The Road Home 4
"Here, you are making a mess." He picked up a washcloth off the table, leaned over and tried his level best to wipe the mustard and bits of burger off the rabbit's muzzle and succeed in making a bigger mess. At least he hadn't eaten the bags though he had eaten some of the paper wrapper in his haste to inhale the burgers and most the fries. The shallow burns had all but vanished and new fur was growing in to cover the spots and the two deeper ones had been reduced to pink flesh with bits of purple fur slowly growing in.
"You need a bath." Bonnie seemed to perk up a bit at the mention of that. It was the most animated Jeremey had seen the rabbit in days and he took it as a good sign.
Getting a large marshmallow of a rabbit into a small bathtub had been difficult to say the least, more so since he had to be careful of the still healing injuries. Still they had managed and Bonnie greatly resembled a said marshmallow once he was situated in the porcelain tub.
Getting an oversized rabbit clean was harder than he imagined, more so when Bonnie decided he was more inserted in the bubbles then remaining still. It took a considerable amount of time to get the layers of grime and long dried blood off along with a fair amount of loose fur. It took even longer to convince Bonnie to get out of the tub and sit still long enough for Jeremy to turn a hair dryer on the rabbit to get him dry.
"So glad I don't have to do this every day." He joked while running the blow dryer over Bonnie's back, ruffling the deep rich purple fur with one hand. While it was a bit worrying that Bonnie barely responded, he figured the rabbit would come around in time.
He sat the hair dryer down and unplugged it before turning his attention back to Bonnie. He sensed that any and all attempts to get the rabbit back to bed would be met with resistance and he was up and walking somewhat so what could the harm be?
"I know you don't want to go back to bed and I don't blame you, lying around all day is pretty boring. There is a park nearby, not too many people go to it anymore and there's a lot of woods…" he didn't need a response other than the look the rabbit was giving him and the way the large fluffy tail was wagging. It was adorable really. Jeremy smiled and rubbed one of the large ears.
"Alright buddy, let's go.
The walk to the park was uneventful. The thick carpet of dry leaves crunched underfoot while a cripst breeze, as chilly as early fall could make it, brushed over any exposed skin. Jeremy breathed deeply of the cool air, enjoying the scent of dry leaves and damp earth. Soon the small park would be filled with kids and adults celebrating the fall holidays but for now it was largely empty save for a small group of kids in the playground.
Much to his amusement Bonnie had planted his big self on one of the seesaws and the kids had gathered around him though he hardly seemed to mind. In fact he seemed to be enjoying the attention. It was all good signs to him.
He adjusted the ridiculous scarf his step sister had given him last year and fished the phone out of his pocket and took a picture then sent it to Michael and his step sister. A few moments later he received a text from Ellie.
'Damn it Jeremy! I laughed so hard I almost choked on my coffee.'
He smiled and tucked the phone back into a pocket, watching the rabbit inchworm across the ground like some sort of demented caterpillar while the children followed and laughed. There had been no calls from the cops about the identity of the trio that had broken in or any info on the case. It was almost as if it had been pushed under a rug somewhere and quietly covered up.
Uh, hello? Hello, hello? Uh, hello and welcome to your new job at the new and improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Uh, I'm here to talk you through some of the things you can expect to see during your shift and to help you get started down this new and exciting career path.
Fazbear Entertainment is committed to family fun and above all, safety. They've spent a small fortune on these new animatronics, uh, facial recognition, advanced mobility, they even let them walk around during the day. Isn't that neat? But most importantly, they're all tied into some kind of criminal database, so they can detect a predator a mile away. We should be paying them to guard you.
Uh, now that being said, no new system's without its... kinks. Uh... you're only the second guard to work at that location. Uh, the first guy complained about... conditions. Uh, we switched him over to the day shift, so hey, lucky you, right? Uh mainly he expressed concern that certain characters seemed to move around at night, and even attempted to get into his office.
So while our engineers don't really have an explanation for this, the working theory is that... the robots were never given a proper "night mode". So when it gets quiet, they think they're in the wrong room, so then they go try to find where the people are, and in this case, that's your office. Eventually anything that wandered in, will wander back out. Well, I think that's it. Have a good night, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.
Mike almost chuckled at the pre recorded phone message. Nothing new there. The band used to wander the building at night and would often pop into the small office. There was a lot more room in this office, so much so the entire band could easily fit and there would be room to spare.
The originals however, that was a different story. They never came to the office with the intention of speaking or playing a game, they had far more murdery things on their minds. Charlie had been right about them being like animals in the sense of how they acted. He pulled at the sleeve of his uniform, tugging it over a long deep scar. At least the angry spirits had long been laid to rest and one responsible had gone up in flames along with the fright. Though Charrile had decided to hang around and help where she could and he deeply appreciated that help.
He glanced up at the monitors then sat up when he noticed one of the band members was missing. The odd rabbit. Not that he was overly concerned about it, after all Phone Guy did mention the mascots would roam the building.
Leaning back in the chair he yawned and propped his feet up on the edge of the desk. Should have brought a book or something but there hadn't been time to go all the way home and back during the small amount of time during breaks.
You appear to have an admirer.
Hearing a faint noise he looked up to see a large pair of green eyes staring directly into his. Startled he let out a very unmanly yelp and lost his balance, tipping the chair over. He hit the floor with a thump. He could hear a faint laughter coming from somewhere in the dark room.
From his position on the floor he could see a large bright blue rabbit leaning over the desk, watching him curiously.
Getting up he righted the chair then plopped down in it, regarding the rabbit that continued to stare at him in a mildly unsettling manner.
The rabbit was slender, nowhere near the marshmallow Bonnie was with its narrow almost girly hips, a small muzzle and oddly enough, bright red cheeks. It looked like a giant toy.
He tried to focus on the monitors but he could feel the rabbit's gaze boring into him. Not once did it utter a sound other than the faint hiss of hydraulics and creak of servos. Maybe it couldn't speak outside the pre-programmed lines which meant it wasn't going to be holding any conversations with him any time soon.
The rabbit's head tilted slightly and one ear flopped over. Other than that it didn't move.
"Don't you have something better to do other than stare at me? Like tune your guitar or something?" the rabbit continued to stare.
Must be some kind of kink in its system. Or maybe it was simply fascinated by him for some unknown reason.
With a smirk he leaned back in the chair and propped his feet back up on the edge of the desk while flicking through the cameras, watching the other two toy-like machines roam aimlessly through the large restaurant. Eventually the rabbit wandered back out and returned to the stage, picking up the guitar then going motionless.
"That was creepy." he muttered to the darkness.
I think he likes you.
"Well I don't like it." at least it wasn't trying to batter a door down and kill him thinking he was his father.
After a few moments he got up and grabbed the flash light. The restaurant was eerily silent save the occasional hum of the air conditioner. It was almost unsettling. The old restaurant there were always sounds, a radio or TV running, Chica puttering around the kitchen or Foxxy humming some old tune. The memory made his heart sink deep into his chest and grip tighten on the flash light.
Michael found himself in the main room, the layout was similar to the old restaurant so it was easy to navigate around the countless tables. Eventually he wandered into a party room with the ever familiar prize corner filled with cheap plastic toys and stuffed versions of the mascots.
This brings back memories of the restaurant. Good ones. I used to be really good at Skee ball.
Despite the gloomy memories he smiled then walked further into the room and flipped the main power switch. The arcades leapt to life filling the air with electronic music while the lights flashed, the small carousel near the far side lit up. "I used to be pretty good myself. It's been a while though." he put a few quarters into the nearest skee ball machine, grinning as wooden balls clacked against each other.
Think you can beat my high score Michael?
"I can try." he hefted one of the balls, the fmailer feel of the smooth wooden ball in his fingers brought back childhood memories. He lined the shot up and rolled the ball, sinking it right into the one hundred point cup. "Looks like I still have it."
"Way to go buddy! You are a natural!"
He jumped in surprise and whirled around to come face to face with the plastic bear that was standing a short distance away. The lights and sounds must have drawn chubby Freddy's attention, its face frozen in a permanent smile. Once the surprise wore off he smirked and picked up another ball.
A few hours later, still smiling he was leaning against the prize counter, sporting a ridiculous stuffed purple rabbit while chubby Freddy congratulated him. "Pretty sure I beat your high score Charlie."
I think you did. It's been so long since I've had this much fun.
"Glad you had fun Charlie.' he sat the silly rabbit on the edge of the counter. "With William destroyed I guess that means you will be moving on to."
There is a lot to do still and you need my help.
"Pretty sure we destroyed all the original locations and possessed animatronics." except one but he wasn't sure he could bring himself to do it. That was his sister after all.
The Legacy still remains.
"Not much I can do about that. My fathers old works are so scattered it may be impossible to find it all."
True. But I suppose we shouldn't worry about it right now.
Still in a good mood he picked the silly stuffed rabbit up and wandered around the arcade, pausing at a few machines every now and then. Most were new and unfamiliar or were rip offs of older games with the mascots replacing the original characters. Chubby bear followed though he didn't pay too much attention to the machine since it wasn't aggressive. At Charlie's request he'd stop at certain games and waste a few quarters playing it and more often than not, failed horribly at not losing.
The night seemed to slip away largely unnoticed and the cold heavy weight that had been hanging around him lifted for a few hours. By the time the sun touched the sky he was worn down, exhausted but in a good mood and sensed Charlie was in one as well.
