Almost Feels Like Home

Chapter Seven

Marionette found the basement from the hallway and headed down into the packed storage room. Unlike Mike, he moved over the hoard much easier as he made his way towards the back. He only hesitated beside the abandoned Orville animatronic, hesitating for whatever reason, but was then forced away by the pull of the bracelet. He had to hurry and find the children, and it was with the bracelet that he found the door. He accessed it quickly, noticed the lock, and then pressed his hands on the door to try and get a 'feel' of what was inside.

It didn't take him long to feel the soft sensation that indicated movement and life. They were here; the children were on the other side of the door.

Without a hitch, the Puppet grabbed ahold of the padlock and tried to unlock it as he would a door lock. It was nothing more than a smaller lock separated from a door and thus opened easily and quickly. He let the padlock drop onto the floor and opened the door with his telekinesis. This was met with a cry and some shuffling in fear. Without worrying about them seeing him, he entered the room and saw what waited beyond it.

There were three boys in the room. The oldest looked to be eleven or twelve, and it only took Marionette a glance to realize that he recognized him from the newspaper. He had to be Charlie's friend's sibling Jason. The two other boys were much younger. One looked five at most and the other could've been as young as two, and the oldest was holding them like he had been keeping them back against the wall. The youngest, merely a toddler, began to immediately cry even before he could see the animatronic. The other two boys just stared- understandably startled by the appearance of the striped being.

The room could've only been slightly smaller than the office upstairs. A twin mattress laid on the floor with random blankets and pillows and seemed to only be the most basic of comfort. Other than that, there was a trashcan in the corner and some fast food wrappings on the floor. A couple of toys that could've come straight from the prize corner were there as well. He doubted they were given out of care, but more so to keep the children quiet. To think that they had been trapped in this room- especially the toddler- was disturbing beyond words. He already wanted to cry.

To not scare the kids, Marionette moved in carefully with gentle chimes. He knelt to their level and reached for them gently. The older two looked wary so he instead reached to pet the toddler's head, chiming solemnly and sympathetically. The toddler was still crying, but the five-year-old began to look less scared, with only the oldest still staring in alarm. While this was its own risk, as the children could say anything about him being alive, he couldn't resist it. They were alive, they were mostly healthy and didn't seem injured, and Dave hadn't gotten a chance to hurt them. Yet.

He leaned in and embraced the group tightly. The oldest boy leaned back, dodging the touch, but the other two didn't. Marionette pressed his mask onto the toddler's soft hair and lightly ruffled it with his fingers to try and ease his crying. Apparently noticing that the Puppet was no longer was a threat, the five-year-old gave in and hugged onto him. Childlike wonder overtook fear; suddenly this strange creature became a source of affection. He saw him as some sort of friendly face in the darkness, and Marionette turned his attention to hug the boy as well. He was just so happy they were alive, so ecstatically happy.

But they weren't safe until they were out of the theater. Marionette started to draw back and pressed a finger to his lips, to signal for them to stay quiet while he attempted to smuggle them out. He then rose off the floor and turned towards the door again. He had seen the backdoor by now, so he could take them out that way and either hide them or move them to the car. Then he could help Mike, go for the purple monster upstairs, and return to Charlie for-… This could still work.

Or it almost did, until his gaze fell on the green bracelet on the doorknob. His eyes focused on it for a few moments before he realized something terrible: Chrissy wasn't here. He had been so wrapped up in the joy of seeing the living boys that he hadn't even realized that the girl hadn't been there. He rushed out the door and looked around the basement, but there were no other doors and the only window was too high for her to have reached. There were only three children in this room and Chrissy was nowhere to be seen.

It didn't make sense, though. He had found her bracelet, so she had been here. She had been behind the theater with Charlie and must've escaped before Dave could grab her. Unless she hadn't. Horror started to grow in Marionette as he thought back to the scene. There had been so much blood, and the bracelet had somehow fell off her, and she was nowhere to be seen. A cold sort of revelation began to climb over him and force its way inside. First Charlie- and now Chrissy was nowhere to be seen. Only now did Marionette think back about that disgusting man upstairs and about the shovel he was carrying.

For a moment Marionette was overcome by grief. Then he was swallowed whole by static.

"So, how long were you in the bear's claws?" Dave asked as he looked Mike over. "I'm guessing from the get up and the borderline obsession it was… Uh… Five years?... Nah, couldn't be. I think I would've recognized you, and I was working there a long time. I outlived owners, if you could believe that." He shakily pulled a small tin out of his pocket. The shaking wasn't out of fear and Mike suspected it was a side effect of whatever he had been using before he came in. The tin was full of chewing tobacco and Dave took an abnormally large amount and jammed it into his cheek, all while juggling the shovel.

"You know what they say: you don't know what you have until it's all gone," Dave remarked.

"Uh huh, and what does that mean?" Noticing Dave's confused look, Mike corrected, "And I know what that means. I mean context-wise. I'm not a complete idiot. I didn't kidnap kids at the establishment I worked at after working at a place that people only remember because kids got kidnapped there."

"And the animatronics. These ones here can't compare to those, you know. I know you know. We both know about the animatronics there." Dave slipped the tin back into his pocket. "You ever worked the night shift?"

"Pretty much every night of 93," Mike admitted. He decided not to bring up the times when he was 'let go'. It just wasn't important now.

"But you didn't work the night shift when they were open!" Dave remarked, pointing at Mike. "You see, that's a shame, because it was better when they were open. Those bots were active. They were out for blood! Let me tell you, I got this close once." He showed an inch with his fingers, but it was hard with how his hand trembled. "I had the Mangle trying to get in at the same time Toy Bonnie was climbing through the vents and the music box was wound down to nothing. That feeling you get when you skirt by the highest high you're ever going to get!" He paused as his smile started to fade. "…Then they put me on the dayshift."

All at once, that delirious high dropped into somberness. "I thought it was my saving grace, but all it did was take all the fun out of it. No more thrill. The bots didn't move during the day- Except that one time the Mangle bit some guy's arm off." Mike supposed that he meant Jeremy. A similar story but with incorrect details; close enough. "I didn't have enough time to get back on the nightshift before it closed down. Then it was over… Couldn't feel much of anything anymore."

"So, you came here to work thinking this place was haunted?" Mike asked. He was slightly interested in hearing cause and effect, but the main reason was to keep stalling for Marionette and the police who were probably never coming.

"Almost… Tried to get a job at Afton Robotics, but the place closed up." Dave absentmindedly tapped the end of the shovel on the tiled floor. "And I came here to take the edge off, thinking that eventually it would start to curb, and it almost did… But these last few years- I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I kept thinking about the magic of Freddy's, you know? And I had this epiphany- kids disappear and animatronics come to life. It was the only thing that made sense." He got a glazed look. "Couldn't sleep. I just kept thinking about it when I slept."

"So… That's it?" Mike challenged in disgust. "You just kept thinking about it until you decided that logical sense didn't matter? Let's stop playing games. Why'd you come after Chrissy? Why her, why Foxy's, why? Just because you're a sick freak who decided to rage a vendetta because I didn't have a lighter?" Dave still looked just as vacant. "You already have the news crowding this place as it is because you decided to grab a child in broad daylight."

"This wasn't ever supposed to get back here. That kid was just… Asking questions, you know? That kid, that boy. He was acting weird, watching me, and I knew he knew," Dave explained with a tinge of paranoia. "So, he had to be out of the way, and so I promised to get him some answers and got him out of the way. Quick fix, right? Well, no. Not a quick fix. Turns out people realized he was here, and then suddenly all these people are poking around the theater. Can't have that…" He looked back to Mike. "…But if it happened again at Foxy's, they'd change their focus."

"That is a terrible idea. You don't want to be caught, so you kidnap more. Yeah, that makes a ton of sense," Mike pointed out. "Even if they suddenly believe Foxy's is a target or believe that you're moving around, that doesn't mean they'd stop looking at Magictime. The kid was, again, taken in broad daylight."

"It doesn't need to be perfect," Dave assured with bravado. "Scott got away with kidnapping all those kids just because there were a couple of us to give the 'reasonable doubt' that it wasn't him." He punctuated it with air quotes.

"Scott? You mean the Phone Guy? The Phone Guy wasn't kidnapping children! It was-," Mike caught himself. He didn't want to spill anything to this man. It would only somehow bite him in the end. "It doesn't matter who it was. What matters is what you're doing. As far as everyone's concerned, you're the only suspect."

"Except you," Dave remarked. "See, we get to start pointing fingers at each other, and we've both got our own co-workers backing us up. Nothing concrete…" He smirked as though it was sheer brilliance. "Reasonable doubt."

"Yeah, that's a great move, genius. Covered all your bases. Except the young woman you hit with your car that's going to immediately trace back to you. You think they're not going to trace her injuries right back to your car?" Mike challenged him. Dave didn't waver. "They're going to find her, and if you think-…" Mike only now noticed that Dave had a shovel. For a moment he was just stuck staring, caught in a horrific realization, and then he inhaled sharply. "You were going to-."

"She wasn't even supposed to be here. It's not my fault," Dave muttered lowly. "I didn't have any choice."

Mike stayed silent, because now things were different. Now Dave wasn't just a child kidnapper. He was planning on murdering someone tonight and hiding the body somewhere in the desert. What was even worse was that Mike knew nobody would've found her. Or if they did, it would be out of sheer luck. He just stared at this man and swore that he too could see purple.

"Why are you doing this…?" Mike asked quietly. "I want to know. Why? No excuses, no thrills, none of that. Just tell me why."

In a very strange moment, Dave's face dropped to an emptier look. Something was strange in that gaze, and Mike almost didn't think it was the drugs. As though some sort of realization was flittering over Dave's gaze. As though he was miles away; the gaze of a dead-eyed animatronic without a puppeteer. That was the first time that Mike believed there was something more at play, and then the man spoke.

"…I don't know. I just had to. I just got up one day…" Dave slowly admitted, "…and I wanted to do it."

A chill started to wash down Mike's back at that comment.

It was then that the sound of rustling gravel could be heard. Dave cut off and looked past Mike through the windows. He stared for a minute, then gave an almost nervous smile, but perhaps it was still shakiness from whatever he was taking. "You set off the alarm system, didn't you?"

Mike could hear a car pulling into the parking lot. He turned to look back, but then noticed Dave move out of the corner of his eye. The man suddenly rushed in and Mike just barely managed to grab the handle of the shovel to stop it. Then he yanked his taser free and jammed it into Dave's side, releasing every volt he could into the man. Apparently, he had not been expecting this, as he hunched over with a yell as the electricity emptied into him. When it stopped to recharge, Mike tackled Dave to the floor, knocking the shovel back onto the carpet. Dave tried to fight back, one hand grabbing at Mike's throat.

The security guard glared down at him coldly. He didn't feel bad as he tased him again, even as he too felt some of the volts. They were weak in comparison to what the other man was getting- or in comparison to what Mike himself had felt before. As soon as he stopped to pause, Mike reached down to undo and yank his own security belt off. His flashlight dropped to the floor as he planted his knee to Dave's chest, putting all his weight to hold him down, and began to wrap his belt around his wrists. Dave was still trying to fight back as the front door opened.

"What's going on?!" Jose cried in horror as he stepped inside. He didn't have any sort of a weapon and could only gawk at the scene of the two men on the floor. "Mike, what are you doing here?!"

"Jose, help! He's insane!" Dave called to the other man. Suddenly his tone had switched to a panicked victim instead of a predator. "He's got a taser and he's going to kill me!"

"Oh, that's a real good act you've got going on, isn't it, Dave?!" Mike spat down at him. "Is that how you got all those children in here?!" He then looked to Jose. "Don't listen to him! This psycho's the one kidnapping the kids!"

"He's out of his mind! He broke in and started attacking me!" Dave pleaded with the younger man, who was staring at the scene in horror. "Please, Jose, hurry!"

"Alright, then why don't we just wait until the cops get here? Then I can take them down into the basement, show them the kids, and then we'll see which of us is psycho!" Mike threatened him. He wouldn't willingly get off Dave, not when he was sure that he would try to weasel away. Even now the older man was staring up at him with that same, blank look. They would've been stuck at a standstill if not for Jose butting in.

"Kids? Where… Where's the kids?" Jose asked shakily. He swallowed audibly as he looked at Mike's taser. "Can you take me to the kids?"

"They're in the basement," Mike clarified again. Jose made no attempt to move. "Alright, uh…" He looked down at Dave, who was still feigning fear- unless he was genuinely afraid that he was going to get caught, which Mike doubted. He beckoned his head over towards one of the tabletop machines, one that had short, narrow legs underneath. "Help me tie up Dave to the machine so he doesn't split, and I'll take you to them."

Jose seemed hesitant but took a few steps closer and knelt to assist. Mike did most of the work in dragging Dave over and tying him to the machine, with the man was trying to fight but being barely able to after the tasing. Once they were sure Dave couldn't escape, Mike stood and beckoned the other man. "Come on, I'll show you. Maybe you can unlock the padlock too, because the door's sealed tight." Jose gave a silent nod and followed behind a few steps as they made it back into the hallway.

Halfway to the basement and the jingling of keys could be heard as Jose removed his keyring. Mike sent him a questioning look, but then looked ahead again. He was probably getting the key to the padlock ready. He opened the basement door and started down the stairs hastily. "The kids are down past all of the garbage."

He was answered with a loud bang.

"Oh, don't tell me…" Mike turned around slowly and stared at the now closed basement door. He could hear the faint jingling of keys and knew the door was being locked. He sped back up the stairs and tried the handle, but it was locked tight. "Jose!" he called out. "Jose, he's lying! The kids are down here! He hit a woman with his car, he's carrying a shovel-! Jose?!" He could hear the quickly retreating footsteps. Jose didn't believe him and now Mike was stuck down in the basement, looking guilty, just as Dave had said.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Mike spun around and looked down the steps. "Mari?!" he called desperately, but there was no response.

He hurried down the stairs and over to the door into the children's prison, which was left open a crack. He barged in and the three children inside shirked back in surprise at the human's sudden arrival. Marionette was nowhere to be seen, which was odd considering that the door was unlocked. That was the least of his problems right now. He knew Dave couldn't have gotten the Puppet, but he could imagine him either playing the victim until the police arrived coming down here first thing to get rid of the evidence. Mike wasn't going to let either of these options come to fruition.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just looking for a way to get you out, okay? Hang tight, I'll be right back." With that assurance, he shut the door to a crack and looked around the basement. "There's got to be another way out of here…" He started through the hoard again, looking around for another door or something nearby, and it was then that he spotted a single, small window near the roof of the basement. "Jackpot!"

Mike looked around for something close by to climb onto. The only thing that looked light enough to move was Orville the Elephant's gutted head. He hefted it off the ground and carried it to the wall to use as a stool. "Sorry, Orville, but I need a boost up." Even with the head Mike barely managed to make it to the window. It would still be a tight squeeze for him, but it unlocked and opened easily, and he didn't have much of a choice. He looked around at the area behind the theater.

"Marionette!" Mike called out into the alleyway and still received no answer. Wherever the Puppet was, he couldn't reach him, and Mike drew back inside. "I can't leave the kids down here. I'll take them out and hide them. Screw looking guilty, the kids are going to wind up dead down here!" Without a hitch, he jumped down and sprinted back to the room. Mike rushed in and startled the children once more. He wasn't surprised that they didn't trust an adult stranger who randomly barged in, though he expected that their reaction to Dave would've been much more severe.

"Alright, come on, kids. We're getting you out of here," Mike announced as he beckoned them. "Hurry, before he comes back, okay? We're going to sneak you out of here." The two younger kids seemed confused, but the older kid, who was obviously Jason from the newspaper, seemed more interested.

"You're… You're with that… The clown?" Jason asked in confusion.

"Clown?" He must have meant the Puppet. "Striped, skinny clown with a white mask? Yeah, I'm with him. If you don't believe me, I've got pictures in my wallet, but first I need to get you out of here." The boy still seemed hesitant, but nodded, took the younger children's hands, and guided them out after Mike. His desperation to escape was obvious; he was willing to trust anyone. The security guard led them back to the window. "Jason, right?" The oldest nodded. "Here's the plan, Jason. I'm going to lift you out first and then you're going to help me get the younger boys through. Think you can do that?"

Jason furrowed his brows and looked Mike over. "You think you can pick me up?"

Mike knew what he was implying and gave him a flat look. "I'm about twice your age, Kid. I think I can handle picking you up." Jason gave what almost looked like a shrug as Mike leaned down to pick him up. The boy wasn't exactly light- though he wasn't used to toting children around- but he got him to the window rather easily. He climbed through and stood in the alley. "Alright, I'm handing up the tot next." The toddler was much easier to lift, even as he was starting to cry. He looked so young and Mike couldn't help but feel especially horrible knowing that this tiny infant had been kept down here.

Finally, was the five-year-old, and Mike stepped down from the Orville head to pick up the boy. Right as he was lifting him he heard a loud banging through the ceiling. The boy jumped and clung tighter as something started happening on the floor above. It sounded to be from the main room and immediately Mike expected the worst. "That psycho's probably going to turn on Jose now." While he wasn't feeling too pleased with Jose, he certainly didn't want the man dead, and rushed back to the window to help the five-year-old through. Then he looked around until his eyes landed on the storage shed behind the theater.

"Hey, Kid, I need one more favor, okay? It's getting loud in there and I need to check and make sure that guy's not coming back. I need you to take those two and hide in that shed." He pointed to the storage shed insistently. "Hide in there and stay quiet, and don't come out unless the police get here, I come back, or you see the clown come back." Jason didn't need to be told twice and drug the younger children along with him. Mike started trying to pull himself through the small window, only hesitating when he heard the creaking of the shed door opening.

"So, everything in this theater locks tight except for the shed. Noted," he thought as he dragged himself through the small space. It was an obscenely tight squeeze and he could barely scramble through and dragged himself out into the alleyway after the children. There was still no sign of the Puppet. Though now his suspicion returned to the noises inside the theater. "I've got to get back in there… I'm going to regret this." Without a hitch, he started to sprint around the building once more. He was already wishing he stuck with the kids.

Jose hurried to untie the belt from Dave's hands bound hands. "I got him locked in the basement, so he's not going anywhere," the man reassured as the older rubbed at his chest where he had been tased. "What happened?!"

"I was driving by and I saw his car out front. I came in to confront him and he attacked me," Dave lied, and Jose believed it without question. "He was going on about Magictime trying to take out Foxy's and some plan about sabotaging the business that didn't work- I don't know. The guy's completely nuts!" He moved back towards the stage where the shovel was laying and grabbed it. "And then he tried to pin all this on me… When you came in and saw us."

"That's just insane! I talked to that guy like a few days ago and he seemed normal! Geez…" Jose bit his lip uncomfortably and reached into his pants for his phone. "Did you call the cops? He said the cops were coming."

"The guy said a lot of things," Dave excused as he looked around shiftily. He leaned back against the stage. "Just… Don't argue with me. I need you to call the cops over here, and I'll need you to tell them I didn't do this. He's going to tell them that I've been kidnapping kids and you know that's not true." His voice sounded more panicked as he looked to the younger. "You'll do that, right? You'd back me up?"

"Yeah, of course!" Jose started to get his cellphone out to make the call. "Did… Did you see any kids?"

"No," Dave denied. "I came in the back door and attacked me with this." He held up the shovel. "He didn't start shocking me until I got this out of his hand, but I didn't see any kids, unless he brought them here." The story was so flimsy and yet he could see Jose was already believing it. He hid his inward smugness and relief and he tried to recover from the damage that had been done.

Jose, meanwhile, didn't know what to think. He and Dave weren't exactly close but seeing such an event made him protective. They were the closest thing either had to friends when working out here. He just couldn't believe that Mike turned out to be so seemingly psychotic. Maybe he was the one connected to the missing children. Jose pushed the thought into the back of his mind as he dialed for emergency and raised the phone to his ear.

It didn't even ring, he was just rewarded with the sound of sobbing.

It took Jose a few moments before he registered what he was listening to. It was borderline hysterical weeping as someone choked over the line. He blinked and stared at the front of the theater as the crying continued to pour from the phone.

"…Hello?" Jose tried quietly. "Is… Is someone there? Is this 911?" His heart was pounding as the crying continued over the speaker. He started to think it was some sort of elaborate prank, but before he could the phone call started to change. Static began to grow louder and slowly the hysterical crying was overcome by the growing popping and fuzziness. It became too intense and Jose ended the call. "Dave, there was someone-!" The younger man turned around to face Dave with the dread only growing, but anything he could've said was cut short.

Nedd Bear was standing behind Dave with its head dropped and its pinprick eyes staring at his back.

Jose's throat tightened as he stared at the animatronic standing over Dave. Neither of them had heard it move, as was apparent by how unenthused Dave's glazed gaze was. He tried to choke out past the horror gripping him, but something silenced him, like fingers tightening around his throat. Or tight, thin ropes wrapping around his neck and pulling taunt. "What's that look?" Dave asked, looking almost amused by how wide Jose's eyes were getting.

Neither had time to react as Nedd Bear swung forward. It looked like a cross between a stumble and a lunge, looking much goofier and confused than it should have. Though it became much less comical when the bear's mouth dropped down onto the man. Dave must've heard the squeaking of its joints as he started to turn back, raising his arm in defense. This was ultimately a mistake, as it gave the bear the perfect target to latch onto. The large, foam teeth did nothing; the metal animatronic teeth sheered through cloth and flesh. The shovel was dropped to the floor as Dave tried to fight back.

Perhaps he was numb to the pain, as he fought back more than could've been expected, wailing on the bear as it grabbed ahold of him. The sound of static that had once been limited to the phone began to grow until it was nearly deafening, and with it came something else; the animalistic groans and shrieks, mixed with the distorted sound of Nedd Bear's own voice tracks. All the while it continued to chew into the man's arm until blood began to drip down onto the carpet.

It was now that Jose managed to react. Ignoring the pressure, he scrambled for the shovel and rushed in to attack the aggressive machine. With the right angle he swung and managed to crush Nedd Bear's right eye and bend his ear in a strange direction. Jose then jammed the shovel ahead and wedged it into the bear's mouth where he used it as a lever to force it open. The bear swung out and put Jose's arm in a vice grip, no doubt bruising the flesh, but before he could do any damage Dave got his arm free. He then yanked the shovel free from his companion and the bear, and then slammed it down again on Nedd Bear's head.

This one sharp blow managed to knock Nedd Bear's head back enough that it seemed to get stuck aimed back. After staggering, the animatronic collapsed on the stage and stopped moving.

"Did you see that?! That thing just moved! That thing attacked us!" Jose cried as he looked to Dave in a panic. The older man was staring at the bear in a trance. "Are you okay?! Dave?!"

He turned to look at Jose and looked as though he intended to speak. Again, there wasn't even a chance. The creaking from the stage made sure of that. Both looked back and the dread returned in full as they watched Happy Frog shudder and stagger forward. She yanked herself free from her power cord and dropped down off the stage onto the carpeted floor. She turned her head towards the two men with her eyes now holding the familiar pinprick of light behind them. "Now, now! There's no neeed to pla-ay rough!"

Jose screamed, turned, and ran back out of the way. Dave didn't have the same reflexes and only have enough time to raise his shovel before Happy Frog rushed in. The animatronic frog dashed in and slammed into the man, knocking him back onto one of the tabletop arcades and pinning him to it. He hooked the shovel's handle under its neck to hold her back, but she was ruthless, tearing at his uniform and trying to bite at his head.

"You can't run away," Happy Frog murmured lowly. She then brought down her fist. Dave barely managed to move his head in time to have the animatronic's fist smash into the cabinet below. She gave a garbled, frustrated sounding noise as she moved to pin his neck. "You can't hide from what you did."

Seeing the other man pinned, Jose apparently got some of his nerve back. He looked around before his eyes went to the small fire extinguisher in the glass cabinet on the wall. It wouldn't be much, and he didn't want to engage the animatronic, but he knew Dave was going to be killed if he did nothing. He took out the fire extinguishes and started to sneak towards Happy Frog again. He had a clear view of her head and started to raise the extinguisher to strike her.

Then was cut off by a sigh at the stage beside him, followed by a low voice. "It seems like you made your choice, Buddy."

Jose looked over slowly and there stood Mr. Hippo, who had somehow spontaneously moved to the edge of the stage. The animatronic stared him down with the same eyes and then dropped down beside him. It moved much slower than Happy Frog, though even Happy Frog had become a bit more sluggish now that a second animatronic was wandering around. Mr. Hippo started to stalk after Jose, who raised the extinguisher in defense as he backed straight into the Candy Cadet. "Stay back! I swear, Mr. Hippo, I won't-!"

In an instant, Mr. Hippo swung out and with one heavy blow knocked the extinguisher straight out of Jose's hands and onto the carpeted floor. Jose look down at his only weapon that was now out of his reach as Mr. Hippo gave a deep, slowed down sigh. "It's really a shame what people decide to do…" Jose scrambled behind the counter as Mr. Hippo began to clock him in. "You won't get away with what you've done…"

It was right at this moment- Dave being held down by Happy Frog and Jose cornered by Mr. Hippo- that Mike barged back into the theater. He was immediately taken aback, as the last thing he expected to see was the previously mindless animatronics suddenly on the hunt. Then he noticed the eyes: either they had sunken in or they had darkened out, but they were replaced with pinpricks of light. This wasn't a haunted animatronic; it was a husk being controlled by an outside force. Mike knew who the puppeteer was too, and that alone signaled that the situation was spiraling out of control.

"Oh, this is not good…" Mike's jaw clenched, and he looked between the two victims.

With Dave, Mike had so far decided not to step in. It was no problem for him if Dave got a little rough up by a few possessed animatronics, but Jose was different. Sure, Jose had believed Dave instead of him, but Mike was rational enough to understand why. The man didn't deserve to get killed for Dave's sins. Especially since, in the process, Dave was now starting to overpower Happy Frog while the puppeteer's attention was all on the other man.

It took Mike only a few seconds to be over the counter and blocking Jose from the animatronic. Upon seeing Mike again, it gave a full shudder and a disgruntled garble. "Stop! He's innocent! He's not involved with the kidnapping!" the security guard insisted. Yet Mr. Hippo reacted by grabbing him by the wrists, then trying to yank the taser from his grasp, which he was still holding/ Mike fought back against him and began to feel the actual prickling of dread, wondering if he had been mistaken. "Marionette!"

"Why would you protect him?! Why would you protect the Purple Man?!" Mr. Hippo's voice was tainted. Behind the grumbling, mumbling voice of the hippo's recordings was the Puppet's own, panicked and frustrated. "He's a murderer!"

"He's Jose!" Mike clarified. It was now that he realized how confused Marionette was. He wasn't attacking Jose because he thought he was a threat, but because he thought he was Dave. Elsewise he wouldn't, Mike knew that much, so he pushed back. He looked to the side briefly and noticed Dave finally getting the weakened Happy Frog off, lodging the shovel in her chest in the process, and then looking back. Their eyes met briefly before Mike yanked his hand free and pointed. "That's Dave! He's the one that kidnapped the children!"

Instantly, Dave turned and made a dash for the back door before disappearing into the hallway. In an instant, Mr. Hippo suddenly slumped dormant, but Mike's focus was still on the man who had dashed from the room.

"Oh, no you don't! Dave, you get the hell back here!" Mike pulled away from the hippo animatronic and ran across the room. This left Jose to gawk in alarm and Mr. Hippo to teeter before falling backwards and landing with a heavy thump. Yet Mike ignored it and instead closed in on the door, "I swear to God, Dave-!"

Only to have the door suddenly slam in his face, but not by Dave's hand. Mike staggered back a step and stared at the door, then looked to the stage and animatronics. Nedd Bear, Happy Frog, and Mr. Hippo were now unmoving once more and fully lifeless. Their puppeteer had cut the strings and was now working elsewhere. Which meant that most likely, Dave was a dead man walking, and as much as Mike despised Dave he needed him alive long enough to be caught. This couldn't become another mystery; Dave would have to face real repercussions, or the gaze would be on Mike.

"For Freddy's sake, the one time he can't kill somebody-!" Mike muttered. He sprinted back through the arcade, passing by Jose who was now hunched behind the counter. The man looked extremely shaken but looked up as Mike passed.

"Wait, wait a second!" Jose babbled out as he scrambled up behind the counter. "Does this mean- the animatronics- does this mean Dave was the kidnapper?! There really are children in the basement?!"

"Damn straight! Dave's got this whole thing planned out!" Mike snapped back.

"I don't understand, how can this be happening-?!" For a moment it looked like the other man was going to have a total breakdown. This time, Mike wasn't sympathetic.

"Listen!" Mike dropped his hands on the counter to draw immediate attention. Jose flinched and went silent. Mike then rushed out, "Dave had kids locked up in the basement, there's a young woman bleeding out in the back alley, the animatronics are now haunted, and I need you- look at me- I need you to call the police, because all of the phones are dead, and my friend is about to die if she doesn't get help. You get them here, you stay put." With that, Mike turned to stride out of the theater. "And be thankful you didn't work at Freddy's!"

As soon as Dave had stepped into the hallway the door had slammed shut behind him. He sent a wary look back it through his foggy gaze and wondered for a moment if Mike had shut it behind him. Most likely he didn't know about the back door and was trying to trap him in. This would be a hopeless endeavor; Dave already had every intention to walk right out the back door. He turned to the hallway in a sort of daze. His heart was pounding, but it had been doing so even before the attack. Blood poured out of his arm and still he could barely feel it. He held it with his free hand, spat again, and took a step forward.

The office door slammed closed beside him. Dave turned to look at it, stared a moment, and then continued down the hall a little faster. The lights flickered lowly as the bathroom doors also slammed shut. Then the storage room door and the basement followed suit. Every time he passed a door it would close automatically. In the back of his mind he acknowledged that something was wrong and ran down the hallway, trying to ignore colors and shadows at the edge of his vision. He turned the hallway corner and hurried down to the back door and swung it open.

It almost immediately tried to close on him. Dave barely managed to catch his arm through the door and push his shoulder into the gap. Slowly he fought against the invisible force and slowly the door's grip weakened. Then, all at once, it gave way and he stumbled out behind the theater. He didn't even have time to relish in his victory before he was met with a low growling nearby. Slowly, Dave turned his head to look down towards the corner of the theater.

There standing in the rain stood another animatronic, but this one wasn't like the others. From its frantic twitching and its shining hook, he knew that it was deadlier than any of the possessed ones inside.

"Ya think yer gonna crawl away that easy, Rat?" Foxy growled. "Yer gonna taste good under me teeth."

Dave bolted back into the backdoor of the theater, ignoring how it previously tried to keep him in, and only barely shut the door before the hook scraped across it. A few loud bangs echoed through the door as the man scrambled to lock the door and backed away. Now Foxy was here and his escape was cut short. Now he was starting to become concerned, realizing to his horror that it was likely that Foxy somehow followed Mike. Paranoia sunk in as he turned back to the hallway; there could be others waiting. If he had to climb out the bathroom window, then so be it. Or the office window, as it would be the easiest.

He shuffled down the hallway, wiping the sweat off his brow and turning the corner. It was then that there came a loud pop and the light furthest in the hallway burst. Dave stopped in place and stared down at the darkened hallway. Then, amongst all the shut doors, one's knob started to turn. The door behind the stage began to slowly creak open and out from the darkness inside peered two pinprick dots. An animatronic was inside, and Dave stared at it.

"…Pigpatch?" he asked. As though unafraid by the bear. Though considering what came out of the doorway, Pigpatch would've been the much less horrifying outcome.

Out of the darkness appeared a white face and a much too slender body that moved as though being led by invisible strings. The lights began to flicker overhead as the animatronic moved out of the darkness. It was Dave's worst fear, the Puppet.

"It's you…? No… No, no. It can't be you," Dave babbled. He took a step back and rubbed at his forehead with the hand from his uninjured arm. The other was beginning to throb as he watched the animatronic drift out of the doorway. It was the first time that evening that he felt real fear. It was the first time in years that he had been frightened of animatronics. Just seeing that glowing stare was activating fight or flight reflexes that he had all but numbed. "No, no, it can't be you. They shut you down. They got rid of all the broken toys…" He started to deny it more, "I'm just hallucinating. It's not the real deal."

That was when the light burst over them. The Puppet fell into darkness, except those dangerous pinpricks of light. Dave scrambled to back around the corner and into the remaining light, which was now flickering. He backed until he was against the exit door and could hear the banging from Foxy on the other side. He was completely trapped, and Dave could only watch as the lights started to flash and flicker above him. His brief respite had run out; the Puppet was coming.

It slowly edged around the corner and revealed itself again. A second of the lights off, then a second with them on and him seeing the unstrung puppet, then a second of darkness again. His heart started to flutter painfully as the Puppet turned to face him. Suddenly the actual fear of Freddy's had returned. The true monsters were there without the perilous heights that used to come with them. It turned its head to stare him down. In this moment he noticed it was clutching the no longer glowing bracelet.

They knew what he had done.

In an instant, the animatronic turned towards him and began to rush him. The blaring of 'Pop Goes the Weasel' filled the hallway as it sprung at him. Dave didn't have even a second to react before it was on him. Dave was shoved back against the door with the black fingers tightening around his neck. All it needed was one hand for the strings to come free and wind tightly around Dave's throat. Once he was struggling to breathe, held in the most vulnerable position, and unable to even try freeing himself, he was shoved downwards. For such a slender body, its strength was considerable. Its strings only tightened as it forced him to the floor.

It was now hunched over him. Its pale mask as close to his own face as it could get as its pinprick eyes stared into his own. The static and dialing was deafening, and yet Dave still felt numb. Afraid, slowly starting to suffocate against his pounding heartrate, but still numb to it. As though he watched from afar as an animatronic slowly sapped the life out of somewhere else. It was not a hallucination, he realized as its fingers and strings tightened. He thought it couldn't get any more terrifying, and yet then it spoke. It had never spoken back at Freddy's.

"I…Remember…You…" The Puppet spoke through an unmoving smile, even as its eyes clearly showed a glare. "I… Know… What… You've…Done…" It struggled to speak through the horrifying noises, which only made Dave hunch down more. His dilated eyes looked barely capable of seeing through the flashing lights and the loss of oxygen. "Where… Did… You… Take… Her…?" Dave struggled to swallow and wavered. His eyes widened only wider as his heart pounded against his chest. The Puppet wasn't pleased. Its eyes narrowed further as the wild music only reignited into a frantic mismatch of children's nursery rhymes and any adult's nightmare. Its fingers dug tighter into his flesh as its voice grew louder.

"Where did you take my girl?!"

"I don't know! I didn't-!" Dave floundered and cracked under the tightness. "She's… She's out back!"

"No," the Puppet snapped. "My girl! My girl you took from me! Give her back!"

Apparently, Dave suddenly realized who he meant. Just in time too, because the Puppet was very much about to snap his neck at any moment. The lightbulb above them glowed brighter than it ever should've been capable of before bursting as the others had done. This startled him enough to get him talking. "She ran off! I don't know where she went!" Dave defended.

The Puppet couldn't tell if he was telling the truth or not. He sounded desperately convincing, but that didn't mean that he wasn't just saying whatever he could to get free. Especially after what he had done to Charlie. The moment Marionette's thoughts went from Chrissy to Charlie his anger returned in a vengeance. He didn't want the blood on his hands, but every instinct inside of him, every bit of Henry's leftover programming and William's genetically added personality wanted him to end this man here. Goldie would've told him to do it. He would've said that Dave was a monster and needed to be treated like one. His father would've told him to do it. Whatever he would've said would've justified it.

Black fingers started to tighten as the static grew in distorted chiming. The man's pulse was erratic, barely managing to beat normal enough to pump blood. The animatronic leaned in further, staring the man down, and nearly listening through his tightening strings. He listened to every skipped heartbeat, the rapid fluttering, the weakness: how pitiful. His appearance alone was already fraying Dave's weak heart. To think that this man, drenched in purple, had intended on killing so many. Marionette moved in closer and Dave…

Dave gave a guttural choke and started to sag. Still with the strings on his neck, still with the Puppet ready to strike, his body had given out. He had fainted.

And now Marionette was left to stare down at him. There wasn't any sympathy, nor was there confusion- he expected with how the man's heart was struggling that he wouldn't last under duress. Yet he wasn't dead, just asleep, just weakened and defenseless. If anything, it only frustrated the Puppet more, but now he had time to make his choice. He had the chance to just end Dave here and now.

"Once again living up to the Afton family name."

The intrusive thought almost caught Marionette off guard. It stilled his strings in place. He processed the thought with an internal retort, "And what am I supposed to do?! Let him go?! Let him walk free for what he's done?!" It was the most inopportune time to war with himself, especially when half of his thoughts so easily played against him.

"Then just do it. End it while he's unconscious, while it's easy. It's not as though you haven't had blood on your hands before. What is one 'Purple Man'?"

Something about this line of thought was beginning to frighten him. "I'm not a murderer. I'm not like William. This is a completely different situation entirely," the animatronic promised as he tightened his hands. They fit well against Dave's throat and complimented his labored breathing, yet he couldn't tighten them. He could only stare at the pathetic excuse of a predator and think of that one comment. Just like an Afton, just like William, even if he wasn't. "…But…" His hands started to loosen. "…I need to find Chrissy. I will find her and then I will judge him, and then I won't be a murderer… Her life for his." Maybe it made him feel better. Maybe it delayed the inevitable.

He yanked the man's wrists together, unhinged the bracelet, and then tightened it around his wrists. It wasn't much to bind him, but that wasn't the point. Now that the dull glow was illuminating the hallway he would always know where Dave was, and he could return to him after he made his decision. He would make sure of it. There were noises again outside the backdoor after the banging had briefly stopped, and Marionette looked up at it and silently unlocked it. He then released Dave onto the floor. "I can be rational… Neither Henry nor William was ever rational."

Right as Marionette teleported away, the door swung open and struck Dave on the back. It wasn't Foxy who came staggering in though. In fact, it seemed like Foxy had up and vanished, leaving none other than Mike standing above the fallen man. He looked down and expected the worst seeing the man laying unmoving.

"I was too late. He already did it…" Mike hesitantly stepped inside and crouched down beside the man. "How am I going to explain this to the cops?... Wait." His eyes focused on the slow, labored breathing. It was rather faint but as he leaned in he could hear it too, raspy and heavy. "He's still alive?" He couldn't believe it and couldn't even imagine how or why the Puppet would resist. He gave a scoff, "You better hope to God that he doesn't come back." As Dave was unconscious, he neither heard nor reacted to the security guard's comment.

Now there was the question of what to do with Dave. Mike couldn't be too sure how long he would stay unconscious and while the bracelet held his wrists in a flimsy grip, and while he was still bleeding, he anticipated that Dave could wake at any time and be fully alert once more. The only reason he even believed that Dave was unconscious and not faking it was because he knew that Marionette wouldn't have been convinced by an act. For now, Mike was left with the unconscious kidnapper. He went to hoist him up and drug him towards the office. Even though entirely limp and rather thin, it was still a struggle moving Dave.

"Just in case tonight couldn't get any worse," Mike grimaced to himself as he moved the man down the hall. He then maneuvered him into the office and, after looking around, drug him over to the office chair and pulled him onto it. "Good enough?" Mike looked over the slumped kidnapper wheezing upright in the office chair. "Good enough. At least he won't choke himself to death sitting upright… Or if he does, it's his own damn fault." By now Dave was drooling chewing tobacco and froth, and the security guard was tired of watching him. He would get Jose to do it, maybe, if Jose wouldn't try anything again.

Shaking his head, Mike started to the door to let himself out. He was stepping into the hallway when Dave suddenly gave a choked gasp, rousing into a partial consciousness, and called after him.

"Afton!"

Mike came to a sharp halt at Dave's startled cry. For a moment the call of the name threw him off, but then Mike huffed impatiently. Just another person accusing him of being William's son. By now he learned that it was just better to walk away.

Marionette's anger was only diminished by his dread as he appeared out in the parking lot in front of the theater. Nobody was in the front room of the theater, or nobody that he could see, so he ignored the risk of being caught to continue searching. Just looking around and scanning the building wasn't enough, so he tried a new tactic.

"Chrissy!" His voice seemed to echo across the empty parking lot and was only muffled by the pattering of rain. Marionette tightened his hands in worry as he continued to search the area, trying to ignore the bracelet's call and searching through vision and hearing alone. "Chrissy, are you out here?!" he called again, stopping beside the edge of the parking lot and a deep ditch trailing beside it. There was still no answer. "Oh no, please…" His gaze turned to the empty land surrounding the theater. She could've been frightened enough to run out into the wild and would be long gone by now.

Unless Dave had been lying. Then Marionette had an ill feeling that she was currently in his trunk. Marionette hunched over as though in pain, covering his mask with one hand and tried to suppress the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. His little girl was gone, and he was helpless. He hadn't been able to help Charlie and now he was losing Chrissy too.

"Chrissy, please! It's me, it's Mari! You can come out, please!" the animatronic called as he circled back towards the other car in the parking lot, which must have been Charlie's. He was becoming desperate and frantic, continuing to search and call without relenting. "Chrissy! Chrissy! Chrissy, please, speak to me!"

Then, through the darkness, there was a response.

"Mari!"

Marionette froze in place and turned in the faint direction of the voice. It sounded like it was coming from the car. He could feel his strings tightening inside as he began to approach. "Chrissy?"

"Mari, I'm here!"

The voice had come from the nearby car but sounded muffled. Marionette darted over with widened eyes and looked through the windows. He started to circle the car desperately. "Chrissy, where are you?!"

"Under here! I'm stuck!" the voice cried for him. The Puppet ducked down and peered under the car. To his surprise and relief, there was Chrissy underneath the car. From how she was struggling it seemed like some part of her bike helmet had gotten stuck on the underside of the car. "Mari, help me!" she begged frantically as she reached for him.

"I'm here! Just try to calm down and I'll get you free," Marionette assured. He started to crawl under the car with her. Almost immediately, his emotions got the best of him, and as soon as he got within reach he hooked an arm around her and slid in to hug her. He accessed her quickly as he held her. Nothing broken, no blood, no cuts, and only the slightest scrape on her knee; she was nearly fine. She had gone from suspected as deceased to almost completely fine in moments. "I was so worried about you! I'm so sorry," he babbled as he nearly wept in joy. "I'm so sorry I let him take you."

At the comment, the girl suddenly got a look of dread. "Is he still out there?! He's not out there is he?!" Chrissy asked, becoming nearly frantic. Marionette hugged her closer as he worked to free her helmet. It seemed that somehow one of the straps got hooked on the undercarriage as she was turning her head. He wasn't sure how, but it was an easy fix for someone able to see it.

"He's not going to hurt anyone anymore. Not you, not the other children, nobody…" Marionette reassured. "…And you're free! You're free and you're safe." He reached out to pull her close and hugged her against him. "You did so well turning on your bracelet. It brought me right to you." She hugged him back in the tight space and tried to bury her face against him. She didn't cry, neither did he. Perhaps they were too exhausted from crying before. Too filled with joy to weep over what happened. He couldn't do much else but hold her close so that she wouldn't slip away.

He couldn't lose anyone else tonight. Nobody else was slipping through his fingers. He wouldn't fill another body.

Mable: To clarify, "I wanted to do it," is not an excuse to do anything. Please don't use this as an excuse or it's going to make you seem unbelievably guilty.