Writing fight scenes are hard, dawgs

TW: dead body, vomit, death, gore

  An animatronic bear, a robot boy and a possessed woman walked down an abandoned hallway.

  Sounded like the beginning of a joke, didn't it? I wished. What's also a joke was the incredible lack of talking we each made, despite the absolutely mind-fucked realisation we'd come to when Elizabeth slipped into my brain and allowed me to see the ghosts of her brothers.

  Yes, the Afton kids were back, and it was not the reunion I'd ever expected them to have.

  Gregory-Evan walked stiffly ahead and led the charge. He held his stub of an arm and didn't look back once, not even a glance. His fury sparked from him like live wire. His animosity choked us all.

  I hobbled behind him, clutching my lifeline-crowbar in one hand and my throbbing head in the other. Elizabeth's thoughts would pass through my mind like watching cars drive by on an open road - fleeting and fast - and I couldn't keep track of which drove past me.

  Michael took up the rear, and if Gregory's anger choked us, then his elder brother's guilt was what we were drowning in. It was the layer of frost on a winter morning, the blanket of snow on our mountainscape; covered and cold and almost blinding.

  My head pounded. I could still faintly feel William prowling the edges of my mind, but it was a lot better with Elizabeth keeping him at bay. I felt more secure with her in my head, more in control, whereas when it was solely William I had only felt helpless terror. She helped me keep my wits.

  But wits alone couldn't beat William and Vanessa and their army of robots, just as wits couldn't shatter this thick tension that fell over the siblings and I. My mouth kept opening to break the silence, but I would give up before I could even get the first syllable out. What could I say that could even come close to rectifying their past? What could I ever do? What right did I even have?

  I was dying - both literally and emotionally. I had always wished to meet Elizabeth and Evan, but not like this. Never like this.

  I kept peeking over my shoulder at Michael. If I had more time, if we all had the liberty of safety, I would stare at him forever. I'd stare at Michael's face - his real face - with his square jaw and his nose that had been crooked since he broke it when he was fourteen. His real eyes, the hazel luminaries that I'd dreamed of, that had haunted me when he was gone. His freckles and his thick brows, turned softly down in an ever-present look of innocence that had gotten him out of trouble more than once. His thick, dark curls and the dimples I had cherished fervently, and cherish still.

  And all of it, all of this heartbreaking familiarity, set inside the robot he haunted. His ghostly visage shackled to Freddy. He'd flicker in and out of visibility like an old-school photo projector flicking through its cards. When he looked up at me, his blue eyes fought hazel.

  The smile I offered was returned, though weak and only brief. It fell, as did his gaze. My tattered heart sunk.

  'You love him very much,' Lizzie's soft voice spoke inside my mind. 'Though I have no access to your memories, I can feel how you feel. It's almost overwhelming... and a little gross.'

  I had to stifle my smile. Sorry, Liz. If I could rein in my emotions for your sake, I would.

  'No, don't.' Lizzie was quick to backtrack. 'It is nice to experience something other than fear and hate. It has been a long time since I was close to such light.'

  I felt for her. How long had she spent down here alone? How long had she been afraid, been hurt, been ruled by nothing but revenge and hate? She was just a little girl.

  Just like with her brothers, I had to find a way to get Elizabeth out of here - but then what? She'd roam the streets of Hurricane as a spectre? She'd haunt my house? She didn't have a life to go back to, that world had long swung past. The best thing to do would be to release her spirit so she could truly pass on, but hadn't they tried that already? And look where she is now - look at where they all are.

  My gaze drew back to Freddy again. His bear-face was downturned and lost in ill thought. His expression broke my heart. The only sign that he was still present were his ears flicking for noise, keeping alert for danger. Not for the first time that night, I wished I could take him from this awful place, swaddle him in a blanket, and kiss his face until he no longer hurt.

  If only.

  I quickened my pace and slid my hand onto Gregory's shoulder. The frigid glare that he shot me with only softened upon my small smile, and then his amber eyes fell away. He was doing a good job at masquerading his anger, but not good enough. I could see the cracks in his emotional armour - within them revealed his hurt.

  "How's it looking, boss?" I asked. There was no point asking him if he was okay. None of us were.

  "Gloomy," Gregory muttered towards the darkness that stretched before us. "You'd think Pa'd spare a little for some lights down here."

  At least he was still being sarcastic. I'd really be worried if he lost that, too.

  "And make it easier for us?" I said with a little huff. "We'd mistake him for actually caring."

  Gregory's laugh was short, clipped and bitter. His grip on his stub tightened. His head bowed. His Fazbear-themed sneakers were scuffed and covered with his own blood - or whatever it was that flowed through his artificial veins.

  "Do you think we're actually going to make it out of here?" Gregory quietly asked. He peeked up at me from the side of his eyes. "Don't lie."

  My gaze drifted away with a held sigh. My exhale was long, slow and weary. Don't lie, huh? How could I answer him when the answer was grim? Our chances of surviving this, even with all of us together, were in the single digits. And if we did survive this, then what? We smuggle Freddy out of here to live an even more secluded life than he already has? I become wanted for stealing a multi-million dollar robot? How would we even live?

  "I don't know," was the best alternative to 'either way, kid, we're all fucked.' Elizabeth's disappointment sat bitter in my head. Gregory's forlorn expression stabbed me right through.

  "I don't want to die again," Gregory murmured. "It... it was so cold. And Cassidy was so angry."

  My lips thinned. I didn't want him to go back to that, either. I didn't want to die, either. None of us had a choice in this; it was live on or die. I still had it in me to fight for them.

  I ruffled Gregory's dirty hair and offered a small smile when he looked up at me. His eyes just fell away. My hand slipped back to my side.

  I was at a loss, struggling to find something to make this right, to make it better. I was floundering. I was nothing more than a failure as a guardian.

  My hand pressed against my head as it throbbed again. I gritted my teeth against a groan of pain, but doing so just made it all the more worse. My entire body was barely hanging on by a thread. I was surprised I was still even standing.

  A gentle pressure upon my back made me look up. Freddy had come to stand beside me, and the face of concern he held was twice over with his split countenances. It was like looking at a 3D movie without the glasses.

  "Would you like to be carried?" he asked.

  I would've said yes - I could've quite easily requested him to hold me in his only slightly damaged arms and taken the chance to rest. But I feared that if I allowed my body to relax, I wouldn't get it moving again.

  Still, though, I lingered the words upon my tongue, if only to revel in the touch at my back for a little longer. We were waltzing our way through hell and descending only deeper. I'd take the comforts when I could.

  "I'm okay," I finally answered. "I need to keep moving."

  Michael hesitated. I could practically see him fighting the urge to coddle me because we were each the same person to one another, but he respected my wishes and didn't pull me from my feet. Though, his hand did remain where it was. I would never argue against that.

  After a few more minutes of walking down this elongated, desolate hallway, we reached a fork in our pathways. Gregory and Freddy both turned their heads to me, awaiting guidance. Elizabeth answered.

  "Left," she spoke from my mouth, and it wasn't her voice, but a deviation of my own; lighter, more delicate, the voice from my youth that I'd long outgrown. Michael and I both recoiled at the strangeness of it.

  Gregory trudged on left.

  This part of the underground labyrinth started just as dilapidated, rundown and grimy as the rest of it, but my intrigue rose when black-and-white tiles began to envelope the floor and walls. Old posters hung alongside us, riddled the corners, faded and torn and beaming at us with haunting smiles. 

  I shuddered and held my crowbar tighter. Children's drawings littered the space, grungy and shredded. It was terrifying. The absence of sound aside our footsteps just made it worse. This place was more than just eerie - it was chilling.

  Freddy's lumbering steps came to a sudden stop, and the comforting hand on my back fell away just as fast. Gregory and I turned at his startled halt.

  If Freddy could go pale, he would've. He stared through a doorway with a look of horror. Elizabeth's discomfort came flooding through me just as swiftly as his reaction.

  I followed his gaze and immediately found the cause of their reaction. My knees weakened, impertinently unstable. A cold chill spread beneath my skin. My mouth watered with the overwhelming urge to vomit.

  Bundled in the middle of the room, charred and melted into a heap of metal and plastic, was a large animatronic. Beside it were the heat-suffered, broken remains of a human skeleton. A full-body flinch rocketed through me when my eyes landed on the skull, cracked and grinning in the darkness.

  "Do you have any regrets?" Lizzie's voice asked.

  "One," came Michael's reply. And the fire consumed them whole.

  My feet stumbled backward as if I'd been violently slung from the scene. Terror and nausea twisted through my body so violently, so cruelly and quickly, that my legs gave out from beneath me. The meagre contents of my stomach emptied onto the floor. My vision went black. Seeing his remains was somehow just as bad as watching Elizabeth's memories.

  'I'm sorry,' Elizabeth said in alarm. 'I have forgotten how people react to death. It is such a part of me."

  "Y/n!" Gregory hunched beside me and watched helplessly as my arms struggled to hold my weight. I hacked and coughed against my upchuck, cringing from the sour taste of it on my tongue. "Are you okay?"

  My nod was a little frantic, and not at all convincing. The image of Michael's skull had been burned into the backs of my eyelids, cursed to never forget it, and I sobbed against the barbarity of my own brain. Gregory only frowned deeper.

  My body felt leagues weaker than it had before, the shock taking a toll most vicious. It was only Michael's hands that brought me back to my feet and steadied my weaving balance. I leaned against him and gasped for air.  

  While I was hating him, cursing his name and viewing his memory as vile, Michael had been here and had wished only the best for me. He'd been here and tried to die, full of regret and remorse and cursed to never let go.

  His skull - the face which I had used to kiss, to hold my forehead to, to adore and cherish - smiled at me from the room, as if mocking me for who I was when he was gone. I couldn't stop staring at him as Freddy held me close while I cried and cried. It was as if everything came crashing down around me, as if I'd been skipping through a state of delirium, some kind of fucked up dream. But the truth reared its ugly head and I was forced to confront it - Michael was dead, had been dead for almost a decade, and no matter how hard I tried to forget it, nothing would ever, ever be the same.

  All of the stress of the evening and Gregory-Evan and Elizabeth and battling death with every corner turned fell down upon me, and I was overcome with a state of hysteric exhaustion so debilitating that it threw me. This place - these circumstances - they were all driving me to the brink of insanity. I was so wrung out and tired and broken that all I could do was cry.

  I had tried with all my might to be strong. It still wasn't enough. It would never be enough.

  Freddy's hand curled around the back of my head. He murmured reassurances, but it sounded like he was trying to talk through water by how muddled my hearing had gone. And who was I to cry like this when it was these three siblings that had it far, far worse? I didn't have to deal with a psychopath of a dad. I didn't have a horrible death that traumatised my spirit into remaining on this plane.

  But I was so in love with Michael, and the skeleton before me was the man I grew up with adoring. So I cried.

  I vaguely felt a pressure on my side, and then Gregory was hugging me tightly - a little too tightly, as tightly as I held him when he realised what he was before he realised who he was. It hurt, but the pressure of his bruising grip gave me something to focus on. I looked down at him as he stared up at me and startled at the amount of tears on his gashed-up little face.

  "It's okay to cry." Gregory's wobbly voice cut through the murkiness. "Crying is good, right?"

  Freddy's large hand rubbed my shoulders. Elizabeth had gone quiet with guilt. I felt my own guilt swell in my stomach. They were comforting me. It should've been the other way around.

  "Sorry," I whispered between gasps. Gregory buried his face into my waist and Michael's hand pulled my head closer into his chest. "It scared me."

  "It has been a scary night," Michael said softly. When I closed my eyes they spilt more tears, and I nodded. He slipped his finger into my hand. "Let's continue on. We need not linger."

  Gregory slipped from our hug and forged silently ahead. He may have wanted to comfort me, but he was still avoiding Michael like the plague. The animatronic beside me released a weary exhale and followed.

  He was so tired. Would he ever get a break?

  "I'm sorry," I whispered into Freddy's arm. "I'm so, so sorry."

  He touched my hair with his muzzle. "There is nothing for you to apologise for."

  But it still didn't lessen the brutal regret that ladened my chest.  

  We came to a stop at another sinkhole, this one going even deeper within the derelict bowels of the Pizzaplex. I stared at the gloomy darkness of it with a hesitant frown. Down there, William was building his new body.

  I sent an apprehensive look with Gregory, but he was still staring down at it with a grim frown. He was scared, but he was also resolute. He wanted his revenge. When I glanced at Michael, I found him with a similar look. Elizabeth's emotions felt to be on the same spectrum of hate and fear.

  "It'll be okay," I exhaled. I wasn't sure how much I believed it, but these three needed to hear it.

  Gregory nodded. Michael's jaw tensed.

  And then we didn't move for a moment. We needed to make our way down the sinkhole, but we needed to do it the way we did it before - with Gregory in Freddy's stomach hatch and me in his arms. I peeked at Gregory's stern pout and Michael's withdrawn expression and sighed.

  "We don't really have the time to linger..." I quietly reminded.

  Gregory huffed. He spun to Freddy, approached, and crossed his arms. Michael glanced at me before unlatching his hatch and letting the boy clamber inside. Gregory held his legs and scowled until the hatch shut with a clang.

  "Happy thoughts," I said airily as I was picked up by Freddy. The jagged, broken edge of his forearm dug into my back. I looped my arms around his neck and tucked my head into his chest to stabilise myself. "Puppies and rainbows. Chocolate chip cookies and summer afternoons." I grimaced when Freddy landed on the first stable platform and jostled my body-ful of injuries. "Cu- cupcakes and sprinkles."

  "... chicken nuggets," Gregory softly muttered from within the stomach hatch.

  My smile wobbled. "Chicken nuggets."

  "Cartoons on the television," Elizabeth added. I gasped at the next landing, which sent an ache along my broken ribs. "Pancakes and blueberries."

  "Sudoku in the evenings," I continued. Freddy's soft exhale rustled my tangled hair. "Mechanics in the back shed."

  "The first snowfall of winter," Michael mutely offered. He glanced down at me. "... kissing your best friend."

  "Gross!" Gregory complained. "I wish my ears got ripped off instead."

  "Eww," Elizabeth giggled.

  I smiled up at him with a soft, broken laugh. His blue-hazel gaze softened. By the time we made it to the bottom of the pit, our hearts were a little lighter.

  It was somehow even worse down here than above - with loose beams and partly collapsed roofs, broken cables and loose endo parts. The smell of musty, wet mould stuck to every surface. The floors were slick with condensation residue from the maps of overhead plumbing.

  "William can feel our approach," Elizabeth warned through my mouth. I could faintly feel his frustration in the back of my head, but it was as though it was stuck behind glass film - murky and unreachable. "I suggest we move with caution."

  Michael carefully set me on my feet and steadied me when I weakly staggered. I thanked him beneath my breath and his grip lingered, unwilling to let go just yet.

  "I should go alone," Michael said grimly. "Both you and Gregory are too injured."

  "Don't be crazy," I chided as I caught my breath. "You can't face him alone."

  "You can't at all."

  I scowled up at him. "I'm not leaving you again. We've already talked about this."

  His grungy, red-padded shoulders fell beneath my unwavering conviction. The exposed wires of his arm twitched and sparked. "I know. I just hoped you'd have had a change of heart."

  "Never." I shook my head. "I'm at your side, Mike. Always."

  Gregory slipped from Freddy's hatch and stumbled to his feet. "I'm going, too." He shot his brother a shitty look. "But not for you."

  Michael's smile was full of hurt and shame. "I'd expect no less."

  Gregory looked away with a glower.

  "We need to go," Elizabeth said. "Our time is running out. There is only a few precious seconds where he is totally vulnerable - when he is downloading into his new body."

  "Then let's go beat up grandpa," I muttered, limping forth. Gregory sped to my side and took my hand with a tight, nervous grip. Michael stuck close behind us.

  More and more cables began to thread towards the direction we were headed, pulsating with strange, purple light. They were kind of pretty, if not entirely disturbing. I watched their glowing lines with fascination.

  'It is remnant,' Elizabeth said darkly. 'Do well to keep away from them.'

  They were suddenly not so kind of pretty.

  "Do we have a plan?" Gregory asked. "Or... do we just go in there and beat him up with a crowbar? 'Cause that's the type of plan Y/n would have."

  I rolled my eyes. "That was one time."

  "It was at least twice."

  "I have a plan," Elizabeth spoke up. "We need to disconnect his body from the system during the downloading process. Hopefully, he will be corrupted so thoroughly that his soul disintegrates. Then we can destroy the body." 

  "What about the rest of the animatronics?" Michael asked. "The ones under his control?"

  "... I am uncertain," she said slowly. "Hopefully, his disappearance will release them from his control."

  I guess that's all we could do - hope.

  The cables began to pulse faster with their light of remnant, urging us quicker. Terror beat my heart fast, but I didn't dare think of turning back, now. Not when we were this close. Not when we'd come this far.

  We reached a room full of a complex computer system that seemed to have been frankensteined together from stolen parts. Cables connected it to a recharge chamber, and I could only guess what was stuck inside. Gregory released my hand and explored the room. Michael followed me to the station.

  I passed Michael my crowbar before my hands began to move of their own accord, flying over the keys and switching dials, spurred by Elizabeth's own knowledge of how it had been set up. Michael stared at the chamber like some type of watch dog. I didn't have the focus to discern his expression, but I could wager that it wasn't happy.

  "Almost there," Elizabeth whispered. My focus had never been sharper, and I was sure it was because of our combined determination. My fingers reached for the last key. "Done-"

  "Y/n!"

  Our concentration shattered at Gregory's shrill cry. Michael and I spun towards his voice, and I snatched the crowbar when we saw him with his arms behind his back, restrained by Vanessa. A knife was pressed to his throat.

  She looked a mess. Blood dribbled from a gash on her forehead and her pupils were needlepoints. Bubbles of saliva popped from her gritted teeth, breaths heavy and raspy. Her white rabbit suit was stained and in tatters. She was a wild animal on its last leg of survival.

  "I'd stop while he's still breathing," Vanessa hissed. She dug the knife deeper into the fragile skin of Gregory's neck, making him utter a strangled cry. "Unless you want to find out what happens if I slit his throat?"

  My blood rushed. I stared at Gregory in shock and fear and fury, and he stared right back in terror. His weak hand grappled at Vanessa's arm, but it was as though she was carved from marble. Even his robot strength couldn't overpower her.

  I didn't know if Gregory could die. I didn't want to risk it.

  Freddy raised his hands and took a tentative step forth. "Let him go."

  "Tell your girlfriend to drop the weapon."

  Michael glanced at me from the corner of his eyes. My crowbar obediently fell to the ground with a clatter of iron.

  "No, don't-!" Gregory cried, only to yelp when Vanessa kneed him in the back of the leg. He fell to the ground. A thin line of red bloomed across his neck. "Y/n!"

  My heart jumped at his cry. The room was beginning to shine purple from the amount of remnant slipping through the cables. William was almost entirely in his body. I had to do something.

  Michael charged before I could think of anything, though. He bolted like a bull with such speed that Vanessa didn't have time to do anything drastic. Gregory was shoved aside and Vanessa tackled. The little boy scrambled from the fight with a cry.

  Vanessa didn't let herself be taken aback for long. She took to Freddy's hide with her knife, screeching iron against metal with inhuman ferocity. He struggled to pin her down.

  "Y/n!" Gregory barrelled into my side and buried his sobs into my shirt.

  "You're okay," I shakily reassured. With one hand on the back of his head, I returned my attention to the computers. Where was that last key? My eyes scanned for it frantically. Elizabeth was almost beside herself with fear.

  A loud thud made me jump and turn a look over my shoulder. Freddy had collapsed, body twitching as though he were being electrocuted. His eyes flashed purple. William was finally trying to take him over, and he was too damaged to stop it.

  The look Michael gave me was unmistakable. Run.

  Vanessa's wild gaze turned to me, eyes gleaming with triumph.

  'If Mike loses control, it's all over,' Elizabeth hurriedly said. 'You need to subdue Vanessa quickly. We're on borrowed time as is!'

  I picked up my crowbar and pushed Gregory behind me. I matched her stare as she began to approach, stumbling over the glowing wires. Her knife was slick with oil.

  "Do you see that button on the far left, kiddo?" I asked. "It's the escape key."

  "Yeah... I think so."

  "I need you to push it." I lifted my crowbar into a defensive position. Vanessa began to pick up speed. "Can you do that for me?"

  I didn't have time to wait for a reply. I swung my crowbar just as Vanessa brought down the knife upon me with a yell and caught her arm, sending her stumbling sideways. She was swift to recover and came at my side, weapon tip poised. I swung my crowbar again with a grunt. My arms ached. My ribs flared with heat. Our feet stumbled over the cable-riddled floor.

  Michael was still struggling to keep himself, shivering beneath the internal fight. Gregory dashed to the left side of the computers for the button I meant. A sharp swipe of Vanessa's knife at my shoulder cut through my shirt and drew blood, and I gasped, only to then be punched in the cheek. My flesh snagged on my teeth. I backed out of her range while my new wounds screamed along with the rest.

  "Come on, Y/n," Vanessa seethed. "You can't win. You're weak, you're injured. Give him up and I'll let you walk away from all this."

  My only response was spitting blood. I didn't have the energy to talk. But I knew she didn't, either, not for much longer.

  We were both injured and flagging. No matter what supernatural causes made Vanessa otherworldly determined, she was still only human. She was shaking just as I was.  

  "This isn't even your fight!" Vanessa yelled. "You're not one of us!"

  Like hell I'm not.

  I stalked forward and, with a frustrated growl, she matched. But then her legs gave out just as I swung my crowbar up and smashed it into the bottom of her jaw. I startled in shock and watched her fall backwards into a heap.

  I stared for a brief moment, taken aback and holding my breath. Then, I edged forth and nudged her shoe with the end of my crowbar. No response. She was out cold.

  I turned to Gregory, who'd just pressed the escape button. The cables' purple light began to dim and fade away. Did we do it in time? Were we too late? Was it over?

  When nothing happened, I released a sigh of relief. If William was gone, then that would mean that Michael's fine, too. Dizzy with adrenaline, I turned to him with a big smile, only for it to drop when I saw him still struggling on all fours.

  'No.'

  "Mike?" I called. I began toward him warily, hand outstretched. "Mikey, you okay? It's done. It's over."

  'It's not over,' Elizabeth whimpered.

  My eyes widened. I turned to the charging chamber just as the door swung open with a slow, low creak.

  Out of the darkness lumbered a nightmarish creature made of half-flesh, half-machine. It raised its golden rabbit head and opened glassy, twitchy purple optics. The tips of its crooked, pierced ears brushed the ceiling. Familiar piercings. Bonnie's piercings.

  My stomach dropped to the floor. William had rebuilt himself out of Bonnie's parts. William was out.

  William's eyes drifted from Michael to where Gregory and I cowered. The boy flinched behind me. My clammy hands tightened over the crowbar. The stench of death made my stomach churn.

  'We're too late,' Elizabeth whispered.