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Rab sat up in bed and stretched, feeling rather glad that yet another obstacle in his way had been dealt with. There would always be more, but he’d deal with that when he got there. Tilting his head, Rab noticed a faded SpringBonnie plushie in the bed, which certainly wasn’t there the previous day.
“Hm, that’s odd. Did he always own that?” Rab muttered to himself, leaning forward to pick it up. He turned it over… it seemed like a regular plushie. But Fredbear’s Family Diner merchandise hasn’t been sold in a very long time.
The plushie’s ears straightened up on their own, causing Rab to drop it in surprise. After a few moments, Rab hesitantly grabbed it again. When the plushie didn’t do anything more, Rab gave an annoyed grunt and dropped it back.
“Just seeing things, that's all.” Rab muttered, lying back on his pillow. He didn’t really need to sleep, but this body did, and he certainly felt repercussions should he not get proper rest. It was annoying, considering nighttime was really his only free-time due to having to attend school for cover. Attempting to fall asleep, he felt something slap him in the face.
It wasn’t a very hard slap, almost non-existent, but he still felt it. Opening his eyes a little, he saw that the SpringBonnie plush was definitely a lot closer than it was before.
“Alright, you little…” Rab sat up, grabbing the plush by the throat. Strangely, it seemed caught off-guard by this action, and seemed to be struggling. “What are you? Why are you moving?”
The plush didn’t respond, falling limp in his hand. When Rab didn’t loosen his grip, the plushie began punching at his fingers.
“Fine.” Rab muttered, dropping the plush onto his bed. “Could you go away? Go haunt someone else?”
“No, I will not. I will haunt you, and it shouldn’t take any investigation to figure out why.”
Rab tilted his head. This was… a new development.
“Tony?”
“Yes, it’s me. You jerk!”
“‘Jerk’ is a very underwhelming thing to call your killer, you know.” Rab rolled his eyes. “Why are you even here? People don’t come back once they’re dead, it’s kind of the point.”
“I just have that much willpower to turn your life into hell.”
“That sounded lame, you know.”
“I don’t care! How could you just… kill me like that! I thought we were friends!”
“That was your mistake. Weren’t you and Ellis the ones who approached me? Besides, you were lying to me, too. Pretending you were as clueless as everyone else even though you knew.”
“We were being friendly! I can’t… I can’t even believe I’m still thinking of you like a friend. You’re a murderer! Why would I let you know I was on to you! It wasn’t even just me you killed! There were so many-”
Rab waved his hand in a dismissive manner.
“You got too close to the truth. Pity, maybe if you weren’t so insistent on looking into things you shouldn’t, you’d still be alive.”
“The ‘truth’, referring to your murders?”
“Obviously.” Rab rolled his eyes. “You didn’t even get as far as you could’ve. There was still so much.”
“Why are you talking like that? It’s weird. And why bother saying that?”
“You’re already dead, what are you going to do, expose me? I’m not going to go off listing my crimes anyway. I’m just going to tell you that there’s things you missed, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Rab suddenly pressed down on Tony’s back, pinning him against the bed. “Isn’t that fun?”
“I don’t recall you being so cruel before… then again, I never thought you were a murderer.”
“I’m not going to kill you again, if you’re curious. There’s no point. No risk for you sharing my secrets if you never leave my sight. Though, if you push me too far, I just might go back on that.”
Tony sighed. He’d challenge Rab to just kill him, but then he just might actually do it. What would that consist of? Tearing up his plushie vessel? Burning it? He had no clue what he Rab was capable of anymore.
“Okay, Greg. Let’s just say I was going to go along with that.”
“Don’t call me Greg. That was a part of my cover. You know the truth, so don’t continue the lies.”
“What?”
“Though, I suppose it isn’t all a lie, his name was Greg. Hm… This has never happened before, forgive me for being at a loss.”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about. Gah, stop talking like a forty-year-old man! It’s annoying!”
“Bugging you, aren’t I? I quite liked the Dr. Rabbit pen name. Let’s just keep using that for now.”
If the SpringBonnie toy had a mouth, Tony would bite Rab. Eventually, the strange child lifted his hand, sliding out his bed.
“Seems like I’m not getting that rest after all.”
“Of course you aren’t! I’m going to make sure you never get any sleep again! Then you’ll die of exhaustion!”
“Bad idea, if you knew the full truth. But you don’t, so who cares? It doesn’t bother me too much.”
Tony paused, trying to figure out what Rab meant by that. He let out a frustrated groan; would it kill him to be less cryptic about everything?
“Your tricks won’t work on me! I refuse to be manipulated anymore by you!” Tony folded his arms. “I’ll yell so much your parents hear me, and I’ll tell them everything! I-I don’t know what will happen from there, but at least you’ll be in trouble!”
“Good luck with that.” Rab was looking over a notebook that was lying on his desk. “Really, I’m not lying. In fact, why don’t I bring you to my parent’s room itself? I know it’ll probably take a while with your stubby plushie legs.”
Without waiting for an answer, Rab scooped Tony up off his bed, holding him by his body. With how willing Rab was to do this, there certainly was more to this than it appeared.
“Say hi to Mom and Dad, Tony.” Rab’s smile was an extraordinarily upsetting one. Looking behind him, Tony attempted to scramble out of Rab’s grip, but with his plushie body, didn’t make any progress.
“Alright, I see it! Please, I don’t want to look anymore!”
“I can’t return the favor? If you’re going to ‘make my life hell,’ I should be able to do the same. Though for you, it’s more of the afterlife.”
Tony whimpered and fought against Rab’s grip. He didn’t want to look. He didn’t want to look. The corpses were so decomposed… he did not want to look.
“You killed me! You don’t get that right! Please let me go!” Tony whacked Rab’s hand with his plushie paws numerous times.
“Alright.” Rab muttered, walking back into his room. “Better? You should get used to this.”
“As long as I don’t have to see that ever again.”
“You know, sooner or later, your corpse is going to look like that. I dragged your body rather far down into the Pizzaplex, in a place no one would find it.”
“You couldn’t give me the satisfaction of having a burial? I hate you so much.”
“I really don’t care. As long as you aren’t standing in my way, you can hate me as much as you please.” Rab dropped Tony onto his bed, sitting down at his desk, leaning back.
“I will stand in your way! I will do my best to stop… whatever it is you're doing! I won’t let you sleep! Or anything else!”
“So you’ll take his life? He didn’t do anything to you.” Rab responded, flipping through his notebook once more. “You’ll kill an innocent kid just to ‘stop’ me. It won’t even work, you know.”
“I told you; I’m not going to be manipulated by you anymore.” Honestly, he wasn’t really sure what Rab was going on about anyway.
“Here’s a question, Tony. Are you done with your investigation? I won’t give you hints, no, but you’re free to keep going. Learn to float, though, will you? I can’t carry you around all day. I have things to do.”
“Ugh.” Tony huffed, sitting down with folded arms. Should he even bother? What’s the point! The comment about killing someone innocent was weighing on his mind, but he refused to believe it was even remotely true. “I might as well. I have nothing else to do.”
What was even the last thing he found out about GGY? Or- he should probably call him Greg. He hacked animatronics, killed psychologists, hacked arcade machines… but why? What purpose would that serve?
Rab began stretching in his chair, standing up and shutting the notebook.
“Well, this body can’t stay up any longer, so I must be getting to bed.” Rab dropped the notebook into his drawer, shutting it. “No cheating.”
Rab climbed into bed after shutting off all the lights. Annoyed, Tony moved out his way.
“Hey! I said you aren’t getting sleep anymore! If I can’t, then you can’t!” Tony punched Rab’s shoulder a few times.
“We are not the same, Golden Boy.” Rab muttered. “I’m sure you know that humans need their sleep. I certainly haven’t forgotten.”
“Damn crypticness. I’m tired of it already.” Tony hopped out of Rab’s bed, stumbling over to the desk. Man, if he knew that possession would be a one-time deal, maybe he should’ve chosen Rab instead. What better way to annoy him forever than that?
In the morning, Rab woke to Tony lying face down on the floor.
“Gave up, did you?” At Tony’s lack of a response, Rab crouched down. “Come on, I have to get to school.”
Tony sat up.
“You know, I meant to ask you about that. If your parents are dead, who’s making you go to school?”
“Not your business, it doesn’t relate to anything you were investigating. The school knows they’re dead, but they take pity on me. Don’t realize who actually killed them.” Rab picked up Tony and put him into his backpack.
“The more time I’m forced to spend with you the worse you get. How did I ever become friends with you?”
“I’m very good at pretending.”
“Just... please leave Ellis alone. I can’t bear you going after him, too.”
“I’m not going to do anything to Ellis. He didn’t know anything was going on. You understand the reason why you died, right? Ellis had nothing to do with that.”
Once the two made it to school, Ellis spotted Rab and waved him over.
“Hey, nice bunny plush.”
“It’s SpringBonnie.” Rab responded, putting Tony back in his bag.
“What?”
“Never mind. Did you need something?”
"Yeah. Tony still hasn't turned up yet. I'm worried about him, aren't you?"
"Of course I am, but there isn't anything we can do about it." Rab patted Ellis in the back, his other hand behind his own, keeping his bag top shut.
"Lying little…" Tony muttered from his bag prison, kicking at Rab's books. The strange kid had threatened his stuffing prior to the two arriving, so he stayed quiet.
"Now, we should probably get to class." Rab motioned Ellis forward, and the taller teen gave a small nod.
Tony poked his head out slightly, glancing around the classroom. Annoyed, Rab shoved him back down. He looked over to Ellis, who was sitting beside him, fidgeting with his jacket strings.
"No matter how much you try, you can't just make everyone forget about me! I've known Ellis since I was four!"
"Oh, shut it." Rab hissed, flicking Tony back into the bag. Sitting up, he folded his arms.
"Did you say something, Greg?"
"Nope. Let's get back to our schoolwork."
"Are you sure? You seemed stressed." Ellis rubbed the back of his head. "I mean, I get it, but-"
"I said I'm fine, Ellis." Rab hissed out, kicking his backpack at the sound of Tony rustling around his belongings.
"Okay…" Ellis sighed.
Within the bag, however, Tony continued digging around, using what little light was shining inside to see. There were a lot of regular school items, but one thing caught his eye.
"It's like a Greg cheat sheet." Tony muttered. "What is this? I'll ask him after school… I can barely read it." Despite what Rab had said about his name, Tony noticed that ‘Greg’ annoyed him, and annoying him was exactly the kind of thing he wanted to do.
Once the final bell for the day rang, Rab began walking back home. Tony popped out of his bag, waving the paper around.
“Hey. What is this?” Tony asked, flopping his upper half out the bag. The two were alone, which was the only reason Rab wasn’t shoving Tony back in the bag.
“What? Oh, you found that. I meant to take that out, I don’t really need it anymore.”
“You didn’t answer my question. It reads like someone trying to convince themselves you’re… you.”
“Figured it out, then? Do I really need to answer any of your questions when you could easily figure it out on your own? Isn’t that how you got so close to the truth in the first place?”
“I hate you.”
“So you keep saying.”
Muttering to himself, Tony slid down in the bag, looking over the paper. Just more and more evidence of what he thought. But why would Rab need a cheat sheet on himself? Would it kill him to be straight with him for once?
Popping back out the bag, Tony tilted his head.
“Okay, evidence listing.”
“What.”
“You tell everyone your name is Greg, but dislike me specifically calling you that, but only after I died. You say it was ‘his name,’ and talk about how I wouldn’t be killing you, but ‘him’ if you died by my hand.”
“Or in general. You aren’t that important in my metaphorical death.”
“Whatever. Is the ‘him’ you keep referring to Greg? Where does he fit into all of this?”
“You’re so close! But so far. Honestly, it’s laughable.”
“Why bother saying that?”
“I’ve answered that already, haven’t I? Figure out my master plan all you want, it’s not like you’re going to get to tell anyone about it.” Rab groaned and held a hand to his head.
“Oh? Am I giving you a headache?”
“No, you are not. It’s unrelated.” Rab muttered. “Why is this…”
Rab shook his head and sighed, grabbing onto the straps of his backpack. The headaches weren’t a first-time occurrence, but with their new strength, he was beginning to realize just what they meant. It wasn’t a normal headache; he knew that for sure.
Arriving home, Rab dropped his bag by the door, walking into his room. Tony popped out, still holding the paper as he flopped onto the floor. He looked over it again, trying to decode the reason on what the meaning of it all was. His ears raised, and he began making his way into Rab’s room.
“Hey. Would it be out of the blue to suggest that you’ve taken over Greg’s life?” Tony asked, stumbling over by Rab’s desk. Rab tilted his head, looking down.
“Hm?”
“Like… the more I think about it, the more it sounds like Greg is someone you’re pretending to be while the real Greg is being held hostage somewhere. Where is he? And why would he die if you die? You can’t pull a swap that quickly!” Tony folded his arms.
“You’re so close it’s embarrassing.” Rab muttered. “But I have more important things on my mind. Don’t worry, you’ll get to see Greg soon enough. If he doesn’t die, that is.”
“Stop saying that. I’ll find Greg! I’ll save him! I won’t let you kill him like you killed me!”
“Have fun with that.” Rab suddenly stood up. “Listen, I have to run some errands. You can come with me or stay locked in my house. What would you prefer?”
“I’ll go with you. Keep an eye on you.”
“Alright then.” Rab picked Tony up off the floor, holding him by the plush’s body.
“Where exactly are we going, anyway?”
“You’ll see when we get there.”
“The Pizzaplex? Why couldn’t you just say that? I know you did some stuff in here, why be cryptic about it?” Rab just sighed and shook his head.
“Do you always have to commentate on everything? I never noticed that until now.”
“If it annoys you, I’ll ramp it up to 100.” Tony shot back. “What is that?”
Rab was messing with some sort of laptop that had a USB stick in it. The stick was purple with a neon green rabbit design hanging on a small keychain.
“Knock it off with the questions.” Rab muttered. “My time here is running down. I need someone new, but I haven’t had the time to pick them out.”
“Time?”
“If you must know, my dedication to preventing others from uncovering my secret is something I take very seriously.”
“I was aware of that when you killed me over it. Seriously, what secret could be so important that you have to kill people to protect it?”
“I don’t have to answer that. There, done.” Rab began muttering to himself, and no matter how hard Tony tried, he couldn’t decipher what he was saying. Rab soon turned to look at him, swinging the USB stick on his finger. “Tony, you like breaking and entering, don’t you?”
“Huh?” Honestly, he should’ve realized sooner that it was probably Rab who tattled on him. Why was Rab even following him? Ah right, he was on to him. Rab grabbed Tony by his paw, and Tony grabbed onto his hand with the rest of his stubby plushie limbs.
“We’re going somewhere secret. Fazbear Entertainment is making a game, something to make fun of rumors. It’s going to be perfect.”
“I really don’t like that.”
“Oh well.”
At the final location, Rab snuck in the empty building through a window.
“Try to scream, and I’ll rip your furry little head off.” Rab threatened.
The strange child looked around until he found where Fazbear Entertainment was creating their new game and stuck the USB in the laptop that had most of the data on it. This, of course, was determined after Rab hacked into the laptop and looked around for a moment.
“Ah, this was fun. But honestly, a child is so restricted in everyday life. I hope it goes better next time.” Rab muttered, tapping his fingers on the table. Tony tilted his head. “See you soon, Tony.”
With that, the laptop began glitching out, shaking, before everything went still. Tony looked to the side, having failed to notice that Rab had collapsed in the wake of all the colors and movement.
“Rab? Rab, get up! I do not want to spend the night here!”
“Ow… stop yelling.” The boy sat up, rubbing his head. “Who’s there?”
“Rab, it’s me. Tony? Don’t act like you don’t know who I am! That’s just rubbing salt in the wound!”
“Gah! Talking plush!” The boy skittered across the floor, then paused, tilting his head. “Wait, plushies that talk exist. That’s all this is.”
He stood up, picking Tony up off the table, looking him over.
“Well, rabbit plushie, let’s see… where am I?”
“Rab, if I had teeth, I would bite you.”
“My name’s Gregory. Wait, you’re more lifelike than a talking plush should be. I know robotics are high-tech these days, but I don’t recall it spreading to toys just yet.”
“Gregory? Greg!” Tony raised his little paws up and lowered his ears. “Wait, how do I know you’re not Rab?”
Gregory had begun walking forward in order to leave the building, but Tony was still asking him questions.
“You talk a lot. Do you have batteries? Can I take them out?” Gregory rubbed his head with his free hand. “Why do I feel so tired? And generally unwell…”
Well, he certainly was acting more his age. However, that didn’t mean Tony completely trusted that this wasn’t Rab. And if it wasn’t, where did Rab go? For now, he’ll treat this like he wasn’t his killer.
“So… I didn’t know you had a twin.”
“I’m an only child.”
Interesting. Oh, wait, this isn’t going to go well at all if this really was Gregory and not Rab.
“Hey, are you sure you want to go home?” Tony tapped his paws together.
“Yeah? I’m exhausted. I just want to go home and go to bed. I just met you, and you’re already irritating me.”
“Hey! You could’ve died!” Tony responded. “Ungrateful!”
“I’m not in any danger! Well, actually… I didn’t see that arcade machine. Never mind, it’s not important. What is important is that I have school tomorrow.”
“...Gregory, it’s Friday.”
“It is? Wait, why am I believing you?”
“What day do you think it is?”
“Wednesday. First week of school?”
“Oh, oh my.” Tony muttered, pulling his ears over his face. This definitely wasn’t Rab. Possession was not what Tony thought had been going on, and now he’s a little embarrassed that the idea never crossed his mind. “Okay! This is fine! Why don’t you stay at my friend’s house? Just… anywhere but your house. Trust me.”
“I don’t, but alright. Whatever you say, weird plushie.”