Hey guyz! Here's another chapter for you all! This is a bit of a filler chapter, but it'll bring vital clues to the story. And you might get a special surprise by the end! So as always...
Enjoy!
Haunted
Hikari's P.O.V.
If there was one thing she was certain of, it's that Fazbear's Fright is a dead man's graveyard. She didn't know why, but the moment she laid eyes on the bunny animatronic, she knew there was something paranormal about it. And it's not just on pure instincts, it's as if Hikari sensed it. But that wasn't the only thing she saw. There were ghosts, REAL ghosts that only she was able to see, however that was the least of her concerns right now.
She was always bullied at school because she said she could see ghosts. The kids and teachers claimed she must've had schizophrenia, and left her aside.
'I know I'm not just imagining it! I just know it!' she thought, as she placed her papers on her table. She didn't know if Kevin-chan would ever believe her... But of course he'd believe Hikari! They're friends, right?
"Right...?" she asked herself, slowly crunching the white sheets under her twitching fingers. She was judged only because she said she could see things that don't exist... Everyone ignored her, left her all alone... Her eyes started watering at the thought of that.
That's when dear Kevin-chan came for her, he was alone too. He was the first to lend a hand to her, to be Hikari's friend... She gazed at the window right next to her, amber eyes gleaming and a smile beaming on her tear-stroked face. The memory was still fresh like it was yesterday...
The first days of happiness...
"Hikari? More like 'Hickory Dock'!" shouted one of the kids. "Yeah! What a dumb name!" yelled another one. "And ghosts? That's only for babies!"
It was lunch time, and everyone was eating in the classroom. It was the first day of school and nobody showed mercy for poor little Hikari. She sat at the corner away from the other children, staring at the wall as she ate her sushi Kenji packed for her. The 3 boys and 2 girls, apparently the popular kids, decided to be mean to Hikari, since her name was stupid and the girl herself was creepy.
"Onigaen... Yame te! (Please... stop!)" she sobbed, backing away to the wall, where the gang cornered her.
The first kid only smirked at this, happy about the results.
"Oh, what's that? I don't speak crapanese!" he shouted, the others laughing.
Hikari only sobbed even more, covering her red eyes with her hands. And then, as if an angel sent from heaven to rescue her (okay, maybe not an angel), a voice came booming from the other side of the class.
"Would you rots shut the hell up already?!" yelled a boy, his arms and legs crossed on the desk in front of him. Everybody gasped when he said the 'H' word, except for the one who was taunting Hikari.
"Ya got a big mouth, ya little punk!" the bully replied, cracking his knuckles together.
"The name's Kevin, you douchbag." The boy said, waving his hand up and down, a clear sigh he wasn't intimidated.
The bully was fuming now, and Kevin got up and went in front of Hikari. She was shocked, no one ever stood up like that for her, not even in kindergarten. For the first time since she moved at River's Edge, a smile making its way to her face. It soon faded when Kevin glared at her, but what he said after surprised her even more.
"Just let Hikari go. She didn't do shit... In fact, you smell like shit." He pointed to the bully who had rage filled eyes. Without warning, he stampeded his way towards Kevin, but the latter was faster. Kevin raised his fist and slammed it across the bully's jaw. A sickening crack soon followed.
The injured kid tried to scream, but instead a gurgling sound came out of his mouth and a small trail of blood came right after. He was silently crying tears of agony as his friends dragged him out of the class, to the infirmary.
Once they were gone, Kevin held out a hand to Hikari and giving her a smirk, taking her aback.
"We gotta stick together in these hard times. They won't give us a second chance." he said, hoisting the little girl back up. He turned to walk before adding. "By the way, I think 'Hikari' suits you well!"
Wow, not even an introduction. But she smiled anyway and followed suit, happy to finally make a friend...
After the incident, Kevin-chan and Hikari were, of course, in detention. But they didn't mind though, that bully deserved a good punch on the face anyway. It's not like he only targeted those two...
It's 3PM, and she wondered how Kevin-chan took all of this. He looked pretty shaken up, and she seems to know why... These are hard times, and they have to stick together. And Oji-san won't last long, he's going to die and will only have her friend as support. Because they're friends...
Right...?
She picked a picture of both her and the blue-eyed boy as teenagers at the park from her nightstand.
'I'll protect you, dear Kevin-chan... no matter the cost... just to be with you...'
Kevin's P.O.V.
I opened my eyes to see I wasn't lying on my bed anymore, but rather on cold, hard cement. I muttered curses as I got up, trying to adjust my aching back until I heard an easing crack. Damn... That's what happens when we lie on rocks. Well, that's how I like to call them... Cuz they are!
Anyway, I took a look at my surroundings, and I recognized the place right away. I was at River's Edge dumpster, and the smell was putrid as ever, but I smelled some worse...
All I know is that almost nobody went there for the past 15 years, and that houses a hole on the side of a small hill of garbage, that leads to the sewers.
I inspected the piles of who knows what, seeing that there was a few small, but clearly visible red dots. I raised my hand to touch it, but it just went through as I tried making contact. Great...
Then I heard some faint movement, as if a person was dragging something hard and heavy, with the stench of fresh blood in the air. I walked to where noise was coming from... Then it stopped, and I saw a disturbing sight.
There was a boy, probably around the age of 13, one I couldn't recognize because a black shadow covered his face. I couldn't distinguish his hair either, for it was also hidden in darkness. Right in front of him was a broken down animatronic cat, sprawled on the ground. It had the shape of a female, deep purple fur and a few holes on it along with some wires sticking out of them. Part of its face was scratched over and had hollow eyes sockets. Then it began to move and tried to stand up. I jumped back in response.
What unsettled me the most was when the boy started talking, in a demonic voice that echoed through the dumpster.
"I see you're finally awake" he said, as I could hear the smirk from his intimidating tone. "Don't worry, this won't last long..." He walked behind the robot that was wobbling on its shaky legs.
"It'll only be a few minutes of agonizing torture." the boy said, as he slowly pulled a hidden hand crank on the cat's back.
And with that, I heard some spring locks loosen, just enough time for the animatronic to mumble in a equally eerie voice "Huh? What the-", before a loud sickening crack and gash, accompanied with a painful and muffled yowl.
"HHHIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
It twitched uncontrollably as blood splattered from every corner of its body. It opened its wide bloodshot eyes that glowed in a unnatural green as it shed cascading tears before closing them tightly.
WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON!?
"S-someone! UUUGH! HEL- GAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" it yelled in agony, as the animatronic fell on its knees, stumbling on trash along the way. It held its head and continued screaming its lungs out.
Oh shit, somebody is in that suit! It's the only way to explain their ear-piercing screeches. And they're actually dying!
You know that feeling when you see somebody meeting their terrible demise, and you couldn't do anything save them? I know, very out of character of me, but that's exactly how I felt. Seeing I could only go through stuff and unable to touch anything but the hard surface, watching this horrible scenario was the only thing I was here for.
There was no other explanation for it...
Right now, I could see their guts and blood all over the floor around them. They were barely even moving anymore, only some wheezing and gasping escaping from the suit, other than the disgusting mess. The boy just stood there all this time, not moving at all. Then he gave a small kick at the poor victim before they finally fell to the ground, head first, and silent. I understood then that the person trapped in the suit was long gone... At least they won't have to suffer anymore, that was beyond what I could bare.
And for the first time ever, I felt sympathy and even sorrow for somebody I didn't even know. I felt my eyes water a bit, as the last drips of blood flooded out of the robotic cat. This is one of the rare times I ever get emotional like this, even if no tears are spilled.
"Pathetic..." the boy muttered, and grunted soon after. "The Prototype failed."
Prototype? What the hell is he talking about? Before I could even analyse the question, he dragged the bloody corpse, or rather what was left, inside the cat suit, and threw it into the hole, followed by a loud splash from below. It must of certainly landed in the murky waters of those damn sewers, never to be seen again. All the evidence of a murder washed away under my very feet...
The perfect crime was unfolded right in front of my eyes...
I woke up in a jolt of adrenaline, my blue eyes jolted open immediately after. I placed a hand on my chest, feeling my heart beating rapidly.
What hell kind of nightmare was THAT!?
Great! Just great! Now it's gonna haunt me for weeks! Wait, what was I gonna do again? Oh yeah! Internet research! I'm not gonna ignore myself this time, cuz each time I say I'm going to do something... I 'forget', like Austin does (*cough* yup).
So anyway, I got out of bed, turned on my laptop and got myself some afternoon coffee. I came back to my seat and searched in Google, typing Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. I don't exactly know why I'm doing this, really. Cathy liked to talk about that place and its rumors, and people sure do wanna know about it. I never really believed in that kind of stuff, but since I'm working in a real haunted attraction, I decided that I should just give it a shot.
I eventually found this website, that of course Fitzgerald created, that showed both interesting yet wicked information.
A child was found dead, strangled to death to be exact, near the first location, which back then was called Fredbear's Family Diner. That restaurant was shut down after the incident, and moved somewhere else in town. The deceased child's mother committed suicide upon learning of her son's death. Years later, the second location was abandoned for unknown reasons, and the pizzeria had once again a grand reopening. But in that same year, there was the Bite of '87, when this girl by the name of Omega Lark had her frontal lobe bitten off during a birthday party, in which she luckily survived. Okay, maybe Austin exaggerated in that part, probably just heavily damaged, but not completely removed, though. He just likes adding detail. There was also the Missing Children Incident that happened right after the Bite. As the title says it, 5 children went missing that had to do with the pizzeria, and were never found. Austin theorized there was probably a sixth child, but was missing a few days before the incident. Either way, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria was once again shut down, and for the third time moved to another part of River's Edge, only this time closer to our home. It's worth mentioning that every security guard there went either missing, had quit the job, or just got down right fired. After complaints from parents of the place, it was shut down, permanently. That building was left to rot until Fitzies decided to work on a project for a horror attraction, in homage of the missing children and my sister Catherine, who would have joined if she was still around.
About the animatronics - that kind of creeped me out a bit -, they are one of the vital key parts of the mystery, according to Austin's website. Back at Fredbear's Diner, there were two animatronics, both robots and wearable suits. A bear and a rabbit to be precise, both yellow/golden whatever you'll call it. Fredbear himself and Spring Bonnie, created to entertain children at the family diner. But since Spring Bonnie was poorly designed as a costume, they locked him away in the storage/safe room. The employees then named him the 'Springtrap', as it was a literal waking trap. Why did Austin refer the animatronic as a 'he'? Sounds more like a girl name if you ask me...As I was saying, the classic suits were retired after they moved to the second location. Then there they were four new animatronics, Freddy Fazbear, the bear that took Fredbear's place, Bonnie the Bunny, who also took Spring Bonnie's role, and two new ones, Chica the Chicken and Foxy the Pirate Fox. Weird names honestly, and that was a chicken?! Great! Now my dreams of eating KFC are ruined! Well, not much information about that place other that moving again, as I said earlier. When there was the grand reopening, new animatronics were made, and the old ones were screwed up, even mentioning that bunny dude losing his face. There was also this one 'bot that was supposed to be Foxy's counterpart, but was torn apart by the children, so the employees called it the Mangle, for its mangled state and that it was then used as a 'tear-apart-then-put-back-together' toy. Geez, kids can be brats these days, even before I was even born! Well, Hick and I had to deal with little fuckers at our heels, too.
The rest was about Austin's father, Jeremy Fitzgerald, working there, saying that the animatronics were after him to 'stuff 'em into a suit'. In the comment section, people were spamming that he just had mental issues, or that the robots were in fact haunted. Either way, that part gave me the spooks, but that was nothing compared to what was written next... When the Bite of '87 occurred, Austin speculated that it was one of the new designs that caused it, since they were scrapped after. However, they kept the old ones, in hopes of one day using them again. That's not all... When the company moved to the third location, parents were complaining about the smell coming from the animatronics. There were even reports of blood and mucus coming out their mouths and eye-sockets. Pretty disgusting, I should add. I forgot to add that at some point, Mike Schmidt, my dad, worked there as a night guard, in the year 1993. Weird, why didn't dad ever mention this? That also explains the scribbles on the fan... Blah blah blah, all that good stuff.
And now, almost 30 years later, Fazbear's Fright is on the move. Apparently, that bunny dude is actually Spring Bonnie, or should I say, Springtrap. Fan-fucking-tastic... and with that macabre look, doesn't make the job easier.
Since there was nothing else to see, I went back to the page to see Austin's latest updates. There was new content at least at each 24 hours, around 12PM to 2PM. The last one was posted yestesday, and it's about the new animatronic. There was nothing new after that, which I found quite suspicious. I checked the corner of my laptop screen where it said 6PM. Looks like I should meet up with Hick soon...
As I put on my hoodie, I failed to notice my coffee slowly moving at the edge of my desk.
?'s P.O.V.
How long has it been... since the last time I ever saw daylight?
When did I lose... track of time?
Why... was I even dumped here... in the sewers?
Did I... deserve this? To die an agonizing death? To get almost all of my memories erased? To not even remember my name?
Is this... what death feels like?
I only know that I was dropped here in this godforsaken labyrinth, and that I'm being chased by 'Soul Reaper'. I know every corner of this place, but I'm only able to run from him. I don't want my soul harvested, I still have much to do!
So far, one of my two options was to contact one of my close family members. Turns out I had to hurt him in the process. I didn't want to...
He's the one I had to keep a promise to...
There's only one thing to do now. Find a ladder and climb up to the surface.
Oh shit! That fucker's still on my tracks! Gotta find the exit fast!
Turn right.
Turn right again.
Turn right once more.
Yes, I know I'm going in circles! It's been a while since I last saw a ladder!
Turn left.
Go straight up ahead.
Crap! Murky water. Meh, not the first time I swam in trash. I backed away a bit, before throwing my metallic body in the dark waters. I swam across the sewers, trying to find a way out. Let's see
Swim to the left.
Swim to the right.
Swim to the- LADDER!
I jumped out of the stream and ran to the exit.
YAY! My out of this ditch, bitches!
I then pushed off the lid over me, and emerged from the hole I came from. Strange, it's awfully quiet here... I closed the lid before walking around the new place. It looks pretty damn spooky, with decoration all around and the smell of rotten flesh instead of leftovers. Seriously, you don't wanna know what's under your feet.
Just as I was about to turn at another corner, I heard heavy footsteps, similar to my own, coming from behind me.
"We-e-ell, well, w-w-w-w-w-well! Looks l-l-l-l-l-ike we ha-a-a-a-a-ave a ne-ne-new member-r-r-r-r-r!" boomed a glitched out voice.
I was petrified at this point. I turned around to see a tall figure, almost 2 feet taller than me, with two piercing silvery eyes, and a permanent grin on its face.
Oh shit...
Beware of death... You never know when it'll hit you...