Dance to Forget

Come on, how much longer? I've been waiting for like fifteen minutes already and the power still hasn't come back. What's taking so long? William was getting very impatient now. Finally, he could see the lights above him come back on, as it looked like the lighting power had been successfully restored.

"Thank you for your patience. It seems that the power system cannot be restarted automatically. You will need to restart the power system manually. Please return to the primary control module."

What do you know, Circus Baby was right, he thought. Well, lets just get this over with, then. Before he crawled through the ventway to get back to the primary control module, he checked one more time to see if there was any sight of Circus Baby behind the glass panel. There was still no sight of her. That's alright, as long as I remember the tips she gave me, I should make it through tonight. He crawled through the dark ventway, this time using the flashlight he found under the desk so that he could see where he was going. He also kept the flashlight just in case any of those two robots that attacked him before we still lurking around, waiting to kill him. Luckily, it seemed no one besides himself was there, so he kept crawling. As he climbed out of the vent and reached the primary control module, the Hand-Unit continued to speak.

"You will now be required to crawl through the Ballora gallery using the vent to your left to reach the breaker room. It is recommended that you stay low to the ground, and reach the other side as fast as possible, as to not disturb Ballora. I will deactivate myself momentarily, as to not create an auditory disturbance. Deactivating…"

Well, at least they were smart enough to program that feature in there, he thought. I guess I'll just have to crawl through the gallery like I do in the vents, only this time, I need to be much more quiet. What was it that Baby said again? Ballora can't see me, but she can sure as hell hear me. No need to rush things through. Just go slow and steady, and everything will be fine. While he tried reassuring himself, he opened the door to the Ballora Gallery vent, and pulled out his flashlight so that he would at least be able to see in the dark, ominous room. Time to get to work.

As he crawled through the vent door into Ballora's Gallery, he could hear the security system sound off again. "Ballora Maintenance Vent opened". It wasn't too loud, so hopefully Ballora wouldn't mind it.

He made sure to enter the gallery as quietly and slowly as possible. He wasn't sure what to expect from this next task. His experience with the other two robots already made him incredibly anxious, but he didn't know what this next one would bring. Don't want to attract any unwanted attention. I better start going now.

He slowly reached for his backpocket to get the flashlight so he could at least see where he was crawling. The room around him was surprisingly large. Inside there was a wooden stage, covered up by red curtains, and on the other side of the gallery were many long bench tables, scattered across the room. Fortunately, it didn't look like anything was blocking William's path, as it looked like it was a straight shot to the breaker room door. He began crawling very slowly on the grey-tiled floor towards the breaker door.

He started out very smoothly, making sure not to make too much noise while crawling. Nothing too bad so far, no sign of Ballora anywhere. Slow and steady. Then, he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard what appeared to be some kind strange music, faintly coming from the left side of the gallery. It sounded like the kind of music you would hear when you open a ballerina box. Well, considering Ballora does have the design of a ballerina, it seemed pretty normal. Wait, Baby said not to move when you hear her music, he reminded himself. Just don't make any noise or move when you hear the music and you'll be fine.

He continued to crawl carefully once he heard the music stop, with his flashlight in his right hand, across the floor. Other than the path straight ahead of him, he couldn't see anything else in the pitch black gallery without his flashlight. He stopped crawling once he heard the ballerina music playing again, being much quieter than last time. Just as he was about to continue moving, the music started getting much louder. She's probably getting closer to me. He couldn't tell how close Ballora was to him, but he wasn't taking any risks, so he waited until the music died down again.

This time, however, when he tried crawling again, he froze. He saw, right in front of him, Ballora, spinning slowly as she elegantly twirled around, dancing to her music, not once moving her legs. William tried to hold his breath, as his face was only a few inches away from Ballora's legs, staying as still as stone until she left. Holy shit, that was close, he thought. When he started crawling again, he double-checked to make sure he wasn't standing in the way of Ballora. He once again returned to carefully crawling across the floor, when out of nowhere, the Hand-Unit in his pocket turned itself on.

"It seems you are taking a long time. Please proceed as quickly and as quietly as possible."

The Hand-Unit's booming voice immediately echoed throughout Ballora's gallery. A million furious thoughts ran through William's head. What the hell?! You said you deactivated yourself! If he wasn't trapped in here with Ballora, he would've been screaming at the top of his lungs. First this piece of garbage takes forever to get the lights back on, now this. He used his flashlight to anxiously check around to see if Ballora had noticed, and just as he feared, he saw Ballora standing several feet away from him. She stopped dancing, and now appeared to be trying to observe the area around her. There's no way she didn't hear that, he thought. He was getting incredibly frustrated now, and had no idea what to do next. If I try to keep crawling, she'll kill me, but if I stay here long enough, she'll probably figure out where the sound came from, and kill me regardless. Neither option looks very good. Maybe if I just crawl incredibly carefully she won't realize it. He desperately tried to crawl as slowly and as quietly as he could, barely even making a sound. He could see the breaker door just up ahead of him. Come on, just a little bit more, don't panic, just keep calm-BANG!

Ballora instantly pounced as quick as lighting on the area that William stayed in before. She violently lashed out, swinging her arms all around to try and find the Hand-Unit, even striking at the floor, but luckily, William had moved just far enough to escape Ballora's grasp. After a few final swings, Ballora gave up, and continued to dance, and seemed to completely forget about what she was doing. Alright, she's distraced, now's my chance! He tried crawling slightly faster since the door was just up ahead of him. You're almost there, William, just a few more feet to go, he thought. Just a little more...please let me get there. Finally, he arrived at the breaker room door. He got back on his feet and opened the door carefully, to avoid Ballora's attention, and entered the breaker room.

Thank God I survived, William thought to himself. This didn't do anything to calm him down because he realized that if he wanted to leave, he would have to crawl all the way back, so he had to prepare for a second round with Ballora. Well, that's one less problem I have to deal with. Let's just try to get this interface fixed already.