*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧—chapter twenty-nine: the breaker room
December 6, 1993
MICHAEL STARTED TO REGRET EVER TAKING UP WILLIAM'S OFFER TO WORK AT CIRCUS BABY'S. This place wasn't all too friendly and welcoming. The other places were more inviting and homey, but this wasn't that.
He stands uncomfortably in one of the four corners of the elevator, Eva opposite him. They're both staring at each other, one single thought on their minds:
What if we can't free Mum and Lizzie?
"Welcome back for another night of intellectual stimulation, pivotal career choices, and self-reflection on past mistakes." Ah, yes. That's totally what these nights are about. Thank you, HandUnit. "We're committed to creating a unique and fulfilling work experience. One part of that commitment is ensuring that you don't get tired of the voice that you're hearing right now." The yellow keypad retracts from the wall and sits in front of Michael. "Using the keypad below, select a new companion voice. For male, press 1. For female, press 2. For text only, press 3. For other options, press 4."
"There's no numbers on the keypad," Michael sighs, his lips pressed to a thin line as he stares at the yellow device that is still glitching out in front of his face, just like yesterday. He goes to press a button, hoping to find a way to get numbers, only for the keypad to do exactly what it did yesterday when he pressed the screen: seven bright green dots and an error.
"It seems that you had some trouble with the keypad—I see what you are trying to type, and I will autocorrect it for you. Thank you for choosing: Angsty Teen." The keypad flips down, the metal arm retracting back into the wall.
There's silence that fills the elevator.
"What's Angsty Teen going to sound like?" Eva asks, suddenly amused.
"Probably a lot more annoying than this bloody default voice for HandUnit, my God..." Michael mutters, shaking his head.
The buzzer goes off, the same one for alerting you the elevator was stopping soon. It jerks to a stop and the door opens. Michael stares at the vent warily. Why would he ever want to go in there again? Eva's about to lead the way when the voice option for HandUnit—Angsty Teen—starts speaking,
"The elevator's stopped. You know the routine. Get out now, or... whatever. Stay here if you want." The light turns off, as does the fan. Then there's silence.
Michael huffs. He had no choice but to follow Eva.
"So, funny story," the Angsty Teen HandUnit voice says once the two young adult siblings start crawling through the vent shaft, "a dead body was found in this vent once. M'kay, so, not that funny. But, it's a story."
"Why is this voice an option?" Eva questions, crawling faster so she wouldn't have to hear the thing's voice anymore if it were to start talking again while they were in the vent. She climbs out of the vent, the motion sensor triggering immediately. She groans. HandUnit was going to start talking again.
Michael climbs out after her and quickly walks over to the button panel for the Ballora Gallery, wanting to get started with the tasks right away before HandUnit—
"Okay, let's start with your nightly chores. You should check on Ballora and make sure shes on her stage. But... whatever." Eva presses the button this time, even though Michael had been closer. Michael nearly jumps out of his skin upon seeing Ballora's shadow so close to the window. "Huh, I guess Ballora has better things to do. Let's zap her! That should be fun."
Eva backs up, frowning, as she lets Michael do the next part. He presses the red button, shocking the ballerina animatronic. Then, he presses the blue button. The Ballora Gallery lights up. But then there's a strange noise, garbling, in the air.
They both cover their ears, but the noise stops soon after. There's a beat of silence before HandUnit speaks again,
"Let's check on Funtime Foxy. Make sure he's ready for showtime tomorrow."
He presses the blue button for the Funtime Auditorium. It lights up. Funtime Foxy's shadow is near the window.
"Great... Great... Great..."
"What the fuck?" Michael backs away from the window and the button panel.
"There seems to have been a problem with the voice synthesizer. Default settings have been restored. Please proceed through the vent ahead of you to Circus Baby's Auditorium." Oh, great. HandUnit's default voice was back.
Michael shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath. He opens them again and heads into the vent, Eva following him.
"Motion trigger: Circus Gallery vent."
They made this crawl quick, and both of them were getting tired by the time they entered the Circus Gallery module.
"Circus Baby had a busy day today. Let's check the light and make sure she's in proper working order." Michael presses the blue button. Just like yesterday, he can't see into the Gallery. "Oh, Circus Baby! We aren't here to play hide and seek. Let's encourage Baby to come out of hiding with a controlled shock."
Michael presses the red button, but the shock never comes. An error noises emits from the mechanism.
"Let's try another controlled shock."
Michael tries pressing the button again. Same results. Nothing happens but the error noise.
"There seems to be a power malfunction that is affecting our ability to properly motivate Baby. Please stand by while I reboot the system. I will be offline momentarily during this process. Various other systems may be offline as well, such as security doors, vent locks, and oxygen."
"You gotta be fucking kidding me—"
"Commencing system restart."
All the power shuts off and both Michael and Eva are submerged in darkness.
"Motion trigger: entryway vent," comes the female voice for when the vents motion triggers went off. "Funtime Auditorium maintenance vent opened. Ballora Gallery maintenance vent opened."
There's the sound of something crawling, probably in one of the vents, and Michael panics, going over to Eva and holding onto her arm in fear. She remained calm, unlike him.
"I don't recognize you. You are new," a new voice says. Michael's eyes widen. What that Baby speaking? "I remember this... scenario. However, it's a strange thing to want to do, to come here. I'm curious what events would lead people to want to spend their nights in a place like this, willingly."
Michael inhales sharply, still clinging onto Eva. He was terrified.
"Mike, you'll be okay. I'm right here. You're okay. Remember the promise? I'm here to keep you safe. You're okay," she says softly. She was trying to be reassuring, but it wasn't really working. It seemed to only make his panicking worsen. As did Baby's speech, which had started up again once Eva was done talking to Michael,
"Maybe curiosity, maybe ignorance. There is a space under the desk. Someone before you crafted it into a hiding place and it worked for him. I recommend that you hurry though. You will be safe there. Just try not to make eye contact. It will be over soon. They will lose interest."
"Dear, God, she's talking about the Bidybabs," Michael said quietly, bending down and feeling for the crawlspace under the desk. His hand came in contact with the handle and he forced it open, the sheet of metal groaning in protest.
Eva goes in first, pressing her body against the left side as Michael sit to her right, pulling the shutter closed. It was a tight fit, considering it was made to hide one person to keep them safe.
There were several holes in the shutter, each varying in size.
"Who do you think created the crawlspace?" Eva whispers.
Michael looks at her and raises an eyebrow. "Henry, I believe."
"How come?"
"Well, Father must've invited him here at some point, and, uh, he must've got stuck here once and had to hide from the Bidy—"
"There's footsteps," Eva whispers, covering Michael's mouth to silence them.
There was the patter of tiny feet and the sound of voices.
"Hello in there~"
Michael tenses, peering at the shutter as one of the Bidybabs runs a hand across the front of it and then peeks through one of the holes in the shutter.
"Someone is inside."
"Is it the same person?"
Eva quickly glanced toward Michael, whose breathing was quickening yet again when the Bidybabs started knocking on the shutter. Thankfully, it didn't budge.
But then it starts to get forced open, and that's when Michael really starts panicking all over again. He doesn't move from his spot, as he stares, wide-eyed.
Eva leans over him and grabs the shutter, pushing her fingers through the holes, and forcing it closed.
"We always find a way inside."
"She's watching us!" one of the Bidybabs informs the other. "We have to leave now." Michael and Eva can hear hurried footsteps as that Bidybab runs out of the room.
"We'll see you again soon~" The other Bidybab says, before leaving too.
It's quiet now. But only for a few seconds as Baby's voice fills the room, breaking the silence.
"When your guide comes back online, he is going to tell you that he was unsuccessful, that you must restart the system manually." Just another thing to add to the list of potentially danger tasks that might get me killed, Michael thinks as he pulls open the shutter. "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." Wonderful. Absolutely fucking wonderful.
He climbs out from the crawlspace first, and then helps Eva out. Baby continues speaking,
"The power will be restored shortly. When you crawl through Ballora Gallery, go slowly. She cannot see you, and can only listen to for your movement. When you hear her music becoming louder, she is growing near, listening for you. Wait, and be still." There's static and then HandUnit speaks,
"Thank you for your patience. It seems that the power system cannot be restarted automatically. You will need to restart the system manually. Please return to the primary control module."
The two siblings do as instructed, crawling back through the vent.
"Motion trigger: Circus Gallery vent."
Michael was starting to severely hate motion sensors.
He face-plants into the floor when crawling out of the cent, having forgotten just how close the primary control module had been to this end of the vent. Eva snickers, but helps him up, nonetheless.
"You will now be required to crawl through the Ballora Gallery using the vent to your left to reach the Breaker Room. It is recommended that you stay low to the ground and reach the other side as fast as possible, as to not disturb Ballora. I will deactivate myself momentarily, as to not create an audio disturbance. Deactivating..."
After HandUnit's self-deactivation, the hatch for the vent opens.
"Ballora Gallery maintenance vent opened." The motion triggers voice says as they enter the Ballora Gallery.
It was so dark in here. Michael wasn't even sure which direction was straight. All he could see was about a foot in front of him, but only the white-tiled floor, and nothing else. Why couldn't the lights be on? Ballora can't see shit anyway.
He starts crawling through the room, breathing in shallow breaths. Eva is close behind him, crawling at a slow pace.
They both stop upon hearing Ballora's music, the ballerina animatronic spins into their view, and it takes Michael every ounce of his body not to move an inch. He can feel his heart racing in his chest, hear the blood pounding in his ears.
Ballora's music recedes.
The two continue crawling, stopping and staying silent whenever the animatronic was near, until they reached the Breaker Room.
Michael lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding, leaninh against the now closed door as the motion trigger goes off. He's breathing heavily, glancing about the room as the light flickers. Eva, on the other hand, heads straight to the breaker's controls.
"You may now interface with the breaker control box. Using the interface may disrupt nearby animatronics," as HandUnit speaks, both siblings tense. Funtime Freddy and Bon-Bon appeared in their line of sight, Freddy standing motionless in the corner on some type of stage. "If you feel you are in danger, feel free to disconnect the interface temporarily, until it is safe to reconnect."
Eva grabs the tablet, switching it on. The interface was similar to the camera monitor at Freddy's, Michael noted, peering at the device in his sister's hands.
There's movement in the corner of the room. Eva puts the tablet down, Michael looks up.
Funtime Freddy has activated, his mechanisms whirring as he straightens up. "I-I know you're h-here! I can s-see you in the d-dark! Come on o-out! We can play h-hide and seek!"
"No, thank you," Michael mutters, taking the tablet from off of the panel in front of Eva. It seemed the main objective here was to restart the systems. Easier said than done.
There's the sound of metal creaking.
Michael, his finger held down on one of the eight buttons for the systems, looks up. Funtime Freddy was standing a few feet away from him and Eva, the animatronic bear's blue eyes staring at him.
Why, exactly, were Funtime Freddy and Bon-Bon here anyway? Weren't they supposed to be back in the Funtime Auditorium with Funtime Foxy?
Eva reaches in front of Michael, pressing a button on the tablet, activating mascot response audio.
"Calm down, and go back to sleep!" Bon-Bon's high-pitched voice echoes through the room as he tries to calm his friend. "No one is here!"
Michael shudders, seeing the white and pink bear move back to his stage in the corner, only to become motionless again. Why did those two's voices have to be so loud and obnoxious? And why did they act like this? Why the hell did Funtime Freddy have a stage in here?!
He looks back down at the tablet, seeing that the power level for the Circus Gallery control module was only at 50%. He holds down the button, watching the number increasing to 100%. But it was taking forever. Funtime Freddy moves again, this time getting closer.
Michaels raises his finger and sets the tablet down again, staring at Freddy. "What do you want?" he snaps at the bear.
"I c-can see you now!" the bear says, tilting his head as he stares back at Michael. "Don't y-you want to p-play?"
"Maybe later, Freddy," Eva suggests, giving the animatronic a forced smile in return. "We're busy."
"Wh-What a party-pooper!" Freddy replies, straightening up.
Eva presses the audio button on the tablet again.
"You're seeing things, silly!" Bon-Bon comments, turning his head to look at Freddy. "Let's go back to our stage!"
It seems like Bon-Bon was trying to help the two siblings, rather than help Freddy kill them.
Michael picks the tablet up again. Maybe this time he could actually get more resets done for the systems. At least, he hoped so.
"I know you're in there somewhere!" Funtime Freddy's voice echoes. When Michael and Eva glance around the room, they can't see him or Bon-Bon. The two animatronics must be hiding in the shadows behind some wires.
"Oh, calm down, I think it was just a mouse!" Bon-Bon retorts, and the sound of creaking metal fills the room as Freddy moves again, back to his spot in the corner.
"I think I can do two resets back to back each time," Michael whispers to Eva, who is staring at Funtime Freddy and Bon-Bon, with an ice-cold look in her grey eyes.
"Then do it," Eva replies, not removing her gaze from the two animatronics in front of her. "Do not do more than two at a time. The longer you look away from them while resetting the power, the closer they get."
Michael nods quickly, now holding down the button for the Funtime Auditorium.
Freddy moves again, this time, standing directly behind the breaker box.
"Well, h-hello again!"
"Shit!" Michael curses, nearly dropping the tablet.
"Don't move," Eva instructs.
Michael holds his breath, looking at Funtime Freddy who still has not decided to move back to his corner. Please say something to him, Bon-Bon, he thinks. Please make him go away—
"Go back to your stage, everything is okay."
Michael sighs when Freddy turns around and goes back to the corner.
He was starting to lose track of time. But before he knew it, HandUnit's voice starts speaking,
"Great job. This completes your tasks for the night. Please proceed back through the Ballora Gallery with care, and we'll see you back here tomorrow."
Michael sighs in relief as Eva takes the tablet from him and sets it down. Looking back at the room, before they take their leave, Funtime Freddy and Bon-Bon are nowhere to be seen.
They head back through he Ballora Gallery, stopping ever so often when they hear Ballora,
"Is someone there?"
They pause.
Had they been crawling too much in shut short time?
They wait for Ballora to stop moving before crawling again. But the animatronic speaks again,
"I can hear someone creeping in my room." There's silence that follows as the two siblings stay still. "Perhaps not."
Michael hurries to the vent shaft and pulls it open quickly, urging Eva to hurry up.
"You're asking for a death wish," Eva hisses as she crawls through the vent.
"How, when murder bots are out to get me like there's a bounty placed on my head?!" Michael retorts, falling face-first onto the tile in the primary control module yet again.
Eva rolls her eyes and heads toward the elevator.
author's note
no one:
mike: *has a panic
attack because of
the funtimes*
eva: *comforts him like
the good sister she is*
also mike: *face-plants*
02.17.22