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A Mask Filled with Trauma

Summary:

Gregory has been dealing with constant nightmares about Vanny and her mask. It even follows him in the real world when a new animatronic comes with the same mask that Vanny had. Will Gregory be able to overcome his fear?

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Another day, another nightmare for Gregory. This time it was him at school with one second everything was normal, the next everyone was staring at him wearing that same white rabbit mask that has been haunting him.

Vanessa has taken notice of the way Gregory has been feeling recently, and wanted to help him in any way she possibly could. She herself has had trauma with the Vanny mask, but has been able to get through it. Vanessa knows how bad it has been for Gregory though, and despite her not being in control of herself at the time she felt responsible for it. She has been working hard to get him therapy for it, hoping he will be able to talk to a professional about things that could help. For now though she just wanted to do anything that could cheer him up

While scrolling on her phone she sees that the Pizzaplex reopening was happening today and got an idea for something she could do for Gregory.

Vanessa goes up to Gregory's room knocking on the door, “Hey, are you awake?”

“Y-Yeah I am, come in.” Gregory says with a shaky voice.

When Vanessa goes into Gregory’s room she immediately takes notice of Gregory’s shaky voice, and him holding his Glamrock Freddy plush close to him. “Did you have another nightmare?” Vanessa asks in a soft, concerned tone.

Gregory nods yes, before describing the nightmare that he had. “It’s almost the same thing every night, one second everything will be fine. The next second somebody will be wearing the Vanny mask. In this case it was my entire class…” Despite knowing that all the dreams were fake, the dreams made Gregory believe Vanny could come back at any second despite Vanny only being a mind-controlled Vanessa.

Vanessa was bad at knowing what to say when Gregory talks about the nightmares. She felt awful that she couldn’t do much in these situations. “Hey, just know that I am here to protect you. There will be no more real Vanny attacks. Also a therapist got back to me about you, and you should be able to start that really soon.” Vanessa said, trying to bring Gregory any level of comfort she could.

“Thank you, Vanessa…” Gregory said feeling a bit better knowing Vanessa was there for him, and that he was able to start therapy soon. Still though it was really tough for him right now.

“Hey, I also had an idea to help get your mind off of things, so you could have a nice day without worrying about things. The Pizzaplex just open back up, and I was wondering if you would like to go there today?” Vanessa asks Gregory wanting to know how he felt about the idea

Gregory’s eyes immediately light up, “Yes!! Yes!! Yes!!” Gregory jumps out of bed right away, and goes to get ready. Once Gregory got ready he and Vanessa began heading towards the Pizzaplex.

Once they got to the Pizzaplex they went inside, and Gregory got immediately excited seeing all the upgrades Fazbear has made to the place. Gregory continues to look around the place seeing other people walking around before realizing something, and freezing in place.

Around the Pizzaplex, Gregory sees people wearing the same Vanny mask that has been giving him all those nightmares. Gregory immediately starts shaking in place, before darting out of the Pizzaplex

Once Gregory begins darting out of the Pizzaplex, Vanessa starts seeing the people wearing the Vanny mask and thinks to herself, "Why the hell is everyone wearing that?" Vanessa then sees a poster on the wall advertising a new animatronic that had that same Vanny mask. “Of course Fazbear would do some shit like this.” Vanessa thought to herself before chasing after Gregory.

Vanessa found Gregory sitting on the outside of the Pizzaplex with his head down, rocking back and forth in place while being in tears. Vanessa slowly goes up to Gregory before sitting next to him. “Gregory?”

“W-Why is she here Vanessa, why?” Gregory says trying to take deep breaths to calm himself down, but it wasn’t working for him right now.

“I had no idea they were going to actually do this Gregory, I’m so sorry. I promise though, everything is okay, nothing is here to hurt you.” Vanessa tried to be as comforting as possible, because she knew Gregory really needed it right now.

“B-But what if that's not the case, and somebody in the Vanny mask tries to attack me… W-What if something happens to people’s heads when they put on that mask?” Gregory knew the thoughts were really unlikely, but still even just the slight thought of it terrified him.

“Even if something like that happened, I will be here to protect you. We also do not need to go back there if you do not want to, we can go home.” Vanessa reassured Gregory making sure to let him know that they didn’t even need to go back if he didn’t want to.

Gregory took a few more deep breaths fully calming himself down before making a decision. “I want to try, but promise me if I say I want to leave that we can leave.”

“Of course, Gregory” Vanessa said before both of them start to going towards the building again.

Once they got back inside Gregory sees the people in the Vanny mask, and freezes again. He quickly takes a deep breath though, telling himself, “They are just people in masks, they won’t hurt me, they aren’t evil.” Gregory keeps walking with Vanessa as he is telling himself that

Once they got the atrium, Gregory immediately looks towards the station where the pizza is, and his stomach starts growling. “Vanessa, can we get pizza. I am getting really hungry.” Gregory says as his eyes are on how good the pizza looks.

“Of course we can, what kind of pizza do you want?” Vanessa asks as they walk up to the pizza station.

“Can we get pepperoni?” Gregory asks.

Vanessa nods, and they get to the pizza station before ordering their pizza. While they were waiting for the pizza, Gregory from time to time was still looking all around the place to make sure he was safe. “Hey, are you okay Gregory?” Vanessa asked wanting to make sure he was okay, because she noticed Gregory looking around.

“Yeah, I am feeling a bit better. I’m still just wary of things.” Gregory says with his voice being a lot less shaky than before.

“That’s perfectly fine, I’m glad you are feeling better right now though.” Vanessa was really happy to see Gregory starting to feel better, especially with how things have been for him lately. Seeing him getting through this made her really proud and happy for him.

After a few more minutes of waiting their pizza was ready and they sat at a table together. Once Gregory took the first bite of his pizza his eyes widen in shock from just how good the pizza was. Unlike other pizza places around him, the Pizzaplex put the perfect number of pepperoni pieces, and the taste was nothing short of amazing to him. “Well, I can tell you are enjoying that.” Vanessa lets out a little laugh seeing how excited Gregory is about the pizza.

“Yeah! It is amazing.” Gregory says as he continues taking bites of his pizza.

“After we finish eating, what do you want to do next?” Vanessa asks

“Can we go to the arcade? I heard that they added a lot of new games there, and I really want to try them.” Gregory says he's been wanting to try the new arcade ever since he re-entered the building the second time.

“Okay! Sounds like a plan to me.” Vanessa says as they continue eating.

When they finish eating, Gregory and Vanessa head to the arcade to play some of the arcade games. Gregory was really enjoying himself at the arcade even beating some of the high scores on the machines. When Gregory finished playing one of the arcade games, he didn’t notice something that was coming up from behind him.

“Are you enjoying your time at the Pizzaplex?” Gregory turns to see who said that, as he turns he immediately flinches before completely freezing up. In front of him was the Vanny animatronic, Gregory felt that at any second that he would want to take off running.

“Kid? Are you okay? Did I scare you?” Vanny says, concerned about Gregory.

“P-Please don't hurt me…” Gregory couldn’t even process the fact that it was a Vanny animatronic in front of him. All he was thinking of was the Vanny that brought him so much trauma.

“I’m not going to hurt you, I promise. I am Vanny, the animatronic that resides here in this arcade.” Despite being a robot that can’t fully feel the full emotions humans can, she still felt the closest to feeling bad that she could.

“I-I’m sorry I said that, just past experiences with certain things got to me.” Gregory says shakingly, he felt bad for sounding like he was kind of accusing this Vanny of being somebody that hurts people.

“It’s okay, I’m sorry again for scaring you. Tell you what as an apology is there any dessert you would like, -oh also what is your name?” Vanny says offering to get Gregory any dessert he wants.

“I-I’m Gregory, and yeah there is. Could I please have a piece of carrot cake?” Gregory asks, beginning to slightly calm down.

“Okay! Let me go get that for you.” Vanny says as she goes to get the carrot cake.

When Vanny got back with the piece of carrot cake, she hands it to Gregory. Gregory takes a bite out of it, and he could not lie, it was one of the best pieces of carrot cake he’s ever had. Gregory was soon starting to realize maybe everything was okay, maybe the mask was truly fine.

After the day at the Pizzaplex, Gregory and Vanessa get home. Before going to bed Vanessa wanted to see home Gregory was feeling about everything.

“Are you doing okay after today?” Vanessa asks

“I’m actually doing pretty good, I feel a lot better after today… I am getting pretty tired though so I’m probably going to go to sleep, Goodnight Vanessa.” Gregory heads up to his bedroom to go to sleep where he gets his first night of normal sleep in a very long time.