Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes(26)

He knows, Charlie thought. But the steps started again, and she opened her eyes and saw the light receding. He was going away.

They waited, still motionless, until they could no longer hear the tapping of his hard-soled shoes, then got up. She and John both stumbled a little as they stood, and she realized they had been leaning against one another without realizing it. She didn’t look at him; instead she set to work taking the heaviest things off the wooden shelf.

“Will I be needing this?” Lamar said, as Charlie handed him a bucket with a saw sticking out of it.

“We have to move the shelf,” Jessica said. “Come on.”

Jessica, Charlie, Carlton and John got back into place and moved the shelf. Lamar tried to find a place to help, but there was not really room. Marla just waited.

“I’m better suited to supervising,” she said, when Charlie mock-glared at her.

This time the screaming of the metal door was not as loud, as if it no longer protested their entrance quite so strongly. Still, Marla and Jason covered their ears.

“You think that’s not going to bring the guard?” Marla hissed. Charlie shrugged. “Didn’t last time,” she said.

“I know he saw us,” Jason said again. The others ignored him. “His flashlight went right over me,” he insisted.

“It’s really okay, Jason,” Jessica said. “We thought he saw us last night, too, but it was fine.” Jason looked dubious, and Lamar bent over to his eye level.

“Hey, Jason,” he said. “What do you think the guard would do if he saw us?”

“Shoot us?” Jason whimpered, eyeing Lamar warily.

“Worse.” Lamar said gravely. “Community service.”

Jason wasn’t sure what it meant but held his eyes open wide as though it was something terrible.

“Will you leave him alone?” Marla whispered, clearly amused.

“He didn’t see us.” Jason reassured himself, though clearly unconvinced. Charlie turned on the big light and shone it down the hallway.

“Oh, my!” Marla gasped as the first light streaked across the interior of the pizzeria. Suddenly it became real, and her face flushed with awe and fear.

They went in one by one. The temperature seemed to drop as soon as they walked into the hall, and Charlie shivered, but she did not feel ill-at-ease. She knew where they were, now, and she knew what they would find. When they got to the dining room, Carlton spread his arms wide and twirled.

“Welcome…. To Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza!” He said in a booming announcer’s voice. Jessica giggled, but the melodrama did not actually seem out of place. Marla and Lamar gaped at the room, awestruck. She set the large flashlight on the ground, the beam facing up, and it lit the main room up in a dim and ghostly illumination.

“Cool,” Jason said. His eyes lit on the merry-go-round, and he raced for it and jumped onto the back of a pony before anyone could stop him. He was too big for it, his sneakers dangling all the way to the ground. Charlie smiled. “How do I make it go?” He shouted.

“Sorry, buddy,” John said, and Jason climbed off, disappointed.

“The arcade is over this way!” Carlton said, motioning to anyone who might follow, and Marla went with him, while Jason fiddled hopefully with the carousel’s control box. Lamar had walked to the stage and was standing transfixed, staring up at the animals. Charlie went over to him.

“I can’t believe they’re still here,” he said as she walked up.

“Yeah,” she said.

“I’d forgotten this was a real place.” Lamar smiled, for the first time resembling the little boy that Charlie had once known.

Charlie smiled back. There was something surreal about the place; she had certainly never told any of her school friends about it. She would not have known where to begin. Worse, she would not have known where to stop. Jessica poked her head out from the retracted curtain at the side of the main stage, and they both startled.

“What are you doing?” Lamar said.

“Exploring!” She said. “There’s nothing back here but a bunch of wires, though. She disappeared into the folds of cloth again. After a moment they heard a thud as she jumped to the ground, and she came strolling over.

“Do they work?” Lamar said, pointing at the animals.

“I don’t know,” Charlie said. Truthfully, she had no idea how they worked. They had always just been, set to intermittent life by whatever alchemy her father performed in his workshop. “It doesn’t look like anything is missing.” she offered. “They should work.” She reluctantly added, though in her head she questioned the idea of trying to turn them on.

“Hey!” Jessica exclaimed. She was kneeling by the stairs to the stage. “Everybody come here, now!”

Charlie went over and Lamar followed.

“What is it?” Charlie said.

“Look,” Jessica said, shining her little light. Though well-hidden along the grain of the wood, there was a door inset into the wall of the stage.

“How did we not see that?” Charlie said.

“We weren’t looking.” John said, staring intently at the small door. The whole group had gathered, and now Jessica looked around at them with a grin, put her hand on the little doorknob, and pulled.

Magically, it opened. The door opened to a small, sunken room. Jessica shone the light around it; it was full of equipment—one wall was covered in TV screens.