HALFWAY TO 100!

Forgot to ask last time, but do y'all like my profile picture? If you watch Dream, you'll know who those people are.

Alrighty, this chapter is a good one. Although it's also one of the darker ones, mainly because of the characters insulting each other lol. Lots of sick burns. Why are the dark chapters also my favourites? I'm not sure. Anyways, I made someone tear up reading this, so be prepared for feels.

Uploading this chapter late at night because who needs sleep? (JK its like evening rn)

Reviews!

mixsii: I aspire to be as cool as that lifeguard some day.

SomeRandomRobo: Oo, I watched the Olympics too. Horse riding is awesome, I love horses! Though I was never the horse girl, only the cat girl who would hiss and meow at people and wore cat ears every second of the day. Yeah, I was a weird kid.

MoonTheMagical: Woah, archery! That's so cool! Archery's always been fun to watch, although I suck at it.

Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 50

Read Between The Lines

"Okay. I've called this meeting, because if all ten of us are going to live here, we're going to need to set up some ground rules." Freddy told them. He walked across the makeshift stage with an air of superiority. Came with the extra height, and everyone sitting down in chairs - or in William's case, a sparkly bean bag chair. He always had to be extra.

Freddy had called the ghosts/animatronic to the main dining room for a much-needed meeting. Out house rules. Living with different age groups would be tough, but would kind of make them seem like a family. William was fifty-four, technically speaking, Cassidy was nineteen, Mari was eighteen, the Fazbear Five were all seventeen, Jojo was eight, and Malcolm was six. Although, if you counted Cassidy and Mari's 'ghost' ages, they were fourteen and thirteen. Weird stuff, the supernatural.

But what would really make it hard was their already set-up rivalries. William had a terrible relationship with everyone, especially Cassidy. Mari actually didn't mind him as much, but then again, Mari liked everyone. Freddy knew this, and as much as he hated to admit it, they were going to have to at least try and get along with William, or else eternity would absolutely suck. Even if he was a massive pain in the neck.

"First off: names. What are we all comfortable with calling ourselves? I know that these four are fine with their animatronic names," he pointed to Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and Mangle, "What about you two, Mari and Malcolm, or Charlie and BB?"

"I like Mari, I think I'll keep that. Besides, I'm not super comfortable using my real name yet." Mari picked a lint ball off her sleeve and tossed it to the floor.

Malcolm shrugged. "I dunno, Malcolm's nice. Starts with an 'M' just like Mari."

Mari grinned and clapped her hands. "That's right! Good job!" She'd been teaching Mal and Jojo how to read and write the past few days, and it was paying off. They were fast learners.

Freddy turned to William, who had found a Rubix Cube in the closet and was absent-mindedly twisting it.

"And William? You're possessing an animatronic right now, so-"

"Correction." William held up a finger. "Not possessing. My body's still in here, and I'm not dead." With a creak of metal bars, he lifted the mask up to reveal the horrific dark reddish purple, mummified corpse head that was underneath. You could see parts of his cracked, yellowing skull where flesh had rotted off. His bulbous eyes had a strange translucency to them, as if they were Jello or something. It was immensely creepy.

Jojo screamed and jumped away into Mari's arms, whimpering. Chica wrinkled her nose. Mari glared at William, who was laughing to himself quietly.

"Hey! Don't freak out the kids, they didn't deserve to see that." Mari scolded. William shrugged and pulled the mask on again with a few sharp clicks still chuckling.

"Hey, I'm sure Jojo's seen worse. But fine."

Freddy sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Okayyy. What I was going to ask, was do you want to keep your name, or do you want a different name based off of the animatronic suit like what we have."

William frowned, deep in thought. "Hmm. How about...ooh! Springtrap."

Freddy blinked. "Springtrap?"

William nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Like the suit. I thought it'd be a cool sort of tribute to it."

Cassidy rolled her eyes. "What, is that your fursona?"

Mari kindly elbowed her friend in the ribs, then turned to William and smiled. "I like it! It's a good name."

Freddy nodded. "Okay, Springtrap. So, next up is rooms. This place is significantly smaller than our old pizzeria, plus we have double the people now. So, here's what I'm thinking. Me, Foxy, and Bonnie in the Parts + Service room, Chica, Mangle, and Cassidy in the Storage room - I'm sure we can make space. Mari, Jojo, and Malcolm can go in the first saferoom, and Will...er, Springtrap can go in the second saferoom. Sounds good?"

Everyone nodded. Freddy took a deep breath. This next topic would be a very touchy subject, especially with Cassidy, but it needed to be talked about. Even if he himself hated it, it would have to be done. He'd honestly like to slap whatever upper beings had decided that it would be a goofy little trick to play on them, to have a murderer and his victims living together.

"So, obviously this new environment and its inhabitants is...a change. But as of now, we are all living in the exact same house. Which means we are all going to need to get along. I'm not saying we should all be besties and hold hands and braid each other's hair, I'm just saying, try and tolerate each other for the sake of keeping the peace."

Cassidy jumped up from her seat, clearly annoyed.

"Why should we have to tolerate him?! He's literally a serial killer! We should just lock him up in the saferoom for all of eternity!" She yelled angrily.

Freddy sighed. "I see where you're coming from, Cass, but we clearly can't do that. Plus, it's not like he can harm us. Physically, at least."

"No." She shook her head. "You don't know where I'm coming from. You haven't seen the things he can do. Freddy, please know I am saying this for the good of us all, not just me."

Mari placed a comforting hand on Cassidy's shoulder.

"I get that he did terrible things to you." She said, "Heck, he did terrible things to all of us. I mean, he killed us, that's pretty bad. But he is going to be living here with all of us. And if he can't harm us, then there's no reason we can't let him exist here."

Cassidy glared at her friend.

"That's the thing. He can harm us. Easily, in fact. I've seen it happen before. He'll ruin us from the inside out, and make our lives hell. Please just trust me, Mar."

"She said H-E double hockey sticks!" Jojo squealed.. Cassidy shot her a glare, and Jojo whimpered, burrowing closer into Mari's lap. Mari held Jojo close in her arms and gave her friend a Look.

"Cassidy, stop bullying the eight-year-old." Mari chided. Bonnie snorted from behind a hand, and Cassidy stared daggers at him.

"How about a vote?" Freddy suggested, trying to keep the peace, however nonexistent. "We all write on little slips of paper if we want Springtrap to live with us or not. I'm pretty neutral on all of this, so I'll count. Sounds fair?"

Cassidy grumbled her agreement, and so did the others. One by one, they each dropped their votes into the cardboard box. Even Mal got a say in it, with Mari helping him spell it out.

Freddy dumped them all out of the box and counted, reading off each of the votes in his head. When he was done, he piled the slips of paper up neatly and faced the crowd. He braced himself for an attack, bringing out the mental armor.

"Okay. So, for Springtrap being locked up, we got two votes for yes, and seven for no. Majority rules, Springtrap stays."

Cassidy was stunned. "Are you all out of your goddamn minds?! He's a monster! He literally murdered everyone here! How the fuck are you all trusting him?!"

Springtrap smirked, clearly pleased about the results. "Language. Think of the children, Cassie."

Cassidy desperately wanted to rip out his throat and tear out his mouth. Then he'd see who was using 'language', 'cause it certainly wouldn't be him.

Freddy held up his hand. "We're not completely trusting him, because I do get what you are saying. How about we restrict his privileges for a while? He will never be allowed in our rooms, and we can block off other areas if necessary. Okay?" He saw the disbelieving look on her face and frowned. "Trust me, we don't like it any more than you. But I personally don't want an eternity of fighting. Besides, if we locked him up forever, wouldn't that sink us down to his level?" Freddy reasoned.

"Fi-ne." She spat. "But I still think you're all mad for letting this...this freak live with us."

"Hey, it certainly wasn't our choice. We didn't ask to be stuck here with him for all eternity." Bonnie pointed out.

Cassidy muttered something unpleasant under her breath and whipped around, her black pigtails bouncing. "I'm going to my room. Do not disturb me."

But Cassidy was not, in fact, going to her room. She had a plan. A plan to make the others see the truth, see what a disgusting excuse for a human being Springtrap was and realize that surely locking him up was the best possible idea. But for now, she'd start off small. Now, Freddy said they had to tolerate each other, correct? He never said no pranks!

Cassidy hummed a tune to herself as she gathered a couple spools of string from the Maze of Terrors where the workers had been using it as cobwebs. When she finally had enough, she ran over to the second saferoom. With expertise that came from years of pranking her moms on April Fool's Day, she wound the string all around Springtrap's room. She stood back and smiled, pleased with her work.

This was a good start. But she was barely finished yet. Oh no, she was just getting started…

~lll~

"HONEY?! WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GET HONEY?!" Springtrap yelled, flicking sticky yellow honey off his dark yellow-green matted paws. String was tangled in his ears like antlers being strung in Christmas lights, and he was absolutely covered in honey. The prank had worked!

Cassidy looked up from her book - You Owe Me A Murder, Foxy had ordered it the other day - and batted her long, sooty eyelashes innocently.

"What makes you think I did this? Why, I'd never hurt a fly! Not me, Sweet Cassidy Peaches!" Her voice was laced with sugary sweetness and dripped with sarcasm.

Springtrap growled in annoyance, wiping his sticky greenish-yellow paws off on his leg. "I'm going to get you back for this. Just you wait." He stalked off, muttering angrily to himself.

Cassidy beamed, pleased with her work. Unbeknownst to her, the prank wars had just begun...

~lll~

"EWWW! WHAT THE HECK?!" Cassidy yelled, flinging her arms. Chocolate sauce had splashed down through her body, dripping into a wet, chocolatey brown puddle onto the once-pristine checkered tile floor. I guess there are some benefits to being dead...

From behind her, Mangle was in fits of laughter.

"Wha- what happened to you?!"

Cassidy ignored her. "How did he even do this?! Where did he get chocolate sauce?! Plus, he's not even allowed in my-"

Of course. Just like her, Springtrap too had read in between the lines. Sure, he wasn't allowed in anyone's room, but Freddy had said nothing about door frames.

Cassidy narrowed her eyes. While the chocolate sauce wouldn't hit her, being a ghost, it still felt like there was goopy, sticky sweet, dark chocolate sauce on her. She needed to get revenge. And she had the perfect plan to do that. But for it to happen, she would need a little help from two of her...could she even call Mangle and Ruby her friends? Maybe Mangle was her friend nearly ten years ago, but now... She turned to her maybe-friend, who was still on the floor laughing her head off.

"Mangle," She asked sweetly. "Could you help me with a little...project?"

~lll~

Cassidy flattened herself against the wall, making sure that nobody saw her.

It was 11 AM, and Mari had just put Malcolm and Jojo to 'bed' (a couple of blankets on the floor). Sure, it was definitely a late bedtime for an eight-year-old and a six-year-old, but they technically didn't need to sleep anyways, so they figured the two of them could stay up till eleven. Maybe they didn't need sleep, but the older ghosts needed a break without the extra needed attention (and censorship) that the two young children required.

Mangle had been tasked with the job of emailing Ruby and telling her the plan. Cassidy, embarrassingly enough, had hardly any experience with the internet at all. She'd been ten when she died, fourteen when she went into Shadow, and fifteen when she'd been taken by Springtrap. None of those years either had time or resources for fooling around on the internet.

Tap tap.

There it was, the signal. Cassidy whipped to the side and did a quick somersault down the hall, something she'd seen in her two favourite spy movies back when she was eight. Cassidy wasn't exactly sure how doing a front roll down a hall made her stealthier, but hey, if it worked for Carmen and Juni Cortez, then it could work for her.

She ran up to a door labeled 'Do Not Enter' in dripping orange paint. Cassidy rolled her eyes and opened the door. Just as she expected, a cheap, blow-up balloon ghost fell down with a tape declaring in a monotone voice, "BOO" playing in the background. Wow. So scary. Great job, Fazbear Design Team.

Cassidy walked up to the window and with great effort, opened it. There, standing a few feet down, was Ruby, carrying a woolen sack. Her obnoxiously conspicuous red hair was in a ponytail covered by a black knitted beanie. She wore a zipped-up leather jacket, black sweatpants, and black boots. Obviously, she'd taken the 'secretive' part a bit too literally.

Cassidy sighed. She had to admit Ruby was good at finding weird stuff.

"Here," Ruby whispered, handing her the sack. Cassidy tested its weight. Light, but that wasn't unexpected for the items inside.

"How'd you even get this?" Cassidy asked. Ruby grinned mischievously.

"I know a guy."

"Genius. Okay, head to the front and act like nothing happened. I'll meet you there when it's done." Cassidy hissed. Ruby gave her a thumbs up and ran off through the crunchy bracken. (that's a thing, MAEGAN.)

Cassidy held the neck of the sack closed, as to not let any of the... things escape. She threw the sack over her shoulder and went out of the room to try and find Springtrap.

She found him pretty easily. He was sitting on a ratty old couch that they'd found in the storage closet, reading a book. Cassidy teleported behind him as quietly as she could, lifted the bag over his head...and opened the sack.

Hundreds of tiny spiders fell out and landed on his head. They crawled in and out of the mask and suit, weaving around his limbs and up his ears. Springtrap sighed and began to brush the spiders off, squashing a few with his foot. Cassidy frowned. What a waste of spiders.

"Seriously, Cassie, where did you get spiders?" Springtrap asked, picking one up by the leg and throwing it in the corner. It scuttled away and hid under an old brown shoe that was there for some reason.

Cassidy shrugged. "I have my ways." Then she realized she was being too friendly to him, so she gave him a Look and exited to the main dining hall.

When she got there, she saw everyone was playing cards on one of the tables. There were several stacks of sketchbooks, markers, board games, and some old kids books for Mal and Jojo. Cassidy wandered over to them to go see what they were all doing.

"Hey, guys." She stood behind Chica's chair. "What're you doing?"

"I'm dominating everyone at Go Fish." Ruby explained. Bonnie raised his eyebrows.

"You mean saying you have to go drink soda and then peeking at everyone's cards, then saying you're dominating us."

Ruby gasped.

"Are you accusing me of cheating?" She searched through her cards. "Bonnie, do you have any 4's?"

"Yup. Wow, wonder how you would have guessed that." Bonnie said dryly, handing over his card. Ruby grinned and placed the pair down next to her nine other pairs.

Cassidy took a seat in one of the empty chairs to watch the others. "Can I join?"

Freddy smiled. He was happy she'd decided to join in, the poor girl could use some positive socializing. "Yeah, sure! Oh...I don't know if we have enough cards for you to play…"

"Here."

A voice sounded behind her. Cassidy sighed and turned around. Springtrap. He was holding a red deck of cards in his hand- er, paw? He shook them, as if to say go on, take them!

Cassidy rolled her eyes. As if she would take those. They were obviously trapped with spiders or scorpions and they would crawl on out and pinch her...or fall through her body, or whatever. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of a prank well done, oh no. Never. Cassidy never, ever, gave up. She was stubborn, and liked it that way.

Instead, she noticed a pack of blue cards lying on the floor, unopened. She picked them up and smiled sweetly at him.

"So sorry, but I found these. I don't need your cards." Cassidy peeled off the little star sticker seal with her black fingernail and opened up the package-

"ACK!" Bright green water squirted out of the package, through her body and onto the floor. Springtrap, who was sitting on the floor, cackled evilly.

"You fell for it! I knew you wouldn't take the ones in my hand...oh God, that worked perfectly!" He laughed.

Freddy stared at them and sighed.

"Okay you two, what's going on?"

Cassidy glared at Springtrap. "He started it!"

Springtrap shook his head furiously and pointed to her. "That's not true! Cassie over there started it. She poured honey on me!"

"No, you started it by-"

"Oh my gosh, stop it! You two are acting like children! I don't care who started it, just tell me what's happening." Freddy said, rubbing his temples.

Springtrap stuck his tongue out at Cassidy, and she wiggled her fingers and made a dumb face at him.

"Well, he poured chocolate sauce on me and filled this package of cards with whatever the heck that stuff is." Cassidy told them.

"Yeah, and you poured honey and spiders on me! How are you the good guy in this scenario?" Springtrap asked incredulously. Cassidy snorted. He was seriously lecturing her on being a bad guy? Dumb move.

"I'm not the one who murdered nine kids and trapped them all on Earth for eternity!" Cassidy yelled.

Immediately after that she knew that was the wrong thing to say. Her friends exchanged worried glances, and Springtrap threw back his head and groaned.

"That's not even relevant! Will you ever shut up about that? I thought you would finally stop crying a river and would cross the damn bridge by having this prank war, but I guess I was wrong."

Cassidy laughed in disbelief. "You thought I was being friendly?! Oh my God, you really are insane. Listen here, I will burn every single freaking bridge until this entire world is on fire with you decaying with it."

Springtrap raised his eyebrows.

"Now that doesn't sound like something a good guy would say, does it?"

"..."

Crap.

Why did he have to make a reasonable point there? No. She didn't have to listen to him. Cassidy shook her head.

"You're obviously the bad guy here, I don't know why you're even trying to defend yourself. You killed us for nothing more than a couple minutes of fun. You're just a psychotic freak who doesn't give two shits about anyone else. I bet you don't even love your own family, do you?"

She was crossing so many lines, and she didn't care. This would all be worth it, even if she regretted it later. Her friends watched back and forth as if spectating a game of ping-pong.

Springtrap snorted. "Of course I do. It's why I killed you! Then I could make myself and my family immortal!"

Cassidy threw her hands in the air.

"Well damn lot of good that did you now! Clara's dead, but I'm sure you don't care about her. Hell, you probably killed her for all I know. Michael you managed to turn. But Elizabeth and Evan? Oh, you sure screwed up with them. They both died by your own creations. You know what that means, right?"

"Shut. Up." Springtrap snarled, backing away. He was retreating. Good. That meant this was working.

Chica stepped forward, her face pale. Obviously, she was scared. Well, boo-hoo. Cassidy wasn't going to stop pushing because poor little Chica was scared.

"Um, Cassie, maybe you shouldn't-"

Cassidy whipped around, pure fire in her golden eyes. "Don't you dare call me that, you insensitive jerk. And why shouldn't I? He deserves every single bit of it."

Cassidy leaned over Springtrap, hands clasped behind her back with a mocking smile on her face. "You killed them. You murdered your own children. What kind of sick creature does that?" She smirked. "Oh right. You. Freaking sadist. I despise every last second I spend with your pathetic little self."

Springtrap was shaking furiously. Cassidy had seen him like this once before and she felt a satisfaction overwhelm her. She was breaking him.

But Springtrap wasn't done yet. "You sure I'm the sadist here? You sure love tormenting me. Why can't you just ever let it go? You mope around all day, all night, with your little woe is me attitude. It's boring. We all get it. Poor little Cassie, tormented by the big mean bunny wabbit. Honestly, at least I accepted I was the villain. But you won't accept anything, you basic, stubborn little bitch."

Cassidy was stunned. So was everyone else in the room. Springtrap's cocky, playful attitude was dropped and all that was left was a poisonous fury that laced every word. Was he right? Am I the villain?

No. No. She didn't have to listen to anything.

"You're just s-"

"Por amor a la pizza, cállate!"

The two of them stopped their arguing and turned to Freddy. If there was one thing Freddy had learned from his grandmother and many, many chaotic younger siblings, is that angry Spanish would shut anyone up. He slammed his fists on the table, his face flushed a bright, angry red.

"I'm so sick of hearing your horrible bickering! Both of you, go to your rooms, you're both acting like bratty little children!" Freddy spat.

Cassidy shot one ferocious glare at Springtrap, who returned the gesture.

"I can't believe you. I actually can't believe you're this immature." Cassidy laughed humorlessly. Springtrap made a mouth talking movement with his hand, mocking her like a child.

"Boring, boring, blah blah. We've heard it all before. You're literally the most-"

"I SAID, GO TO YOUR ROOMS. Oh my God, can you two ever just shut up?! You are both giving me a migraine." Freddy yelled, his hands on his head.

Cassidy winced. She'd never seen Freddy, usually calm and collected, so absolutely livid before, and from the looks of the other's faces, neither had they...Had she pushed too much?

But why not? She was the good guy in this scenario. But it was clear nobody here was on her side.

"I'm not going to deal with this bullshit. I'm going to bed, for real this time." She stalked off, heading to the room she shared with Chica and Mangle.

From back in the main dining hall, Springtrap flipped her off and headed off to his room, steaming.

Freddy sighed and sat down at the chair, placing his head in his hands. Foxy, Mangle, Ruby, and Chica exchanged worried glances and turned their attention to Freddy, not quite sure on what to say to comfort him.

"God, this household...I don't even know what to think. Obviously Springtrap's a terrible person and was acting like it, but it's not like Cass was being any nicer." Freddy lamented.

Ruby was shocked. "What was that even about? I didn't know Cassidy could be that...I dunno, mean. And damn, Freddles, didn't know you had that in ya."

Freddy snorted. "Guess this day is full of surprises."

Mangle sighed. "Cassidy has...not taken the adjustment well. Well, so has everyone, but her especially. I can't blame the poor girl, of course, but she's always been a bit...harsh in her wording."

Chica sighed. She was feeling a little hurt from Cassidy's yelling at her. She knew she was probably just caught up in the moment, but it still kind of stung.

Freddy nodded. "I know, it makes sense for her to take this badly, but what else are we supposed to do with him? He can't hurt us and we can't hurt him, so we'd need to make him willingly get into the saferoom and lock him there, which I'm certain wouldn't work. Besides, he's been pretty okay the past few days...for Springtrap, I mean. And trapping him in a tiny room for all eternity...isn't that exactly what he did to us?"

They mulled over that for a while, silence sweeping over them in waves before Ruby spoke up.

"Yeah. It sucks that you guys have been thrown into this situation. I mean, there's not much you guys could do."

Bonnie slammed down a pair of kings. He'd been oblivious to the action going on behind him, mainly focused on his cards and nothing else.

"Haha! Beat that, you worms!"

~lll~

Cassidy stared at the wall, curled up into a ball. She couldn't fall asleep. How could she? If you knew that a serial killer was roaming your house, would you be able to get a good night's rest? Besides, she was busy thinking about herself. And not good things, not at all. Going over every word she'd said, every insult she'd yelled out in the heat of the moment, and...wow.

There were footsteps from the outside and the door creaked open. Cassidy winced as bright green light from the outside filled the room, her eyes used to the darkness. Who was disturbing her?

A slim figure walked in and sat down next to her.

"Hey, Cassie. Are you okay?"

It was Mari. Cassidy would know her friend's soft voice anywhere. Cassidy rolled over and sat up. She fiddled with the black hem of her skirt.

"Don't ever call me Cassie." Cassie was the nickname Springtrap had used for her when he…when she died. She couldn't stand to hear that name anymore, the bad memories attached were too present and too painful.

Mari blinked her warm brown eyes and crossed her legs, sitting beside her. "Oh. Sorry. How about Dee? That's a cute nickname."

Cassidy managed a half-smile. "Sure."

"I, um, heard your conversation with Springtrap and the others." Mari said hesitantly, picking at her nails.

Cassidy frowned. "What, here to judge me for insulting him too?" She paused. "Oh, that was mean. Sorry, I just really hate him…"

Mari sighed.

"You know, I don't think it's wrong of you to hate him. I completely understand where you came from...er, I guess I don't necessarily understand, per say, but like, I get it. You've been through so much agony, it's only right to despise him."

Cassidy looked up at her.

"You really think so?" Huh. That was interesting. "D-do you hate him?"

Mari sighed and let her eyes wander around the room.

"I...I don't. I guess it's hard to truly hate someone who's cared for you and been like a second father to you your whole life, right?"

Oh. Right. Sometimes, it was hard to remember that the happy, bubbly Mari was also Charlie Emily, daughter of the co-founder Henry Emily. Henry and Springtrap had been close, hadn't they? It only made sense that Springtrap and Mari would've been close.

"Do you remember your father from when you were alive?" Cassidy asked tentatively. This could be a sensitive topic, she needed to tread carefully.

Mari nodded, her eyes glassy and far away. "I have a few memories. I remember me and my dad went to a park once, when I was really little. He pushed me on the swings and we ate peanut butter sandwiches, cut into triangles just how I liked them. Then we sat on this tall grassy hill under a gnarled oak tree and watched the crows. There was this one crow that looked so silly, I pointed it out to my father. Somehow, without me even saying a word, he just knew I was talking about the crow."

Mari sniffled, and a single tear trickled down her face. "He laughed, and he'd make up all these stories about the different crows and their lives. We named the silly one Jack, and he had a wife named Julia who would always pester him to get himself together and get back home, because they had a family and he needed to get his head out of the clouds. Eventually, we stopped seeing Julia there, but Jack was still there with his little baby daughter crow..."

Mari stopped talking and just cried into her hoodie, muffled sobs escaping her. Cassidy didn't exactly know what to say to comfort her, so she wrapped her friend in a hug. Mari cried into her shoulder, tears running down her face. After a few moments, she sat back and wiped her nose, looking a bit embarrassed.

"I...I really, really miss him. After I died, there wasn't much else to do besides rot there with my own thoughts. And after I heard that my dad had…" Mari shook her head, not wanting to say it. "I blamed myself. I mean, he obviously did it because I was stupid enough to die, right?" She looked back at Cassidy, a determined look replacing the previous one of sorrow.

"I now realize that blaming myself got me nowhere. I couldn't have done anything to save myself, and it was my dad's choice to do that. And the sooner I accepted that, the more likely I wouldn't fall down the same path my dad did. I won't give up. I've- I've got to be stronger than he was."

Cassidy was staring at Mari in wonder. Who was this tough, powerful girl who'd replaced the shy, timid one? It seemed there was more to Mari than just a comforting, quiet ghost who loved kids and friendship and cuddly hoodies.

Mari wiped her nose and laughed a little.

"Whew...that was a lot. I'm so sorry for dumping all that on you when I'm supposed to be the one comforting you...gosh, that was kind of rude of me."

Cassidy shook her head vehemently. "No, no, it's okay. Seriously. I'll be here for you if you ever need to chat. Our lives are pretty screwed, so I get it if you don't feel okay and want to vent."

Mari smiled.

"Are...are you okay, Dee? You were...pretty angry back there." Mari asked her hesitantly.

Cassidy sighed. What does she even say to that?

"Um...I don't know. I'm really not sure how to feel about...all of this. I'm sort of mad at myself as well. I was really out of line back there, I dredged up a lot of stuff I shouldn't have." Cassidy brought her knees up to her chin and sniffed.

Mari placed a hand on Cassidy's shoulder. "I'll always be here, if you wanna talk. But, uh, on the subject of locking Springtrap up...I know what that's like. When I was trapped in Shadow, it was terrible. Stuck there with only my demons and insecurities... And I had to do that for ten years. Even if Springtrap deserves that, I don't think I'd be able to bring myself to do that."

Cassidy nodded. "Yeah, I can see that." He definitely deserved that, but she wouldn't press if it hurt her friend.

Mari laughed a little. "You know, Malcolm voted to lock him up too. I was impressed that he was able to have his own opinion and vote on it instead of going along with everyone else. He's a really great kid. Joey too."

Cassidy studied her friend's face. "You really care about them, don't you? I've seen you in action, you're like a big sister to them."

Mari smiled. "Yeah, I guess I am. They are both so smart and talented and hilarious... I'm trying my hardest to let them live up to that as best they can while in this house, in this form."

Of course, that sort of made Cassidy angrier at Springtrap, for taking away two amazing children's lives, but she managed to shove it down.

Mari stood up and brushed nonexistent dust off her shorts. "Um, I should probably head off to bed, it's getting pretty late. Are you going to be okay?"

Cassidy nodded and smiled. Well, she never really slept well, or at all for that matter, but she could catch up on her book. Nicki and Kim had just met up, and Cass definitely didn't trust Nicki.

"Alright. Well, goodnight." Mari waved and exited the room.

Cassidy settled down in her corner, crossed her legs, and picked up her book. Maybe the outside world was crap. Maybe her life was pretty much screwed. But at least she had Mari, and at least she had a book to escape into.

Friends really were great, she thought, then snorted. God, she was getting all sappy hanging out with these people. She probably owed them all an apology tomorrow, but right now it was today, and all she had to do was sit and read.

A/N

Mari is slowly becoming one of my favourites. And Cassidy. And literally everyone. Ack, I can't pick favourites!

You guys should read You Owe Me A Murder, it's a really good book. It had twists and turns and I really like all the characters. Definitely one of my favourites!

Question/Challenge: I need some more creative insults for the characters to use. Got any suggestions?

Have a great day/night!

-Ghost