It wasn't too long before someone knocked on the door. "Michael?" It was Joseph.
I got up slowly and unlocked the door. It opened a moment later once I got in my chair. "Hey…" I had really wished it'd be Riley to show up. Oh well, can't get everything you want. "Here to rescue stupid, can't-do-shit-right me?"
Joseph ignored what I'd said, making a face like he felt bad about something. "How's your leg?" My pant leg was ripped so he knew which leg it was. "Looks fine… How's it feel?"
"Like I got stepped on by a giant rabbit." I flinched when he moved my leg. "Ah-! Hey, watch it!"
"How bad does it hurt?" he pushed, slowly bending my leg in different directions.
"Fucking bad! Now stop!" I pushed his hand away from my thigh. "It's not broke but dammit it hurts so stop moving shit!"
Joseph glared at me.
He was still my boss. I had no right to talk to him like that. "Um… Sorry. It just really hurts."
"Let's get you inside." He offered his hand which I gratefully took. It was a bit awkward having my arm around his shoulder. Just until we get to the main building and then I didn't need to lean on him like this anymore. "You said that the bunny, Bonnie, did that? Stepped on you?"
"Yeah. I got it on tape." I help up the camcorder feeling very proud of myself having dropped it in the direction of the animatronic. I mean, how lucky could you get?
His eyes lit up with excitement. That light quickly died down and he was back to the usual awkward expression he always held. "Good. We can look over this while you rest up your leg."
Sounded like a good plan to me. Once we got inside he let me sit on the couch outside his office and got me an icepack. It was one of those neat ones where the holder for the icepack wraps around your leg to keep it there if you need to move around. Getting the camera hooked up to his lap top he brought it out to the couch and sat with me to look over it.
"Time?" he asked.
I shrugged. "Didn't check again… try eleven."
He zoomed to it but stopped before when we noticed something oozing up behind me. It was at the time where I'd put the camera down to look at the screen. As I flipped around through them, a dark mist came dripping into existence behind me. Blue orbs formed inside of the cloud that still cut off sooner than it should. It was like the cloud was only half complete. It grew in size, slinking right up behind me only to slowly move away and hover in the background.
"What is that?" Joseph asked as if I'd know.
Sadly, I think I did know. "Just… keep going…"
He fast-forwarded slowly. Over time the shape became more recognizable and I noticed my own shocked face as what happened on the cameras passed and I flipped through the different ones.
Suddenly the mist shifted. The orbs turned away from me, glowing harsher and sharpening out the shape. It growled. A low rumble that sent static through the audio. My form stiffened, the camera screen pixilated and glitched to negative and back again. It then froze for a moment and moved again as I reached out for the camera and pointed it at the thing. It turned and roared, but the camera glitched too much that you couldn't see what it was.
"That didn't look like-"
"That's not it. Keep watching."
It continued to when I went to Foxy, noted that it was looking at me, and then even to the shadow that moved in section B. The camera screen glitched again sending pixels in human form scampering across the screen to hide behind the trash.
We made no comment to this apart from a glance to each other.
Then it reached the box.
"The lock broke?" Joseph muttered under his breath.
I produced the broken lock from my pocket. "Yeah. Looks like it."
He stared at the lock for a moment, at me, and then back at the computer.
Then it was there. The rabbit. It stood tall and horrifying in front of the camera. Glitches sparkled across the screen blotting out much of anything happening. Then it fell to the ground a good few feet behind where I landed. All we could see of the rabbit was up to its chest.
It stepped closer and closer and then finally its foot crashed down on my bent leg forcing it to straighten and collide with hard ground. All screams I made her distorted, scary. I couldn't even imagine a normal person being able to copy these audio errors.
Then a black mist shrouded up and the camera froze once more. Voices screamed and clawed and bit at every high note they could grasp before the visual came back and the rabbit had stepped back several feet. We could see just up to its down faced pupils. The blackened, distorted figure blossomed around it. First as a mist and soon becoming more solid and the video glitched and sputtered. It then called out even more disturbing sounding than before.
"M…M…Mmmmmiiiiiiiiike."
There was a thud of myself passing out before the camera's vision altered again and all we could hear was screaming. Pleads for help called out to us as the camera glitched with visions of the rabbit crying out and fighting something.
It was then gone the next moment. All was quiet.
We waited and nothing happened.
Joseph fast-forwarded again until I finally awoke. The rest of the video played out without anything strange. I felt a headache coming on and just groaned to myself.
My boss was at a loss for words. He looked at me and closed the lap top. He then stood and went into his office not bothering to close the door. A moment later he came back with his cell phone. "I'm going to call Riley. If you are still up to it, I want you both to work the night shift tomorrow."
"What?! After THAT?! No way!"
He sighed. "Michael, these things are after you."
I blinked. "Wh-what…?"
"The last one called out to you. Maybe not to YOU – yes I know the stories of where those animatronics came from – but it was looking at you. That spirit is going to follow you whether you go home or keep working. I'm going to call a psychic and hopefully we'll find a way to appease these spirits, but since they've only shown themselves to you… you have to be there."
There was then a loud shriek outside. The sound of it scratched at my eardrums threatening to rupture something.
"I'm NOT going back out there with those things! One of them almost broke my leg!" I felt my own life being in danger was a good enough reason to stay home.
"It won't matter if you do or don't. If you don't, they'll find you somehow."
I was about to bark something back at him when something broke free in the back of my mind. That voice that had called to me from the rabbit. It had sounded so familiar. The distorted body and the black that spewed from its throat. I didn't know who it was, but I'd seen them before. Somewhere… somewhere hidden far back in my memory. No, not MY memory.
"Holy fuck…" I tried to force it. To push those memories forward.
A dark room.
People.
No… kids.
Three of them.
No no, it was four including me.
Pain… agony… screaming… torture… a wicked smile… stomping… stomp… stomp… kick… crack… crunch… KICK… STOMP… BREAK… STAB.
They just wanted help that never came. To feel like someone had been looking for them. To know someone had wanted to help.
"It's those kids."