Some Things Are Better Left Buried

By: Miss-DNL

Chapter 14: Old Scars

He was eighteen again, dark brown hair a sweaty mess poked out from under his purple and black billed, security hat. His light blue eyes darting every which way, trying to spot which side the living nightmares were going to maul him from. He vainly tried to swallow his unsteady breaths, trying to calm himself to no avail. He was sweating, and his slightly chubby physique wasn't helping the matter. The idea that the animatronics could smell fear was something that weighed heavily on his young panic stricken mind.

His only source of security was the computer monitors in front of him. His right hand held onto the simple black mouse with a death grip. It was his last day, his last night in this hell hole. Tomorrow, he'd come in and get his paycheck, once it was in his hands he was going to quit. He just had to survive tonight then he could kiss this place good-bye and never come back!

I-I can do this…I can, I can! Mike thought with attempted conviction, he swallowed with more believable uncertainty. He looked at the time on the lower right corner of the computer screen, five twenty-eight. A weak smile quirked up at the end of his lips and Mike spoke reassuringly to himself, "Almost there. Almost there! I can do this, just a little over thirty minutes left…"

The last five hours and twenty-eight minutes had been complete torture to the poor eighteen-year-old. Both Chica, Bonnie, and Freddy were acting more possessed than on the previous nights. Their heads jerking around so badly the he felt they should have snapped off immediately. Both of their jaws hung open uttering noises Mike was certain would haunt him long after tonight. He could only describe them as the sound of something dying, slowly, and painfully. Almost every time he looked up at the windows one of the monsters was looking at him through the windows like he was a piece of meat. Even the cupcake Carl was worse, more than once the mini-bot had shown up without Chica having been around.

At least, Mike carefully glanced around the office, at least the other animatronic hadn't appeared yet. He could count that as a blessing so far.

The sound of nearby hurried animatronic footsteps caused Mike to jump in his seat. Freddy Fazbear was moving in. A deep, haunting laugh that followed confirmed Mike's dreaded thought. He quickly clicked over to came 4A, in the right hall stood the large brown bear animatronic. Freddy's head hung back at a discomforting angle, large jaws pulled back as far as they could go. Leaving the inner endoskeleton jaws exposed, ready to bite into anything foolish enough to get near.

With a crackle, static took over the screen and Freddy vanished from sight. Knowing what that meant Mike quickly shut the right door. The door fell down with a heavy slam of metal on metal. Freddy's jingle floated through the air, the bear was letting him know that it was nearby. Mike looked at camera 4B, and despite knowing what he'd see clicked on it anyway. As expected Freddy's face was right up in the face of the camera. The song became louder inside the security office as the camera fed its audio to the monitor speakers.

Being up so close to the camera lens Freddy's face was forebodingly shadowed, causing the bear to look more intimidating than Mike already considered it to be. Gone was the clunky, goofy, friendly, and welcoming titular mascot and what had replaced him was a cold, merciless, killing machine. One that had a group of friends to help in capturing the poor, weak night guard that was cowering inside the security office.

Said guard clicked away from camera 4B to cam 1C the dreaded Pirate Cove. Mike shook head, pitifully chanting to himself, "No, no, no…"

Foxy the Pirate fox was ready to charge. The fox was leering at the camera, head looking back over its furry red shoulder with what could be described as a wide toothy grin. Its hook was raised in the air tauntingly. The camera light shinned off the object, displaying its sharpness. If Mike wasn't so freaked out, he'd question why the hook was legitimately sharp. At the moment; however, the fact only frightened him.

Mike had been able to keep Freddy penned up on the stage on Thursday. Friday and Saturday; however, he'd only been able to keep the bear at his starting point for most of the night. Foxy had always gotten out at least once. Tonight; however, he'd charged twice already and was now aiming for a third time. Freddy had been free since three am, and had proven to be the hardest to keep track of. For a big brown bear, Freddy moved around quickly and was more keen on trying to stay out of sight. Up until he was nearby that is, then it seemed like the mascot enjoyed taunting the guard.

The young guard took deep breaths, in and out, in and out, trying to gather himself to avoid having a break down. He was close, so close!

"Just a little longer…" Mike reminded himself with a shaky exhale. He had twelve percent power left, plenty for what was now less than thirty minutes left. Freddy could stand outside the door as long as he wanted. Mike's main worry was how Foxy somehow drained power when banging on the door. If Foxy took too much when it next charged, Mike could end up in big trouble.

Mike took a rest from clicking around on the cameras to conserve power. With shaky hands he picked up his thermos that'd been sitting on the desk, and took the brief moment to drink some coffee. Even with the caffeine he had in his system Mike just wanted to curl up somewhere and sleep his troubles away.

The guard tried his best to ignore the sound of Freddy's song continuing to play from beyond the shut door. It was hard to do. It was so haunting, like it was his funeral song. The thought unsettled Mike enough that he swallowed what felt like a sizeable rock down his throat. His arms were shaking anxiously, causing the one that gripped the mouse to jitter ever so slightly. It was enough to get the pointer to jerk back and forth on the screen. The remaining coffee in his thermos could be heard splashing against the walls of the container as he set it down.

Mike let go of the mouse and rubbed his arms, trying to give himself some comfort. Before this nightmare Mike wouldn't have considered himself overly anxious or fearful. He had just been a regular guy who had a girlfriend and friends he'd hung out with. He'd been more concerned about the relationship with his girlfriend and what he was going to do with his life. Now he could feel himself cracking under the effects of this job.

He'd only stuck around to get the check. Normally he'd have dropped this job soon as Bonnie had first gotten off the stage and tried to maul him. After graduating his father had given him luggage, some money, and set him out into the world. Mike hadn't been too bothered by it, he'd known beforehand. A drunkard his father was, but he wasn't cruel. He'd already made plans to move into a small apartment with his girlfriend. Two young adults needed money and only one of them working a mediocre job wouldn't be enough, at least not to live comfortably. Mike already had another job lined up, one that he'd begin working for a day after he quit.

All he had to do now, was survive.

Mike snapped from his thoughts as he heard the heavy thumping sound of an animatronic nearby. It sounded like it'd come from the left hall. On impulse Mike pressed the left door light, with a buzz the light outside the door came to life. He saw nothing but the dirty hall outside, crumpled paper balls, other trash, and the old monitors that were stacked there for whatever reason. On the wall was papers with text written on them. What they read Mike was only vaguely aware of at the moment. He remembered something about newspaper articles, recommendations, rules, and other seemingly miscellaneous writings.

Thump, thump, thump, sounded the animatronic footsteps as what was likely Bonnie moved in towards the guard. Mike felt his heart jump in his chest with a jolt of fear. He checked cam 2B, if Bonnie was moving in it'd have come by the last cam before the doorway. To his surprise there was nothing on screen but the dirty hall corner.

Even though this was evident, Mike found himself staring at the screen longer than needed. Something was off about it, something was different. He gazed at it critically, examining the set he'd seen for seven nights in a row. Then he noticed the change and his entire being went cold. What had once been a warm, welcoming, Freddy Fazbear poster was now an empty eyed, staring, head. Golden Freddy had somehow replaced the image of its counterpart with itself.

"No…not now!" Mike yelled and no sooner than he had his vision was assaulted with visions of empty eyed animatronics. Freddy, Bonnie, Foxy, Chica and finally, the bulky head of Golden Freddy appeared in front of him. Its appearance was different than before. It was damaged, ear missing, wires limply gaining out, some were even slumped over the rim of its left eye. Mike let out a scream of pained protest as a voice invaded his mind. He shot up from his chair and stumbled into the back wall of the security office.

The words were simple but the voice seemed to scrape them along the insides of his mind. They rung like bludgeoning echoes, bouncing off one wall to the other but always staying right at the forefront. Mike could barely hear his own screaming over the sound, let alone the sound of the old rolling chair crashing onto the tiled ground. Mike gripped his head as he was assaulted by the supernatural attack. Quickly his mind began to go numb and fuzzy, the world around him was beginning to fade. Darkness crept in from the edges of his vision. It moved in slowly, almost carefully, as the guard submitted to the attack.

The vision of Golden Freddy stayed at the center of what was left of Mike's vision. Never fading out, or drifting away. Through his hazy self-awareness, Mike could have sworn that the thing was getting more solid. His vague thought was proven right when a pair of hands clamped right down onto his shoulders.

"It's me. It's Me. IT's Me. IT'S ME!"

The voice had gotten steadily louder, and louder, as the phantom animatronic materialized before his fogged vision. Burning white-hot dots had taken housing in the large empty eye holes. Mike almost felt like the air was being sucked out of him as the phantom being burned its gaze into his. He could feel the animosity, the hate, the emanating anger, and the sheer desire to kill. A desire further shown when Golden Freddy wrapped its ten digits tight around Mike's neck.

A hoarse gasp escaped Mike's throat as the pressure forcibly closed his wind pipe. Mike faintly felt his legs get lifted off the ground. The thing was going to choke him out and wanted a good view of his face as it did so. Mike's face quickly began turning blue as he began to run out of oxygen.

Don't…look…at it! A last ditch effort managed to make it through his buzzing and fading mind. Mike closed his eyes, shutting his sight from the animatronic. It had worked the last few times Golden Freddy had appeared. He wasn't sure if it would now, but it was worth a try in order to save himself. At the very least he wouldn't have those eyes burning holes through his head before he died.

The phantom gripped his throat tighter, forcing a weak gasp to be squeezed out. Mike held fast as he could, refusing to open his eyes out of the last shred of stubbornness he had. Then like a miracle the pressure encasing his throat lifted. Instantly Mike greedily sucked air into his reopened wind pipe. With nothing hold him up any longer the guard fell down to onto the hard linoleum floor.

He gave a grunt as his rump hit the ground, but despite that Mike couldn't feel any greater relief. Suddenly being able to breath was like a precious reward that he was excitedly trying out. Mike breathed in and out, trying to use the taken in oxygen to help refocus him mind. Trembling like a leaf, Mike branched one of his arms out to the wall behind him. He grasped out for it, like a toddler trying to grab onto something to help him up. Mike failed once but corrected himself appropriately the second time. Steadily, but still shaking, Mike pulled himself up to his feet.

His hat had fallen from his head sometime during the attack, leaving his thick dark brown hair exposed. That wasn't even on his list of concerns at the moment. He had to focus. He had to gather what was left of his torn up and ripped apart nerves. Mike had to gather himself if he was to make it out of this place alive.

On shaky legs Mike half stumbled back over to the computer. He narrowed his unfocused eyes at the tiny clock in the corner of the screen. The numbers looked blurred like someone had taken their thumb and tried to rub them out. Mike squeezed his eyes shut, willing his mind to at least focus enough that he could read. Upon opening his eyes Mike found his attempt was successful. At the moment it was eleven fifty-four.

"Six more minutes, six more minutes." Mike muttered to himself, voice hoarse and sore.

Breathing labored the downtrodden guard slowly turned himself around to go and pick up his downed chair. It not being directly behind him he turned his head to see it lying in the corner, his hat tucked between it and the wall. As he took a step towards the chair he saw something red in his peripheral vision. Foxy had come to make one last ditch effort to kill him.

In a blur of red the vulpine animatronic lunged at Mike, its shriek shattering the frail silence that had hung in the air. Mike's own yell followed soon after but was far weaker with its frightened tone. The young eighteen-year-old guard was hapless to try and fend off the monster up close. His weakened state didn't help very much either.

Foxy's exposed metal hand dug into his neck, the ends of the fingers were rounded but that made them digging into his skin no less painful. The fox's mouth hung open, the ominous choking noise had been replaced by a rasping rumbling. The thing was laughing at him, it was a strange variation, but there was no mistaking it. Foxy was giving a victory laugh.

The fact left Mike staring at the animatronic. Aside from Freddy he hadn't known any of the others to laugh. A sudden pain blooming right in his shoulder joint ripped Mike from his shock and a yell flung itself from his mouth. Foxy wasn't letting its prey get away this time. It'd planted his hook right into his joint, making it excoriatingly painful to move his arm.

Its prey secured Foxy began pulling Mike out of the security office. With his non-hooked arm Mike desperately reached out and grabbed his flashlight out from his deep pants pocket. Mike just managed to flick the flashlight on when Foxy grabbed his arm, keeping him from flashing the light in its optics. Mike stared at the action but quickly got over it and struggled against the killing machine. Foxy snarled at the guard in frustrated agitation as it easily kept the guard's arm in place. With a well-timed jerk, the animatronic forced a sharp pained yelp from the young adult.

While the pain left Mike stunned, Foxy began dragging the guard down the hall. Mike quickly found his feet limply following along on the dirty tile floor of the pizzeria. Frantically, the desire to escape still pumping through him, Mike scrambled his feet backwards trying to pull away. Foxy uttered a short growl and yanked forward again. This time Mike didn't give it the satisfaction of hearing his pain, instead he bit down on his own lip. The painful hook his shoulder caused tears to form in the corner of his eyes, his own teeth biting into his lip helped the tears along.

He could taste his blood as it bled out from the tear in his lip, the smell of it coming from his shoulder seemingly amplified it. What followed became hazy as something broke through his focus. It was a sound, whatever it was it sounded desperate, almost as desperate as he was to get away. It was a voice? Who was talking…? It sounded familiar…No, no, no! He had to get away from Foxy-Smack!

Author's Note: I said 3-5 days, 4 days seemed good enough. I enjoyed writing out the scene with Golden Freddy. This flashback was fun to write in general as I wanted to show how much working at Freddy's has changed Mike and how. I do plan on eventually writing out the arc involving the first game. In due time, likely after I finish this and reach that point. So, it'll take a while. I will show the rest of the flash back in the next chapter. Till then you can see why Mike was pretty freaked out about Golden showing up in the last chapter. Yet, despite this Mike came back.

Also, as for the "don't look" thing he used to escape is based off the method of getting rid of Golden in game on. I always pictured the guard was hiding their face behind the panel.

I'd also like to say, I'm greatly enjoying working on this. Not only does it have the most commentors I've had on any story. But I've met some great people whom I enjoy speaking with through this fandom. Which is ironic because I was a little worried about entering a...hectic, fandom such as this. This fandom is the first time I've legitimately focused a story on horror. I've done a few dark scenes in other works but that's about it.

Hope you enjoyed!