I hated being in the hospital. Not only was it so bright, but the walls were also white. The floor was shiny, so I couldn't look down, and it was so loud around me as nurses and doctors swarmed me.

I cooperated with every test. They did the basics, like checking my height and weight, my reaction times at my joints, and my eyesight–which I totally failed at. It was a struggle to try and follow my eyes along the doctor's finger. Then they did things I've never done before. They wrapped a band around my upper arm and drew blood from where my arm bent, which I was not very excited about. One nurse had to hold me down while the other switched out the vials. Bowtie was with me the whole time, and the doctors and nurses swooned over it, telling me how cool of a toy it was. Bowtie loved the attention.

They did other testing and further examinations. They pressed alongside my neck. I had gotten more bruises, probably from Freddy, which I had no idea about. They looked at my lacerations and skid marks. They tested my cognitive ability. I didn't realize how bad my head injury was until they started checking for signs of a concussion. They did more and more testing, it felt like forever. They sent away Joel and Julie, saying my results wouldn't be here until morning.

Once it was done, they dressed me in a hospital gown and set up a room for me. They connected me to an IV, saying that it'd help me sleep, and gave me a pincer that was to stay on my finger, constantly updating my vitals. A guard was to stand outside in front of my door at all times. Just standard protocol, they said. Since I was still technically in police custody, I had to be on watch. At least I wasn't handcuffed to the bed like a criminal would be. I couldn't share a room with anyone either. Not that I cared, of course. A room by myself is exactly what I needed.

When the lights went out, it was pitch black, with the exceptions of the light that escaped through the cracks of my door and the monitor that displayed my heart rate. I was happy to sleep in a bed after sleeping on a chair for the last few nights, even if it was a hospital bed. I let Bowtie lay beside me as if it were a stuffed animal, though I wasn't sure if it could even sleep. I didn't mind having it watch me, though. It was comforting to think that I had at least one person I could trust while I'm surrounded by strangers.

I had so many thoughts. I wondered what I was going to do tomorrow. I hoped I could get out of this as soon as possible and return to the pizzaplex. But once I did make it back, what was I going to do? Vanny had taken complete control of all the animatronics, Vanessa betrayed me, and there was no way I was going to be able to fight in my condition.

Then there was Bowtie. Did it know about Bonnie's passing? I was thankful it managed to catch up quickly about the danger I was in, but I had to remind myself that it had spent a lot of its time underneath the bowling alleys, unable to communicate with anyone inside of the pizzaplex. It must be as confused and terrified as I was, if not even more so.

I had a nightmare that night. I couldn't remember most of it, but I knew it was about my family. All of it took place outside, surrounded by trees and bushes. I couldn't remember the last time I'd been outside in nature like it.

I saw my mom dressed in all black. She wore a large hat that hid her face behind a veil, but I could tell it was her with her dark red hair. Her dress dragged onto the ground, causing it to rip and tear when she walked.

I saw a figure, who I think was supposed to be my dad. He was just a tall black shadow, and he just stood there, hiding behind layers of trees. He stared at me for some time before he vanished as mysteriously as he appeared.

There was one part that was very distinct. I was in the woods with my brother. He was saying something to me, but I couldn't recognize his face. He had no features, no mouth, yet his jaw moved as if he was speaking to me. His words were garbled into a mix mash of erratic noise, I didn't pick up a single word. I was much shorter than him and I felt as if the body I was in wasn't my own. I remembered him pushing me down, and I landed in a pool of blood.

I couldn't pick myself up. I kept slipping every time I got up to my knees, and my hair glued to my face from the sticky blood. It wasn't long before I realized it was rising, and soon enough I was underneath it all, beginning to choke on the thick liquid.

A nurse woke me up. Apparently my nightmare raised my heart rate high enough for them to come in and intervene. I was crying and sweaty, and he offered me some wipes to clean myself up. Bowtie hugged my leg as I cried into my hands, and the nurse rubbed my back as he tried to calm me down.

It was early morning, so I didn't bother trying to go back to bed. I couldn't sleep even if I wanted to.

One of the nurses brought me breakfast in bed, though it tasted like crap. I didn't have an appetite anyways, so I just pushed it to the side. They took the TV remote out of my room to prevent me from turning it on. I guessed it was because I did indeed have a concussion, and that of course meant no screen time. I closed the blinds on the giant window so that the sunlight wouldn't hurt my eyes. Luckily my IV was on wheels, so I could take it with me as I walked around. I couldn't leave the room, of course, but they brought me toys, puzzles, and books to stimulate my brain. Bowtie and I attempted to put together one of the puzzles. It was a picture of a barn with farm animals by the gates as a farmer and his dog did their chores.

I was sitting by the table putting the pieces together with Bowtie when there was a knock at the door. It was Julie and Joel, and glared at the two of them. I didn't want to see them.

"Morning, Gregory," Julie said, walking into the room and sitting across from me. Joel stood awkwardly behind her.

"We don't want to talk to you," I said, continuing my puzzle. Bowtie turned its back on them and huffed out, "Hmf!" as a sign of disinterest.

"We visited your house this morning," she said, completely ignoring my comment.

I looked back at her, stopping my progress. "What? Why?"

"Your mother hasn't been answering our calls. We went to check up on her but she wasn't there," she said.

Sounds about right. At least I didn't have to worry about her showing up anytime soon.

"Any ideas where she might be?" Julie asked.

"No," I said. I wanted to be snarkier and come up with some mean insult to say, but I couldn't think of anything. I nervously picked at the wire that had been inserted into my vein. I just wanted to drive her and Joel out of my room.

"How's the IV?" Julie asked, noticing my picking.

"Itchy," I said honestly. It was weird to think this was dripping into my bloodstream.

"Well, hopefully you won't need it for much longer," she said. "Your test results should be here any minute. In the meantime, we wanted to ask some more questions, if you don't mind."

"I do mind, yes," I said. I wasn't going to let them tear information out of me again. Last night was awful. If I couldn't get them out of my room, I could make it obvious how unwelcomed they were.

Julie sighed, irritated from my response. Joel leaned back on my hospital bed and watched as our conversation unfolded.

"I know you don't like this, but we really can't help you if you don't talk to us," she said.

"Then don't help me," I said, crossing my arms.

"What?" she said, surprised.

"I don't need you. You really think I wanna sit here as a stranger tries to tell me what I'm feeling? You were so helpful that I had a nightmare last night," I said sarcastically. It felt nice to tell her off.

"And you," I said, pointing towards Joel, "you think scaring me is going to get me to talk? I've been through much scarier situations than just some guy with an outdated haircut trying to intimidate me."

Bowtie let out a snort and quickly covered its mouth. All of us turned to look at it.

"Sorry, continue," it said, waving its paw at us.

Julie looked at me and said, "I understand you're upset, but–"

"No!" I interrupted her. "You don't get it. Everything was fine. I was fine until you two tried to help me. If you really wanted to help me, you'd leave me alone. Quit the small talk and admit you just want information from me."

"You weren't fine, Gregory," Julie said. "You were covered head to toe in wounds, far away from home in the middle of the night in 25 degree weather, wearing nothing more than a polo shirt and khaki shorts." Her tone was serious, though she showed no sign of anger or animosity. I shrunk into my chair, embarrassed at what she was saying.

"You'd rather move on to the next thing and pretend this never happened, not giving yourself any time to process what you'd been through the last four days. Unfortunately, you don't get that luxury," Julie continued. She picked up one of the puzzle pieces and fit into its spot.

"If it was up to me, I'd be guiding you through your trauma for months, possibly years, but we simply don't have the time. We don't get to wait until you're ready. We push you not because it's what's best for you, but because you possess something that no one else can provide us with," she said. I looked down at the ground, not wanting to face her. I hated all this therapy talk. Her ability to read me like a book freaked me out. I could hear Bowtie looking back and forth between us.

"You're right," she admitted, "we need information from you. You must understand that, in our eyes, your involvement with the pizzaplex is the closest thing we have to a lead in what is otherwise a completely cold case."

"Well," I scoffed, "you can stop. I didn't find anything. Nothing happened to me," I lied. It wasn't a complete lie. I just had more questions than answers about the pizzaplex. I may know about Vanny, but who knows how long she's been at the pizzaplex? Since the animatronics are changing now, I assumed it was something new, so whatever they're looking for wasn't around. I didn't find any information about the past missing person cases. All I found was new shady things.

"Sorry, but I don't believe you," Julie said bluntly. I guess I couldn't blame her. I can't say nothing happened to me when I was in the hospital for all my injuries.

The door opened. A nurse holding a clipboard peaked through. "Hi, sorry, did you want to hear the testing results?" she asked nervously. Joel leaned his head back and sighed, "Yes, finally." Julie stood up and walked towards her, Joel following suit. They tried to all walk out of the room.

"Wait!" I called out. They turned to me. "I... Don't I get to hear the results?" I couldn't believe they were just going to discuss it without telling me.

Julie and Joel exchanged glances while the nurse looked over at the two. Julie gave the nurse a nod.

"Oh, okay, sure. Uhm..." she said, her hand tracing along the paper. She was clearly very anxious, but I wasn't really sure why. Was it the police that freaked her out?

She tapped the paper with her hand and said, "First, his drug tests came out negative. There's nothing in his system."

"I told you you had nothing to worry about," Joel said, nudging Julia's arm with his elbow. She shook her head, "Just double checking."

"The abrasions on his arm and leg resemble biting, but it's strange. Whatever bit him had sharper teeth than a human, yet it's shape and size resembles one," she said. I remembered the attack in the freezer. Those devil cupcakes really screwed me over. They were terrifying at the time, but it's silly now to think I was ambushed by sentient cupcakes. I really couldn't tell the detectives that . I'd sound insane.

"Are there any other guesses as to what animal bit him?" Joel asked.

"The closest thing we could think of was a small dog, but it wouldn't be able to tear skin like it did," she said. Joel brought his finger to his chin as he thought.

"Could a human have done it?" he muttered, mostly to himself. He was probably coming up with some wild theory of cannibals or something.

I rolled my eyes. It wasn't human or an animal; it was animatronic. It's teeth were sharper than humans, but it also was able to puncture through my skin at a much higher force than a small dog could. It didn't have to hold back. The reason the shape and size were similar to humans was because of the roundness of the cupcakes' mouth.

"Moving on... his skid marks are about two days old. He mostly likely fell onto a road," she said. I did indeed fall on a road, but not the kind they were thinking. I fell on the Roxy's Raceway track. Fall wasn't the right word, though. I jumped out of a moving go-kart to avoid being a part of the crash.

"His, uh, bruising on his neck is interesting. He has two layers of it," she said.

"Two?" Joel asked for clarification.

She nodded. "Most likely from strangulation. One happened about four days ago, the other, Thursday night."

The first endoskeleton attack and Freddy's attempted murder. I remembered how after I had managed to escape, I hugged Freddy as I cried. He had asked me if I wanted to go home. I was so scared from being strangled, but I didn't want to let it deter me. Only a few days later did he attempt the same thing.

"Thursday night? How late?" Joel asked.

The nurse looked back at her papers. "Uhm... about a few hours before the examination," she said.

"That would've been right before he was picked up," Joel commented. That's true, it was right before I'd been picked up. I had also almost died by having my insides scooped out by Vanny, but that wasn't going to show up on any test.

"Then there's his head injuries... He's got a pretty severe concussion, though it looks as if he'd fallen on his head several times. There was a healing gash in the back of his head," she said.

I'd gotten that from the fall with Chica. I remember touching the back of my head and feeling blood, but the adrenaline and intense emotion I was feeling at the time drowned out the pain. The concussion was definitely from the fight between Monty and Moon. Not only did Monty shove my head into the floor, but Moon dropped me head first. I'd be surprised if I came out without a concussion.

"Other things to note," she began, "he's underweight for a boy his height, and he may have hypoglycemia, though we suspect his low blood sugar is due to bad eating habits. He'll be fine, as long as he eats properly and rests. He should be able to go home today. Here." She handed Joel a bunch of papers. I assumed it was my results on paper so that he could use it as reference.

"Oh, that's great!" Bowtie said to me. "I knew everything would be okay." It rubbed my hand in reassurance. I weakly smiled at it. It was hard to remember all those moments during the pizzaplex. They were all some of the most stressful times I had. It didn't help that I couldn't tell them how I had actually gotten injured.

"Except we can't drop him off at home if he'll be alone," Joel said, turning around to look at us.

"Right, we have to find his mother first," Julie added. I shivered, my hands shaking. I scratched the puzzle piece in my hand and brought the other to my face.

"What if you can't find her?" Bowtie asked. I was glad he was asking the questions for me. I didn't think I could talk without breaking down.

"Then he'll stay with us till we do," Julie said. She turned to the nurse and asked, "Do you think he can stay till tonight? It'd give us time to find her."

"I'd have to check first, but I think that'd be fine," she said.

Julie seemed pleased with the results. "Perfect. Gregory, let's get back to– Oh. Are you okay?"

I'd curled up, brought my legs up on my chair and hugged them, letting my forehead rest on them. My eyes were watering, but I wasn't crying just yet.

"I wanna be alone right now," I murmured. Bowtie's paw touched my arm, and I let my shoulders relax. My hair drooped in front of my eyes, and I could see them move slightly. I realized I was shaking once again.

There was silence from the three of them until Julie spoke. "Okay, but we'll be back soon to discuss some things," she said. I heard their footsteps as their shoes clang against the hard floor, and the door closed behind them.

"Oh, Gregory, it'll be alright," Bowtie said to me once they'd left the room. I peaked up to look at it. I took a deep breath and let my whole body relax, dropping my legs back to the ground.

"I have some things to tell you," I said. Bowtie tilted its head, confused.

I had to tell it everything about what I'd learned while at the pizzaplex. What I'd been through, what I'd seen, but most importantly that Bonnie was gone.

"Bonnie is... He's..." I stuttered on my words, trying to come up with a way to say this without hurting Bowtie too much. "He's gone."

Bowtie's ears fell as it sighed. "I assumed as much, after he never returned. I just hope he's having a good time being rented out," it said.

My heart broke even more. Bowtie thought I meant he'd join Foxy in the rentals department. "No, that's not what I mean," I said. I swallowed my anxiety down, trying to just let it out. "Bonnie has been decommissioned."

Bowtie's mouth opened slightly with a small gasp. "What?"

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know how to tell you," I said. I brought my elbow onto the table and rested my forehead on my hand. Bowtie blinked, and I was sure if it had legs it would fall over. It stared into space, processing what I'd said.

"So... he's not coming back?" it asked. I shook my head, a small tear rolling down my cheek. I wiped it away and whispered, "I'm so sorry."

Bowtie looked down, thinking to itself. It was so still. I picked it up and hugged it close, and it nuzzled its head into my neck and started to lightly sob. I cried with it too, though we were crying for different reasons. I let myself grieve over the loss of all my friends. I finally had the time to just cry over them, without feeling the pressure of continuing an investigation, or having to run out mid-meltdown to save someone else. Of course, I cried over Bonnie as well. I didn't know him, but everyone's thoughts and feelings about him couldn't have painted a cleaner picture.

We stayed still for a while, just silently crying and embracing until we were able to speak again. Bowtie was the first to break the silence.

"Why though...? Everybody loved him," it said. It was angry and somber, unable to fathom why Bonnie was gone.

"Vanny. It was Vanny," I said. I let go of our hug and placed him back on the table so we could face each other.

Bowtie's eye twitched with annoyance. Its ears rose up again and it growled, " Argh ! I'll make that rabbit pay! First you, then Monty, now Bonnie?" Technically it was everyone , but I wasn't going to say that.

I know how it felt, and I felt the same, but I'll admit that it was hard to take Bowtie's threat seriously when it was as small as it was.

"We have to get back to the pizzaplex!" Bowtie said, though now its sadness warped into pure hatred.

"I know, I know, I want to go back too. I just don't know how," I said. Bowtie looked around, its anger clearly resonating with it, but as it observed its surroundings and remembered we were in a hospital room, it slowly calmed down. It looked back at me, sighed, and said, "We can't get hasty. You're still injured."