Michael Afton x Reader ~ The Boy on The Bus

Chapter Thirteen - Springlocked

Michael woke up and couldn't see anything. His head ached of something horrible, and his body felt sore. He tried to move but realized he must have been inside of something. He was confused and squinted into the darkness before he heard her voice- Baby's voice- speaking to him.

"Shhh, be still and quiet. You've been sleeping for quite awhile. I think they noticed that you never left the building last night." Her quiet familiar voice rang in his ears, sending chills down his spine, "The cameras were searching for you, but they couldn't find you. I have you hidden too well. I kidnapped you."

Michael didn't feel too good about this whole situation. Had she tricked him? His eyes were just starting to adjust to the darkness, and he could make out a faint outline of an animatronic. He started to panic. He'd been there since last night? What would you think when he got home? He didn't say anything back to Baby, and she continued.

"Don't be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you. I am only going to keep you for a little while. Try not to wiggle, though. You're inside something that came from my old pizzeria. I don't think it was ever used, at least not the way it was meant to be used. Too dangerous. It's just big enough for one person to fit inside, but just barely."

That's when it all clicked for Michael. He was inside one of those wretched spring-lock animatronic suits. This made him panic more, his dad had always warned him about how dangerous those suits could be (which was ironic since William ended up dying in one himself). He wondered where he was, and Baby kept talking, almost like she was reading his mind.

"You're in the Scooping Room. Do you know why they call it the Scooping Room? It's because, dummy, this is the room where they use the Scooper. I thought that would be obvious... Isn't that a fun name for something? The Scooper."

Michael's memory flashed back to those blueprints and that large scooping mechanism that he had seen. The one that had the "Remnant Reservoir" at the bottom. The mention of the scooper sure got Michael's attention, but Baby just kept on going.

"It sounds like something you would use for ice cream, or custard, or sprinkles. It sounds like something you would want at your birthday party to ensure that you get a heaping portion of every. Good. Thing." She paused then for a second, and then her voice got some sort of malicious point to it that made Michael's stomach drop, "I wonder, though, if you were a freshly opened pint of ice cream, how you would feel about something with that name. Thankfully, I don't think a freshly opened pint of ice cream feels anything at all."

Michael then heard something in the distance. Footsteps. He considered calling out for help, but Baby spoke before he could.

"Uh-oh. It sounds like someone else is in the building. Shh..."

Michael kept his mouth shut. He didn't know why. Maybe it was the little voice in the back of his brain saying he was supposed to be there. Maybe he was paralyzed in fear. Maybe it was the headache that was still pounding at his skull. Or maybe, just maybe, it was because he knew that Baby wanted him to see this.

There was a sound then, two men talking. The animatronic was brought closer, right in front of Michael's face so he could see it. Ballora. There was more conversation that Michael couldn't care to make out, then he could hear the two men walking away.

"There is something very important that I've learned how to do over time, do you know what this is?" Baby started again, "How to pretend. Do you ever play make believe? Pretend to be one way, when you are really the other? It's very important. Ballora never learns, but I do. They think there is something wrong on the inside .The only thing that matters is knowing. How. To. Pretend..."

Then, suddenly, the loud grating noise of metal on metal filled the room. There were sparks and Ballora jolted as the scooper hit her once. Then twice. Then for a final third time. Her broken body sat there, her face places falling open. There was a creaking noise, and she was slowly moved away on the rollers, going to who knows where.

The experience made Michael cringe. He hoped that, because she had been destroyed, Ballora's soul would be free, now. He imagined what it would be like to get scooped.

"I'll open the faceplates for you, that way they can find you on the cameras. Now all you have to do is wait. I'd recommend that you keep the springlocks wound up. Your breathing and your heartbeat are causing them to come loose. You don't want them to get too loose, trust me."

The faceplates of the suit swung open, leaving Michael with a full view of the room. It was too dark to see anything, though. He was worried something might try to come out and get him from the dark. He could already hear the spring locks coming loose and was in a hurry to tighten them. He thought he was making good progress until he saw something slowly crawling up the side of the suit. He freaked out, and shook it off, which immediately set his progress with the spring locks back by a whole lot.

After at least ten minutes of doing this, Michael was really getting tired. He knew that Baby had wanted him to see this. He didn't know whether to take it as more motivation to help them or as a warning. He really hoped it wasn't the latter. On the other hand, more little doll-like creatures were crawling up the side of his suit. Even more were crawling inside, and he could feel them crawling around him like little bugs. He felt them scratching through and under his shirt and at his skin. He hoped that the scratches weren't too deep, and he especially hoped you wouldn't see them.

The longer he had to keep the spring locks wound, the more tired he got, and he was honestly almost ready to give up. His adrenaline was burning out, and the pounding in his head and the soreness in his body was getting stronger. But then he noticed that there were no longer any little dolls crawling into his suit and outside of his suit. He could still feel the ones already inside moving around, and he was in a rush to get this thing off. He took a chance and wound the spring locks all the way up before quickly taking off the head of the suit. 

Still, even just taking off the head took a great amount of effort, and he only had so much time to take the whole suit off before he was crunched into. He needed to make sure the process was as quick as possible.

It took him at least five minutes to take off the torso, and the spring locks were getting low. He quickly shook the legs and feet of the animatronic suit off of his body. He got the last part of the leg off just in time and jumped as he watched the spring locks in the part snap together, impaling a bunch of the small dolls that were still left inside. He shuddered, thinking about how close that was to crushing his leg. He shook off the remaining Minireenas and watched as they crawled off into the darkness

Then, he thought about you. He hadn't come home last night. He stumbled up and ran out of the scooping room, making a mad dash for the vent in hopes Foxy wouldn't catch him. Luckily, she didn't, and Michael was safely going up the elevator in no time.

He ran all the way home.