Can't figure out why ScriptEngine engine is null in code

This is some of the code I'm running for a MapleStory server. Whenever a script for an event like talking to an NPC is supposed to occur, this script will be run to create a scripting path for whatever script is being called up (NPC, portal, event etc.).

I am also using jdk1.7.0_80

lang-java
package scripting;

import java.io.File; 
import java.io.FileReader; 
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.script.Invocable; 
import javax.script.ScriptEngine;
import javax.script.ScriptEngineManager;
import client.MapleClient; 
import tools.FileoutputUtil;

public abstract class AbstractScriptManager {

    private static final ScriptEngineManager sem = new ScriptEngineManager(null);

    protected Invocable getInvocable(String path, MapleClient c) {
        return getInvocable(path, c, false);
    }

    protected Invocable getInvocable(String path, MapleClient c, boolean npc) {
        FileReader fr = null;
        try {
            path = "scripts/" + path;
            ScriptEngine engine = null;

            if (c != null) {
                engine = c.getScriptEngine(path);
            }
            if (engine == null) {
                File scriptFile = new File(path);
                if (!scriptFile.exists()) {
                    return null;
                }
                engine = sem.getEngineByName("JavaScript");
                if (c != null) {
                    c.setScriptEngine(path, engine);
                }
                fr = new FileReader(scriptFile);
                engine.eval(fr);
            } else if (c != null && npc) {
                c.getPlayer().dropMessage(-1, "You already are talking to this NPC. Use @ea if this is 
                not intended.");
            }
            return (Invocable) engine;
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.err.println("Error executing script. Path: " + path + "\nException " + e);
            FileoutputUtil.log(FileoutputUtil.ScriptEx_Log, "Error executing script. Path: " + path + 
            "\nException " + e);
            return null;
        } finally {
            try {
                if (fr != null) {
                    fr.close();
                }
            } catch (IOException ignore) {

            }
        }
    } 
}

This is the bat error I receive:

Error executing script. Path: scripts/event/someEvent.js Exception java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "javax.script.ScriptEngine.eval(java.io.Reader)" because "engine" is null

These errors are thrown whenever I try to interact with something that utilizes this method (i.e. clicking NPC or on server start-up when some scripts are run).