A/N: Hi people reading this story! I just wanted to leave a note to tell everyone reading this, that I'm also currently writing another story related to this one called 'Graveyard Shift.' I've already got two chapters up and that stories plot takes place in this story's timeline. If you like this one, you'd probably like the other. As always, thanks for the support. Reviews are always greatly appreciated!

Chapter 12

Elaina's Bonds

"Shut up, dude. Honestly," Elaina snapped at Jack. "This has nothing to do with you and I- I have no idea why I ever got you involved. Just- Just stop poking your nose in other people's problems, okay?" She was practically seething with annoyance and rage. Jack dejectedly retreated back into his chair as a result.

Elaina had been searching with Jack for their siblings since the morning. She was tired and just about done with this guy's emotional crap. Or at least his attempts to get involved with her's.

Maybe he was tired too. But Elaina couldn't lie to herself by saying he was completely wrong. She and Jack both knew Elaina had to talk it out with Vanessa. The technician knew it was about time she did that. No more stalling. She was going to quickly rip the band-aid off. She made her way to towards the lounge, where her sister lay, apparently freshly awoken from unconsciousness.

Elaina nervously shuffled her hands around in her empty pockets as she trudged through the lounge door, head hung low.

"Hi," Vanessa said, quickly and quietly. She was laying on the round couch with a wet towel on her forehead. Dave was sitting on one of the bean bag chairs near the make-shift bed. Davey noticed Elaina walk in and swiftly shot out of the bean bag chair.

"Welcome back," he grinned, "I was afraid you guys would be lookin' out there the whole damn night!" He offered a hand for Elaina to shake. She stood still, avoiding direct eye contact with Vanessa. Davey slowly put down his hand, as no one was willing to shake it.

"Hi, guys," she muttered awkwardly. Awkward was the perfect word to describe this whole situation. 'Hi, guys' was all she had the courage to muster up. It felt as though reality was progressively moving slower, just so the universe could make Elaina cringe for an extensive amount of time over having to slowly do something she'd rather avoid; apologizing. Elaina had come to the conclusion that the universe was out to get her long ago.

The room was quiet and everyone still for what felt to Elaina like hours until she finally found the courage to say what she had to say. "Sorry. I'm, uh, sorry... For attacking you this morning, I mean. It was the worst reaction I could've possibly had upon seeing you for the first time in months. Sorry for that too. For, uh, not visiting you and mum and dad often enough."

Damn. She went into that apology confidently, but it came out jumbled and messy. Shit. She shuffled awkwardly in place which seemed to signal Davey to offer her a seat at the end of the couch, where Vanessa wasn't taking up space.

"Thanks. And just so we're clear, I know I can be a mega bitch sometimes. I'm working on it, okay? Sorry for stealing attention when we were kids. After you moved out, I changed. Believe me."

"You better have changed," Elaina thought.

She could tell Davey felt uncomfortable in the room despite the apologies going back and forth. There was still an incredible amount of tension. It would take more than a few apologies to tie up the broken bonds between the two sisters. That and an enormous amount of time.

It seemed Davey finally decided to leave as he walked to the door, "You know what, I'll just leave you girls to your relationship issues. Vanessa, you seem a lot better now. And I've gotta go-"

"Go where? You already told me you lived here," Vanessa began. "Besides, we're done." Davey sighed, his hand abandoning the door-knob, and he flopped into his bed behind the bar counter.

He would never change. Whenever he couldn't escape an uncomfortable situation, he would either courageously face it, or flop into bed. Based on the short time she'd known him, Elaina guessed it was usually the latter.

"Mom and dad miss you. They want you to visit more often too," Vanessa revealed, a somewhat lonely look in her eye. Elaina was actually surprised to hear that. Not that her parents missed her, but the inclusion of a couple words in that sentence.

"You said too," she chuckled. A grin was beginning to form on her face and she made full eye contact with her sister for the first time since she'd entered the room.

"What?"

"You said our parents want me to visit more often as well. Which means you miss me too." She was genuinely touched by this. Vanessa put her hand on her forehead and threw off the towel. She sat up straight on the couch and threw off her blanket, revealing a smudged white t-shirt with a plain brand logo on it. It was completely covered in dirt and stained with substances Elaina couldn't immediately identify.

"I didn't mean to say it like that," she said.

"Sure you did. It's okay. You know it's also okay to say you love me. AND that you miss me," Elaina teased. Vanessa swatted her hand in the air, as if shooing her sister away.

"Not now. I have to tell you something. Well, actually more like ask you something. It's serious. Elaina? Ha-"

"Say it. You love me and you miss me. Then I'll listen, " she interrupted, a giant smirk growing on her face. She was picking things up from Jack. Elaina had to admit teasing people was more fun than it looked. Although, it's annoying as hell when Jack does it.

"Fine. I...love you and I miss you," she muttered quietly, visibly cringing. Elaina smiled triumphantly. Davey could also be heard giggling from his bed. "Shut up, dude!" Vanessa roared. She threw one of the couch pillows at him to get him to stop.

"Okay, sis. What's your incredibly all-important question for me? Ask away. And I don't want to rush our emotional reunion, but it's getting pretty late and mom and dad probably haven't seen you all day. They must be worried," Elaina explained sternly. Vanessa sat cross legged on the couch, a sign her sister learned long ago meaning she was getting comfortable.

"Don't worry about mom and dad. I told I would be out with friends most of the day. But little do they know, I don't have any. Any...real ones at least..." She spaced out for a second, in deep thought, Elaina presumed. She somewhat felt sympathy, but, to be honest, the technician wasn't very surprised that her sister had no true friends. Elaina assumed her sister was one of those girls who're constantly hanging out with the popular crew, but are secretly lonely. She most likely drives people away with her...attitude.

"Vanessa?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry about that," She said, snapping back to reality. "Um, back to the, uh, the question."

Davey sat up in his bed, and seemed to open up his ears as well as Vanessa's sister.

"Now, this is going to sound incredibly stupid, but I need you to listen. Um, have you ever had strange dreams? I mean, like dreams that, uh, tell you things," she asked nervously.

Yes. Yes she did. A stupid grin appeared on half of Elaina's face. The other half somehow seemed angry. Either she was happy that her sister might suffer from the same condition as Elaina, or Vanessa somehow got hold of the dream journal Elaina wrote her dreams in. A wave of emotion was flying through the technician. Both positive and negative.

"Are you screwing with me?" Elaina muttered.

"No! I swear this shit is serious!" Vanessa grabbed her sister's hand. Elaina got a bit nervous when she saw a look of fear in her sister's eye.

"Okay. I-I do have those dreams...but rarely. And even if I do, why are you asking me?" She asked sternly.

"Well, I...It's because I had a dream that..." She trailed off into a zoned out state again. Elaina snapped her fingers in front of Vanessa's face, but she still didn't budge.

"If you aren't going to tell me anything, then I'd like to ask you where the hell you went. And why you're covered in dirt."

That seemed to bring her back out of her thoughts. "Ya see, that's just it. Look, for the last couple weeks, I've been having dreams of conversations-"

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Davey piped up.

"Shut the hell up for once!" Vanessa yelled. "Okay, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I dream of eavesdropping on a conversation between two people. It's usually in a completely empty room and always with the same two people." Elaina's sister squeezed her hand even tighter.

"Do you know who they are?" The girl inquired.

"Umm..no. But I do know for a fact it's been the same two every time. Most of what they say makes absolutely no sense to me, but the dream I had this morning... They mentioned your name."

Elaina eyes widened. Shit! All she needed was another goddamned mystery she was involved in. Can't these spooky shady people just leave her out of it for just once. "Are you sure? It could've been...another Elaina!"

"No trust me they meant you. They mentioned Fredbear's Family Diner more times than one throughout all of the dreams. But what scared me was the fact that they mentioned you and some other guy destroying each other," she said under her breath. "They also mentioned a third guy would be destroyed by force, whatever the hell that means."

She would never have believed Vanessa in a billion years if Elaina herself hadn't had informative dreams as well. This just seemed to insane to believe. What the hell does destroying each other mean? "Go on with the story."

"Well, do you believe me so far? 'Cause I'm not gonna tell you the rest if you just think I'm bull-shitting the entire time! Like he does." She nodded her head in the direction of a silently snickering Davey who immediately stopped when he saw the two girls stare him down angrily.

"I do believe you. I know first-hand what it's like to have dreams like this. Your first are always the scariest. No one believes you at first, but trust me, I get it," Elaina said. She gave her sister an understanding smile.

"Okay. Thank God you believe me! Anyway, in the dream this morning, the same one they mentioned you, one of the people spoke of a meeting point they would discuss in person at. It was the old abandoned tent in the woods. That's where I went. I had to know more, so I headed over there," Vanessa explained. She let go of Elaina's hand and got up off the couch.

"So that's where you went!" Davey realized, face-palming.

"Davey, we already knew she was going there the second she left," Elaina explained.

"Oh, right..." He face-palmed again.

Vanessa paced back and forth across the room. "Anyway," she continued, "I ran down the street to Hilmak Woods. I ran down the old forest hiking trail and damn did that bring me back to childhood. I hadn't been on the road in years. Remember when we used to be, um, uh, extremely close? We would walk down that path with mom and dad and they would watch as we played in that old wooden park! You know, the one with tree fort!"

Bitter sweet feelings of nostalgia were set loose in Elaina's heart. She remembered all that so clearly. Playing in that park with her sister had been such a foreign memory for so long. It seemed so unnatural that it was a true thing that had happened. They didn't even feel like her memories. But they were nice nonetheless. She would always be the one to push he sister on the swings first, but whatever Elaina still had lots of fun as a kid. She also remembered using the park as a place of comfort. Whenever she felt sad Elaina would secretly run off to the park and hide in the tree fort...

"You're kind of gettin' sidetracked with this trip down memory line. We gotta hear the rest of the story," Davey said.

"Oh, right. Sorry. Don't know why the hell I started talking about that so much. Anyway, the park is gone. It's not there anymore. The tree fort is on it's last leg," She announced.

That wasn't exactly happy news for Elaina. That park was kind of like the mark of a time when the two sisters had a healthy relationship. It was gone now.

"So, anyway, I ran down that path and eventually came across the old tent. I really don't know why people call it 'the old abandoned tent' 'cause it's not really in bad condition. I'm curious to know why that thing is still there. It doesn't seem all that old, but it definitely is abandoned. I walked in and saw nobody. It was basically just an empty room with a bunch chair-less tables randomly flipped about the room."

Vanessa's pacing was really starting to stress Elaina out.

"Another weird thing I noticed," Vanessa added, "were tons of strange air cylinders that would've been used for used in keeping something mechanical moving even with little power. They were all extremely outdated pneumatic cylinders laying carelessly on the dirt along with a whole bunch of electrical wires-"

Davey cleared his throat loudly, as if to say 'GET ON WITH IT!'

"Sorry... Got sidetracked again," Vanessa said. But despite her kind-sounding apology, she stared Davey down like a hawk. As if her eyes were like daggers piercing through him.

"Anyway, I picked up some of the cylinders. They were still in perfectly usable condition. Then I started looking around for anyone. I waited around for a bit, but figured I shouldn't be standing in plain sight, so I looked around for somewhere to hide and I found this weird cupboard thing tucked to the side of the room." She suddenly stopped pacing.

"I suddenly heard strange noises coming from outside the tent so, I quietly over and threw the cupboard open. There were just a couple of empty boxes, a mop and bucket, and two purple costumes inside. I panicked and just frantically threw everything out of the cupboard. But before I could hide inside the cupboard, the strange noises from outside caught up to me," Vanessa uneasily explained. She flopped back down onto the couch.

"Vanessa? What caught up to you? What were the noises?"

"I can't really remember. I think it was breathing or something. Anyway, I didn't see anything. I didn't even get a chance to turn around before this fucking excruciating pain made me drop to the ground. I think that's when I passed out. Next thing I know, I'm here. But I still don't believe for a minute that Leymour was the one who brought me back. That guy's a dick," she said.

Vanessa breathed heavily a couple and lay down on the bed again. Elaina was trying to process what she'd just heard. It was a lot to take in. The room was silent for a good while. The lights in the room went out just then as well.

"Sorry, Vanessa, but it definitely was Leymour who brought you back. He seemed pretty worried too. He told me to make sure you didn't die or anything," Davey casually recounted. Damn that was pretty nonchalant for someone talking about death like that.

Elaina suddenly remembered something she forgot to ask. "Vanessa? Did you ever see Adam following you?"

"Who?" Vanessa asked.

"Adam. Jack's brother," Elaina said.

"Again. Who?"

"Jack is some other guy who works here. But he doesn't matter now. His brother followed you when you went to the tent. We still don't know why because he hasn't come back yet. We ran into Leymour while searching for him earlier tonight actually. After he found you, he continued searching for Adam. Fred and Hector also left to go looking for you two. Come to think of it, I haven't seen them since this morning either," she explained.

She didn't mention anything about Adam throughout her story, so Elaina just assumed she didn't know she was followed. Maybe the noises she heard were Adam following her. As angry as she was with him right now, she had the obligation to tell Jack the details of Vanessa's misadventures as well as her dreams. It might help him find his brother. If he hadn't already left to go searching again.

"Tell your friend sorry. I-I didn't see anyone follow me. I'm not sure where he could be," Vanessa declared.

A frown grew on Elaina's face, in turn seemingly making Vanessa feel sympathy.

"If Leymour apparently found me and brought me back, then who's to say he won't do the same with Aiden! Now all we have to do is wait for them to get back," Vanessa comforted.

"It's Adam, by the way," Davey corrected.

"That's what I said!"

Davey chuckled under his breath which led to yet another couch pillow being thrown at him. Elaina wasn't so sure about Leymour coming through yet again, but it did make her feel better to know that all three of this diner's owners were out searching. She thought back at Vanessa's story. Elaina noticed something interesting during the re-telling.

"Hey, sis?" Elaina called, "Earlier in the story you mentioned trying to carry outdated, but still usable pneumatic cylinders."

"Yeah what about them?"

"How did you know those were pneumatic cylinders?" Elaina said, a large grin on her face. "Cylinders are one of the main components used in animatronics. How do you know about those?"

"I built the framework for an animatronic by myself didn't I?" Vanessa stated.

"That is quite impressive. I'm not sure even Jason Feeter could do that! And he's a legend in the industry," Elaina exclaimed.

"Thanks, but it has very limited movements. And it's not like it can walk around or anything like Fredbear."

"I'm still incredibly impressed anyway. Since when have you been into animatronics?" Elaina asked happily. She had something in common with her sister. For years, that was an extremely rare sight.

"Well, remember a couple years when you were in 12th grade, and mom and dad forced you to drag me with you to Mechanicon. Well, I know I was extremely angry about it, but when we got there I was actually kind of amazed by all the creations shown off there. Of course, I pretended I hated it whenever I had to walk around the show floor with you, but I secretly grew an extreme appreciation for it. I even managed to ditch you for a bit and ran into Jason Feeter. I got to know the guy a bit. I lied and told him I was an up-incomer in the creation side of things. I even told him I would show off my robots next year. I kind of befriended him because he told me he loves to find new-comers who come to know the joy of creation!" Vanessa sat back up on the couch to face Elaina.

"Damn. Once you get going, you never stop talking!" Davey smugly commented with his infamous smirk. Instead of throwing a pillow this time, Vanessa just rolled her eyes.

"You of all people talked with Jason Feeter!? I'm extremely jealous!" Elaina said, giddy with the discovery of a common interest.

"Yeah he's a really nice guy! That day he even personally took me to a back room in the venue the convention was being held and showed me some secret bands that he's been working on that weren't ready for the show floor. I and the rest of his small group at creative engineering are the only ones to ever see the early stages of the Mars Rockers!" Vanessa excitedly declared.

"Wow, this stuff seems kind of nerdy for you, Vanessa. No offense," Davey whispered under his breath.

"I know. That's why I don't really have many true friends anymore. I spend a lot of my free time raising up the money for supplies to build something. And the rest of my time is used up building said thing. It usually takes a full year to make one animatronic, so every year I secretly go to Mechanicon and show off my creation. Jason Feeter always says hello every year and gives me advice," Vanessa explained.

Elaina never thought she would say this, but she was happy she was forced to drag her sister along to Mechanicon a couple years ago.

"So you're also at Mechanicon every year!? How come I haven't seen you!?" Elaina inquired.

"Well, I try to stay on the down-low. I don't really want all the 'popular kids' at my school potentially seeing me there."

"You shouldn't care what they think. You're into whatever you're into. Anyway, next year you should totally come find me. It's actually in few weeks, right?"

"Yeah. I guess I could look around at this year's creations with you...maybe...possibly..."

"I probably won't have anything ready to show this year, but you should introduce me to Jason. It's my dream to work with him at creative engineering," Elaina admitted happily.

"Well, he did say he's been looking for a new working partner for years. His old friend used to work on all kinds of things with him. Back before he even had the rest of his team. But apparently his friend had been secretly working on new project. He completed the project and showed it to Jason. It was an animatronic capable of moving off-stage and walking around. Jason wanted to use it for a new restaurant one of the companies he works with was opening up. But his friend up and left with his new machine. Jason still to this day has no idea where his friend went."

"So it wasn't Feeter who made Fredbear. I'd just always assumed that. I didn't even know he used to have a close partner."

"What was his name?" Davey asked.

"I can't remember the last name, but I'm pretty sure his first name was Fred. Fred abandoned creative engineering and left with his machine."