The Red Hand
Welcome To Hurricane
10:09 PM
Anthony stopped on the side of the road, just in front of the big "WELCOME TO HURRICANE, UTAH" sign and waited. Isaac insisted that he go and grab a few things from his house, and since Anthony didn't know the exact way to the abandoned mall, he decided to just park and wait for Isaac to catch up.
He stared at his reflection in the rear-view mirror. He had shoulder-length blonde hair, glasses over his brown eyes, and light, almost pale skin. He wore a black turtleneck sweater, dark blue jeans, and copper leather lace-up boots that he'd all casually thrown on that morning, but he now thought looked a bit too dressy for a bowling night, and now, he supposed, for wandering around a dusty old building.
The plan was still weird to him. Sure, it wasn't too out of the ordinary for a couple of teenagers to go snooping around abandoned places at night, but going to that old pizza place was oddly specific. There were some ghost stories surrounding the disappearances at that place, people explaining the weird behavior of the animatronics by claiming that they were haunted by the missing children. Anthony never really believed any of it himself, he never really paid much attention to Freddy's in the first place, but he assumed that was the reason why Isaac was interested. He'd never imagined Isaac to be someone who believed in anything supernatural, or who was super into true crime, but then again, a place that people say is haunted suddenly being rebuilt would probably pique anyone's interest.
After a few more minutes he spotted Isaac's car and waved to make sure he saw him. He quickly pulled over and hopped out to meet Anthony.
"I guess I should've thought about the fact that you wouldn't know how to get there yourself." Isaac said, a little embarrassed.
"It's fine, nobody's lost yet." Anthony told him. "What did you get?"
Isaac waved Anthony over to his trunk and popped it open, it stored a couple of flashlights, and two golf clubs.
"Why the golf clubs?" Anthony asked.
"For self-defense." Isaac answered.
"You're gonna kill someone with these."
"It's not murder if it's self-defense."
Anthony stared at him.
"I'm joking, man!" Isaac assured him. "We're probably not gonna have to use them anyway, but there's no such thing as too prepared."
Anthony relaxed a bit. "Alright, let's just keep going."
The two hopped back in their cars, and continued down the road, this time with Anthony following Isaac. They navigated through town, passing by only a few other cars and pedestrians. There wasn't much to see, especially not this late. Some closed stores and diners, office buildings, a dimly-lit motel, and a few nearby neighborhoods, but other than that there wasn't a whole lot, and it slowly became less and less as they followed their route. Most buildings and lights went out of sight, and soon they were driving on a dirt road surrounded by nothing but trees. Not long after that, the abandoned mall came into sight.
Anthony had seen plenty of worn-down buildings before, always peeking through trees on the side of the road, but the sheer size of the mall made it feel more intriguing, almost intimidating, as if he was looking at ancient ruins. For a moment, he couldn't take his eyes off it.
Isaac tapped on Anthony's car door with his golf club, startling him out of his trance. "That's enough daydreaming, let's head inside."
Anthony stepped out of his car, took Isaac's extra flashlight and, reluctantly, his extra golf club.
"We're really gonna look like we were trying to vandalize the place if we're caught with these." Anthony said.
"We're not gonna get caught." Isaac tried to assure him. It didn't work.
The two walked in silence to the mall's entrance. When they reached the doors, Isaac tried to pull them open, and failed.
"Dammit, it's locked!" He said in frustration. He turned to Anthony. "Do you see any other ways inside?"
Anthony thought for a moment and turned the corner to look at the side of the building. He quickly eyed the mounds of gravel reaching up to the second story windows. "Does that look like a good way inside?" He asked Isaac.
Isaac's expression changed from frustration to pleasant surprise. "Perfect, actually. Huh."
They walked the perimeter of the building until they reached the nearest mound and slowly climbed it. When they reached the top, Anthony shined his flashlight through the window, determining the distance down to the floor below them.
He shrugged. "Looks safe to me." Isaac nodded in agreement. They both dropped down at the same time. Their landing was awkward, mainly because the clubs threw off their balance, but neither of them were hurt.
"Do you know where to go?" Anthony asked Isaac.
"I know it's down on the first floor, at least." Isaac answered.
They shined their flashlights down both directions. After walking for a minute to the right, the lights showed them the entrance to an empty anchor store. They turned around and started in the opposite direction, past the window again, and eventually reached the center of the mall.
"How much do you know about Freddy's?" Isaac asked Anthony.
"Just what most people know." Anthony said. "Murder, missing children, animatronics acting strange, killer dies ten years later, the whole shebang."
Isaac chuckled to himself as they both descended the unmoving escalator. "'The whole shebang' he says."
"What?" Anthony questioned.
"What you listed is just the surface level knowledge of what happened." Isaac told him. "There's a lot that happened after that one incident."
"And how would you know?" Anthony asked.
"Just morbid curiosity, I guess." Isaac said.
They were on the first floor now, and were walking down another hall. The building was completely dark, empty, and quiet. There was nothing but empty department stores left and right. Nothing except creeping vines and weeds decorated the interior.
"So, five kids were lured into a backroom in the pizzeria and killed by a man wearing a character costume. Not long after that, the animatronics were reported to have been acting strange in ways the technicians couldn't explain, and even worse, they started emitting a foul, nauseating odor, and blood and mucus was seen oozing from their eyes and mouths. With all of these disasters piling on, Freddy's was forced to close its doors for good. That's the part you said you knew, right?
Anthony took a second to answer. "Not in that much detail but...yes."
"Well, it keeps going. During the investigation of the missing children, the main suspect was a man named William Afton, who was one of the co-owners of the restaurant. He supposedly wasn't the most stable guy to begin with, and it probably didn't help that two of his kids had died in the couple of years before then."
"Okay, hold up." Anthony interrupted Isaac. "How do you know something as specific as this guy's dead children?"
"Oh, that's easy." Isaac said. "His youngest son was all over the news in 1983."
"We weren't even born yet." Anthony pointed out.
"Listen, man, I did my research." Isaac said. "His son died in '83 in an accident in an earlier location."
"And the second kid?" Anthony asked.
"No one knows for sure." Isaac explained. "His daughter just suddenly disappeared a year later."
"What happened to William?" Anthony asked. "If he was the killer, how come he wasn't just convicted and locked up immediately?"
"They didn't have enough evidence." Isaac said. "They never found the bodies, and they were eventually forced to end the investigation. After the place closed down, William skipped town and was almost never seen for the next ten years. In '95, he was found hiding under the alias 'Dave Miller', wandering around this empty mall. He murdered a police officer and kidnapped the police chief's son before he was killed by the mechanisms in the springlock suit he was wearing.
"What's a springlock suit?"
"Put simply, they were mascot costumes with endoskeleton parts in them to double as an animatronic. The parts were held back by a series of locks, and if they snapped loose while a person was wearing the suit, like Afton, it was almost always fatal."
"I'm assuming that's where it ends-"
"Nope! Because somehow William managed to survive. Around a year later, bodies were found in Hurricane and New Harmony with the same wounds as William. They eventually stopped turning up, but then a few months later, more children started going missing. And as it turns out, William was using them for some kind of experiment, I don't know what exactly, but he was using another robot to kidnap them. She'd find children alone, lost and vulnerable, then her torso would snap open, and a large metallic claw would drag them inside, only to spit them back out into William's hands. God knows what he did to them if he had them for that long."
Up until now, Anthony had found it strange, but reasonable that Isaac could know all of this. But that last part, the specifics of how that machine kidnapped children, it felt too specific. In fact it almost felt...personal.
"Thankfully, William died for real not long after that, and the children were safe."
By the time Isaac had finished talking, he and Anthony had reached the end of the hall, and they stood in front of a brick wall where the entrance to an anchor store should've been. They examined the wall for a second, they first noticed white chalk writing on the wall that said 'Carlton smells like feet', before their eyes landed on a pair of big double doors.
"We're here." Isaac said. He walked over to the doors and tried to open them, but failed yet again.
"For fuck's sake! Why is everything locked here?!" He shouted, kicking the door.
Anthony ignored the issue. "You know, there's still something you've yet to tell me about this place." He reminded Isaac.
Isaac stepped back from the door and nervously turned to Anthony.
"Why does all of this matter to you?" Anthony asked again. "Why have you researched so much of what happened surrounding this place, and how do you know so many specifics about the child-snatching robot?" He took a step towards Isaac, eyeing the burn scars on his arms. "What happened to you?"
Before Isaac was forced to answer, another voice rang out from the center of the mall.
"Kids! What do you think you're doing out here this late?"
Of course, it was a cop.
"I know you're in here, I saw you! I'll be waiting at the entrance!" The officer's voice was stern and impatient.
Anthony gave Isaac a look that said 'I told you so.' And they had no other option but to do what the man said and walk all the way back to the front of the mall.
As they walked back, Isaac had a look of unease on his face.
"I looked around when we got here, and I didn't see any cars nearby, let alone a police car."
"Clearly you didn't look hard enough." Anthony said, annoyed. It was his first night back, and he was caught trespassing. What a warm welcome. "We should've thought of a way to get back up to that window."
They walked around the center of the mall, and continued down another short hall before they reached the mall's entrance. But when they got there, they didn't see anybody else there, even though the officer said he'd be waiting here.
At first, they just assumed that maybe he was waiting outside the front doors, but when they walked over to them, they saw that they were still locked. Not only that, but they were locked with a chain that required a key from this side to remove.
"Hey!" Anthony called out. "Officer? These doors are locked tight. We can't get out from here."
"I know."
The voice rang out loudly from above them, even though it wasn't shouting. It'd lost the emotion it had when it first called out to them, in fact it didn't even sound like it was coming directly from a person anymore. It sounded like it came from a radio, or a speaker.
Anthony and Isaac quickly spun around in the voice's direction and looked up. In the dark they saw the silhouette of something watching them from the second floor railings. It was hunched over, it looked too bulky to be a person, and the eyes. They were tiny white dots that stared intently at the two boys. Hesitantly, they slowly pointed their flashlights up at the rafters to see the thing, and when they did, they screamed.
The creature was covered in black fur, and it managed to look burly and gaunt at the same time, like a gorilla that'd starved to death. Long, dagger-like, almost metal-looking claws were attached to its hands and feet, and its face looked like a malformed human skull with its mouth stuffed with needle-like teeth. It looked like something straight out of their worst nightmares, like a demon.
The creature vaulted over the railing and landed a few meters away from the boys with a loud crash that sounded like a gunshot. For a moment, it stood still and stared silently at Anthony and Isaac as they held up their golf clubs, staked to their spots with fear. Then it stood upright and let out a deafening cry that sounded like a mix between a screeching bird and screeching metal, before it barreled toward the two boys and leapt at them.
Thinking quickly and in unison, Anthony and Isaac ducked down and dove forward, underneath the twisted thing, and stayed on the ground as the thing landed behind them. No longer cornered, they both scrambled to their feet and sprinted down the hall faster then they'd ever had before. They could hear the heavy sounds of the creature chasing them. When they reached the center, they had little time to think, and they each took a risk in running up the two escalators to the second floor. They heard the creature stop for a brief moment, before it ran to the escalator Anthony was rushing up. It struggled a bit going up the escalator and moved more slowly, and by the time it made it halfway, Anthony had reached the top and had rejoined Isaac sprinting down the hall they'd entered from.
They heard the thing charging after them again, but they had a better lead this time. They reached the empty anchor store and rushed inside. They split up again, navigating around the pillars in the dark. Anthony ran towards a wall in the middle of the massive room and hid on the other side of it, taking a moment to breathe and listen.
Anthony heard the creature enter the store. Its footsteps slowed as it began creeping around the room, looking for them. It made no other sounds otherwise. Anthony hadn't seen where Isaac had run off to, and he hoped that the thing wasn't following him. He tried his hardest to make as little noise as possible. He stayed completely still, one hand over his mouth, the other tightly gripping the golf club. His glasses were smudged and covered in dust, making harder to see clearly, as if it wasn't hard enough to see in the pitch black of the mall.
The footsteps started to grow louder as the thing crept closer, until they sounded like they were right on the other side of the wall. It was so close that Anthony could've heard the thing breathing, if it actually breathed.
Then, Anthony saw a flash of light from across the store, followed by the creature crying out for a moment before backing off from where he was hiding, the sounds of its footsteps trailing off in the direction where the light came from. Realizing what had happened, Anthony slowly and quietly peeked around the wall. In the dark, he just barely saw the creature walking in the direction of Isaac's hiding place. He picked up his flashlight and, against every fiber of his being telling him not to, turned it on and shined it at the creature. Once again, it let out a disoriented cry, before running back to Anthony's position.
Anthony dropped the flashlight again and backed up against the wall, ready to swing his club at any moment. The footsteps quickly grew close, and Anthony waited for Isaac to shine his flashlight again.
But he didn't. Instead the creature reached the wall and walked to the other side. It saw Anthony and screeched again, and Anthony, not knowing what else to do, swung his club at the thing. It struck its jaw, staggering it. Anthony raised the club again, but the creature swiped at him, sending the club into the wall. It grabbed Anthony by his arms and pinned him to the ground. Anthony felt the thing's claws digging into his shoulders and back, and he watched helplessly as it opened its mouth full of needles, preparing to bite down on his head.
Anthony closed his eyes, but instead of feeling the creature biting down, he heard the sound of a golf club bashing the back of the creature's bony head, causing it to let go of Anthony. He opened his eyes again, and saw Isaac standing behind the creature with his club raised. Isaac brought the club down on its head again as it tried to turn around, before it shoved him back. As it staggered toward Isaac, Anthony quickly got back up and grabbed his club and his flashlight. He ran up to Isaac and the creature and got in between the two of them, then he turned on his flashlight directly into the creature's silver eyes.
As expected, the creature was stunned, it cried out and backed up with its claws covering its face, the bright light holding it in place for a few seconds. Anthony and Isaac both took the opportunity to beat on the thing with their clubs, striking it multiple times in the head, torso, and everywhere else.
Overwhelmed, the creature fell backwards. It flailed its arms and legs all around itself, keeping Anthony and Isaac from getting closer to it. So instead, Isaac ran away again.
"Follow me to the escalator!" He shouted.
Anthony did what he said. He ran after Isaac as the creature scrambled back to its feet, and they reached the escalator leading to the part of the anchor store on the first floor. They made it down and ran to the side before the creature even reached the top of the escalator. Enraged, the creature barreled down half of the escalator before seemingly getting impatient and just launching itself off the side at Anthony and Isaac. The two dove to the side as the creature landed and slammed its fists into the ground, denting and cracking the floor below it.
Anthony and Isaac shined their flashlights at it again, and while it was starting to have less of an effect, it still stunned the creature long enough for the two to get a few more hits in. The creature swiped at them, but at this point it was too injured and worn out to pose much of a threat. Anthony swung at its leg, Isaac did the same. The creature collapsed once again, and this time, they didn't run away. They beat on the creature relentlessly, again and again for what felt like several minutes, long after it'd stopped moving before they finally decided enough was enough, and they backed away from the broken thing in front of them.
Anthony dropped his club and his flashlight and sat down on the floor, his eyes watering out of pure stress.
"Oh fuck...oh...oh god..."
Isaac sat down as well and tried to steady his breathing.
"Holy shit, we actually survived." He whispered to himself. He looked over at Anthony. "Are you alright?"
"Y-yeah...I think I'm fine." He answered.
"I should've just called it a night." Isaac said, which managed to get a chuckle out of Anthony.
After finally regaining their composure, they stood up and walked back over to the creature.
"You think you might know what the hell this thing is?" Anthony asked.
"The Boogeyman, probably." Isaac answered sarcastically.
"How did it manage to perfectly mimic human speech?"
"Parrots and crows are able to do that."
"Does this look like a fucking bird to you?"
As Anthony was speaking, the creature seemed to twitch, startling the two.
"What the?!" Anthony exclaimed.
The creature, or rather the image of it, started to appear blurry, and it even looked like it was flickering. Anthony wiped his glasses with his equally dusty sleeve, but nothing changed. It began to flicker even more, appearing like static, and its fur, teeth, and even the bone texture of its head started to appear more transparent, revealing a bunch of shiny metal and wiring, dented by the damage the clubs had done to it. Finally, any illusion of an organic being faded away completely, and the creature's, no, the animatronic's true appearance was laid bare for Anthony and Isaac to see.
Before they could even process what just happened, their thoughts were interrupted by a cracking sound. They finally realized that the damaged part of the floor that the animatronic had made had grown larger. They turned around and started to run as the floor gave way beneath them. Isaac managed to jump to safety, but Anthony didn't make it in time. Isaac reached out his hand and Anthony did the same, but they were already too far apart to grab each other, and Anthony, along with the animatronic, fell into the darkness below.
"Anthony!!" Isaac called out, unable to do anything.
Desperate to find a way to survive the fall, Anthony grabbed onto the animatronic, hoping that it'd take the force of the impact, right before they both crashed through what sounded like wood, and then into a large workbench on a cement floor. Wood splinters, bits of metal, and plenty of other objects were scattered in a cacophony of horrible crashing sounds. The impact knocked Anthony off of the animatronic, and he rolled to the other side of the dark environment.
When the noises stopped, Anthony slowly stood up. He was dazed, he could already feel bruises appearing all around his body, he felt a great amount of pain in his chest from what was most likely a fractured rib or two, and his glasses were broken. After a few moments, He found his golf club and his now-broken flashlight that he decided to toss aside. He saw the animatronic, even more damaged than it already was.
"Anthony!" He heard Isaac call out again. "Anthony can you hear me?!"
"Yeah!" Anthony responded. "I'm okay!"
"Oh thank god." He heard Isaac say to himself. Isaac turned on his flashlight and shined it down the hole. It looked like Anthony had fallen about the distance of a couple stories, or maybe a little more. "There you are! What's down there!?"
Anthony used the dim illumination of the flashlight to get a better look of his surroundings. There were other workbenches in the room aside from the one that'd been reduced to splinters, and they all had different tools and devices laid out on them. The walls and ceiling were made of wood planks and the floor was made of cement. There were torn wires hanging from the sides of the hole that were connected to a couple bulbs in the ceiling. There was a single door ahead and to the right.
"It looks like some kind of workshop, or storage!" Anthony called out to Isaac. "Definitely doesn't look like it was built at the same time as the mall!"
"Do you think you can make it out!?" Isaac asked.
"I mean, there's a door! I'd be shocked if their wasn't a way out!" Anthony answered.
Suddenly, Anthony heard the sound of footsteps approaching the door. He made a shushing gesture to Isaac, who turned off his flashlight, and then backed up next to the door.
The door opened, and an older man with brown hair and a rough looking jacket entered the room. He was too focused on the animatronic and the hole in the ceiling to notice Anthony.
"What the fuck happened here?" He muttered to himself. He looked up through the hole and saw Isaac standing up there.
"Who are you and how did you put a hole in our ceiling!?" He demanded. "Why is one of our machines broken!?"
"Why am I the one answering questions!?" Isaac responded.
The man apparently didn't have time for a back and forth, because he pulled out a small handgun and pointed it up at Isaac, who immediately shut up.
"Listen, punk! You'd better explain yourself, or-"
Anthony interrupted the man by hitting him in the head with his golf club, not hard enough to kill him, but enough to knock him out.
"Thank you." Isaac said, quieter this time.
"What are you going to do?" Anthony asked.
"I dunno." Isaac answered. "I'll probably just wait, walk around up here, and keep my guard up. Maybe I'll find a way down to you."
"I'll be fine on my own." Anthony assured him. "You've already been through enough tonight."
"So have you!" Isaac exclaimed.
"Don't worry, man. I'll find a way out and back up to you. I know that I need to still be careful, but I'll make it."
Isaac sighed. "Alright." He watched as Anthony took the unconscious man's gun, and then disappeared through the door. He took his club and flashlight in his hands, and he walked out of the anchor store, and back out into the dark, empty hallways alone.
