Mable: Sorry about the delay on this one! It went through a couple of rewrites and needed a few more minutes in the oven to finish up.
Also, there's a new poll! It's about the ARI Nightmares series, so if you're interested in those then please go check it out. It might be more important than you think. ^-^
Anyway, Enjoy!
Almost Feels Like Home
Chapter Ninety-Two
None of them wanted to be there. Especially not once they got inside and looked around at what 'there' was; a dirty, falling apart factory that had been abandoned ages ago. They had no clue where to even begin looking. They weren't entirely sure what to feel either. Jessica's face was set with a timid determination while Carlton's was with growing dread, Marla and John's faces being a cross between both, and Lamar being the only one who still looked largely unphased by it all. Still, the building was creepy.
"What were they even making in here?" Marla quietly asked. She looked through a window at conveyor belts in another room.
"Animatronics from what I gather. That's what those are… Or what they were supposed to be," John said as he looked over the halved remains of an endoskeleton. It was left standing at a station and had been untouched for years. A lifeless and empty thing lost to time, a somber sight. "But then Freddy's closed down and they didn't need them anymore."
"I don't understand how that place stayed open if all of these kids kept disappearing. Look at Magictime, they closed that place down within weeks of what happened there, but Freddy's got off the hook?" Lamar asked. He looked to Carlton almost questioningly and the redhead just shrugged. He didn't know what to say anymore and he wasn't feeling up to defending his father.
There was a brief squeak from the floorboards by the front door, loud enough that all of them looked back. When they saw nothing there, they turned away one by one and focused on the task at hand.
"Where do we even start?" Jessica quietly asked herself. Her eyes scanned over the room before finding their way to the window that Marla was looking through. She looked inside as well but neither were able to get a good look. "…It looks like that's where they kept the heavy machinery. Maybe there's something in there that would be worth finding."
"You don't think there's going to be leftover animatronics in there, do you?" Marla asked. After learning about the animatronics' aggression and hearing Carlton's insistences about the clown she was becoming uncomfortable with the thought of going anywhere near another robot. Let alone in a cold, creepy place like this. She rubbed her arms in unease.
"Maybe, but they're probably no more put together than those ones over there. They wouldn't leave full functioning animatronics back here, it would be throwing away money," Jessica said to try and ease her mind. It didn't look like it was helping. "You can wait in the car if you need to. We don't all have to be in here."
"No, I need to be here. For Carlton, for you… For Charlie," Marla affirmed. The sentiment was shared, and Jessica nodded in agreement. Marla gave her a small smile and looked back into the window. "Alright then, Gang. Let's look for a door."
"Doesn't look like there is one," Lamar pointed out as he walked further into the room to look around at the walls. "…Except those double doors back there. They're going back in that direction though."
"It's worth a shot. I didn't see any other doors to get in," John said. He then led the way towards the back, Lamar behind him and Jessica and Marla following them.
Carlton had slowed down a bit and seemed reluctant to continue. Part of him knew that this was a betrayal of his father's trust and the other part just bluntly thought that there was something wrong with this place, like they weren't supposed to be there. His thoughts were cut off be a small tapping from nearby and he looked back to one of the assembly stations. Again, he didn't see anything, but this time he didn't look away.
"Hey." Carlton was snapped out of his stare by John's voice and looked back to see him and the others waiting by the double doors. "Are you okay?" John asked.
"Yeah. Just thought I heard something again," Carlton brushed off before heading over. The floor creaked underneath his footsteps and convinced him that he heard nothing once again. He followed them through the double doors and into the next hall. The doors shut behind them.
Charlie tentatively stood from behind the workbench and quietly hurried after the group. There was still no sign of Mike, Marionette, and Scott, but maybe that was good in this situation. She could still hear their voices coming through the doors as she approached, but that was interrupted by a creaking as the front door opened again. She spun around in surprise only to see Baby creeping in behind her.
"What are you doing in here?!" Charlie whispered sharply.
"I could ask the same thing," Baby retorted. She rolled inside and Ennard cautiously followed, leaning in low to the ground and peering around the room. Baby seemed much less concerned as she followed the Security Puppet across the room. The other puppet raised her hands to stop her.
"No, wait! They're still in the hallway. They'll hear you," Charlie warned. She leaned back against the door to listen. They were still heading down the next hallway and from their voices hadn't heard anything. She gave a low ring at hearing them so close before looking back. "Baby, you could get seen."
"I could say the same thing," Baby repeated as she coasted beside her. "I could collapse on the spot and be mistaken for out of service, but nobody would believe you were here long. You look too clean." She then looked to the door, unable to see past it but able to hear the voices from the other side. She became a little more curious. "Why did you come in after them?"
"…Those are my friends, the ones I told you about," Charlie admitted. She looked back towards Ennard to watch him scuttle in, not wanting to meet Baby's piercing gaze. She lowered her head solemnly. "I heard them talking and I think the reason they're here has something to do with me. So, I just… I need to figure out why… And see if I can warn Mike and Mari before they run into each other. I can't imagine how they'd react if they saw Mari and Mike's already in trouble as it is."
"I don't see how putting yourself in the middle of it is going to help. Again, you stand out too much. Someone would spot your white paint in a heartbeat," Baby said dismissively. She almost sounded a little irritated, but in these circumstances Charlie couldn't blame her. She wouldn't even be shocked if Baby blamed her for what was happening.
Before Charlie could answer, she heard something that sounded like a door opening and listened through the double doors. The voices were going quiet and there was a door squeaking to the far left. She was about to lose track of them and carefully started to open the door to look into the hall, nearly cringing at the soft squeak. She looked down towards the end of the hall just in time to see a glimpse of Carlton's back before the door slowly closed behind him and the others.
"Which one was him?" Baby quietly asked. Her curiosity seemed to beat out her concern of getting caught. Not that she was afraid of herself getting caught. Charlie simply waved her back and carefully stepped in.
"Hold on. I'm losing them," Charlie murmured. She then broke into a sprint down the hallway, her footsteps barely making a sound, passing outside a closed office door and stopping at the one that her friends had gone through. She listened closer and could hear their voices growing faded. Hesitantly, she started to reach for the handle, and steadied herself before turning it. Except the handle didn't turn. "What?" She tried harder only to find it stuck. "They locked the door?"
No, that wouldn't make sense. More likely, the door had shut behind them and locked itself, but that was an unsettling thought. Especially with an office door she had just passed being closed tightly. She looked around and realized the door they went through was the only one going in this direction. Maybe the only way to follow them. Out of desperation, she looked to a vent on the wall above it.
Baby watched for a moment, making sure that the coast was clear, and then followed down the hallway. Ennard called after her, "Hey, no, wait!" But she let the double doors slip shut and blocked out the static huff of exasperation he released. Instead, she rolled down the hallway after Charlie, who was now trying to jump for the vent hatch. Eventually she got ahold of the edge and somehow lifted herself up.
"You at least realize that this is a bad idea, don't you? I think you should, considering how critical you have been on my ideas," Baby said with a tsk in her tone. "But that's what friends do; they tell each other when they're making a dumb decision in what is already a stupid situation."
"Maybe, but I'm out of options," Charlie said with strain as she managed to get her fingers in the vent. She pulled at it and found it was loose, but not nearly enough for her to pull off with brute force. Especially not while she was dangling off it. She tapped her fingers on the metal for a moment before getting an idea and sliding her strings into the vent and weaving them into the hatch as best as she could.
Then she dropped down to use her weight to pry off the cover. Except she was caught by the strings and dangled there without the hatch even budging. She kicked her legs a little to no avail.
"You are now," Baby remarked. Charlie was glad that she was facing the door so that she didn't have to look the clown in the eyes. Baby gave a sigh. "I suppose I should help you. What friend would I be if I left you hanging there like a pinata?" The Security Puppet gave a disgruntled sort of chirp, but Baby kept to her word and didn't press for any further humiliation. Or worse, a demand that she admit it was a bad idea.
Instead, Baby reached around Charlie and clamped onto her strings with her claw. "Let more out," she instructed, and once done she wrapped her claw in the strings. "You would be surprised how much it takes for one of these to break." With that, she looped her other arm around the puppet's middle and began to tug back, turning her skates to the side so they wouldn't roll.
Charlie tried to focus on keeping her strings from unravelling as Baby applied more pressure to them and the loosened hatch. Then, with an unexpected and sharp tug, the hatch suddenly snapped free and flew towards them. Baby immediately swung Charlie to the side and clasped her arms around her head to shield her mask. This turned out to be unnecessary as the vent fell with a clatter only a few feet from the wall. The way had been cleared and the two separated.
"Thanks, Baby. I wouldn't have gotten that off by myself," Charlie said as she began to draw her strings back in. It was the same tingly sensation she had come accustomed to but part of her was surprised that she felt no pain after such hard pulling. "And I'll be careful. I know I can't let them see me, trust me… But if I'm the reason they're putting themselves in danger, then I need to at least watch out for them."
Baby wanted to disagree again but didn't, surprising even her. She just wasn't in the mood to physically restrain Charlie. As much as she was afraid of the police coming for Scott, Ennard, and herself, she wasn't afraid of a group of human kids who senselessly wandered into an abandoned building. It wasn't like anyone would believe them- or they would say anything at all if the one saw Ennard and stayed silent.
With another disappointed huff, she responded by repeating her question from earlier. "Which one is he?" She immediately followed this with a flat. "It isn't that boy with the red hair, is it?"
"No, he's the one with the dark hair wearing the brown jacket. That's John," Charlie answered.
"He's cute… In a dull way. Like a piece of paper."
Charlie cracked an amused smile. "Gee, you make him sound like such a catch," she said. She knew what Baby was doing and ignored it to turn back to the vent. She leapt up and climbed into the vent, somewhat surprised how easily she pulled herself up. Once she had climbed into the vent, she turned her head back to look at Baby. "Just for the record, I still think you and Ennard should go back to the van."
"I know," Baby simply said. A nicer way of saying she had no intention to return to the van alone and wasn't going to be swayed into it. Charlie knew that and began to crawl into the vent.
The vent was poorly ventilated and smelled like stagnant air. Normally Charlie felt comfortable in an enclosed space but in this case she found it stifling. She still pressed onwards as she heard talking through the thin grates. It didn't take her too long to catch up with her friends, as they were moving slow through the halls, but they gave no indication that they had heard her and Baby.
It was so strange to see them up close again and hear their voices. They really were just within reach, just below her, and they looked like they were doing well compared to the last time she had seen them.
"What would they think if they saw me?" Charlie wondered. It was something she had wondered in the past, though in those circumstances they weren't only a few feet away. She crawled quietly above them, her eyes beginning to glow in interest and hope. "What's to say that they wouldn't understand? If they were willing to come all this way for me, then maybe…" Her thoughts trailed off in defeat; she couldn't risk it. It was then that her hand almost crossed over a groove in the vent. "…What's this?"
She suspiciously brushed her finger along the edge when suddenly something snapped in. She pulled her hand back just in time to avoid it but was soon staring at a dangling snare made of metal wiring. She stared at it in shock and knew immediately it was some sort of trap.
"Did you hear that? It sounded like it came from the roof," Marla said as the group came to a halt. Charlie went still in the hoped to not be detected, but suddenly there was a loud humming through the vent and within moments she was hit by a gust of warm air. "Okay, I know I'm not imagining that. What is that?" Marla pressed in unease.
"It sounds like the air conditioning kicking on," Lamar pointed out.
"Air conditioning in a place like this kicking on automatically?" John asked doubtfully. "Fazbear must've had some impressive technology back in the eighties."
"Why not? It's in the middle of the desert and that's exactly what it sounds like, and the lights are on, so the place has power. Maybe someone turned it on when they came in and it just kicked back on," Lamar offered. There were mixed responses but at this point it at least sounded like that.
Except that couldn't be further from the truth. Currently Charlie was being bombarded by steadily growing heat and while she had hoped to stay and ride it out, it was beginning to get too intense to withstand. Her body started to feel strange and her head grew muddled until she had no choice but to slip under the snare and belly crawl through the vent. Below, her friends could occasionally hear a thump or bump.
"Do you hear all that clanking?" Carlton asked is disbelief. "Heh, it's going to be embarrassing when the thing meant to keep the building cool sets it on fire."
"That's not too distant of a possibility either. Do you know how many of those old Freddy buildings had spontaneous fires?" Jessica asked. Charlie couldn't hear whatever came after that because she got too far away.
It took her going around a bend and halfway down another hallway length vent to reach a spot where the intense heat let up. It was still uncomfortably warm in the vent and her head was still swimming, but when she got open a hatch that looked down into the hall it started to ease up. She could faintly feel cooler air on her mask as she looked inside. Just another hallway, except that there was a door right underneath the hatch too. From the sign beside the door it looked to be a stairwell.
It didn't take long for the group to arrive in the hall, not giving her much time to even consider escaping the vent. They were walking along underneath the vent when Jessica stopped in place. She quickly reached out and caught John's shoulder to stop him, as he was the one in the lead, leaving them directly underneath the hidden puppet.
"Did you hear something?" Jessica asked cautiously. She slowly turned her head towards the wall as Charlie started to lean in to try and listen to whatever she was hearing, since it was clearly not the Security Puppet herself. Her hands cautiously rested on the vent cover.
Without even the slightest pressure the cover suddenly fell and clattered onto John's head. Charlie gawked for a second and then threw herself back right before anyone looked up. Everyone except John who let out an 'omph' and checked his head for bleeding. Marla could barely withhold a snicker while Carlton did something between a snort and a scoff.
"And here comes the flames. Any second now," the redhead remarked.
"You sure it's not your clown stalking you again?" John retorted as he nudged the hatch aside with his foot.
Carlton sobered up quickly. "Don't even joke about that. That clown fit in a storm drain, you know it could fit into one of those air ducts," he corrected.
Charlie's mask shifted in befuddlement. "…Is he talking about Ennard?" She didn't really have time to think about it because Jessica had passed under the vent to the stairway door. The Security Puppet leaned to watch her as she listened closer to the door.
"I thought I heard footsteps," Jessica explained quietly. She cautiously began to open the stairwell door and step inside but hesitated at how dark it was inside. Her footsteps seemed to echo through the stairwell as she stepped back and felt for the light switch. John stood in the doorway, holding the door open, and narrowed his gaze at something barely catching the light in the darkness. Jessica flipped on the light.
All they saw was a mouth of sharp teeth before the monstrosity closed in on them.
With a short scream, Jessica ran back into the hall and John shut the stairwell door and held it closed. This turned out to be ineffective; before they even had time to explain the creature had gotten its sharp clawed fingers on the handle and easily tore it open. John's strength was no match and he could only stagger back as it lumbered out into the hallway.
The thing was clearly an animatronic, but it looked demented. Its fabric was a cross between blue or purple but so caked in dust and age stains that it was hard to tell. Its body was tall and thick, stitched crudely in some parts while having perfectly hemmed seams in others, showing the attempt to make it look this horrific. One of the most disturbing parts was a pair of mandible jaws that had been attached to its already toothy mouth. They spread and closed against its teeth while squeaking from the dust trapped in their joints.
The hideous version of Bonnie had its eyes affixed on John and Jessica, who it now blocked from the others with its sheer mass. They were cornered to the door at the end of the hall while the others had their backs to where they came from. Overwhelmed with fear, Lamar and Carlton made a run for it, the latter grabbing Marla and pulling her when she was frozen in shock. Though they stopped at the end of the hall once they realized that the mutated animatronic wasn't following them.
It pursued its two original targets. They ran into the next door and once on the other side John slammed his hand down on a button that looked to control the door, a security door. The heavy, metal door dropped down in an instant, but it was not quick enough. Somehow Bonnie had stuck its hands out at the last second and barely caught it only a foot from the floor. Slowly the animatronic began to raise it.
Jessica looked around frantically and realized they were in the windowed conveyor room they had seen before. She also realized that there was only one door into the room, and it was the one they had just come through. "What are we going to do?! It's a dead end!" she blurted out. John looked around as well and it didn't take him long to see that she was correct.
There was no time to even consider a plan. Right after that, the Bonnie malformation raised the door enough that it slammed back up into the ceiling the rest of the way. It stepped into the room with heavy footsteps and affixed its glowing eyes onto the couple. It started to stride for them, and Jessica pushed John in the direction to get behind the conveyor belt to shield themselves if only momentarily. John spotted a fire extinguisher on the wall and struggled to get it down while Jessica kept her back to him and stared at the encroaching rabbit.
Jessica knew she had a split-second window to escape before it reached her, but she stood her ground to protect John. She hadn't comprehended how much it was going to hurt when it swung its hand out and struck her in the side and shoulder so hard that she fell painfully against the conveyor. John looked back in time to see it but still hadn't gotten the fire extinguisher down. He had nothing to fight Bonnie off as it leaned itself over the young woman with its teeth too close and its arm raised high.
Charlie didn't even consider the results of what was going to happen. At this point it became a matter of life and death, and pure instinct took over.
She dropped down from the vent and all it took was a few quick strides before she sprung over the conveyor and threw herself onto the Twisted Bonnie. Music resounded through the room as she rung so loudly that her chest ached, but she barely noticed it. One hand grabbed its ear and the other one of its mandibles to hold on, ignoring how its teeth tried to cut into her palm. It thrashed in response and tried to knock her off. She focused enough to get her strings out and started to wind them into Bonnie.
But Bonnie wasn't as mindless as he seemed. It suddenly turned and dropped its body back, throwing her off it and onto the conveyor belt. Charlie braced herself to dodge as she expected a swing, but to her surprise the animatronic instantly lost interest in her and turned back towards the humans it had cornered. She noticed quickly that her strings were still wrapped in its face as they tightened up when it stepped away.
She could use that to her advantage. Without delay, Charlie rolled back off the conveyor and slid through the metal structure beneath it. She braced her legs on the metal, wrapped her strings around her wrists, and pulled them tight. The strings yanked Bonnie's head sharp enough that it took a staggering step to the side. It nearly stepped on the Security Puppet if not for her twisting to the side.
This gave enough time for John to get the extinguisher off the wall and get in front of Jessica who was getting up. Her leg bumped something, and she looked down to see a lever which she assumed started the conveyor. Looking back, Jessica could see that this belt led past a control panel and into a machine with a mouth just wide enough that it might fit Bonnie. Suddenly she had an idea; they could trap the rabbit.
"John, get it on the belt! I have an idea!" she cried before pulling the lever. With a loud groan and a mechanical squeal, the conveyor slowly started up.
While John wasn't sure what the plan was, he trusted her enough to go with it. "Got it!" he said, then ran forward and swung the extinguisher into Bonnie's face, knocking it back further onto the belt. The rabbit's glowing eye shifted and landed on him for a second before it lashed out. Its sharp nails swiped through his jacket like tissue paper and tore into his skin.
Charlie decided to make her move while Bonnie was distracted and crossed back under to the other side. She pulled her strings tightly to try and yank it down on the belt, only to result in a loud snap while one of her strings suddenly released and began to reel in, still holding tightly to Bonnie's broken off ear. The mandible still held strong though and she knew her best bet was to seize the other one. She waited for an opening.
She got it when John swung on Bonnie again, and she had to take it when Bonnie spread its arms at the last second and caught the blow in its chest, and the man in its grip. He tried to fight against it as its mouth crept closer, rows of teeth starting to spread open as they neared the top of his head. Charlie was quick to come up behind, Bonnie not even acknowledging her, and looping her string around the second mandible. She pulled his head back sharply and tried to pull him onto the conveyor.
With its head twisted again, John managed to slide out of its grip and saw what the Security Puppet was doing. He made a split-second decision to ram Bonnie with his shoulder and caused it to teeter. He struck again, working alongside the strings twisting its head and soon Jessica who picked up the fallen extinguisher to help. It was by sheer luck that the twisted creature was just clumsy enough that its heavy body fell back on the belt and was struggling to get itself up.
Charlie continued to keep its head twisted but noticed she was creeping closer to the machine. From what she was seeing it looked like she could go right through to the other side, so she leaned back and held her ground. Twisted Bonnie tried to roll off the conveyor, at one point coming so close that John had to awkwardly tackle it around the lower middle to try and hold it down while Jessica ran to the control panel.
The controls were barely labelled. Some still had small pictures on them but none of them had actual directions, so Jessica was going in blind. She eventually pressed one with a double arrow pointing up and the conveyor started to quicken. John just barely managed to pull back from Bonnie as its head started to slide through the opening and it rewarded him by clawing up his back. He hissed as the long scratches welled with blood and pushed down his shirt and jacket to cover them.
Seeing that it was inside and that John was free, Jessica tried to look for a way to now secure the foul animatronic inside. She pressed a button with a square on it and a small arrow pointing down.
Right when Charlie released her strings and prepared to climb out the other side, her exit was suddenly blocked by a hatch door lowering. The conveyor still had room to move but her exit was blocked. She was wheeled right up to it and banged her fist a few times, hoping they would hear her outside and decide to let her out, but it became clear that they wouldn't be able to hear her over the noises Bonnie was making.
"What did that do?!" Jessica asked frantically.
John was quick to run to the end of the machine and see the closed hatch. "It closed up this side! Quick, close the other one!"
Unfortunately, that was the only button that had that marking on it. Some of the others had their symbols worn off and she knew it had to be one of those, so she began to test them.
Blacklights flicked on inside of the machine. Thin electrodes like cattle prods shot out of the walls in the middle of the machine, trying to control shock an animatronic but not reaching either of the ones trapped inside. Though Bonnie was being pulled awfully close. A cloud of noxious chemicals was suddenly released inside the small space smelling of cleaner and poison. It was so strong that Charlie wished she could cough.
But nothing compared to the moment that the hatch on the other side of the machine started to close. If not for Bonnie's legs still sticking out and stopping it, causing it to raise again, she would've been trapped inside. That was when the panic set in and she threw herself forward, then dropped down to avoid the electrodes. The smell gushed into the room again as the vent tried to shut a second time.
Bonnie flailed blindly with its sharp claws, barely seeming to notice as she climbed over it, and only managed to pin her momentarily against its chest on sheer accident. She dragged herself free and threw herself out the vent hatch. She fell off the belt in her efforts but just managed to avoid the door closing on her.
Both Jessica and John looked over in surprise at the sound of something coming back out and realized it was the strange puppet. It started to push itself off the ground and out of reflex John stepped closer to Jessica to shield her, just in case this animatronic suddenly turned on them as well. It wasn't long before something stood out to him, something he couldn't ignore.
Charlie could feel their eyes on her even before she looked over to them. She was still, staring back like a wild animal, but she said nothing. Maybe she was still in the clear; maybe they wouldn't recognize her from Foxy's and would assume she was just another moving animatronic in this factory. Or that's what she hoped until John suddenly started to speak.
"That's…" he began shakily. His voice held shock she hadn't heard from him ever before. "…That's Charlie's jacket."
It was a harsh wake up call. She had to get away.
Without warning, the Security Puppet made a dash for the security door and into the hallway. She skidded to a stop as she came face to face with the remaining three of the group, standing further down the hall, and watching her with the same shock. Marla flinched back behind Carlton while he and Lamar were both staring wide eyed. They had to have seen her drop down from the vent and must've seen part of what happened.
She didn't expect Jessica to run after her. "Wait!" she called desperately as she ran with all she had. The puppet reacted quickly and bolted for the stairwell, pushing the door open a sliver and slipping through.
"No, stop! Wait!" Jessica pleaded as she followed into the dimly lit stairwell. She caught only a glimpse of the puppet before it leapt over the railing and dropped into the shadows of the lower floor.
It had disappeared just as quickly as it appeared, but Jessica had still seen enough to remember what it was. She recognized it as the strange boxed puppet from Foxy's that for some reason was miraculously alive and it had saved their lives, and it was wearing her jacket. The jacket she always wore, that nobody had been able to find, not even her aunt. This moving puppet had it and wore it like it belonged to it.
Jessica was struck by a sudden thought and ran to the railing with an anguished cry.
"Charlie!"
Her cry echoed through the stairwell and was followed by silence. By now Jessica was panting and her heart was pounding in her chest. It had to be her, she decided, and ignored John and the others coming into the stairwell to continue running down the steps. It had to be her, she kept believing, it had to be. She reached the landing and whipped around the corner only to slow to a stop a few steps down.
There the Security Puppet stood at the base of the stairs facing the door. Not a single movement, not a single noise since the music faded after Bonnie was dealt with, just standing there in the shadow of the busted basement light. Jessica's heart was still racing as she stared down at her with equal dread and hope. The others ran up behind her and stood at the landing, with only John daring to take a step down, but none said a word. The silence was deafening.
Inside of Charlie's head there were dozens of alarm bells trying to remind her of the danger. Except she couldn't hear them past that call that still echoed through her head. Her name, her best friend said her name.
Just when it felt too stifling to go on, there was a noise. A partial hiccup coming from Jessica as she braced herself to speak again. She sounded so meek, like she was about to burst into tears. "Charlie…?"
It was then that the strings holding her back released and she went against her better judgement to slowly turn herself around. Charlie knew that this could ruin everything, but she still turned to look and still thought maybe she could run and escape if she needed to. That plan was dashed once she saw them, her old friends, her mourning friends, and Jessica looking at her with the same desolate hope that she must've had when she first saw her body. Begging for her to get up and be alive, now begging for this animatronic to be her.
For a moment Charlie was washed with guilt, because she knew that like her choice to go to Magictime this was about to change everything forever.
"You weren't supposed to see me like this..."
The noise Jessica made was almost like a cry of pain but no doubt one of emotion at hearing the familiar voice coming out of the foreign body. She covered her mouth in shock as her eyes instantly welled with tears. Like her, Charlie could feel the blue paint threatening to spill down her mask, but she held them in. She could faintly hear the woman muttering "Oh my gosh" or "Oh my God" under her breath, but Charlie had to stay strong. She swallowed the emotion and stood straight as she faced them fully.
After all, she wasn't ashamed of what she was. She could only hope that they shared the same sentiments.
Everyone else looked more dumbstruck than anything. Somewhere in their minds, wheels were turning- especially Carlton who was now equating this in with his growing animatronic theories. Even John who usually avoided exaggerated expression was staring with alarm. He seemed stuck like that until Jessica stepped forward and he glanced to her. Charlie focused solely on her.
She stepped down from the stairs and took a careful step towards the animatronic. Her eyes looked over the puppet as she tried to understand what was happening.
"It's… It's really you?" Jessica asked pleadingly. She pulled her hands from her face and started to slowly reach towards her before pausing when the Security Puppet nodded. The tears started to spill down Jessica's face. "I don't- I don't understand, how are you- why are you like this?... I thought you died."
"I did die. I just… Didn't move on," Charlie vaguely answered. She wasn't sure if Jessica could handle the full truth, not right now. Not when she was already starting to cry. Charlie's face softened with guilt and her voice crackled. "Don't cry, Jess. Everyone's cried enough for me already."
Maybe it was the nickname or the explanation, but Jessica finally cracked. She choked on a sob and reached forward, ignoring the consequences just like her friend had, and took her arms gently. They felt so different underneath her jacket sleeves, firm and slender, and it was still so jarring. Not enough to stop her though as Jessica caved the rest of the way and pulled her into a clutching embrace. She held on like she was holding on to her for dear life, like she thought Charlie would vanish again. She believed her.
Just as cautiously, Charlie wrapped her arms back around Jessica. Only now did she really feel how long it had been since she had done this last because she barely remembered what it was like. It was so warm.
"I'm so sorry I wasn't there… I missed you so much," Jessica whispered to her. Charlie held her a little tighter.
The next person to dare to come up was surprisingly not John, but Lamar. He came down the steps cautiously to stand alongside them and steadily reached out for the Security Puppet's shoulder. Charlie pulled back enough from Jessica to look at him and they met eyes for a long pause. It was so strange; it didn't look like her, but it all felt like her, even beyond the voice alone. Finally, he cracked a smile.
"I can't believe it. It really is you. You're actually… Here! You're alive!" Lamar exclaimed. This reaction was not expected after Jessica's more somber one and it was like a weight off her chest. "And this whole time you've just been… Where? Over at Foxy's?" he guessed. The Security Puppet nodded, and at this Jessica finally drew back.
"But if you were alive- if you were here the whole time… Why didn't you tell us?" she asked in confusion with lingering with iniquity. "We were there all the time! Charlie, you could've somehow… We could've done something…!" She struggled for words while the look of guilt returned.
"I couldn't risk it… Look at me. Look at what I am, I couldn't just get up out of my box and go find you. It would put me in danger… And you too." Charlie turned away. "You wouldn't have known it was me…" She crossed her arms and dug her fingers into her jacket. If it wasn't for that then they wouldn't have known; it was a dead giveaway. "And… It wasn't just me." This seemed to pique everyone's attention, goading her to continue. "…I'm not the only one who's like this. The only living animatronic. It was risking their lives too."
"There's others…?" Lamar asked slowly. He was cut off by a gasp from Marla.
"Jason was right," she blurted out in disbelief. She turned to Carlton with a look of horror. "All this time he was saying it and he was right, and I didn't believe him!... I'm a terrible sister. All this time I blew him off…"
"You didn't know. None of us knew," Lamar defended. He gave a partial scoff. "I must've been in that restaurant at least four or five times and I just didn't notice. It's Foxy, right? He's the one?" he asked as he looked back to Charlie. Then he took in her appearance again and remembered something else. "No, wait, the puppet! Jason always acted like he thought it was watching him."
"…Both of them are alive," Charlie admitted. She regretted it instantly, feeling like she was breaking some sort of code. Her music box began to tighten painfully as she took a step back from them to get space. "But I shouldn't be telling you this. Even letting you all see me is a mistake… I'm supposed to be dead! We're not supposed to be alive and when people find out that we are…" She trailed off or a moment before becoming more adamant and frantic. "You can't tell anyone. Anyone at all or they will kill us. And they can kill us."
"We won't tell," Jessica blurted out quickly. She raised her hands and stepped closer, noticing the animatronic's body language and becoming afraid that she was going to run. "Nobody has to know."
"Thank you," Charlie murmured.
"Was that thing upstairs alive too? The thing that looked like Bonnie from hell?" Lamar asked. She hesitated a moment, thinking about it for a second, and then shook her head.
"I don't think so. Usually you can tell if they're alive and insane or if they're just mindless machines," Charlie admitted. It was then that she froze up. "Which means… That there could be more of them…" She looked back towards the basement door behind her. "Is that why they never came back? Did they run into that thing too? It wouldn't just be Bonnie…"
It was then that her thoughts were cut off by Marla rushing down the steps and taking her off guard by embracing her. Charlie let out a short ring of surprise that thankfully seemed to be ignored. Jessica got a look of alarm for a second but breathed a sigh of relief when Charlie hugged the girl back instead of pulling away. Marla squeezed much tighter than Jessica had but didn't hug as long.
Charlie knew that eventually she would have to face John, and this was the moment of truth. He finally approached after having watched silently from the stairs and she looked up at him. She kept her slight, sad smile as she greeted him with a quiet, "Hey, John. Its been a long time."
"Yeah, it has…" John replied. That faint relief at seeing her was cast over by a look of guilt and somberness. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to take your call."
"Don't be. I didn't want you to answer or I would've had to explain where I was and what I was doing…" Charlie admitted. Her face marred with the same guilt. "…But I'm sorry I didn't call you before then."
There was a long pause of silence as Jessica turned and hugged Charlie again. Now John came down as well and laid a hand on her shoulder. Marla joined into the embrace again and Lamar was standing alongside them but still smiling. They were all here, her friends, and they were still here even though they had seen what she had become. She could feel the dampness on her tear marks and was thankful that it was hard to notice against her mask's paint.
It was then that she looked past Jessica's shoulder and noticed Carlton still on the stairs. He was still looking a little stunned, so she tried to ease him up with a small smile and a stunted wave. He quickly snapped to attention, got a strained smile back, and raised a hand in greeting. Except it was much more forced because he was currently trapped in his own thoughts.
It seemed like a miracle that Charlie was here and that she was somehow alive in this machine, but in the back of his mind he couldn't forget his suspicions about the animatronics. The clown had mimicked his voice completely so this puppet having Charlie's voice wasn't concrete proof, and neither was her having the jacket. It acted like her, he felt like it was her, but he still felt like he needed to keep distance.
If Charlie was like this then his father would've had to have found out about it, and he would've had to say something… Right? He didn't know who to trust anymore.
The Security Puppet drew back from her friends and took a step back to distance them. She tried to ignore the light jingling that kept ringing every few seconds. It wasn't like she could suppress it with how happy she was. It had all worked out, she saw her friends again, and they said they wouldn't tell- and she knew them well enough to believe them.
The only problem was that now she had to break away again. She accepted that there would have to be a somber goodbye.
"I'm glad I got to see you all again, even if we had to meet up here for it to happen," Charlie said with a sadder smile on her mask. "…But this place isn't safe. You need to get out while you still can. The door you came through in the hallway felt like it was locked but maybe you could still get it open and get out through there."
"Aren't you coming with us?" Marla asked, to which Charlie shook her head.
"We came here to find something and until we do, we can't leave, because there's nowhere we can go. And now that I know that Bonnie was roaming around, I know the others could be in danger too. I can't fight well, but if push comes to shove, I can do what I have to," Charlie explained. She noticed that Jessica looked like she was about to protest, starting to shake her head. "I really don't have a choice. Until I find what's in here, I don't have a home to return to."
"This is about Clay arresting Mike, right?" John guessed. She almost wasn't surprised that they knew about it, mostly because their timing and earlier talking suggested they did. "We know. We came here because Carlton thought that the animatronics were the ones-."
"We thought that Mike was being framed," Carlton quickly jumped in. He was quick to shut down John's reveal of his suspicions, because if this really was an imposter of Charlie then it could ruin his chance to find that out. For the moment he would need to play it cool. "Dad's been acting strange about this whole thing and we think he's targeting Mike for some reason. Maybe he knew too much what was really going on… Which makes a lot more sense now if he knows about… You know, you."
"That's why we're here too. Mike had nothing to do with those missing children. The only thing he's been hiding is us," Charlie explained with growing desperation. "The person behind those murders was my father's business partner and he's been dead for years. Clay already said he was planning on dismantling any animatronics that get in the way of his arrest…"
"But I don't understand. If Mike didn't do it, then why would Clay think he did?" Jessica asked. She returned to their earlier suspicions. "A while ago we got these strange letters-."
"I sent them," Charlie admitted quietly. "…But I didn't follow through."
Everyone was a bit surprised at this reveal, but it changed very little.
"That still means that Mike is innocent, which means Clay still has the wrong man," John said. He looked back at Carlton and lowered his voice cryptically. "If he was tapping the phone lines then he should've known about Charlie…" Carlton nodded slowly in agreement.
"But I don't want you getting wrapped into this anymore than you have. Please, you have to trust me on this. There could be things down here much worse than Bonnie was," Charlie pleaded. Except this didn't seem to convince Jessica who suddenly got a fiercely determined look.
"Then we're coming with you!" she said. The animatronic looked ready to protest, putting more distance between them, but the young woman followed her. "Why do you think we all stayed in Hurricane? Why we've all stayed here when we could leave and try to forget? Because we loved you too much to let you go… And now that you're here, I can't let you go again. Not like this." She took a deep breath to still any tears threatening to resurface and looked to Charlie with that same determination. "This time we're coming with you and we're going to help you. Let us do this."
Charlie was entirely stunned. She expected resistance, but not like this, not with the devoted passion that Jessica had voiced. She didn't want to put them in danger, but if they all shared this certainty- and it looked like they did- then maybe she needed their help. They could help prove Mike's innocence and stop the arrest. She couldn't turn that down; she didn't want to.
"…Okay," she agreed almost reluctantly. "…But you need to listen to what I say, alright? If I tell you to run or hide then you do, even if I'm in danger and even if you have to leave me behind. And if we run into other living animatronics let me handle them. They might be confused and scared."
That was her sole defense for Baby, because she had a feeling she would not handle the group that well. Not with her comments earlier.
"We'll do it. After what went down with Bonnie, I'm leaving the decisions up to you. You seem to have a little more experience with this than we do," John agreed. He had a touch of a playful smile. It dropped as he sent a wary look at the door past her. "It looked like it was coming up from down here so there might be more in the basement."
"Which means that's where we're going. That's probably where anything worth finding is going to be," Charlie said. She turned and approached the door. A foreboding feeling weighed on her shoulders, like she already knew something was waiting inside. This time she wouldn't be alone, this time she would be with her old friends, but now their lives would be in her hands. She steadied herself and accepted her decision.
Charlie opened the door and led them into the darkness.