Chapter 2: Blood tears

The night ended way too soon for a very tired William. Henry's disappearance in the middle of the opening ceremony complicated everything, and he even had to ask Maggie to help him deliver pizzas to the many customers getting more and more impatient as he was taking too long to serve them.

The diner worked beyond his expectations, and he hoped it would be the same for its official opening in two days. The charming operation was not over, however. Today, the restaurant welcomed the press. A lot of journalists and reporters wanted to interview him during service the day before, so William invited them the next day to visit, answer their questions, and offer them a small show from Fredbear to make sure they would eat out of his hand and bring a lot of curious people to the diner. He aimed for national television.

For his trial run, Fredbear did pretty well. It was encouraging. Despite the small overheating at the end of the shift that modulated his voice box a little, the robot performed all night long without major problems. A night of rest should have fixed the problem, but William wanted to check it after the journalists' visit, just to be sure.

A movement on his right made him lift his head. Cuddling tightly next to him, his wife was still sleeping peacefully. On the other side, George and Elizabeth were hugging each other, nestling against his right arm. His family had to return to Colorado at the end of the day, which saddened him a lot. For now, crammed into the motel room William rented, the roboticist made the most of this small family meeting. Only Michael refused to sleep with them. Lying on the couch, he was snoring, an arm on the floor. It was not like there were more places in bed anyway.

William sat up and cautiously extricated himself out of the blanket. George shifted slightly but quickly appended himself to his mother a few seconds later. Soft, William stared at him for a few seconds before walking to the bathroom.

He jumped meeting his own reflection in the mirror. He looked terrible. His eyes were still red and huge dark rings fell under his eyes. He tried to wash away the fatigue with water, without a lot of success, before taking a quick shower. He put back on his purple shirt, as he forgot the rest of his clothes inside the restaurant the day before, too busy to bring his suitcase to the motel.

Surprisingly, he found that hideous shirt suited him quite well after all. After all, it brought him some luck during the opening ceremony.

When he got out of the bathroom, his wife was stretching in the bed. William kissed her lovingly.

"I have to go." he whispers to avoid waking up the children. "Meet me for lunch at the pizzeria. Love you."

She waved him goodbye as he quickly exited the room.

The motel was right in front of the pizzeria, conveniently. The building's location wasn't that good, lost between the desert and a few old people's apartment blocks circling it like in a vice, but it was cheap.

He grimaced when he noticed the big windows were already covered with dust on the outside, and with dirty children's fingerprints on the inside. He would have to get used to that. He opened the door and made his way into the main hall, leading straight to the cash register. It was so big it could barely stand on the counter, William almost made it fall twice the day before, but it would do for now. Since it was the biggest investment with the robots, the rest of the furniture came from discount shops. He renovated it to make it look new. More or less. Two chairs broke already.

The main entrance led to two places: the dining room on his right, where Fredbear's eyes were shining bright blue in the distance, and the backstage on his left, where Henry's and his own office were, and a few storage rooms. William pushed the door leading to them, passing by an empty room that would soon be turned into a security office.

He stopped in front of Henry's office and knocked twice, not believing one second he was in there, then opened the door, confirming he had not returned. All lights were off, no sign of life. He sighed, disappointed, before entering his own office, where a huge pile of papers was waiting for him. There was something to suit all tastes: tax returns, grant requests, certifications his robots were not dangerous, … He would have fun filling everything for quite a while, but not now.

Instead, he opened a hidden door behind his desk chair, his "laboratory" as he liked to call it.

In a small cave, three endoskeletons were standing proudly in the middle of the room. The first one, a golden rabbit, was his task of the day. He wanted to dazzle the press, what could possibly be better than a second unexpected robot on the stage? William nicknamed it Spring Bonnie, because of that feature he didn't have time to test yet: the springlocks. When William pushed a few buttons, the metal endoskeleton retracted so a man could wear the skin of the robot like a costume. The metal parts were held back by small metal hooks, so the endoskeleton didn't accidentally reform while a performer was in and impale them alive… Which was the main issue William had for weeks now, but people didn't need to know that. Good thing he only needed the robot for his little show.

Spring Bonnie was quite special for him, it was the first Animatronic he designed, almost fifteen years ago. The rabbit could sing and dance, reproducing songs on his guitar, more than thirty, which was way more than any music disk out there.

Next to the rabbit, two incomplete robots were waiting their time patiently: Spring Freddy, which Henry preferred to call Golden Freddy, a better version of Fredbear with spring locks that would replace it in a few months, and Foxy, a fox pirate he had fun working on these last nights. That was months he was trying to obtain the authorization to create official Animatronics derived from a cartoon show, Freddy & Friends. He always loved that show younger, like many, and wanted to create his own band in real life. Fredbear and Springbonnie were heavily inspired by them, he wanted now to bring to life the real stars of the show: Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy. This was the main reason Golden Freddy and Foxy were still patiently waiting backstage. He couldn't really show them to anyone for now. He couldn't show Spring Bonnie either, now that he was thinking about it, but… Oh well, he was ready to take the risk. He looked different enough from the Bonnie from the show.

He had other plans in case he never managed to reach his goal. The walls of his rooms were covered with blueprints he imagined. Like this idea of a little robotic clown girl, he made for Elizabeth. She always asked him to create a robot for her. Maybe he would, someday.

Cautiously, he switched on Spring Bonnie's Animatronic. The rabbit blinked a few times before standing straight. After a few seconds, it started to wave mechanically to an invisible crowd like it was supposed to. William grabbed its command controller, and, steps by steps, guided him toward the exit of the room. The robot obeyed, which still impressed his creator, even after so many times. The rabbit was taller than Fredbear, and thinner, which made him look quite impressive while walking.

William led the robot to the dining room, then made him climb very slowly the three big steps of the stage. He positioned Spring Bonnie next to Fredbear, finally ready for the show.

The roboticist looked at the big clock on the wall. He was just in time! The press would be there in an instant. He got frustrated he didn't have more time to check on Fredbear, but this would have to do.

He quickly joined his office to change his shirt for a cleaner one, then opened the doors to the dozen journalists patiently waiting in front of the building. He anxiously welcomed them inside and waited as they all installed their equipment.

Several of them noticed Henry's absence. William avoided the subject, pretexting he had the flu so they stopped asking questions. It was hard to hide how worried he was about his disappearance, he felt guilty he didn't notice him going out, probably hardly drunk. He hoped he didn't put himself in danger, or worse, get arrested by the police. That would not be good for the business's reputation.

William shook his thoughts about Henry aside and hopped on the stage, right between the two robots. He forced a smile and started his little speech with the little confidence he could pretend he had.

"Welcome to Fredbear's Family Diner, a new-generation pizzeria where fantasy comes to life and hopes never die! I am William Afton, the main engineer of the Animatronics, and the manager of the place. But enough about me, I know why you are all here, and it's for my two beautiful Animatronics prototypes: Fredbear, which you all met yesterday." He said, pointing at the bear. "And Spring Bonnie, who makes his big premiere in front of your own eyes and will be available on stage for the real opening, in a few days."

William waited a few seconds, as some journalists took notes. So far, so good. He walked to Spring Bonnie and pulled the rabbit's bow tie, revealing its mechanical spine and several complex buttons beeping here and there. The cameras flashed for a few seconds, blinding him.

"The robots had been conceived entirely on a metal endoskeleton, hidden under the suit, to which an artificial intelligence got implemented to give them some freedom of movement, and more credible interactions with the children." William continued, pointing at several pieces.

A hand raises in the crowd. William nodded to the journalist.

"Can you make them work?"

"Impatient, I see. Sure! Let me show you."

He jumped off the stage and walked towards a big box tied to the wall. He opened it, then pushed a few buttons and levers. Both Animatronics immediately started to sing together a kid's song, which Spring Bonnie reproduced on his guitar at the same time.

However, William quickly frowned.

Something was wrong with Fredbear.

The bear was moving normally, but something seemed to block its movement when he turned to look at Spring Bonnie, which desynchronized the song and broke the magic of their performance. He let them sing a few more seconds, then quickly turned them off, trying to stay as neutral as he could.

He expected a flood of questions, but the crowd stayed surprisingly silent, stupefied, staring at the stage. William followed their gaze. Red tears were leaking on Fredbear's face. The liquid flowed from his legs parts as well, slowly spreading on the floor.

Several journalists looked his way, worried. In shock, William opened and closed his mouth a few times, speechless.

What was even that?!

"Is that… Blood?" A woman finally dared to ask.

The word disturbed William, who quickly snapped out of it. He jumped back on the stage and put himself in front of Fredbear, to mask the leak.

"No… Of course not!" He answered hesitantly. "It must be some rust, that's all. Some pieces we used for the robots are old. Our robots are still prototypes, but I assure you they will be ready Monday for the true opening, don't worry!"

No one looked convinced. The growing puddle under the bear was too suspicious to not be doubted.

Nervous, William cut short the meeting and awkwardly pushed the journalists out of his building after a few technical questions he barely managed to answer. He immediately locked the door behind them, and closed the curtains of the dining room, before running to the stage.

He pulled Fredbear's bow tie to open the robot's stomach, but it resisted. William palpated the costume, soon realizing it had been forced close, and quite deformed with that. The roboticist quickly went back to his office to grab a crowbar. After a few minutes of struggle, he finally managed to open it, not imagining one second what he would find inside.

The tool fell from his hands as his brain tried to register what his eyes were seeing.

Curled up inside the bear's stomach was a small brown girl, lacerated by the endoskeleton during the show to the point some part of her body seemed to have merged with it.

Legs shaking, William jumped off the stage, backing away as much as he could from the morbid scene.

What was he even supposed to do? Warn the police? So soon after they just opened? The corpse would kill his dream before it even had a chance to be true. He would end up in prison, his projects banished forever. He couldn't lose this job. He couldn't. His family was counting on him. He couldn't let his kids grow up with him in prison! Added to that, he put thousands of dollars into this project, his family would be ruined, all because of him.

He fell to his knees, a loud sob escaping his throat. He couldn't tell the police! But then what? He walked to the window and opened the curtain slightly. The journalists were still there, talking together. They seemed to debate. He had to be quick. If they called the police, it was over.

He ran to his workshop like the Devil was chasing him. He wasn't controlling anything anymore. His brain was disconnected. He was acting like an automaton. He grabbed the big tarpaulin that covered Spring Bonnie previously, plastic gloves, and ran back to the dining room. He put his improvised mortuary bag on the floor and, determined, pulled one of the child's arms.

The corpse fell in his arms. He let go of it quickly, unable to hold the distressed scream that escaped his throat. One only dead green eye was judging him. The rest of her face got crushed to the point no one could identify the body. He horrified himself thinking it was probably a good thing. His hand shook, as he tried to take out the pieces that stayed stuck inside the robot. Once most of it was out, he closed the bag, making sure it was not looking like a body, but more like a weird trash bag. He dragged the bag towards the entrance, before realizing he couldn't go out like this.

"Alright, William." He whispered to himself. "Don't panic."

He turned around and pulled the body to the back door, in the kitchen. He slowly opened the door. He was behind the restaurant, no one would see him there. He checked the clock. The garbage truck was supposed to pass in a few minutes. Determined, he dragged the body to the nearest garbage can. He took out several trash bags, threw the black tarpaulin in, then put the bags back above it. He hoped it would work. If he was lucky, no one would ever know it. Or if they did, it would be impossible to suspect him.

Right?

He threw the plastic gloves in the bin before he turned around to go back inside. Something caught his eye, lying on the floor.

The Marionette.

How did it even get there? He didn't notice it was gone. Carefully, he picked up his robot and brought it back inside, hoping the rain didn't damage it too much. He sat it against the fridge. It was not an emergency for now.

He returned to Fredbear. The inside of the robot was still dirty because of all the blood. William returned to his office and grabbed cleaning supplies. For three hours, he did his best to erase all traces of what happened. He cleaned every mechanical piece, changed the costume parts he couldn't save, and moped the floor until it looked as new as the rest.

Once the robot and the floor were cleaned, he made sure the trash can was empty, which it was. The corpse was gone. Forever, he hoped. He felt terrible for the girl, but… He didn't even think one second of their parents. Would they search? Would they think of coming here? How did the girl even end there? He had so many questions and so few answers. He was so tired.

He still found time to put back the Marionnette inside its box. One of the watching bracelets was missing, which annoyed him, but compared to what he went through today, he really didn't care.

Pale, he decided to leave the pizzeria for today. He could pretext he was feeling a bit sick so his wife didn't worry. Tomorrow, all of this would be behind him, and things would go back to normal. Or at least, he hoped so.

It was all just a nightmare.