It's baaaaack! And things are happening!
A few days had passed since Lea made her promise to Puppet, and thus far they had been relatively uneventful. In fact, the most eventful thing to happen was Bonnie waking up suddenly in the middle of the night, screaming and begging someone to 'stop'. It had frightened everyone, particularly Lea, but when questioned, Bonnie could not seem to remember the finer details of his dream, or much of it at all really. Alex chalked it down to a typical nightmare, but Lea was positive it was more of a memory than just a dream. It wasn't until a few more days after that that something just as frightening, or more so, happened.
Their elderly lady neighbor, Ms. Westin, came calling that Thursday afternoon. At first, the girls were too nervous to answer the door with the almost frantic knocking coming from outside. They silently quieted the animatronics and stood together on either side of the door, waiting with bated breath. Once more, but a little softer this time, someone knocked, and they heard the woman's voice from the other side.
"Perhaps I should have called first… Lea, Alex? Are you there? It's only me, Ms. Westin."
The sisters exchanged quick looks of relief before Alex opened the door. "Sorry, Miss. We thought you were some weird guy that's been following Lea around lately."
"Yes, about that… May I come in?"
"Of course."
Westin glanced over her shoulder before entering the house then moved aside to allow Alex to close the door. "My dears, I'm sorry to be so frank, but you are in danger."
"That's…one way to start a conversation…"
"What kind of danger?" Lea asked.
Westin shook her head slowly. "That man, he's looking for you. For them."
Lea immediately puffed up. "He can't have them!"
"Wait," Alex broke in. "Ms. Westin, how do you know that?"
"That's not important, my dear. What's important is that you all leave before he finds you. He won't stop, not for anything, until he gets them back. And I'm sure he'd love to add the two of you girls to his little 'family' as well. He's connected to them, you know. He'll always come. He'll always find them. He'll never let them go."
"What are we supposed to do then," Alex huffed, "Keep running away until he dies?"
Westin looked at her, wide-eyed, then seemed to understand. "Ah, you are thinking of the man in blue. No, no. He is only a tool. A puppet."
Lea shivered at the last word.
"The one who seeks them is already dead," she continued. "Dead, but not gone. He refuses to go and refuses to let them go. If something happened to James, then he would simply find another. Eventually… He's waited this long, after all."
"Ms. Westin," Alex said. "What are you going on about?"
But Lea understood. "What do we do?" She asked in an urgent whisper.
Westin turned to her. "You have two options, my dear. Let him have them and save yourselves…"
"No!"
"Or… Leave. Leave and take them with you."
"But he'll just follow us."
She nodded. "Oh yes, he will follow. But if you want to save those children, if you want to set them free, you must take them and leave this place. Leave this town. Leave this state, even!" She rummaged quickly through her pockets and pulled something out, placing it into Lea's hand and closing the girl's fingers tightly around it. "Take my van. I will give you a card to use for gas and food."
"This is crazy!" Alex shouted.
"Where are we supposed to go?" Lea clutched the ignition key.
Ms. Westin froze suddenly, turning her head to gaze off at something to her right. Whatever it was, only she could see it. She whispered very quiet, inaudible words for a moment before saying, "Yes… Yes, the factory…Near the farmhouse." She suddenly snapped her attention back to Lea in front of her. "If you keep going east, you will reach it."
"Reach what?"
"The end, my dear. The end. And once you get there, it will be your own actions that determine whether the end is good or bad." She quickly pulled her hands away from Lea's and held them open in the air. "No, dear, no more questions. That is all I can say of it. Take my van, it will fit all of you and some luggage. But not too much! Don't worry. Whatever you leave behind, I will look after." She turned and opened the door. "James will come to this house Saturday evening, perhaps night. I hope you will all be gone before then."
And with that, she left, closing the door behind her, and leaving both girls startled and bewildered. Chica, Bonnie, and Foxy, who had all been listening from the living room, peered around the corner with mixed expressions. Bonnie looked as startled and worried as Lea felt, while Chica and Foxy exchanged nervous and confused looks.
"Er," Foxy spoke timidly, "is it my own fault that we have to leave?"
"What?" Lea was broken out of her trance and turned to look at him quizzically.
"Ya know, since I was the one who, um, ran amok?"
"Wha- No, no. I think he was going to find us even if that hadn't happened… Alex, we should start packing."
"What?! Are you serious?!"
"Very," she said firmly. "Ms. Westin has never lied to us."
"But she's never been completely off her rocker, either!"
"What does that mean?" Chica whispered to Foxy who used his index finger to make a circle beside his head.
"Loony."
"We'll just have the police deal with that guy," Alex said.
"You're the crazy one!" Lea threw her hand out towards the animatronics. "And just what are the police going to do when they see them!?"
Alex bit her lip. "We…We can't just leave. Where are we going to go with them, huh? We can't exactly take them into a hotel with us!"
"We could find some old campground or woods…"
"Bah!" Alex threw her hands up and turned away from her sister. "The woods!" She turned back to her again. "Okay, okay. So how long do you plan on doing that, huh? How long are we supposed to live like that?"
"Don't you want to help them?"
"Of course I do! It's just… Everything about this is crazy." She lowered her voice. "Do they even know what or who they are, er, were?"
Lea shook her head. "Puppet does. At least, to some extent. She gets confused about who she is though."
"She? I thought it was supposed to be a boy…"
"I…I think the spirit is a little girl. After the story she told me… Alex, I promised I would keep them safe. This guy, whoever he is or was, has been haunting and tormenting them for who knows how long. They're all dead and he still won't leave them alone!"
"What are you whispering about?" Chica asked. "You were just shouting and now you're whispering? Are you still mad?"
"No, Chica," Lea told her. "We're just discussing everything."
Alex sighed heavily. "I'm sick of this town anyway."
For a moment, Lea was confused by that statement. Then, a grin crossed her face, a grin that made Alex huff and look away.
"Are we leaving?" Bonnie asked. "I like it here…"
"I know," Lea went over and patted his arm. "But it won't matter where we go, as long as we're together. We're family, after all." She smiled cheekily and nudged him with her elbow.
"All right you guys," Alex gained everyone's attention. "I'm going to hurry off to the store and get one of those big storage things that go on top of vehicles so we won't have to cram everything in with you guys. That van of Ms. Westin's…it's pretty big."
"She used to use it to deliver packages," Lea told her. "Don't know why she kept it though, but it worked out for us. Anyways, that's why the only windows are the front ones. Too bad campers are so expensive though…"
Alex waved her hand lazily and grabbed the doorknob. "You guys help Lea start gathering things up and deciding what we should bring. I'll double-check it when I get back."
"Be safe," Bonnie told her.
"Byeee!" Chica sang.
They watched her leave the house then turned their eyes upon Lea who placed her hands on her hips. "All right, let's see… There are some old luggage cases up in the attic. I'll get those down. Bonnie, can you help me?"
"Of course."
She nodded. "Okay. Chica, Foxy, you guys start gathering up things we should bring. Oh, and please tell Freddy what's going on. I think he's in Alex's room."
"Aye-aye, Captain!" Foxy grinned.
As he and Chica set to gathering things for their sudden road trip, Lea led Bonnie into the hall and pointed up at the string dangling from the ceiling. Bonnie looked up at it curiously then reached and pulled it, yipping with surprise as the ceiling fell open and a wooden ladder unfolded itself for them.
Lea giggled at him. "Silly bunny. Wait down here. I'll pass the luggage down to you one at a time. They're kind of bulky."
"All right." He watched her ascend the creaky steps and disappear. After a few moments, a warm light clicked on in the attic. "What's up there?" he asked.
"Mostly dust," she called back. "And Puppet. Somewhere…" She glanced around until she spotted the tall figure lurking in a dark corner behind stacked boxes. "Sorry," she smiled apologetically. "I need the light to find the luggage cases."
The Puppet did not reply and remained hidden in the corner as it watched Lea.
"Here's one." Lea grabbed the leather handle of the big beige-colored luggage and pulled, with some effort, until it was freed from a small mountain of old toys and boxes. With their base suddenly yanked from underneath them, the objects collapsed to the attic floor, sending a cloud of dust into the air. "Ack!" Lea shut her eyes and tried not to breath in the dust as she dragged the heavy thing across the floor. "Here," she coughed and pushed it halfway down the slanted ladder.
Bonnie grabbed the other end and, with much less effort than Lea, picked it up and placed it gently upon the hall floor. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." She waved dust out of her face. "Nothing breakable fell, but it kicked up a lot of dust. Bleh."
He chuckled.
"There should be four…" Lea turned back to the attic. "That one was the biggest along with one other. The other two are smaller."
"It's over here…"
She looked over to Puppet, who was pointing a long finger at a maroon luggage off to the side. "Ah, there it is! Thanks."
It slowly pulled its hand back to its body and watched her from the corner like a timid praying mantis.
This luggage was on top of the pile, so Lea was easily able to slide it off and drag it over to Bonnie waiting at the base of the ladder. After handing that one off, she returned to rummaging through the dusty items in search of two slightly smaller cases. One was hidden beneath a sheet that covered an old bicycle, and the other she couldn't find until Puppet pointed that one out as well.
"We'll be leaving soon," Lea told Puppet as she placed one foot on the ladder.
"I know… I will be ready."
She nodded, clicked off the light, then descended the ladder and pushed it back up into the ceiling. She huffed. "Okay, we'll pack these and put them in that thing Alex is going get. We'll need some small but decent-sized bags to keep more immediate things in that we can keep in the van with us."
Bonnie thought for a moment. "Oh! There's that old schoolbag in your closet."
"Right, and I should still have that bag for my laptop."
"You're going to bring the computer?"
"Yeah. Never know, we might need it. Especially since Alex and I don't have cellphones."
"I saw someone on the TV with a cellphone that was a touchscreen. All of the buttons would appear on the screen!"
She smirked. "They call those 'smartphones.' They have cars now that can do similar stuff."
"Cars can make phone calls?!"
"Some of them. Not the van, though." She entered her room and went to the closet to grab her bag, finding it still containing many extra mechanical pieces and parts from her trip to the shop. A small part of her suddenly felt anxious and sick at the idea of leaving the shop behind. Leaving her home… But another part of her was actually excited and longing for adventure. Who knows where they would end up? The thought of that was a little scary, but she felt better just knowing that, no matter where she ended up, Bonnie, Alex, all of them, would be there with her. Her family would be with her…always.
She grabbed handfuls of the parts and shoved them into a smaller pouch in the backpack, making room for other things she would need. Let's see… Toothpaste, toothbrush, hairbrush, floss… She started going through her drawers and pulling out clothes. Shirts, pants, shorts, underwear, socks, jacket…
"Is this the case for the computer?" Bonnie pulled a black rectangular case from the closet.
Lea glanced at it. "Yeah. Put it on the bed, please. Thank you." Laptop, cables, charger, flash drive… Maybe she should make a list… She grabbed a pen and paper from her desk and started writing out a list of things to bring.
When Alex returned, she was bewildered to find that Chica had gathered all of the snacks in the house into a pile on the living room floor.
"What do we do with the cold stuff?" Chica asked worriedly.
"Um, we have a little ice chest…"
Foxy had gathered up things that were a bit more reasonable. Mainly clothes and blankets and pillows. He had also added the pink music box to his collection. "Uh, I know it's not really essential," he said as Alex looked at it.
"That's fine," she told him. "You can bring it. And, Chica, you can bring your plush cat."
"Yay!"
"Those are small things that you can just keep in the van, so it's fine." Alex made her way to Lea's room, stepping around the luggage in the hall and grabbing one along her way. She found Lea and Bonnie sitting cross-legged on Lea's floor and mulling over a piece of paper. There were several things around them on the floor as well, including neatly folded clothes that Alex knew must have been Bonnie's doing since Lea never folded her clothes. "What are you two doing?"
They both looked up at her. "I'm trying to think if I'm missing anything from my list," Lea told her. "We can't leave anything important behind. We won't be able to come back for it…"
"Um, I folded the clothes," Bonnie added.
"I see that. Good job. I knew it couldn't have been Lea."
Bonnie smiled sheepishly while Lea shot her sister a leer.
The rest of that day and all of the next day was dedicated to making sure they went through all of their belongings and packed what they absolutely needed to take with them. Alex allowed each of them to take one other thing with them so long as it wouldn't take up too much space. Chica, of course, decided on taking her plush cat immediately while Foxy stuck to taking the music box along. Bonnie did not wish to bring anything particular, saying that as long as he had Lea with him, he'd be happy. Lea, on the other hand, put up an argument with Alex about bringing all of the plushy versions of the animatronics that she had gotten from the old pizzeria some nights ago. Alex, ultimately lost this argument, as per usual with her stubborn little sister. When asked what he wanted to bring, Freddy went into Alex's room for a minute before returning with a plastic bin stuffed full of old photographs.
"You want to bring our old family photos?" Alex eyed the box with surprised confusion. "I don't know… It's not exactly a small box."
"But it's not very big, either," Lea said. "He's got a point, you know. We might as well bring those since we probably won't ever come back here."
Alex was going to question her sister's ability to seemingly understand Freddy when he could not speak, but instead sighed and agreed with her. "All right. You can bring them."
Freddy looked pleased.
"Is Puppet bringing anything?"
Lea shook her head. "I asked her, but she didn't have anything she cared to bring. She only cares about us and these guys."
"Well, at least we'll have room for the photos and your toys…" She looked around at everyone. Everyone except Puppet was currently gathered in the living room. She, Lea, Bonnie, and Chica were all sitting on the floor together as they finished packing up the luggage. Foxy was sitting, very human-like for once, on the couch, and Freddy was standing while holding the box of photos. Alex gestured with her hand for him to place the box down, which he did, then spoke again. "Make sure you all go to bed early and get some good rest. We're going to wake up while it's still dark to pack the van and get you guys inside. That way, hopefully no one sees you guys."
"Don't look so down, Alex," Chica smiled softly. "Think of it…like a road trip!"
"A never-ending road trip…" Foxy muttered, earning a quick glare from Chica. "What?"
"It's not never-ending," Lea told him. "Ms. Westin said we'll get to the end eventually."
"How will we know it's the end?" Bonnie asked.
"I don't know… She mentioned something about a factory near an old farmhouse."
"Yeah," Alex rolled her eyes. "Because that's so uncommon…"
"We'll know it when we get there," Lea said determinedly. "We will. And we'll get there together. I won't let that man hurt any of you anymore. I made a promise."
Alex carefully watched her for a long moment before sighing. Her little sister was always so stubborn and determined. She was convinced that Lea would grow up to do amazing things. She already was, after all. "Okay everyone. Let's all get to bed now, okay?" She turned to Chica. "No fussing in the morning. We won't have time."
Chica looked somewhat offended. "I don't fuss!"
"Pfft!" Foxy made a noise of disbelief and amusement, causing the others to laugh.
"What?" Chica looked around at them. "I don't!"
To be continued…