See the end for author's notes.
"Well I have a theory, yeah I heard a rumor,
there was a murmur of purple and murder…"
Chapter 3. Death Is a Charade
Danny took a stumbling step back, connecting with the long bench that took up the entire room.
"What, what do you mean he lost?" The kid demanded, eyes widening as Springtrap lurched. But that lurch was, apparently, intentional. The rotted green and yellow rabbit pushed it's creaking and cracking body away from the wall. Metal feet hit the ground with twin clangs, and the rabbit swayed upright before settling into a small lean to the right. It kept on hand on the bench for balance but the silver optics never left Danny's gaze. Springtrap studied the human calmly.
"Mike doesn't lose—" He stopped at the expression on Springtrap's face.
"It's exactly what I said. He was here before, now he's not. He lost." It sounded so simpler than it was when Springtrap drawled on like that.
"What did he lose, then?" Danny demanded, suddenly wishing Bonnie were here. Hell, he'd even take Freddy at this point.
Springtrap observed Danny in much the same manner the human was observing the bunny. Spring's suit clicked as it slouched rustily toward the door.
"If you've gotten this far, you know why he's gone missing. And you know where, most importantly." Springtrap rasped, his speaker sounded clogged and his voice was tired and thick. Danny blinked and as Springtrap passed him, he dug out the folded piece of paper with the address on it.
"Freddy's sister location? He's there?" Danny asked.
Springtrap paused out in the hall, looking over his mottled shoulder. Danny hesitantly joined the rabbit's side, swallowing at the sheer height Springtrap had on him.
"I believe it's called Circus Baby's Pizza World." A pregnant pause. "Well, it was, once upon a time. Don't you think it's strange, how empty it is here?"
"Well—yeah, of course. I mean, I figure Mike took the robots with him, and…" He trailed off when he noticed Spring was staring at him again. The rabbit either wasn't capable of raising its eyelid plates higher than halfway, or it didn't care to. Every look was mostly tired with other varying emotions sitting behind the fatigue. Idly, Danny wondered how many of those years it took to get Springtrap up and running again, as it were.
"Not that sort of empty. What is your name and position here?" Springtrap suddenly asked. It was so polite and expectant Danny didn't know what to say.
"Uh—I'm Danny Fitzgerald but, well I don't work here—"
"Fitzgerald?" Springtrap's systems wheezed but kept steady. Suddenly those glowing eyes were focused so intently on Danny he could only freeze in place.
"I see. You're related to Jeremy Fitzgerald. Son, perhaps? Or has it been long enough for you to be a grandson, I wonder?"
"No, no I'm his son…or, was or something." Now Danny hurried after Springtrap with more ease, his heart picking up in excitement instead of terror. Springtrap was horrifying to look at and smelled worse than anything he'd come across in his young life…but the rabbit seemed pretty harmless. He wouldn't want to get grabbed by those exposed metal fingers, though. All the tetnus shots in the world wouldn't save him.
"You knew my father?" If so, he had about a hundred questions to ask the rabbit.
"I did." But Springtrap didn't divulge anything further. "Did you take over his position? Are you…a night guard?" The words were almost said reverently.
Danny stopped a second to consider this. He glanced around the vacant, hollow Dining Hall. His shoulders slumped at the misery of this place.
"I, I was the day guard a few years ago." He explained, feeling embarrassed. "But I…moved away."
"I see. Quit? Get fired?"
"No! No, nothing like that." Danny covered quickly. "I had to go to college and I guess, well, Mike couldn't call me in anymore so he just stopped calling and…"
No, he didn't get fired. Technically, he didn't quit either. He just left. Somehow, that made what he had done worse.
Springtrap wasn't looking at him anymore. The bunny was looking around with vague, absent interest at the room. Those strangely light optics clicked over to the stage and he shuffled toward it, laying a metal hand on the wood. Some of it was rotting, because there were holes in the ceiling and the rain and snow had long ago found a path through.
"You moved on." Springtrap finished. It wasn't said cruelly, but Danny still felt a sting of shame.
"Yeah." What else could he say? Any argument felt silly. Springtrap was clever, and beyond that he seemed to see right through him. Whenever the bunny aimed his half-lidded gaze at him Fitzgerald had to suppress a shiver.
"You need to find Fredbear." Springtrap suddenly said. "Both of them, to be honest. I know where the night guard is and I know why he hasn't returned. But as to where he is exactly, or where the others are…I don't know that. Time isn't on our side, day guard."
Danny swallowed, but didn't correct the rotted rabbit. "Are you…obviously Mike wanted me to wake you up but can you…make it? To the sister location?"
At this, Springtrap glanced over his shoulder and looked down at Danny with a slightly amused—and forever weary—look. It was almost playful, and it reminded him of Bonnie so much his chest ached.
"I think I can manage to stay in one piece." Springtrap teased lightly, and the human's ears went pink.
"That isn't—I'm sorry, I didn't mean—" Danny blustered uselessly.
"No matter." Springtrap was good-humored but apparently not insulted. "I understand my look isn't cosmetically pleasing or comforting. Nor is it terribly stable.
But I still have a little….spring in my step."
At this moment, Springtrap turned and calmly found a particular slat of wood on the stage. He wrenched a piece of the stage up. The old board resisted, this one wasn't rotten yet, but Springtrap simply lifted his metal and bone arm until it snapped cleanly off, exposing the stage's electrical workings and a good sized hole.
"H-hey!" Danny rushed to Springtrap's side, reaching out to stop him but pausing uneasily, arms outstretched, when he remembered what was in the springlock suit. "Stop! What are you doing!? That's—"
The human stopped as Springtrap reached down into the darkness, his eyes illuminating the black storage space. The bunny leaned back with a ring of keys carefully hanging between his metal, tendon encrusted fingers. Danny gaped.
"Mike put those there?" He clarified quickly, taking them when Spring held them out for him. Danny recognized most of the tinkling keys save for two or three. He glanced at the broken board and saw how new the nails looked compared to the other nails holding the stage down. Springtrap nodded.
"He did."
"But then—he locked them in here? This is the key to the front door, and—" Danny recalled the name of the padlock stamped into the metal. This key was for the padlock, this one for the back door…the Prize Room…they were all here.
"How did he…"
"You haven't worked here in a while, day guard." Springtrap said, and while it wasn't a scold, it was close. "You of all us should remember the night guard's ability when it comes to doors. Rarely are they needed to move."
Danny connected the pieces in his mind. When Mike had left, he had abandoned the keys to this hiding spot. In an effort to protect Freddy's? Or Springtrap? And when he had left, he still had the working flashlight. Danny could see the thin, shaggy haired man locking everything he could from the inside, meticulously. Then pulling out that strange flashlight, aiming its beam at a doorway and walking through into the golden glow and ending up outside, where his car and the van always sat—
The van.
He hadn't seen the van when he came in. That's how the gang had left!
"…right." Danny did remember now. He just felt sad, wishing Mike himself were here. "Right, I…I guess I did forget." But he sure as hell remembered now.
Whatever had made Mike lock up from the inside out and abandon both Freddy's Pizzeria and Springtrap wasn't anything good. Danny swallowed, hooked the keys to his belt along with the working flashlight, and felt like a small man in a big business suit. He wasn't a guard anymore. He didn't even belong here. He was Mike's last resort. His only backup was Springtrap, he was missing his best friend and was facing some unknown danger not even his boss could conquer. And his boss could do anything, Danny used to think.
Worst of all, Springtrap was looking at him expectantly.
"We should leave now."
Danny nodded, not trusting his voice all of a sudden.
They stayed long enough to turn off the generator, casting the restaurant back into its sleepy state of darkness. By some miracle it had stopped raining when they left the pizzeria. The two odd companions took the back door where the forest sat, since the wooden boards and padlock would only keep the restaurant somewhat safe for a bit longer. Danny locked the door behind Springtrap and glanced up at the night sky. The clouds let one splatter of white stars gleam down, but there was no moon. Thunder mumbled somewhere to the west, and Springtrap's good ear twitched toward it.
They walked along the tarmac toward the front of the restaurant. Springtrap kept good pace with Danny, which surprised him but he held his tongue. He remembered the ease Spring had just broken that thick piece of wood and decided he wouldn't have a problem travelling. Let alone anything else they might encounter—heck, even a Nightmare animatronic would probably mistake Springtrap before attacking him. Not that those existed anymore, but Danny had no other comparison.
The storm had stopped, sure, so why did Danny feel like nothing was over?
Except maybe some silly form of childhood naivety, actually. Funny, the whole episode with Nightmare seemed simple and almost boring compared to whatever awaited them at former Circus Baby's. More animatronics? Humans, this time? Conjoined animatonics and humans…like whatever the hell Springtrap was? Danny's mind only swirled on in a relentless pattern of thoughts, each mystery more terrifying than the last. By the time he settled on a monstrous form that looked like Nightmare combined with more animatronics (because what was worse than one animatronic, but four or five just put together, right?) Danny had to finally admit that now he was being ridiculous now. His imagination had gotten away with him, trying to make up overwhelming dragons for his knight guard boss to fight.
He was sure nothing like that existed.
Springtrap didn't fit in the front seat of his mom's car, but he did manage to wedge himself into the back. The body of the car sank a little on the tires, but that was it. Springtrap was apparently lighter than he looked. Danny wondered why Mike had never removed the body in Spring, but decided against asking. He remembered the animatronics and how human they could be. The more they liked you the more inclined they were to look out for you. And this creepy, terrifying bunny was his first—and only—line of defense until he found the other four or, better yet, found Mike. Better then, to stay on good terms with Springtrap, who did seem to genuinely like him. Or at least, not hate him.
Danny got into the driver's side and hauled the door closed.
He made the mistake of looking at the restaurant's front windows. A black bear face with white teeth grinned back at him for a split second. Danny trembled. Springtrap noticed.
"Remember: Nowhere in the middle of the nursery, does it state Humpty Dumpty was an egg." Springtrap told Danny with a deadly serious expression. When the human looked into the rear view mirror to meet Springtrap's gaze, the black shadow was gone in a wink.
The restaurant lay dead again.
Danny made an uneasy noise, but nodded. "I'll…I'll keep that in mind, thanks."
"Good."
It was easy to tell himself that what he had seen was a trick of the light, and nothing more. So Danny did. We all have our own ways of staying sane, after all.
With Springtrap's strange little sentiment echoing in his ears, Danny used shaking fingers to log the address into the GPS of his mom's car.
And hoped to whoever was listening they weren't too late.
Springtrap and Danny to the rescue! To the Guest who offered to beta my story: Thank you for the offer but betaing won't increase the speed of uploads. Chapters get written in my own time. Thank you though! Plus my notes are atrocious; I would have to scan them off scraps of paper and tissues. I put every single knight guard note/rough idea into one single, terribly rambly document too...
Secondly, on a note to That Speedhunter: I appreciate the review! However, I don't write for popularity, and in any case, London Bridge got much less attention. People don't have to read this if they don't enjoy the reality of the situation. I'm also not a fan of happy endings all the time. Yes, the restaurant is closed down and time wasn't kind to anything so far, but that's how life is. Besides, the entire FNAF situation isn't exactly the most fairy tale ending, so for me it fits to remind the reader that Time sadly has a way of degrading everything. Even machines. Especially machines, actually. (And we all know someone who is at least half machine in this story. And I'm not talking about Springtrap.)
Thirdly—as a general note to all—I am currently in the process of moving. I think I said the same thing in Devil's Spine. Well, it's still fucking going on, and it's a huge hassle and incredibly frustrating. The house is at least built. (Yes, it did take almost 7 months to build.) No, updates will not come quickly for Finding Freddy. Yes, I will finish this story. Even if it kills me. Or Mike. Either way.
Chapter 3's song is 'Built in the 80's' by Griffnilla and Toastwaffle.