Chapter two

Night two

Leo

The elevator whirred reassuringly. Not that Leo was nervous. Hazel had said Night One was literally pressing buttons.

Pressing buttons is my thing! Leo thought. It'll be easy!

"Daddy, you let the other children go see her, why won't you let me go?"

The voice was so faint Leo wasn't sure if he had imagined it. It had sounded like a little girl. Before he could make up his mind on whether he had actually heard it or not, he heard another voice.

"Welcome back for another night of intellectual stimulation, pivotal career choices and self-reflection on past mistakes. We're committed to creating a unique and fulfilling work experience. One part of that commitment is ensure that you don't get tired of the voice that you're hearing right now." A robotic voice declared.

"Sweet!" Leo said.

A keypad with the alphabet appeared, but the elevator was distorting the screen. Leo touched it to try and find the source of the glitch. Maybe he could reprogram it so the computer wouldn't think his name is Eggs Benedict.

"Using the keypad below, please select a new companion voice. For male, press 1. For female, press 2. For text-only, press 3. For other options, press 4."

"But...THERE'S NO NUMBERS! I CAN'T PUT ANY NUMBERS IN HERE!" Leo punched the keypad angrily. "Why are you asking me to put NUMBERS WHEN THERE ARE-" The dots blinked at him from the screen.

"It seems that you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type, and I will auto-correct it for you. thank you for choosing:"

"Burn in Tartarus, Autocorrect." Leo mumbled.

"Angsty Teen."

"Alright, you're forgiven. I wonder if the voice will sound like Nico?"

The elevator stopped.

''The elevator stopped. You know the routine. You can get out now or... whatever.''

"Heh heh, it does sound like Nico, a little bit." Leo laughed, then slid into the vents.

"So…Funny story... a dead body was found in this vent once. Okay... so... not that funny. But it's a story."

"What?!"

Leo was now thinking that this was a bad idea. He climbed out of the vents to...literal heaven. So much machinery, which he could understand better than little ghost brats trying to stuff him in a Freddy suit.

"Holy Hephaestus." Leo murmured.

"Ok, let's start with your nightly chores. You should check on Ballora and make sure she's on her stage but... whatever."

"Heh heh, yes Nico."

Leo pressed the button to reveal an empty stage.

"Ballora?" Leo wasn't worried until he saw the vent door. "Oh crap."

I am DEAD.

"Huh, I guess Ballora has better things to do. Let's zap her! That should be fun."

Leo laughed. "Lets zap her! That will be fun! Take that!" Leo smacked the button. The electric zap and blue light flashed.

Then some garbling noises came on the loudspeaker. Leo slowly tried to back towards the entry vent.

"Let's check on Funtime Foxy, make sure he's ready for show time tomorrow."

"But, IS BALLORA ON STAGE?!"

Leo fanatically pressed the light button.

Then he gave up and pressed the light for Foxy. He and Foxy despised each other, so this would be fun.

"GREAT. GREAT. GREAT." This was not so fun anymore. The voice was now gargling and mechanic and it was seriously starting to freak him out. Leo wondered how many monsters he would attract by calling Annabeth for help. Probably a lot, but right now he just wanted to leave.

"There seems to have been a problem with the voice synthesizer." The hand-unit's normal voice was back instead of the Nico voice. "Default settings have been restored. Please proceed through the vent ahead of you to Circus Baby's Auditorium."

Leo then crawled the heck through the vents hoping Ballora and Funtime Foxy weren't right on his heels.

He came out in another heaven room, and spent a full five minutes pressing a bajillion buttons.

"That is definitely a dead Balloon Boy. Thank the Gods he's dead." Leo laughed again.

"Circus Baby had a busy day today! Let's check the light, and make sure she's in proper working order."

"Uh okay." Leo pressed the button, still eyeing BB.

"Baby isn't there. Okay. Let's zap her!"

"Oh Circus Baby, we aren't here to play hide and seek. Let's encourage Baby to come out of hiding with a controlled shock."

"Yeah!" Leo pressed the button, only getting a robotic fart noise.

"Um…"

"Let's try another controlled shock."

Leo pressed the button again, only receiving another robotic fart.

"Uh oh."

"There seems to be a power malfunction that is affecting our ability to properly motivate Baby. Please stand by, while I reboot the system. I will be offline momentarily during this process. Various other systems may be offline as well, such as security doors, vent locks and oxygen. Commencing system restart."

"NO, NO DON'T DO THIS!" Then all the lights shut off.

"Hand-unit?" Instead, a different echoed from the darkness.

"I don't recognize you. You are new." A female voice said.

"Baby?" Leo whimpered.

"I remember this... scenario however. It's a strange thing to want to do, to come here." The voice (Leo assumed it was Baby.) continued.

"I'm curious what events would lead a person to want to spend their nights in a place like this... willingly. Maybe curiosity, maybe ignorance…"

"That's most likely the reason, I DIDN'T KNOW AND I'M SORRY!"

"There is a space under the desk. Someone before you crafted it into a hiding place... and it worked for him. I recommend that you hurry though. You will be safe there, just... try not to make eye contact... it will be over soon. They will lose interest."

The last sentence was a loud whisper. Leo looked at the crawl space. He could fit, alright. With room to spare. (Perks of being scrawny.) He crawled into the space and pulled the door shut.

He sighed in relief.

"Wait. So.. The animatronics won't try to kill us? It seems like she's helping me."

Leo curled against the wall waiting. He heard all the vents open, and the little footsteps coming in. "Hello in there…" said a whispering sing song voice.

Leo whimpered, pressing himself against the back of the desk and staring at the holes in the door. Suddenly an eye appeared in one of the holes and Leo's heart stopped for a second. He and the eye just stared at each other until it disappeared.

"Someone is inside." whispered another voice.

"Is it the same person?" responded yet another.

Then another eye appeared in one of the holes. Leo was frozen in fear when the eye disappeared and another eye stared at him through a new hole.

"Knock, knock" Leo heard them whisper.

Then he heard high pitched clinking. Suddenly the door started to scrape open. He grabbed the edge of the door and pulled frantically, fear powering his movements. It opened about halfway when their grip loosened and Leo was able to close it again. He sighed with relief.

"We will always find a way inside." they whispered.

Leo lunged towards the door just as they started to pull it open. He pulled as hard as he could, but somehow they made it three quarters of the way open before one of them leaped at him, shrieking.

It had pale and tan metal and it's faceplates and sprung off, revealing the wires underneath. Leo was terrified, but he managed to shoot flames into its face, and it fell away into the shadows. He was able to pull the doors closed again. His heart was thumping wildly. He bumped his head on the top of the desk when he heard them whisper:

"She's watching us!"

One of them gasped.

"We have to leave now."

"We will see you again soon." one of them promised, but it was so faint Leo didn't know if he was imagining it or not. He waited a few minutes in fear, until Baby came back.

"When your "guide" comes back online, he is going to tell you that he was unsuccessful, that you must restart the system manually.
He will then tell you to crawl through Ballora Gallery as fast as you can to reach the Breaker Room. If you follow his instructions, you will die."

"Oh, great."

"Ballora will not return to her stage anymore. She will catch you. The power will be restored shortly. When you crawl through Ballora Gallery, go slowly. She cannot see you and can only listen for your movement.
When you hear her music become louder, she is growing near, listening for you. Wait, and be still."

Silence.

"Thank you for your patience. It seems like the power system cannot be restarted automatically. You will need to restart the power system manually. Please return to the primary control module."

Leo opened the door cautiously, his fire in one hand. Then he sprinted to the vents and crawled as fast as he could to the control module room. When he burst out of the vent, it closed behind him, and he gasped with relief. Then he realised one of the fake heads on the walls was blinking at him. Or was that just the light flickering?

"You will now be required to crawl through the Ballora gallery using the vent to your left to reach the breaker room. It is recommended that you stay low to the ground, and reach the other side as fast as possible, as to not disturb Ballora. I will deactivate myself momentarily, as to not create an auditory disturbance. Deactivating…"

Then it was silent. The vent door opened on his left, and he reluctantly grabbed a flashlight from one of the desks and crawled through.

It was dark, so Leo held the flashlight in his mouth while he crawled through the gallery. He thought he saw a flicker of silver and purple above him, but when he glanced up, nothing was there. He didn't know who to trust, Baby, or Hand-unit? He decided to try Baby's method, since Hand-unit seemed like an idiot. He had been going pretty loudly, despite moving slowly, and every time his hands slapped against the marble floor, he winced. Then he heard music and he started to go faster, beginning to panic. The music just started to move closer to him, though. Soon the music was so close he could tell it was about five feet away from him. He stopped suddenly, remembering Baby's warning. He tried to be as quiet as he could, and sure enough, the music faded away into the distance.

"Crazy ballerina." Leo muttered, taking the flashlight out of his mouth for a second. The music grew closer.

"Sorry, sorry." He whispered frantically. The music dwindled away. He kept crawling until he saw a dim light illuminating a door maybe three quarters of a football field away.

The music came closer, so he stopped. The music went away. It went on like this until he was maybe halfway there.

"It seems like you are taking a long time. Please proceed as quickly and as quietly as possible."

Leo nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Stupid Hand Unit."

The music grew louder, so Leo put the flashlight back in his mouth to shut himself up. The music faded away and he continued crawling.

The music came back, and he thought he heard a deep female voice singing.

"Why do you hide inside your walls, When there's music in my halls?
All I see is an empty room, No more joy - An empty tomb.

It's so good to sing all day, To dance, to spin, to fly away."

It faded away.

Soon he was about eight yards from the door when the music came back.

He stopped and held his breath nervously.

Please, don't let her find me. Oh gods please don't let her find me.

Then a silhouette looking like she was freaking twelve feet tall passed in front of him. Ballora spun by like a T-Rex, nearly making Leo spit out the flashlight. She was so freaking huge! And she was right next to him. He regretted ever choosing this job, ever going to that fair with Frank.

Ballora's music vanished into silence. Leo sighed with relief, then started crawling for the door. He crawled close enough to make out a sign saying 'GET READY' before he got up and ran into the room, dropping his flashlight on the way there.

He could barely see anything except random bursts of light on the ceiling, and thousands of wires coiled around his feet and along the walls. Some were like three feet wide, others were barely bigger that his fingernails, and that was impressive, considering he'd been chewing on them out of fear and agitation.

He picked up a box with a button on it, and when he pressed the button a girly voice spoke.

"Calm down, and go back to sleep. No one is here!"

Leo nearly jumped, but he realized the voice was from the remote, not from any freaky little girls hiding in the corners. (seriously, Piper did that to him sometimes.)

"You may now interface with the breaker control box. Using the interface may disrupt nearby electronics. If you feel you are in danger, feel free to disconnect the interface temporarily, until it is safe to reconnect."

"Why would I feel in danger?!" Leo wondered. "There's someone in here?"

Then he made the mistake of looking to his right, at the raised podium.

His old friend Freddy had gotten a makeover too, with purple ears and a black and purple top hat, Bonnie was sitting on his hand, looking like Barbie Bonnie from the other location.

Freddy and Bonnie. Two on one. And he only had the remote for defense.

"Oh, come on."

Then he blinked, and Freddy was gone. He looked to his left, and Freddy was standing there, in the flickering lights. Leo pressed the button on his remote, and it said:

"Shhh, go back to your stage. Everything is ok."

And Freddy actually listened to him. When Leo looked right again, Freddy was on his/her stage. (Leo really didn't know its gender.)

"I'm just gonna go with a her okay?"

He quickly pressed his button and started winding the reboot button on the interface while Bonnie sang:

"Everything is ok, let's go back to sleep."

1%

5%

10%

20%

40%

Was that a shuffling in the background?

60%

70%

Did he imagine the creaking in his left ear?

80%

90%

100%!

Leo flipped the computer down to see Freddy showing her ugly muzzle through the wires on Leo's left side.

"Oh calm down, I think it was just a mouse!" sang his remote.

"Bawn-Bawn! There's the BIRTHDAY BOY!" A male glitchy voice said.

So Freddy was a guy after all.

Leo waited for Freddy to vanish before rebooting the computer, but he didn't.

"Nope, no one is here." His remote reassured Freddy, and he reappeared back on the stage.

Leo rebooted three more systems before having to chase Freddy away.

"Bawn-Bawn, GO GET HIM!"

"Shhh, it's bedtime. Let's go back to our stage."

Leo jammed his fist on the Bon-Bon button.

"Well, HELLO AGAIN!"

"You must be hearing things, silly."

Leo winded another button.

Freddy retreated to the stage and Leo was able to wind another button.

"Calm down, and go back to sleep! No one is here."

Leo wound up the second-to last button, relieved he had survived this far.

"Alright Fazbear, you wanna play? Let's play." Leo murmured.

Five minutes later, Leo burst out of the circuit room, and when he realized he was in Ballora gallery and he stopped short. Sure enough, he heard music, and he grabbed his flashlight from the floor and stood still. But then he thought of his last vision of Freddy: scorch marks all over his face, and missing an arm. Not the one with Bon-Bon on it, though. Bon-Bon looked no better than Freddy.

Ballora spun by, as usual, looking like a T-Rex, except she stopped right in front of him. He held his breath, looking up and the towering robot above him.

He could see the door at the end of the gallery.

"Is someone there?" A deep female voice asked.

"I can hear someone creeping through my room."

No. It's just a mouse!

"Perhaps...not." Ballora spun away. Leo exhaled in relief. Then he ran for the vent. He crawled in, his shirt catching on metal, scratching his back, and for a minute he imagined Ballora the T-Rex grabbing him, but he crawled through and ran for the elevator, not bothering with Hand Unit's "Thank you for doing your job" speech. He ran into the elevator, and the adrenaline wore off. He sunk to the floor, hands on his head and cried in relief as the elevator took him far away from that place. As salty tears made his cheeks sting from when he cut them in the Freddy room he curled on his side, back to the door as to not see the lights from the place. He didn't care that Annabeth had ruled the phones for emergencies, he doubted he could even walk three feet in the dark without freaking out, and Annabeth knew how to drive. As he dialed her number he thought about that night. He had escaped the T-Rex on steroids, the Freddy-Bonnie hybrid thing, and the freaky mini-babies. Seriously, those things would give him nightmares.

And one thing's for sure.

He was never going back.

This is Raise-A-Glass-3077. We have a weird update schedule, and I will try to get the rest up ASAP (this is prewritten). Hope you enjoy!