III.

SECRETS OF THE WORLD

Chapter 19:

A Kin I Related Not

More adventures in the woods. But this time, Daniel was the captain, and he would like to explore the "forbidden forest".

Only an hour or two away until the dark veil covered the blue dome, until sunset and moonrise. And yet, the sky had already turned flaxen, a part of which could be seen far from the horizon. This moment of the afternoon air sure was different from yesterday afternoon when he had just woken up from a refreshing catnap. Not only it felt cooler, probably because he was being surrounded by the towering evergreens at the moment, but it also felt less lonely somehow… probably because he was indeed no longer a loner.

After charging Freddy up, Daniel proposed that everyone should go on a last serious trip around the forest before the sky turned dark. Lily didn't comment, as always, but she seemed to discreetly approve of it. Freddy was the most enthusiastic, and Gregory couldn't blame the bear for being so overexcited. His morning exploration didn't really last long, to say the least, so there wasn't much the bear had learnt thus far. With the perhaps once in a lifetime chance to go on one with the chaotic siblings, Freddy might have absorbed even more interesting knowledge about nature that he knew not.

Also, just in case they came across anyone in the forest, Freddy was told to wear the cloak. And when the bear did put it on, he always found it oddly adorable despite the mysterious and intimidating look thanks to the one-hundred bucks cloak.

…Hands tightly holding a Faz-cam, his eyes swiftly darted left and right, looking for a sight behold or an animal he came across. Due to the camera itself not having any other way than to hold it, he was actually both jealous and regretful. Jealous because his friend Lily had a way better camera and could wear it by her neck. Regretful because he shouldn't have brought this abomination of inconvenience with him when he could have just used Lily's. Though were he to do that, he and Freddy wouldn't have had any photos to look at after the adventure.

He was the only one in the group to have an instant camera, nonetheless.

"Gregory, look!", exclaimed Freddy as he pointed his finger at a creature with brown fur and a fluffy tail dashing on the nearby fallen trunk. His sudden announcement caused the group to stop and divert their gaze in the pointed direction. "It is that same squirrel who had disappeared before we had a chance to take a picture of it."

Gregory was greatly baffled by the bear's statement. "Wait, what? How did you even know that it's the exact same one we had come across this morning?"

"Well, don't all robots have like super memory storage and that they don't tend to forget stuff as we do?", mused Daniel. "Crazy how that works, right? I can't even imagine what having a perfect memory would be like. Might have already obtained a PhD already by now."

"A pee-eitch-dee? Such strange words…! W-What does it mean?", asked the bear.

"Short for Doctor of Philosophy.", explained the man. "It's an academic degree awarded for very very very smart people. You know, people who are highly educated and have done advanced research into a particular subject. I'm far from being smart enough to even compare to those who have a PhD, but hey, at least I'm smart enough to acknowledge that chances of me obtaining one is below zero."

Lily snorted upon hearing that. "That's not how probability works."

As much as Freddy wanted to hear a heated debate between the siblings, right now, his priority was to take a picture of the squirrel, who was moments from running away again. Fate had given him another chance, he must not let it pass.

"Gregory, quickly, before the squirrel runs away!", he signalled the boy.

Gregory, who was paying attention to the quarrel, was snapped back to reality with a headshake as he clumsily strode toward a bush behind the trunk. He slightly bent his knees, forming a crouching stance before pushing the button. The entire body of his stiffened as though it had transformed into stone, as though he was a living statue. It would seem that all his time spent hiding and running around the Pizzaplex had remarkably helped him maintain the shaking of his body, so much that Freddy couldn't tell whether he was really moving or not.

For a few seconds, there was silence, asides from the chattering of the siblings. And then, came the flashbang.

The squirrel was petrified by the unexpected intensity of the bright light coming from the bush where Gregory was standing. It waited no more than a second before speeding for its life back into the concealing shrubs, leaving the half-eaten nut lying on the bark, only for it to roll down onto the soft pad of moss below.

The camera made some weird mechanical noises as it slowly produced a picture from the slit. Gregory pulled it out and deliberately waved his hand. Then, he turned the white paper to observe the scene gradually appearing from the black square. The picture was perfect, even the quality itself was more detailed than any television screen he had ever seen. None of the smudge nor the blurry part could be seen - he had outdone himself once again. The outcome greatly satisfied him, it made him want to go on an expedition to capture more and more magnificent sceneries and stunning wildlife moments.

Photography sure was an interesting hobby.

Gregory turned around to hand the picture over to Freddy, it was then he noticed the bear's vague look, especially his looking-at-elsewhere eyes.

"Uh… Are you okay, Freddy?", the boy asked uneasily.

"Gregory, I think… I am temporarily blinded due to the flash produced by the Fazcam. Well, not entirely blinded, I can still detect colours.", the bear blankly replied.

The boy didn't expect this; his eyes widened. "Yikes! Sorry, Freddy! I didn't think the flash could still affect you even though you're standing behind me."

"Perhaps, I may have underestimated its power. Fret not, I will regain my eyesight at any moment now."

The siblings joined the scene shortly after.

"I think I just saw a lightning strike, but I didn't hear any sound. Weird… Did it come from your Fazcam, kid?", questioned Daniel as he pointed at the Fazcam. "Damn, I have never seen any camera that made a flash as bright as that one. If it could blind an animatronic like Freddy here, you sure as hell keep that thing away from people."

"Do not worry, Fazbear entertainment highly prioritizes the safety of all staff and customers.", reassured Freddy. "Due to our sensitive eyes, we often get temporarily blinded by sudden flashes of light mostly produced by polaroid cameras. We can look at objects that radiate an intense amount of luminosity without damaging our eyes, though it does not work the same with abruptly bright light. But, as I have just said, there is nothing to worry about, my visual perception will soon return to normal in a minute."

When Freddy had regained his eyesight, Gregory gave the photo for him to take a look at it. Lily and Daniel were curious as well.

"Huh… Not bad.", commented Lily. "The flash was bright just enough to not overwhelm the surrounding, showing the shadowy part without distorting the natural sunlight. The angle of this picture was alright, not too high, not too low. And the quality was great, I must say, although it is not as detailed as my digital camera…"

For some reason, she sounded a lot like a professional photographer.

"Wow, Lily! You seemed to be very knowledgeable in taking photos!", remarked Freddy, which made the girl's face turn red.

"It's called photography.", she added. "A-And thanks… I'm still an amateur, though."

Daniel gave a sly smirk. "Actually, she says these most of the time to sound like one."

"Shut up!"

The sky, mid-afternoon, was a beautiful canvas graced with sky blues and pure milky whites. The blue in the depths beyond and the smooth, rounded, sugary sweet clouds in the foreground; summer days were made to be like this. The sun was close to setting as it cast long shadows on the ground. But not quite so. It remained as bright as midday, when His glory would shine upon the surface, delivering the necessities for life, granting buried seeds a chance to bloom and grow into nature's wonders. Yet, He himself was capable of destroying life altogether. And one couldn't be certainly sure whether they should be thankful or fearful of Him... or whatever you referred to the Sun as.

The group had walked for an indefinite amount of time, stopping at various places for pictures, and discovering wonderful species of flora and fauna alike. From the gaudily painted petals of flowers bathing in the afternoon sun rays, to the dynamic wildlife denizens jumping and jogging around here and there behind the bushes and high upon the trees. Such diversity in size, shape and appearance that it made Freddy wonder:

Is there a limit to life itself? Is there an invisible, or material boundary of a living creature? For he all knew, lifeforms on Earth could never be considered perfect, including himself… if he categorized himself as a living being, that was. All of them, even the strongest, most invincible, most vicious, most clever, most intelligent, bore at least a fatal weakness which could lead to their inescapable demise. And him, an animatronic bear, who feared not the pain a creature endured, fright not the hunger a creature desired, afraid not the power a creature possessed… he who bore so little disadvantages that one would conclude that he was the perfect being.

Yet, contrarily, at the same time, he was the one being the most vulnerable: fed upon power, bulky body with a tremendous weight, incapable of tasting and sensing the world by touch whatsoever ect…

But worst of all: ignorance and the lack of universal knowledge.

Without the boy's help, he wouldn't even survive a day in the outside world. That was how weak and powerless he was.

"Gregory, look! Another squirrel!", exclaimed the bear in excitement.

The boy took a deep sigh; this wasn't the first time during the trip. "Of all the animals we can possibly come across in this forest, all I have seen from the beginning were squirrels and squirrels only! Well, there are birds but how are we even supposed to take a picture of them, let alone teach Freddy about them when they just wouldn't stop flying around?"

"I feel you, kid.", said Daniel. "I mean, where are the big, bad, hairy predators? I want to meet a bear, not some boring furry nut-crackers!"

"Why would you want that?! Aren't you afraid of being mauled by it?", demanded Lily in disbelief.

Freddy's eyes widened upon hearing it. "Pardon me, but… mauled?!"

"Bears are predators. They eat meat. You… don't know that?", said the boy.

His ears drooped. "I… I thought they only eat honey…"

Daniel chuckled to himself, while Lily and Gregory gave each other sympathizing gazes. On the other hand, Freddy stood dead silent.

So… bears are predators. They hunt for prey and feast upon their flesh meat. Although the knowledge itself was interesting and was rather shocking to him, he should be happy to have learnt it. But he didn't – he was baffled, unable to elucidate: His animal counterpart was a predator, a big, hairy, vicious predator capable of tearing an adult human to pieces. In other words, he was a family-friendly robotic replica of a killer animal, a meat-craving, bloodthirsty, unforgiving dominator of mother nature.

And it was the sole reason why he didn't understand.

He didn't understand why an entertainment company would make him and his friends, except Chica, based on a particular predator. Weren't people, especially children should be avoiding them at all costs? Why didn't they choose a dog or a cat instead? Back in the day, he never questioned it, and nobody knew, and nobody realized. His friends knew not about their real-life counterparts - the so-called wolves, alligators and chickens. He knew not about their true appearance – the so-called bears. But now, he knew what kind of animals they were, and he couldn't help but feel uneasy about it. It made him feel less excited for some reason.

Was he supposed to be a big, bad bear?

"Well, they do eat honey… and other animals.", added Gregory. "But apart from that, they eat fish, berries and insects as well. And for most of the time, their diet usually consists of something that isn't meat. So… yeah."

And just that, his inner endoskeleton felt so much lighter, thanks to the boy.

"Oh… That is a relief."

Nobody commented, so everyone continued their adventure… until they stopped.

You might think they stopped to take a short break, or that they had spotted an animal nearby, or came across spectacular scenery, perhaps. But that was not what happened.

In front of them, were chain fences, stretching horizontally without ends. Near them, hung a yellow sign that said: "Restricted Area"

"Huh, so this is the restricted zone.", Daniel scratched his hairy chin. "Looks nothing dangerous to me. Want to climb over?"

"Wait, what?!", Gregory choked.

Lily didn't seem to react to her brother's reckless decision as though she had gotten used to them.

The man snorted. "Relax, I'm just kidding. To be honest, if I went alone, I would definitely find a way to get to the other side. You know it's a big deal when they put this sign on. Lily, give me the map."

Did as she was told, the girl took out a piece of paper from her cotton cross bag and handed it over to her brother. "Here. Are you trying to find a way in or something?"

He nodded, to which she replied: "You do know that they're locked, right? Like, without even having to think."

"It's either locked or not. Fifty-fifty. Can't just let that chance slip away. Besides, if it really were locked, which I don't root for, we could still walk along the fences and see from here if there was anything eye-catching on the other side. Just a few pictures could start a heated controversy."

"Fifty-fifty!? Man, I wish that was applied to winning the lottery as well."

Gregory giggled at Lily's remark, while Freddy remained confused as always.

While the others were laughing at his terrible take on calculating probability, Daniel was examining the map of the campsite. He used his index finger to find the symbol that indicated the chain fences. When he found it, he traced his finger along the line until it stopped at a unique spot – the gate – it wasn't very far from where he and everyone were at the moment.

"Found the gate. It's on our's left. Five or ten minutes walk, maybe.", announced the man as he folded the map and put it in his flannel pocket. "Alright, let's go."

And so, everyone continued their adventure.

"Oh, wow! How convenient!", said Daniel as he pushed the chain gate open. He did not expect that, and so did everyone else.

Gregory, especially Lily, couldn't believe their very own eyes – True to the man's word, the gate was actually not locked. Instead, it was either poorly closed by forcing two slides tightly against each other, creating an illusion that it was closed, or it wasn't actually closed in the first place. He wondered how such improbable happenstance could even occur when the chance of it happening wasn't fifty-fifty like the man had thought, but rather something approximately one to a thousand.

Well, that happened, nonetheless. He couldn't just argue with the apparent truth in broad daylight.

"Huh… I'm starting to doubt the probability theory's accuracy now.", the girl whispered to him. "Are you seeing this, Gregory?"

"Yeah…", he replied obliviously. "Are we really going into that place, though?"

"What?! Of course, not!", she quietly exclaimed. "If the gate isn't locked, there must be someone or a group of people on the other side. Do you want them to find out Freddy and call the police on all of us?"

Before Gregory could answer, he and Lily were both interrupted by Daniel. "Okay, so… any pioneer?"

"Daniel, stop joking around! Do you want to get all of us arrested?", said Lily.

"Woah, easy there princess."

While the siblings were getting wrapped up in another fight, driven by curiosity, Freddy slowly approached the chain fences, eyes scanning the environment to see what the "forbidden forest" would look like in the restricted zone. Not much to his surprise, there didn't seem to be any significant changes between the two areas: still the lush greenery, the damped soil, the dried leaves, the colourful stones and pebbles… The only difference was that there were no squirrels to be seen.

So much for a restricted area…

But, if the place bore such a name, it must have contained something abnormal and looked out of place compared to the usual surrounding nature on this side. More than that, he had just only scratched the surface. Who knew what might lie deep inside that "forbidden forest"? For the sake of his greedy curiosity side, he continued seeking, seeking something that would stand out from everything else, something distinctive, something odd, something he could not comprehend.

"Okay, fine. Let's go to the lake.", declared the man in defeat. Disappointment could be felt in his tone.

Having heard Daniel's announcement, he hastily darted his eyes, zooming in and out constantly at a quicker pace. He would not leave this place without fulfilling the desire of his.

"Come on, Freddy. Let's go.", Gregory called him.

That was when he stopped searching. That was because he had found it, he had spotted the unusual. For some reason, this unusual object looked strangely familiar, as though he had been told about it before.

It was then his eyes widened in realisation.

"Everyone, I think I saw something!"

All ceased their movement as each of them turned to look at the bear who was pressing his hands on the fences.

Eyes narrowed for better focus, the bear began describing the object he was looking at from a distance. "…It seems to be a wooden stick figure being hung on a tree branch. If I remember correctly, what you—"

Given no time to finish, the bear was immediately interrupted by the man's sudden and unexpected act of recklessness: body ramming right into the gate.

"Daniel, are you crazy?!", shouted Lily with her terrified eyes, "Someone could have heard that!"

"I admit that was a bit uncalled for.", confessed the man. "Just couldn't hold back the excitement. Heh. But did you hear what Freddy just said?"

The girl remained quiet for a few seconds, as moments were taken to process, there was enlightenment. Her gaze switched to Gregory, who was standing beside her. Both did not utter a single word, implying that all had understood what was being mentioned.

"We should not enter that place, should we? It is a restricted area, after all.", said Freddy nervously.

"Come on, it wouldn't be that bad if it's just only a few steps, right? Besides, we are in a forest, there aren't any cops around to catch us trespassing."

"Uh… they are called rangers for a reason.", the girl frowned.

"…Trespassing…", the bear muttered with his ears drooped. "I… I am not so sure… Although, as much as I highly respect the regulations, I could not help myself but… be tempted by my own curiosity."

"See? Even our robot celebrity Freddy Fazbear here likes to be rebellious.", said Daniel as he winked at him.

Lily was steadfast in her declaration. When she had asserted her stance, hardly anyone could do anything to even barely persuade her to reconsider the choices she had made. You could say she was a strong-minded one. Soon, though, just like everyone else, there would always be a part of her righteous self that contained a tiny fragment of insurgency, albeit insignificant or not. Blinded by greed for knowledge, blinded by the desire for self-fulfilment, it was said to be impossible to not be tempted by such sins. A mere mortal like her was no special occasion in the field of mathematical probability.

Ultimately: a sigh. "I mean, a few steps wouldn't hurt…"

Gregory smiled – a sign that he, too, wanted to be rebellious. Well, it was rather expectable from a child who sneaked into the Pizzaplex, brought absolute chaos to that place, and stole an extremely valuable property after successfully escaping.

"Count me in.", said the boy.

"Well, I suppose—", once again, Freddy was interrupted when the man pulled him to walk past the gate, followed by two rebellious children with their cameras ready from behind.

For a moment, he was behind the gate. Later, the gate was behind him. And amidst these moments of transition between two apparently different realms, the ground he had been standing on was no more but a land he had never stumbled upon. A surge of electricity coursed through his circuit boards as though the air pressure had changed, creating a robotically "tickling" sensation. Even his vision seemed to render like TV static in a span of less than a millisecond, making him question its occurrence just now.

Could these bizarre phenomena be a result of him trying to break the rules?

"Tell us where did you see it again.", said Daniel.

He pointed his finger at a bush. "It is right there, near those bushes. Follow me."

Did as the bear had told, and true to his unfalsifiable words, a wooden stick figure could be seen being hung by a tree branch, fairly concealed by the surrounded leaves of the shrubs. Compared to the photos taken by Gregory, their features were almost perfectly identical. And it looked like it had been in that state for a considerable amount of time – more than years, perhaps.

"Creating an object such as this must have required a degree of mastery and dexterity in crafting.", remarked the bear. "Though, I am still at all sea. What is the sole purpose of making them and hanging them here in the middle of the forest?"

"We have been wondering the same.", added the man. "Could have been anything, to be honest. But I'll stick with the most logical theory. That is, they are used as a marking symbol for some crazy cultist activities or dark witchcraft rituals."

The girl crossed her arms. "And here I thought you were against that idea."

Freddy raised a brow. "Cultist? Witchcraft? What do these strange words mean?"

"Simply speaking, a cultist is like a crazy person who does crazy things by listening to their crazy leader thinking that they are the centre of the universe. Witchcraft is basically magic used for malicious intent, performed by… you guessed it, witches. Guess you know what witches are. I doubt you didn't learn them from Halloween."

His ears wiggled. "Oh… That is… quite disturbing…"

The man casually shrugged. "But hey, witches aren't a thing anymore, let alone magic being a fantasy. And it's not like you would encounter a cultist anytime soon, they usually don't socialize with the "unenlightened" like us. Pretty surprised that some people still believed in superstitious stuff nowadays in the twenty-first century."

"Hold on,", said Gregory, interfering with the conversation, "how come this was hung in here? I mean, it's a restricted area and there's a gate that can be locked. How did the person making these objects can even get past the fences in the first place? They must have either put them here before the fences were built, but that doesn't seem probable. Maybe they have access to this place. But who, though? Unless…"

"—that person is the ranger of this forest.", Lily finished.

A moment to process, and Daniel decided to speak up. "Are you trying to imply that the ranger is a cultist? That's even less probable than the ritual and witchcraft assumption."

"Well… yeah, I guess it does sound a bit ridiculous. Maybe they were put here before the fences were built."

While everyone else was being too occupied in an attempt to come up with better hypothesises and explanations, no one was paying attention to the animatronic bear who had already disappeared from their line of sight. When one finally noticed, it was then his robotic voice could be heard coming from in front of them. They turned to look, and saw that he was standing next to another tree not so far away, next to another one of those objects.

"Everyone, look! I found another one!", said the bear with his innocent tone. "This one seems to have a worse condition than the last one, I must say."

Lily was in disbelief. "Isn't that… There's more?!"

"Well, things have just gotten more and more interesting…", mused Daniel.

As though the mere existence of another strange-looking stick figure wasn't enough to pump up those sensations of uneasiness, a sudden gust of wind rushed through the trees and canopies, gifting each one of the humans chilling goosebumps as it played with the bear's cloak like a curious toddler fascinated with a living metal beast. Mother nature, or whoever was conscious of their presence within the forbidden forest had just given them a warning. One might not think of such things, but perhaps it really was meant to be a word of warning.

Should they be aware of the consequences?

A dirt trail could be seen leading straight into the deep, mystifying woods. From afar, one could see the lights were getting dimmer and dimmer, probably because of the setting Sun. But if taking a deeper analysis, one could see that the reason for the gradual decrease of luminosity was because of the intense density of the high canopies blocking every sunlight from ever kissing the ground. Unlike what was normally seen back at the camping site, this part of the forest was more than meets the eye, especially through the eyes of an animatronic bear.

They had already broken the rules, why turned back now?

The old man opened the door, the smell of dust greeted him as always.

He coughed a few times, still keeping that burning cigar by his lips. As he took a quick scan around the wooden room, nothing barely changed since the last few days he came here. Well, it was not like everyone had the courage to enter this place and casually steal some dirty, old stuff, mainly the furniture, that had no practical use other than coating a thick layer of dust and mould. More than that, as this seemingly abandoned cabin was situated near a campsite, a place where not many chose to spend their holidays, it was safe to assume that this shack could be somewhat called a secret base, or a hideout for criminals…

… Well, not that he was a criminal or something, there was just information that shouldn't be known by the people. Like secrets, that's all.

The wind whistled, and there was a long and tiring sigh. The man took off his backpack and thoughtlessly tossed it onto the couch, cared not about the dust sticking on the surface. He then went upstairs, and walked toward a door with strange symbols carved on it. And when he opened it, the same good old dusty smell enter his nostrils once again. Damn, he really should wear a mask when going into this place.

Behind that door was what he had been expecting – decaying woods, a table with a rusted lamp and a stack of tattered papers, a worn-out bed that acted as a lair for the raccoons, and a closet containing threadbare clothes worse than what he was wearing. Such a place that only a dirty wretch would like to stay, again, he was confident that the place was indeed "burglar-proof". And despite the horrible condition of this so-called "secret base", he found it rather cosy… to say the least.

Yeah… he definitely should rethink that.

Then, he noticed something was off. He didn't recall having left the closet door to be open, nor the papers to be unevenly scattered instead of a tidy stack, nor the sheets to be folded in another way. Thanks to the job he had been doing for years, the amount of experience in spotting the difference he had was much higher than any average person. Noticing the changes in this room was rather easy for him as he had done works that required even more focus and attention to the surroundings.

So… someone was here not long ago, maybe a day or more since he came to this place every week. But who could it be? They didn't seem to steal anything so far... Well, there was one more place he had yet to check.

With that in mind, the man hastily made his way downstairs, through a short hallway, and finally arrived at the kitchen. He looked around, eyeing for any oddity that could be found within the room. Then, his eyes land on a generator – a lavender-coloured one with some spots bedecked in olive green, the one that looked like it was newly bought, the one which had been moved from its former position.

He checked the fuel meter, to which his eyes were widened in utter disbelief.

[…]

"Wait, so… someone had been tampering with your generator?", said Samantha as she was waiting for some sort of reconfirmation.

The man nodded. "Couldn't have been the family camping there, or anyone I can think of since I have no clue what's the reason for using the generator in the first place."

"Maybe they were trying to recharge something?", mused the woman. "I mean, that would be the only plausible explanation when you are in the middle of the woods and needed some electricity."

"If they were trying to save their car battery, why not come to this gas station instead?", he reasoned.

Samantha sighed heavily, she was completely fed up with this whole mystery of burglars in the forest and the monster from an infamous urban legend of this particular camping site. To be more precise, she had always been fed up with these far-fetched assertions. But hey, at least she got company – an eccentric man harbouring eccentric dreams always came here for a chit chat every now and then. Working alone in a 24/7 gas station store such as this sure was a mind-numbing job.

Moments later, the man got up from the table after finishing his lunch. He dusted off the breadcrumb stuck on his jacket as he proceed to walk to his car which was parked nearby.

"Going already?"

"Just remembered that I forgot to lock the gate to the restricted area."

Eyes rolled, the woman could only give him a neutral face of displeasure. "It's not like people would even think of coming to that place, you know."

He shrugged. "I wasn't talking about the people, though. You know what I am trying to refer to."

Another eye roll, there was a smirk this time. "Oh, yeah… that. Anyways, come back soon, Seb. Don't get killed, uh... I guess…"

The man hopped into his car, started the engine, and before driving away, he turned to look at the woman now standing beside the window right next to him. "Of course… And it's Sebastian, don't call me like that. I have been repeating this like for a million times now."

From a smirk to a genuine smile. "Whatever you say, Seb."

"I am an embodiment of a vicious beast, a wolf in sheep's clothing."

A/N:

HOLY SHIT 100K WORDS