Chapter Six
Even though the hour was late, Elizabeth stood for a long time under the hot water in their motel shower. She never would have thought she could take something like water for granted, but right now, the heat and soap lather felt like the closest thing to heaven she had ever experienced. She had already shampooed her hair three times and went for a fourth, using up what was left of the three extra miniature hotel-provided shampoo bottles that she had requested.
Dave knocked on the door. "Are you almost done in there? I was wanting a shower after you if there's any hot water left."
She leaned back and let the water run over her face. "Ten more minutes."
"You said that an hour ago," Dave groaned.
"Listen, smarty-pants, I haven't had a shower in fifteen years! Give a girl some privacy! If you're that desperate, go jump in the pool."
She heard him grumble something under his breath as he walked away from the door. Finally assuring herself that she would be able to shower again tomorrow, she turned off the water and started to towel off. She felt cleaner than she had felt in a long time. It would take a while for her to normalize not being stuck inside of an animatronic suit all the time, but for now, the freedom was paradise.
After pulling on some of Dave's sweatpants and an oversized hoodie as makeshift pajamas, she started working on brushing out her hair. Now that it was clean, it gleamed in the bathroom mirror. While it was still wet, she split her hair down the middle and pulled it into two low pigtails. Finally presentable. She rolled up the hoodie's sleeves and looked at her arms. In the shower, she had noticed hundreds of scars all over her body in various shapes and sizes. It didn't take long to realize that the scars were left over from where Baby had attacked her.
Without wanting to, she was able to visualize the attack, but what was strange was that she could see the attack from two vantage points: hers and Baby's. She saw herself walking up to Baby, and she also saw Baby's stomach open and give her an ice cream cone. That's when everything went black. She shook the memories from her mind.
"Elizabeth, come on!" Dave pounded on the door.
With a smirk, she opened the door. "You're going to wake up the neighbors, and I don't think you're up to having to deal with anyone right now. I'm finished."
"Finally!" He slipped past her into the bathroom and shut the door.
When his shower concluded ten minutes later, Elizabeth was sitting cross-legged on one of the beds.
"You should get to sleep," Dave suggested. "We've got a busy day tomorrow, and you'll need all the energy and strength you can get."
She ignored him. "Did you see what happened to me? Were you there that day? I don't remember. Everything is so fuzzy. Some things I think I remember, but there are others that I can't differentiate if they're my memories or hers."
"I didn't see you, but I heard about it later. Your dad told me."
"Hey…Dave?" she hesitated.
"Yeah?"
"What's it like? You know. Changing. That's one reason why I didn't go to bed. I'm…" Tears choked the back of her throat. "I'm scared. I don't want to be Baby. Ever again. I'll never wake up."
"You will. Charlotte always did. I mean, I never watched it happen, but I think I remember her talking about it one time. It's just like falling asleep. You may be able to be more aware of your surroundings, but you'll be asleep. She'll take over, and then as soon as 6 AM rolls around, she'll let you take control again, and you'll wake up. Piece of cake."
She took his hand. "But I'm scared. Will…will you sit with me? Until I fall asleep?"
He nodded. "Yeah, sure. Lay down."
Slowly, methodically, she pulled back the bedsheets and laid against the pillows. "You promise you'll stay here until I'm asleep? You won't leave me?"
"I promise. Now go to sleep. I'm so tired I could fall asleep sitting up."
Cautiously, she turned over onto her side facing Dave and curled into a fetal position. One of her long pigtails fell across her cheek. Not long after she was asleep, Baby's form replaced Elizabeth's.
Baby opened her eyes. Dave was sitting up on a chair next to the bed, eyes closed and breathing deeply. She reached out and touched his arm. "She's okay, Dave. It's okay. I'll take care of her." Her soothing voice woke Dave up from his light sleep. He started at her metallic touch and then looked deep into her glowing, child-like green eyes.
"Thanks…Baby. Make sure both of you get plenty of rest. We'll need both of you to be at your best tomorrow. Tomorrow the end of our torment begins.
Baby smiled, laid back down, and closed her eyes. Dave climbed into the other bed and fell asleep.
In the moments between waking and sleeping, Elizabeth snuggled deeper into the warm comforter and down pillows. With each passing second, she began to wake up even more, but she fought it as hard as she could. This dream was amazing, and she didn't want it to end. For the first time in forever, she felt warm and cozy, and instead of a metal frame encasing her, she felt cotton sheets.
With a start, she woke up and stared blankly at her surroundings. Where am I? I'm still dreaming. There was a man asleep in an adjoining bed. "Daddy?" she whispered. The man didn't move. She sat up fully and stretched as everything from the night before slowly came back to her. That wasn't Dad in the other bed. That was Dave. Dad was in prison. Dad! We need to get going!
Dave was still sleeping soundly, but he wouldn't be for long. Elizabeth picked up one of the pillows on her bed and chucked it at him. He frowned and grunted and then sleepily opened one eye. "Good morning to you too," he mumbled. He rolled over onto his side and picked up the bedside alarm clock. "Elizabeth, it's only 6:15! Go back to sleep." He grabbed the pillow she had thrown at him and buried his head underneath it.
"I can't sleep! I wanna see Dad!"
After accepting the fact that he was up for good, Dave sat up and sat cross legged on the bed. "I told you there's paperwork to fill out before you can see him." He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "It's going to take a while."
"Okay, fine, but let's do something. I'm bored."
He looked her up and down thoughtfully. "Well, I think one of the first things we need to do is get you some new clothes. You look like a showered homeless person in mine."
"Sounds good to me! Let's go shopping! And then what?"
"Let me fully wake up first," he grumbled sleepily. He stood up and stretched. "We'll figure it out later. Let's get going."
It was around 9:45 PM. Dave would have preferred that they do this later on in the night to prevent getting caught and charged with trespassing, but it would be a lot easier to confront a bunch of teenagers than it would be to confront an army of animatronics that were twice his size.
Next to him, Elizabeth peered around his shoulder. They had found two knee-length plaid jumpers, one in red and one in orange, along with a couple of white turtlenecks and matching boots for her to wear. She had chosen to wear the red jumper. Her hair had been pulled into identical pigtails and tied off with red scrunchies. Personally, he would have preferred if she had gone with some jeans and the turtlenecks, but she insisted on the jumpers. In the end it didn't really matter, as long as she didn't hold them up. So far she seemed to be keeping up well enough.
"Let's do what we have to do and get out of here," she whispered. "I hate this place." She crossed her arms against the wind. Thankfully, it wasn't snowing anymore, but the wind was still bitterly cold.
"I don't blame you. I hate this place too." Dave turned his back to the wind and fiddled with a small device he had taken from his backpack. While Elizabeth had been trying on clothes at the thrift store, he had tried fixing it. It was supposed to be a tracking device for the animatronics, but it hadn't been used in years. Afton hadn't been sure if it would work or not, but so far it had successfully powered on. They hadn't been able to test it out yet—Baby didn't have an implanted tracker—but hopefully once they got inside they would be able to find the animatronics with it.
Quietly the two of them slipped inside the building and entered the restaurant through the right door instead of the left door like last time. They crept up the stairs and stayed close to the shadows. It seemed pretty quiet, but that didn't mean anything. Knowing Charlotte, she would have her guard up all the time, no matter what.
At the top of the stairs, Dave swung a penlight back and forth slowly, periodically checking the tracker. Nothing yet. He put a finger to his lips and motioned for Elizabeth to follow him. He crouched low to the ground, took a left, and crept across the restaurant with Elizabeth close at his heels.
Elizabeth studied the detail of the restaurant as they walked. She didn't remember much about this part of the restaurant. Most of her life had been spent down in the basement. From the entrance, there was a long hallway directly in front of them that branched off to different rooms on both sides of the hallway. At the end of the hallway looked like another room, but she didn't ask questions. The one thing she did remember was the prize counter, which was all the way on the other side of the building. From the looks of things, that seemed to be where they were heading now.
"We should be getting pretty close now," Dave said just above a whisper. his voice carried in the large room. "Stay close to me, and whatever you do, be quiet."
At the end of the hallway they made a right into a large showroom. There were still tables and chairs set up around the main eating area, although most of them were covered in a thick layer of dust. Elizabeth held back a sneeze. In front of her, Dave froze and looked wildly to the left and right. "What's wrong?" she whispered.
"The stage…it's empty."
"Well, it's not midnight yet," she whispered back. "So that's normal, isn't it?"
He shrugged and checked the tracker again. "I guess. This way."
In front of them and slightly to the right was the prize counter. Dave held up a hand for Elizabeth to stop. "Charlotte?" he called softly. There was no answer.
Elizabeth swung around slowly to look behind them into the arcade. From where she was standing, she couldn't see any movement. But the whole building was dark except for what Dave was shining his penlight on, so it was hard to tell.
A quick but thorough search of the Prize Counter revealed nothing. Charlotte wasn't anywhere to be found, although they did find a musty cot in the corner of the room. "They've got to be around here somewhere," Dave whispered. "If Charlotte did end up changing the kids—and we're going into this assuming that she did—she wouldn't let them out of her sight, and I don't see her or any sign of the others."
The arcade turned up empty as well. Dave stood and rested his hands on his hips. "This isn't possible. They have to be here somewhere. At this time of night there's no way Charlotte would let them leave."
The duo backtracked towards the stage, looking for clues along the way. On the stage, Elizabeth thought she saw four different cots lined up in a row. There was a fifth cot closer to the Parts and Service room.
"That makes six cots," Elizabeth mused. "One for each of the five kids, and then one final one for Charlotte. They've been here recently. They're just not here at the moment. The question now is where did they go?"
"I have no idea." Dave picked up one of the blankets on the stage and recoiled when a rat scurried out for underneath. "It's like they just disappeared." With a sigh, he dropped the blanket. "Okay, change of plans. Obviously, we're not going to find anything here tonight. It's almost midnight, and there's no sign of them. Nothing is coming up on the tracker either. If they were here, we would've seen something by now.
"Let's head back to the hotel, get some sleep, and then first thing tomorrow morning, we'll head to the prison so you can sign the necessary forms so you can see your dad."
At various parts of the day, Billy noticed that his chest felt unusually tight. He couldn't explain the feeling. It didn't hurt. It was just slightly uncomfortable. At first, he ignored it, but then the feeling kept coming back in waves. After several hours of on-and-off pain, he finally decided that maybe he should say something to Charlotte. The final decision came when Amy and Felix mentioned the same thing happening to them at the same times throughout the day.
"Hey, Charlotte, we need to talk to you." Billy, Amy, and Felix found her reading a book in the living room.
She marked the page she was reading and set the book aside. "What's going on, guys?"
Felix winced and rubbed the middle of his chest. "All of us have noticed that increasingly today our chests have felt tight. I know it sounds weird, but it's hard to explain."
Charlotte's forehead knitted in thought. "Do you mind if I take a look?" She reached forward and took Felix's pulse. It was normal. "Do you guys feel short of breath?" When they all said no, Charlotte lifted Felix's shirt and looked closer at his chest where he said the pain was radiating from. "Is it in the same place for both of you?" she asked Amy and Billy. Both of them nodded.
At first she didn't see anything. Everything seemed normal, and she was ready to brush it off as just random happenstance. That is until she saw a dimly blinking red light in the center of Felix's chest. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she looked closer to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Every fifteen seconds or so, a dim red light pulsed on Felix's sternum.
"What is it?" Billy leaned forward to see what Charlotte was studying so intently.
"It's nothing. I thought I saw something, but I must have been seeing things." She pulled Felix's shirt back down. "Just take it easy today and relax. I swear I won't say anything about you guys playing too many video games. Let me know if Frederick or Goldie mentions anything about their chest hurting too. I need to go talk to Lizzie."
Billy, Amy, and Felix all exchanged glances. "What's wrong?" Amy asked.
"Nothing," Charlotte insisted. "Why?"
"You're acting really weird," Felix prodded. "More so than normal," he added.
"No, everything's fine. I just need to go talk to Lizzie about something. Go…play the Wii or something." She left the three teens speculating.
"Lizzie, we need to talk." Charlotte found her in the laundry room starting a load of towels.
"Yeah, Charlotte, what's up?" She added detergent to the machine and closed the lid.
Charlotte stepped into the doorway. "We need to talk in here…away from the kids."
"Is something wrong?" Lizzie started folding the load of clothes in the dryer.
"Kind of. My dad put tracking devices into all of the animatronics and the spring lock suits so that he would be able to track them down in case anyone tried to steal them. I think someone might be trying to track where the kids are. I'm not entirely sure, but that's what it looks like."
Lizzie frowned. "What makes you think that's the problem?"
"Three of them were complaining of minor chest pain, and I saw a blinking light in the middle of Felix's chest, where Foxy's power module would be. The trackers are in the same place as the power modules, and when the tracker is enabled, it emits an electromagnetic pulse, which could account for their chest pain."
"So what does that mean for the kids?"
"I'm not entirely sure, and I won't know for sure until I open them up and look at it myself."
"Open them up?" Lizzie paused her folding. "What do you mean?"
"It's a fairly easy procedure, and it won't affect them in any way. Or it shouldn't anyway. I've never tried it before. But I just have to open up the suits so I can get to the endoskeleton. It's just time-consuming. Hopefully, I'll be able to get through all of them in one night. Even if I leave an hour for each one, I should have plenty of time."
Having finished folding, Lizzie tucked the laundry basket under her arm. "Anything we can do to help?"
"I really appreciate the offer, but I think it would be safest if I do it on my own. I don't want to put any of you in danger. Especially after what happened the other night with Freddy and Shaddid. I feel really bad about that."
"That wasn't your fault, Charlotte. Shaddid was fine. I just hate that Frederick got caught in the middle of it."
Charlotte leaned against the doorway frame. "Sometimes I wonder if it would just be easier to tell them about what happened. Tell them the truth for once. It would definitely put an end to the endless lies and excuses I've had to give them over the years. I just know what it's like being terrified of my killer. I hated being around him."
"Well, if you change your mind about the transfer thing, let either me or Shaddid know. We would be more than happy to help." She chuckled. "I'll just make sure neither of us are wearing anything purple. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?"
"No, that's it." Charlotte smiled. "Thanks."
"Alright then. You're welcome. I'm going to start dinner." She slipped past Charlotte into the entryway.
In the kitchen, Lizzie started meat sauce as a part of the spaghetti she was making for dinner. Once the sauce was heating up, she called Nicole and asked her about the trackers. The two talked for several minutes.
"If she wants to do it on her own, that's up to her," Nicole commented while they were wrapping up, "but I just don't know if she'll be able to do all of that on her own, especially if she's trying to do it all in one night. She'll have plenty of time to get it done. I'm just concerned about the next morning. She'll be exhausted.
"I definitely understand where both of you are coming from as far as safety goes. It's just a difficult job to accomplish by yourself. It's a lot of lifting. Plus, if one of them wakes up, then one of them could go roaming around the house again, and no one wants a repeat occurrence of that."
They each said their good-byes and hung up. Lizzie continued stirring the spaghetti sauce and was working on garlic bread when Nikki entered the kitchen.
"Hey, Mom, what was that about trackers?"
Lizzie turned on the stove. "Charlotte thinks that someone may be trying to locate the animatronics by using imbedded trackers in their endoskeletons. But in order to switch them off, she would have to almost take the animatronics apart completely at night, fix the trackers, and then put them back together, and Aunt Nicole says she thinks it's a lot of work for Charlotte to do on her own."
"I can help!" Nikki offered.
"It's way too dangerous, young lady. Just let Charlotte and your dad and I handle this, okay?"
"Yeah, but I'm the only one who can communicate with Charlotte after midnight. She can't work on opening up the animatronics until then. And she'll be too busy opening them up to write notes down every couple of minutes. You'll need my help whether you want it or not."
Lizzie opened her mouth to protest, but then she realized that Nikki had a point. She and Shaddid could try and help all night long, but if they couldn't communicate with the one person who knew the animatronics best, then they would be causing more harm than good. "Your father and I will discuss it—"
Nikki let out a whoop and ran from the room to tell Charlotte.
"That's not a yes!" Lizzie called out, but Nikki was already out of earshot.
Charlotte sat in the living room contemplating who she would bring into the room to help her switch the trackers off. She didn't want to have to ask anyone for help in case someone got hurt, but after thinking it through, she admitted to herself that having one or two people in there would definitely be helpful. The kids would just have to get a double dosage of the anesthetic to make absolutely sure that none of them woke up. If any of them happened to wake up when either Nicole or Shaddid or Lizzie were in the room, there was no telling what would happen no matter what the Puppet could say to try to calm them down.
It looked like the best choice for those in the room would be Nicole, Shaddid, Nikki, and herself. Nicole knew the most about the animatronics and how they behaved, second to Charlotte; Shaddid would help with the heavy lifting; and Nikki could help the line of communication between Charlotte and her two counterparts. The procedure would be dangerous, but at this point if there were people tracking the kids down, Charlotte didn't really feel as though she had another choice.
The best course of action would be to do the "procedure" as soon as possible. If everyone agreed, Charlotte was thinking that tonight would be best. Better to get it over with sooner rather than later. She would talk to everyone and make sure that worked for everyone else. Then as soon as midnight hit, they would be good to go.
Shaddid gathered with Nicole and Nikki outside of the kids' and Charlotte's room at 11:30 to wait for Charlotte's cue to go inside. The kids were already asleep, but they couldn't get started until midnight when the kids and Charlotte switched forms.
While Shaddid, Nikki, and Charlotte were going over possible risks and safety precautions Nicole had been put in charge of mixing up the kids' drinks. She had set out five different cups, filled with the kids' favorite drinks, and then started to count out pills to crush and stir into each one. She had carefully measured everything to make sure that each drink got enough milligrams and mixed it in.
That night, each of the kids drank their drinks and went to sleep, not knowing that within a few hours Charlotte would be performing delicate "surgery" on them.
Now they were all waiting for Charlotte's cue. It was almost midnight. Nicole shifted positions on the floor and crouched down on one knee. "Can you hear anything, Nikki?" she whispered.
Nikki shook her head. "The kids are dreaming," she whispered, "but I can't hear anything from Charlotte." She leaned towards her aunt. "Also, remember, I can hear you if you just direct your thoughts towards me. You don't actually have to say anything."
A few minutes after midnight, the door creaked open slowly, and the trio in the hallway could see half of the Puppet's face leaning out from the shadows. A long finger snaked out and curled upwards before moving to the Puppet's mouth. Nikki didn't have to read her mind to be able to see that they needed to be extremely quiet.
Quietly they all stood in unison and slipped into the room one at a time. The Puppet shut the door behind them. The room needs to stay completely dark. It will help the animatronics stay more relaxed.
Nikki nodded and very quietly relayed the news to her dad and Nicole. The only light in the room came in under the door from the hallway light outside that Lizzie had switched on after their entry, just like they had planned. They could all barely see each other's silhouettes in the dark.
The Puppet led the way over to Bonnie's bed first. Nikki stared at his enormous size. Including his ears, Bonnie was at least eight feet tall. His jaw was slacked open. Shaddid, The Puppet started. Nikki softly tapped her dad to get his attention. He locked eyes with The Puppet. Silently, The Puppet raised and extended her hands, palms down, and then pushed down on the empty air in front of her.
Shaddid nodded. Nikki, tap my hand twice if I'm getting this right. She wants me to hold Bonnie down, and I'm assuming she'll tell me when to let up? It took a few seconds to get a response, but then Nikki tapped his hand twice. Mentally he reached out and pushed down on Bonnie's shoulders, pinning him to the bed.
Not so hard, The Puppet whispered.
Nikki squeezed her dad's arm, and he let up pressure a little.
Good. Nikki, go ahead and project the dreams we talked about. I'll wait to start until I can sense their dreams changing.
One by one, Nikki projected herself into each of the animatronics' minds, creating dreams for the kids to keep them preoccupied while Charlotte was working on them and each of their siblings.
Good, Nikki. Keep it up. We're going to start. She reached across Bonnie to tap Nicole. Nicole rolled up her sleeve and hovered her hand over Bonnie's left eye. As soon as The Puppet was ready on Bonnie's right, Nicole reached forward and removed Bonnie's left eye and moved to his left cheek. Seconds later, The Puppet grabbed his right eye and moved to his right cheek. At the same time, they both pushed the buttons on either side of Bonnie's head. With two small clicks and a single louder one, Bonnie's face popped open, revealing his endoskeleton skull.
Nikki jumped slightly, but quickly reassured The Puppet, I'm okay. Sorry.
Shaddid cringed in the dark. Eugh. That's freaky.
The Puppet pushed one more button on Bonnie's jaw, exposing the endoskeleton part of his chest. You're doing great, Nikki. Keep going. She gave an awkward thumbs-up to Nicole and Shaddid.
Shaddid peered into the chest cavity and recoiled. Inside, he could see a pair of lungs inflating and deflating as Bonnie "breathed." Are all of them like that? He locked eyes with The Puppet. She only nodded.
With expert fingers, The Puppet reached into the chest cavity and removed a small disk above the power module. A red light blinked periodically on the front of the tracker, like what Charlotte had seen under Felix's skin. She turned the tracker over and flipped a small switch on the back. The light changed from blinking red to solid red. Quickly, The Puppet replaced everything, closed the chest cavity, and grabbed Bonnie's right eye. Nicole grabbed the left eye and replaced it. The Puppet held her hand splayed over Bonnie's face and then quickly pulled it back several times.
Nicole understood completely. Watch your fingers. She moved her hands down to her sides, and not a moment too soon. As soon as The Puppet replaced Bonnie's right eye, Bonnie's face snapped shut. One down, four to go. The Puppet nodded again.
Next up was Freddy. The Puppet pointed at Shaddid and then made an "okay" sign with her forefinger and thumb. He nodded and held Freddy down. The Puppet then reached forward and pulled on Freddy's bowtie, opening up the chest cavity. She repeated the same process for Bonnie on Freddy and then pushed his nose. The chest cavity snapped shut again.
Nikki was still watching Freddy's dreams. He was dreaming about walking around the pizzeria. He walked down a long hallway, with other rooms branching off to his left and right. Halfway down the hallway, he froze. Nikki kept watching as a figure appeared. The figure was blurring in and out of focus. He was standing in the shadows, and the only color Nikki could make out was purple. But with the focus out of whack, the color blurred outside of the lines.
Inside the dream, Freddy screamed at the Man in Purple.
So far everything seemed to be going well. As a group, they all moved towards Chica. Shaddid started to hold Chica down and then noticed that Nikki was still standing next to Freddy's bed. Nikki! He mentally shouted in her direction. What are you doing? She seemed frozen in place.
Nicole and The Puppet had already moved onto Chica.
Shaddid started to tiptoe in Nikki's direction to see if she was okay. She still hadn't moved. Before he could get all the way over to her, she screamed louder than he had ever heard her scream before. He leaped towards her and tackled her to the ground, clamping his hand around her mouth. Mentally he locked the door to keep Lizzie out. At the same time, The Puppet and Nicole whirled around to see what the commotion was about. The Puppet grabbed Nicole and pushed her down under the bed.
Foxy's eyes snapped open, shining light from his illuminated eyeballs. He sat up and slowly scanned the room. Underneath the bed, Nicole barely dared to breathe. From her spot on the floor, she could see Shaddid and Nikki's silhouettes laying in the middle of the floor. If Foxy looked in their direction, he would see them!
The Puppet stood from the floor and caught Foxy's attention. Nicole couldn't understand what they were saying. All of their conversation was silent. But after a few minutes, the light from Foxy's eyes blinked out, and Nicole could hear as he laid back down on the bed.
While Foxy was distracted, The Puppet unlocked the door and ushered Nicole, Shaddid, and Nikki outside of the room. She could finish up Golden Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy on her own. Once they were in the hallway, she shut and locked the door behind her.
Shaddid checked his watch. It was almost two o'clock. Nikki was still unresponsive. Lizzie came out of their bedroom and met them in the hallway.
"Let's get her downstairs," Shaddid whispered. He scooped Nikki into his arms and shuffled down the stairs. Lizzie slipped past him and turned on the lights in the kitchen.
"What happened? I heard her screaming!"
"I don't know. We had just finished Freddy, and she started screaming. Everything was going really well." Shaddid laid Nikki on the counter. He took her pulse. "Her heart is racing." They could all see her eyes moving under her closed eyelids. "Nikki, honey, wake up."
Several minutes later, Nikki's eyes flew open, and she gasped harshly. Her eyes flew back and forth between her parents and Nicole. "Dad!" She grabbed his hand.
"What happened, sweetheart?" Lizzie asked. She filled up a cup with water and offered it to her daughter.
Nikki took several slow sips and tried to catch her breath. "Freddy was having a dream about the restaurant. He turned down a long hallway with a bunch of rooms on both sides, and there was…this…man? It was hard to tell. Freddy's eyes wouldn't focus. It may have been a woman, but I couldn't tell. All I could see was purple, and—"
"Hang on," Nicole interrupted, "are you sure you saw purple?"
"Yeah," Nikki assured her with a nod. "It kept blurring out of focus, so I couldn't see specific details. Like I said, I could tell it was a person, and their entire being was purple, but that's all I could see. I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it, sweety." Nicole gave her hand a comforting pat. "I'm just glad you're okay.
"So why did Foxy wake up?" Shaddid asked Nicole. "I thought you gave them all 2,000 milligrams of the anesthetic."
"Oh, it was two thousand? Sorry, I read the side, and it said that a dosage of 500 for a full-grown adult was the maximum amount."
"Yeah, if they're still alive," Shaddid chuckled. "It's alright. No harm done. The good thing is that Nikki's okay. Charlotte can keep them calm for the rest of the night." He glanced over at the stove. "Let's go to bed. It's 2:30. Nicole, you're more than welcome to stay over since it's so late. You can sleep upstairs in Nikki's room."
Nicole pumped her arms in the air. "Sleepover, yeah! Wouldn't miss it!"
Baby was sleeping soundly when something beeping on the motel nightstand woke her up. She sat up slowly and reached out to pick up the tracker. It was radiating a spot on the north-east coast of the United States. The signal was really weak, but it was a signal none the less. Before waking up Dave, she studied the screen and counted the glowing green dots. There were five of them. Even if one of the trackers wasn't active, the animatronic wouldn't be that far away from the others. Charlotte wouldn't let that happen.
She swung her legs out of bed and smiled. The tracker kept beeping steadily. She turned the audio to silent. "You should've known I'd find you. You played right into our hands." It was just after three in the morning. Dave had gotten more than three hours of sleep this time, so he couldn't complain. Plus, he would want to see this.
It took a few minutes to wake him up, but as soon as she mentioned the tracker, he moved a bit quicker. "What did you do to make it go off?" He studied the various buttons and switches on the control panel of the tracker. Everything looked the same except for the volume level.
"Nothing. It went off on its own. It woke me up."
He took a closer look at it and tapped on the screen. "Why is it saying the north-eastern U.S.?" He made a few changes to the settings, but nothing changed on the screen. "What time is it?"
"About a quarter after three."
"Alright, let's go."
She stared blankly at him. "But it's three in the morning…"
"Yeah? So?"
"Well, don't you want to wait until…I don't know…I'm more human and less…metal? I thought the point was to not attract attention."
"We need to check this out now. Stay here then." He pulled on his shoes and heavy jacket.
"You're not going without me. You'll get yourself killed."
He looked up at her. "Then what do you suggest? It's not like you can switch or something."
"That's an idea." She tapped her chin with a finger and closed her eyes.
"What are you—"
"Shh! I need to focus."
Dave watched wide-eyed as Baby shifted in and out of focus until Elizabeth was standing in front of him. "How did you do that?" His mouth dropped open. She looked more like Baby than Elizabeth—her hair was a lot redder than Elizabeth's, and her eyes were a deeper green—but she could easily pass for a human now. She was also wearing a red dress similar to Baby's.
"I like this look!" Elizabeth pranced in front of the mirror.
"How did you—"
"I figured Baby and I have pretty much been the same person for the last fifteen years, that it would only make sense for us to be interchangeable. I mean, I don't think I can do this for very long or very often. I do kind of feel out of it, almost like I'm dreaming. But it works for the illusion." She jerked her head towards the door. "Let's go!"
There were definitely fewer people around at three-thirty in the morning as opposed to ten o'clock in the evening. Dave felt less like he was being watched, and since they were sure that Charlotte and the kids weren't at this location, they used normal flashlights and walked casually through the halls.
They followed their path from the previous night, but Dave was paying more attention to the tracker than he was paying attention to his surroundings. The glowing dots on the screen were definitely brighter here than they were at the hotel, but they still weren't at maximum capacity. Again, they made their way to the Prize Corner on the far side of the restaurant. As they walked, the glowing orbs continued to brighten.
Once they were inside the Prize Corner, Dave spun around the room slowly, trying to find a stronger signal. The signal was the strongest here at this part of the building, but it still wasn't complete. Dave checked the tracker again. For some reason, it still said that the animatronics were in New York, which didn't make any sense, unless Afton had hired someone to take them to New York. But that didn't add up with him wanting to bring Elizabeth back and have her finish what he had started. Or the fact that the signal was strong in Utah if the kids were in a completely different part of the country.
Around 5:30 he finally gave up. "I don't know why it's saying that they're in New York. I know the signal is stronger in here for some reason, but I can't figure it out. And right now at five in the morning, I really don't care."
Elizabeth stepped next to him and looked up at him. "We'll find them. We're closer now than we've been since we started. Let's grab an early breakfast somewhere. I'm hungry. Also, you said that we would go to the prison first thing in the morning."
Dave nodded. "And I meant it. Your dad has really been looking forward to seeing you."
"I have too. There's something I've been wanting to ask him for a long time."
"What's that?"
She paused before continuing, "It's kind of personal. Sorry."
"I get it. You just want to clear the air. Ask him what took so long?"
"Yeah, something like that."
"Well, I just want you to know that I'm really proud of you. Not many people can say they've been trapped inside of an animatronic for fifteen years and come out handling it as well as you have."
"Thanks. That's sweet." She smiled.
As they walked back to the car and drove back to the motel, Elizabeth thought through how the conversation with her dad would go. She would go in, say hi, they would talk and hug, and then she would make him pay for everything he had put her through.