The Buried Voice

Chapter 6: Descent

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza had burned down. While it was still dark out it had gone up in flames. Everything had been burned to ash. They hadn't just been nightmares.

"You okay?" Carlton asked worriedly. He expected more of a reaction than for Charlie to just stare in silent shock. She snapped out of her daze instantly.

"Yeah, I'm just a little… Here, come in," she said. She moved aside to let him in and he took a seat on her new couch. It was one they had found at a consignment shop, dull burgundy in color, and in good condition but not new. She stood alongside it as she took in the information the rest of the way then mustered up the will to ask, "Do you know what happened?"

"I know that the news says it was an electrical fire," Carlton said. Charlie nodded slowly but noticed how unconvinced he sound. Before she could ask, he quietly added, "But I know that's not what did it."

"Did your dad say that?" she asked. She wondered if this was another supposed gas leak situation.

"He didn't have to. He's been down there for hours. Him, chief of police, is investigating a fire. Something tells me this isn't just a case of faulty wiring. Hell, I don't even think this is a case of arson," Carlton admitted. He turned towards her with an even more disturbed look. "And they're not letting the press or anyone else in at all. They've got the whole crime scene closed off."

"That's not normal," Charlie said immediately. "I mean, maybe in some cases they want to secure the scene, but that doesn't sound right… Were there any deaths? Is that why they're doing that?"

"I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me at this point. Something bad went down at Freddy's. A place like that doesn't burst into flames like that- and it burned fast! Like, Dad got the call around five or six, and the place was practically gone less than an hour later. The fire department couldn't even put it out. I haven't see what it looks like, but I'm thinking it's totally gone."

"I can't believe this…" Charlie was still reeling. She was already suspecting foul play and then suddenly has reoccurring nightmares about fire the same day Freddy's burns to the ground. "Did Schmidt get out okay? Or Michael if he even-… He said it was closing soon." Charlie's breath caught in her throat loud enough that Carlton heard it and looked to her questioningly. "When we were talking that night, Michael said Freddy's was closing soon… That it would all be a distant memory. Like he knew this was going to happen."

"Wait a minute, you don't think that guy could've-?" Carlton cut off as he got a visibly disturbed look. He continued quieter, "You don't think that he was planning this, do you?"

"I don't know. He sounded pretty certain when he said it… Or maybe he's just used to Freddy's opening and closing right after. Some of those pizzerias closed within a couple of months," she said doubtfully. Though it would make enough sense to why he warned her not to return to Freddy's. There just wasn't enough evidence to lean either way.

"You know, John wasn't too sure that Michael was who he said he was. He said it could've been William, and we know he's up for some shady stuff," Carlton pointed out. "And I take back what I said about it being arson. There had to be an accelerant used to burn down a building that fast, and he pretty much admitted that something was going to happen."

"Or maybe the building was a fire hazard. I don't know, all I know is that I believed Michael. Usually I can tell when someone's lying to me or leaving out details. From past experience it's kind of hard not to pick up on it, and I could tell he was guarded but I never thought he was lying… I don't know. I think there's more about this that we don't know. It's too early to start pinning this on anyone."

"…Yeah, you've got a point. Alright, I trust your judgement. If anyone's the expert on the tragedies of Freddy's, it's going to be you," Carlton admitted. He tiredly slumped back on the couch. "So… Are we still going?"

"I think so. I am, but you don't have to if it's going to put you in a bad position with your dad."

"Eh, doesn't matter. I'm already disappointing my folks not going into law. What's breaking and entering going to do? Except maybe get me a rap sheet."

"That would technically get you involved with law," Charlie lightly joked. He scoffed and she headed to the stairs to get her cellphone. "I'm just going to call the others and see if they're ready. It might be better to get this over just in case the cops do start looking into it themselves… Which I doubt." She couldn't help but mutter the last part under her breath. So far the cops hadn't connected the dots on any of the tragedies at Freddy's, so why would they start now?

By now Charlie was beginning to see the patterns and starting to understand that there were too many coincidences for it to just be random. Maybe that was why she had the dreams, because somehow she just knew there was going to be another disaster. That it had just been a coincidence that it had come true.

She really hoped that was the case, because if it wasn't then she could only dread what else she had seen that had been real.

The drive to Afton Robotics was awkward to say the least. Not just because they were all crammed into two cars, but because everyone kept talking about the fire. Charlie was having a little difficulty driving when Carlton was still actively bringing Lamar and Marla up to speed on what exactly happened that morning. They juggled their conspiracy theories amongst themselves, with Lamar being the voice of reason, Carlton reciting police terms he heard from his father, and Marla bouncing between both ideals.

"You're going to want to take a right up here." And Jessica being her co-pilot, watching the street signs and reading the directions to lead them there. Charlie appreciated it because she continuously drifted off into thought. She was sure she would've missed a road by now if she hadn't had the help, so she was glad that Jessica was going against her better judgement to be here.

Eventually they pulled up to a nondescript building just out of town. It looked like an unlabeled warehouse with an empty parking lot and a flimsy chain length fence blocking it from the outside world. There gate didn't block the entrance so Charlie drove right in with John's car following behind. They parked outside the front door which was held closed with a single, rusty chain and got out to look around.

"Doesn't look like anyone bought the place after it closed," Jessica said as she looked at the dismal state of the building. "Maybe because it's this far out of the way."

"Or maybe they didn't even try selling it. Maybe because of its connections to Freddy's they found it easier to leave everything and never look back," John said cryptically. Jessica nodded.

"Or maybe it's full of psycho animatronics with a taste for blood and the only thing holding them back is a couple of rickety doors and that chain," Carlton added in. This got a range of exhausted looks.

"Too soon, Carlton. You either say it when we're leaving or don't," John said flatly.

"Lighten up a little, you know there's nothing in there. I'm the one whose got to sleep in a house with Freddy Fazbear in the basement." Now Carlton got a new batch of much more befuddled looks. He partially rolled his eyes and clarified, "What, I didn't tell you? Dad's got a burned-up Freddy in the basement right now. I don't know if they ran out of room at the evidence locker or if he was just the only person stubborn enough to sleep in the same house with it."

"…Okay, I am never going back to your house again," Marla said. Then turned ahead towards the others. "Okay, so… What's the plan now? We didn't just come all this way to let that chain stop us, right?"

"It looks that way unless one of us brought bolt cutters," Charlie said. Which she knew that they didn't. John was her last hope but he made no offers to suggest he did. They would need another way in, but there weren't even any windows on the front side of the building. Maybe because she was thinking of the fire but she suddenly realized there would probably be a fire escape, a back door, one they might be able to use. "Let's go around back and see if there's another way in."

As they started to walk around the building, Jessica started to grow antsy. "We're not actually going to do anything illegal, right? I don't know about this breaking and entering thing…" she said as they walked alongside the building and through the dry grass that had grown up beside it.

"Technically if we don't actually break in it's just going to be trespassing, and considering there's nobody here probably nobody's going to know," Carlton pointed out. "And if they do it's a slap on the wrist."

"Why, think your dad will cover for us?" Lamar teased.

"More like, I think Dad's too busy playing with supersized teddy bears to care about what we're doing," he corrected. "…Now Mom? Maybe."

Charlie led the way and thus went around the corner first to look at the back of the building. There was another, smaller parking lot located back there, but that wasn't the only thing of interest. Nearly halfway down the length of the building she spotted the backdoor, and noticed it so easily because it was wide open. "Over there!" she said before breaking into a job.

"Keep an eye out for snakes! They love tall grass like this!" Marla blurted out after her. This didn't slow down Charlie, though did succeed in making Jessica grimace before she hurried along after her.

It didn't take long for Charlie to realize something was amiss. At first she thought the door was left open by sheer luck, but now she could see the damage on the frame, as though someone had viciously pried it open. From how the metal was dented in so deeply it looked like something more than what a simple crowbar would cause. She turned to Jessica who came up beside her.

"It looks like someone already broke in without us…" she said. Jessica looked over the door more closely as Charlie peered into the darkened hall inside. "It could have been Michael."

"If he needed somewhere to hide until things cooled off," John suggested as he stopped alongside them. He had a suspicious glint to his gaze as he looked at the scene then to Charlie. "He said something was going to happen to Freddy's. He could've started the fire himself and is hiding out in here." Carlton must've told him. Charlie looked towards the ground thoughtfully. "Think about it. That would explain why he didn't want you coming here. He knows the place is abandoned. All he had to do was pop the door open and let himself in."

"'Pop' is the understatement of the century. Whoever broke in here used way more force than that," Jessica interrupted. Still looking at the inside of the door, she beckoned them over and pointed out the hinges. "Look at all this. The door's barely holding on. Whoever opened this practically ripped it off its hinges."

"How would they do this?" Charlie asked in disbelief. She could see the damage that was being pointed out and from this angle it didn't seem possible from a tool alone.

"My best guess- and it is just a guess- is that maybe someone used their car and tried to pull the door open. Except…" Jessica reached around and felt the doorknob. It was wobbly. "Definitely loose… But if someone had tied a cable around this, it would've come off. It's almost coming off in my hands."

"So, not a car," John clarified.

"Maybe a car," Jessica said with a shrug.

This miniature mystery only made things seem more ominous. That and the looming hallway that hid whatever lay inside of the building. She could see where the floor tiles disappeared into the shadows and nothing more past that point.

Charlie took a deep breath and turned to the others. "Did anyone bring a flashlight?" she asked.

John jogged back to his car while the others tried to make due with what they had. Carlton had a small light on his keyring that would glow when squeezed. Jessica pulled a small toy that looked like a cat out of her purse that worked the same way. Even with what was going on, it got a playful smile from Charlie.

"That's cute," she said almost teasingly. Jessica pursed her lips in slight embarrassment.

"It's the closest I can get to owning a pet at my apartment," she excused, smiling a little when she saw that it raised up Charlie's spirits.

Thankfully, John did have a fully working flashlight in his car and was seemingly the only one truly prepared for what they were about to step into. Charlie was ready for one of them to warn about a last chance to back out, about how this was dangerous and that they needed to leave, but they didn't. Nobody said anything as she took a cautious step inside with John quickly squeezing in beside her.

So, she did. "You don't all have to come in with me. If anyone wants to wait out in the car they can," Charlie said.

"We've already come this far," John said reassuringly.

"Yeah, we've already taken a step inside. No turning back now," Carlton quipped. Though even then he didn't seem like he was wanting to turn back. The only one who truly looked reluctant was Jessica, but she followed closely on the other side of her.

Seeing that they weren't leaving and having given enough warning, Charlie turned her attention back to the inside of the building. Even the flashlight's light seemed to be dimmed once it reached inside.

"What was that about vampires and thresholds? Something about you having to invite them in or they can't get inside?" Charlie off-handedly remarked. Looking at the barren halls and feeling the cold chill, the building did resemble something where an undead ghoul might live. "So that, but reverse."

"But they didn't invite us in, so would that still count? I feel like there's a loophole there," Marla added. She looked around before shivering and giving a rather perky, "Wow, this place is already creeping me out."

The hallway ended with a sharp turn that led out into a lobby area. It wasn't where the front doors were, but there was a large industrial elevator and a directory mounted on the wall beside it. There were other doors too, one leading to restrooms and another to the stairwell, but the elevator clearly took precedent. John shined his flashlight over the list of floors and found many more than were expected.

"Looks like this place is a lot bigger than we thought. It just goes down instead of up," John said. He read over the levels with a frown. "If Michael's here then he's probably still above ground. Maybe up in the offices."

"Wait, we're not really looking for Michael, right?" Lamar bluntly asked. He shuffled up behind John and lowered his voice. "After what you were thinking, I don't think it's a good idea to try and hunt this guy down." John didn't answer but still looked to be considering it, and Lamar just sighed at what he perceived to be stubbornness.

Charlie was about to agree with John's assumption- not to track Michael but to search the offices for information- when the words 'Circus Baby' suddenly caught her eye. There was "Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental" listed on one of the floors. That had to be what was left of Circus Baby's; no wonder she hadn't been able to locate an address.

She contemplated the lead for a moment before speaking up. "I think we should go check out Circus Baby's. That was the sister location that suddenly shut down without warning. Maybe we'll find something there."

John nodded in agreement. "Sounds like a good start."

"But how do we even know if-," Jessica began and was cut off when Charlie reached out and tried the elevator button. A rumbling hum echoed through the building as the lift raised from the lower floors and stopped before them, its doors opening to reveal the large, empty space inside. "Oh.. Okay, never mind."

They started to enter inside when Marla suddenly spoke up. "Hey, wait a second. Shouldn't we be worried about this?" They looked to her and she pointed in a ring around the elevator door. "The power's on? If this place is closed, shouldn't it not have any power?"

"It might still be on the grid," Charlie offered. Then after a moment of thinking about it, she cautiously added, "…And someone might've turned it back on. Whoever came in before us."

"Well, I guess we can rule out vampires now," Marla said as she hesitantly stepped into the elevator as well. She rubbed her arms and scanned the inside of the elevator suspiciously. "Is anyone else starting to really get a bad vibe from this place?"

"The moment Freddy's caught on fire I had a bad vibe of this place," Carlton said. He put an arm around her back and pulled her closer. "Don't worry about it too much. It's just a creepy, old building. The worst thing that could be in here is maybe an arsonist, and I think we could take him out."

"Yeah. I'll hit him with my flashlight and the rest of you can take turns punching him to death," John said dryly. Charlie typed in the level into the keypad by the door and pressed the button above it. Instantly the doors closed and the elevator began to descend into the depths of the facility. He took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders. "Down the hatch."

The elevator ride lasted longer than expected and was eerily uncomfortable. The small windows stared out at the passing floors but were too blurry to really see through. Occasionally a trick of the light would cast shadows over them, but a second look would show there was nothing there. Just paranoia playing tricks on their minds. Finally the lift started to slow and with a final buzz the lights went out and the lift stopped.

With another press of the button, the doors opened to reveal something different than they expected. Sagging caution tape was stretched out in front of the doors, crisscrossed with warnings of 'danger', and underneath the tangle was what looked like an open vent shaft. Charlie's eyes locked onto it immediately and sent a chill down her spine.

"These can't be the same vents from my nightmares, can they? I can't even remember if they looked like this, but if I saw the fire and now I'm seeing vents… It has to be connected, right?" She cautiously stepped closer and leaned her head out through the caution tape to look around. She spotted a map of the level's layout on the wall where the directory had been before. "There's a map here."

"Great. Maybe we can keep from getting lost," Jessica said. She leaned out beside Charlie before handing over her cat light to her. "Hold this?" Then Jessica went into her purse and got out a pen and a crumpled-up receipt and drew a replica of the map, including listing the names of the rooms listed on the map. While she was doing so she noticed how narrow the passageway in front of the elevator was on it and furrowed her brows. Considering that there wasn't a hallway before the elevator, there was only one assumption.

"I think this is the vent," she said, tapping her pen on the passage in question. She turned to Charlie with a slight grimace. "Which means I think it wants us to climb through that… But we're not actually going to do that, of course. That would be silly."

"Unless this caution tape actually means something," Lamar reminded as he looked around into the darkness. Neither Charlie nor Jessica liked the sound of that. The former sighed and looked to the vent again.

She didn't want to go into that vent. She didn't want to come face to face with that rabbit… But she had no choice. It meant something, she knew it. She was meant to come down here.

"Please tell me you're not considering it," Jessica said as she noticed her friend's staring. The young woman gave a partial shrug. "What- Charlie!"

"I'll go first," John volunteered to stop the incoming debate. He kneeled down and shined his flashlight down through the vent. "Looks big enough to fit… Okay, whoever's coming stay close. Everyone else, wait in the elevator until we get back," he said. Then he crawled inside the vent, the soft thumping of his movement echoing back to them.

It was enough to snap Charlie out of her thoughts. She crouched down and followed him into the vent, crawling quickly after him, not leaving enough space between them for anything to appear.

They came out into what looked like a small control room. Large windows stared out into more blackness and before them sat two identical panels with two buttons on them, one with a tiny sun pattern and the other with a lightning bolt. Across from where they came in there was a large grate blocking a fan in the wall, and under it was a vent opening. Two more openings sat under the windows. A few black screens sat on the upper walls and ceiling, perhaps once used to monitor the building but now showed nothing.

It was deathly silent. The only sound was the banging from the others climbing through the vent behind them. John shined his light over one of the panels and Charlie looked at the patterns. The sun one looked like it could be the lights, so she pressed it. It released a hollow click and nothing else.

"The power's out down here… But we might be able to get it back on. There was a breaker room on the map. Chances are if the upstairs lights are working then the ones down here will too if we can turn them on," Charlie said. John nodded silently and they waited for the others. Something about it felt uncomfortable, like she was supposed to say something more, but she wasn't sure what. Maybe apologize for making him come here when all he had wanted was a normal date.

Thankfully, the rest of the group caught up and soon were crammed in the control module with them. John turned to Jessica and simply asked, "Which way's the breaker room?"

"It's… That way." She pointed off towards the left and through the window. "Through something caused the Ballora Gallery. Right there," she clarified, showing the map to Charlie.

"Then that's where we're heading first. We're not going to find anything if we don't get these lights on," Charlie said. She turned to the appropriate vent and knelt down, shining the small cat light through. At least it illuminated the tight space somewhat better. The vent was much shorter than the last one, thankfully, because elsewise she knew she would've had trouble forcing herself through.

"What is this place?" she could hear Marla whisper as she climbed inside. Even if she waited around to answer she wouldn't have been able to give one. This wasn't the robotics manufacturing facility that she had been expecting. It was just an empty, suffocating building, cleared out long ago.

Charlie stood inside of the gallery and felt suffocated. The light was too small to reach anywhere near the distant walls and only succeeded in illuminating herself, making her a target if there had been anything else down there. Though if the trip there had been any indication there wasn't anything left in here. She called back through the vent, "We're going to need the flashlight."

Squeak.

Charlie's head snapped over quickly as she stared at the far side of the room. She swore she heard something faint, like a tiny squeak of metal, but then nothing followed it. She wondered if she had misheard it, if she confused a noise that had come from the vent or control room. By time Jessica, Marla, and the others climbed through she decided it was nothing.

As they waited for everyone to come through, Marla rocked nervously on her heels. "Sooo…" she began, mostly directing the question to the other two girls. "What do you think they used to do here?"

"I don't know. It does seem weird that they had a room this open without any sign of machinery or anything," Charlie admitted. She tried to shine the cat light over the room to no avail. "Definitely doesn't look like a storage room… Jess, you said it was called the Ballerina Gallery?"

"Ballora Gallery, though don't ask me what's the difference," Jessica corrected.

Marla snapped her fingers and blurted out, "That must be the ballerina from the poster!" Charlie and Jessica looked to her in confusion. "…You didn't see it? It was hanging up inside the elevator."

"I didn't even notice. I sort of had a lot on my mind," Charlie admitted. Jessica seemed more interested in that than the ballerina and was prepped to ask when she was interrupted.

"Maybe that's what used to perform on that," Lamar announced. He and John were both looking towards the far right wall where the flashlight revealed an abandoned stage. "…I don't know why they'd have it performing all the way down here if it's a rental company, but alright. Maybe they tested it here before shipping it out."

"In a room this big? Talk about a waste of space," Marla said doubtfully.

"Well, if you look, there's some sort of track around the floor-." Almost as soon as Lamar said that, Carlton could be heard stumbling over something in the dark. "Yeah, that. Carlton found it."

"Thanks for the head's up before I broke my skull open," the redhead answered. He righted himself and made his way to the three women. John waved the flashlight along the walls and it fell on the far door, which Carlton spotted and pointed to. "Bingo. There's where we're heading," he announced. They continued across the Ballora Gallery a little quicker.

The Breaker Room was exactly what it said on the map. Just a small, basic breaker room overflowing with loose wires and set with a control panel to run the breakers themselves. Carlton and Charlie approached the panel together and started to look over it. He tapped on the screen to no response and she checked the wires connecting it, which was how she found a switch to boot it up.

Within seconds an image popped up on the screen showing a map of the facility along with a row of buttons with names on them and zero percentages. Carlton pressed the Breaker Room labelled one and it began to boot, raising slowly in percentage until it reached one hundred percent. Then there was a hum, a dull clicking from somewhere above, and then dim, flickering lights turned on in the room.

"Seems simple enough. I'm just going to go ahead and turn them all on," Carlton said. He moved back to the button at the top- which was labelled 'Circus Control'- and pressed it down. It began to slowly load up.

Though while he did this, Charlie crouched down to look closer at the map. The moment it came on she realized that it did not match the layout of the one beside the elevator. There were many more rooms, at least a dozen small ones dotted around the edges of the main layout.

"Look at this. None of these little rooms were on the map out front," Charlie said in disbelief. "Almost half of the floor was missing from the floorplan."

"Yeah, I noticed that. Looks like Mr. Afton had something to hide," Carlton muttered. They exchanged a wary look before he leaned in closer to read the list of names again. "Looks like they're 'observation rooms'."

"What would they need observation rooms for?" Marla asked quietly.

"Nothing good, I'll tell you that much," he replied. He frowned tighter as his eyes narrowed suspiciously. "If these aren't on the maps then I doubt any cops saw these rooms- if they ever even came down here."

"Animatronics," Charlie suddenly said. "I think the observation rooms might be to observe the animatronics. Especially if they were as prone to accidents as Freddy's led everyone to believe. By the end they were probably testing them extensively… Or they thought that Afton was." She slowly looked away as an eerie thought filled her mind. "…Or he used those rooms to practice."

She glanced at the map on the screen again and noticed an unlabeled room connected to the Ballora Gallery. One that looked like the other observation rooms. "There's only one way to find out."

Without another word and with a determined stride, Charlie headed back out of the breaker room and in the direction of the supposed room. Some of the lights had come on with the power, including the overhead lights of the control room they first passed through, but the gallery was still mostly dark. The tiny light didn't help much either, so she was thankful when Carlton caught up with his. It was just enough to work with. Marla followed along with them.

What they found wasn't exactly a door but a narrow hatch in the wall. Charlie tried it and after a sharp tug it popped open with a crunchy creak. She shined the light in to see a narrow passageway leading inside. It reminded her of the passages in her nightmares, but she still didn't think this was what she had seen. She still stepped inside cautiously and sidled through.

In the back of her mind she was expecting another control room considering that they had to crawl to get to the first one, but that wasn't what waited for her. What waited was a wooden door- the last thing she expected in a facility of metal and tile. She slowly opened it up and shined the tiny light inside. The room was just small enough that the light alone gave her a good idea what she was looking at. Though she could still barely believe it.

There was a short hallway that went nowhere. Four doors lined the walls but all it took was her leaning and looking in to realize that there was nothing inside of them, like four closets instead of passageways. This was strange enough without the actual details of the room, which raised more questions.

The hallway was designed like something that would be found inside of a typical family home, with pale wallpaper, blue carpet, and even a window at the end of the hall. Getting closer revealed that it was not actually a window but another set of screens that were styled like one, blackened out. There was also a chair at the end of the hall that looked like it came from a dining set. It was the only thing in the hallway.

Charlie was confused at what she was seeing and turned to Carlton who was still in the doorway. He peered into one of the doors and saw what she had, then got an uneasy look in his eyes, meeting hers.

"Still think they were observing animatronics?" he bluntly asked. He certainly wasn't and now that he brought it up neither was she. The room suddenly felt much more ominous.

"…I think we need to see what's in the other ones," Charlie quietly said. They left the hallway in a hurry.

The moment they were back in the Ballora Gallery, they were called by Jessica, who was standing by the hatch that led to the control room they first passed through. She was barely lit by the dull glow coming through the windows above her and was wearing a tight frown.

"Guys, we've got a problem over here." The three jogged over and she gestured to the opening. "I was trying to get back into the control room to see if I could get the overhead lights on and the vent's closed up."

"What?! How did that happen?!" Marla gasped. Charlie leaned down and looked into the vent only to find that Jessica was right. The vent had been covered on the other side, suspiciously like her nightmare. "Oh no, no. I don't have my phone and I didn't tell anyone where I was going. If we're actually stuck in here…" Marla quickly devolved into panic in seconds. Carlton turned her by the shoulders to face him.

"Easy, it's okay! We're not stuck in here. You saw all those rooms, there's bound to be another way out. Hell, we saw stairs before we got in the elevator. There's at least one other way out of here," he reassured her. She swallowed thickly and nodded slowly. "And trust me, even if we can't get out we'll get found. One of us had to have brought a phone." It was then that he looked past Marla's shoulder to see Jessica mouthing 'no service'. He paused a long moment before adding in, "Even if we didn't, Dad'll find us. He's probably already on his way."

Charlie exhaled slowly before pushing herself back out of the vent. "Don't worry about it, Marla. If the vent closed because we turned on the power then it'll open up when we shut it off again. We'll just look around here and turn off the breakers before we leave. We were probably going to do that anyway," she comforted with a smile. Unlike Carlton and Jessica, she was much more confident in what she was saying.

"Okay… Okay, right. Sorry about that," Marla said quietly. A blush settled on her cheeks. "I didn't mean to lose it there, I just- you know- it's like when you get locked out of your car. It's a mini-meltdown."

"No worries, Babe. You're good," Carlton assured. He held her close and she hugged him tightly long enough to calm back down. In the meantime Jessica turned to Charlie.

"John and Lamar are over there looking for another door," she explained, waving back towards the stage. "Did you guys find anything?"

"…Well, we found something."

"There's a door back here!" John suddenly called. All four looked over to see his light shining over a door hidden in the corner. He tried the handle and it opened easily. "It's unlocked!"

"Thank goodness!" Jessica said under her breath before leading the way over. She totally forgot about her own question and, for the moment, Charlie was glad she did.

John and Lamar led the way through the door, down a slender hall, and then out into another large room like the Ballora Gallery. Except this room was styled differently. There were more things in it; posters on the wall, large prize boxes in the corner, and storage containers littered around the room. It looked like nobody had been here for some time.

"This is… The Circus Gallery," Jessica said after glancing at the map. "…It's not really circus themed, is it?" John scoffed and shined his light over the room, then turned to address the others. He was stopped before he could by a hand grabbing his wrist.

"Wait," Lamar warned. He aimed the flashlight back towards the opposite wall and the glimpse of red he had seen. "There's something standing over there…" The beam of light fell onto a large figure slumped stiffly in the far corner. It was a stark sight against the mostly empty room, a red and white statue against the grey walls. "It's a clown?"

"It's a huge clown!" Marla exclaimed.

Charlie recognized the animatronic right away from its coloring to its pigtails and tutu shaped skirt. "That's Circus Baby," she said.

"Why's she so big?! That had to scare kids!" The others seemed to agree with this sentiment for the most part and even Charlie was a little surprised by Baby's size. Even sitting she could tell it would've stood taller than her. The group walked over to get a closer look.

From this angle, Charlie's small light shined across the clown's face and revealed that it was missing its eyes. She winced inwardly. "Did they take out her eyes or did someone steal them?... Wait."

She looked closer and realized there weren't any sockets inside either. Its facial plates were slightly parted which spurred Charlie to reach out and touch them. She gently pulled back half of the mouth and aimed the light inside only to find nothing but empty space. "She's missing more than that. They took her endoskeleton out."

"What's that, just the stuff inside?" Carlton asked.

"Pretty much. It's just like it sounds, it's the skeleton. Usually they have those plush suits on them, but I guess in this case they had these plates instead," Charlie explained. She knocked over the chest plates and noticed how heavy the suit had to be. "It couldn't have been like the endoskeletons Dad used to use. They were way too flimsy to move something like this…"

She could only remember seeing one endoskeleton in her father's workshop years ago and it had been thin enough that a strong breeze could've knocked it over. Something stronger would've been needed in this case. Perhaps that was why they found the endoskeleton more important to take than the shell surrounding it. She wondered if it had been repurposed for one of the animatronics at the new Freddy's.

Finally Charlie pulled back from Circus Baby. It was strange to find it in such a state, but they had to keep moving. She turned around and faced the wall where the next set of observation rooms would've been.

"There should be a door or hatch somewhere on that wall," Charlie said. At this, John shined the light over the wall before spotting and stopping at a narrow maintenance door like the one in the Ballora Gallery. "There, that's it. Let's go." She led the way over to it with a determined stride, eager to see what else the observation rooms were hiding.

Lamar had been following at the back when heard a noise from somewhere behind him. He turned around and looked to where he heard it. He could just make out the windows of another control room, but he couldn't see anything inside. Unsurprising considering he was trying to see without a direct light. "Did anyone else hear that?"

"What?" Marla asked as she looked back with him. He hesitated before deciding it was probably just the air vents or something settling now that the power was on. He shook his head.

"Never mind. It's nothing. I guess this place is just creeping me out," Lamar dismissed. He then followed with the others and Marla shrugged it off just as easily. They had more important things to dwell on.

Such as what was waiting on the other side of the passageway. Just like the one that led to the hallway, it was a tight, narrow space that led to another hatch. It was cold on her hands as she gave a firm push and sent it swinging open. The flashlight's beam passed around her and fell into the following room, illuminating it enough that she could see what it hid and it was the last thing she would've ever expected.

It was an exact replica of the old diner. From the tiled floors to the colorful walls, to the posters billing Fredbear instead of Freddy Fazbear. Charlie saw it and felt an immediate sinking feeling.

There was a terrible secret waiting down here and she was about to find out what it was.

Mable: Next chapter should be ready a bit faster than this one way. They've finally reached the turning point, but will they be ready for what's waiting for them…? Perhaps not.