...William pulled the trigger of the pistol a third time as he aimed it in Dana's direction, but to his frustration, only a click resounded uselessly. He tossed aside the gun, a curse escaping his lips as he drew nearer. William stalked to the two huddled behind the carousel, rage bubbling dangerously inside him, his hand clutching his bleeding arm, crimson seeping through the cracks of his fingers as he moved closer and closer.
But he stopped, as suddenly, his eyes were drawn to a white orb of light that had fluttered in the blackened hallway in front of him. It had appeared from one wall and vanished behind the next, almost beckoning the man to it. It had looked so remarkably like remnant with its glow, radiating a sort of life that just wasn't possible with anything else.
All thoughts and previous intentions evaporated in his mind as William turned to follow it, a mixture of shock and excitement swirling in his mind. He would deal with Henry later.
The man quickened his pace, turning down into the corridor, eyes searching for any sign of the light. Further into the building he went, the darkness making his trail feel like an endless maze as he moved.
Rounding another corner, William suddenly stopped, ducking back behind the wall. He peered around its edge to see a larger, previously blocked room that he'd never seen in the pizzeria before. A small, half-rotted stage lay in its center, an even smaller, half curtained one next to it. As he squinted through the darkness, William could vaguely make out very familiar forms on both platforms.
The original animatronics.
Suddenly, Freddy moved. The man watched almost predatorily, holding his breath as a light, akin to the one he had seen just minutes before flashed briefly in the robot's eye-sockets. The animatronic straightened, head moving mechanically as it seemed to gaze forward. It took a cautious step off the stage and slowly began moving away from it to one of the adjacent hallways.
Excitement and morbid curiosity swallowed his thoughts as he watched the robot disappear. The light had led him here, he was sure of it. And it seemed that these animatronics' strength had increased significantly in his absence-and if that was the case, then what great marvels could come from their haunted metal?
There was no doubt in William's mind that he needed to destroy them, to gather what hidden mysteries lay hidden in their twisted forms.
But how?
The man thought instantly of his sound illusion discs-there were some he had kept stored here. He could use them, to lure the animatronics one by one to a strategic location-there, he could harvest their power.
A sinister smile grew on William's face as he darted back down the hallway, stopping at one of the mechanic closets to retrieve the discs as he moved further through the maze of corridors, coming to stop in the darkness of a corridor just outside the employee saferoom. He carefully activated each device, tweaking each frequency just to the point of creating an image for animatronic hardware to recognize. What that image would be exactly, he didn't know, but in all likelihood, it'd resemble something that would at least peak their curiosity.
William slipped the discs into his pocket, just barely hearing their light buzz as he peered around the corridor wall. There, at the end of the hallway, was the Freddy animatronic, about to turn down into another room. The man quickened his pace, coming to stop just a few yards from the robot, his presence causing its head to turn towards him.
William's heart stilled in apprehension-if this somehow didn't work and he was recognized (because he knew they could), he would be in a whole lot of trouble. The two exchanged stares for a few moments, Freddy's glassy golden eyes glaring brightly into his, almost contemplatively. The man was becoming tenser by the minute in this staring contest.
But to his relief, the robot did nothing and began to turn away-William's heart jumped with glee and franticness at his initial success, not wanting to waste his moment as he leaned into the animatronic's field of vision again with a beckoning hand. Freddy's head once again turned his direction as William began backing away, motioning for the robot to follow him.
A smile pulled at the man's lips as he backed up through the corridor in the way he came, moving to stand in the saferoom. As he did, Freddy eventually stopped, seemingly perplexed, almost as if the man had disappeared from his view.
William slowly crouched, his eyes not leaving the robot as he picked up a crowbar from the ground, cautiously easing himself back to a standing position. Freddy's head turned, almost in confusion, not looking back in time to move out of the way as the bar came swinging into his head. A strangled cry tore from his voicebox as electricity spat and sputtered from the protruding wires and exposed endoskeleton. Within seconds, the golden light in its eyes flickered out and the animatronic crumpled to the ground lifelessly.
The man smiled lightly, nudging away the robot's form as he walked down the hallway. Luckily for him, the next of his children was already close-by.
"Follow me, child..." William murmured with a smile as Bonnie turned his direction, head cocked as one of his ears folded forward curiously. Within minutes, his mangled form was laying in pieces next to Freddy's. Then Chica's; her yellow limbs scattered uselessly between them.
And then, there was Foxy.
As the animatronic came to stand among the wreckage of his fellow performers, he too looked about in confusion as the others had, gazing downwards at the pieces of metal at his feet. William rushed forward, whipping the crowbar into the fox's jaw, causing it to swing violently to the side. He staggered backwards, head swaying dangerously before the man strode closer, bashing the bar down into Foxy's torso. The animatronic finally fell to the ground, twitching for a moment before losing power as the others had.
William smiled in triumph. Their power would soon be his. He stepped back, about to begin retrieving their scattered parts when a sudden flash of light blinded him and a strong force almost like a powerful wind struck his chest, causing him to crash backwards to the tile.
The man's head spun and he groaned in pain, blinking rapidly as the light dimmed to a gentle white luster. His eyes finally focused, centering on four bright figures in front of him. William peered forward, trying to understand what he was seeing before his eyes made out the light's child-like forms... very familiar child-like forms...
The man had a sharp intake of breath, mind clicking together what, or rather who was in front of him. Susie's eyes narrowed, her delicate lips curved into an unsettling frown while Fritz bared his teeth, obviously holding himself back. Jeremy looked more disgusted than anything, nose scrunched as he glared at the man. Gabriel's expression was one of sadness, a darker part of his chest evidence of a deep stab wound. Their forms were all bright, but their eyes held no pupils. Instead, a brilliant white filled their orbs.
"How...?" William breathed, more to himself than to the children in front of him. He was surprised when he received an answer.
"They're yours, and so am I," Charlie spoke, coming to levitate in the middle of the group. "Your unintentional creations."
"Charlie?!" William questioned incredulously, eyes widening as his eyebrows furrowed in shock. The girl frowned lightly. Unlike her companions, she was still resembling her host to a large degree-even the face-paint remained. But her eyes were black, her iris's a bright white with the same radiance as the others. Though he wouldn't admit it, it intimidated the man, if only slightly.
"You took everything from us," the girl continued as the four children beside her drew nearer. William subconsciously leaned backwards, hands balancing his weight on the floor as they approached.
"I was going to be a music teacher like my Mom," Jeremy spoke with a scowl at his lips. "It was something special we shared-she's all alone now. She doesn't have my dad and she no longer has me. I was stolen from her."
A pang of fear flowed in William's chest as they kept coming closer. And, dare he say-a twinge of guilt? There was that fatherly whisper again.
Fritz growled, coming forward. "All I wanted to do was protect people. I wanted to be a police officer so I could help people, but that's been taken from me. I can't protect my baby sister now-she's going to be in danger from people like you, and I can't be there to stop them," the boy snarled, posture almost predator-like, exposing the faint stab-wounds in his back. William scooted backwards further.
"You killed my dog just to lure me to that terrible place so you could kill me too," Susie hissed. "I had so many things I wanted to do, so many places to go, so many people to meet. You took me from my friends and my family. They have to live without me just so you could have your minute of fun," she spat angrily.
William had another sharp intake, his limbs beginning to shake in fear all while that guilt spread further through his form, a battle between the alarming panic of what consequences would befall him because of his crimes and the terrible, mind-breaking regret of what he had taken from these children.
Gabriel stepped forward, controlled anger in his expression as his eyes narrowed at the man. "It was my birthday. It was supposed to be a special, magical day," he spoke with an almost regretful tone. "But you took advantage of that."
The boy came closer, causing William to shrink back even further. "'I think the birthday boy deserves a special treat. How about it?'" He snarled.
"'We have a special room downstairs where we keep special birthday gifts,'" Gabriel spoke with disdain, the memory painfully visible in his eyes. "Well, I wanted to tell you that I didn't like your gift. None of us did."
William's eyes widened, mouth pulling into an open frown as his back connected with the wall. He shifted to the side, trying to get to the open doorway of the saferoom all while the children slowly pursued him.
"Do you know how much it hurts?" Gabriel questioned with a break in his voice. "Everything inside you breaks, and you know something is horribly wrong but you can't stop it. And everything goes dizzy and black, and you think you're dead and that at least you don't have to feel it anymore, but then you're brought back."
William's breath caught in his throat at that.
"Then you're back, and then it's all just cold and dark. I don't know what the sun looks like anymore because it's all just shadows. That's what we live in every day. Do you know what that's like?" The boy continued.
Suddenly, the children all halted in their pursuit, hovering in a semi-circle around William. The man's eyes flickered between them all, hesitantly and anxiously awaiting what was to come next. But then, Charlie stepped forward.
"We all know what that's like. It's not just about the life you took from us, but about the nightmare we endure now. We're strong, and we can endure it. But you couldn't, could you?" She spoke, not coming any closer. William's chest rose and sank slowly, eyes fixed on the girl in front of him.
"You lost him. And it hurt. That's okay. It's okay for that to hurt." The girl said, sighing sadly. "But what you did next showed that you weren't strong enough for him, that you weren't strong enough to endure. You took me."
The man's eyes glistened lightly, mouth falling agape as a sad expression came over Charlie. "You know exactly what damage you did to my family. You took me from my parents. My mother couldn't live here anymore with my death. My father is alone with the unwarranted guilt of your other crimes on his shoulders. You know what future you took from me."
The girl's face tightened, as if trying to hold back tears. "I loved you. And I thought you loved me too. I thought I meant something to you. You were like a second father to me."
William's breath hitched, chest shuddering as a tear broke from his eyes. Only now was he seeing the gravity of what he'd done. He had been so blinded, so arrogant, so foolish, so driven and determined. But now...
"But I see now that it wasn't enough to stop you from doing what you did," the girl spoke with a shuddering exhale. "And we know you won't stop. So, we're going to do what you can't."
The terrible sadness and regret that had been tearing at the man's heart was suddenly smothered by fear as all five of the children drew in closer. William finally scrambled to his feet, backtracking into the saferoom while the group pursued him. Suddenly, their forms glitched and then their previous wounds suddenly seemed to manifest, growing a terrible crimson. Blood laced their eyes and began to spill down their cheeks as they came to the doorframe.
Absolute horror and terror was screaming in the man's mind unlike anything he had ever experienced before. Susie's eyes were spilling the red the most as it fell also from her mouth, the slit in her neck growing like a gaping maw. Jeremy's chest was practically consumed in the scarlet with two darkened holes in his torso. Fritz didn't have much to show, but the blood from his back seemed to be dripping to the tile, and Gabriel displayed one horrifying cavity in the center of his chest.
Charlie didn't manifest any of her wounds, but she grew to resemble her child-form. The purple tear-tracks remained, however, eyes seemingly consumed in her tragedy. She came forward swiftly towards William.
Terror gripped the man as he stumbled backwards, trying to evade the girl as she pursued him through the room. Her eyes never blinked, completely alive as they seemed to show every last thing that had been torn from her, all terrible in their unceasing glare. William's mind was growing hysterical with fear and panic, what was he to do, how was he to escape this?
In his franticness, the man caught glimpse of his Golden Bonnie suit which he had kept in this room. Ideas ran through his head, all of which foggy and not well-considered. But his body seemed to be taking control as he shakily backed away from Charlie next to the thing. Before he knew what he was doing, he was sliding on the individual parts in a panic. Perhaps, there was a shrivel of a possibility that appearing like he had for them all those months ago would disorient them enough for him to get out of there.
William pulled on the head of the suit, hands slipping momentarily on its damp fur. But as his vision adjusted through the curved eye-holes in the mask, he saw that Charlie had stopped in her pursuit and that the children had frozen seemingly in shock and puzzlement. A chuckle rose in his chest. He couldn't help it. At their pathetic confusion, a deep laugh shuddered through him, darkly echoing his amusement. But through said amusement, he didn't notice what was happening inside the suit.
The man was suddenly cut off mid-laugh, eyes widening in realization as terrible pain coursed throughout every nerve in his body. William screamed as razor-sharp parts bore deeply into his limbs, torso, and face, he could feel muscles and ligaments being torn as the spring-locks engaged. Red flooded his vision as he collapsed to the floor, causing the parts to cut further into his body.
He was aware of every piece of metal, every bolt, every wire, every spring and cog as it pressed into him. They were being pushed into his limbs and organs, trying to piece into what should have been an endoskeleton. And the pain was beyond excruciating. Such pain should not have been comprehensible.
William was no longer capable of sound as his head slumped forward onto the increasingly bloody chest of the suit. He could feel the thick, metallic puddle spilling out around him, horribly aware that it was his blood that was spreading across the tile. Consumed in his pain, he didn't see the four children that were going higher upwards, becoming less and less visible as their presence seemed to vanish completely. Charlie looked where they had once been, a peaceful smile on her face before she turned back to William. She said something, but the man couldn't hear it.
Soon, all that was left was himself as he lay in his own blood in the darkness. But soon, that blackness consumed him.
Almost like death.
But he was knew that he wouldn't be granted it. No...
He'd be here for a long, long time.
Eyoooooooo deepest apologies for how long this took. lot's of standardized testing that i had to worry about, but it's okay cuz this is finally posted, haha. Thought i'd note that this isn't quite the end, still a few more chapters, but we're nearing the end of this book. thanks for sticking with me, really appreciate it you guys!