The Bond

Ch 91

"Bold."/"Bold italic" : animatronic is talking/animatronic is talking in mind

"Normal."/"Normal italic." : human is talking/human is talking in mind

=o^o=

Mark stepped into a cafe while glancing around, looking for someone who had determined their meeting place today. Actually, he was quite busy right now, the hospital was crowded by new patients, but this was related to his old friend, and he couldn't just pass it up. Then he saw a girl waving at him, he immediately approached the table in the corner of the cafe.

"Hey, am I late?" he asked doubtfully, pulling up a chair to sit across from the girl—Alice Clark. His eyes glanced over at the boy who was much younger than them for a moment.

"Not really." Alice shook her head and smiled. "By the way, this is my brother, Justin."

The boy just stared at him, giving him a big smile for a moment before refocusing on the pancakes and ice cream bowl in front of him happily. Mark nodded slightly as a sign of understanding, watching Alice wipe Justin's mouth after Justin ate a spoonful of ice cream. He began to wonder what had happened to Michael, and Alice had the answer.

He spoke first. "So ... what exactly happened to Terrance?"

"He's dead."

Mark's eyes widened in surprise; he was shocked. "Don't be joking," he replied incredulously, but Alice only gave him a serious look before turning back to her brother. "He—Terrance is dead? Impossible."

"And Michael Afton has been dead since ..." Alice trailed off, she seemed to be remembering, "... five years ago."

"Five years ago?!" Mark covered his mouth quickly as he realized he had accidentally blurted out—but it didn't make any sense. "I talked to him a few weeks ago, and a few months ago—we lived together for a while!" He narrowed his eyes sharply at Alice. "How is he still alive? Are you kidding me?"

Alice smiled a meaningful smile. "He's not alive anymore, and no, I'm not kidding," she replied, shaking her head slowly. "In 1988, he was working in the Circus Baby rental."

Mark remembered Michael had brought this up.

"Then he was killed there." Alice sipped her milkshake briefly, while the black-haired man's forehead furrowed deeply, it was obvious he had a lot of questions. "Instead of being a human, he resurrected as a walking corpse. The police found human organs in a room when they got a property damage report at the rental, all the animatronics were destroyed with strange tool like a scoop and the last nightguard on duty was ... Michael Afton."

His stomach churns at some part of the explanation, he pursed his lips together. "Human organs?"

"Human organs," Alice replied casually. "Heart, kidney, intestines—"

"Okay, okay no need to mention! I know about it!" Mark interrupted Alice's words quickly, he was a young doctor by profession but hearing this made him want to vomit his breakfast. "So, you think those were Terrance's organs?"

She nodded. "Of course, who else was on duty that day besides him?" Alice drank her milkshake again. "Even though we couldn't find the body, that's why we are fascinated—did someone move the body at that time, or did he walk home on his own feet? We didn't know, until one of my team saw him coming out of that restaurant ... last year. In 1991. Freddy Fazbear's restaurant, you know it so well, don't you?"

Yes, he knew that place very well. Mark bit the inside of his cheek, the three famous incidents had happened in the restaurant. Evan's death, the disappearance of five children, and the death of a nightguard. "After the police found—the internal organs," Mark paused to gulped, now it was clear why at that time Michael always refused when he asked him to eat, "you were contacted by them."

"No, actually." Alice chuckled and shook her head, Mark revealed a puzzled look. "Our boss has his own way of getting information and he told us about it, we are interested in investigating it, he allows us as long as we don't attract too much attention from the official side."

For a moment, Mark was silent, he looked at Alice with an inexplicable expression. "Are you ... operating illegally?"

"Illegal!" The girl in front of him laughed, before her brother nudged her arm and she suppressed her laughter. "Rather than illegal," said Alice, leaning closer to Mark. "We call it not registered as an official government license."

Alice's smile was odd, scary. He was starting to think this was the wrong choice, but his curiosity was stronger. "What else do you guys know about Terrance?"

"We know quite a lot about her family background—thank you to our chairman's history of experiments—which you probably don't know yourself," Alice replied casually. "But we'll save that for later, after you help us find Michael Afton ... and if you intend to back out of our deal now, you already know about us and we can't let that happen."

Those words sounded like a threat, Mark shook off the feeling of horror and snorted. "I never intended to cancel our deal."

"Good!" Alice clapped her hands happily for a while. "Your job is just to look for clues around the area of his house, it's quite easy to do. If you find anything, you can contact me."

Mark nodded. "Sure."