Deceptive

Descending

Foxy didn't know how much head trauma one person could possibly continue to get back up from, but he did know that he could hear Riley beginning to pursue them once they were halfway down the stairs.

"C'mon, faster!" Charlie whispered, her voice right beside Foxy's ear.

They turned into the hallway next to the staircase. He could spot a door ajar that he hadn't seen earlier, one that apparently led to a basement.

Michael ushered them all down the concrete steps. He followed after them and hastily shut the door once everybody was inside.

Riley passed by, sounding somewhat clumsy. Probably since she was still disoriented from being hit over the head multiple times.

Loud crashes echoed from nearby rooms.

She didn't know where they had gone.

They all breathed a sigh of relief.

"Keep going," Michael whispered. He, Freddy, Charlie, and Ballora retreated into a far corner obscured by stacks of moldy boxes.

It seemed to Foxy that they had all been down here before. He decided to ask about it once everybody was sat down, keeping his voice incredibly low. "So what happened to you guys?"

"She found Freddy first," Charlie started.

"I-I'm not very g-g-good at hiding."

"He started running and she started throwing things at him. He got chased into the office where I was hiding and got hit with... something. I didn't see what it was." The brunette eyed the blood trailing from Freddy's hairline. "He fell and she took that opportunity to try and kill him. I couldn't just sit there and watch so I popped out."

"Charlie h-hit her in the shoulder w-with a p-picture frame."

"That distracted her for about two seconds." Charlie then went on to describe a fight that went on in the office, which ended with Freddy's right hand getting clamped down on with a pincer full of nails before she got them both out. It was only then that Foxy noticed Freddy's palm appeared to be patched up with a bit of fabric from Charlie's green utility jacket.

"The two of them came into the bedroom where we were," Ballora continued, gesturing to herself and Michael.

Miles popped up and had his talk with Ballora, Charlie, Michael, and Freddy all at once. Riley cornered them in that room not long after.

"I swung the sledgehammer," Michael told him. "Hit that claw she had strapped to her arm and she hit me right back. Nearly broke my nose."

They escaped afterward and Michael shoved them all into the basement so that they could catch their breath. "Guess she must've found you after that," he went on. "Where were you?"

"The kitchen." Foxy detailed what he had gone through while they were all absent.

"We heard you in the hallway," Ballora admitted.

"Then why didn't you come out?"

"It went quiet for a few minutes and we were waiting for more noise to figure out what was happening."

"Pretty sure that moment of quiet was when she was busy crushing my windpipe."

"The next thing we h-heard was the two of y-you stomping up the stairs."

"That's when we went to follow after you, but the basement door jammed when we tried to leave. Had to ram into the damn thing about twenty times before it opened."

"Oh. That explains all the thumping I heard."

Nobody said anything after that. They all just sat there and listened to Riley wreck the house above them. It went on for another seven minutes before abruptly stopping.