Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes(49)

They looked at one another.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Jessica looked to Charlie. “These chains weren’t here before. Right?” She faltered, and looked back at her friends for confirmation, as if she were beginning to doubt her own memory.

“No,” Charlie said instantly. “They weren’t. We aren’t leaving, and we need your help.”

“Fine,” Dunn said shortly. “What’s his name?” He said, producing a notebook seemingly from nowhere.

“Carlton Burke,” Jessica said, and was about to spell it for him, when suddenly the officer put down his pen and closed his eyes, his nostrils flaring.

The officer glared at them, no longer looking quite so young. “I’m going to give you one more chance. Tell me exactly what happened.” He spoke slowly, emphasizing the spaces between his words. He was in control again, no longer out of his depth, as if he suddenly understood everything.

They tried to explain all at once, talking over each other. Jessica’s voice was loudest and calmest, but even she could not keep her anxiety from bleeding through. Charlie hung back, quiet. Tell me exactly what happened. Where were they supposed to start? With the night? With the week? With Michael? With the first time her father picked up a circuit board? How was anyone ever to respond to something like, “tell me what happened”? The cop was nodding, and he picked up the radio again, but this time he spoke comprehensibly.

“Norah, call Burke. It’s his kid. I’m up at the old mall site.” There was an answering burst of static, and the officer turned his attention back to them. “Come on,” he said.

“Come on where?” John said.

“Off the property,” the cop said.

Marla started to protest, but he interrupted. “I’m escorting you off the property,” he said. He pulled the baton from his belt and pointed with it.

“Come on,” Lamar said. Jason was still staring sullenly at the ground, and Lamar gave him a gentle nudge on the shoulder. “Jason, come on, we have to do what he says now, okay?”

“But Carlton!” Jason said loudly, and Lamar shook his head.

“I know. It’s okay, we’ll find him, but we have to go now.” He guided Jason toward the mouth of the alley, and everyone followed. The police officer walked behind, following Charlie a little too closely. She sped up, but so did he, and she resigned herself to being shadowed.

When they got to the parking lot, he directed them to wait by the car and walked off a few paces, speaking into the radio again, too far away to hear.

“What’s going on?” Jason said. He was beginning to whine; he heard the tone in his voice and tried to modulate it. I am not a little kid, he reminded himself. No one answered, but Marla rubbed his back absently, and he did not move away. Long minutes passed in silence. Jessica sat on the hood of the car, facing away from the rest of the group. Charlie wanted to go to her, but she did not. In her distress, Jessica was closing down, going stiff and cold and snippy, and Charlie did not think she had what it took, to break through that without breaking down herself.

“Was he talking about Carlton’s dad?” Charlie asked but no one had time to answer.

Headlights appeared, and a car pulled in beside them. The man who got out was tall and thin, and his light hair could have been either blond or gray.

“Carlton’s dad.” Marla whispered, a late answer to Charlie’s question. The man smiled as he approached.

“Carlton’s dad,” he confirmed. “Though since you’re all grown up now, you’d better call me Clay.” They all muttered it, half in greeting, half just to test it out. Jason covered his mouth self-consciously, tonguing the invisible gap in his molars.

“I thought our days of mischief would be behind us, no?” Clay said, his expression good-humored.

Jessica slid off the hood of Charlie’s car, her face drawn.

“I’m so sorry, he’s missing,” she said tightly. “I don’t know what happened, he was right with us!”

“Bonnie kidnapped him!” Jason burst out. “I saw, the rabbit took him!”

Clay started to smile, then stopped himself when he saw their faces.

“Oh, kids, I’m sorry. You haven’t been around in a while. I’m afraid Carlton is playing a joke on you; ALL of you.”

“What?” Lamar said.

“Oh come on, with you guys back in town; he couldn’t resist,” Clay said. “Whatever happened, I guarantee, he set it up. He’ll probably pop out of the bushes any minute now.

There was a silence, as they all waited, against probability. Nothing happened.

“Well,” Clay said at last. “That would have been too much to ask! Come on, why don’t you come back to our place; I’ll make you all some hot chocolate, and when Carlton finally shows up, you can tell him he’s grounded!”

“Okay,” Charlie said, without waiting for the consent of the others. She wanted to believe Clay, wanted to believe that Carlton was all right, and would show up laughing. But almost as badly, she wanted to go somewhere where an adult was in charge, someone who would make hot chocolate and assure them there was no such thing as monsters. Her father had never made that claim. Her father could never have told her that lie.

No one objected, and so they started up their caravan again, trailing Clay home. They all settled into their accustomed places: Charlie, John and Jessica in Charlie’s car, and Marla, Jason and Lamar in Marla’s. In the rearview mirror Charlie saw Officer Dunn’s car, still right behind them. Is he just going this way, or is he making sure we go where we’re told? She wondered, but it didn’t really matter. They weren’t planning on flight.