Chapter Text
Jayden was very good at a lot of things. Okay, scratch that, but he was good at running, both with his mouth and with his feet. But something he was admittedly garbage at? Waiting. For a long time. And unluckily, that’s exactly what they all seemed to be doing. This was supposed to be fun and exciting, a chance to explore the Pizzaplex after hours and get away with some entertaining public vandalism. But unfortunately, the first part of the plan was them just waiting in a ball pit for a few hours. Sweets was keeping him company in their mutual misery. Patience was not something either of them had heaps of, unlike the two brainiacs in their group. Flare was just closing his eyes and lying on the balls, resting. And Chess was... counting and sorting the balls. Incredible. Jayden sighed dramatically and threw himself back, sinking into the balls and closing his eyes, feeling them pile around and loosely on top of him. Sweets started to bury him by pushing balls over his body. He occasionally cleared them off, but that only seemed to invigorate Sweets to do it faster. She eventually started splashing balls at his face and he sat up to fight her back, a grin on his face.
“Careful Sweetheart, don’t start something you can’t finish,” Jayden teased, smirking.
“Oh trust me, Jet,” she purred, “I’m more than ready to finish.” They both paused and Jayden snorted. “Shut the fuck up!” Sweets snarled, face turning red as Jayden began to laugh in full. “This isn’t funny!” She insisted. His only response was louder laughter that led to her attempting to drown him in plastic balls. “I hope you choke on those balls!” She hissed.
Oh, come on.
Jayden only laughed harder as she continued to try to smother him. Her face was a pretty shade of crimson and she was biting on the stick of her sucker. Jayden attempted to crawl away from her, swimming through the balls as she began to pelt the back of his head with them.
“Flare! Save me!” Jayden cried out, only to get one grey eye opened in confusion before settling into something close to disinterest.
“I guarantee this was your fault,” Flare yawned out, which, okay, fair, but at the same time, what the hell Flare?! No loyalty! No support!
“Untrue!” He replied, offended.
“False,” Chess said, the balls on the surface all color-coordinated, which Jayden could admit was fairly impressive if not uselessly time-consuming. From what I heard, Jet, you said something and then made fun of her for her response.” Chess explained, bored. Her blue eyes contrasted with her white hair and pale skin and bore into him. She looked out of place in the ball pit, something so devoid of colour inside the rainbow river that was the ball pit.
“Right as always, Chess.” Sweets praised from behind him, to which he most definitely did not yelp like a schoolgirl, thank you very much. Jayden snapped around and tried to dive out of the way as Sweets lunged at him. He tripped over the weight of the balls that went up to his hips and fell in front of Chess, right into her organized section of the pit.
Shit.
“Oh-” Sweets said, sucking air through her teeth and backing away. Traitor. Jayden cleared his throat and tentatively looked up and met Chess’ wide-eyed look. He slowly extracted himself out of her way only for a pale hand to wrap around his wrist.
Fuck.
“Hey Chess…” Jayden coughed. “It, uh, looks like you grabbed my arm by mista- urk!” He choked as a yellow ball suddenly found itself in his mouth as Chess pushed him further into the ball pit with vicious efficiency. Jayden thrashed around as Flare and Sweets just watched him drown in plastic.
“Do you know how long it took me to sort those, Jet?!” Chess said, smiling chillingly as she shook him, pushing the ball further into his mouth, causing his jaw to hurt. Jayden flailed and spat the ball out as he tried to crawl away only for Chess to sit on his back, sending him sinking into the bottom of the pit.
“Heavy,” Jayden wheezed.
“Excuse me?” Chess said, her tone sharp.
“She’s so small though…” Sweets trailed off for some reason rather than continuing her insult. Coward.
“I didn’t mean it like that!” Jayden protested, trying to get up to no avail. “Flare, fucking help me, fearless leader!” He pleaded.
“It’s more entertaining watching this happen.” Flare admitted. He is so not getting any help spray painting anything anymore. Jayden squirmed pitifully.
“I’m sorry, Chess, I yield, I ask thee for forgiveness!” He pleads, clawing at the balls.
“You don’t get it.” Chess hisses, pressing down harder.
“Why not!”
“Because I’m feeling particularly vindictive right now.” She said simply, like a psychopath.
“I’m being unfairly punished! It’s cruel and unusual punishment! Mister future soldier, be useful!” Jayden thrashed.
“I’m okay.” Flare said, closing his eyes.
“What the hell!” Jayden cried. “Sweets, I’ll buy you a three-hundred pack of suckers and two jumbo-size skittles!” He bargains desperately.
“Say swear.” Sweets said, breathlessly.
“I swear it!” Jayden said.
“Sorry Chess,” Sweets began. “It’s just business-”
“If you help him I’m going to spit in your M&M packs at random.”
What the fuck??
“What the fuck?” Sweets echoed his thoughts, clearly, Chess was psychopathic. Flare seemed to finally decide to be useful because he moved over to them and placed a hand on Chess’s shoulder.
“That’s enough, Chess. Get off him.” Flare snorted, shoving her gently. Chess huffed and finally decided to allow him oxygen again. Jayden dramatically gasped and stood.
“I live!” He declared, raising a fist in the air and smiled softly at the off-key laughter he heard from Sweets and the chuckle from Flare. Jayden flopped back into the ball pit, sending a couple plastic spheres splashing around. Sweets flopped beside him and twisted the remains of her sucker in her mouth before taking the clean stick out of her mouth and frowned. “Are you out?” Jayden asked.
“Of candy?” Sweets scoffed. “Never.” She flicked the stick somewhere in the sea of plastic balls, ew, and reached into her jeans pocket. Shuffling around for a moment before pulling out a jawbreaker and unwrapping it with a twist of painted nails before popping it in her mouth and smirking. “It’s got gum in the middle too.”
“Share?” Jayden pleaded.
“Not on your life.” Sweets replied offhandedly. Which, rude as hell.
“Hey,” Flare spoke sternly, voice slicing through their easy banter. “It’s almost go time.” He informed, watching the clock next to the weird balcony that was in the daycare over the ball pit. Jayden snuck a glance at Chess who was frowning and watching the doors rather than the clock. Sweets sat up and smoothed out her sweater before standing up right as the clock hit midnight. Then without warning.
Music.
A cheerful melody filled the daycare, a complete change from the silence beforehand. Jayden quickly moved to his feet, standing next to Sweets with Flare and Chess in front of him.
“What the fuck?” Jayden whispered, sharing confused and slightly wary look with Sweets.
“Automated,” Chess muttered, looking around. “It happened exactly at midnight, I can’t see any practical reason for someone to have manually turned on music, It’s also a little odd that the lights stayed on the entire time.” She narrowed her eyes. “Unless someone knows we’re here, in which case, why haven’t they already come to remove us?” She mused to herself. Jayden raised an eyebrow. He’d always known Chess was smart, he called her that for a reason after all, but seeing it in action never failed to be impressive. And unsettling.
“Chess,” Flare hummed, “are we safe?”
“Should be.” Chess answered easily, but she didn’t sound as confident as she normally did. “We should leave the ball pit, start exploring.”
“Good idea,” Flare confirmed, “alright everybody, out of the pit and onto shor-” Flare’s mouth snapped shut, his grey eyes locked upwards, so were Chess’s. Jayden felt his heart clench and he looked up. And his jaw dropped right along with his stomach.
Standing up on the balcony above the ball pit looking directly at them, was Sun. An animatronic was active outside of active hours and was looking at them. The robot’s head twitched, his crescent smile unnervingly wide, his yellow paint far too bright as with a click, his head rotated in a full circle. Jayden barely had enough time to process the sheer wrongness of his movements before–
Sun jumped.
His body twisted midair, mechanical whirring clashing harshly with the disgustingly happy music that played. He finally made what looked like an imitation of a diver position before he plummeted into the ball pit, sending the plastic spheres splashing out.
“EVERYBODY OUT!!” Chess shrieked, her composure lost. Jayden felt his heart in his throat as he lunged for the edge of the ball pit. He felt so slow, the plastic sea was too constricting, it felt like he was walking through quicksand. He finally managed to reach the lip of the ball pit and heaved himself up, snapping his head around to see where Sun was before his blood ran cold. Sun wasn’t wading through the pit, or even swimming. It looked like he was gliding. He was too fluid, too smooth, his grin too wide and his head wouldn’t stop turning in circles. He wasn’t slowing down.
“Hurry the fuck up!” Jayden hissed desperately, onyx eyes wide in panic. He quickly dropped to his knees and held his hand over the edge, catching Flare and hauling him up beside him. His eyes frantically searched the ball pit. Sweets was the third closest but Chess.
Chess was struggling.
She was lagging behind despite her desperate thrashing through the plastic balls, terror fueling her frantic movements. Sweets turned and cursed, then instead of taking Jayden’s outstretched hand, she started running toward Chess. Jayden barely had enough time to process the shock before Sweet’s had Chess by her waist and tossed her aside and closer to the edge of the pit just as Sun had caught up to them.
“Oh, a new friend!” Sun screamed, his metal fingers curling around Sweet’s armpits before jerking her with him, further into the ball pit.
Further away from them.
“Get the fuck off of me!” She snarled, kicking her legs frantically and thrashing around.
“No no!” Sun chided, voice thick with theatric disappointment. “That’s not very nice!” Then he began to glide backward. Jayden’s breath hitched.
“Sweets!” he shouted, quickly sliding back into the pit and chasing after her.
“Jet!” Sweets shouted desperately, arms flailing to catch onto anything.
“Jet, wait a second!” Flare yelled, pulling Chess out of the ball pit. But Jayden wasn’t listening, he needed to get Sweets away from Sun. But before he could reach them even, Sun turned around, soulless white orbs locked onto him.
“Oh? Another one?” Sun cried out, gormlessly happy. “What fun, what fun!” He screeched before lunging and snagging Jayden by his wrist with his cold metal hands. “Let’s have a sleepover!” Jayden thrashed in his grip, but the animatronic wouldn’t let go, his grip was painful, digging into his skin.
“Let us go!” Jayden snarled, but he couldn’t even kick the robot, the ball pit was too dense, he couldn’t move properly, he could only thrash around as he kept getting pulled further and further away. He glanced at Sweets and found her also struggling, snarling, and thrashing around just as desperately as him, but nothing was working.
“There’s so many of you!” Sun gasped, elated. Jayden turned to see where he was looking and his heart landed in his throat. Flare was holding what looked like a large can. He hefted it above himself before launching it at Sun. It flew through the air before slamming right into Sun’s face. “Hey!” Sun cried, his grip loosening enough for Jayden to wrench out of his grip, Sweets doing the same thing a mere moment after before they both lunged for the lip of the ball pit. “Stop running!” Sun snarled, venomously. Jayden felt his knees go weak for a moment before Sun’s tone shifted back to his disgustingly happy lilt. “Oh- are we playing tag?!” Jayden didn’t answer, he reached the edge of the ball pit and jumped, using his arms as leverage, he pulled himself out of the pit, quickly turning around, and helped Sweets out too. Jayden allowed himself a moment to take a breath but that was quickly interrupted when Sun’s crudely painted hand launched itself from the pit and lunged for Sweet’s ankle. She screamed before quickly kicking the hand away by the wrist. Jayden got to his feet and took Sweet’s hand, rushing to where the rest of his group was.
“What the fuck is happening?!” Jayden said, voice layered thick with panic.
“I don’t know,” Chess cried out, uselessly, “maybe it’s a security system but I can’t imagine them allowing an animatronic to be this dangerous to children!”
“We need to leave!” Flare declared, turning toward the massive exit doors of the daycare.
“No no no!” Sun’s voice echoed. All of them turned to him in sync.
Sun was out of the ball pit, his parachute pants hanging loosely off his body, yellow paint scratched and dull at his ankles with what looked like clown shoes donning his feet. He was bouncing from foot to foot, his shirtless torso and too-lanky arms waving around as if underwater, fingers twitching like they were itching to grab someone. “You don’t GET to leave!” He snarled, dangerous and psychotic. “We’re gonna have a sleepover!” His tone switched again, suddenly unnervingly happy. Jayden recoiled, taking a tense step back.
“Run for it?” He asked, nervously.
“We’re not all as fast.” Chess denied.
“Jump him?” Jayden offered, heart pounding.
“Do you wanna get that close to him again?” Sweets responded instead.
“We’re gonna stick together and slowly walk to the exit,” Flare declared. “If he starts going for one of us we stay together, if he grabs you, the rest of us will try to get him off, maybe throw a can at him again, that seemed to work last time, then we keep moving to the exit.” He ordered. Jayden nodded.
“Got it.” Sweets said, her composure returning slightly, jaw working at the candy somehow still in her mouth.
“Mhm.” Chess hummed, voice cracking with fear. Jayden took a step back, the rest of the group mimicking him in tandem. Sun seemed to have perked up at their movements, his head spinning even faster as they took another step back.
“So it is tag!” Sun exclaimed, clapping his hands before taking another step forward. “Is it freeze tag?” He squeals, hopping forward right as Jayden steps back once again. Not a single one of them opened their mouths to answer, fear clenched Jayden’s jaw shut as he stared into pure white dead orbs. The air was thick and ice cold, Jayden’s muscles were tense, he felt like a spring, he had the urge to bounce from foot to foot, desperate to alleviate some of the restless energy in his body. He spared a glance at his friends, Sweets’ green eyes were narrowed, her jaw working with the candy in her mouth, her black lips pursed into a thin line. Her hoodie was bunched up at the end, her black painted nails curling around the edge of it, fingers white with the effort. She was shaking, her shorts and fishnet stockings swaying slightly with the movement, her black sneakers shifting nervously. Flare was the exact opposite, nearly identical to Jayden. He was rigid, eyes steely and focused on the animatronic in full. His tight green long-sleeve shirt clung to his body, the straps hanging off his brown cargo pants swaying slightly as he shifted his weight with each step back on steel-toed boots. Chess was the strangest, she seemed hyperactive. Her icy blue eyes darted all over the Daycare, taking in every small detail behind her glasses. She was shaking viscerally, her white hair trembling with her and catching on her glasses and into her face. Her pale skin had a sickly look about it as she swallowed heavily, the sleeves of her black undershirt were bunched into her hands, her white overshirt stuck to her like second skin, her white skirt and black thigh-high socks shaking with her.
Jayden turned his focus back on Sun as they all took one more weighted step back. Sun stared at them, unmoving, even his head stopped spinning. Jayden’s heart was in his throat, he had the sudden urge to bolt, he felt far too exposed. Suddenly, Sun let out an ear-piercing shriek and lunged at them, mechanical whirring following every step as he sprinted.
Fuck.