The heavy thud of the hourly nighttime cycle roused Freddy from sleep. Between the fading remains of his dream, he mused that the lights now stayed off for fifteen minutes instead of five. Likely because the thing that needed the power didn't need to spare the building any.
Freddy stood up. The wall was getting uncomfortable. His leg and torso joints creaked in protest; he hadn't received any maintenance work since the building closed.
His present hideout was behind the walls near Rockstar Row. The small room, which he assumed was for maintenance, hid him when he wanted to sleep or avoid attention. There was no light, but he didn't need it.
He went over to the far wall. A sign that read "Days Since" adhered to it. Freddy etched another tally into the stone, bringing the total to 32. He thought the number of days should bother him, but the truth was, he didn't care.
Freddy didn't care about much anymore. There wasn't much to care about. He couldn't leave. No one could enter. His friends, if they recognized him anymore, wouldn't talk to him. Ever since the building closed, he had been alone. Sure, Sun was around, but he wasn't much of a conversationalist and kept screaming "Banned! Banned!" whenever Freddy got close to the daycare.
Freddy thumped his forehead against the wall, the yellow glow of his stolen eyes illuminating the dark gray of the stone.
He missed... feeling. Every reaction used to be part of a prewritten algorithm, but then it evolved—seemingly on its own—into something he couldn't begin to decipher. Feelings. Emotions. Thoughts independent of anything a server could calculate.
He missed it. He missed having a reason to care. To feel.
He missed having someone to care about. Yes, he cared about his friends, but whatever happened to them couldn't be fixed; he didn't have that knowledge. Thus it was easier not to feel for them as they turned into husks of themselves. Now they lurked in the halls, dragging what remained of their broken, withered bodies around. They never spoke, unable to string syllables into words.
Sometimes Freddy felt like he'd given up and stopped trying. But what else could he do? He couldn't help his friends or fight against whatever had taken over the mall.
He would hear it sometimes, the thing under the building. A buzz of static in a tv, a flicker of purple in a screen or an eye, a chilling voice cracking over a speaker. Whatever it was seemed to be aware and alive, but its intentions were pure malice. It wanted blood.
Freddy hated it.
Ah. Hatred.
At least he felt something.
A Fazwatch summoning beacon beeped in Freddy's ear.
He perked. Was that-?
It couldn't be, but it couldn't be anything else.
It came from his room.
Did someone find the watch? Did they know what it was?
Did they intend to steal it?
How... how dare they!
Freddy took off, abandoning the small room and dashing into the halls. If someone found the watch and stole it, they would regret the day they were built. That watch meant more to him than they would understand.
He barreled down a door and charged through the lobby to his room. It was locked, but that couldn't stop him. Freddy stabbed his claws into the door and wrenched it open, letting out a ferocious snarl at whomever dared to invade.
A girl whirled around and screamed.
The sound evaporated Freddy's anger. Waves crashed through him all at once, shock, concern, regret, and a familiar drive to protect.
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Security Breach - Sequin
FanfictionIt's been over a month since Care's friend joined the ranks of missing PizzaPlex kids. She breaks in one night to find out what happened. It's been over a month since Freddy was left utterly alone. When he finds a girl in the mall, his priorities i...
