CALL OF THE SHADOW [Freedom AU Book Eight]{FNAF/UT}

N̷̮̻̆̽̚͝I̷̛̛̦̯͒̆͋Ň̴̗̻͎̭͝Ȩ̶̱̱̞̄͆̅̈́

  Something was off. Opening his emerald-green eyes, Bonbell looked around his bedroom. The clock on his nightstand read 1:38AM. Glancing about again, the bunny tried to figure out what it was that felt wrong. Cautiously, he pulled back his bed covers and slowly swung his feet over the edge of the bed and onto the floor.

Before he was able to stand up, he saw something move from the corner of his eye. Looking to the bedroom's cracked open door, Bon's brow furrowed curiously. There was nothing there. Standing up, the bunny began towards the door. Slowly opening his door all the way, Bon peered out into the hallway. Part of a dark shadow quickly disappeared around a corner. Eyes wider than before, Bon slowly ventured out into the hallway.

As he walked through his small house, a sense of uneasiness began to set in. The feeling of something being off wasn't going away, and Bon didn't know why. He continued to walk, a cautiousness to his slow steps.

In a sudden blink, Bon's home suddenly turned into Fred's apartment. He stopped walking, and looked around—puzzled. Behind him was the apartment's door, to his right was the kitchen. Straight ahead was the living room—which looked to be in disarray. The whole place looked as though the very moon shinning in through the windows were a blood red. The bunny faced forward, and began walking again.

Entering the living room, Bon saw nothing at first. Save for the throw pillows on the couch that looked to have been half-mindedly tossed about, and the coffee table looking to have been carelessly shoved up against the cushioned chair to the left of the couch, the room looked to be mostly empty.

One corner of the living room, however, was completely clout in darkness—darker than the very night itself. Squinting his eyes, Bonbell tried to make out anything in the shadows, but to no avail. Though, after a short moment, a figure began to approach him from the shadows. The figure soon revealed itself to be his brother—Fredrick.

Fred's whole demeanor was wrong. His posture was unusually slouched, his vest—one of his nicer ones—was dirtied, but it was too dark to tell in what, while his bowtie was completely untied and hung loosely around his neck. The bear's gaze was distant, almost as if he were starring into the abyss. His steps forward were with a limp just as heavy as his posture, indicating he was in pain.

"... F-Fred?" Bon cautiously asked, frozen where he stood. The bear said nothing at first, allowing for silence to follow. Bon could practically hear his own heart pounding in his chest. "... Th-They..." Fredrick began, English tone sounding struggled and raspy. "... a-are... c-coming..."

"W-What?" Fredrick slowly looked up to his brother, and Bon could feel his heart nearly stopped. Fred's once bright and lively diamond blue eyes were now dull—nearly completely white in color. A dead look. "†̵̬͙̰͔͕͒̄̽̚͠h̶̢̧͈̪̝͑̆͒͛̒ȩ̷̨̘̼͚̂͆̐̔͘̕m̵̡̨̮̜̻̒͆̊͝͠." The bear sounded as though he'd jinxed someone else—the other voice eerily familiar. The shadows behind Fred suddenly took on an equally familiar form, as two large and shadowing hands were positioned above the bear—as though he were no more than a mere puppet being controlled with invisible strings.

The shadow's hands then backed off, leaving the bear to clasp at his increasingly bleeding chest and fall to the ground with a cry of pain, then becoming limp a moment later. "F-Fred?!" Bon looked down to his brother, wanting to drop to the ground next to him to see if he was alright, but before he could, he shot a glance back to it. The shadow lunged at the bunny.

~~~

Bon shot up in bed, heart beating a mile a minute. He felt himself shaking, as he was nearly hyperventilating from fear. It took him a moment to realize that he was hearing a strange, and quiet sound. It wasn't the sound of it pestering him either—which he'd become accustomed to. No, this sounded like whispers. Indistinguishable whispers, and a lot of them too.

"H-Hello?" Bon called out, unsure if the sound was coming from someone his mind—if he was just hearing things. The whispers continued, but nobody addressed him. To test and see if these whispers were real, the bunny let his tall blue ears fall limp in front of his face. Then, he pressed his hands atop the base of his ears hard—so he'd be unable to hear any sounds. Bon could still hear them.

The whispers were suddenly becoming louder as Bon let go of his ears. He pulled his legs up to his chest, while also pulling his bed sheets up closer—emerald eyes screwed shut. "S-Stop it...!" He quietly pleaded, hoping for the noise to stop. It only grew louder, but remained indistinguishable. "P-Please...!" He pleaded louder, curling in on himself. "S... STOP!"

~~~

Ringing. The sound nearly gave him a heart attack, as he shot up in bed... again. Though, he was sweat-soaked now. When had he even fallen asleep? The ringing sound continued. In his groggy daze, Bon didn't know where the sound was coming from. Was it even real, or was he just hearing things again? Where was it even coming from? The bunny's emerald eyes searched the room quickly, finding it to be somewhat well lit with natural light. The clock read 8:45AM... It was morning. There was a continuous ringing sound. The sound was familiar. It was his phone ringing from his bedside table, next to his clock.

Picking up the cellphone, Bon took a shuddering breath, and pressed answer. He then put the call on speaker. "H... Hello?" He answered. "Good morning, Bonbell." It was his boss, Dr. Gill. "O-Oh! Good morning, sir!" Bon was finally able to calm his shaking nerves. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

"No, you didn't." Bon lied—professionalism and what have you. "I was just going to call you to ask if you were still coming for your shift this afternoon?" The doctor asked, before adding, "You've taken quite a number of personal days. You doing alright?" Bon thought for a minute. Had he really taken that many days off? It felt like much less... "Y-Yeah, I'm fine. I'll be in today."

"Glad to hear it." Dr. Gill answered, tone sounding a little distracted. "Is that all?" Bon wondered. "Hmm? Oh, yes. Just glad you're okay, is all." The bunny had a puzzled look on his face, though his boss couldn't tell. "... Why?"

"A few monsters on the cleaning staff have stopped showing up for work, and we can't get ahold of them." Dr. Gill explained. "It seems more and more of us monsters are vanishing just like that." Bon could hear the doctor snap his fingers for emphasis on the saying. "Hey, you anthros are all accounted for, right?"

"That I know of, yes." Bon answered, ignoring the looming and grinning figure in the corner of his eye. "Good." There was a small sigh heard from Dr. Gill, before he spoke up again. "I'll let you go. See you this afternoon."

"I'll be there." Bon hung up and simply stared off for a moment. A small chuckled resonated from it. The bunny's eyes narrowed as he stared it's way. "What's so funny?"

Nothing at all, don't worry about it. Bon gave a small exhausted huff, before getting up and going for the day.

~~~

A.N. Things are about to go down in the next chapter or two~