nothing to see here, just a kid like me

tryin' to cut some teeth, tryin' to figure it out 

nothing better to do when i'm stuck on you

i'm still here, tryin' to figure it out

Royal Blood
Figure It Out

Artist: Tealli

Artist: Salix

Shorter chapter bc uni's kicking my ass!! :'D

TW: implied child abuse, nausea

  "... and that's how I'll kick the rabbit lady's stupid butt!" Gregory finished proudly.

  My hand was caught in the tight hold of Freddy's, fingers looped in the freedom that the kid being inside his stomach hatch gave us. Our pace was was unrelenting, a swift march; yet how did this hallway never seem to end?

  It felt like one of those optical illusions - I could see the end, but each step didn't actually take me any closer to it. Like we were walking on the spot.

  Still, I pulled a cherry tone to reply to Gregory with, who'd taken to filling the silence by giving a detailed run-down on the plan if the rabbit lady caught us.

  "It won't stand a chance," I said.

  "Heck no, it won't!" Gregory replied.

  I smiled woefully to myself. If that thing catches us, we're all going to die.

  Michael sent a look back at me as though he were thinking the exact same thing.

  The halls stretched for miles and each second felt like an eternity. The time ticked closer to midnight, closer to total lockdown of the complex. With my ID being out of commission, I knew that if those doors shut, I wouldn't be able to override anything with my manager status. And I'd be just as stuck in here as Gregory.

  I kept a close eye on the shadows as we walked. I still couldn't get whatever it was that crawled along the wall out of my head - it sounded mechanical, before the clicks of pistons and metal joints faded fast into the distance. But there were no robots that could scale a wall.

  It was like something out of a horror movie. The only thing keeping me from falling into a full-blown panic attack was the grounding presence of Michael's hand in mine and his pace that was too fast for me to think too much.

  "Y/n..."

  I glanced up at Michael's small, glitchy voice. "Yeah?"

  He stared ahead, into the darkness we were walking in. I'd kill for a flashlight.

  "My... systems are playing up," he murmured, making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. "I seem to have miscalculated the consumption of my battery."

  I sighed in relief. I thought he was going to say something far worse, like that he was losing control to the virus that was trying to break through his soul-infused CPU. "How much battery do you have left?"

  He made an uncomfortable grimace. "Seven percent."

  "Seven percent?!" Gregory exclaimed, just as I gasped.

  "It went down that fast?" I asked in disbelief. "Are you sure you're feeling okay? I can always... demobilise you until Jenkins arrives in the morning."

  Michael shook his head. "I should be fine. Just..." He winced. "Maybe I should charge."

  "What?" Gregory shrieked. "But I need you!"

  "I'm terribly sorry, Gregory," he apologised. He came to a stop and his hatch slid open, revealing the crouched, anxious form of the kid. "You must continue without me."

  Gregory slipped from the hatch and landed unsteadily on the floor. He whipped back around to fix Freddy with a terrified expression.

  "I don't know if I can do this alone!" he cried. Michael placed one hand on his shoulder and bent down to Gregory's height. His smile was warm, reassuring.

  "You will not be alone," he promised. "Y/n will take you to the exit." His eyes flickered to mine. "Both of you need to leave, I... have a bad feeling about tonight."

  Gregory's expression twisted into a look of distraught as Freddy pulled away. I replace my hands where his had been, giving Gregory's shoulder a squeeze of support.

  As much as part of me screamed and clamoured to stay with Michael to make sure he didn't get hurt in whatever fresh hellhole this place had become, I knew that the priority was getting Gregory to somewhere safe. I nodded, and Michael relaxed a little upon realising that I wasn't going to argue him on it.

  "Okay," I answered. "I'll call you to let you know we're out."

  Michael nodded and, with one last pat to Gregory's head, bade him a farewell and turned to locate the nearest charging chamber. Gregory watched him go with a torn frown.

  "Let's go, kiddo," I said gently, turning him around. "Time's ticking."

  Gregory held onto my sleeve as we traversed the dark tunnels, lit only by the occasional overhead bulb. It was silly, but I was glad he was clinging onto me like moss to a tree. I'd hate to go through these halls alone again.

  "I wish he didn't have to go," Gregory murmured.

  "I know, buddy," I said with a sad smile. "Me, too." I gave him a side-long glance and found his face turned into a look of downright discomfort. "Hey... how'd you get into Freddy without anyone noticing, anyway?

  Gregory shrugged. "I got stuck in that glass room thing and people were coming."

  "The parts and services chamber?" I asked. He gave a shrug again - he didn't know what it was called. "So you were stuck in there and just... decided to climb into Freddy?"

  "Yeah." 

  "And nobody saw you enter?"

  "Nope." Gregory stared ahead as we walked, eyes squinting against the darkness. His hand was still in mine. "The security in this place is kinda trash."

  "Yeah, that's a common theme with this chain," I muttered. I turned my attention to the messy-haired kid. "I don't think I've heard of anybody hiding in Freddy before. You're pretty smart, huh?"

  Gregory looked up at me. "Why do you keep doing that?"

  I blinked. "Doing what?"

  "Being nice."

  I blinked again, and then again. "Being... nice? I'm just being civil. It's basic manners."

  Gregory looked at me as though he didn't believe a word that came from my lips. He slowly shook his head.

  "No. You're being nice. Too nice." He gave me a squinted look. "Are you sure you're not the lady in the bunny suit?"

  I rolled my eyes at his accusation. "Trust me, I'd know if I was. Besides, being nice isn't hard. I'd like for people to be nice to me, so I give out what I want to get in return." I tapped his head with my palm. "Manners."

  Gregory stared at me still. A cool feeling of worry washed over me.

  "Greg... has anyone ever been nice to you?"

  "Yeah!" Gregory defended. He looked down at the floor, sombre. "When I was living at the playground I had a friend called Kerin. He got... taken."

  Taken? Taken by the copycat killer? Was that why Gregory was here, trying to look for his missing friend? And now he was being hunted, too.

  Did he say that was living at the playground?

  My heart shattered. I felt it break apart into pieces, so wrecked with sympathy that it hurt. I knew that whatever it was, considering his ragged appearance, it was bad... but not homeless-level bad.

  Gregory's frown deepened. "He's gone, right? It's been ages. Months, I think."

  I bit my lip. I wished I could lie to save his feelings, but I knew that I couldn't do that to him. "I'm sorry."

  Gregory's head fell forward a bit. His grip in mine loosened, and he made a small sniffle that sounded louder than it was in the long, echoey halls.

  "I knew it," he croaked. His free arm raised to roughly wipe some tears away. "I knew it. I just didn't want to believe it."

  I didn't know what else to say. Adults usually couldn't handle this level of grief, but a kid? A child, dealing with the death of his friend? I couldn't image the horrors Gregory had been through already in his short, young life.

  "We're going to stop it," I said. Gregory looked up at me, unusual amber eyes wet with big, fat tears. "Me and Freddy. We're going to stop more kids from going missing. What happened to Kerin won't be in vain, I promise."

  I shouldn't have promised something of that magnitude. What if we couldn't stop them? What if Michael lost control to the virus and it was just me? I couldn't do it alone.

  Not only was I not strong enough to hold my own against a single robot, but I was so scared - so dead fucking scared of this place. If it weren't for how much I grew to love the bots and the handlers, if it weren't for Michael being here, I would've left long ago.

  I shouldn't promise, but I had to. Gregory's miserable expression lightened, and even though it was only just by a smidgeon, I knew that making a promise to him was worth it.

  Gregory nodded. "I hope you do."

  We continued walking in silence for a bit, prowling through the tunnels with flickering lights. It was ominous in a way that it wasn't during opening hours - when it was so busy that it was difficult to find a hallway to hide away in to make-out.

  My cheeks blushed at the images that flooded my brain and I shook my head to rid them. I hoped Michael would be okay against the virus. If I lost him to the virus as well, I wouldn't know what I'd do with myself. A whole group of my friends (and lover), personalities stripped by malicious code... damn, that would suck.

  Gregory checked his watch. "It's eleven fifty-two." His worried eyes jumped to me. "How much longer is this path?"

  "Not long," I assured, though I kicked up our pace a fair amount. "Let's just hurry."

  Gregory nodded, easily matching my quick stride despite his small legs. We traversed the halls quickly, and I was so intent on getting to our destination that I almost walked straight into danger.

  "Wait!" Gregory whispered, before yanking me back behind a corner with such strength that I stumbled. I rightened myself and blanched at his display of power. Jesus, what did this kid eat? Straight steroids?

  I side-stepped him and looked around the corner. Chica was hunched over a pile of trash, clawing it into her mouth with predatory viciousness. I felt my stomach turn at the stench from the upturned bin and the sight of her feasting. Eugh, gross.

  I was about to step out into view and order her back to her room (and assign a bot to clean her, because Drake did not deserve to deal with such a gross task), when Gregory yanked me back behind the wall again

  "What gives?" I asked, only to have his small hand clap over my mouth. I blinked.

  "Shh! There's something wrong with her," Gregory whispered. The genuine fear in his eyes made my retort fizzle away before it even began to form. He peeked around the corner and pulled himself back in, a pleading expression on his face. "Can we please just go back?"

  I looked over my shoulder restlessly. If we went back, the detour would put another five minutes onto our time. We didn't have that option to spare, we were already racing on borrowed seconds as is.

  "What if we just... sneak around her?" I offered. At his distraught frown, I smiled sadly. "We can't turn back, kiddo. Not if you want to get out of here in time."

  Gregory's face twisted into a look of great conflict. He glanced around at Chica again and anxiously wrung his hands.

  "Okay," he agreed. "What's the plan?"

  I looked at the door behind her. There were two of them, one closer to us than Chica herself was, and I knew that they both lead to the same room - a staff toilet.

  Oh, god. I had an idea. And it was a terrible one, but the only one I could think of.

  "How do you feel about playing a little bit of Marco Polo?" I asked.

  Gregory looked up at me, confused. "How are you going to do that?"

  "Through great idiocy," I sighed under my breath. I held out my hand. "We need to stick together."

  Gregory stared at my hand for a few beats before slowly placing it in mine. With a deep, settling inhale, I squared my shoulders and began to creep along the wall towards the first door. Beside me, trailing along, Gregory was so tense that I could feel his tautness through his hand in mine.

  My ears paid rapt attention to the sounds of Chica mowing down on trash, wincing slightly at the grinding of metal on tin. She was faced away from us, looking towards the exit we needed to go through. We had to get her away from there if Gregory didn't want her to notice us.

  As we edged closer, I began to see what he was talking about. Chica wasn't just having an extremely awful binge-fest, her eyes were fucking gone, a look of feral emptiness that resembled nothing of the sweet chick I spent my days with.

  I paused for a second and Gregory looked up at me, unable to speak but yelling at me to continue with his pinched expression. But I was too caught up in staring at Chica in horror. I understood why Gregory didn't want her to see us, now. That wasn't her anymore.

  A curse bubbled on my tongue but I kept my lips clamped shut. Was this the extent of the virus? Turning the robots into - into feral beasts? My heart was pounding in my ears and my throat was tightening, twisting in on itself as a sob threatened to burst from behind my clenched teeth. What did they do to her? What did they to my sweet friend?

  A nudge to my side pulled me back to our task at hand. I blinked my eyes hard to rid the incoming sting of frustrated tears and waited for Chica's paint-scratched beak to loudly chomp down on a bunch of cans before using it to mask the sound of me opening the door. We ushered ourselves inside before Chica could even think to look around.

  My hand flew to my forehead as I crouched on the tiled floor once we were in the clear. What the fuck was going on? What did the virus do to Chica? Was this why Vanessa was freaking out about Gregory? Did she know? Did she do this?

  God. My palms slid to cover my eyes. What if Michael loses himself like Chica? What if his eyes lost themselves next?

  My chin titled up to the ceiling and I pulled in a deep inhale. Gregory was staring worriedly, glancing periodically at the doors as though Chica was about to burst inside. I clenched my fists on my thighs and rose. Gregory needed me. I could cry later.

  "Let's go," I whispered, holding my hand out again for Gregory to take. He didn't hesitate that time, confidently placing his hand in mine. He watched me curiously.

  "What's your plan?" he asked.

  "Call me stupid later, okay?" I asked, before bringing my arm down loudly on the door we just came through.

  "What are you doing?!" Gregory shrieked.

  "Who's there?" Chica's scratchy, glitchy, not her voice asked. Her heavy footsteps rocked the floor as she approached.

  "Run!"

  Gregory gasped as I made a break-neck pace toward the far door, banging it open with my shoulder and whipping Gregory through by his arm. He stumbled from the momentum with a cry and rightened himself, only to have my hand on his back pushing him faster as we ran.

  After a few seconds of hiding in the shadows of a janitor's closet doorway, we deduced that Chica hadn't followed us and released our breaths in relief. Gregory's livid gaze turned to me.

  "You make terrible ideas!" he hissed

  "Guilty." I grinned from between deep huffs. "I told you it was stupid. But it worked, didn't I?"

  "I guess!" Gregory snapped, frustrated. "But we almost died!"

  "Yes. However, we didn't," I pointed out, which made him roll his eyes. "You're pretty fast for a kid with bad sneakers."

  Gregory looked down at his ruined shoes apathetically. "Survival tactic."

  I smiled a little, though a pang of sadness still bolted through me at his expression. No child should have to look like that; so resigned, so serious. He was still just a kid. He shouldn't be dealing with this kind of bullshit.

  "I'll buy you some new ones when we get out of here, how does that sound?"

  Gregory smiled, only for it to drop a second later. "You're saying that so I'll forgive you for your shitty plan."

  I gasped. "Did you just swear?! You're not old enough for that! Aren't you like, five?"

  Gregory was truly bristling now. "I'm twelve!"

  "My goodness," I said, holding the back of my hand to my forehead as though in shock. My feet turned back onto the path for the exit while I shook my head. "How vulgar for such a youth."

  "You're the worst."

  "I guarantee you, you can't even say the word 'frick' around Freddy without him freaking out," I pointed out as Gregory hurried into step beside me. "He's the worst."

  "That makes me want to swear in front of him, now."

  "Sure, just don't tell him I egged you on," I said.

  Gregory snickered quietly, under his breath so though I wouldn't hear it. But I did, and I felt myself bloom at the sound of his laugh. It was a great distraction from Chica's eeriness.

  "I have a question," Gregory said. I nodded for him to continue. "Um... before, you called Freddy Michael..."

  I stiffened. "It's a... inside joke."

  "Oh," Gregory murmured. He was silent for a beat before continuing. "I think I knew a Michael. I don't know how, though."

  I furrowed my brows and looked down at him. "What do you mean?"

  Gregory peeked up at me. "I don't have any memories."

  I stopped in my tracks to send him a bewildered look. "You lost your memories?"

  "I think so," Gregory murmured. "I must have. I can't remember anything before waking up a few months ago." He must've noticed my horrified expression because he sighed and looked away. "We should keep moving."

  I nodded absentmindedly. Homeless and without memories? Who was this poor kid? What happened to him?

  I didn't get a chance to pry further (or think about how to do that without sending him into his shell again). When we stepped into a new hallway - my head in the clouds, Gregory equally as lost - we didn't check our surroundings. To our left was a gate. One that Monty was prowling behind.

  "There ya are!"

  The both of us whipped around just in time to see Monty destroy the gate in one fatal swoop of his claws. Gregory stumbled back a step with a shriek and I was too stunned to make a sound. No. No, Monty was lost, too. The virus had him as well.

  "Y/n!" Gregory begged. I took a step back, staring into Monty's empty gaze, and turned tail to bolt. Roxanne popped out of nowhere to join the hunt with a snarl from behind her sharp fangs.

  My vision bubbled with blurry tears as my legs took me as fast as they could, swerving trolleys and dropping boxes in futile efforts to slow them down. Gregory was rasping for breath in a way that didn't sound healthy, pupils pinpricked with terror.

  A crash of stacked containers made Gregory and I flinch. They must've called Chica, because now she was after us, too.

  "Up here!" I said, yanking Gregory towards a set of stairs that I knew led to one of the security stations that were dotted around the complex. He followed my order without complaint, flying up the stairs with speed I struggled to keep up with. 
 
  We made it to the station just as Chica, who I quickly realised was far faster than I thought, reached the top of the stairs. With a terrified, sharp inhale, I slammed my hand down on the button that shut the lockdown doors just as she ran straight for us.

  Gregory bent down to return his breath. I stepped backwards from the banging on the door with my heart between my teeth. I slapped my hand over my Faz-Watch.

  "Freddy, you prick!" I cried. "Call them off!"

  "What?"

  "They're chasing us," Gregory whimpered. "Your friends are hunting us down!"

  "I- I cannot contact them- why are you two in a security office? You do not have time!"

  "The others are outside the doors," I replied breathlessly. Another round of vicious pounding on the door made me flinch. "They would've caught us if we kept going toward the exit. We're stuck."

  I didn't miss the sick contrast between me being stuck in a security office while crazed robots tried to kill me, and Michael in the exact same position back when he was alive. A sudden bout of dizziness made me sway.

  They couldn't recognise me. My friends didn't know who I was. All they wanted to do was kill me. I crouched, bringing my hands over my mouth as intense nausea knocked me for a six. My skin grew clammy and felt like it didn't belong on me. My stomach rolled.

  I closed my eyes tightly against the onslaught. Monty, with his shitty personality but his undeniable care. Chica, with her bright smile and brighter personality. Roxy, with her prickly attitude and deep affection. They were all gone. It wasn't them anymore.

  "You should be quite safe in there," Michael promised. "The lockdown doors have enough reinforcement to keep the others out. They will stay closed as long as they have power. I am making my way toward you two now."

  "That's a problem," Gregory said from the interface panel. "The doors only have fifteen percent of power remaining, and it's dropping fast!"

  Michael was silent for a few seconds. The banging on the door was making my head grow fuzzy with terror.

  "... that changes things," he admitted. "See if you can connect your Faz-Watches to the interface on the security desk. It will give you access to security protocols."

  "Where?" Gregory asked. Another round of banging had him cowering into me.

  "Here, I think." I unclipped the strap and placed it into holder that looked to fit a Faz-Watch. The screen went blue for a few seconds while a small white bear loaded in the corner. "Hand me yours." I did the same with Gregory's watch.

  "Are you connected?"

  "Yeah," Gregory said quietly as he adjusted the strap back around his wrist.

  "Good," Michael said. "You're doing a great job, Gregory. You're very brave. Y/n - can you check the security cameras? Perhaps there is a way to sneak around the others."

  I pulled in a deep breath to settle my raging nerves and held up my watch. Monty and Roxy were attacking one door, but the other was deserted. Chica was missing.

  "There's one way," I murmured. I clicked through the cameras leading down the hall and found it to be empty, too. "Chica's gone."

  "Follow it."

  "But what if we run into her?" Gregory whimpered. I opened the door and, with the banging of the other door to our backs, quickly speed-walked down the hall. I kept checking out position on the cameras and scouting ahead while Gregory pulled me forward.

  "Then hide. She is fast, but I believe if you out manoeuvre her and hide, you can lose her," Michael explained. "Unfortunately, I do not believe you can do the same with Roxy. With her x-ray eyes, hiding from her will be impossible - but she is not as fast as Chica."

  "And Monty?" Gregory asked.

  "... do not get found by Monty."

  "Great," I whispered. "Hopefully we can get you out before we encounter them again."

  Gregory's grip tightened over mine. "Yeah," he agreed quietly. "I... I was meant to stay, but I don't think I can. I made a promise that I have to break."

  I looked at him oddly before stopping him when I spotted movement in the corner of one of the cameras. Chica was gorging herself on garbage again. Her back was to us, thankfully.

  "Carefully," I whispered, guiding him down the side of the room that Chica was turned away from. Gregory held his breath as we snuck around her and quickly exited through a pair of doors that led to the lobby.

  The doors shut behind us just as the overhead speakers crackled to life;

  "Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex is now closed. Initiating nightime protocols."

  Gregory sprinted towards the doors as the shutters began to lower. "No! No! Wait, I'm still here!"

  The shutters closed with a finalising, mocking clang. Gregory skidded to a stop with a cry of disbelief. I stared at the doors with a lost look of horror.

  "Now what am I suppose to do?" Gregory asked. He turned to me. "We're stuck!"

  We're stuck. Fuck, we were stuck. My override wouldn't work and we were stuck. This was probably what the copycat killer was counting on - for us to be trapped in here to make it easier for them to hunt Gregory down. It was probably some kind of sick game to them.

  We stared at the locked shutters with defeat.

  "Y/n? Gregory?" Michael's voice crackled through our watches. "Are you two okay? Did you get out?"

  My tongue grew heavy. I failed to get him out. I just killed this kid. He was a lamb to slaughter and I handed him over on a silver platter.

  "No," Gregory answered sullenly. "No, we didn't."