A giggle.
A squeak.
Then silence.
Dollface went flying over a table, quickly growing accustomed to wearing a gutted bear mask streaked with spoiled blood while wandering in a darkened pizzaria after hours. She lay on the floor, not wanting to move ever again, muscles burning and skin stinging, feeling naked as her back spasmed. She stifled her hard breathing, Michael reassuring her as best he could. Dollface eventually stood, body shaking and aching, feeling empty from her encounters.
She hadn't eaten since the post-show snack and had thrown everything else up.
What time was it?
The power was out, preventing her from finding a clock anywhere.
"Hello?"
She searched for the source of the voice, completely isolated inside the mask. It smelled like fun fur, grease, and that smell that seemed to follow Dollface wherever she went inside the restaurant.
"Hi?"
She snapped upright. It hadn't been her imagination.
She batted away flies that tickled and bit at her exposed neck.
Another giggle in the dark, followed by what sounded like a radio, distorted by transistor static.
…I will try my best to keep you safe in this nest…
Dollface stumbled, trying to find her way out of the party room she'd been placed in, trying to reorient herself.
Where was she?
No lights, no landmarks, the glass doors now barred by mechanical security grates were nowhere in sight.
…And keep the gravity from pulling you to Earth.
Dollface was aware she was being watched for sure. Maybe the mask tricked whatever it was into thinking she was one of them.
With this small precaution in mind, she decided to find her friends.
….I'd like to say this gets more clear, when it's more cloudy every day…
…Dollface…
Halfway around a corner, Dollface stopped to adjust her present. What?
Listen.
All Dolface could hear was her panting echoing in the gutted bear's head. The humid, hot breath mixed with the crust formed by the bear's vomit and created the third rankest smell she'd encountered all night.
What for? She asked, only hearing footsteps and musical gurgling.
It's th'song ya like me t'sing.
Dollface's shoulders slumped, the familiar porch song Michael would buzz at her when working was gurgling from her pursuer.
…But summer's gonna come and burn the stormy clouds and all the doubt away.
Dollface took that advice and high tailed it out of there as fast as she could in the dark while wearing a gutted suit head, dodging tables and God knows what else.
This had to be deliberate.
Someone had to know what song that was and played it for this final cruel joke.
…Sleep, little girl, cause when you wake it's gonna be a different world…
She fell into a stinky storage room. She knew it was the storage room because there were bottles and the scuttles and squeaks of rats because William was too "busy" to set out traps.
…So close your eyes and say goodbye to Spring!
Dollface knocked over a crate of spare table cloths and party favors. Then she ducked into a new room, but not before knocking over another box, this one full of presumably teeshirts and plushies for the prize counter.
The bathroom.
Girls' bathroom, to be specific.
She could just see the stalls outlined in the dark.
Dollface ducked into one and locked the stall door, glad she remembered the layout enough to reorient herself.
It's true that spring is comin' to an end…
She heard the laugh of a little girl behind her as she scrambled to get into a stall, the radio only growing louder as she did.
…You're not that fragile anymore…
Dollface held her breath as she heard the heavy, unnatural footsteps of something that shouldn't be able to move. A deep laugh bellowed over the radio of her predator, Michael whispering her away from full-blown panic.
…And I know what's there behind that door…
She could hear the mechanical breathing as its head swiveled like a camera, trying to locate Dollface. Dollface jumped up onto the tank, trying to keep quiet as she shivered from a sudden wave of cold air in a hot room. She winced as her lower stomach twinged painfully, Michael still whispering, warmly singing along to the distorted gurgles of Freddy Fazbear.
…It's just waiting in the wings to pull you in.
She begged him to just take her away from this nightmare, to keep her safe but he tried to hide his tears, explaining that he couldn't pull her through.
…I know you think it's safe in here, inside these insulated walls…
The mechanical bear stretched and squeaked, joints not built for extreme positions. She could hear stitches popping and joints repositioning with groans and suffering squeals. The moment felt so painfully long as she waited for the monster in the dark.
…But I can't hold this house together, not forever, yeah and soon it's gonna fall…
And there it was, blue eyes glowing as she sat on the toilet tank, sticky blood streaking across her thighs.
The eyes blinked, then disappeared with more metallic groaning and stretching of a fursuit., then thumping as it walked unsteadily away from the stall.
…Sleep, little girl, cause when you wake it's gonna be a different world…
Dollface waited a solid minute for the footsteps and music to fade, sitting on the toilet tank. Michael helped her breathe and calm herself.
He instructed her to wait just a bit longer before finding her friends.
Freddy had been fooled by the golden bear's head.
Oh thank Jesus!
Dollface placed a boot on the tiles, remembering and longing for the days before Freddy, Chica and Bonnie replaced Friendly Bear and his band of off-colored imitations.
Those days were over.
If Friendly Bear and his entourage came to life, he'd be nice!
She pressed one clunky work boot into the ground, then placed the other one down, trusting that even if nothing in here was certain, at least the solidness of the floor would.
She let out a breath, standing solidly on the ground.
Dollface flipped the latch open, and stepped out of the stall.
Now to find her friends, if they were okay. She hadn't seen any of them on her tramples through the restaurant.
"Now where do you think YOU'RE going?"
….Everything will change, everything will change….
Dollface let out a startled scream as she was grabbed by her boney arm. She struggled as the furry metal paw lifted her up by her forearm. She screamed as a cheap laugh track of an audience played. She gasped and screamed, her voice reverberating around the skull, completely deafening her as the jittery, muffled song blared.
The door's slamming shut, it's gonna trap you if you're ready or you're not!
The thing used Freddy's jovial voice and snippets of a showtape to taunt her as she kicked it. The monster let her go free after a well placed one in the fuzzy gut.
So close your eyes and say goodbye to spring…
Dollface scrambled away with the grace and glamor of a burning cat, even skidding against the tile in her desperate attempt to escape. She shivered in a cold sweat again, perspiration dripping down her back and beading on her forehead.
If her over-the-top makeup wasn't ruined before, it was completely destroyed now.
Slow down, cause winter's just around the bend…
She scrambled into a new room, slamming the door shut behind her, the same one she remembered being told to stay out of when Henry attempted to give her a tour along with her friends. The only reason she cared or even took note was because while she never planned on entering the empty room, she distinctly remembered Henry hadn't been allowed in there himself.
…..Don't make a sound, and close your eyes and say goodbye-
Creeeeeeeeeee...Snap!
She spun on her heels from where she stood panting by the door, still able to hear the radio behind her. Dollface really hoped this mask had worked, but it didn't seem to slow her pursuer much, as he was still banging on the door behind her. She probably wouldn't survive tonight between the painful cramping and the monster that used air cylinders when it wasn't attached to them, but hey, when they found the body, she'd look pretty damn metal.
Maybe they'd talk about her and try to solve the mystery of how an upcoming pop sensation was killed in a freak accident.
A scary legacy was better than none at all.
….Sleep, little girl, cause when you wake it's gonna be a different world…
Dollface scurried, nearly doubling in pain as she reached for a corner to hide in.
…Everything will cha-
She turned to see the exit sign blink on over the door frame with an eerie LED buzzing. It bathed a large, segmented figure in red as its blue eyes burned two bright smears into her eyelids. It yawned as a giant, grand old music box cut off the already playing song with the theme from Carmen.
This was it, wasn't it?
The end of the line.
She didn't want to accept this, but it seemed that this was the only option.
Dollface had fought through hell and almost made it back.
Oh well, maybe her friends found a way home and escaped to the other side without her.
But that was okay, they were safe, and were probably sending a search team because they couldn't find her and Dollface's sacrifice would have saved them.
As long as they were safe, Dollface thought, then she would willingly die happy.
I'm sorry, Dollface, I should've done more.