With a helpful tug from their friends up above, Ulti was able to scramble up to the window that had been forced open as a makeshift entrance and join them inside the complex. Vinyl delicately closed the window behind them, attempting to cover their tracks before making the careful descent down the scaffolding to the floor below. She was the most experienced when it came to urban exploration, and knew better than to let excitement rush herself or her friends into danger, no matter how badly she wanted to see the old Pizzaplex.

It was the stuff of legend; a home to greatly advanced animatronics back in its day, a treasure trove of collector’s items for those who knew the Freddy Fazbear franchise, and most of all a stark reminder of how quickly a corporation can fall if you don’t obey basic safety codes. The pizza and the rides were always a bit suspect, but the final and by far largest nail in the coffin was when the AI of the animatronics was updated to include ‘emotional persuasion software™’; essentially granting them the ability to influence the guests and make their visits more enjoyable. Turns out infringing on free will doesn’t go down well legally.

And now it meant there was a relic of a theme park left behind in the city; a complex far too large to be repurposed by any other corporation, and left abandoned with all sorts of junk, tech and heirlooms the company simply couldn’t be bothered to clean up after they went bankrupt. A financial disaster, but an incredible opportunity to freely explore what was one of the biggest phenomena of its time; one Vinyl just couldn’t pass up.

Accompanying her was her wolf partner, Matty who proceeded with a very unwolf-like caution, Eli, a corvid with a plume of pinkish hair as remarkable as his inquisitiveness, Ezra, a dainty, purple-furred bunny who sported enthusiasm like an accessory, and Ulti, an azure lizard with wits only matched by her trepidation for this venture. They knew each other to be fans of the Fazbear franchise to different lengths, but their levels of confidence when it came to exploring abandoned facilities differed far more wildly; something that became apparent now that they were inside the belly of the beast itself.

As they all regrouped at ground level of the entrance and stood in the decaying foyer of the Pizzaplex, they were greeted by the grim echoes of colour and extravagance that would have decorated this hall in its hay day. Unpowered neon banners of their favourite characters arched overhead, the darkened faces of Freddy, Chica, Monty and Roxy continuing to smile in ignorance of their fate like an obituary to the company that created them.

Dirt and damp had begun to show in places on the walls as if it too were trying to escape the once welcoming parlour of glitz and glamour; though now all it offered was a warning, almost a threat, to turn back. There was little indication of direction in this bewildering dark beyond the motionless escalators ahead, and a large metal doorway to the left labelled ‘service stairs’, likely for maintenance due to all the warning signs on it.

“Oh… I don’t like this,” Matts voiced with a chuckle, his apprehension already bleeding through.

“It’s a little spooky, yeah… but also cool as hell!” Ezra beamed, looking up towards Roxy’s unlit visage with persevering awe.

“This place looks like it could fall apart with one wrong step though…”

“It’s not gonna fall apart, Matty,” Vinyl reassured him. “You just gotta be careful not to run into any of the serial killers that live here now.”

The blue wolf gave his girlfriend a blank stare, trying to laugh though his reaction ultimately hinged on whether or not she was serious.

“Oh my gosh I was joking! I didn’t actually mean to scare you,”

She went to hug him but Matty pulled away, playing it off with a forced laugh. “Nah, I knew that. I was just… playing along.”

A slightly awkward silence fell across the group just as cold wind swept through the grand hallways and buffeted them as one entity. The wind echoed off of the Pizzaplex walls with a quiet, low moan like the complex itself was in pain; and whether they were anxious with fear or excitement, it encouraged each member of the group to press on beyond the entrance of the facility and pursue the goals they came here with. Each of them took out a flashlight of some variety, whether it be the torch on their phones or a piece of camping gear, content against the darkness as they combatted it together.

Vinyl took the lead, walking her friends towards the stationary escalators. “So, where do we want to go first? Personally I really want to study the ball tracking tech they had at Monty Golf.”

“I wanna go see Roxy’s room!” Ezra exclaimed from the rear of the pack.

“Seeing some of the old arcade games they had patented would be cool,” Ulti mused.

“I want to see where they performed,” Eli said. “Apparently their stage shows were mesmerising!”

“I… might just hang out at the entrance, maybe find a way to get the lights on?”

Everyone turned back towards Matty with part concern and disappointment.

“You sure?” Ulti asked. “I thought you wanted to see the racetrack.”

“I did but.. I just hate this while it's so dark, I’m sorry,” he laughed a defeated laugh.

“How are you even going to get the lights on, anyway?”

“This place stayed open with backup generators even during that city blackout, remember?

Those things are meant to last. If I can get the lights turned on I’ll come meet up with you guys, no biggie.”

“You know how to work a generator?” Eli asked flatly.

“Yeah. We’ve got one at The Lure for the stage equipment. Don’t worry, I won’t go poking anything unless I’m sure.”

The wolf’s smile and sound logic gave the others pause. They didn’t want to leave their friend behind necessarily, but if it was what would make him the most comfortable then they were hard pressed to argue. Besides, none of them could deny the fact they’d be happier with a bit of light in this place; the Pizzaplex was so large that their combined lights didn’t even reach the back wall of the foyer.

“Alright, love just… call us if you get lost or need us.”

“Will do. But worry about yourselves, I’ll only be a short hop from the exit.”

The couple shared a quick hug before Matty separated from the group, watching his friends be swallowed up by the cold darkness of the facility. He watched and waited until they were out of sight, and then waited a little longer until he couldn’t hear their footsteps anymore, until only the cold breeze of the wind was left to cut through the silence surrounding him. It was still terrifying, and the wolf was half tempted to scrap his plan and wait outside until his friends were done; but Ulti was right, he did really want to see the racetrack, so set off towards the service stairs, hopeful he could find a working generator.

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The remaining four of the group spent the next few minutes of their journey in a curious quiet as they searched for and ascended the service stairs in lieu of the unpowered elevator. Walking around blind both physically and geographically was far from ideal, and the creaking groans from the floor’s steel beams being awoken from retirement only furthered the pace of their hunt. But eventually they found their concrete oasis. While a grey stone staircase was not what any of them had hoped to see when they agreed to explore the abandoned facility it was still a welcome reprieve of predictability as it spiralled upwards; but after a few flights of climbing they arrived at a doorway labelled ‘Atrium Level’.

“This one,” said Ulti, checking the notes she’d made on her phone before pushing the door open, her arrival announce by a painful creak of metal.

No one was prepared to doubt her knowledge of the Pizzaplex, and certainly not after they stepped onto the balcony of the cavernous atrium with a firsthand view of its grandeur. It was a cathedral of colour and mascot branding reduced to a cold echo of its former glory; the ghosts of its glamorous facade now fully showing as the scope of its visage was reduced to whatever meagre light the group’s flashlights could muster. They scanned their immediate surroundings of forgotten billboards and abandoned merchandise carts, but the beams of light were quickly eviscerated by the darkness beyond.

It was impossible for them to make out the scope of the entire atrium with their flashlights alone, the hall might as well have been the mouth of a looming beast ready to swallow them up; they had no perception of how far it was to the back wall. Fortunately not too far from their position, an old map of the complex’s layout sat before them, inviting inspection and curiosity. Vinyl was the first to approach the map, quickly followed by Ulti as the pair began to scan over the map and drink in the many colourful landmarks dotted around the hall.

It was a twisting optical illusion of walkways and event halls; the map itself almost looked more like a blueprint of itself rather than something designed to be read by people on their first visit to the Pizzaplex. Thankfully the bright and impact fonted names of the different areas at least granted some sense of physical direction respective to the bright red ‘You Are Here’ arrow.

Ezra stayed a step back from the map, content to let the others figure out a plan while she took a closer look at their surroundings. Her flashlight swept across the balcony floor with patient awe before settling on a strangely humanoid looking figure that was completely motionless in the dark. At first she worried it was another trespasser, but quickly noticed their wheeled lower-torso and darkened LED screen for a face.

It was nothing more than one of the S.T.A.F.F. bots, the old androids used around the complex for everything from menial labour to security and even more beyond that. This one in particular was one of the newer models and a large part of the reason the Pizzaplex was condemned to close. The display screen it wore for a face would press up close to the guests and dazzle them with bright colours and stimulating visuals, feeding the parts of the brain that responded to such rewarding sensations and artificially boosting their moods.

Of course many visitors weren’t happy about having their minds manipulated, especially once the company began sneaking subliminal advertisements into the visuals. The subconscious conditioning was the straw that broke the camel's back in the end after guests began entering into a state of giddy psychosis that was near impossible to break them out of; a few of them willingly feeding those endorphins one too many times.

Ezra was about to turn away from the android’s cold, unpowered corpse before noticing its stance. Leaning forwards and reaching out as if offering a hug…. No, not a hug. Its fingers were curled and grasping at the air; the bot was attempting to grab at something, or someone before its power failed. The bunny entered a spiralling trance wondering if the unlucky individual managed to get away unharmed, or if the machine’s frozen pose indicated that the victim was just plain helpless in its grasp.

“Looks like Gator Golf and Fazbear Theatre aren’t located too far from here,” Vinyl mused aloud, snapping Ezra from her trance. “If we head that way we could kill two birds with one stone.”

“But… the Fazcade is in the other direction,” said Ulti.

“Yeah this place is huge,” Eli chimed in. “Are we sure we’re gonna have enough time to do everything?”

The group collectively shared a glance of concern and trepidation, each of them coming to the same conclusion but not entirely willing to speak it into being. They all knew the tropes of horror movies, they all knew it was the last thing they should do. But… they weren’t in a horror movie, they had the security of reality to fall back on in face of monsters or murderers… right?

“Why don’t we split up?” Eli finally suggested. “I go with Vinyl to Gator Golf and the Theatre, and you guys can hit the arcade and circle round to Roxy’s room.”

The silence was an uncertain but agreeable one; it was the best way to satisfy everyone at once.

“I’m okay with that,” the wolf nodded. “Just take a picture of the map and send a message if you get lost.”

“And when we’re done we should meet back at the atrium,” said the lizard. “It’s a good central area.”

“Agreed.”

A rhythm of camera shutters sounded as each of them snapped a memento of the Pizzaplex’s map, their directions far less certain than their destinations but still more than enough to send them on their separate ways. Vinyl and Eli descended down a stationary escalator into the void below as Ezra led Ulti westwards, keeping a wide berth of the deactivated androids. There was a sombre lack of fanfare or energy to accompany their exploration of such a whimsically designed environment.

It wasn’t long before each pair found themselves swarmed by the cold darkness of the atrium as the sound of the footsteps heading in the other direction grew too distant to hear. There was a small comfort in their progress as they were able to shine more light on the further walls of the grand hall they were in, helping to build on the mental map of the area; but so much mystery remained. They were also grateful for the ability to see the beams of their friend’s flashlights on the other side of the hall, a comforting reminder that they weren’t alone; but that feeling was soon snuffed out as they each departed the atrium and entered into their own strange, new places of the Pizzaplex.

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Matty scoured the halls of the maintenance level extremely deliberately, checking and double checking every corner for potential threats and hazards; thankfully he only found more and more evidence that he was alone in this expansive, basement labyrinth. He had a decent sense of direction so wasn’t overly worried about finding his way back; but the problem was figuring out where to go in order to find generators he may or may not be able to get up and running again. Every so often a foreign noise would cause him to stop in his tracks, be it a drop of water from the old pipes or the shuffle of some rodent scampering in retreat to its nest.

The walls of the Pizzaplex’s concrete underbelly hugged the wolf like a prison cell, mired in darkness that was barely staved off by his phone’s flashlight; never in his life had the canine felt more like prey in the wilderness. If he left even a corner of his vision blind for too long he would begin to see things, shapes and silhouettes in the shadows as if the abyss itself were trying to communicate. But in spite of it all he found a grim sanctuary in the repetitive dullness of the maintenance corridors; their singular and frugal design made for far fewer unknowns to surprise Matty, and far fewer tripping hazards in the form of decorations left strewn about post-closure.

But then the wolf caught sight of something promising, a radiant halo of reflected light as his torch illuminated a sign with a large lightning bolt warning symbol. The rest of the sign read ‘Generator Room’, and was juxtaposed beside a metal fence standing from floor to ceiling in height. The canine was about to embrace rejection before noticing the gate to the room hanging off its hinges; not vandalised through sheer force, but meticulously tampered with to grant easy access. The mystery was almost as inviting as the convenience, but Matty was only interested in the latter as he cautiously stepped inside the generators’ home.

It was like entering an animal’s cage as the wolf waited for danger to jump him. He listened for the faint hum of machinery, but was only met with silence. He lingered at a distance, feeling for the static electricity tugging at his fur, but found the air to be dormant. All seemed safe for the wolf to approach the houses of energy that inhabited this cage, five in total, however one of them was much smaller and lacked the modern computer interface of its siblings; it was certainly the backup generator, likely only for emergency lights and systems. What’s more is that the generator seemed to be hooked up to a relatively large propane tank, furthering its purpose in Matty’s mind; thankfully as a bartender he wasn’t exactly a stranger to changing tanks of gas.

It took him some time and a small amount of boldness, plus the minutes he spent attempting to prop his phone’s flashlight up in a position that would illuminate his workspace as well as protect him from serial killer ambushes, but he was quickly able to make sense of the rudimentary generator and begin to get the gas flowing where it needed to. As the energy began to circulate uselessly through the generator, Matty’s ears pricked up at a new, foreign sound lingering in the background. It was quiet and sourceless, lingering like tinnitus though far less irritating; this was white noise and nothing more, as quiet as a song being played from unequipped headphones.

At first he worried that electricity had begun to fill the air, but his fur wasn’t standing on end and the generator’s readings were normal, no leaks.

With the assured signs of safety he pressed on until all of the correct lights on the machine awoke with rapid and bewildered blinks as power flowed through their systems. Success. All Matty had to do now was pull the switch to connect it to the Pizzaplex’s grid, which he did with a tender feeling of pride that masked the remaining apprehension that had overcome him. There was a whir, then a heavy hum before a system of dim emergency lights began to illuminate the corridor outside.

It wasn’t exactly bright, but it was enough light to be able to see where he was going; imperfect but it’d have to be enough, and certainly gave the wolf the confidence to regroup with his friends for some further exploration. The white noise of static in the background lingered however and had grown stronger at the presence of the newfound energy flowing through the complex. Matty looked around to try and find some sort of speaker or announcement system that could be bleeding the sound into the room, but there simply wasn’t one.

The wolf swiftly departed from the generator room but the noise of static followed him like a small swarm of insects, hounding his very steps with a growing volume and making it difficult to think straight. His every thought was becoming obscured like trying to read a book through frosted glass, abating the sense of danger but filled him with a worry that his mind was slipping from common sense. The canine followed through on his plan, tapping on his phone to see if there was enough of a signal to contact his friends from within the basement.

But something was wrong, his phone screen was distorted into a blizzard of black and white static as if mirroring the sound now echoing off the walls of this subterranean maze. Matty figured the signal would be weak, but he could never have expected his phone to glitch out so severely. The closer he listened and the longer he looked, the more he could swear there was a voice, a message, something trying to communicate with him through the haze of white noise intercepting his actions.

The dull sense of weight blanketing his mind was intoxicating and making it all too easy to get lost on a simple train of thought in studying the fascinating static faraday cage he appeared to be trapped in. With a mental jerk the wolf pulled himself from the light trance he was in and began to move towards where he knew the exit to be, all until he heard the sound of footsteps moving… shuffling… skipping towards him from that very direction. The canine froze, unable to make out much in the dim lighting beyond a pair of bunny ears.

“Ezra…” Matty asked cautiously. “I-is that you?”

There was no immediate response, the figure just continued to nonchalantly skip towards Matty with a ghostly lightness as if travelling on imported air. The wolf watched until he could make out a fur pattern on this feminine stranger; dark, patchwork grey and bright red glowing eyes that blinded him with a tsunami of static the moment he looked into them. Matty didn’t hesitate to turn tail and run in the other direction, not waiting for an answer to his question. But only then did he get his response.

“Are you having fun yet?”

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Ulti and Ezra wandered through the arcade, marvelling at the scale of its multi-floored cabinet collection. Some of the games were duplicates, but not enough to detract from the sheer volume and variety of titles that would eclipse any hope of being able to play them all. The decor had a kind of 80s nostalgia just as the rest of the Pizzaplex did, while also saving a place for the powerless hologram stands and LED screens that would have no doubt been used for advertising material. There was nothing to do but drink in the scenery of a darkened funhouse left to rust, an even more cruel fate when the value of the surviving tech that had been abandoned here was taken into account.

Ezra’s exploration continued to take a wide detour around the dormant STAFF bots littering the floor as Ulti toured the arcade cabinets in wonder as if she was visiting a museum to long lost art; her mind anywhere but the deactivated androids that silently watched. In fact her mind was barely still attached to the idea of safety and security as she continued to wander further from her bunny companion and deeper into the depths of nostalgic curiosity.

“What’s even the point of us being here?” Ezra called from the next room over. “It’s not like we can even play the games.”

“These games are relics now that the company has shut down; they’ll never be made again,” Ulti replied. “Don’t you think that’s cool?”

“I guess? Is there a particular one you’re looking for? I’m kinda getting the creeps from all these robots.”

“Fine… just let me get some pictures and we can-”

A hum and a series of clicks echoed through the hall of games as emergency lighting filled the arcade, energy once again returned to this darkened hall of festivity if only by a small measure of its former glory. The true scope of the cavernous space was revealed, a third floor that the duo hadn’t even caught sight of before now revealed to their gratitude-filled faces as they drank in the gift of vision once more.

Across the otherside of the arcade, a bright sign filled with the smiling faces of the Fazbear cast was illuminated, arching over a glitz-covered doorway as each of them beckoned towards it.

The sign read ‘Meet your favourite Superstars, this way!’ But for the collection of colourful cast members that made up the billboard, only one of them may as well have existed in Ezra’s eyes.

The green shock of hair and fiercely charismatic grin of Roxanne Wolf targeted the rabbit like a spotlight, the familiar visage of a best friend inviting her over personally towards another section of the facility.

As power began to circulate through the room, certain machines hummed back to life with the distinct light of electric life. Advertisement banners shared their colourful illumination across the nostalgic arcade carpet, vending machines began to recalculate their prices as they booted up, and even some of the arcade machines were fed a modicum of power, just enough to play a demo of the games they hosted. But alongside the technological revival came a static breath of life from the abandoned STAFF bots, their wheels whirring as they found traction in the carpet once again, and their faces of discoloured LED screens flicking on.

Ezra hopped towards the keytar wielding canine with glee in ignorance of the mounting danger, preoccupied with the idea that at the very least a picture with the cardboard facade of Roxanne would make an exciting souvenir. The homage of Roxanne was true to life, tall and with eyes that gleamed an intense sense of purpose even through their cardboard facsimile; all the more reason that Ezra couldn’t take her eyes off them for even as second as she fished her phone from her pocket. Only once she turned on the camera did she it in the front facing camera, racing up over her shoulder was the struggling husk of a STAFF bot, arms outstretched in a zombie-like grasp for her.

Ezra let out a shriek loud enough to echo in the enormous arcade chamber, pulling the attention of the rest of the androids. She ducked and stumbled out of the way as the overly helpful robot went crashing headfirst into the billboard of animatronic characters, missing her by mere centimetres. Ulti was finally roused from her fascinated trance on the re-energized arcade cabinets, spinning around at her friend’s scream to see two of the employee bots closing in on her, the screens on their faces flashing all manner of disorienting colours.

“Ulti!” Ezra cried out. “We need to go!”

But Ulti was paralysed with indecision as her exits were quickly being closed off by the advancing androids; by the time she thought about making a break for it either which way, she felt a pair of cold, metal hands grab her by the shoulder and pull her around to face a bright screen of lights. In the short moment it took the lizard to get her bearings she was immediately assaulted by the intense LEDs colouring her face as a sharp shade of neon orange began to break into a simulacrum of colours.

The android spoke with a strained and crackling voice box. “Here… just watch….”

It’s voice was eerily calm in comparison to its barrage of flashing colours; likely all the robot could offer as it simply followed its programming. But it didn’t slow the hypnotic spectacle one bit as Ulti was immediately disoriented and stunned by the rainbow of colours cycling across her vision too quickly to make sense of. The sensation was more akin to a stimulating overload than a calming, hypnotic presence, but it worked just as effectively at holding the lizard in place; every time she attempted to muster some resistance the mesmerising screen of colours just inched closer with overbearing care.

Ezra grew tired of waiting and sprinted around the corner to find her friend trapped in the clutches of a hypnotic assault; incapacitated by metal assailants. She wanted to jump in and break Ulti free, but she was outnumbered and her odds were only getting worse as more of the STAFF bots closed in on their position with a single-minded purpose of subduing the intruders.

“Ulti!!” she cried once again. “Can you get free?”

But there was no response. In truth Ulti couldn’t focus on anything beyond the mental blockade of flashing colours that continued to batter her senses; she was mute to the world around her and in some small, strange way she found comfort in the lack of fear of her surroundings. Her brain only continued to reward her devoted attention with more endorphins as she let her thoughts become frozen in fascination, anything was better than facing the world of terrifying darkness and possessed robots, even if it meant giving this one her full attention.

Unfortunately for Ezra she was still plagued by her awareness of the very real danger she was in as a number of androids began to move in on her, closing her off from Ulti. She had no choice, she could either escape now or end up in a similar situation to the lizard.

“Ulti! If you can hear me, I'm going to get help!” she called before sprinting towards the exit. “Just stay safe!”

She cursed herself for her words and inaction as she ran, knowing her friend was entirely subject to the whims and programming of the broken robots behind her; a thought that carried on taunting the rabbit as she reluctantly ran toward the welcoming invitation of the Fazbear cast, and onwards to Rockstar Row.

Back in the clutches of the STAFF bots Utli remained ignorant to her friend’s departure, not thinking much of anything beyond the growing heaviness in her body as she relaxed into the surprisingly gentle grasp of the android holding her. Perhaps it had loosened its grip as her resistance faded, but the thought was beyond the lizard as she let an empty, vapid smile curl up her lips. It was incredible to feel such a sense of child-like wonder crash through her mind as she stared into the enthralling glitch-storm of colours continuing to barrage her mind, nothing had occupied her thoughts quite so easily, quite so blissfully in… she couldn’t remember.

Any thought that crossed her mind for even a second was quickly cut off by another cycle of LED projected colours; the margin of hues slowly narrowing overtime as the android learned how best to get its desired reaction from the lizard. Its sole purpose being to keep her entertained, keep her amused, keep her happy. There was a part of its programming that told the machine to release Ulti eventually, but in its low power, post-hibernation state that line of code simply wasn’t firing. It had to keep its guest distracted, even as a heavy set of metallic footfalls approached with piqued curiosity.

The grapple on Ulti persisted with naught but the dazzling rotation of colours exchanged between the two; as far as the lizard was concerned she might as well have been there for an eternity, staring into the endless spectrum of colours. But it was finally broken up as a set of white, metallic hands from a much taller machine reached out to pull the lizard free from her trance as it called it out from a squawkingly dulcet voice box.

“Don’t crowd the poor girl! I think she’s lost.”

Ulti was turned sharply to face her rescuer, an animatronic white bird sporting a glamorous pink outfit and a dainty bow of the same colour atop her head. Chica now held the lizard by the shoulders, as if some sort of authority figure, her head twitching with curiosity just like a chicken’s. Ulti was still swimming in a daze, her thoughts fighting against a current of stimulation to catch up with what was going on, though all she could do in the meanwhile was stare back at Chica silently, as if waiting for something to happen.

“Hi there, Superstar!” Chica said with an infectious energy. “Do you know where your parents are?”

“P-parents? No… my uh parents aren’t-”

“Oh no! You’ve lost them? Well we can’t have that.”

The conversation was entirely one sided. Ulti couldn’t process her responses fast enough to appease whatever programming was chasing this line of questioning, nor had she the willpower at current to speak up against the animatronic fowl. Chica on the other hand was beginning to understand her role; while not nearly holding enough battery charge to comprehend that the pizzaplex was currently empty, she did have enough charge to engage something called the Guardian Protocol, a failsafe that let the animatronics take care of lost kids; or in this case, a dazed lizard.

“Don’t you worry, superstar. I’ll take good care of you in the meanwhile.”

“Ugh.. no I should, really get back to my friends..” Ulti began to scan the immediate area of Ezra, growing concerned that she couldn’t see the bunny rabbit anywhere.

“Uhoh, I can sense you’re getting distressed. How about a joke?”

The lizard moved to resist but before she could stop it from happening, Chica’s eyes fixed on her with a paralysing intensity that only an animatronic would be capable of, before beginning her joke.

“Why did the chicken cross the road?”

There was a courteous pause, but one that didn’t wait for a reply.

“To buy a slice of Freddy Fazbear Pizza!”

The punchline, if it could be called that, was punctuated with a warbling laugh that landed somewhere between feral clucking and a bimbo-esque titter. While the joke itself barely landed it was Chica’s laughter that brought a smile to the lizard’s face. It was giddy, cheerful, infectious, and free-spirited; all qualities that sounded highly attractive to Ulti’s spinning and disoriented brain. With her thoughts still unfocused from the hypnotic overload of colours she’d just been drowning in, she couldn’t help but let another smile, this time of delight, curl up her face as she joined in the contagious laughter with a soft giggle.

“See? Doesn’t that feel better?”

“Yeah… it does, Ulti said with a vacant laugh.

“How about another one? Where do chickens like to enjoy their Faz-brand snacks? On Peck-nics!”

Another bout of semi-forced laughter erupted from Chica as she reacted to her own joke, head flying backwards in delight as she clucked and chortled towards the ceiling. Again the laughter echoed in Ulti’s head as if it were a barren cave, each titter of glee crossing the wires of fear and giddiness in her mind and leaving her only to default to the most obvious reaction she could process; the one right in front of her.

Ulti gave another, more enthused giggle herself this time, even building into a full-blown belly laugh as she found the act to be somewhat addictive. Her delight was childlike in a way, and for a moment the lizard felt as though she were little more than another guest at the Pizzaplex, forgetting her cares and simply being entertained by her favourite mascot. The gravity of Chica’s personality was infectiously heavy, Ulti couldn’t pull her wide-eyed attention away as she became mesmerised by the air-headed chicken’s energy; so much so that it was imprinting on her a little bit.

The more she laughed the less she thought, the less she could think. It was so difficult to get her train of thought back on track and honestly even more difficult to even want to at all. There was a bliss to being like Chica, free of thought and happy; perhaps a little dim-witted but it was always said that ignorance is bliss. Even recognising the slightly lacklustre jokes for what they were while still being unable to stop herself chuckling at them gave the lizard a caress of happiness. It was easier to be a bit of a bimbo, and accepting that fact made it all the easier to let her mind slip.

“Those are… actually pretty funny,” Utli said between bouts of laughter.

“Thanks! Guess I’m a real comedi-hen, huh?”

This time Ulti succumbed to laughter unprompted, each excuse to smile and giggle her mind away becoming a more automatic response than last time. It was as if Chica’s voice itself was a dose of laughing gas, her every word instilled a giddy high within Ulti that was too intoxicating to fight off anymore. If anything she welcomed the deepening dim-wittedness that came with acting like Chica. She was content in the chicken’s presence, not able to think of anything beyond her immediate desire for more endorphins.

“You’re a little, cutie!” Chica exclaimed. “What’s your name?”

“Ulti.”

“Nice to meet you, Ulti. I’m Chica!”

“I know…” the lizard tittered.

“Of course you do, sweetie. Well Ulti, would you like to officially become BFFs?!”

Ulti shot up to her tiptoes in excitement, still a fairly dwarfed in height by the towering animatronic, but nodded her head eagerly in agreement.

“Yes please! I’d love that!”

“Well Ulti, is there aaaaanything else that your BFF can do to make you more comfortable?”

Chica’s gaze was kind but intent, looking into Ulti’s very soul as if she were trying to read her desires from a book. There was no fear, no judgement anymore; Ulti could only trust that Chica wanted her to be as happy as possible; it was the reason the the lizard still couldn’t full shake the odd chuckle from her every breath as the air-headed dizziness continued to swirl. She felt good, she felt carefree, she felt… flustered as the gorgeous chicken loomed over her.

“Your boobs?”

A silence sliced the air between them as Chica processed the response. Utli registered what she’d said shortly after; there was no way that that was an appropriate ask of a children’s mascot, even one with such an advanced AI. She was certainly going to be punished for such a bold request. But then the chicken’s eyes lit up with a mix of recognition and understanding.

“Oh! You’re one of those kinds of fans, Ulti,” Chica giggled.

“I.. uhh sorry I just meant-”

“No no! I’d be happy to let you. In fact, I’d love to give you the full package.”

She dropped to a knee and took Ulti’s hands, pulling them up to her chest for a shameless feel of the chicken’s breasts. Ulti was in shock, both due to Chica’s bold response to her request, but also at how soft the animatronic’s chest was. They felt firm like a moulded silicone, perhaps designed for comfort when giving out hugs to their fans, but all that Ulti could register was that she had her hands on Chica’s tits, and the chicken was more than happy to let the lizard take her time.

“I take it you’re a fan of chicken breasts then?”

Ulti laughed uncontrollably again, the anxiety melting away like ice on hot tarmac, too quick for her to even register the mental whiplash from apprehension to giddiness once more. It was like the snap of a rubber band that left her mind recoiling; a vacuum of thoughts supplanted by the joy of her air-headed indulgences returning.

“...Only problem is, it’s against my programming to let this kind of thing happen. Though for some reason it doesn’t feel heavily enforced at the moment.”

The animatronic looked around the arcade curiously with a vacant, low-powered stare before continuing.

“I could let you keep going if we went somewhere more private, Ulti. What’d you say?”

The lizard could barely process a thought, her air-headed mind already struggling to connect one thought to another was now practically incapacitated by the feeling of Chica’s soft, heavy chest in her palms. She gave them an experimental squeeze before responding, letting a shiver of pleasure run down her spine.

“Y-yeah… that would be… perfect.”

“Great! I’d also have to keep you since… you know, it’s not technically allowed. Couldn’t let the security guards find out what I’d let you do with me!”

“Yeah that… sounds good…”

Ulti wasn’t listening. Her head was nodding along to anything the hypnotic chicken said with a vapid smile, too overcome with the delight of having her foremost desires met. There wasn’t a thought that managed to make it through the fog of endorphins and arousal clouding her judgement, not even as Chica stood and took Ulti’s hand once more to lead her deeper into the facility.

“You’re the BEST Ulti! I’ve always wanted a friend who wouldn’t leave by the end of the night.” Chica clucked with excitement, parting the sea of STAFF bots who were now content to leave their intruder in the hands of the hypnotic animatronic.

“You’ll stay and play with me forever, won’t you?”

“Anything you want.. Chica.”

The lizard was led down a dark back corridor, away from the lights and glamour of the arcade that once entranced her so easily. There wasn’t an ounce of fear in Ulti’s mind though as she was with her best friend in the whole world, the most attractive creature she’d ever seen; a being so entrancing that her mind couldn’t stop swimming with fantasies and desires about everything she wanted to do to Chica, and vice versa. The very last thought of her friend’s that made its way through Ulti’s head was, ‘I hope the rest of them are having this much fun.”

----------------------------------------------

Ezra continued to run until there was more adrenaline in her lungs than air, every so often she heard another sound that reminded her of the STAFF bot’s creaking movements, giving her cause to carry on for another few hundred yards or so. Once she was sure that she wasn’t being followed she paused, coming to sit on a cushioned bench in some large hall on what felt like the other side of the Pizzplex. She’d run for so long, and Ulti was far behind her at this point suffering who knew what fate at the hands of those soulless androids.

She felt awful, but knew there was nothing she could do but find help as she promised; and it was exactly what the bunny intended to do. Ezra fumbled for her phone in her pocket, blinking the blur of fatigue from her vision before she began looking for her contacts list. But it was then that she got a better look at the room she was in, far more grandiose than anywhere else she’d seen in the facility since arriving; it was less like a place of entertainment and more akin to a celebrity museum.

Statues of the Fazbear cast stood tall throughout the hall, juxtaposed by glass cabinets of memorabilia and framed pictures. What’s more was the tall window-walled dressing rooms that glanced into colourful and overly branded rooms belonging to each of the cast members.

Halfway down the hall Ezra spotted the charismatic statue of her favourite canine, Roxanne Wolf, standing tall and proud like the champion of the raceway that she was. A sense of hope and excitement filled the bunny through all of her dread, and indulging herself perhaps through an instinctive response to the fear alone, she walked over to inspect the room. It was what she came to see after all, perhaps something good could still come out of this visit.

The dressing room was everything Ezra expected and more. Alit in neon green and glamorous purple walls, the decor spelled out every letter of both pro racer and rockstar at once. Spare parts and engine tools lined the walls in one corner of the room while the other corner hosted a salon chair ideal for perfecting Roxy’s eternally flawless makeup. Trophies littered the dressing table and various posters, pinups and plushes of the wolf’s likeness decorated the room in a way that made Ezra positively giddy with excitement. At the back of the room was another door, closed and impossible to tell where it led; likely some backstage area, far less exciting than what was presented to the bunny. It would take no time at all to slip in, snap a picture or two and leave with a personal souvenir of Roxy herself.

But she’d be responsible about it; selecting Vinyl’s name in her phone contacts as she hopped the velvet rope leading towards the dressing room, pressing the call button as she doorway slid open for her, listening to the ring of the dial tone as she squealed with giddy excitement as soon as she entered Roxy’s room. The carpet was lush and the room had a faint scent of motor oil to it; while not inherently pleasant, the association to the racing wolf’s passions only made Ezra’s heart soar all the higher.

The phone continued to ring, giving the bunny time to approach the dressing table and admire every pot of nail polish, can of hairspray and tube of lipstick that decorated the surface as a monument to the wolf’s vanity. And perched right in the centre of the table as if merely to look at herself, was a cutely proportioned plush doll of Roxy, eyeing Ezra with a calm friendliness that invited her in for a touch, perhaps more.

The dial tone persisted without an answer as the bunny reached out to pick up the plush-furred wolf, giving her a squeeze and finding comfort in the adorable mascot. But that calm was abruptly shattered by the sound of approaching metal footsteps from the back of the dressing room. Someone or something was approaching from backstage, and fast too. Ezra looked around for a place to hide or alternatively thought of just booking it again; though her lungs were still burning from her previous escape and made her hesitant to engage in another pursuit.

The time ticking by was punctuated by another loop of the phone’s dial tone, but the alarm bells sounded as soon as Ezra saw the backstage door fly open, revealing the tall and fierce form of a grey-plated wolf dressed in a candy-red two piece and striped, purple leg warmers. Her glamorous make up was betrayed by a casual snarl on her face, robotic eyes lidded with annoyance as they came to focus on the timid bunny frozen in place by both awe and fear.

Roxanne inspected her intruder for a moment, soft purple lipstick betraying the frown she wore. Ezra’s phone sounded its dial tone again and the robotic wolf’s expression grew ever more callous, her claws balled up into fists as she groaned.

“How am I supposed to get my beauty sleep with your phone blasting on the other side of the wall? Do you know how long it's been since I got the chance to charge myself?”

Ezra was still paralyzed in the presence of Roxy. On the one hand it was her idol, her favourite member of the cast standing before her in her very own dressing room. On the other hand, she seemed none too pleased to see the bunny, if an animatronic was capable of being tired it was certainly the case right now; and if Ulti’s fate was anything to go off of, there was no telling how Roxanne might react to an intruder at this hour.

“H-hi Roxy… I’m uh, a huge fan,” Ezra said, trying to sound as small and unimposing as possible.

“I don’t remember accepting any visitors today. I’m gonna kill that receptionist.”

An icepick of fear struck the bunny’s heart.

“I’m your biggest fan?”

A metallic eyebrow raised at that notion. “Right, cause I’ve not heard that one before. Roxy took a few steps towards Ezra, eyes locked on the stolen plush in the bunny’s grasp. “Looks like you’re just some loser stalker who came for a souvenir when you couldn’t get the tickets to the real deal.”

Ezra’s head hung heavy as she held the plush out for Roxy to take back. As she did her phone sounded off yet another loop of its repeating dial tone, prompting the wolf’s claw to spring forward like lightning to snatch it from Ezra’s grasp. Before the bunny could even process the movement her phone was stolen into the sharp grasp of the animatronic, being pinched between two metallic claws before the device was swiftly crushed as easily as a grape.

“Wh- No I needed that! My friend’s in danger!” Ezra cried.

“If your friends can’t look after themselves then you need to pick better friends, kid.”

The bunny stood in stunned silence, unsure how to process any of what just happened.

“You gotta be looking out for number one, always. And who’s number one?”

“I… me?”

Roxanne swooped down to a knee in front of Ezra, her cold, metallic snout pressed up against the rabbit’s.

“No, I am. I’m the best.”

Roxy’s fierce red gaze occupied almost all of Ezra’s vision, at least all that she could focus on for the moment. It was paralysing enough to make her brain default to the most straightforward line of thinking, simple agreement of what she already believed to be true.

“Y-you’re the best, Roxy.”

A grin crossed the wolf’s face. “Maybe you’re not just some weirdo stalker after all. Maybe you’re more than that.”

Ezra blinked some sense back into her mind as Roxy stood and walked over to her vanity.

“What’s that?”

“A simp.”

“...Did you just say-”

“My simp! You heard me, unless those ears are just for show.”

A processing silence once again served as Ezra’s response.

“I’m hooked into the internet, I know freaks like you exist that would pay to worship me.”

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t realise you-”

“I’m… talking…” Roxy said flatly, promptly shutting the bunny up. “...Makes me sad, cause I think you could be so much more. So much better.

Roxanne spun the salon chair around to face Ezra, eyes lidding with an inviting smile. There was an intoxicating warmth to every miniscule gesture of kindness that Roxy offered in comparison to her harsh words; it was like being graced by the popular girl at school, nothing felt better than her acceptance.

“Don’t you wanna be better? Don’t you wanna be the best?”

Ezra’s eyes widened as she started to understand.

“Don’t you wanna be the best?”

Ezra stumbled forward almost in a trance of excitement, unable to believe her luck. The Roxanne Wolf was offering her a makeover in her very own dressing room. It felt too good to be true, and in reality it kind of was. The bunny knew there was still a reason she came here, still something she needed to do for Ulti’s sake; it was just so hard to resist the peer pressure placed upon her by Roxy alone. Her hand came to rest on the chair hesitantly.

“But… my friend is still-”

“I told you, forget about them.” Roxy snapped back. She wasn’t as angry as she was stern, but it still struck deep into Ezra’s psyche, those glaring red eyes not taking no for an answer.

“If you really want to be a better friend to them, let me make you the best.”

Ezra was physically pulled into the chair by Roxy this time, the gesture both sudden and relieving as the choice had technically been made for her. In a way it felt like there was no going back now, and it certainly sounded better to her indecisive brain than standing there passively. The height of the chair was adjusted until she could see herself and Roxy perfectly in the mirror. Ezra then heard the flick of a switch and the salon chair began to vibrate in a full body massage that caused her to involuntarily exhale a bucket-load of stress that had been built up in her body.

Before she could properly adjust to the rumbling sensation echoing through her entire body, she was quickly assaulted with a faceful of a fine, cool mist being sprayed from a perfume bottle. She wanted to cough and gag but truly had no need to; the scent was pleasant, like a burgundy wine with a faintly metallic scent that lingered afterwards. Not only that but the scent made Ezra feel light-headed too, her neck relaxing until her head crashed back against the comfortable headrest of the salon chair in a wonderful daze.

The unexpected feeling of her head swimming brought a vapid, ditzy smile to the bunny’s face as she floated in a sea of pleasant sensations, all of which were bordered by the knowledge that Roxy was treating her to this spell. It was only once the initial impact of the perfume had dissipated that she realised the scent was immediately familiar to her, as Ezra now smelled like the animatronic wolf herself. The thought sent a shiver up her spine, every ounce of adoration mixing with the acceptance of popularity created an addictive cocktail of social endorphins in her brain.

“It’s not enough to just look like the best,” Roxy said, reaching for another bottle on the vanity.

“You need to act like it too. So repeat after me, kid. I’m the best.”

“I’m… the best.”

A metal claw gripped Ezra’s chin, firmly turning her gaze toward Roxy’s once again.

“Say it with confidence, no one likes a loser. Again, I’m the best.”

The overwhelming charisma of Roxanne battered Ezra’s mental foundations once more, shattering the semblance of personhood underneath as her very words now were being ordained by the wolf. Every time it happened a mental switch was flipped and something was rewired in the bunny’s brain, something that, synapse by synapse was rewriting her personality to fall in accordance with what Roxy expected. And every time Ezra was growing more confident in her belief that it was for her own good.

“I’m the best,” she said with more certainty.

“Good. Close your eyes… Everyone loves you, everyone wants to be you.”

Ezra obeyed even quicker this time, letting her eyes shut and almost immediately feeling the brush of cool paint across her eyelids. It delighted her to no end thinking that she was being dolled up in the same style as Roxy, but this time it was different, she willed herself to keep her composure just as the wolf herself would have. Nothing felt as important as doing her best to match Roxanne’s expectations, and strangely to Ezra she knew that feeling wasn’t exaggerated.

“Everyone loves you, everyone wants to be you.”

“Now you’re getting it. You need to know that you’re the most important person out there, wherever you go.”

There was a change to Roxy’s voice now, it wasn’t quite as firm or brash. It was soothing, comforting even, whenever Ezra did what she was told, and the contrast gave it an addictive quality. It wasn’t even that she just preferred Roxy being nice to her, but the tone in which the wolf spoke was almost soporific in nature, keeping the bunny’s mind quiet and placid; so long as she did as she was told of course.

Ezra felt a comb curl through her hair as the next words were fed to her, “Your hair is beautiful, your tail is beautiful.”

She repeated them unthinkingly, each syllable giving her a boost of confidence and self-assuredness. A faint smile even crept across the bunny’s face as she became indoctrinated to Roxy’s mantras; it was hard not to feel good as she was conditioned by the same ego she admired so much. Feeling good about herself as her body succumbed further to the chair’s delicate massage, getting pampered by Roxy while being allowed to forget about her troubles for a time. There was nothing Ezra could do to resist.

Another spray of fine mist coated her hair this time, sweeping from front to side. The scent was less intoxicating this time but it didn’t matter, Ezra was too busy looping those mantras to herself, whispering each word under her breath with an ever-increasingly arrogant smile. Her very identity was being manipulated in front of her, but she’d already past the tipping point of wanting it to stop; she wanted it to deepen, she wanted it to be permanent.

A metallic finger met Ezra’s lips, silencing her. “Pucker up, superstar. You’re almost ready.”

Ezra obeyed to let Roxy paint the last touches across her lips, an undoubtedly flawless application of lipstick to complete the look of perfection she was certain she was coated with. But instead she felt the cool, soft cushions of wolf lips press against her own as she was embraced by the painted muzzle of Roxy. Ezra felt her spine stiffen with excitement as she wanted her very soul to melt into that kiss, but she held her composure even now, determined not to fail Roxy.

It didn’t stop the kiss from tearing her thoughts asunder though, every piece of consciousness shattered in the embrace of a kiss shared with this gorgeous wolf. She could feel Roxy making a meal out of the liplock too, slathering the bunny’s lips with the very same lipstick that she wore; a large part of Ezra didn’t want the embrace to ever end, but another part of her was excited as soon as the kiss broke. Excited to finally see her best version of herself.

“Open those eyes, rockstar,” Roxy said with a slight giggle. You’re perfect.”

Ezra obeyed to find herself looking like a facsimile of Roxanne, every shade of makeup, every touch of blush was exactly as the wolf wore it, even down to the shock of green highlighting the front of her hair. What’s more was that Ezra noticed her eyes had begun to match Roxy’s too, though not through any cosmetic appearance, at least not that she could remember. Her pupils were gleaming red pools of confidence, just like her role model’s. They looked good on her.

“What do you think, kid?”

“I’m… the best.”

“That’s right you are. And what about your friends? Still want to go and find them?”

Ezra squinted at herself in the mirror, tossing up the idea of her new self and her priorities. She also glanced at Roxy, considering who she’d rather spend the time with, who had truly made her happier. In reality, there was no question in the bunny’s manipulated mind as she treated the wolf to her own fierce grin.

“No way. You were right, if they can’t look out for themselves then they’re weak. Not like us”

Roxy’s expression was a wicked smile of victory. “Well then, how about your new friend shows you her trophy collection?”

There was no answer needed as Ezra hopped out of the salon chair. It was what she wanted, it was all she wanted. Not only because Roxy knew best for her, but because she couldn’t disagree with the wolf even if she wanted to. It was more than just a shared look, they shared the same thoughts, shared the same desires now; in a way it was freeing to know that to be the best, Ezra just had to do as her favourite superstar would do. And never look back.

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Eli and Vinyl stalked the hallways of the Pizzaplex with mounting frustration as they struggled to find their way to either of their destinations. Anywhere that wasn’t immediately plastered with a mascot’s face or some bold-fonted signage became a simulacrum of concrete and janitor closets; they couldn’t even be sure if they had been going in circles or had simply seen the same pinup poster of Chica advertising the food court half a dozen times. Vinyl checked the picture she took of the complex map once more.

“This map doesn’t make any sense at all! Why aren’t the floors connected anywhere?”

“Maybe we should just go back to the atrium,” Eli suggested. “Now there are some lights on we might be able to get our bearings better.”

Vinyl was reluctant to agree, not wanting to backtrack, but could see the sense in the idea. Just as she started to turn around there was a low, harmonic hum that began to emanate through the corridors ahead that made both of them stop in their tracks. It was a synthesised kind of tune, one that sounded a little like a chord being held down on an electric piano; but then the pitch shifted ever so slightly and grew fractionally louder, keeping the duo’s curiosity. Vinyl listened with intrigued, trying to distinguish the sound, while Eli was captivated by the harmony of the hum.

“Do you hear that?” said the corvid.

“Yeah. Sounds like… machinery?”

“That must mean we’re getting close to somewhere.”

“Or something.”

Eli didn’t read into the warning much, he was too intrigued by the metallic melody echoing from further down the hall and began wandering ahead with little regard for a plan or direction. Vinyl made the effort to catch up with him, only to freeze as her canine ears pricked up at the sound of danger. Heavy metal footfalls; the same ones that, unbeknownst to her, had spelled danger for her friends on the other side of the Pizzaplex. Instinct kicked in as she recognised the sound of mass, something heavy and powerful that was moving closer towards the two of them.

Though Eli still seemed to pay the threat little mind.

He walked almost blindly into the open fork between two corridors, looking left and right as if stepping out into traffic before checking to see if it was safe. The wolf noticed a half smile curled up his face; something was amiss with her friend, but she couldn’t tell what. As far as Eli was concerned however he was more focussed and purpose driven than he could ever remember being; he just had to find the source of that enchanting hum, whatever it was.

The sound alone was pleasant enough, but something beneath that choral droning called to him. It was a beacon of intrigue within the dull halls of the facility, a source of joy bursting through the otherwise terrifying darkness that clung to every corner of the Pizzaplex. In Eli’s mind there was an angel trapped within those notes, and the more his thoughts clung in curiosity to that melody the less mind he paid to the stomping footsteps around the corner, or the wolf behind who was jogging to keep up with him.

“Eli,” Vinyl said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Where are you going? I thought we were turning around.”

“But… don’t you want to find out where that song is coming from?”

His eyes were wide and his voice dream-like, only increasing Vinyl’s concern. “Don’t you hear those footsteps? Something’s coming, we need to hide!”

“But… it sounds like its right around the corner”

“I know that’s why we need to-”

The melodic humming ceased to be muffled as the maestro of the harmony strolled around the corner. Freddy Fazbear himself sauntered into view with a lazy gait, eyes half closed as he continued to sing to himself contentedly. Vinyl quickly turned tail and dashed back down the opposite corridor, expecting Eli to do the same once the hulking frame of the animatronic bear came into view. But the crow just stood there in a daze, watching as the machine lumbered closer and closer towards him.

“Eli!...” she shouted in a whisper.

But it was no use, she simply wasn’t getting through to him anymore, the corvid was too deeply entranced by the bear’s hypnotic lullaby to pay attention to anything else, even his slightly possessed appearance. Freddy’s eyes were a ghostly rose colour, unlike anything they’d seen in any of the advertisements around the Pizzaplex, and his lower jaw hung ajar almost like a zombie’s, likely due to some loose screws. It was a disconcerting visage as far as the wolf was concerned, but once again the same sentiment didn’t reach Eli as the distance between him and the ursine animatronic was increasingly shortened.

Vinyl made it to the other end of the hall where she ducked into a janitor’s closet, cracking the door barely ajar to keep an eye on her helpless companion. Though she felt like the helpless one as all she could do was watch as Eli stood blankly in the way of an oncoming assailant, she was amazed to see no such aggression from Freddy no matter how close the two got. The bear just continued his march down the corridor, passing by the corvid as if he wasn’t even there, still singing to himself all the while.

Eli turned like a puppet, eyes locked on the source of that heavenly melody, before sleepily stumbling along after Freddy and following him step for step. The act was thoughtless, every single instinct of pleasure and safety in his brain was being caressed by the dulcet voice of that pitch perfect voice box; it wasn’t just that he wanted to keep listening to Freddy’s song, but so many thoughts in his brain was reaffirming that it would be best for him if he did.

The bear had Eli on a leash, leading him along with voice alone; a wordless command repeated with every note that he was expected to follow for as long as that aria persisted. A wide and vacant smile possessed the crow’s face as he marched to the tune of Freddy’s song, he was no longer in control of his own mind or body, little more than a walking back-up dancer obeying every note that the animatronic sang. Vinyl was petrified as they approached her door, terrified that Freddy had seen her or that Eli might give her up at this point.

But Freddy turned and continued to waltz further down the corridor, Eli stumbling along after him in his zombified state; neither of them knew or cared about her hiding place, and clearly had other priorities in mind. The wolf sank back against a pile of toilet paper for a moment, mind racing as she considered her options. She could attempt to follow them and make sure Eli was safe, but she still didn’t want to be caught. That was when her phone rang.

The ringtone sounded off and the wolf scrambled for her phone in a panic. It may not have been set to full volume but in her quiet hiding place the electronic song may as well have been a gunshot. There was a sudden lack of sound too as Freddy ceased his tune and stopped in his tracks, robotic head turning on a swivel to find the source of that intruding music. There was an offended fury in his glowing eyes that made Vi’s heart leap into her throat. She quickly set her phone to vibrate and silently apologised to Ezra for not picking up; she couldn’t, even the bunny’s voice might have been enough to get her caught.

The phone buzzed in her hands as violently as her own heartbeat while she watched Freddy narrow his eyes and scan the hallway. Eli was swaying a little bit in his daze, the narcotic effect of the bear’s song wearing off now that he was no longer singing. Vinyl watched in quiet hope, pleading with the crow to come to his senses and run for it while he could. But the silence didn’t last long. Content once more, Freddy resumed his melody and continued marching down the corridor; Eli snapped back to attention, pulled by puppet strings that led him along after the bear quite happily.

Vinyl was about to answer the phone in relief before the call suddenly stopped. Ezra had hung up for some reason. She tried to return the call while listening intently, peeking out the door to see just how far Eli had gotten away from her. He was halfway down the corridor, it wouldn’t be long before she lost sight of him. The phone continued to ring with no answer until the two of them disappeared round the corner and the singing began to grow more faint again. Still no answer from Ezra. Things were going from bad to worse and the wolf was running out of time to decide what to do.

Reluctantly, Vi snuck out of the janitor’s closet and endeavoured to follow after the bear and his hypnotic lullaby so that she could keep an eye on Eli. Though the maze of corridors had already seemed to swallow the two of them up, she couldn’t discern which direction the music was coming from anymore, and could only go with her gut. She moved to the next name on her list, Matty. Surely he must have been doing okay if he’d been able to get the lights on. She just hoped to high heaven that someone would come to her rescue.

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The passage of time for Eli was skewed in his daydream-like trance; he couldn’t be sure how long he’d been following Freddy for, nor was he actually attempting to keep track of time. The only change he could perceive was the change in his environment as the drab hallways gave way to a colourful theatre room complete with rows of seating, and a large stage, the backdrop of which was several large screens currently displaying the words ‘No Signal’.

As Freddy sauntered deeper into the theatre the acoustics began to complement his voice ever more generously, a choir of Fazbear voices joined his own in the echo that surrounded the hall, smothering Eli with a harmony of enchanting singing. But as Freddy began to climb the steps of the stage, a wordless command was motioned for the crow to stop and take his place at the foot of the platform, which he did with awestruck obedience. It was captivating to see the bear himself up on that podium, Eli felt like a VIP the way he was being treated to a private show; his excitement almost mounted to an applause before the lights in the theatre suddenly went out and the singing stopped.

There was a long moment of silence where Freddy simply stood in a power pose, barely silhouetted by the dim glow of the large screens behind him. Eli’s sense of awareness began to slowly creep back in again as the world reintroduced itself through fresh eyes, the spell slowly wearing off. But not for long enough, as the background screens flashed to life with colour; the emergency power being drawn from the lights in order to put on a show. A single spotlight enveloped Freddy as he spoke, his voice amplified as if speaking into an invisible microphone.

“Thank you for joining us at the Fazbear Theatre tonight, boys and girls. We’ve got a very special show for you.”

The bear’s voice was low and dulcet, rumbling with a softness that invited nothing but calm. “There’s a very special superstar in the audience tonight…”

Eli’s heart soared, practically resonating to the very pitch of Freddy’s words.

“...Here’s something I hope will leave them, truly enthralled.”

Once more the animatronic’s voice raised to a sultry tone, singing with lyrics to his efforts this time as a choreographed set piece of waltzing movements ensued. The screens behind Freddy started to give off soft pulses of dark colour, purples and oranges timed perfectly to the rhythm of the song. Each syllable seemed like it was punctuated by its own micropulse of colour, orchestrating the ideal sensory spectacle for his one man audience.

Eli swayed with heavy awe as he was hypnotised by the performance; when his ears weren’t focused on Freddy’s voice, his eyes were focussed on his movements, or the mesmerising visual display behind him. There was no shortage of stimulation to keep the corvid’s attention. Though after a while he noticed the visuals of the screens beginning to hiccup in their rhythm, the colours shifting and breaking into different hues sporadically. Was the tech suffering from a lack of power?

If it was, it wasn't proving any less hypnotic; the seemingly random flashes of colour interposed within the performance struck Eli’s mind like a bolt of lightning, branding him with that sense of enchanted wonder Freddy was instilling within him. The bear hit an impressive low note and the screens stuttered with flashes of static, draining the bit of excess emotion trapped within the crow. Each ‘glitch’ was draining the energy and excitement that Eli felt, only leaving behind that calm and placid feeling of entranced fascination.

Freddy’s eyes locked onto his own and the crow felt like his legs were about to give out as a sense of weakness and belonging struck him. He didn’t just feel like a fan of Freddy’s anymore but a possession of the bear’s, his very presence in the audience wasn’t because he wanted to be there, but because Freddy expected it. Another flash of static as the animatronic carried a note on into seeming infinity, and in that vacuum left behind in the crow’s mind he realised that nothing might ever truly feel as good as the presence of his superstar.

The smile had all but fully melted from Eli’s face as he stared at the bear in vacant obedience, still completely captivated by his song but unable to express it in any way other than his rapt and devout attention. He wanted to surrender, he wanted to throw himself at the feet of the enchanting animatronic and kiss them until his submission was made gospel. But he couldn’t do anything other than stand like a statue, contently listening to Freddy’s aria.

It seemed to carry on for hours, a never ending choir of bewitching music and entrancing lights; but then again Eli’s sense of time had fallen even further out of sync than it was before the show began. Not that he was complaining. After a patiently building crescendo, Freddy’s song climaxed with a dancing note of passion that stretched on long enough for him to kneel down at the front of the stage and look his number one fan right in his glassy eyes. That song was just for him, and Eli knew it.

“Well Superstar,” the bear rumbled with his alluring cadence. “This is where my show ends, but I’d hate to see you go. What would you say to joining my act and helping me entertain all the other little superstars out there?”

It wasn’t a question, nor was it even an offer; the idea spoken was truth as soon as Eli heard it.

Ignoring the fact he was alone in the theatre, ignoring the fact that any ‘act’ put on was result of broken and low-powered programming; the corvid could only see the stage lights and glamour of Freddy’s proposal. Stars would have been in his eyes were they not vacant pools lacking a single independent thought of their own. Nothing could have sounded better than joining Freddy.

“Y-yeah, please…” he uttered, his voice already changing tune to a sing-song quality.

Freddy offered a hand to help the crow up on stage, pulling him up with effortless animatronic strength. Eli took his place beside him under the spotlight, blinded for a second by the dazzling beam above, only to blink back into focus before a sight he could scarcely believe. A crowd of Fazbear fans in the audience, all cheering and watching them with the same captivated look of amazement that Eli had worn. It was a full house; the corvid could scarcely believe he’d missed them all. But then again, he was in no mental state to argue; after all, when wouldn’t Freddy be selling out the theatre.

“They love you, Superstar! You’re a natural.”

A supreme sense of pride swelled in Eli’s chest, almost enough to break through his heavily entranced headspace. But he thought better of getting emotional and decided, protege that he was, to mirror Freddy and strike a power pose of his own. The duo acting in tandem elicited an even bigger roar from the crowd; it was an addictive feeling, no wonder Freddy was so adamant to put on a show at this hour.

The switch had been well and truly flicked in Eli’s head, this was where he belonged now. His mind rewritten with a new purpose that only wanted to perform alongside Freddy as the perfectly obedient assistant that he was. His only hope was that his usefulness to the bear would never end, and that he’d never have a reason to leave the spotlight. Whatever he was doing before now wasn’t nearly as important as his new purpose; the only thing more he could have wanted was for Vinyl to see him now.

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No matter what corner she turned or which corridor she searched down, the melodic singing of the ursine animatronic only seemed to get quieter. Even doubling back on herself seemed ineffective at locating where the sleepwalking crow had been led, and before long the corridors went silent once again. Vinyl felt terrible that she’d lost Eli, it felt like she’d failed in her opportunity to save him. To make things worse, none of her friends were answering her calls; not Ezra, Ulti or Matty, and she began to assume the worst.

The only thing the wolf could think to do was keep searching in the hopes that she would find Eli and at least be reunited with one of her friends. A morsel of hope filled her soul as the seemingly endless corridors gave way to an entranceway for a larger attraction, ironically the one she’d been looking for all along. The unlit signage was hard to read, but the standing props of enormous golf clubs and the collection bin of used balls clearly defined this space as Gator Golf.

A large, gator-toothed grin of Monty’s face surrounded the entrance, tongue spilling out like a red carpet. A part of the endeavour felt hopeless to Vinyl, but it was far more likely that Freddy had led the corvid here as opposed to the two of them wandering the hallway in circles. With a brave breath and steeled determination, she stepped through the gator’s jaws and right into the belly of the beast itself.

Within she found a dark, swamp-themed mini golf course, complete with ponds of long-standing stagnant water for decoration that had perfused a heavy smell of damp and mildew throughout the large room housing the attraction. The speaker system was still active, letting off the occasional bit of swamp ambience or percussion filled music. Thankfully there were clear walkways of golf astroturf for her to patrol, making her exploration of the space a bit less blind than she had initially anticipated. Unfortunately there was no sign of movement nor could she detect a note of song that she’d hoped might lead her towards her friend.

She let out a desperate call. “Eli! Are you in here!?”

Her voice echoed around the course to no response; at least none that she noticed. There was a rolling beneath the surface of a nearby pond as the algae parted to reveal a set of bright red, robotic gator eyes that had been disturbed by her presence. Whereas his animatronic programming might have normally seen a guest or employee in the wolf, instead he saw her as an intruder, a threat trespassing on company grounds after hours. Something that had to be dealt with. A set of dark, star shaped sunglasses sat atop his brow, shifted into position over his crimson gaze with a subtle nod of the head. Monty had spotted his prey. The hunt was on.

As Vinyl continued to call Eli’s name with increasing woe, she circled a stretch of the course that bridged over the top of the swamp, completely ignorant to the robotic alligator closing in on her position below. Monty waited patiently, he knew his territory, he knew to wait for his opportunity to pounce. And just before the wolf dismounted the bridge the sudden growl of a hulking predator echoed in her ear loud enough to make her whip around like a snapped rubber. She turned, pointing her phone’s light towards the bushes as she shivered, only to see a speaker mimicking the sounds of danger.

She would have laughed, had she the spirit to do so. Instead she just sighed as she heard a sudden splash from behind her followed by yet another beastly roar, turning in expectation of a second cheap bit of ambience. However the wolf found herself suddenly under the eclipse of a gator leaping from the water, moments away from being pounced upon by sharp claws and deadly fangs. The moment it took for her flight instincts to process cost her everything, as a split second later she was grappled to the floor, rolling enough times to leave her disoriented and dizzy before coming to realise she was pinned onto her back, staring up at the large animatronic reptile that had pinned her.

Monty’s fierce gaze melted into a sickeningly wide grin as growled over his captured prey. “Well hey there, gorgeous. What’s a pretty thing like you doing in my swamp this late at night?”

His fangs dripped with swamp water like drool, fresh globules of damp-smelling water splashing across the wolf’s muzzle and matting her fur. It only intensified her sensitivity to the scent of a gator that had been basted in his own filth, powerful and pungent like gasoline at a service station; just short of overpowering but still incredibly difficult to adjust to while her very safety now hung in the balance.

“I… I.. I….” she stammered, unsure of how to respond in her current predicament.

“Whassa’ matter? Gator got your tongue?” Monty chuckled and licked his chops, spilling more ‘drool’ across the canine’s face.

She opened her mouth to speak, letting a drops of the pungent water hit her tongue before instinct kicked in and her answer became choked with a fit of sputtering coughs. The taste lingered no matter how much water she spat, a heavy and bitter taste like stale booze; the scent alone was making her head swim but now a second sense was being plagued by gator muck too. Monty chuckled at her pathetic squirming, content to watch as she struggled for any sense of comfort in her prone position. Finally though, he got his response.

“I was just… looking for my friend,” Vinyl said between short inhales. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

But her words were cut short at the feeling of a metal claw being clenched tightly around her throat as the gator’s eyes narrowed on her with scrutiny.

“Yer tellin’ me… there’s two of you in here?”

Panic filled the wolf’s mind as air escaped her lungs with no option to replenish the spent oxygen. She was too scared to answer, scared of angering the gator further and scared of admitting to herself that she’d lost Eli for good. But the longer she left Monty without a reply, the more his grip around her throat tightened, threatening to injure something if she failed to say anything. After a time she just shook her head as best as the animatronic’s grip would allow, wheezing out a desperate plea of,

“No… I lost him.”

Monty considered her answer for a moment before loosening, but not relinquishing his chokehold on her. Vinyl took the opportunity to fill her lungs with a strained gasp of air, inadvertently swallowing a deep lungful of gator swamp musk along with it. It was thick enough to make her want to choke, but her body resisted the urge to waste anymore air, instead forcing her to hold the scent in her lungs and let the heady aroma diffuse throughout her head. It still wasn’t pleasant per se, but coupled with the relief of being able to breathe again Vinyl was grateful for Monty’s air, even if it came tainted by his scent.

She felt lightheaded to begin with, having been starved of air for a few moments, but now it felt like her brain was swimming in that same swamp water she’d swallowed just moments before. Each micromovement of her head made it feel like thoughts were wading through thick algae while slowly trudging through mud. She felt grateful that it was Monty’s turn to speak, because finding the words she wanted to say was proving increasingly difficult as she remained in the permeated air.

“Well I hope you ain’t lying,” the gator rumbled. “Cause I don’t like people who lie to me.”

Monty tipped his glasses up on top of his brow again, letting his bright red gaze cast a spotlight of crimson down over the wolf as he looked into her eyes. The sight was dazzling and petrifying all at once as Vinyl became a deer caught in the gator’s tinted headlights, unable to move, speak or even look away from his intense glare. All her body was able to do was breath in shallow, ragged breaths, forcing her to soak in more of the animatronic reptile’s pungent musk.

Against her better thoughts she started to salivate over the aroma, every tainted breath giving her a taste for Monty’s scent. Before long it became ritualistic, feeding her nerves with another hit of thick swamp air while continuing to match the gator’s eyes like the obedient doe she was; despite her predator DNA, her mind adopted the instincts of a prey, telling her to keep still and appease Monty in order to survive. Though all it was doing was muddying her thoughts.

A wicked grin spread over the gator’s jaws. “Yer startin’ to like how I stink. Ain’t cha?”

Vinyl remembered the quiet threat, and thought better about lying for the sake of her pride as she meekly nodded, “I-It’s nice…”

Monty broke into a loud guffaw, mocking the wolf’s pathetic position as more of his weight pinned her to the turf.

“You know, it’s been a while since I was last cleaned. And even b’fore then they never got all the deep spots…”

Monty raised his free arm, metallic bicep flexing with machine muscle and glistening with the still soaked polish of swamp water. The animatronic’s pit was a tight nook of flesh-like silicone that bent with the movement of his joints, though Vinyl could easily see the algae and moisture clinging to the folds like beads of fresh perspiration. The synapses of her brain that had already been marinated in the gator’s intoxicating musk were already activating, crying to her instincts for more of that pacifying aroma like hungry baby chicks.

She barely needed the encouragement to heed the call, sitting herself up with the aid of a strong gator claw pulling her by the neck. Her pupils dilated into dinner plates as she came closer and closer to the gator’s dank pit, tongue already lolling from her mouth before she’d even had her first taste. The anticipation was mounting, tightening her very mind like a coiled spring as her snout was pressed against the surprisingly warm, damp confines of Monty’s armpit.

The tension snapped all at once and her mind crumbled at the intensely pungent aroma of hoarded musk; her very first breath being a shivered inhale of pure ecstasy that would have threatened to have her collapse were she not still held in a light but firm chokehold. Her tongue pressed against the rubber pit thoughtlessly, lapping up whatever the contents of Monty’s swamp were, desperate to feed that intoxicating addiction that had built to a fever pitch terrifyingly quickly.

She couldn’t think, her senses were too heavily assaulted by the stench and taste of the gator that every attempt at conscious thought was immediately severed. Vinyl felt weak, helpless in Monty’s clutches, so much so that her brain had rewired her survival instincts to ones of pleasure; the more of that liquid aphrodisiac she drank in, the better and more secure she felt as the reptile’s plaything.

A rumbling growl echoed in her ear as she continued to sniff herself mindless. “Yer really into this. Could just have at my pits til I told ya to stop.”

Vinyl nodded eagerly into his pit, not wasting a single motion where her tongue wasn’t in use.

“Well… I still can’t letcha run around all free. Looks like I’m gonna have to keep you, slut.”

The canine let out an agreeable whine before she felt herself effortlessly lifted off the ground, hoisted into the air and dropped over the back of Monty’s shoulder. Within a second her world had quite literally been turned upside down as she lay nearly supine over the gator’s shoulder like a trophy buck. While her nose had left its haven of swamp musk, her head still swam with the very memory of its aroma; more than an ample dose to keep her dazed and obedient to the gator’s wishes. And from this position, even more of her fur was now being drenched in Monty’s ‘sweat’, a situation she could hardly complain about if she wanted to.

“Better say g’bye to yer friends for good. Cause yer mine now, smallfry.”

Each heavy stomp as Monty walked rattled the poor puppy’s head, bolts falling loose from the machine she used to call her brain. The word rang familiar but she could barely remember where her friends were; had they followed her in here or were they still at home waiting for her return? She didn’t know and couldn’t find the concern to care as she was being carried away by the overpowering reptile that clearly deserved her. A drunken giggle was the wolf’s final response as she was carried into the swamp and fully claimed by the dark underbelly of her gator’s domain.

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Matts was out of breath, he’d been running for what felt like an hour, only stopping in moments of perceived safety before the lapping waves of static caught up to him again. His sense of direction had proven wrong by the labyrinthian maze of concrete surrounding him; no exit that he found would yield to his desperate attempts, leaving him little option but to continue fleeing from the seemingly tireless rabbit that stalked him.

Whenever she got close the static would start up again, crashing over him like a waterfall and making his every movement feel sluggish and twice as exhaustive as if he were moving through a slow dream. Whatever feverish nightmare he was trapped in was affecting him physically and mentally at once, to the point that pure adrenaline was the only thing fuelling the wolf now. But all of his effort and energy had been wasted it seemed, as his choice of direction ran him into a solid brick wall with no more options. A dead end.

He couldn’t believe his fate and quickly turned to try and double back on himself, but the rabbit was already closing in, skipping towards him with that same nonchalant pace that caused his fur to stand on end. Had this been her plan all along, to toy with the wolf only to corner him like a trapped rat in a maze? There was no way to get around her this time, and the increasingly heavy fuzz of static in his head was only punctuating the burning fuse of Matts’ freedom that was running down.

His attempts at coming up with a plan were scattered by the rabbit’s mind-numbing noise, the very presence of her gleaming eyes cutting through Matty’s concentration like a hot knife to butter. He was running out of time, energy and willpower, and the last thing the wolf wanted to do was attempt to reason with this demonic creature. The only thing Matts could think to do was charge through her frail form and hope he still had the energy to escape.

The thunder of white noise pulsed heavier in his brain by the second, building up the wolf’s adrenaline before he sprinted towards her at full speed. But before he could make it even a few steps he felt time slow to a crawl and his movements sink into heaviness; trapped in a net of static, the canine could do little but recognise his futility as he lost control of his body. It was only momentum that carried him now, step by agonisingly gradual step that led him closer towards the stalking rabbit.

It already felt like a surrender by the time he blinked next, as the static washed through his vision like ink bleeding into paper; an unstoppable flow of that hissing blizzard encompassed his every thought at once and snuffed out the final flames of resistance that had been plaguing him. The world shrank into a pinprick of focus centred right on the rabbit, muting every sense of fear, hopelessness and exhaustion into blissful white noise. The sound continued to smother the wolf’s mind like a heavy blanket of numbness, just peaceful acceptance as he was overcome by whatever force his assailant wielded.

The next thing he felt was an impact as his knees hit the ground; his movements had stopped and he felt himself hanging limp, the wolf naught but a puppet loosely held by strings of someone else’s design. Matts felt like a passenger in his own body, only able to watch as the rabbit continued to skip towards him with that unblinking stare; though with his sense of fear gone, all he could do was wait patiently for her to decide his fate.

She let out a distorted chuckle as if laughing through a broken voice box, “Got you now.”

As the distance was closed from feet to inches the static became all consuming, Matts could only perceive the rabbit tilting her head in amusement at his predicament. Despite the wicked glare, Matts just waited passively as she reached behind her and pulled out a patchwork rabbit mask that closely resembled her own. The blizzard of noise only grew louder as he laid eyes on it, as if the mask was calling to him, magnetised to the wolf’s very loud, vacant mind.

Not a word was spoken as the rabbit pushed the mask towards Matts, a silent invitation to seal his own fate. The static beckoned, the voice of a stranger offering the comfort of all of his friends at once; that mask was a beacon shining through the blizzard of static fog in his mind, a haven from the confusing storm of white noise that plagued his thoughts. Without question, Matts leaned forwards to meet the mask and let his muzzle fall perfectly into the snug fit of that grinning, patchwork face.

The hissing grew louder and louder, reaching through his mind and rewriting every synapse it saw fit to eliminate; until the static crashed into a beautiful crescendo of noise that blanked everything else out. The wolf couldn’t think, he was utterly possessed by the rabbits control, mirroring her curious head tilt as the eyes on the mask adopted the same crimson glow, wiping away the final vestiges of the canine’s personality.

In an instant the wolf’s thoughts, memories and emotions were wiped away, drowned out in that ocean of black and white sensation; even if he were able to focus anymore the thought of his friends was such a distant one it may as well have been a speck on the horizon. But the feeling of absence, of his thoughts being wiped clean from the slate, was a relieving one as a great mental burden was lifted all at once; if Matts had still been present in his own indoctrination, he might have thought to thank his captor.

But now there was nothing beyond the same force commanded that rabbit, Vanny was her name, he could hear it now, clear as…. static. It became clear to Matts that she wasn’t even in control of that consuming white noise, Vanny was just another victim of its presence. Though victim was the wrong word; it was freeing, calming, to simply be obedient to the whims of whatever programming was channelling through their ears. And what’s more was that it gave him purpose; the wolf had something to answer to now, they both did. And with an eerily elegant rise to form, Matts joined Vanny as they made their way back towards the surface, to collect the rest of his friends who were currently being occupied by the animatronics so kindly.