-You Can't-

Chapter 20: The True Meaning of Friendship

"That be freakin' amazin' !" Foxy shouted while playing video games on a strange machine humans called a 'computer'. He went on what was called 'internet' and was playing since at least an hour. It was so funny ! He had never experienced an activity that funny and attractive before ! He continued playing for some time before hearing his name being yelled by Freddy from the Dining Area.

He stood up, leaving the room very quickly and ran to the room. Freddy was standing, arms crossed against his chest and tapping his foot. He seemed very annoyed. Chica was next to him, looking at Foxy with a sigh of relief. "Oh there you are ! We were looking for you !"

"Don't worry, Chica. I be playin' on a 'computer' in the Supply Closet, ya know !" Foxy replied, showing the room and smiling hugely.

Bonnie raised an eyebrow and followed the direction, wanting to know what a 'computer' was exactly. Chica did the same, following her boyfriend. Freddy was about to go back to the Show stage but Chica grabbed his arm, pulling him along with them. They barely noticed Fredbear and Marionette coming into the room before leaving.

Foxy ran after them, showing them what a computer was. They were all astonished. That looked so amazing ! Bonnie was the first to react, smiling hugely: "We can play video games on it ?"

When Foxy nodded, he giggled happily. The red fox smiled to his friends, explaining that this piece of technology was able to do whatever they wanted to do: listening to music, what made Chica so happy, and also buying new items, Freddy liking the idea of changing his microphone every week. Foxy presented a video game to Bonnie, and this one started to play right after. Foxy played with him, the two laughing happily when Bonnie was getting killed, and Chica left the room, Freddy joining her and heading to the Dining Area.

"You know, I think that kind of technology very useful." Freddy said to her while walking slowly to the Dining Area.

Chica shruggled and smiled, nodding. "It can be, but you must promise that you won't overuse it."

"Wha-What do you mean by that ?" The bear asked, frowning.

"I know how you like to buy a new microphone every week."

"Hey, it's not my fault if the damn thing is glitching at the end of the week !" Freddy defended himself, falsely bothered.

The chicken smiled, tenderized, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Ooooh... Poor Freddy is bothered by Bad Chica ?"

"Stop that !"

They laughed together but stopped when they saw Puppet coming towards them. They just stared at her, this one raising an eyebrow before passing them, walking towards the Office. They looked at each other and laughed again, Freddy looking at his microphone happily.

Chica glanced at him joyfully and declared happily: "I'm glad to speak with you, you know. I frantically missed those old discussions !"

"I'm also glad to speak with you, Chica." Freddy replied, smiling before becoming more serious. "I would like to... you know... apologize."

"Huh ?" The chicken raised her head, looking straight into Freddy's eyes. They were filled with guilt and sadness.

The brown bear lowered his head, thinking about how he could explain the situation to his friend. "I wasn't nice with you... As well with you as with Bonnie..."

"Don't worry, Freddy... We're your friends, I mean... we can understand why you did that." Chica said, trying to reassure her friend. "You loved him. I know how it feels when the one you love hang out with your best friend..."

"D-Do you ?" Freddy asked, raising his head and looking at his 'sis'. "How ?"

Chica lowered her head, remembering everything. That was... long time ago. She was everyday with Marionette. She was a friend of her, if not even more than that. They were inseparable. Sisters. Besties. Always walking around together, joking together. And, at the same time, Chica was... falling in love with Spring Bonnie. He was... Everything she loved. A cute bunny, smart and sometimes funny, but also loving and caring. That was what she wanted as a boyfriend.

But then... It happened. She understood what was going on when she saw Spring's expression during the Truth or Dare... He was loving Marionette. She fell from cloud 9. She hit the floor very hardly. It was very painfull. Spring Bonnie wasn't loving her. He was loving her bestie, who wasn't her bestie anymore since that revelation.

Chica sighed while recovering the reality, responding to Freddy very briefly: "I was in love with Spring and he... wasn't. Let's speak about something else. What exactly has your microphone ?"

When Freddy noticed that Chica wanted to change the subject of the conversation, he nodded and explained to her what was going on with it, heading to the Dining Area, the yellow animatronic walking by his side.

"Hey... Hey Springtrap... Open your eyes..."

Springtrap opened his eyes but was blinded by the brightness. A white light was coming from the... unlocked door ? Was it possible ? He raised his head and opened his eyes again, getting used to the brightness. It had been a long time since he'd seen the light of day. It was really reassuring to see it again.

That meant that the nightmare was over.

Speaking about nightmares, he turned his head and noticed Nightmare Shadow Freddy beside him, his yellow bowtie and hat very recognizable on his chest and in his hands. He was staring at him, seemingly worrying about him. When Spring looked at his hands, something surprised him.

He was in his actual form. Does it meant that everything was real ?

"It's just a nightmare, don't worry." Nightmare responded to his mind, which was not really reassuring.

What was strange and paradoxical was the sentence itself. The fact that 'nightmare' and 'don't worry' were together in the same sentence was not really comforting. A nightmare was something to worry about, for God's sake !

However, the bunny didn't reply. He just stared at his hallucination for a little while before standing up, looking all around him. It was the Safe room, no doubt. That was most likely that room, at least. The fact that the door was opened changed everything. The light revealed some things that were in there before (or maybe not ?) that he didn't notice. For instance, that doll. It looked like Puppet but... Maybe... a plushie version of her plushie. Strange.

He took a step forward, trying to reach the door, but when he did, Shadow Freddy appeared in front of him, preventing him to leave the room. "Be careful." The nightmare hallucination said, letting him leave the room but staring at him very cautiously.

Springtrap inhaled deeply before taking another step, being very attentive and careful. He was prepared for the worst to happen. Nightmare teleported next to him, saying: "You know he is hiding again."

"Who is hiding ? The Purple Guy ?" Springtrap asked, but the shadow animatronic didn't answer.

The golden bunny explored the room very cautiously, looking at every corner and trying to avoid some dark corners. He didn't want to know what was really going on. He walked towards the Dining Area, glancing at everything. He took a step forward, noticing Nightmare staring at him from the Show stage. "He won't stop until you find him."

Springtrap nodded and looked around, looking for the guy's hiding place. He looked quite everywhere: behind the curtains, under the tables, in the darkest corners of the room, behind the Music Box and also on the shelves (what was stupid because, seriously, who would have the idea to hide in a place where everybody could see him at the first look ?) but didn't find anyone.

He was quite happy with that, to be honest. He didn't want to get killed in this nightmare. He had enough of this crap. For once, he wanted to survive, just to see what will happen. Was he going to see more things ? Was he going to wake up anyway ? He intended to find out.

Nightmare Shadow Freddy appeared on the shelves, only his head this time, freaking out Springtrap who shouted and hit him with a bare endoskeleton arm, said: "Over there." while looking at the door leading to the basement. Springtrap started to shake but walked towards it, opening the door with his trembling hand and went downstairs, his legs flickering and the bunny starting to sweat heavily. "Is someone there ?" He asked but no answer came.

He walked into the small room where lots of boxes were stocked up. There were many of them. The place was quite decrepit and he could hear a storm outside. A lightning raged and he light flashed the room, water flowing from the other rooms upstairs.

The place wasn't friendly at all. He was really freaked out by the ambiance. Storms weren't good in general.

He glanced at everything, not noticing anything and sighed in relief. There was nothing. "Well, it seems that I was freaked out for nothing again." He stated, turning around and going upstairs.

He was about to open the door but something jumped out of the shadows, jumpscaring him. The bunny shouted and fell downstairs, nearly breaking his back when he hit the floor. He stood up as fast as possible, the monster chasing him, and tried to open the door. This one didn't open, most likely locked from inside. Sh*t.

"Shadow Freddy ! Open the door ! OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR, HE'S RIGHT BEHIND ME !" He yelled, punching the door vehemently and starting to tremble heavily. His legs were shaking so much. He didn't know if they were going to support him very long.

Determined to do something, Springtrap smashed into the door, trying to open it forcefully. It opened, fortunately, and Spring ran to the Dining Area, the shape following him and holding in its hand what seemed like an axe. The golden bunny hid under a table, shaking awfully while looking at the creatures feet as it passed him.

The thing was an animatronic, most likely a bear. But it was too dark to see it's true color. Spring closed his eyes, breathing as calmly as possible and trying to remain silent, immobile. The bear looked all around him, looking for Spring. He started to investigate every corner of the room. He checked behind the curtains and turned to the tables. Springtrap could see the bot's purple eyes looking at his table.

He cursed and hid even more, slightly moving and breathing very heavily, panicked. The thing came towards him, kneeling in front of him and looking under the table. Springtrap closed his eyes even more and started to cry, scared for his life. The animatronic stood up, leaving him where he was. Springtrap was about to sigh in relief when the table was pushed away by the creature.

Springtrap shouted and tried to stand up but the bear grabbed his arm, holding him back and raising his axe. A lightning striked outside the windows and Springtrap's eyes widened, discovering the bear's identity. "GOLDIE !?"

One second later, the axe hit his head and he fell to the ground, wide-eyed, his jaw wide-opened as he was going to scream and his head cut in the half, wires coming out of it and blood spurting from the wound, running down his head and on the floor.

Springtrap was woken up by Shadow Freddy, who was shaking him vehemently. He raised his head suddenly, scared as he just stared at himself getting savagely killed, and accidently kissed Shadow Freddy on the lips. The purple bear blushed heavily, surprised, and Springtrap pushed him away, standing up and apologizing: "Sorry ! I didn't mean to do that !"

"No no, don't worry, it's okay... I'm fine..." Shadow Freddy smiled, touching his lips and looking at his feet almost dreamily.

Spring facepalmed and sighed, thinking about his strange dream. Why did he saw himself dead on the floor ? Usually, when he was dead, he was just waking up and sweating, but this time... It was as if he was out of his own body. He was watching the scene from an external point of view. He just... saw himself getting killed by Fredbear.

Definitely the strangest dream (well, nightmare) of his life. He shook his head and glanced back at Shadow Freddy, who was just staring at him and seemingly waiting for an explanation.

"What the heck were you dreaming of ?" The purple bear demanded, coming towards him and putting a hand on his shoulder friendly.

Springtrap hesitated but explained everything. Shadow Freddy frowned, wondering about that, and said: "I think this is the weirdest dream I've ever heard about."

The bunny facepalmed again and asked: "What could it mean ? I mean... Goldie attacking me ? He wouldn't do such a thing, never, he's my best friend !"

Shadow Freddy nodded and started to think heavily. Indeed, he knew that Fredbear wouldn't attack Springtrap... Well, at least, not voluntarily. Could it be... Purple Guy ? Was it a premonition ? But then, who gave it to Springtrap, since he was not responsible this time ?

On the one hand, could it be someone trying to warn them about something ? In this case, it could be Marionette. But why Fredbear ? Why would Fredbear be the enemy ? Maybe it was just a metaphor, symbolizing friendship ? Warning that friends could easily turn against you ? If it was a warning then... Did it mean that a friend was the enemy ? Maybe Freddy himself, since he didn't come to see if Springtrap was okay last night ?

Or, on the other hand, could it be someone trying to scare them ? Most likely the Purple Guy, showing that he could manipulate anybody, even their best friends, and turn them against the others ? Meaning that he could make even Fredbear kill Springtrap ? In this case, they should really try to find a way to get out of here soon. Nobody knew when the catastrophy was going to happen.

Springtrap was staring at him, also wondering. "Wha-What if they need ou-our help ? Like, n-now ?"

"I think that's a good way of thinking about this whole situation." Shadow Freddy nodded, checking the boxes of the room to see if something could open the door. "Come," He said, Springtrap joining him and waiting for an explanation. Shadow Freddy looked at him straight in the eyes and said, decided: "we need to get outta here."

To be continued...

Hello there ! Hope you're all doing well today. I'm hyped for the new FNaF World game, god dang it, Springtrap was a girl since the very beginning and nobody noticed that !

Anyways, hope you liked this chapter :) Tell me everything in the comments.

Thank again for all the support !

Until next time,

Circle of J.