Chapter 58

Discussion

Author's Note

Wanted to say thanks to Corona Pax for helping me with the last two chapters. Probably the only reason I got back into writing so quickly.

Also, I've had a few questions about whether I'm still taking OCs. I am but only as minor cameos that don't conflict with the story's world. A lot of the story is planned out completely already and I'm not adding major characters that would change that.

Otherwise enjoy the new chapter and thanks for the reviews. It's really fun reading all of them :)

Hedy appreciated the lack of comments as she struggled to get her tears under control. It was like she was holding them back for months (the plus the fifteen year old ones she thought had long dried up), little cracks over time spider webbing across the dam she held up in her mind. It was painful but manageable, until Ruby put that last hit in and everything flooded. It was bound to happen.

She let go of Ruby and settled into sharp breaths with her sleeves covering her face as she attempted to dry her still pouring eyes. She was quiet besides involuntary gasps and shuddering wet sniffs, not screaming anymore but she was calm enough to listen through the tears that would only stop when they decided she was done. Which she wasn't. Yet.

She was probably going to cry on and off all night...

"Hedy...?"

She looked up as she remembered her audience, face flushed. She looked away from Toby and the rest of the Toys and glanced at the Originals, clearly horrified at how she lost it in front of all of them.

Toby closed his mouth and looked down, not even noticing Ruby's warning glare. "Are you..." he swallowed, or something akin to robotic swallowing. He looked confused and conflicted. "Do you...hate us...because we hurt people." He stopped, correcting himself when he heard Teddy and Chi shift and Mangle clench her jaw. "Killed people...humans?"

Hedy's breath caught. She had only ever expressed annoyance, as if killing someone was a messy inconvenience, not the horror she truly felt about that little fact.

Ruby looked legitimately surprised at Toby's question and studied the Toys for a long moment while the question hung heavy in the air.

The Originals were quiet, not wanting to say anything that would make her upset again.

Suddenly BB appeared in front of Hedy and reached out to wipe her cheek.

"Battery?" He offered in his innocent way, hoping to cheer her up.

Ruby smiled softly at the little bot, her own usual defenses down tonight it seemed.

"Personally I blame the clown." She said, voice back to its normal volume. She drew everyone's attention off of Hedy while she composed herself and delayed the answer she needed to give.

She moved back to sit on the table again.

"I think that's a private conversation you guys need to have later though." Her tone wasn't as harsh as it usually was when she spoke to Toby. "Sorry to bring up awful memories Hedy, but I need to know if you know anything about a sixth child murder here?" She asked out of the blue.

The Originals all looked confused at the question. A sixth?

Hedy weakly returned BB's smile and tucked the battery in her pocket, accepting the gift without hesitation.

Hedy mumbled something before raising her voice enough to hear. "Sixth?" she repeated, her throat scratchy. She stared at her fingers for a second. "Um... there were six of us, but I think...it was...the five of them...a-and me..." she seemed confused. "I didn't have many friends...my dad homeschooled me and I practically lived at the old place. We rarely went home. That was my main group I'm pretty sure. They had other friends besides me but... There were always lots of other kids..." Hedy frowned. "I don't know. I can't remember anyone else. I might recognize their name?" she shrugged helplessly, making a face, sniffing harshly, and wiping her red, moist eyes with the wrist of her sleeve while trying not to think about the reality of ghosts too much.

Ruby frowned.

"Well we've got a sixth kid running around, he never says much but he never took part in the murders." she explained. "He just gave me a warning about Springtrap while I was getting the clown. He seemed to recognise the kid's voice." she jabbed a thumb at the still silent box. From everyone's expressions I see no one else knows who I'm talking about though."

They all shook their heads.

"There were only five." Freddy explained quietly.

It was the first time one of the Originals had spoken in a while.

Hedy glanced at Freddy, almost looking like she was counting the Originals, including Goldy. She didn't always trust her own eyes. She frowned and her eyes slowly went to Puppet's box. "Did he come with us? Could there have been a ghost with us in the Warehouse that I didn't know about?"

Teddy seemed confused. "No? I don't know...Mangle?"

Mangle didn't nod or shake her head. She just frowned and squinted her eyes in confusion. Abruptly she kicked Puppet's box.

"Mari," Hedy snapped. "I know you're in there. I can hear you mentally murdering Ruby, you psychopath."

For once the Puppet didn't rise to the bait. He stayed silent, not even reacting to the kick.

"He seemed pretty shocked when the kid spoke. Something about 'he moved on already'." Ruby was enjoying watching Mangle kick the box. "So that's something to investigate since I've not doubt the clown will be stubborn and not tell us. Then Springtrap. They're starting building tomorrow."

Goldy flinched again and looked away. She looked heartbroken.

Hedy's breath hitched. One more thing she unfortunately managed to compartmentalize. Her boogieman, the man that terrified her childhood to the point she was scared to leave the house as a little girl, was literally coming here. What the frick was she going to do?! This wasn't some make believe monster in the closet. This was a real child serial murderer. Someone who got away with it, even in death apparently.

This was the literal definition of letting the fox in the henhouse. Ignoring the fact that there were two foxes and two hens in the room at the moment, the metaphor held up.

Children played here every day. They were in danger. She couldn't let it happen again, right before her eyes.

"T-they..." she swallowed. "Whose fricking idea was this?! And who decided this was a...a tasteful use of time and money?" She squinted. "Where even was he?!" She ranted. "What corporate braindead yahoo goes to some strange storage facility in the deepest pits of who-knows-where, sees an animatronic who is most likely, given what we know about sentient robots, playing possum and goes, 'Hey, here's a terrific idea! Let's take advantage of the traumatic hell we put a bunch of families through and profit from it! Extra points because we managed to blackmail, terrorize, and discredit them so much that the rest of the world thinks it's an urban legend! We've got nothing to hide! See! Here's proof! What company would be stupid enough to make an attraction out of a cover-up unless it wasn't real." She laughed dryly for a second, a grim sneer on her face, before taking a huge breath and calming down.

Ruby blinked at the mood swing. "You okay there mechanic?"

"It's been a long twenty-four hours. I'm currently running on tears, adrenaline, PTSD, and enough caffeine to possibly cause a stroke."

The night guard looked amused but answered her question that was almost lost in the angry rant.

"Money." she told her simply. "They found an animatronic that had been associated with the company before and thought, hey it's free. Let's use it. He probably hasn't been repaired either."
Her smile turned bitter.

"The pizzeria is doing well and they want to do everything they can to make more profit. It doesn't matter to them what memories it might dredge up or who might get hurt. They don't care as long as the company's profits go up. To them, once they covered everything up, it was as if it didn't happen. After all, they don't ever see what happens here. It's all BUSINESS to them."

She shook her head in disgust. They knew she didn't like the people who managed and owned the restaurant but they were surprised by how strong those feelings were.

She started pacing across the room.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they were searching out all animatronics they can find. The Toys were probably a test. To see how the customers would react to new bots. As much as I don't like Barbie Rabbit and Chicken, they've built up a fanbase pretty quickly."

The Originals were looking at each other in surprise as they realised that she was probably right.

"There are more." Goldy spoke softly, gaining everyone's attention. "The Toys never met them. But there are still more bots out there. I don't know what happened to them after I was put into storage."

Ruby stopped pacing and faced Goldy.

"How many more?" she asked.

Goldy looked lost in memories for a long moment. "Another set. It all went wrong with them. It was awful."

"Shut up bear." Puppet hissed menacingly.

He'd managed to cut through the tape and was standing up, glaring at Goldy. She didn't get mad, she just looked sadly at him.

"There was a set before them too, they were stolen." she added quietly as Puppet stiffened.

"I said shut up! That's in the past." he hissed venomously.

"Puppet..." Ruby growled in warning.

Hedy looked at Puppet, studying him with a calmness that showed she was probably in "mechanic mode." logically thinking out the problem and ignoring her emotions best she could. She knew they couldn't make him tell them his secrets. That frustrated her. They needed as much information as possible to make informed decisions.

What concerned her the most was Goldy's expression. It was sad, pitying almost. What stopped her from telling them what Puppet wouldn't? Was the bear...letting him cut her off? Why was she willing to let Puppet keep his secrets? They weren't really friends.

Ruby seemed to be thinking the same thing, looking at Goldy with an odd expression. She didn't call her out on it though. It was a trait of hers that was annoying and nice at the same time. She didn't push for personal information and she fought back if someone tried to with someone she cared about.

"Well, regardless of how many more there are, we need to focus on the one arriving soon." she steered the conversation back on track. "I do not want a repeat of that incident."

The Originals all got the awful feeling that Ruby was running through different ways to word her signature deal with the murderer...

Hedy's head whipped toward Ruby and she glared. "You can't make a wager with him Ruby. Ignoring the fact that's incredibly stupid, what even makes you think he'd take it? We shouldn't even risk it."

Ruby tilted her head innocently.

"Don't know what you're talking about Hedy. I was just thinking about whether that chocolate bomb I placed in the Toys' room is going off now or in five minutes."

An explosion rocked the pizzeria.

"Oh, that answers that."

Hedy facepalmed and sighed while the Toys all groaned.

"Oh come on!" Chi complained.