That Week At Patches

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Michael pulled himself from the floor. The room was still spinning. His ears were ringing with an unnerving high-pitched squeal, constantly changing. He wanted to blow his head off it was so annoying. Eventually, he got his bearings and held on to the wall, using it as a support to help himself up. His vision was blurry at best, and his hands were going numb. He finally realized where he was. It was the room with no door.

His head pounded. He looked around to find a way out of there, Teo wasn't here to protect him like all the other times, he was at a loss for what to do. He was scared and alone. The room was incredibly cold. He longed to climb under the covers to stay warm, but he knew he needed to keep moving if he was to make it out. He heard shuffling coming from above him.

Michael walked the perimeter of the room, hoping to find something. He stopped. He could feel a breeze by his foot. There's a vent somewhere if he could just find it, he thought to himself. Suddenly, an idea. He ran to the desk with all the scattered notes he had written while stuck in the prison that was this room. There was a small piece of blank paper sitting atop the others. Michael grabbed it and began crawling around holding it out, looking for a breeze. Suddenly, the paper began wiggling around. His hand felt cool. He'd found it.

It was confusing at first, the fact that his hand passed right through the fake wall. But then again, he should have expected it. He began crawling through the vent. It was quite wide and tall to just be an air vent. "This must have been how I got in here." He thought. Suddenly, he heard a crash come from behind him. He turned around. He could just barely see the room. He squinted his eyes to see two red metal elf shoes. Then, the haunting calm voice broke the silence.

"Where are you?" she said.

Michael held his breath. She walked to the other side of the room. He could see her Better now. Her red hair stood up in two pigtails. Her rosy cheeks seemed warm and inviting. A far cry from the monster that had attacked him in all those nightmares. Then again... he thought to himself, from where he was, he couldn't hear her whistling. It was the high-pitched whistling that made her become a monster. Her face would contort to that of a woman, but it would be wrong, and it would have rows of sharp metal teeth and a large claw that would threaten to rip into Michael's body. He slowly backed up. Moving further back into the vent. He could barely see her face now. Only her two, green eyes.

He saw a dim light at the other end of the vent. He followed until he eventually found himself in the basement. It was dark and damp. Carefully, he stepped over old boxes and tried not to look at the half-finished Animatronics that lay dormant all around him. A metal bear made of wires with golden eyes stared at him. Another with blue eyes sat across from the other one, he had another head attached to his hand. Michael remembered this one. He almost tripped over a long pink fox tail. He could see the door.

"Shh." He heard coming from beside him.

He turned to find himself face to face with a large marionette. It stared down at him with its red cheeks and purple tears. Michael gulped.

"It... it's ok, I'm not here to hurt you. I just want to get out of here." He whispered nervously.

The marionette's eyes glowed a pale green. Michael slowly backed up and began walking to the door again.

"Don't go..." he heard a small voice cry out from what felt like was inside his head.

He turned around to see the Puppet had followed him. He disregarded it and kept walking.

"Don't leave." He heard the girl's voice call out again.

This time the puppet had taken hold of his hand as if to lead him back from the door. He shook it off and ran for it. Suddenly, before he could reach for the handle to open it, the giant puppet zipped in front of him. She grabbed hold of his hand again. It was at this point that Michael realized that he was wearing a green armband. The puppet's eyes continued to flicker green. Michael looked at the puppet's hand, which was holding his and lifting it up to inspect the armband.