Unraveling

Overcoming Fear

Your heart was racing and your breath was tight in your throat.
What the hell was that thing? And why did it have the other end of your string tied around its long, gangly fingers?

You could hear the animatronic chasing you. "Wait! Please! Wait for us!"

Us? Not only was this thing after you, but there was another one?

You spotted a corner behind some display cases you could hide in, and you dove for it. Once you were hidden, it only just occurred to you that you'd backed yourself into a tight, narrow corner. Not only that, but you had no way of confirming that it didn't see you squeeze in here or if it had infrared vision. Oh lord, you were doomed.

You internally cursed out whatever being there was up above for its clever cruelty. "You probably find this really amusing! Not giving me a string, making me want one, and then giving me one that actually leads me straight to the weirdest, most obscure death possible! And I raced right there like a bloody lemming!"

"Please come out. I didn't mean to frighten you!" The animatronic called out.

You looked up. It was leaning over the head-level display case you'd wedged yourself behind, as if it were merely a petting zoo fence. How tall was this thing? Its lanky arms began reaching over, and you ducked out of the way.

At least it couldn't reach you if you curled up into a tiny ball. You could just wait here until it left, until staff came over to direct it back to its station and let you leave before they closed up. But as you had that thought, you heard the sound of grating metal and a sudden thump as the doors slammed shut. "Oh no no no no no! The doors closed! How are you going to get out?!" The animatronic yelped before you could even have that same thought.

You felt a knot form in your stomach as you realized the gravity of the situation. Your heart raced in your chest, and your palms grew clammy as you tried to steady your breathing. You were stuck, locked in. Panic set in as your breaths grew shallow, and your heart raced with fear. You frantically looked around for an exit, any way out of this nightmare, but there was nothing. Your mind raced with the realization that you were trapped, and all you could do was hide in the corner, possibly for the entire night.

"Hey, hey, hey, calm down. It's going to be fine!" Sun couldn't help but notice that you seemed to be getting even more frightened. He didn't know what he was doing wrong. What was happening? Why were you so scared?

Sun heard an irritated sigh from Moon. "Step away from the display case," Moon begrudgingly instructed. Sun did so. "Sit slowly and calmly by the exit in a way that does not block them from leaving. Can you manage that?"

Sun hurriedly sat down, staring intently at you, waiting for whatever he's doing to work. "I said slowly and calmly, you idiot," Moon reprimanded. Sun silently sulked. Your adrenaline levels were the same as before. Why wasn't it working? "Just be patient," Moon said.

So Sun did just that. He waited and waited. However, he was still on a time crunch as he needed to get a good word in before the lights went out. Who knows what Moon would do? Moon was known to be dangerous. That's why he wasn't allowed to run nap time anymore. There's no telling what he would do to you, especially since it's his new job as security to keep people like you from being inside the building after close like this.

Sun counted the minutes, his anxiety growing with each passing second.

"Hey, um, hi there!" He leaned in to look at you, breaking the long silence. "I feel like we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Sun." He said cheerily, holding out his hand.

You didn't answer, but rather stared at his extended hand. Sun realized you were looking at the string, which was now only a few inches long, gently hanging between his and your hands.

"Uh yeah, the string. You must be pretty shocked that your soulmate is an animatronic. Is that why you're hiding?" Sun asked.

You looked up from his hand, seemingly considering his question.

"How?" was the only thing you said. Sun felt giddy, your voice resonating in his chest and swelling with happiness. He also noticed your adrenaline level was slowly but surely decreasing.

Sun began to ramble, "Well, I'm not entirely sure. One day we fell and hit the bottom of the ballpit pretty hard. After that, our system has been running strangely. I think it's emotions. I felt angry, and then mostly happy. But when that happened, this string appeared, and-"

"Oh my god, you're a sentient AI."

It all clicked in your head. The reason you didn't have a string for the majority of your life wasn't that your soulmate hadn't been born yet, but because they weren't actually a person until a week ago. But one thing still wasn't making sense to you.

"You keep saying 'us' and 'we.' Are you saying all the robots in here have soulmates now?"

"N-no, just me and Moon. You see, Moon is also me but also not at all. We are the same robot, but I can't control his actions, and we look different when one or the other is active. It's hard to explain, and even harder now that we're alive."

You thought for a moment. Oh god, does that mean you had two soulmates? As if this wasn't already super weird. It kind of sounded like-

"That sounds like a robotic version of D.I.D." you wondered aloud. You could almost see Sun's eyes glaze over for a minute before he perked up.

"Yes! Just like that! Wow! There are people like us out there!" From the context, you assumed he'd done some sort of internet search on the term.

"But yeah, that's what I wanted to warn you about." Sun leaned in closer. "Moon's not so friendly, and the lights are about to go out soon, which means he'll be fronting." Sun explained. "I really wanted to help you get out before the doors closed so you wouldn't have to deal with him, but now..." Sun seemed nervous.

Sun didn't seem so bad, but you weren't exactly ready to test your luck with this Moon character.

"What should we do?" you asked, glancing back down at the string connecting you two.

Sun was silent for a moment, looking scared.

"I-I'm not sure. Do you think you'll be all right to stay in here for a little bit longer?" Sun asked, gesturing to the small space you'd squeezed yourself into.

You hesitantly chuckled. "If I'm being honest, I don't know if I can get myself back out on my own."

"Well, at least you'll be safe in there until I'm back." He smiled. But Sun knew you weren't 

He internally begged to moon not to tear the display case out of the floor to get to you.