it will never be okay

"i miss him"

"i... do not come up here anymore... i miss him."

i followed freddy's solemn gaze to the logo of bonnie bowl. i've heard how bonnie's been his long-time partner but i never thought that he'd be so close to him. i heard it in his voice – he meant the world to him. losing him must've been so hard to go through and even harder to move on. i know how that feels.

there was one thing that didn't make sense though.

"hey, freddy?"

freddy shifted his attention to me. "yes, gregory?"

i turned to him and asked, "how did bonnie disappear?"

he visibly hesitated for a moment before answering with as much composure as possible. "they say he got decommissioned. monty took his place after that."

"monty? why would he take bonnie's place when he was already part of the band?"

"he was mainly in charge of monty's gator golf. he rarely performed on stage with us. but after bonnie got decommissioned, the staff decided to replace him." i noticed his hands balling into fists at the last few words.

"come on now, superstar. it's best for us to get going," he said and opened his stomach hatch for me to get in.

i stared at the open hatch and thought about climbing inside before an idea suddenly struck me. a smile stretched across my lips as i came to a decision.

"you go on and rest for a moment. i wanna explore this place more on my own."

freddy nodded and retreated to a nearby power station.

there are rogue bloodthirsty animatronics, a security guard, and a killer rabbit searching all over this ginormous place for me, but with a couple hours left to spare, i can totally add in "make a thank-you gift for freddy for protecting me tonight" to my to-do list.

yeah. freddy deserves to be happy and i'm gonna fulfill that wish no matter how high the stakes are.

because freddy is like the father i never had. i don't know what it's like to have a dad but... from what i've seen, freddy is the whole package. he's not like the others. he protected me; he even empathized with his friends even though they're trying to hunt me down. he worries when i'm hurt, he helped me throughout the night, he gave me a whole tour of the pizza plex. he cares.

and i love him for that.

*

MISSING

SECURITY REPORT

12:24AM – Bonnie is seen leaving his green room in Rockstar Row heading East towards the atrium. 2:40AM – Bonnie enters the East Arcade. 4:12AM – Bonnie enters Monty Golf.