NEW ACT WOO WOO

Enjoy!

Wind rushed past, taking with it a cool, crisp scent of the coming fall. It was early September, and the temperature was perfect. Not blisteringly hot like August, but not chillingly freezing like December. Just right.

A glowing blue crow cawed, flapping its wings and perching on a nearby pine tree. The wolf-pup at the bottom yapped, scratching furiously at the trunk, but to no avail. It couldn't reach the crow. The wolf flattened it's fluffy gray ears, and instead decided to watch the crow with haunting yellow eyes. Bright yellow and orange lights suddenly flared in the forest, and the two animals yelped or squawked and bounded away, surprised by the sudden light.

It came from a dusty, wide building, covered in flashing lights and posters. The building had been abandoned until a team of construction workers had come over and fixed it up with flash and fame. The building screamed in your face to stare and ooh and ahh and marvel at its glory.

Fazbear's Fright. It was all anyone was talking about around town. A cool new haunted house attraction? Based on real murders? People didn't care how inconsiderate that was. They didn't care if it could be potentially dangerous. They would fork over their money, make a couple posts about it, anything.

But the girl who was riding her bright red bike through the starry night sky, into the parking lot beside the building, knew better. She'd experienced the mystery, knew the victims, and survived a serial killer.

Ruby Roxanne.

She parked her bike in a bike rack and took off her bright green, glittery, spiked helmet that her little sister Rylie had made...or rather, decorated, for her at her daycare. She'd be starting preschool the next day...seemed like only yesterday she was crawling around on all fours, or swaddled in blankets in a crib.

Ruby shook out her long red hair, pulled out her keys and unlocked the front doors, locking them behind her.

The place was eerily calm at night. She'd been there with a couple of the other workers during the day at the Grand Opening that Christian Lee and Walter Rollins had held a week before. Ruby wouldn't be a part of the actual attraction, that was Beck and Heather's job, but she got to be the night guard and that was what mattered.

The main room looked almost exactly like the old pizzeria, with a checkered tile floor, tiny animal carousels made of cardboard, and old ragged posters urging kids to sing, dance, eat, and party. There were tassels to keep the line-up in order, leading to a desk with a computer for the secretary to take calls and let people into the haunted house. Windows let in shafts of moonlight that reflected shiny metal.

Ruby walked through a maze of hallways, past the fake dining rooms, 'creepy' wooden pop-ups of animatronics, and spooky cobwebs to the office. She had to duck past the streamers, glow-in-the-dark star stickers, and paper people holding hands that were strung across the ceiling.

When she got into the office, she immediately headed for the spinny chair, which was arguably the best part. Who doesn't like a plush squishy spinny chair?

She took a look around. Green LED lights in front of her made the room a sort of dark green colour. There was a window in front of her shielded with thick glass that led outside to another hallway with a large vent visible. Paper drawings of the characters drawn by their younger fans littered the walls. Then the left had a door that didn't shut, which was fine. Who needed doors when you had a flashlight? Then she remembered that she probably didn't need to defend herself this time, as there were no animatronic 'threats', but hey, you could never be too careful!

Ruby winced as she bumped up against a long scar on her stomach. She'd gotten that from what they...they being her, Tulisa, Josh, and even Lily (poor girl), called The Battle. Some scrap robots had claws and it had gotten a good cut on her. Her mother and stepfather had noticed and freaked out. Ruby, Tulisa, and Josh somehow managed to convince them it was an accident in Woodwork.

A cardboard box of animatronic plushies and figurines sat beside her, and on the desk were more little figurines. Ruby grinned and gave Freddy's nose a little boop before switching off the fan. It wasn't that hot in there.

Ruby smiled as she saw a small tablet, about the size of your average ePad screen. This was much better than the glitchy monitors, and way more advanced.

Right as she was about to check out the place from the safety of her office, the phone she hadn't even noticed was there began to ring. She pressed 'talk', then put it on speakerphone and drank from her can of Koke while she listened.

"Hey hey! Glad you came here for the night!"

Ah. It was Christian Lee. Lovely.

"I promise, it'll be a LOT more interesting this time! We found some great new relics over the weekend! So, uhh- let me just update you real quick, then you can get to work. Like, the attraction opens in like a week, so we have to make sure EVERYTHING works, and nothing catches on fire!"

Ruby raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

"Uh, so while you're here for the night guard shift, try and make sure nobody steals anything, or makes out in the corners!"

Ruby wrinkled her nose. Ew. Get a room, one that wasn't being monitored by cameras 24/7.

"You can toggle between the Hall cams and the Vent cams. Then, you can flip up your maintenance panel. You know, use this to reboot any systems that may go offline. Uh, in trying to make the place feel more vintage, we may have overdone it a bit! Heh heh. Some of this equipment is BARELY functional! Yeah, I wasn't joking about the fire, that- that's a real risk, dude."

Oh. Wow. Hopefully that didn't happen.

"Now let me tell you about what's new. We found another set of drawings, always nice, AND A FOXY HEAD! Which we think could be authentic! Then again, it might just be another crappy cosplay. We get a lot of those."

Ruby blinked. Where would they find a Foxy head? Though, like he said, it could just be some crappy cosplay.

"Oh! So the place was basically just, you know, flashing lights and spooky props. I honestly was thinking we'd have more by now, if we didn't have anything really cool by next week, we were thinking about suiting Becca or Hannah up in a fursuit, and make them walk around saying BOO!" Chris laughed.

Ruby smiled. Once again, getting Beck and Heather's names wrong. Typical Chris.

"But guess what. You're not going to believe this, bro. We found one. A real one. Oh shoot, gotta go. There's a new loot box that just dropped and I've heard it's super OP. Yeah, just check the cams and vents, and everything should be poggers."

He hung up, and Ruby was left there dumbfounded. What did he mean, a real one? A real... animatronic? But where would you find one? Maybe they fixed up a runaway scrap?

Ruby flipped through the cameras and- wow. Was this even considered an upgrade? Chris was right, they definitely overdid it by trying to make it look authentic. There was so much static that she could barely see. Let's see...there was the Maze of Terrors, a fake dining room, and the countless hallways. Then there were three different vent systems, which felt a tad weird. Why would you need to monitor vents...unless something was crawling through them.

A delightful shiver ran through Ruby's body at that, and she grinned. Nobody was better at creeping herself out than herself, is what she liked to say.

Huh. There was a little button that said 'play audio'. What did that do? She went to Cam 9 and played the sound.

A small boy's laugh rang out. Ruby paused. Where had she heard that laugh befo-

Camera 6. A face stared directly at her.

Um... probably just a pop-up. Nothing to worry abou-

"AHHH HOLY CRAP!"

When she flipped down her tablet screen, the thing jumped out at her, tackling her with tiny arms and legs. Ruby screamed in surprise and fell back.

"Ruby! Ruby, Ruby, Ruby!" The thing said, clambering off her. Now that it was off her, she could get a better look, and- hold up. Curly brown hair, freckled face, bright blue eyes, red-and-blue striped shirt...wait.

"Malcolm?" She asked in disbelief.

"Yep. Hi!" He waved at her. Ruby slowly sat up, catching her breath. Jeez, that scared her.

"What- what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be, y'know, dead?" Ruby asked him.

Mal shrugged, taking a seat on the floor and smashing his cars together. "I guess so. S' fine though. Joey told me to go get you." One car did an epic jump off the other, crashing to the floor.

"What? Jojo's here too? Where?" What the heck was going on?!

"Uh, I think she's under your desk. She's been here for a bit now." Malcolm told her. As he said that, the small girl did a somersault out from underneath her desk, jumping up.

She was wearing a purple-and-blue striped t-shirt with poofy sleeves under a pair of blue jean overall shorts. Her light blonde hair was in two bouncy space buns with a pink headband, her blue eyes wide and excited. Jojo waved to her cheerfully. "Hiya!"

"Wha- how long have you two been here for?" Ruby asked incredulously.

Jojo pondered this, a finger to her chin. "Uh, since you got here, pretty much. We both just appeared in Cam 6 with the others."

Ruby sighed. "What. Others."

"Freddy."

"Bonnie."

"Chica, Foxy, and Mangle." Jojo added.

"Mari and Cassidy." Mal counted them off on his fingers as he said the names.

Ruby face-palmed. "And why didn't you think to tell me this sooner?"

"We did tell you soon. About as soon as we saw you." Jojo pointed out.

"Okay." She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to think of what to say or do. "Okay. Can you...bring them here? I'd like to speak with them." Hopefully they'd listen to that.

"Sure thing!" Jojo chirped, and with a pop she disappeared. Ruby's hazel eyes widened. Where did she go…?

"Cassidy showed her how to teleport a year ago," Malcolm explained matter-of-factly.

"Oh." At this point, that was barely the weirdest thing that had happened that night.

"You should probably be checking the cams. Mari says it's important to do your job." Mal told her.

Ruby nodded. Smart kid. She flipped through the cams, with nothing being there. Except...if she squinted, she just barely could see Jojo chatting with people off-screen, most likely the animatronics- er, not animatronics anymore. She had to try and stop referring to them as that.

Yep. Now she could see the anima- er, her friends, making their way over to her office. Huh, it was weird seeing them as their humanoid versions of animatronics. Good to see Bonnie looking like a pale, willowy blueberry again. Although Mari somehow kept her striped hoodie...was she wearing that when she died? Ruby placed the tablet back onto the desk and turned to the side to await her friends at the door.

"Hello there!"

Ruby froze. That was not the voice of one of her friends. Slowly, she turned to chair to the side. She knew that voice all too well, and although the figure perched at the door looked worse for wear, it was clear who that was. It made absolutely zero sense, but then, this night was full of surprises.

Standing in the doorframe was a tall animatronic rabbit, yet Ruby knew the person inside. William Afton.

The ghosts, who had just appeared behind him, stared in horror.

"What." Chica asked in shock. "Is he doing here."

Cassidy didn't even waste time talking, just grabbed a nearby sharp metal pole that was lying on the floor from construction and stabbed it through his mutilated body.

William flinched, but he didn't even need to worry. The pole phased through as if he was a hologram.

"What…" She stuck her hand over his body. Again, it went straight through. "Is he like a hologram or something?"

He leaned down and picked up a stray ball of crumpled-up paper, tossing in the air aimlessly. "Oh, I can assure you, I am very real, though it seems that you cannot harm me." A wild glint entered his eyes. "Hmm...but perhaps...I can!"

He picked up the pole Cassidy and dropped. It was rather large, but still effective. Instantly, the eight ghosts backed up. From behind William, Ruby stood in front of a practically oblivious Mal, too wrapped up in his world of toy cars to pay attention to his surroundings. With one swift movement, William sliced through Chica, the closest one to him...and it phased right through. William blanched and tried to stab her again. And again. Chica crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

William laughed. "Well, this is awkward. Looks like I can't hurt you, and you can't hurt me."

"Physically." Cassidy shot him a menacing glare, which he returned with a smile.

"Well, I'm out." Mangle turned around and smashed the window leading outside beside her, completely done with him and this whole situation. She reached out with her arm past the jagged edges and was promptly thrown back inside. Mangle frowned and tried again. And again, she was thrown back inside. Just like when they were animatronics, only instead of an electric shock, it was a force that chucked her backwards. She threw back her head in frustration and groaned.

"You have got to be kidding me. We're stuck in some stupid building again."

William, curious, stuck a hand outside too. He was thrown back as well, smashing against the wall with an annoying amount of force, as if the universe three him harder out of spite. Drawings fluttered onto the tile floor like snow, one landing in-between his ears.

Cassidy shook her head. "Oh my God. We're actually stuck here, with you, for- I don't even know how long." This was a literal nightmare. They had to share this whole giant building. Why, why, why couldn't they have just died in peace?

"Um, pardon me," Ruby interrupted. "But there's a burning question I've been meaning to ask."

Everyone turned to her.

"How in the hell are you all still alive?"

Everyone exchanged glances of confusion, but then William burst into laughter, almost wheezing. His shoulders shook from the laughter.

"What's so funny?" Freddy asked, a little annoyed. He continued to laugh, but finally caught his breath.

"Ahhhh...So, I might've forgotten to mention one teensy tiny little detail back in the battle."

"Which is?" Ruby coaxed, growing impatient. Patience was a virtue, but it was something she lacked.

"I can't die!" William cackled after seeing the shocked expressions on their faces.

Mari's eyes went wide with horror. "Of course...that's why we didn't pass on! This little...pumpkin-face can't die, our 'unfinished business' is killing him, so we're stuck here in this dumb building forever!"

William's eyes grew unfocused for a moment at the insult of 'pumpkin-face', but then shook himself back into reality. "Ha! You know, that's sort of ironic. I killed you to make myself immortal, and then you become immortal from that. Almost poetic, in a way."

"This sucks." Mangle frowned. "And I was really set on dying, too."

"Well, I mean, at least it's a new location. Plenty of exploring we can do." Freddy, ever the optimist, tried to see the bright side.

"Yeah, and we had to leave everything behind. The pizzeria was awesome. We don't have anything cool here." Bonnie the pessimist countered. "Not to mention we're stuck with this freak." He jabbed a finger back at William who had somehow gotten brightly coloured streamers tangled up in his ears like Christmas lights on a pair of reindeer horns.

"Aye, I'm sure there's a computer here." Foxy reassured him. "There's no way there's none. We can buy booty online."

Everyone stared at him.

Foxy blushed. "That...that be treasure, ye know."

Nobody lifted their gaze.

Foxy sighed. "Loot. I meant clothes, phones and stuff. Do I seriously have to explain this all to you?"

Ruby wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Foxyyy, what kind of 'online shopping' are you doing?!"

Mangle covered her mouth to try and stop giggling. Foxy groaned. "Fer the love of chum, lass! Stuff! Toys! Books! Games! What I said was a mere slip o' the tongue! It's pirate-speak!"

Ruby continued teasing him, and the six of them eventually fell into their usual playful banter, with Cassidy, Mari, Jojo, and Malcolm joining in, chatting the hours away. William had slunk off to whatever conrer he could find, good riddance.

And when Ruby left her shift, she couldn't help but grin. She had her friends back.