VenomQuill

“You’re actually Sun?!” Gregory squawked, backing away from the Daycare Attendant as it turned to him and crept forward. Lights were off in the Daycare, and the once glowing clouds were dark, allowing the stars behind them to glow. The sun had fallen below the castle at the front and the crescent moon rose. “Naughty boy, naughty boy. It’s past your bedtime, long, long since. You have been messing with time.” Gregory backed into the double doors. His headache had passed. Cowardly rabbit. She was probably scared of him, too. For good reason. He darted behind the security desk. Moon hissed and chased him but did not follow him into the off-limits area. “Kids are not allowed behind the security desk!” Gregory called, “Make me!” The Daycare Attendant growled and stalked back and forth in front of the desk. Gregory looked at the desk and found the Freddy head contraption with a security cap. He pressed its nose. It opened enough for him to snatch the security card. A flashlight–a real

The intercom stated, “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for visiting and we hope you enjoyed the show! Have an awesome night, and we’ll see you again soon!” Gregory looked over his dark, sparkly surroundings. The lights above were dark, and the neon lights of the gang’s faces and various symbols didn’t spread much multicolor light very far. A couple of wet floor sign bots with glowing circle eyes watched him at the end of the hall by a set of closed shutters, giving him a warning of where to stop. The light spilling out from Chica, Monty, Roxy, and Freddy’s rooms was enough to light his immediate path. He clicked the back of his cupcake. Its eyes glowed, giving about as much light as the maintenance light in Monty’s maintenance room, but less concentrated. Ah, this wasn’t going to get annoying fast. Gregory approached Chica’s door. He decided to click off the light. It needed to cycle through the purple light before shutting off. Something flashed on the door as he did so. Gregory raised

Light and heat blasted into him as he stepped out through the threshold. He blinked and jolted. A lady with a fluffy red-and-white dog wearing a “DO NOT PET” vest passed him from the elevator they just left. Gregory gasped as Bonnie fell from his grasp. He picked him up, finding his coat–clean and free from garbage–tied around his waist. His arm was still bandaged. Gregory put a hand on his face, a bandage there, too. His fingers pushed up his Monty Gator glasses. “You’re kinda in the way,” someone told him. Gregory stepped sideways out of the path of the elevator. Bonnie? Is this real? “I… don’t… know…?” Gregory checked his pocket. He found the golf score sheet as well as the Party Pass he had brought in from home. So, he had not gone golfing with Monty that night and thus did not give his Party Pass to the ticket bot. However, he had his golf score sheet… with Monty’s signature and note. In his glasses, the chat log and cameras were empty. The time was six pm. Okay, so, we tried to

With no other way down, Gregory made his way back up the vent system and to the West Arcade security room. He didn’t bother to replace the vent register once he was back on two feet. He grabbed the security badge almost as an afterthought. Monty met him in the security room. Gregory said, “Even if she’s not there, I think just going there will attract her.”­ Monty walked with him out into the arcade. “That sounds right, Little guy.” Then, the lights and music went out–all of the lights, save for Monty’s eye lights. Gregory gasped and bristled. Monty froze in place. “Oh no.” Monty took Gregory’s hand and kept moving through the silent, dark arcade maze. Gregory squeaked and hid behind Monty as he saw two lavender disks begin to glow a few yards away. They stopped. He turned his flashlight up onto orange and yellow and red plastic and a shiny black bowtie and hat, cyan claws, a studded wristband, and white fangs that still gleamed despite how scuffed the rest of him had become. Monty

Bonnie? Are you there? “Gregory! Gregory, are you okay?! I was calling and calling but you weren’t answering! Where were you?!” Gregory walked through the kitchen just skirting the security office. It’s a long story. “We’ve got a while between now and Parts and Service. You did convince Chica to come to Parts and Service, right?” Uh… yeah. I hope so. But you got a point. Gregory walked into the security office and picked the glamrock rabbit up off the desk. For a long moment, he simply stood there, hugging Bonnie tight to his chest and getting his breathing under control. Okay. Let me make sure power is on at Parts and Service first. When Gregory went to check the power, “PARTS AND SERVICE”, “CUPCAKE FACTORY”, “WEST ARCADE”, “FAZER BLAST”, and “KITCHEN” glowed green. TIME UNTIL NEXT RESET: 0:15 Weirdly, Gregory didn’t feel that much of a sense of urgency. The time had changed recently. But time didn’t move like it should in the Pizzaplex. So it could be that fifteen minutes would pass

Chica’s Cupcake Factory was on the second floor. The stairs weren’t extremely close to Bonnie’s Bowling, but there was one measly security bot patrolling there and Gregory managed to get by on foot. The walkway was long and fairly barren with just a few electronic stands and a couple of kiddie rocket rides and advertisements filling the place. He walked through a set of shutters. A couple of S.T.A.F.F. security bots roamed the shiny tile floor of the dining area around the kitchen building. Beyond that, through a door, was the factory itself with a giant cupcake and conveyor belts. Gregory slipped into the kitchen. Nine inactive kitchen bots stood around. Near the door was a list of random stuff, and then a website for online ordering of cupcakes. That sort of sounded like the online pizza delivery, didn’t it? He looked over the list more closely and found plenty of phrases referring to delivery, in-factory baking, personalized ingredients, and controlling the bots. On the right wall

Monty met him in the space before Fazer Blast. Gregory exclaimed, “That’s five! So, we only need two more: the one from the maze and the dance place! Since the maze is right next to Parts and Service, that’ll be the easiest to get to. So, I’m thinking we can go there first. What about you?” Monty nodded. “Eh, yeah, that’s true, Little guy. We will need to go there, eventually. May as well go now.” Gregory’s eyebrows furrowed. “What’s wrong?” “There are… it’s a pretty dangerous place,” Monty admitted. “You jus’ need to be cautious is all.” Gregory chuckled. “It’s funny hearing you say ‘cautious’. You normally just charge into things.” “Heh. Yeah. Yeah! C’mon! Let’s do this thing!” Monty’s reluctance faded and he tipped his head up and lashed his tail. Gregory’s eyes brightened and he followed Monty back to the stage lift. The lift sank beneath the atrium. Taking the first turn on the right, he found a large break in the wall leading to another light-bricked hallway with lime trimming.

Gregory sank down to the floor of the charging station, Bonnie hugged tight to his chest. The impermeable wall he’d built and had been keeping together all night with glue and sand finally broke and as much as he tried, he couldn’t slow down the sobs that raked his pitiful little body. He scrubbed the back of his hand against his face, and he tried to take deep breaths. But he couldn’t stop his stupid hiccupping and gasping, and he still tasted the salty tang of tears that spilled over his dirty cheeks. “Everything will be okay. Parts and Service is right through there. That’s where we want to go, anyway, right?” Gregory sniffled. That jester thing hurt him! What if he’s hurt worse? “I’m sure he’ll be fine. He’s a big bot that can take a bit of a fall. I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear you’re okay.” It’s my fault he’s there. “No. Moon was going to attack you, and Monty wouldn’t allow it. You couldn’t help that. You hid, and that was the right thing to do. When you’re ready, we’ll go

Gregory walked straight into a huge, dark room made into a winding hallway by huge shipping containers with Freddy’s face on them. Smaller boxes, containers, forklifts, and port-o-potties forced him into walking in a zig-zag path. Gregory set down Bonnie, pulled off his coat, and tied it around his neck like a cape. He reached for Bonnie and hesitated upon seeing his still neatly wrapped and tied bandages, compared to the messier wrapping on his other arm. Gregory picked up Bonnie and continued moving. He finally got to the back wall with more equipment. He froze upon hearing Roxy’s voice. “Are you lost?” It was high and sounded genuine, but he knew better. He snuck up to the metal door and set his ear to it. He could hear metal footsteps, but they were far away. After a breath, he opened the door. The occasional light from the wall or ceiling shed a pool of light upon the wall and ground. However, he could barely see the crates–some covered, some not, all of varying sizes–and pallets

They walked straight back through the kitchen–Gregory hiding in Monty to evade Chica–and through a few doors and hallways clustered with boxes and shelving units. A recharging station pressed up against a corner beside a huge, industrial elevator. It opened from the middle like a set of jaws, its tooth-shaped, double-layered metal doors opening at a delay to one another to allow them entrance. Roxy had vanished from the atrium floor when they came back, which was good for him, he supposed. But at the same time, he had no clue where she was, now. Monty said as they walked, “You can get to the Prize Counter through the Super Starcade, which is locked tight. So, you’ll get through El Chips. But the fire escape should be right next to the Prize Counter. We got this.” They climbed up a set of escalators to the carpeted first-floor balcony. El Chips, Gregory found, was on the third-floor balcony in the middle of the east wing. Stairs. Why couldn’t the Starcade be on the first or even second