Author's Note: Hope you're all still enjoying the story!

Chapter 193
Ghosts

Ruby stared at the empty hallway, heart pounding in her chest. There was no one in sight but she didn't feel alone. There was a chill in the air that was out of place and the voices echoed strangely in the space.

Oh fuck.

They sounded like they should be right in front of her but their voices weren't traveling realistically. One second they sounded like they were far ahead and out of sight, the next the voices reverberated as if right next to her.

It was quiet for a moment and the only sound were footsteps that kept repeating, looping past her and then back to the start of the hallway.

"What are we doing here...?" Alex suddenly asked from an empty space a foot to Ruby's left. The teen flinched but didn't move otherwise. She stared at the floor as the temperature fluctuated to match the voices.

Both footsteps stopped and stayed in that spot.

"We're..." Andre didn't have an answer. "...We're looking for those robots..."

"N-no. No. No we aren't. We...I was running...Wasn't I just running a minute ago? Or...o-or was that an hour ago?"

Ruby could feel them right next to her and something told her Alex noticed something too, snapping her out of whatever limbo cycle they were experiencing. Not Andre, it seemed.

"I...oh god...I was running...I slipped on something..."

"You need to focus," Andre said. "We have to find the breakers, then get out of here."

"We...we found the breakers, then you..."

Ruby heard the unseen Alex back up toward her as she tried to process the trauma that was refusing to let her see reality for what it was.

The teen felt numb and automatically lifted her arm to reach out in front of her. Part of her was screaming not to, not wanting evidence of what she knew was happening.

But she couldn't help it. She'd always hated uncertainty.

Her fingers made contact with thin icy air and a form rippled into sight.

Fuck. She'd touched enough ghosts to recognise the unnatural feeling. Her fingers caught on a surface that wanted to give under the touch but whatever the building had done when it decided she was part ghost kept the contact solid. Timmy had said he felt heavier when she touched him, like he was anchored in a way.

The reactions this time were a lot more explosive.

Alex screamed in terror as she scrambled back, connecting with Andre who yelped and turned visible as well. She stared at Ruby in shock through… one of her eyes…

The teenager tasted bile on her tongue.

"How did you... oh god… Ruby you… how did you do that?" Alex stared at Ruby as if the teen was the ghost that just appeared out of nowhere.

Ruby couldn't move. She just stared at the two in horror, an unfamiliar panic twisting in her chest at the sight.

They… oh fuck they looked...

The kids weren't like this. The kids looked like normal kids for the most part. They looked fine! They looked pale and they didn't breathe so it was obvious something was off in an unsettling way, but they didn't… They didn't show the injuries Michael gave them at their death.

How did Alex and Andre not see what they looked like? Didn't they feel it? Was the denial that strong at the moment?

Alex's face...

Andre's jaw. His… his stomach.

She could see bone. Ribs. Part of a spine-Ruby shut her eyes against the gore. Her love of horror movies was dying a slow painful death. She felt nauseous and her mind kept flashing back to the bodies she'd seen and comparing them in a numb kind of morbid fascination.

She felt sick.

She stiffened as Alex grabbed her arms- mildly surprised she didn't feel slick blood on too-cold hands. She wanted to pull away and put a hell of a lot of distance between her and them. Like the entire building kind of space. Her eyes snapped open but her gaze skittered over them, not willing to focus on the injuries and all the blood-

Fuck this psuedo ghost building bullshit. She couldn't deal with this right now. Where was Hedy? Wait, no no no no NO! she shouldn't see this. She really shouldn't see this. Hedy seeing this would be the absolute worst. Calling Goldy wasn't fair either. Shit, she had to deal with this. Shit shit shit.

"Ruby, are you okay?" Alex asked, a little kinder as she noticed Ruby's off behavior while Andre scoffed. "Where's Hedy? We need to get out of here."

Ruby sucked in a breath and closed her eyes for a moment before looking back at them. She could have sagged with relief to see them looking a lot less like brutally murdered victims. Now the two technicians looked just the same as the last time she saw them. Whole. No blood anywhere except a tiny bit peeking through the bandage wrapped around Andre's arm from the previous night.

Alex was staring at her in confusion, looking nearly like a normal alive human and not some fleshy train wreck. She looked like the kids did, like Timmy and Michael did.

She looked dead.

Ruby clenched her jaw and locked her muscles to make sure she didn't... run or throw a punch or something. She briefly contemplated going back to making Ennard's life hell, but she'd been trying to not avoid her problems. Facing them sucked though.

As a result of her distracted thoughts, she didn't answer Alex, too focused on the ice cold grip on her arms and what the hell she was supposed to do with the situation.

She wasn't the nice one. The empathetic one. How was she supposed to break the news that they were dead in any kind way?!

"Ruby?" Alex asked, jumping to the wrong conclusion. She trembled. "Oh please. Is Hedy okay? What happened?"

Her bloodless face was pale and pinched in stress.

Ruby looked down at Alex's hands where they were still holding her arms. They were freezing cold and she could remember the blood covering them just moments before. Like Alex had been trying to stem blood flow from an open wound-

More snapshots of the stage flashed across her mind and Ruby shoved Alex back abruptly, stumbling back a step before turning to the side to throw up. There wasn't much left in her stomach but her body certainly tried its best. There was bile on her tongue and she could still smell the fucking blood.

She wanted to go home.

The techs jerked back in shock and disgust.

"What the fuck?" Alex mumbled. "Ruby, are you okay?"

"My shoes..." Andre muttered, not seeming to notice his shoes didn't have a single fleck of vomit on them.

Ruby braced her hands on her knees as she dragged herself back together out of sheer stubbornness.

"Why are you still here?" There was a hint of desperation to her voice along with anger and more than a little frustration.

The man and woman clearly didn't understand the full question, watching her in confusion and annoyance.

"We must have gotten… lost," Andre said, glaring at the teen. He seemed irritated.

Alex shifted and nodded hesitantly. "We..." she looked away in shame. "I know you and Hedy must be pissed. I'm sorry. We… we haven't done anything to them I promise." She frowned, the confusion back. "I don't think..."

Ruby closed her eyes briefly in pain, pushing herself upright again. Why? Why did this have to happen? As if things weren't bad enough. She took a deep breath, tasted the tang of iron in the air, and squashed the urge to throw up again.

"What's keeping you here?" She demanded despite the fact that they didn't seem to realise anything of what had happened to them. "Why are you still here?"

Andre just looked at her like she was crazy, which wasn't new. Her anger was gaining traction though. Why couldn't they just listen? Why did they have to go off and do something so stupid when they knew something was wrong with this place? Why did they decide to go vigilante on them?

Ruby and Hedy had reasons for their bad decisions, connections to the animatronics that made it all make sense.

These two didn't. They just… decided that they knew better. And part of her hated them for that. For being stupid and getting themselves killed.

Alex frowned, tensing. She expected Ruby to lash out at them for sneaking back like this. But something about this felt wrong. "I don't… understand what you're asking." She shook her head. "Where's Hedy? We shouldn't-shit did you leave her alone?"

"I'm assuming she's with Afton," Andre pointed out, rolling his eyes. He looked down the hallway where they were, still very confused about what they were doing there. He sighed. "I take it he's already here then? Well, he can fire me if he wants." There was some bitterness in his voice that only kicked her anger up a notch.

Getting fired was the least of his problems.

Ruby roughly rubbed her hands over her face, fighting the urge to just scream at them. That wouldn't help, except make her feel better. Maybe. She really wasn't in a good headspace for this. She was still twitchy from the flashback earlier and all the blood had thrown her off kilter as well.

But she couldn't just dump this on Hedy. Alex was her friend. Ruby knew Hedy didn't have many close friends. She didn't need another friend turning into a ghost. Even stubbornly holding onto her anger at the kids, their existence as ghosts still hurt deeply. This would… Hedy might…

She pushed those thoughts aside and took a couple of deep breaths.

"What were you doing before you decided you needed to leave?" she asked in an even voice, shoving her emotions down in a way that made her expression go blank. She knew it threw people off when she did this but she didn't care right now.

"I was..." Alex trailed off. "I don't… know." She turned away and put a hand over her mouth. "I can't… shit... I can't remember. Why can't I remember?" Her other arm hugged herself and she rocked a little while her mind finally knit together that something was horribly wrong, but she still didn't know what.

"I feel like..." she looked up at the other two. "You know when you walk into a room and forget what you came for? I just… Andre, what were we doing?"

Andre glanced at Ruby with a squint. "We came to find some way to destroy those robots so no one else would get hurt."

Alex glared at him and stiffened. "You fucking asshole. I told you we could just shut them down by taking the power modules. We didn't need to hurt them. Shit. Did you fucking trick me? You said we would do my plan!"

Andre swallowed. "No… but how were you planning to get close enough unless we at least turned the controlled shocks back on?" Andre kept his eyes on Ruby defiantly, fully expecting her to tackle him again. He was a little shocked when she didn't move. Her expression didn't change either.

Alex shook her head and turned away from the man angrily.

Ruby didn't need to touch her to feel the flare of energy from the anger. She hated this ghost shit.

The woman stopped. "Wait… wait I… knew this. You already told me you just needed me to see how to get the power modules. I stayed because… because I wanted to make sure you didn't just destroy them or the hard drives." She looked at Ruby, feeling like she was making excuses. "I think… I think I freaked out, and I was trying to leave to head back to the hotel to get Hedy and..." She looked at Ruby awkwardly. "And apologize. My phone didn't work. I don't know how yours and Hedy's did. But you," she pointed at Andre. "Wouldn't let me have your car keys." She frowned, her voice suddenly went very quiet.

She looked at the teenager. "Ruby… I'm not sure why I'm telling you this. Why can't I remember? Why aren't I sure what I was doing?" There was panic bubbling in her voice and she sounded younger as she looked down and ran a hand through her messy hair. "Oh god… why didn't I tell Hedy? Why didn't I call her outside?" She struggled to answer her own questions, unable to discern private thoughts from words the other two could hear.

When you didn't have a mouth anymore, thoughts swirled around underneath the thin illusion that made up the ghosts' forms.

Ruby and Hedy had figured for a while that the best description of what a ghost physically was were just thoughts, memories, and emotions without something to hold them in anymore. The "body" the rest of the living people could see (sometimes) was an illusion because the brain couldn't handle just seeing raw condensed energy so it filled in the blanks with the perception it expected to see. The building helped with that.

Even Benji and Timmy (and Ginny when she was in a better mood) had mentioned that it sometimes took effort to make their thoughts and what they said separate things. It was harder when they were upset, which was why Felix very often just blurted things out.

Hedy and Ruby were pretty much those bundles of energies that still had their "containers" and Goldy was similar.

Hedy liked her metaphors...

Ruby sorted the thoughts away as Alex kept talking.

"I didn't trust her… I didn't trust you. I needed answers. I thought… I wondered if Andre was right, but I thought about those others at the pizzeria and I-I couldn't go through with it. So Andre and I discussed it and he agreed we would just take the modules."

"Technically, I never..."

"Shut the fuck up."

Ruby breathed deeply again and resisted the urge to smack Andre. Hard.

Was he just being a regular asshole or did this have to do with..

She shook the thoughts away.

"What was the last thing you did?" She did her best to keep her voice even and calm.

Alex growled in frustration. "I can't remember! I can't! I don't know why I can't but I..." She paused her pacing. "I was running from something. We found where the power was going. We found switches in a different room from the one with all the cables. Hedy was right. That room was staged. We were in this other room then there was a loud noise but it gets… blurry." She looked close to tears and froze. "I was running." She started pacing again. "What the fuck is going on? I think I hit my head."

Andre was shifting, concentrating hard as he realized things weren't quite lining up for him either. "That noise. I think I know what you're talking about but… Damn I must have hit my head too. Last thing I remember is that, then we're just… here. When did we get out here?"

"I thought you knew," Alex said, alarmed.

Andre shook his head. "I knew it. This place probably has terrible air quality. A lack of oxygen can affect short term memories I'm pretty sure. We should leave now. We can figure out something else at the hotel," He grumbled. "This place is a health hazard. I'm going to recommend that Mr. Afton condemn it and do something about those machines. If he doesn't, I'm reporting him to every agency I can possibly think of. Screw his money."

Alex couldn't even bother to notice the irritatingly professional man's use of language.

"N-no. No. Something's wrong."

"You're being hysterical, Miss Alex."

"No. Shut the hell up. Something. Something's wrong." Alex held her face, eyes wide as she scrambled to remember. "Something's wrong."

Ruby looked away, jaw clenching. She wasn't equipped to deal with this. She was the worst person to be dealing with this.

"Something happened," her voice cracked and she closed her eyes. She couldn't just come out and say it. She just couldn't. She shouldn't.

But she also couldn't leave Hedy to...

"Ruby?" Hedy's soft voice called from the open door of Funtime Auditorium not too far away.

If Hedy couldn't sense Andre and Alex already, she was probably purposely closed off at the moment.

Ruby's mouth felt dry.

Hedy never did that. That was Ruby's coping mechanism. Hedy usually let the building and ghost things fade into her background noise. The only times she cut everyone off was when she was in pain or super focused on work and couldn't be distracted by whatever the ghost kids were arguing about. Even then, it was rare.

She froze for a moment, not sure what to do. Andre and Alex looked towards the door expectantly. Hedy usually made more sense than Ruby after all.

She couldn't just let Hedy walk into this situation. She couldn't. This was a nightmare and hard enough for Ruby already and she didn't connect with people like Hedy did.

"Goldy," the name was both a demand and a plea.

Nothing happened for a heartbeat but then Goldy appeared next to her. She was horrified by what she was seeing so Ruby didn't have to explain at least. She ignored Andre and Alex's startled flinches and cries of shock. And their questions.

"What in the hell–!"

"Shit! Ruby what–!

Ruby talked over them. "You need to stop Hedy. Or... or warn her," Ruby's voice broke and she felt a surge of anger at herself. She needed to pull herself together. She was used to seeing ghosts. It shouldn't be affecting her like this! She was used to violence and anger and hate.

She wasn't used to death. She didn't think she'd ever get used to death.

She turned back to Andre and Alex, shoving her emotions down for the moment. Ignoring the way her stomach rolled at the idea, she reached out to grab their arms and dragged them both away. She ignored how cold their skin was, ignored the echo of their emotions that hit her when she made contact. She just dragged them away and tried to find something to focus on.

Something that wasn't blood or red-stained memories.

She didn't even check to see if Goldy was doing as she asked, but she didn't have the capacity to do anything else but blindly trust that Goldy could handle Hedy. That was the easy part. Trusting Goldy.

She felt the faintest brush of Hedy's psyche timidly reaching out to check on her before Ruby instinctively shoved her away again, faintly hoping that would distract Hedy from sensing the two new ghosts.

Hedy recoiled in hurt as Ruby confusingly emotionally pushed away and she barely caught a shadow of the teen disappearing down the hall.

Ruby needed space? That warred with Hedy's desire not to be alone right now. She needed just to be with someone to stabilize at least a little. It hurt that their needs weren't lining up, but she couldn't afford to sink into the pain.

Then her thoughts felt muffled and "warm" and she noticed Goldy a moment later, hanging in the air. Her voice cracked around the lump in her throat. "Goldy?"

Something happened. The panic bubbled up a little more at Goldy's expression.

The bear lowered until she was sitting on the floor next to Hedy. She never did that.

It worried Hedy.

"Hedy... Ruby's... she's handling something. But you can't go with her yet." She was struggling to keep her voice level. She sounded upset and couldn't even hide it like usual.

"What? What is Ruby-!" She looked betrayed. "You… you're hiding something? Now?" Hedy didn't even bother measuring her emotions, though she did feel bad for lashing out at Goldy.

Goldy shook her head miserably. "She told me to come warn you. She's... she's panicking Hedy. She's trying to do the right thing."

She kept her gaze on her hands, wringing them anxiously.

Hedy forced a breath but it probably came out like a wheeze. She ached to chase after Ruby, and she probably would in five minutes.

Five minutes.

Goldy looked a little surprised as Hedy eased out of her chair to sit on the floor next to her.

Hedy leaned against the bear.

They sat quietly for a couple minutes, both weighed down and overwhelmed.

"Don't lie to me right now," Hedy said gently, tears on the edge of her throat. "Please."

Goldy waited a moment but Hedy didn't immediately ask about Ruby or what they were hiding.

"I know you're in pain too," Hedy said. "Thank you. For holding it together this long."

Goldy closed her eyes. "I can break down later. You need me right now." She hesitated. "Ruby does too. Death is a trigger for her."

"..." Hedy nodded. She hugged her knees, immediately feeling guilty for sitting there when her friend was dead, bots needed intense fixing, and Ruby was possibly on the verge of another breakdown.

"What happened?" she whispered. "What do I need a warning for?" Her voice was weak. She knew it had to be something bad. She pressed against Goldy, possibly for her own sake.

Goldy closed her eyes and wrapped an arm around Hedy, feeling the mechanic tense as she steeled herself for what Goldy was going to say. Goldy doubted Hedy could honestly prepare for this. She kept her voice low and as soothing as she could as she whispered.

"They turned into ghosts." Goldy held Hedy close, well aware the words would take a couple of seconds to process. "And Ruby ran into them."

Goldy didn't need a ghost connection to see Hedy shut down.

The mechanic went limp in the bear's hold. Her head dropped toward her knees as if she lost all strength to hold it up.

She cried. Not quietly. She wailed, muffling her face into Goldy's fur in desperation, somehow still trying to be quiet for no reason Goldy would find worth it.

Goldy hugged the shaking young woman tightly, cradling her almost. "I'm sorry Hedy," she whispered. She was so glad Ruby stopped the disaster of the mechanic seeing them without warning. "I'm so sorry."

Hedy wailed out a broken, "No!" meaninglessly, too overwhelmed for anything else.

So much was lost to those that couldn't see the ghostly communication that was a normal part of their lives now. Goldy didn't stop Hedy as the mechanic painfully scratched down paper-thin walls she was desperately using to compartmentalize the night in her mind, reaching out to search for Alex and Andre herself. She was still sobbing as she did so. She barely brushed against them, confusing the two, before she quietly backed off as if burned and sunk more into Goldy's side as the bear tried to soothe her.

Hedy screamed into Goldy's fur until she needed to breathe.

Anger and sorrow and an ocean of guilt that worried Goldy twisted underneath Hedy's skin. Her cries faintly echoed off the metal walls until the shadows stole them.

Goldy just continued to hold the girl who used to be their little girl while she choked on ugly tears that stole her breath with hiccups and wails, the bear a silent and warm presence. There wasn't much else Goldy could do.