Ah, hello everyone! Sorry for the late update! The days just kept getting away from me!

Also, oh my gosh! 72 follows! 154 reviews! That's crazy! Thank you guys so much!

Anyways, onto the reviews...

Fantom Knight: I really like him as a character too! I'm glad you liked his appearance! And as for William's plans? Well...we will have to see huh? Also yes, that indeed would be a very hilarious meeting!

PK - SPRINGTRAP HUG MEH: I must've missed the reference so it wasn't intentional! But wherever it is I'm glad you liked it! And yes, Charlotte is not happy at all. And no problem!

TU4QU0I53T4IAN6L3: Ah yes, things are not going well at all, and I assume by Jeff you mean Acidrew? And yes..Joey, I do indeed have plans with her, and yes indeed. Poor girl...Is it bad that i'm glad it was scary? And no, the child that Ashford lost was a different girl.

I own nothing but my characters

Credit to Selkiesong22 for all her help in ideas for this story.

Chapter 44
Terrors in the Night

"***k! ***k! ***k!" Leo shouted, as he darted from the left door to the right as it moved, he slammed his shoulder into it, resulting in a growl from behind it. "No! I'm not dealing with you right now Chica!" He barked, but bit his lip as the door shook and quaked. There began a grinding noise on the bed behind him, the guard whipped around and looked to the bed before letting out a severe curse.

"Go! Get out of here!" He ordered, trying to calm his shaking body. He felt like he was on vibrate, adrenaline pumped through his body like a force of fire. When he turned to them and shouted they scattered like deer.

Heaving for breath and feeling a tad light headed the guard looked around trying to figure out what was next.

The closet was unnerving him, he had yet to see anything inside but he had a creeping feeling that it's emptiness was a lie.

Because he KNEW, he KNEW there was something there. Another grinding noise resounded and he let out a profanity turning to look at the bed again.

Only for the sound of something moving to make him freeze in place.

"So tiny...just like dental floss..." The garbled and mixed growled words made a shiver run down his spine. Slowly he turned around and gazed up at the massive Foxy before him...

Wait...no, no, this wasn't Foxy, Bonnie and Chica weren't outside his doors.

This wasn't his bots...this wasn't his bots...

A flash of Bonnie's red eyes hit him, before he was pulled back into the present scene.

Were they his bots? Just...in different bodies?

He let out a yelp and jerked back falling onto his butt as he stared up at the monstrous incarnation of Foxy before him. Those jaws...were so big...so...so big...

It made him queasy to look at.

A long slithering cord of a tongue snaked from his mouth and ran over all of those sharp and deadly teeth. Leo let out a whimper pulling himself back, but his socks slipping on the carpet. He felt so small...so tiny...so child like.

"You whine...so much, like a nagging pest in my ears..." the monster before him snarled leaning in as he crept forward.

How did Leo miss him? What was he supposed to have done?!

"Stop! You aren't F...Foxy! None of you are my bots!"

"We were never YOURS to begin with!" he boomed making Leo flinch and jerk back moving back more till he hit the bed behind him. "You are like a whiny child! I get so tired of hearing it! Whine...whine...whine! All the time! All you do is complain lad!" At the accent slip toward the end, a normal looking Foxy who was crouched over, teeth bore.

Leo whimpered and pressed against the bed, "I...I'm...I'm trying I...I'm...I'm s...sorry...I..." he stammered, sweat dripping down his face.

Or...maybe it was tears, he honestly wasn't sure anymore.

Though, moments later, it didn't matter anyways, as Foxy-not-Foxy jumped at him, and jaws came right for his head.

Leo barely had enough sense this time to jerk to the side, but the massive jaws of the now monster again Foxy came down upon his shoulders.

A scream ripped from his throat and blindly, without logic he tried to jerk away from the being holding him with their teeth.

"No! No! Let me go!" He shrieked gasping for air, vision swimming with pain. It felt the same as it did last night. Burning fire coursing through his body activating all his nerves into a flaming rage.

But there was only a chuckle from the fox.

His teeth dug in more and Leo cried out. The fox then directed him, forcing him to move by his hold on him.

He directed him toward the center of the room. Sweat, and tears dripped down Leo's face, if he had felt only a tad light headed before...well he felt like he was in a whole other world now.

He could vaguely make out the massive and distorted versions of Bonnie and Chica in the room, and it made him whimper as their red eyes zeroed in upon him.

How could he have let this happen? Didn't he beat the other nights at the restaurant? Why was he doing so badly?

A sudden clawed hand found its way onto his cheek and he could only whimper again as he stared up at Chica's far too many teeth.

"No...no you didn't sweetie. We let you win." Suddenly she gripped his jaw, causing him to tense up only to hiss as he remembered whose jaws were holding him here. What was this? Some kind of torture?

"That's exactly what it is!" Bonnie cheered from where he was, grinning wolfishly at him. The guard shrunk away at the sight of him, only to give another whimper as a surge of pain greeted him once more.

"We want you to play our game...we want you to understand WHY you aren't qualified to be a night guard." His eyes swerved to Chica at her words, and before he knew it, she flashed into her normal body, gazing down at him with hungry red eyes. His own eyes widened and he flinched back, she returned to normal. But still gazed at him like he was food.

"B...but w...why? I...I thought we were friends!" He tried, before shrinking away again as their eyes darkened in glow and Bonnie laughed mockingly.

"Why would we ever be friends with someone like you?" The hare asked tauntingly.

Leo stared at him before wincing again at the pain in his shoulder.

"Y...you...you aren't B...Bonnie…you are...you...you're s...something else..." He trailed, his voice sounding much younger than it should be in his ears.

However his eyes widened as suddenly the horrific rabbit before him turned into something much more familiar.

"Am I? Isn't this how you see us? Monsters who inflict pain upon you?" He leaned in, causing Leo to recoil back best he could with Foxy's jaws holding him.

"N...no! No! I don't! Y...you're my f...friends!" He cried in this strange childish voice. There was an amused chuckle, even from the bot holding him in his teeth. Leo swallows shrinking on himself face burning. Suddenly the nightmarish constructions were suddenly normal, normal except for those beading red eyes.

They were still laughing.

They were laughing and pointing, he whimpered looking between the hare and avian before him.

"S...stop...s...stop..." He whimpered, his body shaking harder as the pain grew more in his entire right side. Pulsing with every beat of his heart, pulsing with every laugh of theirs.

Suddenly, the scene before him began to morph, the pain in his shoulder lessened until it was only the grip of a hand. A tight one...but nothing compared to what he had before.

The scene before him was swimming, but while the setting changed, he was still able to hear the mocking mechanical laughter of who he had presumed were his friends.

There were two people before him, two men...human men...he cast a glance behind him, it was just a silhouette.

His eyes fell on this man's other hand and he couldn't help but swallow a bit.

A bottle.

A familiar alcoholic bottle…

Why did that make his heart lurch into his stomach? It's not like he hasn't seen them around…

Leo jumped as suddenly strange and garbled words greeted his ears. He looked up to the three men who towered above him. What were they saying?

Why did he feel like they were talking about him?

Suddenly, he was shoved forward and caught by the two dark silhouette men. He wasn't sure why, but pure and unfiltered fear shot through him, he glanced back at the man who had him before. He caught a pack of cigarettes and began pulling one out.

Anger flashed through Leo, unexplainable rage at the injustice of whatever was happening.

Something deep inside him told him that the man now behind him was supposed to be protecting him.

Before he knew what was happening, he was being dragged away by the two men he did not know and did not like.

A scream ripped from his throat without his consent. He yanked against those who pulled him further away from the silhouette man. Another scream...a plead ripped from him and with a hard yank, he escaped from them and ran back over to the man, the man who was soon joined by a woman.

He finally reached them, but they didn't react, he reached out for the hand but it, like vapor, disappeared in his grip. The fading hand was soon followed by the entirety of the man and woman before him.

A hand landed on his back as he fell to his knees, something wet coating over his face as shaky breaths went in and out of his lungs.

It was dark...all around him, like a suffocating cloud. A cloud that swirled around him in a tornado like fashion...spinning and spinning faster, and faster until it spun upwards and hovered above him in a whirling cloud.

He couldn't help but watch the swirling darkness mesmerized.

It was only slightly darker than the world around him. Barely distinguishable but in an environment like this, it stood out starkly.

Slowly, the spiral reversed and started coming back down toward him. It was probably going to swirl around him again.

...but it didn't.

It came toward him at a point, and the tendril came in front of his face, Leo couldn't do anything but stare. He gazed at this black mass and slowly reached up a hand to touch it.

When his hand made contact, it seemed to activate it.

With a sudden surge, it came at his face, and with the feeling of cotton being shoved into his nose and mouth, the darkness entered in one swift move.

After inhaling whatever the heck that was, Leo keeled over hacking, trying to get whatever it was out of his body. But to no avail, it swirled within him like a burning fire. Spreading through his body like a virus, reaching the very tips of his fingers and toes.

He still hacked, and hacked, trying to be rid of it. But nothing came up. Nothing but spit.

In the middle of his hacking fit, he failed to notice a hand placed on his head until a familiar stroking motion greeted him.

"Leo?" The voice boomed through the darkness, it made the hacking pause and he looked up heaving for breath. Very slowly an arm appeared from the hand on his head. A familiar tan one. Tears made his vision blurry but he was able to make out the slowly forming Scott before him.

Without even thinking Leo found himself against the animatronic man arms wrapped around him as he heaved for breath shaking hard.

He was solid! He was here! He wasn't trying to kill him!

Leo's breath hitched in his throat and he dug his teeth into his bottom lip to prevent sobs from escaping his mouth.

"Shh...shh...deep breaths Leo, it was just a bad dream. Just...just a bad dream kid."

But Leo was far too riled up to be calmed so easily. "T...the animatronics! T...they were yelling at me...and...and...then the darkness came! And it went inside me! And...and I couldn't...get it out!" He heaved stammering for words, but the animatronic man still held him, stroking his hair gently.

Around him, the darkness was slowly replaced by the bedroom he had been staying in and here he was on the bed hugging Scott like he was a lifeline.

When reality set in around him, and started to calm, Leo's face burned like fire.

"I...I thought thi...this this...was a d...dream..." he stammered flustered, there was a chuckle from the bot that made his face burn more.

"Don't worry about it Leo, you were distressed and I would do this with my kids all the time." He claimed and continued to stroke his hair gently. Leo flushed more and took a deep breath releasing him and attempting to pull back only to pause when Scott didn't let go.

Scott seemed to be staring at his hair, ears up and looking fascinated.

"You have so much hair...it's kind of surprising with how little you eat..." He muttered holding a chunk of it up. "Is it hard to manage?" He inquired and Leo shifted eyes darting to the side and back at Scott.

"Er...not really, I don't...actually manage it..." He muttered, not sure if he should ask to be released.

Scott must miss holding his kids.

So, Leo didn't pull away, he let the animatronic hold him, wondering if mentally he was pretending Leo was one of his kids.

"D...did your kids have nightmares a lot?" He asked after a few moments of silence. Scott didn't respond for a moment before nodding, a thousand miles stare in his plastic eyes.

"Yes. Especially the youngest. I would be up here practically every night. Pulling him out of whatever terror his mind had conjured up." That mindless stroking of Leo's hair had begun again.

Leo would never admit it aloud, but it did feel good.

"The oldest would always torment him, wicked child he was. He never knew when to quit...I suppose he got that trait from me. But besides that? I'm not sure we are alike at all..." He trailed, getting lost in thought. Leo looked up at him and took a deep breath.

"I...I'm sorry..." He muttered, unsure of what to say, but Scott seemed to snap out of it at his words.

"Hm? Oh sorry...lost in memories there. Are you feeling better? Ready to head downstairs?" He asked, and Leo nodded, finally being released from his hold.

Once free, Leo took a deep breath and rubbed his face, feeling more exhausted than before. When he pulled back his hand, he jumped at the sight of his younger hand instead of his older one.

"Leo?" The question made him jump again and the guard looked up at the tan hare and then back at his hand.

It was normal again…

"Leo, what's wrong? You're just staring at your hand." A mechanical hand landed on his shoulder and Leo took a breath looking up at him again and nodding.

"Yeah...yeah I'm good...I...just, er, nightmares ya know?" He offered a sheepish smile, "heh..." He got a skeptical look in return, but he kept up the smile a bit more, and the hare seemed to accept it enough.

"Alright, well let's get you something to eat hm? Put some meat on those bones." All that earned was a groan from Leo, however he followed after him nonetheless.

Andrew sat in his office/room gazing at the cameras, his mug shaking in his hand, but doing his best to control his breathing.

"Father is doing this for a reason...father is doing this for a reason..." he said as a mantra trying his best to calm himself down.

He watched Leo step out of the room, following after his father and had to take another deep and controlled breath.

It was fine. It would be fine, father said he had a plan, father needed Andrew's help.

So, Andrew would help, and then father would finally love him.

It was all going to work out just fine.

His eyes flickered over to the screen that sat slightly away from the others, there on a pink bed of a girl's bedroom lay a small red headed child.

The sight made him relax more and nod with a deep breath.

Good, she was sleeping.

"Charlotte! You gotta understand, we didn't help him! Leo didn't even know that it was the murderer!" Enix tried, on his knees on the table so he could better face the angry Charlotte through the office window.

She banged one of her balled up hand points at the window, her eyes a burning red.

"Do you know how hard it was to get him!? To lock him away!?" She demanded in a unholy shriek, both guard's winced and Ashford covered his ears from where he sat in the chair going through the camera's and carefully watching their power level.

With both doors closed they were losing it quickly.

"I know...I know I don't know! But you gotta understand mistakes happen!" He tried splaying out his hand in a pleading way, but her eyes just flashed again, and a spark exploded from her head.

A spark that made Enix flinch back as if he was going to be hit.

"Mistakes!? This mistake could cost people's lives!" She challenged, both hand points banging on the window now.

Enix however huffed and crossed his arms, "okay, yeah, but if you kids had just told us in the first place then we wouldn't be having this problem! Leo would've known not to release him!" He challenged back, Charlotte stopped her banging and gazed at him silently for a long moment.

Long enough to make Enix shift in place slightly.

"We wanted to forget about him, we didn't even know if he was alive or not anymore. I had suspicions, but we didn't know for sure if that was even going to be an issue." She paused and looked to the side, "his suit must've malfunctioned, made the chip activate..." At that both guards paused and looked at her.

"Chip? What chip?" The girl inside the Puppet turned to look back at them, but that's when the power went out and the doors slid open.

Both guards looked to the door closest to them and everything went deathly silent.

Fred, who had been silently standing in the back went up to Enix and Ashford and grabbed them, nearly pulling Enix to the ground but the blue haired man managed to recover and stumble after the plastic bear.

Both guards were shoved behind him, and Enix swallowed.

Right...they all were coming to kill them.

All except Fred.

Thank goodness for Jake's passive nature.

The sound of footsteps clomping toward them made both guards tense up, and Ashford to inhale sharply. Enix spared a glance at him, and when his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he bore witness to the man trembling and holding his head staring at the ground.

He was about to turn and comfort him, but that's when the sound of two bots clashing made him yank the man back instead.

It was difficult to see what was happening before him, but he could reason what was going on.

It was Fred and his larger counterpart, Freddy...or more accurately, Gabriel was in a hand lock with Fred and the older animatronic was looming over him, using his height and strength to his advantage.

"Go!" The toy bear barked as he grunted, his gears and joints groaning. Enix grabbed Ashford and pulled him back, staring up at the sight of Gabriel's glowing blue eyes. His pupils were pure white and beaming brightly.

The light reflected off the plastic bear's exoskeleton and Enix could hear the gears and joints groaning under the strength and weight of the older bear.

He realized their plastic alley wouldn't be able to hold long.

His eyes flickered around the room and he spotted the chair. Careful to avoid The big bear, he ran over to the chair and silently apologized to Leo before smashing the chair over the back of Gabriel.

The bear lurched forward breaking the hold between the two animatronic predators.

Gabriel fell forward to the other side and Fred stumbled forward toward the opposite side. Enix went over and grabbed his arm pulling him toward the door. But he didn't move until Fred himself stumbled forward. Once he was close to the door. He used whatever strength and momentum he had to shove the plastic bear out of the room. Then followed himself, and pulled Ashford along.

There was a shout from Gabriel, but Enix didn't care, he grabbed the bot and human hands and ran from the office looking out for the other children.

This was going to be a long night.

Leo felt...awkward.

The incident earlier replayed in his mind in an embarrassing cycle.

What had come over him?

He drank his smoothie taking a deep breath and avoiding looking at Scott.

He must think he was a baby. A sad excuse for a man.

Not that he was much of a man in the first place.

The animatronic was reading a book, seemingly very invested, but Leo watched as he struggled to flip the pages with his large fingers. The guard paused and set his drink down before coming over.

"Do you want any help?" He felt awkward asking, but there was a time when he struggled with his casts.

The animatronic looked up and paused before looking down at the book again. But then he took a breath and set the book down.

"No, it's fruitless. Hands are just too large." He paused, gazing at his paws. Leo gazed at the paws as well.

He couldn't imagine, being in a body that didn't belong to him. A larger and much more difficult to function in body.

"Do you...miss being in a human form?" He asked hesitantly, it took a moment before Scott looked up at him before down at his hands again.

"Yes. Everything feels empty and cold. There are times when I think I feel something, but it turns out to be my imagination." He muttered, and Leo took a breath taking a seat next to him.

"I wish there was a way to get you back in a human form...or ya know, that it never killed you in the first place." His words caused the animatronic to gaze at him a long moment, longer then Leo felt was needed.

Sheepishly he rubbed the back of his neck and looked to the side, "but...that's stupid, I know..." he took a breath and rubbed his hands together. "Aside from that, is there anything else you want to do? Play cards?" He did need something to distract him, for some reason, cravings were hitting him harder today…

"Hm, cards sounds good."

Freddy stood stiffly in a closet, his joints locked up with straps and metal restraints. There was no light, except the faint glow that his red eyes gave.

This was not his body.

This was a foreign body, one he did not know, and one that did not belong to him.

But it functioned like his other body.

Including the ears.

Ears that aided him in hearing a scream that he would know anywhere.

Leo's.

It seemed to happen at least once every night.

It had only been two nights, tonight he would be joining. Would he be as bad as he feared? Clearly the others were being forced to do this. He could hear everything from the center closet.

At first, Freddy wasn't sure what was happening. To go to sleep in his normal body for repairs...and then wake up in a larger and foreign one.

He had only walked once, he had only seem the others once. Marching in line, movements he couldn't control, following after the wretched Acid.

He was hopping...skipping. As happy as anyone could ever be. It made the gears inside Freddy churn. This man wasn't right. There was seriously something wrong with him.

If only Freddy could figure out what it is.

Though, as he stood in the closet, gazing at the dark but red highlighted door before him. Freddy was slowly figuring things out.

From day one, Acid had been very odd, always wandering around the pizzeria getting into things.

Looking…

Looking for something.

Not to mention how he had been driving holes into the wall of the hallway...by the restrooms.

The same place that Leo had always gone to…

Had he been looking for Scott as well?

Speaking of Scott, Freddy had heard his ghostly voice. Though, calling him Scott was wrong.

If only he knew his real name.

The murderer, the one who started this whole chaotic mess, this insanity that ruined the lives of so many children and so many people.

All blame could be pinned on him.

But Freddy wasn't that naive.

Leo had been right about a few things.

One of them being the fact that while they did their best to please the children and their desires…

They could've at any point decided enough was enough...and perhaps they could've saved...many lives.

But they didn't. They did exactly what the children asked without finding out answers for themselves. Blood was indeed upon their paws.

However. That wasn't the issue now.

Acid.

He had done something that Freddy was sure of, he was a lot more twisted than one would initially believe.

Another thing Freddy knew for sure was the fact that he was separated from Gabriel.

And Acid had something to do with it.

He did not believe Joey was involved, because while he did hear her voice. She was downstairs, and Acid was the only one who was ever around and speaking to them.

Each day that they had been here, Acid had come to visit them in their closets. Checking, doing minor maintenance and testing out a few of their reactions.

Freddy was already suspicious of Acid.

And then the argument in the hallway happened.

And it all clicked.

No wonder Acid had searched around the pizzeria.

He had been looking for his father the whole time.

So was this the murder's house?

It would make sense...Acid hanging onto this place before he could find his father again.

And by Acid, of course Freddy meant his newly learned name…

Andrew.

Things made much more sense now, but it left him with many questions still.

Why did they need Leo? What was this 'plan' that "Scott" was referring to?

Freddy didn't know...but one thing he did know for certain.

It was real lonely without Gabriel here with him.

So, lots of things happening huh? There is certainly something coming, any guesses as to what it is? What did you think of the Nightmare's interactions with Leo? Or Leo's strange encounter with shadows? Or even his interactions with Scott? Do you think Enix, Ashford and Fred will make it? How about the mysterious girl? Or even Freddy putting the pieces together?

I'd love to hear what you think!