Deceptive

Snooping

Charlie, as promised, didn't take long to come back. Ballora had given her a spare key a while ago and she used it to unlock the back door. Nobody was around when she let herself in.

She didn't announce her presence. She didn't want anybody to know that she had arrived.

Charlie had driven to an empty parking lot far, far away after she had finished bombarding Foxy with questions. She needed a place to think without the feeling of paranoia hanging over her head. She listened to the recording she had made on the way there. She listened to it twice more after she had parked.

She tried, and tried, and tried to formulate some sort of explanation in her head...

But there wasn't one. Not yet, anyway. All Charlie knew was that she got strange vibes from Elizabeth the very moment that they had locked eyes. The feeling still lingered.

The only other person who seemed to feel the same way was Foxy, who had admitted that he found some of her behavior to be a bit odd. He simply brushed it all off as an aftereffect of her near-death experience, which didn't seem like all that crazy of a thing to do... Though, for whatever reason, it didn't seem like a good enough explanation for Charlie. She wasn't sure why. After all, she had seen Elizabeth practically shut down after the first time that one of Afton's animatronics nearly killed her. The girl's once bubbly and overly excited personality fizzled away completely, leaving almost nothing but apathy in its place.

Charlie had gotten her to smile a few times after she had left the hospital, but never one of her genuine ones. And it seemed that after all the time that had passed, Elizabeth had never regained any of her liveliness. It was simply... gone.

But despite having seen those changes with her own eyes, despite knowing that what Foxy had told her was very possible, Charlie couldn't find it in herself to believe it.

Something felt wrong.

She saw something in Elizabeth's eyes when she came out of the back hallways, presumably to speak to Foxy. There was a small flash of something similar to a deer in headlights.

Charlie was going to figure out what it meant. She was going to hunt for something to solidify her suspicions while her presence remained unknown, and then... uh... well, she'd have to figure out where to go from there.

Abruptly, she skidded to a halt, finding herself standing in front of the room she had been looking for: Elizabeth's office. There was no light spilling out from under the door, meaning that it was more than likely empty.

With slight hesitation and a nervous glance at her surroundings, Charlie very quickly opened the door and slipped inside before somebody had the chance to pass by.

She pulled out a flashlight. It was an old metal one that she had instinctively grabbed from her trunk before coming inside. It wasn't as bright and obvious as the ceiling light, making it less likely to let somebody outside the door know that she was inside. Plus, she could turn it off far faster if she needed to.

"Now what?" Charlie muttered to herself as her eyes surveyed the small space. She had never actually set foot in it before. She felt rather bad since she was about to dig through her friend's personal belongings without permission, but this wasn't going to work if Elizabeth knew.

Charlie took a deep breath.

The space was fairly messy. Maybe the desk would be a good place to start? That was where a lot of people kept personal stuff, right?

The desktop had a multitude of items on its surface, most of which were pushed toward the edge so that there'd actually be a place to do work. There was a cup with pens and pencils in it, an envelope holder with a number of bills in it, a stapler, and other similar office supplies.

She moved a few stray papers around. Nothing interesting, really. In the drawers, she found more office supplies, a few photos, and... oh, a small leather-bound book. A diary. Or journal, whatever.

Charlie flipped through it, really only paying attention to the dates scrawled at the top of the pages. Interestingly enough, it seemed that Elizabeth made entries rather frequently, but the most recent one was from about a month back. More specifically, it was from around the time that a body had been found behind the building. Foxy had told Charlie about it because he thought she looked disturbingly similar to the dead woman.

The handwriting in the entry was noticeably more unreadable than it was in the others.

'I think he's back. I thought he was dead and gone, but I'm not so sure anymore. Fox found a dead woman behind the dumpster after work. I knew right away that it was his doing... the way she was killed, the animatronic eye and wires that were in the chest cavity... I reached in and pulled them out with my bare hand, by the way. I'm not really sure what came over me? My head started feeling fogged up the moment I laid eyes on the body. I couldn't think properly. I didn't want to believe that it was his doing.

I tried to search for things that would tell me my suspicions were wrong. I kept trying, even after Chief Burke said exactly what I was thinking out loud. Hearing it felt like being smacked in the back of the head with a fucking shovel. It's finally sunk in now. I'm still not all that sure if I'm thinking straight, but I don't care. I've decided that I'm going to find him. I don't want him to hurt more people than he already has.'

The date at the top of the page was more unusual to Charlie than the actual entry itself.

She took a step back and accidentally hit something with the back of her heel.

A box. A box that was sticking halfway out from under a small cabinet up against the wall. Maybe the contents were worth a look.

Charlie placed the journal on the desk, knelt down, and held the flashlight between her head and shoulder as she pulled the flaps of the box open.

There were a number of items inside.

The most prominent thing was half of a metal arm. It was somewhat crude-looking with extremely sharp points at the end of each finger. Charlie noticed that the inside of it was mostly gutted once she picked it up and set it aside.

Next, she found a handful of large blue pins, a few of those illusion discs, and a couple of old circuit boards scattered atop a dark, dirty, stained, clothing item. She swept all of the small stuff aside and pulled the dark fabric out.

It took a moment for her to discern what it was supposed to be. It was so shredded that it appeared amorphous at first. Eventually, Charlie figured out that it was a jacket. She recognized it as the one Elizabeth had worn in the warehouse. A few things fell out of it when she fully unfolded it.

There was a lighter, an old pushbutton knife, a bottle of something red with the label torn off, and what looked like a bunch of photographs rubber-banded into a roll.

Charlie carefully put the other items back (despite still finding them weird) and decided to focus on the photos. She felt a bit of hesitance as she slowly pulled the rubber band off. Partially because she still felt bad for being super intrusive and partially because she was afraid of what she'd find.

There were about twenty photos, all of which seemed to contain the same few people in them. There was the photographer, whose feet and hands were sometimes visible within the frame. They clearly weren't too concerned about the composition of any of the photos. Then there was the main subject, who appeared to be dead.

The first photo featured them laid sloppily on a dirty concrete floor, their face somewhat hidden by their hair. A long dark stain that trailed from the person's head and up out of the frame indicated that they had been dragged.

The second photo was taken much closer to the deceased individual, showing them from the shoulders up. The photographer's hand was visible, forcing the person's head to face the camera. Their features were almost indiscernible due to how badly their face had been damaged.

The rest of the photos were very similar.

Charlie felt a mix of revulsion, confusion, and distress crawling up the back of her throat. She swallowed, her brain struggling to truly process the sight.

What did they mean? How??

She didn't have time to think about it. Not now.

She could hear footsteps.

Somebody was approaching the door.