Mable: Here we are yet again! Enjoy!

The Butcher's Traps

Chapter 4: Scratches

It had been a long night without much sleep. Charlie spent most of it readjusting in bed and trying to get comfortable without much success. This didn't change her plans and as soon as morning came, she got up and slipped out the front door before her aunt could awaken. She drove away under a sun that hadn't even finished rising.

There was enough time before any of her classes to slip into the restroom, change her clothes, and brush her teeth. She had gotten herself somewhat presentable but looking in the mirror she still thought she looked more like a zombie than a person. She was already starting to get dark rings from only two nights of disrupted sleep. There wasn't much she could do to hide it and splashed some water on her face to rouse herself.

Then she went to class like usual. At first it seemed to go alright. She was groggy, but she was able to focus enough to get through. She talked to her professor afterwards to explain the situation- the short version where she was relocated out of a damaged house- and was relieved to find that she hadn't missed much. Apparently very few students came in the day before, so she had gotten lucky on that account.

By the second class however, Charlie's mind was starting to wander. It wasn't just because she was tired either. The many events of the day before were starting to pile on and distract her. She kept worrying about the house and playing out scenarios of what was going to happen next or how she could continue to hide Sammy once they lost it. She didn't even know where she was going to go tonight, let alone from now on.

Her lack of interest in class must've been noticed- that, or she looked worse than she thought- because after her second class Arty caught up to her.

"Hey, how's it going?" he asked kindly. She recognized the worry in his tone and wondered how obvious it was that she was distracted. "Everything good?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired. Long night," Charlie excused. "…Why?"

"You just looked a little out of it in class. Makes sense though," he said. He walked alongside her as she shuffled down the hall. "I uh, I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but I heard you telling Dickerson about your house earlier. Sorry to hear that. How bad is it?"

"Not… Too bad. Nothing that can't be fixed. It's more the structure around it that's crumbling," she said. She hoped it was vague enough to not pick up the double meaning. "I'm more worried about how my brother's going to take it if we have to move."

"I didn't know you had a brother." Only then did Charlie notice her mistake. She became nervous quickly, wondering if Arty knew about her history. All he would have to do was a little research and he would know that she wasn't supposed to have a brother, and then he would ask questions. Before she could spiral further, Arty continued, "I'm sure you can get it fixed. Foundation repair's a thing for a reason."

Charlie instantly relaxed as she realized he knew nothing about Sammy. She was just being paranoid, which would probably only grow worse if she continued to fumble her words. She decided to slip out of the conversation as easily as she could.

"That's the plan. Sorry to cut this short but I've got to get going. I have to get some work done before lunch," Charlie said. Arty seemed a little disappointed for a second, but then he almost got a look of realization.

"Oh… Right, yeah. Lunch. Maybe we'll catch up later?" Arty asked. Charlie agreed, but then he seemed to get a strange smile. A little goofier, almost like that look he used to get when she would agree to help him with a project except this time she didn't know where it came from. "Tell Jessie I said hi?"

"Sure thing." They then split up from each other and she continued down the hall. "'Jessie'? Huh..." She hadn't talked to her at all yesterday and with all this piling on, she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to stand going to lunch. She really didn't want to have to talk about what happened yet. "I should call Jess. I'll just tell her I can't make it. She'll understand."

Deciding to forgo the rest of the day, Charlie headed outside and called Jessica. Her friend answered rather quickly, luckily still being in between classes of her own.

"Hey, Charlie!" she greeted chirpily. "How are things going?"

"They're going," Charlie lightly joked. She tried to cover up how tired she sounded because she knew the blond would notice. "Actually, I was calling to say that I think I'm going to have to skip lunch today. I had a rough night's sleep and I'm just going to drive by and see Sammy, see how things are with him. Sorry about this."

"Wait, you're here at the university? I thought you were going to at least take a few days off while this whole… Thing sorted out," Jessica said in surprise. The worry was just itching to come out. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, just me pushing my luck again. Nothing new. I'll talk to you later?"

"Uh… Sure! Call me back!" Jessica said uncertainly. Almost like she knew Charlie had been promising everyone she would call them back or see them later. Or maybe she just noticed how quickly she tried to get off the phone. Either way, she let the call end and with everything there finished, Charlie got in her car and drove to Mike's apartment.

Mike looked even more sleep deprived than usual when he answered the door, but he was dressed in a security guard uniform like he was preparing to go to work. "Hey there, Charlie. Come on in," Mike greeted as he let her in and shut the door behind her. "How's it going?"

The same question that Jessica asked her, but this time she gave a better answer. "Alright. Had a rough night's sleep."

"I can relate. I woke up at six with a crick in my neck and mime on my chest. Just barely skirted suffocation," Mike said matter-of-factly. She only had a second to process what that meant before Sammy came out of hiding and rushed to greet her with an excited trill. They exchanged a tight hug.

"I missed you last night, Sammy. It felt weird not having you nearby," Charlie said. Sammy squeezed her a little tighter than usual. Almost like he was bothered by something but considering that there seemed to be no hesitation around Mike she didn't think it had anything to do with him. Maybe he was just homesick too.

It was Mike who broke the moment with an unfortunately timed, "How'd things go with your aunt?"

"…Actually, that's kind of what I need to talk about…" Charlie revealed as she slowly drew back from the embrace. "I didn't talk with Aunt Jen before I left, but last night we got in a huge fight. I don't know what happened. One minute I'm trying to convince her to let me help pay for the house, the next I'm threatening to leave town and… It just all fell apart. The whole thing."

While Sammy was disappointed to hear it, it was Charlie who was clearly the more devastated of the two. Especially when she admitted, "I think we're going to lose the house. I don't know what to do…"

Taking his sister by the wrist, Sammy coaxed her to the couch and she sat down, head in hands, as he snatched up his drawing pad and began to write a message. In the middle of it he stopped, erased it, and began again. Then he did it again, obviously struggling with the words. He looked down at his distressed sibling sympathetically and finally found what he wanted to say.

He tapped her shoulder and handed her the pad. Charlie took it and read what it said: "We will still have each other even if we lose the house. I love you, Charlie."

"I love you too, Sammy. You're right, we'll figure something out," she agreed with an honest but somewhat sad smile. "I just wish there was more I could do."

"Quit blaming yourself. You literally fought for that house, there's just some people you can't convince," Mike said as he headed into the kitchen. "You want something to drink? I've got soda, Snapple, and coffee."

"No thank you. I'm not going to be here long," Charlie assured.

"You can stick around if you want. My shift starts in three quarters of an hour, so I'll be out of here," he offered. He came back with a can of soda and cracked it open. "I won't be back until after dark. Might save him the panic of being here alone," he said, gesturing to Sammy before taking a drink.

It was a tempting offer to hide away from her problems here, but Charlie wasn't sure how comfortable she was about effectively bumming at his house. It was weird enough asking him to watch her animatronic brother. Said brother, however, immediately jumped at the idea and smiled eagerly at her. He chimed happily, patted her on the back, and said without words, "That's a great idea! Stay with me!"

"Well… Alright, but just until you get home. Maybe in the meantime I'll go back to the house and get Ella so I can work on her. I could use a distraction," Charlie said. Sammy gave an eager chime and Mike raised his brows with concern. She got a slight tinge of an amused smile. "Don't worry, she's just a toy. A project I'm working on for school."

"That's a shame. I could've used an extra fifty bucks," Mike said.

"You can still cuddle her if you want."

Mike stopped mid-drink and slowly lowered his can with an unenthused look. "I don't know what you're getting at, but it was his arm wrapped around my neck last night. As far as I know, he had me in a choke hold," he clarified. Charlie didn't seem to mean anything by it beyond teasing, but Sammy's smile- which somehow looked wider than before- was enough to drive Mike back into the kitchen.

Charlie gave a weary exhale and continued, "I guess I'll go check on the house and get Ella. Is there anything else I should grab while I'm there?" Sammy raised his hands, each raising a finger up like bunny ears. "Theodore?" He nodded, she smiled. "Can do. I'll be back before Mike leaves."

A little later, Charlie left the apartment and drove back to the house. She wasn't sure what she was expecting to find, but she unlocked the door, let herself in, and found that it was in virtually the same condition now as it was the day before. It was unsurprising, but also a relief, half-expecting someone to loot it since most of the windows were open. That was probably why the house felt so cold.

She got a quick look around the house and found everything where she left it, even down to the askew couch cushions and dust bin full of swept glass that had yet to be thrown out. It was all very depressing and Charlie found herself returning to the basement and looking at the damage again. It looked the same as the day before, no change.

Except for one very subtle thing. There was a weird smell coming from the basement. It smelled earthen, like a clump of dirt scooped straight out of the earth, except with a foul tinge on it. She got out her flashlight and shined it down into the basement but saw nothing down there. She remembered there was a ladder behind the house but wasn't interested in the smell enough to go get it.

If anything, the smell could've been coming from outside, or there was an open hole in the basement where mud had slid in. It didn't smell strong enough to be worrying and thus she continued to the stairs.

It was only once she was halfway up the creaking stairs that she heard a familiar noise. That scratching sound from before had returned, the one that was clearly something scraping on wood. Except that this time it almost sounded like it was coming from underneath her. There was no access under the stairs though and the basement wouldn't have reached this far. She continued upstairs and continued to hear the noise.

"That has to be the tree scratching on a wall or the roof. That's what it sounds like… But why is it coming from so low? Is the noise just echoing into the basement and giving the illusion that it's down there? That has to be it." Even the most rational explanation sounded like a stretch. "I'm going to creep myself out. It's been days, if there was anything that got in during the storm it would be gone by now."

With that in mind, she went into her bedroom and began to collect things. She had emptied her bag out in the car so she had more than enough room to fit Theodore, a few more changes of clothes, and her smaller tool kit- if she was able to get it out of the garage, she realized with dismay. Ella was too big to fit in the bag so she planned on carrying her down to the car.

She had just hoisted the doll into her arms, its cold head pressed against her shoulder, when she heard a loud noise that sounded like it came from directly beneath her. One she hadn't expected.

Jessica was more than a little concerned about Charlie's brief phone call. She knew about the damage done to the house as they had talked the morning after it occurred. She assumed the silence afterwards was just because Charlie had her hands full and gave her space, but that call had given Jessica cause for concern. It was just the way Charlie said nothing about what was going on, like she was trying to hide it.

Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Jessica left school early too. Instead of going to Charlie's house right away she went to see if she could get some answers from a familiar source.

"Hey Jess! I didn't expect to see you here so early. Come on in!" Marla chirped as she let her friend inside.

It was a typical afternoon at her house. Her parents weren't home yet but the sound of the television signaled that she wasn't alone. Stepping into the living room, Jessica found Lamar and Jason sitting on the floor in front of the television playing a video game together. Jessica wasn't surprised to see Jason at home, guessing that his school was still closed due to tornado damage. She could only assume Lamar was hiding out here.

"Hey guys," Jessica greeted with a wave. Lamar waved back while Jason's eyes stayed glued to the screen. Marla noticed this and pursed her lips.

"Lamar's helping Jason with his homework," she told Jessica. Or that was Lamar's cover story to explain him being here. Jessica wouldn't fault him for that, he deserved a break now and then. "So, what's up? I thought your classes ran later than this."

"They do, I just left early… Have you heard from Charlie recently?" Jessica asked with concern.

"Not today, but Carlton and I swung by her house yesterday to see what's left of it. Have you seen it?" The grimace Jessica got at 'what's left of it' gave her 'no' away before she said it.

"Not yet, I got caught up. How bad is it?"

"Not super bad. Like, bad, but not devastatingly bad," Marla tried to explain. She fumbled around with words to explain it before clarifying, "The garage is pretty much destroyed but that's pretty much it."

"And right after she gets everything settled," Jessica said sympathetically, brows furrowed with guilt at not being there. "I got a call from her earlier but something seemed off. I didn't get a chance to ask her what's wrong, but I'm sure it's probably that."

"She was supposed to talk to her aunt about the house, so that could be it too," Marla said. The other nodded in agreement and she turned towards the two at the television. "Hey Lamar, have you talked with Charlie or John since yesterday?"

"Nope. I spent all yesterday with no phone, wrist deep in community service to help the rebuilding efforts," he said. He turned to the two to clarify, "My parents think it'll look great on my transcripts."

"Always the good Samaritans! My parents are the same way," Marla joked lightly. She looked back to see that the blond beside her was lost in thought and looking concerned. "Well, if you're that worried then why don't you go see her and see how she's doing?

"I might. She said she was going to go check on Sammy… But I don't want to drop in on her without calling."

"I don't know about that. Normally I wouldn't either, but you know how dodgy Charlie gets when something's bothering her. This might be the only way to catch her and see what's up." Marla had a point, and she supposed it wouldn't be as bad if she didn't let herself in. "Might be for the best with whatever's going on with the animals in town."

"You heard about that? That was brutal," Lamar chimed up. "Carlton said they found a leg out in the park."

"Cool," Jason said.

"No, not cool! Lamar, don't say that around him!" Marla lightly scolded. She put her hands on her hips. "Besides, Carlton told me that too. I think it was a joke. An animal would've eaten a leg."

Feeling a lot more uncomfortable, Jessica started heading back for the door. "I'm going to Charlie's!" she called as she headed out. A chorus of voices called farewells after her and she shut the door and got in her car.

Jessica pulled up into the driveway of Charlie's house and found her car waiting parked outside. She glanced inside as she passed and hesitated, noticing some folded clothes and things in the back, almost like she had been packing. A little more concerned, she jogged up the steps to find the front door left open. She restrained herself from walking in and instead leaned in and looked around, then called out.

"Charlie?"

Charlie was so on edge that jumped at the voice calling from the beneath her and almost fumbled Ella. It was only Jessica; she was worked up over nothing.

"I'm here! Hold on and I'll come down," she called back. She carried the doll out of the room, down the stairs, and found Jessica still waiting at the front door. "Sorry, I was up in my room. What are you doing here?"

"Oh, you know. Just dropping in for a surprise visit," Jessica said with a smile. Charlie's quirked brow showed she didn't buy the excuse. "…Okay, so I wanted to come see what was up. You don't usually skip lunch unless you're busy with something." She left out the part about not calling and glanced at Ella. "Oh hey, your old doll! You're not getting rid of her, are you?"

"No, no. She's part of my project for school. I wanted to come get her so that I'd have something to work on," Charlie explained. "You're lucky you caught me before I left. I was just getting a few things."

"You're staying with Jen?" Charlie got a strained smile.

"No, we had a falling out. I'm not sure where I'm going to be staying yet… You can come in if you want, see the damage. I have to get some tools out of there anyway," Charlie said as she set Ella down beside the door. Jessica let herself in and pushed closed to a crack behind her. "Its been a long couple of days."

"I'd say. How's Sammy taking all of this?"

"Better than I expected. You remember Schmidt from the pizzeria? Schmidt's letting him stay at his apartment, which seems to be working out so far," Charlie said. She beckoned Jessica back to the garage. "I guess I could always spend the night here. I have a lock on my bedroom door but I doubt anyone would try to break in."

"I don't think you should risk it. You could always stay with me. Or maybe we could talk to someone at the university about temporary housing, I'm sure they must… Have it. Wow." The blond watched the door open and saw the amount of damage inside. She whistled at the sight. "So… Not pretty."

"If you think it looks bad now, wait until it rains again and knocks whatever's loose into the tree down into the house," Charlie partially joked and slightly lamented. Then she turned her gaze to the other side of the hole where the workbench and counters were, along with Charlie's preferred toolbox that was lying out on top of the latter.

She looked down towards the floor and sized up what she had to work with. The hole stretched to about two away from the wall, and only half of that seemed secure while the rest was caving downwards. Those few inches of floor that stood straight looked firmly in place. Holding onto the door, she reached out with her boot and pressed down on it. The front bowed in, the back did not.

She applied more pressure and didn't hear or feel anything shift. Charlie pressed her back to the wall and began to carefully inch out. It felt like it was going to hold her weight, the only issue would be that she didn't lose her balance and fall in, or that's what she hoped. Coincidentally, that was also when Jessica noticed her.

"What are you doing?!" she gasped.

"It's okay. It feels steady," Charlie assured calmly. She continued sidling across, keeping her boots as close to the wall as she could. "It looks a lot worse than it is."

"Is it? Because it looks like you're walking over a giant hole that leads into-!... Wait, is that a basement? You have a basement?"

"Yeah, it's news to me too." She focused on her steps as she inched further across the gap while her friend watched from the side with bated breath. As much as Charlie didn't want to look down, her eyes constantly darted down to check where she was walking and make sure she wasn't stepping too far out. Finally, she slid onto the section of secure flooring and Jessica breathed a sigh of relief.

Charlie went right to the counter and grabbed a few more tools to put into the toolbox, along with a spare battery pack which she fit into her jacket pocket. Once she thought she had enough- at least, what she could carry for now- she made her way back to the wall and began the process of inching back over. She went just as slow as the first time and handed the toolbox off to Jessica as soon as she could.

It was funny, she had heard all that scratching while upstairs, but now, inching over this open hole into the basement, it was completely silent. The smell didn't seem as noticeable either.

Charlie stepped off from the edge and back onto solid ground. She flashed Jessica a confident smile as she took her toolbox back. "See? You don't have to worry about me that much."

Jessica huffed a little. "Hey, I wouldn't be worrying so much if there wasn't a massive hole in your floor and rabid pack of bears eating people. Especially now that you've got an open skylight."

The comment was peculiar enough to stop Charlie in the hallway. She blinked for a moment before looking back at her friend with confusion. "…What are you talking about?" she asked. Jessica got an uneasy look.

"I guess you haven't heard. Two women got mauled by wild animals. I don't know if it was the storm that set them off or if they were starving, but they found one of the bodies over at the park and she was practically eviscerated! They thought it was some sort of bizarre ritual killing or serial killer before they noticed the bite marks," she explained. Just talking about it made her shiver. "I didn't even think there were many bears around here, but there's no way a pack of dogs could've done that."

"That's… Really disturbing… Now I'm starting to see why you might've gotten worried," Charlie admitted. She thought about the scratching noises again and even though she thought they were unrelated, she decided it was time to leave.

Charlie picked up Ella before shutting and locking the front door behind her. Jessica lugged the toolbox to the car while she sent one last longing look up at the house before following. She laid the doll in the backseat and double checked everything to make sure she had gotten what she needed.

"Where are you heading now?" Jessica asked, leaning against the car. "I'm guessing not back to school."

"Back to Mike's. I told Sammy I was going to come back and spend some time with him after I got Ella."

"How about I come with you? I can help you carry your stuff in, and it'll give us some time to hang out," Jessica offered. Charlie considered it and decided that it was the least they could do to make up for her cancelling on her so abruptly. Besides, Jessica always did have a way to ease the mood, so she agreed.

They drove to Mike's apartment where she found his car missing. He must've already left for work, which made her feel a little awkward about bringing Jessica over without him being here, but she wouldn't be there long. Jessica carried the toolbox again; Charlie offered to switch it for Ella but she didn't want to risk dropping and breaking the doll.

At least if the heavy box fell, the only thing she would risk breaking would be her toes. Jessica's words, not Charlie's.

Charlie knocked on the front door and called through, "Sammy, I'm here!" Almost instantly she heard the click of the lock and the door started to swing open. "Jessica's out here," she quickly added. The door stopped abruptly where it was, open enough to let Charlie in. "I'll be right back," she said before stepping inside. She handed the doll off to the Puppet with a simple, "Well, here she is."

Sammy took Ella with a delighted chime and Jessica heard it through the open door. It was the first time she had ever heard his ringing, recognizing it from Charlie's recounting.

"The house is about the same as when we left. Nothing new to report. How long ago did Mike leave?" Charlie asked. Sammy raised his hand and pointed up with a finger, then moved it in ticking motions, counterclockwise, twice; ten minutes ago. "So much for getting back before he left."

The toolbox was starting to get heavy. "Here," Jessica said as she handed it into the doorway.

"Sorry. Thanks." Charlie turned and took it from her.

It was unclear which of them bumped the door. It could've been Jessica's elbow as she passed the toolbox off or it could've been the box itself as Charlie brought it inside. Something bumped the door enough to push it open further and before Sammy could move back Jessica raised her eyes and saw him. Both were equally startled to see one another.

"Oh!" Jessica cried. Sammy made a sharp noise and vanished a second afterwards, disappearing right before her eyes. Charlie looked back a second too late with clenched teeth as she realized what happened. The only hint that he was somewhere nearby was the dull static she could still hear.

"…So, uh… That was Sammy," Charlie said awkwardly. "Well, that was bound to happen eventually."

"I'm so sorry, Sammy!" Jessica called after him regretfully. She was more mortified by what she had done than seeing the animatronic. "I didn't see much of anything really!" She could hear the static but only Charlie could recognize the more annoyed tinge it took. The blond looked to her friend with remorse, "I really didn't mean for that to happen."

"He'll be fine, Jess. Don't stress yourself out," Charlie assured her. He sounded frustrated, but he would be fine in the long run. "It was my fault anyway. I'm the one who swung the door open."

"No, I think I hit it. There goes my chance of ever getting to see your brother," Jessica sighed. She waited a moment before turning back and quietly adding, "He's not as scary as I was imagining. I should've known Carlton would over-exaggerate." Charlie gave a half-laugh and Jessica smiled a little. Somewhere in the apartment, the static almost reluctantly faded away.

Sammy knew that Charlie must've been exhausted. She had looked tired that entire afternoon but to fall asleep on the couch was out of character for her. He covered her with the throw blanket, taking care not to wake her, and shut off all the lights. The only thing left on being the muted television that cast little more than a dull glow over the room once the sun went down.

To say he was worried about her was an understatement. He could tell beyond her assurances that this whole ordeal was taking a toll on her, and he hated that there wasn't anything he could do to alleviate her burden. All he could do was let her sleep and make sure she got rest. It was a hard pill to swallow that he was virtually useless in this situation.

This wasn't an entirely foreign feeling to Sammy. Throughout his life he danced in between being helpless, being powerful, or being outright restrained into submission. He had long gotten over the fact that he could never be a human again, but in moments like this, where he knew Charlie needed help that he couldn't give, it bothered him. He wanted to be able to do more than this.

Sammy was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of a car pulling up outside. He knew it had to be Mike with how late it was and wondered how he would react to Charlie still being there. Or if he would come in loud and woke her up in the process. If she woke now, she would probably return to the house alone and Sammy didn't want that. If he had a breath, he would be holding it.

Thankfully, Mike let himself in without making much noise and noticed Charlie before he could say anything. He seemed a little surprised to see her there and looked to Sammy. The Puppet flashed his constant smile and shrugged, and that seemed to be enough for the man who just headed into the kitchen. He was carrying a brown paper bag that piqued Sammy's curiosity enough to follow him.

Mike pulled a few boxes of takeout out of the paper bag and lined them up on the counter before throwing the bag under the sink. Sammy came up beside him and watched him open and check inside of each box, then setting the one aside that he was preparing to eat. The man tapped on the remaining boxes.

"Kung Pao, Lo Mein. When Charlie wakes up, tell her she's welcome to whichever," Mike said quietly. He put them in the fridge the same way they had been on the counter. He grabbed the remaining carton and a packet of chopstick before heading to the small dining room table. "And make sure she doesn't take off before morning. I don't want her running around in the dark."

Mike sat down at the dining room table. Normally he would've eaten in front of the television, but he didn't want to risk sneaking around in the dark. He had only taken a bite of the spicy chicken when he noticed Sammy circle the table and slowly pull the chair out. He then spun into it, landing in the chair and propped his head up with one arm, grinning across the table and looking for a reaction.

All Mike gave him was a raised brow before continuing to chew through a rubbery but flavorful piece of chicken. Sammy continued to watch him, as he usually did, but he wasn't afraid of the puppet's behavior anymore. Or he wasn't until he briefly looked down, looked back up, and noticed that something had changed in the process, his mask.

Sammy's eyes were narrowed more than usual and his smiled seemed to be a little thinner, with one side raised a little higher. The look didn't resemble anger, more so something like amusement, like a smirk.

The fact that what was clearly porcelain had moved on its own to form a different expression was just uncanny enough to remind Mike why he was originally unsettled by him. He swallowed his mouthful and said relatively coolly, "It's not easy to eat with you giving me that look."

Then something peculiar happened. The eyes widened- as Mike was watching- and the smile slipped a bit. It almost looked like surprise. It was then that Mike realized that Sammy didn't know he was doing it. He shot him a smirk of his own.

"Real cute, Stripes," he said patronizingly. Almost instantly, Sammy's mask reset to that empty smile that he usually had and the fun was over. Mike decided not to lapse back into silence. Feeling a little more confident, he changed the direction of the one-sided conversation. "Charlie doesn't strike me as the type to sleep on someone else's couch. How long's she been out?"

The Puppet raised his propping hand, pointed a finger up, and then made a couple of clockwise circles. Trying to do the same signaling to him that he did with Charlie. Mike, of course, had no context to this and watched as Sammy made circles in front of him.

"…No clue. Got it," Mike said. Sammy wished he could show him his lack of amusement, but he wouldn't lose control of his mask twice. "I know what it's like to get stuck sleeping on someone else's couch. Doesn't matter who they are or how nice they are about it, there's always this feeling like you're not supposed to be there."

Sammy tilted his head questioningly and Mike's gaze dropped to his food as he stirred it absentmindedly.

"Let's just say that I was barely scraping by even before I worked at Freddy's. During too, but at least then I had a steady job. When I first moved here, I was living out of my car- you get the picture." He was almost embarrassed spilling his troubles to an animatronic, but least this one wasn't trying to put a hook through his throat. "The point being, she's in a tough spot. So, let her know she can stay as long as she needs. Okay?"

Sammy was relieved to hear it and nodded with a chime. That would certainly make things easier. The only challenge now would be to convince her to stay, but he was sure he could convince her.

"…But if that baby doll out there starts moving on its own, I am going to need another fifty bucks."

Things after that were quiet. Mike finished eating and went back out into the living room for a few minutes to sit in the armchair and watch the muted TV. The fact that the volume was off wasn't even what eventually drove him to bed, but the fact that there was nothing on. Once he headed to his room, Sammy took his spot, curled up tightly in the chair and using his jacket as a blanket- it wasn't like he would notice.

Sammy expected to wake up when Charlie did, so he was confused when he roused around five in the morning for no apparent reason. All at once he was hit by an invasive sensation so obvious that he instantly went on guard. He recognized this feeling; it was almost the exact same thing he felt before the first time he encountered L.E.F.T.E.

The Puppet climbed to the floor and looked around in a blind panic trying to identify the source of that pulsing agitation. He fought to keep himself quiet as he listened in carefully. It had to be nearby.

Then he heard a dull thump.

He suddenly affixed his focus through the kitchen and towards the back door. There was something out in the backyard. The Puppet rose from the floor and floated to the kitchen doorway, then climbed up it and crawled onto the ceiling upside down. He was already bracing himself to attack with his limbs bent and his eyes alight, but he stayed completely silent as he listened and observed.

The thing was so close to the back door that he could hear it brushing against it. It sounded massive from how much of it slid across the wood. Then there was a scraping noise on the window beside the door as numerous, sharp points dragged upwards along it. The blinds blocked even a glimpse of whatever was feeling over the window and testing the glass. Sammy started to climb around the light fixture to get closer, trying to get an angle that would allow him to see through.

A loud clatter stopped him in his tracks and his head snapped to the left and the far wall. He recognized the noise as a garbage can being knocked over. What followed was loud crunching as garbage was flattened under the heavy weight of a second creature. The first could still be heard scraping and tapping at the window. There was more than one of them.

And one of them was walking along the side of the apartment towards the living room wall. Sammy crawled back out and perched himself in the near center of the living room ceiling. Like a large, dark spider waiting on its web, even if that probing feeling inside his head made him feel more like a trapped fly. As he waited there, the same distance from the covered window as Charlie and the couch, he heard more just outside.

There were heavy footsteps out in the dirt that signaled a third of these creatures waiting outside the walls. A large shadow was cast over the window from something standing in between it and the streetlight. It was so close and yet just like before he couldn't see it, just feel it, hear it, and know it was there.

The curtains that had kept him safe now blinded him to the danger. He couldn't will himself to open them; he just knew that he couldn't let them see him.

Sammy couldn't move to wake up Charlie either. He couldn't let his guard down for even a moment; he could only stay there and wait for whatever was going to come, prepared to fight with everything he had. He listened to the footsteps and scratches against the walls, and then unidentifiable noises that sounded like shuffling or rustling.

It went on for twenty long minutes before the noises abruptly died down. The shadows disappeared from the window, the footsteps died into rustling and then silence, and that feeling he woke with too grew fainter before suddenly disappearing entirely. By five-thirty, the house had gone silent and neither Charlie nor Mike had awoken from it.

Sammy went through every room in the house to listen for any sign of the creatures and found nothing. Whatever they were, they were gone, but he felt no safer. He barely managed to calm down enough to shift out of his defensive mode and climb down from the roof. Eventually he sat down on the armchair again, but this time he stayed wide awake and upright, continuing to stay on guard in case they returned.

He felt a kid again. A kid hiding in their room and waiting desperately for morning to come scare away the monsters right outside the door.