A/N: Look at me, almost being on time! Hey, it's something isn't it?
This was a really fun chapter to write. Since I had multiple ideas, it turned out a bit different from what I had in mind. I also managed to break my usual style a bit. It starts out quite slow, and then... well, you'll see ;)
Oh, and happy father's day to any father reading this! Enjoy this day fathers of the Internet, however few you might be. I also wanted to thank a certain old and loyal reviewer for the kind wishes, even tough I'm not a father myself. Heck, I'm just 17, but I really appreciate the gesture. I'm not a fan of mentioning usernames in chapters, but he knows who he is.
A special thank you from the heart for the support this past week. Guys, we just broke the 60+ reviews, 30+ follows, and 5K+ visits! Thanks so much for being here right now and happy reading. I'll see you on the bottom!
Chapter 15: Seeking Shadows
"Don?"
"Mm… mehh?"
"C'mon private, time to get up."
Refusing to open my eyes, I felt how the hand of my brother shook my shoulder to wake me up like it had done for years.
"Five more minutes, please?" I begged sleepily, twisting my body into heavenly comfort.
"That's what you said five minutes ago."
With a heavy sigh I opened my eyes to see the unfocused brown silhouette of my brother staring down at me with a bit of impatience.
"What time is it?" I mumbled, slowly stretching my arms and legs to start up my locked servos.
"Almost ten. We let you oversleep for a few minutes. Ferny and Sarah are waking up the Toys right now."
Yawning, I sat up and unplugged the power cable from my back before closing the panel. I turned my head and saw that Jack was already sitting against the wall with the blanket covering his feet, just like yesterday. He seemed lost in thoughts as he idly traced and retraced a circle on his blanket.
"Morning Jack," I greeted, "had a good night?"
Without looking up he gave me a quick little nod.
"Glad to hear that buddy." I said friendly, feeling reassured by the fact that he wasn't ignoring me anymore.
"So, here's what we're gonna do." started Sean as I looked back at him, "While we're playing hide and seek with the Toys we'll split up and try to find the box with the tapes. If we find them we'll just remember where they are and come back for them later when the place reopens." He turned around and grabbed my walking cane that was resting against the wall by my side. "Then we'll just do what we wanted to do in the first place: wait until a mail van comes and leave the box in a place where the mailman will pick it thinking that it's sent by the management. The box should be delivered to our families then."
I mumbled a thank you as my brother passed me the cane. "Why not look for them while the Toys are sleeping?" I asked.
"What if Balloons or someone else wakes up at night, decides to be a bit naughty and goes out for a night walk while we're on it?"
"True." I admitted, pushing myself up on two feet with the help of the cane and walking towards the door. Before stepping into the hallway I glanced quickly at the darkened figure of Jack, and sighed when yesterday's promise echoed through my head.
"Okay, these are the rules." said Marionette, clearing his throat as he idly walked around the center of the game area. "The Toys will get three minutes to hide anywhere they want in the building, including the vents, and are allowed to move around after the four Originals start looking for them. If an Original spots a Toy he has to yell 'I caught, say… TC!'. Then the Toy has to come back to me, the referee. If after one hour the Originals can't find the five Toys, the Toys win. Sounds good?"
"YEAH!" roared Balloons, "You're going down!"
"Yeah right, keep dreaming inside that big ball head of yours." taunted back Sarah.
"Good luck Mr. Freddy, good luck friends…" said TF with confidence, tipping his hat at us, "you're gonna need it."
"Right back at you Junior." replied my brother, tipping back his hat.
TB didn't say anything; he was too busy holding the frontal plate of his exoskeleton open and trying to tape his rose to the inside of it.
"Oh, and Foxy," called out Marionette, "please drop the book for a minute."
Sighing, Ferny stood up from his little bench, closed the book and laid it neatly where he was sitting. I read the front cover: 'A brief history of time. From the big bang to black holes. Stephen W. Hawking.'
"Ready?" shouted Marionette enthusiastically, seeing that TB had finished. "And the game begins… NOW!"
Sarah, Ferny, Sean and I turned around immediately to face the wall of the game area, while we heard some rushed footsteps and excited laughter. After a minute or two, we heard some doors open and close in the distance, along with faint banging coming from somewhere in the walls.
"Time's up guys." called out Marionette behind us after another minute, "You have an hour to find them."
"The tapes or the Toys?" I asked.
"Ideally, both." huffed Sarah proudly, "I'm sure all five of them are hiding in the vents, they're basically a maze. It'd be fun to actually beat them."
"Okay, how about we first check the rooms for the tapes and then we destroy the Toys?" suggested Ferny.
"Agreed." said my brother. "Sarah and I will check the kitchen, prize corner, the kid's cove and bathrooms."
"Bathrooms?" I questioned.
"Hey, let's leave no stone unturned." replied Sean. "Who knows? Maybe someone thought it was a box with toilet paper or something. Can you two check the rest of the rooms?"
Ferny and I nodded. Wishing us good luck, Sarah and Sean turned around, and walked and limped past Marionette to inspect the Kid's Cove.
"Brandon, I got an idea." said Ferny after a moment, walking over to the bench where he was reading and pulling it away, revealing the panel of an air vent. "This leads to the security office; Balloons likes to use it sometimes as shortcut. Just take a left and a right turn and you'll be there."
I looked on as Ferny pulled the panel away. "Umm, I was never one for tight spots." I laughed nervously.
"Common Brandon, we only have one hour to find the tapes and I'd like to beat the Toys in something for once."
"Alright then." I sighed, walking over to Ferny and going on my knees in front of the open vent. I laid down on my belly and started to push myself into the tight space with my feet while I squeezed the cane's handle nervously.
"I'll meet you there in twenty minutes or so." echoed Ferny's fading voice in the vent, "I'll check the service and party rooms."
"A-alright." I stuttered, hearing how he put the panel back in its place along with the bench. "Well, thanks a lot for locking me in here cap."
The LED's of my stripped head bathed the dark vent in an eerie red hue as I crawled my way through the narrow space, groaning, mumbling, and asking myself how I let Ferny convince me to do this. After a few feet the vent split up in two ways. I awkwardly turned my heavy body to the left and kept going for a minute or two till the next split-up. "I really miss you dear left arm." I thought bitterly as I repeated the ordeal, this time going to the right. Immediately I was greeted with the beautiful sight of a panel a few feet ahead; the light at the end of the tunnel.
I bashed open the panel with the end of my cane, shuffled out of the vent and looked around the weird room. There were no doors; just a big opening that led to the hallway of the party rooms with piles of old monitors by its sides. In the back there was a small TV, an old radio and an alarm-clock on top of a table besides two tall filing cabinets. In front of me, on the right side of the room, there was a desk with an unplugged fan close to another opened vent.
"So, this is the security office." I thought, standing up and trying to find my balance. "Hopefully there won't be any more night guars in a long time." I slowly approached the right air vent and looked curiously at the big square button that was on top of it.
"Hmm… Light." I read, leaning against the desk and pressing the button with my cane, only to almost fall down in surprise when the light revealed a familiar face looking at me with pitiful green eyes.
"H-hello Mr. Bonnie." stammered my counterpart, ashamed.
"I CAUGHT TB!" I shouted triumphantly as the blue Toy crawled out of the vent, ears lowered in defeat.
"HA! You SUCK Bugs Bunny!" echoed Balloons' mocking voice from the right vent.
"Shh! You're giving us away, idiot!" hissed back TC's angry voice.
I shook my head and chuckled in amusement. "He's not the brightest lightbulb, huh?"
But TB didn't answer. His head and ears were down; his green eyes were filled with disappointment as he rubbed his elbow awkwardly.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"He's right." whimpered the little boy, "I was the first one to lose. I'm… I'm terrible at hide and seek."
My ego shattered when I saw how TB's shoulders trembled slightly as he cried. Since I woke up part of me refused to believe that they were human; I selfishly saw them as little more than glorified animatronics. But seeing TB cry reminded me that they were like us, that there were innocent kids trapped behind those cheery metal masks. That they too were murdered and torn apart from the ones they loved, and stuck inside these walls with no one else around them until we broke Walther's seal. It reminded me that they too needed friends.
"It's okay." I whispered softly, gently lifting TB's chin with the tip of my cane until he was looking at me in the eyes. "Sometimes to win we have to lose first. But we have to keep trying until we get there, and not let anyone bring us down, don't you think?"
TB nodded slowly, making my cane go up and down as his shoulders stopped trembling.
"Good, now go wait for us with Mr. Mario, alright?"
"A-alright." TB turned around and walked into the hallway, "Good luck Mr. Bonnie!" he called out, waving at me.
"Thanks!" I replied with a nod, seeing how the bright figure walked away into the corridor.
"This looks promising." I thought enthusiastically as I pushed myself off the table and walked towards the filing cabinets in the back of the room. I laid the cane against the wall, quickly grabbed the handle of the first cabinet before I lost my balance and pulled at it, only to realize that it was locked.
"C'mon." I groaned, giving it a big tug. "Just. Open. UP!"
Suddenly, the lock snapped and the door swung open. Struggling to keep my balance, I quickly grabbed the top edge of the opened cabinet and wheezed with satisfaction when I looked inside. There were a bunch of books and magazines on the top shelf, some video cassettes and notebooks in the middle and a bunch of audio tapes in the bottom. One of the few handy things about being an animatronic was the strength these bodies had.
My ears rose up in surprise and hope when I saw a little cardboard box among the audio cassettes. I carefully went to my knees, pulled out the box, opened it and saw five tapes. Shaking my head in joy and disbelieve, I eagerly grabbed one of the tapes. "I think this was mine." I laughed, only to feel my hopes shatter when I saw the unknown handwriting on the cassette.
How to safely operate animatronic mechanical suits, Part 2. By Dave Hobbs. October 1982.
Growling with frustration I tossed the cassette into the box and shoved it back into the cabinet, hoping with resentment that no one would find the useless things. Wondering why the room suddenly felt so cold, I grabbed one of the edges of the cabinet, pulled myself up and carefully grabbed my cane.
"Time for the other one." I sighed, walking towards the cabinet that had an emptied-out Freddy headpiece on top of it and repeating the same procedure with the locked handle. The head almost fell down as I finally opened the cabinet, revealing nothing but stacks of manila folders and an out-of-place-looking heavy duty flashlight. The cold became worse as I turned my back to the hallway and grabbed my cane again.
Shrugging and hoping that someone else would find the tapes, I turned around to stare directly into the empty white orbs of a smiling pitch-black silhouette; the silhouette of a rabbit.
"P-PLEASE!" wailed the Shadow; its voice weak, roaring, childish and robotic at the same time, "Le-L-Let me m-me go… I WANT TO GO!"
My body froze with terror as the Shadow erupted with laughter. "P-P-Pain… he g-g-gave us so much." chuckled the figure as its shape seemed to flicker in the dark corner of the room. "He le-left us ALONE!" A red light started to flicker on his chest like a broken lightbulb.
I thought that after all that happened, nothing could scare me; that all the pain and impossible things I've been through made me immune to be scared to the point I couldn't move. I thought I had outgrown fear.
I was wrong.
My paralyzed body dropped the cane and crashed to the ground with a loud clang. Those eyes were… wrong. Everything about the Shadow was wrong, unnatural, surreal… nightmarish.
"We're s-so lonely…" whimpered the figure, sounding surprisingly human.
Sobbing in terror, I crawled away from the thing until the back of my head hit the second cabinet, making the flashlight fall besides me.
"B-but you c-can come pl-PLAY with us!" continued the Shadow, its voice now cheery and hopeful, "You c-can be l-like us!" he let out another wave of maniac laughter, "It'll be very… VERY f-f-fun!"
I shivered with cold and fear as the black silhouette's grin grew wider and started to slowly walk towards me. I looked around the room like a trapped animal, and grabbed the flashlight in panicked instinct.
"Whaa... What are you d-d-doing?" giggled the Shadow that was suddenly right on top of me, making me scream in horror. "You d-don't n-n-need that!" Panting with fear I cowered against the filing cabinet, seeing how a pitch-black arm reached for my chest, for my seal. "Just sssstay c-calm." it purred.
"AARGH!" The freezing tips of its fingers touched the side of my chest, making me roar in pain as they went through me. I tightened my grip around the flashlight and fumbled with it until I turned it on.
"D-DON'T WORRY B-B-BUDDY… AAAALMOST THERE!" shouted out the triumphant Shadow, only to let out a sharp hiss as I shone the flashlight on its side. The Shadow kept groaning and hissing, stumbling backwards weakly. I steadied my hand, aiming the bundle of light right at its face while the thick blackness of the silhouette seemed to thin out until I could see through it.
"We'll c-come back…" moaned the faded-out Shadow, assaulting me with another dead and empty stare right before it melted away, "we always do."
The cold disappeared, but I was still shivering as I crawled towards my cane. Grabbing it, my ears rose up when I heard some heavy footsteps approaching quickly. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw the slender dark-red figure of Ferny running down the hall towards the office.
"Brandon, are you alright?" he whispered, entering the room and seeing me tossed on the floor. "You look like you just saw a ghost."
"I… I…" was all I could mutter. My hand was still trembling around the cane's handle, my chest still tingled with a strange burning cold, and I was still more than twitchy.
"Take it easy, you can tell us later." soothed Ferny. "I didn't find anything. How about you?" I shook my head.
Sighing, Ferny looked at the alarm-clock behind us. "Well, we still have twenty minutes." He helped me get back on my feet and waited until I was more or less calm.
"Fer," I whispered shakily, "remember what Puppet said about those Shadows?" He nodded. "I think there's a bit more to it than what he told us."
"We'll talk to him later." replied Ferny, walking back into the hallway. "But for now, we still have some tapes to find and a game to win."
A/N: The Shadows might reappear... eventually. I just wanted to give you a taste of how I imagine them. They're basically 'broken' souls, so that's why the mood and the voice of Shadow Bonnie are so strange. As you might remember, they don't have human memories, so they don't know what they're doing.
About the book: last week, I read that A brief history of time was published in 1987. "Great," I thought, "it's going to be a fun little detail that's historically accurate." Wrong. The book was actually published in 1988... oops. Let's just ignore that little screw-up, shall we?
That's it guys. Take care, have a good week, and don't forget to pamper Dad. And as always your reviews, suggestions and critic are welcomed with opened arms. See ya! *Tips top hat*