A Strange Revival A Chance Encounter

Chapter 12: Locked Away

Vanessa was trapped.

She had been for months. She was a software developer and had taken a job at a video game company. When she got the gig, she had been thrilled. Every kid wants to grow up and play video games all day. Of course, she was going to be doing a little more than that, but the general idea was there.

The particular studio she was hired at, specialized in VR games. She was going to be play-testing and debugging their games in development. The problem started when the studio began to do some work for Fazbear Entertainment. They were hoping to poke some fun at themselves and to ease the tensions surrounding some longstanding controversies.

Of course, when they plugged in some of the old circuit boards and systems that had been given to them by a sketchy man with a flimsy cardboard box, they hadn't expected to infect their work with an evil glitch virus. It had even driven one of her coworkers to introduce their face to a guillotine paper cutter, in a rather violent fashion.

When she hopped in to debug the game, she had encountered the glitch, but it, HE, seemed intrigued by her. He wasn't violent, in fact, Vanessa discovered that he was intelligent. She pretended to not be able to find the glitch for multiple weeks, worried that maybe she was in the presence of the first truly intelligent AI, and that her bosses would still force her to destroy it.

The glitch could talk, and he even showed her some secret areas of the game that he had built himself. On her birthday, he told her that he had something special to show her. He had created a birthday scavenger hunt for her, with a big surprise at the end, just for her! By this point, she had known him for a month. Spent all eight hours of her workday with him, she considered them to be friends, clearly, she was wrong.

He had led her deep into the recesses of her brain and locked her consciousness away. He had replaced her mind with something of his own creation. An entirely new individual who wanted nothing more than to serve him and carry out his will into the physical world.

Since then, she had been locked away in the reflections all around her. When her body stood near a reflective surface, Vanessa was able to look on in pain and frustration.

Now, they were in Freddy Fazbear's dressing room. The body had taken a job at Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex, she had risen up the ranks as the head security guard. Where Vanessa had been forced to witness all the heinous acts that the Glitch requested of her.

The body stood in front of the mirror and tilted her head back and forth, newly dressed in her homemade rabbit costume, letting the ears flop back and forth. She put her face right up to the mirror, staring into the true Vanessa's eyes. Silently mocking her.

Suddenly the intercom system in the corner crackled to life.

"What are you doing?"

Vanessa knew that voice all too well, Glitchtrap.

The body of Vanessa, Vanny, as the glitch called her, quickly retreated from the mirror and made her way on tip toes over the intercom. She clasped her hands in front of her face and gazed up at the speaker.

She took her mask off, "I have been working on fetching the boy sir!"

"Really?" The speaker crackled out.

The speaker switched off with an audible click. There was a short pause, until a small monitor on the desk, next to the mirror, where Vanessa was watching from, switched on. Housing the yellow and purple clad bunny himself.

"Because to me," he continued, "It seems that you are in this dressing room wasting time!" His voice raised a little, eyes flashing, before he managed to compose himself.

"I am sorry sir. This boy has proven to be, slippery." She replied, looking down at her feet and fidgeting.

"I find that rather surprising." He replied, "You have never had so much trouble catching a child. Especially one that has already seen you harvesting!"

"I promise I will rectify this!" She stumbled forward on her knees and set her chin on the desk in front of the monitor, looking at the rabbit within it.

"Yes, I'm sure." He sounded skeptical. "You see, Vanny, that is not the real reason I am upset at the moment. No, the real reason, is my son. The one I told you to keep alive. The one you told me would be unable wake up until permitted to do so by me!"

His voice became more distorted as his voice raised in volume.

"I-I'm sorry sir! B-but, to be fair, I did warn you that by jumping around the Fazbear system, we risked complications within the system itself." She said frantically.

"Yes, complications. You didn't mention that it could resurrect my son who was supposed to be in limbo!"

Vanny hung her head in shame, "I have failed immensely, I understand if you would like to dispose of and replace me."

Vannessa slammed a shoulder into the other side of the mirror. She knew this wouldn't work; she had tried to escape that way many times before. It was mostly instinct and fear for her body.

"No, there is no time." The bunny said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "We will simply have to adapt. I will try and find the boy and bring him to you, then we can figure out a plan for my son."

The monitor flicked off, and the intercom reactivated, "And cover up that mirror." He said, sounding farther away by the second. "I can't stand looking at pathetic version of you in the mirror."
Vanessa watched as her body re-dawned the rabbit mask. Then she turned back towards the mirror, giggling. She yanked the tablecloth off the desk. Swiftly sliding it out from under all the items on the desk.

She looked deep into Vanessa's eyes, and held her pointer finger up to her lips, shushing her, before dropping the tablecloth over the mirror, and plunging Vanessa into darkness.