It was very early morning. My brother, Adam, and I woke up extra early today to see the sunrise. We were on our favorite rooftop hangout waiting for the big light in the sky to come out over the hills, when my brother brought it up again. "What were they like?" He asked with extreme longing in his eyes.
"I told you a million times… I can't remember". According to my very likely mathematical estimation, I had lied to Adam one million times. I actually remembered a lot about my parents and that's exactly why I didn't want to talk about it with my younger brother. I wanted to save him the pain. He didn't deserve it. "Hey, Jack! There it is!" Yelled Adam. This caused me to get snapped out of my deep thoughts. I then proceeded to get lost in all the colors of the red morning sun.
We could see the whole town from our hideout. I called it "toproof". I know it's not a very creative name, but hey what do you expect from a minimally educated 18 year old and his brother. I was never the creative type, but I definitely was a dreamer. We'd been using this hideout ever since we'd escaped to this town about half a year ago.
It was the perfect place to hide 'cause an officer wouldn't think of looking on the roof of the town's most prized dinner: Freadbear's. We snuck in around three or four times a week to get things like food. The restaurant was almost always packed, so it was pretty difficult. Every single supply run went the same way. I would disguise as an employee, run into the kitchen and pretend I was serving Adam, who was disguised as a kid.
I actually think the place itself was quite nice despite being a little small. It was a tourist attraction for our small little town. It had some kind of robot mascot called Freadbear that would serve you food. I'd overheard some people talking about Fredbear being the latest in robotic technology. But if you asked me, I would've told you that it's kind of unsettling to have a lifeless robot act so…..alive.
Life on toproof was kind of complicated. I wouldn't be able tell you how many times we would have to pack up all of our gear and hide behind those big steel vents coming out of the ground whenever someone would come up to the roof for whatever reason. We hadn't experienced a winter there yet and we hadn't planned ahead for the bitter chill that was eventually to come. So I guessed that would be quite a difficult time as well. Our biggest fear was to be caught by a copper.
If we did, we'd probably be separated and be brought back to those dreaded homes. I didn't want that for my brother. When my brother was old enough to withstand such a journey, we escaped from our old orphanage to this town. Since we had no parents, cops would legally be obligated to bring us back to any home. Not mention the amount of things we had to steal to survive. I would be severely punished.
Before my parents died, I was an extreme goodie two shoes. I wouldn't dare to not follow follow the rules. Most people have stories about how they accidentally stole things as kids, but not me. It seemed like my moral compass started working a bit sooner than everyone else's.
"Is today a food run day?" Asked Adam. "Please tell me no! I hate food runs," he continued. "I hate 'em too, but we gotta do it. We're running low on food," I said. "But I don't know how much longer I can go on cheap pizza and dry veggies," Adam complained. "Well at least we got clean water, unlike our last temp home. I'm still tryin' to clean the taste of river water outta my mouth," I explained.
Adam muttered something unpleasant under his breath. I decided to console him. "Don't worry...one day we'll get outta here. One of the only things I remember about our mom is that whenever times got tough, she would tell me about a place called Atopal. There you'd live a big and fulfilling life. No one can hurt you there. Everyone's your friend. There are no coppers there 'neither 'cause no one commits any crimes. Fresh air and green hills are the norm. She told me the only way to get there was to keep walking north. One day you'd get there. "Do you see it, Adam?"
"Is this place actually real?" Said Adam. "I dunno… I like to believe it is. It gives you hope. You know what mean?" I asked. "Hope for what?" Adam asked. "A better future. For me and you. If you close your eyes and dream, you might be able to picture it." "So you really think it exists?" Said Adam doubtingly.
"One day i'm going make the journey to figure it out. You can come too if you want," I said. "When is this journey going to happen?" Asked Adam. "Just you wait kid. When I somehow get enough money i'm buying two tickets to Canada. We'll find the northern haven called Atopal."
I started out only trying to give hope to Adam, but I ended up believing in Atopal myself. Or at least it's ideas. Whether it was exactly how my mom described it or not, I knew there had to be a place like Atopal. Wherever it was, I was going to get Adam there even if it killed me.
It was finally time to get on with the whole food and water stealing thing. I was able to get my hands on an old employee suit and I went out into the main room in Fredbear's. The place was essentially one big party room with a stage that the golden bear, Fredbear, stood on. Fredbear was programmed to come off stage and serve the birthday kid and their guests. The only other rooms were an employee's lounge area with a connected storage room, a kitchen, restrooms and an office.
Today the diner was less packed than usual. Adam sat at the table furthest away from the stage. It was in the corner of the brightly decorated room. I walked up to his table and I pretended to ask for his order. If anyone else was sitting at that table, it would've looked pretty strange to ask for that many bottles of water. I brought back my little brother's large order and told him to sneak back to toproof with the supplies. I told him I would be right up. My brother went on his way and safely made it back to toproof.
Suddenly, some officers burst into the building saying they were looking for two runaway orphans who were last seen around this establishment. I recognized the cop. I had a run-in with him a week ago when I managed to get my hands on some money. I tried to buy some food and I was accused by this officer for stealing the articles I bought. It's true I do look kind of shady, but he had nothing to go on. It was then that he figured out I was an orphan who had ran away from his last foster home. I ran away fast and he somehow didn't catch me.
I was worried he would catch me so I ran to the employee's lounge and put my ear up against the door. "Oh well th-that is quite astounding," said a tall somewhat nervous looking man in a business suit to the officer. "Yes Mr. Leymour, it is quite troubling. I've been searching for him and his brother ever since I saw the older one STEALING food from a drugstore," said the officer. "Well i'm very sorry about that J-Joe, b-but I tell you, I have not seen anyone or a-a-anything s-suspicious in here. If I did Fred-d would have me fired very quickly," said Mr. Leymour. "Is something the matter?" Said Joe. "N-no," responded Leymour. "Well I hope you don't mind if I have a look around. There's obviously nothing wrong in this main room so i'll just check the kitchen and the employee lounge and be on my way," said Joe.
I began to freak out. I was walking towards the door to the storage area, when I realized that another employee was in the room watching my frenzy. As I got in the small storage area, I put my finger on my lips and signaled the staff member to stay quiet when Joe came in to investigate. He nodded his head with a friendly grin on his face and I shut the door.
I tiptoed to the back of the dark room as I heard the employee I saw being questioned. He lied and said he was the only one in the room and he hadn't seen anyone else come in. I had my back to the wall while staring at the door. If I saw that door move, I would hide behind anything I could find. I saw a flashlight resting on a closed box. I picked it up, turned it on and began searching for a better hiding spot. I heard the officer heading towards the storage room door.
Sweat began trickling down my forehead. I turned my flashlight towards the back wall and my heart nearly skipped a beat. Sitting straight up on a shelf, was a creepy-ass puppet. It had a white face and black eyes with what looked to be two purple tears streaming down it's face. "shit..," I muttered under my breath. The door began to open and I thought fast. I quickly grabbed the puppet, jumped in an open box and put the puppet over the box so Joe couldn't see it's contents. The puppet smelled old and unused.
Joe left after searching a bit in the back room. I got out of the box and muttered "thanks creepy puppet." Just looking at that thing gave me shivers. That puppet had saved me. There is much irony in that fact.