Chapter One
"It Happened In September"
Jennifer sighed heavily as she sunk into her couch, Roxy sitting herself right beside her. "Alright love... what's this that's got you so worked up?" Jennifer took a moment before continuing to get her thoughts in order. Drawing in a deep breath, she started.
"Okay so... you remember what I told you about the 'mansion incident', right?"
"All you said was you had a traumatic experience when you were younger; chased around a mansion."
"That's... the very bare-bones explanation. The... full story is this. I was born in a small town in Norway called Romsdalen – nothin' little town you'd struggle to find on a map. I never knew my mother as she died in childbirth, but I was raised by my father until I was around six or seven. My father was the town's doctor, so you could imagine he was usually quite busy. Well... one day he disappeared without so much as a trace. Once he didn't come back, I was swept up by the state and put in an orphanage. As one would imagine about an orphanage in a small town, it wasn't too busy. Times were good for a while. When I was... fourteen, we got a visitor one brisk September day. She claimed to be the maid for a rich, eccentric family that lived on the outskirts of the town, and the misses was having issues conceiving children. Okay, pretty basic so far. Mary – that was her name – Mary picked myself... and the only three other children in the orphanage. Anne van deGraff, Rolla Surana, and Charlotte Cruise... good, close friends of mine." She picked up the cup of coffee Roxy had made her and brought it to her lips.
"So the four of us head out on foot towards the family manor... spend most of the day on the road. We arrived at nightfall and..." She sighed. "Mary disappeared after we arrived, saying she was going to go get the mistress of the house. Ten... fifteen minutes pass and we don't hear anything from her, so I decide – the impatient shit I was back then – that I'm going to go look for her. I push into the house and... I hadn't hardly made it out of the first hallway before I hear screaming behind me. Out of the door I had just entered from comes this... little gremlin of a kid... couldn't have been more then six years old with these... absolutely huge scissors in his hands. Like... super-sized garden sheers. He takes one look at me and charges. I run. After running around the manor for a bit, I lose him." She shakes her head.
"The long and short of it is I was the only survivor. Anne was shoved out of the second story window into the pool, and she drowned... Anne never could swim..." She took another sip. "Charlotte I found in the basement as part of some... pagan blood ritual or something... she'd been cut open like a frog on the dissection table... and Rolla...? Strung up and eviscerated in one of the restrooms; from the shower head. I found her because... I could hear the water dripping form outside this... booming... overpowering sound. The dripping today... Christ, it sounds stupid, but it was the same sound. And I don't mean similar, I mean the exact same as that September night..."
"How'd you end up here, across an ocean?"
"After the event, I spent a year bouncing between foster homes... needless to say, seeing your friends butchered like that had an... adverse affect on me. The last foster home I had... brought me to America and got me therapy for the trauma. I spent the next ten years in constant therapy sessions, all the while being forced to take some seriously powerful tranquilizers in order to even sleep... every time I closed my eyes, I just... saw all the blood and kept having recurring nightmares of that kid with the scissors chasing me...
"Eventually, I grew out of it, but by that point, I had outgrown the foster system and – as I was broken – my foster parents kicked me out. I wandered for another year before I came to this city and... well... that's when I discovered my knack for electronics."
"So... you think the voice you heard in the restroom was your dead friend, Rolla?"
"I don't think, Roxy... I know. I know... I know it sounds crazy and... maybe an AI can't really understand it but... it was her... I'm confident of it." Roxy fell silent as she took this in. "...Christ, I must sound like I'm insane... babbling like a maniac about things that can't be true..."
"If I didn't know what you went through at Melissa's hands... I'd agree with that statement. I'd call you crazy in a heart beat and tell you to grow up... but I know what happened three years ago. I know how you suffered... how I made you suffer. It's... possible that memories are being dredged up. Similar situations you're placed in twenty years apart, and it triggers something long-since dormant."
"If it's any consolidation..." Jennifer began, smiling the best she could at Roxy. "...you did a better job of hunting me then the Scissorman did."
"Scissorman? You seriously call him that?"
"...Bobby Barrows was his name but... it's much like I want to believe that Melissa Raynor couldn't have been as thoroughly evil as she was... I didn't want to believe a kid could cause so much pain. Vanny... Scissorman... Melissa... Bobby... they're different people to me... as crazy as it sounds." Roxy wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close into a hug.
"Just means you're a good person. I wouldn't have feelings for a heartless one." Jennifer smiled, snuggling closer into her cold metal chassis.
"...thanks Roxy... you're the best."
"God damn right I am."
Though spooked, Jennifer didn't let the situational convenience of it all (she was calling it situational convenience to help calm her frazzled nerves) bother her too much. She'd just have to do what she had always done on the few occasions she remembered those painful memories... tell herself they were in the past and behind her... and move on. One of the girls from the city came to her today... repeat customer. Poor lass was a walking disaster area when it came to anything mechanical. In this case, it was her microwave.
"I swear I didn't put metal in it this time." She had started off with, Jennifer smiling to her.
"Alright Charlie, just put it up on the table, and we'll take a look." Charlie was a local woman who would usually come to Jennifer for any repairs to her electronics. Sure, things like toasters and microwaves were technically leagues and bounds below her average skill level, Jennifer liked helping people out. Charlie put the microwave on the table and smiled over at Roxy; who was at her usual spot watching Jennifer work.
"Good afternoon, Roxanne. How are you today?" Roxy broke her gaze from Jennifer and smiled to Charlie.
"I'm doing well, Ms. Bastet, that you for asking." Charlie smiled back over to Jennifer as the woman pried open the back of the microwave.
"Oh, she's such a lovely young lady, Roxanne is. You two are quite the couple." Oh, of course everyone knew that she was technically a machine, but the knowledge that the Animatronics were full-fledged artificial intelligence had caught on over the years. Most were quite okay with it, more glad to see that the long-time human fear of AI rising up to destroy them was happily misplaced.
"She's my better half, Charlie, what can I say? Best friend a girl could ask for." Roxy rubbed the back of her neck and averted her gaze. "...here's your problem. Couple of your wires are chewed through..."
"Oh? But how, I-" Jennifer tapped the casing on the bottom, pointing out the small pellets – hardly larger then grains of sand – collected in the corner. "...oh my, what is that?"
"Cockroach droppings. You've got roaches eating your wiring." She leaned back in her stool. "You should look into getting an exterminator to take care of your roach problem, then probably just replace the whole microwave. I could fix it, but honestly it would be better – and healthier – in the long run to replace it." Jennifer was not the kind of mechanic who would recommend fully replacing something unless it was honestly the best choice, so her words held a not insignificant amount of weight to them.
"You think? Yes, that does sound right... well, thank you anyway, Jenny... you've been no end of helpful." Jennifer closed up the microwave and wrapped the cable back around it, letting Charlie pick it back up. "I'll do that, get rid of those nasty bugs. Thank you Jenny."
"No problem, Ms. Bastet. Have a good rest of your day."
"And you, darling! Have a good afternoon, Roxanne!"
"Goodbye, Ms. Bastet. See you when we see you." She lifted a hand and waved to Charlie as she left. "Poor lady. Always having mechanical issues." Jennifer just shrugged as Charlie shuffled her way out, back to her car.
"Some people just have no luck with machines."
"It's why I don't let her touch me." Roxy snarked, causing Jennifer to bop her gently on the leg.
"Stop. So bad." Roxy chuckled. "Alright Rox, I'm gonna go soak in the tub for a bit. You're not the only one who needs to recharge, you know. I'll put that battery in you when I get out." Roxy nodded to her.
"Alright love. Just give a holler if you need anything." To be honest, if Roxy wasn't two and a half miles of wires and over eighteen hundred pounds of metal, she would have invited her to join her... hell, the bathtub was big enough... but you know what they say about bathing with a toaster... the last thing Jennifer needs is to electrocute herself... not like she was a hundred percent confident that would happen? It was up in the air, honestly. She might have been shielded enough, maybe not.
"Will do." Jennifer pulled her raven hair out of the bun she had put it in to look at Charlie's toaster and started for the bathroom on the ground floor of the house. Roxy usually idled in the room nearby. If she couldn't join her in the bath, she could at least be close. Jennifer never locked the door... it was pointless to lock the door when you already trusted the person you lived with implicitly, confident to just leave it closed, but unlocked. Pulling her white, button-down blouse off, she tossed it haphazardly on the bathroom counter, kicking her shoes off and tossing them gently into a corner. Next was her grease-stained jeans pooling in a loose circle on the tiled floor. Picking up the hair brush from the counter, she took a seat on the edge of the tub as she began to fill it with water. It was a spacious bathtub; large enough for her to completely submerge herself and still have some room to move. Collecting her hair, she tossed it over her shoulder and unclasped her bra before tossing it to the side, slipping her underwear off and making it join her bra. Next, was the heavy leather belt about her waist that kept her mechanical leg attached. Of course, she couldn't just throw herself into water with fifteen pounds of metal and cabling strapped to her. There was a small hook by the tub she could hang the belt to for when she was out.
With everything off that was supposed to be off pre-bath, she ran the brush through her hair to get all the tangles out so the shampoo could do it's job. "Ugh... hair's a mess... more grease in it then anything else..." She loved her work, but sometimes she could do without the grease that seemed to get everywhere. No matter how hard she tried to be careful, it just... didn't cooperate. Looking behind her at the tub, she reached over to turn the water off, the spout sputtering and sealing as she righted herself. Putting the brush down on the side of the tub, she began the procedure to put herself in.
Before she could turn on the edge of the tub and lower herself into the water (she had quite impressive arm muscles for that very reason) she felt what could only have been described as hands grip her waist. "Wha-" Before these words fully manifested in her mouth, the hands pulled hard on her waist and yanked her into the water. She fell into the full tub like a heavy cinder block being dropped into the ocean, a resounding thoom! echoing in the bathroom, followed by the sound of splashing water. Jennifer reached up and grabbed the edge of the tub to pull herself out of the water, but found her strength unfit for the task. Panic set in. She flailed against the unknown force holding her underwater as she struggled to free herself. After a moment, she finally managed to breach the surface of the water, where she took a deep breath.
"Rox-" She tried to call out, but the force pulled her head back underwater. "Roxy h- Khaff! Khaff!" She choked and coughed, sputtered and spit water out as she tried to muster the strength and time and call for help. Outside, Roxy and found herself seated on the couch watching the television as she skipped through the usual thousand channels of nothing. Her audio sensors, however, picked up something strange.. splashing... and not a playful splashing either (which also would have been strange, because Jennifer was not a 'splash around' kind of girl in the tub) but one filled with utter terror.
"Jenny?" Roxy mused, looking up and blotting out all other noise, save for the splashing. It continued for a few seconds, before she heard Jennifer's voice.
"...oxy...!" She didn't bother waiting around any longer. Throwing herself out of the chair, Roxy broke into a dead sprint down the hallway towards the bathroom. Without regard for the door, the one-ton slab of metal lowered her shoulder and charged clean through the door, shattering it into splinters. Jennifer was submerged underwater, flailing helplessly against some unknown force. Without a single care for her own well-being, Roxy plunged both arms into the water and scooped Jennifer up, trying to pull her out of the tub. Roxy suddenly found the woman to be much heavier then she remembered or... perhaps there was something keeping her in the tub? Regardless, she pulled with all her might until she had finally managed to pull her from a watery grave.
Breaching the surface of the water, Jennifer gasped for air as Roxy pulled her up and into her arms. She heaved and panted, clawing up onto Roxy's chest for dear life. "Hey... hey, you're okay... you're okay..." Roxy held her tight as she stood and pulled her away from the tub, seating herself on the large, heavy-duty wooden stool in the bathroom. It was built for her weight specifically. "Breathe... breathe, you're okay... Jen... hon, what happened?" Jennifer heaved for another few seconds, her eyes unable to fixate on one point in space. Before Jennifer could find her voice... a childish laughter echoed through the bathroom. Roxy definitely heard that one.
It was a sad day when Jennifer didn't even want to be home. After the shock of nearly drowning had worn off, Jennifer had gotten into her truck and driven away from her cityside home. Roxy didn't want to see her in this kind of panic, but couldn't bear to leave her side. It must have been around six or seven at night when she finally pulled over on the side of the road and put her car into park, putting her head in her hands and on the steering wheel. The sound that come from between her fingers was the single most painful thing Roxy could have heard... the sound of a strong, willful woman crying. "Jenny..." Roxy reached over and pulled Jennifer towards her. "Hey... you're okay..."
"I couldn't... I couldn't get out..." She sobbed, melting into Roxy's arms. "I couldn't... couldn't get out... something was keeping me down..."
"I know... I could feel it. Jenny, I don't think for a second you were trying to kill yourself... if that's what you think I'm thinking. I know you. You're strong... so much stronger then any one person should be." What had she done to invite this into her life? She'd survived two close encounters with pure evil... she's deserving of a rest, isn't she!? There's nothing she wants more then to just have a peaceful life! She's earned that much, surely! She wiggled her way out of Roxy's arms and rolled the window down on her truck, resting her head on the headrest and closing her eyes, drinking in the cool evening air.
Jennifer believed in the occult. In demons and spirits... but vengeful ones had always been hard for her to grasp. Why would someone who was no longer on this world want to stick around it? Tormenting those it knew in life? She kept her head back before she finally picked it up. "I'm better now... I... I'm sorry, Rox, I just needed a breath of fresh air."
"Hey, you don't have to apologize to me. I'm just here to make sure you're okay." She paused. "And I'm not a fan of being left alone in the house." It was a big house, Jennifer couldn't argue with that.
"What do you say we turn in early tonight? Wake up fresh for the morning? We'll go for a drive tomorrow, how's that sound?"
"Well, s'long as we're back in enough time for me to hop a charge. I don't think you'd be able to drag me into the house by yourself." Jennifer just smiled.
"I'd probably just jump you with the car."
"Can you do that? Is that... is that like possible?" Jennifer just shrugged to this.
"I'unno. Willing to try, though."
Tak. Tak. Tak. Tak. The sound of footsteps echoed off the lavish purple walls and wooden floor of the mansion. Jennifer looked around at all-too familiar surroundings, her gaze panning down to look herself over. She passed by a mirror standing in the hall, and an all-too familiar visage greeted her. Jennifer had always managed to keep her girlish looks, even well into her thirties... but the face staring back at her in the mirror was her own face from that cold September day in early 2004. "...this dream again..." She muttered as a hand stroked her youthful face. "...haven't had you in a fair while..." Aye, it was a dream she was unfortunately all too familiar with, a young girl alone in a house far too large for her own good, being chased by a deranged maniac with a giant pair of garden sheers. "...needed tranquilizers for you last I had you..." Jennifer was not a weak-willed woman. Indeed, the trials she had faced in her life had steeled her mind against most forms of non-physical attack... it had been how she had bested Vanny; an indomitable will to live, coupled with a tenacity to keep pushing on. She turned from the mirror and continued down the hall. Several doors passed her before she turned to the last door in the hallway. It was strange, this dream... a queer mix of lucid dream and nightmare that she had trouble classifying. She turned to face the door and reached out to grasp the handle.
She knew what she would find. On the other side of the door would be Bobby Barrows – Scissorman – waiting for her. She'd run, he'd give chase, and eventually she'd lose him. She'd wake up and everything would go back to normal. Steeling herself, she twisted the handle, only for the door to be ripped out of her grip. Across the threshold stood a tall figure; features masked in the darkness. The figure was much taller then Bobby ever was... who...
"ArE YOu haVinG FuN Yet!?" The figure spoke in a hissing voice, bending down so it's face appeared in the light. Perched atop a body of pure-white fur and adorned with piercingly clear ruby gems as eyes, the figure smiled broadly with multitudes of dagger-like teeth filling her mouth. Jennifer fell silent, her gaze turned up at the figure of a nightmarish rendition of Vanny smiling at her like a starving man staring down a three-course steak dinner. Thick globes of acidic drool leaked down her mouth daggers and dripped to the floor with a sizzling hiss. Her ears flopped uselessly on her head as she gripped the side of the door with one hand, and removed her other from behind her back to reveal a bloody massive knife grafted onto her arm as a hand. It was bent and chipped in many places and her entire lower arm was coated in a fine mist of crimson blood; that matted her fur down. Jennifer shook her head in disbelief before she stumbled a few steps backwards, falling to the mansion floor with narly a 'plop'.
"N-no..." Jennifer muttered, shaking her head as her eyes transfixed to Vanny's grinning demonic visage. "N-no! No, you... you can't be here! This... this isn't..." Vanny lashed out and lunged forward, driving her knife-hand into the wood beside Jennifer. Jennifer scrambled to her feet as Vanny ripped the knife out of the wood, letting it rest at her side.
"If yOu WAnT soMEThinG DoNE rigHT, gOtTA Do it YouRSeLf!" Vanny continued, taking a lumbering step forward. Turning on a heel, Jennifer broke into a dead sprint down the hallway, shoving her way through doors and past curtains. The hallway stretched on and on, a never-ending funhouse of distance. The faster she ran, the less distance she covered... and the longer she ran, the longer she still yet had to go. The door at the far end of the hall called to her, promised her a salvation from this nightmare... if only she could reach it, maybe she could-
Pain. Searing, white-hot pain raced up her back and pulsed through her spine. She fell to the ground with a pained shriek leaving her lips. A warm wetness spread across her back as her own blood dyed her white blouse crimson. Rolling over onto her back, she tried to sit up and crawl away. No no no no no... no! This wasn't how this dream went! This was all wrong! All wrong! Hot, salted tears streamed down her face as she pushed herself away from Vanny, the crazed psychopathic half-bunny following the trail of blood she left with each move.
"Don'T WoRRy, LiTtlE ONe! It Will AlL be OvER soOn!" Vanny dipped down and picked Jennifer up by her neck with her one good arm, holding her aloft as she stared her down. Opening her drooling jaws, she brought her cavernous maw close to Jennifer's side, before biting down hard on her hip. Another shriek of pain left Jennifer's lips as blood gushed from her open wound, the acid from Vanny's jaws searing and burning her flesh and blood. She reached up to try to pry her fingers from around her neck, but the pain as just too much for her. Releasing her jaws from Jennifer's hip, Vanny rose the knife on her hand up and poised it over Jennifer's heart. "YoU'Ve NoT LiVeD UntiL YoU'VE kiLLeD A chiLd!" She preached once more, before thrusting the impossibly long blade into her heart.
Jennifer sprung awake, her throat raw and her face pouring with sweat as Roxy held her down to the bed. She heaved and panted in place, trying to work out in her mind where she was. Familair walls, familiar ceiling... familiar decorations. "Jen...? Are you okay?"
"...roxy..." She mewled pathetically. "Y-yeah... yeah, I'm fine... just... just a nightmare..." She slapped both hands over her head to banish the lingering threads of the dream. "...fuck, that was messed up... Vanny was there... or... at least I think it was... She had this big knife and she just-"
Her words were cut off as a searing pain filled her chest. Struggling to speak, Jennifer lifted her hands and watched as Roxy pulled her bloody claw out of the gaping chest wound it had made. The look in Roxy's eyes... her once-amber orbs crimson and angry. She leered over her in a familiar way.
"Five forty five... you're out of time!" Raising her other claw, she brought it down on her chest as well, her ribs cracking in protest from the impact. Crawling over her, Roxy opened her mouth and shrieked something that almost sounded like an internet dial tone. The last thing she remembered was the feeling of cold steel teeth cracking into her skull-
She sprung awake again with a shriek in her lips and a searing paranoia about her. Roxy was kneeling at the edge of the bed with a hand out. "Jenny..." She reached out to Jennifer, who only screamed in terror again and retreated farther away from her, pulling the sheets up around her like a scared child. "Jennifer... you're okay... it was just a dream... you're awake now." Roxy tried to reach towards her once more, only to have Jennifer whimper pathetically and recoil farther into herself. Roxy let her hand return to a neutral state and smiled to her. Closing her eyes, Roxy began to sing again... the same song from that night. Ave Maria.
It was a beautiful song, one that always comforted Jennifer. Roxy didn't try to move towards her or even reach to her; she just knelt at the bedside and sang. As she reached the end of it, Jennifer physically relaxed. At the end of the song, Jennifer blinked at her. "...am I really awake...?" Roxy nodded gently and smiled.
"Sure are love... I heard you screaming in my charge cycle and tried to wake you up but... you just kept screaming. What happened?"
"...nightmare in a nightmare. I... I don't want to remember it... could you just... hold me?" Roxy smiled and held her arms out to her.
"C'mere." She spoke softly, welcoming the woman into her arms. "You're safe. Everything's alright..."
