Deceptive

A Familiar Face

Foxy felt a sharp chill upon reentering the house. His eyes strained to investigate every dark shape in his path. He didn't know if whoever they saw in the window was still upstairs or not.

Nobody dared to say anything in fear of missing any foreign sounds.

They passed through the living room.

Then they went down the main hallway.

The landing of the stairs came into view. It was only a couple of feet away.

A noise came from somewhere behind the group and they all stopped on a dime. The sound was like that of a motor sparking to life, and it was followed by the crunch of somebody's boots on broken glass.

Slowly, cautiously, and somewhat stupidly, all of them inched their way back towards the entrance of the living room. There was definitely something there that they hadn't noticed before.

Pressed up against the wall beside the sliding glass door, there was a dark shape. One that was undeniably a person. Presumably the same one from the window. Whoever they were, they didn't say anything. They just stood there.

Foxy didn't dare to move any more. He didn't dare to speak... Or maybe he just couldn't get his vocal cords to function. It was hard to tell.

The shadowy figure took a deep, rattling breath, which was just barely audible over the low rumbling of whatever that motor belonged to.

They took a few steps forward.

Everyone took the same amount of steps back, earning a bark-like laugh from the person. The sound was almost familiar. It was quite a bit harsher and scratchier than Foxy was used to, but he was pretty sure he recognized it.

...No, he must have heard it wrong. There was no way.

Finally breaking free of the fear gripping him, Foxy turned his flashlight on and shined it right at the unknown individual.

Any and all of the air in his lungs seemed to vanish.

There apparently was a way.

It was not Afton who stood in front of them.

It was not Elizabeth.

Foxy was almost sure that he was hallucinating at first. Was he being tricked again by one of those illusion discs?

"Riley?" His voice could not have sounded more unsure as he spoke.

Even though her face was hidden behind a rather creepy, damaged, discolored clown mask, it did seem to be her.

There was another laugh. "Did you miss me?" A bit of raspiness lined her voice now, making it more reminiscent of her father's.

The source of that low rumbling appeared to be a rather large pincer that was strapped to one of her arms. Its concave jaws were lined with rows upon rows of slightly rusted nails.

Various wires, cords, and machine parts were attached to other parts of her body.

"I've been looking forward to seeing you all again."

She continued taking agonizingly slow steps towards them.

They continued to back away and make sure that she didn't eliminate any of the distance between them.

Riley had died, hadn't she? Had whatever brought Afton back from the grave brought her back too? Why was she coming at them in such a threatening way? Was she on his side now? What actually happened to her after she got buried in the warehouse?!

"It feels like it's been forever since I've seen your faces. But sadly, I'm not here to be your friend. I've got orders to complete."

"What kind of orders?" Ballora asked nervously.

Riley tilted her head to the side. "I need to collect Mikey."

Everyone's eyes darted towards Michael, who had an almost blank look on his face. The grip on the sledgehammer in his hands had slackened.

"Dad needs you so that we can all be a family again."

He shook his head. "Not happening. No way in hell."

"You don't really have any say in what happens."

Charlie grabbed onto Foxy's shoulder and hissed into his ear, "Split."

"What?" He mimicked her tone, talking out of the corner of his mouth and turning his gaze towards her for half a second.

"I'll take you by force if I have to." The pincer snapped open.

"We have to split. She can't chase all of us at once," Charlie explained, stringing her words together very quickly.

"And as for the rest of you," Riley stopped for a moment, "I'm really very sorry, but I have to kill you so you can't tell anybody what happened."

Then, she started running at them.

The entire group split all at once, vanishing into different parts of the house.