Some Things Are Better Left Buried
By: Miss-DNL
Chapter 25: Game
"Story time over already?" Robert, a prize corner clerk, questioned Matt, an invisible puppeteers of Freddy Fazbear's. Matt was the one in charge of Fun Time Foxy. He wasn't exactly happy with the fact, having wanted to oversee Foxy the Pirate's show but instead ended up with a more kids friendly fox.
"Yeah, had to tell them a not to climb on the playset first." Matt answered with a dull roll of his eyes and slight annoyance in his voice. He ran a hand along the side of his head with a dull sigh, "But yeah, I'm going on break. Gets so dang stuffy in there." The twenty-year-old shot the older worker an envious grin. "You're the only one lucky enough to have your animatronics controls not be in a tight closed off space."
"Don't I know it." Robert joked with a wide smile. He glanced towards the hidden room in the space next to the plush doll shelves. "I know I sure couldn't last in one of those rooms."
"Yeah, well, I'll see yah. I'm going on break." Matt said as he left the prize corner, giving Robert a wave over his shoulder.
"See yah." Robert returned.
Soon after the clerk was left with his job, which he had to admit he enjoyed despite the rumors he'd heard about the franchise. He liked to see the happy faces of the kids as he and Puppet handed out prizes in exchanges for tickets. Though, on occasion, he did feel a sort of strange unease when left alone in the alcove. He'd fidget and taps his fingers on the counter, which recently he'd found and odd scrape mark underneath but he dismissed it. It probably happened when they were installing it, accidents happen.
Robert flipped the switch to put his coworker, Puppet, away. It was almost time for him to go on break all he needed to do was wait to be relieved of his post. Once the other clerk, Summers, came back from her own break and Robert was eager to go finally sit down. His coworker however, stopped him for a question.
"Hey, uh, has Puppet ever acted odd with you?" Summers questioned as she glanced to the box.
Robert looked at her confusedly. "No, why?"
Summers opened her mouth to answer but dismissed pursuing the topic, "Never mind, it's nothing."
The chubby man looked at her but then simply shrugged and went off to enjoy his lunch. Summers was left by herself to man the prize corner with the object of her suspicion. She looked at the oversized box next to the counter, a thin frown on her lips. Nothing major had happened since she began working at the pizzeria. Just a few times she thought she'd seen Puppet intently looking at the nearby camera, or strangely stalling momentarily before returning to its box.
I swear if that thing pops out of nowhere I'm so out of here. Summers thought to herself dully. Right after she spotted two kids heading her way. When a kid handed her a twenty for a plush doll of the titular Freddy, Summers hit the switch to get Puppet to come out of his box. Carefully she eyed the box from the corner of her eye. Sure enough, the lid flipped back and the marionette animatronic gracefully rose up.
The kids left soon as they got their prizes, eager to go show them to their father. Summers was left with the realization that Robert hadn't restocked some of the counter prizes, the cheaper plastic variety and candy. With a heavy sigh the woman readied to delve inside the storage room. Almost immediately Summers was left jaw dropped at the sight of the mess inside. The once nice and neat stack of boxes, that she'd organized, was now what could best be described as a cluster fuck.
"What the hell happened in here?" She asked to herself. Summers wanted to scream but decided against possibly causing a scene. She groaned, with Robert on break she was left to clean the mess up herself. The door cracked behind her, to hear any costumers wanting prizes, Summers set to work, lifting and stacking the boxes, of various weights, back to where they'd once been.
Out in the prize corner both Puppet, who still hung in a standing position, and Balloon Boy stared at the closet door. Silently the two looked at each other and Puppet nodded wordlessly.
Confusion was the first thing Gregor felt when he found himself in the old Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria. The fact he seemed to be a kid again was also an oddity. Something in his mind told him he should be aware as to why this was, but it hung just out of reach in his thoughts. He glanced over his shoulder, there were his parents. The two were looked like they were begrudgingly coming along and could break out into argument at any moment. When had it been any different though? On a good day, they'd tolerate each other; on a bad day, they'd argued till one of them left. Right now, would be considered a good day.
Gregor didn't remember exactly why they were like this. Possibly had something to do with cheating, money issues, personal dreams never being achieved, or maybe a mix of all the above with other things added? Gregor didn't really care to really remember, no real reason to. Not like they ever cared to think about him or anyone else besides themselves. He'd just been a supposed point of evidence on how the other messed up their life. They never cared if he overheard, probably got too caught up in their heated arguments. Never thinking he could hear them from his room, where he always hid away from their fighting. It never really worked, they were always so loud.
He'd never asked for this, he didn't want things to be this way. They never asked how he felt about things. His parents only cared about themselves and what they did or didn't have. Even as a child he knew they were selfish. Their selfishness had left his childhood with bitter anger and envy towards children with better families.
The anger rising in him came to a complete halt when he heard the announcer over the speakers down the main party room. Gregor was filled with a surge of happiness. Freddy's show was about to begin!
Gregor forgot all about his previous thoughts, his anger and confusion, as he ran down the hall to the main stage. He ran past faceless people who seemed to be more like faded images than solid people. The walls were covered in aged crayon drawings, the papers covered in yellow spots, edges beginning to curl in on themselves. All this went unnoticed by Gregor as he ran right by it and into the main party room.
Instead of rushing through the crowd to get to the front of the stage Gregor came to a stop. Everybody was gone and in their place the room was filled with a cold silence. Steps careful Gregor walked down the aisle between the party tables. Everything looked bigger now that he was child-sized. He was just above chest height to the table. This made the quiet trek towards the front stage more daunting. The stage looked bigger, the tables looked longer; like they were walls fencing him in, and the path to his distance seem farther.
"Where did everyone go?" Gregor questioned aloud to himself. His voice came out prepubescent but he didn't question it at this point.
He furrowed his brows, were the red curtains around the stage closing? They were, slowly, ever so slowly closing. The darkness began closing in on the three mascots who were frozen in mid-performance. Their mouth's hanging open, heads turned, arms in various positions, they looked like overgrown toys posed for a scene. Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica stood almost blissfully unaware as they disappeared into the dark, with big empty smiles on their faces. The curtain closed on Bonnie and Chica from the sides then began closing slowly in on Freddy, the red velvety cloth covering up the brown bear till he was no longer visible. To Gregor the curtain closing seemed final. Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica were gone.
"No, no! Come back!" Gregor scrambled up onto the stage, taking a couple attempts to do so with his smaller frame. He pushed back the curtains and saw only a dark empty backstage. Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica really were gone. Distraught Gregor stared into the dark empty space, eyes searching over every inch repeatedly like the three animatronics would suddenly reappear at any moment. They didn't, and it only caused Gregor to become more upset.
A sudden sound caused Gregor to jump. He whipped around and saw, to his confusion, a kid sitting on the edge of the stage with his back to him. The other kid looked to be a boy with brown hair wearing a black and white striped shirt. His head was looking down at his lap, he seemed to be holding something judging by his arms. The brunette child was swaying his head slightly from side to side as he hummed a familiar tune. It sounded like Freddy's theme song but a different, an older version maybe?
Gregor stared at the other child then looked around, where had he come from? He wanted to ask where the animatronics had gone, but something told him to not draw the boy's attention. The boy in the black and white shirt seemed familiar and it made Gregor's hair stand on ends. Gregor followed his gut instinct and quietly began to back away from the other child. A traitorous squeaky board caused him to freeze up. The boy had stopped humming and now sat perfectly still.
"Where are you going?"
The question reverberated through Gregor's mind. He knew that voice. The last time he encountered it…the pizzeria hall, the water, being trapped between two monsters. Gregor slowly turned his gaze back to the child. The other boy was now looking at him from the corner of his eye. A tremor of fear shook Gregor's core when he saw the black empty socket that house a bead of light. Gregor began to back away again, as he did the boy turned around and stood up to face him. Child Gregor stopped, eyes locking onto a Fredbear doll the boy was tightly clutching against his chest.
"Puppet."
The phantom was deathly pale, skin a faded to an almost white chalky grey. Gregor recoiled at the sight of a large, what looked like a, bite mark on his forehead. Blood was still coming from the wound as if it were still fresh. It went to the forehead then down to his eyes, making it look like the child was crying tears of blood. Puppet wasn't crying though, no, Gregor could see the cold look of malic he'd give him during the day still brewing in his eyes.
"Where are you going?" The ghost child repeated. He gave a glance to the closed curtains and said, "The show will start soon."
Gregor was stuck between standing frozen out of fearful caution and running away faster than humanly possible. Currently the first option was winning out. How he managed to keep eye contact with Puppet, Gregor didn't know. His heart was pounding heavily in his chest, just waiting for the ghost child to attack.
For what seemed like an hour neither of them did anything. Puppet said nothing further, seemingly waiting for a reply. The wait quickly wore away Gregor's nerves and soon they were gone. Not knowing what to do or say, he yelled, "What do you want? What's going on Puppet!"
The ghost child didn't seem fazed by his yelling and played with his plush doll's ears. Puppet, or the spirit that possessed the animatronic, walked over to the curtains. The steps were completely silent, the boards didn't even creak. Puppet continued to focus on his doll as he answered Gregor. The hatred the child bared carried to his voice, it was seething, "What's happening is you're going to pay making my friends suffer."
Now the child looked to him. "It's only fair." His voice became rougher, more of a growl. "For trapping us in this nightmare, with him."
Gregor went on the defensive, body stiffening up, though as his child self he looked as imposing as a fluffed-up Pomeranian. He clenched his hands into fists, glaring back best he could without cringing at the sight of Puppet's large head wound. "You and your friend are no better than him! All the guards that you've stuffed into suits!"
The cold even tone Puppet used to respond chilled Gregor to his core. "You're right. I haven't been a "kid" in a long time. But if I have to be a monster to get the revenge my friends deserve, fine."
Child Gregor jumped as the curtain began to open behind Puppet. There was a loud whine as the red cloth was drawn back, the sound of tiny wheels squeaking simultaneously. A seemingly endless dark empty void behind Puppet now. Gregor could hear the shifting inside the darkness, shifting of multiple large entities. Out of building fear Gregor backed away from the darkness and the vengeful ghost child in front of it, causing him to nearly fall off. Barely managing to regain his balance Gregor froze up at the sight of the dark smirk that had appeared on Puppet's face.
"Don't leave just yet. I want you to meet my friends."
The shifting sounds were moving in, and as they moved closer it became clearer that they were the sounds of large, heavy, mechanical things. From the shadows came many sets of eyes most of them a bright, glaring, red. When the forms of the monstrosities emerged from the darkness Gregor stumbled backwards off the stage. All of them were monstrous versions of the Freddy Fazbear mascots, even Fredbear was included. Freddy looked like he had things writhing inside of him, things with sharp teeth.
Gregor stared, paralyzed where he'd fallen onto the pizzeria floor.
The ghost child walked calmly to the front of the stage and looked down at Gregor, its plush doll even seemed to peer down at him as well. "These were my nightmares, and now, their yours."
The cue to attack had been given. Various loud booming screeches ripped through the air. Gregor let out a child's scream as the nightmare Foxy charged on all fours off the stage. He scrambled to his feet and ran from the monstrous horde of nightmares. Gregor gasped and winced as the vulpine's hook scraped the back of his calve, tearing through the denim pants he was wearing.
With a crashing thud the pale purple nightmare Bonnie landed in front and to the side of Gregor. The creature had a crevice were the center of its torso had once been, like something had torn its insides right out, which was offset with an almost brand new looking red bowtie. It snarled and tried to grab for Gregor with screw-like claws. Out of fear driven reflex child Gregor ducked under its claws and ran for the security room. He'd be safe there! He just had to be!
As Gregor ran down the hall he could hear the nightmares chasing him down. A heavy storm of stomping feet was behind him. He skidded into the security room and immediately turned around to press the button. With his child size Gregor had to jump up to reach it. To his relief, the door responded and shut. Just before the door shut all the way, nightmare Foxy tried to slip underneath and ended up being stuck beneath heavy door. The nightmare surprisingly wasn't crushed by this. The monster snarled and hissed, trying to snap at Gregor with its sharp metal teeth. Gregor screamed and jumped back when the fox managed to swipe it's clawed hand at his legs.
Yellow eyes glaring at Gregor, Nightmare Foxy seemed to concede to the fact it wouldn't be able to get at him this way. With a long hiss the red nightmare pulled itself out from under the door, allowing it to shut completely. Gregor watched as the fox stalked away from the door, the creature's eyes were right on him until it was out of sight.
Gregor swallowed a frightened heavy breath. He looked around the office, fidgeting like a cornered mouse, for anything that could help him in the slightest. Immediately he spotted the control panel. No luck, the screen looked like it'd been smashed with a baseball bat. The press of the power button revealed the battery was dead anyway. Gregor tossed the useless item away and searched around with increased feverishness. The only thing else he could find was a flashlight, oddly it seemed to be in good condition aside from some dust on it. Gregor looked at the tool indecisively, what could a flashlight possibly do to help him against these monsters?
"You'd better take it."
Nearly jumping from his skin child Gregor looked up towards the vent. He'd expected to see the ghost child from before but he was instead met with the sight of sickle-like claws gripping the edge of the vent. The inner edge of the claws looked crude, worn and dotted with nicks.
"You'll need it to survive the game." The claws let go and what Gregor presumed was Puppet silently slipped backwards out of sight.
Heavy footsteps from the hall opposite to the closed door snapped Gregor's attention to it. A rumbling growl followed shortly afterwards. The nightmares were closing in and all that Gregor had was a flashlight to scare them away. If that worked, he still doubted how a simple light would deter such monsters. Heavy breaths behind the closed door near him caused Gregor to dash his doubts and hold the flash light close.
Puppet's voice drifted through the large open vent like a soft whisper, "Don't worry, it's just a dream, but you'll know the fear they felt."
Author's Note: Hey guys! Short update I know, but I'd rather upload a short chapter than take a whole month to update. :T
These are the Nightmare Animatronics from 5NAF 4, seemed fitting seeing as Puppet is the Crying Child in this.
The animatronics from the Halloween DLC won't be included as they aren't canon. I do love Nightmare Mangle and the Jack-O Bonnie and Chica though. Nightmare himself sadly won't show up due to the role it plays in this au. Also, Gregor's thoughts towards his parents are meant to be hypocritical.
Also, the story broke 30 favorites! Thanks so much!
Hope you enjoyed and see you next time :)