I wonder what's taking them so long.
Jessica had been standing outside for nearly fifteen minutes, though with all of the thoughts that had been racing through her mind, it felt like so much longer. Why was this building here? Why were Charlie and Sam here to begin with? It made no sense. Nothing about it seemed logical, but then again, a lot of things didn't seem logical anymore. To top it all off, she felt guilty standing on the outside waiting. That wasn't like her. She remembered the day of her reunion with her friends the night before Michael's ceremony when she had most enthusiastically favored taking a look back at their favorite childhood restaurant. That seemed like so long ago now, too. Between Freddy's, the mysterious underground complex beneath Charlie's old house, and Circus Baby's Pizza, her sense of adventure had been notably dampened. Nothing good ever seemed to come from exploration anymore. All it ever seemed to do was cause pain. After all, curiosity killed the cat, or in this case, her best friend.
Still, what if Charlie really was in there somewhere? Was she really going to stand on the outside waiting around while her best friend and brother were inside? Beneath the fear, she was still more worried than ever about both of them.
"Jessica!"
Her eyes widened. It was a faint voice, but it sounded awfully familiar. She looked around, expecting and hoping to see the source of the voice, but she couldn't find anything.
"Jessica!"
"Charlie?" she said. It was definitely her voice, she'd recognize it anywhere, but could it really be her? "Where are you?"
"Down here, silly!"
She glanced down at the open vent leading inside, and to her astonishment, there was Charlie's head peeking out at her.
"Charlie! Is it really you?!"
"Of course it is! Come on inside. The others are waiting for you! We're having a good time!" Her head disappeared.
Jessica couldn't speak, though her mouth was still twitching as though she wanted to say something. Could it be true? Was this actually happening? Why would she hide out here for a month instead of finding her friends? It still didn't make complete sense.
"Come on, Jessica!" came Charlie's playful voice from inside. "Stop being so slow!"
Jessica frowned. "Slow, huh? We'll see about that!" she said as she finally relented and began climbing inside. So I'm the slow one, huh? she thought with a small grin. When they were younger, they would often race at recess, and even though Jessica won more often, Charlie always celebrated her wins with that playful taunt.
Jessica emerged in a small room. The first thing that stuck out to her was the smell, heavy and damp.
"Ugh! This place smells nasty!" she said, covering her nose.
"Better get used to it."
Jessica turned. In the doorway stood Charlie, dressed the exact same as the last time they saw each other.
"Charlie, is that really you?"
"Of course it is!" Charlie laughed. "I already told you. Don't tell me your memory's going along with your sense of smell!"
"What do you mean 'going'?" Jessica retorted playfully. "I always hated bad smells like this."
"And yet you want to be an archaeologist?" Charlie asked with a raised eyebrow.
Jessica said nothing. She had started forming an answer but gave up.
"So what are you doing here?"
"Oh, you mean this place?" Charlie asked with a smile, glancing around. "Didn't I ever tell you? This was another my father built back in the day! I think it was supposed to be another restaurant."
"And the radio tower?" Jessica asked.
Charlie shrugged. "To get the word out? I don't know. All I know is I've felt more comfortable and at home here than I have in years! I feel some much closer to my father than ever!"
"Really?" Jessica asked. "But why here and not Freddy's? Or Fredbear's?"
"Those places are old. I've been there before," said Charlie. "But this place is new. It's like another surprise my dad had to show me! It's so much fun to explore, I just lost myself in it."
"But you couldn't have at least come back to us?" asked Jessica, sadness now creeping into her voice.
"I would've come back to you eventually. And look, you're here now!" She smiled, and Jessica sighed.
"Your father really hid a lot of surprises from you, huh?" she said.
Charlie's face dropped slightly. "You're referring to the fact that I'm not real?"
Jessica nodded slowly. It was their first discussion of this since either of them found out. Jessica was nervous, feeling suddenly faint as she began to anticipate the ugly and devastating facts, like how she was created or what growing up really felt like as something that seemed real but wasn't. Part of Jessica was intrigued, but another part of her didn't want to hear a single word about out of fear that it would ruin their memories together. Charlie, however, only returned her smile.
"Who cares if I'm not real? I'm still here, aren't I?"
Jessica forced a smile, trying to share her friend's optimism. With their quest to find Sam, she'd almost given no thought to meeting back up with Charlie and continuing on with the knowledge of her past. Even now, she still wasn't sure how she felt.
"Well come on!" Charlie said, waving for her to follow. "Let's go exploring!"
"I...I'd rather not," said Jessica flatly.
"Aw, come on! Why not?"
"Because this place is creepy! Charlie, I know you always loved visiting and exploring places, but we've been through enough, haven't we? Honestly, I don't feel comfortable here. I keep feeling like there's something strange about this place. And unfriendly. I don't think we should stay here."
Charlie stuck out her lip in a pouting matter. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You always were too good to get dirty with the rest of us! I guess we'll just have to have fun without you!"
"We?"
"Yes! John and Kyle are waiting for us! John's absolutely thrilled to see me again. And Sammy's here, too! My brother! I never thought I'd see him again! But he's here! He's here, Jessica!"
Jessica stood staring at her best friend, completely at a loss for words. It didn't make sense. It was one thing for Charlie to be excited about seeing her brother and wanting to explore something of her father's, but something seemed off about her.
"Well, I'm going to catch up to the boys. See ya!" With a flip of her hair, Charlie turned and disappeared.
"Charlie, wait!" Jessica shouted, starting to follow. As she entered the hallway, something else struck her.
She seems to have warmed up to Kyle pretty fast. Since when did she start acquainting with new people that quickly?
Kyle finished skimming the last page and looked back up at John.
"And...this means what exactly?"
John blinked. "Remember those discs we told you about?"
"What, the ones that play with your mind or something? Those voodoo things?"
"They're not voodoo," said John, clearly annoyed.
"Dude, anything that makes you see things is voodoo to me," said Kyle simply.
John sighed. "Fine. The voodoo things. Do you-?"
But he was interrupted as an alarm began blaring inside the office making both of them jump.
"Warning. Ventilation offline," came a computerized voice from the speaker on the ceiling.
John and Kyle looked nervously at one another.
"You think it's a problem?" Kyle asked.
"Typically, ventilation issues aren't that big of a deal, at least if there's some source of air like a window."
"Which there isn't," Kyle pointed out as he turned back to the monitor.
"What are you doing?" asked John, peering curiously over his shoulder.
"Well, while you were having fun reading that file over there, I was checking some of these monitors out. It looks like this one's some type of maintenance panel." He pointed to the one containing the reset options. "Let's try this one." He tapped "ventilation reset." It beeped and a loading bar appeared next to it. After a few seconds, the alarms ceased and the distance sound of ventilation mechanisms could be heard through the walls.
They looked at each other.
"Well...that was interesting," said Kyle. "When I woke up today, I didn't think I'd be putting myself at such an easy risk for suffocating."
"But why is it like that to begin with?" said John, starting to lose himself in thought again.
"Maybe 'cause the building's old and the ventilation system is shot?" Kyle suggested.
"Okay, but make it so easy to fix, along with video and audio errors? It's like…" He trailed off, his eyes widening in realization, staring at the wall. Kyle shifted in his seat nervously.
"What's up? You look like Sam does whenever he's lost in one of his trances."
John said nothing, which only made Kyle more nervous.
"Hey, if you're gonna say this place is alive, I'm outta here. Soon as we find Sam, of course."
"Actually, in a way, it is," said John. "It's like he knew the ventilation would go offline like that a lot. It's like he created it that way."
"Who?"
John turned to him. He opened his mouth to say something when a loud bang echoed from out in the hall causing them both to jump once more.
"You know, I'm already getting tired of this!" said Kyle, getting up. "Seriously, I don't get why Sam would even come here in the first place. He hates haunted houses even more than I do, so-"
"Wait. Sam hates haunted houses?" John asked.
"Yeah! Probably because of...well, you know…" The implication was clear.
"So why would he come here?" thought John aloud.
Kyle shrugged. "Probably to find his sister. That's what he said outside, remember?"
"Why would she come here, though?" John asked. What's so special about this place?
"What is that?" said Kyle.
"What's what?"
"That noise!" Kyle put a finger to his lips. John listened. Out in the hallway came the distinct sound of someone or something approaching.
"Dude," said Kyle, placing a hand on his heart. "What if there's someone else here? Like a homeless person or something?"
They both listened as the footsteps grew louder. John moved over and stood next to the door, out of sight while Kyle began looking around the room for something to grab.
As the footsteps approached the door, John and Kyle braced themselves, ready to jump at whoever could be approaching. When a figure rounded the corner, John lunged forward, ready to attack. The figure screamed right as an alarm began blaring in the office once more. As Kyle moved over to reset the ventilation again, the figure, now on the ground in fright, looked up at John with a mixed look of anger and relief.
"What are you doing, John?"
"Sorry, Jessica," said John, helping her to her feet. "I didn't know it was you. What are you doing here? I thought you wanted to wait outside?"
"I followed Charlie in," she said, glancing around the room. "Where is she?"
John looked over at Kyle, who only shrugged.
"You saw Charlie again?" John asked.
Jessica frowned. "You mean...you didn't?"
"No," said John. "We've seen no one since we entered. Are you sure you saw her?"
"Yes!" she insisted. "We talked together! She said her father built this place and you guys were exploring it together!"
John sighed. "I think I know," he said quietly, walking over to the desk and skimming through the file he had given to Kyle. Jessica walked over and peered over his shoulder at the document. After a few minutes, he turned to her, realization evident in his eyes. "I think I know," he said again.
"Know what?" she asked in a small scared voice.
"I think I know what this place is," he said, looking back and forth between her and Kyle. "And I can tell you this, this place definitely isn't one of Charlie's dad's places."
"But she said-"
"The she you're referring to said nothing more than exactly what your mind wanted to hear," said John, "but she wasn't there at all. Neither was Sam."
"What are you talking about?" asked Kyle, his voice suddenly rising. "He has to be here! We've been following his footprints all this time, and we saw him!"
"I'm not sure about the footprints, but what we saw was not him," said John simply. "Seriously, did you not understand what the file says?"
"Not really," said Kyle, folding his arms. "You'll have to forgive me, but psychology was never my strong suit."
John shook his head, turning to Jessica. "Read this."
She looked at him, confused, and grabbed the file laying open on the desk. After a few moments of reading the first page, she looked back up at John.
"What's all this about?"
"Well, first of all, read what's in the bottom corner," said John.
Jessica looked down and gasped. Printed neatly in the corner of the page was the very familiar name and logo: Afton Robotics LLC.
Sam's breath quickened as his heart raced, his ear glued to the door as the heavy thuds grew closer outside. What was it? Some kind of intruder? Or worse?
"I know you're here somewhere," the voice growled again, this time a little louder. It was closer. "Come out to play!"
Sam's heart nearly stopped when the footsteps approached the door. He swore he could he the mechanical creaking of the movements of a head-turning. It made him sick. It sounded so rusted and clanky like it was struggling to move at all.
Do I dare? he thought, considering whether or not to peek out at the creature. He was naturally curious, but surely this wasn't anything like what he'd seen so far. This wouldn't jump at him screaming a loud noise and then disappear, this sounded like it was really here. And...was it breathing?
"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" it said again in a low, gravely voice. After a few moments of silence, it turned and started walking away down the corridor it had come from, where he had come from.
Reluctantly, Sam finally pulled open the door as silently as he could and peeked out into the hallway in the direction that it had disappeared, but it was already gone.
That thing moves fast, whatever it is! Sam thought as he began moving further down the hall away from it. Looks like I'm not going back that way.
At the end of the narrow corridor was another door, almost invisible blending in with the wall. In fact, if it weren't for the small waist-level door handle, it may as well be a wall. Grasping the cold and rusty doorknob, he turned it slowly, fearful that it wouldn't turn.
Please don't be locked, he thought. Don't make me go back that way.
But it turned freely and the door was pushed open with relative ease. He peeked inside, his eyes carefully scanning the room for anything abnormal...or normal for that matter. Any blackened screaming animatronics or working people were now suspect. To his relief, the room was mostly empty. All that he saw were a few boxes stacked somewhat neatly in the corner. There was also a door in the corner. Aside from that, the room was completely empty. Another dim neon light gave the room a faint glow, just strong enough to barely make out the ground in front of him. With careful steps, he walked over to the boxes. The first few contained nothing of interest. More masks and even a few partially assembled robotic parts. He reached into the box and picked one up. It appeared to be an arm, though it looked nothing like the arms of the others he'd seen. This looked more like the robotic form of a human arm as if it came from a doll. He shrugged and replaced it before checking the last box.
This box contained papers. He began quickly scanning them, looking for anything of interest. The ones near the top seemed to be old tax forms and equipment lists. As he dug a little further down, he began noticing architectural plans. He saw one that contained a sketch of the antenna on the roof with curved lines near the top, indicating broadcast. Next to it, the word "inducement."
What does that mean? He put the sketch down and continued searching. After extracting countless more pages on structures and lists of tools. Nothing really stuck out to him until he reached the bottom of the box. It was a picture in a frame, covered with dust. He pulled it out carefully and wiped the dust off the glass with his sleeve.
It was an old photo of a couple. On the right, a tall and somewhat large man stood in a plain black suit. His eyes were kind and with a large smile on his face, his hair combed neatly over to one side. One hand rested at his side while the other was planted on the shoulder of a woman. She was dressed in what looked like a party dress and matching high-heels. She had beautiful shoulder-length hair and she was also smiling widely.
Sam couldn't help but smile. It looked like such a happy scene. He wondered who they were, and why they'd left a picture like this in such a place. Maybe they once owned this building at some point. He looked closer. The man had a familiar look about him. Nothing stuck out to him immediately, but he had an inkling that they had met at some point in the past. Maybe he was an uncle he didn't know about? A friend of Henry's, perhaps?
As Sam began to set the picture down carefully, something fell out from behind it, a small paper that had been wedged into the stand. He picked it up and squinted to read the words.
It was a newspaper clipping. At the top was a picture of none other than the woman from the photo. She was smiling widely in this picture, too. Next to her picture were the printed words: LAURA AFTON. BELOVED WIFE & MOTHER. 1942-1973.
Sam re-read it several times, absolutely aghast.
"Afton?" he said aloud. "As in William Afton?" He shook his head. Could it be true? Was this really William Afton's wife?
He picked the picture back up and re-examined it. The man in the photo, Afton, looked so happy, so joyful, so innocent. In fact, judging solely by his appearance, Sam reckoned that William Afton was happy. What had happened?
But like a smack in the face, he remembered what he had just read. She died. He picked up the clipping, obviously from an obituary, and began reading.
Laura Afton (nee Robinson) was born on October 16, 1942 in St. Louis, MO to Jonathon and Rebecca Robinson. She attended the University of Missouri to study architecture but dropped out after meeting her future husband, William. Tragically, Mrs. Afton's pregnancy left her ill and she passed away on November 3, 1973 hours after the premature delivery of her child, who sadly also passed away the following morning due to nutritional deficiencies. Funeral services will be held on November 13.
Sam put the clipping down, staring absently at the wall ahead of him. William Afton, the same man who had kidnapped and murdered his sister as well as other children, was married? And lost his wife? Sam shook his head and sighed. That's terrible, he thought. Could that have anything to do with his descent into madness?
A distant yet loud noise echoed through the darkness from behind the door he had come through. Remembering his current plight, Sam slowly began moving toward the other door in the opposite direction. As he made his way to the doors, he tripped over one of the boxes on the ground, which caused the box sitting on top of it to fall to the ground and that parts inside to scatter with a loud crash.
He froze, wordlessly muttering words of hope that he hadn't been heard. The silence continued, and he breathed a sigh of relief, only to be interrupted by the sound of fast approaching heavy footsteps thumping along the ground in the corridor. Panicked, he sprinted to the door and yanked it open, thankful it was unlocked. It was a small closet barely large enough for him to stick out both his elbows. He shut the door as quietly as he could, leaving it open a crack.
As soon as he did, the door to the room in which he had entered suddenly disappeared from view as it was ripped from it hinges with a loud crack. What entered made Sam want to scream, which he might have had he not covered his mouth. This creature was nightmarish demon-looking version of an animatronic rabbit. It was dark yellow, almost green in some places due to the mold. It stood about seven-and-a-half feet with silver glowing eyes and a crooked menacing smile on its face.
"I know you're in here," it said in a loud voice, even more distorted than before. Its mouth never moved.
Sam struggled to contain his breathing, which was growing increasingly louder and more panicked by the second as he watched this monstrous creature begin moving around the room, checking the corners and behind the boxes Sam had been looking at.
Don't panic, Sam told himself. Stay calm. It doesn't know you're in here.
With that thought, the creature turned its head sharply in his direction. Sam gasped. It smiled (or so it appeared) and began moving its way toward the door. Sam instinctively began backing up further into the small closet until his back hit the wall.
Don't look in here, Sam pleaded. Please don't. Please leave.
The creature continued growing closer, moving slowly as though trying to toy with its prey. Sam sank down to the floor, hoping to make himself less visible in any way. The room was dark enough. When the creature put its skeletal hand upon the doorknob, it froze, its eyes flashing slightly as it held its position. In a split second of deja vu, Sam's mind flashed back to that fateful night at Fredbear's all those years ago when Afton, dressed in an eerily similar rabbit suit, ripped his sister away from him.
"Hello?"
The rabbit's ears perked up. Sam held his breath. That noise was new. It sounded like the boy that had jumped scared him earlier. Oh no. Not again. He glanced nervously around the small room, but found no one. Not glowing eyes, no silhouettes, nothing. With how cramped the tiny closet was with him in it, it looked like even the tiniest animatronic wouldn't be able to squeeze in.
"Hi!"
The voice echoed again, making the rabbit turn its head to the ceiling. Sam realized that the sound was coming from above, probably from a speaker. He held his position, using every bit of effort imaginable to keep perfectly still.
A small laugh from the same boy echoed from further away, likely another room down the hall. With a loud snap, the rabbit turned and took off running in that direction, leaving Sam terrified in the closet. After a few moments, he slowly moved over and opened the door slightly. He could hear the loud stomps echoing down the hallway. He breathed a sigh of relief.
Wonder what that was all about? He glanced up at the ceiling. Sure enough, a speaker saw almost out of sight next to the dim light bulb. While he still had questions, he thanked whatever or whoever it was that distracted that creature. Still, there was a problem. As far as he could tell, this was a dead-end with no way to go other than back the way he and that creature had come from. He scanned the room once more, hoping that he missed something. Maybe there was another vent or a door he hadn't noticed, anything to get him as far away from that thing as possible. He went over and checked behind the stack of boxes, fingers crossed that he missed something back there, only to be disappointed by another wall.
With an angry grunt, he turned back to the center of the room. Before he had a single moment to react, he saw the blackened face of a chicken lunge at him, screaming that piercing metallic screech once more.
He struggled to drag his suitcase across the ground. Despite its small size, it was much heavier than normal. His mother had made him pack everything important. When he finally made it to the car, he tried lifting it up into the trunk, a futile task for his small arms. After a few moments of grunting, another pair of arms grabbed it from the top.
"Here, honey. Let me help."
The tall, dark-haired woman lifted his suitcase effortlessly and placed it into the trunk, then turned back to him with a warm smile on her face.
"Thanks, Aunt Jen," he said, smiling back.
"You're welcome, sweetheart," she said, reaching down and ruffling his hair. "Do you have everything?"
"I think so. If I don't, I can always get it when I come back," he said.
Her smile faded. "Didn't your mother tell you?" she asked in a concerned tone.
He shook his head nervously. "No. Tell me what?"
She paused for a moment, her mouth curled into a confused frown and her eyebrows lowered. After a moment, her smile returned. "You'll find out. Your mom will tell you later."
Footsteps approached from behind. He turned to see his mother, eyes still wet. She'd been crying a lot lately for some reason. Was Daddy still mad at them?
She put her own suitcases inside and closed the trunk. She turned to Aunt Jen.
"Thank you, Jen, for all your support lately. I'm not sure I'd know what I was doing if it weren't for you."
"You're welcome, Hannah," said Aunt Jen as the two grown women embraced in a hug. "I know it's hard. You've all been through so much pain lately. But right now, it's for the best. Like I said before, Henry's not the same person you fell in love with right now. He needs time."
They pulled apart and Hannah sniffled. "Do you think he'll ever come back to us?" she asked in a weak voice.
Jen sighed. "I hope so. I promise I will continue to talk to him and try to make him see sense, but I have no idea how far gone he is. Those hellish codes of his are breaking his mind, changing him into a shell of the lovely man I once knew to be my brother. He won't last much longer like this. I can tell he's close to losing whatever sanity he has left. But I will try, that I promise you."
Hannah nodded and the shared one last hug. "Thanks for everything."
"Not at all," Jen replied as Hannah began walking toward the car. Jen turned back down to Sam, who had been listening to everything, lost in the details.
"Well, my dear, this is it," she said.
"Aunt Jen," Sam asked in a scared voice. "Will Daddy be okay?"
Jen looked down at him with an expression of hurt he didn't understand. He wanted to help, to make sure everything was okay, to be told that everything would be alright. He didn't like the thought of everyone being sad. And where was Charlie? Had Mommy and Daddy not found her yet? Maybe she was still hiding from the rabbit at the restaurant.
"Honey," said Aunt Jen, bending down to his level and stroking his face. "Your Daddy is in a bad spot right now. He needs his alone time. He still loves you, more than you know, but he needs to be by himself for a little while, okay?"
"Will he be okay?" he asked again.
She sighed. "I hope so," she said, standing up. "Now, come on. Let's not keep your mother waiting."
She opened the side door and allowed Sam to hop inside. He was amazed that he could finally get into the car by himself. He turned back to Aunt Jen, hoping to voice his excitement to her, but she had already closed the door. After a moment, his mother spoke from the front seat.
"Thanks again for everything, Jen."
"Don't worry about it," came Aunt Jen's voice from outside. He couldn't see her. "Just remember...I'll always be there for him."
"What if…" his mother asked in a concerned tone. "What if he somehow...succeeds?"
"I don't know," said Aunt Jen. "All I know is that as hard as he tries, nothing will work in the long run. It's a fact of life. I promise I'll try to bring him back to us. If he does, I'll call you. Where will you go?"
"I don't know," said Hannah. "I've always wanted to live in a big city and try to make something of myself there. Hopefully, I can give us a better life than what we had, but I don't know what'll happen. "
"Will you be traveling far?" came Aunt Jen's voice. Hannah nodded. "I see," said Aunt Jen in a disappointed tone. "Well, promise me that you'll stay close for the next week until the delivery men get the rest of your stuff packed. I'll be here to help them, and I'll keep talking to him. Maybe if he sees that you're really leaving…"
"You think that'll wake him up and he'll see sense?" Hannah asked.
"I don't know," said Jen, "but we can certainly hope so. But please, stay close until then. I don't want you to go anywhere far unless you have to."
Hannah nodded. "I will. There are a few motels that might work. I'll give you the number when we get there."
"Take care of that boy, Hannah."
Hannah nodded and started the engine. Sam looked back out his window at the house, the small house that he had called home for the few years of his life so far. He was excited to be going on a trip, as he always was: the big buildings, the lights, the scenery, everything. But he was also looking forward to when they came back and Daddy was better. He could see it clearly. Soon, Aunt Jen would call Mommy and tell her that Daddy was okay, and they'd come back home, his mother singing "We're back in harmony!" in that lovely voice she always denied having, and Daddy would be waiting for them, a smile on his face and arms outstretched, and Charlie would run up to him, safe and sound, and everything would be okay.
Aunt Jen suddenly blocked his view as she leaned down and smiled at him through the window. He smiled back and they waved to one another. She kissed her hand and placed them on the glass near his face and then turned and walked away toward her car, a blue Honda that always glistened in the sunlight, though the clouds in the sky today didn't do it justice.
Sam turned back to the house one last time, but something caught his eye. Over by the shed's now-open door, dressed in a pair of thick pants and a plaid work shirt, stood Henry. They locked eyes, though Sam wasn't sure if Henry could actually see him through the glass. They stared at one another for what felt like a long time until Hannah began driving away slowly. As they began moving, Sam watched as Henry turned and walked back inside the shed. Right before the door closed, something else caught Sam's attention. Following Henry into the shed, a hand placed firmly on his shoulder, was a tall, dark figure, its features indistinguishable until it turned and briefly glared over at him across the yard, its eyes white and fierce and its wolf-like mouth twisted into a rotten grin. And then the shed door closed, and they were gone.
The motel room was small, all they needed as they spent most of their time in the room while his mother made phone calls to people about cars and apartments. Sam listened to her as she talked, having no one else to play with and his mother being too occupied to give him much attention (indicated with a firm "Shush!" a few times). He listened to her intently, waiting patiently for some indication of what was going on. She continued talking, and after hours, she'd finally take him out to eat somewhere, letting him order his favorite meal, pizza.
"Did Aunt Jen call yet?" he asked his mother, and she shook her head and told him to eat up.
By the end of the week, the phone rang and Hannah answered. Sam almost leaped for joy, certain it was Aunt Jen, but instead, it was from the moving men. They had packed everything. Before he knew what else was going on, they were boarding a plane Aunt Jen and Henry were never heard from again.
"Warning. Ventilation offline."
Sam's eyes fluttered open lazily, his head leaning against the wall. He suddenly felt drained as he struggled to push himself off the wall, his arms quivering from the lack of strength. His head throbbed, and he even felt a faint pulsating feeling in his brain.
Something is seriously wrong with this place, he thought, placing a hand weakly on his head. This isn't normal. Sorry, Charlie, but I can't stay here any longer. I really need to get out of here.
Of course, came another voice out of nowhere. That's what you always do. That's what everyone else as done to her all these years.
Sam stopped and did a double-take, glancing around the room in a panicked fashion. There was no one else there. What was that? That voice. It sounded very similar to his own subconscious voice that he'd grown used to arguing with, particularly these last few days, but this felt...different. There was a certain aggressive tone to this voice.
"Who's that?" he said aloud, though trying to avoid attracting too much attention.
While his own inner voice was at least more familiar-sounding, actually using arguments he recognized from his own subconscious, this voice sounded like someone completely different, and it was clear and loud enough in his mind that he could've sworn someone else was in the room with him.
No one cares about Charlie, it said again, just as clearly as before. He couldn't help but glance nervously around the room again. Still, no one else was there, yet that voice was so clear.
"Who are you?" Sam asked.
I'm the one following you, it said with a small chuckle. Haven't you seen me?
"N-no," said Sam nervously, backing up slightly. "No one's been following me."
You're wrong. I'm here. I've been here the entire time. You can't run from me.
"What do you mean?"
I'm not something physical, like the robot that's been chasing you. I'm in your head.
Sam placed a hand to his forehead. So, you're not real, then? he thought.
Oh, I'm real. I may not be real to others, at least not in the same way, but I'm real to you, it said with a laugh.
"What do you want?" Sam asked.
Nothing that I can't get from you, it said with a small snarl. You see, I want many things, and I almost always get them. What I want from you, you'll find out.
"So what do you want from me now?" Sam asked, trying to sound assertive.
Now? Nothing. It's about what you want.
Sam stared silently into the empty room, still as confused as ever that he was actually having a conversation with something that he couldn't see.
"And what do I want?" he asked quietly.
The same thing you've wanted the moment you discovered the truth about Charlie: to find her. She's not dead, Sam. She's here. She's waiting for you. She wants nothing more than to play with her long-lost brother. That is...if he still loves her.
"I do love her!" Sam said aggressively.
Then why are you giving up on her? it chuckled.
"I'm not. At least, I don't want to. This place is just so weird. It's messing with my head."
Charlie seems to be running around here with no problems. Surely it can't be that bad.
"But I can't go back the way I came. That thing went back there."
It laughed and fell silent. Sam waited, listening for another response but there was none.
Great, he thought. Last thing I need is another voice following me around everywhere. Where do I go?
But then he thought back to minutes before during his fearful wait hiding in the closet. At one point, he was sure he felt air behind him. He carefully walked over to the closet and opened the door wide, trying to let as much light in as possible. Sure enough, there was a vent along the back wall. It looked pretty rusted, and to his relief, he was able to pull it off after quite a few tries.
As he got down on his hands and knees, he heard the loud thumping of that animatronic creature in the hallway. It was coming back. Sam began scurrying through the vent as quickly as he could right as the footsteps reached the closet door only feet behind him.
"You can't run," it said menacingly.
Jessica closed the file and looked up at John, who had been watching her silently the entire time while Kyle had gone back to skimming through the cameras. She blinked.
"What does it mean?" she asked.
"It means this place is one big mind trap," said John simply. "You remember what Charlie told us about those illusion discs?"
Jessica nodded.
"The voodoo things," Kyle muttered, still watching the cameras.
"Well," John continued, shooting an annoyed look at Kyle, "it seems Afton's done more experimenting with mind control. That's what these documents are. They're schematics for the building. The antenna on the roof is meant to make people see things."
"Like what?" Kyle asked.
"Like whatever it is they want to see," said John. "In our case, Charlie and Sam."
"How do you know this?" asked Jessica.
"I've been studying their mechanics and functions a lot more. Aunt Jen kept a lot of Henry's old papers on this stuff from when he was...well...building Charlie," replied John grimly. "A lot of the terms and sketches are identical to what's listed in here. Plus," he added, flipping to the back page and pointing near the bottom, "Afton wrote about it right here."
She looked. Sure enough, beneath one of the diagrams on the last page contained a small handwritten list she hadn't noticed before due to her only skimming the content by the time she got this far.
"Isolate." "Induce." "Capture."
"Capture?" Jessica read. "As in...capture kids?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," said John. "This is William Afton we're talking about."
"Right. It's what he does," said Kyle, absorbed into scanning the monitor again.
"It's what he did," Jessica corrected firmly. "He's gone, now."
"But this house of terror still lives," said John. "Jessica, I think Afton built this place to try and lure kids in here. He uses the antenna to broadcast a signal and lure kids here by tricking them into seeing something pleasant, like a loved one or something they like."
"But when they get here…" Jessica continued, starting to follow his train of thought. "...he would take them."
John nodded. "I think so."
"Well, why build a place like this?" she asked, glancing around the room at the dusty walls and cobwebbed ceiling. "I mean, I don't ever remember hearing about any other kidnappings besides the ones from Freddy's. And that new place."
"Maybe he ended up not needing to," John reckoned. "Maybe he had an easier time simply grabbing kids at Freddy's than he thought."
Jessica winced, and he did too. It still hurt them both to think back to the day Michael was taken from them.
"So that's it?" she asked. "He lured them here to kill them?"
John shook his head. "It can't be that simple. Like you said, why build an entire building just for that? He could've easily done that anywhere else, and he did. I think there's more to this building than what meets the eye." He thought back to the masks he had stumbled across on his way in. "There has to be more going on here."
"Sam?" said Kyle suddenly. John and Jessica both turned to him in surprise. He was staring at the screen.
"Where?" asked Jessica.
"There!" Kyle pointed at the screen. It was a room containing a dim light and boxes in the corner. Standing in front of the boxes was none other than Sam.
"Oh!" Jessica exclaimed in surprise. "Is that really him?"
"It has to be!" said Kyle, his adrenaline going through the roof. "Look! He's going through the box! You said yourself that what we saw earlier was only in our minds because we were looking for him, right? Well, hallucinations can't actually touch things, can they?"
John and Jessica both looked at each other. Could it really be him?
"Kyle…" said Jessica.
"We've been following his footprints all the way from the car!" Kyle exclaimed, his voice rising to aggression. "Who else can it be?"
Suddenly on the camera, Sam moved and knocked over a box, scattering the contents all over the ground. He stood there, absolutely motionless.
"What's he doing?" Jessica whispered.
Immediately, he took off for a small door in the corner and hurried inside.
"Why's he-?" said Kyle, but suddenly a large figure entered the room. It was tall, almost high enough to reach the ceiling.
"What is that?" Jessica screamed.
"That's what I saw earlier!" Kyle exclaimed, pointing frantically at the screen. "John, that's what I saw earlier!"
John squinted, trying to make out details as the creature began moving around the room.
"John," said Jessica, fear evident in her voice, "doesn't that look like one of those twisted animatronics from last year?"
"The ones from the underground pizzeria?" John asked, and Jessica nodded. He took a closer look. Actually, she was right. To him, this creature looked like one of those awful demonic animatronics that had captured and taken Charlie to Afton's underground pizzeria located beneath her own house. He shivered slightly as he remembered the wolf-looking creature that he and Charlie had discovered buried in that one room beneath her bedroom that ended up being connected to one of the passageways to the underground complex. He remembered Charlie playing with the disc that emitted that nauseating frequency and tricked their minds into seeing an unfamiliar yet friendly-looking creature as opposed to the twisted machine that it actually was. This beast that was on screen for them now, likely hunting Sam, looked eerily similar, snout and eyes both giving off the clear intention of finding its prey.
"I don't know what that is," he said solemnly, "but I don't think it's friendly."
"It looks like a wolf!" Jessica cried. "Doesn't it?"
"What are you guys talking about?" said Kyle. "I don't see anything resembling a wolf."
"Don't you see the snout?" asked Jessica. "And the canine body?"
"No," said Kyle. "All I see is a tangle of robotic parts, just like before. It doesn't look like any animal to me, just the naked skeleton."
"Endoskeleton," John corrected. "You mean, you don't see anything else?"
"No," said Kyle. "But hey, I don't really need to. I always hated animatronics, ever since I was a kid. They were always just machines to me. This just matches up with what I always saw."
John's mind flashed back to the file. He picked it up and began flipping through for something he had read.
"What are you looking for?" Jessica asked.
"I think there was something that talked about this in here somewhere," he said. "I didn't really know what it meant, but Kyle just gave me an idea."
"What?" said Kyle.
"There was something in here about an animatronic," said John, still flipping through the pages. "I think it was-aha!" He slammed the file down on the table. It was the page that contained a rough outline of the animatronic, a simple sketch of the parts and their purposes.
"Yeah, that's it," said Kyle.
"Look at this," said John, pointing at an area near the chest. In the drawing as a disc, very similar-looking to the ones from the twisted animatronics, only this one was bigger and, even in the sketch, appeared to be shaped a little differently. There was an arrow pointing to it stemming from the nearby words "stimulate amygdala."
"Amygdala?" said Jessica. "Isn't that the fear center of our brain?"
"Yeah," said John, his eyes growing wide as he slowly began piecing everything together. "We see what terrifies us."
Jessica looked at him, now completely frightened. "So rather than tricking our minds into seeing something friendly and familiar, this makes us see what we're scared of?"
John nodded. It was all making sense now. He and Jessica were terrified of those twisted animatronics they escaped from while Kyle simply saw the endoskeletons, which was all he needed to see.
"But what does that have to do with anything?" Jessica asked, her voice high. "What purpose does that serve for Afton?"
"I don't know," said John. "It makes sense why he would lure kids here, but frightening them once they were inside is pointless, unless…"
He thought back to their first night of terror at Freddy's as he, Charlie, Jessica, and Carlton stood over a tied Afton, whom they'd briefly known as Dave.
"The kids you killed are still here. You've imprisoned them!" Carlton managed to sputter in his weakened state.
"They are home, with me," said Afton in a coarse voice as the mascot's head slipped forward on his head. "Their happiest day."*
John shook his head. "He couldn't have."
"Couldn't have what?" said Jessica.
"Remember that night at Freddy's?"
"How could I forget?"
"Remember what Afton said about the kids? How they'd attack us because we looked like adults? And how he said that they were with him?"
Jessica nodded with a shudder. "I try not to, but yes, I remember."
"And Carlton. He told us about the kids," John continued, mainly figuring out the story for himself out loud now. "They thought Afton was their friend. That's how he kept them imprisoned for so long. Even then, they were still blinded by Afton's facade. I could be wrong, but I think Afton may have intended to use this place to make it seem like he really was the good guy trying to protect them from the evil."
Jessica stared at him, mouth hanging open, completely at a loss for words. She wanted to call it absurd, to say he was being ridiculous, but deep down, she couldn't deny it. Given all that they knew about William Afton, it seemed to fit his character perfectly.
"If all of that is true," she said quietly, "then we really need to get out of here. I don't want to spend another minute in this horror house!"
John nodded.
"Uh-oh," said Kyle. John and Jessica turned back to the screen. The creature was now moving toward the room Sam had disappeared into.
"John, if your theory about terrifying the kids is right, does that mean that this thing's dangerous?" Jessica asked.
"I don't want to find out," said John. "Kyle, what does that do?"
"What?"
"That option in the corner."
Kyle looked down and saw a small box in the corner of the monitor containing the words "play audio." He reached down and pressed the screen.
"Hello?"
A young boy's voice echoed from the speaker on the panel. The creature stopped, absolutely still.
"That seemed to do something," Kyle muttered, pressing it again.
"Hi!"
This time, the creature's head turned toward the ceiling.
"Is it working?" Jessica asked.
"I think so," said Kyle hopefully as he pressed the button again, but this time nothing happened. "Huh? What's wrong with this?"
As soon as he spoke, a message in small red letters began to flash on the bottom of the screen. Audio error.
"Audio error? After only two times?" said Kyle dumbfounded as he turned to the other screen. "We'll see about that." He hit the audio reboot option, and after a few seconds of the loading bar, the error message disappeared.
"Try another room," said John. Kyle switched to another camera in the room down the hall. He hit the audio tab and a laugh echoed from the speaker.
"This better work," said Kyle, holding his breath. After a few moments, the nightmare creature burst into the new room, looking around for the source of the noise. "Wow, it worked! We can actually control this thing!"
"But for how long?" said Jessica, her panic still clear. "What if it finds a way to not be tricked?"
"I don't know, but I'm not waiting around to find out." Kyle pushed himself out of the chair and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Jessica asked in a high-pitched voice.
Kyle turned back, looking more determined than ever. "To go find my best friend and get him out of this hell." Without another word, he left the room.
"Go with him," said John.
"What?! Are you crazy?! Go out there?! I think not!" Jessica cried, sounding almost as she would laugh sarcastically at the suggestion.
"Jessica, if he comes across that thing alone, it might not end well. You should go with him. Safety in numbers. Unless you want to stay in here by yourself and I go?"
"What do you mean 'stay in here'?"
"If this is our means of controlling this thing's whereabouts, someone needs to stay here to keep it moving in the wrong direction. I'll be fine. I know how to get out. You survived being chased by these things before, but he hasn't. He needs someone to go with him."
Jessica opened her mouth to retaliate but closed it with a heavy breath. He was right again. Despite her fear, she admired his calm and collected nature even in the gravest of circumstances. And it was true. She didn't want to be in this room by herself.
"Alright," she said, straightening herself for the mission. "I'll do it for Kyle and Sam...and Charlie!" She turned toward the door. "Watch our backs!" she called.
"I will. Be careful!" John called after her as he sat down at the desk. "Okay, then. It's time to play!"
REFERENCES
*The Silver Eyes, p. 344.