Chapter Text
“Here we are. Home, sweet home.” I announced.
Gregory looked around. “It’s nice.”
“Your apartment is very lovely, Officer Vanessa.” Freddy agreed from inside the unzipped duffle bag.
I chuckled. “Wow, don’t sound too surprised. I did have a life before getting possessed by an evil rabbit, you know.”
My apartment wasn’t very big, but I’d done my best to make it feel homey. All kinds of plants rested on each windowsill. There were even more of them in the bathroom. The small kitchenette was stocked with microwave food and sugary snacks. Colorful magnets littered the refrigerator door. The living room couch was absolutely drowning in flowery throw pillows. My bedroom door was open slightly, revealing the fuzzy purple rug.
Gregory held Freddy in his arms and dropped the duffel bag by the door. He poked around the apartment for a few minutes, exploring his new home. His efforts were interrupted by a big yawn. I watched as he stubbornly tried to shake off the sleepiness.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted.” I announced. “Are you okay taking the couch tonight?”
He dropped down onto the couch like he was testing its comfortability. After shifting around a bit, he nodded in satisfaction. “Yeah.”
“Great. I’ll go find some blankets for you.”
I pulIed open my bedroom door and flicked the light on. I started digging around in my closet for any extra bedding. Faintly, I could hear Freddy and Gregory giggling about something. By the time I got back to the living room, Gregory was curled up on the couch with Freddy in his arms. My heart melted at the sight.
I chucked the blankets over the back of the couch on top of him. “Express delivery!’
“Hey!” He laughed as his head popped out from under the fluffy pile. “That's not very nice customer service.”
“Feel free to file an official complaint.” I watched him snuggle into the blankets. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go sleep for a week.”
Adrenaline crashes are the worst. I felt totally fine five minutes ago. But the minute I looked at my bed, I’d never felt more exhausted in my entire life. I shuffled on legs that could barely hold my own weight anymore. I didn’t even bother changing out of my clothes, I just flopped onto the bed without thinking. My eyes were closed before my head even hit the pillow.
I woke up all tangled in my blankets. It felt like I was stuck in a spiderweb. My jeans were digging into my skin uncomfortably. The sun was assaulting my eyes on full-blast. What time is it? I rolled over onto my side and started fumbling around for my phone. The light from the screen made me squint. Noon, huh? Not bad, considering we got home around five a.m. We . That’s gonna take some getting used to.
I wiggled out of my blanket cocoon reluctantly. As much as I wanted to stay in bed, I had things to do. I quickly changed into some clean clothes and made my way to the living room. Gregory was still asleep on the couch. Freddy’s eyes opened and landed on me. I lifted one finger to my lips silently. The animatronic blinked in response.
As quietly as I could, I started rifling through the kitchen cabinets. I didn’t have a lot of breakfast foods. Working night shifts meant that I was usually asleep during the morning hours. Whenever I managed to drag myself out of bed, I usually just stuffed a granola bar into my mouth until I felt like making lunch. But I’m not living alone anymore. After digging around in the fridge, I managed to find enough eggs for two people. I threw some bread in the toaster and started scrambling the eggs in a bowl. Gregory must’ve been woken up by the smell of cooking food. I heard the pitter-patter of little feet behind me as I was stirring the eggs around in a pan on the stove.
“Morning, sleepyhead.”
“Technically, it is afternoon.” Freddy commented unhelpfully.
“Thanks, Freddy.” Gregory chuckled and slid into a chair at the kitchen table. “What'cha making?”
“Scrambled eggs and toast. I don’t have any bacon, sorry.” I shoveled the food into two plates and put one in front of him. “There you go.”
“Thanks.”
I brewed myself a cup of coffee and sat down with it. Freddy chilled out on the table and watched us eat. The meal was mostly quiet and a little awkward. I started talking just to fill the space.
“So, I figured we could go shopping today if that’s cool with you. We’re gonna need more food, and I’d imagine you probably want some more clothes. I have tonight off. I’ll use that time to clear out the spare room and get you set up. We also need to figure out a way to keep Freddy charged and-”
I stopped when I heard Gregory sniffling. I looked over to see his downcast eyes were welling up with tears. Freddy and I both looked at him in concern. Did I say something wrong? Was I taking this all too fast? Had he changed his mind about wanting to live here after all?
“What’s wrong, Superstar?” Freddy asked.
“Nothing’s wrong, it’s just…” He glanced up at me. “Why are you being so nice to me? If it’s just to make up for what you did as Vanny, you don’t have to do all this. I forgive you and stuff. A-and besides, I don’t have a way to pay you back.“
God, this poor kid. I still had no idea what he’s been through. But if he was living alone on the streets, he probably wasn’t used to people being nice to him. When was the last time anyone did something for him just out of the kindness of their heart? No wonder all this was confusing for him.
“Gregory. I’m gonna say something, and I want you to listen. You’re a child. You don’t owe anyone anything. You deserve to be safe, and warm, and taken care of. I don’t expect anything from you. I just want you to be happy. Okay?”
The world is so messed up. Forget about sentient robots and mind control. No one should have to explain something like this to an eleven year-old. It’s not fair. I reached out to him, and he didn’t flinch away this time. I gently ruffled his hair. Tears spilled down his little cheeks. But he smiled anyway.
“Okay.” He accepted it.
Twenty minutes later, we were standing by the door. Gone was that little smile from the breakfast table. Now, he was glaring at me venomously. Oh my God, kids are so stubborn.
“For the five hundredth time, no. You can’t bring Freddy to the store with us.” I argued.
“Why not?” he whined. “I’ll keep him in my bag. No one’ll even notice him.”
“Until he opens that big mouth of his.” Freddy opened said mouth to protest. “Don’t get me started, Mr. Chatterbox. And even if he doesn’t talk, what happens if you lose the bag? What if it gets stolen? Freddy can’t move with just a head.”
“But-”
“Gregory, the answer is no. You’re leaving him here where he’ll be safe. I’m sorry.”
“Do not worry, Gregory.” Freddy thankfully backed me up. “I will be safe here and you will be safe with Officer Vanessa. You can still contact me with the Fazwatch if you need to.”
Gregory settled into an unhappy, but resigned pout. “Okay fine. But I’m gonna call you to make sure you’re okay.”
“That is good. I will see you when you return. Have a nice day.”
I also found out that kids are fucking expensive. I figured that he’d take up some of my paycheck, but holy crap. This boy needed a lot of stuff. Clothes, underwear, pajamas, shoes, soap, shampoo, food, and he even picked out a few Fazbear toys. I wasn’t complaining or anything, but I was a bit concerned. At this rate, I’ll probably have to pick up a few extra shifts to keep the lights on.
When we finally got back to the apartment, it was nighttime. Both of us had our hands full with all the shopping bags. Gregory had called Freddy on the drive home, so he was expecting us. His mechanical eyes lit up when we came through the door. Those robot faces were really expressive.
“Gregory, Officer Vanessa, welcome home!” He greeted us cheerfully.
“Hey Freddy.” I replied as I walked by him into the kitchen. “Alright, we’ve got work to do. Why don’t you and Freddy start organizing the stuff you bought? I’ll start cleaning out the spare room.”
“Okay!”
Gregory basically forgot about me once he turned his back. He started pulling things from his bags and holding them up for Freddy to see. He had to explain what some things were to the incredibly dense robot bear. Man, this kid was distractible.
I used the spare bedroom as a combination of storage space and a sewing room. The desk was cluttered with a few old sewing machines, most of which didn’t work anymore. Bits of fabric were thrown on top of boxes, hanging off the closet door, and scattered all over the floor. Half-finished shirts and scarves laid in a pile on the bed. Boxes of sewing supplies and extra fabric were stacked way too high. Yeah, this might take a while.
I decided to start throwing things into piles. Any fabrics or projects I wanted to keep were jammed into whatever boxes had room for them. I stacked said boxes by the door so I could put them in my bedroom later. The old sewing machines would have to be thrown out later. I tossed all the fabric scraps, abandoned projects, and other junk into an industrial-size trash bag. By the time Gregory wandered into the room, I’d made pretty good progress.
“We’re done organizing the stuff.” He announced.
“Great. The floor in here could definitely use a good vacuuming. You wanna handle that while I get the closet cleared out?”
The vacuum cleaner hummed to life behind me as I pulled open the closet door. There wasn’t as much in here as I thought there would be. A couple of empty boxes took up the floor space. I could probably fit the old sewing machines in those for now. There was a half-filled trash bag squished in between them. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember what I’d put in there. Time to find out. I pulled the bag open and stopped dead. It was cream-colored fabric and purple ribbon.
Oh my God. This is what the Vanny suit was made of. Vanny must’ve stuffed the leftovers in here where I wouldn’t stumble on it by accident. Was making my body a puppet not enough? It had to sully my home by bringing this thing here?! That was when it hit me. It was a memory, or something like one:
I was sitting on this very floor. My hands worked quickly with the needle. Sewing and stitching and cutting. My eyelids were heavy, but they refused to blink. My mouth was dry, and my stomach was rumbling. Thirty-six hours. I could keep going. Sewing and stitching and cutting. The fabric started to take shape. A pale body with ugly gray patches. A bunny mask with red eyes and black whiskers. A purple bow made a nice little touch. Master likes purple. Oh yes, this was quite a horrifying monster I'd created. A sick feeling of satisfaction welled up in my stomach. It’s finished.
No. No! I made the Vanny suit in this room. The suit I wore to cause pain and suffering. To infect the animatronics with malware that turned them into monsters. To torment Gregory. To hunt, and catch, and kill who knows how many people?! I made it here. In my own fucking apartment. Damn that sick, twisted rabbit!
“-nessa? What’d you find?”
The sound of a curious little voice brought me back to reality. Gregory. Oh God, Gregory. I can’t let him see this.
“N-nothing! It’s uh… trash. J-just garbage. Uh, old sewing supplies and stuff.” My voice was shaking too much. Fuck.
“Um, okay?”
I closed the bag before he could peek inside. Can’t let him see this. With the offending trash bag in my hands, I pulled myself up to my feet. Gregory was giving me a confused look. He knew something was off. Of course he did, even I could tell this was suspicious. I mumbled something about taking out the trash before practically running from the room.
The world seemed to spin as I ran. What the fuck, what the fuck?! What am I gonna do with this? I can’t just toss it into the garbage. What if someone found it? What if someone connected it to Vanny’s murders? There’s no way I wouldn’t go to prison. I did it with my own hands. God fucking damnit, why the hell didn’t I think of that before? Shit, shit, shit!
Okay, calm down. Take a deep breath. Take two. I could feel my heart rate slowing down as I breathed. Breathe in, breathe out. It’s fine. No one knows yet. Vanny covered her tracks, I knew that. No one can link it back to me. It’s fine.
I found myself standing in my bedroom with the door closed. Okay, just calm down. I could worry about Vanny later. For now, I needed to put this bag somewhere that no one would find it. Especially Gregory. I tied the bag up tightly and stuffed it under my bed. Gregory seemed like a good kid. He wouldn’t go poking around in someone else’s room without asking. I shoved some blankets in front of it just to be safe.
I should go back before Gregory gets worried. I just needed to wait until I stopped shaking. I had to focus on Gregory right now. I can have a panic attack later. Come on, get it together. I sucked in all my anxiety and exhaled it out. Okay Nessa, it’s time to put on your big girl pants.