Story: Below The Surface (WT)
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The games begin as a new Monday arrives. The clocks turn twelve and Charlie posts herself in the office. Above her was a vent that Adam "reminded" her about, but Charlie wasn't told anything about vent in the office. She assumed something will come crawling out of it and she'd need to hide in a locker behind her. Immediately, there's movement on the cameras. Party room corridor just outside Frederick's room. He stood there, as still as a statue. Charlie felt the chill crawl up her spine. It was as if he knew he's being watched.
“Come on, you little prick. Move already.” Charlie stared at the screen a moment longer. Frederick suddenly and sharply looks around like a fox would, then quickly dashes down the corridor. Charlie jolts back and begins scanning the other cameras. Freddy was too fast to be picked up in the other corridors or main rooms. He was just a dark blur moving throughout the already dark establishment and was only noticable in the main arcade and atrium.
“Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.” Charlie grabs her flashlight in a panic and checks down the left corridor. Nothing was coming this way. The echo and reverb of heavy feet and breathing grow louder from the right corridor. Charlie moves to flash her light down it and the fox that came sprinting down with hungry eyes covered them and falls over a trolley. “Ah, my eyes!” he yelled, a strong Irish accent breaking through the reprogrammed American one he was given for his new biomechanical body.
“Beat it, Fred!” Charlie exclaimed before slamming the steel door shut. Freddy would gradually pick himself up and turn to the door. He begins slamming his fists against it, clawing at the steel and creating the uncomfortable screeching sound that made Charlie want to vomit violently. Eventually, he'd leave and Charlie would sigh in relief. She waits to see Freddy in the atrium roaming around curiously. Fuck, that was a little thrilling, Charlie thought. She smiled; something about this was genuinely enjoyable. The Five Nights At Chuck. E Cheese experience brought to life in a place where Charlie experience true traumatizing horror as a child.
She opens the door again and sits back in her chair to look at the screens. The one which previously had static was now just black with a bright red ERROR flashing in the center, the name at the bottom of the monitor still scribbled and worn out. Charlie attempts to fix it using a few methods. Tapping the screen, repositioning it, changing the channels with the side buttons, pushing the cables in further. Nothing worked as a result.
“The fuck is wrong with this monitor?” Charlie sighed in frustration, shaking her head in defeat soon after. Perhaps it was just a spare monitor not connected to any camera in the establishment. Fred begins to charge down the left corridor, clawing the wall as he does. Charlie moves to the door to press the large green button about the size of her fist. It would turn red but the door remained open.
“What the fuck?!” Charlie yelled, pressing the button several more times for it to do nothing. Freddy swings himself in with haunting shriek only to receive a steel baton to the face.
“Stay away!” Charlie yelled as she steps back towards the right door. Freddy growled angrily and turned his attention to the guard. His claws seem to grow in length as did his sharp teeth. His eyes burn brighter and his hunger had become more visible as he licked his upper lip. Charlie whips out her flashlight as he charges at her, flashing him in the eyes again, temporarily stunning him. It was enough time for Charlie to sprint down the corridor, taking any sharp turn she could until she was in the atrium. Fuck, where to hide. Where to hide. Charlie frantically looks around, her lungs burning from the sprint. Her eyes set on a ball pit in the children's soft play area. She makes her way to the large room and dives in to bury herself in the colourful plastic balls. This ball pit is too deep for a toddler. I wouldn't be surprised if children died in this, Charlie thought. She remained there for twenty minutes. Just as she was about to climb out, Freddy enters the room with a growl. His glowing eyes gave the room some light, but not enough to make out every shape. Charlie froze still, forcing her breathing to be shallow and dead quiet.
His tail swayed and his fingers twitch while he walked around, analysing every place he believed an adult could hide. The ball pit is believed to be only a foot deep - too shallow for an adult to hide in - so he passes over it. He looks through the bars of the small climbing spaces and up the stupidly large slides. He'd then go to the long desk, hoping she'd be behind it. He's left disappointed and scoffs in defeat.
“Damnit,” he grunts. With this area carefully searched, Freddy leaves and heads off elsewhere.
Charlie remained still and quiet for the next hour or less, afraid to draw his attention. Once that hour had passed she climbed out as quietly as she could and stretched herself. The footsteps of the fox were absent, so he must be back at his party room, Charlie thought. Charlie reluctantly peeks out of the soft play area to see no giant fox walking around. She'd walk around in the dark now that her eyes have somewhat adjusted to the darkness. The guard moved to the arcade where her feet would be muffled by the carpet. It was deathly silent, so silent that her heart was the only heavy sound she could hear, excluding the quiet ringing in her ear.
Disturbing the silence and tension, an arcade machine suddenly brings itself to life on the other side of the arcade itself. White static lasted a few seconds before playing an 8-bit tune. The screen shone colourful changing light onto the ceiling. Charlie hesitantly moved to the arcade machine. It was The Adventures Of Alice - Part One. The tune was uplifting and loud, but she heard no animatronic growing near. Will he hear this? Charlie stood in front of the machine watching the digital Alice sprite breath in it's 8-bit form. This little sprite was adorable and cute. Charlie remembers trying to play this game, but was unfortunately too small to see the screen properly. She looks left and right to see only darkness. No red eyes or animatronic staring her down. She notices a few quarters sitting against the left of the screen. A sticky note above them read “Play to the end. Collect the red ones and only red.” This will be easy, right?
The sprite was of Alice's old design when she wore a red dress. The grass was green with a few flowers here and there. Alice had a sword that would feed cake to any crying children and take down any tall lanky enemies with freaky red eyes and a wicked smile. Charlie would play through the game and fail three times. On her forth try, the guard would make it further. The background gradually came to a sunset from the midday sunny skies. Alice's smile had faded into a small frown. Many colours seemed to be placements for other people - visitors - in the foreground and background, as if they made the passage for Alice. A large circus-styled tent in the background, engulfed in flames, gradually comes on screen from the right. The joyful music had stopped abruptly a moment before Alice arrived between the visitors. Something about this disturbed Charlie, something was off. No one mentioned this before. This was never the ending to this part. Others claimed the ending was reaching a bright vanilla castle with pink wafer highlights to give the princess a large and colourful cake. This can't be right, Charlie thought.
The sound that played from the machine wasn't 8-bit. Flames roaring as if in the distance. Faint screams and cries, almost inaudible and blending, were also heard. The lack of joyful music is what made the disturbing and unsettling feeling shoot through the roof. Alice drops her sword a few seconds before coming face-to-face with a singular man in a ringmaster outfit. He held what looked like an axe. He also had a wicked smile. The visitors suddenly disappear off screen, completely vanishing. Charlie had collected only the red apples, avoiding any blues and greens. She fed all the children and defeated all the bad guys. Surely this isn't how it ended, right? Charlie went along with it, now curious to know the end of the story. The ringmaster would speak, his voice audible through the speakers in 8-bit form. “P. A. T. H. E. T. I. C.”
“What?” Charlie whispered with confusion plastering her face.
The ringmaster lifts his axe up and charges at Alice. A sudden distorted scream of a girl erupts from the speakers, forcing Charlie to startle.
The screen cuts to black, and a few seconds later, Alice appears in the center. She sits there looking limp and lifeless. Her eyes blacked out and her smile no longer present. She sat there for a few long minutes. Is it finished? Charlie thought. As the question came to mind, the screen asks for her name. Charlie answers and clicks enter. The screen froze for another moment, then her eyes reveal two tiny red dots in the middle of the black. The screen begins to glitch and flicker between old footage of previous establishments, newspapers, headlines. Footage never seen before of some place dark and red with pipes along the walls and steam in the air. The screen pauses on a singular photo of a previous employee. He had that same wicked smile. His eyes had been painted messily in black ink that had crawled down his cheeks. It was the man from her nightmare. The one that touched her shoulder. The one that kneeled down beside her. His smile would curve upwards disturbingly, then the screen would cut to black and the machine would shut off completely.
Charlie is left in eerie silence again. Tears stream down her cheeks and her breath had fallen weak, but her heart battered against her chest. What the fuck was that? She takes a step back. She felt gross and disgusting now that she's been reminded of that man from her past. He was just a staff member, he didn't seem off or evil, but this game says otherwise. Charlie couldn't help but wonder what he'd done. Was he the man Alice intended to kill eight years ago? Is that why she malfunctioned mid performance?
Freddy storms into the room with a loud growl and heads straight to the arcade machine Charlie is near. She had to think fast. He came from one side of the arcades, so Charlie moved away as quietly as she could and took one of the remaining quarters that was left on the machine. Freddy stood there, scanning around for any sign of disturbance.
“I know you're in here,” he said, teasingly.
As Charlie hid behind some machines, she looked to a set far from herself and the entrance to the arcade. Perfect. She launches a coin in that direction and it clinks off a glass screen. Freddy sharply turned his head and darted to those machines. Charlie took this chance to stealthily leave and go around the outside of the atrium until she was in the staff corridors.
She walked down them with only the arcade on her mind. Was that something she wasn't supposed to see? Was it a secret Alice had buried deep within the game? Maybe it was a delusion caused by paranoia and the nightmare. That man - why was he shown like that? What was the point of that game? What does it mean, if anything at all?
Charlie enters her office and drops herself into the seat. She takes her phone from the desk, with hands that tremble, to see missed calls from Adam. Why is he up at this time? He called forty minutes ago, so Charlie assumed he'd be fast asleep now. Maybe he's checking up on her. She had to be sure. Maybe he can provide answers. She calls him back, waiting for a brief moment before he answers.
“Charlie? Is this you or is it Alice? A stupid teen maybe?” Adam asks, clearly wide awake and on some sort of sugar rush, too.
“It's me, Charlie. Why did you call?”
Adam chuckles. “To check up on you. I thought they had killed you considering you didn't answer my three calls. What were you doing?”
Charlie sighs and leans back, looking left and right to the doors. “Freddy attacked. I managed to keep him out the first time but the left door wouldn't close the second. I fortunately managed to blind him and run out to the atrium and hide.”
Adam nods and moves to his window, looking in the direction of the building. “Are you back in your office now?”
“Yeah. Fred's in one of the arcades now. I moved there so my feet would be quieter but... One of the arcades turned itself on. The Adventures Of Alice Part One. There was a post-it and a few quarters sitting against the screen. It said I should play the game to the end and only collect red apples.”
“Did you?” Adam asks, reluctantly.
“Yeah, but the game ended... Disturbingly. Like, the music cut completely. There was a burning circus. Alice was frowning. Visitors in the game cried and screamed but it wasn't the 8-bit sound. Then a ringmaster character audibly spelled out Pathetic before attacking Alice. It's crazy because there was this tormenting scream or something that came right after and then Alice sat there in the middle looking dead and her eyes then lit up with two red dots in the blackness.”
Adam chuckles, awkwardly. He now sounded genuinely confused. “Is that all?”
“No,” Charlie replied. “It then asked for my name and I put my name in and all, then it started going bat shit crazy. The screen started showing old footage from the building, a location I've never seen before, headlines stretching back to the seventies or something and then this... Guy.”
“What guy?” Adam asks as he sits on his bed. “Do you know this guy or something?”
“Not personally, but I've seen him before. Eight years ago, he worked here, I think. I remember him kneeling beside me and telling me something. Alice got all weird when he did, but when he said whatever it was, she... Malfunctioned.”
“Oh shit, you where there that day?!” Adam exclaimed, shocked and amazed. “You have some serious history with that place. What happened with Alice, though? I was never told.”
Charlie sighed, glancing at the monitors. Freddy had returned to his room and deactivated. Stay there, please. She'd shift in her seat and continue. “They quickly shocked her before she could touch me. That guy, I don't know what happened with him.”
Adam remained silent for a moment, dwelling on his current theory. “What if,” he begins, reluctantly. “Alice wasn't going for you?” he suggests.
“What do you mean? She was clearly going for me. She was watching me throughout the that entire performance. She waved at me, kept her eyes on me and only me.”
Adam sighed. “You were a child, Charlie. You probably saw it as her attacking you because you're young brain was terrified and confused. Did she watch you during other performances?”
“Yes?”
“And did she attack you then?”
“No,” Charlie hesitates. “I think you're right. That was the only time she attacked and it was when that guy showed- Adam, do you think she was going for him?”
“If I remember correctly, she did tell him to leave you alone... If it was a malfunction, maybe she thought he was a danger to you and tried protecting you, but... Her plates shouldn't have opened and she shouldn't have made that noise and spazz out. That's not part of her security program. Not in that model, anyway.”
Charlie nods, slowly. “Right, well... I best get back to work. Well ask Alice more about this tomorrow or something. Goodnight, dude.”
“Stay safe, Charlie.”