Vinnie had initially felt like a fish out of water in Elmore, especially considering he was easily the darkest person there, a new kid living among the German-Irish population of the small town.

California, namely the LA area, was very different from the little Germanic town his step-father and business partner had found themselves in for business. Usually around this time, Vinnie would be across the border staying with relatives and helping around the house.

Due to the incident involving his half brother, Zach, and one of Henry's toddlers, Vinnie was now stuck in America dodging William's increasing mood swings.

He'd recently shot up nearly six inches and began picking up pocket money by helping out around town with basic maintenance jobs, which made William more combative. Last week, lunch had ended with a plate thrown at him for having upstaged William with unrequested pyrotechnics.

Vinnie had heard William and Henry talk to the investors after round two of confetti cannons yesterday evening.

They'd both taken credit for his hard work.

Vinnie knew better than to say otherwise.

Vinnie walked down the hall after watching the Fazbear Girls horse around in one of the main party rooms, including the smallest one, Dolli Mae yelling, "Back at it again at Krispy Kreme!"

And doing several flips and cartwheels with surprising accuracy, landing on her booted feet.

That had impressed Vinnie, only further cementing his interest in her.

He toted his boots, brown ones with an inch of heel that clacked loudly on every surface. The ballerina who played Bonnie, had told him about a dance studio that was usually open and empty, even giving him directions.

"Hey Vin!"

He ducked into the parts and storage room to see William, his stepfather and therefore much paler than him, hold up a red blanket. No wait, that was a suit piece.

That was the only thing William ever thought of.

The company.

"Yes William?"

"Yeah, uh, I need help with this costume piece here." William held up the costume torso and walked past Vinnie. Vinnie trotted behind him.

"What exactly happened to Mom?" Vinnie asked, still not sure if he bought the story he was told back in March.

"She went back home after that freak accident happened."

"And what happened to my sister?" Vinnie questioned, tugging on his red IZOD polo. Dad always told him she went with Madre after his little half-brother died.

He found himself in an empty room that smelled like dead rats left under a porch in July. Vinnie wrinkled his nose and set his dance shoes on the small work table, feeling like he should run.

When his step-father didn't answer his question, Vinnie grabbed his boots to leave, "Look, I gotta run, man."

William put a hand up on his son's chest and pushed Vinnie back to him. "Only take a second."

Vinnie shivered, feeling like something was wrong, "Dad, I'm sixteen, I have things to do right now. I can do it later, por favor?"

He was hoping to get some practice in an actual studio today, and afterwards, he might take Dolli Mae on another date to the pharmacy for sodas.

"Don't disrespect me, young man."

Vinnie gulped and absently ruffled his black locks of curly hair, not comfortable with William's tone as his brown eyes searched the room. William held up the red costume pieces folded one the table.

"Need someone in these for something. It's on the smaller side, so I think it would fit."

"Why do you need me to put these on, exactly?"

"Cause. You might need to wear a mascot suit in case Dolli Mae is sick or the animatronic breaks down again."

"Oooookay?" Vinnie said. He grabbed the torso and the head, and said, "It's nice to see you out of the rabbit costume though. It was startn' to get a lil funky."

He pulled on the legs and sleeves. Putting his arms out, he asked, "There, you happy now?"

Unusually crabby because Maggie had chewed him out for no explainable reason after yesterday's date with Dolli Mae, Vinnie started to pull the head off to toss it back onto the worktable so he could escape the horrible smell that seemed to permeate every Fazbear's restaurant his father opened. Anyway, Abuelita would kill him if she found out he hadn't been making an effort to practice. He wasn't good at contact sports and other than track and field, everything bored Vinnie, so dancing was what he did best.

"No, wait," William's voice floated behind Vinnie's ear in a blast of an overpowering men's body spray picked up from their last visit to Mom's family in Mexico and breath mints from a gas station on the edge of town. Dad brought an extra suitcase every time they went to Abuelita and Abuelo's house just to bring more home to California.

Vinnie was thrown from his feet by a sharp crack to his lower back with a scream as William slammed his fist into his son's back.

He fell headlong, and tried to crawl to the door on his elbows, feeling metal fangs slice into his organs and rip his face open as his guts started to spill into the quickly filling cavity of the suit. The metal shot into Vinnie's rib cage and cracked them open as blood poured hot and metallic from his mouth. He tried to pull forwards, legs severed and leaving a smearing trail. A rod shot through his neck, blood increasing like a red guiser.

"Now where are you going?" William slammed Vinnie's face onto the tiles as he seized with his foot. He ground the spritely teen boy's face into the suit head and the checkered tiles, "You need punishment for making my baby's eyes wander. Do you know how hard it is to win a gal like that back?"

Vinnie couldn't even say anything but yells of agony as he lay on the floor, guts spilling out into the suit to be tangled with hydraulics and wires.

William stood over the animatronic, still crackling and popping from the triggered springlocks, twitching from the pure force of a snapping trap. Vinnie was his, and anything that was his had to be perfect.

Vinnie would finally have the honor of holding life.

"That's what you get. It's not what you deserve, really, if anything, this is an honor. I'm being nice to you boy, I coulda tossed you in the river like I did that old bat you call, 'Mommy'." He looked at his son's boots and picked one up to inspect.

Vinnie had been pretty good at his cousin Juanita's quinceanera, but still, no girlfriend to dance with. That was fine by William. Vinnie didn't need a girlfriend, he needed to be perfect. Now he had to hide them.

Maybe…..

In the toy box or a trunk full of spare parts like eyes? Or should he just throw them into the nearby river?

William would figure it out.

He always did.

Where else could his traditional wife from another land with her small army of relatives who knew too much without knowing anything have gone but the LA river?