I is for Inquisitive

###For Context: Im in over my head

My name is Isaac. Hi, nice to meet you, I run an antique store, like photography and as a side hobby like to go to nearby ghost towns and take pictures of graffiti and animal feces like a truly A+ photography student. I like long walks on the beach, good movie dates and finding old pizzeria artifacts that disprove old fan theories on reddit.

I know I know, a true renaissance man I am!

***

You can only keep up a front for so long before it gets tiresome, right? I'm not on here to brag about how I take pics of animal shit, or how I spend 8 hours out of my 12 hour day on reddit. I’ve seen something I think you would like to know about, so let me start at the beginning.

Im HUGE into Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. If you haven’t heard about that, first of all what rock have you been under, second it's just a nationwide chain of restaurants from the 80’s and 90’s that sported a robotic animal band to entertain its guests. Like ALL things associated with children that also happen to be old, this brand has a lot of legends. And by a lot, I mean a metric ton of crappy urban legends about solid purple apparitions and old wives tales about how the place was “haunted with the spirits of dead kids”. You know, normal stuff for a thing like this.

So I browse the Fazbear Subreddit, or Freddit as it's referred to. It’s a dumb place online where all the nerds who are into Freddys conglomerate to share photoshopped pictures of their favorite animatronic, crappy cosplays, and of course the occasional urban legend that is immediately upvoted to the top post on the front page, and needless to say this place is my home. Clicking through the front page was a chore until the other day, when I stumbled upon a theory post.

Or at least I THOUGHT it was a theory post.

It was tagged as “Speculation” with the little orange bar on the right. It blended in with the also orange tags of the Artwork, but stood out as it read in clear, blue font: “NOT A JOKE POST, LEGIT SAW SOMETHING”

Now if bold big blue text on a page full of scary edits of animals does not catch your eye, I don't know what will.

I clicked of course. It seemed like the usual. Poster was a “Based_Bun”, a name I recognize. He’s not a particularly active poster, but I saw one of his “scarrrryyyy storriiiiies” a while back so this may just be another attempt at Karma Netting. His post was just meaningless garbage, the usual “I saw freddy in real life! Upvote for attention” stuff. Right up until he mentioned the Tanner Albright Case.

I looked at it again and again. Why bring up such an unrelated case in a subreddit dedicated to grown ass adults talking about fuzzy robots?

“On an unrelated note, are there any new developments in the Tanner Albright Case?”

So quick and sparse. Nothing to indicate whatever the hell he is talking about. Except I know this case, it was only on the news a week ago. A kid goes missing then appears heavily mutilated in the woods next to a slaughterhouse of an underground bunker. The case was ruled foul-play, but there was a suspicious lack of evidence for some of the claims made by the P.D..

Why he didn't take this to /r/Unsolvedmysteries I don't know. Why he brought it to this little secret society of nerds I don’t know. What I DO know, is that I had to follow up on this.

I messaged him immediately. God bless Reddit Chat, because the reply was near instantaneous.

>OracleIntuition 9:05 PM Yo I saw your story on Freddit. How do I word this…

>Based_Bun 9:06 PM It’s alright. You want to know why I brought up Tanner don’t you?

I pulled back. That was a bit forward

>OracleIntuiton 9:13 PM Yeah, actually. I mean, that doesn't exactly have anything to do with FFP does it?

>Based_Bun 9:14 PM So what if it doesn’t? Go here:

He proceeds to list off coordinates to a desolate town in Utah. A bit of a nonstarter for a conversation piece, but I humor him.

>OracleIntuiton 9:16 PM Where is this? Utah?

>OracleIntuiton 9:20 PM Hello?

>OracleIntuiton 9:26 PM Got it. Mysterious Coordinate Guy.

So I have nothing. A set of coordinates for a town in utah and a guy who posted a seemingly unrelated thing in the Freddit, which may any moment be removed by the moderators for breaking several rules. I write them down. Why did I do that? All reason dictates I should close this chat?

I mark it on my google maps. Ok, let's talk this through Isaac, your either delirious or too set on proving this guy wrong.

I'm already in the car. I know each action is of my own free will, but yet I couldn't help but wonder why I was staring the road down intensely as I drove down the I-70 on what appears to be a vision quest to prove this guys info as false.

Down to the Derry of Deseret I go, I guess.

***

It's midnight. I'm barely awake, fueled by the coffee that was provided to me 3 gas stations back, when I finally spot it. The state crossing sign. A phrase read across the bottom of it. “Bless jesu-” Oh wait, that was the sign a bit further down. “Life elevated”. I’m not sure how a state where a bunch of mormons congregate and a kid died is supposed to elevate me, but as the sign whizzed by I was too tired to second guess ANY of what was happening.

As I pass by and by the various shops and stations littered lining the dark highway, a glimmer flashes in the corner of my eye. No, that's nothing.

I swerve hard right into the parking lot of an old museum like shop. In its window is a plated sign that has the logo of an A in a bright sun. Under the logo, the words AFTON ROBOTICS: The joy of creation; the spirit of a new generation.

I walk casually into the store, a hard contrast to the maniacal entrance I just made on this guys property. At the desk of the museum sat an older lady, no older than 55, who simply placed down the magazine she was reading and looked up at me.

“Welcome to the Utah museum of Architecture and Robotics! We collect all sorts of treasures from the various places based here.”

“Uh, hi. Do you have any more of um… Afton, specifically the robotics company?”

“Of course! Right this way”

A quick detour around some columns in the store and she led me to a larger room set a bit into the ground. It was no bigger than a moderately sized living room, and was filled from floor to ceiling with merchandise from Freddy Fazbears Pizza and its Sister Locations, Chica’s Party World and Circus Baby’s Pizza World... well, it would have been any other time of year. A lot of merch was being packed away into boxes, and she explained that she was busy getting ready for "that Fazbear convention up north." She's attending FazCon too??? Sweet! In the meantime, might as well enjoy what's left before I get the full Freddy Fazbear experience up in PA. Animatronic masks, logos, signs, menus, a pizza recipe, even a...

...full-size animatronic on a stool in the middle of the room. That last one was a bit strange, but all the more exciting. I turned to her.

“Is photography ok?"

“As long as you don’t have the flash on!”

A bit of a buzzkill, considering this room was lit worse than a poorly funded strip club. Figured it was better to wait for Fazcon to get better results, but I snapped photos anyway. A goldmine of info and evidence to kill theories for MONTHS. When I turned around to face the animatronic for a photo, it was

...

...

...

Standing perfectly still.

I sighed a breath of relief. Why did I do that? This thing is barely put together, let alone functional. Still, I took a picture of it. A simple Freddy-Model, looking a bit like the ones they used in the 90’s. It had a rusted looked to it, and for some reason had red yarn woven through it. I can only guess it was the work of the engineers kid, or a group of unruly pranksters. Those machines went through a lot back in the day.

The woman looked at the iron framework of this lumbering statue like she had simultaneously seen a ghost and her dog peeing on the rug. I leaned over.

“Something the matter?”

“Oh nothing. I just don’t remember when we got this piece. I'm sure it was most likely brought in by my son.”

I looked back at her, and she looked back at me with a smile, almost as if that thought never occurred in the first place. She led me back to the counter, and gave the directions to a motel less than a mile down the road. A bid farewell and a come back soon was exchanged, and soon I was off.

***

The bed was comfy enough, and on the table I had already set down my suitcase, my camera, and my laptop. I plugged my camera into my pc, copy and pasted, and just let it run before lying down on the comforter. Warm sheets with an even warmer radiator next to the bed. The window didn't have any shades though, which felt a bit like a breach of privacy. It was nice though, being able to look out into the forest from my window with no qualms.

That is, until I saw something. Slow, rancid. It reminded me of the feeling you get from looking at a an open bag of trash swarming with flies. In this case, that last part was a bit literal.

It was… the Freddy statue, from earlier. Standing straight up, perfect posture, looking directly in my window. I reached for my camera, cancelled the copy process, and snapped a photo of this aberration. As I lowered the camera, the statue was gone. Was I simply tired?

No, I wasn't, because as soon as I looked at the photo on that tiny screen I saw it in the background. A big, brown statue. Rusting, covered in red yarn. Its mouth gaping, its arms covered in caked, dried blood. Its wrist held the tarnished silver pentagram necklace of…

No. **Nuh uh**. That would be impossible. That’s a different one. Somebody else bought it and put it on a still statue to scare tourists! Right! That must be it!

But the more I looked at it, the more I saw. That pendant was the pendant belonging to the missing Tanner Albright. He never took it off in public, as friends had testified, and yet it had gone missing mysteriously in the murder. Nobody could explain it.

Was I losing my mind?

***

The next day I hauled ass back to that museum. It was normal, the exterior the same. I rushed in, and sprinted past the old lady to the AFTON collection room.

It was all the same. The statue was in place, it was clean, no pendant. The yarn was still there, unmistakably. It was all the same.

The owner had a different story.

“I had simply been performing inventory this morning when I noticed several AFTON brand ice cream scoopers from the various establishment had either gone missing or destroyed. Now son, I know you probably weren't involved but did you see anyone here last night other than yourself?”

The old lady looked up at me with desperate eyes. I answered as honestly and truthfully as anyone in my situation could.

“Of course not.”

She let me go and mourned over her missing scoopers. I left quickly.

I knew coming to Utah was a mistake. I never even went to the coordinates and I knew the whole thing was bunk! I pulled out the photo, put it back, and swerved.

Something big, hulking and monstrous stood center in the highway. My car stopped quickly, avoiding a roll, and luckily i was the only one on the highway. Except for, of course, the beast that stood across from me.

Almost as if walking upstage to an audience, it sauntered towards me. It had holes in its belly, the storage unit for what seemed to be a pile of scoopers. Wrapped in red yarn, I knew what it was, and the fact it was walking towards me, holding a pentagram and stolen goods, let me in on the fact I may not be well after this encounter. It opened its jaw, and rancid stenches flowed out and upwards. I could hear shallow breaths as this thing walked towards me, and with a quick motion I lifted the camera, turned on flash, and captured a bright, blazing photo.

Perfect. It flinched backwards, holding its hands to its eyes. The eyes, now dark holes where the soulless eyes of the doll-like robot had once been, could barely see me in the contrasting light. I hit the gas, and drove out of there, seeing this creature set behind fade slowly into the distance.

***

Every so often I would stop. I would fill up my car and take a picture, to relieve stress. It's not like I was without natural wonders to fawn over. Deserts and forests and mountains galore, the Rockies were not boring in the slightest. But a dread hung over me. Was that thing behind me? Sprinting to catch up? Playing cat and mouse? My suspicions were confirmed upon close examination of my photos.

I drove even faster.

Even faster and even farther. I may not stop when I get to my house. Hell, I would drive this shitty car right into the FUCKING ocean if I had to, to get away from that THING.

I stopped at a motel. I hooked up the wifi. It's time I had a chat with good ole Based_Bun.

I needed to contact HIM. Not his reddit, not his twitter, HIM. It didn't take long to find the email and name associated with the accounts. He barely hid it.

With a few clicks and a transfer of the files I let him know that I knew.

>**REMEMBER WHAT YOU SAW**

>I know who you saw down there. We need to talk.

Damnit, Isaac! Get your head on straight! Part of me wants to just blow off the photo gig up north this coming FazCon... but... well... a grand is a grand. If only-

Oh.

Based_Bun just got back to me. I'm checking it out now, hopefully I’ll fill you in just a bit more [afterwards](/r/26FrightsOfFreddy).