Uploading this chapter a bit earlier to make up for my lateness. Just trying to stick to the schedule. As always, feedback and reviews are always greatly appreciated :)

An entire month had passed since Elaina first started working at Fredbear's Family Diner. She would add features on to Fredbear like more subtle movements to make the bear look a bit less 'robotic'. She fixed things like faulty wiring, buggy audio and such; still refraining to add any extremely interesting features like the free roaming idea. Although, she had elaborated on her ideas in her 'improvements journal'. She wrote down instructions notes about how she was going to do the whole free roaming idea. She was even in the early stages of planning out a new animatronic friend for Fredbear. She hadn't come up with a name yet, but she had written down all the inner-workings for the new robot.

The last month consisted of school and working on animatronics for Elaina. There was also a whole lot of pestering coming from Jack. Elaina was starting to think the frustrating Jack had developed an unusual infatuation with her, which was kind of cool since Elaina wasn't usually given all that much attention. However, she was starting to think Jack had become a tiny bit less annoying over the last few weeks, laying off on his annoyingly bad puns and random factoids that nobody cared for.

Unfortunately, Leymour did not let up in his attempt to be as creepy and weird as possible. He had approached her twice more. The first time, he'd talked about how if Jack and Davey didn't stay away from Elaina, he would force her to stay away from them. Elaina had no idea how Leymour could pull off either of those outcomes or why he even wanted them to happen in the first place. Another strange thing about Leymour; his personality seemed to be in constant motion and even Hector, who acted as a sort of mentor for Elaina, didn't even know what was going on with him.

The second time he approached the mechanical engineer had been just a couple days earlier. He told her that her time had run out and he would begin his active assault to separate Jack, Davey and Elaina. She thought nothing of it, because, when he thought about it, Leymour wasn't really a big threat after all. If he tried to pull any sort of crazy stunt, Hector would have him out of here in no time. Especially if his intent had been to hurt Elaina. Hector grew rather protective of her and became a somewhat figure of kindness for her. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something about Elaina's sad attitude and Hector's kindness went well together.

It wasn't until today that Elaina learned what lengths Leymour would go too to enact his separation plan.

It was a Saturday. The perfect day for a birthday party at Fredbear's. The whole place was packed full of kids, a good majority of them taking part in the birthday celebration of a lucky child. They all sat at a couple of the tables near the front of the room that had brightly coloured tablecloths with 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' plastered all over it. Elaina wasn't too fond of small children, so she wasn't thrilled to have to come into work to make sure Fredbear was working fine on Saturdays. She had to do it almost every Saturday, so she felt her annoyance for little kids had somewhat faded. She was honestly not quite sure where this hatred came from. Whether it was she was jealous of the childhood they got that she didn't or the fact that they made so much noise.

She prepared to write down notes in her 'improvements journal' at the back of the dining hall with most of the children's parents making conversation as they looked on at the kids having fun. Fredbear was currently behind red curtains as the machine waited for the drapes to open so he could start entertaining the kids. When it came time to serve the party guests, Fredbear would start singing happy birthday and come off stage to give cake; a trick that would always send the kids reeling. That's exactly why she knew a free-roaming animatronic would be a hit with the kiddies.

Elaina was still not used to the roaring voices of the party and the bustling nature of the building, but she was always told to make the most out of every situation, so she watched some of the kids having fun, talking about adventures they'd been on in their imagination, playing a very unpractical game of tag, and doing what kids do. It brought a smile to her face. She saw Flash in his uniform walk out of the kitchen and right up to the party table, pizza in hand. He stumbled about on his way to the table, almost dropping the food that had just been made. When he arrived at the table, with a huge kind smile on his face, he split all of the pizza slices evenly and gave the first slice to the birthday boy and continued down the table handing out slices as if he were an entrepreneur handing out business cards; quickly and warmly. Instead of heading back to the kitchen, the messy haired boy sat down next to a little girl who was sitting on her own at the end of table. She seemed to be having not to much fun. Flash was obviously trying to be comforting to the lonely little girl.

"That boy sure does have a way with the little ones. Anyone else, and the girl might of ignored them," explained a kind voice as it's owner put their hand on Elaina's shoulder. She turned around to find Hector in his blue business suit looking out at his restaurant. "Well, I guess so," she agreed.

"How's the party been going?" Hector asked Elaina

"Going fine. Everyone seems happy, except for her." She pointed at the girl and was surprised to find she was now laughing with Flash.

"Well, would you look at that! I'm glad we got that kid on the team. He seems more comfortable with the kids than with the adults! He's got a heart of gold, that one." Flash turned around to see Hector looking at him. Hector nodded in approval and gave Flash a thumbs up. He patted the girl on the head with a smile and walked back towards the kitchen, but he was back to his normally clumsy self when he bumped into Jack as they crossed paths. Jack shrugged it off and continued on his way, while Flash entered the kitchen, dousing the room in an overpowering aroma of pizza and cake as he swung the door open. Jack was headed for one of the mildly populated tables that didn't belong to the crowded celebration, but he stopped in his tracks as he saw Elaina, and diverted his path.

"Here we go again," Elaina grumbled with a sigh.

"Oh, c'mon. He's not that bad. He just wants to know you. He wants you to be his friend," Hector argued quietly as Jack approached the moody girl.

"Sorry to bother you," he began, "but I was just curious to know what your brother's deal is!?" To Elaina's surprise, Jack's comment was directed towards Hector and not her. She was grateful for that, because he sounded quite pissed off. "Shhhh! Keep it down!" Hector pleaded. Fredbear's mechanic found this a little useless, because it was too loud to even hear Jack through all of the noise. Hector looked around as if he were some shady drug dealer looking for a new client and said in a hushed voice: "What did he do now?"

"I mean, it's not that big of a deal. Just tell him to be creepy somewhere else. He's just hanging around the kitchen waiting. It's like he's anticipating something!" The young worker complained. Elaina feared even the sound of that man's name. Ever since the dream she'd had a month ago, she'd been worried about it's events coming to pass. She tried to argue the slim possibilities of it's occurrence in her mind, but the thought just kept on resurfacing. Based on her many rapid conversations with him, Jack wasn't to fond of the restaurant owner either.

"Don't worry about it. He just get's like that whenever he's thinking about finances and such. He means well, trust-" He stopped talking as there was a sudden disorienting change in lighting, causing all the kids who were running around to stop at the nearest table and sit in silence. The place's lights dimmed as if a show was about to start. It was because a show was about to start; Fredbear's show. The kids voices quickly muted as the red curtains began to open and Elaina ditched the conversation to prepare for a good long session of note writing. She installed that light fixture to make it more of a big deal when Fredbear started moving about, making the kids more prone to sit and anticipate. Looks like Elaina's idea had worked because the kids' attention was directed towards the stage.

The curtains revealed the slumped over golden robot in all his animatronic glory; his artificial fur practically glowing under the blond spotlight. He slowly sprang to life and walked downstage to reach the very front in a rather clunky fashion.

Elaina had run and seen this routine so many times, that she could repeat the entire thing word for word.

The mechanic couldn't help but follow along and mutter the words along with Fredbear.

"Hello one and all! How are you all doing today!?" The animatronic shouted gleefully with a goofy voice. Elaina had tried to install facial recognition software, but ended up only giving Fredbear unintentional eye contact abilities. The bear looked right at the girl Flash was trying to cheer up earlier and managed to make her smile even more.

"Welcome to Fredbear's Family Diner! I know we're going to be the best of friends!"

Elaina recited along with him. "And who am I you ask?! It's me, Fredbear," Elaina anticipated before Fredbear, but she was astonished to find the animatronic repeating one of his lines again and again, like a damaged audio tape. All colour in Elaina's face left as she watched the machine she was supposed to have in ship-shape for the party glitching out:

"It's me," he repeated.

"It's me- It's me- It's me- It's me- It's me-"

As the line looped again and again, Fredbear jerked around left and right, as if he was twitching repeatedly. Elaina could've sworn she checked his voice box just last week and it took a while for a voice box update to be necessary for function! On top of all that, no one was allowed to even touch Fredbear other than Elaina.

"What the hell happened!? I could get fired for this!" Elaina thought, panicked. That stupid line kept repeating, ringing in Elaina's ears.

Some older kids in the corner laughed at the technical failure, but Elaina was mortified as she saw the smaller kids looking confused beyond belief. Elaina wouldn't dare look to her left to face Hector, but she turned to Jack and he looked at her with a worried face. Fredbear's mechanic was puzzled on how she would keep the show going, but minutes suddenly stopped being hours and time was brought back to it's original state as Jack suddenly ran up on stage and saved Elaina's ass as he began improvising.

"Ummmm…," he began on stage. "My friend here is, uh, having some difficulties…" As Jack struggled for what to say in front of his audience of infants, he made eye contact with Elaina, signaling her to get up on stage and fix the machine subtly. "Well, umm, you see, Fredbear….. is, uh, a little shy in front of crowds! So why don't we let the good doctor of shyness take a look at him!" Jack got the hang of holding the show together as Elaina made a mad dash for the backstage area, grabbing a few tools while Fredbear was still stuck repeating the same phrase.

"It's me- It's me- It's me-"

Elaina ran on stage in character as the 'good doctor of shyness', quickly waving hello to the audience before making her way behind Fredbear. She opened up a little panel and inspected the animatronic's voice box as Jack continued his attempt to save the show.

"Thank you, Jack," Elaina thought, relieved. Of course, she was still worried she would get in a lot of trouble for this, but at least the quick term solution had been handed to her by Jack.

Elaina fixed the problem and Fredbear was finally able to move on with the show, interrupting Jack in the middle of his third terribly improvised knock-knock joke in a row.

"-Fredbear! How about you hear some of my famous jokes?!" The robot finally continued.

Jack and Elaina quickly got off stage to greet a surprisingly amused-looking Hector.

As they walked off, Elaina smiled at Jack gratefully and thanked him for saving the show.

We met the smiling Hector at the back of the dining hall and he pulled us both in for a hug. Elaina was ecstatic that he wasn't angry with her, but she couldn't help thinking that it was unusually kind behavior for an employer. Out of the three owners, Fred was definitely the most boss-like.

"I'm so proud of you two! You handled that like professionals!" He exclaimed, trying to send his gratitude while still trying to keep his voice down. He pulled away from the group hug and turned to address Elaina. "But this is something we must avoid in the future!" He told her, now starting to sound more emphatic. "So no more slacking off on regular Fredbear check-ups! You're pretty lucky Fred didn't see this. He'd probably have you fired in a heartbeat."

Elaina sat back down at her table feeling kind of defeated. How could a problem like this go unnoticed!? Someone had to have tampered with Fredbear, or something. There was no way a professional like Elaina would let this issue go unfixed. Suddenly, the dark truth finally dawned on the mechanic. If anybody had to do with this, it would be…..Leymour. He had said he would force Elaina to stay away and getting her fired would do just that.

Elaina continued writing notes in her 'improvements journal' until the large party finally finished. Luckily, the rest of Fredbear's cheesy show had gone without a hitch and the children were satisfied with their day of fun. The lonely little girl had even taken the time to find Flash and high-five him as a goodbye. It was a heart-warming sight to see, and Elaina's heart wasn't easily warmed.

Elaina headed for the exit, but saw Jack standing in front of the doorway. "You can't just leave!" He yelled.

"I'm happy about what you did and I thanked you for it. Now what do you want for me!?" She responded.

"I want you to stand up for yourself!" His voice diminished in pitch as he turned the conversation hush. "Look, you and I both know that you couldn't of caused a mistake like that," he whispered quietly as the restaurant was beginning to empty. "I think it was Leymour."

"So you think it's him too?" Elaina said.

"In fact, I'm almost positive it's him. So, what you're going to do is go down to the office and confront him yourself. He wants you fired, so you'd best get in there and defend yourself and prove he's sabotaging you!" The scruffy worker explained.

"But, Jack, you know I can't stand Leymour-"

"Elaina, this is important! You could get fired for this." He actually sounded genuinely worried for her. She knew Jack was right, but she just found it difficult to bring herself to

meet that psychotic man. Nonetheless, she would get fired otherwise. As that thought reached her brain, she suddenly began getting very angry. What kind of a man would try to separate people he didn't know!? What kind of a man would try to get someone fired for no reason!? What kind of a man would sabotage their workplace's main attraction!? A crazy one.

"You're right... See you on Tuesday! I've got me a mentally deranged man to talk to!" Elaina shouted, already marching down the dining area, towards the corridor.

"Bye!" Shouted the Scruffy boy as he strangely made his to the employee's lounge instead of the exit, but Elaina didn't worry about that now. She had bigger and more insane fish to fry.

She finally reached the end of the hall, fully prepared for her encounter. She stopped to recollect herself before parading into the office.

"What the hell did you do!?" Elaina yelled right in Leymour's face. She realized she might have been in a bit of trouble if Fred was the one hanging around the office at the time, but that thought was interrupted by the response Elaina expected to get from the diner owner; "I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about, madam." It sounded like he was telling the truth, but the girl could never be sure with this baffling man.

"You were here today! You were waiting in the kitchen, so you have to know what i'm talking about!" She spouted madly.

"I would watch my mouth if I were you!" Leymour threatened. "This is your boss that you're talking to!"

Elaina suddenly started to feel a bit less confident with the situation as the lights in the diner went out. Most people had left, so it made some sense. She realized her dream that happened a month ago was very similar in setting to the situation at hand. She was probably alone with Leymour in the building now. "Dammit," she thought as her palms began to sweat.

"F-fredbear. His voice box screwed up, but Jack and I fixed it before too long…. and I-I think you have something to do with it," Elaina accused. Leymour cursed under his breath upon hearing Jack's name. "Oh… I see… I know what you're talking and I have absolutely nothing to do with. Elaina, can you answer me this question; why are you blaming other people for your mistakes?" He scoffed. Now the guy was just being a straight up dick! Elaina was not only seething with anger, but also sweating in nervousness. "I could tell Fred all about this and he wouldn't be so happy." Elaina was done with this guy. She just wanted proof that it wasn't her. She didn't care if Leymour did it or not, she just didn't want to lose a job she genuinely liked. As soon as she could get some kind of proof, she could leave this unsettling place and sleep well knowing she wouldn't have to face the consequences of today's malfunction.

"Leymour, I know I had nothing to do with this! Please!" She was starting to get desperate for an answer. The longer she stayed in here, the more it reminded her of her dream.

"I need to go, so can we move this along?" Leymour said nonchalantly. Again, his personality was completely different. Now he seemed much more laid back than before, but the one thing he never let up on was his creepiness.

"But-"

"If you don't have any proof today's failure wasn't your fault, I'm gonna leave."

Elaina had nothing. She had no proof it was her. While she could tell Fred about Leymour's strange cryptic conversations, he probably wouldn't believe her. She sat speechless.

"Nothing?" Leymour said as he already began slowly walking out the door to the office. "Well then, I'm afraid you're going to have to hope Fred is gracious enough to let you stay, but he usually isn't. Would you mind locking up for me? The keys are on the desk!" He suddenly bolted out of the building, leaving Elaina alone in the dark. She heard the front door close and Leymour exit. "Shit!" She yelled throughout the empty diner to express her anger. She mumbled insults directed at the strange man as she picked up the keys Leymour had mentioned.

But before leaving, she noticed something unusual on the ground that Leymour must have dropped. It looked like a letter. Even though she wasn't the number one Leymour fan in the world, she didn't want to be too intrusive, besides, she had to get home and write up an essay for college. Nonetheless, she picked up the letter and shoved it in her pocket as she ran out of the lonely building, locking the doors as she walked outside into the crisp spring night.

When she got home, she opened the letter right away, her curiosity nearly killing her. The letter read as follows:

Dear Mr. Leymour,

I have done as you said. Everything should be in order for tomorrow's festivities. While I am still not clear on why you want this, I am certain it is for the best. I'm also afraid I might have been caught during the installations, but I'm not sure if it matters much. Please send a response letter to tell me how it went. I'm also pleased to inform you that I have begun minor preparations on model B-01C. All I need now are the blueprints and I can begin my work. One day I would actually like to meet you in person and discuss what you can do for me. I no longer want any secrecy. I want to be out in the open for all the world to see. I want to meet with someone who I've learned works at your department. Anyways, best wishes!

-The Student

Just as she finished reading the letter, Elaina was disturbed by the loud sound of glass shattering coming from her small bedroom. I was in my kitchen ready to fend off any thief. I picked a broom leaning on the wall next to the door and began slowly walking towards my bedroom door. I opened the door to find the room in complete disorder, but what was more jarring was the figure dressed in all black standing next to Elaina's shattered window. The figure quickly jumped out of the window, elaina's 'improvements journal' in-hand. "Give that back!" Elaina yelled, trying to sound threatening. It was too late the figure was already long gone like the fine morning mist. She couldn't believe she had just been robbed and, in a state of shock, she looked around the room to asses the damage done.

The strange thing was, the thief only made off with Elaina's 'improvements journal'.