Author's Note:

Thank you, again, for your continued readership and for your patience!

Now, the conclusion of Salina Bone's third night at Fazbear's Fright


I smiled and breathed a great sigh of relief seeing that my plan had worked, at least so far. The yellow bunny had followed the sound I produced via the camera controls, the sound of a child's voice.

I tried next to see if I could lure it even farther away. I turned my camera feed to the next room, and played the audio there, as well. This time, the childish voice said "Hello." Once again, I waited, and as I had expected, the bunny walked into view in the next room.

I started to relax. I thought that, in this way, I would easily be able to keep that thing walking around in circles all night. After standing in the room where I had played the sound last for a few seconds, though, the bunny turned and looked straight into the camera. Those eyes seemed to be looking right at me, as though it could see me, not just the camera. It was extremely creepy, and I wasn't sure what was going on.

I decided to send the bunny back to the last room he'd been standing in, so I moved the camera back to the last room, and I gasped, my heart pumping hard in my chest as I saw something else entirely staring at the camera, its face right up against the glass. I couldn't tell what it was, and I could barely tell that the thing even had a face. It was so close to the camera that it was a little out of focus. I wondered if there might be something wrong with the video system, too, so I closed the camera view to go look at the maintenance panel.

There it was. The thing I had seen on the camera was right there in my office, right in front of me. It was like a darkly colored, scorched, burned caricature of a child, and a moment after I laid eyes on it, it emitted an ear-piercing shriek and lunged straight at me!

I screamed and threw my hands up in front of me, expecting to feel the impact of this thing crashing into me, and the pain of it attacking me somehow, but none of that happened. I heard the room's alarms blaring, but when I finally opened my eyes, the thing was nowhere to be seen.

I was hyperventilating, and my bloodstream was filled with adrenaline. My hands and legs were shaking. I spent a few seconds just turning my head wildly, looking around the room for whatever it was that had attacked me, but it wasn't there. Had it ever been there at all?

I had heard it, I had seen it, I couldn't explain or understand it, but something had happened! I started to black out, but before I actually fell unconscious, I finally grasped that the horns were still going off and that they meant that something was wrong with the ventilation system again. I remembered Bonnie saying that the place would make me see crazy stuff. Could I have simply imagined something that bad?

Still gasping for air, I pulled up the system restart menu, selected the ventilation system, and engaged the restart sequence. A few seconds later, I got the air I needed again. I was breathing loudly, now, grunting and whimpering with exertion. This was so much worse than anything I could have anticipated. I then remembered I had to be careful of the bunny.

I pulled up the camera again, and saw that it had moved again. It was no longer in any of the places I had seen it already that morning. I kept flipping through cameras, but I couldn't see it anymore. I was starting to panic again, but I told myself that I had to stay calm; I had to focus, or I wouldn't be able to do myself any good at all.

I took a couple of deep breaths, and looked carefully. Then, I saw it. It was in the room just outside the hall that was visible from my office. It was there, and it seemed to be hiding... from the camera. It had maneuvered itself to be just around the side of and a bit behind one of the prop costumes.

This couldn't be. How? It knew. I didn't know what was going on inside that thing, but somehow it knew. It knew that I was watching for it through the cameras, and it was trying to keep me from seeing it.

I felt my hands clench. I felt my heart beating quickly. My breath came faster, but I was able to keep from going into full panic mode. This changed everything. I didn't think I was just dealing with a machine anymore. Something in there was thinking and wanted... well, whatever it wanted, I was sure it wasn't good.

Maybe... maybe the audio trick would still work, though, I thought. It had worked before. I switched the camera feed over to the room down the next hall away from me from where the bunny was, and I tapped the "Play Audio" button. This time, it emitted the sound of a child's laughter. In another context, the sound might've been cute, but in this situation, it was downright creepy. Even so, much to my relief, it worked. The bunny got out of its hiding place and moved right to the room where I had played the sound.

I shook my head. This was insane. What was really going on here? It responded to sound cues like a mindless robot, but it crept around and hid like it was thinking. And what the hell had been that child-ghost thing that had jumped out at me?

I watched as the bunny took its steps to the room in the hall in the middle of the building, the hall where I had played the sound, stop, and then turn right back around to walk back toward me. I tried to press "Play Audio" again before the bunny got too far, but this time, I was greeted with a new problem. The words "audio error" appeared on the camera feed.

"Shit, shit, shit!" I cursed as I quickly swung the camera display away to pull up the maintenance panel. There, I saw the red "error" indicator flashing next to the "audio devices" line. I quickly activated the restart for it, looking back up and around, wondering what the next awful surprise would be.

The audio devices finished rebooting, so I pulled up the camera view as fast as I could, and looked for the bunny. He wasn't in the nearby rooms. I checked the arcade. Not there, either. I looked closely. I scanned the shadows. I looked at the cameras for the far north side of the building near the customer entrance, still nothing.

Where could he have gone? I knew it had to be there... somewhere. Then, I heard the alarm go off. This time, it was the clock. 6:00 AM had arrived. I slowly stepped away from the console, walked outside, and to my car. I sat there for a few minutes, just wondering what was going on. I wondered if I needed to see a doctor.

At any rate, I decided that I would probably not be going back to Fazbear's Fright. Whether I was getting ill, hallucinating, or something else was going on, clearly working there was not healthy for me. I would just find something less psychotic to do for my summer job, which wouldn't be hard.

I figured the best thing to do first would be to go home and get to sleep. I pulled away and went to bed, hopefully to let my mind sort out what was going on.

That day, I dreamed again.

The two crying blonde children from yesterday's dream appeared again, but they weren't crying this time. They were seated at a table with a huge, three-tiered birthday cake on top of it. There were also several empty seats around the table, already set with plates and silverware. The two kids looked happy. They both turned to me and smiled.

The older one, the girl, spoke softly, just above a whisper.

"Thank you! It's really sweet!" She said, holding up her plate with a big slice of cake, coated in blue, pink, and yellow frosting. She cut off a bite with her fork, put it in her mouth, and her face practically lit up with joy.

The boy seemed to be enjoying his slice, too. He turned to me, too and spoke.

"We can't thank you enough, but... please don't forget our friends."

The girl looked serious again for a moment.

"My brother's right. I know we're asking a whole awful lot, but..." She started to look sad again. "we can't leave without them! Besides," she said, starting to smile again as she picked up her piece of cake again, "there's plenty for everyone!"

The boy added "Please don't leave them behind!"

The girl nodded and said "Don't give up." She then turned back to her brother and said, "Go ahead and put the cake down. We can finish it later, when everyone's back together. Right now, we need to help." The boy nodded and put his fork down.

Then the dream changed. It was back to being one of the animatronics in the original restaurant. This time, I was the yellow bird, Chica. Once again, a dark purple Freddy Fazbear appeared and told me to follow him, but this time, I heard the two children speaking to me.

"That's... the purple guy." the girl said.

"He's a bad, bad, guy!" the boy added, sounding as if he were on the verge of tears.

"He took our friends. Don't let him take you, too." the girl continued. "You're doing good so far. Just keep him away."

I wasn't sure what to make of what she was saying. I wasn't doing a good job of staying away from the purple Freddy. In fact, against my better judgment, I found my robotic legs moving, following him just as he told me to. Could the girl have been talking about something from the waking world? I hadn't had to avoid anything purple when I was awake...

We got to the room with the dark wall. On the floor were the pieces of the previous bodies through which I had experienced this already, the brown Freddy Fazbear and the blue bunny, Bonnie.

As before, I saw the dark Freddy pass through the black emptiness and disappear. As before, I couldn't follow; the darkness through which he had passed was like a solid wall to me. I started to turn back again, and I heard the girl say:

"This... is what he did to us."

Again, I saw the purple man emerge from the darkness and attack me. The pieces of my yellow robot body were being taken off, but then I saw more.

I was being held off the ground by a man much larger than me, lifting me by gripping my neck while a sharp knife plunged into my chest. I heard terrible, grotesque screaming. Then, I was lying on a table, unable to move out of the heavy grip of metal that crushed my chest so badly I couldn't breathe. The screaming wouldn't stop. I was burning, boiling, crying, screaming.

Everything went black and silent again, and the last thing before I woke was the girl's voice whispering:

"Please don't give up."

Then I woke up. That's how I knew... I knew I had to go back. I couldn't... quit. I also wasn't comfortable telling anyone else. Not only would I look crazy, but I might also ruin whatever chance I had to help. I didn't know for sure what was happening, but I felt very strongly, I had to see it through. No matter what.


"Wow... Salina. I had no idea." Karl could see what a powerful emotional impact this had had on Salina. He reached his hand out to touch her shoulder. Words failed him, and he wanted to offer some sort of comfort. Her ordeal had been truly awe-inspiring, and the story was not even over.

"What did you do next?" Karl asked.

Salina sniffed. She could feel her whole face tense from recounting the experience that convinced her to commit herself to these children.

"But... don't you have to get to work?" Salina asked.

Karl checked his phone. "Shit! Oh, I'm so sorry, but... I definitely need to hear more, but... yeah, see you tomorrow!" Karl called out as he ran out to his car.

Salina spent the next few moments sitting quietly at the table speaking softly to Karl, knowing he could no longer hear her. She whispered, "Thank you, Karl. No one has ever listened to me like this before. I'm so glad that I can share this with you. I can't wait to see you tomorrow."

Salina took a deep breath and started heading home, a warm feeling in her heart, thinking about tomorrow as she headed off home to bed.


Karl drove toward the bunker in a hurry. Fortunately, there was not much traffic at this time of night, so he decided to speed a bit to make sure that he got to Springtrap in time.

It probably would not make much difference if he got there after Springtrap woke up, he realized, but he did not want to miss out on anything, and it was probably good to keep an eye on the murderous animatronic being for as long as it was awake.

"He went for the sound..." Karl started thinking out loud as he drove. "He... knew where Salina was. Even when he knew... he responded to the sound cues right away. Well, I guess he's programmed to do that, but... That's it! He's not just a ghost animating a machine... he's the machine, too... He can't do anything that the machine can't do. He can't ignore the sound cues his body was programmed to follow. That's why he wakes up at midnight and shuts down at six! That's the last schedule his body was programmed to follow. Well... that sheds some light on things."

Karl pulled up to the old bunker and quickly ran down the stairs. At this point, it would be faster than using the elevator. Reaching the bottom, he pulled out his phone and checked the time.

12:02 AM

Crap.

Karl managed to get into the observation room to see that, to his relief, Springtrap was still restrained to the wall, though he was already clearly awake. Karl made a quick scan of Springtrap's chamber. Everything was still in its place, as far as Karl could tell. Springtrap's restraints looked intact, the hand-crank was still resting in the tray next to him, and everything was good.

Karl took a deep breath, switched on the microphone, and started speaking.

"Good morning, Springtrap."

Karl winced. He hadn't meant to insult Springtrap. It was just the name he was used to using, and he said it before he realized what he had said.

"... You kept me waiting."

"Uh, yeah, sorry."

Karl was confused, once again, at his own choice of words. Why would he ever need to apologize to this monster? Karl shook his head and decided to just move on.

"Of course you are." Springtrap continued. "...and calling me that name, I guess that you have had a... rough day doing whatever it is you do when you are not interrogating your captive prisoner. You know, not even criminals in solitary confinement are bolted to the wall and forced to recite their life stories every waking moment of their lives."

Karl felt a twinge of guilt. What Springtrap said was true. Karl could see that Springtrap was a person, and what Karl was doing was, at best, in a legal gray area... allowable only because Springtrap had no actual rights being part corpse and part machine.

Karl nearly slapped himself to clear his mind.

No! Karl thought to himself. This is a monster, a murderer, a PSYCHOPATH! You heard how he slaughtered those children, how he went after Salina. Don't let him get in your head!

"Oh, but I suppose you have every reason to want to hurt me." Springtrap continued. "After hearing how I killed Albert Kröger and that boy outside the pizzeria, you must want to cause me such pain. I can understand that, actually. I understand the desire to trap someone... to crush his spirit... How does it feel?"

Karl gulped. This was not a line of discussion he wanted to have, but he did not know how to respond.

"Let me guess." Springtrap went on. "It does not feel good, but you cannot stop, either. You feel you must continue, because there is no other way. Of course, you have not been seeking any other way, and you are content to simply conclude that what you tell yourself you do not enjoy is the only thing you can do. Yes. That is how it is for some people."

"STOP!" Karl yelled into the microphone. He was shaking. He could not stand it anymore.

Springtrap started snickering, as if barely able to contain much greater laughter.

"Hm-hm-hm! Oh, please, Karl. We are just teasing each other, are we not?" Springtrap continued laughing.

"STOP LAUGHING!" Karl called out, his voice breaking.

"Oh, do not be such a spoilsport, Karl. Lighten up." Springtrap sighed, apparently no longer feeling the desire to laugh, but apparently also satisfied. "You sound like you could use some sleep. I would wager you have bags under your eyes by now. Do not feel that you must stay here on my account. I do appreciate your company, as always, but it is not as though I am going to wander off, now am I? Maybe we can both take a day off."

Karl had to admit to himself that he was tempted. He wanted to sleep, he was quite confident that Springtrap's restraints were sufficient to prevent any problems, and Karl could always just leave the recording going so that he did not lose anything especially important to research, but... he just did not like the idea of leaving Springtrap alone. Karl just had a bad feeling about what Springtrap might do unsupervised. This offer of a day off felt too much like a trap.

"No..." Karl said. Then, taking a deep breath, he continued, speaking each word slowly and deliberately, as if he were pushing through a tough resistance.

"Tell me what happened... at Freddy Fazbear's. With the children."

Springtrap sighed.

"Well, alright. As you wish, Karl."


Author's Note:

Thank you for reading and reviewing!

Tell me what you think about what is going on! Tell me what stands out to you and how you like it! It really means a lot to me.

By the way, I listened to Anamanaguchi's music while writing this. I love the retro-gaming feel of their music, to which I was first introduced in the "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" game.

Best wishes!