"Freddy! The doors are open!" Gregory smiled as he ran as fast as his little legs could carry him. It was almost twelve-'o-clock, midnight, and he was eager to get out into the real world. "C'mon- we can make it! We can-"

The doors started to close, rumbling the ground underneath Gregory's feet. Or perhaps that was all a part of his imagination as he skidded to a stop, shoes scraping against the floor with high pitched screams. His breath exploded through his lips, pressing onto his nose and his cheeks. His lungs felt like they would destroy themselves as he denied them air.

"No…" he said with a tone of resignation.

Freddy caught up with him, slow thanks to his gigantic body. The animatronic wasn't even out of breath, but a sigh came out of his voice box anyways. "I am… So sorry Gregory," Freddy said. He stood next to Gregory, placing a hand on his back.

"I just wanted to know what it was like to leave the mall…"

Freddy looked at him, curious. "You've never been out into the real world before?"

Gregory shook his head.

Freddy sputtered, "B-But that's impossible! I thought you were an outside face. How? No- where did you come from then?"

"I don't know," Gregory said. He wiped his face free of sweat. "I just woke up some day in this dreaded place and for some strange reason all they've been telling me is that I need to leave and see the real world."

"Who is 'they'?" Freddy asked kindly.

"I… You know those weird voices and messages you get?"

"I believe you are talking about instinct, a common human programming. Well, I wouldn't call it programming than it being how you were born."

"Yeah, instinct." He liked the sound of that. It made it sound less… Less… Less something. He didn't know.

"You don't have any parents do you?" Freddy asked. Gregory shook his head. "Not even a caretaker?" Another shake of the head. "Hm… That is odd."

"Yeah, odd." Gregory sighed, slipping down onto his knees. He should've felt pain, but he didn't. It was a weird feeling, a strange anomaly that he could bleed, like a human, but not feel his knees crash onto the hard tile. Or maybe he was too focused on his emotional turmoil to notice.

"Do not feel disheartened Gregory," the animatronic said, a smile in his voice. "I will take care of you from here on out. Perhaps I will act as a bit of a father to you since you do not have one. Nevertheless, let us continue, yes? We have about six hours left to discover what is wrong with this place until the doors open."

Freddy looked around, making Gregory cock his head.

"What?" he asked.

"I just noticed that you do not have a flashlight. It will get dark here very quickly, and it might get difficult for you to see things clearly." He gestured out in the distance. "You should get yourself a flashlight from the Superstar Daycare."

Gregory sputtered. "You're gonna leave me?"

"Just temporarily." He looked away for a moment. "We'll need to find a charging station soon too. My battery only lasts for an hour at a time to reduce system overload and to keep my motherboard from overheating."

He did not know what a motherboard was, but it sounded like it was important.

"So, you want me to go into the Daycare where the rabbit lady and your friends could get me?" Gregory asked, his voice going embarrassingly high on those last few words. "That sounds like a suiciude mission."

"Perhaps, but I believe in you Superstar." Freddy's ears went up, as if he could hear something out in the distance. He ushered Gregory to get up, who did quickly with curiosity at the bear's sudden urgency. "We must be going. My friends will be here soon. They most likely can hear us talking."

Gregory nodded, following the bear to the Superstar Daycare. The place looked small on the outside, as did most places in this mall, but Gregory suspected it was much, much larger inside when compared to the outside. It was deception and deceiving at its finest, but Gregory didn't mind it very much as he first did.

"Can't you come with me?" Gregory asked Freddy, feeling and sounding completely uncertain of their basic plan.

The bear shook his head. "There are little to no charging stations in the Daycare. It would be a hazard to all of the little children that attend this place. Oh, I almost forgot. You'll need a Daycare pass to enter the Superstar Daycare."

"Where am I going to get one of those?" Gregory asked.

"You're in luck Superstar. I seem to have one on my person." Freddy's chest cavity opened and out came a little box. Gregory grabbed the box, finding out that a delicate beautiful little ticket was hiding inside.

Gregory made a face.

"Do not worry; you can always contact me via your Faz Watch."

"Faz Watch." Yeah, like that made him feel any better.

Freddy ruffled his hair sweetly. "Good luck in there Gregory."

"Thanks."

And he slipped through the doors. As expected, the place was huge. There were electronic screens everywhere displaying a strange moon and sun character, a life-sized statue that displayed the same sun and moon character, and a huge chain net that showed the insides of a playhouse. Gregory felt oddly excited- he'd never been in a playhouse before. But at the same time he was filled with spite because Freddy left him. Without Freddy, Gregory didn't feel as safe.

But he was okay. He reminded himself that he was fine. He could get through this, get a flashlight, then head back to find Freddy at the charging station. Or perhaps just meeting up with Freddy once he went through this thing would do.

Gregory angled himself down the tunnel. It looked like a long drop, and he couldn't see anything through the thick plastic. His hand wiped against the surface, an electronic shock zapping through his body. It didn't send him into a system shut down, thank the gods, but it was still uncomfortable. He'd never felt anything like it before; it almost made his hair stand on edge.

He inhaled. He couldn't sit here all day. Freddy was going to be waiting for him, and if he knew Freddy in the short period of time that he did, Freddy would start to worry rather quickly.

He slipped down the tunnel and immediately crashed down in a soft pool composed of colorful plastic balls.

Gregory was confused. What sort of place was this? But a noise up above tore him away from the confusion of the Daycare's environment. It was above where he saw a stand, an entertaining curtain of some sort be pulled open. Out came a strange animatronic with the head shaped like a sun.

"Oh ho ho! A new friend!" The sun danced around, then it swan dived down into the ball pit. Gregory was tempted to crawl back up the tunnel when the thing appeared out of nowhere from the depths and picked him up. "Hello! You sure are up late! Are we having a slumber party?"

"I-I don't know," Gregory mustered out, shocked by the tight hands that gripped his shoulders.

The thing didn't care about Gregory's answer as it continued speaking. "Where are all your friends?" It shook its head as it carried Gregory out of the pit, setting him down and dancing about excitedly. "We can finger paint, tell stories, drink Fizzy Faz until our heads explode and stay up all night!"

Gregory nodded. "Okay yeah, that sounds fun," he said.

The sun animatronic smiled at him, eyes narrowing. It stopped dancing for a split second to look directly at him. "There is only one rule. Keep the lights on."

"Okay."

"On."

"Yeah-yeah I get it-"

"On."

Wow. So this was what he'd been expected to do. Have fun with a weird sun robot that was obsessed with keeping the lights on. Honestly, that was more exciting than running around and avoiding killer animatronics all day. Though this one seemed… Odd. Almost like it was trying to tell him something important. It wasn't like keeping the lights on was all that important, was it?

"Hey! Hey! Are you having fun yet? Are ya?"

"Sure," Gregory said unconvincingly.

But the sun animatronic didn't care if his "sure" was sarcastic or not. It danced around without a care in the world.

Gregory quickly decided he needed to find that flashlight and get out of there. Fast.

In his peripheral vision, he caught a glimpse of paint tins neatly stacked up on top of each other. If he were to knock them down, would that distract the sun enough to give him time to look around the area.

Well, only one way to find out.

"Here, I got a game," Gregory said. He shuffled closer to the paint tins.

"Oh! A game, a game huh?" The sun laughed. "I love games! What sort of game are we playing? Huh, huh? Is it hide and seek? I'm amazing at hide and seek!"

"No, it's not hide and seek," he said. "I haven't exactly named it yet, but I know the objective."

"Ohh!" He could tell the animatronic was thoroughly interested in this "game" of his. "Do tell me! Ohhh I'm getting excited!"

Quickly, Gregory knocked over the tins with a wild arm. The animatronic gasped at the sight. "OH NO NO NO! What a mess!" Gregory ran from the sight, moving around from one corner to the other. He noticed a desk and snuck behind the corner as the animatronic sputtered about, trying to clean the mess he made back to its original self.

"New friend!"

Gregory had to be quicker than he expected he needed to be. He looked around in the office area, hearing the footsteps of the sun animatronic looming closer and closer. He spotted a light switch, and without hesitation, pressed it with the palm of his hand.

"No! Nooo why would you do that!?" The sun gripped his face, clawing at his eyes, his nose, his mouth and his cheeks. He looked like he was in pain, and that pained Gregory to see this new character like that. "Light's on!" it cried. "Light's on! I warned you! I warned you!"

Gregory found the flashlight in another odd looking present box, gripping it with his left hand tightly. It made him feel horrible that he did something to this animatronic, and that it was now in pain. It made those horrible noises, clawing at its face as it took several steps backwards in excruciating agony. It backed up enough to where it knocked itself over beyond the office desk, flipping over and landing with a loud auditable thud.

Gregory turned on the flashlight as darkness consumed him. Freddy was right- the flashlight definitely helped him see much more clearly.

But something was wrong, Gregory could feel that deep inside his core.

Unknown threat detected. Adrenaline levels are rising. Initiating fight or flight mode.

Now that was a weird message. One that confused him. Regardless of if it confused him or not, he felt the adrenaline rush throughout his body, and it made him shiver. It was the same feeling he got when the rabbit lady was chasing him down throughout the night.

"Naughty boy," called out a dark voice in the blackness. "Naughty boy."

It was the sun character's voice… Except it wasn't the sun character. Instead a moon moved out from behind the desk, smiling at Gregory with sinister red glowing eyes.

"Naughty boys must be punished. Night night."