The streets were practically empty and most of the buildings that they passed seemed to be closed.
Elizabeth tore her eyes away from the window and looked down at the dashboard. Under the layer of dust that covered the analog clock that sat above the tape deck, she could manage to make out '3:12'.
"Perhaps sometime I'll teach you how to drive," Father said out of the blue. "So that I don't have to do it anymore. You could handle that, right?"
She told him that she could handle doing whatever he required of her, although that was not necessarily the truth. Elizabeth found quite a few of the things Father asked of her to be difficult, but she usually managed to force herself to do them anyway.
And if she couldn't, she got irrationally angry at herself.
"We'll see if that's true," he replied.
Father parked behind a department store a little ways away from their actual destination. He popped open the trunk before throwing open the door and stepping out into the rain again. "Get mannequin out of the boot."
Elizabeth got out too and grabbed the figure, shouldering it.
"And put your hood on. If we, for some reason, happen to run into another human being in this weather at this time of night, it'll be easier to explain why we're carrying a mannequin around than it would be to explain your existence."
"Right." Elizabeth pulled the hood of her faded sweatshirt over her head. It was some old piece of Fazbear merchandise that never sold. Most of her clothes were. And if they weren't, they were just parts of old employee uniforms.
"Speaking of, if that does happen, we're dumpster divers and found it in the department store's garbage." Father abruptly started off down the cracked tarmac. "Come now. I don't know how long we have."
The two of them walked past the backs of various different buildings as the rain continued to pour down on them, eventually turning down an alleyway and crossing through an empty parking lot behind a laundromat.
Soon after, the dingy, dilapidated building they were heading to came into view.
Before Elizabeth could consider how the question that crossed her mind could be misinterpreted, or what kinds of consequences could arise from it, she blurted it out. "How are you sure that they will know to come here?"
She received a quick glance over the shoulder and nothing else. That was good. He was in a good mood, it seemed. "I checked on them. I know that they are still searching for me. And while I do peg most of them as complete idiots, I know that Michael can at least figure it out. Maybe even Charlotte."
Of course, Elizabeth knew who Michael was, but Charlotte? She hadn't even a clue. Sure, Father had brought her up multiple times, but all Elizabeth could gather from what he said was that he didn't like her and that she was irritating.
He said similar things about many of the other people he brought up.
Maybe Miles knew something more. Maybe Elizabeth could manage to get herself to ask him about it later.
They headed around the back of the abandoned Fazbear's and Father pulled out his ridiculously large key ring, searching for the right key to unlock the back door.
Elizabeth stopped about a foot away from him, left with nothing to do at the moment but stand there.
Father must've had about thirty different keys on that ring.
Elizabeth's eyes started wandering, really drinking in her surroundings while he was busy doing that.
Sure, the back of a dirty building, weeds, a few rusted trashcans, and moldy boxes weren't all that interesting, but it was still at least slightly different than what she usually saw all day every day.
There was an animal hiding beneath some of that old cardboard.
What was it called?
A rat. That's right.
Elizabeth had seen a few around the facility before, but she couldn't recall where she had learned what they were called. She definitely didn't ask Father because he didn't like to entertain pointless questions like that, and she didn't ask Miles because she didn't want to sound stupid.
Sometimes Elizabeth found herself thinking about how she probably lacked a lot of knowledge that was considered basic by most people.
She didn't know the names of very many animals. Most of the ones she knew were ones that the various rusting animatronics around the facility were based on, but they obviously weren't very accurate representations.
Maybe that was how she learned what it was... There was probably some old rat animatronic in a tacky vest deteriorating in a dusty corner that she had been asked to do something with at some point.
There was a loud whine, one barely audible over the downpour, but still loud enough to pull Elizabeth out of her thoughts as Father finally got the back door open.
He tore down the old yellow tape that hung from the doorframe and impeded their entry. As soon as Elizabeth followed him in, he shut the door.
It wasn't any quieter inside than it was outside on account of the various holes in the ceiling and the shattered windows towards the front of the building.
There were overturned tables, chairs, and random garbage spread out across the checkered floors.
Up against the wall opposite to the two of them, mostly obscured by a dirty white tablecloth, was that golden green springlock suit. Father had brought it over after he had finished making the threat of his presence known earlier in the day, hopefully catching the attention of Riley's friends.
He took the mannequin from Elizabeth and tossed it over towards the suit. It sent up a cloud of dust after landing beside its feet.
Gesturing for her to follow him, Father strode past the large stage beside them and over to a smaller one obscured by tattered purple curtains.
He quickly tore them open, revealing a small animatronic resting on its side. He kicked it over a bit as he stepped onto the stage, knocking it onto its back and revealing a large panel on the floor.
"This is a maintenance panel. It will be your hiding place until you hear those idiots leave."
"Okay."
"There used to be a room just past that one," Father pointed to a room across from where they stood, "but they put up a wall and blocked it off a long time ago. I sawed a small entryway into it earlier. That's where I'll be."
"Okay."
"Try not to disturb the blood I leave. I'll surely smear some of it around myself while all of the sharp steel and hard plastic pieces pierce through my flesh and puncture my organs - especially since the parts that get driven into the skull can cause enough head trauma to trigger convulsions," Elizabeth cringed at the mental image of all of that, "but still. If you're stupid enough to leave a bootprint or let it drip everywhere that will cause problems."
"Understood."
"Good."
And with that, Father started dragging the springlock suit and the mannequin off towards where he was planning on getting Riley's friends to kill him.
Elizabeth got onto the stage and kneeled down. Trying to push the graphic imagery that was now playing in her head out, she spared a look at the other animatronic with her. It was a fox - or something like that - with discolored amber eyes, which were nearly rolled into the back of its head.
Those amber eyes were unnerving.
Was it strange for Elizabeth to find so many other animatronics unnerving when she herself was an animatronic?
Especially their stares.
Admittedly, when she looked at her reflection, Elizabeth did always find herself hating how her eyes looked like that of a porcelain doll. Something in her made it feel like they weren't right. They weren't actually hers. She wanted to pull them out.
That probably was strange. And thoughts like that were not much better than the gore, really. Maybe it was better to just keep her thoughts on staying out of sight for now.
She pried open the maintenance panel.
It was no surprise what was inside: rotting wood, water damaged valves, and disconnected tubes. The earliest of Father and his old business partner's animatronics had to be connected to all this junk in order to move.
She shoved it all aside to make room for herself. It was by no means a spacious hiding spot, and when she closed the panel again she found herself shrouded in complete darkness. The sound of the rain finally deadened.
It was hard to tell how long they waited, but eventually, other people could be heard entering the establishment.
Their voices were muffled. Their footsteps were muffled. And Elizabeth couldn't really tell what was going on out there.
She stayed stock still, afraid of somehow managing to make a noise so loud that it attracted everyone's attention.
Despite the things that were clearly happening around her, time didn't seem to be moving at all.
Light began to bleed through the edges of the maintenance panel above her.
Somebody was standing near.
"What is that?" The voice had a strong accent, but Elizabeth couldn't tell you where from. She didn't know what any sounded like aside from a general American one and whatever particular kind of British accent Father had. "Is that a...?"
"It's just an animatronic. It's supposed to be there. Looks like there's a maintenance panel underneath him," Elizabeth could feel a spike of anxiety shoot through her system, "but I doubt he'd hide in it since it'd be difficult for him to get out quickly if he got caught. Maybe—"
"Wait, what was that?"
The light moved away from the panel. "Looks like Foxy got his foot stuck in a door."
The voices got quieter as both people walked away.
Time slowed to a crawl again.
And then, all of the sudden, a blood-curdling scream rang throughout the building. It was an absolutely horrible noise, one that Elizabeth attempted to block out. She wasn't very successful.
Awful sound. One of the worst she'd ever heard. The only ones that competed with it were also ones that she'd heard before death came upon a person.
Father had just died. He was dead now, much like Miles and Riley were.
It took a while before Riley's friends left.
Elizabeth waited a minute just too be sure that none of them came back before she shakily pushed open the panel.
Whoever had been standing near earlier was right. It was not easy to get out.
Knowing that she likely wouldn't have a whole lot of time to waste, Elizabeth grabbed a fistful of one of those purple curtains and yanked, tearing it down before heading over to the room Father had pointed to earlier.
The entryway that he had cut out sat directly below a shelf full of cobweb-covered mascot heads. It was still open.
Once Elizabeth managed to crawl through it, she pulled a flashlight out from the pocket of her sweatshirt.
The room was far darker than the dining area.
She hesitated to turn it on for a moment, knowing what would be in front of her.
Father was laid on the peeling linoleum floor, his head turned so that it seemed like he was staring right at her.
They all seemed to stare at her.
There was a massive pool of blood beneath him, and some smeared down the wall closet to him, which was slowly becoming desaturated with the rain that was leaking in.
Despite having seen the fake body that Father had set up for this multiple times, it had done little to prepare her for seeing the real thing.
After slowly approaching, Elizabeth laid the purple curtain as close to him as she could without letting it touch the gore.
Maneuvering Father onto it was a bit tricky. On top of trying to avoid making bootprints, the stained suit was disgusting to touch and she could see some of the deep wounds that it had created through the many holes it had.
Really, after all that Elizabeth had seen and done, she had no reason to be squeamish anymore.
Did that stop her from feeling that way anyway? No, of course not.
Would she ever reach a point where she became numb to this? That would be nice. Maybe then the guilt that frequently accompanied situations like these would leave too.
Once Father had been moved, Elizabeth retrieved the mannequin. It was stuck behind a couple of the multiple mold-caked animatronics that littered the room. She used the metal pick she had been given to turn on the illusion disc and placed the fake corpse in the blood puddle.
Now all that she needed to do was carry Father all the way back to the facility. The thick curtain would hopefully prevent the springlock suit from dripping until she got outside, where the heavy rain would likely wash any accidental evidence away.
"Let's bring you back and wake you up, Father..."