Okay…
I'm going to try and get better at uploading on time. It is not Christmas, it is January 20, and I am very, very sorry for not uploading sooner.
I've been pretty busy right now, with all kinds of things starting up after break, and just lots of things going on in my life. I will try my hardest to upload a new chapter once a week, but I will be late sometimes.
Reviews:
SadFox729: Yay, you got an account! And for the schooling issue, I was kind of thinking that when I first started writing it. There's not really a reason, more of just an error. I think I'll be fixing that soon, it just doesn't make sense.
not maegan: Okay, whatever you say ;)
I hope you enjoy this late Christmas chapter!
Chapter 19
A Very FNaF Christmas
Ruby lugged a heavy box of decorations down the hall. She carelessly hucked them on the old brown couch where Rylaina was sitting. She was watching the Franklin Christmas special happily, and chipper, merry, kid show tunes floated through the house from the tiny television.
"Moooom, why do I have to do everything?" Ruby whined. Her mother, tired of the constant noise, answered from the other blue couch.
"Simple. I pay the rent, Rylie's three, and Raven is helping. She's decorating the tree which is more than I can say for you. Last I saw you you were chugging Crocade and scarfing down those Christmas cupcakes that were supposed to be for Adam and his family. Did you know he has-"
"Six kids. Yeah, I know. You tell me that like five times a day. Are you trying to make me feel guilty or something?"
"No, no, I'm just saying that maybe he'd need the cupcakes more than you."
"Hey, we still have another dozen. Plus, I'm going to need lots of sugar and caffeine if I'm going to be working the night shift." Ruby explained calmly.
On-screen, the bear character appeared, and Rylie screeched and clapped her hands in excitement. Rylie had a soft spot for bears and cats, something Ruby shared with her sister on the cat part. Ruby didn't share much with her family, all of which with black hair and blue or brown eyes and relatively book-smart. Ruby's vibrant red hair was unusual, and she liked it that way. Her grades were like whales - they rarely rose above C level - but she was street smart. She could defend herself from anyone (well, mostly). She knew her way around Hurricane. She could take care of kids easily from living with Rylaina.
Raven appeared from the closet, holding her phone. "Hey guys, look what I found!"
Ruby hopped up from the couch, eager to do something other than boringly lug around the boring box filled with slightly boring decorations.
"What is it?" She asked, bouncing from side to side. Raven snorted. "Calm down, it's not that big of a deal. I found some old family Christmas videos!"
"Ooh!" Now their mother was excited. "Here, use that video share thingy and put it on the TV!"
Raven grinned at her mother's lack of tech lingo, but managed to put the videos on the screen.
"Fwankwinnnn!" Rylie wailed, furious at her show disappearing from the screen. Ruby noticed the incoming crisis - whenever something didn't go Rylie's way, she'd throw a massive tantrum. Kicking, whining, screaming, the works. So just as Rylie's face was starting to work its way through the red colour spectrum - it was currently a lovely shade of salmon pink but was slowly beginning to turn a light chartreuse.
Ruby quickly leaned over and swept Rylie into her arms, bouncing her on her lap.
"C'mon Ry, wanna see what we looked like as babies? You can go right back to Franklin later."
"Fwankwin!" Rylie clapped her hands enthusiastically. Crisis averted, Raven went to one dated 2010.
Immediately into the video there was lots of screeching. The camera, which wobbled wildly back and forth, leaned up to get a lower view of seven-year-old Raven's face. Her long black hair fell onto the camera for a short moment, then there was a mumbled 'oops' and the camera zoomed in on the hallway.
Suddenly, chubby little six-year-old Ruby came dashing down the hall, screeching happily. She was wearing black sweatpants and a baggy red tee. Her short red hair was messy and sticking up all over the place, and her socks were mismatched, one My Little Donkey sock and one plain blue sock. She slid down the hall on the slippery socks, and collided with the big blue sofa with a huge crash. While it looked like the child was seriously injured, she simply got up again with only future bruises to show the tale.
Her mother came running down the hall after her. Which was a feat considering how fast young Ruby was. "Ruby, sweetie, can you carry this box to the tree?"
Ruby grinned a toothy grin (minus a few front teeth) and skipped over to where her mother was pointing. She let out an 'oof' of surprise at how heavy it was, but managed to lift the heavy box up and over her head.
Real-Ruby noticed the 'This Side Up' sign on the large box, as well as the 'Fragile' sticker long before TV-Ruby did. Which would have been nice to know in the past. Ruby laughed softly to herself, as she knew what came next.
Ornaments. Hundreds of fragile glass bells, spheres, animals, all unwrapped came crashing down onto the hard floor. Glass smashed everywhere, clattering and tinkling like windchimes on a windy day. Green, gold, crimson, royal blue, maghony, clear - all sorts of colours in a rainbow of tiny shards on the floor.
Ruby, oddly, didn't start to cry. In fact, her initial reaction was to lean down and touch them. They looked so pretty, like rock candy or lollipops.
Luckily, her mom had heard the crash and came running to swoop Ruby up into her safe, careful arms. Ruby pouted and rested her chin on her mother's shoulder.
"I wanna touch the glass!" She whined. Her mother just shook her head and continued walking with her daughter to safeguard her someplace where she couldn't break anything. Raven followed, eager to catch something good on the camera.
Ruby started to shriek. "I wanna touch the glass! I wanna touch the glass! Daddy would let me touch the glass! He always does!"
Ruby's mother tensed, both in video and real life. Ruby was always confused by this part whenever she watched it over again. Why did I want to touch the glass so much? And why did I say that Daddy would let me? He'd never let me touch broken glass.
Her mother in the video tried to calm her down. "Sweetie, your daddy isn't-"
"Daddy would let you do what now?!"
A tall man with ebony-black hair and warm green-brown eyes came jogging into the room. He looked down and grinned at the camera, striking a silly supermodel pose. The camera shook and there was muffled giggling from Raven.
Real-Ruby sniffed, her eyes getting a little misty at the sight of her father, whom she hadn't seen for five years.
"Hey, Rosalie. I can take over from here if you need me to."
"Oh that would be wonderful, Ross. This girl of yours is a terror."
"Hey, that's not my girl. She's alllll yours."
"Maybe she's my girl." Raven stated in that cute way only little kids could do. The two parents chuckled at Raven as her mother gently put Ruby down. Ruby shook herself and made a 'brrr' sound by vibrating her lips. She ran over to Raven and peered into the camera, the screen filling up with one brown eye. Raven giggled and Ruby backed away from the camera.
"Okay Raven, maybe it's time to put away the camera." Her mother chided. Raven huffed, but obliged. The camera flipped upside down, and the video ended abruptly.
Ruby turned to the side to see her mother staring into dead space, a silver tearline drying on her cheek. Ruby leaned over and snuggled into her mom, wishing she was six again and that she could just crawl into her mother's lap and have her father read her a story. But she wasn't six, her father was long dead, and there was nothing she could do about it, no matter how hard she tried, or how hard she hated it.
"I miss him." Ruby mumbled into her sleeve. Her mother sighed and hugged Raven and Ruby at the same time.
"I miss him too," She yawned, for it was nine o' clock and getting late for her and Rylie both. Rylie crawled into the hug and snuggled into the three older women.
"Miss 'im." Rylie murmured softly. It was a sweet gesture, even though Rylaina was much too young to have known him, and was born to a different dad.
"Sometimes, I wish he could still be here. But, I'll know he will always live on in my beautiful daughters. And I know that me going to marry Jared has probably been hard on you three, but he really does care about me. And marrying him will make a difference in our lives. I want my daughters to have a good life ahead of them, go to a swanky college, something like that, because I know each of you have the potential to be great. Okay?"
"Mom?" Raven asked.
"Yeah?"
"We know."
Her mother smiled and hugged her daughters tighter. "Of course you do."
"Where baby me?" Rylaina asked. Raven smiled at her little sister and found a video dated 2017. She pressed it and the video started off hectic.
"PRESEEEENTS!" Thirteen-year-old Ruby was tearing down the stairs at abnormal speed. Her red hair came down to just above her ears and had a spiky, edgy vibe to it. She'd had an incident while playing with some of the younger kids at a park near their house where one of them dunked her hair in the bucket of glue they were using to make crafts. There was so much glue caked onto her hair that Ruby had taken a pair of purple safety scissors and chopped it right off, much to the impressment of the four-and-five-year-olds playing there, as well as the depressment of her mother, who was not pleased when her daughter came home covered in glue and hair that looked like it been cut by a chainsaw-wielding untrained wild moose.
Fourteen-year-old Raven was already opening her stockings with glee. "Sketchbooks! And pens and hoghair brushes and watercolour paper! And pencils - the expensive kind! Oh, and an orange. Thanks Mom!" Raven squealed.
"Santa does exist, by the way. There's just a vicious rumour going around made to spoil our fun." Ruby scolded.
"What, and I suppose the Tooth Fairy takes our baby teeth and the Easter Bunny sh- er, poops out chocolate eggs." Raven deadpanned.
Ruby nodded. "Precisely. Don't listen to her, Ry."
Baby Rylaina was snoozing on their tired mother's lap, who was filming her girl's reactions.
Ruby dug through her's excitedly.
"Chocolate, chocolate - ooh, spiky leather gloves! Some more chocolate, cool lock-and-key earrings, chocolate, an orange, - and three wrapped things!"
"Open the hard ones first!" Her mother encouraged. Ruby nodded and proceeded to rip the wrapping paper into shreds. She let out a squeal of excitement.
"Death Blood Inferno Racer and Death Blood Inferno Racer 2: Explosion Zombie Apocalypse! I've wanted these games forever!" The covers featured a man and woman, equally buff, standing in front of two tarnished red-and-black racing cars in front of an explosion of scarlet flames with blood-spurting zombies shooting out of it.
Ruby tore into the second one.
"The Black Carnage Trilogy, featuring Silver Death, Destination: Heck, and Firey Tomb, plus never-seen-before bonus scenes with Mika Jackson and Zane Khalbringer's child, RJ?! AIEEEEEEE- thank you Santa!" She raised her gifts into the air as a sort of salute. Her mother smiled, then revealed a small wrapped box from behind her back. The sisters looked at it curiously.
"Ah- here. Raven, take this one. I've wanted to give you two these for a while, and I have one more for this little one." She zoomed in on Rylie's drooling face. "Open them, and I'll explain what they are in more detail."
Ruby didn't hesitate to open her package. It was soft, and squishy, and when she opened it, it felt tough and rubbery...it was a real black leather jacket, with silver buckles and chains and zippers everywhere!
"Sweet jacket!" Ruby yelled, and tried it on. It was big on her, but snug and fit nicely.
Unlike her sister, Raven peeled the wrapping back slowly and carefully. Ruby moaned and fell on the floor with boredom.
"Open it!" She shrieked.
"Ruby…" Her mother chided. Ruby rolled her eyes at her sister but stayed quiet.
Raven's eyes lit up when she saw the golden necklace that sat in the small wooden mahogany box. She unclasped the chain and fit it around her neck. The charm, a gemstone in emerald green, dangled from the necklace.
"It's beautiful, Mom. But you said there was a meaning behind this…?"
"Right. Ruby, that was your father's favourite jacket. And Raven, that was his necklace. I wanted you to have them to remember him by." Their mother sniffed.
Raven smiled. "Don't worry mom. We'll always remember him, we don't need presents for that."
"I'll keep the jacket though," Ruby said quickly. Everyone laughed, and the sad tension was eased. Ruby took down a stocking, baby-blue and silvery-white. Rylaina was stitched at the top in royal blue thread. Ruby popped a Kindor chocolate into her mouth and chewed it while going through Rylie's stocking.
"Blanket, blanket, boring, boring...ooh! Look, Rylie, Santa got you a bus!" Ruby pulled out an excessively kid-friendly bus with eyes on the headlights and a big, wide, fender smile. It looked awfully similar to the Magic City Bus, but Ruby didn't complain. She pressed a red button on the top and an instrumental piano version of 'Wheels on the Bus' started playing.
Rylie blinked her deep blue eyes open, noticed the bus, and began to screech happily. Her family laughed as Rylie tried to screech along to the beat, with... interesting results.
"Say Merry Christmas!" Their mother said.
"Merry Christmas!" Raven and Ruby cheered. Rylie cooed, a baby version of what they were saying.
The video ended, and Raven found herself at the end of her video roll.
Rylie climbed into Ruby's lap and snuggled into her chest. Ruby ran her fingers through her little sister's short black ringlets. Rylie looked up at Ruby with big blue eyes.
"I wuzza silly baby…" she murmured. Her mother smiled.
"You certainly were." She said softly. Raven went through a couple Christmas pictures. The first six were of Raven, from her first Christmas to her sixth, in her respective yearly dresses. The seventh photo featured not only Raven but a six-year-old Ruby - at least she assumed it was herself, considering the fact that she was a red-and-black blur of colour. The next photo had a wailing Ruby in a fluffy black dress.
It skipped to the next year, with Raven in a pretty polka-dotted white-and-green dress, and a smug Ruby smirking at the camera. Ruby was dressed in plain black sweatpants, a white button-up tee, and a red-and-white striped tie. The year before had featured a dress, and the year shown now was supposed to show a dress as well. She recalled her mother picking out a long, rhinestone-dotted, flowy, pale pink dress. Her mother had been determined to get Ruby into the dress, and Ruby had been determined to get out of the dress.
Through many attempts to escape, her mother persevered, till Ruby had duct-taped the dress to the wall, held it up with pushpins, and smeared lime green paint all over the front of it, with a sticky note reading 'No.'. After that, her mother decided that maybe Ruby didn't have to wear a dress after all.
The photos continued in the same orderly fashion, till a baby Rylie was added to the mix. Unlike her oldest sister, however, she wore a suit.
Ruby loved the photos, but something was slightly off.
"Mom, why are there no pictures of me as a baby? Or videos for that matter." Ruby asked her mom.
Her mother and Raven shared a glance.
"Um. Funny story actually…" Her mother laughed shakily. "So I put all your baby photos up till you were six into a folder on my computer and, well, I guess I accidentally deleted it. I hit the wrong keys at the wrong time."
"Oh." Ruby nodded. "I guess that makes sense." Still, the explanation left a weird feeling in her stomach that her mother wasn't quite telling the truth.
"So, what do you three want for Christmas?" Her mother asked.
"A new art tablet." Raven responded, just as Ruby and Rylie blurted out,
"A cat."
"Woah, woah! We are not getting a cat right now. None of us are home during the mornings or afternoons, and our living situation is not exactly cat-friendly. Plus, both your grandmother and grandfather are allergic."
"I thought you didn't like Nanny and Poppy." Raven noted.
Her mom sighed. "The point is, no cat."
After several more videos and pictures (and some stalling from Rylie) it was nearly midnight.
"More! More! More!" Rylie cheered and clapped her hands. Her mother swept Rylie into her lap, and Rylie stared at her with curious blue eyes. Ruby couldn't help but notice that besides the eyes, her mother and Rylie looked practically identical, with their slightly olive-toned pale skin and curly, short, black hair. Even Raven looked somewhat like her parents, with her dad's straight black hair and green-brown eyes.
Ruby sometimes wondered if she was adopted, considering her vibrant velvet-cupcake-red hair and red-brown eyes that came from seemingly nowhere.
"Mooooore?" Rylie asked her mother, tilting her head to the side curiously.
"No. Miss Rylie, it is way past your bedtime. Go to your room and get your pajamas on and I'll read you a story. Santa's going to come here tonight, so I want you to get a big sleep. And remember not to get up or wake anyone else up until 8:00." Her mother tickled Rylie till she squealed and ran off to her bedroom as fast as her tiny legs could carry her.
Their mother slumped on the couch.
"Phew. I was not ready to have another Ruby in the house. She certainly has your energy, Rubes."
Ruby snorted. "Yeah, sure." She tossed a handknit, lumpy yellow pillow into the air and caught it. She repeated the process several times more out of boredom.
Raven checked her watch.
"Ruby, I think you should get going...didn't you say the staff was going to have some sort of get-together?"
Ruby sat up straight. "Oh, crabapples, I forgot! Kay, I should get going now."
Ruby had just stood up and was heading towards her leather jacket, black boots, and huge monster 'purse' all hanging on the coat hook, when her mother called, "Wait!"
Ruby spun around on her heels. "What?"
"I need you to be back in an hour to help wrap presents. And I know it's your job to be the night guard, but I'm not letting you stay the whole night on Christmas. I still can't believe they make you work on the holidays." Her mother shook her head.
I can. Fazbear Entertainment never cared about the safety of their workers. Never had, never will. Ruby didn't so much as bat an eye at that though. She loved the risk, the thrill, the chance that an animatronic could sneak up on her in the dark and snap her neck, or chop her into meat pizza toppings, or whatever the rumours told. And that's why she'd taken the job. It had stuck out to her amongst all the other job ads...that and the free pizza. Because the pizza was amazing, despite the rumours.
"Fine." Ruby agreed. An hour wasn't long. No parties were that short. Except she wasn't going to a party, there was no such thing. She'd made it up to her mom. And while she'd felt bad lying, what else was she supposed to say?
Hey, mom, can I go hang out with five murderous animatronics from a children's pizzeria? Yes I said murderous animatronics. No, I'm pretty sure they don't want to kill me...pretty sure. Did I mention they were sentient robots?
Yeah, that would go down well. Her mother would probably get her to quit. No, not probably. Definitely. She already didn't like Ruby's night shift job, hanging with serial killer robots would push her right over the edge.
She pulled on her comfy leather jacket, lined with soft faux fur to keep her warm. Her black boots were large and clunky, with chunky heels and zippers with loops and rings that were sure to cause a nice loud jingling, alerting everyone of her presence. Ruby couldn't remember the last time she'd worn anything else (she wore lightweight running shoes in gym class but only 'cause she had to in order to be fast).
Her purse was large and brown, and resembled Tori's monster purse in one of Ruby's favourite comedy shows, Notorious. She pulled it on over her shoulder. It was heavy, but for good reason. She had some surprises in store for her friends. She turned and waved to her mom and sister.
"Bye Mom! Bye Ray!"
"Love you!" Her mom called.
"Love you too!"
Festivities were booming as Ruby opened the door. All I Want For Christmas Is You was blaring on the giant amps, red and green crepe paper hanging on the ceiling, red and white peppermint paper chains complimenting them. There was an interesting robot Santa that moved his arm up and down and repeated a creepy, jangly, glitchy, "Ho. H...o-o-o. H-h-ho." There were mugs of steaming hot cocoa dotted with tiny, fluffy marshmallows, and tall, cold, frothy, milky glasses of eggnog topped with spicy cinnamon sticks. Pine-smelling Christmas wreaths hung every which way, and Ruby even spotted a sprig of mistletoe hanging over the entrance to the left hallway.
Ruby could see Mangle tinkering with the stage lights while hanging upside down from them, Chica stringing lights around the room, Freddy and Foxy lugging decorations from the...kitchen? And Bonnie was...nowhere to be seen.
"Oi, Ruby!" Foxy called. "Bring any pirate hats? Bonnie stole mine, headed off starboard, and ran into the back alley with it, that scallywag."
Ruby shook her head. "No pirate hats here buddy, unfortunately."
Mangle jumped down from the stage lights, landing on her hands upside down, then flipping into a handspring, landing on her toes. She did a little curtsy for effect, and Chica ran over, clapping wildly. Ruby joined in, and soon, so was Freddy and Foxy. Mangle took a bow, waved, and blew kisses to her roaring, cheering crowd of adoring fans.
"And she sticks the landing! The crowd goes wild! Man-gle! Man-gle! Maaaaan-gllllllle! WOOO!" Ruby cupped her hands over her mouth to emphasize the cheering.
"Aw, thank you, dear, that was wonderful." Mangle put a hand to her heart and grinned widely.
"Hey, where's those twins who were at the party? I thought you said you'd bring them." Chica noticed.
"Change of plans. They're at their grandparent's place in Detroit for Christmas." Ruby informed them.
"Oh. Okay!" Chica bounced back from sad to happy. "Anyways, we got you prezzies!" She pushed a laughing Ruby over to their couch and made her sit down. Ruby did so with no objections.
Chica opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by the door jingling to signify a customer or someone entering the building. Everyone turned their heads to look.
All Ruby saw was the tree at first. The tall, wide, spiky, massive pine tree. The second thing she noticed was the two turquoise ears sticking out from behind the branches. The sweet, tangy scent of tree sap floated through the air, creating a nice Christmasy smell throughout the building.
"Uh- Bonnie, where did you get that tree?" Freddy asked.
Bonnie hefted the tree to one side, it dropped to over his shoulder. He was in his animatronic form as to carry the humongous tree more easily. He grinned.
"So this morning I caught this dumb kid vandalizing the back alley. He was spray-painting some purple tag, I wouldn't know. Anyways, I managed to creep up on him and jumpscared him - it was pretty great. He screamed and he was shaking and very much terrified, and he looked like he-"
"Just get to the point." Chica cut him off. Foxy, who looked very engaged in the story, pouted and crossed his arms. Bonnie rolled his eyes at Chica, but continued.
"Then I told him to take that chainsaw we have out back and to get us the best Christmas tree he could find, or else I'd find him and kill him and hide the body beyond human reach! Then I think he went to that park by the middle school where all the little kids play and chopped down one of those big thick pine trees off to the side. I guess he managed to carry it all the way here, and he dropped it off at the front door with a note that said 'please don't kill me :)', and, here we are!"
Bonnie set the tree down with a flourish and took a deep bow in front of his wide-eyed friends. When none of them said nothing, he put one hand on his hip and rolled his eyes.
"You're welcome?"
•••
"And this one is an absolute treasure that I bought on Amazook - Kuromi and My Melody ornaments!"
Chica unwrapped the two ornaments and showed them off proudly. "Cute." Ruby responded, smiling at the two bunnies. Ruby was hanging a boring red-and-gold spherical ornament, much less exciting than Chica's. Chica beamed, and hung them next to each other.
"Oh yeah? Feast yer very eyes on my treasure ornament - literally. It's a treasure chest ornament that I made! It's got gold glitter glue treasure and everything!" Foxy bragged.
"It's um...it exists!" Chica attempted a compliment. Foxy put his hands on his hips and scowled.
"You think that that is better than me magnificent creation?!" Foxy asked menacingly, baring his sharp golden fangs and wielding his sharp silver hook. "Lass, ye thought wrong."
"Wow, Foxy, you've picked up some big words!" Mangle strolled up to the group and folded her arms. "Good for you!"
Foxy draped an arm around her shoulder.
"See, scallywag? Someone appreciates me work. And thank you Mangle, I've been workin' on improving my vocabulary for the book I'm writing."
"You're writing a book?" Bonnie asked, lugging a big box of ornaments with him. He snorted. "This should be good."
"Bonnie, be nice." Chica chided. "I'm sure the book is totally…"
"Fantastic, superb, marvelous, extraordinary, remarkable, stunning?" Foxy finished for her.
"Huh, you sure know your synonyms," Ruby commented. Foxy beamed.
"Yar, been practicing a lot. Me book's gonna be a long one, so I'm going to need a lot of words!"
Ruby nodded. "Hm. I would like to read this book sometime. What's it going to be called?"
Foxy put a finger to his chin, as if he was in deep thought. "I'm not too sure about it yet, lassie. But I'm sure I'll figure it out over time." He grinned.
Ruby casually checked her watch. She slapped her forehead. "Argggh, I've got to leave in like 10 minutes! I've got to give you all your presents." She walked over to a nearby table and reached under one of the flimsy plastic chairs to reveal a humongous brown...purse? From the monstrous bag, she removed six packages, five small and one large. Ruby turned around and saw their shocked expressions. She gave them all a fleeting grin.
"What? You thought I wasn't gonna get my best friends some prezzies? Come on, I'm better than that!" Ruby smiled. "Be careful, they're fragile."
She then proceeded to chuck five of the gifts to their respective owners. Luckily, they all managed to catch them, except for Chica, who fumbled with it for a bit before it finally crashed into the floor. She looked up at Ruby with worried blue eyes.
"I think I broke it," She whispered, her voice wobbly. Ruby walked over and picked it up. She tossed it in the air a couple times and shook it violently. She shrugged.
"Seems fine. Here, open it."
Unlike everyone else, who had savagely torn open the paper, Chica dug one finger in and sl-o-o-o-wly peeled back the tape. She peeled the wrapping back to reveal...a box of peppermint cake mix and a new sketchbook!
"I thought since you like drawing and baking and all, and my sister has a lot of sketchbooks...I know it's not much." Ruby mumbled self-consciously. Chica shook her head and the small girl enveloped Ruby in a big hug.
"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Chica squealed. "I love peppermints, and I was looking at one of these sketchbooks but I thought it was too expensive!" She glanced around the room. "What did you get everyone else?"
Foxy, who was leaping around the room with a gleaming metal sword and a black velvet pirate hat with a long red feather protruding from the top, was obvious. Mangle was experimenting with some hot pink lipstick in front of a mirror. Freddy was reading an extra-big National Geographic magazine on the purple couch. Next to him sat Bonnie, who was peacefully listening to something on his bright blue headphones.
"What's Bonnie listening to?" Chica asked curiously.
"An audiobook," Ruby replied vaguely. Chica wrinkled her nose in confusion.
"But I thought Bonnie didn't like books." She muttered. Ruby grinned.
"This one's about the most gruesome murder cases ever recorded. I thought he might like it."
The two girls looked over to see Bonnie with a serene look on his face. They both started to giggle.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Ruby exclaimed. "Here, everyone open this big box!"
"I'm on it." Mangle said, switching into animatronic form and ripping open the cardboard box with her sharp claws. Foxy trailed after her, and Freddy and Bonnie jumped up from their place on the couch to peer inside the box.
Mangle burst out laughing. "Bonnie, look at your nose!" She reached in and pulled out an 'ugly Christmas sweater' with a blue rabbit on it. The rabbit had a grumpy look on its face and the black nose was...larger than his actual one. There was a little caption underneath that read 'bah humbug'.
"What?! Let me see." Bonnie snatched the sweater from Mangle and stared at it. He whipped his head up to see a cackling Ruby.
"Did you do this on purpose?!" He shrieked. Ruby nodded, still laughing.
"Who made these? They're incredible." Freddy said in wonder, looking at his sweater, portraying a brown bear with a black top hat and red-and-white-striped tie.
"I asked my neighbor, Ms Posey. She is friends with this old lady who's daughter works at this place and her colleague's sister's grandkid's uncle's best friend makes sweaters for a living, so she was able to get me them." Ruby smiled.
Mangle was already putting hers on. It had a white-and-pink fox with bright red lipstick smiling with a Santa hat over one ear. Foxy was one step ahead of her, his was already on. His had a red fox with an eye patch and a red-and-white-striped pirate hat.
Chica smiled at hers, a yellow chicken carrying a tray of gingerbread animals - foxes, bunnies, bears, and cats.
"Thank you, Ruby!" Freddy hissed under his breath, nudging his friends.
"Thank you, Ruby!" Everyone chorused. Ruby grinned. She loved seeing her friends happy with their gifts. She headed to the front door and was just about to leave when…
"WAIT!" Everyone screeched. Mangle snatched the back on her jacket and yanked her back in.
"We got you a prezzie, so you are not allowed to leave yet." She growled. Foxy shoved her forcefully towards a lump covered by a white sheet with red splotches. Ruby smiled. "Aw, pretty! Did you decorate the sheet with paint to look like a candy cane or something?"
The five animatronics exchanged worried glances.
"Or something." Mangle nodded.
"Heyyyy, open your present!" Bonnie yelled. Ruby stood beside it and sl-o-o-o-wly pinched the sheet.
"OPEN IT!" Chica screeched impatiently. In one swift move, Ruby whipped off the sheet…
To reveal a shiny red bike!
Ruby traced the frame open-mouthed. The seat was soft and squishy, unlike some other bikes she'd had that practically gave her a wedgie. It was a beautiful shade of scarlet, and was long and slinky, it gave her a sort of vintage vibe. The wheels were hard and firm, they'd obviously pumped it up first. There was a water-bottle holder and a very aesthetic brown woven wicker basket attached to the handlebars, and there was a sticker on the side that read in big, bold letters, 'HANDS OFF MY BIKE!'
"Do you like it?" Freddy asked. "We got a bit more money this year from the Halloween party, so we thought if we all pooled the cash, we could get you this!"
Ruby turned back to the hopeful group, her face stony. "No. I don't like it at all." She growled.
Chica's smile dropped to the floor. "But- but-"
Ruby's face blossomed into a grin. "I love it, ya goof!"
"Yay!" Chica squealed, bouncing up and down and clapping her hands. Ruby hugged her, and Foxy joined in. So did Mangle and Freddy.
"Aren't you gonna join in, Bon-Bon?" Ruby invited. Bonnie rolled his eyes and trudged over, like it was such a big deal, but the hug seemed genuine.
When Ruby finally stepped out of the hug, her eyes were slightly watery.
"Thanks, you guys. This has been the best Christmas since I was twelve." She smiled. "Really, thank you."
"No problem." Freddy grinned. "Now, you should be getting back home, your mother might start to get worried."
Ruby nodded, and started to head out the door. Foxy waved his hands in the air to try and get her to stop.
"Ah, lass, aren't you forgetting something?"
Ruby spun around quickly, and she looked very confused as she tried to remember. Then all of a sudden it dawned on her and her face bloomed into a grin.
"Oh right! Haha, take that, long walk home!" She swung her leg to one side and pedaled as fast as she could out of the pizzeria. Chica sighed.
"Gosh, she looks so good riding away like that."
Bonnie nodded absent-mindedly. "Sure, sure whatever you say." Then it struck him. "Uh, she knows how to ride, right?"
There was a loud smashing sound, muffled curses, and then a screech of;
"WHO PUT THIS CAR HERE?!" Another crashing sound, and the car alarm went off, blaring it's horn. Freddy turned around and placed his palms on Bonnie's chest.
"Um, we should probably head in now-" Freddy shoved Bonnie inside. They slammed the door, panting heavily. Bonnie sighed and shook his head.
"Oh, Ruby."
•••
Lava bubbled ominously, sparks flying into the air and illuminated the darkness, like little tiny amber fireflies flitting around the small underground room, a claustrophobic's nightmare.
The place itself was rather nightmarish in itself, with clumps of wires hanging from the ceiling like flesh in a meat house. Rows and rows of eyes, like oversized glass marbles, and shades of yellow, red, green, blue, pink, and purple.
There were two doors in the room. One leading out and one leading in. Both were padlocked and needed a special code just to enter. Only six people in the whole world knew the code, and they were very select people, he made sure of that.
The man sighed a rattling sigh from where he was working, a table for screwing nails into metal parts. He picked up his welding mask and flicked it on, obscuring his face. The man traced his finger along the rows and rows of slumped mushes of wires and limbs, with a few random eyeballs carelessly strewn in there every now and then. He selected the largest one and picked it up, cradling it like a baby in his arms.
The creature realized it had been awoken from its slumber by someone. It wriggled around and let out glitchy, robotic screeches. The man seemed oddly calm, however, as he dumped the creature onto what appeared to be an operating table. The creature, released from its grasp, tried to run away, but the man stopped it by injecting some sort of blue serum into its parts. The metal creature slumped almost immediately, still.
There was a whimper from the corner, and the man turned his head. Two girls, a bright shade of blue and slightly transparent, were sitting there in the corner. One girl was small, about six. She had two missing front teeth and her blonde hair tied up in two bouncy pigtails. She had horrific dark burns on her left cheek, and she was sobbing wildly. She wore a loose nightgown, stained with blue splatter.
The other girl, about fourteen, had short black hair tied up in two pigtails and tanned skin. Her eyes were an inky black where the white should be, and filled with a golden flame. She wore a black overall skirt on top of a golden sweater. She appeared unharmed, and was comforting the smaller girl.
The man slowly crept up to the two girls, who barely noticed him standing there.
"Jojo. We do not cry, remember?" The man said in a low, rumbling, monotoned voice, hidden by the mask. The small girl looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes, with unspilled tears threatening to pour out. As did the black-haired girl, only her eyes were brimming with fury.
"You gave her these burns!" The older girl yelled. "You can't get mad at her for crying!"
The man turned his dark gaze into the older girl, the one he'd managed to find alone.
"But Cassidy, dear Cassidy, if they hear her whining, they'll come down here! And I'll be forced to send you back! Now, you wouldn't want that, do you."
"I've already died." The girl snarled. "I'm not afraid to die again."
The man tsked at her act of bravery.
"That's not very kind, Cassidy. Apologize or face the consequences." He scolded.
Cassidy stood up taller, on her toes, and while she was quite short, she glared deep into the mask. "Make me, jackass." She growled in a low voice.
The man was miffed, but hardly angry.
"Hm. Very well. I suppose I need to test this new serum, and Jojo seems about fit…"
Cassidy shook her head in a panic, and stood in front of Jojo, seemingly to protect her. "No! You can't test it on her. Test it on someone else. Do one of those idiot boys that comes in here every day."
The man smiled under his mask. He couldn't kill the girls just yet, he needed them still, but they didn't need to know that. "The boy is not fit to come here, I'm assuming he has other plans for Christmas...quite rude, I suppose, but then, I am spending Christmas with two idiots." He shrugged.
"I'm not an idi-" Jojo squeaked. Cassidy put a finger on her lips to hush the small girl, shooting a worried glance at the man, show as merely miffed. He sighed and walked slowly away.
He had big plans, even bigger than Cassidy and Jojo. He simply had to wait a little bit longer...
A/N
Scary! Wonder who that could be…
Also, I've been looking back on this story, and there's a lot of small continuity errors I've been meaning to fix.
Foxy is Scottish, not British.
Raven's mom's fiance is named Jared, not Clay.
I accidentally skipped a chapter number.
Ruby does not know the animatronics are ghost kids trapped in the suits, she thinks they are just robots.
Now, Duolingo is spamming me with emails, so I've got to go practise my French ;)
Au revoir!
~Ghost