Pick Up The Phone. (The Walten Files AU)

Chapter 3: Ghosts and Ghouls. (Mostly Felix POV)

     It had been almost a week, now. Felix had been visited by Rosemary, who was accompanied by two police officers. Thank god he had cleaned the place. The police mainly asked about what he knew of Jack and the kids.
     He told himself he would tell the truth if it came to this, but he lied anyways. He claimed that Jack had never arrived at his house, and that when he had gone looking for Ed and Molly, they were nowhere to be found.
Other than that rather expected visit, nothing much had happened. It was just... a boring week. Right? ... Right?
     Felix shot up in bed one night, panting and sweating. He fumbled for his glasses and shoved them onto his face. Something wasn't right.
     He turned on the lamp that was sitting on his nightstand. He glanced around before his eyes landed on something unusual. Oh no. No. That can't be right.
     The tall figure of a man stood in the corner, facing the wall. From what Felix could tell, the man was wearing a grey suit with black dress shoes. He had thick, curly hair. He almost seemed familiar, in a sense.
     Felix still felt something more was wrong, though. Something was amiss. It could have been the faint static sound in his ears, or the fact that the man seemed unnaturally grey. In fact, it was most likely both of those.
     "Hello? Who are you? Get out of my house!" Felix shouted, shuffling away from the figure and clutching onto his blanket. The figure twitched.
     "Oh Felix," the man called, slowly shuffling away from the wall. "Don't you recognize your best friend?"
     "What in the world?" Felix mumbled to himself, his eyes wide as the figure slowly turned. He watched in horror as Jack's face was revealed, but it wasn't quite Jack. He was completely monochrome, except for his glowing red eyes and mouth. A grotesquely wide smile was plastered onto his face. 
     "Felix, I thought you would realize that it's me sooner." Jack said, shuffling over to stand next to the bed. His mouth didn't move as he spoke. It simply stayed as the huge, glowing grin. Felix wanted to scream, to run, to do anything, but he couldn't seem to move. 
     "Get away from me!" Felix had tried to shout, but his voice came out as a hoarse croak. This couldn't be happening. Was it a nightmare? Was this a real ghost? Jack simply stayed where he was, placing a hand onto Felix's shoulder. A horrible chill shot through him.
     "Oh, but don't you want to say sorry? You can't get away with lying forever." Jack said. All of a sudden, two small figures were standing next to Jack. They were glowing bright red, and their facial features were silhouetted in black. They looked blurry. 
     "Ed? Molly?" Felix asked, realization spreading onto his face. He began to sob. He reached out, trying to grasp desperately at his friend and the kids, but a sharp pain shot through his body. He yelped in pain and looked down. He was back into the suit he had worn on the night of the crash. Blood was on his hands once more.
     Felix gasped awake. The suit was gone. The ghosts were gone. It was a bright morning. Birds were chirping outside, cars drove along, and everything was normal. But regret and guilt still sat in his gut like a rock. He had to tell Rosemary what had happened. 

||Time skip brought to you by the guilt cherry on top of the misery sundae||

||Rosemary POV||

     It had been a week since Jack had gone missing. Rosemary walked quietly down the hall. Felix had said he had no idea where Jack and the kids could be, and she believed him. He seemed very concerned, so she had been helping him to run Bon's Burgers. The opening wouldn't be pushed back any further.
     The restaurant had closed, and Rosemary began to walk down the hall, towards Jack's office. She was holding a missing poster of him, and she couldn't help but start to sob at the sight of his bright smile. She just wanted to see him one last time. 
     "I know where he is, Rosie!" A voice called softly from the storage room in the hall. That was where the showstoppers were stored after hours, for maintenance and to prevent them from accidentally going off in the night. 
     "Hello? Is anybody there?" Rosemary asked, stepping into the dark room. She thought she saw a figure there, shrouded by darkness, but her attention was pulled away. Bon, the main performer, turned on. It approached her and she backed away before bumping into the wall.
     "Rosemary. You're broken, will fix you. You will beautiful." The robot spoke in a distorted voice, before it reached out and grabbed Rosemary by the shoulder with one hand and by her head with the other. 
     Rosemary let out a shriek before Bon pulled, her head tearing from her neck. Bon tore her arms off too, and then her legs. Her body parts lay on the floor, blood splattered about. Just as Felix had done in hiding Jack's body, Bon removed the exterior of the Sha animatronic. He opened the chest hatch, shoving Rosemary's body parts inside. 
     Once the torso was shut and the exterior was attached once more, the animatronic shut down. The figure in the room, who had stayed silent for the whole experience, slowly stepped forwards and turned on the lights.

||Felix POV||

     When Felix turned on the lights, it was a gory sight. It was dark, so he hadn't been able to see what was going on, he just heard the screams and creaking of metal, as well as Bon's strange statement. He was used to seeing blood now, but he was still absolutely horrified. There was business tomorrow, though, and Rosemary was the only person he felt he could tell. 
     He put on a pair of gloves and grabbed a kit for cleaning the animatronics. He began to scrub painstakingly, determined to get every ounce of blood. After many hours, it was the middle of the night, and everything looked to be back as it was found. Felix sighed, putting away the cleaning supplies and leaving. 
     It was a tiring night once more. He had almost the same nightmare, but this time, Jack and the kids were joined by a ghostly Rosemary, who had a dark oil-like liquid leaking from her eyes and mouth. Felix was only woken by the sound of knocking on his door. When he opened the door, two police officers were there.
     "More questioning?" Felix asked, rubbing his eyes and smoothing down his hair. "I've got a business to run. Maybe you could come after wo-" 
     "No, we're not here for any more questions. We're here because you've got a new responsibility on your hands." One of the officers spoke. Felix looked at him in confusion before Sophie stepped forward and realization dawned on him. 
     "Why are you here?" Felix asked, kneeling down. Sophie began to cry and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug, sobbing into his shoulder. He patted her on the back to comfort her and looked up to the officers for answers.
     "Rosemary went missing too. We're starting to think that somebody may be targeting the Walten family. Jack and Rosemary left Sophie with you. Keep an eye on her." Felix nodded vigorously before standing. 
     "Come on, Sophie, let's get you inside. It's freezing out there. Thank you, officers." He said softly. He gave her a pat on the head before walking over to his phone and calling Bon's Burgers.
     "Hey. Yes, this is Felix. Listen, Charles, something unexpected just came up, I need to take the day off. Can you take over? Thanks. I appreciate it." He hung up and walked over to the couch, sitting next to Sophie. The two of them sat in silence for a moment.
     "Uncle Felix?"
     "Yes, Sophie?"
     "Am I going to go missing too?" Sophie asked, turning to Felix with tears in her eyes once more. He hugged her, his eyes wide with panic. 
     "No. Not on my watch, you aren't. You're gonna be okay." As he spoke, his eyes were fixed on the wall, where he saw the ghosts of the Walten family standing, staring at him. He made a silent promise to them that Sophie wouldn't come to the same fate as them as long as he could help it. Not if he could do anything about it.