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“Hello in there….” a voice whispered softly. He saw eyes peeking through the holes of the metal plate and quickly jerked his flashlight away from them, as to avoid eye contact, as the mysterious voice had instructed him to do. “Someone is inside…” the voice whispered again. It was the second night of his first week here at the pizzeria.. At least his mind told him that. He had no memory of the first night, nor why HandUnit was trying to boss him around, or even how he got here. John silently wished that he was back home, with his team. He was comfortable there, and this place gave him the creeps.
Loud tinking noises snapped him out of his thoughts. It sounded as if someone or something was hitting a miniature hammer on the metal plate he was hiding under. The only thing John remembered previously about this place was that he woke up in an elevator and nearly had a keypad smack him square in the face. Then he was told that he needed to crawl through a vent in the elevator to check on Funtime Foxy and Ballora. He then was instructed to crawl into the vent in front of him to the security office for Circus Baby Auditorium. The office had a desk, which almost looked similar to a control panel, with blinking lights and glowing buttons. There was another keypad, which he had seen on both sides of the office in the main area. When he looked around, he was told several times by HandUnit, who he wasn’t very fond of, to check on Baby. John had pressed the blue button with a sun symbol on the keypad, squinting into the darkness beyond the office window. HandUnit then told him he had to shock Baby to get her back on the stage. He then pressed the red button directly below the blue one, with the symbol of a lightning bolt.
The shock function didn’t work, so HandUnit had told him to remain on standby while it restarted the building’s systems. Darkness had filled the room and for the first time he felt alone and terrified. A mysterious voice echoed throughout the walls of the office. It was almost like an illusion, as it made him feel that he was in a giant room and the sound of the voice was bouncing off of the walls and echoing throughout the building.
This voice was new, as it had never spoken to him before. He stayed silent as he listened to what it had said.
“I don’t recognize you. You are new. I remember this scenario. However, it’s a strange thing to want to do, to come here. I’m curious what events will lead a person to want to spend their nights in a place like this willingly. Maybe curiosity, maybe ignorance,” the voice had told him. The voice then instructed him to hide. “It will be over soon. They will lose interest.” John wasn’t sure who “they” were, but he had a deep feeling that he didn’t want to find out.
Suddenly, the metal plate began to slide slowly away from the side of the hiding space. A crack of the darkness beyond the plate slowly started to grow as the robots dragged it open. He quickly yanked it back, inhaling sharply as he cut himself on the edge of the sharp metal panel. He should have been able to tolerate this pain because he was a Spartan. But his mind appeared to be in a different body. He looked down at his hand, the cut on his palm oozing a crimson liquid in the dim light of his flashlight. He felt so cramped in the tiny space, and he could hear the slight whispers of the strange robots echoing off the walls of the office.
All went silent, and John strained to hear something, but there was nothing but the darkness and the absence of sound. After a few minutes the plate started sliding open again, and he almost had it halfway open before he was finally able to beat the robots’ strength and shut it again. His heart pounded in his chest, having been startled by the sudden event as a pang of fear and dread overtook his mind, his body quivering.
He cleared his throat. Cut it out, he told himself. His body finally stopped quivering just before the mysterious voice spoke again. It seemed aggressive and serious, but also had a tinge of playfulness to it.
“When your guide comes back online, he is going to tell you that he was unsuccessful, that you must restart the system manually. He will then tell you to crawl through Ballora Gallery as fast as you can to reach the Breaker Room. If you follow his instructions, you will die. Ballora will not return to her stage anymore, she will catch you. The power will be restored shortly. When you crawl through Ballora Gallery, go slowly. She can not see you and can only listen for your movement. When you hear her music become louder, she is growing near, listening for you. Wait and be still.”
The message ended with a crackle as HandUnit began to speak. “Thank you for your patience. it seems that the power system cannot be restarted automatically. You will need to restart the power system manually. Please return to the primary control module,” HandUnit instructed him. John wondered if the mysterious voice was watching HandUnit when there was an attempt to restart all of the systems.
John quickly slid the metal plate to the side with his good hand, then crawled out of the hiding place. He crawled over to the vent, and went inside. He began his way toward the Primary Control Module, occasionally hearing sounds of something that almost sounded like chains smacking the outside of the vent. He looked back, and realized it was his car keys. Where did those come from? John instantly remembered that he was a soul inside of a different person. He finally reached the Primary Control Module without another thought. HandUnit then instructed him to crawl through Ballora Gallery as fast as he could. He remembered what the mysterious voice had said, to go slowly and to stop completely when he heard Ballora’s music. He ignored HandUnit, hoping that he could trust the voice, since it had told him about the failure restarting the systems before HandUnit did. “I will deactivate myself momentarily, as to not create an auditory disturbance. Deactivating…”
The vent door opened, and he crawled into Ballora Gallery. He went slow, as instructed. John heard a faint tune in the distance. As he crawled, it became louder. He stopped as he heard it off to his left. He waited, his heart hammering in his chest once again. This time, he was truly terrified of what could happen in the darkness surrounding him. Suddenly, HandUnit’s voice boomed throughout the room and it startled him even more. He felt like he was on the verge of a heart attack.
“It seems you are taking a long time. Please proceed as quickly and as quietly as possible.”
“So much for creating an auditory disturbance,” John mumbled.
He began to crawl again as soon as Ballora’s music faded. He stopped several times before reaching the Breaker Room. When he reached the door, he opened it, still on his knees. He got up and went inside.
The door clanged shut behind him, the noise echoing off of the walls of the breaker room as occasional flashes and clicks of sparks alleviating the darkness of the room. In the back right corner of the room, he spotted a stage. A bear-like figure stood on it, eerily watching him. The bear figure had what looked like a blue rabbit puppet on one hand, and a microphone in the other. Tints of purple were on its belly, its muzzle, and the lining of its eyes, which were shaded over with only the light on the ground reflecting off of them. The robotic bear had a metallic purple top hat with a speaker directly below a metallic purple bow tie just underneath the chin of its head. John ignored it, turning to a tablet that lay on top of a panel with red buttons with switches. He assumed it was the breaker, and picked up the tablet in a swift move. The tablet was attached to the breaker by a cord which plugged into the systems of the building he was in. HandUnit instructed him to restart the systems manually, of course. It was what he came here to do.
But the second part of his instructions sent a chill down John’s spine.
“Using the interface may disrupt nearby electronics. If you feel that you are in danger, feel free to disconnect the interface temporarily, until it is safe to reconnect.”
John shivered a bit. He looked around the room, making sure the bear figure hadn’t moved. It stared back at him, almost seeming to watch him very closely.
John grabbed the tablet and began to restart the systems. He pressed and held one of the buttons on the screen, and was in the middle of restarting when he heard a noise from the darkness. He looked around, and disconnected the tablet from the breaker by yanking the cord from the tablet. The sparks from the electrical wires flashed where the bear figure should have stood. Instead, he was surprised to see that it had moved closer to him.
He stared at it for several seconds before reconnecting the tablet to the breaker. He went back to restarting the systems, having to completely redo the process he had completed halfway when he was restarting the system. He pressed and held the buttons on the display, successfully restarting three systems within the building before he heard more movement in the darkness. He quickly disconnected the tablet, yanking the cord once again. He stared at the darkness for several seconds, noticing the outline of the figure in the shadows. It was toward the back of the breaker room, on the stage. He reconnected the tablet, restarting the rest of the systems. He finally finished, and headed out of the room, proceeding across the Ballora Gallery.
"Is someone there?" John froze as he heard the voice. He stared into the darkness, on his knees, hands bracing himself on the cold tile. He began to crawl further ahead when he heard the voice again. "I can hear someone creeping through my room." He quickly assumed it was Ballora. He shoved his fear aside and crawled forward again, moving a bit quicker this time.
"Perhaps not." This time John ignored the voice, finally reaching the Primary Control Module. Without hesitation, he crawled back into the vent leading to the elevator, and took the elevator up to the surface.
His car keys jangled on his belt as he walked through the dimly-lit pizzeria, past tables with confetti-printed cloth and pointy hats lining the center of the table. Brightly colored balloons were in every corner of the room; silver stars hanging from the ceiling, glistening in the light.
He walked out of the pizzeria, and locked the doors behind him with keys he found on a cart next to the doors. He quickly shoved them in his pocket, and headed to his car. Fog filled the parking lot, making visibility difficult. John clicked the remote to his vehicle, as a sound rung out from the air. The tail lights flashed, and he walked over to the car, opening the door and getting inside.
The drive back home was a blur to him as he stepped inside of his house. He took his shoes off, and decided to watch the television. An episode later, he fell asleep.