Alone With Them

Chapter 6

Cathryn decided to play a couple rounds of tag with Chancellor before contacting Markus again. She hoped he hadn't stayed up all night or anything searching for jobs. She could already feel the building weight of guilt growing in her mind, but she shrugged it off as Chance launched himself in her direction.

"I'm it!" he yelled, as if she hadn't already known. Cathryn dodged to the side, laughing as Chance's socks slid him over the carpet like he was running on water. Chance uncontrollably swooshed past her, giving her enough time to move to the other side of the couch. Using it as a shield, Cathryn spent what felt like an eternity running from her young cousin around the room until he finally gave up.
Chance collapsed on the couch in a heap, his breathing loud and obnoxious. Cathryn took the time to race to the bathroom and find a hair thing to pull up the strands falling in her face. Her hair stuck to her sweaty forehead, so she took a moment to rinse off her face with water. When she returned to the living room, Chancellor had already found his next activity and was dragging around packets of old markers. He eventually piled them up in the center of the room and laid down, stomach first, on the floor with a coloring book.

Cathryn smiled, reminded Chance that lunch was soon, and made her way to her bedroom. Sure enough, as soon as she called for him, Markus responded into the walkie.

"Are you sure I'm not interrupting anything?" Cathryn asked for the hundredth time. She didn't want her job hunt to prevent him from having fun.

"Of course not. Now, here's what I've got." She could hear the walkie talkie click off for a moment before Markus came back on the line. "Sorry, I had to grab my notebook. I made a list last night of possible job options. So, you could work as a cashier, which wouldn't be bad, but they want you there for most of the day and I don't think that would fit your schedule."

"Nope, it'll be hard for me to work early mornings, what with helping my mom get to work and distracting Chancellor, but I could probably do mid-day or late afternoon." When Markus responded she could hear his pencil sharpener in the background.

"Sorry about the noise, I had to cross some of the options off."
"No problem."

"Okay so...yeah that takes off most of my options. But..." Cathryn didn't like the way he said "but". Markus was drawing it out, like he knew she wouldn't like it.

"But?" she asked when he went silent. She assumed he was gathering his courage in the few moments of quiet that followed.

"You could work at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza?"

"Seriously? That's your best idea, Markus?" She'd already explained to Markus in the past how much that place disgusted her. Flashbacks from yesterday, the way the animatronics' soulless eyes peered into hers, filled her mind. She shuddered, shaking her head harshly even though she knew Markus couldn't see it.

"Hear me out, they're hiring a night guard."

"Wow, how convincing," Cathryn mumbled, rolling her eyes.

"But it'll fit your schedule perfectly! Plus, if you want to continue during the school year you could probably still make it work. And it would give you time to do homework or during the summer you could, oh I don't know, play with me all night. I looked it up and even though you aren't an adult yet, you would probably be able to work all night?" Cathryn didn't let Markus hear her sigh. The job seemed great, but...she couldn't get over the way the restaurant creeped her out. Plus, it smelled disgusting.

"That place is already creepy enough during the day, I can't even imagine how bad it would be at night."

"You wouldn't be by yourself; you could talk to me the whole time and it would be like I was there. I'll stay up all night if you need the support." Markus being willing to stay up filled Cathryn with butterflies. He was such a sweet friend, she wished she could be as good as him. But the idea of being by herself in that horrible place still sent chills down her spine.