Chapter 6: Enlighten Me

It was a mistake.

It had to be.

The bill is too high. Nothing astronomical, but more than what she had budgeted. Marlene backtracks, trying to come up with a reasonable excuse for the bill but turns up with nothing. What happened in September that messed with her bill? She grabs her phone and opens the contact named "Electric Company."

"I don't believe this," Marlene mutters, looking at the number again, "there's just no way it's that high…"

"Hm? Don't believe what?"

"Look at this!" Marlene slides the bill across the table, "It's so expensive! It's gotta be a mistake!"

Marlene doesn't miss how quiet the robot was. She expected him to react like she did, or ask what the billed amount should have been. But Sun leans away from the piece of paper. The gesture reminds her of when she'd catch her sister, who'd look anywhere and everywhere else after breaking one of her toys as a kid.

Suspicious.

"Sun… Do you know why the bill is so high?"

"W-well uh you see…" Sun starts, closing the book and setting it on the table. He straightens it before answering quietly. "Maybe?"

Marlene gives him a tight smile.

"Enlighten me."

"...I may leave the lights on all night."

Marlene bites her tongue so as not to yell at him. She rubs her forehead and wonders if this was her fault.

Besides, it might be a coincidence. Sun had only moved in during the last week of October. Surely the bill would have been in the mailing process by then?

No, Marlene couldn't blame him for this month's bill but all this did make her realize the fragility of their living situation. How had it slipped her mind that he didn't need to sleep as she did? That his energy was her electricity? Was it wrong to assume the robot would sit in the dark all night?

Or was there more to Sun's actions?

Marlene peeks back up at Sun, whose bells jingle quietly as he fiddles with his hands. "Why did you do that, Sun?" She finally asks, bringing her hand down to cup her cheek and leaning her head against it.

"... I'm scared of what will happen when the lights are off…"

Marlene frowns, unsure if she understood the animatronic. Could he feel fear? Why would Fazbear Entertainment program him with such a thing? Or was that something he learned by himself?

Marlene wondered how many more emotions the robot understood.

"Are you afraid of the dark?"

"No, not really." Sun shakes his head, picking at the ribbons on his wrists. "It's just… I've heard stories."

'Stories?' Marlene wonders. "What kinds of stories, Sun?"

Though Sun's face couldn't convey discomfort, the way the robot's shoulders slump forward told Marlene everything she needed to know. She doesn't press, though curiosity certainly pricked at her mind. Instead, Marlene gets up and lays her hand over his fumbling ones.

"If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to," Marlene says, "But we need to talk about the light thing. We cannot keep the lights on at night."

Marlene starts pulling her hand away when Sun gently moves to hold it. Admittedly, she was startled but didn't pull away. Instead, she uses a free hand to pull a chair closer and sits next to him.

"How… How much do you know about the daycare?" He asks as he runs a thumb over her hand.

"Not much. I knew that you and another animatronic worked there, but that's about it." Marlene admits, her mind drifting back to the posters hung up depicting a moon animatronic. It was promoting some sort of candy if she remembered correctly… Moondrop Candies, was it?

"Well, you're half-right. You see, when the lights go off, I go away."

'You've lost me,' Marlene thinks but nods, urging him to continue.

"When it gets dark, a different program takes over. This program is my counterpart, Moon. He was meant to take care of the kids during nap time but he's gotten more… violent as of late."

Sun continues to play with her hand as he talks and Marlene lets him. "I don't have any memories of the time spent when Moon was in control… I just woke up with the lights on and time has passed. But I've heard so many bad things..."

'Ah, here's the root of the problem,' Marlene thinks as she gives Sun's hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Okay, I think I understand now. That is frightening. But Sun… there will be times we won't have lights."

Sun suddenly drops her hand and Marlene worries that she had crossed a line but she keeps going.

"Sometimes, we lose power out here and that's out of my control. If we are going to live together, I need to know what I'm dealing with. I need to feel safe. I think it would be better to test this out while we have control over whether there's light or not."

Sun tilts his face upside down and shakes his head. "I don't want to test anything out! It's dangerous! Dangerous!"

Marlene couldn't be mad at him but still found herself biting back the words "my house, my rules." It would probably be the easiest solution, but certainly not the best.

Instead, Marlene leans forward on her elbows. "I know it's scary, Sun," She consoles, "and we don't have to do this right away. However, I do believe it is worth thinking about. If Moon is dangerous, we need to have a plan just in case something goes wrong. Okay?"

'Plus, I cannot afford to be keeping the lights on 24/7,' Marlene adds silently as Sun gives her a slow nod. As she gives him a light pat on the shoulder, Sun tilts his head a half-up. A bit of an ambiguous motion, but she took that as a half-smile.

'Give him time,' Marlene reminds herself as she makes her way to her room, 'in the meantime, I think I'll apply to a few jobs…'

As Marlene shuts off her computer for the day, satisfied with her work, her phone buzzes. Out of habit, Marlene unlocks it to see a familiar name pop up.

9:00 P.M. Jesse

I'm really annoyed with work rn. Can I call you?

A second text quickly follows.

9:01 P.M. Jesse

pls?

Marlene texts back a "sure" and is immediately welcomed by her friend's contact popping up on her phone.

"Hey-"

"Hey, Marlene! Listen, you are not going to believe the shit going down at this new location," Jesse interrupts loudly on the other end and Marlene flinches away from her phone.

Jesse was her old co-worker back at the PizzaPlex. Jesse was an engineer. Or a mechanic perhaps? They did something techy, Marlene knew that much. After the second time she forgot, Marlene didn't dare to ask again.

Marlene and Jesse never worked together much, but they started at the PizzaPlex location around the same time and had orientation together. By some stroke of luck, the two hit it off.

Something good came out of working there at least.

"Yeah?" Marlene grins widely, leaning back in her chair, "Do tell."

"Alright, so they got me working on these new animatronics, right? And don't ask me for details 'cause I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. The instructions are so vague, you know? It's like they want me to make something out of nothing!"

Marlene catches herself nodding but stops short, answering instead with a delayed "Uh-huh?"

"And then the boss man comes in and he tells me I need to have a prototype done by the end of the month. Can you believe that?! A month! I'd be lucky to have working coding, much less a fully functional robot!"

"They didn't!" Marlene gasps, leaning forward again.

"They did! And I tell him, 'that's not possible. If we had a bigger team or more time, then maybe. But it isn't possible to make a functional robot in a month with our current resources,'" Jesse continues, growing louder and talking faster, "And the jackass has the nerve to tell me that all I have to do is build the shell. Say that first, for one thing! Secondly, what do I look like, a 3-D designer? I'm a programmer, dammit!"

"Wait, they don't need you to code it, they just want the shell? And what about the insides?"

"They're just going to reuse the old shit they recovered from the other locations," Jesse explains before grumbling quietly, "cheap bastards" afterward.

"Well, I'm sorry you had a rough day," Marlene says, feeling bad for her friend but also finding the situation to be pretty amusing. It was just the way Jesse told the story, Marlene assures herself as she bites the insides of her cheeks to hold in her laughter.

"Oh, I've got plenty more stories where that came from!" Jesse assures, "but that'd take forever and a day. It's been a while since we've hung out and I've got off a little earlier tomorrow. Are you free?"

"Yeah, I think I'm free," Marlene replies, knowing full well she had nothing going on until she got a job.

"Awesome! I'll pick you up. Does 4:00 sound good? We can grab dinner or something," Jesse asks and Marlene can hear the scribbling of a pen in the background.

"4:00 is fine."

"Alright! I'll see you then!"

"See you. Bye."

And just like that, the whirlwind that was her friend passed by. Marlene holds the phone out as her friend ends the call, watching the contact disappear from the screen.

Jesse had said it themselves: they're a programmer.

For a moment, Marlene wondered if they could solve Sun's problem or if they would even consider it. Then Marlene gently shakes her head, pocketing her phone.

That was a problem for another day.