Benny was scared. Terrified. He was caught in the mouth of the animatronic they had shoved him into, and he screamed and kicked his little feet in a fit of terror, crying harder than he ever had before. The machine groaned and the pressure on his head increased slowly, the machine trying to close its mouth.
Through his screams, he heard faintly the sounds of people fighting, and he hoped that someone would free him. "Get me out!" He sobbed. "Please get me out! I don't wanna play this game anymore!"
His pleas seemingly went unheard, or perhaps they did hear his cries for mercy, but ignored them altogether. He tried to push himself out of the robot's jaws, but it did nothing except make the crushing pressure on his head even worse.
The groaning noise of the animatronic grew louder, and he whimpered softly. It was very hot inside its mouth, and Benny did not like it. He was beginning to sweat, both from fear and the heat. He had never been so scared in his entire life, not even when his brother was angry at him. Even on Aaron's worst days, it wasn't even close to this.
Then there was the sounds of something hard collapsing to the ground, and everything was silent. A moment later, he was pulled free of the machine, and the face of his brother stared back at him. "Are you okay, bud?" He asked, his tone sounding very concerned and worried.
Benny burst into tears again and clung to his brother, trembling uncontrollably now.. burying his face into Aaron's shirt, he sobbed his little heart out, Aaron holding him securely and tightly to offer reassurance.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Aaron kept repeating while rubbing his back. "I didn't want this to happen to you."
Benny lifted his head to peek behind his older sibling, seeing the crumpled form of Jax, and the rest of the group fleeing through the double doors of the building to the parking lot outside. "They t-tried to h-hurt me." He sobbed.
"Yes, they did, but I didn't let them." Aaron said sympathetically. "I won't hang out with them anymore. They're nothing but trash, and hopefully they get what's coming to them."
He heard a scoff behind him, and he turned around to see that Eric had not left yet.
"Why did you ruin our fun, dude?!" Eric yelled at him. "We thought you wanted to scare him!"
"He almost died!" Aaron shot back angrily. "It would have crushed him if I hadn't done anything! Look, his ears are bleeding, and there's even blood in his hair!"
Benny put a hand to his ear, and his fingers did in fact come away rather bloody. He gasped and started sobbing again.
"I don't wanna be friends with you guys anymore." Aaron was saying now. "You took it way too far! I should call the police and tell them what you did."
Eric sneered. "You were never one of us. We never even considered you our friend! You're just a loser and a freak like your brother there!" He said, pointing a finger at Benny. His eyes burned with rage. "You'll always be nothing but a waste of space!"
"Fuck you!" Aaron spat. "If almost killing people is your idea of 'fun,' than maybe someone should shove YOU into that robot's mouth and see how you like it!"
Eric walked away, flipping him off as he followed his friends and left the building.
"Can we go h-home?" Benny whimpered, looking up at Aaron as he wiped his running nose on his shirt sleeve. "I don't want to be here anymore."
Aaron sighed and nodded. "Yeah, definitely. We just gotta get our things and then we can go."
Benny stretched out his arms, and Aaron lifted him into his arms, carrying him to the coat racks so they could grab their jackets and leave. The younger child slipped on his jacket with some difficulty, his head hurting something fierce now, a pounding in his head that almost made him scared all over again.
Well, he was still scared, but his fear had lessened now that he was safely out of danger. He looked down and saw that Aaron had put Freddy and Plushtrap into the pockets of his jacket, and he reached for them, wanting to feel their comforting presence.
Aaron pulled them out. "Want them back?" He asked holding them out for Benny to take.
The younger sibling took them gratefully and held them tightly to his chest, crying softly into the fabric that made up their soft exterior.
Aaron was still wary of those plushies now that he knew they were alive, but at that moment he told himself that as long as they kept his brother safe, he could tolerate their presence.
He carried Benny to his truck and placed him in the backseat, then got into the driver's seat and started the engine, pulling out of the parking lot as they headed for home.
The drive home was silent save for the sound of Benny crying softly, sniffling every so often. He heard a soft churr, and he briefly glanced into the backseat to catch a glimpse of the plush rabbit licking the blood from Benny's face ever so gently, while the golden bear was nuzzled into the child's shoulder, running a paw up and down his arm to soothe him. Benny was whispering to them between his whimpers of pain, blood still slowly dripping down his face.
He sighed and focused on the road again, their house not too far from the restaurant. He could not think of anything to say that would comfort his brother, so he got a napkin from the glovebox and handed it back to Benny, letting Freddy and Plushtrap do the consoling for him. They seemed to be doing a good job of it, anyway, because Benny had stopped crying now, and was silent. He looked into the rear view mirror to see that his brother was now asleep, his head rested on the window, the blood finally gone, and his face mostly clean.
The glow of the streetlights swept over the truck every few seconds, briefly illuminating Benny's sleeping form. He looked peaceful and calm this way, and Aaron knew that he needed the rest, especially after what had happened that night.
Freddy caught him staring and slowly climbed over Benny's lap and into the passenger seat, holding onto the armrest to help keep himself upright in the moving vehicle.
"He tells us that you saved him from something terrible." Freddy said after a moment, regarding the human with a questioning gaze, his eyes as white as the Moon. "What happened?"
Aaron sighed, his grip tightening on the steering wheel. He wanted to snap at the bear, but then thought better of it when he remembered his scars that he received from him. He relaxed his grip on the wheel. "Some former friends of mine wanted to pull a prank on him and scare him a little, just for fun. But it went too far, and I had to intervene and stop it before they hurt him. I never wanted this to happen to him."
"He allowed us to search through his mind, you know." Freddy said, his eyes still trained on Aaron. "I felt his emotions when he was trapped in that machine, and I experienced his fear through his memories of the event. It was very traumatic for him, and especially for his mental health. I do not think it will be easy for him to recover. It will take time."
Aaron nodded. "I know. It scared me, too."
"He does not wish to return to that place again," Freddy continued. "We are overjoyed that he will be okay, and we have you to thank for his safety. However, he seems to be quite certain in his belief that your friends will take him back there to be killed. Do you know anything about this?"
He shook his head, wondering why Benny would think such a thing. "Sometimes when he gets scared like this, his mind dreams up these crazy thoughts. I don't usually worry about it when it happens, and he's usually fine the next day."
Freddy took a few steps closer, reaching over to put a paw on the armrest console. "Maybe its time to start worrying about it, then. I can tell you right now that I believe things will get worse for him before they get better."
Aaron glanced over at the plush bear, worry and slight surprise and confusion in his expression. "What do you mean by that?" He asked.
"When someone or something experiences an event such as this, some form of trauma is to be expected. The more dangerous the situation is, the greater the trauma." Freddy explained calmly. "In his eyes, this particular incident nearly meant his end."
"He did almost die!" Aaron said, raising his voice slightly. He would have yelled, if not for the sleeping form in the backseat. "That robot would have crushed his skull if I hadn't done something! I almost didn't get to him in time, and when I did pull him out, his head and ears were dripping blood!"
"As I stated before, we are eternally grateful that you got him out in time, and we are in your debt." Freddy responded, still with that same calm expression and voice. It was almost soothing, Aaron thought. "However, I must respectfully ask you to please consider speaking in a softer tone of voice for now. I do not wish to wake him from his sleep. He requires rest to recover, among other things."
Aaron nodded and lowered his voice. "What do you want me to do for him?" He asked, truly at a loss and not knowing what to do after they got home.
Freddy thought for a minute, staring out the window at the passing fields of corn and farmland. Just when Aaron was about to break the silence, he spoke. "He requires love, more love than you might be able to provide, since you have shown in recent times that you are sorely lacking that quality."
"Hey, wait! I can be-" Aaron began, but was interrupted by Freddy.
"He would also require a certain amount of bedrest, I would suggest maybe two days or more depending on the effects of this experience on his psyche and overall health, and while he is resting I also suggest having some kind of medical personnel examine him for any other injuries he may have sustained while in the midst of the incident."
"So that's what we're calling it now?" Aaron said, exasperated and still slightly worried for his brother. "An 'incident'?"
Freddy shrugged, though it went unnoticed by Aaron. "I can think of no other way to describe it. It is an accurate description of the events that transpired. What would you call it?"
"Attempted murder, for one!" Aaron yelled, throwing up his arms in a moment of anger and exhaustion. "Actually, yeah, that's what I would call it! It was attempted murder, they tried to kill him!"
Freddy waited until Aaron had stopped ranting to speak. "According to your description of the events that you relayed to me a few minutes earlier, you seemed to think that it was all entirely accidental, did you not?"
The older human sighed and rested his head against the steering wheel briefly. It was a good thing that the road was nearly deserted. "Yes, I did think that, but now I'm seeing things a little bit differently than before!" He hissed at the bear.
Just then, he heard a soft whimpering from the backseat, and he turned around to see that Benny had woken up, his eyes fogged over with sleep. "I feel sticky." He whispered, clearly not fully awake. "Why do I feel sticky? It's wet."
Aaron pulled over onto the side of the road and stopped the truck. "You feel what?" He asked, turning back to look at his younger brother.
"Sticky," Benny whimpered again, his voice quieter now as he started to fall back into sleep. "I'm sticky and wet."
Aaron was confused. Why would he-
Then he saw it. The seat Benny was sitting in, as well as the headrest, was stained with blood. He quickly climbed back and lifted Benny up and moved him aside. He gasped sharply at what he saw. It was worse than he first realized.
Benny's jacket was coated in blood. Aaron ripped it off of him in a hurry to find his shirt underneath also ruined and red. It was stuck to his skin, so he had to tug a little to get it free, slowly lifting it and immediately froze.
The child's upper back had also been injured, but had bled at a much slower rate than his other injuries. Deep gouges in the skin steadily leaked bodily fluids, and the smell of it was nauseating. A thick metallic smell that lingered in the air. The blood was dripping down his back and onto his pants as well as the floor.
Aaron breathed in sharply, his fear and worry resurfacing again.
"We need to get him medical attention." Freddy said as soon as he had seen the damage. "Immediately. These wounds are severe, and if they are not treated he will bleed to death."
"How the fuck would you know?!" Aaron snapped at Freddy angrily, finally reaching his limit. "You're just a plush toy, you don't know anything!"
"Now is not the time for this, Aaron!" Freddy snapped back with a growl in his voice as he thrust a clawed finger at Benny's wound. "That bite mark is deep, and it might have hit something vital to his survival! He has already lost a significant amount of fluids, so I recommend that you contact a treatment facility of some sort and explain to them our situation!"
Aaron was startled back to his senses. He took one more look at the wound on Benny's back, and took a deep breath. He sighed and picked up his phone, dialing the nearby hospital and telling them the problem. The call was quick and to the point, and a few minutes later he hung up, sighing.
"What is it?" Freddy asked worryingly.
Aaron turned the key in the ignition to start the truck's engine and pulled back onto the main road. "They said that they would be waiting to take him in to be examined. The nearest hospital is a few minutes from here, so we're not very far from them. They said that they may have to take him in for surgery if it's bad enough."
The elder human handed the ruined jacket to Freddy. "Here, they said to apply pressure to the wound and try to stop the bleeding as much as possible. We'll be there in about five minutes, and then they'll take care of the rest."
The gold bear immediately slapped the clothing onto the still bleeding wound, wrapping the jacket around Benny's chest and pressing down as hard as he was able to without harming his friend any further.
"Freddy?" Benny asked tiredly, the commotion waking him. His speech was slurred, and barely louder than a whisper. "Are we almost home?"
He ran a paw through Benny's hair soothingly while Plushtrap cuddled up to the child, the rabbit giving a weak warble of distress.
"Not yet, Benny. We will be there soon. Can you keep your eyes open for me?"
"I'm so tired, Freddy. Can I sleep?"
"Please don't close your eyes. Stay awake. We will be there in a moment." Freddy said, stroking Benny's face in a loving gesture. "You will be alright."
Benny did not seem to hear him, and his eyes were glassy and glazed over with sleep. He let his head hit the window, his eyes barely open. His breathing was labored and weak. "I'm so tired," he said again, his voice quiet. He closed his eyes.
Plushtrap licked the young human's face, trilling fearfully. That seemed to wake him up a little, his eyes opening slightly. They closed again after a few seconds, and Plushtrap began licking harder, in vain. The rabbit seemed to be on the verge of freaking out now.
Seeing that his brother was now still and quiet, Aaron drove faster, not caring if he was speeding now. A ticket was the least of his worries. The hospital appeared on the horizon, just across the road, a minute away. He reached back and put two fingers to Benny's throat, feeling his pulse, sighing in relief when he felt one, though it was slow and weak, never a good sign. He was still breathing, for now, but his chest was barely moving. Aaron gently slapped his face, but the young child did not open his eyes or make any sounds, remaining dead silent.
They reached the hospital and Aaron jumped out, hurriedly collecting his brother into his arms, carrying him to the hospital doors and going in, Benny's face pale and arms dangling at his side as he lay motionless in Aaron's hold.
A small team of doctors were waiting for him in the lobby, immediately taking him from the elder human and placing him on a stretcher as they carried him into the back room of the building to be taken care of. Aaron saw one of the nurses putting a breathing mask over Benny's mouth before they turned the corner and went down another hallway, calling a code blue.
Aaron was approached by a nurse and handed paperwork to fill out, and did so as requested. He felt like crying, but no tears showed themselves. He felt numb, and he came to the realization that he must be in shock. He finished the paperwork after a while and sat back in the chair, praying with all of his heart and soul that his little brother would be alright and would recover from this.
He wondered if Benny would die.
A/N: This is an unofficial sequel to "Nightmares And Monsters," showing what would have happened if Benny had survived the bite. People were pleading and demanding that I bring Benny back to life in some way, so this is that way. The original idea I had was to bring him back as a ghost, but then a friend on here who goes by the name of 'StarfallGalaxy' suggested this idea, so credit for this story goes to her, as well. This is an AU story, but the characters will remain the same as they were in the original timeline.