Vanny flung herself around the animatronic's neck, clutching at him desperately as she sobbed out. Her vision was blurry from her tears and her knees were shaking. She would have fallen if Springtrap hadn't been there to hold her in his arms. He was very delicate with her as she clung to him. Her face was buried into his chest almost immediately as she openly wept.
She kept sucking in trembling breaths, attempting to breathe in between her sobs.
The rabbit scooped her up with ease, wrapping his arms around her waist.
Vanny couldn't find words; she wanted to tell him so many things and ask him so many questions. When she finally found her voice, it was soft and sounded scared.
"Is it really you?" She managed pathetically. Her face remained hidden in the fur of his chest. She didn't care how filthy the fur was or how moldy it smelled. This was William. This was her lover. All of this felt like some kind of outlandish fever dream to her. Vanny was fearful that if she pulled away from him that this would all fade away into a void of black, and then she'd wake in a cold sweat. Was this another one of her weird nightmares? The painful way that the rabbit's fur rubbed against the cuts on her cheek assured her to some degree that this was real, and she wasn't dreaming. Springtrap ran one of his hands across the back of her head.
"It's me," He assured her in a gentle voice. The voice was familiar yet different; Vanny could tell that it was William's voice, but there was something new about it. It sounded like he hadn't spoken in a very long time. Vanny sniffled and trembled, shaking like a scared child in this beast's arms.
A movement from a party room nearby caught Springtrap's eye, and with a fearful shiver, he clutched onto Vanny a little tighter. He wasn't letting anyone- or anything- take her away from him or hurt her. There was an inhumanely tall figure in that room, staring at the two with a wide, permanent grin. Springtrap took a cautious step back to further distance himself from the figure that Vanny hadn't noticed. His ears perked up ever so slightly when he was reminded of the lights flashing outside. The cops most definitely were here like Vanny had warned him about.
The smiling figure remained perfectly still; watching their new guest with burning white pupils.
"You shouldn't be here," Springtrap hissed under his breath to Vanny. As much as he didn't want to let Vanny go, he had to. If she were caught, there would be no hope of getting her back in here. "No-" Vanny argued as she peeled herself away from his now-bloody chest. Springtrap winced at the sight of the blood that had been smeared across her face.
"Neither of us should be. Come home, William." Vanny gently caressed the side of Springtrap's face. Her fingers traced along the holes in the animatronic's cheeks, feeling them with great care. Springtrap tensed at that name, then glanced back up at the smiling figure who was watching them. There was no time for a happy reunion right now. Springtrap gave her the best smile he could; successfully hiding how nervous he was about that figure in the other room. The police would do nothing to him; he belonged here. Nobody knew of what lay inside of him or the fact that he was anything more than a rundown robot. Vanny, on the other hand…
Springtrap stared at the glowing white pupils in the other room for a moment, then sat Vanny down. The woman shrunk in on herself then. A horrible ache filled her chest as the rabbit's fur slipped away from her, leaving her feeling emptier than she had in years. She wasn't leaving William now, no way in hell. Her throat tightened as she watched Springtrap pull away.
"You need to leave," William whispered softly. His giant, rotting body shifted and turned so that he could bend down to better face her once again. He stared deep into those eyes he had gazed into hundreds of times before. Despite no longer having a stomach, he swore he felt it fluttering. She still gave him feelings that nobody else could; heart or not.
"You're fucking stupid if you think I'm leaving." Vanny hissed out. Did he… really not want her here? Had she spent all these years waiting for someone who wasn't waiting for her?
Tears began to roll down her face again, only this time they weren't happy ones.
Springtrap's eyes widened as he realized what he had made this seem like. He moved forward suddenly and cupped her cheek, shaking his head frantically.
"No, no. You need to leave before they get you," he said softly.
Vanny's shoulders fell then as her entire body relaxed. She sniffled and nodded. Before Springtrap could say anything more, she reached out and took his much larger hands in her own. She stared down at them with fondness in her eyes despite the tears that were still blurring her vision ever so slightly. Even the black claws that had sliced her flesh were beautiful to her; they were part of him. They were William's.
"I can't make it out with them here, Vanny." Springtrap continued. He wrapped his paws around Vanny's tiny hands for a moment, then slid a one up to tilt her chin up. The two locked eyes for a long moment, and then he stood back up to his full height. The robot easily towered over her; he had to be at least seven feet tall. With his good ear raised up, he was even taller.
He was right; there was no way that she was getting him out of here tonight. He was much too big to go unnoticed, and there was no way to easily sneak him out. There was no telling how long the cops would be sniffing around for evidence, and if Vanny didn't hurry, they'd find the car. As much as she didn't want to, Vanny nodded in agreement.
"I'll come back, then. I'll come back and get you." She stated with determination.
Springtrap smiled softly; he had missed her enthusiasm…. He had missed her.
"I'll be here," he assured her with a low chuckle. Vanny hesitated before taking a step away from William. After all this time, she was leaving him. Part of her wanted to take her chances of getting caught and stay here with him. She needed to get her mask and get out, though.
"I'll come back." She promised as she continued to back away. "I'll come back." She repeated.
Springtrap said nothing as he watched her back out of the dining room and into the hallway where she'd come from. Vanny turned and ran as fast as she could down that hall, running right past the party room where the smiling figure was. In her hurry, she didn't notice the pair of glowing eyes. The figure watched her go, then turned back to face the monster in the dining room. The two stared at each other for a long moment before the grinning figure turned away and crept deeper inside of the party room, slipping out of sight. Springtrap let out a heavy, relieved sigh. They had no interest in hurting Vanny; they had merely been curious and nosey. It was almost like they were a child…. Springtrap felt himself grinning at that thought before he turned away and headed in the opposite direction; he preferred to avoid his ...roommate.
Vanny ran as fast as her aching legs could carry her. Her head was buzzing with thousands of thoughts and her stomach felt full to bursting. Butterflies fluttered about inside of her entire body.
She had found him. William had been right here all these years… There would be time to beat herself up later over not having torn the place apart to find a hidden animatronic that she didn't even know existed. Vanny slipped into the party room where she had left her mask. It was exactly where she had placed it. The rabbit face was grinning, almost wider than she was.
Vanny grabbed ahold of her mask and took care to not get blood on the fur. It was slipped on her face, and then she slipped out into the hall. There was a distant sound of something further ahead, but ahead was the only accessible exit. She would have to sneak out and run for it, no doubt. If she was lucky, she wouldn't be seen. As the woman silently crept down the decaying halls, the feeling of being watched became unbearably intense. There were cameras all throughout the building, but she hadn't felt like this before now. Vanny looked over her shoulder briefly; wondering if William had been following her. She was a little upset to see that, no, he was nowhere in sight. There was another shuffling noise, and Vanny realized that the sound was right above her. Her eyes widened in panic and she threw her head back.
Many rows of teeth greeted her; all of them were sharp as razors. Vanny's eyes frantically scanned the tangled mess of robotic parts and wires in an attempt to figure out what in the fuck it was. It looked like a fox of some sort, but it was so decayed and filthy that Vanny wasn't able to tell what model it was. The robot clinging to the ceiling had a second head that was staring down at her with a singular eye. At least the smaller head's teeth weren't as sharp as their companion's. Vanny finally locked eyes with the fox; it, just like Springtrap, had bright white pupils and blackened sockets. Wasn't there only supposed to be one animatronic here?
Before Vanny had much time to question anything more, the vixen's jaw dropped open and filled the hallway with a loud, horrible scream. It was nearly deafening and sounded like a mess of garbled static and screeching. Vanny lifted her hands up to cover her ears with a wince.
She was nearly at the door. If she could get around this corner, it would be a straight shot down the hall that allowed her to peer into the office. The noise that the fox was making had caused her yet another problem, though. The beam of a flashlight along the walls told Vanny that the cops had most definitely heard the sound and were coming to investigate.
She was so tired of running.
Vanny turned on her heels and took off down the hall, heading back to the dining room. She had to either hide somewhere until the cops cleared out or find another exit point.
A clanging behind her let her know that she had a shadow. The mangled mess of parts was scurrying across the ceiling; screaming out their horrible call as it tailed her.
It was trying to get her caught.
Springtrap's ears perked up as the sudden noise echoed down the hall. What in the hell?
The rabbit remained perfectly still where he was standing inside of a party room. He stared out at the hallway where Vanny had gone down in silence.
He recognized that sound; it was Mangle.
The darkness in the hallway slowly vanished as a distant glow began to light the peeling walls. Springtrap realized that both the noise and the beam of a flashlight were coming closer. The sound of thudding boots told him that Vanny hadn't managed to slip out undetected. He briefly wondered if the fox chasing her had something to do with that.
Vanny rushed into the dining room and looked around in a panic. While the cops hadn't spotted her, they were following the noise directly above her and it wouldn't take long for them to reach her. Springtrap shot Mangle a hateful glare, then peeked his head out of the party room so that she could see him. Vanny caught sight of him immediately. The rabbit slipped back into the darkness and waited for her to follow him. Vanny sucked in a small breath and bounded across the tiled floor with the fox crawling above her. When Vanny ran into the room, she accidentally bumped into the rabbit in her haste. He didn't seem to mind, though; he didn't even budge. His eyes drifted down to her with a blank expression before looking back up at the vixen clinging to the cracked ceiling. The mangled beast halted at the doorway and stared inside. They looked as if they wanted to go in, but something was preventing them from doing so. Springtrap let out a low growl, warning them to back off. The fox crawled back and forth across the ceiling for a moment, contemplating whether or not to enter before giving up and crawling away. The noise coming from their throat stopped, and a silence fell over the pizzeria.
Vanny clung to Springtrap as she sucked in quick breaths. She had gotten… a little out of shape. The rabbit above her used one of his better fingers to brush the fur on the cheek of her mask before she pulled it off to breathe better. Sweat had gathered on her forehead and her hands were clammy and felt disgusting. She was going to need to bathe when she got home...
"You've been taking care of our suits, I assume?" Springtrap asked in a low, fond voice as he paced through the darkness and over to a wall. He bent down and pulled the cover off of a large vent effortlessly. It appeared as if the cover hadn't even been screwed on. Vanny clutched onto her mask as she followed behind him, still winded and sucking in deep breaths as her heart pounded away in her chest. "Of course." She panted out without hesitation.
Would he even be able to wear his suit anymore? Did he even have any desire to do so?
Vanny didn't have the time to ask how he was living inside of this rabbit suit or what the events were of that night when he left her eight years ago. He had a lot of explaining to do when they got home. Springtrap gestured to the vent, then gave Vanny a wide, toothy grin.
"I hope you haven't grown to be claustrophobic." He teased. While Vanny didn't have an issue with tight spaces, she was hesitant to crawl inside of those old, filthy vents.
"Is it safe?" She asked.
"Would I be having you crawl inside if it wasn't?" Came the rabbit's reply. Vanny nodded and lowered herself to her knees. The glow of the flashlight was in the dining room, now. They needed to hurry. Springtrap grabbed ahold of the woman's chin as gently as he could manage and stared into her eyes. Vanny felt her heart flutter as she stared into those artificial glowing pupils. They weren't the eyes she had fallen in love with, but that didn't matter.
"Keep crawling until you come across a turn," He began in a hushed voice. "Then keep crawling straight. Ignore the next opening and then crawl until you reach another turn. That will spit you out by the back door."
Vanny gave him a small nod before slipping out of his hand.
"I will be here, Vanessa." He promised her. "Come back to me." It sort of sounded like a plea; he sounded as if he were begging her to come back for him. Vanny had no intention of leaving him here to rot any longer than he already had. He pushed her into the vent, then put the cover back over it. He listened and stood still as Vanny shuffled further into the vents. She would be fine.
The flashlight shone into the party room and Springtrap realized that for once he could face the cops with no fear of being arrested or charged for his crimes.
With shaky, barely functioning legs, Springtrap stood to his full height. He raised his good ear up just to make himself look a little taller and more intimidating. He had no intention of killing the cops; he just wanted to scare them. That was what he had been drug out of the safe room to do, wasn't it? The owner wanted him to scare people; he was just an old, lifeless robot after all.
"What in the fuck-" Came a frightened voice from the dining room. Two pairs of flashlights fell onto Springtrap as he stood, watching the cops in silence. He kept his jaw shut tight, though. Nobody needed to see the remnants of his past life.
Once the rabbit's vision cleared back up after being blinded by the flashlight, he was met with two familiar faces and one he didn't recognize. The security guard was with the cops, all three of which looked petrified. There was some new cop that he had never seen around, and then there was Clay. Springtrap's eyes locked onto the Chief silently. The robot towered over the man, and even though he didn't speak or show any signs of aggression, he could easily tell that Clay was petrified. Both officers took cautious steps away from the rabbit.
The guard seemed on edge most of all. The young man trembled nervously as he wrang his hands together. His eyes were darting all around; it was clear that he was trying to avoid eye contact with the beast that roamed these halls.
"This is the one you found? The robot?" Clay asked the guard with a curious glance over his shoulder. The blonde man gave a quick, affirmative nod.
"It's creepy as fuck." The guard stated the obvious with a fearful shiver. "It fucking walks around all night, too. Makes… creepy ass noises."
Clay's eyes slowly drifted back to Springtrap, then shone his flashlight lower to inspect the animatronic's chest. There was some sort of red liquid smeared across its dingy fur, and Clay had a pretty decent idea of what it was. Clay moved forward to inspect the red smear hesitantly.
Both the guard and the other officer stayed behind him; neither of them wanted to get closer to that thing. Before Clay could touch the rabbit, however, the sound of several mechanical snaps echoed throughout the room. The sound got all three men to stagger away from the robot. It sounded as if dozens of mousetraps went off all at once.
The guard lifted a hand to his chest; it was a miracle that he hadn't had a heart attack.
"The stupid thing is always making those noises," The guard quickly informed the cops. Clay, despite having been startled, still eyed the animatronic suspiciously.
"That looks like blood on its chest." Clay pointed out with another glance over to the guard.
"Probably from a rat," The blonde shrugged sheepishly. "They're always crawling inside of it and then get cut up trying to get out."
Clay gave the robot one more once-over before leaving the room completely.
"And you're sure that's not what you saw on the cameras?" He asked.
The guard shook his head immediately. "No, no way. It was much shorter and was white and brown." Springtrap watched the tree walk off silently. Despite the fact that Clay's bullets couldn't put him down, he still wasn't going to go after the Chief. Aside from tormenting the guard, he had shown absolutely no signs of being violent. Rousing anyone's suspicions that he was anything more than a decaying, moldy fursuit wasn't the best course of action. Vanny would be back to bring him home soon, anyway. His tail wagged softly purely out of reflex at the thought of her. With a weary huff, the rabbit crept into the corner and made himself comfortable as his mind wandered; imagining what returning home would be like, what Vanny had been up to, and of course, how she was going to get him out of here. They had no way to communicate, so he would have to figure out how to help her blindly. As the voices of Clay and the others drifted away, he felt himself growing sleepy. He wished that Vanny were there for him to hold.
Vanny's boots made the gravel under her feet crunch as she ran through the parking lot.
She hadn't encountered the guard, the cops or the fox on her way out. Now she was home free, but she hadn't succeeded in bringing the robot home that night. She had found William, though. After all these years, he had held her and called her 'Darling.' She felt emotions she hadn't been able to cling to for years. She felt excited, and she felt… happy. Vanny let out a genuine giggle as she rushed past the cop car that was sitting empty in the parking lot. Her aching legs carried her to William's car. Her eyes drifted down to her bootprints in the mud. Only her prints were there; the cops hadn't found the car. Vanny pulled the door open and got inside; her heart was beating a mile a minute and her hands trembled as she started the car. It only took her a few moments to back out and pull back onto the main road, and then she was gone.
"The cameras don't record?" Clay asked with a somewhat annoyed sigh. The guard shook his head and gave the chief an apologetic look.
"They only display what's going on right now. I have no way of showing you what I saw."
Clay rubbed a hand over his face and nodded. "Alright, alright. Just… if you see anything else, let us know, will you?" The guard agreed with a quick nod. Clay turned to leave the office but then turned back around. "And you're sure that thing's not dangerous?" The fact that they had an actual animatronic wandering the premises made Clay uneasy. He was well aware of what had gone down here, and he had felt sick upon returning. He could still see exactly where the blood had been pooled upon his first visit… Hell… The faces of those crying parents still came to him in his nightmares. He was often kept up with nightmares about robots with too many teeth, ripping apart the ones he loved without mercy or care for human life.
"Springtrap may be creepy, but it's not dangerous." Came the guard's reply.
Clay quirked a brow questioningly. Springtrap? He'd never heard of such a robot.
"Is that what you guys named it? That looked like a Bonnie model if anything." Once again, the guard shook his head in the negative.
"That's what the name it was programmed with, apparently. The dayshift guys that found it got it to answer like one of their questions. They asked it what its name was-"
"-and it said, 'Springtrap?'" Clay finished the smaller man's sentence.
"That's what they're saying, at least. We haven't really gotten it to talk since."
Clay stood in the office for a long moment before turning away.
"Just keep the doors locked, kid. Call us if you need to."