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Henry had gone away somewhere. He had told Charlie he'd be back before dark, but the sun was going down now, so she wasn't too set on his words. She assumed he was at the hospital with Sammy, her brother. Sammy was sick a lot, he was in hospital more than he wasn't. Henry never really told her why he was sick, just that he was.
This left Charlie at the pizzeria. She's not on her own, obviously, but Uncle Will was never the best at supervising kids, not even his own. Charlie wasn't even sure he was very fond of her. He always acted off around her, which he blamed on the fact that she used to be afraid of him when she was littler. He was working in his office at the moment, doing a great job at making sure Charlie, as well as his own kids who were there, were doing okay.
One might assume he put that responsibility on Michael's shoulders, considering his age, but he was just as bad. Too busy underage smoking with his friends outside to check on Charlie.
She sighed, resting her head on her hand, her elbow holding it up against the starry-fabric-covered dining table. She could fall asleep there, honestly. She was tired enough from school, and the orangey light from the large windows was quite relaxing. However, when she closed her eyes and drowned out every other noise, Charlie could hear a soft sobbing from the right of her, from one of the storage closets.
Immediately, she knew what that sound was, and she quickly got up and scurried towards the large door. She tried her best to clack the handle open, but it was no use. Locked. She stamped her foot in impatience, knowing what she'd have to do to get it open.
Charlie growled, really not wanting to walk down this hall to Will's office. She hated talking to him. Not in a rude way! He was just mean when Henry was there. He treated Charlie like an animal to shoo away when the guests were over, and then he'd pretend to be her best friend when Henry was around. Charlie knew exactly what he was doing, even at her age, but her dad never seemed to believe her.
She dragged her feet while she walked, half-sulking about it.
She knocked on the door to the office as hard as her little hands could. It was large and heavy, you see, so regular knocking wouldn't have made a sound.
...Nothing.
She huffed and tried again, this time with a, "UNCLE WIIILLLLL," to follow it. She heard an annoyed-sounding sigh from the other side of the door, so she knew he wasn't ignoring her now.
"What do you need, Charlotte?" Will responded, raising his voice with a bitter tone. He sounded like he'd rather be talking to anyone else.
She growled again, immediately picking up on the odd tone in his voice. Charlie decided to imitate him, just to play. She copied his tone the best she could, "I "need" for you to open one of the storage closets for me."
"What on earth for?"
Charlie smirked. There was something so fun about picking on the older man. Despite how big and "scary" he was, she could always push his buttons, so to speak. She did it similarly to how Elizabeth did, but that little princess always got away with it.
"Well," she started, "your kid is locked in there, and I don't know if you wanna be a good dad for one-" The door opened halfway through her sentence and she quickly quieted down.
Will glared down at her, then did one of those unsettling grins he would always do to the guests that arrived. "What was that, Lottie?" He crouched to her height and she took a spooked step back with a quiet yelp, "You want to repeat that, you little shit? Hmm?"
Charlotte quickly shook her head.
William smiled again, closing his eyes, content in scaring her. "That's a good girl." He said, patting her on the head, then pushing himself up off the floor again. He towered over Charlie, and for the first time during this entire interaction, she truly did feel small.
"Well?" He gestured for Charlie to get on with it, to lead him where she heard the crying, but she wouldn't move. "You seemed a lot more confident a moment ago, my dear. Where's all of that gone? Hmm?"
She pouted and started walking down the hall again, towards the closet Norman was in. She pointed at the door. "There."
"Ah-ah," Will scolded her, "what do we say, Lottie?"
She felt mocked. She was being mocked. It wasn't fair. She played along nonetheless. "Please can you open it, Uncle Will?" She scowled up at him.
It was almost like he didn't care his child was potentially upset behind the door. He just wanted to be right and respected. Will smiled again and unlocked the closet door. He, badly, copied Charlie's voice to get at her again, "There," then walked off back to his office.
Charlie blew raspberries towards him when he was out of sight, she wasn't gonna let him win.
She then opened the door herself, to find Norman still sniffling at the back of the closet, under the large, metal shelves of cleaning equipment. He was holding onto his bag tightly, almost hugging it. He squinted his eyes at the light from the doorway.
"Ohh, Norman-" Charlie walked closer to him and sat opposite the smaller child. Norman had his face covered with his sweater sleeves, which were noticeably damp from crying. "Who locked you in here? An' why were you crying so loud?"
He stayed quiet, putting one hand down by his thigh and pointing towards outside of the closet.
"...Your dad?"
He shook his head, then opened his bag and got out a small notebook with a pen clipped to its cover. The book was Fredbear's own brand, having a big picture of the infamous bear right on it. It had Freddy, Chica, Bonnie and Foxy on the back, too, but Foxy had his face haphazardly scribbled out. He held it up and pointed at Foxy, frowning at Charlie.
Michael.
Charlie furrowed her eyebrows. "Ugghhh," she leant her head back and rolled her eyes, "has Mike been picking on you again?"
Norman nodded.
Lottie put her hands on his shoulders, "I'll tell him to back off. Howd's that sound?" She softly smiled, and he nodded again. "Alright," she stood up, "I'll be back, okay?"
Norman did a thumbs up, then thought for a moment and flipped his notebook over, pointing at Fredbear on the cover. "F- Fred,,"
"Did he take him too?"
"Mm."
"Kay," she copied his thumbs up, then made her way over to where she was originally sitting. Charlie looked down for a sec, at the bag against the leg of her chair, making sure her stuff hadn't been moved. There's no way it could have been, obviously, but she liked to be sure.
She pushed one of the heavy, glass entry doors open with her arm, then with her back to keep it open. She didn't weigh a lot, or very much at all, so she needed to put all of her strength into pushing open that door.
Outside of the pizzeria was an on-site playground, for paying customers only. Mikey and his gang had a free pass to that playground after hours, aka, his dad would let him linger there if he wasn't causing trouble inside. Anything to get rid of Michael.
His friends had biked home at this point, so he was smoking a cigarette on the swings by himself with Norman's bear at his feet. He'd kicked it around a little with his friends earlier, so it was all dusty and grubby. Nothing a quick wash wouldn't fix, though.
Initially, Charlie would be within his line of view if he had been watching the door, but he wasn't. He was looking off somewhere else and paying more attention to the sound of the swingset than anything else. She smiled, like the troublemaker she was, once again, and quietly walked up behind him.
She stayed silent for a little bit, hoping he'd just notice her, but eventually got impatient and pushed him instead. Hard.
"AGH, SHIT-" Mike yelled, dropping his cigarette onto the pavement and falling with it. Next to it, mind you. He strategically landed in a way that stopped him from getting burned.
Charlie walked back around the swingset and stepped on the cigarette, smushing it into the floor with her foot. "Do you want me to tell your dad about this, or are you gonna give Norman his bear back an' leave him alone for a bit?" She said with a growl, glaring down her nose at Michael.
He lifted himself up with his hands, but remained on the floor. "You're bluffing, Lottie. You don't even like my dad."
"He doesn't even like you."
Mike looked down, not really knowing what to say. He'd usually get mad and try to prove her wrong, but he really couldn't be bothered. He didn't want her to feel right either, though. "Whatever. You're still not gonna tell him, though."
Charlie put her hands on her hips, "Who says?"
He growled, "You're so annoying." Michael got himself back onto his feet and brushed himself off, then went back to the swings and lifted up the tatty old bear. He felt like the bear was glaring at him and he grimaced a little, looking back up at Charlie and trying to ignore it. He held it out towards her. "There. Will you fuck off now??"
"You're not gonna come and apologise?"
He glared. There's your answer.
"Fine, whatever. Thank you." She nodded her head and turned on her feet. Mike flipped her off behind her back, as if she'd see.
When Charlie was inside the diner again, she spotted Norman up on the animatronics' stage, talking to Fredbear. Or, his version of talking. He was more waving his hands around himself while looking up at him, and occasionally making a squeaky yell noise. He seemed happier.
Really, he shouldn't have been up there. Kids aren't allowed near the animatronics without adult supervision, but who was Charlie to spoil his fun after the day he'd had.
"Be careful up there!" She shouted from the other side of the room and Norman jumped, immediately turning to see who had shouted, then waving at her with his whole arm. She lifted up Fredbear and made his little arm wave back, his head flopping to the left when she did it.
Norman squealed and went to get off the stage. He got down on his knees and lowered himself off of it like he was lowering himself into a pool, then let himself slip onto the floor and ran over to Charlie. He jumped up and down excitedly.
"Okay! Okay." Charlie smiled, handing the bear to the little boy. Fredbear was about half his size, Build-a-Bear sized if you want to picture it.
Norman pointed at one of the dark stains around the speaker on the bear's stomach, and looked up at Charlie with concerned eyes. "Ahh??"
She sighed, "I think Mike was throwing him or something. I'm sorry." She patted Norman's head, "You've gotta be extra gentle with old Fredbear, okay? You've gotta give him a bath, too."
He scrunched up his face, looking angry that Michael had hurt his little friend. He then nodded at Charlie's request and kissed Fredbear's head. He looked up once more, "Thah you,," he made Fredbear wave at her, too.