Mable: Here we are! Posted a little late with this chapter, but I managed to get it in before Midnight, so I consider it still a success. XD I had a little trouble getting this chapter finished, because it stretched on a little longer than I intended. On the other hand, some things I wanted in it were pushed off to next week's chapter. All in all… That's why I'm posting later than I usually do. I still hope you enjoy the chapter!
Can't Go Home Again
Chapter Forty-Two
Marionette didn't want to go out into a room of people to explain his plight, but he had no other choice. Thankfully, he couldn't immediately see the Phone Guy, so it was only Fritz and Natalie who he had to deal with. After a few moments of hesitation, Fritz turned towards Natalie to talk about something while Mike watched. This was his cue and he quickly appeared behind Mike. He laid a hand on his shoulder and murmured to him. "Mike, Foxy's gone," he forewarned.
Mike wasn't surprised about his appearance, but looked confused about the statement. "What do you mean?" he asked back. Marionette was somewhat relieved that Mike caught the cue to keep his voice down.
"I went to tell Foxy and he fled from the Pizzeria," Marionette admitted to him. "He's out there somewhere. I don't know where he's gone." It was now that the other two companions noticed him. Marionette fought the urge to go into his default and freeze under their gaze. Even though it was Fritz and Natalie, this whole event had everything frazzled and he could barely stand their staring.
Mike swore under his breath. "Any clue?" he insisted, digging in his pocket for his keys. "If he's not coming here, then there's got to be somewhere he'll go."
After a moment's hesitation, Marionette gave a tentative answer. "…Maybe the cemetery. As you know, Foxy and I were there before, so he knows the way." Again, he could hear Mike swear and the security guard then moved towards the door. The puppet released his shoulder stiffly and immediately felt too visible. Both Fritz and Natalie could see every stitch of him and he could no longer hide behind Mike. Thankfully, they didn't seem as interested in him as they were in Mike's journey to the door.
"One in the morning; of course, I should've expected Foxy to go on a stroll," Mike muttered to himself. He then looked to Fritz, "And if he's not thinking then he's probably not hiding. If he's spotted, then we're sunk."
"We'll split up and search town. If he's not thinking at all then he might be running blind," Fritz pointed out. The thought of this made Marionette feel a sudden pang of panic. Fritz was right; Foxy could've gone anywhere and could be seen by anyone. He could only regret that he hadn't been able to stop him. The technician looked to Natalie, "Can you drive me over to get the van? It's the only way we can move Foxy."
"No problem!" Natalie responded with a newfound determination. Regardless of the time or the situation, Natalie knew the seriousness of this situation. Giving Fritz a ride was just part of the job description.
"Great. I'll head over there now and check the road to the cemetery," Mike quickly brought to speed, tugging on his jacket. "One of us might need to call Jeremy. He's going to want to know whether we're all going to be on the news tomorrow." Mike finished by looking to Marionette, "You pop into the car and we'll take off." He disappeared through the door, but Marionette lingered a moment longer as Fritz looked to him questioningly.
"How bad is he going to be?" Fritz questioned in concern, "He's not… He's not going to be aggressive, right?" The fear wasn't fully for himself. He could only dread what a crazed Foxy could do when released upon an unsuspecting town. Ironically, he asked Marionette this question after he had previously become aggressive to Phone Guy. He could hear Mike trying to start his car.
"I… I doubt it," Marionette assured. "Foxy… He was acting strange, but Foxy wasn't acting aggressive. He's more likely to run than to struggle…" His voice grew quieter and he struggled to keep his face in check; curtesy of him becoming too comfortable with Mike. "And you've seen how fast Foxy can run…"
"I have," Fritz cringed slightly. Mike tried to start his car again. Fritz looked back to Natalie, "I can drive Mike and Mari once we get the van. I… I don't want to get you wrapped in this if it goes bad."
"Fritz, I want to be here," Natalie reassured. She briefly paused and the flooding car could be heard outside. "I want to go all the way with this- This is the business. I can't just go halfway and say it's too difficult."
Marionette glanced between the two with interest. Something suddenly eased as he saw the interaction between the two. He could feel his smile hold some merit before the door swung open, then he turned his attention over to Mike who was standing in the doorway.
"Looks like I'm going nowhere fast," Mike pointed out with a huff and he tossed his keys onto the table. "I'm going to have to tag along with you."
"I told you to get that thing looked at. It was thumping last week," Fritz reminded as he headed out the front door with Natalie in tow.
"It was driving fine a couple of hours ago. Phone Guy probably just dumped sugar in the tank," Mike pointed out flatly. He then looked to Marionette, "Are you sure you want to come?" The puppet's answer was non-verbal; a nod, a chime, and an uncomfortable crossing of his arms. No more words were exchanged, or needed to be exchanged.
Soon the four were stuck in Natalie's car and on the road to get the van. Mike was stuck in the backseat, but it was less because Fritz wanted to be in the front and more because he wanted to stick close to Marionette who had retreated to floor in front of the backseat. It looked uncomfortable, but the puppet didn't seem bothered by the confined space.
"I think I'd have a better time riding in a cardboard box," Mike pointed out as he shifted around to get comfortable. The backseat of the car felt unnaturally stunted compared to a normal car. Eventually he turned to the side to face Marionette, trying to stretch out comfortably on the seats. "So, what exactly set Foxy off?" The question was tentative out of a risk to upset the puppet, but he couldn't quell the curiosity he felt. Foxy knew better than to blindly run out into the night.
Marionette sat upwards a little and briefly looked to Mike with a confused tilt of the head. He was a bit surprised that Mike directly asked this with Fritz and Natalie in the car, but they seemed distracted on their own merit. Fritz was flipping through music channels and Natalie was driving; neither of them were nearly as invested at Mike. Marionette folded his arms on the second seat and rested against it, assuming that he couldn't be seen by any nearby cars. "I told him about finding my room in ARI."
"That's what set him off?" Mike asked in surprise. "That's pretty damn unnerving, but he freaked out about that instead of this Afton thing?" He assumed that there had to be something more. Thankfully, Marionette was more than willing to be open further with his companion.
"It was very odd, Mike. He spoke about one of the rooms as though he knew it," Marionette admitted with discontent on his voice. "You didn't see this bedroom, but it had two entrances… Like a standard office." The look of disturbance that crept onto Mike's face meant that he was already putting together the same pieces that he had. Marionette waved his hand in dismissal, looking down at the seat and the around at the car's interior in curiosity. "But he's Foxy, of course, so he refused to explain anything before he left."
"I think that's running through the business. It's like a virus; everyone Freddy's touches becomes unable to rationalize any of their actions," Mike remarked with a weary huff. He wasn't exactly very happy with Foxy anyway, so knowing that he was stuck out here because of him was borderline ridiculous. "And when they do rationalize it, it either doesn't make logical sense or it's just completely stupid. 'Hey, here's a great idea. Why don't we rehire that guy who keeps popping up when all these kids disappear?'" Mike mocked.
This got a light chime out of Marionette at least. He laid his head on his folded arms and Mike raised a brow. "Tired?"
"Exhausted," Marionette corrected. "I've never been so ready to end a night… Or, well, I have, but that's not important." Mike had a feeling that he didn't need to or want to know. "I need to be ready for tomorrow."
"Mari, if you can't do tomorrow then Foxy will have to do it on his own. He's the reason we're out here anyway," Mike pointed out. If it came down to it, he would be insistent about him taking the day off. He couldn't be perfectly fine after all of this.
"I can't. I want to be there," Marionette insisted with an exhausted but stubborn tone. "I need to be there. If I don't, I'll just spend the day dwelling on things. I rather pass out gifts; I was born to do this." He certainly sounded determined, so Mike didn't argue any further, especially as the car came to a stop and Fritz jumped out.
Mike leaned forward, between the front seats, and addressed Fritz. "I'll stick with Nat. Her car's going to be faster than the van anyway."
Fritz nodded in agreement, "Got it. I'll call Jeremy." The door was shut and Fritz jogged over to the van. Natalie quickly pulled back out and started to drive along, "Where to first?"
"The cemetery," Mike reinstated.
"You sure?" Natalie playfully remarked back. That would've been the end of it, except that someone else had something to say.
"No," Marionette suddenly announced. As though in a trance, he slowly roused from his relaxed position. "No, wait, maybe I've made a mistake." Mike looked to him in alarm and Marionette voiced his concern. "Foxy could be anywhere. I thought he went to the cemetery, but… He could've gone to the old pizzeria," he doubtfully admitted. He almost shrunk when he added in, quieter, "Or the warehouse. Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica are still there. He could've gone there. If we're being realistic, I… I have no idea where he went."
Then the pressure returned. Marionette could feel the panic coming back, along with the sudden feeling of powerlessness. Mike was a little calmer, "Where do you think he would've most likely gone?"
"I… I don't know." His confidence faltered. "I don't know anything about Foxy, do I? I thought I did, but really… Nothing." His face shifted to dread and Mike decided it was his turn to step in.
"Hey, don't do that," Mike insisted as he reached out and lightly shook his shoulder. "You're overthinking this. Foxy couldn't have gotten far." Marionette covered his face with a hand and Mike squeezed his shoulder. "We're going to find him no matter what. Just sit tight and let me handle this for you," Mike supportively insisted. He then looked back to Natalie. "The warehouse is closest. We'll start there."
It was so humid and hot, and the air stunk of dust and grime. It looked like a bedroom, but it smelled like a warehouse. Low thumping came from down one of the hallways; he wasn't sure which one. Instead his eyes focused on the closet. Something was in there waiting for him. With a sudden jolt of energy, he sprinted to the closet door and threw it open, shining the light around inside. Something was in there, he knew it, but he couldn't see it. All he could see was a Foxy plush sitting in the back of the closet, staring at him, judging him.
The closet was shut and he hurried back to the bed, sitting down on the floor in front of it. It wasn't worth getting too comfortable on the bed. He knew this after multiple times when he had to fling himself off the bed to shut one of the doors. They wouldn't stay shut no matter how hard he tried to close them. By now he had lost all concept of time; he couldn't tell if it had been hours or days. It just didn't stop and he couldn't even sleep, driven crazed by a nagging throbbing in his chest. His adrenaline was the only thing keeping him awake to keep them out.
Part of him wondered if the others were going through the same thing. He hadn't seen them since he had been brought here, but he could only assume that they were here somewhere too. Probably in other rooms like this, keeping out the monstrous, hulking figures that waited in the darkness to get inside. At this moment, he heard footsteps outside of the left door and hurried over to look out. At the end of the hallway stood the foul creature that was stalking him, or one of them. It looked to be a rabbit animatronic, maybe, but looked freakishly deformed.
Or maybe it was just the light. It disappeared so quickly that he couldn't tell whether or not it was. He pulled back from the door and headed back to the bed, tiredly collapsing in front of it. He couldn't go on much longer. Echoing down the hallway he could hear laughter, booming and shuddering like distorted sobbing. It haunted him and wouldn't allow him to forget. As long as he was trapped in this windowless room, listening to the sound of crickets pour in through a vent in the wall, he would be forced to remember.
There was a fidgeting in the closet and he staggered over to it, resting his hands on the knobs. How many times had he hiked out in a closet, waiting for his unsuspecting victim to open it? Now something waited inside, stalking him, trying to get into the room with him. He couldn't keep up forever. This couldn't go on forever; eventually the alarm clock signaling respite would sound through the halls. Then he would be safe for a few more minutes.
He tightened his hold on the flashlight and threw open the closet door. A face stared back at him. Only for a few seconds, only until he slammed the door shut, but for that moment the mocking face stared him down.
It was Foxy's face. Of course it was another tribute to what he did. They were never going to let him forget.
Once it was gone, and he checked to make sure it vanished, he sat back down in front of the bed. Still he couldn't tell what time it was, how long he had until his brief minutes of safety. Slowly he started to realize that the likelihood of him leaving his room for good was very slim. He was going to die in this room, just like his brother died in his hospital bed. This was someone's version of punishment for his crimes.
He could only wait. Any moment now… The sound of footsteps returned and light was cast down upon him from behind. For a moment he almost panicked, expecting to see dozens of freakish, miniature Freddys behind him, but he waited without moving. It was coming for him… Closer… Closer…
"Foxy?"
The crackling voice seemed to suddenly bring Foxy back from his delirium. He couldn't understand why the voice was here, nor why he was crouched in a ditch. He could've sworn he had hid somewhere safe, but this ditch seemed remarkably out in the open. No wonder he was spotted so quickly and he listened as the human moved close. He wasn't surprised that it was his first mate to find him.
Jeremy coughed as he awkwardly shuffled down the slope to Foxy's side. It had been sheer luck that led him to finding the fox and now that he had found him he sought answers. "What are you doing out here? Someone could see you." His voice crackled in an unusual way that Foxy wasn't used to. The animatronic turned his head a slight bit, bit didn't speak. "Come on, Foxy, you need to get back to the Pizzeria. Fritz will bring the van." He brought out his cellphone and went to dial Fritz's number.
Until a hook abruptly caught his wrist. Jeremy flinched back in surprise and looked down towards the animatronic fox.
"Lad…" Foxy began quietly, "mind listening to an old sea dog's tale?" He turned his head upwards enough to look at the young man. Jeremy stared at him for a few moments, confused, but then slowly nodded.
"Uh… Okay, Foxy. Sure," he agreed and shuffled to kneel down, keeping himself somewhat off the snow. "Is this about how you got out here?"
"No, lad," Foxy drug out, staring the male down. "Did you know, lad, that I'm a liar?" Jeremy furrowed his brows in confusion. "It runs in the family. Other things run there too. Bad things that can never be washed clean." He twitched a bit and began to rock in place. He changed topic, "Marion tell you what he said?"
"Not really, no. I didn't even talk to Marionette," Jeremy admitted. "I-I talked to Fritz. Everyone's really worried about where you went."
Foxy completely ignored the last statement. "He found the room I spent my last days in," he continued, his pirate accent completely slipping. "I thought that the room wasn't real. I thought that room was just a bunch of nightmares… But it was real, and he saw it." He shuddered at the thought and began to explain. "We went back to the Pizzeria to get revenge for what happened to Marion. We were the real cause, but we wanted someone else to blame, so we went back alone… And he was waiting for us."
"Who?" Jeremy asked, but then immediately guessed. "Wait- the murderer?"
"Aye. It was him… I can't remember his face. Can't remember anything except all his purple," Foxy snarled after he finished this statement. There was anger in his eyes that even Jeremy could see. "He took me to that room and he, and his goons, animatronic monsters, tormented me. I don't know how long I was down there…" He shook his head firmly. "I kept holding on, kept thinking that my friends were somewhere doing this too, that we'd escape this and… And we'd go home together…"
"Oh no, Foxy…" Jeremy knew where this was going. "You don't have to-."
"They were already dead," Foxy announced abruptly. "I saw them later. I saw them when he was moving me out of the room…" He fell silent, suddenly deciding not to tell anything else. The two sat there for a couple of seconds. Then Foxy's mood abruptly shifted, "I didn't ask to be this. I didn't want to become Foxy." It was the first time that Foxy went entirely out of character. Jeremy stared at him in alarm through fogged vision. He tried to keep from coughing as his throat tingled in protest.
Then Foxy's move continued to plummet. "And look at me now. I'm still a monster." He abruptly stood and stormed over to a nearby shrub. Ignoring the snow covering it, he viciously began to swing his hook into the shrub, as though to release anger.
Jeremy flinched back a little more from the aggression, falling onto his backside on the snow. He followed by awkwardly stumbling to his feet. "You're not a monster, Foxy," he quietly tried, not wanting to make the situation any worse. It was now that a car stopped beside his own. He looked back, saw the car, and began to panic as a stranger looked out the window before dialing his cellphone. "I've got everything under control!" he called out desperately to the man before looking to Foxy. "Foxy, we need to get you home."
He tried to shuffle a little closer, but Foxy's aggression towards the innocent shrubbery kept him somewhat back. Jeremy didn't think Foxy would attack him, but he didn't want to risk an accidental swing hitting his flesh. "I know you didn't want to be an animatronic, b-but at least you're alive, right? You've got the pizzeria and all the kids; it's not a lot, but it's something."
Foxy abruptly stopped in his attacking and let his arm drop limply to his side. "…It's not enough," his accent has returned yet again. "Lad, it ain't enough to just taste the salt. If you don't have the sea by your side, there's no point in even spreading your sails." While Jeremy didn't understand why Foxy was dipping back and forth from pirate to non-pirate, he sort of understood what he meant. Either way, Foxy was clearly distraught, and Jeremy reached out towards him.
"Foxy!"
Jeremy recoiled immediately, hazily stumbled, and looked over to see that, abruptly, Marionette had appeared. Looking up towards the street, he could see that another car had pulled up and both Mike and Natalie were getting out. There was immediate relief; Jeremy didn't think he could handle Foxy alone in this state. Foxy had almost uprooted the shrub when Marionette called for him. He promptly stopped the attacking, stiffened, and looked back towards the other animatronic. They stared each other down for a few moments, then Foxy spoke.
"I'm not going back," he firmly stated. Foxy then turned away and promptly crouched down on the ground. Marionette and Jeremy glanced to each other before the puppet began to speak again.
"I was worried after you left. You could've been seen," Marionette pointed out before looking down towards the cemetery further on. He then looked back to the fox, hovering a little closer. "Foxy, I don't know if it's true or not. About him… I can't say whether it is or not, but I needed to tell you. I needed to know if you remembered."
"I don't," Foxy admitted to the younger. "Lad, I can't remember his face. I can't remember his voice- neither of their faces or voices…" There was shame heavy on his voice. Though by now, Jeremy was entirely confused at the shift in conversation, not making the connection between the elusive room and their vague statements. Though he did notice immediately as Foxy's head tilted upwards. Sudden interest overtook the animatronic as his voice returned. "…Who told you about Afton?"
"It was that man who was always on the phone," Marionette explained, then gave a mock cheer, "Surprise! Freddy didn't kill him!"
"Makes ya wonder…" Foxy slowly stood once more. For a second Jeremy worried that Foxy was going to turn his attention on Phone Guy. Marionette didn't seem too concerned, but his frozen face didn't give much away. Instead he waited there as the fox stood. "Why didn't he tell you?"
Jeremy's brows furrowed while Marionette's lightly recoiled. The human glanced between them, "Whose 'he'? You mean Mike?" It was a reasonable assumption. Upon hearing his name being dropped, Mike started making his way down the slope; thinking that if they all rushed in Foxy would flee. Apparently, Mike also believed that Foxy was referring to himself.
"You know who I mean, Marion. He was always there, whispering in your ear. Always knew what he wanted done. Why didn't he know what was happening with Afton?" Foxy demanded a little more firmly. Though it wasn't as though he was seeking answers, but as though he was accusing. "And I can't remember his face! I remember seeing him do it, but I can't remember his face!"
"We were all like that," Marionette defended limply. There was hesitation on his voice as he trained his vision to the ground and grasped at his own arm. "We didn't know either. I thought Fredrick looked like our father, Foxy."
"You and I both thought all those security guards were the same man too," Foxy pointed out in further accusation. "Why did they all look purple? Why were we going after everyone if he swore he knew which was which?"
Marionette was about to continue defending when Mike finally volunteered. "Before we continue with this 'he said, he did' thing, can we actually verify who we're talking about? Two minutes ago it could've been me," Mike pointed out will a less than impressed tone in his voice. His previous anger towards Foxy had not waned in the slightest, but he was attempting to stay non-confrontational. The outcome coming out of it would've not even been worth it. Jeremy broke into a brief fit of coughing as Foxy paused for a few moments.
"Golden Freddy," Foxy clarified with bitterness dripping from his voice. "Marion probably didn't tell you, but Golden Freddy was always in control. We just had to go along with what he said. We had no choice." Mike looked towards Marionette for some sort of denial, but the puppet did not defend Golden Freddy on this front.
"He was like us, Foxy. Maybe he thought like we did. He… He would've told me if he was my father," but even Marionette didn't sound convinced. He was mostly going through the motions rather than putting his heart and soul into it. Mike noticed this right away.
"Golden Freddy used us all. It was never him doing anything, it was us doing his dirty work." Foxy's anger had shifted and angled directly at the non-present golden animatronic. "He could've know that Afton was our father and never said anything. He could be the reason that we can't even remember who was our father! You only recognized Fredrick once Golden Freddy was gone, didn't you?"
Marionette let a little tinge of alarm slip onto his face.
"He could be the reason you and I didn't know about Afton, about that room, about our sister!" Foxy pointed out firmly. "And that would be what he would do, that rat! He always had his teeth in you! If he-!" Foxy cut off almost immediately at this point, leaving them in abrupt silence. Apparently Foxy caught his wording too late. Shockingly enough, Marionette either didn't catch it or wasn't unbothered by it. Mike's reaction was immediate.
"I'm hoping that was the worst Freudian slip I've ever heard," Mike suddenly snapped out. "And I'm hoping you didn't say that on purpose." He was two seconds from going into a full tangent. "Where do you get the nerve-?"
"Mike, don't," Marionette broke out, raising his arm in front of him. "That isn't the matter at hand."
"I think it's pretty damn close," Mike pointed out. "If we're discussing facts that Phone Guy dropped, especially if we take that comment into consideration." As they were bickering, Foxy suddenly recoiled. Foxy's slip had been his own undoing. Jeremy watched as Foxy's anger dissolved and he turned away to crouch down once again. It was also now when Fritz pulled up in the van and climbed out, approaching Natalie and getting a quick assessment.
"We're discussing Afton… Or, no, we're discussing Goldie, really. We're discussing both," Marionette clarified. "Everything else can wait." Mike just stared at the black and white animatronic in disbelief.
"I just don't understand that," Mike pointed out. "How you can just let that go. Not even the comment, but this thing in general. Afton doesn't matter; nobody here really knows if Afton was your father. Frankly, it begs the question how Fredrick had access to all his stuff," he pointed out. For a moment, Marionette did become curious, and Mike used that to his advantage. "We really know nothing more than we did yesterday. There's no reason we should even be out here." Maybe Mike didn't agree with this entirely, but he couldn't help but angle his bitterness at Foxy.
The first car that appeared with the man then drove off. Mike glanced back at it. "Well, there goes Phone Guy," he casually remarked. "Guess he didn't want to stand out here at one in the morning either."
"He was here?" Marionette asked with a sharp change in tone. Suspicion, along with static, rose in his voice. "What was he doing here?"
"He's the one that found Foxy… After Jeremy, apparently. Jeremy, are you okay?" Mike suddenly noticed how red in the face the man looked. In response, Jeremy gave a noncommittal 'I'm fine' in return. "Yeah, you keep saying that." The security guard looked to Foxy. "Come on, Captain, you don't want to get seen. If you don't want to go back to the Pizzeria, then that's fine, but you can't stay here."
Jeremy wondered if he needed to voice what Foxy said earlier, but backed down when Marionette continued. "He was watching us the entire time?" the puppet asked with clear upset on his voice. Nobody directly answered him, so that was answer enough in and of itself.
"Oh, that's important but Foxy's past transgressions aren't?" Mike decided to quietly challenge. Unfortunately, Marionette both heard him and decided to react, with his static only growing.
"You're not helping, Mike. What Foxy did before doesn't matter. Not when we have to worry about this. Father, Afton, Goldie…" Marionette trailed off. It was obvious that Foxy's comments about Golden Freddy had left him unsettled. Mike slowly exhaled and considered reaching out to him, or whether it would frustrate him more.
While they were distracted, Jeremy approached Foxy from behind and laid a hand on his head, patting it. "Let's go home, Foxy. You don't need to hide out here." To his surprise, it worked. Foxy started to stand and turned towards the slope. Obediently he headed towards the van, Jeremy jogging behind him as he did so, and soon Marionette and Mike also followed.
Fritz opened the back of the van and Foxy climbed inside willingly, staying silent as he did so. Fritz followed inside to secure Foxy so he wouldn't slide around the back of the van. Mike was about to approach Jeremy about going home when Natalie's phone began to ring. She huffed audibly and checked her phone, "It's my dad… Could you guys just-?" She wandered a few feet away and answered the phone. "Hey Dad… No, I'm at work… I got a call about some overtime, so I decided to take it."
As Natalie worked to throw her father's suspicion aside, Mike leaned to murmur to Jeremy, "Hopefully you never have to meet Natalie's father." There was slight amusement in the wording, but Mike's tone was mostly flat. It wasn't necessarily like he had any sort of good opinion about the older man.
"He's that bad?" Jeremy inquired curiously.
"He ran for most psychotic father of the year, but fell just under Fredrick or Afton- pending the imminent paternity test," Mike clarified with a slight smirk. He then gestured back at the van, "Ask Fritz, he'll tell you."
Jeremy proceeded to look back expectantly towards Fritz until he noticed and verified, "He's got a few issues with anger. I drove Natalie home a couple of days ago and he was standing out on the lawn waiting for us. So when-." He ended his story abruptly as Natalie approached once more.
"That was Dad. There's been an emergency at the house… I think. Can I drive you back so that I can get home?" she directed this to Mike, but Mike wasn't the one who answered.
"Why don't you- I'll just drive you home. I'm going anyway," Jeremy volunteered as he fiddled to get his keys out.
"You need to go home and go to sleep," Fritz clarified, climbing out of the back of the van and shutting the doors. "I can take Mike home."
"He's not expecting me home immediately," Natalie volunteered in, "so I can still get them back."
"I'm not that sick. I just have a cold," Jeremy persisted, his hoarse voice not helping his case.
By now Mike and Marionette were just watching the scene from nearby. A car started to pass on the road and the puppet briefly dipped behind the van, away from peering eyes. It was becoming more obvious that they needed to get back to safety before they were spotted. "I knew I should've caught a ride with Phone Guy," Mike muttered. Though, in reality, he was more kicking himself for letting his car die.
Jeremy finally put his foot down. "I'm going over there anyway to make sure Foxy gets in okay. Whether I'm taking Mike or not, I'm going, so I should just take Mike." This was the first time that Jeremy had really been assertive on any account. It surprised even Fritz, who had known Jeremy the longest out of all of them. This finally settled the needless disagreement.
Even though uninvited to do so, Mike decided to again sit in the back with Marionette. He absolutely didn't agree when the younger's decision to defend Foxy, but he did feel a creeping shame in actively arguing with him this soon after what happened earlier. Marionette slipped into the backseat floorboard while Mike watched the others outside; Jeremy taking one last look at Foxy and Fritz saying something to Natalie outside of her car. He then looked back to the animatronic who sat alongside him.
Jeremy's car was shaped differently than Natalie's. While from Mike's angle everything seemed normal enough, the floorboard space looked a bit narrower. It didn't seem to bother Marionette, but this seemed like a good enough excuse for Mike to do something. "Nobody's going to see you if you come up here," he decided to offer.
Marionette turned his head to look at him curiously. "Here, we can throw this over you," Mike continued as he leaned forward to slide off his jacket. Marionette easily climbed onto the back seat, but kept himself below the window as to not be seen. The jacket didn't cover enough of him, but it wasn't as though a passing driver would notice his folded legs in comparison to his face and upper body. It seemed much more comfortable though. A few moments passed as the two sat in the car together.
"Where's Jeremy?" Marionette asked, not risking looking out and unable to tell his location through the car's body. "He's taking quite a while…"
"I see him. He's still checking on Foxy," Mike assured as he stared down the van. He was half ready to yell out the window for him to hurry. By now he was feeling the effects of the long night and knew that the morning would be rougher than he could even expect. "He'll be here in a minute." In response, Marionette slid closer to the human and laid his head on his leg, using it like a pillow. Mike glanced down his direction and got a slight smile; their earlier issues were behind them. Though this followed with a flicker of guilt; Marionette had put his issues with Foxy behind him too.
Not to mention these new questions about Goldie. To be entirely honest, Mike found himself wary of Golden Freddy, even as the puppet spoke about him. Something had always seemed a little off about his description of his dear friend. Though after all of this, Mike wasn't going to bring it up. After all, Goldie had moved on, so he wasn't a bother anymore. If he was controlling Marionette, like Foxy suggested, then he couldn't do so anymore. Mike reached down and stroked over Marionette's back and shoulder, trying to comfort him further.
The animatronic gave a soft chime as he turned to press his face further against Mike's leg. He tightened the jacket around him further and relaxed a bit more. Mike looked back upwards to check on Jeremy, "We'll get home soon. Maybe we- What?"
The last thing that Mike expected to catch when looking out of the car was Fritz and Natalie with their lips together. Mike just stared blankly; Fritz had Natalie's face cupped and only separated after a few seconds. Neither Natalie nor Fritz looked surprised and simply had small smiles. They pulled away, Natalie got into her car, and Fritz headed to the van where Jeremy said something and passing by. Neither of them gave any indication that this, the kissing, was a new thing. Mike didn't even know how to react.
"Huh…" Well, he had suspected something, at least. It didn't come as that much of a shock. Mike watched as Jeremy sat down in the driver's seat and started the car.
"Let's go," Jeremy spoke as he turned on the car to start going. The security guard stared at the back of Jeremy's head for a few seconds. No response; did Jeremy not notice? He blinked and looked down at the puppet, thinking that he would acknowledge some of this, or that he could at least make a comment about it. However, Marionette's eyes were closed and he looked like he was trying to sleep.
With the car moving and the three heading back towards home, Mike decided to just ignore the weird revelation. Considering everything else that happened tonight, this was just an anecdote.
He could only hope that this night would eventually become nothing more than an anecdote.
Mable: This is what happens when people can't get all the details they need. Confusion, disassociation, everyone's father's is either a pain or dead, sometimes even both- Let this be a lesson on the importance of proper communication… Even Phone Guy realized it was just better to bail.
Anyway, the next chapter will arrive next Saturday! Hopefully a little earlier in the day. XD