Ursa Minor

The room was dead silent. All he could hear was his own soft breathing that he was suffocating with his hand. Wide eyes stared blankly as the bed of plastic balls obscured his vision. He couldn't tell how long it had been, but it felt like an eternity, and he hadn't heard anything for ages.

Eventually his curiosity got the best of him and he slowly moved up his other arm, wincing at the soft shift of the balls. He raised his watch close to his face and with a quick press of a button it illuminated and showed the time. It was 1:32AM, about fifteen minutes since he had hidden in the ball pit. Just over ten minutes since he had last heard a noise other than himself. Maybe that was long enough; maybe he was finally alone.

Deciding that he couldn't wait anymore, the boy slowly started to stand up and carefully pushed the balls aside to poke his head off. The room was dim, only illuminated by the soft glow of neon stars mounted on the walls, but even their glow didn't light up the shadows cast by the castle of a jungle gym stretching across the room. He still couldn't hear anything, couldn't see anything, so he decided to make a break for it.

The boy waded to the edge of the ball pit and climbed over the plush blocks lining it. Now out, he took another look around and, still seeing nothing, starting to quietly creep in the direction of the exit door. The floor was made of a padded mat that almost entirely swallowed the sound of his footsteps, but he had to feel along the wall of the playground to know where he was going.

He travelled all the way down the length of the playground and could now see the doors leading to his freedom. Throwing caution to the wind, he ran out from under the safety of the jungle gym and made a run for the doors. He arrived at them safely, grabbed the handle tight, and yanked with all his might. The door did not budge, he was locked inside.

There was a soft thump from somewhere in the room. Like the sound of a child falling onto soft padding, or something else dropping down into the play area with him. He gasped and, knowing he was exposed, looked around for a place to hide. His eyes landed on the dark spot that he knew was the opening into the play tower and he ran as fast as he could towards it and ran inside.

He fumbled to climb the rounded, foam steps and crouched down in the corner at the top of them. He covered his mouth again to stifle any sound and looked around wildly, but it was too dark to see anything.

He could only rely on his hearing, and he could hear plenty in that darkness. The soft tapping of metal on plastic. The gentle rumble and creak as equipment made to support children was strained by a weight it wasn't supposed to be carrying. He knew from the way it was climbing around that it was definitely his pursuer from earlier. It was coming for him. He had to move.

The boy began to slowly crawl deeper into the jungle gym, doing all he could to stay as quiet as possible. He froze up every time he could hear the quick tapping of something crawling not too far above him, then dared to continue forward once it got further away. Eventually he found a tunnel that he climbed into and hid there as it continued to scurry around.

It got so close that he could see the dull shine from its eyes as it peeked in through the holes in the wall. The boy was deep enough in the tunnel that it couldn't see him, but it was circling so close that he couldn't help but think that it knew he was there, waiting for him to come out. He didn't dare to move even an inch and after a few minutes it climbed upwards and began to search the top.

It took three more minutes before it went silent again. It was ten minutes after that when the boy's legs started growing stiff and he decided to make a break for it again. He held his breath as he peeked out of the tunnel and looked around. Unable to see the lights of its eyes, he carefully crawled out and stood to his feet.

He knew it was on top of this side of the playground, so his best bet was to make his way to the other one. There was a bridge that connected the two, so it wouldn't be too difficult a feat, except that it would leave him out in the open again. Maybe if he went quietly, it wouldn't hear him, as it hadn't heard him until he made a run for the door. Even now as he made his way to the bridge the room was totally silent.

Finally he reached the bridge that stretched between both sides of the massive jungle gym. It wasn't very far at all, but for him it felt like he was looking across a distant chasm. Or, that was, if he could see that well. Right now he only knew the bridge was there because of the texture of the shadows around it.

The boy hesitated there for a long time, looking around to see if there was any light, listening to hear for any noise, and when he could sense neither he took a deep breath and carefully stepped out onto the bridge.

Nothing happened. He released the breath quietly and stepped out entirely, pausing to take a quick look around again and, upon seeing nothing, dared another step.

Something thumped right behind him and before the boy could run, something snatched at his collar and yanked him back. He grabbed at the front of it, partially gagged by the way it caught on his throat as he was hoisted off his feet and slowly lifted into the air.

"The Sandman's coming in his train of cars…" a low voice whispered from behind as the red glow fell over him. "With moonbeam windows and wheels of stars…"

The boy was slowly turned around and watched with wide eyes as he stared at his pursuer dead on. Its long legs crooked as it crouched to reach him, its long arm bent and fingers tight to snag him from the bridge, and its face aglow with the ruby hue from its wide, pupilless eyes. A horrifying half-moon with a grizzly smile stared him down and struck a fear into him he had never felt before.

"So hush, little one, and have no fear…" the animatronic lulled. It brought him in close to its face until he was nearly touching its molded teeth. "The Man in the Moon is the engineer."

The boy struggled against the hold, kicking his legs and digging his fingers into his collar as he tried to pull it from his throat, and when he couldn't he fumbled with his watch. He was choking as he did. The animatronic must've noticed what he was doing and snatched his wrist right as the boy pressed down on a button on the edge of the watch.

A sudden flash flickered into the Moon's eyes and it let out a distorted shriek and dropped the boy, covering its eyes with its hands and shirking back in pain. The boy landed his backside, but scrambled to his feet in seconds and ran across the bridge. The Moon recovered fast and dropped down before crawling in after him.

The boy turned on his light and began to run through the nightmarish maze of a playground. It was like it was made specifically to trap him, having turned a corner only to run into a dead end of a tic-tac-toe wall. He turned around quickly and hurried to another set of plush stairs. He was halfway up when a long arm hooked around and almost caught his leg.

"Your railroad track is moonbeam bright, and leads right up into the starry night…" it called for him. He scrambled around the next corner just as that crooked grin crept around the other side.

Once it had that glimpse of him, it began to crawl much faster. The boy could hear its body thumping against the walls and rattling on the metal holes as it climbed along the sharp passages behind him, easily scaling all four surfaces of it for the fastest way to him. Its joints creaked and squeaked as it twisted them in impossible ways.

The boy was racing through the tight passages half blindly as he spammed the panic button on his watch. He couldn't risk taking anymore dead ends and instead continued to blindly climb to the top.

"So, go, little one, and run up the stairs…" The boy held his watch up behind his head and tried to flash the creature in the eyes again, but this time he missed entirely. He could hear it drop to the floor and smoothly dodge any effect of the light, then continued without a hitch. "Put on your jammies and say your prayers…"

That was when the boy finally saw his exit to freedom, the gaping opening for the big slide that would take him straight to the bottom. He dove for it and belly flopped against the plastic, his sticky skin dragging against the tube and trying to hold him back. He pushed off with his feet and started to slide down the chute.

Only for a cold hand to clamp around his ankle. He lurched to a stop, dangling down the slope of the slide, so close to escape but just out of his reach.

"And- say your prayers."

The Moon slung him to turn him over onto his back. His elbows and back banged on the unforgiving plastic and his head spun momentarily, but the pain went unnoticed as he was dragged back up the slide towards the twitching moon and its blinding red eyes. He began to hyperventilate as it reached for his neck with its other hand.

"And- S."

The boy leaned back as far as he could-

and lifted his other leg to kick the Moon directly in its vicious smile. The action staggering it enough to lose its grip and dropping the boy back down the slide. He slid backwards down into the tunnel while the Moon scrambled to reach for him and missed.

The brief trip ended with the boy being spat out on his back onto the padded floor. He released a dull, "Mmph!" before crawling back along the floor and stumbling to his feet. He aimed his light up at the slide and his eyes grew wide with fear as he caught a glimpse of movement through one of the plastic windows. He could hear it sliding down after him and turned to run.

The Moon slid out of the slide and into a sprint after the child. He could hear the thumps of its footsteps on the padded floor closing in as he kept his eyes prize, the crack of light underneath the exit doors. It was his only chance to get out and he ran with all he could, unable to see his pursuer's hand reaching for his head.

When all of a sudden-

BANG!

With an almighty clatter, the previously locked exit doors suddenly swung open and crashed against the walls. The Moon froze in place mid-grab. The boy staggered and stared forward with wide eyes filled with fear, fear that quickly changed to hope and adoration.

There stood a towering form in the doorway. Taller than the boy, than the Moon, than any adult, nearly taking up the entirety of the doorway and illuminated by the neon glow from the hallway behind him. Broad shoulders, thick arms, large hands tipped with threateningly long nails, glowing eyes of blue- if the bear was anyone else, he would've been even more intimidating than the Moon.

But he wasn't anyone else. He was this boy's hero.

The bear reached a hand towards him and the boy eagerly ran to him with a smile of relief breaking across his face. Then, when he was only a few feet away, the bear's chest opened and revealed an open cavity inside, and the boy gladly jumped forward and allowed the bear to smoothly guide him inside. The chest plate closed with a soft clunk and sealed the boy inside, the bear resting a protective hand on his chest.

There was a long moment of silence as blue eyes dimmed and raised to meet the red ones staring from a few feet away. The blue ones filled with stern courage and determination, the red ones with anger and belligerence, and yet both holding a silent tinge of fear towards the other.

Then the bear opened its mouth as a deep voice flowed through its speaker.

"Go back to your stage, Moondrop," he said. He reached out for the doors and started to pull them back in, pausing to look at the other animatronic standing in the center of the room. Its hands were shaking and tightening as its eyes flickered with its steadily boiling temper. The bear's features softened. "Or wherever you go…"

He then shut the doors and held them closed. As expected, there was a shriek from the other side of the doorway before the Moon raced the door and began to bang its fists against it. The bear closed its eyes and road through the onslaught until the blows stopped. He could hear the squeaking as its face slid down the door and decided that it was safe to go.

The bear made his way from the playground, his hand returning to his chest as he felt the boy adjusting inside. That had been much too close of a call. He called into the boy, trying to soothe him.

"You're safe now, Gregory. It's over."

…But he knew that it wasn't, and he knew that they weren't.