Born To Die | Vanessa Afton

7

"Hey! Hey..." You woke up on the floor, your body aching against the cold hard surface. You groaned, managing to look at the person who was looking down at you. Of course it was Vanessa. A million thoughts rushed through your head as you attempted to sit up, your head spinning, as if you had been thrown against the wall. "What happened? Why are you here?"

You heard her voice loud and clear but it seemed to go in one ear and out the other. You managed to get a good look at her face, full of worry but she also looked terrified. She was sitting on the floor, leaning over you and still had a tight grip on your arms from when she was shaking you. You managed to sit up, leaning against the wall, your hands were trembling once again and you thought you might pass out again.

"I was covering- for Mike. H-He rang me and Abby was ill. There was a kid." You managed to cough out from getting your breath. You had a teary expression on your face. You had pretty much watched these children get murdered and you saw she was there. Obviously, you weren't going to bring it up but it felt odd that you both were in the same place at the same time when they disappeared. You carried on, "Fritz. He was there and he disappeared... I can't-"

You meant to say that you can't figure out why or how anything that just happened, actually happened. Vanessa's expression did not drop. Did she not believe you? Why was she staring at you like that? Your hand extended to point to where he was standing. Vanessa pushed your arm down, you couldn't tell if she didn't know or if she was covering something up. You knew that she knew a lot about this place and hadn't told you why other than she was close with the owners and that she had been here lots as a kid.

You tried to stand up, hand on the desk next to you as you tried to pull yourself up. When pain shot up your right leg, you collapsed right back down to where you had sat up. Vanessa sighed and rolled up your black jeans to reveal quite a nasty gash on your leg. Only now noticing it, the pain started to kick in. "Funny, that's like identical to the one that Mike had on his arm."

You watched as she got up and grabbed the medical kit out of the same draw as before sighing, proceeding to help clean and wrap up the wound, looking to the time, it was only 5:30 and you wished that Vanessa would leave so you can go talk to Mike to see if anything similar has happened to him. You had an excuse to go to his house, you needed to give him his keys back after all.

"Thanks." You whispered, using the desk to manoeuvre yourself into the chair with caution to cause minimal pain. You looked at Vanessa who seemed to look confused but also quite angry. She was clearly zoned out and in her own little world, but you couldn't help but take her out of it. "Why are you here, Vanessa, we aren't on shift."

She flicked her eyes up to you. She wasn't one to really be emotional, if it was anyone, it was you. She sat down on the chair a metre or so away from you, she went to speak multiple times, opening her mouth but the words never seemed to come out. Your eyes burned into her as she was trying to think of something to say. "You can tell me anything. I'm not going to do anything."

"I'm just trying to make sense of what happened tonight. Do you think you might have imagined it?" Vanessa asked. You shook your head.

"It was all too bizarre not to be true." You then looked up at her, she didn't seem thoughtful, she seemed, angry... at someone. Her head went in her hands for a minute, almost as if this was upsetting her more than you.

"You know something. Please just tell me, I wont tell a soul." You practically begged, you were scared for your life, even if it was all a dream, where you were scratched in the dream turned up in real life and you were in massive amounts of pain. She looked around the room, her expression pain. 

"Fine, there are I guess what you could call ghost children. They are... stuck in the animatronics- their souls I mean, I don't know why. I've visited this place many times since its shutdown so I've seen them, yes." You slowly nodding, taking in all the information she was feeding you. It seemed that it was all she was going to say on the situation. You were going to push for more but you didn't want to seem rude or pushy. There were clearly things she wasn't telling you.

This situation almost felt unreal, well it was unheard of. It wasn't even like you could tell anyone what Vanessa has said because they'd probably call you crazy. You knew Vanessa wasn't crazy though, she was clearly distressed about the situation so you very much doubted she was lying. You guessed that's why so many guards quit, you wondered if Mike knew.

"Come on. Let's get you home." Vanessa said, picking up your things for you. You peered at the time, ten minutes had passed and the shift hadn't finished yet. She noticed you looking at the time and sighed. "It's twenty minuted, no one will notice."

You just nodded, not wanting to be in here anymore anyway. Following her out of the pizzeria, you realised that your foot was in less pain than before. You proceeded to lock the door and gate before catching up with Vanessa. She walked to your car and put everything in the back. You quickly thanked her before she got back into her car as well, driving off almost immediately.