Balloon?
Jeremy felt a sense of mounting excitement when he locked up the restaurant for the night. Last night had been a real accomplishment for him. Not only had he established where the original synths were, he'd managed to get further along personally with the new ones. After Hermana had been patched up, Jeremy had engaged them in an improvisation game from his theatre classes. Two people had to act out a scene until somebody called 'freeze', then that person would have to pick it up by replacing and start something new in the pose they were stuck in.
Clyde had opted out, preferring to lounge back and watch. Hermana had loved the idea and so had Theodore, who fancied himself as a budding thespian, as he put it. The guy certainly put his all into it, but he really played it up as Jeremy quietly observed and Clyde less quietly. Even so, he could tell that in their own ways, they were having fun.
The question was, what should he do tonight? He'd gotten to know pretty much all of them and had gotten as much information from them as he could, though he also knew there was more to learn. What exactly was happening to the originals and Vevina? What was in the box in Prize Corner, playing that music? How could they get into Parts and Services? Susie had hopefully answered that last one for him and he'd know for sure by tomorrow. By then, they would have enough to report back to Golden and form some kind of plan.
As he sat in the security office, cycling through the cameras on the monitor, Jeremy couldn't help but feel like he had forgotten something. Something that he had missed.
A metal sound brought him out of his musings. He looked around. It sounded like there was something in one of the vents. Jeremy crouched down to take a look. There was nothing there. He shrugged. It was probably just the machinery.
The same sound came again, this time from the other vent. Jeremy crossed over to it but he still couldn't see anything. Maybe he needed a little extra light. He pulled out his flashlight and pressed the switch. But the light didn't turn on. He tried it two more times. Nothing. He gave the base a couple of smacks and noticed that it felt lighter.
"What the…?" He unscrewed the bottom and checked the batteries. Except there weren't any. "Okay, what's going on?"
"Hello?" A small voice near him said. Jeremy cast his eyes around the room for the source. "Hi!"
He looked down. A small boy stood near the entrance of the other vent. He came up to around Jeremy's waist and wore a striped t-shirt with blue pants, with a matching beanie hat. His brown hair was scruffy under it, cut short. In one hand, he held a yellow balloon. The other was behind his back. He stared up Jeremy with a mixture of curiosity and mischief, like he was waiting for him to get a joke he'd just told.
"Oh hey," said Jeremy. He knelt down to his level. "Balloon Boy, right? How come I haven't seen you around?"
"Probably because you weren't looking for me," he said brightly. He also said, in a much sadder voice. "No one ever looks for me."
"Oh." Jeremy felt guilty now. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay." The transition back to his happier voice from his gloomier one was rather jarring. "Now you are and you have."
"I guess so. Hey, you haven't seen my torch batteries, have you?" he asked.
"What batteries?" The boy was fighting to keep a smile off his face. "I haven't seen any batteries. Maybe you've lost them."
Jeremy folded his arms, looking at him with exaggerated suspicion. "Are you sure you haven't seen them?"
"Yep!"
"You wouldn't lie to me would you?"
"No, sir, not me."
Jeremy nodded slowly. "Uh huh. What's in your hand?"
"A balloon!" He held it out to him. "You want one? I've got loads!"
"I can see that. I meant your other hand," said Jeremy, pointing to it.
"Oh, this hand?" Balloon Boy frowned and shrugged. "Nothing in that one."
"That so. Can I see?"
"Why would you need to see?" He blinked up at Jeremy sadly. "Don't you trust me?"
"If you've got nothing in that hand, there's nothing wrong with showing me it, is there?" returned Jeremy.
Balloon Boy looked away. "I guess not. Actually, did you say you lost your batteries?"
"No, you said I lost my batteries."
"Yeah, because you asked me if I'd seen them, so that means you lost them," said Balloon Boy.
"I… guess you're not wrong there," admitted Jeremy.
"Yep, I'm right and look what I found." He held up his hidden hand to show what was in it.
"My batteries!" Jeremy glared at him. "I thought you said you were going to be good for me."
"I did! You lost your batteries and I found them for you," he argued. "You should really keep a better eye on them."
"Uh-huh, sure. Come on, I'll take those."
He reached for them, but Balloon Boy pulled them away. "You want them?"
"That was the idea," said Jeremy, getting a little annoyed now.
"Okay. Guess you better come get them then!"
With that, he shot off out of the office and back down the corridor, giggling as he ran. Jeremy ran out after him, calling for him to stop but he was already running around the corner. When Jeremy ran into the Games Room, he'd vanished.
"Dammit, where'd he go?" he asked aloud.
"Where'd who go?" asked Hermy from next to him.
"Agh!" He jumped and whirled to face her. "Hermy! Don't do that!"
"Sorry, Jer-bear," she trilled. "Who're you lookin' for?"
"Balloon Boy. He stole the batteries from my flashlight and ran off with them. Did you see him come through here?" he asked.
"Oh, right. I forgot you hadn't met him yet," said Hermana. "He runs off with stuff sometimes and makes us chase after him while he hides. Guess it's your turn."
"That little vagrant is more trouble than he's worth," grumbled Theodore as he strode up. "Shall we help you track him down?"
"Who's this 'we'?" scoffed Clyde. "I'm not spending my night running around after him. You guys have fun with that, I'm gone."
"Clyde, you lazy layabout, come back here!" Theodore demanded, going after him.
"Guys, come on, don't start fightin'!" Hermana skated to catch up. "We could play that game we did last night again!"
As the three of them descended into squabbling again, Jeremy realised it was likely he would be on his own for this one. He walked through the Games Room, scanning the area as he did. He lingered once more near Prize Corner when he heard the music box, wondering, not for the first time, what was inside. Perhaps Balloon Boy had hidden in there?
Then he heard another giggle and turned. He saw a leg vanish near the main entrance and hurried after it. By the time he got there, he heard that same metal sound of somebody climbing in a vent. He'd managed to climb up one further up the wall and from the looks of it, it was going in the direction of the break room.
"Gotcha," he murmured.
He quickly unlocked the door and went inside, locking it behind him as he went. Just in case. He took cover behind some chairs and waited. Moments later, Balloon Boy came crawling out and dropped to the floor. He ran to the far end of the room and Jeremy chose then to jump out, placing himself between Balloon Boy and the vent.
"Awww, you found me," he whined.
"Okay, jig's up, Balloon Boy." He held out a hand. "Come on, give those back."
"Sure!" He popped them in his hand. "You caught me, so it's only fair. And now, we can sit down and have a break."
He did just that, heading over to a corner of the room and plonking himself on the floor. He pulled out a few balloons from his pocket and started to blow them up. Jeremy watched him for a moment, then joined him by sitting on a nearby chair.
"Was your whole plan just to get me in here?" he asked.
"I don't know. You're in here now, right?" pointed out Balloon Boy with a little smile.
"I can't fault that, I suppose. So," began Jeremy, "you gave me a bit of a run-around, Balloon Boy. Actually, I wanted to ask, do you have another name? That can't be your real name."
"Why not? What's wrong with it?" he asked.
"Nothing, nothing at all," Jeremy said quickly. "Just it sounds like the name of a superhero or something."
"Superhero?" Balloon Boy looked pensive and then excited. "Hey yeah, it does." He put his hands on his hips. "I am Balloon Boy, dispenser of blown-up justice and keeper of all things round and colourful!"
"Yeah, like that!" agreed Jeremy. "So if that's your superhero name, do you have another name too?"
"Hmm." He thought for a moment. "Not really, everybody just calls me that. That's if they ever remember to." He said the last part in a much more morose voice again.
"Does it make you feel bad?" asked Jeremy.
"Not really," he said, dropping the sadness in his voice suddenly again. "But I guess if you wanted to, you could call me Billy."
"Okay then. Is that your name then?"
"I don't know. It just sounds good," he shrugged. "So I guess it is."
"Alright, Billy it is," said Jeremy. "Or maybe I'll call you BB for short, too."
He nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, that sounds good too."
"Glad you think so. Hey, I'm sorry I never came looking for you sooner. The others kept me pretty busy," said Jeremy.
"It's okay, everybody forgets about me." In the sadder tone of voice, he said, "I'm always on my own."
"Does it get hard, being on your own?" asked Jeremy.
"Huh?" Billy looked at him, confused. Again, the shift in his voice from sad to happy was very sudden. "I didn't say I was on my own."
"Yes, you did. I heard you, just now," said Jeremy. "You sounded really sad when you said it, too. You've done it a few of times now, actually.
"Oh. Ohhhhh," said Billy, nodding in understanding. "You're right, I probably did. Except it wasn't me, not really me. It was the Other One."
Jeremy frowned. "The… other one?"
"Uh-huh. He's in here." He tapped the side of his head. "At least, I think he's a he. I'm not sure, it's hard to tell."
"O… kay," said Jeremy. "Can you… see him? Like, is he with us right now?"
"Nope. I can never see him but I know he's there. It's like a feeling, in my head. A sad feeling but I'm not the one who's feeling it. It's just him." He idly played with a balloon. "Sometimes, he comes up and he uses me to talk. Not for very long, though. I never know what he says, but I know he has said something because everybody looks at me funny. Like you are, right now."
Jeremy looked away at that. "Sorry, but you have to admit that it is a little strange."
"I guess it is. I wouldn't really know. To me, he's always been in here," said Billy. "I don't know why he's here or where he came from, but he's here and that's all there is to it."
"Okay then." An awkward pause hung in the air. "Do… the others have, well, others in their heads too?"
"I don't know. They don't really talk to me very much and when they do, it's usually to tell me to go away or that they're busy. I don't mind though. I like being on my own. We're all alone in here," he said in that morose tone at the end before abruptly switching back. "It means I can make more balloons or sit and think about stuff. Like if I can fly by spinning my hat." He spun the propeller on his beanie. "I haven't been able to yet, but I'm sure I will one day."
"Maybe it will. I hope it does," said Jeremy, managing a smile.
Billy returned it and went back to making balloons, humming tunelessly as he did.
Jeremy wasn't really sure what to make of Billy. He looked like a kid, but he talked like somebody a lot older but then he'd say something oddly childish and he was left guessing again. Plus, the thought that he might have some sort of personality disorder that he just dealt with was quite surprising. It didn't seem like it was an intentional part of his design, especially if he was meant to be entertaining kids. Was it some kind of glitch?
It was something Jeremy could only speculate on. For the moment, he just filed it away with all the other odd things he'd had to accept over the past few nights and days. The subject of people behaving differently reminded him of something from last night, however.
"You know, Billy, something funny happened when I was talking to Theodore last night. He was telling me about one of the rooms in this place and-"
"No, he wasn't. You were tricking him into telling you," he said. "I was watching."
Jeremy cleared his throat. "Well, anyway, we were talking and-"
"He looked like his head was starting to hurt and when it stopped, his eyes looked funny." Billy nodded in an almost sagely manner. "I was watching that bit too. I guess the Puppet wasn't happy about him talking about it."
"The Puppet?" Jeremy asked. "Who's he? I haven't seen him."
"Yeah, because he doesn't want you to see him. He stays in Prize Corner all night, inside that big present and he plays his music box. He likes that music box. I don't know why, he just does," said Billy. "He comes out during the day as a surprise for everybody sometimes, but only if he wants to. They get scared when he does."
"And what does he do? How come none of the others have talked about him?"
"Because they get scared, too," he answered. "He's not very nice. He likes to watch what we do sometimes and if he thinks we're doing something bad, he makes us stop. That's what happened to Teddy. The Puppet didn't want you to know about what he was telling you, so he stopped him. He keeps the Other One quiet too."
Jeremy nodded quietly. This must be the rival AI that Golden had told him about. He remembered the grimace on Theodore's face, the look he had when he'd been taken over. If that was what it felt like, no wonder they were scared.
"Can he… hear us right now?" asked Jeremy quietly.
"Maybe, maybe not. It's hard to tell sometimes if he is or isn't. Most of the time, he leaves us alone. Unless we do something he doesn't like. Or he gets bored. Or for no real reason at all, it varies. But he probably isn't listening right now. Like I said, everybody forgets about me. Even him."
Jeremy wasn't really sure what to say to all of that. It was some heavy stuff, but it was more than that. The casual way in which he said it, in a child's voice no less, was rather unnerving.
"He doesn't like it when we go against his rules," Billy continued. "He especially didn't like it when Vevina did."
"Theodore said something similar. He said she went too far one time," recalled Jeremy.
"She did. She tried to break into Parts and Services. She wanted to free the other synths, the ones he made us capture. He decided to punish her, but he also made it so that nobody would try that again. So he made Teddy choose between just her being punished or all of us," he said.
It took Jeremy a few seconds to realise what he was getting at. "That's why Clyde fights with Teddy so much. No wonder, I'd be the same if somebody did that to my best friend."
Billy nodded. "Yeah. He was supposed to help her, she'd asked him to, but he got too scared when the time came and he backed out. I think he's sorry he did, but he can't fix it now so he just gets mad at Teddy instead."
"Guess that explains why she's ticked off with him," noted Jeremy.
"I wanted to help too but… she told me it was too dangerous." He sounded sad again, but this time, Jeremy didn't feel that it was the Other One talking. "She said I was very brave for wanting to help, but she didn't want to see me get hurt. She was the only one, the only one who never…"
He sniffed loudly and wiped his eyes, going back to fiddling with his balloons. With the way he had been talking, it had been easy for Jeremy to forget that in some way, he was still a child and right now, it looked like he needed something all children needed. He crossed over to him and silently wrapped him up in a hug.
Billy didn't object to it. He didn't say anything at all. He only gripped tightly onto Jeremy and stayed that way for a good while. When he did let go, he had his bright little smile on again.
"Thank you," he said quietly.
"It's no problem. I'm just sorry I didn't come find you sooner. You should have come to find me yourself," he said.
"I wanted to, but it was too early. I had to see if what you said was true, that you were going to look after us. And it was. You made friends with everybody, even though it was hard. But it's not just that." He looked right into Jeremy's eyes. "You want to help us."
It was a statement, not a question. At first, Jeremy was worried about the possibility of this Puppet potentially learning about his intentions. Then again, he probably already had a good idea, considering what happened with Theodore last night. He'd be a complete idiot if he hadn't mostly figured Jeremy out already and frankly, if he did know, Jeremy was surprised he was being allowed to carry on the way he was.
Then there was Billy himself. It was obvious that he was overlooked and underestimated by everybody around him. Even Jeremy had been so caught up with learning from the other three, those who resembled the characters he associated with Freddy's and all standing in the spotlight, that he'd completely forgotten about the odd one out of the group. He'd already shown he was brave enough to tell Jeremy things beyond giving cryptic hints and vague clues. The little synthetic boy was his ally, through and through.
"Yes," he said at last, "I am. I don't know how just yet, I'm still working it out but I'm going to help you guys be free."
"I knew it," he whispered. "I knew you would. You were asking all these questions and talking to everybody, I just knew it. I want to help too and don't tell me I'm too small or you don't want to see me hurt. I'm not a normal little boy, I'm not useless. I can help, really I can. Please, let me help."
"What about the Puppet?" asked Jeremy. "If he finds out, won't he take control of you? He might even punish you."
"I know." His voice trembled a little but he shook his head. "But I don't want to be afraid forever. It's not fair that he treats us like this. We can't be afraid of him forever because if we're too scared to do anything, nothing will change."
Jeremy could only stare in amazement for a few moments. Again, the fact that this was coming from somebody who looked like they were only around eight or nine years old made it even more remarkable. His natural instinct was to keep him out of the line of fire but he was right. He was more than just a kid. He wanted to make a difference and Jeremy didn't have the heart to turn him down. Besides, they needed all the help they could get.
But what could he do? If his word was reliable, he escaped the notice of the mysterious Puppet which meant he could have a greater range of movement. At the same time, if he did anything too overt, there was no doubt the Puppet would notice. If he was going to help, it had to be subtle. That was when the idea occurred to Jeremy.
"Billy, I think I have a job for you," said Jeremy. "You see a lot of what goes on here. Have you ever seen who goes into the Parts and Services room?"
"Yeah, I have. There's a lady who always goes in there, stays for a while and leaves." He frowned. "I think she was there when we first woke up, but I'm not sure. But yeah, I've seen her go in there a lot."
"Okay, good and you're pretty quick, aren't you?"
"Uh-huh," he nodded.
"Plus, you got those batteries off me pretty easily."
"I didn't get them from you. I found them for you," he corrected with a wink.
"Okay, fine, you found them pretty easily," said Jeremy. "Do you think you could do the same for the key to the Parts and Services room? That lady is the only one who has it."
"Why? Is the lady who has it going to lose it?" asked Billy, smiling secretly.
"I have a feeling she might. And when she does lose it, you're gonna find it and give it to the nice lady on the front desk. Then, we can make sure it gets back where it belongs. You think you can do that?" he asked.
"I think so. But…" He glanced around. "Can I ask you something? It's going to sound silly, but I want to ask anyway."
"You can ask me anything you want to, Billy," assured Jeremy.
"This is an important thing you need to do, right?" Jeremy nodded in answer and Billy pursed his lips. "Do you think… would this make me a superhero?"
Jeremy smiled. "You'd be the biggest superhero ever, Balloon Boy."
"Wow…" At this, Billy's face seemed to light up. "Okay. I'll do it. And this will really help?"
"Trust me, BB," said Jeremy. "It's going to help a lot."
