"There you go," Lea said with a smirk. She had just finished fiddling around with Foxy's voice box and closed him up. She had also replaced several of the old screws and gears within him. "Try those out."
He moved his head from side-to-side, finding that it was no longer difficult. Excited, he jumped to his feet and began testing his other joints. He seemed quite pleased to be able to move more smoothly without getting stuck or jerking around suddenly.
"Ar, I be shipshape now, I am!"
Bonnie and Chica looked surprised then smiled excitedly.
"You can talk again," Chica clapped her hands. "Lea, you're amazing!"
"You really are," Bonnie agreed and smiled at her.
A little embarrassed, Lea chuckled and looked away. "We're just lucky my dad taught me some stuff about mechanics. Anyways, Foxy's voice box wasn't nearly as broken as Freddy's is. I'm still not entirely sure how to fix Freddy's. I tinkered with a few things in it, so he can say a few words every now and then but…"
"Oh, I'm sure you'll figure it out," Bonnie told her. "You're so smart and determined!"
"Ar," Foxy nodded. "You'll 'ave 'im ready to set sail in no time. Quick as ye wits."
"What does that mean?" Lea tilted her head.
"I think he's saying you're smart-mouthed," Alex teased from the corner of the room.
Foxy nodded. "As smart-mouthed as the whale that took me hand." He shook his hook hand at her.
Lea huffed with a smirk. "Yeah, okay. Guess you don't just look the part. You actually were designed to be a pirate."
"An' the captain, no less!" He stood himself up straight and proud. "'Course, you're the captain o' this ship now." He tapped the hook to his chin. "Or is it Alex?"
"Well, I am the older sibling," Alex said.
"Hah! Not that I listen to you."
Alex shot Lea a glare and the others laughed.
"You know, Foxy," Lea smiled up at him. "When we first met, you were really skittish and wild, like an actual wild animal." He looked down at her curiously. "You even attacked me."
His ears lowered. "Aye… Terribly sorry, still, I am. Truly."
"No, no. It's okay! I understand. What I was getting at is that, now, you've been acting a lot more, um, human, lately."
"Hmm." He sat cross-legged on the floor across from her and folded his arms. His head was tilted in thought. "Have I?"
"Yeah. A lot more." Lea thought of the missing children's souls that were trapped within these machines. From her neighbor, Miss Westin's story, and from what Lea could pick out from Bonnie's muttering in his sleep sometimes, each of them was a separate child who had gone to that pizzeria in the past and never returned. The most likely case was that they were murdered, but why were they trapped within the animatronics? Sometimes, from Bonnie's mutterings, she could make out horrible words like 'stuck', 'can't move', 'help', 'hurts', and 'where am I?', so she had a pretty sure, but sickening idea of what might have happened.
She had not thoroughly discussed it with Alex, and she had certainly not brought it up to any of the animatronics. If they were truly young children, possibly even younger than she was, and they were killed and trapped… How could she explain that to them? Wouldn't they just panic or become upset? Sometimes she wondered if she should tell them. Didn't they also have a right to know who they really were and what happened to them? Which was the better option? Either way made her feel racked with guilt and sadness.
As she watched them play and interact together, she wondered what their real personalities were like. When she first met Bonnie, he seemed very friendly and excited, but maybe that was the animatronic's character and not really his own? He was still friendly and playful, but now he seemed more sensitive and vulnerable. Not to mention, he was usually very proper and polite, sitting up properly instead of slouching, with his back straight, legs crossed, and hands on his knee. He was also very prone to saying 'ma'am', 'please', 'thank you', and so on more than Chica was. Bonnie also had a tendency to fret over little things and, if he wasn't following Lea around, he would follow Chica and constantly worry over her disregard for breakable objects.
Chica, on the other hand, remained as cheerful and airy as ever. From the first night they met up to now, she was pretty much the same, personality wise. Perhaps the character was a bit like that, too, but Lea was positive that Chica's behavior was all that of a rambunctious little girl. So, perhaps Bonnie's true personality was a timid, very proper little rich boy?
Freddy, Lea wasn't sure about. According to the others, Freddy was the main star attraction of the pizzeria, and the place was even named after him. But he did not act like a spotlight character. He preferred to stay in darker places and out of the way and often looked at other people as if he had witnessed things he could never speak of. Not that he could talk much. Lea wondered if he actually remembered anything from his past as a child or his death. The others only seemed to be reminded of it in dreams or poor choices of words. Even then, they were clearly confused by their reactions and unsure of any past memories about it. She couldn't wait to get Freddy's voice box working better.
Foxy was one that stumped her over what his real personality was. When they first met, he was skittish, aggressive, and wild, but over time he relaxed and came to trust her. He even began to act a bit more human. Now, with his voice restored, he retained all the personality and speech of a pirate. This was clearly the character's traits, but what had triggered the wild, animalistic behavior she had first encountered? And what was this kid's true personality? She smiled to herself as Alex began correcting Foxy's grammar.
And then there was the Puppet. They didn't even know if the Puppet was supposed to be considered male or female. Maybe neither? It was hard to tell with its strained, small child voice that spoke only in whispers. They usually just referred to it as male. He never corrected them. Puppet was both the most frightening and interesting of the bunch. He rarely showed himself and seemed to be highly protective of the others. He also appeared to know much more than them, particularly about the past. Lea wanted to talk more with him about it, but he was often vague and didn't seem to want to directly tell her the answers to her questions. Ever since he had recovered from getting drenched with rain, he had returned to his claimed place in the attic. Lea wondered if he ever came down.
"Can we go play outside?" Chica asked. "It's nice and sunny out."
"Okay, sure." Lea looked to her sister. "Can you go keep an eye on them in the backyard? I want to go check on Puppet."
Alex quirked her eyebrow a little but agreed and ushered the three animatronics outside.
Lea watched Freddy step out from the hall and walk over to the window to watch them. "You can go play, too, you know," she told him.
He looked back at her and shook his head a little.
She smiled. "Okay, Freddy. But you don't have to be afraid. We're your friends."
He looked a little surprised.
"I'm gonna go upstairs and check on Puppet. Don't leave the house unless you're going into the backyard. Okay?"
After he nodded, she turned and made her way into the hallway and located the attic door on the ceiling. She jumped up, her fingers brushing the dangling rope, then jumped up again and grabbed hold of it, pulling the door open. As it fell open, a ladder of old wooden steps unfolded itself to invite her up. She spit the dust out of her mouth and waved her hand to clear the air. No one had opened the attic in years. How did Puppet get in there?
Lea didn't actually recall ever going into her own attic. She felt a little nervous as she placed her weight upon the first step and it creaked. After placing both feet on it and bouncing a tiny bit to test it, she carefully climbed up into the dark attic and looked around. They had a pretty decently large attic and it was filled with a lot of their parent's old things, as well as some old baby things that once belonged to her and Alex. The only source of light was the sunlight filtering through the blinds of the circular attic window, revealing dust floating through the air.
Lea took a step and flinched as something tapped her face. It was a long pull chain leading up to a single lightbulb. She reached up to pull it but was stopped by a familiar quiet voice.
"Please leave it off…"
"Puppet?" Lea lowered her hand and stepped further into the attic. "Where are you?"
"I'm here…"
She glanced to her right. "Can you be a little more specific?" She looked over at the window. "Okay. I'll go over to the window. Come meet me over there, okay?"
There was no response, but she made her way around things towards the window, almost tripping over the flat tire of a bicycle. When she got to the window, she turned around to face the darkness and sat down in the pool of warm sunlight. After a moment, she caught a glimpse of something moving and watched as it slinked through the darkness over to her.
"There you are," she said.
The Puppet stopped just out of the light's reach and peered down at her with its permanent forced smile. It was eerie, seeing this tall, thin thing hovering over her in the dark, but she knew that he would not harm her, and knowing that this animatronic had the trapped soul of a tormented child within swept away any fear and replaced it with empathy and compassion.
She held a hand out to gesture at the floor. "Sit down."
He slowly lowered himself into a sitting position on his knees and watched her curiously.
"Are you okay? Have you had any problems since we got you dried out?"
He slowly shook his head.
"Good." She nodded and took a moment to think, watching the Puppet. He had his arms bent at the elbows and hands rubbing together in front of him like a nervous praying mantis. He had lowered his head to stare at the dusty wooden floor. "Are you sure you're okay?" Lea tilted her head. "You seem…sad."
"I am afraid…"
"Of what?"
"He wants to hurt them…us…"
"That man I keep running into?"
Puppet shook his head. "James doesn't want to hurt us… It's the purple man that does."
"Who is this purple man you keep talking about? And how do you know that other guy's name?"
"The purple man… He won't let us go."
Lea scooted herself closer to him and reached out to touch the Puppet's hand. He froze and stared at her hand. "Puppet… Tell me what happened. I mean, what happened to you and the others. How did – How did you all…die?" Puppet glanced up at her face for a brief moment. "Was it this purple man? What did he do?"
"…I wasn't the first. But I was the first that HE took…"
"What happened to you?" Lea pushed gently. "I want to help you guys, but I don't know how. Tell me what's going on. Please."
There was a long silence before the animatronic spoke again. "I got locked outside… I was sad…crying… But the purple man came. He led me away from the party… It was raining… I couldn't breathe… It was so cold… I tried to save her…bring her back to the party. I wasn't allowed outside… The rain… I was so close to her, but the rain… Not…close…enough…"
Lea was leaning forward, listening intently, but the Puppet's story was strange. It seemed as though, at first, he was referring to himself as the child that had gotten locked out, but then he referred to himself as the Puppet again. Which one was he? Was he both? No. Or maybe? The little girl must be the one whose soul is within him. So, that meant that the Puppet, the animatronic, must have been programmed to watch or keep track of the children, so it went out into the rain to find the missing girl. But the rain damaged it and it broke down just before reaching her? Perhaps her spirit clung to the robot then? Maybe she was just overthinking it…
"So, you're a little girl in there? What is your name?"
"…I can't remember that. It's been so long…"
"What do you remember?"
"Bad things…screams…tears…blood… He wanted to keep them…but he was a bad man."
"You mean the purple man?"
She nodded. "He couldn't stop himself…he wanted to keep them…forever. He put them in the suits…"
"Suits?"
"The suits…the robots. He put them in the suits…I saw. They snapped and locked and trapped them inside. They screamed and cried…I think it was very painful… There was blood…on the floor…in their eyes…from their noses… He cleaned it up but he kept them trapped inside. …I remember…the people…the people would talk about the smell. One day…one day, the workers looked inside."
Lea held her breath. She was feeling increasingly nauseous.
"They closed the restaurant. But they never told anyone… Then…they opened a new one. I was still there… They made new robots…but they made them from the old ones. The others…they were still there, too. We tried to get back at him…no one else would. He hid in the gold suit…the first gold suit was gone. An accident a long time ago…but the rabbit was still in the storage. The Springtrap suit…it did to him what it did to them…it snapped and locked and trapped him inside. There was more blood. But he wouldn't let us go…"
"You – You're saying that the animatronic he died in is…like you guys? Alive?"
"He's using the man in blue. James… I think…that he used to be very nice. But the purple man is not…"
"I won't let him get you guys," Lea said. She couldn't think of anything else to say, but she was certainly not going to let this 'purple man' continue to haunt and terrorize these kids. She had no clue what she would do to stop him, but she was determined nonetheless.
"We thought we would be free after he died… We can't go home…so we just want to be free… The others…they don't remember…but I know they want to be free, too."
Lea took in a long, deep breath then nodded. "You will be. We'll figure it out, somehow. I promise. I won't let him hurt you anymore."
To be continued…