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A call came in from the New Jersey State Prison, Vanessa tensing. That was the prison her father was transferred to after his plea deal. Of course, he would choose to go from a Minnesota prison to a Jersey one. He was never gonna let her live in peace, not as long as she was alive. William’s abuse would live on, even from behind maximum security prison walls.
She stood in the dimly lit living room of the apartment she shared with her girlfriend Amanda. The phone rang again, the young woman pacing. She wanted it to stop.
She wishes he died in that suit, suffering just as he made those kids suffer. Just as he made her suffer. A pig headed Amanda entered the apartment, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend’s waist. “What’s wrong Vanny? You’re tense.” Amanda took off the pig head, getting a good look at panic filled hazel eyes. “Is that fucking cunt calling again?”
“He won’t stop. I want him to leave me alone!”
Amanda only smirked, picking up the landline. “He wants someone to talk to, hmm? Let’s give the bastard what he wants.” Green eyes glinted with a protective mischief, ordering Vanessa to lay on the couch. She placed her head on Amanda‘s lap. “Mandy, what are you-“
“Shh. Watch this shit.” Amanda answered, agreeing to pay for the prison call with a tentative eye roll, hoping to coax a small smile out of her girlfriend.
“Really, Vanessa? 29 years old, and still ignoring your father when you’re mad at him like the child you are..” Vanessa winced, William’s words made her lay still.
She thought she finally got over it, but it was clear that her trauma ran trench deep. Belittling her was a personal favorite tactic of his, but Amanda would dish it right back. “Watch your fucking mouth, William. No rabbit costume is going to protect you from within the confines of a maximum-security prison. I know what inmates do to men who harm women and children.”
William only chuckled, a bitter, poisonous sound to Vanessa’s ears. She was strong, sure; but that can only do so much to mitigate the damage he did to her mental state. Amanda squeezed Vanessa’s hand. “Are you Vanessa’s little friend? How pathetic is it that she can’t even talk to me.”
“Try girlfriend, you piece of shit. How’d that springlock failure feel, hm? Metal rods piercing your skin, muscles twitching, your own blood filling your lungs… your organs beginning to fail. All while your own flesh and blood lies there, Bleeding out on the floor because of a wound you caused. The security camera footage shows regret, but I think you lack every single human emotion there is. You killed children for fun, William. You saw your own daughter, is nothing but an accomplice, and you threatened her into adulthood to clean up after you, as if she was nothing but a tool for you to use so she would be the fall guy once you eventually got caught. Honestly, it’s a miracle you’re fucking alive. A pathetic, disturbing miracle. While you live on, lacking any empathy or sympathy for the families you hurt, and for what you did to your own daughter. If there is a hell, I hope it swallows you whole and destroys you from the inside out.” She hung up, looking down at a wide eyed Vanessa.
“Shocked?” Amanda runs her hands through blonde locks with affection and a small hint of possessiveness. This woman— this wonderful woman, was hers. Not even William could take that from her.
Vanessa nods. “I could never do that. Not as a kid, and not even as an adult. Hell, when everything went down at Freddy’s, all I could do is shoot my dad in the fucking arm, and that barely affected him because of the suit. Stopping him eventually led to me getting stabbed and ending up in a medically induced coma. And for what? He survives what should’ve been a death sentence with lack of remorse, and not only am I stuck with the trauma, but now I have a fucking scar on my stomach that is a reminder that I’m forever tied to him.”
Amanda didn’t speak, only moving to lift up Vanessa’s sweater. She left soft touches on the healed flesh, before covering the scar in kisses. “There. It’s not tied to him anymore. That spot is mine to love. ” Normal people would be skeeved out by this behavior, but Vanessa was far from normal. She sat up, kissing Amanda’s lips with a small smile. The kiss was equally returned, a gesture that made Vanessa feel a little less broken. They had a quick dinner after, consisting of sandwiches and energy drinks. Amanda looked up with a small twinkle in her eyes. “I have to gather subjects for John. I was wondering if you wanted to come with me. I know you would probably want to stay home and recuperate, and I’m fine with that.”
Vanessa’s smile could light up a room. She’s been wanting to go with Amanda for a while. “I’d love to go.”
“On that thought..stay here.” Amanda got up, running into their bedroom. The sounds of the closet door and the rustling of clothes were the only noises in the apartment. Amanda returned with a box and a grin. “Happy birthday! I know your birthday was last month, but I was saving this..”
Vanessa opens the box with careful precision, lifting the flaps. Inside was the very black and red robe apprentices wore, but something else caught her attention. Inside was an animal head mask, much like the ones John and his apprentices wore. But the peculiar part was the fact that it wasn’t a pig. Sure, it had the same black hair that the pig masks had, it had that same uncanny realism, and the same stitches on the mouth. The mask itself was white, with elongated ears, whiskers, and red spirals on the cheeks.
It was a rabbit. Amanda took the head from the box, bending down slightly. “Head up, Vanny.” Vanessa allows Amanda to place the mask on, her head and neck enveloped in the imagery of a bunny. “I made it. I had to get John‘s approval, but I told him nobody would think twice about a rabbit serial killer running around. Nobody would connect you to him at all. If you were a bunny, I also brought up the fact that you were born in the year of the rabbit, and he seemed to appreciate that.”
Amanda ties the hair on Vanessa’s mask into a ponytail before putting her own on. Their foreheads touched before heading out together.
Vanessa had kidnapped Doctor Gordon while Amanda was out handling Adam. This wasn’t the first time she had a body in the trunk of her car, but this felt different. She took off her mask so she could take a breath, her hands on the steering wheel. This felt different than handling victims with her father. Sure how much she was still taking orders from John, but she felt more in control.
She felt like she belonged somewhere.
She watched as Amanda shackled Adam to the bathroom pipe, watching as John injected himself with muscle relaxant to appear as a dead body on the floor. Vanessa leaned her head against Amanda, who left a kiss on her cheek. Together they lowered Adam into the bathtub before turning off the lights and closing the sliding door. “I’m so fucking proud of you, Vanny. You did an incredible job.” Amanda’s praise wasn't lost on Vanessa, who took off her mask. “Thank you, Mandy. That means a lot. My dad never said anything like that to me, only ordering me to clean up the bodies. One after the other.”
“I’m not him, baby. John’s not him. You’ll always be appreciated, I promise.”
They kissed against that sliding door, not caring about their surroundings. It was just the two of them in that very space, The rest of the world shut out like it didn’t matter. They quickly parted from the kiss, gasping for air. Instead of going back to their shared apartment, they went for The abandoned mannequin factory where their current hideout was. Vanessa had gone to bed early, completely worn out from her endeavors tonight. She fell asleep on her and Amanda’s shared mattress, with her girlfriend simply placing a blanket over her. “Sweet dreams, my Vanny. I love you.”
As Vanessa slept, Amanda sat at her drafting table with a pencil in hand. She had done some countless digging for weeks unbeknownst to both John and Vanessa. She had managed to track down the original schematics for the spring lock suits from Fredbear’s Family Diner, One of the earlier restaurants owned by a man named Henry Emily and co-owned by Vanessa’s father William.
She pulled out the schematics from their hiding spot, tapping her pencil against the surface of the table. Sure, these things were easily triggered by moisture, but she would find a way to make sure they not only triggered, but would kill him violently. But more importantly, she wondered what animal it would be. She wouldn’t go for a rabbit, no. Something fitting.
A pig. Not only were they intelligent animals, they were the opposite of what he was. Empathetic creatures, who cared about those around them. The symbolism went deeper for Amanda‘s choice, as people normally use pigs as an insult to describe disgust or disdain. Both feelings that Amanda felt towards William. He was the pig, and she was the butcher. It was a corny thought, but she was pleased with the idea. She got to work with sketching out the initial design, before quickly going back to the bathroom to go get John.
That night, things were quiet. Not the normal type of quiet, the eerie type that would make someone’s skin crawl. Something was bothering Amanda, and Vanessa was determined to get to the bottom of it. She watched as Amanda put on her boots and leave the room. Vanessa followed with forbidden curiosity, quietly trailing her girlfriend all the way back to that bathroom. She watched as Amanda woke up a sleeping Adam, putting a plastic sheet over his face. Amanda was struggling, and she couldn’t just sit back and watch anymore. She helped Amanda with that sheet, helping to hold Adam in place as he struggled. By all accounts, she was technically abusing her EMT skills to put him out of his misery. Her brain was trying to make an excuse for this, hands shaking. Once his body was still, now dead; she looked at herself in the reflection of the broken two way mirror. Vanessa didn’t see a reflection of herself, no. She saw her father, the very man she wished she would never become. Her heart thumped rapidly as she stumbled backwards. They were truly one in the same. Like father, like daughter.
Amanda broke down right beside Adam’s body, sobs echoing from her throat; and tears cascading down her cheeks. Vanessa collected herself before moving next to Amanda and wrapping an arm around her girlfriend. “I got you, Mandy. I’ll always be here for you.” She held her tight as the two began to cry together. A chorus of tears created by two broken souls manipulated by men who saw them is nothing but pawns to do their dirty work. But this? This was their own doing. This had nothing to do with John or William. This was a mercy kill. An effort to save somebody from the suffering that John caused. In the end, however, both of them had blood on their hands. No matter which way the situation could be spun they were murderers, even if they were in denial about that. But they had each other, and nobody could take that away from them. What started as a phone call from the New Jersey State Prison, ended with the murder of an innocent man
The rabbit and the pig, two bloodstained lovers in a twisted world; bound by trauma and gears.
This path would cause their demises, but neither of them knew it. Love that often begins with tragedy, ends in it.
Both of them sat in that bathroom in pure silence, looking down at the corpse. “I couldn’t let him suffer, Vanny..” Amanda croaks out, and Vanessa kissed the woman’s mouth scars. “I know, and you did what you had to.” Her hands pull the other woman closer, ending up in a cuddling position. When they eventually made it outside, Vanessa stood outside on the sidewalk, arms crossed. Amanda had lit a cigarette, the unpleasant scent making its way to Vanessa’s nose. Normally, she would berate her girlfriend about smoking, but she didn’t care to; at least not now. “Mandy, can I have that?” Vanessa blurted out suddenly, and Amanda turned her head. “What? You want to smoke? You hate cigarettes.”
“Considering tonight’s events, I don’t care.” Amanda raised an eyebrow at her girlfriend’s unusual response, but relit the cigarette and put it to Vanessa’s lips. The smoke filled her lungs, causing her to sputter and cough. Amanda coached her through it, but Vanessa still couldn’t get the hang of it. She had no idea how Amanda could do this at all. They got breakfast sandwiches together, both now contemplating their actions amongst people who didn’t even know who they were.
Any one of these people could be their next victim, and that thought made Vanessa’s stomach turn. John was just another William, and that realization hit her hard.
In every single sense, her own girlfriend was just like her.
Maybe that’s why they were drawn to each other like moths to a deadly flame.