Author's Note:
Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 140
Night 6
Mike didn't come strolling in with his goofy grin the next day.
In fact everyone acted all nervous and anxious anytime they brought the man up at all.
The manager was very dismissive about the entire thing as well, stating that "employees quit unexpectedly all the time in the night guard position".
"What are your thoughts," Avery quietly asked Miriah as they talked over some shared pizza.
Miriah stared blankly at her and stalled by reaching over the table to wipe some sauce off Avery's lips.
Avery squinted. "Stop flirting. I'm being serious."
Miriah huffed and sat back. "I'm...not sure…" She glanced across the room where John was discreetly trying to get some answers out of the Manager's assistant, Izzy. But the woman was just quietly shaking her head and looking cagey. "I...um well I thought there maybe was something going on between Mike and the Manager, but the way she blew off him quitting…"
"Could you tell if she was lying?"
"Lying is...complicated," Miriah tried to explain. "I can't really always tell if someone is straight out lying. I mean...most people are really easy…" she smiled at Avery who rolled her eyes. "But I can tell when someone is being-" she struggled for a word for a moment. "Sincere?"
"So, was Fitzgerald being sincere?"
"Well...she was sincere in that she wasn't concerned. I couldn't really tell much past that. I'm not telepathic, Avery. It's a mixed up messy art, what I do. I don't really have rules or a science down. Just tendencies and observations."
"And the ability to see ghosts," Avery pointed out, worried when Miriah's expression dipped into a deep frown. "What's wrong?"
"This place is strange. Usually, I can see ghosts when everyone else can't. Here it's like...crap...It's like something's blocking me. Or they're all purposely not letting me see. That's hard to do. Most ghosts don't have control over themselves like that. They just… walk around and hope someone can see them but they're never sure."
"Do you think-" Avery was cut off as Shania suddenly slid into the booth next to Miriah, the latter looking immediately uncomfortable.
"Hello, ladies," Shania said pleasantly with a big smile to both of them.
"We're talking," Avery said, skipping past the polite bullshit.
"Girl talk?" Shania assumed. She sighed. "Look I got to be frank, us girls have to stick together with all these men around."
How on earth does a woman so easily fail the Bechdel test in real life? Or it's borderline at least.
"Or perhaps not perpetuate a division when there really isn't one," Miriah said automatically. Shania smiled, but she didn't seem to know what Miriah just said. "Ha, that's funny."
"What do you want?" Miriah asked.
"I just want to talk!"
"After saying shitty things and being all-around garbage human beings the last few days?" Avery said, "Thanks but no thanks."
"So aggressive," the other woman nearly seemed to pout. "Look I'm just curious what you and your men think about everything going on."
"Well, what does your team think?" Miriah said, interrupting Avery before she could jump on the "your men" comment.
Shania's preppy attitude dropped for a moment. "I think Mike's dead."
Avery blinked at the suddenly serious tone.
"Either that or the entire staff is in on screwing with us," Shania laughed. "Which is totally the case. They're really putting a lot of effort into wasting our time."
"However..." Miriah countered. "What if Mike is dead?"
"He's not," Shania said with a sniff. "I would have sensed it."
Avery snorted when Miriah's calm expression twisted into one of someone who was seconds from slamming her head into the table in exasperation. But Miriah wiped the expression very quickly.
Shania misunderstood the laughter and glared at Avery. "You don't believe me?"
"I don't believe you're a psychic. Or a medium. I think you're a fraud."
"How dare you? There are things in this world the human mind can't comprehend and-"
"You misunderstand. I believe psychics exist, I just don't think you're one of them." Avery tucked several of her braids out of her face and folded her hands in front of her. "I believe most who publicly claim to be psychics or mediums are frauds, looking to entertain and give false comfort for a price. It's ironic really. Claiming to be empathetic to a supernatural point while lying and stealing are some of the least empathetic and most damaging behaviors besides murder, assualt, and other bodily harm."
Shania barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes but the other two still caught the small movement. "I'm insulted you think-!"
"You should be," Avery interrupted.
There was an uneasy alliance.
Less of an alliance and more an unspoken agreement not to make a scene where Ruby or Ms. Fitzgerald could hear. The two were spending the night with them again. The manager locked herself in her office while Ruby was wandering doing who knows what.
"So?" Calum asked John, still glaring at him as all eight of them hung in a hallway. "We got nothing out of the staff."
John nodded. "None of them have seen Mike."
Mason coughed. "Maybe we should call the police?"
Calum rolled his eyes. "We're being punked. He's probably just.." He waved his hand, not really having a suggestion.
"I bet he's in his office laughing at us," Kevin suggested nervously.
"Well…" Avery spoke up, clicking on her flashlight. "Let's go check." She walked off, the rest of her team pausing for a moment before following.
Calum and his team hesitated but jogged to catch up.
Calum hung at the back, not wanting to get shot by glitter again. "That brat said to stay out of the guard office." Calum tensed at his own mention of the teenager and glanced down the hallway, as if worried someone had heard him.
He had been oddly jumpy all day. Still a dickhead. But a jumpy dickhead.
Avery glared at him. "No offense to Ruby, but I'm a little more concerned about the guy you said you saw grabbed by a floating yellow bear."
Mason shifted. The other team had been oddly accepting of the story when Shania half-joked about it the following morning. If it was the other way around, he didn't think they would be as believing. Or concerned about the night guard.
"I got it," John said, handing Avery the small camera he was carrying to supplement the larger one Eric had. "Get ready to pull me out or something."
Eric chuckled.
John very cautiously stepped into the room, immediately ducking as a small explosion tried to smack a bunch of streamers in his face.
They all froze, waiting for something else. When nothing happened, John began to carefully search the desk, trying not to touch anything.
They all jumped (and Kevin and Calum screamed) as the phone rang.
John panicked, unsure whether to let it ring or pick it up so no one was tipped off by the noise. He didn't get a chance to choose as the voice recorder picked up.
"Hello hello?" the voice said.
"It's Mike," Miriah said.
John scrambled for the phone while the rest of them still hung outside in the hall. "Mike? Where are you? Calum and his guys said-"
"If you're hearing this, it probably means I'm dead and…."
John flinched at the sounds of static overtaking Mike's voice. Then silence.
Kevin laughed a little hysterically. "What the fuck?"
Everyone was staring at the phone in horror.
It was quiet enough that they all heard the giggle that filled the air. They were out of the office like a shot.
Goldy shook her head as she faded into view when they were gone. "Oh Mike, that's some dark humour alright." She sighed as she looked at the phone before vanishing again. She had the strangest feeling that Ruby had pulled something that was going to annoy most of them.
Calum and his team were walking down the corridor on their way to the main room when a door ahead of them creaked open.
They all stopped dead.
"After what happened last time I say we don't go in there," Kevin muttered, still freaked by that weird phone call from Mike.
Calum shot him a look and crept closer to peer inside.
"I think…" he glanced at the door and it's sign. "I think this is the horror attraction. Fazbear's Fright."
"This is a dumb idea," Kevin insisted into the silence.
"This is the last night. We need some proper footage," Calum insisted, pushing the door open wider.
Beyond the door, the light was weak and decidedly more yellow than the white fluorescent light of the rest of the pizzeria.
"Come on," Calum ordered, stepping into the attraction.
The others very reluctantly followed him, camara rolling already.
The door swung closed behind them and the lock was quiet as it clicked.
Calum swallowed but stubbornly kept his gaze forward.
Cheesy, yet creepy decorations littered the area. Old looking masks and even one of the extra, damaged heads of a robot hanging off a coat rack. He shuddered and forced himself to look away.
"Isn't there supposed to be a robot here too?" Shania asked quietly.
This was the one place they were told to stay out of, no exceptions.
After a moment, they kept walking down the dimly lit hallway.
It was eerily quiet here. The only sound was the sporadic sound of the ventilation as it struggled to keep working.
"Almost feels like this is a completely different place," Mason murmured softly.
"It's fucking creepy," Kevin muttered.
They lapsed back into silence again until they found what looked like an office.
"Is this like a set?" Calum asked. The office looked like someone had used it recently. Bit the attraction wasn't open yet so that didn't make sense.
"Is that cat food?" Shania wrinkled her nose in disgust. She'd never been an animal person. All the fur all over the place.
"And a water dish," Mason crouched down to peer at the items. "What's it doing here?"
A slight shift of movement had him looking up, under the filing cabinet he was in front of.
Bright eyes stared back.
He yelped as claws swiped at him accompanied by an angry hissing and Mason scrambled back.
An unimpressed looking yellow-orange cat poked its head out and hissed at them again before sauntering fully into view. It gave them another look before strolling away.
"It's just a cat," Calum scolded even though he was still warily eyeing the direction the animal had gone. "Don't be such a-"
Some screeching something leapt at him and he screamed, falling backwards.
The others all scrambled to their feet.
"What?!" Mason demanded. "Did you see something?!"
"What do you mean 'did I see something'?" Calum yelled, swinging his flashlight around at the dark corners of the room. "How did you not see that?!" He sounded shaken.
The others looked at him in confusion.
Mason opened his mouth to sarcastically ask him if he was losing it when he shrieked and lunged backwards as some weird, decayed looking animatronic leapt for his face.
Between one blink and the next it was gone and everyone was staring at him like he'd gone mad as well.
"Did...did you see it too?" Calum asked hesitantly.
"I-I don't… It looked like one of those fox bots."
Calum frowned. "No. It looked like that small, annoying one."
Abruptly the room dissolved into chaos as weird visions leapt out at all of them and they screamed, stumbling away and trying to escape.
Calum shot out of the door while Kevin rushed into a vent to try and escape the nightmarish creatures. Shania shoved Mason out of her way as she raced for the other door.
As a result Mason fell on the floor and looked frantically around the suddenly too quiet room.
He froze when the air behind him suddenly dropped in temperature.
"Boo," a man's voice said right in his ear.
Mason screamed and scrambled out of one of the doors, not even glancing back to see who was there.
"Why the fuck are they in Fright?" Hedy demanded.
"Ruby made a deal," Goldy muttered sourly. "I only found out a few minutes ago. She bribed Spring to stay in the guard office with Disney movies."
"Ruby!" Hedy sounded horrified. "Did you make a deal with Michael?!"
"Those idiots deserve it," Ruby grumbled. "Besides, Timmy helped me with the wording. Michael is super easy to manipulate when Timmy is around."
"What was the deal?" Puppet asked stiffly.
"He can terrify them as much as he wants for the night as long as he doesn't cause physical damage or try and incite them to cause damage to each other," Ruby recited in an annoyed tone. "He's bored as all hell. He jumped on the chance to participate without Goldy yelling at him."
Hedy's lips pursed into a thin frown. "And what did he ask for?"
"Nothing. Just that he gets them to himself for the night," they could all practically hear her shrug in her voice. "No one can interfere and the building makes sure he doesn't try and go too far. There was a clause I added that if you saw anything on the cameras that you thought was too far, you had veto power to tell the building to stop it. He wasn't happy about it but like I said, he was bored. And Timmy can lay on one hell of a guilt trip so he didn't argue much."
"I didn't guilt him," they heard Timmy mutter faintly.
"You so did," Ruby shot back.
"How the hell did you corrupt the most innocent soul in this building?" Puppet deadpanned.
"Innocent?!" Ruby yelled. "Are we talking about the same kid-"
Her voice cut out with some frantic sounding arguing and what sounded like the comm being grabbed and thrown.
Hedy huffed at the noise and dragged herself away from worryingly watching the idiots to check on the other team, at least to make sure they didn't run into anything they shouldn't have.
They were walking down a hallway, chatting. Nothing problematic.
There was a faint scream and Hedy immediately switched to checking on Fright again.
She couldn't see the phantoms that Ruby described having experienced but she could guess that was what was chasing the four.
Why the hell Kevin thought it was a good idea to escape via the vents was anyone's guess. The ventilation was better but still not great there.
Miriah was walking at a rapid pace as the others had to almost run to keep up.
"Miriah! What is it?" Avery demanded, panting as bit as she helped the guys carry the heavier equipment.
Their friend didn't answer, instead just making a sharp turn and continuing to walk with a focused expression.
It shocked them all when an exasperated voice cut through the silence.
"Why the hell are you following me?!"
A little girl faded into view, floating near the ceiling and glaring at them.
"I just want to talk," Miriah said gently, putting her hands up and sorting through the twisted feelings she was getting from the little girl. "Hello."
The girl rolled her eyes. "Well, tough. I don't talk to grown ups." She said it mockingly, like a sarcastic inside joke.
The rest of the team had immediately fallen silent, letting Miriah talk to the ghost while Eric quietly turned on the camera. They were all looking a little awestruck. They didn't often find spirits who were so… clear. Being transparent and floating were the only giveaways that this child wasn't alive.
They all hated that she was such a young child though. She looked barely six or seven, although she spoke like she was older.
Miriah was a little put off by the anger she was sensing but she kept going. "Sometimes talking helps? I want to help you. It has to be hard, being stuck here."
The kid blinked and snickered but didn't say anything.
They'd run into occasional children, and most had some anger that made it hard to build trust with them, but usually they were so lonely or had been unseen for so long that they were willing to say something to them.
This one though… there was a lot of anger. Along with bitterness and a burning hatred.
The ghost gave an annoyed huff. "Aw you here to 'save my soul'?" she asked sarcastically. "Too late for that!"
Instead of asking what she meant, which the kid probably was trying to bait her with, Miriah nodded sympathetically. "At least tell me your name?"
"Why should I?" she sneered. "Stranger danger and all that," there was a lot of bitterness dripping from those few words.
Miriah tilted her head and decided on a more direct approach. "You know what happened to you, sweetie. And you deserve to be upset. But I know you can sense that I don't mean you any harm. You can tell that I really want to help, can't you?"
She floated closer, glaring at Miriah. "You wouldn't want to help if you knew me better. And why would I want your help?" she asked, radiating hostility.
"How about we start with names?" Miriah suggested, circling the conversation back around to the beginning. "I'm Miriah." She stared at the girl expectantly.
The girl just rolled her eyes again, not budging.
"Well, I need to call you something. You're a person. You deserve a name," Miriah smiled. "How about Sarah? Jennifer?" She watched the ghost's expression twist. Even if someone didn't want to tell someone something, they loved to correct them. The allure of being right when someone was wrong was strong.
"Christie? What about Hedy? The manager's name is Hedy and I thought that was a very interesting name."
That got a sharp reaction. "No."
"Really? Why not?"
The girl scowled at her fiercely but Miriah picked up a strong undercurrent of hurt. "No," she repeated.
Before Miriah could say anything else, the girl vanished from sight. She looked around frantically, trying to pick up any sign of her.
"We need to find her again," she told the others. "She needs help. She's so hurt."
"Was it just me? Or did she react differently to the manager's name?" John asked.
Miriah nodded. "I don't know what it was, but there was something about Ms. Fitzgerald that upset her."
The others nodded, trusting her on this. They set off in search of the ghost, which was a little easier than just searching the entire building for spiritual activity.
John was relieved but slightly guilty that he was. They needed footage, but Miriah hadn't really gotten so close all week. This was their chance to help these kids… They only had tonight left.
Shania slowed to a stop, bracing her hands on her knees as she gasped for breath. What the hell was that just now?! After a long moment, she timidly looked up and glanced around nervously.
She had no idea where she was.
Great, just great!
She anxiously bit at her lip before forcing herself to stop before she ruined her lipstick.
"Okay, this place can't be too big right?" She muttered to herself.
Taking a deep breath, she started walking.
And walking.
And walking.
These hallways never seemed to end! And they were weird. There were slopes up and down, random pits in the middle of corridors and one time she even found a door in the ceiling.
She was going to go mad here! It felt like she'd been walking for hours and she'd dropped her phone in the office so she couldn't check.
"Dammit!" She yelled when she turned a corner and found just more of the same bland, featureless hallway.
Miriah's instincts took them straight to the main room and it was more than a little creepy to find that all the bots were missing from the stage. They didn't have much time to think on that though since the little boy staring at the guitar on stage with a scowl caught their attention very quickly.
His feet barely brushed the floor and he didn't seem to notice them come in.
"Hello," Miriah greeted, apologizing when the boy jumped and spun to look at them. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. We were looking for your friend."
"Oh you're the other bunch of dummies," the kid huffed. He started to fade.
"Wait! Please wait," Miriah called. "Please? Do you want to talk?"
The boy froze, looking less transparent. "What?" He seemed confused but still a bit aggressive as he crossed his arms and glanced at the camera. He didn't seem to care about being filmed. She was still picking up hostility from him but it was far less than the other girl. There was a lot more hurt apparent along with a deep sadness.
"What's your name hun?" Miriah asked gently.
The boy looked at her distrustfully, but not with the same contempt as his friend. "Benji," he said softly. He shook his head a little. "You can't help me. Sorry." And he disappeared.
Miriah felt both heartbreak and frustration but it wasn't all hers. "I can't if you don't let me," she pleaded to the room but got no response.
Avery took her hand and squeezed it.
"It's okay," John tried his best to soothe his friend. "We'll come back. Let's keep moving for now okay?"
"At least he seemed more open to talking to you?" Eric pointed out hopefully. "And we actually got a name."
"Yeah…" Miriah still seemed down about his retreat.
Kids always made this harder...
"Won't someone notice you guys are gone?" Spring asked curiously as everyone gathered around his tv to avidly watch Michael torment the idiot team. He'd switched from the Disney movie to the cameras a while ago. There were a lot of torn feelings on the matter but no one could argue that this team deserved it for some of the stuff they pulled.
Bonnie waved a hand dismissively. "I'm sick of being stuck on stage. We get a night off."
Freddy rolled his eyes but didn't argue.
"Staying still so long made me stiff," Mangle complained.
Chi was silent and she smirked as Mason ran in panicked circles.
Kevin hated the stuffy confines of the vents but he didn't really have much of a choice but to keep going forward.
It was getting kinda hard to breathe.
There was a crackling as a speaker came on. WHY were there speakers in the vents?!
"Hey ol' buddy," that voice.
Kevin froze at the sound of that voice. That was the guy. The guy that said he was a night guard then freaking started bleeding out his eyeballs. Where was he?!
"Not that I give a shit, but if you die my fun is gonna get cut pretty short. So I just thought I'd let you know that the ventilation fails pretty often in there. You might suffocate if you don't pop your head out every few minutes. Toodles."
Then silence except for the whirring of fans that would stop then start again every so often.
Kevin panicked and scrambled for the next bit of light that caught his attention.
It was immediately easier to breathe outside the vent.
"Sup."
Kevin looked up and screamed, scrambling backways back into the vent. Somehow he had looped back around.
He heard the man/ghost crack up laughing as he fled.
Avery noticed that the guard office was icy cold when they entered and wasn't surprised when Miriah stopped dead in the middle of the room.
"Hello?" the redhead called.
A moment later a boy reluctantly flickered into view. He studied them with an annoyed expression, a hint of a sneer on his face. He immediately seemed a lot more confrontational than Benji had been, but less hostile than the girl they still didn't know the name of.
"Stop messing with the others," he immediately said without waiting for Miriah to speak. "We managed this long without 'help' from adults. We don't need you. We don't need anyone." He dropped his voice and muttered, "stupid building" under his 'breath.'
There was a lot more to that statement than just referencing them. Or that was the feeling Avery got anyway. She didn't need to be psychic like Miriah to see that this kid had a different attitude and was more "secretive" if that was the right term.
Miriah hesitantly stepped a little closer. "I want to help them. And you, but you have to let others help you."
The boy huffed. "We managed to avoid you just fine all week." He glared up at the ceiling. "And now you're pestering us. Quit it."
"I can't," Miriah said. She frowned a little. "You're the protective one, aren't you? You don't care about talking to me. You just don't want me upsetting your friends."
The boy scowled. "Just leave us alone. We look out for each other. No one else does." There was a flash of hurt at the last statement. But he didn't disappear like the others. He floated to a corner of the room's ceiling and stayed there. "Get out."
"We just…"
"Get out!" The boy shouted.
Miriah stiffened. "Okay…" she said kindly. "But we'll be back."
They heard him scoff a little as they left. "No you won't."
Mason raced down the corridors, frantically trying to find the door out of this place. But it was almost like the layout kept changing. He kept finding himself back at the office, that man still grinning at him through the glass, waiting for him to tire himself out.
Meanwhile, Michael was getting a kick out of it, struggling to keep up a creepy grin and not burst out laughing as the guy made his fifth round and once again screamed. It was like clockwork. The guy kept repeating it like he'd get a different result.
Mason reappeared and screamed, bolting again.
Michael burst out laughing when he was sure that the guy was out of hearing. Man this was worth that bitch of a night guard looking so smug as they shook on the deal.
Miriah shuddered as she stepped into Pirate's Cove, eyes flicking around worriedly. She felt something a lot more hostile than before here.
There was a lot more hate in this room right now.
"Hello?"
"Oh shut up," the snarled words made them spin around and they found another little boy standing in the doorway. "You look so stupid calling to an empty room."
"Uh-" she didn't even get any further than that.
The kid's expression twisted into a vicious scowl. "We don't want you here. You're just lucky we can't kill you right now. Or you'd join all the other stupid adults that refused to leave."
Miriah actually staggered under the waves of anger and hatred coming off the child. She'd never felt anything like this.
Wait, no that was wrong. She had.
When they encountered that spirit with the spirit box. That had been a different person, distinct from this boy.
So much hatred. It scared her and she mutely watched as he disappeared from sight.
"He might be too far gone," she whispered in pained horror as the others looked at her in worry, tears slipping from her eyes. Please, no. I can't leave a little kid stuck like this.
Calum kept running, spurred on by the neverending nightmares that kept screaming at him. He didn't know where he was anymore. All he knew was that every time he stopped running, something jumped out at him and that damn fox's threat was running on loop through his head. He hadn't told anyone what had happened, how alive the freaky thing had seemed.
He felt stupid in the light of day but when the sun set and they returned, he couldn't get the encounter out of his head.
He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't pay enough attention to where he was running and he tripped, hitting the floor hard.
Immediately, a horrible version of that fox robot leapt at him and he screamed, covering his head with his arms.
He lay there, shaking for a long moment before peering out at the hallway.
There was nothing in sight.
Gasping for breath he shakily pushed himself upright. He needed to get out of this hell.
Miriah's abilities weren't necessary to find the spirit when they passed by the Prize Corner. They all heard the soft sound of sobs.
Peering inside they found a little girl curled up against the open box that creepy Puppet animatronic had been in. She was crying, knees pulled up to her chest.
Eric turned off the camera. That was one of their rules. If a ghost had a breakdown or didn't want to be filmed, he turned it off.
Ghosts frustratingly often didn't show up on film anyway but it was a habit by now.
The ghost looked up, startled by the soft hitch of Avery's breathing.
"Shhh...shhh. It's okay, sweetie," Miriah tried, sitting down in front of the girl who's teary eyes shifted to something distrustful.
It was similar to Benji, but the feelings rolling off her were more frustrations and overwhelming to the point of crying.
"It's not okay," the girl murmured. She wiped her eyes. "I'm not supposed to talk to you."
"Who said that?"
"Fredrick," the girl mumbled. "Leave me alone."
They could guess that Frederick was the more protective one of the group. It made sense that he'd tell the others not to engage with them when they were actively looking for the kids.
"What's wrong?" Miriah asked to get the topic away from the Frederick's instructions.
The girl huffed. "What isn't wrong?" she asked, frustration and exhaustion all rolled up into one messy ball. She wiped roughly at her face and then let out a small, dismayed sound when the tears just kept flowing.
It really was heartbreaking to watch.
"Just leave me alone," she tried to sound demanding but it came off as more pleading. "I'm too tired to deal with you." She buried her face back in her arms, knees drawn tightly to her chest.
She refused to acknowledge them any further.
Michael hadn't felt this heh, alive, in a long time. These idiots were so easy to mess with. He literally had them running in circles.
They'd spent the entire night screaming and panicking. If only he could finish it all off with some blood and murder but ah well. He would take traumatising them for life.
He glanced at the clock in the office. He still had an hour to go. Brilliant. Maybe he could actually make one of them piss themselves.
He'd never admit it, but he was kinda glad that these idiots pissed Ruby off enough to consider making a deal with him. He thought she wouldn't do it again after he found that loophole about little Wiggy.
Unfortunately she just ended up learning from her mistake and the new deal was air tight. He hadn't found anything he could take advantage of. Except that idiot in the vent. If he just left him alone, the guy might have suffocated and it probably wouldn't have been Michael's fault. Or did it count because the idiot had crawled in the vent to get away from him? Eh it didn't matter. Wiggy was probably paying attention anyway and that would have been the end of the night if he let the guy off himself in the most utterly boring way possible.
At least he got some fun out of it this time. This place was damn boring when he couldn't do anything, especially killing.
He should have asked for a tv or some radio as part of the deal. Fuck.
"Why do you try so hard?" The voice made the team stop dead in the hall and turn to find a tiny boy peering around the corner. "They won't listen to you. They won't listen to anyone."
Miriah blinked in surprise. She'd been feeling distraught at the apparent lack of progress with all of the young ghosts inhabiting the building. So many souls robbed of life so early… So she hadn't noticed another spirit.
He was completely different from the others. There wasn't any hostility or hate coming off of him. He was sad, immeasurably sad. And lonely but that seemed to have been eased somewhat recently.
"They won't listen," he whispered again.
"We have to try," Miriah told him after a moment.
Why were there so many children here? Why did so many stay instead of moving on? It wasn't fair. They didn't deserve to be trapped in this misery.
She took a deep breath and smiled at the new boy.
"What's your name?"
"...Timmy."
"I just want to help your friends Timmy."
"They're not really my friends. We're just tied to the franchise. They died at a different time to me." He hesitated. "Plus they were murdered. I wasn't. They said I wouldn't understand because of that." He glanced away. "Thank you for trying, but there's not much you can do. They just aren't...ready. I suppose."
Miriah knelt in front of him. "What about you?"
He actually smiled softly. "I'm okay. I have help. I'm just not done yet."
"What do you mean?"
"I have to make sure everyone's going to be okay," he said.
"Sweetie...that's not on you. That's not your responsibility," Miriah said gently.
This happened sometimes. Ghosts wouldn't leave because they felt it was their duty to make sure others were okay, but that just tied their freedom and peace to someone else's happiness. Something they couldn't control.
"It's not," he agreed to her surprise. "It's my choice. I know I'll move on eventually. It just might be a while. You don't have to worry about me."
Miriah studied his eyes that looked older and wiser than his face would allow. "How are you so sure?"
"I just am. I'll know when it's time for me to go." There was a touch of sorrow in his voice, the kind of sorrow that came from knowing there was a goodbye in his future, goodbye to a friend or friends he might not see for a long time.
Miriah wasn't sure what it meant but she still felt less pain as the little boy left.
Calum ran headlong into Kevin as his cousin tried to stand up from crawling out of a vent. Mason soon followed, sending them all tumbling to the floor.
"There you are!" Shania sounded properly freaked out. "We need to get the fuck out of here! Where's the exit?!"
"I don't know!" Calum snapped while Mason groaned. "This place is a fucking maze! There's no sign of the exit anywhere!"
"Aww why leave so soon?" a mocking voice asked.
They all froze and slowly turned to face the ghost casually leaning on the doorframe. He grinned at them.
"We're just getting started guys."
Predictably, they all screamed and took off down a corridor.
"Why won't you leave me alone?" the first ghost they met glared at them sulkily from where she was sitting against the far wall of an empty room.
"Because we care what happens to you kids," John spoke up before Miriah who nodded softly.
The ghost scoffed. "Why? You don't know me. You're a stupid tv show looking to make money. That's it."
Miriah crouched down, gesturing for the others to move back so they weren't looming over the girl.
Eric took it a step further and sat down on the ground too, John and Avery following. Although they stayed across the room.
The girl sneered, taking it as a sign that they stubbornly weren't going to leave this time.
"I know you're sad. And hurt and angry," Miriah said. "I know you want someone to listen to you but you're scared of something. I know you feel rejected by someone you love. I know you bury all the scary feelings under hate because hate and anger are so much easier to feel. But they're exhausting. And they're poisonous. You know it is."
The ghost rolled her eyes. "You're not special. All the ghosts here? We can feel each other's feelings." She looked off in a certain direction and scowled. "Some are having more fun than others."
There was definitely a note of annoyance and bitterness in her voice.
Miriah tried to pull the girl's focus away from that, even if she was curious. "Earlier, you got very upset when I tried to call you Hedy. Do you know the manager?"
The girl blinked and snickered dryly. "You guys still haven't figured it out. Wow."
"We would know if you told us," Miriah suggested. "I don't want to call you a name you don't like, but it would be easier if I knew what your real name was."
The girl huffed. "You're not leaving until I tell you, aren't you?"
"No," Miriah agreed.
"Hmph. I'm Ginny. With a G and an I. Double N, Y." She stared at the floor as a bit of hurt flashed across her face. "The only thing I know how to spell properly," she muttered.
Miriah wanted to cheer. Progress was progress. "Thank you for telling me."
"Don't think I'm telling you anything else."
"That's okay. We can just sit here."
Ginny squinted. "What makes you think I won't just leave?"
"You can if you want, but you haven't yet so I think you really want to talk."
"You. Don't. Know. Me," Ginny snapped.
Miriah just nodded and they sunk into silence.
Ginny immediately felt uncomfortable with the patience they had. The whole group of these stupid adults looked prepared to just sit there silently waiting for her to speak. It wasn't just the lady who kept asking questions. She didn't like this. She wanted to scare them off but there was nothing she could do.
"I killed people, you know," she said. That would scare them. Make them leave her alone.
Miriah nodded quietly while Avery fidgeted. "How?"
"How? You're asking how?" Ginny actually seemed surprised. She expected shock and horror. Or disgust.
"Human souls aren't made to be without a body," Miriah said calmly. "We have too much energy. We're like little stars that can burn forever. That energy either goes into keeping our body working or our emotions. A body takes a lot of energy to run so when we die, all that extra energy has nowhere else to go but our emotions. And most people aren't the happiest when they die. No one likes to be hurt or alone. Or scared. All those negative emotions get all the energy because a soul doesn't have any other output. Does that make sense?"
Ginny shifted. Hesitantly, she nodded, still staring at Miriah in distrust. "How do you know that?"
"I've met a lot of ghosts, sweetie," Miriah said. "My dad could see ghosts too. And his mom. We learned."
The ghost looked away. "I wasn't alone."
"I know. I'm sorry you all got stuck here."
"We'll move on," she suddenly sounded so sure. "We'll get out of here. We've just got to finish our work."
That sounded very ominous.
"What work?" Miriah asked.
"Close this place down . No matter how many people we have to kill to do it." Ginny stared her down for a moment, a resolve lighting up her eyes.
And then she was gone.
"They're so set in their paths," Miriah whispered. "I don't know how to convince them to let it go."
The others didn't know what to say.
"Hey, has anyone been watching the other team?" Goldy asked.
"They're fine," Timmy assured her, popping next to Hedy. "I've been watching them."
Everyone accepted his words and went back to watching Fright's cameras.
John's team startled and spun around as the other group came running into the room, screaming and babbling about something to do with 'Fright'.
"Are you okay?" John asked in concern.
"You look like you've seen a ghost," Ruby said from the door, a shit-eating grin on her face.
Everyone turned to look at her. John couldn't help but think that there was something slightly different about her. Maybe a glint in her eyes that wasn't there before.
"Watching the cameras was brilliant tonight. Thanks for the entertainment," she snickered, addressing Calum and his group.
John felt his unease grow as a manic, rage-filled expression took over Calum's face.
"Did you enjoy the show?" Ruby asked, leaning against the doorframe as her snickers turned into full blown laughter.
They couldn't move fast enough to stop Calum. He lunged forward, fist pulled back and ready to hit the gleeful teenager.
If John hadn't been watching so carefully, he would have missed it. The way Ruby's eyes abruptly hardened and she shifted her weight off the doorframe, tensing.
In the end, she didn't have to do anything. A metal hand shot over her shoulder and caught Calum's wrist in a bruising grip. The man went pale while Ruby didn't react.
"I told you what would happen if you tried to hit her again," Foxy snarled, the pure anger in his voice raising the hairs on John's arms.
He sounded so… alive.
"You fucked up," Ruby smirked.
"Why do I get the feeling that you provoked him for this reason?" another voice spoke up and everyone's heads snapped to the side to see that creepy Puppet bot from Prize Corner leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
Eric immediately stepped back, eyes wide.
"Hey, it's the end of Night six," Ruby shrugged. "I never do a Night seven. Game's over. We win."
She met Calum's shocked gaze. "Foxy's a little protective you see." Her eyes lingered on where the fox was still holding the man's wrist tightly.
"To be fair, we all are," Bonnie pointed out from behind Foxy. "Chica is spitting mad."
"He tried to hit Ruby again!" they heard an angry female voice echo down the hallway.
"Like I would have let him," Ruby scoffed. "I would have punched him in the gut before he touched me."
"I…" They all looked over at John when he spoke up. "I'm so confused."
Ruby grinned widely at him. "Welcome to Freddy's!"