"Did you hear that?"
"No, hear what?" I ask, not even glancing over to whom it was that had spoken.
"That laughter-" The voice of my younger brother comes in a tense whisper before his sentence cuts off.
The two of us sat tense and quiet at the desk in my room. My laptop sat in front of us and a headphone splitter was stuck into the jack, letting both of us listen uto the audio coming from it , each with our own pair of headphones. The surrounding area was in almost total darkness, the only light source being the dim glow emanating from the computer screen, creating a somewhat eerie atmosphere.
"Quick get the lights!" He shouts a bit too loudly near my ear, probably thanks to the piece of curved plastic and foam resting over his own ears.
After pulling away my hands from my ears I move the mouse to click on the button for the light on my right, holding for a second then repeating with the left. Only this time instead of an empty doorway we're met with the stark red gaze of Bonnie, a nightmarish purple bunny animatronic reminiscent of 90s era Chuck E Cheese stage show robots, on the screen.
"Shit!" I gasp, slamming the left door down with little time to spare.
"That was close," My brother sighs. "Tell me again why we decided to play at night? With the lights off?" He sends a slight glare my way as he says this.
"For the atmosphere?" I shrug, checking the cameras again.
My breath catches as I'm left staring at the sight on the screen for a second. "How long has it been since we last checked pirate cove?" I ask, monotone.
"We just checked it a minute ago didn't we?" He asks, looking back to the screen. In the darkness the starry curtains of Pirate's Cove stand nearly all the way open, and Foxy, in a terrible state of disrepair peaks out from behind them.
"Well apparently the answer to that is really 'too long'..."
"We're so boned,"
"You give up way too easily freckles," I counter as I lower the monitor screen and slam down the left door, pulling up the monitor screen. I see I'd closed the door just in time as the cameras show Foxy sprinting down the west hall toward the security room where our character sat.
"See, what'd I tell ya? I'm the master of Five Nights," I laugh.
"Yeah yeah, whatever Markiplier," He mumbles sarcasm dripping from every word, looking just a bit more relaxed. "Just don't forget about everyone else,"
"You really think I'm that much of a noob?" I ask in mock offense just as Foxy starts knocking on the heavy metal door that is our momentary salvation. I open the door on the second knock to keep Foxy from draining any more of our remaining power with his pounding, I however do not expect to find the fox still standing in the doorway, staring in at us with bright amber eyes.
"What the fuck?" I mutter aloud in shock, too surprised to be scared for our poor little security guard Mike.
"Bree... why is Foxy still standing there...? He's supposed to go away if you open the doors while he's still knocking... Isn't he?"
"I don't know... This has never happened before." I reply, becoming a bit creeped out myself. I try closing the door again but the buttons give no response. For now he's just standing there... theres still no death screen either... "Maybe it's a glitch? He must just be back at the cove but this is just an after image of him here...?" I reason.
"Yeah... alright... What about the band then?"
"Oh shit, you're right," I do my best to ignore the fox that appears to be staring straight into my soul with empty eyes and pull up the monitor again. Though... now I'm even more spooked than before... as the entire band, Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie appear to be standing back on the stage again, reset to how they'd been at the very beginning of night four.
"Okay... what the hell is going on here?" I stammer, ripping the ear buds out of my ears.
"Somethings not right here, this is just creepy now, well, not like it wasn't before but... yeah..." My bro trails off lamely. "So? Can we turn the lights back on now?" He asks, moving his chair back as if to get up from the desk.
"Wait, stay here. Don't. Move." I say, setting my hand on his shoulder and keeping him in his chair.
By now he looks like he really does not want to be here but he stays, taking off his headphones and leaning just a bit more away from the screen.
After a moment of watching the camera pan slowly over the main stage I lower the monitors to find Foxy now inside the room, standing in front of us.
But... as far as I know Foxy has never fully entered into the security room in the game...
He is standing a bit hunched over, seeming to peer down to look at us through the screen. Definitely not a stance that's ever appeared in the game before, for any of the players, I'd played this game so many times and seen enough playthroughs of it that I should know, besides all that I'd never found such an image anywhere in the game files...
And then he blinks at us. Fucking blinks! His jaw seems to flop open a bit more and a painful screeching scream blares through out headphones. Thank god we'd already taken them off or our ears might've been bleeding by now. Okay, maybe thats a bit of an exaggeration, but still...
Following the screech there is a loud static noise before a startling mechanical explosion like sound and then darkness.
I find myself unable to move, to react, to look away from the spot in the darkness where I know my laptop still sits open. For the first time in a long time I am utterly terrified.
Game mechanic or not, something about what just occurred did not sit well with me.
"Brielle?"
I barely register my brother calling me as I just keep staring blankly ahead.
"Brielle?" He asks again, a bit louder this time.
"Brandon..." I start, my voice wavering, sounding raspy and hoarse. "What the fuck was that?"
He doesn't give me an answer. I hear some rustling beside me before all sound retreats away into the blackness.
More rustling before he addresses me again. "It looks like the whole neighborhood is out,"
"What?" I move to join him at the window, careful not to trip over my own two feet as I'm likely to do in even brightly lit areas. He's right though, I see not a speak of light outside apart from the dissipating stars in the sky and the thin sliver of fading moon joining them.
"Do you have your phone?" I ask, at the same time I reach over to the desk to feel around for mine.
"Yup," He says, before a soft white light envelops the room as he pulls up the flashlight. He shines it over to the desk and after a moment I spot my phone laying beside the laptop.
"Thanks," I say, pocketing the phone since Brandon already had his light on.
"No problem,"
A sudden metallic clanking noise draws our attention and we both look across the room toward my now closed door.
"You... you heard that too right?"
"Unfortunately," I reply.
The dull thumps continue below us, sounding more and more like footsteps to my ears.
"Hey, shine that thing above the desk,"
"Okay," He says a bit inquisitively.
The glow of the phone's flashlight shines off of a large roman style shield mounted on the wall, over top it hangs a large sheathed sword with a wicked tip and two golden snakes entwined intricately to form the guard and hilt. I carefully pull the set off the wall, rapping my knuckles over the hard beveled surface of the shield.
"Y-you're not seriously going to go down there and defend yourself with that are you?" My brother deadpans as I buckle the heavy shield into place over my arm.
"Well, seeing as my gun license is still processing and all I have by way of protection is this expertly smithed beauty... yup," I say, releasing the God Killer replica and hoisting it's sheath over my shoulder to rest on my back. "You coming?" I ask, trying my best to stop from shaking like a leaf caught in a wind storm.
"Well somebody has to make sure you don't get yourself killed," He sighs.
"Why little brother, I wouldn't die so easily, not without taking someone down with me at least," I say, trying for humor to lighten the tension and failing miserably.
"Whatever," He mumbles. "Let me just get my pistol real quick if we're really going through with this.
"Sure, be quick about it though," I say, reaching for the door handle, it squeaks just a bit and we both freeze.
Suddenly the noises from the floor below stop and I catch my breath.
I don't start breathing again until the noises start up again and I quickly usher my brother around the corner to the door at the end of the hall after advising him to ditch the light.
We'd snuck around the house in the dark enough times during our childhood that we had the layout pretty much memorized and it'd be best not to draw attention to ourselves by shining a bright light everywhere anyway.
He disappears into his room while I stand outside the door, keeping alert with shield in front of myself and sword drawn.
When he rejoins me in the hall he has a clip of ammo hooked to his belt and the metal bb firing glock in hand, in the dark I can just barely make out the flashlight attachment resting atop the chamber.
"Ready?" I ask.
He nods and lets me take the lead, we creep down the hall toward the top of the stairs. Just before we reach the top of the landing I hold up my fist, the back of it facing him and he freezes. I unclasp the fist and motion the palm of my hand down and we both crouch down next to the banister.
I lower myself onto the ground, leaning my torso over the first few steps and turning my body so I can peer through the railing to down below this level's flooring, searching for movement in the blackness.
My stomach drops as I see a darker area of blackness move through the shadows, I watch and listen for another minute but am only able to pick out one intruder's form and clunky metallic footsteps. Raising myself from the ground I turn to face my brother in the dim hall.
I hold my right hand over my left wrist before holding up one finger and he nods, getting a tighter grip on his gun.
Taking a deep breath I motion him to follow me as I crouch low, descending the stairs and avoiding all of the creaky spots as I'd learned to do in my childhood.
The closer we get the louder the 'footsteps' get, joining them a few creaky noises like the sound of groaning, protesting metal and squeaky hinges.
I can taste bile in my mouth as my stomach turns at the unfamiliar sounds in the darkness.
We're almost at the bottom of the stairs when I hear a low groan from behind me and everything freezes, including the sounds of the intruder pacing our living room. Brandon's stepped onto a bad part of the stairs making the wood creak.
Shakily I raise my hand up, my thump and pointer fingers forming a gun. Brandon gets the message and slowly raises his weapon, I do the same, my grip tightening on the sword.
Since I don't know the signal for it I reach slowly, and very carefully, behind me and lightly tap the light on top of the pistol and motion to the shadowed figure to our right.
My breath hitches as the sounds of grinding metal resumes, this time nearing our current location.
Brandon chooses then to switch on his flashlight and the sight of whats before us makes me take a startled step back, nearly falling backwards as I trip on the step behind me.
No more than a few feet away from me is a pair of almost glowing yellow eyes, they stare out at me from a mess of matted red brown fur and dull exposed metal...
Below the eyes hangs a broken looking metal jaw with rows of sharp white and gold teeth that are way too close to my face for comfort.
I can't even scream. I am petrified until the sound of metal hitting metal explodes close by following the sharp whooshing near to my ear.
Our intruder lets out a shrill shriek, almost sounding in pain and startled I bring up my shield, taking a step back onto the same step my brother stands on, at the same time shoving my elbow into him and pushing him back. He stumbles but regains his footing quickly.
"Wh-"
"Run," I deadpan.
"What?" He asks incredulously.
"I said run damn it!" I say again, pushing him with a bit more force this time.
"I-"
"GO!" I shout in a hiss, losing my patience as I have a stare down with those glowing yellow eyes.
The intruder moves a hand away from it's shoulder which they'd been holding and drops something to the ground which thunks off the hardwood and rolls away.
The same hand raises, outstretching itself toward me before suddenly freezing still.
I feel myself being dragged backwards by the back of my shirt and I land in a heap next to Brandon, hitting my back on the ledge of one of the steps. Hard.
"You're fucking crazy!" He shouts at me.
Despite the situation I find myself looking back at him in shock. He's never cursed in front of me before.
"Like hell I'd leave you alone to deal with that thing by yourself!"
I glance back over to the imposing figure who remains still as a statue, even their eyes seem to have lost their glow.
The danger momentarily averted I pull out my phone from my pocket, waking it with the home button to glance at the time.
"It's 6:01....." I state monotonously, confirming my suspicions. "You've got to be fucking kidding me," I sigh, sagging onto the stairs and laying my face on the cool wooden surface.
"No way..."
I let out a humorless laugh and turn on my side to face my brother. I feel so exhausted right now...
I reach out and pull him into a hug, laying my head on his shoulder. "I love you lil bro," I murmur tiredly.
"Yeah, you too," He says after a moment and hugs me back.
When I pull away he asks the same thing I'd been thinking since this started. "What now?"
With a sigh I stand, offering a hand to him to help him up. We both stand on the bottom steps, just staring at the figure for a minute.
"I banged up my arm and back pretty bad in the fall... so I guess this isn't a dream... or a nightmare or whatever..."
"Don't think so,"
"I can't believe you shot him,"
"What was I supposed to do? Let him grab you?" He asks incredulously.
"Well no," I reply. "But you know those bbs wouldn't do shit to Foxy," I deadpan.
"Yeah, probably not. We were just lucky about the timing,"
I nod lamely before walking down into the living room, circling around to stand behind the offline animatronic.
"So, what now?" He asks again.
I re-sheath God Killer and place the shield on my back before peering out from behind the fox. "Help me get him to the basement,"
"No seriously Brielle, what now?" He asks again.
"Like I said, help me move him to the basement," I repeat.
"Brielle, are you seriously thinking about keeping him here? He's a murder robot! We should burn him or something,"
I glance up at the bots face, so familiar but so different all the same. His eyes look almost dead now, brows furrowed but overall looking nonthreatening, at least for now.
"No, we're not doing that," I state with conviction.
"Why not? He could've killed you!"
"But he didn't-"
"Because lucky for you his time ran out! Doesn't mean he wasn't gonnna,"
"Sure, he definitely could've, maybe I was lucky, but still, destroying him just doesn't sit right with me,"
He grips fistfuls of his short wavy brown hair in frustration. "Fine." He sighs. "Fine. But if he so much as twitches an ear in your direction when he comes back online tonight we do this my way,"
"Alright," I agree, walking over to the basement door and pulling it open, flicking on the stair light before walking back over to where Brandon stood looking uncomfortable next to the fox.
"Ready?" I ask, wrapping my arms around the torso.
"Whatever," He mumbles, grabbing his feet.
Brandon takes the stairs first, walking slowly backward, the strain is evident on his face and I'm glad I took the heavier end.
"He's so heavy," He grunts.
"Thanks," I say after a moment as I step onto the top step.
"For what?"
"Trusting me, helping me, protecting me earlier, the list goes on but you get the point," I say. "You know, you're actually a pretty awesome brother. Never thought I'd see you acting like the older sibling here though," I give a small dry chuckle, laughter still not coming too naturally to me after our little ordeal. "I... I'm proud of you,"
"Yeah, ditto I guess, only on being a kind of awesome sister," He mumbles.
"Alright," He starts with a sigh. "Enough mushy stuff, let's just get this robot down the stairs already," He says, noticing the small grin creeping onto my face.
I compose myself again before nodding at him from over Foxy's shoulder. "Right,"
With some effort we manage to get to the bottom steps, we take a break for a second, propping the animatronic up against the wall.
"Excuse me while I go die in that corner over there," I pant, collapsing at the bottom of the steps next to Foxy's feet.
"So much for that corner huh?" He deadpans. "You alright? Do you need your inhaler or something?"
"Don't insult me, I haven't needed that thing in years," I mumble in mock offense, not bothering to lift my face from the carpet.
"Alright, alright," He says, holding his hands up in a placating gesture, I know this because I propped myself up on my elbows to look over at him. "How can you be comfortable sitting so close to that thing?" He asks after a moment from his place several feet away from Foxy & I.
I give a simple shrug. "Dunno, whats it matter anyway? We're safe for a good eighteen hours at least,"
"I guess," He agrees, "So what are you gonna do with him now, midnight hits and we're gonna be royally screwed... We'll have him on us for six whole hours, and we don't have heavy metal doors to hide behind,"
"Well, That.... is still a work in progress,"
"You've gotta be kidding me," He sighs in frustration. "You are unbelievable..."
"Whatever," I mumble. "Just help me get him onto the weight bench okay?"
"Sure, whatever,"
Once we have him laying face up on the heavy padded bench I adjust the torso support, cranking the top half of the bench up so he's somewhat sitting up on it.
"I still don't see how this is helping. What? You're hoping he'll do a few reps to prep himself before he comes to kill us?"
"No dummy, use your head for once," I say, stepping away into the laundey/tool room and flicking on the light switch.
I rummage around a bit before finding what I need, gathering up supplies into my arms before rejoining my brother at the bench.
I drop everything to the floor next to the bench where it lands with a dull thud and a bunch of rattling and clanking.
"What is all that stuff?"
"We're gonna have to restrain him," I reply, picking up a thick heavy duty tie down strap that was usually used for holding heavy objects down on a moving vehicle. I could confidently say these had never been used to hold down a dangerous, possibly possessed, animatronic before.
"Help me get these on,"
After maybe a half hour we were pretty confident all the straps and lengths of chain with locks could hold down Foxy for the night. Probably.
"Hey, do you still have those toy spy cameras you got a couple Christmases ago?" I ask my bro as we stand before the weight bench double checking our restraints.
"Yeah, pretty sure I know where at least three of the cameras are. Oh, I know where you're going with this," He says, finally catching on. "Be right back,"
With that he leaves me alone with the pirate fox and I let out a low sigh.
"Something about this still doesn't feel right," I murmur to myself, thinking aloud. "Why aren't I freaking out about this anymore anyway?" Maybe I'm in shock...
"You shouldn't be here," I say to the fox. "This shouldn't be a thing that's possible. I mean, even If your universe is real, meaning all others are too just as I thought, they shouldn't be able to intersect like this. At least... not without some kind of interference or catalyst of some sort..." I trail off for a moment.
"And sadly I see no sign of a Timelord or a little blue police box here," I say with a dry laugh. "Wouldn't that be something,"
I hear my brother's footsteps coming down the stairs again but don't bother turning toward him.
"I managed to find a fourth camera too," He says, stopping next to me and handing me one of the small lensed boxes.
"Thanks," I say. "You have the manual too?"
"Yup," He says, handing me a small paper pamphlet.
I flip through a few pages till I find what I'm looking for. Following the directions I download the app to my phone then sync each camera to it.
Switching to camera one, which I rename 'Basement' I set the small cam atop a tall desk set against the wall across from the weight bench, checking the feed to center the view until I'm satisfied.
"Alright, lets go place the rest a' these suckers,"
####
When we're done we've placed the camera in the basement, one in the corner of the dining room that caught a view of that room as well as the living room and a small portion of stairs. There was another at the top of the stairs duct taped to the banister that faced the top of the stairs and the hallway leading to our bedrooms, and the last was placed in the foyer, catching the kitchen and the front door in the hall.
I pull up my phone and double check the cameras, advising Brandon to do so too on his own phone, everything seems to be up and running, and as expected still no movement from Foxy.
"And now we wait," I sigh, walking over and plopping down on the couch.
"Are you sure we shouldn't call Mom and Dad?"
I give a small sigh, putting my face in my hands. I take a moment to gather my thoughts before answering him.
"Not yet. Lets just see how the night goes first. The restraints will hold," I mumble through my fingers. They have to hold.
"What if they don't? Shouldn't we at least tell them what's going on?"
"They'll hold." I repeat.
"Besides, like they'd believe it anyway... I hardly believe it. And I'm living it,"
He sighs, walking over to sit on the couch diagonal to mine. "If anything goes wrong, we call them,"
"Alright," I agree.
"Good," He sighs.
"Well, lets prepare ourselves then,"