You don't smoke. Charlie chided herself for the clumsy lie as she made her way to the door, jostling past a family of four without saying "excuse me," and stepped out into the cool evening. She walked to her car and sat on the hood, the metal denting slightly under her weight. She took in breaths of the cool air as if it were water and closed her eyes. You knew it would come up. You knew you would have to talk about it, she reminded herself. She had practiced on the drive here, had forced herself to think back to happy memories, to smile and say "remember when".

Meanwhile back inside, Y/N had begun to eat their dinner when Jessica and Carlton left. Y/N would have gone to check on Charlie, except now they was stuck with the bill and would now have to request boxes for everyone since it seemed like they were already getting ready to leave.

They thought back to their time at Freddy's. Except they couldn't remember much. That's the thing with growing up, you always forget big chunks of the past.

They soon finished their food, paid for the bill, and got to go box's for everyone and walked outside to where everyone was.

"Well, dinner is paid for and I got everyone's to go boxes." Y/N said as they held up the bags. They heard Jessica cuss under her breath.

"Fuck. Sorry Y/N. We didn't mean to leave you stranded there. I can pay you back if you want." Jessica said.

"That'll be greatly appreciated. Do what's going on out here?" Y/N asked.

"Nothing much. Just reminiscing on Freddy's and our favorite animations." Carlton said to Y/N.

"I never really liked the animatronic's. They always looked like they were getting ready to commit a murder or something like that." Y/N said in all honesty.

"Well, they did look kinda creepy." Carlton said in agreement. "See, he gets it." Y/N said. Y/N didn't know when they first got their Automatonophobia (Fear of animatronic's.) and their Submechanophobia (Fear of submerged man made objects.) but it started around the age of either three or five.

"But if I had to pick one, it would be either the Clown or the blank one." Y/N said. Their friends and girlfriend just looked at him puzzled, as if they didn't understand what they was talking about.

"You know? The clown? They had white face that looks like a mask, with black, hollow eyes that sometimes gain small, white pupils. Its face is similar to that of a Pierrot, with rosy red cheeks, purple stripes that stretch from the bottom of its eyes to the top of its mouth, and red lipstick painted on in an exaggerated pucker?" Y/N said.

"Oh. Now I know what your talking about. Though I think it was actually a puppet. They would jump out of a large box and start dancing for kids." Jessica said as she began to remember. The Puppet was a far memory. It was one of those memories that one wouldn't remember much of, but still remembered enough to know it existed. Charlie remembered the Puppet as well. But that thing always gave her chills. The way it looked at her, they way it smiled at her.

"Oh the blank one. I think I know what your talking about. I think he was blank on purpose. He had some kinda special plastic coating that allowed kids to draw on him." John said.

"Oh god. The things the kids must have drawn on him." Y/N said with a laugh.

"So why are we talking about Freddy's?" Y/N asked.

"Because we're getting ready to go there." Charlie said to Y/N.

"Wait? What?" Y/N said.

"Please tell me you people are joking." Y/N asked nervously. As they looked at everyone, it was obvious that they were completely and without a doubt, serious.

"Please?" Y/N asked and gulped nervously.

"Don't worry. I'll hold your hand if that makes you feel better." Charlie said as she walked to her (boyfriend/girlfriend.) and kissed them on the cheek. A whine escaped Y/N's lips at the very idea of going to Freddy's.

"Your unstable." A voice said. Y/N found themselves sitting in a closet. They peaked through the small opening of the closet and saw two very large people. One big rabbit, and one that looked like a clown.

"You've been on edge." The clown said. Y/N looked around the room. To the back and left of the room sits a shelf, holding three spare Bonnie heads, two of Chica's, and three of Freddy Fazbear's. Wires hang loosely from the ceiling to the right of a camera.

"You need to understand what happened was an accident. An honest mistake." The Clown said.

"I helped Henry establish Fredbear's Family Diner and Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, as well as managing the establishments while Henry built the animatronic mascots of the pizzerias joints. And how does he thank me? By sending his bot to kill my my child! Not only that, he's been sending animatronics to other locations and trying to pull out of our business and start something on his own! He's trying to abandon me!" The rabbit snapped back.

"Look, I understand you're mad and you have every right to be. It's just you've been on edge. Me and my wife have been talking and... we think it's going to be best if Y/N stays with us for a while." The Clown said. The rabbit looked at him. He twitched a bit. Y/N blinked once, and heard a loud pain filled scream along with the sound of crunching and stabbing.

Y/N jolted upright and saw that they arrived at the mall. They had woken up from their nap. They looked over at Charlie.

"Morning sleeping beauty." Charlie said to them with a smile on her face and brushed some hair out of Y/N's face. Y/N smiled and kissed her hand. As much as they thought this was without a doubt, the stupidest, most dangerous, most unnecessary, most likely to bring back bad memories idea ever, Y/N was going for Charlie.

"Your not still mad about this, are you?" Charlie asked.

"You know I can't stay mad at you. Your my ride home." Y/N said teasingly to her and playfully punched her in the arm.

"Alright alright already." Charlie said as she held in a laugh. She playfully punched back and got out of the car.

"Seriously? You two aren't married yet?" Jessica asked as she got out of the car with Charlie. Jessica had rode in the car with them.

"Is this the right place?" Jessica asked.

Charlie shook her head slowly, not quite certain what she was seeing. "I don't know," she whispered.

"Wait? You mean to tell me we came here and nobody was sure this was the right place?" Y/N asked as they looked at Charlie and Jessica, a deadpanned was plastered on the young (man/woman's) face.

"When you put it that way, I guess so." Jessica said.

Charlie got out of the car and stood in silence as John and Carlton pulled up beside her.

"What is this?" John stepped out of the car cautiously and stared blankly at themonument. "Does anyone have a flashlight?"

Carlton held up his key chain and waved around the feeble glow of a penlight for a minute.

"Great," John muttered, walking away with resignation.

"It's close enough." Y/N said with a shrug.

"Hold on a sec," Charlie said and went around to her trunk. "My aunt makes me carry around a bunch of stuff for emergencies."

Aunt Jen, loving but severe, had taught Charlie self-reliance above almost anything else.

Before she let Charlie have her old blue Honda, she had insisted that Charlie know how to change a tire, check the oil, and know the basic parts of the engine. In the trunk, in a black box tucked in next to the jack, sparetire, and small crowbar; she had a blanket, a heavy police-issue flashlight, bottled water, granola bars, matches, and emergency flares. Charlie grabbed the flashlight; Carlton grabbed a granola bar. Y/N grabbed a crowbar.

"Just to let you all know, if there's a cult of killer clowns in there...I'm cutting my losses and ditching you." Y/N said. The group laughed with John not sure if Y/N was joking or serious.

Almost by silent agreement, they began to walk the building's perimeter, Charlie holding up the light in a steady beam in front of them. The building itself looked mostly finished, but the ground was all dirt and rock, uneven and soft. Charlie shone the light on the ground, where
grass had grown patchy in the dirt, inches long.
"No one has been digging for a while," Charlie said.

The place was massive, and it took a long time to circumnavigate. It wasn't long before the rich blue of the evening was overtaken by a blanket of scattered silver clouds and stars. The surfaces of the building were all the same smooth, beige concrete, with windows too high up on
the walls to see inside.

"Did they really build this whole thing and then just leave?" Jessica said.

"That's how mystery's are made." Y/N said to Jessica.

"Carlton," said John, "you really don't know anything about what happened?"

Carlton shrugged expansively. "I told you, I knew there was construction, but I don't know anything else."

"Why would they do this?" John seemed almost paranoid, scouting the trees as though eyes might be looking back at him. "It just goes on and on." He squinted, gazing along the outside wall of the building, which seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance.

Y/N was thinking about just leaving now. This whole thing felt uncomfortable.

After a moment, he gestured to the others and began to walk back the way they came.

Reluctantly, Charlie turned back, following the group. They kept going until they could see their cars again up ahead in the darkness.

"Sorry, guys; I hoped there would at least be something familiar," Carlton said exhaustedly.

"Yeah," Charlie said. She had known it would be, but seeing that Freddy's had been razed to the ground was still a shock. It was so paramount, sometimes, in her mind, that she wanted to get rid of it, wanted to scrub the memories good and bad from her head, as fi they had never been. Now someone had scrubbed it from the landscape, and it felt like a violation. It should have been up to her. Right, she thought, because you had the money to buy it and preserve it, like Aunt Jen did with the house.

"Welp, we couldn't find anything, let's go." Y/N said quickly and held Charlie's have.

"Charlie?" John was saying her name, and ti sounded like he was repeating it.

"Sorry," she said. "What were you saying?"

"Do you want to go inside?" Jessica asked.
Charlie was surprised they were only now considering this, but then again none of them was usually prone to criminal activity. The thought was a release, and she took a deep breath, speaking on her exhale. "Why not?" she said, almost laughing. Y/N mentality cried.

"I swear. Your gonna get me killed one day." Y/N thought to themselves and looked at Charlie.