Mable: Here we are with the next chapter! Sorry it took longer than usual, but I decided to forgo posting last night and instead do so today so that I could read over it a second time. I also have a question for fun; "What would you like to see in the future of the story?" I have the next chapters planned and such, but this could maybe help me get a grasp what you would maybe like to see in the future. Anyway, I won't stall any longer. Enjoy!

Can't Go Home Again

Chapter Thirteen

After a random night of work, Mike got the next day off and used the time to deal with his apartment issues. The morning was devoted to going over the subject of his lease with his landlady. Thankfully, on this front he managed to get some success and practically weaseled his way out with only the loss of another month's rent. Right afterwards Mike employed Jeremy's assistance and they began moving furniture in the Freddy van. They did this for a few hours until Mike was forced to stop, mostly by Jeremy who was worried about his arm.

Mike knew he was pushing it and tried to use the hand as little as possible, but was so determined to get the things moved and get everything over with. Currently he had moved his loveseat and chair into the living room along with a massive amount of boxes that were stacked in the hallway. The new living room furniture clashed dramatically with the old. An off-white loveseat, a plaid green armchair, and a dark blue couch; Mike was starting to regret his choice to ignore color when he made purchases. It all looked like a cluster of awkwardness.

But Mike was too exhausted to care. Once Jeremy had decided to call it quits and confiscate the van, for Mike's sake he claimed, the former security guard collapsed across his bed and fell asleep. It wouldn't have normally been so tiring, but overcompensating for the arm was rough. It didn't help that the pain medicine he was actually prescribed, that he finally started taking, left him much groggier than the aspirin ever had. While he was asleep, Marionette circled around the hall and living room, just staring at the sudden influx of stuff filling their shared home.

One of the boxes had a game system in it that Marionette was determined to get hooked to the television. Yet the second he actually started untangling the cords, which he noticed that Mike had not been careful to keep separated, there was a knock on the door. He normally wouldn't have really cared; Mike was asleep and he wasn't really able to answer the door. Whoever was there would come back later. But suddenly the person began to start banging on the door harder. It was much more aggressive and suddenly Marionette decided to get Mike.

He wished that this was a scenario where he could just open the door and scare whoever was there off, but, unfortunately, he couldn't risk it. Instead he headed down to the master bedroom and nudged Mike awake. The man groaned and rolled over, "What time is it?" The Puppet didn't respond, he just silently gestured down the hall. "What?" Mike seemed to suddenly detect the banging on the door and stood, wandering down the hallway towards the front. He checked out the window and saw a man standing there looking quite angry. It wasn't anyone he recognized and he groaned.

"Here we go…" Mike opened the front door and faced the man. He was older, probably in his forties, and his face looked slightly familiar. Though he was certain he never met the man. "Can I help you? If you're looking for Fredrick, he's no longer with us." He could only hope. The man was nearly boiling, "You're Schmidt?" Mike fought the urge that he had to abruptly slam the door. "And of course he's looking for me. Someone kill me now." But he tried not to show any visible notion of the thought on his face. "That's me."

The man took a step closer and Mike fought the urge to take a step back and, again, slam the door. "I don't know who you are or what you're thinking getting involved in Freddy's, but I'll be damned if my family is getting dragged into it! I want you to stay away from my daughter!" Mike just stared, baffled at the sudden yelling. There was so much he probably could say, but he assumed that staying quiet was the best idea. "And another thing, if you think this community is going to sit aside and let that place open again then you can think again!"

Mike continued to stay silent and the man glared him down for a moment longer. Then he insisted, "Stay away from my girl or I'm going to be back. You got that?" Mike slowly nodded and watched as the man turned and stormed to his car, climbing in and driving off. Finally, he shut the door and locked it securely. "He's gone," he called back and turned to see Marionette standing nearby. "I don't know what just happened, but he's gone." Marionette began to exhibit static in a protective fashion, "But he'll be back… Next time, feel free to let him in."

He then crossed over to the TV to start unwinding the wires again. "I might not have to 'let' him," Mike pointed out. "I don't get the daughter thing, unless he thinks we'll be snatching kids or something… But this does show us one thing; we are going to have some backlash opening the pizzeria again." He suddenly realized something; nowhere was the information public. Someone had to have told this man personally. Marionette looked back at him, turning his head without turning his body. "You don't seem like the type to let this stop you."

In all honesty, the only ones who really hadn't stopped and talked about it was Mike and Marionette. Mike was stalling for time and then eventually Marionette somehow knew, so they hadn't really stopped to think it through together. They had just let it happen. Mike crossed over to the TV too kneel down, "Need any help?" The Puppet continued to work and softly responded, "I think I can handle it." He was very patient with his work, untangling them gently when the other would've gotten frustrated by now and given in. Mike gave him a small smile and took one of the untangled cords.

"Let me at least get the TV wired," he pointedly did not use his broken hand. Because of this, he had to wedge himself between the wall and TV so that he didn't have to move the electronic, but still got the job done. By time he was back to check the other cords there was a frantic knock on the door. Not nearly as aggressive or angry as before, but Marionette suddenly dropped what he was doing and fully looked to the door. There was a slight glare on his face, but it was only visible on his eyes. Mike scrambled to his feet, "Don't do anything. Just hide. I'll handle it."

The Puppet took 'hide' extremely lightly at this point. He merely moved behind the loveseat and waited, as though waiting for the right moment to spring. By time Mike got to the door he heard a quieted version of 'Pop Goes the Weasel' emanating from the living room. He opened the door and was taken aback. Not by the man, he wasn't the one standing there, but by the familiar woman. "Mike, are you okay?! He didn't do anything, did he?!" It was Natalie; Mike suddenly knew why he recognized the man, his face somewhat resembled hers. "That guy?"

"That was my dad. Geez, I didn't think he was going to go this far!" She stepped in and Mike looked back, seeing Marionette clearly staring from behind the loveseat. He made a gesture from him to hide and looked back to the female. "See, I was thinking about what you said about the job, and I mentioned it to my mom. We need the money, I need a better job, and I would probably be out of my other job by time you actually open. If you open. Dad heard and flipped, but I didn't think he was going to come over here! Mike, I'm so sorry." She looked incredibly upset.

"Yeah, well… Don't worry about it. He threatened me, but he didn't kill me." He would've loved to say more, but the last thing he wanted to do was offend Natalie when she was currently on his side. She shut the door behind herself, not noticing that she had to take it out of his hands. "Wow, so this is the place you inherited. It's nice!... The furniture's a little, uh…" Mike got an amused smirk, "It's a disaster, but at least it's comfortable enough." He tried to cover his discomfort and leaned over to see past the loveseat, only to realize that the Puppet was gone.

"How about… Some coffee? I have to heat it up, but it's fresh enough." Mike guided Natalie to the table, making sure she sat with her back to the living room, and heated her some coffee. "Sorry if I look half-dead. I was moving stuff in and out of a moving van all morning." He turned around and tried not to freeze as he noticed that Marionette was standing in the living room again. He was clearly watching Natalie, but his aggression had dissipated to his standard smile. There was no way that he could get him to leave; he just had to manage damage control.

"So how's things going with the Pizzeria opening anyway?" Natalie asked curiously. "Well… Non-existent. Sam's going to meet with a lawyer later to see if everything's on the up and up. Technically he has to be the one who does it, since he owns all the stuff in the warehouse. The animatronics and things." She seemed more interested, "So there are animatronics left in there? Wow. Which ones?" The former security guard tried his hardest to ignore the animatronic who currently kept moving around the room, continuing to watch them.

"Freddy, Chica, Bonnie, Foxy… But Foxy is the only one we can get on now. The plan is to make him the main character to draw in bigger crowds and to now immediately remind everyone of some of the disasters that happened there. Sam, I've mentioned Sam before probably, this guy named Jeremy, and I are going to be putting everything together." The female got a small smirk, "What about Mary?" Marionette perked in the background at the mention of his name. "Well, yeah… But he's closer to the attractions than to management."

"Am I going to get to meet Mary? Is he here?" Natalie abruptly turned back to the rest of the house, Mike tensed dramatically, and Marionette just vanished before she could see him. "I don't think so. He's not here," Mike remarked, feeling a small smile slip. "But as long as your dad's not planning on killing me, the job is still yours… I don't know what the job is, but you've got it." Natalie twiddled her fingers around the coffee mug. "Yeah… Do you know anything about what happened with those kids? I'm guessing it was some guy kidnapping kids from out front but…"

"Don't worry about it," Mike felt the words slip out. "It's been years. The Pizzeria's completely changed hands. If anything was going on than it isn't going on anymore." He was forcing the words out as he explained. "We're going to make sure there aren't any adults looming around outside. Maybe get more security cameras or something." She got her smile back, "Hey, you know, if you're really looking for a way to get funds you might want to throw a fundraising thing. I don't know what my dad said, but fundraising always gets a lot of quick cash."

Mike tapped his fingers on the table. "Actually, that's a good idea… We were thinking of contacting some old shareholders, but that could really help if they don't want to get involved." A few more minutes passed before the female stood to head to the door. "I'm not going to tell my dad. If he comes back today or tonight, tell him that you haven't seen me since I was in work. We'll just keep this our secret." Mike reacted oddly to the word 'secret', with an inward shiver. "Sounds fine by me. Hopefully we'll have more of a plan on how this is going to work out."

"Never thought I'd be working at the Pizzeria," Natalie pointed out as she opened the front door. "It's been a rocky road, but it's all downhill from here… Or it will be once we actually get the place open." Something was nagging at him. "Don't worry. My dad… He's got his own problems and he takes it out on everyone. He's not even connected to Freddy's!" She seemed slightly amused as she stepped out. "Tell Mary I send my regards!" Mike shut the door and leaned against it, finding himself more bothered than ever. Marionette appeared again and looked to Mike.

He tilted his head curiously, seeing that something was wrong. Suddenly it had hit Mike, "I'm giving her a job and lying to her. She's my friend and I'm lying to her, just like they lied to me." Without a word, Mike opened the door once again and stepped out, hurrying to Natalie before she could get in the car. "Wait!" She looked over in confusion and he exhaled slowly. "Alright, look… There's something else." He bit his lip until there was a salty, slightly metallic taste in his mouth. "I'm… Some of the things floating around about the Pizzeria were true."

She slowly looked to him in confusion, "What do you mean?" Mike pointed to the car and crossed to the passenger side, climbing inside and sitting down. Natalie sat down and shut the door, leaving them alone in the car. "You really want to take this job. Someone has to take the job and you're one of the people I can trusts. I… I do trust you and you won't tell your folks." He looked to her, she nodded, and Mike huffed a bit. "So how do I put this… Look, there were some things going on in the Pizzeria that weren't exactly… The missing children was an inside job."

"What?" Natalie's eyes widened. "It was one of the workers who did it and there was some sort of big cover-up, but the animatronics became... They changed. They became aggressive towards the workers. They started to attack the night guards." Natalie got a brief look of disbelief, "Please tell me this is a joke… And if it is, it's a really unfunny one." Mike's face was dead serious, "The worker who did it had an accident. I won't give you the details, I know you probably want to sleep again. This was after the Pizzeria closed so it was easier to hide…"

He shrugged a little, "It was as though they were trying to stop him, you know. When I was working there they thought I was him because I was a night guard. They tried to get me, but I lived… And kept going back… It was a money thing." He would rather just say that then get any awkward questions about it. Natalie was already staring at him. "…And before you ask, the animatronics that are still active are safe. We're doing this whole thing legitimately; no scams, no tricks, no incidents." He fell silent and checked her face.

"…Wow." Natalie tapped the steering wheel and said nothing else. Mike followed suit to look out the window, "And there's probably more things that I don't know. All the pieces haven't fully clicked, which usually either means that one's missing or that I'm shoving one in the wrong spot… But I'm not looking for answers anymore. It's just not worth it." The blond female now quietly added in, "There's someone in your house." The former security guard leaned forward to peer out of the windshield and towards the window.

There was an opening in the blinds, but it was too dark to see who did it. It was obviously Marionette; Mike knew that much. He took this as a sign to wrap everything up. "I understand if you don't want the job anymore, I just wanted you to know everything before going in. Just… Don't mention this to anybody, alright? If word got out, we'd have an investigation going on and the animatronics wouldn't take to that. We'd have more bites now then whatever happened back in 87." He then opened the door and stepped out.

"No, I won't…" Natalie finally looked to him. "This is a lot to take in. I don't… I don't know what I'm going to do. Just let me think on it." Mike gave a nod and shut the door. He then crossed over and headed back inside, watching as the car pulled off. He knew he had just made a risky move relying on Natalie, but hoped it wasn't a mistake. Marionette was waiting behind the front door when Mike shut it. "Alright, that's over… Let me just finish hooking that up." He tried to act casual as he wandered over, crouched down, and began to plug the untangled wires in.

The Puppet was incredibly silent and Mike exhaled. "I brought Natalie to speed on some of the stuff going on around here. About some of the stuff that happened in the Pizzeria. Not everything; just the stuff that could get us all arrested." He shrugged it off and moved the box closer to look through for a game to use for practice on the system. Then Marionette moved closer; by now he was just behind Mike and wrapped his arms around his shoulders in a sort of hug. "This is when he strangles me again, right?" Mike mentally questioned and looked back.

"What's this for?" Marionette didn't look angry, which he took as a good sign. "You told her about me." The human shrugged a little, "We got hours to kill and you just happened to call about the cupcakes." This wasn't the reaction he had expected. He had expected anger and he had already seen his typical behavior around guests, which was usually following them around the house without being spotted. "But you gave her my name," he sounded like he was thrilled. Mike didn't get it, but was just relieved that he wasn't upset too. He silently finished setting up the system.

"I've got a couple in here you might like. Not all of them are two players and my second controller is half-broken, so I'm just going to start you off with something on your own." Marionette finally released Mike and moved beside him, "You'll have to teach me. I've only played arcade games." The box was nudged closer as Mike started checking the cartridges. "It's basically a little arcade machine that you don't have to put tokens or coins in. You'll catch on quickly." He stopped on two cartridges and just stared at them, eyes flickering back and forth at them.

"Are they all the same?" Marionette questioned as he took a cartridge. "If they play the same way then any of them should be fine." Mike glanced over at the one in his hand. "You're not going to want that one. The game cheats." He then placed another one in the system, "We'll start with this. It'll get you used to all the basics." He started the game and eventually handed over the controller. "You jump with this button. You can pick up enemies with this if you're standing on top of them, but they'll damage you if you just run into them. Don't fall into any holes."

This seemed simple enough to Marionette who quickly grasped the controls. However, he never expected what was coming next. "You just want to stick with the green guy. He's the best character to use." Then, "Remember to get the weeds. See that one on the right? Get that one." And still, "Watch out for the masks." Then, "Try picking up that guy and throw him at the bird." And still, "No, you don't want that power up. It really doesn't do anything." Then, "Slow down, you're going to fall in a hole." And finally, "Not that slow."

By this point the Puppet was absolutely unimpressed with Mike's dictating behavior. By time he finished the second level, and he had only completed two levels before he couldn't take anymore, he had enough. "Mike, you're puppeteering me," he hoped Mike would get the hint. Mike got an amused smirk, "I thought you liked when I pulled your strings." For a second the animatronic didn't respond, but his voice returned when the former security guard pointed out. "The boss is on this next level. You're going to have to watch out for him."

"I'm playing a different character," Marionette announced and selected one of the others. "Why? You're doing fine with him!... Don't choose that one. She's pretty slow." The black and white animatronic promptly chose the character in question. Mike frowned at him, Marionette pointedly stared back. "Oh, I get it. Fine, I won't help you anymore." If Mike was trying to get something out of saying this then it didn't work. "Thank you," Marionette responded and returned to playing the game. Mike rolled his eyes and stood, "I need to call Sam anyway."

It was a late night and Fritz was about to leave. He had just turned off the lights in the warehouse and was starting to shut down the computer and check the security cameras one last time. Nobody would be here to watch them, but at least if anyone broke in he could catch them on tape. Right as he was about to shut everything down he heard the sound of movement from out in the storage room. He shined his flashlight down the hall and into the entrance, not wanting to go over and turn the light on. From this distance he couldn't see anything.

Shrugging it off as Foxy moving around, Sam continued working and finally was preparing to go. Right as he stood to leave, shutting off the monitor, he heard the sounds of quick, heavy footsteps. His head raised in alert and he stared forwards in shock. It was definitely Foxy making a run for the office and Fritz choked as he turned the monitor back on. It took a few minutes to boot on again and Foxy was on his way. Fritz looked around in terror, trying to figure out if there was a fake Freddy head nearby, which there certainly wasn't.

"It's not going to work! The light's my only chance!" He turned on the flashlight and aimed it towards the hall, just in time to see Foxy barreling down the hallway. He shined the light forward but it didn't do anything to stop the animatronic. Foxy was in the office in a second and slid to a halt against the desk, hook landing on the other side of the desk to fully brace him. It dug into the wood of the desk, showing how sharp it truly was. Fritz had always thought it was plastic; either he was mistake or someone had changed it.

But he could only stare at how unnerving Foxy was. The animatronic stared him down for a few second, patch raised, eyeing the technician. Then it suddenly brought its claw out of the wood, lowered its patch, and then started to shuffle off down the hallway as though nothing had happened. Fritz checked the monitor that had finally came on and watched through the dim light as Foxy disappeared back under his curtain. He didn't even wait to see if he stayed there; as quickly as he could he shut the computer back down and hurried out of the warehouse, locking the door behind him.

"I haven't been back to the warehouse today," the frazzled technician explained over the phone. "I don't even think I can go back there tonight, and I'm going to have to. I can't leave it unattended for a whole day. Foxy could have gotten into the office again." Mike choked, "Fritz, Foxy has attacked you twice and you're afraid about the office?! What were you doing- Wearing purple or something?" Sam let out a bitter cough, "I could only be so lucky. I don't know… And I can't expect Jeremy to head over there either."

The former security guard rubbed his head, "I see what you're getting at. I'll head over there and check on things, but I'm not staying past dark. How did things go with the lawyer?" The male perked on the phone, "Good… Well, not all good, but we sort of need Jeremy here. I don't want to go over it twice and it's… There's an issue we need to go over." Mike didn't sound as enthusiastic as one would expect, "Keep being vague. That should help us figure it out." The way Sam huffed revealed how tired and exasperated he was.

"Alright, Mike, I'll tell you what the problem is. The building is absolutely not up to code. Demolition or not, there's no way we can scrounge together enough cash to get that building together. The roof's full of holes, the walls are putty, the appliances smoke, and you don't even want to know what's in the water." He reigned himself in then. Mike just blankly stood there, holding the cell phone. "…I'll call you when I'm done at the warehouse. Then we'll find Jeremy and figure this out." Fritz exhaled quietly and agreed with him. "Thank you," then they ended the call.

Mike stood and headed towards the door. "I'm heading over to check on Foxy. I'll be back in a little while, don't answer the door, and don't play that game. I'm warning you now, it's going to piss you off." Marionette actually stopped playing to look back, leaning on the couch. "Be careful with your hand. Foxy can be a little… High strung." Mike smirked visibly, "It must run in the family then. See you later." The Puppet watched him leave with that same smile he usually had. He made sure he was gone, that he heard the car in the driveway, then turned away…

And looked to the forbidden game cartridge.

Mable: I didn't know if it was too weird to drop the name of a game system so I just didn't name it through the entire thing. XD But I'm sure you probably already know which one it is. Also, yes, Mike is definitely a backseat gamer. Anyway, the next chapter will be posted as soon as I can finish it. I hope everyone enjoyed!