You popped out of the vent shaft somewhere near the back of the main atrium, kicking the metal grate across the tile floor before wrestling your way to your feet. You held your breath for a few moments after your feet made contact with the ground.
No more music boxes. No more lullabies. It was completely and utterly silent. And you were completely and utterly alone.
You crossed your arms over the front of Monty's t-shirt, suddenly feeling extremely exposed in the vast atrium. Paranoia filled you up as you stepped toward the main stage, throwing your head in every direction to make sure you weren't being followed. Sure, Monty would have probably (unintentionally) blabbed to Vanessa at some point about your whereabouts, but was that any reason to run away from the safe, quiet darkness of the golf course?
Yes.
You were exhausted and lost and hungry. The longer you stared out across the room at the glowing El Chip's sign, the less you cared about the gnarly case of food poisoning it would absolutely have given you.
After climbing up onto the dim stage, you turned to look out over the entire room. A few security bots were roaming around near the entrance of the food court, but as far as you could tell there was no Monty, no Chica, and certainly no Roxy. You were in the clear.
Instinctively, you reached up to radio Freddy with your headset before remembering that, like the shirt you were wearing, Monty had torn your only form of communication to shreds.
"New plan," you whispered. It always made you feel better to pretend someone was there with you to hear all of your nonsense rambling. "Find Freddy, get the hell outta dodge. No more vents. Absolutely no more–"
Your legs wobbled as a tremor shook the stage below your feet. The fog machines hidden along the edges of the stage whirred to life and cool gray vapors tickled your feet. Loud, booming music rose up from the speakers and flashing neon lights obscured your vision past the edge of the tall stage.
Shielding your face from the light, you blinked up at the control booth tucked into the mezzanine only to catch sight of the same white rabbit Gregory pointed out to you only an hour or so before.
As soon as you lifted your head, you locked eyes with Vanny's beady plastic ones and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they'd seen you. Satisfied by this, they lifted their comically large paw off of the activation button in a short wave before skipping off underneath the protective veil of shadows, eagerly leaving you to deal with whatever mess they just started.
"ARE YOU FUCKING JOKING?" You shouted, shooting them the finger with both hands as you fought to keep your balance on the vibrating black tile floor. You started to chase after Vanny, no concrete plan in mind beyond the fantasy of punching their stupid black button nose until it caved into their mask. One careful foot in front of the other, it only took three steps before you realized that not only had Vanny activated the music and lights, but the hologram performance as well.
Perfect. Absolutely fucking perfect.
Towering glowing figures materialized before your eyes. Chica, Monty, Roxy, and Freddy in all of their glitzy glamrock glory. They stood like massive phantoms with the tops of their heads nearly grazing the glass atrium roof.
The hologram of Chica sprouted up in front of you, her electric guitar swooping low and threatening to knock you off of your feet. It all looked so real up close, nothing like it did from the audience. You would have been totally mesmerized if you weren't just as equally terrified.
The music warped and the lights dimmed, reminding you that it wouldn't be long until you were plunged into darkness at the start of the new hour. Roxy's hologram jumped into your line of sight and you had to crane your neck to watch her perform her keytar solo. She only got about halfway through the chorus when the electricity wavered again and you caught sight of the figure standing just on the other side of the mirage.
The real Roxy paraded through her hologram and reduced it to a waterfall of shimmering blue pixels. Her green LED eyes were locked straight onto you, tail swooping low to the ground like a panther ready to pounce.
You raised your arms in defense, searching for an out and spotting the stage-lowering button just behind hologram-Freddy's heel. "Hey there, rockstar..." you laughed nervously, but either the stage lights were messing with her senses or she just didn't care to acknowledge your voice.
Loud rock music shook the stage floor as Roxy lunged, swiping her claws at your chest. You ducked low and danced around the blinding lights, thanking whatever miracle that allowed you to turn away unscathed...or so you thought.
The sleeve of Monty's shirt slipped down your elbow and you quickly glanced down to see a red patch blooming over your white uniform sleeve. Roxy managed to nick you in the arm. Bad. So bad, in fact, that the only reason you weren't totally freaking out was the lethal level of pure adrenaline currently coursing through your veins.
An alarming numbness crept over your face and you raised your hand to clutch the fresh wound on your arm. Hot blood was already pooling against your palm and you didn't dare to look down and catch a glimpse of the real damage. Your eyebrows furrowed. Why couldn't you feel anything?
There was another lull in the music as the band anticipated an applause that would never come. Out of the corner of your eye, you caught sight of those bulky spotlights that were pointed straight up at the Freddy hologram. Roxy growled behind you, lowering herself close to the ground for a second attack. If you were going to make a move to defend yourself, it needed to happen now.
Willing yourself not to think of all the ways this could end badly, you shielded your eyes from the white light and ran full speed toward the edge of the stage. You felt the vibrations of Roxy's footsteps from meters away as she drew closer and closer. Just when you thought she might finally snag her claws into the flesh of your spine, you slid headfirst across the floor and pulled yourself up behind the heavy base of the spotlight before aiming it straight at her glowing emerald eyes.
Roxy halted immediately in front of the light and held up her claws to protect her vision, but the damage had already been done. Her temporary blindness gave you the courage to run right past her and slam your hand into the bright red button in the center of the floor.
The sound of the circular platform being lowered below the stage made her throw her head back in search of her potential victim. Her nose prodded high into the empty, foggy air as she took several investigated sniffs in your general direction.
"Sorry, Rox!" you called, not knowing if she would be able to hear you above the music and not really sure it was a good thing if she did.
The last thing you saw as your view of the stage dwindled was her lavender-colored snout. "(Y...Y/N)?" Roxy howled. But you were long gone.
The descent into the basement was quick and you reached the bottom of the lift with a fierce jolt. Your vision was beginning to blur and a dotted trail of blood followed you as you began shuffling toward the parts and service room. The blissful numbness washed away with every step you took away from the elevator. You had no idea where anyone was but you could have sworn that Freddy said something about heading this way before Monty broke your headset into a million little pieces. Besides, there was always a spare headset lying around the Parts and Services department. Whether or not it was actually functioning was the only question.
Sure enough, after walking in one direction long enough you came upon a room you'd never seen before. It had tall, vaulted ceilings and reeked of sterilized equipment and motor oil. In the center of it all was a small operating room concealed in glass, and on the operating table was Freddy.
Correction. On the operating table was a very headless Freddy.
You must've gasped out loud because Gregory whipped his head around and abandoned the device he'd been fiddling with to rush over and start tugging on the hem of your shirt. "(Y/N)! Freddy and I thought you were dead!"
"Getting there," you groaned, clutching your hand tighter around your opposite arm. It was hard to look away from Freddy in his current condition. It was one thing to see him powered off at the end of the workday, but it was something else completely to watch his eyelids droop over his flickering pupils completely detached from the rest of his body. You always wondered what really happened when an animatronic character got disassembled.
Now you knew.
"Please, you have to help him," Gregory pleaded. "Vanny's trying to get me and Freddy's the only one who knows where the exits are and–"
"—Shhhh," you interrupted, clutching your temples. It was safe to say that all of your customer service energy had been used up while running for your life. "Gregory, I am so so proud of you for holding in your freak-out until this very second but everyone needs to shut up so I can think properly."
You had friends who worked in maintenance and as of tonight, there were at least ten minutes of animatronic hardware training under your belt. How hard could it be to stick his head back on? You might even get a raise out of this.
After instructing Gregory to seal you inside of the glass cylinder along with Freddy, you manually finished the repair process that he'd already (somehow) started using the keypad outside.
It was an awkward process trying to get into a suitable position for the job and you ended up half-straddling Freddy's chrome torso as you fumbled with the colored wires that spilled from his throat valve.
Every so often you had to take breaks and pull away when your head started to feel floaty and you became all too aware of the blood pooling in your sleeve. After a torturous twenty-minute procedure that left your fingertips aching, the protective cylinder hissed open and Freddy's shell whirred to life underneath you.
His dull grey eyes flickered back to life and he beamed down at you, round button ears wiggling in delight once he realized it was you stationed in his lap and not some random maintenance worker.
"Way to go, superstar!" Freddy smiled, flashing you a proud thumbs-up. You mirrored the gesture with a weak smile before losing the strength to hold yourself upright. You were acutely aware of Gregory's surprised shriek and the feeling of Freddy's arms latching around your limp figure before you finally succumbed to your lightheadedness and promptly passed out.
(A/N: Take a shot every time y/n faints. But like actually she's been through a lot she can take a baby nap. spoiler warning we see sunny in the next chapter. I usually lie and say I'm coming back to edit but I'm so tired and this chapter took up all my energy so I'm just gonna leave it at that. It's bad and unedited but you get what you get. Okay byeeeee).