Chapter Text
Tony pulled his biking to a halt as he arrived at school. In a haste, he rolled it into the bike rack near the entrance and locked it in place. As soon as he saw Rab come into view he ran up to him. If he were in Rab’s shoes right now he probably would’ve had a heart attack with how fast he came up to him. However that didn’t matter, Tony had to get this out now, or else GGY would continue to commit these heinous acts and more people would go missing.
“You’re not going to believe what I just discov-” Tony let out, panting in between words, voice urgent to fit the tone of the message he was just about to send before getting cut off.
“We edited the story.” Rab interrupted him, he seemed almost bored.
“…Huh?” The words he was just about to say seemed to get caught in his throat as Rab said those four words. He was only slightly offended with how uninterested Rab seemed, it was like Tony could discover the cure to cancer and Rab wouldn’t even bat an eye.
“We edited the story yesterday and printed it out, I gave it to Boots but he seems to not be here..” Rab didn’t even look him in the eyes, his lips perched as he let out this bombshell of information. Tony was more than struck dumb, his breathing became slightly hitched.
“When will he be here? Didn’t he say he’d arrive around like- fifteen minutes late yesterday?” He spat out, he can’t let his good story go to waste because Boots decided today was a good day to not show up.
“Don’t know.” Rab tilted his head, eyes still unfocused, as if he was in thought trying to remember something. “Hope he’s okay though.”
“But- The story! The story Rab! We’re going to get a zero if we don’t have anything to turn in!”
Multiple cogs were turning in Tony’s head all at once, why the hell is Boots not here? How much of the story did they change? What are they going to tell Ms. Soto?– Ms. Soto! She needs to know about this right now! Tony whipped his head around, body following after, not even stopping to listen to what Rab might’ve had to say. He never speed walked as fast in his life, he would’ve ran but there were people watching, wouldn’t want to go down the popularity ladder because he got caught doing something out of the ordinary. He power walked up the three flights of stairs separating him from a failing grade. Nearly slamming the door open, Ms. Soto’s first period class eyes looking up at him, ignoring their gazes, he waltzes over to her desk and attempts to explain the situation.
His voice was frantic, but he tried sounding professional in front of her, “Ms. Soto, I’m really sorry to tell you this but Boots seems to have the story and he probably won’t be here before the bell, I hope you-”
“Why is he the only one with the story? I thought you would’ve all had a copy.” She said, switching tabs on her laptop before turning to look at him.
“I gave the story to Boots and Rab so they could look over it, but they didn’t give me a hard copy after they finished. I- I can show you what I wrote digitally though!” Tony forced a smile, hoping it’d be enough to save his grade.
She hummed, “Mmm, but I specifically stated that you need to hand in a hard copy or you’d get a zero.”
“But-”
“No buts Tony, you should’ve known that from the beginning. Now let me give you a pass so you aren’t marked late.”
Tony couldn’t do anything but stand there looking absolutely dumbstruck as the bell rang. Ms. Soto handed him his “pass” (which was just a piece of paper with his signature on it) and shooed him away. He could only sulk away, eyes still on him. He made his way to his first period class and handed his teacher the sorry excuse of a pass. He tried distracting himself from what Ms. Soto told him by looking around the classroom, but he zeroed in on one particular spot. Seeing the empty desk that belonged to Boots- no, Ellis, Tony’s stupid friend didn’t deserve a “numb de plumb” anymore, not after this anyways. Tony would be working with Rab only from now on, only after he talks some sense into Ellis’s thick skull first after school ends. Seeing the empty desk that belonged to Ellis made Tony more than angry. He kept occasionally glancing at the door, just in case Ellis and his big dumb smile would show up.
“You seem stressed out, what did Ms. Soto tell you?” Tony was snapped out of his thoughts by Rabs voice. He turned to look at him, he had the same bored, almost calculated expression as he did in the morning.
“She told me we had to bring her a physical copy, Rab.” Tony placed his palm on his forehead as he leaned back in his seat dramatically.
“You don’t have to call me Rab anymore, Tony, assignment’s over you know.” Rab- Greg told him, completely ignoring the fact their grades were just about ruined now.
“You’re overly calm about this.”
“Sometimes you have to fail once to succeed, Tony. Consider it a learning experience.”
“That’s one way to look at it.” Tony sighed, defeated, eyes turning towards the door once again. “Where do you think Ellis is right now?”
“Probably at home enjoying himself,” Greg’s eyebrows furrowed, “can’t believe he’d do that to us. It’s not like he’d benefit from this because he’d also be failing.”
Those words seemed to only make Tony more agitated as he thought about Ellis skipping school to play some childish computer game, in fact, it wasn’t even out of character for him to do so. Tony was seething so incredibly hard he couldn’t even focus on what his teacher was talking about, he’d probably have to ask around for notes later. Head in his hands as if he were a mother grieving the loss of their child, an exaggeration really, but it described how he felt performing the action.
“Tony, you’re just going to stress yourself out thinking about it. Just forget about it, you can talk to Ellis after school.”
“That’s exactly what I’m planning to do, Greg.” Tony snapped back, irritated, immediately mumbling a “sorry” after.
“Hey,” an unknown voice let out, quite frankly startling Tony, it was stupid, really.
Tony turned to face the direction the voice came from, only to be greeted by the person who sat in front of him with papers in hand. Tony gingerly took the papers, taking one out of the small stack before passing the rest to the person behind him. He took a quick glance at his classwork, linear equations, just with that quick glance he knew he could do those in his sleep, he might as well have a free period. Couldn’t say the same for Ellis though (if he were here), he’s known him for most of his life to know he’s particularly bad at math.
The class started getting louder as friends paired up with each other to work on the assignment, not that it was needed though, it was incredibly simple, to Tony anyway at least. More or less in a blink of an eye Tony finished the assignment and turned it in earlier, with around half an hour of class time left to spare. Still reeling from Ellis not showing up, he tried to prepare the “speech” he’d give him when he shows up at his house to confront him. Greg’s words appeared in his head again, “Consider it a learning experience.” a learning experience, he’s got that right. Tony has learned his lesson on not letting Ellis get his grubby hands on his hard work. Despite how much he wanted to do nothing the entire class period, he needed to get his mind off of Ellis and how pissed off he is at him somehow. So he did his work deliberately slower than what was usual for him.
“Ease up, Tony.” Greg said out of the blue, he had a look on his face Tony couldn’t quite pinpoint.
“How am I supposed to do that?” Tony replied, pressing the side of his head against his finished paper on the dark stained oak desk.
Greg tilted his head, almost stumped, before speaking again, “why don’t you and me work together on their paper then?”
“I already finished, so I don’t need help.”
“..Do you want to talk about it?” Greg asked, Tony could only assume with sympathy in his voice
“Talk about what?”
“Ellis.”
Tony rolled his eyes, “what is there to talk about? What I have to say certainly isn’t anything positive.”
“Just, anything really. Bubbling up your anger isn’t good, soon enough, that bubble will burst.”
Tony looked him in the eyes, “Okay. I’m mad at Ellis for not showing up today bringing the story. Are you happy?”
“Uh huh… keep going.”
“What is there to ‘keep going’ about?” Tony dramatically held his arm out to Greg, “how I wish he’d just.. mature already?!”
“Maybe you’re being too hard on him, maybe he has a reason for being absent.” Greg stated absentmindedly.
Tony gave him a look, “Didn’t you just say he was probably at home enjoying himself?”
“I’ve had more time to think about it, maybe he’s caught up in some family business!”
“You say that as if he’s a member of an organized crime gang.”
“Maybe he is! He’s probably stupid enough to do that, hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did something and got himself killed!” Greg laughed at the last part.
Tony couldn’t help but feel uneasy at that, but he went along with it, knowing Greg was only toying the idea around for laughs, “haha.. yeah, he’s going to end up in the back of ambulance someday and we’ll be there looking at him, as if to silently say ‘told you so’.”
Greg seemingly found the idea hilarious, his laugh booming as he crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, ignoring the looks he got from the people around them, “he’s such a moron, always manages to find trouble, intentionally or not.”
Tony was about to speak before he was cut off, “One time he tried sticking his hand into the hole of a claw machine and got a really bad cut from a piece of metal sticking out.”
Tony felt a smile creep up onto his face, while he was annoyed at Ellis right now, the way Greg always talked about him was endearing he couldn’t help but genuinely piggyback off of it this time.
“Gosh, I remember when we were really young, I remember when he climbed on top the monkey bars and fell, and then didn’t get back up. Nearly gave my six year old self a heart attack!” He beamed, “can’t believe he was that much of a trouble magnet even back then..”
Class soon ended and they were the last people out of the room, probably annoying the people waiting to get into class. He couldn’t believe that actually talking to someone could take his mind off of what was annoying him, but that still didn’t mean it was fully gone, in fact, it stuck out like a sore thumb. Talking about what dumb things Ellis did in the past couldn’t erase the dumb thing Ellis did right now. Soon enough, Tony eased back into annoyance as he passed by Ellis’s sticker-covered locker, looking for a sign it had been opened, perhaps dirty shoe prints on the ground in front of it, but found nothing. Rolling his eyes as kids walked past him in the crowded hallway, he managed to worm his way into the crowd of people, walking as fast as he could to get to his other class. Gregory seemed to have wasted all of his social battery in first period, seeing as he didn’t mutter a word to Tony throughout second, locked in one of his frigid stares as they sat through the most boring lecture of their lives. Rinse and repeat for the next four classes and Tony could barely keep his eyes open.
It was only until lunch that Tony remembered he forgot to tell Greg what he saw. As he sat down at his usual spot, opening his paper bagged lunch to be greeted by the same ham and cheese sandwich (he was getting sick of it at this point) like he always has. He waited for Greg to appear from the insanely long lunch line. Tony always wondered why Greg didn’t just pack his own lunch. Maybe that’d be his next mystery, he joked to himself, cracking a small smile. The unstable table tilting against the slightest bit of pressure snapped him out of his little trance though, as he turned to see Greg with his school made macaroni and cheese with store bought cornbread.
“Why didn’t you get a fruit cup?” Tony asked in a sarcastic manner.
“Because it tastes nasty?” Gregory explained, seemingly not getting the joke.
“And the rest of.. that,” Tony gestured to the slop on his lunch tray, “doesn’t?”
“It's just bearable enough.” Greg replied as he shoved a spoonful of macaroni in his mouth. Tony resisted the urge to gag at the sight.
Suddenly remembering for the second time what he was meant to tell Greg, “I forgot to tell you, but I think I have solid proof of GGY's wrongdoings.”
Gregory went frigid before seemingly snapping back into place like a wood frog defrosting in the spring.
“..who?” He asked, before answering his own question, “oooh you mean that guy you wrote a story based on?”
“Yeah.. I think they’re responsible for-“
“Just drop it Tony.” Greg said bluntly.
“Excuse me?”
Gregory put his hand over Tony’s shoulder, “this guy seems really dangerous, I don’t want them to find out about you writing a paper on them and you end up getting hurt.”
“..How would they find out?
“They’re smart, you stated that yourself, there’s probably a way for them to figure it out.” Greg gave Tony a look of protectiveness, like he was genuinely worried about him, which he most definitely was.
“But.. I’m worried about the future of that big dome of a mall,” he half joked, he really couldn’t imagine what it’d be like without it. “Who knows what will happen if GGY continues their reign of terror..”
“That’s not something you can decide Tony, you’re essentially powerless over this evil mastermind who has taken full control of the animatronics.”
Tony wanted to argue but he knew it’d be useless, “..At least it made for a good story.”
“I guess, one we didn’t even get a grade on because someone didn’t show up.” Tony could feel the salt oozing out of Greg’s voice.
“And I’m the one who needs to ease up,” he laughed, “I just hope Ms. Soto gives us a chance next class..”
“C’mon, you know she’s not, lady’s got a stick up her rear and you know it.”
Tony couldn’t help but chuckle a little bit, he knew making jokes at others expense was wrong, but it was only fair for Ms. Soto to receive said treatment, “let a man dream, Greg.”
“Ugh, forget dreaming!” Greg said, running his fingers through his hair, “She’s a total nightmare!”
He cracked another smile at that. They continuously cracked jokes until the lunch period was over, and even then they couldn’t help themselves. They were nearly in tears as they entered Ms. Soto’s class, they had to chill out before sitting down in their seats all the way in the back. Once more, Tony remembered the lack of Ellis in the room, and how he probably ruined his grade in this specific class. Now he was annoyed again, absolutely incredible.
“I just want to say, class,” Ms. Soto began, “I’m quite impressed with the amount of effort you put into your stories, however some seemed to have missed the mark on what I was asking you.”
Tony could feel her piercing eyes turn towards him, wasn’t his fault, he actually did the assignment how she asked and someone in charge of taking it home and bringing it back failed to show up!
Ms. Soto turned away from him in favor of the general direction of the entire class, “Some of the stories I’ve read fail to tie these loose threads together, there were attempts to, but they ultimately fell flat. Which is why I’ve decided to change today's lesson to specifically be about this topic.”
Tony turned to Greg, and Greg stared back.
“Lady’s got a stick up her rear and you know it!” Greg’s past words bounced in his head, he couldn’t help but giggle as he stared at him.
“You think this is funny?” Ms. Soto snapped, he could’ve sworn she had super hearing to make up for her poor eyesight.
“No ma’am..” he muttered, looking down to hide his cheeky grin before Ms. Soto turned away, grabbing a piece of chalk and writing on the blackboard. Tony didn’t even bother paying attention, she was a great teacher don’t get him wrong, but he knew he wasn’t one of the people who failed to grasp the point of the writing project.
Tony found himself taking glances at the door again like in first period, watching to see if Ellis would appear, but obviously, he didn’t. I mean, who doesn’t show up for the entire day only to go to last period? Weird people, that’s who, weird people who also like karaoke. Tony found himself tapping his pencil rhymically, along with half hazardly doodling on extra sticky-notes he had on his desk. That was until he drew an arcade machine with the big letters “GGY” written on the screen. He blinked, once, twice, three times, before hastily erasing it, he really needs to get his mind of of this stupid assignment… Unfortunately, the only way to do that would be to confront the problem head on, said problem being Ellis.
“You’re getting mad again, Tony.” Greg said, whispering loud enough he could hear him even if they were two desks away from each other, the desk between them belonging to Ellis of course.
“Sorry, I can’t help it.” Tony mumbled back, “just being in this class reminds me of it.”
Greg let out a very audible breath through his nose, he couldn’t help but feel as if he was the one being over dramatic this time. Tony felt the urge to fall asleep again, sitting through boring classes the entire day only fueled his exhaustion as well. With Ms. Soto’s voice going on and on in the background no one could blame him if he took a little rest, right? He’d just close his eyes for a little bit..
Tony awakened to Ms. Soto tapping on his desk with a yardstick, “No sleeping in my class. I bet you didn’t even learn anything from my lesson.”
“I-”
Before he could even finish getting his word out, Ms. Soto interrupted him, “State one thing you remember from the lesson, Tony.”
Ms. Soto’s harsh tone left Tony sputtering, absolutely speechless, he spat out what came to mind first. “To- to tie loose threads you’ll have to use.. foreshadowing?”
Her eyes continued to pierce into his soul, seeming unsatisfied with the answer she was given, but ultimately decided to not drill him further, Tony would’ve let out the biggest sigh of relief if it wouldn’t have gotten Ms. Soto back on his tail. He continued to feel on edge, staring at the barren plaster walls, the size of the classroom made him feel way smaller in the moment. He turned to Greg for some kind of reassurance and was met with a sympathetic look, kind of like the ones he used to make when Ellis got in trouble while he was at his house.. God everything seemed to be reminding him of Ellis wasn’t it. Maybe he should start planning for what he was going to say to him when he decides to show his face again. He took in a breath before clasping his hands together.
“Tony.” He heard Greg’s voice speak up.
As he turned towards him once more, he found him holding a stack of assignments. He gingerly took one and passed the rest of them to Zoey. Unsurprisingly, it was an assignment related to the lesson they just did, how predictable, Tony already got four of these for each class. Pressing the eraser part of his pencil to his lips, he read through and answered every question he could before the bell rang, which turned out to be not a lot as the loud bell blared through the building before he even got to the fourth question. Tony bit his tongue, a sour expression across his face as he stared down the assignment, before stuffing it into his backpack. He whipped his head around and saw Greg waiting impatiently by the door, staring at Tony with his big brown eyes before looking at an imaginary watch on his wrist. Tony huffed out another breath before slipping a backpack strap on and following him down the hall all the way to the entrance.
“I’ll catch you later, Tony.” Greg said awkwardly as he made his way to the busses, like he didn’t really want to leave.
Tony just waved him goodbye as he walked up to the bike racks and punched the code into his bike lock. He was always the last person to come and retrieve his bike at the end of school, but no matter. Soon after shoving his bike lock in his bag, he realized he forgot to take out what he needed for the rest of the day. He slowly jogged with his head turned to face his bike to make sure no one stole it, but eventually started full on dashing to his locker to retrieve his things. Entering the code and slamming the locker open, looking to his left and right, making sure no one was watching as he ran back. He was relieved to find that his bike was indeed, not stolen, hoping he wouldn’t topple over with the added weight of his backpack, he hopped on his bike and left school premises.
However, instead of peddling to his house, he decided to bike over to Ellis’s, he’ll just get the confrontation over with. As he peddled through his old neighborhood, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia for it as he pulled up into the driveway in his scuffed bike. Tony took one sentimental look at his old house across the street, before passive-aggressively knocking on the door, not enough to be considered rude, but enough to get the point across. He was ready to give a full on speech to the person who opened the door, especially if it was Ellis himself. Instead he was greeted by a pitiful looking Mrs. David, which immediately shut him up. He planned his next words out carefully, as to not have the door be slammed shut in his face.
“..Can I speak to Ellis? I need to talk to him, like right now.” Tony tried not to show any anger in his voice but it was extremely difficult to do so.
“No, he’s not here.. He didn’t come home last night, and he’s been gone the whole day..” Mrs. David admitted solemnly, from her facial expression he knew she was holding back tears.
“..What?” he asked dumbly, he clearly heard what she said, but it took a bit for the words to click in his brain. “..He- He didn’t?”
“No.. I tried contacting the school if anyone saw him, and they said they hadn’t.. I just filed for a missing persons report a few hours ago.” Tony could see a small tear stream down her face before she wiped it away as quickly as it came.
“Missing!? Where was he last?” Obvious worry seeping into his voice, one might’ve gotten whiplash from how quick of a 180 he took.
Mrs. David pulled out her phone, Tony assumed it was to check the last conversation she had with Ellis, “He texted me last night that he’d be going to the Pizzaplex.”
“Pizzaplex..” He mumbled, even more cogs were turning in his head than before, he had just come to the conclusion that the Pizzaplex was an extremely dangerous place to be right now after his encounters with Glamrock Freddy. His school counselors were also going missing there and with GGY in the mix..
“Mhm.. have you seen him there-”
“..Pizzaplex!” Tony interjected, eyes going wide with realization, he sprinted towards his bike, he didn’t even have time to thank the poor woman as he almost hopped into his seat and peddled away from her driveway.
The only thing going through his mind right now was the Pizzaplex, how he was putting himself in danger by going there but that thought went in one ear and out the other. Tony felt like if the laws of physics didn’t exist, he’d be sent flying with how fast he was peddling. Taking the shortest route from Ellis’s house to the Pizzaplex, along with taking borderline dangerous shortcuts. Tony could hear dogs barking as he zoomed past them in a blink, feeling every little bump he encountered after riding on the textured sideway. He had childishly stuck his tongue out at the cars who had to wait in traffic when he got to the busier areas. Only to snap his attention back onto the sidewalk after nearly slamming into a stop sign. He didn’t even have time to admire the clouds or take in his surroundings like he usually did while riding his bike. Tony began to slow down as he saw the Mega Pizzaplex come into view.
..As well as police cars with flashing lights and an ambulance along with multiple medical professionals near the entrance. In the distance, he saw the two employees he had talked to in the past, Finbarr and Kathy was it? They were huddled up near each other, talking to law enforcement. Tony could see how red Kathy’s face was, as if she was — or still is — crying, like she saw something horrible, it made Tony’s heart sink down to his legs. He immediately pulled what was left of his bike's momentum to a stop as he practically jumped out of the seat, not caring if his bike was damaged by falling hard on the asphalt concrete. His already scuffed converse pounding against the Pizzaplex parking lot, his brain kept screaming at him to turn back, to listen to everyone else in the past’s advice to “let go and drop it,” but he wasn’t having any of it. It was like a car crash, it was awful, but he couldn’t look away from it.
When he was close enough to the scene, he stopped dead in his tracks. His body started to subconsciously tremble, it felt like the whole world slowed down for a moment, he felt woozy, out of it, even. He resisted the urge to vomit at the sight of the scene, tears threatening to spill. He saw a few strands of black curly hair get caught in between the zipper of a body bag, confirming what he was deathly afraid of happening, at that point he couldn’t contain his voice anymore.
“ELLIS!” He cried out, voice hoarse, as he continued to run towards him.
His legs gave out before him, collapsing to his knees, scraping them and tearing through his cheaply made denim jeans, now only a few feet away from the now zipped up body bag, some sort of white noise started blaring through his ears, drowning out the voices of authorities telling him he couldn’t be here. He felt like he could breathe even if he tried. His mother’s breathing exercises she taught him whenever he threw a tantrum as a toddler and carried over to his preteens didn’t help at all.
And the smell, oh god the smell..
It was revolting.