Ruby was walking down a hallway. A long, long hallway. It was dark too. And wet. She was knee-deep in gross slimy green water. She could barely see her own hand in front of her face. The walls were gray concrete, the floor was gray concrete, and the ceiling was, you guessed it, gray concrete. A very boring colour scheme. The owners seriously had zero taste.

Her footsteps echoed around her. Sloshy footsteps, from wading. She'd been walking for around ten minutes now.

And then suddenly, there was a door in front of her. Part of it was underwater, but the rest was visible. Ruby tried the handle. Hmm. Locked. So she used the skeleton key known as her foot. Huh, it worked!

The room was empty of water, so the torrent flowed in. Ruby ran to stand on a nearby stool that peeked out from above the water.

"Ew, ew, ew, ew." The water was all goopy and mucky and weird. Gross.

Ruby took a look around the place. Despite having no memories of it, it looked...oddly familiar. Nostalgic, almost.

She shivered. Nonetheless, it had a bad vibe to it. It was cold too, and creepy. She felt like something was watching her. Something sinister. She backed up slowly...and her back hit something that was not the wall. Something that was warm. And soft. And alive.

Ruby yelped and spun around.

It was...a mannequin. Or a person? It was hard to tell. The person-mannequin had olive skin and no hair, and a fleshy, alive look to it. Only it had no face, and it's limbs looked like Lega pieces. It was odd. They looked real, but Ruby could see the mechanical joints in between the arms and the shoulders. It was wearing a simple blue tee and khakis.

Ruby inched forward slowly. She felt like it was staring at her, despite it having a completely blank face. Closer and closer she got, and nothing happened. She was finally close enough to touch it. Should I? She debated in her head, then shrugged and poked it right on the chest.

"AAAH WHAT THE HECK-"

Ruby immediately sprang back in shock. The second she'd touched it, millions of tiny, deep holes started to dig their way into the mannequin. Ruby watched in wonder and then horror as billions of tiny silver hornets crawled out of the holes like the mannequin was their hive or something, which it probably was.

Then the hornets lifted their wings and began to swarm Ruby.

Ruby spun around. Okay, time to run.

She could hear the hum and the buzz of their wings as they followed her to the other side of the room. She banged on the door, which had slammed shut at some point, and nothing worked. She tried the skeleton key, but even that didn't work.

Ruby spun around and flattened herself against the wall as the swarm approached. She squeezed her eyes shut and awaited the pain of a billion stings.

But something happened. Only one hornet flew to her. She appreciated that. One hornet was much less daunting than one billion.

Ruby blinked open her hazel eyes and observed it. It wasn't the bright colours of black and yellow that they usually sported, no, these were silver. And as Ruby took a closer look...they weren't even hornets at all, they were like... animatronic hornets. It's eyes glowed red and its body shimmered in the dim light. And just as Ruby was about to touch it, a needle came out of the hornet and dug into her skin.

Ruby woke up in a cold sweat.

"Nothing, nothing, nothing!"

Ruby slumped against the chair and groaned. She'd been flipping through the newspaper she'd snatched from the suspicious bunker and hadn't found anything weird or incriminating. Just a local basketball team winning a game against the neighboring town of Trout Springs (yay), some school play going well, and a girl named Larissa winning the elementary school's science fair. Nothing exciting at all. The only thing weird about it was that this newspaper was the Hurricane paper, not Saffron Falls.

"Ooh, flip to the obituaries." Tulisa suggested. She was sprawled out on her bedsheets painting her nails lime green and black, while simultaneously listening to Ruby read the paper aloud. She was quite a good listener.

Ruby nodded. "Good idea." She flipped through the music section and the sports section to the obituaries.

"Blaire Courtney, a sixty-nine year old lady...Otis Carol, eighty-one...nobody yet. Oh!" Ruby noticed something. "Stella and Ruby Anderson. That's funny. I mean, it's not funny that they died, just that girl has my name."

Tulisa added some green glitter to her pinky finger. "How'd they die?"

"Umm…" Ruby read on. "'Stella Anderson, twenty-nine, and Ruby Anderson, three- oh, that's sad. They were both really young. Says here they died from purple fever, an extremely rare and deadly blood disease. 'They will be greatly missed by husband and father Steve Anderson.'" Ruby observed the picture.

The lady had reddish-brown hair the colour of September leaves. And the daughter had thick, wavy blonde hair, an oversized button-up, and- wait.

"Lise, remember that picture that Olive found in the shed? The one with the man and the girl sitting on a chair?"

Tulisa painted a top coat of gloss over her thumb. "Yeah?"

Ruby showed her the picture, and compared it to the picture she'd taken of the photograph and her phone.

"I think this is the girl from it. Look, she's wearing the same dress, and she has the same hair."

Tulisa nodded. "Probably, although there's still one major flaw: she's dead."

Ruby looked at the two pictures again. "Well, yes, but I have a theory. This might be a long shot, but I think that the man in the photo is a serial killer. And I think he was the Fazbear killer. And my guess is that the man in the photo is Steve, her father. He killed kids, then his wife left him and he killed Stella and Ruby and ran away to Saffron. Then, he somehow found a way to bring her back? If that's the case, then he also has a son, and possibly another daughter."

Tulisa raised her eyebrows. "And what do you have to go off of? This sounds like a great creepypasta, but you don't have any proof whatsoever."

Ruby closed the newspaper. "Okay, well, you gotta admit that this whole thing is weird."

"Hang on. You still haven't told me how this all relates to Freddy's. I thought we were just looking through the papers to see why they were all down there."

Ruby sighed. "I found...a journal, of some sorts. It talked about killing kids and bringing them back to life. Something about serums, and agony, and 'containing' them in animatronic suits somehow. And...I think I might have seen a ghost. Don't laugh, okay? It was a little boy, about five, and his whole body was flowing blue. He told me his soul was trapped there, and he's the one who found the secret exit, not me."

Tulisa nodded, but she didn't look convinced. "Okay. Here's what I think is going on. The man who owned the bunker, possibly this Steve guy, had a wife and daughter. And he worked at Freddy's. They died from a disease, and the grief caused him to go crazy. He locked himself in a bunker for a while and wrote this journal. He kept that photo as a last reminder of his daughter, we'll call her Ruby 2. Eventually, he either died or got his life back on track, I'm thinking the latter. He's probably living somewhere in this city right now."

Ruby thought about Tulisa's statement, but it still didn't make sense. How did that explain Malcolm? And if the guy died down there, where was the body? And how come whoever it was didn't clear out the place first? And the puzzle pieces fit together for the person who owned the bunker being the Fazbear killer. You could read the person's descent into madness. Jared himself had told her he suspected William Afton, the CEO of Fazbear Entertainment. It all worked out. The question was, where was he now? Maybe, if she could find Steve, he'd have the answers to her questions!

Suddenly, the door swung open. It was Ms. Diaz.

"Hey, girls! We're going on a hike today, so get dressed for sunny weather and meet the rest of the group downstairs."

Ruby gave her a thumbs up, and headed into the bathroom with her suitcase full of clothes to change. She settled on gold sparkly shorts, a red tube top, and black sneakers. She tied her thick wavy red hair into a messy bun and tied it with a black scrunchie. Ruby made sure to grab a pair of white sunglasses because of the bright sunshine.

Ruby grabbed her phone and opened up a new document. She titled it 'lame math project ✋?' just so nobody would suspect anything. Ruby attached the pictures of the photograph and the other photos of the shed she'd managed to snap. She wrote down 'Suspects: Steve Anderson and William Afton*'. She put a star next to William's name and wrote 'main suspect, try to find and question Steve?'.

Ruby grinned. She'd always loved mysteries, and here was a chance to solve one! Of course, she'd ask the 'bots about the murders when she got home, maybe they'd seen something? After all, if William was indeed the Freddy's killer, then it would make sense for him to have programmed the animatronics to kill all night guards, as they might find out the truth.

There was banging on the door.

"Rubes! Hurry up! I've been done for ages, what are you doing in there?!" Tulisa called from the other side.

Ruby scrambled to quickly set a password nobody would guess (6969) and closed out of the tab. "Coming!" She called, and dashed out the door.

"Good morning, theydies and gentlethems! So, today we are going to be climbing Mount Eagle. We'll climb to the top, look out at the view, and we can eat our lunches up there. Mr. Fox has provided us with an orange, a nut-free granola bar, and a lettuce, ham, and cheese wrap. Vegan options are available, please see me or Mr. Fox if you have any questions or concerns!"

Ms Diaz provided a slideshow of the view off the top of the mountain. They could see the wide blue ocean, green trees, and the rest of the city and farm from up there. The classes ooohed and aaahed as they chatted excitedly amongst themselves. The only person who didn't look excited was Ruby.

Tulisa turned around. "Hey, Rubes, are you okay? You look kind of pale."

Ruby was in fact, very pale. She was trembling a little too. Her hands were clasped tight and her eyes shimmered. Almost as if she was holding back tears. "I'm f-fine. Let's just...get in line." Ruby mumbled. She tried to stand up, but her legs were shaking too much.

Tulisa put one hand on her shoulder and one hand on hers. She gently opened Ruby's hand. She could see little crescent moons on her palms where her black-polished nails had dug into her skin. Ruby was obviously tense. She gently guided her friend back down onto the bench.

"It's okay. You can tell me what's wrong." Tulisa reassured her friend. Ruby shook her off.

"I said I'm fine. C'mon, let's go!" Ruby forced a grin, but Tulisa could tell something was off.

"It'll help you if you talk. I'm sure you'll feel a lot better." She pressed.

Ruby sighed and sat down. "Honestly, it's fine. It's really stupid anyways, so just…"

"I'm sure it's not stupid." Tulisa smiled.

Ruby took a deep breath.

"I'mafrayohayt." She turned away from her, face flushing.

"What?"

"I said I'm afraid of heights. See, I told you it was dumb." Ruby crumpled up and buried her face in her hands, dark red hair spilling out around her.

Tulisa shook her head. "That's not dumb. Everyone's afraid of something. I'm afraid of spiders. They have all those gross little crawly legs…" She shivered. "And Josh is claustrophobic. And he hates deep water. And my dad is afraid of clowns-"

"Yeah, but like…" Ruby looked up, hair in her face. "I'm supposed to be this fearless bad girl, brave and reckless and sometimes stupid. I'm supposed to look danger in the eye, club it with a bat, kick it down and spit in its eye. And then I freak out if I'm above the ground a little. It's so, so-"

"If you say dumb, I'm going to slap you with a piece of cheese." Tulisa warned.

Ruby managed a smile.

Tulisa put her hands on Ruby's shoulders and looked her in the eye, hazel to cobalt blue.

"Ruby Roxanne, you are the bravest person I've ever met. And I've met a lot of people. You're brave and reckless, and sometimes a bit stupid. You look danger in the eye. You club it with a bat and you kick it down and you spit in its face, but you're still a human. And humans get scared, sometimes of things that don't make sense. And that's a good thing." Tulisa grinned.

Ruby smiled back. "Thanks, Lise. You're really good at pep talks, you know. You should be a sports coach."

Tulisa laughed. "Please. I played soccer once when I was four. I kicked the ball into my own net, played with dandelions when I was the goalie, and cried whenever someone got a goal. Josh is the sporty twin, not me."

Ruby laughed. "Well, there's some room for improvement."

Tulisa grinned, then got a little more serious. "So, are you going on the hike, or not? You certainly don't have to, there's a couple kids who are staying." Tulisa pointed to a small group of three or four other kids who were heading off to their rooms sullenly.

Ruby shook her head. "No. I mean, no, I'm going! I might not make it to the top, but, I may as well come along for the fun of it! I like forest hikes, and it's been forever since I've had one."

Tulisa cheered. "That's the spirit! Now come on, the rest of our group is waiting!"

Ruby skipped through the forest, happily humming the tune to some song by girl in blue, called 'we fell in love in november'. The sunlight rays shone through the trees, the ferns rustled in the cool breeze, and the birds sang above her. It was a beautiful day for a hike in the woods with all of her friends.

"Are we *gasp* there *pant* yet?" Tulisa groaned. Ruby turned around. Her best friend was sweating and doubled over with a cramp. One of the others, Ginger, looked to be in the same state.

Josh punched Tulisa's shoulder. "C'mon, ya wimp. It's only a little further!"

Tulisa nodded and tried to jog a little, but failed miserably.

Ruby sighed, and jogged back. "C'mon, you can just walk. I'll be beside you if you need me." She offered her hand, but Tulisa didn't take it.

"No. I'll be *wheeze* okay."

Ruby heard voices from up ahead, and turned to look. And then she saw it. She couldn't be quite sure what it was, because she'd just spotted it out of the corner of her eye, but there was definitely a blue glow coming from behind a tree.

Ruby spun around. It was gone. What was that?

"Hey, Rubes! We made it! Do you wanna come up, or are you good down there?" Josh called, standing on the top of a tall rock.

Ruby thought about it. She reallllyyy didn't want to go up there and look off that tall tall drop down. And, being down there would be a good excuse to explore that strange blue glow. "Uh, no thanks. I'm just gonna explore around a bit."

"Don't go too far!" Olive yelled.

Ruby gave them a thumbs up and headed into the woods where she'd seen the glow.

Ruby pushed her way through sticks and bracken, wincing when some got caught in her hair. They scraped her bare arms and poked her legs, but she kept on going. She wore sunglasses to protect her eyes from the brambles.

Aha! A blue glow! Ruby slowly moved forwards, trying not to alert it. She squinted. Was that glow in the shape of a...girl?

Snap.

Ruby groaned inwardly and cursed. The girl-glow thing spun around, noticed Ruby, and made a short sound of distress, and sped away.

Ruby rolled her eyes and followed after her. As strange as it was, there was something familiar about that warm blue glow…

Of course!

It was so simple! How had she not thought of this before! She'd seen it before, in the bunker with Malcolm! And he'd said to look out for his sister, maybe this was her! But would that mean...they were ghosts? Ruby used to be into that paranormal kind of stuff in middle school, but she'd grown out of it. But now...weird glowing kids who claimed to be dead that nobody else could see? Unless someone was playing a really elaborate prank on her, they really could be ghosts.

"Hey! Kid! Slow down!" Ruby yelled. The girl did exactly the opposite and sped up.

"Do...you...have," Ruby paused to catch her breath. "A brother named Malcolm!"

The girl froze immediately. She didn't move a muscle. Ruby stopped to get a better look at her. She had light hair in two pigtails, and was wearing a blue-and-pink striped shirt and darker blue shorts. Ruby swore she'd seen her before, but little girls in pigtails weren't such a rare occurrence when she worked in a kids pizzeria.

"M-Malcolm? Where did you he-hear that?" She stuttered.

Ruby looked up. "He's still alive. Or, well, I think he's dead. But also alive? Point is, I think he might be a ghost. Like you. And he's trapped down in a bunker."

The girl shook her head. "There's no way. He's dead, I saw him die…" She shook her head. "You're lying. You're trying to kill me. You're trying to take me away from my only real family. Go away!" She ran off into the forest.

"Wait! Stop, please! I swear I saw him! He was glowing blue, and he told me to tell his sister that he was okay!" Ruby yelled.

The girl stopped. She turned around to face Ruby. Her blue eyes were shadowed and dark.

"I saw him die. I saw the blood, I saw the light fade out of his eyes, I saw his body fall to the floor and stay there. There is no way he could possibly be alive. His Remnant is gone, he can't possibly be on Earth anymore...unless he wasn't going to be used as fuel." The girl stopped to ponder this.

But Ruby was confused. "Remnant? What does that stuff have to do with him? I-I thought that was the stuff that powered robots."

The girl shook her head. "Oh, it's much, much more than that. But of course, you wouldn't remember a thing about it, would you." Her voice was almost taunting.

"C'mon kid, just tell me. I swear, I'm in this with you. I can see ghosts, at least I think I can. Doesn't that surprise you?"

The girl laughed. "A little. I would've thought it would've worn off by now. But I guess not. Now, I'll be heading on my way. I have more than enough information to tell my father."

Ruby groaned. She couldn't just let this go. The girl obviously knew a ton about ghosts, and possibly even the Freddy's killer! This was like the answers to her mystery being handed to her on a silver platter, and she was just going to give it up?

"Please! At least tell me the name of your father!" She tried. There was a good chance her father in question was either Steve or William.

The girl just giggled. "As if I'd tell you. I know you're trying to steal him from me. I'd watch your back, Ruby Roxanne. Because we're more powerful than you could ever imagine. And when the time is right, we'll strike. We'll eliminate all your friends and family, until we have enough to complete our happy little family. It'll be our happiest day, don't try to ruin it."

And with that, she was gone, leaving a stunned Ruby wondering what she'd gotten herself into.

"So, what've you got for me today, darling?" The man examined a dirty pink Barbie doll that Jojo had found discarded in the forest on her way home.

Jojo grinned excitedly. She had a ton of new information, her pretend-father would be proud. Maybe today she'd get a treat, like pineapple. She loved pineapple.

"Okay. So, the red serum didn't wear off. She saw me."

Her pretend-father whirled around, his eyes narrowed. "Did she speak to you? You know I don't like you talking to strangers."

Joey shamefully nodded. "She did. She followed me through the forest. I was going to run away and disappear, but then she told me some interesting news. I thought Malcolm was dead? Didn't you tell me that your old friend Henry killed him and took his Remnant?"

The tall man hummed. "That is correct. I remember that day well. That evil man kidnapped you two. He killed Malcolm, and luckily I was able to save you from his clutches. However, it is entirely possible that I, ehm, contained him in a suit there. Just for a year."

Joey frowned. "Then why did you say he was dead?"

He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Because I thought you might be sad if you knew I had to leave him down there. And I thought you might leave me for him. But don't you worry, I left him with lots of toys and fun things for him to play with. He loves it there, so don't you go looking for him."

She pondered this. "I guess you're right," She murmured, though something seemed a bit off. But it was probably just her imagination. Her pretend-father was always right.

"Now, onto other matters. Did you have a chance to check up on the animatronics? No pesky children haunting them, I presume?"

Joey shifted her weight awkwardly. The posters of animatronics seemed to bore into her skull. Her father flipped the doll over and looked closer. "Uhm. Funny thing, uh. They're still possessing the suits…"

He spun around. His gray eyes flashed. "What?! That's simply not possible. I went in there, I destroyed those suits and burned them to the ground! Without anything keeping them on Earth, they should be gone!"

Joey swallowed. Her pretend-father's voice was back to being smooth as honey, but she knew he'd raise his voice when she told him what had happened. He only raised his voice when he was angry, or didn't get his way. Which wasn't often, but he was scary when he was mad. She didn't like it.

"Well, um, you know the new animatronics? The, ah, toy ones?"

"Yeeesss?" His voice let out a warning growl.

"Um. They're possessing those."

He spun around, Barbie doll in hand.

"WHAT?! No, no, they can't do that. They can't just do it on their own. I'm the only one who can bind them with the suits! It's not possible! Unless…" His eyes darkened. "Charlie. She would do that, wouldn't she. She kept them here, on Earth, just to spite me." He slammed his fast onto the desk, sending nuts and bolts and nails into the air. "Dammit! Of course, this all makes sense! That little…" He muttered to himself for a few moments.

Joey was scared. She didn't like when he was like this. It made her worried. It made her feel like he was going to hurt her. Which was silly. The only time he'd hurt her, it had been an accident. And accidents happen! She made all kinds of accidents when she lived above. Her mother had always hit her on the arm or spanked her or burned her and then she'd be sent to her and Malcolm's room with harsh words thrown at her. Here, she was useful.

Her father took some deep breaths. "Jojo, dear, you've been a wonderful help to me. And you'll still be a wonderful help. However, I can't have you running back and forth trying to keep up with Ruby and the animatronics."

He drummed his fingers on the desk, deep in thought. Suddenly, he had it. A boy, about the age of sixteen or seventeen. He'd helped him before, perhaps he'd do it again…

William picked up the phone and dialed the numbers. When the boy answered, a sinister smile spread across his face. He pulled up a lighter and flipped the cap open.

"Hello there. Long time no see. Now, I need to ask you a favour…" He drawled.

William held the flame up to the Barbie doll and watched the heat melt the wax. It dripped down his fingers, hissing and bubbling, burning his flesh. William smiled in fascination. This was going to be fun...