Mable: Here we are with the next chapter! I hope you enjoy!

Can't Go Home Again

Chapter Thirty-Nine

"The training tapes? Yeah, I- I did most of the training tapes for Freddy's. I didn't get paid for them but, you know, you do what you can, right?"

The Phone Guy didn't fail to live up to Mike's expectations. Two minutes into a conversation and here he was rambling out an explanation for a yes or no question. Though it wasn't enough answers for the security guard. "I thought you were dead. That last tape… You sounded as close to dead as possible," Mike pointed out. "And I should know. Ask Fritz, I've been in the hospital twice in the last year." Though when Mike looked to Fritz he did a double take. The technician was looking at the table as though… "Or maybe I should be asking Fritz."

"I thought he was dead too," Fritz insisted. "I didn't lie to you about anything or keep anything secret from you. Trust me."

Mike looked to the Phone Guy and casually remarked, "Says the guy who didn't admit that he changed his name until after I figured it out on my own." He decided to fully ignore Fritz for the time being and focused on the familiar voiced man. "But what happened to you? I mean… That was a bad night." That was all he could say. That had been an awful night.

"It was… It was pretty bad," he took a drink of coffee, as though drowning out the thoughts for a moment or stalling. "It's- It's a pretty long story, but that's what you came for and that's why I brought you here. Sit down. Can I get you something?"

"I'm good, thanks," Mike started to sit down before pausing and standing. "Actually, I'll just stand. You go ahead." He could handle any possible discomfort; he didn't want to make a one-legged man stand in his own closet of a kitchen. The Phone Guy didn't argue with this. He was shaking worse and Mike leaned against the counter.

"Just a recap here…" Fritz volunteered awkwardly. "We have met before." As though he was covering himself a little further.

"We have. I mean, when you stay at Freddy's as long as I was, you basically meet everyone," the Phone Guy admitted. "…And you start learning things that you're not supposed to." He looked desperate to speak. As though years of silence were eating away at him and he couldn't keep quiet any longer. "I don't even know where to start."

"How about that night?" Mike suggested, but tried not to push too hard. The Phone Guy looked like the type to crack under pressure. Especially with the constant shaking in his hands.

"That night… Yeah, I'll have to work back a little, but that's a good start." He paused to drink more coffee. "I, uh… I never liked the night shift… And I'm not on the clock anymore, so I don't have to pretend I was. It was hell sitting in there all those nights. I knew that I couldn't keep up the pace forever. Eventually they'd get into the room… Heh, it's kind of funny. I sort of thought it was going to be Foxy, but it was really just all of them." He stared down in the mug at the dark liquid. "But I didn't think I'd be the lucky one who survived."

He sent them an uncomfortable smile. The scars on his cheeks were more obvious when he smiled, and that made Mike only more aware of how dangerous it had been. Yet he had kept going back. It was certainly something to think about in hindsight.

"I found him." Fritz's announcement surprised Mike. "I… I got him out of the suit, but I didn't know about what happened at the hospital. I just- I just thought that you died. Fredrick hadn't said anything." The Phone Guy suddenly choked, coughed a little, and set his coffee further away. The mention of Fredrick had triggered an odd reaction.

"You probably already heard about Fredrick," Mike added in, looking for a reaction. "And before you ask, yes, he's gone. There's no trick or fake death. He's actually gone."

"That's probably for the best," the Phone Guy remarked. His face immediately turned to panic. "Wait, that came out wrong. I just meant that it's best that he's not faking his death and just- You understand, right?" They both nodded in agreement with him. "Though I won't lie, I feel a lot safer knowing that Fredrick's not standing outside," he remarked as he looked behind himself in paranoia. "…Can we switch chairs? I don't like having my back free." Fritz shrugged it off and did as the older man requested. Then he finally continued.

"Fredrick… Look, I know that you two were close with Fredrick, but there's a few things that he was… He wasn't exactly…" The Phone Guy hesitated for a moment and inhaled tensely. He tapped his fingers on the table. "Let me just take a step back. A long time ago, Freddy's was owned by two people, Henry Johnson and William Afton. These two were the people in charge, but they didn't really work well together… I mean really didn't. These two were constantly fighting about the business and where they wanted to take it."

He laid his hands on the table as he began to compare the two men. "Henry was a hard worker, he was constantly doing what he could for the business, but he could really be a little… Over-ambitious. William had a robotics company and knew how to work on the animatronics, but he was a little… He wasn't exactly the most social of people. They both could be difficult to work with sometimes, but I'd probably take Henry as the better owner. He really did care about Freddy's."

"I think I read something on Henry," Mike volunteered. "He… Died in a Springlock accident?" The Phone Guy looked surprised at the fact that he knew that much.

"That's right. It was… Yeah, I mean, it was bad… But, so, anyway, Henry and William usually signed documents with the name 'Fredrick Fazmann'. For a long time, we just- I just assumed that Fredrick was a fake name for tax reasons, but after Henry and William were out of the business, after a couple of months passed without anything happening, Fredrick suddenly appeared out of nowhere." He fidgeted in his seat. "I was… Skeptical, but I still worked with him and he really did a good job getting Freddy's back on its feet."

He then shuddered, "But some things don't go away. You can't just pretend that multiple murders don't happen. A-And the animatronics were becoming more aggressive every day… Then there was that incident with Jeremy." Apparently, he and Fritz already spoke about Jeremy as they just shared a nod without an explanation.

Mike had his own question and looked to Fritz, "How about Jeremy? Do we need to call and bring him over here?"

Fritz shook his head, "I called him after you. He sounds half-dead so I just told him to stay in bed." He hesitated for a moment before coughing, "Sorry about the inappropriate 'death' comment."

"Shame on you," Mike quipped in a completely not serious way. He then looked back to the oldest male. "So, Fredrick was covering for the business?"

"He was, and not just for the business…" The Phone Guy looked around again, seemingly paranoid, and lowered his voice. "There was- There was this guy who worked in the Pizzeria- Fritz, you remember him- named Dave. Dave was…" He trailed off, staring out into the room with a briefly vacant expression. As though he suddenly lost track of thought.

"Suspicious?" Mike offered.

"A liar," the Phone Guy clarified. "Dave was a liar, and he didn't act right, and the animatronics really couldn't stand him… But Fredrick either didn't notice or didn't care, I thought. I thought Fredrick was just oblivious and he- uh… This is hard to get out there…" He fumbled with his coffee mug. "…One day I decided to voice my suspicions to Fredrick. The next thing I knew I was the one listed on the night shift… And he wasn't planning on moving me. Even when I threatened to quit, he wouldn't budge, and then… My last week I slipped."

"You… You think Fredrick put you there on purpose?" Fritz asked. There was a dread in his voice as he asked the question. All he could think about was the memory of prying the suit off the man in front of him. Of how reluctant Fredrick was to call for help, even if he could die.

"Yeah, I do. I think Fredrick knew that I knew too much. He didn't do it to anyone else. Not Dave, not you, he just wanted me out of the picture and I didn't have a chance. He… You were there. He wasn't going to let anyone call an ambulance."

Mike's head snapped to Fritz, "What does that mean? Fredrick was keeping you from calling an ambulance?" Fritz stared at his silently, with a desperation in his eyes. Mike understood immediately what that look meant and he didn't need an answer. "So… Maybe Dave- Was Dave the- Wait, let's take a step back." Mike pinched the bridge of his nose as he got his priorities straight. "Let's go back to the beginning, to Henry and William. I've got some questions."

"Shoot."

"So, it was a Springlock accident that killed Henry? No murder, no unexplained phenomenon, no animatronic, just a suit malfunction?" Mike spelled out quickly. He wanted to get the checklist of items out of the way. Too many people had died under mysterious circumstances and now that Phone Guy was suggesting sabotage, it seemed highly possible that Henry was also a victim. Alas, this wasn't the case.

"No, no. Just a Springlock accident. They were deathtraps, really. You could barely get them to crank into place and they would slip from the smallest nudges. It wasn't until a later accident when they were finally discontinued. It was a child- You probably know about this." He looked between them both in curiousness. "A couple of kids were fooling around and- It was just so terrible- Four children were playing a prank. You know, kids play pranks and all, they do these things, but this was…" he coughed into his fist. "Someone should've been watching."

"Wait, I thought you were talking about the Fredbear bite," Mike pointed out in confusion. "There was a different bite?"

"No, it- Well, there were plenty of bites, look at Jeremy- This was the Fredbear bite. A couple of kids shoved a younger kid's head into Fredbear's mouth and- You know, the springlocks are never secure. Just the smallest bit of pressure and they snap out of place. The boy couldn't get out and it just- It just crushed him."

"Oh shit." Mike suddenly was hit with the full impact. "Marionette didn't say anything about that." It couldn't be the same situation, he mentally denied, as Marionette wouldn't have just left that out. All Marionette had said was that Fredbear had bit him.

"And that kid was in there constantly," the Phone Guy clarified. "It gets worse too. One of the boys who did it was his older brother. He was also in there all the time; the whole group was. They always-." The Phone Guy continued explaining, but Mike was lost to him.

Mike couldn't withhold the look of absolutely horror that had passed his face. Mostly because he suddenly realized why Marionette didn't tell him the truth. It suddenly made sense and Mike rubbed at his face wearily, "Oh my God…" He didn't even want to think about it. To think that any child would be shoved into the maw of a metal suit and be crushed to death was hard enough, but this was Marionette, this was his Mari who had died in such a display. Yet Marionette had said absolutely nothing.

Except there was one comment that suddenly came back to Mike. "It was a group effort." He had never thought about what Marionette meant by that. He hadn't even remembered the comment after everything that had followed that confession. Suddenly that line meant something much more insidious.

"-And it changed everything. It wasn't long after that when the kids who did it vanished. I- Probably their parents wanted to get them away from the place, maybe. Maybe they weren't murdered, because nobody found any trace of them or anything. Right after that was when William left, or vanished. We weren't really surprised," the Phone Guy explained further.

"Why didn't anyone stop them?" Mike forced out the question. Fritz was looking at him, probably confused at why Mike was still stuck on the basic details. Mike was usually quicker, taking information and going, but this question was so standard. So unneeded. Though there was a good chance that he knew why Mike was so stunned, and he said nothing as the security guard sought the answer.

"I don't know. I don't think anyone saw it," the Phone Guy admitted. "They were around him constantly, and being that he was his brother… There were other events too, but nothing like this." In a way, he sounded ashamed to say it. Nobody had been able to step in and stop the event. "He kept getting 'accidently' locked in the back rooms and was terrified of the animatronics. Henry- If Henry was still there it would've never happened. Henry would've done something, or would've at least told William about it. Would've done something."

"But nobody did anything," Mike's voice betrayed his frustration. He gave a huff and lightly struck the counter, trying to keep himself in check. "Why didn't Fredrick do anything?" The Phone Guy was about to protest when Mike broke in, "And I know he wasn't working there, but he had to be somewhere. That kid was his son. Working at the business or not, he was in the area somewhere." He had never felt so angry at Fredrick. Even after everything he learned, all his questions, Mike had always stuck by the belief that Fredrick was honestly a good guy.

Even when the Phone Guy said that he thought he tried to threaten his life, Mike couldn't help but partially shrug it off as paranoia. Or, at least, hold some doubts. He had known Fredrick for the entire time he worked at Freddy's and had been treated well by him. He was the father figure he needed, rewarding him with the badge and praising his work, and there was never doubt in him. Until now; Mike couldn't understand how Fredrick, who Marionette portrayed as a good father, would allow this to happen without doing anything.

The Phone Guy's brows furrowed, "Fredrick? I think he mentioned he had kids once, but that boy, the crying child, that wasn't his son." He paused to raise his mug, "He was William's son."

There was an overbearing silence as he sipped the coffee. Fritz looked confused while Mike didn't have much of a reaction. Maybe confusion, but he was more certain that this was a mistake. "He was Fredrick's son. Fredrick was just probably hiding it, like he hides everything else," Mike clarified. "I'm pretty sure of it. He had his birth certificate and everything."

"No, he was William's son," the Phone Guy insisted. "He, uh, he was there all the time with his brother because their dad worked there. After Henry died he was there more often, so that probably made it worse." Mike still was skeptical until he added in. "Actually… Might have had other kids too. I know he had a daughter. Or I think he had a daughter, I think I saw a picture of a daughter in his office."

Something about the fact that he knew about a daughter when Fredrick hadn't even told him about a daughter, and that pink bedroom, made it sink a little harder. As though he suddenly realized that it was possible that Fredrick lied to him. But Marionette wouldn't lie, not about something like this. After all, William Afton was the owner of ARI, he could've very well created the animatronics to kidnap kids, and being that Phone Guy was alive… It was very possible that William Afton could be Purple Guy. Someone was in Springtrap; the actual killer had to be in Springtrap.

And William Afton was nowhere to be seen.

And Phone Guy just stated that he was Marionette's father.

"Okay, wait, my turn," Fritz volunteered. "Afton couldn't have been his father, he… I mean, Fredrick mentioned that his children died in accidents. He said that his son was this bite victim." He looked to Mike, "Right?" But Mike said nothing, because Fredrick had never clarified anything at all. Fredrick never admitted to anything.

"Hey, there's always a chance that I was wrong," the Phone Guy suggested. "But he used to drive the kid home sometimes, he said the kid was his, the child- sometimes when he was crying- he'd go latch onto William and just cry… But that was before he got really 'distracted'. Then he'd just cry under the tables." He bit his lip, "And I just realized how pitiful this all sounds." He hesitated and looked towards the floor. There was the fluffy cat wandering over. It stopped to rub against Phone Guy's legs, nuzzling its head into him as he pet it.

The room fell into silence. The Phone Guy pet his cat, Fritz stared at Phone Guy, and Mike returned his hand to his face. He didn't even know what to think. It couldn't be true. William Afton being the Purple Man was very possible and, seeing the circumstantial evidence laid out, seemed very likely. Even if this man known as 'Dave' was suspicious, Mike had blueprints that showed Afton's hand in kidnapping kids. If anything, they were probably working alongside each other, and that would make them equally guilty.

But Fredrick lying and William being Marionette's real father just didn't make sense. His motives wouldn't even make sense. Not to mention that Marionette had made it very clear that Fredrick was his father. It wouldn't make sense for him to cover for Afton, especially if there was a possibility that he was the Purple Man. He would've said something when they were in ARI. He wouldn't hide it.

Unless Marionette didn't know. In which case, Mike was going to need some hard liquor, and he was going to need it fast.

"If you'll excuse me," Mike suddenly announced, as even as he could state it. "I need to step outside and get some air, or I'm going to shove my head into an oven." Neither of them argued with him and he headed out into the living room and out the front door. Once outside, standing in the cold of the outside world, Mike tried to get his thoughts together.

"Oh Mari…" Mike rubbed over his face again, as though it was a new reaction to stress. Now he knew exactly what Marionette had been hiding, along with some growing suspicions. "This Afton thing. This could be a mistake. Phone Guy could be wrong- If he was related to Fredrick in another way and just lied about it. I don't know enough to make a call like this." He dropped his arms tiredly and stared at the ground with an exhale. A few seconds of silence provided him with relief before his thoughts returned abruptly.

"I can't tell him about this. Not now. Not until I get concrete proof. He can't even think this or this'll break him," Mike insisted to himself. That was it; Marionette just couldn't know. That aside, there was what he learned about the bite, and suddenly a growing anger aimed towards Foxy. "That son of a bitch hasn't even mentioned it. He just got away with it and… If Afton was their father, and the Purple Man, then did he kill his older son out of vengeance?... Ugh, this just- This is going nowhere." His thoughts would just continue to move in circles.

"I need to get home to Mari," Mike audibly voiced to himself. "I can figure the rest of this out later. I need to get home now and just make sure he's still asleep."

The door started to open and Mike looked back to see Fritz standing there. "Hey, you doing okay?" he asked in concern.

"Yeah," Mike forced out. "It's… This is all too much to believe, but what else am I going to do?" He exhaled a puff of fogged air and looked to his friend. "You?"

"That cat in the kitchen has, like, twenty toes," Fritz randomly pointed out. "I almost laughed, so I needed to get some space. Laughing is the last thing I want to do when talking about, you know, this."

"Do you think he's right?" Mike inquired quickly. "About Afton being Marionette's father? Because this could change everything." He jammed his hands in his pockets, "Especially if he doesn't know."

"I don't know what to think… But… But he was right about the threats," Fritz confirmed. Mike looked to him slowly and Fritz slowly shook his head. "That night when Fredrick kept me from calling for help, when he had me pry the suit off of him… He had this look in his eyes." He visibly shuddered and rubbed his hands together, as though freezing. "He had this… Cold… Bitter look in his eyes. Maybe, maybe him not getting help was just to torment Phone Guy longer." He then looked to Mike again, "He never told me he lived."

The security guard clenched his teeth a little tighter. "I should've known Fredrick was a liar."

"We can't tell-."

"No, Fritz. We both know it, so let's just get it out there. Fredrick lied about something. We can't say what, but we know that he did, and now he's been caught. Enough said," Mike firmly announced as he stared coldly into the street. He exhaled slowly, "But this father thing is only one of our problems. I'm more concerned about Foxy's childhood pastime."

"You're right…" Fritz nearly shuddered. "And it was Foxy, unless Fredrick had another kid."

"It was Foxy," Mike insisted. It had to be. This had to be why Foxy and Marionette acted so oddly around each other sometimes. This was what happened and this was how they coped with it. It didn't feel like enough to Mike. "I have to get home and check on him. All this… All of this has got me feeling pretty damn uneasy." He looked back to the house with an exhale. "But I need to see Phone Guy first." With that, he started back inside, and Fritz followed suit shortly afterwards.

"Hey," Mike announced as he entered the kitchen. Phone Guy was now opening a can of cat food for the two cats crowding his feet. Fritz had been right; the fluffier of the two had way too many toes and the bald one, as stated before, was completely bald except for a warming vest. "Sorry about taking off. I needed a minute."

"Don't worry about it. I totally get it- it's a lot of stuff to take in at once." He set the two-sided bowl on the floor and the cats eagerly ate from it. He limped over and sat back down at the table, across from Mike. "It's a lot of stuff to have to know. Sometimes I start thinking, especially when Fredrick was still alive, that someone was going to come in here one day and try to kill me. Just so that I wouldn't be able to say anything." He pointed out to the living room, "I have all the tapes I could get together, I have the things I know; it's easier if I'm not around."

"Trust me, nobody's coming after you," Mike insisted to him. "There's nobody left to come after you. Even most of the animatronics have been retired, or flat out destroyed." This wasn't exactly a reassurance to Mike, but it did seem to ease Phone Guy a little bit more. "Can I ask you a few more questions?"

"Of course!" Phone Guy was open as he had been before. Though he briefly wavered, "Uh, before we get off topic, what animatronics are at the Pizzeria you're running? Fritz mentioned Foxy, but he didn't mention any others- I mean, Foxy could probably support a business on his own. I don't know why they never did a Foxy spinoff chain."

Mike wasn't entirely sure if he wanted to mention Marionette right off the bat. From his reputation, Phone Guy was liable to react in a frenzy and shut down communication. "It's basically Foxy. We've been looking for more animatronics to use. Preferably ones that don't try to kill us, am I right?" he answered with a smirk. The other bought it and he continued, "So… Alright, first thing's first. Where have you been since that last tape you sent me?"

"Uh… Here, mostly," Phone Guy awkwardly remarked. "I'm sort of a shut in now. I can go out but I… don't really want to." He looked down to his cats, "I've become the neighborhood's crazy cat lady."

"Everyone has to make a living somehow. 'Whatever gets your name out there' is what I always say, and I don't know why," Mike remarked and then tried to think of what was most important to ask. It would be too weird to just keep asking questions. "What did you know about the rental animatronics?"

For a moment, Phone Guy looked perplexed, but then he followed with, "Which ones?"

Mike gave a quick description, "Ballora, a couple of different colored ones, Foxy and Freddy, and this clown-looking thing." He didn't even know if Ennard was worth describing. Instead, he went straight to the mask. "They had these faceplates that moved on their own."

"You mean Circus Baby?" Phone Guy responded in questioning.

Mike gave a shrug and a noncommittal, "Sure, why not."

"There was a place a while back called Pizza Baby's Circus World. It was sort of a spinoff of Freddy's." He coughed and lowered his voice, "Which may or may not have been funded by William. It's not my place to say." Mike wasn't surprised and remained stoic faced. "Because Freddy's was going through some bad times and, uh, something had to give. They built the restaurant and, I think, had a party there… And then it just closed. They said there was a gas leak, but they started to move things out and act pretty shady about the whole thing."

"Are you saying that Pizza Baby's wasn't a legitimate company?" Mike couldn't help but do it. Especially when the Phone Guy left himself open to it, he had to do it, and did it with a smirk.

"Circus Baby, uh, I do that, sorry," Phone Guy remarked with his own amusement. Though his hands seemed to be shaking a little more than earlier. "So, uh… Back on topic; the place is right over there if you ever want to see it. Literally right over there, but I think it's been bought by someone else now."

"And the animatronics are down in Afton's abandoned building," Mike continued. "If you never want to sleep again, I have a few blueprints you might like seeing." This got a chuckle out of the older male. Either he thought he was joking or simply didn't grasp the severity of what could be on the blueprints. "But were they ever at Freddy's?"

"I never saw them, but they probably were. Even after William was gone, he had a big influence on Freddy's, so making his own pizza chain- Don't think for a second that he was done with Freddy's." Phone Guy was certain of what he was saying. There was no doubt in his mind or words.

"Last question and then I'll stop quizzing you," Mike promised. "I'm sorry, it's just so hard finding someone who's not dodgy, lying, or completely oblivious to everything." The older waved it off and the security guard considered his next question. The more logical thing would be to ask him what his name was, but Mike had a feeling that they had gone too far for that. "I'll just ask Fritz later…Instead… Instead, maybe Mari's keeping something else quiet." His focus shifted again, "Whatever happened to that puppet-looking animatronic?"

The Phone Guy clenched visibly and Mike's brow raised. "You know, you could've asked me about anything else and I would've been fine. Really, I wasn't that uncomfortable talking about William's kids and the accidents. Baby's? No, fine, but then you just- You have to bring up the Puppet," he finished with a shudder. "That, uh, was one of the toy animatronics. They had face recognition, but were defective and shipped off to be scrapped for something else. I'm guessing that's where it went."

"I take it that you didn't like the Puppet?"

"No. Never trusted it. It was always, just, it was always looking like it was waiting. Or like it was plotting something, and it always had that look. Even during the day, it would stare down the adults, the workers, me." Before Mike could as questions, Phone Guy broke into a story. "Once I was working the night shift and it, the Puppet, was still there. I had accidently let the music box wind out and was going to wind it and it was just halfway out of the box, staring me down." He shuddered, "It was five and it wouldn't leave with me watching it, so I watched it for an hour as it… Stared at me."

Then, with a final statement, he clarified, "I still here 'Pop Goes the Weasel' in my sleep." Yet with everything he said, Mike felt no fear. If anything, he felt a sort of endearment, but mostly because of this pattern of behavior he had seen. Marionette was clearly dangerous and yet… Somehow his thoughts managed to circle back to the bite.

The urge to run home to Marionette was back, and it was only intensified by the Phone Guy's tale. "Was just wondering if you kept tabs on where it went."

"How did you know about the Puppet?" Phone Guy asked in confusion. "It wasn't around by time you were in the office. Did Fritz tell you, or…?"

"Fredrick had files on the animatronics. I got a lot of my information from there." It wasn't an entire lie, but it wasn't all of the truth. He began to stand, preparing to give Phone Guy a brief goodbye and head back home. However, he found himself stopping in place. Maybe all this truth telling made him more emotional, but something was nagging at him, and he knew he had to say more.

"I'm… I'm glad you're alive. I checked those back rooms like you asked, but there was nothing there… Realistically, I couldn't tell how long ago your tape was made." Mike ran his fingers through his dark hair and hoped the motion would perform some sort of self-comfort. "I kind of considered you a friend in a way. You saved my life with your information, and I only regretted that I couldn't save yours… Which I guess loses its dramatic effect with you being alive," he sent him a playful smile. "And I don't know where I'm going with this, so I'll just end it with thank you, and you're welcome at Foxy's whenever. I'll even get you a free pizza; just don't tell Fritz, because he'll be cooking it."

"Sounds good to me," Phone Guy gave a small smile back. "And you're welcome… I'm glad that out of all those tapes, one of them made a difference."

And it had. More than Phone Guy even realized.

Mike stepped out of the house as Fritz stepped in. "We'll do coffee some other time?" Mike inquired as he started towards his car.

"Sure. I'll call you later…" The technician hesitated for a moment. "…I don't think you should tell Mari. " He actually was concerned, but he knew that there was no way he was as concerned as Mike was. Just from the way the security guard hesitated, it was clear that he was undecided.

"That's the plan for the moment," Mike responded, then looked directly to Fritz. "But when it comes to that then just let me handle it." Because Mike knew that it would eventually come around. Eventually Marionette would hear word of Phone Guy's theory, eventually he would react to it, and then Mike would have to fix the damage. He was ignorant enough to believe that this was the end of what he heard, especially when he would eventually have to ask why Marionette left out certain details about the bite.

"I think that would be best. You know him better than we do. You two are pretty close," Fritz ended this sentence with a cough. "Take care driving. The roads still aren't completely dry."

"You too," Mike answered and then got into his car. He felt heavy as he slowly pulled out of the driveway and started back towards the house. He had gotten quite a few answers, but he didn't know if they were necessarily answers that he wanted. For once in his life, Mike's curiosity was sated, but it was only because he didn't want to hear anymore.

For now, he needed to get back home. He would figure out the rest later.

Mable: Phone Guy seems to have a lot of suspicions, but are these true? The only thing concrete is what Marionette has left out, and now that this is out in the open…
But the next chapter will be next Saturday! Until then, we have a few answers with even more questions. I hope you enjoyed!
…Also, if you're wondering, Phone Guy does have an actual name. Mike just never asked. XD