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“Gregory hasn’t come out of his room again.”
Vanessa paused from washing the dishes to take in what Freddy had told her.
“Of course he hasn’t.” Vanessa sighed, picking up her sponge and wiped down another plate.
“I think I should talk to him to make sure he’s okay.” Freddy continued, which only made Vanessa’s eye twitch slightly. Of course the robot bear would want to talk to Gregory now at this moment but she knew that would only end in disaster. For as much as she respected Freddy, she knew that Freddy talking to Gregory would only end up in the fourteen year old boy being even more miserable.
That wasn’t even mentioning the fact that Freddy definitely didn’t understand fully why Gregory had basically locked himself in his room for the past week. Despite Freddy somehow possessing more human emotions than any robot should have, he still wouldn’t get why the amount of pain Gregory was in. For that matter Vanessa knew she didn’t know how much pain Gregory was in either. It was probably why she had put off talking to him and checking up on him.
She didn’t want to say something that she would regret saying to a poor boy so drenched with pain. Vanessa bit her lip. She knew that what she was doing was bad, it was a flaw of hers to hold off talking about important and difficult conversations. Her adopted parents told her as much and it often took them reading her body language and getting her to talk by tricking her into spilling the reasons for why she was so off. There was that damage caused by her original family rearing its ugly head but now Vanessa was in the same position as her adopted parents were now and unlike them who had three children before her, she had none.
A part of Vanessa knew that she was way in over head when she took custody of Gregory two years ago. She was a twenty six year old with not much experience with anything really. Sure, she had a degree in coding and could get a job at Fazbear Entertainment thanks to her Dad pulling strings but in reality Vanessa still felt like the young twenty year old woman still in college learning how to do all that stuff and getting advice and help from her Mom and Dad who were helping her every inch of the way. She knew she had no experience looking after any child. So why did she do it?
Vanessa didn’t know.
‘ I should have given him to Mom and Dad.’ She thought to herself. ‘They would know what to do.’ But an equal part of her scowled herself for even thinking that. ‘You’re just thinking that because you want an easy way out of this. That side of her told her and it was right.
Vanessa hadn’t taken Gregory because she was experienced in helping kids out but instead it was for the same reason her adopted father had explained to her why he took him when he could have just dumped her into the Hurricane Orphanage that he helped run.
Gregory didn’t need a new family. He didn’t need a family that would try and replace his older one or would just pose him as a new addition only to throw him away like a dog that was only there for a Christmas gift and nothing more.
Gregory had nothing and no one would understand his pain, his trauma apart from her. He needed to have someone who he could talk to, someone who could understand the pain of being puppeted by a crazy AI of a dead serial killer and Vanessa was that for him. She knew she was the only person who he could talk to about their past and right now she was the only person that Gregory could talk to about this pain.
Their pain of being puppeted around and helplessly being forced to kill and create chaos.
She was done trying to put it off now. She had taken Gregory in as a guardian to the young boy and now she had to do the hard part.
“Vanessa, do you think I should-?”
“No!” Vanessa coldly replied. If Freddy was a human there was no doubt in Vanessa’s mind that he would have flinched at the sudden cold reply but it had to have been said. “Freddy, I’ll go talk to him.”
“Vanessa are you sure?” Freddy asked. “I can go do it myself and talk to him myself, I maybe even can play his favourite songs from my database to make him feel good again.”
Freddy’s words were supposed to be helpful but instead they just rang as patronizing to Vanessa. He couldn’t understand what Gregory was going through and Vanessa knew that Freddy’s optimism would be misplaced there.
“I’m sure.” Vanessa sighed, taking off her washing up gloves and putting them on the counter to dry.
She could see Freddy’s eyes glance at her with a concerned look. It was obvious as to what the orange head of the robotic bear was thinking and Vanessa couldn’t really blame him. Normally if Gregory was upset at something at school or something Freddy would be the one to try and lift up his spirits by playing the boy’s favourite song or watching a movie with him. That was Freddy’s whole thing but Vanessa knew that Freddy, while seemingly human, was a robot at heart. He had been programmed to understand and comfort children for that sort of stuff, but not for what Gregory’s pain was.
“Well I guess I’ll just power down and have a good rest then.” Freddy grumbled, though it was obvious that he wasn’t too pleased with Vanessa. She didn’t blame him for that, Freddy had basically become the heart and soul of their trio as he took up that fatherly figure for the two and would work out their silly grips that the two would have with each other.
“You do that, Freddy.” Vanessa said, trying to shoot the robot a friendly smile and patting his head. “I know you want to help out the little man but I think it’s best if I do it for a change.”
“Okay, have a good night Vanessa.” The orange robot head said before shutting down for the night.
Vanessa softly smiled before walking quietly away and up the stairs to the bedrooms. As she walked into the hallway of the upstairs, Vanessa slowly inched closer to Gregory’s door, trying to think of all the words she needed to say. It felt weird doing something like this. For all her life she was the scared, shut up child that someone would check in on. When she was back with her old biological family it was her older brother Richard who would come into her room and try and comfort her from whatever abuse their father had done to her. A part of her wished that Richard was still alive so that he could help guide her for this. He had always been a natural with helping others out and Vanessa knew that he would have been a way better fit for looking after Gregory than her.
Then when it came to her adopted family it had often been her adopted father Samual (or Sammy to everyone else) who would come into her room and just talk to her, telling her how strong she was, how she was so gifted and to not let her trauma define her. It was obvious that Sammy had gone through something similar in his life from what her mom, Jessica, told her through bits and pieces but he was still wise with his words not wanting to completely throw away Vanessa’s deep rooted pain and telling her to get over it. He understood everything and didn’t treat her like an annoyance.
‘ Please Rich, Dad let this go well. ’ Vanessa thought to herself, taking a deep breath and opening the bedroom door to Gregory’s room. “Hey Kiddo, you doing alright?”
“Yeah.” Gregory muttered dryly. There was no sense of emotion that came from Gregory’s voice instead it was cold and empty. He had no fire in his soul like what Gregory normally had while he spoke. It was unnerving to see the young boy just sitting on his bed, staring into space not doing anything.
“Are you sure?” Vanessa asked again, inching closer to the bed and eventually sitting on it. “You’ve seemed off all week.”
“I’m fine, Vanessa.” Gregory repeated but now there was a bit more emotion. It was a bit more aggressive now.
“You don’t have to lie to me Gregory.” Vanessa continued, reaching out a hand and gently placing it on Gregory’s left shoulder. “I know that you’re still hurting over Cassie-”
“OH YOU DO NOW?” Gregory roared, slapping away Vanessa’s hand from his left shoulder. “I’M SO GLAD THAT YOU CAN FIGURE THAT OUT. GOOD JOB DETECTIVE.”
Vanessa couldn’t help but flinch at Gregory’s fiery outburst. Just looking into his eyes Vanessa could see the rage that was boiling in him. Vanessa had seen the young boy mad before, many times in fact, but this was something else. There was a strong sense of damage in his eyes and that he had lost something that he could never get back and Vanessa couldn’t blame him.
Cassie was Gregory’s best friend. When the trio had gotten a house thanks to Sammy, Gregory immediately tried to track down Cassie to let her know that he was okay and while Vanessa wasn’t in the room with him, she could tell that the brunette boy was crying tears of happiness that his friend was still around. In fact, Cassie was the only person that Gregory had that was in his life before he had gotten trapped under Ai Serial killer mix hybrid thing, so Vanessa knew that her dying was more painful than anything that he had ever experienced.
“Gregory, you don’t need to lock yourself up in this room.” Vanessa gently whispered. “You can-”
“DO WHAT HUH?” Gregory shouted again.” PRETEND THAT EVERYTHING’S ALL OKAY? THAT MY BEST FRIEND ISN’T FUCKING DEAD? SHE’S GONE VANESSA AND IT’S ALL MY FAULT!”
Vanessa felt like a thousand daggers had just entered her body as Gregory’s words registered in her mind. She could see so much pain in him and now she understood why he was so upset and angry at her. It was the survivors' guilt. It was so obvious now looking at it as Gregory screamed out his words, with tears forming in his eyes.
“Kid, it’s not your fault.” Vanessa pleaded. “It’s not your fault that Cassie is gone.”
“YES IT IS AND YOU KNOW IT!” Gregory shrieked, tears streaming down his face while his voice cracked. “WE GOT HER KILLED. IF WE WAITED UNTIL YOUR STUPID DAD CAME BACK THEN MAYBE THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED. MAYBE IF I WASN’T SO STUPID AND RECKLESS TO HAVE NOTICED THAT MY BAG WAS STILL DOWN THERE I COULD HAVE WARNED HER. TOLD HER TO STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS BUT I DIDN’T. SHE DIED BECAUSE OF MY CARELESSNESS!” The young boy paused, catching his breath before finally weakly finishing his rant off. “And she died thinking that I killed her.”
Gregory looked tired. His eyes were blood shot from all the crying he had done and his throat was dry from the shouting. Vanessa couldn’t stop herself from reaching her arms out and pulling him into a hug.
“Gregory, you can’t blame yourself for her death.” Vanessa told him. “You’re not to blame, we both know that it was that robot that snapped the rope and not you. You can’t blame yourself for something you couldn’t have stopped.”
“But I could have.” Gregory whimpered, tightly hugging Vanessa back.
“No you couldn’t have.” Vanessa repeated. “Kid, you’re going to learn that you can’t stop everything. Life can take people you love and care for and you can do nothing about it. I would know…”
Hearing that, Gregory pulled back from the hug, his rage coming back up again. “You know nothing about that, you’re just trying to make me feel better.”
“I’m being serious.” Vanessa replied, waving her hands to try and make it clear that she was telling the truth. “I had that happen to me while I was your age.” The older woman paused to think about if she should tell the younger boy what had happened in her old family life before coming to her conclusion. “Have I ever told you about my brother?”
“Yeah you have.” Gregory replied. “I saw him last christmas at that party your family had. He’s not dead. Ness I have eyes.”
“I’m not on about Nate.” Vanessa chuckled. “I meant my actual biological brother, Richard.”
She could see Gregory’s eyes slightly widen at the mention of the name. “What do you mean biological?” He asked, curiosity peeping through his tone. “You have a family and-”
“They’re my adopted family.” Vanessa answered. “I don’t like talking about my biological family as…” She paused, as images came flooding back in her mind. Her father’s shouting and shoving her into the basement, two of her older brothers laughing and picking on her before finally coming back to Richard. “It was painful to say the least, it’s why I got adopted um…so I can’t blame you for not knowing my actual biological brother.”
“Why haven’t you mentioned him?”
“Part of me misses him.” Vanessa softly replied. “He was a victim of a serial killer entering our home and killing everyone apart from me. Richard got me to a safe room before he…”
She felt a few tears forming in her eyes as she remembered that February night when her whole world got flipped upside down. She remembered not coming out of the safe room until the man who would become her true father unlocked the code to the safe room and comforted her for hours after she saw the only member of her family that truly loved her. She didn’t realise she was fully crying until she felt Gregory grab her and pulled her in for a hug.
“I’m sorry you lost him.” Gregory whispered.
“He was the best.” Vanessa said. “I blamed myself for his death for a long time but there wasn’t any point to doing that. I know it’s not my fault he died and it’s not your fault that Cassie is dead either. We had things happen out of our control but we can still keep a hold of them in our hearts and remember and honour them.”
The two just sat in silence and hugged each other. “Does the pain ever go away?” Gregory asked. Vanessa paused to think as she could remember asking her adopted father the very same question a decade ago and now his response echoed in her mind. Looking down at the boy she repeated the same thing he had told her years ago.
“It never truly can but it does slowly get better.”
She could see tears forming on Gregory’s face again. “Thanks, Nessa.” He said, trying his hardest to not choke up.
“No problem kid.” Vanessa replied. “But I think it’s best if you get some rest, we can talk more about it tomorrow if you want.”
“Okay fine.” Gregory said, laying back in his bed. “Goodnight Vanessa.”
“Night Greg.”
Vanessa left the room and quietly shut the door and walked to her room and sighed. “I hope I made you proud then Rich.” She muttered to herself before getting ready for bed and going to sleep.