Setting the stage.
Chapter 4: Catalyst.
Marcus hadn't considered the possibility of having more allies - at least not one who were alive. It was easier with the children because they were in the same predicament as he. But the possibility of having a human ally... it was impossible. He didn't know if the man would listen to him without freaking out.
Despite that, the man showed great promise and Marcus had to consider him as a ally - one way or another. He was one of the employees at the Pizzeria, and he was only doing his job, he was also wise and more open to discussion. He wasn't a fan of his latest assignment - which was spying on his work colleges and reporting back to his boss. Talk about an invasion of privacy. All because because somebody went to a newspaper journalist and told them about the on goings at Freddy's.
So? What was the issue with that? The company was already in trouble before the children went missing. What difference does it make if people knew about the truth of your extensive lies? Maybe they should of fixed the problems before they got worse...
Marcus stopped pacing. Was he being too condescending? He couldn't sugar coat entire situation - clearly, there were problems that needed to be dealt with - but why should he care? He was the one affected by their negligence. If they saw him outside during the birthday party then none of this would have happened in the first place. If they had found him in time maybe the murderer wouldn't have killed him.
"Your still angry..." Alex observed.
It turns out the brunette hadn't left him. Marcus was almost certain that he wasn't going to come back yet Alex proved him wrong. Maybe he just needed time to himself. Though Marcus hadn't mentioned it yet, he was grateful for the kid's return. He didn't mind spending time with the other kids - though Brandon and Felix were really getting on his nerves - it just wasn't the same as spending time with Alex.
He knew Alex better than he did the other kids - but there was always time to change that. Alex was like a brother to him, possibility the closet thing he would have to a brother given their unfortunate circumstances. He spent a lot more time with the boy than he did with the other children, and he was willing to do whatever it took to protect him.
"I'm not angry, Alex, just... I'm really frustrated." Marcus sighed. "If they put this much effort into protecting the children maybe none of this would've happened."
Alex tilted his head to the side. "You make it sound like they don't care about us."
"Its a little bit more complicated than that, Alex." Marcus admitted. How is he going to explain this to a child? "They're not obligated to care about us. Most of them are just in for it for the money. Some just decide to work here because its easy. And if this place shuts down... Well, I don't think they will care if this building shuts down for good. Sure, they'll loose their jobs but they find another soon enough. So long as they get payed..."
"But you care." Alex pointed out.
"I care?" Marcus repeated as he frowned.
Did he really care about what happened to Freddy? No, why should he? He didn't care about Freddy's. Personally, he couldn't wait for the day it shut down for good. Everything he had been going so far was to speed up the process, just in case the health inspector decided to come to Freddy's unannounced and do a surprise inspection. Unfortunately, he had underestimated just how good the cleaning staff were at their job - which is odd because they could easily do a proper clean up on this place yet they are choosing not to. Still though it was worth the effort and Marcus did love creating chaos in the Pizzeria.
And yet...
That wasn't really the answer to Alex's question, and Marcus knew that.
The real answer to the question was: If Freddy's were to shut down then would he still be able to catch the killer?
No, he wouldn't.
Because when this place does shut down he would have to move on, and Marcus would be back to square one. He didn't even have a name for him. Yet, the murderer and Alex's friend had the same face... But this man had changed since the last time he had saw. His eyes were grey and dull. Alex had talked about colours before and how they had different meanings. Grey was connected to loss and depression.
If that's the case then, what exactly had he lost? After what he did to him, did he even have the right to grieve in the first place?
And his hair... it was an odd shade of purple. Marcus didn't know why anyone would want to change their hair colours, especially to an odd colour. Alex told him that the colour purple was connected to royalty. How obnoxious!
Apart from that, he was still the same person. Same person, different appearance.
"I guess, in a strange way, I do care..." Marcus admitted.
"You only care about hurting the one who hurt you." Alex murmured.
Well, he's not wrong...
"Do you think I should trust him?" Marcus asked.
Trust is hard to come by these days...
"I think you should." Alex perked up. "He's not like the others. He really cares about this place, and he wants to help us."
"Yeah. A lot of good that did..." Marcus replied sarcastically
Alex didn't hear him. "Well, you should at least consider it. He's a nice person. He doesn't deserve this kind of treatment."
"Hey, Alex! Come check this out!"
Marcus watched as Alex ran over to Felix. He's not sure how the redhead did it, but Felix had one of the picture books that you could colour in - Maybe one of those kids left it behind. Or maybe he found it by the trash outside. Either way he's just glad that Felix was distracted by something. That kid needs to be watch constantly.
But back to the matter at hand.
Maybe Alex did have a point.
Maybe he should talk about Mr Cawthon and bring him into the fold. He seemed to be the only one who wanted to make a difference around here, and he did want to find the children. Yet, Marcus didn't know if he could trust him. Trust could easily be taken advantage of - something which Marcus was already familiar with - and whilst he believed that Mr Cawthon was a nice person he hadn't done anything to gain his trust yet.
He believes that Adrien is innocent.
He is innocent. He is not his killer.
But how do you tell them that?
Maybe he should keep an eye on him and see what he does next. Mr Cawthon had been in the back room the last time he had saw - he still was. If he were to find... the secret room then he would find... that suit as well...
Perhaps it was time to leave some clues behind.
"So he saw them in the dining room..."
Scott was in the back room, the very same room where they kept the Spring Bonnie suit in. The room was mainly used a safe room for those who used the Spring Bonnie suit, as to not beak the illusion between the character and the employee. But the room was also used as a emergency room should something happened to the person inside the suit - hence why only two people were using it. Thankfully, the suit was only used during birthday parties so the chances of something happening to the person inside the suit as very small - Not that it made things any better because using the suit in the first place as considered as dangerous.
"He told them to follow him, and he brought them back here... Then what? What exactly happened to the children?"
He was hunched over the table. He was trying to figure out what exactly happened to the children after they followed Spring Bonnie to the back room. Evidently, that wasn't his job. He should leave it to the police to figure out what happened. Yet, there was something about this whole situation that was bothering him. Where exactly were the kids? They were seen entering the building but they never left, and they are not in the Pizzeria so where were they?
Scott had managed to... find a map of the building. …Okay, so technically he found it in the security office and he might of took it when nobody was looking - He was going to put it back when he was done... eventually. - He needed a layout of the building. There must have been a room that they missed. The map was rather old so there was a possibility of the Pizzeria having extra rooms that nobody knew about. According to the map there were no adjoining rooms connected to the back room so there was a possibility of a hidden room being connected to this room. Maybe behind the metal cabinets or...
The world around him went dark as somebody put their hands over his eyes.
"Guess who?"
Scott relaxed slightly, knowing full well who exactly was behind him. He should be more annoyed by the unexpected joke but, after knowing this person for a number of years now, he was used to it and knew that they meant no harm in what they were doing. He sort of expected it from him.
"Oh, I don't know. Someone rather annoying I'd imagine."
"The stranger huffed as he removed his hands. "Scott, you are no fun."
Scott chucked. "Well, you can blame yourself and Blake for that one. I have known you two long enough to see the tell-tale signs."
"I suppose so..." The stranger relented as he came into view on Scott's right side.
As expected, it was his childhood friend, Vincent. His hair was neatly done up in a ponytail - and, oddly enough, it was dyed purple. When did he did that? He was wearing the same uniform as he: A blue shirt and trousers, a brown bodywarmer and bowtie and a black belt and shoes. But, what really caught Scott of guard was the colour of his eyes. They were grey. Odd. Scott was completely certain that Vincent's eyes were black. It couldn't have been eye contacts, could it? No, as far as he was aware Vincent had rather good eye sight So what was it then?
A frown appeared on his face. "Am I missing something here, Scott? There seems to be a rather... sombre atmosphere around here?"
Scott nodded nervously. "Uh, yeah, there was an... incident a few days ago. Some of the kids went missing during the a birthday party and they haven't been found yet."
"Oh." Was the only thing that came out of Vincent's mouth.
"To make matters worse there was a newspaper report released today. It talked about the incident and..." Scott gulped. "It... It... talked about bodies, Vincent. They think the children are dead."
Vincent didn't say anything to him but his mouth was open slightly. He didn't have to say anything, he knew that he felt the same as he did. It leads back to his own children, Alice and Robert. He couldn't bare the thought of something happening to his children. What if they had been at the Pizzeria during that day and they had been kidnapped as well?
Without warning, Vincent pulled him in for a hug. Scott let out a strangled sob as the taller man comforted him, he didn't even realise that he had been crying in the first place. Why do things have to be this way? He felt like a total failure, all because he couldn't find or protect the children. He should be doing something. He needs to find those kids before it too late, not taking orders and spying on people all because someone betrayed the company's trust.
It... It was already too late, wasn't it?
"Scott, its not your fault." Vincent assured him.
"Yes it is." Scott chocked out. "If I had done something different. If I had just found those kids..."
"Scott, you can not take the blame for this." Vincent removed his arms and took Scott's hands instead. "A business cannot function with only one person - Believe me when I say this, I know about these things. We're in this mess because we got lazy. There's no passion for Freddy's anymore."
'Its true.' Scott thought as he took in Vincent's words. 'It needs a serious clean up job, yet nobody can be bothered to do it. Not even Mr Griffin...'
"And as for those children... Well, its just rumours at the moment, isn't it? Nothing has been confirmed yet." Scott tried to protest but Vincent cut him off. "Yes, yes I know. Apparently, police are looking for bodies, but we don't know if its related to the incident or not. I'm sure the children are fine. There just waiting somewhere. Waiting to be found."
"I'm not sure, Vince. Its been days..." Scott replied doubtfully.
"Perhaps, perhaps not. We won't know more until they are found."
"I guess..."
Vincent's words didn't cheer him up entirely but it did clear up some of the doubts in his mind - albeit temporarily. He's right, he can't take the entire blame for the downfall of the Pizzeria. Perhaps he should've done more to protect the business from failing but he can't do all of the work by himself. It takes a team to keep a business afloat. …A team and some money, but there was way too much work for one person to do alone.
And, even if he had managed to find a team, the right resources and some money he didn't think he would get permission to refurbish the Pizzeria. Sure, Mr Griffin trusted him, but he didn't think he would allow him to do whatever he wanted to.
Scott took a few minutes to compose himself. He didn't like showing physical distress to anyone. He was able to keep everything under wraps for the sake of professionalism. But everyone had there breaking point and, given everything that had happening before, it was only a matter of time before he reached his. It just felt like he was doing everything on his own and that no one was helping him. But he knew Vincent would never judge him for showing his emotions. He knew what it was like to be in that position.
"You feeling any better?" Vincent asked.
"Yeah. A little bit." Scott said. "I'm sorry. I just don't know what came over me."
"You don't need to apologise to me, Scott. You shouldn't have to hide your emotions." Vincent replied. "And, given what's happened, its only natural you would response like that."
"Y-yeah. I don't know what I would if anything happened to Alice or Robert."
Vincent merely hummed in response.
"How is Alec anyway? I haven't seen the little guy in a while. Is he doing any better?" Scott inquired.
"Alec?" Vincent repeated before chuckling. "Oh, that little scamp. He's a real blessing, you know? I'd be lost without him. He makes the room more lively. You know me, Scott, I don't like sitting still for a long time. And having Alec around just makes thing better. The things we get up..."
"I'd imagine it would be quite messy." The brunette guessed.
"Absolutely. All I'm saying is Alec shouldn't be left alone in kitchen. I leave the room to take care of something, or I turn my back for five mintues, and somehow the kitchen becomes a right mess. Of course, I'm upset because I need to clean up the mess. But Alec just slaps that innocent smile on his face and I can't be angry with him." Vincent replied. "Ah, well, can't imagine who he gets that from..."
"And what about my godson? Now he's definitely someone who I haven't seen in a long time. He's got to be... eleven now, right?" Scott inquired. "I'm telling you, Vincent. They're growing up too fast."
Vincent didn't reply to him. In fact everything that he had been there before - the laughter, that dreamy look in his eyes, the smile - had vanished instantly. The corners of his mouth were drawn down and he was looking away from him. His arms were crossed over his chest. A sense of worry came over Scott. There had only been two times when he had seen him like that. It had always been when he had received terrible news.
Vincent swallowed. "We'... We're fine, Scott. Me and Alec are fine."
Frowning, Scott replied with. "But, I was asking about..."
"Like I said we are fine, Scott."
Did he just deflect his question?
Vincent cleared his throat. "So, uh." He turned around and look at the map on the table. "What's this map for, Scott? Are you potting revenge or something?"
"Revenge?" Scott followed his gaze and noticed the map on the table. "Oh. No, no, no, no. I'm not plotting anything. I was just wondering if there were any hidden rooms around the Pizzeria. There's just something about this whole situation with the kids that's bothering me."
"There's something about it that's bothering me too." Vincent admitted. "And it might be the same thing that's bothering you as well. Tel me about it."
"Its to do with the whereabouts of the children." Scott told him. Vincent nodded in response. "I was wondering where they are. They haven't left the building. We checked the security footage several times but we've never seen walking through the front door or using the fire exit. They were seen leaving the room with Spring Bonnie but we don't know what happened to them. For all we know they could still be in the building."
"Well, the building is rather old. Perhaps we did miss something." Vincent commented.
Scott nodded. He went closer to the table and told him about his hypothesis. He pointed to the various locations where he thinks that a hidden room might be. It might be a little bit far-fetch but there were certain things about this whole situation that weren't adding up. If the children were still in the building then they had to be in one of the these rooms. If they were hiding somewhere in the Pizzeria then someone was bound to find them eventually. If they had been killed then there was a possibility that the bodies were still in the Pizzeria - Scott was doing his best to keep an eye on the place. If there was something out of place he would knew about it.
Ever so often his eyes would glace over to Vincent - Thankfully, his friend didn't seem to notice. Whilst he was certain that Vincent was still listening to him, the man had a rather pensive look on is face - the happiness that Scott had seen before still hadn't returned yet. Scott couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking about.
"You've clearly thought about this, haven't you?" Vincent questioned.
"Well, don't tell anyone I said this, but the way they are handing the situation is wrong, and I want to show them why." The brunette confessed. "Mr Griffin wants me to spy on the other employees, and I don't think this is the right way to move forward."
"Talk about an invasion of privacy." The purple haired man mused. "Why would he want you to do that?"
Scott moved way from the table. "Because someone went to the journalist and told them about the what happened. He thinks one of us did it."
He went over to one of the walls, put his ear against the wall and knocked on it - he moved onto another section of the wall when he was finished. This is rather silly, Scott mused to himself, and he was grateful of the fact that Vincent wasn't teasing him about it - No, instead, the taller man was helping him not hindering. But, at this point, he was willing to try anything. He was listening out for... voices? Odd sounds? He didn't know what he was listening out for. But, if he heard something strange one the other side of the wall, then that could be what he was looking for.
"Hey, Scott? Can you help me with this please?" Vincent requested.
He was standing by the metal cabinet, where they kept all of the tools in so that they could fix the animatronics - unfortunately most of the tools were rather rusty so they weren't used all that very often. Vincent had tried to move the cabinet himself but it wouldn't budge.
Though, when Scott walked over to him, he noticed something on the floor.
"The heck?" He muttered as he knelt down.
"What is it?" Vincent inquired.
Scott moved his hand over the marking on the floor. It looked like paint, the same kind of paint that was used on the walls. It was dry, and it looked like there was more under the cabinet.
"Its paint." The brunette told him.
"Paint?" Vincent frowned. "But there's no paint cans in here."
Scott nodded. "Right. We keep it in the storage room. But what's it doing in here?"
He stood up and help Vincent move the cabinet. The brunette huffed as he struggled to move it. He could see why Vincent was having trouble moving it. The cabinet was already heavy as it is. Add all of the tools and the other stuff in there and you were going to have a hard time moving it. He could tell that it had been a long time since the cabinet had been moved since there was a rectangular print on the floor.
As soon as the cabinet was out of the way, Scott turned his attention to the uncovered wall. His eyes widen once he saw what was waiting for him.
There were crack marks on the wall and, by the looks of things, it looked like somebody was trying to cover it up. The brush marks were still on the wall, and it looked like somebody used one of the bigger paint brushes. Scott went in for a closer look.
"Do you see anything?" Vincent asked.
Scott turned around and shook and shook his head. "No. Its too dark to see anything. We need to find a touch and notify Mr Griffin about this."
"Couldn't we just smash the wall down ourselves? We could cover it up later with the cabinet." Vincent suggested. "Its not like he needs to know..."
"Are you out of your mind? We could get into some serious trouble for this." Scott questioned. "What If I'm wrong about this, Vince? What if there's nothing back there and this has been a complete waste of time? If we deal with this ourselves we could get arrested for damaging public property. We have families to take care of. We can't just..."
"Alright, alright, I get it." Vincent conceded. "Jeez, Scott. It was just a suggestion..."
Scott huffed as he turned his back on him. Typical Vincent. Why couldn't he take this seriously? They could get fired for this - worse then that, they could get arrested. Then they wouldn't be able to see their children as often as they wanted to. Vincent should have considered that before he opened his mouth. What if something happened to Alec whilst he was in prison? He should be taking this more seriously. They were already in deep waters as it is and, with the way things currently were, they were probably going to loose their jobs in the next few months if business doesn't start pick up again.
But he wouldn't know what that feels like, would he?
He heard Vincent mumbling behind him. "...It was just suggestion... I wasn't trying to..." Vincent sighing. "I'm sorry, Scott. Its been a couple of hard weeks. I just wanted to let off some steam, and I wasn't really thinking. I know how much this means to you..."
Scott frowned. A couple of hard weeks? What was he hiding now?
He was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of a phone bussing. It wasn't his phone, he would've felt that vibrating in his pocket. He turned around and saw Vincent looking at his phone. He look a bit uneasy.
"I'm sorry but I need to take this. Its Annabelle." He said.
Annabelle, Samantha's Sister. She was a nurse who was helping Vincent with Alec's condition, so it was absolutely necessary that Vincent needed to take this phone call. What if something happened to Alec whilst he was at work? He knew Vincent would never forgive himself if something were to happen to Alec whilst he was not there.
"Go ahead. I'll tell Mr Griffin about what we discovered." Scott replied.
Vincent nodded before leaving the room as quickly as possible, the phone was already by his ear. Scott hoped it was good news. They could use some of that after everything they have been through. He turned his attention to the cracked wall behind him. There had to be something back there. Somebody went through a great deal of effort to cover up whatever was in there, and Scott was determined to find out what. He would need to talk to Mr Griffin about this first, but he was fairly certain that his boss would allow him to proceed with his investigation.
With that in mind he started to make his way out of the room. But, as soon as he reached out to grab the doorknob, he froze, recalling what happened earlier. Vincent seemed rather... reluctant to talk about his family. Which was odd because he loved talking about his family. They were the best thing that had ever happened to him, especially his sons who he adored so much. It was because of them that Vincent wanted to be a better Father - better than the one he had. But why was he so reluctant to talk about them.
Samantha was understandable since she had been killed last year so it was bound to hurt talking about her.
But Mike...
Why didn't he want to talk about Mike? Why did he look so upset when he brought him up?
He even deflected his question when he brought up Mikey. He only talked about himself and Alec...
Shaking his head, Scott opened the door and left the room. He would have to think about it later. He had more important issues to deal with at the moment. He made his way back to Mr Griffin's office, hoping that nothing bad had happened to his godson.