Disappearance of Jacob Mann, the last case in a pattern of incidents that got far less attention than they deserved. Now it was up to Charles to dive into this case and see if there were any leads towards the culprit. While his meeting with Hano didn't reveal much, it snowed Charles that he wasn't the only one who suspected that Alison's return to Hurricane had something to do with this. Trod was enough to spark his interest even more, Charles wouldn't waste any more time.

After talking to the right people, he was given the clearance to examine the crime scene. They tried to convince him that it was foolish to waste any more time on it, that all the necessary evidence has been collected and that other detectives are doing all the necessary work, but Charles wasn't convinced until he had an opportunity to look at the scene himself. He set out to the victim's flat, as he has allegedly gone missing directly from there, which was an intriguing, if disturbing fact in itself. The captor must have been a professional to pull off something like this, but Charles didn't back away from the challenge.

When he arrived to Mann's flat, Charles found it amidst a chaotic mess. It was nothing too notable or lavish, for his intellectual nature, Mann led a highly modest lifestyle. Of course, now the flat was empty and secluded from everyone but the policemen who had the clearance to investigate, and now Charles was one of them. The first and most notable element that Charles laid his eyes upon was a stain of dried up blood on the floor. In theory, this could point to a suicide attempt, but if so, why wouldn't Mann's body be here? No, this was definitely an abduction, and with any luck, Charlie would find more clues as to what actually happened here. If nothing can be found at all, perhaps there will be CCTV nearby with at least one camera catching the flat or anything that was connected to it, even a single window could do.

For now, Charles kept to looking over the belongings. The whole flat was in shambles, with a chair lying on the floor and the table was broken in half. A fight broke out here, and Charles doubted that a simple scientist would be strong enough to shatter the table. The abductor must have been unnaturally strong…

There were also some torn sheets of paper that Charlie discovered. They were spread around the room in a rather hectic fashion and it was difficult to understand what they contained, but they seemed like some kind of sketches, probably part of the research. Charlie wondered about possible explanations for this, either this paper could be torn accidentally during the short fight, or one of the participants destroyed it on purpose before they left. Charles assumed the former as more likely, at least for now.

But there was only so much he could discover in the room, and it was likely that everything he found already got picked up upon by whoever investigated the scene before, Charles wanted to turn towards CCTV. The detective walked outside and decided to see if there were any cameras. There was only one that covered the area around the flat that Charlie found on the opposite building, but the moment he came close to examine it, the detective realized that it was malfunctioning and offline.

"Wonderful…" Charlie sighed, realizing that he lost one of the best ways to gain any insight on what actually happened, but that opportunity wasn't there anymore. But there was something else that Charlie noticed, hiding in the darker corner of the wall, some unnatural pattern that did not look like it belonged there…Charlie came closer and realized that his initial feeling was right.

Those were scratches. Very deep and yet recent, as if a rabid animal had a go at it. However, the walls were sturdy enough for any animal to make such deep scratches, even a bear or a tiger which no one would find in Hurricane either way. Charlie followed the trail in a form of those ravenous scratches, the ones that led him deeper into the alley. They were even more of them as Charlie descended deeper into this path, only to discover something even more shocking. The all before him clearly endured a vicious and very heavy strike, so heavy, in fact, that its entire shape was broken, leaving a large mark across the wall.

Who…Or what was this thing?

…

Elizabeth wished she could pretend like the news weren't true, like everything she saw about Alison was nothing but a horrifying dream that she can forget. But how could she forget when the memories of her younger days flooded her? Those memories of spite and disgust as she remembered herself always wanting to go inside, to play with the animatronics, to see them as something majestic and beautiful? She was a child blinded by her adoration of a fictional show and cute animal characters…Of course, no one would assume that those things would hide such darkness and pain beneath the surface, but she still felt guilty about it. Maybe if she didn't care about this franchise so much, her family would never have gotten involved.

Frankburt's Fantasy Land, a new incarnation of the demon that never dies.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and take a seat! Papa Frankburt and his friends will give our best performance yet!" A robotic voice echoed from the restaurant as Elizabeth finally stepped through the entrance door. This voice came from a human-like animatronic that was singing on the stage with two beside him, one looking like a panda, and another a koala. There was a separate attraction as well, much like with Foxy in the old days, "The heart of fantasy", as they called it now. It had another animatronic, a fox colored in bright yellow who would wave to the children. Was this a friendlier version of Foxy or another character? Elizabeth didn't care, but for some reason, she still wanted to see it all. To stare into the face of her reignited past, the one which left so many questions with barely any answers, and those few that she learned while still a young girl were enough o change her outlook on her life and etch on her psyche as a disgusting stain.

She saw the flashes of her birthday, the first time she visited this place. Remembered running together with other kids, the joyful, careless laughter as all of them were entranced in pure awe before animatronics, while their parents sat and watched, quietly smiling to themselves. A lot has changed since that day…The animatronics were different, the walls and ceiling were colored in white and azure blue instead of red and yellow, the stage went through a redesign…One element that remained unchanged was the sheer amount of happy children who ran around and looked at those animatronics, eager to play with them. Just like Elizabeth did 16 years ago…Perhaps history really had a habit of repeating itself, passing on same burdens from fathers to sons, traumatizing one generation after another.

All of them were happy, and Elizabeth wondered among them as if she was a ghost, unseen and unheard, the one who no one could understand and didn't care to try. She shouldn't have come to this place, there was no purpose to it other than waking up shameful memories, and she finally saw that.

Elizabeth was about to walk towards the exit with her gaze still pointed towards the floor.

"Ow!" The woman exclaimed as she felt a heavy bump of someone who walked in front of her. Elizabeth got pulled away from her trance by a momentary and an incredibly awkward realization that she focused on her thoughts so much that she didn't even watch her step. "Oh, god, I'm so sorry, I am very clumsy sometimes…"

"That's alright." A slightly tense male voice replied, thankfully, Elizabeth didn't hear any anger and annoyance in his speech. "I withstood worse. Are you alright?"

"I am, yes, just…" As Elizabeth recomposed herself and stood up, she could finally see the face of a young man looking at her with curiosity. Dark hair, eyes brown like a diamond in the rough, perfect posture and a surprising aura of familiarity that Elizabeth didn't feel in a long while. Judging by his surprised eyes and a step back that he took, the man before her felt something, too, but what was it? They continued to examine each other in silence until the man finally spoke up.

"Elizabeth?"

And then, she understood, too.

"C-Charlie?"