As the newly hired night cleaners go about their work cleaning Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria after another busy day, none of them seemed to notice Rick Taylor watching their movements from the animatronics stage. While his eyes gave everyone around a harsh look of suspicion, his hands were shaking as he anxiously fiddled with the heavy-duty flashlight that he'd bought just the other day.
The new cleaning crew had been hired after the trust he'd had in the on-site cleaning staff had dwindled into nothing after the theft. As a result, he'd rotated them to only clean the restaurant during the day, while an outside company took over the night shift duties. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to give the new guys the benefit of a doubt either. After all, he still had no clues as to who had actually taken the spring-lock suit and killed Arty.
Once the police had gotten Arty's body to the morgue, the county coroner had determined that the officer's one-scene hypothesis had been correct and the cause of Arty's death was officially ruled as a murder. After he'd found out about the ruling, Rick had done his best to keep this information away from the staff so he could avoid a panic. But somehow, word had managed to get out and subsequently cause everyone on staff to become suspicious of one another.
While the news hadn't affected their overall performance, a closer look at their demeanor showed that they were all walking around like the floor was made out of broken glass instead of tiles. Any strange behavior or breaks in routine were immediately reported to either the managers or Rick himself. It didn't matter how minor the infraction, everything from someone disappearing during prep time to taking too long in the bathroom was reported without fail.
The almost utter collapse of the employee's trust reminded Rick of the original' Freddy's Slow death. Just like now, there'd been a lot of finger-pointing during the months leading up to the restaurant's closure. The employees with children had fled the coop after the third child went missing and those that stayed did so either out of loyalty or in the vain hope that they'd be able to catch the killer themselves.
But what had initially been a collaborative effort quickly collapsed in on itself and just made the situation even worse than it already was. Shortly thereafter, the idea that Henry had been the killer was proposed. Although Rick denied and fought against the allegations, the pressure on his friend had been far too great. The stress and pressure of it soon took its toll on the poor man, resulting in his suicide
Seeing it happen again nearly drove Rick up the wall, bringing back all of the painful memories that he'd tried to repress for so long. But thankfully, there was still a glimmer of hope for his restaurant. But despite how everything going pear-shaped at the moment, he still considered it a blessing that he'd managed to catch onto something wrong before it got too out of hand. Just to be certain that nobody was going to try and stay behind after closing though, Rick intended to do a final inspection of the building before heading for the nearby motel that he'd been staying in for the past week.
While the local police had reassured him that they'd be watching the restaurant as much as possible, Rick didn't feel comfortable leaving Freddy's out of his sight for very long. He was certain that the police had better things to do than just sitting around in the parking watching his restaurant all night.
But on the off chance that they did stick around all night and actually managed to catch someone snooping around inside the restaurant, then they would need help disabling the security protocols. Having a policeman getting injured was the last thing that the restaurant needed on top of everything else.
Plus, just being able to keep his own eyes on the building made him feel like he still had some control over the situation. Although how much control he actually had was up for debate, he'd try to live with the small degree of comfort that being able to keep an eye on the restaurant gave him.
Before long, the night cleaners had finished their work and began slowly filtering out of the restaurant one by one. As soon as they'd all cleared out of the building, Rick walked over and locked the main doors before heading off to the back areas of the restaurant. The flashlight that he'd been turning over in his hands was finally put to good use as he scanned every inch of the restaurant with its powerful beam.
Even though these nightly patrols took him a few hours to complete, he'd built up enough of a routine over the past week that it seemed to make the time fly by. Especially since he never actually found anything on his walks, which always made him just a bit more at ease.
Normally, the prospect of being alone in such a large building would have terrified him. But as the nights had worn on, he'd begun to feel at home within its colorful walls. Though if he'd been a more superstitious person, then he might have made the claim that his nightly rounds had left a part of his essence embedded within the halls. But in reality, it was probably just his growing familiarity with all the restaurant's various little nooks and crannies.
After finishing up his patrol of the play area, he headed back to the showroom and turned down another hallway that was set to the right of the stage with a large overhead sign that read "Arcade" in flashy looking letters greeting him as he went past. It wasn't too long afterward that Rick entered into a large darkened room that contained what had been billed as probably the greatest collection of games on this side of Coney Island.
Even in the darkness, he could clearly make out the rows of various types of arcade games and a few small but fairly impressive rides that were scattered about the room. Normally, the whole place would've been lit up with a variety of colorful lights that showed all that the arcade had to offer its customers. But after hours, it was little more than a dark maze that swallowed up the beam from Rick's flashlight like a mechanical black hole.
Both the arcade and the play area had been some of the most expensive parts of the Pizzeria, mostly because the equipment had been specially customized in order to fit the restaurant's theme. Their scale and size were rightfully massive so they could keep children entertained for hours on end, but this also meant that they were the best places to hide in the restaurant.
Several workers, including Rick himself, had gotten lost inside the maze of games on more than one occasion. These incidents had led them to put up directional signs so as to limit the number of lost children and parents. But even with them in place, it was still easy to get lost amongst the rows of machines, especially if someone was trying to get lost on purpose.
Before stepping into the darkened room, Rick opened up the nearby janitor's closet and moved the cart into the doorway. If anyone was hiding in here and tried to make a break for it, then they'd be hopefully stopped by the supply cart on their way out.
But like the rest of the restaurant, the arcade proved to be devoid of all life aside from Rick himself. Yet, for some reason, he felt like he wasn't alone back there. No matter where he shined his flashlight, Rick Constantly felt like there was a pair of eyes on him at all times. But the only signs of life that he could find were a few scattered candy wrappers that had been missed by the cleaning crew.
After walking through all of the rows, he made his way to the very back of the arcade and entered what was probably the restaurant's single largest attraction. A miniature train ride that had been dubbed "The Fazbear Express." by his marketing team. While it wasn't much more than just an average train ride with Freddy's face slapped on the front of the locomotive, it'd been enough of a crowd-pleaser that he initially didn't have the heart to consider removing it.
However, its recent problems with the track in and around the tunnel had cast its future at the restaurant into signifcant doubt. According to some of the technicians who'd done repairs on the ride, the tunnel track had been repeatedly mangled in such a way that it almost looked like something heavy had walked through the tunnel.
They'd already had to replace the track twice now and were ordering extra parts just in case it got destroyed again. It was yet another mystery to be solved, albeit one that Rick was willing to put off until the current crisis had passed since a closed ride was easier to deal with than murder.
Because of its size, the train tunnel was probably one of the best places to hide in the pizzeria bar and thus one of the first places that Rick would normally check. But the recent issues with the track had made him wary of actually stepping into it again because of the recent damages.
He'd walked through the tunnel on more than one occasion and he was worried that he'd unintentionally caused some of the damages.
Instead of exacerbating the issue with the tracks, Rick decided to stay in between the rails just outside the tunnel entrance and use his flashlight to do a quick visual check of the interior. But just like the rest of the arcade, the only sign that anyone had been near the tunnel throughout the day were a few snack wrappers discarded by some rule-breaking children who'd brought them onto the ride.
It was only once he'd finished checking the area surrounding the tunnel that Rick allowed himself to finally let out the sigh that he'd been holding back throughout his patrol; happy that he didn't actually run into anyone lurking in the restaurant. While catching them in the act would have been great, Rick would be just as happy if they never set foot inside Freddy's ever again.
Especially when he took the damage they'd already done into account, not to mention the fact that if he had found them then it'd be just one man going up against who knows how many burglars. Having the cops be the ones to find and catch them was the much preferable option in Rick's eyes.
But until they were either finally caught or put behind bars, Rick would continue on his nightly patrols around the pizzeria. At least until they had enough money to hire a full-time security guard at least.
But even still, he was more than willing to do it so he could keep Freddy's safe. The whole place was a tribute to the legacy of his dear friend's dream and he wasn't going to let it fall without a fight.
As he turned to walk out of the room, his mind went back to the wrappers scattered about the train tunnel. While he could have simply made a note telling the morning crew to pick them up, he decided that he didn't want them to be left in the tunnel overnight.
He quickly moved back over to the entrance and started picking up all that he could while making a mental note to find a way to better enforce the rules about snacks in the arcade. But despite his anger towards the guests, it wasn't enough to diminish the relief that he felt at having seen no signs of anyone hiding out in the pizzeria.
After he'd managed to snatch up all the wrappers, his watch suddenly let out a sharp to remind him that it was nearly ten o'clock. With a tired yawn, he turned around and began heading back towards the main showroom. The wrappers crinkling in his hands as he balled up his fists to ensure that none of them would fall back onto the floor.
It wouldn't be long before the security protocols kicked in and he needed to be out of the restaurant by then. Even with his protection, Rick wasn't exactly keen on finding out if the system had any bugs in it that might make him unrecognizable.
But had he not been in such a hurry, he might have discovered that his suspicions about someone in the arcade with him weren't unfounded.
As soon as he was out of sight, a towering figure moved out from behind a row of arcade machines and stared in the direction Rick had left in. Even though he'd tried his best to stay quiet while on his patrol, his presence hadn't gone completely unnoticed.
As he'd made his way through the room, the beam of his flashlight had alerted the yellow rabbit to his presence. The rabbit had initially wanted to confront Rick, but the faint whisper from a long-dead voice managed to talk it down.
Instead of making itself known, the presence had suggested that it stay in the shadows and temporarily flee from its hiding spot in the tunnel once Rick was distracted in another corner of the room. While it hadn't wanted to retreat, the entity had made a compelling enough argument that the rabbit chose to listen to it this time.
As it walked back over to the entrance of the train its body violently shuddered as a raspy mechanical wheeze pushed out from the suit's mouth that sounded almost like the whine of an animal that had just lost its prey.
Ever since he'd begun his patrol, Rick had been unknowingly chasing the rabbit out of the various hiding spots that it'd been sheltering in after escaping the storeroom. He was beginning to make the rabbit feel as though it was pushed up against a wall that it could not break.
It was a feeling that the rabbit deposited more than anything else, its anger towards Rick nearly eclipsing the amount of rage that it felt towards the girl that had wounded him. Rick was poking his head where it didn't belong and the rabbit wanted to put a stop to that.
But before it could act on the urge to chase Rick down as it'd done with that annoying boy, the entity once again made itself in an effort to calm the rabbit's anger. It told the rabbit that as long as it managed to stay hidden away from people's sight then there'd be nothing that could do it harm. It didn't have much effect on the rabbit's opinion but by the time the rabbit had forced it aside and refocused its attention, it was too late.
A static hiss arose from deep within the rabbit's chest as it faintly heard the front doors slam shut. Without another sound, it turned back to the railway tunnel. Deciding that it'd be best to follow the entity's advice until a better opportunity presented itself.
To the rabbit, Rick Taylor was a threat, and threats need to be removed as quickly as possible.
-
It had taken a while for Charlie to finish getting Jessica and Carlton up to date with everything that had happened in her life since they'd last seen her. But she was caught off guard when Carlton had started mentioning his own experiences with Freddy's.
What had started out as a discussion between just the two girls had quickly turned into an impromptu story session
with Carlton adding in his own anecdotes. Before the two of them eventually just started comparing notes n an effort to fill everyone else in on what was going on without causing any confusion
Since Jessica already knew what Carlton had been up to, she'd made Charlie tell her side of the story first. With the great majority of her comments directed towards some of Charley's more "foolish" decisions over the past few weeks. While the majority of her comments were leaning on the harsher side, Charlie knew that they came from a place of concern and not malice.
While they'd
all had friends outside of their little group after the murders, last year's events had caused something of a reawakening of their friendship. In just a short time they'd all come to rely on each other whenever things in their personal lives were at their bleakest. Thus, the possibility of losing anyone in their little collective was Jessica could bear.
But as Charlie continued relaying the recent events in her life, another issue was quickly brought to the surface as the little voice began attempting to manipulate what she was saying to her already concerned friends. Even before she'd started talking, it had begun shouting instructions to her in an effort to take control of the narrative.
She'd done her best to push aside its demands, having already decided
to leave its presence out of the re-telling, but refused to do anything more than that. Saying everything that she'd been doing out loud was already making her feel like an idiot, the last thing that she needed was to mention that she was hearing voices.
Not that Carlton had been acting any better given that he'd apparently tried to burn the old Freddy's to the ground with Dave's suit inside of it on Michael's orders. While part of Charlie wished that he'd been at least partially successful in that endeavor so that she didn't have to deal with Dave's suit, the idea of destroying her father's work left her feeling uneasy.
But it was his mention of Michael's spirit communicating with him that gave Charlie pause and made her rather curious about who exactly the little voice was. She already knew that it wasn't normally part of her mind, but she hadn't thought of the possibility that might be a wayward spirit until now.
When she was able to take a small break from talking, she'd attempted to internally ask it a few questions. But the voice was one step ahead of her and quickly fell silent. A further attempt at communication allowed her to feel a glimpse of hesitation before it retreated from her mind, leaving Charlie on her own for the first time in almost two weeks.
Despite the initial relief that she felt from its absence, Charlie attempted to prod it with a couple more questions before deciding to give up. While its sudden unwillingness to speak was a little offensive, Charlie was grateful since it allowed her to direct her full attention to the conversation at hand without worrying about any more interference. Though it wasn't long before yet another distraction stole her mind's attention away from the discussion.
Even though John was one of the people that had been closest to the situation besides herself he'd opted to remain silent throughout the bulk of the discussion.
Instead, he spent his time preparing a snack tray after correctly assuming that Carlton and Jessica were starving due to their long trip.
But even though he wasn't actively contributing to the conversation, it was obvious to anyone that looked in his direction that he was very deep in thought. Silently taking in every word and mulling over their shared experiences as he worked on getting their food ready.
Slowly, Charlie found herself becoming more invested in figuring out what her boyfriend was thinking about rather than the conversation at hand. Despite knowing John well enough that she could make almost a thousand guesses about what he was thinking, there was something off about his sudden change behavior that left her feeling rather concerned.
It was almost like he was putting together a puzzle that only he could seem with all the pieces slowly coming together with each passing moment. A puzzle that he seemed rather reluctant to share with everyone else. But Carlton bringing up his father's actions during his sojourn back to old Freddy's was what finally prompted John to join in the conversation.
Charlie watched his brow furrow while his face tightened up in a way that almost reminded her of the way his father would glare at them whenever they did something wrong.
A stranger wouldn't
be exactly sure if it was an unconscious reaction or an intentional resemblance. But she knew John enough to make a safe bet that it was unintentional given the strained relationship he had with his father.
"Wait, I thought that your dad said he was going to help put the kids to rest." Everyone looked at John as he tried remembering Clay's exact words. "Didn't he say something about giving them a "proper burial" like Dunn?"
He finished the sentence by looking at Charlie for confirmation and she quickly thought back to the aftermath of Freddy's incident. A deep frown slowly formed on her features as she began recalling Clay's apparently broken promise. But before she was able to verify John's claim, Carlton spoke up first.
"If I've learned anything in the eighteen years that I spent underneath his roof, it's that my dad's words should always be taken with a huge grain of salt. I tried asking him about why he didn't do it but he refused to tell me anything." A harsh sneer crossed Carlton's face as he leaned back into his seat.
"I had to ask my mom to get details on why the restaurant wasn't just torn down and apparently the city actually never told that Rick guy that the old Freddy's was still standing. He only found out when someone sent him a petition to let the city raze the land."
Charlie and Jessica's eyes became wide with shock while John's jaw fell to the floor. "So… that mall they put around Freddy's was illegal?" John asked, his jaw falling to the floor while Charlie and Jessica's eyes became wide with shock.
"Ehh...From what Mom told me, it wasn't illegal per-see since they just bought the land around Freddy's and left the restaurant itself alone. But my aunt seems to think that the whole thing was pretty sketchy and I'm inclined to agree with her."
Hearing all of this made Charlie's already deepening frown turn into a small scowl. She began thinking about what "Dave" had told them about the mall back when they'd first encountered him. It hindsight was clear that what he'd said about the town trying to lease out Freddy's was a lie, but she couldn't be sure if he'd made it up himself or if that had been what the town had told him.
The mall's builders had done their best to hide it away in the back corner of a store like some ugly clothes that a kid might get for Christmas. Kept inside of their closet so as not to offend their family, but would otherwise be ignored until they found some use for it.
The city had done all of that in an effort to avoid the legal troubles that would result from trying to take the building from Rick.
"Rick was probably pretty unhappy to hear that he'd been lied to." She mumbled quietly. Her comment was met by a rough laugh from Carlton that only stopped once he'd resumed talking.
"Furious is how Mom described it. According to her, he didn't even bother calling ahead and just showed up shortly after you all went home with a bunch of lawyers that were ready to sue the town's pants off."
Charlie and John exchanged confused looks from across the room since, from what they'd seen, Rick Taylor was more of a nervous man than an angry one. The most upset that he'd ever gotten around them was when they'd eavesdropped on his conversation with the cop on opening night.
"How come none of us heard any of this before now?" John asked while taking a glace over in Charlie's direction. "I mean...nobody said anything when Charlie was selling her dad's house."
"That's because the city council wanted it kept between just themselves and Rick. The stuff with Dunn was already giving them enough trouble without it coming out that they'd essentially blocked the building off from its rightful owner. Once Rick calmed down enough to be reasoned with, Dad took him out to the restaurant to see what it was like and the rest is history. ." Carlton finished.
"I guess he was satisfied with it since he never brought up the issue again after that visit until he decided to uproot all the older animatronics.
"I wonder if that's where he got the idea to make a new Freddy's from." Jessica pondered aloud.
"Considering how much work seems to have gone into making the new place, I doubt that it was a spur of the moment decision given the scale of everything in that place. '' John said as he walked into the room with his finished snack tray and set it down on the coffee table.
Even though it wasn't much more than a small collection of some crackers, cheeses, and fruits, it was more than enough for the hungry travelers. As Jessica and Carlton quickly pounced on the tray, John moved over towards Charlie and held his hand out to her.
Instinctively, Charlie moved to grab it but instead of his warm hand, she found herself gripping a small package of crackers that was resting in his palm. She looked back up at him and saw that despite his still inquisitive expression, a degree of warmth had returned to his face.
As Charlie gently took the crackers from his hand, John settled into the seat next to her and carefully placed his arm around her shoulder. Charlie brightly smiled and leaned up against him with a contentful sigh. But before she could thank him for the snack, Carlton spoke up again.
"Wait...what did you mean by "the scale?" He asked, his words muffled by the apple slices that he'd shoved into his mouth. When he looked around and saw the confused looks on his friend's faces, he hurriedly swallowed and then said it again. "You said something about the "scale" of everything in there. What does that mean exactly?"
"Well to put it simply, this place would've put the original Freddy's out of business if they'd both been open at the same time." John looked over at Charlie and lightly nudged her with his elbow.
"From what Charlie's told me about the areas I haven't seen, they had an indoor playground that was almost as big as the gymnasium where they held Michael's memorial.."
Upon hearing that Carlton let out an impressed sounding whistle before diving back into his snacks. Jessica stared at them and then airily shook her head while fighting back a joking grin.
"Man, they always bring out the good stuff after we're too old for it."
"Just the way it is Jess, the next gens always going to have it a bit better than the first," Carlton commented.
"That's another thing," John added, "The new versions of the Animatronics look way more advanced than the ones that Mr. Baker built back in the day. They move a lot more dynamically, but they're also a lot lighter as well. I may not have picked up as much as my parents wanted me too about how to run a business, but I learned enough to know that you can't just do this kind of thing on a whim."
"So, you're saying that he was always planning to do something like this?" Jessica asked.
"Whenever we talked to him, he always spoke in extreme reverence of my dad so I'd be willing to bet that he'd been planning this for a while." Charlie looked down and dug her toe into the floor as she thought back to the picture of the old restaurant on Rick's wall.
"He was pretty upset that Dave's suit went missing and it wasn't just because of its monetary value. He's put a lot of money into making this place better and safer than Dad's old restaurant. It's half the reason why I've had such a hard time coming up with a decent plan to stop that suit before it hurts someone else. "
"You've been making a plan for that?" All prior interest in the snacks vanished from Carlton's voice as he locked eyes with Charlie and Jessica followed suit.
Charlie shifted around in her seat, the sudden attention making her feel a bit uncomfortable. But she became emboldened when John reassuringly squeezed her shoulder in a subtle effort to remind her of the trust that they all shared. These weren't strangers that would call the cops after all; they were some of her best friends in the world.
"I…uh yeah...after I made it home from my second trip to the Pizzeria, John and I agreed that we needed to have an actual plan to confront the suit instead of flying in blind like last time. I've been working on it ever since but… I've yet to actually come up with something that works."
The room fell silent as she finished her sentence and Charlie watched as her friends each took on differing expressions. While Carlton wore a look of surprise, Jessica's face almost reminded her of how John had looked when he was working on the snack tray.
"Do you have any… drafts or…Whatever you call an early version of a plan?" Jessica asked. The question caused Charlie to raise her eyebrows in confusion as Jessica began trying to think of a better way to ask her questions.
"You just said that you've been coming up with plans, so...do you have any of them written down somewhere?"
"Oh…" Charlie looked away from Jessica and towards the kitchen table where her notebook still sat. ", yeah, why do you ask?"
"Do you mind if I look over what you've got? Maybe having a second opinion can help you sort out some of the problems you've been having," Jessica asked bluntly. The suddenness almost caught Charlie off guard as she quickly mulled over her friend's proposition.
She already knew what the problems with her plans were and was hesitant about fully dragging her friends into this mess. But just as Charlie was about to give her a reply in the negative, the part of her mind that sounded like herself imitating her aunt Jen called out to her.
'They've already come this far, might as well bring them in all the way. You're not kids anymore, you're adults and if they want to help you then that's their decision.'
After letting the thought swirl around in her mind, Charlie found herself agreeing with it wholeheartedly and she got up from her seat to grab her notebook.
But as she was picking it up, the little voice finally reappeared when it realized what she was going to do. It wasted no time in verbally lashing out at her, ordering her not to show them the plans only for its cries to go ignored.
Its earlier unwillingness to divulge what exactly it was had weakened what little trust that Charlie had in it and made her question what its actual intentions regarding her were. Upon letting that thought pass through her head, she felt an overwhelming surge of anger flow through her mind as a response to her defiance. This time though, she was quick to snap back at it and ordered the voice to leave her alone until it was willing to be more cooperative.
For a moment, the effort seemed to have paid off. But right as Charlie handed the notebook over to Jessica, she suddenly felt a massive headache tear through her mind. A small gasp of pain passed her lips as she stumbled back over to her seat and then collapsed next to John.
She wasn't sure if the voice was doing it intentionally or if it was just a side effect of its surging anger, but at the moment she didn't care. All that mattered was that the voice was hurting her and she wanted it to stop.
She replied to its angry bellowing with an internal scream of her own, desperately pleading for it to stop hurting her. Immediately afterward, she felt a sudden feeling of shock overtake the burning anger and then… it was all over. The searing pain subsiding almost as quickly as it had begun, leaving only a dazed Charlie in its wake.
Charlie shook her head and tried to refocus herself on the world around her as quickly as possible. Thankfully, Jessica and Carlton had been so engrossed in reading her notebook that they hadn't noticed what happened. But judging by the look that John was giving her, he had seen everything. Right as he was about to ask her if she was okay, Charlie cut him off with a simple answer,
"I'm fine, just stood up and moved around too fast." it wasn't a very good lie since they both knew that a headrush would normally kick in immediately after someone stood up.
But to Charlie's surprise, the answer seemed to satisfy John enough to drop the subject. Whether or not her lie had worked or if he'd simply decided that it wasn't worth pressing the issue remained to be seen. However, neither of them had much time to dwell on it as Carlton let out another impressed whistle as he looked up from reading the notebook.
"Not bad needs a few tweaks but it's pretty solid, much better than the one that I came up with-crap!"
Everyone turned their heads towards Carlton, who now looked as though he'd just been caught with his hand wedged inside of a cookie jar. The young man tried to avert his gaze so he didn't have to look at everyone's now confused and critical expressions but proved to be a moot point.
"Hold up, you had a plan? Jess said that you both came here to check on us." John said quietly after a tense moment of silence.
"That's what he told me," Jessica said before she proceeded to shoot Carlton a rather nasty glare.
Carlton looked down at his feet and drummed his fingers against the back of Jessica's chair as he came to the realization that he'd already dug himself a hole that was too deep for him to get out of. He tightly closed his eyes and let out a strained sigh through his clenched teeth before the truth came spilling out of his mouth.
"That's only half… well… actually that's not even half the reason why I'm here. I was planning to tell you guys after I'd already gone through with it but I guess there's no time like the present right?" He quickly turned his head away from them and then murmured something about his "big mouth" before making his way over towards his backpack.
"So after that whole mess with my dad, Michael tried getting into contact with me again and at first, I just tried to ignore it, cause, you know, I wanted to be done with all this after nearly getting arrested by my old man, but he was kinda insistent that I hear him out."
"The rest of the group remained silent as they watched Carlton saunter over to his backpack and then pick it up with a less than graceful motion that violently rustled whatever was inside of it. The sudden metallic clunking noises made them all jump and become even more curious as to what exactly he'd been carrying around with him during his trip.
Carlton himself seemed to be only mildly bothered by the noise as he made his way back over to the group while still continuing on with his story.
"So a little over a week ago, he decided that the best way of getting my attention was to invade my dreams in the hope that I'd finally listen to what he had to say and well, seeing one of your friends getting chased down by an ugly looking rabbit suit is a pretty effective motivator."
'Wait… does that mean that Michael's been watching us?'
Charlie uncomfortably shifted in her seat and saw that a discomforted look has crossed John's face out of the corner of her eye. Even though they both missed him dearly, they were unsure how to feel about the thought that Michael had been silently watching their every move.
Just like with the sounds coming from the bag, their reactions went unnoticed by Carlton, who continued talking as though he were giving a presentation in a classroom. His voice grew significantly softer as he set the bag onto the coffee table and started rifling around in its contents.
"After I woke up, I thought about what you all did when "Dave" kidnapped me and I knew that Michael was asking me to come to help you guys out of this mess. I couldn't just stand aside knowing that you were dealing with this alone, so I packed up some supplies and made my way over here as quickly as possible."
"Wait...supplies? What kind of-" The rest of Charlie's question died an abrupt death on her tongue as Carlton pulled out a metallic blue cylinder with a nozzle on top of it. Her mind went blank with shock as Jessica let out a gasp and John jumped out of his seat in alarm.
"What the-? Is that a blow torch!? You… actually brought a blowtorch all the way from Utah to try and take on that suit?" John incredulously down at the device now resting on the table and then back up at his friend's neutral expression.
"Yeah," Carlton replied bluntly. "After what happened last time, I figured that I should take a different approach. One that requires a little less fire, but it will hopefully do a lot more damage."
Before anyone could even begin trying to find their voices, Carlton pulled out yet another tool from his backpack. Immediately identifiable to everyone present as some sort of sledgehammer, though it was more on the smaller side than the ones they were used to.
"I also brought some stuff that I thought might be needed to help pick the locks but Charlie finding that Arty guy's keyring makes that part of my plan a lot easier." Carlton finished up by pulling a small crowbar out of the bag and then zipping it shut. He placed it onto the table next to the blowtorch and the hammer and looked back up at his friends to see their reactions.
While John and Jessica struggled to find the right words to say to their seemingly insane friend, Charlie was unable to tear her eyes away from the tools as the reality of everything going on came crashing down on her all at once.
Even though Carlton's sudden revelation had been rather shocking to them all, a part of her felt like all of her prayers had just been answered. Carlton's announcement and willingness to try taking on the suit all by himself had surprisingly emboldened her already strong drive to destroy it.
The added presence of her friends along with her earlier triumph over the little voice had left her whole being feeling rather empowered.
She carefully reached out to take hold of the smaller crowbar and her eyes widened as she ran her hand across the cold metal. The chill caused her to jolt as though she'd just awoken from a dream-like state.
There'd been a small part of her that was still convinced that everything going around her was a very realistic dream, but holding one of the tools in her hands brought it all into reality.
"This is perfect…" She whispered carefully, as though the weight of her words might shatter the world around her like it was made of fragile glass. John turned around with a start and then looked down at the crowbar resting in her hands as his mind scrambled to piece together what she'd just said.
"What was that?" He asked, his question unintentionally drawing the attention of Jessica and Carlton over to Charlie as well.
Normally, having so much attention suddenly thrust back upon her would've made Charlie shrink back. But the combination of relief and excitement that she was currently feeling overrode all of it. For the first time since her encounter with the suit, she felt a surge of hope spread throughout her mind that drowned all of her other thoughts
"This solves everything!" Charlie shot up from her seat and started pacing back and forth. One hand still tightly wrapped around the crowbar while the other rested on her forehead. "All the problems with my plans came down to a lack of extra people but now…that you two are here we...wait...no..."
Her hopeful tone suddenly came to an abrupt stop as she realized just what she was saying to them. Despite knowing that they'd come all this way to help her, the idea of forcing them into going along with her plans was still somewhat unnerving to Charlie. But before she could begin thinking of a way to tactfully ask them about joining in on her efforts, Carlton spoke up.
"If you're trying to think of a nice way to ask for my help then I'll save you the trouble. I'm already here to send that suit to where it belongs so you can count me in."
"I-i...o...okay," Charlie said, a little surprised by the conviction in his voice. She was even more surprised when Jessica stepped over and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Ordinarily, I'd try to talk you down from something like this but…" Jessica held up the notebook and then looked down at the tools before slowly casting her gaze around the room as though she wanted to address an unseen presence.
"I'm not about to argue with Michael on this sort of thing. If this is urgent enough for him to make Carlton come all the way out here then it's got to be important."
"Well, it's nice to know that everyone stopped thinking that I'm crazy." Carlton murmured, his statement going unacknowledged as Jessica pressed the notebook back into Charlie's hands.
"However, we need to make a few tweaks and some...minor alterations if we're going to pull this off. If you don't mind that is."
"Not at all," Charlie said breathlessly as she pulled the notebook to her chest as her heart swelled with every word that the two said. Then her eyes turned towards John, who'd been silent ever since she'd begun talking with the others, and found herself surprised by his reaction.
While his face was still contemplative, she could make out some hints of delight in his expression as if the sight of seeing Charlie full of hope again brought back some of his own joyfulness.
Although the prospect of heading back into Freddy's made him nervous, much like Charlie, having some of their friends around boosted his confidence enough to make him push down his earlier reluctance.
When he noticed that Charlie was looking at him, the faint hints of a smile appeared on her face. After taking a deep breath, he stepped closer to her and slipped her hand into his. The simple gesture fully brought out both of their smiles as they silently re-established their agreement to always have the others back.
Once her nerves had finally settled down from everything going on around her, Charlie turned back towards Jessica and pulled open the notebook once more.
"Alright then let's get started."