Synthetic Agony
Chapter Two: Hello Darkness..
Closing time came with the gong of the clock above the front doors and the sound of children crying out in glee over hidden speakers. The sound was barely audible in The Kids Cove, but whatever remained of The Mangle's body reacted to the sound with a relieved shudder. Steam hissed out of its joints and servos whirred as the tired and beaten machine slowly rose from its resting place on the floor. Oil dripped from ruined hydraulics and spattered on the tiles, already overtaxed servomotors grinded in protest, but The Mangle ignored them. It wanted to move, and it wanted to move NOW. The farther it got away from The Cove the better. After all, if any of the Children came back and looked for it there, they wouldn't find it!
The Mangle moved stiffly down the hall, its misshapen limbs clacking loudly as it brushed past the many pictures tacked along the wall. The Children had made them for The Others. They showed the children's memories of dancing, singing and playing games with The Others…none of which included The Mangle. One did catch its eye though, and it stopped to glance at it. The picture was crudely made and halfway hidden by another paper, but the picture was obviously one of itself. Mangle reached out and plucked it off the wall, sending at least another dozen pictures scattering to the floor.
It could've cared less about the mess, but it recoiled at its clumsiness anyway. Prize in hand, it scuttled away before any of The Others found what it had done. Though it did step on a few of the pictures as it went, a metallic chuckle escaping its silicon lips…The Mangle had a bit of a mean streak when it wanted to. It crawled along the floor, ears down and remaining eye fixed forward as it moved with purpose to the back of building. It didn't notice the trail of oil and hydraulic fluid it left behind it, and wouldn't have cared if it had known. Let The Others clean it up.
It didn't take long for The Mangle to reach its destination, a locked door in the far back of The Pizzeria. Only the Humans were supposed to be able to open this door, but The Mangle had long ago swiped the key from its not-so-clever hiding place under the fan in the still unoccupied security office. It reached into its jaw, winced, and pulled the key out of what The Mangle imagined to be a much better hiding place. Who would be stupid enough to reach into a mouth full of razor sharp teeth to get the key back? It was about to slide the key into the lock when a distant bang and a shout of annoyance made The Mangle jump. Its eye flickered and flared bright as a headlight. It panned its head back and forth for a moment, searching for any of The Others for a moment before switching its eye lamp off, turning back to the door and unlocking it with a trembling hand. The Mangle stuck the key back in place when the door swung open, and it vanished into the darkness.
The door led to a stairwell that led up to The Mangle's secret place. Nobody else knew about it, and that's the way Mangle wanted to keep it. It had to nearly fold itself in half to get up the stairs, but it managed. The scent of something tickled its nose, which meant it was close! With a burst of speed, The Mangle reached the last door to its secret place and shoved it open roughly, exploding out onto The Roof of The Pizzeria.
It was quiet up there…peaceful. The Mangle's lips pulled back into a smile as it laid awkwardly on its back and gazed up into the infinite brilliance of the night sky. In reality, it was dark and overcast. Massive clouds swelling with rain blocked the stars, but Mangle liked to imagine that it could see them anyway. It envied the distant lights. They were free in a way, though they were trapped in the 'Up There' just like it was stuck in the 'Down Here'. Still, it imagined that the 'Up There' was much nicer than the 'Down Here.'
The Mangle released its death grip on its prize clenched in its hand and smoothed it out as best it could, bringing it up to eye level. It was a picture of itself! Its smile quickly faded as it scanned the photo again. It was a picture of The Mangle alright, a picture of it being stabbed through the belly by a child in purple armor. The black splotches all over the paper were likely supposed to be oil spewing from The Mangles demonic looking body.
With a sad grunt, The Mangle crumpled up the picture and hurled it off the roof. Who needed pictures anyway? They were made by children, and children were evil. It didn't care about one picture…it tried to convince itself of that as a crash of thunder shook it like a leaf, and it was still trying to convince itself when the rain started to fall and soak into what remained of its alabaster pelt.
It tried to convince itself even as its own oily tears mixed with the rainwater.
"S-S-Stoopid…H-H-Human Ba-Ba-Baby Monsteeeerszzzzxrts…"