The heat was overbearing, I felt like I was floating inside my own body.
My head pounded, and each throb through my skull ached, and echoed through me like a radar.
Coming to, I was met with a familiar buzz of the light above me, blinding me as my vision cleared.
I groggily sat up, my world felt slurred and too smooth, like butter.
All the blood rushed up to my head as I attempted to stand, and fell back over, reeling in pain and attempting to catch myself, only to cry out in anguish as my wrist crumbled under all the pressure and weight upon it.
I curled up in a ball, gripping my throbbing wrist and sobbing, wet tears seeping over my cheeks and falling onto the hard tile floor.
I laid there for minutes, silently crying and trying to recollect myself.
What had even happened?
I could've sworn that just minutes- no— hours ago that I was fighting that...t-that thing...
My head whipped around the room, searching for any potential threat, only to see nothing.
I shakily sighed, sniffling whilst trying to breath in through my nose. God, I was a mess... I rubbed my temple with my good hand and carefully tried to get up, my headache still telling me to lay right back down.
Sweat formed near my hairline as I almost threw up. I fell back but instead caught some boxes, knocking them over in the process.
I heard running from down the hallway. I gasped, thinking that thing was going to be standing in the doorway but instead, it was Laurence.
He looked me over, his brows furrowing.
He rushed and knelt next to me, instinctively reaching for my face and cupping it, examining the bruises.
"Y/n...w-what... what happened?" He said, rubbing his thumb against a nasty mark on my cheek.
I sniffled, the tears starting to build up behind my eyes again.
"T-There was this p-power outage and I-" My voice was shaky and my lip quivered.
"T-There was this thing-"
He cut me off, shushing me and giving me a reassuring smile.
"Look, it's all going to be alright. I'll get you some help, okay?"
He said, lacing his arm around mine for support.
I nodded, swallowing a lump in my throat and following him out into the hallway.
I quickly gazed at that old door, which was now adjacent. I gasped and frantically looked at Laurence, my hand trembled as I pointed at the door.
He frowned, and looked in the direction that I was pointing at.
"Y/n...What's wrong?"
I bit my lip and rested my shoulder against the wall.
"L-Last night I was attacked and-" I swallowed. "Well at least I think I was— b-but there was this thing and it was in there..."
A panicked look flashed across Laurences face, he turned to me.
"Why were you in there?" He said, in a very monotone voice.
"Well it said parts and services, and I needed to find a fuse box..." I shrugged. "There was one in there anyways, so what's ur point?"
I sounded a bit more stressed now, obviously wondering why he was questioning such a thing at a time like this.
He sighed, and started walking towards the door.
"L-Laurence wait! What're you doing?!"
He pivoted and looked at me.
"Checking it out obviously? Stay here."
My mouth opened once again to say something but he was already inside, his flashlight on as he searched.
About a minute later he emerged, a blank look plastered across his face.
He shrugged and walked back over to me.
"Nothing in there. You sure some boxes just didn't fall on you and that's why you're so...beat up?"
My brows knitted together.
If I was being 100% honest I couldn't exactly remember what happened last night, but I know what I saw, and a bunch of boxes could not have roughed me up this much.
.
.
Laurence and I sat in his car as he drove down the road. We had agreed that I would let him patch me up, despite my stubborn denial.
We had been silent for the majority of the ride, before I finally spoke up.
"How did you find me?"
He kept his eyes ahead of him, speaking nonchalantly.
"At around 7 I always come in for coffee, do my morning rounds...get the place cleaned up."
He shrugged, before continuing; side eying me.
"That was when I heard you knocking over all those boxes back at the office. It gave me quite the heart attack, y'know."
I squeezed my two hands together, my face growing slightly red.
"What even happened, anyways?" He said, switching his turn signal on.
"If i'm being honest...I'm not sure..." I said, pushing back my hair and out of my face.
"I could've sworn...I could've sworn there was something there- and it attacked me."
I made a point by showing him my bruised wrist.
"Do you think this just naturally happens?!"
He sighed, and spun the steering wheel as he made a turn.
"Obviously it doesn't, but the only other thing that was with you in the building would be the animatronics and well— they're dumber than horse shit. They couldn't have caused that."
He made a good point, and i'll admit I started having doubts myself, too.
"Maybe it was just a stack of boxes..." I mumbled, peering down at my lap.
.
.
Laurence pulled into a drugstore parking lot, telling me to wait in the car as he went to get medical supplies.
Sure enough, 5 minutes later he emerged with a bag full of bandages, rubbing alcohol, and disinfecting wipes.
As he cleaned and bandaged my wounds, I started to realize just how considerate Laurence really was.
Behind that tough guy act, I saw someone who actually cared.
Laurence took a wipe and held it up to my cheek, rubbing the purple area and peering into my eyes.
I stared back, mesmerized.
Our moment came to an end when he pulled away, throwing the remaining supplies into the backseat, and buckling his seatbelt again.
"Well, I think that should do it." He said, pulling out.
.
.
That night at home I laid in bed, cradling my wrist, which was now adorned with cloth bandages and cute stickers that I had found in my desk cupboards.
Me and Laurence had both decided that I should take a day off or two to heal up, and that he would cover my shifts while I was gone.
I really had no way of repaying him, except for promising ice cream at a nearby parlor.
As for what happened last night...
The thought just made me shiver.
I was caught between my own reality and a dream, not being able to tell which was which.
Not knowing if it was just a stack of boxes or a 7 foot tall rabbit thing that had decided to brutally twist my wrist until it popped out of its socket, (which Laurence was for some reason skilled in putting back into place.)
I decided that the day I went back I would find and get even with whatever did that, even if it didn't exist.
There was one thing I hated more than the dark, or creepy animatronics.
It was the fear of fear itself.