Chapter 15: In the Vents

AUTHORS NOTE: "Gregory, do you see the small vent on the floor? Have you ever heard of Among Us, Gregory? You need to vent. I know it will be hard for you to be sus but i know you can do it Gregory"

Sorry for the reference but I couldn't help it lol. Also I made some changes to the previous chapter in terms of timing. Gregory is brought to the office by Vanny and arrives at 11:25pm instead. When he wakes up again, it's 11:35pm and he exits via the vents at 11:42pm.

Ok onto the chapter.

—

Location: Ventilation System

Time: 11:45pm

Henry and William had just left a vibrant carnival and were waiting for their parents to fetch them from a nearby road curb. Around this time, Henry was 12 years old while William was 10 years old. This was the last Summer they would ever have together for a long time.

"Will, I've been meaning to ask, how come you got free rides at the Carnival while I had to keep paying for tickets?" Henry asked.

"That's because I told them I was 6. Children under the age of 6 get free rides, you know."

"And they believed you?"

"Yep. All I had to do was make Goo Goo eyes at them and they fell for it. Also my erm height kind of helped." William gestured to their height differences. Henry had a bit of a growth spurt recently so obviously, he'd gotten taller. William meanwhile hadn't changed much at all.

"Are you upset that you haven't gotten taller yet?"

"Upset? Why would I be upset?" William scoffed, "Being this small helps me to crawl into narrow spaces, look younger than I really am and I even read that short people live longer."

"That's interesting…"

The memory fades as Gregory continues to crawl in the tight, claustrophobic space of the vents.

'How much longer until I get out of here?' Gregory sighed internally. He wasn't sure how long he had been in here. He was making left and right turns blindly hoping to find an exit but there was none at all. It was like a maze.

However, the boy doesn't give in to hopelessness and forces himself to keep going but suddenly, making a left turn, he hears something in the distance: The gentle sound of a music box echoing in the narrow vents. Worse, it was playing something he recognised from his past life…

It's Christmas and he's sitting with Henry on a carpet in his home near a warm fire. On Henry's lap is a little baby girl, probably no older than 3 and in his hands is a metallic blue box with intricate patterns around it. Henry pushes it gently into her hands and opens the box.

There's a ballet dancer in a blue dress inside that spins as the tune of "My Grandfather's Clock" plays.

"Look Charlotte, Uncle William and I made this for you. Isn't it beautiful? Here, I'll show you how it works…there's more than one song in it…"

Even though this was a wonderful memory, it was also poisoned with sadness from tragic events that would soon take place in the future...

Gregory remembers: Charlotte Emily, Henry's daughter. He did something awful to her but…he can't recall what. Then again, maybe it was for the best for now.

In a narrow path that only goes straight forward, Gregory crawls while listening closer to the sound of the music box. The more he listened, the more he realised that the sound was coming from inside the vents. Not outside. And worse, he could hear that it was coming from right behind him.

For now, Gregory doesn't turn around and keeps worming forward since he can't turn his head around anyway in such a cramped space. He would examine where the noise was coming from once he could get enough headspace.

More time passed but the music box still didn't stop. In fact, it was just getting nearer and nearer. Then, he starts to feel vibrations coming from behind him as well. However, it wasn't coming from one direction but all over the vent's surfaces: Top, bottom, left and right. That's the pattern it went in. The vibrations were like a spiral. Then, just as suddenly as they appeared, they suddenly stopped…but Gregory could still hear that damned music playing.

Eventually, Gregory enters a path in the vents that gives him much more room to move and two directions to choose from. He gets up from a crawling position and into a crouching one as he picks the left path. However, upon going in, he freezes in fear.

In front of him was some kind of white coloured, animatronic Spider…thing with a top hat, suction cup legs and a rectangular face (of sorts). Friendly Pink rosy cheeks, nose and eyebrows which contrasted with a pair of large black eyes that stared into his soul and an equally black gaping mouth with multiple "teeth" that were missing or broken. In his hands were a pair of cymbals and on it's chest, between two stripes on it's left and right, was a single speaker with two smaller speakers on top of and below it.

"Bring to master. Must bring to master." It hissed as its teeth chattered. Then, the tune suddenly changed to something else: A fast paced rendition of "Pop Goes the Weasel".

William is chased in the dark by a pale white face. He got careless trying to re-activate it...

Gregory turned and went in the other direction, running as fast as he could. However, it seems the spider robot had a trick up its sleeve. It launches some kind of rope at him that grabs his legs. Gregory screams as he falls down and looks behind.

Instinctively, he pulls out the knife and cuts the rope, continuing to rush towards a possible exit (wherever it was).

"Freddy! Freddy! Come in! I need help." Gregory called, tapping his Fazwatch repeatedly.

—

CRASH CRASH CRASH

On the other side of the mall, Freddy was running and hiding for his own life as well. Monty keeps breaking everything in the area to find the Giant Bear and growls.

"I know you are on reduced power for the night! You can't run forever Freddy!"

Freddy hides behind one of the pillars and hopes Monty goes away. Recently, Monty had gotten an upgrade to his claws. They were meant to make him a better Bassist Player but somehow, they'd also made him more aggressive than usual. The giant bear knew this but still, tried to be nice to him whenever he was in his moods but tonight, he was angrier than usual.

Additionally, the new claws had also made Monty much stronger in terms of combat prowess. For what reason, Freddy did not know but here he was, experiencing just how deadly Monty had become with the upgrade.

Ultimately, Mike and Henry told him to just run as Monty couldn't be reasoned with. However, when that didn't work, he had to run and hide much like Gregory was doing.

'I hope the boy is alright'. Freddy thinks while assessing the damage he has received. Freddy was grateful for the advice of the ghosts as if he kept trying to go on the defensive with Monty, he would definitely have become scrap metal.

Bits of the lightning bolt on his chest had been scratched badly from the confrontation earlier and his body already had cracks on them, especially his arms which had taken the brunt of the damage earlier while Freddy was trying to defend himself and reason with the angry gator. Eventually, the Gator got a good swipe and ripped a good chunk of metal right off of his right arm. Had he done any further damage, his arms would have definitely been torn clean off.

Meanwhile, Henry and Mike are conversing strategies as to how to get away from Monty with a distraction when Freddy is once again contacted by Gregory who sounds exhausted.

"Freddy," The boy panted, "where are you?" "Come in."

There was loud metal clanking in the background.

"Hello Superstar. Are you alright? You don't sound too good".

"Argh!" Gregory swings his knife from the other side. "I'm being attacked by a Spider thing in the vents. I can't shake it off and I have no idea where I'm going or how to get out of here. Can you help me out?"

"Of course. Tracking your location."

After a minute, Freddy speaks to Gregory again.

"You are above one of the many Arcade Areas in the Pizzaplexand there are two exits. The nearest one is down your current path. Make two rights and you will find an opening which will lead you to the Arcade."

"Is it open? There'd better not be something blocking me!"

Freddy checks the security camera around that area in his head.

"Yes. It's open."

Gregory sighed in relief as he continued to dodge and cut off the strings from the creature that were trying to tie him down.

"That's great." He breathes a sigh of relief, "Do you think you could pick me up from there too?"

"I'll try Superstar but I'm also in a pinch at the moment. Monty is after me. Once I shake him off, I'll meet you at the Arcade."

Freddy cuts off the line reluctantly. He wanted to talk to Gregory more but he didn't want to also risk alerting Monty to his location.

"Is Monty gone yet?"

"Nope." Mike reports. "He's still here."

"I'm worried about Gregory. I feel like we should sprint out now while we have the chance. If we don't, he'll be captured and possessed by William".

"That would be great actually. When he's possessed, we get to kill two Williams in one go." Mike grins gleefully.

"Ignore him Freddy." Henry does a waving gesture, "I agree. We need to go. Now."

Freddy follows Henry's advice and tries to leave. However, Freddy's feet are too loud and heavy even when trying to sneak away and they instantly get Monty's attention.

"There you are!" Monty gives chase again but being a bit of a bulkier animatronic, his speed is thankfully a little slower. Freddy then breaks into a run again. As he heads in the direction of the Arcade, he has to alternate between running and walking as it depletes his battery a little faster. Thus it gave Monty a bit of time to catch up.

They eventually reach the open area of the mall where the ceiling is high above them, showing the moonless sky above. The moment they reach this area, Monty does something unexpected: He does a massive leap that causes him to jump high above Freddy and jumps right in front of him, blocking the path ahead.

"What the Hell!" Mike exclaims.

"I did not know he could do that. He must have gotten some other upgrades recently that I was unaware of." Freddy replies to Mike equally alarmed.

"Where are you going Freddy?" Monty questions him, "Why did you start running in this direction?"

Freddy recalculates another route and turns around on his heel, taking an alternative route…

—

Location: Arcade Area

Time: 11:51pm

"Ah!"

Gregory takes a leap of faith and jumps out of the vent. Hoping the distance between him and the ground wasn't too high. Luckily, he lands on his feet safely in front of a diverse array of arcade machines. They had pinball, basketball, claw machines and much more.

Much like the Daycare, he felt like he would like to come back here one day when he wasn't running for his life at the moment.

He looks upwards, seeing that the robotic spider hasn't caught up with him yet and decides to run for it. How wrong he was.

The Spider jumps from the vent and onto his head.

"AH!" Gregory falls down due to the weight of the spider robot landing on his head.

The spider robot then scuttles down his back and tries to tie his hands but Grgeory has already gotten a hold of the knife and bends his right arm to stabs its side blindly.

"Hsssss!" The robot oddly enough reacts in pain to the stab and jumps away, giving Gregory enough time to recover and stand up. He looks left and right for an exit. The place has about 8 Security Bots patrolling the area (as far as he could see). If one of them got a hold of him, the nearest animatronics would likely be alerted to his presence.

Gregory gets an idea but almost instantly, he shuts it down as he fears that the Bots won't just attract Freddy but also the other three to his current whereabouts.

Gregory looks back at the Spider but it has disappeared behind one of the many arcade cabinets.

He panics. Where did it go?!

Gregory looks around and sees movement from the right side. The Spider pounces and he slashes at it with the right timing. He cut it's legs and it howled in pain.

A girl with black hair in two ponytails screams as she falls down

The spider scuttles away again with one damaged leg. Gregory remains on high alert, wondering where it will spring from next…

"Hello Will." One of the arcade monitors flicker to life with the image of a gold grinning rabbit.

"You?"

"Yes, Me, you rude brat. You ignored the conversation I was trying to start earlier." William said grumpily.

"Yeah, I did." Gregory snarks, "And I'll do it again".

"Very well, I'll give you something you can't ignore then."

One of the screens in front of Gregory flickers to life and displays footage of Freddy being damaged and trying desperately to escape from Monty. Gregory's eyebrows crease in worry.

"That Giant Bear you seem so fond of...He was looking for you and I sent Monty after him while you were unconscious. If you didn't space out at that exhibit earlier, he wouldn't have ended up this way".

On the screen, Freddy is seen rubbing the arm with the metal plate completely torn off.

"This is what we are Will. All we ever do is hurt the people around us."

In the reflection of the arcade Screen, Gregory sees the creature again and turns behind, stabbing another one of it's legs. It screams and backs away but this time, a little slower. He could see it was getting weakened. Good.

William mercifully goes away as the screens around him switch off. He didn't know why though but at least it was one less problem to worry about.

Gregory needed to be in a clearer space to see where the creature could come from and so, he darted towards the centre of the Arcade area, a circular area that was lit by a few dim spotlights from above. He felt like he was standing in some kind of Gladiator arena, waiting for his opponent. He decided that once it got close enough, he would stab it somewhere fatal. Probably the speakers or the head? That would work.

Movement again. It rapidly rushes towards him and it pounces but timing it right, he cuts a good section of it. The small monster retreats again into the dark and behind the arcade cabinets.

Gregory's hands were shaking but not in fear, it was more…excitement?

Suddenly, the spider catches him off guard, ejecting the string towards and around his legs and pulling him downward again. It leaps and Gregory intuitively positioned the knife in front of his chest. Unable to change its direction in time, the Spider impales itself directly on his knife.

The spider twitches, the blade lodged deep in his chest, and Gregory flings it to his left, falling down with a "Thunk" noise. Gregory took deep breaths as he stood up and saw that the thing was still alive but it couldn't move, only able to flail due to the damage to some of its legs. However, Gregory knew it would try to get up soon on it's undamaged ones and so, he decides to finish it off.

At that instant, Gregory finds himself locked into another one of William's memories…and this was a particularly strong one.

The environment begins to shift from the Arcade to a room of checkered tiles. Bright red blood has been split on the floor. A girl lies there weakened but with a piece of shattered glass in hand. William stands in front of her with bloody knuckles and a knife. On his torso is a stab wound.

"Look at what you did to me you stupid girl. For this, I'll make you suffer dearly." he spat resentfully.

William strode towards the girl in the yellow pinafore who was trying to crawl away from him on broken legs…

Gregory's expression of fear turned into a manic smile as he loomed above the now powerless animatronic. He raises the knife and brings it down, once, twice, three times and over and over again without stopping. His stabs become faster and cut deeper into the mechanical creature who he now sees as a child with a horrified, pained expression on her face. He craves more. Much more. He's in love with this feeling.

–

"This is beautiful." William sighs in wonder.

"What is?" asks Vanny.

"This." William brings up live footage of Gregory grinning from ear to ear while violently slashing and stabbing the small robot without a care in the world from a nearby camera on her smartphone.

"Indeed." Vanny agrees with his words as always.

"He's embracing his true nature, Vanny; relishing in it as he's destined to be. Will loves it too much, he'll crave more, I bet…"

–

Outside, Freddy is tussling with Monty but manages to push him away. That's when he sees the child with the blue shirt within the middle of the Arcade.

"Gregory! Gregory! I'm here –" Freddy loudly proclaims but pauses the moment he sees what's happening before him, "Gregory?"

Gregory is too caught up in the memory to see the Giant Bear as he tears into the machine savagely with his knife, it's gears and wires flying everywhere.

"I don't think that's "Gregory"." Mike stares at the boy's facial expression, "Not now at least."

From behind, Henry walks towards Gregory, feeling like he's seen this before. He walked into one of William's murders and was frankly disgusted by what he saw.

"Gregory! Snap out of this right now. We're here for you alright?"

"Henry?" the boy blinks and turns his head upwards to face him, "Sorry, I'll clean up the body later."

Gregory collapses to the floor, completely tired out from the battle with the spider robot.

"Freddy. Save the boy." Henry orders, "Mike, try to possess Monty and I don't know, make him freeze in place for a moment or something while me and Freddy get out!"

"Are you serious?" Mike grabs him by the collar, "Did we not see the same thing?! That child is –"

"I know what I saw!" Henry shouted at Mike shakily, "but still…please just do this alright."

"Fine," Micheal lets go of Henry, "at least I'll get the pleasure of killing him myself if we take him".

Henry gazes worried at Mike. His mental state has been getting worse around anything that involved Gregory. Still it was understandable, his father had abused him for years…to the point where not even dying could save him from his father's cruelty.

Mike does as Henry orders and jumps into Monty who had just begun charging towards them, possessing him. Monty freezes in place.

"Why? Why can't I move?" Monty tries to move his claws and legs but nothing is working.

"Okay grab him now!" Mike tells Freddy.

The Giant Bear scoops up the unconscious child in his hands swiftly. Mike holds the Gator in place until he sees they have left the Arcade. However, while inside Monty, he senses some kind of …paranormal corruption in his system and then, out of the blue, he hears and senses a very familiar presence. And it seems he has sensed him too.

"Micheal? What a surprise. Wasn't expecting you here as well." William's elegant voice greeted him.

Mike goes into shock upon hearing his Father's voice again for the first time in years.

"Heh, it seems like we are fated to encounter one another eternally in one way or another. You won't die unless I do".

Fearing what his Father might do or say to him next, Mike exits the Alligator animatronic instantly and teleports back into the safety of Freddy who thankfully isn't too far from him.

"Well…this night is certainly getting more exciting…" William muses, intrigued as he watches his eldest son, his Vessel and the Giant Bear depart.

END of Chapter 15

Next Chapter title: ?

Summary: Henry and Mike argue about what to do with Gregory when their argument is rudely interrupted by Moon who wishes to take Freddy away for repairs.