Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes(67)

John and Charlie watched as Marla ascended.

“So, the trapdoor there…” John pointed up at it. “The trapdoor of this hallway is right next to Freddy’s. That will get us onto the roof of Freddy’s, which is under the roof of the mall, in a crawlspace. And on Freddy’s roof, there’s a skylight, which we will find, while crawling through the crawlspace.” He drew an invisible diagram in the air with his finger as he spoke, and his tone was edged with skepticism. Charlie did not respond. Marla’s footsteps on the ladder sounded through the hall, heavy, tinny thuds that echoed unsteadily all around them.

“Once we find the skylight in the crawlspace,” John went on, not certain if Charlie was even listening, “we are going to drop down through the skylight and into Freddy’s, possibly with no way of getting back out.”

At the top of the ladder, Marla fiddled with something on the ceiling that the others could not see, making little mutters of frustration.

“Is it locked?” Charlie called up.

“Okay, sure.” John said, aware by now that he was talking only to himself. “This makes sense.”

“The bolt is just stuck,” Marla said. “I need—ha!” A dull snapping sound rang out. “Got it!” She cried. She raised her hands over her head and pressed upward, and slowly the door opened above her, until it tipped over and fell with a thud.

“So much for sneaking in,” John said drily.

“It doesn’t matter,” Charlie said. “We still have to go. Besides, do you really think whoever is in there doesn’t know we’re coming?”

Above them, Marla was navigating her way up through the door. She braced her arms on either side of the space, and pushed up off the ladder. It swayed dangerously, and Lamar and Jessica clutched it, trying to stabilize it, but it was not necessary. Marla was already up and through, on the roof. They waited for her to say something.

“Marla?” Jessica called finally.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Marla said.

“What do you see?” Charlie called.

“Throw me the light.” Marla’s arm emerged from the trapdoor, flapping impatiently. Lamar got a bit closer and carefully lobbed the flashlight up. Marla snatched it out of the air and immediately the beam vanished—the light had gone out.

In the crawlspace, Marla sat in the dark trying to fix the flashlight. She shook it, rattling the batteries, and flipped the switch on and off uselessly. As she unscrewed the top of the light and blew into the battery cage, she felt a rising panic. Since realizing Jason had gone, Marla’s entire being had been focused on him. It was only now, alone in the darkness, that she began to think about the danger she herself might be in. She screwed the top back onto the flashlight, and it came on instantly. The light flashed in her eyes, briefly clouding her vision. She pointed it away, then carefully swept it in a circle around her, revealing a sprawling void in all directions. It was the roof of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.

“What do you see?” Charlie called again.

“You were right; there’s a space, but not much. It’s so dark, and it smells awful up here.” Her voice sounded shaky even to her own ears, and suddenly she was desperate not to be alone in this place. “Hurry, don’t leave me up here by myself!”

“We’re coming,” Jessica called up to her.

“Me next,” Charlie said, and stepped forward. The ladder was rusty, and made squeaking complaints as she climbed, protesting her weight as she moved from step to step. But it felt sturdy, and quickly she reached the trapdoor and did as Marla had done: she stood on the top step, so she was head and shoulders through the door, braced her arms on either side, and pushed off the ladder, almost jumping, to land on Freddy’s roof. There was not room to stand, only scarcely room to sit—the space between the restaurant’s roof and the mall’s roof above it was less than a yard. Something was rattling above them, as if stones were falling overhead, and it took Charlie a moment to realize that it was the rain, thundering on uninsulated tin. Water dripped in on her head, and when she looked up she saw a place where the metal’s seams had not been joined, two corrugated sheets simply lined up next to each other, allied by circumstance. She wiped her palms on her jeans: the shingles of the roof were wet, and her hands were covered in grit, and dust, and something slick and more unpleasant.

She looked toward Marla, who was a few feet away.

“Here, come on. Get out of their way,” Marla said, motioning her over, and Charlie hurried on her hands and knees as Jessica’s head appeared in the trap door, and carefully she made her way up into the crawl space. Safely on the roof, Jessica looked around as if gauging something. Concerned, Charlie remembered her fear in the air vent, but Jessica took a long, deep breath.

“I can handle this,” she said, though she did not sound as if she believed her own words. A moment later Lamar was next to them. He quickly reclaimed the flashlight and aimed it back toward the trapdoor. After a moment, John scrambled up into the crawl space—and something banged loudly beneath them, the sound repeating. Everyone but John startled at the sound.

“Sorry,” he said. “That was the ladder.”

“Charlie, which way?” Marla said.

“Oh.” Charlie closed her eyes again, retraced her steps as she had while they searched for a way in. “Straight across, I think,” she said. “As long as we get to the far side, we’ll find it.” Without waiting for responses, she started crawling in the direction she thought was right. A second later, light appeared ahead of her.