a stunt like this is continuing pointless pain and suffering! So yeah!” The small crowd gawked in awe but quickly tried to find places to hide as Elizabeth began to float, her eyes fully enraptured by an emerald glow. She fiercely roared an incantation at her floral companion, causing its arms to extend and grow rapidly. Forming sharp fingers and proper arms with well toned biceps, she turned her head to the adversary. “Theodore , destroy Carlton!” The puppet’s grin grew wider as Theodore let out a deep and guttural scream. “You’re making a mistake Elizabeth…” The plant threw itself at the puppet as Carlton extended his limbs in an attempt to kill the small sentient plant. However his attempts to destroy weedy were thwarted as the small monster tackled him providing everyone else with enough time to unlock the pizzerias doors and leave as Elizabeth stood and scrolled through the book. Clara rushed back in to get her daughter and Mary, and Fritz followed after. She grabbed onto her daughter trying to get her out of the pizzeria. “Sweetie, what are you doing? We have to leave now!” Elizabeth sternly looked up at her mother. “There's still something I need to do!” Fritz was dumbfounded, not possibly knowing what Elizabeth could want to do. “What are you talking about!?” Fritz was cut off by Carltons screams, and all of them looked back at him as he was held down by Chica, Theodore , and Bonnie. “Our friends are still here… Leave I’ll handle-'' Bonnie, Theodore , and Chica were thrown off knocking them all away, as something inside the box began to creak, crack, and rip. Suddenly, with little warning, Carlon raised his new body out of the box, walking off stage on boney stumps. Leaving a trail of blood as he approached Elizabeth, standing tall above her. “You and those… FOOLS, are fairly persistent aren’t you? You know what since you’re so stubborn! Let’s play a game, shall we?” He grabbed Mary and Fritz with his long arms. “You, Charlie, Cassidy, John, and these two survive my games and you’ll get these two back as well as your freedom!” The lights flickered and everyone's vision faded meanwhile outside as everyone stood with news reporters, and paramedics, as police officers went inside, wondering what would happen next. Charlie stood next to her father, and while everyone talked the silence between the two was vast and defining. An invisible barrier that they both knew would never be broken, but Henry still tried non the less.A frown formed across his face and he looked at his daughter Sadly, out of her life for years and this is the news she had to hear.“I’m sorry I never made any attempt to see you… It must’ve been a long year without me hmm?” Despite his joy, Charlie did not look back, his presence felt all too surreal to her, he was like an alien to her. “Dad, please be honest with me… Where were you on the night of that party?” Henry looked up to the sky, and sighed several times, preparing to say something. “Listen… I was angry and I wasn’t myself… I’m sorry.” Hearing this she silently walked away quickly disappearing right in front of him in a state of distress he tried to call out and look for her, only to see Clara appear in her place. Before he could say anything, however, his vision faded and he blacked out. Meanwhile Elizabeth awoke in the red forest clearing again seeing Sammy standing alongside the komodo dragon. In confusion, she walked over to the pair as they seemingly waited for her. “What’s going on Sammy?” Sammy sighed, and looked at her nervously. “There's something happening, something bad, if you don’t stop it, everyone you hold dear will die. Poltergeists don’t stop when they have a vendetta even when their targets are dead.” Elizabeth began to panic as the reality of the situation set in. “I need to go!” She tried to run, but was quickly stopped by Sammy. “Before you do, what you’ll be stepping into is hell! I’ve seen the games he wants to play and I’ll try to help you all as best I can, now go!” She softly nodded and walked away waking up in the main showroom, which was now dimly lit and rearranged to be as empty as possible with everything scattered in large piles on the sides of her several police officers duct taped to the right and left walls. On the stage Mary and Theodore hung several feet off the ground, underneath them was a large open oven. Theodore was trying to escape, while Mary was slightly unconscious just barely managing to wake up. In front of her was a television monitor, she tried to call out to them, but she was cut off by the monitor's activation. “Ah! I see you’re awake after a good 9 minute nap! Hope you slept well because it's time to play!” Elizabeth grabbed the television. “Carlton, you bastard! What’s going on here!?” Carlton laughed at her confusion. “That's what I’m going to explain! You see, this is your game: find your book amongst this junk and destroy it! Be careful though, burn the wrong book and there will be consequences to your loved ones!” The monitor switched off then switched back on. “Liz! It’s me, Sammy! I figured it out, Carlton’s not omniscient if you’re quick enough you can burn the wrong book and get out! Be careful though, here might be something in there with you!” The monitor cut out again for the last time and Elizabeth was left to her own devices. She began to search through the junk piles around the room, hoping that she could not only find her book, but also find a decoy to take its place. She began to panic as it became more apparent that both Mary and Theodore were getting lowered down towards the oven's gaping maw. She was scrambling now, tossing things around and clearing things out. That’s when she heard it, a monotone wailing that echoed throughout the room. She looked around and saw Freddy, his suit was melted and burnt in various places with a large hole through his chest. Alongside that, his hands and lower jaw were completely missing. He shambled around the room barely seeming to function, only yelling constantly as he threw things around trying to look for Elizabeth. She continued to play along despite his advances, still rummaging through the wreckage. Although as she walked she stubbed her foot on something she couldn’t quite see letting out a short shout. Freddy turned his head to try and better hear what Elizabeth cried out, but quickly refocused his attention on something else he seemed to hear. With the bear distracted she continued to search through everything while the animatronic roamed and threw things around in an attempt to look for someone or something. Eventually she found a decoy, but not her book, even still she ran to the oven quickly and tossed the book inside. The oven slammed shut, shook and exploded into a cloud of smoke. After the smoke cleared the tied up pair were lowered down and dropped from three feet off the ground. Mary was mostly fine but Theodore recoiled in severe pain as the flower pot it resided in cracked. Elizabeth ran to Mary and her creation, checking on both of them. “MARY! Are you alright?!” Mary slowly woke up and looked at her. “Lizzy, what happened?” Elizabeth’s tears of relief fell on her as the duo stood up. “Why are you crying? Was it because of what I did back on the dance floor?” Elizabeth snickered then began to laugh. “No! Not at all! Really, you should be the one crying…” Mary stared at her confused. “Why?” Elizabeth shrugged. “I abandoned you there, I shouldn’t have done that.” Just as Elizabeth looked down at the floor in shame both Theodore and Mary hugged her. “I understand why you did, I shouldn’t have been so forward with you.” She looked around at the completely thrashed area as Elizabeth patched up Theodore with duct tape she found on the floor. “What happened here?” Elizabeth turned over to her as she finished taking care of the plant . “I’ll explain later I need to find my spell book, and you need to take Theodore and find Fritz!” Mary nodded and ran through the pizzeria calling out for Fritz. However instead of a response she got the sound of mechanical crashing and a howling cry of fear. Her and Theodore ran to the room where the noise was coming from, leading the both of them to the party room. It, like the main show area, was partially destroyed, with foxy heavily damaged and slumped over in the corner twitching. They both saw a mechanical beast chasing Fritz around the room. It was mostly an inner mechanical frame with extra animatronic limbs on its body. Wearing a clown collar around its neck with a pink and white fox mask. It yelled and swiped around the darkened room trying to grab him, but to no avail, its movements were slowed by some ice growing in its joints. Theodore ran in, while Mary followed behind hoping that in some way she could help stop this whole mess, covering her ears as it made guttural cries. “You never loved me! You always had other things to do!” The pile of mechanical parts took notice of Mary as she tried to distract it. “Always had other friends!” It raised its fist and was about to strike Mary when Theodore intercepted it by leaping in the air and landing a punch on the monster's face. “AUGHH!!” The deformed robot refocused once again on the plant trying to kill it, but it couldn’t quite manage to do any significant harm to Theodore as the plant dodged away from its attacks. The plant quickly took cover and formulated a plan, stretching its arms and wrapping them around one of the robotic beast’s arms managing to hold it in place. Fritz walked up to it and held his hands in the air. “Holly, I’m not here to hurt you! I want to help, please!” Holly manifested in front of him, with a frown across her face. “No you don’t! If you did, you wouldn’t have hit me in the face with a book!” She stamped her feet in anger as Fritz tried to get closer. “I didn’t know it was you… I’m sorry.” Holly huffed. “Well that doesn’t matter at all! You were always a mean bully, I thought you changed! But I guess I was wrong!” She crossed her arms and turned away from him. “Holly… I’m sorry for everything, but I need you to cooperate with me.” Holly kicked the ground. “I don’t want to! I just want to go home!” Fritz was beginning to cry. “Holly… You can’t go home, not now anyway.” She turned back around to him, her arms still crossed. “What do you mean?” Fritz keeled down to her level. “Holly, you're-yo-you're… You’ve been dead for a long time, and it was my fault that you died, I wasn’t paying attention at your party and-” Holly’s breathing increased rapidly as she pushed her brother away and began to disappear more and more. Fritz tried to reason again but all she did in response was scream at the top of her lungs. Soon the giant mass of parts reactivated and began to use its many appendages to climb the walls. “Of course you weren’t paying attention! No one ever pays attention to me!” She got to the ceiling staring down all three of them with an intense fury. “YOU RUIN EVERYTHING!!!!” Blood dripped from the animatronics face as she readied the mechanical frame to attack. The trio winced and held each other as she lunged forward like a rattlesnake, she seemed focused and ready to tear them all apart. As her limbs clawed at the air attempting to reach them It seemed like it was the end for the trio, however she stopped before she did anything. The three stared, perplexed by the sudden change of her mood as she lowered her head to the floor in a sad state as it leaked tears from the eye holes in the mask, only seeming to limply sway and thrash about. “I don’t want to hurt you, I just want you to care! But you left me behind, and that hurt me a lot…” Fritz cautiously touched the snout of the animatronic. “I never meant to, if I did, why would I be trying to reconcile with you right now?” Holly lowered the large mechanical frame back to the ground, and reappeared. “Because you just want to make amends, and feel better?” Fritz approached her. “No… Because I want to save you, to take you away from this awful place. Do you want that?” Holly nodded, but as the four of them were leaving they heard a scream from down the hall that Mary was all too familiar with. “That’s Charlie!” Holly looked at Mary with concern. “What do we do?” Mary thought of something quickly. “Okay, Fritz you go check on, Lizzy, she’s in the main area with Freddy! Holly you, Theodore , and I Will go find Charlie!” With that they all split off from each other, Fritz ran to the stage, while the other three continued down the hall. Fritz made it to the front, seeing Elizabeth with her spell book in a clearly panicked state. “Hey Lizzy-” She looked up at him and put one of her index fingers on her lips, using that same digit to point to Freddy. The bear was trying to discern where Fritz was via noise, his eyeless gaze made that very clear. Fritz tip-toed toward his ex-girlfriend, trying to make as little noise as possible. “Are you alright, Liz?” Elizabeth nodded. “Yes, I’m just trying to figure out a way to make the banish glyph…” Fritz looked inside to see a drawing of a large sun surrounded by broken chains spanning two pages. “That’s big…” Elizabeth looked at him. “Yeah, and it’s going to take a lot of blood to draw it on the floor.” Fritz turned to Freddy. “So, you find the blood, and I defend you from him?” Elizabeth looked over to the backstage door. “Actually, I need you to go and see what’s in the backstage area. I’ve heard some voices in there, they sounded distressed.” Fritz nodded, and sneaked over to the backstage door, opening it slowly so as not to alert Freddy to his position. As he stepped in he saw Henry surrounded by several brightly lit monitors whale shouting numbers into a microphone that was hooked up to a speaker system. Just off to the left of him were Cassidy and John tied up back to back. “Charlie! Your friend is coming to help you! Sit tight, it will all be over soon my dear!” He put the mic down and turned around to him. “When did you get here, and why are you here?” Fritz closed the door. “Elizabeth wanted to find out what was in here, are you alright?” Henry stroked his beard, and then began to laugh. “No, no I’m not. That monster put me inside this room to play a collaborative game of sorts. I tell Charlie which cameras to focus on so she can track the animatronics and prevent them from getting to the office she’s in.” Fritz became concerned. “What happens if they get in?” Henry rubbed the tears out of his eyes. “They’ll kill her.” Cassidy murmured something under her breath, so Henry walked over to get a better understanding of what she said. “What did you say?” Cassidy looked up at him and snapped at his nose with her teeth causing him to recoil back in shock. “I said: You and that skank deserve death! She’s a nosey little asshole, and you’re a murder!” Henry rolled his eyes at her assertion, finding it to be absurd. “Please, like you're a pinnacle of virtue! Just sit there and keep your mouth shut!” Cassidy tried to get herself loose from the ropes all the while staring Henry down. “You can’t save her, you won’t save her! She will die, and it will be your fault and hers for putting her here!” Henry punched the wall in anger when he heard that. “You’re the one who put her here! Not me, you manipulated her! Then you told me what you did to hurt me!” Fritz stood back so as not to get involved, while Cassidy continued to slip out of her restraints. “You are a pathetic, fat, and ugly man who hid from the consequences of your actions because you were afraid! I ran because I knew none of it mattered and I would get away with it! Just like I will when I get out of her and kill you and kill that orange haired demon!” Henry was exhausted and turned back to the screens instead of continuing to argue with Cassidy. Meanwhile Charlie was in the pizzeria’s security office with Mary and Theodore , she was looking at cameras and tapping numbered buttons on a keypad. Holly was outside of the office trying to distract the animatronics that were making their way over to the space. While Mary and Theodore stood guard and looked through the doors to see if anything was coming to the doors. “Hey Mary… I don’t think I ever told you why I had to break up with you.” Mary saw Bonnie walking down the right hall, he looked burnt and was missing his face, right arm, and all of his torso. “I think we have bigger problems!” Theodore pushed a red button next to the door, closing it. “But you need to know! If I don’t tell you now I may never get the chance.” Mary rolled her eyes. “Fine, what is it?” Charlie took a deep breath. “I helped kill Carlton, I had to leave you so that you wouldn’t be implicated.” Mary was angry but also confused. “Why would you need to do that?” She ran over to the left side of the room and looked down the hall to see Chica walking to them. She had the same burnt look as Bonnie, her jaw was hanging open and her forearms were missing. Alongside that, her eyes seemed to be glowing brighter and brighter purple until she let out a shrill scream, running to them at a hurried pace. Just as the door was closed Bonnie returned to the right and stood, pounding on the door, not leaving at all. “Those two dates we went on, Carlton had Jessica take photos of us. After I did what I did-” The banging on both sides kept on getting louder it seemed as if the doors weren’t going to hold. “The police began to investigate and got a hold of the photos.” Holly entered the room through a wall. “You guys need to get out of here!!” Chica broke through the window, peeking through and looking inside Mary and Theodore looked away. “They visited your house and after they released me, so did I. You said that you didn’t know me, I was sad but at the same time relieved.” Mary stood still, beginning to put it all together as Charlie turned off the monitor. “Don’t forgive me! Just go… Please.” Mary and Holly said nothing as they took Theodore , opened the right door, ran past bonnie and headed for the front. Charlie sat still and closed her eyes as the last door opened, and the animatronics began to close in on her. She could sense them reaching out, the odor of burnt fur getting more and more pungent. Only to then be whisked away like nothing, Charlie opened her eyes and looked around not seeing the chicken or the bunny. No, instead, to the left of her she saw the bear standing with glowing orange eyes. It wasn’t wearing its usual brown and red coloration like it always was, it was now cast in a monochromatic palette of gray and black. “You…” It stepped further inside. “You were always the type to run away when it got too difficult to bear!” The smell of rotten flesh began to anchor itself in the office as blood seeped from the walls and suit. “You didn’t even bother to attend your brother's funeral! How fucking pathetic can you get?” It kept moving until it reached her, and with a mighty shove it pushed her out of the room on the chair she was sitting on causing her to crash onto the checkered floor. “Out of desperation you obeyed a monster, and stood by while that MONSTER ignited a flame to dispose of me! An, at the time, still fully alive person.” She tried to get up and walk away as he continued to monologue at her. Only to be struck in the head by one of the monitors from the office. She fell to her knees as the animatronic stood over her, dripping blood on her dress. “This is perfect, first I kill your brother then I kill you! Symmetry my friend!” He leaned down getting closer to her. “I’ll show you how it feels to have everything ripped away from you just as you’re about to catch your big break!” He stepped back and using what was left of the animatronics hands, he raised the monitor up and brought it down on Charlie again, and again, and again, and again. Charlie let out a cry with each slam, trying to guard her face and torso as every hit became bloodier than the last. She kept firm until she couldn’t anymore, her vision faded, and arms gave way falling down. She laid limply below him, lifeless, her face stuck in a state of agony induced fear. Carlton stood for a while staring at what was left of Charlie. “I-I did it HAHAHAHAHA! I did it! Now-” He turned around to see Fredbear sitting there, sobbing. “To freedom? What are you doing here?! And why are you crying?” Carlton looked back at Charlie and then looked back at the broken animatronic. “What, is it because of her? Come on Sammy, she didn’t even see you get buried! SHE. DESERVED. IT!” The yellow bear screamed a deep warbling cry, causing the pizzeria to shake slightly. After the faux earthquake had passed everything inside began to hit freezing temperatures. “It’s hard for anybody to go to a funeral! I don’t forgive her, but I don’t blame her either! Why did you do this?!” Carlton laughed at his aggression. “Because it's my ticket to freedom!” He looked up as if expecting something to happen. “Or… so I thought… What am I still doing here!?” Everything faded away into darkness. “Why am I not free yet!? Did I do something wro-” He was cut off when Sammy froze him in an ice crystal. “Revenge wasn’t going to free you, it was just going to satisfy your desire for an end that will never come.” Carlton tried to break out of the ice while Sammy approached the remains of Charlie. “Okay, so I’ll just kill the other two, what do you plan to do to stop me?” Sammy tuned him out as he put a comedy mask onto his sister's face. “I know this won’t help you, but it’s the least I can do.” She disappeared as the room and halls came back into being. The golden bear looked down the corridor and saw a tall figure floating with its two eyes staring back. Meanwhile Elizabeth was panicking while drawing with crayons as everyone tried and failed to get the doors opened as thick vines seemed to spread across them. Mary saw her distress and moved over to her. “Hey, how's the portal coming along?” Elizabeth closed the book. “I’ve figured out that I don’t need to use blood for the entire thing, I just need to draw it out and put down a blood sacrifice.” Mary started to hyperventilate. “Does it have to be alive?” Elizabeth sighed. “No, quite the opposite actually, we just need to find a-” A thud sounded throughout the main show areas. Everyone looked at the drawn portal frame to see the puppet floating above the corpse of Charlie with blood on its hands. Henry fell to his knees, mouth agape, utterly speechless. Everybody else stood back and trembled in pure shock, it seemed unreal. “What are you?” The marionette looked down at Elizabeth. “You know who I am, and I know what you need so I am providing it to you.” Elizabeth tried her hardest not to vomit at the gruesome sight. “Charlie… I can’t!” The puppet floated down to her. “But you must!” Mary pulled Elizabeth away from Charlie while staring her down. “She’s not going to follow your orders, Charlotte… Not after everything you did!” Elizabeth touched Mary’s shoulder. “Mary, whatever happened between you two can wait… I need to get this done.” Mary stepped aside while Elizabeth readied herself to open the portal, opening the book and reading out the text. “Lord accept this sacrifice!” The portal began to glow and her eyes did the same. “Slice the veil between this world and the next!” The patterns on the ground started to rotate. “And take these trapped spirits to where they ought to be!” Charlie’s corpse glowed a bright gold while beginning to calcify. Soon after a large pillar of golden fire erupted from the ground and rushed through the ceiling. Susie, Katlyn, and Sammy manifested next to the flaming spire. Kaytlyn looked up at it nervously and reached her hand out. “I-is this it? Are we going to leave?” Holly ran up to Katlyn with a wide grin spread across her face, she grabbed onto her hands trying to get her to move forward. “Yep! C’mon!” They all were about to walk into the light, ready for their stories to end, but before they could they were all stopped by a shout. “You all aren’t going anywhere!” Carlton stepped from the darkness, his metal body shaking as if it was about to fall over. “I have worked too hard to let all of this go!” Sammy tried to encase him even as the heat from his body was causing the ice to melt faster than it was freezing leaving him able to make a steady advance towards all of them. “It’s over, Carlton, give up this ghost…” Behind him stepped Bonnie and Chica; they were all damaged and dilapidated, even more so frome when they were last seen. “No I don’t think I will.” Despite his best efforts, Sammy eventually caved as his powers stopped having any effect, allowing Carlton and the other animatronic t rush forward at all of them. However the all were quickly overwhelmed by not just the other ghosts, but also the rest of Elizabeth's friends and Henry. Who all took to quickly dispatching the damaged metal monstrosities, while Carlton focused on Charlie, Mary ,Elizabeth, and Cassidy. “Lizzy, you were always my best friend don’t you remember? The time went bird watching, the snowball fights? Everything? We know everything about each other!” He ran up to them and started throwing punches as they all tried to fight him off. “And I know for a fact you’re always oriented around justice and sanity! So why are you defending two degenerates and a murderer!?” Carlton charged at Elizabeth, while she raised her hand in the air, a large moving blob of her own blood was extracted from her arm. Blood that she quickly formed into what seemed to be a living sword made from bone and muscle. She drove the blade into his torso as he finally got to her. “Because death isn’t justice, and it never will be!” She kicked him backwards causing him to fall to the floor. “Tell that to Charlie then, tell that to Henry, neither of them could cope with the loss of Sammy or with their circumstances so they took it out on everyone else!” Sammy and the others looked over to his father. “You what!? How could you!?” The voices and shouts of the spirits became an unhearable mess as they reached out for both Carlton and Henry, grabbing onto them as they struggled, but just as they were about to be dragged into the portal, the flames began to fade. “No, no, no, no, no, NO!” Elizabeth wondered how she could keep the portal open. It seemed impossible then she realized something as she looked through the book. The words and drawings, some of them were written in blood. She paused as Mary ran to her. “Liz, what's wrong?” Elizabeth looked away and walked over to the portal. “Nothing…” With a deep breath, she pulled her arm back, and threw the book into the flames. As her friends went inside. Charlie looked back at all of them solemnly. “Mary, you don’t forgive me but please… take care of Elizabeth.” Mary smiled and laughed at her former friend with her grin fading soon after. “After what you did to me to ‘protect’ me. You can count on it, Sammy doesn’t deserve you as a sister and no one deserves you as a friend or girlfriend.” Charlie silently floated into the portal as it began to close, but just as it did a piece of paper, a gift box, and some photos flew through. Elizabeth grabbed the paper and unfolded it. On it read ‘don’t worry about our dad, we won’t hurt him we’ll just be watching over him -Sammy’. Elizabeth ran over to where Charlie was and saw her carcass completely encased in porcelain with gold running through it with the book sitting next to her. Theodore had seemingly bled out, however, its roots were spreading all over the place. Seemingly as one last stitch effort to save itself. Elizabeth was about to touch the carcase of her creation but relented, leaving it at peace. The book meanwhile was left completely blank, she sighed and tried to go over to her friends but was stopped by Cassidy who was aiming one of the police officer's pistols at her. “After what you did, after all the snooping…” She stepped over to her, ready to fire. “I would have waited an eternity for this! It’s over Afton…” Elizabeth put her hands up and stepped back as Cassidy tightened her grip on the weapon. “See you in hell!” However just before her or anyone else could do anything the doors were forced open by the police. Clay and two others rushed in and began looking around. “Finally! We get these damn doors open! Let’s get everyone outta here, oh yeah.” He pointed to Cassidy. “Put that one in cuffs!” The other two cops apprehended Cassidy while Clay guided everyone else out. “You can’t do this to me you pig-headed bastards! Let me go!” Dispited Cassidy’s struggles she was thrown in the back of a police cruiser. “When I get out of the clink I’ll find you, all of you! And I’ll cut out your livers and eat them!” Elizabeth rolled her eyes at the threat as the doors of the car were shut. “Yeah, well, I hope you don’t cut yourself on that edge…” She continued yelling at all of her former friends as she was driven away from the pizzeria. Everyone ran to their families crying and hugging as they all reunited with one another. Although before Elizabeth went back to her parents Clay turned to her. “Do you still have that tape recorder, also what happened to Henry and his kid?” Elizabeth turned to him. “Yeah, but it and the tapes are at my place as for Henry…” Elizabeth thought of everything that just happened and how indescribable it all was, there was no clear way to say it to anyone without being seen as a liar. “He just disappeared and Charlie was electrocuted.” Clay nodded, seeming to buy her excuse, letting Elizabeth go to her Mother and older brother. “Lizzy! You were in there for an hour and a half!” Elizabeth stared at her mother in confusion. “Really? It felt like an eternity in there…” She looked around to her other friends as they met with their parents, Mary and her dad were reminiscing about the photos, while Fritz and his mother were looking at the gift box and slowly unwrapping it only to get hit in the face with two pies attached to springs. “Looks like everyone's happy, wouldn’t you say Michael?” Michael smiled at her. “Yep, and I know what would make you happy! Seeing Kenneth and then getting ice cream!” Elizabeth smiled for a moment before frowning. “Yeah… is he okay?” Clara nodded. “When he was taken by paramedics they said the wound would need stitches, he’ll be fine but he would also need to recover.” Elizabeth sighed in relief. “Well, then what are we waiting for? Let’s go see him!” They all walked to Clara’s car and drove away from the pizzeria. Meanwhile Sammy returned to the void with his Sister, father, Carlton and his friends. “Hey Adam!” The large iron clad man turned around and looked down at all of them. “Yes child?” Sammy stared up triumphantly at him. “I’m ready… we’re all ready!” Adam held out his palm and summoned a small ball of fire which quickly formed into a flaming sword. “Well, in that case.” With a mighty swing, he cut open a portal to a large grassy field with various fruit trees scattered about. There were also people there, men, women, and children of all various ages just seeming to be doing various things or relaxing. “Welcome to Eden, my children…” They all tried to step through but were quickly stopped by the same flaming blade. “Although, I will be keeping an eye on these three!” He pointed the blad at Carlton, Henry, and Charlie. “They have sinned so they’re movement around Eden will be heavily restricted, nonetheless, welcome!” With that he lifted his sword and finally allowed all of them to enter, admiring everything they could before exploring further. Holly looked up at the sky. “What is this place?” Sammy smiled as they all kept moving forward. “Home…” Epilogue: Reunion: Side B One week later:Elizabeth ran through the halls of a hospital, looking at room number after room number. “Ugh! Where is room 1280?! C’mon think, you’ve already been here twice!” She kept moving through the building dodging past staff and patients until she was stopped by a doctor. “Hey! You seem like you’re looking for something?” Elizabeth nodded. “Yeah! Um where's room 1280?” The doctor thought for a second. “Oh it’s just down the hall and to the right, you’ll know you’re there once you see the plastic skeleton.” Elizabeth thanked the doctor and made her way to the room, opening the door and seeing not her brother but instead a nurse who was adjusting some equipment for a different patient. “Um excuse me, have you seen my younger brother Kenneth?” The nurse finished what she was doing and looked at her. “Kenneth? He was discharged an hour ago, I don’t know where he could be, I just assumed he started looking for you when he was let out.” Elizabeth sighed in frustration. “Where could he-” “Hey, sis! Is the green Volkswagen beetle in the parking lot yours? Mary's in there so I thought-” Elizabeth smiled and ran up to her brother wrapping him in a large hug. “AAAAAHHHH, you’re okay!” Kenneth smirked a bit before pushing her off. “Yeah, just don’t try to hug me please, my shoulder still aches like hell!” Elizabeth backed away slightly. “Oh sorry! Anyway, yes that car is mine! Mum got it since I-” She reached into the pockets of her jacket, and pulled out a driver's license. “My license!” She held it in front of him confidently, on it was a photo of her with a big grin. Kenneth smiled in surprise at the small card. “Sweet! So are we going somewhere?” Elizabeth nodded. “Yep! Circus baby Ice-cream parlor! It’s a relatively new joint run by two sisters, Beatrice and Brenda! Now come on, Mary is waiting for us!” They both ran through the halls going down the stairs out of the front of the hospital and to the parking lot, getting inside of the small green car. Elizabeth sat in the driver's seat next to Mary while Kenneth sat in the back seat. “Took you long enough, babe… so are we going to meet the boys for ice cream or…?” Kenneth tapped Mary’s shoulder. “What do you mean by that?” Mary looked back at him as Elizabeth began driving off. “It’s a double date with Fritz and Jeremy, they hit it off pretty well and organized this little event so we could catch up. Even with this information Kenneth was still confused. “So what am I here for?” Elizabeth fiddled with the radio trying to get a signal. “To get ice cream, DUH! You deserve it, especially after what she did to you.” Kenneth looked down and away from the two girls. Elizabeth took notice of his emotional state. “Oh ken, I didn’t mean it like that.” Kenneth sighed, deep in thought about his former partner and her betrayal. “No, It’s fine… Let’s just go get ice cream.” They eventually made it to a colorful, clown themed Ice cream parlor, getting out and going inside. As they made it to their table instead of seeing just Fritz and Jeremy there. Gabriel, Gabriella, Sashley, and Vanessa sat in the booth alongside the pair. The trio took their seats with them. “What's going on here?” Vanessa began to explain to Mary. “Well, since things got pretty messy last week a bit of a reunion was in order! So when Fritz and Jeremy told me about this double date I thought ‘why not bring every one!’ Plus they have the huge multi part sundae!” A waitress walked over with a large platter holding multiple large glass serving dishes containing ice cream and spoons. It was all placed down in front of them. They thanked the waitress as she left. Gabriella clapped her hands in excitement. “The ice cream is here!!!” Jeremy grinned widely. “Well what the hell are we waiting for? Let’s tuck in guys!” They all began eating and talking.Everything seemed to be good again.Extra StuffLiving character details:Jeremy Fitzgerald: 16 y/o 5ft, 10in Dark skin Black curly hair cut bald at the left side and sloping down at the right. A humble mechanic with a deep seated dislike for Gabriel after their relationship ended in a fight.Gabriel Gavin: 15 & ˝ y/o 5ft, 9in Dark skin Black curly hair A Jovial botanist with a heart of gold, who used to be in a relationship with Jeremy a year ago but left him due to a heated argument.Fritz Smith: 15 y/o 5ft, 7in Fair skin Straight red hair. An engineer in training with a dry sense of humor, who is also grieving the loss of his younger sister Holly Smith.Cassidy Bassette: 15 y/o 4ft, 10in Fair skin Dyed straight black hair(naturally blonde) She is obsessed with Kenneth after her ex ,Sammy, was found dead in a walk-in freezer at Freddy’s, not wanting to lose the only thing that had any meaning to her. Much like her twin sister she’s autistic, but denies it heavily, and takes her frustration out on said sister. She will shut anyone down if they try to ask her about Carlton.Gabriella Bassette: 15 y/o 4ft, 10in Fair skin Natural straight black hair(Unlike her sister) Unlike Cassidy she is less willing to hide her autism and has a consistently happy and optimistic attitude. Charlie(Charlotte) Emily: 16 y/o 5ft, 2in fair skin Black curly hair A girl who is constantly watching her back after her, Cassidy, and John murdered her extortionist Carlton Brooke and burned his carcass.John Daniels: 15 y/o 5ft,6in Fair skin Long charred blonde hair Tries to be normal, but just stays away from everyone when in public, giving away that he has something to hide. He’s far more aggressive than anyone else at school.Elizabeth Afton: 16 & ˝ y/o 5ft,4in Rich tan skin Curly orange hair A problem solver at heart she is investigating what happened to the people who disappeared near and in Freddy’s the year before. And she will stop at nothing until the case is solved! She’s also trying to become a boxer.Michael Afton: 21 y/o 5ft, 11in Light tan skin Straight brown hair A man turned slightly cynical by the corporatization of Freddy’s, but still cares about his family aside from his dad.Kenneth Afton: 15 y/o 5ft, 2in Medium tan skin Dark brown slightly curly hair He has a somewhat aggressive personality to hide his insecurities after his father hit him and his sister. He doesn’t want the relationship he has with Cassidy but goes along with it to make her happy even though it’s causing him emotional distress. At a birthday party two years ago, Fredbear’s knee joints came loose and the animatronic fell on him. Injuring and leaving him with some minor brain/nerve damage and the need for two skin grafts on his face.Clara Afton: 48 y/o 5ft, 6in Dark skin Black curly hair Stern yet caring mother who, through thick and thin, won custody over her children after divorcing William. Afterward she was left working for a multitude of employers eventually coming across the job she has now.Vanessa Harley: 20 y/o 5ft, 9in Fair skin Blonde straight hair She feels bad for Michael after Katelyn’s disappearance so she used her closeness with Michael to try to fill the void in his heart after the disappearance of his ex. It worked a little too well. She also cared deeply for her cousin Susie, and wonders endlessly where she went.William Afton: 50 y/o 6ft Pale skin Very light brown straight hair He met his wife when he was just about to leave college, hitting it off pretty well, marrying her a year later. After an incredibly stressful few months running his business that he co founded with his friend Henry he broke down and took it out on his kids…Henry Emily 49 y/o 5ft, 10in Fair skin Very light brown straight hair One of the co-founders of the Fazbear brand and band, alongside William! Not much is known about him beyond that as he kind of just moved into Christfield after graduating college. Mary Schmidt: 15 y/o 4ft, 5in Pale hazel skin Long wavy brown hair After the death of her mother due to leukemia she became a depressed shut-in who only went out on very occasional circumstances. She constantly worries about the potential of her father dying too. She is also haunted by the memory of her accidentally killing a puppeteer Vinnie by pushing him into a table in an act of self-defense when she was ten.Mike Schmidt: 38 y/o 5ft, 9in Medium brown skin Brown slightly curly hair Caring father, who after the death of his wife, tried his best to make his daughters as life palatable as possible.Sashley Wallace: 15 y/o 5ft, 3in medium tan skin Dark orange hair A chef in training hailing from Chile, she is fully dedicated to her craft. She likes eating food and making it too.Dead /spirit character details:Katelyn Carson: 21 y/o (at time of death) 5ft, 8in Dark gray skin Cornrowed black hair with dyed pink streaks. Michaels ex-girlfriend who left him after the two got too busy to continue their relationship. She babysat Michaels younger siblings when he either was too busy or just didn’t want to deal with them. Holly Smith: 6 y/o (at time of death) 3ft, 7in Snow pale skin Straight (but messy) red hair Often hyperactive with a passion for clowns and circuses. Carlton Burke: 16 y/o (at time of death) 4ft, 8in Snow pale skin Straight copper hair Son of the police chief Clay Burke, he is vindictive and manipulative and will stop at nothing to get a good story for the school papers. (Or kill Charlie that works for him too)Susie Mathews: 15 y/o (at time of death) 5ft,6in Snow pale skin Curly light golden hair A fun loving carefree extrovert who can’t keep away from a group, gathering, or party. She loves being outside despite her albinism. Sammy Emily 15 y/o (at time of death) 5ft, 1in Snow pale skin Black curly hair He is very protective of his twin sister who is under the constant threat of Carlton. After getting trapped in a walk-in freezer for several hours due to a defective sliding door. He died ,meeting an angel a few days after the fact, just as he was about to move on and find peace he sensed an angry vengeful spirit trapped with him. He had to stop Carlton before he got what he wanted.Vinnie (Vincent) Clark: 34 y/o (at time of death) 5ft, 9in Fair skin Black hair A puppeteer at the rat and cat theater, he was loved by all, but things would change when one of the performers turned up drunk and started to make a scene in front of a crowd. Vinnie pulled him into the back and after a fight broke out he pushed the costumed man onto the floor, killing him via blunt force trauma. Mary witnessed the ordeal from inside a locker and made a run for it. But was grabbed hair first by Vinnie, as she struggled to get free from his grip she threw him back into a table he fell head first onto it and died. Now he haunts the child that killed him. Old Man consequences: Age unknown 6ft, 2in Bright red skin and scales. He is a Komodo dragon of unknown origin who acts as a sort of guardian of the flipside, protecting innocent spirits from poltergeists. And sends people who were pulled in by other spirits back to their homes after a certain period. Suits and spirits:Chica the chicken: SusieFreddy Fazbear: CarltonBonnie the Bunny: KatelynFoxy the pirate: HollyFredbear: SammyPoltergeists: Spirits tainted by their own hatred that are able to possess multiple vessels at once, they are often hellbent on killing or in very occasional cases tormenting their killer and/or wrong doer. Instead of manifesting as a normal version of themselves, they reform as a twisted/deformed iteration of themselves
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