Your Soul For Theirs

The Beginning

    Mercy was 17 when she had first seen the pizzeria, and she was 17 when she had seen a murder happen right in front of her eyes.

    It was a cloudy day on April 7th, 1999 around 4 pm when Mercy was taking her 10-year-old sister, Anya, to Freddy's Pizzeria. It had only been in the town for about a year, but they had yet been inside until now. They were located in a small town in Illinois called Wolford. It was small but it had basic grocery stores, an arcade, a small mall, and skate parks. It was surrounded by forestry, but it was not that far away from big cities. Its population was around 2,000 so it was big enough to keep the pizzeria in business for some time. Although, it would not stay that way for long.

    Mercy's green eyes scanned the road in front of her as she was driving, trying to find this place. It was located near the edge of town, which is already scary enough since the town has some scary legends. But it was also located near the cemetery, which is much worse. People in town talked about how the town was built on top of older cemeteries, the headstones got washed away in floods. The cemetery outside of town was newer from when this town was built about one hundred years earlier. There was talk that people would see things, especially children that would roam the town at night, crying.

   They pulled into the driveway of the place, which was packed, birthday parties became more popular taking place here. The Pizzeria was a smaller building, but it was the nicest looking one in the entire town because it was new. It was a tan building, with extensions on both sides. The middle part of the building had a round top, with the face of the Freddy animatronic on it, with big bold letters of Freddy's Pizzeria under it. The arcade or the skate park were the hot spot before the Pizzeria was built into the town.

   As Mercy and Anya got out of the car, she looked in the sky and noticed it got darker and windier. Her hair got into her face, wiping it out of her face as she walked toward the building slowly. It made her stomach drop a little only cause the weather there was usually really nice during this time of the year. They both made there way inside and instantly as the doors opened, Mercy was hit with loud singing, music, and the smell of pizza grease. There were arcade games right in front of them as they entered, but then after that was the eating area with the animatronics on a stage, singing with a small wall about hip height to separate the two areas. Anya instantly recognized her friends in the eating area and ran toward them, giggling and screaming hi since the volume in the room was so high. Anya's blonde hair swished around as she ran. Anya and two of her friends clashed into a hug as Mercy looked about the place since it was unfamiliar. But the sound of Anya's footsteps and the absence of a body made Mercy looked toward her younger sister.

    "Anya, hold on!", Mercy yelled after her over the music and children's laughter, chasing her in a fast jog to catch up to her sister. She finally made it to the table of the six little girls and their parents. Mercy felt bad, her parents were too busy on business trips and vacations with their jobs to stick around with Mercy and Anya. She smiled to the birthday girl's parents, feeling bad cause they were a little late, so the other girls had already ate but luckily made it in time to sing happy birthday and eat cake.

    Mercy sat down a took a deep breath, wiping her brown hair off her shoulder. She looked around as they all started to sing happy birthday to the little, it seemed to mute a little as she looked around the inside of the building. Even though it was full of color and children running and laughing around, it felt completely off. Mercy had good vision but being inside felt blurry and fuzzy. Not real at all. She sat up in her chair, trying to sing along with the kids and parents. Her hands got sweaty, and she wiped them on her pants as her eyes stopped on the stage. She noticed one of the animatronics had stopped completely in the middle of the song and was looking right in her direction. The other animatronics were still moving and singing.