Chapter 4: Congratulations
John poked his head out of the basement door, looking around the dimly lit area.
"Is it still there?" Carlton asked from behind him, untrustworthy that the closing of the back door was actually the thing leaving.
"I don't think so." John said after another couple seconds of looking around. "If it is, I don't think it'll attack us, I think it was after the bracelet."
Carlton poked his head out of the door after John, his eyes darting around and checking every inch of what he could see several times. "But why'd it want that?" He mutters, half to himself, as he steps out after John. His eyes focused on the computer, and suddenly had an idea.
"Try 'Fazbear Entertainment Animatronics'." John suggested, working off a hunch. None of their other searches (clown robot Freddy's, evil clown robot Freddy's, clown mime thing follows home, and plenty of other pretty unserious ones) had worked so far. Carlton had a confused expression for a moment before typing it in, his fingers clacking along the keyboard to generate the desired result.
Something caught John's eye in the search results, and they clicked on it. It was a full website, likely made by some guys obsessed with Freddy's, detailing every single Fazbear brand animatronic, when and where they were in use, what they were used for, connections with specific individuals, any notable events involving them, etc. Perfect!
Carlton began scrolling through the files, making sure to read each one. They saw plenty of versions of the main four, as well as some notable others that they didn't recognize, such as 'Balloon Boy' or 'Mangle'. Eventually as they reached the P's, something caught John's eye. "There!" He pointed out, jabbing a finger at it.
Carlton looked at the direction of his finger, finding a file named 'Prize Puppet', with the file image being a small picture of what looked almost exactly like the thing that was recently cornering them in the basement. He clicked on it.
It opened a page full of information on the thing, a full picture of it in what looked like a present box on the right, and an info page on the left.
Prize Puppet
Did you mean: Security Puppet?
Appearance
They skipped that bit, they knew what it looked like.
Use
The Prize Puppet manned the Prize corner, handing out prizes in exchange for tickets. It was in use at the 1987 location. It (like all of the toy line) was equipped with facial recognition technology and a criminal database, allowing it to identify danger.
They found the facial recognition system and the date of the location being before both of their first times at Freddy's interesting, but that was pretty much all for that section.
Important individuals
Henry Emily (creator)
Incidents
Both John and Carlton perked up at this.
Wandering
It (like almost all of Fazbear's bots) has been reported to move around at night.
Tampering
At some point, someone messed with all of the facial recognition software on the toy line, the Prize Puppet is assumed to have also been tampered with.
Stolen
The morning after the Bite of 87', the Prize Puppet was nowhere to be found, it is assumed it was stolen, though some think it ran away.
John and Calton shared a look at that, both due to the supposed 'robbery', and whatever the bite of 87 was, they both silently agreed to check it out later.
Trivia
The Prize Puppet is actually a male character, though people often assume otherwise.
The Prize Puppet is often considered the most 'scary' of all the Freddy's characters.
The Prize Puppet is rumored to have been refurbished from The Security Puppet, which was in use at the original Fredbears Family Diner.
John and Carlton briefly conversate. "Fredbear's Family Diner?" John said, more as a question.
"We should check that out after we check out the original one." Carlton replied as he clicked on the link to the security puppet, opening a brand new page with a new picture. It looked very similar to the Prize Puppet, but slightly slimmer, missing the purple tear-like streaks down its face, green dot lights as eyes, and a nightcap-like hat was adorned on its head. It also appeared to have an actual endoskeleton, unlike its prize version, its body only bending where it usually would.
As usual they skipped the 'Appearance' section as the picture was right there.
Use
The Security Puppet was used in Fredbears Family Diner, from May 26th, 1980 to April 13th, 1983. It was positioned in a prize box by the exit. It was programmed to keep track of kids with 'Security Bracelets'-
John straightened up.
-and prevent them from leaving without a trusted adult or following dangerous individuals.
John glanced down at his wrist, where the bracelet had been.
It had been programmed to retrieve a child if it left the premises.
John nearly winced, looking down at Carlton, who was looking back up at him. "It must have followed the bracelet." John said, "Probably has some deep programming that forces it to follow it, explains why it broke it then left. It didn't want to follow me."
Carlton stared at him for a couple seconds. "It's probably pissed at you for taking that bracelet."
John snorted before sobering up slightly as he realized that it probably was moderately unhappy with him. He'd be mad too if someone made him slink through miles of woodland against his will. He had a rebuttal, however. "You did hit it over the head with a frying pan."
Carlton winced, realizing that it was probably pissed at both of them, which kind of explained why it was so violent with certain objects. He's glad it didn't take out its frustration on them.
He looked back at the website and scrolled down, surprised to find nothing. He clicked on Fredbears, also nothing. He blinked, Carlton slumping in his chair and glancing at the clock to check the time, seeing it was 5:30 in the morning. He groaned, before turning back to John.
"We could get the others over here and fill them in." He suggested.
John blinked at him several times. "You expect all the others to believe a clown robot followed me to your house, broke in, chased us into the basement, broke a bracelet I found, and ran off."
Carlton looked back at the screen. "You make a good point."
"…Charlie might."
"What?" Carlton looked over at John and with a raised eyebrow.
"Charlie was at the house with me when we found the bracelet," John explained. "She's probably easy enough to convince."
Carlton nodded, then gestured over to the basement door. "And the damage to the door'll probably help our case."
John hummed. "Yeah, I'll call her, one sec." He said, pulling out his cellphone and scrolling through his contacts.
Charlie mulled over what John and Carlton just told her. She was over at Carlton's house as John had called her earlier, apologized for waking her up (it wasn't even 6 in the morning), and told her to head over as soon as possible. She was now sitting in the living room, John and Carlton sitting across from her. John looked hopeful while Carlton just seemed embarrassed.
They had just told her something ridiculous, but Charlie felt inclined to believe them. Even though Carlton was known for pranks, he was usually more enthused to actually tell the story, and John wasn't the type to join in on pranks. At least not very often.
Charlie sighed and rubbed her eyes. The strange mascot character she and John found had apparently chased John to his house for the bracelet he took, then promptly left. "It came for the bracelet?" She asked.
"Yes." John clarified, while Carlton covered his face with his hands, assuming Charlie wasn't buying it.
"I believe you." Charlie quickly admitted, causing John to smile and Carlton to look up with an incredulous expression. "At least enough to help you figure out what to do about the supposed 'Prize Puppet.'"
"Good enough for me." Carlton shrugged.
"It left out the backdoor, right?"
John was about to reply with a 'yes', when Carlton butted in. "Technically we never actually saw it leave. We just heard the door close."
John sighed. Clearly they had already discussed this. "But why would it stick around your house?"
"It doesn't really have anywhere to go." Charlie said, mostly thinking aloud. "There's no Freddy's open for it to go to, and the house it was in originally is a wreck, and a couple miles away."
Both John and Carlton stared at her. John looked down as he thought about that reasoning, while Carlton just stared at her, realizing that his paranoia was completely rational.
"Oh god it's still in my house." Carlton muttered, standing up and looking around the room for any movements that weren't supposed to be there.
The other Charlie looked at the bedroom she had just entered curiously.
She couldn't actually find an attic so she had looked for another room to stay in. She found (what she assumed was) Redhead's room, then this one. Nobody was staying in this one, so she decided to camp here for a while.
The room had a bed (obviously), a small armchair, a closet, and a desk. She found her gaze lingering on the armchair. It was red, and was fairly lumpy from previous occupants.
She realized she'd never actually sat down in a chair.
She hadn't even thought about that. She had obviously sat in chairs when she was alive, but as the puppet? Not once.
She had to remedy that, she decided, moving towards the chair. She turned and, carefully and as slowly as she could, sat down.
It was nice. She had forgotten what it felt like to sit in a comfy chair, it was a lot nicer than the box she had been kept in back at Freddy's. She noticed that she really wasn't that heavy, probably not even heavier than a person, the cushions barely sunk from her weight. She leaned back into the chair, thinking.
What had happened while she was asleep? Where were all her friends? What had happened to Freddy's? Where was He?
There were so many questions, and Charlie had no idea how to find the answers to any of them. She rubbed her hands down her face slowly, letting out a 'sigh'.
Carlton hated this idea. Have those two seen, like, any horror movie? Why would they split up? That literally never ends well.
But noooo, they did it anyway, as both Charlie and John were sure that Mister Puppet Man wasn't dangerous. Well, he was, but he seemed relatively non-violent. There was a notable difference.
He had been assigned to look at the bedrooms, which he was fine with, actually. What would it want with anything in a bedroom?
Fortunately, his bedroom was clean. He had checked everywhere, under the bed, in the closet, in every box in the closet, in all the drawers (even though they were probably too small he wasn't taking any chances), and behind the door. If it was in there, it left when he was looking for it. He wasn't exactly reassured by that thought.
Next was his dad's room. He let out an audible sigh as he grabbed the doorknob. He didn't want to search, he was sure it was somewhere else anyway. His dad's room was boring. He opened the door wide and started to scan the room.
It took about 0.7 seconds to regret his decision to open the door so wide. It was in here, sitting on the armchair. And now it was looking at him.
Its legs pooled on the floor, bent in strange positions, its forearms on the armrests with its hands hanging off the edge. It was leaning into the back rest, and Carlton noticed that when it was sitting, it really wasn't that tall. Most of its height was its legs, if they sat next to each other (theoretically, he'd much rather not do that), they'd be almost eye level.
His hand slipped off the knob due to the sweat quickly culminating and the door opened fully, bouncing off the wall with a sound that was much louder than he wished in the quiet room. Carlton flinched, and The Prize Puppet tilted its head, watching him. They stared at each other for a good long time, Carlton felt immense deja-vu.
"S-sorry for, uh, intruding." Carlton stammered, beginning to reach for the door, he froze when The Puppet started to move. Its hands slid up to grab the end of the armrests, and it started to stand up. He felt his throat go dry as the arms bent unnaturally as it pushed down on them to lift itself up. Its legs slid along the floor as the torso seemed to almost float into place, he noticed that the legs were not touching the floor. It was floating an inch or two off the floor. What kind of robot can float!? It looked down at him, tilting its head again.
It slowly started to move forward, looking like it was hanging from an invisible string. Carlton gave up on the door and backed up, out of the doorway completely. It kept coming closer, and Carlton kept backing up, eventually into the wall behind him. He watched as the thing bent downward, its hands nearly reaching the floor as it moved through the doorway, entering the hallway.
It looked down at him as it rose back to its full height slowly. He had no idea what it was thinking. Its face was smiling, giving it a quite happy facial expression, but it wasn't like said face could change. It was always smiling.
"H-hi." He said finally, considering his options. He could run, a good option, but he didnt know how fast it was, and it could probably just reach out and grab him before he made it far. Or, he could talk to it, and hope that it wasn't plotting anything bad. He decided to do that one.
The Puppet did not respond, simply staring at him. Or he assumed it was, he couldn't see exactly where it was looking (unless it was pissed enough the white dots from earlier show up), but the face itself was angled towards him. Plus, he definitely felt like he was being watched.
"I-I'm Carlton." He decided to introduce himself, deciding that was as good a place as any to start. The Puppet tilted its head slightly, clearly listening. "I a-am once again sorry for the whole… pan thing."
The Puppet didn't respond (big surprise), and Carlton started to slowly inch to his right along the wall, trying to move down the hallway. The Puppet followed him with its gaze, but did not move from the spot it was at. "I-I'm gonna go i-if that's okay." He pointed down the hallway where the rest of the house lay, just around the corner.
The Puppet just stared at him. "Th-that's okay, right? You're cool with that?" Carlton clarified, wanting to make sure he wasn't about to piss it off again. The Puppet nodded, and Carlton let out a relieved sigh.
He watched The Puppet over his shoulder as he walked down the hallway cautiously, it did not move. Carlton decided that getting to the end of the hallway was more important than making sure it wasn't going to jump him from behind, he looked forward so he could start walking faster.
He reached the end of the hallway, sighing in relief as he looked over to check on The Puppet again before he walked around the corner. He stifled a yelp and took a step back. It was closer. A lot closer. Close enough that he could probably reach out and touch it. It looked down at him with just as unreadable an expression as ever.
"S-sure, you can come!" He agreed to the unspoken question (or perhaps a statement?), giving an enthusiastic pair of thumbs-up. He stepped down around the corner cautiously, not taking his eyes off it. Him? Her? Them?
"Carlton?"
He jumped as he heard Charlie ask his name from down the hall to his left. Due to the turn around the corner, Charlie couldn't see The Puppet, and The Puppet couldn't see Charlie (unless it could see through walls or something).
He reluctantly turned his head to look at Charlie, keeping The Puppet in his peripheral vision, he noticed it turn its head to look at the wall, clearly listening to Charlie.
"What's wrong?" Charlie asked, noticing the distress that Carlton wasn't exactly trying to hide. He noticed that John was with Charlie, and seemed just as worried as Charlie did. Carlton glanced at The Puppet, who tilted its head at the voice. Slowly, it started to reach for the wall, its long fingers beginning to curl around the corner. Carlton started to move towards Charlie and John, noticing that they had seen The Puppet's hand. John looked anxious while Charlie seemed mostly curious.
The Puppet's mask peeked around the corner, studying the trio. Its gaze lingered on Charlie, likely because of the fact that it hadn't seen her before. It slowly moved around the corner, drifting into view.
"Hi." Charlie greeted, giving a light wave. Carlton was surprised at how distinctly not-scared her voice sounded. It was barely even cautious. The Puppet gave a small wave back, and Carlton couldn't help but feel a sliver of offense that Charlie got a reply and he didn't.
Charlie took a cautious step forward- John seemed to get notably more anxious- and The Puppet drifted forward slightly in return. They stared at each other, Charlie seeming to study The Puppet, and The Puppet seeming to do the same.
Carlton was still so curious over what happened in its head.
The young woman in front of her was strange. In multiple ways.
First off, she seemed remarkably unafraid of Charlie, which was a stark contrast to anything she'd seen before, especially with Redhead (who's name was apparently Carlton). It was actually pretty refreshing, someone not being very scared of her.
Also, there was something horribly familiar about the girl, yet, Charlie had never seen her before. They stared at each other for a moment, and Charlie felt a little awkward. She had followed Redh- she had followed Carlton because she was curious, and also wanted to make a point that she wasn't dangerous. But now she didn't really know what to do, had she made her point?
The girl held out a hand, slowly and cautiously, towards Charlie, her pointer finger held out slightly. Charlie heard something from one of the other two, some sound of worry. They were still scared of Charlie. She looked over at them for a moment, and decided to prove her point properly.
She slowly raised her hand towards the girl's, causing the girl to pull back minutely, before reaching forward again. After a moment, their hands connected, at the palm. Charlie felt strange, the girl felt… wrong, somehow. She couldn't explain it, but it wasn't like it hurt or anything. She didn't feel quite as… there as she should.
The girl had a strange, blank look for a moment, before her eyes focused and her mouth quirked up into a smile, looking up at Charlie. "Nice to meet you."