The Fox's Pet

Chapter 5 - The Fox's Pet

It has been a few hours since Vera met Anti in the Parts & Service room. She kept telling him she'd go tell her friends about him but he would always change the subject or tell her not to.
"But I have to tell them!" Vera pleaded as she walked down a dark, narrow hallway underneath the whole restaurant. It seemed like a basement.
"Vera, honey, they left you. They've forgotten about you. Just like those workers who have forgotten about me. Do you see the similarities between us?" The sly fox asked.
"I-... mh." Vera was uncomfortable because of the question Anti asked. How could they possibly be anything like each other? However, the more Vera thought, the more she realised how similar they really were: Both of them are lonely, both of them have been rejected, both of them had been forgotten. Or so she thought.
"You can't deny it." Anti added.
"I guess so." Vera said slowly and quietly as she looked him in the eye. His eye looked very glossy; it looked satisfying in a way. His dark green eye matched his dark green eyeliner, snout and hair. It was an interesting design, that's for sure. He was quite large. There could probably be enough room for a whole human to fit inside. Vera felt cold as she walked beside the tall animitronic.
"So, you said you wanted to help me, right?" Anti asked. Vera slowly nodded. Anti gave Vera a side-look and continued, "Well, I have a mission for you. I want you to destroy the animitronics."
"What!?" Vera vociferated in shock.
"You heard me. You're going to destroy the animitronics, one by one. You will help me escape." Anti replied, losing his patience.
"B-but I can't do that! That's a crime-" Vera got cut off by Anti pinning her to the wall.
"DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE WHAT IT IS!? YOU WILL DO AS I SAY OR I'LL KILL ALL OF YOUR GODDAMN FRIENDS, DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?" Anti roared at the poor teenager. His voice almost sounded demonic, like as if the Devil himself had possesed him. Vera flinched at every word and broke down into tears.
"I-I-I'm sorry. I'll do it." Vera apologised with her voice trembling. Anti slowly relaxed his arms.
"Good!" He said calmly and cheerfully like as if nothing had happened. He started walking away with his arms behind his back. Vera hesitated but soon followed him. The pair walked into a room which looked like a security office. A very big security office. There were two doors on either sides and buttons which Vera assumed would open and close the doors. There were several monitors around the room which were used as a way to look through the cameras which were scattered around the establishment. Overall, it looked really clean for a room that was probably sealed off for years. Anti took out an axe from underneath the desk and looked at Vera.
"Here's a gift from me. You're welcome." Anti said cheerfully. He almost sounded like a psycho. Vera cringed and almost squealed at the blood-stained axe and slowly took it with her hands trembling. Who did the blood belong to? She wondered. The monitors suddenly turned on with a green flash. Then it showed some of the rooms inside the establishment.
"Now off you go. I'll be watching you on the monitors. Bye! Stay safe!" He said with a psychotic laugh at the end as he pushed Vera out of the office and closed the door.

Vera looked around and then at the axe. Who does she start with first? Vera thought for a moment. She sighed and made her way back up to the main stage. She froze. Everyone was gone.
"Meow." A robotic male voice came from behind Vera. She turned around and saw the large animitronic cat standing about three meters away from her with his hands spread out, ready to catch her. It was Chester. He was covered in dust and had lost his wand. Vera started backing off as the cat started stepping towards her with some of his limbs twitching, including his head. It was a terrifying sight but Vera knew she had to do it. She suddenly lunged forwards and hit the animitronic continuously with her axe, not stopping until she was sure the animitronic was deactivated. Soon, she stopped and panted as she stared at the poor animal. She felt bad for him but then again he did try to kill her.
"I'm sorry." She whispered quietly and looked around. She couldn't leave the animitronic here; she had to hide him somewhere. After all, she knew how sentient those animitronics were. She looked at the Parts & Service room and smiled to herself as she whispered, "bingo." She began dragging the animitronic into the room which was incredibly hard to do because of how heavy he was. It took her about ten minutes before she was happy with the state of the animitronic. He was sitting in a slouched position with his face missing and his eye hanging down by a small wire. His endoskeleton was now exposed as well as his back due to Vera's violent action. Silently, Vera walked out of the room and looked around for any potential threats. Nothing. Not even a sound. It was silent. Too silent.

Vera walked into the cold room where Anti was sitting in the office chair with his feet on the desk. She brought him an ear that came from Chester as proof that she did destroy him, even though she knew that Anti saw everything on the monitors.
"Well done. I didn't think you'd be able to do it, knowing how easily you get scared." Anti praised her while also adding a laugh. Vera just stared blankly at the fox. She didn't know what she was feeling towards the animitronic. She didn't know whether she was happy to help him or if she was absolutely terror-struck by him.
"Is that it?" Vera asked, hoping that she didn't have to do more for the psycho sitting just one meter away from her.
"Of course not! I said I wanted you to destroy the animitronics," He said while also putting the emphasis on the word 'animitronics', "it's plural, not singular." Vera was beginning to get a little uncomfortable. She started fidgeting with her hands.
"D-Do I have to?" Vera asked as quietly as she could. Anti set his feet down on the ground, turned the chair to face Vera and leaned forwards. His dark green eye stared into Vera's hazel eyes. He gave her that same look when he first met her. The monitors suddenly flickered at the same time. How could someone suddenly go from so happy and cheerful to dark and angry.
"Fine. I'll give you one day to rest. Tomorrow you'll do it again." He spoke in a low, dominant voice. He was annoyed. Vera nodded and left the room without a word. What could she do in those 24 hours that she was given? Vera used that time to get some sleep before she started her work tomorrow. Without a rush, she sat down against a chilly wall. She was starting to hope that her friends wouldn't come back for her so they wouldn't find out what she was doing.

Instantaneously, Vera woke up to the sound of metal scraping against a wall.
"Wakey, wakey, butterfly." Anti sang gently yet creepily. Vera slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes. It almost felt like another day of school where she had to wake up early to not miss the bus.
"Time to get up." He said, throwing the axe onto Vera's lap, startling her in the process and not caring about the fact that he could've seriously injured her.
"I can do this." Vera whispered to herself as she got up, not daring to look at the psychotic, clown-like fox. Instead, she casually walked up to the ground floor, knowing that what she was doing was wrong. However, Vera couldn't help but feel awful satisfaction for her dreadful actions. She was finally taking out all her anger that she had bottled up inside her for all those years. The anger from her school, parents, family and sometimes even Victor. All the anger merged into one terrifying monster, ready to explode out of her any second now as she remembered everything.
"Are you lost?" A robotic voice asked. The voice sounded quite distant, like as if the animitronic was talking to itself. Vera knew this was a tactic used to make, whoever was hiding, come out or reply so that the seeker would find them. Vera was not falling for that again. She had enough of Luka always finding her whenever they played hide-and-seek together when they were little.
"I'll find you." The voice came from around the corner at the end of a halway. Vera knew who the voice belonged to and it wasn't long before she could see the animitronic prowling towards her, not knowing she was there. The animitronic was blind. The animitronic was angry.

The animitronic was Audrey.

Vera started padding towards the big wolf with her axe in her hands, ready to swing at the giant beast. The young teenager was just moments away from knocking Audrey to the floor but the wolf started sniffing the air. Suddenly, Audrey grabbed Vera's arm, keeping a tight grip on her, and yelled, "YOU ARE NOTHING!" before slamming her to the ground with all her might. It was like she knew what Vera did to Chester and wanted nothing more than pure revenge. Vera almost screamed but kept quiet, incase someone could actually hear her from outside. Even though it was very unlikely. Suddenly, Vera had an idea. She stood up and ran as fast as lightning to the security office and waited inside for the vengeful beast to arrive.
"WHERE ARE YOU, YOU LITTLE COWARD!?" Audrey yelled stridently as she felt her way towards the security office. Just as she was about to walk into the office, Vera pressed the button next to the door which immediately shut down on top of Audrey, severely damaging her. She let out an excruciating howl as Vera kept opening and closing the door on her body until, shortly after, the wolf stopped moving like as if she had died. Vera stared at the lifeless body of her childhood favourite character and broke down into tears. She collapsed and hugged the wolf as she wept silently for what seemed like hours to her; when in reality, it was only about ten minutes.

Vera quickly lifted her head up.

There were footsteps.

Human footsteps.

She cautiously peaked outside of the door to not get spotted.

"What's Victor doing here?"