Chapter 3

Charlie felt sick to her stomach on the ride back to Carlton's house. She had let the spawn of a murderer into her father's domain. What if he's a murderer too? She pushed away the thought. Something told her that if he was a murderer she would have figured it out already. Although… She didn't figure out that he reminded her of Dave/William Afton until someone pushed her into bringing it up. I guess I just keep thoughts so buried in my mind that I can't hardly get them out. She thought, giggling to herself.

Mrs. Burke pulled into the driveway and unlocked the car, allowing Charlie, Marla, and Jessica to slip out. Everyone was silent as they trekked to the house, not uttering a word.

"Hey!" Clay called out from the leather chair next to the fire place where he was reading a magazine as they opened the door. "How'd it go? Did you find out what you needed?"

Charlie looked slowly from Marla to Jessica. "Yes, and you might find it shocking." When Clay nodded, she continued. "H-his… his name is Vincent Afton, born in New Harmony where my father opened the first restaurant."

Mr. Burke froze, mouth slightly opened. Silence encased the room as everyone stood, motionless.

"Vincent Afton?" Clay finally asked.

Marla, Jessica, and Charlie nodded.

"So… so Vincent is William's son?" He inquired, not really needing an answer. "That means… you all left a possible criminal at Freddy's..." His face became serious. "Don't go back there, you can't back there. Not if he's still in there."

Betty scoffed. "Please, if he's a criminal there would have been some record on him. We don't know for sure if he's a criminal." She turned to the girls. "If you see him, be careful. Like I said, if he's a criminal he could be dangerous, so just… stay safe." With that she walked up the stairs, leaving the girls and Clay alone.

"R-right," Mr. Burke stammered, "just… be safe." He picked up his magazine that he had dropped and opened it, beginning to read again.

Charlie turned towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Marla inquired, stepping in front of her.

"To get the guys. They need to know this too." She explained, but there was no need as the door opened in front of them.

John, Lamar, Carlton, and Jason came in, laughing about some guy thing.

"Oh my gosh! Did you see that quarterback?" Jason laughed. "That was terrible!" Lamar nodded and stifled a loud cackle.

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Guys, we have something we need to tell you." All of them turned to her. "Well… Charlie should tell you."

Suddenly self-conscious of all of them staring at her, she backed away a bit, as if that would turn away their gazes. "It's Vincent. He's… he's William Afton's son."

All of the boys looked blank for a minute.

"Who's William Afton?" John asked, but he soon gasped in realization. "I-isn't William Afton…?"

Carlton stopped dead. "Dave…" He breathed.

Jason furrowed his brows. "Dave? You mean the psychopathic serial killer who murdered all of those kids?" The girls nodded in unison.

"Vincent is Da-, er, William's son?" Carlton asked, gulping heavily.

"Yes, his name is Vincent Afton," Charlie explained, "and we left him at Freddy's. The only thing is that we don't know if he's a criminal, so if we see him, we have to be careful." John nodded, while the rest nodded more hesitantly, especially Carlton.

"Well, should we go back tonight?" Marla asked, hushed so that Clay couldn't hear it. "I mean… if he's still there, we should get him out, right?"

Lamar nodded slowly. "I agree, but I still don't want to go. How about we go out to dinner at Cracker Barrel and see if he's there? If he's not, then we go back down to Freddy's but if he is, then we won't." He looked around questioningly, but everyone just nodded, hoping that it was the right thing to do.

. . .

Her mashed potatoes tasted so good. Charlie was so hungry that it almost hurt until she filled herself. So far there was no sign of Vincent, but then again, they'd only been there for twenty minutes.

"I don't think Vincent is going to be here," Jessica said doubtfully, "I mean, why would he?"

Marla shrugged. "I guess it just kind of made sense. This is where we first met him."

Lamar nodded and continued to eat. The seven sat in silence, waiting and waiting for about an hour, until finally John gasped.

"There he is!" He whispered.

Charlie turned his head slowly to see the serial killer's son staring right at them from across the restaurant. His lips were twisted into a smirk, and his eyes spoke vengeance, but as soon as he noticed Charlie staring at him, his expression returned to normal. She had barely noticed his look before he snapped it back to the regular strange smile. Kind of weird… She thought. It was so quick that she wasn't really sure if she saw it, but ignored that.

Apparently Vincent noticed her relief at seeing him, so he stood up and walked casually over to them.

"There you are," he said, "why'd you guys all leave me?" Something about his tone was cold, but it was very faint.

"We figured that since you know how to control the animatronics, you would be fine if we left," Carlton explained.

"And you were right," Vincent's voice changed from calm and steady to excited, "I found another animatronic." Everyone at the table sat, shocked.

"What do you mean another animatronic?" Charlie asked cautiously.

"I mean another animatronic. A new one, you guys should all come down and see." His eyes glinted with something dark, but it flashed away too fast for Charlie to notice it.

"I don't know," John said hesitantly, "if it's really old then it might be dangerous…"

Vincent scoffed. "Come on, it's not that old. It looks like it might have never been used, and I checked out the circuits and gears. Everything seems fine with it, like brand new." His grin widened when Lamar shrugged and nodded.

"Why not?" He asked everyone. The others were a bit more hesitant, but they nodded.

"Perfect," he said lowly, only Charlie caught it this time.

"What's perfect?" She tested.

Vincent stared at her, blank. "That you all are coming down to look at the new robot." He shrugged innocently.

Charlie narrowed her eyes, but let it go.

Once they all finished eating, everyone got in their cars and drove over to the old mall site. Something told Charlie that they shouldn't be doing it, but she ignored it and pushed on further, pulling into the abandoned parking lot.

Slipping out of her convertible, she walked briskly up to the metal fence door and moved aside to let Vincent unlock the latch and open it up. Tentatively, Charlie walked up to the opening and moved through it, reaching the other side and opening the employees' door in the process. She stood by, letting everyone in and head counting them as if one of them would go missing if she didn't. Vincent walked through last, throwing her a triumphant glance, for what reason she knew not, but didn't question him.

Following them in last, Charlie found herself in the new dining room with the new toy animatronics.

"I thought you said that there's a new animatronic, Vincent," she remarked coolly.

He only shrugged. "I have to go get it, but only me. I don't want anyone to get hurt." Winking, he left the room.

Charlie couldn't suppress the shudder that ran through her body at his strange tone. What in the world is up with him? Then again, he was the son of a serial killer. Maybe it runs in his blood to be creepy like that… She turned to John.

"When he comes in with that new animatronic, I want everyone to stay back," in a lower voice she said, "I don't trust him."

He nodded. "Exactly the point. I don't trust him either and when he says there's some old rust bucket of a new animatronic in this place, it only confirms my suspicions of him being creepy." John lowered his head and gazed out of the top of his eyes, looking to where Vincent had left the room.

"Hey guys, come here!" Jason called from the other side of the room.

Charlie shrugged and followed the thirteen year old boy. He was standing in front of a wall, watching some children's drawings.

"I don't remember these from the last time we were here," he pointed out, "I wonder if Vincent drew them when he built the new animatronics."

"I highly doubt that," Lamar mused, "I don't think he would spend so much time on these. No, these had to be there before but you just never noticed them." Jason sighed.

"No, because this dining room was all empty the last time we were here, remember?" He tried to explain. "And besides, you might be right about the fact that Vincent didn't draw them, but they weren't here before. Weird…" He muttered the last part.

Lamar tapped his chin. "You could be right." Everyone sat in silence a little longer until a whirring sound was made apparent. "What's that?" Lamar asked, startled.

Charlie turned around, expecting to see Vincent with the new animatronic, but she only saw the toy animatronics on the stage activate. Toy Bonnie turned his head and stared at all of the teens, while Freddy stared ahead and lifted his hand holding the microphone, and Chica leaned forward, as if handing out a cupcake.

"W-who turned those on?" Jason asked shakily.

"Maybe they have some sort of night mode, I don't know." John responded simply, though it didn't seem to calm him.

Cautiously, Charlie approached Toy Freddy.

"Hello?" She asked unsurely. It seemed strange to talk to animatronics, but as Vincent had said, they could communicate with people.

"Hello there," it said robotically.

Jessica gasped. "You can talk to it? I thought only Vincent could do that!" She ran over and stood next to Charlie.

"I guess," she shrugged, "Toy Freddy, can you locate Vincent?"

The robot blinked once, and then stood straight. A series of clicking noises erupted from him, growing faster and faster until finally they stopped and a low and loud noise took the place.

"I cannot." It finally said. "Vincent is in a room where animatronics are not allowed to go. We do not know where it is, I can only tell you that much." Toy Freddy leaned down and looked at her.

Charlie felt her brows furrow in confusion. She turned back to her friends and gazed at them.

"Then he was lying." She concluded. "He said that he would show us a new animatronic but if what Freddy said is true then he was lying."

Marla crossed her arms. "Charlie, do you remember any sort of room that agrees with what Freddy described?" Everyone looked to her.

The blond shut her eyes tight and tried to think. Casting back her memories, she listened to her father's voice in her head.

"I think…" she recalled what she could and found out what she needed. "He said, 'If you ever need to be alone, go to the back Safe Room. The animatronics can't go there. It's where I go when I need some alone time.'" She remembered her father's face as he winked at her and returned to his work.

"So then that means Vincent is in the Safe Room," Carlton called out, "but how do we know how to get there?" He looked at Charlie, hoping her to have some idea.

She shrugged helplessly. "I never used the Safe Room, so I don't know where it is, but my dad said it was in the back, so we should all spread out look for it. If anyone thinks that they've found it, come back here and wait." Everyone seemed satisfied and filed out of the entry door to the dining room.

. . .

Vincent smirked when he opened the door to the room where he found the Springtrap. It was slumped over once again, set off for the time being, but as if he walking into the room was a signal, the thing whirred mechanically and opened its white eyes, standing up.

"Are they here?" It asked melodiously.

"Yup," he chuckled slightly, "I told them I was going to show them 'a new animatronic.'" He lifted his hands and moved his index and middle finger up and down in quotations when he spoke the last few words.

The former William Afton looked over to the security cameras and used his giant hand to push a button, causing them to flip on. Vincent walked over to them and studied them carefully, but didn't see any of the teenagers in the toy dining area. When he took a closer look he noticed Carlton and Charlie heading off down one hallway as the others were heading down different directions, all seeming to look for something.

"Dang it!" He punched his fist down on the table. "Charlie's smarter than I thought. She must've asked one of the animatronics to locate me. I should've known she'd be suspicious." Springtrap cocked his head to one side.

"We can still carry out the plan," he said, "Charlie will have the most memory of the Safe Room and therefore will know best where to find it. I can sneak out and kidnap Carlton while you get Charlie and lead her here. Tell her that you made a new animatronic." Vincent furrowed his brows while listening to his father talk.

"That's not bad," he muttered, "Okay, we'll try that." When Springtrap nodded, he noticed something shining in his eyes. Triumph? He thought, not realizing that such a thing could be present in an animatronic. It seemed that he possessed real emotions, like if Vincent punched him he would feel it.

Silently agreeing with each other, the two set out in two different hallways to come in on the one hallway Charlie and Carlton were trekking through. Vincent turned a couple times and emerged in the shadows of a dimly lit passage. He noticed the faint voices of the two teenagers coming ever closer. Smirking in anticipation, he waited until they were about two yards away from his and Springtrap's hallways. He gave off a signal for his father to spring into action when Charlie said,

"This hallway splits off into three directions, so you go down the right way, I'll go down this way."

Trusting that the former William Afton did as he promised, he pretended to be walking into Charlie.

She grunted when she bumped into him, not knowing that Vincent would be there. "Vincent! What are you doing? Where's the animatronic?" The blond girl put emphasis on the last word as if to let him come to the realization that she didn't believe him.

Rolling his eyes, he muttered, "I was coming to get you all. Where are the others?"

Charlie narrowed her eyes. "Looking for you, but I suppose I should just go get them now."

Vincent stopped her from continuing when she turned around by putting a hand on her shoulder. "Come on, I'm really excited for this! I'll show them in a minute. Besides, I've already turned the animatronic on, and it gets nervous without me. I think it's just a bug in my system, but I can fix it later." He gave her a pleading look that caused the girl to sigh, annoyed, but nonetheless she followed.

. . .

Carlton wasn't so sure when Charlie told him to split from her, but decided it would be a faster way of finding Vincent. Charlie's right though… there's something shifty about him. Even if he hasn't murdered anyone yet, he's the son of a serial killer… you just never know. Ignoring the unsettling thoughts, he focused on the task at hand: getting to Vincent as soon as possible before something else got to him.

As he was walking through the hallway, he felt as though he was being watched. His neck hairs stood up when he heard a shuffling behind him. Carlton stopped dead. Being frozen in place, he could not get himself to turn around. The shuffling continued, subtly getting closer until he could feel a presence behind him. He opened his mouth to scream out in help, but nothing came out when he felt a large matted… something cover his face. He kicked and thrashed violently, hoping to damage whatever was restraining him, but soon enough he felt himself grow tired and stopped fighting. He was helplessly being dragged into the darkness.

. . .

He's up to something… Charlie thought as Vincent led her into hallway after hallway. It seemed he was taking his time, but then again, he had set a brisk pace, setting her off the suspicions. Children's drawings crinkled and whisked the bottom half up into the air when the two walked past quickly.

Soon enough Vincent slowed and the teenager found herself entering a room that was somewhat small, but enough to be some sort of an office. On the left of the room sat a desk, and on that desk sat an assortment of monitors, all of them in power. Has he been spying on us? Charlie thought defensively when she noticed movement down the hallways in which she had sent Jessica and John.

"Where am I?" She asked, turning on him with a heated look in her gaze. "And why are those monitors on? I don't see any animatronic."

The teenager in front of her smirked. "How long have we been walking in the hallways?"

Charlie seemed a bit taken aback by his random question, but answered anyway. "About thirty minutes. You took your time." She snarled at him.

"And I have good reason for that." Vincent jerked his head and glanced over at the boxes behind her.

Rolling her eyes indignantly, Charlie turned around. Suddenly something shifted in the boxes, causing her to gasp. In a few more movements, she heard a whirring sound and her entire body froze at what she saw.

A large animatronic stood up out of the boxes, seemingly hidden behind them. It was green—or rather gold. The thing seemed to be a mix of both colors. With a gasp of horror, she noticed that there were many spots in which she could see inside the animatronic, and these spots led her to noticing the grey, flakey matter and remains of a decaying body. It couldn't be… She thought, feeling sick to her stomach. The robot possessed large bunny ears that were sticking out of the thing's head in jaunty angles. This was the thing that was staring at me as I left Freddy's last night! Charlie shook her head and widened her eyes, backing away.

Trying desperately to escape, she darted to the door, only to have it slammed shut by Vincent who was glaring at her. She looked around wildly, but found no place in which she could escape. She was inside the Safe Room.

"I don't believe you've met Springtrap yet," he spoke up with a triumphant smirk on his face, "or shall I say my father, William Afton?"