Author's Notes:

Sorry for missing a couple chapters. Life sucked for a while. But should be back on track now.

Thanks to everyone that helped write this chapter, especially Jen for being the general guinea pig for everything.

Chapter 138

Night 4

Of course they tried to call the police (after Calum made some half hearted comments about waiting until they got some footage/proof but for the sake of his nose getting broken by Avery he didn't push too much). However, strangely, almost everyone's phone batteries were drained. Shania's died right as she picked it up from where she dropped it while screaming.

John, who really lived up to the Boy Scout motto of "Be prepared," bolted back to the room where they had left all their stuff, Avery staying behind with Mason to keep calling for Ruby. Miriah followed him and the two of them barely noticed Calum and Mason following (while Shania shouted after them about being left alone with the posers and Kevin.)

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Calum snapped at John, "Didn't you just get on my case about filming when there's a kid missing?"

"Shut up! I'm not dealing with your bullshit," John said coldly as he frantically dug through his bag. "Go do something useful for once! We need to find Ruby."

"Oh man… oh man oh man oh man-," Mason had devolved into mumbles as he looked to Calum for what to do.

John cheered in relief as he found his back-up cell phone, fully charged.

Miriah frowned as he impatiently powered it up. She looked around the room wondering why there was a weird sense of discontentment as John worked. And it didn't seem to be from any particular place. It was just over everything, like a mist, close to the walls but too spread out to be a concentrated soul.

John called the emergency number, barely letting the operator get a word of "hello?" in before babbling.

"I need the police. H-here. Now. There's this kid and she…" John ran his hand down his face. How the hell was he supposed to explain this? "I think someone may have hurt her. Or she was kidnapped. I don't know, but we can't find her anywhere and…"

"Where are you?" the voice said while Miriah and the guys from the other team strained to hear.

Out the corner of her eye she saw the others enter the room looking freaked and fairly pale.

"U-uh…" John rattled off the address of the pizza place, eyeing Miriah and wincing.

There was another pause. The man on the other end of the phone sounded oddly tired for an emergency line operator. He had that sort of groggy tone, like he had just been woken up.

John tried not to be alarmed by the prospect of an operator falling asleep at their job.

"...You're at Freddy's?" the person said, mildly surprised. "What are you doing there?"

"Does it matter!"

"Yes."

John swallowed at the sternness in the man's voice. Bad idea to lie to police… "We're investigating the place. We're a show that investigates places like…"

The voice snorted, and John glared. "Okay and what happened?"

"The-the manager's sister-"

"The Manager's what?"

John continued, irritated with this guy. "The Manager's little sister just was...was attacked and-"

"...and what is her name?"

"Ruby! Look! She was attacked and dragged off and now we can't find her and we need the police to be here right now."

The man laughed and John faintly heard a quizzical woman's voice in the background, although he couldn't make out what she was saying. "Alright alright. Look. We'll send someone over as soon as possible. But I'll have you know, making frivolous emergency calls is illegal."

"What?!"

"Good luck with your ghost hunt, kid. And just so you know, we get prank calls from that place on a weekly basis. Have a good morning."

The voice hung up, leaving John gripping the phone.

"Are they coming?" Avery asked.

"I don't think so," John muttered

Hedy got a text from Jeremy.

-Why did I just get a phone call at 6:05 from some people at the pizzeria?

-We're hosting a couple of ghost hunter teams for a little fun. I think the building rerouted their emergency call to you. Awww.

-I'm very busy with a super important case, Hedy.

-You're always working on an important case.

-Hedy. This is different. I need my sleep. I'm serious. Tell the building to stop waking me up.

-Has it woken you up before?

-Not important. The hell did you do to them? What did Ruby do to them?

-Just a little traumatizing.

-Am I going to have to clean up another Michael-like mess? Jeremy texted to avoid saying, "hide a body" in a traceable text format.

-Possibly

-Wait what?

-One of them touched my bots.

-oh

The manager stared at them for a long time before speaking. She looked between the two groups.

"You're nuts," she said. "All of you."

Mason and Shania both gasped indignantly while John leaned forward to speak from where he was leaning against the wall.

"Your. Little. Sister. Is. Missing!" he insisted. "We watched her get dragged off by Mangle! And it was looking weird. The thing had two heads! You need to call someone or we need to close your place. She could be anywhere. She could be hurt! Don't you care?"

Hedy just looked at him confused. "What are you talking about? Ruby is fine."

"Have you seen her today?" Miriah asked, but she sounded less accusing than John.

Ms. Fitzgerald blinked dubiously. "We had breakfast together."

"You still suck at cooking," Ruby deadpanned from the door. She smirked as they screamed and jumped. "Oh hey Perverts, hey Team-that-follows-rules. What's up? You look like you've seen a ghost. Did you get it on camera?" She jumped into the chair in front of the desk and sprawled out, hanging her legs off an armrest.

"HOW-" Calum started while Mason squirmed. "We saw you…" He trailed off at the odd look she gave him.

"Saw me what?" She sounded genuinely confused. "I wasn't even here last night. Mike Shit was making sure you didn't touch anything you shouldn't have." She glanced at Mason.

"What?" John intoned. "You were there. You-"

"Mr. Schmidt?" Hedy suddenly called as someone walked by the office.

Mike backed up and stuck his head in the office. "Yes. Mrs. Fitzgerald?"

"It's Miss, Mr. Schmidt."

"My mistake, Ma'am," Mike said, although his polite smile was a little odd and more a thinly veiled smirk.

Miriah squinted slightly and glanced between him and Hedy.

Their "guests" weren't looking her way, so Ruby rolled her eyes dramatically and made a mock-disgusted face at Hedy.

"Was Ruby with you last night?" Hedy asked Mike.

Mike scratched his head, confused. "No? Didn't you say she was staying home to work on schoolwork?"

"She was indeed," Hedy said pointedly. "Thank you, Mr. Schmidt. And thank you for covering a morning shift."

"No problem, Ma'am."

John turned back to the Manager who stared at him as Mike left.

"My little sister was home with me all night. And she couldn't have snuck out."

"Are you sur-"

Hedy kept going like she couldn't hear Mason. Her voice dipped to be more stern. "I don't know what you intended to pull. Do you have a secret camera rolling? This is not a well-planned prank."

It was silent, no one was sure what to make of everything.

John took a breath. "We definitely saw...something last night," he said, looking at Ruby. "At the very least, we are still very concerned about a few of your animatronics."

"Oh really?"

"Ms Fitzgerald, I really think you need to listen to us. Something is seriously wrong. If it's not spirits, it's some concerningly dodgy programming."

"Like what, exactly? They glitch occasionally but I've rarely had complaints. I need more specifics besides repeated lines and moving around when they shouldn't. Those are programmed behaviors. Even moving around shouldn't be cause for concern, although I'll admit that's something I should have the mechanic look at."

Eric spoke up from a chair next to Avery.

"Those things are menacing! You can't possibly think they're appropriate for kids. We were trapped with your weird puppet until we gave it our trash!"

The manager just raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Do you hear yourself? And how exactly could you have been trapped in that room and still gotten out without the keys?"

"We were all there," Avery insisted, irritated with the businesswoman.

Ms. Fitzgerald sighed. "Fine. I'll go check on the Prize Corner Puppet. Ruby, would you care to join us, since you were here last night?"

Ruby snickered. "Maybe I have a doppelganger, sis!"

The two teams followed Hedy across the crowded main room, nervously glancing at the animatronics they passed on the way. The chicken robot that John's niece now had a plushie of (was it Chica?) was definitely giving them the evil eye as they walked past a group of children. When they reached the Prize Corner, Hedy went in with no hesitation, slowly followed by the members of the idiot group while John and his team just peered through the doorway.

There were no children in the room yet, but the place had just opened so it made sense.

Hedy rapped her knuckles on the box.

"Wasn't that box behind the counter last night?" Avery asked.

"...Maybe Mike moved it?" Eric suggested.

"Good morning, Puppet," Hedy enunciated, as the tall lanky robot rose from the box.

"Good morning, Ms. Fitzgerald," the robot droned.

"Is everything going well today?"

"It's always a fantastic day at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, where fantasy and fun come to life." The bot said.

Ruby watched Miriah's odd frown as she stared at Puppet.

There was nothing wrong with the bots and they weren't able to convince the manager otherwise. Ruby disappeared in the middle of them checking on the foxes, which also didn't seem to be acting any different.

Still, none of them got anywhere near Mangle.

Well...what were they supposed to do?

Calum just demanded his team had interviews first, which John was fine with. His team needed a break anyway. Eventually, it was their turn anyway.

Avery was definitely starting to feel bad for the poor girl that sat in front of them. Izzy had been rambling for the last ten minutes about one particular incident when she had stayed late to finish paperwork, and it was clear that she didn't have much luck.

"And then when I finally managed to get out of the office, all the cleaners had gone so it was so dark, and then I couldn't see where I was going, and I tripped over something, I don't know what, it might have been Balloon Boy to be honest, and then…"

The woman trailed off, clearly remembering something terrifying. She got a very faraway look in her eyes, and then burst into tears.

Eric immediately cut the camera and John rushed around the table to comfort the young woman.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just-"

"It's fine," Avery soothed her from the other side of the table. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to, you're under no obligation. Maybe you could ask Ms. Fitzgerald to let you go home early?"

Izzy shook her head.

"No, no, I'll be fine, I'm really sorry," Izzy sniffed and stood up unsteadily.

"I think I'll just go take my break just now. I'm sorry for ruining your film," she gestured to the camera as she walked past. Still sniffling, she nodded at John as he opened the door for her and walked down the corridor towards the staff room. Wiping away her non-existent tears, she caught Jerry's eye as she passed a party room and shot him a grin.

Jerry stuck his tongue out at her for getting out of the interview early.

Avery was watching Miriah's confused expression as Izzy left the room.

"What's up?"

Miriah shrugged and looked conflicted.

"I'm… I'm not sure."

The woman frowned.

"Everything here is just so… weird."

"Hedy?"

Hedy looked up to find Chi awkwardly standing at the door to the Manager's office which Hedy had once again stolen to both work on her homework and keep up with the illusion. She couldn't stand how the Manager just piled up everything so she straightened up a little. Not for his sake of course.

"Yeah? Close the door."

Chi did as she was asked. "I made sure they didn't see me sneak off," she added helpfully. "Olivia is covering. If they ask, she's going to say I got pulled backstage for maintenance."

Hedy nodded before frowning. "What's wrong?"

The chicken shifted on her feet and glanced away. "You said...when we left the Warehouse...you said we could talk to you when we...uh...changed our minds?"

"About listening to Puppet and killing people," Hedy said softly. "None of you ever brought it up, but I know you changed."

"I know it's wrong. Really I do...but...um…" Chi looked back up at Hedy, then sharply away again. "I'm...really mad. At that Mason guy. I'm really mad he tried to tamper with Toby."

Hedy watched her. "I know… So am I."

"But you don't want to kill him, Hedy," Chi whispered desperately, still unable to look her in the eye. "That's not you. You're a good person, Hedy. But we...I'm not. Most of me knows it's wrong now. And it's really horrible. And I really don't want to-"

"Chi, sit down…"

Chi barely noticed when she did what Hedy said and sat in the chair that was still too small for a Toy. "But there's a little part that wants to kill him and it's kinda scaring me. I thought I wouldn't think like that anymore. Because I know how bad it is now. I know how wrong it is."

Hedy was quiet for a minute. "Do you know what a serial killer is?"

Chi looked confused at the question she would have thought was obvious. "Michael?"

Hedy made a so-so motion. "Maybe. If Spring hadn't taken care of him. Maybe he would have kept going. Michael was more of a spree killer. He had some trigger or big plan and killed all the kids at once. A serial killer kills people over a longer period of time, if they don't get caught. Apparently, it's an addiction. They get high on the power or maybe they feel like they're doing something right in their twisted minds. It turns into a compulsion because they enjoy it. The rush and the risk causes pleasure according to research. And sometimes their brains aren't wired to see their victims as people. So they don't have empathy, much less compassion."

"So we're serial killers…"

"It's different. And weird. It's a unique situation, Chi. It doesn't excuse the lives you took. But you, and Puppet, would classify as insane, I think. You were practically a baby and in your most formative time you basically were taught that adults were evil and it wasn't a big deal to punish evil by killing them, because everyone became a ghost anyway. It was just superficial pain. It's how the world worked for you. It was normal. You stopped seeing adults and guards as people, if you ever did. Your computer learned how to see the world in a certain warped way and it was stuck that way for fifteen years. You were traumatized. You don't just magically get better from that. You're still wired to seriously consider killing people."

"Can't you fix it?" Chi sounded like she wanted to cry. She pointed to her head.

Hedy was quiet again. She came around the desk. "Chi... sweetie. It doesn't work like that. You're too complicated for that. I don't want to even try messing with your brain. It's not safe."

"But you could-"

"No. I can't. It's not safe to mess with your coding, Chi. Period. I do not want to change who you are."

"But I do. I don't want to kill people. But..."

"...are you going to kill that idiot tonight?"

"...No. But..."

"There you go. It's still a choice. You are in control of yourself. It's going to take time, Chi. Learning that people don't just deserve to die even if they're horrible is something you might have to remind yourself every day. It's hard to unlearn something."

Chi hung her head for a moment. She raised her eyes to look at Hedy and the mechanic could see that little bit of fear.

"Can you watch me tonight?" she quietly asked her mechanic, "Just...in case."

Hedy nodded. "You'll be okay, Chi. I always look out for all of you."

Maybe it should have been a little disheartening, as if Hedy didn't fully trust them, but really, Chi only felt relieved.

Hedy smiled. "Look at the positive. It's very sweet you're being so protective of Toby. He's not sure what to make of everyone freaking out last night."

Chi snorted. "Because the dummy usually is the one being the jerk." She frowned a bit. "Me too."

Hedy huffed. "I appreciate the change of pace." Her gaze softened. "I would suggest talking about this to one of the Originals too. Like Freddy or Chica. Maybe Goldy if you give her some time. She's still stressed about Spring." Hedy grimaced and Chi figured Hedy knew exactly how stressed Goldy was. "Bonnie may be too sensitive at the moment and Foxy...I don't know. You could try. But I don't think I'll ever really understand him like I do the rest of you." She got along with Foxy, with all of the Originals. But he was probably a bot that she'd never quite understand or get like she did the others. Things he said, the way he did things. Both foxes were unique, different. But while she understood Mangle completely, sometimes she looked at Foxy the same way Ruby would stare at Mangle with a slightly puzzled frown. She was drawn from her thoughts when Chi scoffed a little.

"They never wanted to hurt people."

"They still did the same thing for years, Chi. That messes with people. It couldn't hurt to talk about it."

Chi frowned and scratched at her beak a little. She quietly nodded and looked away, unable to handle the way Hedy tended to look at her, at all the bots, in these kinds of moments. She was so forgiving. So loving.

Mason sulked as he trailed behind the rest of the group. A camera in one of the robots would have been perfect for capturing ghost evidence. Then again, their programming did seem a bit odd. Maybe it was for the best. He could always try again later, maybe on that stupid Balloon Boy robot that was constantly moving. Whatever.

He turned his attention back to Calum, who was arguing with Shania over where they should go next. As usual, Kevin was standing a little apart and not taking any interest in the ghost discussions.

Shania suddenly stopped speaking and looked about the corridor. She flapped a hand frantically at Calum who had started speaking immediately when she had stopped.

"Shh! Shut up, idiot," she stage-whispered at him. "Can't you hear that?"

Calum stopped and stared at her with raised eyebrows, clearly not believing that there was something to be heard. He opened his mouth to speak again but a loud creaking sound from around the corner the way they had just come stopped him.

Creeping up to the corner and peering around it, Calum was dismayed to see that the door halfway down the corridor was open. It had not been open five minutes ago, and there was no way that the wind had opened a door that was shut properly either. It wasn't even breezy today anyway. Mason and Shania came up next to him, argument forgotten.

"Isn't that the place that Ruby said we're not supposed to go?" Shania broke the tense silence. "What did they call it? The Mechanic's office or something? Where maintenance is done?"

"What if there's an actual ghost in there though, and that's why they don't want us to go in?"

Nobody replied to Mason as the door creaked again, opening further.

"Come on," Calum said, stepping forward and signalling to Mason to start recording. "Aren't we looking for ghosts? Let's go and investigate. We can apologise if they find us and just say we forgot or something."

The group slowly made their way through the door, into the dark room. Calum fumbled against the wall until he found a light and flipped it. The lights flickered on weakly, like they were already halfway to dead and wouldn't last much longer.

He stared in shock ahead of him. They'd expected a small room filled with spare parts or something. Well they definitely got the spare parts, endoskeleton pieces and spare costumes all over shelves along with tools and wires.

But the room wasn't small. It was huge. They couldn't see the far wall. And it was filled with a maze of metal shelves that stretched to the ceiling.

"What the fuck?" Kevin mumbled, wondering if he'd smoked too much before meeting up with Calum earlier.

In the silence, they all heard the door click shut behind them, the lock echoing loudly in the air.

Mason spun around and yanked on the door but it wouldn't budge and yelling did nothing but fill the cavernous space with echoes.

"This isn't fucking possible," Calum breathed. This place looked bigger than the entire restaurant!

As they fell silent again, listening to the echoes fade, a new voice sounded. First there was a girlish giggle filling the air and then a voice right in Calum's ear whispered.

"Better run now. She's coming for you."

They all screamed and took off down the nearest corridor of shelves.

Ruby sauntered out of the shadows as Goldy popped into view, looking smug. The teen whistled.

"Boy Hedy really did get the building to outdo itself this time. Think Chi will be okay handling them on her own?" she wondered. She studied the overwhelming rows of shelvings and wondered if this was what the Warehouse Hedy, Puppet, and the Toys sometimes mentioned looked like.

"Oh yeah. Chi will be fine. She's pissed and you don't mess with either chicken when they're genuinely pissed off," Goldy shrugged.

"Can I help?" They both looked down to find Timmy staring up at them. "I don't like that Mason made Toby scared."

A wicked smirk lit up Ruby's face as she scooped the ghost up into her arms. "You know Tim, I've got an idea you might be able to help me with. But it's for later. I think we're going to leave these guys for Chi tonight, mostly."
She walked off and Goldy actually shivered. The look in Ruby's eyes didn't bode well for Mason and co. Not at all. Ruby was still unbelievably pissed off. And Chi getting revenge wasn't likely to dull that anger much. Hopefully Timmy would be able to temper her idea a little.

She looked back out into the maze as she heard a shriek. Well, she'd better get moving if she didn't want to miss the show. Chi was living up to that 'demon chicken' nickname Ruby had given her after all.

"Miriah, are you okay?" John asked in concern as his friend kept rubbing at her temples in pain.

"Yeah, just… overwhelmed. Something is… well, gleeful is the best way I can put it. And it feels like it's coming from everywhere."
"Do you think it's dangerous?" Avery asked, standing close to check on Miriah.

"No, at least it's not directed at us at all," Miriah shook her head carefully.

"Well we can take a moment to rest here," Eric suggested. "There's nothing in this hallway."
John was about to agree when he heard something and turned his head to the noise. A door had just opened, the one that led to Fazbear's Fright. It was usually locked so why….

His eyes widened when he saw a figure shuffle out. He'd never seen anything like it. It looked like it was falling apart and brought to mind zombies in horror movies.

The team shrieked in fright, making the bot's head snap towards them and they practically fell over themselves as they ran away. The manager hadn't mentioned any other robots!

Spring watched the people run away in surprise. He hadn't realised anyone had been outside.

"Oops," he mumbled. He hadn't meant to scare them.

"Meow," Kitty bumped her head on his chin.

"I know I know," he assured her. "I'm sorry I forgot your food in the kitchen. We'll go there now."
Hopefully he didn't give that team any more frights. From what Hedy had said they weren't so bad and they'd been worried about Ruby, so that was nice.

Well he could apologise when this was all over. For now, he needed to feed Kitty.

Eventually Calum and his team ran out of steam and had to stop running. By then they were already turned around (not that keeping track of all the twists and turns would help anyway). A loud clanking suddenly came from right above their heads, making every one of them scream. The noise stopped almost as quickly as it had started, making the group glance upwards in apprehension, prepared to run but too exhausted to. However when nothing else happened, Calum detached himself from Mason's tight grip on his shirt and started moving forwards again. He was determined that they would get some good, real ghost footage.

'Getting jumpy at silly things won't help anyone,' he told himself. 'Anyway, Maybe this is part of the building that's meant to be a horror attraction? I bet that's all it is. Yeah. I bet this is actually that Fright place they told us to avoid and they lied about where it was so we'd stumble on it. Just some stupid audio cue. We probably just triggered a motion sensor or something. And it's probably mirrors or something creating the illusion that it's bigger than it is.'

It was a weak excuse but the best one his mind could handle at the moment.

Calum's thoughts continued on in a similar manner as they progressed through the maze. He led the way around the shelving, at least pretending like he knew where they were going. Except he didn't.

Some of the shelves were free standing, and if they were able to peek through the boxes and crates, they could see more impossible shelves on the other side. Other times, the shelves were set against solid walls that didn't make sense with the kinds of turns they were making.

At the third dead-end, Shania finally spoke up. "Shit. Shit. We're lost! Nice going dipshit!"

"You want to lead the way Ms. Psychic?" Calum snapped, his voice a pitch higher than usual.

Mason was shaking while he tried to keep himself busy messing with his camera settings, adjusting them for the moving and low lighting. He jumped as Calum nudged him.

"Mason. You're supposed to have a map of the place. You lead."

Mason looked at him like he was crazy. "This isn't on the map they gave us! This is supposed to be a small storage room! And what happened to being in charge, Team Leader?"

"I'm delegating," Calum said before pushing Mason in front of him.

"What?"

"Just go!"

Shania glared at both of them and they kept going, Kevin muttering under his breath and following so close behind her she could smell the weed on his breath.

They followed Mason until he rounded a corner and stopped dead in his tracks, making an almost inhuman noise.

An animatronic stood in front of the group. Calum immediately recognised it as one of the… was it the Toys they were called? The chicken one. The yellow didn't look quite right under the weird lighting. And how was it over here anyway? Something was wrong.

Mason froze and started to speak, to say that maybe they should go another way, but the words died in his throat as the animatronic moved. Its head slowly tilted upwards to face them, and the man didn't even register the screams of the rest of his team as he stared in dumbstruck horror.

Where the beak and eyes should have been, there was nothing but darkness. With the beak gone, the team could see what looked like teeth set into the mouth. Empty gaping holes stared back at Mason as the robot seemed to wake up, tiny pinpricks of light emanating from where the eyes should have been. It definitely didn't look like that when it was on stage the previous night. Or did it? He had been preoccupied with looking for someplace on the rabbit to put a camera and the bear being creepy. He had barely even looked at the chicken.

'It was just a trick. But why did it look so real? This must be the horror attraction. But it was filled with tools and spare parts instead of horror decorations. It looked like a storage room! It looked like a fucking warehouse!'

Then the chicken took a step forward, and Mason's thoughts halted when he ran for his life, pushing past Calum and nearly shoving Shania and Kevin to the ground as he bolted.

He didn't have to look back to hear the sound of metal hitting the floor as they were chased.

He nearly skidded into a left turn down another rows of shelving far from the chi-
He screamed as he ran into something.

The chicken stared down at him. HOW? It was just-

He heard the others scream as they turned the corner but he didn't care as he scrambled to his feet, floundering as he tried to put some distance between him and the apparently fucking teleporting chicken animatronic.

They were too focused on Chi to notice the vent tucked away half behind a box a few feet away from her.

John was pretty sure they'd got away from the zombie robot and he leaned heavily on the wall.

"What was that?!" Avery gasped.

"I don't know but I need water. I dropped my bottle back there," Eric sighed.

The group pushed themselves upright again, recognising that they were near the kitchen. They only got as far as the door though before freezing up in fear again.

That robot was there, standing near the counter with one hand raised near its face. A hand dripping in red. There was the faint sound of a man's voice laughing softly.

They all screamed again and ran. What the hell was happening?!

Spring jumped in fright when he heard the screams and turned his head just in time to seem them all scramble away.
Oh dear. He hadn't meant to scare them again. He'd just accidentally tripped one of Ruby's old traps and got red paint all over his hand. He'd been chuckling softly to himself, her pranks always made him laugh, so he hadn't noticed the team's approach.

Kitty meowed at him again.
"Sorry sorry," he hurriedly told her. "I'll get your food now. Just got to clean up my hand."

He did feel a little bad for scaring them again. Poor guys probably just wanted some water or something.

They were being hunted. Every time they thought they were far enough away, that damn chicken showed up around a corner.

Worst of all, each time, it moved. Just a little more. In the beginning the twitches or the steps or even the turning of its head was robotic but by the seventh scare, Mason started to notice the movement was "smoother." Just barely.

They were quickly losing steam. They couldn't take much more running.

After a few minutes there was no sign of the robot and they came to an unspoken agreement to stop and rest.

All of them were out of breath.

Mason had dropped the camera somewhere along the way but Calum wasn't yelling at him about that. He couldn't give a damn anyway.

He leaned against some shelving, all his nerves on high alert.

"What the fuuuuck," Kevin stammered through his gasps. "Why'd I let you talk me into this bullshit?!" Calum glared at him through the sweat dripping in his eyes. "I never even wanted you here! It's not my fault your mom begged me to keep you out of trouble as if you're a stupid teenager and not some deadbeat living on her couch!"

"Shut up!" Mason snapped. "If you haven't noticed, we're in a fucking horror movie or some shit!"

"Hmm, who usually dies first in a horror movie? A voice whispered near them. "The jock, the camera geek, the pretty girl or the stoner?" That damned giggle filled the air again. "Who am I kidding? We all know it's the stoner. They've got no weight on the plot otherwise."

Shania whimpered, wide eyes frantically scanning their surroundings. But all she saw were metal shelves and metal parts. They were in a maze of metal with no way out.

That giggle sounded again and Kevin was practically hyperventilating. None of them noticed when the voice came back right in Mason's ear until a moment later.

"Or maybe it's the bastard who tried to mess with a bot," the previously cheerful voice hissed.

Calum whipped his head to look in the direction of the voice just in time to see all the blood that had flushed from the running drain from Mason's face. But he didn't have a moment to blame Mason for anything.

Yellow hands burst through the shelving behind Mason, knocking boxes out of the way as a head and torso followed the hands with an unnatural screech.

Mason screamed as the hands gripped his sweatshirt. He screamed for help but when he managed to look, the other three were already taking off down the corridor screaming.

"No! Let me go!" he panicked. "I didn't do anything!"

The chicken pulled him closer and for the first time, Mason was properly worried.

These things weren't supposed to be alive but there was no other explanation for the malice in those pin prick white eyes.

His yelling died in his throat as they stared eye to eye.

"You don't get to hurt my family," a new voice whispered from right in front of him, but the mouth didn't move without a beak.

Mason was frozen as the hands pulled a little more. Suddenly the chicken froze, and there was an awful moment where neither moved or spoke.

"You know?" The voice sounded fairly young and female and far too human. There was no stilted robotic lack of inflection in the tone. "Not too long ago, this would be the part where I killed you."

Mason fell backwards, the breath knocked out of him as the robot abruptly let go. He didn't look back as he scrambled to his feet, tripping as he ran away again.

He literally ran into Calum several minutes later, both men slamming into each other at full speed.

"Ah!" Calum shouted as he got up and rubbed his arm. "Mason!"

"You left me! You actually fucking left me!" Mason screamed at him.

Calum raised his hands and stammered. "Wait, hold on. Mason, buddy. We thought-"

"You thought I was dead?!"

"No-!" He cut off at the sound of humming coming from the way Mason had appeared.

Mason stiffened, head whipping to stare into the dark behind him. He stepped backwards.

White eyes appeared in the shadows and they took off again.

It was the same as before but they were far more terrified, if that was possible. And this time, they could hear the footsteps from the robot, along with the girlish humming.

That wasn't a robot. Not anymore…

"You think..." Calum wheezed, peeking around another corner. They could still hear it. But it was distant for the moment. No matter how fast or far they ran, it was always following at the same pace. They needed to get out of here. It was inevitable it was going to catch them sooner or later. "You think...it's a ghost? Like a ghost possessing the robot?"

Mason shook his head. "I dunno. I don't…"

Shania suddenly shoved his shoulder. "You pissed it off! I heard what it said! You messed with something and got us bad karma. Or you flat out cursed us!"

"Are you sensing that?" Kevin muttered sarcastically as Mason mumbled that the voice they heard was something separate from the thing chasing them. Chasing him...

Shania ignored him. "I say we leave him."

Kevin nodded.

"Oh fuck you," Mason snapped.

Calum was quiet.

"Calum!" Mason said.

Calum startled. "We….uh, yeah, we're not leaving anyone behind."

"That's a shocker," a female voice whispered barely audibly in Mason's ear. "Unless he's lying and just waiting to ditch you."

Mason yelped and jumped away from the voice. The other three looked around frantically, although they hadn't heard what the voice said.

"I-it was that voice...the...the first one," Mason stammered.

"What did it say?" Shania asked.

"...I don't know. Couldn't make it out."

"Liar," the voice said again.

The ever present humming got louder, this time from a clearer direction.

Kevin wordless started walking the opposite direction. After a couple paces, "Fuck this shit!'

"Come on," Calum mumbled as Shania switched her glaring between him and Mason.

Mason found himself taking up the back as they speed walked in a straight direction. The humming voice didn't switch directions for once.

After an agonizing ten minutes without a word spoken between them, they started to notice a few of the shelves looked different somehow. Were they familiar? Were they just more organized?

Shania gasped and gripped Mason's arm.

There was an end. An empty wall with no shelves peeking through the spaces between empty shelves. A wall could mean a door!

They all broke into a sprint and rounded the last damn metal shelf to come face to face with the wall.

Not the same wall that housed the door though. No, this one was blank except for words spray painted on it.

"Steve was here?" Calum asked in bewilderment.

Was this some kind of last message left by another victim of this maze? Did they leave this in a desperate attempt to let others know what had happened to him?
Were they going to die here?!
"Oh, yeah, Steve. He was an old night guy. Weird sense of humour."
They all shrieked and spun around to find Ruby standing in the doorway.

The doorway.

The open doorway.

They frantically looked around but only found a cramped room with a few tall metal shelves piled high with spare parts.

"You're not supposed to be here," Ruby continued in irritation, reaching out to snag a wrench. "We told you not to go into the back room. There's expensive parts here. If you broke something you're paying for it.

They only stared at her mutely. There was no sign of the maze, of the demonic chicken, of anything that had just happened. Their strained muscles and lungs didn't agree.

Ruby pulled a face. "What are you staring at me like that for?"
"Where's the demon chicken?" Mason squeaked.

Ruby blinked at him and then barked out a laugh. "Demon chicken? Dude, what are you smoking?"

Calum was suddenly filled with rage as rapid footsteps announced the arrival of the other team. John stopped when he spotted Ruby.

"You didn't tell us about the zombie rabbit!"

Ruby turned and blinked at him, bewildered. "Zombie rabbit?"
Then she cracked up laughing.

She was laughing at them.

Calum stalked forward, barely noticing how the teen's eyes shot back to him and she neatly stepped out of the room to stand in the hallway again.

"You little bitch!" he snarled, making the other team startle. "You think this is funny?!"
"Hilarious," Ruby smirked. "Demon chickens and zombie rabbits? This is priceless!"

Calum saw red and lifted his hand, wanting nothing more than to wipe that infuriating smirk off of the brat's face.

Something he couldn't identify flashed in her eyes but he didn't care. He'd had it with her!

He swung his fist down, ignoring the shouts from behind him, but suddenly she wasn't there anymore. Yellow (he hated yellow now, hated hated hated) hands gripped Ruby's shoulders and yanked her back, making her yelp. He followed those hands up and found-

Calum blanched, Shania shrieked and Kevin was already running. Mason might have passed out.

"Ruby!" John called out but was blocked by Calum as the teen was dragged out of sight by whatever the fuck that thing was.

Rotting. Decayed. He could still feel those furious eyes boring into him.

"I'm fine, Spring!"
"He was going to hit you Ruby!" the rabbit fretted.

The teen gave him a soft smile. "I wouldn't have let him, promise. I was about to punch his throat in if he actually tried to hit me."

Spring still looked worried as he shooed her down the hallway away from their guests.

"He looked so mad Ruby," Spring insisted. "He was going to hit you and you might not have dodged in time."
"The fucker did what?!"

Unfortunately for Calum, they'd been passing by Pirate's Cove as Spring said that. He was now on Foxy's shit list.