Chapter Eight

As time went on, Charlotte more often found herself thinking seriously about telling the kids the truth. Freddy had a point. The longer she waited, the more lies she would have to keep telling them to cover up the lies she had already told. She hated lying to them, but more than that she hated the idea of telling them because she didn't want to put them through something else. In her head she tried to justify not telling them, but sooner or later, the truth would come out. Either they would somehow find out on their own, or she would find the courage to tell them. Both options stressed her out, but thankfully she didn't have to decide for long.

Everyone but Felix was gathered in the living room, each doing their own thing. Billy was softly playing his guitar again, the girls were playing checkers, and Frederick was working on a crossword puzzle. Felix was upstairs taking a nap. He had mentioned earlier in the afternoon that he was really tired, so he had gone to bed to sleep for a while.

Charlotte seemingly didn't have any reason to worry. All of the kids had been doing really well since she, Nikki, Nicole, and Shaddid had switched off the power module trackers. They all seemed to be more "connected" to each of their own personal animatronics, but other than that, they hadn't asked any questions or made any comments about anything.

Still yet something felt off. Charlotte couldn't put her finger on it, but something didn't feel right. She brushed it of as paranoia and went back to the book she was reading.

On the floor, Nikki finished putting together a jigsaw puzzle and then took it apart and put it away. There were more puzzles in her room that she hadn't done in a while. Her mind made up, she stood, picked up the puzzle box, and went to her room to switch it out for a different one.

Having woken up from his nap refreshed, Felix sat on the edge of his bed and stretched. He was still a bit tired, but he felt a lot more rested than he had before he laid down. With a yawn, he stood up and headed outside to the hallway to rejoin everyone else downstairs.

He pushed the door open and was almost to the stairs when he saw a book lying on the floor, spine up, pages splayed. He picked the book up and inspected it. It appeared to be a leather journal. Gently, he pressed the bent pages back the way they were supposed to be.

The book was a bit strange. The first quarter of it or so looked like it was journal entries or letters from different people, namely Jarmuth, Sheila, Keeyana, and Lasiandra addressed to Shaddid, Lizzie, and Nikki. The letters were all written recently, but the last three quarters of the book were blank. He flipped through the book casually, not really reading but scanning more out of curiosity.

As he was getting towards the end of the book, a folded page fell out of the back and dropped to the floor. He bent down to pick it up and shifted the book under his arm. The page was filled with flowing script that Felix could pick out at Sheila's handwriting from the previous entries. However, the letter ended mid-sentence. Scrawled across the page in a hurried hand was a drawing. It looked more like a rough sketch, a stark contrast to the author's handwriting.

The drawing style was odd, and it looked very different from Lizzie's drawings that he had seen in her studio and around the house. It almost looked like a toddler had spilled purple paint on the page and then used their fingers to spread the paint around. As he looked closer, he could almost make out a figure amidst the chaos.

He squinted with his good eye and drew the page closer to his face. To his surprise, he felt his pulse quicken. Slowly, the random lines connected in his brain, and as he looked, he finally saw a figure come together on the page.

His heart raced in his chest, and both of his eyes widened. He stood there almost in a trance until he lost grip on the book which dropped onto the floor with a loud thud. A dizzying sleepiness swept over him before everything eventually faded to black.

New puzzle in hand, Nikki opened the door to her bedroom and stepped out into the hallway. Directly in front of her, she saw a tall, rusty-red fox standing at the end of the hallway near Mom and Dad's room. Torn fabric stretched across his metal interior. The light from the hallway glinted off of his right hand, which Nikki noticed with a sickening feeling was a metal pirate's hook. She tried not to panic and stifled a whimper. So far the fox hadn't seen or heard her. If she could slip past him down the stairs, she could get to the living room and tell Charlotte.

She could only assume this was Felix. Everyone else was downstairs. How had he changed? She slowly leaned over to look around him. It looked like he was holding something in his left hand, but from this point of view, she couldn't see it. That wasn't important right now. Foxy looked much more intimidating standing up than he did lying down. Right now she just needed to gather up her courage and get down to Charlotte.

Slowly, she silently tiptoed on socked feet across the wood floor towards the stairs. Still good. His attention was locked onto whatever he was holding. Carefully she inched her foot forward, accidentally catching her toe on the foot of an end table. There was a nice vase on the table, which toppled forward and smashed onto the floor thanks to Nikki's awkward footing.

Nikki's heart jumped into her throat, and she froze in place, unsure of what to do. She could go back into her room, but then he could break the door down, and she wouldn't be able to get around him to escape.

As Nikki quickly tried to decide what she was going to do, Foxy's head snapped up. Gears in his neck whined and worn fabric popped and tore as his head slowly turned around in her direction. He dropped whatever he had been looking at—some kind of drawing from the looks of it—his attention now completely on her. His body followed suit until he was completely turned around. The two stared at each other for a few agonizingly long seconds.

Then he screamed and charged.

Nikki whirled around and bounded down the stairs two at a time. For a second, she was reminded of the day of the anniversary; she had to focus. The kids wouldn't kill her, but Foxy would if given half a chance.

In his haste, Foxy lost his footing and slammed into the wall at the top of the stairs and took a couple of seconds to regain control. It didn't take him long. Moments later, he was chasing her down the stairs.

Fear coursed through Nikki's veins. "Charlotte!" she screamed.

Frederick took a break from his crossword puzzle to get something to drink. As he took a sip of water, he thought he heard something thud on the floor upstairs. Confused, he glanced up at the ceiling, but no other sounds followed, so he shrugged and headed towards the front entryway.

When he walked under the stairs, he heard glass shattering above him, followed by squealing gears and a mechanical screech. Startled, he winced and covered his ears. Someone—Nikki, it turned out—came running down the stairs with a heavy-footed something chasing her. She screamed for Charlotte and ran past him, grabbing his hand on the way.

On the run to the living room, Frederick snuck a quick glance over his shoulder and saw Foxy in hot pursuit. He screamed, "What is happening? Charlotte!"

The adults ran into the room and assessed the situation. Shaddid darted forward to protect the kids, and Foxy raised his hook.

"Shaddid, look out!" Charlotte dove between Foxy and Shaddid and caught the downswing of Foxy's hook. It buried itself into her forearm. She stifled a scream and backed up against the wall. The rest of the kids ran into the room and stared at Foxy, their levels of fear matching those of Frederick and Nikki's.

Again, Shaddid started to grab the kids, but Foxy stepped in front of them and lunged.

"Shaddid, stop! He's protecting them! From you!" Charlotte gripped her bleeding arm and tried to stand, turning to the animatronic. "Foxy, stop!

With another shriek, Foxy turned from the group, barreled through the glass in the front door, and ran out into the street. Charlotte gripped her bleeding arm, watched to see which direction he had gone, and whirled towards Shaddid. "We have to find Felix! He's scared, and he doesn't know what he's doing. He could hurt himself or someone else!"

Frederick's eyes widened. "Felix?" he shouted. "Charlotte, what the heck are you talking about? What's Foxy doing here?"

The adults ignored him. "What about the others?" Shaddid grabbed his wallet and car keys.

Charlotte looked at the kids' panicked faces. "They need to come with us. I don't want what affected…Foxy…to affect them."

"Charlotte, tell me what's going on! Now!" Frederick was nearing hysteria.

"Everyone get in the van." Shaddid hustled everyone outside.

Billy, Frederick, and Amy settled into the backseat; Shaddid took the driver's seat; Nikki sat up front; and Charlotte and Goldie took the empty space where the middle seat had been removed. Lizzie stayed put at the house to look for whatever had triggered Foxy and draw a new door.

Shaddid cranked the engine and put it in reverse. "Which way, Charlotte?"

She pointed down the street in the direction Foxy had run. "That way. Just keep driving. If you need to change directions, I'll let you know." She paused for a moment and continued, "Or I'll try to."

Shaddid backed out of the driveway and sped through the neighborhood. From the back, Charlotte gave him directions. For the first few turns, they could see tree branches broken off where Foxy had torn through them, but then the trail disappeared. "Charlotte," he said slowly but alertly, "I'm not seeing a trail anymore. Did we lose him?"

Charlotte squeezed her eyes shut and tried to concentrate, but try as she might, she couldn't sense him anymore. He had moved too far out of range. She tried again with no success. Frustrated, she sighed. "I'm going to have to change. I can't sense him anymore, but she can."

"What, now?!" Shaddid quickly glanced back at her over his shoulder. He turned his attention back to the road. "Um…okay, what do you need us to do?"

"Just keep driving." Charlotte shifted into a more comfortable position—if she could even call it that; she knew that the next few minutes would be torture—and squeezed her eyes shut. Nothing happened. Behind her, Frederick alternated between shouting for an explanation and swearing. She tried blocking him out, and for a few minutes she succeeded. She could feel herself changing, but the process was painful. She cried out loudly several times.

Nikki watched in rapt amazement. Charlotte's fingers elongated, and permanent tear tracks widened to purple paint stripes on her cheeks. The seams of her dress ripped as her body stretched to the Puppet's seven-foot height. She tried to curl herself over into a fetal position to take up less room.

"What the hell?!" Frederick screamed. He unbuckled his seat belt. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Shaddid pushed Frederick back into his seat with his powers and held his seatbelt in place.

"Hey! Let me go!" Frederick struggled against the belts as they tightened. "Charlotte, tell me what's going on RIGHT NOW or I'm never speaking to you again! CHARLOTTE!"

Charlotte's transformation stopped where it was. Her black hair and outfit were two of the last things to change over, and she fought for control. She was so close! Finally, she couldn't take the screaming anymore. "Freddy!" she shouted through gritted teeth. "Please do something! I can't focus with him carrying on!"

Nikki glanced over at Frederick. He was still thrashing against the seatbelt, but despite his screaming, she could hear Freddy's responses.

What do you want me to do?

Charlotte answered verbally. "Anything! Just don't hurt him."

Alright.

Nikki watched wide-eyed as Frederick's mouth snapped shut like Golden Freddy's spring lock jaws. His eyes got even bigger than they were before—so much so that Nikki was convinced if they got any wider, they would pop right out of his skull—and he continued to thrash and yell as loudly as he could. Veins popped out on his forehead and throat as he screamed through his closed lips.

"Freddy, please!" Charlotte put a lot of emphasis on the last word. Nikki could see her patience running thin. Charlotte's eyes had changed to two vacant onyx orbs.

Finally, Frederick's muffled shouting stopped. His eyes closed as his chin dropped to his chest, completely passed out. Next to him on the seat, Amy hitched in a breath and started to scream, but Billy clamped his hand around her mouth. The two of them stared wide-eyed simultaneously between Freddy's limp body and Charlotte on the floor.

With the newfound silence, Charlotte was able to focus enough to finish her switch over to The Puppet. She was at the final stretch. Pain wracked her body all over as she tried to force it to do something it normally wasn't supposed to do during the day. Even with the extra concentration, she was losing energy quickly. She needed a final push to get her over the last hump.

Up front, Nikki could see her struggling. "Charlotte, is there anything I can do to help?"

Charlotte clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white. "I don't know," she managed. "It's not working."

Nikki unbuckled her seat belt and turned towards the back of the van. She could sense an internal struggle in Charlotte's mind. Slowly, Nikki saw a figure emerge along with a name. "Who's Henry?"

Charlotte's head shot up, and her black eyes stared widely at Nikki. "He's nobody."

Nikki probed into Charlotte's resurfaced memories. In the memory, it was raining, and Charlotte was locked outside of a building. She was pounding on the door, but no one could hear her or see her in the dark. As Nikki watched, a car pulled up next to Charlotte, and the driver asked if he could help her. She could sense the fear in Charlotte's memory. Charlotte politely refused. The man then stepped out of the car, pointed a pistol at her, and pulled the trigger.

Charlotte screamed and clutched at her chest. The memory faded, but as it did, her mouth stretched open into a wide, permanent black smile framed by thin, red lips.

Nikki saw the progress and searched Charlotte's memories again. "Henry…he's the one who killed you. And then…" A fresh image surfaced: five kids lying in pools of their own blood. Nikki recognized the kids immediately, but the image vanished as soon as it had appeared. Charlotte's progress paused again.

"Please don't," Charlotte begged. Tears ran down her cheeks over the painted streaks.

It would be heartless, but it might be the push that she needed. "Charlotte, I'm really sorry, but I have to do this. For the kids." She projected the faded image back into Charlotte's mind and held it there. "It'll be over soon, I promise, but you have to trust me."

Charlotte sobbed, her face pinched with pain. White buttons appeared on Charlotte's newly-formed black shirt. She hadn't wanted to see those memories, but it was just the push she needed. She knelt on the floor of the van completely transformed. She couldn't stand up to her full height in the confined space, but she turned on her knees to the kids in the back.

Bonnie, keep an eye on your brother and sisters.

"Why is it staring at me?" Billy uncomfortably broke eye contact. The Puppet turned from him and faced the front.

"Not now, Billy," Nikki interrupted. "Charlotte, say that again. I didn't hear you."

Tell your dad to stop. I'll get out of the van, and then you guys can follow me. I can get to Foxy quicker that way. If you lose sight of me, call out to me, and I'll let you know which roads I turned down.

Nikki relayed the news to her dad, and Charlotte, as the Puppet, stepped outside and floated towards the front of the van where she immediately picked a direction and went for it. Even though Charlotte had left the van, Billy, Amy, and Goldie stayed quiet while Frederick snored softly next to them.

Shaddid expertly maneuvered the streets, only losing sight of The Puppet once when she turned down a side street too narrow for the van to get through. Eventually they made it to an intersection where Foxy was standing in the middle of the road. The Puppet was keeping her distance for now, but kept her eyes peeled for the perfect opportunity to move in.

All around the intersection, Foxy had gathered quite a crowd. People had taken out their phones and were taking videos and pictures. A local news crew was reporting on the scene.

"Dad, what do we do?" Nikki asked.

"I'm not sure, honey. I guess we'll wait to hear from Charlotte, just for everyone's safety."

She nodded.

Nikki.

Nikki's ears perked up. Go ahead Charlotte.

I have to calm Foxy down before he can get in the van. He's seen me. I just have to move in. As soon as he changes back, he probably won't have the strength to walk back to the van, and I can't carry him. I'll need your dad's help. Tell him to wait until I signal him. If he approaches too quickly, Foxy will attack him.

Okay. Nikki relayed the information to her dad. The kids were all still silent in the back of the van. She strained her telepathic ears to try to hear the conversation between Foxy and Charlotte. After a few minutes, she found their voices amid those of all of the curious onlookers.

Foxy, Charlotte said softly, It's okay. Everyone is safe. It's okay to go back to sleep now. Felix needs to wake up.

Foxy looked deep into her eyes. He was here, Charlotte. I saw him.

Saw who?

It was a drawing in a book of letters. On the second floor. A purple drawing. I had to protect him.

The Puppet nodded. He's safe now though. They all are. You can go back to sleep. I've got it from here.

Alright, only if you're sure.

I am.

Foxy's eyes turned back to Felix's and then the rest of him followed suit. As he was finishing the final stages, The Puppet turned her attention briefly to the van behind her. Nikki, tell your dad to step out of the van slowly and to approach as soon as Felix is human again. He'll drop pretty quickly, and I don't want him to get hurt.

Again, Nikki gave her dad the information. Quietly, Shaddid opened the driver's side door and stepped out onto the pavement. He stayed in place and kept a close eye on Felix. The second before he finished changing, Shaddid pushed through the crowd and caught Felix right before he hit the ground.

Carefully, Shaddid scooped Felix into his arms and carried him to the van. On the way, he leaned over to Charlotte and whispered, "Do you know how we're going to manage to explain this to everyone?"

She gave him a double thumbs-up and shooed him over to the van. People kept taking pictures of her up until she took Felix's place in the middle of the square. The news reporter turned the television camera onto her.

Everyone needed to forget what had just happened because like Shaddid had explained when they first got here, even though the reality they knew wasn't the reality of this world, any unwanted publicity could cause future issues.

She would need to be Charlotte for this bit. Thankfully, the transition back to being human was far less painful and a lot quicker. When she had finished transitioning, she looked into the camera lens and sang,

Erase these memories most foul

That cause your heart to weep.

Replace them now with memories dear

Lest history repeat.

Eventually the crowds dispersed, not remembering why they had gathered in the square. The news crew packed up their equipment and left, the last ones on the street.

Shaddid carried Felix to the van where Goldie had opened the side door for him. He laid Felix on the floor in a comfortable position and then helped Charlotte into the van. Just from looking at her he could tell that she was exhausted.

Freddy…Freddy, you can…wake up…She couldn't continue.

Nikki interjected to help, Freddy, I think what she's trying to say is you can wake up Frederick now.

In the floor, Charlotte barely nodded her head. Her eyes were closed.

Moments later, Frederick's eyes opened. He pulled against the seatbelt again, but this time not for very long. "What happened?" He looked down at the floorboard and saw Felix sleeping next to Charlotte. "I have a headache."

Realization lit up his face. "Did I see what I think I saw, or was I dreaming?" He glanced over at Billy and Amy. To add to the confusion, they wouldn't look him in the eye. Their faces bore solemn expressions. "Hey, Nikki? Shaddid? What happened? Charlotte?"

Shaddid looked in the rearview mirror. "Charlotte needs to rest. She'll let you know when she's ready."

At the house, Shaddid carried Felix upstairs to the kids' room and then helped Charlotte upstairs. "Get some sleep," he suggested. "I know the kids have a lot of questions right now and they're confused, but both of you need to reboot before that can happen."

The rest of the kids sat quietly and solemnly in the living room, not really feeling up to doing much of anything. Everyone stayed pretty much in the same places until Charlotte and Felix woke up that evening. Both of them still felt weak, but they both felt awake and alert enough to talk through what had happened this afternoon.

Charlotte sat down on the couch where they could all see her. "I know you guys have a lot of questions about what happened today, and that's perfectly fine. What I want to say first of all, is that I'm sorry. I've intentionally kept information from you guys because I wanted to protect you. And after I'm finished telling you, I will completely understand if you need some time to yourselves to think and process. But I will be here if you need me. Lizzie and Shaddid I'm sure would be willing to listen too if you want someone else to talk to." The couple nodded.

Shaddid, Nikki, and Lizzie decided to give Charlotte and the kids some privacy and went upstairs. Behind their closed bedroom door, Lizzie held out the drawing for Shaddid. "I found this just outside our room lying on the floor. The letter journal was also in the floor. I showed Nicole the drawing, but she didn't recognize it. The picture doesn't have any clear lines or features that could distinguish if it's even a person."

Thoughtfully, Shaddid turned the page in his hands. He noticed that the paper was different than that in the journal. It was yellowed parchment paper rather than the crisp, white pages in the journal. The texture of the page reminded him of his childhood. "This is from home. Mother or Father must have sent it, but I don't know what that means. I'll write to them and ask." He slipped the page into one of his dresser drawers. "Just to make sure the kids don't see it."

For the next thirty minutes or so, they all sat upstairs until they were sure Charlotte and the kids had enough time to talk.

Down in the living room, Charlotte wiped tears from her eyes. "Again, I can't tell you how sorry I am for lying to you all these years. But I promise right now that from now on, I'll tell you everything I know. No more secrets." She sighed before continuing, "This all started at Frederick's tenth birthday party…"

After an hour that seemed like it was never going to end, the kids knew everything. Charlotte stayed true to her word for the first time with them, and she told them everything that she knew. At the end, none of them said much of anything.

Frederick sat on the couch and clenched his fists together. He was breathing heavily through his nose. Finally, he stood up and stormed out of the room. Charlotte stood up to follow him, but Amy gently grabbed her wrist.

"Let him go. He needs to process on his own."

Later that night, Charlotte went upstairs to check on him. He hadn't come down for dinner, and he was still in the bedroom with the door shut. She softly knocked on the door, but Frederick didn't answer. Carefully she pushed the door open. "Frederick?" she said softly.

Frederick was laying on his bed with his back to the door. He sniffed and pulled his knees tighter into his chest.

"Just checking to see if you're okay." She sat down on the edge of his bed waiting for him to respond. Eventually he sat up and wiped his eyes. He had been crying for a while. His eyes were red and puffy. "It was my fault," he said. His voice cracked.

"No!" Charlotte pushed his bangs away from his face. "No, it's not your fault!"

"But you said it yourself: it was my birthday party."

"It wasn't your fault, okay? You were only ten." Tears of her own pricked the backs of her eyes. She leaned closer for a hug, not sure if he would give her one, but he sank into her arms. "I'll make this right. I promise. Everything is going to be alright."

He lifted his head. "What did you say?"

"I said I'll make this right. It's going to be okay."

He paused before asking, "Do you believe in déjà vu?"

She nodded. "Sometimes. Why? Does that sound familiar?"

"Yeah," he said slowly. "It seems like a dream. I don't see anything clearly, but I can hear you saying that…kind of you. It sounds like you, but a little different."

"Well," she explained, "I'm not surprised. I told you that the day…your first day in the suits."

"Oh." He was quiet for several minutes. He continued, "I'm sorry for being a complete jerk to you over the years. I know now that you were just trying to protect us."

"It's okay. I put you guys through a lot. In trying to protect you, I smothered you a bit. Quite literally, in a sense."

Frederick chuckled awkwardly and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. "Yeah. So…just out of curiosity, does us not knowing what happened have anything to do with the fact that you're super strict about not letting us do anything?"

She thought for a second. "Kind of. But mainly because I don't know who your killer is. I didn't want to put you guys in more danger in case he found you. If something else happened to you guys, I would never forgive myself."

"Well…" Frederick started, "like Shaddid said, we're in a different reality than the reality of the book we came from, so you know that whoever the killer is, even if he were in New York, it would be our New York and not this New York, right?"

Charlotte chuckled. "You've got a point."

Frederick's eyes lit up. "So does that mean we can go sightseeing?"

"Maybe." She smiled at Frederick's child-like innocence.

The smile that spread across his face was the most genuine smile she had seen on his face in a long time.

Dave paced back and forth between the counter and the door. Elizabeth was holding the tracker, crouched on the floor near a spot on the wall. For some reason, the signal was strongest here. They had searched all night long in the Prize Corner at the pizzeria for any clues, but they hadn't found anything. Dave was getting frustrated and losing his patience. He groaned. "There's nothing there. I've been telling you that for hours. I don't care if it says they're on the other side of the wall. The stupid thing is broken."

One of the dots suddenly spiked and started beeping and blinking rapidly before separating from the rest of the group. Elizabeth stared at the tracker screen and shone her flashlight on it. The blinking light was soon followed by the other four lights. The other four were still solid lights; nothing about them had changed.

Dave snatched the tracker from her. "What did you do, genius?"

"I didn't do anything!"

Dave fiddled with the settings, but nothing changed. The blinking light stopped moving, allowing the solid lights to catch up.

"Did one of them change somehow? By itself? That's impossible, isn't it?"

After a few minutes, the blinking light changed to solid like the others, and the beeping stopped. Dave returned the tracker to Elizabeth. "Improbable but not impossible. I've never seen it happen before, but maybe they've evolved. You're able to change at will. Maybe they've learned how to do that too."

"Definitely makes things more interesting. But once you find them and switch the animatronics over to manual mode, they won't be a problem." She smiled up at him and then stood, wiping her hands on her pants. "Let's take a break and get something to eat. How about pizza?"

Dave cringed. "Anything but pizza," he said, making Elizabeth laugh.

"Touché."

The morning after his first night of knowing the truth about his death, Billy sat on the couch in the living room and played his guitar. Looking back, he could say that considering the situation, they had all lived pretty normal lives up until this point. Obviously, the memories that Charlotte had given them about their lives before the "mass shooting" weren't true, but she had done what she thought to be the best thing at the time. And he had to give her a break. After all, she had been a thirteen-year-old trying to raise five kids and herself. Given that, he had to admit she had done a great job.

He leaned back against the couch cushions and played a few chords. He wasn't really paying attention to what he was playing. Mainly he was kind of just messing around. Without thinking, he played a song that afterwards he recognized as being one of Bonnie's songs from the pizzeria. When the song had finished, he rested the guitar against his stomach and relaxed his arms.

Sounds good. The voice rang out in his head clear as a bell.

He shot up from his relaxed position and looked around the room. No one was there. "Felix? Frederick?" No one answered.

Feeling a bit spooked, he leaned back against the couch and kept playing.

You're playing my song.

This time, he completely jumped off the couch and ran to the doorway. The hallway was empty. A shiver worked its way down his spine. He shook off the chill and put the guitar away.

"You okay?"

The sudden noise made him jump.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." Charlotte entered the room and sat down in the armchair. She had a book with her which she promptly picked up and continued to read. After a few minutes, she looked at him over the top of her book. "Do you feel okay? You look a little pale."

He bit his bottom lip. "Yeah. Hey…Charlotte? This may sound a little…strange…but do you ever hear The Puppet during the day? Like when she's supposed to be sleeping, like you explained yesterday?"

"Yeah, we talk all the time." Charlotte smiled. "She was great company to talk to sometimes before you guys came along. I got lonely a lot. My family tried to be understanding. She's the only one who really understood. Why?"

He crossed his arms and glanced over at his guitar on its stand across the room. "I just…I was kind of just messing around on my guitar, but it sounded good, if I don't say so myself. Anyway, at the end of the song, there was this…voice…in my head. It sounded so clear, I thought it was either Frederick or Felix. The voice told me that the song was good and that I was playing his song."

"Yeah, that was Bonnie." Charlotte smiled again. "I didn't want them talking to you before because I didn't want you guys to get too freaked out. They've all wanted to talk to you for a long time, but I made them promise not to say anything until the right time when you guys were told the truth. Now that you know, he was just complimenting you on your playing."

He stared blankly at her. "This is hard to process."

She shrugged. "You'll get used to it eventually. If you want, The Puppet can tell him to tone it down a bit until you get more used to the idea." Bonnie, just until he's more comfortable with it, don't talk to him as much.

"You said the Puppet was going to tell him! Why did you say it out loud?"

Charlotte put the book down and laughed. "She did tell him. I didn't say anything."

His face turned even more pale. "But I—But you—"

Charlotte raised a questioning eyebrow before understanding why he was confused. Is this what you heard?

Wait, so we can read each other's minds now?

She scrunched her nose up and shook her head in a so-so motion. Kind of. Technically, the Puppet is reading my mind, relaying the information to Bonnie, and then Bonnie is relaying the information to you. But they're able to process pretty quickly. It's like we're having a normal conversation.

"Are you two having a staring contest? Who's winning?" Amy had come in and was looking from Charlotte to Billy and back again.

Billy grinned and looked up at her. Amy, we can read each other's minds now. Isn't that cool?

"What?" She stared wide-eyed at her brother. "That's so weird! How did you do that?"

Quickly he explained the process.

"This is too weird." She threw up her hands and sauntered out of the room.

"Wait! Go get Nikki. I want to try something. Please?"

She rolled her eyes. "Fine."

A few minutes later, Nikki poked her head into the room. "Hey, Billy, Amy said you wanted to see me?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he said quickly. "Come here for a second." She walked over to the couch with a confused look on her face.

"What's going on?"

"Send me a thought. Just think something random. Anything."

"Uh…okay…" She thought for a second and then looked at him. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Nothing happened. Billy's smile disappeared. Bonnie, tell me what she said.

The Puppet told me you didn't want me to talk to you until you were used to it.

Nikki snickered.

Billy's face flushed. That wasn't what she had said, but at least now he was talking. That was progress. Well, now I want to hear her. What did she say?

Bonnie relayed Nikki's message to Billy, and he repeated it to her word for word. "A pangram! Nice! Thanks, that's all I wanted. Sorry."

You're welcome.

Billy rolled his eyes. Bonnie, I wasn't talking to you, but thanks.

This is fun! He proceeded to whistle a tune that quickly got stuck in Billy's head.

Instead of enjoying it, Billy groaned and looked over at Charlotte. "Do you hear this?" He pointed at his head.

She met his gaze and listened for a minute. "He's just enjoying himself," she chuckled. "They're all overjoyed and overstimulated right now, but eventually they'll calm down."

Before he knew what he was doing, Billy had grabbed his guitar and was playing along to Bonnie's annoying song.