Mable: Here is the next chapter! Things happen, but I will certainly not spoil when it's so close. Err, sorry it's so late in the evening too. I've been trying to post in the afternoon recently… Well, I guess it doesn't matter with the time zones and all. XD Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
Can't Go Home Again
Chapter Nine
Mike sped over to the warehouse as fast as he could, considering that it had decided to now start pouring rain. Someone else would consider it a foreboding sign, but Mike just considered it a nescience. He pulled into the parking lot of the warehouse and hurried inside. Either Marionette was here or he was at the Pizzeria, but he would rather make sure that Sam wasn't currently at risk. Not that he though the Puppet would be that aggressive towards him, but he wouldn't doubt something strange happening regardless. He found Sam in the office, "I'm here. Sorry about- Whoa. Foxy did a number on you."
Sam looked rough, with a busted lip and a bruise on his forehead. He looked to Mike with a slight smirk, "I wish, it would've been less embarrassing. I just tripped coming out, when Foxy had his hook down the back of my shirt." The former security guard didn't like the sound of it still. "You're not going to believe this. Long story short, Marionette started talking and- Who are you?" Somehow he suddenly noticed the shorter man standing off to the side. He was a little anxious looking. "Mike, this is Jeremy Fitzgerald. He was a security guard here too. I think I mentioned him."
"Yeah, you did. Mike Schmidt," he introduced and held out his hand. Jeremy shook it without a hesitation. "Sorry about that. I'm just a little hung over." He exhaled and briefly rubbed over his blue-grey eyes to suppress the slight redness, "It was a pretty rough night." Jeremy choked and sputtered out, "You're- You're not still doing night shift, right? I thought that this was sort of an isolated thing." He seemed quite a bit more fearful than Mike expected. Regardless, he looked about Sam's age, which would make Mike the youngest of the group and ironically the only one who didn't look terrified.
"No, no. Don't worry, Jeremy. I was at the Pizzeria alone. Mike was just out getting wasted." Mike rolled his eyes at the accusation, "It was my first time in a while, I- This isn't important." He raised his hands, silenced the others, and announced. "So, yeah… The killer of the kids was one of us…. By which I mean he was a security guard just like we were, not that he's actually one of us." He found himself mentally scolding himself for botching the delivery on the reveal. Sam and Jeremy seemed to still be alarmed by the remark.
"Are you sure?" Sam asked in near disbelief. "But that doesn't make sense. How did nobody catch him?" For a second Mike hesitated, "I… I still don't know about that… I don't know. He was covering himself somehow, but Marionette was sure he was the one doing it." Mike suddenly realized that Marionette had skipped a lot more than he realized at the time. That being thought, he had enough of an idea that he knew where to go. Jeremy looked horrified, "I thought the Marionette was destroyed with the rest of the toy animatronics."
"Eh. This wouldn't be the first time that Freddy's let something slip by. Case and point; multiple dead children," Mike responded. Jeremy seemed to go pale at the comment. Sam simply stared at the desk, "So, uh… Is this why the animatronics are attacking security guards?" That comment seemed to sink it into Mike's realization too. "It would make sense. That doesn't make Foxy any safer. I have to head over there anyway though, Marionette might be over there." 'Might' was an understatement, of course, but he was determined to do it.
"I'll go with you. I… I got to try and move Foxy out. Do you think he'll be able to control him enough that we can get him in the van or…? Or we'll just see when we get there." Sam then grabbed a couple of flashlights out of his drawer and offered a few to the others. Jeremy gladly took one, "If you don't mind, I'll stay in the van." Sam raised a brow, "Uh… You know Bonnie's still in the back of the van." Jeremy now looked to Mike, "Please tell me you have a car." Mike flashed his keys in response and they were on their way.
Once driving towards the Pizzeria, Mike attempted to make conversation with Jeremy. He seemed rather flighty towards the entire situation and he hoped it would help. "So… You and Sam worked around the same time?" Jeremy gave a curt nod, clutching the flashlight in his hand. "We did, I think. I remember seeing a guy name Fritz then. I don't remember his name being Sam though." Mike couldn't resist a light snicker. They were quiet for a few moments before Jeremy asked, "Sam said you went back more than once." There was a questioning in his voice.
"I did. I needed the money…" he then smirked and playfully added, "Or maybe I just needed the thrill." Jeremy just stared at him with aghast, so Mike corrected, "Mostly the money." He looked forwards at the road, staring through the rain. A few moments passed before Jeremy murmured, "And you've been talking to the Marionette. How did you even…?" He certainly seemed baffled and Mike gave a nod. "Let's just say he came with the package… This might not be appropriate, but were any of the security guards working with you at the time- did any of them act weird?"
Jeremy shrugged a little, "I was really working alone. I didn't know anyone except the guy who hired me… And that guy on the phone." Mike shivered a bit, "Yeah, same with me and I knew him too… He had a bad night." The older male looked to him in horror, "Oh geez… And I guess he just went missing, right? Boy, I'll tell you, Freddy's cleaning policy. A kid could scrape their knee at they would be there with bleach and a disclosure agreement." This seemed to bring a new idea to Mike who furrowed his brows.
"Yeah. Fredrick was good at covering any evidence… And I want to believe it was because of his kids, because he wanted to protect the animatronics, but… I don't know, something just doesn't add up." He glared out the window and for a second. Then he lightly chuckled and morbidly commented, "The murderer must have been one hell of a worker if Fredrick was covering for him." A few seconds passed. "You… Don't think that Fredrick did it, do you? Maybe the kids weren't murdered, maybe they were accidently killed?"
Normally the thought of negligence and covering it would make perfect sense. It would explain why Fredrick covered it, it would still be an unintentional murder, and the treatment of the bodies could lead to angry spirits… Except that Marionette bluntly said that somebody killed the children, that it was a security guard, and Mike wasn't under the impression that the animatronic would be mistaken. He might have thought and reacted differently than a human would, but Mike doubted that he would confuse something like this.
"No. I don't think spirits would be this restless over an accident… And I don't think, poor management or not, that kids would keep dying." Jeremy nodded slowly in agreement. "You've got a point… I guess it was just wishful thinking." The two fell silent until they arrived at the Pizzeria. Not an uncomfortable silence, but a heavy, ominous one. They didn't have to say anything, they both had a bad feeling about what they were walking into. They made it to the Pizzeria and Mike stepped out of the car, then leaned in to speak to Jeremy, "Hey, you sure you don't want to come?"
Jeremy stared down at the flashlight in his hand, "No… But I will." He sounded defeated as he climbed out. "Thanks," Mike replied simply and the two headed to the front. He had a sense of security from more of them going in, even though he knew there was a possibility that it wouldn't change anything. The Pizzeria was just as dilapidated as Mike remembered and as he, Jeremy, and Sam who had just arrived stepped in they were met with silence. Mike beckoned them and made a line straight for the security office, which was in the same state as he had left it.
The desk was littered with various items, the fan, the tape player, an empty soda can; a variety of unimportant things. The electricity seemed to be off as Mike tried the lights. "Well, the doors aren't going to save us if something goes wrong," he pointed out. Sam quickly volunteered, "I can put turn on the lower system. It won't light everything, but it'll put some electricity to the office, just limited. You get the drill; we'll have to keep an eye on the power." He stepped out of the office, soon followed by Jeremy. "Yeah, I'll just come with you… Mike?"
"You two go ahead. I'm going to go poke around," Mike spoke with a sort of distant look. His mind was somewhere else. "Alright, just remember that the guy who goes alone always dies first," Sam pointed out. Mike watched him leave, "Thanks for the encouragement, Fritz." Once they were out of view, he flicked on his tiny flashlight and stepped into the hall, shining it around before heading towards the dining hall. His eyes looked over the walls and ceiling; everything looked worse than it had been. The water damage was worse and a moldy smell seemed to overtake the air.
It didn't take long for him to suddenly be stopped by sight of something in the dining room. It was Marionette, who was not very visible in the dark building. He stood in front of the Pirate's Cove, staring at the moldy curtain with a blank smile, unmoving. Mike huffed and started to head over towards him. Hearing him, the Puppet turned abruptly and faced him, emanating a radio noise as a white light dotted his eyes. It only took a moment before the noise and light halted, the animatronic recognizing the human and calming down. "Mike…"
"So it's okay for you come over, but if I make an attempt I get tackled?" Mike asked with firm disappointment. Disappointment covered concern well enough. Marionette made a noise like a sigh, "I had to see for myself…" Mike's eyes darted to the curtain to make sure the animatronic from his nightmares didn't suddenly spring out. "Is he…?" The black and white animatronic let down his guard fully, moving to rub his upper arms in slow movements. "He's here. I couldn't face him, but that's him. I don't understand… Why him? Why not everyone else?"
"Why not everyone else?" Mike questioned as he looked to Marionette, watching the curtain out of the corner of his eye. The Puppet didn't respond to this question. He simply stood there looking uncomfortable. While Mike didn't want to walk in front of the curtain, he did, and approached the striped male. He reached out to pat his back, looking back at the curtain as he did so. "This is a good thing, right? I mean, it's Foxy, but Foxy was always a fan favorite." Right after this there was the sound of something turning on throughout the Pizzeria.
A few lights came on, what sounded like a ventilation system kicked on, and Marionette straightened in concern. "Someone else is here…" Overprotectiveness set in along with the threatening sounding comment. Mike felt the need to calm him, "Don't worry about it. It's just Sam." He regretted saying it afterwards as Marionette sent him this look comprising of absolutely no smile and an unimpressed and flat overtone. "Of course it is." Mike started back to the office, wanting to get away from Pirate's Cove before Foxy was fully alerted.
He stared at the puddles forming on the floor as he passed, getting déjà vu from his nightmare and being careful not to slip. Sam and Jeremy were already back in the office; Jeremy was sitting in the office chair while Sam was looking over the tape player. "I think Foxy's behind his curtain. Maybe because it's daytime." Jeremy looked to him before his eyes went as wide as saucers. He gasped in alarm and jolted back slightly in the office chair, it squeaking at the shift in movement. Mike could see him staring past him and glanced out the corner of his eye to see the Puppet had followed.
"Oh, right. Surprise," he unenthusiastically remarked. "Don't worry, he's not going to do anything." He double checked and looked back to make sure the animatronic wasn't going to suddenly spring. Instead, Marionette was in what Mike considered was his 'default' pose; standing still, barely hovering, same unexpressive smile. Mike had come to recognize this standard look and quipped, "Literally, he's not going to do anything at all." He noticed Sam seemed much too interested in the tapes and headed over, "Those are probably the old calls."
"Yeah, they're labelled. Day four was it, right?" he was vague, but Mike understood what it meant. He gave a nod and watched as Sam popped the tape in. There was a slight discomfort at knowing what he was about to listen to, but he had listened to it countless times before. There had been a period of time where he found himself listening to those tapes constantly, like a sort of therapy, but he hadn't touched them since. He didn't really even want to listen now, but he supposed that Sam and Jeremy had a right to hear and know. The tape player came on and the familiar voice echoed out.
"Hello, hello! Hey. Hey wow, day four. I knew you could do it, uh…" There was a growing static from the Marionette and Mike adjusted his hat patiently, more focused on his own growing discomfort. "Hey listen… I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow…" The phone call was interrupted by the sound of banging over the tape. Mike couldn't stand it, he turned away to face the Puppet. By time he uncovered his eyes, he noticed that the Puppet was having a very bizarre reaction. He was twitching, static still audible, and now looked a bit more frustrated.
Mike moved closer, "What's up?" Anything was better than acknowledging the tape. "It's been a bad night here for me." Marionette double checked made sure Sam and Jeremy weren't looking at him. They weren't, perhaps both trying not to look at him, and he moved closer to Mike. He kept his voice extremely low, "I can't listen to him. Tell them to shut it off. I can't." Mike didn't even know how to take this sentence. Apparently he had an issue with the Phone Guy, maybe it was because he was a security guard, or Mike hoped, and the tape was upsetting him.
Maybe he was biased, but Mike felt nothing wrong with going along and shutting the tape off. "Maybe we need to shut that off. Foxy's going to hear us and come in here." Sam looked to Mike and seemed to suddenly catch something on his face. It wasn't the Puppet; he had managed to pull himself back into his usual façade. It was the disturbance that Mike couldn't hide that Sam caught, and he didn't argue. "We can listen to these later. I'll take them back to the warehouse, so we'll just listen there." Jeremy looked a little confused, "Really? Uh, okay, sure."
"Umm… I'm kind of glad that I-." The tape was shut off and they stood in the office. There was the sound of footsteps from somewhere else in the building. "Well, there comes Foxy," Sam remarked and peered out of the other door with his flashlight. Mike looked back to the desk, over the things that had been sitting there since before he was there, and his eyes landed on something in the back. "Hey, look whose here; Bonnie!" He smiled, he hoped it didn't look as forced as it felt, and he plucked the dust covered plush from its post and presented it to nobody in particular.
"I remember this guy. I bought him out of the stock to keep me company at night. I can't believe I left him behind." He chuckled and looked over the toy, getting a nervous smile out of Jeremy. "Oh, I remember those. Yeah, there was a ton of them. I probably have a few back at my place somewhere." Mike looked to the plush and looked out of the corner of his eyes in Marionette's direction; he remembered his weakness. "I think I could get him to move if I just…" He held out the plush, "Here, you want him? He doesn't deserve to get stuck with me again."
The Puppet didn't budge, mostly because Jeremy was staring, and Mike decided to nudge further. "I guess he is pretty old and dusty… Eh, it was worth a try." He loosened his grip just a bit, released one finger at a time, and finally let the plush drop. He felt something lightly brush his leg and, as expected, the Bonnie didn't even touch the ground. He sent a playful smile towards Marionette, "Sorry about that. You know how weak my grip gets." Marionette gave no facial change, but was now clutching the Bonnie plush to his chest. He then turned around and took his leave through the door.
"Come back, I was just playing around," Mike called after him, still quite amused, and looked to Jeremy. The male in the office chair was now much further back than he was a few moments ago. There was a loud clanging noise as Sam shut the door he was standing in front of. "Foxy's definitely out and about. I just heard him in… Maybe the kitchen? I don't know, he's right over that way somewhere." He gestured out in a random direction. "But first thing's first. If you want to check out that sealed room we should probably do it now, before Foxy turns aggressive."
Mike seemed surprised by him mentioning it again, "You found something?" Sam nodded, then shrugged, and finally responded, "I just took a look at the blueprints and realized, by the shape of the restaurant and the rooms, that there is a spot by the bathrooms that's unaccounted for… There's no reason that they would've had a spot that big without a supply closet or something." This was their next lead and even Sam was willing to set aside his job to look in. "Then we'll head over there. Keep an eye out for Foxy; maybe if we keep a distance he won't immediately attack."
Actually, Mike's unvoiced plan was that the Puppet would keep Foxy distracted, and while he said nothing to Marionette about it he trusted he would do so. They stepped out of the office and headed down towards the bathroom hallway. At the end of the hall was definitely something suspicion. Part of the wall seemed to be broken through, or possibly eroded, and a small, dark hole remained. It was only a couple of feet high and maybe one or two wide; not too big, but wide enough for any of the three to slide through. Same shined his flashlight into it.
"Yeah, this is it. This is some sort of storage room," Sam pointed out. He then raised his arm towards his face, flinching visibly, "I don't even want to know what that smell is." Mike crouched down beside him, "That's the smell of Freddy's. I'm shocked you're not used to it yet." But even Mike was taken aback by the scent. It was a foul decaying odor that carried the metallic tinge of blood and a heavy overtone of rot. He scowled and looked back to see Jeremy looking ill, "Everything good?" Sam also looked back, looking concerned towards the male, "Jere, if you don't want to come you don't have to."
"I can't," Jeremy blurted out, "Just… Sorry, I can't go in that- that hole." He stared at the dark space beyond the flashlight's reach. "I-I think I need some air." He started to quicken his breathing and Mike immediately stepped in. "Just try to calm down. Here, take my keys and go sit in the car, okay? That was the plan anyway. You don't have to follow us inside. It's probably best that one of us doesn't get completely disgusting." Jeremy seemed relieved as he took the keys and took off. There wasn't any more noises for him, so Mike and Sam assumed that he got out fine.
"I'll go in first," Mike volunteered as he started to climb through the hole. The wall was surprisingly soft and seemed to be disintegrating under the slightest touch. Once on the other side he looked around; there were some things left behind, a locked box, a section of roof that had fallen in and let rain spill through, though didn't illuminate the room well, and lastly was something he had not expected to see, an animatronic. It sat on the floor, slumped like Golden Freddy did, but looked to be a rabbit. "Damn…" Mike gasped and immediately covered his mouth and nose. The pungent scent was overwhelming.
"What?" Sam asked as he crouched and stepped into the sealed room, not yet getting a chance to look around. "There's some sort of old Bonnie in here," Mike answered back. "Old as dirt and smells like death." He moved a step closer and studied it with his light. Its body was shaped oddly with a thicker and more rounded look to it than a normal animatronic. Its head, as well, was large and sported a gaping set of teeth. Something pink was sticking out of the holes on its legs, but Mike was distracted when Sam spoke. "Looks like they were hiding something here…"
The technician crouched in front of the locked box and tried the locks. They were stuck tighter than he expected, but he brought out a jack knife and tried to work on one. "I'm going to take a guess and say that any key is probably missing," Mike added in as he stood beside Sam and stared down. The first lock opened and suddenly Mike was more interested, bending over and staring at the box. "Sam, do you know what this could be? This could be the answer to everything. The Freddy's version of Pandora's Box. This could change everything."
"I know…" Sam quietly murmured as he fidgeted with the lock. "But… Are you sure you want to know?" There was a clanging noise and Mike looked towards the hole in the hall. "Probably just Foxy, keep going." Sam did, but he murmured back, "Foxy's still dangerous." Mike responded with a quip, "So is Mari. Best case scenario, the two duke it out, wear themselves out, and we can get them out of here without a hassle. We'll probably have to move rotten-tail rabbit too." Sam groaned at the thought and finally got the lock unopened. There was a low groan from somewhere, drowned by the squeak of the opening box.
Mike expected to see something, but saw nothing more than a few scraps of paper. "…What?" He grabbed the few pages into his hands, reading part of one. "Would it not be easily possible to employ some of them in quick laboratory experiments to indicate the influence of various types of fertilizer on plant growth? What is this?! This- This is just some sort of passage out of a book!" Sam lifted one of the clippings and read it out loud as well. "The scientist seldom knows contemporaneous reward; it is enough to possess the joy of crea… I think it's creation. Something brown's splotching it."
"This is it…" Mike muttered with wide eyes, dropping the papers down into the box again. "This is what was hidden in the room, just quotes. Quotes that don't mean anything to us. How-… How can this be?" He was completely devastated. "It's a locked, empty box…" Sam felt the bottom of the box and hummed a bit, "Maybe there's a false bottom. There's still a chance." Mike dropped his head and groaned, "I can't even- Is this some sort of joke!? Who would lock a box with nothing in it?!" He huffed angrily. Quietness overtook the room afterwards.
"I just thought-..." Mike began and trailed off after a second, standing slowly and taking off his hat to rub a hand through his hair in frustration. He didn't know why he was so annoyed, but he had thought there was going to be some big reveal. Instead, there was nothing at all, "I don't know what I thought. I don't even know what I'm doing here…" The room creaked and the sound of rain nearly drowned anything else out. Here he was, standing in a rotting, empty room, angry that a box of papers didn't answer some sort of big question. This was the first time in a long time that Mike truly felt like a failure.
"Mike!" Mike was alerted by Marionette's voice and looked to see him through the hole in the wall. There was a moment when he saw his face and saw nothing but terror in his face. The he heard the sound of quick, heavy footsteps from right beside him. He looked over just in time to see a hulking figure coming at him. He stared into its eyes as it was suddenly upon him.
He really had opened Pandora's Box. All the evil in the world seemed to paint the rabbit's face.
Mable: Sometimes one's quest to achieve knowledge become a double edged sword. One can achieve the knowledge that they want, but at the price of learning the things they probably didn't want to know. Mike may have just unleashed something that he never wanted to see… I've already started on the next chapter, which I usually haven't done when I post a chapter, so I'm hoping to post it a little sooner, considering the content of this and that chapter. This one took a little longer because I was working on 'Magnetic Attraction'.
Also, umm… Hey, here's a fun thing maybe. If you have any questions about Mike, Fritz, Jeremy, or Marionette, the ones in the story, I'd be glad to answer them for fun. Just as long as they aren't plot-spoiler oriented questions. This isn't required if you just want to review or don't feel like reviewing, just a little thing I thought of. Sorry about the super long author's note here. Anyway, next chapter will be finished soon, I hope everyone enjoyed!