Back to work. Nessa had to get back to work and resume playtesting the game. No time to dwell on a strange child. A strange child who seemed to know a lot about her. A strange child who hopefully wouldn't poke her nose in places that would get her killed. Come to think of it, Cassidy was kind of already doing that.
Nothing Nessa could do about that except try and convince her that everything was fine. Maybe she could even convince Cassidy to quit the internship? Probably not.
Nessa shook her head and took a deep breath. Playtesting time. She wondered if Jeremy was enjoying the game, might have already finished it. He used to ramble about how much he enjoyed speed-running various kinds of games so she wouldn't be surprised if he had already finished.
She put the headset back on. One of the mini games she had yet to complete was labeled 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2'.
"Here we go. Back into the madness," Nessa muttered as she clicked on it.
Oh.
Oh no.
She should've fully expected that this location would show up, especially given how vocal that night guard had been about the animatronics apparently trying the murder him. Actually, that was wrong. Nessa had fully expected this place to show up, more of just hoped that it wouldn't to the point she had almost convinced herself that it wouldn't.
Yet here it was, the place where she'd been taught to murder in all its virtual reality glory.
What a fantastic day this had already turned out to be.
Just as it finished loading and Nessa was about to play, the phone started ringing. Not an in-game phone, a real phone, a phone that happened to be sitting on her desk.
She pulled off the headset with little hesitation and picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"Vanessa! I'm so glad you decided to pick up the phone. How is the play testing going?"
Nessa pinched the bridge of her nose and resisted the urge to slam the phone back down onto the desk. "It's... fine. How did you get this number?"
A slight pause on the other end before William answered. "Unimportant! Just wanted to ask that once you finish the play through of the game, or whatever, that you go check on Ballora. Apparently, she's been disturbing guests and employees by singing creepy songs she shouldn't even know. Something about 'this location has blood on the walls', I've been told. None of the technicians understand it and I think you might be able to take a look."
"Why?" Nessa asked, taking great care to keep how deeply annoyed she was out of her tone.
"You helped me build them, didn't you? I'm quite busy and I'm the only one who knows more about those things than you do."
"No, I mean why would I?"
"Why wouldn't you! That's the better question. No need to answer now, just remember once you finish up. I suppose if it doesn't get done until tomorrow that's fine. Do call once you get it done though, yes? Yes. Good."
"I'm not going to— you already hung up, didn't you? Yep. I'd say I'm surprised but that's to be expected. Now I'm talking out loud. To myself. With the phone still next to my ear. Like a crazy person. Because I'm procrastinating. Maybe I am a crazy person. Alright, time to shut up." Nessa promptly set the phone back down and picked up the headset.
She decided she'd never play VR again once she was done with this job.
If she played like her life depended on it, maybe she could avoid seeing any of the animatronics too closely.
