★彡ɢʟᴀᴍʀᴏᴄᴋ ʙᴏɴɴɪᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴇʟᴏɪꜱᴇ彡★

Chapter 1- The Backroom

~Credit to psycho-bunny12 on DeviantArt for the art I used for the story cover~

~The picture above I made on this website: https://picrew.me/image_maker/696219/complete?cd=sJjNyeF8Mr It's a really cool avatar creator thing~———————————————————————————————

"C'mon Eloise! Let's go!" 

They walked closer to the big metal door. Eloise felt a wave of unease. 

"I don't know.... This feels wrong, Lucas...." 

"Why are you so scared? We've explored this whole pizzaplex before, nothing bad has ever happened. This staff-only backroom is the only place we haven't seen! You never know what could be in here! You're supposed to be the BRAVE one, big sis, c'mon!" 

Lucas opened the door and began to walk inside. He had a point, Eloise usually was the brave, outgoing one... but something about this room just felt... off. 

"I know... but have you seen the papers? Children have been going missing here...." 

She whispered worriedly. The past few weeks the front pages had been all about the disappearances here at the Pizzaplex. Police had investigated multiple times, but had found no evidence or leads as to what had happened to the missing children. 

Lucas kept walking, so Eloise had no choice but to follow. Her palms felt sweaty, she felt extremely anxious but she couldn't decide why. 

The dim room had shelves strewn all over the place. On them, there were things like tools, robotic parts, mops and dustpans, cleaning supplies, a lost and found bucket containing old toys, and other random things. Even old, broken arcade machines were laying dormant and broken in the corner. Everything was covered in a layer of grimy dust. A single broken light bulb flickered in the center of the ceiling.

"It looks just like a normal storage room, let's just go back-'' Eloise said hurriedly. 

"But look here!" gasped Lucas. "There are stairs leading down! See? This is fun! We've never been down here before." 

The stairs were small and metallic. They went down into what looked like a dark basement, darker even than the STAFF ONLY storage room they were currently in. Eloise thought she could hear footsteps coming from within. 

"Lucas, no! I am not going down there! It looks dangerous!" 

"Chicken!" Lucas said as he shined his flashlight down the steps. 

All they could see was hard metal flooring, and strange, quiet sounds that could not be pinpointed. 

"If you want to go down there, fine! But I won't! I'll wait outside the door until you come back!" Eloise said with a huff. 

She had a worried look on her face. 

"Suit yourself," Lucas shrugged as he started descending the stairs. 

Eloise went out and sat on a nearby bench by the door to the storage room. She bounced her leg up and down, anxiety clouding her mind. 

She could not see the band from where she was, but she could hear them. Glamrock Bonnie, the bass player, was always her favorite. She loved how he looked, and he helped teach her how to bowl when she was younger. He was very kind, always willing to help kids in need. The familiar music helped ease her worry. 

As she was bobbing her head to it, waiting for her brother to return safe, she heard a loud bang come from the old staff storage room. 

She hesitantly opened the door. A piercing scream came from the basement. 

"Lucas!" She yelled and ran to the stairs, knocking a few things off the shelf on her way. 

Silence. 

"Lucas...?" 

"ELOISE!" he cried. 

She heard muffled yelling like he was getting stuffed into a bag, or was getting tied up. Then she heard a strange female voice laugh and ask,

"A͔̙r͙ͨ͢ȇ̜̥̯̓̈́̈̏̽͠ ̟̞̩̣̃̈ͤ͐̆͞ͅͅy̯̼̭͇̦̘̒̓͛̈́͗͐o̻̘̩ͭ̏̾̓u̡͗ ͮ̄͛̔̂̾҉̙͇͔̻͓h̘ͥͥ̈́̅͢ă̬̖͕̥͎̖̤̒͛͒ͫͩ̈v̘̖̦̩̊̐ͯ̈̋̆i̯͇͈̋ͬ̔͌ͧ̽̚͜ͅn̢̲ͣ̊ͥ̉̿ͪg̪͉̦̓͒͗̑ ̡̤̜̹͓̻͖̳̔̌f̧̳̹̓̃̎̉u̵̠̭͕͗ͤ͊̎̉n̶ͪ̆̔ ̩͇̓̄͠y̳͚͈̘͌͆̉̅̌ḙ̯̣t̝̱͔̩̥͊̃ͯͦ̀̒ͥ͢ͅ?̸̰͓̙͔̗̹̅͆͗ͮ̚" 

The voice sounded strange. Almost... unnatural. 

She heard the person's footsteps unnaturally quickly get further and further away, and soon there was silence. 

There was no answer to Eloise's worried calls for her brother. 

She slowly backed away from the stairs. She turned around and bolted towards the main stage. 

The show was over. Her eyes began to water, tears streaming down her face as she ran. 

What had just happened? Her parents were not here anymore, they had dropped them off here for a week. She and her younger brother Lucas had been staying at the daycare, they still had a few nights here. What could she do on her own? What would she do now? What was happening? 

Her brain was running at a million miles an hour. She stopped and looked at herself in the glass on a gift shop window. She was 12 years old, almost 13. She had black, curly hair that was in a clean bun on top of her head. Her skin was extremely dark, nearly a shining black. She had dark green eyes and was wearing ripped jeans, black ankle boots, a plain yellow t-shirt layered on top of a black long-sleeve, and a small chain necklace with a silver locket. 

She put her hand around the locket and closed her teary eyes. She could not handle this situation on her own. 

Something terrible just happened... and she needed help.

(Word count: 847)