A few days later, I was back at Freddy's, sitting in front of the stage, hoping something would happen. Last time I was here, Chica freaked out and broke, but the robots haven't even seemed to notice me yet. Freddy's was pretty empty today and I didn't want to seem like a weirdo who talks to dancing robots, so I tried to whisper to the spirits and even see if I could talk to them through that.

Getting to Freddy's in itself was a disaster, because Mom quickly caught onto my little plan. She assured me over and over that I was fine, alive, and just had some amnesia. Dad figured out that I got the window open, and sealed it back shut. I noticed Terry's window is open, so I've been trying to get out whenever he's at school, which Mom has started making him go back to.

He'd been going to school since I died, but when I woke up, Mom said he could stay home for a couple days to spend time with me. But since Terry was pushing the limits a little bit, Mom made him go back. Which is fine, because with both him and Dad gone, I pretty much had free roam of the house, and Mom didn't get in my way either, since she spent all day in her room. I was never sure why.

In the middle of a Wednesday morning, I snuck into Terry's room and hopped out the window, making my way to Freddy's.

I made sure Dad wasn't around when I walked in, and took extra precaution as I walked over to the show stage. All I had to do was wait for the robots to do something.

Which really took a while. They did nothing except sing and move. I wonder what happened with Chica.

"Hey, what's going on?"

I looked beside me to see another kid standing next to me. He was looking at the robots. He had red hair and green eyes, but not the orange red of my mom and sister. Almost unnaturally red.

"Oh, nothing, something happened a week or so ago with Chica, and I'm gonna see if it'll happen again," I explained.

"The malfunction?" The kids asked, sitting down next to me. "My sister was here once a few days ago when she said that the robots started spazzing out and Chica fell over."

"Why do you think that was?"

"Crappy engineering," The kid said. "Well, that's what Dad said. Maddie and I think it's the souls of the kids stuck in the robots." I noticed the boy's eyes were fixed onto Freddy. He had a slight smile, and looked somewhat focused. "It's creepy, but kinda cool, you think?"

"It's more creepy," I responded. "When Chica fell over, I passed out or something, and then I woke up in a void, with all the dead kids. One attacked me, and that's when I woke up. And they keep... talking to me. And saying I'm one of them."

"That's weird," The boy said. I was expecting him to laugh or mock me or something, but he seems to believe this just as much as I do. "What do they mean, you're one of them? Like, you're dead or-" The boy stopped dead in his tracks when he turned over and looked at me. "Michael?"

"Yeah?"

"You... is it really you?" He asked, leaning in closer to me.

"I- uh... I think?"

"For real? But how?" The boy was getting more excited and it scared me somewhat. "Oh my God! Everyone thought you were dead! It's been almost a year! Where have you been? What happened?"

"I have no idea?" I said. "Better question: who are you?"

"Tyler! Tyler Vail! Don't you remember me?" He asked. I shook my head, and the excitement in Tyler's eyes was replaced with disappointment.

"No... I don't remember you. I'm sorry."

Tyler nodded and looked back up at Freddy.

"Should I?"

"No, no," Tyler said. "It's... nothing really. I didn't really have much to do with your life. We just went to school together. That's all."

"Oh," I sighed. "Okay. Well, thanks for... helping me not forget."

"No problem dude," Tyler laughed, turning to me. "Glad we met around here when we did. And I hope your whole... memory problem gets better." He got a decisive look, and spoke again. "Do you know what happened to your sister?"

"Yeah, but it's like my family didn't want me to know I had a sister."

"Oh, that's messed up. Like some kind of 'don't know, don't ask' kinda thing. Did you know the kids who were killed?"

"No? Kind of? I was told they were my friends."

"Hm." Tyler looked back up at Freddy, then got a worried look. "Holy crap, look at their eyes. It's like they're watching you or something."

"Watching me?" I looked up at the robots as well, and sure enough, they were all looking at me while performing. It's like the eyes are the point nailed to the wall and the robots are moving based on that.

"Eugh, that's weird," Tyler laughed. "You said this happened last time?" He stood up and reached out like he was going to touch them, when Bonnie had his own malfunction, with the top half of his body swinging around in the air, and hit Tyler on the side of the head with the guitar he was holding, knocking him over.

"What the-" I cried, before all three robots fell forward at once. They all tried to reach for me, their eyes still unmoving and locked on mine. Tyler was lying unresponsive on the floor. I wanted to go over and help him, but the robots were closing in on me and I was scared of what they were going to do.

Just when I had made up my mind and tried to make a beeline for Tyler, Chica stuck out her arm and I tripped, and she took ahold of my leg and pulled me towards her. I tried to claw myself away and to Tyler, but I made the mistake of looking back, because Chica opened her mouth and screeched, and I had to cover my ears, losing my grip on the floor.

I'm just going to have to accept my death. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to ignore all the noise around me. Finally, it faded. But when I opened my eyes again, I was back in the void.

"Oh no," I said. "No no no. Don't hurt me!" No one answered my cry, so I assumed I was alone. Am I dead now? If I am... maybe all my memories should be coming back? Right? I didn't get any new revelations about my life, so I assumed I was still alive.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by someone putting their hand on my shoulder. I looked down to see three long black claws, and when I turned to see who they belonged to, I was looking into the eyes of the marionette from my dream.

It was the actual marionette. Not a child in a mask.

It took a tighter grip on my shoulder and pulled me along. I followed, and saw a blue gift box wrapped in a pink bow. But the closer we got, the bigger the box seemed. There also seemed to be a voice coming from it. A music box also began to be heard in the distance.

The marionette and I walked up to the box, and then it disappeared. I looked in and someone with a mask on, their hair bunched up under it. I remembered the one boy saying that he'd call her Mary. Oh yeah... was he Kendal? I'd assume so. Anyway, he said he'd call her Mary. I cleared my throat, but she didn't turn.

"Um, uh... Mary?" I wasn't sure if I should've said anything or not, but she still turned. She had on a mask that looked like the marionette's. I could see her eyes, and they looked divisive. Like they were squinting, almost.

I didn't expect her to move over and pat the spot next to her, like she was inviting me in.

"Uh, are you sure?" I asked. Mary's eyes narrowed, which felt mildly intimidating, so I hopped into the box and sat down next to her. I noticed she was holding a music box. It was silent. After cranking the key a few times, she turned to me, as if expecting me to say something.

"Why are you here?" I asked. Mary said nothing. She just pointed to me, made a fist like she was holding something, and thrust her fist into my chest, like she was stabbing me with something, and pointed at herself.

"I... I killed you?" I squeaked. Mary's eyes widened, and she shook her head. She just pointed at me again. "I don't understand you. Can... you talk?"

Mary looked at me intensely for a moment, then nodded, but shook her head.

"You can-" Mary nodded. "-but you don't want to." She nodded again. "Okay. But someone killed you. Someone that has to do with me?" She nodded.

I had to think. Someone that had to do with me killed Mary. And if he killed Mary, he probably had something to do with everyone else... I thought back to when Terry and I visited the graveyard. I thought about what he said, the killer possibly being Dad. The only person Mary and I could possibly know that has connections with me.

"My dad!?" I cried. Mary nodded excitedly, and held up five fingers. I was confused at first, so she pointed to herself, and held the fingers back up. She was five. She died when she was five. The only other person I knew that died at that age was my sister. This could only be the other one. More things started to make sense. One more name I knew.

"Charlie!" I exclaimed. I started laughing, and Charlie looked like she was smiling through her mask. "Charlie, am I right?" She nodded, then leaned forward and hugged me. I couldn't help but hug her back. In that moment, it felt like I had someone back in my life. I didn't know anything about any of these people, but it felt like I did. And that's what made me so happy.

"But what did they mean?" I asked, pulling back. "What did... they!" -I gestured to outside the gift box- "Mean? What did they mean? That I was one of them? Am I dead?"

Charlie thought for a moment, and shrugged.

"You don't know?" I asked, more angry than I hoped. Charlie nodded. "So you have no idea if I'm dead or alive or not?" Charlie shook her head. For some reason, this angered me more.

The way I had hyped myself up about meeting Charlie, meeting the puppet, the one behind all this, and she has no idea if I'm even alive or dead.

You're obviously alive, I told myself. But why did they say I'm just like them? What else are they? Robots? No, that's...

"Am I a robot!?" I cried. Charlie blinked. "Am I?" She blinked again. "Is that what they mean? That I'm not dead, I- I'm... just a robot? Gone for a year and woke up not knowing anything-" Charlie put her arm around me in an attempt to calm me down, and I curled up with my head between my knees.

No. No way. How could I be a robot? Is that even what it is? It's amnesia. No. The blue eyes. The memories. Talking to dead people. Am I... in the robot? What I used to be?

"I need to go," I said, sitting up. "I need to be back home. Am I still even at Freddy's?" I stood up and looked out of the box, and still saw nothing but the void.

Charlie grabbed my shoulder, but I pulled away.

"No, I'm going." I stepped out of the box and hopped out, not realizing my feet were far past the bottom of the box.

"Michael, wait!"

I tried to turn at the sound of Charlie's voice, but in doing so, I fell all the way out of the box.

I screamed as I fell, and watched Charlie's panicked eyes as she and the gift box shrank until it was out of my vision.

How... how much farther until I hit the ground? Is there going to be a mass of angry spirits who wake me up? Is my sister coming back? I tried to find the gift box again, but it must've been too far. Something did show up in my vision, though. Water drops. Where did they...

I put my hands up to my eyes and realized that I was crying. This is the first time I've cried since... I woke up the first time, actually. But in this moment, I finally got the feeling of the pure desperation and confusion I've been feeling, and the revelation that I might even be a robot... And who knows how long I'll be trapped in this void? Last time, I woke up almost right away. How long have I been falling? It couldn't have been more than a minute or two.

"Hello?" I called. "Is anyone there? Liz? Charlie?" I waited. Nothing.

I closed my eyes and hoped to just wake up soon.

I squeezed my eyes tighter.

I put my hands over my eyes and curled up in a ball.

Wake up.

Wake up.

I opened my eyes again, still in the darkness. I got more frustrated. If I didn't wake up now, would I ever? I took a deep breath and looked down. Or up, I had no sense of direction left. I saw a small dot appear. The dot grew into a shape, a rectangle. The rectangle became more defined, and I could see it more clearly as a bed. My bed.

I kept my eyes on it as I fell faster, faster, I got colder, my eyes started to dry out, and the bed got closer and closer. I reached my arms out, eager to return back to the place I woke up, the only place I've been able to feel safe.