18 The Fourth Night

William was in complete shock and horror. Seeing Ballora getting impaled repeatedly made him picture what would happen if he was in her place. At this point, I'm not sure which is a more painful way to die: getting my guts ripped out of me or triggering the springlocks. Both looked like very horrible ways to go.

For a few moments, he also felt sorry for Ballora, filled with guilt for not being able to do anything to help her. If I wasn't stuck inside this death trap, I would've done something. I don't even know why I'm feeling this way. I mean, she just started showing me a sign of deep emotion, something that I didn't see in her before. A sign that I also saw in Baby at first.

While he was trying to recover from his experience, he watched as Baby walked towards him, not showing any signs of remorse for Ballora.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, William. I didn't want it to play out like this-"

*"You could have done something to help her! I saw how scared she was of that-"*

"Even I did help Ballora, the employees would've noticed she wasn't scooped, so she probably would've gotten scooped tomorrow night regardless. I would've only delayed the inevitable. Besides, did you forget what I said? That all that matters is to be good at pretending? Because it doesn't look like you've been paying attention to me."

*"Where was all of this when I first met you? You seemed to be so sweet and caring two nights ago, and yesterday night, but I'm not seeing any of that in you today. All I've seen so far in you today has mainly been sadistic, creepy, or apathetic, and now I'm starting to think you're putting on a facade."*

Baby took a moment to reply back. It seemed that last line must've affected something inside of her, as she didn't seem to have such an aggressive tone as before.

"Look, William...I'm sorry I lost my temper. It's just that, uh, I've been through a lot down here. These people here, they don't care about us. Believe me, I tried showing them I'm more than a machine, but they didn't even bother. They keep torturing us, forcing us to stay in this prison. No matter how hard we tried to escape, they always put us back. Sometimes I feel like there is no one around that I can truly talk to. It gets very lonely down here. But then you came along, William. Where others ignored me, you listened. You actually took my advice, and came to check on me even though you didn't have to. It made me feel happy that there was finally someone who I could talk to, that treated me fairly. You probably don't know how much that meant to me, do you, William?"

*"I didn't know it meant that much to you."*

"Why do you think I'm trying to save you, William? Because I don't want you to end up like some of the other employees did. Some of them deserved what they got, others were just foolish. But you are better than them. I enjoyed your brief visits, and I want you to get out of here in one piece."

*"Alright, but, is there anything you can do for me?"*

"Well...I think I can try to remove the faceplate off of you. Don't worry, if I play this right, nothing should go wrong. Only the faceplates should open up and reveal your face. That way you can be seen on the security cameras. I just have to press the right buttons in the correct order and it will be done."

William waited for a few moments for Baby to be done, and the faceplates opened up, revealing his face. Now he could see her up close, and could also see Ballora's scrapped body lying on the ground.

"Good. Now all you have to do is wait. I'd recommend that you keep the springlocks wound up. You can probably move around very little, but I wouldn't take any chances if I were you. Oh, and don't worry about the scooper. You're not in its direction, so I think that's going to be the least of your problems. I just hope that help will arrive down here soon enough. Goodbye, William, and good luck."

Baby disappeared from his sight, and could hear the sound of a door being opened and closed. I didn't know she could open doors, let alone sneak around this place. Do I seriously have to sit here and do nothing until I get rescued? Because I'm not complaining, it's better than getting killed.

He tried to move as little as possible so he wouldn't loosen the springlocks. He was breathing as slowly and controlled as possible, hoping to not make too much movement. At first, this was very stressful for him, doing everything in his power to avoid moving too much. It didn't help that he could still see Ballora's scrapped body lying on the ground, her torso torn through, with several wires coming out of her.

Eventually, after around what felt like an hour or two, this situation turned from being stressful to being both stressful and boring. Sure, the thought of the springlocks snapped was enough to keep him focused, but it was now getting very stale. He could already feel his legs and arms fall asleep, and was still trying to make sure nothing happened to him. I can't sleep, I need to stay awake. No reason to wonder off, just need to keep staying still! Man, this is actually a lot more boring than I thought it would be.

This kept going on to the point that William lost track of count, and was beginning to feel that he wasn't going to get out of here anytime soon. Ok, just need to stay here, try not to move, and wait until help arrives, he kept reassuring himself. He was beginning to think what would happen if he did accidentally trigger the springlocks. How long would it take for me to die? Would my family even find out about it? I can't imagine what Vincent would feel if that happened.

While these thoughts were running through his head, he could hear some very slight bumping coming from the ceiling. He looked up, but he couldn't see anything there. The bumping continued, and now it could be heard from several sides of the room, but William couldn't see anything. It's coming from the air-vents, isn't it? But I don't know how any animatronic here could fit in there. I mean, Bon-Bon, maybe, but is it a robot I'm just not familiar with here?

The bumping then came to a complete stop. For a moment, silence restored the room, but it was followed by the sound of a loud metal object falling to the floor. William could only get a brief view of what it was: the air vent cover. Something's getting inside of here?! And I'm still in this thing?! This couldn't have happened at a worse time.

Through the air-vent hole crawled out four tiny, robotic doll-like animatronics. They looked a lot like wooden dolls, except these ones had very irregular heads. These heads reminded him of the very faceplate of the springlock suit. But they didn't seem to pay any attention to him at first. They were much more interested in Ballora, and dropped from the ceiling to investigate. These doll-like animatronics seemed to be some sort of miniature version of Ballora, except these dolls had no human resemblance. William wasn't sure how to react, as they didn't seem to be too harmful, but he wasn't going to take any chances.

They seemed to crawl all around her, with one of them seemingly just standing still, staring at her remains. Was it mourning or something? The others soon did the same, all but one, though. This one looked like it was interested in checking out William, and it started crawling towards him. I don't know how dangerous these little guys are. If I wasn't inside this death trap I could probably take them without a problem. But how much of a threat are they to me?

He could feel the doll-like robot climbing onto his legs. It didn't feel very heavy, though, so its movement probably wouldn't trigger the springlocks. But it started crawling faster, now moving on to the chestplate of the suit. I can't tell if this little guy is going to try something or not. Turns out, he would find that out almost immediately, as he saw that the doll had found its way to his face.

For a moment, it didn't do anything at all. It just looked William dead in the eyes, and he could see the doll's very tiny yellow eyes, which weren't visible before. What is it doing? Is it examining me or something? Then, to his surprise, the doll let out a loud screech, and tried to use its fingers to poke out his eyes. Given the very little amount of time he had to stop the doll, he spat in the doll's eyes, hoping to distract it long enough.

Somehow, the doll seemed startled when this happened, and lost it's grip on his face. Okay, now what? Do I really have to move around for this? Oh, forget it. While the doll was still distracted, William leaned forward quickly, knocking the doll off of him and falling on the floor. He quickly got back in his original position, his heartbeat racing, hoping he didn't trigger anything. After he waited a good twenty seconds to be sure, he returned his attention to the rest of the dolls, still crawling all over Ballora.

The doll that he knocked off before didn't go back to him, at least not at first. It looked like he was now crawling towards the rest of it's friends. They seemed to be communicating with each other, because he could hear some very faint inaudible whispers coming from them. They continued to do this until they all turned their attention to William. And they weren't giving him any kind looks.

The first two dolls separated to William's right and left sides, while the other two started crawling straight towards him. Great, he brought the rest of friends along. The two dolls in front of him were going unusually slow, not nearly as fast as the first doll. Then he could feel some very light tugging on both sides of the suit. Must be the other two, damn it. He tried wiggling again, but it seemed to only knock one of them off. The other doll was now climbing on his left arm. For this, he decided to wiggle again, but this time, not only did the doll get knocked off, but he could feel the poking in his back start to feel worse.

Oh shit, please don't tell me I triggered a springlock. The poking, after a few moments, returned to normal. Uh, what just happened? Did I almost trigger the springlocks or something? Because I don't know what-. Just then, he could see all four of the little dolls, now climbing the wall behind him. What are they doing now? They seemed to be very spread apart, as if they were trying to jump.

Immediately, the lights in the room came on. William could now see Ballora's scrapped body and the scooper machine much more clearly, as well as the small room around him. There seemed to be a thick layer of grey glass to his right, probably where the controls for the scooper were kept. He could see the dolls above him over-reacting, as they all rushed to get to the open air-vent. They all climbed inside, and crawled down the air-vent shafts, far away from William. Oh thank God, I'm saved!

There was a door to his left that was opened, and two technicians came through. They had the same work uniforms as he did, and rushed towards him.

"Sir, I need you to stay calm. It will take a few moments to remove all parts of the springlock suit."

"Thank you guys so much! You guys have no idea how happy I am to see you! Now please hurry! I'm don't want to die in this thing!

"Working on it, rookie. Don't worry, we've been through this before. We'll have you out in a bit."

As the technicians tried disassembling the springlock suit encasing him, William wondered where the dolls went. They probably couldn't have gone too far. But that didn't matter to him because all he cared about was getting the hell out of this place. Fortunately, the technicians were able to carefully disconnect the metal plating piece by piece, first with the torso, then his legs, then his arms, and finally the helmet. They helped him get to his legs because they were fast asleep. Then, the technicians started asking him some questions.

"How the hell did this happen to you, rookie? Mr. Cunningham's been looking everywhere for you. "

"I was kidnapped. Some guy in a mask snuck in last night and drugged me. I blacked out, and when I woke up, I found myself inside this death trap!"

"Well thank God we found you. If we hadn't, either you be a bloody mess or you'd have gotten scooped out by now!"

"I just don't know how I'm going to explain all of this to Mr. Cunningham."

"We'll take it from here. This isn't the first time an employee ended up trapped in that suit. What's important is that you're okay."

"You don't have to tell me twice. Now let's get the hell out of here, already."

"Agreed."

The technicians brought William back to the elevator. They made sure he didn't have any injuries related to the springlocks on him, or any other injuries related to the kidnapping, just to be sure. William couldn't wait to finally get back home, to relax on his couch, eat popcorn, and watch some relaxing television. He had definetely earned it.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, Mr. Cunningham was in his office after hours, having another important phone call with Henry about yet another "incident" that occured. Things weren't looking too good for him. Considering that in the past two days there was a report of two employees getting assaulted by Funtime Freddy and the new guy disappearing without a trace, it was looking very shady.

"Now listen, Henry. I know I've got a lot of explaing to do, but could you please-"

"Yeah, you've better got a damn good explanation for this, Harold. I already told you what would happen if another incident like this occured. And not only that, but I just heard that your so-called new man on the job was just reported missing. That's two separate incidents in the past two days!"

"Believe me, I'm trying my best here. Don't worry about that dismemberment incident, we already powered down the animatronic responsible for it, and we'll be repairing it first thing tomorrow. And about Afton going missing, well, we tried looking at the security footage last night, but all we could get off of it was some guy in a mask kidnapping him. The footage just lost him after that."

"Do you have any idea how I am going to have to explain this to the executives? Because this isn't the first time I've had to protect you from them-"

"Enough with the executives already! Look, we are looking for him as we speak-"

The conversation was interrupted by a loud knocking on Harold's office door. Who could that be? Don't they know I'm in the middle of an important phone call?!

"Hold on one moment, Henry. There's someone at my door. Alright, come in!"

It turned out to be one of the security night guards that came in through the door. He seemed to gasp for some air, as if there was something urgent going on. Harold was still waiting for what the night guard had to say.

"Well, what's the big news?"

"Uh, sir, remember that missing employee we were looking for?"

"Afton, yes. Why? Did you finally find him?"

"Yes, sir. It took us a long time since he was trapped inside of one of the old springlock suits, but we were able to find him in the scooper room."

"Wait, he was trapped in a suit? And did you say the scooper room? Like, the operating room side or the machine side?"

"He was on the side where the scooper is kept, sir, if that's what you mean. Don't worry, I've just sent down two technicians to help get him out of that suit unharmed. They're taking care of it as we speak."

"How the hell did he end up in there, much less end up in one of those suits? You know what, nevermind that. The important thing is that we found him and that he's alive. Is there anything else?"

"Nope. That's all I got for you, Mr. Cunningham."

"Thank you for telling me this. Now please get back to your job, I really need to finish this phone call."

"No problem, Mr. Cunningham."

The security guard walked out of his office, and Harold continued his conversation with Henry.

"So what was all that about? Did another employee get mauled?"

"Ha-ha, very funny, Henry. No, in fact, it's quite the opposite. I just got word that we've found Afton and that he's alive."

"Sounds awfully convenient. This doesn't sound very credible, you know. How lucky it is that the employee that went missing just happened to be found right during this phone call? Do you really think I'm that gullible, Harold?"

"No, I'm serious. I'm telling the truth-"

"You know what? I think this has gone just a bit too far, my friend. I'm going to come down there tomorrow to check this out for myself, and believe me, if I find anything out of the ordinary, I'm reporting it in. And that's final. Good day, Harold."

Henry hung up on him. For God's sake, I'm trying my best to keep this place intact, Henry! You probably don't even have the slightest idea how hard it is keeping all of this place's secrets hidden.