Mable: Here we are with the next chapter! I decided to lengthen this one a little bit, so it took a little extra time to get it done, but I managed to crack 5,000 words again. That's something! Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
Also, if anyone finds anything off with the text, something odd happened when I tried to upload. O.o It kept saying that it was the wrong file format, so I had to reformat the file twice. I checked through and think that everything's how it was, so hopefully nothing went wrong.
Can't Go Home Again
Chapter Six
Mike wasn't entirely certain he could face the Puppet again. He knew he would have to, but he wasn't sure he could. It was like he was in quicksand and every time he got out he would step back in. "Maybe I am overreacting… I can't believe it's able to talk," he thought as he ran a hand through his hair, replacing his security hat shortly afterwards. He hadn't even changed out of his uniform yet and already the whole day turned to insanity. If he was honest, though, the insanity was the fact that Mike still didn't understand most of the phenomenon happening.
He lifted the second newspaper he had found and read over it. "The 'new and improved' Freddy Fazbear's Pizza reopened last week to a flow of tentative but hopeful young customers. Fazbear Entertainment reassured that all health and safety precautions have been taken, along with a new security measure built into the animatronics themselves. With the investigation into the five missing children still being underway, the new management reassures that the new Pizzeria is a safe haven for children and adults alike."
He noticed the words 'new management', but knew that it was a ply. Whenever the Pizzeria was claimed to change hands it would always mysteriously go to another similarly named company. Just the same, Fredrick would always somehow continue to be in the management, claiming to outside parties that he was a manager while telling actual employees that he was the boss. It was just another way to cover their tracks. The picture of the building looked similar to the one he worked at, but the animatronics were definitely not the same. They looked a bit cutesier and a little like either plastic or porcelain.
He assumed that this restaurant also failed at some point moved onto the last newspaper he had read the title of. There were a few others stacked nearby, but it was headline of this one that caught him. A child had been bitten. He looked at the date and, as expected, it was in 1987. Time to see if he was right about his Foxy suspicion, and if he was going to owe Sam some of his pride.
"The young child bit at Fredbear's Family Diner, name withheld, is still in the intensive care unit. Doctors say that his condition has again dropped from stable to critical, and that any surgery to repair damage will have to be postponed. New details about the accident have been released by authorities; the child had its head inside the mouth of the Fredbear animatronic when the animatronic malfunctioned, causing the injury to take place. This is the second major injury caused by these wearable suits in the last few months after the death of Henry Johnson."
That was it. All spelled out right in front of him. It wasn't Foxy or pink Foxy that bit the child, but Fredbear who was retired afterwards, and Mike knew why. "That's why the name wasn't released…" The picture of the boy was clearly showed the other son of Fredrick. It was undeniably the boy who was clutching the Golden Freddy doll in the photo and this solved the mystery of what happened to his other child. However, this meant that this child had not been murdered like the others, so he couldn't understand how it could be that it would become an animatronic.
But of course, Mike had a new solution for the question; he would directly ask the Puppet.
He straightened immediately and dropped the newspaper on the bed with the others, realizing that he now had an open ended source of information. The Puppet had directly spoken to him and showed it was more than capable of keeping a conversation. He had no doubts that it knew more than it led on; it was all a matter of getting it to talk, and, thankfully, he still had the advantage of catching it earlier. He glanced over at the Foxy plush still laying on the bed beside him and snatched it into his grasp. This was his ticket back into the room.
When Mike entered into the Puppet's room again he expected to find it doing something, like he usually did. Instead its box was closed tightly and it seemed to be inside. He hummed a bit before crossing closer and tapping on the box in a light knock. The box opened immediately, but instead of popping out the Puppet slowly rose from the box. It seemed a little delayed in its motions, but didn't seem to exert any certain emotion. "I thought it was time Foxy returned home from his distant travels to down the hall," Mike remarked and offered the plush.
The Puppet perked and gladly took the doll in his hands, but said nothing. It carefully placed it down into the box with the others and looked to the human with curiosity. "Keep him posted. I'm planning on actually trying to make dinner tonight, so I might lapse into another period of living hell." It made the soft chime, but said nothing. It had returned to its state of not talking as though earlier never happened. Mike wasn't going to let that happen. "So do you go by the Puppet or the Marionette? Frankly, I don't think I've called you anything, so it's about time I asked."
A few moments passed and the Puppet seemed to briefly turn its head to look away, contemplating, but then looked back. He was clearly not wanting to continue speaking verbally, but caved as he could tell that was what Mike wanted. It was pretty obvious Mike wanted a response. "Both are fine. I prefer Marionette, but you can call me whatever you like," he answered in an encouraging tone. As much as he didn't want to talk, he didn't give it away on his voice, though that might have been because he was relieved Mike wasn't still angry.
"Alright… That's how Sam caught you, you know. The voice was pretty close, but the wording was your downfall," Mike couldn't resist a small smirk. It faded off as he decided to get to work. He would be careful with his wording and steadily make his way into the conversation. "So bringing Sam back up, he said he's seen you before. Apparently his name is actually Fritz and he used to work at the Pizzeria when you were there. He said there was a guy named Jeremy working there or something." The Puppet gave no indication that it could tell it was being interrogated.
"He said you worked in a prize corner?" Marionette seemed to become slightly amused again, "I wouldn't say worked, but I was positioned in the prize corner." Mike glanced down into the box, "Figures that's where you got all of those." Immediately the Puppet's interest shifted as he looked down towards the box. "I've been collecting these for many, many years. The Prize Corner only had some of these, but the others I got after I was removed from the Prize Corner. These Funtime Foxy ones actually weren't supposed to be released-."
So quickly it had gone from not wanting to talk to suddenly going on a lecture on plush toys. Mike decided he needed to interrupt before it got too out of hand. "Do you remember why the place was shut down? I'm guessing some security guard keeled over or something." He hadn't meant to say that last part. Marionette rested its head on a hand, crossing its other arm as though to match how Mike had crossed his own. "Hmm… I don't remember. It could've been anything." He hadn't addressed the murdering comment, but didn't seem surprised either.
"Yeah, that's true. You know, it actually used to be called 'Fredbear's Family Diner'? It wasn't even a pizzeria. I'm guessing that Fredbear was probably just another Freddy." The trap was baited and the Puppet eagerly wandered into it. "Oh no. The name was similar, but if you saw them you would see why they changed. They wanted something a little smaller and a little less… Intimidating for the kids." Mike couldn't help it, "But then they brought you in?" Instead of being offended, the Puppet again made that chiming chuckle noise.
"But Fredbear could be worn or something, right?" he added in with a question. "One of those reversible suits that could be put on or taken off?" At last the Puppet seemed to react. He swore that its smile changed a little and visibly grew smaller, and its voice deflated quite a bit. "I wouldn't know." "But you would know," Mike fought the urge to point out. "I'm getting a little off topic, I guess. The diner was a long time ago. Probably nobody who was there is around to tell what happened... Or signed a disclosure agreement of some kind."
The silence was very thick at this moment. Mike coughed into his fist, "So what was the Pizzeria like in its prime? It was practically abandoned once I started working as a night guard." The Puppet perked a bit, "I wouldn't have been able to tell that you worked as one of the security. You don't seem like the type." The human wasn't sure what that meant. "I would've remembered you, so it must have been after I was 'retired'." Now this turned Mike's own interests, "Speaking of that… How exactly did you start living here with Fredrick?"
"…I needed somewhere to go. The other animatronics were set to be destroyed." Marionette's voice changed to a softer, more somber tone. Mike regretted bringing up Fredrick once again and wondered if he needed to back down while he was ahead. Instead, the Puppet willingly spoke, "Mike…" It was the first time it had used his name. "I'm sorry… I shouldn't have done what I did." Mike's eyes widened a good deal. "I knew it was wrong and I still did it… But having him here- I couldn't stand it." The bitter tone was accentuated with the static.
"Well, he's not coming back now," Mike reassured him. "You could've told me. I didn't think you really cared unless they were in the house. I assumed that's why you attacked me." Marionette seemed to get a slightly confused look for a moment, "I attacked you because you were following me." The former security guard sputtered and knew he may be starting some sort of argument, "I didn't even see you until you flew out of the closet- Okay, stop, we're getting off subject again." Finally, he yanked off the Band-Aid, "Look, I'm trying to figure out some things about the Pizzeria."
"I know," Marionette simply interrupted. This quieted the human for a few moments. The Puppet turned away from him and stared at the wall blankly, slouching forward just a bit. There was obviously distress and it took a moment to simply sit there. Mike rubbed the back of his neck, stopping in his motions when the other spoke again. "Forget it. It's not important." The Puppet slowly turned to look at him when Mike said this. "It's just going to be a mistake digging up the past. Let's just let it drop and pretend it's not important."
Mike wasn't exactly telling the full truth. He didn't plan to stop investigating and he probably would eventually ask more questions again, but it was obvious from the Puppet's behavior that he was on the boundary of going too far. He wasn't afraid of it turning violent, but he was afraid of him deciding to go silent for good. Not just because of the answers he sought; he really had started to become comfortable with the being, even with the phone incident and the sudden speaking, and didn't want to jeopardize that now.
He could see Marionette tenseness recede just a little. "But I meant what I said about dinner. Kill me now," Mike finished his sarcastic remark and left the room. He assumed that the Puppet would be happy by his decision to leave and would want time alone following the previous conversation. Instead it recreated its previously clinging behavior of following and watching him silently as he worked. It followed him into the kitchen and watched him cook without getting involved, so he wasn't in the way.
It was basically the simplest version of spaghetti Mike could make, save making the frozen kind. The human then made two plates, face palmed once he realized he didn't need two plates, Marionette standing there had somewhat thrown him off, and just left it there. The last few times he had sat down to eat the Puppet had left to do other things. It didn't have any interest in eating so he simply assumed that it couldn't. Perhaps because of the second plat, the animatronic reacted accordingly and stayed with him through the meal.
He tried to just eat like it wasn't awkward, but with Marionette sitting in the chair across from him, resting against the table and watching him, he couldn't ignore it. It just stared him down with that wide smile; it made it a little difficult to eat. His mind went back to the questions he hadn't asked like he had planned and tempted him with a possible conversation. However, the animatronic still wasn't speaking, and the human didn't want to drag words from it like earlier.
So he instead decided to initiate a different conversation, talking about something that wouldn't immediately bring bad memories or anything into the picture. Unfortunately, Mike found himself talking about the last thing he wanted to; himself. "So, uh… Yeah, I got a scholarship to college, but I was running low on funds and had to leave. By time that happened I was practically broke. I started taking odd jobs, a couple at a time, lived in an apartment that looked more like a shed- That's how I ended up taking the night shift at Freddy's."
He actually could remember it pretty well, but he skipped over the less important details. "I already had a day job, so the night shift was the only time I had free. Freddy's didn't pay well and after a week I was dropped… But then a while later I was called back and offered a higher wage." He flashed a smile, "Thus began my on again, off again relationship with Freddy's." The Puppet listened intently with what seemed like more curiosity.
"I'd like to say risking my life every night is what turned my life around, but I don't know about that… I didn't exactly have a good childhood. I'm not going into details, but let's just say that walking out empty handed was the best outcome. Fredrick- I was close to him." He double checked to make sure the animatronic didn't seem upset. It seemed to be looking more towards the table or the plate of food, but still seemed attentive and wasn't looking like it was too disturbed.
"He reminded me a lot of my Grandfather. Not really old enough, but they had a lot of similar behaviors. Now that's something worth talking about; I've been mostly raised in suburban areas, but I used to go spend holidays at my Grandparents' place all the time. They lived out in the country in an old farmhouse… Still do, actually. I call them a bit, but I haven't visited in a long while. I didn't want them to know about the money issues because I knew they'd want to help out. My folks borrowed a ton of money from them over the years; I couldn't do it to them."
For a moment Mike found his eyes glancing to his phone. Maybe he needed to go through with calling them. He then looked to his plate and took another bite of the spaghetti to both stall time and try to ignore the growing guilt. Marionette must have noticed his behavior as he was now looking to the phone with a slightly tilted head. "I used to spend summer and winter vacation with them. My folks didn't mind and my Grandparents loved it. In the summer there was fishing and hiking, sometimes we'd camp out in the field behind the house too. It was great."
He chuckled at the memories coming back. "In the winter the snow would take over everything. We'd sled, make snowmen, try to build igloos that never really worked out, and then I'd spend Christmas with them. It was really great. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday." As he paused to take another bite of food, the Puppet made that chiming 'laughter' once more. Mike glanced upwards and hummed in questioning, but it didn't say anything in response. He decided to shrug it off and to continue talking.
"Now my Grandmother can cook. She used to by Cornish hens and make them into what was practically a four course meal, then would bring out pie. Now me, I'm lucky this isn't charred to a crisp," he playfully remarked to the animatronic. "I miss them… I guess since I've got a stable place now I should call them. I won't be lying… Unless they try to visit. Don't worry, I would subject either of us to that." He smirked playfully while the Puppet seemed to look down for a second, as though thinking or simply pausing for a moment.
"There's not much on me that I can talk about. I'm sort of an average guy. You already know, we've lived together long enough for you to figure out how boring I am." Again the Puppet seemed to laugh, though Mike passingly wondered if it was directly at him. He shrugged it off enough and continued. "No real career, no relationship, and a constantly empty schedule; that's the way I live. Some people would call that pathetic… And so would I. It's a good thing that things are finally changing." That signaled the end of Mike's conversation. There wasn't really anything left to say.
The Puppet wasn't as clingy after that point. He noticed it followed him around still, but wasn't as constantly in contact as it had been earlier. The evening went relatively normal from that point on, as normal as it could be, and in the early evening Mike broke down and took his cell into the master bedroom. Part of him knew he was going to say something that gave away how abnormal everything was, but he couldn't hide from them any longer, not when now confronted with how quickly Fredrick had gone from fine health to death.
Yet as the voices came on the phone there was immediate joy. They both sounded older, they took turns sharing the phone, but they were so happy to hear his voice. So happy to talk, so happy to ask questions, and to Mike's relief he managed to pull off making everything sound alright. Once again he told a variation of the story about what happened with Fredrick. This one was that he had no living relatives and was close to Mike, that he got the house because he was listed as one of the heirs, and slipped in that he needed to fix up the house, insisting that it wasn't in visit able condition.
"All I really need is to take a can of paint to it and fix most of the bathroom fixtures. I can handle it by myself." There was movement outside the door in the hall. "Maybe, but it's really not worth paying someone to do. I can handle it." The bedroom door creaked open in a slow manner. "But I can come out and visit. I get some time off around the holiday; it'll be just like old times." Mike watched as Marionette slid into the room. He noticed that it was carrying the music box and spoke into the phone, "Hold on, I need to do something. I'll call you back in a minute, Grandpa."
There were a few more moments of exchanged dialogue before Mike actually managed to hang up the phone. Thankfully, the Puppet didn't react aggressively to someone on the phone. It waited until the call was ended before lowering itself to kneel on the end of the bed. "I broke down and called my Grandparents," Mike explained. "They're not coming or anything. The last thing I want is to give them a- … A reason to worry." He covered the word 'heart attack' well enough, or he hoped that he did. The Puppet made another chiming noise again.
Mike noticed it and identified it as amusement. "Want to let me in on the joke?" he was more curious than anything. Surprisingly, Marionette did decide to explain, and it somewhat surprised him to hear the animatronic speaking again. "There was a Christmas tradition at the Pizzeria. Every year 'Santa Bear' would come and give gifts to the kids." His voice grew quieter as though it was a secret, "It was really just dear Freddy-bear with a beard and a hat taped to his head." he seemed thoroughly amused, though there was also something else, like a tiredness.
Amusement passed Mike too, "I can see that they were pulling out all the stops, as usual." This seemed to encourage the Puppet who continued to eagerly speak. "But the children loved it! They would get free tokens and cookies, bought from somewhere else, and the candy canes that they had left over from the years before. When you mentioned Christmas, and your Grandparents, I couldn't help but think of Freddy handing out treats, or trying to through a beard of cotton." He now giggled a little harder; the chiming was now joined with actually vocal laughter.
Then the Puppet quieted and straightened him, smiling at Mike before pointing to the music box, "Wind me?" The former security guard took the music box in his hands. "Here, I'll take you back to your box… Any particular reason why you can't wind the box? Not that I'm complaining, I'm just a little curious." The Puppet rose off of the bed and hovered backwards towards the bedroom door. "I don't have enough time. Once the music starts, I stop." The human followed him out of the room. "Then why don't you just get in the box and wind it?"
The Puppet turned away and continued down, "It's… No. It doesn't work. Now that you're here I don't need to try such desperate measures." He raised a black hand halfheartedly as though trying to wave it off, then fell silent as he disappeared into his bedroom and moved into his box. "Don't feel guilty waking me to do it if I forget," Mike offered. "Ready?" The Puppet looked to him and then gave a visible nod. He certainly was starting to look tired, which Mike had only just now noticed. Maybe this was why he had been so ready to talk in the bedroom.
The soft music played from the music box as Marionette slipped into his box, closing it behind him and disappearing from the world. Mike set the box on the shelf and shut the light off before leaving. He still had the night ahead of him and, with the animatronic out of the way, he could do what he needed to. He called back his Grandparents and spoke for a while, then called Sam who surprisingly didn't answer the phone, and then began a relatively quiet night of going through the rest of the newspapers and searching through the attic.
The newspapers had been hidden for a reason; each one detailed an event at the Pizzeria that Fredrick had wanted to be forgotten. The disappearances of the missing children, the security guard deaths, the multiple reopening and closing of the restaurant; all of it was printed in black and white. It helped Mike establish a timeline, but unfortunately didn't give too much new information. He already knew about the bite and the incidents and the newspapers seemed to only hold vague details. The only thing he did find of interest were extra details.
Except for one thing he had stumbled upon accidently. One of the various stacks of paper actually hid something more, a folder. It was in this folder that Mike found the birth certificates and death certificates of Fredrick's family members. He noticed pointedly that the death date of one and the birthdate of the other was the same. "Fredrick's wife did die during childbirth… It wasn't a cover of a Pizzeria accident." He actually felt a light sadness settle in. His eyes moved onto the other papers until he was suddenly interrupted.
Mike was jostled out of his findings by a banging noise from downstairs. He flinched and listened more intently, only to be rewarded with more noise filtering through. "Please tell me someone didn't break in…" Mike muttered as he made his way back to the exit of the attic and lowered himself back down. A distorted radio sounding noise hit his ears and he knew that the Puppet was awake, and from how loud it was he wasn't exactly pleased with something. "Did someone actually break in? Great, now I get to learn how to dispose a body…"
He entered into the hall just in time to catch Marionette leaving his room and head down the hall towards the living room. Mike pursued, looking into the bedroom as he passed and noticing the state it was in. All of the plush characters were sprawled on the floor along with cables, old decorations, and various other items. They had all been yanked right out of the bottom of the Puppet's box and now laid there. The only evidence of their previous location was that one of the wires was still partially hanging out of the box. The bed also had the blankets torn off of it.
"Is this what it does when the music box runs out?! It never did this before!" But Mike soon got his answer when he entered the living room and noticed where it was; at the couch. It violently started to pull the pillows off the couch, clawing at the fabric and uprooting what it could. Mike flinched as it hit him, "Damn, he's looking for the bear!" Horror filled his mind as he remembered grabbing the Golden Freddy plush, driving over to the warehouse, and couldn't remember if he brought it back. He certainly didn't bring it inside.
The Puppet noticed him and finally looked over. He stopped his frantic movements and spoke… Or Mike thought it might be speaking. The voice was extremely faint against the multitude of broken equipment noises also coming from its chest. The words he did hear were frantic and usually repeated the phrase, "He's gone." Mike raised his hands in defense, "Calm down. He's got to be around here somewhere." Marionette didn't seem to catch the guilt on the human's face, or the dread, and instead dropped the couch cushion in its hands.
"Here, just…" He tried to think of a way to get the Puppet out of the room so that he could slip outside. "Go check the master bedroom. Maybe he somehow got in there." The striped being was too frantic to argue or rationalize, taking off down the hall and not noticing as Mike grabbed his keys and left the house. "Sam's not going to be there this late. What am I supposed to do, break in?... There's a crowbar somewhere in the back- Oh, thank God!" As he leaned to peer in the backseat his eyes landed directly on the gold colored plush sitting there, staring back at him.
Suddenly he remembered bringing it back, realizing how lucky he was that he didn't have to drive over to the warehouse in the middle of the night. He grabbed the bear and shut the door, "You're more trouble than your worth, Bear." He remarked with a small smile of relief. It almost seemed to stare back at him, but he ignored it as he hurried back inside. "I found it!" he called down the hall. Marionette didn't even float back, he just suddenly flickered into existence in front of Mike, grasping onto the plush toy and holding it tightly to his buttoned chest. "Better?" Mike offered.
Marionette didn't respond immediately and simply continued to hold the doll to him. One of his hands gently stroked over its small back in a comforting manner, to comfort the inanimate object. Suddenly a thought hit Mike; he could still use the doll to get answers, but perhaps directly from the Puppet. After all, he had been so eager to talk about his collection earlier. It only seemed natural that he would could be coaxed into explaining more about the toy itself, and maybe that would lead to concrete answers about the past deaths.
…But he wasn't in the state to answer questions now. Mike couldn't coerce Marionette into talking after this mess. "Just another day of me fixing problems that I unintentionally caused. I always have tomorrow to wreck." He reached out to touch its shoulder, only hesitating for a split second before making contact with the black fabric. "Come on, let's get you back to your box. He's not going anywhere," Mike gave a reassuring smile and Marionette seemed to calm down, following his lead back to the room. It wasn't until they were in the room that Marionette perked.
He floated around the room, and hand raised to his mouth while the other clutched the plush still. He seemed to be alarmed by what he was seeing and Mike felt a slightly amused smirk appear on his face. Marionette scanned the room and only approached the box last. He looked inside it, at the stuff outside, and said not a thing. The movements were enough to portray his embarrassment. He then made a slight effort to put some of the plush toys back, but gave in shortly after beginning and simply got into the box. Mike didn't hesitate to wind the music box and put it back to sleep.
"I need a break," he mentally muttered as he headed out to fix the couch. He didn't think he was able to fix the wreck in the bedroom; he would leave that for the Puppet. "Maybe I'll take Natalie up on that drink…"
Mable: Mike should appreciate this time. I mean, you never know when something is going to throw a wrench in the works… But hey, tomorrow is another day! I will try to get the next chapter done as soon as I can. ^-^ I hope everyone enjoyed!