5 Boxed In

"It's a perfectly safe job, they said. You'll be fine, they said. What bullshit," said William, panicking underneath the desk, as he closed the entrance cover and held it firmly. He had been hiding under here for what now felt like an eternity. The terror he experienced was much greater than he had before, as he struggled to firmly hold the entrance cover. It was curved, metal, and had several small holes in it, for some reason. Even with these small holes in the cover, he couldn't see very much in the cramped space beneath the desk. Luckily, he was able to find a flashlight with him inside, and now had at least a source of light on him. Ok, now what, he though. Where are those robots?

He remembered the loud banging from the ventway before, but now, there wasn't anything to be heard coming from there. Almost as if they were waiting for him to come out of hiding. Either that or they would get bored and come in anyway, he thought. Doesn't really help my situation any better.

Then, the loud banging resumed, but this time, much faster and quickly paced than before. He could hear it getting louder and louder, until it finally came to a stop, and the sound of the ventway door could be heard everso slightly heard. Don't notice me, do not notice me, please!

Now the faint sound of footsteps could be heard, getting closer and closer to William. But something didn't add up: he listened carefully, it didn't sound too much like footsteps, but more like crawling. Odd, very odd. He tried listening again, but this time he could hear crawling coming from two different directions, almost as if whatever was in the room was in two places at once. Or, more likely, there were two of them in the room, he thought. Great, one robot is bad enough, now there's two of them?

"Hello in there!"

The quiet girly voice made William instantly hold his breath, trying his best to breathe as quietly as possible so he could hear if any of the animatronics were coming closer to him. He couldn't see what these animatronics looked like, but their appeareance was the least of his concerns. Don't notice, come on. As he was keeping quiet, he could hear the crawling coming closer, and closer, and closer.

"Is someone inside there?"

"I think there is."

His face was pale with fear, as he used the flashlight to see if they were onto him. He kept his guard up, making sure he didn't lose his focus. Nothing too bad so far, he thought. Alright, things don't look too bleak, maybe if I just stay put...It was at this moment that a large, plastic blue eye looked directly at him through one of the small holes in the cover. Shit.

"Someone is inside!"

"Is it the same person?"

"Let's find out."

The same person? What was that supposed to mean?

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the metal cover was slowly being opened from the other side. The animatronics were trying to burst open the seal. If it weren't for his quick eyesight and thinking, he probably would've already been dead by now. Come on, come on! It was surprising how strong these animatronics was particularly strong, as they were able to get the better of his grip for a few mere moments, before he finally regained his strength and pulled back. Through some of the tiny holes in the seal, there were a few, tiny metal fingers sticking inside of them, still holding onto the seal.

"Wait, stop. Stop! She's watching us."

"She is? Oh no."

"We have to leave now! Who knows what will happen if he finds out!"

As soon as the voices said this, he could hear the animatronics crawling away as fast as their little metal legs could carry them, desperately trying to leave the room. Before they left, one of them decided to give William one final message.

"We'll see you again soon! Hehe!"

Don't come back, go away, and never talk to me ever again, ever. God, it's my second night on the job and I'm already in a life or death situation. Why the hell were these things even trying to kill me? The only thing I could've done to anger them was giving them the controlled shock, but that's about all I can think of. He had several other questions on his mind as well, such as why didn't his boss or anyone else working at Circus Baby World tell him that the animatronics here would attempt to murder him? It was clear that something deeper was going on here, and William was caught right in the center of it all. As these thoughts rambled inside of his head, he could once again hear the voice of that animatronic girl he spoke to before.

"Don't worry. It's safe to come out now. Those two are gone."

He was still a little bit skeptical of her, so he decided to double check if whatever it was that terrorized him before was gone. There was no one else in the module other than him, or at least in this part of the room, so he cautiously crawled out of the desk and back into the Circus gallery. He turned to the window area to thank the animatronic girl for saving his life.

"Thanks for your help. I don't think I would have gotten out of there alive if it wasn't for you."

"Of course. You know, this isn't the first time an incident like this has happened here. That reminds me: I never got your name. What is it?"

He didn't know what she needed his name for, but he figured that it would at least be the polite thing to do.

"Oh, uh, I'm William."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, William. You can just call me "Circus Baby" if you want. But I don't have a lot of time left to explain."

"Explain what, exactly?"

"When your guide comes back online, he is going to tell you that he was unsuccessful. That you must restart the system manually. He will then tell you to crawl through Ballora Gallery as fast as you can to reach the breaker room. If you follow his instructions, you will die."

"Uh, how do you know this?"

"There was a man working here, not too long ago, and I tried to warn him of this, too. He didn't listen to me. What was left of him...wasn't very settling."

This made William even more uneasy and anxious than before, and the thought of meeting a grizzly fate like that former employee was one he had absolutely no intention of sharing. He didn't want to waste any more time, so he let Circus Baby explain the rest to him.

"Never mind. Continue."

"Ballora will not return to her stage anymore. She will search for you, and if you aren't quiet, she will kill you. Don't worry about the module power, it will be restored shortly. But the power to the rest of the area, like the elevators, they'll still be down. Which means if you want to get out of here alive, you'll need to reboot the system. When you crawl through Ballora Gallery, go slowly. She cannot see you, and she can only listen for your movement. When you hear her music become louder, she is growing near. Listening for you. Wait and be still until you can't hear her music anymore. Try to be as quiet as possible."

"Thanks for the tips, I guess. Anything else I should know?"

"That's all I have for you now. Good luck, William."

Circus Baby went back to the dark depths behind the gallery room, disappearing from William's sight. He waited inside the control module until the lighting power would be restored.