Mable: Happy 4th of July, everyone! Enjoy!

The Buried Voice

Chapter 3: Bonding

Even with a rough night's sleep, Charlie left the house shortly after eight o'clock and headed to the public library. There she began searching into what information she could find about Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. It wasn't long before its disturbing history was laid out before her. Missing children presumed dead but with no bodies, just like Sammy, accidents with defective animatronics, and suspiciously abrupt closings.

Nobody was ever brought to justice for any of it and Freddy's kept rolling into new hands where it would open new pizzerias. Then they would close and the cycle would continue, leaving a trail of dead ends.

"Sammy was just the beginning. How many people disappeared even after the diner closed?" Charlie thought to herself in disbelief. Perhaps this was what he father wouldn't have wanted her to see. Though most of this information was specifically about Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and not the diner. "Maybe there were other incidents at the diner that just weren't reported."

She set the current newspaper aside and reached for one of the two she had left. She looked at it momentarily before her eyes widened as she saw a picture of a boy staring up. "Is that…?! No, wait. That's not him."

For a moment she thought the boy in the picture was Sammy, but on closer inspection it became clear that he wasn't. He looked to be somewhere between seven or nine years old while Sammy had gone missing as a toddler. He did resemble her brother from what she remembered. In the black and white picture she could tell he was a brunette with brown eyes just like he had been. She read over the article.

"Child Bitten at Freddy's: A local child is in critical care after an accident at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Police reports state that one of the robotic performers bit the child on the head after he climbed onto the stage. The boy, whose name has been kept confidential at the family's request, is currently admitted to the ICU. No further details about his condition have been released. This is the second accident at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza since reopening in the summer."

Just another tragic story without an ending. While Charlie wondered which animatronic bit the child and if he recovered she doubted she would get an answer. Somehow Freddy's managed to keep stories from staying in the limelight while still being incapable of keeping itself off the newspaper.

"How were they even able to reopen with all of this?" Charlie wondered. She sent one last sympathetic look at the picture before setting the newspaper aside. He reminded her so much of Sammy. "Poor kid…"

Now she was onto the last newspaper in the stack. At first Charlie expected it to be nothing of importance, having just an article about one of the older iterations of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza opening. She scanned through it quickly and tried to find anything of interest, trying to ignore the sinking feeling when she read the positive response and knowing what would come of it, and found something in the last few lines.

"Freddy Fazbear's Pizza is just the newest restaurant in a string of businesses opened by Fazbear Entertainment. Beginning with the opening of Fredbear's Family Diner, founded by William Afton and Henry Emily, which closed its doors to make way for the expansion of the franchise."

Ignoring the slew of buzzwords, Charlie focused in on the two names presented in the article; Henry Emily, her father, and someone named William Afton. If her father had a business partner then maybe he would know more about what happened, if he wasn't directly involved in it. Charlie didn't want to immediately become suspicious but found it odd that she had never heard about this man, unless he was the 'Will' mentioned in her father's entries from last night.

With no more newspapers left she turned to the computers for information. Unfortunately, looking up William's name led her to some of the same places she had found in the newspapers. She could at least confirm that he was her father's business partner but not much else. Though one website did stand out. In the midst of Freddy's websites was one about 'Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental', and in the description it emboldened something called 'Afton Robotics'. Possibly William's robotics company.

Clicking on the link led to a dead page that stopped her investigation in its tracks. She still wasn't ready to give up and looked up Afton Robotics directly. This time she found little on the company itself, but a slew of results about something called 'Circus Baby's Pizza World'. Just seeing that name and how familiar it was to Freddy's filled her with dread.

"Not another one…" She murmured as she looked through the results. Only a few down she found one that eased her mind, proudly proclaiming 'Circus Baby's opening cancelled due to gas leaks'. "Thank God," she mumbled as she clicked onto the news article. "At least it didn't open. I'm sure they were just rebranding to cover up their history. Not that someone couldn't just look and find plenty… If anyone looked."

The article was uninteresting to say the least. It literally recited the same thing as in the title; Circus Baby's closed down before it truly opened due to gas leaks. It seemed suspicious and she knew there was probably an accident hidden behind that excuse, but she doubted that she would find it with how cautiously this pizzeria had been covered up. By now the whole thing had left her feeling cynical and numb to it, realizing the full extent of all of this, and yet she couldn't stop herself from continuing to look.

There was an image of a poster advertising Circus Baby's Pizza World along with the article instead of a picture of the establishment. On it was a female clown with orange pigtails and a red dress with two smaller, baby-like dolls at her side. This must've been Baby, and Charlie noticed right away that it was quite different than the animatronics from Freddy's. Not just from the design but from the cracks along its skin that seemed to depict plates on its outer body. None of her father's blueprints depicted anything like this. Baby was definitely not his creation.

Charlie was mere inches from the screen staring at this blurry picture of a clown when her cellphone suddenly started to ring. She jumped, realized it was a call, and quickly got up and hurried towards the library's bathrooms. She answered only once she was close to the hall. "Hello?" she asked quietly.

"Hey, it's me. Just calling to check if you made it through the night," Jessica joked. "Why are you whispering?"

"Hold on a second." Charlie stepped into the women's bathroom and shut the door behind her. "Sorry about that. I'm at the library doing some research."

"…Usually the point of taking time off is to actually take time off. How are you already back to studying?" Charlie decided not to correct her and risk having to come clean about what she was doing here. "You need a break. Marla just called me and was asking if we wanted to go on a hike. Do you want to go?"

"Sure, but do you think you're up to it after yesterday? I'm not sure if a long hike is good after so much heavy labor," Charlie lightly teased. She could hear Jessica give a fake scoff.

"Oh please. You're the one who had to lug that twenty-pound comforter home alone. I walked away from that job with my head held high… And heavy with memories of peeling the bathroom sink." That description alone got a chuckle out of Charlie. Jessica perked up and added, "I'll call Marla back and tell her we're in."

"Alright. Let me just finish up here and then I'll be over there. Bye."

As soon as Charlie ended the call she began kicking herself for agreeing so readily. Here she was on some sort of breakthrough- or close to one from the scraps of information she was collecting- and she was going to stop everything to go hiking. Then again, she did feel guilty for not staying in touch with her friends, and she did want to go. She both wanted an escape from her discoveries and still wanted to keep searching.

"Just go and have fun. You wanted to spend time with everyone, that's the whole reason you came here. Freddy's isn't going anywhere," she assured herself. With that in mind, she went to go get her things and left the library after she had made copies of some of the newspaper articles. She put them in her backpack so they wouldn't be noticed, and so she wouldn't have that boy's picture staring at her any longer.

She met Jessica at the motel and shortly afterwards Marla also arrived at the motel and beckoned them into her car. Charlie got into the back when she noticed that she wasn't going to be alone there. A boy, maybe middle school age but she couldn't tell, was sitting in the seat behind Marla's and playing on a handheld game system.

"-If we get up there fast enough. By the way, Charlie, you didn't get to meet Jason yesterday. Charlie, Jason. Jason, Charlie. Jason's my little brother and the one who planted the hike idea, so if you want to blame anyone for this, blame him," Marla joked. She started up the car and began to drive.

"Hey," Jason greeted. He looked up for his game for a moment but quickly returned to it, his tone sounding welcoming but his eyes unable to leave whatever battle he was having on the screen.

Marla pursed her lips at his lethargic response before adding in coyly, "Charlie here builds robots over at the college in St. George."

Now Jason was interested. He paused his game midway through whatever he was doing to look at the girl in the backseat, brimming with curiosity. "Really? You work on real robots, no joke?" he asked.

"Well, yes, but I don't really- Marla's exaggerating. I don't build robots. Or not yet, not on my own. Right now it's just smaller projects. I'm really just a novice," Charlie tried to explain. She suddenly felt very put on the spot, but thankfully Jason didn't seem disappointed in this. In fact, he might've just taken her 'yes' and went with it.

"Cool! Can you get them to do stuff? Like not just move, can you get them to do things?" Jason asked. "And do you use a remote or do they just do the things you tell them too?"

Charlie had a feeling this might be a very long car ride… Or a very short one. It wasn't every day that she found someone so curious in what she studied. She smiled. "Well, for starters, usually we use a control panel-."

The hiking trail was just outside of town, located on the cliffside that overlooked the city. A functional but barren radio tower sat nearby the small parking lot they pulled into. Perhaps used both for cell service and to guide those who risked getting lost on the mountain. Not that it was hard with all the houses laying out before them. It was still warm out even though the sky was overcast.

Lamar had arrived already and must've brought Carlton because they were both standing outside talking. John was there too but still in his vehicle. He got out to join the others as Marla parked alongside them and everyone got out. Jason finally released Charlie long enough to circle around and stick himself close to Lamar. Though he didn't seem to mind, chatting up the boy and telling him about the trail. Apparently he too must've had some influence in where they were going.

"Hey Charlie," John greeted. He came right over to her as she returned his greeting. Jessica stood alongside them with a familiar smile. "How did last night go?"

"Better than I thought. We got the house in mostly working condition. My old bed's still there too, so I had someplace to sleep," Charlie said.

"That's good to here. I was a little worried when I heard you were staying there alone, but I should've known you could handle it."

"Who told you-?" Charlie didn't even have to finish. She saw that smile Jessica had out of the corner of eye and knew it was her. It was a rather strange smile, coy, almost like she knew something, but it was definitely nothing Charlie was hiding. She further assured him, "It's not as bad as I thought it would be."

"Good. Just know that I'm here if you need any extra help," he offered. She appreciated it and thanked him. Before the conversation could continue, Lamar spoke up and rallied the group.

"Alright, guys! Let's get moving. There's a chance of rain later and I don't want to be stuck on the side of the cliff if it lets loose," he said. Then he led them to the mouth of the trail and they began their hike.

Ironically, Lamar's prediction was the exact opposite of what happened. About a mile into the seven mile hike the clouds broke apart and the sun started coming through. It didn't seem to make it any hotter, it was plenty warm before the sun came out. Spirits were still high in the beginning. Lamar and Jason kept to the front of the group in their own conversation. Jessica recounted the details of the work on the house and, much to Charlie's amusement, left out no details.

About halfway through the hike, the back of the group started to lag further behind the front. Seeing that there wasn't really any shade or decent resting spots, Lamar steered them towards a cluster of large rocks, thinking that at least it would be better than sitting directly on the ground. Which wouldn't have been much softer. "Let's take a ten-minute break to catch our breath."

"What happened to getting stuck miles away from the car in the pouring rain?" Carlton asked, tiredly joking.

"We should be so lucky," John chimed in from beside him. Carlton didn't disagree. Honestly, neither did Lamar.

Charlie was surprised that she had handled the walk as well as she had considering she had been wearing her jacket through most of it. Eventually it had grown so unbearable that she had to tie it around her waist which had gotten her through the last leg of it. She sat down alongside Marla who proceeded to yank off her shoe and unweave the lace out of it, which she then used to pin up her hair, seemingly forgetting to bring anything to pull it back with. Odd, but effective.

Carlton sat on the other side of Marla. He took one look over her effort to cool herself, fanning her neck and pinning her hair up with a shoe lace, and gave a simple, "You look hot."

She deflected with, "Don't even try to flirt with me when I'm melting."

"Melting into my hands."

Marla reluctantly snickered. "Okay, you got lucky with that one." She bumped her shoulder against his playfully then took his hand.

The morale seemed high from Charlie's perspective. Everyone was confident and eager enough considering how far they walked. Maybe it was the fatigue or the heat, but something in her mind randomly decided that this was the best time to casually grill her friends on a topic she knew would come back to bite her. "Has anyone heard of Circus Baby's Pizza World?"

Marla looked to her questioningly, still fanning herself with her free hand. "What's that? Is it like Freddy's or is just like a pizza place?"

"No, it's like Freddy's… So, I was going through my father's office last night and I found out that he had a business partner named William Afton. I've never heard of him before now but I think he had a robotics company and might've opened this Baby's place. Or he tried to, I think it fell through," Charlie explained. Marla hummed.

"None of those names are ringing any bells. But I guess it makes sense that your dad wasn't working alone. It's not exactly easy to open a business by yourself."

"Ergo, Baby's," Carlton jokingly added in. Right afterwards he paused thoughtfully. "Now that you mention it, I swear I've heard the name Afton before. I just don't know where. Maybe dad mentioned it."

"Uh oh. That can't be good," Marla said with a smile, now nudging Charlie. "But what had you looking into that? Visiting Freddy's?"

Charlie knew that it wasn't just Carlton and Marla listening, it couldn't be, and suddenly that self-consciousness rose back up. She didn't want them to know the extent of it so she played on an excuse.

"No, this is just what happens when you're stuck in a house with nothing to distract yourself except a bookshelf full of electronics manuals. It was either that or break out my old toys and I just don't have the imagination I used to," Charlie said. This managed to keep the mood light and didn't tip anyone off to why she was really searching. "Should we keep moving?"

Marla groaned and then gave a tired, "Yes." It was too hot to sit for long and Jason had been eager to move since they stopped, so they continued on their journey. Nobody else mentioned Circus Baby's or William Afton, not even Charlie herself. She was glad just to live in the moment for a little longer.

Eventually they made it around the full loop of the hike and back up to the parking lot. By then everyone had become quiet as they pushed through the last leg of the journey, only finding their voices once within sight of the cars. As Charlie climbed into the backseat of Marla's car, she noticed John watching her again.

Maybe she was imagining it, but John seemed to be paying significant attention to her through the entire hike. They hadn't had any deep conversation like she and Jessica had, but she had noticed him watching her more than once, or them exchanging a few words, or him offering his water bottle at various moments in the hike. Maybe she was overreading his kindness; maybe it was just because of the jacket.

"So, what's the plan?" Jessica asked. Her voice snapped Charlie out of her daze and she turned to see the blond half turned in the passenger's seat. "I'm heading back to the hotel to rinse off. You?"

"Well, I'm tired, sweaty, dusty, and I think I got sunburn on my neck…" Charlie paused for emphasis and then shrugged. "Guess it's time to go scrub out my bathtub."

"You can't be serious."

"It's either that or hosing down outside and I'm even sure if there's still a water hose out back."

"Why don't you use the shower at the hotel? I'm paying for it anyways, why not get my full money's worth?" Jessica suggested.

As tempting as it sounded she declined. "Thanks, but I need to get the bathroom finished and now I have a reason to do it. We can still meet up later," Charlie said.

"Hey, yeah. Maybe we could get dinner or catch a movie or something! I'll call the others and set it up!" Marla agreed excitedly. "…But later."

Shortly afterwards, Marla dropped them off at the motel and drove home with Jason. Jessica stayed at the hotel while Charlie drove home, pulled on a pair of rubber gloves, and worked through the bathtub. It wasn't as bad as she expected it to be. The cleaner that had been left to soak had broken down most of the grime and made it easier to wipe out. What followed was a cold shower in a clean tub, good enough.

Then, without calling anyone, it was back to the library to pick up where she left off. Within the hour she was back at the computer, searching for any information she could find, and this time her target was the recently opened Freddy's Fazbear's Pizza. Except for one problem, there wasn't anything on it.

Most Freddy locations had an online or newspaper announcement to advertise their opening, the new Freddy Fazbear's Pizza did not. There were no interviews with the staff members, she couldn't even find the name of anyone behind it, and no reports of accidents. The only thing she could find was a few reviews left behind and they were rather vague on details.

What was even more bizarre was that she couldn't find anything on the animatronics themselves. Even the official Freddy Fazbear's Fans website- which didn't look like it had been updated in ages- didn't say anything on the building or the bots inside. It was uncanny and she wasn't entirely sure that it was just because the place recently opened or not.

Once again, Charlie was interrupted by a phone call. This time she stepped outside to answer it. "Hello?"

"Hey!" Marla chirped. It sounded like she had regained all the life back into her. "Okay, so here's the plan. Lamar's busy tonight and Jessica's just going to hang out at the hotel, so the rest of us were thinking of going out to get an early dinner. Or a late lunch or something, and then see where it goes from there. What do you think?"

"I'll be there. Do you have a place in mind?" It wasn't like she was finding anything here anyway. Marla gave her the directions and she finished up before leaving the library, not that there was much to be finished.

It was a casual, southwestern themed restaurant and Charlie was the first to arrive. The smell of barbeque met her in the parking lot and reminded her that she had postponed lunch due to all the distractions of the day and never made up for it. She headed inside and took a booth in a secluded corner by the window.

A few minutes later she heard someone coming and looked up from the menu to see John walking up. She greeted him with a smile. "Hey there. Long time no see," she joked.

"I know. It feels like its been ages," John played along as he sat down on the other side of the booth. Charlie handed him over one of the menus. "Nobody else is here yet?"

"Not yet. Glad you got here in time to keep me company though," Charlie joked. John chuckled and glanced at her over the menu. The conversation didn't go much further than small talk.

Then Marla walked in and brightened the entire table in seconds with a welcoming, "Hi!" Carlton was with her and they were holding hands again, which Charlie was starting to notice. John got up to greet them as she scooted further into the booth to give them space to sit.

Then something very noticeable happened. John, who had been up to this point sitting on the other side of the booth, slid in beside her to let Carlton and Marla take the other side. It was this that made Charlie double take as she noticed how peculiar this looked. Carlton and Marla, who were together, on one side of the table, her and John on the other, genders lined up, eating at a sit-down restaurant.

"Is this a double date?" Charlie thought with surprise. Her suspicions only grew when she thought about it more. "Jessica didn't call me at all after turning down Marla? That seems a little…" John sent her a side smile and she returned it as she folded up her menu. As she went to pass it over to Marla, she noticed her giving a similar look to what Jessica gave them earlier when they were talking, a rather over-eager smile. "Yeah, okay. This is a set-up. Not sure how I feel about that."

Charlie couldn't say she didn't like John. She liked his wit and friendliness, and he was rather attractive, but the idea of a relationship seemed so foreign to her. She wasn't even sure how to go about it or if she even wanted to. He barely knew her so what was to say that he would like what he saw when he dug deeper? And for her him?

"The barbeque chicken is flat-out amazing. It's like nothing but sauce and somehow it works," Marla said. That was enough to coax Charlie out of her cycling thoughts and back to the present meal. She tried to ignore the slight feeling of pressure and soon enough it faded. The meal continued on normally.

There was only one thing that seemed odd that she noticed right away, and that was how quiet Carlton was being. Normally he was willing to say what was on his mind and chime in whenever, as he was earlier, but now it seemed like they had to pull words out of him. It wasn't until they were finishing up and preparing to leave that anything came of it.

Marla had left to use the restroom right before the check came. Carlton watched her leave before suddenly sliding down the booth to sit across from Charlie. He leaned in and lowered his voice.

"I know this is a bad time to bring it up, but I found something on that guy you were talking about earlier. You said William Afton, right?" Carlton whispered.

Charlie was almost startled to hear him bring the name up again. "Yes, that's him. What did you find out?"

"I thought I heard the name before so I went ahead and asked my dad, and after I prodded enough to get him to admit he existed he let me in on the details. You know how- You know about the kids that went missing." Charlie nodded. "Right, well, this guy wasn't just one of the owners. He was the guy who Dad was investigating for being involve in the disappearances of these kids. He, uh…" Carlton lowered his voice further, voice sympathetic. "He was a suspect in Sammy's disappearance too."

Charlie wasn't surprised but hearing it sent a chill down her spine. He would've had both the means and the opportunity to kidnap her brother… And he would've had complete access to the costumes. She couldn't prove anything yet but it fit too well to ignore, and Carlton wasn't even finished.

"But wait, it gets a lot more skeevy. So, I don't know if it was after your dad passed away or after the kids disappeared, but William just vanishes off the face of the earth. I'm not kidding! He split town when he was the number one suspect- that's the most suspicious thing you can do! After that Dad pretty much shut down. He said he doesn't know about any other companies or businesses or where he is. Then he tells me to stay away from him- nice subtlety there, Dad- and that's the end of it… But I got the feeling he was hiding something, so I went into his office and looked through his case files."

"Wait a minute. I thought your dad locks his office," John interrupted, apparently listening in.

"Yeah, but it's in the basement. I just climbed through the window," Carlton said. He shrugged it off like it was nothing while the two listeners seemed mildly befuddled. "Dad has this file cabinet that is just stuffed with files about old cases. Just in case he needs to go back to them. And in there I find this file on Freddy's. I didn't read through all the reports but I did find one on William Afton and his family. You know, he had a daughter that went missing too, but nobody knows if he took her and hopped the border or not. But there's someone else…"

Carlton dug into his pocket and quickly pulled out a folded-up piece of paper and handed it over. Charlie unfolded it to see the information that Carlton had wrote down on the paper. It was a phone number, an address, and a single name: Michael Afton.

"That's William's son. Apparently he still lives around here and hasn't been in contact with William… But he might know something." Immediately, Carlton raised his hands in defense. "Just for the record: that doesn't mean that I think you should try to get in touch with this guy. From what it sounds like, William is super suspicious and trying to get ahold of him could be a really bad idea."

Carlton looked back to check the restroom door and noticed Marla on her way back. He clammed back up immediately, glancing between Charlie and John as though silently asking them not to rat him out. Neither did and Charlie discreetly put the paper in her jacket pocket as they got up to leave.

They headed out to the parking lot and exchanged a few more pleasantries before dispersing. Marla was overflowing with ideas for the next outing, already planning out the next day even when she was trying to think of something she could fit into today. Charlie gave her some excuse about stopping in with Jessica, and Marla and Carlton drove off together shortly afterwards.

Charlie sat in her car for a few moments. Instead of turning it on she brought the slip of paper out of her pocket and stared at the words on it. Here it was, yet another lead.

"Should I really do this? How far do I want to get myself involved?" Charlie asked herself. This could be dangerous. There was clearly a reason her father warned her not to get involved. Though she couldn't stop thinking about his other words, about finding Sammy. "…But what if Sammy's still out there somewhere?"

Maybe Michael was the reason her father had found her brother. Maybe he was the one who had the answers. She bit her lip as she stared at those numbers. All it would take was one call…

There was a knocking on her window and she turned to see John standing there. She had thought he drove off so she was surprised to see him and quickly rolled down her window for him.

"Everything okay?" he asked, leaning in on the window. Charlie gave him a half-smile before looking down at the paper again.

"Yeah… I'm thinking of going ahead and calling him. Seeing what he knows," she admitted. John nodded and she took it as a go ahead. She got out her cellphone and dialed the number before her nerve could fail. She braced herself for a response.

"We're sorry; you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service."

"No luck. He must've changed his number," Charlie said as she ended the call. She then looked to the paper again; it would've been much easier to change his number than it would've been to move.

"Are you thinking about going over there?" John asked. She didn't answer beyond a half-shrug but was considering it. "Mind if I tag along?"

Charlie was surprised by the offer. She had expected him to stop her, especially after everything Carlton had said in the restaurant. She had just assumed that the others would try to shelter her after their reluctance to talk about Freddy's the day before. Then again, John hadn't. He had agreed to go to Freddy's once he knew she wanted to go and now here he was willing to drive out to a questionable address with her.

"Are you sure? It's getting late," Charlie said.

John smiled. "Not that late. Not unless we wait any longer." Relieved, Charlie nodded and unlocked the passenger door for him. He climbed inside and she started up the car. He checked the address again. "I think I know where this is. At least, I know where this road is. You're going to want to take a right out of the parking lot." She followed his lead and soon they were on the road.

Charlie wasn't entirely sure what she felt for John, but she was glad that he was there and that she didn't have to make this ride alone. That was enough to put a smile back on her face.

Now she could only hope that Michael was as helpful.