NOTES
Heya, Sorry for the wait. Took my time enjoying Thanksgiving break with my family and friends and all that, so I gave the writing a bit of a rest.
Speaking of which, finals. Finals week is like, next week. So the next chapter or two might be a tad bit slower to come out than usual, but after that's all done with, I'll be back to writing regularly. Thanks for the kind words in the reviews, by the way! I always get excited seeing the reviews number go up, so don't be afraid to critique or share what you feel! As I've said before, this is my first time writing something, so anything you have to say will be taken into great consideration.
NEW
Small edits, nothin much.
I typed nearly this entire chapter all at once, which I thought worked well with my schedule. Mmmm..
It could be better. It's not horrible (I hope), but rereading it a day later, nothing really struck me as 'yep, this is the best I could have done'. I think I'll just leave it be and move on though.
Hope you like it though!
Ready Freddy
Against my better judgement, I decided I'd continue typing up that document in the animatronic corridor instead of my office tonight. Horrible idea considering this document is the one thing I want to keep a secret more than anything else, but man.. The ambiance is just so much better in here..
Not that I dislike the solitude of the office, but that place can feel like a standard office cubical after being in there for long enough.
...I gotta stop calling this place the 'animatronic corridor'. It has a name, I'm sure; and I don't want to look like an idiot if someone asks where the place is.
I bet I can check on the cameras actually.
...
"Rockstar Row"
...
Gotta say, not the greatest fan of that name. Betrays the tranquility.
I'm probably the only one who's ever here past closing though, so maybe the tranquility is lost on everyone else.
Well, whatever.
I'm not really the only one here, I guess. You almost 'have' to go through here to reach either side of the building, so seeing one of the gang waltz on by isn't all that rare. Every once in a while someone will walk by as I'm writing; I'll get a small wave from Monty when he walks by, a full body wave from Chica like she's trying to catch the attention of a helicopter, a 'look' from Roxy. The only one I haven't seen is Freddy, but that's not all that concerning.
I positioned myself close to a wall, of course, so they don't see what I'm writing. Or at least the closest bean bag to a wall.
There are bean bags in here, by the way. I don't think there always was, but I'll take it.
...
- click, clack, click -
Here comes Roxy again, for the fifth time in the last thirty minutes.
I do my small polite wave that I give everyone who walks by, but let the interaction end there. I want to ask her what the hell she's doing, ping pong-ing back and forth across the building, but I also don't want to capture her attention too hard and get her curious as to what I'm doing.
...
- click, clack, click -
Welp, here she comes anyway.
I inconspicuously tab out of my document just in case, and look up from my screen.
She stops less than a foot away and towers over me with her arms crossed.
...
..Do you expect me to start this interaction? You're the one who came over here.
"Rox."
Immediately her eye twitches.
"I told you to stop calling me that."
"No."
"Mike, I could punt you right now."
"Get along, you tw-!"
HOLY shit! That came from behind me!
I physically jump and panic-slam my laptop closed, craning my neck a little too hard to see where the hell that voice came from.
Freddy. He's sitting in another bean bag very close to mine, looking at me with curiosity/concern following my peculiar reaction to hearing him speak.
Shoot, from the way he's sitting, it veeery strongly suggests he was peering over my shoulder. That's not good.
"Freddy?"
"Micheal?"
"I'm.." I take a quick second to calm my thoughts before continuing to speak. "I.. Didn't know you were there.."
"Oh." Roxanne concludes something behind me, I hear her shuffle her stance.
"M-My apologies! I was unaware you wanted to be left alone! I was.. Sure you noticed me at some point." Freddy ashamedly explains himself, positioning himself to get up.
I didn't mean to make Freddy feel awkward, but now that I have I feel like an asshole.
"No, you're fine. I wasn't trying to be left alone, just-"
"Mike." Roxy whisper-barks behind me. It takes me a moment to realize why.
"..I, uh. I 'was' trying to be left alone.. But you had no way of knowing that, it's not your fault." I fix my previous sentence, relaxing a bit and sitting more comfortably.
"It's alright, Micheal. I should have known you were busy." Freddy continues to get up.
I tilt my head back to the wolf.
"Did you come here for something?"
"I came here to ask since when you two started hanging out." Roxy starts, unfolding one of her arms to point at the both of us subsequently. "Also wanted to know why you never shut the hell up when you and I are together, but you're suddenly content with comfortable silence with him." She folds her arm back in. " 'Makes sense now that I know you somehow managed miss him altogether."
"Mm.."
"How long have you been writing that story of yours?" Freddy asks cheerily, changing the atmosphere to a more positive one.
Shoot, he did see it.. That's really, really bad..
"I've been, uh.. For a while.. I never knew you were looking at it." I respond, trying to keep how apprehensive I am from effecting my voice.
He gives me a fazbear chuckle in response.
"It was very interesting! I had no idea you were that invested in the franchise."
His cheerful tone and the topic at hand betray one another. What does he make of what he read?
Freddy puts his hand up to his mouth and mock-whispers toward me.
"If you show that to Cooper, I bet he would make it an official Fazbear Entertainment book! I've heard him talk about how he needed to address the rumors surrounding this facility directly at some point." He gives me a small pat on the shoulder and a playful mischievous grin, or at least his attempt at one. I take a few seconds to register what he means.
He thinks I'm writing a book.. He thinks it's fictional.
Of course he thinks it's fictional, anyone with half a brain would. Spirits, hauntings, murder mysteries.. There's a lot of rumors surrounding the previous locations, and he thinks I'm just interested in them enough to write a book about them.
"You're writing a 'book'..?" Roxanne raises an eyebrow, though continues to look down at me with contempt.
"Not really, I was just.. I was never planning to release it or make it official, it's just something I like to write in my free time."
"Lemme see." She beckons.
"No."
"What.?"
"Nope."
"You let Freddy see!"
"I didn't know Freddy was there."
"That's not fair!"
"I thought it was good, Micheal." I hear Freddy's voice behind me.
"Thanks, but I want to Finish and proofread it before I show it to anyone else."
"Mike- Come on!" Rox continues.
I grab my laptop and stand up from the bean bag.
"This thing is about dead anyway. I'm going back to the office to let it charge for a bit."
"Are you lying to me again?" She scowls, but it looks more like a pout.
"I'm not lying."
I'm not, actually. I've been working on this thing for a while.
Roxanne just glares in attempted intimidation, bending down to face level.
Having faced infinitely more terrifying foes, it doesn't have the desired effect.
I do, however, boop the nose, and use it to push her away.
"I've gotta go do my job, Rox."
She gently bats my hand away, her face softened in defeat."
"Stop calling me that.."
"I will if you leave me be."
"..Is that a lie?"
"Yes."
Awarded a grumble, she quickly stands up straight and marches off.
"Fine! You probably can't write for shit anyway!"
"Roxanne!" Freddy calls to her from behind me, getting no response. I bemusedly watch her walk the way she came, almost confident she's going the wrong direction from the one she was going originally.
I turn back around after she disappears from line of sight, Freddy's crossing his arms and looking in her direction with discontent.
"I don't mind the swearing. As long as she keeps it away from the children." I speak up to him.
Not sure he heard me, actually.
"...Why didn't HER nose make noise.." I can barely hear Freddy grumble.
I turn around to hide my smirk.
...
Well that scenario turned out better than I expected. It also helped shed some light on things.
This document.. If I can format it to be closer to a book instead of a first person documentary, maybe I COULD sell it as a book. The money would be nice, sure, but.. I dunno, I might be wrong, but I think it would make me feel a little better if what happened became common knowledge to the public, even if the public thinks it's all fictional. Maybe I don't have to be the only person on earth to be burdened with this knowledge.
...
I don't know. I won't worry about it for now; if I do decide I want to publish it, it will be quite some time.
Something to think about, I guess.
Thankfully, Freddy didn't read the entire document. Presumably, only the parts I wrote up today. That's good as well. If anyone reads about the whole 'becoming a purple corpse thing', someone might connect some dots. Especially the gang.
Man, Freddy always knows what to say, even if he doesn't realize it. I have no idea how I would have bullshitted myself out of that scenario of either one of them started asking questions.
...Freddy...
Hey, I have an idea..
This time, I'm the one hovering over Freddy's shoulder.
We made our way into his room. I told him that I had some devices I couldn't figure out the function of. Freddy's the tech wiz of the pizzaplex, so maybe he'll have better luck.
It's been a while though, he's had a look at all the gizmos I've shown him thus far, and he's looking at the last one right now.
Safe to say, he's been struggling as well.
"..Micheal, where on earth did you get all these?"
"Same place Cooper got the plans for the gang. Turns out the man who created you also created hundreds of other things like these."
I scratch the back of my head.
"All of the inventions are as obscure as he was, though.. I've been trying to figure these things out for weeks."
"..Hand me the screwdriver, please.."
"Which one?"
"...'the'..?"
Did Freddy just get sarcastic with me?
I pick up the only screwdriver nearby. I guess Freddy's never had to deal with more than one type of screw...
Unlike the previous trinkets, Freddy did find something recognizable, and was able to unscrew the device to dissect it to an extent.
"These objects.. It's like all the components needed for a supercomputer was compressed into this tiny ball.."
Hopefully that was just a comment on how complex it was, and there isn't actually a supercomputer tucked into that thing.
On another note, this is the first time I've ever heard Freddy get frustrated with anything other than Monty. I can tell he wants to figure these things out as much as I do.
...
...
"Oh...Oh!" Freddy suddenly leans in close, I crane my neck a bit to get a glimpse.
"..I have an idea, Micheal. Stay put."
I'm not going anywhere.
Freddy hops around his room, grabbing various things before returning to his seat and reassembling the trinket.
"Did you figure it out?" I ask, getting a little excited this weeks long mystery might be behind me.
"I'm not sure. I think I can activate it, but I'm not sure what it does."
That's a terrifying thought.
"How so?"
"I believe it requires a power source is all. Give me just a moment, and we can see for ourselves."
If I was seriously defeated by the concept of 'plugging it in', this victory is gonna get awfully bittersweet.
...
"Do you know how to power it?"
The bear chuckles uncertainly.
"I think I can, but I don't think my method is the intended one."
Fair enough.
...
Before long, everything is set.
There are a couple exposed wires, some coming from the trinket itself, and some of them coming from a small battery Freddy had nearby. I think he intends to jump this thing like a car.
How much you wanna bet this thing is a bomb?
"Alright, Micheal."
"Yep?"
"Turn the lights off."
"Turn the lights off..?"
"Turn the lights off."
I obediently head to the light switch.
"You think this'll help?"
"It'll make determining if this thing is functional easier. If a light turns on somewhere, it'll be easy to see."
"Simple enough.."
I slide the light slider down until the lights are completely off.
"Ready Freddy.."
"Yep." Freddy responds.
Gonna be real with you, I was just saying that as an expression.
I stand a few feet back per Freddy's instructions and watch intently.
The wires connect.. Nothing happens at first, but eventually.
A light turns on somewhere in the device.
The room is silent a little longer as we both wait for something catastrophic to happen. Nothing does, though.
"Can I turn the lights back on?"
Freddy lets out a sigh he's been holding.
"Yes, but keep them dim, if you would."
I follow instructions once again, and walk up next to Freddy once I finish.
"I'm.. Still not sure how to use this thing.." Freddy mutters after a little while.
"That's fine, we've made progress."
"That's true, good on you for staying positive."
Freddy removes the wires from one another. The light, however, does not turn off. The both of us continue to stare at it, once again waiting for something catastrophic to happen.
"It must've had a battery." I conclude.
"I suppose so." Freddy holds it to face level, getting up close and personal with it now that it isn't restricted by the wires.
"Any ideas from here?"
"I can't say I have any.. Apologies, Micheal.." Freddy admits, crestfallen.
"It's alright, we'll figure it out eventually."
"You're right." He sighs, holding it out for me to take it. "Want to hold it?"
"Not sure how much help I'll be."
Freddy chuckles as I take it from him.
"You don't give yourself enough credit, Micheal."
Not sure about that one, Fred.
I give it a good look, but quickly give up and look at what Freddy's doing.
He's sorting all of his tools back to where they were across the room, obviously lost in thought. Gotta say, it feels nice sharing this interest with him.
...
Maybe I could help clean up this place, opening isn't all that long from now.
I take a step forward, but immediately stop upon feeling something run down my hand.
I look down. It's the device.. I'm not sure what it's doing, but it's secreting something from a thin line that splits it down the middle.
Embarrassingly, I take an extra second to make sure it's not my sweat. It obviously wasn't, but it's.. I'm not sure..
The substance sure looks weird. It doesn't flow like normal water would.
...
It also feels weird, like it's hardly there. I let it run down my hand, threatening to drip onto the floor.
It's also.. a strange color.. It kinda reminds me.. reminds me of..
It's remnant. It's secreting remnant. This thing makes remnant.
Fuck-!
- CCRUNCH -
...
...
Freddy snapped his head at me the moment he heard the noise, now looking at my hand in pure, utter disbelief.
It happened again. I knew it was coming, but I couldn't stop it in time.
All the emotions I've ever felt swelled up in me once again, my vision went purple, my body moved on it's own before I could take control back from myself.
The very moment I recognized what the substance was, I crushed the device in my hand. Metal doesn't even 'crush' well, it's like I squeezed it so hard it exploded.
My eyes are glazed and fixated on my hand, now torn up from the amount of metal that ripped through it as a result of being crushed. My breathing is heavy as I let the emotions swell back down to controllable levels.
...
I tear my eyes away from my hand as I look around. Bits and pieces of metal are strewn here and there, but nothing seems damaged. Aside from the, y'know.. What was once a functioning device.
As I become more coherent, I get another good look at the damage on my hand. It's not great. One of the screws is sticking into my hand pretty deep. Other pieces of metal are dotted here and there, but none of them are stuck very far. Most of the damage are lacerations, making my hand resemble the pattern of a Zebra's fur.
I look up to Freddy, most of the episode being behind me. He's not looking so hot. In fact, he looks horrified.
Aren't I a douche. I get him interested in something foreign and interesting only to crush it in front of him.
"I-I... Freddy, it-"
"Micheal! Mich-"
Before he can repeat my name, he stumbles up and grabs my wrist.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Micheal, you're-!" Freddy fumbles over his words. "You're broken! You need-!" The adrenaline coursing through the bear was palpable. He looks around the room in a panic, before literally sweeping me off my feet and running through the animatronic corridor.
"Freddy! What-!?'
He bursts through a double door and almost jumps down the stairwell.
I get it, there's a medical station down here.
I look forward where Freddy's running with a grimace on my face. This isn't how I wanted things to go..
...
Now that I've calmed down a bit, actually. I, uh..
It hurts, my hand hurts obviously, but.. But hardly.. The part of my hand where the screw is penetrated feels no worse than accidentally poking your palm with a unusually sharp stick as a kid, and it doesn't even penetrate the skin.
It's also, y'know, bleeding. But once again, not nearly as much as it should be.
...
Another benefit of being a corpse, I guess.. My body must not be reacting to the destruction of healthy tissue very hard, since I hardly had any healthy tissue to begin with.
Heh.. Better than before, at least.. When I dragged myself out of the rubble of the pizzeria, I couldn't feel a single thing. The deprivation almost drove me insane.
Before I can continue making pointless conversation with myself, Freddy rips open the curtain of the medical station.
Over the course of the next minute or two, Freddy and I try to do as much as we know how to do with the injury.. Neither of us being medical professionals, there's some stuff that could've been done better, but whatever.
What's concerning, however, is that Freddy hasn't stopped muttering my name since we got down here. Even now as we apply bandages to the thoroughly cleaned cuts, all he can mutter is: "Micheal, micheal, micheal.." Kind of frightening, if I'm being honest. He must be panicking worse than I thought.
...
"Micheal, micheal, micheal...Micheal?" He speaks a bit louder, seeming to address me this time.
"Yeah?"
"I.. I don't know how what to do about this.. H-How do we..?" Freddy stutters as he points to the obvious bit, the nail sticking out of my hand.
Y'know, I don't really know how to deal with it either. It would be easy if we could just take it out and deal with the wound itself.
...
Y'know what? I'm already a corpse. Can't get much worse than this.
I grab the top of the screw, breath, and rip it out as fast as I could.
Freddy's reaction was stronger than mine, he jumped back almost a foot.
That hurt quite a bit, actually. Now that the nail is out, it hardly hurts at all, but ripping the nail out wasn't a pleasant experience.
"Micheal! What were you thinking!?" Freddy's quick to scramble back over and start inspecting the wound.
Whoof.. That thing penetrated deeper than I thought. I bet if I tried, I would've been able to feel it on the other side of my hand.
Freddy's freaking out, since he's not sure what to do with an injury of this caliber, but I simply do the same stuff to it that I did to every other laceration. I don't know how I'm going to explain it to Freddy, but I'm confident that if I could regenerate from being a mangled mess of flesh in the smolders of a pizzeria, I can regenerate a mildly deeper-than-usual wound.
"Mike.. Mike!"
"It's alright, Freddy."
He called me Mike. Good to know we're bonding over this
"N-No! You are not alright! I'm contacting a hospital."
"Don't."
"Look at your hand! You need someone more qualified to look at your injury."
"Please don't, it's alright, we got it all bandaged up-"
"Mike, that screw had almost completely penetrated your hand. I will not be swayed from this."
Freddy stands up, doing his best to seem authoritative. I can see him shaking ever so slightly, however, breaking the illusion of being calm and collected
"I can get it looked at myself, Freddy. The Pizzaplex will open soon."
"I'll talk to Arin, we'll close down for today."
"No, Freddy- look."
I wave my arm around and grab a few things.
"It isn't as bad as it looks, and I didn't lose much blood. I can handle getting it looked at myself."
"...Micheal, I really think-"
"I understand, and it makes sense why you think that. But I promise you, Fred, I'm alright. I've been through worse."
Freddy's previously stolid and confident body language is replaced by an uncertain and worrisome expression.
He takes a deep breath to calm himself down.
"Micheal, how are you so.. Mmn, I can't even think of a word that would fit.."
"I've chalked it down to stubbornness."
Thankfully, this gets a weak chuckle out of the bear.
"Stubborn's a good start.. I still believe I should tell Arin about what happened.."
"What would you even tell him?"
"There was an accident with one of your machines during the night shift."
"Sounds vague enough."
"What happened, Micheal?"
Suddenly, I'm faced with a question I was hoping I didn't have to answer.
"Sorry Fred, I didn't mean to break the thing as soon as I got you interested in it.." I scratch the back of my head, feeling guilty. I don't really have an excuse other than daddy issues this time around.
"Mike."
Freddy puts his hands on my shoulders, putting noticeably less weight on the arm belonging to the injured hand.
"It was just a tiny machine. I was interested in it, yes, but only because I have a habit of digging into these things. It was interesting, but hardly important to me. You, on the other hand, are very important. Important to 'everyone' in the Pizzaplex, and far more interesting than any baseball-sized piece of metal will ever be."
That.. Kind of took me off guard.. I knew he was shocked about the injury, but I genuinely thought he'd be much more upset about losing that piece of machinery he worked so hard to get running.
"...Oh..." Is the extend of what I'm able to conjure up at the moment.
"Now." He releases my shoulders and stands back up straight. "Micheal."
"Huh?"
"Go tell Arin what happened, and get out of here. No one will fault you for taking a few nights off."
"..Alright."
"And go get your hand looked at before you come back."
"Alright."
"Would it be alright if I told the others what happened?"
"Yeah."
"Perfect." He slaps me on the back reassuringly. "Now go home, I need to clean the metal out of my room before the place opens."
"Alright."
...
"Are you absolutely sure you're alright, Mike?"
"Yeah."
"Alright.. You'll tell me if anything happens?"
"Yeah."
Freddy lets out a sigh that takes a lot of weight with it.
"I'll see you later, Mike."
"Yeah, see you."
Freddy turns around and pitter patters up the stairs, leaving me to my thoughts.
I stare down at the floor in front of me.
...
He was probably just saying that to make me feel better.. I haven't been important to someone in as long as I can remember, and so far I haven't done a single thing to warrant that importance.
Welp.
I give my hand another good look. I swear I can still see a little purple in the very corners of my vision.
What the hell is with my family and the color purple..
...
Whatever.
I push myself up from bench I was sitting on in the med station and take a deep breath.
I 'have' to find a way to control myself in situations like those. I know I've had poor experience with remnant in the past, but it doesn't warrant throwing a hissyfit and obliterating whatever it is I don't like with brute strength like an ape whenever I catch a glimpse of it.
Well.. With any luck, that'll be the last time I run into remnant for a while.
Time to talk to Arin.
I'd be lying if I said I wanted too, but I told Freddy I would, so I will.
Also told him I'd get my hand looked at. Dunno who I'm gonna have look at my hand. Probably not a doctor if I can help it.
I snicker to myself as I begin to trek up the stairs myself.
I know it's technically not lying, but I'm not sure how much better being intentionally misleading is instead.
Sigh. Welp.
I push the doors open, and gaze into the empty animatronic corridor.
Tomorrow's another day. One that I won't be taking off, despite Freddy's pleas.
Lookin' forward to it.