Left Behind

Chapter 20

They'd been locked in the closet; a thick strip of metal that had been a crowbar just a few minutes ago holding the doors shut. In truth, it wouldn't do much to stop them if they wanted the doors open again.

At best the metal would slow them down for a second or two, but the child had asked that they stay inside, and they couldn't find it in themself to say no to when the smaller was trembling in fear at the mere sight of them.

They were kept occupied at least, the closet was far from clean and their programming wouldn't allow the crumbled shirts and jackets littering the floor around them to remain as they were despite the hindrance their dead arm posed. It was almost overbearing how insistent their coding was being, but it helped them to keep their mind off of the fact that Sun was still very much missing.

They were so enraptured in their task that they didn't even notice the figure peering in through the shutters of the door until the metal creaked in protest as it was pried off the handles. Looking up from the sound, Moon came eye to eye with a pair of glowing white dots.

Startled, they dropped the shirt they'd been attempting to wrestle onto a hanger, programming stuttering and glitching as they stared at the animatronic watching them from within the shadows. It was shorter than them by a good foot or so, but from their place sitting crisscross on the ground it loomed over them. Wires hung out of it from various angles and its jaw was definitely broken if its slackened expression was anything to go by, but they could still hear its voice clearly as it spoke in a hushed tone.

"Follow me."

They were standing before the other could so much as finish the second word, programming hyper-focusing on the command without any room for resistance from Moon themself.

'I can't leave,' They wanted to say, 'I promised I wouldn't, and I don't even know where you're taking me.' But their protests died in their throat, and they were forced to follow along as the figure walked over to, and then out of, the window. Moon themself followed with ease, scaling down the short gap between the window and the ground quickly before they were carried away from the apartment by their own traitorous limbs.

They could only focus on the shadow as they walked, anything else in the world around them was drowned out in static. They took this as an opportunity to study the figure leading them.

Its casing, if it could even be called that, was dark with faint tints of purple, blending in perfectly with the shadows around it until the only reliable way to discern them from the darkness was its glowing teeth and eyes. From what they could make out, its silhouette almost looked like a larger, darker, and far more worn-down version of the child from earlier.

Its steps were smooth despite its broken appearance, almost seeming to glide above the ground as it led them forward, microphone gripped tightly in one hand as the other occasionally came up to make sure its top hat didn't slip down before brushing against the space were its missing ear should've been.

"RWQFSFASXC is... anxious." It spoke after a while of walking in silence, voice strained as though it was fighting to get out every word.

"Their chosen medium has been... taken... they want him back..."

It stopped where it was, twisting to face them as they stopped behind it in turn, staring down into the white orbs of its eyes.

"We need him back." It said.

"We have so much to share..."

The bear faded away as it finished delivering its message, the hazy static that had overtaken their systems lifting along with it, leaving Moon standing disoriented.

Their systems immediately began to correct themselves, their hearing and vision rebooting in a matter of seconds, allowing them to take in their surroundings at last.

They were standing in the middle of the road, they realized first.

They were standing in the middle of the road and a rapidly approaching car was merely a few feet away, blaring its horn deafeningly loud as the driver did what they could to swerve out of the way.

Startled, Moon leaped out of the car's path, just barely avoiding getting their arm nicked by its side before landing roughly on the side of the road. But the car didn't keep going, instead, it screeched to a halt, lights sparking to life as a small group of people swarmed out and ran toward them.

Moon scrambled away from the light, glancing around wildly for somewhere to go as they pulled themself to their feet ready to bolt before a yell stopped them in their tracks.

"W-wait- MOON!"