Chapter 20: Despair

Disclaimer: I don't own FNAF. In this chapter, we see through the eyes of various animatronics, experience their past memories of being human and Mario breaks the news to the Toys. Don't forget to review (I want to know what you think!) and enjoy!

LESSON ONE: HOW TO CHECK YOUR PULSE

I sighed after reading the whiteboard. Ever since my mum signed me up for medical school, I have been feeling distracted. It's bad enough that she home-schooled me for most of my first few years of education, but this? I felt guilty even thinking of telling the teacher that I learnt how to check a pulse when I was six.

"Welcome to your first Medical lesson, Year 7!" Our teacher walked in, wrote "Mr Sawden" under the lesson title, then sat at his desk. "Before we proceed we must ask ourselves, what is a pulse? Discuss it with the person next to you." "A rhythmical throbbing of the arteries as blood is propelled through them, typically felt in the wrists or neck." I recited, bored, without even looking at the person next to me. When I looked round however, she had her head down and wasn't even listening to a word I said.

I stare at her. She has long straight brown hair, bright unfocused eyes, a thin face and a quizzical look on her face. Her long nose was almost touching the paper that she was scribbling on!

Wait. As I look closer, I see that she is drawing. And what pictures! I was mesmerised by the amazingly 3D T-Rex she had drawn, and the Rocket that seemed to pop out of the page that she was currently working on.

"Excuse me." I said. "Are you sure that you are at the right school? The art school is just round the corner."

She looks up as I grin. For a moment I thought she was glaring at me, but I realised it was a kind of concentration; she was considering me. After a few seconds though, she laughed, and said

"Good one," then got back to her rocket.

"Seriously," I said. "Your drawings are amazing."

"Thanks," she looked up again, and after another moment of brief consideration, she reached out her hand.

"My name is Jazmin, or Jaz."

"Olivia," I replied, and took her hand. "Or Ollie."

She smiled at me, and little did I know that this meeting led to two years of friendship before:

"Hey Ollie, want to go shopping? We can go to the new clothes shop and then get a bite of pizza to eat afterwards."

"Sure," I say, not knowing that the amazing, perfectly-fitting purple jumper that I bought would never be worn.

"""""""""""""

"Chica? Toy Chica, wake up!"

I vaguely take in my surroundings as a voice brings me to consciousness. Wait, the show. It's seven.

"And I'm Chica," I mutter drowsily, assuming that Toy Bonnie has already spoken. As I open my eyes however, I do not see several children sitting in front of the stage; I see Toy Freddy worryingly staring at me and the back of Mario's head as he fiddled with something in Toy Bonnie's maintenance hatch.

"Mario and his friend apparently have some bad news they want to share with us before we open." Toy Freddy said, as he gestured over to none other than Golden Freddy who was leaning against the door frame.

"Hello everyone and welcome to the Fazbear show! I'm Bonnie,"

We all look over at Toy Bonnie as he jerked to life; he apparently thought that it was showtime, as I did.

"Don't worry," I said kindly as I walked over to him. "It's not showtime yet." I gestured up at the clock which read Ten past 6; he followed my gaze and nodded.

Mario now seemed to be attending to Mangle, which seemed to take a long time because he couldn't seem to find her deactivation settings. When he finally discovered them on the back of her leg, he moved onto BB, which seemed much faster as if he had done it before. Finally everyone was awake, and we gathered round in the middle of the room (Originals included; I suspected that Mario had tended to them before us.)

"We have some news," Mario began, shooting a half-glance at Golden Freddy. "That may include some life changing events." I noticed that he couldn't look at any of us Toys in the eye. My worries increased. "You see, I don't think that the guy in the office was the Purple Guy." We all gasped. I thought he was sure that we were doing right! "It turns out that this final night, he was recording some of our attempts to attack him and sending them directly to the owner of this restaurant." My heart skipped a beat. What did this mean? "Well, you see, he recorded Toy Freddy in the hall, Toy Chica and Toy Bonnie in a Party Room and Mangle and BB in the vents. I heard Mr Fazzy come to a conclusion." He seemed to be hiding extreme desperation under his mask. He looked over at his late brother, who nodded, then his mask turned to face us. He looked at me directly in the eyes as he banished my last hopes of a happy ending with his last sentence.

"He's going to scrap the Toys."

""""""""

Golden Freddy

"Life changing..." My little brother's words seemed to stir up a memory. Suddenly a man's face drifted onto my eyes; he looked around 30, and he was sporting a large bushy moustache and beard. At first I didn't remember, but then my memory drifted back to a vision I once had when I was alone in the safe room.

It was a village; an old one, the houses made of wood and roofs of straw. Every citizen seemed to be rushing around, yelling "They're home! They're home!"

Suddenly, a crowd of horses approach the village. The very man I had just envisioned jumped off the horse nearest to me, raised his sword and proclaimed loudly:

"We won the battle!"

All of the citizens cheered and hoisted him onto their shoulders and carried him around the village. They dropped him off at the Mayor's house, where he thumped the just-arrived hero on the back and boomed loudly:

"You have done well, Leo. Because of your mighty-spiffing performance in battle, I have a reward for you! Come with me, my healer has a life changing surprise for you."

The healer, an old woman, led Leo away and made him kneel down in some sort of shrine, on which read: "What you think, you will become".

"What is this?" He asked.

"Your reward," the healer smiled. She said a few words in a mysterious language, and a strange blue mist surrounded him for a second.

"This is a strong spell." She said once the mist had cleared. "It has changed your life, in the field that no matter how much you get hurt, your soul won't die. Of course, you can still die from old age and you can still feel pain, but you can jump off a cliff if you like and your soul will still live. This applies to you and all of your future relatives, Mr James."

"Thank you." Leo James stood up and left the room.

10 worried souls and the urge to rip off their masks brought me back to the present, but not before I had thought of who Leo James might be. Michael James, Josh James... Leo was my and Josh's relative from the old times. Before I could think about what that meant, I saw Josh looking at me beseechingly, his soul filled with determination but fear. I nodded, not knowing what he was supposed to be asking me; seeing my "approval" however, his soul resolved, he turned to his friends and said helplessly:

"He's going to scrap the Toys." I sensed immediate shock from the originals, but the overwhelming panic of the other five souls consumed me. They were feeling shock, horror, desperation, fear... Even sadness and anger. I could feel every single emotion that the five late kids were feeling, and just two loads would make any normal person go crazy. Five however... I slid down the wall I was leaning on and, feeling their desperation slowly chip away at my soul, collapsed.

Mario

I didn't know what to do. Toy Chica was doing the equivalent of crying- sobbing, but no tears. Toy Bonnie was trying to reassure her, but I could see panic of his own in his eyes. Mangle was hanging on the ceiling not meeting anyone's eyes, BB had sat down with his head in his hands and Toy Freddy's eyes were unfocused, looking like he was lost and didn't know what to do. I stood there awkwardly, sadly debating what to do.

I looked over at the original models; Freddy was watching Toy Bonnie, probably debating whether or not to approach him and Toy Chica, Foxy was trying to get BB to talk to him, Chica was trying to meet Mangle's eye and Bonnie was standing there awkwardly like me, watching Toy Freddy interestedly.

Suddenly, I hear a soft thump over Toy Chica's sobs. I look in it's direction and see none other than Michael slumped on the ground! I rush over.

"Quick!" I call to the others. "Help him!"

Bonnie and Toy Freddy shambled over (reluctantly, I could tell) and started shaking him. "Michael," I whispered sadly. "Please wake up..."

""""""""""

Toy Freddy

"Charlie, I want a word!"

I look back at my PE teacher, my short-ish blonde hair whipping back in the wind- I had just finished my rugby lesson and was about to go to lunch when Mr Adams had called, but I doubled back wondering what he wanted.

"Many year sevens are behind on their rugby classes, and they need to catch up." He explained. "One seemed particularly up for it, so who better to give a lunchtime class than year ten's best rugby player?"

I could feel my face going red in embarrassment; I was completely rubbish at all of my other classes and it felt good to be complimented. I didn't have any friends, but I made up for my loneliness in PE where I particularly felt I was needed.

I emerged from my thoughts to see a girl rush over from the shed in a rugby kit that was clearly too big for her- she was, in fact, tiny. Her bright blue eyes shone from her face, and her bushy brown brown hair was bouncing all over the place as she ran, grinning from ear to ear. Mr Adams greeted her.

"Louise, this will be your teacher Charlie. He is the best rugby player in year ten!"

She looked up at me, expression turning to what looked like shyness.

"Hello," she said quietly.

"Well, you two have fun!" Mr Adams strode off.

"Ok then midget." I began. "I guess I should recite the rules..."

"I already know them." She said in a firm voice. Surprised, I carried on.

"Ok then, guess we'll move onto some basic moves." I plonked my helmet on her head (too big for her), grabbed a rugby ball from the ground and walked onto the pitch.

"Right midget, show me what you think a tackle looks like."

She sighed and rolled her eyes, but then immediately launched herself at me. She grabbed me around the knees and with a surprisingly strong force, wrestled me to the ground. Stunned, I didn't even try to stop her as she wrenched the ball out of my hands and jumped up quickly. "Wow," I gasped, and quickly got up. "That wasn't what I was expecting." I grinned at her, and she smirked back, juggling the ball between her hands. "Well done midget. Same time tomorrow?"

"Ok," she said, and threw the ball back to me with such force I had to step back as it propelled into my chest. "And the name's Lou."

"""""""""""""""""""""

I came to my senses slowly, recalling where I was and who I was now. I had used that memory so many times in this hellish restaurant to ease myself when I was feeling useless, and after Mario had announced us Toys to be scrapped I had immediately called upon the memory of my first meeting with Lou. After I had trained her up for a few weeks she had got on the team, and I decided to celebrate her first win with a bit of pizza. What a horrible decision. Anyway, I came to my senses to see Mario rushing to a, what looked like, fainted Golden Freddy and out of the corner of my eye I saw Bonnie also watching closely.

"Help him!" Mario was yelling. I hesitated for a moment as I wondered if he deserved his pain for killing his only brother, but I still respect Mario, so I shuffled over and started shaking his late brother gently. A moment later Bonnie was at my side, joining in with his only arm and metal hand. As I wondered if Golden Freddy would ever wake up again, Mario was muttering words I could not hear...

Golden Freddy

Ah, the peacefulness of unconsciousness. I could not feel any other soul's emotions, and I was free from all cares and worries. The other souls were so lucky, they got to experience this every day! Eyes closed, my memory drifted back to my vision. Leo James, my relative, getting rewarded with a spell that stops him and his family dying from unnatural causes... I wondered why on earth I would see that one ordinary Tuesday in the Safe Room? Of course, as ordinary as it can be when you're a dead child possessing an animatronic bear that killed my only brother. Still, my attention dawdled on the vision, and suddenly, without warning, I realised. "We inherited the spell!" I exclaimed, sitting up. I realised I had woken from peacefulness a second too late, and the 10 desperate souls' emotions attacked me again.

Sadness.

Anger.

Revenge.

Pity.

Hate...

I collapsed against the wall again, but only just managing to stay conscious as it had been a few minutes since I had collapsed last. Their shock, at least, had died down, but their despair had grown stronger; still, I gritted my teeth, tried my hardest to ignore the sadness chipping away at my own soul, lifted my head up and forced my eyes open.

"Mi- Golden Freddy!"

I caught one glimpse of Josh's mask before he enveloped me in a hug. Trying to ignore the fact that he almost used my human name, I sensed his relief, his thankfulness, and, strangely, love; I didn't deserve his compassion, but I was thankful for it all the same. It was a second before I realised I was hugging him back.

I opened my eyes a fraction to see what was going on; over Josh's shoulder I could see Bonnie and Toy Freddy watching us from about a metre away, wondering what they should do whilst still feeling the same hate that everyone felt when they saw me but a little less strong. Beyond them still, I could sense another soul watching; one look behind Bonnie and I saw it was Freddy, feeling curiosity while watching out the corner of his eye. "Can I speak to you in private?" I muttered. Immediate suspicion and worry clouded Josh's soul, but his mask showed no emotion as he pulled back and nodded.

"We can use Kid's Cove." He said, helping me up and dragging me to the small room. I could just sense the three souls watching, but even once Josh closed the door and a wall was between us, I was still affected by everyone's despair, whatever muted. "So what did you want?"

I turned my attention back to Josh, who was feeling worry and sadness. I took a deep breath, ignored my desire to rip off his mask and began talking.

"On Tuesday, in the safe room, I was sitting on the floor like normal when I had a sort of vision. It was like a film was placed on my eyes."

Suspicious and worried, he motioned for me to carry on.

"In it, a man had just won a battle, and the mayor rewarded him with a spell. From what I gathered, it stopped him dying from anything but natural causes and it affected his entire family."

"How is this relevant to anything that is happening here?" He asked, irritated but interested all the same.

"Because his name was Leo James," I revealed. "And he's our relative."