The constant sniffles besides her ears only serve to make her feel worse, his broken body shivering without any sign of letting up. She could already feel the disapproving looks she would get from her friends if they found out why he got hurt so badly. But…surely they would understand that it was an error in judgement. Right? Or maybe that it was just a freak accident. She pushes down those haunting thoughts to the deepest recesses of her mind. They reached the first floor, all the security bots still mindlessly rolling around without any destination to speak of.
"I guess I don't have to worry about them anymore." Her charge suddenly said out loud. His voice attracts the attention of every bot within earshot, then they promptly go back to doing their nonsensical and unpredictable rounds without taking any further actions.
"Small blessings, huh?" She replied.
She could see their personal rooms from afar, like a shining beacon of hope. The child she carries is more at ease as they get closer to safety, though the threat of the rabbit still lingers in the back of his mind. No location is truly safe until it is dealt with. But at least he has one less thing to worry about as a whole.
Roxanne enters her room, and all her worries melted away for a fleeting moment before remembering that she still had an injured child with her. She places him down on the couch, then quickly draws the curtains closed.
'No need for prying eyes to look at the kid'
She returns to the child; he looks like the DJ chewed him up then spat him out. At least he won't bleed out. She sits alongside him, but makes no further attempts to move him, afraid of hurting him even more.
"I bled on you. I'm sorry." He says to her in a tired and strained voice. She looks down on herself and can see that he is right, but that is the furthest of her worries right now. His eyes are drooping like he wants to sleep but refuses to submit to the sirens call.
"You should rest now; I doubt you'll be able to keep yourself going any longer."
"I want to, but…I'm scared. I'm afraid that if I wake up, I'll be back where I started. In some random alley on a cold morning. So many of my days start off exactly like that, so imagine my surprise when I actually managed to sneak in here. I thought it would be a nice change of pace for my life. Just find a small secret area of some kind then boom! I'm in business." He scoots closer to Roxanne as he monologues. "A warm place to sleep, plenty of food around, and just the feeling of wonder I get when I see all the activities here." The tears come back again. "I thought I would be able to feel like a kid for the first time in my life." He rests his head on the wolfess' side, then is pulled in closer by her. "I was so stupid to think that. I should've known it would be too good to be true." He brings up a single hand to observe it, noting the extensive bandages that have started to turn red. "Now I'm so much weaker for my troubles. If I get thrown back out there now, I'm…" He trails off, not wanting to hear himself finish that sentence.
"Don't put yourself so down kid. You are the toughest one I've ever met," a smug grin forms on her face," and that means a lot coming from me." He jolts up angrily to look at her in the golden eyes, aggravating his wounds.
"I'm only tough because I have to be!" He raised his voice, surprising even himself. His own eyes widened once he processed what he just did. "Oh n- I'm sorry! Please don't kick me out! I didn't mean to yell at you. It just slipped out." She places a finger on his lips.
'I am beginning to sense a pattern here.'
"It isn't your fault that you got hurt-"
"Yes, it is. It was my stupid idea to use that cart anyway." 'Among other things.'
It became abundantly clear that reassuring words were not on the table right now. Didn't hurt to try though. He relaxed once more, letting out the rest of his pent-up aggression with an exasperated sigh. The silence was broken when his stomach made itself known, he meant to eat long ago, but with Chica narrowing his options it was hard to find anything he could take for himself in the first place.
"You're hungry." The boy holds his stomach in a vain attempt to try and ease the pain.
"What gave it away?" He snarked back. He covered his mouth immediately after. Roxanne chose to let it slide.
"You want me to find you something to eat?" He tries to stand up, but briefly forgets his inability to do so, being gracefully reminded by the fiery hot pain that shot through his leg. Roxy quickly stops him from falling over.
"You are in no condition to move with that leg, let me carry you." He lets it happen. They exit the room together, the boy holding on tightly for his own comfort whilst resting his head on her shoulder.
"My name is Gregory." He whispered. Roxanne already knew his name, but for the sake of his sanity kept it from leaving her lips. Now she won't have that restriction.
"I don't think I need to introduce myself." The wolfs smug grin returned in force. He chuckled.
"No, you don't. Roxanne Wolf."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Freddy was about to recharge when he heard Gregory asking for assistance, which was roughly fifteen minutes ago, so upon exiting the charge station he immediately attempted to contact the child but was met with white noise. His only clue was the subject of their last conversation, which was how he would be able to use the carts in Roxy Raceway for someone of his height.
'He must be there, or at the very least nearby.'
He noted how quiet it was the closer he got to his destination, and it was getting more unsettling with every passing step that echoed throughout the atrium. Gregory isn't exactly quiet at most times, especially with the constant running he had to do, particularly away from his friends which saddened him greatly. Saying that they changed would have been an understatement, he saw how aggressive they were once they spotted the poor boy, and the worst part about it is that he couldn't figure out why it was happening.
'Everything was going so well today. How did it fall apart so quickly? Why when the boy arrives?'
It is all so confusing, he feels guilty for the actions of his family. It was unfair to everyone involved.
'Would this change be permanent!?'
Now there was a more frightening thought. What if they were never back to their normal selves? What if they are forever cursed wandering around hunting for a lost child even long after he is gone? Would they even interact with him during their off time the same way? Or would they continue on with their glassy lifeless eyes?
'I would lose everything dear to me.'
He thumps himself in the noggin to snap out of his increasingly depressed thoughts, bringing his focus back on finding his superstar. He passes through the upper entrance for Roxy Raceway, then a foreboding sense of dread hits him to his core. He could see the cart parts strewn about from up top the balcony along with small sections of the barrier being totally shattered and warped. But no Gregory. He hurried downstairs to the track and was met with an even worse sight. A hole in the wall with an obliterated cart and driver assistant bot. Then he saw the blood.
'Whaaa…What happened!?'
He squeezes through the hole ignoring the scrapes that he acquired for his actions, he follows the trail of blood that led him deep into the utility tunnels, hoping with every fiber of his being that his little one was okay. He recognized the area that it led to, the first aid station.
'Maybe he is still there!'
He turns the corner and…nothing. The trail ends here, there are bandages sloppily tossed and ripped, and worst of all, there is still no Gregory.
'Think positive Freddy! There is no body! So that means he must be still around somewhere! He must be hiding in a really clever place as I speak right now, all patched up and waiting for me to pop up. But how would I… The cameras!'
His vision is filled with individual camera feeds, he frantically flips through them looking for just hide or hair of the young boy. He eventually switches over to the green room feed, then is hit with a wave of relief, there in the halls was his superstar, but not only that, his friend Roxy was also the one who had him! She even looked to be behaving like her old self again! What exciting news! But then he pays more attention to one 'tiny' detail.
'He is covered in bandages. What happened while I was out?'
He had to get to them before anything else could happen to either of them. Maybe even gather his other friends along the way. If Roxanne was back to normal, the others must be too. Right?
'I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, I must catch up to them now.'