17 Springlocked

March 6, 1976 - Circus Baby World - 10 PM (Present time)

* - whispers (Just putting it here)

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Ugh...my God...what happened last night? My eyes, I can barely see a thing, William thought. He was trying to wake up, as his eyes slowly adjusted themselves in the dark room around him. My head, my body, am I trapped inside something? My body feels like it's...inside of something. Something cold, hard, and heavy. When William could finally see properly out of his eyes, he could feel something chilly and hard surrounding his head and body. His eyes could only see through two eyeholes in whatever this thing was, and could see the metal inside of what appeared to be a suit.

There was some sort of large, barrel-shaped torso of a mascot that was surrounding his chest and his backside. His arms and hands felt like they were covered in metal plating, pinned to the torso in an unnatural position. He could feel several pieces of metal pressing against his back poking him. His legs and feet were also covered in the same metal plating, feeling very tight and uncomfortable. Then there was some kind of helmet or something around his head. He could feel some more pieces of metal being pressed against the back of his head and neck. What the hell am I inside of? That masked man from last night, what did he do to me? Who was that guy?

Where the hell am I, even? Damn it, I can barely see anything in this room. Of course, the eyeholes and a large smile-like mouth gap around his face provided him with some sight, but the room around him was completely dark, like in the Funtime Auditorium last night. Not a single light in sight so far. How did I get here? I decided to stay working here for a raise and a promotion and the very next day I get kidnapped by a man in a purple mask and stuffed in a suit. It's as crazy as it sounds.

He wondered about the design of this suit in particular. Surely, he didn't know that the metal plating worn by the animatronics could also be worn by a human, but the facial design didn't make too much sense. The eyes and the mouth seemed a bit too large, and this one didn't look like any of the other animatronics here. Maybe this was some recalled or cancelled design? I don't know. Ugh, why is this thing so tight, anyway?

He tried moving around, but before he could do so, he saw two glowing green eyes, coming from the back of the room. I recognize those eyes...it's Baby! He couldn't see the rest of her very well, though. But what is she doing here? And how did she even find me? While many other questions like these floated through William's head, Baby spoke up, in a very serious tone.

"Shh! William, listen to me: be as quite still and quiet as possible. Whatever you do, don't move too much."

"Baby? How did you find me? And what am inside of?"

He moved his head in a different position to be more comfortable, but then Baby warned him again.

"I said don't move! And keep your voice down! Try whispering. Don't worry, I know that this might not make any sense to you, so I'll try to explain it as best as I can."

*"Where am I? How long have I been down here for?"*

"You've been sleeping for quite a while. I think the people here noticed that you never left the building last night. The cameras are searching for you. But they couldn't find you."

William tried to recall what happened last night, right after he left the parts and service room. There was a man in a purple mask that ambushed him in the Funtime Auditorium, and knocked him out by injecting something into his neck with a syringe. He must've put me inside of this thing, I bet. Baby continued.

"There was a man down here last night. The one in the mask? I thought you might've encountered him last night. He has hidden you a bit too well. I saw him last night, coming into my gallery to check on me. Luckily, he didn't bother me at all, but I overheard him talking to himself. I heard that he kidnapped you, and put you inside of this suit. It took me some time to find you, since I didn't know where he put you. So I checked in here. But don't be afraid. I'm not here to hurt you, William. I am only trying to get you out of that suit before it's too late."

*"Wait, then what's the holdup? Can't you help get this suit off of me?"*

"Yeah...that's the thing. What you're inside of is no ordinary suit. If you were just an animatronic, it would be fine. But this could get very deadly for you."

*"What do you mean by deadly? I mean, I didn't know these suits could be worn by people, but I don't see what's wrong with it."*

Baby seemed to hesitate for a moment.

"I'll try to explain it, but I don't want to make you panic, William."

*"Well, then just explain to me what is wrong with this suit?"*

"Okay. The suit that you are wearing is called a springlock suit. All the animatronics here have these kinds of suits, but the key thing about them is that they can be both worn by people and be worn by the animatronics here."

*"That doesn't sound too bad."*

"It probably doesn't at first. Until you realize what makes this possible. You see, a springlock suit consists of many locks and bolts held firmly together to allow a person to wear it. These locks and bolts are called 'springlocks'. They hold back a lot of pieces of metal and plastic used for the suits to fit our endoskeletons. You might be able to feel some of them right now. Do you feel anything pressing against you?"

*"Yeah, I feel something in my back and in the back of my head, yes. Wait, are those whatever these springlocks are?"

"No. That's just what the springlocks are holding back. Our animatronic endoskeletons have a much different anatomy than a human body, so there are these pieces of metal and plastic that are designed to fit our bodies. But that's where I reach the bad news for you."

*"What is it, Baby?"*

"There was an incident that happened around a year or two ago with one of these springlock suits. It wasn't here, I think it was at one of the Fredbear's Family Diner locations. Anyway, an employee tried putting on one of the springlock suits, but as he put on the torso and helmet, he didn't know that the springlocks weren't tightened enough. Uh, I'm not sure if I should describe what happened next too much. I really don't want you to feel terrified, William."

*"Baby, it's okay. Please tell me what happened."*

"Alright, but I'm warning you, you are not going to like it. By the time the man put on the torso and mascot helmet, the springlocks inside of his suit snapped. Trust me, William, you don't want the springlocks to snap. Remember all those pieces of metal and plastic being held back? Well, once the springlocks snap, they're broken, and everything they've been holding back will be instantly driven into your body. These pieces will leave all kinds of horrible, painful cuts and scars all over your body. Then, these pieces will dig deep into your skin, causing major bleeding, and your internal organs will be pierced by them, leaving the suit soaked in your own blood. From what I've heard, the pain was much worse than anyone could imagine. That man was lucky, though, as he barely survived the accident, but word is he was never the same man afterwards. But that's only if you're lucky. Odds are you'll probably die of blood loss if you trigger the springlocks, and it will be a very slow and painful death. I don't want you to go through any of that."

William was immediately paralyzed with paranoia just by imagining how painful this was. The thought that of all those gears inside of the suit could snap and turn into a death trap at any moment was playing through his mind. At least the last three nights he could move around to get to safety, but if he made one wrong move now, it would all be over for him. I shouldn't have pictured it in my mind. Now I'm only fearing for my life even more. He closely listened to the rest of Baby's advice, hoping for a safe and non-painful way out of here.

"So whatever you do, William, try not to wiggle or move around too much. If you do, the springlocks become looser, and if they get loose enough...well, you know. You're inside a discontinued model that came from one of the old pizzerias from out of town. I don't think this one was ever used - or at least, not in the way it was ever meant to be used. From what I can tell, it looks like it's just big enough for one person to fit inside. But just barely."

*"Yeah, I have been feeling very cramped in this thing."*

"I'm sorry that I can't get this suit off of you. I'm not risking it. I don't want you to die, William. That's why I need you to listen to my directions carefully, and hopefully get you out alive."

*"Okay, but where the hell am I, anyway?"*

"Oh, you're in the scooping room. Do you know why they call it the scooping room?"

*"Uh, no?"*

"It's because, dummy, this is the room where they use the scooper. I thought that would be obvious."

*"Seriously?! Jokes?! At a time like this?!"*

Although William was still panicking, he thought Baby's joke was kind of amusing. He wanted to give a little chuckle to Baby, but decided not to give in because he was still inside the springlock suit. He had much bigger problems to worry about. Baby continued talking to him.

"Isn't that a funny name for something? "The scooper". It sounds like something you would probably use for ice cream, or custard, or sprinkles. It sounds like something you would want at your birthday party, to ensure that you get a heaping portion of every good thing. I wonder, though, if you were a freshly-opened pint of ice cream, how you would feel about something with that name. Thankfully, I don't think a freshly opened pint of ice cream feels anything at all."

William immediately changed from being amused by Baby to being anxious, as the way she said about being an ice cream pint being scooped out made him even more terrified. Didn't you just say before that you didn't want to make me more terrified? Because you're not doing a great job at it, Baby. Great, not only am I inside a death trap, but I'm also in the room with the machine that can scoop my guts out. Just my freaking luck. He was beginning to think that whatever this "scooper" was, it was definitely not for scooping out ice cream. What's even the purpose of building a machine that just scoops out stuff? Just then, he could hear the sound of footsteps coming from what he thought was the other side of the room.

"Uh-oh. It sounds like someone else is in the building. It could be the man from last night. I'll deactivate myself momentarily to make less noise. Shh!"

Baby's glowing green eyes disappeared in the dark, and all of a sudden, he could see a tiny, flashing red light in the corner of the scooping room. He could hear two men talking to each other. It wasn't very loud, so he figured they must be in a different room or something like that.

"Okay, bring her over here. More, more... okay, stop. Now set her down. There you go. Watch your step."

"What happened to her this time?"

"Just seems like these god-damn things can't go a day without breaking down. I don't know, it's always the same, man. Some kind of hardware malfunction. I figured Dave could at least try to fix them, but it certainly doesn't look like he has."

"Well, I have to be somewhere in, like, fifteen minutes, so we better hurry. This whole place gives me the creeps. Can we just get this over with?

"It's all automated, so we don't have to be here for it. Just get it on the rollers and we can get the hell out of here."

William could now hear the footsteps getting further and further away from him.

Bring her over? Who are they talking about? It's also nice to see that I'm not the only guy working here who is creeped out by this place. There was a brief moment of silence in the room, which was followed by the sound of a door being opened, along with the sound of loud mechanical whirring, irritating William's ears. Something was being moved from the back of the room on the rollers, he thought. Must be one of the animatronics, perhaps.

The slow whirring continued for around a minute before William could eventually see the back of an animatronic head. It looked very dark, maybe dark-purple. He couldn't see it well at first, but as he waited he could see that this animatronic's appearance was very humanoid, and it's familiar face made him realize who this animatronic was: Ballora. She seemed so lifeless and sad as the rollers continued moving her, until they came to a dead stop. He could now get a good look at Ballora. Then, he could see Baby's green eyes coming back on, and walking towards him.

"I know I could probably help save Ballora from what's about to happen next, but she brought this upon herself. You know, there's something very important that I've learned how to do over time. That is, how to pretend. Do you ever play make-believe? Pretend to be one way, when you are really the other, William?"

*"Yes, I do that sometimes."*

"It's very important. It's key to surviving down here. Ballora, she never learns. She always keeps dancing off, trying to forget the life she had long ago, all of the pain and heartbreak she suffered through, alone in the dark, never trying to hide her true feelings from the world. These people here think there is something wrong with us on the inside. It is feelings like these that can get us zapped, broken, put out of order, or, if it's severe enough, lead you right to the scooper. She just didn't seem to understand it. But I do. It's why I'm the one standing right here and why she's the one about to be scooped. The important thing is that all that matters is knowing how to be good at pretending."

The life she had? True feelings? What's Baby talking about? I don't understand any of this. Sure, I can see how Baby has somewhat feelings, but none of this came across me two nights ago when I first saw Ballora. She certainly didn't display any of that to me.

While he had these questions, he was also very confused about Baby, too. Yesterday night and the night before, she seemed so sweet and innocent to him, but now she just seemed sadistic and creepy. He never saw this side of her before. It was like she completely changed her personality, but then he remembered what Baby said about pretending. Was she manipulating me? Faking just to get me to trust her? I didn't think so at the start, but now that I'm seeing her making me scared and not helping Ballora, I'm getting more suspicious of her.

Then, for a moment, he could see Ballora slowly turning her head towards him, and for the very first time, he saw her open her eyes. Her eyes had a deep shade of purple, and she stared right back at William. Those purple eyes made him feel like Ballora was staring into his soul. He could hear her trying to saw something to him, in a frightened toned female voice.

"H-h-help...m-m-me...pl-please..."

She sounded like she was absolutely terrified, and she gently reached out her arm to William. For some reason, he felt pity for Ballora, seeing her so scared and desperate. I wish I could help her, but I'll die if I move too much.

As all of this happened, the sound of an alarm went off, startling William. As he looked around, he could see some kind of sharp tool tearing through Ballora's suit, impaling it, as she jerked around while it happened. It looked like she tried to scream, but the scooper ripped out her voicebox. William couldn't get a good look at what this 'scooper' looked like, but he could see Ballora repeatedly getting impaled over and over again, sparks flying everywhere.

It was very hard for William to keep watching. Imagining himself being in Ballora's place and seeing what she was going through just increased his anxiety by a hundred percent. When the machine finally stopped, Ballora's broken body fell to the ground with a bang, out of William's sight.