(Silver P.O.V)
As I walked in the door, I tried to die down the hyper a bit...I couldn't have Max getting suspicious about anything. After a small rant he headed up to bed, and I soon followed. Happy with what I was wearing, I quietly fell into bed. My head hit the pillow, yet my hyper attitude didn't effect my sleeping. I gave a quick yawn, falling asleep with a smile as a familiar sense of comfort washed over me.
I woke up in a familiar setting. The office looked a little different, as if hadn't been damaged by fire. Looking out into the hall, old tiles replaced deep scorch marks. And everything seemed familiar from past dreams...what were they about again...oh right! This was another one of those chess dreams. In my hands was even the old tablet, undamaged from cracks and flames. And I knew who caused all these, so I slightly grumbled before raising my voice.
"Vincent!? You there?" I called out, my voice simultaneously echoing throughout the silent building. I waited for a minute, looking down at the tablet which was switched onto the chess room camera, and just when I was about to call back again, I heard his familiar laugh before he spoke.
"You aren't just watching this time on that tablet of yours~ Head on over there yourself~!" Vincent's voice echoed back. I cautiously stood up from the chair, oddly confused why this was happening. Old Vincent, which was the Vincent I used to hate, was the one who first began to do this and terrify me with it... as soon as I came here too. I thought the game was over... why was it still going?
I got to the Main Party Room and veered right to a small room off to the side. A room themed for adults and parents, still giving them visibility of their children through a couple large windows. That seemed necessary after the 'incident', I never said anything about it since everyone here seemed to hate the subject of it. Once I got in I expected Vincent to be there, but he was nowhere to be found. I walked deeper into the room, looking at the blank chess board.
"J-Just...look closely." He sounded a bit worried, possible panic plaguing his voice. I took his advice and looked back at the board, watching as a grey-black marble piece finally coming into view. I knew chess, and I had never seen a piece like that before… it had the same design as the king, but a bit larger and having a more menacing appearance.
Looking across the board, there was the black king with three black pawns. The white queen had now completely vanished from the board, I hadn't seen it... Now the center piece had disappeared, all of a sudden the three pawns seemed to explode from the inside, shattering like the large window during the fire. I waited for a second, watching as that center piece appeared behind the black king, it rammed into the king, causing it to fly across the board to me. It tumbled off the board and shattered in front of my feet like glass. Drops of blood seemed to appear on the floor under the shattered pieces… as if the piece was alive. I took a step back, blinking once the aftermath of the black king was gone.
Now looking up at the board, it seemed completely reset. There was the black king in the original spot, eight pawns, two rooks, two knights, and queen. The issues was, they were all spread off to the sides. Giving a perfect aim for the marble piece, now in the center again, to once again ram into the black king.
I heard nothing. Nothing but my subconscious echoing countless words of past events, all of a sudden something was placed into my hand. Not bothering to look around I brought my hand in front of me, opening up my palm… and there it was.
The white queen.
"So," Vincent's voice came from behind. "What are you going to do to prevent that king from dying, hm?"
I quietly turned around to face him, completely unaware of what he wanted me to do with the piece he had just given me. I quietly played with it in my hand before speaking,
"What...What do you mean?" I questioned. Vincent walked closer to the board,
"If you-know-who comes back. Do you think you'll be able to help him-" He gestured to the center piece, solitary, yet you could tell it was advancing in a steadily manner, almost unseen. "Or-" He gestured to the black king, completely vulnerable due to the other pieces spreading out away from it.
I continued to play with my given piece in my hand as countless voices passed through my mind,
He'd murder anyone, no matter how small and innocent.
You're helping the bad guy here!
He's sneaky, tricky, and if you don't know who he is, he can easily gain your trust. He acts innocent, but he'd kill a kitten with a smirk permanently painted onto his face.
...WITH A PSYCHOTIC MURDERER!?
Face it! He's probably just planning to kill you!
Those were all things countless people said to me, mainly Jordan, Goldy and Marion. Although by now I had learned to shoo them off. Especially after last night, I mean I was so happy, and even with the whole fire incident. Honestly, would a person like that actually do the stereotypes many people assigned him with? The answer to that was no, so I quickly planted the white queen next to the black king. Apparently faster than the center piece could advance.
All of a sudden the marble piece appeared in front of the white queen as if it was going to attack, but immediately the black king appeared behind the marble piece, ramming into it as it flew off the board and disappeared before it could hit the floor. I let out a sound of satisfaction as I turned around to Vincent, who looked in complete disbelief.
"Um, are you...okay?" I questioned. He slowly nodded,
"Y…Yeah I'm fine…" Vincent's voice drifted off as he shook his head slightly, "It's just...no one's even agreed to help me before... I mean… I don't even remember the last time t-that has happened." He admitted. I tilted my head in slight confusion,
"Well, why is that? Isn't Je-" I stopped myself before I could continue the name as Vincent looked right at me, as if saying the name would bring him here, "I mean, you-know-who… isn't he the murderer?"
Vincent sighed, "He is, but that's the point..." He had that look that there was some explaining to do before he continued.
"He altered the minds of everyone who even knew about him murdering those kids. He wiped the memory cards clean from those animatronics after I was forced to stuff the bodies into them, only leaving a memory of me, which wasn't a very good one..." He shivered and his eyes looked away from me for a second before looking back at me,
"Luckily a few years ago, their minds were triggered, them remembering you-know-who as their killer. And they attempted to attack him, ending him for good… But that didn't end well..."Vincent muttered the last part, then continued, "He must of done something else with the memory chips that are inside the heads of the animatronics... now they only see him as a 'threat', but not their murderer... that still belonged to me." Vincent sighed, "I mean, there isn't much left for me. I'm stuck here, forced to deal with the aftermath of his crimes… I don't exactly remember how long, at least a decade by now..." He paused for a moment, but I immediately opened my mouth to speak.
Vincent beat me to it. "…I need to show you something." Vincent blurted out, not skipping a beat in his voice. I stood there for a moment as he recollected himself and sighing, "...and you'll be the only one to ever see it... that is unless a certain puppet decides to interrupt before I get the chance to. Meet me in the office." With that he disappeared, leaving me on my own temporarily.
With confusion I quietly walked out of the chess room, only to walk into a much smaller party/stage room, only containing one stage and less tables.
This was the old pizzeria, before its renovations. Worried thoughts began to plague my mind, but I quickly shook them away and pushed them off to the side. Those were memories I didn't have to deal with anymore. I made my way to the office and through the metal door, and to my surprise I saw myself. Well, when I was eight to be exact. Goldy's suit sat quietly next to me.
"This was… back then…" I managed to mutter to myself, and I felt Vincent's presence beside me, also looking at the younger, sleeping me and Goldy. I looked up at him and was about to talk before he
"Back to the party room, come on." Vincent's transparent form now disappeared and reappeared, hovered outside the doorway leading out to the hallway.
I quietly followed him to the party room, and he held his hand out in front of me, telling me to stop, then put a finger over his mouth to hush me from talking.
"Now listen… very, very carefully..." His hushed voice grew deeper, I didn't know if it was from worry or if he was scared… as I quietly followed the demand. I waited a few moments, until I heard something both loud and faint coming from the furnace room. Someone was crying… then…
Gaahh!
I froze, the scream echoing in such a way it seemed very familiar. I quietly followed the voice to the furnace room, I walked to the door leading downstairs, coming face to face with the metal door. It was splattered in blood, at least a day or two old, some of the liquid still dripping down the doorknob. I tried to grip the least bloody part of the knob to open to door. I still got some almost-dried blood on my hands, but it didn't really bother me as I was curious of what was going on, and who was crying.
I walked down the stairs and into the room looking around, hearing a very weak and barely audible voice, repeating the same two words.
"… Help me... Help me... Help-"
I looked down to the far corner, only to find a slightly translucent body seemingly thrown brutally there… left to rot.
It was unmistakable who it was...
Vincent, drenched from head to toe in blood, countless gashes and bruises covering him and the night-guard uniform he had on. His cries now stopped, he looked so hurt that he was unable to cry out for help any longer. Or he must have given up.
No one else was there...there must have been a loss of hope...
Was I witnessing Vincent's death?
All of a sudden the lights began to flicker. I swallowed and began to back up, looking at the body in the corner in fear. Vivid purple eyes appeared for a moment before bright, pupil-less white eyes glowed, and a growing psychotic grin closely following. Both piercing through the darkness like the sun.
Now everything faded and the lights came back on. I was leaning against the back wall in the office, Vincent quietly sitting next to me. He looked up at me, before, looking out the large doorway in the front of the room in thought.
"That same day...the day you were abandoned by your brother..." He started, his voice probably the most serious I have ever heard him. His hands formed into fists as he hugged his knees to his chest before continuing to talk, "… I too was abandoned and left to die… and I became the chaotic ghost-thing I am now and everyone has grown to hate. And... the only thing I can do, without getting beat up…" He looked at me, and right into my eyes,
"Is keeping you away from meeting that same fate that I was tricked to live and die through."
That was his death… he just showed me something no-one else was able to save him from…
Feeling really upset about it and sort of guilty, I hugged him. After something that no-one else had seen… apparently he has been through more than I have. I just witnessed his death… something that I was actually here for, but I never remembered hearing his cries, nor hearing anyone telling me about it.
This time, there was little hesitation when he hugged me back. My eyes closed as he held me close, then something softly pressing against my forehead for a second. I had many questions about what just happened… why would someone do that to him? Why didn't I hear him back then? Was I really going to face the same fate? That last one I knew was false… I had Vincent now, and he just promised to protect me from keeping that from happening.
It was then when I finally felt myself going back to the waking world.
