The Butcher's Traps

Chapter 6: Monsters

Charlie and Mike were ripped from sleep by the loud shattering of glass. Mike, who had been in a lighter doze, roused faster and leapt to his feet.

"What was that?!" he exclaimed. He could hear more cracking and scratching and ran for the kitchen door to see what was trying to get in. One look at the arm reaching inside caused his blood to run cold.

It wasn't the hand of a burglar but something entirely inhuman. Matted, dirty fabric stretched over a boney frame in place of skin, larger than any human's. Blades like claws tore out of the tips and were at least six inches in length, digging into the wood of the door as it tried to feel for the handle. Its arm was thick and tears in the fabric revealed glimpses of dull metal underneath.

There was no doubt about it now; they were being terrorized by an animatronic, and a gruesome one from the design of its hand alone.

Suddenly Mike was grabbed by the arm and yanked back into the living room by the Puppet. It snapped him out of his daze at seeing what was trying to break into his apartment. "Do you see that thing?!"

"What is it?!" Charlie asked in equal panic. Even though she hadn't seen it, she could hear it breaking in and see how the others were reacting. She knew it was serious and yanked her boots on over her pajama pants and her jacket over her t-shirt, barely prepared for whatever was coming. She barely had enough time to grab her bag before Mike ran for the front door.

"Some kind of animatronic mutant- Come on, we've got to get the hell out of here! It's almost through!" he yelled. He had watched the clawed hand close on the doorhandle and break it off with minimal effort. He knew that there was no way to stop whatever was coming in and instead threw open the front door and prepared to run out. He barely caught himself before he could step down on a bear trap. "What?!"

On closer inspection, and Mike didn't get much of one, the beartrap was not a traditional one. The metal prongs that stretched out from the trigger in the middle were shaped like endoskeleton fingers, each ending with a jutting blade like the ones on the creature breaking in the back door. Charlie came up behind him and saw it as well, eyes widening in horror.

"God almighty," Mike choked. He carefully lowered his foot beside the bear trap before giving a sweeping kick and sliding it across the porch. "I could've lost a foot just then!"

Charlie took in the strange shape of the bear trap and noticed the chain attached to it. She followed it across the porch, across the yard, and into the large hole sitting in the center of the yard.

Suddenly the backdoor splintered and in a second Charlie and Mike were deafened by a blare of distorted music and static, then were shoved out the door by the source of said noise, Sammy. He was just as panicked as they were and yanked the door closed behind them, if only to buy them a few seconds. They had to get to the car.

Before Mike could rush off the porch, Charlie grabbed him by the arm and firmly warned him, "Don't get close to that hole!" Up until then he hadn't seen it and he clenched his teeth once he realized it was there.

"Yeah, no problems here," he said. He then stepped down from the porch and began to cautiously step out into the yard. He looked around the edges of the house to make sure they wouldn't get ambushed by anything else and then began to walk past the hole. He gave it a wide berth but looked towards it warily and thought he saw something inside.

Charlie took one look at Sammy and knew he was panicking. Not only was that noise still coming from him, a frantic mess of chimes and mechanical whirrs, but he was twitching and staring down the front door like he was waiting for something to come out. Charlie grabbed his wrist and led him down the steps. He turned to watch the door but followed her without resistance.

They had only just started to cross the yard when Mike finally made out what he was seeing. He swore and broke into a sprint, calling over his shoulder, "The hole has teeth!"

Right as Charlie was running past and close enough to see, the hole exploded in dirt as something burst out of the ground. She staggered into the grass as she watched a hulking mass climb out of the ground. Both she and Sammy stared in equal horror at what had been buried underneath the ground and now climbed to its feet.

It stood at least seven feet tall with a frame so wide that it nearly blocked the streetlight's glow. Its body was thick with dirt, but as clumps fell away it revealed old, moldy fabric underneath of a gruesome greenish-brown color. One arm ended in a bizarrely shaped claw that matched the bear trap and the other, predictably, ended in the chain leading to the porch.

Through a gaping hole in its chest both could see a mechanism of coiled chain. As it staggered to its feet, the mechanism activated and reeled the bear trap over where it latched in at its wrist, revealing it as a second deformed hand. As horrifying as it was to piece together that the bear trap was part of the animatronic, it was nothing compared to its face.

It resembled Freddy in a general sense and was only recognizable because of their history with it. Its eyes were beady and black dots with the fabric around them hanging down like bags, revealing a glimpse of its endoskeleton skull underneath. Its mouth was massive and hung wide open to reveal a dark crater inside. Dirt clumps falling out between razor sharp teeth- shaped like teeth but resembling razor blades.

It occurred to Charlie then that it wasn't supposed to styled like a bear, or Freddy. It was styled like a living, walking bear trap.

It let out a deep groan that echoed through its gaping mouth and charged them. Charlie spun on her heel to run only to be shoved so harshly that she staggered, but not by Bear Trap Freddy. She looked back in time to see Sammy leap for the animatronic, hitting it full force in its gaping chest. The bear swung its arms closed over him in a hug, but he slipped down through its grasp and crawled around its legs.

"Sammy!" Charlie cried. She could only watch with dread as he narrowly missed another swing of the bear's claws, watching as he continued to circle through and around his legs. She only realized what he was doing once she saw light glistening off one of his strings. All the while he played music that resembled a quick tempo version of Pop Goes the Weasel.

"Charlie, get in the car!" Mike yelled. He had gotten into his car and started it up, and with hers trapped it looked like they would be using that to escape.

When she turned to him, she realized he was looking back at the apartment. She looked back as she ran and could see a large mass in the living room window. It had torn down the curtains but she still had trouble making out what it was, save that it looked to also be a bear. She leapt into the passenger's seat and called for her brother, "Sammy! Come on!"

Sammy worked even faster and slid through Bear Trap Freddy's legs one more time before crawling out onto the grass beside the hole. He tightened his strings before springing backwards towards the monstrosity and knocked it off its feet and onto its face. He rolled off quickly and began to untangle his strings.

There was another crash as the front window was shattered and with is Sammy felt that invasive feeling return stronger than ever. It was a pounding pulsing in his head that immediately filled him with panic. He fumbled with his strings, barely able to hear Charlie's calls over his frantic music, and not daring to look up at whatever was crawling through the window.

Finally, he detached himself and rushed to the car right as Charlie was getting back out to help him. She quickly opened the backseat door and he dove inside. She shut it, dropped back in, and slammed the door shut right as Mike peeled into reverse and tore off down the street.

Adrenaline was racing for everyone, even the one who didn't have it. Charlie struggled with the seatbelt with how her hands were shaking and pulled down the visor to see behind the car. She caught one last glimpse of the second bear before Mike peeled around the corner and drove off into the night. She took a deep breath and angled the mirror down towards her brother.

"Sam-Sammy, are you okay?" she asked. He didn't look okay. His music had silenced, save some out of tune noises, but now he was trying to squeeze down into the floorboards. Charlie caught on once she remembered that they hadn't had time to grab his blanket. "Here. Cover yourself with this." She slipped off her jacket and handed it back to him where he tried to hide underneath it.

Suddenly the car lurched to the side and she snapped her gaze forward again. She only now realized how fast Mike was driving. "Mike, you're going to have to slow down," she told him.

"How am I supposed to calm down?! Or slow down- Hold on." Finally, Mike started to take his foot off the accelerator until he was only a little above the speed limit. His eyes were wide and his fingers were clenched white on the steering wheel. "I worked at Freddy's for years, years, and I never had anything follow me home like that! That was a Freddy- I'd recognize it anywhere!"

"It did look like Freddy…" Charlie said quietly. She processed it slowly; it was a hard fact to swallow, especially when it was clear that these were the creatures behind the attacks, they had to be.

Eventually Mike realized that he didn't know where he was going and parked in a laundry mat parking lot. By then he had driven up and down the roads and was somewhat more confident that they lost their pursuers, if they had even followed them out of the yard. He parked and shut the car off to reserve gas, then promptly dropped his head on the steering wheel. After a long pause, he gave a humorless chuckle.

"Looks like the mystery's solved: it was bears the whole time," Mike said with no amusement. His grimace slowly faded away as he tiredly added, "God, I wish it would've been mountain lions."

It only took a few seconds of thinking before Charlie put two and two together and came to a disturbing realization. "They never left last night… Sammy, when you heard them last night, they never left! They just buried themselves! That's how nobody's been seeing them!" she exclaimed. She looked back at Sammy who was peeking out from between the seats with an equally alarmed look. "That spot in the park must've been another hole that was filled up. If there had still been something in there, John and I… We could've been killed."

Sammy's eyes widened on his mask with a newfound horror. Now it all made since- that noise he heard was them burying themselves. That whole time they had been only a few feet outside.

Charlie turned to Mike and asked, "Mike, are you sure there weren't any more spots around the apartment?"

"…Yeah, there was," he admitted in a muffle.

"There was? Why didn't you say anything when I told you about the park?" she asked in alarm. All the while thinking, "I walked past that hole four times. It could've grabbed me and dragged me under any time…"

"Because it was all the way down at the end of the other apartment and I still hadn't gotten any clear answers from the landlord. He was still acting like it could've been the water company. Which, by the way, he never called me back about. Glad to know this is the service I get for paying my rent on time…" Mike vented as he lifted his head from the steering wheel. Immediately his face fell to utter dismay. "I'd bet my paycheck that they followed me back from the mall."

"What? Why do you think that?"

"There's an abandoned Freddy's inside of the mall. I don't know much about what went down there, but I've got half a mind to believe that it's the reason the place never opened… Yeah, that's an appropriate reaction," he said, looking between the twins' matching looks of horror. "I don't know how they followed me home though. The mall's halfway across town."

Sammy started to slowly shake his head, then did so with more certainty. The fear on his face dropped to a more pensive look as he looked to Charlie. He then started to count on his fingers to her. "One, two, three." Then made a knife stabbing motion. "Murders." She thought about the three murders.

"…No, wait. That can't be it. That doesn't explain the murders. If they had been following you, they would've happened between the mall and the apartment, and I think they would've reached the apartment sooner. And why would they only come out now?"

"Maybe you've got a point… It wouldn't be the only closed Freddy's in town," Mike agreed. He didn't seem totally convinced, but it was clear that Sammy was.

The Puppet began to signal his sister with his newest suspicions. He made an upwards clawing motion, "Bear trap," waved a finger and shook his head, "not," then made a motion like holding a microphone and tilting his head back, "singer." Charlie pieced it together quickly: "Trap not performer." It was clear that the animatronic was built to kill, not to perform. That's when it suddenly came to her.

"He's saying that these aren't normal animatronics. They were purposefully built to attack humans, as we saw from the bear traps… And I think I know exactly where it came from, Afton Robotics," Charlie decided. Mike raised a brow as Sammy listened with interest. "That's why the cops were clearing it out because they were searching for dangerous bots. What if they accidentally let something else out?"

"But that was months ago," Mike pointed out.

"But maybe they only just got out. Maybe- Maybe something with the tornado. They popped up right around then and Afton Robotics wasn't exactly the sturdiest structure. All it would take is the wrong door to open and they could come right out, or even dig out maybe," Charlie explained. With this seeming more likely, she finished with a determined, "We need to tell the police."

"You think the police are actually going to believe any of this?" Mike asked doubtfully. He folded his arms tightly over his chest. "These things could've been walking around the city for days killing people and they still think it's wild animals. They'll take one look around the apartment and stick to their guns, because unless Freddy's still standing there when they get there, they won't buy our story."

"Maybe, but you remember that I said my friend's dad was the police chief? I'm sure I told you that. His name's Clay and he knows about the animatronics. We can go to him," Charlie offered. Mike scoffed a little.

"Ah yes, Chief Burke. I remember him from the two hours of questioning I had to sit through after the pizzeria fire. I'm sure he's going to believe me," he said sardonically. "He didn't even believe me when I told him I wasn't Michael Afton and I had a social security number backing me up." Sammy reached out and patted his arm sympathetically. Mike exhaled slowly and said, "But maybe he'll listen to you."

"Clay's stubborn but he's not stupid. He knows about Baby and the haunted animatronics, he knows about Freddy's history, and I'm sure he knows something else is going on here," Charlie assured him. Though his words had shaken her confidence a little. They needed evidence that didn't involve risking a cop's life digging in one of those holes- which was exactly how she remembered the camera.

"Hold on, I bought a disposable camera on my way home," Charlie said. She leaned forward and started to dig into her bag. "The lighting's not going to be great, but it's better than nothing. They might still be at the apartment and if we drive by quick, I can snap a picture as evidence to give to Burke."

"Why not? Like you said, it's better than nothing. And I'd love to see one of those overstuffed meat machines try and chase this car down the street," Mike agreed. All of them were aware of the risks.

Charlie got out the disposable camera and set it in her lap before reaching back in for a notebook and pencil for Sammy. Most of them were filled up with school notes but eventually she found one only filled halfway and folded it over to a clean page. It was while she was taking out a pencil that a hand suddenly landed on her shoulder.

It was Sammy and his grip was like a vice, uncharacteristic of him. Charlie knew right away that something was wrong, even before she lifted her head to look. The Puppet was raised higher and staring past the dashboard with his eyes glowing with ominous fixation. Mike started to straighten in his seat as he stared out the windshield.

"There's no way that can be Freddy," he muttered under his breath. "Charlie, get up. Quick."

Charlie didn't need to be told twice and sat up in her seat. She looked out of the car and saw what they were looking at and the fear from earlier quickly returned.

There was a large form staggering through the bushes at the edge of the parking lot. It stumbled out, its body weaving and swaying as it tried to regain footing. The motion reminding Charlie of the shuffle she would see zombies do in movies. It was barely illuminated by the moonlight and faded glow from the lights of the town, now revealing that though it was the size of Bear Trap Freddy, it wasn't him.

The long ears on top of its head gave away that it was Bonnie, though the rest of its body barely resembled him. It had a bulbous belly that was made of metal with dark blue or purple paint peeling off it. Its arms and legs were covered in filthy fabric that tried to match the color, save that it was stained and aged into a nastier hue. One arm looked typical, hanging limply with sharp, needle-like claw at its fingertips.

The other arm, its right arm, was stuck up at its side and bent crookedly. It almost seemed to be stuck like that. Its right hand looked to be broken off and all that remained was the end of a tube or pipe sticking out. It seemed to be dripping something dark and thick. On closer inspection, this same fluid was drooling out from between its sharp teeth which were borne and clenched tightly shut.

Its eyes were glassy, black orbs, larger than Freddy's but not by much. Once they focused on the car though, the bunny creature began to shuffle and wobble a little faster. It was its right leg that was giving it trouble, Charlie realized. It was stuff stiff just like its arm, and that fluid oozed out from holes in its cloth.

Suddenly she remembered what Carlton had said about the sludge found in the one victim's mouth and too much made sense.

Nobody had to tell Mike to start the car. The moment the beast started to wobble faster, he turned the key in the ignition only to have it rev up and then die. He tried again and a second time the car failed to turn over, all while Bonnie was getting closer to the car. He began to swear profusely as he continued to try and get the car to turn on.

Charlie took her chance and lifted the disposable camera to start snapping photos. Her jaw was so tight that it was beginning to hurt and her breathing was starting to quicken. Sammy's frantic music filled the car again and she reached back to grab his arm just in case he was planning to rush out and fight this one off too.

Finally, the car sputtered to life and Mike threw it into reverse. Right at this moment Bonnie jerked its stuck arm upright and fluid spurted from the pipe in its wrist and splattered onto the windshield. It was dark and thick, and sizzled lightly against the glass like heated tar. Mike peeled back across the parking lot as fast as he could.

"Mike- Mike!" Charlie warned as they got dangerously close to driving over the curb and into a fence. Mike caught himself, still swearing frantically under his breath, and sped out of the parking lot. They left the glue leaking rabbit behind in their wake.

Only now did Mike see the state of his windshield. He turned on the wipers only for them to get two inches into the goop and get stuck, breaking off from their base. "Come on!" he cried. Then rolled down the window and stuck his head out to see where he was driving. "What even is this garbage?!"

"I don't know, but I- I know was used in one of the murders!" Charlie said. She was trying to stay calm but it was nearly impossible. "What does this mean? Does this mean there's a Foxy and Chica out here too?!"

"Yeah, and knowing our luck they've got some sort of tracking signal on us! How in the hell did Bonnie find us all the way out here?! I didn't see him outside the apartment!"

Even though Mike was ranting, he raised a few good points. Points that Charlie couldn't even think of when they were speeding down the road and the car was filled with panic and blasting 'Pop Goes the Weasel'.

"Sammy, it's okay. We're getting away, we're safe," she assured her brother, still holding his wrist but now loosening her grasp. He quickly locked his fingers in with hers and gave a discontent static in his music. "I'm going to need you to try and quiet down so I can call Clay. If you can," she coaxed gently. He struggled to do so but barely managed it.

"I don't even know where I'm going here," Mike mumbled under his breath. His voice strained as he continued to drive with his head out the window. "And we've only got a half a tank of gas left to decide…"

Sammy reached out and rested his free hand on Mike's arm. The man glanced down at it and assumed it was an attempt to comfort him. It didn't really help considering the circumstances, but it did make him a little more aware that he needed to keep his cool. He took a deep breath and continued to drive.

Charlie tried Carlton's number twice to no had hoped that Clay would've woken up and answered the phone, but after the second call it seemed much less likely, and if Clay had an emergency or work number then she didn't know it. They had to come up with another plan; parking somewhere and trying to wait it out was no longer an option and neither was driving all night.

Aunt Jen's house was further outside of Hurricane but bringing Mike and Sammy there and having to explain that they were chased by rabid animatronics- it couldn't work. Neither would driving back to the house with its broken windows and weakened structure. She was grasping at straws, so she called John hoping to get some help. He didn't answer. She called Jessica and she didn't either.

She was just about to call Carlton again when the phone rang. She eagerly answered it, "Hello?"

"Charlie? What's going on?" It was Jessica and she sounded half asleep.

"Yes, I did! Listen, I know this is sudden, but I need help. I'm sorry to get you into this, but we were just attacked by killer animatronics and we're driving around Hurricane with nowhere to go. I can't get ahold of Clay, I can't call the police, and we can't stop the car because one of them already tracked us down," Charlie rushed out. She knew it was too much to dump on her at once, and Jessica processed it slowly.

"Wait, you… Wait, what?! Are you serious?!" Jessica woke up very quickly at that. "Where are you?!"

"We're at- We're somewhere in town. I don't know exactly where we are, but we need to find somewhere to go. We already stopped once and somehow they found us."

"Oh my gosh. Okay, uh, hold on…" Jessica paused for a moment to get her thoughts together. Charlie's heart was still pounding in her throat as she waited for something, even though she knew how unlikely it was that her friend could help her in this situation. Then again, Jessica tended to surprise her. "Come to the university. I'll meet you out in the parking lot and let you into my dorm. You'll be safe here."

"I don't know. We think they're following us," Charlie warned.

"They're not going to be able to follow you out of town! And there's security on campus. You'll be okay, just try to get here as fast as you can. I'll be waiting outside."

"Okay, thank you… And could you maybe bring down a blanket? We couldn't grab a blanket to cover Sammy with before we left, and please be careful."

"I will, don't worry. You be careful too." The call ended right afterwards.

"Do you know where the university in St. George is?" Charlie asked Mike. He nodded and turned off the next road to head towards the highway. "It- It should be safe. Just being out of the city should be enough distance to give us some breathing room. Then we can get ahold of Clay, then we can figure out what we're going to do," she explained. It sounded more like she was convincing herself than him or Sammy.

As they drove past the Maverik gas station, Charlie tried to see if there were any filled holes in the field beside it. It was too dark to see through the thick grass.

It took about twenty minutes to get to St. George and the university. Normally she barely noticed the drive, but this time she found herself paying attention to exactly how far it was and taking comfort in every mile they put between them and Hurricane. Soon they were pulling into the parking lot outside of the dorms that Jessica lived with and drove around until they found her.

Jessica had gotten dressed, but it looked like she just threw on whatever she could grab and her hair was unbrushed. She was clutching a rolled-up comforter tightly. It took her a second to realize that Charlie was in the car that was pulling up because of the darkened-out windshield, but she rushed over the second she started coming out of the passenger side.

"Are you okay?" she asked. Charlie nodded and took the comforter. Jessica turned away so she could tend to Sammy and looked closer at the dark mass on the windshield, which had now hardened like a shell. She pointed at it and asked, "What is that?" with a tinge of disgust.

"That's all Bonnie right there," Mike clarified. He punctuated the comment by slamming his door shut. He stood there with his hands on his hips and the most fed-up expression imaginable. Jessica raised a brow at him and he acknowledge her with a nod, "Hey. How're you doing?"

"Better than you guys apparently," Jessica said. She still managed a friendly smile. "I'm Jessica. You might not remember me, but we met at Freddy's. My friends and I came in to get a pizza, including Charlie."

"How could I forget? You were the oldest kids I ever seen and the only ones who gave me a tip over a dollar. Mike Schmidt," Mike said. He returned the smile momentarily before looking towards Charlie and Sammy, watching the Puppet get wrapped up. "We should probably get inside before anything else pops up," he said. Then looked back to Jessica and double-checked, "You said I could come inside?"

"Yes! You think I'd kick anyone out when they're being chased by crazy killer clowns?" Jessica asked. She then asked Charlie, "It was Circus Baby, wasn't it?"

"It wasn't. It was much, much worse. I'll explain once we get inside," Charlie said cryptically. She then helped guide Sammy, who was completely cloaked in the blanket and hovering low to stay inconspicuous. Jessica nodded, Mike locked up the car, and the four headed up to the second floor and into the dorm room.

Charlie had been in Jessica's dorm room plenty of times. It was a small room with only enough room to fit a bed, a couch, and a cramped but tidy desk. There was a small sink by the door with a minifridge beside it and a microwave atop that. There was a single window and a door that led to a bathroom shared with a separate dorm room. Jessica didn't have a roommate.

While tight to fit three people and a puppet, being on the second floor and behind a door with a deadbolt almost made them feel a little more secure.

Charlie sat down on the bed and Jessica sat alongside her and put an arm around her shoulders. Mike practically collapsed onto the couch, covered his face with his hands, and continued reeling in silence. Finally, Sammy stayed up, still enwrapped tightly in the comforter, and moved to the window so that he could stare out at the road. His discomfort with Jessica was nothing compared to his paranoia of the animatronics somehow catching up to them.

"Okay, so start from the beginning," Jessica said. Charlie didn't need any more coaxing than and retold the whole sordid ordeal. Jessica listened intensely with her expression ranging from shock, to confusion, and to horror where it seemed to settle for the rest of the story. Charlie was almost surprised that Mike didn't chime in but she assumed that he was just too exhausted to do so.

"The plan from here is… There is no plan actually, but the closest thing we have to one is trying to hold out until morning and then going straight to Clay. He's the only one who will listen to us," Charlie finished. She glanced uncomfortably towards the window. "…Unless Freddy and Bonnie catch up with us. Then we'll need another plan fast."

"But that's not going to happen. There's no way they'd make it all this way, and even if they did, they couldn't get past security, let alone the stairs," Jessica said with false confidence. She squeezed Charlie's shoulder and the brunette sighed. "I'm just so glad that you got away and that you're here. I don't know where else you could've gone except the police station and with Sammy… Not the best idea."

"I didn't want to drag you into this," Charlie said apologetically.

"Please, if I had to be dragged into this, I wouldn't be studying Criminal Justice," Jessica said with a flash of a smile.

Charlie returned with a smaller one. "Thanks, Jess. I don't know what we would've done without you," she said. Then she looked past her to her brother still stationed at the window. "Sammy, we're going to be fine. Maybe you should sit down and rest while you can."

Sammy slid sideways onto the edge of the bed, still leaning out enough to continue staring out the window.

Charlie sent him a flat look before looking back to Jessica. "It has been a long night," she said.

"A long night that's about to turn into an extremely early morning," Mike muttered. He yanked off his jacket, pulled one of the couch pillows under his head to get more comfortable, and then draped the jacket over his face. "I'm going to try and get some sleep. I suggest you do the same, because he's going to be up all night," he said, pointing a thumb in Sammy's general direction.

"I will. I'll try," Charlie agreed. She didn't want to though. Just like Sammy, she didn't feel safe letting herself go back to sleep and putting herself at the mercy of the monsters outside.

Jessica stayed awake with her until she was tired enough to risk laying down on the bed. It was a mercifully dreamless sleep, but she knew the nightmares would be waiting for her when she woke up.

Mable: Bear Trap Freddy- buries self underground and uses detachable hands or open maw to catch prey. Glue Trap Bonnie- slows victims with a tar-like glue and suffocates them in his fluid. Unknown- Listening.