John sighed, sitting on the counter of Carlton's kitchen. He was still practically reeling from what was happening.
He jumped slightly as someone tapped his shoulder, looking over at Carlton. "What?"
"So…" Carlton began pulling out his phone. "I looked into the Bite."
John's eyebrows raised. "Oh?"
"Yeah. We should grab Charlie and go. I found something."
John blinked. "Now?"
"Soon." Carlton said quickly, and John could tell he didn't fully trust The Puppet.
Charlie was sitting in the passenger seat of her car, John driving it as Charlie didn't even know where they were going. She had been practically funneled into the car by Carlton, and they had left Jessica and Marla to stay at the house with The Puppet.
She looks over at John. "Where… are we going exactly?"
Carlton pipes up from the back seat. "We're gonna find out what happened back in 87."
"What?" She looked back at Carlton confusedly.
"That location that The Puppet was at was closed because of an event called the Bite of 87." Carlton explained in an almost restless tone.
Charlie didn't like the sound of that. "What was that?"
"One of the bots, I couldn't find which exactly, bit some guy."
Charlie frowned, blinking. She wasn't quite sure where this was going.
"And the day after, The Puppet was missing. Completely disappeared for years until it turned up last night. I think the two events are related." Carlton explained.
"And?" Charlie asked, "Where are we going to find this information?"
"Apparently the guy who worked as security beforehand is some guy named Jeremy," Carlton continued, "and I know where he lives." He says as though that's a normal thing to know.
"Wh- how?" Charlie sputtered.
Carlton shrugs, "I just looked him up, found his… Facebook, I think, messaged him, and he gave it to me. I said I wanted to ask him some stuff."
"Ok." Charlie mumbles, rubbing her eyes. "That sort of makes sense, I guess. How long have you been planning this meetup?"
"Since this morning." Carlton admitted, "A little after you showed up."
Suddenly the car stopped, and Charlie jumped, looking back at the front of the car. "We're here." John said quietly, looking up at the tall building.
Charlie looked up at the drabby apartment complex, and gave a tired breath. She hoped that this 'Jeremy' guy was nice.
"So," Charlie said as they walked through the hallway of the apartment building, "What are we even gonna ask him?" She cringed lightly as she stepped over a puddle of an unknown substance.
"What happened in the pizzeria at night, he would've been present for that." Carlton explained, "It could show us why The Puppet is… like that." Charlie nodded in response. She was admittedly very curious.
"This is it, I think." said John in an incredibly confident manner, stopping in front of a door.
They all stopped and stared at the door. Charlie took a deep breath, went up, and knocked.
Marla sighed as she plopped down onto the couch, turning to Jessica. "What do you think the others are doing?"
Jessica shrugged, also sitting. "No clue. Hope it helps answer some questions though." She muttered the last part half to herself.
Marla nodded and opened her mouth to say something before jumping as something was abruptly plopped onto the ottoman in between them. She looked up at The Puppet, who she just now realized had reentered the room, before glancing at what she had brought in.
It was a box of the card game: 'UNO'.
Jessica and Marla shared a confused glance before looking up at The Puppet, who just pointed at the game. She did it in such a way that seemed confused, as if asking 'What is that?'
"That's… UNO." Jessica explains, moderately confusedly. "The card game?"
The Puppet tilted her head, giving the vibe of both confusion and interest.
"Have you… not played it before?" Marla asked. She considered this, thinking of how likely The Puppet would have ever seen the game when she was stationed at the pizzeria. She supposed it might have been sold as a prize, but even then she doubted The Puppet actually played the game. The image of The Puppet playing UNO with the other characters was amusing, though.
The Puppet shook her head.
"...Would you want to?" Jessica asked cautiously. The Puppet nodded eagerly in response.
Jessica shrugged, reaching for the game.
Carlton stared at the door in dawning nervousness, waiting for this 'Jeremy' fellow to answer the door. He had messaged with him over the phone, but he hadn't gotten much of a feeling for what Jeremy was actually like. Jeremy barely said anything.
Eventually, the door opened a crack and an eye peeked out. It was brown and squinting at the trio. His skin was dark, and he appeared to be wearing a hat over black, curly hair.
"What." He scrawled out quietly, in a tired voice.
Charlie greeted him, "H-Hello, Mr. Fitzgerald we- uh- just came to ask some questions?"
Jeremy squinted slightly more.
"…About Freddy's?" Carlton chimed in. "Y'know, our agreement from earlier?"
Jeremy blinked, looking down for a moment, before seeming to come to a revelation, "Oh. Right. That." he said in a calm tone. "...Forgot." He sighed tiredly, as if annoyed at his forgetting.
"One minute." He said quietly, closing the door.
The group waited for a moment, a little anxiously as they heard Jeremy walk back into his apartment.
Eventually, Jeremy opened the door fully, showing him in full as he unhooked the chain on the door. He was quite tall, and was now wearing some sunglasses over his eyes. He was dressed in a casual sweatshirt and jeans, as well as the hat that Carlton had noticed earlier. He was slightly leaning to the left, as if one of his legs was injured. A scar ran from his forehead, down through his right eye, and all the way down to just above his lip. Despite the intimidating appearance, Jeremy smiles in a slightly nervous way.
The trio shared glances of anxiety, excitement, and suspicion all at once as Jeremy stepped aside. "Come on in. It's… been forever since I've had anyone to talk to."
Charlie had decided she quite liked this game.
They had played 6 games of UNO by now, and Charlie had won 5 of them (Marla won the other one). She had never really played a game like this before, but she was apparently quite good at it.
As she carefully placed down a card, Jessica mentioned something that Charlie could tell she had been thinking about for a bit. "So, I had a thought." She said as she drew a card, then played it, "We should come up with a name for you." She pointed at Charlie.
Charlie tilted her head in confusion. She had a name, didn't she? Though, she had said she forgot it, so she technically didn't have one. To them, at least.
Jessica still seemed to see the confusion. "No offense, but 'Puppet' isn't a very good name." She said a little pointedly.
Charlie couldn't help but agree with that. She nodded.
"But… I'm not sure on what to call you instead." Jessica tapped her chin in thought.
"She was also called 'The Marionette'." Marla mentioned as she played a card.
"That's worse." Jessica frowned.
"Well, yeah, but we could shorten it to 'Mari', or something like that." Marla defended as Charlie played a card.
Jessica hummed. "I… really like that, actually. It works." She looked up at Charlie. "Do you like it?"
Charlie, or perhaps Mari, thought about it. She did like it. It was close-ish to her real name and still sounded like one she could have. She nodded, accepting the name, and a small little tune played from her music box as she did. It was much better than them just referring to her as 'The Puppet' forever.
Jessica smiled, and Marla did as well. "Alright, Mari, then." Marla said happily.
Jessica paused as she went to play her card. "Wait, didn't-" She looked over to the newly dubbed Mari, who held up her empty hands with a tinkly 'laugh'.
Jessica sighed as Marla began to shuffle the cards again.
Mari (she had decided to refer to herself as that as well, at least for the time being) liked this game.
Carlton, Charlie, and John all walked into Jeremy's living room. The walls were a soft yellow, with a light brown carpet, and there was a small fan hanging from the ceiling. It was surprisingly clean, the only real trash being an empty fast food bag on the table, which - when spotted by Jeremy - was promptly crumpled up and tossed in a small trash can tucked by the couch. The couch itself was large enough to sit around 3, with a smaller 1 seater next to it. Both were brown and relatively simple looking, the chair looking like it could recline.
Jeremy turned to them, and gestured to the couches. "Have a seat." They complied, John and Charlie sitting on the couch, while Carlton sat on the chair. Before any of them could ask where Jeremy was going to sit, he waved off the concern. "Don't worry, I'll stand."
He squinted at them. "First of all, which one's Carlton?"
Carlton raised his hand. "Here." He pointed at the other two. "And that's John, and Charlie."
Jeremy nodded, mentally cataloging the names.
"So," he said in his quiet voice, "Freddy's."
"Um, so Mr. Fitzgerald," Charlie begins, but haltered, unsure of how to put this, "We're, uh, curious over what exactly the, uh, Bite of '87 was, exactly."
Jeremy was silent for a moment, and the shades made it hard to tell exactly what he's thinking. "Ok, first off, call me Jeremy, please. Mr. Fitzgerald makes me sound like a math teacher." He said, which made Carlton snicker.
"Second, uh, do y'know the basics of what happened?"
John nodded, "How one of the robots bit somebody? On the head?"
"Yeah, that's what happened." Jeremy half-mumbled. "D'y'know who was bit?" He said this bit with more clarity.
The trio all shook their heads, and Jeremy sighed. "How do I put this…" he mumbled, tapping his chin.
After a moment, he sighed, pointed at his scar, and said with a slight uneasy smirk. "I'll give you three guesses on where this came from."
The room fell silent, Charlie put her hand over her mouth, John just stared, while Carlton fidgeted, looking at the floor as he refused to look at the scar. Jeremy's smirk fell as nobody seemed amused by his joke.
Charlie slowly took her hand off her mouth and shuddered. "Do…" She looked up at Jeremy. "Do you know why?"
Jeremy seemed surprised by the question, and his eyebrows raised. He looked at the ground as he tapped his chin in thought. "I… don't really know how to answer that." He muttered just barely loud enough for the others to hear. He looked back up at them. "I don't know, sorry."
Carlton waved him off. "It's fine."
Jeremy smiled as John and Charlie nod in agreement. After a moment he frowned slightly as a thought struck him. "Well, there is something." He said quietly, and the three people were immediately quite interested.
As he noticed the three's interest, Jeremy sighed and began to go on. "I- …think I told you, Carlton, what my job at the restaurant was?" He clarified, and Carlton nodded.
"You were security, I think."
"I don't think I told you that I worked the night shift, though." He said, and Carlton shook his head, confused.
"Wait, didn't the bite happen during the day?" Charlie questioned.
Jeremy pointed at her. "Yes, it did. I was moved to the dayshift that morning, 'cause they needed another guard that day. Then, well, yknow." He gestured at his head, and Charlie nodded.
"Well, the night shift was… something."
John suddenly remembered something from the wiki page he had read about The Puppet. "I heard that the robots moved around at night?" He half said-half asked.
Jeremy looked at him in slight surprise, but relaxed quickly.
"That's… a way to put it, yes." Jeremy said half to himself. "They all moved, q-quite a bit, actually." He stuttered slightly at the end but pulled his voice out of shaking quickly, but Charlie noticed.
"They- well, they tried to… kill me." Jeremy said quietly, and was returned with a stunned silence.
"Kill?" John clarified after a moment, his voice forcefully steady. "Like, as in what?"
"As in they tried to kill me." Jeremy replied.
"How did- what?" Charlie muttered, mostly to herself. Had The Puppet been involved? She hoped not.
"They- the mascots- kept entering the office." Jeremy explained.
"What did- did you fight them?" Carlton asked confusedly.
"No, no," Jeremy shot down quickly, "I had a- a mask, of Freddy. I wore it and it messed with the facial recognition, so anything that wandered in, wandered out a little after." He explained.
"...that doesn't sound too bad." Charlie mumbled quietly.
"It wouldn't have been, but it didn't work on two of them." Jeremy explained, a little annoyedly, "First off, the old Foxy's facial recognition was so messed up that he didn't care, so I shined a flashlight at him, which messed with it again because of how damaged he was." He dropped off into silence.
"And… who's the other one?" Carlton asked.
Jeremy scratched at his neck, and even through the shades, it was obvious his eye wasn't focused. "There was something at the prize corner." He muttered quiet enough that Carlton couldn't even hear it.
Charlie frowned in confusion, not knowing what that meant. John remembered something from that article he read earlier, and his heart fell.
The Puppet was stationed at the prize corner.
"Sorry, what?" Carlton asked confusedly, not noticing John's look of dawning horror.
"There…" Jeremy started slowly and carefully, "was something at the- the prize corner." He didn't notice Carltons immediate look of dread, "It wasn't fooled either. Not 'cause it had messed up eyes, it was just…smarter. I had to wind up a- some music box. Kept it sleeping, I think."
"What was it?" John asked carefully, noticing that Charlie was still unsure of who it was.
"This- this p-puppet thing." He looked moderately distressed at the memory, his voice was shaking, and didn't notice Charlie's sudden look of terror. "It freaked me out. Still- haha- st-still does just thinking about it." He chuckled humorlessly, while the trio shared looks of dread and realization.
"My last night on the job," Jeremy began, rubbing his arm slowly, "I let the- I let it out at the very end of my shift. It- It lunged at me, a-and…" He fell into silence, rubbing the front of his neck. "It hit 6, and it… left. They- they all stopped at 6." He sighed shakily.
There was a shaky, tense silence throughout the small living room for a moment. Jeremy was staring at the wall, lost in thought, while the three on the couches looked between each other.
After a moment, Carlton pretended to check his watch (he didn't have one). "Oh, I hadn't even noticed the time, Jeremy?"
Jeremy didn't respond, continuing to stare ahead.
"Jeremy?" Carlton tried again, his voice slightly louder and slightly more anxious.
Jeremy made a movement that looked to be a mix between a flinch and a twitch before looking over at Carlton. "S-sorry, what?" He looked slightly embarrassed and still anxious. "Sorry, my- uh- thing," he pointed at his scar, "made my memory and- and attention all… messy." He explained nervously.
"It's okay, don't worry." Charlie reassured quickly, understanding that an injury to the brain would mess with it quite a bit.
"Yeah, we just have a…" Carlton paused momentarily, "friend who's moving a couch." He said decidedly. "And we said we would help."
"Oh yeah." John made a convincing display of realization. "Is it that time already?"
"Oh, that's fine. Go help your friend." Jeremy said in a sort of reassuring tone, still awkward though.
Charlie sighed both in realization and relief. "Thank you." She stood up, and both John and Carlton followed suit, and then followed her to the door.
"Um, thank you three for coming over." Jeremy said quietly, "I haven't talked to anyone in forever."
"Oh," Charlie said in slight surprise, "It's no problem, really." Carlton and John nodded in agreement.
"Do you want help with the couch?"
"No, no, we're fine, really." John reassured.
"See you guys later?" Jeremy said half like a question.
Charlie pauses. "Sure."
They waved goodbye and closed the door, and Charlie immediately pulled out her phone and dialed Marla's number.
Marla watched as Mari played a wild card, then tapped one of the colors on it to indicate her choice. She had chosen yellow.
Marla looked down at her cards and sighed, seeing her hand of entirely blues and reds with a single green. Before she could do anything else, her pocket vibrated. "Huh." She mumbled, pulling it out. "One sec." She said, holding up a finger as she stood up to stand in the corner, answering the call. "Hello?"
"Marla," Charlie's voice answered hurriedly, whispering, "If you're in the room with The Puppet, move out of her hearing range," Marla opened her mouth to respond confusedly, before Charlie interrupted, "Trust me. Please."
Anxiety racking her brain, Marla, as nonchalantly as she could, walked over and into the kitchen, out of Mari's earshot. "What's up?" She asked as calmly as she could, though worry was noticeable.
"..." Charlie was silent over the phone for a small moment, and Marla could tell she was thinking about how to say whatever the info was. "Ok, so, be quiet about this, Alright?"
"...Ok?" Marla could feel that pit in her stomach increasing.
"So, we visited an old night security guard that worked at the Freddy's that The Puppet was at, and he said that…" She dropped off into a nervous silence.
"And?" Marla muttered.
"The mascots tried to kill him. The Puppet included."
Marla was quiet, completely silent for a good long while. "Marla?"
"O-oh." Marla whispered, looking back at the doorway to the living room, shaking slightly. "Are we… s-sure about this?" She was fighting as hard as she could to keep her voice steady.
"...Yes." Charlie says as gently as she possibly could.
Marla leaned against the wall, running her other hand through her hair as she stared at the ceiling. "Oooooh my goooood…."
"Are you okay?" Charlie sounded worried.
"Charlie, I've been sitting not 3 feet from her for- like- an hour and you just told me she used to kill people!" Marla shout-whispered.
"I know it's a lot but-"
"Of course it's a lot!"
They dropped into a shaky silence, and Marla turned to stare at the door frame again.
"…you have to tell Jessica."
Marla sighed, shaking and rubbing her arm. "Yeah. Okay."
"We'll see you when we get back?"
"Hopefully." Marla mumbled, hanging up.
"What? I was winning." Jessica joked with a grin as she's pulled aside by Marla, into the kitchen, leaving Mari alone in the living room.
Marla looked her in the eyes, the look of which admittedly took Jessica off guard, she looked scared.
"What's up?" She asked gently, steadying Marla.
"…O-ok, I'm gonna tell you something and you have to promise not to be… loud about it." Marla explained hurriedly.
"Alright?" Jessica agreed confusedly.
"U-uhm, so Charlie told me that she talked to an old night guard at Freddy's…" Marla explained, fidgeting with her shirt, "and he said that the mascots tried to… kill him."
It took Jessica a moment to process the comment. When she does, her face is suddenly racked with confusion, fright, and slight adrenaline. She had been playing UNO with somebody who had tried to murder someone? Actually, Marla didn't say that Mari was among them, so maybe-
"I-including Mari." Marla whispered, unknowingly dashing this thought.
Jessica was about to respond, when her gaze landed on a spot behind Marla. Her face dropped, and she stiffened, slowly taking a single step back.
Marla's heart nearly stopped as the sound of a hand of cards tapping against the wood floor echoed through the quiet space from behind her. Turning, she finds Mari standing there, in the doorframe. She was completely still with one of her hands on the doorknob and the other at her side, her unreadable face staring at the two girls. It was evident she had heard everything.
There was a long, tense moment of silence, the noiseless staring contest lasting for a painfully long time. Slowly, Marla began to notice a sound through the quiet.
Static.
The two girls started to back away, Marla shaking slightly while Jessica fought to stay steady. As they back away, Mari's hand tightened on the doorknob coinciding with the volume of the staticky hum.
They both jumped as Mari abruptly slammed the door hard enough for a single hairline crack to appear. The sound echoed through the room, and when it faded they could hear distressed music moving down the hall rapidly, towards the bedrooms. They heard one of the bedroom doors slam shut, then the immediate following noise of furniture being dragged across wooden floorboards.
Both Jessica and Marla shared a shaky glance. What had just happened?
Charlie practically flung herself out of the car the moment she deemed it slow enough, tripping slightly as she dashed to the front door hurriedly. Charlie flung open the door and almost ran right into Marla.
"Are you alright?" She asked frantically.
"Yes! Yes, I'm fine." Marla explained hurriedly as both John and Carlton ran up as well, and Charlie noticed Jessica also in the room, unharmed (thankfully). "U-uh, she heard me telling Jessica."
Charlie stiffened, but Jessica waved off the concern. "We're fine."
"...how'd she take it?" John asked quietly.
"She barricaded herself in Clay's room." Marla says quietly, rubbing her arm nervously.
Charlie furrowed her brow; she hadn't really expected anything like that. Maybe running away, or hiding, or even trying to lie about it, but not this.
Marla rubbed her temple. "I know that she probably did do what that guard guy said but, she does seem like she …regrets it." She half-mumbled the last bit. It was still hard to tell what Mari was thinking exactly.
Carlton folded his arms. "Yeah, but she still did it. She's dangerous."
Jessica sat with a sigh and a pointed look at Carlton when Charlie was suddenly struck with a thought. "Do you think it was some sort of revenge?"
Everyone gave her a funny look. "She's clearly smart enough to think for herself, have her own opinions and wants, right?" She received several nods, "I doubt she got much choice, if any at all, on what happened to her back at Freddy's. Maybe she, and all of the other characters, attacked Jeremy because they were mad at being mistreated." She explained. "They were angry at all the employees and then left alone with one. So they tried to get back at the people who were mistreating them."
John hummed, and Marla looked down. "...I don't like this." She shakily muttered, "I'm not even that scared of Mari anymore, I just feel bad."
"Mari?" Carlton asked confusedly.
Jessica looked up. "We nicknamed her. Puppet doesn't really work as a name. …It's short for Marionette." She explained.
Carlton stared for a moment with a confused expression on his face, before shrugging. "Alright, I guess that makes sense."
Charlie sighed. "So… what do we do about, er, Mari?"
"I think we should go talk to her first off." Jessica said matter-of-factly, standing up determinedly and setting off towards the bedrooms.
The newly-dubbed Mari dragged over the desk and pushed it over onto the small pile of furniture in front of the door, the distressed music vibrating from her chest as she struggled not to collapse.
She backed away from the door into the room, the floor covered in marks from her transferring the objects to the door, and desperately tried to stall her trembling. She knew this would happen, it was only a matter of time till they found out what a terrible thing she was.
The music crackled pitifully as she fell to the floor, landing in a kneeling position, with her legs splayed out in odd angles. She grabbed her head in her hands and desperately tried to remain calm, holding what should be her face. Pulling her hands away momentarily, she notices purple paint on her shaking hands. She had forgotten she could do that, crying.
She slowly wrapped her arms around herself, hugging tightly.
…The hug from Marla was really nice.
But she couldn't get one again. She shouldn't. She deserved this feeling. It was fair.
She couldn't stay here. She was just going to hurt one of them, accidentally or not. She had to leave. She couldn't leave now, she'd probably bump into one of the people, and that wouldn't go well.
She'll leave once they all go to sleep. She'll find some empty house to stay in. It'll be fine. It's for the best. What a ridiculous thought, to have a family agai-
'Knock!'
She stiffened as a knock echoed through the room, looking up at the door. The music tinkling from her chest crumbled to a halt as her arms loosened minutely. What?
"M-Mari?" A voice asked through the door, both shakily and gently. It was female, but Mari couldn't place who it was. They knocked again and Mari got up, moving away from the door. She desperately tried to stop the panicked music beginning to play from her chest, which was giving away that she was even there. The doorknob clicked as they tried to open it, unsuccessfully due to it being locked.
"We aren't, uh, mad at you or anything!" The voice, which Mari was beginning to recognize as Jessica, said with a slight tone of worry. Mari felt an involuntary burst of static come from her chest. What?
After a moment of silence, Mari cautiously began to move closer to the door. She flinched backward slightly as another knock echoed. "Hello?"
Shaking, Mari grabbed onto the edge of the desk and pulled it backward weakly, beginning to remove the barricade of furniture from the doorway.
Jessica moved back from the door quickly after the sound of Mari dragging back the barricade sounded from behind the door, and the other members of the group followed. Marla brightened slightly.
They waited patiently as the sound slowly repeated as each piece of the barricade was removed.
After a final scrape as the final piece of the barricade was removed, silence followed. Even Mari's music stopped.
There was a small click as the door was unlocked, and slowly, carefully turned. It opened a crack, and Jessica had to look down slightly to see Mari's face peeking through the sliver of an opening. Her tear tracks looked wet. She had been crying again.
"Hi." Marla said gently, giving a small wave. Mari seemed to almost flinch, before slowly raising one of her hands in a sort of wave, though her hand was limp. "Are you alright?" Marla asked cautiously.
Mari just stared at her, before looking down. It was remarkable just how sad Mari looked, considering that she was constantly smiling. She began to pull the door closed slowly, but Jessica grabbed the door knob, which stopped the movement. "Mari," she began gently, "We… aren't mad or anything. Or at least I'm not. I promise."
Mari looked back up at her, raising up slightly, which improved Jessica's hopes. "Can you, uhm, come out of there?" She asked as gently as she could.
Mari didn't respond for a moment, before she slowly and shakily raised up to stand, pulling the door open enough for her to slip through. The group moved out of her way, and she closed the door behind her. She looks back between the five people in front of her in a way that, to Jessica, screams uncertainty. She was also standing strangely. She was bent forward in almost a hunch, her hands were wrapped around each other, and she seemed to be floating closer to the floor than normal.
Jessica cautiously reached to pat Mari's arm, which caused Mari to look down at her in surprise. "We aren't mad at you." She reassured. "Right?" She looked back at the other 4 members of the group, giving a small look.
All four of them agree, most sounding sincere, Carlton's less so, but Jessica wasn't going to point that out right now.
She looks back up to Mari, who slowly raises a hand to rub and the wet streaks on her face, looking away in what Jessica assumes is embarrassment of being caught crying. Somehow, it doesn't smudge across her face, and it barely stains her hand. Must be the fabric.
"But, did you- um- do those things?" Charlie asked, sounding more curious than anything.
Mari tensed up and looked farther away. So, yes, then.
There was an awkward silence for a moment, accompanied only by light rustling as Mari rubbed her hands together in a sort of fidget.
"If you don't- uh- mind me asking," Marla began politely, and Mari looked at her slowly, "Why?"
Mari straightened minutely, looking over at Marla in a confused way. "Can you tell us?" John asked.
Mari nodded after a moment, slowly gliding towards the living room to find her notepad, the rest of them following.
Charlie watched as The Puppet (which had been recently nicknamed 'Mari') set her notepad down on the kitchen table the group had gathered around and reached for her pen. She held it to the paper, paused, then scribbled out a word, and held it up to the group.
'COLORS?'
Carlton moved to find some colored pens, and the rest waited in bated silence.
Eventually, he came back with a small handful of them and set it down on the table. "Sorry, i- uh- couldn't find many."
Mari carefully chose a couple of the pens, and laid them out in a separate pile, pushing the others away. Charlie mentally cataloged which pens she chose. A black, a yellow, a red, and a purple. A strange selection, in Charlie's opinion, but showed she has something to draw in mind.
The small crowd of people watched as Mari carefully picked up the black pen and drew something, then showed it to the group. It is a small humanoid silhouette, outlined with the black pen and filled with white due to the color of the paper, with two black large circle eyes scribbled on. It looked like what was supposed to be a child. Mari tapped the child, then pointed at herself.
"Is that… you?" Carlton asked worriedly.
Mari nodded, before taking the purple pen and scribbling something down, then adding to it with both the yellow and black pens. She showed it to the group. The paper now had a second figure. This one was much taller, drawn entirely in purple, had black eyes and a smile, and a yellow T-like shape on its chest, resembling a badge of some sort. Charlie couldn't help but feel uneasy at the sight of this one.
Mari tapped the figure for emphasis, before turning the notepad back around, flipping the page.
She scribbles out a drawing slowly, using the red pen as well, before turning to show the group. The entire group stills at the envisionment.
It was the purple man standing next to the child (which was apparently Mari) with tears going down its (her) face, with the child on the floor, laying on a scribbled shape of red.
Lying in a pool of blood.
The purple man seemed to be smiling wider, but that might just be Charlie's imagination.
Marla put her hands over her mouth, piecing together what had happened. Mari was a person. And if the size of who she used to be was any indication, a young one. And she was murdered.
Mari slowly flipped the page, and wrote out a couple words shakily. Unlike her last messages, this one was small, and in lowercase.
'everyone looked like him'
'Im so sorry'
There was silence for a moment, before it was broken by Mari setting down the notepad and staring at the table.
"Mari…" Marla began cautiously, approaching her, "You… made a mistake. Not a choice." She patted where she assumed her shoulder was, Mari looked up at her.
Charlie mulled over the information. Mari was a dead child. She was murdered, and the only reason she ever hurt anyone was out of blind revenge. She stiffens as she has a sudden thought. "Mari?" Mari looked over. "Is this the same reason for the others- The other mascots, I mean."
Mari didn't respond for a moment, before nodding slowly, and before anyone could respond, she grabbed the notepad.
'its late'
'you all should sleep'
She ripped that page off, set it down, before grabbing both the black pen and the notepad and heading down the hall to the bedroom that she had been using. Though unspoken, it was clear what she was saying. The conversation was over.