A Change in Fate

Chapter Twelve: I Am Not Me

    Long chapter ahead! The longest I've posted for any fic, in fact. Get ready, it's going to be quite a ride. When I first wrote this, this chapter took me many hours and writing sessions to get finished, because yikes, it was hard. Action and gameplay mechanics are not my most favorite to write, but I pushed through, and I think it turned out well. Enjoy the end of A Change in Fate!

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    Each second that ticked by set his heart racing. Gregory knew he was wasting time, that he had spent too long feeling around the darkness for the area he wanted to find. In the black, discombobulated and alone, he struggled to rediscover the room he had the keycard to. Surely, there was no other way into it. Ennard had no chance of entering, let alone finding him. That is, if he could find it first. He quivered and gulped while he edged along the wall. Every moment he spent not hiding made him shake harder, and all the while he fought off the memory of what had happened. His anger and adrenaline fueled him enough to round the room, and finally, his fingers touched a knob-less door.

    Moving as hurriedly as he could, he felt around the wall beside it, until he triumphantly discovered the scanner. He scanned the card, and as soon as the door slid open, rushed in and fell straight onto his knees. They hurt with the impact, but he didn't care. After a quick glance over his shoulder to confirm the door was indeed shut, he gave himself a moment to think. Or did he truly want that? Every time his mind tried to wander from his current task of surviving, his chest tightened, and his body threatened to cave. Thinking about it meant he had to accept it, which led to unwanted thoughts of Michael and what awaited Gregory if he managed to escape. Which he had to! The only thoughts he allowed himself right now were of survival and stopping the animatronic.

    Breathing in and out through his nose, Gregory managed to keep ahold of himself. He glanced around the room in search of a clock. After shoving aside a bunch of junk on the desk, he uncovered a digital clock.

    "Only midnight?" Gregory whispered. "No, that can't be right. How can I do this for six whole hours?" Silently reminding himself that currently he was safe, he decided the best thing to do was examine his surroundings. If Ennard did discover a way to reach this area, he needed a second plan. Even so, he still chose not to believe the animatronic could enter. Although, it had said something else...

    "We know about the tunnel. You won't be safe; you never will be."

    "Crap," he said under his breath, hunting through the room. "It'll probably find this place eventually. There has to be something here I can use, right?" He peered beneath and behind the desk for anything of interest. As his eyes ran over the other doors, his attention became captured by the green buttons beside both of them and the vent. Curious, he pressed one. A loud sound came as a door slammed down. He let out a breathy laugh of relief, hastening to shut the other door and the vent in front of him. "I'm accidentally a genius!" He plunked down on the desk chair where he sank down a bit. "This is the perfect hiding place."

    Or was it?

    A new horror awoke in him when he spotted power symbols beside each door, just above the buttons. They looked like green batteries, the green bars already rapidly decreasing. The doors had power. With a squeak of fear, he jumped up and opened everything he had previously shut. It had already been lowering considerably, and quite obviously it wouldn't last till 6 a.m. if he kept every opening shut like this. Ruffling his hair and trying to keep ahold of himself, he peered out each doorway, for the darkness of the area kept him from seeing much without physically leaving the room. Both openings led down shadowed halls, one of which he remembered entering through when he first came down here. He didn't see anything lurking nor any other entrances to this area. He couldn't remember if he'd explored the eerie bedroom part enough to know if there were any other ways to get in besides Mike's basement and these specific corridors. So Ennard couldn't get here, right? This was the safest place he could be.