Panting heavily, Jayden parked his bike in front of Freddy's. He'd never peddled so fast in his life. It was like he'd become an Olympic cyclist at a moment's notice. Still, it felt like he'd taken too long to reach the pizzeria. Before he headed in, he quickly texted Mitch that he'd reached Freddy's and that he would update him once he found Jessica and Ethan. Jayden didn't wait for a reply before he pushed through the front doors. After getting his admission wrist band, he went into the main party room. So far, everything looked normal. Families were at tables eating, kids were running around having fun screeching their heads off. On stage, the animatronics were doing some sort of routine about keeping the pizza and cake safe from Foxy. Jayden didn't pay too much attention to what voice lines the characters were sputtering off. From where he stood, he scanned the crowd for Jessica and Ethan. He knew she'd choose a more secluded space, a booth off in a corner.

As he did, he stiffened at the sight of a camera. In his mind he recalled how Mitch had warned him about the head of security. The one who was probably possessed. Shit, he should've tried to be more discreet. Hopefully, the guard didn't recognize him. Swallowing his unease, he tried to conduct himself more casually as he walked along the perimeter of the room, searching for Jessica.

To his relief, he found her in a matter of minutes, sitting in a booth scrolling on her phone, a medium pepperoni pizza and two sodas in front of her. Jayden's relief sank right back to worry when he saw Ethan wasn't present, like a cold sinking stone.

"Jessica!" His call caused the blonde teen to jump in her seat.

"Jayden! Shit, you scared the crap out of me." She snapped, attempting to recompose herself. She scrutinized him with furrowed brows, asking, "What are you doing here?"

"Explanations later." Jayden asserted. He looked around again, "Where's Ethan? Your Mom told me he was with you."

"Yeah, why else would I be here?" She rolled her eyes at the obvious answer. "Only reason I ever come here. I hate the cheesy music and all this noise..."

Ignoring the complaints outright, Jayden again pressed, "But where's Ethan?"

"He went off to play somewhere." Jessica answered plainly, shrugging. Then eyed him more closely, "Seriously what's gotten you so worked up? You're acting like there's a fire or something."

Immediately, Jayden turned around and booked it for the arcade, "I'm going to go look for him."

"Ah? Jayden!" Jessica looked at her phone and drink, before immediately getting up and hurrying after him. She wanted to yell about what was going on again but decided against it to avoid causing a scene.

"He's not in there." Jayden said after only peeking into the arcade. He looked back to Jessica, "He's got that Chica cap of his on, right?"

"Yeah?" Jessica replied, expression and tone still tuned to confusion. When the other teen began to head off somewhere else, she caught hold of his sports jacket. "Okay, seriously." Her voice became firmly demanding, "You need to tell me what's going on. Now. Is Ethan in trouble?"

Jayden hesitated before he answered, slowly, "Possibly."

Eyes widened, Jessica's attitude stilled before she dragged Jayden off towards kid's cove, "Ok, let's go find him then."

"Hey, no need to drag me!" Jayden protested.

"Then move faster." Jessica snapped in reply.

Pulling apart, the two arrived in the kiddie room. Funtime Foxy was on stage singing a nursery rhyme or something of the sort. The plastic tables were full of kids coloring or the like, but none of them were Ethan. None of the kids on the jungle gym were either. This fact added to the sense of urgency in Jayden. Each second that passed felt like one second closer to some disaster. One he really didn't want to imagine.

"Do you think he's in color tubes?" he asked, looking at the big colorful play palace, dotted with pirate iconography.

"No way. He freaks out in small spaces." Jessica answered, she turned about face, "I'm checking the arcade again, but if he's not there I'm going to the security guard. They'll be able to find him no problem with the cameras."

"We can't go to them." Urgently whispered Jayden when he got close enough to her.

She turned her narrowed eyes to him. They both stopped. All the secrecy was really getting on her nerves. A finger pointed at him, she made her annoyance known in a blunt response, "And why not? It'll be better than running around like chickens with our heads cut off. I seriously don't want everyone staring at me. I get enough of that already. Besides, if Mom finds out I lost sight of Ethan, I'll be grounded until I move out."

"Because..." Jayden tried to frantically think of a plausible reason that she'd buy. That wouldn't also cause her to freak out too much and draw attention to them. He honestly wasn't sure about how much of the supernatural Ethan's sister believed in. Her brother could see things yeah, but Jessica had always been distant and avoidant towards the stuff. Mitch probably knew more accurately but Jadyen just didn't feel like it was cool to pry.

He took too long to choose his words as Jessica turned and marched her way towards the security office. Jayden yelled and hurried after her, wanting to stop her but by the time he caught up to her they were already at the office. He froze in place, but then relaxed a bit. It, thankfully, wasn't the security head he'd been warned about. It was the taller, red-headed one that'd brought Ethan back when he'd wandered off. In his panic, he'd completely forgotten about him.

"Can I help you?" the guard asked, confusion evident on his face.

"Yeah, my little brother has wandered off. Can you look for him on the security cameras?" Jessica asked, her tone suggested that Ethan was going to get an ear full when they found him. Jayden didn't envy the little dude.

The news caused the security guard to straighten up, alert, quickly looking to his control tablet. "Of course, just give me a minute." As he searched through the cameras, Jessica and Jayden moved in closer to look over his shoulder at the screen. It wasn't long before the guard located the boy. Perplexed he furrowed his brows, "He's heading to the back hall..."

"Again?" Jayden responded automatically.

Jessica turned her attention to him, repeating, "Again? What do you mean again?"

He hesitated to respond, "Uh, I'll explain later. Let's go get him first."

Ethan's sister looked at him a moment before, shaking her head, "Fine."

Ethan stood alone in the back hall. He'd played games in the arcade for a little bit but had run out of tokens. He'd wanted to ask his sister for more, but she was to upset with the fact that their mom had made her take him here, again. He didn't blame her. He didn't like it when he had to wait around while mom and his sis were clothes shopping. It just wasn't fun being somewhere you didn't want to be. As he played the games, he'd noticed that he hadn't seen the yellow Freddy anywhere. Without any tokens left, Ethan decided to go look for the bear. Maybe if he talked to them, he could get something to prove that there was a yellow Freddy. It still stung that the guard didn't believe him. He hadn't gotten in trouble, but still...Why didn't people believe him when he saw stuff? He had no reason to lie, especially since it only seemed to get him in trouble.

There was another thing, as he'd looked around for the yellow bear, Ethan had noticed that the place felt off, different, than before. It was difficult for the boy to place in a way that fit perfectly, that made sense. He didn't feel completely at ease like he had before. The air felt... heavier? Which didn't make sense, air couldn't feel heavy. Far as he knew. They hadn't taught him anything like that in school. The other people he could see, but others couldn't, were unresponsive but the sense he got from them was like they wanted to run everywhere all at once. They were upset, but he wasn't sure why. While the air felt heavy it also felt full of something, tingly, maybe it was because of the storm brewing outside?

Maybe the yellow Freddy could explain to him.

Ethan couldn't always get the people who weren't there, to others, to talk but sometimes he could. They seemed to, generally, like it when he talked to them. The boy behind the box like it for the brief time they talked. Fact he was upset with Mr. Security Guard aside. He wouldn't explain why. He thought it was because of a secret. Ethan liked to be a part of secrets, in away.

"Yellow Freddy? Where are you?" Ethan asked quietly to himself. He hadn't felt like he should be in this hall last time and he felt like he really shouldn't be this time, but it was only going to be a quick peek this time around! Look then leave. That's what he'd thought when going into the hall. Now, it was like his legs were made of concrete. They wouldn't move. Ethan hugged himself, rubbing his arms to warm them up. It was really cold. He could almost see his breath.

"What are you doing here, kid?"

Ethan perked up at the sound of a familiar voice. Happily, he turned to greet Mr. Security Guard. When he turned to face him. He froze. It wasn't him.

Being scared was something that happened to Ethan on the odd occasion. The occasional being scared of the dark when he was younger, solved by a starry nightlight and plush toy. He lost his mom once in a grocery store but knew to go to the helpdesk. Nearly got bit by a small dog. The scariest was when his family had the "accident." It'd happened so fast. All he recalled was pain, fear then nothing. When he woke up, everyone was crying but he scarcely could make out what they said. He knew he'd died, for a bit. It was a surreal concept he could barely grasp, even with the things he could see now. Of which, he'd seen some unsavory thing but the entities themselves weren't mean, so he was fine with them.

This reminded him of that split second of from the accident, or rather, the instinctual fear. He'd seen a lot of things with his sight, but this was different. It was wrong. A black mass. Darkness radiated light off of it as if an inverted glow, writhing and pulsating. It learned down at him, white human teeth among the black and pinprick dots glowed where the eyes should've been.

"You know you shouldn't be back here." The security guard was talking, moving, and the shadow, latched onto him, did the same. The motions were exact. Teeth miming mouth movements and hand gestures. Yet, even to Ethan, he could tell it was the shadow in control.

It hadn't been there the last time.

"Did you get lost?" it asked, sounding genuinely concerned. Hand outstretched, it made the guard smile, "How about we find your folks?"

Ethan didn't respond, didn't move do much as a muscle. He couldn't even shiver.

"Don't be scared." It reassured. If Ethan couldn't see it, he'd have taken the hand. It sounded so sincere. He could see it though, yet he couldn't move. Gregor was made to smile, showing teeth, "I'm here to help."

"Ethan!" A shout from his sister's voice shot through the moment. He still didn't look away from it. It took his sister grabbing him by the shoulder, pulling him back to break his freeze frame. "What're you doing back here? A second time!" Ethan followed mutely as Jessica marched him down the hall, continuing to rant, "We're going home. Mom is going to hear about this!"

As they left, Ethan warily looked back.

"Erm, sorry about this." Jaydan added, following right on the heels of the siblings.

"No trouble at all." It responded. Fake concern drained from the voice, leaving it hollow.

Once they were gone, Gregor looked at Leroy who'd hung around the end of the hall. He walked to him, patting him on the shoulder, "Leroy, while you're here. Could you let everyone know that we're having a meeting just before the shift ends? We'll be closing early for it."

"A meeting, now? What for?" Leroy was confused.

Gregor nodded. "That right. It's the end of first week and with Griffith…indisposed as he is. I want to go over somethings."

That clearing things up, Leroy nodded. "Oh, okay. Will do sir."

Gregor smiled. "Thanks."

"I can't believe you! What if you'd gotten hurt back there? Huh? Some robot pieces falling on you-" Jessica was still ranting as she marched her little brother out of the building. She was absolutely fuming, indignant, but clearly out of concern. At least mostly. As she stood in front of her car, she turned around, grabbed his face, and looked him over. She huffed, expelling some more excess steam, "Least you look fine." She paused, noting his blank face. He usually went quiet when getting yelled at, but this was different. Jessica sighed roughly, "Look, I'm not that mad at you." She failed to really figure a solid wording for what she wanted to say, "I just- don't do that again. For real, this time. Okay?"

Ethan nodded. He had no plans on it.

Something was still off with his mood, but Jessica decided to leave that to their mom to figure it out. Jessica nodded and popped the backseat door open, "Good." She watched as her little brother climbed in. When she moved to her front seat, she saw Jayden standing by the Pizzeria entrance. Spotting his bike, she tiredly asked, "Need a lift? You can stick your bike in the trunk."

Jayden shook his head, "Nah, I'm good, but I wanted to tell you that you left your purse at the booth."

"UGH. For the love of-" Frustrated beyond belief, Jessica stormed back inside.

Time bought. Jayden walked over to Ethan who stood beside the car. He knelt to his level, "Hey buddy, what's the matter? Looks like something spooked yah. I thought you liked that security guard. Least, that's what I was told."

"That wasn't him." He muttered.

Jayden raised a brow. Had he misremembered the wrong guard?

"Something bad is stuck to him." Ethan looked up at the teen, sullen and scared, "It's making him do things."

Not liking the sound of that. Jayden stepped back reflexively. He knew what that sounded like. He pulled out his cellphone, he needed to tell Mitch this right away.