"What's worse?" Charlie turned on the bedside lamp.

"B-Bonnie's out there. I think."

"What?"

BANG! Michael jumped away from the window.

"Like, Freddy Fazbear's Bonnie? Or old Bonnie?"

"Neither! He's-!"

BANG! Charlie kicked the covers off and rushed to Michael's side, grabbing his arm. She saw a purple form lingering by the window and caught a glimpse of gleaming silver- more menacing teeth. Michael cautiously made his way to the balcony door and poked his head out, shining the flashlight down the open corridor.

"What are you doing?!" Charlie clamoured after him. Bonnie lurched forward and Michael slammed the door, but not before giving the rabbit a large dose of light. There was a low growl and the flashlight flickered several times. Michael poked his head out of the door again.

"...He's gone."

"This can't be real." Charlie pinched the bridge of her nose and walked back to the bed, plopping herself down on its edge. "There's no way they're real."

"We're both seeing them, Charlotte." Michael shut the door and joined her.

"Yeah, but just think about it for a second. First of all, they show up out of nowhere. Second of all, they don't move like real animatronics. Even my dad's new animatronics stutter a bit when they walk. Orville is the fastest one at Junior's and even he takes a few minutes to cross the entire dining room."

"Wait, the robots at Junior's walk around?" Michael raised an eyebrow.

"Very rarely, like twice a month, but yes. Nobody's in the restaurant when they do. They don't need to walk around every night like the ones at Freddy Fazbear's, but they're still in danger of locking up if they don't get some kind of movement beyond the stage occasionally. But that's not the point. The point is that it's physically impossible for real animatronics to move like the ones we've seen. Also, "Bonnie" didn't like the flashlight very much. The yellow bear doesn't, either."

"So?"

"So they like the dark. Have you ever had a night terror?"

He gave her a look.

"Okay, dumb question. But when you have a night terror, it's usually because you think you're seeing something in the dark. It takes your brain a minute, but once you turn on the light, that something disappears because it was an illusion. A trick of your mind."

"Charlotte, an illusion can't choke you. You were unconscious."

"But you didn't see the black bear when you came into the room, remember? Have you ever dreamt that you were falling or drowning? The sensation feels real. People have died in their sleep because their bodies thought that they were actually drowning."

"So… these things are night terrors?"

"Some freakishly elaborate version of them, yes. It's the same concept."

"I still don't get it. How are we both seeing them at exactly the same time? ...Most of the time."

"I don't know, but we should probably keep the lights on tonight." Charlie yawned.

"...Right." Michael stood up and turned on the overhead light. "...I'm going to keep watch."

"Watch?"

"In case any of them come back. It's not like I'm going to get sleep anyway. Did you see that thing?"

"...If you're sure." Charlie got under the covers and Michael sat on the foot of the bed, armed with the flashlight. He watched the window closely.

"...Goodnight." Charlie said, staring at the window herself.

"Night." He replied warily. Charlie eventually shut her eyes but she was merely resting them. Her thoughts were drifting back to her father. He was probably awake, tinkering in his workshop to calm his nerves. She was hit with a sudden pang of worry- would William, having lost track of her, go after her father and Aunt Jen? Or her friends? What other tricks did he have up his sleeve? The many possibilities plagued her mind until she drifted off at last.


It was business as usual at Junior's despite the circumstances. Henry woke up at 8 am, had breakfast, and headed to the pizzeria as usual. Once there he called Chief Clay as he'd done for the past two days. No leads, no new findings. The hours dragged by until the pizzeria opened. Once the doors were open, he left the staff to their own devices and retreated into his office. He stared blankly at the inventory form on the monitor in front of him. Each time he typed some numbers, his eyes would wander to the picture frames on his left. It was an endless, sad cycle.

Henry turned to a picture frame after entering the amount of plastic utensils he needed. It contained a picture of him and Charlie standing in front of the Mediocre Melodies. The other picture was of a six-year-old Charlie holding Theodore. Henry removed his glasses and looked away after just a few seconds, rubbing his tired eyes.

There was a knock on the door.

"Henry?" Derek, the dayside security guard, poked his head into the office.

"What's up, Derek?" Henry stopped rubbing his eyes in order to rub his temples.

"Your new hire is here. Can I send her in?"

"...Yeah. Yeah." He sighed, "Send her in."

Derek stepped off to the side and a young woman took his place. She wore a pink sweater and worn jeans, and her light brown hair was pulled back into a neat low ponytail.

"Mr. Emily?"

"Henry, please." He stood up and extended his hand. "I'm very sorry, but I've forgotten your name."

"Vanessa." The woman flashed a megawatt smile that complimented her green eyes.

"Vanessa. That's right. Come on in." He gestured to the wheeled chair beside his. Charlie's chair. He roughly shook the thought away and sat on his own, pulling a manila envelope out of his file cabinet.

"I see you came prepared." He gestured to the purple notebook and matching pen Vanessa held on her lap.

"Yeah, I thought it would be a good idea to take notes. It's a habit, really."

"So you just graduated this past May. Congratulations, first of all. Second of all, I'm glad you found us." Henry examined Vanessa's interview notes.

"I'm glad I found you, too. It's not easy finding engineering jobs around here."

"Did you fill out those forms I gave you at the end of the interview?"

"Yup, they're all right here." Vanessa pulled several sheets of paper out of her notebook.

"Perfect. I'm just going to take a quick look here…" Henry scanned the forms for completeness.

"Is that your daughter? In the pictures?" Vanessa asked suddenly. He nearly dropped everything.

"...Yeah, that's Charlie." He focused on the woman's direct deposit form.

"I feel like I've seen her before."

Henry swallowed hard.

"You probably saw her on the news. She's been missing for two days."

"She's the missing girl? I'm so sorry."

"Everything looks good. Come on, I'll give you a tour of the place." Henry tucked Vanessa's employment papers into the manila folder.

"Look at all these drawings! Were they all done by the kids that come in?" The girl inquired as they strolled into the arcade.

"Yup. I don't throw a single one out. They're the best kind of decor." Henry smiled, grateful to focus on something else. "This is the arcade. Some of these games are thirty years old."

"Cool." Vanessa smiled, but she looked distracted.

"The kitchen's right over there. As an employee, you get free pizza and a drink every shift. If you'd prefer a salad, you can also head over to the salad bar."

"No way. Are you serious?"

"Yup. I mean, you might get tired of pizza and salad after a while. There's an employee fridge so you can bring in your own food if you want. There's a microwave in the lounge, which is back by my office."

"Is that the prize counter over there?"

"Sure is. The plushies are the most popular prizes- we have parents who will buy them for their kids if they can't get enough tickets. But enough of this basic stuff. You're not a waitress, you're a technician. Come on, I'll introduce you to the robots."

Vanessa visibly perked up and Henry smiled. The animatronics were in an idle state, occasionally turning their heads and flexing their articulated joints.

"That's Happy Frog. She's the star of the show." Henry gestured to the frog in the middle of the stage.

"Hey, Happy Frog!" Vanessa opened her notebook.

"The elephant is Orville, the pig is Pigpatch, and the bear is Nedd Bear. Come on up, I'll show you a few things."

Vanessa eagerly joined the animatronics and Henry on the stage.

"Maintenance is pretty simple- all you need is a wrench and a screwdriver most of the time. I'm not going to traumatize any kids right now, but the faceplates pop right off. There's a small power module in their necks, on the endoskeleton. To shut them off, all you have to do is remove it. Just don't drop it or lose it."

Vanessa nodded and scribbled in her notebook.

"Do they walk?"

"They sure do, but not when there are customers around. I have a few… older models... that need to walk around nightly to keep their servos from locking up, but these guys only need to walk once or twice a month."

"Older models?"

"I've owned a few restaurants that featured animatronics. Sold them, though."

"Candy's? That's the only other restaurant I can think of with animatronics."

Henry laughed.

"No, definitely not Candy's. Anyway, if you want to come over here, there's someone else I want to introduce you to." He stepped off of the stage and headed for Mr. Hippo's Story Corner. Vanessa eagerly followed. Mr. Hippo was idle as well, one purple arm in a waving position.

"This is Mr. Hippo. He tells stories. Ten of them. They're randomized throughout the day." Henry said proudly. Vanessa took a step forward and the hippo lurched towards her.

"Whoa."

"I-I-It's s-s-story t-t-ime!"

The girl yelped as the animatronic grabbed her by the arm and yanked her towards him.

"Hold on, stay calm." Henry attempted to pry the hippo's mechanical hand off of Vanessa, but he had a death grip. He continued to pull her forward. "Don't pull back, don't pull back! Hold on." Henry's calm demeanor remained but he darted to the back room. Vanessa was screaming when he got back.

BZZZZZZAP! Mr. Hippo froze and let go of the girl, who fell backwards into a table. Henry stuffed the shock device into his back pocket and helped her up.

"Are you okay?"

Vanessa rubbed her shoulder.

"I-I think so."

"I'm so sorry, he's never done that before. He's been acting a little off lately, but…" Henry stared at his now dazed creation. At least he'd managed to perfect the device- it no longer caused a blackout. The other animatronics started performing with vigor.

Vanessa picked up her notebook.

"What did… what did you do?"

Henry pulled the device out of his back pocket.

"This is a controlled shock device. It rejiggers animatronic components. They'll stop whatever they're doing and go back to either a neutral or performance state." Henry glanced around the nearly-empty restaurant. The few patrons that were there were staring, but it appeared that they'd only caught the tail end of the incident. Vanessa opened her notebook and scribbled some more.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. Anything else you want to show me?"

"Well, you're going to learn how to deactivate an animatronic." Henry drew the curtains around Mr. Hippo's stage. "Follow me. I'll show you where all the tools are kept." He led her to the back room.

"You can use anything in my toolbox as long as you put it back when you're done."

"What's that over there?"

"The vacuum? That's one of Charlie's inventions." Henry didn't look up- even looking at Mr. Hugs (as Charlie called him) would trigger him.

"No, not that. That. The bear."

"Oh. That. It's… it's just a prototype. Sometimes I use it when I want to test new features." He said quickly.

"A prototype? It looks like a complete animatronic to me." Vanessa touched the star on the bear's chest.

"Don't touch it, please." Henry rushed over. Vanessa withdrew her hand and looked at him quizzically. "It has new features on it, so it could be unstable."

The bear's one yellow eye stared up the duo. Vanessa nodded and scribbled in her notebook again.

"Umm… you don't need to take notes on it. It's literally just a prototype. In fact, I'd prefer if you just left it alone. It's nothing personal, really. I don't let anyone touch it. Now, come here. I'm going to show you what tools you have to use on the animatronics."

Vanessa shut her notebook reluctantly and followed Henry to his large toolbox and then back out to Mr. Hippo's stage.

"Okay… so we're going to take this screwdriver here and open the faceplates, like so." Vanessa jumped back at the hissing sound the Hippo emitted. "Now, the power module is right here, on the right side of his neck. It's the little black thing with the red light on it." Henry carefully pulled the disk off of the endoskeleton, showing it to his apprentice.

"It's magnetic. Comes right off."

"...That little thing turns the animatronic on and off?"

"Yup."

Vanessa opened her notebook again, tilting it towards herself so that he couldn't see what she was writing.

"...And that's that. He won't switch on again until we put the disk back in place." Henry stepped off the stage. "Now, let's do some troubleshooting." He handed Vanessa the screwdriver.

"With all due respect, Mr. Em- Henry- I'd rather you take care of this." She handed the screwdriver back and he nodded slowly.

"Fair enough. You just watch."

Henry worked at Mr. Hippo's internal components while Vanessa scribbled in her notebook. He couldn't help but think of Charlie and how eager she was to work on the animatronics, and he lost his focus many times.

"... I'll… I'll be right back." He sighed after dropping his wrench for the umpteenth time.

"Okay." Vanessa hopped off the stage and sat at a nearby table. Henry darted to his office and picked up the phone, dialing Chief Clay's direct line.

"Hello? Clay here."

"Hi Clay, it's me again. I'm sorry to keep bothering you, but-"

"Henry? I was just about to call you- we have a lead."