Author's Note:
Extra chapter this week! Enjoy! Also, someone asked about the Discord invite link in the comments. Just use the regular Discord invite link and add b9kAt2m to the end.
Chapter 103
FNAF 4 Night 1 Take 4
Ruby woke up in a dark room.
She stared at the ceiling, trying to figure out where she was. The last thing she remembered was...that black bear with the teeth. She shuddered, catching the action a moment too late. What the hell? She'd seen scarier stuff than that.
But he had been freaky...
She shook her head and sat up. Something was wrong, she could feel it.
Dread started to build up in her as she looked around. She knew this room. Her breathing picked up. This was her childhood bedroom, walls bright pink because her dad had been so excited to have a daughter. Her fox themed bedspread, the red clashing with the walls badly but she hadn't cared because she wanted the foxes and the pink anyway.
She stared down at her clothes. These were her favourite pajamas, a novelty set Freddy's sold for a short time. She'd loved them the moment she set eyes on them and had worn them as often as possible.
"What the hell?" she croaked and her voice was wrong.
She was in her childhood bedroom in her childhood pajamas. Fear rose in her chest and she couldn't wrestle it down like she usually did.
She was a kid again. And it was dark and she didn't know what to do.
"I'm sorry," a small voice said.
Ruby looked over the edge of her bed to see the little ghost boy who didn't like to show himself to the others.
Timmy Afton looked away from her and tucked his face into his knees, pressing against the wall by her nightstand.
"What's going on?" Ruby hated that her higher pitched voice shook. Why was this hitting her so hard? She just looked like a kid, she wasn't actually a kid.
Right?
Timmy just shook his head a bit and hid his face more. "I'm sorry Ruby. I hoped..."
"What's happening?" she tried to raise her voice, but it just cracked instead. She was shaking. What was wrong with her?
"Nightmare..." Timmy trailed off into sniffles. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean for you...
"You're in my game now little girl," a voice echoed out of nowhere and Ruby shivered.
That sounded like that weird black bear she's seen right before she blacked out.
"What game?" she whispered.
He laughed and she was hit with the desire to hide under the blankets.
"Let's have some fun."
Timmy's eyes were squeezed shut. "You've got to survive."
Ruby swallowed hard. "Survive what?"
"Closet, bed and doors. Keep them out," he whispered before fading from view.
An alarm clock that she definitely didn't have as a kid beeped midnight on her bedside table.
It was silent for a horrible moment and Ruby didn't know what to do. She was frozen.
The room was dark and eerily quiet. Dragging a shaky breath into her lungs, she climbed off the bed on weak legs. She accidentally kicked something and looked down to see a flashlight. She bit her lip and picked it up, checking that the light worked. It wasn't the brightest she'd used but it would do.
She inched her way over to the left door and reached out for the doorknob. Then she found herself frozen again. She couldn't make herself open the door because who knew what was on the other side? She squeezed her eyes shut and dragged another deep breath in. Then she leaned in and listened through the door. There was nothing but silence.
It still took her a couple of minutes before she worked up the courage to crack open the door and peek through. The long hallway stretched out into darkness and her hands felt numb as she brought the flashlight up to point down to the end.
Nothing.
The only noise was her own breathing but she could swear she wasn't alone.
Ruby swallowed hard and pulled the door shut, wishing for a key to lock it. Then she hesitantly walked across the room, peeking in the closet on the way. There was a Foxy plush on the floor and she was hit by the twin desires to slam the door shut and pick the toy up and cuddle it.
It seemed to stare at her and as her mind whirled with conflicting impulses, she had the brief thought that this was probably how Hedy felt looking at plushies. She suddenly felt a little bad about the teasing Hedy had gotten from her and the bots about her phobia, which hadn't seemed to affect the mechanic enough that they had qualms about poking light fun.
Right now it didn't seem so fun...
She pulled the closet shut and held it closed for a moment before moving over to the other door. The closet creaked open behind her and she remembered how it never did close properly after she damaged it one day.
It took her a painfully long time to check the other side and again find nothing.
Then she remembered Timmy's warning about the bed and turned her flashlight on it. She got a brief glimpse of brown and teeth before it scurried under the bed. She backed up into the wall in fright. What was that?!
This was wrong. She didn't feel like herself, like her skin wasn't the right fit. These weren't her fears. This wasn't her. It wasn't!
Run at it. Chase whatever it is out from under the bed. Find a weapon. Something!
Just do SOMETHING!
She found herself frozen for a good two minutes just staring at the bed though. What was wrong with her?! She wasn't supposed to be scared. She wasn't...
Ruby swallowed and moved back to the first door, keeping the flashlight trained on the bed for a long moment. She checked outside again and this time caught a glimpse of something purple down at the end of the hall before it disappeared around the corner.
No no, what was going on?!
She ran across to the other side and opened the door.
Nothing.
She closed it again and turned back to the bed.
Nothing.
Hesitating, she opened the closet again.
Red. Metal. Teeth.
She slammed the closet closed again, breathing hard as her heart pounded.
That was...that was Foxy. But it wasn't at the same time. It was a twisted version. It was a...a...
Nightmare.
That was the only word that came to mind.
"Foxy?" the pathetic whimper slipped out before she could stop it, backing up from the closet and gripping the flashlight hard.
Her heart was pounding so hard it hurt and the rush of adrenaline wasn't exciting like it usually was. It made her feel sick and anxious. She swept the flashlight over the bed and this time got a better look at what was there. A mini Freddy. It was twitching violently and scampered back under the bed when the light hit it.
She was going to be sick.
Ruby swallowed.
Teeth. So many teeth...
She willed her feet to move but they felt like lead. Her legs felt stiff.
She wanted to leave. She needed to leave. Let her leave please. (Where would she go?)
A vague memory of someone else's voice came to mind but Ruby couldn't quite reach it.
This wasn't real. She was dreaming. She needed to wake up.
She pinched herself but nothing changed and she found herself blinking back tears as she moved to the right door again. This time when she checked, the large, ragged yellow bot (not Chica not Chica not Chica not Chica) stayed in place at the end of the hall. Ruby's breathing picked up. She held the door closed, not sure what else to do.
She wasn't sure how long she hung on the doorknob, her arms going a little numb. She faintly heard other noises from the rest of the room.
Move! she tried to scream at herself. Move! I'm not afraid! I can't be afraid of them. I just...I just can't. I'm not afraid of them. I'm not afraid of my….my family. Move DAMMIT!
But these weren't her bots.
It took a long moment before she was able to pry her numb fingers from the doorknob and turn the flashlight on the bed shakily.
Two mini Freddies scrambled off the bed and her heart leapt into her throat. She shot over to the closet and opened it, screaming a bit when she saw that monster again. She slammed the door closed and looked at the left door. She was feeling the pressure of time now.
What time was it?
How much longer...
She continued darting around the room, trying to keep up. She stumbled and tripped a lot in her panic and wanted to both curse and cry. She didn't even have time or the presence of mind to check the clock she'd seen before. Occasional subconscious glimpses out the corner of her eyes didn't even make sense, the numbers jumbled and not-quite-right. Nothing was right here.
Eventually, inevitably, she made a mistake. She focused too much on the doors and bed and forgot about the closet. A literal Nightmare burst out of the closet and pounced for her with a screech. Ruby screamed and stumbled back, trying to get away blindly.
She avoided the wicked sharp hook that went for her face.
She got it in the hand instead when she raised her arms to protect her head. The metal ripped through skin and bone and she screamed again, this time in pain.
The thing-that-wasn't-Foxy held her aloft by her hand for an agonizing second and she was sure her hand was going to tear in half. The floor seemed very far below her dangling feet.
Maybe in her screaming she begged for it to let go. To drop her. She wasn't sure. She wanted to cry for Foxy, her Foxy, as blood dripped down her arm, hot and cold all at once. She reached up, desperately trying to free herself, every movement as she kicked and flailed making it worse. So much worse. It hurt. It hurt so much.
For one single, horrifying moment, she was sure he was going for her throat with those wickedly sharp teeth.
And then the alarm clock beeped and he froze.
She stared into eyes that held nothing but hatred and malice before she was unceremoniously dropped, her small body flicked off the end of the hook like a piece of meat. It disappeared back into the closet. A noise behind her made her jerk her head around and she saw three mini-Freddies scampering off the bed.
She cradled her hand to her chest, agony steadily throbbing up her arm and just stared forward in shock. She vaguely felt tears dripping down her cheeks.
She couldn't think through the pain for a while.
After who knows how long of just sitting there she realised the right door was standing fully open and there was a noise outside.
It took her a long time to stand up and stumble in that direction, almost against her will.
The throbbing in her hand didn't go away. She couldn't feel her actual hand anymore. It was just pain and the faint sensation of blood dripping. It could fall off and she wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
She held it close to her chest, probably soaking the entire front of her pajama shirt in deep red. She vaguely noticed that the wetness had strangely lessened but couldn't look at the injury just yet.
She probably wouldn't be able to see it very clearly anyway with the tears in her eyes as she used the wall to guide her toward the sound.
What was that light coming from the room up ahead? What was that smell?
She...she knew that smell. She smelled chocolate. And pancakes...
Ruby stumbled to a dead stop as the smell cut through the pain, diving into the deep recesses of her memory. What was going on? What...what was happening? She hadn't smelt that in...in years.
She'd never got the recipe quite right herself.
It never tasted right.
Never.
She leaned her shoulder on the wall as she cautiously peered around the doorframe, hiding most of herself behind it.
A man looked up over the newspaper he was reading as he noticed the movement out of the corner of his eye.
"You're up early, princess," Derrick Stone said with a big smile, always happy to see her.
Always.