And with this chapter my fanfic is officially the longest YGOxFNAF fic! Still sad there aren't more... Anywho, this is the longest chapter because it's two days long, and once again splitting it up would have made one of the chapters way too short.
While they waited for the food to arrive Yugi took a moment to text James about the gate and events of the night.
I'll pay you back for it tonight, I know money's pretty tight for you… Just let me know how much to pull out of the bank.
Also: we finally have some allies! Zephyr (Foxy) and Chichi should give you no trouble this weekend!
No way, for real? Forgive me for saying so, but I'll believe it when I see it… if it's true though I'll be so grateful to not have to worry about Foxy anymore. Especially after finding out about the ceiling crawler… Chichi never really gave me any trouble, but I'm glad I don't have to worry about that changing!
"Sorry Atem, coworker."
"I don't mind. Playing nice?"
"Yeah, I hope we become good friends!"
Atem chuckled, "You could be friends with anyone, Yugi."
"Heh, I guess so." Yugi replied, thinking back to the fact that he just made friends with spirits of killer animatronics a few hours ago. "So how was your work last night?"
"You know, same as usual. Cocky rich people thinking they can pull the wool over my eyes. It's actually kind of fun playing with a handicap. And while it's not nearly as satisfying as punishing them with a mind crush, I get to call security and watch them get thrown out."
Oh Gods it would be so much better to be a security guard there. "Haha, I'd hate to be a security guard there. I think watching cameras is good enough for me."
"They get so violent sometimes! One guy even had a hidden knife! That's why I was so worried about you being a security guard… But you're more like the night watch, huh?"
"Uh, yeah. I get my own panic button, I just hit it and the police show up to take care of whatever it is."
"Well, I hope you'll call me, too. I'll bring some of Kaiba's goons. We'd be there faster, too!"
Yugi laughed, "Thanks Atem. I love hearing that you'd be there for me."
"Always, Aibou."
Their food finally arrived, and they moved their conversation to another topic.
Yugi tried to steady his nerves as they approached the entrance to Freddy Fazbear's. It was so much different walking in from this end of the restaurant after the last two nights. His right hand flew up to his head and he held his left hand out in front of him (mimicking pulling the mask down over his face and holding the flashlight up) as soon as Toy Freddy walked up to them and did his greeting. Atem chuckled, "Forgot that happened?"
"Uh, yeah. It's still really surprising!" He smiled at Atem, then looked at Toy Freddy. He stared at Yugi uncomfortably.
"We're just here to have fun!" Atem responded when Yugi didn't answer the bear's question. Yugi hadn't actually even heard it. Toy Freddy instructed them about the pizza counter and show times again, then walked off.
"Since we ate not too long ago, wanna go straight to the arcade?" Atem asked.
"Yeah let's go." Yugi said quickly. The animatronics never actually entered the arcade the last time they were there together, so Yugi hoped that meant he simply wouldn't have to see them. He even hoped Atem would just forget about lunch altogether, then they'd just have to sneak past Toy Freddy to get out.
Almost as soon as they entered the arcade, one child pointed out who had just walked in and the arcade erupted in cheers. They rushed to Atem and Yugi, unable to tell which was actually the King of Games. "I totally forgot about this…" Yugi heard Atem mutter to himself. "Hey kids, we came here to have fun, like you. We wouldn't ask you to stop playing your games for our sake, is it fair to do that to us?"
"But we wanna play with you!" "I wanna auto- autoga- sign my card!" "You get to play games all the time, and win!"
The noise attracted the daytime security, two guards showed up and tried to help disperse the children. "You can all watch him play games, but not if you stop him from playing!"
The children looked shocked that they hadn't thought of it, and backed off. "The racing one has the most potential for multiplayer… I'll play a few games with you guys, and then I want to spend time with my best friend." Atem half-smiled at the children, hoping it would appease them. "Okaaaay." The children chimed together. "Promise?" "Promiiiise!"
Atem gave Yugi an apologetic look, which he responded to with the best "don't worry about it" hand gesture he could come up with and handed the token card over. One of the security guards had already decided that she would need to mediate and stop the children from stealing turns or fighting over who was next.
The other security guard decided to talk to Yugi, "I wonder how this place is at night. If you guys keep showing up in the day, I might have to switch shifts with him!"
"Oh, I'm the one that works here at night. I'm just awful at publicity. He won't lose my title to the kids though!" Yugi laughed. He didn't want to try to clarify the King of Games situation, or Cecil might revoke the card… "And you don't wanna work here at night. It's way too creepy. I can hardly stand it so far!" He forced a laugh.
"Hah, you're probably right. Anyway, let me know if we can get you anything!"
"Will do!"
The guard walked off. Yugi went and got some tokens and decided to play on his own until Atem was done making the kids happy.
He picked out a Street Fighter rip off and popped the token in. He liked to think he wasn't half bad at fighting games.
Right off he threw out a combo. It was only round one, so it wasn't really a challenge. Plus he was still learning what his character did.
Round two wasn't too bad either. He thought he saw something in the corner of his eye, but when he glanced over it was just the crowd in the background standing up and cheering.
Round three gave him a little trouble. This computer opponent was trigger happy with a specific combo, Yugi had a bit of trouble breaking it. Felt good when he did though. Again, he saw a flash of yellow in the corner of his eye. But this time when he looked it was a leaf falling in the background.
He opened round four with a grab, and did a low kick to his opponent's head when they landed. That was when he noticed it, in the background. A yellow bear with a top hat sat, arms at its sides, head tilted to the side, slack-jawed. Black holes for eyes. Yugi tried not to look at it and kept fighting until he won the round.
Round five never started. The screen turned to black and red static, and large, white letters across the screen read: IT'S ME
Yugi furrowed his brow and stared curiously at the text. Suddenly a large yellow Freddy head with hollow eyes leapt out at him. He let out a scream and stumbled backwards, then fell over and continued to scramble away from the arcade machine until he ran into the pinball machine behind him, and he shielded his face with his arms. Not long later he heard Atem next to him, placing his hand on his shoulder, "Yugi! Yugi, what happened?"
Yugi looked at Atem before looking up at the arcade machine. The Continue? countdown had just run out on him, and it taunted him with a Game Over.
No static. No IT'S ME. No yellow bear.
"I- I don't know."
"You don't know what made you scream and fall over and cover your face?" Atem raised an eyebrow.
"I… Yeah. I think I was just seeing things. I'm still pretty tired."
"Should we go home? I'm sure a nap would do you some good."
"No, I'll be fine. Really. Let's grab a soda or something."
"Sure. The band is starting soon!"
"No! No, let's just, get some soda and hang out with Z- Foxy."
"Okay Yugi. You want to meet me over there? I can wait in line for us, you should have a seat. Not on the floor."
"Yeah… okay."
Atem helped Yugi up, and they walked to the food counter line together. Atem took his spot at the end, and Yugi continued on to Pirate's Cove.
Atem watched Yugi until he was no longer in sight. He had no idea what had happened, but he was suddenly very worried about his aibou. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Even if he's stuck in the office, he still has to stare at this place all night. Alone.
"Yugi! What the fu- uh- heeeeck are you doing here? I mean I know it's daytime and all but even I'm only here to pick up the project." A man with black hair walked up to Atem, but what he was saying caught him by surprise.
"Project?" Atem raised an eyebrow. Before he realized he should correct the man speaking to him about who he was the man continued, "Yeah dude. You know… the project." The man shrugged and raised his eyebrows, as if that told Atem what it was.
Atem was curious now.
"Oh, of course. Sorry. I'm pretty out of it today."
"It's alright. You could've picked a better place to relax though. Believe it or not I got sick of this place my first night."
Night? Is this Yugi's coworker? "Yeah, well, they have good arcade games here. Plus, I got a free pass for them." Atem flashed the pass with a smile, trying to mimic Yugi.
"Oh, that explains it." The man smiled widely, "Free games is totally worth being stared at by… the band all day." He said as he rolled his eyes, his gaze falling to the stage across the room and turning into a glare. His tone oozed sarcasm.
"You can't see the band from the arcade."
"I still couldn't be caught dead in here for more than what I'm already stuck here for. …Heh, sorry… poor choice of words…"
Atem's brow furrowed.
"Oh, that reminds me- here." He held out a key and winked, "I had copies made, just in case."
"What's this for?"
The man lowered his voice to a whisper, "The office, doofus. We can't just keep trading the original one, the MODs won't believe we forgot to hand it over forever,"
"Oh, of course…
"Anywho, I'm gonna go fix up the project. Wish me luck this weekend!"
"Uh, good luck!" He waived at the man, who walked away. He wished he could have thought of a way to find out what "the project" was, but he couldn't think of a way to ask without revealing that he wasn't Yugi.
But he could always ask Yugi himself.
Yugi sat down at the same seat he had the last time he was here with Atem. He looked up at Foxy, and smiled. He somehow seemed happier, although Yugi could have just been imagining it because he knew that Zephyr was happy. Just then the animatronic kicked up and started one of its cheesy, listen-to-your-parents songs. He looked at Yugi the whole time. Yugi giggled, having the feeling that Zephyr wanted to show off another one of the stupid songs they made him sing.
Another song started up, and when it ended Yugi clapped. It was then that he heard James's voice, "Yugi? You were just… Are you screwing with me?" Yugi turned around and looked at James, "What do you mean?"
"You were just in line getting food!"
Yugi's face lit up, "Oh! No, that was my boyfriend. I know, we look weirdly alike…"
"Oh… Shi- e- e- oot. I hope I didn't give anything away…"
"What did you tell him!?" Yugi stood, suddenly worried.
"That I came to pick up the project, you're insane for spending your day off here, I wouldn't be caught dead here and that that was a poor choice of words."
"You're damn right it was!" Yugi exclaimed angrily.
"Yugi, watch your language, this is a family restaurant… They'd fire you if they heard you."
"I don't- I-" Yugi sighed in frustration. "Help me think of what the project is without it being the actual project."
"Why can't it be the actual project? I take my job too seriously, and I want to invent a portable electric gate. You're helping. Tell him I just started working on it."
"I can't think of how I'd be helping…"
"You're helping me workout the bugs."
"What bugs are there in a gate hooked up to a battery?" Yugi tried not to yell.
"It's supposed to be a portable electric gate, but the portable part is hard to nail down. Stupid battery will only last a few hours."
"Stupid indeed…" Yugi sighed. "Tell me again why you go through this trouble?"
"I take my job too seriously."
"No, not what I should tell my boyfriend. Why do you do this job?"
James was silent. He took a seat next to Yugi and hung his head, "Believe it or not, my little brother thought he could make bank transporting drugs. And he probably did, for a little while anyway. But a few months back he lost the shipment. I don't know the details. Just that he got his stupid ass thrown in jail, and since it's difficult to make money in jail, they came to me to collect. I have to pay them every month, for both our sake's."
"I'm so sorry, James… If you want, I can-"
James held up his hand, "If I start accepting money from people, and the dealers find out where I got it, they'll only go after the people who were nice to me. I have to do this alone."
Yugi looked at the floor, then back up at James, "We just have to hold out this weekend. Come Tuesday morning, I'll have set all the animatronics straight. They can all go home, and you can continue your work here without fear."
James smiled, "Thanks, Yugi. It's nice to not be completely dreading the night. Although you don't have to come with me this weekend, I'll be fine."
"Are you sure? You said they were getting more aggressive…"
"I'm sure. You need a break, as it is you're spending, ten hours? Plus? Here today. You've already got bags under your eyes, you need more sleep."
"I guess so… I pretty much gave up sleep so I could spend time with Atem, go to school and work here… But you could die, James. I'm here by myself at nights because they'll talk to me, but as far as we can tell they'll never show themselves to you."
"Don't worry about it. I promise to call you if anything funny starts to happen, believe it or not. I'm sorry again about almost spilling the beans to your boyfriend. With any luck he just thought I was crazy."
"Oh, speaking of crazy… I swear I saw yellow-"
"Is this your coworker, Yugi?"
James and Yugi both jumped. Atem placed Yugi's soda in front of him and sat down on the other side of him, across from James. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. He mistook me for you in line earlier."
"Hey man, you're the one who didn't correct me! You know how similar you look?" James defended himself.
"Atem, why would you pretend to be me?" Yugi looked at him sadly.
"He was trying to ask you about some project? I've not heard of this project. I thought you tell me everything." Atem gave him an equally sad look back.
"I'm just trying to make friends… he asked for help, I said yes… it's not even that interesting of a project, he's making a portable electric gate."
Atem paused, "You're right, that's not that interesting."
Yugi internally let out a sigh of relief.
"Welp, I'm done being insulted. Have fun on your date!" James smiled and stood up.
"Haha, sorry James. Thanks!" Yugi waved at him.
"The hell does he need a portable electric gate for?" Atem gave him a "that guy is crazy" look.
Yugi shrugged, "He's a professional security guard, and he thought he might be able to make some money on an invention."
Atem thought about it for a moment, "Yeah, I guess I can see people paying for that. I just hope he doesn't kill anyone with it. …I hope that's not what he needs you for."
"No, no! We've been trying to figure out how to keep it portable, but have the battery last more than a few hours."
"What about a portable generator?"
"I'll run that by him." I doubt they'd let us keep anything gas-powered in the office…
"Also, he mentioned that he wouldn't be caught dead here… and then went on to say that that was a poor choice of words?"
"Really? That's weird, people say that all the time."
"You're sure there's nothing you're not telling me?"
"I've told you everything. Maybe there's something James hasn't told me."
Yugi had a sip of soda and looked back up at Foxy, who started up another song. Yugi and Atem both started laughing again, and Yugi made sure to clap in the hopes that Zephyr didn't think they were laughing at him.
"Ahoy, maties! Hope you're enjoying your stay at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria!" Lady Foxy asked from behind them. Yugi jumped ten feet in the air again. "Pizzeria!" The parrot chimed on queue.
"Yes Lady Foxy, we're doing fine!" Atem responded with a smile. Yugi turned around and smiled at her too, "Yup, yup! And I hope you're enjoying your stay so far! It must be so fun to play with kids again!"
Lady Foxy's head tilted to the side the parrot wasn't on, and she stared at Yugi. Foxy started singing another song, "Yo ho, yo ho! Pirates are the smartest of the smart!" there was a pause, but the music continued. The children singing along didn't seem to notice that Foxy wasn't, they sang something about swordplay and art. Next thing Foxy said was "Don't talk to strangers," and the music played until the end without Foxy singing another word.
"That was strange," Atem said while looking back up at Foxy, "I wonder if the poor guy is breaking from singing so much."
Lady Foxy stared at Yugi the whole time, head still tilted. I think Zephyr wants me to shut up… he thought.
"Yugi, I don't like the way she's looking at you… let's go before something goes wrong." Atem stood up and grabbed Yugi's arm slowly.
"Y-yeah." Yugi stood slowly. Just then Toy Chika came in and stood next to Lady Foxy, "Hello there! Any of you youngsters need to use the restroom?"
Lady Foxy's head went upright as she turned around and walked away.
"No thank you, Chika." Atem replied.
"Yeah, thanks Chichi." Yugi added as they walked away.
"Chichi?"
"Pet name for the animatronics. James likes her."
"Freak. Don't hang out with him so much anymore, he's scaring me."
"Not like that!"
"If you say so," Atem laughed, "Want to go back to the arcade?"
"The kids'll bother us again…"
"I got it covered."
They went up to the prize counter, and they waited patiently for any one of the ticket counters to give them their turn. While they waited, Golden Freddy continued to greet everyone in his glitchy manor. "Wel-Wel-c-c-come to the Prize C-c-c-corner! I hope you enjoyed-joyed the game-joyed the games! Wel-Wel-c-c-come to the hell C-c-c-corner! I hope you enjoyed-joyed your life! Wel-We'll-c-c- kill you to the Prize C-c-c-corner! I hope you die enjoyed-joyed the game-joyed the games! It's me!"
Yugi looked at the children crowding the counter, and at Atem. Was he hearing things? He had to be… nobody could have heard that and not be as confused as he was right now…
Atem pulled him out of the trance the golden bear had put him in by shoving something onto his head. He watched Atem put on something too. It was a yellow and brown hat that read "Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria" with the logo on it. "I think our hair is our biggest giveaway. Now we stand a chance!" Atem grabbed his hand and lead him back to the arcade.
The hat trick seemed to work, as they entered the arcade and nobody took any notice. Yugi made sure to only suggest non-video games: more skee ball, whack-a-mole, reflex games, and shooting a coin into a hole.
When they had their fill, Yugi used the excuse that he had to go to the bathroom to avoid going back to the prize counter. He sent Atem up alone, saying he already knew what they were going to get anyway.
Yugi took the most indirect route to the bathroom he could, avoiding Pirate's Cove. He was back in the labyrinthine hallway. His cameras still hadn't shown him the full picture, or how they connected. Why was it so confusing to find the bathroom, anyway?
That was when he passed a familiar door.
"EMPLOYEES ONLY"
Yugi stared at it. The Marionette had to be behind here. He wondered if the Marionette was strong enough to show it's spirit. Yugi reached for the doorknob…
"Not yet!" Yugi turned around and found Chichi. "He's angry!"
"What? Why? I thought he wants to be saved?"
"Difficult to talk."
"I'm sorry. Guess it's still hard to show your true self in the day. Okay, I'll wait until you say so. By the way, in case you didn't know, I won't be back the next two nights. I'm not on the schedule. But James will be here, be nice to him, please. Now, that said… can you remind me where the bathroom is?" he blushed.
He could swear he heard her giggle, and followed her down the hall.
"You were pretty jumpy today, are you sure you're alright?" Atem asked on the train ride home. "I'm fine," Yugi yawned, "I just really need some sleep…" He lay down, his head resting in Atem's lap. "You and me both," Atem yawned, "Let's spend tomorrow in bed."
"That sounds perfect," Yugi whispered, nodding off before he realized it.
Atem woke Yugi up when the train reached their stop. They walked sleepily to their house, where Grandpa had already cooked dinner for them. "Cecil called me earlier! Said you both have really helped his business! Thank you so much for helping my friend!"
"Yeah, no problem Grandpa. Thanks for dinner!" Yugi said, salivating at the sight of mashed potatoes. He and Atem quickly grabbed plates and began serving themselves, "Oh it's no problem! I thought you two might get home late, so I wanted to make sure you had something to eat."
"Thank you very much, Grandpa." Atem replied.
They told Grandpa about their day at Freddy's, omitting the bits where the animatronics were a little off. They didn't want to worry him. Yugi promised to ask Cecil or his manager to have them maintenanced soon.
That night he sent James a text about Golden Freddy, since he didn't get to tell him earlier.
James… I don't know what the hell it was, but when I was in the restaurant today I saw Golden Freddy in places I shouldn't have. And I seemed to be the only one who could hear him, too. He said… well… Don't let him get to you. If you see it, it's probably not real. Don't look at it.
Thanks dude! I'll keep that in mind! Chichi's saved my butt once already. Is there something I can do for her in return? You should ask her if you haven't already. I hope she understood me trying to thank her.
I'm sure she did :) Good luck!
Yugi put his phone on the nightstand and curled up with Atem. They were looking forward to a whole day of sleeping and alone time.
Yugi awoke to soft kisses all over his neck and face. He slowly opened his eyes and saw shirtless Atem kneeling over him, "Good morning, Sleepyhead. Sleep well?"
"Like a baby." Yugi smiled. Atem pressed his lips to Yugi's, and Yugi couldn't help but wrap his arms around Atem, running his hands along his back and neck. After a bit of this Yugi reached for Atem's pajama pants and tried his best to take them off. Atem took the hint and obliged.
Right around five Yugi got a text. Luckily the couple had been eating dinner, so it wasn't interrupting anything.
Hey, just wanted to give you an update. Still alive! Lots of shit went down last night though… I'm not going to worry you with it tonight, but try to come in early tomorrow so we can talk and you can go over my notes. I put everything we've learned together in there, too.
Thanks so much! Good luck, I hope things are better tonight!
"Was that James?" Atem asked. "Yeah, just letting me know that he'll try out the generator idea- as soon as he can afford it." Yugi laughed.
"Yeah I guess that'd get expensive fast… he'd have to get a contract with someone if he plans on mass-producing anything."
"True. That's something to work out later though."
"Oh by the way," Atem picked up his pants from the previous day, "He gave me this key yesterday. Said it was a copy of the office key? Why do you guys need to hide this from your managers?"
"Ah, well, he forgets his project in the office sometimes. He just wants us both to have access to it is all."
"Have you asked him if he's hiding something he's hiding from you? Or, are you hiding anything from me? This 'invention' of his sounds way too important…"
"What? Of course not! I told you, he just takes it way too seriously."
Atem eyed him suspiciously, then placed the key on the nightstand near Yugi's phone. "If you say so."
Atem took their plates downstairs, the last time he planned on being out of bed today.
Yugi's ring tone shocked him awake. He sat up and answered it, walking out of the room hoping he didn't wake Atem up. "Hello?"
"Yugi I'm trapped!" Immediately Yugi went back into his bedroom, picked up the key Atem gave him and started putting on clothes as fast as he could, "Freddy's blocking the door, the Balloon Boy somehow disabled the battery, and the rest are breaking down the gate! I don't know- NO! Stop!" Yugi heard screaming that quickly got farther from the phone, until it was silent. By this point Yugi was just out the door to his house.
He hated to do it, but he hung up so he could call the police.
"Hello? I just received a call from my friend, he's working the nightshift at Freddy Fazbear's. I have no idea what's going on, but he sounded terrified. I heard screams. Please help him! I'm on my way there now but I don't know if I can make it in time!"
The guy on the emergency line asked Yugi to remain calm and got the address as Yugi boarded the train. He ignored the man's advice to stay where he was and let the police take care of it.
Yugi fumbled with the key to the office. He slammed it open and looked around. The gate was busted off the bolts James used to keep it in place, lying lifeless on the ground. Yugi flipped the switch on the battery off so he could walk on the gate without getting shocked. "James?" He shouted. "Yugi…" he heard a pained voice respond. After another look he saw Chichi laying on the ground, "We tried to stop them… but just the two of us wasn't enough… Zephyr, he followed them, but I don't know what happened to him… My suit is too busted up. Wait for dawn, I don't want you to risk it." "I can't wait for dawn, it could be too late by then!"
"But what will you do? You'll get both of you killed… Zephyr will be fine, the worst that can happen to us is Owner Cecil has us repaired again."
"You're too late anyway." Yugi looked up, at the ceiling. Four white dots peered at him in the darkness. They moved to the wall before the Lady Foxy animatronic landed on the ground. The image of the bot slowly faded into the face of a small boy with red hair. It was spiked, and he stared at Yugi with glowing brown eyes, arms folded. His entire visible body was covered in scars.
"H-hello. You must be Zephyr's friend."
"Tch, he's not my friend. None of these guys are."
"Then why do you help them?"
"I don't. I only look out for me."
"That's important, but so is having friends…"
"You try having friends when you look like this!" Suddenly as if the scars were stitching his skin fell apart at the seams, revealing ribs, tissue, muscles, organs, and half his skull. Yugi cringed, "What happened to you?"
"He told you, didn't he? I was the joke they gave to the toddlers. Poor ol' Mangle. Let's just let the kids put her back together, after all, they took her apart! All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Mangle back together again!"
Yugi suddenly recalled Zephyr's story. "I'm so sorry." Tears uncontrollably began to run down Yugi's face.
"Hey! I don't need you feeling sorry for me!"
"No.. you don't… But I can't help it… Can I do anything to help you?"
"Of course not! I don't need anybody's help!"
"You don't have to be the Mangle anymore… You could let Yugi give you a new name." Chichi chimed in, trying to be helpful.
"Oh what, so I can end up like you and Zephyr? Tch, no thanks!"
"I won't ask you to do anything for me." Yugi replied.
"We did this because we wanted to… We want to save you and the others, like Yugi saved us! We can actually go home any time we want!" Chichi spoke up again. Yugi glanced at her, and sure enough the Eye of Wdjat was still visible on her forehead.
"Well aren't you just so special! Go home then!"
"Not without you!"
"What if I don't want to go home? What if I like it here?"
Yugi pulled the attention back to him, "Do you really like it here, forcing yourself to remember when you looked like that, Takeshi? Wouldn't you prefer to be whole again, and feel that way?"
"Well duh, but it's way too late for that… And I told you you couldn't give me a name!"
"It's never too late to forgive…"
"Why? Who's gonna hear it? Who's gonna know?"
"You will. You're the only one who matters at this point. Forgive everybody you're angry at. It's your anger that stops you from being whole again. Look at Chichi and Zephyr if you need proof."
The boy eyed Chichi. "Do you really feel better?"
"So much better. I just hope that you and the others can feel the same relief…"
The boy pondered it. "Fine. I'll accept the name Takeshi. And…. I forgive the kids for being dumb. And rude. And I forgive the staff for giving up on me. And… I forgive…" the kid took a deep breath, and Yugi watched his hanging lung expand. He fought the urge to cringe.
"I forgive the puppet for putting me here."
Before the question could leave his lips light enveloped Takeshi. When it dimmed, the boy was indeed whole again, even his scars were gone.
"Hooray, Takeshi!" Chichi cheered as best as she could. Takeshi walked over to Chichi, "I'm sorry that I didn't help you, Chichi… will you really be alright?"
"Yeah! You were alright after being mangled, right? I'll be fine!"
"Thank you." He smiled. He turned to Yugi, "It's actually time to go back now. …I'm sorry about your friend… He should be in the basement… but you won't like what you see. I don't recommend looking. And I want you to know that even without stopping to talk to me, you were too late."
"I… I have to at least go. If his spirit is still there… I want to say goodbye."
Takeshi nodded. "Do you need help getting there? I know you get lost there easily."
"I would actually appreciate that. Thank you."
He followed Takeshi to the basement door, hoping not to see any of the other animatronics on their way there. Yugi wouldn't know how to handle them. Fortunately, that didn't happen.
They reached the door, which had been busted down very forcefully. Yugi found the flashlight lying near the door frame, and picked it up. He shined it down in the basement. The smell was indescribably awful. He tried not to vomit, or even breathe. He took a few steps down, when the light finally shone on another Freddy suit. He stopped short. "The real Freddy is already back on stage. Are you sure you can't talk to your friend without looking?" He heard Takashi question him from the doorway. He continued walking, his eyes focused on the Freddy suit. He could only see the back of it, and it appeared to be sitting on some sort of table. Probably what they used to make it easier to work on the animatronics.
When he reached the bottom, and turned to the front of the suit, he was horrified by the sight. All that he could see of James was his emerald green eyeballs sticking out of the Freddy head's empty eye sockets, and his teeth, some clearly missing, through the mouth. The bile forced its way up through his throat and out his mouth, Yugi leaned over and let it make its way to the floor. He then steadied himself, "James? Are you here?" he asked, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.
"Yugi? Yugi, you came!"
"Yeah, I did… I'm so sorry I was late…"
James's spirit appeared in front of the Fazbear suit, "Naw dude, it's fine. I knew you wouldn't make it. I just… you're the only one who would know the truth. I want someone to know. Golden Freddy sat in front of the exit, I was too afraid to get close and find out if he was an illusion… Don't let him get you with that trick! The gate wasn't busted yet, unless he uses magic there's no way he was actually there! And that stupid Balloon Boy… Your friends tried to help. Zephyr's actually in here with us… he kept me company until you got here. I can't see him anymore though…"
"It's close to six A.M. It's harder for their spirits to appear to us after that."
"Oh… then I might be going soon too, huh…"
"James, please don't haunt me." Yugi forced a laugh.
James laughed in response, "I don't plan on it, believe it or not. Just do me one favor."
"Name it."
"In my desk at home is a letter I wrote to my brother. Just send it for me. I live at 1987 Domino Boulevard. There's a spare key in the potted plant on the right."
"Anything else?"
"Yeah, absolutely do not give him money! I don't want him or his drug lords to even know I knew you!"
"But then what'll happen-"
"Not your problem! Please, after everything you've done for me, I don't want you to survive this crap only to be roped in with that lot. If it weren't for you, this would have happened on night four."
"…If you say so. Thank you for everything, James."
"Thank you too, Yugi. Believe it or not, it was great working with you!"James smiled at Yugi one last time, before his spirit faded away.
Yugi slowly made his way back upstairs. Takeshi was gone. He had probably gone back to Pirate's Cove.
That was when the police finally entered the building.
"The fuck took you so long!?" Yugi shouted at them.
"Calm down, sir. We're just investigating a reported disturbance-"
"Yeah, I reported it! So I'll say it again: what, the, fuck, took you so long?"
"We had to alert the owner-"
"I report screaming and you go to Cecil for keys? My friend is dead thanks to you!" As the words left his mouth, the sadness of the situation finally hit Yugi like a sack of bricks. He dropped to his knees and started to sob into the flashlight. Any attempts to calm him down to question this failed, and the police had to discover the body on their own.
Yugi dropped the F bomb! :O That's how you know he's livid. I'm honestly quite sad for James. But by my own count it was night 7, and very few people survive that all-20 custom night, right? I got his background story from whatever movie my dad was watching at the time... it made me feel bad for the character, so I hoped it would work for James. Even though I clearly have no knowledge of drugs, let alone dealers. Anyway, I really liked writing this chapter so I hope everyone had as much fun reading it as I did writing it!