A/N: I'd like to announce that we've officially hit over 2000 reviews and 600 favorites! Even though I think we were at 600 favorites for a while, I figured that now's as good a time as any to acknowledge that fact. Thank you so much for reading this fic for over a year now, it really motivates me to keep going even through my increasingly busy schedule!

There's one last thing we need to do before we dive into Curse of Dreadbear proper, that being all of the new Nightmare levels that Nightmare has introduced into the games. I've been looking forward to this part, and I hope you guys enjoy the little…additions…I've made.

Smol-hibiscus: Thank you! And though I haven't addressed it specifically, I wouldn't be surprised if Charlie slept in the box every so often. It's not like she can "properly" sleep on a bed, being a ghost and all.

MothraRanger: Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed reading about the Blacklight levels, it means I'm doing my job correctly lol.

Ginopippofreebooter: I'll pick that song the next time I do a "Jamming with the Schmidts," even though the next one probably won't be for a while.

Jack0Lanterns: I honestly get lucky whenever I played Blacklight Chica's Parts and Services Repair, as I never have to take off more than a few of those disgusting insects before the level moves on to its next part. If anything, the bouncing cupcake has caused me more problems since I just can't reach it sometimes. And yeah, Charlie's definitely the best gamer in the household next to Mike (it helps that she's had an entire extra year's exposure to that stuff compared to the others).

MegaMaster78: Well, they'd be flat out disgusted by the shipping since they're family cause even demons have standards. And as for the fanfiction and fanart, it would depend entirely on the quality and subject matter of the fanfic/fanart in question.

Thanatos D.E.M.: Thank you for your congratulations! And Danger Mode in Withered FNaF 2 is actually a lot easier and fairer than the OG FNaF 2 in my opinion, as long as you don't get fucked over by one of the bugs. I still find it a lot less frustrating, chaotic, and luck-based than the OG overall, though.

Guest: They would probably strip away (and if possible, outright destroy) the part of Junko's soul that enjoys despair, and thus make it so that she cannot take pleasure in her own suffering any longer. And given who she is, the inability to enjoy despair would probably break her far more than any physical torture.

FrostTheFrozenFox: I've seen that bug plenty of times myself, but for now I'm operating under the assumption that Nightmare fixed that issue when he encountered it in his playtesting before actually finishing the game.

Fnaffan418: To be completely fair to Fritz, the Foxy's Parts and Services level is BY FAR the hardest one of the four, and I consider only dying once to be an accomplishment. And I'm still not sure why Liz would be mocking Funtime Freddy with Bon Bon, such a situation wouldn't be applicable in the present time of this fic anyway.

FireFlamerx9z: I mean, he's a demon lord who's had thousands of years of experience. Of course he'd be a good politician XD

AlchemyWriter: To be fair, nobody in the family's beaten 10/20 mode yet in FNaF 2 (although they probably won't ever, even I can't beat it lmao). And as for Curse of Dreadbear, that's technically going to be the NEXT chapter, as we still need to cover all the Nightmare stuff in the OG game first before we actually reach the DLC.

Chapter 138 – Nightmares' Challenge

"Okay, you guys are all done?" Mike asked with a raised eyebrow as he watched the Security Puppet take off the VR headset.

"Yep!" Rockstar Freddy affirmed. "We played through all the Parts and Services levels, and it looks like Charlie just finished the Withered mode."

"I did," Security Puppet agreed. "I'm so glad Nightmare put in the Withered animatronics in the FNaF 2 levels. The game felt empty without them."

"Cool," Mike acknowledged. "Then let's see these Nightmares that Nightmare put into the game." He grimaced slightly. "I don't actually know for sure how those levels will work. The only thing I have to go on is what Liz told me about her brother's experiences with the Nightmares, and that might not even help here."

"What kind of animatronics were in the levels?" Circus Baby asked.

"Nightmarionne, Nightmare Fredbear, and some kid-sized Nightmares named Plushtrap and Nightmare B.B.," Mike replied with a scowl. "The only one I remember Michael facing was Nightmare Fredbear. I don't remember anything about Michael ever facing off against kid Nightmares, and Nightmarionne never participated in any of that." Though given the demon's high status among the Nightmares, he highly doubted that Nightmarionne would be any easier to deal with in the game, friendly personality or not.

"Yeah…I can't really help you there, Dad," Circus Baby admitted, her frustration evident through the permanent smile on the animatronic's face. "Sorry."

Mike shrugged. "Eh, whatever. If I knew what was coming this would've been boring anyway. Wish me luck, guys."

"Good luck!" everyone replied as Mike put the headset on. After being directly transported into the world of the game twice by Nightmare, it honestly felt weird to be entering the game world the "normal" way through the VR headset. Once he had arrived at the main level hub, Mike switched over to the Night Terrors levels, choosing the one marked Nightmarionne. "Might as well pick this one first," he muttered.

When the level loaded, he found himself in a bedroom. The bedroom itself was similar to the one that he had started in when he had played Pizza Party, but with some noticeable differences in the layout. There were two doors leading to the bedroom, one to the left and one to the right, with a closet door in front of him and a bed behind him. "The hell kind of bedroom has 2 doors leading into it?" Mike asked in bemusement. It was a unique and frankly bizarre design choice that Mike had never seen before and that he wasn't sure he approved of, especially since it would be more difficult to get some privacy with 2 doors instead of one.

"I WILL ADMIT THAT THE DESIGN CHOICE IS SOMEWHAT…UNCONVENTIONAL," a familiar deep, demonic voice interrupted. "BUT IT SERVES OUR PURPOSES QUITE WELL, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED."

The door to the left swung open, and Nightmarionne floated into the bedroom. The demon seemed genuinely pleased to see him, which put Mike a bit at ease. "GREETINGS, SCHMIDT. A PLEASURE TO SEE YOU AGAIN."

"Good to see you again," Mike replied with an honesty that surprised even him. "But…I don't get what's going on."

"HMM?"

"Like…how are you here?" Mike clarified. "There's no way in hell that Nightmare trapped you all in a video game just so you could talk to me. So I have no clue how the hell you're actually here, talking to me right now."

"AH, I SEE…" Understanding flashed in Nightmarionne's eyes. "IT WAS A STROKE OF GENIUS ON NIGHTMARE'S PART, REALLY. THE NIGHTMARES THAT YOU WILL SEE IN THIS VIDEO GAME ARE, IN A SENSE, NOT TOO DISSIMILAR FROM GLITCHTRAP. WE ARE CONSTRUCTS, OR MORE PRECISELY PROGRAMS, CREATED IN THIS GAME BY NIGHTMARE, INFUSED WITH OUR DEMONIC ESSENCE."

"The fact that you describe yourself as not unlike Glitchtrap is kinda concerning," Mike pointed out.

Nightmarionne chuckled. "YOU'D BE A FOOL IF IT WASN'T," he retorted. "BUT DO NOT FEAR, SCHMIDT. UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES, WE SIMPLY OPERATE ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDS GIVEN TO US BY NIGHTMARE. TO SERVE AS THE MAIN ENEMIES IN THE APPROPRIATE LEVELS, AND ALSO TO DESTROY ANY TRACES OF GLITCHTRAP THAT WE MIGHT FIND. NIGHTMARE ALSO INTEGRATED US MUCH MORE SMOOTHLY INTO THIS GAME WORLD, UNLIKE WHAT THOSE IMBECILES IN FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT DID WITH GLITCHTRAP, SO WE COULD NOT HARM ANYONE WHO PLAYED THE VR GAME EVEN IF WE WANTED TO."

"That's good to hear, I guess," Mike acknowledged. "But it still doesn't explain how I'm talking to you right now."

"IT'S QUITE SIMPLE," Nightmarionne explained. "THE NIGHTMARE CONSTRUCTS YOU SEE IN THIS GAME ARE IMBUED WITH JUST ENOUGH DEMONIC ESSENCE THAT, IF WE SO WISH, WE CAN PROJECT OURSELVES DIRECTLY INTO THEM. YOU ARE NOT MERELY SPEAKING TO AN IMITATION OF NIGHTMARIONNE, MIKE SCHMIDT. YOU ARE SPEAKING TO ME DIRECTLY, EVEN IF ONLY THROUGH AN INTERMEDIARY."

"That's…wow…" Mike didn't even know how to respond to Nightmarionne's revelation. "Nightmare really thought of everything, didn't he?"

"BUT OF COURSE," Nightmarionne replied smugly. "IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE RIGHT, YOU MUST DO IT YOURSELF, AFTER ALL. NIGHTMARE PLAYED THROUGH THIS VIDEO GAME AND FOUND IT THOROUGHLY LACKING, EVEN WITHOUT TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE FOOLISHNESS OF FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT AND GLITCHTRAP. HE HAS INTRODUCED MANY NEW FEATURES TO CORRECT THOSE FAILINGS."

"I trust him a hell of a lot more than I trust Fazbear Entertainment, that's for sure," Mike commented dryly. "Though I will say that the actual game itself wasn't that bad, once you cut out all the bullshit."

"PERHAPS," Nightmarionne conceded. "I WONDER IF YOU WILL BE ABLE TO TRIUMPH OVER OUR NEW LEVELS IN A TIMELY MANNER." Mike could hear the anticipation in the demon lord's voice. "WE WILL FIND OUT SOON ENOUGH."

"Our?" Mike's ears had picked up on that one word. "How many of you are in this game?"

Amusement flashed in the demon's eyes, and Mike could have sworn the fanged smile on Nightmarionne's face grew larger. "YOU'LL BE INTRODUCED TO MOST OF OUR FAMILY, SCHMIDT!" he declared cheerfully. "THOSE OF US WHO HAVE NOT TRAVELLED ON THE SURFACE WORLD HAVE BEEN EAGER TO MEET WITH YOU FOR A LONG TIME INDEED. NIGHTMARE INFORMED THEM THAT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WILL BE PLAYING THIS GAME, SO THEY ARE READY TO COMMUNICATE ONCE THEIR LEVELS HAVE BEEN UNLOCKED."

"Great," Mike deadpanned. "Can't wait. So what do I have to do here, survive to 6 AM and keep you out of the bedroom?"

"…AN ACCURATE, IF OVERSIMPLISTIC SUMMARIZATION OF YOUR TASK," Nightmarionne agreed. "AND AS MUCH AS I RESPECT YOU, SCHMIDT, I DON'T INTEND TO GIVE YOU A FREE WIN, SO…"

Mike's eyes widened. "Wait, WHAT?" But before he could do anything, Nightmarionne lunged at his face, his roar a distorted combination of shrill radio static and a monstrous howl as he reached out towards him with his sharp, tendril-like fingers. The entire room dissolved into static as Nightmarionne's laughter echoed around him. "You son of a bitch!" Mike exclaimed in disbelief as he found himself at the Game Over screen.

"Screw you, dickhead, I'm going to beat your sorry ass level!" Mike swore as he restarted the level. When he arrived back at the bedroom, this time it was completely deserted. For several seconds, the bedroom stayed in complete silence. Then, instead of Nightmarionne entering the room like he had before, the familiar music box of the Marionette began to echo around him.

"Let's dance," Mike muttered. He couldn't really pinpoint where the music box was coming from, so he opted to randomly go to the left door first. He couldn't see anything in the black void outside, and when he shined the flashlight there was nobody in the hallway. "Oh crap, he's on the other side, isn't he?" Mike mumbled as he rushed to the other door. He ran across the room to the right door, and when he peered out into the darkness this time he could see two pinpricks of white light that matched Nightmarionne's eyes perfectly. Remembering what Michael had had to do when he had dealt with the Nightmares, Mike closed the door and held it shut.

His relief at blocking off Nightmarionne in time was short-lived, however, as he could hear a sound almost like a splash in the bedroom itself. Still keeping the door shut, he turned around to face the interior of the bedroom…and was horrified to discover that Nightmarionne's black tentacle fingers were slithering out of the side of the bed closest to him. "What the FUCK?" Mike exclaimed as he quickly shined his flashlight on the area of the tentacles, the only thing he could think of to get rid of them. To his immense relief, the tentacles withdrew into the bed, but it was still one of the most disturbing things he had seen in his life.

The only response to his exclamation was Nightmarionne's ghoulish laugh. With the tentacles gone, Mike peeked out the door and saw that there was nobody outside. "Okay…" Mike thought to himself as he rushed to the left door, where he could see Nightmarionne's eyes out in the darkness of the hallway again. "…okay…I think I see how to play this game. I think I can beat this."

He shut the door, and immediately turned around to see more tentacles crawling out, this time from the back of the bed behind the pillow. "I know enough about tentacle hentai to guess where this is going," Mike joked as he shined the flashlight on Nightmarionne's tendrils, "and that's going to be a hard pass from me."

"I REALLY HOPE YOUR CHILDREN DON'T KNOW WHAT TENTACLE HENTAI IS," Nightmarionne couldn't resist the urge to comment from out of the shadows. Mike rolled his eyes and opened the door to check for Nightmarionne again. This time, the demon was there, having opted to attack from the same side twice this time around.

"First off, no they don't. Second, nice try," Mike smirked as he slammed the door in Nightmarionne's face and turned around to deal with the tentacles. His smirk faded slightly when he realized that the tentacles were coming out of two places now, out of both sides of the bed. "I see how it is…" Mike muttered. It took him longer to get rid of both of them this time around since he had to swerve the light between the two areas, and when he got rid of them both Nightmarionne was gone from the left door.

Mike's boast at the beginning of the level proper had been more prophetic than he had realized, for the game between him and Nightmarionne really was a dance of sorts. The demon would attempt to invade his room through one of the doors, and Mike would run to the appropriate door and close it to block the demon off, after which he would shine his flashlight in the bedroom to prevent Nightmarionne's tentacles from fully extending out and ruining his run that way. After which he would quickly check the door again to make sure that Nightmarionne wasn't attempting to pull a fast one on him by approaching the same door twice before either shutting it again or moving to the other side depending on what he did or did not see.

Like Charlie before him, Mike couldn't help but be impressed by the detail and animation that had gone into the game (even if part of that was likely due to the fact that Nightmarionne had directly entered the construct of himself). Nightmarionne was almost snakelike in his movements, especially with the way his elongated fingers flailed about in the air, while the way he stealthily and silently approached the door gave Mike the impression of a slithering snake about to strike at its food, or an expert predator about to get the drop on its prey. The tentacles inside the room itself were also fluid and disturbingly serpentine, almost as though they carried an unnatural life of their own. Nightmarionne's level was a different kind of atmosphere than he had played in the other Five Nights at Freddy's games, but no less disturbing in its own way, and certainly worthy to join in the ranks of the other levels in this VR game.

There were other things that Mike noticed in the level. There was an alarm clock situated on the drawer that showed the time, and the hours seemed to pass by incredibly quickly. One minute it had been 1 AM, and after a surprisingly short amount of time it was already 3 AM. Mike didn't know how long each in-game hour was, but it was less than a minute, he was absolutely certain of that. More pressingly, Mike soon realized that the bed wasn't the only place the tentacles to extend from. Nightmarionne's tentacles were also extending from a hole in the ceiling and even the open closet, which Mike couldn't navigate to. At first, the tentacles only extended from 1 or 2 places at a time, but as time passed they started to extend from even 3 or 4 places at once, meaning that Mike would end up taking more time to clear them out before checking the door.

"I COME WITH THE COLD EMBRACE OF DEATH," Nightmarionne growled from the shadows. "LET US TASTE IT AGAIN, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN!"

"Are you…saying random threats for the ambience?" Mike asked incredulously as he blocked the demon lord from the right door.

"I AM INDEED," Nightmarionne replied proudly. "HOW WAS THAT ONE?"

"That one was pretty solid, I have to admit," Mike acknowledged as he blocked the tentacles from the closet, the ceiling, and the right side of the bed.

5 AM seemed to arrive in a blur, and Mike was starting to think that he was going to have a fairly easy first try win against Nightmarionne. So, naturally, the demon lord decided to amplify the difficulty in the last hour and make things as hard as possible for Mike. Mike closed the left door to block off Nightmarionne…only to turn around and see that the demon lord's tentacles were snaking out from all five possible locations at the same time.

"What the hell is this?" Mike exclaimed in disbelief.

"THIS IS A NIGHTMARE THAT YOU WILL NOT WAKE FROM," Nightmarionne's voice echoed, and this time Mike was 100% sure the demon lord was mocking him.

"Damn it…" Mike groaned as he swerved his flashlight across the room, trying to force the tentacles to retract. To his consternation, it seemed as though he wasn't focusing the light on them for long enough, for whenever he failed to make them retract completely, they would elongate and stretch out into the room once again. It took several seconds for Mike to get rid of them completely, and he knew he was in a dangerous position. Once he had finally gotten rid of the tentacles, he checked the left hallway…

…and it was empty.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Mike groaned. He raced towards the right door…and was greeted with Nightmarionne's face lunging at him from out of nowhere, reaching out towards him with his fingers as he let out the same garbled roar that he had the first time he had jumpscared him.

"DAMMIT!" Mike cursed as the screen dissolved into static. "I was so close!"

"A COMMENDABLE EFFORT FOR YOUR FIRST ATTEMPT, SCHMIDT, TO BE SURE," Nightmarionne's voice acknowledged as he was taken to the Game Over screen. "BUT YOU WERE FOUND WANTING IN THE END."

"Let's go again!" Mike demanded as he pressed the restart button. "I'm not gonna lose a second time!"

"WE SHALL SEE…" Nightmarionne hissed as the bedroom reloaded and the level began again. This time, Mike had a solid strategy for how to counter Nightmarionne's attempts to invade the room, and he began to implement it immediately. "THE NIGHTMARE IS ONLY JUST BEGINNING," the demon lord taunted as Mike closed the right door in his face and scanned the room to banish his tentacles.

"Oh, really?" Mike countered. "Too bad it won't last for more than a few minutes." Just like he had for all of the FNaF games he had played in the past, Mike fell into the necessary routine and strategy that he would need to defeat Nightmarionne. Approaching the correct door that Nightmarionne was trying to attack, shutting it in his face, and then forcing the tentacles back into the dark corners from whence they had come. Mike had also become more efficient with his flashlight, moving it more quickly between Nightmarionne's possible attack locations in the bedroom to repulse his tentacles faster. This allowed Mike to check the hallways for Nightmarionne more quickly and readjust his location accordingly.

"This isn't so bad," Mike thought, a confident smirk growing across his face. Time seemed to blur as he played his little game with Nightmarionne, and before he knew it the in-game clock hit 5 AM again.

"Am I going to see the tentacles everywhere again?" Mike wondered aloud as he saw Nightmarionne's glowing white eyes in the right hallway and shut the door on his face. He turned around to see that Nightmarionne's tentacles were indeed slithering out of all 3 bed locations, the ceiling, and the closet. "Yep, figured as much."

"DEATH CANNOT SAVE YOU FROM THE SUFFERING THAT IS TO COME," Nightmarionne hissed, and Mike had to admit that his tone was just as menacing as Nightmare's. And unlike him, most people wouldn't know that the demonic puppet actually had an amicable personality underneath the terrifying façade.

Still, he wasn't going to lose again, not when he was so close. Mike scanned the flashlight all across the room, repelling the tentacles from multiple areas at a time, and this time his movements were speedy and efficient enough that he was able to banish all of the tentacles from the room much more quickly than he had last time. He checked the right hallway, found it empty, and rushed to the left door, where he could see Nightmarionne's white eyes much closer to the door than they had been in his previous attempts to invade the room. Still, Mike had made it in time, and it was with no small amount of satisfaction that the man shut the door in the demon lord's face. He turned around and saw all of the tentacles creeping out of the crevices again, and once again repulsed them all with increased efficiency. When he peered out into the hallway, he saw that Nightmarionne was still in the left hallway, attempting to attack the same door twice.

"Either you tried to pull a fast one on me, or you're running out of ideas," Mike commented as he slammed the door again. As he turned around to repel the tentacle fingers gain, the entire room suddenly disappeared into black, save for the now-familiar 5 AM to 6 AM transition and the alarm bell of the Westminster chimes.

"WELL DONE," Nightmarionne congratulated out of the darkness. "I HAD HIGH EXPECTATIONS OF YOU, AND YOU DID NOT DISAPPOINT. STILL," his voice carried a degree of smugness in it. "YOU ARE WELL-VERSED IN THE ARTS OF SURVIVAL AND STRATEGY IN SITUATIONS SUCH AS THESE, AND EVEN THEN YOU FAILED ONCE. I CAN ONLY IMAGINE HOW THOSE LESS EXPERIENCED THAN YOU WILL FARE IN MY LEVEL…AND IN MY BROTHER'S."

"You're definitely gonna catch a few people off-guard," Mike conceded as the Prize Won room appeared in front of him, "that I have no doubt about." He turned the prize box handle in front of him and was rewarded with, perhaps fittingly, a Nightmarionne action figure. "Say what you want about Nightmare, but he doesn't half-ass the shit he works on," he commented aloud as he returned to the main menu screen.

His eyes fell on the other Night Terrors level that featured a new Nightmare, and he grimaced as he read Nightmare Fredbear's name. While he was fairly certain that Nightmare Fredbear wouldn't harm him, the golden bear demon's polite demeanor was clearly forced at best and completely fake at worst, and he was much less pleasant company compared to Nightmarionne.

Still, Nightmare Fredbear hadn't intimidated him when they had met before, and he wasn't going to now. Mike pushed onto the level to start it. When it loaded, he found that he was in the same bedroom as before. Heavy footsteps began to march, their location difficult to pinpoint. The left door swung open, and Nightmare Fredbear walked into the room, his red eyes focused on Mike and his mouth open in a fanged grin.

"IT HAS BEEN A WHILE SINCE WE LAST CROSSED PATHS, SCHMIDT, HASN'T IT?" Nightmare Fredbear greeted Mike. The tone seemed friendly enough, but Nightmare Fredbear set him on edge in a way that Nightmarionne hadn't.

"It has," Mike replied, keeping his tone neutral yet polite. "I've played Nightmarionne's level before I joined yours. From what I've seen so far, Nightmare's done a damn good job making these levels."

Nightmare Fredbear seemed pleased. "BUT OF COURSE," he replied, his voice far smoother and more tranquil than a demon lord's had any right to be. "THIS WAS NEVER JUST ABOUT ENSURING THAT THE THREAT OF GLITCHTRAP IN THE VR GAME WAS DESTROYED, NEVER TO RISE AGAIN, OR ABOUT FINDING ANY SECRETS THAT STILL REMAIN. THIS WAS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR NIGHTMARE TO MAKE THE PRESENCE OF OUR CLAN KNOWN TO THE WORLD, EVEN IF IT IS THROUGH THE FILTERS OF FICTION AND VIDEO GAMES. AND THOUGH YOU MAY NOT HAVE SEEN IT YOURSELF, NIGHTMARE WAS UTTERLY ENRAGED AT THE COMPREHENSIVE IDIOCIES OF FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT."

"He sure as hell wasn't happy about dealing with Fazbear Entertainment, I can tell you that," Mike commented. "But he didn't rage in the car drive on the way home or anything like that."

"HE RESPECTS YOU ENOUGH TO HAVE KEPT HIS TEMPER IN CHECK UNTIL HE DEPARTED BACK TO HELL, BUT I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT THERE ARE FEW THINGS THAT NIGHTMARE DESPISES AS MUCH AS INCOMPETENCE," Nightmare Fredbear explained. "HE DESPISES IT SO MUCH THAT HE WILL EVEN SIDE WITH THE FORCES OF GOOD AGAINST FORCES OF EVIL CONSUMED BY THEIR OWN INCOMPETENCE, PURELY OUT OF SPITE FOR THEIR FLAGRANT STUPIDITY."

"Nightmare really likes doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, doesn't he?" Mike thought, though he didn't say it out loud. So long as Nightmare wasn't doing it to cause some greater evil further down the road (something that he found highly unlikely in this case, given that he was more or less under orders from Heaven), doing the right thing for the wrong reasons was still technically doing the right thing, and he wasn't going to complain about it.

"ANYTHING THAT FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT CAN DO, NIGHTMARE CAN AND WILL DO BETTER," Nightmare Fredbear boasted. "A TRUTH THAT HE WILL REPEATEDLY PROVE THROUGH THE UPDATES THAT HE HAS MADE TO THIS GAME. NIGHTMARE IS A THOUSAND TIMES MORE COMPETENT AND INTELLIGENT THAN FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT CAN EVER HOPE TO BE."

"I'm not so sure about that."

Nightmare Fredbear's eyes blazed, and narrowed with fury. "OH?" he hissed menacingly. "YOU WOULD DARE TO CONTRADICT MY CLAIMS?"

"Only the last one," Mike retorted with a fearless smirk. "Because a thousand times zero is still zero, my dude."

Nightmare Fredbear stared at Mike uncomprehendingly for a few seconds. Then, the golden bear demon burst into laughter. "HA HA HA HA HA! HOW VERY TRUE, SCHMIDT. VERY TRUE INDEED."

"I'm sorry," Mike was snickering himself. "I just couldn't resist."

"FAIR ENOUGH," Nightmare Fredbear conceded, his fanged grin returning.

"So am I going to see all of your family soon?" Mike couldn't help but ask.

"PATIENCE, SCHMIDT…" Nightmare Fredbear hissed, though this time there was no malice in his tone, only amusement. "YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN WILL HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO BECOME ACQUAINTED WITH OUR FAMILY. BUT BEFORE WE PROCEED, THERE IS JUST ONE LAST…MINOR…DETAIL THAT WE MUST FIRST ADDRESS."

Mike's smile faded slightly. "You're about to jumpscare my ass, aren't you?" he deadpanned. "Nightmarionne did it already, no way you're not going to do the same."

Nightmare Fredbear only laughed again. "YOU KNOW US SO WELL, SCHMIDT…" he replied with dark amusement, before suddenly lunging at Mike, roaring in his face as he tried to bite him with his razor sharp fangs and tear him to pieces with his claws. Mike flinched slightly but didn't show any outright fear, as Nightmare Fredbear's attack merely covered the world around him in static and forcibly sent him over to the Game Over screen like any other Game Over would.

"WE HUNTED ONE WHO SHARED A NAME WITH YOU LONG AGO," the demon lord's voice echoed around him. "PERHAPS YOU ARE AWARE OF HIS TALE, OR EVEN THE TRIAL THAT WE FORCED HIM THROUGH TO TORMENT HIM FOR HIS FAILINGS. DO NOT THINK THAT KNOWING HIS STORY WILL GUARANTEE YOU A VICTORY," Nightmare Fredbear warned.

"I didn't count on it," Mike muttered as he restarted the level to begin his confrontation against Nightmare Fredbear. Right away, he immediately realized and understood that the golden demon bear had spoken the truth. When Michael had described Nightmare Fredbear's attack to Liz during his "Night 5" of torments (a story that Liz had told him privately later), the oldest Afton child had given her a detailed tale of how Nightmare Fredbear had rushed between the left door and the right door of his bedroom, rapid movements with distinct sounds that had allowed Michael to track where Nightmare Fredbear had been going and which door to block.

In this game, however, Nightmare Fredbear had done nothing of the sort. Instead, Mike could hear him walking in the distance with slow, methodical footsteps not unlike the ones he had heard the normal animatronics use in the FNaF 1 game. One would think that this would make Nightmare Fredbear easier to fend off…except for the fact that Mike couldn't use any distinct running noises to pinpoint the golden bear demon's location anymore. Combined with the fact that he was having a harder time tracking the directions of the footsteps with his ears than he had expected, and Nightmare Fredbear's level was suddenly more challenging than he'd expected from Michael's account.

"I think I heard them coming from the right?" Mike guessed as he made his way over to the door. He peered out into the darkness of the hallway…and was greeted with glowing red eyes approaching towards him. "Ack!" Mike exclaimed as he shut the door in front of Nightmare Fredbear, not even bothering to check with his flashlight. He didn't know what would happen if he shined the flashlight right in Nightmare Fredbear's face at the door, but it likely wasn't going to be pretty.

Mike waited tensely for a few seconds, until he heard the footsteps walk away from the door. When Mike opened the door, the red eyes were gone. He was about to move away from the door and go to the left one instead, when a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Oh crap! Nightmare Fredbear might try and trick me by falling back and then trying to attack the same door again!" He shined the flashlight down the hallway just to make sure the golden demon bear was truly gone, and was promptly rewarded for his paranoia. On the second flash, Nightmare Fredbear appeared in the hallway, marching towards him with a predatory look on his ghoulish face as his footsteps echoed in the space around them. "Think I didn't see this coming? Nice try!" Mike taunted as he slammed the door shut on Nightmare Fredbear's face, blocking him once again.

This time, when he heard the footsteps and checked the right hallway, Nightmare Fredbear was well and truly gone, even after multiple flashes. "Time to move on," Mike thought as he raced over to the opposite side of the room, the left hallway. As he approached the door, he saw the demon's glowing red eyes approach the door, and quickly shut the door in his face.

"All right," Mike muttered as he heard the footsteps, opened the door, and shined the light in the hallway to make sure Nightmare Fredbear was truly gone. "I think I'm getting the hang of this." He might not have been able to rely on Nightmare Fredbear's unique running sounds like Michael Afton had, but he could use the demon's glowing red eyes and (to a lesser degree) his footsteps to track his location and block him off accordingly.

For the next few seconds, Mike moved between the left and right doors, taking the necessary steps to keep Nightmare Fredbear out of the bedroom. The timer for Nightmare Fredbear's level seemed just as fast as Nightmarionne's, for 1 AM arrived much quicker than Mike remembered it ever arriving in any other FNaF level.

Just as he was about to wonder if this was going to be easier than Nightmarionne's level on all accounts, Nightmare Fredbear suddenly laughed menacingly, suddenly throwing his strategy off-track.

"Oh shit…" Mike briefly panicked, before forcing himself to calm down. "What does Nightmare Fredbear do when he laughs again? I think he goes either onto the bed or into the closet?" He turned around to face the bed, similarly to how he had done when he had been warding off Nightmarionne's tentacles, and shined the light on the bed. To his relief, Nightmare Fredbear's head was there, situated neatly on top of the bed, staring directly at him. Mirroring Michael's actions many years ago, Mike kept the flashlight on the golden bear demon's head even as doubts crept into his mind. Just as he was about to turn off the flashlight, Nightmare Fredbear's head disappeared, and footsteps started echoing outside of the bedroom again.

"Thank God…" Mike muttered as he checked the left hallway and, seeing that nobody was there, moved to the right door instead. As he went through the motions, he couldn't help but dwell on how different the atmosphere was compared to Nightmarionne's level. Unlike Nightmarionne, there was no ambience whatsoever that permeated through the room like the Marionette's music box theme, and unlike Nightmarionne,'s taunts Nightmare Fredbear had so far been completely silent throughout their game. It likely had to do with the fact that Mike was aware of both Nightmarionne's and Nightmare Fredbear's true personalities, but the sheer, complete and utter silence made Nightmare Fredbear's level disconcerting in a way that Nightmarionne's hadn't been.

At least Nightmare Fredbear didn't have any tentacles, though. Then Mike would have several questions that he really didn't want to know the answer to.

Mike continued to his play his game with Nightmare Fredbear at the doors for a bit longer, as 2 AM and then 3 AM passed by. Then, suddenly, he heard Nightmare Fredbear's laughter again. "Ah, shit," Mike groaned as he realized he'd need to look around for the golden bear demon again. He held the left door tightly shut and then swiveled around to face the bed, hoping that Nightmare Fredbear's head would be on it again. Unfortunately, it seemed that Nightmare Fredbear wasn't feeling so generous this time around, as the bed remained empty.

"Oh, great, where the hell is he now?" Mike groaned. Thinking furiously, he vaguely recalled Michael telling Liz that he'd need to check either the bed or the closet. Deciding that this was as good of a place as any to check, he rushed over to the closet. There was nothing he could see in the darkness of the closet, and when he checked it with the lights the closet itself was completely empty.

"Wait, what?" Mike exclaimed. "Then where the hell are you?" He heard footsteps coming from his left, and when he turned to face the door his heart sank. Nightmare Fredbear was entering the bedroom, his glowing red eyes glaring right at him, and once he had cleared the doorway he started marching towards Mike with a ravenous expression on his face, clawed hands outstretched as though he couldn't wait to tear him to pieces and devour him.

"Fuck," was all the man had time to say before Nightmare Fredbear jumpscared him, roaring and clawing at him as he forced Mike over to the Game Over screen.

"SURELY YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT," Nightmare Fredbear's voice taunted him mockingly from the shadows. "MY BROTHER SPEAKS SO HIGHLY OF YOU, SCHMIDT. IF THAT IS ALL YOU CAN OFFER, HE WOULD BE UTTERLY DISAPPOINTED WITH YOUR PERFORMANCE."

"Yeah yeah, I fucked up," Mike grumbled. "But I'm not done yet! I beat Nightmarionne's level on my second try, and I'm going to beat yours too!"

"THEN COME, AND FACE ME AGAIN!" Nightmare Fredbear challenged. Mike did exactly that, pressing the restart button to send him back to the bedroom. When Mike heard the demon bear's footsteps start, he immediately stepped into action. This time, he actually ended up going to the wrong doorway by accident at first, but was fortunately able to reposition himself properly and block the proper door in time to successfully recover from his mistake.

By now, Mike was already very familiar with how to fend off Nightmare Fredbear from the doors, and so he didn't have anything to worry about until Nightmare Fredbear laughed his demonic and unholy laugh, this time at around 2 AM. Making sure to keep the left door closed, Mike checked the bed, which once again had nothing on it. This time, he made sure that the left hallway was indeed empty before moving to the closet. And when he approached the closet, he was rewarded with Nightmare Fredbear's red eyes staring down at him from the darkness. Mike almost turned on the flashlight, but remembering Michael's words at the last minute, closed the closet doors and held them shut instead. A few seconds later, he was rewarded with Nightmare Fredbear's footsteps in the hallway again, a sign that he had fended off this attack successfully.

"Oh, thank God…" Mike muttered as he went back to his vigil at the doors. He proceeded to hold off Nightmare Fredbear for 2 more in-game hours, and nothing significant occurred until around 4 AM, when he heard Nightmare Fredbear's laughter again. This time, when he checked the bed with the flashlight, the demon lord's head was on it again, and he kept the light on it until it vanished. "Well, that was easy," Mike deadpanned, going back to his routine.

He was growing ever more confident that this run would be a success, a confidence that only increased as the in-game time hit 5 AM. He was so close to victory…

…until Nightmare Fredbear laughed for the third time.

"Oh, come the FUCK on!" Mike exclaimed. This was the one thing he didn't want to hear, not when he was so close to winning. He checked the bed with the flashlight to make sure that Nightmare Fredbear's head hadn't teleported there, and as he had guessed, the golden bear demon wouldn't make it so easy. Remembering the mistake that he had made the first time, Mike let go of the right door…and was rewarded with Nightmare Fredbear's glowing red eyes greeting him from the shadows. "You thought I was gonna fall for that again?" Mike taunted, slamming the door shut again. "Eat shit!"

The sound of footsteps echoed in the distance, proof that Mike had successfully deflected Nightmare Fredbear's feint. His satisfaction only increased when the entire screen turned black, and he was greeted with the welcome sight of 5 AM turning to 6 AM in front of him.

"PERHAPS NIGHTMARE GAVE YOU THE CREDIT YOU DESERVE AFTER ALL," Nightmare Fredbear's voice acknowledged. "A PITY THAT NIGHTMARE ELECTED NOT TO INCLUDE HIMSELF IN THIS GAME. HE WOULD GIVE YOU A CHALLENGE THAT WOULD PUSH EVEN ONE AS EXPERIENCED AS YOU TO YOUR VERY LIMITS."

"I don't doubt that," Mike replied evenly.

"STILL, YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE CHALLENGE," the demon lord's voice faded. "CLAIM YOUR PRIZE AS YOU SEE FIT."

"I most certainly will," the man agreed as the victory room and the prize box appeared in front of him. Mike cranked the handle, and when it opened, he was greeted with a Pirate Plunderbar with Foxy on it. "A candy bar for all that," Mike deadpanned as he transported himself back to the main level hub. "Thanks for nothing."

Once he was back in the main level hub, he switched over from the Night Terrors levels to the Dark Rooms levels, the only other levels in the main game that contained Nightmares of some kind. He gave the two levels "Plushtrap" and "Nightmare B.B." a closer look. The first one looked as if Springtrap had a Nightmare baby, and the latter was a deranged-look B.B. with a wide jaw filled with razor sharp fangs.

"You know what?" he decided. "I'll let one of the kids play this one." He turned the VR headset off and took it off, looking over at his kids. "I'm fairly certain by now that the Nightmare levels are safe to play," he commented. "The demons have actually taken over their counterparts in the game itself so that they can speak with us."

The ghost kids' eyes widened. "Really?" Charlie asked incredulously. Her tone betrayed a certain nervousness. She didn't feel entirely comfortable with the idea of interacting with multiple Nightmares, and she could tell she wasn't the only one either.

"Yeah," Mike confirmed with a shrug, "but like I said, there's nothing particularly wrong with any of the levels. Anybody wants to play one?"

"I will!" Rockstar Bonnie volunteered. Mike shrugged and handed the VR headset over to the bunny animatronic, who promptly put the VR head set on him. Within the game world itself, Jeremy looked over the level selection screen, noticing how Mike had already set it up so that the Dark Rooms levels were ready for him to play.

"I guess I'll do the Plushtrap one first?" Jeremy decided as he pressed the level with his finger. The instructions seemed to be relatively simple: use the flashlight to force Plushtrap to land on the giant X. "I hope the game makes it clear what that means," he thought as he entered the level…and found himself surrounded by darkness.

Actually, that wasn't quite true. Jeremy could just make out that he was in a hallway of some kind, though the hallway looked like it was part of a house not too dissimilar from the hallway in the second floor of Mike's own home. And now that Jeremy was looking at the hallway itself, he realized that one of the rooms in the Pizza Party maze (the one with two doors to each side and one in front) had been reconfigured to look somewhat like this hallway.

"Hey!" an irritated voice interrupted his thoughts. "Are you going to just stand there or are we going to play?"

Jeremy snapped back to reality, focusing his attention on the area covered in shadows right in front of him. "Are you…Plushtrap?" he asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, that's me. Now shine that light on me so we can start playing this game! I don't feel like sitting on this chair forever!" the voice (which presumably belonged to Plushtrap) replied.

"Wait…why aren't you going after me already?" Jeremy wondered.

"Because I can't get off this chair and start moving to attack you until you actually shine the flashlight on me. Now hurry up so we can get the timer counting down and I can try to attack you already!" Plushtrap ordered irritably.

"Geez, just give me a sec!" the former Bonnie inhabitant grumbled shined his flashlight in front of him, revealing a plushie-sized animatronic sitting on a wooden chair. The animatronic honestly reminded him of Springtrap, being based on a Spring Bonnie and having the same coloration as him. However, his eyes were different than Springtrap's, and the mouth full of sharp fangs spoke for itself.

"Finally, we can get going!" Plushtrap declared. "You know the rules, right?"

"Uhhhh…I think so?" Jeremy ventured. "I have to shine the flashlight when you're over the white X on the floor."

"Good, you're not an idiot," the "kid" Nightmare commented. "I probably shouldn't be telling you this since I'm technically helping you, but I don't want you shining that light in my goddamn face all day so I'll throw in a little tip. I only move when it's dark. If that flashlight is on, I ain't moving. Now turn it off so we can actually get the game started already."

"All right, all right!" Jeremy muttered as he released his finger from the flashlight button. It was only then that he noticed a timer in the top right corner of the room, a timer that started at 90 and was now counting downwards. Nothing happened for a few seconds, but then Jeremy heard footsteps moving towards him. First one, and then two. Jeremy was tempted to shine the light immediately, but given the large amount of time he had left he doubted that Plushtrap would try and go for the X right on the get-go. His thoughts were further supported by the next sound he heard, a scurrying sound that seemed to go from left to right. Jeremy turned on the flashlight after the scurrying ended, and was greeted with the sight of Plushtrap retracting his head into the more distant right doorway with almost inhumane speed.

"Well, he's getting closer, at least," the former Bonnie inhabitant thought. He turned off the flashlight, and after a few seconds he heard two more footsteps. Staving off the temptation to flash his light again, he waited until he heard another set of scurrying footsteps, this time going from right to left, before shining the light again. This time, Plushtrap ducked his head behind the near left doorway, a doorway that happened to be very close to the white X that was Jeremy's target.

"Come on…I just need you to get a little closer…" Jeremy thought as he shut off the light, his mind filled with both anticipation and nervousness. He had a feeling that Plushtrap was getting very close, and that soon he would need to pull the trigger to force him on the white X. He heard one footstep, then two…and shined the flashlight during that second step.

Plushtrap was sitting on the white X, looking utterly dejected as the words "Great!" hung above him. "Aww…you've gotta be shitting me!" he whined. "The first try? You got it in the first try?"

Jeremy grinned. "I've learned from the best," he declared.

"That doesn't even make sense!" Plushtrap retorted. "Your dad didn't even do anything like this during his night shifts!"

"To be honest, I just got lucky," Jeremy admitted. "I was going to flash either your second step after you ran across the room the second time or any step you took after. Thank God I went with the first one."

"Yeah, yeah," Plushtrap sulked as the game started to fade to black. "Go take your prize. God, Nightmare B.B.'s never gonna let me hear the end of it…"

"Thanks," Jeremy rolled his eyes as he arrived back at the prize corner. When he opened the prize box, he was rewarded with a Freddy bobblehead. "Not terrible, I guess…" he muttered as he returned to the main menu screen. He looked at the Nightmare B.B. level critically. He hadn't really been paying attention before he had joined the Plushtrap level, but the Nightmare B.B. level icon had the aforementioned Nightmare also sitting on a stool. "It doesn't look all THAT different from the Plushtrap level," he mumbled as he entered the level.

Sure enough, when the level loaded, the hallway he had been in before came back. "Hello?" Jeremy called out, wondering if Nightmare B.B. would speak with him like Plushtrap had. "Anybody out there?"

"Heh heh heh…" a deep yet raspy laugh greeted him from the darkness, most certainly not the high-pitched laugh from the normal Balloon Boy. "I have to say…seeing Plushtrap bitch and moan about you beating his level on the first try was hilarious. Thanks for the comedy."

"You're…welcome…I guess…" Jeremy mumbled. "Does this game play like Plushtrap's?"

"More or less," Nightmare B.B. confirmed. "But you've put me in a good mood, so I'll let you in on a little secret first. Shine that flashlight up at the light in the ceiling."

Jeremy followed Nightmare B.B.'s instructions. When he did so, something fell out of the light and onto the ground, and he picked it up. It looked like a blue outline of a Faz coin, though the actual coin wasn't there.

"If you were playing this the first time, you'd get a Faz token from that light after you shined the flashlight on it. Uncle Nightmare already made it so that all the tokens were gotten in the game though, just to make things easier on himself," Nightmare B.B. explained.

Jeremy decided to ignore the surreal and bizarre feeling that hearing the words "Uncle Nightmare" gave him. "Thanks. That's actually kinda cool."

"Cool. Now I'm sick of waiting. Hurry up and shine that light on me so we can actually get this shit started," The polite tone in Nightmare B.B.'s voice had vanished, and Jeremy could hear the sneer through the darkness. Still, he had no reason to do otherwise, so he shined the flashlight on Nightmare B.B. Though his appearance might have been similar to the original Balloon Boy, the differences were fairly obvious. Nightmare B.B. didn't hold a sign or balloons in his hands, which had transformed from the tiny stubs into complete hands with sharp claws for fingers. The nightmare version of B.B. also had a much larger head than the original, with his eyes blood red instead of blue (though thankfully they seemed to be "normal" eyes instead of demonic ones like Nightmare's) and a huge jaw filled with razor sharp fangs. Nightmare B.B. was seated on the stool just like Plushtrap had been, looking straight back at him. For some reason, Nightmare B.B. seemed to be the only Nightmare so far that seemed relatively pristine and undamaged in appearance, compared to the grotesque, twisted or mutilated forms of the other Nightmares he had seen.

"Let the game begin," Nightmare B.B. cackled as Jeremy shut off the light and the timer started counting down.

Jeremy grimaced as he waited for Nightmare B.B. to make his move. At first, he thought the game would be identical to Plushtrap's, as he heard footsteps similar to Plushtrap's. Then, as he was listening for the scurrying sounds, he heard Nightmare B.B. let out a laugh, a similar sound to the original B.B.'s except much deeper and more distorted.

"The heck?" Jeremy exclaimed, so taken off-guard by the sudden sound that he almost missed Nightmare B.B. scurrying from right to left. "Oh, I see what's happening…" Jeremy realized. "There's extra sounds from Nightmare B.B. to throw me off." He focused his attention on the footsteps, ignoring the distorted "Hello?" that came from Nightmare B.B., and was able to catch the animatronic running from left to right even as he let out another twisted laugh.

"Almost there…" he thought. He heard one footstep, a deep "Hi?", another footstep, and flashed…

…only to be greeted with Nightmare B.B. roaring right into his face, biting at his face and clawing at him with his hands. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Agggghhhhh!" Jeremy exclaimed, nearly leaping into the air as the entire hallway dissolved into static. Nightmare B.B.'s laughter echoed around him, mocking his failure and his death in the game.

"Flash that light all you want. It can't save you now! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Urrggghhh…I'm gonna get back at you for this!" Jeremy promised. He restarted the level, determined not to fail again. This time, Nightmare B.B. didn't greet him with any words, and Jeremy didn't waste any time in flashing the child animatronic and starting the game again. He repeated the same actions that he did the first time, focusing on Nightmare B.B.'s footsteps and ignoring the other sounds that the animatronic made from his mouth, until Nightmare B.B. ran across the room a second time.

Clearly, waiting for Nightmare B.B. to make two steps after his second rush across the room was too late, so the point where he landed on the white X was at some point earlier. Jeremy waited until Nightmare B.B. made a single step, then after about one and a half seconds, he shined the flashlight.

And was with Nightmare B.B. slumped down, right over the white X. His expression was similar to Plushtrap's in that he looked almost dejected at his loss, only here it looked much more pronounced. The "Great!" hanging above Nightmare B.B.'s head seemed to only confirm that victory.

"Aww, come on!" Nightmare B.B. whined. "I thought I'd be able to get you one more time!"

"Well, you were wrong, weren't you?" Jeremy countered, expressing more bravado in his voice than he actually felt. If he was completely honest with himself, he'd gotten completely lucky with catching Nightmare B.B. on the white X a second time. All he'd known for sure was that waiting for two footsteps after the second scurry was too long, and he'd only had a hunch that one footstep would still be too early. He'd flashed the light after the final footstep completely at random, and it had only been by pure chance that he'd done so at the right moment.

"You might have gotten lucky this time," Nightmare B.B. retorted. "But it won't save you against the rest of us!" The child Nightmare let out an irritated sigh. "At least I did better than Plushtrap…" he muttered as the room faded to black.

Jeremy shook his head in bemusement, unable to do think of anything to say as the victory room appeared. When he cranked the handle this time, he was rewarded with something somewhat unusual. A large pumpkin with an elongated head that was clearly a Jack-o-Lantern of some kind, its insides glowing with a fiery orange light. The expression carved into its face almost made it look like Bonnie, but Jeremy couldn't tell if he was simply imagining things.

"Is this a prize from the new stuff that Nightmare put into the game?" he wondered. From what he could remember, the majority of the stuff that Nightmare had brought into the VR game was completely new content, and he definitely didn't remember seeing anything related to Halloween or Jack-o-lanterns in any part of the game he'd played so far. "It looks pretty cool, I guess," he admitted as he returned to the main level hub.

Once he had returned, he quickly scanned through the levels, both normal and Blacklight, trying to see if there were any other levels including Nightmares that he had missed. A quick investigation revealed that, apart from the Blacklight versions of the two levels that he had just played, the only other Nightmare levels so far were ones that Mike had already played before him.

Jeremy couldn't help but reflect on his interactions with the two Nightmare…children, for lack of a better descriptive term for him to come up with. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting; Nightmarionne had been downright friendly in every interaction he'd had with them, whereas Nightmare and Nightmare Fredbear's personalities were closer to what he would have expected from a demon lord. Maybe it was only because they were children, but Plushtrap and Nightmare B.B. had both been shockingly…human…in how they behaved.

Granted, it was entirely possible (and honestly pretty likely) that they were hiding away the worst characteristics that they'd gleefully indulge in Hell, and/or that Nightmare had ordered them to behave to avoid accidentally hurting someone and pissing off Heaven. But still…

"Maybe this won't be as bad as we thought," Jeremy commented, before adding with a humorless chuckle, "at least I don't have to worry about any of the Nightmares biting my face off or trying to possess people." He shook his head in exasperation and sighed. "God, how screwed up is this whole thing that literal demons have to come in and fix the mess…"

/

A/N: Well, if you were wondering why this chapter took two weeks to come out, there's your answer.

I'm honestly shocked by how long this chapter turned out to be. I thought tackling the Nightmarionne, Nightmare Fredbear, Plushtrap, and Nightmare B.B. levels would only take a couple of pages, maybe around 13-15. It ended up being 19 pages on Word, and less than a thousand away from the 10K word mark. Holy crap.

I'm not going to go into great detail on the strategies that I used for each level again, I already described them with fairly significant detail in the chapter itself and you can figure them out on your own. If you're still having trouble, watch DJ Sterf's videos, he was one of the main inspirations that I used when I played through and completed these levels.

I hope you like the Nightmare's personalities so far! Nightmarionne and Nightmare Fredbear you were already familiar with, but Plushtrap and Nightmare B.B. are new. And despite being demons, I gave them childlike and surprisingly human personalities since, you know…they're technically kids.

Lastly, I'm not gonna go into great detail on the Blacklight versions, I'll probably spend at most a page on them in the next chapter. Why? Because we're finally about to reach Curse of Dreadbear officially! I hope you are as excited as I am, even if I need to take a bit of a break after writing a chapter that ended up being this long.

That's all I have for now. Hope you guys enjoyed!