Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes(42)

They led the guard to the heavy, wooden shelf that hid the entrance, and Lamar, John and Jessica dragged it out of the way, revealing the door. Charlie expected their new companion to be impressed, but he just nodded, as if he had suspected this all along.

One by one, they entered the hall to the restaurant, and again Charlie lagged back from the group. She caught Carlton by the arm as he passed her.

“Carlton,” she whispered. “Have you ever seen this guy?”

Carlton shook his head. “It’s not that small a town; I don’t know everybody.”

Charlie nodded absently, her eyes still on the newcomer as they made their way down the long hallway into Freddy’s main dining room. She had invited the guard because it seemed like the only way to get back in, but now she was beginning to regret it. Letting a stranger into Freddy’s was like letting him into her home, like giving something up.

“What happened to the restaurant?” Lamar said, his tone carefully even, forcing a friendliness he could not have felt. “Why is it boarded up? And why is the mall abandoned, anyway?” His voice sounded thin in the narrow hallway, a little muted.

“You don’t know?” Dave said. “This town needs money, jobs, revenue, things like that, and one thing we’ve got a lot of is space. So they decided to build a big mall, try and attract businesses, maybe even tourists. They built up around where Freddy Fazbear’s was, but when it came to it, no one would lease the restaurant, you know, because of what happened. So someone had the bright idea of sealing the whole place up, intact; someone who had a sentimental attachment to it, perhaps. I don’t think they even tried to clear it out. But it wasn’t enough. Something about that place spilled over into the rest of the building, maybe right down into the soil. No one wanted to bring their business here. Sometimes business owners, franchisers from outside the town would come and look at the place, but they never signed the papers. Said it just didn’t feel right. I think it’s got an aura, a mystical energy maybe, if you believe in that sort of thing.” Dave wiggled his fingers in the air as though casting a spell.

“I don’t believe in that sort of thing,” Lamar said shortly, but the guard did not seem to notice his tone.

“To each his own,” he said. “All I know is, no one ever wanted their stores here, and they abandoned the construction before the building was even finished. Now nobody comes up here except kids wanting to screw around. And me,” he added with what sounded like pride. He must have felt possessive, Charlie thought, the only one who ever came here, for years and years. It must have felt like it belonged to him, this strange, half-finished building. To him, they must be the invaders.

They came to the end of the hallway, and the space opened up before them. Jessica ran ahead to the control room beneath the stage, her flashlight bobbing merrily ahead of her. She disappeared for a moment, then hit the light switch, and all at once the room was warm and bright. Charlie stopped, blinking in the sudden light. Dave brushed past her, and as he did something caught her eye: there was a scar on his neck, curved and ugly, almost a perfect half-moon. The tissue was knotted and white—the cut that made it must have been a deep one. Only a few feet away, Dave turned in a circle, taking in the restaurant, awed, and as he did, Charlie saw that the scar had a twin; the same half-moon, in the same place on the other side of his neck. She shivered a little. The marks were too clean, too perfectly placed: they almost looked deliberate.

The group fanned out. Carlton, for some reason, headed toward the kitchen, and Jason wandered away toward the arcade again.

“Be careful!” Marla called after him, but she was already following Lamar to the control room to join Jessica. Charlie hung back, and John stayed with her. There was something different in the air, Charlie thought. It felt thinner, like she had to breathe deeper to get enough oxygen. It’s just a guy, she told herself, but that was the problem. They had brought an outsider in with them, and now the restaurant felt less secure, no longer hidden away. Freddy’s had been breached. Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica had begun to move, in their stiff, single movements. Charlie looked at Dave, but he did not appear surprised. He’s been here before, she thought. Then: of course he’s been here before. The whole town used to come here, back then.

John motioned her on, and reluctantly she went with him to the control room, Dave tagging along behind them like a stray.

In the booth, Jessica was hunched over, pressing buttons, and Lamar was studying the control board, trying to make sense of it. Dave peered intently over their shoulders, watching. He was nodding slightly to himself, wrapped up in some private calculation, and when Jessica stepped back and stretched, he cleared his throat.

“Um,” he said. “Could I try?” He drew himself up a little, extending his arm graciously.

Jessica and Lamar exchanged glances, then shrugged.

“Why not?” Jessica said. They shuffled around so that he could reach the board, and he stared down at it for a long moment without moving, then touched a short series of buttons. A hum rose from the speakers, a long, low tone that did not waver.

“Whoa,” Jessica said, and pointed to the monitors. Charlie saw movement on the screen, and backed out of the control room to look for herself. Onstage, the animals were dancing. Crudely, awkwardly, without the grace or complexity Charlie remembered, but they were moving in sequences, not just one motion at a time.