Mable: So, I managed to get the chapter done and I decided to update it a day early to thank everyone for being so patient with my erratic schedule. ^-^… I know this still kind of makes the schedule erratic, but I consider a little early way better than two or three days late. So, here you are! I hope you Enjoy!
Almost Feels Like Home
Chapter Forty-Six
There were plenty of ways that Mike could've reacted to the strange request dropped in his lap. Ennard was a clown animatronic who liked soap operas, sneaking and prowling the city, and when given the opportunity to do whatever he wanted without Scott having to know, he wanted this. He wanted to dig up information on the old workers at Afton Robotics. Specifically, the technicians who had been tampering on the animatronics that he was made up of. He expected Mike to help him find out about them and the security guard reacted accordingly.
"What?"
"Yeah, that's about what I expected," Ennard said with a giggle. "But yeah, that's the plan! You're the one with all the connections and phone numbers and info, so you're the one whose gonna have to get this ball rolling!" Seeing that the human was still confused, he leaned back in the seat and began to explain. "See, when you pretty much hear about all this stuff that happened but never saw it, you get pretty curious. They've gotta be out there somewhere and I'm betting that Freddy's or whoever's got all their info hidden in plain sight.
"Is this some sort of elaborate revenge scheme?" Mike bluntly asked. "You pretend this is all innocent and really it's to get the addresses to these guys' houses so you can go do to them what you did to those guys who broke into Scott's place. Ennard, I wasn't born yesterday. I know how you work." The amalgam pulled back, almost looking surprised by the accusation. "Nobody just gets curious about the workers at Freddy's."
"No! I wasn't- That's not the reason at all!" Ennard protested as he slid back into the seat. "Okay, I'll admit, that's a pretty great plan, but I don't want to track these guys down. Why would I? They didn't do anything to me."
"The shocking and the whole locked up underground thing?" the human pointed out.
"That was Baby!... And Ballora and the Funtimes, but that's all stuff they told me. By time I was hearing and seeing stuff, all the technicians were gone, and Afton's was pretty much empty. Just knowing that there's a bunch of stuff I don't know is eating me up inside. All I want is to find out all I can about these guys." He hesitated a moment before his voice lowered, slipping out of that upbeat tone. "A lot of stuff happened to this body before it was mine… It's scary not knowing what it did." For a split second there was a depth that Mike hadn't expected. Then Ennard reached out and lightly hit him in the shoulder. "Come on, it'll be fun!"
"What exactly is fun about- I'm not going down into ARI," Mike finished flatly. "If that's what he's leading into…"
"Course we aren't! All that info and paperwork is probably up here somewhere. Probably won't take more than one night and both of our curiosity is all sated! And I know you're just as curious as I am," he pointed out with a wild giggle. "So, whaddya say? You and me playing good old fashion detective to find out what happened to a bunch of guys who big bad Afton probably burned up in a furnace?"
This screamed of being a bad idea. Mike hadn't even considered looking into ARI again after their problems with Detective Burke, but to have Ennard spurring it on seemed even worse. Though frankly, now that he brought it up it was a little curious that everyone involves with the place had pretty much vanished. The closest thing had been Chance, but even he had to buy his way into the business. Yet there was his own insatiable curiosity starting to crawl up his back and whisper into his ear, reminding him that when he didn't know something it would come back to get him.
He was sure that Ennard was smirking at him in his own way. The clown had him snared.
"…Yeah, sure, what the hell," Mike agreed. His willingness almost took himself aback but was partially inspired by the fact that he knew exactly where they needed to go. Chances were, Ennard was correct about this only lasting a single night. "There's a file cabinet in our bedroom that has a bunch of information about Freddy's in it. It might have something in there worth looking at." He paused before giving a huff. "This is crazy. It's the middle of the night, you just made me drive halfway across town, and chances are you're going to get me in over my head."
"Okay, how about this?" Ennard offered, that tiny bit of exasperation appearing again. "We check these files you've got and if we don't find anything then you go to bed, I do whatever, and we call it a night. Trust me, I don't want to get in any trouble either or Scott's never gonna trust me out of the house again. I just want to see what I can find out, and it's not like Baby'd ever talk."
"Did you ask Baby?" Mike asked in confusion. Ennard hesitated before nodding slowly. "And she said?"
"She went on this long thing about how Ballora, Freddy, and Foxy betrayed her and that they were backstabbers, and yadda yadda, and it ended with "I don't want to talk about it". She couldn't even tell me about who owned the place, or the shows they did, or what the place even did. I kinda think they rented out animatronics, but how does that even work? You can't keep a business afloat with that!"
"Fazbear Entertainment was like a corpse; there was no brain activity whatsoever, but you better believe it floated," Mike pointed out matter-of-factly. Immediately Ennard burst into loud, rousing laughter, nearly doubling over. The human sent him a small, amused smirk. "Geez, Ennard. It wasn't that funny."
"But it's so true! That freaking place- Even I can't remember the place and I know it was pretty much hobbling around on no legs! All gutted out and stuffed with money from nowhere!" Ennard laughed a little bit more before he doubled over. He grabbed at his head. "That was a mistake. I shouldn't have said gutted. Here comes the programming." Mike watched in disbelief as his wires trembled on his back.
"Oh yeah, this is a fantastic idea," he remarked as he looked back to the road. Ennard gave the slightest snicker from his new position as the security guard continued towards the house.
Once they got inside and had the front door locked, Mike led Ennard back towards the master bedroom. He raised a hand to stop the clown outside of the door, then slipped into the bedroom and quickly approached the dresser. Marionette was still fast asleep, and Mike wanted to keep it that way, not willing to give the striped one another sleepless night. He wound the music box and the soothing music began to fill the room. After a few moments he turned to the door.
"The music box's wound, come on it," he called out. The clown peeked in the gap in the doorway and the human pointed to the light switch beside him. "And turn on the light so we can see. I want to do this as fast as possible."
"You sure this is going to work?" Ennard asked as he hesitantly flicked on the light.
Mike crossed over to Marionette and checked to make sure he was still fast asleep. The Puppet was entirely undisturbed, and Mike petted his head before pulling the comforter over his head. Just to make sure that the light wouldn't bother him any further.
"Wow, he's really out, isn't he?" the amalgam asked in disbelief. To think that a music box could do that- then again, he knew what programming could do to an animatronic's body. "Aww, you do care about him!"
"Something like that. As long as that music's going, he's going to stay asleep, but I don't want to abuse that privilege for more than a few minutes." Mike turned and headed to the closet. He opened it, pushed the clothes aside, and directed the amalgam to the file cabinet before kneeling in front of it. "Let's see what we've got…"
He started to pull open the top drawer and quickly fingered through the many files and papers crowding the cabinet. Ennard leaned over to watch and his eyes caught on a blueprint that he quickly tugged out. It was just a standard Chica, but he looked over the blueprint with curious fascination, wondering if the Afton animatronics had blueprints in here as well. He plucked out another out to look at, a Freddy, and then scanned over it. He mimicked a whistling.
"Would ya take a look at these. Really is impressive work!" the amalgam pointed out. He studied Freddy's endoskeleton. "This is like the stuff you'd see in a real pizzeria, like they're really made to entertain kids and not do whatever they were supposed to do." He looked to Mike curiously. "You don't have any of ours, do you?"
"As a matter of fact, somewhere in here I've got… Wait a minute…" An unfamiliar slip of paper caught his eye and he pulled it out. He must've looked it over hundreds of times before, but only now did he notice the name of a bank on it. He pulled it out and scanned over it quickly. "Application for safe deposit box, signed by Fredrick Fazmann," Mike muttered. He then looked to Ennard and clarified, "Who would be one William Afton."
"…I could think of about twenty names better than that," Ennard pointed out. Apparently, the man's meaning went straight over his head. Or it did until he added, "You think he'd have files in there?"
"Him putting evidence of his questionable businesses into the hands of a federal bank system? Doubt it," the man corrected. Though he then looked back to the paper. "So, what did he put in there?" It was only then that something else clicked together. "But Fredrick Fazmann is legally dead, so this safety deposit box would've been thrown into the estate, right? Which means that one of us would've gotten it, Fritz or I." Which meant that Fritz had the contents of this box and had never said anything. Maybe it was the late night and the lack of sleep, but Mike felt a slow welling of suspicion.
"So… Fritz has it? Huh, wonder why he didn't tell you," Ennard said casually.
"Yeah, I wonder… Wonder if Fritz's still up." Mike checked his watch. Odds were that the technician wouldn't be awake, but he was riled and willing to take the risk. "Change of plans. I'm driving over to confront Fritz about this. You want to stay and keep looking or are you going to come with?" He didn't know why he offered other than him doubting they would find the papers and him not trusting Ennard to not wake Marionette. The clown immediately perked up.
"Oh, heck yeah! Ha, forget all this boring paperwork- I'd love to see you confront Fritz!" Ennard tossed the papers back on the file cabinet and turned to Mike attentively. If his mask could move it would've probably been stretched in a much wider smile. "Lemme tell you, if you two get into a fist-fight then you're gonna make my night."
"Yeah, that's not going to happen," Mike flatly stated. He then shut the closet and headed to the bedroom door. He hesitated for a moment before looking back to the clown. "But for the record, if Fritz and I got in a fist-fight I'd win." Ennard crackled in amusement, gorging on imagined drama like it was popcorn, and shut the light off as he followed the security guard.
It didn't take long for the two to drive all the way to Fritz's house. Mike pulled up behind Natalie's car and turned off the car quickly before pulling out his cellphone. "I'll give him a warning call first and see if I can get him up," Mike explained. Ennard gave him a sort of thumbs up gesture as the other dialed and waited. It took two calls before Fritz finally answered the phone.
"Ugh, hello?" the technician groggily answered. "Who is this?"
"It's me and I'm sitting outside," Mike remarked. Considering the flat bluntness, at first Fritz didn't sound like he believed him, thinking it was an out of place joke.
"Uh, what?" Fritz asked in confusion. "Wait, what, you're outside? Mike, it's the middle of the night. What's going on?"
"I'm on a quest for information and I just found out about the safety deposit box you never told me about." The other was either silent in thinking or silent in guilt. "You there?"
"Yeah, I'm just… Here, let me let you in. Give me a second to get something on," Fritz finally agreed. He seemed exhausted and was only barely was willing to step out of the room to see what Mike wanted. He hung up the phone and started to get himself ready to shuffle out to the front door.
"He's coming now," Mike told Ennard as he hung up the phone. "You should probably just lay low out here."
"And miss the fight? Ha ha, not a chance!" the amalgam chirped. The security guard was about to insist again that he and Fritz weren't about to fight, but he was beat to it. "Can't say I'm crazy about Fritz anyway, you know?"
"You don't like Fritz? You pretty much don't even know Fritz," Mike pointed out. He then got an unenthused look. "Let me guess, the Baby thing? Like when a couple breaks up and you've got to choose which side of the friendship you keep?" It hadn't been a hard choice between Fritz and Dinah, but he could only hope that he wouldn't wind up in the same position with Fritz and Natalie.
"Why would I be mad at someone for breaking up with Baby? I broke up with Baby!... Sorta? She kind of ditched me after you and Mari took me apart a long, long time ago. She can be a little intense, but I think she likes me just a little bit more than she lets on!" After that somewhat forced chuckle, he slid down slightly in the seat and looked away. He seemed a little irritated. "I did a pretty darn good job working on Baby. If Fritz would've done that, everyone would've been raving about him being such a good technician. Me? Nah. Ennard just got lucky."
That was interesting. "I didn't even know he could get jealous, let alone over something like this," Mike thought. He then defended, "Nobody thinks that. We're all just shocked Baby didn't take your head off."
"I'm a good technician," Ennard said almost defiantly. "I really am. I can do the same things that Fritz can do. Heck, I can do it better- I got the tasers built in now!" Without provocation, he raised a hand and a quick spark jolted at the tips of his wire fingers. Out of reflex, Mike leaned back quickly against the door and decided not to get any closer while the clown was spraying sparks like a live wire. Ennard stared at his own hand for a few moments before lowering it down and turning to look back out the window again.
"I'm not like the others, Michael. I know I'm not. Something's different…" Then he made a static noise at his own comment. "And everyone acts like I'm gonna go psycho and kill everyone!"
"You kind of have a track record," Mike pointed out. "And don't call me-."
"But that's the thing! I think I've done good! I've really been trying, and I know Scott notices but everyone else-!" The amalgam hesitated for a moment, staring out of the front of the car. Then he slowly looked towards Mike. "I know you get it. You said it earlier," he pointed out. He then mimicked Mike's voice with, "You pretend this is all innocent." There was a lingering pause as the security guard sat upwards in his seat again, somewhat taken aback by the other's surprisingly serious tone. "You know a lot of this is a show. You know I'm not stupid, I'm not crazy. I think and feel just like the others do."
"I know," the human agreed. "I get it."
"Yeah, you. You and Scott. Nobody else. Like that old man said: a malformation, shameful husk, masking itself and running the streets-…Okay, he was right about that last part."
"Ennard-."
"Broken mess stumbling around- I'd like to see him work on the bots I've worked on," Ennard bitterly hissed. His voice started to dip out of its Freddy cover into its more broken state. "I-I'd like to see him tr-try to live in a bo-dy like this. Always hungry, always want wires."
"I wouldn't put too much stock in anything Chance said. He had the hands down most convoluted suicide-murder plot since Golden Freddy tried to take everyone down with him," Mike vented. Ennard was watching him down and seemingly listening. "You want me to be honest? Yeah, Fritz and Jeremy are scared of you. But they're no more scared of you than they were of Mari. They were terrified of him and they got over it." He looked back towards the front door. "Just give it more time and try to forget about Chance. Up until you brought him back up I almost did." Ennard was silent but seemed to be listening.
Mike gave a slow exhale and added, "He's gotten enough time. Let's go." The amalgam nodded and started to get out of the car, but then hesitated in the doorway. He then gave a low chuckle and the human raised a brow. "What?"
"I wasn't gonna tell you this, but this is way too funny to keep to myself," Ennard remarked. "The whole plan about me going and stopping those three guys? I got that from you." He pointed to the security guard who looked confused. "Don't believe me? Whole plan was yours! 'Go at night- knock him down a few pegs- file an anonymous tip so it doesn't get back'." He spelled it out using clips of Mike's own voice. Slowly the man got it and stared back with a blank look. "You gotta be careful around me, cause I'm always listening!"
With that, he exited the car and hurried to the front door, only briefly checking to make sure nobody was out watching in the middle of the night. Mike paused a moment before following. There was no way he would take credit for that.
When Fritz finally opened the front door, he got the shock of his life. There was Ennard staring down at him. He nearly towered over him with his eyes glowing. The technician's grogginess was dashed as he looked up at him.
"What's wrong, Fritz...? You look like you've seen a ghost…" Ennard slowly muttered. He then stepped into the house and began to lean in over the technician. His voice slowly lowered dangerously. "Baby sends her love…"
And just when Fritz was about to totally panic, Ennard only inches away and looming over him, a voice spoke from behind the clown. "…Are you done? Because I'm still standing out here."
It was Mike. Before Fritz could do anything more than get a befuddled look, the clown suddenly burst into laughter before nudging him just hard enough in the chest that it almost knocked all the air from his lungs.
"Sorry, I couldn't help it! But could ya blame me? What with that spooked look you got!" Ennard teased with another light crackle. He moved out of the way so that Mike could step into the house as well and shut the door behind him. By now, Fritz realized that this wasn't just an elaborate trick to get Ennard into his house. Mike really was here to ask about something, unbelievably accompanied by a different animatronic than usual. "You should've seen it, Mike! The look on his face was priceless!"
"I wasn't- It's the middle of the night. I'm not even awake," Fritz defended himself. This only continued to amuse the clown and so he sent a tired look to Mike. "I probably shouldn't even ask, but could this have waited until morning?"
"Could it? Yes. Should it?... Probably yes, but I'm already awake and need something to do," the security guard insisted. "So, long story short, Ennard and I were trying to look up the old technicians from ARI." Fritz slowly looked to the clown with the same suspicion Mike had, though more subdued. "And then I came across this receipt for a safety deposit box… Which I stupidly forgot to bring," Mike continued as he reached into his empty pockets. "It was Fredrick's."
"Yeah, I know. I have it. Or I have what was in it," Fritz agreed. He beckoned the man with him and started to the stairs. "It's down with the storage stuff, but don't get your hopes up. It's not much."
"I'll take those chances," Mike agreed. His disappointment already started to show as he followed Fritz. Ennard, however, was far from disappointed as he looked around at the house.
"Look at this place! Can't say this isn't what I expected when Baby described it! No wonder she never wanted to leave!" the clown gushed as he looked around. "Natalie is one lucky gal!"
"I'll tell her you said that… If she didn't hear it herself," Fritz said with a stifled yawn. "Down here." He beckoned them and started down into the lower floor, with Mike and Ennard following closely behind. He flicked on the light and led them to the underside of the stairs where he opened into the small storage space. He reached onto a shelf and pulled out a shoebox before handing it over to business partner. "This was all they gave me, so I hope you didn't get your hopes up."
Mike sat down in the armchair and began to open the box, with Ennard leaning over the back to look at what was inside. To equal surprise and confusion from both, there wasn't much inside. Some jewelry- probably his William's wife's- a small box of collectable coins, a small box, and a keyring with two keys on it. It was the keys that drew Mike's attention while Ennard looked through the tiny boxes with his own curiosity.
"You can see why I never mentioned it. I kind of just stuck it in there and forgot about it… Even after we learned the truth about Fredrick. I just didn't even think about it," Fritz admitted almost sheepishly and somberly. It was obvious that there was still a sore spot there. Though Mike was focused on something else. Specifically, a feeling like déjà vu, where he swore he knew what the keys went to.
"Oookay, this guy really was a psycho," Ennard remarked as he flashed Mike the box. "These are kids' teeth."
Mike's head snapped over in alarm and Fritz gave a resounding, "What?!" in shock. Though once the security guard saw the teeth, his eyes glazed back over. "False alarm; they're baby teeth," he affirmed. The other human gave a relieved exhale and rubbed his eyes with one hand. He was certainly awake now. "Never thought he of all people would be sentimental enough to hang onto his kids' teeth… Considering that he couldn't even hang onto his kids." He looked back to the keys and then held them up behind the chair to show to the technician. "Two keys. Where have we seen something that takes two keys? Because I know we have, I'm just blanking on it."
"That's a needle in a haystack question, Mike. Those keys could go anywhere. Probably to something long gone by now," Fritz pointed out. While dismissive, he then hesitated and came over. Now more awake, he lifted one of the keys and narrowed his eyes at it. "I think they're padlock keys. Something like that."
"That's it," Mike said with a snap of his fingers. He sprung up from the chair and passed off the shoebox to Ennard before facing the other human. "Back in Freddy's a long while back there was that locker that we broke open, back in the sealed room? You remember that? I mean, there was nothing in there…" He hesitated a moment. "…Except something about the joy of creation that, in hindsight, might've been a clue if I was paying attention."
"I guess it could be for that locker. Though, I mean, that wasn't exactly a rare locker or anything. That was standard fair at Freddy's. There could be plenty of lockboxes just like that."
"So, if these keys don't go to that one," Mike started, shaking the keys. "Then they could go to another one, right?" The technician shrugged and then agreed. Before either could lead into anything further, the animatronic took charge.
"Then what are we waiting for?!" Ennard asked before nearly throwing the box into Fritz's arms and turning to Mike. "Let's go back to Freddy's and see if there's any more of those boxes hiding around!" He turned and began to stride for the stairs. "There's our next lead! Next stop, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza!" He was nearly at the stairs when the security guard followed after him.
"Wait, wait, we don't even know if there's anything left in Freddy's," he pointed out. Ennard paused long enough to look back at him. "They were supposed to demolish the place and then the cops got in there, so anything that was there is probably gone. And if it's not then it's hidden somewhere we aren't going to find it." He checked his wristwatch. "Now it's one-."
"Which means we have plenty of time to look!" Ennard exclaimed. He took Mike by the shoulders and gave him a light shake of excitement. "I can pretty much twist my way into anything, we've probably got a crowbar around here somewhere, and nobody's going to be here at this time of night. We oughta just check while we're out here." He then splayed his arms with a carefree shrug. "Come on! How often do the two of us get to go out solving mysteries?! Pretty much never."
This was a stupid idea and Mike knew it. "It's not like there's going to be something about Afton's in a box at Freddy's anyway," he said to himself. Yet the clown looked so eager and he couldn't deny that the keys were heavy in his hand. He looked down at them and then gave a weary exhale of defeat. "Alright, fine," he agreed. Then he pointed at the clown firmly. "Last place, I swear."
"Cross my heart!" Ennard chirped, raising one hand and crossing his chest with the other. He then turned and headed to the stairs, going around the corner and bounding up a few steps-.
And then coming face to face with a half-awake, pajama wearing Natalie.
It was unclear which looked more startled. Ennard went completely still as Natalie recoiled back. She choked and gave out an alarmed, "Baby?!" The amalgam reacted accordingly.
"Hello, Natalie," Ennard answered in a perfect mimic of Baby's voice. Natalie's eyes widened in horror as he continued. "I came for my man…"
"He's bluffing!" All at once, Fritz dashed over, got himself squeezed behind Ennard, and pushed him back to get between them. He frantically waved his arms to Natalie and tried to calm her down, as though she was panicking as much as he was. "He's bluffing! It's just Ennard! Mike's here, Baby's not."
As this was happening, Mike stepped up and Ennard leaned to the side towards him. He quietly- the human didn't even know he could do quiet- asked, "Too far?
Seeing the technician's flustered behavior and Natalie's confusion over fear, Mike gave a simple, "Eh, maybe a little." He then followed Fritz and Natalie up the stairs. "We're heading out to Freddy's. I'll call you if we see anything," Mike said as he went to pass by to head to the door. He was unexpectedly stopped by Fritz's voice.
"Maybe I'll come with you," he offered. Both Mike and Natalie looked surprised by the suggestion and he looked between them. "I don't know why you're both looking at me like that. Technically they're my keys." The other man nodded in understanding and had no arguments, but the blond seemed a little hesitant. Not just because of Ennard- though he was unsettling the way he was currently staring her down- but because of the thought of Fritz again running around in the middle of the night trying to solve mysteries. She had to say something this time.
"I'll come too!" That wasn't what she intended to say, but it was better than nothing. Fritz certainly seemed surprised by the suggestion, as surprised as she had been about him offering. He looked to her and she sent him a half smile. "I mean, why not? I'm already up and I'm just going to be waiting for you to get back. Why not drive over there with you?"
"I don't know if that's a good idea, Nat. We don't even know what we're going to find," her boyfriend pointed out. The last thing he wanted was for her to be involved if the cops appeared. Not only would he get her involved with all this mess, but they would then all need Jeremy to bail them out. If he could, if the cops didn't happen to find Ennard. It was then that Mike cleared his throat to catch their attention.
"You both do realize that if we don't find anything I'm heading home and going to sleep, right? Ennard and I have a pact; this is the last call," Mike said, pointing a thumb back at Ennard who was quick to back him up.
"Yeah! This is the final act of the evening, folks, so you're gonna want to jump on in while you still can!" he chirped as he grabbed the security guard's shoulder in a 'friendly' way. The human glanced down at the hand with a flat look.
"That wasn't exactly what I meant, but I guess the same thing goes. Except that you should also remember that we'll be walking into what might be an active crime scene. You may be concerned about that, Sam." Fritz got an uncomfortable sort of look and Mike smirked a little bit. "But hey, it's nothing worse than anything we've done before."
"I'm in," Natalie boldly volunteered. "I've been working at Foxy's for a while now and I think it's time I got in on the escapades too." She grabbed her keys off the table and pulled on her jacket, not even caring to change. "Let's roll."
"Hold on, I've got to throw on some clothes… Nat, would you mind just coming into the bedroom with me for a second?" Fritz asked. Natalie seemed confused but nodded and followed him into the bedroom. They could hear someone turned the TV on before he slowly shut the bedroom door. "I don't know if you want to get caught up in this. If we don't find anything then it's a waste of time, and if we do find something… It's William's, it's going to be bad."
"Come on, Fritz. You can't protect me forever. I've pretty much got all the second hand information already and I'm not afraid to look at a couple of skeletons," the blond insisted. "Besides, four sets of eyes are going to be better than three if we're looking for something... Or how many Ennard has out there. Three?"
"Three or four. I try not to stare," Fritz said as he started to ease up. He changed into different clothes and Natalie pulled back her hair into a loose ponytail before they returned to the living room. "Okay, we're ready."
Ennard clicked the TV back off, currently standing only a foot in front of it and flying through the channels so fast that it was unlikely he distinguished them. Mike pulled himself off the couch and started towards the door. Soon they were in their separate cars and driving towards Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.
The building had declined rapidly since the last time any of them saw it. It almost looked like they had begun demolition on it and had been forced to stop after only a single wall had fallen. Police tape was now crisscrossed over the front entrance, which was missing its doors, and the larger front windows, but it was barely capable of keeping out anyone who wanted to get inside. Mike drove to the side of the building and shut off the car.
"We'll take the back door. It'll be less noticeable," the security guard said. He then turned to the clown beside him. "Here's the deal, you're going to have to be very quiet. There's apartment buildings just over that fence back there and I wouldn't be surprised if they were told by the cops to keep an eye out. This could be a hotspot for vandals. Not that there's anything left to vandalize."
Ennard made an 'okay' gesture with his hand and got out of the car. He then followed behind and allowed himself to be led to the backdoor. Mike kept a careful eye out on their surroundings. He noticed that Fritz hadn't pulled up behind them and could only assume that he had decided to park somewhere else. The backdoor was just as it always was, and he tried it only to find it locked. He pulled out his keyring and shuffled through it, but to his dismay realized that he no longer had the spare key. Somewhere in the back of his mind he remembered taking it off and putting it in the kitchen drawer.
This meant they were going through the front. Or it did until he remembered that he wasn't alone. Maybe he wasn't like Marionette but maybe Ennard could still get him inside.
"Think you can get this open?" Mike asked as he took a step back. The amalgam started to step in a little quickly when the security guard added, "As quietly as possible." Again, Ennard gave an 'okay' gesture and wrapped his wire fingers around the doorknob.
Then proceeded to break it off with a quick crack. Ennard then opened the door as casually as ever and gestured for the other to head inside. Mike raised a brow and then stepped into the building.
Saying that Freddy's had seen better days was a direct understatement. This wasn't even Freddy's at this point, but a dilapidated building that vaguely looked like it. A large section of the roof had started to cave in. Grime brought in from past storms now caked the floor tiles. Pirate's Cove was completely dismantled, and the main stage looked to be sinking. The hallways to the office weren't looking much better. The smell had decayed along with it with the fresh scent of rot somehow getting watered down into a low, moldy odor.
"…This wasn't exactly what I was expecting from the great Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. You'd think this place would've held up a little better than this," Ennard pointed out. Keeping his volume down only made his disappointment more apparent.
"Let me tell you something. This place has been around for at least ten years-…" Mike paused, trying to figure out where he was planning to go with that. "…And it still hasn't lost that feeling of oppression and misery. That's a true testament to this place's staying power."
"It smells like a wet, soggy dumpster and the whole place looks like its gonna catch on fire," the amalgam complained. Mike rolled his eyes but also got a shred of a smirk, then began heading towards the bathroom hall. He was stopped by Ennard grabbing his arm and tugging him back. "Show me where you and Scott used to work!"
Oddly enough, he completely forgot that the clown would've been interested, along with the fact that technically this was where the Phone Guy had his accident. He didn't argue and merely beckoned Ennard before heading down the west hallway. He stepped into the office to find that it was in a similar state to the rest of the building. Though someone had removed the desk and monitors; probably the cops.
"Welcome to the security office. Or as we security guards like to call it: Hell," Mike introduced mock dramatically. "This is where the real magic of Freddy's happens. Where else can you get paid four dollars an hour to be stalked and mauled by such a loveable cast of hate-able characters? Not to mention the perks! A couple of nights of overtime and you could afford any soda out of the vending machines."
"Oh boy, sounds like my kind of place!" Ennard joked. He nudged Mike hard in the arm. "Hey, hey. Did you have one of those little hand unit things? You tap on them and they talk- like the one Fritz has, yeah!" He suddenly remembered as the security guard glanced up at him. "I'm sure you know this, but those things are so easy to tamper with that it isn't even funny… But you can make it funny! I once goofed one of them up so bad that it just started calling everyone Eggs and the keypad totally busted."
"Is that why you tried changing your name to Eggs Benedict?" Mike casually asked. Ennard looked almost alarmed that he said it, as though he didn't know how he knew. "Scott told me."
"Oh, gotcha! Heh, I kinda thought Mari told ya. That would've been weird, him watching me," Ennard said in a 'confident' tone, with his eyes flickering around uncomfortably. "And nah… Well, maybe. It's kinda my go-to when I need a food name. Put it in the right spot and it's hilarious and delicious!" He curiously looked to Mike again. "Scott talks about me a lot?"
"Pretty much."
"Aww!" Ennard looked around the office a little more and tried to imagine Scott working there.
He could see him now: young with a bright and eager smile, wearing a silly purple uniform, chatting on the phone and staring at the monitor. Though he must've been a little afraid. He must've had an idea what was going to happen. Ennard's wires tightened as he thought about how terrifying this cramped office would've been if there were dangerous animatronics outside. Maybe he couldn't imagine the Fazbear cast, but he could see Baby and her band in their place. He could imagine Scott pleading and begging as they drug him away, swearing he would give them whatever they wanted if they didn't take everything.
Maybe he was getting better controlling himself, because Ennard was baffled that he was able to hold back the sudden wave of anger that tried to force its way through. He didn't have to ask if this was the room, because he knew it was.
"You okay? I don't think you've been that quiet all night," Mike pointed out as he noticed the pensive silence. It was just like earlier after the phone call, except it felt much more obvious when they were standing alone in the office.
Ennard was quick to cover it up. "Me? Sure! Why not? Ha ha, why be upset now? Scott's fine, Freddy's dead, and this place is a dump!" Ennard exaggerated as he spread his arms. "Nooot bothered at all by any of this! Just- Just thinking about how lucky I am to have him! Heh, or I'd still be down in those cold, tight vents. This place brings up some feelings."
"Hey, you were the one who decided that you wanted to go diving into the wet dumpster known as Freddy's," Mike pointed out. "This is the common fair for a normal visit. Only thing missing is an impending hospital bill, but tonight is still young and we don't know what animals are nesting in the back rooms. The source of this smell could easily be a six-foot-tall charred rabbit," Mike pointed out. This roused another laugh from Ennard; back to normal already. "Let's go see if Fritz and Natalie showed up. We can't hang out here long."
"Lead the way!" Ennard offered. The security guard stepped out into the hall and started towards the dining room.
The amalgam started to follow, but then hesitated in the doorway. He sent a hesitant glance back over the office one last time, then followed behind Mike.
He had a horrible feeling he would start seeing this office in his nightmares after this.
Mable: You know that feeling when you know 'this can't end well', but you still hold out hope that everything's going to be okay? That's pretty much the constant aura that comes out of a Freddy's office. Sometimes it's pretty appropriate…