The sun shone brightly over the pizzeria. Nate watched a group of children playing around in the prize corner. It was a happy group, so young, so innocent, so alive. He couldn't help but have their joy rub off on him.
A small boy and girl both grabbed the same toy at the same time. The girl tugged the plush towards her and the boy pulled back. The poor bear looked about to rip in half. Luckily, though the box was closed on account of the noise, an employee had taken the Puppet out so it could mechanically wave to the children playing near it. After all, what use was having the robot if it couldn't entertain any kids?
In his new masked form, Nathaniel walked over to the fighting children. "Hey, kids," he said, bending down to be eye level with them. They stopped pulling at the toy to stare at him. "Here you go," Nate handed the boy another plush from the shelf and gave the disputed one to the girl. Both children squeezed their new playthings.
"Thanks Mr. Marionette!" grinned the girl.
"Yeah! Thanks!" echoed the boy. He and his friend started playing again. Nate sat down on top of the box, depossessing to let the Puppet get back to waving. He'd watch the kids a little longer.
"Hey Nate," Timmy plopped down next to him, invisible to the playing children. They sat quietly for a few minutes. Then Timothy got up and stretched. "Well, I'm bored. Katie and the kids said they wanted to go out cuz they're tired of staying inside all day and night and I said I'd take them, so I'd better get going before they get too hyper."
Nate frowned. "How far out are you planning on going? Maybe I should come with you." He wasn't about to let his friends get lost.
Timmy rolled his eyes. "We're just going around the block. Really, you're acting like I don't know what common sense is."
"I was just making sure you were going to be safe," retaliated Nate.
"Well, we're as safe as a group of dead people can be, so you can quit worrying. And you can stop treating me like a child while you're at it."
"But you are a child."
"I'm nine and I've been dead for six years. That means I'm fifteen. Just because I'm not growing doesn't mean time doesn't count."
Nate sighed. He definitely saw his friend as still nine in both appearance and maturity. Still, if Timothy was never going to get to grow past age nine, it wasn't really fair to never give him any freedom. The kid deserved a little time in his own spotlight. "Alright. You can go," he conceded. "Just please don't do anything stupid like you did when you teleported Fredbear."
Timmy groaned. "I told you I didn't mean to do that," he sighed in exasperation. "And even if I wanted to do it again, Katie says she doesn't. I get a cool power and I can't even practice it. Whyyyyyy?"
Nate laughed at his friend's exaggerated angst. "Well, I'm sure you'll get to someday. In the meantime, you'd better go have some fun outside. You know, before the kids get too hyper."
Timmy smiled back. "Yeah, they're pretty excited. Well, have fun staring at your group of toddlers." With that, he floated out of the room.
A few minutes later, a costumed employee came in. Nate payed him no mind; employees were supposed to check on the kids and make sure they were entertained. The man stood a few feet away from the Puppet's box, quietly watching the children. The little girl and the little boy and their little friends happily played on, undisturbed by his presence. The man walked behind the little boy and still nothing seemed terribly wrong. Nothing about the scene left the category of ordinary happenings in the pizzeria until he bent down to eye level with the child and asked, "May I see your toy?" The boy reluctantly handed it over. The man turned it over in his hands. "Hmm. He has a rip."
"Where?" wondered the child, trying to see the alleged tear.
The employee withheld the bear. "I could fix him up. It'll only take a minute." He paused, tilting his head to one side as if he was considering something. "Do you want to watch me?" he finally asked.
The boy nodded excitedly. "Sure, Mr. Rabbit!" he grinned.
The girl he had been fighting over the toy with perked her head up. "Can I come, too?" she asked. "Can I see it, too?"
Soon a little group of little children was trailing behind the costumed employee. Nate watched them go. The man was just showing a couple of kids how to fix a stuffed animal - nothing wrong with that. Still, something felt off about the whole situation. Not enough to make alarm bells go off in Nate's head or anything, but enough to make him feel mildly nervous. He glanced around quickly. Nobody else was in the room. Nobody to see the Puppet stop waving and follow the group into the back of the building.
Nate snuck in behind the last child and quickly took a few steps into the shadows of the room. Something told him that it might not be the best idea to let the kids or the man see a mechanical marionette somehow following them around. Well, he'd only be there for a little while, anyway. Most likely everything was fine and he'd soon be laughing at himself for being so nervous and suspicious.
All five of the little children jumped when the door slammed behind them. The employee stood in front of it, his expression unreadable behind the mask. If Nate's mask had been able to frown, he would have. The man was just standing there, staring, and it was getting creepy.
Quickly and efficiently, the employee began to take off his costume. Mask gone, Nate could see his face. If he could pale, the color would have completely drained out of his face. In that moment, he didn't care that the man couldn't hurt him. He still was terrified of the person who had murdered him.
By the time Nate snapped himself back to reality, the costume's torso and legs were off as well. "Mr. Rabbit, um, sir? What are you doing?" one of the children timidly spoke. The killer responded with a smile. He advanced a step towards the group.
"Get out of here while you still can! Come on kids - run!" The would-be murderer wheeled around to see an animatronic holding the door open. "I said RUN!" That seemed to shock the children into alertness. Quickly, the group sprinted out the open door. One of them had the sense to start screaming. Soon parents and employees would be running in to catch the kidnapper.
The man's face twisted in rage. If he had time, he would have smashed that robotic thing into scrap metal. But he had to get out of there before anybody found him. Pushing past the last child, he got out of the room. As he fled, Nate shouted, "Get what you deserve for what you did to us, you monster!"
This wasn't how it was supposed to go. He was supposed to slip in, do what he came to do, slip out, and read about it in the paper the next day. He wasn't supposed to be caught at the scene of the crime! Taking a few deep breaths, he slowed his pace. He needed to get it together - it wouldn't do to arouse suspicion by panting and sweating in front of all these people. They could all see his face. If even just one person reported something about him, the cops might investigate him and they might find some link between him and the other murders and if that happened… No. He had to calm down. All his careful planning was not going to end like this. He was going to be ok. He was walking out the front door of the pizzeria. Everything was going to be fine. He wasn't doing anything suspicious, just walking out of a building. Nothing was off about that.
He kept walking. Steady pace. Staying calm. He could do this. He was going to be fine. It was a mishap that would not happen again. But what exactly had happened? That robot had come and ruined his plan. It was a freaking pile of bolts and wires and it had almost gotten him caught! How had this happened?!
No… Those panicked night watchmen were either hallucinating or trying to get attention. He had rolled his eyes when he overheard the first guy telling his boss that he was going to quit because the animatronics had started moving around and had tried to attack him. And he had been equally annoyed when he had overheard that guy's replacement start pleading to get out of some contract on the grounds that they had spent the whole night wandering in and out of the office - even the broken ones that weren't supposed to be able to move anymore. He had passed the stories of those two men off as ridiculous, but after what he had just seen, he wasn't so sure of what to think. But what would cause those robots to go so wildly against their programming? And that puppet thing had said something about getting what he deserved for what he had done to "us." What did that mean? The killer paled. No. It couldn't be. But… Revenge for "us." A group of broken robots and one malfunctioning new one. A group of dead kids, plus that teen at the old diner. It fit together too perfectly to just be a coincidence.
It's every murderer's worst nightmare to have his victims come back. He had to destroy those robots. Too bad he had to keep away from this town until the police quieted down their search for the would-be kidnapper.
As far as the events of the day were concerned, the phone message that night finished with an assurance that whatever troubled whispers had sprung up during the afternoon, however tragic they may be, had nothing to do with Freddy's. It was all just rumor and speculation.