-You Can't-
Chapter 11: Drowning
"How am I going to tell him... ?" Mangle wondered, going round and round around the Game Area.
She was in a mess. How could she tell him what she felt ? They were so different... She was sure that he wasn't even interested on her. After all, she was destroyed. She wasn't beautiful anymore, she lacked one eye, and her endoskeleton was messed up. How could he be in love with her ? Nobody could...
"Wondering ?"
Mangle startled and cried out in fear, scared by Marionette's intervention. The white fox glanced at the Puppet without saying anything, trying to breathe calmly. The other girl raised an eyebrow and looked at her long fingers. "Did I scare you ?"
"Of course you did !" Mangle shouted at her, her heart beating fast. "Never do that again."
"I can't promise."
Mangle looked away, sighing in an annoyed way, when she noticed that Toy Freddy was entering the room. She immediately hid behind Marionette, so damn scared of the bear. "Hide me..."
The Puppet facepalmed and stared at Toy Freddy, this one coming closer to her. Mangle blushed and returned as quick as possible to her corner of the room. The bear glanced at her, raising an eyebrow curiously, before turning to Marionette. "I swear that I don't know anything."
"Oh, okay..." Toy Freddy nodded, obviously wanting to tell her something. "Erm... Can I ask you something ?"
Marionette blinked at the question and nodded absently. "Of course, I'm listening."
Toy Freddy, nervous, looked at Mangle at the background before turning to Mario again. He seemed worried for an unknown reason. "Did you speak to her ?"
"Erm... That was not really speaking, but yeah." The Puppet replied, looking at the white fox.
Toy Freddy smiled to her and said: "I need to tell her something important."
"So why did you come to speak to me instead ? I'm not Cupid." Marionette reminded friendly Toy Freddy, going back to her Music Box.
The toy animatronic hesitated before joining Mangle. The fox stared at him shyly before approaching. The bear smiled to her and started to speak with her. Balloon Boy, who was looking at the scene from the merry-go-round, smiled and hid in the darkness. When the two were quite close to each other, physically, he ran to them and fell purposely on Toy Freddy, this one falling over Mangle and kissing her at the same time.
Marionette facepalmed and grabbed BB's hand, carrying him away from the two toy animatronics. Mangle was blushing as never and Toy Freddy was laughing nervously, ashamed. The two just stared at each other before trying to kiss again. This time, it was intentional.
"I don't want to see you doing something like that again." The Puppet reprimanded Balloon Boy, heading to the Music Box without caring about his complaints.
The boy just looked at the two and smiled mischievously. "This time, it's not my fault. Look !"
Marionette turned around and her eyes widened when she saw the two animatronics kissing, this time on their own initiative. Balloon Boy looked at her with satisfaction, making his way to the merry-go-round and remaining in front of it.
The Puppet sighed and took a look at the clock. It was nearly 1 AM and Springtrap wasn't coming back at the pizzeria. Now that he wasn't Vincent's ally anymore, he didn't come back. He didn't show any sign. He was gone, for real.
That was breaking Puppet's heart. She hoped that he would come back after Plushtrap's death, but no... Even if Plushtrap's wish was to see them together and happy, Springtrap just ran away and didn't come back. Maybe he was ashamed. Who wouldn't ? He was helping the one who killed his counterpart and nearly killed his loved-one. But they were all ready to forgive him. Well, at least, she was.
So why didn't he come back ? Why was he... scared ?
Marionette stopped thinking when she saw Plush Mario looking at her, sitting on the Music Box. Even her plushie was back. Why Springtrap wasn't ? He was the only one missing now. If he came back... they would be a family again.
"Stop worrying." Plush Mario murmured, putting its hand over Mario's. "He'll come back."
"No he won't."
"Why do you think so ?" The plushie asked, trying to comfort its counterpart.
The Puppet didn't answer for a little while, lost in her mind. She wanted Springtrap by her side. She wanted to live her life with him. She wanted to be truly his girlfriend. She shook her head, recovering the reality, before answering: "He's scared of the others. You know, the others are not the most scared. Springtrap feels rejected, lonely, and guilty."
"I guessed so." Plush Mario agreeded, nodding its head absently. "He's not a bad animatronic."
"Indeed..."
Plush Mario raised its head, looking at its counterpart while thinking. If Springtrap was so scared, all he needed was help. And who better than Mario and Goldie could give him support ?
With that idea, the plushie said: "You need to find him. You can give him the support he needs."
"I don't even know where he is..." Marionette reminded her plushie, lowering her head and tears running down her cheeks as she took in her hands the picture Springtrap left behind him. Such a bad memory. They were side by side... before.
"I can tell you where he is." The plushie murmured, smiling while taking a map.
Mario raised an eyebrow before coming closer, looking at the map. There were many points on it, showing where Springtrap probably intended to go after each tragedy. Maybe he was at one of them.
"He said that he loved being alone, in the dark." Plush Mario started, looking everywhere. Some positions didn't feet with those features, so they erased them. "He loves the woods." The plushie continued, erasing some other points.
Marionette smiled, happy to see that this plan was probably working. "What did he say after that ?" She asked, noticing that there were only two points left.
Plush Mario thought about that for a while before remembering. "He said that he loved water. Lakes or something like that would be very cool."
Fortunately, one of those points combined all those statements. That was their next direction.
Springtrap sighed sadly, looking at the lake without speaking. He loved this place. The lake, the woods, the dark... He loved everything about it. It was charming and also really calm and reassuring. He was alone, where nobody could find him, and the moon was shining over his head.
He stood up, looking at his reflection in the water and whispering desesperately: "Look at you, Spring. Who could eventually like you ? You're just a failure." before hitting the water with his hand. His reflection went out of shape, and Springtrap turned around, going back to the darkness of the woods.
"Who told you that ?" A ghostly voice asked behind him, making him stop walking.
He slowly turned around, and saw a blinding light coming from behind, just in front of the water. He closed his eyes before reopening them, and saw what seemed to be a bear animatronic. A shadow of a bear animatronic, at least. He blinked before coming towards the shadow. "Who-Who are you ?"
"Don't be afraid. My name is Shadow Freddy." The animatronic answered in a friendly tone, smiling kindly to him.
"Oh, hello. I am Sp-"
"I know who you are. Springtrap. The one who murdered five children, who caused Mangle to bit a child, who fought against Marionette, who wanted to destroy Bonnie." The bear listed, Spring's head lowering more and more at each accusation.
He wasn't proud of what he'd done for Vincent. He was weak and lonely when he accepted to help him. But nevertheless, he was more lonely now but stronger psychologically. He'd been through too many horrible things.
"I know exactly who you are." The bear continued, looking at him with a hard look. Springtrap lowered his head, tears filling his eyes. "A hero."
Springtrap raised his head all of a sudden when he heard the bear's words. What ? He ? A hero ? He'd done too many bad things to be a hero...
The purple bear smiled softly to him and took a step forward. He glanced at him with his glowing white pupils and explained calmly: "You saved everything. You did bad things, I agree. But in the end... you sacrified yourself to save your friends."
"I didn't..."
"You nearly died to save Marionette." The bear replied, tilting his head to the left. "And you escaped because you were afraid of hurting them."
Springtrap's ear twitched a little when he heard that. "How do you know... ?"
The purple bear didn't answer, just smiling to the rabbit. He went closer to him, taking his hand and ready to lead him to the lake. Springtrap followed him but stopped when he felt the water on his feet. "Come." The purple bear insisted, pulling his arm to oblige him to follow.
But Springtrap was too scared to even move. He didn't know what were the bear's intentions, but he knew that he was going to die if he entered the water. "No, I don't want to go ! I'm scared ! Release me !"
"You need to have faith. Hope is the only thing you'll need to keep." Shadow Freddy murmured, pulling him so strongely that the golden rabbit fell into the water.
But something was really wrong with the lake. Even if he was at less than five meters from the bank, he couldn't touch the ground. He was going to die. He tried to swim but he was too heavy. The purple bear looked at him from the bank as he was slowly drowning. Springtrap tried to call somebody for help, but the water was already entering his body. Panicked, he cried out and demanded to the bear some help.
This one shook his head negatively, only saying "Hope. Keep it.". Springtrap felt like he was going to faint when he heard voices. Familiar voices. That was the others' voices. He remembered their faces.
"You're a failure..." Freddy was saying, looking at him angrily before vanishing.
"Who could even like you ?" Chica said, laughing at him while he was drowning without helping him before vanishing too.
"You're pathetic." Bonnie muttered, looking down at him with his guitar in his hands. He didn't seem real. They were certainly just hallucinations.
"Yer be hopeless, lad." Foxy added, ready to attack him with his hook before disappearing.
"Forgive me !" Springtrap shouted, trying to survive from drowning. He managed to get to the bank, but Shadow Freddy pushed him in the water again.
"You took away my friend..." Fredbear was whispering in his ear, asserting that they were only hallucinations.
"I don't know why I loved you... Look at you... You're a monster." Marionette murmured, appearing in front of him and glancing furiously at him. She seemed a bit more real than the others, but she wasn't the real Puppet.
Springtrap tried to take her hand, his eyes filled with tears and his strength slowly and painfully fading away. "I love you, Marionette... Help me..."
"Die."
The bunny's eyes shut slowly, his breathe being really difficult and slowly sinking. That's when he felt a hand holding him back and bringing him back to the bank. He slowly opened his eyes, looking for the purple bear but this one was already gone. He sighed painfully and coughed, spitting blood and water at the same time. He was really lucky.
That's when he remembered the bear's words. Hope. All of this was just a test ? To see if he had hope or not ? As he'd seen, he was totally hopeless. He really thought that he was going to die there.
He heard some voices next to him, but couldn't identify them. There was a girl's voice and three boys. Maybe they were just humans that discovered him and saved him. Nobody could be looking for him. No Springtrap. You remember ? Hope.
He looked over him and saw a yellow animatronic glancing at him with a worried expression on its face. It seemed to be a duck. No, maybe a chicken. That's when he remembered. Chica.
"Chi-Chica.. ?" He asked in disbelief. So they were looking for him ? They went here, in these strange woods, for him ? No, he was probably hallucinating again.
"He's awake !" The chicken cried out, the others coming as quick as possible.
A bear-like animatronic sat beside him, appearing out of nowhere. Goldie.
A blue bunny with white on its chest, face and ears, and a shiny red bowtie looked at him and smiled. Its big green eyes were filled with joy. Toy Bonnie.
A brown bear-like animatronic with a black and red hat and red cheeks smiled softly to him before asking him something. He couldn't even hear what it said, water preventing any sound to be heard. Toy Freddy.
Springtrap shook his head, coughing again and spitting some more blood before glancing at them. They were all... happy to see him ? Was that possible ?
Soon, two other figures (or were they three ?) came towards him. A black and white animatronic with a white mask and red cheeks, lipstick and purple tears running down its face knelt before him and gave him a hug. The Puppet. The one he loved.
Two other animatronics looked at him from behind. One bear-like again, brown, but with a black top hat. It seemed older than the other Freddy. That was the original Freddy.
A red fox with a hook for a hand and an odd pirate-ish accent. Foxy.
They were all around him, looking at him as he was the most valued thing of the world. The golden bear put a hand on his shoulder while the black and white puppet wasn't releasing him.
He felt good. He felt... accepted. For one of the first times during those four years, he felt that someone was loving him.
To be continued...
Hello everybody, hope you are fantastic today. ;) Here is the new chapter ! :D It was quite sad, I agree, but that was the only way to help Springtrap to realize the errors of his way. :D I hope you all liked it ! ;)
I would like to thank again the persons that are following, favoriting and also, and above all, reviewing this fic. You guys are just awesome ! :D
Until next time.
Circle of J.