He ventured to the backstage, moving his flashlight around and seeing what's left of the pizzeria. The place was crumbling, the posters were torn away, the walls were stained, the roof was riddled with holes, the floor was damp and the smell of decaying wood was up and about.
At first he was hesitant to split up from Jodi, but he knew that at any given time Springtrap will be arriving, they need to find the puppet fast. He did not know how the puppet can help them but he felt it that she could, given that she was the one who gave new life to his friends.
The shattered tiles crackled the moment he set foot on them, making his way deeper into the darkness until it was only his flashlight was the source of light. He then found a shelf with a lot of stuff toys and Fazbear merchandise on it, all of them were in either eaten away by rats or covered in cobwebs and dust.
The plywood on the shelf's backside was partially destroyed, most likely because of the pests. Upon closer inspection, he noticed through the holes that the wall behind the shelf did not match the color of the entire wall which was grey... it was brown.
He hurriedly pushed the shelf to the side, sending the items on it falling down on the ground as he continued to wobble it out of the way. He pushed further until he was able to see what was behind it: a small brown door with a large rusty padlock that sealed it shut.
He looked around and saw a rebar that was from one of the crumbling pillars, one end still had a large chunk of concrete on it. He picked it up and swung it at the padlock, with its rust making it easy to break it open. Nick then used the bar as a battering ram and shoved the door inside, it fell on the ground creating a loud thud that echoed inside. As soon as the room was opened, a foul smell of rotting meat filled his nostrils.
Then a sound of footsteps came from his left, making him turn that way. He saw a tall Fredbear animatronic running towards him with a slice of chocolate cake in his hand. And behind the bear was a little boy chasing him, he had a smile on his face while keeping his eyes on the cake.
Nick rubbed his eyes and realized it was another one of his visions. Fredbear kept running towards him, going through his body as if he wasn't there before dashing in the room and disappearing into the dark. The little boy also did the same and followed the animatronic.
Without any hesitation, Nick covered his nose with his shirt then went inside, his mind racing while he searched. He reached out his shaky hand and flipped the light switch beside him. One lightbulb flickered on, what he saw made his heart leap and the hairs on his back stand on end.
There were dried bloodstains on the floor, it was covering nearly half of the entire room.
"This is where it happened." He whispered to himself before noticing a headless yellow animatronic bear lying facedown on the floor. Its joints were stained with blood and it was rusting on the inside.
It was supposed to be his.
Nick remembered that fateful night he had cheated death, breaking out of the claustrophobic shell and barely making it out alive.
He explored the room and tried finding a secret panel at where the killer hid the puppet, he knocked on the surface, but it was all concrete, not a single hollow wall was there.
He went back outside and went into the hallway where he previously saw the bear and the child ran, looking at the walls as he ran towards the end but unfortunately, there was still not a hidden pocket. The corridor turned left and he ended up back in the main dining area in a passageway beside Pirate's Cove. He turned right and went into another hallway, going through the old disused kitchen and ending up near the surveillance office of the place.
He stepped inside the doorless office and saw an old monitor, it was covered in dust and webs and its casing was eaten away by rust. He pressed the button to turn it on and to his surprise, it was still functioning despite it being left to rot here for more than two decades.
The screen displayed a static and distorted video feed of the main dining area, he could make out the old destroyed show staged and the collapsed tables. He then pressed a button on the side of the monitor and it switched to Cam 2B which was the left hallway beside the office. Upon looking closely at the video of the hallway, he saw a black poster with a closeup of Fredbear's face pinned to the wall in full view of the camera's coverage.
Then the pain on his head soared once again as more images flashed in his mind, mostly the face of the golden Freddy and its low but discomforting growl along with a faint scream of a woman. He shook his head as more images of the dead children filled his mind, all of them were reaching out to him.
He was no longer in the office. He was back inside the yellow suit. He looked through the eyeholes and there, the five animatronics stood, staring at him dead in the eyes. He watched the puppet get closer to his face.
"You're close." The girl's voice came from it, "Hurry."
In a flash of light, he was back in the office and on the ground. He hastily stood up still with his hands on his still-throbbing head. Nick reached for the button and switched the camera, it now displayed a live recording of the pizzeria's basement where he saw Jodi waving at the camera before looking around the place where there were rows of old lockers. He watched her go around a corner then reappear at the other end.
He moved to another section of the place: Cam 1C.
The feed had more static compared to the others and Nick could only make out the torn purple curtains of the Pirate's Cove. He tapped the screen with deliberate force and the static went away.
His blood ran cold, behind the curtains a figure stood, looking directly at the camera with its glowing eye and menacing grin. The figure slowly leaned forward into the light, revealing itself inch by inch:
Springtrap.
"Shit." He jumped as the screen went static again, the evil animatronic was no longer behind the curtains. His chest thumped as he frantically began flipping through the sections of the pizzeria. He kept on searching until he found it standing near the basement entrance.
"No, no, no." He trembled and gasped, noticing that the time on the upper left of the screen was three minutes late than his watch. "JODI!"
___________
Jodi had split up with Nick to look for the puppet, with her checking the bathrooms while he went backstage. Her thoughts were clouded by fear and anxiety as it was dead silent, only the sounds of her heels echoed inside the comfort room at every step she made.
The once white tiles had turned to yellow, they were either shattered or missing, it was also heavily vandalized, painted with warning signs saying:
NO ESCAPE
SAVE YOURSELF
CURSED
She glanced at the shattered mirror and saw her own reflection: a young woman wearing black t-shirt and bloodied white skirt, she was drenched by the rain, her brunette hair was messy and so was her makeup as her mascara were washed down the sides of her face.
The drops of rain fell on the cold floor as she moved closer to the stalls. Jodi used her crowbar and shoved the first stall door open to find out that there was nothing there except the disused toilet bowl. She then checked the others and they were all the same: empty.
She tapped on the walls with her weapon, checking for any hidden compartment but there were none, it was all solid concrete. She went outside, noticing the large Freddy Fazbear portrait hanging on the wall to her right, she took a closer look at the picture and checked at the wall behind it but it was not hollow.
She dismissed this and went back to the main dining room before deciding to check out the door beside the show stage. Jodi then destroyed the locks on it then kicked the door down. She shone her flashlight inside and discovered metal stairs covered with moss leading down to a basement.
The inside smelled of rust, the metal stairs were corroding and the bottom was shrouded in total darkness. She took a deep breath and carefully walked down the stairs, noticing the socket on the ceiling missing a light bulb all while being careful not to step on loose metal grills.
She was able to reach the bottom and she was able to locate the switch, she flipped it up and it lit the basement.
The place was dirty; there were at least four rows of rusty lockers inside. There were brown stains on the wall that had dripped from the pipeline and there were also cracks on it. The floor was wet mainly because of the rainwater that had seeped through the cracks of the crumbling pizzeria and flooding the place in foot-deep water.
Jodi looked around and saw an old surveillance camera at a corner behind her, she waved at it noticing that it had not aged as badly as compared to the others upstairs given that it was sealed from the outside world.
She turned away and went to search the lockers in the first row, moving her torch about while she treaded the partially flooded basement. She made her way to the other end of the lockers but found nothing in them, all of them were empty. She moved on to the next row and inspected them but unfortunately, they were empty as well.
The sounds of her heavy breaths and treading through the shallow waters were the only ones she could hear, she felt her heart thump as the hairs on her back stood on end. She turned around and faced the other end of the aisle as a shadow of a person was cast on the wall.
"Nick?" She said, "Is that you?"
The figure did not answer. Instead, it approached the aisle and went around the corner. Jodi gasped, it was the same maniacal killer that had been pursuing them, twitching and jolting as it looked at her dead in the eyes. In its hand was a long and bloody butcher knife.
She trembled as the animatronic slowly walked towards her, playing with the glimmering weapon in its hand, dragging it along the metal railing creating an ear-piercing screech. A low distorted laugh came from it. It was terrifying that it sent chills down her spine.
Jodi screamed and ran to the stairs, not caring even if she was drenched with the filthy floodwater. She was nearly there when Springtrap blocked her way. She looked right into Spring Bonnie's only remaining eye and saw its burning desire to kill her.
The animatronic turned around and slammed the door that led to the stairs then broke off the knob with its bare hands.
"Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide." Springtrap snarled.
Jodi ran away from the demonic animatronic as it taunted her with the screech. Tears welled in her eyes, she was trapped inside with the murderer.
She hid behind a locker and listened for sounds of the animatronic, covering her mouth to muffle her whimpers and cries. Adrenaline was rushing through her system as beads of sweat tricked down the side of her face.
A feeling of helplessness overcame her as no noise was heard, the uncertainty of where the animatronic might be hiding.
"St-stop, please." She softly whispered before a large metal hand burst through the metal locker behind her. She screamed as the killer grabbed her neck, "LET GO OF ME!" She punched the hand but it had locked itself around her throat.
Air was forcibly choked out of her as the grip tightened, her cries for help turned into an inaudible scream. She struggled to break free as the other hand also burst through. Her eyes widened as a long knife was raised in front of her preparing to plunge it into her chest.
"No." She stopped the attack, holding it back while she desperately searched for her weapon. She looked down and spotted the crowbar a few inches from her feet.
Running out of air and fighting back the strike of the killer, she reached for the crowbar with her foot, using the tip of her shoes to get hold of it. The animatronic was strong and the longer she held back the knife, the weaker she got. The sharp tip of the knife touched the surface of her shirt, gradually going through it.
Jodi was able to retrieve her weapon. She held it with her free hand and stabbed it at Springtrap's arm, piercing through through the entire limb. The monster wailed and tried pulling back his hand through the hole but it was jammed.
"JODI!" Nick's voice came from the vent on the wall a few feet above the ground.
"NICK!" Jodi climbed on the shelf and reached for the vent as the animatronic began to pull out the crowbar from his hand, yelping at every yank it did. She crawled inside the vent the exact same time that Springtrap had broken free. She then kicked the shelf from the wall sending it tipping over.
Then it grabbed her foot. "NO!" She kicked the hand while it tried pulling her back in the basement. She kept kicking until it eventually let go of her, "Nick!" She crawled deeper inside and shone her flashlight at the dark. The vent was covered in moss and damp, with intersecting paths leading to different places in the pizzeria like a labyrinth.
"Jodi, I'm coming to get you!" Nick said.
"Hurry!" She glanced behind her and saw its hands grab on the edge and pull itself upward. It's climbing after her.
Her cries echoed inside the vent trying to escape the pursuing animatronic. Her heart raced as she crawled along a straight path, she then turned left listening for Nick's voice. "Where are you?!" She cried.
"Follow my voice!" Nick replied.
She then shone the flashlight and the animatronic was there, grinning evilly at her. She continued crawling and turned right this time desperately trying to evade the killer. Her mind raced and she trembled ignoring the shattered pieces of glass on the floor that pricked her palms and knees.
Nick went inside the vent, shining his light at the deep dark vent. He prepared his gun and began crawling for her, "Jodi where are you?!" Nick reached a junction point where one led forwards the two others led to opposite sides. He stopped and listened for Jodi's screams, he hurriedly made a right upon hearing that it was where the sounds were heard the closest.
"Jodi!" He called again before coming to a vent that led downwards. He positioned himself and slid down it, he found himself at a straight corridor with another junction near the middle.
"Where are you?!" Jodi's voice came from the far end of the vent.
"I'm coming!" He replied as he hastily crawled towards where she her sounds were coming from. He reached the intersecting paths and checked the left side for signs of the murderer.
Then he checked the other side and he found himself staring into the eyes of the killer.