Chapter 11: Jack's New Family

An exasperatedly fatigued look on my face, Elaina and I trudged on through Hilmak woods, pushing the overgrown leaves swaying in the wind out our faces, attempting to keep the keenest eye out for anything that wasn't a small animal, despite the night's harshly black lighting limiting our view.

"They're out here somewhere. I'm sure they're fine," said Elaina, stopping in her tracks to take a a quick breather. A bright full moon shone through the gaps in the treetops, illuminating Elaina's charming facial features.

"And yet, we've been looking for hours and haven't seen a thing...Maybe we should double-check the tent Vanessa mentioned. Again," I suggested, knowing full-well we wouldn't find anything. I gave a quick swat at the pestering night-bugs as we both continued sluggishly hiking through that greenery-infested jungle of a woods. I realized my proposition wasn't acknowledged by Elaina. "Are you one-hundred-percent sure you saw Adam follow her?" Again, she gave no answer. I hadn't seen my brother since that morning and he'd seemingly followed Vanessa into the heavily wooded area known as Hilmak woods, which was dubbed dangerous by Fred Leymour.

Despite my anxiety, Elaina seemed somewhat annoyed that I'd dragged her out to search for the two until this late in the evening. She obviously wasn't the biggest fan of her little sister, but shouldn't she of shown the least bit of worry? It only made me all the more intrigued in her character. What happened between her and Vanessa to make her show such animosity?

A few seconds of searching later, the only sounds in the night being rustling leaves and the emerging midnight crickets, Elaina suggested yet again, "You know, we could really use the help of the authorities-"

"No, Elaina! I told exactly what they'll do when they learn who Adam is... You know, with the whole 'runaway orphan' thing...," I argued. Terrible scenes of what might happen to Adam if the fuzz caught hold of him began playing through my mind as well as thoughts of what might of already happened to him and Vanessa. I tried to hide my now watery eyes from Elaina, luckily the shadowy lighting of the dark night under the canopy of trees helped in my endeavors, as I didn't want to come across as an emotional weakling. That wasn't who I was, and one of my biggest fears was coming across as someone I was not.

I started to speed-walk ahead, letting out a whimpering sniff, as quietly as possible, and turned my head away from Elaina's.

Obviously it wasn't quite enough, as Elaina grabbed my shoulder and spun me around to face her. All she needed was a quick look at my hopelessly emotional mask to give me an apologetic glance. She knew how much I cared for my brother. Perhaps she felt sorry for me. Perhaps she didn't want to come across as insensitive. Nonetheless, it was nice to finally see her more nurturing side shine through her annoyance. "Don't worry," she said, "we'll find them. I'll, uh, I'll make sure of it." She seemed a bit reluctant on the whole reassurance thing, but it still cheered me up.

"Thanks," I said with a smile as we continued our scoping of the woods, walking side-by-side. "Fred's still looking out here too, isn't he?" I asked.

"Yeah, with Hector, I think. Hell, they might have already found both of 'em. Maybe they've made their way back to the diner and are already enjoying some nice slices of pizza together." The thought made me smile.

"Hopefully Leymour didn't show up," I added, gently nudging Elaina's shoulder.

"I can second that opinion," she chuckled. I joined her soon enough. "You know, sometimes you'd swear that guy was-" I was suddenly dragged down onto the forest floor before I could finish. I realized it was Elaina who threw me onto the ground when she quickly crawled behind a bush and urgently gestured for me to follow. Elaina had seen someone. Or something.

I slowly, but quietly crawled over to Elaina's make-shift hiding spot while she put a finger on her lips as a sign to keep extreme quiet. She pointed her chin above the shrub we were hiding behind and mouthed, or at least what I thought she mouthed, 'I heard something. Moving fast.'

And as if right on cue, I heard the distinct sound of something strolling through the woods, the crackle of leaves and sticks under your feet, the shifting of gravel. Although, whatever was walking through the forest this late at night definitely was not strolling. It was running. Sprinting actually. Desperately, it seemed. It didn't sound like any late-night forest dwelling animal I've heard off. I could even hear a human's heavy breathing. It sounded like a male voice. It could've been Adam.

So, against my and most likely Elaina's better judgement, I lept out from behind the bush and ran out in front of it to enter a small forest clearing. I could no longer hear any panting or running, only Elaina scream-whispering for me to get back down on the sidelines, nor could I see anybody racing through the trees.

Than all of a sudden, I was rammed into by a quickly moving figure in the middle of the clearing and we both tumble to the ground. Upon hearing us fall over, Elaina immediately jumped out from hiding right into the clearing. She gasped, as I slowly lifted off the ground, trying to get a better look at the person who ran into me.

It was my turn to gasp as I saw Jake Leymour getting up from the dirty landscape. He didn't appear to fully recognize us yet, but I wouldn't trust this guy, nonetheless. Especially alone in the woods in the middle of the night. Apparently Elaina wasn't holding on to the idea of our identity's staying concealed when she pushed me out of her way and stormed right up to the recovering Leymour. "What the hell are you doing here, criminal?!" She shouted through the night's silence. He grunted and let out a strangely relieved sigh.

"Oh, Elaina. It's only you. And," he sighed, "...Jack." Despite his relief, there was still a strong sense of urgency in his voice.

"Answer her question," I said with a false sense of bravery, pulling her a couple steps away from Leymour by the shoulder.

Completely disregarding anything said to him he began, "Now, I know you don't trust me-"

"Damn right!" Elaina chimed in.

"But if you were ever to listen to me, now would be the time to do so. We have to leave, now!" Leymour briskly grabbed Elaina's arm and started dragging her off out of the clearing, gesturing with his other hand for me to follow rapidly. Naturally, I made sure I would do the opposite of anything Leymour told me to do.

"What the hell!" Elaina screeched, squirming out of Leymour's hold and back to my side. "I won't go anywhere with you until you tell me where we'd be going and why we'd be going there."

"It's got something to do with your sister, okay? That should be enough motivation for you to listen. We just need to get out of the woods and back to the-"

"My sister's still in here! Other than the stupid crime game you two have been playing, she's got absolutely no reason to be affiliated with someone like you anymore- Wait a second! You know what!? She probably is involved with this. You probably just got her arrested for stealing from the diner! That's where she is! You're trying to save your own ass here! You snake-"

"Enough of this! We have to go! Now! This has nothing to do with the authorities! She was in danger here until I found her and brought her to the diner! And you two'll be in that same dang if you don't follow me. We'll go back to the diner!" Said Leymour, already beginning his trek back through the woods. "Follow me!" He called back at Elaina. She sighed heavily, finally deciding to comply with Leymour's demands.

"Elaina, don't," I quavered. I wasn't just about to let my, uh, my best friend be taken away by this...mentally unreliable man.

"Uh, I guess, I'll humor him. I'll go," she whispered.

"What!?" I responded, utterly stunned.

"Worst case scenario is that Leymour's lying and Vanessa has just been arrested," she argued.

"Are you kidding me!? You of all people shouldn't believe a word he says. Your sister is probably still out here. Leymour could've done something to her. That's the worst case scenario," I warned to the audio backdrop of Leymour unceasingly calling us to him.

"Jack, I'm tired, okay? My parents will call the cops if we don't find her arrested or at the diner. Do you know how much convincing I had to do to make 'em hold off on doing just that? I did it for you. Now let me go in return. I'm done searching. Might as well go with him."

Knowing full-well I couldn't win this argument, I angrily waved my hand goodbye and Elaina began to follow Leymour back through the woods.

Before she had the chance to leave the clearing though, I tenderly grabbed Elaina's arm and whispered out of Leymour's earshot, "Elaina, promise me to stay out of trouble. This guy is dangerous." She gave me a look of defiance as I continued. "But I do think it'll be safer to listen to him now because you know how he is with his 'dire consequences.'"

"So does this mean you're not coming with us?" Elaina said loudly, alerting the now backtracking Leymour of the secret conversation I was trying to have. Leymour was now standing at the edge of the clearing, listening intently to what I had to say.

"No. I'm not. I still have to look for Adam. And I'm not leaving this forest without him. Especially since there are 'dangers' in here, according to him." I gestured towards the Leymour attempting stealth as I spoke.

"Adam?" Leymour began as he abruptly jumped back into the clearing. "Your brother, correct? Was he with Vanessa? Your sister?" He addressed Elaina again.

"Well, I saw him follow Vanessa out of the diner. She seemed to be racing towards that old circus tent." Leymour grimaced sadly upon Elaina's mention of the old tent. The untrustworthy diner owner cursed darkly afterwords.

"Okay. Jack, Elaina, return as quickly as possible to the diner! I will see to it that you're brother is found. I've already located Vanessa and she should be waiting back at Fredbear's. As for Adam, well... I'm afraid I didn't see him with the girl, but I will find him and attend to him. You have my word." He offered a hand to me for a shake. I turned his opposite direction, grabbing Elaina's arm on my way out of the clearing.

"Fine," I muttered, quickly turning towards the direction of the nearest forest exit. I stomped out of the clearing and with one final look back at Leymour, I told him, "If you don't find my brother or, even worse, find Adam than hurt him as one of those strange little games you play, so help me God, I won't forget you. I'll stick around in your life forever until I've gotten my revenge." With a look of bewilderment from Elaina upon my aggressive comment, I lead us both back through Hilmak woods, the forest we'd been trekking through for most of the day. Leymour quickly slithered back into the jungle the opposite direction, just like the lying snake I believed him to be.

The moon shimmered down high up in the sky as we approached the diner's largely unoccupied parking lot, trudging onward through the light rain that had just begun to fall.

"Thank God, we're back. You know, I seriously don't remember walking that far," Elaina heaved. Or at least, that's what I think she might have said. I wasn't paying much attention to her. Which, I know, might seem rude, but my thoughts were with my missing brother who, not to my relief, was left in the hands of Leymour. I felt utterly helpless, being unable to go back out into the storm to search for my brother. My instinct to protect the thing I cared for most, now subdued at the hand of rationality. In fact, I hadn't spoken another word to Elaina since the events at the clearing in the woods, and, despite her small attempts at calming me down with small conversation-starter comments, I could tell she was feeling quite uncomfortable with me and my gradually growing offensive attitude towards those who seemingly wished to help; Her and Leymour, to be specific. I truly believed she'd back me up in my attacks on Leymour's supposed honesty, but perhaps she'd seen some kind of truth in the guy.

Approaching the diner rapidly, as rain had begun to heavily pour over us, Elaina threw off her small brown jacket off and over her head, using it as a make-shift umbrella. "Hey, Jack?" She asked through the augmenting sound of rain hitting the ground, attempting to get a response out of me, but to no avail. She went on anyways. She knew I was listening. "What should I say to her? To Vanessa? I made her run off. I made her run away...I attacked her for Christ's sake!" We had finally reached the area under the door cover shielding us from the rain. We refrained from entering the building, despite each of us being absolutely drenched from the sudden heavy rainfall. We stared at each other under the covering, a sad, distant look growing in Elaina's eyes. "Jack? Am I a bad sister?"

"No," I managed to mutter.

"I am, aren't I? I mean, I'm probably the reason she left. Then, when she disappears, I trust the word of some creep who says he found her and then leave your brother's fate in the hands of that same man! And you, good sir, are my exact opposite. You care for your sibling more than I ever have," she said.

I looked around, making sure no one heard her personal rant. Then when I looked back at her I noticed even through the night's dim lighting, that her eyes had begun to tear up. I put my hand on her shoulder. "Elaina...You did the right thing. Even though Leymour isn't-"

"It's not that, Jack! I...I just think I might've...I might've figured out why Vanessa is the way she is. It's my fault."

"Nothing is anyone's fault here-"

"It is, Jack. It is."

I said nothing upon Elaina's comment. I discretely gestured towards the door to enter the now darkened building, fearing insensitivity by implying I wanted to escape the frosty outdoors along with the emotionally driven conversation. Of course the former was true, but the latter only semi-true. I didn't do emotions well, but I strangely felt the need to heed to Elaina's feelings. I put my hand on the doorknob, but she grabbed my shoulder before I could enter.

"I can't. What if Vanessa's in there and Leymour wasn't lying about finding her? What will I say?" She shifted nervously. I awkwardly grabbed her hand and said, "well, that's what we're going in to find out."

I carefully pushed the diner's door open, leading my companion in along with me. The lights in the reception room were completely dimmed, as it was just after closing time. Amidst the usually annoyingly eerie and dark atmosphere at night, there was a small glimmer of light pouring into the reception office from the dinning area's door, which was standing slightly ajar. Couldn't really tell if that added to my unease or not, but nonetheless, we trod lightly through the chamber towards the door and I gingerly swung it open.

We opened the door to find a rather spaced-out looking Scraps sitting alone in the room at one of the tables, sorting out a pile of screws.

"Hi, Scraps," I said, practically making the other worker jump out of his skin with an unholy flinch.

"Goddammit, Scruffy! Don't scare me like that." He held his hand to his heart. "Oh, good Elaina's here too!" he smiled with glee.

"Umm, what are you doing alone in here?" Asked Elaina shyly. I let the girl's now clammy hand go and sat myself down over at Scraps' table. She followed suit.

"You see, that's just the thing! I've been waiting for you two clowns to show up from wherever you went!" He answered, annoyed. He started to fiddle with a random pile of screws lying in front of him on the table.

"Why?" I asked.

"Guess who Hector put on an unofficial 'night shift' until you two got back?" He said rhetorically as he pointed to himself with the hand that wasn't fiddling with random objects. Elaina shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"Well, where's Davey? Can't he just watch the place? We're both here all night every night," I asked. Scraps sighed wearily and tossed one of his screws to the floor behind him.

He muttered something about it being busted before saying, "He's looking after some girl who just woke up from unconsciousness. Well, that was his excuse for not being able to take watch, anyway. You know, I can only take so much of Fredbear's for one day!" He put his hand on his forehead, heaving a breath of fatigued annoyance.

"He okay?" Elaina asked, less out of empathy and more for the opportunity to be noticed in the conversation. Scraps nodded halfheartedly as he attempted to measure the length of another screw in the absence of a ruler. "Hey, uh, S-Scraps? Who's the girl?" She inquired nervously.

"Elaina, it's not worth the trouble. Leymour was probably lying-"

"I think it's your sister. At least, that's what Davey told me," Scraps interrupted, noticeably trying to hold back a yawn. My face lit up. Thankfully, Elaina's sister was alright. That bastard Leymour hadn't lied about finding her after all. Which meant he might actually come through and find Adam too. I flashed a joyful smile at Elaina, but saw her looking quite uncomfortable.

"Shit," she began, "now I have to talk to her."

We all sat in uncomfortable silence for a few moments, Scraps seeing it as an opportunity to escape the conversation and fully enter his strange world of tinkering with anything he could find. Elaina sighed once more and said, "Thank goodness. I couldn't be more relieved." She pressed her face flat on the table looking defeated. It wasn't quite the reaction I was expecting out of her, but hey, Elaina was always full of surprises. Scraps seemed to have stopped paying attention to Elaina and me, pilling together all the screws he hadn't thrown to the ground and labeled unusable.

I shuffled awkwardly in my seat. "Who brought her here?" I said, re-adressing the distracted employee. He wasn't paying attention anymore, giving no response. I snapped my fingers sharply in front of his pile of junk, making him flinch in the process.

"What? What do you want?" He stammered, falling back into reality.

"The girl. Vannessa. Who brought her here?"

"It was that guy, Leymour. She was unconscious in his arms when he burst in. She seemed to be in a cold sweat, like a fever. Leymour left her in Davey's care and took off to go find someone. Now, since you guys are back, I can and will be on my way," he explained, scooping up all of his crudely measured screws into his hands and briskly walking towards the reception area's exit. "She's awake now, by the way. Warming up in the lounge with Davey. Goodnight." He quickly swung the glass door open, letting the cool night breeze swiftly sweep through the tired old diner, yawning once more as the door slowly shut behind him. It seemed as though the fewer the people in the building, the eerier it would get.

I slowly and hesitantly stood up and out of my chair after another strange period of silence and attempted to escort the Elaina with her face buried in her arms on the table to her feet. She grunted protestantly. "I c-can't see her. I-I won't see her," she bumbled.

"Wait what!? Elaina, come on. You're going to talk to her, right? Just a few minutes ago, you were afraid something might've happened to her! And now that she's back, you refuse to talk with her?! You know, I try to get you, I really do, but sometimes it's exceedingly difficult!" I snapped fiercely. I understood her reasoning behind staying in the chair, I really did, but could it kill her to just show some sign of a sibling bond might've once existed.

She sighed wearily as she finally pulled herself off the chair. "Shut up, dude. Honestly," She said suddenly. "This has nothing to do with you and I- I have no idea why I ever got you involved. Just- Just stop poking your nose in other people's problems, okay?" She spat out with difficulty. Massively stunned and hurt more than I really should've been, I gave no response and just sort of meagerly sat back down at the table as Elaina ran over to the employee's room.

As I watched the door close behind her, I heard only awkward greetings from the two sisters before the door shut completely, cutting me off from the conversation.

I guess I really was bad with emotions. Especially Elaina's. Now saddened and all alone in the dinning area, I let out a dejected sigh. Well, I wasn't completely alone. I turned my low-hanging head towards the show-stage. The curtains were parted just enough for me to see the restaurant's shinning star. I slightly grinned at the golden bear. "At least I'm not like you," I whispered under my breath semi-sympathetically for the inanimate object. "At least I'm not trapped and alone in this depressing joint forever like you, buddy. But, um, I guess I could, uh, send you a postcard when Adam and I finally find Atopal." I got up and quickly poked my head through the stage curtains to see the frozen Fredbear, still smiling with his head held high as if there were still an audience to perform to.

It made me kind of sad when I thought about it. It would be a very tragic thing to be disconnected from the world like that. Only able to show smiles for a new audience every day. And at night, longing for a crowd to cry in front of, and yet still stuck smiling out into an empty room.

"Hey, Fredbear. You know what's great about Atopal? Everyone understands each other. You don't have to explain yourself because your emotions are right there on your sleeve. You know what I mean?"

I looked away from the stage and chuckled foolishly under my breath. What the hell was I doing? So tired and worried all day that I was reduced to talking to an animatronic. What a loon I felt like.

Until I heard heavy breathing from behind me.

I felt cold breaths on the back of my neck, freezing me solid. I was shaken to my very core. In and out, something behind me slowly continued drawing breaths. What the hell was that? Fredbear? Well whatever it was, it was directly behind me on the stage and it did not sound amused. I still didn't dare make any sudden movements. I slowly tried to make a step forward as if I were trying to escape a sleeping bear's den...which I actually thought I might've been doing. The breathing continued just as loudly as before, causing me to assume the creature was following me close behind, despite the lack of the bone-chilling footsteps I was expecting to hear. Did that mean it was a...a spirit of some sort? I carefully took another step away from the stage, realizing that the breaths were starting to form words. I figured I might be getting a message from that thing, so, amidst my petrifying fear, I attempted to discern English from the spirit. I couldn't understand anything it might've been saying. The breaths began sounding more like they were coming from my left side, so I quickly jerked my head to the right, to avoid seeing this spirit.

The thing started breathing heavily into my left ear. I still couldn't pick up anything it was saying. Louder and the sound, the sound grew. I wondered if Elaina, Vanessa, and Davey might hear it. The spirit sounded as if it were getting increasingly frustrated. The cold breaths started getting so loud in my ears, that the others would definitely of heard something if they could. I shut my eyes tightly, as if it would deafen the sound. It no longer sounded like loud breathing, but more like shouting. It was still forming unrecognizable words.

My ears were ringing as the sound grew louder and louder. I was prepared to run into the employees lounge, in hopes of scaring the spirit away with the presence of other people before the deafening screeches reached the peak of their volume. But before such a peak was attained, the screaming halted. I could still feel the spirit's presence, but it made no sound.

"H-E-L-L-O," it slowly whispered in my ear. "W-E-L-C-O-M-E T-O T-H-E F-A-M-I-L-Y"

A sudden and excruciating pain shot up the back of my spine and behind my eyes. It felt like my body was melting away from me. The burning sensation got so bad, I could no longer stand. I fell to the floor with a loud thud and immediately blacked out before I could even scream.