The Sound of a Beating Heart

Murder Mystery

Gabriella'spov

I was sitting patiently as the room's lights dimmed. A large blue bunny with red cheeks and green eyes came out on stage and showed us magic tricks. I watch in awe as he pulls a bunch of flowers out of his hat.

After the show, I excitedly run out of the room towards the arcade. A man stopped me though.

"No running." He said. I looked up at him with my large energetic forest green eyes.

"I'm sowwy." I said to him. He smiled at my freckle infested face. I smiled back.

"I'm sure you won't do it again." I nodded and he scooted me off towards the arcade. I only had ten tokens. I used them wisely and got plenty of tickets. Walking up to the prise counter, I spotted the Marionette's box. I slightly moved over because that thing scared me.

I was greeted by a hearty smile by the prize counter man. He had a few pimples here and there but not too many. His name tag read: Quanah. As he counted my tickets, I was searching for a something I could afford. I locked eyes with a stuffed animal. It was of my favorite animatronic, Chica.

"Did you see something you'd like?" Asked the prize counter man. I nodded and pointed to the Chica doll. The man smiled and reached up for it and brought it down for me. I still had a couple of tickets left.

"You can pick something from down here." The porize counter man said and pointed down at the glass counter. All that was down there was candy and cheap plastic toys. I got two Tootsie rolls. I gave one of them to Quanah. He smiled and thanked me before opening his mout and popping it in.

When I was done there, I walked up to the stage in the front room and sat down on the floor. There were tables open but I like the floor better. I watched the band play a song and then got up to find my mother.

This place wasn't the same since the last visit here. Last time, there was a purple bunny. He was better at playing the guitar and doing magic tricks in my opinion. Freddy was better at singing and dancing around the stage than this one. This one hardly moves. Chica was more happy than this one. She never got mad at us. And the fox was way better than this one. This one's all over the place and never put back together. I can't even tell if she's fox actually.

As I was trying to find my mother, I saw a yellow Freddy. He was probably no better than this one so I lost interest really quickly. My ombre hair quietly bouncing behind me as I speedwalk towards my table. I found my mom and gave her a big hug.

"Hi mommy!" I said happily.

"Hi sweety." My mother replied.

"Look what I won!" I showed her the doll of the old Chica.

"Wow honey. Good job. I didn't know they still gave out the older animals." She said enthusiasticly.

"I know! And I got the last one too!" I said triumphantly and then heard a scream. I started to panic. That was where I saw the yellow Freddy.

"Mommy did you heaw that?" I asked her. She nodded with big eyes. I hugged her leg in panic because I was scared and I didn't want my mom to be scared. She picked me up and set me in her lap. I saw many people rush up to the front desk and point to where I saw the yellow bear and heard the scream. The police were called in a hurry.

Once they got here everyone was rushing out of the building. Pushing right on through not bothering to apologize if someone was knocked over. No one helped anyone if they were knocked over. Luckily, my mom was carrying me or else I would've been ran over by a lot of people.

"Mommy what's happening?" I asked her in a panicked voice. I hugged my mom and the doll.

"I don't know sweety." She replied and started walking faster. We were finally outside. She set me down and I held her hand.

"Excuse me," we walked up to a police man. "But, what happened?" She asked him. The man looked at her then to me and back too her. He leaned in to whisper to her.

"We don't know yet." I heard him. Then, is radio went off.

"Sarge. We've figured it out. It was a murder. I repeat it was a murder." Another man from a different radio said from the inside. I jumped up in front of my mom with my arms outstretched and she picked me up. I didn't know what a murder was but it sounded scary. I was crying.

"Use code next time rookie. You just scared a woman and her child." The policed man said into his radio.

"Sorry." The radio said. He didn't sound sorry. I remembered that there was a kid who never left from the restaurant. He stayed at the tables confused and lost. I wanted to get down so my mother put me down and I dashed back inside. There were police everywhere. They tried to stop me from going any farther but that didn't exactly work. I found the kid hiding under a table in Kids Cove.

"Come on!" I told him. He shook his head.

"Everything's gonna be alwight. Okay?" I stuck my hand out to help him but he shook his head again.

"I'm okay so you'we gonna be okay. Twust me. Please." I pleaded with him. I stuck out my hand and he finally took it. We ran over to the arcade and I saw Counter Guy Quanah wasn't out yet.

"Come on!" I shouted to him. He looked my way and nodded. When he got here, he picked up the boy who was about a year older than me. I held his hand and my doll. Once we were outside my mom came running over to me and the boys mom came running to him.

"What were you thinking?" My mother asked me in a stern voice. She had tears rolling down her face. I looked down.

"Thewe was a boy who nevew got out so I went back in to save him. And then countew man wasn't out eithew so I saved him too." I mumbled. My mom hugged me tightly and I returned it. After a couple minutes, we started leaving. I waved to Counter Man Quanah. He smiled and waved back. When we got in the car, I asked my mom,

"Mommy? What's a muwdew?" She didn't answer me so I was left curious. I didn't press her for answers as I would get in trouble and it might make her cry again. I signed and watched out the window the whole way home. I hugged the Chica doll close to me as this was probably the last time I'd be there in a long time.

I was right.