The animatronics stared at the newspaper clippings left near the door of the Parts and Service area. Bonnie kept glancing around the Main Hall, expecting The Marionette to pop out again with a perky "Pop! Goes The Weasel" tune to tell them something much more "appealing".
But the pale-faced puppet wasn't anywhere to be found.
Jeremy knew something was much wronger with the pizzeria than ever before.
No one was attacking him, except for the Toy animatronics who would rush in screaming in glitch form almost as soon as he saw them on camera. Mangle would remain in Kid's Cove, in a sitting position, holding up a blueish mask and drawing on it in marker. Toy Bonnie was now missing her face, and would often wander into the office, shake her head, then leave, tripping half the time. And The Marionette. . . it wasn't in the Main Hall as a ghostly imprint, sitting in the Prize Corner box, or anyplace else.
This worried the security guard for some reason.
Jeremy slipped on his Freddy Mask and, doing something he was warned several times not to do, stepped into the hallway.
Toy Chica sat on a Party Room Three table, laughing at Toy Bonnie, who was singing her her prerecorded parodies.
"Hot cross bunnies! Hot cross bunnies! One a carrot-" she made a noise like a record being cut off when she saw "Freddy" leaving the office. "Hey! Freddy!"
"Freddy" must have jumped up three feet in the air.
Toy Chica smiled, "Are you still looking for the right Party Room, Freddy? Come join us! We have cake and pizza!" She held up an invisible cake platter and box of pizza. It worked better during the day, when she was often forced to hold those objects. When she didn't, it only confused the children and bothered the adults.
Freddy/Jeremy shook his head nervously.
Toy Chica pouted, "C'mon, Freddy! Please? Remember the magic words, kids, and be very polite to your parents!"
Again, the night watch in the bear mask signaled, "No".
Toy Bonnie's endoskeleton eyes flickered black, but quickly turned back to normal. Then she giggled, "I understand, Freddy! You have to do many important things, and unfortunately work comes before playtime. We will respect that. Carry on, friend!"
Jeremy, suspicious of the blue bunny, slowly backed away, then turned around and run off.
"My, my! Freddy sure is quiet today! Do you think he has something on his mind?" Toy Chica asked her bunny buddy.
"I don't know, Chica!" she shrugged back. Her faceless exoskeleton creaked as plastic rubbed against plastic. "Maybe he will tell us!"
The duo sat quietly, expecting a non-existing reply.
Toy Freddy neared the end of his Birthday/Toreador March song for what was probably the twentieth time. No one in the Parts and Service Room noticed, however, over their own chatter and the fact that Foxy had damaged the ventriloquist dummy of a bear's wires beyond repair.
Chica whispered, "We never got the murderer then, did we? We were all killing the innocent. We were no better than that guy!"
"An' we still are," Foxy added. "We've been tryin' tah get the guard we have now for, wha', a week? We wouldah killed the man."
Bonnie, however faceless, could see the gravity of this horrifying situation. "W-We were that bad? Please wake me up, Mooom!" The purple animatronic began to leak oil from the hole where his face was.
Everyone was silent for a moment.
"Where's Jack?" Freddy asked, turning to Bonnie.
"I-I don't know. . ." Bonnie cried in between sobs.
Foxy glanced out of the doorway. Not a soul was seen. Literally. He warbled, "No one in sight."
"Maybe he ran away!" Chica gasped. "This could have been too much for that guy to handle!"
Freddy shook his head, "I don't think so. Jack's a strong guy, right?"
"The lad's only company is a music box, Freddy. . ." pointed out Foxy.
Everyone in the room grew quiet again, hoping to hear the depressing ticking of the contraption.
That's when the short, thin Freddy burst into the door.
The four animatronics stared at the sudden intruder. Bonnie's red eyes seemed bright. Chica hid Foxy, whose mouth had dropped open in surprise, behind her. Freddy gave no reaction.
Finally, Freddy spoke up, "Who are you?"
Short Freddy gave no reply. His face slipped an inch downwards.
Foxy scrambled up to the short "bear" and snatched his face. A panicked Jeremy stared at the glaring animatronics, then high-tailed it to the door. The robot fox grabbed him by the arm.
"Look, ya' lil' scaredy-cat," he hissed. "We're not gonna be doin' anything to ya'. Calm down."
Chica smiled, "Yeah! We're sorry we scared you!"
Bonnie huffed a bit, as if disappointed that he couldn't somehow give the human a fatal injury. Freddy also seemed a bit let wasn't struggling, but still had a nervous expression glued to his face. Being dangled in the air by a murdering robot quad is not fun.
"Have you seen J- The Marionette lately?" Chica asked quickly.
Jeremy shook his head, now a lot calmer.
Freddy interrogated the human, "When did you last see him?"
Jeremy was silent, but pointed to his mouth.
"I think he is hungry," Bonnie added.
Foxy sighed, "A' think he can't talk, but why would he be hungry?"
Bonnie shrugged.
Jeremy gave a defeated glare.
Chica gave a notepad to the night guard. He quickly scribbled, "i last saw him in my office gathering papers why would i be hungry? like the fox said i lost my voice"
"Maybe he's in a party room," Bonnie commented.
"i checked everywhere on my monitor he is nowhere to be found why are you looking for him?"
Freddy glared at the watchman, "He's our friend. Heck, he's family. We want him to be happy, and what we just found out isn't too happy. And family should stick together."
Smiling in a grim matter, Jeremy wrote, "that's very sweet but you better hurry you have under an hour to find the thing"
Foxy shouted, "Crew, off to find Jack!"
The four and Jeremy marched out of the room. But they weren't the only ones leaving the Parts Room. Something else followed. . .