[🌼] ------------------- |•| ------------------- [🌼]
"It's like coming from inside the restaurant, isn't it?"
Bonnie got more worried and got up to check it out; his ears always got droopy when something worrisome came across. Seeing him on his feet motivated me to investigate this issue too, because, indeed, that smelled seemed to be coming from the dining area. We suddenly could hear many stuff from the kitchen clattering and crashing onto the floor. No one was screaming, but it rather sounded like somebody was trying to flee from the restaurant, especially from the kitchen. Bonnie and I exchanged confused glances, so then we both knew we had to go out and investigate. We said nothing. We were making sure everything looked just like it looked a few seconds ago. Ballora, who was always outside this room, wasn't in her gallery anymore; that was normal, for Mangle had to get her to the Parts and Service room to fix her circuits and system. Mangle wasn't back yet, as this whole place—at least in this part—still looked fine. So it must be in the dining area.
"It's coming from the dining area, right?" Bonnie asked me.
"Yeah."
After that, we went all the way through towards Baby's gallery. We were able to watch what was going on from here. I was going after him. As we were reaching the end of the duct, I stared at a shiny, orange light right in front of us, as if somebody would have set up hundreds of lights. When we stepped out of the duct, we glanced the dining area: the kitchen was on fire, as it was spreading table by table, carpet by carpet, decorations by decorations. That catastrophic scene brought back in my mind everything I had to go through before the factory came down. I started feeling a headache; I pressed my head with my paws.
"Freddy, look!" Bonnie yelled right to my ear while pointing to the restaurant's entrance.
In the bottom of that area I could see the front door being forced like somebody was trying to kick it down.
"You said Mangle is used to go out to take some air at nights, didn't you?" he asked worried.
It was true, so it was her the one kicking the door.
"Right, let's go." I placed my paw on Bonnie's back and walked him towards it.
We left the gallery through a hatch in the wall that led to the darkest tables, but not enough for people to not sit them. This fire was in charge of turning them into coal. When we were half the way I could tell how hot the air was, as trying to breathe was harder for all the smoke that was coming from the kitchen. I covered my mouth to stop breathing what made me cough a lot. Bonnie couldn't bear it either.
Before I could reach the door, Mangle had already taken it down with her foot. She remained steady while staring at us and at all the catastrophe behind us, which was making the place hotter and stuffier.
"What happened!?" she exclaimed as she walked in a little more.
"We don't know: we just were in the Breaker Room when we noticed a smell like something was—" Bonnie was explaining.
So then Mangle froze as soon as she saw some spot in the kitchen: the Lost and Found room next to it.
"Who left the door opened of that room?" she whispered a little loud still with her back at us, and then she screamed, "WHO LEFT THAT DOOR OPENED!?"
The haste of doing something to cease the fire was unbearable, but Mangle's desperation was another issue needed to solve. Both of those thoughts wouldn't let us move a single muscle.
"Well…" Bonnie was trying to explain himself, "it's just that I told Freddy that I was gonna find a blanket or something for the night."
"Yes! But why in hell did you leave the door opened!?" Her voice sounded sore, like she wasn't able to raise her voice more.
Bonnie's ears were lower than any other time. I could feel he was feeling so upset. Did he start it? Mangle then vanished the anger off her face and froze like she got turned off. Afterwards, we heard many tables and chairs falling and rolling over the floor in the corner across from us; it was Baby, who had her eyes red and hobbled towards us with her arms stretched all the way forward. She wasn't so fast, but when Mangle realized about her. She seemed to be set free from that short trance.
"Nevermind. We gotta get out of here, now!" She came to be behind us and pushed us to go back to Baby's gallery, right next to Baby.
"Where are we goin'?" I asked without thinking.
"We're going to FunTime Foxy's gallery: there's a ladder that'll get us out by a hatch in the roof! We'll get there before them!"
"Before them?"
"Hurry up!" She turned her head to see that Baby started heading towards us faster; her head never stopped staring at us. "Shit!"
"Get in, get in!" She guided us to the narrow way without fire to the gallery. She didn't get in.
Before I could get into it I turned back to see her grabbing Baby by her shoulders and throwing her onto the kitchen on fire. That didn't do anything to stop her, because, after being thrown, we could still see her standing in the midst of the flames with the same zombie-like posture she had some seconds ago. Coaly stains seemed to bloom on her hard skin. The paint in her face was melting down and dripping.
"Let's get out of here! Hurry!" She didn't keep the fight up, but instead went with us inside the gallery.
"Get in now!"
I let Bonnie be the first one getting into the duct, and then it would be me and Mangle; she was in a protecting posture way more experimented than mine. I couldn't be able to protect her. Before I could get my head into it, I heard someone yelling close to the kitchen, a hoarse voice.
"Guys! Wait for me!"
It was the Cupcake, who came out jumping from a spot still without fire.
"It's the Cupcake!" I told Mangle, who also saw him outside the gallery.
"Cupcake! Come here quick, we gotta go now!
He seemed to be about to black out, his way to jump was slowing down. For sure that wasn't gonna be enough for him to make it all the way here before the fire speaded along his path.
"I have to get him." I got back up and opened the hatch.
"Freddy, no!" Mangle exclaimed.
When I stepped out of the gallery I suffocated myself with that thick, hot smoke overhead; now the fire was right next to me. It was hard for me to peer the Cupcake, it didn't matter how many times I moved my head side to side, I couldn't see him. After some minutes I could see him just steady a few steps from me. He was coughing while looking at me with half-opened eyes, as his whole structure turned darker because of the smoke. When I saw him I knew I had to run and fetch him, but as soon as I was willing to take my first pace, Baby emerged from the flames, close enough to catch me in case I ran towards him. I thought I was gonna make it, but I was wrong since Baby didn't see him on the floor; with a firm pace, she stepped over the Cupcake, destroying him into pieces. One of his eyes rolled until my feet. I felt my head about to explode, this hot air wasn't enough for me. My chest started hurting like fucking hell.
"Freddy, let's get out of here!" Mangle sounded like she didn't watch what just happened.
When I got rid of those feelings, I saw Baby was a few inches to get me. Mangle pulled me away from her back into the duct. The last thing I saw about her was the way she was stabbing her gallery with her stained hands, staring at us with empty, red eyes.
I crawled over it as those heinous pictures were showing up in my mind. I couldn't think clearly, I just didn't understand why Mangle felt nothing by seeing him dead. Why didn't she feel anything!? If it wouldn't have been for that cupcake, I hadn't ever gotten my memories back! I got out of the duct to see Bonnie standing in the middle of the control room worried. He startled when he saw my eyes full of tears.
"Freddy, what is it?" He came to help me up, "why are you crying?"
Mangle also stepped out of the duct.
"Keep moving, guys, the way out is over here!" She walked to the duct that led to FunTime Foxy's gallery.
She was about to leave, but refrained when she saw I disobeyed; I stood next to Bonnie just staring down at nowhere. He hugged my arm as he stared at Mangle.
"Hey, didn't you hear me? LET'S GO!" she exclaimed in my face.
"So you didn't feel anything for him?" I said with no voice.
"What?"
"You know who I'm talking about. You never liked him, did you?" Then I stood right before her. "You wanted us to get away without him."
"Freddy, I didn't know he was in the kitchen, if I would've known it before, then I—"
"You're lying!" I hollered as I felt my blood burning. "I could've saved him if you'd never told us to get into the duct! We could have saved him!"
Then we all heard Baby had crashed her gallery's crystal, as many metal things were falling onto the floor over there.
"Freddy, we cannot talk about that right now, we have to go!" She grabbed my arm and yanked me towards the duct, but she couldn't even move me.
"Why is she after us anyway?" Bonnie asked in fear.
"They're programmed to get us out of here in case they detect fire around, but if they catch us they're gonna force us to leave by the way on fire; they'll kill us, that's why we have to get out of here now!" She tried to move me harder.
"So that's the reason why you wanted Bonnie and me to leave to that restaurant in Quebec, isn't it? You actually never wanted us to have a good life, you wanted to get rid of us. HOW COULD I EVER TRUSTED YOU!?"
When I screamed at her she slapped my face. The three of us remained frozen inside an atmosphere full of smoke and metal pieces falling down. No voices.
"Listen! If we decide to just sit and cry for those who are down, then nobody is going to leave to tell the story. You can't just fail and give up because one of ours didn't make it, you must look forward and keep trying to save the ones that are still with you!" We could hear Baby had already gotten into the duct. "I had no idea that he was in the kitchen, I had no way to know that. There could have been thousands of cases in which he could have survived, but it was not like that. We're still capable of scaping, so let's go! Unless you want to leave behind your mates." She walked back to the duct.
I glanced at Bonnie after her words; his hopeful and lovely eyes were excepting me to understand what she meant. Bonnie and Mangle were of my kind, and so was the Cupcake. The chance to save him wasn't a success, but it still could be for the two of them.
"Let's get out of here!" I told Bonnie, and then he drew a brave smile in his face. We both got out by the duct.
When the three of us were outside the control room, Mangle pointed for us at the exit ladder, which was right next to the parts and service room.
"Come on, we're almost there." She stopped in a sudden as soon as Ballora came out of that room. "Oh shit!"
It was the first time I saw Ballora without her dancing position, but now she had Baby's. Mangle tried to make us walk backwards to get away from her, but Baby was already inside the control room hitting the crystals to get free. They were tough, but not enough to be considered 'unbreakable'. As Baby tried to get out of the control room, the fire started to spread around by the floor thanks to some oil her body dripped all the way here. We were surrounded, if we let one of them catch us, then we would be doomed. Mangle then sat off running towards Ballora to try and throw her over Baby. He couldn't make it, for she was way taller than Mangle. I knew I had to help her out to get her out of the way, so I ran towards her and try to push her too. Bonnie came behind me to help. With all our strength we got to push her onto the control room, though that destroyed the crystals. When she was on the floor, the buttons that made electric shock got broken and got in contact with the fire. For some reason I don't understand the control room exploded with Baby and Ballora inside. The three of us got on our knees for the way the ground quaked, but soon we got back up and climb the ladder.
"Quick! That's not gonna keep them for so long!"
She was right. As Bonnie was the first one climbing the ladder, we could peer Baby and Ballora rising from the flames with black, melted faces coming back towards us; this time faster. Anyone could see now their endoskeletons.
"Hurry up!" Mangle exclaimed.
I climbed the ladder while Bonnie was still going up; this place was too high, so we had to climb up for way too long. I was on it, and then Mangle did before those monsters could get her. It looked like we had finally make it; as soon as they saw nobody was around in the floor, they stopped chasing, they just stood there while staring at the ladder as the fire grew through the oil spread. This whole place was now orange and with black smoke, we couldn't stay here another minute.
"Almost there!" Bonnie exclaimed when he was about to reach the ceiling.
When he opened up the hatch we could see the black sky with stars again. Lucky for us there were no humans around, that would give us a chance to get out and hide anywhere we could. But, in the moment Bonnie went back up, the ladder started getting loose from the wall. Slowly the three of us were about to fall onto the flames.
"We're going down!" I yelled.
This was it, 'cause the ladder kept coming off the wall. Then I heard Mangle talking to me from under me.
"Freddy." Her voice was sweet. "Freddy."
"Mangle, we're gonna fall!" I screamed at her in fright.
"No, you're not, you are going to make it."
"You mean we are gonna make it. We better hurry up! Come on, Bonnie!"
"Yeah, it's just that…!"
When he climbed a little more the ladder came looser, as it was harder for us to cling onto it for how tilted it was. I felt so hopeless, I had no idea of what to do.
"Freddy."
I looked at Mangle all freaked out, but then I studied her face; she was happy, there were tears coming out of her eyes though. I got puzzled for that reaction, although it kinda ceased my stress.
"Mangle, what's wrong?" I asked her with a normal tone of voice.
And then she took out of her back a rolled paper and raised it to me. I took it confused.
"What is this?"
"What you'll need to get to L’enfant gâté."
"But… Mangle… what are you talking about?"
"Please, Freddy, take good care of my Bruno. Tell him that I love him."
"Mangle?" My tears flew back out of my eyes.
So now her smiled was getting farther from me as if she would have fallen into a pit full of flames. She held that beautiful smile until the fire covered it. Baby and Ballora walked to her to try and lift the corpse.
"MANGLE!" I hollered my heart out.
Nobody heard me: she wasn't with us anymore.
"Freddy, come on!" Bonnie exclaimed about to leave the restaurant.
I couldn't keep going, I felt like I had to let go of the ladder too and live her destiny. I thought that was my duty, but then I remembered what she said in the control room. That was Mangle, the one who wanted me to be the guide throughout the journey towards tomorrow. I wasn't willing to let her down, so I climbed back up. Bonnie was already outside with one hand inside to help me out.
Before I grabbed his hand, I could see some kind of white cloud among the black, suffocating smoke; suddenly it took the shape of a little, blond girl with two pony tails. She was looking at us while smiling. Bonnie and I stared at it in awe. Then she faded away.
[🌼] ------------------- |•| ------------------- [🌼]