Author's Note:

Thank you Jen and Killcode for your help with this chapter. If we missed anyone please tell us!

Chapter 137

Night three

This one was making Calum nervous. The young woman was staring him down with a steely gaze, totally ignoring the camera and solely focusing on him. Several times on their walk from the main room to where they were sitting now, he had tried to spark up some conversation with her, but each time he had received silence in return. Shame, she was pretty too. He wouldn't have minded getting to know her a little better.

Kevin and Shania had gone out to get food, claiming that the pizza was making them feel sick, so it was just Calum and Mason in the room.

"So...Olivia?" He sent her a charming and kind smile.

Olivia crossed her arms.

"Yes. Can we hurry this up please? I'm a guard, you can't just be dragging me away from watching the kids for ages."

"Jeez, fine," Calum rolled his eyes. "Look at the camera and tell us about any weird experiences you've had while working here."

Mason tried to give the woman a friendly smile but faltered when she turned her glare to him and his camera.

"Well, we used to have this guy working for us. His name was Daniel," Olivia started the story she had rehearsed telling to Andrew earlier.

"He was a host like Jerry and Henry, and we all thought he was quite nice. Fitted in well with the team and was always joking about. Well anyway, one day we were closing and noticed that he wasn't there. Obviously we went looking for him, we figured maybe he was just getting a drink in the staff room or something like that. Couldn't find him anywhere. Eventually Liam found his jacket and nametag lying in Parts and Services. Manager was already home so we couldn't ask, but we assumed he had fallen ill during the shift and had to rush home, and had left his jacket lying where it was when he had started feeling sick."

Mason nodded encouragingly, wondering where the story was going.

"Next day, he didn't show up. That was fine until the Manager said that Daniel didn't say he was leaving yesterday. We called his flat, no answer. Called the emergency contact, it's his sister. She didn't know where he is either, and he hadn't been answering her calls. Sister gets worried and calls the cops."

Calum was also starting to wonder how this story was going to end. Surely the woman wasn't about to reveal a whole murder to them?

Olivia flipped her hazel ponytail over her shoulder and continued to her favourite part of the story.

"They opened a Missing Persons case. When we looked through our security cameras, we found him going into Parts and Services, but the camera cut out for a few seconds and when it came back on, his jacket and tag were lying where we found them and he's nowhere in the building. They searched for weeks. More and more pieces of his uniform kept showing up around the place. One day though, we found a camera. Not like that," she cut off, gesturing to Mason's professional camera.

"Just a little handheld. It had his name on a little sticker on the bottom, the same way he used to label his water bottle and other stuff he didn't want other people touching, so we knew it was his. We gave it over to the police, and on it they found hundreds of videos from the restaurant. Videos of the kids," she paused for effect, glancing between Mason and Calum. Both of the men had gone very very pale.

"Hours and hours of footage just of kids playing, running about, eating pizza. We couldn't believe it, but the proof was there."

Mason and Calum were looking at each other now, having a silent conversation that consisted mostly of swear words. Olivia continued, seemingly oblivious to their reactions.

"They never found him. I felt awful for his poor sister. I think eventually she just gave up so she could get closure for herself. We're still not sure what happened that day. But if anyone's going to be filming kids without their parents' permission…"

The woman shrugged and made eye contact with the horrified Calum.

"In my opinion, they'll get what they deserve."

There was silence.

"Is… is that true?" Calum stammered. "I mean, surely we would have heard…"

Olivia watched him closely for a moment before replying.

"Money can cover a lot of things."

More silence.

Olivia looked between the two men, then huffed and stood up.

"If we're done here, I'm going to get back to work."

The woman left the two men frozen in their chairs, the camera still running. She hummed to herself as she walked back towards the sound of happy children, thinking about getting ice cream for herself and George when she picked him up from school. She didn't normally allow sweets before dinner, but she could relent on this occasion.

When she had the interview with the other team later on, she found them much more polite and since they never tried to turn their recording equipment on until the actual interview started, she instead told them a creepy story about how Ruby kept seeming to disappear from certain rooms and reappeared in others without any understanding that what she was doing was strange.

"That girl is weird. Sweet in her own way but weird. You'd swear her life was at the pizzeria instead of it just being her sister's job. I'm not sure if I've ever heard her talk about school."

While part of that statement was true, the rest wasn't. They often saw Ruby working on her homework or greeting people she knew from outside the pizzeria. It was fun to play up her obsession with the place though. And the teen had told her to go for it when she asked for permission.

That night, only Mike and Ruby greeted them before going off to do whatever it was they did after a couple of strange mutters (Mike) and thinly veiled threats (Ruby).

John and his team traipsed back into the main room after a couple of hours of filming, glad for the bright lights. It was always difficult to tell on-location, but maybe they actually had some real evidence. Eric set down the heavy camera and sat next to it, pulling out the audio recorder.

"You really think we got a little girl's voice on that thing?" John asked, practically lying on the table across from Eric. It had been a long night, and they still had a few days to go.

"I'm sure of it. I swear I heard a voice say "Cheryl" when we asked for a name."

Eric started the recording and John turned his head to listen. Just as tape-John finished asking for the name of the ghost in the room, Avery spoke up from where she was standing in the middle of the room.

"Uh, guys?"

Eric groaned.

"Avery, we're trying to listen to the little girl's voice, give us a minute." He put the recording back a few seconds and the men strained to listen again.

"No, really," Avery insisted, speaking over the 'little girl's' voice on the tape again. She gestured towards the stage where some of the older animatronics stood powered down.

Miriah spoke up before either of the men could get frustrated at their recording being spoken over again.

"What is it? Those robots were there when we left."

"I know that, but…"

Avery trailed off as she stared at the animatronics, suddenly uncertain.

"I could have sworn that the bear one was in the middle when we left, and not the purple one."

The four stared at the robots on the stage, each of them frantically trying to remember what the room had looked like before they had gone to do an EVP in the room with all the robot parts.

Eric frowned. "Wasn't the yellow one looking straight ahead before? I would bet money that it was. Now it's looking off into the pirate room."

Miriah groaned out of nowhere and abruptly stood, gesturing to the camera. "Let's move. This room is giving me a headache. That staff room Mike showed us should be fine. Or at least better than this."

Freddy sighed internally as he watched the group leave the room, knowing exactly what was coming next. Sure enough, the second that the group was out of earshot, Bonnie practically exploded.

"Purple? I'm not purple! I'm lavender. Or lilac at least," he complained, quoting Ruby as she often viciously defended his suit colour. Chica giggled while Freddy just rolled his eyes.

"Yes Bonnie, you're lilac. Will you let me stand back in my position now?"

"No, I want to be in the middle for a change."

Chica pouted.

"When do I get a turn in the middle?"

Hedy's voice suddenly came over their earpieces.

"The idiot group is on their way. Stay where you are and stop bickering about stage positioning, please."

Freddy muttered something under his breath as Bonnie beamed and they all "powered down" again, watching as Shania and her crystal led the way into the room.

"Is there anyone here that would like to speak with us?" Calum prompted, ignoring how Kevin rolled his eyes behind the camera.

The spirit box ran through stations with a loud static warble, but no words came out.

Barely a minute of questions later, Shania spoke up, already distrubed by the blank expressions on the robots' faces.

"This room's empty," she huffed, lowering her crystal which she'd been waving directly in the rabbit's face.

Timmy watched the group, mere feet away from Shania and her crystal.

"Idiots," he mumbled softly as they got into an argument about something. He'd been watching everything happening and while Ruby's antics would never not be fun to watch, these people were boring. He could stand right in front of Shania and she wouldn't even notice.

Miriah though… she noticed when he was in the room, visibly getting cold. That was interesting and he'd told Hedy after the first night.

She wasn't sure how to react but she promised to keep an eye on Miriah.

"The second team is coming your way, Puppet. Put down the book please."

"Just ask the building to lock the door to the Prize Corner. I'm busy."

"Come on, we talked about this. Just humour them and they'll leave you alone soon enough."

"I'm reading."

"Yes, War and Peace, for what, the third time now?"

"It's a good book. You would benefit from reading it yourself."

"I don't have time for reading, and especially not that book!"

"And I don't have time for childish nonsense."

"Just spook them and they'll leave you alone," Ruby complained. "Everyone is helping. Just be glad it's not the idiots."

"Come on Puppet," Goldy coaxed. "Like old times?"

Whatever she was referring to seemed to be enough to make Puppet sigh and put his book away.

Hedy immediately made a mental note to question Goldy about that.

"Why don't we try in there?"

Eric gestured with one hand towards the open door while keeping the camera trained on John. The night guard Mike had been pretty vague about the Prize Corner, just mentioning that the kids could go in there to get prizes from one of the animatronics. Then again, Mike had been vague about a lot of things. And weirdly distracted and jumpy. He was off with the other group at the moment. Both groups had a lot more freedom in which rooms to go to now as long as Mike checked that the room they wanted to visit was empty of the other team. He was basically keeping the teams apart.

Miriah frowned slightly.

"I'm not sure about going in there right now," she said slowly, glancing at the camera as Eric swung it to face her.

"Why? Do you think there's something in there? You said earlier the whole building felt especially busy tonight?" Avery questioned, leaning against the wall just next to the door.

"I'm not sure," the psychic replied. "I just… well, I don't think we would be particularly welcome."

"I think we should try, and then we can leave if you think we're in any danger," John said patiently. When Miriah nodded, the group moved into the Prize Corner.

Considering the entire situation, the room looked fairly normal. Shelves of toys and plushies for the kids behind a counter decorated with stickers, and a wall full of kid's drawings, seemingly all of the same animatronic. Eric walked up to the wall to get some of it on the camera as John started repeating what Mike had told them earlier.

"Speaking of," Avery spoke up suddenly from across the room. "Where is that animatronic? You'd think they would keep it in here if it works in here?"

Creepily on cue, there was a strange noise from behind the counter. Almost like wood creaking.

Miriah glanced behind it and found a closed white box with red ribbon stripes painted to make it look like a classic present.

John and Eric moved closer to the counter to get a better view. Miriah didn't warn them so it was probably alright…

John barely brushed the counter when the lid flew open.

All four of them yelped as the black and white Puppet bot popped out like a jack-in-the-box, flopping limply over the edge of the counter before straightening up with the sound of gears and creaks.

John nearly knocked Eric over in his attempt to move away. They were definitely going to have to do lots of bleeping out swears for this episode.

The Puppet's blank eyes shifted to John at the choice word, the whole torso turning to face him. "Hello children. Please remember not to use those bad words. It's not good m-m-manners." He then returned to a "resting" position.

"Uh…" John said, a little flustered.

At the sound of his voice the robot turned back to him.

"W-Wel- welcome to the Prize Corner, children! How many ticketsicketstickets do you have today?"

"Kids like this thing?" Avery stammered horrified and glanced at the drawings on the walls. "I'm an adult and I'm considering running out of here and finding my mom."

Miriah smirked at the inside joke but didn't comment.

The Puppet turned to face Avery at the sound of her voice, but didn't say anything else. Avery immediately decided that the silence was worse.

"Maybe we should go and find that Mike guy, and ask him if he can move it out," Eric said from behind his camera, wincing as the Puppet's cold stare turned to him. "It must be voice activated or something, we can't conduct an investigation with it in here."

"I'm sorry, can you repeat rrrr-rrepeat that? How many tickets do you have today?"

John nodded, inching towards the door. He found the handle and pushed. Nothing happened.

A girlish giggle echoed quietly throughout the room, making them all jump and Avery reached for Miriah's hand.

John started to push harder, jiggling the handle frantically.

"You can't leave yet, children," the Puppet said, staring at them.

They froze in terror.

"You need to trade in your tickets before you leave. Welcome to the Prize Corner, children. H-how-how mmmmany tickets do you….you have?"

"John, if you have to kick down that door, I'm sure we can afford the repair fine," Eric called from the opposite side of the room where he was squeezing himself as much into the corner as he could with the bulky camera. He yelped as the animatronic turned to him and tilted its head.

"Children, violence isn't the answer."

"Who the hell designed this?"

"It uh…" Avery scrambled for some logical answer. "It probably heard you say 'kick' and that's the pre-recorded response."

"Children, violence isn't the answer," it repeated.

There was silence for a moment. "Hello children, Welcome to the Prize Corner. How many tickets do you have?"

Miriah hadn't said much except for some slight hyperventilating. She blinked. "I have an idea. What's in your pockets?"

"What? I'm a little busy, Miriah," John said, panicked.

Miriah ignored him and stuck her hand in his jacket pockets anyway, further ignoring his complaints. Eric fumbled with one hand to pull out whatever trash was in his pockets, looking confused as he half tossed it across the room. Avery looked like this was a little more normal, although all she had was the receipt for the pizza earlier that day.

"Uh….hi," Miriah said, sorting out the papers in her hand.

"Hello there. How many tickets do you have?"

"Uh...I have four movie ticket stubs, a receipt for pizza, and a gum wrapper?" She awkwardly held out the trash.

Avery wasn't super pleased about Miriah standing in arm's reach of the creepy thing, but didn't move just yet.

There was silence for a moment and John could almost be fooled by the illusion that the Puppet seemed...dumbfounded? Like it was trying to figure out a response. Or it was thinking, at least. He was imagining things.

To her credit, Miriah barely flinched as the animatronic bent at the waist and leant its arms on the counter, getting its expressionless face uncomfortably close to hers as the programmed height was clearly meant for children and not adults.

Then it held out its long and three fingered hand.

Miriah dutifully placed the trash in its hand, a little careful not to actually touch the robot.

"Thank you for playing," the Puppet said cheerily but still in a strange monotonous voice as it straightened up. "Congratulations! You may choose from the fourth shelf."

Miriah blinked, "Um…" she glanced back at the others helplessly.

"My niece likes chickens?" John said lamely.

Miriah gestured at the shelf and the Puppet reached its very long arms back to pluck a Chica plushie from the shelf. The Puppet was much taller than it seemed. It handed the toy over.

"Thank you for coming to Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, where fantasy and fun come to life. Please come again soon." With that, it folded back into the box and closed the lid.

There was an audible click from the direction of the door, and John immediately pushed, sighing in relief when it opened without a hitch.

Puppet tried his best to ignore Hedy wheezing in the earpiece she installed in his head. He knew Goldy was laughing too. He waited until the group had taken off at a jog and their footsteps were long gone.

"It's called improv, Hedy," he said dryly.

"You dramatic piece of shit, Mari."

"You're the one who insisted I put up with them!"

"Aw you gave her a Chica plushie!" Ruby simpered.

"Meant to ask before: why is Ruby on this channel?"

"Because I was watching the camera," she bit back. "I'll admit, I'm a little impressed with that lady. If that had been me in the beginning either the door would have been broken down, or Puppet would be."

"Which is why the building would never lock you in a room with Puppet," Goldy pointed out.

"Because this amazing building loves me," Ruby sniffed and the building rumbled a little in delight, eerily similar to Kitty's purring.

Puppet mumbled something about the building having favourites and Ruby just snickered.

Kevin wandered down the hallway a little ahead of the other three. They were arguing again, something to do with a recording device that had broken. He honestly didn't care who had broken it or how it had been broken, but if the arguing meant that they could take a break then he would take it. They kept wandering between the rooms constantly.

He poked his head into a room that they passed, then blinked and frowned in confusion. It was the room with the fox robots but… wasn't that at the other side of the building? He could have sworn that they had passed this room earlier. Then again, he didn't remember the corridor they were in being decorated the way it was earlier either. Wait… didn't the foxes' room open onto the main room instead of a corridor? He looked back at the rest of the group in confusion but none of them seemed to notice anything.

'Maybe I shouldn't have smoked so much tonight,' he thought begrudgingly.

He was so lost in thought that he nearly hit the ceiling when Mason spoke from right behind him.

"What are you- oh, Pirate's Cove. Oi!" he said, shouting over his shoulder to Calum and Shania and missing the way Kevin glared at him.

"Let's try in here. We can look at the recorder again later. We'd better use this room while the other team isn't nearby to interfere."

The team went in cautiously, noticing the pink and white fox in the corner. Thankfully it seemed like the thing had been turned off properly this time, as it didn't move at all with the sound of their voices and stayed slumped in the corner.

Much to the chagrin (or maybe relief) of the team, nothing showed up during any of the tests or investigations in the room this time. There were no voices, no bumps or taps, and none of the weird flashes of light that kept happening in the other rooms tonight.

Calum was the last one out of the room, and was about to close the door behind him when he heard it. A distinctly human-sounding male voice despite a slight metallic tone, singing a tune from within the room they had just left. He froze with his hand on the doorknob, staring at the others who had whirled around at the sound. There was silence for a moment.

"Maybe… maybe it's Mike?" Shania said lamely.

Calum, probably a little fed up with Mike at this point, took the suggestion and ran with it. Who else could it be after all…. Mike kept popping up and ruining shots all the time.

"Um… Calum maybe we should…" Mason trailed off as Calum marched back in to yell at Mike for apparently creeping around in the dark and not saying anything.

"Hey! Who's in here? Mike?"

The humming abruptly stopped.

Calum swung his flashlight on the white fox. But it hadn't moved. He turned to check each corner of the room, the light passing over the big playhouse ship surrounded by a ball pit and the stage nearby with its mostly drawn curtains. The others stayed near the door, Kevin muttering about the week turning into a waste of time if the stupid staff were going to keep messing with them. Calum ignored him. Like always.

"There's speakers in every room," Mason suggested. "Maybe that was it." He didn't sound very sure though.

Ruby had been a brat and spooked them with her voice over the loudspeakers already and that had a distinctive sound to it. It was echoey and clearly more static than whatever they just heard.

"Probably," Calum grunted and started walking back. He froze suddenly and turned around to point his flashlight back on the stage.

Kevin had the same thought, which Calum might have been insulted by if he considered it any longer. "Weren't those curtains closed a minute ago?"

Shania mimicked him mockingly. "Weren't those curtains closed? Wasn't Balloon Boy in the other room? Wasn't that stupid rabbit in a different position ? How high are you?" It felt better to blame Kevin rather than admit she had the same repetitive questions.

Better than admitting they were all going crazy.

Calum stared at the curtained stage before glancing back at Kevin, who hadn't even responded to Shania's taunts.

"Maybe... it was just the light playing tricks," Calum said slowly, not really believing what he was saying.

"This place is so fucking weird anyway. We're wasting time standing here."

The group hesitantly turned to leave again, but hadn't even reached the door this time when the humming started again, definitely from the direction of the stage.

The group turned in an instant, several flashlights all pointing at the stage as the humming stopped just as quickly as it had begun.

There was no denying it this time. The purple curtains had slid back to be about half-open. There was a glimmer as the flashlights caught metal. A sharp hook and menacing teeth in a snarling mouth seemed to loom out of the darkness at them from across the room.

Shania squeaked, not even trying to hide her fear behind mockery anymore.

The team stood for a moment before Mason seemed to jerk back to reality.

"Let's just get out of here, shut the door, walk away and pretend like nothing happened," he said, using his camera to push Kevin towards the door a little more frantically than he would have liked to admit.

Shania and Calum practically ran to the door, leaving Mason at the back. Just as they all reached the door, he swung his camera's attached flashlight around one last time. He immediately wished he hadn't.

Somehow there had been no sound, but the fox animatronic was now standing off its stage. Nothing about it seemed alive or awake, apart from the fact that it was off its fucking stage and standing where they had been a moment ago. There was also something about the animatronic that made them more nervous than any of the others. Maybe it was the sharp teeth or more tattered appearance. Maybe it was the too sharp hook. But it seemed a lot more dangerous than the other bots.

Mason slowly backed up to the door. He truly felt like if he took his eyes off the thing, it would leap for him. Maybe this was ridiculous, it was just a robot, what would it do? It worked with children, for fucks sake it couldn't actually be dangerous… Despite its appearance.

He was seconds away from slamming the door shut after the group when the animatronic abruptly moved. Its head lifted up and tilted to the side in a crude imitation of a puppy, and the eyepatch that covered one eye flipped up as the thing grinned at Mason.

Screaming profanities, he pulled the door shut so quickly that he almost pulled the handle off and practically sprinted down the corridor. It took about ten minutes for him to be coherent enough to even tell the rest of the team what he had seen.

From where she was hiding behind the Pirate's Cove curtains, Ruby finally let loose and cackled like the maniac they were half sure she was. Foxy shook his head as he turned and climbed back onto the stage, glancing over his shoulder as Mangle started to laugh too.

Mike's voice came over the earpiece.

"Nice one. Where did you all learn to be so damn dramatic?"

Foxy muttered something too quietly to be picked up by the earpiece as Ruby's laughter died away.

"Well, hopefully that'll teach them not to interrupt movie night," the girl said triumphantly.

"Like you and Foxy don't both know those pirate films by heart at this point," Chi's complaining voice came through.

"That's besides the point!" Ruby whined. "Anyway, Mangle, where did you put the remote when we heard them coming?"

The fox hesitated, and then in a rare moment, looked sheepish.

"Um… I might have thrown it in the ballpit."

Ruby groaned. "Mangle! I swear that ballpit is a portal or something. It could be anywhere in the building now!" She pouted at the fox. "Right, you're stuck helping me with tonight's death for that."

Mangle pouted, then perked up, her ears following. "Actually I might have an idea about that. But Hedy's going to be mad."

Ruby looked intrigued while Foxy studiously ignored them. Better to stay out of it when Mangle got that look in her eyes.

Calum and his team were heading far away from the Cove when they stumbled on Ruby wandering the halls with a scowl. Her gaze zeroed in on them when she spotted them and the scowl deepened.

"Hey! Did you turn Mangle on?" she demanded.

"What?" Mason asked in confusion.

"You're the only ones close to the Cove. So did you mess with her?" she asked impatiently.

"No," Calum answered in irritation. "Why?"

Wait, close to the Cove? They all looked around and realised in shock that they actually were close to the Cove's entrance again. Despite heading away from it. Did they loop around?
"Well she's not in the Cove which means she's wandering around again. That never ends well," she mumbled the last part under her breath but they still heard it.

"What do you mean?" Mason asked a little anxiously and still wondering how they'd ended up near this room again, but she just waved him off.

"If you see her, don't get close. Their programming gets… weird, at night. Having no kids around throws it off."

She walked off, leaving them feeling unsettled.

They decided not to let it bother them though. They needed to go through the footage they'd managed to get so far anyway. Far away from the creepy foxes.

Mason waved his team off. "You guys go ahead! I uh...need to find the bathroom.

Calum rolled his eyes as they packed up. "Sure. Whatever. We're going to go check out a couple of hallways.

Mason gave a thumbs up and waited until they were gone.

Then he headed toward the Toys' room, keeping an eye out for the other team. Calum probably wouldn't approve of this plan, but if it got them the footage they needed...

Mason crept up to the stage.

The girly-looking bunny was his target, they all seemed to be deactivated but he didn't want to take any chances. Something was definitely going on here. He was sure of it. That freakshow of a fox moving was a piece of it he was sure. If he could just get some proof, everything would fall into place. Proof of what? The robots moving? Or any spirits that were clearly hanging around the creepy things maybe?

Teddy watched the cameraman awkwardly climb up on the stage with a small camera, approach Toby, and wave a hand in his face.

"Hey there…uh…bunny." The guy said, slowly stepping closer to them, hesitantly. He steeled himself. Shaking his hands, the cameraman approached again and started looking for a spot where he could pry the plastic away to fasten a camera to the rabbit's endoskeleton.

"I bet something can pop off," he muttered.

He barely touched the robot when a soft bit of static to his left startled him.

"Hey there kiddo! Try not to come hug us while we're performing! It's a little distracting, haha."

The man jumped, dropping the camera and stepped backwards quickly, looking at Teddy who was still seemingly deactivated.

"Creepy shit," he muttered and knelt down to pick up the camera.

While he was down, Teddy saw Toby tilt his head slightly downward, slightly panicked while he tried to keep the guy in his view. Then once the man stood up, he banged his head on Toby's chin. Probably unintended on Toby's behalf. The cameraman cursed for a few seconds and rubbed the new bump on his head frantically. He then stepped closer to try again.

"Hey there kiddo! Try not to come hug us while we're performing! It's a little distracting, haha."

The man jumped away again, but kept a hold on his camera. He rubbed his face and seemed like he was reconsidering. Apparently not.

Teddy gave up being a statue for a moment to narrow his eyes as the man reached for Toby's face.

The guy still didn't see the glare in the dark.

"Hey there kiddo! Try not to come hug us while we're performing! It's a little distracting HAHAHAHA…." Teddy's voice became deeper and horribly distorted, looping that last part until it dissolved into static noises. The cameraman froze, the small camera dropping from his hands again. Teddy waited a while for a reaction, but the man seemed to be just as frozen as they were. Then he noticed the dark spot appearing on the crotch of his pants.

Teddy didn't really get why humans were so embarrassed about stuff like that. Kids wet themselves all the time and even they tended to be embarrassed. But he still understood the man wouldn't want to be caught by other humans right now.

Still, there was a slight glint in Teddy's eyes. He was livid one of these jerks even dared trying to tamper with Toby.

Ruby was going to kick his ass when he told her, if she wasn't already watching from the camera. He didn't hear enraged cussing though. That would ruin her act of spoiled little sister very quickly. They'd need to pry her off this bastard.

"Uh oh," Teddy switched the tone to something "kinder," although it still sounded prerecorded. "Did someone have an accident? It's alright. Do you need help finding your parents? Is your mommy and/or daddy around?"

Maybe there was a little bit of righteous glee as the man "woke up" from his stupor and almost fell off the stage as he ran away, red tinting his face and still obvious in the dark.

Teddy felt a little embarrassed, as the person Toby, Chi, Mangle, and maybe BB looked up to, he had to set an example of not just attitude but action. Ah geeze. How was he going to-

Teddy's thoughts were interrupted by a dry straining sound. He glanced over to Chi in alarm as she struggled to stifle her laughter without moving. There was a frightening light in her eyes as she glared out the door Mason had run.

Teddy hadn't really seen something close to "murderous" in her expressions in a while.

Toby didn't notice Chi's vicious look past the laughter as he shuddered and stretched, scratching at parts of his plating to make sure the dude hadn't actually pulled at anything or left something on him.

"That felt…" Toby hesitated, murmuring. "Gross? I didn't like him trying to touch me."

There was the click and whine in their heads as Hedy spoke up.

"What? Wait. What happened? Toby, what happened?! I was watching Goldy and Ruby pulling off something. I didn't see. What happened?"

Toby grimaced. "I think the cameraman on that one team, the annoying one, just tried to hide a camera on me."

"What?! What?!" Hedy shouted, forgetting she was supposed to be hiding in the walls quietly. "That motherfucker! Toby, are you okay?"

The building shuddered at her sudden surge of anger and worry and they heard the click that suggested Ruby had turned her comm on too.

"Did something happen? Just got the weirdest feeling that Hedy is pissed about something and the building rocked again."

"Am I pissed!? Am I pissed!? Of course I'm pissed!"

"What?" Toby murmured in confusion, "I'm fine."

"That bastard! I'm not playing a fucking game any more. ThatpieceofratshitFUCKING-!"

Hedy must have turned her microphone off because her angry tirade abruptly halted. Or she hit her desk because the sound was back moments later. "-Drag his innards through the Fright fan system and-"

"Hedy!" Mike interrupted, apparently also having turned on his comm when the building rocked."What the heck happened?"He sounded worried about her. Probably hadn't ever seen her explode in anger before. He had already figured out her anger tended to be colder and more internalized. Usually.

"I'll tell you what happened! Calum and his assholes already lost whatever dwindling respect I had for them when they first showed up recording children and now they have crossed the line into I fucking hate their guts and this week is going to be all seven circles of hell for Mason and his stupid ass disrespectful can't follow simple rules bullshit entitled-"

Teddy had to turn his earpiece off for a bit after that.

If that was how angry Hedy was, wait till Rudy could get a word in. Of course, they weren't concerned about Hedy actually killing someone. She still had better morals than that.

Chi however, continued listening until Hedy calmed down. Toby looked a little shocked.

"You didn't sound this mad when Puppet got me torn apart," Mangle pointed out when Hedy was forced to take a breath, although she sounded like she was also seething and seconds away from coming back to the Toys' room to check on Toby herself.

"I WAS THIS MAD! You hear me Mari?! I was this fucking pissed about that! I was just a little too in shock to yell and it wasn't like Puppet was going to listen to me yelling anyway!"

Puppet was notably quiet, although they all knew he was probably listening.

"What the fuck happened?!" Ruby demanded, sounding bewildered at Hedy's behavior.

Toby grimaced but didn't answer so Teddy took over.

"The cameraman for the idiots, Mason I think, snuck in and was looking to pry up Toby's plating to find a place to hide a camera."

"Teddy, stopped him," Toby muttered, uncomfortable with everyone's reaction. He was used to being the one yelled at after all.

There was a long moment of silence from Ruby, with a quiet angry "shit" from Mike, before the entire building suddenly plunged into darkness.

In the distance, they could hear a few of their guests' startled shouts.

"Is that so?" Ruby asked, tone pleasant and sending chills down their endoskeletons. "Despite being told specifically not to touch the bots?"

"Lass…" Foxy trailed off.

"I'm going to kill him," she said, tone still frighteningly pleasant.

"Ruby," Goldy actually sounded wary. But then again, she might be feeling the teen's emotions if Ruby hadn't shut off the weird ghost connection in time.

"Hey at least they'll get all the answers they want about ghosts when they're ghosts themselves," she continued cheerfully.

The lights still hadn't come on.

"Then we'd have to put up with them for longer," Hedy seethed.

"Hedy, you're supposed to be the one telling Ruby not to kill people," Goldy said.

"This was the equivalent of someone trying to put GPS trackers in our bodies," Ruby deadpanned. "How would you react if someone did that without our permission?"

"I was making a correlation with something far less innocent," Hedy said under her breath.

"Okay, I see your point," Foxy grumbled.

"You still can't kill them," Goldy told them all firmly.

"Maim?" Ruby asked hopefully.

"No."

"Traumatise?"

"That's fine."

"Goldy!" Toby yelped.

"What? I'm mad too. I'm just 'responsible' mad. Which is usually Hedy's job," she added pointedly.

"Traumatise it is," Ruby said decisively. "We still have three nights. I'm going to make that group suffer."

Her comm went dead with a click. The lights still didn't come back on.

"Eh, it'll be entertaining at least," Foxy's comm followed as he no doubt went to help the night guard plot.

"Ooh wait, count me in," Chi begged, before hopping off the stage to go find them.

"W-Chi!" Toby called, but she was already gone.

"Serves them right," Teddy said when Toby looked to him for what to do.

The rabbit threw his arms up in frustration before suddenly freezing when they heard footsteps.

"It's the not-bastard team," Hedy informed helpfully.

"Mike? Are you here?" John called. "I think the generator died. Hello?"

"Hey, where'd the chicken go?" Eric wondered as he poked his head into the room behind John and shined his flashlight at the stage. The light hovered on Toby and his odd position for a moment but Eric just stared, a little confused.

"I don't think we want to know," Mariah mumbled, massaging her head like she had a migraine.

Toby did his best not to groan. Great, now he was stuck like this until they left…

The teams ended up bumping into each other near the end of the night. Weirdly enough, it felt like they'd been here for far longer than six hours and they were all exhausted.

That naturally led to Calum snapping at John who was too tired to deal with this shit.

"What's with all the yelling?" Ruby demanded, popping out of nowhere like she tended to do just to scare them. Since the lights were still off they didn't have a chance of seeing her coming.

Calum turned to yell at her but froze as his flashlight illuminated the teen.

That pink and white fox was standing behind Ruby, they hadn't even heard the animatronic's footsteps.

And the fox just looked… wrong.

Everyone paled when they saw it, even with only a second to process. Two heads and a too-wide smile on the head with a face.

Before any of them could even scream, clawed hands reached forward and grabbed the teenager, disappearing into the darkness of an unlit corridor seconds later, Ruby's screams cutting off abruptly.

Screams and panicked exclamations still didn't manage to drown out the chimes signalling six in the morning.