Chapter 5: Running Nightmares

It took a while before Tyler woke up with a groan, but the moment he opened his eyes was the moment he froze out of pure instinct before calming himself down. Looking around, he wasn't able to find Foxy, but he knew their bond was there, he could feel his presence in the building that continued to haunt his nightmares.

Tyler grinned, just as he thought, the bastard would latch onto that time. If Kyle was here, he wouldn't even be knowing why it would terrify him so much and probably be lost to it all, but Tyler remembered…enough.

Taking a deep breath, Tyler opened the grand doors to the old Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria and walked inside the bright colored tiles that littered it. The place was fully lit, something that took him by surprise given he was expecting black fog or something similar, but it looked…exactly like it did, aside from a lack of people in it. Tyler made his way to where the cashier would be before entering the place proper, noticing an announcement on the little entrance camera display that hung from the ceiling.

12:00am. Was all that was there in an ominous blinking red text as Tyler quickly looked downward in way of controlling his breathing as he looked around before his face scrunched in confusion at the sight of a random flashlight lying around. Tyler bent down before picking it up and looking forward after turning it on, noting that Foxy saw him from his right. He didn't immediately see anything as he looked towards Foxy, making sure to not blind him with the flashlight, but was confused at the weird…white…oh shit that's not Foxy.

"Lad! I'm right here!" Foxy's voice sounded from his left, but Tyler was confused when he saw nothing there, "Where are you?" Foxy sounded as Tyler reached his hand out, only to have his confusion grow farther as he felt his friend's body being there, but saw nothing. The two interlocked hands after a while, neither trusting themselves with losing the other as a tick sounded, with the animatronic abomination rushing towards them. Tyler immediately started pulling himself towards Foxy while Foxy was moving back towards Tyler, the two shuffling before Tyler pushed the two of them forwards to the right past the white fox dog animatronic monster once called Mangle for how the kids tore to shreds every day.

"Two animatronics huh? We'll have to work together, I see M-M-that monster, while you see whatever you see." Tyler caught up with the rules as he jumped on what he assumed was Foxy's back as he felt himself being carried. It looked weird as hell, but it was their best shot as Tyler kept the flashlight on their adversary, seeing how that black mist captured the Mangle.

Instead of how Tyler remembered it, it was exactly as he feared it. Jaws upon jaws upon jaws, some of which jolted a light red against the bright colorful tiles and lights of the main room. While the main room was brightly lit, it was offset with the hallway that Foxy and Tyler found themselves on, Foxy needing Tyler's light to see where he was going while Tyler struggled to keep an eye on his animatronic.

"Any news about the other one?" Tyler shouted as they rushed left at the end of the long hallway, reaching another party room of sorts. Foxy looked around, with Tyler knowing where to turn the flashlight as he looked up to make sure about Mangle, only to scream and rush Foxy forward through the next room when he saw it trying to chomp down on his head. If it wasn't for Foxy's momentary stumble, it might have worked, but Tyler could feel some of his hair being chopped away at how close a call that was.

The next hallway was just as empty and small as the others, but the two merely continued running for dear life, only noting how Foxy's target didn't pop out that often compared to the relentless Mangle. Charlie's words echoed in Tyler's mind as he struggled to keep aware and keep alive.

"Because it's doing just that. The last time it happened, the victim narrowly escaped by learning the pattern that the creature works on. If you're moving, the pattern is easier to change, harder to adapt to. We're not even completely sure it would do that, but it seems to think of it as a game, the Building forcing it to obey the rules set."

All of them have rules, learn the pattern and we make it through. Tyler would be absolutely lying if he wasn't having a panic attack just from the mere sight of Mangle, but he knew that he could shove that panic down until they were safe and sound. He had his best friend with him, they can work through this. Taking another deep breath, Foxy noted that his target, Tyler noticed he didn't say who or what it was but said nothing about it, didn't appear outside the left side when he went towards Tyler. They also noticed that while Mangle was persistent, it only seemed to go after Tyler, but neither could tell if it was due to how Tyler rode on Foxy's back or not.

Like hell they were going to split up to test that theory. Tyler kept his light on as he looked above him near consistently, making sure to also keep a steady look ahead of him. The place was insanely dim compared to the entrance, but the entrance was too small to reliably deal with both of the animatronics in. Thus, just like Charlie thought, they were kept constantly alert and on the move. It wasn't safe by a long shot as Tyler was nearly knocked off Foxy by a surprise attack by the Mangle from their right, but Foxy smoothly managed to shift him to the front to get him with only his left foot being bit into. Tyler grimanced at the pain that rocketed up, but they needed to keep moving, they had no time to try looking around for a first aid kit and could only hope that 6am rolled around.

The problem was that it was only 2. There wasn't any time to truly get a hold of which room was which from each other, but Tyler did his best to try and remember how the area was structured in a vain attempt to avoid the dead ends he knew were in the place, but they were starting to enter the left side, and Tyler was noticing the Mangle backing away.

"Your turn now! They are split by the sides of the map!" Tyler declared as he passed the flashlight over, noting that it seemed to be floating in mid air as Foxy continued forward.

The two continued this cycle of just running without stopping. Foxy definitely had the energy for it, but Tyler knew it wouldn't be that easy onwards as Foxy skidded to a stop before rushing the opposite way when they reached a party room. It reminded Tyler of one of those movies, where you don't know exactly what's going after you, but you know it scares you because it's real, except there's two main differences from those movies.

One being that they were actually getting by alright, which usually doesn't happen in those movies given the protagonists would often split up like damn idiots and get each other killed in a desperate panic trying to flee, which Tyler refused to do. The second was that, this was real life. Tyler instinctually ducked as the air shifted around him and barely managed to avoid the Mangle dropping down on him. The two reemerged in the entrance area. Brightly lit as they turned the flashlight backwards towards where their pursuers were, then to the left and right to check them.

Dead calm, the best and worst thing to happen in horror movies. Tyler immediately looked straight up, but relaxed a bit when he didn't see anyone to any side of him, "Looks like we can rest a bit, we still have an hour to go."

"Least you're getting a good amount of exercise." Tyler joked as Foxy groaned.

"Something's…weird here, I know what's after me, but don't at the same time. My sensors don't entirely align here since I can't see you but…"

"We know we're here. We're probably in two different instances of this place or something, remember what Kyle was saying about a weird alternate dimension?" Tyler tried as Foxy merely shrugged…at least he thought he did.

"Who knows, I think it's not what happens here that's the problem…what happens when it's 6am?" Foxy asked as Tyler sighed.

"Let's find out." Tyler stated as he got back up on Foxy's back, the two running to their left instead of right this time as they rushed in another party hall. Foxy kept the flashlight moving around to make sure whatever was chasing him wasn't nearby before running forward towards the upper left edge of the place, a 3rd party room. It was probably exactly the same as the place it obviously took inspiration from. The ominous clock still rang overhead, and despite being far above them, it was still always able to be read by them, as if a constant reminder of their timer.

5:40am. Almost there. Time seemed to fly faster than Tyler thought possible as Foxy suddenly skidded to their right down the middle hallway, rushing backwards towards the main entrance as Tyler and Foxy leapt forward, being left with no choice but to split paths when Mangle jumped down at Tyler. Tyler rushed off in the blind darkness, using the red alarm clocks as his only real method of sight in this damn place and bumping into plenty of party toys. 20 minutes, a long time, but the two could simply continue the simple loop as Tyler's brain yelled at him to jump back, just narrowly being able to avoid it jumping down onto him.

Taking a massive risk and almost regretting not having bandaged up his leg earlier, Tyler grunted as he baited another, this time frontal attack from the Mangle, before ducking and rolling underneath it, "GAH!" Tyler couldn't hold the shout back as he got back up, making sure to stay on the move. Foxy was moving already towards the center, but Tyler wasn't going to be able to meet up with him on this loop and he knew it as he continued forward only to dodge to his left by spinning on his good leg right past the Mangle, screaming when it nipped a bit of his left arm away.

Holding in the blood that was now completely dripping from him, Tyler ran for dear life as he rushed back towards the center of the map and actually managed to see Foxy standing there. A ringing alarm blared from above them as Tyler took a deep sigh of relief, noting that the rest of the restaurant was blocked off from them now.

Instead, something even more terrifying was introduced. There was a first aid kit there, but something blocked it off from them as it asked for "points" to be used. Foxy didn't try to confirm it when it kept popping up, but Tyler merely looked for the alarm, seeing it replaced with a flat 100.

Exactly enough for the med kit, but nothing more. He also noticed that the flashlight was now gone from Foxy's hands, and instead had a 50 on top of one in the center of the room. Only one thing else had points on it, the front door, which had a simple total of 500 on it. Five nights, 500 points? So the damn thing did twist up the rules a bit. If they bought the med kit, they couldn't buy anything else unless they wanted to dare try 7 nights in that damn maze with ever increasing difficulty, while if they didn't, Tyler would be bleeding out onto the ground for the entirety of the nights and most likely die since he wouldn't be able to watch out for the Mangle.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't given that flashlight was also one of the only ways they could notice the animatronics after them. Tyler was terrified, truly, but he merely treated this as one of his video games. It reminded him of this weird…point chaser thing he used to play, where you would have to gather these shards and make it to the exit without dying. Treating it like that, it wasn't really all that scary despite the beings coming from their deepest nightmares.

It did help that he rarely saw the damned things, and couldn't see whatever was chasing Foxy, "We're getting the medkit. We'll deal with the darkness." Foxy said with a certainty that Tyler could only nod in reply.

"Yeah, I wouldn't last much longer without it. Let's hope that it can repair ripped away skin though, my arm feels like it's burning." Tyler informed while Foxy confirmed the point purchase of the med kit, watching as the 100 fell to 0 as the weird blockade around the med kit seemed to move away so they could reach it. As soon as he could, Tyler shook his head as he reached for it, making sure that it wasn't a set heal for one person, with his hands.

Nothing happened until he touched the med kit, breathing a sigh of relief as he let go of his hand and watching as the skin seemed to reform itself on his arm and leg, "What the…"

"This isn't real life, Foxy. It is, but it isn't, it's that guy's twisted imagination. We're in a damn video game." Tyler told him, "Heal packs heal whoever grabs them to full in video games, so when I touched it…"

"You healed to full," Foxy finished the statement as Tyler nodded, "So in order for us to leave, we have to survive 6 nights?" Tyler nodded again, "How? We won't have any light this time outside of the alarms and you were left bleeding nearly immediately after I left you. I can outrun them, but you become a sitting duck." Foxy asked with increasing confusion that Tyler had never really seen from him before.

Tyler sighed, "I think we kinda have to make me a sitting duck for the most part until they work together. Either that, or we could stick to one side to maximize which one we get, but we have to be careful if more are added in to stop us doing that. Not to mention the weird points mechanic. Was there anything last night that you saw?" Foxy shook his head, "It looked like it did back then.

"A-A-A-Are yo-ou d0ne?" A glitched out voice rang, causing both to stare at the alarm clock that now read "Minigame".

Great, more weird video game mechanics, at least Tyler was good with those. After a final glance towards Foxy and a reassuring nod, Tyler looked back to the alarm, "We're ready. What do we have to do?" He asked as the alarm simply changed to "Starting in 3..2..1."

The floor gave way underneath the two, with both of them being shoved in different halves of the wall that now divided them. Tyler was in a rectangular room of some sort, with only a long hallway in front of him and a weird cutout in the wall to his left where he saw Foxy fall into.

"T-T-The minigame is about to begin! F-f-for b-b-bonus p-pooints! C-C-Collect the B-BLUE sPheres!" The area in front of Tyler became a series of giant blue orbs in front of him, "B-Be warned! T-THeRe i-S *** E-ENmY" The voice became steadily more corrupted, but the fact was still the same. There was something hunting them down. A weird tablet of some sorts appeared in Tyler's hands as he thought back on the game. It really was just the same, wasn't it? Down to the weird shard replacement. Tyler could work with this, but could Foxy? "BEGIN!" the voice rang again as Tyler and Foxy took off. The total was quickly dropped a bit, but the staggering 798 or maybe 800 shards at the beginning meant they had a ways to go. Sadly, unlike in the game this minigame was probably based around, the tablet didn't have any power selection or even a basic map; all it held was a base total of the shards left on the map. Tyler looked behind him, noting that the spheres were turning red, and that he couldn't turn back.

"Don't turn back Foxy, just do your best to avoid them!" Tyler thought for both his sake and Foxy's sake as he struggled to keep moving forward. Knowing that eventually the two would probably realign, Tyler kept running straight at the intersection as he continued on with no idea what was chasing after him, if anything. Taking a calming breath and getting that reassurance he needed from Foxy, he pushed forward until reaching a party room of sorts. Looking around at the three paths and little room to recover, he realized that he somehow needed to jump over the red dot that would be left behind or go under it to get them all. He took a deep breath as he tried to avoid the dot at the entrance of the room and headed right, barely messing up and touching the middle dot as he swore.

Now how was he supposed to do this? With the middle gone…he might be able to use the table and jump across it… Tyler took a deep breath as he kept going forward past the middle row and climbed over the table, jumping down on the blue dot on the other side as he kept watch to make sure nothing else appeared for a second before grabbing the last two dots in the row before jumping between onto the table and dropping down on the last one before realizing a chilling truth.

He was stuck with no way out. All the tables just led to more red spheres with both the path in front and behind him now being red due to his actions. He looked at his tablet desperately, but saw nothing that could help him out, just a giant 300 left on the mark. If only he could make it through this red one, but he knew that red spheres would end off the minigame…right?

I mean, it did in that one minigame, but who was to say it did here? The announcer only said to get the blue spheres, but said nothing about the red ones. Tyler didn't bother to try, not unless he had no other choice, only trusting that Foxy wasn't going to be trapped like he was.

Foxy wasn't really taking his time throughout the maze, just going around the giant rooms in search of anything he could grab as he rushed through without much care in the world. This…was one of that thing's minigames, but that voice never really explained more than "Get the blue spheres" and "there's enemy". The tablet he had still read 450 and he was slowly clearing them out until he realized that Tyler stopped collecting from his side…yet it didn't feel like the pace slowed at all, instead speeding up. Were they playing a tile match game?

Foxy searched through Tyler's side of the bond, hoping to find anything that might match this, and brought up a game that he played where there were two teams that fought for total map control, each other would be up against each other until whoever grabbed more of the map won.

Which means they might be in danger depending on what kind of game this was. Maybe they were going based on who gets what points? Foxy looked up to see a timer that still had a few minutes on the clock. He remembered that Tyler was at 300 left when he was at 500, having had to slow down around the very tight tables midway. Given he was at 450, he should wait until exactly 400, then they would both have an equal amount, right?

At least Foxy hoped that was the case, he had to be careful since they might have no choice in the matter here, who knows what else was in play.

Tyler couldn't help but agree with Foxy as he stood right between the red spheres, having to balance perfectly in order to not fall into one of them. He tiptoed around the offending red, having to take great care as he kept his chest tight and took shallow breaths. After making it to another corner and having a bit more room, he breathed a sigh of relief as he heard something coming his way. Making sure to stay as close to the wall as possible, away from the spheres, he watched as a giant red blob ran into the room from the other side.

"Is that you?" Foxy asked through their bond as Tyler nodded, "You're a red blob to me between two of the orbs, looking like you're being pressed against the wall. The orbs look all blue to me."

"Fuck, we were right." Tyler breathed out annoyed, "So it's not that the thing would end if we choose a red one, it's just that it flips back to the other side!" Tyler said as he stepped on a red sphere, watching it shift to blue."

"Two-TWO m-ORE M-M-minu-t-ttes!"

The two of them just stared at each before looking down at their tablets, "I got 390 left."

"I have 410. 800 total, so it makes sense, we're good like this?" Foxy answered as Tyler shrugged before tossing the tablet into the corner, "I guess so?" Foxy said as he noticed the blob moving to the left before noticing Tyler standing there. He simply shrugged before walking and placing his tablet down onto the ground and walking over to Tyler and picking him up.

"Worth." Tyler said simply as they looked up to the alarm, watching the time tick away. "How about we head back towards the entrance?" Tyler suggested as Foxy shrugged. They waited before time hit zero. It took a second, but they felt that falling feeling again as Tyler woke up groaning.

He rolled his eyes at the Nightmare's failed attempts to scare him honestly. Felt less scary and more like a Running Simulator with stuff that wanted your head. After shrugging and looking towards the restaurant, he tried to take a step forward before feeling like something was stopping him. Foxy wasn't there, yet…why did he feel unable to move?

"Mom! Dad! Look! Look!" Tyler heard a young kid say as he felt himself turn towards the source, watching as the area seemed to brighten and have glimpses of other people in the place, but three figures stood out to him…four in fact. Tyler couldn't hold back the flinch at seeing his younger self with his family, "It's Freddy Fazbear! I wonder if Foxy's at the Cove!" He heard himself saying as he saw his mom handing him Kyle, "Huh?" Tyler's younger self asked, looking at him, "Who are you?" Tyler watched himself run towards…himself. It was a beyond weird feeling as Tyler watched his younger self interact with another man in his place.

"I'm just a security guard, nothing more," Tyler felt a shiver at the familiarity of the voice before calming himself down. Like hell he was going to lose here, not like this. Trying everything to calm himself down with empty words and thoughts, Tyler focused back on the only thing he could, "In fact, I hear that Foxy was in Pirate's Cove today, they're thinking of bringing him back for Story Time alongside his Corporal, Toy Foxy!" The man continued as Tyler watched his younger self grow excited at the thought.

"Woah! Can we see it, can we see it!?" Tyler watched his younger self run off in a hurry, not looking to care about Kyle's safety in the slightest.

"Much like you are now." A more solid voice appeared as Tyler sighed in annoyance.

"I care for Kyle and my family." Tyler stated as the voice laughed.

"And yet, you're the one that's always leading them into danger, each and every time. Not even that, you're not doing this to protect them, and we both know that."

"Really now? I think I would know how my brain works, but thanks for the suggestion." Tyler snorted at the idea, but the voice merely sighed.

"Ah yes, the bravado, I always enjoy breaking fools that dare keep me from my target, but alas. I doubt you'll survive, your friend seems much better than you at this."

"Alright, and?"

"Then by all means, keep going. Run like a chicken away from that you fear and watch it come back that much faster. I'll even be nice and give you a hint. They aren't limited by which side they're on."

Tyler didn't have any time to wonder what the voice meant by that as he felt himself falling all over again, this time landing somewhere in the middle of the restaurant instead of the entrance like last time. Like they expected, no flashlight for this one and Tyler was in the pitch darkness, but at least they had some time before they needed to begin.

"Right, Foxy?" Tyler tried, but the bond felt…strained, as if he was far away from him currently, but didn't think too much of it. Even when he was home it never felt like that, but he hasn't truly bonded until now. Probably just because they were spawned away from one another.

"I hope you love running, because you get to be the only one for this night. If you survive, you get to let your friend take the next one. Hope you can carry your own weight for once."

"So, I get to survive two of them, or just one?"

"Just one, I'm bound by rules after all. Happy running!" The voice called out everywhere as an alarm bell rang, and Tyler didn't need to think twice to run towards the light, having to shift to his left when he felt that damned abomination of Mangle drop down at him. No time to think, just survive and run.

Tyler kept going towards the light, making his way towards the front door before jumping back towards the left and continuing on in the dark. He didn't have any night vision, but enough moving of the table and well, he could make his way. He stumbled out in slight pain as he pushed another metal table out of the way, only having just enough time to duck as Mangle once again leapt at him before running back towards the light. Create a path, circle him. Simple. Tyler told himself like a mantra as he ran back into the darkness, jumping on top of the poorly placed table before rolling to the right into a wall.

"Ow." Tyler groaned out as he quickly rolled over to the left and got up and ran again into the darkness of the hallway. After baiting another attack and going to his left, before ducking until the second attack, Tyler grabbed one of the chairs and bashed it against Mangle's head before continuing on the way.

Tyler could hardly feel his bond with Foxy, and that hurt him, but not nearly as much as the rapid beating pulses blasting in his ears as he continued running, not even bothering to crawl under the tables, instead jumping on top and heading to the right towards the light again.

Tyler tried to catch his breath, only to have to dodge to the right against another pounce before going backwards into the hallway again as the amount of leaps from Mangle progressed. Tyler didn't have the time, nor the stamina, to falter here as he leapt to the left, crying out in agony at the scratches that the jaws left on his back before running back into the hallway. Not even bothering to turn now, he jumped onto the tables before jumping back off of them and grabbing another chair, slamming it across Mangle's face.

"Thank god for stun, this is going to be how I have to win tonight. It's way too fast for me, I have to just keep stunning and running." Tyler thought with slow, agonizing gasps for breath, "Well, maybe…not…running." Tyler lamely thought as he grabbed another chair and slammed it once again against Mangle's face before taking off.

"GAHHHHRRHHH" A warped roar came out as Tyler immediately ducked and ran to the right desperately, constantly stepping aside or backwards in some wild scramble to survive, claw marks leaving their dent on almost every part of his body aside from his head and delicates. Glancing blows, but hurting like hell as Tyler pushed through with pure adrenaline. Taking another step to bait an attack, Tyler immediately struck with another chair before running off towards the front again, not forgetting to grab a chair when sliding off of the big party table, whirling around with a roar of his own, Tyler slammed the chair straight into its jumping leap before running back into the light and turning to the left.

He had time now, but how much longer? Tyler couldn't help the desperate glance upward, but was terrified at the idea of having to survive 5 more hours of this. "Okay, maybe the Running Simulator joke being not scary was too far!" Tyler thought desperately to himself, struggling to find another chair to whir around. He knew damn well there were more, but cursed his shortsightedness given they were probably in the corners. He couldn't use his fists, that was suicidal, and he knew that it was way faster than he was and merely giving him an escape to make him scared.

The sad part was it was working. Tyler could feel every muscle screaming at him as he continued running on, managing to scream out before stopping himself right before Mangle could chomp his face off.

Holy hell, whatever reflexes the Building was giving him were godly, but he couldn't grow complacent, too much to go. Another party room came and went with another chair thrown in Mangle's face as Tyler ran onward. Tyler grinned in vicious victory as he had finally found and understood the pattern of the night.

Run, throw, repeat. Keep doing that until the night is beat. The problem wasn't how to beat it anymore. It was simply how long could he hold out before Mangle rips his head off. He kept going, struggling to find chairs as the night progressed and praying that Foxy would have an easier time with his night. Six nights, and he was only on night two. Just 3 more after Foxy's and they would be free and done with this shit. Just gotta keep running.

Just keep running. Tyler reminded himself desperately as another chair landed its mark. He got the pattern down, just keep it memorized and go.

The hours ticked away as another gash ripped a nasty scream out of Tyler, driving him onward to round another chair in Mangle's face. Strangely addicting, not a good feeling. Tyler shook the nerves off as he continued onward through the leftside party room for what felt like the twentieth time that night before having to duck and let it run into a chair on its own to get away. Duck to avoid before jumping to the left and roll.

Mangle was simple. Simple Simple sSimple.

Tyler's brain hurt from the running, or was it oxygen?

He didn't know anymore, he just kept running. A glance up at the clock revealed it was only 4am.

Duck to the left, roll to right and chair.

Duck, roll underneath and slam chair using roll.

Duck, roll to the right and run.

Swing.

Swing.

Swing.

Tyler's brain was failing him, he knew it, he knew that he was already beyond his limit, but he didn't dare stop running until that alarm clock rang and he read 6am on the screen. Finally having reached the limit of his running, Tyler didn't even bother holding back the vomit that rushed out of his mouth before falling flat on the ground, watching as the world spun round and round.

He was too tired to think anymore.