A/N: Happy Sunday guys, and welcome back. I'm really excited, since today I have a big reveal for you. It's something I had planned since day one, and I've been leaving clues about it since Ch. 20. Hopefully, I was clear enough to make you suspicious, but not enough to reveal it. Please, let me know if you saw this coming or not, so I'll know what to improve before the next big plot twist ;)

As always, a big thank you to the people who reviewed. Please let me know if you liked this one, if you spotted an error, or if you think there is something I can improve on. Also, happy Halloween since we'll be seeing each other after the 31st. And now, happy reading ;)

Chapter 26: Masks off

The pain of my own headache woke me up. Groaning, I saw how the little LED's of my broken head brought some light to wherever I was.

"Wh... what happened?" I moaned weakly, taken over by confusion until the mist in my head cleared up. I remembered the magazines, the laughs and happiness that were shattered immediately as my friends lost control. The run to the kitchen, the pain in my chest and the overwhelming desire to kill and destroy followed. I saw Jack standing in front of me, a feeble red glow lighting up his torso. Then, I was here.

I leaned my elbow on the floor to stand up, only to feel a sharp burning sensation shoot through me from my chest, making my heavy body fall down again. I hissed in pain as I realized that I couldn't move. Turning my head around, I saw two tiny white lights appear a few feet in front of me, barely lighting up the edge of their golden eye sockets.

"Y-you're awake." whispered Jack happily as he stood up and slowly walked to me.

"I guess I am." I rasped out. "Do you remember what happened?"

The small lights bobbed up and down in the darkness. "I g-guessed that maybe I c-could make you come back. I'm n-not sure how I d-did it. I dragged you in here, the s-secret room, after you passed o-out. But it's still early, so they, they're still..." he sighed "…bad."

A deep guilt came to me when I remembered last night. "I'm sorry Jack. I almost hurt you again."

"It's okay, r-really." he said warmly, almost like it was nothing. "I would d-do the same if I d-didn't have this thing." He pointed at his chest.

"I guess you're right." I suddenly remembered something else that surprised me. "You said I was your friend." Jack looked at me with confusion. "It's just... you've never actually called me like that before."

The weakly-lit golden silhouette shrugged. "Well, n-now you know." he let out a shy, guilty giggle.

A warm feeling flooded my body, making me forget about the horror we were going through for a moment. "So, friends till the end?" I asked hopefully.

Jack nodded. "Friends t-till the end."

The hours went by slowly as I regained my strength. The silence that filled the room was long, but not awkward. Every once in a while some heavy footsteps approached the hidden space, making the tension rise momentarily, but they always left the kitchen fairly quickly. Still, an uneasy feeling lingered in me. My friends were out there, forced to hunt down an unsuspecting Jeremy because something is allowing their evil nature to take over and grow, while I was hiding away without doing anything.

"It's not fair." I muttered softly, suddenly ending the quietness.

Sitting next to me, Jack turned his head from the circles he was tracing to look up at me, and asked "What d-do you mean?"

I sighed. "I know I can't do anything to help Jeremy, my brother, or anyone actually. But still... I feel like there must be something I should do." My ears perked up as an idea came to me. "Hey, you could bring me back, right?" I told Jack enthusiastically, "I'm sure you can do the same with everyone else!"

He shifted around uneasily in his spot, and looking down, mumbled "I... I d-don't know. What if I do s-something wrong?" He raised his open hand, staring at it like it was something strange. "These things I c-can do... I'm scared that I m-might hurt one of y-you with them."

I sighed as my ears drooped back down, but I was not going to force him to do something he against his will.

A few minutes later we heard the tell-tale sound of metal falling on the floor. Hoping that Jeremy was alright, I slowly pushed the kitchen shelf aside with Jack's help and peaked out of the dark room to see if it was safe.

"I want to go with you." chimed the golden figure behind me suddenly.

"I can't let you go buddy." was my reply, "If one of them is still awake, they will attack you. But they know me. Well, they know Bonnie. You understand?" He gave me a reluctant nod and leaned against the doorframe of the secret room.

I turned around and stepped into the Game Area, only to face the sight of Balloons, Junior, Sean and Sarah's bodies lying lifelessly on the floor without any light in their eyes. It felt strangely painful to see my friends like that, and knowing that I've been in the same place before didn't make things better. They looked so… helpless. I was about to enter the Main Hall, when the noise of footsteps pacing back and forth behind me froze me on the spot.

"How long before they kill him?" asked a distant, not-too-strange voice anxiously. Slowly turning my head around, I realized that it came from the Prize Corner. Overflowing with nervousness I began to sneak as quietly as I could to the small room.

"Don't worry, he'll never get the chance to find out the truth." My body turned to ice; my throat became a knot. That was Marionette's voice. "They still don't know anything about you, but the boy with the third special seal might become a problem eventually."

I was now right outside the door, and heard the oddly familiar voice sigh, before it replied "I hoped he wouldn't find out. But as long as he won't do anything too dangerous leave him alone."

"Off course." replied the puppet respectfully. "And, what will we do about him?"

The voice giggled sinisterly. "I guess you're talking about our little spy that's hearing us right now aren't you?" An unbearably loud silence followed, but something deep inside me screamed that I was in danger. I tried to spin around and run off, but my body was suddenly and painfully paralyzed in place. I began to quiver in fear and anger when I remembered that only one person in the world could do that, and it was the owner of that disgustingly nonchalant voice, who was now stepping out of the room with big arrogant strides, a mocking smirk, and a purple uniform.

"Hello Bonnie." greeted Walther cheerily, crossing his arms at me as his smile grew wider and smugger. "It's been so long."

"You…" I balled my only fist at the cause of all our suffering, and roared with all my hate "YOU FREAKING MURDERER! I'LL KILL YOU!" But no matter how much I struggled, my feet didn't slide an inch.

My killer just looked at me with crossed arms, chuckling at my useless struggles as his chest glowed with a weak red. "I missed you too buddy." he cooed.

Marionette now appeared behind Walther, and shook his head disapprovingly at me. "Oh, Pizza Boy…" he sighed dramatically, "You should've just played along. It would've made things so much easier for everybody."

I now turned my sight on the puppet. "And you…" I growled lowly, "You disgusting traitor…"

The black figured raised his slender shoulders indifferently. "How can I be a traitor if I was never on your side?" he replied coldly, stepping next to Walther.

"Why?" Marionette looked at me like my question didn't make any sense. "Why are you helping the man that killed you?!"

Walther smiled and the puppet laughed. "You can't see it, can you?" wheezed the latter, "Do you know what my human life was like?" He let a few seconds of silence pass, as if to let me think of an answer, but nothing came to my mind. Marionette stepped closer to me, his small pinpoint eyes pierced through mine. "I spent the first twelve years of my miserable humanity in an orphanage, but they kicked me out when I grew too old. The next night, I was sleeping in a dumpster, too numb to even cry. I realized I was not worth anything more than the trash under me. I had no parents, no friends, nothing.

"Somehow, I managed to survive two years. I roamed around town like a ghost; invisible and half-dead. On a sunny day, I came across this lovely place called Fredbear's Family Diner. It was beautiful: small, cozy, warm… the opposite of the streets. I looked through the glass, and saw a robot bear take cake to a bunch of crying kids. 'Spoiled brats.' I thought, 'Crying over something as stupid as who gets cake first.' I felt my eyes moist from sadness and anger, but that wasn't the worst part. Right in front of the stage was a happy family of four. I remember it too well: the mother looked radiant and smiled beautifully, the father was proudly showing off his police uniform, and the two boys that could only be brothers laughed and sang along with the golden animatronics on stage. Well, only the older one could sing; he was about seven. The younger just babbled along, he was only three or so... and I was still outside and alone. Suddenly, all the tears I'd been holding back for the past two years poured out of my eyes. They left clean streaks on my dirty cheeks, and with each second I bawled and cried more." Marionette's voice quivered. "I was so sad at myself, and so mad at them. What made them better than me? Why could they have everything I could only dream of?! WHY DID THEY DESERVE TO BE HAPPY?!"

It took my tangled mind some time to realize he was asking those questions to me. The puppet cleared his throat before resuming. "Then, I turned around to see a tall man in a spotless purple uniform smiling tenderly at me. I couldn't remember the last time someone actually did that; I think it was the first time in my life."

"I was arriving at Freddy's when I saw him crying on the sidewalk." added Walther nostalgically. "And I realized that I just had to put him out of his misery." He said that last part proudly, like he had done a good deed. "No one even noticed he was dead until the next day."

Marionette nodded in agreement. "I wasn't afraid when he pulled out the knife. I can't even remember what went through my mind when he did it, besides thinking that maybe this was for the best." His tone went from nostalgic to cheery. "And it really was! True, I was a bit surprised when I woke up as this thing, but Walther was sitting right next to me inside the dark and closed Fredbear's. He told me the truth about the blood seals, the red book and what I could do. As confused as I was, I knew that now I was worth something in this new life." The voice I thought I knew got a sinister and lunatic tone. "The first thing I did was make me forget my old name. I wasn't that useless piece of trash anymore, I was… better. The more time I spent like this, the more I liked it."

Walther chuckled with satisfaction. "You see Bonnie? He understands what I tried to tell you long ago. Anyways, the diner had to close down because of what I did, but Erik and Dave covered everything up so well that no one put the blame on me or the company, and after a couple of months we were back in business as Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. A few days later, two kids got lost and stayed there after closing time. I was excited to see that the blood seals actually worked, and well… it was a great opportunity." The calmness in his tone sickened me. "Unfortunately, Dave saw me. He simply told me I had to leave the company now, and never come back." He clenched his teeth, and hissed furiously "I thought he was my friend, I thought he would understand, but that idiot became Erik's lapdog since."

"And again, everything was covered and someone else took the fall." resumed the puppet. "I had to take part of some stupid kid's show, but it was still much better than my old life. A year passed, and everything was going well… until I saw that stupid happy family from Fredbear's way in the back. The brothers had grown quite a bit, and as soon as the younger one saw me he started screaming and crying like the brat he was. I hated them, all of them." Suddenly, Marionette began to chuckle to himself. "Oh, but here comes the cherry on top of the cake! Apparently, that snotty toddler hated me as well, 'cause he grabbed his slice of pizza and threw it right at my face!" The knot in my throat tightened as the laughing puppet brought its pale face close to me, and whispered blood-chillingly "You do remember that, right Pizza Boy?" I answered with silence. "What do you have to say now?"

"I'm sorry." Marionette and Walther stared at me with puzzled eyes. "You didn't deserve what happened to you, and I'm sorry that you had a miserable life. But that does not give you the right to make other people's lives miserable!" I turned to look at my killer, and demanded furiously as I glared daggers at him "What did we even do to you?!"

A smirk appeared on Walther's face. "You, Bonnie?" he shrugged. "Nothing really. That Williams kid on the other hand?" His smile disappeared as he frowned angrily. "More than you can ever imagine. All I did was bring justice."

"Justice?" I repeated in a hateful hiss, "Justice?! You killed my friends, my brother, five kids who were all under six years old, the two that you turned into Shadows… and you call that JUSTICE?!" Never in my life had I felt so much rage; but no matter how hard I tried, not a gear in my body would turn.

"I don't really feel like telling you now." replied the man in purple flatly, before glancing at his wrist-watch "Maybe later, when we have the time."

"But you don't." I whispered with confidence, making my killer raise an eyebrow in puzzlement. "Over a year ago we left five tapes to our families that will send you straight to the electric chair. We didn't find them, but that only means one thing: somebody did, and that somebody will come and…"

My voice trailed off as Walther burst out in laughs, slapping his knee. "Y-you're right Bonnie," he wheezed as he pinched a tear from his eye, "someone did find a box with tapes!" Still giggling, he reached into his purple jacket's pocket, and pulling out a small cassette triumphantly, taunted "I guess you mean these ones, right?"

The hour-long message I had recorded for Mom with so much hope and illusion was in my killer's hand. He turned it around a few times, inspecting it like it was a strange object. "It wasn't as interesting as your friends' to be honest." he mumbled absent-mindedly, "Not as dangerous for me, but still…" He dropped the cassette on the floor like it was a cigarette butt. "It's a bit too dangerous."

I felt like someone punched me in the stomach when Walther's boot crushed the feeble plastic casing, before he kicked away the destroyed cassette under some dinner tables. "Y'know," he put his hand on his chin theatrically, "I still have the other ones with me, how careless. Thanks for reminding me about them Bonnie." Ignoring my low growl, he once again checked his watch. "I wish I could stay, but seeing that your friends are about to wake up, I better leave."

Without saying another word he walked past me briskly. "You'll pay for this." I growled as his footsteps clacked behind my back.

Walther stopped immediately, and stayed still before walking back to me and whispering confidently "This is a game of gambling, so I only have to pay if I lose. But as you've seen so far, I always win." Having said that, he once again walked away towards the Main Hall, before I heard a door open and close. As soon as he was out of the building the strain on my joints disappeared, letting my weakened body collapse on the floor. Panting, I managed to put myself on all threes and raise my head slowly to see Marionette staring down at me, confidence and dominance oozing out of his pinpoint eyes.

"We're going easy on you Brandon, I hope you know that." he said matter-of-factly, "I could easily wipe away your will or your memories, but there is something extra fun about seeing how you lose them every night."

"You're the one behind that, aren't you?" I croaked out weakly at Marionette before shaking my head. "And you said you couldn't do anything."

The puppet shrugged, and replied indifferently "I said a lot of stuff, but that was somewhat true. I don't control you every night; all I did was use my seal once to set your inner demons free." He leaned his tall, thin body down, and looked at me like there was something on me. "And I can see them now, growing and feasting on your old self as they slowly take over your mind… how beautiful."

"Save the speech." I mumbled angrily as I began to put my trembling body on two feet. "As soon as everyone comes back to their senses, I'll tell them everything; they will know who you really are." I turned around, and started walking away from Marionette, back to my unconscious friends.

"Sure, you can do that if you want." called out the puppet behind me, "Then I'll simply tell Sean that his dear mother died over a year ago and you kept it a secret for all that time." I stopped dead in my tracks, and balled my hand into a fist as Marionette chuckled mockingly behind me. "Mind seal, remember? Did you really think you could hide a secret from me? I wonder how your brother will feel, knowing that his own flesh and blood lied to him about something like that for so long." Silently, I turned around to face the puppet. "So, let's make a deal Pizza Boy. I won't tell your secret if you don't tell mine. Agreed?"

"You know, I trusted you." I whispered bitterly, "I really did."

"Yes or no?!" hissed the slender figure impatiently as he looked at something behind me. I turned around and saw that the light was slowly returning to my friends' eyes.

After a long silence, I lowered my head in shame and whimpered a weak and reluctant "…yes." At the same time, my brother groaned as he slowly woke up in front of me. He held his head and looked around the dark Game Area with confusion until his eyes met mine.

"Hey private." greeted Sean weakly, "Uh, c-could you help me get up? That knee is really killing me." Without saying a word I walked up to him, grabbed his hand and pulled him up, making sure to look at anything but his eyes. "Jeremy's alright isn't he?" he asked as soon as he was back on his feet, "I don't remember getting him last night."

"Me neither." I replied flatly, turning my head sideways.

"And are you alright?" asked my worried brother as he put a hand on my shoulder. My answer was a silent nod. "Don, I know you." he whispered with more urgency, "Look at me in the eyes and tell me that everything's alright."

I raised my head and focused on someone that was right behind Sean to give the illusion that I was looking at him directly. It was Marionette, who in turned glared at me anxiously with crossed arms.

"Don't worry, I'm alright." I lied, feeling dirtier than when my body was covered in my own blood. "Everything's alright."