Chapter Three
Night Three
Percy
The elevator went down and Percy wondered if he'd made the right decision to take this night. He was especially concerned when Annabeth had woken up with a frantic call from Leo, who wanted to be driven home right now. When he did come home, he barricaded himself in his room, and wouldn't come out. He had wondered if he'd made the right decision to go at all. Now he was there and he was worried he'd end up like Leo.
"Daddy, just once, let me go play with her. She's so pretty and shiny. Didn't you make her just for me?"
Percy shuddered. It sounded like a little girl. But it was so faint, and the elevator was so loud, he was sure that it wasn't real.
"Welcome back to another pivotal night of your thriving new career, where you get to really ask yourself, what am I doing with my life? What would my friends say, and most importantly, will I ever see my family again? We understand the stresses of a new job, and we're here for you. To help you reach a more stable and relaxing frame of mind, we offer several musical selections to help make this elevator ride as relaxing and therapeutic as possible. We offer contemporary jazz, classical rainforest ambiance as well as a wide selection of other choices. Using the keypad below, please type the first few letters of the musical selection you would prefer."
"Music, huh?" Percy laughed, and that laugh was immediately silenced as he thought of Leo. A yellow keypad popped up, but as Hazel described, the elevator was shaking too much for him to type anything.
But he tried anyway.
How about 'Can't touch this?'
He tried to type it, but he couldn't even tell what he typed, being dyslexic and all.
"It seems 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 selecting:"
"Oh, no." Percy groaned.
"Casual Bongos."
"Haha! Really? Casual- what?! Haha!"
The bongos played in the background.
"Now that your elevator experience has been customized to your needs, and your thoroughly relaxed, it's worth mentioning that due to your lackluster performance yesterday, your pay has been decreased by a substantial amount. Please enjoy the rest of your descent."
"Wait, WHAT?! Leo, WHAT HAPPENED?!" Yelled Percy. "You know what? I'm gonna do so well tonight, our pay is gonna increase by like a thousand so, yeah, take that!"
The elevator stopped. Percy gulped as the door slid open.
He crawled into the vent and into a room with a window on the left and right sides.
"Due to unforeseen malfunctions from today's shows, your nightly duties will require you to perform maintenance that you may or may not be skilled enough to perform. It became necessary for technicians to attempt to disconnect Funtime Freddy's power module. However, they were unsuccessful. Allowing them to try again would be an inefficient path forward, as we would need to allow six to eight weeks for recovery and physical therapy. You will need to reach the Parts and Service room on the other side of Funtime Auditorium to perform the procedure yourself. Let's check on Ballora first, and make sure she's on her stage."
Percy flashed the light. Surprisingly, Ballora was on stage.
"Great. It looks like everything is as it should be in Ballora Gallery. Let's check on Funtime Foxy. It's important to make sure she's on her stage before entering."
Percy flashed the light on the right side.
"Great, it looks like everything is as it should be in Funtime Auditorium. There is no need to check on Baby tonight; please refrain from entering unauthorized areas. Proceed directly to Funtime Auditorium."
But two vents were open. One lead straight, and the other lead right.
"Hmm… Which way? Well, I don't want to listen to hand-unit face so…"
Percy crawled into the middle vent and into darkness.
He came out in a room with a dummy that looked scarily like balloon boy and a large window.
"Did you know that I was on stage once? It wasn't for very long.. only one day." A female voice said, scaring Percy out of his skin. "What a wonderful day, though. I was in a small room with balloons and a few tables. No-one sat at the tables though, but children would run in and out. Some were afraid of me, others enjoyed my songs." It must be Baby. Percy felt a feeling of trust, and he also felt in trudged, so he settled down to listen, even though her voice was a little creepy.
"Music was always coming from somewhere else... down a hall. I would always count the children, I'm not sure why. I was always acutely aware of how many there were in the room with me.
"Maybe because you're a creepy robot that stalks little kids." He muttered, but Baby didn't seem to hear him.
Two, then three, then two, then three, then four, then two, then none. They usually played together in groups of two or three."
"Also, you don't know how to count." Baby ignored him.
"I was covered in glitter. I smelled like birthday cake. There were two, then three, then five, then four.
I can do something special, did you know that? I can make ice cream - although I only did it once...
There were four, then three, then two, then one. Something happened when there was one. A little girl, standing by herself. I was no longer... myself. And I stopped singing.
My stomach opened, and there was ice cream. I couldn't move, at least not until she stepped closer. There was screaming for a moment... but only for a moment."
"WHAT?!"
"Then other children rushed in again, but they couldn't hear her over the sounds of their own excitement. I still hear her sometimes. Why did that happen?" Percy felt awkward, and confused.
"Oh-Kay, I'm just gonna leave now…"
Percy crawled back through the vents.
He came back to the room with two windows and the creepy shrunken heads, and chose the other open vent that lead to Funtime Foxy's room. On his way out, he grabbed a flashlight and a flash beacon from the desk. For some reason, the flashlight wouldn't work in the auditorium.
The beacon flashed, nothing there. Percy crawled forward eagerly, and flashed again. Nothing. Another flash, and Funtime Foxy was looming over him. Percy stopped, his heart pounding in his ears. He flashed again. Foxy was gone. He could see the door, but not close enough. He flashed again. No Foxy. He crawled forward and flashed again. Foxy was on the side of his vision, standing there, watching him.
"Creepy Fox." Percy muttered through the beacon in his mouth. Flash. No Foxy. He crawled forward, and saw the door. He flashed again, and then crawled as fast as he could to the door and walked through.
It was pitch black in there, until Percy turned on the flashlight, and for some reason it worked. Then he looked up and saw a six-foot-tall pink and white bear. He jumped. Then he realised that it wasn't moving.
"Great job reaching Parts and Service! It seems that Funtime Freddy is out of power, which should make your job much easier. The release switch for the chest cavity is located on the underside of the endoskeleton jaw. To reach it, we will first need to open the face-plated. You will need to press the face-plate release triggers in a specific order, and it's important to be as precise and as careful as possible. Locate the small button on Freddy's face, just under his right cheek, and press it."
"'Out of power'? No, Hand Unit Person, Freddy is utterly destroyed!" Percy hooted. "Yay! Leo!"
One arm was missing, and there were burn marks everywhere. One was in the shape of two handprints, as if to push Freddy away. Bonnie the hand puppet was missing an ear and had a massive burn mark on his chest.
"So that's why our pay was docked." Percy said.
"Okay, so… Under the jaw, right?" Percy said. He pressed the button.
"Great! Now locate the button under his left cheek, and press it."
"Okay." Percy pressed that button.
"Great! Now carefully locate and press the button next to Freddy's right eye."
"How many buttons are there?" Percy sighed exasperatedly.
"Great! now carefully locate and press the button just above Freddy's nose."
Percy pressed that button (conveniently covered by a burn scar) and the faceplates popped right open.
"Gah!" Percy yelped, toppling backwards and falling over.
"Good job! The face-plates should now be open. Locate and press the small button on the underside of Freddy's endoskeleton jaw."
"Not more buttons! Come on!" Also, Freddy was creeping him out with all the wires underneath the faceplates and the two purple eyes staring at him. Also, the teeth didn't help. Percy reluctantly pressed the button. The bear's chest opened with a loud whoooooooosh! Percy fell over again.
"Excellent. The chest cavity should now be open. Remove the power module from the chest cavity."
"Erm, okay." Percy took the module and put it in his pocket, where he felt the bronze pen Riptide, and he felt a moment of safety.
"Press the large black button beneath Bonnie's bow-tie to release the power module."
"Right." Said Percy. He was beginning to get the hang of this. But when he reached toward Freddy's hand, he realised Bon-Bon was gone.
"Oh great." He looked around frantically and saw him hiding behind Freddy's ear. Percy swiped at him, but his hands closed around open air. Bonnie peeked out at him from behind Freddy's legs. Percy lunged at him, and he scuttled up to Freddy's missing arm. Percy jumped at Bonnie, but Bonnie then ducked behind Freddy, and reappeared on his head.
This went on for hours, and the whole time, Percy had 'Can't Touch This' on repeat through his head. Finally, exhausted and angry, Percy grabbed Bonnie and jammed the button below his bow tie with his fist.
"Finally." He groaned, taking out the power module.
"Great work. You've acquired both power modules. This completes your tasks for the night. Please exit the building through Funtime Auditorium, and we'll see you back here again tomorrow."
"Well, that sucked." Percy said. Bonnie glared at him from Freddy's shoulder, where he was frozen.
"I hate you too, Bonnie." Percy said before walking out.
He started crawling through the auditorium, and automatically flashed. No Foxy. Then he heard scuffling in the darkness. He flashed his beacon just as Foxy lunged at him, shrieking. Foxy grabbed his shirt, and her faceplates came off. Percy heard someone screaming, and he realised it was himself before he sank into darkness.
Well Percy's dead.
RIP Percy, killed by Foxy :(
Question: Favorite character?
