I feel like I drew the short straw... Jayden muttered inwardly. Quickly afterwards, he corrected himself, no I definitely got the bad job.

Currently they stood on the far wall from the tied up, possessed body of Gregor. Something that Jayden currently tried to avoid looking at. After being tied up it, seemingly, gave up. It hadn't moved an inch. Nor said a word. If it weren't for the fact that Mitch had his flashlight on it, Jayden wouldn't be sure if the body was breathing but, he could see the vague shift of the torso. He just wished it wasn't staring at them. Well, that was the appropriate term for what it was doing, looking intently at them, but he felt like it wasn't looking at them. Whatever it was looking at, Jayden didn't care for clarification. Let it zone out, or whatever.

The fact the two of them were a few steps from the killer that'd traumatized an entire town was...not the best feeling. Just days ago, the perpetrator of the "missing children incident" was more of a boogieman than an actual person. Sure, Fritz Smith had been a suspect but neither of them had really bought he'd done it. Particularly since the killings took up shortly after his imprisonment. Far as they could gleam, a motive hadn't really been figured out for him. Then again, what was the actual motive?

He looked at Mitch, he could see the gooseflesh on his arms. He was trying to keep a stoic face, probably just to keep himself from freaking out. That's what Jayden was doing. If everything stayed inside, he wouldn't lose it.

On the other hand, all the adults, save Mike, were going to have to deal with the killer's animatronic entombed corpse. With his still injured hand, arms, sides, shoulder- overall messed up body, Mike decidedly knew his limits and moving a whole robot wasn't among them right now. Further, none of the adults were going to leave two teens alone with a killer. Tied up or not.

By the entrance to the office, Isaac, Leroy, Harriette and Mike crowded around. All of them tense, waiting, and listening to the sounds of banging on the doorway. Another slam and crack told them it'd been any minute now. Briefly they'd debated moving the items out of the way but decidedly, it wouldn't be a good idea to risk being in the same room when the animatronics busted in. They'd just have to sit in the office, peeking through what was barely a crack in the open door.

One more bang, followed by a sonorous explosion of noise shattered the tension. Tables, chairs, a microwave, trash bin, and anything else of note that'd Mitch and Jayden had stacked against the door had swiftly been sent flying. Jayden covered his ears as the aftermath continued, things clashing against the walls, floor, and ceiling, breaking in the process no doubt.

By the time it was over, Jayden's ears were still abuzz with noise. Not helped by the sound of the metallic shrieks of the animatronics outside. It was all too much. Like claws scraping at his eardrums. About to break, he crouched down, willing the noise to just stop! He felt Mitch crouch beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder, but he didn't acknowledge it. His jaws were too busy being clenched, while his eyes squeezed shut.

Outside the room, more crashes and shrieks of various volumes sounded. The animatronics were trashing the place, looking for them. One, two, doors banged open. They were searching in the employee bathrooms for them. The clamor of their heavy feet overlapped with each other, leaving a near constant sound of marching mechanical parts. It was like the noise would never end.

"Now." Mike hissed.

The click of the switch on the remote was just a peep amongst the ruckus, but once it happened everything stopped. Jayden opened his eyes, seemingly amazed by the near silence. He looked over to where the adults were gathered. The door was now opened, and Mike was warily glancing around the lounge.

Mitch and Jayden exchanged glances with each other. Curiously the two ventured over to entrance as the adults ventured out one at a time.

"Woah." Mitch breathed. All the animatronics were frozen in place. Freddy appeared to be in the process of turning towards the manager's office. Foxy was just behind him. Mangle was entering into the lounge. Balloon Boy was in the middle of the room. Chica's large yellow frame was just inside the men's room, leaving Bonnie in the women's. Even still, their gazes were felt, fixed on them all. It made Jadyen gulp.

"Alright." Mike spoke up, breaking the staring session. He looked to Isaac, Harriette and Leroy, "We'll get him to the security office. It'll be easier to keep an eye on him in there."

The adults nodded and filed out of the room, Isaac heading the group with the fire ax in hand. He was more than ready to get to work. Mike turned his attention to the two teens, "Alright, let's get this over with."

He moved over to the tied-up body, solidly ignoring his stare, and checked it over again. Once the check was complete, he stood back up, "Okay. He doesn't have anything else on him. Pick him up."

"I got the top half; you get his legs." Mitch answered stiffly. His expression read that, he'd much rather do anything else, but pushed himself to solider on.

"On it." Jayden uttered. He thinned his lips as he picked up the legs. He didn't like this, not at all. Things had settled down. Relatively. But something in his gut told him that at some point- soon, something was about to go wrong. Yet, he couldn't tell just what. The killer was caught, bound. The animatronics were held fast in place. Jadyen inwardly shook his head. It was probably just because touching the possessed body made his skin crawl. That and the unreadable, blank, expression on its face. Judging by the fact Mike had his eyes locked on it, he didn't trust the lull either.

"I should be with the kids." Harriette muttered; arms crossed stiffly.

Isaac scoffed as he readied to start hacking at the wall. Feeling her gaze snap to him, he explained, "You getting left alone with'em, sounds like trouble." He tossed a look at her over his shoulder, "You want to punch him."

Harriette bristled and averted her gaze.

"Hey, I get it." Grunted Isaac as he slammed the ax into the wall. He pulled back, breaking off a chunk of dry wall, and continued, "Hitting him is cathartic as hell."

"It's not just that." Harriette replied flatly. Leroy, who stood beside Harriette, passed her a concerned look. He could hear emotion just below the surface of her voice. Isaac paused a moment, but let her speak of herself, "I want to know what he did to my uncle, and my friends. Where he put them."

"He won't tell you." Isaac responded, tone brisque and certain.

"I want to at least try!" Harriette's outcry drowned out the sound of rain for its short duration in the air. Right after, the rain resumed its place in the backdrop. Harriette inhaled, recomposing herself and reiterated, "I have to at least try."

Leroy looked at her, concerned, but hesitated to do anything. He didn't know her well enough, or at all, to properly comfort her. Least of all, for something of this magnitude. The sound of the axe plowing through drywall pulled his eyes back to Isaac. The man didn't seem like he was going to continue the conversation. Uncertainty left hanging in the air; Leroy fidgeted his fingers together. He wanted to tell Isaac to say something, but that didn't feel right to do, considering he wasn't saying anything either. He was left stuck.

"You'll only end up hurting yourself." Isaac curtly said, much to Leroy's inward relief. He dusted the space he'd hacked into, muttered something about a brick wall and then repositioned himself for his next strike. He continued, "He knows what you want, and he'll hang it over your head. He gets his kicks from it. Take it from me. I tried for days and got nothing. Worse, you're connected to the tragedies. Much as I don't care about the bastard he's using, beating him won't do much good long term."

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Harriette muttered. She couldn't argue against what Isaac said, even if she wanted to.

"Stick to the plan." Isaac answered simply.

Leroy nodded to this. "Once he's out of the way, we'll be able to figure things out. No one will be in danger."

Harriette mulled over what she'd been told in silence. After a pause, she gave a heavy, labored, exhale through her nose. With a shake of her head, she conceded, "Alright, fine. But I'll hold you to that."

"We'll keep searching, no matter how long it'll take. Promise." Leroy said with insistent nods, relieved that emotions seemed to have settled.

Breath in, breath out, Jayden thought to himself, trying anything to keep his focus off the other body in the security office. Mike and Mitch had just left a moment ago. The fact that they'd turned the lights on, oddly, hadn't helped with his unease. Now he could see the other one in the room. The one that may as well be a mannequin. Just sat on ground, in a corner of the office, head slumped down. It'd maintained its silence all the while they moved from the manager's office down to here. Jayden shifted on the rolling chair, debating if he should do something, but the thought of just nudging it with his foot was repulsive and sent ants crawling underneath his skin. Off the face of it, it was just a dude. A normal guy. It was knowing that there was this evil latched onto the body, using it as a puppet, that's what kept Jayden away.

He leaned back in the chair, hissing air from between his teeth. Mike and Mitch had just left, but it felt like things were taking too long. A thought occurred to him, how long had it been? 11:55pm read the time on his phone. Nearly an hour. He sighed, scratching his head, been nearly an hour and we just started getting stuff done. Jayden supposed it could've gone worse. A lot worse.

"Here he comes."

"What the-!" Jayden yelped, hands clasping onto his phone, before it could get flung out of his hands. He gasped like a fish out of water before he managed to sort his nerves out. He turned his attention back to the prisoner he was supposed to be watching. The fact he was looking at the wall in front of him, with a crack of a grin, caused his heart to shudder in his chest. He swallowed, he should confront him, Jayden told himself, "What'd you say?"

An emotionless gaze eyed him out of the corner of its eye, "Puppet."

"Puppet?" Jayden echoed. He shook his head. It was just trying to scare him clearly. He sat back in the chair, scoffing, "Nice try. You locked that up."

"Not locked up anymore."

"Sure." Retorted Jayden, determined to ignore its musings. That was until black strings drifted down into his view. His eyes widened, surprised as the hazy things came into focus. Before he could utter noise of alarm, they snapped tightly around his neck.

As he struggled to breathe, it sat in the corner, grinning.

"You didn't have to come help me, Mike." Mitch breathed, between all the stress, running, cold and rain, he was starting to feel winded. The jugs of gasoline they'd had to lug back from the cars didn't weigh too much, but both of them were heavily waterlogged. They'd done two trips to get all the gas. Most of it had been brought by Isaac. The guy really wanted to be thorough as possible this time around. Mitch had to give him that much. He honestly didn't think that they'd need this much fuel, but Mike didn't want to leave anything to risk or leave any gas cans lying round.

"No. But I wasn't about to let you run around in a storm like this alone." Mike retorted as they set their jugs down. He wiped his brow, trying to clear away the rain, but it did nothing to clear his vision.

"Crazy it's still going this hard." Mitch stated. He knew it was obvious, but he just had to say it, possibly to more so fill the tense air than anything. In all his life, he'd never witnessed a storm like this. They'd practically had to slog through a river to get to the cars across the street. Which also hadn't helped their stamina.

"Yeah." Mike stated, though the rain made it difficult to hear. He tapped Mitch on the shoulders with his good hand, getting his attention away from the surrounding weather. "I'm going to hold the door open. You get the canisters." He rubbed his injured arm, "Don't think I can haul them much further."

"Alright." Mitch answered, picking back up the two canisters he'd placed down. He watched as Mike pushed the doors. They didn't budge. He could see the confusion as Mike pulled back and pushed again, then again more frantically.

"No, no, the magnetic locks! It must be midnight!" Mike yelled. Now he was throwing his shoulder into the door, trying to force it open.

Mitch dropped the canisters. He threw himself against the door as well, to his alarm it barely budged. He stalled and looked to Mike, voicing his confusion, "There's a magnetic lock? But you got out past twelve last night! Don't you have a key?"

"I have one for the regular lock." Mike answered. "I'm not supposed to be outside after twelve. These are to keep the animatronics inside and would be intruders out of danger. At this point it'd be like using the wrong key. But" he looked around, "That doesn't mean we can't break our way in."

"Is there an alarm?" Mitch asked, again wiping rain off his face. He really wished he hadn't left his tire iron that Jayden had given him inside, but he'd figured he wouldn't need it to haul canisters.

"Honestly, I don't know." Mike answered, "One hadn't been mentioned to me. Might have spent too much on those doors and cover ups."

"They should be able to let us in though." Mitch stated before he began to bang on the door. "Hey let us in! We got locked out!" He yelled loudly as he feasibly could over the rain. Nothing. He banged and yelled again. Worry readily crept into his voice, "Jayden should be able to hear us..."

There was a period of silence between the two, before Mike briskly added, "Stay here. Try and get their attention. I'm going to see if I have anything in my trunk to break the glass."

Mike left Mitch to bang away on the door, yelling for the others. Unfortunately, by the time Mike came back with a sizeable (nothing in his trunk unfortunately) rock nothing had changed. He looked at the boy, waterlogged and frantic, still yelling. He hadn't been gone long but it was evident that he still hadn't gotten their attention. He clenched his jaw, not a good sign. "Move." He ordered.

His voice caught Mitch off guard. He'd been too concerned about his friend to hear Mike's return over the rain. When he caught sight of the slab of stone, he immediately knew what was about to happen.

"Move." Mike ordered again. Mitch stepped out of the way and immediately Mike sent the rock through the class. The crash the resounded mingled with the rain making it hard to distinguish it from the weather. Once he did though, Mike quickly recoiled, clutching his shoulder in pain. He'd pulled on his self-done stitch and wounds wrong.

"Mike?"

"Just get the lock undone." Mike grunted through the pain.

Listening, Mitch stuck his arm through the door, ignoring the bits of jagged glass that dug into his arm. After a bit of feeling around he reached the lock. He gasped in relief as he turned the switch, "I- I think I got it."

Once he did, he pushed the door. Nothing.

"No!" Mitch yelled, "It's still locked."

"Of course..." Mike grumbled still cradling his arm. "Otherwise, the guards would be able to flee... Or animatronics, whichever."

"The others must've heard that, right?" Mitch questioned hopefully.

Mike couldn't bring himself to put his hopes up. With the rain, thunder, and Isaac hacking at a wall, in the back of the building, who knew. He looked back, "I'll go get another rock. We can't afford any chances."

"No, let me go." Mitch cut in, standing in front of him, "Just tell me the direction you went in. You're already hurt."

Mike frowned. The throbbing pain from his whole arm told him he couldn't protest. Still, he didn't like it. "Fine."

"I'm certain I heard something." Leroy uttered as he looked towards the front of the building. "It didn't sound like thunder."

"I'm with Leroy." Harriette agreed. She shifted from side to side, anxious, then added, "We haven't heard back from Mike or Mitch, and they should've been back with the gasoline by now."

Isaac stopped his hacking away at the wall. By now he was sweating, he wasn't exhausted, but this was the most exercise he'd gotten in a while. He nodded in agreement, "Yeah, you two go check on them. I'll continue working at this." Caked in dust and debris was the safe room door, aptly titled such with white, blocky lettering. Only the center of the door was revealed thus far. "Almost done here. Don't worry, I won't open the door until we're good and ready."

"The glass on the door's shattered." Leroy stated, stunned as he stared at the shattered class. There was a rock the size of a fist lying on the linoleum floor, near the front desk. Water was pouring in through the rain. Shortly thereafter, he spotted Mike, huddled outside by the door, "Mike!"

The older man's head shot up with a start. Immediately he honed-in on Leroy's form, "Leroy! The magnetic lock has us shut out! Mitch is going to get another stone to break us in."

"I'll let you in-"

"Don't bother." Mike interrupted, "We tried to let ourselves in with the first stone. It wouldn't budge. We don't have time to figure out where the key is, if there even is one in the office, or a password- or whatever." Then he recalled something, "Did an alarm get set off?"

"Not that I heard." Leroy answered, "I just barely heard the glass break over the rain and thunder."

"Okay. We might not have to worry about cops getting called just yet then. Unless it's silent." He moved on, "How's Jayden? He should've heard the noise first."

"Harriette's checking on him." Leroy answered, sounding a touch worried. He turned when he heard footsteps. It was, as he expected, Harriette and she looked flustered.

"Jayden's out cold and Gregor- Davey, is gone!" She sounded breathless, having sputtered that out so quickly.