Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

December 30^th 1998

       5 Days after Christmas

It’s the 30th of December 1998, at night inside a hospital in Chicago, a young blonde boy is slowly opening his brown colored eyes, a large bandage sitting just above them covering his entire forehead and wrapping around his head in a large ring, his yellow-ish hairs covering a small portion of the top of his large plaster.

He groans as he starts to feel a skull splitting headache assaulting his whole cranium.

The pain is so intense that he can barely register a small “huh? “ coming from the other side of his room, followed by a few increasingly faster steps that sloppely tries their best to not tumble over before the person who they originate from catches themselves on the bed, they grab a step stool and position it in order to reach him.

The boy tries to turn his head in the direction of the sound but before he managed to…

“PARKER!!! Oh thank god you’re alive I was so scared!!” a juvenile feminine voice blurs out between sobs and cries as she embraces the boy in tight hug.

“whaa… sis?” the 8 year old can barely reply.

“I was- *sob* I didn’t- *sob* I-I I though… *sob**sniff*” .

“I’m so happy you’re still alive” the brownish haired young girl finally manages to utter with watery eyes.

“I, I’m…” Parker mumbles before the pain begins to subside enough for him to realize what’s happening, “wait, Pearl? SIS!” he finally manages to cry out as he embraces her back.

“I-I” he stutters before looking at his hands “I’m alive, I did it, I really did it, I remember everything” he quietly says behind his sister’s back “at least I hope” he adds in his head.

Just as he was about to hug his sister again, the door opens allowing a lady in a blue medical gown to peer inside the room, her eyes widening a little as she spots Pearl on his brother’s bed but also happy to realize that the boy had awaken as well.

“Miss Andras, you should not be doing this” she says in a hurry, quickly approaching the bed “Please let go of your brother and get down from the bed you could hurt him by accident” she calmly says attempting to gently grab Pearl’s arm.

“But, but I’m-I’m being careful and-an... and he just woke up and I-I” she hastily replies, her eyes took a shade of red from crying so much.

“I-I Know, I know, you must feel really huh… good that your twin is awake but you can still hurt him even if you don’t intend to, please step down , I need to check up on him” replies the woman.

“I will be fine sis and you’re actually kinda hurting my back” the boy adds.

“Okay” the little girl replies as she lets go of Parker reluctantly and begins to step down form the bed.

Not looking where she is actually going, she narrowly misses the stepstool and losses her balance right as the nurse catches her waist avoiding a potential bruise or worse…

“Careful” the lady gently warns.

“T-Thank you miss” the still shaken girl replies.

“Can you please wait in the hallway; I will call your parents to tell them that your brother is awake once I’m done”.

The small smile Pearl was really trying to maintain drops at their mention.

“Oh……. Okay” she says heading out the door.

A few minutes passes and eventually the door opens again, Pearl immediately notices and her empty gaze lights up immediately, she steps back up again, her sight set on getting inside again but she is stopped as the nurse closes the door behind her.

The 8 year old looks at the woman, a clear display of her intention could be read by her posture and facial expression alone, which the lady catches immediately.

“I’m sorry but I can’t let you in yet” she intone in a desolate way.

“What but why ?” Pearl cries.

“I can’t risk you getting in without surveillance; I don’t want something bad to happen to happen to your brother” the nurse replies.

“What?” The girl says dumbfounded “But I’m not gonna hurt him”.

“Oh honey I’m not saying you will, but right now I need your brother to be alone for a bit, I can’t risk you jumping on him again” she warmly affirms.

“But that’s not fair he just woke up, he was asleep all week and I was scared and, and” she pouts.

The nurse kneels and puts her hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“I know, I know; you missed him a lot, but if you want your brother to feel better and see him again sooner he needs to rest a bit more alone, okay ? I know it’s hard to wait even more but its needed”.

“You will be able to see him again when your mom and dad arrive” she reassure in a more cheerful tone.

“That’s….. not fair” Pearl stutters.

The little girl turns her head to side, her facial expression becomes dull.

“Mom and dad just scream at each other, that means they’re gonna make it worse” she replies in a voice void of emotions.

She lets out a small *sniff*.

“Oh…” the woman intone, realizing that the little girl in front of her isn’t acting solely out of personal intention and that the matter at hand may be more than just a child’s whim.

“I… need to go back to work, stay here okay?” she replies, guilt in her eyes.

A muffled “okay” escapes a distraught Pearl’s mouth.

Meanwhile inside the room the Blondish haired boy looks around a bit before slowly reaching for his bandage wrapped on his forehead, a few small red dots are visible on the fabric.

“So it was real, it did happen; what did I do wrong? I did the ritual correctly and I even got all the eggs like Tattletail told me, so why?”. He thinks

“Did I miss something, did I mess up somewhere” his eyes dart around the room while he is lost in his train of thought as he notices something particular catch his eyes.

“Gifts? Wait they have my name, oh right I didn’t open all my gifts on Christmas I only opened Tattle-“

The lights of the room flicker out for a moment.

“What the ?” he says out loud before-

“You’re awake !” a cheerful voice coming from his bed side table screams out.

“AHH!!!” the boy slips out in a panic.

“AaahHHAahhHh” the voice replies startled by the noise.

“TATTLe- wait” The boy examines the small purple fury animatronic closely “Blue eyes, it’s you ! It’s really you! I really did it ! I remember everything” he says in an excited voice.

“Me happy to see youuu…” Says Tattletail.

“I’m so happy to see you too, I fixed you I did it !”  He says throwing his fists in the air with a large smile on his face.

“Thank you!” the small robot happily chirps.

“He is awake, He is awake” a bunch of small voices similar to Tattletail chirp out as well.

Parker tilts his head and spots the source of those noises.

Turns out Tattletail’s brothers also appeared out of nowhere and were almost all looking at him.

The yellow one : Butternut sitting on top of the gifts being by far the most vocal.

The cyan one : Dewdrop more focused on trying to climb the presents in order to reach his brother.

And two others that he only recognizes form his coma induced trip in the Kaleidoscope.

“Oh I don’t remember you two outside of my weird dream” Parker says curious about the two other Tattletails that were hanging around with the others.

A black one, patiently waiting around and observing him from the corner of the table.

 “So you’re… Night-Night, right ?” the boy asks.

The black Tattletail respond with a nod while his eye caps cover the bottom of his eyes.

“He-He” he says in a slightly deeper voice compared to the other.

And finally a white one, extremely curious, he is attentively examining the packages, trying to imagine what they could contain.

“And you are Snowglobe.” Parker affirms.

The Tattletail turns around and happily exclaims “That’s me” in a slightly higher pitch voice.

“Oh that’s weird, they don’t really sound the same, also” The human boy squints his eyes to get a better look at a certain details in the black and white toys “Their eyes is different too, Night-Night has…. It looks yellow, yellow eyes, and Snowglobe has… looks purples, so purple eyes; that’s weird”.

“But it’s even more weird that they weren’t there before Christmas, there was 2 Butternuts and Dewdrops right? Where did they go?”.

“Did the kaleidoscope do this?”

His eyes wander a bit more until they meet another Tattletail under the table.

If it wasn’t for the fact that he immediately recognized what it was he would have asked himself “How did I miss that?”.

Instead, its mere sight caused Parker’s heart to skip a beat, maybe two, his eyes widen, and his breathing gets faster, panic start to overwhelm him and his whole body begins to shake.

That Tattletail under the table is bigger, it has tan fur, brown eyes, a white tuff of hair compared to the other’s pink.

It also has a tape player imbedded within its chest.

But it’s not yet another Tattletail.

It’s HER.

Chapter Text

       December 30th, 1998; 10h40 PM

5 days after Christmas

If Tattletail’s eyes having recovered their blue tone wasn’t enough confirmation that he had recovered his memories, then the sheer terror of Mama’s sight definitely was.

Oh he remembered that’s for sure; the red eyes, the sharp teeth, that persisting grinding noise when she’s lurking, those torn ears and missing tape-deck player cover.

…

Features that are all… Absent?

His breathing starts to decelerate as he realizes something about her.

She seems… awfully non murder-y looking, she’s actually her normal self: clean, brown eyes, her tape player is normal (albeit with a tape inside, probably still the same one he inserted on the 23^rd) and overall she looks normal.

Except for her eye caps that cover the top half of her eyes, giving her an expression of… un-amused disappointment?

It looks like the expression your mom would hold when she’s interrogating you on a school subject you should already know about but you’re incapable of answering, it’s that “Seriously?” look but this time plastered on an oversized furby that’s definitely not his mom.

Come to think of it, the lights are still on too, just another thing that checks off lack of any murder oriented intentions.

“Are you done being scared of Mama ?” she asks in a voice that mimics warm empathy.

He doesn’t reply.

Tattletail does : “Mama is sorry” he affirms in a less cheerful voice than usual but still cheerful enough to hide a hint of guilt.

Mama rolls her eyes while Parker is distracted by Tattletail so nobody saw her.

The boy’s gaze keeps shifting between his best friend and its demonic mother with a still scared expression.

“Is he serious?” he thinks “She’s not; she can’t be, not after that.” He affirms.

Tattletail tenses, Mama takes on a sorry looking expression before speaking up.

“How could you not give a second chance to Mama?”.

Parker is bewildered

“You-… You chased me around my house all week and you hurt me, you hurt someone on the tape I saw, YOU-“

*BRRZZT*

The light of the room cut off immediately and Mama springs on the bed, locking her eyes that now turned to her old devilish red glowing shade with the boy’s, causing Parker to instinctively shut his mouth and cower in fear, recoiling as hard as he can, mortified.

“If Mama was you” she starts “Mama would lower that tone of yours before something bad happens again” she warns.

“Mama!” The Tattletails all scream out in fear.

Mama turns her head towards them.

“Now now childrens, no need to shout, this is a family situation, we don’t want other people to listen to our private chit-chat… right?” She says that last word with a deeper more menacing tone while turning her head again, completing a 360° rotation, toward the terrified boy whose head suddenly hurt really badly again, likely because of his sudden retreat.

“Right?” she demands again.

Parker only responds by nodding his head up and down very spastically, holding back tears .

“Good” she says warmly and the light flicker back on; in between a flicker, she had taken back her friendly facade.

“Now yes, Mama does have… Some, amount of… pity, for you” She begins “but also some answers, because despite how terrible, spoiled, ill-mannered, disgusting, bad influence, absolutely incapable of taking care of my child and overall unbearable of a child yourself may be; my sweet little angel still, somehow, consider you his… preferred acquaintance” she finishes in a disgusted voice.

“Prefered Aqu, accqui, acquantace… what?” he asks, still shaking slightly.

“*Heavy sighs of motherly disappointment* It means friend, a concept Mama would be surprised you know of”.

“Neverless, my child consider you what he calls “his bestest friend forever and ever” which doesn’t even come close to how much he, regrettably, likes you. If him giving you both his birth tag and an extra gift wasn’t enough to tell you this already” She informs.

Parker suddenly realizes that his golden flashlight isn’t with him, neither is his old one which he swore to have stored into one of his pyjama’s pocket.

He also realizes that he isn’t in his pyjamas at all.

“ah.” He says disappointed, to his credit, he had it in his hand mere moments before when he was going through the kaleidoscope.

“Oh! Oh! Me got it” exclaims Tattletail after realizing what the boy was searching, he jumps on the table with the gifts and extract a small rectangular package after shoving past Dewdrop still failing miserably to climb the packages, Butternut is amused, that same package that contained the mysterious person’s final note the golden flashlight, seems like Tattletail wrapped it back up.

“He-He, He” the toy chuckles happily.

Parker lets a warm smile draw on his face; coincidently the pain on his skull is also subsiding again.

“May Mama oh so please get some of your limited attention span back” Mama asks, impatient.

“O-oh sorry” he answers sheepishly.

“*hmmph*moving on; as Mama was saying, Tattletail sees you more than a “best friend forever” or whatever; through some inexplicable means, his bond with you became so strong he sees you as almost equal to family, in other words almost as close a brother” she finishes with hidden rage.

“What?” he asks dumbfounded, now that wasn’t anything he ever expected, he figured that Tattletail already really liked him, the birth tag was already a pretty clear sign but to consider him almost as far as family?

Guess he isn’t that bad at taking care of him as he thought, or rather as she says.

Maybe if he gets another sibling, a human one, he could take care of him/her really well.

He takes that information with pride, a really big grin is plastered on his face, Tattletail is also grinning really hard.

“Which is also why he didn’t let you die when you should have, twice.”

Suddenly the atmosphere felt like it dropped below the negatives.

A cold felling washed trough the boy’s body, among the horror that he had to live through, both real and imagined, he almost forgot the two times he genuinely screamed for his life right as it ended.

He thought they were bad dreams, nightmare of his own failure that would await him in the real world if he wasn’t careful, vision and predictions of horrific bloodshed should he be incapable of keeping quiet.

Of all memories he recovered, those were ones he wished he forgot.

The unbearable sharp feeling of tiny pincers going through his skull, piercing trough the skull bone, crushing his frontal lobe, now playing back inside his head along that demonic screech.

These… these were real, the pain was real, even if it happened in a flash, it was so unbearable he jolted awake in tears both times it happened.

The pain on his skull reaffirms itself as the memories flood back to him, he can’t help to wince and put a hand to his injury.

Tattletail, meanwhile, was just grinning harder, proud of himself.

“So, you figured that it was indeed real I presume, both times where you truly misbehaved and Mama had to put you back in your place and punish you were in fact not nightmares; you did went over the line twice and both times Mama delivered swift punishment, you only have yourself to blame.” She says firmly, asserting her dominance over the conversation and the situation.

Parker meanwhile was about to burst into tears, the pain, the memories… they hurt so much.

“now, seeing as you are essentially part of the family *grumble* I suppose Mama can give you a bit of rest and some amount of leeway but do not expect to be allowed funny business mister, because if you do so much as-“.

“Mama!” Tattletail reprimands.

“Oh children, you know I wouldn’t do anything serious” she warmly says to try to cover her slip up, still giving a freezing warning glance to the human boy.

The Tattletails are not convinced.

The boy himself, meanwhile, couldn’t say anything, couldn’t do anything;

He wanted to cry but no tears were coming.

He wanted to scream but he was too scared to do so.

He wanted to run but he knew that would just make it worse like every time he tried.

He wanted to keep it for himself to tell his actual parents or his sister but who would believe him?

He wanted to hide but it never mattered before so why would it now?

He wanted to get her away from him, by any means necessary, but that would just end up making things so much worse.

Despite everything the boy wanted to do, nothing would work, nothing would matter, nothing could get him away from her, nothing could stand in-between her and him; there is no escape, no salvation, no second chances despite her claims, no hiding spot she can’t find him in; the very moment he’s out of here and left alone for even a moment and accidently DARES to even make a misstep, he know she will take the opportunity, he know it will hurt, he knows she will enjoy it, and above all : he knows nobody will be able to stop her and that nobody ever will.

There is nobody to get him out

There is nobody to save him from her

There is nobody-

“Parker ?! Are you alright ?” a worried voice suddenly asks

The boy is taken out of his horrific line of thought, tears were running down his cheeks, and he just realized now that he was bundled up in a fetal position.

And his head…

Still hurts.

“I… I… it’s… nightmare” he replies quietly, looking around the room, the Tattletails had disappeared, “And it hurt” he adds pointing at his bandage.

Pearl had reentered the room and was now back at her spot next to the bed on her stepstool, looking worried.

“Oh, huuuhhh… D-dad Parker says his head hurts again… and he got a nightmare with the lights on somehow.” She calls towards the door.

The bot lifts his head and to his very pleasant surprise, there was his father, standing in the door entrance looking very much relived and happy, Parker smiles back.

“H-Hi dad”

“Hello kiddo” he says approaching the bed as well and taking one of his son’s hand, stroking it gently “I’m so glad you’re okay” he says shaken, he too was close to tears.

Parker’s smile grows slightly. “I’m happy to see you”. The boy whinces because of the pain still present.

“It still hurts ?” The father asks calmly trying to get a better look.

Parker nods in response.

“Can I see ?” he asks with a voice crack.

The young boy nods again.

The father gently pushes the blondish hairs with the back of his hand to take a look at the plaster; he notices 2 rows of 3 red dots on the fabric, only separated by slightly less red-infused patches of cloth in between the round stains of blood, he shivers at the sight and his hand start trembling.

He looks to the side, seemingly suddenly out of breath and looking into nothingness, as if the sight of the injury was triggering horrible memories…

He puts his other hand on his forehead, hiding his eyes that suddenly looked lightly watery.

“Dad, are you alright?” Pearl suddenly asked.

He snaps out of it immediately, “Oh…. Hemm, ye-yes I’m fine Pearlie, just… just shocked someone would do something like that to your brother, that’s all” he tries to reassure.

“Oh, yeah who would do something like that to him, on Christmas too, who is that evil to do that?” She complains.

The man turns his head away from her, lost in thought.

Pearl is confused but suddenly a thought comes in her mind and she takes an offended look “You’re thinking that mom did that!” she says out loud.

Parker lets out a moan of pain.

“What-no I’m not, sugar why would I think that?”.

“Because that’s always what you say, that’s always that, mom is bad this and that, that’s NOT TRUE!” she continues, angry.

Parker groans painfully.

“Shhhhh” the man reprimands, getting close to her and kneeling in order to beam her in the eye.

“First off lower your voice, your brother is still hurt and screaming is not going to help him, also you don’t get to talk to me with that tone young lady, understood ?” he asks.

She nods while looking away

“Pearl, look at me in the eyes and tell me you won’t” he insists

Pearl looks at her father in the eyes “Yes dad, I’m sorry”

The man sighs, “Look, even if your mother and I don’t love each other as much as you want, I’m not saying she’s responsible, I don’t think that she would have done that, she loves you two as much as I do, even if she didn’t come to see him now that he’s awake.” He finishes mumbling.

He knows that the reason his ex couldn’t come was because of the distance separating Decent and Chicago and not because she willingly ignored the call, besides it’s 10:45 PM, even if the travel is about more than an hour by car; she would have to travel all the way over and rent out an hotel, there’s no way she would travel all night and stay awake until morning, not in her psychological situation and how stressed she’s been lately to make ends meet; and rent a room with her financial situation, especially in a major city like Chicago ? Impossible, he would offer to fund her a room for at least the week but he knows her well enough that she would decline and that he should keep his “Dirty money”, she always says that as if he’s some kind of horrible gangster.

But then again…

.

.

The father sighs “If I could I would let your mother sleep in a hotel room so she can see him right now but you know how that would end up heh ?”

“Yes…” The girl replies conflicted

He hugs her tight “Look I know life isn’t all that great right now but it will get better I promise, your brother will be better soon enough to join us iin time for New year I heard, how’s that sounds ?” he says softly with a smile.

“Ok…” she replies, staring into nothingness.

His smile drops, it doesn’t take a genius to see that she would rather have the whole family present for the festivities, or just anyone present at all for her aside from her brother; ever since he divorced, not much time has been dedicated to be there for his kids, his work and the extra load of house works he had kept him busy all the time with little to spare for his children, even after hiring a baby sitter and a maid he can tell it’s still not enough.

A stomach’s grumble suddenly remind the Father-daughter duo of a certain omission.

“Oh shoot, right we haven’t eaten yet” the father suddenly remembers

Somehow they had forgotten that they have yet to get a proper dinner despite how far they were into the night, Pearl was supposed to be picked up from the hospital way earlier but due to an unforeseen event at his workplace he saw no other choice to let her stay at the hospital for longer, if anything it’s a stroke of luck he got a call from the hospital that gave him an excuse to finally hit the road again, although chances are that Pearl wouldn’t have minded at all to stay even longer.

Now that he thinks about it, just how much longer would have Pearl stayed here all by herself if nobody called him? At this point she might have fallen asleep without getting fed, gosh it’s a fricking miracle nobody thought of calling child services on him at this point.

Especially after both-

NO

He shakes his head, now was not the time to remember this; he’s better, it will never happen again!

“Well how about we get something nice for this special occasion, like McDonalds?” He asks, finally getting his mind on something else more pleasant.

Pearl’s eyes light up almost instantly “YES ! I wanna go to McDonalds!” she says excited.

“Calm down, we’ll go” he replies.

“I want the McDonalds too” Protests Parker.

“Not today for you son unfortunately, but once you’re out of the hospital I’ll bring you to somewhere even better” he reassures him.

Parker pouts “How can anything else be better?”

“Pinky promise, it will be better.” His father says

“hmmm” the child replies back, exaggerating squinting his eyes at his dad.

“*chuckles* I promise you will love it, *shigh* I really don’t want to but it’s getting really late, we should get going, you should try to have some sleep kiddo, you look really tired” The man notifies.

Parker was about to protest but his eyes were feeling suddenly very heavy “How am I… *YAWN* How am I tired, Sis said I slept for 5 days.” He asks confused, eyes half opened.

“Well you’re still a young growing boy, and that means you have a bedtime to obey, so now you’re tired even if you’ve already been sleeping for so long” He answers playfully.

“Oh… *Yawn* right, bed time makes you sleepy; but why is Pearl not tired then?”

“Well-“

“Because I’m going to McDonalds, I can’t sleep through that, I’m too excited!” the girl interrupts cheerfully.

Parker grumbles in response. “Not fair”.

“Don’t worry kiddo, I’ve already promised I’ll bring you somewhere even better; and to compensate your sister won’t be there.”

“What? That’s not fair!” Pearl answers dumbfounded.

“How is that not fair, you get to go to McDonalds and you can resist bedtime making you sleepy” the boy retorts back before sticking his tongue out

“But-“

“Enough Pearl, I’m already making you an exception, it’s fair that I make one for your brother in exchange right?”

Pearl nods, still bitter.

“Come on now, say goodbye to your brother” Her father demands.

“We come back tomorrow right?” the young female asks.

“Of course we are” he reassures her.

“Okay” She says with assurance, climbing the bed again, this time with the help of her father, embraces her brother one last time and goes out the door.

“Promise?” Parker asks

His father take a bit of time to understand the message “I said pinky promise kiddo, now rest well, we will be back tomorrow”, he pecks him on the cheek “I’m glad you’re okay” he says quietly as he hugs him tightly.

“Love you too daddy” the boy giggles softly, letting out a loud yawn.

The father giggles himself as well and lets him go, the very tired expression his son shows him it’s very much time to go.

He heads out the door waving his son good bye and turns off the light “Goodnight son”

“Goodnight dad” he hears before closing the door.

A wide smile draws on his face, the like of which he hasn’t done in a long time.

He turns his attention to his daughter.

“Now let’s get some burgers shall we ?”

“Yayy” the juvenile female exclaims with no trace of tiredness compared to her sibling.

Man this night was full of emotions, he remarked, no wonder neither of them feel drowsy but chances are it’s going to manifest soon now that the light at the end of the tunnel that was finding one of their very close young family member emptying themselves of their blood on the floor on Christmas day of all time is finally in sight.

Parker is estimated to get a full recovery with no long term side effects and he is set to be able to exit the hospital in time for late into New year’s eve, thing are finally looking up after 5 dreadful days of anxious waiting.

Inside the room meanwhile, the boy feels very tired and lays on his back, even if he’s a bit wary of going to sleep again after doing so for so long already, he can’t ignore the felling that just keep pulling him towards unconsciousness again.

He reassures himself, telling himself that he won’t be going back to the kaleidoscope, that he’s safe now, and that even if Mama is scary again she never bothered him when he went to sleep.

Besides, Tattletail is best friend with him again, so it’s not all bad, he can calm down Mama If needed.

It’s not all as bad as it seems.

And that golden flashlight carefully re-wrapped in its package is the proof of it.

The bed is cold, the mysterious person on the letters wrote;

But the bed is safe, that’s something he knows.

That knowledge makes the bed suddenly feel warmer.

And that warm embrace pulls him back into sleep.