Deceptive

Cornered

A loud scream echoed down the corridor shortly after Riley vanished. It clearly belonged to Afton, who seemed to already be aware that his daughter was no longer going to be compliant.

Foxy ran out of the room and turned right.

Elizabeth grabbed him by the back of his shirt and dragged him to the left. "This way, Alex."

"Right, I knew that."

Loud crashes and bangs followed the scream.

"Daddy,"

Riley came into view once they rounded the corner. She crossed the threshold of Afton's torture room. Her words were nothing but mocking and contemptuous.

"Daddy dearest, Why're you running away from me? I thought you wanted me around!"

Afton threw every chair and table in the room into her path to slow her down. "Stay away! You're not thinking clearly anymore!"

Riley threw every single one back into the wall with full force. "Maybe, maybe not. Maybe my head's all fogged up, or maybe I've got the clearest skies up there!"

"Are you sure that you undid whatever Afton did?" Foxy asked Elizabeth.

"Yes, this is not my doing." Elizabeth picked up her speed, quickly overtaking Foxy.

Maybe Riley's head was still fogged from all the cables that had been fed into her brain. Elizabeth had said something about some of the metal boxes doing that, right?

Or maybe she was just really, really upset.

Afton had tripped over his own feet while backing away and had ended up trapped in a corner.

Elizabeth reached the doorway and came to a halt.

Foxy pushed himself to go faster.

"Elizabeth, you don't know what you're doing. Stop this."

"Shut up! I told you not to call me that!" Riley was practically standing over him and Afton was almost completely consumed by her shadow.

Elizabeth held out her arm out and Foxy had to stop himself from running into it. He sent her a quizzical look.

"I don't think we should interfere with this," she whispered, her expression oddly blank.

"But—"

"We should let this play out," she told him more firmly.

"Okay... If you're so sure."

"Shut up and listen to me. Listen to me for once, and listen good. Are you listening?"

"Yes, yes, I'm listening now." There was an actual note of nervousness in Afton's voice.

"Alright, good. Keep listening because this is important. This is really important." Riley's voice cracked at the end of her sentence before dropping significantly in volume. "I hate you," she told him. "I fucking hate you!"

She stepped even closer.

"You ruined my fucking life, did you know that? Did you know that you did that?" Her voice cracked and shook even more. "And you ruined Miles' life. And Michael's life. And Mom's life. And Elizabeth's life. And the lives of every single one of your victims. Every single one. Did you know that?"

"I—"

"I genuinely can't tell if you do. I can't tell if the only words you truly listen to are your own, your own words, or if just don't give a shit. Do you know why it's hard to tell? Do you? It's because we try, and try, and try, and try so hard to get the hell away from you but you don't stay away. You don't. You don't stay away."

"That is because—"

"I tried so damn hard to distance myself from you. Did you know that? I tried so damn hard to act like we weren't related. So. Damn. Hard. I wanted nothing more than that. I tried so hard to forget what happened, to forget what I had seen of the sick, twisted shit you got up to. But I couldn't. I couldn't. I couldn't do it, no matter what I did, I couldn't.

"People compared me to you all the time. 'Oh, you have his laugh. You have his smile.' Fine, that's fine! Maybe I'll stop hearing it if I stop laughing and stop smiling! Maybe, maybe after you died I'd finally stop thinking about you, maybe I'd stop hearing about you, maybe I'd stop being reminded of what happened!

"No, of course not. People asked about you all the time. They asked, and asked, and asked no matter how many times Mom told them to go away, but that was fine. I could learn to block them out and act completely uninterested every time they tried to mention you. They'd stop asking if they stopped getting a reaction, right? No, of course not.

"I still relived the accident again, and again, and again every time I went to sleep, but that was fine. Maybe I wouldn't relive it as often if I didn't sleep as much!

"I'd see the scars on my body and feel that metal clamp closing around me again, the monster you created trying to do what it was built to do. I'd hear your voice threatening me, threatening me with death if I didn't keep quiet about what really happened to me, but that was fine too! Maybe I wouldn't have to see the scars as often if I only wore long-sleeved shirts and pants!

"You want to know something? Do you? I said to myself that when I finally found you I'd hand you over to Burke and make sure that you rotted away in jail. I said that I wouldn't wrap my hands around your throat no matter how much I wanted to. But you know what? You know what?"

"I saved your life, Elizabeth."

"When? When, huh? When I was six, or this year? Because both of those times, both of them, I wouldn't have needed your help if it wasn't for your killing machines."

"I'm your father!"

"So what? So fucking what? I don't care. I don't. I want you to feel what I felt. I do. I really do."

The pincer snapped open.

Afton's scream cut through the air once again before it abruptly ended with the pincer snapping shut on his head.

Foxy squeezed his eyes shut at the gory display and cringed at the wet crunch that the Afton's head made.

"Are you proud of me now, Daddy? I'm just like you. Just. Like. You. How sad is that?" Riley dropped back onto her knees.

Foxy hesitantly opened his eyes again and stared at the corpse now laying on the floor. Blood and brain matter oozed out of the eyes, mouth, and holes on the mascot head, which was utterly crushed. Then he forced his eyes towards Elizabeth, who seemed like she hadn't looked away at all.

"...Riley?" Foxy walked into the room and stopped when he was about a foot behind the redhead.

"I killed him. I killed him, Fox. Can you believe that? I can't. I can't believe it. I killed him."

"You did... and now he can't hurt anybody anymore. Right...?" Foxy looked over his shoulder at the animatronic that still remained by the door.

"Right. He can't come back unless I decide to put him back together... which I won't. Not again."

Riley said nothing.

Foxy went to place a hand on her shoulder.

"Alex."

He paused.

"I think she needs time alone."

"But... what if that wolf-thing comes in here? It's probably still running around."

"She will be fine. It's not programmed to see her as a threat anymore."

Reluctantly, Foxy walked back over to the doorway.

"I'll see you again soon, Riley," he reassured her. "C'mon, Liz. Let's try to find the others."

"Liz? Is that what you're calling me now?" Elizabeth followed after him.

Riley remained where she was, her eyes still locked on the body laid in front of her.

The blood that had pooled on the floor was beginning to soak into the knees of her pants.