Chapter 1: The Girl in the Parking Lot

Taking one last look in the mirror before heading downstairs, Elizabeth fixed her hair for the 7th time. She was wearing her prettiest dress ever, a frilly blue dress splashed with pristine white ribbons. Her golden hair tied in braids was engulfed in sparkly ribbons. Today was finally here, Victoria's birthday! Elizabeth always struggled to make friends, she always lacked confidence and tried to avoid socialising as much as possible. Having a best friend like Victoria was rare, but she treasured every moment they spent together. Stella was going to be there too, she was Victoria's other best friend. Elizabeth despised Stella, she was one of those rich arrogant people who thought she was more superior to everyone else. It was going to be fun though, there was no way she could let Stella ruin her day.

"Come on Elizabeth, you're going to be late!" her father groaned.

She hurried downstairs, not before checking herself out one last time, she wanted to look the best for one of the most exciting days of her life. As she reached the bottom step she saw her father, Henry. He stopped tampering with the small machine in his hands and glared up at her.

"Seriously Elizabeth? A bit too much for just a small party. You're going to get your dress all greasy, it'll ruin it. You know that was your mother's favourite dress of yours, get changed into something else."

Elizabeth looked down. She was going to this party, not him or her mother. Why should she listen to him? Why should she be upset? This is all for Victoria, not for him.

"I don't care what you think" she replied before proceeding to stand in the corner and stare at the wall until Henry decided to change his mind. This was her way to get what she wanted, and it worked every time. Henry was way too soft on her.

"Okay princess. I'm sorry, I overreacted." There was silence, Elizabeth didn't move.

"You're so stubborn sometimes, you're just like me." Henry chuckled "Okay then, keep the dress. You look wonderful, all of your friends are sure to be jealous." Satisfied, Elizabeth turned back around to face him and smiled from ear to ear.

"Now hurry, we're going to be late. We don't want you to make an effort to look all pretty and then you don't turn up."

Elizabeth waved goodbye to Henry as he drove off. Present in hand, Elizabeth bounced up to the entrance of Fredbear's Family Diner. She'd never been here before, even though her father made this place. Everyone was talking about Fredbear's though, that made it all the more exciting. According to Victoria, the characters in here are also featured in 'Fredbear and Friends' (which was her favourite TV show.) She wandered inside and sat down at the nearest free table. Soon enough Victoria walked in, unfortunately it was with Stella but at least she was here. Victoria looked her way but continued towards another table. Elizabeth's eyes followed the two friends as they sat down next to eachother at the other end of the room. That was strange because she was pretty sure Victoria saw her. She waved at them but they didn't look her way or even acknowledge her so she got up and wandered over to their table.

"Hi! Happy birthday Victoria. I got you a present but I don't know if you'd like it." Elizabeth gushed "I guess you didn't see me over there, I was sat there but you came over here instead" Elizabeth then pointed her finger over to her previous table.

"I'm surprised we didn't see you in such a big frilly dress" Stella teased.

"It doesn't matter what you think, Stella" Elizabeth hissed "It's not for you anyway, it's for Victoria." She turned towards her best friend, "I thought you would like it. Victoria, you like it don't you? I chose it just for you!"

"Yeah, of course. I love it!" Victoria sniggered "There's only one problem, there's a stain in your dress"

"What? No there's not!" Elizabeth cried.

"Uh.. yeah there is. Right there" Victoria then grabbed a half-chewed mouldy slice of pizza and smeared it all over Elizabeth's favourite dress.

"Haha! Whoops. Sorry sis."

Elizabeth's excitement turned to anger. She couldn't believe her best friend just did that. Victoria had been told numerous times about this dress before and she knew that it was very important to Elizabeth; it was her mother's dress when she was her age. It was a dress Elizabeth had treasured ever since her mom died and Victoria knew exactly why Elizabeth cared so much about it.

"Oh my god Victoria I can't believe you even wanted to touch that" Stella laughed.

"Guys, this isn't funny." Elizabeth sobbed as she grabbed some napkins and looked down at the stains. She violently scrubbed her dress as she could hear Victoria and Stella roaring with laughter, this was all just a silly game to them.

"Aww mommy's little princess is having a little temper tantrum" Victoria mocked.

"It's not like I needed you assholes anyway!" Elizabeth hissed as she fled towards the exit, bumping into a few children as she went. She slammed the door behind her and decided to run as far away from this place as possible. She then realised that she was too scared to do that and resorted to hanging around near some large dumpsters in the most deserted part of the parking lot. At least she could be alone here. She carefully glanced around the corner, trying not to get spotted, to see if Victoria and Stella were looking for her. They weren't. Elizabeth had left Victoria's gift behind too, it was only $10 worth of candy and stickers but it was still annoying that Victoria got to keep it and she didn't. It was only now that Elizabeth had realised that they didn't care about her. Her friendship with Victoria had been a lie. Victoria has used her. If she died today they wouldn't realise nor would they care. She was nothing but a slice of mouldy pizza to them. That reminded her, she looked down to her dress and saw the big, ugly stain. There was no way she could get that pizza sauce out, no matter how many times she tried to wash it out. The way she had been treated and used made Elizabeth want to cry. She was so angry and she couldn't hold it in anymore so she just cried. It's not like it mattered anyway, no one could see her. At least that's what she thought..

"Are you alright?"

Elizabeth's head shot straight up to look at where the voice came from. A man who she'd never met before was looking round the corner at her, visibly concerned. She was always reminded not to talk to strangers. Her father always reminded her of stranger danger when she went out but this man seemed nice, he was the first person to actually be a little worried about her.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Elizabeth mumbled.

"Well.. your face clearly says otherwise. Why are you crying? Fredbear's is one of the happiest places on earth!

"No one likes me, everyone hates me"

"I'm sure that's not true!"

"It is! Even my best friend hates me. She wasn't my best friend after all, she used me!" Elizabeth hoped to keep things together. She didn't want to cry in front of this stranger because that's just looking for attention. But somehow she was inconsolable, she couldn't stop herself from bawling her eyes out.

"There, there" The man reassured, bringing Elizabeth into a hug. "Just let it all out."

All Elizabeth could think about was Victoria. Why did this happen? How long has Victoria been planning this for? Why did Victoria hate her? Why me? She kept sobbing, wishing there was an end. Like she thought earlier, it wouldn't matter if Elizabeth was dead. Not even Elizabeth would care if she was dead right now. Eventually she stopped crying and as soon as she did that the man released her from his grasp. It was only now that she considered that someone didn't hate her, this stranger was the only person who took time out of their day to be nice to her.

"How rude of me! I almost forgot to introduce myself, my name's William. What's your name?"

"Elizabeth"

"Now tell me what happened, Elizabeth. Who made you feel like this?" Elizabeth then proceeded to tell him. She only meant to tell him about what had happened today but she went of course and started talking about her home life, and more importantly, her mother's death.

"I'm so sorry Elizabeth," William comforted, "That's so tragic!"

Elizabeth looked down, she didn't like people knowing all her secrets. Even though she trusted William she thought it was a bit weird telling him everything.

"Well, I know what'd cheer you up!" William replied excitedly. "You watch Fredbear and Friends, right?"

"Yes! Yes! Fredbear and Friends is my favourite show!" She exclaimed.

"Well, you'd love this. Which character is your favourite?" William asked, his excitement made Elizabeth even more excited than before, which was almost impossible. She'd now reached maximum excitement. She was happier than ever before and she didn't even have a good reason why.

"Spring Bonnie! He's my favourite. I wish I could meet him one day, he really is spectacular. He really is!"

"Well today's your lucky day. You can meet him today if you want!"

"No way!"

"Yes way! I'm friends with Spring Bonnie. You can meet him now." He repeated.

"This is the best day ever!" Elizabeth giggled.

"It sure is!" He chuckled "Turn around and count down from 10, you'll love this!"

"Okay!" Elizabeth replied.

"10.. 9.. 8.." She could hear him walking away, his steps got quiet and then stopped.

"7.. 6.. 5.." She could hear him return, which was good. She'd feel stupid if he left her like this.

"4.. 3.. 2.." Before she could reach one something grabbed hold of her neck and started squeezing tightly. Elizabeth's eyes snapped open as she struggled for air. She started screaming as loud as she could but the hands kept squeezing harder and soon enough she couldn't scream very loud, so there was no point. If he was the only one who could hear her scream, it would just provoke him more. She tried to 'play dead'. The person wasn't stupid, they obviously knew she was still alive but Elizabeth was hoping she would make this boring for them so they would stop. She couldn't do it anymore, it wasn't working so she started kicking out violently but there was nothing in front of her that she could kick. "S-Stop, please" she whispered, but that made it worse. She had to rely on grabbing hold of whoever's hands were choking her. She was trying to pry their fingers apart to free herself but she could only feel herself start to panic even more as they wouldn't let go, they only squeezed tighter. She was starting to get tired, she tried to beg for them to stop but she couldn't even scream out for help anymore.

Elizabeth didn't consider that this could be William, he was too kind to do something like this to her. Maybe he walked away to get Spring Bonnie, and then this person saw an opportunity to hurt her. It didn't matter who it was though. All that mattered was if she made it away alive or not. Maybe it was true, maybe the world truly did hate her. Maybe nobody did care about her. She knew she probably deserved to die, and it would be better for everyone else if she did but Elizabeth was too frightened. She kicked backwards as hard as she could with all her remaining energy, hoping that this could somehow help her.