Charlie woke with a start, tears running down her cheeks. The pain in her leg was the equivalent of a charlie horse times one hundred. She groaned and grasped her pained limb, staring at the bottle of pills on the nearby dresser. If she could just get to them… she set her leg on the floor gingerly, but even that caused an unbearable sensation.
"Michael!" She called tearfully, "Michael, help me!"|
There were footsteps in the hallway and she breathed a pained sigh of relief.
"It's my leg… it hurts and I can't move it. You've gotta help-" The right door creaked open but Michael didn't enter. "...Michael?"
There was a shuffling sound and then a shadow appeared before her- a large shadow. Two red eyes peered at her through the darkness.
Oh no. She fumbled for the flashlight on the bedside table. The shadow took the form of a bear, but it was very different from the yellow bear she'd seen before. This bear was all black, save for a yellow tophat and bowtie. It had rows upon rows of terrible, glistening teeth.
"You will not be spared… you will not be saved." A low, guttural voice filled the room. Charlie managed to grab the flashlight and shined it right at the bear, but it was undeterred. "I am here to claim what is left of you." A cold metal paw wrapped itself around her throat. She cried out and tried to push it away from her, but its grip was much too strong.
"Charlotte!" Michael's voice was distant. "Charlotte!"
Her lungs started to burn from a lack of oxygen and the world faded around her.
"You will not be spared… you will not be saved…"
Her arms went limp as she let out another desperate gasp for air.
"Charlotte!" She could still hear Michael's voice, now pained and desperate. Everything went black and she felt as though she were floating in water.
"Charlie…" Suddenly there was another, softer voice. It was childlike and tender. "Charlie, open your eyes."
I can't.
"Charlie, you can. Open your eyes."
She opened them. She was standing in Fredbear's Family Diner, which looked exactly how she remembered it. It was empty, except for a lone box in the corner. The puppet's box. She recoiled in fear.
"Don't be afraid. Charlie, I'm here with you." The gentle chiming of the music box filled the room.
"Charlotte, you are safe here." Came another voice. This one was motherly. "The demon has come for you, but have no fear. It is not your time." A hand gripped Charlie's shoulder. She turned around to see a blonde-haired woman with striking green eyes. She wore an ethereal white dress and a necklace with a key charm. The diner faded away and turned into Michael's bedroom. Charlie saw him holding her head in his lap, pleading with her to open her eyes.
"Am I… dead?"
"No. Your pulse is faint, but your heart has not stopped. As I said, it is not your time."
"Who… who are you?" Charlie backed up.
"We've met before, Charlotte. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to explain myself then." Charlie remembered the silhouette in the hallway at her house. The silhouette of a woman.
"I don't understand. How am I not dead? That… thing… was choking me. I couldn't breathe."
"Things are different for you now, Charlotte. You're different."
The woman put a hand on Charlie's shoulder again and she saw her mangled body lying in the alley behind Junior's. She watched as her distraught father picked her up and put her in the backseat of his car.
"Your heart stopped that night, but your father managed to bring you back." The scene changed to the outside of Henry's workshop.
"What do you mean?" Charlie stared at the closed workshop door. The woman put a hand on her other shoulder and gave both a squeeze.
"You should be dead, Charlotte."
"...But I'm not? I don't understand."
"Your father was able to keep your remnant bound to your body using the very technology you wish to destroy."
"Remnant…" The remnant injector."What.. what is remnant?"
"The very makeup of living beings. You're probably more familiar with the term 'soul'."
"That's why the animatronics are possessed. They have souls in them."
"Yes." The woman said sadly. "I'm very fortunate- I'm not confined to a cold robotic body. Neither are you… well, not to the degree they are."
"...What?"
"Charlotte, your father fixes things. It's in his nature. He had to fix you like any one of his other creations. Fortunately, you've maintained a great deal of your humanity. You can still think, love, cry, feel pain…"
They were in Michael's bedroom again.
"You'll understand in time. For now, you must return to your mortal form."
"Wait." Charlie turned around. "You didn't answer my question. Who are you and how do you know all of this?"
"Just another lost soul trying to find peace. You, too, will find peace in time. Run if you must, but remember that it all started here, and it all needs to end here."
"But-"
Her eyes popped open. She was staring directly up at Michael.
"...Michael?"
"Charlotte! Oh my God…" he let out a gasp of relief, cradling her head in his lap.
"I… I thought for sure I was dead. I saw… I saw this bear. A black one. It choked me, and…" She sat up and he grabbed her hand.
"...A black one?" Michael paled.
"Yeah. With a yellow tophat. It tried to kill me, but then I woke up in Fredbear's and this woman… she..." She trailed off.
"...What?"
"...Forget it." She reached down and grabbed her leg again. "Can you grab me those pills?"
"...Yeah. Do you need water, too?"
"Please."
Michael left the room and she exhaled sharply.
He had to fix you. You should be dead.
Dad, what the hell did you do?
Michael returned with a glass of water and put two pills in her hand.
"...Did you see it when you came in?" She asked after she downed the pills. Michael shook his head.
"No. I heard you call my name, and when I came in you were gasping for air. I… I really thought you were dying."
"I thought so, too." She started to shake- it had to be about 20 degrees in the bedroom.
"Here…" Michael picked her sweatshirt off of the floor and put it around her shoulders.
"...Michael, what do you remember?"
"About what?"
"About the early days of Fredbear's."
Michael stared at the toy phone on the floor.
"Well, I remember when it first opened. I was about seven at the time and Elizabeth was just a baby. How old are you?"
"Nineteen."
"So that would make you about three, if my math is correct. I remember you and… you had a brother, right?"
Charlie nodded slowly and looked away. Michael cleared his throat.
"Right. I guess I just remember little things, like Fredbear and Spring Bonnie, playing in cardboard boxes on inventory days, having my birthday parties there …" He stood up and picked up the toy phone. "But what I really remember is that my father was different. Quite different."
"Charlie, oh Charlie!" Henry called, pacing past several cardboard boxes. "Gosh, where could she be?"
Charlie stifled a giggle as she briefly poked her head out of a box that had previously contained new kitchen supplies.
"Henry, where do you want all these decorations? Are they going on the stage or in the dining room?" William walked over to his partner bearing another large cardboard box.
"Dining room. Put 'em down here. While you're at it, maybe you can help me find Charlie. She's gone missing!"
"She's in that box." Michael nonchalantly pointed to the box Charlie had stowed away in.
"Really? Are you sure?" Henry said in a sing-song voice. "I already checked and she isn't in there."
Michael rolled his eyes and then looked up at William.
"Dad, can you get all the decorations out? I need that box for my fort."
"In a minute, Michael." William set the box down. The door chimes jingled and a blonde woman holding a baby entered the establishment.
"Well, looks like you two are making progress." She said, strolling over to the duo.
"Yeah, the way things are now, we'll have this place up and running by Saturday." William kissed her cheek.
"Mum." Michael tugged at his mother's dress.
"Yeah, we just need to get the robots in here and we're golden. Pun intended." Henry smiled.
"Mum."
"This is so wonderful. All the kids will love it."
"Mum!"
"What is it, Michael?"
"I need paint. I'm building a fort."
"Can I help?" Charlie popped her head out of her box.
"No. No girls allowed."
"Oh, Michael. Be nice." The woman scolded.
William held out his arms and she gave him the baby, who was cooing softly.
"She's looking more and more like you everyday, Mel." Henry commented, looking over William's shoulder.
"I wanna see!" Charlie toppled her box.
"She's just a boring baby. All she does is cry." Michael rolled his eyes again.
"That's not what you were saying a few days ago, Michael." William laughed lightly. Henry lifted Charlie up to give her a look at the infant. Michael sighed and turned his attention to the box full of decorations.
"We were happy back then." Michael sat back down on the bed. "The perfect family."
"So… what happened?"
"I'm… I'm not really sure. My father started drinking more, I guess. I remember hearing him and my mom fight. Elizabeth would come into my room and we'd just hold each other until everything was resolved… well, as resolved as things could get. I think what really set him off, though, was what I did to Cassidy. I'll never forget the day I was sentenced to the mental hospital. My mom hugged me, told me everything would be okay… but he just stared right through me."
Charlie put her hand on his, feeling a bout of sympathy about his predicament for the first time.
"This was Cassidy's favorite toy- he'd spend hours playing with it. It was a gift from your father along with that robot guy over there."
"...My dad built most of my toys. I bet he built those, too."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Before we moved, I had some interactive toys in my bedroom. There was this unicorn, Stanley, and a little doll. Her name was Ella. Theodore, my purple bunny, was the only one I could take with me when we moved because Stanley and Ella were on little tracks. Sometimes I wonder if they're still there."
"You never went back?"
"Well, no. The house was sold. There's a new family there now. It'd be weird to just show up."
The pain in Charlie's leg was subsiding and she was able to relax. She rested her head on Michael's shoulder without thinking about it, but he didn't move away.
"It really is better if we leave. This place has way too many memories. Bad ones." He said quietly.
Run if you must, but remember that it all started here, and it all needs to end here.
"...Yeah." Charlie glanced at the clock on the bedside table. 4:30 am. "Maybe we should just leave now. I don't think I can get back to sleep."
"Are you sure?" Michael said in a hushed voice.
"Yeah. Because-" There was a shuffling sound in the left hallway and Michael grabbed the flashlight. Charlie grabbed a fistful of his shirt as the shuffling grew louder. The closet door in front of them shifted and the flashlight flickered. Charlie could see the yellow tophat and bowtie clearly.
"That's it." She gasped.
"What's it?" Michael asked shakily.
"The bear. The black one."
The closet door shifted again and the bear emerged. It reached for Charlie again but froze, its red eyes becoming fixated on Michael. The flashlight flickered and it was gone a few seconds later.
"Is it gone?" Michael whispered.
"We need to leave. Now."