It was almost midnight by the time the group was all ready to go. Although the process of refining Charlie's original plan had taken a lot longer than they'd originally expected, they'd all agreed that it was more important to have a fully laid out plan as opposed to a half-baked set of ideas. But even with all of the revisions that they'd done, Charlie was unable to shake the still lingering sense of anxiousness that was currently coiled around her mind like a vicious snake.
She'd spent the night hoping that the feeling would lighten up as they got further into planning, But the worrisome feeling had only intensified to a near boiling point as time wore on. The additional fact that the mysterious little voice was so quick to abandon her also added to her growing sense of unease.
But through it all, Charlie continually tried her best to keep her uncertainty hidden away from everyone else. Although in hindsight, it may have been a futile effort as some of the night's earlier events had shown her that everyone else was sharing similar feelings to her own.
While Jessica had been the one who'd managed to be the most level headed of the group, she'd only been able to keep a brave face on for so long before something minor managed to slip out from beneath her mask. Whilst going over their ideas, Charlie noticed that Jessica would tense up a little whenever she'd thought of a way that one of them could get hurt during their attempts to capture the suit.
When this happened, her eyes would slowly move around the room and linger on each person as her mind continually conjured up all the horrific ways that she might lose her friends. After these thoughts had finished passing through her mind, she'd veto whatever the idea was and insist that they try something else.
It was only after she'd picked up on Jessica's attitude that Charlie began to truly take notice of the forming cracks in the others' facades. Though she'd already seen much of Jessica's nervousness in John's actions, though Charlie suspected that she was the only one who knew how he actually felt about all of this.
He'd spent a majority of their planning time stuck by Charlie's side, continually grasping her in much the same way that a drowning man might hold onto a life preserver. Even though his affection had been welcome after all of the time Charlie had spent keeping everyone else at a distance, the constant contact made their combined worry into an uncomfortably nervous harmony.
The only one in the group who had been almost completely open with his feelings was Carlton. But even then he'd attempted to play off his concerns as just him attempting to lighten up the mood whenever he brought them up; it was clear all that he was just as worried as the rest of them. The energy that he'd have normally used to cover his emotions had been spent on convincing his family to let him go out to see them, leaving him open like a book that was laying in the street.
But even with all of their fears steadily growing larger with each passing minute, their collective worry hadn't been enough to deter them from going forward with their finalized plan. Once they'd packed everything that they needed into Carlton's backpack, the group had quietly piled into Charlie's blue Honda to begin what would hopefully be the last time that they'd ever have to go to a Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria.
As Charlie pulled out of the parking area and drove along the unfortunately now familiar route through the nearly abandoned streets, she began taking note of how foreboding Brookhaven had become during the night. It almost felt like they'd entered into some kind of parallel version of the city where the darkness had absolute control over the world.
What made the experience all the more unnerving to her was the nearly unbreakable silence that had taken over the car's interior. Not a single person in their group dared to let out anything louder than the sound of their own breathing for fear that even the tiniest noise would lead to them being caught.
Although Charlie could not be sure where exactly these feelings had come from, she suspected that it had something to do with the time. Throughout her life, the midnight hour had always felt a little off to her. The outside air was always unusually colder than the rest of the day, regardless of how warm or cold the temperature had been earlier. Whenever she'd gone out on her late-night walks, she'd done her best to always be home well before the witching hour had come about since it always felt like she'd broken some sort of unspoken rule just by being out so late at night.
This feeling, along with her previously mentioned nervousness, made for quite the tense drive over towards the area that Freddy's occupied. But before too long, she saw the distinct outline of the park's gates looming tall in the night sky, its presence signifying that the tense car ride was soon to be at its end.
Once they'd driven past the gates, Charlie slowed the Honda to a crawl and then looked around frantically for an out of the way place to park. One of the ideas that Jessica had been insistent on was that they needed to park the car away from the restaurant so as to not draw any suspicion, something that they'd all readily agreed with at first. However, Charlie was beginning to regret agreeing to the idea as the encroaching darkness made finding a parking spot almost impossible.
When no opportunities presented themselves on the street in front of the park, Charlie decided to turn onto the road leading towards the restaurant itself and look for a spot there. But before she'd even finished completing her turn, Jessica suddenly flew out of her seat and frantically pointed at a nearby building with a bright neon sign that was advertising a small motel chain.
"A motel! That's the perfect place to park." She excitedly shouted, the suddenness of her voice shattering the silence like a baseball thrown through a window. Everyone else jumped before then turning their eyes towards the now sheepish Jessica.
"Sorry, but that's the perfect place to park since nobody would bother the car or us. If anyone did notice it, they'd just think we're late-night guests."
"What if they don't have any vacancies currently open?" Carlton queered, his eyes gazing up at the old fashioned looking sign.
"It doesn't matter; we're not exactly here to sample the local bed bugs anyway," Jessica responded, her comment earning her a pair of unsettled looks from Charlie and John. "All that matters is making sure that this car blends in with its surroundings unless anyone else has a better idea. "
Silence once again reigned supreme in the car's interior as Jessica waited patiently for someone else to suggest an alternative. After half a minute of silence, she triumphantly pointed towards the direction of the motel parking lot.
With an acknowledging nod, Charlie slowly turned her car into the lot and parked it as close to the driveway entrance as possible. Hopeful that this would allow them to make a quick escape if one was required.
After taking the extra time to position the car so it was facing the road, Charlie slowly turned off the engine and subsequently plunged the car's interior into darkness as everyone began moving. But the sounds of unbuckling seat belts and shuffling fabric momentarily paused when John nervously cleared his throat.
"Just to be sure before he heads out, we didn't leave anything behind right?" he asked carefully, his attempts to keep out the faint hints of unease in his voice failing in spite of his best efforts.
The question made Carlton pause his efforts to climb out of the back seat and quickly unzip the backpack to do a final check. A tense feeling swept over the group as he leaned forward to closely peer into his bag, his eyes straining to see in the almost total darkness while his friends nervously watched on.
But the worrisome moment came to a sudden end when Carlton looked up and gave everyone a triumphant thumbs-up.
"Don't worry John, everything's all right here...though I still don't know why I have to carry the flashlights too but whatever." He said before quickly re-sealing his backpack. "The only thing that isn't here l are those keys that Charlie picked up from that creepy guy."
As if she'd been waiting for just such a cue, Charlie reached into her coat pocket to pull out the keys but was stopped when Jessica took hold of her arm. She turned back and arched a confused eyebrow at her friend who was now looking nervously at the floor.
"This is going to sound a little paranoid but, I think you should just leave them in your pocket for now. I don't think risking them being dropped somewhere is something we really want to risk." She said, her voice barely rising above a hushed plea.
For a moment, Charlie considered countering Jessica's argument but the pleading look in her friend's eyes made her decide that it'd be better for all of them if she just left the keys alone for now. She carefully pushed them back down into her pockets and then pulled out her now empty hand to show Jess that the keys were still safe.
With a grateful nod, Jessica pulled away from Charlie and went back to getting out of the car as quietly as possible. It was becoming all too clear that the masks they'd been putting over their collective nervousness were starting to crumble away from the closer that they got to their goal. Her friends escaping nervousness seemed to infect the very air around them, making it feel heavier than a blanket that had been soaked through with water.
Charlie wished that there was a way that she could calm everyone down, but she was having a hard enough time maintaining control over her own nerves as it was. But she couldn't just stand by and watch as her friends' worries consumed them from the inside out. If they couldn't keep themselves calm while just walking to the building then what chance would they have when it came to actually fight Dave's suit?
She hurriedly racked her brain for ideas as she walked around the car, hoping that something would come to mind that might allow her to soothe all their fears. But in the end, the only thing that she could think of was to try and lead by example. Perhaps if she showed the others that she wasn't afraid then they might become emboldened as well. It was a very desperate and not the best plan by any stretch of the word, but it was all she could think of on such short notice.
As Charlie made her way around the car, she found John leaning up against the passenger door with a wary look on his face while one of his hands firmly clenched his stomach. But when he saw Charlie drawing near, he attempted to make himself look more confident than he actually was.
At first it was unclear if his change of expression was an attempt to assuage her worries or if he'd been trying to chase off his own fears, but one look into his troubled eyes made the whole facade immediately all apart. The truth was as plain as day even if none of them could muster up the bravado to pretend they were alright and Charlie didn't even know where she'd begin to even convince herself of that.
She drew closer to him and held her hands behind her back in nervous anticipation of what he might say. Hopeful that the air between them might clear up enough to finally have an actual conversation, however small it may be. But instead, the tension between only seemed to increase the longer that they waited.
Not that this wasn't expected, In the last few weeks all the painful thoughts and horrible memories that had dulled with time's grace had risen back to the surface until they were spilling out like an overfilled cup. The number of times that she'd just wanted to put down her pen and shut out the voice was almost incalculable.
Even now Charlie was wishing that she'd never accepted Rick's offer to see the new Pizzeria and just ignored its existence. It would have been all too easy to just feign ignorance about the restaurant and pretend to be someone other than Henry Baker's daughter. But she'd made her choice and now she was facing the full consequences of her actions with no way to back out of it. All that she could do now was move forward and do her best to reclaim the life that Dave was trying to steal from her yet again.
She was about to say something to John when she spotted Carlton and Jessica making their way over to where they were standing out of the corner of her eye. They'd originally been hanging back to allowCharlie and John time to talk, but ended up deciding to stop after said conversation never materialized.
Not a word was said between them once they'd all gotten back together, as though they were expecting someone else to speak up first and take charge. The tense air that had sprung up between them was almost unbearable now. Each breath they took was slow and deliberate, almost like they were all being suffocated by an unseen force.
"Is everyone ready to head over?" Charlie finally asked, unable to take much more of their silent suffering. Her words dispelled a bit of the suffocating feeling, but she could still feel a part of it clinging to her soul.
"Not really, though considering that this is my second time doing something like this in less than three months and I'm not fighting my way through a windstorm … I'm about as ready as I'll ever be," Carlton commented. "At least I'll have someone else to talk to besides Michael this time."
"I think it'd be better if we keep the chatter to a minimum while we're walking there," Jessica said in a stern tone. "Unless we want someone calling the cops on us for a noise complaint. We probably look suspicious enough as it is without someone overhearing our plans. "
"She's got a point…." John murmured, his head swiveling around to check over the area.
"Actually, it might be better to split up a little. Everyone walking together in a group will probably raise a few questions regardless of how quiet we are."
Charlie turned her head back towards John with a look of surprise that slowly faded away as she let his idea sink into her brain. While she wasn't too keen on separating from their friends so soon, it was probably for the best in case a policeman did come by despite her reservations.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Jessica said, almost stealing the words from Charlie's mouth while Carlton just gave them all a meek shrug
"I'm down with it as long as we don't manage to get ourselves lost on the way there."
"It's not too far away from here actually." Charlie turned and pointed her arm up the street. "All you need to really do is go straight and then take a left turn at the intersection."
"Well then, if it's only that short of a walk then we should be fine on our own." Carlton turned towards the road and grabbed hold of Jessica's arm to pull her along with him. "Let's give the two sweethearts a few more moments alone before we head into the gauntlet."
Carlton punctuated his statement with a not so subtle wink and in the now flustered couple's direction as he and Jessica faded into the darkness before vanishing altogether. The only indication that they were still in the same world as their friends being the sound of their footsteps and Jessica's light chastising of Carlton's actions.
Charlie briefly considered calling out to Carlton and joining Jessica in telling off their friend but decided against it in case her voice managed to draw any unwanted attention from the surrounding buildings. Instead, she just lightly shook her head and turned back towards John with a nervous smile.
At first, it seemed as though he was going to return it, but his attempt quickly faltered and his face resumed its nervous expression as he turned his head towards the road.
"We should probably get moving too, if they get there first then they'll be stuck out in the open without the keys..." He said. Although they both wanted to hang back and talk amongst themselves, it appeared that neither of them was sure what they actually wanted to say.
Charlie looked back in the direction that their friends had gone off in. Jessica's voice was no longer audible, meaning that they'd either moved out of hearing range or that she'd fallen silent.
"That's probably our best option...we can Uhm..." Charlie whispered before trailing off into a murmur.
"Let's worry about...us...after this is all wrapped up." John carefully replied. His words were slow and deliberate, as though saying the wrong thing might cause his whole world to implode.
"Agreed… Charlie sighed before she suddenly slipped her arm around John's elbow to take his hand in a tender embrace. He squeezed back, and then pulled her closer to him as they started walking down the street.
In spite of the tense feelings that still lingered between them, Charlie f wasn't ready to let go of the happiness that she had found with him. But that life seemed to just keep getting harder to hold onto with each passing day.
She could only imagine he was thinking the same as her, the endless patience and gentle optimism John seemed to have had been drained by the events that had been transpiring throughout the past few months. But despite all of their disagreements and rising tensions, neither of them wanted to let the other go of the other.
Even though they'd begun moving down the sidewalk, it almost seemed like the world around them had bled away and left them as the only survivors. Both clutching each other firmly as if afraid that unless they maintained contact that one of them would disappear. At this moment it was only John and Charlie, a moment that they wished would last forever.
John had no idea how much Charlie wished that they could just turn around and spend the rest of the night like this. Huddled together and trying to keep the other warm as they fell asleep with their hearts completely intertwined. But they had a job to do before they could finally relax.
Their unpleasant memories of Freddy's existence had forcibly reinserted itself in a life the two of them had worked so hard to make their own. It had left them feeling like they were standing at the edge of a rocky cliff and If they didn't move carefully, then everything that they'd worked towards would fall and shatter to pieces on the rocks below.
Although she didn't know if destroying the awful suit would actually fix everything that had been going wrong in their lives, it would hopefully be a step in the right direction. At the very least, it might finally lift the burden that both of them have been carrying for over a year now. Once that burden was off their shoulders, they could focus on fixing their strained relationship.
'Strained… not broken.' Charlie hopefully thought to herself. It was a comforting thought that she kept replaying until their walk came to an end once they'd spotted the silhouette of the new Freddy's looming in the darkness.
Even with all of the lights off, the giant cartoon bear's outline was hard to miss. It's outstretched hand rising into the night sky like an unlit beacon. Just waiting for someone to give it a spark of life so it could continue to guide people to the restaurant. But even unlit, it served as an effective marker to distinguish Freddy's from the other buildings around it.
Charlie clenched her teeth and took in another sharp breath. Her grip on John tightening as they glanced around the empty parking lot. There weren't any other signs of life around aside from themselves, which made them momentarily worried that their friends might have gotten lost or become waylaid on their way to the restaurant
But those fears were quickly dashed when Jessica and Carlton came rushing over from behind one of the nearby buildings with their faces bearing a mixture of relief and anxiousness.
"Are you guys okay?" John asked once they were close enough to hear his whisper.
"Now that we know that the cop car out front wasn't rushing off to arrest you two, then yeah I'd say we're' doing okay," Carlton said between pants. The dash sudden dash across the parking lot having taken more out of him than expected.
"W-what cop car?" Charlie asked, her eyes turning towards the slightly less worn out Jessica. The taller girl pointed over towards the sidewalk, not far from where they currently stood.
"There was a police car sitting over there when Carlton and I got here. We almost didn't see it until it turned on its lights and started driving towards us. It's why we were hiding by that other building." Jessica took a sharp breath and gave the pair a relieved smile. "We originally thought that they might have spotted us, but I guess we were wrong since they just drove off."
Despite her own relief, Jessica's explanation caused a chill to race down Charlie's spine. She'd suspected that Rick might have the police watching the building, but having it confirmed caused her heart to free fall into her stomach. Especially since they'd all come so close to being caught by them and it was only through sheer luck that they'd been left alone."
"Do you know why they left so suddenly?" She asked already knowing the answer. Unless they'd been inside the car with the policemen, there was no way for them to know exactly what had caused them to leave.
"Cops get called for lots of things; we'd be here till morning if I tried to list them all. Since they didn't turn their sirens on, it must not have been anything all that big." Carlton said while resituating his backpack. "At least they're not hanging around here anymore."
Although Carlton had meant for the statement to provide some reassurance to his frightened friends, it only caused Charlie to feel more concerned than she already was. If the cops had been called away for something relatively small as Carlton said, then it wouldn't be all that long before they came back to continue their interrupted vigil.
An even worse possibility was that another one might be coming along to replace them. Whichever way the case, the group needed to take advantage of their absence and make for the main doors while they still had a chance.
"If it really was a minor call then they'll probably be back soon." Charlie carefully spoke her thoughts aloud, as her body and mind were unexpectedly seized by a sense of frantic urgency.
"So unless we want to make this harder on ourselves, then we need to get moving" Without even giving anyone a chance to respond before she let go of John's arm and took off on a brisk jog across the parking lot, leaving her friends staring after her in stunned silence.
While she couldn't explain where her sudden shift in attitude had come from, she wasn't about to risk being caught. Not when they were so close to their goal.
Before long, she could hear the sound of her friend's footsteps echoing behind her as they all raced after their unexpectedly wayward friend. Other than their collective footfalls, the only other sound that came from the group was the jingling of the keys in Charlie's jacket pocket.
Because of how dark it was, the sprint across the parking lot seemed to take longer than it actually was. But soon, Charlie found herself significantly slowed her pace to make it easier to dig the keys out of her jacket.
Even though the night around her seemed to be blacker than the deepest abyss, she'd spent enough time studying the keys to figure out which was the correct one to use on the front doors. This was especially useful since they'd all agreed to forgo using flashlights until they were in the building proper, allowing her to waste no time in getting them out.
Without missing a beat, she hopped onto the sidewalk and shoved the master keys into the front door. The satisfying 'click' that the lock made as she turned the key only serving to charge her already heightened sense of urgency.
Just as the others were getting to the sidewalk, Charlie pulled back the door with a great heave and motioned for them to hurry inside before anyone took notice of their actions. Jessica was the first one through the door, followed by Carlton, and then John, who placed a hand on the door to keep it open long enough for Charlie to slip in as it slammed shut with a thunderous rattle.
As the echo from the door started to dissipate around the restaurant, Charlie spun back around and locked the doors using the same key as before. The resounding 'clunk' catching everyone that wasn't her off guard. They were all locked inside of Freddy's now, with the only way out being the keys that Charlie was now shoving back into her coat pocket.
"Is… that really necessary?" Jessica whispered.
"If the police do come back and decide to actually do something besides sit in their car then yes," Charlie said as she shoved the keys back into her pocket. "If they find the doors unlocked then they'll know someone's in here."
"And trust me; getting taken down by a cop is not a pleasant experience." Carlton quipped. "Especially if they're armed with anything heavier than a flashlight."
`What the hell did your dad do to you?' Charlie pushed that thought back down into the depths of her mind as she turned to face the darkened pizzeria that lay just beyond the almost invisible front desks. That question was the kind that should be saved for when they'd managed to get back to the apartment and were celebrating the final destruction of the monster that had stolen her childhoods.
"Those… were not here during the opening night." John said, his voice carrying through the empty restaurant as he tentatively walked over and lightly shook turn turnstiles next to the desks.
"They're part of Rick's safety measures that he put in place to avoid… what happened at the old place," Charlie said as she stepped up next to him. "He also makes everyone that comes in wear these plastic bracelets that the employees scan at every entrance and exit to keep kids from leaving with the wrong people. Until the bracelets are scanned, the turnstiles don't move.
"Smart, though it doesn't really help all that much. Although I can already think of several ways that someone could bypass it if they really wanted to." Jessica added, barely giving the turnstiles a second glance before she then stepped over them with the grace of a ballet dancer as a way to highlight her point.
"I think sure the idea is just to make it so it'll at least slow down someone trying to run off with a kid," Charlie replied as she began to make her own way around the checkpoint. "Or at least provide the illusion that there are some kind safety measures in place."
Since she wasn't nearly as nimble or tall as Jessica, she'd opted to slide herself underneath the turnstiles almost as if she were playing an impromptu game of limbo. While it was a bit of a tighter squeeze than she'd anticipated, Charlie managed to get underneath them and out the other side without much problem.
John came next, deciding to follow in Jessica's footsteps and just hop over them. Though without nearly as much grace as their friend had previously displayed. His landing was a little rougher than he would have liked, his knees rattling as he came down in a crouching position but it got the job done.
Before John had the chance to get stabilized though, he heard Carlton whistle for his attention. He turned around in time to catch Carlton's backpack as it was thrust into his arms while its owner followed his example in hopping over the blockade. A boyish grin that seemed almost out of place in their current surroundings etched into his features as he jumped off and landed close to where the girls now stood with a small, yet haughty laugh.
"Ah, hopping over stuff like that never gets old no matter how many times you do it," he said wistfully. "Though it's a little less fun when there's nobody around to chase you afterward."
"Right…" Charlie said, her voice trailing off as she decided to abandon the remark that she'd been planning to make. Instead, her attention was drawn back over to the windows that faced the now occupied parking lot as she noticed a set of headlights pulling in from the road.
While they'd all been making their way over the turnstile barrier, a police car had pulled up to the pizzeria and slotted it into what she assumed to be the same parking spot as the car that had come before it. But once only Jessica and Carlton were the only ones that had seen the car that had been parked there previously, Charlie had no idea if it was the same one or just another car that was taking over from them.
Once the others noticed that Charlie had gone quiet once again, they all turned back towards the window and froze when they saw the police car that was parked out front. Charlie could hear someone gasp, though she wasn't sure exactly who. Not that it mattered all that much anyway since they wouldn't be seeing the car for very much longer.
Without turning around, she started moving backward to try and shepherd her friends towards the main hallway. Even though they were now behind both a locked door and the security checkpoints, everything that they'd done would be for nothing if they were spotted.
As they drew closer towards the hallway, Charlie heard Carlton start unzipping his backpack to retrieve their flashlights. Although it seemed like a good idea at first, Charlie began thinking about what would happen if the policemen happened to look over and see their flashlights shining in the darkness.
Even if they outran them into the pizzeria itself, they had nowhere else to go. Eventually, they'd be found and dragged out in handcuffs, with nothing to show for their efforts save for some hefty criminal charges.
Right as Carlton was pulling out one of the heavy-duty flashlights that they'd brought, Charlie grabbed hold of his wrist. The suddenness of her action caused him to drop the flashlight back into his bag as he looked up at her in shock.
"Charlie, what-"
"We can't use them right now, if the police see them then they'll know that someone's in here." Was all she said before her gaze turned back towards the parking lot to make sure that the police car was still in the same place. As though she'd expected their chattering might have been heard through the walls and carried out to the parking lot. Everyone else in the group froze and stared at Charlie before their gazes all turned towards the darkened hallway.
"Okay then, but if we can't use the flashlights then how are we going to make our way around this place?" Jessica whispered, her words echoing everyone else's thoughts.
"The farther that you get in, the fewer windows there are," Charlie whispered back. "The hallway leading to the showroom is just a line, so if we just keep our hands on the walls then we shouldn't have any problems."
As the hallway drew nearer, the whole group remained on the right side of the hall so that they wouldn't lose track of each other in the dark. Once they'd gathered behind her, Charlie took a final look towards the parking lot before then motioning for her friends to follow her.
There was a brief moment of hesitation before Jessica started moving forward, doing her best to keep up with Charlie while John and Carlton followed close behind her. It was slow going and before too long it became almost impossible to see anything except for what was directly in front of them. The only indicator where the others in the group were standing was the sound of their footsteps and the muffled jingling of the keys in Charlie's pocket.
Not a word was said between them as they focused on making their way down the darkened corridor. Although they were all certain that they'd moved in far enough to be out of sight from the cop car, none of them dared to turn around and check. Mostly out of fear that they'd either lose track of those in front of them or that they'd accidentally cause the person behind them to smack against their back.
But eventually, Carlton had had enough of creeping around in the darkness and made his thoughts known by grabbing hold of John's shoulder and calling out-
"Okay, I think we're good to use the flashlights now." His voice boomed through the hallway startled all of his friends so badly that they nearly collided with each other.
Jessica and John attempted to shoot him a pair of harsh glares but gave up when they realized that they couldn't see him. That was until Carlton reached into his bag and flicked on one of the flashlights. The beam seemed to light up the room like a lighthouse shining on a stormy sea as he pointed down at the floor so as not to blind his companions.
Charlie turned back and was almost ready to tell him off when she saw that the parking lot had indeed faded from their view. With a sigh of relief, she walked over to Carlton and retrieved the flashlight that her aunt had given her along with the car from the backpack. The sight of it caused Jessica to raise her eyebrows in surprise.
"I thought that you lost that back in the old Freddy's." She asked as her voice took on a contemplative tone. Unsure if she was just misremembering the events wrong, or if they'd just been blocked out.
"Carlton's dad found it while they were recovering Dunn's body and gave it back to me after I'd finished my police statement." Charlie slightly tossed the flashlight between her psalm as she watched the others pull out their own flashlights and use them to look at their surroundings.
"Wow… without the drawings, this place looks… I don't know…." Jessica trailed off as she tried to think of the right word to say, before finally settling on, "Artificial."
Charlie squinted as she joined Jessica in looking over the pizzeria walls. She hadn't paid all that much attention to them before and found that her friend's assessment was accurate. The drawings that children had put up along the walls of the older Freddy's had given a bit of life to the restaurant as a silent display of the love that those who visited held for the place. But without any of that, the walls of this new Freddy's almost seemed to give off a cold feeling.
Without any of the blinding lights and energetic music, the building almost felt like a person in a vegetative state. It was usually kept alive by the constant influx of children and their parents, but without them, it became clear just how truly dead the building was…if it had even been alive to begin with.
Perhaps with time, this new pizzeria might gain some of the life that the original had, but that didn't matter to Charlie. For even if this pizzeria did gain a spark of life, it would never have the same energy her father's creativity had brought to the original.
After taking a moment to acclimate their eyes to the now lessened darkness, the group soon resumed heading down the corridor with a quickened pace as their flashlights chased away some of the suffocating atmospheres. Though it didn't stop the feeling of trepidation from lingered on within their hearts.
But the momentary reprieve came to an abrupt end when they found themselves entering the main showroom. Carlton and Jessica's eyes widened as they moved past Charlie and John to get a good look at everything around them. Charlie stopped by the entrance and watched her friends' expressions to observe how they'd react to everything that Rick had done.
"Man," Carlton gasped. "John wasn't kidding when he said that this place was like the original on steroids."
"I never said that," John corrected, though he only said it loud enough for Charlie to hear as he came up alongside her. Their eyes briefly meeting before their attention shifted back over towards Jessica as she looked back at them.
"You guys definitely understated how much money was sunk into this place. It's no wonder why that Taylor guy is so dedicated about keeping it afloat if he put in all this effort." Jessica crossed her arms and let her eyes wander around the room as her initially amazed expression began to falter into a disgusted frown.
"Not that it makes it any less disrespectful though." She finished ruefully as she remembered the bloodied history that lay hidden beneath the new restaurant's elaborate decor.
Although Jessica knew that Charlie wouldn't hold it against her, she still felt ashamed for having let herself be taken in by the restaurant's splendor. As she turned her head away from them and looked towards the back of the room, her gaze briefly settled onto the large life stage that was set into the back wall. It's curtains pulled open as though it were waiting for a performer that had yet to arrive.
Jessica's eyes scanned quickly across the stage, but then stopped suddenly when something in the shadows caught her attention. She couldn't tell exactly what it was at first, but after straining her eyes to their limits she was able to make out what appeared to be an almost human-looking silhouette standing in the shadows, still and stalwart like one of the roman sentry's of old.
Jessica let out a gasp and staggered back towards the hallway, her hand slamming against and her chest as if she was trying to keep her heart from jumping out of her body.
"Guys...Guys!" Everyone turned towards their now panicked looking friend as she tried to control her erratic breathing.
"Jess?" Charlie called softly before cautiously walking over to place a steadying hand on Jessica's shoulder to keep her from falling backward. "Jess, what's wrong?"
"There's… there's someone… someone's over there," Jessica whispered before she pointed a shaky finger towards the stage. Charlie looked over in the direction that her friend was pointing in to try and squinted hard in an attempt to figure out just what her friend had seen.
Upon first glance, Charlie nearly became as equally panicked as Jessica when she also saw the very same silhouette standing in the shadows. But when she looked in closer and noticed what looked to be an undersized top hot jutting out of the forehead of the shadow, she felt her panic quickly ebb away into nothing.
Charlie let out a relieved sigh and then moved her flashlight upward so it would illuminate the darkened stage. But when she saw what Charlie was doing, Jessica reached and grabbed hold of Charlie's wrist to keep her from altering the person that she'd just seen.
She was about to start reprimanding Charlie for almost blowing their cover when a surprised yelp from Carlton caused her to look back over and saw what she'd actually been seeing this whole time.
The beam from Charlie's flashlight made it appear as though the new Freddy Fazbear had the shine of a polished jewel while his purple vest seemed to glisten like an old disco ball. The brown bear's gaze was turned in their direction with its jaw hung open in what could only be described as a look of surprise. One that was matched by both Jessica as her feelings of dread slipped away and was replaced instead by embarrassment.
"I can safely say that I was not expecting the new Freddy to look like that." Carlton leaned forward and critically scanned the new Freddy with his eyes. "Does he look more like a chipmunk than a bear to anyone else or is that just me?"
"No, I thought the same thing when I first saw it." Charlie giggled at her friend's comment, happy to know that she wasn't the only one who'd thought that. She gestured for them all to follow her before slowly leading them all closer to the stage while moving her flashlight around to give them a better view of the other two animatronics.
But when Jessica saw the new version of Bonnie, she found herself struggling to not recoil in shock. The bright blue creature that stood on stage looked nothing like the Bonnie she'd known as a child. While it had all the hallmarks of the bunny that she'd used as a confidant all those years ago, everything about it just looked… off to her.
"They look so different." She unhappily murmured to herself. "Are you guys sure that kids actually like these...things? Maybe it's just me but I cannot get over how creepy they are."
"Whenever I've been here, the kids were always very enthusiastic to see the show so I guess there's some sort of charm that we just don't see." Charlie shrugged.
"You should see what they did to Chica," John replied playfully, his comment causing Charlie to scrunch up her face in distaste as she moved to shine her flashlight onto the newest iteration of Chica.
But right as the beam began to move away from the creature that bore Bonnie's name, Jessica thought she saw the blue animatronics' eyes slowly shift in their direction just as the darkness fell over it once again hid the creature from sight once more. She momentarily considered alerting the others to what she'd seen but stopped herself at the very last second.
'It's just a reflection or something like that.' Jessica told herself, though she still took a few deep breaths to calm her already fraying nerves. 'Get a hold of yourself, not even fifteen minutes in and you're ready to jump at every shadow in the building. There's no way that these things are alive...they're nothing like the old ones and that hopefully includes the possession part too.' '
She tried to pull herself back out of her mind and back to the situation at hand. After her mix-up with the new Freddy, she didn't want to freak out the others more than she already had. Having everyone in a panicked state wasn't really something that they needed. Yet she couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong with these machines, though she suspected that it may have been brought on by just how creepy they all looked.
Just as she was about to re-engage with the conversation, a dull 'clunk' suddenly echoed out from where the new Bonnie stood. All of their hearts collectively skipped a beat as they looked about the room, the earlier sense of anxiousness quickly getting replaced with growing fear.
Charlie whirled around to shine the flashlight in the direction that they'd heard the noise. The light passed back over the new Freddy before then settling onto Bonnie once again, only for them to discover that its head was now pointed in their direction with the rabbit's jaw hanging open in a manner that made it look like it had frozen in the middle of a yell.
Jessica took a step back and almost collided with the currently frozen in place John. His gaze affixed on the blue bunny before he turned his head to the right as another 'clunk' came out of the darkness. The sound almost caused Charlie to drop her flashlight in surprise as the room was suddenly filled with the sound of three sets of lights snapping on in unison.
Right before their eyes, the three animatronics' eyes lit up like spotlights and then turned to shine on them. Freddy and Chica's mouths were now hanging open like Bonnie's as they focused on the four teenagers that had dared to intrude in their domain.
Charlie felt her body lock up in fear as she took in the sight before her. Her mind overflowing with thousands of intermingling thoughts as she tried to process what was happening. She wanted to scream out for them to all run, but her mind was so disorganized that nothing coherent was able to get through.
Carlton stood rooted in place, his hand now over his heart as he stared up at the stage in abject horror as the new animatronics dropped their instruments to the floor with a thunderous clatter that made them all nearly jump out of their skins.
The sudden jolt snapped Charlie out of her trance and she began looking around for a hopefully safe place that they could run too. But her thoughts were violently interrupted by a sharp whirring sound that arose from deep within the animatronics bodies as each of their systems slowly came online. Due to the vastness of the room around them, the whirring sound almost deafened everyone in the group and soon their cries of pain were being added into the already dreadful cacophony.
Charlie wasn't too sure if the cries of pain that came from all around were her own screams or those of her friends as she tried to plug her ears to tune out the dreadful noise. But try as she might, she was unable to adequately dampen the sound no matter how hard she pressed hands against her ears.
But soon a new problem stole her concern away from the angry ringing in her ears as all three of the animatronics took an unrestrained step forward in perfect unison. Charlie felt her heart leap into her throat and tightly lodge itself in her neck as the animatronics continued moving forward, their footsteps shaking the stage as they marched towards the edge in a uniform fashion.
It was then that Carlton managed to find his voice, though all that he was able to say was a loud string of obscenities that were almost drowned by the amplified grinding of the animatronics gears. The four of them slowly moved towards each other until they were pressed up together like sardines in a tin that was being stared down by a hungry animal.
As the three animatronics moved up to the edge of the stage, their collective pace began to slow to a crawl until they'd stopped moving altogether; as though they weren't sure how to progress any further.
The two groups stood motionless as they stared each other down with nary a sound between them aside from the animatronics still racing internal systems. After half a minute of near silence, John finally managed to find his voice again and turned to address his girlfriend.
"How are these...I thought that…did they…? " He paused and tried to get his thoughts in order. But despite his nearly incoherent murmuring, Charlie seemed to have at least understood enough of his questions to give a rather basic answer.
"I don't know…" She gasped, her body shivering in fear as she stared up at the larger than life beings before her.
Every single bad memory and nightmare that had resulted from the old Freddy's struck her like a truck as panic overtook her entire body. Her fingers dug into her cheeks as she tried in vain to figure out how this was happening.
'They can't be haunted can they? Has Dave...did he kill more people aside from Arty? If he did then how many? Who were they and why haven't we heard anything about this if that's the case!? There's no way that Rick would be able to cover up that many deaths, especially if they were children...I...'
Charlie felt her knees press together and lock uptight as her breathing became more shallow. Each breath becoming more labored than the last as her whole body was thrown into internal chaos.
Jessica and Carlton looked over at their friend with concerned looks overtaking the worry currently etched into their faces. But when Carlton reached out a hand to grab hold of Charlie's shoulder, John suddenly motioned for him to stop and gently pushed his hand away from her.
The young man gave John a confused glare but said nothing and just watched him carefully move in front of Charlie and then lower himself to meet her eye level. Even though John was as terrified as the rest of them, calming Charlie down enough to give her somewhat of a clear head took priority over his own sense of terror.
Thankfully, the sight of him seemed to do the trick, as he heard Charlie's labored breathing began to slow down. Her unfocused eyes settled onto his features as she balled her hands into fists that were tightly pressed against her cheeks.
But as John began to reach up to gently place his hands over Charlie's, another horrible sound drew their attention back over towards the stage. To their shock, they saw that the new Bonnie was moving again.
One of its feet was lifted over the edge of the stage like it was trying to descend an invisible staircase. Had they not been so terrified by the sight before them, might have looked comical. Then the animatronic then appeared to pitch forward, its left leg angling down at an inhuman angle while its right leg pushed it off the stage like it was trying to jump into some sort of pit.
The blue rabbits fall from the stage seemed to last a lifetime to the confused group, but soon a muffled 'clang' reached their ears as the left foot harshly landed on the floor. Several pistons and gears loudly moved inside the animatronics leg as it began aligning its body to fully stabilize the rough landing before lowering its other leg.
Once its right foot had touched down on the solid ground, the bright blue rabbit began to slowly rise back up to its full height. Although it wasn't nearly as tall as the original Bonnie, it was still a rather imposing sight to behold.
The realization that one of the animatronics was now standing only a couple of yards away from them was enough to begin bringing all of Charlie's scattered thoughts into perfect alignment. Once it was all organized, her mind sent out a single command through her entire body.
'RUN.'
Charlie threw her arms out to the side and grabbed hold of John and Jessica's jackets before the thought had even finished clearing out of her mind. Her two friends nearly screamed from shock as she began to drag them off towards the left side hallway that led to the play area.
"Carlton, move!" Charlie barked over her shoulder, finally drawing the young man's attention away from the animatronics and over towards the quickly retreating forms of his friends.
Just as Bonnie began taking its first steps, Carlton bolted away from it and down the same corridor that he'd just seen his friends run down. It was a feat that was easier said than done due to the overstuffed backpack he was carrying on his shoulders. But he mentally reminded himself that didn't need to be as fast as Charlie; he just needed to be faster than the animatronic that was chasing after him.
Though he soon found that thought being challenged as he heard the sound of Freddy and Chica stepping off the stage in much the same way that Bonnie had barely a scant moment ago.
The sounds of their feet slamming into the floor echoed all around the nearly empty building and caused the tables around them to rattle violently from the vibrations.
The realization that all of the animatronics were now on the same floor as they served as the push that Carlton needed to begin closing the gap between himself and his friends. Despite their nearly overwhelming fear, none of them dared to look back at their pursuers. it was already enough of a struggle just keeping up with the adrenaline-fueled Charlie without worrying about who exactly was chasing after him.
They soon exited the hallway and found themselves rushing towards the indoor play area. Even in the dark, one could clearly make out the towering structure in the center of the room along with all of the other various bits of playground equipment scattered all around its base.
If they weren't being hunted down by a group of mysteriously alive animatronics, the sight of the play area would have given John, Jessica, and Carlton pause as they took in what would have been a dream come true for their younger selves. But right now their minds were only focused on getting away from their pursers.
As they approached the small wall that surrounded the play area, Charlie suddenly charged ahead of them and vaulted over the wall with an unexpected amount of nimbleness that surprised even herself. But the action quickly proved to be to her detriment as she landed rather ungracefully on the other side of the wall.
A searing pain shot through Charlie's leg as she landed hard on her knee while her shoulder slammed up against a plastic Freddy standee that was attached to a nearby slide. It took almost everything in her to keep herself from crying out in pain.
Thankfully, it didn't feel like she'd actually broken anything. But that didn't make the pain hurt any less. She could already tell that she'd find a pair of nasty bruises on the spots where she'd impacted the next time she showered.
Jessica was the first to reach the wall and leaped over it in an almost mirror image of her earlier leap over the turnstiles. When she saw Charlie leaning up against the slide, she wasted no time and ran over to her downed friend to help her get back up.
She grabbed hold of Charlie's left arm and then carefully lifted the shorter girl back onto her feet. The pain that was still present in her leg throbbed with every movement, but Charlie did her best to keep a straight face despite the pain that now coursed through her body.
"Charlie! Are you okay?" John asked between hurried breaths as he jumped over the wall and ran over to the two girls.
"Y-yeah...yeah...I think I'm going to be fine." Charlie gasped out as looked over towards her boyfriend and then gave them both an affirmative nod. While her shoulder and leg still felt rather sore, the pain had already started to lessen in intensity.
It was then that she realized that Carlton had yet to join them behind the relative safety of the wall. She was just about to ask where he was when Carlton himself vaulted over the wall and then shakily stumbled over to them with a pained look on his face.
"I'm here...I'm….whew...Ha! Wow, that's the hardest I've run since the time Dad had me try out for track and field back in middle school." Carlton wheezed through haggard breaths.
"Well get ready to start moving again, I doubt that flimsy little wall's going to hold back those...things for very long," John said while gesturing back over towards the hallway.
The sounds of the animatronics footsteps were still audible despite the lead they'd gotten over them, but they were becoming louder and louder with each passing second. It wouldn't be long before they'd be hot on the group's trail once again.
"Is there another hallway leading out of this room or maybe even some kind of emergency exit?" Jessica questioned, her eyes looking around in the hopes that she'd be able to spot some sort of exit sign that would signal their way to freedom.
"If there is one...I haven't seen it." Charlie gasped before joining Jessica in peering around the room. "But even if there is one, we can't just leave before we've found Dave's suit."
"I'm not suggesting that we just leave but we need time to rethink this whole thing. It's just that those...things being alive were something I don't think any of us were expecting." Jessica said hurriedly, adding the last bit onto her original sentence to hopefully placate the already upset looking Charlie.
"How are they even alive to begin with?" Carlton wondered aloud. "I thought you guys said that these versions were brand new."
"They are," Charlie said, her voice becoming firm as her mind flashed back to the day she'd been chased by Dave's suit.
"I saw my dad's creations in the back storage room. They didn't look all that different from when we last saw them aside from some extra wear and tear."
"Let's worry about the how's and why's once we're in a safer place," John added, his voice thick with anxiousness as the lights from the animatronics eyes began spilling into the room from the adjoining hallway. "Those things are almost right on top of us."
Right as John finished his sentence, the booming thuds of the animatronics footsteps suddenly increased in number. All conversations amongst the group came to a sudden stop as they turned to face the approaching animatronics.
To their shock, the new Bonnie and Chica had begun running towards their position. Each step they took seemed to shake the entire room as they charged on with reckless abandon.
The sight of them sprinting towards them seemed to cause the entire group to become frozen in place, the revelation that these new animatronics were capable of running having sent all of their stomachs into freefall as they silently all braced for what would hopefully be a quick end.