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Charlie should've known that going to Freddy's was a bad idea.
Breaking into the restaurant at night instead of visiting it during opening hours was an especially bad idea.
Not listening to the security guard when he said to leave wasn't just a bad idea. It was outright stupid.
Even with the banging and clanging of knees and elbows against metal, even with the constant echoes which seemed to come from everywhere, Charlie's thoughts remained as clear as day. It was the only reason why she hadn't concluded that she had somehow lost all higher brain function over the last twelve hours because WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!?
Although she wouldn't be surprised if their lunch at Sparky's violated some kind of HOA regulation.
What had she been thinking about? Oh, right. She was regretting every decision that had led her to this moment.
Well, maybe not every decision. Jumping into the vent before Bonnie could grab her back in the bathroom probably saved her life. And she was grateful that she had her flashlight on her when she did, otherwise she truly would've been lost. Though she still wished that she hadn't been in that position in the first place.
At least, Aunt Jen's doomsday-prepping drills had finally paid off.
The rhythmic banging of metal ceased as Charlie came to a halt. She had come to the junction—the tunnel in front of her splitting into two opposite directions.
She aimed the light to the left. Nothing but an endless tunnel.
To the right? Same thing.
Charlie closed her eyes and tried to imagine the layout of the pizzeria. She tried to remember all of the different turns that she had already made and estimate her relative position to the other rooms of the pizzeria. The restrooms were on the pizzeria's left... no right. So... she had to head right to get to another room. Or... which way had she been facing when she had dived into the vents? And had she taken two lefts before that last right or...
Charlie shook her head. She wished it didn't stink so much in here. She could barely think because of it.
"Did a rat die in here or something?" she muttered and tried to wave the stench out of her face.
She turned left, telling herself that it was the right, definitely educated choice.
Besides, it wasn't like there was any 'wrong' direction for her to go in. If she just kept going, she would eventually reach an exit. It could be another room, it could be outside the restaurant. The point was that she would get out eventually.
A scream reverberated through the metal walls and froze her in place. Charlie's eyes instinctively darted around in all directions in search of the source. But the sound echoed in the vents and seemed to come from both limited directions.
Who was that? Carlton? Jessica? John? Were they in trouble?
She couldn't tell. Had one of the animatronics gotten to them? Or had they escaped, and the security guard was now aimlessly wandering the pizzeria in search of her, out in the open and away from the safety of his office?
Charlie shook her head. She couldn't worry about that now.
Whatever it was, she'd find out once she got out of this blasted ventilation system.
Keeping herself propped on her elbows and with the flashlight aimed in front of her, Charlie resumed her slow but tedious crawl through the tunnels.
Each minute she spent in this metal hamster prison felt like an hour of her life lost. How long had she been in there? Five minutes? Fifteen? An hour? A day?
Every now and again, Charlie would hear the heavy thumping of animatronic feet on the tiled floor of the pizzeria.
Surely she should have come across some exit by now. Was she just going in circles? Should she go back and try another way?
Charlie's body forced itself to a stop as she heaved over and began coughing profusely. God, that stench just kept getting worse. She almost couldn't believe that none of them had smelled it earlier. Was she following it? She supposed that it was as good a direction as any. And who knew, maybe it wasn't a dead rat. Maybe it led her outside, close to the pizzeria's dumpsters.
With this plan in mind, Charlie calmed her breathing, doing her best to ignore the smell, and kept moving forward. She'd get out of these vents eventually. She had to.
Charlie kept moving. Her elbows and knees were becoming sore and stiff, and the urge to stand up was becoming unbearable. She had lost any vague sense of direction that she once had. All she had left was the foul stench, which acted like a marker. She hated it, and it was beginning to sting her eyes, but it was all she had at this point.
She reached a hard turn to the left. Fortunately, it wasn't a junction, so she was saved from having to make that decision again. It was still a tight turn, though. Charlie was forced to lower her flashlight as she moved around the sharp corner. It was annoying, but not difficult.
Soon, she was back in a forward-facing tunnel and was able to raise her flashlight once again.
Then she screamed.
There was a man at the end of the tunnel. He was slumped over, leaning against the metal wall next to another turn. He wore the same purple uniform as the nightguard she had met. However, even against the beam of the flashlight, it looked a much darker shade.
The red blood was pooling around his body and staining every visible part of his pale skin. It was a much darker shade of red in certain areas, the holes in the uniform leading to the injuries that it was leaking from.
Charlie's mouth hung open as she continued to stare at the corpse.
Because that's what it was. A corpse.
The foul stench haunting this place hadn't been a rat or a dumpster outside. It was a man who had been left to rot in the pizzeria's air conditioning for who knows how long. How had nobody realised that there was a rotting corpse stinking up the place?
Charlie could see the first signs of decay affecting the body. Pale skin, saggy flesh, the unmistakable smell of the cells dying one by one... How long had this guy been here? A day? A week? A month? Had the restaurant's air conditioning been preserving this body, or was it as fresh as it smelled?
Before Charlie could even think of doing anything, before she could back pedal the fuck out of here... a laugh echoed in her ear.
It was soft, almost as sweet as it was childish, and certainly didn't sound like anyone she knew, and yet... it was also familiar in a way. It sounded like it belonged to a child, a little girl maybe. One that has been watching too many horror movies, maybe. But most importantly, it was close.
Too close.
Before Charlie could call out to the last child wandering the vents alongside her, it appeared in front of the light from her flashlight. Charlie couldn't find it in herself to even yelp at it.
It wore a mask. A white, flat face mask with two holes that served as its mouth and eyes. Two rosy red cheeks and a touch of lipstick decorated its otherwise bland face. Two painted blue tears streamed down from its black eyes.
"I see you."
So it could sing too. Great.
Charlie wanted to move, to get away, but it felt like every joint in her body had locked up. She could only stare as this strange, spindly animatronic (It had to be an animatronic; no person could be that lean) crawled over the security guard's corpse. It pulled itself forward, stopping only when it was face-to-face with Charlie. Its own face was upside down as it had chosen to pull itself through the vent in the most soratic and unnerving way possible.
It giggled once more as the tune that was usually accompanied by a jack-in-the-box emanated from the animatronic. Charlie could feel the scream trapped in her throat once more as the animatronic twisted its neck so it could face her 'right side up', even as its torso faced the ceiling and pointed away from her along with the rest of its body.
"You're not allowed here."
This comment seemed to reboot Charlie's brain. She barely even processed that this animatronic could talk and not just mindlessly lash out like the others. Instead, she just quickly moved to grab the out she had been offered.
"You know what, you are absolutely right," she forced out in a nervous laugh. "I think I got turned around at the T-junction a few turns back. I'm so sorry for disturbing you, Mr... I should get going. My friends are probably waiting for me and..."
Before Charlie could properly begin her escape back the way she came, she was forced to stop as she felt the animatronic's hand latch onto the wrist of her hand holding the flashlight. Despite only having three fingers and looking like an oversized, cheap carnival puppet, the animatronic was strong. Charlie couldn't move her hand an inch.
All she could do was keep shining her light in the animatronic's face as it leaned closer to her.
"I recognise you," the animatronic spoke in a voice that certainly did not belong to a Mr.
"Y- you do?" Charlie stammered because she definitely didn't recognise it.
Or... at least she thought she didn't. Even though she had no recollection of ever seeing this animatronic, not even in her dad's workshop, a part of her couldn't help but... Charlie wasn't sure if this was the right word to describe it, but she couldn't help but feel some faint inkling of kinship with it. A small part of her recognised it in the same way that someone would recognise the cousin of an old friend.
"At least... I thought I did." The animatronic sounded unsure. Like a little girl looking over her maths homework. "You are familiar, but... you're not who I thought you were."
Charlie could feel the animatronic staring into her soul, which should have been impossible.
She wasn't sure which part of this thing was the creepiest. It's mask, the way it moved, the voice it used...
"You can talk..." slipped out of Charlie's mouth before she could stop it.
The animatronic didn't have eyelids, but Charlie could see it blink in surprise as it reeled back a little. Charlie wasn't sure what had possessed her to point that out, but she hoped it wouldn't make her death slower than it otherwise would've been.
"I would hope so," the animatronic spoke slowly. The animatronic slowly released its grip on Charlie's wrist and backed off ever so slightly. "Otherwise, that would be a lot of awkward hours I would've wasted."
"Yeah... that probably would've been awkward."
Cue an uneasy silence filling the vent. Charlie, forcibly on all fours, had no choice but to stare at this... unnerving animatronic as it slowly twisted its body into a position that wouldn't kill a human. At the same time, she tried desperately not to look at the corpse still slumped over behind it. Charlie held no delusions that this animatronic hadn't killed him, and she was probably next.
At least its grip on her wrist had eased a little.
"The others can also talk," it said, briefly snapping Charlie out of her paranoia. "It's being heard that they struggle with."
"O- oh..?"
The animatronic nodded. Why did it seem so... sad?
"These days, they can barely remember what happened to them or who they were. Let alone understand it. Too much is missing. Too many pieces have been broken or put somewhere else. All that they know for sure is that... they were hurt."
"Hurt?"
The animatronic nodded. "First by him, then by the employees who pull them apart and put them back together over and over again. They don't trust grown-ups anymore. Neither do I."
Charlie swallowed her growing panic. "Is that why you..."
She glanced behind the animatronic's shoulder and immediately regretted it. The corpse was definitely still there, and she'd be joining it soon after.
The animatronic looked behind it, at the corpse, before looking back at Charlie. Surprisingly, it shook its head.
"I could not allow him to tell others I was here," it explained. "Otherwise, he would've come searching. I did what was necessary."
Charlie swallowed. That wasn't much better than animatronics mindlessly lashing out. In fact, it was probably worse, especially for her.
"And the others."
"As I said, they had been hurt. Hurt by this company and the adults who wear its uniform."
"Then why are they attacking me and my friends? We don't work for Fazbear. We're barely adults either."
The animatronic leaned closer, and Charlie could feel the air leave her lungs. Its eyes bore into her Soul once more, and Charlie wished she could just push it away and run.
"The others are like animals. But I am very aware."
Charlie couldn't say anything. Her brain was running at a thousand miles an hour, trying to process the absurdity of the situation and just understand the cryptic words spilling from this puppet's voice box. A voice box that sounded too much like a little girl to match the design of this... thing.
Silence filled the vents once more. It filled the space between Charlie and this thing that sounded too much like a little girl, that talked nothing like an animatronic with pre-recorded voice lines... it... she was too intelligent to be that. She was something else.
Someone so familar that it made Charlie as sick as the corpse.
"I do recognise you," the Puppet said, starting the conversation again. "I simply mistook you for someone else. But now... I believe I understand now. I know what you are."
She giggled. Charlie wanted to scream. To run. To do anything to make her stop/
"Daddy really was a genius."
"...what?"
"Tell me... Do you recognise me?"
"...you're one of the Missing Kids... the ones that disappeared at Freddy's ten years ago."
The Puppet paused.
Charlie was confident in her answer. She didn't understand how it was possible, but it was the only thing that she could come up with that even remotely explained the cryptic words spewing from the animatronic's unmoving mouth.
The Puppet continued to stare at Charlie, head twitching right or left every few moments, as if to see something that couldn't be seen. Then, she spoke once again.
"No... my friends and I were separate cases. I was the first to experience the cruelty of the man responsible."
"I'm-" Charlie wasn't sure what to say. This whole conversation was absurd. Nothing about it made sense, and it made her uncomfortable in ways she couldn't process. She just wanted to get out of these stupid vents, find John and the others, and just leave. "I'm sorry?"
The animatronic shook her head. "Don't be. Do not blame yourself for what was done to me... or what was done because of it."
Now Charlie was really confused. Could she be talking about the other kids?"
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"You really don't know..." The Puppet's manic giggles echoed through the metal vents, and Charlie desperately wanted her to stop.
"Tell me something about yourself, Charlotte."
"It's Charlie," Charlie responded. She could even bring herself to wonder how this haunted robot knew her name. That's overwhelming, it all seemed.
"Is it now? Please, tell me more."
Charlie forcibly swallowed her saliva. "And why should I tell you? I- I need to get back to my friends."
The Puppet appeared to consider this. "Yes, I suppose that would be for the best for now. I still have my questions, but I do not believe you will be able to answer most of them. At least not yet."
"What questions. What do you know?"
Before Charlie could think of any other questions to ask, the Puppet cut her off, "I'm going to need your help, Charlie. The time is coming, I can feel it."
"What are you talking about? What's coming?"
Charlie was beginning to fear that her hurt was going to break through her ribcage at any moment now. That did not help her heartbeat slow down a bit.
The Puppet raised one to her still mouth.
"Shhh... All in due time. When you... When we understand everything." The animatronic moved even closer. "Go back home and search Daddy's things. His office. His workshop. Search until you uncover the truth."
"Truth? What truth? Who the heck is your dad?"
"You know who I'm talking about," the Puppet sang.
"I- I really don't."
"You will. Even if you don't, that's okay. We'll put the pieces back together. Fix everything that has been broken. After all... that's what you were made to do."
"I don't know what you..."
The Puppet moved closer. It raised its velvet hand, and as much as Charlie wanted to get away, she instead allowed the animatronic to wrap its velvet fingers around her cheek. A soft, melodic lullaby began to echo through the vent, emanating from the animatronic. Almost immediately, Charlie felt her eyelids grow heavy as her vision blurred.
Suddenly, she felt as if she had been struck by a sleep train as exhaustion began to overtake her. She tried to keep her head up, but it felt like a bowling ball was attached to her neck. S̶h̶u̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ D̶o̶w̶n̶... Going to sleep... suddenly felt very tempting.
Despite this, she continued to stare at the Puppet, unable to force out any sort of emotion. She could barely see its mask through the static, but... were its eyes glowing?
"Who... what are you?"
"Look in the mirror, and ask again."
///
"Charlie."
Wha-
"Charlie!"
Who's... speaking... Her head hurt... What was she doing-
"Charlie!!! PLEASE WAKE UP!!!"
Brown eyes shot open, and a yell filled the air as Charlie's body lurched forward. She barely noticed the weird sploches that jumped back at her sudden yell. Only the warm hand that appeared on her shoulder to keep her steady.
"Hey, it's okay," John said, cutting through her panic. "You can calm down, Charlie. We're safe. We're in the security office. You don't need to panic."
Charlie looked around and saw that they were indeed in said office. There was that 'CELEBRATE' poster on the. And the two giant doors on either side, with Carlton and Jessica looking through each one.
"Left corridor is clear," Carlton explained, pulling his head back into the office.
"So is this one," added Jessica.
From the desk, a man wearing a purple uniform (this one wasn't a corpse, Charlie had to remind herself), nodded as he looked away from the monitors. "It doesn't seem like any of the animatronics heard, so we're good for now. Just need to hold out for another hour, and it'll be safe for all of you to go."
"Wha- what's going on?" asked Charlie, her voice feeling slightly slurred as she spoke.
"After all of the animatronics started going crazy and we split up, Mike herded all of us to his office, and we've been hiding in here ever since," explained Carlton.
"He was out there searching for you for half an hour. Where have you been, Charlie?" Jessica looked like she was on the verge of tears.
Charlie rubbed her head. It felt like someone had tried to force an entire cassette tape into a USB drive. She shook her head and tried to access her memories.
"I... I was hiding in the bathroom when... Bonnie almost got me, so I dove into the vent. I got lost and..."
The laughter of a little girl filled Charlie's ears. She tried to block it out, hating the sensation of nostalgia that it filled her with.
"How did I get here?"
John shrugged back at her. "Only Jessica was in the office at the time," he revealed. "She said she just appeared in the back when she wasn't looking, completely unconscious. We think you might have crawled into the office from one of the hallways and collapsed before she noticed."
Charlie didn't say anything. She supposed that it made sense, but... she didn't think she could believe that. Not after..."
She looked up to the night guard. "Thank you for helping us. I'm sorry we didn't believe you, and you know, breaking in."
Michael offered her a small smile, even though his eyes didn't seem to wish to meet her own. Instead, they seemed to dart between the two open doors or something behind her. Charlie glanced behind her and saw another vent, its cover shut tightly.
"It's... no problem, it's kind of my job." He chuckled weakly."And, I can't say I blame you for not believing me. Killer animatronics... I still wouldn't believe it if not for..."
He shook his head, and Charlie could tell he was trying to keep some sort of memory or thought out of his head. What else had she been doing all night?
"The point is that you're all safe," he explained. "All of you. Now we just have to hold out until 6 AM. The animatronics' programming will then have them return to the stage before the morning shift starts. That's when you guys can leave.
"I am so grounded after this," muttered Carlton.
"When you get home, you cannot tell anyone about what happened," Michael continued.
"What!?"
"ARE YOU KIDDING?!"
"CHILDREN ARE HANGING AROUND THOSE THINGS EVERY DAY! HOW CAN WE NOT TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THIS?!"
"YOU THINK THIS COMPANY CARES?!" Michael yelled back. "DO YOU THINK THEY EVER CARED?! The Bite of '87, the Missing Children Incident, the... Bite of... Henry's..."
Michael's breath stuttered, as if even thinking of saying that physically hurt him. Charlie felt herself perk up a little at the mention of her father's name. She didn't know if it was him that Michael was talking about, but... if it was... did he know something about Sammy?
Michael swallowed. "The point is, Fazbear doesn't care. The animatronics are only aggressive at night and therefore don't impact the customer's experience. They're more likely to silence you than actually do something about them."
"We're not scared of some rundown fast food company," objected Jessica.
"You should be."
Charlie wasn't sure what it was, but something about Michael's tone, the absolute certainty with which he said those words... it was enough to cause all of them to freeze up. To throw away their false bravado and every word that came next.
"If my fa- If my boss were to find out that you were here, what you saw..." He looked towards Charlie. "About you... You're not supposed to be here. You're not supposed to be..." He took a deep breath.
"He can make the animatronics in here look like teddy bears, trust me. The best thing that you can do is get out of the restaurant, get out of town, and never speak about this again."
This seemed to be enough to shut all of them up.
Michael sighed and returned to the monitors, likely to check on the animatronics. Carlton and Jessica followed his lead and took their posts as lookouts by their respective open doors. Charlie just continued to sit on the floor, with John by her side.
"Hey, are you okay?" he asked.
Charlie just shook her head.
Between everything that had happened, everything that was said, how could she be okay? There was a corpse in the vents. The animatronics were possessed. The manager or whoever Michael was talking about was apparently extremely dangerous, and... why did he keep looking at her like he knew her? Like she was supposed to be...
"Look in the mirror, and ask again."
Charlie took in a deep gulp of air.
"I'm fine, John. It's just... I think I need to do something."
He raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
The Puppet's voice continued to echo in her head. She hated how familiar it was. She hated how cryptic it was. And she hated that she was actually considering doing what it had said. But... if it was trying to help the children, or stop the man responsible for everything... wasn't it worth at least giving it a try?
Charlie could tell that Michael was listening to them. She lowered her voice, hopefully so only John could hear her, though she couldn't be sure if anyone else was listening in.
"I need to go back to my dad's house. I need to find something."
"Find what?" The concern in his voice was like a knife to Charlie's heart.
"The truth."