Some Things Are Better Left Buried

By: Miss-DNL

Chapter 29: Tensions

Leroy rocked back and forth in his chair out, his green eyes on the tablet screen. After his talk with Gregor nothing else noteworthy had happened. If anything, he was left a little bored. He'd even left the security room to watch one of the mascot shows, solely on the excuse of making sure nothing went wrong. He'd kept an eye out for suspicious behavior while doing so of course, but nothing had happened. It was the second time he'd seen the animatronics perform but Gregor still felt blown away by their performance. It was better than the clunky show he'd seen at that burger place at St. George's. The cat duo was arguably cuter though.

However, heading out into the party room caused him to catch sight of Ethan and the group of teens he was with. He'd felt a twinge of guilt when he caught sight of the kid still sitting somberly, head hung. Even now Leroy still felt bad about causing the kid's mood to become so poor, but what else could he have done? They didn't have a golden Freddy, Gregor had further confirmed that.

He felt himself go still as his mind prodded him with the pictures he'd found…Leroy shook the thoughts from his head. No, they were probably just a stupid prank or…something like that. He found his hand toying with the silver cross pendent he'd had tucked away beneath his shirt. Fingers turning it over, back and forth, as his mind kept lingering on drawings, stomach tying itself into one more knot each time the cross turned. The coolness of the silver was comforted him, but not nearly enough.

Then he recalled what he'd seen happen to Fun Time Foxy. His fingers stopped their dance with the pendent and a cold lump formed in his stomach. The empty eye socket. The hateful glare it'd given him for the brief moment he'd locked eyes with it.

…How could he have forgotten that?

Leroy felt himself sit upright, stiff as a board, when there was knock on the doorway. He snapped his attention to whomever it was. He was surprised to see it was Ethan's sister's boyfriend. The teen arched a brow as he looked at what appeared to be an overgrown frightened cat sitting in a chair. Leroy relaxed his posture quickly as he could and discarded his necklace back under his shirt. He flashed a welcoming grin to his guest.

"Oh your…I don't think I caught your name from Ethan." Leroy stated in realization, asking the teens name without saying so.

"Mitch." The teen responded.

"Leroy." Leroy returned in kind as he turned the chair to face him. "Is there something you need Mitch?"

Seeing the guard's pleasantly friendly demeanor Mitch took a step into the security office. He still lingered close to the doorway. Despite all the friendly looking merchandise the room was the office of an authority figure. As such Mitch didn't feel he could be too comfortable in it without appearing disrespectful. Halfheartedly he looked over the paraphernalia that decorated the room before speaking again, "I wanted to ask you about something, it's about what happened with Ethan."

Leroy's smiled dampened slightly. "What about it?"

Mitch noticed the slight dip in the guard's expression and eyed him, watching for any change as he asked, "Did Ethan ever say why he went into the back hall? I've known Ethan for a good while now and it's odd for him to break a rule like that. He didn't get in trouble really, and he's still pretty upset over it. I'm just a little concerned."

The question left Leroy in a tight spot. He didn't what he was supposed to say to the teen. If he lied, then Ethan would possibly expose that. Leroy got a faint sense Mitch was suspicious of something, which meant he might believe Ethan of him. Ethan didn't seem like a bad kid, if their short meeting was anything to go by that is. Then again, if what Ethan claimed was made up Leroy didn't really have any reason to lie. He'd just leave out the part about Ethan claiming it was a ghost, to avoid causing any possible ridicule to the child.

"Ethan said something about a yellow Freddy. I think he was playing with an imaginary friend, maybe he got a little embarrassed. I can't say much else. I'm sorry he's still upset but I had to remove him from the hall." Leroy answered with a small apologetic frown.

Mitch didn't seem to be all to satisfied with the answer. Leroy had almost thought that the teen was offended when, out of nowhere, he said, "Did you know there was a golden Freddy once?"

Genuinely surprised, Leroy's reply tumbled right out of his mouth, "No, I didn't."

"Yeah, used to be part of a pair. Fredbear and Spring Bonnie from Fredbear's Family Diner in New Harmony, a larger town that a few hours' drive from here. They'd moved over here after an incident. They were decommissioned after two incidents at another location." Mitch explained clearly and concisely. Leroy was surprised that the teen knew such details about the franchise but with the internet the way it was, Leroy guessed he should be too surprised. Regardless of accessibly of the information, the guard was left a little curious though, about the restaurant's history and how much Mitch knew.

"That's interesting, but why tell me this?" Leroy questioned as he gave his tablet a look. He was still on the clock.

"Because Ethan doesn't know about Fredbear." Mitch explained. Leroy went still, his finger left hovering over the tablet screen, as Mitch continued, "His sister and Mom don't like me talking about the restaurants background around him. Considering the…what happened to kids around his age," his voice faded briefly before he resumed with regained vigor, "it might just be coincidence, but I don't think it is. Just what were you looking for earlier? On the walls."

Of course, he saw that…Leroy thought in a berating manner to himself. He attempted to dismiss the teen's question with a wave of his hand, his eyes still on his tablet. "Nothing, just found an inappropriate drawing and decided checked for others. I found more and I got worked up. That's all."

Mitch looked the half of Leroy's expression, that he could see, over before he nodded silently and backed up a step. Relieved that the teen seemed to have bought his partial fib Leroy allowed his shoulders to deflate. Even still, as he listened to the young adult head back down the hall and watched him leave with his group through the cameras. As he did Leroy felt doubt gnawing at his gut. He changed the view back to the back halls with the visage of Fun Time Foxy's empty, glaring eye stuck in his head. More vividly than before.

"So, how'd it go?" Jayden asked as their group drove away from the pizzeria. He looked over to Mitch who was currently driving his car back to Ethan's home. They'd spent a lot more time at Freddy's than they'd intended, partly due to getting caught up talking and partly because of the incident with the guard. Everyone in the group knew about Ethan's gift and it was partly why they'd been going with him to Freddy's. They'd have gone to the place anyway but the thought of the kids seeing a ghost only added to the excitement.

Ethan kept his eyes on the road as he answered, "The guard denied anything, but I think he's hiding something. I basically watched all the color drain from his face."

"Dang," Jayden commented, brows arching in surprise. When a thought entered his head a look of concern slowly shifted his expression. "You think management is covering something up, making him stay quiet?"

"Can't say. I'm going to check the missing peoples reports." Mitch answered while he stopped the car at a red light. "If this new Freddy's is going to take cues from the old chain then they'll file a missing persons report if anything happens to their night guards."

"Think we should take a look at the place a night?" When Mitch gave him Jayden an incredulous look at his suggestion he immediately clarified what he meant. "Not to like break in or anything. If the animatronics are actually haunted…yeah, not going to mess with that. I'd like to not be stuffed into a bear suit."

Mitch laughed at the blunt tone in his friend's explanation. Jayde's words caught the attention of their other two friends who was sitting in the back with Ethan. Andrea, a blond who held a tough girl persona about her but was a complete softy with kids, remarked, "Would you rather be stuffed into the fox, chicken, or bunny suits then?"

"How about none of the above?" Jayden responded with matching snark. Andrea laughed amusedly to this.

"If you don't wanna bust into the place then what? I'm sure we can still get in trouble for peeking in through the windows. There is a guard after all." Arnold, Andrea's twin brother, pointed out. Between the two blond twins he looked the more hesitant of the two.

"Exactly." Jayden grinned and looked at his friends in the backseat. Both of them seemed confused by his response but listen with interest as he explained. "What I'm thinking is we try and talk to the night guard. If those animatronics are haunted, who better to ask? I doubt whatever their paying the person, they'd be willing to talk. I mean I wouldn't care how much I'm being paid if ghosts were trying to use robots to tear me limb from limb."

"Yeah, can't say I would either…" Arnold agreed, face paling a little at the thought. He looked back to Jayden, still seeming a little unsure and healthily cautious. "But would they even talk to us? I mean, we are just a bunch of teenagers. We're still kids to adults!"

Jayden shrugged in admittance that he couldn't be certain. "Doesn't hurt to try."

At first Arnold deflated at the nonchalant answer. In the end he scratch his head and agreed that what Jayden said was true. They couldn't really get in trouble for just asking a person a question, so long they weren't breaking and entering to do it.

Andrea, getting excited at the idea, grinned eagerly. "I'm totally in. Let's do this!"

"What do you say Mitch?" Jayden asked their group leader. He gave him a playful grin. "You're the one with the car here."

Mitch played along and gave his friend a look, much to his amusement, before he answered, "Yeah, I think it's worth a shot. But you all better back out on me because you don't want to get up."

Laughs were shared briefly, and the plan was made. Arnold, Andrea, and Jayden would get up after five am, meet up, and then Mitch would pick them up at a quickie mart that was near the three of their homes. The rest of the ride was relatively quiet. Ethan was occupied by watching videos on his phone. Ear buds snuggle tucked into his ears. He only removed them when they arrived at his home. The kid said his good-byes and the teens returned them as the boy walked up to the front door.

"Hey." Jayden said to catch Mitch's attention after he waved good-bye to Ethan's mother, who'd opened the door for her son. Mitch gave him a quick glance to show he'd heard him as he watched the door shut. As they drove away Jayden went on, "How is it that Ethan can see ghost? Was he like born with it or what?"

Mitch grimaced at the question, "Oh that…" Jayden gave him a questioning look, which he exchanged with Andrea and Arnold before looking back to Mitch. "Well, you see, there's a reason he's always wearing a hat. It's to hide a bald spot he got from an accident. They'd gotten in a car accident and Ethan…"slipped away" for a short while." Silence settled in the car as the teens took in the gravity of what'd just been said. A few moments later Mitch regathered himself and wrapped up what he had to say, "Since then, he's been able to see these things."

"Damn, that must've been…hard…for them to go through…" Andrea said softly, summing up what was also going through Arnold and Jayden's minds. The two other boys mumbled in agreement.

Mitch nodded, "Yeah, it was. I'd just started getting close to Britany at the time. It was pretty hard on her and I can't even think how hard it must've been on their Mom." Muttered agreements came from his friend. Not wanting to let the tense silence linger any longer Mitch turned on the radio. Once the mood lightened sufficiently he spoke up again, this time speaking in a much lighter tone, "How about we go to my place and play some video games? My family restocked on soda and chips yesterday."

His friends cheered in unison. An unsaid agreement was made, putting the tense moment behind them. The rest of the ride they discussed what games to play and poked fun at each other's skills. Mitch was happy that the tension had been relieved and while he looked forward to hanging out with his friends, he always did, his mind was focused on their planned meeting with Freddy's night guard. He wondered how that'd go and if they'd find anything out.

If they did, what'd they do then? He decided if they did, they'd do what they could to help the poor guard out.

Leroy sighed as he sat back down into chair in the security office after using the restroom. Absently he looked at the figures on his desk, all four of the main cast stood side by side. He picked up the Bonnie figure and fiddled around with the points of articulation, making Bonnie wave, look like he was doing the robot, and other such poses. He returned Bonnie back to his pose of holding his guitar and put him back between Freddy and Foxy. With nothing else to do he picked the tablet again.

"What the?" He said when he felt his fingers meet paper on the back of the tablet. Turning the device over in his hand he saw a piece of paper had been stuck to the back. Leroy stared at the paper, it was blank, but he had a sinking feeling what was on the other side of it.

Just throw it away, just throw it away, he kept telling himself inside his head. He didn't throw it away. Carefully, as if it would bite his hand, Leroy pulled the paper off the back of the tablet. The tape peeling off the tablet rang like a hiss in his ears. Leroy put the tablet back on the office table before he turned the paper front side up.

"He isn't him. It's HIM."

The words were scrawled in scarlet red across the top and bottom of the page. The manner it was written was harsh and sloppy, like the person who'd written it didn't have a lot of experience writing or was in a rush. Leroy didn't know which unsettled him more, the cryptic message or the picture itself. In the middle of the paper was a guard, but this one was different from the ones on the other pictures. This one wasn't colored completely purple. The guard this time had the typical flesh color tone of a Caucasian, but the grin and black eyes with white pupils remained.

A cold rock of settled itself in the pit of his stomach, and it was growing. Leroy wanted to just crumple the picture up and toss it into the garbage, but he couldn't. He couldn't ignore his gut instinct screaming at him that something was wrong, very wrong. Leroy folded the picture up and stuck it roughly into his front pants pocket.

Hand shaking Leroy pulled his phone out of his back pocket and checked the time. It was twenty past six. He was nearing the end of his shift, but he still had over an hour to go. Leroy jammed his phone back into its pocket and anxiously scratched at the sleeve covering his arm. What the hell had he gotten himself into? He didn't know for sure, but he had a bad feeling about this.

"It's going to be okay, everything is going to be okay…" Leroy muttered feverishly to himself. He didn't believe his own words, but he had to try and calm himself somehow. He wiped his forehead, he was beginning to sweat. When did the office air get hot? Leroy shook his head and snatched the tablet back up, deciding to distract himself with work. He flicked through the cameras at random as his mind focused on the picture he'd found.

What did it mean? Who wasn't themself and who was HIM?

A little voice in his head nagged at him, telling him his anxiety was getting the better of him. That nothing was going on and he was just freaking himself out again. This time Leroy disregarded it as he came to a conclusion, there was one person he could go to find out if the pizzeria was haunted. The night guard.

Yes, that's what he'd do. He'd wake up early and catch the night guard after they finished their shift. With a plan made Leroy felt himself settle and finished his shift with no further problems.

Author's Note:

Hey everyone ^^; no this story is not dead. I got hung up on the Gravity Falls amino, did the winter event which required me to do 31 days of pictures. Yeah that sucked up all of my time. Other than that I got a new laptop and just lost of track of time. Haven't really worked on any of my stories for three months straight _ Yeah not proud of myself there. Doesn't help that, once again, this chapter turned out to be half way finished. * face palm *

Anyway. Shits about to hit the fan next chapter and it won't be stopping until the finale. Next chapter will be the last day chapter then we'll be getting back to Mike.

And yes. I know the 5NAF sim game came out. Don't ask me about it in the reviews. I will not respond to it. If you want to talk to me about that PM me. I think it's obvious but I'll say it anyway. No, I'm not including anything from it in my au. It won't fit.

Aside from that, I'm taking questions about my au! I'll answer them in my author notes from here on! Lately I've been considering making this into a comic. Mainly because there's a sever lack of horror focused comics in the fandom. If I do it'll be after I finished writing this and then do it a chapter by chapter basis. Aka I'll finishing drawing, inking, & coloring, the chapter then post. Let me know if your interested. If I did do it'll have mature filters on the more graphic scene (gore and such) but I will not cut that out.

Guest Reviews:

Mia: Wow. Didn't think guests could leave more than review. But to answer you. One, no it isn't all the brother's fault. What he did was a god damned stupid but an accident nonetheless. This was a series of horrible events that built on top of each other to make this horror show. There are villains who were far more involved than that stupid kid, Davey for one.

To be honest, no turning Springtrap into the police wouldn't have stopped anything. He still would've been pissed about his rest being disturbed. The cops wouldn't have looked at him and though "yeah that's totally possessed". If anything he'd have been left in care of people who were completely unsuspecting. He also would've been able to break out of their care more easily. Hurricane police force is for a relatively small town, they don't have top of the line stuff.

Lastly, considering the patrons who go to Freddy's are involved with kids in some way. Whether parents, older siblings, and the like. I'd say the vast majority would obviously be horrified by the truth. It takes a special kind of horrible people to ignore that kind of thing. Examples being Davey and Gregor, but neither of them are clearly mentally sound.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Feed back is fuel!