Chapter Text
The world seems to still as dusk blankets the quaint little farming town. Animals still, lulled to sleep by cricket song, and the few souls still out meander home- eager to escape the settling darkness. A lone man stands, cloaked in shadow, at the humble graveyard gate. He is holding an axe, with every intent to use it against an unseen intruder. The guardsman strains to hear anything out of place in the quiet hum of night, some footstep or cough, the scraping of metal against hard earth, but finds nothing. His night will be largely uneventful, a fact that will both comfort and dismay him.
Miles away, in a field just outside the capital sits the smouldering remains of a circus. Come morning, there will be reports and investigations. Important people will say it’s such a shame. The fire will make the front page news. Frederick Fazbear’s Traveling Autonomous Circus was incredibly popular after all, and rumours about its safety, or lack thereof, had been spreading for years. Such a compelling story will demand the front page.
But tonight, amongst the ash and smoke, all is quiet. The meager few human staff long since fled the scene, leaving nothing but popcorn-scented ruin.
“What do we do?”
Ruin, and two clockwork clowns all stained with soot.
“We need to leave. Now,” the silver automaton hisses as he attempts to pull his brass twin away from the wreckage.
All they have ever known is gone, taken from them in one night. They both know they cannot linger. The brass clown takes one last look at the remains of the circus, their former home, former prison. His sculpted smile cannot betray his emotions in this moment.
He turns, and follows his twin into the inky black night.
For all their traveling, this is by far the most Sun has ever walked. Under ideal circumstances it would not have been that bad, he had no muscles to tire after all, but current circumstances were less than ideal.
Ash grinds his gears with every step, an irritating itch he has no power to stop. Sun can only hope it doesn't leave lasting damage as they wander along the countryside and into a dense, dark forest. It is obvious they are lost and out of their depth as they stumble over roots and through foliage. They weren’t made for this.
They don’t stop moving.
Whenever one of their movements starts to slow and stutter, the other winds them back up, powering them as hours turn to days of nonstop walking. An endless cycle. Walk, wind, repeat. Walk, wind, repeat. Try not to trip and fall into mud, can’t risk any further damage. Walk, wind, repeat.
They don’t talk much. Not that they ever talked much. But something about this silence feels different to Sun.
Heavier, somehow.
It worms its way deep into his chest cavity, weaves itself into gears and springs not even the finest ash could reach.
Sun decides he doesn’t like it.
“Sooo,” he starts, leaning forwards, hands behind his back as his companion stills. “Should I be looking for something? Or is our new job ‘walking forever?’”
“Tired already?” The words are about as jovial as Moon can manage, “That’s sad.”
“I’m serious,” Sun protests, “You can’t seriously expect us to just, just wander the woods forever!”
“What do you suggest we look for?” Moon hisses, head swiveling back to glare at Sun, “A town?”
“Well, I don't suppose we'll find another circus out here.” Sun muses, “A nice cave, perhaps?”
Moon does not dignify the attempt at levity with a response. He simply continues walking through dappled sunlight. A songbird fills the silence, its melody closer than it's ever been before.
Sun knows just as well as Moon why they've stayed far away from cities and busy roads. Knows what would happen if they encountered a human interested in the intricacies of their inner workings.
But he also knows they can't keep doing this- walking and hiding and being quiet- forever.
This can't be all that's left.
He follows after Moon, grinding joints making the uneven terrain all the more treacherous.
A few hours and much walking later, the sun is setting once again. Darkness falls fast, all consuming in a way the dim lights of the circus tent never were. It's disorienting, oppressive. He can just barely make out the glint of metal reflecting the pale moonlight as he holds his hand in front of his face. He’s not unfamiliar with the noise of nighttime, crickets and owls and wind, but it’s never been so close before. It’s all he can do to focus on following Moon and not jumping at every little sound, every shifting branch.
So you can't really blame him when Sun stumbles straight into a suddenly stationary Moon.
“Watch it-” “What is it? Did you see something?? Is it scary?!?” Sun’s stage whisper rises into a barely contained shriek, his arms coiling around his companion in a vice grip. A static groan hisses out from somewhere in Moon’s chest. Sun struggles against Moon’s attempts to pull his faceplate out of the long fabric of his hat for just a second before Moon wretches his face forwards.
There’s a clearing, just enough of a gap in the trees to illuminate the scene.
A house- lonely and silhouetted against the sky- towers over the clearing, dirt road overgrown and unused. Something about the building’s dark walls seems to devour what little light the night sky provides, a dark stain against starry skies. Featureless and foreboding, the structure exudes a malice that fills the whole clearing.
Not even the trees want to get too close, their branches arching desperately away from the looming house.
The two just sort of stand there, staring, before Sun pipes up. “Wowie, you did know where we were going this whole time! Never doubted you for a second, friend!” Uncoiling himself from Moon, Sun stands hands on his hips as he properly takes in the sight. It's not the first time Sun longs for the familiar bright colours and warm lights of the circus. Everything about the building seemed wrong; too tall, too dark, too… isolated. There had to be something wrong with it. Some reason it was abandoned.
Moon starts walking again. Towards the decrepit structure.
“Wait wait wait, wait, you're not goingin there, are you?!?” Sun balks, feet planted firmly at the edge of the clearing.
“Do you have a better plan?” Moon’s head swivels back to look at Sun. He doesn’t stop walking.
“Umm, yes! We keep walking and find another circus! Or a nice cave! Or something! Anything but that! Obviously haunted, dangerous house!” he sounded desperate, he knew that. But there is no way Moon was getting him in that… that death trap!
“Thought you were tired of walking,” Head twisting back forwards, he steps up onto the porch.
In the dark blanket of trees, comes the unmistakable sound of nearby movement.
“AHH-Aaaafter you, friend!” Sun scrambles up after him, stumbling through knee high grass and weeds.
It sticks and its hinges groan in protest, but the door is unlocked. There is, unfortunately, nothing stopping the pair from entering. Moon disappears through the door. Sun hesitates, one foot over the precipice, distantly aware that this is the first real building he’s ever entered.
Not that he’s spent much time imagining it, but he’d thought this moment would be… different. Brighter, at least. Chest rising in a steadying, mimicked breath, Sun steps forwards, and is swallowed by darkness.
The floor seems… secure enough, at least. He can’t feel any rotting boards that might collapse under him. Sun doesn’t say anything as Moon wanders into the depths of the house. Doesn’t follow him either. Moon can do whatever he wants, Sun is not following him a single step further! It won’t be him getting attacked by a ghost or falling through rotting floorboards, no siree!
No, he’s going to stay riiiight here, nice and close to the door. If Moon has anything to say about it, Sun will just say he was standing guard for a change! That’ll wipe the metaphorical grin off his stupid face! Sun is…
Is….
Surprised by how quiet it is, all of the sudden. The circus was never this quiet. Always someone doing something. Even when it was just Moon and him these last few days, at least there was the sound of them passing through foliage.
It’s just him and the gentle rhythm of his internal clockwork now.
Delicate clockwork all filled with ash. It’s a wonder nothings broken. Sun is tired, he decides. That’s a new one. He’s felt plenty of things machines like him aren’t made to feel, but never tired.
This deep exhaustion is nothing like anything he’s felt, not even like when his clockwork sputters and slows and he needs to be rewound.
He doesn’t spare a thought to the state of the floor as he sinks down down down, he’s been filthy for days now anyway. He just wants to rest. Heh, that’s a good one. A machine needing a nap. Visions of how he’d spin that joke for the crowds before a show dance through Sun’s head as he drifts into something like sleep.
Awareness returns slow and thick, and it takes Sun a minute to catch up with what he’s seeing. Hazy light filters through cracks in the shutters in a window he didn’t notice before, revealing a… relatively normal if messy entranceway. Huh. Someone’s tracked mud through the door, the stain dark and heavy, and everything is covered in a thick layer of dust, but if he looks past that it seems almost… normal?
He almost feels a little silly for getting so worked up. Almost.
He stares at the dark stain, thick and caked into the floorboards, as he slowly stands. Something about this place still feels off to him. In ways he can’t quite explain.
He’ll feel better once he finds Moon. They can talk, figure out a proper plan, and Moon will mock Sun for getting so scared last night, and everything will be fine. Normal.
Yes! There’s a good idea! Finally, seems like the first one he’s had in days now! He dusts himself off as best he can, and starts on his quest to find his companion.
Which is… easier said than done, Sun soon learns.
The house is just as huge as it seemed last night, maybe even bigger. Rooms upon rooms upon rooms all covered in dust and full of hiding spots that slowly start to bleed into each other. Is this the third study, or the first again? Sun isn’t really sure. The winding halls are nothing like he’s used too and it's so easy to get turned around. He’s used to feeling out of his depth by now, though, so he treks on, one set of footsteps echoing through empty halls.
It’s late afternoon, if he had to guess, by the time he stumbles across the kitchen, where exactly two things stand out to Sun;
One, Moon standing stock still staring into an open cupboard.
And two, there is no trace of dust or grime anywhere. The entire kitchen is utterly spotless.
And he is far too focused on the first to take proper stock of the second.
“There you are! I’ve been looking aaallll over for you, y’know?” Moon closes the cupboard and stares at Sun. “Hiding’s rude.”
“Did you miss me?” Moon’s monotone voice makes it a bit hard to tell, but Sun is pretty sure he’s being mocked.
“How can we decide where to go next if you’re hiding from me?” Sun responds, frustration bleeding into his voice.
“We can stay here.” He continues at Sun’s groan, “since you’re so tired of walking.” Oh yeah. He’s being mocked all right.
“You’re never going to let that go, are you?” Sun says, mostly to himself. “But seriously, here? You don’t think there’s something wrong about this place at all?” He gestures around the perfectly normal kitchen.
“We have nowhere to go. We stay here until we think of an actual plan.”
The words are final. Moon isn’t leaving, so Sun isn’t leaving, simple as that. As frustrating as it is, Sun knows he won’t make it far on his own.
With that decided, Sun leaves the kitchen, intent on finding some sort of rag or something to start cleaning. If he must stay here, then he might as well start tidying up.
It’ll be good to be busy again.
As he wanders into the relative darkness of the hallway, mind dead set on cleaning, he fails to notice a door, cracked barely open. He also fails to notice the door widen just slightly as he passes.
Had he not been so lost in thought, perhaps he might have even seen the figure, watching him from the darkness beyond the door.