~O~
Part Five
Several sets of optics powered on.
The horrific scream was heard by the two security guards sitting in their car just near the mall. One of them looked up with a frown.
"Hey, Bill, you hear that?" he asked.
The other - Bill - was in the middle of a game of Flappy Bird. He glanced up briefly with little interest.
"Ted, give it a rest." he said, "I'm about to beat my high score."
"Hey, I'm serious," Ted argued. "I think we've got more kids running around in there. They could be hurt."
Bill laughed sarcastically. "Yeah? Well maybe they should. Teach them a lesson not to go running around in abandoned malls."
Ted scoffed, swatted the phone from his hands, sending it falling to the floor. Bill gave him a look of furious disbelief.
"What the hell?" he snapped.
"Come on, we need to get in there." Ted said. "Do you want to have another dead kid on your conscience?"
He started to get out of the car and looked at his partner with disgust. Bill just sighed and shook his head, stepping out and following him.
"Come on, don't make me feel bad, okay..." he muttered. "You know I never want anything like that."
"I don't make you feel anything. That's all you."
"Shut up."
Meanwhile, another scream had joined the first.
The man who had confronted Andy was running down the mall, toward the pizzeria. Mark and the others had heard and were chasing him down.
"NO!" he shrieked, running up to Dean and snatching the music box from his hands. "Don't play that song!"
"Whoa!" Mark cried, stepping between him and Dean.
Dean, who had barely touched the man's hand got a flash of images.
A man wearing a security uniform.
A gleam of a badge that read "Mike Schmidt".
While the others were arguing and trying to push him away, Dean looked up and spoke.
"You're Mike Schmidt." he told the man.
Everyone stopped arguing and looked at him. Emily frowned at Dean, unable to register what she had heard.
"Wait, what?" she asked.
The man met Dean's eyes and his features turned grave.
"You're the one they said disappeared," Dean continued, holding his stare.
Andy looked at the man - Mike - and his eyes widened. "Oh shit. Are you serious?" he exclaimed.
A loud banging sound - like metal being thrown against metal - interrupted them. They looked up and Mike suddenly looked panicked.
"He's awake." he gasped.
"Who?" Mark demanded. "Who's awake?"
"Springtrap."
The chains that had blocked the door rattled violently before a yellow, faux fur-covered fist punched through the glass.
Mike and the teenagers looked over their shoulders at the sound.
"We need to go, now!" he ordered. "My office!"
O
Bill and Ted wandered through the mall, flashlights on.
"This place creeps me out." Bill muttered.
Ted sighed, shaking his head. "Look, if we have kids running around here, we need to find them and go."
He looked at his partner with a mixture of amusement. "You're not going to tell me you believe that story about this place, are you?"
Bill scoffed. "No, but old places just weird me out."
"Right..."
"Do we even know where to look?" Bill complained, wanting to change the subject. "This mall is enormous. They could be anywhere. Why'd they even build a mall this big for a town this small?"
Ted leaned to one side, frowning when he saw a figure walking around the corner on the second floor. "Hey!" he called. "Hey, you!"
The figure continued to walk.
Ted and Bill walked up the escalator and spotted Springtrap walking just a few feet ahead of them. His steps were harsh and done with great effort.
Ted exhaled and shook his head, approaching.
"Alright, you've had your fun, now get out of that suit and come with us." he ordered.
Springtrap stopped, his eyes flickering before he turned; each twist of his rotted limbs groaning in the process. That terrible, grinning mouth clicked once. Twice. He regarded the two guards with an almost human intellect.
Ted scowled now, losing patience. "Yeah, we get it. You're mad-dogging us." he said, bored. "I'm tired of you kids playing these stupid games. You're trying to scare us. It's not working. Get out of the suit right now."
Springtrap continued to stare.
Ted sighed, walked up. "Last warning." he snapped, poking Springtrap's chest. "Get. Out. Of. The..."
His hand went through one of the rotted holes in Springtrap's chest. Ted groaned with disgust and pulled his hand out, coming back with sticky strings of gore.
"What the..." he groaned.
He looked up at Springtrap, whose eyes seemed to glow in the poor light of their flashlights. Suddenly, the animatronic seized him by his head with two hands and twisted, snapping his neck.
Bill stared down at the corpse that fell to the floor, eyes wide in horror. He looked up at Springtrap, unable to process right away what he was looking at. The animatronic looked at him. Those eyes...
The man turned and ran.
Springtrap gave a low, almost human-like hiss before following him.
Bill had unfortunately dropped his flashlight in his attempt to run, leaving him alone in the dark. Springtrap was not far behind him. Bill whimpered with fright, rounding a corner and tripping, falling flat on his face.
Pain shot up every inch of his head and blood poured from his mouth from where his front teeth had cut into his lower lip. He struggled to his feet, moments as Springtrap's shadow fell over him.
Bill mumbled, attempting to scoot away from the animatronic. Those wide, horrific eyes almost seemed to glow red.
"N-No!" Bill begged, through his bloodied lips, "Leave me alone! Please!"
Springtrap continued to stalk toward him, even as he scooted far against the wall, struggling with the pepper spray on his belt; a pitiful line of defense for a desperate man.
Springtrap slowly reached out with one hand.
"Who are you?" Bill shrieked, "Who in the hell are you?!"
Springtrap paused, lowered his hand slowly. Bill stared down at the hand with a mixture of confusion and fear. He was still shaking, still so frightened.
The animatronic leaned away slightly and began reaching up with two hands toward his metal jaws, groaning an almost a human-like sound.
Once he opened his jaws entirely to Bill, a new look crossed the man's face. He went from confusion and fear to raw horror. The pepper spray canister slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor.
"Look at me..."
The eyeless mummified skull that stared back at him from inside the machine shrieked, overlapping Bill's agonized screams.
O
Mike led the group of teenagers to his office, quickly shutting the door behind him.
The room itself was filled with television monitors that overlooked the entire mall. Cans of food, crates, and a matress pushed into a corner with sheets and pillows piled onto it.
"Okay, seriously, what the hell is going on?" Mark demanded.
Mike looked at him coldly. "Do I need to draw it up in crayon for you, boy?" he snapped, "This shining example of human intellect played the music box!"
He gestured to Dean with a swift flick of his wrist.
"And now, we're ALL dead!" Mike finished.
The sound of a scream drew their attention upwards. Amy was suddenly looking very uneasy.
"What was that?" she asked.
Mike turned his focus to the television monitors. He pressed several buttons and noticed the movement of Foxy first as the animatronic fox stepped out of the bathroom.
The teenagers watching couldn't believe their eyes.
"Wait... That's not possible!" Amy cried.
"We need to get you kids out of here," Mike said, his voice softer now.
Dean looked worried. "Maybe we should listen to him."
Andy gave a laugh. It was derisive. "Really? We're going to listen to the guy who tried to beat at us with a pipe?"
Mike made a face. "I hardly tried to beat anyone..."
"Uh, guys?"
They looked at Emily and she gestured to the screens. They looked up and almost withered at the sight of Bonnie staring into one of the cameras. It was an unsettling sight and the animatronic's wide, toothy grin seemed to stretch across the screen.
"We need to go." Mike said, calmly.
Dean shook his head slowly, staring at the grinning form of Bonnie in the camera. He saw a flash cross his field of vision.
The Golden Freddy Fazbear.
"How are we going to get out?" Amy asked, frightened.
Mike turned to a crate and began to dig his way through it. He started pulling out hollowed-out heads of the animatronics. Andy picked up a Freddy Fazbear head and gave it a sniff before grimacing.
"You need to wear these." Mike told them.
"Are you crazy?" Andy protested.
"No, but I am losing my patience," Mike said, giving him a dirty look. "Now these masks will fool most of them. But not Foxy or Springtrap. If you can make it to the front doors and stay together, you can get out safely."
He started to go for the doors, but was stopped by Mark.
"Wait, we're not leaving until we get answers!" he said.
Mike sighed, turning and giving him a warning look. "Which won't matter if they get you. I think you know what I'm talking about."
Each teenager was given a hollowed-out head to wear.
"Now put them one and follow me. Stay close. If you get separated, you die."
Mike fitted a Bonnie head over his own and took a pipe in his hands before opening the door slowly.
"What about flashlights? We can't see in the dark!" Amy whispered frantically from behind her Mangle mask.
"Hold onto each other." Mike whispered back.
Each one of them clutched the other's jacket. And Mike let them out into the darkness of the mall.
O
So far so good.
There were no signs of the animatronics so far, and the trip through the mall seemed to be going smoothly.
"I can't see them..." Amy whispered.
"So far so good..." Mike whispered back, "Stay quiet."
They continued on, breathing heavily through their masks. But then, Amy looked down and gave a small, muffled cry.
"What?" Mark exclaimed, "What is it?"
The others looked down and noticed Bill's corpse lying facedown on the floor in a pool of blood. The back of his head looked as though it had been crushed.
"Oh my God!" Emily whispered, frantic.
"Keep quiet!" Mike hissed.
The sounds seemed to draw Bonnie's attention as the animatronic was stepping out of a shop, letting out a haunting moan.
"HI! It's me Bonnie!" it's voice box seemed to play back the default greeting the animatronic was known to have. "Welcome to - to - to - " His voice box continued to glitch, filtering through unpleasant groans and cries of agony.
"Stay. Calm." Mike warned them. "He doesn't see us."
As Mike had said, Bonnie seemed to show no interest in them and wandered into another store, knocking over books and shelves.
There was a groan and Freddy Fazbear wandered nearby, walking passed the group. His eyes seemed to focus on them, with an almost curious intent.
"He knows..." Mark whispered.
"Shut up." Mike whispered back.
Freddy studied the group, tilting his head. Those black, metal eyebrows formed alm almost human expression of curious wonder.
Dean could faintly hear a collection of haunting whispers in the back of his mind. He struggled to stay focused.
Bill's corpse suddenly sat up, speaking slowly, as if in a dream-like state. The left half of his face had been caved in and his bloodied jaw moved gruesomely.
Dean struggled not to look at it.
"I should have watched them. I should have made sure they didn't go inside the mall..." Bill mumbled. "I deserve to be punished... All of us do."
Dean struggled to calm his racing heart. He shut his eyes before opening them once again. Bill's corpse was back at its proper position and not at all sitting up.
"The doors should be this way." Mike told the teenagers.
He's coming.
Foxy stepped out of the nearby store, jaws snapping and hook flashing. He hissed, leaning toward Andy. That hook hand raised up and Andy was left with no other choice but to duck out of the way.
"Shit!" Mike shouted.
Foxy shrieked triumphantly, an unholy mixture of metal and human. Mike quickly moved away from the teenagers, tapping the pipe against the floor.
"Foxy! Look here!" he called, attempting to draw his attention away and continuing to tap the pipe. "Look at me!"
Foxy seemed to lose interest in them and focused on Mike, teeth wide in a almost happy grin.
"Mike!" Amy cried.
Mike gestured wildly. "Go!" he ordered. "I'll lead him away!"
Foxy gave a roar, chasing him down into the darkness of the mall. The teenagers made their way back toward their spot where their gear was located and Dean began to fill his bag with the equipment.
"Dean, hurry it up!" Emily told him.
"I am!" Dean hissed back.
Once he managed to get his equipment into the bag, he gathered his coat and noticed that the puppet was gone. He looked around wildly for it.
"Dean, hurry!" Mark ordered.
"The puppet..." Dean said, hesitantly following.
They rushed for the front doors, but ended up colliding with nothing but wall. Andy frantically patted the wall.
"Wait, the door!" he exclaimed, "Dude, where the hell's the door?"
"This isn't the door, idiot!" Emily spat, frantic.
Slowly, their sounds began to interest Freddy and Bonnie, who slowly turned from their places they had been searching.
"This can't be the right way!"
"Shut up! They're going to hear us!"
Amy suddenly looked back and screamed, seconds before Bonnie was behind them, swinging his signature guitar.
They had ducked out of the way and it collided with a fusebox, sending showers of sparks raining down and the animatronic into uncontrollable, electrified spasms.
Amy quickly fled in fear, disappearing into the darkness.
Andy caught sight of this. "Amy! Wait!" he shouted.
"Is she crazy?" Emily shrieked.
Andy chased after Amy into the darkness of the mall. The others made a mad dash to chase after them, narrowly missing Freddy, whose laughter faded behind them.
Meanwhile, Mike had managed to lose sight of Foxy and was making his way through the mall when he spotted Springtrap on the other side of the second floor. The animatronic was staring at him, those eyes glowing eerie yellow dots.
For a moment, they just stared each other down in silence. Springtrap's jaws clicked together and Mike pursed his lips.
"Do you think it will stop?" he asked it. "Do you think hurting any more people will make it all go away?"
Springtrap just continued to stand there in silence. There was a faint dripping sound and Mike noticed the blood that dripped from Springtrap's hands.
The night guard.
"How many guards will you kill?" Mike continued. "How many will it take to stop the rage?"
Springtrap disappeared into the shadows and Mike faintly heard a brief, sinister chuckle fill the air.