Mable: This chapter took much longer than I expected. Sort of getting everything in line for what's coming in the near future. I shall not take any more time! Enjoy!
Can't Go Home Again
Chapter Twenty-Seven
"I do hope she comes back. I would really like it if I could get her comfortable with me. The other kids as well, since they weren't nearly as hesitant. All in all, I believe the party did turn out well. There was the cake incident, sure, but I'm pretty sure animatronics were built to resist stains. I can assure you that Foxy has been stained with things much worse than chocolate. But that aside, I feel much better about this. Consider that we can do this much and we're not even ready to open! Just think- Oh, that's the house."
Mike glanced over at the pointed out house. It looked relatively standard with nothing that really stuck out. "You're positive?" he inquired as he studied the uninteresting abode. "This is it. I remember him being here," Marionette reassured from his spot in the backseat. Now that they had come to a stop, he started to hide under the blanket kept back there. Mike glanced back at him before pulling into the driveway. This was probably going to look weird, Mike knew this, but he stepped out and approached the front door.
He knocked quickly and shortly afterwards got an answer by a middle aged man. "Hey, this might sound a little strange, but I'm investigating a disappearance that happened in this area back about five years ago. There was a boy living here at the time and I was wondering if I could ask him about the kid. You know how it is; kids tend to know each other." The man looked disturbed and perhaps because of this was honest. "Actually we just moved in a few months ago. We didn't… Know there were disappearances around here. Did they find anything?"
"Unfortunately, no. There were a few leads, but nothing came up. That's why I'm looking in on it," Mike explained. He didn't want to make the man frantic without reason, especially now that he knew he wasn't in direct contact with the boy. "What about the people who sold you the house?" The man shrugged it off, "It was a realty company. I knew they were keeping something quiet; the price was too good." Mike was almost immediately back at square one, but thankfully the man added in. "Mrs. Mills might know. She's been living here longer."
He pointed out the house next to his and soon Mike was trekking across the lawn to ask the second lead. After knocking on the door, and elderly woman with a walker fumbled out. "Afternoon, Ma'am. I was wondering if you knew about the boy who lived next door. I wanted to ask him some questions about some possible disappearances in the area." Naturally, Mike was bluffing. He was going with the background to Freddy's, the supposedly 'missing' children, to ask about this child who lived next door without seeming strange.
So it did genuinely surprise Mike when the woman answered as she did. "I think you're a little confused, son. The boy who lived there was the one who went missing," Mrs. Mills explained through a heavy southern accent. Mike blinked at the new information, "Huh, I guess my source was wrong… You knew him?" His source, naturally, being a bad coincidence. The talkative old woman then went into what she knew. This partially involved the boy, somewhat involved a few other suspicious events, then random anecdotes that had nothing to do with the scenario.
Mike was there long enough that Marionette had started to become concerned. It wasn't that he couldn't wait, he was built to wait, but Mike was gone for much longer than intended. By time he got back in the car, he was looking uncomfortable and unbuttoning his security jacket. "I'm definitely regretting wearing this now," he quipped as he tossed it into the back seat. Standing in the sun with two layers hadn't been comfortable, but it wasn't as though he could walk away while the woman was talking.
He started the car and began to drive, starting to explain. "That kid you were talking about went missing a while back. There was this old lady who knew about it; apparently he just vanished from the neighborhood. No strange cars, no suspicious people wandering around, he was just gone… And he's not the only one." Marionette shifted in the backseat. "And I couldn't tell you if it was the kids who went missing at the Pizzeria. It would make sense, but she didn't mention it, so there's a chance that these are other missing kids."
Marionette remained silent in the back. "The boy you were talking about was the most recent to disappear, but that was still a few years back. I don't know why you'd start having nightmares now," Mike added in. He knew the weight of the situation; he had always suspected that there were more missing children out there somewhere. The question now was what happened afterwards. Normally, Mike wouldn't hold much thought into dreams as the could mean anything, but considering that they were the puppet's he put more weight in them.
"What do you think?" Mike asked into the backseat. Marionette remained quiet, a stark contrast to earlier, and it wasn't until he pulled into their driveway that the question was answered. The puppet slid upwards to behind the driver's seat, "I think… That if he is there in my dreams, and I know he is, then his soul cannot have moved on… He has to be somewhere." With that thought, he disappeared and Mike stepped out to enter the house. He stepped through the doorway and right back into the conversation, as Marionette was now standing behind the couch.
"Is there a chance that he could be in an animatronic in another Pizzeria somewhere? There could've been more than one Pizzeria; he could be sitting out in another Freddy's. Technically, he could currently be Freddy," Mike suggested. Marionette shook his head, "I don't know… I think I would be able to see him as Freddy." Mike raised a brow, "And what did you see him as?" The animatronic turned a bit, giving a halfhearted wave in a dismissive manner. "I just keep seeing him as the child I used to know… But much more cold… And with possibly more than two hands."
"And we're actually trying to find this kid," Mike flatly remarked. He tried to get his thoughts together and eventually came with a conclusion, "…But it's more likely that it would be around here, right? It's too coincidental that both the Diner and the Pizzeria are in driving distance of the kid. It would make too much sense that it was at one of those places." Marionette interjected, "Unless he was taken somewhere else. Reasonably, he could've been taken anywhere in Utah…" Suddenly the puppet seemed to suddenly disagree with himself, "Although, the Purple Man never went far."
"Let's start with the immediate area. Chipper's is out, the Diner and the Pizzeria are out, and all we know was that he was most likely taken by Purple Man. Or we can be honest with ourselves and just acknowledge that, yes, this is undeniably another Purple Man stunt." He scowled in disgust at the thought of the man. It seemed like the more he learned about him, the more he found out that he got away with. It angered Mike to no end, but there was nothing he could do about it except try to discover the truth.
"Maybe my father has a list of locations in the area. He owned most of it, so it is only reasonable that he would have the information. He always seemed to know more than he let on…" Marionette pointed out and turned towards the hallway. Mike gave a nod and called after him, "Just in case that doesn't work, maybe next time you should just ask the kid where he is." He knew it was a touchy subject to joke about, but the animatronic returned with a slightly amused chime.
Once he was off checking the files, Mike turned to his fall back and called Fritz. "S-Fritz? Look, I need to know if there's any animatronics that you know about and I don't," Mike firmly stated. "It's a long story, but it's pretty important." Fritz was immediately outright with what he knew, but that didn't mean that he had too much to say. "If you mean other characters and not other copies of the Fazbear Gang, there were a few of them. All of them were discontinued; Walnut the Squirrel, Crickey the Croc, they were all dropped after they didn't catch on."
"And the animatronics themselves?" Mike inquired. "Sent back to the robotics facility, usually to be taken apart and reused. Their parts are expensive so it just makes sense… It happened to the toy line, I mean. They were all shipped somewhere, taken apart, and then some of the pieces managed to make it back to the warehouse," Fritz explained. Mike nodded over the phone, then gave an actual answer as well. "Just checking. I'm feeling a little paranoid today." Fritz gave a soft chuckle, "Welcome to my world. It gets better after a couple of drinks."
"How's… How are you holding up?" Mike inquired. He hadn't asked Fritz earlier; it didn't seem like an appropriate time to do so. Though he did wish he was able to do so in person. Thankfully, Fritz sounded a bit better. "I'm alright. It's just, you know, one day at a time... These things happen," he excused. "Really, I'm doing fine. Once I'm done over here at Foxy's I'm going out, so that's a step." This was good to hear and Mike agreed. "Glad to hear. If you need anyone to talk to, I'm always here." The call soon ended. Mike moved on to the next lead.
"Hey Jere," he began as casually as he could. "Did you ever see or know about any animatronics outside of the Fazbear gang? And Balloon Boy and the toys, I mean." Mike wasn't as confident in Jeremy as he had been in Fritz. It wasn't that he thought Jeremy was lesser in any way, but he knew Fritz had worked with Fredrick much longer than Jeremy had. "I don't think so. Most of the models I saw were just the same characters. Unless you, uh, don't mean characters…" Mike was about to give up. "Or, wait, you mean the rentals?"
Mike perked immediately with interest, "Rentals?" Jeremy eagerly explained, "Yeah, they actually used to rent out animatronics for birthday parties. Not here- Well, they were here- They would be rented out to the Pizzeria. I think they may have been rented out by the company that worked on some of the animatronics, but I'm not really sure." This let on an entirely new lead. "Do you know about the robotics factory?" Jeremy thought for a moment, "Uh… I think it was ACI? I can ask Fritz." Mike spoke back, "Don't worry, I'll call him. I'll call you back."
He ended the call and went to call Fritz back. The technician answered, "I was wondering when you'd call." Before Mike could say anything more than a greeting, Fritz interrupted, "It's ARI, not ACI, and they aren't in business anymore." The security guard silently listened before replying, "So did you spontaneously become psychic or does Jeremy have fingers of lightning?" Naturally, there came a simpler explanation, as he was expecting. "You do realize that Jeremy's about five foot away from me, right?"
"I do now," Mike admitted, feeling just a little foolish. "I guess it's your turn then. What can you tell me about this company?" Even though Fritz was previously forthcoming, Mike noticed how hesitant he became. "Well, not much to say… The rental animatronics were part of a failed Pizzeria. When they had trouble opening, the company scrapped the idea and started to rent out the animatronics. Fredrick didn't go through with it much, mostly because of the cost, and ARI, again, went out of business. I'm guessing after Freddy's, their investors backed out."
This almost sounded like it would make sense. However, Mike found suspicion sinking in. After what happened before, Mike couldn't help but think that Fritz would keep something from him. It would be so easy for the man to again leave out what he actually knew. For the moment Mike let it slide. "Any reason why it failed?" Fritz quickly responded, "I think there was a problem at the building." There was no way that Mike believed this, but he didn't know whether it was him lying or if someone else had.
"Are you going to let me in on what's up with all of these questions?" If Fritz was hiding something, then Mike didn't feel much of an issue to hide something back. "I was thinking about more animatronics we would be able to get ahold of. Don't worry about it," he dismissed and was apparently believable. The second he got of the call with Fritz, however, he started heading into the master bedroom. He quickly spotted Marionette kneeling in the closet, going through the bottom drawer of the file cabinet.
"Do you know about rental animatronics?" Mike inquired in a slightly suspicious manner. "I do," Marionette replied. "Would you believe that out of all these countless files on animatronics, I absolutely don't have one?" He quickly flicked through them as the human approached. "I sort of assumed you had it or something," Mike pointed out as he tried to slide into the closet behind the puppet, leaning over his knelt form. "We've got to either get an office or move this thing into the hallway; this just isn't going to work."
Marionette tilted his head back to look upwards at Mike, amusement on his face as his fabric brushed against Mike's leg. "I never saw the rental animatronics. I just always assumed they were slightly different colored Freddys." The human furrowed his brows and looked down, briefly letting them both stare at each other. "…I don't know what's worse; the fact that you have no clue about these animatronics or the fact that I pretty much expect to find recolored Freddys." Marionette chimed in amusement, "My father was a genius, but he had his lazy moments."
"I don't think I could handle multiple Freddys. With the darkness and the bathroom thing, I just don't think I'd even begin to handle that," Mike pointed out as he started to open the upper drawer. He slowed as his eyes looked to Marionette instead, noticing that he suddenly went very quiet and was now more concerned with fiddling with his hands than looking. He reached down and patted his head as it was the easiest thing to reach. "I didn't say you could stop," he remarked playfully, but his tone also had a quieter tone of questioning in it.
Marionette wasn't surprised by his touch, but the feeling of his mask being touched nearly caused him to tremble. "I feel, somehow, like this is patronizing," Marionette joked back, but his tone had a little slither of reassurance in it. "I didn't call you 'Kiddo' did I?" Mike retorted with a playful smirk. "Or 'my little Sock Monkey', or something." Marionette shivered again, now leaning back against Mike's leg further. "You're definitely patronizing me now, and I'm certainly not little," he quipped as he watched the security guard now sort through the cabinet.
It didn't take long to find something of interest. Mike had expected that Fredrick would have information collected considering that he was working with this company. Sure enough, there was a print out with the actual name of the company, Afton Robotics Incorporated, along with two phone numbers and an address. There wasn't too much actual information, like specific names, notes, or animatronics listed on the paper, but the contact information was definitely enough. He brought out his cell again, moving back to lean against the wall of the closet.
Unfortunately, it seemed like Fritz had been correct in suggesting that the place had closed. Both of the phone numbers led nowhere, suggesting that the place was in fact no longer open. Yet as Mike checked the address he found his curiosity was still piqued. It wasn't a far drive at all and as he considered it, it wouldn't be too difficult to slip inside and see what he could find. Sure, it was probably trespassing, but he had a feeling that anyone connected with Freddy's would probably prefer not to get the authorities involved.
"I guess the only possibility is for me to drive over to ARI and see if anything's still going on there. You're going to have to come with me, or I'm not going to know whether or not any animatronics in there are the ones we're looking for," Mike explained and Marionette paused, then agreed. "When do we leave?" he questioned, looking back at the man who slid past him. "As soon as I can get a few things together. I'm not going into this place unprepared." Indeed, Mike was tired of getting into situations without what he needed.
"Give me a couple of minutes and we'll head over there." He started to the door, but stopped when he was presented by a second question. "Are you going to invite Fritz and Jeremy?" Marionette inquired relatively innocently. He had no idea about the constant uneasiness that Mike was battling with when it came to the technician. He had only asked because he was legitimately curious. "…Nah, it's just going to be us." A part of Marionette sort of liked that it would be the two of them. He liked it enough that he didn't notice Mike's hesitance.
Shortly later, the two were in the car and driving to the address listed on the paper. The building itself didn't exclusively stand out, but did look relatively abandoned. Everything was put together fine, but the parking lot was completely empty and all of the lights in the building were shut off. By now the sun had almost set and sent shadows over the parking lot. Mike glanced around before looking into the backseat, "I think it's safe for you to come out. I'll try keeping an eye out." Marionette slipped out behind Mike who then retrieved the things he brought.
"Flashlight, crowbar, and this…" Mike showed off what looked to be a taser. "I'm glad I kept ahold of one of these. If anything down there starts getting too grabby, a zap should put them out of commission." He then looked to the puppet, paused, and added, "Unless it's you." Marionette chimed and retorted, "Mike, I think I can control myself. This is business; I only get clingy at home." He then turned and approached the front door. "Oh, this will be all too easy. Just give me a moment…" He rested his hand on the door, focused, and unlocked it from the outside.
Soon they were inside the building and searching through what they could find in the immediate area. Even though the electricity seemed to be on, Mike decided to simply rely on the flashlight. It didn't take long before Marionette found something, "Mike, over here." As he had briefly slipped off on his own, Mike actually had to find him. Thankfully he was only in a nearby hallway, looking at writing mounted on the wall. "The rental animatronics are down a few floors. I think we should try to find the stairs."
"There's an elevator back over that way," Mike pointed out and started to backtrack. It wasn't long until he found the elevator again. It still functioned properly and seemed supplied with adequate electricity, so Mike didn't bother with finding a staircase and simply stepped in. Marionette entered inside as well, silently looking around the inside of the elevator. "I think the stairs would be wiser. If there is someone here, they will hear the elevator lowering," the puppet pointed out, clearly uneasy. Though the elevator was the least of his problems.
Since he had entered the building he had felt a growing sensation overtake him; a depressing, smothering sort of feeling. It didn't help that the elevator itself made him feel claustrophobic. "The stairs can't be that far… Mike?" Mike was crouched down in the back of the elevator, staring at something on the ground. Marionette floated closer and could see that it was some sort of broken screen laying there. It was practically shattered; as though thrown instead of dropped. "Doesn't look like it was used to monitor cameras," Mike remarked as he lifted it and turned it over.
"…Let's just pretend that this isn't a sign of worse to come." He dropped the screen again and stood, looking to his companion. "I'd say you don't have to come, but I'm pretty much screwed if you don't." The animatronic made a huffing noise and waved his hand, "No, I'm coming. I just… The elevator's fine. We would know if someone's here." Marionette was quick to cover his doubt and watched Mike punch in the numbers. He straightened himself and stood his ground; he had handled worse.
He wasn't afraid to confront other beings like himself and wasn't honestly worried about humans, so technically there was nothing to worry about. Marionette shrugged off the sensation and blamed it on the prevalent nightmares. Mike didn't seem afraid, after all. If anything, Mike just seemed a little cautious. So the puppet wanted to follow suit with him. The elevator doors closed and they started to descend into the dark. Neither of them had any idea what was coming…
"…What is that?" Mike asked, his voice laced with distaste. Marionette only noticed the suddenly starting elevator music, but looked to the windows in concern in case he was missing something. He guessed it was the new audio introduced to the tight space. "It's music," he remarked. Mike looked around at the roof of the elevator, "I assumed it was music, Mari… It's barely music, but it's… Bongos?" He gave a noise of distaste, "What kind of elevator just plays bongo music?" Marionette glanced over at Mike with the upmost amusement.
"I think it's nice. There's nothing fun about a silent elevator," he pointed out. Mike gave him a flat look in response, "There's nothing fun about bongos either. This isn't even elevator music." He went quiet for a minute, but went to speak again. He was cut off by Marionette adding in, "It's music in an elevator. I'm pretty certain that classifies as elevator music." Mike exhaled and turned away, "I knew you were going to say something like that." He then focused on a keypad against the wall of the elevator, just looking at it and contemplating possible codes.
"Fritz said the toys were brought here," Mike pointed out as the elevator abruptly stopped. "But I'm assuming you weren't or- What…?" The elevator opened to reveal nearly a wall of caution tape blocking the way. There was also an open vent, not touched by the tape, but no less foreboding. "Nothing like bright yellow tape to remind you that you're in immediate danger of being killed." Marionette was feeling a bit better by now and was still in a good mood, so he shrugged off the presence of the tape and the comment.
"I will protect you from anything down here, Mike. The last thing you need to worry about is getting killed," he quipped in response. "…And the toys may have been, but I wasn't. So this is new to me too." Mike slowly let the caution tape go at this point, if only because it being there only fueled his curiosity more than his fear. "Then let's just go in and get this over with," Mike spoke in a sort of answer. He crouched down and shined the light into the depth of the vent. With a slow inhale to steady himself, he slid inside and crawled into the darkness.
Mable: The next chapter won't take too long, not as long as this for certain. I hope you enjoyed!
Also, I decided to add something in here. I've gotten a few questions about Marionette's age. While I never specifically mentioned an age, Marionette would be in the young adult area; such as late teens to early twenties. I wanted to clarify this because a few people assumed Mari was a child, probably because of some of his habits, but I wanted to reassure that this is not the case. XD