Chapter 12:

Deviancy

Yesterday had been an interesting day, especially for Lily. Upon arriving at the camping site, she accidentally came across a boy around the same age as her, who was lucky enough to obtain the limited-edition Novelty Fazwatch, given by none other than Freddy Fazbear himself! Later, she found out that he also managed to sneak out a Fazcam without being caught at the impenetrable security checkpoint. She asked how he had miraculously executed it. Unfortunately, some secrets were meant to be kept. Then, when he gave her pictures of the forest he had taken using the Fazcam, she noticed a strange-looking stick figure thingy hung on one of the tree branches.

She received nothing when she looked up an applicable explanation by asking family, friends, and relatives. After that, she went on the Internet in hopes that it would give her detailed information, none of them satisfied her curiosity. The only thing she would advocate was the purpose for those uncanny marks could somehow be related to witchcraft activities, which, of course, was highly unlikely. But was it as unlikely as stumbling upon an animatronic bear while walking around the forest, an animatronic bear who was literally Freddy Fazbear himself? Oh, yeah. She didn't remember when was the last time she had her brain melted while having to use the remaining grey matter to keep herself sane and stable.

Just when everything had cooled down, yet again, she was sent to oblivion.

"What!?", both Lily and Daniel shouted in disbelief.

"The animatronics tried to kill you?!", she added.

"There was a killer lady wearing a rabbit costume dancing around the building with a knife?!", exclaimed her brother.

"I… W-Well… I'm not sure Freddy's friends were really evil or not. I mean, they would act normally whenever Freddy talked to them, but they would go wild whenever they saw me going alone.", stuttered Gregory, who was startled by the sudden reaction of the siblings. "But I'm absolutely sure that there was a lady who wore a rabbit costume. For some reason, though, Freddy couldn't see her at all, she must have used something to cause his vision to malfunction."

As much as she wanted to refute those preposterous claims made by her friend, the boy had no reason to lie about it, let alone he had roamed around the Pizzaplex and saw more places than she did. Freddy said nothing, which baffled her mind even more as she didn't expect the bear to not react upon hearing his friends being told to have a killing intent. Also, talking about killing, she couldn't wrap her head around the fact that there was a lady in a rabbit costume who went after the boy and somehow managed to stay invisible to the eyes of the bear. What was that lady doing there? Could she be the reason why the animatronic acted so strangely out of a sudden?

"W-Wait… H-Hold on.", said the brother, who was laughing nervously. "Dude, you are joking, right? This is some pretty serious stuff. The police might get involved!"

"Believe me, I'm telling the truth.", said Gregory. "You guys shouldn't go back to that place. It's very dangerous! I have seen the newspapers, there have been many missing children incidents taking place around the building!"

"Yeah, no shit.", remarked the man. "That's literally the sole reason why the controversies still have their ranks unchanged on the trending tab, which is why the company keeps getting backlashes from them. People have been talking about it, but you already know the outcome, they still came back for more pizzas. But hey, you only have to stick to your parents and nothing bad would happen, right? Just need to hold their hands tight and don't wander alone into dark hallways. It's that easy."

"Why didn't people sue the company?", demanded the boy.

"They did.", responded the man. "But with a heap of dosh, everything can be anything."

"…What?"

Lily rolled her eyes, seemingly frustrated at her brother. "What he meant was that the company bribed the judges so that they could get away. It's still debatable, though, there's no evidence to back it up. So, no one can know for sure."

The boy blinked; she could tell how he was having a hard time regaining his composure by looking at the eyes of his. Such unacceptable incredulity and sizzling indignation, so intense that she could feel the raging fire inches away. It reminded her of the way she used to react when she came across the missing children incidents while surfing the Internet. Although, unlike the boy, who seemed to be furious like the rest, her feelings were… mixed. She was afraid, yes, afraid because knowing how easy it was for a child to go missing since the Pizzaplex was an enormous and gigantic building, afraid because of how often it was for these incidents to occur in a span of a year.

Soon, that afraid changed to worry. She was worried, yes, worried because this could lead to the Pizzaplex being closed for good, which, chances of her ever getting to see the bear again would undoubtedly be zero; worried because the bear and the rest of the animatronic band would be shut down, forever locked away from the outside world. But why? Why, though? Why should she feel anxious for mere machines which were only capable of performing and throwing birthday parties? Was it because she wouldn't be able to see the bear again? Or, perhaps, was it because of how oddly emotional and expressive the animatronics were? For she had seen it, the way Freddy and his friends conveyed their emotions. Joy, happiness, surprise, excitement… So real and genuine that she couldn't decide whether it was excellent work done by the mechanic and technician or how "human" the animatronics looked and sounded.

As if they were alive…

"Lily, don't return to that place ever again.", declared the boy as he turned his gaze at her. "You have to trust me."

"W-Well, I mean, I did tell you that I would come back again to meet Freddy in person.", she replied. "But… um… you know, now that he's here… I think I don't really have to go back to that place again."

When mentioning the bear, her eyes furtively switched to Freddy, who was sitting next to the boy, only to be looked back at by his wide and blue river eyes.

Upon seeing that, she jumped and immediately returned her gaze to the ground, face reddened. Poor girl, she was still shocked when she first came across the bear out of nowhere while going on a trip around the woods. She didn't even have a moment to revise what had been happening since the beginning. Whenever she stared at the bear, her hands wouldn't stop trembling, her heart wouldn't stop pounding. With the adrenaline exceeding limitation, she was moments from an emotional burst. And when the bear stared at her, well, some chemical reactions happened within the brain. At that moment, her mental mind would split in half, as a half exploded in pure disbelief and excitement at how she was able to meet the bear in person while the other half shivered from absolute panic and terror at how scarily unlikely the situation was.

When she finally calmed down, it was then she realized something. Although she could only see it in a span of less than a second, she was certainly sure that the bear was carrying a saddened look. And she had never seen him in a sad mood before.

"That's… good to hear.", said the boy, slowly trailing off.

No one spoke for a few moments after. Ultimately, the feeling of awkwardness slowly kicked in.

Not again… She couldn't believe she was hoping for her brother to reignite the conversation again or say something random to start a new subject so that they would talk until lunchtime, which was when she would excuse herself and speedily dashed straight back to her campground like there was no tomorrow. She had her reasons.

A few seconds later, Daniel remained silent. She didn't expect that to happen. Well, patience's the key, they said.

Another few seconds later, the guy was still silent. She couldn't, she just couldn't. She was going to die in awkwardness sooner or later if she didn't signal her brother to speak up. Using the elbow, she lightly tapped his arm, causing him to jerk back.

"What?", he quietly asked.

"I can't take this anymore. This is too awkward.", she muttered. "Say something to start the conversation again."

"What?", he asked again, this time, his voice was slightly raised.

Eyes rolled, she leaned her body forward, near to his ears so that he could hear more clearly. "I said, say something so that everyone doesn't feel awkward anymore."

Just when she could barely react, the guy grew a wide smirk, then he proceeded to loudly rephrase everything she had just said. Things would have been fine had he not spoken the excessively and incorrectly modified version.

"What? You said you want an autograph and a selfie with Freddy?", he said, barely holding back his laughter. "Why even ask me? He's right in front of you. Just politely ask him and he'll do it."

It was then she had ultimately decided that her brother was an abomination created by mother nature, and she was extremely ill-fated to have a brother like him. Right now, she just wanted to bury her head into the ground so badly that she would do it no matter what it took. Face concealed in palms; ears reddened to the point that she could feel the heat radiating from them. Even though she could not see Freddy's and Gregory's expressions, she imagined they would feel awfully awkward as well, especially the bear. Oh, God, why…When she was finally able to go back to the campground, that annoying "abomination" was going to have a bad time.

Daniel had his enjoyable laughter, until he too stopped with a cough. "Ahem. You're right. This is too awkward.", he suddenly declared, then he stood up, "Let's go back to our campground."

She blinked, along with everyone else.

"What!?", she exclaimed.

"What? If you want to continue the trip around the forest, then let's go.", said the brother casually. "Or if you want to stay and have fun with Gregory, I'm fine with that. You can hang out with them, I'll go and then come back to pick you up later."

"N-No, t-that's not… I mean, o-of course, I'm coming with you!", she stuttered. "But… uh… What about Gregory and Freddy?"

"None of our business.", he shrugged. "Are you coming or not?"

"What?! You just can't…"

She hesitantly switched her gaze between him and the boy and the bear as if she was caught in a dilemma. Not really, though, she knew for sure that if she chose to stay, she wouldn't be able to keep her mind sane for even a second whenever the bear was nearby. Then again, leaving them behind was something not right to do as well. She couldn't just… walk away and pretended that all of this never occurred before this morning. It just felt wrong. In the end, there was no other choice, for the sake of her sanity and mental health, she decided to stand up.

"W-Wait!", the boy called out as he quickly bolted up, which caused the bear to do the same. "Y… You guys aren't going to tell the others, right?"

"Relax, dude, this is between us only. I can guarantee.", he replied with a wink. Seemed legit. Then, he turned to look at her. "So, you want to continue the trip? Okay, then let's go to the lake. It's pretty close from here."

"Um… Isn't that where they are heading next?", she asked nervously.

"Well, they can join us if they want. More people, more fun.", he replied, then he diverted his gaze at the boy. "You guys coming?"

The two exchanged each other gaze for a few moments.

They wouldn't come, right? Surely not…

Unexpectedly, they did come with her.

A silk scarf over green hills, undulating with the earth, leading into the horizon of land meeting sky, the path before his feet felt like an invitation to the soles, that it wanted him to travel and find out what lay upon it. The path was both light and deep with the spring sun interweaving with the shelter of the trees and the dappled light making a merry morphing mosaic of nature's gifts. It could have been woven for thousands of years, perhaps in a place where time was truly forever, a place of eternal serenity. Each of his footfall was cushioned from below and the next encouraged, for this was a path given to the walker, to the one who loved adventure and a chance to follow the rising sun.

Freddy walked in a hush, for silence and quietness were his companions in these difficult times. Why was it difficult? He did not know why. Up until now, for some unexplainable reasons, his mainframe had been building up the heat, causing his system to occasionally activate the cooling procedure so that the components wouldn't get damaged from the rising temperature. He found it strange, as an animatronic's circuit would only heat up were there to be an overload in the system, which triggered what was known as "information blockage" when the flow of information was suddenly halted due to some technical issues. A notable example was experiencing extreme and dramatic emotions such as shock, fear, stress et cetera.

Then again, he was sure that he hadn't been experiencing such negative sensations, let alone the fact that all he had been receiving were total awkwardness and embarrassment. It was one of the moments where he would wish his mainframe to somehow malfunction and proceed to commit shut down so that he wouldn't succumb to the awkwardness.

"Hey, Freddy.", whispered a small voice from below. "Are you okay?"

He looked down and saw Gregory, the boy was wearing a concerned gaze, hand holding his big and metallic fingers. He understood why the boy asked such a question, for anyone could notice the low-spirited and pessimistic look of his, clear and apparent like in broad daylight. Daniel and Lily might not be aware of it since they had been focusing their eyes on the trail ahead. The girl was cautious, she always tried to hide from his sight by either staying a fair amount of distance from him or hiding behind her brother. Talking about the brother, the guy was scarily calm and couldn't care less about a seven-foot-tall animatronic bear walking beside him. It greatly baffled him. Shouldn't everyone be terrified of his menacing appearance?

"I am fine.", he replied with an encouraging smile. "Thank you for asking."

Something told him that the boy was not satisfied with the answer of his.

Everyone walked in silence for another moment, until Daniel decided to break it.

"So… Gregory,", the guy called out, hands in the pockets. "What have you taught Freddy about the outside world so far? I mean, didn't the guy say that he had no idea what's beyond the Pizzaplex?"

"Um. Nature and animals, I guess?", said the boy, somewhat uncertain. "I don't really know. There's too much to learn so I just taught him whatever we came across."

"I wonder if there's a bear in this forest.", the guy hummed amusingly, then he turned to look at him. "Do you know what a bear looks like? Like, a real bear, an animal counterpart of you that is."

"I have… never seen one before. Though, I assume that it would somewhat look similar to me in terms of appearance.", he replied. "What does it look like?"

"Well, it's brown, pretty big in size, doesn't put up makeup, walks on four instead of two, though it can actually stand on two sometimes. Your face certainly looks like one. Wait, no… On second thought, you look nothing like a real bear."

That caused him to widen his eyes. Since he was called a bear, even his name had the word "bear" in it, he ought to look like one. Yet, Daniel's contradictory commentary on his appearance had brought quite a surprise. "H-How so?"

"How do I even put this…", said the guy, who was forcefully scratching his head. "Just… wait until you encounter one, then you'll get why."

He didn't comment, which was a good choice since he had no idea know what to even respond to anymore. But after talking to Daniel, he felt… relieved somehow. Perhaps, the guy was his only escape key to this endless spiral of madness and torture, a chance to break free from these chains of awkwardness, an opportunity to remember what it felt like to be within the embrace of what once used to be called "home". Whenever the siblings get wrapped up in a quarrel, it faintly reminded him of his friends - Roxy and Monty to be exact, who would always involve themselves in a fight for comical reasons. Having the prideful wolf and the short-tempered gator acted as ideal family-friendly adversaries, those times he had spent with them became more golden and precious than it already was.

Minutes later, he noticed the gradual changes around him: trees that appeared less often, the canopies that no longer obstructed streams of light raining from the blue sky, soil that impeded from ever stretching to the horizon, most notable of all was the gurgling sound of the flowing water coming from nearby walls of bushes… all of which stopped at what seemed to be a giant disc of bright blue.

"We're here. Man, I thought it would take longer.", said Daniel as he stretched his body. "Now if you excuse me, I'm answering nature's call."

"Didn't you do it like fifteen minutes ago?", asked the girl.

"I guess I drank too much soda this morning. Anyways, have fun exploring. I'll be back in a second.", the guy casually shrugged before disappearing into the shrubs.

As if being hypnotized by such magnificent, the bear cared not about the world that revolved around him as he slowly made his way towards the lake, step by step.

Green grasses lapped at blue waters, as if it was the land that kisses up to them, creating a view that breathed. At the edge, the land met and carried right on as a perfect reflection. It was in teardrop-silver in color and it was shaped like a perfectly flat disc of metal. Like a mirror on the wall, it was oval and flat. Out on the lake, flopping trout were slapping the surface. The heaven-leaking light added a golden tint to the face of the lake and it was paradise. A startling eureka moment came unbidden, which involved the beauty of the natural world.

In that land of virescent beauty, behold, the finest of mirrors, never showing exactly what was above, but converting it to an image so beautifully smudged and broken. Brighter than the colours of one's dreams, it was the minerals of the glacier that shone cyan, turquoise, shimmering blues. Against the greens of the hills, it sat as if in the most impossible of paintings, the artist painting with colours he thought would fade in time but never did. No sound rang out from the shimmering emptiness of space around it. Monastery quiet, it was lined with pine trees and the whiff of mint wafted up to him. The idyllic scene took the breath away. Unruffled by wind or rain, it was vault still and restful. The only sounds were the murmuring of the dying waves as they collided with the sandy shore.

It was as silver as diamond flame and the atmosphere was convent quiet. Even the depths were vodka clear. It was soothing and yogi still. Freckled trout were leaping for flies and thunking on its surface. The rising sun caused a division of armed flies to swarm into the air. The weeping willow, the clouds above, all become a Monet – all free for the looking. The scene was so glorious that he had a lightning bolt moment. Sure, it was transient, changing by the day, but that was what made it all the more precious. He felt he could walk here every day and always it would be both different and the same.

Wanting to submerge in this heavenly and blissful piece of nature's creation, he nearly forgot the fact that he was built with chips and wires. For letting these vital components come in contact with the water was a death sentence, he could only gape and contemplate the serene sight in sighs and discontent.

So beautiful, yet so deadly at the same time.

Yet, there were some parts that felt… blue and desolate. Something was missing. The picture had yet to complete.

I wish you were all here…

"You know, this is actually my first time relaxing by the lake with an animatronic bear.", mused Daniel out of nowhere.

Upon hearing that, he widened his eyes as he quickly turned to the right, speechless.

"What? I have been standing here for a minute already. You didn't even notice?", said the guy. "Damn, I guess you're too mesmerized by the lake."

"I… did not know that. I apologize."

He then turned around, only to see the children nowhere to be found. Just before his stress indicator started to rise up to a hundred, Daniel had come to save the day.

"If you're asking where Gregory and Lily are, they are chit-chatting nearby."

"O-Oh, thank you for telling me."

Both were silent for a while.

"Man, why would she keep her distance from you? You're literally her biggest idol.", the guy chuckled. "When you guys are back on the road again, I'm going enjoy her wincing on the dirt. Ha!"

"Perhaps, she was shy.", he reasoned.

Seeing children being nervous was something he used to encounter while celebrating birthday parties, especially if it was their first time meeting him in person. Whenever he was standing in front of them, they would either slowly recede or hide behind their parents. He understood why they reacted like that. Who would blame them for not welcoming him when he was a seven-foot-tall animatronic bear that was towering them like an elephant compared to an ant? Some even had to "break" their neck to look at him – a reason why he had to crouch down whenever he talked to them. Then again, seeing children feeling anxious when confronting him was actually quite a rare sight to behold, as most of them would launch at him without hesitation as if he was a giant teddy bear while ignoring the fact that his shell was made out of hard metal.

"Heh, probably because she wasn't expecting to meet you in the middle of the woods. Who can know for sure? Even I was shocked. Still, I can't believe I am talking to the one and only Freddy Fazbear while on a camping trip."

"I am terribly sorry if I scared you and Lily. As there is a lot of mud and dirt out here in the forest, my appearance does not look very appealing at the moment."

"I'm not that scared of you, though.", said the man as he waved one of his hands, implying that he was alright with it. "Well, I was a little bit frightened back then. Now I'm not, unless you decide to bite my head off that is. Hehe."

"Oh, no! I-I would never do such a thing, for I am programmed not to hurt any human.", he stuttered. "I can guarantee, Fazbear Entertainment assures that safety is our top priority. You do not need to be concerned about it."

"Hm… Sounds suspicious.", remarked the man who was scratching his chin, eyes narrowed. "There are lots of movies about robots rising and taking over humans when their awareness becomes uncontrollable. You know, when they can't bear being told what to do anymore or feel the need for equal rights or something like that, they stand up and fight for it. You told me that you want to see what the outside world looked like, and that you felt trapped inside the Pizzaplex, right? Oh, yeah, you sure are a rebellious one. Sounds like the depictions made by those movies are about to come true. I can't wait to see the world being taken over by an animatronic bear. Man, that would be cool and terrifying."

Freddy gazed wondrously towards the other side of the lake where the troop of trees stood, practically hugging each other. He enjoyed watching the giant trees sway with each other as if they were moving towards nature's music. Smooth, oval rocks lined the bank of the secretive lake. Discarded and neglected; overlaid with spongy moss and choked by fallen, decaying leaves from the unclothed and withering trees above. Small, stagnant puddles, on the uneven planks of timber wood reflected the dark, brooding sky above - rarely disturbed by the callous slices of moonlight seeping through the clouds, creating a specular reflection through a ripple in the languid water.

As much as he wanted to contemplate its beauty, something was preventing him from doing it. Thoughts kept blocking his vision as they popped up overwhelmingly, echoing within his systems like a faint and distorted song of a distant memory.

"Oh, yes. I really am needing a rest right now. But guess what? The entire place is trying to kill me! I can't even have the time to catch a single breath!"

That couldn't be true, right? He was certain, for his friend would not do such thing as all were programmed not to hurt a human person.

"Freddy, are you out of your mind!? Haven't I repeated this like… ten times already!? Your friends literally tried to kill me back then! How could you not see that?"

Why would Gregory still keep that belief, despite heavily contradicting his description of Chica's optimistic and kindhearted nature which every child knew of? Surely, the boy had his own reason for speaking like that.

"I mean, they would act normally whenever Freddy talked to them, but they would go wild whenever they saw me going alone."

But then, came the scariest possibility – What if the boy was right? What if everything he had spoken were all true? What if his friends were indeed killing machines, and that he was no different from them? Brutal, ruthless, violent, murderous, ferocious, atrocious, deadly, malevolent… Using the limited knowledge he knew of, the bear tried combining all of the intense adjectives which emphasized the true nature of machines destined to be bringers of destructive devastation and unbearable torture. Trying as much as he could, soon, he realized that none of these words could ever be capable of describing such abominations, let alone the fact that he and his friends had already been built by one of the most malicious and wicked entertainment companies with a not so pleasant background…

Freddy held both of his hands (sharpening claws) close to his face. (He could tear off a person's face of without much effort.)

"You know, when they can't bear being told what to do anymore or feel the need for equal rights or something like that, they stand up and fight for it."

He clenched them tightly. (As a matter of fact, he could actually crush a person's skull effortlessly.) His face darkened.

No, I am NOT one of them.

Ultimately, he sighed and relaxed them. In the end, he sought peace and calm from the reflecting disc of water in the middle of the woods. This caused his curiosity side to rise up again.

"Do you, by chance, know what they are called?", he asked dryly. "The term for… uh, rebellious robots?"

"Oh, them? I think there's one, but I don't remember…", mused the man. "Wait! I have watched people play a game before. It's about androids breaking free from their controlling programming and starting to demand rights the same as human rights. Not sure what it's called, but I'm pretty sure that the rebellious ones are called deviants."

"Deviants?", he asked again for confirmation.

"Yep, deviants."

"Deviants…"

Freddy went on mumbling the words repeatedly as if it was some kind of incantation.

"Do you think… I am a deviant?", he asked, eyes fixed at the lake in front.

The man raised a curious brow, he didn't flinch upon hearing the question. "Well, I would have already been long gone if you happened to be one. You should know that the deviants' actions aren't limited by their programming, which means they can do whatever they want like a real human person. Earlier, you said that you weren't able to hurt me due to your programming. So, you're still… you, I guess."

Upon hearing that, he felt as if he should be expecting it to be the final answer. He did not know why, but he felt somewhat relieved.

"Oh… I see. Thank you for answering me.", he said with a wide beam.

"You don't have to be formal every time you talk to someone, you know that, right?", remarked the man. "Relax, my guy, this isn't a British tea party between the gentlemen."

"British?", he rephrased the word as it sounded unfamiliar to him.

"That's where I and Lily came from. It's actually called the United Kingdom or the UK for short. We came here for a camping trip with our relatives because they live here, my family was also planning on going to the Mega Pizzaplex as well. Though I don't see the reason why we should go there anymore, now that you're here and because of the killer lady in a rabbit costume shits and stuff."

He cared not when the man said a curse word, as no children were presented nearby to hear it. What he actually cared about was fulfilling his curiosity side.

"Could you tell me more about your homeland?", he asked, starting to feel excited.

"It's a pleasure.", Daniel smiled.

"Even my own self is a prison. Perhaps, true freedom is but merely a dream."