A/N: I hope you're in the mood for a biggie this week, because that's what you guys are about to get! So warm up those reading circuits, grab yourself a cold soda, and lean back for a very long chapter. Yes, I know I said short and concise, and yes I tried to split this in two, but sometimes the story does what the story wants, and even as a writer you can't hold her back. I'm sure a bunch of you know that feeling.
So, lot's of things that happen in this chapter will be important in the future, and well... let's just say that this is one of those turning points that every story has; you'll know what I mean eventually ;) Oh, and as always thanks for the follows and reviews on the last chap!
As always your comments and critic are more than welcome, and if you think you spotted an error please let me know, even if you're not sure. Happy reading and have a good week!
Chapter 8: Plug and play
"Easy now…" commanded Ferny as we lowered my brother's body in the maintenance room. "And… perfect!"
We all wheezed as the strain on our gears finally subsided. Sean's body was now sitting on the floor with his upper half slumped forward. Sarah grabbed an extension cord and passed it to Ferny as Jack and I started to idly walk around the room littered with spare animatronic parts, bolts and screws, and little cans of oil and grease.
Since Ferny only had one useful hand it was up to Sarah to help him with anything related to our bodies. Watching the duo work together like a slightly under-oiled machine was as amusing as it was worrying, but somehow they always managed to get done whatever they had to get done.
"Umm, Brandon?" called out Sarah behind me, "Did you, by any chance, let Sean fall on his back?"
I turned around to see her and Ferny staring at me with fiery eyes and crossed arms. The large flap on Sean's back that covered the battery and the power port was open. The large battery that was normally deep inside his torso was visible.
"It snapped loose." said Ferny flatly, "I'll have to take it out and check for broken parts. I don't think there are any, but still."
I scratched my head nervously. "Oh… umm… I didn't think…"
"Brandon, come here." whispered Sarah warmly as she invited me with a hand gesture.
I walked to her reluctantly as my bunny ears dropped down in guilt. As soon as I was close enough to her she grabbed my left ear and gave it a big tug.
"OWW!" I yelped as she finally let it go, "You know how much that hurts?!"
"That's why I did it bozo!" she snapped back, "What if something inside Sean did break?!"
"No fighting now." interrupted Fer, "And guys, you should really look at this."
The battery was now on the floor, letting us see a big space inside Sean's torso. We leaned close to it and inspected the whole thing. It took us a while to see it.
There was a blood seal, just like the one on the red book's cover, drawn on a side of the interior of his chest. Besides it there was another smaller symbol: a circle with two tiny half circles on top of it.
"A bear head." whispered Sarah.
Ferny nodded. "If what our killer said about the seals a few weeks ago is true, then I'm guessing that each one of us has two: one in that book and one in our bodies. And if breaking the seals in that book erases us, I don't know what would happen if the seals on our bodies were broken. But I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be nice."
"But our killer didn't tell us about this." I said, "He didn't want us to find out. Why?"
The three of us let out a thoughtful sigh. I threw a quick glance at Jack, who was sitting by the door tracing circles on the floor out of boredom.
"Alright," continued Ferny, "we'll tell Sean when he wakes up. Sarah, help me get the battery back in and plug him in."
After a few minutes they managed to reattach the battery and connect the cord to Sean's power port. As soon as my brother was plugged in his familiar blue glow returned to his eyes.
"Don…" he groaned painfully, "I think something's loose. Come close."
Filled with worry and guilt, I leaned down. "Brother?" I whispered. "Are you alri-AWW!"
He tugged at my left ear, making me jump backwards. "What the hell?!" I whined.
"Yeah, that's what you get for letting me fall on my ass!" he muttered angrily, rubbing his bottom. "Thank God nothing inside of me broke." He slowly stretched his arms and bent his legs to start up his servos.
"But Sarah tugged at that ear already!" I whimpered.
"Did she?" asked my brother. "Thanks Sarah, I appreciate it!" I turned around to see Sarah sticking up her thumb before, well…
"AHH! Ferny, you too?!" I squeaked, gently rubbing my abused ear. "What did I do to you?!"
Ferny just shrugged and laughed. "I didn't want to be left out!"
The five of us, even me, laughed along with Fer and spent the rest of the afternoon playing and joking. At night we talked about the second set of seals and what would happen to us when the restaurant reopened. Although we decided to act like we were just the Fazbear Gang we hoped that if our bodies were found, our murder case might be reopened, and maybe, just maybe, we would get justice. We fell asleep in the backstage room with high hopes in tomorrow.
But instead of waking up at the regular opening time, we woke up well before dawn with three men using black outfits, rubber gloves and face masks in front of us. They were carrying large garbage bags on their shoulders and one of them had a garden cart behind him with a mop and some bottles in it.
"He wasn't lying boys!" began the man in front of the two, "They're in there!"
"Sick bastard," hissed the man on the right, "why did he do this?"
"Revenge." said the man on the left with confidence. The one in front turned to him.
"Why do you say that Nel?" he asked.
Nel shrugged. "Dunno Boris; it's always revenge with that sick bunch."
They walked up to us quietly. If we talked the noises we made would give us away, so we couldn't do anything when the man on the right opened up Jack's torso with a violent tug. He looked into it for a moment before taking a few indecisive steps back.
"Um, Boris…" he said with a shaky voice, "you sure we shouldn't call the cops or something?"
"Listen Andy," growled Boris as he jerked open Ferny's red torso, "the owners of this fine establishment paid us a lot of dough to do this nicely and quietly. So keep your mouth shut or you'll join your new friends in the landfill, got it?"
Andy sighed nervously and reluctantly got close to Jack again.
"Listen man," said Nel friendly as he ripped Sarah's corpse from its prison of wires, "We did things like this many times in the past, remember? Bodies are bodies, nothing else. Now, do you have the brushes or not?"
They opened us up like we were just cans and teared away the last bit of our old and happy we had left: our own bodies. We watched on as they stuffed them into the garbage bags while Boris hummed a little military tune. After that they each took a metal brush and scraped off most of the dried blood from our fur while we silently cringed in pain.
When it was done, Nel looked into our torsos. "Boris," he called out, "what about the inside?"
One thought crossed our minds: the seals. They were going to be wiped off.
Boris let out a thoughtful snort. "Y'know what? I don't wanna screw up any circuits or cables in there. Let's just close them up, bleach the room and get the hell outta here."
They closed the frontal plates of our torsos and mopped up every corner of the room with bleach. Then they tossed the bags with our corpses onto the cart, and left with everything. But we didn't feel the same anymore; there was a big emptiness inside of us, physically and emotionally. We realized with pain that our last shot at legitimate justice would rot away in the county's dump. The only thing we did that night was get as close to each other as we could, occasionally throwing an arm around someone's shoulder while we silently let the hours slip by.
The twelve shows that we did over the next three days were awkward at best and a torture at worst. It was just as Ferny said: before each show a cassette with voices and songs was put into the players on our sides. Meanwhile somebody backstage used a remote control to make our bodies move like they were supposed to, while the depressingly small audiences clapped listlessly at the MC's old jokes and looked at us with disgust. We guessed that tough we couldn't smell it, the stench that our corpses left behind after rotting for so long was apparently not going to fade away any time soon.
Three weeks and a few days had passed since that rainy Tuesday. It was now the 2nd of September, my brother's birthday.
"Hooh hooh hoh! And t-thank you once more dear F-F-Fazbear friends for j-joining us tonight!" called out Freddy happily with his heavy, jolly and glitchy voice as he waved at the mumbling parents. "And s-see you next t-time!" And so the last show of the day ended. 8 PM, closing time and with that partial freedom were minutes away now. A few little kids in the back clapped at Freddy's goodbye. I tried to look at them to see if they were smiling, but the four of us were already being forced to bow for the non-existent crowd.
We walked behind the curtain into the backstage room where an employee took Bonnie's fake guitar from my arms. He then did the same with Chica's cupcake tray and Freddy's mic. He glanced casually at Foxy before grabbing a large remote control and flicking a little red switch.
Free-roam mode. The painful strain on our joints and gears finally eased away. The employee grabbed some keys, turned off the lights and closed the door as he stepped into the hallway of the section of the building for employees only.
"Hey Erik," we heard him call out, "is Caleb starting again tonight?"
"Yeah Fritz," said another voice, "but his shift begins at midnight and he has keys, so just lock everything."
"Okee-dokee!" chirped Fritz as the sound of his footsteps faded away. After a few minutes we finally heard the main front door open and close.
"THANK GOD IT'S OVER!" roared Ferny as he sat down on the floor. "This is just… I mean…" He let out a sigh of frustration.
"And I guess I'm twelve now…" muttered Sean bitterly, "This is not what I meant when I said that I wanted to have my birthday party at Freddy's." He leaned against the wall and slowly let himself slide down.
Sarah, Ferny and me looked at each other, and shared the same thought. "One, two, three…" we began in chorus, "Happy birth-"
"Stop it." hissed my brother. We did what he asked.
"Jack!" I called out, "We're backstage! No one's here now! You can come!"
"O-okay." he replied shyly.
Since he wasn't a part of the show, Jack was left alone for the whole day in the storage room. That room was in the part of the building for employees only, meaning I could check on him in between shows. But because Bucky was supposed to be just a mechanical suit he had to remain completely still until closing time.
"Umm, Sean?" said Sarah as she tapped my brother's shoulders, "Your cassette player is still going."
We looked on as he opened the flap on his side. The player was whirring softly, but no audio was coming out.
"Hmm," huffed my brother, "that's weird. Maybe it's one of those new tapes that last longer." He stuck his big finger inside the opening and clumsily started to poke around. The player stopped before giving out a different whir.
"That's the rewind doofus." sighed Sarah, "I have smaller fingers, let me…"
"No!" grumbled my brother stubbornly, "I got this Sarah." He moved his finger to the right and again tried to press the 'Stop' button. The player stopped for a moment, before whirring again.
"You really are something aren't you?" said an annoyed Sarah, "You pressed play, now can I please…"
"-eant when I said that I wanted to have my birthday party at Freddy's." muttered the bitter voice of my brother as it came out of Freddy's voice box.
The room went completely silent. We remained petrified as our minds tried to grasp what was happening.
"Stop it." hissed the player.
"Did that…" started Ferny as he got on his feet and walked to my brother, "did that record your…?"
"Hmm," continued the player, "that's weird. Maybe it's one of those new tapes that…"
"IT DID!" hollered Ferny as he threw his hand and hook in the air, "We can record our voice so that others can hear it; we can speak to our families!"
I looked at my friends in disbelieve; their eyes were bright and fiery with hope. Could it be? Could we actually manage to get back our families at least, and get our side of the story told?
"It's still going!" cheered Sean as the player kept on parroting what he said with a small delay.
"We can talk to them again!" said Sarah joyfully, "We can send them the tapes through mail; they'll hear our voice and they'll know it's us!"
The four of us started to laugh happily at the discovery. I was overjoyed to hear my brother's voice, his true voice, ring lively through the air like it used to all the time. At that moment, it filled us with hope. We are alive, we thought. We will come through.
"I miss you Mom." I whispered with mixed feelings as the last minutes of my blank tape ended, "It was hard sometimes; I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for my friends. But knowing that Sean and I will see your beautiful smile again fills me up with more joy and happiness than I can put in words. I send you my biggest hugs and kisses, please share them with Dad when you visit him and tell him that I remember him and love him."
Sarah used a pencil to press the stop and eject buttons. She grabbed the tape as it popped out of my side and put it in a box with the other four. Ferny grabbed the box with his good hand and left the backstage area and us to hide it in the security office on the other side of the building, close to the arcade room.
It was almost midnight. Over the last four hours we all recorded a message to our families telling them that we were alive and that the only way we could talk to them was through cassette tapes; we also warned them not to tell anyone else about us. Since Jack's body didn't have a player I happily recorded a message to his brother Mike and his family for him while he told me what he wanted to say. We also told everything about the way we were murdered and that the suit operator was innocent. We described the way our real killer looked like and said that the management paid some people to get rid of our bodies.
Our plan was to put the tapes in the same boxes that were used to send broken animatronic parts for repair. Sarah was getting good enough with her hands to write our addresses on the boxes, and then we would just have to wait until the mail came to pick them up, which according to the things Ferny read happened regularly.
Jack, Sarah, my brother and I were sitting in the backstage room, still waiting for Ferny to come back when we heard the familiar sound of the front door opening.
"I forgot that the security guard would come tonight." whispered my brother nervously as he looked at Jack.
"Jack," I whispered, "hide in the maintenance room. Remember that supposedly we're able to free-roam at night but you can't."
Jack nodded at me and quickly but quietly opened the door to the hallway and slipped into the first room.
"Okay," whispered Sarah, "you think he can hear us Sean?"
"Nah, his office is pretty far." replied my brother, "Ferny should be coming back to us by now, but everyone knows that the animatronics can walk around freely at night so him moving is not suspicious." Sarah and I nodded.
"Brother," I began, "remember what our killer told us the day we woke up? We were supposed to kill the security guard and follow those rules or we would be erased."
"Yes Don, but he never actually said it was a rule to kill the security guard did he?" scoffed Sean.
Feeling reassured by his words I let out a carefree sigh; he was right.
"And besides," he continued, "we would never be able to do something like that."
The alarm clock broke the relative silence of the room with short beeps; it was midnight.
"See?" said my brother after the beeping stopped, "It's past 12:00 AM, and nothing hap-"
His voice cut off sharply. Then he suddenly let out a short cry as he fell sideways on the floor. Sarah and I stood up and ran to him in panic. He began to groan and pant as a soft red glow appeared on the side of his chest, right where his blood seal was.
"Don… Sarah…" he gasped, "I feel so… weird…"
We looked on in horror as his body began to twitch violently on the floor. As it got worse his blue eyes started to flicker on and off. Then the twitching stopped just as quickly as it started, leaving behind a deafening silence as his eyes went off completely.
"Sean?" hissed Sarah anxiously, "Sean?! Please, say something!"
Freddy's head looked up at us as his eyes began to glow again. But when I looked into them there was no sign of emotion. There was no sign of my brother. There was only a cold, lifeless light.
"Who's Sean?" asked Freddy slowly and coldly with my brother's voice. As he stood up the red glow faded away from his chest.
Sarah and I took a few steps back. "T-That's not funny," I stuttered, trying not to sound half as terrified as I was. "Please, just drop it."
"Hmm… Sean…" whispered Freddy thoughtfully as he grabbed his chin, "Sounds kinda familiar."
"What are you talking about stupid!" hollered a despaired Sarah, "That's who you are! You're Sean Williams! You're…"
Sarah's pleading turned into a soft groan as she leaned against the wall, letting out painful huffs. "My chest…" she groaned, putting a hand on her red-glowing side. "It… It…"
Her body began to jolt and twitch against the wall while the terrified and confused glow in her eyes started to flicker, before fading out completely. It was then replaced with the same cold light as Freddy's eyes. She calmly steadied herself as her chest stopped glowing, turning her head to me.
"It's fine." said Chica flatly, staring at me with her dead purple eyes, "It's all fine. I'm alright Bonnie; don't worry."
I fell a chill run down my metallic spine as her cold gaze fell on me. "Brother, Sarah," I whimpered in panic, "please tell me that you're messing with me."
Chica and Freddy laughed teasingly, but their eyes didn't reflect the slightest bit of joy. "C'mon Bon; you're the one that's messing with us." said Freddy, still half-laughing. "First you make Chica call me Sean, then you call her Sarah, and just to top it off you say I'm your brother! Very funny my dear Bonnie."
"That's not my freaking name!" I wailed angrily, "And I am your brother you idiot! I've always been and always will be!"
"Okay Bonnie, that's enough." said Chica sternly, "You're wasting time. Foxy is already close to the guard's office. If we don't hurry up he'll score the first point."
"Yeah, what happened Bon?" asked Freddy with the slightest bit of sadness in his voice, "Are you not going to play with us? We could have so much fun together!"
"STOP IT YOU TWO!" I screamed as hard as I could, not caring anymore if anyone heard it, "We're not them! That's what the monster that did this to us wants us to think! We have friends and family mourning for us outside these damn doors! We're…"
My voice trailed off as I felt a sharp hot pain enter my chest. I tried to keep my balance as the world started to slide and slip under my feet, but I just couldn't. I let myself fall on my hands and knees, panting from the overwhelming sensation. Suddenly my whole body began to twitch and jerk uncontrollably. My vision came and went rapidly as a million thoughts and memories flooded my mind. I tried to hold on to them, to save them, but they were gone already. And just like that it all stopped, leaving behind a complete hollowness and a chilling cold… that I quite liked.
"We're the Fazbear Gang." I whispered, finally giving myself up. I looked up at my dear friends Freddy and Chica. They chuckled warmly at my words and helped me get back up on my feet.
"We have a game to play Bon," said Freddy as we walked on to the show stage, "and we're late for it. How do you feel?"
I laughed at his question. "I've never felt better Fred."
He patted my shoulder as I climbed down the stage. Soon we were walking across the dinner area to the security office, hoping that Foxy didn't get to our prize already.
"Yes, we will kill." I thought to myself enthusiastically as we came closer to the office, "We will kill for that good friend of ours that gave us this wonderful new life."