I do not own Sister Location.
WARNING: Gore and Canon Minor Character Death.
I arrived alone to work that night, as Mr. Afton had flown to another state the previous day to sort out some business in another company of his. There had been a disagreement about the design for something, from what I was told, and he had to be there to explain it because they were getting nowhere by talking over the phone.
"Welcome back to your last day on the job," HandUnit greeted. "That is, the last day of your first week. Some of the most valued qualities that we like to see in new employees are determination, fearlessness, and a genuine disregard for instinctive self-preservation. You've earned your one week bonus which will be given to you in the form of a delightful gift basket, the cost of which will be taken out of your next paycheck. We have gift baskets containing fruit, nuts, flowers, and of course, the ever-popular cash basket. Using the keypad below, please enter the first few letters of the gift basket you would like to receive."
I rolled my eyes and hit a random button on the screen of the keypad, not really caring what it was because it was still being taken out of my paycheck unless Mr. Afton decided to give it to me for free since he was closing down the restaurant.
"It seems you had some trouble with the keypad," HandUnit said. "I see what you were trying to type, and I will autocorrect it for you. Thank you for selecting Exotic Butters."
I chuckled a bit at that, slightly amused with the choice the autocorrect gave me. It wasn't a bad one, either. There's a lot of stuff I can make with that, and I'm sure Chica would love to use some of them for her baking. I just had to survive one more night and find a way to free the children's souls.
"Please be aware that there are still two technicians on site today," HandUnit continued. "Try to avoid interfering with their work, if possible. Also, feel free to ask them why they are still there, and encourage them to go home."
'They were supposed to go home?' I asked myself. 'Why didn't they leave already? Did something happen to them?'
The elevator stopped, and I opened the door and went into the vent, hoping I wouldn't find any dead bodies. Nothing was in the vent. As I entered the room between Ballora's and Funtime Foxy's, HandUnit spoke up.
"Let's check on Ballora, and make sure she's on her stage."
I hit the button for the light, only for my breath to hitch, just barely keeping myself from screaming. One of the two technicians that were mentioned was hanging by the neck in her room, dead. I reeled back, stunned by the sight as the light turned off.
"Great," HandUnit spoke, completely oblivious to what was really in the room. "Now, let's check on Funtime Foxy."
I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down, though I was still shaking from what I had just witnessed, and hit the light for Funtime Auditorium, bracing myself for what was to come. As I had predicted, the second technician was hung in the room, too, mirroring the first one. A nauseous feeling overcame me, and I dropped to my knees in an attempt to settle my stomach and not have to look at the figure anymore.
"Great," HandUnit said. "It looks like everything is as it should be in Funtime Auditorium. Your task today will involve more maintenance work. Circus Baby had a rough day, and is in need of repair. You will be required to reach the Parts & Service room by once again sneaking through Funtime Auditorium. As always, please proceed with caution."
The vent to Funtime Auditorium opened, and I was hesitant to enter. These souls were a lot more violent than I had anticipated, and I didn't know if there was anything I could do to help them. I began making my way through the room, noticing there was no sounds of movement other than my own. I made it to the door without any trouble, making me even more nervous than when Funtime Foxy actually was in the room with me.
An animatronic sat in front of me in Parts & Service: Circus Baby.
"Great job reaching Parts & Service," HandUnit spoke. "Circus Baby has been deactivated for an unknown reason. It's your job to make sure she's structurally stable and secured to the conveyor. Our technicians will take it from ther-"
The male voice was cut off and soon replaced by Baby's.
"Can you hear me? I'm pretending. Remember how I said I could pretend? The cameras are watching. I must be careful not to move. Something bad happened yesterday. Something bad always happens. I don't want it to happen again. There is something bad... inside of me! I'm broken. I can't be fixed. I'm going to be taken to the scooping room soon, but it's not going to fix what's wrong with me. What is bad is always left behind. Will you help me? I want you to save what is good, so the rest can be destroyed and never recovered. But you must be careful. Ballora is here. In the room, with us. Ballora will not return to her stage. Ballora will not return to her body. You must be careful. You must remain calm, and listen to my voice. There is a button on my cheek. You must find it and press it."
I nodded and searched for the button. It blended in with her skin so well, but I found it just above her right cheek, matching with the white paint almost perfectly. It opened a part just under both of her pigtails, revealing a keypad attached to the right side of her endoskeleton head.
"There is a passcode that you must enter before you can retrieve me," Baby continued. "Enter the code carefully. 1. 2. 1. 4. 7. 5. 8. 2. 3. 7."
I followed her instructions as she gave them.
"Good. A hatch should have opened. Take the card that you find inside."
I looked around, finding the hatch on her upper left arm. A card flickering green light was attached to her endoskeleton, and I carefully picked it out from the wires.
"Now you must turn back," Baby said. "I will guide you through Funtime Auditorium so you can reach the scooping room. When you are there, I want you to destroy this body. Put the card into your handheld device, and I can continue to speak to you."
I did as told, unsure of what else I could do besides listen to her.
"Now, press the green button to your left. This will send me to the scooping room."
I did as told, pressing the button underneath the conveyor belt. Baby's body disappeared from sight soon.
"You must follow my instructions in Funtime Auditorium," Baby explained. "Ballora is going to follow you. She will try to catch you. I will help you avoid her. She will not follow you inside the scooping room. She is afraid. Go back now."
I exited the room, and once I did, I heard Baby's voice again. As she gave orders, I listened to her and followed her instructions.
"Go forward... Stop. Go forward and left..."
As I did so, something started squishing under my feet, causing me to stop.
"Keep going..." Baby said.
I shivered and continued on, wincing at every step I took due to the grotesque sound. I had a feeling that I was near where the technician was hung, making my stomach turn at every thought that crossed my mind.
"Stop. Be silent," Baby ordered. "Go forward and left... Stop. Go forward. You are almost there... Stop. She is right in front of you. Don't move. She is here to help, Ballora. She is not here to hurt us. Ballora, she is here to help us... Go forward again. Ballora is behind you. She is afraid of the scooping room. She will not follow you."
"Warning: You've entered a highly dangerous area," HandUnit responded once I closed the door behind me. "You have entered from Maintenance Hatch 1B, reserved for cleaning and repair of the scooper. Entering this side of the room is strictly prohibited by unauthorized persone-"
"You are in the scooping room now," Baby said, cutting HandUnit off. "Funtime Foxy has already been here today. Funtime Freddy has already been here today. Ballora has already been here today. Circus Baby has already been here today."
I could tell they had been. Their body parts lay scattered before me, destroyed and ready to be scrapped.
"I've been out before, but they always put me back," Baby continued. "They always put us back inside. There's nowhere for us to hide here. There is nowhere to go... when we look like this. But, if we looked like you, then we could hide. If we looked like you, then we would have somewhere to go."
A figure appeared behind the window of the room, opposite to me and swaying from side to side as it stared at me. There were wires hanging off of it here and there, but that was all I could make out of the figure besides a mask similar to the one hanging above the vent leading to Baby's room covering his face. He was definitely an endoskeleton, and he was one I haven't met before.
"The scooper only hurts for a moment," Baby finished before an all too familiar beeping filled the room. I had just enough time to register this and move as the scooper jumped to life and tried to hit me. I got out of the way just in time for it to miss my torso, its main target, but a sharp pain radiated up my arm as I slipped out of the room and ran to the other side of Funtime Auditorium.
"Stop her, Ennard!" Baby called, and I heard someone or something sprinting towards me as I slammed the door shut behind me.
"It seems that you have accidentally wandered into a restricted area," HandUnit said. "Due to the sensitive nature of the materials that you may be exposed to here, you will not be allowed to leave until the cleanup crew arrives at 6 am. So hang tight. Rest assured that you will be promptly rescued, fired, then sent home. Thank you for being an employee. We hope your experience has not been as regrettable as ours."
As the HandUnit spoke, I took the time to observe my surroundings. The setup was much like when I first started working at Freddy's, though three monitors sat on the desk, there was a vent I'd likely need to watch above the desk, pipes were going through the room with a speaker in-between them, and a keypad sat to the left of a poster of Baby. A little Golden Freddy plushie sat between the fan and the monitors, and I picked it up as I began checking the tablet connected to the cameras around the facility.
Baby's voice began speaking, causing me to jump.
"Why didn't you trust me?"
I winced as the pain in my arm became unbearable and looked down at it, instantly regretting my decision. The scooper had gotten my arm, and though I knew the bone wasn't broken, the damage would most likely leave permanent scarring.
My breath hitched as tears stung my eyes, the sight worse than what I actually felt.
()()() Warning: gore. Skip to the next part if you're squeamish. ()()()
Chunks of flesh hung loosely along my arm, torn up by the scooper in a long path from my wrist to the center of my upper arm. Blood gushed from the wound, painting the entire limb a sickening crimson color as it trickled to the floor to pool underneath me. Shreds of what was left of my sleeve mingled with the ragged pieces of my arm, turning a deep maroon as it absorbed the red liquid.
()()() End gory scene. ()()()
Slowly and carefully, I picked the pieces of what was once my sleeve out of the wound, wincing whenever I brushed nerves underlying the damage and setting my limb aflame with deep, throbbing pain. A lightheadedness I had never known before filled my mind, and my vision blurred every so often, but I had to fight through it. I had to treat the wound, or at least wrap it to quell the bleeding. I had to survive the night.
I ripped my intact sleeve off and wrapped my damaged arm with it as a makeshift bandage before turning my attention back to the screen of the tablet.
"Why didn't you trust me?" Baby asked again.
I flipped through the cameras, only to see the figure from the window of the scooping room crawling through the vent in front of me on CAM05. I could only guess that the entity was Ennard, the name of whom Baby yelled out as I ran.
"Why didn't you believe me?" Baby asked almost sadly.
I closed the vent and checked the cameras on the tablet once more.
"Sometimes I don't understand why people do the things that they do," Baby continued, leaving pauses between each sentence while I kept checking the cameras for the figure. "I thought you liked me. I thought I did everything right. I don't want to hurt anyone, but we need you so that we can leave. We need you, so that we can hide. We need you, so that we can look like you. If they find us like this, we won't be able to try again. You must help us. You must let us inside the room. You won't die and it will only hurt for a moment."
All throughout this, I concentrated on Ennard and ignored Baby's words, putting every ounce of strength and focus I had into learning his strategies and keeping him out while using as little power from the room as possible. Slowly but steadily, the clock counted up towards 6 am, as well as the power down to 0%. Just as the power reached 1%, the clock chimed 6 am. It was over. I was finally free.
"I will find a way out," Baby said almost angrily before her voice faded.
As the adrenaline wore off, I found myself unable to move, completely exhausted and faint from the ordeal. I could feel myself slipping in and out of consciousness. I fought to stay awake, though my body told me to rest. I knew I was fighting a losing battle, and as the last of my strength left me, a man dressed in a cleanup crew uniform entered the room and gaped at me. He shouted behind him to someone out of my line of sight, though I couldn't hear him clearly. His words were muffled. I noticed footsteps coming towards me, and then I was gone.
You guys have no idea how difficult it was for me to write this part. I'm still unsure if I did a good job on it. I wanted to keep the description of Mike's injury at a minimum, so sorry that it's only one paragraph long (if even that). I'm not used to writing gory content.
