A/N: Welcome back guys, hope you had a fantastic Halloween. Thanks for your patience once again.

Now, this is quite a different chapter that introduces (and reintroduces) two characters. One was important before, one will be later on. Word of warning: this chap is almost entirely dialogue, so don't expect a lot of action. But don't worry though: there will be blood and violence soon enough. I know we all miss that ;)

As always, happy reading! And don't forget to read the A/N at the end. It's there for a good reason...

Chapter 39: Familiar faces

It was a quarter over eight at night, a few weeks after the radio incident. Only the light of the almost-empty Dining Area remained on, giving the restaurant an air of privacy, and with most people gone, a relative silence filled the place. Once again, Sarah, my brother and me were stuck on the elevated stage, unmoving and quiet. Erik leaned against the wall separating the twin hallways with an impatient expression on his face as Dave stared out the window next to the door. Both of them seemed to have aged more than their due years.

"Are they going to arrive soon?" asked the manager yet again.

The head guard turned around to look at the older man, and replied with confidence "They'll be here soon, don't worry about it."

Erik huffed in mild annoyance as he pulled his cigarette case from his shirt's pocket. "I'm going out for a smoke." With quick yet calm steps he opened the door after this common announcement, and Dave walked back to the center of the Dining Area with a thoughtful expression.

He then turned to us suddenly, seemingly about to say something, but he was interrupted by the sound of an approaching car. The vehicle's bright lights neared the front door and stopped right in front of it, before turning off after a moment. Dave calmly opened the restaurant's door a few seconds later, just in time for a five year old girl to leap from the doorway into his arms.

The man laughed as he pushed her out of the embrace gently and slowly. "Alright Evie, that's enough." he said softly, laying his hands on her shoulders.

The girl returned his smile with her milky white teeth. "Can you do the show Daddy?" she asked, almost jumping up and down in excitement.

"Of course sweetie." Dave lifted his eyes off his daughter to look at the woman of around his age standing by the doorway. "Go find a place to sit while I talk to mommy, alright?"

Evie's answer was a cheery "Alright!" and some frisky skips to the table with the best view of the stage. Meanwhile, her father and mother stood by the doorway, both visibly unsettled by something. They began to whisper to each other and almost seemed to be fighting, but there was more anguish than anger in their hushed voices.

"Daddy, they're not moving!" Evie called out suddenly, pouting at her father. Dave paused the conversation to fish out our remote control from his pocket, pressed a few of its buttons, and immediately the three of us started to move in our usual routine. The girl didn't seem to mind the absence of music; she simply stared intently at the show, her lips curled up in an innocent smile of wonder.

Evie was certainly our biggest fan. We saw her grow over the last three years, from a two year old baby that couldn't leave her mother's arms to this energetic and lively toddler. Taking advantage of his position, Dave often made these little shows for her daughter after the place closed down. The feeling of our rigid bodies moving against our will to those same cheesy songs was almost torture, but we didn't mind Evie's little shows. There was something about that girl's smile and eyes that made everything more bearable.

But right then I was more interested in the couple's anxious whispers. I strained my hearing to pick out a few key words, and managed to build their sentences.

"Tell him that you can't do it." demanded the woman, looking straight into her husband's eyes.

"Laura, it was not Erik's decision." answered Dave in a more leveled voice. "It's part of my contract. We haven't had a night guard in almost three weeks. If we don't get one immediately they can shut us down right away. We already had warnings, and w-"

"Can't you please go look for one?" interrupted Laura with a weaker tone.

The man shook his head. "There are ads in all local newspapers, but no one wants to work here at night. Everyone heard the rumors." Both immediately turned their heads to look at us, making me feel a pang of guilt.

"Then quit." She looked up at Dave once more as she tightened a small hand around his arm. "Forget this place, forget Erik, forget those robots." The man turned his gaze to the door, eyeing in tentatively. "I know money's tight, but we'll figure something out. We always have! Just please, don't go."

Dave sighed as he looked back at his wife with pained eyes. "Laura, I want to know." His words were so quiet that I could barely hear them. Slight incredibility appeared in the woman's expression, followed by disappointment. "Maybe that will help. If there really is something going on with the animatronics, something that you can only see if you're in the night watch, then maybe we can fix them." A spark of hope lit up Dave's low voice. "Then nobody would have to quit, and this place could even win back its old glory. Think about it."

Laura only let her hand slide from his arm, her head lowered. After a few seconds of silence, the woman mumbled "We'll be waiting in the house." She then turned around with a somber expression to look at her happy daughter. "Evelyn, we're going home."

The girl responded to her mother's orders with an eye roll and an exaggerated groan of displease, but she still jumped off her chair, walked speedily to the woman and took her hand. "Bye bye Daddy!" she beamed, smiling at her father with blissful ignorance.

Dave could only muster a weak, disheartened grin. "See you home, sweetie."

Not a second later the door slammed shut behind the mother and the daughter, followed by the startup of the car and the sound of wheels reversing and then driving away. Meanwhile, our bodies still moved along with the nonexistent music as the man in purple pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a stressed sigh.

It was then that Erik stepped into the place cautiously as he smothered a cigarette butt in his pocket. Walking slowly to Dave, not looking directly at him, he said flatly "She's mad at me."

"She's mad at me too." was the head guard's dry answer. "Guess that means she cares."

The manager nodded in agreement. Again, he waited for a prudent time before saying "They don't know about the bodies, do they?"

With his eyes glued on the floor's tiles, Dave shook his head. "They still believe those twelve disappeared in thin air." He took a long breath. "The only secret I keep from them and it has to do with murder."

"I'm sorry." It was strange to hear emotion in the manager's voice. "You know how it is: the CEO wants to keep this place open no matter what, hide everything under the rug."

"Yeah, I know." The head guard looked back at his superior. "Still, I feel like there is something I can do."

"Make it out alive." ordered Erik, "Find out what you can. I might even be able to hijack the power cables, that would give you free power for a few days until the higher-ups find out and try to fire me."

Dave stared at the man in pleasant surprise. "Uh, thanks Erik." he murmured in awe, "Thanks a lot."

The other man shrugged. "Just remember that if they cut my pay for that..."

"It'll come out of my pay." completed the other man, but he still smiled at the manager in acceptance."That's fine by me."

"I know." Erik turned around and walked to the door, already pulling his cigarette case out of his shirt's pocket. "Let's go. I wanna talk to you about the rumors surrounding that new place."

"The sister location?" asked the guard as he fondled our remote control in his hand. Nodding, the other man left the building, leaving the door open.

Dave finally pressed our free roam button, freeing our bodies from the mechanical strain of the show. He began to walk to the opened door, but stopped suddenly and turned around to glare at us with a mixture of distrust, anger and fear. "Don't kill me." he whispered, "If you can hear anything I say, that's all I'm asking for. Please, don't kill me."

The head guard finally left the darkened building, leaving behind a heavy air of uncertainty. After a long silence, Sarah said "Jeremy's coming tonight, isn't he?"

Nodding, I laid the Bonnie's fake red guitar on the floor, before answering flatly "Yeah. Let's wait him out."

We eyed Sean as he climbed down the stage silently and calmly, walked into the bathroom corridor and disappeared in the dark.

The night was long and silent. My eyes' dim pink glow was just enough to read in the lightless west hallway. I turned another page of the thriller I had read a dozen times, sighed, and looked at Jack. He was sitting by my side, disassembling his puzzle just to put it together once again. I flexed my legs to prevent my servos from locking up, making them whir and buzz in appreciation.

"How l-late is it?" asked Jack suddenly without looking at me.

I shrugged. "Two? Maybe two thirty? Something like that."

He went back to his puzzle, eyeing it without interest "I'm bored" he stated after a few seconds, irritated.

"Would you rather have us trying to rip you to pieces?" I questioned.

Jack sighed like a nagged kid, then looked at me with sorry pinpoint eyes and mumbled a low "You're right." Lowering his head, he slowly traced some circles on the floor as I went back to my book. "I just want to know when he's coming. He should c-come by midnight."

I turned a page. "Give him time buddy. It must be difficult to move around town without half your frontal lobe."

It was then that we heard the characteristic, rhythmic ticks of hard wood against glass. Our eyes lit up and our ears rose up in pleasant surprise while we rushed out of the hallway and into the dining area. Ferny quickly pulled aside the curtains of Pirate's Cove and met us in front of the stage, followed by Sarah, who held a sturdy flashlight in her yellow hand. Sean stepped out of the black bathroom hallway, his eyes less cold than usual, and we grouped together behind the window next to the front door.

The hooded silhouette's head perked up slightly on the other side of the glass, and he shuffled himself to the door. The knob rattled as he tried to put the key in its hole for long seconds, but it finally rotated, allowing the door to open and the man to step inside, leaning heavily on his walking cane. Sarah flicked on her flashlight and pointed it at the ceiling, finally bringing enough light to see Jeremy's tired, scarred and happy face under his baseball cap and hood. With shaky, small steps he came closer to us, always leaning on the cane, seemingly about to fall down any second from the weight of the large backpack be carried.

"You're late Jerry." started Sean, his grave voice slightly mocking as he walked up to our cousin.

Sighing, the man dropped the heavy backpack unceremoniously on the floor. "For God's sake! I'm sorry! Okay?!" he blurted out, genuine anger visible in his face. "Damn it!"

We remained silent for a while as he calmed down, covering his face with his hand after a few seconds before letting out a shaky sigh. "I'm sorry. Guys." he mumbled weakly, eyes low. "You know how. It is with. Me." He always spoke like that now: chopped up, laboriously, as if it was too much to say one normal sentence.

Sean nodded, offering his hand to Jeremy. Our cousin took it, allowing my brother to help him walk to the show stage. Meanwhile, Ferny grabbed the backpack in one hand effortlessly and began to follow the pair, while Sarah, Jack and me followed him.

Jeremy groaned as he sat on the rim of the elevated stage, finally taking off his hood but not his cap. The keys that he never returned after he quit jingled in his pocket when he pushed himself more on the stage. "So..." He laid twitching hands on his knees while we sat around him, and said "My mom thinks that. I'm with my girlfriend. In a nice hotel in Dallas. To attend a disability convention. Uhh, what else..." he hummed thoughtfully. "Oh. Yeah. Still unemployed. But I guess that's not news. As much as an update." Sighing, he shook his head. "No one wants to hire. An irritable engineer that misses. Part of his brain. Literally."

"I thought all engineers were like that." joked Ferny.

Jeremy shook his head as he laughed heartily and happily. We chuckled along, ignoring how his smile accentuated his line of scars. Wheezing, our cousin finally said "Alright. That was a. Good one." He returned to his thoughtful expression for a few seconds, before turning around suddenly to look at me with happy eyes. "Oh, that's right! Happy birthday, Brandon!"

"Uh, thanks." I mumbled awkwardly, scratching the back of my head. "But my birthday was in August, it's October now. You managed to sneak at night in and give me a radio. We had a lot of fun, actually. Don't you remember?"

My cousin stared at me for a moment, incredulous. "I… I don't remember. I'm. Sorry." He shook his head. "I can't believe I. Forgot your birthday."

"Not your fault." I answered, "You're doing everything you can and more. Thank you."

He raised his shoulder. "It's nothing." Jeremy let a few seconds pass as he looked at the long dining tables, clearly struggling to remember something. "So, you're fifteen. Now. Right?"

"Sixteen." I corrected. "Eight years alive, eight years… whatever this is."

"Of course, sixteen." Jeremy looked at each of my friends and my brother. "That means that. Sean is twenty. Ferny is seventeen. Sarah is seventeen. As well. And Jack is… umm…"

"Fourteen." he answered dryly.

"Fourteen." repeated my cousin. "Thanks." Immediately, another expression of hard thinking appeared on his face. "There was something else. That I always do when. I come here. What is it?" Ferny shoved the large backpack to Jeremy, and the latter looked at it in surprise for a moment, as if he had forgotten he brought it here in the first place. But then he took it firmly, giving an appreciative nod to Fer as he opened it and pulled out a flat, rectangular box.

Jeremy hummed as he pulled a crumbled piece of paper from his front pocket. "Let's see. 'Square box. Jack'. I'm guessing it's a… Don't tell me." He drummed his fingers as he thought for a few seconds. "Got it! It's a jigsaw puzzle, right?"

Jack nodded and took the box from my cousin's hand eagerly, eyeing the picturesque landscape on its cover before reading the details. "Only 1000 pieces?" he complained, looking at me instead of Jeremy.

"Only?!" The man glared at Jack in surprise. "That's 8 to10! Hours of assembly time! For adults! It's on the box."

"That's three hours for Jack." replied Sarah causally. "Four hours tops. And after he gets it done the first time, he'll finish the thing in less than two hours. He's good."

Jack raised his head at Sarah for a second, confidence visible in his pinpoint eyes. "I'm g-good." he repeated proudly as he began to open the box. But before he could, I give him a slight nudge on his side. He sighed lowly, and mumbled a mechanic "Thank you." without looking at my cousin.

Jeremy then pulled a few second-hand paperbacks from the backpack, and handled them to me and Ferny. He loved sci-fi, while I preferred a clever mystery horror thriller. Sean thanked him as he took his historical novels, and Sarah opened her art magazines as soon as she got them. We couldn't be more thankful every time he went through this for us, but he always answered with "It's nothing."

"Could we ask you for something, Jeremy?" said Sarah after eyeing her magazine quickly.

"Anything." was the man's answer.

"We kinda need another radio."

My cousin stared at her, puzzled. "Why? What happened to. The last one?"

Sarah only looked at me in accusation, purple eyes shining fiercely. My eyes darted sideways automatically to avoid her gaze as my fingers brushed the back of my head. Chuckling awkwardly, I mumbled "I may have lost control for a moment and…"

"Goddammit Brandon!" Jeremy groaned as he covered his face. "Those things aren't! That cheap, you know! I don't have a lot! Of money and you know that!"

Slight anger welled up inside me at his outburst, but I took a deep breath to calm myself. It's always easier for him to take control when I'm angry. "I'm sorry Jeremy." was my low reply, "But I couldn't help it. He's really strong lately."

The man then took a deep breath himself, and said "And I'm sorry. Heh. Look at us. Doing and saying. Things we don't mean." He shook his head. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks." I whispered, "Thanks a lot."

He nodded with a firm expression. "Anything else you guys. Need to tell me?"

A thoughtful silence filled the room. Thankfully, there hadn't been more 'incidents' since his last visit, so there weren't many bad news to share, something pleasantly unusual for us. "No." said Sean matter-of-factly after a minute, "We haven't hurt anyone in a while, luckily. But people are starting to notice that something is going on here."

My cousin nodded, clearly frustrated. "I noticed. Last week some guys. Wanted to interview me for a. Radio show about ghost stories. They called me right home. Who knows how they. Got the number. Anything else?"

The five of us looked at each other, but it was clear that there was nothing left to say about us. However, a distant memory flashed in my mind. Words from a time that seemed so distant, from friends long gone. "Jeremy, do you remember Mangle?" I asked.

"How could I. Forget her?" The man pointed at his scarred face, but there was no resentment in his voice.

"That night, after the bite, I was… mad." As I spoke, I could almost see myself in that empty hallway once again. "Mad at her, at me, at everything. Marionette came and tried to use me to destroy her, knowing it would separate us even more. That was the first time that a part of Bonnie took over me, outside regular hours."

"You never told. Me this before." interrupted Jeremy, awestruck.

"I guess I simply forgot. But I didn't harm her, thankfully. He wasn't that strong back then. But after all, Mangle asked me to tell you something."

"What was it?"

I peered inside my memories until I found her exact words. "She wanted me to tell you that… that she says hi. That she's thankful to you. And, that she's sorry."

A bittersweet smile appeared on Jeremy's lips. "I mean, there's nothing. To forgive. It was not her fault."

I smiled. "That's exactly what I told her you'd say."

We spent a few more hours with him, remembering, having fun, and pretending that we were what we used to be before everything happened. For the next hours, he made us feel like we were truly human, truly alive.

Jeremy left the building an hour or two before dawn, a walking cane in his hand and an empty backpack on his back. We said goodbye, and he agreed to come in exactly next month.

But that never happened. That was the last time we would see him.

A/N: Now, Sister Location...

First of all, I really liked the game's lore. Different in many ways, while still retaining the 'FNaF element' I love so much. So, will I write a SisLoc fic?

Maybe.

I honestly want to dive heads first and do a medium-length fic on SisLoc right now, but for now this story is my top priority. I'm still puzzling together my interpretation on SisLoc's lore and its connections to the other games, not to mention real life responsibilities. It's likely that I'll do a story on it of around 10 chaps, but only after I'm done with Lost. However, I might just do a one-shot or two-shot on Sister Location in the coming month, depending on available time. It's all very relative at this point.

In any case, thanks for reading, and have a good week.