Chapter Text
The door shattered inwards under the force of the fire extinguisher and laughter echoed into the dimly lit service corridor from the cold evening.
“See, that’s how you break down a door without shattering your shoulder, Martyn.” Scott’s voice cut through the still air as the extinguisher clattered over the concrete and torchlight swept across the floor as four teens walked in: Scott, with his blue dyed hair and matching jacket, neat and soft; Martyn quickly followed, green theatre company headband displayed proudly, rolling his eyes at Scott’s mocking tease; then the twins, Pearl in her black hoodie and Grian in his red jumper, Pearl half a step behind, barely getting used to being around her brother and his friends—well, friend singular, Martyn was none of theirs friend. Not anymore.
Pearl grinned, “guess so, but we could’ve avoided the property damage all together by using the open window?” Grian snickered, not that he’d noticed the window, but he could still mock Scott and Martyn’s bickering.
“HA! See Scott! Even- uh-“
“Pearl.” Grian supplied, he didn’t expect Martyn to remember his twin, she hadn’t exactly been in town since.. never mind. He just hoped he’d at least remembered her name. He shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up.
“Yeah, I remember, even Pearl thinks your way was stupid! I totally saw the window and I was going to point it out when you came charging in all heroic!”
The outraged silence only lasted for a moment, but you could hear a pin drop, until Grian shouted:
“WHAT?! Martyn you-“
“-He’s not worth it G-“
“-Yes he is, Martyn you slammed on that door for ten minutes before Scott suggested using a fire extinguisher! Was it some ridiculous test like the rest of this insane outing?? Or are you just trying to save face as usual.”
Martyn winced at the last sentence, but then he laughed, brushed himself off and grinned smugly, “of course! We’re here at the freakiest place in town, and we’re gonna see if we can last til morning! Don’t tell me you guys don’t know the rumours about this place?”
Of course they did. Even Pearl, who’d been absent for years, knew: the kids vanishing around Jumbo’s Family Restaurant and Arcade without a trace, the lawsuits, the endless failed petitions to get the place shut down, the Perfectly Reasonable owner Mr Mumbo Jumbo, willing to let the police look around without even a warrant as if he knew they’d find nothing, nothing, nothing; the hollow faces of the parents who’d lost a child watching just a little too closely, as if it could save someone else’s child. Of course they all knew.
“Of course we know! But those are just rumours Martyn! Mumbo Jumbo isn’t some villain stuffing kids into robots! He’s just a business owner! It’s ridiculous! Okay?!”
“Jeez Gri, don’t be so jumpy, it’s not too late to go running back home to mommy-“ That touched a nerve, Grian hadn’t seen his mum for years after she’d left with Pearl. He slammed his hands into Martyn’s chest and sent him flying into a faded mural on the wall, three animatronics deadened and empty gazes somehow turned to Martyn below. Just a trick of the light.
Scott scowled and put himself between them, times were really rough if he had to be the peacemaker.
“Stop it, both of you, Martyn we’re gonna leave now, you can stay and do your weird game of chicken if you want but there’s no way you’re dragging us into it after-“ he was cut off by a crack of metal on concrete as bars dropped over the door, windows, and judging by the echoes it had happened across the restaurant.
They were trapped.
Martyn laughed. The sort of laugh that started out small and built into the maniacal kind that made you take a step back, he clambered to his feet and flicked his blond hair out of his face.
“What was that you were saying about leaving?”
“Whatever.” Grian finally speaking up again. “It’s not like this place is actually scary, they’re a bunch of kiddy robots, and they’ll all be shut off now, we’ll just wait here until the doors open and slip out before anyone sees us, then we don’t have to talk to you ever again- Pearl where are you going??”
“I mean, they’re all turned off sure, but I haven’t seen these things since I was what? Eight? We gotta go check them out just a bit! I wanna take some pics!”
“She’s right- we haven’t been back here at all really since.. uh, since Pearl left, I’d only just moved here too, we barely got to hang out-“ Scott messed up. Martyn had brought up The Incident on purpose, but what Scott had nearly said was worse. Far worse, because Scott had almost mentioned Jimmy’s name.
Jimmy was Grian and Pearl’s younger brother, or he used to be… he was the first kid to go missing around Jumbo’s Family Restaurant, but far from the last. Ten kids had gone missing after Jimmy. Too many in a small town like this one. Too many for any town or city.
“Go on Grian, or are you too chicken to see some kiddy robots?”
“You guys are the worst at convincing anyone ever,” Grian grumbled as he took out another torch to add to the weak beam fading as Pearl ventured further into the labyrinthine service corridors and followed after her. Scott followed without even a glance back, but Martyn.. Martyn took a moment, staring up at the mural, his eyes glistening. Then he turned to follow, concern splashed across his face as he asked;
“Wait, pictures? Did one of you idiots bring a phone?? Agh! I said not to bring your phones!”
“Martyn it’s not like you’re the most trustworthy guy, and you didn’t exactly give a reason for why we should leave them behind.” Scott patted his pocket lightly, reassuring himself of its presence; but also alerting Martyn to exactly where it was.
He strode forward, grabbing Scott’s arm and stopping him in his tracks.
“I said no phones for a reason.” He hissed in Scott’s ear, snatching the phone from his pocket and throwing it through the gaps in the bars, quietly pleased with himself for his aim, then waiting until he saw it clatter onto the pavement out of reach to release Scott’s arm.
Scott breathed again only when Martyn moved away and reached up to run a hand through his bright blue hair, debating his choices. A hollow wind echoed through the corridor and Scott turned to follow the others; his phone would still be there in the morning, right? And it wasn’t like he had another choice, with Pearl and Grian’s torchlight getting fainter.
The service corridors really were like a maze, full of seemingly dead ends, locked doors, branching passageways and more of those freaky murals of the various animatronics, including a couple extremely old ones murals with animatronics none of them remembered… But, eventually, they made it to a hallway with brighter paints, carpeted floors and complimentary coupons littering the edges. Definitely open to the public.
A clanking thud echoed down the corridor. Definitely not empty.
“I thought you said the security guards only patrol outside??” Scott hissed to Martyn, who looked just as lost as the rest of them.
It was Grian who’s eyes widened with horror as he realized: “that’s not a security guard..”
“Wait but that can’t be right, they should all be shut down, right?” Pearl’s first twitch of panic broke through her curiosity.
“I told you guys! These things are freaky.. let’s go talk to it!”
“Absolutely not-“ Scott grabbed Martyn and Pearl—who was looking like she might also head towards the noises—and dragged them back into the service corridors. Grian pulled the door ajar and a suffocating silence fell, save only for the rhythmic heartbeat of metal on carpet getting steadily louder and louder and louder.
Then came the voice.
“Oh come on Canary- you can’t have lost them this early?! You have to find them before the others do, you can’t fail-“ a scuffle from the corridor caused the animatronic bird to pause as a lot happened at once. Grian drew a heavy, wooden bat from his bag, the handle a dark purple plastic worn with age. Martyn flattened himself against the wall and pulled a small multi-tool from his pocket, knife aimed at the door, his dominant hand controlled and still while his spare arm slowly, ever so slowly, reached into Grian’s bag and slipped his phone up his sleeve. Their friendship was ruined enough already, stealing his phone couldn’t make it any worse. Scott grappled with the ever-curious Pearl and got the first glimpse of the animatronic moving in the hallway:
His first thought was that It was tall. Too tall. Why had they thought these things were cool as kids? They must’ve seemed even larger than they do now. It’s yellow painted exterior seemed flecked with… rust? But that couldn’t be right, there was never any rust at the shows or else the parents would throw a riot. His beak. Why was his beak that sharp. It gleamed, a little paler than his main body. His eyes were the worst. Beady black that just didn’t look Right. He ran his hands along his metal seams, as if trying to calm himself, to convince himself that he was still in one piece.
Who had been talking before? Had it been Canary or someone else? It had to be someone—or something—else, right? The animatronics weren’t programmed to talk on their own, hell, they weren’t even supposed to be able to move on their own beyond a strict path! How the hell was this happening?! Scott’s heart was racing as fast as he was sure Grian, Martyn and Pearl’s were.
It turned towards the feeble door that hid them. Had it heard them? It couldn’t have. It must’ve just gotten lucky. Grian raised his bat, Martyn his knife, Pearl and Scott fell back. Then a voice saved them. Temporarily.
“Canary my good buddy! What’re you doing all the way out here?” The new animatronic—hidden just behind the door, just out of view—gasped and Grian could practically hear the twinkle in his eye.. somehow. “Unless you’re trying to find you-know-whatsits?! Oh man I hope you are! We gotta find these guys before the big M upstairs figures out about all this and frees ‘em!”
“Hey Vex,” Canary’s voice sounded weak, and Martyn held in a scoff, was he frightened of Vex? Neither of them had a set area like most of the animatronics, and walked set paths to help customers. If you got lost, you wanted Canary to find you, unless you had something for Vex, the llama animatronic loved exactly two things: shiny things, and pizza. But still, there had been very little information about what the animatronics were programmed to think about each other.
Martyn had wanted to know more than the others, so he’d read up on all the information about these robotic freaks—except one, but he didn’t need to search up that information, not when he knew it like the back of his hand. He’d wanted to be superior, since he’d set up this game of chicken, and it’s stakes: if even one of them called chicken, they’d all be stagehands for the next show he starred in—which was most of them—but if they all made it then he’d stop bothering them at all… and after Ren.. after so long.. Martyn wasn’t really sure how he’d feel if he never spoke to them again. He’d rather they hated him.
Canary was talking again, clearly trying to sound more confident than he actually was, “like-like you said, I’m looking for them, but I was about to go look uh- somewhere else, you wanna,” he gulped, “you want to come with me?”
“Hmm, no can do Can-Can, you want to know a secret?” A clanking shake of the head, laughter, “of course you do! I think they’re nearby, hiding from us somewhere, somewhere close!”
“Really?” How could a robot’s voice break? Canary somehow managed it, “are you sure you don’t want to come search elsewhere?”
“Nope!” Footsteps grew louder and Grian readied his bat, gaze narrowing as he scrunched his nose to push his glasses up his face.
“Why hello there!”
SLAM!
Grian’s bat made hard contact with the llama’s head. Metal bent. Circuits crackled. Nobody moved.
“We-we-well that was-wa- rude!” Vex’s voice hitched and jumped around, but still, nobody moved.
Martyn ran. He twisted past Vex and threw a kick at Canary (who seemed to be more rusted than only a few minutes ago) with a laugh fueled by fear and adrenaline, knocking the robot off-balance. He spun around right into Vex looming over him. His mouth opened in a violent, metallic shriek, revealing rows and rows and rows of glimmering, sharp, silver teeth.
Martyn yelled. “Who the hell thought a llama needed that many teeth?!” He stumbled out of the swipe launched at his head and felt a hand dragging him away just as he was about to stab it with his knife.
“Run you idiot!” Pearl yelled, grabbing his other arm too and throwing him around into a run.
“But!-“
“No time just run!” Scott interrupted, sprinting past, his hair a mess and eyes wide with terror.
A door up ahead. Big and strong and—hopefully—easily barricaded from the other side. Laughter rang out. Broken. Full of static. Grating awful laughter and the horrid sound of heavy footsteps growing closer. Closer. Closer.
Scott didn’t know why he’d frozen a moment to look at Canary, something had just felt.. wrong about him. Maybe it was how he seemed to be rusting in front of him. Maybe it was how anxious he’d been about Vex finding them. Maybe it was how he hadn’t mentioned attacking them once.
Or maybe Scott was just terrified. Whatever it had been that froze him, he broke through and sprinted past Pearl grabbing Martyn, past Grian only hesitating to make sure Pearl was okay.
Grian didn’t know how they made it. He saw a flash of yellow but that had to be his imagination, right? It couldn’t have been Canary helping them, he had no reason to. He’d been searching for them just like Vex had been: to kill them before Mr Jumbo could find and save them.
“Are we where I think we are?” Pearl said in a hushed tone as Grian’s torch cut an arc through the darkness; illuminating tables, chairs, arcade machines… and the main stage. Grian froze. Light shaking with his hands before he stifled the feelings, the memories of that last day before Jimmy.. No, not right now, he had Pearl back and that was enough.
“Yeah, we’re at the main-“ the door flew open and Martyn threw himself against it, straining as he fought the weight of the animatronic on the other side.
Grian joined him, forcing the white-painted metal arm out of the room with a yelp while Pearl and Scott dragged the nearest table closer, heaving it over the linoleum floor with a teeth shattering wail. Martyn jumped out the way and pulled Grian away just as the door tried to open and closed the distance between the table and itself, nearly crushing the two teens.
An annoyed sigh echoed and footsteps faded, had he really given up that easily? Or had something else happened? Was he leaving to try come in another door? Would they have to block all the exits until morning? None of them liked the sound of that, but they weren’t sure there were many other choices.
“Well that wasn’t exactly fun.” Grian sighed, picked up his bat from where it had been flung in the chaos and checked it for dents or splinters. No one replied.
They stood in the dark for a moment before Pearl picked up a torch and flicked it on, “so what did that guy- Vex? Say about ‘the big M upstairs’? He’d let us out? It has to be Mr Jumbo right, his first name’s Mumbo, isn’t it? We have to find him and hope he doesn’t arrest us for breaking in!”
Martyn scoffed, “arresting us is the least he might do.” Grian stepped forward to interrupt, but then he continued, “But it’s better than being ripped apart by those monsters.”
“I guess you haven’t totally lost your sense.” Grian conceded, but Martyn just looked away, a confusing, messy mix of emotions flashing across his face.
Pearl looked between them and then over to Scott, she hadn’t been here after Jimmy went missing in this very building—hell, in this very room; he’d last been seen by the main stage—to see the collapse of their friendship group: she’d barely gotten to know Scott and had only heard about what Martyn did through Grian’s messages; she’d been heartbroken to find out that her twin hadn’t been exaggerating about Martyn, who had started talking again.
“Jumbo’s offices are at the top of the building, there’s not much online about them, but the staircase should be somewhere private, so any ‘staff only’ doors are our best bet.” His face was casual again, like the genuine, vulnerable expression had never been there; but his voice was strained, and his eyes darted around like he was searching for something in the darkness.
Scott kicked a silver box in the nearest corner and it sprang open to reveal a maze of wires, switches, and repeaters. He scoffed; none of them were great with this stuff so there goes his plan to get the lights working with a cool flick of a switch like in the movies.
“Uh that’s just a breaker, all you’d be able to do is shut off or turn on power, not the lights themselves,” Grian pointed out with a laugh and Scott snickered.
“I didn’t think you were any good at this crap, how’d you know what a breaker is?”
“Ah I know a couple of electronics nerds, you hang around them enough and you’ll start to pick up bits and pieces.” Grian flushed with embarrassment as Scott laughed again.
But then something strange happened: purple text flashed across the tiny screen and a light appeared above one of the switches. Scott flicked it. The air hummed with electricity and the stage lights flickered and came to life, revealing three animatronics huddled in the back of the stage, and they were… talking? Murmuring about something, maybe a plan? Maybe making a deal?
Then they saw them.
One moved faster than seemed possible for a robot that large; her snake body whipped across the stage in a flash of green as the teens scattered: Pearl and Grian slipped behind a table, Scott skidded on his knees behind an arcade machine, but Martyn… Martyn froze on the spot, his gaze fixed on the two animatronics still at the back of the stage:
A beaver holding a microphone… and a dog holding a guitar.