The Buried Voice
Chapter 5: Confession
Charlie was dreading her friends' arrival to the house. All because she knew that she had to tell them the truth.
It wasn't that she didn't want to tell them, but that she wasn't looking forward to their reactions. She could already imagine their faces when they found out that she snuck back to Freddy's alone. Or that she had been looking for her father's former business partner and possible criminal. Or anything involving the letter that brought her here.
That would be the worst part, confessing that she didn't just blow into town to see them but for a further purpose. She could already imagine how disappointed Marla would be when she found out. As much as Jessica and John knew they didn't know everything, and she dreaded having to tell them that she hadn't been fully outright with them either. But it was time to be honest and it was time to hear their replies.
Being that there wasn't a couch, Charlie had to gather the chairs from around the house and plop them in the living room. There were four dining room chairs arranged in an imperfect circle and the armchair scooted in closer, making it look uncomfortably like she was setting it up for an intervention. "Yeah, my own," she had thought, jokingly, in passing. She hoped that wasn't going to bite her in the backside later.
There was a knock on the door and she snapped to alert. "That's them. Here we go…" She took a deep breath as she approached the front door and put on a smile as she opened it. "Hey, glad you could make it."
"And miss getting a look at all your work? There's no way we'd miss it!" Marla chirped. Of course she was the first one there, along with both Jessica and Carlton. She began to look around as Charlie let them in. "I don't know what it looked like beforehand, but it's way cleaner than I thought. Jessica was acting like it was wall to wall cobwebs."
"It nearly was before we dusted. I told you we should've taken before and after pictures," Jessica joked to Charlie. She then got that familiar smile. "How was dinner last night?" That coy tone gave away that Marla had told her something. If they hadn't directly planned the double date stunt together in the first place.
"Great. I can't remember the last time I've had barbeque even half as good," Charlie said. She thought dodging the answer Jessica wanted would be proper revenge and was amused by her slight pout.
"Oh, come on. You know that's not what I mean," Jessica goaded. Before she could press further she was interrupted by Carlton collapsing in the armchair. He folded his arms behind his head and leaned back.
"Comfy?" Marla teased. He got a twitch of a smirk.
"More than those, yeah," he said, glancing towards the loop of dining room chairs. She looked at them and her face slowly fell.
"…We need to get some bean bags in here or something."
"Hey!" Lamar greeted as he let himself in. "What did I miss?"
"Nothing yet. We just got here too," Jessica said. Then she turned to Charlie with a curious look and a typical smile. "So, what's the plan? You said there was something you wanted to talk about?"
"Yeah… Let's just wait until John gets here, then I'll explain what's going on… Don't give me that look. We all need to be here." Jessica got that coy smile again and Charlie returned with an unenthused frown. Jessica waved dismissively to show that she was joking and took a seat on one of the chairs.
John appeared only a few minutes later and the second he walked in Charlie felt her nerves getting to her again. Not from him but from what she was about to do, and she waited until everyone looked settled in. John offered her the last chair but she turned him down, instead deciding to stay standing, and steadied herself before she began.
"Guys, there's something I haven't told you. About what I've been doing when we haven't been together. I wish I could say that I've just been fixing up the house but obviously that's not the case," Charlie tried to joke. There was a few amused looks but mostly they were just watching and listening, wondering why she sounded so uneasy. "The truth is, I've been researching into Freddy's."
Nobody seemed surprised- especially not Jessica, John, or Carlton- but she knew that would soon change.
"And so far I've been finding out some very disturbing things about it, and not just the current one. Going back to the diner I can find dozens of accidents and disappearances. Children were going missing as far back as when we used to play there… It wasn't just Sammy. There were plenty of others."
"I heard about that," Marla admitted. She looked concerned. "Wasn't there five of them?"
"Yeah. They went missing at a birthday party at the pizzeria," Lamar agreed. He shook his head. "It was terrible. They had a curfew and there were safety talks in school about stranger danger and all of that."
"Except it wasn't just five kids. There were a lot more. I don't even know how many because they stopped reporting them. Then there were the accidents. There's one that I think they call 'the Bite' where a boy was bitten by an animatronic… And then died shortly afterwards." This was the first thing to get a look of horror out of Jessica. "And it's like they've been erased over the years, or just forgotten and lost to time."
"Never forgotten," John chimed in. Charlie looked to him questioningly and he got a much more solemn look. "…A friend of mine went missing at Freddy's."
"What?" Carlton sat up straighter in his armchair. "When did this happen? You never said anything about this!"
"It was a long time ago. Right around the time that… Just before we lost contact." Before Henry died, he meant. "Wasn't much to say. There was a playground close to Freddy's where we used to play, because my parents didn't want me going to the pizzeria alone. But Joe- that was his name- he used to go there all the time. He'd use his allowance to buy junk food and would come out with cake or candy, usually a balloon… Then one day Joe stopped appearing on the playground… A few days later the police came by and asked all of us if we had seen anything. They never found him."
"Oh John, I'm so sorry," Jessica apologized. Her eyes fell to the floor. "It's like that place was cursed. Everyone who went there lost someone."
"And it seemed fine while we were still going. Do any of you remember anything weird happening when we were playing there?" Lamar asked. He caught sight of Marla's cringe and then remembered who he was asking and looked to Charlie with a regretful look. "Uh… Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I just meant we didn't see anything when we were kids."
"No, it's fine. It's okay. We can talk about Sammy," Charlie assured. She slowly crossed her arms. "…In fact, I'm glad you brought him up because he's a big part of this and why I've been doing this… Before I came back, I got a letter that looked like it was sent by my father telling me to move on and forget Freddy's. So, genius that I am, I came back here and started looking through my dad's office. I found this folder he was using to track his progress on looking for Sammy and at the end of it he left this entry that said he found him."
"Wait, what?" Jessica asked in surprise. "Okay, that was definitely not in the letter. What do you mean he found Sammy?"
"That's just it. That's all it said. I don't know when he wrote it but it couldn't have been long before his death… Which I've also been looking into and now with this message that he found Sammy, and with the fact that he never found his body, I'm starting to think that something else happened here. I tried to look up his old business partner, William Afton, and Carlton found out that he was a suspect with the missing children incident and that he fled the city after Dad died."
"You didn't say anything about that!" Marla said to Carlton in surprise. "Did your dad tell you that?!"
"…Mostly. He said it without saying it," Carlton vaguely answered. She gave him a flat look.
"…You climbed into your dad's office again, didn't you?"
"Pretty much," Carlton said, amused. Though this was short lived as he grew more serious. "Charlie's right, this Afton guy was really shady. Even my dad thought he was involved but couldn't prove it. The only person who'd know anything is his son Michael. My dad had his phone number and address and I gave it to her…" He slowly looked back towards Charlie. "Did you get ahold of him?"
"We went by his apartment after dinner, but he's missing too," John revealed. More shock, unsurprisingly. "And his phone line is dead which, in hindsight, makes the fact that he's missing a lot more suspicious. Either way we couldn't track him down."
"…Actually, we did. Or he did. He called me this morning," Charlie revealed. John looked to her in confusion and she looked guilty. "…But I think the only reason he did was because I went back to Freddy's last night." She turned back to the others to avoid seeing his reaction, or disappointment. "I talked to the guy who served us. The one with the dark hair."
"The guy who really didn't want to be there and smelled like a walking Christmas tree. Sounds like a credible source," Carlton chimed in doubtfully.
"I wasn't expecting much, but it turns out that he used to work as a night guard at one of the pizzerias, and he said that the animatronics used to walk around at night. He thought they were haunted."
"Haunted?" Marla asked, scrunching up her face.
"I know it sounds unbelievable, but bear with me. He said they used to try to get into his office at night and were acting aggressive, and he believes that was behind the accidents. So, I was thinking that this could be one of two things- and I do believe him. Either the animatronics are haunted like he thinks, or someone is programming them to do this. That would be much more reasonable," Charlie explained, becoming worked up in the process. "And we know that William built bots because he had a company called Afton Robotics."
"You think he did it?" John asked in surprise. At least he sounded like he believed her.
Lamar was a bit more skeptical. "I don't know. That kind of seems like a stretch. Didn't you say this guy left town?"
"We don't know where he is, but he could still be involved in Afton Robotics. When I talked to Michael he made a point of telling me not to go there, so he might suspect he's still there… And from what Michael said, he thinks William was capable of doing something like this. He told me this story about his brother… The long and short of it was that William can't be trusted."
"What else did he say? Did he say where he's been?" John asked.
"No… He wouldn't tell me much about him. He just warned me not to get involved, but I already am involved." Charlie's compositor started to slip. "How am I supposed to walk away now that I know all of this? How can I even know that the letter wasn't just someone's attempt to keep me from finding out the truth? As it is, my dad's still one of the main suspects and he can't even defend himself."
"I think Dad knows he didn't do it, but if you're talking the public… Yeah, there's probably a few people who think he did. You know, with the timing and all," Carlton said. He was uncomfortable being put on the spot but went along with it. He shrugged defensively, "But what do they know?"
"I'm starting to wonder why they thought it was suicide in the first place. Who was it who told them my dad was suicidal? William? My mom? Aunt Jen?" Charlie gave a huff of indignation. "My dad was a genius. He figured took his life and learned to teleport in the same day." Carlton twitched from amusement but reined it in. Especially when Jessica suddenly raised her hands.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, hold up a second." She stood from her chair and faced Charlie dead on, and she looked just as disappointed as the young woman expected her to be. "Are you saying that you heard all of this, that there's animatronics attacking people and people going missing, and that you believe the man responsible for it is still running around, and you still went back to Freddy's alone?!" She looked devastated. "Charlie, you could've gotten yourself killed! If it's true, and if not you could've gotten yourself into serious trouble."
"I know. I'm sorry. I know it was a bad move, but it was a spur of the moment thing. That's why I'm telling you now," Charlie said apologetically. Jessica's face fell from scolding to concerned. "…But that's not the only reason I'm telling you now." Jessica looked more worried as Charlie revealed, "The truth is… I'm going to find Afton Robotics and see what's left of it, and I wanted all of you to come with me."
"What?" Jessica gasped. "But that's- But you said yourself that he's dangerous. And I just said-."
"I know. I understand the risks involved, but that's the only place I have left to look. That was the only place that Michael mentioned specifically and I think that means there's something there." Jessica looked to be in disbelief, fumbling with words to argue. Charlie beat her to it, lowering her voice and admitting, "I know there's something going on. The disappearances, the pizzeria, the letter; it all means something, I just don't have all the pieces yet. There's something I'm missing."
"But you're talking about breaking into public property, and going after this- this guy!" The blond looked to her friends desperately. "Somebody back me up."
"Just for a point of reference, what do you think you're going to find?" Lamar asked. "Like, incriminating evidence? Records or receipts, or these bots that were attacking people?"
Charlie was somewhat taken aback by the question because she wasn't sure how to answer it. "I don't know… All I know is that dad found something somewhere and I need to find it." With a slow exhale she sat down in Jessica's chair, as the woman was still pacing around. "I feel like I'm the only person who hasn't forgotten about Sammy. Just last night I had a nightmare about the rabbit that took him… Or I think it was…" She looked to the others. "Did… I ever tell any of you about the rabbit?"
Marla gave a confused 'no' and both Carlton and Lamar shook their heads. John tried to think about it but couldn't seem to remember.
"Yeah. Yeah, I remember the rabbit," Jessica admitted. She crossed her arms worriedly and came to stop beside her chair. "I don't even know why I remember that but you told me once that you saw Bonnie take Sammy. I guess I just assumed it was a dream?... I probably didn't think much of it. Kids don't really read too much into that…" Jessica quietly asked, "You can still remember when your brother was taken?"
It was natural to feel self-conscious when it involved something so intimate. Something that, for years, had been a taboo around Charlie. These passing comments about Sammy were the first she had made in years and now here she was amongst her friends preparing to tell them even more. It almost felt like she was doing something wrong She didn't want them to pity her but wanted to tell someone after all this time.
If she had learned anything in these last few days, it was that they were still her friends and she could trust them. So, she began to tell them about that horrible day.
"Sammy and I were playing around in the back when we were found by Bonnie. Normally we liked being around Freddy and Bonnie. They were so warm and friendly, even when they were acting on stage. They felt like old friends, like family members…" Her face grew firm. "…But Bonnie was different than usual. He was so quiet. Just came up to us and stared, like he was looking for something. I don't remember exactly what I was thinking but I must've been confused. But not afraid, because it was Bonnie."
"…But then Bonnie reached for us and grabbed Sammy. He moved so slowly, so gently, that it almost seemed normal as he pulled him away from me. He turned and carried Sammy out of the room, and that was it. Sammy was gone… A part of me has always wondered why I didn't do something. If I felt so strange why I didn't cry or scream before he grabbed Sammy? I don't blame myself… But I just don't understand. I still feel like I let it happen… And in a way, I feel like finding Sammy, even if it is his remains, will fix that. It's the only thing I can fix."
Charlie closed her eyes tightly as she finished. "…And I still miss my brother. I barely remember him but sometimes I get this feeling like something's missing. This deep pit that can't be filled."
"Oh, Charlie." Jessica bent over and pulled her into a tight hug. There came the embarrassment again, but this time it was rivaled by the comfort of being consoled. Nobody had done that in years. Largely because Charlie hadn't allowed herself to become vulnerable, guarding her feelings and thoughts. But it was different this time. "You didn't do anything wrong. You were just a kid, how were you supposed to stop it?"
"You weren't," John added in. He sounded irritated, but it was definitely not at Charlie. "You two were a couple of toddlers, someone was supposed to be watching you and protecting you. That's not your fault. That's the fault of whoever wasn't keeping an eye on you."
"I know that, it's just a feeling I can't stop," Charlie admitted quietly. "I know that logically I couldn't have done anything. He could've taken either one of us… He just happened to take Sammy."
Marla caught this comment and stood from her chair. Carlton looked to her questioningly as she carried it closer so she could sit in front of the brunette. She reached out and took her hand.
"I think I know what you're going through. Not from experience, but I've heard that when people survive tragedies- like plane crashes or car wrecks- they feel guilty that they're the one who survived. They wonder why they're the ones that came out alright and start questioning their survival," Marla said as she squeezed Charlie's hand. "It's okay to miss your brother and it's normal to feel bad that he was taken. You don't have to make up for it…" She paused a moment, biting her lip, and then added, "And… You're not alone. We're here for you."
Charlie didn't know why this was what started to push her over the edge. A dull stinging began in her eyes and she refused to blink to stave it off. She was stronger than this. Sammy's disappearance was years ago, she didn't want them to see her broken up. She smiled somberly but honestly.
"Thank you. I… I really appreciate it, and I'm sorry I dragged you all into this… I'll be right back. I just need a minute." Marla and Jessica both released her and she stood. She fumbled an excuse, "I just remembered that there's a chair in the office. Let me just get it…"
They could see right through it, but they understand on that front too and let her leave the room. Even John who watched her go almost reluctantly. He considered following, but was cut off by Jessica.
"We can't let her go to this place. That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen," she whispered with borderline panic.
"I second that. She wasn't exaggerating about Afton being shady if my dad's notes are any example," Carlton chimed in. "But what are we going to do? We can't just tell her no, right?"
"We can try to convince her not to go. I'm sure we can get through to her if we're rational about all of this."
"I think she's more strong willed than you think," John said. "Charlie's not just doing this for the sake of revisiting Freddy's. She's doing this for her family and with that driving her I don't think we're going to be able to just tell her to stop and let it go… Especially when she raises a few good points about Freddy's."
"You think Henry was murdered too? Or do you mean about the accidents at the pizzeria?" Carlton asked.
"I think it's very strange that this many people disappeared and nobody found them. Including Henry. I think it's even more strange that the police have never done anything about this and Freddy's has been allowed to reopen countless times without any backlash from the community," John said. He then got a much colder tone to his voice, "I'm starting to wonder if that really was Michael on the phone with her. It could've been William and he would've had all the same answers."
"That's more of a reason to keep her from going," Jessica persisted. She would need him to be on board to convince Charlie, especially now that she knew he had already been sleuthing with her. She knew that he had a point though and bit her lip anxiously. "I don't know. Maybe I should call Jen…"
"Whoa. Don't do that," Marla suddenly interjected. Her quick response surprised everyone and all eyes were on her again. She looked around at them quickly before defending herself, "Jen can be a little… I mean, she's really nice, but I don't think it would be good to get her involved."
"What are you talking about? Charlie said that her aunt and her were close. Maybe if we told her what Charlie said- about missing her dad and Sammy, not the whole William thing- then they can finally talk things out. From what Charlie's said, they've never really had a chance to do so," Jessica said. Marla gave her what looked between a forced smile and a restrained grimace.
"Jen… Doesn't really handle stuff like this well. She's all into letting things go and moving on, and not talking about it ever again. Didn't you ever wonder why Charlie just up and disappeared? When Charlie went to go stay with Jen, she took her out of school and homeschooled her, totally refused to come to Hurricane for any reason, and pretty much shut down any conversation about her dad or Freddy's. Charlie's an adult now, but I don't know, if Jen tells her to leave and never come back then maybe she will. We could never see her again!"
"That… Seems a little extreme," Carlton chimed in. Marla frowned at him.
"Okay, here's a better example: Jen owns this house. What if she doesn't let Charlie stay here anymore? She's been trying to get rid of it for years. If she found out about all this you know she'd find a way."
That changed Jessica's mind instantly. She knew how much Charlie loved this house from how much effort she had gone through to fix it up. Even with the lack of furniture she could look around and see their work. As worried as she was for Charlie's safety she wasn't about to take this away from her. Though this meant that she didn't know what else to do.
It was then that someone else chimed in and raised a very good question.
"Do we even know where this place is? Or if it's still open?" It was Lamar, the one who had stayed quiet and listened to everyone else's opinions before giving his own. They all shared a similar realization and after a pause he shrugged. "Then what are we freaking out about? Chances are that the place was shut down and turned into something else already. It's no big deal."
"I'd say this is a pretty big deal," John corrected.
"No, just hear me out. What are the chances that William is still hiding out in town? You know if he's involved in any of this then he left years ago and didn't look back. Probably changed his name, took the money from Freddy's, and high-tailed it out of the country. I'd say he's probably not a danger anymore. All Charlie's doing is looking for answers, it just sounds dangerous to us because we're just hearing about all this shady stuff."
"But what about Michael?" Jessica asked.
"Probably wasn't Michael. Probably wasn't William either. It was probably that guy from the restaurant," Lamar pointed out. "Either as some sick joke or because he actually believes this."
"I don't know if it's a prank. Something about this all feels too clean cut…" John trailed off and was lost in his thoughts again, so Lamar finished.
"My point being that, sure, we can try to convince Charlie not to go, but if she still wants to then let's just go with her. It'll probably be a building that's already being used for something else, but just seeing it and knowing there's nothing there is going to do better than having her think she's missing something. She's looking for closure here."
The others couldn't really argue with this, and it wasn't like they had much of a choice. They waited for Charlie to return, Jessica with baited breath, and hoped they could do something to help their friend.
Meanwhile, Charlie had just needed a moment away from them to pull herself together. She managed to suppress the threat of tears and then went to get the office chair. It was while she was standing behind the desk that her eyes drifted to the photo album laying on it. She sighed and opened it to a random page.
The first photo her eyes landed on was of her and Sammy in a kiddie pool in the front yard. She was standing up in it, mid-hop, while Sammy was sitting in it with a turtle toy in his hand. Beside the pool, their mother stood with a water hose. Her thump pressed over the tip to make it spray like a mist over the toddlers, which was probably why her younger self had been jumping around. Her mother was beaming; she missed that.
The next photo was one of she and her brother playing with building blocks on what looked to be their bedroom floor, save that there were more toys than what she remembered. They always played together. Painfully enough, Charlie didn't have many of these memories intact. Age had stripped them away from her.
Another picture of her with a mouth covered in what was either icing or brownie batter. A picture of Sammy in the bathtub with a beaming smile and rosy cheeks. One of him and her sitting in their father's lap. Then she flipped to the next page and found herself staring at something she didn't anticipate.
The picture was of her, her father, and Sammy along with another family consisting of a man and three children. They looked to be standing outside the diner if the bear cutout in the background was any indication.
There was nothing that inherently stood out about the other family at first until she slowly realized that the man had to be William Afton. Maybe it was that realization that biased her, but something seemed sinister about the man. His smile seemed to wide, his gaze almost looked distant, and he was uncomfortably tall.
The three children looked normal at least. The oldest was a boy with a bored look on his face and a smile that looked forced. That had to be Michael. There was a girl with strawberry blonde hair and a much more natural smile who looked as happy as could be. The final child was a boy with brown hair and pale skin. That had to be the brother Michael mentioned, and he looked very much like the boy from the bite photo.
All this proved was that the families were close enough that William had the means to grab Sammy at any time. It was a disturbing thought and she tried to flip to the next page, ignoring the rest of the pictures, looking for a quick distraction before she would return to her friends. Another happy photo to somewhat perk her up. Maybe she could even find some of the ones of her and her friends playing together.
Instead, Charlie found something that she hadn't anticipated on the next page, and it put everything into perspective.
Everyone looked over when Charlie came in with the open photo album in her hand, relieved to see her back but noticing her disturbed look. Jessica got up to greet her and to silently offer her chair again.
"Hey, there you are," she greeted with a friendly smile. "Are you feeling any better?"
"Not exactly…" Charlie admitted as she looked down at the book. "I found something while I was in the office."
"You did?" Jessica asked in confusion. She looked closer as Charlie came over to them, tilting her head slightly as she got a better look at the pictures. "Is this your family's photo album?"
"Yeah. I knew it was in there, but I didn't look at it until now… and I found this." She held out the album to show it to the others and pointed out a single picture. The others leaned in to look at it and had similar reactions to hers when they saw what it was.
It was a picture of Henry and the man believed to be William wearing suits that looked identical to the Freddy and Bonnie at the diner. William was wearing the yellow rabbit suit.
"You just found this?" Lamar asked in disbelief. Charlie nodded. He looked closer and cringed as he thought about it what this meant. "And you're totally sure that's what took Sammy?"
"I couldn't forget. It was the last time I saw him, it stuck with me," Charlie insisted. Instead of sadness or dread she could feel anger slowly building as she remembered that wide grin William had as he stood beside their family. That he could act so friendly when he later did what he did, and from how old she looked in the photos it couldn't have been much later. "There's no doubt in my mind that it was him. It all fits."
"And he's still out there somewhere," John said as he stared down at the photo with equal disgust. "We need to tell Clay."
"What's he going to do about it? He already gave up on catching this guy years ago and now he won't even talk about him unless backed into a corner. He's not going to do anything," Carlton said with a bitter edge. "I always wondered why they stopped letting me go to Freddy's. He couldn't even tell me the truth, not even when I was old enough to hear it. He just wants to forget it like everyone else in this town does."
"And that's how he keeps getting away with it. Everyone either forgets, turns their head, or leaves town, and then when a new pizzeria opens nobody says anything. Then it starts all over again," Charlie realized. She narrowed her gaze on the picture of the rabbit suited man. "But not this time." She turned to Carlton without a hitch and asked, "Do you think you could find the address to Afton Robotics?"
"Wait, me?"
"You found Michael's address. If anyone's going to know where Afton Robotics is, or was, it's going to be Clay. You said yourself that asking isn't going to work."
"Well… Yeah, good point." Carlton gave a weary sigh. "You got it. I'll see if I can get it tonight."
"But you're not going alone. I'm going with you," John intervened. "If there's anything left then we're going to find."
Charlie was almost surprised by his bold offer and how reluctant she assumed everyone was. The offers didn't stop there either.
"Me too. Even if I really don't think this is a good idea," Jessica agreed warily. Marla nodded in agreement and Lamar seemed on board. Carlton was the only one who looked skeptical.
"Don't get too excited yet. Let's wait until I actually find it before we all get gung-ho about going," he reminded as he leaned back in the armchair. "Knowing Dad, he might've freaked out after I brought it up and got rid of everything."
For now they would have to wait. Charlie closed the photo album again, not wanting to look at it any longer, and only then began to feel that self-consciousness creep in again.
"Again, I'm sorry for dragging you all into this. I didn't want to monopolize what time we have together, but you see why I couldn't hide this anymore. I didn't want to keep lying," she apologized. John reached out and put a comforting arm around her back.
"Don't be. That's what we're here for," he said with a smile. She smiled back at him, both somber but reassured by it. At least they believed her. At least they were going to help her.
"…So, what now? Dad was home when I left so we've got time to kill," Carlton pointed out. This led to more strained silence, nobody entirely sure what to say now that the mood entirely shifted. It was one thing enjoying the local attractions when they were a group of friends meeting up after years. It was a whole different matter knowing there was a serial kidnapper and possible murder on the loose.
Yet somehow Marla still didn't let them down. "We could pool all our spare cash together and buy a housewarming gift. Let's say… A not-brand new but not totally trashed couch?"
So, instead of hunting down answers, the group left to hunt down a couch and did their best to pretend that everything was still normal. Charlie was more than willing to do the same because she knew needed to enjoy what time she could. She wouldn't take a moment of it for granted.
Because once she found the answers she was looking for, there was no going back.
"…Be still… Give up…"
Charlie jolted upright from her slumped position on a cold wall and found herself in an unfamiliar room. It was as tight as a cell and the air was stuffy and sour. She noticed this all quickly, but none of it stood out as much as the voice she had sworn she heard. "What was that…?" She turned her head towards a nearby opening in the wall. "Hello? Is anybody there?"
Her legs felt like jelly as she stood and cautiously approached the tight entrance in the wall. She looked through it and saw nothing, only hearing the distant murmuring of a voice getting further and further away. She leaned into the shaft and called through, "Is someone there?!" A light appeared at the end of the shaft before rushing towards her.
She barely avoided the flames that exploded in front of her.
Charlie shot up on her bed with a gasp. She was overly heated, wrapped in the blankets again, and just as disoriented as every other night. Just another nightmare like the others. She rubbed over her face momentarily and considered getting out of bed to splash water on her face, but then decided against it. She couldn't afford to miss sleep again. Instead she pushed down her blankets and laid down again.
"At least it's not him," Charlie muttered as she closed her eyes. She forced her body to relax, now cooled by the bedroom air, and started to count backwards. "One hundred… Ninety-Nine… Ninety-Eight… Ninety-Seven…" Slowly she started to lull herself back to sleep. "Seventy-Six… Seventy-Five… Seventy-Four…" Finally, by the end, she felt herself start to drift. "Forty-Three… Forty-Two…"
Finally she slipped back into darkness.
And opened her eyes to a raging inferno.
Charlie scrambled to get back from the flames slowly engulfing the wall. Heat poured out of every crack. It was stifling and consuming, suffocating and crushing, and Charlie could barely breathe. She felt compressed and trapped as she watched the fire creep closer. Muffled, distorted voices spoke and screamed around her as she stared into the blaze.
"I've got to get out of here…" She inched back away from the fire before turning to run, but there was nowhere to run. It was just a metal wall. "Wait, there isn't- How did I get in here?!"
With the fire creeping at her back, she continued to look for a way out before suddenly noticing another small passage. She rushed over and dove inside, beginning to crawl through it. The metal burned around her, flames creeping around the edge of her vision, and the passage began to melt around her. It dripped onto her body and leaked down, saturating her, drenching her as she-.
Shot up in bed once again. This time Charlie was drenched in sweat and her heart was pounding so hard that it felt like it would burst in her chest. She swung her legs over the edge and got up from the bed, staggered down the hall, and made her way to the bathroom. She immediately began to wash her face and within moments the heat started to release. Everything was normal again.
"What is going on?" she asked exasperatedly. There was no answer and she rubbed over her eyes.
She was still tired, she still needed to sleep, but she didn't want to return to the dream a third time. With a huff, Charlie eventually returned back to her bedroom and stood there staring at the bed. After some consideration, she turned on the beside lamp and draped her jacket over it to cut down on the light. Then Charlie laid back down on the bed and stared at the wall.
She almost hoped that she would stay awake, but slowly her mind grew muddled and she had to fight to stay awake. She finally gave in, thinking that it couldn't possibly happen again, that now that she had gotten out of bed she maybe broke the cycle. Her gaze lowered to Theodore and lingered on him until sleep overcame her.
They were eating at the diner where she and Jessica had gotten lunch before. Her, John, Carlton, Marla, and Sammy were squeezed into a booth with a plate of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the table between them. Charlie would've taken one, but Carlton had grabbed two and was eating them with both hands, leaving her with none. She got the menu out intending to order something else when John spoke.
"Why don't you get the couples' special? I'm allergic to peanuts," he said. She didn't remember him being allergic to peanuts. It said on the menu that the couples' special came with a set of matching permanent tattoos. She wasn't sure if she wanted to get one, but she supposed she owed it to him for going to Afton Robotics and helping her find Sammy.
"Okay," Charlie agreed. She waved for a waitress. "Excuse me! Can I change my order?" But the woman didn't hear her and instead skated through a door in the back and disappeared.
It looked like she was going to have to wait. Charlie's focus now turned on her brother sitting on the other side of John. There were so many questions that she wanted to ask him. So many things she wanted to know about his life since they were separated. She tried to lean past John and asked him, "Hey Sammy, what do you like to do now?"
He looked to her with foggy features but a certain smile and eagerly answered, "I play a lot of football. Its been my life since first grade." For some reason, she thought this made perfect sense.
"Is it getting hot in here?" Marla interrupted. Charlie looked to her to see her fanning herself with the sandwich plate. "It's so hot. Can someone open a window or something?" Carlton leaned past her and patted the diner window as though he could will it to open, to no avail. "I'm burning up in here!" Marla complained.
It was then that Charlie suddenly remembered her reoccurring dream from the night before. "You know… I had a really strange dream last night. I was in this building that…" She trailed off as her mind finished putting the pieces together. She hadn't had that dream last night, she had it just now, hadn't she?
It was only then that she had the fleeting realization that this too was a dream.
All at once the fire returned with a vengeance. Suddenly the diner walls were alit with tall flames that reached the ceiling. Marla screamed, Carlton recoiled his hand from the window, now severely burned, and Charlie snapped into action. She turned to John and Sammy and started to push them out of the booth.
"Get up! Move! We've got to get out!" Charlie cried. They listened at least and she sprung up after them. She grabbed Sammy's wrist and started running for the front door when she noticed they were alone.
She looked back and much to her horror they were all gone and the booth was overtaken by fire. She choked on the smoke, horrified, and turned back towards the door. They had to get out but when she tried to head towards the exit she found Sammy unwilling to follow. "Sammy, come on!"
"I can't!" Sammy cried. She looked back to see that the cash register had fallen off the counter and landed on his foot. His ankle was twisted at a gruesome angle and his foot was full crushed. Blood pooled underneath it as he tried to rip the limb free. "Charlie, help me!" She tried to pull it off of him but it was too heavy and the metal was burning her hands. "Charlie, please!"
"I'm not going to leave you!" she promised as she frantically tried to roll the register off of him. It still wouldn't budge and the outside was now melting under her fingertips, making it impossible to get a grip on it.
Just when it felt like it couldn't get any worse, she heard a jingle and slam as the front door was thrown open. For a fleeting moment Charlie thought it was help coming but then looked back to see it was far from it.
There was the old Bonnie suit from the diner. Its eyes hollow and empty, its smile wide and filled with tiny, human-like teeth. It shuffled towards them at a sideways gait, grinning wide at its prey. Charlie started trying to push Sammy out from the mound of melted sludge that the register had become.
The rabbit lumbered above her and reached towards her with a stained hand. It smelled rotten and it grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her towards it. It spread open its gnarled teeth, brown with decay and old fluids, and revealed a deep tunnel inside that smelled like death. Then pulled her inside.
It was so cold inside.
Charlie didn't wake up with a start this time. She just opened her eyes and was staring at the dimly lit wall, and yet she didn't feel safe. She laid there like she was playing dead, like someone else was in the room with her, staring at the wall and waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. It was just another nightmare, the worst one she had in years.
Slowly Charlie rolled over and without even thinking about it decided that she was not going back to sleep. Thankfully, a glance at the clock showed that it was only ten minutes before she usually got out of bed. She had managed to make it through the night. She pulled her jacket off the lamp, tugged it on to stave off the chill, and made it downstairs.
There was a fog hanging over her the entire time she went through her morning routine. She couldn't think straight, not that she really wanted to. Just the faintest memory of the nightmare made her feel deeply uncomfortable. Like she was betrayed by her own mind, dangling her brother in front of her to lure her back into the night terrors. Back into the arms of that disgusting rabbit. She could barely keep her appetite.
Being that it was still early, she read in the living room to pass the time. She wasn't expecting anyone else to be ready until later and she wasn't going to push them out the door when they hadn't even gotten word from Carlton. She sunk into the armchair and lost herself in a book.
Until there was a knock at the door. This seemed out of place considering how early it was and the lack of calls, but Charlie set aside her book and peeked out the window. Much to her surprise, it was Carlton. She hurried to the front door to let him in.
"Morning. I didn't expect you here so early," Charlie greeted. Carlton didn't strike her as the type to actually get up in the mornings, but then again his hair was bedraggled like he had just rolled out of bed.
"Yeah… Just thought I'd stop by and give you this," he said. He handed over a folded-up slip of paper and she opened it to find not only an address but a full list of directions written down inside.
"You found it?! Carlton, that's great! Thank you!" She looked up to him with a smile, but it faded quickly when she noticed a weird look on his face. He almost seemed uneasy. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Just haven't had my usual shot of caffeine…" Carlton tried to lie, badly. It was clear from her unconvinced look that she didn't believe him. He caved quickly. "Okay, there's this thing that happened and I just… Don't freak out, okay?"
"That can't be good," Charlie thought. She immediately started to imagine the worse case scenarios; car accidents, someone went missing, someone could've died. "What happened?" she pressed.
"Don't freak out," he repeated. It was clear that he knew the weight of what he was about to say and tried to get it out as quickly as possible.
"…Freddy's burned down last night."