When Charlie woke up, it was pitch black outside. Her body still hurt and her eyes burned from the many tears she'd shed over the course of the previous night and that day. She kicked the covers off and sat on the edge of the bed, glancing at her phone. Zero missed calls, zero new messages. A pang of guilt struck her in the chest. She'd been incredibly unfair to Marla and Jessica, but they also couldn't know about William- she knew that they'd likely try to get Chief Clay involved, and she worried about possible retaliation. I don't want them to get hurt. She justified to herself, idley scrolling through her texts. She stopped on John's thread and let out a pained sigh.

I think she's going to break up with me. No no no no. She couldn't lose him, especially not in the midst of all this chaos. She went into her directory and selected his contact. One ring, two rings, three rings, and then his voicemail. He'd declined the call. She bit her lower lip hard before speaking.

"Hey, please call me back when you get this. There's… a lot I need to tell you. Bye, I love you." She exhaled sharply. The smell of spaghetti wafted through the house and she realized that she was starving. She made her way down the stairs tentatively and paused on the landing. Her father was situated on the couch, reading the newspaper. Nonchalant, completely unaware that his twisted, dirty secrets were now exposed.

He spotted her and put down the paper.

"Hey there. You hungry?"

Charlie nodded and made her way down to the living room. He followed her into the kitchen and lingered in the doorway as she helped herself to a large portion of pasta and sauce. She sat down at the table and started to eat slowly.

"How were Marla and Jessica?"

"Fine." She sighed.

"Jen said there was some shouting. Did you have a fight?"

Charlie twirled some pasta around her fork.

"Sort of. I was just tired and they kept asking me questions."

"About?"

She put her fork down.

"Dad, I don't remember anything about my car accident. That's weird."

"It isn't, really. A lot of people have memory loss after head trauma."

"Yeah, but… I almost feel like I wasn't in a crash at all. How did I hit my head? The airbag should've gone off."

Henry visibly tensed and attempted to play it off by walking to the fridge.

"Well, the Honda was pretty old. The officer who responded to the crash said that it didn't deploy." Enough of your bullshit! Charlie took another bite of pasta in order to hold her tongue.

"You want some milk?"

"...Yeah." She said defeatedly. Her anger was surging but she remembered Michael's words. You have to stay close to your father. It was time to drop it, at least for now.

"Do you have another shift tonight? I don't remember." Her father set a full glass in front of her.

"No, but I have one tomorrow night. I'll be at Junior's tomorrow during the day."

"Well, that's good, because I have a few interviews lined up."

"What for?"

"Oh, mainly waitstaff. But there's also a new experimental position."

"Experimental?"

Henry looked ponderous.

"I'm hiring a technician. Someone else to help with the upkeep of the robots."

Charlie choked on her milk.

"What?"

"Like I said, it's an experimental position-"

"Are you kidding me?"

"About what?" Her father looked bemused.

Charlie wiped her mouth and glared at him.

"I've been wanting to work with them for years, but you always told me no. Now you're going to hire someone?"

"Charlie, you don't have the proper training-"

"Only because you won't teach me! I ask and ask but you always have some sort of excuse!"

"Wait a minute, young lady. You know how busy we are."

"Yeah, but…!"

A rift between the two of you gives my father the perfect opportunity for extortion. Charlie looked away, her breathing rigid. Henry sighed.

"Tell you what, when I'm training this new person in, you can sit in on the sessions. But understand, Charlie, you are not to interfere and you are to treat them with respect. I only want to say this once."

"But… all I can do is watch?"

"That's the way it has to be. I think I'm being more than generous here."

Charlie had to suppress a scoff, but she nodded. It was better than nothing. Her phone rang and she leapt out of her chair when she saw the caller ID.

"I have to take this." She ran into the living room.

"Hey!"

"Hey," John said flatly, "I was eating dinner."

"Oh. I'm sorry." There was a pause.

"Charlie, tell me the truth. You were with that night guard the other night, weren't you?"

"Look, all we did was talk about-" She recalled that her father was just a few feet away and dashed out to the front yard. "...About Freddy's. That's all we did, we just talked about it. We didn't go back."

"But you went behind my back after I told you not to see him. Charlie, that hurts." There was another, more painful pause. "Are you going to see him again?"

"If I say yes… are you done with me?" She bit her lip hard. John sighed.

"That depends. Are you done with me?"

"No! Why would you- listen to me. He gave me answers. All the answers I ever wanted." She was getting tearful all over again.

"So you don't have to see him again, then."

"No- I mean, yes I do. John, things are complicated. I can't even begin to describe-"

"Complicated? It's not complicated. Everything was fine until you dropped out of school. Then you started questioning every little thing and obsessing over the past, over things that had absolutely nothing to do with you-"

"This has everything to do with me! ...I wasn't in a car accident, I was attacked and-" The words were out before she could stop them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What?"

"I know it sounds absolutely crazy, but I remember everything now. I never even got in my car. Dad lied about the car crash so that-"

"Charlie, what are you talking about?" John's tone was indecipherable.

"Come down this weekend."

"What?! Charlie, I-"

"If you come down this weekend, I'll explain everything, but you can't say anything to anyone. You have to trust me!"

"Charlie, I can't come down! Not right now! I have finals coming up, I have a term paper to finish- this will have to wait until break."

"John, it can't! By the time you get back… something might happen."

"What might happen?"

A blue car turned onto her street and Charlie dove behind a large tree.

"Something bad. Something very bad."

The car whizzed past the house and she relaxed.

"You do sound pretty scared."

"Please… even if it's only for a night."

"What about your dad? I know he really doesn't want to see me right now."

"He thinks I have a second job, at Stevie's. It's kind of a long story. But I can meet you there or at your house."

John sighed loudly.

"Okay. One night. You explain everything. I mean everything, Charlie."

"Yes, everything. I promise. But you can't-"

"I won't say anything to anyone. You can trust me."

"You can trust me, too."

Silence.

"I'll see you Saturday night, okay?"

"Okay... I love you."

"...I love you too. Bye." Click.

Charlie collapsed against the tree, breathing in the cold November air.

"Charlie? Come on inside, you're going to catch a cold." Her father called out to her from the front door. She immediately ran to him, stuffing her phone in her sweatshirt pocket.

"Who was that? You were out here a long time."

"Oh, um, Jessica! We were just talking things out."

"Oh, that's good. I hoped you girls would work it out."

"Yeah. I'm going to finish dinner and then I'm going back to bed. I'm still tired."

"Oh, Jen said you didn't take-"

"Take my pills. I know." She'd been surprisingly dream-free that afternoon. If only it would last.

"You'll be dead by the time you're thirty if you keep this up." Charlie said to Michael as he lit his third cigarette of the evening. They were standing outside of Freddy and Friends', biding their time before they had to face the rogue animatronics inside. He shrugged.

"Only if Freddy doesn't kill me first."

"Which one?"

"Um… the shiny one."

"Toy Freddy." She giggled.

They'd been cracking jokes all night- it was a strange coping mechanism but highly effective. Sure, Charlie's stomach was churning and her heart was pumping faster than normal, but she was smiling. She hadn't yet told him about her intentions to come clean to John- she didn't know how he'd react and now was not the time to bring it up.

"Well… it's time." Michael dropped the cigarette and stomped it out. "Last one until 6 am. Can't smoke in there- that Freddy head is probably flammable."

"Freddy head! I don't have a head!" Charlie exclaimed.

"Yes, you do. That old Bonnie is still there." Michael unlocked the front door, triggering the door chime as they set foot inside. Charlie stared at the Toy Animatronics in the distance. Motionless, wide-eyed. It was hard to believe that they'd be up close and personal in twenty minutes, give or take. Her pace increased as she passed the music box and she stared straight ahead, focusing on the closet by the main stage.

"I'll wait here." Michael leaned against one of the confetti-covered tables. Charlie nodded absentmindedly and stepped into the tiny room. Spring Bonnie was right where she'd left him, and his large green eyes gazed at her as she approached. It was as if he were saying, I remember you.

I remember you, too. She took a deep breath and gingerly removed the rabbit's fabric head, leaving its bare endohead exposed. The suit was still in mascot mode- the animatronics wouldn't be able to stuff them into it if, heaven forbid, they were attacked. Good thing I lost that crank… or not. She put the head back on the rabbit- the suit being in mascot mode meant all the springlocks were activated, including the ones in the head. She had to crank them back in order to fit her head inside. She let out a sigh of bewilderment, scanning the room for something she could use in place of the crank.

There was a crowbar sitting on the table behind her.

"Use ONLY this crank to activate and deactivate the springlocks. Using anything else could damage the mechanism." She recalled her father saying to a group of employees in training. Sorry, dad. She put the crowbar into the cranking mechanism and gave it a firm turn. The springlocks creaked in protest and the whole animatronic shook, but they retreated into the suit nonetheless.

"Charlie, I don't want to see you playing around these suits. I mean it, Charlie." Henry pulled a loose springlock out of his pocket and she jumped back as it recoiled, making a metallic boing sound. "See? These can really hurt you."

"Okay, daddy."

Charlie gazed at the rabbit for a minute before stepping back into the dining room. She put the head on and stumbled forward- it was heavier than it looked. Michael laughed out loud. It was the first time she'd heard him really laugh- he tended to chuckle.

"You'll get used to it. Come on." He gestured for her to follow him. She removed the golden head and tucked it under her arm, glancing at the Toy Animatronics one last time.

"No doors." She remarked mostly to herself as they walked down the main corridor to the office. Her father had wanted to go with a modern look to match the modern animatronics. The other location, Freddy Fazbear's, had metal security doors that could be locked from inside the office. He had never explained why they were needed, but Charlie had a few ideas.

"Yeah. Greg told me it's because the dayside security guy needs to be accessible to the customers at all times." Michael sighed, plopping down on the desk chair.

"Yeah, that was dad's idea… I know why he wanted it that way now." An open floor plan and an accessible security guard meant that nobody could get away with anything malicious. Yet they had. He had. Charlie spotted a folding chair sitting in the corner and scooted it next to him, holding her mask on her lap. She stared at the monitor in front of them with bewilderment.

"Twelve cameras…" She spoke to herself again.

"...And ten animatronics." Michael grimaced. He clicked through the feed with finesse and stopped on the prize corner camera. "You know, I really don't like that puppet. It's so…"

"Creepy." They said together.

"Yeah, my dad was pretty proud of it. It's even more advanced than the Toy Animatronics." She studied the "Wind Music Box" Button. "Um… what happens if you don't wind up the music box?"

"I don't know and I don't want to find out." Michael selected the button and held the mouse pointer over it even though the indicator showed that it was fully wound.

"It's strange that they don't use the autowind feature at night." Charlie observed.

"There's an autowind feature? Why didn't you say so? Go turn it on!"

"I don't know how to activate it- I never went anywhere near that thing. It was at both diners and I begged my dad to get rid of it when he opened this location." She sighed. "He was too proud of it, though. I mean, I guess it is kind of cool that it can hand out little presents."

Michael nodded absentmindedly. 11:56 pm, the computer's clock read.

"...So do you have any idea why they don't move until midnight?" He asked. His tone had shifted- it was now serious.

"It's part of the docking problem, if I had to guess. Their internal clocks could be messed up, too."

"These things have internal clocks?"

"Yeah. It's so they say "Good Morning" or "Good Evening" accordingly. It's a feature my dad was able to implement even in the diner models. Not Fredbear and Spring Bonnie, though."

"God, your dad is a regular genius, isn't he?"

Charlie laughed.

"I suppose you could call him that."

11:58 pm. She exhaled and played with one of Spring Bonnie's ears. Michael took a swig of coffee from the thermos he'd brought in and offered it to her. She took a small sip, wrinkling her nose at the bitterness. She now knew the following about Michael Afton- he was a black coffee drinker and a chain smoker, liked soap operas (one in particular, called "The Immortal and the Restless" was his absolute favorite), and he was always hungry. Despite the latter, he was relatively thin. She wished her metabolism was that good.

11:59 pm.

"Here. So you can look in the vents." Michael handed her a large flashlight. "Oh, it's very important that you shine it down the hallway occasionally. One of our "friends" likes to hang out there in particular."

"Who?"

"That old Foxy."

Charlie swallowed. Foxy had always been the creepier of the bunch in her eyes- she'd had nightmares about him for most of her life. Michael began cycling through the camera feeds and she shined the flashlight into the vents on either side of them. Nothing yet.

"Huh. No call tonight." Michael muttered.

"Call?"

"When I started working here, I'd get a call every night from some guy. I'm pretty sure he's an assistant manager or something. He'd give me advice and he explained how things work around here." Clunk clunk clunk. Charlie's heart skipped a beat as she pointed the flashlight at the right vent. Toy Bonnie was poking his head out.

"It's Toy Bonnie!"

Michael had the spare Freddy head on in seconds while Charlie fumbled with Spring Bonnie's head. She managed it just as Toy Bonnie sprung up from the vent. He wasn't interested in Michael at all, choosing to focus on her instead.

Yeah, yeah, I'm a new animatronic. Please go away. She thought. Clunk clunk clunk. The blue rabbit retreated after an agonizing thirty seconds. She only removed her head when Michael nudged her and pushed the flashlight back into her hand.

"Apparently I'm a very interesting animatronic." She whispered.

"Oh yes. Hey, thanks for taking some of the heat off me tonight."

She kicked him under the table and aimed the flashlight down the corridor. Foxy was still absent, but two red eyes stared her down. Bonnie. She felt a pang of sadness- if only her father could have retrofitted her giant Theodore. He was a literal shell of himself, missing an arm and his smiling face. Clunk clunk clunk. Michael let out a hitched breath beside her. She glanced at the monitor and saw an equally disheveled Chica in the vent, her purple eyes bulging out of their sockets.

"Get ready." Michael said under his breath. He switched to the other vent camera, where Chica's toy variant was also making her way to the duo. She was missing her beak and her blue eyes were empty black holes, save for two pinprick-sized white pupils. Charlie wondered where her beak was. It was detachable, a questionable design choice on her father's part. Clunk clunk CLUNK! Michael briefly wound up the music box before throwing the Freddy head back on. She followed suit with her own head, suppressing a gasp when the old Chica appeared in front of her. She, too, was very much enamoured with Charlie.

The animatronic chicken cocked her head to the side as she studied the girl. It was almost cute. She was gone much faster than Toy Bonnie and Charlie relaxed her tensed shoulders as she removed her mask.

"Flashlight." Michael reminded her in a whisper. Now Foxy was in the hallway, his pointed jaws wide open. His hook was raised, poised to attack. Charlie swallowed again, much harder this time. He disappeared and she glanced at the time. 12:07 am. It was going to be a long night. She looked into the left vent- Toy Chica hadn't yet arrived.

"Hello?" A childlike voice filled the empty hallways.

"I sure hate that little pest." Michael muttered.

"Hi!"

Clunk clunk clunk. Clunk clunk clunk. The noise was coming from both sides and both Bonnie and Foxy were in the hallway. Charlie's adrenaline kicked in as she and Michael donned their masks. There was Toy Chica, and then Old Chica again. Once again, Charlie was the point of interest. How did our murder weapon get in here? They were probably thinking. On and on it went, with animatronics coming and going at a steady pace. By 1 am, Charlie was nauseous and burning up. She was still wide awake, though, running on coffee and adrenaline.

She and Michael weren't speaking now, even in the occasional merciful moments of silence. By 2am, she was disassociating. She slurped down some more coffee and shifted in her hard metal chair.

"You okay?" Michael inquired, nudging her slightly.

"Yeah." She rasped. No, no I am not. She longed for the cool November air- the fan on the desk in front of her provided little to no relief when she was sweating so vigorously. The phone rang and both of them jumped.

"Should… should we answer that?"

"No time." Michael wound the music box for the umpteenth time. The answering machine picked up after just a few rings.

"Hello, Michael and... Charlie. Dear, sweet Charlie…" William's voice filled the office. Michael and Charlie looked to each other, and then the phone, in horror. "I realize that now might not be the best time for a chat, but this couldn't wait."