Chapter 2
Mangle was starting to get out of control. Every time she would show a trick it would go overboard and she would end up chasing Jason. He thought it was a game at first, but soon enough it became violent.
"What if this turns into the last time we were here?" Carlton muttered darkly to himself, but Charlie had heard it.
"Carlton, calm down," she soothed, "Vincent is with us and he'd know when Mangle was getting too out of control." Only, he wasn't.
Seeming to know this, Carlton turned to her with wide, frightened eyes. "Charlie, he's gone."
"What?!" She exclaimed, searching around frantically. She found that the more she tried to believe he was with them the more she accepted the reality that he wasn't.
At that moment Marla and Lamar ran in the room, panting.
"Toy Bonnie," Lamar heaved, "he walked off stage. When Toy Freddy noticed that it left, he ran off too."
Jessica and John snapped their heads up, and Charlie rubbed her temples trying to think.
"What about Toy Chica?" John inquired.
"Still there," Marla muttered, "I think." She shook her head in despair.
Charlie wondered if they knew that Vincent had gone, but judging by their scared faces, they didn't care. Wanting nothing but to leave, she tried to get their attention.
"Guys…" she said quietly.
"But why does it matter whether she's gone or not?" Jessica whimpered.
"Guys," Charlie spoke a little louder.
John cut her off. "It matters because who knows what'll happen if she finds us?"
"Guys!" She yelled. Everyone turned towards her. "Vincent is gone and he's the only one who knows how to control them, so even if he is lost, he'd be safe. We need to go… now!"
Carlton was the first to dart out the door, followed by everyone else. Mangle was left when they ran off past the toy animatronic stage and the supply closet in the west hall. I wonder if the old animatronics feel sad now that they've been replaced. She thought. Strangely enough her answer felt as though it would be a resounding yes, but she still wasn't quite sure.
Black and white checkered patterns blurred all around her as she dashed quickly as she could through the employees' door and the metal fence which had been left slightly open. The moon, looking like a single hook in the sky, shone brightly, casting an ominous feel over tops of the autumn trees.
Quickly everyone got into their cars, leaving Vincent's car alone in the deserted parking lot. Charlie sped off through the night and towards Carlton's house where they would be staying, but as she did, she noticed a dark figure looming eerily behind the metal fence. What was the most strange about it was the two giant bunny ears, poking out in jaunty angles. Is that…? But she quickly dismissed the thought and drove off into the darkness.
. . .
"So then we left. We didn't want to spend another minute without Vincent there with us." Jessica finished telling the whole story to Clay Burke, Carlton's father.
"And his car is still there so he can get back?" He inquired.
Marla spoke this time. "Yeah, but nobody had gone in his car so we got here fine."
Clay tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Well I suppose that's ok, but if you go back there again, don't mess with the new animatronics. I know Vincent told you that they're safe, but I still don't want anyone hurt." He paused, and then added, "All of that new technology makes me a bit nervous. Talking walking animatronics? That is a little creepy."
Everyone nodded in unison.
"Well, why don't I get everyone some hot chocolates? At least this time we won't be drinking them over fear of loss." He winked at Carlton who rolled his eyes playfully.
While he went off to the kitchen, Charlie was deep in her own thoughts. What was that thing? Why was it staring at me? A spine-tingling sensation told her that it had singled her out for some dark reason, but she pushed it away.
She looked up to see John tapping her on the shoulder, holding a mug of hot chocolate.
"You want this, or not?" He asked.
Charlie nodded and took it, taking a half-hearted sip. She had to admit, it soothed her a bit.
Settling himself on the leather armchair across from the fireplace, Clay Burke gazed at them all. "So, troubles aside, what do you guys have planned for tomorrow?"
Jessica smiled brightly. "Charlie, Marla, and I are going shopping at the mall in the town east from here. We're gonna look at antiques, vintage stuff, and of course buy a few clothes." She squealed excitedly, getting a few rolled eyes.
"That sounds like fun for you girls," He laughed a bit, "a nice change from mechanics, right Charlie?" The blond flushed a little, but nodded shyly. "What about the boys?"
Lamar laughed. "We don't really know what we're going to do, but John said something about a football game."
John nodded eagerly. "Yeah, it's just downtown from here. I guess we'll be rooting for Carlton's old high school." He turned over to the teen and winked, causing him to shake his head, chuckling.
"Looks like you have it all planned out then," Clay took one last gulp of his hot chocolate, "why don't the girls share a guest bedroom while the guys get the other?" Everyone nodded and dispersed, Carlton getting his own room.
Charlie walked up the wide wooden staircase, running her hand over the smooth railing. It looked like something from the eighteen hundreds. Curling at the ends of each rail, it fit perfectly between the living room area and the hallway off to the left.
Blindly she turned to a room on the right, relieved to see that nobody lived in it so it was one of the two guest bedrooms. Hide and seek in this house would be impossible. She thought to herself, giggling a little.
Jessica came in after her, followed by Marla who yawned exaggeratedly.
"Those comforters look so great!" Jessica gasped as she fell down onto the large bed. "This would easily fit all three of us."
Charlie nodded. "Yeah, it still amazes me how wealthy they are." She paused a little, and then realized something. "Oh! I left my bags in my car. Do you guys want to come with me to get it?"
Marla looked up. "I left mine too. I'll go with you. Jessica?" The red head looked up from her spot on the bed.
"Yeah, I guess I forgot mine too."
The three girls filed out the door and down the stairs. Charlie opened the front door and let her friends out before following them into the large driveway. Picking her keys out of her pocket, she unlocked her car and popped the trunk, lifting her week's bag from the dip. Quickly she made her way back through the house and upstairs into the guest bedroom.
Jessica plopped her flower print designer bag on the floor and picked out a night outfit, heading into the closet to change. Marla did the same with her regular black bag and headed into the bathroom. Left alone now, Charlie decided to test out the bed.
"Ahh," she sighed, "it is comfortable."
A creaking noise alerted her and she sat up, seeing Jessica in some night shorts, a tank top, and an over shirt that matched the shorts.
Charlie rummaged through her own bag and picked out a t-shirt and some mid-calf cuffed sweat pants. She quickly made the change and put her day clothes back in her suit case. Her shirt was a tight pitch black with white letters spelling out 'Love' as the pants were red with black letters spelling out 'Live' on the side. She did her hair up in a loose bun and settled on the end of the bed, facing the window.
Marla came out of the bathroom in a purple lacy and loose tank over long, furry white pants that draped down to her ankles with cute pink and purple polka dots along her legs. Holding her iPod, she let out a laugh.
"Charlie, Jessica!" she hooted. "Come here! Oh my gosh, this is awful!"
Slipping out of the comforters, the two girls crowded around her iPod to see the video she was laughing at.
There was a little boy running from a girl in a four-wheeler when the girl sped up and ran over the boy.
Jessica clapped her hand over her mouth in a stifled laugh. "That's terrible!"
Laughing loudly, Charlie shook her head and walked back over to the bed. She slipped back under the covers and closed her eyes, easily falling asleep.
. . .
Time Skip: The next day at 3:00
"How does this one look?" Marla asked, holding up a navy blue dress. It was over coated with dark blue lace and had a nice frame to it. The thick, three-finger tank top curled in over the back of the wearer's neck, almost like a halter, but not quite. There wasn't much define, but that was the great part about it. It was loose, breezy, and reached to the wearer's upper knee.
"Ooh!" Jessica squealed happily. "That one is really cute! Go try it on." She shooed Marla with a flick of her hand towards the mall's dressing room.
Although Charlie wasn't much in with fashion, she didn't mind picking out a few cute clothes.
"How about these?" She asked, holding up a pair of white lacy shorts. They were loose and breezy, but perfect for a regular day.
"Oh my gosh! How much to those cost?" Jessica asked.
"Um…" Charlie checked the label. "Let's see… oh, it says it's fifteen ninety-nine. Why?"
Jessica rolled her eyes playfully. "Oh, no reason… but, would you mind if I bought a pair like that too?" She held up her hands in a pleading motion.
"Fine," she giggled, "I don't care. What size are you?"
"I'm a size four, women's."
Charlie inwardly gasped at how tiny she was. Wow, girl. Shrugging it off, she picked out a size four and handed it to Jessica, who was hopping delightedly.
A creaking noise alerted her and she lifted her head to see Marla come out of the dressing room with the navy blue dress on.
"That looks so good!" Jessica marveled. "You should so buy that." She walked over and zipped up the back for her.
"Thanks! It only cost sixteen bucks, so I could get this one along with my high-wasted jean shorts and crop top." Marla said. "I'll go take this off and meet you guys by the register, cause' I'm done."
Charlie nodded and picked up her shorts along with a long, flowy red blousy shirt with black lace over the front. Deciding not to buy a whole lot of clothes was hard because of all of the cute styles, but she managed only to end up buying two shirts and the lace shorts.
Quickly she made her way around the different shoppers and clothes racks. She dropped her shirt and shorts on the counter and let the cashier scan them and give Charlie her final price. Who is the cashier? She asked herself. There was something familiar about her, but in a good way. Charlie glanced at her name tag: Jaqueline.
"Wait," she said out loud, catching Jaqueline's attention, "Jackie? Jackie Goss?" Jackie Goss was one of Charlie's high school friends that had moved her junior year.
The cashier stopped. "Yes? And you are…?"
"I'm Charlotte, you remember, Charlie?" She tried to explain.
Luckily, Jackie understood. "Oh! Charlie, yeah, it's been a while. Where've you been?"
Charlie nodded. "Here and there, but right now I'm on a shopping spree with two of my most girly friends, Marla and Jessica. I told you about them, right?" She inquired.
"Yeah, you did." Jackie continued checking out her shorts. "They were your childhood friends that you met up with two years ago. Didn't Carlton almost get killed or something?" She daringly asked.
Charlie winced slightly. "Yes… h-he doesn't like to talk about it, but yes."
Jaqueline pressed on. "But you don't care, do you? I mean, would you explain it to me? Like, what happened?" The blond behind the counter asked as she handed Charlie her final price.
She took it and handed the cashier twenty-five dollars to pay for her outfit.
"Well, I guess I could explain it to you, but you might not understand." Charlie started from when they first went in and got caught by Dave. "So then he went inside with us and started moving around all of the animatronics. I don't really know how, but he somehow went missing and got inside the Spring Bonnie suit, a really old suit that doubled as an animatronic. After that… well, Jason said that he saw 'Bonnie' take him away. Apparently he meant Dave inside the suit, but he didn't know that at the time." She paused not wanting to get into details. "Long story short, Carlton was knocked out and wedged in another spring lock suit, and Dave was going to set off the spring locks to kill him, but I got there in time to save him." She finished hastily.
Jackie was leaning on her elbows, her hands under her chin, staring intently up at Charlie.
"Wow! That's so scary." The cashier stood up and handed Charlie her clothes. "Well, thanks for telling me, and here are your clothes." Jessica came over from the other check out along with Marla.
"Who's this?" Jessica inquired.
Jackie widened her eyes. "Is this Marla?"
Charlie laughed a bit. "No, that's Jessica." She motioned to the brunette behind her. "This is Marla."
Happily, Jackie shook each of their hands. "Hi, I'm Jaqueline, but you can call me Jackie. I'm one of Charlie's high school friends. Did you guys really go to Freddy Fazbear's all the time when you were kids, and then come back two years earlier and almost die?" There was a short silence, but then Marla laughed.
"Only Carlton almost died, and yes, we did." She brushed off the fact that it was rather blunt and nearly rude. "But it's not there anymore. I mean, it is, but it's not a restaurant anymore."
"But didn't some guy buy the mall and say that he was going to do something with it?" Jackie asked hopefully. "I heard there's some mechanic named Vincent who built a bunch of new robots."
Charlie felt her eye twitch a bit at the mention of his name. Still can't really figure out who he reminds me of… But suddenly it hit her. Dave… The blond widened her eyes in shock.
"Uh, Jessica, Marla, can we hurry up? I'd like to get back to Mr. Burke's house." In a lower voice she murmured, "There's something you guys should know."
The two shrugged and waved goodbye to Jackie. Quickly they ran out of the mall with their shopping back clutched tightly in their fists. Without wasting a moment Charlie flipped open her trunk and set the bags inside.
Jessica and Marla hopped in her car and Charlie started the engine.
"What was the rush?" Jessica asked in the passenger seat.
"I just discovered something very… unsettling." She murmured half to herself as she backed out of the parking lot.
"What's that?" Marla piped up from behind.
"Didn't you guys ever notice how… familiar Vincent was?" She wondered.
Jessica tapped her chin. "I guess. He always kind of struck me as someone I've been before. And his father being a mechanic? I thought that was weird. I could have sworn we'd met somebody that was a mechanic and knew a lot about Freddy's." She shrugged.
"But we have met someone like that." Charlie pressed on. "Dave. Don't you guys remember him?"
Marla let out a sharp gasp. "That's who he reminded me of! Oh my gosh, that is literally so weird. He has the same creepy facial expressions, and the fact that he's a mechanic makes it all the more uncanny."
Charlie nodded. "Which is exactly why we're going to Clay's house to ask about him."
. . .
Mr. Burke listened intently while Charlie described Vincent's familiarity and his strange quirks that reminded her of Dave. His expression turned when she mentioned his name.
"Dave?" He asked. "You mean William Afton?"
Charlie's eyes widened. "But that means…" she breathed. "Wasn't William Afton my dad's business partner?" When Clay nodded, she gasped. "S-so… so Dave turned out to be William Afton? And William Afton was the one… who killed all of the kids?" She felt as though the world had diminished around her and all that was left was her voice.
"Yes." Clay broke into her thoughts
A question struck Charlie's mind as he responded. "What's Vincent's last name?"
Mr. Burke swept his glance across her, and then Marla, and then Jessica. He was thinking deeply, Charlie could tell.
"I believe his last name is Miller." He finally spoke.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Charlie shook her head. "Good. Okay, so then we know that he's not related in any way… although, he did say that his dad was a mechanic and had 'died.'" She put her hands up, raising and lowering her index and middle finger in quotations when she said the word "died."
"You know what…" Clay murmured. "I believe that Dave's fake last name was Miller as well…"
Charlie froze. Her blood turned to ice as he finished speaking. That meant there was a possibility that Vincent could be Dave/William's son. But that was his fake last name… surely Vincent wouldn't need a fake last name… nobody would really make the connection, would they? The realization that she could have spent a night at Freddy's with a serial killer's son made her want to throw up.
"But that was Dave's fake name," Marla voiced her previous thoughts, "So that doesn't mean that Vincent is actually related to him, right?" She tried her best to sound convincing, but Charlie could see through it.
"I guess so," Mr. Burke tapped his chin, "I guess if you were to really confirm that his last name was Miller then you'd have to go to the court house, considering he was born here." He paused, but then gasped. "My wife works at the courts, you could ask her to take a trip there and look through our files."
Charlie let out a sigh. "Thank you." She breathed. "Is she here?" It was about four twenty and she knew that they'd have enough time to swing by and look through some of the files.
"Yes," he replied, standing up, "I can go get her." Mr. Burke walked over to the stairs and around to the hallway on the other side. "Betty!" He called. "Could you come here a second?"
A blond woman poked her head out from behind the railing.
"Is that Charlie, Marla, and Jessica? I thought they were our shopping." She said.
Clay nodded. "They were, but they decided to come out early. Listen, I need you to take them to the courts and supervise them while they look through some files."
Betty widened her eyes. "I can't do that! Clay, honestly, why would I let teenagers rummage through court business?" She asked coldly.
"You'd be there, and they need to know this." In a hushed voice, he added, "They think that Vincent Miller might not be 'Miller'. Just help them with it." She sighed.
"Fine, but I don't want any of you three poking around in things you're not supposed to poke around in." She pointed her finger at all three of them.
Nodding, Charlie followed Mrs. Burke out the door and to her car, all of them silently deciding it'd be better to go in one rather than several. The breeze was crisp and felt good on Charlie's warm skin, but it didn't last long when she sat down in the passenger seat of the stuffy car.
"Could you turn on the air conditioner?" She asked politely.
Betty nodded and turned a blue and red switch, causing cool air to seep from the vents.
Starting the engine, she backed out of the driveway and drove into town, passing up crimson, sienna, and canary trees. Buildings and shops blurred past as she sped down to Main Street. Slowly, she pulled into the parking lot and stopped. Charlie opened the door and filed in the castle-like building behind Betty. Several people cast them confused glances as they earned permission to check out the birth certificate section of the files.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Mrs. Burke?" A woman with brown hair and a red pantsuit asked.
"Yes," she sighed, "it'll only be a quick look. These three promised not to mess with anything their not supposed to mess with." Betty cast the teenagers warning glances, making Charlie feel like a toddler being scolded by her mother. She flushed a bit under the stare, but returned to normal when Mrs. Burke briskly walked into a large, circular room with files on all sides.
"Which one would have the name Vincent Miller in it?" Charlie asked, hoping that his real name really was Miller.
Betty pointed over to a file cabinet close to the end. "It'd be in the fourth one down."
Marla was first to get there and opened the heavy duty cabinet, rummaging through the various files.
"I don't see any Vincent Miller in here… I see Aaron Miller and Christine Miller, but I don't see any Vincent." She murmured, searching more frantically.
Mrs. Burke jerked her head up. "If the person you trying to find isn't in there, then it's possible that he wasn't born here. Do you think you have any clue to where he might have been born?"
Charlie thought for a moment, and then remembered that the town, New Harmony, was where her father made the first restaurant. If William Afton worked with him and Vincent really was his son, then his files would be there.
"New Harmony?" She suggested. "Although that would mean we'd have to drive all the way there to get it… and I don't think they'd let us look."
Betty rolled her eyes. "You realize that since New Harmony is right beside us then we can access their files through our computer? It's how all of the courts deal with people who move from or to their town." Charlie heaved a sigh of relief.
"Do you think you could help us with that?" She asked hopefully.
Reluctantly Betty nodded and walked out of the room. Passing through a couple of doors brought them to a room where several court workers were on computers.
"Here," Mrs. Burke said when she sat down in her chair and set up the computer, "Do you want me to look at the New Harmony birth certificate files in… the 'M' section?" Charlie nodded and she clicked around for a minute and typed in a couple of words.
"His name is Vincent Miller." Supposedly. She thought darkly.
Betty clicked her fingers across the typing board and narrowed her eyes. "I don't see any Vincent."
She gulped. That meant the only other place to search was in the 'A's for Afton.
"C-could you search in the 'A' section?" She asked hesitantly. "I'm looking for the name Afton."
Betty slowly turned her head, eyes wide, but turned back around and searched the name.
"Are you looking for Vincent Afton?" She steadily asked.
Nodding, she felt her nose twitch with anticipation.
"I found it." Betty said lowly.
