Chapter Seven
The next morning at breakfast, Nikki noticed that Charlotte looked a little more tired than usual. It took her longer to process what she was doing, and her responses seemed delayed. After pouring herself a bowl of cereal, she sat down at the table and stared for several minutes not doing anything. Eventually she broke out of her trance, but she still seemed out of it.
Frederick joined them a few minutes later. He was whistling a tune that Nikki didn't recognize, but Charlotte seemed to. She raised her head, her brow furrowed in confusion. "You're really chipper this morning," she mumbled.
"And you're not." He chuckled. "Usually it's the other way around."
"What were you whistling a few minutes ago?" Charlotte thought she knew the answer, but she didn't think Frederick knew the song she was thinking of.
He shrugged. "I don't know. I wasn't really thinking about it." He whistled the same tune and left the room.
Charlotte stared at the kitchen entry where Frederick had walked out. "What just happened?" She glanced over at Nikki.
Nikki took her empty bowl to the sink and rinsed it out. "Frederick is in a good mood for once?" she suggested. She left the room and headed for the stairs.
Nicole quickly shuffled into the kitchen looking over her shoulder. "Is it just me or was Frederick just whistling the tune for Freddy's music box?" she whispered.
"Okay, I'm not going crazy!" Charlotte's eyes had widened with realization. "That's what I thought, but he doesn't know that song. There wouldn't be any way he would know it. Unless…"
"What are you guys talking about?" Felix grabbed a granola bar from the snack cabinet and an apple from the fridge.
"Frederick is really chipper this morning, and we were just wondering why," Nikki explained.
A glazed look came over Felix's eye. "Aurgh! Me bird likes ya. So I'll do ye a favor."
Now Charlotte looked really confused. "What did you say?"
"Huh?" The glazed look had left his eye. "I didn't say anything. Did you sleep okay last night? You've got bags under your eyes."
With a groan, Charlotte stood up and poured her dry, uneaten cereal back in the box. "I'm not that hungry. Nicole, do you have any idea what's going on?"
"Not unless it has something to do with what happened last night, but that's the only thing I can think of. How are the others acting? Billy, Amy, and Goldie?"
"I haven't seen them yet this morning. I'm not sure."
Amy sauntered into the dining room a few minutes later. "You won't get tired of my voice, will you?" She grew quiet and blinked several times. "Hey, Charlotte!"
"I'm guessing you can't tell me what you just said either, can you?" Charlotte ran her hands through her hair with a sigh.
With a giggle, Amy cocked her head and then suddenly straightened it. "Huh? I didn't—"
"—say anything," Charlotte finished for her. "Got it." She stared after Amy as she too left the kitchen.
"Charlotte, what if this does have something to do with what happened last night?" Nikki came back in the room. "Billy just asked Mom to draw his guitar for him. Does he play guitar?"
"Bonnie does, but Billy doesn't that I know of. He doesn't have a guitar to play back home. The strings on Bonnie's guitar are plastic, and they don't move. His music is auto-generated."
From the living room Amy asked about her annoying voice again, and Charlotte mumbled under her breath, "If they keep saying animatronic catch phrases all day, I'm going to lose what's left of my sanity." She cupped her chin in her palm. "Normally this wouldn't get under my skin like it is, but I'm really tired, and cheesy catch phrases are the last thing I want to hear right now."
"Billy is tuning his guitar and getting ready to play, if you guys want to come into the living room." Goldie beckoned them out of the dining room.
Charlotte shrugged. "Why not?" She followed Goldie into the living room with Nikki and Nicole. Billy was perched on edge of the couch tuning the strings of a red electric guitar. With each strum, he hummed in perfect pitch. Eventually, the six strings matched his voice in tune. "Billy, how long have you known how to play the guitar?"
He looked up at her and strummed some chords. "I've always known how to play. You know that," he chuckled. He began to play a song that Charlotte recognized as one of the preprogramed songs that Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy had played on the stage before the restaurants had shut down.
Amy settled on the floor at Billy's feet, soon followed by Frederick who sat down next to Billy on the couch. Billy played through the intro again, and in unison the three of them started singing. Their voices blended together harmoniously with Frederick singing lead and Amy and Billy singing backup.
Felix and Goldie hummed along, but they didn't sing. Instead, Felix helped Goldie to her feet, and the two of them slowly danced along to the beat of the music. He was mainly just holding her up to keep her from falling, but he also steadied her enough to let her dance as well as she was able to without her crutches.
After a few minutes with Goldie, Felix helped her get comfortable on the floor and then extended his hand to Charlotte. She hesitated and then shook her head with a smile.
Let loose a bit, lass!
Charlotte stared into his eyes and raised an eyebrow. You think I need to loosen up a bit, huh?
In response, Felix winked at her with his good eye. Ya had to grow up too quickly, lassie. Ya need to learn how to be a kid again.
You're too smart for your own good. Fine, you win. She smiled as she took his hand. They danced through another song. So what exactly happened last night? Not early last night—she thought about asking whether or not Foxy had seen anyone different in their room last night, but she figured that if he had seen Nikki and Shaddid the night would have ended differently—but this morning, everyone is different. What changed?
Felix looked over at his siblings. They've been through so much. Ye all have. They need to know the truth.
Charlotte tightened her grip on Felix's arm. You promised me. You all did. She glanced over at the trio near the couch. Billy held her gaze for several seconds and then looked away. I erased their memories for a reason! I promise I'll tell them when the time is right. I don't know exactly when that will be, but—
"What are you thinking about?" Felix cut into the conversation.
"What—what do you mean?" she stumbled through her words.
Felix smiled. "You've been really quiet. Why did you grab my arm a minute ago?"
"Huh?"
"You grabbed my forearm."
Quickly she tried to come up with a believable answer. "Oh…yeah. Sorry, I—I lost my balance for a second." She chuckled nervously. Foxy was right. It wasn't fair to the kids for them to be kept out of the loop for the last ten years, but after everything she had gone through, she hated living in fear of Henry, and she hadn't wanted the kids to have to experience the same thing if she could do anything about it. She thought back to the day she had decided to wipe their memories.
Nine Years Ago
Charlotte laid on her cot in the Prize Corner. She had gone to bed about an hour ago, but so far she hadn't been able to get to sleep. The kids had gone to sleep a long time ago. From her room she couldn't see any of them, but she knew that they were all sleeping in their different areas, wherever their animatronics were stationed—Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Golden Freddy on the main stage and Foxy in Kid's Corner next to the Parts and Service room.
She rolled over and was finally almost asleep when one of the girls started screaming for her. She bolted upright in bed and ran across the restaurant to the main stage. The screaming continued. Charlotte followed it to Chica. Amy was inside. "Charlotte, get me out of here!" she screamed.
"Shh, Amy, it's okay. I'm here." Charlotte stroked Chica's chin, knowing full well that Amy couldn't feel her touch.
"He's coming! He's gonna kill me! Charlotte help me!"
"Amy, please! No one is coming. He's long gone, I promise. You're safe."
"Then why can't I get out?" she sobbed.
Charlotte sat down next to Chica. "Can all of you hear me?" One by one, all five of the kids said that they could. "Okay." Charlotte sighed and sat up straighter. This same thing had happened every night since the murders. Three hundred and sixty five nights of torture for everyone. Every night, one of the kids would wake up in the middle of the night and scream for hours on end.
For the kids' sakes as well as her own, she had to do something. She could look back and remember similar memories of her own right after she had been killed. She had nightmares for months until her dad had sung a song for her to help her sleep. Now it was the only thing she could think of that would work. She took a breath and started to sing, making sure she was projecting enough for Felix to hear her:
Erase these memories most foul
Which cause your heart to weep.
Replace them now with memories dear
Lest history repeat.
Slowly Amy's sobs quieted to rhythmic breathing. The others drifted back off to sleep one by one.
Once they were all asleep again, Charlotte hooked each animatronic up to her dad's PC and ran a particular program that would allow them to pass as children during the day. Up until this point, Charlotte had chosen to primarily stay in the Puppet's form to help the kids feel a little more comfortable about the situation. But now that their memories were altered, she had to do something to change their appearance or it would just open up a lot more questions that she wasn't ready to answer yet.
It took hours for the program to download, but the process finished up on the last animatronic just before six o'clock. She hadn't gotten much sleep, but that was the last of her worries. In the morning, she would fix any mistakes or anything she had forgotten in her sleep-deprived state.
The next morning, Charlotte woke up at six o'clock to hear the sound of children running around the restaurant. At first, she cowered behind the counter, thinking that some kids had broken in, but then two of the kids started arguing.
"Frederick, I was playing with Chica! Give her back!"
"Go get your own! There's a bunch in the Prize Corner."
Moments later, little Amy walked into the room. She stood on her tiptoes to look over the counter. "Charlotte," she whined, "Frederick took Chica, and he won't give her back."
Charlotte popped up from behind the counter. "Amy! Are you okay?" All at once, everything clicked.
"Frederick took Chica from me! I was playing with her, but he won't give her to me. I want another one!" Amy folded her arms across her chest and pouted.
"I mean…after last night. Are you okay?" Charlotte stood up and reached up to one of the higher shelves where the plushies were stored. She took down a Chica figure and a Chica plushie. "Which one do you want?"
Amy reached for the plushie. "That one!"
Charlotte handed her the toy. "Are you okay after last night? You had a bad dream."
"No, I didn't." She frowned.
"Yeah, you did. You were crying, and then I—" She paused. It worked! "You don't remember…You know what? Never mind. Tell Frederick I said for him to leave you alone."
Amy clutched the plushie to her chest and ran out of the room shouting, "Frederick! Charlotte said to leave me alone, or you'll regret it!"
That night, the kids fell asleep by ten and changed to the animatronics by midnight. The first night after everything changed, Charlotte as The Puppet went to Freddy. Freddy, we need to talk.
You want to talk about the kids?
Yeah. Listen. Over the last year since the murders, the kids have been terrified. Not so much during the day, but at night, they would get so scared…I know you know that. She shook her head. That's not the point. The point is that I finally did something about it. I erased their memories…or, changed them, I guess would be a better way of wording it. Anyway, whoever it was that killed them and the events of that night, those memories are long gone. Did you guys see anything that night? Anything strange or suspicious?
No, none of us saw anything. What we know is what the kids remember, which even before the memory wipe, wasn't that much. They blocked out a lot of it.
Anything they remember that you saw you can't tell them about it! I don't want them to have to go through what I did.
Are you sure that's the right way to go about things? They'll need to know eventually.
The Puppet sighed. I know. And I'll tell them…one day. But you have to promise me that none of you will say anything to any of them. At least not until they're ready, which I will decide when that happens.
Well, you're the closest thing to an adult in this situation, so I trust your decision. Just remember the longer you wait the more lies you'll have to tell them to cover up the truth.
Charlotte came back to the present. Her conversation with Freddy was still as fresh on her mind now as it was the night the conversation took place.
You still think it isn't a good time to tell them?
Charlotte met Frederick's gaze. Frederick was still singing, but Freddy wanted to talk. I told you I would tell them when I think the time is right.
But what time is the right time? Look at what you've had to tell them just since we've been here. You told them that the drinks they have at night are there to help them be able to sleep soundly, when in reality you're using the drinks to keep us from getting up at night.
It's to protect Shaddid and Lizzie and Nikki. You know that. You guys don't trust adults. And we've seen what happens when you're around them. She looked closer at Frederick's eye. It had healed enough to where he was now able to open it, but the bruising was still there.
You know…you erased the kids' minds completely. Meaning if they found out, or if you told them, they wouldn't remember anything from the past except what you choose to tell them. He hurried on when he saw realization shine in her eyes. That doesn't give you an excuse to tell them more lies when you tell them the truth. The best thing for everyone would be for you to come clean. They will trust you and respect you a lot more if you tell them the truth. Maybe not at first, but eventually they will.
While she worked on writing a letter to Nikki, Sheila's mind kept traveling back to the pizzeria. She knew that Nicole was working on the story and probably knew the main theme of the plot by now, but Sheila was still drawn to the mystery of it all. Quietly she hummed Charlotte's song as she wrote.
To her surprise, the letter in front of her started to warble in and out of focus. She blinked several times and rubbed her eyes, but the warbling continued. She started to feel the heaviness in the air that she had felt the first time Charlotte had shown her the bodies, but the pizza smell was lacking. Instead, the room smelled like mold and mildew.
The next time she blinked, she was fully in the pizzeria in Charlotte's body. What do you have left to show me, Charlotte? She looked around carefully. There wasn't any kind of force driving her this time, so she had some time to explore. Subconsciously she kept humming as she walked. How long has it been since last time? She could see the age of the building. The lights were all turned off, and there was dust all over the furniture. The carpet under her feet didn't look much better.
She leisurely walked around the restaurant, taking in the stage, the Prize Corner, the deserted eating area, and the game room. She conjured up Charlotte's voice and had her sing in the background as she walked. She turned the corner to go down a long hallway and saw two people with flashlights. With a gasp, she backed up and pressed herself against the wall.
Charlotte continued to sing.
Back at home, Sheila's eyes had changed from light blue to deep blue and stared blankly in front of her. Her hands trembled over the lettered page until she started grasping for something. Shaking fingers finally gripped a bottle of purple ink and spilled it across the page. She tossed the empty bottle aside and started using her quill to quickly sketch out the figure of a man.
"I don't know why we're here again," Elizabeth grumbled. "There's nothing left to find."
Dave shone his flashlight into the entryway. "I want to look more into why the tracker is more active in the Prize Corner than it is throughout the rest of the building. Just looking for clues. I may have brought you back successfully, but if we go to see your dad in two weeks and haven't made any progress, he'll have my head on a platter."
The two ventured further into the restaurant, again not caring about any intruders. The tracker still said the animatronics were in New York. As they passed the security office and started down the long hallway, Dave flicked his flashlight off and held out his arm to stop Elizabeth.
"Do you hear that?" he whispered.
"I don't hear anything." Elizabeth lowered her voice to match Dave's.
"Shh, listen." He paused. They listened intently to the apparent silence until Dave heard it again. It sounded like someone singing. "It sounds like Charlotte." In the light of Elizabeth's flashlight, Dave saw a figure step out at the end of the hallway and look in their direction, only to quickly flee around the corner. Whoever was singing continued. "Come on." Dave crouched and slowly crept down the long hallway, carefully watching his step to avoid any unnecessary noise. "Cup your hand around the light but keep it on," he whispered.
At the end of the hallway, Dave and Elizabeth stepped out, checked for animatronics, and when the coast was clear, they checked for Charlotte. It didn't take long to find her. She was hunkered down against the wall not far from them. But there was something strange about her. She almost looked like a hologram instead of a real person. Dave wouldn't have noticed at first glance until Elizabeth shone the flashlight on her, and the beam went right through her.
"Charlotte, it's me." He looked at the girl next to him. "And Elizabeth. I brought her back. Where are you? We want to help you. Charlotte?"
"Charlotte?"
Sheila looked from the guy in front of her to the girl to his right. Surprise mounted to alarm when she recognized the girl. It was the same girl—turns out her name was Elizabeth—from the locked room in the basement. The man had piercing dark blue eyes, similar to the way her father had explained the invader's eyes when she had blacked out before, and his height and build looked like it would match the man whose mind and body she had been trapped in.
"Charlotte," the man said softly, "we know you've been through a lot, but we want to help you. Let us help you. Where are you?" He held out a welcoming hand, but everything in Sheila's being was screaming that she needed to get as far away from this couple as possible.
Within seconds, her mind was made up. She turned to run, hoping that in the time it took them to catch up to her, she could be back in her kitchen and out of this nightmare. Before she could run, the man grabbed her wrist and held on tightly. She tried to pull away but couldn't.
Alarm turned to full-blown panic. She had to do something! He'd kill her if she couldn't get away. Thinking quickly, she turned herself into an ice princessand blasted the guy in the face with the biggest ice ball she could manage.
As the ice ball contacted his face, the man dropped her arm and grabbed his nose, blood flowing freely. "She broke my nose!" he shouted. "Get her!"
Elizabeth charged in pursuit. Sheila threw up a thick wall of ice between them and kept running, finally gaining the necessary distance she needed to get away. She kept running, breathless, until the room started spinning. Pain returned to her forearm. Slowly her room came back into focus.
The force of returning to her body again threw her into the floor. She gasped in pain and looked at her arm. First of all, her fingers were all covered in purple ink. How did that get there? She would worry about that later. There were more pressing matters. Dark finger marks had branded themselves around her wrist. The skin was burning like he had touched her with a hot poker. Gingerly, she poured some cool water onto the burns and pulled out her brother's pendant.
The ointment inside had proved itself very useful over the years. It didn't heal wounds immediately, but it worked much faster than regular antiseptic ointment back on earth. Also, in a way, it helped Shaddid and Lizzie feel closer, especially since Lizzie had found the ointment useful after her run-in with Shane. Carefully she applied the ointment after singing the song to open the pendant and wrapped her arm in a bandage with trembling fingers.
If this continued for the foreseeable future, there was no telling what she would go through before one of them took complete control over the other. She could only hope that no matter how long it took that when the time came for one of them to win, she would be the last one standing. Because if just him touching her hurt this badly, she couldn't imagine what it would feel like when he was in complete control.
She slowly made her way back over to the table to finish her letter, but the letter was nowhere to be found. The only thing in its place was spilled purple ink and her quill pen.
Later on in the day, she couldn't recall what she had done to burn her arm or ruin the stain on her table.
Dave and Elizabeth stood in the visitation area waiting for Afton to be released. They didn't have to wait for long. A guard soon brought him into the room and handcuffed him to the table. He smiled widely as he laid eyes on his daughter.
"No physical interaction," the guard told Elizabeth. She smiled and nodded her understanding.
"Thank you." She turned to Afton. "Hi, Daddy." Slowly she walked forward and sat across the table from him. "I've missed you so much!"
"Elizabeth," he started, his voice choked with emotion, "It's so good to see you! I've missed my Baby."
Across from him, Elizabeth stiffened for a moment, but then she forced a smile. "It's good to see you too, even if you are in jail. It could be worse."
"Well, you're here. That's the important thing." He turned to Dave with a smirk. "You did something right for once."
Dave wanted so badly to pop the guy a few good times in the jaw, but he didn't want to get arrested and then imprisoned with Afton. That was the one thing that would make the situation worse than it was at the moment. He instead clenched his fists at his side.
"Have you guys done anything fun together?" The question sounded innocent, but Dave could sense the hidden question underneath. He was wondering how far they had gotten in finding the kids. "Have you made any new friends?"
"Not yet, but we're working on it," Dave curtly replied. "We're getting close."
"Good. Good. That's great to hear."
Elizabeth eyed the guards suspiciously and then scooted closer to Afton at the table. "Why did it take you so long to get me, Daddy? I was down there for fifteen years." Her voice trailed off. "I guess you forgot about me."
"No, honey, never!" He reached out to take her hand but then retreated when one of the guards started to approach.
"You brought her back. Immediately. You left me to rot in that rusty creation of yours. She was my only companion. All those years…"
Afton tried everything he could to regain some of the ground he was standing on. He had to proceed carefully. Just looking at his daughter, he could tell how fragile she was, mentally and emotionally. "Baby, listen to me. You were so maimed and broken. There wasn't enough of you left for you to survive like Charlotte. Danny was the same way. His head…" He swallowed a lump in his throat and wiped a tear from his eye as best as he could with the handcuffs on.
"Baby, please!"
"Stop calling me that!" she screamed. Everyone in the room turned to look at her. The guard stepped forward again. She softened her voice. "I'm sorry." Tears ran down her cheeks, and she angrily swiped them away. "Is that all I am to you? It's still me." She stared her dad down. "Say my name." He didn't respond right away. "Say it!"
"Elizabeth…I'm sorry, Ba—Honey. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. For everything. Can you forgive me?"
She stood from the table silently. Everyone was still watching the conversation unfold, and the guards were eyeing them closely. "I forgive you." She turned to Dave. "Let's go."
"Wait!" Afton cried. He stood from the table as well as his restraints would allow. "Can we put all this behind us? Please?"
Elizabeth walked the few feet back to her chair. She looked down at her father for a few moments before leaning forward across the table. "There's one more thing I wanted to ask you," she whispered.
Dave watched the two with rising caution. Something about Elizabeth's voice had changed. She sounded more like Baby. Her voice was a lot softer and breathier.
"What is it, Sweetheart?"
"How does it feel to have your heart ripped out by the one person who means the most to you?" Her voice had changed completely.
He looked deep into her eyes and could see the sadness there mingled with anger. He couldn't blame her. She had every reason to be angry, but they were past that now, weren't they? "What are you-?"
Dave and Afton watched in horror as Elizabeth's face split down the middle where Baby's face plates would be. Her limbs stretched to Baby's full seven-foot height. In mere seconds, Baby's endoskeleton shot forward and thrust itself into Afton's chest.
William said nothing as Baby's screeches intensified. Blood dripped from his gaping mouth. With one final violent wrench, Baby's endoskeleton hand latched onto something in Afton's chest and pulled, making the motion as painful and slow as possible. Eventually, she pulled his heart from his chest and dropped it on the table. His lifeless body slumped over, pulling against the wrist restraints. "Now you know," she whispered in his ear.
All of the other guests and prisoners in the visitation room had fled, and the room was now filled with police officers. They all circled Dave, Elizabeth, and Afton's table with guns drawn. "Hands where we can see them!"
Baby finally morphed back into Elizabeth. Blood was smeared all the way up to her elbow and splattered across her face. She turned to look at Dave. "Erase their memories," she ordered.
"What?!" Dave looked at her wide-eyed with his hands raised.
"Just like he did for her. Do it. Now!" She stood her ground, baring her teeth at the onlookers. For leverage, she grabbed one of the officers and let Baby take over again. "If any of you shoot, he's dead." The officers lowered their weapons. "Dave, now!" she shouted impatiently.
Keeping his hands raised, Dave started to sing:
Erase these memories most foul
That cause your heart to weep.
Replace them now with memories dear
Lest history repeat.
One by one, everyone still in the room went back to their stations as if nothing had happened. Dave finally lowered his hands. "Elizabeth, what did you do?"
"I got rid of the problem." She leaned down and kissed Afton's cheek, "I'm sorry, Daddy," and then turned to Dave. "Let's go."
Silently the two walked past the guards, retrieved their belongings at the entrance, and then left the jail in their wake. In the parking lot, Dave grabbed Elizabeth's arm and whirled her around to face him. "You've got two minutes to explain to me just what the hell happened in there."
She wrenched her arm away and glowered at him. "I don't owe you any kind of explanation," she seethed. "Too bad you weren't man enough to do it yourself." She spun on the balls of her feet and sauntered to the car. The two took their seats and buckled up before Elizabeth continued, "Take me to the pizzeria."
Dave started the car and glanced over at her warily. "Why the sudden interest? You hate that place."
"There's something you failed to tell me," she began, "but I'm going to assume that it slipped your mind instead of the more obvious reason being that you chose not to tell me. I found the letter that Dad wrote you. He told you about a way for me to be human again; to destroy Baby once and for all and be rid of her forever."
Dave stayed silent and swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. His palms were getting sweaty, but he kept his hands on the wheel. No need for her to think she was making him squirm as true as it may be. "He wasn't sure if it would work," he finally managed.
"If that were true, he would never have mentioned it. I'm going to find those kids if it's the last thing I do. I don't think I have to explain to you what will happen to anyone who stands in my way."
She hadn't said it, but Dave could sense the hidden message she was sending. The threat included him, but after seeing what she had just done to her own father, he wasn't about to double cross her.
Today was Danny's eighth birthday. The whole family had been looking forward to the party the entire week. Everyone that is, except the birthday boy himself. He didn't want his birthday party to be at the pizzeria, even though plans had already been made. He was embarrassed to say that he was scared of the animatronics. Freddy especially. For some reason, the restaurant's mascot terrified Danny the most.
Maybe this had something to do with the fact that less than a year ago, Danny had watched Dad's newest animatronic—Baby—attack and kill his younger sister not long after her sixth birthday. Danny's older brother Michael thought that Danny's fear was childish and that he needed to just "grow up." Michael had teased him relentlessly for several weeks, much to their parents' chagrin, but he hadn't let up.
Now the weekend of the party had finally arrived, and Danny was no closer to overcoming his fears than he had been the day Elizabeth had died. As one final attempt before the party, Michael locked Danny in the supply closet. That didn't help. Danny only pounded on the door and screamed and cried until Charlotte finally came over and let him out.
The party started at five the next night. Michael stuck around for pizza and cake, but then quickly joined a group of his friends elsewhere in the restaurant. From their spot near the arcade, he could see Danny opening his presents and keeping a close eye on Freddy. Michael rolled his eyes and took a sip of his drink.
He wanted to come up with one final scare for Danny to hopefully scare the fear out of him for good. He tossed ideas around with his friends, but even between them, no one could come up with a good enough idea. Finally, Michael thought of one. But before they could carry it out, they would need a distraction. Meanwhile, he sent one of his friends to the prize corner to grab one each of the four character masks.
"Hey, Dad? Midnight Motorcade isn't working. It won't take any of our tokens."
While William went to investigate the arcade cabinet, Michael checked on Danny's mom, Marian. She was busy at the front desk, thankfully. They would have to move quickly.
Michael made his way across the dining room over to the private party rooms. In the last party room, Danny's friends were crowded around him at the table. "Hey, Danny, come with me. I have a special birthday surprise for you." Michael smiled, trying to convince Danny that he meant well.
"I don't wanna go anywhere with you," Danny grumbled softly.
"Come on, buddy," Michael prodded. "I forgot to get you something, and it would mean a lot to me if you came with me. Please?"
"If I go with you, will you promise to leave me alone?"
Michael smiled. "Promise."
Begrudgingly, Danny finally stood up and followed his older brother, leaving his party guests waiting at the table. "I'll be right back," he promised.
Michael led the way to one of the deserted hallways in the pizzeria. Soon his friend returned with the character masks. Michael chose the Foxy one, and the rest of his friends chose between Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy.
"Michael, I don't like this," Danny whimpered.
"You're fine! Look, Danny," he knelt down to the tike's level, "you've been through a lot, and I know that. But you've got to get over your fears. Elizabeth's death was an accident, and it was Henry's fault. That's why he doesn't work here anymore. Freddy isn't going to hurt you. I promise." He nodded to his friend wearing the Bonnie mask, and the two of them completely picked Danny up off the floor, Michael on his right, and "Bonnie" on his left.
"No! I don't want to go!" Danny screamed. He kicked and struggled, trying to get free, but the boys tightened their grip and headed towards the stage.
The Freddy animatronic on the stage was actually a spring lock suit. As long as they didn't touch the spring locks, everything would be fine. All they were going to do was get Danny up on the stage, hold him there for a few minutes until he could see that nothing bad was happening, and then let him go.
They finally got to the stage, and Michael's confidence grew. With a laugh, he said, "Hey guys, I think the little man said he wants to give Freddy a big kiss!" He hoisted Danny up onto the stage and put Danny's head right next to Freddy's wide-open mouth. The spring locks were in place, so nothing was going to happen. "On three! One…two…"
Charlotte was in the process of bringing Danny's friends some more play tokens when she noticed that Danny was missing. She asked if anyone had seen where he went, and she was told that Charlotte and Danny's older brother had come by and taken him to go see a birthday present.
Alarmed, Charlotte scanned the crowd for Michael and his friends.
Danny's head was now inside of Freddy's mouth. He was wailing and flailing his arms and legs. Michael and his friends were getting a kick out of seeing him squirm. It wasn't until "Chica" asked what the clicking sound was that he was hearing when the other boys started to get nervous. Michael couldn't hear it.
After thoroughly scanning the restaurant, Charlotte caught sight of Michael on the main stage with his friends. The four of them were crowded around Freddy, their backs to the audience, and it looked like they were holding something in front of them. Charlotte moved to get a better look, and to her horror, she saw Michael and one of his friends holding a screaming and crying Danny while his head was inside of Freddy's mouth. She ran towards the stage and screamed, "Michael, don't!"
Michael's arms were getting tired, but he had no plans of stopping until Danny stopped crying. Literally nothing was happening, and the little sleazeball was still carrying on. He tried to shift his grip to get a better hold on Danny, and as he did, he heard Charlotte screaming his name. The realization that he had been caught made him lose focus, and his hand slipped.
With a sickening crunch, Freddy's jaws snapped shut on Danny's head. Immediately he stopped kicking and screaming.
"Dude, get him out!"
"Shut up!" Michael snapped. He pulled on the hand crank as hard as he could, but he couldn't get the spring locks to release. Danny's body remained deathly still.
"Danny!"
Michael's heart sunk deep into the pit of his stomach. He instantly felt sick. His dad was running towards the stage, eyes filled with panic and rage. "Turn the hand crank, Michael!" he roared.
In trying to both hold Danny's body straight and pull the hand crank at the same time, his right forearm got caught on one of the spring locks, tearing the flesh open. He gritted his teeth against the pain and kept trying to turn the hand crank.
"Get out of the way!" William snarled. "Charlotte, call 911!" With ease, William reached inside the suit and pressed the spring locks in place. Freddy's mouth snapped back open, releasing Danny's head.
Ten minutes later, the ambulance arrived and whisked Danny's lifeless body off to the hospital.
Over the next five days, Danny fought for his life in the ICU. He had been placed in a medically-induced coma, but as the week progressed, he wasn't making any progress. On the fifth day, his heart flatlined, and no matter how much the doctors and nurses tried to revive him, they were unsuccessful.
While the doctors were trying to revive Danny, Michael had been sitting outside the room, his head buried in his hands. His arm was packed and bandaged from the spring lock injury. Inside the room, he could hear Marian's heaving sobs, and the sound made him feel even worse. He wanted the earth to open up and swallow him.
After several hours, Marian stopped crying. Michael stood up on shaky legs, trying to decide whether he should go in or not. He wanted to express how sorry he was, but he wasn't sure if it would ever be accepted.
Before he could make up his mind, the door to Danny's hospital room opened, and a puffy-eyed Marian stormed into the hallway. She locked her cold eyes onto Michael and slapped him as hard as she could. "You killed him!" she sobbed. "You killed him!" She pounded his chest with her fists.
William came out and pulled his wife off of Michael.
"Dad, please!" Michael pleaded. "I'm so sorry! It was an accident!"
Gently, William led Marian back to the hospital room, completely ignoring Michael's pleas. After that, William never looked Michael directly in the eyes again.
Michael bolted up in bed from his dream. The events that had unfolded had seemed as real in the dream as they had when the accident had happened in the first place. In the dark, he ran his fingers over the large scar on his right forearm. The wound had healed nicely, but it wasn't any less of a reminder of what had transpired all those years ago.
He sniffed hard and rolled over onto his side. He whispered, "I'll make it up to you, Danny. I swear."