"Okay, let's do one more check before we head out. So I've got the notes, a copy of the book itself, and several biographies of the author..."John mumbled to himself as he quietly leafed through his small pile of supplies on the kitchen table. Taking the time to carefully examine every scrap of paper to make sure it was the ones he would need.
The report that John was working on was one of the first big assignments of the semester and he didn't want to risk failing due to forgetting one of his notes.
Once he was satisfied that he had everything that he'd need, John re-organized everything back in an orderly pile.
'Looks like this is everything then.' He thought, before then doing a final idiot check of his memories.
As he continued putting everything into place, a flash of movement caused his eyes to turn towards the apartment door to see Charlie leaning up against the doorframe. Her head lowered while her fingers absentmindedly played with the strings of her coat while waiting for John to finish gathering up his things. Every so often she'd look up in his direction and if their eyes met then she'd flash a nervous smile towards him before lowering her head again.
But this time, she stopped fiddling with the strings and stretched before moving over towards John with a teasing look appearing on her face.
"So, are you all ready to go? Because I don't think flipping through your folders all day is going to help you get that paper written any faster." She said playfully, leaning down so her head was resting on his shoulder.
Despite the upbeat way that she'd spoken to him, John noticed that there seemed to be an anxious undertone in her voice. The playfulness being little more than an act to hide something she didn't want him to know. But he quickly put those thoughts away, worried that he might have been mishearing it as a result of his own nerves.
"Yeah, I'm just about ready to go. Can't wait for this thing to be done." He quickly shoved the papers back where they belonged before pushing the chair back and standing up. Charlie rose with him and wrapped her hands around his waist.
The playful smile on her face grew as she suddenly buried her face against the back of his shirt, mumbling something that was rendered unintelligible by the fabric. Her grip on his waist became unusually tighter then what it would normally be.
But John ignored it and lowered his fingers to allow them to curl around Charlie's hands. The pair of them giving each other's fingers a light squeeze before Charlie pushed her face even deeper into John's back. Not wanting to let go of him despite her earlier comments about his paper.
"As much as I love this, we should really get going before both of us are late," John whispered to Charlie, who seemed to flinch a little at the statement.
"Just one more minute… please?" She replied softly, looking up from his shirt just enough so that John could see her begging eyes. John sighed and disconnected one of his hands to grab for his folders.
"Weren't you the one who just said that my paper wasn't going to write itself?" He asked and then watched as Charlie's pleading expression turned into one of indignation.
"Oh, so you're throwing that back at me." She pulled away from John and crossed her arms with a playful huff.
John replied to the huff with a smirk as he gathered up his things before quickly giving Charlie a peck on the forehead. The action caused her to let out a surprised, yet delighted squeak.
"After this project's all done then I'll have plenty of time to relax. Also, isn't it getting close to when you were supposed to meet… uh...Millie was it?"
"Oh… yeah…" Charlie took a quick glance over at the wall clock with her expression becoming one of worry like she'd forgotten about her plans before reaching into her coat pocket for her keys. It was something that shouldn't have raised a red flag for John, but he found himself unable to shake off the feeling that there was something more behind her behavior.
Charlie pulled them out with a dramatic spin around her fingers. A nervous grin playing across her face as she looked back up at John.
"Well, if you're all ready to go then so am I." She said before turning and walking back towards the front door. Only allowing her nervous grin to falter once she was certain John couldn't see her face as he followed her out the door.
But despite her attempt to hide her face, John quickly noticed that something was off about the way Charlie was carrying herself. Her walking place was slow and heavy. As though there was an unseen weight that was dragging her down. An act she continued to keep up as they climbed into the car and set off into town.
She was nervous, and John found himself unable to figure out exactly why. He'd only started getting these feelings after Charlie told him that she was going to hang out with one of her co-workers while he was working on his project
That in of itself hadn't been what troubled him though, it'd been her cagey behavior whenever he'd tried to ask about her plans. Not that he was suspicious of her cheating on him, as she'd made her point to Arty regarding their relationship perfectly clear. But there was an unshakeable feeling that Charlie was planning to do something potentially dangerous.
Worrisome thoughts began clouding his mind as he started trying to put things together and realized that there was only one place that could make Charlie so uneasy. But, she wouldn't actually go through with it, would she? The idea that she'd willingly go back to Freddy's so soon after her panic attack was something that seemed foolish, yet such an outcome was quite possible. After overhearing Rick's conversation about Arty's "theft" of the spring-lock suit, Charlie had barely slept at all the rest of the weekend. John had his doubts that Arty actually stole the suit and knew that Charlie shared those same thoughts despite not saying it out loud.
Adding onto that was the weird crying animatronic thing they'd found in the Party Room. The moment John had laid eyes on it, he'd felt unwelcome energy radiating from it. As though his being there had angered it. Charlie had never said anything about her thoughts on the thing, leading John to wonder if she'd seen it before,
While he'd briefly considered the possibility that there might have been another soul that was residing within it, the idea didn't make any sense to him. The assumption after they'd gotten out of the old Freddy's had been that with Dave gone, the kids he'd killed had finally been able to move onto the afterlife in peace.
But if their current suspicions regarding the disappearance of the suit were right, then it meant that they'd either been wrong or that Dave's spirit was now somehow lingering inside the suit that had killed him. That in itself was already repulsive but the thought that all of his victims were still trapped in their metal coffins because the man who'd killed them wasn't ready to die made it even worse.
The deeper he went into his thoughts, the darker John's face became. Curiosity becoming overrun with fear that was then was clouded with anger, all of it brought on the memory of Dave's actions. Just thinking about what he had done to Michael made John's blood boil. Not to mention what he'd tried to do to Carlton and then tried to do with Charlie...
Remembering that horrible moment caused John to look over to the driver's side of the car as the memory played out in his mind. Being forced to watch helplessly as Dave grabbed Charlie by the throat and threatened her life in a final attempt to escape the law.
'No...he'd said that he wanted her to stay though. John reminded himself, his fists clenching as he played back what Dave had said. 'Probably to his sick kicks by finishing what he'd started with her brother.'
"Dave" had always been a kind of hot button for John ever since that day. Angry that the man Charlie's father had trusted like a brother had so casually chosen to betray her family as though they'd meant nothing to him. Which, knowing what John knew now, he probably didn't care for them at all.
A sudden, possessiveness came over John in that moment. An instinctive desire to keep Charlie out of that monster's way. He didn't want her going back to Freddy's, or even into the general area ever again. But as he opened his mouth to begin voicing his concerns, a more recent memory rushed to the forefront of his mind.
Don't call security on me, call it on that abusive deadbeat over there!' The memory of Arty's words pushed all thoughts of stopping Charlie out of his mind. John lowered his head while cupping his hands to his mouth as Arty's insinuations all came back to him. Implying that He was not only a possessive control freak that would abuse Charlie if she so much as showed interest in doing things he didn't approve of. Forcing her to work so that way he could party all the time at college and living off of her wages.
'There's no way to win here. Say nothing and she might get hurt. Say anything and you'll become what Arty claimed you to be.' Said a voice that sounded suspiciously like his father's.
It had been well over a month since that confrontation and the accusations still made him feel sick to his stomach. But the thought of coming close to making them a reality, no matter what his intentions had made him feel even worse. He quietly crossed his arms over his stomach, letting out an exasperated sigh of defeat.
He then felt a hand gently jostling his shoulder, making him look back over at the driver's side to see Charlie staring at him. Concern filling her eyes as she looked over her boyfriend's pale, distressed face. A quick glance outside the car windows behind her revealed that they'd made it to his campus library.
"John?" She asked softly, firmly rubbing his shoulder. "Are you feeling alright? You're looking...well... not like you."
John looked away and unfurled his arms before letting out another sigh. A nervous smile crossing his face in an effort to assuage Charlie's worries.
"I'll be fine, it's just...all the stress from the project y' know? It can get to you after a while." He said, trying to convince himself more than he was Charlie. Whether or not it actually worked was undetermined as he watched Charlie briefly look downwards.
"Oh… well, don't overwork yourself okay? We don't need you making yourself sick from all this pressure." She leaned forward and lightly kissed his cheek, The gesture turning John's smile into a genuine one as he placed his hand over hers.
"Once this project's done then I should be able to get the hang of how they work for this course. That should hopefully keep me from getting stressed like this again."
Alright, If you say so." Charlie replied while stroking her thumb along his cheek, "When do you want me to come back and pick you up?"
John fell quiet as he gathered up the things he needed from the floor. Uncertainty clouding his mind as he honestly had no idea how long the project was going to take him. After a minute of contemplating, he leaned back up and asked,
"Umm, the library doesn't close till around nine so as long as you're here before then I should be fine." He watched as Charlie looked forward and began silently tapping her finger against the wheel. Thinking over her own plans to determine when she'd be back.
"Well, I think Millie said that her grandfather likes her to be home around dinnertime so… how about we say sometime around seven-ish? That should give you plenty of time to finish your project and maybe I'll pick something up for the two of us on my way here." She looked back to John with a warm smile that chased away a few of John's worries as he began climbing out of the car. Although, not all of his worries disappeared so quickly as he knew that she was going back to Freddy's whether he liked it or not.
Once he was out of the car, he kneeled down so he was once again eye level with Charlie. His arm rose up to wave at her as he said a final goodbye. His anxiousness returned briefly as he spoke.
"You have fun out there and um...be careful, okay?"
His already-strained smile fell as he saw a brief look of panic flash across Charlie's face. The nervousness returning to her demeanor as she said a hurried goodbye of her own and drove away from him. Heading quickly out of the parking lot and towards the street. While moving a little faster than the speed limit would have allowed.
John's heart sank as he watched her drive off, the sick feeling returning to his stomach as he realized what he'd done with his goodbye. The look of fear on her face was one he could recognize as it was the face he always saw in the mirror after his father had yelled at him for doing something that wasn't "approved." He shuddered as his mind was already leaping to the worst conclusion.
'She probably thought you were going to tell her not to go back. Ordering her around and making her do what you want just like Dad always did back home.'
His fingers dug into his folders as he turned away from the parking lot and began walking towards the library. With Arty's accusations continuing to echo nonstop despite his attempts to block them out. But they didn't stop no matter what he tried, even when he was inside the library and hard at work on his project they continued on an endless loop in his head
The fear of becoming like the man who'd driven him from his home in the first place overwhelmed him as he silently went about his work. The whole time praying too whoever was listening, that Charlie would be okay.
'How did he manage to figure out what you're doing?' Was the question that kept repeating in Charlie's mind as her fingers sank into her steering wheel. John's goodbye continuously circling through her head like the buzzing of an annoying insect. Her shoulders sank as she thought back to all of their interactions up to that point, trying to determine if she'd let anything slip out that could have tipped him off. She wasn't worried about him getting angry at her, but what did worry her was the thought that John might insist that he needed to come back with her back to Freddy's.
She'd done her best to keep her actual plans under a mental lock and key. Not once mentioning Millie's cousins or that they were taking them to Freddy's. All of her and Millie's conversations had been done when they'd been at work and John had yet to actually step foot into the store itself.
'There's no for him to have found out, he was probably just saying it as part of the goodbye. After all, the last time you met with a co-worker outside of work didn't go well' She leaned back and tried to relax her shoulders. Mentally repeating it a few times to let it sink into her mind and become fact. Trying her best to reassure herself that it was the answer and that John was in the dark still regarding her venture back to Freddy's.
Not that his presence wouldn't have been appreciated, but this was something that Charlie wanted to do on her own. Without dragging anyone else into the possible line of fire or jeopardizing their current situations. This trip back to Freddy's was almost entirely for benefit and hers alone.
As she drove along and followed the directions Millie had given her earlier in the week, Charlie suddenly found herself thinking back what John had said to her just before they'd left for Freddy's opening night.
'Probably not. But I don't think either of our curiosities will be satisfied unless we go there at least once…'
She shook her head at the memory and laughed sarcastically at the irony. Their attempt at satisfying their curiosities only resulted in her being drawn back into the dark world she'd so desperately been trying to leave behind.
But deep down Charlie had recognized that she'd have done something just like what she'd planned if they hadn't accepted Rick's offer. Not doing so would have just meant that she'd have found out about this stuff either later or entirely on her own. While it was better than going in blind, it was an overall unsettling situation to find herself in.
Her mind ran through several possible answers to the questions that were lingering in her mind, trying to narrow them down to the best answers before she got to Millie's. Having children around wasn't the most ideal environment for sorting through complicated thoughts after all.
To her, the answer as to what happened to Arty was obvious, but she continued to hope that the answer she'd come too was wrong. Even just thinking about the possibility of "Dave" rising from the grave within his suit made her skin crawl.
The effect that his death had on Charlie was something that she'd probably never get over. In the heat of the moment, she'd felt a bit of pride in taking down the man who had caused so much pain in her life. But time had turned the feeling of victory into a deep sense of guilt. While Charlie had avenged those he'd wronged, it wasn't the justice that had been needed.
Instead of rotting away inside of a suit, he should have been made to stay in prison until his life ended on its own. Too never be free, cause harm to anyone else, or see the sun ever again. But, if Charlie's hunch was correct then he'd found a way to turn what should have been his tomb into a new toy for his awful game. A toy that had unintentionally handed to him on a silver platter.
She let the memory of Dave's final moments replay one more time before forcing it to the back of her mind as she pulled up to the address Millie had given to her.
She glanced at the house and found herself noticing just how unremarkable it was. Set alongside several others that were almost identical save for a few differences in colors with the only notable difference being the presence of two little boys running wild in the front yard. Behind them, a figure wearing a grey hoodie sat on the front steps next to a bright blue duffle bag. The hood had been pulled over their head and obscuring their face as they watched the kids play.
As she stepped out of the car Charlie found herself embracing the cool air more than she normally would. A release from the stuffiness that had been brought on by the torrent of worrisome thoughts and memories that had built up during the drive.
She looked towards the front porch and gave the hooded figure a friendly wave. Already surmising that it was her younger co-worker even before she'd thrown back the hood and stood up.
Millie half-heartedly replied to Charlie's wave before stooping back down and sliding the duffle bag over her shoulder. She then cupped her hands to her mouth and called out to the kids in a voice that was much louder than Charlie thought was possible for the moody girl.
"Alright you two, let's get moving!" Her shouts carried across the yard and caused the kids to finally stop roughhousing. The two of them quickly made their way back over to Millie, who was already moving to meet them halfway. Once they'd reached each other, Millie spun them around so she could shepherd them over to her car.
Charlie looked down at the boys as they approached her, doing her best to burn their features into her memory. The pair were nearly identical twins, though the one on Millie's left seemed to have more freckles than his brother. The sight of them caused her to momentarily flashback to when she and Sammy played around in the back of Fredbear's.
But she quickly forced it aside and put on a shallow smile for the kids as they came near. Both of them, looking up at her curiously while Millie squeezed both of their shoulders as a way of silently commanding them to behave.
"So, are these your two famous little cousins?" Charlie joked in an effort to break the sudden silence that had overcome them all.
"More like little terrors but yeah." Millie removed her hands and individually gestured to them while saying their names. "The one with the cap is Hayden and the one with the freckles is Cameron." After Millie finished the rather short introductions, the two boys looked up at Millie with Cameron making an angry face as he reminded Millie,
"I thought Mom told you to stop calling us "terrors."
"Well when you stop acting like terrors, I'll call you something else," Millie said, her voice taking on an icy venom that shut both kids up. She then herded them into the backseats of the car while Charlie stood back and watched Millie go about settling them into place. Not wanting to interfere since Millie seemed to know what she was doing around them.
Millie strapped them in with a stern warning to not mess up anything in the car before slamming the door. Her face lightened as she rose to meet Charlie's expectant gaze with a weary sigh.
"My Aunt packed everything that the boys might need into this thing." She said, patting the large duffle bag that was slung over her shoulder. "They even gave us money to get into Freddy's, I took some of it so I could get in alter but there should be enough for you and the boys to get in." Without waiting for Charlie to reply, Millie opened the car door and tossed the duffle bag on the passenger seat floor.
I really can't thank you enough for helping me today."
"Like I said Millie, it's no trouble for me. I'd probably just end up wandering around too so, at least with this I have something to do. " Charlie said as she climbed back into the car. "My dad used to own a place that was just like Freddy's when I was a little girl so I know my way around a Pizzeria."
"Well weren't you the lucky one." Millie grinned sarcastically as she slid into the passenger seat. Charlie looked away and back towards the road. The memories from the original beginning to ebb back to the forefront of her mind, but she tried to stay positive in Millie's presence.
"Considering that my experience is getting you the day off, I'd consider you the lucky one here Millie," Charlie said before looking back over and noticing that Millie's expression had turned cheerful. If only just for a second before it then resumed it's normally stoic appearance.
After checking to make sure everyone was ready, Charlie pulled away from the house and drove back up the street.
There was no turning back from this now. They were on their way to the place that would hopefully provide a wonderful day for the "terrors" and hold the answers to all of Charlie's questions. She'd once compared Freddy's presence in her life like a shadow, something that was part of her but could be easily ignored. But lately, it had become something more sinister than her original comparison.
A monster that haunted every moment of Charlie's life both while she was awake and asleep. There was no outrunning it now and the most she could hope to do was face it head-on in an effort to defeat it. Maybe then, she could finally bury it and move on with her life. But something in the back of her mind, that familiar little voice she'd heard on opening night, told her that this was only just the beginning.