For Their Amusement (FNAF)

Chapter 8 - Mutilation

She knew. Of course she knew.

With the ringing of that bell, I had officially turned thirteen, but I didn't really feel like a teenager. Far from it. Michael said I grew up too fast and he'll let me relive some sort of a resemblance of childhood through him, but I feel like I haven't grown at all.

It's a shame she's the first to wish me well. I wanted Michael to be the first. I didn't have to worry about my friends staying up till midnight to tell me as he was the only one who knew. He had asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I told him every time I wanted nothing. I wanted my birthday to be a normal day, where nothing special happens. No cake, no party, no presents. He insisted we do something, and I told him no. I told him I hated my birthday, but especially this one. I told him to let me go through more therapy first, find a middle ground that I can handle, but right now, I couldn't handle my birthday. He said he'd treat it like it was any other day, but he asked if he could at least wish me a happy birthday. I told him that was all he could do.

I'm thirteen. Evan died when he was twelve. I was never supposed to be older than him.

It's strange to feel guilty over your age. I know it's not necessarily my fault or his fault that I outlived my brother, but it doesn't change the overwhelming unworthy feeling I had. I'd been dreading this day for so long, even when my mother was alive, because I knew she would be upset that I surpassed him, too.

Michael... he didn't seem to care that I'd be older than Evan. He was ecstatic, actually. He wanted today to be a rebirth for me and him. Our family would be us, and just us. A dad and his son. A boy and his father. He had desperately wanted me to be happy today, but I didn't know how I could, so I just told him the things that I thought would keep me happy, and he complied. I had wanted to spend today at school with my friends, maybe hang out after classes for a while. I wanted to go home and see Michael waiting for me with Bowtie. I wanted to watch a movie or play a game or something, anything.

I wanted it to be a normal day. Now, I was alone in a giant amusement park. It felt so surreal. I didn't want to be here.

No one really knows how lonely an empty amusement park is until they're in one. It's not the same as an abandoned amusement park. In that case, things are falling apart, probably overgrown, and covered in tags and graffiti. You get the feeling that you are not welcomed. You are trespassing. It's a little different when it's not abandoned but no one is here. You are welcomed, but you are lonely. There's no costumed character to greet you. There is no cheerful music, no mist spraying above to cool you down. Everything was clean, too clean, and the things and buildings that weren't finished had walls of scaffolding beside them.

I shivered from the cold, crossing my arms and tucking my hands into my elbows to keep them warm. All the street lamps, painted brightly in red, purple, and yellow, were on. They lit the path of colors and lines. I walked wordlessly, softly crying, wondering where the hell I was and what was before and behind me. I wanted to get out of here, but getting my friends was more important. They'd never gone through something like this. I had. I needed to help them get out of here before it was too late.

I walked for a while, keeping an eye out for anything weird, when I heard the sounds of some sort of electronic game. I held my head up as I tried to pinpoint it. I scurried through the pathways as fast as I could, passing by the structures of vendors and bushes.

I came across a large plain of carnival games. Prizes of toys and plushies of the animatronics were zip-tied to the fronts and backs of the games. There were fake fishing mini-games, ticket machines, and small basketball hoops. Dance pads, arcade games with joysticks and buttons, and even stands to challenge your strength, like arm wrestling with an animatronic arm, or punching a small punching-bag, and even axe throwing at targets. It was like an arcade and a carnival came together on a flat plain and organized themselves in long rows, facing their stands back to back to optimize the playing field. The further I went in, the louder the sound got, and I rushed over to it as fast as I possibly could.