The Interrogation

Dave started anxiously panting, looking around the room. His body moved upward, straightening himself.

"Where the hell am I?! Agh, why does the back of my head hurt so much?"

William responded to him calmly, so he wouldn't overreact.

"Funtime Freddy threw you against a wall in the Funtime Auditorium. You were knocked unconscious. So I had to deal with him while you were out cold."

Now Dave's face showed a hint of surprise. He then turned his attention to Funtime Freddy's powered-down endoskeleton, lying on the ground near him.

"Ah, I didn't expect you to take him on and win like that, rookie. Considering you got that black eye from getting smacked in the face. And for saving my life, I'm slightly grateful. But could you at least release me from these bonds? They are feeling uncomfortably tight."

"You do know I'm interrogating you, right, Dave?"

"I was being sarcastic! Of course I know that! Why the hell else would I be strapped to this chair?!"

Not much for a comedian, I suppose. Dave was acting very aggressively now, but hey, you'd be angry too if you just got kidnapped. For a moment, though, William noticed something odd with Dave's eyes. They looked kind of glassy, just dull and flat. They still moved and blinked and saw clearly, but it seemed like whatever was behind those eyes was something completely unrecognizable.

"Seems fair to me. After all, you drugged me, kidnapped me, and stuffed me inside of a death suit! And tonight, you tried shooting me! If anything, this is letting you off easy."

Dave just let out a few brief chuckles. He turned his head to face him, but before he could speak, William spoke up again.

"Listen, Dave. I have been through a lot of shit this past week. The animatronics here have tried to kill me several times over, and now I can barely sleep at night because of all the stress at this job. I've gotten kidnapped, stuffed into a suit that was practically a death trap, had to see Ballora get scooped against my will, and tonight, I stumble upon two dead bodies hanging from the ceiling, get shot at by you, and get punched in the face by Funtime Freddy! That hurt like hell! So I am not in the mood for any more lies or excuses or anything else like that, because I won't hesitate to tase you if you don't tell me any answers! And so help me, if you-"

As William's temper got worse as he ranted on about his past week, Dave was just laughing at him. Not in a mocking or terrifying way like Funtime Freddy, but like he thought it was a funny joke. He really doesn't think I have the guts to tase him? Well, don't worry about that, I'll demonstrate that to him right now! He pulled out his taser from his pocket, making sure to let Dave have a good view of it.

"You see this? You don't give me any answers, and I'll be more than happy to tase you!"

Dave stopped his laughing, but for some reason he was still in a humored mood.

"Oh don't worry, William, I believe you aren't afraid to use that taser on me. I wasn't laughing at that. I just found it so funny how much you went through this past week, and how you just kept going on and on, complaining about it! You know, I bet you don't even know how grateful you should be right now!"

"Grateful?! For what, having perhaps the worst week of my life?! What do I have to be grateful for here?!"

It seemed like Dave was now much more serious, as his smile slowly disappeared. He remained quiet for a few moments to give William some time to think about what he just said. Then he spoke up again.

"Please, with everything you've gone through, you should be grateful that at least you're still alive. There have been plenty of employees here, just like you, who've experienced things far worse than you have. Some have gotten mauled, attacked, traumatized, and even killed. You've had it easy compared to so many others. You had a guide to help you through, someone who's helped you all the way, given you as much as she could to help you survive. What? You didn't think I knew about what Baby was doing?"

"Wait, you knew that she was helping me?"

"Not at first. But then you told me that she helped you survive, I knew something was up. Maybe you should've just kept your lips shut."

William instantly realized this from two days ago, and couldn't help but facepalm.

"Damn it, how could I have been so stupid?!"

"Anyways, you had Baby helping you. Unlike many others, you had someone who could help you out. If she didn't do that, I think you wouldn't be even standing in front of me right now, and I think you know it, too."

This hit William deeper than he expected. He knew he thanked Baby for helping him survive, but he didn't take the time to think about it very deeply. She helped me when no one else down here did. She told him herself that he was different from the others, that he listened to and cared about her. I don't think I've thought about this enough before. I'm probably one of the few people she can even talk to.

Hold on. Don't let him get inside your head. It's a good thought, but it's not the kind of thinking I need right now. Right now I need to be focused on getting some answers out of this guy.

"That's enough, Dave. All I want is for you to answer a few of my questions. That's it. So please, for your sake, don't be difficult."

"Whatever you say. Not like I have much of a choice now."

"My first question is why did you kidnap me and place me inside of a springlock suit?"

"Yeah...you see, this started back when you mentioned to me how Baby helped you and your horrific second night. I knew this wasn't the first time Mr. Cunningham hired a new technician without me knowing about it, so I figured there was something going on. I decided to sneak into the facility before you arrived so I could be sure if you were sneaking around. The last guy who worked in your place...well, the footage pointed out that he tried to sneak into a few unauthorized areas, so I wanted to see if you would do the same thing."

"But I didn't enter any unauthorized places."

"Well, you technically weren't assigned to the Circus Gallery, so that's close enough. Be lucky the security footage didn't catch that. The only way I found out was because I heard the motion trigger alarm go off. So, I got worried that you were trying to were trying to find things out that I didn't want you to know."

"Wait, how did you even hear the alarm go off-"

"I know my way around the place quite well. There are plenty of hiding spots down here. Anyway, I didn't want to kill you or anything at first because I wasn't sure if you were trying to snoop around. So instead, I thought scaring you out of it would've given you the message. But clearly, you didn't get it. I brought along my night goggles so I wouldn't have to accidentally activate Funtime Foxy with a flash beacon, so sneaking past her was pretty easy. Then I waited for you to get to parts and service, and while you were busy in there, I deactivated Funtime Foxy so that I could teach you a lesson myself. I hid behind some of the tables in the dark so you wouldn't see me, then one thing led to the next, and I put you inside of a springlock suit."

"I thought you said you didn't want to kill me at first! Why did you even put me inside of a springlock suit if you knew it could kill me?"

"Uh, remember anything? Baby was helping you before. I knew she would try to look for you somehow. Believe me, if she hadn't come to help, you'd probably be a bloody mess. Anyways, even if you did die, it wouldn't be too hard for me to clean up the mess. But it certainly would've taken me a while to clean up all the blood."

"Yes, I know. Baby told me about what happened to a man who suffered a springlock failure--"

"Ah, pity on that poor man. I happened to know him quite well."

"You knew the victim?"

"Well, of course I know him. He's me."

William stopped speaking, utterly stunned by this. All of this time, he was the springlock victim? Like the one from 1974? No, it can't be, can it? Dave seemed to notice his reaction, so he spoke up.

"Don't believe me? How about you check the scars all over my neck? Is that enough proof for you?"

William checked the back of Dave's neck, and was surprised that Dave actually told him the truth. All over his neck were several vertical scars, running down to his back. On both sides, there were many more deep and nasty cuts. Like the kind you would be tortured with.

"There. You've seen it. And believe me, I've got plenty more scars all over my body! The scars over my chest and back make the scars on my neck look like a few minor paper cuts!"

"Oh my God, those look horrible..."

Then, Dave aggressively moved forward, which seemed kind of random to William.

"Do you have any idea what it feels like? When all of those pieces of metal and plastic drive into your skin? Because I do. I felt all of the pain. It felt like nails were being drilled all over my body! Bloody nails! And not just that. Some of those pieces were lodged so deep inside of me that I could feel some of my organs being punctured! If it weren't for the fast medics, I would've probably bled out and died. My muscles, skin and upper body were practically ravaged! That incident left all sorts of dreadful scars all over my arms, chest and back, and even some slight damage to the back of my brain. Luckily, it turned out to be very minor, but I wish I could've said the same for the rest of me!"

"Please stop, you're creeping me out-"

"But the worst part of it all? The pain. That irritating, constant agony I suffered through. I felt like I was slowly dying. That pain stayed with me for months. You should've seen how scared my daughter was. She was crying for days on end. She thought I wasn't going to make it. But here I am."

Damn, that was a pretty brutal description. I had no idea it hurt that bad. Just the way Dave explained the whole thing was enough to give William goosebumps. He didn't want to get off track, and was still creeped out, so he tried to move things along and ask him his next question.

"Alright, Dave, I am truly sorry you had to go through all of that, but I'm not letting myself get distracted anymore. So now I'm going to ask you my next question. Why did you try to kill me tonight?"

"That is a bit...complicated to explain. You see, I didn't have any plans to do anything to you tonight at first. I was just going down into the facility to get something from my, uh, secret room, the one with those boards? Then I thought I might as well check the Ballora gallery, just in case, and I found a dead body hanging from the stage. I had absolutely no idea what happened, so I snuck into the gallery to check it out. I couldn't find Ballora anywhere inside. Like she was gone. I wondered if the same thing happened in the Funtime Auditorium, so I checked there next. I found the exact same thing, another dead body hanging from the stage, and no sign of Funtime Foxy. I thought something was seriously wrong, so I headed to my secret room to grab some weapons to defend myself."

"Wait, I think I heard you getting those weapons when I was hiding in one of those closets in there. The ones where you kept all of those extra Circus Baby models."

"You want an answer to that, too?"

"Not yet. Just get to the point already."

"Okay, so I got nervous because I didn't want to have to drag the police into this if they found out about two dead bodies down here. When I left my secret room, next thing I knew, the body on Funtime stage was gone. Just gone. All I see was that the rope was cut very short. I was getting very anxious, and I knew I wasn't alone down here. So I went back to check Ballora gallery, and I found the same thing: the other dead body disappeared. Only this time I could briefly see the body being dragged behind the stage curtains. I wasn't going to check out whatever that was, so I headed back to the Funtime Auditorium. Only then I found you. I thought you saw just a bit too much-"

"So you tried to kill me to cover up whatever happened down here tonight."

"Yes. But then Funtime Freddy showed up, and you know the rest of that story."

Hmm...seems very suspicious. I feel like he's telling the truth about his reasons, but it seems awfully convenient all of this happened so perfectly timed. There's still something that's confusing me about the dead technicians. He said he briefly saw something drag one of the bodies behind stage, but who? I guess that's a question even he doesn't know the answer to. Let's move on.

"Alright. Next question. Can you please explain what this is?!"

William walked over to Funtime Freddy, his chest cavity already removed, trying to activate that claw he saw two nights ago. How did I trigger this last time? I think I just got too close to it, or maybe I need to press down on his stomach for some reaction. Just then, as he got close enough, he could see Funtime Freddy's eyes roll over to black, like last time. The skill-crane claw-like grabber immediately shot out of his stomach. Luckily William wasn't standing in the way, and that Freddy was currently lying on the ground, otherwise it could've left him a nasty scar. Dave didn't seem surprised at all when he saw this. He answered in a sarcastic tone.

"That's a claw. I don't see what you want me to explain."

"Yeah, I know it's a claw, genius, but why would you even need this?! What is this thing used for?!"

"Think about it for a moment. You're smart, I recon you can connect the dots. Do you think that claw could grab you?"

"No, not really. I think it could injure me, yes, but that doesn't answer my question!"

"Ah, yes. That right there. It's not large enough to grab you. Not large enough for any adult, for that matter. Works better on much smaller victims."

Smaller victims? I know that thing can't get a good grip on me, but could it get ahold of a...child? Wait...oh my God. Does this relate to the missing children? But why make a claw to--. It was at this moment that he knew Dave must've had something to do with those children. I just don't understand how! What is this for? After trying to piece the clues together, he asked Dave his next question.

"Does this have to do with the children? Was this your doing?!"

"Ah, so you are connecting the dots. You're starting to figure it out. But you're still stumped about that claw's purpose, aren't you? It's not just to grab ahold of smaller victims. If its only purpose was to do that, it would be a very stupid idea. Not sneaky enough. I'll tell you this, though. How about you check deeper into Freddy's chest cavity? I'll think you find the answer there."

What is he talking about? Is there something else I'm not looking at? William walked back to Funtime Freddy, the claw still sticking out of his stomach. Alright, I'm looking inside, but I can't see anything so far. It took him some time to successfully check inside Freddy, but he finally found something strange. There seemed to be an unusually large open space inside of Freddy's chest. It looked like it could fit a lot more than the claw inside.

Is there something in here I'm supposed to find? What's the point of having this much empty space in an animatronic? Then, the instant realization hit him like a brick to the head. Dave, you sick bastard. Of course! The claw is designed to grab ahold of children, but it looks like there is just enough space inside of Freddy for a child to fit in! If that's true, then...Dave has built these animatronics to kidnap children?! It was him! He's behind all of those missing children incidents!

William felt a spark of rage go off in his heart. That bastard's taken so many children away from their families! This whole time! He couldn't take it anymore, and aimed his taser right at Dave's chest.

"You son of a bitch! It was you this whole time! You child-murderer!"

He fired, and Dave began to squirm and twitch like crazy. He was paralyzed, but for some reason he kept that creepy grin on his face. William let him stay this way for around a good two minutes, tasing Dave a second time before letting him speak again. After he recovered, Dave just laughed, but not like before, more like Funtime Freddy's cackling, like he was taunting him.

"Well, well! Looks like you cracked the case there, Sherlock! I hope all that answered your question for you!"

"Shut up! You murdered innocent children! At a children's establishment of all places! How could you do such a horrible thing?!"

"Please, not all of my victims were children. There were a few people who got in my way, kind of like you. Most of them were children. And I rather enjoyed killing them. But most of the time I didn't even get to kill them. They often suffocated inside of the suits before I could get them out."

"Wait, suits? As in plural?!"

"What do you expect? All the four main ones have this exact same feature in their endoskeletons. Only the smaller ones, like Bon-Bon, the Bibybads and the Minireenas don't have that feature. And they've all provided me with a victim at some point!"

Suddenly, something came across William's mind. Something that he didn't realize until this moment. Two nights ago, Baby told me she met a little girl some time back. That she blacked out, and the next thing she thing, the little girl was gone. Does that mean--. Oh no. She kidnapped that girl without even knowing about it. Does she even know? I don't know how to explain any of this to her. But I need to be sure if Dave knows anything else.

"Listen, Dave. The only reason why I even have the nerve to keep you alive right now is that you're hiding something from everyone! And not just all of this, no, it goes deeper than that, doesn't it? So answer me this. What is causing these animatronics to malfunction?!"

Dave seemed to hesitate for a moment. He seemed like he had trouble explaining everything.

"Please, William. If I told you what I think is causing the malfunctions, you'd think I'm either an incredibly bad liar or an insane lunatic."

"Given all the crazy things I've learned today, that's the least of my concerns. Now tell me!"

"Uh...well, let's just say that whatever's wrong with them, it has nothing to do with their programming."

"Are you seriously telling me that these problems aren't because of their programming? Then what the-"

As William tried to finish his sentence, both men could hear something coming from the air vent in the middle of the ceiling. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't making that noise before. They both fell silent, staring at the ceiling to see what where the noise was coming from. The air vent began hissing like a snake, getting louder, but nothing was coming out. The hissing just kept going, not pausing even for a moment. Dave and William looked to see if there would be anything unusual exiting it, but there was still nothing. Just the regular hiss and air flow coming from the vent.

Until they started seeing a type of strange gas coming out of it.

This gas seemed to look a lot like hot steam, only much denser, and seemingly beige colored. First it was just coming out in a short manner, but all of a sudden, much more gas rapidly came out of the vent, as it began to fill the entire room. I need to get out of here, and fast! He ran to the door and anxiously tried to open it. Oddly enough, though, the door wouldn't budge. What? I didn't lock myself in. It must've been barred from the outside. Dave was right. There must be someone else down here with us!

Frantically moving around, trying to escape, Dave eventually passed out after inhaling too much of the gas, while William was trying to hold in his breath. Come on, think, think, is there another exit here? He tried searching the room for any way out, and luckily, there was one small vent-way in the back of the room, that was, thankfully, large enough for William to crawl through. How didn't I see this before? There were a few words above it that read out: Warning - Use in emergencies only.

Well this is an emergency, let's go already! Before he would enter the vent-way, he made sure to take one last large breath before the gas filled up the entire room around him. He opened the hatchet, climbed inside, and closed the hatchet as quickly as he could. He also made sure to take Dave's handgun with him, just in case he came across anything else in his way.

Now that William was trying to carefully navigate himself through the vent-way, he took a moment to gather his thoughts about what just happened. That was a close one. I could've ended up like Dave. Who decided to put gas through the air-vent anyways? Wait, Dave! I left him behind. Well, I probably would've been gassed out if I stayed behind, anyway. I know he's a child murderer, but I still had some questions for him. I guess I'm not getting any more answers out him.

Dave probably had this coming for him for quite a while now, anyway. Besides, odds are he would've turned his back on me the moment I let him go. There's no reason to go back for him. As soon as he gathered up the last of his thoughts, his hopes were answered as he finally came to the end of the vent-way. Look at that, we're here already. He opened the vent door, held it steady, and crawled out of the vent-way into a brand-new room he had never seen before.

The floor tiles were colored like a chessboard, with a black and white tile texture laid out across it. This room seemed to be some kind of security office. There were two open doorways on each side, and a large, open vent just above the desk. Among other things, this room had a large metal desk, equipped with a swivel chair, three monitors, two stacked on the bottom, one on top, all showing nothing but static. Some other items on this desk included an unusually large, shiny fan, an empty blue soda can, some crumpled-up paper, and a mini animatronic bear, lying deactivated near the monitors, but William didn't recognize this one.

The mini animatronic's head was abnormally big, almost as big as its body, with a somewhat plastic and metal-like surface, it had a small, open jaw, with a little black nose on its snout, and a black top hat and bow-tie. It actually looked kind of cute. Like a miniature version of Funtime Freddy. The animatronic was around the size of Bon-Bon, only unlike him, this one had legs.

Maybe this is some merchandise for one of Fazbear Entertainment's other attractions? He knew that Fazbear Entertainment was a chain corporation, owning many other characters than the ones here at Circus Baby World. Even so, he wasn't particularly familiar with them, as he didn't really care to know what--.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his Hand-Unit going off.

"It seems that you have accidentally wandered into a highly restricted area. Due to the sensitive nature of the materials that you might be exposed to here, you will not be allowed to leave until the clean-up crew arrives. So hang tight in here. Rest assured that you will be promptly rescued, probably fired and sent home as soon as possible."