Chapter Eighteen
Burn It All Down
"Afton Robotics is way out there."
It was just their luck they all had to go on two weeks planned together, the six of them - him and his wife, Mom and Uncle Henry, Charlie in her box, and Jeremy and Melinda - going on this road trip for two weeks in Hurricane. At least, that was the cover story. Kaleia had told her grandparents that it had been ages since she and Mike spent more time with their friends aside from the weekly or monthly get-togethers, and Mason and Akela understood immensely.
They had no idea their destination was the town of horrors.
Kaleia wasn't doing well in keeping this from the people who raised and loved her. She had no idea how to bring this up to them, if at all. On one hand, they would finally learn what happened to their daughter and son-in-law, but on the other hand, enough people knew about this as it is. Mason and Akela deserved their remaining years in peace and no doubt accepted the outcome. Things had to be left as they were.
If Fazbear Entertainment knew the truth about the deaths and disappearances, there was no telling what they'd do to silence the lot of them.
Okay, originally, Circus Baby's Pizza World was to be another location, but then the "gas leak" happened, then it closed down, and the animatronics were rented for private parties. Where they went for maintenance was closed to the public except those hired to work there. There were also often flyers for hire, every few weeks or months at most; how in the hell did no one think to question the high turnover of anything related to Fazbear and Afton?
Lizzie had been among the first few kids to test if everything would go smoothly, except Father explicitly told her NOT to go near Circus Baby. Henry said so.
The papers they got their hands on did list a peculiar tidbit: some citizens speculated whether or not there was something more to blame, but the owner denied commenting.
The owner - none other than William Afton.
And it got juicier. Someone across the street from the restaurant establishment was reported to have witnessed mysterious activity in the form of people in cars removing large pieces from the building in tarps, though there was no investigation into the event.
"Just our luck," Michael said with a grimace as the car approached the end of the long wind of trees, just outside Hurricane itself. They had to see it before going to check into town with the others. "Just our luck that it had to be outside of civilization, but then again, I'm not surprised."
~o~
The Hideaway Lodge.
Located eight miles from the current Freddy Fazbear's location, this place was still quaint as always, and its paint job had been upped since the last time she'd seen it. She and William spent their honeymoon here, for it was the best they could afford at the time. She had missed those happier times before the real monster was revealed little by little.
Now there are others I love here. We're together and on a mission.
There were three buildings in a U-shape, disconnected but neighborly, and single floored. All creamy white in the top half, river rocks pasted in the bottom half, and the triangular roofs supported by yellow-brown posts. The registration office was located at the end of the west side of the compound, and that was where Clara and company now found themselves. The receptionist was overweight, balding atop, and with round, large glasses covering half his face. His white wifebeater was semi-sheer to show some skin beneath. Clara was more than ready to get out of his presence despite his kind attitude towards the lot of them, based on that alone; not just that, but she hated how he looked at her daughter-in-law and her best friend. Mikey caught that himself and gave a dirty look, Jeremy not noticing but holding his fiancée's hand. Those two are adorable, just as my boy and Kaleia still are.
"Thank you, and good day to you," Henry said curtly despite his smile, accepting the keys to the room they would share. "If we need anything, we'll let you know." And they all packed the essentials for two weeks here since there would be a lot of work done, each with one suitcase. In case they needed to make a run for it.
Not just everything else, but she and Henry made a plan for something else while they were here in this terrible town of memories.
These rooms were spacious for two people, each couple getting a room of their own and taking care of their own business. It was an unspoken ritual unless any of them asked for a change. When Clara and Henry arrived in room number two, the framed modern abstract art on the yellowish, marble-esque wall above the bed covered by maroon chenille lace was the first thing to catch their attention. The bathroom and mini kitchen were right next to each other, and in the corner of said bathroom doorway was the television. Beneath the window next to the door they came through with their belongings was an antique mahogany writing desk.
How nice it was, too, to have a view of the majestic mountains and the patio in the back.
Henry exhaled, flopping his back onto the bed they would share. "If not for why we're really here, I'd say we needed a full vacation together as a family." He then turned his attention to the box Charlie was currently resting in. She wasn't hurt in her puppet body, but her daddy and auntie were gonna make damned sure she was still comfortable.
These days since she'd come back to them, she and Henry were up late hours to spend time with her. She'd watch just about anything with them - even adult stuff since it was clear she'd NEVER grow up, not that they didn't know it already, and it broke their hearts - play the board and card games they used to as a family and never grow tired of it. Not everything was focused on their mission.
Clara set about unpacking her bag, taking the left side facing the wall. "What do you say about going to the theatre - Carmen is playing its latest version - and dinner for all of us tonight since we just got here?" Her mood fluctuated between excitement and fear, for her son chose to take it upon himself to scope the inner workings of that underground nightmare waiting for them. That would be tomorrow night.
What if William showed up, or did something before these first five days were up?
~o~
Henry and Clara had done this for the four of them, Melinda doing the same for herself and Jeremy, in saving up enough for tonight, which was the latest theatre performance of the opera Carmen. They dressed their best - Clara in her favorite pearls and black dress while Henry donned a dark brown suit, light blue shirt, and a maroon tie; Jeremy's pants were tan while his dress shirt was black to show off his blond mane, whereas Melinda's new, spicy red dress was draping with a knotted thigh-high slit and fringes paired with her Atlantis-inspired set from the wedding; that left Michael handsome in a silvery gray shirt beneath a dress-up-and-down leather jacket and slacks, Kaleia herself in an Old World, creamy ivory dress that was slightly crinkled with a V-neck, joined with azure halo drops in gold finish with small diamonds, the gold fox pendant, and a peacock brooch on her right shoulder, the proud bird captured remarkably with its body and head of diamonds, the wings of rubies, emeralds, and sapphires.
The old theatre was falling apart in its sign on the outside, mostly in the marquee, but other than that, it was still as charming and comfortable as ever. On a small scale, it was like being in an opera house - the seats being red velvet, as were the curtains, and all the trimmings being gold, but excluding a great chandelier over the audience. That got Kaleia thinking about The Phantom of the Opera.
The kids were in for a treat of a tale about lust, violence, betrayal, envy, and tragedy - all the key ingredients for a classic. And involved one woman playing with the hearts of two men. Beginning outside a cigarette factory where women were on their break next to a group of soldiers, the most seductive of them all, the saucy titular Carmen, stood up to sing a raunchy love song while throwing a flower at one of the men, Don José, who she picked for some unexplained reason. Whether it was because she truly liked him because he didn't pay special attention - it was evident she enjoyed attention on her and would get it however she would - or because she wanted some fun with no strings attached, it was unknown.
Anyway, Don José received the rose and noticed her then...only to be interrupted by a pretty, sweet girl named Micaela who had a letter from his mother. It was revealed then that he was engaged to marry this girl, and Mama Dearest wanted her son home. Yeah, with situations like this, you KNOW it's gonna end badly.
Hell broke loose in the form of a fight breaking out after the smoke break was over. Carmen just had to be involved in the midst. She got her hide arrested, and guess who her guard was? Mr. José himself, and she enticed him into getting her out unscathed by singing a song about being with her. He stood no chance against her wit and enchantment, for he wasted no time letting her go.
Some time passed before some fellow named Escamillo entered the picture. He was a bullfighter, or Toreador. Imagine if you were in a normal place or a location of high class, and someone of great importance walked in, someone you didn't know personally but by name. That was the situation here, and there was the song that stuck with them the most aside from those pretty yet saucy love tunes. Anyway, he noticed Carmen who wasn't the least bit interested, and he up and left but not before promising her subtly that it wasn't over.
She and Don José had their reunion, culminating in a heated argument over his leaving her because of his military service. She took it the wrong way, but he didn't mean abandoning her heart. He still carried the flower she threw him, he proclaimed his undying love for her despite being betrothed to another, and in walked his commanding officer. Yeah, a barfight between the two men broke out, the obvious result being his expulsion. If only it could end happily from there with Carmen, who he soon left with along with some of her gal pals. The group then ventured off into the wild for a while, but it just so happened Carmen was no longer interested in him at that point.
Fortune cards read by her friends spoke of love and fortune...and death.
The rest of the story went downhill from there: Micaela came looking for her intended only to hear a gunshot, coming from none other than Don José, only it was targeted towards Escamillo who came for Carmen. She pleaded with her fiancé to come back home despite his heart bleeding for the exotic beauty herself, only to learn his mother was dying and needed him. That was enough for him to leave his beloved Carmen.
And cut to an arena where a bullfight took place - Escamillo's arena. It seemed he and Carmen were truly in love and devoted to each other, solidifying the woman's loss of feelings towards Don José, if it ever existed at all...only for the romance to be intruded upon the arrival of the man himself. And this was when the word tragedy came into play.
He pleaded with her to take him back as he still harbored his obsessive passion towards her; she vehemently insisted she loved Escamillo. The back and forth culminated in her removing a ring he'd given her, and that triggered him into killing her in a jealous rage. Unspoken that if he couldn't have her, no man would. At the same time, Escamillo won the fight, and he along with everyone else exited outside only to see Don José cradling Carmen's corpse, heartbroken and self-loathing.
The final verdict, including her and Melinda squealing like schoolgirls again much to the amused annoyances of one's husband and the other's fiancé, and to the delight of Clara and Henry: it was a very fascinating story about one-sided love and passion, jealousy leading to pain and tragedy for everyone, but Kaleia personally needed a while before she would consider touching this story in any format in the future.
Back in the motel room, she wasn't tired at all, and neither was Michael. For that, she was in the mood for some...
She wasn't a great singer to the level of her mother-in-law's dancing, but Michael loved her voice. Kaleia set about removing her earrings and necklace, choosing to leave the peacock where it was. "Ee hey ho...who is there? No one but me, my dear." She dropped the jewels on the right bedside table where she slept, shaking her hair off both shoulders. "Please, come, say how do? The things..." She then kicked off her black flats. "...I'll give..." Untying the front of her dress, she let it fall off her shoulders, exposing more and more of her skin and the undergarments beneath. "...to you."
A stroke as gentle as a feather, I'll give him to drive him against the wall.
She shouldn't have gone without underpants, but this here was something Mike never would have anticipated from her. They were still young and were only going to be once, so she dared to be much bolder without Melinda's help. The slim yet loose slip prevented the show of her nipple's outlines, which wouldn't be seen beneath her dress, but now that everything was out in the open. It was VERY sheer, showing her butt off, and would do the same upfront once she turned. Dimensional petals were scattered all over like nature's disorganized beauty.
"Am I not young and fair?" Kaleia whipped her head halfway around, jerking her hips to the left, hair thrown that way, and locked eyes with Michael who had staggered back at her performance, jaw wide opened. "The things I'll show to you...would you have a wondrous sight?" She swayed her hips in a circular motion, increasing the gathering of nerves in that area of her groin. She then turned her attention back to the painting over their bedhead: the African animal kingdom consisting of the giraffe, elephant, rhino, zebra, buffalo, cheetah, antelope, and ostrich. What poetic symbolism.
"The midday sun at midnight, fair maid white and red..."
Kaleia then whipped her entire body around to show her breasts and twitching sex beneath the slightly glistening curls. The nectar had gotten on the slip in a small amount. "Comb you smooth and stroke your head."
And by stroking his head, she didn't just mean the innocent fingers through the hair. And Michael, who was rushing to get out of his clothes, knew that. She moaned, throwing her head back to the invisible melody from memory, wanting to yank off the slip but deciding against it. She wanted the man she loved to do it for her.
~o~
Welcome to Circus Baby's Pizza World, where family fun and interactivity go beyond anything you've seen at those other pizza places! With cutting-edge animatronic entertainers that will knock your kids' socks off, as well as customized pizza catering. No party is complete without Circus Baby and the gang!
Now hiring: Late night technician. Must enjoy cramped spaces and be comfortable around active machinery. Not responsible for death or dismemberment.
And boy, wasn't that not suspicious in the slightest? The last part, Michael meant. Not being liable if anything happened to a worker, stating not so subtly that THEY were responsible for their own demise. Not giving a shit in the slightest whether they lived or died, just the damned robots and their rep.
"Okay, you in?"
"Yeah, I'm in the elevator, waiting for instructions."
"And what does it look like now?"
Honestly, he'd say this was something out of a futuristic novel or movie. The huge-ass space was circular with its metallic walls shimmering his reflection off on all sides, the pipework popping out like bones from rotted flesh - not helped by the fact there was a slight stink to it, a mechanical one that would make someone unlike him want to hold their breath to the point of self-suffocation. The stench was washed away just a little by the overhead fan which also had a light that cast shadows on the walls and the grated floors he stepped on. The only giveaways to what this place belonged to: the posters of Circus Baby herself on the left, the text CELEBRATE! beneath her, and Ballora the ballerina on the right, just a little higher, with the word DANCE!.
To think these two were inspired by Mom and Elizabeth.
Thinking about his baby sister made him swallow for a moment before the voice startled him, coming from somewhere above, just as the elevator started to go down, nearly knocking him off his feet. It was showtime.
"Welcome! Welcome to the first day of your exciting new career! I will guide you to help you get settled in. I'm a Model Five of the Handyman's Robotics and Unit Repair System, but you can call me HandUnit."
That robotic voice was made to be perky, but of course, it was. At least he could somewhat relax, knowing he had artificial intelligence to show him the ropes.
The thing then rose in front of him from the floor, yellow with green letters and buttons against black. Michael figured it wanted his name inserted before HandUnit's voice spoke again. "Please type in your name. This cannot be changed later, so please be careful." He scoffed at that because he had no intention to be here for the rest of his life or any longer than he needed to. Hell, he didn't give a damn about an extra paycheck, since he and Kaleia were doing just fine as they were. Still, he decided to put in "Mike", since it was a common name.
Damn it, ERROR flashed before his eyes. Stupid thing was broken, but then - "I see what you were trying to type. I will autocorrect it for you. Welcome...Eggs Benedict."
"The fu - What the hell?! Name's Mike!" he exclaimed angrily while trying not to laugh. Kaleia was going to make eggs benedict for them in the morning, she'd promised. Damn it, she was NOT gonna let him live this down once he told her his new name for this shithole.
Oh, the hell. He might as well be stuck with this. And he had work to do instead of standing here, wasting time bitching over a stupid name. Technology was a bitch.
"You remember, Freddy, Foxy, and Bonnie?"
"Yup, the poor things created by my dipshit sperm donor," Michael muttered.
"Well, we have other friends here, too."
And the show could begin, now that the elevator halted. Just his luck he had to arrive at a tunnel he had to kneel and climb through with a flashlight, yellow-taped with danger written all over.
~o~
"Yep, people, the elevator actually halted in front of a tunnel labeled danger. Yellow tape and all." Jeremy lightened it up and failed spectacularly. His cheeks visibly turned red from the eyes all on him, half amused and half not.
They gathered outside somewhere between noon and one in the afternoon after Mike had a nice nap following a rough night. That also meant eggs benedict for everyone, courtesy of herself and Clara. Charlie was slumbering in her dad's case. Poor Michael was the butt of the joke today because of his new name as the result of a damned glitch. Kaleia had to kiss him repeatedly as comfort until he laughed and said they weren't dogs.
"Yeah, but other than a brief power outage, it was an okay night. Got to know everyone in their places, and made it intact," Michael was saying over his cup of tea. "I was lucky to not be swarmed right away, but I know it's not over. HandUnit cleared the silence, which made it only a little better." He laughed without humor. "'Frightening silence', he called it. Yeah, right. Doesn't compare to what waited beyond. Anyway, also said what I knew already in that it was created after Freddy's closed, letting the Funtimes be used most of the time instead.
"Anyway, I arrived in no time at the Primary Control Module, with more yellow warning tape." Her husband shuddered. "Gets creepier because there's not only a clock of Circus Baby's face but what you DO once you get to that part. Two keypads with two buttons, two windows...and a white mask with a clown's nose and a party hat. Ballora and Funtime Foxy are there, the ballerina on the left and Foxy to the right. You'll never guess what I had to do, that I didn't want to do: I was to administer controlled shocks if either of them weren't on their stages."
Mortified gasps were heard from all around.
Melinda jerked backward in her chair, her fiancé choking on the biscuit part of his breakfast.
Henry comically spit out his tea, Clara exclaiming when some of it got on her jeans.
Kaleia felt the blood in her arms turn to ice.
Michael went on, still disturbed. "I did arrive at Circus Baby's section. I had to repeat the process, but three times, not once or twice. I wanted to call her out by her name, but didn't have it in me...and then I heard her speak."
"What did she say, darling?" Clara choked out.
"She said she hadn't seen a different face in a long time, and that I...'looked like him.' The face of their killer. I shared his face. I asked her if she knew my name because I insisted I wasn't William Afton. I was there to help her and the others, and I..." Michael halted, audibly choking as he swallowed. "She seemed to recognize me, saying some stuff. She said she remembered a certain day - a little girl. It was just that one day, but this moment stuck with her the most. Kids came in and out; she always counted how many there were. That was what William intended for her to do, to keep track of potential subjects to kidnap. She never knew why she did it, except she was MADE to.
"She saw a little girl, offered her ice cream, and the next minute, she lost control, stopped singing, and then there was screaming and RED."
He stopped talking then and bent over at the waist, dry heaving and announcing he had no appetite anymore. The feeling was mutual among the rest of them: Clara fell to her knees, sobbing her heart out and crawling on all fours to her son who cried his heart out with her. Henry bowed his head, face in hands and body trembling uncontrollably. Jeremy jumped out of his chair, throwing up for real, Melinda leaping with him and putting both hands on his shoulders, rubbing them and then all over his back.
Kaleia lost it and saw spots, making a resolution then and there.
~o~
He was so tired from the previous night he came back to the room, stripped naked, and just passed out next to his Kaleia. He'd thought she'd lose him then, and replaying the events didn't help, either, to the point when he awoke gasping and crying out her name.
~o~
The flashlight came in handy, especially with Funtime Foxy. That dude was activated through motion, so the flash beams would ward him off. So far it had worked...
...until now.
HandUnit had helped him out with opening up Freddy for inspection, the buttons being on his face, though the tricky shit had been in terms of dealing with the puppet on his right hand, Bonbon - no shit, Bonnie being reduced to a literal "right-hand man", Michael thought, laughing internally - and then the two of them were handled well in the end.
Except when Foxy suddenly burst out of the darkness just as he was leaving the area. He lost consciousness, the pain exploding at the back of his head as he landed on the ground. Now he was HERE: "Oh, God, the springlocks!"
He took in his surroundings. He was standing upright, arms out on either side, but he was held in place and against interlocking metals. The fact these things were built to entertain children but actually purposed with malicious intent like this! He could see out through the eye holes, but - but the ribcage audibly ticked on a timer! If he so much as moved the wrong way or -!
"Hold on, Mike! I'm Gonna get you out of here!"
"Jeremy?! How the hell did you get in here?" The blond got in with him through the elevator, thank God for HandUnit not commenting on it, and Jer scoped out the premises with gloves while he did his job, but here they were now. How the hell did Jeremy manage to get to wherever the hell he was now?
"What does it matter, man? You're in a goddamned springlock suit, and I gotta -" The other man was interrupted by the familiar voice of Baby, from somewhere...
"Don't move, Eggs Benedict." He suppressed an eye roll and a grunt at Jeremy's brief snicker before he sobered up. "You've been in here for the last three hours."
Three hours?! "You mean those friends of yours did this because he looked like the one who really did this to you?" Jeremy asked angrily.
"Don't hold this against us. You don't know what we've been through...the shocks...the unkind words...what HE said to HER for not listening to him."Our sperm donor blamed her for wanting to see something he had the nerve to base on her liking, told her not to go explicitly while knowing what she was capable of. Lizzie was just a goddamned kid! "The others put you in here themselves, while I helped your friend navigate, and yet he still distrusts me."
Jeremy winced. "Yeah, sorry, but he said you're not that bad...right?"
"There's no more time to talk casually. There's all the evidence about this place I helped you find, waiting to be taken out, and you have to get him out. Just follow my instructions to open the locks. Wind them all back up as far as the twelve o'clock position - take care to not tremble too much! - and then the suit will open."
"H-hurry up, Jer!" He did his best to not panic, but it was so hard to not stutter. His friend did the best he could, following the directions to the letter, starting in a corner and working his way clockwise; either way would work.
And finally, success!
He stumbled out and landed right into Jeremy's hold. Goddamn, he was close to falling again and would have. Thankfully, his strength returned in no time. Now they could get out of here and look at what was recovered.
~o~
Everything was here so that they could give this to the police, anonymously. This was why everyone wore gloves to avoid prints being left, as well as any other bodily traces that had DNA.
The blueprints included "suspicious" features like Storage Tank, Mimic and Luring...all under the disguise of entertaining when their creator had other malevolent plans. To have them assist in capturing children to use as subjects for his sick experiments. The same could be said with the wide space in the middle of Circus Baby's body, in her torso and stomach areas, wide enough for small children, and the claw that burst out to grasp the victim - the very same one supposed to just give out ice cream cones.
Jeremy found all of this and worse: he'd gone past the Scooping Room, which Baby instructed him to while Michael was in the unknown springlock suit - courtesy of freaking Funtime Freddy, they eventually learned; they all immediately swarmed him hours right after Kaleia had her turn once she and her beloved were awake and she found him completely naked, making love with him upon his begging after thinking he'd lose his life at first if not for Jeremy and the robot his dead sister's soul possessed - and found a room he accidentally got locked into. HandUnit had said he'd come across a restricted area, and accident or not, he was to be held responsible by being held in until six in the morning when the clean-up crew came. It was meant to be directed at Michael if it had been him, when the words "rescued, fired, and sent home" were mentioned. "'Thank you for being an employee,'" Jeremy said mockingly. "'We hope your experience has not been as regrettable as ours.'"
Ballora - Mom - had been the one to rescue him from that room. The locking mechanism and overall system had been overridden, the latter rebooted through tinkering thanks to Jeremy's skilled hands upon getting help from the ballerina animatronic who had been in there long enough to hear things. He and Mike were free, with all of this, and the truth would be known. Then they'd go to the current location and deal with the other souls.
But that also meant William was on alert, once he'd seen the missing blueprints.
"That room...it also had cameras to our house!" Clara shouted at the top of her lungs. "He SPIED on Evan and manipulated him through that damned Fredbear!" She squeezed her eyes tightly shut. "Goddamn you, William. If he'd lived, you could have turned him fully against Michael. You let everything happen the way it did...you son of a bitch."
Thank God they were in her and Henry's room instead of outside. That revelation sat well with no one in this room, not even her, her son, and of course the man himself who spoke. Henry had been gloomier than usual since yesterday because he felt partially responsible and insisted he knew it. Partly to blame in all of this, and he'd done nothing to stop William. Never knew the monster behind the face of someone he'd thought was a best friend all those years, until his resurrected daughter found him again.
Your world is beginning to burn, Afton.
The Hideaway Lodge is similarly named after the real-life Hurricane Hideaway Lodging. Its accommodations, too.
It's gonna be a while before I see the entire story of Carmen - the opera including the infamous Toreador March, which is Freddy's tune as he kills you when the power goes out.
Kaleia getting butt naked, singing and dancing for her husband in their motel room was inspired by a certain scene in the 1973 Wicker Man - Willow serenading Sergeant Howie who fought off the magic. XD The song does not include the entirety of the original.
"Sister Location - FNAF Animation" by Dominoe Animation on YouTube also inspired this.