Francis dabbed his scratches on the right side to his face as the water from the sink ran from the faucet. Cotton balls inside a first-aid kit were sitting on top of the toilet. Leela didn't have her scratches treated but only had them cleaned. Francis put the cotton ball to his face and the cool water soaked in the cotton ball calmed the stinging coming from his face. He began to swipe the cotton ball on his face and threw it away when the top became grey. He turned off the faucet and made his way out the bathroom door where Leela was standing next to the doorway with her flashlight.
"You ready?" Leela asked, Francis nodded. They made their way to the same hallway where the basement was and entered inside it. Dank air and burned off concrete filled it immediately. Leela went to the staircase and opened the small hidden door and pointed her flashlight at the dark abyss vents. I can't believe it's still here. They didn't close it off. She reached in her pocket and pulled out a headband light and turned it on. Leela then proceeded to put it on and tighten the strap and put her hands into the ventilation. "C'mon, let's go."
Francis then went on his knees and nodded in confirm. Leela then begin to crawl inside the vents and Francis followed her.
"Leela, do you know where we're going?" Francis asked.
"Easy, these vents are inside the house, if we can find grates that lead to a hallway or room. Then we can find the others."
"And if not?" Francis backpointed, but he didn't get an answer from Leela. While crawling in the vents, Francis was looking around the vents. Creaks and low groans were heard from the vents along with cold air hitting their faces. Francis wondered if part of the ventilation was an air conditioner. Sighing quietly, he continued to follow Leela.
Leela crawled straight forward then made a left turn. Her light from the headband shined the square vents. Leela sniffed her nose from the allergies that were from the dust circling in the vents. She then made a quick right turn and then spotted something in the distance. A outlined white light square was there at the end of the vent. That must be a grate! She hurried towards the light and pushed the grate wide open.
Leela crawled out and only to her surprise wasn't one of the mansion rooms at all. "I...I don't understand…" Leela said quietly. Francis grunted and pushed himself out of the tiny vent and stood next to Leela, whose face was in dismay. Francis looked around the room. It was like a 1970's living room that he could see. Furniture was surrounding the rug and a fireplace was there. This wasn't part of the mansion at all.
"Leela...I don't think we're at the mansion anymore…" Francis breathed. "I think we're in another house!" Leela scanned the room. Francis was right, this was indeed another house.
"But the question is where exactly?" Suddenly, Leela heard whispering voices from the kitchen and walked over to the doorway. She then stood beside the door and put a finger to her lips to signal Francis to stay quiet. Leela then kicked the door open. "Hee-yah!" Without noticing, she then saw Fry laying on the tile floor of the kitchen rubbing the side of his face to where Leela accidentally kicked him. She gasped. "Fry! Are you okay?"
Fry looked up at Leela and smiled. "Never better." Amy and Beelzebot rushed out of the basement door and ran over to Leela and Francis.
"Leela! Francis! You guys are okay!" Amy exclaimed. Amy then got Fry off the floor. "A lot has happened, how did you guys find us?" The question made Leela's brain go out. How did she find them?
"I don't know, me and Francis were only crawling in the vents and we just ended up here." Leela said, pointing towards the living room. "We must've taken a secret tunnel that leads us to this-where are we exactly?"
"The abandoned farm Leela," Robot Devil answered. "I'm pretty sure that's how we got here in the first place."
"And that's not all, we also found someone that is behind all of this." Fry said, pointing to the door next to the kitchen counter. "He's in there tied up."
Francis raised an eyebrow. "Who's 'he'?" Francis questioned. Fry swallowed nervously, which made Francis glare at him. "Fry, who is 'he'? I want an answer."
"It's Frederick, the security guard." Robot Devil answered for Fry, who sighed in relief. But Fry knew that Beelzebot fibbed to Francis for not sharing the actual person that Frederick was underneath. "He was the person behind this monstrosity and we're going to wake him up to tell us why this is happening." Amy opened the door for them, already getting nervous to see Francis' reaction that there was a twisted clone of him tied up.
Francis was the first person to approach the door and leave him stun in shock. Inside the room was a twisted version of him knocked out and tied up with a bunch of bodies surrounding the robot. The twisted version of him was in a sitting position with ghastly features to him. Slowly, he took a step inside the room with the others going in the room with him. Leela was in shock also, seeing that there was another twisted robot.
Francis got closer to the individual and stared in disbelief. That can't be me! There's no way. Francis swallowed. This could've been a dream to him but it wasn't, this was real life. He stood up and walked a certain and safe distance away from the doppelganger. His eyes still fixated on him.
Fry was on his knees, and he walked toward twisted Francis without standing, a clunky, unsteady walk-he looked like he might tip over any moment. "Wakey, wakey, sleepy head," he whispered.
"We've got this, Fry, thanks. You just relax." Robot Devil rolled his eyes towards Leela, then turned his attention back to twisted Francis, slapping his face lightly, but he remained inert. "Hey dirtbag. Wake up." He slapped him again.
"Here, try this." Amy reappeared with a can of water. "Kitchen sink," was the only explanation she offered. "The can didn't hold much," she added.
"That's okay," Robot Devil said. He took it from her and held it over twisted Francis' head, letting small streams of water dribbling from the holes in the tin fall from his face. He aimed for his mouth, and after a few moments, he sputtered, his cyber eyes opening. "Oh good, you're awake," Beelzebot said, then dumped the rest of the water on his head. He said nothing, but his eyes remained open in a stiff, unnatural stare. "So, you," he said. "How about you tell us what's going on here?"
His mouth opened slightly, but no words came out. After a moment he became still again, so still that Leela went up to the robot and reluctantly pressed her fingers to his neck to check for a pulse.
"Is he alive?" Amy said, creeped out by what seemed to be an on-again, off-again animated corpse. She moved closer to the robot, kneeling so their eyes were level, and looked at him gravely, searching for something.
"I just realized that he's a robot Amy, and they don't have a heart for pulses." Leela reported. She pulled her hand back, more startled than if he'd been dead.
"Leela, there's something different about him," Fry said urgently. He reached out and grasped twisted Francis' chin, turning his head back and forth. Twisted Francis didn't resist; he just kept staring without expression, as if the world around him were not really there.
"What do you mean?" Leela said, though she saw it, too. It was as if the robot, the "guard" they had met, had been stripped away, and what sat before them was nothing but a black canvas.
Fry shook his head and released the robot's chin, wiping his hands on his pants. He stood and stepped back, putting a distance between them. Without warning, Fry's arm shot out like lightning and struck twisted Francis across the jaw with a loud crack. Twisted Francis slumped back, and Fry lunged and almost fell from the impact of the strike. Fry regained his posture and bounced a little on the balls of his feet, alert, waiting for a reaction, or a chance to strike again. The robot's body moved upward, straightening, but the movement was too smooth. He seemed to make no effort, use no muscles, and exert no energy. Slowly, his posture corrected, unfolding to his slumped state, his metal mouth hanging open.
Fry stumbled forward and was shaking his hand in pain from the metal face. "Take that, jackass." He swung his arm into the air and swayed on his feet. Amy leaped forward just in time to catch him in her arms.
Twisted Francis continued to stare, and it was only after a moment that Robot Devil considered that he might actually be staring at something. He looked down, following his line in sight, then suddenly he recoiled. In his hand sticking out, was the illusion disc.
"That's it? You want this?" Robot Devil stood and approached the robot with the disc. "You need this?" he added in a whisper. He walked to the manbot and stood on the right side of his face. He held it out and put it on his face ceremoniously, who tilted back his head in a barely noticeable fashion. The disc stuck to his face like a magnet almost. Robot Devil touched the switch to the disc and flicked it on, which a high-pitched ringing acquired.
Frederick was now there, his usual guard uniform was now tinted with a dark stain. Frederick opened his eyes and smiled darkly at Beelzebot, who glared at him angrily.
"We trusted you," Beelzebot said. He was on his knees now, looking intently at the man. "What are those things outside?" His voice broke.
"I created them." The voice spoke in the illusion. His sleek bronze hair was now in fly-away hair and his hands tied behind his back. "I was the one who designed them, And now I haved loved." He said in those melodious tones.
"You killed," Fry said, then bursted out with something that sounded like a laugh. He seemed more lucid now, as if anger was focusing on his mind. It then ended with a raspy cough, but the cough sounded glitchy and autotuned. Frederick looked up at Fry with anger in his eyes.
"I don't think you quite appreciate the difficulties for me to speak, do you?" Frederick then laughed for a moment before inhaling. "'Cause let me tell you something: it hurts like a motherfucker." He spatted out the vulgar word coldly to him.
"You're a sick bastard," Fry sputtered. "You've created monsters." Leela held Fry back.
"Fry, just stop, you're only causing the situation much worse." Fry huffed, but didn't argue to the cyclops.
Robot Devil looked at Frederick. "You're avoiding the question Frederick; what is going on here?" Frederick grinned, his eyes lowering to a darkening glow.
"Back before I looked like this, I was happily married and had two kids; one boy and one girl, twins actually. You could say I was a normal manbot who followed laws and never broke a single rule in a category. I was happy, had a job I liked with flexible hours and good pay. Had friends who supported me. Everything! Until that fateful day…" Frederick paused, and turned his head to Francis, whose eyes connected them to his. Frederick chuckled at the manbot. Francis shook his head and glared at Frederick.
"That doesn't excuse a pitiful story on why you have a clone out there that looked like Beelze and why you look exactly like me, you prick!" Francis said, already being irritated at the guard; who chuckled in response. Francis crossed his arms at Frederick, he inhaled, only to stop suddenly and cough. There was a stench somewhere in the room that was close to him, but it wasn't the corpses.
Frederick cleared his throat. "Mind the smell, that was me; I've been rotting away slowly ever since." Francis looked at the man with confusion, he was perfectly normal, he didn't look dead. Just terrifying. Frederick's eyes lidded half closed and shuffled in his seat, still looking at Francis. "You will understand once your pity partner removes this disc from me." Beelzebot looked at Francis, he sighed and removed the disc from the slit and turned it off. The ringing stopped and the twisted Francis was back again.
Francis shutted his eyes and opened them again, trying to get used to the individual that looked exactly like him. Those different colored eyes looked gravely at him, like he was planning something that he didn't know what. Francis then walked up to the twisted manbot, raised his clamp above his head, and struck him across the face.
"Stop looking at me like that you indecent piece of shit!"
"Francis!" Beelzebot exclaimed. Francis huffed at the manbot. The other Francis' head was impossibly almost facing the wall where his back was, with a crack, his head returned to Francis, who gasped slightly and backed up.
"Oh I wish you hadn't done that…" the other manbot hissed coldly at him. Suddenly, a loud screeching of metal being punctured occurred somewhere in the room. Francis then saw what the twisted version of him was doing. Two sharp silver metal spikes seemed to grow out of his body and were coming out of his back with a slow rate. They then grew until they bended outwards until they took form of a bird's featherless wings. Francis watched: the bent metal then shook. Multiple shiny silver metal feathers came out in different sizes. They're wings… The silver wings stood mighty and tall, they reached the ceiling of the corpse room.
Francis looked at the back of twisted Francis' back and saw two black hands sawing away at the rope and the rope successfully snapped. "Look out!" Francis cried. But it was late, the wings flapped harshly at them and made all four people fall to the ground. With a flash, the twisted robot was gone, and all was left were scattered bodies and a wildly swaying door.
Leela looked up and pounded her fist to the floor. "That son of a bitch had wings?! And we didn't even know?!" Leela stood up and grabbed Amy off the floor, Fry and Beelzebot got themselves up. Francis shakily breathed underneath. He...He looked at me...a-and smiled… Stunned and confused, he swallowed nervously, he had seen what the doppelganger was capable of.
"Are you okay Leela?" Amy asked, wiping herself off.
"I'm okay, just a little sha-" A roaring shriek was heard from outside the room, which startled Leela very much. She swallowed and inhaled a nervous breath. A clank was heard somewhere in the room and Leela looked up to her right. A small rectangular grate and dropped to the floor, showing a vent. A purple, sharp, plush hand reached out and grasped the wall. Leela heard a small grunt and popped out the small head of Plushbun, who grinned at her.
"Hi Leela…" Plushbun said, his mouth now clear of blood. "Let's play a game…"
"Everybody out now!" Leela ordered and ran out the door. "C'mon!" Without hesitating, they ran out the door and came into the kitchen. Francis looked around and spotted a pipe. How did that get outside-oh right… Francis grabbed the pipe and threw it over his shoulder. "Francis, what are you doing?"
"I'm going to find that asshole and find ourselves an exit, that's what!" Francis said, now adjusting the pipe. "You guys need to find a safe place to hide."
"Francis no! It's too dangerous! You could get killed!" Beelzebot exclaimed nervously.
"I need to Beelze, but I'll be safe I promise."
"But Fr-"
"He already made his choice Beelzebot," Leela confirmed, turning to Francis, she put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll find a way to be safe and get out of here." Francis smiled at the female mutant cyclops. He turned his back and placed a clamp on the doorway of the kitchen, he turned the knob and opened the door and shut it behind him. Francis scanned the living room. There was nothing in the room except him.
Francis made his way unsteadily between the furniture, but after only moments he realized he had gotten himself turned around. The lightning had changed; now a single blinding of supernatural blue light was strobing on and off above the ceiling. Over and over, the room flashed with a binding burst, like lightning, then was instantly dark again. Francis covered his eyes, trying to remember what he had bumped into first. Dusty chairs and ragged windows pulsed like beacons in the dark with each burst of light, and Francis' head began to throb.
He squinted, trying to orient himself, but beyond the furniture surrounding him, all he could see were a thousand afterimages burned in his retinas. He had no way to turn. He leaned against a nearby chair and pressed his clamp tightly over his forehead.
A coffee table screeched against the floor briefly, and Francis knew that it hadn't been turned around, but the light had gone dark. When it flashed again he was looking directly at the fireplace-where the porcelain vases should have been sitting now broken and shattered to pieces.
Only three deep scratches followed from the wooden bench into the wall.
Suddenly he felt exposed, all at once noticing just how many places there were open room for something to hide, just how visible he was to anyone-anything-that might be watching. He thought briefly of the little control room he had just left and felt a pang of regret. Coming out here might of been very stupid…
Another screech sounded, and he whirled around to see the coffee table behind him moving slowly away. He turned to run, but he slammed into something before he could take a step. He jerked his clamps up in the darkness to shield himself and touched cold metal. The strobe threw its light out again, and this time garbled noise blared from the sharp gaping mouth in front of him. Beelzebot. Twisted Beelzebot stood only a few inches from him, his mouth opening and closing rapidly and his eyes rolling wildly in his head. Francis jerked away, then backed up slowly. The robot demon did not try to follow, just continued his bizarre and silent incantation, his eyes aimlessly ricocheting in his head. His foot got caught on the leg of the sofa; he fell back, landing hard on his rear end. He started to crawl, staying low, hurrying to get away from twisted Beelzebot.
Francis gasped and scrambled to his feet. He took off running, not looking back, and made it across the room and to the staircase that led to the hallway. He ran to the end of the hallway and ducked into the bathroom. The door echoed when it shut behind him; the room was empty, with nothing but a single sink, and tub, and a wooden dark-brown stall; perhaps for extra privacy. The ceiling had three fluorescent lights with only one of them working, and just barely, only enough to color the room dark grey instead of black.
Francis opened the stall door and shut it, slipping the lock-so small it looked almost delicate-into place. Francis had a sudden vision of twisted Beelzebot, larger than life, grabbing the wooden frame with his claws and ripping it up from the ground, bolts tearing right out of the floor. He banished the thought. Francis could hear his own breathing echoing. He forced it to slow and close his eyes, telling himself to be silent, to hide.
"Francis?" Robot Devil called out to the door. "Francis! What's going on out there?"
Amy sat quietly, still rattled from the sounds and crashes outside.
"He can take care of himself Beelze," Leela informed, sitting on the countertop of the kitchen.
"Yeah," Amy said.
In the bathroom, Francis was silent. He paid attention to each breath he took, each inhale and exhale a slow, deliberate process. He tried meditating once; he hated it, but now the intense focus on his breathing was calming. I guess I just needed the right motivation, he thought. Like staying alive. The stall rattled briefly, and there was a distant booming sound that went on for several seconds. It's storming outside.
He kept his eyes trained on the floor. The light overhead was so dim it scarcely illuminated his stall. The light flickered and let out a brief hum, then was silent. The toilet tank he sat on felt unstable; he scooted to the edge of it to quietly let his foot down. Just the tip of his metal touched the tile, the wide bathroom door opened with a thunderous bang.
Without thinking he jerked his foot up, and the lid of the porcelain tank clanged like pots clattering together. He held himself perfectly still, his footcup suspended in the air, then carefully pulled his foot back into place on top of the toilet seat. That was too loud, he thought. Carefully, he leaned forward and reached up with one clamp to grasp the stall divider. He pulled himself up to stand slowly, the toilet seat rocking on its hinges beneath his feet.
He peered out over the top at the stalls walls next to him. It was too dark to see beyond the wooden stall, and the whole frame swayed gently from his weight.
There was a shuffling sound; something wide and heavy was sliding across the floor, not trying nearly as hard as he was to be quiet. His eyes darted from the stall door beside him to the bathroom door. The shuffling continued, but he could not tell where it was coming from; the sound filled the room.
Suddenly the nebulous sound resolved: it was crisp, and it was nearby. The wall he clung to trembled slightly. He panned his gaze around the room, hoping his eyes would adjust a little more. He could make out a trash can by the door and the outline of the sink. Apprehensively, he looked back at the door of his stall, letting his focus creep along the door. A large cybernetic eye stared back, unblinking and dry, fixed directly on him. Two large and unnatural horns hung over the top of the door.
Francis clasped his clamp over his mouth plate and jumped to the floor as fast as he could, dropping to his stomach and scooting along the floor to the floor. This time his foot bumped the toilet behind him, and the lid dropped down with a loud clank.
Francis froze. The shuffling thing did not move. For what felt like an age, Francis held his breath. He heard, he must have heard! But twisted Beelzebot still made no sound. Francis held still and listened, waiting for another sound of movement to mask his own. His breathing seemed louder than before. He lowered his head, trying to make out shapes along the floor.
The shuffling sound resumed, and now, without warning, it was directly in front of him. He held his breath, desperately trying to make out any forms in the darkness. There he is. A large, metal red foot was just outside the door, as if it had stopped midstep. Is he leaving? Please leave, Francis pleaded. There was a new sound: stiff screeching, softly crunching. What is that? The foot outside the door had not moved. The noise grew louder, the sound of damaged metal and scissoring motion and stretching, tearing and popping. What is that? Francis dug into the floor with his clamps, holding down a guttural scream. He's bending over. A large, three-fingered silver talons touched down gently in front of him, then another shape: the creature's head. It was massive, filling half the space under the door. Gracefully, twisted Beelzebot lowered himself to the floor and turned his head sideways until his eyes met Francis'. His sharp mouth was wide open with a ghoulish excitement, as though he had found someone in a game of hide-and-seek.
A warm burst of air rolled under the stall door, hitting his face with a stench of rotten flesh. Breath? Francis clasped his clamp over his mouth plate; the stench was unbearable. Another wave of it hit his face, hotter and more putrid. He closed his eyes, on the point of relinquishing the hope of escape. Maybe if he kept his eyes closed long enough, he would wake up. Another gust of hot rotten air hit, and he jerked back, hitting the back of his head on the toilet. He recoiled in pain and threw his arm in front of him, shielding his face against attack. No attack came. He opened one eye. Where is he?
Suddenly the wooden walls around him swayed with a resounding bang. Francis startled and covered his head as twisted Beelzebot struck again. The stall rocked on their legs, and the bolts screeched as they were yanked free from the floor, the whole assembly seeming ready to collapse. Francis scrambled under the divider and climbed to his feet, grasping for the door handle to pull it shut as he ran out.
Leela paced her feet on the dirt tiles of the floor as she had her hands placed behind her back. Amy had her arms crossed with her head with them and huffed out a bored sigh. Suddenly a static sound made her jump. She looked around to where it was and found her walkie-talkie doing the sound. She gasped; she had completely forgotten that she had a radio on her. She scrambled her hands to grab the radio and put her mouth to the speech. An unfamiliar voice came out.
"Leela? Leela! Where are you?!" It was Yuki. Leela sighed in relief, she pressed the speech button.
"Yuki! It's me: Leela! Where are you sweetie?" She let go of the button and this time another voice came by.
"Leela! It's us! Joey drove us here to find you! We were worried!" Ying. "Where are you?"
"We're at the abandoned farm! How about you?" Leela was filled with joy hearing the two girls on the line.
The static voice of Yuki came back. "What?! How are you even there?! And for the record; we're at the mansion." Leela pressed the speech button again.
"Some secret tunnel, listen to me, since you're there, you need to tell Joey where we're at now okay?"
"Okay Leela!"
Leela put back the walkie-talkie in her pocket and announced to the whole room, "You guys, the girls and Joey are coming to get us. We're saved!" Fry whooped and cheered but stopped shortly.
"Wait! What about Francis? We can't leave him here!"
"Fry, he can take care of himself." Leela reminded him. Fry was about to open his mouth to protest only to have a loud, overwhelming, thud was heard. The trio was dead quiet. Leela put a finger to her lips to signal everyone to be silent, she grabbed a pan off the floor and held it up high and listened carefully. High-sounded scattering was heard from one side of the wall to the next, Leela turned and spinned slightly to find what was causing it. Leela lowered down the pan.
"I don't see anythi-" another loud thud was heard and this time, a grate that was on the bottom-right corner of the kitchen was removed harshly and was spinning rapidly before giving up its own gravitational force and fell down. Goddamn it… Leela lifted up the pan once more and walked over to the open pipe and looked down at it. There was nothing. Only just a slime covered pipe with built up grime all over it and rust. Leela sighed quietly but when she turned around only to get her hair dragged forcefully by something yelped out in pain.
Plushbun and Plushbear were behind her and crawling all over her, their claws were digging into her skin, the other three ran up without hesitation and tried to pry off them. Leela screamed before managing to pry off Plushbun and Plushbear. Both plushies did a sinister giggle towards Leela who frowned at them before throwing them to the ground and pressed her boots on them so they wouldn't escape.
Plushbun tried to get Leela's boot off of them but couldn't as Leela glared at them. Leela looked at Plushbear. Robot Devil looked down at the sickening bear with his hands close to his chest. Leela moved her boot down towards the bear's foot.
"Here Beelze, you can stomp him out," Leela offered, he gulped and placed his red metal foot on the bear and pressed it firmly. A child's voice came out of the plush and was seemingly begging for remorse and sorrow.
"Daddy...please, don't kill me…" Beelzebot gasped slightly and the words seemed to ache and hurt him mentally. "Please Daddy...why are you doing this?" Beelzebot blinked away tears before shaking his head and pressing his foot more. I'm sorry… With a sickening crunch and snapping, he pressed down his foot on the bear, child's cries and begging were shouting to Beelzebot. He could dare to watch the bear being crushed by him.
Another crushing sound was heard from Leela with Plushbun as she also did the same thing with the felt rabbit. With a final press to her boot, both plushies didn't move or make a sound. With her confirmation, she wiggled her boot left to right and lifted it up, sticky red fluid was attached to the bottom like slime. They both looked down and kept looking at the plushies without blinking.
Both plushies had small, internal organs leaking out of the fluff now soaked in thick blood. Two tiny hearts that were in the middle of the plushies were beating faintly and stopped. The star eyes that were deep in the sockets disappeared. Robot Devil swallowed at the heart-wrenching moment. Gasping slightly, he then heard two sets of feet coming from one part of the kitchen. He turned around and faced the darker side of the kitchen. He looked on the ground; two sets of oil footprints were appearing on the kitchen floor and each one was a different step, left to right. Right to left.
Robot Devil noticed the footprints being almost like his and someone else's. The steps were getting closer to him as the rest watched. The track of oil prints were stopped between a distance until then; and two eight-year-old children appeared in front of him.
One of the kids looked like Francis, but he was red all over. His eyes were black with white pupils and were leaking oil that dripped constantly to the floor. There were big gashes and dents that some were leaking and some were not. Wires stuck out on the back of his head. A deep and large cut was between his waist that bled.
The second one seemed and easily noticed was a girl that looked like him, only she was a bronze color. She had the same eyes like him but different injuries. The fembot had beautiful blonde hair with tips of red on them. Her throat had been slit and her stomach cut wide open. Both leaking and bleeding oil. The fembot took a strand of her blonde hair and put it behind one of her horns. She then walked up to Robot Devil and smiled at him, but he didn't smile back. The eight-year-old held out her hand and there was a small, ridged, rusted key.
In a small voice, she peeped out, "Take it." Listening to the fembot, he swallowed and took the key. After then, he stared out in shock as he watched the kids disappear like dust, saying their final last words: "Thank you for releasing us...Dad…" and just like that, Robot Devil began to weep softly.
As Francis panted in fear and terror, he looked around the vivid hallway and picked a random room for him to hide until now. He went to the farthest door and ran to it, clasping the doorknob before turning it and went in to find himself a nursery. He shut the door loudly and blocked it with his body. He looked around the nursery and quickly locked the door without looking back. Francis got the pipe off his back and scanned the room.
He was definitely right, the room was a nursery. He walked over to the crib where Theodore just laid on his back looking upwards towards the ceiling. Francis picked him up and cradled him for no reason. A lump formed in his throat but forcefully swallowed. Why am I getting so emotional right now? Francis thought about closing his eyes and breathing deeply to manifest them. He closed his eyes, only to find a picture in his head of the nursery, that was covered in a spattering liquid while holding a pile of intestines that wiggled and squirmed in his arms instead of Theodore.
Francis immediately opened his eyes and threw down Theodore to the ground. He was in an emotional state of shock when he realized that the nursery was perfectly normal and there were no intestines he was holding. Francis was about to pick up the rabbit only to have overcome a wave of nausea washing over him and get drowsy. Groaning painfully, he put a clamp on the crib while his other one was holding his stomach. In the matter of seconds, he threw up bile on the floor, heat of the stomach acid warmed his mouth with a sour taste.
Francis coughed a bit and wiped his mouth off, looking down and seeing that he had missed Theodore and threw up next to him. He picked up the rabbit and put it in the crib.
He turned his back and saw Stanley the rocking unicorn-horse rocking in a mellow rhythm. Francis found this a bit freaked out but ignored it and went over to the rocking unicorn, kneeling down to Stanley. He reached out and pet the unicorn's colorful mane. His vision was getting a bit drunk. Francis wanted to close his eyes but he was reminded of the terrifying mental picture. Francis sighed and shook his head and closed his eyes. The picture was now different, this time, three robot bodies were laying on the ground on their side. Their backs facing him with a large puddle of oil spreading rapidly, one of them turned its head to face Francis.
Francis jolted his eyes open and yelped quickly before scrambling his clamps and knees and backing up to where his back hit the crib. Stanley, who was still rocking, the hardwood floor that was perfectly clean before was now covered in a black liquid. Francis began to hyperventilate as he watched the unicorn rocking back and forth. Stanley then stopped halfway through a rock and his dead eyes looked at Francis, his sockets begin to leak a strange red fluid.
Francis wrapped his head with his arms as he was quietly whispering to himself. "No more, no more, no more, no more…" he had to get those mental images out of him, it was starting to actually scare him. He kept repeated those two little words that made him felt safe rather then sorry. He just wanted to go home, be in bed thinking that he was in a hellish nightmare that was repeating until he woke up, but in reality he was in it, in real life.
"Francis?" A rapid worried knock was on the locked door, which made the manbot jump and look at the door. The door knob wiggled. "Francis, open the door! Joey is coming for us! We're saved!" Leela's voice was on the other side, her tone was full of joy as the knob wiggled. Francis got up and unlocked the door and opened it.
"Leela, I'm so glad you...came…" it wasn't Leela, only the twisted Francis was outside the door, he had been mimicking Leela's voice. ''You…"
His silver wings fluttered. "Too easy," the twisted Francis then grabbed Francis by the throat and pinned him to the wall, his feet off the ground and gagging for air. Francis struggled and tried to pry his hand off, only to have a warning of a tighter tried to gasp for a gulp of air but it wasn't helping.
With a glare, twisted Francis dropped him to where he fell on his knees with his clamps on his neck and was now gasping heavily breathing. Francis looked at his individual with teary eyes and stood up, Francis reached behind him and grabbed the pipe and pointed directly towards twisted Francis, who seemed to not response.
Francis heavily breathed out a single word: "Why…?" Twisted Francis chuckled darkly.
"So you did saw those pictures in your head, eh?" Francis gasped a little in shock, How does he know that? "It wasn't the first time I saw those you know. It has been a long time since I've been seeing them." Francis moved the pipe closer to him, almost to his chest.
"How the hell do you know that?"
The twisted Francis walked up to him, making Francis back and hit his back to the wall. "I'll show you why." Twisted Francis then reached out and put his hand on Francis' forehead.
In the living room of Francis' house, a five-year-old fembot girl with the appearance of Robot Devil, was on her stomach with a box of crayons while humming happily to herself. Her tail was high up in the air curling itself while her blonde hair with red tips got in the way of her face. She blew her hair out of her face and continued drawing.
"Who is that?" Francis asked.
"That would be your daughter," twisted Francis said. My daughter?
As the fembot whilst continuing humming, she put away a light-green crayon and began to shuffle the crayons looking for a different colored one, only to have a questioning look on her. "Where is the red one?" She wondered to herself. She put the crayon box down and got herself up, dusting off her rainbow print pants and her black long-sleeved shirt.
The fembot then bend over to her side and looked under the coffee table to see if it might've rolled off. She then pouted before shouting someone's name.
"Lucifer, have you seen the red crayon? I can't find it!"
"Who's Lucifer?"
"You'll see."
A red boy robot came down the stairs, the boy looked like Francis, only in a red color.
"I couldn't find it either yesterday," Lucifer said, "maybe it just rolled off somewhere while I was coloring. Sorry Francine." Francine looked down at her feet, only in surprise she was filled with joy and picked up a crayon, in a red color.
"Found it!"
"How could they be my kids?" Francis asked once again, the other individual looked at him with a cold dislike.
"Not just kids; twins." The twisted Francis corrected him.
The twin siblings, now both seven-and-a-half, were playing in their shared bedroom. Francine was coloring a drawing with Theodore in her arms, while Lucifer was on Stanley, rocking him. The sound of the door opened and Francis came in with two boxes in his arms, wrapped in colorful paper.
Francis was the first robot to greet him. "Daddy!" Francine stretched her arms and wrapped them around Francis, he chuckled.
"Hey princess, I got you and your brother something." Francis said, introducing two colorful boxes, one green and one blue. "Here you go hon, the green one is for your brother."Francine took the blue box and tore the wrapping paper away and opened up a cardboard box, inside a purple rabbit with ruby eyes and a small smile with a red bowtie was in Francine's arms. Lucifer opened his and a beard with a small smile and blue eyes appeared out of the box.
"Thank you, Daddy!"
"So wait, I created them?"
"Pretty much." The twisted doppelganger said, he was then showing guilt, which made Francis almost look sorry for him. "It was two months after the twins' eighth birthday when that faithful day occurred. I was sick that day; probably the cold or flu. I couldn't attend it."
Francis hunched over the toilet and let out his breakfast and yesterday's dinner into the toilet bowl. Robot Devil looked over at Francis' shoulder, a basket with a cloth covering it he was carrying.
"Francis, if you're that sick, then it would be best if you stay in the house and rest. The kids and I will attend by the farm." Robot Devil offered, adjusting the basket in his arm. Francis shakily turned to Beelzebot with a weak smile.
"I probably should," a kiss was planted on his forehead.
"Good, get plenty of rest now."
"Then what?" Francis looked worried, but not the doppelganger. "What happened next?" Twisted Francis looked over his own shoulder.
"They went missing, the police found them...dead."
"We're sorry for your loss, Francis." Smitty, now in his mid-fifties, apologized. Francis had tears streaming down his faces and his tears were landing on the pictures of his dead husband and children. He couldn't believe that they were missing for two weeks now dead and found. His kids were found in the abandoned farm inside the barn with their stomach and throat cut and eyes missing. The husband was found in the Donbot's mansion, Stomach wide open with one of his eyes missing, horn snapped, and multiple stab wounds.
Leela, with strands of light purple hair and a few wrinkles, hugged the manbot closely to her as Francis begin to sob.
"It wasn't until two years after that when something...just a small thing...went into my head which made me into who I was before."
As Francis stirred his coffee in the middle of the night, he sighed heavily. Two years was all that took to feel nothing but sadness. He sniffled and put his spoon down and drank only a sip of coffee. A small thud was heard from in the living room and turned to the doorway which showed the living room. His twins' plushies, Plushbun and Plushbear, were sitting on top of the fireplace until Plushbun fell to the floor.
Francis got up and went to the living room and picked up the plushie. Without thought, he hugged it, almost as if his daughter was still here with him. He took away the plushie and set it back to the fireplace where a family portrait was there next to them. Francis took the portrait and smiled lightly, his husband and children were all smiling happily, but they were now buried in the cemetery.
Francis then widen his eyes when he thought of something. What if I make them come back to life, be reanimated? Even though he had seen Frankenstien movies from his life, what if the sci-fi movie could be right? He went to the coat hanger and grabbed his coat and went out the door.
"After I have grave-robbed the bodies of my dead family, I setted up the washroom where there, I decided that my husband and children's bodies were too decomposed for the reanimating."
Three dead robot bodies were now propped up against the wall with flies circling and buzzing. He could barely recognize them at all. Francis sighed, this was going to be a challenge for him. If only he would have thought about this plan sooner or later the bodies wouldn't be rotting off. Francis kept thinking whether this was a good idea or not. Francis had everything planned, almost.
He had taken the battery from his car along with jumper cables, there was also rubbing alcohol, cotton swabs, and even a needle and thread. He had also brought down a metal table. Francis decided that his daughter would go first and picked up Francine's body and carefully placed her corpse on the table. Francis gagged at the stench and waved his clamp.
"That was when I decided that her toy that I sewn together would be her new body. But she needed organs for her new self, I went hunting for rabbits and killed two of them; one for Francine and one for Lucifer."
As Francis pierced the skin of the dead rabbit, he was also checking on the corpse of his husband, still decaying. He looked back to the rabbit and did a careful line across the flesh and opened the flaps of the skin of the rabbit. Tiny organs of the rabbit spilled out along with blood. Francis went over to the plushie and did the same thing with Plushbun, but he was also throwing away the fluff that he stuffed it with. He then placed the rabbit entrails along with bones inside the plush and sewn it up.
"After I was done sewing up the toys, I hooked the bodies and the plushes to the car battery, I thought that if I hooked them up at once, they would switch minds and they will be alive."
Trembling and hooking up the cables to the car battery, Francis backed up and looked at the table; stained with blood and oil along with skinned rabbits and rotten corpses, this should work. Francis walked over to the car battery and had his clamp clasping the dial, he looked at the dead corpse of Beelzebot and sighed heavily, hoping he wasn't making any mistakes or wrong consequences of his actions.
Francis looked at the car battery once more and turned the dial to the high setting, electricity was whirring and zapping loudly. Bolts of electric energy were masking the bodies move and shake rapidly, almost like they were having a seizure. Francis shutted off the dial and went over to the table. The plushies of Plushbun and Plushbear were not moving, but they did change. Their faces were replaced with sharp teeth and empty dark sockets. Did...Did I fail?
Francis leaned and hunched over to the plushies, lightly blowing in their faces. He then scrunched up his face and sneezed. Four sets of shining star eyes appeared which made Francis jolt to the floor. He looked and saw a purple claw grab the metal table and looked at Francis, his grin glued to his face as he simply said: "Hi Daddy…"
"After my success with the plushies, I was ready for Beelzebot, only to not know what occurred after the electrocution."
Francis happily panted while hooking up the jumper cables to the Robot Devil's horns, the plushies were chuckling lightly behind him. He was certain that if the success would happen on the plushies then it would work on his husband. After he setted up the cables, he quickly went to the dial of the battery and without hesitation, he turned the dial.
Bolts of electric energy came back and went over to its new host, Robot Devil's corpse was moving side-to-side, jolting, and mostly doing the same thing that Plushbun and Plushbear were doing.
Francis had a big grin to his face until it was interrupted by a banshee scream and looked up to see that the corpse had fully reanimated into a monstrosity. Francis then panicked and turned off the dial and made it to the table. He had saw that the reanimated corpse was now turned into something...twisted. The creature screamed at Francis once more, but he couldn't find any words to describe him. All he thought was on how his creations were a success.
"After an hour of my family's corpses being...awake. I then had a strange emotion washing through me and I realized that I wasn't 'complete' and I did something drastic that pushed my limits to the core."
Francis looked at the car battery and grabbed hold of the cables. His "creations" behind him looked at him. He knew that if they were like this, then he had to become one of them. Swallowing down his pride, he turned the dial to high once more again, strings of electricity showing on the mouths of the cable. He swallowed once more and turned to the twisted "creations" back again. They showed no emotion.
Francis looked at the cables once more, and without hesitation, he jammed the cables onto his neck. Where screams of horrifying pain came out of him. The electricity began to burn out motors, melt wires, and shut down his systems. He could see numeral codes flashing in his cybernetic eyes, symbols that were very strange replaced ones and zeroes. He looked down at his clamps and saw that they then melted off and were replaced by two black hands. He fell to his knees where his mouth ache and bled oil until his mouthplate shot off and flew across the room, four sharp rows of silver metallic teeth and a demon tongue came.
The bolts that held his scar had popped off in a speed of light and oil streaked down his face. Francis felt his back getting wet and looked over through the pain and saw that silver metallic wings grew out. His bronze metal was getting darker by the minute. It then turned black.
Francis woke up from the concrete floor and shook a headache out of his head. Every single part of his body was in aching pain from head to toe. He brought up his hand to his forehead only to recognize that this wasn't a clamp, only a black sharp hand. He got up from the floor and ran to the bathroom and gasped as he saw his new form. He moved back to the mirror blinked, thinking that it was a dream, only it wasn't.
As the twisted Francis pulled his hand away from Francis' forehead, he was now breathing heavily at the other robot.
"You.." he began, "...you had to go through all that trouble just to try and kill yourself from the past? I don't feel a goddamn thing for you!" Twisted Francis then pinned him to the wall, his hand back to his neck, but not gripping his neck.
"I had to bury myself…" twisted Francis said coldly with distaste.
"For what?"
"I went to the mansion later that night and went down to the basement, I saw a secret door with a small concrete room and filled it with soil and dirt. I then dug myself a shallow grave and locked myself in that God forsaken room and didn't wake up until I hunted down myself and kill you."
Francis snarled at him. "Why do you even wanna kill me? If your me from the future and you kill your past self, then that me there is no future for us."
"Exactly." He then squeezed Francis' throat once more causing him to gasp for air once more. The twisted Francis chuckled darkly until all of the sudden a loud bang was heard and Francis was able to breathe again. A hole was on the doppelganger's forehead before bleeding and falling to the ground. Francis traced his eyes across the room and saw Yuki: her face wet with tears and had a gun in her hands, the barrel still smoking from the fresh shot.
Yuki put the gun down and wiped her face with the fresh tears coming down her face before she sniffled out a response, "I heard everything he said." Yuki sniffled. "I've heard his voice before and I-I even met him in my dreams." She then turned into a sobbing mess where Francis ran over to her and picked her up, dropping the gun to the floor.
"There, there, you've been through too much already." Francis tried to soothe the crying Yuki, she kept sobbing and hiccuping at the same time. Francis held her tightly as they walked out of the house into the yard where Ying took Yuki and transported her into Joey's car. Robot Devil ran up to Francis and hugged him tightly.
"I missed you…" Robot Devil said softly as the wind blew the trio, hover cars of the New New York police department made loud sirens and flashing lights into the tall grass.
To the reader who read this, congrats! You have read my first Futurama series of horror and terror. Thanks to the wonderful Futurama community and my favorite two authors narwhalpuppy and Creeply! But don't worry, this isn't the end of my writing, I will still make more fanfictions of cartoons! Until next time!
Coming Soon: Helluva Robot! Futurama + Helluva Boss crossover!
