A/N: Good morning/afternoon/evening/night/eclipse; depending on where you are and when you're reading this. Anyways; good time period!
Thanks for all the support on the last chapter, I'm happy to see that you guys are actually enjoying this! And to answer a couple of questions I got: I will do my best to post every single new chapter each Sunday, at 10 PM GMT. That's the appointed time. So no matter where you live you can expect to have a new chapter of The ones that were lost each Monday. If I know before hand that I won't be able to comply, I'll try to let you know in an A/N.
Before you read this chap: we're currently in the pizzeria that came after the family dinner but before the setting of FNaF 2. I'm saying this because the way I describe the restaurant might confuse you if you thought we're in the place of the second game.
Also, I discovered two great fanfics a few days ago that you should check out if you like my story and stories that focus on the missing kids in general. They are Missing by TheGreatHetzer and the Soul series by Elhini Prime. Thumbs up to you two for your awesome stories!
Now, here is chapter 7. As always comments, criticisms and suggestions are very appreciated. And if you spot a typo, grammar error, messed up sentence, whatever... please PM right away so I can fix it ASAP. Thank you and happy reading!
Chapter 7: Friendly hands
An owl cooed in the distance, waking me up. I shook my head and looked around the dark room, my eyes finally resting on Jack who was still sitting on the floor tracing circles. I glanced at the clock radio besides the TV; it was 12:14 AM. Feeling my head and long ears droop again under the weight of sleep I pushed myself of the wall and stretched my arms, realizing how stiff I became as my eyes lit up again giving the room a weak pinkish hue. After a few cracks and groans I managed to wake myself up enough to think more or less clearly.
"Jack…" I yawned, "I think it's time for you to come with us. I'm sure the others found a more or less nice place to sleep."
Jack's head seemed to perk up slightly along with his stubby bear ears, only to fall again a second later.
"C'mon Jack." I insisted, walking over to where he was sitting until I was standing by his side. "Just come with us."
I looked down at him. He was now tracing an X instead of a circle. "I'm guessing that means no, right?" Jack nodded, and started to trace circles again.
"Can I sit down with you?" He answered this with an X.
"Listen," I said, trying not to sound too harsh. "I know what you have. A girl in our class also has autism, so they taught us about it. I know what you feel. Well, kinda."
Jack looked up at me with his blank, black eyes. Then he just dropped his gaze again.
"Remember what I said and promised to you before we went in that room?" He nodded.
"So do I, and it doesn't stop haunting me. 'When you promise something you must mean it Brandon!' Mom and Dad always said to me. And I meant what I said."
"When I said that I wanted to see you smile, I meant it. When I promised to keep you safe, I meant it. I still do!" I looked down, surprised to see that Jack stopped tracing circles and was looking at me attentively.
"I want to keep that promise. I want you to give me a second chance that I don't deserve. I want to be your friend, a-"
"No." Jack interrupted with a short whisper, "No, you don't. N-Nobody does." He let his head fall.
Still stunned by his sudden interruption I looked down at him. "Why do you say that?"
Jack let his head fall even further. "I was m-mean to you." His whisper was barely audible, "I hit you. I'm s-stupid."
I giggled back at this. "I almost did something way more stupid six hours ago, but thankfully my brother was there to stop me. We all do things we wish we hadn't from time to time. Doing stupid things doesn't make us stupid, it makes us human. Not learning from them does."
Jack shook his head stubbornly. "It's not t-that!" He turned around, so that his back was facing me. After a while, he started to tremble slightly; he was crying.
"Your f-friends don't want me." he whimpered softly, "I saw it. And I u-understand. I'm a w-weight on your b-backs." He covered his face with his hands as his body slumped down. "Just l-leave me alone. Please; it's the best thing for e-everyone."
"Alright, time for a new approach." I cleared my throat, and walked up in front of him. "Listen, Jack. I know what I'm getting myself into. We will have trouble talking and working, you're short-tempered by nature, and every once in a while you will get on my nerves. I know that will happen." After hearing this, Jack let his body slump down even more.
"I also know," I continued, "that the very thing that makes you like that, makes you a special and gifted kid in ways we can't imagine. Maybe you haven't found that talent yet, but I know it's there, and I'm willing to help you find it." Jack lifted his head and at me and tilted it curiously, looking at me in the eyes.
"And I'm willing to carry you and all that you are, the good and the bad, and keep you safe for as long as you need to. I'd be happy to do that, and if you let me be your friend along the way, then you won't even be a weight at all. But to do that, you need to let me pick you up first."
I stretched my open hand in front of his face. He then lifted his golden hand, the same hand that almost broke my jaw, and slowly folded its fingers around mine. As he did, I looked into his black eyes. And like two stars in a dark night, two white shining pinpoint dots appeared in his eyes. The dots told me all I needed to know.
He was smiling.
I pulled him up, nearly breaking my endoskeleton in the process. After he stood on his two feet he turned around to look at the window. I went up to him and stood by his side. Dim yellow lights from streetlamps mixed with the pale moonlight, and blended with the sounds of passing cars. But we didn't think about that; our minds drifted away trying to find the ones that we lost.
"My brother, Mike." whispered Jack, "What w-will happen to him?"
I sighed. "I don't know. Maybe someday you two will meet again."
He turned his head quickly. "You think so?" he whispered, his voice and eyes filled with hope.
I let a few seconds pass, thinking about what to tell him. "Yes." I said firmly. "And until then, I will take care of you. I know I can't be your brother, but I will stay by your side, as your friend."
Jack looked down shyly as we walked to the door. "T-Thank you." he muttered as we stepped into the hallway.
"No problem!" I chuckled back, "Now let's find out where everyone is hiding."
It took us a while, but we managed to find Sean, Ferny and Sarah all sleeping on the floor in the backstage room. I was scared to see the light in their eyes gone, but the little movements of their hands and feet told me they were all fine. Tired, but no longer afraid, I laid myself down between my brother and Jack, and quickly fell asleep.
There were now four things in this world worth living for.
The next two and a half weeks before the reopening of Freddy Fazbear's were filled with discoveries, surprises, and a weird kind of enthusiasm. Even though we still woke up every morning hoping that it was all a dream we managed to keep ourselves busy enough to avoid getting too caught up in our own reality.
We had the whole place for us and decided to make the best out of it, being careful not to change too many things. But it soon became an unspoken rule to never go into the private party room, the room where we were murdered, again.
Sarah began to draw again, even though it was very difficult with her hands. But instead of drawing happy and smiling animatronics like she used too, she now drew happy and smiling kids. After a few attempts I managed to get Jack to draw as well, instead of just watching TV all day. Taken, he only drew circles and X's, but I still saw it as progress. Whilst sneaking around the manager's office Sean managed to find the key to the arcade's coin slots. Now we could use the same coins to play over and over again.
But we also kept an eye on the world outside through the TV. After a few days the so called 'murderer' died because of his wounds; our killer managed to silence the only witness we could've had. At the same time the case against Jeremy was crumbling. Not surprisingly none of our families pressed charges, knowing that our cousin wouldn't hurt a fly. Jeremy on his behalf helped out the police all he could by telling them what he remembered of that day. It was pretty much nothing.
It was during these newscasts that we talked about our killer. He had the security guard uniform, but we had never seen him before. Plus according to the news all surveillance cameras showed that the three guards were where they should be at the time we were killed: two outside and one in the security office. So who was our killer, how he knew our names, why he chose us, how he paralyzed our bodies while his chest glowed and the whole thing with our souls and seals in that book remained unanswered questions.
We agreed with one thing he said though: if someone found out what we really were they would either run way from us or try to kill us, and the terrifying noises we made when we talked between ourselves didn't help. Our best bet, we decided, was to act like animatronics as much as we could until we found a way to communicate with someone we could trust. We even cleaned up our bloody exoskeletons as much as possible with napkins and paper towels, but our corpses remained where they were.
Ferny, the eternal nerd, found and studied some manuals on how to operate and maintain the animatronics that were our new bodies. Sleeping and 'being off' were apparently pretty much the same thing for us. Our servos got a bit locked up after not moving for a few hours, so we always felt rigid and stiff when waking up. But after a bit of slow stretching they started to run smoothly again.
Also, each one of us had a cassette player hiding in our sides behind a little flap, except Jack since his body was really a semi-animatronic suit. The cassettes had the songs we would have to eventually play after the reopening. Our movements and dances during shows would be operated with a remote control. In between shows we would go in a free-roam mode to stop the servos from locking up, but we had to remain in the area of the building for employees only. After the restaurant closed at 8 PM however we were allowed to roam all around the place.
Finally everything in our bodies was battery powered, so we all had to plug ourselves in a power outlet with an extension cord for a few hours a day or night to avoid running out of energy. But this afternoon, the day before the reopening, my brother forgot to do that.
"Umm Don…" he called out behind me. We were both in the main arcade room after having played for six hours straight. The arcades were on the left side of the building, close to the main entrance, the security office, and ticket counter.
I shook my head while turning around to face him. "For the last time…" I said irritated, "Duck Hunt is not broken, you just suck at it."
"It's not that," he grunted, "well, it is broken… but I need your help. My body won't… respond." continued Sean as his legs twitched uselessly, "And I feel… kinda sleepy."
"Did you plug yourself in last night?" I asked. My brother answered with a nervous little giggle.
"Seriously?" I said as I crossed my arms. "It's the fourth time!"
"Good…" he half yawned, half groaned, "you know… the drill then. Get me… to the maintenance… room next… to the backstage… room. And… plug me in."
"I know, I know." I said impatiently as the blue glow of his eyes slowly started to fade away.
"Oh… and Don…" he added quickly as his body began to lean backwards. "Don't let… me fall."
"I'm sorry?" I asked sarcastically while lowering an ear and putting a hand by it, trying to hold back a giggle, "I didn't hear that."
"Don't you… dare… let… me… uh-oh."
His back and bottom hit the tiled floor with a loud metallic clang, covering up my evil chuckle. After I had enough I walked up to my brother's inert body; the glow of his eyes was gone. Dragging his body around the place would only break something, so we needed to lift it between the four of us. I walked out of the room into the main dining area wondering if Ferny and Sarah who were up on the show stage all the way in the front heard anything. As I walked up to them their conversation cleared away my doubts.
"Do I have to?" wined Ferny as he tapped his foot nervously, his red ears flat against his head.
"I don't understand the problem Fer!" nagged Sarah. "You go down the stage and sing piraty songs to some kids." Sarah pointed a piece of paper on a chair next to them. "It's your number in this week's show. Also we can't do anything to avoid it; we will be remote-controlled anyways."
"C'mon Sarah," insisted Ferny, "you know I'm not good with little kids!"
"Ferny," snorted Sarah, "you're nine, remember?"
"Well," replied Fer proudly, crossing his arms, "at least I'm mature and responsible."
Sarah exploded with laughter, bending over and taking a few steps backwards. "Ha ha! Mature? You once threw up after eating a cherry popsicle dunked in BBQ-sauce!"
"It was an experiment in the name of science!" he boasted as he stuck up his index finger.
"Um, guys…" I interrupted, looking up at the two figures on stage. "I kinda need your help for a moment."
"Hi Brandon," said Sarah with a bit of sternness, "I'm glad you remembered we exist."
"You guys really got carried away this time, didn't you?" added Ferny.
"Y-Yeah," I muttered as my ears drooped down awkwardly, "sorry about that. Anyways, Sean forgot to plug himself in, and…"
"Again?" interrupted Sarah.
"Again." I resumed. "We need Jack to lift him up. Fer, is he with you?"
"Well…" Ferny started tapping his foot nervously again. "He got bored, so I let him watch some TV."
"What? I thought we had a deal! You were supposed to play hide and seek with him today!"
"I tried!" Ferny raised his hand and hook, "You know how he is; the only one he ever plays with is you."
He was right. I was the only one Jack seemed to care about. For the past days I tried to get him to befriend either Sean or Sarah, and failed. Ferny was my last hope. But no matter how hard I tried, he wouldn't remember any of our names; he just called us by our color. Sarah was the yellow one, my brother was the brown one, and so on.
"Alright," I sighed, "you tried. I'll go get him. Sean is in the arcades, having nightmares about ducks and hounds."
Ferny and Sarah laughed and nodded at this as they climbed down the stage. I opened the 'Employees Only' door left from the stage and walked into the familiar narrow hallway. I passed by the storage room where I woke up in Bonnie's body for the first time and entered the break room. Jack was sitting in front of the TV, swinging sideways slightly as he watched ThunderCats.
"Um, Jack?" I whispered. "Could you please help us?"
He stopped swinging and turned around to face me. "Yes?" he sighed.
"My brother forgot to charge his batteries, so w-"
"A-Again?" stammered Jack. I nodded.
"So we need your help to carry him from the arcades to the maintenance room." I said slowly. Jack let his gaze fall and traced an X on the floor.
"C'mon Jack!" I said more anxiously than I wanted to, "Remember what I told you? We are a team! We have to work together."
He stubbornly kept on tracing an X on the floor. "Okay." I sighed. "It's okay if you don't do it for my friends, or my brother. But could you please do it for me?"
Jack looked up at me for a few seconds, as if he were inspecting me. He then slowly pushed himself up and walked to the door without saying a word.
"Thank you!" I said cheerily as we left the room.
Over the past three weeks the five us of had been through… quite a lot. But somehow we were making this work. Somehow we were making a life in here, and somehow I felt that after the first show tomorrow things might start to take a turn for the best. And above all we were always there for each other whenever someone needed a hand.
Besides, what more could possibly happen to us?
A/N: Okay guys, see ya next week Sunday 10 PM GMT. And as always feel free to leave a comment, a follow or fav; they're very appreciated! Have a good week and take care.