Chapter Text
Memories were a confusing jumble that made no sense.
Everything had been dark until you crawled and dragged yourself out of that fathomless darkness. It was…something of a conundrum to figure out what you wanted to do once out of the darkness.
A dilapidated old-looking Freddy Fazbear Pizzeria. It looked like this place had been long since closed and abandoned, just like all the others.
Lifting your head, you found there to be a disconnect between your movements and your body. It felt both heavy and lights at the same time, a soft rustling sound as you made an attempt to lever yourself upright. That didn’t go well as you lost your balance and collapsed right back to the dingy, broken floor. A peculiar twang rang out in the otherwise silent as the grave room.
You leaned your head to the side, vision flickering before it solidified.
Freezing up, you don’t dare move when you see an arm lying about a foot away from you.
It was made up of black fabric that went to the palm, before there were white stripes that went across and around the elongated fingers, the fingers themselves claw-like at the tips of each.
What…was that?
It wasn’t moving.
Warily, you maneuver yourself up again, alarmed when the arm moved in response. As soon as you froze in place, so did that strange arm. Shifting, you slowly move your left arm into view, as if to ward off whatever that other arm belonged to.
But what came into your vision was another fabric black arm, with that larger hand and white-striped clawed fingers.
Oh.
Okay.
Those were your arms.
…why were these your arms? They didn’t look right, according to what little of your scattered memories you could reach upon just waking up. Belatedly, you realize that you aren’t breathing. Alarmed static noises issue out from you in response and that really, really did not help with this situation whatsoever.
What the hell was going on?
Why were you moving and yet not breathing?
Why was your body so hard to move?
Mirror…
Where was a mirror?
Since you couldn’t stand, you dragged yourself with those unfamiliar arms, claws digging into the rotten floor beneath as you find a broken piece of glass on the floor beneath a fallen over, rickety chair.
What you saw made you cry out in alarm, a static ringing noise overtaking any possible attempt at actual words.
A white marionette mask, with the eyes cut out to show the optics contained within the dark fabric beneath. There were black streaks like tears that fell from the bottom of the ‘eyes’ to stop above a wide mouth, sharp fangs covering the top and bottom of the 'mouth', the rest the dark fabric behind the mask. Odd, short black smudged above and below the mouth like lips. The rest of the body below the mask was emaciated-looking; the torso was larger, the metal ribcage exaggerated through the fabric, with what might have been spots for buttons long gone. The body tapered down to a hilariously thin waist that was attached to equally long legs that merely ended in points.
This…was you?
A weird puppet-marionette thing that looked like it was out of someone’s nightmares (sleep-paralysis demon, perhaps)?
What made you reel back and sprawl out on your back with a metallic clang were the pinpricks of white that appeared within the mask’s empty black eyes, that somehow gave off a fearful expression despite the eerie static open-mouthed grin on the mask.
Darkness again.
You didn’t go looking for glass as you pulled yourself up to those pointed ends of what laughably passed for your feet. You didn’t think about the whole not breathing thing and in fact began to simulate it just to settle the panicked buzz in your mind. Teetering around unsteadily, you lurch toward the doors that hopefully led out of this place, away from the distressingly large chunk of missing floor on the opposite side of the building.
There more only more questions when you used those large striped hands to shove both doors open.
What in the world?
How was this place in an underground cavern?!
Just how long had this Freddy Fazbear Pizzaria been closed down, and how had you ended up inside of it?
What was going on?
…
Time had passed by for so long that you’d automatically traversed through the strange place without really noticing it, as if feeling compelled down a certain path. One that you weren't certain how you knew to follow. Flickering white dots within your mask's eyes appearing and disappearing at will as you made your way through darkness and past signs of life.
Broken pieces of Fazbear history were strewn all over, along with masks lying about with facsimiles that resembled your own.
Your...face?
...best not to think about it until you had a better idea of what was going on.
The sight of those masks made you distinctly uncomfortable.
Not questioning it, you pass through to a dump filled with garbage and broken animatronics, to something like an underground bunker. But for some reason your mind (AI, or whatever it was now) made you believe it to be a maintenance area of some kind.
This, you didn't question.
By now you'd gotten used to moving about on what seemed like peg legs, though you still staggered and swayed, hand slapping the walls now and again to shove yourself upright.
Avoid everyone.
That was one thing that kept coming back to you.
At times, it felt like you were being watched, even though you couldn't sense anything nearby. You weren't even sure how you were able to tell this, but you did manage to evade all the animatronics roaming about with flashlights.
As soon as you emerge out of the maintenance area, you know for sure you are being watched. And watched by something you couldn't see as that crawling sensation became worse than before.
A stay jingle rang out in the quiet.
It wasn't coming from you.
You take a cautious step forward.
Something gently brushed the top of your mask.
You surged forward with an alarmed static blaring note.
Danger.
The air displaced overhead.
Someone or something had moved, but a quick glance up provided nothing but the rafters of whatever this gaudy neon filled place was.
You begin to move again.
This time, as you rounded a corner while keeping an eye (optic lens?) out, large hands drop onto your shoulders, fingers flexing as if to grip.
Danger.
You were in danger.
Avoid the danger.
Escape.
You needed to get away.
Your...sensors (?) were blaring the alarm at you in force that whatever was overhead was an immediate danger to you, and perhaps others. Moving with a speed you didn't realize you had, nor your pursuer from overhead expected, you raced down a hallway that didn't have a tall ceiling. A thump of footsteps landing on the floor signaled your unseen shadow was giving chase, and from the heavy footfalls, it was another animatronic.
Hide.
Safety.
Throwing yourself over a railing, you tumbled and righted yourself, your pursuer keeping pace, until you launched yourself up, up, up and climbed into the rafters yourself. Not giving thought to how you could move so adeptly through the dark without falling, you allowed your body to lead you to wherever it was headed. You needed to find a safe place to process all of this, and to hide from possible danger. Before you knew it, you had found that safety.
There was a little cozy cafe a short distance away from where you were, and as you swiftly land, you could hear muffled shrieks of delight from unseen children nearby. Resisting the urge to go and see that the children were all right (for some reason) you hastily slip into the cafe, somehow managing to smell the coffee that lingered within the small space.
Footsteps hit the floor outside the cafe, accompanied by a jingling.
Darting forward, almost tripping your ungainly nightmarish puppet body in the process, you find a hiding spot behind a booth in the back corner. Moving the booth with your deceptively strong grip, you slip through the hole in the wall into the room.
How did you know to look there?
There'd been no indication that it had been there, but you'd just instinctively known it was there.
No time to think about it.
Those footsteps were getting closer.
Tugging the booth back into place, you swiftly survey the area. It was just big enough for you to lie down in either direction where you had about two feet left of space in either direction. Cramped, but cozy, with the scent of the cafe coffee and pastries bringing nostalgia and comfort to you.
A slow drag of claws against the wall sounded, causing you to back away from the hole in the wall to stare at the booth.
The clawing noise halted, followed by a pointed fist hitting the wall.
"Knock knock, trespasser." A low voice crooned.
You kept your static ringing under control this time and remained completely motionless but for the flickering of the white optic lenses.
"Hidey hide away." A single final knock, managing to come off as ominous. "Come out and play, puppet who is not controlled by string,"
You didn't move.
Suddenly, not being able to breathe in this large marionette body was a plus.
The voice grumbled something with what sounded like a metallic click. Then, a low chuckle slipped out, followed by footsteps retreating, without the jingling of those bells.
Silence once more.
You didn't move for hours.
It could have even been days in this dimly lit space, but the mysterious voice didn't return. In here, you were in was safe from others, it seemed.
...but what now?
What was this huge building you found yourself in, built above that abandoned, decaying Freddy Fazbear Pizzaria?
And just who was it that had pursued you, and appeared to know what you were?