"Ok, so it's this one for the gas, that's the brake, um…" Bonnie stated to himself for reassurance while fiddling with the controls of the rusty golf cart Barry had previously pointed out.
"You know this was my idea, right? So I kind of thought it would be ME driving." Barry stated abruptly sounding slightly irritated. Bonnie turned the key they had found lying on the seat as the engine rumbled.
"I know I know but come on I had to do this! You have to admit this has me written all over it!" Bonnie chuckled as he turned awaiting Barry's reaction. The blue rabbit gave him a deadpan look as he sighed. He turned away adjusting his seatbelt and making sure the box filled with the remains of the smaller toy suits were safely strapped in. "Ok when I say so use that control to open the warehouse door, got it?" Barry nodded as he gripped the controller tightly. "1…2…3…GO!" screamed Bonnie.
He pushed his large purple foot on the gas as the golf cart began trudging its way along. Barry pressed the door controller as it began to rise slowly. The golf cart started to pick up some serious speed as Bonnie and Barry shared a look of fear realizing the door wasn't going to open all the way on time. Noticing they were too close to begin to break Bonnie screamed. "BRACE YOURSELF!" Barry knelt slightly and closed his eyes as the golf cart zoomed through the slightly opened warehouse door when a large clunk was heard. Suddenly Barry began to feel something he hadn't felt in a very long time. A breeze.
Opening his eyes slowly he looked around in awe at the world before him. The golf cart was racing along a road as cars bustled past that looked far more advanced than he had ever seen. People were glued to a small device they were holding while large neon signs for all these different establishments brightened up the sky. Barry came to the realization it had maybe been more than a week they were out. Bonnie was having a hard time hiding the huge grin on his face. He couldn't help but feel so joyous to be outside with a nice spring breeze flowing through his joints and wires. Bonnie turned smiling at Barry as he couldn't help but grin back, it was genuinely breathtaking. Bonnie's grin turned into a shocked expression as he gasped looking at Barry's head.
"Oh God! Barry don't overreact okay?!" Bonnie exclaimed as Barry immediately began to panic.
"Why what's wrong?!" He frantically started patting his head as his hands started to feel the stems of his ears and so on until Barry's left hand tried to grasp something that wasn't there. His eyes went wide as he looked at the side mirror of the cart to inspect himself. It was as he feared. Barry began to scream in terror as he looked at his reflection realizing that the large clunk while they drove out of the warehouse was half of Barry's left ear colliding with the door and being wiped clean off. "NO, NO, NO, WHY!" Barry screamed as he began to hyperventilate. Bonnie tried to look at the other rabbit's lack of ear and the road at the same time.
"Hey look, it's not that bad! Once we find Mike, we can maybe get that handyman to fix it, what was his name Boris? Bruce, I think?" Bonnie pondered. Barry could barely hear him as he was too busy having a panic attack.
"I LOOK HIDEOUS OH DEAR GOD!" Barry shouted while examining his ears at every angle in the mirror. Bonnie laughed slightly.
"Nah you don't, it builds character!" He beamed positively as Barry gave him the most threatening daggers, he'd ever seen. He nervously laughed as he continued driving while keeping one eye on Barry ready for any chance of a sneak attack after his latest comment.
"How have you been these past few years then?" asked Todd who was trying to break the silence that the group had become accustomed too after their run in with what was left of their old pal Freddy. Mike scowled as Amanda shot a glare his way. Becky gave a light smile as she spoke up.
"Wow, where do I start? It's been so long. I quit that coffee shop job back in '02 and decided to go for it with my economics degree." Becky stated quite proudly. Todd brightened up as she answered.
"Oh awesome, that's great!" He replied. Becky smiled as she reluctantly carried on, not daring to go back to the awful silence.
"I worked my way up at that Italian place on Kingston St, 'Grigios'. I then finally landed the sous-chef job there. Worked there until maybe 15 years ago, I think. Then me and Thomas opened up 'Cinque Notti' just a few years back and business couldn't be better!" cheered Becky. Todd was smiling then but immediately became confused.
"Wait who's Thomas?" Todd questioned. Mike looked back to see Todd's smile drop as one grew on his own face. Becky looked down at first as she reluctantly raised her hand up showing a beautiful silver ring on her hand.
"Thomas, well he's my husband. We've been together nearly 20 years. We met at 'Grigios' as we were both working there at the time." Becky then began to pull out her purse as she then opened it up to reveal a photograph, she then gestured it to Todd as he held it in his hands. "Yep there's me and Thomas", Becky then pointed to the teenage girl infront of the couple in the photograph, "And that's our daughter Emily." Todd's smile had completely faded as he looked down at the photograph. He hadn't spoken to Becky in nearly 30 years and for some reason all these old feelings had begun to resurface out of nowhere. Of course, she was married, he couldn't have expected her to wait for a call from him one day. Todd examined the photo closer as he looked at Emily, she looked almost identical to Becky when she was a teenager, and when they had first dated. Suddenly Mike spoke up.
"Yeah and Thomas is great!" He exclaimed, making sure he was meeting Todd's sad eyes. "He treats Becky good too, such a nice guy. Don't get me started on Emily, couldn't have asked for a better niece." Mike's grin grew wider as Todd began to develop a frown. Amanda looked at Mike with a strange expression.
"What kind of comment is 'Couldn't have asked for a better niece'?" she questioned. Mike looked at her frustrated.
"Oh shut up." he replied. Todd decided to hand the photograph back to Becky while he forced a smile.
"I'm really, really happy for you Becky. You've done so well." Todd said as his weak smile began to fade. Becky nodded.
"Thanks Todd, so you've been good too yeah?" She asked, looking at him patiently for an answer. Mike's grin reappeared on his face as he continued walking with Amanda as she followed slowly with a worried expression on her face due to the ever-increasing tension developing between the two men. Todd looked down as he took a deep breath.
"After prison I got a job working in a supermarket, it was really all I could get with a record." Todd sighed a little as he continued. "Eventually a few years later I tried my luck with my engineer degree to see if I could get any jobs. I got lucky and one of my old buddies helped me out. It's good pay and I enjoy the work so I can't complain. Never got married, never really found anyone…" Todd trailed off as he desperately wanted to say 'Like you' to Becky but he held his tongue. "Well you know it was rough after Shel and I just felt like I couldn't go through the pain of losing someone ever again, y'know? Weirdly enough though I missed the animatronics a lot. Even after how much I used to fear them, don't have many friends to ask to stay with me so I got a pet dog, his name's Milo. Look." Todd gestured his phone to Becky and Amanda as a picture of a dalmatian puppy with big blue eyes laid on the screen.
"Aww." Whispered Amanda and Becky in unison. Mike rolled his eyes.
"Sounds like you had it rough ay Todd? Guess that's just Karma doing her job." Mike stated rather coldly. Todd sighed as Amanda gave Mike a stare.
"Yep. Guess so." Todd muttered as he put his phone away. Mike smiled to himself as he suddenly stopped in his tracks. The group looked confused at Mike's sudden halt.
"Don't you hear that?" he whispered as he tilted his head slightly. The group listened carefully as there was a faint noise of footsteps, but they were fast. Very fast. They seemed to be coming from all directions as the four adults slowly came together. The footsteps came to a sudden halt as there was just silence. Todd opened his mouth almost ready to speak when a voice spoke out.
"Hello." Said the very childlike, almost recognizable voice. The group turned around as there before them was a very familiar balloon vendor animatronic. Except he seemed almost transparent and very dirty. Instead of having actual endoskeleton eyes there was just white irises surrounded by black looking back at the group. The animatronic seemed very blank at first but then focused on the group revealing a shocked expression. Todd edged slowly forward.
"Balloon Boy? Is that you?" Todd asked the ghostly animatronic. It looked at him as its eyes seemed dead, but after a few seconds it smiled and ran over.
"Mister Todd! It's me! BB!" He exclaimed as his arms wrapped themselves around Todd's left leg. Todd looked down shocked as he surprisingly couldn't feel a thing. The others approached the small animatronic as they all smiled and reunited. Mike looked concerned as he spoke.
"Balloon Boy, what h-happened to you?" He said cautiously. BB looked up as his smile faded away.
"There was a monster. H-he chopped up Freddy." Mike's eyes widened. Amanda spoke before he could even form any words.
"A monster? What kind of monster?" Balloon Boy looked around carefully.
"Freddy knew him. He was an old broken looking rabbit, he had evil in his eyes. Freddy called him Bernard." Mike's mind suddenly clicked into place on who the child was talking about, but it didn't make any sense.
"Bernard? That was the old costume in that box we took from the pizzeria. That thing wasn't even active, how could it have possibly 'chopped up Freddy?'" Mike asked confused. BB looked down.
"Not just Freddy. He chopped me up too then went after the others. The next thing I knew I woke up here." BB stated with sadness in his voice. Becky kneeled to the smaller animatronic.
"I'm so sorry this happened to you." Becky said trying to give him a hug but to no avail as she went straight through him. Mike was deep in thought. If Balloon Boy and Freddy had both been destroyed, then that meant Freddy had to be in here somewhere too. He turned to the others.
"Balloon Boy, will you help us find Freddy and the others?" The balloon vendor smiled as he nodded. The group decided to continue navigating their way down a new hallway when Balloon Boy spoke up again.
"Mike." He whimpered as the group turned to him.
"Yeah?" Mike replied as his eyes laid on Balloon Boy.
"The monster. He's still here."
Freddy walked through the halls of Fazbear Fright quite hesitantly. He hadn't felt this uncomfortable in a long time. He missed his friends dearly, were they all destroyed by Springtrap as well? He looked over at Roxy who was slightly lagging as she caught his eye. She smiled at him weakly as he looked at her questionably. He stopped and turned to her as the fox raised her eyebrows wondering why they had abruptly halted.
"R-Roxy? Did Springtrap get you too? Is that why you're here with me?" Roxy looked at the bear as she began to frown, she then proceeded to nod slowly. Freddy sighed. "Then he must have gotten everyone. You weren't even in the pizzeria that night and he got you. I wonder if everyone else is still here. Do you think we're dead? Or more dead if that even makes sense." Roxy opened her mouth as she emitted some static that could almost be loosely translated.
"AGCYGCBWYECBWEDSA CDUNEEDCBDSUUSATO SDFBSDBFBSFINDUBDUIABDBASBMIKEHSB CABCSBCANDUSDBDSVBBECKYASBFUHBFSAHTHEY'YREWEBFWBFWHEREDBBSHD" Roxy closed her mouth as she looked at Freddy hoping he roughly understood what she said. Freddy took a minute to take it in but seemed to understand.
"How do you know that? Oh, who cares, we need to find them then!" Freddy exclaimed as the two phantom animatronics started stumbling down the halls eagerly. Freddy tripped on a present box as he landed on the floor within the next room. He looked up as he noticed old discarded arcade machines lined up next to each other. He recognized them from the old pizzerias. He picked himself back up as he noticed a figure standing over one of the arcade machines. The figure was also an animatronic that seemed just as transparent and withered as he did. They began to bang and kick the arcade machine as their foot just went through the old console. They were using some type of ghostly ability to move the lever around. Freddy looked at the machine and could make out they were playing 'Dig Dug' a popular game from their time. Freddy crept a little closer as he finally made out the figure. He couldn't believe it. There infront of him was his old bandmate 'Chica the Chicken'.
"This game is absolutely ridiculous; those things shouldn't be allowed to go through the dirt!" She exclaimed rather hysterically over this old retro game.
"GDGYSAYUEIMDQWDHUIDMOREBEABDOFBQWDBQDBQAEKNWWEPACMANNFDWETYPENWENWKEMYSELFIUWEQIUN" Garbled Roxy as she had climbed onto the ceiling and hovered over Chica and the arcade machine.
"ARGHHHHHH!" Chica screamed as she fell back in shock. The mangled fox just rolled her eyes as Chica glanced up at her again. "Wait a second…Roxy is that you!?" She exclaimed as the fear left her tone. Roxy smiled and nodded excitedly as she dropped down from the ceiling. The two phantom animatronics embraced each other as Chica backed away from the hug. "I never through I'd see you again…after what happened at the pizzeria. After what happened to all of us. Springtrap. He got Foxy too, I'm so sorry." said Chica. Roxy looked around then back at Chica almost asking the chicken where her counterpart was. "I've not seen him here though. Sorry." She apologized.
"Chica." Emitted Freddy in a deep voice echoing the arcade room. Chica gasped as she turned to face the ghostly bear.
"Freddy, it's been so long…I think?" She replied as Freddy grabbed her in a hug.
"I'm so sorry. I did this to us. I stupidly fell for that dang rabbit's tricks." He said with an overtone of guilt in his voice. Chica backed away.
"Don't even start Freddy. We all fell for Bernard's lie, but now that I think about it, how could have it even been Bernard? The suit was deactivated years and years ago. It wouldn't make sense for him to be up and running out of nowhere?" Chica stated, looking very puzzled. Roxy got closer to the two as she explained what had happened to Mike and the others with them being arrested. After a few minutes of the phantoms discussing what they knew Freddy had concluded.
"So, Mike and the others were arrested due to withholding us from Fazbear Entertainment and then they took Barry, Sprung and Godlie to a warehouse for storage. Roxy here managed to escape to the pizzeria where she saw Springtrap destroy our physical bodies and then he did the same to her. Yes?" Roxy and Chica nodded in agreement. Roxy then suddenly remembered.
"HXASKXHAWAITNKNCLNBONNIEBDBQBDMADEBEAWKBITKSBNOUTWBFDEWIWJKHFKSAWKJKHIMS"
Spluttered Roxy as the other two's eyes went wide. Chica couldn't believe it.
"BONNIE IS STILL OUT THERE!? HE'S ALIVE?!" She cried. Freddy corrected her.
"Well alive as we get. That's amazing though, we need to find him!" The bear exclaimed. Chica looked around then back at the others.
"But if he got away…where would he even be?" Chica sighed. She took a step back glancing around and then at Freddy and Roxy. She then clenched her fists as she finally looked down at herself. "The real question is…how long has it actually been since Springtrap destroyed us? We aren't even really ourselves anymore." Freddy and Roxy looked at Chica blankly then turned to each other wearing a frown. Before anyone could speak there was a loud crash as a few present boxes flew into the room. The three spirits turned to see a figure lying on the ground that had appeared to have been thrown from another room. They studied the figure lying on the ground as it shot up immediately and locked eye contact with them. Freddy perked up as he realized who they were.
"Peter? It's you!" Freddy exclaimed. The Puppet shook his head as he stared at Freddy and the others.
"You all need to get out of here right now!" Shouted the Puppet. The others looked at him with confusion but before any of them could react a voice echoed from the other room.
"Now now Peter, we don't want to upset our guests now." The voice closed in slowly as a figure walked through the door. An old rotten springlock suit made its presence known. Within the rips and cuts of the suit there were multiple things that were hard to make out in the light, things resembling rotten organs and corroded muscle tissue, even bone could be visible in certain angles. The permanent smile on the suit was the same though, almost mocking you every time you saw it. The eyes seemed full of life yet ironically enough soulless. The phantoms gasped as they were face to face with their killer, in more ways than they knew.
"Springtrap." said Freddy with anger in his tone. The old rabbit's eyes widened.
"Well well, got it right this time eh? Not like before", Springtrap began to mock Freddy from their last meeting. "Oh Bernard! It's you, how delightful, care for some tea Bernard!?" Springtrap began to laugh as he continued. "Guess chopping you into pieces did you well." He muttered in his gravelly voice. Chica scowled at him as she spoke up.
"Who even are you then!? Why did you do this to us!?" she hissed at him. He looked her way as he stepped a little closer.
"I was simply finishing what I started. Looks like I failed again. You guys really are persistent to hold onto every little sliver of life. Seriously though, you don't recognize me!? Even with this new getup it's the same old me."
The grin molded on the rabbit's face was starting to get to Freddy as he took in his words slowly. The voice sounded vaguely similar but different. Something about the rabbit's suspicious body language also gave Freddy a familiar feeling.
"Tell them." said Springtrap. He was staring directly at the puppet. "Tell them who I am and why I look like this." He spoke those last words with a tint of anger. The Puppet looked at Springtrap almost offended.
"Are you implying I am the reason you look like that? Because if I remember correctly you did that to yourself." The Puppet said as he turned away from the angry rabbit. Springtrap marched towards him as he picked him up by the neck. Freddy and the others gasped as they were surprised he was able to touch the Puppet in his phantom form.
"You really gonna play smart right now, Peter?! If you didn't take me into that room and nearly beat me to death I would have never reached for this suit in the first place. You, and you alone are the reason I am like this." Springtrap said with rage. He turned his head to the others as he dropped the Puppet. "It's me. Zack. Still not dead." He said with almost a sense of pride. The others seemed shocked as Freddy fixated on the rabbit.
"How?" He simply stated. Springtrap looked over at The Puppet who was on the floor.
"After the junkyard. Peter took me to Parts & Service where this suit was. He beat me a few times and told me I was going to die, so I did what anyone would do I tried to protect myself, and the only way I could do that was to crawl into this springlock suit. Yeah I was a technician and a suit I had worked on in the past killed me. I get it its irony at its finest. But you gotta remember I was in fight or flight mode and I knew I had no more fight in me. So I started laughing at Peter and I forgot how sensitive the old springlocks were, then they caved in on me. Really fucking painful, may I add. Worst part was it didn't even kill me right away, took a few minutes." Springtrap said as he started to relive his painful death in his head. Freddy put the pieces together in his head as he still seemed confused.
"Wait. So how in the hell are you walking and talking right now then?" He blurted. Springtrap came out of his thoughts as he stared back at Freddy.
"Same reason any of you could move around in those suits. Remnant. Its parts of your soul. Doesn't matter if your body dies, if there is still remnant, you exist. Only difference in our cases is our remnant found things to possess. Yet I am still dealing with you. With the suits destroyed your remnant is free, hence these forms. Plus it must be pretty strong if I can see you. Unlucky for you though…I can do a lot more than look." Springtrap finished as he turned down to the Puppet once more and grabbed him. He held him up as he motioned to rip him in half.
"NO!" screamed Chica. Before Springtrap could commit the deed an echo was heard in the halls.
"Hello!? Anyone 'ere!?" said the familiar voice. Springtrap turned around searching for the location of the voice as The Puppet managed to squirm free which made Springtrap lose balance and fall into the pile of present boxes. The Puppet began to float away to the source of the voice as the others followed in tow. Springtrap began to rise, just as he was away to chase after the phantoms he heard another voice in the opposite direction.
"Are you sure you know where you're going Balloon Boy?" asked Mike with a tinge of annoyance.
"Yeah, just down here." Replied BB. Springtrap smiled with joy. He now had found better things to do than chase after a couple of ghosts.
After all not all of his enemies were dead.
Note from the Author:
And it has arrived! Chapter 14...Part 1. I know who saw that coming?! Basically while writing Chapter 13 I thought I should add an extra chapter so the story didn't feel so full and in your face, plus I wanted to develop certain characters abit more considering in the story it has been 30 years since we last saw them! Hence the two parter. I actually began writing this one as soon as Chapter 13 was released but I don't know, I've been surprisingly busy. Like I've actually had college work to do, courses for my job and the stress of applying for college next year and finding a place to stay for the oncoming academic year.
Anyway you don't care about that, so the plan is to get started on Part 2 right away! And should hopefully be released within the next two week period. Then the best case scenario is to have Chapter 15 (The Final Chapter) to be released before the end of the month, but we'll see, it could take longer because I'm planning Chapter 15 to be the biggest one I've ever done. Well I hope you enjoyed this one. Stay tuned!
