Chapter Five: Paranormal

2 years had passed since the murders. William Afton was still a free man. The police had no reason to suspect him at all. Even better, now he was the manager of a new restaurant. Sure, it was in a quaint little town, but all the better. Harmony Rose was far enough away from the other restaurant that even if the cops reopened the case, he couldn't be a suspect.

Of course, that didn't mean his life was perfect. Far from it, actually.

The animatronics. Foxy had a big wooden sign by his cove that read 'Out Of Order'. The robot had gone crazy, trying to rip itself apart. There were stoppers now that prevented the hook and the mouth to reach the legs, where Foxy had torn a bunch of fabric away. The restaurant had barely evaded a lawsuit.

The others were acting up just as bad. Bonnie's voice was never cheery and happy, no matter how much Afton tinkered with the voice box. That rabbit could make the most gleeful of laughter sound dreary and depressing, like the robot had given up on being happy years ago. His guitar was never in tune, even if somebody tried to tune it or replace a string. Nothing but depressing notes played. His programming had to be changed so that the guitar made no noise, and his voice box was switched off so he didn't bum people out.

Chica was the best behaved of all the animatronics. She only glitched once a week. Although her cupcake constantly fell off her plate, or ended up halfway across the room somehow where Afton found it when opening the restaurant at 6 am. Sometimes, her head would tilt, like she was curious about you, and her mouth would stick open. Whenever Afton had to fix that, he swore he could hear desperate, quiet breaths for air from inside the robot.

Then there was Freddy. Freddy Fazbear himself. Like Bonnie, his voice box could never change tone. His laugh almost sounded... sinister. And he collected children's belongings like a magnet. He always had a hat in his mouth or a watch stuck in his wrist joint. Afton sometimes had to open the front of the robot to reach inside and pull out some unfortunate shoe. It was then that he was met with the worst smell. The smell of decaying flesh. He had to see what little was left of his first victim, and it really wasn't a lot. For this reason, Afton never allowed anybody else to service the animatronics. He warned his employees that the robots were dangerous to touch or get too close to, and that he would deal with servicing them.

At night, however, was the worst. To prevent servos from locking up, Afton let the robots roam around during the night. This was how he constantly lost night security guards. So much so that he was tempted to take on the role himself, just to avoid all the questions and labour costs. Of course, so many hours was impossible to do himself, so he left the place locked up and placed voice boxes around the restaurant to lure the robots from room to room so they didn't try to break out of the restaurant. Afton could have sworn he'd even see the golden bear roaming around, but that was impossible. It had no battery or power source. It couldn't possibly function...

Rumors were spreading around town that the restaurant was haunted, despite Afton's best efforts to silence them. He didn't believe them. Ghosts. Spirits. Hogwash. Total and utter BS. Perhaps the robots had been used as weapons in a string of murder, but when somebody died, they never came back. Nothing existed after death. It was impossible.

Wasn't it?

Ming and Damien sat in their treehouse with two friends of theirs from their old town, Ivy and Hami. The towns were close enough that the kids had never lost touch.

Damien held a flashlight. It was a dark night. The girls were each huddled in a blanket. Damien cuddled a yellow teddy bear that he had since as far back as he could remember.

"Tonight, we're telling ghost stories." Damien grinned. "Who wants to start?"

Hami grinned. "Me!" She grabbed the flashlight and held it under her chin, pulling her soft black blanket around herself, trying to appear sinister.

"Many moons ago, there was war. War between two great countries. During that war, a young man was fighting beside his brother. His brother was killed brutally. Seven years after the war ended, the young man still had nightmares about the war. His brother's memory kept him awake at night. He could remember nothing but war. One night, he got crazy drunk, like my Dad after the Oilers lost to the Flames for the bazillionth time in a row. Then, while he was passed out drunk, his brother appeared in a dream. He held out his hand to his brother, who took it. The young man never woke up."

Thunder clapped outside. The kids jumped and laughed. Ivy took the flashlight.

"My Papa told me this one." She grinned. "Once, there was a guy called Tom. He lived in Tennessee. He loved girls. One night, he met a beautiful girl named El. El was funny and pretty, and best of all, she liked men as much as Tom liked girls. The two had an affair, and Tom drove El out to Lover's Lane one night. Unfortunately, what Tom didn't know, was that El was married to a big strong hunter. The two were kissing when the car door was suddenly yanked open, and El's jealous husband pulled Tom out by the scruff of his neck. Tom begged and pleaded for his life, but El's husband dragged him down the trail into the woods. With a big butcher knife, he skinned Tom alive. Then he turned himself in to the police. When the cops went looking for Tom, all they found was his hide, hanging over a tree branch. They never found Tom. Over the years, lots of people believed to have seen a man with no skin, but red bones and muscle, blood dripping from his body. They say that Skinned Tom still haunts Lover's Lane, and they say if you go there, you'll be dragged by the scruff of your neck out to the spot Tom was skinned. They say he'll skin people alive until he has his revenge on El and her husband."

Damien shivered, but grinned. He was getting kind of scared, but he just hugged his yellow bear closer to his chest.

Ming grinned, taking the light. She was tightly wrapped in a fuzzy blanket, holding her yellow rabbit teddy. "Well, this story is much more local than those. This story is true. It's about Damien, and Fredbear's Family Diner."

Damien's fake brave grin faded. "No, you can't!" He gasped. "It's not even a good story!"

"Yes I can. You're my twin, so it practically happened to me. I'll make it a good story."

"Fine." Damien whimpered, hugging his bear closer to his chest.

"Alright... This happened when Damien and I were four. Back then, Freddy Fazbear's was a small restaurant, known as Fredbear's Family Diner. We loved that restaurant, Damien and I. It's where we got our favourite toys." Ming and Damien indicated the teddies that they each hugged tightly. "Back then, there was a show about it, too, with all the characters we know now- Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy. But on stage, there were only two animatronics, whose names have been lost to time. We remember them as Spring and Fredbear. Back then, Damien's favourite was Fredbear. He was obsessed with Fredbear. He watched Fredbear and Friends every night. Until one day, tragedy struck. Damien had bullies back then. They were awful. They picked him up and carried him to the stage. Now remember, we were only four. Tiny Damien was scared of the giant animatronics who loomed over even the adults. Mom and Dad were sitting at our table, watching me play in the ballpit. Then, they heard Damien's screams. Dad turned his head just in time to see Damien's head stuck between the jaws of Fredbear, and then... his screams were silenced in an instant with one, sickening crunch. I remember the screaming. There was blood gushing out onto the floor, so much blood that it spread and covered everything in deep red stains. Dad caught Damien before his lifeless body hit the ground." Ming paused for dramatic effect, and to assess her audience. Ivy and Hami were waiting with baited breath, hanging onto each word with enthusiasm. Damien was hugging his teddy bear. He looked really scared. Tears were actually spilling off his cheeks.

Ming continued, shifting her grip on the flashlight. "In the hospital, the doctors worked day and night to save him. During the nights, he had nightmares. He told me the nightmares himself. Bonnie, who stalked the left hallway, fangs and claws and red glowing eyes. Chica, who stalked the right hallway, with her cupcake torn and menacing. The cupcake would jump at him when Chica got too near. She had holes for eyes. Foxy, in the closet, with a long tongue and metallic scream. Freddy, who waited by the bed, with three little Freddies to warn of his appearance. And finally, Fredbear himself, with wily whiskers and long sharp claws. With bloody fangs and a mouth on his belly, waiting to eat his prey, one way or another. Alongside Fredbear, was a shadow. A shadow called Nightmare. Damien knew if any of the monsters caught him, he would die. So he fought. He hid from the monsters and fought back, with only a flashlight to protect him. Five days after the accident, the doctors did something they called a lobotomy. By a miracle, Damien survived. Since then, Fredbear's had closed, selling to Fazbear entertainment, where Fredbear sits in the back closet, out of view, still stained red with blood."

Her audience was silent as she finished.

"My turn." Damien grabbed the flashlight. "That's not the only ghost story that Freddy and his friends has to offer. There's another one, a rumour that's been spreading around our little town. A rumour that Ming and I have our own theories on."

"Tell!" Ivy gasped. Hami nodded, egging Damien on.

"They say that the new Freddy Fazbear's here in Harmony Rose is haunted. They say that screams can be heard from the animatronics at night when nobody is there. They say that Freddy's laugh is evil. They say Bonnie's voice only gets sadder and sadder, no matter how much they try and fix it. They say that Chica's cupcake tries to escape late at night. They say Foxy went mad, trying to rip himself apart, in front of a kid's birthday party! They say that the robots wander the halls freely at night, where the angry spirits that live there try and find the one that killed them. They seek justice. They seek vengeance. They search for their killer, the Purple Guy."

"The Purple Guy?" Hami laughed.

"Yes!"

"That's why the robots hate the colour purple." Ming threw in.

Ivy shivered. "I think I've had enough scary stories."

"Okay. Goodnight, then, guys." Ming snuggled into her bed. One by one, the others followed suit.

Damien stared up at the ceiling. He had wanted nothing more than to forget the nightmare creatures that had once been his favourite restaurant. Now that Ming brought them up, he'd be forced to relive a portion of those nightmares. It happened every time somebody mentioned Fredbear's Family Diner, or the bite.