Never the Same

Chapter 5: Fear

Staring at the plush toy, Michael's thoughts began to wander, if he could remember this, could he possibly pull anything from his mind about his father's project? He began to think, to try to pull out anything that may help him when he walks through that locked door, but nothing came through in the end, maybe it was a trigger, maybe he needed to see something to jog his memory. Then suddenly out of nowhere the dreadful silence was replaced with, *bang bang bang*, he thought it was coming from above, but it also could be coming from below. He decided the best course of action was to keep moving forward, it might be a bad idea to stay and wait to see if something finds him. He walked out his father's office, key in hand, his brother's plush in the other, like it was some form of protection he could use to save himself from what awaited him behind the door. He unlocked the door and walked into the darkness, this hallway was long, but it was way shorter than what he's traversed so far, this one leading to a relatively large room, it reminded him of the living room in his father's house. It was pitch black other than the very dim fluorescent lights in the ceiling. He saw some spotlights up there, and decided to look for a light switch, but before he found one, the lights clicked on. Rather only one, in the center of the room.

It took him a second for his eyes to adjust, but when they did, he was struck with a wall of fear, a slumped over figure strapped down to a chair in the center of the room, the spotlight focused on it. Michael wanted to get closer to confirm what he was looking at, it looked very familiar to a certain plushie he had in his hand, but it was all green and molded. "Fredbear...?" Michael said out loud more to himself rather than to the old suit itself.

"Been a while... Hasn't it Afton?" The figure spoke, its grated voice seemingly combined with a robotic mechanical sound, as if making use of the suits voice box. "You lock me down here for God knows how long, and never pay a visit?", it said sounding surprisingly sarcastic, "Well, the other one already escaped, he's been wandering the halls, good luck finding him."

"As for me, I could've left a long time ago, but I waited, waited for you to come back, so I can finally take you down myself," the figure stood, as it being strapped down to the chair was a trick. Michael didn't know what to do, he was paralyzed with fear as this massive disgusting figure loomed over him.

"Wait! Wait a second! I'm not him! You've got the wrong person!", Michael yelled out as he saw the figure look up at him, but it didn't seem like it cared, it's eyes somehow glowing brighter than the light above it, and what filled those eyes was murderous rage. The only thing Michael could think of was to run, but he didn't want to turn his back to the creature, and if he turned and ran he'd just be trapped back in the labyrinth of hallways and offices. That's when something caught his eye, a door, on the other side of the room, and it was open. If he was smart about it he could run around and just hope the creature wasn't fast enough to grab him. To avoid being trapped he decided to risk it all and run for it, hoping he wouldn't be caught.

Without much more thought, Michael threw the key he had to the other side of the room, hoping to catch the things attention, and it did. He ran as fast as he could and before the bear could even turn to look his way, Michael had made it to the door. He went through and slammed it right behind him, and used the lock on the outside, hoping it would hold. He ran through the hallway to distance himself from the monster, "I'll find you Afton! You can't get away!", it yelled through the door as Michael turned the corner and kept running. 

When he felt it was safe, he slowed down and took refuge in what seemed to be a janitor's closet. He sat down and tried to collect his thoughts, "What the hell was that! He said Afton, what did my dad do?!" Michael couldn't seem to wrap his head around what was happening, he's been pushing all the things he's seen and heard down here off, he keeps thinking about who his father really was, but doesn't want to come to terms with what he would realize doing just that. The illusion he had of his father has been broken so many times since he's been down here, he just couldn't believe what's going on, it had been not even a full day since he saw his father's body dead in a chair, not even a full 12 hours since he found out about Fredbears. It feels as if time is moving 100 times faster than it should be, yet as slow as it possibly could. Michael checked the time on his phone, he had no service this low but at least he could still see the time. It read 1:00am, he has been in this underground facility for just over seven hours. He thought about Charlie, wondered if she'd forgive him if he made it out of here alive, he was hoping she was somewhere safe waiting for him. However, knowing Charlie she was probably sat right by that metal door waiting for him to come back, Henry most likely trying to get her to leave and at least go sit in the truck. He chuckled a bit, it was all her could do to stop his eyes from filling with tears, "Charlie, I promise. I'll see you again," he whispered to himself in the dark closet. He finally decided to get up, he was tired and wanted to sleep right here, but he knew he couldn't, he had to keep moving forward. As soon as he reached the door to make sure the coast was clear, he heard noises coming from the vent opening above his head. He wanted to run but he risked running into that abomination, so he decided to stand his ground and prepared to fight whatever was coming out of that vent.

He stood in silence and waited for whatever it was to show itself, he stood fearing for the worst. What happened next surprised him the most, a figure fell out and he heard a groan. He look over and watched at the figure stood up.

He stared ahead and shined his phone's very dim light on it, "Charlie?"

***

The vents were full of dust and cobwebs, the bare metal was freezing against her arms and it was cold enough to make her shiver, yet it didn't feel as if the air was working or even on at all. While crawling, she took the time to think some things over; how was she going to find them? Where are they at? Who was it that took her dad, and is he ok? These questions filled her mind, to where her body was basically on autopilot, crawling ahead and nothing else. That is until she came to a fork in the vents, one to the right, one to the left, and one continuing straight. She sat still for a minute, thinking which vent to take since she had no clue where either could lead. To make up her mind, Charlie used a penny from her pocket, the little light coming from a fan above, and carved the numbers, "One," "Two," "Three," into the metal the best she could. She then closed her eyes and tossed the penny, she left it up top fate and hopefully that would be enough. She heard the penny role, and spin after landing. She opened her eyes, and the penny was lying right on the number three. She took a breath, "Man, I hope this is the right choice," she said to herself. She went right and began to move forward, after what felt like 15 minutes of crawling, she came to grate with light coming in, though it was dim, she looked through into the room it pointed into. What she saw was a small office, papers scattered everywhere, with a what she believed to be a purple door. She tried listening for something, but the buzzing of a fluorescent light was the only sound other than silence.

She began to move forward, she kept crawling, her hands and knees probably developing blisters, she needed to rest but her mind just wouldn't let her, not with the thoughts of harm coming to either Michael or her father. So, she kept going, pushing on through the pain, she was tough, she could do this, everyone has a breaking point, but right now nothing will stop her. These thoughts of pure determination filled her head, pushing out the awful questions filling it earlier.

It felt like she'd been in these vents for hours, her back hurting, every muscle in her arms and legs wanting to give out any moment, she began to cry, she began to sob. The fear of not finding her family, the pain she was going through, the tough façade she tried to keep on for herself to keep going, it all fell in shambles. She was about to lose it, to give up and lie down. But that's when she heard it, "I'm not him! You've got the wrong person!", very faintly and far, but not far enough away for her not to know the direction it came from, and she knew it came from Michael. She began crawling as fast as she could, her last jolt of strength filling her and allowing her to make a last-minute dash. She got closer and she heard yelling, "I'll find you Afton! You can't get away!" She didn't recognize the voice, but it sent tremors through her body, almost paralyzing her with fear. She stopped on top of a vent grate, she needed to catch her breath and listen for Michael again. She went to move forward and then out of no where the grate gave way, and she fell straight down a vent shoot. She didn't fall very far but it was enough to hurt a lot.

When she regained her senses, she looked up to see a soft light pointed right at her, brighter than it should be as her eyes had adjusted to the dark. She could barely make out a figure from behind it, then she heard him speak.

"Charlie?!"

Then she knew she had found him.