CHAPTER FIVE: THE NIGHTMARE

The rest of the night went by slowly, though I wished that it went by quickly. Though I was thankful that nothing bad happened, I felt like shit after what happened with Roxanne Wolf earlier in the night. My heart threatened to shatter into millions of pieces every time her sobbing echoed in my head. It also didn't help that since this was my first night and my shift, I made a bad impression of myself when I was alone with Roxanne.

My night didn't get any easier when I would bump into either Freddy, Chica, or Montgomery. Whenever I was in the same room with any of them and they caught sight of me, they would smile, walk over to me and ask how I was going. Instead of replying, I would shrug and walk away. I was aware that I was being rude, but I wanted to be alone.

I think my behavior made them suspicious because, at some point in the night, I checked the camera in Rockstar Row and caught sight of them standing by Roxanne's door. Freddy knocked on the door and they were saying something before he, Chica, and Montgomery all suddenly leaned away, taking a step back as they did. After a moment, they all looked at each other and walked away.

I felt guilty, knowing that I was responsible for Roxanne pushing her friends away. I had a strong gut feeling that they suspected I was responsible for her pushing them away. I didn't want to be confronted if that was the case, so I locked myself in Kyle's office, checking the cameras every once in a while, to make sure that nothing bad was happening and keeping an eye on the mascots. Only when it was near the end of my shift did I finally step out of his office and head back to the Lobby to wait out the last few minutes.

I stood in the Lobby, checking the time on my phone. The time on the screen read 5:58 AM. I put the phone in my pocket and waited for the security doors to lift, which were heavy metal and had Freddy's face on them. I sighed as what I said to Roxanne echoed in my mind.

'That's not what Kyle told me during my interview. He told me that you were the least confident out of the animatronics here in the Pizzaplex. The only reason you act this way is that you don't want anyone to know about your problems. Don't want to be seen as weak by everyone.'

Stupid. Stupid! Stupid! I mentally punched myself for saying those things to her. There was no doubt in my mind that what I did was the most God-awful thing I've ever done, surpassing how I acted when Peter invited me to his son's birthday party at the Pizzaplex. But the worst part of all was that any chances of getting along with Roxanne were now out of the window because of my stupidity. If I had just thought about it more carefully, I wouldn't have reduced the poor wolf mascot to tears.

'This is what happens when you don't think thoroughly before you say something, dumbass,' I scolded myself mentally. I was snapped out of my thoughts when I heard the sounds of the security doors beginning to open.

When the doors fully opened, I checked the time on my phone. It read 6 AM. I was relieved that my night shift was finally over, yet at the same time, I was both angry and devastated that from now on, whenever I see Roxanne Wolf, I will forever remember what I did.

A moment later, Kyle stepped in with a smile on his face. Seeing that smile on his face only made me feel even worse. Kyle then looked in my direction and his smile grew. Seeing his smile grow only made me want to jump out the window and get as far from here as possible. He walked over to me and waved his hand.

"Good morning, Mihael," Kyle said once he got about a foot away from me.

"Good morning, Kyle," I said, my voice sounding weak.

He didn't seem to notice how weak my reply sounded. "How was your first night?"

I mentally gulped. I couldn't lie to Kyle about how it went right to his face. Even if I could lie, Roxanne Wolf would undoubtedly tell him about the things I said. The best thing for me to do right now was to tell him the truth.

"Could've gone better," I replied. The smile on Kyle's face weakened and it became serious. That just made me nervous.

"What happened?" he asked gravely.

"Well, earlier in the night, I was in Rockstar Row when I decided to check the security cameras to see how the others were doing," I began to explain. "When I saw that Roxanne wasn't with them in the kitchen, I panicked and searched through the cameras. When I found her standing behind me after nearly giving me a heart attack, I expressed how I was relieved to see that she was alright. She acted like how you told me she would during the interview and…"

I slammed the palm of my right hand onto my forehead, squeezed my eyes tightly, and growled through my teeth. "Kyle, I stupidly brought up the things you said during the interview, about how she is the least confident out of the animatronics here. I didn't think about how that would have ended badly and…" I clenched my teeth as I felt as if my heart was being twisted. "Roxanne took off to her room and I'm fairly certain that she spent the rest of the night there crying as she did that before I left."

I removed my palm from my forehead and opened my eyes to see Kyle's reaction. He had a disappointed look on his face, which wasn't a huge surprise to me. I screwed up big time and even he knew that.

"Mihael…" was all he said.

"I know, Kyle I know, I screwed up big time, but at least I told you rather than have you find out about it yourself," I said, getting a little defensive. "I fear that I ruined any chances of getting along with Roxanne Wolf and it's because of me not thinking more thoroughly before doing anything. I wish I could go back in time and take back what I said to her. She probably hates me now…"

I felt like crying myself. Reliving what happened just made me feel more like a huge piece of shit. I didn't know why this affected me so much, but it does. I've only known Roxanne for a short time so for me to feel this way was both strange and alarming. What the heck is going on with me?

Kyle rested a hand on my right shoulder and the serious expression on his face softened. "Mihael, I appreciate you being honest with me, and I can tell that you want to make things right with her. Aside from her friends, no one's ever displayed what you've displayed." Suddenly, his face turned mischievous. "If I'm reading you correctly, I say that you might have a thing for her."

"WHAT?!" I shouted, my cheeks turning hot and my eyes feeling like they were going to pop out of their sockets. Where in God's name did he come up with that?! More importantly, what made him think that way?!

"It's pretty obvious," he said, teasing slightly while removing his hand from my shoulder. "You care about her more than you should, and I even saw that you were gonna cry after what you just told me. I could be misreading you, but that's what I think."

"I DON'T HAVE A THING FOR HER!" I shouted, my cheeks growing hotter. "I would feel the same way if something happened and said that to the others!"

Would I? I mean, yeah, I would become concerned if I couldn't find Freddy, Chica, or even Monty on the cameras, but something told me that I 100% would not have felt the very same amount of concern that I did when I couldn't find Roxanne on any of the cameras. I was very, very close to having a full-blown panic attack when I couldn't find her, which looking back was a little over the top. That didn't mean that I really did have a thing for Roxanne… did it?

"Well, all joking aside," Kyle continued, his tone becoming slightly serious, "I do believe that you owe Roxy an apology. You went a little too far and made her feel vulnerable. So here's what I want you to do; when you come in for your shift tomorrow morning, I want you to march over to her green room and apologize for what you said. Understand?"

I nodded my head. In all honesty, I was pretty much going to do that anyway. I knew that if I didn't do that, it would only make things way worse between me and Roxanne and that's something I didn't want at all to happen. I made a mistake and I was going to do everything I could to fix that terrible mistake. If I literally had to get down on both of my knees, I would do that.

"Alright, I'll-" Kyle began to say before he stopped and seemed to look behind me. His eyes went wide, all of the color draining from his face as if something terrifying was standing behind me.

"Kyle, are you okay?" I asked. He slowly turned his attention back to me, sweat forming on his forehead.

"Actually, would you be okay with coming in for tomorrow's day shift, Mihael?" he asked suddenly. "I don't think it'll be a good idea for you to come in tonight?"

"Why?" I asked.

"Because there's a very angry alligator standing right behind you."

I felt my heart skip a beat when he said this. Everything clicked as I realized why he had gone pale and asked for me to come in and cover the day shift tomorrow. It was because the wrong one just happened to hear everything, and it just happened to be the one with terrible anger issues.

I slowly turned around and sure enough, there stood right behind me was a very, VERY angry alligator. I felt my fight-or-flight instincts screaming at me to run away and not look back, but I didn't. I just stood there as Montgomery glared daggers at me.

"Montgomery, look, I can explain-" I began to say before Montgomery cut me off.

"You don't have to explain," he growled angrily. "I heard everything. How could you do that?"

"Look, I know I screwed up, but-"

He cut me off once again, growling angrily as he did. "You did more than screw up. You reduced one of my best friends into tears and you ran and hid away like a coward. I should smash you to pieces!"

Before Montgomery could do or say anything else, a hand rested on his left shoulder. We looked to see both Freddy and Chica standing behind him; Freddy being the one who had his hand on his shoulder looking at him with a frown and Chica looking at me with a disappointed look. That look made me feel like a piece of shit.

"Monty, there is no need for this," Freddy said. That seemed to only fuel Montgomery's anger.

"Are you serious, Freddy?" he growled. "This guy reduced one of our friends into tears and hid away like a coward. Are we really going to let him just walk away?"

"Monty, please, calm down," Chica pleaded to him, looking at him with pleading eyes as she did. "Mihael here wants to make things right with Roxy tomorrow. I think we should give him a chance."

I just stared at her. I didn't know how to feel about that. It was good that she thought that I should be given a chance, but to be very honest, I wished for Montgomery to pummel me to a pulp.

"Chica, are you kidding me right now?!" Montgomery exclaimed angrily. "He doesn't deserve to-"

"Monty, go blow off some steam in your green room," Kyle ordered him sternly. "

Montgomery glared at Kyle for a brief moment before refocusing them directly at me. "This isn't over, Mihael."

Just like that, Montgomery walked over. Freddy and Chica both gave me a disappointed frown before following after the alligator mascot. I didn't feel the slightest bit grateful. I really didn't deserve them having my back like that. They should have let him pummel me as a way to say 'don't ever do something that stupid again'.

He smiled and nodded his head. "I think you should go, Mihael. You have a good rest of your day and see you tomorrow at 8 AM."

I nodded and with that, I walked out of the Mega Pizzaplex, feeling more like shit after the whole ordeal.

I arrived back at my house in fifteen minutes, an overwhelming sense of relief flowed through me. I pulled into the driveway and turned off the engine. I stepped out of the truck and began heading over to the front door as quickly as possible. The last thing I wanted was for him to come over and try to strike up a conversation. All I wanted was to be left alone and process everything.

Unfortunately, luck wasn't on my side.

"Mornin', Mihael!" called out the familiar deep, gruffy voice I knew way too well. I resisted the urge to groan as I turned around to see Peter heading over to me.

"Good morning, Peter," I said politely.

"How have you been?" he asked.

"Alright, I guess. I just got done with my first night shift."

To this, he beamed. He was genuinely happy that I got the job, which I wouldn't have gotten if he didn't talk Kyle into interviewing me in the first place. I was aware that I owed him one.

"That's great news!" he exclaimed happily. "How did it go?"

I really wished Peter didn't ask that. I really didn't want to tell him about how stupid I was for bringing up what was said to me during the interview, reducing the wolf mascot to tears.

I sighed. "It was good."

The smile on his face weakened slightly. Something told me that Peter didn't buy it one bit. "Are you sure, Mihael? You seem to be really upset about something."

This time, I cringed. Peter saw through the lie because he must have read or seen something on my face. I really didn't want to have this conversation right now. I just wanted to go inside and be left alone for the day.

"It's nothing, Peter," I said, my voice sounding flat. I looked away and reached for the doorknob.

"Did you get fired?" he asked suddenly, sounding alarmed. It seemed that he assumed the worst.

"No, Peter, I didn't get fired," I replied, a tiny edge of irritation present in my tone. I grabbed hold of the doorknob. "It's nothing like that."

"Then what? Did something bad-"

"Stop!" I shouted, turning to face him. "Just stop. I don't want to talk about it. It's none of your business, anyway." I sighed. "Look, I just want to sit down and relax. See you later, Peter."

I looked away and turned the doorknob. I quickly stepped inside and slammed the door shut behind me. I didn't want to spend another minute with him. I also didn't want Peter to see me let all of my grievances out.

I rested my back on the front door, letting out a low and slow sigh as my anger slowly faded away. I knew I could've handled the situation better, but of course, I didn't. I could only hope that Peter doesn't take my outburst too personally. He wasn't the kind of man who took things too personally, so the chances of him taking it personally was very slim.

I surveyed the living room. I didn't know why, but I felt as though there was something different about the room itself. The place looked the same, but I couldn't pinpoint what the difference was.

I looked at the oval-shaped glass table and saw something lying on the surface of the glass. I knew for a fact that I didn't leave some random object on my glass table. I walked over to the table, curious as to what the object could be. When I reached the table, I realized that it was a small piece of white paper. I picked it up and read the contents on the paper.

"Hey, Mihael,

I came over to drop something off for you, but I noticed you weren't home even though your truck was parked in your driveway. I put it in the drawer of your nightstand for safekeeping.

I took the liberty to clean the place up for you. I don't know how you could live in such a dusty house. It's not good for your health to live in such conditions.

I hope your first night at your new job goes wonderful. I want to hear from you as soon as you finish reading this letter. I love you so much, Mihael. Please take better care of yourself.

Love, Mom"

I stared at the note for a moment before surveying the living room a second time. This time, I noticed that it looked cleaner than it did before. I didn't know how to feel about my mother cleaning up my house yesterday while I was in the meadow. I was touched by her concern, but she didn't have to waste her time doing something that was entirely my problem alone.

I placed the note back down and walked over to my bedroom. I opened the door and stepped inside. I surveyed my room for a moment before I shut the door behind me. The bedroom looked cleaner with the surfaces not looking like they were coated with dust, and the bed was made.

I didn't know how to feel with my mother coming into my room to clean it. Again, it was thoughtful of her, but she didn't have to do that. I was an adult. I had to take care of myself.

I walked over to the nightstand and slid open the drawer. Rolled up and held by a rubber band was money. I resisted the urge to urge as I picked them up. I closely examined the bills. They were ten 20 dollar bills.

'She gave me $200?' I thought to myself slightly shocked. 'Why do you keep giving me money, Mom? Now that I have a job, I will pay you back for all the times you helped me.'

Placing the dollar bills back in the drawer, I slid it closed, took off my work clothes, and put on a light green T-shirt and pajama shorts. I hopped on the bed and turned on the TV, hoping I can get my mind off of what happened last night.

I spent the whole day watching TV in my bedroom with the intention of getting my mind off of what happened. I really didn't care what was on the screen so long as it was fulfilling its purpose… which it failed to do most of the time. Whenever something on the screen reminded me of what happened, Roxanne's heartbreaking sobbing would echo loudly in my head. Whenever that happened, I would charge into the bathroom and splash water on my face to help clear it. At least the water did some good, much better than the TV though.

When the day ended and it was finally time for me to head to sleep, I was beyond agitated. All-day, my subconscious tortured me, refusing to let me forget about it and hitting me with full force whenever I was reminded of it. The TV's purpose was nothing but a huge failure.

I shut the TV off and flopped on my bed, groaning in agitation. I was aware that I was going to see Roxanne and be able to apologize to her tomorrow, but this was ridiculous. It was like my guilt was punishing me for my stupidity. Like, I get it, I messed up, but my dear and very annoying subconsciousness did you have to remind me about it at every chance you FUCKING GOT?! God, my subconscious was worse than my mother whenever she had her moments.

And it didn't help that my subconsciousness reminded me of what had happened with Montgomery Gator and how I came extremely close to being pounded to a pulp. Like come on, give me a break!

I laid the covers over me, set the alarm for 6:30 AM, and rolled onto my side. I took deep breaths to ease my growing agitation so I could fall asleep. While research says that going to sleep angry is totally okay, it's not for me. It does the complete opposite. It keeps me up all night and makes it very difficult for me to do my tasks during the day when the threat of passing out is high.

After what felt like an eternity, I calmed down, and with my mind now at peace, I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

I found myself standing in the middle of a road and it appeared to be desert-themed. I looked around, trying to see if I could find anything but what I couldn't figure out. I did pick up on how the road twisted and turned at certain points and some parts were higher than the other parts of the road. There was a feeling of familiarity here, though I couldn't explain how or why. It took me a moment to recognize where I was; Roxy Raceway.

I looked ahead and my eyes widened in shock and horror.

Lying in a large pool of blood… was my little sister, Lisa Patel. Her beautiful blonde hair was messy and there were bald spots on her head as if someone grabbed a huge handful and pulled some of her hair out. Her light brown eyes were wide with shock, confusion, and terror, and her face and pink blouse were matted with blood.

I felt as if my whole world had shattered. It was one thing that she had gone missing, but to find her dead was a sibling's, as well as a parent's worst nightmare. I noticed a figure standing over her and when I recognized it, I fell to my knees and choked in horror.

Roxanne Wolf was standing over my sister's motionless body, parts of her body coated in Lisa's blood. Her knees were bent slightly with her back arched slightly, blood dripping from her lime green claws.

I stared in horror at the scene in front of me. I really didn't want to believe what I was seeing. I wished that this wasn't real. I took a step back. That was a mistake.

Roxanne's left ear twitched and her body suddenly stiffened. A low, bone-chilling laugh echoed throughout the track as she slowly turned around to face me. I felt the blood drain from my face when I saw her face.

Her face was entirely coated in blood, some strands of Lisa's blonde hair stuck in between her teeth. Her mouth was twisted in a pure evil smile and her eyes, instead of the usual yellow color, were a glowing, light purple. An overwhelming and powerful sense of dread washed over me as those eyes stared deep into my soul. Something deep down told me that there was something very wrong and unnatural about that purple shine, though I couldn't pinpoint or fully understand why.

Every fiber of my body was screaming at me to run for my life, to get away as fast as possible. But I couldn't. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get my legs to obey. I felt warm tears trail down my face as I continued to stare at Roxanne's terrifying face.

'Sweet merciful God…' I thought to myself as Roxanne began flashing her blood-soaked teeth at me.

Then, Roxanne spoke in a voice that wasn't her own. It was a voice so terrible, a voice so evil, a voice so menacing that made my very skin crawl and my body tremble.

"I've been waiting for you… Patel."

Roxanne Wolf let out a maniacal laugh before she began charging at me at full speed, all while laughing.

I could only do one thing as the wolf mascot inched closer and closer to me; I screamed…

I bolted up on my bed as I screamed at the top of my lungs. I began to hyperventilate as I rested a hand on my chest. I felt my heart race rapidly in my chest as I tried to control myself and my breathing. I noticed my face felt damp and my vision was blurry. It didn't take me long to understand that it was a result of me crying in my sleep.

As I slowly began to calm down, I thought over what I had experienced just now. It was a nightmare, no doubt, but it wasn't like any of the ones I've had over the years. This one was way worse as for the first time, I saw my sister, only instead of alive, she was dead and Roxanne Wolf was standing over her, drenched in her blood. But what made it even more terrifying was the smile on her face and her eyes glowing that strange purple color.

There was something very wrong and unearthly about those purple eyes. I didn't know a thing about robots, but I was very certain that their eyes aren't supposed to do that. I mean yeah, if you gave them such a thing, but not to the point where they just felt so, so wrong and very dangerous. Those light purple eyes were something else entirely, something that belonged to something evil… pure evil.

The icing on the cake was the sound of Roxanne's voice when she spoke those words to me. The way the voice sounded was something that was more suitable to that of a demon. And the words she spoke only made the whole thing way more terrifying. It was like she was very pleased to see me, except it wasn't in a friendly way. And then the maniacal laughter that she let out was the final straw and what made the whole nightmare on the top of my list of nightmares that terrified me over the years.

What I couldn't fully understand was why it was Roxanne Wolf who I saw standing over Lisa's body and being covered in her blood. The only way I could explain this was that it meant that Roxanne might have something to do with my sister's disappearance. If that were to be the case, how was the big question?

I was probably overthinking the whole thing and it was probably just another nightmare that was trying to scare me and keep me up at night. Well, the nightmare succeeded in scaring me, but I wasn't going to let it get in the way of me sleeping the rest of the night away.

I looked at the clock and the time read 3:42 AM.

'I might as well sleep the rest of the night away,' I thought to myself. 'I'm going to need it.'

Letting out a sigh, I laid back down, rolled onto my side, and closed my eyes. I fell asleep instantly.

Author's Note:

This was the easiest chapter I've written so far. The events of this chapter have been in my head for so long that it was easy to go with the flow. I was originally going to upload this tomorrow, but since I have a job and I go in during the morning, I figured I might as well get it over with.

For those that are curious, the way that Mihael was repeatedly tortured by the guilt over what he did to Roxanne Wolf is something that happens to me whenever I felt guilty over something I did. That's another personality trait and quirk I have that I gave Mihael. Don't worry, Mihael and Roxanne will reconcile and when that happens, that will mark the beginning of their developing friendship that will turn into something more.

There are two things I want to mention. I want to thank those who have left positive comments on this story. It means a lot to me that some of you love how it's going so far and to be honest, so am I. Don't ever be afraid, to be honest about what I can do to make it better. Your opinions matter. Secondly, I am considering working on a companion story for Robotic Love where the events of Book 1 are told from the perspective of Roxanne Wolf instead of Mihael Patel. What do you think? Do you want to see something like that in the future? Let me in the comments or in PM. :)

That's all for now. Hope you enjoy this chapter; all constructive criticism is appreciated, and I will see guys in Chapter Six! :)

Update: Added new content, making the chapter longer and all.

Update 2: Added new content.