Hey all, here's another chapter, two in one month, that's unexpected given the previous space between updates.
I worked hard to get this out before FNAF VR Help Wanted officially drops in a few hours.
This one is longer than I would have liked, but I needed to space things out and slowly let things sink in, this plot mostly moves slowly.
If you guys have an issue with the large chapter sizes, do let me know in your reviews, and I'll try to keep them below 10,000 words.
Many thanks to Disasterteen13, August Frost12 and Jack Darby The Son of Superboy, your reviews are greatly appreciated. :-)
Disasterteen13, I listened to 'Tonight We Strike' and I can make it work despite it being a fast song. :-)
If anyone has any song suggestions, FNAF or non-FNAF, please do include them in your reviews.
Also, many thanks to both PK - SPRINGTRAP HUG MEH and Kylesky21 for following and favoriting this story, I hope that you both continue to enjoy it. ;-)
There is another sing along song in this one and its Wanna Be Twisted by Tryhardninja, he did an amazing video for this song and I highly recommend that you check it out.
Chapter 39.
A Twisted Purple Cloud.
"You may not recognise me at first, but I assure you, it's still me. . ."
William Afton from Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator.
The kitchen was completely silent, everyone was looking at Balloon Boy with wide eyes and some with open mouths. Yet the aura of shock filled the air, suffocating out everything else, and hanging over everyone like a dark cloud.
Balloon Boy looked more traumatised than he did before, having to recall his experience had made the boy go pale in the face. His baby blue eyes were wide with shock, mentally he was far away and back in the nightmare, being trapped inside the innards of Lefty.
Everyone else was looking at him, but his focus was elsewhere, he was fighting to repress those memories.
The dark and gloomy hallways of his old home. . .
The blaring static of the multiple rows of TV screens.
The robotic inhuman screams of the possessed prop suits, as they wandered through the halls hunting for him.
The creaks and groans of their worn out suits, heralding their approach.
The demented smile of Lefty as he towered over him.
The loud sounds of the other animatronics as they sang that hellish song.
Being inside a metal cage that was a literal death trap and could have gone off at any given moment.
Then meeting the Nightmares face to face and having himself scared to death on more occasions than he would like to admit.
Only to then be thrown into the dark, and left to fall for what felt like entirety, as the voices of both the Nightmares and Possessed Prop Suits screamed around him.
He would like to forget all of that an instant, but he just couldn't burry it, no matter how hard he mentally fought against it.
The hot chocolate that Jeremy had made for him was now cold, he hadn't even touch it since he started talking. Balloon Boy seem to stare out into the distance, too lost in his thoughts to continue on interacting with those around him.
Although they had registered the significance of his words, they were struggling to absorb it.
Toy Freddy visibly looked the most shocked and probably was the second most enraged at what he had just heard. Yet his eyes gave away his feelings the most, his blue pupils were wide, but his eyes were narrowed, although he seemed to be keeping his anger in check.
He was the head of his family unit, and one of them had been seriously harmed, he couldn't let that slide.
Toy Bonnie also looked mad, but mostly sad if anything else. She was probably struggling to accept the very idea that her death was required to free the soul of a child. BB's revelations about the Nightmares' goal and thinking had sent her into a mental labyrinth devoid of answers. Her eyes expressed a strong sense of confusion, anger yes, but mostly confusion and bewilderment.
It went against everything that she believed, they were trying to free the souls of children by killing Vincent, it was a complete shock to find that it was the other way round.
Toy Chica looked dumbfounded and scared at the idea of combining the Nightmares' ability to interact with anyone's dream and their intended objective. They were in fact invincible, regardless of their new discovered weakness. In a sense it was effectively useless as they had no way to get to Limbo and even then, they didn't know what would await them there, the fear in her eyes underlined that understanding.
Mangle was visibly disturbed, perhaps more so than Toy Freddy. Her eyes were wide, and she seemed to be breathing tensely. No doubt her fear came from what BB had just told them and the memories of the infamous Bite of 87 that had unearthed themselves from the depths of her subconscious.
She still blamed herself for the incident, despite the fact that she was a victim of Vincent's schemes, using her as a distraction so he could lure away five more children.
Luring them into their graves. . .
Although of course, the Nightmares' confession had scared Mangle as well, but the memories of 1987 had come back to haunt her with a vengeance.
Jeremy Fitzgerald seem to be dumb shocked like Toy Chica, but he didn't look as scared as she did. Instead, his eyes expressed an aura of deep thought, trying perhaps to find a way out of this chaos. However, he was rightfully afraid of this new development as it only served to make them all even more of a target.
He possessed good foresight, but this case was beyond him.
Foxy was clearly unnerved, which only further expressed the direness of their situation. He looked afraid and was struggling to understand how the Nightmares could understand humanity if they obviously ignored it in their actions and intents. The fact that he didn't look mad as he would usually would in such circumstances only serve to underline the dire straits that was facing them.
Chica seemed to be just simply terrified by everything that BB had told them, her eyes were frantic and held immense fear in them. It was obvious that the Nightmares wanted to kill them, but the reason had clearly shaken her, because it felt. . .relatable.
At the same time Bonnie seemed to wear a plain expression, but her purple reddish eyes told a very different story. They were alive with both anger and fear. Anger over what the Nightmares had done to BB and fear over the strong possibility that when the Nightmares came again, they would kill someone and start bumping them all off one by one. It simply wasn't fair for the odds to be stacked against them and she rightfully hated it.
She didn't seem to be shocked when compared to the expressions of those around her, yet she was probably feeling shocked internally, maybe it hadn't fully registered with her and considering what the revaluations meant, it was easy to understand.
Freddy seemed to be a mixture of things, looking both enraged, shocked and horrified at BB's story. Like the others, his emotions stem from multiple sources. His rage being the Nightmares having shamefully attacked a child and then threatened to further torture him, should they not go to this 'meeting' of theirs, which he was pretty sure was just a trap. His shock came from the revelation that the Nightmares could understand humanity, let alone relate themselves to the plight that he and his family were going through.
His horror came from the idea that his death was needed to free the soul of a tormented child, like Toy Bonnie he was struggling to accept the idea because everything that he had been trying to achieve over the years was to ensure that the children who Vincent had murdered in cold blood found peace. He was the victim, they were all victims, they didn't need or deserve to die. Yet the Nightmares' confession presented him with a dilemma, would it be selfish for him to allow a child to exist in a never ending hell because he didn't want to die in order for him to be able to move on.
It was a question that he never expected to be asked for obvious reasons.
Mike Schmidt looked mad, shock as well, but mostly mad at what BB had been forced to undergo. Like the others, he didn't find it fair that the Nightmares had an easy run at them when they couldn't even mount a defence. Although the information that BB had been given was helpful to an extent, it was particularly useless as they had no way of acting on it. Sure, the Nightmares could be killed as he was already aware, but with Vincent still around, he would just keep on bringing them back.
A never-ending cycle as BB was told.
"You can only die once."
"Game over. . ."
The reality of it was depressing to Mike and despite everything that he had done to help his friends, it didn't seem to have paid off. He went through trials to get them on side and he even had to convince himself on multiple times that the risk to his life was worth it.
Having signed up for the vacant post of security guard at a once famous pizzeria that was on its last legs, he had no idea what he was in for.
And even now he still didn't know, the only difference being that everyone else was as clueless as he was.
He hated the thought that everything could slip backwards, he remembered vividly that invisible black cloud that had hung over the Fazbears when he arrived in nineteen ninety three.
Maybe to call it a purple cloud was more fitting, given Vincent's responsibility in making this all happen.
It still lingered, he could see it in their eyes at times, but recent events, especially with the revelations from BB's encounter with the Nightmares now seriously threaten to reform that black cloud.
Goldie's dark red eyes merely expressed two emotions, fear and a deep concern. The rest of his face was a blank canvas, unreadable by those around him, however his eyes gave way to his inner thoughts.
He didn't know what to believe, but he couldn't deny BB's words. In truth he had some suspicion that the Nightmares' alliance with Vincent Afton went deeper than it had first suggested. He had even questioned Nightmare Fredbear about it when he was battling him to regain control of his mind. Yet the Nightmare had merely replied with.
"Deeper than you could ever imagine Goldie, involving secrets that are best left forgotten, like the child you bit."
The Nightmare's words echoed throughout his head, smug, condescending, and expressing an enjoyment of knowing something that Goldie himself did not.
And the fact that he didn't know only served to annoy him, but at least they had something new to go on now.
Still. . .knowing the truth about the Nightmares' intentions scared him immensely, although he only let his eyes show that.
He knew that it would be best for everyone to keep a calm head.
Puppet was a mixture of many things, fear was perhaps the most visible expression on her face, but her white dots for eyes were a swirling maelstrom of anger, sorrow, confusion and remorse, neither one being dominant.
Originally, she had been seated across from BB, but once he started to share the inmate details of his unfortunate encounter with the Nightmares, she had moved over to hug him. Her hands were wrapped tightly around him, with her raven black hair intermingling with his light brown as she held him in a tight embrace, although her close presence didn't seem to bring BB out of his internal turmoil.
She had been gazing into BB's eyes, but now she had merely buried her head into his shoulder, gently rocking the boy in a soothing motion.
Yet her own mind was arrack with mixed feelings, but each one had their reasons for being present and there was no doubt in everyone's mind that Puppet would blame herself for the possessed prop suit existing in the first place.
She was angry at what the Nightmares had done to Balloon Boy, the tricks that they had pulled all for their sick form of entertainment. Including the fact that they seem capable of doing anything they liked in the dreamworld, there they had no equals it seemed.
Save for Goldie that is. . .but there was only one of him.
She felt immense sorrow at not being able to escape their past, particularly her past, all the things that BB had described involving the animatronics, all reminders of Fazbear Entertainment, a company which she despised immensely.
Now it seemed that everything associated with Fazbear Entertainment had become mere tools of the Nightmares and Vincent Afton.
As Nightmare Freddy told BB, this was all part of a game and the deck had always been one sided.
Her confusion stemmed from the existence of the animatronics themselves, if what the Nightmares had said was true, then Fazbear Entertainment had been up to its old tricks as usual. She certainly held no knowledge on the company's plans, being a performer, she wouldn't be privy to such information, but there would have been some indication towards her being replaced.
It didn't make sense and the level of detail that BB had used to describe the animatronics, all in different shapes and colours clearly suggested that they had to exist somewhere in the real world, or there were blueprints for them.
Blueprints which could only now be in the hands of one man.
Vincent Afton. . .
She internally sighed, only further fuelling the mixture of raw emotion that threatened to surge throughout her mind. There was nothing that was beyond his reach, innocent children, animatronic suits, blueprints and of course the Fazbears themselves. Through the Nightmares he could indirectly attack them without needing to be present, it was the perfect scheme.
Each time he delivered suffering to the pizzeria, he always did so with a new trick, or a new piece of information that he ruthlessly exploited for all that it was worth.
Being a staff member at both pizzerias, he would merely observe everyone about him, noting their daily routines and what they were like on a personal level. He used his knowledge of the pizzeria staff's timetable and that of the SpringBonnie suit for the first Missing Children's' Incident in June 1983. He then used Mangle's feelings of isolation and resentment to cause a massive distraction in order to carry out the second Missing Children's' Incident in November of 1987.
Now he was using the supernatural to attack them as well as an army of endoskeletons, where he got those from Puppet didn't know, but she suspected that they were probably originally intended to be for all the animatronics that BB saw. She felt further confusion from the various questions that buzzed around her head and just like everyone else she had no ability to explain any of it.
The Nightmares believed that their deaths would grant them freedom, proper freedom which no doubt they would use for destructive purposes. Is that what Nightmare Freddy meant, when he said to Goldie about what four of them could do?
The trail of utter destruction that they had left in Chicago city centre yesterday was a clear indicator to their collective mindset, they were monsters. They would and could not change themselves, despite their displays of sentience and intelligence, they were at the end of the day still feral beasts
And just like feral beasts, they deserved to be put down.
Yet despite getting an answer out of them, it only created more questions, four of which stuck out like a sore thumb.
How would their deaths make the child become able to move on?
Would the Nightmares know how to gain freedom without the risk that the child moving on won't endanger their existence somehow?
Then with the Nightmares wanting to kill them all, which according to BB they expressed in very clear terms so that their intent could not be mistaken, why they were waiting around then?
They had in the past possessed several opportunities to kill them.
Even Nightmare Freddy when he first turned up could have just wiped them all out in a single night, by entering their dreams and slitting their throats.
If they wanted freedom so badly, then why beat about the bush?
Were they toying with them, before going in for the kill?
Or was there another reason for their delay in sadistic gratification?
After all that had happened to her, Puppet had to believe the latter, because it was often proved to be correct.
And then finally there was the fourth question that stood above the rest, as it nagged her the most.
If their collective demise was what the Nightmares wanted, then what did Vincent aim to gain out of all of this?
What was his motive?
That question alone really confused her, because until recently she had always held the understandable assumption that Vincent did what he did because he was at heart a serial killer, a murderous psychopath who had a 'thing' for killing children.
Now given everything that had happened and what BB had told them, she didn't know what think about Vincent. He was a still a monster in her eyes and rightfully so given everything that he had done, and he had done it all with a smile on his face. However, there had to be something more to Vincent's motive, maybe running alongside his serial killer nature, but it could not be as simple as being a child murder, like she had originally believed for so many years.
He wanted something out of all this chaos, his dedication to hounding them so long after the Missing Children Incidents clearly indicated that there was something else at play.
And yet again not knowing frustrated Puppet, she hated having circles being run around her and being kept in the dark all the time.
It was not fair. . .
Seeing the swirling storm that was building in her eyes, Goldie sighed loudly, catching everyone's attention.
The tension that hung over the room waned with everyone now looking at Goldie, but it didn't die.
He then spoke with a slow, but calm tone.
"So, we now have another group to concern ourselves with."
Everyone knew that he was immediately referring to the former Night Guards who were now housed inside mechanical death trap that served as their vessels, firmly anchoring them to the physical plane.
They had been buried outside the pizzeria in the morning following their demise the night before at the hands of eleven enraged and murderous dead children possessing the Fazbears.
Once the Fazbears had woken up, often after crashing back on their beds once the ghost children had satisfied their bloodlust, they would immediately proceed the ghastly task of burying the victim in a grave out back.
They made sure that it was deep enough and that all incriminating evidence had been removed, even the cars that some had arrived in.
Burying one car was certainly a difficult task but compared to burying several it looked effortless.
Freddy spoke next, he was direct, but his tone revealed his concern and his eyes expressed a deep sense of fear in them.
"Do you think that they. . ."
He paused briefly; images of people being forcefully shoved into suits flashed in his mind, before he was able to subdue them and talk again.
"That they have escaped from their graves and are up and about?"
"They did tell BB that they will come and find us," he added, trying to keep the dreaded thoughts that racked his mind in check, although visibly he looked terribly concerned about the prospect.
"They can't get out can they?" Toy Bonnie asked, she looked more terrified than Freddy did.
Her green eyes darted from one face to the next, reading their expressions of fear, doubt and sense of exhaustion.
"We buried them deep right?" Toy Bonnie asked, her voice became more desperate and fearful, she was clearly distressed.
"Yes," Chica answered softly, her tone was low, but audible.
She was now gazing down at the table, her facial expression was plain, save for her green eyes which expressed a deep-seated fear, evident of the internal war going inside her mind with her emotions that were wanting to break free from their holdings.
Clearly what BB had experienced with the Nightmares and the Possessed Prop Suits scarred her greatly, and Foxy for one could easily understand why, given the inmate conversation that they had shared much earlier in the evening.
When she expressed to him her deepest fears about being found out by the police should they ever look deep enough into the multiple cases of missing people at the pizzeria.
If they, the former night guards ever crawled out of their graves then it would be fairly easy for someone to uncover the Fazbears' guilt.
It was an outcome that Foxy greatly feared as did everyone else, only now it seemed closer to becoming true. Slowly, he reached across the table with his hook hand and slotted it between Chica's fingers. She instantly gripped it, seeming to take immense comfort in his presence.
This new revelation shook him to his core, as all his fears had previously been held in check by the comfort that it would be impossible for the night guards to break out because they didn't actually possess the prop suits, and at the very least they would struggle to operate them.
Chica's tense voice caught his attention.
"We buried them deep, more than enough to ensure that they could not be found, but we never envisaged that they could come back."
Her voice was small, but it rang with intense emotions that were threatening to break through and turn her into a wailing mess.
"How could we be so naïve, if the murdered children could remain past death, then why didn't we think that they could do the same?"
"Because back then we were only concerned about our immediate survival, getting through one day to the next without much care for anything else," Toy Freddy answered slowly.
His shock which was clearly visible earlier had greatly subsided to be replaced with a grim expression of dread and sorrow. His blue eyes displayed a sense of acceptance that seemed painful to him.
"We didn't have a choice in the matter, we had to hide the bodies for our own safety, whatever mess the children created we had to clean it up, even if it meant. . ."
His voice trailed off and only Toy Bonnie and Mike who were seated by him could catch his next words.
"Putting them out of their misery. . ."
Sometimes in the morning when the went inside the parts and services room, they would find some the night guards still alive, but only just. . .
They did what they had to, for if the truth got out then the fallout would be devastating to say the least. So, they buried them to protect themselves from the abyss that they were one step away from tumbling into.
Toy Freddy looked pained as he relived memories that he wished to forget.
His mind was a dam and the memories were a flood threating to break loose, the vivid images of battered suits leaking blood and gore, some with strained moaning coming from within. His hands were trembling as the images became more and more real, yet he didn't notice, but Toy Bonnie did.
Slowly, she reached across and took hold of his hand, interlocking her fingers with his and squeezed it slightly for comfort. The act provoked a response, with Toy Freddy's eyes immediately darting over to Toy Bonnie.
"I know what you are feeling, the memories terrify me," she muttered, her voice was soft, but her eyes were wide with concern.
"Knowing what we did and what might come of it is scary, but we are still alive, and we should focus on that instead, however bad things are right now."
Toy Freddy stared at her, the warm sensation from Toy Bonnie's hand seemed to flow through his body and rendered him speechless.
Looking into those pretty green eyes that were filled with concern for him made his feelings of dread subsidise.
It didn't die, but it's grip on his mind was drastically loosen as the smoothing sensation of Toy Bonnie's touch calmed his mental state, pushing the tide of horrid memories back.
"Yes, you are right Bonbon, we are still alive, and they haven't reached us yet," Toy Freddy remarked, finally finding the ability to speak again. He smiled with his blue eyes expressing a sense of gratitude which Toy Bonnie blush, although she did her best to hide it.
She slowly turned away, not wanting to look disrespectful.
Toy Freddy's use of her nickname Bonbon had spurred her thoughts.
"Is he noticing me at last," she wondered, as her blush deepened despite her intentions for it not to.
Mike had noticed the display of affection out of the corner of his eyes, but he gave no comment on the matter, rather focusing on the issue at hand.
He thought of the Nightmares and then expressed his opinion.
"So. . . they want to meet us, how nice of them to leave a message," he muttered under his breath.
"Bastards."
"The most important thing is that Balloon Boy is still alive after all of that," said Goldie, putting his hand on BB's shoulder for comfort.
The boy responded slightly with a noticeable twitch, but he remained as he was, lost in his thoughts.
Mike leaned forward, placing his hands under his chin, as he tired to piece everything together into an understandable process. Prop suits possessed by murdered night guards walking about in a nightmare based on the Toy's Pizzeria. New animatronics which no one he knew had heard about before now existed.
The Nightmares it seemed were Gods in the dream world with the power to create whatever their twisted hearts desired. Yet in an ironic twist it seemed that they were just as much trapped as everyone else was. Although technically speaking they were immortal with the boy that Goldie had accidently bit still residing in Limbo, and unable to move on.
Was it really all down to his inability to pass on, or was there something else at play?
Various thoughts related to all three developments tossed and turned about in his head like a raging sea, which didn't help. Mike sighed and turned to Bonnie, who had kept quiet so far, but her eyes remained unchanged, filled with a deep burring anger and fear.
Her face looked plain and calm, but underneath there was clearly a whirlwind of emotions taking place.
Mike was hesitant to ask given the look in her eyes, but he pressed on.
"Can you recall any mention of animatronics, especially those that BB described?"
At first Bonnie didn't answer, but instead slowly leaned back in her chair.
"No," she replied firmly.
"I cannot recall anything to do with them, but then again Fazbear Entertainment always had something going on behind the scenes."
"In all honesty, despite being replaced once, the fact that they were going to do it again hurts even more."
She turned to looked at Mike, their eyes locked, purplish red stared into a dull blue.
"And I've been through a lot of pain since 1983, but despite staying on side until the very end, they were just going to throw me under the bus like last time, for a lifeless animatronic, who would be compliant in everything that they asked for."
She didn't look mad anymore, the rage had faded away in her eyes, but the fear was still there.
"We gave everything to that company, yet we suffered from the fallout the most, suddenly we were shut down and everything is silent for a few years, living inside the pizzeria with the staff checking in and out morning to evening."
From where he was, Mike could see that she was reliving her memories in vivid detail, having replayed it in her head so often.
"Then in the course of one week the pizzeria is stripped bare and we were transported across the country to a random location that we never hear of."
Her voice was getting steadily faster as she spoke, and Mike could feel the emotional weight in her voice grow with each passing second.
"Then we were shown a new pizzeria, much bigger and fancier than our old one, but it is revealed that it is not for us."
"We are kept in the backroom and just left there while the Toys and everyone else got free roam of the place and then before its official opening I got badly burned, thanks to one of the construction workers accidently knocking boiling oil on me, with the fall breaking my left arm."
She was becoming visibly upset as her voice started to struggle to keep itself together and sorrow was the only emotion now expressed in her eyes.
"I hate Fazbear Entertainment for what they did, shoving us all to the side like a rag doll, they claimed that with improving success they would reinstate us as entertainers, but that never happened."
Her emotional distress was becoming quite obvious now as she sighed deeply with Toy Chica and Goldie noticing from where they were seated.
"And when the 2nd incident happened. . ." Bonnie mourned; her voice broke at several moments.
"They were going to abandon the Toys and that's when I completely lost faith in them, we were all just assets to them, despite our intelligence."
"Then we all went back to the old location, tried to revive things, but you know what happened Mike, you saw what went on at night."
She drew in a shaky breath before she spoke again; tears had started to form in her eyes.
"And then when everything finally collapsed around Fazbear Entertainment, they just fucked off and left us to hand dry in a decaying pizzeria establishment, whilst trying to cover their own dam tracks."
She was still looking at Mike, despite the fairly drastic change in her body language.
"I was mad with everything, for every time we got somewhere good, it was just ripped out from underneath us on multiple times, and I didn't even know what was stable anymore."
Then her eyes narrowed, the anger had returned like a lit forest fire.
"Given everything that I have undergone, I shouldn't be surpised with being replaced by an animatronic, it just reinforces my resentment of Fazbear Entertainment and yet like a stack of bricks I can feel the weight of my anger on my mind."
Her face had changed, looking sharper and colder than normal and Mike swore that for a second; he saw her eyes about to glow white, but they didn't, instead retaining their normal purplish red colour.
Bonnie continued, speaking in a low tone.
"During the nights, when we were killing the night guards by stuffing them into the prop suits. . ."
She shook her head slightly as she spoke, but her tone was nothing but cold.
"It was the ghost child inside me that was doing it with their rage and torment, but my own was there as well, somewhere inside, letting itself out."
She started intensely at Mike, whilst slowly leaning forward towards him.
Mike strongly felt the urge to back off, but he kept himself steady as Bonnie spoke again, once more in a cold tone.
"And I probably enjoyed it Mike, every second, because for once I was in control. . ."
She then slumped back into her chair, leaving Mike in a mental state of bewilderment. He had heard the story before, Bonnie and the others had told him about it a thousand times before, but each time he still got the chills.
Physically they were not longer in the pizzeria, but mentally they had never left. Still stuck in limbo because so much of their lives had been centred around that place, and the infamous events that were attached to it.
And that's what Bonnie had been doing to herself, like all the others, replaying their nightmares on an endless loop.
It was such a depressing state to be in, he was surprised that they hadn't attempt to kill themselves to break free of the purple cloud that hung over them.
Well actually. . .
His eyes briefly flickered over to Puppet.
One of them did attempt to take that route. . .and nearly succeeded.
He remembered hearing the story from Freddy at some point.
Speaking of Freddy, he had been gazing over at Bonnie the entire time, watching the whole conversation.
Seeing the memories of the past rip Bonnie apart hurt him, partly because he blamed himself for not doing enough. The pain in her eyes was clear to see and he heard her every word to Mike about how Fazbear Entertainment had repeatedly dropped them in the deep end, without so much of an explanation.
The moonlight that shone through Jeremy's kitchen windows would normally bring a sense of peace to his mind, like it did whenever he watched it from the old pizzeria's windows.
It didn't now. . .
He had tired to keep everything running back in the past, often with some help from the others, most notably Toy Freddy to keep things going in the pizzeria back in the 1990s.
Gas meters, water pipes and electricity lines, he was surprised that he was able to keep the place in an ok condition that he and everyone else could live with.
It wasn't perfect, but it was enough.
Those were dark years for everyone, and he felt that he had let them all down due to his inability to solve the problems that surrounded them like a pack of ravenous wolves. Some, as Bonnie stated were done with Fazbear Entertainment's machinations, and that had a considerable impact on how they viewed outsiders, not wanting to trust anyone.
Yet the problems caused by Vincent Afton carried a much deeper and longer lasting impact, than anything caused by Fazbear Entertainment.
Having to deal with the ghosts of murdered children and forced to wander the pizzeria at night, whilst hunting for the elusive 'Purple Man' himself, although only Puppet and the ghost possessing her knew his real identity.
When he found out what had been really going on at night, his biggest fear was being possessed during the daytime, whilst on stage preforming. In fact, that nearly did happen on several occasions to himself, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and even Goldie at certain moments.
The Toys were spared the risk, due to being kept in a hidden room during the pizzeria's opening hours. Things were never going to be the same after 1987, given the poor state of both the pizzeria and the company, but having the equivalent of a ticking time bomb inside your chest ready to go off at any given moment, placed an immense amount of stress on all of them, especially Freddy himself.
He remembered feeling sweaty and nervous when on stage preforming before crowds after crowds of children, with adults mixed in and staff members standing off to the side-lines, keeping an eye on things. He would play his part as the main performer, but his eyes were always on the outlook for Bonnie and Chica suddenly acting out of sorts, with their eyes immediately changing into white dots for pupils.
And likewise, they were looking out for him, playing their respective roles, but keeping an eye on him, should he suddenly act in an unnatural fashion.
They looked happy and excited to be preforming and entertaining the crowds, but their eyes expressed their true feelings. Even Foxy was at risk, so Goldie had to watch him during his pirate shows from the side lines, intervening if Foxy suddenly turned, and in return Foxy had to keep an eye on Goldie for any odd behaviour.
Meanwhile, they just had to trust the Toys to be quiet enough inside the hidden room, to avoid attracting any unwanted attention whilst they were all preforming. Every day was hard, the fear was very real, and the tension in the pizzeria was so thick that a broadsword couldn't cut through it.
And Freddy's frustration that he couldn't find a solution to the problem only grew with time.
Even though they were in a very complex situation, the significance of not being able to find a solution signified to Freddy that he was failing as a leader to help his family.
One could forgive Freddy for trying so hard to deal with a complicated mess that was far beyond his capability to handle, but Freddy couldn't easily forgive himself. Even though in the end it was proved to be Vincent, with the man himself openly confessing his crimes, the weight of Freddy's inability to fix the issues facing them, only gnawed away at his self-confidence over time.
Hence why he had asked Bonnie on whether he had changed during their first night at Jeremy's. His perception of himself had taken a steady beating with his failure to find the one responsible.
It was true he didn't know anything about the First Missing Children's' Incident in 1983 before it happened. However, he had a chance in 1987 to get revenge on Vincent, even though he didn't know the identity of the elusive 'Purple Man'.
He had a chance to make things right and to stop the madness, but instead he let it slip right through his fingers.
As everyone else either openly consoled eachother or withdrew into themselves like Mangle was doing, having not said a word since Balloon Boy had finished talking. Freddy's mind drifted backwards down memory lane.
Back to when he missed his chance to save them. . .
November 1987, The New and Improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, Hurricane Utah.
He was asleep, dreaming, of what he could not remember, because what happened next caught him by complete surprise.
The sound of something heavy being pushed stirred him from his nap, followed by the sounds of quick footsteps and someone calling his name.
"Freddy. . ."
"Freddy wake up."
"Freddy please. . ."
Bonnie?
Was Bonnie calling him for something?
It sounded feminine, so it couldn't be Foxy or Goldie.
Chica maybe, what would she want at this time of day?
Although she couldn't actually talk properly still, unable to form complete sentences, given that her jaw was still healing.
"Freddy wake up please?"
"Wake up Freddy!"
The voice sounded urgent, desperate even.
"I need your help!"
"Please wake up!"
Then it got even more desperate.
"FREDDY GET UP!"
"CHILDREN ARE IN DANGER!"
"FREDDY!"
Freddy's eyes snapped open; it took him a few moments to adjust to the brightness levels of the room he was in.
Given that he had been sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, he had to look up to see the owner of the voice.
It was Puppet, looming over him and looking very frantic to say the least with her white dots for eyes shining very bright.
She was the one who had been calling him.
"Freddy, I need you to help me, something very bad has happened, the children are in grave danger!" she said swiftly, in a tone of fear and panic.
Giving him no time to respond, she instantly reached down and grabbed hold of his hand and tried to pull him upwards, although she clearly lacked the strength to do so.
"Wait, what is going on?" Freddy asked, as Puppet repeatedly tried to pull him up off his feet.
"Why are the children in grave danger exactly?"
Now that he was fully awake, he could hear immense distress coming from outside, down the hall towards the main stage area.
People were screaming and shouting in fear, panic and shock.
He could hear some of the staff members, probably Lauren, David and Jessica calling for help, they sounded like they were struggling with something.
The whole pizzeria was in a state of chaos it seemed, and he had no idea why, but the Puppet's facial expression of immense concern and dread made it clear that something terrible had happened. The frantic tugs of her pulling his arm to get him up off the floor brought his immediate attention back to his surroundings.
"I saw him, I saw him lead them away from everyone else and Mangle has gone crazy!" Puppet exclaimed, sharply tugging on Freddy's arm, clearly wanting him to come with her.
The fearful expression of her eyes bore into Freddy's.
"Please Freddy, we need to save them from him, they are going to die if we don't stop him!"
She was on the verge of breaking down.
"Please help me save them."
It stirred Freddy into action, he didn't know what was happening, but right now he needed to follow her, he could ask questions later.
Pushing himself up off the cold tile floor, he staggered onto his feet, feeling a little off balance. He hadn't completely adjusted to his new life here; his sight had blurred slightly, and his hearing wasn't as good as it had been.
It was probably because of the stress of being side lined and replaced, it had greatly affected his mood since he had arrived.
He had also been seen sleep walking at night as well in the previous months. Again, the stress of everything changing must be making him act out in his sleep. At least that's what Goldie reasoned, although he had been suffering from it too, as had the others.
It was a strange habit, but he hoped that it would fade in time as the stress finally subsided.
No sooner had he steadied himself, Puppet grabbed hold of his hand and pulled him towards the door. Not even giving Freddy the time to grab his iconic top hat.
"Come quickly, we need to stop him!" she was panicking and clearly afraid, not giving Freddy any time to resist as he was pulled along.
As much as Freddy wanted to ask her who this 'he or him' was, he knew she wouldn't answer, only being focused on reaching the children in time. When she dragged him out into the corridor, the screams and shouts from the stage area grew louder. Children were crying and adults were screaming in both shock and fear. Staff members and other adults could be heard shouting for an ambulance or the police to be called.
The whole atmosphere was tense and frightening, very much the polar opposite to what Freddy had been used to.
What exactly had happened?
Puppet did mention that Mangle had gone crazy and Freddy knew that she suffered from bullying at the hands of some of the children.
She could be pushed, and she certainly had her moments of anger, but she wasn't the sort of person to lash out, particularly at children.
Was she?
As they drew nearer, Freddy could hear some of the Toys amidst the chaos.
Toy Bonnie was calling for help in a desperate plea, sounding like she was struggling with something. Toy Chica just seemed to be crying, although it was hard to tell given the amount of voices that were yelling in unison.
He could just make out Toy Freddy shouting, maybe he was trying to regain control of the situation, not that it was working.
All the while Puppet firmly gripped his hand, pulling him down the corridor, bypassing several rooms on either side, with the walls lined with posters welcoming people to a place of excitement, fun and happiness
Everything seemed to be a long way from that right now.
"Please hurry Freddy, we have to stop him!" Puppet pleaded frantically as she breathed in short but tense breaths, tugging evermore at his hand.
She was clearly terrified of whatever this person was doing, almost as if it meant the end of the world to her.
"Help me save them. . ."
Then she suddenly stopped, rather abruptly in fact that Freddy had to steady himself when she did.
Puppet was now trembling, her whole body was shaking from head to toe and despite the loud noises of panic coming from the main stage area, Freddy could hear her breathing.
"It's him. . ." she muttered, sounding truly terrified.
Freddy upon steadying himself, followed her gaze, and then he saw why she had stopped so abruptly.
Only a few steps up, slowly walking out of one of the rooms was. . . Bonnie?
It looked a bit like Bonnie with the bunny ears, but when looking at the rest of the body, it was clearly a male.
The man wore a smart golden suit, sporting a purple bowtie, with golden hair and bunny ears. He seemed to be looking around cautiously in a manner that strongly suggested that he didn't want to be spotted.
When he turned in Freddy's and Puppet's direction, his bright green eyes widen in surprise upon seeing them. He wasn't smiling, rather his face tightened with annoyance, he probably wasn't all too pleased with being noticed.
Especially when he was holding a knife in his right hand.
There was blood on it, not enough for it to drip from the knife, but more than enough to indicate that it had been used.
For a moment time stood still, with both Freddy and Puppet staring at the Bonnie male lookalike. Even the screams and shouts from the rest of the pizzeria didn't disturb the moment.
However, it eventually had to come to an end, once the shock had worn off.
"No. . ." Puppet whispered, although her tone was now one of anger, instead of fear.
The Bonnie lookalike was still giving them an annoyed expression, although he had relaxed a little in his stance.
Yet seeing the man set something off inside Freddy.
There was an air of familiarity about him, even though Freddy knew that he had never seen him before. There were only two Bonnies he knew off and both were female.
So, who the hell was this guy?
Yet the feeling of familiarity didn't fade, but rather it grew, rushing to the surface of Freddy's mind.
Behind it came other feelings, ones that didn't make any sense to Freddy.
Fear, he felt scared suddenly, so much that he was actually trembling. He briefly glanced down at his hands; they were shaking as the feeling of pure terror washed over him like a wave.
Why was he afraid of this man, he didn't know him?
The knife he was holding was off putting when considering that Freddy was unarmed, but this level of fear was unknown to him.
This feeling felt foreign, like it didn't belong to him.
Freddy felt afraid of this feeling, it seemed unnatural, like there was something inside his mind that was kicking and screaming in open terror about the man who now stood before him. This wasn't him and he knew it, but he couldn't do anything to stop the endless waves of feelings that rushed through him like a forest fire.
His whole body was shaking from head to toe, he was even twitching uncontrollably.
Briefly looking over at Puppet, he could see that she was undergoing the same thing. Her gaze was still pinned on the Bonnie male, but her entire body was trembling, and her head was jerking about in a mad fashion.
Her eyes, those white dots for pupils seemed brighter now, much more than they normally were. She was acting like she was being possessed by something. So was he in fact, at least he felt like something foreign was taking him over.
These strong feelings of terror and familiarity was consuming him, as from the depths of his subconscious something erupted into being.
A new emotion, and it was another strong one.
Anger. . .rage. . .an insurmountable fury.
He felt his hands turn into fists and tighten, as well as his eyes narrowing. Rage and hatred mixed together, becoming stronger when combined. He hated the man that stood there, but he couldn't work out why.
It didn't make any sense to him, this feeling didn't belong to him, but he still felt it, nonetheless.
Puppet seemed to be in the same mood, judging by her facial expression of extreme hatred.
Freddy could feel himself mentally slipping, his sense of awareness was letting go somehow, like something else was deliberately taking control of him.
He didn't know it then, but his blue eyes were changing into two bright white dots, like those of the Puppet's. The Bonnie male's expression had been changing, whilst the two of them had undergone their mental breakdown.
At first it was amusement, seeing them shake in fear, but then as they began to twitch in an odd fashion, he looked shocked and surprised. However, it was when their eyes changed that his expression turned to fear, with his green eyes visibly expressing a feeling of terror.
Upon seeing the Bonnie male's expression, Freddy now only felt one thing. . .attack.
He charged, Puppet too at breakneck speed, heading straight towards the Bonnie male.
Freddy just felt the desire to rip him in two, to break every bone in his body, and then look him in the eyes as he killed him in a brutal fashion. Again, the feeling felt foreign, but it also felt so right, as he finally pieced two and two together.
This man with the knife had harmed or worse killed the children that Puppet had been referring to in her panicked demeanour. She had seen him lure them away to an isolated place, and then rushed off to get help.
Murdering innocent children, he must suffer for that. . .
However, as he and the Puppet neared the man, his expression changed once again. Instead of continuing to look terrified he smiled, as if in enjoyment of what was to come. Freddy deliberately slammed into him, aiming to knock the man down, even though he was holding a knife.
The man however didn't go down, although he was knocked back several steps.
He then attempted to swipe Freddy with his knife, but Freddy merely jumped backwards with the knife slicing nothing but air. Puppet meanwhile had skirted round and banged into the Bonnie male from the side, nearly pushing him against the wall had he not steadied himself.
"YOU!" she screamed, it was in her voice, but there was something else in that tone of hers, it sounded distorted a little.
Almost boyish. . .
She prepared to land another blow against the Bonnie male, but he shoved her away hard and prepared to attack her with his knife, but Freddy intervened.
Grabbing his knife hand with one hand and shoving him against the wall with the other, he gave Puppet time to recover.
Now that they were close enough, Freddy could see the man's eyes. They were bright green and expressed fury, probably at being stopped from doing what he wanted, by them turning up unexpectedly. Freddy could feel the hatred inside him build to unfelt levels, he screamed at the man expressing his inner rage.
Yet that scream didn't sound like him fully, there was something else in his voice that he couldn't quite place his finger on, not that he had much control over what he was doing anyway. The Bonnie male didn't respond verbally, instead his eyes widen, expressing surprise again, before narrowing with a strong sense of determination.
He was still holding his knife, but he broke his other hand free and proceeded to punch Freddy in the stomach, before delivering a hard kick to it as well.
Freddy stumbled backwards, with the Bonnie male landing another punch with his knife hand to Freddy's chest. Freddy felt his back sharply impact the opposite wall, as the Bonnie male was about to throw another punch, this time at his face.
However, Puppet suddenly jumped at him from the side, attacking him in a manner that would best suit a wild animal. She kicked, punched and thrashed him, desperate to get him away from Freddy.
She kept her attacks up, with the Bonnie male having to step back to recover from her blows.
Judging by the look in his eyes, he was very annoyed by her actions.
As Freddy pushed himself off the wall, the Bonnie male caught Puppet by the hand and tightened his grip, deliberately hurting her. With his other hand he punched her right in the stomach, and Freddy could see the blow travel through her.
Puppet fell backwards, and the Bonnie male continued his attack with a quick kick to her leg, making her fall to the floor. The Bonnie male stepped forward, about to raise his knife and stab her, but just as he was about to do so, Freddy launched himself at him to protect Puppet, the man suddenly turned in his direction.
He had been expecting Freddy to do just that. . .
When Freddy came into contact, he aimed to smack him in the chest, but the Bonnie male caught his hand and stopped him in mid motion.
He had intended to use his knife for deadly effect, probably to stab Freddy, in either the arm or the chest. Yet Freddy had been able to grab his hand by the wrist and stop him.
Now both men were struggling against each other in a competition of strength, with their hands effectively tied.
Vibrant white dots stared back into bright green pupils, the former expressing strong emotions of murderous rage and cold hatred; while the latter expressed emotions towards a deep seated surprise, and profound annoyance that border lined anger. Neither could overcome the other, both being equally matched, although if the Bonnie male could get his knife hand free, then the odds would quickly turn in his favour.
He tried to break his knife hand free by pulling away sharply, but Freddy merely tightened his grip, not wanting to let go.
Freddy could feel the Bonnie male push forward with his other hand, bending Freddy's hand backwards.
Being so close to each other, they could feel each intake and outtake of air that they made, as they breathed. Freddy could feel the hated and anger bubbling away inside him, it was all he could feel, and yet he had to remind himself that regardless of what this man had done.
He didn't know him. . .
Was he another Fazbear?
If so, who was he exactly?
And why was he killing children for God's sake?
This hatred and rage as powerful as they were, all felt. . .personal.
Like Freddy himself had an actual vendetta with this man, despite never seeing him before. Yet he felt like he had, from somewhere in the depths of his subconscious the feeling of familiarity remained strong.
Then Freddy spoke, although he didn't will himself to speak.
"It's me. . ."
And again, there was some distortion in his voice, it was as if someone else was speaking through him.
Yet the words had caused a reaction from the Bonnie male, with his eyes widening in surprise once more, there was also a sense of fear in them.
Then suddenly, another distorted voice spoke.
"It's me too . ."
The Bonnie male only had to look to his left to see an enraged Puppet charge into him, actually jumping onto his back, with her face ending up between his two golden bunny ears.
Wrapping her hands under his shoulders and her legs around his waist, she pulled back sharply, seriously threatening his balance. Then Freddy pushed forward, throwing the Bonnie male off balance completely, and they all fell to the floor.
Puppet of course felt the impact the hardest, as she hit the floor, only then to have the two men fall on top of her.
Yet that didn't stop her, as she tightened her grip, quickly moving her hands and legs around the male Bonnie's arms, and pinning them firmly in place using her strength.
The Bonnie male couldn't use his knife, nor his other hand, with him clearly being frustrated because of it. He could kick his legs, but his arms were being firmly held in place by the Puppet, although she wouldn't be able to hold him back for long.
Freddy fell on top of him, but he was able to steady himself. Seeing his opponent pinned, he was about to deliver a hard punch to his face, but Puppet spoke, catching his attention. Her voice sounded like a mixture between herself and someone else, whose identity again, Freddy couldn't properly place.
"The children, save the children, save them!" she shouted frantically.
Pulling himself away from the strong desire to attack the Bonnie male any further. Freddy picked himself up off the man, and slowly headed towards the door that he had originally come out from.
It was closed, but not locked, and the children Puppet was referring to should be inside.
As he reached for the door's handle, the Bonnie male spoke. . .
"No!" he announced, almost in defiance.
Breaking one arm free from Puppet's grip, he then viciously elbowed Puppet in the face repeatedly, loosening her grip on his other arm.
Pulling that arm free, he brutally elbowed her again with it, making sure that she couldn't stop him from getting up.
Once he was on his feet, he sharply stomped down on Puppet's stomach and then kicked her away to the side. The double impact of his actions had her coughing and gasping for air, as she slowly dragged herself upright, using the nearby wall for support.
Freddy gripped the door's handle, pushed it down and –
Suddenly a pair of arms grabbed him, one wrapped itself around his neck, but the other, the one holding the knife swung in from the side, but Freddy reacted quickly, catching it in mid motion.
He had to let go of the door handle to grab the man's knife hand, with his other hand trying to tear the man's arm off his throat.
The male Bonnie was strong, pushing back against Freddy.
"I only want to kill as many as I need to," he whispered sharply into Freddy's ear.
"And you are disrupting things!"
Freddy didn't recognise the voice's owner, but it only made him even angrier.
Seeming to sense Freddy's rage, the Bonnie male uttered another line, which just served to rub salt into the wound.
"You may not recognise me at first, but I assure you, it's still me. . ."
Freddy's rage hit critical levels, but before he could act, the Bonnie male was able to pull him away from the door, and then he kicked Freddy hard in the back, releasing him from his grip.
The act of doing so had Freddy stumbling forward, nearly hitting the floor face first had he not steadied himself in time. He turned around to face the Bonnie male, expecting him to press his attack, but the man hadn't.
Instead he was standing before the closed door, looking back and forth from Freddy to the Puppet.
He expressed a look of caution for obvious reasons, but he also looked curious, appearing to exam both Freddy and Puppet in detail, almost as if he hadn't laid eyes on them before.
Puppet had dragged herself back up to her feet, leaning against the wall. Yet she looked ready to try again, seeming to be waiting on Freddy's signal. There was still screams and shouts coming from the main stage area, it seemed that the entirety of the people in the pizzeria were in that one place.
Perfect circumstances for anyone wanting to sneak about unnoticed in the rest of the building.
If the Bonnie male was worried about getting caught by someone else wandering in on the scene, then he voiced his concern.
"As entertaining as this has been for all of us, I cannot afford to let it last any longer," he said, his voice expressing only sheer determination, as he gripped his knife tightly.
"Save. . .save the children, save them," Puppet muttered, seeming to be out of breath.
Freddy narrowed his eyes and charged; his hatred was burning like a forest fire that couldn't be put out by anything expect for seeing this man suffer.
And again, it all felt personal.
He charged at the man, aiming to slam him to the floor, or better yet, shove him through the door to the room where the children were, opening the way.
Instead the Bonnie male only smiled, seeming to enjoy Freddy's display of rage.
As Freddy neared, he reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a device of sorts, flickering a switch.
Just as Freddy was about to attack him, the Bonnie male thrusted his arm forward with the device, making physical contact with Freddy.
Suddenly a sheering pain flowed throughout Freddy's body, making him twitch violently, as his muscles suffered from multiple agonising spasms. The pain was almost unendurable, but he couldn't scream as the level of pain had frozen his entire body, forcing it to go into some sort of shock state.
He fell onto his knees, as the Bonnie male firmly pressed the device which was now obviously a taser into him.
Falling onto the floor, still suffering from many spasms, Freddy felt nothing but agony.
His rage, hatred and everything else that he had been feeling previously was wiped away like the tide, as the pain overwhelmed him.
He couldn't even breathe probably, as he laid there on the floor.
If the Bonnie male wanted to continue in his torture of Freddy, then he was immediately disappointed by Puppet, slamming into him from behind, nearly throwing him off balance. However, her attack only lasted momentarily, as the Bonnie male turned around and smacked her in the head, before delivering another punch to her chest.
Then with his taser he jammed it right into her stomach, she emitted a cry of pain, but the agony quickly overwhelmed her. However, the Bonnie male pulled the taser back, releasing Puppet from the immense pain, only to then kick her to the floor. Yet she wouldn't go down quietly and gripped his taser hand, pulling him down so she could pull herself back up.
Upon doing so she grabbed his other hand, the one holding the knife, but he resisted and kneed her hard in the stomach.
As he pulled his knife hand free from her grasp, Freddy was trying to reach up, but he found that he lacked the strength to do so, because of the agony that he had been subjected to. The Bonnie male delivered another hard punch to Puppet's chest, knocking her backwards before kicking her legs out from under her.
She fell to the floor and this time, the Bonnie male made sure that she stayed there by stomping on her stomach, and again the blow travelled through her, leaving the girl breathless. With Puppet taken care of, the Bonnie male, who was also breathing rather heavily given the level of physical exhaustion he had to endure, finally turned to face Freddy.
Meanwhile there still came screams and shouts from the main stage area, although they had now grown quieter, perhaps events were coming under control.
Freddy was still struggling to get up off the floor, reaching up towards the Bonnie male with one hand outstretched. The Bonnie male just gave him a cold stare, with his bright green eyes bearing down at Freddy, who seemed so helpless. He could use his knife or taser again to deliver further harm to Freddy and yet he didn't, choosing to just stand there.
Then Puppet spoke, breathing rather heavily as she did.
"Save them, save the children. . .save them."
Her tone was one of desperation as she tried to pick herself up, but the act of fighting non stop for several minutes had clearly worn her out.
Puppet's words, however, did get a reaction from the Bonnie male.
A small smile formed on his lips.
"Save them. . ." he muttered slowly, yet sounding amused at the same time.
He then sharply kicked Freddy's outstretched hand away, before raising his own foot above Freddy.
His smile grew as he spoke again, this time with determination.
"You can't!"
Then his foot came down and it came down hard, enough to knock Freddy out cold, his head hit the floor and he knew no more.
Apart from one other thing, as he swiftly disappeared into the depths of his unconsciousness, he heard one last worded barb from the Bonnie male that underlined his failure.
"That was easier than I thought it would be. . ."
The next thing Freddy knew, he was waking up in the Parts and Services room with Bonnie, Chica and Foxy by his bedside.
He remembered how Bonnie and Chica just hugged him tightly the moment he pushed himself upright, with Foxy immediately launching a thousand questions about what had happened to him. Goldie was off to one side engaged in a conversation with one of the staff members, properly Richard or Henry, asking them for details on what the hell had just happened.
Apparently, Freddy had been found in one of the party rooms near the security office, completely unconscious, lying on the floor.
He struggled to remember what had occurred, only being able to recall certain scenes, but not enough to follow any leads.
When he could fully remember, it was far too late to do anything about the incident.
Puppet had also been found safe and sound in the party room opposite to the one that Freddy had been found in. Although she was already conscious and had just got to her feet when Goldie found her, as he and Foxy had gone on a search for Freddy.
However, it didn't take long for the details of that dreadful day to become abundantly clear.
Five children had gone missing, no bodies were found in the search, and there was no trace of where they might be. Mangle had apparently gone into a bloodlust rage and had viciously attacked one of the staff members, that being Helen Dudley.
The attack had left her with a serious head injury, after Mangle tried to bite her, which soon would be dubbed the 'Bite of 87'.
There was an immense public outcry in the immediate aftermath; and it didn't take long for protests to appear outside the Pizzeria calling for its shutdown and for the police to find those responsible for committing such a hideous crime.
Fazbear Entertainment had quickly decided to cut their losses and to relocate back at the original pizzeria. They intended to take nearly everything with them, including the Originals, who would be reinstated as the frontrunners. The Toys however were to be removed, which initially Freddy and the others thought to mean being fired. Yet Jeremy Fitzgerald, the current nightguard at the establishment soon found out the company's real intentions.
The Toys faced most of the torment and blame for not doing enough to ensure children' safety in the building. So, the company decided that they had to be cut out of the picture in order to save itself from any further damage.
Even if that meant 'putting them down', but it would remove a major problem for them.
In the end, the Originals got what they wanted, to become children entertainers again, although obviously this wasn't the way they had envisioned it. However, with Jeremy's help, they were able to sneak the Toys away with them and then hide them in one of the pizzeria's secret rooms, until the heat had finally died down. However, Freddy could never forget that day, he had come so close to stopping Vincent, and even if the children were dead by that point, then he could have exposed Vincent before everyone.
He could have brought the nightmare to an end, but instead Vincent walked away free, and he sank deeper into darkness and his own despair. By the time the Originals' pizzeria had reopened, everyone was so downtrodden or depressed, feeling angry, abandonment, sorrow and regret, that they didn't care about anyone else outside of their group. They were trapped inside a hell that they couldn't escape from, going from a depressed state in the daytime with fake smiles and happiness when on stage, to a murderous and cold state of mind at night, when the ghost children took their vengeance out on the unfortunate night guards.
They couldn't find their killer, but that didn't matter.
Because of his failure that day combined with the preceding failures Freddy felt for not being to protect the ones he loved; he was wracked with immense guilt that often displayed itself during the night when he was being possessed by the vengeful ghost child that resided inside him. Like Bonnie had told Mike, somewhere during that bloodlust rampage his own feelings were present deep inside, fuelling his actions and making themselves manifest as he engaged in brutal murder.
The act sickened him like it did with everyone else, but there was nothing they could do about it. In the end, their collective sorrow, regret and pain was hidden behind their rage and coldness, only being expressed at rare moments when they let their guard down.
In the end they were still trapped underneath a twisted purple cloud. . .forever.
Freddy now found himself mentally drifting back again down memory lane, remembering the events of the 1990s, which had just blurred themselves together because they were all the same.
Back when they all embraced their inner darkness. . .
(Begin the song here if you wish.)
We see the security office without any power and a terrified night guard shaking in the office chair, awaiting the inevitable.
Then suddenly a shadow looms over them, revealing itself to be a possessed Freddy, looking rather vengeful.
"Look me in the eyes and tell me honestly."
"What kind of monster you see?"
Freddy unnarrowed his eyes.
"An angry ghost, a mask?"
"The symptoms of my disease."
He looks genuinely hurt.
"Is that all that you think of me?"
Then his anger swiftly returns.
"But what about, what about broken, scarred, betrayed, alone?"
His eyes tell a thousand painful stories.
"What about the real me, that I want you to know?"
We see a possessed Bonnie roaming the hallways.
"I don't want, wanna be, wanna be twisted!"
We see a possessed Chica viciously banging on the office door.
"I don't want, wanna be, wanna be cold!"
A possessed Foxy charging down the hallway.
"This world's forcing my hand!"
A possessed Goldie looking back through the cameras.
"Can you just understand?"
Freddy grabs the night guard by the neck, strangling him.
"I don't want, wanna be, wanna be twisted!"
He smiles in sadistic enjoyment.
"But I am!"
We see a possessed Toy Freddy slumped against a wall.
"The one you see today. . ."
He looks seriously depressed.
"It's not like I had a choice, when my life was dragged to the dark."
He wanders about aimlessly.
"For years my heart in chains."
He feels trapped in every sense of the word.
"Like trying to scream without a voice, no wonder my mind came apart."
He looks abandoned, hurt and even afraid.
"But what about, what about broken, scarred, betrayed, alone?"
The dark things he has done to keep his family safe.
"What about the real me, that I want you to know?"
We see a possessed Mangle crawling along the ceiling.
"I don't want, wanna be, wanna be twisted!"
Possessed Toys Bonnie and Chica banging on the office doors.
"I don't want, wanna be, wanna be cold!"
Possessed Balloon Boy looking back through the cameras.
"This world's forcing my hand!"
"Can you just understand?"
Possessed Puppet jumpscaring a nightguard.
"I don't want, wanna be, wanna be twisted!"
Her eyes narrow in open rage.
"But I am!"
We see the insides of an earth pit with many rusted metal humanoid bodies buried alongside eachother.
A metal hand twitches in the dark.
"Can you understand?"
Suddenly joints creak and gears groan as the bodies rise up slowly.
Through their degraded voice boxes, they whisper.
"I don't wanna be. . ."
Then their face plates swing open.
"But I am!"
We see the Possessed Prop Suits roaming the Originals' pizzeria.
"I don't want, wanna be, wanna be twisted!"
Searching for their killers.
"I don't want, wanna be, wanna be cold!"
Expressing their profound sorrow and rage.
"This world's forcing my hand!"
They just want to be free.
"Can you just understand?"
There is no alternative way out.
"I don't want, wanna be, wanna be twisted. . ."
We see Vincent in the SpringBonnie suit.
"I don't want, wanna be, wanna be twisted!"
The echoes of screaming children surround him.
"I don't want, wanna be, wanna be cold!"
He holds up a blood covered knife.
"This world's forcing my hand!"
He looks directly at you sincerely.
"Can you just understand?
Almost as if he is pleading.
"I don't want, wanna be, wanna be twisted!"
Suddenly, he smiles psychotically.
"But I am!"
(Song fades out as everything disappears into darkness)
A single tear rolled down Freddy's face, he quickly wiped it away before anyone could see.
He was twisted, not evil, but he would forever be affected by the tragedy of past events. The psychological weight it bore upon his mind would never leave, it might subside over time, but that purple cloud would forever remain.
Vincent's words from his memory came back, sparking his thoughts.
"You may not recognise me at first, but I assure you, it's still me. . ."
He had been toying with Freddy when he said that. Teasing him about his identity and being the same man who about two days later was sitting alongside Freddy and the others on the long bus ride back to Greenfield Indiana.
Then another sentence caught Freddy's attention.
"I only want to kill as many as I need to."
Was Vincent Afton truly a serial killer, like they had believed over the years, or was there something more to him?
Nightmare Freddy's words to Balloon Boy further supported that notion.
"I am a monster, it is infused into me and I cannot help it, but even a monster can learn to feel things that go against its inner nature. . .even a monster like Vincent Afton."
In that moment, or at least the way BB had conveyed it to him and the others, it didn't seem like Nightmare Freddy was lying.
Could there be more to Vincent's motive outside of the obvious reasons for doing what he did?
Freddy didn't want to admit it, because he rightfully didn't want to give Vincent any level of understanding. How could he see that man in any other light than the one Vincent painted for himself through his actions?
Freddy glanced over at the others, they were still locked in either open conversation or within themselves.
Then he saw Puppet. . .
She was still tightly holding onto Balloon Boy, but she was now looking over in Freddy's direction. Judging by the sorrowful look in her eyes, Freddy could guess that she properly saw him cry, and may have known why.
"I'm sorry," Freddy whispered, mouthing the words.
"I'm sorry that I couldn't save them. . ."
From across the table, Puppet gave a slow but understanding nod.
She had never blamed Freddy for his failure, not once, unlike Freddy himself. Puppet had been there that day alongside him, and his sense of failure was greatly overshadowed by her own.
She had been trying to stop Vincent from day one and look where that got her. . . rock bottom.
But in that singular moment, both she and Freddy shared the feeling of despair and collective comfort. Then the sound of a chair being pushed back caught both their attention, as well as that of everyone else.
Everyone having been jolted out of whatever they were doing turned to look at Jeremy, who had just stood up.
"Ok, from what Balloon Boy has told us, there's clearly a lot to process."
He shook his head, expressing disbelief.
"I hate to admit it, but I don't think we can find out the answers with what we've got here, I think we are going to actually have to talk with the Nightmares and try to pry the answers out of them."
"You're kidding!" Toy Freddy exclaimed, expressing his shock, he actually pushed himself up out his chair he was that shocked by Jeremy's words
Jeremy sighed before replying.
"We could try and listen to Phone Guy's tapes in my office, he may mention something useful, but I've gone through them many times, however it is worth a look."
"I'm on board with that idea laddie," Foxy said confidently, raising his hook hand in agreement.
Everyone else seemed to also agree, rising out of their chairs and ready to follow Jeremy's idea. Although the thought of having to meet the Nightmares face to face unnerved them for obvious reasons.
Then Goldie suddenly turned to face Freddy and asked.
"Freddy didn't you say earlier that you had a plan to defeat the Nightmares, at their own game?"
He seemed to be interested, his words had caught everyone's' attention, as all eyes now turned on Freddy.
Freddy's memory kicked into gear.
Yes, he remembered now, his clout of despair dispersed, but it didn't fully disappear.
If his idea worked, then they could gain some much needed breathing room, and force the Nightmares to fight in the real world, where things would be much more even sided.
Sensing everyone's eyes on him, Freddy sighed deeply.
It was worth a shot, after all given everything that he had been forced to endure over the years, crazy ideas shouldn't feel so strange to him.
He slowly pushed back his chair and stood up, straightening out his top hat as he did.
Looking back at the array of curious and warry faces, he unveiled his scheme.
"Has anyone ever heard of the notion. . .about lucid dreaming?"
Well that'll be it for a while, as other things have my attention and I can only devote so much spare time to this.
I know that there are various things left unanswered, but I'll cover those lingering threads in the next few chapters.
Hard to think that this story has been going for nearly two years, and we're a few chapters off the hallway point.
Time does fly when you're having fun. :-)
Please Review, your feedback is appreciated.