Springtrap was far enough away from Jack that the night guard allowed his eyes to wander to the clock. 4 AM. Two hours to go before Springtrap's servos locked up and another night at Fazbear's Fright (The Horror Attraction) was finished…with no answers being provided.
He sighed and quickly checked all of his systems, rebooting them all just to be safe. Once he was certain that he wasn't about to lose audio/visual/sanity, he turned his attention back to the cameras. Springtrap had, not surprisingly, moved while he had been looking away. Jack hissed a curse under his breath and flickered from camera to camera, trying to find the animatronic.
He had to squint carefully since Springtrap unfortunately had a habit of blending in with the falling-to-shreds robotic odds and ends that decorated Fazbear's Fright (The Horror Attraction). Occasionally an arm or a glowing eye would be Jack's only indication that the metallic rabbit was in the room.
Except in the case of one hallway. Springtrap usually stood right smack dab out in the open when he was in that hallway, so Jack didn't feel the need to search it thoroughly. He flickered to the camera that kept track of said hallway and was about to switch to a different camera when something caught his eye.
Something was standing in the hall. Not Springtrap. It was far too thin to be the seven-foot, bulky bunny. No, this creature was skinny, with a dark grin and rosy cheeks. Not only that, it wasn't even really standing in the hall. He couldn't see clearly since the feed was overrun with static, but from what he could tell it looked like it was floating.
One blink, however, and the strange creature was gone.
"What the f…?"
Before he could even hope to complete his question, alarms started to wail. Confused (he had just rebooted the ventilation, after all, no way it was malfunctioning this quickly), Jack shoved the monitor aside.
As soon as he did so, he found himself face-to-face with the creature from the hall.
He didn't scream, cringe, or even gasp. He froze, just like he had with Springtrap previously, hoping that if he stayed perfectly still then maybe this thing wouldn't harm him.
This wasn't a hallucination. He could sense that if he reached out and touched the creature, he would be touching a solid entity. This thing, like Springtrap, was alive.
As for its emotional state, though, he couldn't quite tell. While Springtrap was clearly angry all of the time, this creature's face was stuck in a perpetual wide grin. Yet its empty black eyes seemed to narrow slightly as it stared at the guard.
Jack took a moment to inspect the creature and try to determine who or what it was. Its thin arms and legs clearly didn't have an endoskeleton to give it support, so it wasn't an animatronic then. He stole a glance upwards and quickly discovered how it was moving and why it seemed to be levitating. It was not, in fact, floating. Rather, very, very thin strings were attached to its arms and legs, and the ends of the strings were stuck to the ceiling, somewhat reminding Jack of the superhero Spiderman.
But more than that, it reminded him of a marionette. A marionette that had somehow gained control of its own strings and was able to move about by attaching those strings to the ceiling.
The Marionette (as Jack immediately mentally dubbed the creature) didn't register in the guard's mental database of Fazbear and Friends characters. He was by no means an expert on the chain's cast, but he had been to a Fazbear establishment a few times as a kid and he didn't remember ever bumping into a character that looked anything like the Marionette. The Marionette was the sort of thing that would be more likely to frighten children rather than entertain them.
The Marionette tilted its head and slowly slid to the side so that it was no longer right in Jack's face. It tugged on one of its strings, removing it from the ceiling, and then with a flick of its wrist it cast its string towards the corner. The string stuck to the wall and the Marionette moved to hang right over Jack's desk.
When it seemed that the Marionette wasn't going to hurt him, Jack quickly shut off the alarms and clicked 'Play Audio' on a camera to the far end of the building so that Springtrap wouldn't interrupt this little meeting. Once that was done, he faced the Marionette and swallowed.
"Uhm…" he muttered, "H-hello."
The Marionette just tilted its head some more.
"I-I…." Jack stumbled, "I—I'm not here to hurt you or anything. S-so don't hurt me, okay?"
The Marionette was silent.
"I-I'm the night guard here, not a bad guy," muttered Jack, vaguely recognizing the fact that he was talking to a living marionette and probably needed to check himself into a mental ward pronto, provided he survived this little encounter. "C-can you understand me?"
Slowly, the Marionette nodded.
"C-c-can you talk?"
The Marionette was silent for a moment before a raspy voice emerged from its grinning mouth. "It's been some time."
Jack cringed. The voice sounded worn, as though years of disuse had taken its toll. "S-some time? Since what?"
"Since I have spoken to an adult."
"O-oh," muttered Jack. "Well…thanks for talking to me, then."
"Adults lie quite often. And they're often cowardly. They leave their children all alone with us, but then when they're left alone with us all they do is scream."
"Ah…well…I wouldn't exactly say I'm a coward…and I'm not lying. I really am just a security guard…I just came here because it's my job and…"
"And yet," said the Marionette, "you called out to us. You said you would help us."
Jack could feel a sweat bead roll down his face. "Ah…oh…right. I-I did say that."
"Were you lying?"
"N-no. I mean, I really was actually hoping to figure out what was goin' on here, it's been driving me nuts. So…so you and Springtrap…you do need help after all?"
"Springtrap?" repeated the Marionette, and Jack could swear that he saw its empty eyes narrow inquiringly.
"The big bunny thing, it's been…"
A flare of hatred seemed to shoot from the Marionette's blank eyes as it snarled, "You mean the Purple Man."
Jack arched an eyebrow. "The what…? Uhm…he's not purple."
"He wore purple when he took our lives away."
It took a moment for Jack to connect the dots, but once he did his eyes lit up in horrified surprise.
"Wait…Springtrap…the guy inside…that's the murderer? The one who killed the kids? And you…?"
"I was his second victim," said the Marionette. It looked down at the floor and whispered, "Or at least I thought I was."
"What…do you mean?"
"Golden Freddy."
"Golden…who?"
"I remained behind after Purple Man took my life," the Marionette explained. "But the Purple Man didn't stop after me. Four more followed, and I gave them new bodies, new life."
"The animatronics…the stories…"
"Yes," said the Marionette, leaning slightly forward, an edge of excitement coming to its voice. "I gave them new life, and I gave life to the others he killed. Balloon Boy, Mangle, Toy Bonnie and Chica and Freddy. All of them…except for Golden Freddy."
"And Golden Freddy…?"
"Golden Freddy didn't have a body, but he took the form of an old Spring-Suit. I had always thought that he was Purple Man's first victim. He was here before me. But now…now I'm not so sure."
"You never asked?"
"Golden Freddy speaks to no one."
"A…shy one, hm? All right…but…the animatronics were all destroyed, so what happened to the kids?"
"After Purple Man destroyed their bodies," the Marionette elaborated, twisting its neck at an uncomfortable angle so that it was staring at Jack upside-down, "we confronted him. The coward tried to hide from us in the Spring-Suit, but…"
"It crushed him," Jack surmised, remembering Phone-Guy's warning about how dangerous the suits were.
"Yes," said the Marionette. "Toy Bonnie, Toy Chica, Toy Freddy…they all left after that. But the rest remained. You've seen them several times."
"Those…those weren't just hallucinations, then!"
"They've always been a bit impish," said the Marionette, a touch of fondness coming to its tone. "Regardless, I had thought that they would all move on once Purple Man died."
"So…why didn't they?"
"Golden Freddy."
"What did he do?"
"He became even more despondent."
"Uh…that's a big word."
"Sad," sighed the Marionette with a touch of irritation, "The fact that I died as a child doesn't make me an idiot. But either way, Golden Freddy is sad and so Freddy is sad, and because Freddy is sad the rest are sad. And as long as we are all full of fear and woe we cannot move on. I won't leave without the others. I can't."
The Marionette twisted its body at an odd angle so that it could raise itself almost to the ceiling. Jack had to crane his neck to meet its eyes.
"You said that you wanted answers," said the Marionette. "I'm afraid I have no more to give. But if you truly wish to help us then I beg of you: try to speak to the others, find out what makes them so sad and help them. They will no longer speak to me, but perhaps they will speak to you."
Jack, almost overwhelmed, sputtered, "But…I mean…they just keep jumping out at me! I can't really have a conversation with them!"
"You'll need to find them when they are not trying to scare you, then," replied the Marionette. "I will think of something…if you'll return tomorrow."
"I…of course I'm coming back…"
"Then will you help us?"
"I…oh, hell, why not? Sure, if it means getting some answers. I'll do what I can, but I can't make any promises."
"Good," said the Marionette. "Then thank you…what is your name, Night-Guard?"
"Me? Ah…Jack. Jack Stevenson. And…uh…I don't mean to be rude, but what's yours? I don't remember your…"
"The Puppet."
Jack glanced at the strings. Well, fitting.
"Puppet?" he repeated.
"The Puppet," snapped the Puppet with ire, as though Jack had said something woefully offensive.
"The Puppet,' sighed Jack, who might have been amused were the situation not so strange and spooky. "Well, all right then, The Puppet. I'll…"
But Jack was interrupted by a small chime. Both he and the Puppet glanced at the clock.
"It's day," said the Puppet. "I must sleep. Goodbye, Night-Guard Jack."
And with that, the Puppet pulled its strings off the ceiling and was gone before Jack could even hope to finish his sentence.
I always sort of wondered how the Puppet moved around. I mean, it is a puppet after all, and those legs wouldn't really do well to support its body. Hope my string explanation sounds believable.
Regardless, once again I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed, read, favorited, or chosen to follow this story. It really does motivate me to write faster when I see that people are enjoying what I'm writing, and if you are enjoying it (or have any problems with it) I'd like to know your thoughts! Please review!
I'd also once again like to recommend my other story, The Boy Who Lived, to all my Hetalia fans out there! Please go read that one and tell me your thoughts! Lots of love is going into both of these fanfics!
Coming up next: a long chapter. Stay tuned!
