Born To Die | Vanessa Afton

6

"-Birthday to Fritz, happy birthday to you." You heard voices around you singing, your head lifted off the table, eyes narrowing at the bright lights dancing around you. You leant back in your seat, realising you were no longer in the security office. Were you dreaming? You have to be dreaming. You looked around, children dancing, parents talking, animatronics working. Maybe this was a locked away memory, one that you kept trying to unfold, but you couldn't think of anything to go under that category.

Your eyes wandered to the supposed birthday boy, Fritz. It was the same redhead boy in the same outfit and everything that you saw today! He seemed so happy. He hadn't smiled at you when you were inside the office but he smiled at you now. The girl sitting next to you was blonde and had high pigtails in. Then, it set in, this was the last ever time you had went to Freddy's, why had it sent you back here? It felt unnecessary to relive this moment now knowing that the girl sitting next to you was going to missing. 

Knowing this was practically a dream, you couldn't stop it but maybe you could figure out what happened. You stood up, wandering the place, looking at how active it all was, all the machines were occupied, the dance floor was full, children having the time of their lives. However, something you didn't realise then was the mascot who was in the middle of the room with the kids. This tall rabbit like animatronic - you were convinced they were all animatronics as a child but this looked like a person in a suit. You watched as he gave a young boy a stuffed animal and as he started to follow the rabbit into a back room. The rabbit turned around, he had looked you straight in the eye before going in. Ten minutes later, only the rabbit came out, not the child. 

"Kids! Pizzas here." Your head immediately spun to the table where you were previously sat. You cautiously walked over and sat down. You couldn't smell the pizza like you could when it was real, so you knew this was somewhat a dream or you were hallucinating, one of the two. Your body felt frozen as you looked at the boy in front of you, Fritz was his name. Why was he at Freddy's 15 years later anyway? His smile was incredibly wide as he grabbed the pizza slices up from the box and placed one on his plate.

Next to you, the girl you had met the day she disappeared, Susie. Your conversation was brief with her, although you remembered it being longer. It would certainly take you longer to become acquaintances with someone. Maybe it was because you were so innocent and naive as a kid to the point where you couldn't see a kid practically being kidnapped and Susie disappearing. You assumed the boy had been kidnapped, you hadn't seen him anytime after the situation.

"Do you want to go dance?" Susie asked, taking you out of your thoughts. You looked to her. She seemed like a nice girl, she was adorable to you, freckles scattered her face, her blonde hair tied up in pigtails with not even a bump ruining it, and her hair itself was straight and long. What had she done to deserve such an awful fate? One that made you almost throw up in your mouth. That could have been you. 

"Sure." You unconsciously replied, as if you were a puppet on a string and someone was controlling your speech. You promised yourself you'd keep an eye on Susie. You probably couldn't intervene but maybe you could see who was doing this underneath all that metal. She hopped off the seat and ran to the dance floor, you following with some delay. Everything was telling you to wake up but you just couldn't. It all seemed so real, you could see everything that was happening. Ten minutes went by and nothing happened.

"Vanessa!" A child yelled, it made you immediately look since the familiar voice startled you. In fact, who you know were looking at was a splitting image of her, yet again, blonde hair green eyes. You were almost convinced it was her. You turned back to Susie, realising that Vanessa was nothing to do with this. To your shock, she was gone. You walked towards the door that you saw the boy go in earlier, you entered. Five kids, including Fritz and Susie were sitting on the floor, they all saw you. 

"What is this? Why am I here?" You asked, looking around, there was nothing you could do, the door had clicked and you were locked in with these three children. Fritz looked up at you, the boy who had started this spiral and pretty much led you here. You realised his hand now had a hook on it but when he was eating the pizza, he had both. Your eyebrows furrowed as he just stared for a minute.

"It was supposed to be you." A child said, to the left of Fritz, blonde hair, blue eyes. He seemed a little older than the others, maybe by a year or two. The sentence had made you more confused, tilting your head at the child. "If he had gotten you. Fritz would be alive."

"T-That isn't my fault!" You had instinctively yelled, it wasn't, your parents had dragged you away from the party. 

"Well... We don't want you here." He repeated, standing up along with the other children, you backed up to the door, banging on it and rattling the handle but it just wouldn't open. One of the children slashed your shin with something, your vision being blinded by tears and hardly being able to see the small flashes of colour that whizzed past. You closed your eyes. Then - everything stopped.