"It's time." A grin crept across the man's face "I have been here long enough already. How long has it been, a week? Even that stupid, annoying voice from the phone man has faded away now. Day after day he's been saying exactly the same thing, for how long!? I know what I'm doing!"

The man sat in the office at the end of two hallways, as he had to do each night in his job. To keep an eye on the animatronics so they didn't do anything bad. So nobody stole them. Pretty dangerous work considering that these robots didn't have a single positive intention.

"Actors, yeah." he grumbled, "During the day they pretend that everything is okay. They play with the kids, they even wave to you when you are going to your office, and what then?"

The animatronics on the cameras stayed in some pretty weird positions and they were motionless as they stared into the cameras. All three of them remained on stage, their dead eyes piercing into the night guard, but he wasn't scared. He knew that feeling. I think he enjoyed it. Three pairs of eyes almost instantly changed into two; one of the animatronics started getting close to the office. A moment later there was only one pair of the eyes left which didn't want to wait too long before it went after the rest of them. Loud, quick steps of metal feet were heard in the left hallway, so he closed the left doors. Foxy only knocked and left moments later. The nightguard was very precise; he was watching them so no one could catch him. He knew what he was doing, and he did that well. Everything he did, he did very carefully.

"Not yet, my friends." he said, as he closed the doors between him and Chica. "It's difficult to say goodbye. I'm willing to wait it out a little longer with you."

The nightguard had already met face to face with the animatronics many times. Near the desk, there was thick a rod, which he had used countless times to stop the animatronics from getting through the open doors. But not all of the animatronics were coming in that way. Before his eyes appeared the motionless body of a golden bear, and the whole office started to swirl dangerously.

"I didn't forget about you, my dear." it seemed that this one tried to get inside his head. It wasn't just any old animatronic - the night guard could tell that much. This one didn't get there using his own two legs "You could really do something to me, but honestly I don't have to do anything more than just blink!"

It was enough, and the bear was already gone. He disappeared; he didn't show up very often, anyway. The man really enjoyed each of his meetings with this unique robot in particular. But sadly for him, each of them happened only for a brief moment.

As the hours passed, the robots became more and more aggressive, while the night guard had only a little power left to use. When he realised that it was just 5 AM and he was down to his last four percent of power, he threw his tablet on the floor and got up with a mean grin on his face.

"It's time."

He looked through the left doors. Bonnie was there in the distance. He was going to attack soon. But the night guard wasn't worried about Bonnie. He knew full well that Freddy wasn't going to enter the room without stopping to face the right doors. When he came back, the robot was already there. Not turning to face him, he listened to the weird, distorted voice coming out of the robot.

"You remember our last encounter? I broke all four of you, one after the other, with my bare hands. You are weak - and you're certainly no match for your creator!"

The nightguard finally turned around and tackled Freddy, knocking him down. He stood on one of his hands, snatching the other one. From there, he took the rod he had prepared earlier and stabbed Freddy in the neck, breaking the connection between the bear's head and body, destroying the robot. One down. The man jumped out into the right hallway, and attacked Chica. Sliding near her legs and catching one of them as he went, he overturned her. She couldn't get up quickly enough, and lost her legs moments later, the night guard swiftly taking her to pieces.

As he returned to the office, the golden version of Freddy showed himself again.

"I won't destroy you," the nightguard said "You're only in my head. But, maybe you are here, hidden somewhere in one of the rooms if you really exist at all? I don't know. We will see."

Settling back inside the office, the nightguard raised his tablet and looked at it. He was down to his last percent. More than enough, especially as he heard the approaching of very specific animatronic he'd had in mind. As Foxy made it just under one of the doorways, the door was closed on him instantly, crushing the robot against the floor and destroying the majority of his mechanisms all at the same time. Only one left.

The last of his power had been used to close the door. Now it was over. Everything went dark, and the doors opened. The only source of light nearby was the pulsating light coming from Freddy's head lying on the ground. Without it, it would be completely dark. Bonnie was standing in a doorway. He wasn't really sure what to do - after all, he wasn't supposed to do anything after the power was out. He could barely see anything in the darkness around him. The nightguard was having no such problem, and he jumped at his opponent, grabbed him by his neck, and nailed him to the wall with the words: "It's over. You're the last one."

Suddenly, all the lights lit up. The confused night guard looked around. But there was nothing to see. All of the animatronics were gone. What was more, Bonnie, who he had been holding by his neck just moments ago, had also disappeared into thin air.

"What's with this mess?" I asked calmly. "It's been so long... I didn't think I would have to do this again."

"Who are you!?" Confusion changed to fear, and the guard was clearly out of his depth in this uncertain situation. He looked around him. "What have you done!?"

"What have I done? I reset everything," in the hallway stood a small child that the night guard was barely able to make out. Its vague silhouette seemed to hang by a few strings. "I've reset everything to the state it should stay in."

As it loomed closer, the silhouette started to grow bigger and bigger, until there was tall, skinny animatronic just behind the man.

It was me. The Puppet.

"I remember you! You're the animatronic from the old pizzeria."

"No, I'm more than that. As are we all. I am the victim of your sickness, hate, lust... I don't know anymore. You destroyed us. You're a monster. But you've already paid for your crimes, at least in my eyes. I'm done with you. I'm just keeping the peace in this place, and you are constantly interrupting!"

"I've paid? Peace? That doesn't make any sense at all! What's going on here!?"

"There's no need to explain that. You aren't gonna remember that anyway."

"No, I won't! It's impossible to forget something like that!"

"Yet you did forget. You don't even remember why you are here. You aren't here to hurt them - the truth is, you are looking for..."

"...for my daughter. Y-Yes, that's true... That's why I'm here! B-but how? How could I forget her?"

"She's here with us. We took her. We are helping her to be free. We are preparing the happiest day that was meant just for her. But you...No matter how many times I explain it to you, you keep forgetting."

"How is that possible? I've never seen you there! I don't remember! How!?"

"When you destroyed Freddy, you talked about your last encounter. Do you remember that, maybe?"

"What? Yeah, I remember that well. I've destroyed the animatronics before. I've been looking for her! I knew she was there, with you."

"And that's all?"

"I've been using the Safe Room to be secure. Well, it wasn't necessary anyway. I already knew all the weaknesses of these metal cans. I destroyed them."

"That doesn't matter. The important thing is what you did after that."

"After that? I've been looking for her. She was there somewhere, I saw her in the previous location. Hidden inside one of the robots. And I... I found her! Her parts were hidden in a springsuit! I took them, and then... oh... then the ghosts appeared..."

"Yeah... Go on..."

"I don't remember that well... There were five of them. Five ghosts. I was scared of them. But that wasn't a problem, I had Bonnie's suit nearby."

"And what did you do?"

"I put it on, of course. I was safe inside. Back there, I was one of them. They couldn't do anything to me."

"But something happened."

"I don't know what you're talking about, I put on the suit, and then they... But..." the night guard fell silent. For a long moment he didn't move, just staring into the void, trying to remember something. He was losing balance. He stepped back. He leant against the wall, so he wouldn't fall. He started to shake, and looked directly at me, unable to say anything for a moment. It took him a while to calm down, "I-I... There was... a... failure. The springlocks were wet... There was rain... It was humid, and I... I died... I was... crushed... I died..."

***

In the abandoned, damaged room, there was a robot. There wasn't anything special around it: a couple of machines, boxes, cassettes. But this robot was an important one. For the first time in years, he started to move. He barely managed to raise his eyelids, but he couldn't do anything concrete. He tried to raise his hand, but he felt something making him weaker and dragging him back from his place.

***

"W-What are you going to do to me...?" he asked dubiously.

"You hurt me a lot. But this isn't my revenge. It's theirs. Maybe I suffered more and for longer, but I wouldn't do something like that by my own will. That's not my goal. I have to do something you weren't able to do for your own daughter."

"But... You, you are... My..."

"At this moment, I'm your watchman. And theirs. THAT'S what important. I'm not going to do anything to you. Whatever have I done in the past, I did because of them. To help them. I wasn't here when you died. I wouldn't kill you. I just helped them to capture you."

"I... don't understand..."

"For everything you've done, all these years you've been repeating the same nightmare. Day after day working, watching over these animatronics trying to kill you. In my heart, I believe it is all going to end soon. But not because of you. Because of them. They have to leave, but until that happens, this place is their safe haven. They can be happy there - we are just waiting for right moment. They don't remember anything related to you. They aren't themselves when they are attacking you. And now, it's time for you to remember everything that happened. All these years. Tomorrow we will start again from the beginning."

I let him remember that. In his eyes there was only deep, growing dread. All these years, everything that happened to him, where is he now. It wasn't his first time. Yet I believe it's the last time. I truly want it all to be over.

When I turned back, all five of them were standing there. They'd heard everything. They'd found out about everything. Again. Some might say that the time had come to reveal it to them all over again, but that would just be wrong. If I just let this be something that has to be done from time to time, I wouldn't put my heart into it. And this is something they definitely need right now.

"Was our whole life... a lie?" asked Freddy.

And he was followed by Bonnie. "Do our memories matter at all?"

I really understood how they felt at this moment. This wasn't the first time I'd had to have this conversation with them. If I managed to calm them down, there would really be no need to remind them of anything; they won't remember in a few days, anyway. But if I just ignored them, or tried to get it over with bluntly and quickly, it would end really badly. If you tell too much at the wrong moment, they'll still forget everything, but it'll leave awkward feelings, doubt, blurred memories - the same thing that forced Golden Freddy to hide and observe everything around him from those hidden places. He knew that something was off, and I don't want to make the same mistake again. Soon there will be a day when they will become themselves again - they'll remember everything once and for all - but it won't happen now. It isn't the right time.

"Calm down, please, there is no need to be afraid. Take a seat," I said, being the first one to sit on the floor. All five of them slowly did the same. "Don't be scared. Just listen to me carefully. Everything is going to be okay."

"Who are we?" Chica started quickly "What are we doing here? What's going on? Tell us!"

"Easy, easy. I will explain everything in order," I took a short pause. "This man, this night guard, tried to hurt you. He's been trying to do that for a long time. He's a real monster, and he's committed lots of other terrible crimes in his life. But that's over now. We've stopped him. You're safe now."

"Why did he want to hurt us?" Freddy asked calmly but was interrupted by Chica.

"Really? That isn't important right now! The Puppet said a lot of things. I heard about victims, pain, animatronics, about a nightmare or some special day. How we aren't conscious during the night, and how we were destroyed somewhere before. And how is it possible that none of us realised that we were robots until today!? I want to know more about that night guard too, but that isn't important right now!"

"Umm... But... Easy... I'm gonna explain everything. Believe me. But his story is really important," I'm still trying to calm everything down. "The man you met was a really bad person. He hurt a lot of people, and this time he decided to show up at our pizzeria."

"He had to have been here before!" Chica was really pushing me here. "You mentioned "our revenge," and that "last encounter". We've met him before, but we don't remember that anymore. You're lying to us! What is that all about!?"

"I was right about something being off." said Golden Freddy, capturing everyone's attention for a moment "When I decided to look into all of it, I openly explained to you what I was going to do. You probably don't remember that at all."

Sadly, I'd really said too much here. I wished I could just escape from this topic. I couldn't figure out how to explain it, even if I had more time to answer. But I couldn't leave them like that; not this time. Every time something like this happened, this conversation got harder. They asked more; they understood more. Even if they don't remember what's going on, some part of all of this stays in their heads and it affects them more and more, and they connect the dots more easily, even if they aren't fully aware of it. And it got even worse today. I could never have expected them to hear everything I said. That had never happened before. I wasn't prepared for something like that. And now all this was happening. They were lost right now. Chica had started jumping to conclusions based on what I had said, while the rest of them were really confused. Maybe, except for Foxy.

"Chica is correct," he said, as I went quiet for a moment. "This is nonsense - you're trying to calm us down, but it's too late now! Tell us the truth, not some crappy lies!"

"You're right. I'm really sorry." I tried to speak as calmly as I could. "I'm just trying to protect you from the truth. You're living a calm life here - you are happy entertaining the children. This whole world was made just for you. You forgot what happened for your own good. You agreed to this. But I understand how you are all feeling right now. If you really want to know the truth, I'll tell you everything. But ask yourselves: is it worth it? In this world we live in, you will forget everything within a few short days."

"But why? We don't want that!" Bonnie said firmly.

"That's how this place works. That is how we created it. The outside is dark. Cold. Sad. Alone. This place is where you lived the best years of your... uhh... lives, which could have been real torture out there. I know that pain all too well. This is all to make your time better while we're waiting for all of this to end. I understand you want to know your own memories, but there's the option of remembering it all in the black void, or forgetting everything in a world specifically created to fill your own needs."

"But you're still not answering any of my questions!" said Chica again. "You're changing the topic, trying to keep us dumb!"

"No, I just want to explain our situation. If you really want to hear it, I'll tell you the truth. But you may not like it. The decision is yours. Think it over."

Chica almost instantly tried to jump forward, but she was stopped by Freddy. She wanted to ignore all of the others and speak for all of them in having me reveal the truth to them. But it was all of their decision; they had to come to it together.

And fortunately, that's what happened. They stepped away for a moment to discuss it, just to come back after a moment more. They'd decided.

"We want to know everything that happened to us," said Freddy "Please, tell us!"

"So be it. But be prepared for the worst, because that is what is sadly coming. Really, get ready for what I am about to tell you." I said, and all of their faces were pretty uncertain, except perhaps Chica, who was probably assuming that this was just my next trick in order to stall for time.

"Just look around," the drawings started to fall from the walls around them. There were hundreds of them. Kids had drawn each of the five animatronics in thousands of different ways. Under some of the drawings, there were others, thick layers of paper serving only to hide the truth. A moment later, between the last remaining drawings were newspaper clippings, before finally, even those fell down from the walls, stopping just under my legs.

I picked one up and started to read it.

"Five children are now linked to the incident at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, where a man dressed as a cartoon mascot lured them into a back room. While the suspect has been charged, the bodies themselves were never found."

"What is this?" asked Freddy. "I've never heard about something like that. Our pizzeria is a friendly place for children. Nothing bad ever happened. And what does that have to do with us?"

"The truth is, this pizzeria and everything related to it had a lot of incidents like this one. They were just swept under the rug. That's one of few incidents. These five children died and their souls couldn't rest in peace as long as their murderer lived. They wanted revenge, but not everyone. They succeeded, the murderer died, but because of that last person we live here, waiting for an occasion that will see us all be freed. Sadly, those five children are you," I didn't feel good revealing any of this. The murders in the pizzeria and the fates of the children were terrible ones. I just got used to talking about it after years of living with that knowledge. "I think you understand now why I didn't want to tell you all of this. You all died and each of you haunted one of the animatronics. It's a story about countless years of pain that each of you had to suffer, trapped here so the murderer could run free without any consequences. Just ask about anything you want, if you can handle more. I will tell everything you need."

Everyone started to think for a moment, and then I finally got a question from Foxy "How... umm...how did we die? I don't recall anything from what you said. Can you help us remember that at all? All those other things seemed to come back."

"You spent your whole life trying to forget it. It won't come back that easily. I really don't want to give any specific details about that. The newspaper is very general - it brought everything to one place when there was actually so much more to it. Two died inside of the location, and two outside. One of you died earlier. The death of murderer's daughter - that caused all of this to happen," everyone looked at Chica, who just shrugged her shoulders; she had no idea what all of this was about. Maybe none of them did, except Golden Freddy.

It seemed that they were starting to recall some of the events. This wasn't anything weird, especially in my experience; I had seen this situation a couple of times before. Every time I told the truth to them, usually more subtly, they were very upset, sad, but it seemed that they were now starting to accept their fate at last; better than they had managed in the countless times they had heard it earlier anyway. Each time they dealt with all of this better. I really wonder if they won't remember everything for good at last someday.

Everything that happened here was something that they had agreed to. Knowing that we didn't have any chance to prepare the Happiest Day for Golden Freddy, we had to wait, suffering in inactivity. Trapped, sad, alone. And that's why we are here right now. That's why they have forgotten what really happened here. In this illusion, for the first time, they can be truly happy after everything that happened. But, it's also a prison for our murderer who died years ago. During the day, my friends can live their fake lives, while during the night they lose all consciousness of what they are doing and they punish our killer. They become furious and strong. But what happened today shouldn't have happened at all. For some reason, the murderer got really cocky, which allowed him to break through the illusion. Thankfully, not for long. It took me a few days to defeat him, but when he even overpowered the animatronics in a direct confrontation, I knew I had to make a move. Since he died, we have just been waiting for our situation to get better.

"Trust me, I really feel your pain," I said, as everyone sat in a sad silence. "I'm one of you. Doing what I do, and knowing what I know, I really envy you your lack of awareness, your happiness, your calmness. I got used to my role. If nobody protected this place, a lot of bad things would happen, like what happened today. Things would get really out of control."

"How long do we have to wait? Why is it so hard to prepare everything?" asked Freddy.

"We can't do it from the place we are in right now. Trapped in a closed room, we can really only hope that somebody takes notice of us; that somebody helps us. Until that happens, we can only wait. And there's nothing wrong with that. We've lived for over 20 years, but thanks to this world it really hasn't felt like it. It's hard to be impatient when there is nothing to wait for. That's why it is the way it is. Don't be afraid to forget. When the time comes, you will remember everything. But it isn't time yet."

"I think you're right," said Chica "I... I really don't want to remember anything about this. Everything I see is all blurry, and even with this..." it was difficult for her to say anything about this, and tears appeared in her eyes.

"Easy, easy, everything is okay now. I don't want to leave you knowing that for two whole days, maybe even more, before you forget all of this," It was time - they had already suffered too much from this situation. "If you are ready, I can begin right now, but I need your trust, your acceptance, for all of this to work. If you feel undecided, frightened, or opposed to it, you will always feel that something is wrong here - that something is lost - and you won't be able to be truly happy with this place. You have to be aware of that."

"You're right," Golden Freddy stepped forward "I-I... I don't even know how long I've spent hidden, somewhere in the background. I knew something was wrong. I've been observing everything while I was hiding. All this time I lived in tension, overstressed, while everyone around me was spending their time enjoying themselves. I came to the conclusion that I knew more than all of you, and I felt really bad - I was the one who felt imprisoned. I see that clearly now. Of the two evils, I would really prefer to forget everything."

I was really happy to hear him say that. What happened to him was the worst mistake I could've ever made. I won't repeat that ever again. I would never want to hurt anyone like that again.

"Okay, but..." Bonnie started "I-I really don't feel that way. I understand that it hurts me, and losing our memories would be probably a good idea, but... But I don't want it! I can't just simply accept what's going to happen... To forget everything "for our peace of mind"."

I made the mistake of letting someone forget everything when they weren't ready for it before. This time, I was prepared. If Bonnie didn't want to forget those things, no matter what the cost, I still had a couple of days, so he would be able to go through it more calmly, and more gradually. But I had to try anyway. Try to convince him there wasn't a reason to give it all up just yet.

"You may not remember it yet, but we talked about it once. Just listen to me," I said, "when this whole... accident happened, you were just little kids. You should be happy, you should play, you should be kids who come to a pizzeria to eat good pizza, play with your friends or listen to Freddy's stories. You should believe that animatronics are real, to trust them." the whole hallway was filled with silhouettes of small children, running around, laughing, playing, talking, the loud sound of happy voices reaching the ears of everyone. "Kids are very gullible and naive. But that's good - that's why they can enjoy the little things, protect a little rock like it was the biggest piece of treasure ever, befriending their own favourite character from a comic, or believing that a tin robot is alive and real. You may want to grow up, become mature, understand everything, but here, in this place, you will only get pain, emptiness, sadness. You'll feel idle. Right now we can only wait, and this is the best alternative we could've come to. That's why we agreed that we should create this world. We don't have anything better to do than forget, become naive, become childish, believe that Freddy and his band is completely real. Believing that you are the characters you are representing, you're on the same level as little kids believing that Freddy is real, you really get what you deserve. What you've lost. So I really beg you: understand that. Leave it behind you, okay? Tomorrow is another day, and it's up for you to decide how will it go."