I woke up to the sound of mechanical, muffled laughter. My eyesight was blurry, so I rubbed them and looked around.

Right, I'm in the storage unit behind Freddy's room. I was still using his chair. With a sigh, I got up and stretched. I didn't sleep very well, but it's better than nothing.

Sound kept playing from Freddy's room. I paused for a moment to eavesdrop.

"Oh, sorry for laughing," someone said. "It's just cute you're working so hard to protect him." Her voice was sweet mixed with the sounds of a synth. I guessed it was Chica.

"Yeah, well," Freddy said, "I just wish he came at a better time."

It didn't take a genius to realize they were talking about me. I kept listening in.

"Aw, does Freddy Weddy wanna be a daddy waddy?" she said in a cutesy voice. "Oh, come on," Freddy said, "I'm doing what any of us would."

"It's sweet," she said. "Bonnie would be proud."

There was a brief pause.

"Anyways," Freddy said, breaking the silence, "I just need you to watch him while I'm gone. He hasn't eaten anything, so maybe take him to the kitchens. Oh, here."

"Freddy, I don't need notes. I know how to take care of a kid," Chica said.

"I know, I know, I'm just nervous."

Chica laughed. "You're like a mom leaving her first child with a babysitter. I've got this."

"Lastly," Freddy said, "keep him away from Monty and Roxy."

"Huh? Why? We're programmed to like kids," Chica said.

"Yes, but they can be a bit much sometimes." Freddy sighed, "You know how they are."

"Well... if that's what you want."

I heard Freddy start walking. "Let me go wake him up," he said.

I stood in front of the doorway and crossed my arms, waiting for him to open the door. When he did, he flinched in surprise. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough," I said.

Chica gasped, and she lunged towards me, wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug. "Freddy, he's so cute!" She pinched my cheeks, "Who's the cutest? It's you!"

"Hey! Stop it, I'm not a dog!" I yelled. She let go and her smile dropped. Freddy was also staring at me. "Gregory, what happened?" he asked.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Your neck," he said, pointing at it. "You've got a bruise."

"Do you need some ice, sweet pea?" Chica asked. I shook my head, "No, it's fine."

"How did it get there? I could've sworn no one entered this room all night," Freddy said, puzzled.

I thought for a moment. Last night in the basement, with the endoskeletons, one of them had clasped its hands around my neck. Is that what did it?

I wasn't going to tell Freddy about it, though, so I tried to change the subject. "You're leaving?" I asked him.

"I have to get some maintenance done," he said.

"But I thought I fixed you! Last night, in parts and service."

"No, you gave me a power upgrade," he said. "I just need some repairs."

"More like all the repairs!" Chica chimed in. She loudly whispered to me, "He crashed in the middle of a performance."

Freddy huffed in annoyance at Chica's comment. "I asked Chica to watch you while I get my repairs," he said.

"I don't need a babysitter! I can take care of myself just fine!" I said confidently.

"Gregory, look at you!" Freddy snapped. "You haven't even been here for twelve hours and you've already got cuts on your face, a scrape on your knee, and now bruises?" I stepped back when he raised his voice.

"Vanessa may be gone, but S.T.A.F.F. bots still roam the halls," he continued. "They'll alert the technicians and you'll be seen. I know something sinister is happening, something big; I can feel it. I need to know that you'll be okay when I'm out of commission and can't reach you."

I stared at my feet. I was angry that Freddy told Chica about me, and that he was going to leave me alone with her. I hated being yelled at.

"I have to go. I'll see you in a few hours, okay?" Freddy said. He lightly hugged me, but it felt so empty and disingenuous. I didn't say anything.

"Good luck," Freddy said as he walked to the elevator inside the back room. He hesitated, waiting for me to respond, but I turned my back on him. "Don't worry Freddy," Chica said, "I'll take good care of him!" I heard the elevator doors shut.

"So..." Chica said, "whatcha wanna do? You feeling okay? Need a fresh new bandage for that cute face of yours?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, and stop calling me that." I sat down in one of the corners of the room and pouted. I didn't care if I was acting childish, I was upset. Chica pondered for a moment.

"What would cheer you up? Freshly baked pizza? An arcade game? Oh, how about the dance floor?" she said, spewing out ideas. I didn't want any of that right now. I shook my head and buried it in my hands. Chica sat down beside me and scooted closer.

"Do you want to talk?" I wiped the forming tears from my eyes and shook my head. "Do you just wanna cry for a bit?" she asked. I nodded.

She pulled me closer and let me cry by her side. "I hate being yelled at," I mumbled. "I know..." she said, and she comfortingly patted my back.

"This one time the five of us were up in Bonnie's Bowling Alley to do some bowling," she said, "and Monty threw the bowling ball so hard, it fell through the board, and Freddy got so mad!" She laughed as she remembered the story. "He started yelling things like, 'Monty, you're so reckless!'" She mimicked Freddy's voice in a funny way. "And Monty said something like, 'You're just mad you could never make a dent like that!'" The voice she used for Monty was high-pitched and squeaky. I laughed.

"That's not what Monty sounds like," I said. She looked at me with a pretend-shocked face. "What are you talking about? 'This is exactly what Monty sounds like!'" She said, using the same voice. "'Hi, I'm Monty, and I'm the prettiest princess gator in the whole wide world!'" I laughed some more.

Chica continued her story, "Roxy and I were laughing so hard while Freddy and Monty fought, and poor Bonnie was freaking out over the hole in the floor. He eventually got so fed up with their bickering that he forced the two of them to repair it together. He said, 'If you two don't clean this mess up, you'll both be banned from the bowling alley,'" Chica mimicked Bonnie's voice. "'But I didn't do it, Monty did!' Freddy said, but Bonnie wasn't having any of that! He made them work together, and for the next two days they spent their nights trying to fix this hole while screaming at each other. Roxy and I watched from afar, it was just too good to miss!"

"Anyhow, at some point Monty actually broke his voice box from yelling at Freddy so much, and Freddy declared himself the winner of this dispute. But we all told him there was no winner, because to us, they both lost," Chica said. "I told him that no one really wins in screaming matches. One just breaks down before the other."

She paused. "He stopped yelling at Monty after that. It made Monty mad that he couldn't get a reaction from him," she said. "I can guarantee you he's thinking about that right now."

She looked down at me, "Feeling better?" I nodded.

"Good," she said. She stood up and offered her hand. "Let's go get you something to eat."

She said she wanted to go up to her own kitchen. Each animatronic has a designated area that they work in when not performing, and Chica's was a corner designated for eating and working out. This place was near the top of the building, but she guided me through as I tried to avoid the S.T.A.F.F. bots that were still lingering around the pizzaplex.

The corner itself was bright pink with white counters and cupcakes. She walked behind one of them and pulled out a large amount of dough. "You like pizza, right?" she asked. "I love pizza," I said. She snickered, "Me too."

She started to flatten the dough with a roller. "Can you find the sauce and cheese? It should be in one of those cabinets and the fridge," she said. I nodded and opened the door and found a red pump. I placed it up on the counter next to her. "Thank you," she said as I went to the fridge. There were plastic bags of cheese stuffed inside. It didn't seem very sanitary. I took a bag and gave it to Chica.

She spread the cheese evenly across the pizza. "Any toppings?" she asked. "Pepperoni," I said. "You better go get some then, before I make it to the oven...!" she sang. She picked up the pizza and took small steps to the oven. I rushed to the back of the kitchen, looking for the freezer. I saw a large silver door connected to the wall and guessed that it was the freezer.

Inside was a bunch of different kinds of meat. Sausage and beef hung from hooks, and the shelves were lined with labeled boxes. I found one labeled "Pepperoni" and opened it. I pulled out of the stacks of pepperoni wrapped in plastic.

The door shut behind me. I held the pepperoni under one arm and tried to open the door, but it was locked. "Oh no," I said to myself. Please don't tell me I'm locked in the meat freezer .

Chica should still be outside. I knocked loudly on the door. "Chica! Chica, are you there?" No response. I thought I'd keep yelling in case she did hear me. "Chica, I'm locked in the freezer. Chica...!" Still nothing.

I shivered. What was the temperature here? I could see my breath forming clouds. I leaned against the freezer door. Just my luck to lock myself in here. She'd come looking for me eventually, right?

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Even though I've already slept, I still feel exhausted. The bruise on my neck felt sore. I wished I knew about how dangerous this place was before I decided to break in. I wished I didn't follow that rabbit.

The rabbit. Was that Bonnie? I know Bonnie used to be a part of the gang and was eventually scrapped, but is it possible he's still here? Why'd he lure me down a trap? Was he angry about being tossed aside? The way Chica spoke of Bonnie earlier made him sound like a nice guy, but people always recall their friends in more positive ways than what they're really like. Besides, that story probably wasn't even real.

I started to hear scraping from above. It came from a vent near the ceiling. I watched it closely.

One of the screws began to twirl, slowly, before it popped out. Then another also began to spin. "What the..." I spoke to myself. A third one fell out, and the vent hung from the last screw still intact. I heard thumping, and without any place to run or hide, I hesitantly brought my fists up.

A cupcake with eyes became visible. It blinked twice and stared at me. "Huh," I said as I put my guard down. And then another one appeared. And then another. And another, until eventually the vent opening became crammed, and they all fell into the freezer. I crept over and picked one up.

"Hey, you're kinda cute– Ow!" It bit me. Hard. When I tried to dislodge it from my arm, its jaw refused to open. Out of pure adrenaline, I ripped it off of me and it tore a small portion of my skin off. I threw it into the pile of cupcakes and climbed up the boxes to avoid them, but they were starting to crawl towards me.

Next to my right was a meat hook of sausages. I took it off its hook and tried to whip away the cupcakes from getting any closer. One of them managed to grab hold on the end and wouldn't let go. I swung it around, trying to hit the other cupcakes with it and trying to get it to let go. I noticed it coming up closer. It was eating the sausage.

I threw it to the back of the room before it reached my hand. There wasn't anything else in the area that I could use to fend for myself

"Chica!" I screamed. "Chica, help! There's rabid cupcakes trying to eat me!" Oh my god I sound insane . "Help! Help!" They started making their way up the boxes, and I had to kick them with my foot.

But they were fast and there were too many of them. Each time I managed to kick one down, two hopped back up. One got hold of my leg, but I couldn't try to rip it out with my hands as the other cupcakes would start to naw on my arms.

This is it , I thought to myself. It's not Moon who's going to kill me, or those freaky endoskeletons in the basement. No, it's carnivorous cupcakes . When I had just about accepted my demise, the freezer door swung open.

"What is this?" Chica said appalled. "Get this thing off of me!" I yelled, pointing at the cupcake eating away at my leg. She scooped up the cupcakes and threw them out of the freezer. She knelt down beside me and took hold of the cupcake still attached to me.

"Count to three, ready? One, two, three!" she tore the cupcake off of me. The pain was incomprehensible. It was like my skin cells were burning, but also bleeding at the same time. Without any time to react, Chica picked me up and she rushed out of the freezer. She carried me all the way to the nearest first-aid kit, which happened to be behind a counter by Fazer Blast.

She sat me down on one of the waiting chairs and examined my wounds.

"Oh, Freddy's not going to like this, haha," she said, laughing to herself. She doused a washcloth into cold water and then placed it on my leg. I winced.

"How does that feel?" she asked. "Painful," I said honestly. She stood up and tufted my hair. "You took it like a champ. Hold it down for me, sweet pea."

I reached down and held the washcloth in place. "What were those things? Why were they there? What were they doing? I have so many questions," I said. Chica started wrapping a bandage around my arm where the first cupcake had bitten me. "Cupcakes, don't know, eating you," she answered.

"Why are there animatronic cupcakes?"

"They're mine," she said. "I use them as decoration when I'm serving at the corner, but they've never done anything like this before. Are you feeling okay?"

"Honestly," I said, "I'm starting to feel numb."

"Like this injury is numb or numb to receiving pain?"

"The second one."

She laughed. "Oh, Gregory... How's Freddy going to react to this?"

I looked away from her. "I don't know," I said. "Hey, c'mon, don't worry too much. It's not your fault, accidents happen. You've just been experiencing a lot of accidents in a short time span," she said. That didn't really cheer me up.

I fumbled with my hands. "Chica?"

"Yes, sweet pea?"

"I think Freddy's right."

Chica looked at me perplexed. "About what?"

"Something sinister is going on," I said. She sat down beside me and listened. "It all started back at the daycare. Sun said Moon's been acting strange lately. Then, in parts and service, after Moon dragged Freddy away, I saw him."

"Who?"

"Bonnie."

Her eyes widened. "At least I think it's Bonnie," I clarified. "It was a rabbit. I chased it down and it led me through this whole maze full of endoskeletons, and the endoskeletons tried to kill me so I'm pretty sure that means that Bonnie tried to kill me but I don't know why Bonnie would want to kill me–"

"Woah, woah, slow down," Chica interrupted me. I was starting to ramble on and on. "Deep breath," she encouraged. I inhaled a big breath through my nose, and exhaled.

"Gregory," she said to me, "There is no bunny here at the pizzaplex. You couldn't have seen Bonnie, because... Bonnie was decommissioned a long time ago."

"I know what I saw!" I said.

"And I don't doubt that! I believe that you believe you saw something, but I can assure you that there is no bunny animatronic that tried to trick you," she said.

I couldn't believe it. "Chica, it was real! The endoskeleton part was, at least. How do you think I got this bruise? One of them tried to strangle me!"

She was too stunned to say anything, so I continued. "Moon tried to kill me, those endoskeletons tried to kill me, and now your cupcakes tried to kill me! Something is going on, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it! And I bet it has something to do with that bunny!"

She shot up. "Bonnie is dead!" she yelled. She was visibly upset. Her hands shook, just as if a human would when fighting back tears. She took a step back. "And he has been for a long time now," her voice softened. "I don't know what you saw, but don't you dare speak of Bonnie that way."

We were at an impasse. I stared at her. Only a while ago she was comforting me after I was yelled at, and now she was the one yelling at me.

I didn't want to fight anymore, so I did what I always did when my mother would yell at me. I broke down before the other.

"Okay."