DARLINGGG GUESS WHOS BACK FROM JAIIIIILLLLLL -spiderpersondrea

HIIII IM SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SORRY FOR BEINF GONEEEEEEE

FOR LIKE HALF A YEAR

UM

AHAHA

DONT WORRY ABOUT IT

But to be fair I've been VERY busy hahaaA life gets in the way and all.

anyways technically the finale chapter? It's like 8k words LMAO so anyways hope u enjoy!

Chapter 114

Nightmare By Design

Apparently, Ruby was late to the party.

When she got there, the ghosts were hanging around playing cards, Jojo and Malcolm were running around playing a violent game of tag, Nightmare was watching, amused, and Michael and Jeremy were talking off to the side.

Bonnie was the first to acknowledge her. "Finally, Sleeping Beauty awakes. What were you doing, standing around painting your nails?"

"Hello to you too, Bonnibel." Ruby glanced around the drab scene. She wondered why if Nightmare was some sort of all-powerful god, why didn't he decorate his realm a little more?

Here in the Shadow dimension, black is the new black.

"Is everyone here?" Jeremy called, standing up and pulling out his clipboard. Again, Ruby thought, why wasn't it a cool-looking clipboard if it was so magical? At least add glitter. Even just a little sprinkle…

Jeremy took roll call like a substitute teacher, and sure enough, everyone was present. He gave Nightmare a questioning look. "Should I do it in, like, alphabetical? Or age?"

"Yes."

"Um, okay, age it is." He flipped the page on his clipboard. "Mangle, you're up first."

She blinked. "I'm the oldest? I thought that was Cassidy."

"She's definitely taller than you," Bonnie teased. Mangle flicked him on the nose with her tail, which was hard to do from her…below average height.

Jeremy cleared his throat. "Like, technically, but she was possessing something up until she was fourteen, so she stopped ageing after that."

"Whatever you say, darling," Mangle sighed, crossing her arms and standing up. "I'm not afraid of anything."

"Really? Because I've got a pretty long list—"

"Ugh!" Mangle unsheathed her claws. "I'm going to rip your larynx out!"

Freddy stepped in-between them, holding his hands out. "There will be no larynx-ripping tonight!"

"Rats," said Foxy from behind a bowl of popcorn.

"If you tiny little mortals are done squabbling, I'd like to get this done in the next millennium." Nightmare droned. Mangle sighed theatrically, and trudged over to the giant creature, who began to open a purple portal in front of her.

"Bye, Mags!" Ruby called.

"Break a leg!" Bonnie yelled. "Preferably the one you always scratch me with!"

"Remember, it's just a nightmare!" Freddy assured.

"Don't let the bed bugs bite!" Foxy added.

Mangle blew them all a kiss, got red lipstick on her hand, and entered the portal. It closed behind her in a blip.

Everyone was quiet.

Tentatively, Chica murmured; "I hope she's okay."

"Of course she'll be okay," Freddy reassured her. "She's the strongest of all of us. You know that."

Ruby brought her knees to her chin. "I feel weird about being the only one not going. Like, guilty."

"I'm not going either, and I don't feel like, guilty." Michael said, rolling his eyes.

"That's 'cause you're dead inside."

"You should see him when he's drunk," Jeremy said with a grin. "He turns into a widdle cwybaby."

"Shut up." Michael shoved him. "You're actually a moron."

"I never cry," Jeremy continued. "I've been drinking since I was in the womb. My fetus was practically pickled."

"Wow, that's a fun image," Ruby muttered.

Suddenly, there was a flash of purple and Mangle reappeared, shaking like a leaf. Her ears were flattened and her white hair and tail were bushed up, pupils slitted. She didn't move, didn't say anything, just stood there.

"Maggie!" Chica cried, practically tackling her in a giant hug. "That was so quick! Was it scary? What was it like?"

"Chica, get off." Freddy ordered, coming to help. Mangle still didn't react. "Don't startle her. She might be in shock." He bent down to look her in the eyes. "Mangle, hey. Are you okay?"

Mangle blinked. It took her a moment, but her fur flattened. "Oh. Yes, dear, thank you. My- my head just hurts, a little."

"I'm sorry, Maggie," Chica murmured, looking away in shame. "I shouldn't have jumped on you like that."

"Awh, don't worry, honey, it's alright. Come here." Mangle opened her arms and embraced the slightly taller girl. Everyone was quiet, lost in thoughts.

"Well, was it scary?" Foxy broke in.

"Foxy!" Freddy snapped.

Mangle's eyes glazed over, as if looking at something far away. "Yes. It was." She refocused. "However, I'd prefer not to discuss it. Sorry."

"That's completely fine. Hey, could we get a blanket for her, some cocoa?" Freddy gestured to Katy, Jeremy, and Nightmare.

The latter snapped his giant paw and a soft red quilt floated down, wrapping Mangle up like a Christmas present, a steaming mug of hot chocolate placed in her hands. She sipped it gingerly, then offered a small smile. "Lovely, peppermint, my favourite."

Soon it was Foxy's turn. He was nearly as quick as Mangle, but when he reappeared there were tears spilling down his russet cheeks and his golden eye had taken on a haunted look. No amount of hot chocolate could console him, and Freddy said to give him time.

Next, it was Bonnie's turn. He took much longer to complete, so the others swapped stories and played cards. The ghosts talked about who they'd want to meet when they passed over to the afterlife. Ruby tried to laugh along, but she just couldn't be happy when her best friends were leaving her, and she felt even worse when she knew how selfish she was being.

When Bonnie reappeared, he was flushed and sweaty, but had a wide grin on his face. There was a rip in one sleeve of his black hoodie, leaving it hanging from a thread.

Everyone whipped their heads around eagerly. Ruby looked up at him, eyes shining. "Did you do it?"

Bonnie's grin grew impossibly wider. "Hell yeah," he said, and then promptly threw up for a minute straight.

"Is he okay?" Jojo gasped when he was done.

He leaned his hands on his knees, panting. "No, Jojo, I always projectile vomit after speaking. You never noticed?"

After giving him a cold compress and an icy can of ginger ale, it was Freddy's turn. He took the longest by far. While he was gone, Bonnie told them a little about what happened.

"I thought it was going to be him, but I'm not scared of my dad anymore," he explained. "I was terrified of him when I was a kid, 'cause he hit me and that was the most obvious pain. He just seems kinda sad now that I'm grown up."

"Do you want to tell us what happened?" Chica asked gently. "You don't have to."

Bonnie hesitated. "Uh, dunno. It had something to do with you guys, is all I'll say."

Chica looked like she was going to explode with curiosity, but miraculously managed to keep her mouth shut.

Freddy came back with messy hair and an exhausted expression. While he claimed to be unaffected, he picked at the brown skin of his lips and wouldn't make eye contact.

But things got especially weird when Chica came back. Her eyes and nose were red like she'd been crying, but of course that was expected after facing a nightmare. What made it weird was the way she acted around Ruby after.

"Oh my God, I just remembered." Ruby leaned over and poked Chica's shoulder. "I gotta tell you what I saw at the beach the other day. So I was walking and—"

"Whatever, Ruby." Chica rolled her eyes and actually turned away.

Her brow creased, and she placed a hand on the smaller girl's shoulder. "Hey, Chi-Chi. You okay?"

Chica shrugged her off. "Yep. Fine."

"No you aren't, you can't even look at me. Are you—is it because of your nightmare? Was it…bad?" Ruby asked, lamely.

"Um, obvie? It's supposed to be my worst fear."

"Right." She didn't really know what to say. An idea came to her. "Did it have something to do with me?"

Chica blew out a long breath and stood up. "I'm going for a walk."

"No, wait! If I did something bad in your nightmare I wanna know!" Ruby followed her, taking her hand and forcing her to spin around. Meeting her gaze, she felt a pang of sadness when she saw the tears brimming in Chica's sky-blue eyes. "Chi, I want you to know that I would never hurt you, okay? I love you."

The tears subsided, and her expression softened. "You- you do?"

"Of course I do!" What did I do in her nightmare to make her think otherwise? "You're my best friend!"

Chica suddenly went rigid. "Right," she muttered stonily, "that's right. It really is all I am to you, hm?"

What? "I don't understand," Ruby said carefully.

"Of course you don't. You're so stupid. So oblivious." A tear traced her cheek and she had to suck in a breath, shaking a little, before speaking all in a rush.

"But I love that about you. I love how you look with your hair all crazy and I love when you laugh and it starts with your eyes getting all crinkly. I love seeing you play with your cats and doing stupid card games with you and the others. And I love how instead of sleeping, you choose to spend your nights with a bunch of long-dead sick kids and fight off their nightmares just because you care about us."

Chica's chin trembled. "But you don't deserve that. You deserve to be running outside with your real friends, and going to parties, and stressing over homework, and…and going out with your girlfriend, who's so much prettier and so much happier than I'll ever be. You deserve to be seventeen. And I need to stop being so damn selfish and stop loving you how I do, because you don't deserve that."

Heat rushed to Ruby's cheeks. Her heart pumped energy. "I don't—God, Chica, how long have you been holding this in?"

"Even before I met you." Her voice was quieter now, bitter. "I don't know if it was from Freddy's description of you or if I was just so lonely, but it was literally love at first sight. But I knew I couldn't tell you. I couldn't put that burden on you. I don't mean this as an insult, but you really can't know what it's like to be one of us."

She gestured around the room of ghosts. "It's unspoken, but we all know not to mess with the living world, the nature of things. You were kinda the first exception, because you could see ghosts. But no matter how close you get with us, there's always going to be a divide, you know? I'm not as screwed up as some of the others, and I'm grateful, but it totally ruins you; being dead so young and knowing you'll always stay the same."

When she went quiet, Ruby knew she was supposed to say something. But what? What could she possibly say to that? Her mind was scrambled, trying to fit this new rhetoric into the three years she'd known her best friend for. Chica's worst fear was something to do with being in love with her? And more importantly, Chica was in love with her?

She opened her mouth, tried to force words to come out. "I—"

Screams of rage cut her off. Both girls whipped their heads around to see what was the matter.

Cassidy was on her knees, hands clawed up into fists. Her honey-coloured face was flushed red with fury. "I'm not going!" she cried, swivelling her head to glare at everyone with fiery accusation, throat hoarse. "You can't make me! I know what's waiting for me on the other side, I do, and it's what I've spent my whole freaking life fighting. I'm tired of it. I'll throw up if I have to see his face again! I will!"

"Well, don't do that," Bonnie muttered.

Freddy pinched the bridge of his nose. "Cass, you've been saying for months that you're fine with fighting him if it means you get to pass on. What happened?"

"I can't do it, oh my God, I just can't. I'll fail if I try." High and panicky, she whimpered, "I'm gonna pass out."

"Shit, shit." Michael stood up, rushing to hold her by the shoulders before she went limp and fell against his front. Gasps of breath, short and sharp, escaped her lips. Michael stroked her sleek black hair, gentle. "Sh-sh-shh, it's okay. You're okay. Just breathe, deep breaths. Stay with me. He's not here. You don't have to see him ever again."

"I do," Cassidy sobbed. "I can't stay here, I can't. I gotta do this so I can pass on."

"You don't, Cass, listen to me. We'll figure out some other way."

"So tired," she mumbled, her breaths slowing. "I'm so tired."

"I know you are, baby," he murmured, "Just focus on breathing. There we are, just like that. Doing so good."

Ruby had never seen him like this. Michael hid behind a wall of sarcasm and self-deprecation, but this was like he was taking care of his own child, and doing a damn good job at it.

"I can't see him again or I'll kill myself." Despite her words, she seemed calmer now, less hysterical.

Michael smirked wryly. "You and me both." He rubbed her shoulder. "Can you sit up now, or do you need more time?"

"'M okay." She offered him a watery smile. "This is all such bullshit."

He laughed in surprise, letting go of her so she could rise. "Yeah? Understatement of the year."

While relieved, Freddy's face was troubled. "Obviously Cassidy doesn't need to face her nightmare, but we need to figure out a way for her to pass on."

Ruby stepped forward, determination coursing through her muscles. "I'll do it."

Everyone turned to stare at her, shocked. Chica grabbed her arm. "Ruby, no."

"Ruby yes. C'mon, you've all been so strong doing these challenges. It's time I try and take it on."

"If this is about what I said, that's not at all what I meant." Chica whispered. "It's dangerous and I- I don't want you hurt."

"Of course you don't." Ruby let her fingertips skim the smaller girl's shoulder, a soft promise. "I'll come back safe, swear it."

Everyone was quiet, watching her. Ruby shuffled her feet awkwardly. "Aaand now that I"ve made it weird, I'm going to make my exit. Nightmare, could you open a portal for me?"

"Sure thing." The swirling purple door appeared. His huge red eyes were unreadable. "Be careful, Ruby. Time is funny in your nightmares."

"Metal quote, dude. I should get that tattooed…hey, I just made a poem!"

And then Ruby fell in.

~lll~

While the world around her was still black once she'd passed through, something felt very different. The first thing she noticed her hair was standing on end like she'd just rubbed up against an electrical socket. She ran her fingers through it, little zaps echoing out. Hmmm.

But just as she did so, the world around her began to warp and change. Like a watercolour painting dripping paint onto a blank canvas, colours bled down. Purple and gold, blue and green, blurry objects slowly came into focus. Ruby spun around, watching everything with wide hazel eyes. So this is what drugs are like. I can kind of see why people do them now.

Her surroundings were starting to take on a familiar form, a dim hallway with a checkered floor. Posters on the walls of cute animal characters, strings of star-shaped fairy lights strung up to the ceiling, crayon drawings done by little kids littering the floor. Children's shouting vied with music coming from the arcade in the back. The floor shook with the stomp of little feet, accompanying the percussion of balloons banging into her head.

And while the scent of greasy, cheesy pizza would've been enough to make Ruby's stomach rumble, the smell of sweat and metal in the air killed any appetite she would've had.

"Makes you sick, doesn't it?" A low voice rumbled next to her ear.

Ruby whipped around, but there was nobody there. Purple mist started to wind around her feet like a friendly cat. "Who said that?! William? Is that you?"

"Killjoy, you figured me out." His words echoed around the hallway, seemingly bouncing off the walls. The violet fog grew thicker, travelling up her body.

Ruby narrowed her eyes and fanned it away. "C'mere already so I can get out of this stupid nightmare."

"You want to leave so soon? What a pity." Ruby felt something skim the back of her neck, and a shiver ran up her spine. "I haven't gotten to chat with you in ages, Red. Say, what have you been up to since you doused me in gasoline and set me on fire?"

"Stop being a creepy freaky coward and fight me. Or are you too scared?" Ruby rolled up the sleeves of her black Staff hoodie and flexed her biceps.

A shadow loomed in front of her, long and humanoid with two rabbit ears pointing out the top. "Big talk."

Slowly, Ruby turned around. And there he was, standing at a warped, nightmarish ten feet tall, wearing the golden Springbonnie suit splattered with blood. While he was wearing the rabbit mask, Ruby could see his pale lips stretched into a grin behind the rubber teeth and his silver eyes dancing right above.

"Someone's been eating his vegetables," Ruby muttered.

"You know, you weren't who I was expecting to see." His drawl drifted like smoke. "Suppose Cassie was too weak, hm? And she sent you instead?"

"Cassidy's not weak."

The whiskers on his mask twitched in amusement. "Of course."

Ruby searched around the hallway. There had to be a weapon, something she could use to take him down.

"Looking for a weapon?" William made a tsking sound. "Always so violent. It would be charming if you didn't have such an annoying personality."

"Luckily, I'm not trying to charm you." Frustration tore at her. How am I supposed to beat this nightmare-simulation-thingy?

"You know, it's a bit rude of your friends to make you do this," William broke through her thoughts. "After all, they have nothing to lose. You're mortal. You can die."

Maybe she just had to talk to him. Defeat him with her words. "Nobody made me do this. I volunteered, actually."

"Even still." He raised an eyebrow. "Your friends treat you like a lesser being, just because you're alive and they aren't. You've gone through hell and back for them. And now you're fighting, risking your life, to give them freedom to leave you forever?"

"Don't try and brainwash me. I know what you're doing, and it's not gonna work."

"Forgive me. Just trying to have a little fun, s'all." He paused, putting a finger to his chin as if considering something. "But it is true, what I'm saying?"

Ruby hesitated. "I guess. It's not like how you're putting it, though. I'm doing it willingly."

"Suppose. It all seems a little manipulative though, doesn't it? This is what you've been doing since you were sixteen. And a friendship that begins with them trying to kill you?" He snapped his fingers. "Mm. Doesn't seem like the…building blocks for a healthy relationship."

"Like you would know what a healthy relationship looks like," Ruby snapped.

William half-smiled. "Okay, little girl. Suppose you would know, eh? You're what—seventeen? Spent the first years of your life kidnapped and used as a test subject?"

The world around them shifted, and suddenly Ruby was standing in the little decomposing bunker under the cabin in the woods where she grew up. The concrete walls were scribbled on with crayons and splattered with what she hoped was oil.

A cracked mirror hung on the wall, and Ruby peered into it. The glass held not her own face, but a chubby-cheeked version about thirteen years younger, with dirty hair the blonde colour of wheat and rabbity, teary hazel eyes. Near her scalp the roots were growing in red.

Startled, she jumped back. The torn sleeves of her grubby white nightgown were hiked up to her biceps, and she felt a roll of repulsion when the saw mottled bruising staining her skinny white arms, dark as berries. She could see bloody pinpricks stabbed right in the crease of her inner elbow.

This must be where he injected me with the red serum! That bastard…

"Aw, don't go calling me such names," William's voice whispered in her ear. Ruby glanced to the side, but he wasn't there. "I sheltered you, gave you toys and warmth and good food to eat. Be a little more grateful. You could have been kidnapped by a real messed-up psychopath, but you got me instead!" He laughed then, long and cruel and echoing throughout the bunker.

"And who's fault was that? That I spent so much time here?" Ruby crossed her arms, a bit perturbed by how short her child-self was. "If you're using this as an example of how I 'don't know anything', then it's a pretty hypocritical example."

"Fair enough." Suddenly the world changed again, and Ruby squinted as the sun glared into her eyes. Now she was standing on soft wood chips in a bright playground, the sky clear and blue and little kids running all around her.

She was a little taller now, her hair fully red and grown long and wild. Her shirt was black with a decal of a kitten, and she wore white leggings—ripped, caked in dirt and scraped—under torn red shorts.

A strange ringing assaulted her ears. Ruby turned around, and was met with the high-pitched, hyena-like laughing of a crowd of children. But it wasn't the kind of laugh you did when someone told a joke. This was the kind of malicious, mean laugh that haunted Ruby all throughout elementary school.

The kind of laugh teachers did when she got every question wrong on a test, or couldn't read even Cat in the Hat, or started hyperventilating when the substitute teacher was a tall, dark-haired British man, and had to be sent home early.

The kind of laugh these kids in front of her were doing right now.

"What a pig!" giggled one girl, dressed in clean, white, ironed clothes. "Look at how yucky she is, playing in the mud!"

Ruby sat up straight. Was she? Looking down, she saw that she was sitting right in a thick puddle of muck, her clothes a total wreck. She had a vague, childlike thought that her mother would have a fit over this. Can't, don't wanna go to time-out.

"Weird worm girl!" One boy crowed. "Worms! Worms! Worms!"

Worms? Ruby suddenly became acutely aware of thousands of slimy worms squirming all over her. Up her sleeves, between her fingers. Oddly enough, their presence was comforting. The worms, like her, were gross. Outcasts.

"Worms! Worms! Worms!" The crowd was chanting now, growing closer. Their fingers grabbed at her, pink and brown and wriggly and worm-like and oh, they were worms.

"Stop it!" Ruby cried, the chanting and the children and the worms all over her. She shielded her face, cringing into a little ball. Slime coated skin, poking and taking and hurting. "Stop, stop it, please! This isn't right! William, this isn't right! I didn't—I had friends!"

Suddenly the sounds and feelings stopped, and Ruby was floating in a black void, empty and bodiless.

"Worm friends, maybe." She heard the smile in his voice. Of course he was enjoying this.

"No, I'm serious. I had friends. Once I got to middle school anyway."

"Oh, yes." William's tone was dry. "Wonderful friends."

Once again the world evolved into the room of a teenage girl, messy with mint-green walls and fluffy throw pillows, stuffed animals and nail polish strewn about. A Polaroid wall of photography lined with fairy lights was tacked up next to a canvas that read Dream On in swoopy cursive, doodles of holographic unicorns flying around the words.

The cutesy decor contrasted harshly with the two girls sitting in the room with Ruby. One had short white-blonde curls with hot-pink streaks, dressed up and down in scene clothes. She wore white zebra-print tights with layered pink and black tank tops, funky silver belts draping off her narrow hips. A pink baseball cap with a skull decal adorned her head like a crown.

The other had stick-straight black hair parted over one small, dark eye, bangs cut jagged. Her warm brown skin was covered in Sharpie doodles, and she wore a black Arctic Monkeys top with big colourful Kandi cuffs covering her wrists. She paired this with a royal blue miniskirt and thick, panda-like eye makeup.

Ruby felt a jolt of anxiety. She knew these girls. These were Maisie and Sahanna, her best friends from seventh grade. They all loved gothic grunge and horror movies and making fun of the popular crowd.

They had been her closest friends, up until her father died later that year and Ruby had fallen into a depressive episode.

Maisie was scrolling on her phone, on Tumblr probably, lotioned legs sticking to the blankets on her bed. "Ruby, what's up with you? You haven't spoken since you came over."

"Yeah, if you aren't gonna chat then why bother coming?" Sahanna muttered. She was touching up her eyeshadow with a small compact shaped like a seashell.

"Sorry," Ruby found herself saying, sounding small and pathetic.

"What-eva." Maisie rolled her clear blue eyes. "I guess it's kinda hard to talk through a mouthful of food."

"Huh?" Ruby said, but realized she was spraying orange Cheeto crumbs all over the carpet. Looking down, she saw a jumbo-sized bag of the cheesy puffs in her lap, her fingers crusted with the stuff.

Sahanna and Maisie wrinkled their noses. "Grody, Ruby."

"Sorry," she said again, but found a sudden, intense urge to keep shovelling them in her mouth. Before she knew it, she'd eaten the whole bag.

Maisie shot her a ticked-off glare. "Want me to call my mom? To buy you more junk? Unless you're like, full."

"C'mon, Mais, Ruby's never full." Sahanna jeered, shooting the blonde a knowing look.

"Full of herself, maybe."

"Full of three of herselves."

They cackled like witches. Tears welled in Ruby's eyes. She tugged her red pleated skirt down over her thighs. If only she'd brought a hoodie, some sweatpants to shield her from their taunts. Her clothes didn't even fit anymore, and most of them she'd had to sell.

Her phone buzzed, and she licked the salty powder off her fingers, sending Sahanna and Maisie back into hysterics.

RosalieMarino: Hey, sweetie! Hope you're having a great time with your friends. Love you.

Her mom. The tears threatened to spill over as Ruby typed.

rubyred: I'm not

rubyred: they're calling me names and making fun of me

rubyred: can u pick me up

rubyred: Please

RosalieMarino: Oh no! Poor thing :(

rubyred: idk why they're doing this to me they know I'm having a hard time cause of

rubyred: you know

RosalieMarino: Sorry, honey, I don't. Could you explain?

Ruby sniffled. How did her mother not know? It was the cataclysmic event that sent her life spiraling down. She went from imperfect but happy kid with a smart big sister and two adoring parents to…

rubyred: when dad died

RosalieMarino: Ruby, don't joke about Jared's death. That's not appropriate.

rubyred: ? what are you talking about

rubyred: like Dad? like my dad?

rubyred: Ross Roxanne?

RosalieMarino: Oh, I see what you mean! Sorry, I forgot about him! LoL.

rubyred: how did you forget about dad? he got in that accident only two months ago

RosalieMarino: Well, I guess Jared is just so much better than him that your father pales in comparison!

RosalieMarino: You have to admit that it's true. Look at how well he's taking care of Raven and you and his daughter!

rubyred: It's not true. And he's not rylie's dad

RosalieMarino: And I'm not your mom! ROFL!

RosalieMarino: I thought you'd be happy? You're never home enough for this to affect you. Since you're always sleeping or working. You're probably my least favourite daughter! :D

Ruby was so engrossed in texting that she didn't even realize Sahanna and Maisie and the turquoise hell room had disappeared, and now she was back in that black void.

"And I thought I was a workaholic!" William's voice trilled. "Your schedule is a nightmare in itself! Get up at 8, school till 3, eat dinner, then sleep till 12, work all night till 6-AM and do it again the next morning."

Ruby was too exhausted to exchange quips with her tormentor. "Shut up and give me the next challenge already."

"What a good attitude! You'd make a great student if you weren't so stupid."

"Give. Me. The. Next. Challenge."

"Careful, sweetie, you might cut yourself…" Something slashed her on her stomach, right over the healed scar from the first scrap robot attack, and she cried out in white-hot pain. "...on all that edge."

"Stop," Ruby hissed through gritted teeth, clutching her midriff. Her hand came off wet and sticky. "Next challenge."

"Maybe you're already in the next challenge. Just turn on your torch…or, flashlight, I suppose it would be called. LoL!"

Fumbling around in the dark, Ruby managed to find a flashlight. She flicked it on and, "Oh, wow. Nostalgia."

It was the night guard's office all the way back from when she was first hired. The squeaky chair was just as uncomfortable, the gaping vents on either side of her desk and yawning hallway in front of her just as creepy, the security cameras just as glitchy.

Ruby swiped her flashlight beam across the room, cautiously scanning for threats. Nothing but children's decorated crafts greeted her. The vent on her left creaked and quickly she flashed her light inside.

Crawling slowly closer was a blue plastic bunny animatronic with a red bow tie, green eyes wide and manic. "Hey there, Bonnibel," muttered Ruby, and slammed the vent door shut.

There was a scraping sound like nails on metal and she whipped around. Foxy was standing in the middle of the hallway, russet fur matted and torn. His animal teeth glinted maliciously, tongue lolling like he was a real fox.

Beside him dangled from the ceiling the mess of wires known as Mangle, with her long-lashed white face painted with happy red cheeks and cherry lips curled into a smile.

Ruby strobed her light at them fast enough to give anymore a seizure, but she could hear rustling coming from the right vent this time.

Thinking fast, she climbed onto the desk, knocking the security camera monitor onto the floor, and shone the light directly at the handmade disco ball garland. Little fragments of luminance sparkled throughout the room, and it was like needles in the two fox animatronics' skin. They cowered back into the shadows, snarling. Ruby threw an empty pop can at the vent door button, and it slammed shut right on Chica's beak. Ruby fist-pumped. Score! Still got those killer lacrosse skills.

And then there was a sound. Not animalistic growls or metallic clanking, but the sweet sound of a song, like that of a ballerina music box. Ruby spun around. Where was it coming from?

Slowly, from one of the gigantic present box decorations, a puppet rose, with a slender striped body and a mask made up with rosy cheeks and sad blue tears. No, not a puppet. A marionette. Mari.

The music grew louder and louder, and then voices started to sing along. "Round and round the mulberry bush," they sang, and she recognized the unique tongues of her friends. The animatronics Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, Mangle, and a golden version of Freddy—Fredbear, probably, the one Cassidy used to possess—were frozen still, eyes a chilling black and mouthes agape.

"The monkey chased the weasel." Their voices were somehow both silky smooth and rough and sharp. They cut her right down to the bone, down to the marrow.

High children's voices joined the chorus, two little dolls wearing matching striped clothes and both holding balloons. It was Malcolm, Ruby realized, and Jojo. "The monkey thought it was all in good fun."

She was still standing on the desk and used her height to search the office. Panic swelled from her head to her toes when she saw that she was completely encircled by the dead robots, with no way out.

Their tones went quiet, barely a whisper. "Pop goes the weasel…"

Footsteps practically shook the room. Ruby braced herself for whatever was about to come down the hallway. The animatronics didn't move, didn't speak, empty husks.

A sick, airy laugh gave out, rising goosebumps to her skin. William Afton. Of course. He really was the catalyst for all this, wasn't he? He emerged from the darkness, dressed in the Springbonnie suit and toting a silver kitchen knife that he dragged loosely along the hallway wall, carving a deep crease into it.

"Friends, Ruby!" William shouted, spreading his arms to the scene around them. "You really know how to pick 'em!"

In response, Ruby flashed her light in his eyes. He swore and shielded them with his arm. "Suppose I should have thought that through."

"Suppose you should've," she mimicked.

William shook his head. "So you're still going for it, eh? Still fighting for your friends? I'm afraid I don't understand it."

She shrugged. "Well, some of us aren't total psychopaths."

Suddenly, the knife was thrust forward, stabbing into the wall inches from her head. Astonishingly, hundreds of knives seemed to materialize out of thin air, sticking in the wall until she was completely surrounded by blades like a circus act. Ruby's heart rate spiked, and she let out a breath she didn't even realize was held.

"Watch your tongue, girl." William growled, stepped closer. Everything seemed to sway, dizzy. "Remember who has control here."

The walls melted down like butter, turning into a psychedelic mess of colours. Sounds and swirls attacked her with overstimulation. She heard the chime of the music box, voices of her friends, the crashing of metal, the screams of children (were they out of joy or fright?), all wrapped with a bow of laughter.

Ruby squeezed her eyes shut and clapped her hands over her ears, but it was like she could feel it hitting her over and over again. She was choking on chaos, hysteria filling up her lungs, begging her to drown in it.

"They're relying on you for their release and your reward is what? Being alone?" William's drawl seemed to repeat, hammering in her skull, an endless, maddening loop. "You've always been alone, don't you see?" His voice changed, suddenly sounding like a disturbing mixture of people she knew. The kids on the playground, Sahanna and Maisie, her biological and adopted and step parents and sisters, her ghost friends, her human friends, Myah. "Poor little Ruby Roxanne. Orphan, outcast, abandoned and unwanted. Why do you want this so badly? Why do you want to help drive people away?"

"They're my friends. I owe it to them!" screamed Ruby. She didn't know if he could hear her. She could barely hear herself over the mind-numbing noise.

"Do you value yourself so little? Are you really that pathetic? Don't you deserve some kind of reward?"

"No!" Ruby cried. "No, I don't! Because that's not what being a friend is about! It's not some constant power trip, and sometimes it's not fair because life isn't fair. And sometimes it sucks, like really, really sucks, but it's worth it to be with these people that I love. And no matter what you say, I'm not gonna change my mind! I know who I am!"

A juvenescent euphoria filled her body, like she was floating, wrapped up in lamb's wool and milk and cotton candy clouds. And then, it went blissfully quiet.

She tentatively opened her eyes, and the wonderland of colours was gone, replaced with simple blackness. But in a straight line, all in a row, were, well…her.

So many versions of Ruby stood there. More rubies than a mineshaft.

There was her at four, blonde and skittish and marked up with wounds. Her at eight, feral and defiant and unabashedly weird. Thirteen-year-old her, violently miserable and struggling to stay alive. And there were others, stretching on forever, future Ruby's, birthday after birthday, older and older.

In front of her was a girl, seventeen, curvy and sunburnt with unnaturally red hair long and wild. She was scarred and imperfect. She was fearsome and damaged.

She was hopeful.

She was Ruby Roxanne.

~lll~

The world faded one last time, and Ruby knew that she'd done it. Her friends rushed to her side, wrapping her in hugs and cheers and are-you-okay's, but Ruby felt numb, like she was trapped in a fog. But she was alive, and she was triumphant.

"I totally kicked that nightmare's ass," Ruby found herself saying, and then burst into thrilled, shaky laughter. Her friends laughed along, cautiously relieved.

Nightmare was fixing her with a blank look, and Ruby paused. "Er, no offense."

"None taken, I've heard far worse. Congratulations, Ruby Roxanne. Not many mortals have made it through the trials alive, let alone ones as young as you."

Ruby beamed smugly. "Yeah, I'm pretty awesome."

"...Right." Nightmare sighed, like an overworked parent. He sort of was, in a way. "Katy, who's next?"

Mari, with a physical age of thirteen, went next, coming back teary but defiant. Then Jojo, who made it out shockingly quickly for a nine-year-old.

But when it came time for Malcolm to go, he was stubborn. He didn't want to. He'd never wanted to, he said. And really, none of them could blame him—it was ridiculously unethical of them to coax a seven-year-old into something as horrifying as that.

And then, someone raised their hand. "I'll go instead of him," Michael said.

Everyone turned to him, shocked. Everyone except for Jeremy.

"I sort of figured you'd say that," the blonde said with a small smile. "Good luck, man."

"Break a leg!" Ruby called, as she was being fretted over by Mari about a wound in her stomach.

Michael grinned, fist-bumping Jeremy and then Ruby. "Thanks, guys."

Katy wrote something down on her clipboard, then snapped her fingers to summon the portal. Michael was really starting to hate the colour purple.

"Say hi to yer daddy for me, Mike." Katy chirped. "Give him a big sock in the face."

Unease wormed into Michael's throat. So his father would be in this one? He supposed it made sense. So what. He could take it. He'd taken it for fourteen years. Michael took a deep breath, and stepped through the portal.

Dizziness swept through as colours painted a landscape around him, making him nauseous in sort of a fun way. It reminded him of being young and messing around with his old friends and smoking—uh, nothing at all.

Soon, everything came into focus. Michael felt taller, older. Looking down, he saw he was wearing a white dress shirt stained with coffee, a loose tie, black pants and shiny dress shoes. Certainly more formal than his usual whatever-was-sort-of-clean style.

He was in a house, more specifically a living room, dark and only lit up by the silver-blue glow of night through the holes smashed in large bay windows. The sofa facing a cracked television was stained, torn with stuffing spilling out like intestines. Broken toys littered the floor, crayons were scribbled over peeling wallpaper and lay broken in half on the scuffed carpet, and children's clothes were draped over furniture.

The smell of mould was overwhelming, and Michael carefully walked over to the adjoining kitchen. The cupboards were ransacked with stale cereal spilled on the floor, crunching under his shoes. When he opened the fridge, the light was off and all the food was fuzzy and blue, unrecognizable. Gross.

Michael knew this house, knew its mess like the back of his hand. This was his house, the Afton mansion. The one he'd grown up in.

A shout broke through his thoughts, one that sent a jolt of long-buried memories up his spine. "Mikey!" she called. "Help!"

"Elizabeth? Is that you?" Like a sailor to a siren song, Michael was immediately entranced, all thoughts now of saving his lost little sister before languid light swallowed her whole. "Elizabeth, I'm coming!"

He tore down the hall, following her haunting cries. He stopped at the end of the hallway in horror, his sister's pink door gouged with five thick, beastly clawmarks. Michael turned the handle without hesitation. If he had hesitated, maybe he would have noticed how long and clawlike his own nails had gotten.

What he saw on the floor made his previous nausea feel like Elysium. Elizabeth was lying, splayed out, her body horrifyingly skeletal. Her elbows and knees were wider than her sinewy arms and legs, the ridge of her spine and the jut of her angel-wing backbones clearly visible under the slip of her baby-pink nightgown. Green eyes, usually dazzlingly vibrant, were sunken and dull, the usual pink flush of her cheeks now white with bones clearly visible. Her lips were blue, a thin line of drool crusted to them.

"Oh, Lizzy…" Michael murmured, crouching down. Elizabeth's wide eyes flickered to him, and she cried out, scrambling away with what little strength she had left.

Suddenly, he saw her skinny wrists, bruised blue and red. Michael felt like throwing up. "Lizzy, who did that to you? Who hurt you?"

She was shaking in the corner of her trashed room like a frightened animal, curled up around her knees and rocking wildly. "Go away go away go away!"

"I'm not gonna do anything, baby," he soothed, trying to disguise his panic with calm. "Who hurt you?"

Quietly, Elizabeth whispered, "What did you do to Evan?"

Michael's blood turned to ice. "I—I don't know what you mean."

"I saw you that day. I was watching. You killed him," she said darkly. "You killed my big brother."

"Lizzy, you didn't see. That's impossible. You…" He sucked in a breath. "You're dead. You died a long time ago."

She regarded him coldly. "I never said I didn't."

Michael froze. "What?"

Elizabeth smiled strangely, and all her teeth were rotten.

Michael's stomach twisted in repulsion as Elizabeth's form began to change. Her decomposing skin took on a sickly, blueish hue. Her eyes went milky and clouded and didn't blink. Pale skin peeled and flecked off like ash and revealed glistening gore, only she didn't bleed. With fingers made of bone, she reached for him. Flies flew out of her foaming mouth and maggots wriggled in her hair, eating at her scalp. The stench of decay was horrific.

Michael backed away, tears streaming from his eyes. He couldn't stop shaking. "Oh God, Elizabeth…"

"Why did you kill him, Mikey?" Her rasping voice was too innocent, too childish to be speaking such corrupt words. "Why did you kill us?"

"I didn't mean to, Lizzy, you know I didn't," pleaded Michael, throaty and thick. "All I wanted was to protect you guys."

"Really? Then why did you hurt us?"

"I didn't!"

Elizabeth cocked her head to the side like a puppy, a mangled puppy. Christ, he did not want to compare her to roadkill. "Why didn't you save me from Circus Baby? Why did you shove Evan into Fredbear's mouth?"

"I didn't know," Michael mumbled, sounding miserably stupid even to his own ears. "I didn't know you were sneaking off. And I didn't know Evan would die, it was just supposed to be a joke."

"A joke?" Elizabeth hissed. "A joke is funny. A joke starts with knock-knock. A joke is not tormenting your little brother on his birthday, humiliating him in front of everyone, and then shoving him into jaws made of razor blades."

"I was dumb, so so dumb. I was a dumb kid."

"He was a kid, too."

"I know." Michael's voice cracked. "We were all kids." He wasn't sure who he was talking about, himself, or his siblings, or maybe Charlie and the missing kids. Ruby.

"That's not an excuse."

"I know that, too. But it's a reason."

More tears spilled down his cheeks. When was the last time he'd cried? "Elizabeth, I miss you. So much."

"If you miss me, why did you let me die?"

He sighed. "That I don't know."

They sat in silence for a moment, the only sound the buzzing of flies.

He cleared his throat. "You're just a simulation, part of the nightmare. I know you're not real, but it was…it was good to see you again. Even if you're a corpse."

"You can visit my corpse any time." Elizabeth purred. "You can see me like this whenever you wish."

Michael shook his head. "Liz, they never found your body."

"Maybe the police didn't." Her cracked lips curled up without humour. "But somebody did. Somebody did something bad with me."

The taste of bile flooded his mouth. "Elizabeth, what do you mean?"

"Somebody we know ve-e-ery well. He woke me up from my dreams. Now I'm down there in the dark, with only the metal to talk to."

Michael spoke clear and deliberately. "Tell me who did it. Tell me where you are."

Elizabeth's shoulders trembled with a loud hacking sound, and he realized she was laughing. She raised her head to meet his gaze, something cruel swimming in her flat green pools. "Anger is restless, Michael. Don't hold it against us."

"What do you mean?!" He knew he was raising his voice, but he didn't care. "Talk to me, Liz! Let me find you! Who's keeping you locked up? Where are you?"

Elizabeth smirked. "Do you want to play a game, Mikey?" Her voice was mockingly slow, as if talking to a simple child.

"Yes." Michael stepped closer. "Anything you want, Lizzy."

"Do you love me?"

"Of course I do."

"That's nice." Her eyes fluttered shut, and her features softened. "That's nice…"

And then, his little sister turned to a cloud of flies.

They swarmed him, blinding and mad, until all his senses were taken over with the tornado of flies. Michael swatted them, but they just kept coming. He tried to call his sister's name, but the flies flew into his mouth and inside of him. He coughed, gagged, and this time he really did throw up. Stop, stop, oh my God stop!

Three words whispered in his ear, and he stiffened. It was Elizabeth's voice.

Come find me…

And then the flies were gone.

In their place stood Evan.

Despite having just vomited, Michael felt the urge again. He hadn't seen his little brother's face since the Bite.

The room was beginning to fade, and he felt the same dizziness he did when he was being teleported to the nightmare. Everything blurred, except Evan.

He looked so small, so helpless. He wore his gray striped hoodie and baggy jeans and those headphones Michael used to tease him about when he was young and awful. Oh, who was he kidding, he was awful awful awful all the goddamn time.

His skin was just as freckled and white as he remembered, but his sky-blue eyes had taken on a zombielike blankness to them, like despite looking right at Michael, he couldn't see him.

"Michael!" A voice broke through his thoughts, and suddenly he was being squeezed in a violent hug. "Holy guacamole, you did it!"

It was Ruby. What was Ruby doing in his nightmare? Michael broke his eyes off Evan, though doing so was like breaking off one of his arms.

Behind him stood everyone. Freddy and Charlie and Cassidy and Malcolm and all the rest of the ghost kids. Katy and Jeremy and…

"Nightmare? What is this?" Michael snapped. "Why are all of you in my trial?"

"This isn't your trial, Michael." Nightmare said, calm as ever. "You passed. Excellent work."

"What the hell do you mean I passed?" He whirled around, and Evan was still standing there, unblinking and stiff as a board. "Is this some kinda sick joke?!"

"No joke. You did it. Congratulations."

"Shut up! Get me out of the simulation, if I passed!" Michael spat. "I don't want to look at Evan anymore! I can't!"

"Then avert your eyes."

Cassidy stood up from further away. Her golden eyes shimmered. "Evan?"

Michael's veins ran cold as glaciers. His stomach flipped. "Nightmare, I'm still in the simulation, right? Evan's…he's gone, he's been gone for a long time."

"Afraid not." Nightmare's tone was infuriatingly bored. "Like I stated, you won. Woo-hoo."

The other ghosts were starting to murmur in confusion as they noticed the little boy standing there. Cassidy and Charlie ran over to them, both shouting words Michael couldn't hear over the blood roaring in his ears. He turned, meeting his brother's once-dead eyes with a slowly growing horror that this was all dreadfully, grotesquely real. "E-Evan?"

Evan smiled, and the world went black.

A/N

Writing this made me realize how incredibly traumatized everyone in this freaking story is. They all need therapy. Including me.

Anyways sorry for the long chapter haha I got a random burst of motivation and wrote it all in like 2 days.

There are going to be 3 more chapters! Two flashback ones and an epilogue, and I've already written the flashback ones so expect more frequent uploads over the weeks! Then we move on to sister location…

Hope you enjoyed, and sorry for the hiatus!

~Ghost