Chapter 6: Behind the Mask
"Eggs Benedict," said the electronic female voice in the Testing Room En was seated in.
"Benedict," En replied.
"Eggs Benedict."
"Benedict."
"Benedict Eggs."
"Benedict."
"Angsty Teen."
"Teen."
"Casual Bongos."
"Bongos."
"Bongos Casual."
"Bongos."
An alarm beeped. "Incorrect response! You will now be administered a controlled shock and start from the beginning."
Before En could protest, his metal chair suddenly became electrified causing him to convulse uncontrollably. Once it was over, he said the correct responses this time and was allowed to go. On his way to the neighborhood where Afton's house used to be, En looked at the pictures he had taken of the various rooms inside the facility including the claw-shaped apparatus. This picture seemed to trigger something in En's memory, though he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Hey, what's that?"
En looked over his shoulder and saw a young girl wearing a tan-colored beanie and raincoat. Her eyes were purple, and her nose was triangular.
"Something that wasn't meant for your eyes," En claimed as he put the camera away.
"Well, now that I saw it, mind telling me what it is?" the girl insisted.
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Top secret."
"You a government agent or something?"
"No, I work for the police."
"As a detective?"
"You're being awfully nosy, considering we just met."
"It's my business to know everything about my future 'clients.'"
"So you're—
"Yeah, sorry I didn't mention that before. Call me if you're interested."
After giving En her card, the girl pushed past him and turned a corner down the street as it started to rain.
"That was weird," Babe observed.
"Her name's Beau," En said, reading the card in his hand. "She'll apparently give me 'A night I won't forget.'"
Babe scuffed. "It's disgusting. Not only is she a prostitute, but she's also an Animatronic."
"A Bidybab to be exact," En added as he put away the card. "They're the backup dancers for Baby's stage performances."
"Shouldn't we go after her?" Babe asked.
"Maybe later, but for now we need to figure out who this 'Mike' person is."
###
From the accounts given by Afton's neighbors, En was able to piece together several things: it seemed that the Aftons usually kept to themselves as the parents didn't interact much, and the children didn't either with the exception being Michael Afton, the oldest son of Will Afton who had friends around the neighborhood but was a notorious bully. He'd tease his siblings constantly, including a younger brother who apparently cried a lot and a sister who went missing after the accident that delayed the grand opening of the first Baby's World cabaret. Then at some point, Michael disappeared as well causing Afton's wife to leave and then Afton soon after that. This in turn led En to trace the items that had been sold from the house prior to Afton's move, but they had all been given to charity.
So he looked at the school records and found that Michael had attended Gambol Elementary School, the same place where Frederick Bernard aka Funtime Freddy was 'dismantled'. At the admissions desk, En asked the receptionist (who was much younger than the one who got arrested) if any personal items of Michael's had been left at the school. She said if the items weren't thrown out, they were most likely stored in the school's basement. With the receptionist's permission En went into the basement and searched around the piles of boxes till he found one dated twenty years ago. To his surprise, there was very little inside but one item caught his attention.
"The mask," En realized, recognizing the red fox ears protruding from the face of a red-haired youth with an eyepatch. "It was real."
Babe watched as En gripped the mask tightly and didn't say anything for a while. Then En's wristwatch vibrated, forcing him to answer.
"En, we've got a problem," Clara said, her face looking worried. "Techie's dead, and Funtime Freddy's body is missing."
"Any suspects?" En asked, trying to sound calm.
"The security cameras show a young woman entering the building, and then a shorter technician leaving the forensics lab with a body covered by a sheet."
"That sounds like Foxx."
"Foxx?"
"She's a Funtime Foxy Animatronic who works directly for Mister Afton. I met her when I checked the manufacturing records."
"Then they're onto us. Have you got anything that we can use against them?"
"Maybe, but I need to confirm a few things before telling you what I've found."
"Okay, but do it quickly. We're running out of time here."
Then the holographic image on En's wristwatch vanished, leaving him once again alone in the darkness. Putting the mask inside his coat pocket, En left the basement and thanked the receptionist before leaving. Next, he called Afton Robotics directly to ask who was in charge of creating memories for the Animatronics. They in turn directed him to someone named Charlie, who lived out of town. After obtaining an email address En emailed Charlie asking them to do a video-chat with him, which they agreed on. So in a private room of the library, Charlie's face appeared on the computer-screen En used.
"Hello, Mister Ardell," Charlie said, sounding pleasant. "What can I do for you?"
"Oh, you're a woman," En remarked, noticing the long sandy blonde hair and a hint of breasts beneath the denim jacket Charlie was wearing.
Blushing, Charlie responded, "Did you think I was a man, because of my name?"
"Well, sort of." En looked downward.
"It's okay," Charlie insisted. "Happens all the time with me. So, about what you said in the email…you're looking for some memories that I created."
Reaching into his coat-pocket, En produced the mask and showed it to Charlie. "Did any of them involve this?"
Looking at the mask carefully, Charlie stated, "It looks like a Freddy's Cafe mask, showing an image of the Original Foxy Animatronic on it."
En blinked. "You know about the Freddy's Cafe Animatronics?"
"My grandfather was the one who started them, and then my father took over after he had a falling-out with Will Afton."
"So you're Fred Bernstein's…daughter?"
Charlie nodded. "He put business before his family, so my mother left him taking me with her. Then when my father died, I was given the offer to inherit his company. But I refused, so Will offered me the position of creating memories for his new Animatronics instead."
"And has it worked out?"
"It's all right," Charlie shrugged. "As long as I don't have to interact with the Animatronics themselves, I'm fine."
Without saying anything further about himself, En allowed Charlie to take a picture of the mask on her computer-screen and check her memory files for any matches.
"No, I'm not finding anything," Charlie sighed, after some time had passed. "Sorry!"
"You did what you could," En replied. "But thanks for the help, anyway."
"Call me back if you need anything else," Charlie smiled and hung up.
To be continued…