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(Previously in TS: Springtrap, our antagonist, just had his way with a helpless Flare whom was forced to endure his advances only to end up Liking it and wanting more but as Flare was released {in more than one way ;D} she was compelled to draw closer to Springtrap on her own free will instead of escaping... Now it seems the only way for Flare to escape our antagonist is through a slow and twisted demise...)

**Rated R content ahead: extreme violence, language**

I was in a frozen state of shock, like a deer getting caught in the headlights of a speeding big rig. I had no time to react to this animatronic horror as it began to choke me to death. My spine was arched back painfully as my head looked straight up into Springtrap’s crazed eyes, staring into me with those fucking black holes and dead-centered pinpricks. His mouth gradually started to hang open, showing the very dead corpse's brownish gray chin illuminated faintly under the depraved rabbits square-ish teeth. My poor heart dropped like a rock by the sudden and vicious act of his. The shameful thoughts I had imagined just moments before burned a hole into my moral. An unimaginable demonic gravel-like laugh was rebounding around the room as Springtrap held his head over mine like he had always enjoyed. I tried to break a desperate scream as I urgently kicked and writhed about under his straddle, “This is YOUR doom, sweetieeee!!” His thumbs and fingertips dug into my neck as he extruded crushing and brutal pressure to my windpipe at the end of his sentence. I was clawing at his head, yanking at wires and trying to rip anything I could from his mechanical body as my lungs began to burn. I couldn’t swallow and the stress of his grip made my eyes feel like they were going to burst out. I was drowning in panic as I sat there, my efforts of escape slowly winding down, watching that nightmare enjoy squeezing every last bit of goddamn life out of me. Squeaking and choking horribly, I kept mouthing pleases and whys to that creature of hell as my hands were weakly

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gripping around his cold wrists. Excruciating ringing in my ears began to overlap any fragment of noise around me. Springtrap wasn’t talking anymore, he was just shrieking and laughing in a malice filled gutted metal tone that slowly started to fade out.

The darkness that had haunted me all throughout my time there began maliciously closing in. I wasn’t going to give in even though my lungs were shriveling up inside my chest cavity and my heart was palpitating wildly. I came this far and I wasn’t going to let this place be my grave. ‘FUCK YOU!!!’ I kept screaming in my head as I gagged on my own throat. This had to be the worst way anyone could possibly die. One of my greatest fears of dying was either falling out of the sky in a plane crash or drowning, but now I wish I had those kinds of luxuries. I didn’t have the panic stricken sudden death of a plane nor the option to fill my lungs with water and blackout. I had to wait for death by the hands of a sadistic, lurid being, and there wasn’t a fucking thing I could do about it! My thoughts were slurring and my vision was deteriorating away like a sad memory as the last thing I would see on this gorgeous Earth was his Fucking FACE. My chest seized as my stomach spasmmed with the last of my energy. Just like that, the darkness that loomed behind my animatronic doom had finally swallowed me whole.

Death had never been one of my favorite subjects to ponder, let alone talk about. The times that I did, I would think the action of dying itself was the worst part of death and then it would all be peaceful as if the terror and pain had never happened. TV movies and books would constantly repeat the same cliché “Go to the light”, well… There was no Fucking light. There was no “my life flashed before my eyes”, no judgment or heavens horns blaring in the background, or even the flames from the pit of hell tearing open. Death wasn’t peaceful or dramatic. It was as if a DVD player was permanently stuck on the ‘loop’ button, playing the last few hours of your life before it all goes to shit. God, why?? That stupid crazed smile, those stomach-turning sockets, the distorted static in his voice. Even in death, I couldn’t escape his torment and mockery! Phantoms of the old Fazbear entertainment animatronics whirled around twisted images of their former selves before me. Damaged and smoke stained bodies all while having the same petrifying eyes as him. My life on the show stage, apprehended once more by the golden nightmare that had put me in this place full of inhuman screams and terrors, all in discorded shrieking and thundering

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“It’s me”

“It’s me”

"It’s me”

Time skipped around until my killer was hunched over my body and terrifyingly throttles me all over again. I could still very clearly smell that awful sickly sharp honey odor of his suit along with the scent of my violated sex on his mechanical fingers that were frigidly wrapped around my small throat. This wasn’t the hell everyone was told to fear and avoid at all costs. This was something far worse than any fictitious pitchforked and horns boogieman could ever come up with. I was in a dark place of endless looping in time.

“It’s me”

I continued to hear in ear splitting, warped bellows.

“It’s me. It’s ME”

Growing deafening in my ears, I experienced my life draining from my body. Looking helplessly in the distorted face of Springtrap as he leaned in closer, his jaw unhinging open inches away from my head. Before his skewered and petrified face touched mine, I had experienced my death all over again but only now, everything had become silent and void of anything. Alone… The one single sensation that had encompassed my poor soul was a biting cold draft that enveloped me. Then out of the pervasive black emptiness of nowhere, a calm and metallic groan whispered,

“It’s me, sweetie...”

My body heaves up abruptly as my heart pounds madly against my sweat soaked chest. My eyes open wide but nothing registers to me until my ears pick up on a rhythmic tiny beeping coming from behind. Quiet talking and the pitter-pattering of rushing feet come from all sides as I blink away the artificial lights blurring my vision. “A… a-am

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I…?” I stammer out weakly as I find myself sitting up in a sterilized and over washed white bed. Coarse knitted blankets cover the lower half of my body as off white curtains hang down from the ceiling that encapsulate me in a false sense of privacy. Bulky and somewhat dated machines surrounds the head of my bed like concerned family members, telling me my vital signs and beeping reassuringly. A hollow feeling deep within my chest suddenly grips me in this moment of reality shock as it then drops down into my stomach. I lurch over the bed and grab at a small white bucket and puke my guts out. Some of my stomach’s juices leak into my nasal cavity and messes up the oxygen ‘nose-hose’ attached to my face.

Gasping and spitting, I yank the uncomfortable contraption out of my nostrils as it was keeping some of my stomach acid from coming out. I unsteadily clutch the bucket, “Oh… Oh god… I’m not dead…!” I snort and wipe away the drool that glossed over my mouth and chin, looking at slurry of off yellow-orange fluids swirling in the bucket. “Eh…” I tuck the bucket of puke between the beds side rails and my body. Blinking and hunching over, I take my folded legs into my arms and compress them tightly against my chest. I fight hard not to ball like a baby as a well of strange emotions wash over me all at once. Goose bumps break out over my body as a deep groan of the AC kicks on above me. Sounds of high heel shoes clop about while spongy moans of other people in pain fill the air. I stare into the blackness of my embraced legs as I try to recall what the hell happened. All I can come up with is a giant “fuck-you” blank and those words that I had dreamt about moments earlier, still fresh in my mind. ‘What the fuck is going on??’

The curtains of my makeshift room sling open as I raise my head to be met with a slightly annoyed looking woman. “Oh dear, you’re finally awake…” She sneers from between obnoxious red lipstick and teased up blond hair. Slightly in shock, I profusely apologize to her about the mess I had spit up into the bucket beside me. She calls in a short ethnic woman dressed in a rubber apron and giant rubber gloves who takes the puke bucket and places it into a sealed large biohazard bag and walks away. The full figured woman yanks a clipboard from off the end of the bed and begins writing; looking up at the monitors every few seconds as she explains to me in an unfamiliar Tennessee-like accent, “It’s alright. It’s normal for people to become sick after being exposed to carbon monoxide poisoning.” She turns her sharp chin and smiles something

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fake at me, “I’ll go inform yer rowdy people you’re up now,” and floats away.
I kick the blankets off my legs, expressing my disdain for this place when I jump at the sound of David’s and Van’s voices shrieking as they bust in through the side curtains.

“Oh God!” I shout, “Careful! I might spew all over ya.” I couldn’t help but joke.

“How are you feeling Flare?? Are you okay?! Shit! You scared us both! You were knocked the fuck out!” David’s sailor talk blurts out causing Van to punch him in the arm.

“Shut up David, she’s stressed enough as it is! She doesn’t need to hear your dumb questions.”

Still being a little delusional, I had to ask my own dumb question, “Uh… Heh well… What happened?”

David glares at Van with his blue eyes and rubs his tattooed arm and grumbles then full on explains, “You see… I went to go find help for you when my car broke down halfway to the town so I had to walk on foot to find someone. There was like no one for I don’t know how far I walked until I saw a red engine headed towards me and I waved it down. ‘She needs the jaws of life!’ I said and told them where you were trapped but we got lost and had to stop half a dozen times for deer crossing the road. There were soooo many deer! I was like ‘what the fuck is this??’ And the firemen, they all agreed they never seen anything like it either!”

I groan and let myself fall back onto the uncomfortably soft bed. Van, with his longish black hair and rather depressing eyes jumps in and butts David out, “They say you were poisoned by a faulty water heater pipe leaking carbon monoxide and passed out. We don’t know how but you’d gained crazy strength because you, from where David said you were trapped, made it all the way to the main room of that place before you became confused and trashed it then collapsed onto a stage.”

David shoves Van away to cling to the edge of the bed and continues the story, “Dude, Flare! They said you had made it all the way to the room that was boarded up and started going insane! There were like scratch marks everywhere in that room like you tried to claw your way out. But then you found your way and climbed onto the stage and tried to strip your clothes off when you practically strangled yourself on some low hanging wires and passed out! I mean thank someone we busted in just in time!”

Van folds his lean arms, commenting, “Barely.”

He was never the one to exaggerate the details of anything and tells it like it is. The whole story they related to me seemed alien and unbelievable but for some reason, I myself couldn’t grasp ahold of the truth. Something happened in that Pizzeria that had singed a hole in

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the deepest and darkest part of my being, like a repressed memory… What was it? All I was able to remember was going to that creepy ass building and finding a creepy ass animatronic that David and I were trying to haul away before I became trapped in a smaller than hell room. Van leans in to take my hand, drawing me out of my mind as I feel the warmth of his callused fingers. He was wearing a black collared shirt with dark baggy jeans, his long hair hung in his face as he says to me in a concerned tone, “Flare… You were dead for almost 5 minuets… The doctors said you would have brain damage if you came to…”

A hard chill cracks up my spine. Hearing and repeating those distressing words, “I was dead?!?”

I frantically eye them both, their heads looking down at the floor awkwardly and nodding. I gulp, feeling the lump in my throat rub painfully against my hurt neck. David looks the most distressed out of the two. He tries to hold back his tears as his voice wavers, “I… I’m so sorry Flare…! I almost got you killed!”

I shake my head and try to play it off, “Dying? Naa heh, it's not a big deal... I mean how much worse could being dead be?” I weakly smile only to realize how dark my joke really was.

Wanting to change the subject, David blurts out, “So! Um… now that Flare is okay, I’m going to go to that pizzeria and pick up that Bonnie guy before word gets out!” A hiccup escapes my sore throat as I just stare dead at them both, not moving or thinking.

“Yeah…" Van dejectedly sighs, "Go ahead and get that thing, we’re gonna need the cash to pay for this hospital bill…” David’s face beams wide as he rushes out, his boots stomping away from us leaving Van and myself there, alone.

“He must be retarded or something…” Van quietly laughs, his soft pale, hazel eyes looking at me, “His SUV is in the shop still… He’s stuck here over night.”

A random orange stand of hair falls across the bridge of my nose as I say almost out of instinct, “Where’s my truck?”

He eases himself against the bed, making it creak and slightly roll. Van scratches the back of his neck and clears his hushed voice, “Well… It’s here. After the firemen called for an ambulance, they let David call for a wrecker and me. So I had my little sister drive me to the pizzeria. We actually got lost a few times too, heh. David was right about that place being hard to find even With my map… Anyway, she dropped me off and me and David took your truck to go where his SUV was and waited for the wrecker to come by and pick his car up.”

“What happened?”

Van pauses and gives me an ill at ease laugh, “Don’t know! David said he swerved to avoid a deer but I know he’s lying… He looked more… troubled than

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just ‘missing’ a deer in the road but he wouldn’t talk about it when I kept asking so, I just dropped it. But anyway, we came back here to see how you were doing.” I sigh, cupping my neck and wincing at the bruising pain. Van turns his upper body around and he gravely stares at me if only for a moment, “You had me- Us worried sick! The white coats had to put you into a hyperbolic oxygen tank for 10 hours... We couldn’t even see you until just 2 hours ago. David was making such a racket, giving it good to a poor blond in scrubs.” I shake my head, smiling a bit as Van lulls, “We’ll be going home soon Flare, as soon as the people release you, we’ll leave.”

‘Leave and go home? That is such a comforting thought.’ “Good… I wanna get out of here ASAP…”

“Whaaaat? Too bright and cheery for you?” Van winks at me and laughs. I try to join in the humor but my throat chokes up and I cough instead. “Try to take it easy.” Van stands up straight, patting my leg reassuringly and walks out, leaving me with an all too familiar feeling.

I relax, now wanting the bleached icky blankets. I reach down to grab and throw them over my chilled body. ‘This paper dress doesn’t exactly cut it for keeping warm.’ I chuckle as I turn to lie on my left side when something sharp and unpleasant pokes at my stomach making me flinch away as I bring my arm up. “What…?” I question as I examine my poor looking watch. It was broken. The digital green screen was cracked and bleeding, now totally useless to tell time but the smaller traditional inner watch was perfectly fine. 2:50am it read as I tap the face a couple of times. The clocks hands were stuck in that position, making me groan. The outer sides of my wristwatch seem crushed in as if someone squeezed it too hard as I notice my wrist was bruised as well. ‘Maybe the firemen accidentally broke it when they were handling me?’ I lay my hand next to my head as I close my eyes to try and rest like Van had recommended. My hair is matted and greasy feeling and my skin feels like someone had rolled me around in dry dirt. Annoyed, I shift heavily to lie on my back, throwing my arm across my face to shield my tired mind from the penetrating light above. “I feel gross…” I complain to nobody as I try to fall asleep.

***

After a few tests and wasting half of my day, I walk out of the pasty building to find that it’s already nighttime. Surprisingly, most of the parking lot was still full of cars as large polls guarded over them like sentries of light. 'This place really is a money maker machine...' I thought to myself as I glance around, smelling soft arbor foliage of the dampened night. Van calls to me from my left and quickly strides up, eyeing me somewhat, “Wow… You look almost like someone gave it to you good in an ally way.”

I girlly punch his arm, “You’re horrible!” We

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laugh as he puts his arm around my shoulders and guides me to a strange looking truck. I pause in mid step, blinking at the vehicle. Van stops and gives me a bewildered look, “You okay there, kiddo?”

I shake my head, “Dude, that isn’t my truck…”

Van laughs out loud, “It is! You must have amnesia of some sort! That’s so cute hahaha!” The overpaid professionals had indeed informed me of some side effects from being dead for 4 and a half minutes. They ranged from mild to extreme headaches and heart palpitations to short and or long-term memory loss. My face flushes as I watch him raise his arm, holding my keychain between his fingers. He presses the key button where 2 short beeps call out from the vehicle. I can’t believe I have forgotten about my own truck but then again, I still don’t believe much of what has been happening so far.

I open the dented door to the passenger side as Van walks to the driver’s door. Climbing in I brush aside the map and strap the seat belt around my chest. My body stiffens suddenly and my heart starts beating erratically as a sick feeling drips down my being. I shake my head and swiftly move under the belt strap, letting out a long sigh as I enjoy my panic rapidly disappear. ‘No one mentioned to me that there would be panic attacks.’ My stomach grumbles as I slump into the vinyl seat, watching Van try to find the ignition switch.

The truck's smell of faded pine arousal combined with some sort of gooseberry triggers my weak memory that puts a comforting smile on my face. I remembered how David, Van and I had to squeeze into my tiny truck after coming back from a hot day of playing soccer. After that, the smell of our bodies stained the seats and forever forced me to use fake scents to cover up the lingering odor. I look out the window as we drove away with a rumble from the institutionalized place of birth and death and onto a main road. I jump a bit as I see a bruised and deeply black band around my neck in the reflection of the window that gave the illusion I was decapitated, “Is it my amnesia or do I really not recall the town ever having such a big hospital in it?” I finish, staring blankly at my neck. In the background the road was populated by busy structures and bright orange streetlights that fought away the encumbering darkness the autumn night.

“Naa… They had to take you to the next town about an hour away from that place… You might’ve drove by it though. It’ll probably take us an hour to get back to our town at least.” Van explains with a small grimace, his face being illuminated by the dashboard, “And even then, it will take another 25 minuets to get to our neighborhood…” I glance over at the middle consul to see it was

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already 10pm. Shrugging, I regret how far away I lived. I sink further into my seat and fold my arms as I close my weary eyes.

The ride isn’t too bad. Being jiggled and tossed around slightly rocks me to sleep and I slowly fall in to a vivid dream. I was at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza in my hometown where I was with my family, all of them, and we were sitting down watching the animatronics on stage perform. Bonnie, Freddy and Chica were bright and happy, singing their friendly songs when I had a powerful urge to go up to the stage. My adult figure shrunk down into my childhood body, leaving me to gawk up at the now gigantic furry band singing and moving stiffly. My family called for me to leave but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to move. I just gazed up at the magical performing animals. The lights on the stage were whirling about changing from green to yellow then to magenta pink as the sound of the band began to intensify. I turn around to see I was alone in the main party room. My parents and family had left without me and seemingly everyone took up and went with them. I could feel tiny ants of panic crawl into my young chest as a deep purple hued darkness surrounded the room like a slow fog creeping down a hill. A bouncy and bubbly voice then greeted me from behind, “Hey there, kid! Don’t be so sad! Your old friend Bonnie is still here, hehyahah!”

I swiveled around to find myself now 10ft away from the stage itself. A tall and partially obscured figure possessing a red glossy electric guitar towered before of me. He leaned down from his waist to welcome me with a pleasant smile as his magenta eyes twinkled cheerfully. His soft lavender colored fur pacifies my senses as he took his guitar to play an awesome rift just for me as the stage and room behind him stretch away bit by bit. The blinking and swirling of the multicolored lights amorphously dances behind him as his guitar started to distort and shift into a minor key. My vision twitched and the being in front of me jerked in a frightening manor. Bonnie’s face was now illuminated and he uncomfortably insisted himself further into my field of sight while with every twitch and static like spasm, his light purple fur transformed into a dark yellowish green color. The guitar playing became a screeching discord of tangled strings as the poor rabbit blinked out of existence and revealed a vastly different animatronic; one which sported a wide human-like grin. The yellow mechanical bunny’s body flicked up straight as its figure was only outlined by the tall darkness it stood against. Bending its neck

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painfully to the side, its two yellow ringed costume eyes blinked and changed into small white glowing dots set amid empty holes when it harshly shrieked down at me in a deep computerized, morbid rasp,

“I always have been!!”

A loud garble like screeching jolts me out of my dream in a fright. My heart beats in my rib cage like a trapped animal as I stare wide-eyed at Van abusing my radios dial, “Heh…” He clicks it off, “Sorry I startled you from your sleep, Flare…” Van looks at me twice, “You okay there?”

My body shivers as I swallow, whincing at the slight pain of my throat and sinking back into the grayish seat of the truck, “Y-yeah… just… scared me…” I trail off, my eyes on the road in front of us. We head down a 2 way street as tall trees and sparse houses zipped by. The dim orange streetlights blink by with bands of darkness in between. My over used eyes bounce around the inside of the truck noting the passed time and looks through the rearview mirror when we suddenly hit a deep pot hole in the road making the truck rock violently. Van spits out a surprised curse word as I regain my attention to the road. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch something poking out the back of my truck through the rearview mirror. I squint in the dim light to focus on it. A heavily ragged and a dull colored thing pokes out from the back, swaying with the bounce and movement of the truck. Just then, a band of darkness passes over us and whatever I saw disappears as the light once more fills the bed. I rub my eyes with balled up hands. I was about to open my mouth and say something when we pull into a dark driveway. Van turns off the truck and sits back.

“Well, here we are.” He sighs smoothly as he clicks his seatbelt.

‘Home? I can’t remember…’ I lean into the dashboard and gawk at the partially blacked out two story house, whining, “I don’t… I don’t remember!” Tears annoyingly try to push their way out again. I cup my face to hide my sudden confused mood swing, feeling my face hot against my cold hands.

“Don’t- heyyy, don’t worry Flare.” His hand rubs my back, “It’ll be fine… I’ll stay with you until you feel comfortable if you want.” Van tries to reassure me in my fragile state. I sniffle and lift my head to give him a fleeting smile; it’s still awfully dark. “Come on now…” He awkwardly smiles back as I reluctantly nod. It’s so frustrating not being able to remember where you lived even though you can remember where you came from. Home is suppose to give you a safe place to retreat to at the end of the day

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but something so simple as that, something we all take for granted, I just couldn’t find that same retreat. I take the metal handle to open my trucks door when it stubbornly refuses to comply, alarming me. Feeling a great need to escape, I jiggle and push against it frantically. Van bounds and opens the troublesome door, throwing me off balance and onto his chest. “Hey hey, calm down silly. It’s okay heh… Your door sometimes does that.”

I look up at him; my face tingles as I try composing myself, “I’m still a little frazzled.” I sheepishly explain away. ‘Was that another panic attack?’ I thought, dreading if this will be a new thing for me to deal with in my already stressful life. I carefully step down from the truck and onto the concrete driveway. Sliding off of the seat, I glance over into the trucks bed. A large blue plastic tarp covered the whole of the floor while a few random items were strewn about it. I remember laying on that tarp and looking up at the stars when I was waiting for David to show up last night. As I turn my head, I thought I saw the plastic shift slowly up when a sudden blast of cool air gusts out of nowhere, making my long orange hair blow all over the place. “Let’s g-get inside, I’m freezing…!” I rub my bare upper arms. ‘Where’s my jacket?’ I wonder to myself. Van shoots me a weird look as he swings the trucks door shut.

“Let’s go then.” He says lightly as I follow close behind him.

The 26-year-old unlocks the wooden door to the house I supposedly live in and helps me through the darkness of the entrance. Van guides me in the stillness of the house until he stops and turns on a lamp light, which did a poor job of lighting up the wide open living area. I stand in one spot, not knowing what do to, like one would when visiting a stranger’s home. “Go on Flare, sit and get comfy, I’ll make you some tea.” Van calmly coos, grabbing a black remote and turning on the not so flashy TV planted against a bare wall. He disappears from my side and leaves me alone in the room. I look about myself as the TV somewhat helping to illuminate the furniture. A small wooden table stands in front of the television while a 3-seater crème colored cloth couch stood behind it where other matching ez-chairs accompanied it. I chose to park myself on the middle couch. Its soft cushions cup my worn out body and allowed me to melt into it. I can vaguely remember this place though it didn’t bring back anything worthwhile, just lazy days on Sundays. Wetting my lips, I tilt my head down and stare at my jeans noticing some fluff on the sides of my inner thighs. I pick at the tiny and numerous fibers off of my jeans distractedly.

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Van returns with a welcoming cup of green tea. We chat a bit and talk about nothing as I sip my hot refreshment and settle into the weird house. “So… can I ask you a question?” Van asks in a mild tone as he sits up in the easy chair next to me. I blow on the steam rising from the mug.

“Sure.”

Van takes a while to start talking again, shifting and fiddling with his rings, “Well… What was it like?” He quietly questions. I pause mid sip. “You know… When you were-”

“Dead?” I finish. With a tight shrug, I continue, “I don’t really remember much of it… I know that it wasn’t like anything people say it is. I didn’t see a light at the end of a tunnel or memories of my life playing. I was…” I dawdle, the right side of my head pulses sharply as I try to force an unwilling memory come back to me. “I was just in a dark place but I could still feel things, not solid things. Just changes in space… It was cold and- and I remember hearing a voice…” Van was leaning into the arm of his chair now, obviously curious and enthralled in my recollection.

“Was it God?” He elongated, making my throat tickle with laugher. Van clears his throat of his humor and asks, “Do you remember what it said or…?”

I reach over to put the mug on the clear coffee table. Even with a good laugh, my appetite was still unstable. Rotating the glistening white cup in the constant slew of changing colors from the quiet TV, I examine it empty mindedly. I open my mouth, “I heard… ‘It’s me’ or something like that.” I lean back into the couch, feeling a troubling out of place comfort warm my heart as the pain in my head moves between my eyes and nose.

“Was it scary?” He inquires.

I turn and offer him a believable smile; “I don’t remember feeling anything other than emptiness and coldness. No fear, no loneliness, nothing.” The stabbing ache in my head came back with a pulsing vengeance as I rub my forehead and groan. “Hey?… Is it cool if we not talk about this right now, please? My head is starting to pound…” The longhaired man nods his head and suggests letting me be.

***

In the upstairs bedroom I called my own, I cuddle with my purple body pillow as I run my eyes around the room, looking at decorations that adorn its walls. Desks and dressers had little stuffed bunnies on top of them and pictures accompanied their presence. Old rock posters lined up on the wall as I remember the times I had been to their concerts with my friends long ago. Lying in bed, I relate the conversation I had before Van took his leave.

“Are you guys going to go back to the Pizzeria?”

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“Of course. David will be there before me but I’ll update you with what we find tomorrow.”

“Good… Cuz I think I left my jacket in there and heh, as much as that place wanted to kill me, we need that animatronic. David said he’s like worth more than a quarter million dollars! I can remember that much!”

“I heard.”

“Ha! Don’t let that thing get to you. He’s one hell of a freaky looking MOFO! Let’s hope he hasn’t just walked away.”

“It would be a shame if it did, but if you ask me… That thing’s not worth the trouble it put you through…”

“Please…! With how much he could be worth? I’m sure I would be willing to suffer through much more than that to get $350,000 in cash any day!”

“Well please, get some rest. I’ve already taken care of informing your boss of your tardiness… Unfortunately she said it would be counted against you as vacation days…”

“Ugh… To hell with that place… Might as well look for another job while I’m house bound.”

“I’m sorry Flare… But hey? You have mine and David’s number in your homes speed dial. If you need me just call me. I’ll be here for you…”

“Hehe, I will and thanks again for helping me… Heh, see you tomorrow Van!”

“G’night Flare.”

***

I turn to my side as the memories about this place trickles back to me piece by piece. Sighing, I close my eyes in the soothingly dark room and curl up in warm blankets. My body was fighting my brain to fall asleep but my mind kept churning about what had transpired that day at the Pizzeria. ‘How come I can remember so vividly about the place before David left me alone to go get help?’ Images of the rundown establishment play through my numbing head as I desperately search my brain for explanations. ‘Why do I keep getting a weird uneasy and comforting feeling when I try to recall all of this?’ The animatronic rabbit had scared me good a couple of times but still. A deep tense and hollow feeling carves into my chest as I remember that old Golden Bonnie but I feel fuzzy inside too. It’s maddening! Like trying to recall a familiar yet out of reach memory of a dream. ‘I’ve been here before but what happened?’ I bring my body pillow closer, holding it between my legs as I lightly rock against it.

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From behind the darkness of my eyes, I faintly hear a light hissing sound that was slightly pulsing around the room as a cold draft of air licks at my bare arm and cheek. ‘Must be the AC kicking on.’ I think to myself, still not sure how the house actually sounds. As I slowly lift up my heavy eyelids for no particular reason, a chilling shutter spills over my body. One of the rock n’ roll posters that adorns the wall had changed into a black portrait of a fringed looking figure with small white dots for eyes and white blockish teeth that curved into a disturbing smile. Petrified, my chest tightens up and a light sweat covers my body. It frighteningly stares at me for the longest time before some car’s headlights travels in through the window behind me and passes across my room, seemingly erasing the unnerving image from the wall. For a few tense seconds, I intensely watch the poster with wide eyes, as it now resembles more of a punk rock group than something nightmare conceiving. “I’m so tired…” I remark to myself as a soft warbling noise whistles in the background. I thought I heard something shift beside the bed so I hastily roll over to the far side of it closest to the window. My back tingles and heart pounds as I try to sink into my mattress, ‘It’s just a panic attack…’ Balling up my fists up in my covers, I bury my nose away from an awful sweet odor as I anxiously wait for my consciousness to finally drift fall to sleep.

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“... I am still here, sweetie..."

(end)

Description
(Previously in TS: Springtrap, our antagonist, just had his way with a helpless Flare whom was forced to endure his advances only to end up Liking it and wanting more but as Flare was released {in more than one way ;D} she was compelled to draw closer to Springtrap on her own free will instead of escaping... Now it seems the only way for Flare to escape our antagonist is through a slow and twisted demise...)

**Rated R content ahead: extreme violence, language**

I was in a frozen state of shock, like a deer getting caught in the headlights of a speeding big rig. I had no time to react to this animatronic horror as it began to choke me to death. My spine was arched back painfully as my head looked straight up into Springtrap’s crazed eyes, staring into me with those fucking black holes and dead-centered pinpricks. His mouth gradually started to hang open, showing the very dead corpse's brownish gray chin illuminated faintly under the depraved rabbits square-ish teeth. My poor heart dropped like a rock by the sudden and vicious act of his. The shameful thoughts I had imagined just moments before burned a hole into my moral. An unimaginable demonic gravel-like laugh was rebounding around the room as Springtrap held his head over mine like he had always enjoyed. I tried to break a desperate scream as I urgently kicked and writhed about under his straddle, “This is YOUR doom, sweetieeee!!” His thumbs and fingertips dug into my neck as he extruded crushing and brutal pressure to my windpipe at the end of his sentence. I was clawing at his head, yanking at wires and trying to rip anything I could from his mechanical body as my lungs began to burn. I couldn’t swallow and the stress of his grip made my eyes feel like they were going to burst out. I was drowning in panic as I sat there, my efforts of escape slowly winding down, watching that nightmare enjoy squeezing every last bit of goddamn life out of me. Squeaking and choking horribly, I kept mouthing pleases and whys to that creature of hell as my hands were weakly

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gripping around his cold wrists. Excruciating ringing in my ears began to overlap any fragment of noise around me. Springtrap wasn’t talking anymore, he was just shrieking and laughing in a malice filled gutted metal tone that slowly started to fade out.

The darkness that had haunted me all throughout my time there began maliciously closing in. I wasn’t going to give in even though my lungs were shriveling up inside my chest cavity and my heart was palpitating wildly. I came this far and I wasn’t going to let this place be my grave. ‘FUCK YOU!!!’ I kept screaming in my head as I gagged on my own throat. This had to be the worst way anyone could possibly die. One of my greatest fears of dying was either falling out of the sky in a plane crash or drowning, but now I wish I had those kinds of luxuries. I didn’t have the panic stricken sudden death of a plane nor the option to fill my lungs with water and blackout. I had to wait for death by the hands of a sadistic, lurid being, and there wasn’t a fucking thing I could do about it! My thoughts were slurring and my vision was deteriorating away like a sad memory as the last thing I would see on this gorgeous Earth was his Fucking FACE. My chest seized as my stomach spasmmed with the last of my energy. Just like that, the darkness that loomed behind my animatronic doom had finally swallowed me whole.

Death had never been one of my favorite subjects to ponder, let alone talk about. The times that I did, I would think the action of dying itself was the worst part of death and then it would all be peaceful as if the terror and pain had never happened. TV movies and books would constantly repeat the same cliché “Go to the light”, well… There was no Fucking light. There was no “my life flashed before my eyes”, no judgment or heavens horns blaring in the background, or even the flames from the pit of hell tearing open. Death wasn’t peaceful or dramatic. It was as if a DVD player was permanently stuck on the ‘loop’ button, playing the last few hours of your life before it all goes to shit. God, why?? That stupid crazed smile, those stomach-turning sockets, the distorted static in his voice. Even in death, I couldn’t escape his torment and mockery! Phantoms of the old Fazbear entertainment animatronics whirled around twisted images of their former selves before me. Damaged and smoke stained bodies all while having the same petrifying eyes as him. My life on the show stage, apprehended once more by the golden nightmare that had put me in this place full of inhuman screams and terrors, all in discorded shrieking and thundering

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“It’s me”

“It’s me”

"It’s me”

Time skipped around until my killer was hunched over my body and terrifyingly throttles me all over again. I could still very clearly smell that awful sickly sharp honey odor of his suit along with the scent of my violated sex on his mechanical fingers that were frigidly wrapped around my small throat. This wasn’t the hell everyone was told to fear and avoid at all costs. This was something far worse than any fictitious pitchforked and horns boogieman could ever come up with. I was in a dark place of endless looping in time.

“It’s me”

I continued to hear in ear splitting, warped bellows.

“It’s me. It’s ME”

Growing deafening in my ears, I experienced my life draining from my body. Looking helplessly in the distorted face of Springtrap as he leaned in closer, his jaw unhinging open inches away from my head. Before his skewered and petrified face touched mine, I had experienced my death all over again but only now, everything had become silent and void of anything. Alone… The one single sensation that had encompassed my poor soul was a biting cold draft that enveloped me. Then out of the pervasive black emptiness of nowhere, a calm and metallic groan whispered,

“It’s me, sweetie...”

My body heaves up abruptly as my heart pounds madly against my sweat soaked chest. My eyes open wide but nothing registers to me until my ears pick up on a rhythmic tiny beeping coming from behind. Quiet talking and the pitter-pattering of rushing feet come from all sides as I blink away the artificial lights blurring my vision. “A… a-am

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I…?” I stammer out weakly as I find myself sitting up in a sterilized and over washed white bed. Coarse knitted blankets cover the lower half of my body as off white curtains hang down from the ceiling that encapsulate me in a false sense of privacy. Bulky and somewhat dated machines surrounds the head of my bed like concerned family members, telling me my vital signs and beeping reassuringly. A hollow feeling deep within my chest suddenly grips me in this moment of reality shock as it then drops down into my stomach. I lurch over the bed and grab at a small white bucket and puke my guts out. Some of my stomach’s juices leak into my nasal cavity and messes up the oxygen ‘nose-hose’ attached to my face.

Gasping and spitting, I yank the uncomfortable contraption out of my nostrils as it was keeping some of my stomach acid from coming out. I unsteadily clutch the bucket, “Oh… Oh god… I’m not dead…!” I snort and wipe away the drool that glossed over my mouth and chin, looking at slurry of off yellow-orange fluids swirling in the bucket. “Eh…” I tuck the bucket of puke between the beds side rails and my body. Blinking and hunching over, I take my folded legs into my arms and compress them tightly against my chest. I fight hard not to ball like a baby as a well of strange emotions wash over me all at once. Goose bumps break out over my body as a deep groan of the AC kicks on above me. Sounds of high heel shoes clop about while spongy moans of other people in pain fill the air. I stare into the blackness of my embraced legs as I try to recall what the hell happened. All I can come up with is a giant “fuck-you” blank and those words that I had dreamt about moments earlier, still fresh in my mind. ‘What the fuck is going on??’

The curtains of my makeshift room sling open as I raise my head to be met with a slightly annoyed looking woman. “Oh dear, you’re finally awake…” She sneers from between obnoxious red lipstick and teased up blond hair. Slightly in shock, I profusely apologize to her about the mess I had spit up into the bucket beside me. She calls in a short ethnic woman dressed in a rubber apron and giant rubber gloves who takes the puke bucket and places it into a sealed large biohazard bag and walks away. The full figured woman yanks a clipboard from off the end of the bed and begins writing; looking up at the monitors every few seconds as she explains to me in an unfamiliar Tennessee-like accent, “It’s alright. It’s normal for people to become sick after being exposed to carbon monoxide poisoning.” She turns her sharp chin and smiles something

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fake at me, “I’ll go inform yer rowdy people you’re up now,” and floats away.
I kick the blankets off my legs, expressing my disdain for this place when I jump at the sound of David’s and Van’s voices shrieking as they bust in through the side curtains.

“Oh God!” I shout, “Careful! I might spew all over ya.” I couldn’t help but joke.

“How are you feeling Flare?? Are you okay?! Shit! You scared us both! You were knocked the fuck out!” David’s sailor talk blurts out causing Van to punch him in the arm.

“Shut up David, she’s stressed enough as it is! She doesn’t need to hear your dumb questions.”

Still being a little delusional, I had to ask my own dumb question, “Uh… Heh well… What happened?”

David glares at Van with his blue eyes and rubs his tattooed arm and grumbles then full on explains, “You see… I went to go find help for you when my car broke down halfway to the town so I had to walk on foot to find someone. There was like no one for I don’t know how far I walked until I saw a red engine headed towards me and I waved it down. ‘She needs the jaws of life!’ I said and told them where you were trapped but we got lost and had to stop half a dozen times for deer crossing the road. There were soooo many deer! I was like ‘what the fuck is this??’ And the firemen, they all agreed they never seen anything like it either!”

I groan and let myself fall back onto the uncomfortably soft bed. Van, with his longish black hair and rather depressing eyes jumps in and butts David out, “They say you were poisoned by a faulty water heater pipe leaking carbon monoxide and passed out. We don’t know how but you’d gained crazy strength because you, from where David said you were trapped, made it all the way to the main room of that place before you became confused and trashed it then collapsed onto a stage.”

David shoves Van away to cling to the edge of the bed and continues the story, “Dude, Flare! They said you had made it all the way to the room that was boarded up and started going insane! There were like scratch marks everywhere in that room like you tried to claw your way out. But then you found your way and climbed onto the stage and tried to strip your clothes off when you practically strangled yourself on some low hanging wires and passed out! I mean thank someone we busted in just in time!”

Van folds his lean arms, commenting, “Barely.”

He was never the one to exaggerate the details of anything and tells it like it is. The whole story they related to me seemed alien and unbelievable but for some reason, I myself couldn’t grasp ahold of the truth. Something happened in that Pizzeria that had singed a hole in

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the deepest and darkest part of my being, like a repressed memory… What was it? All I was able to remember was going to that creepy ass building and finding a creepy ass animatronic that David and I were trying to haul away before I became trapped in a smaller than hell room. Van leans in to take my hand, drawing me out of my mind as I feel the warmth of his callused fingers. He was wearing a black collared shirt with dark baggy jeans, his long hair hung in his face as he says to me in a concerned tone, “Flare… You were dead for almost 5 minuets… The doctors said you would have brain damage if you came to…”

A hard chill cracks up my spine. Hearing and repeating those distressing words, “I was dead?!?”

I frantically eye them both, their heads looking down at the floor awkwardly and nodding. I gulp, feeling the lump in my throat rub painfully against my hurt neck. David looks the most distressed out of the two. He tries to hold back his tears as his voice wavers, “I… I’m so sorry Flare…! I almost got you killed!”

I shake my head and try to play it off, “Dying? Naa heh, it's not a big deal... I mean how much worse could being dead be?” I weakly smile only to realize how dark my joke really was.

Wanting to change the subject, David blurts out, “So! Um… now that Flare is okay, I’m going to go to that pizzeria and pick up that Bonnie guy before word gets out!” A hiccup escapes my sore throat as I just stare dead at them both, not moving or thinking.

“Yeah…" Van dejectedly sighs, "Go ahead and get that thing, we’re gonna need the cash to pay for this hospital bill…” David’s face beams wide as he rushes out, his boots stomping away from us leaving Van and myself there, alone.

“He must be retarded or something…” Van quietly laughs, his soft pale, hazel eyes looking at me, “His SUV is in the shop still… He’s stuck here over night.”

A random orange stand of hair falls across the bridge of my nose as I say almost out of instinct, “Where’s my truck?”

He eases himself against the bed, making it creak and slightly roll. Van scratches the back of his neck and clears his hushed voice, “Well… It’s here. After the firemen called for an ambulance, they let David call for a wrecker and me. So I had my little sister drive me to the pizzeria. We actually got lost a few times too, heh. David was right about that place being hard to find even With my map… Anyway, she dropped me off and me and David took your truck to go where his SUV was and waited for the wrecker to come by and pick his car up.”

“What happened?”

Van pauses and gives me an ill at ease laugh, “Don’t know! David said he swerved to avoid a deer but I know he’s lying… He looked more… troubled than

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just ‘missing’ a deer in the road but he wouldn’t talk about it when I kept asking so, I just dropped it. But anyway, we came back here to see how you were doing.” I sigh, cupping my neck and wincing at the bruising pain. Van turns his upper body around and he gravely stares at me if only for a moment, “You had me- Us worried sick! The white coats had to put you into a hyperbolic oxygen tank for 10 hours... We couldn’t even see you until just 2 hours ago. David was making such a racket, giving it good to a poor blond in scrubs.” I shake my head, smiling a bit as Van lulls, “We’ll be going home soon Flare, as soon as the people release you, we’ll leave.”

‘Leave and go home? That is such a comforting thought.’ “Good… I wanna get out of here ASAP…”

“Whaaaat? Too bright and cheery for you?” Van winks at me and laughs. I try to join in the humor but my throat chokes up and I cough instead. “Try to take it easy.” Van stands up straight, patting my leg reassuringly and walks out, leaving me with an all too familiar feeling.

I relax, now wanting the bleached icky blankets. I reach down to grab and throw them over my chilled body. ‘This paper dress doesn’t exactly cut it for keeping warm.’ I chuckle as I turn to lie on my left side when something sharp and unpleasant pokes at my stomach making me flinch away as I bring my arm up. “What…?” I question as I examine my poor looking watch. It was broken. The digital green screen was cracked and bleeding, now totally useless to tell time but the smaller traditional inner watch was perfectly fine. 2:50am it read as I tap the face a couple of times. The clocks hands were stuck in that position, making me groan. The outer sides of my wristwatch seem crushed in as if someone squeezed it too hard as I notice my wrist was bruised as well. ‘Maybe the firemen accidentally broke it when they were handling me?’ I lay my hand next to my head as I close my eyes to try and rest like Van had recommended. My hair is matted and greasy feeling and my skin feels like someone had rolled me around in dry dirt. Annoyed, I shift heavily to lie on my back, throwing my arm across my face to shield my tired mind from the penetrating light above. “I feel gross…” I complain to nobody as I try to fall asleep.

***

After a few tests and wasting half of my day, I walk out of the pasty building to find that it’s already nighttime. Surprisingly, most of the parking lot was still full of cars as large polls guarded over them like sentries of light. 'This place really is a money maker machine...' I thought to myself as I glance around, smelling soft arbor foliage of the dampened night. Van calls to me from my left and quickly strides up, eyeing me somewhat, “Wow… You look almost like someone gave it to you good in an ally way.”

I girlly punch his arm, “You’re horrible!” We

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laugh as he puts his arm around my shoulders and guides me to a strange looking truck. I pause in mid step, blinking at the vehicle. Van stops and gives me a bewildered look, “You okay there, kiddo?”

I shake my head, “Dude, that isn’t my truck…”

Van laughs out loud, “It is! You must have amnesia of some sort! That’s so cute hahaha!” The overpaid professionals had indeed informed me of some side effects from being dead for 4 and a half minutes. They ranged from mild to extreme headaches and heart palpitations to short and or long-term memory loss. My face flushes as I watch him raise his arm, holding my keychain between his fingers. He presses the key button where 2 short beeps call out from the vehicle. I can’t believe I have forgotten about my own truck but then again, I still don’t believe much of what has been happening so far.

I open the dented door to the passenger side as Van walks to the driver’s door. Climbing in I brush aside the map and strap the seat belt around my chest. My body stiffens suddenly and my heart starts beating erratically as a sick feeling drips down my being. I shake my head and swiftly move under the belt strap, letting out a long sigh as I enjoy my panic rapidly disappear. ‘No one mentioned to me that there would be panic attacks.’ My stomach grumbles as I slump into the vinyl seat, watching Van try to find the ignition switch.

The truck's smell of faded pine arousal combined with some sort of gooseberry triggers my weak memory that puts a comforting smile on my face. I remembered how David, Van and I had to squeeze into my tiny truck after coming back from a hot day of playing soccer. After that, the smell of our bodies stained the seats and forever forced me to use fake scents to cover up the lingering odor. I look out the window as we drove away with a rumble from the institutionalized place of birth and death and onto a main road. I jump a bit as I see a bruised and deeply black band around my neck in the reflection of the window that gave the illusion I was decapitated, “Is it my amnesia or do I really not recall the town ever having such a big hospital in it?” I finish, staring blankly at my neck. In the background the road was populated by busy structures and bright orange streetlights that fought away the encumbering darkness the autumn night.

“Naa… They had to take you to the next town about an hour away from that place… You might’ve drove by it though. It’ll probably take us an hour to get back to our town at least.” Van explains with a small grimace, his face being illuminated by the dashboard, “And even then, it will take another 25 minuets to get to our neighborhood…” I glance over at the middle consul to see it was

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already 10pm. Shrugging, I regret how far away I lived. I sink further into my seat and fold my arms as I close my weary eyes.

The ride isn’t too bad. Being jiggled and tossed around slightly rocks me to sleep and I slowly fall in to a vivid dream. I was at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza in my hometown where I was with my family, all of them, and we were sitting down watching the animatronics on stage perform. Bonnie, Freddy and Chica were bright and happy, singing their friendly songs when I had a powerful urge to go up to the stage. My adult figure shrunk down into my childhood body, leaving me to gawk up at the now gigantic furry band singing and moving stiffly. My family called for me to leave but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to move. I just gazed up at the magical performing animals. The lights on the stage were whirling about changing from green to yellow then to magenta pink as the sound of the band began to intensify. I turn around to see I was alone in the main party room. My parents and family had left without me and seemingly everyone took up and went with them. I could feel tiny ants of panic crawl into my young chest as a deep purple hued darkness surrounded the room like a slow fog creeping down a hill. A bouncy and bubbly voice then greeted me from behind, “Hey there, kid! Don’t be so sad! Your old friend Bonnie is still here, hehyahah!”

I swiveled around to find myself now 10ft away from the stage itself. A tall and partially obscured figure possessing a red glossy electric guitar towered before of me. He leaned down from his waist to welcome me with a pleasant smile as his magenta eyes twinkled cheerfully. His soft lavender colored fur pacifies my senses as he took his guitar to play an awesome rift just for me as the stage and room behind him stretch away bit by bit. The blinking and swirling of the multicolored lights amorphously dances behind him as his guitar started to distort and shift into a minor key. My vision twitched and the being in front of me jerked in a frightening manor. Bonnie’s face was now illuminated and he uncomfortably insisted himself further into my field of sight while with every twitch and static like spasm, his light purple fur transformed into a dark yellowish green color. The guitar playing became a screeching discord of tangled strings as the poor rabbit blinked out of existence and revealed a vastly different animatronic; one which sported a wide human-like grin. The yellow mechanical bunny’s body flicked up straight as its figure was only outlined by the tall darkness it stood against. Bending its neck

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painfully to the side, its two yellow ringed costume eyes blinked and changed into small white glowing dots set amid empty holes when it harshly shrieked down at me in a deep computerized, morbid rasp,

“I always have been!!”

A loud garble like screeching jolts me out of my dream in a fright. My heart beats in my rib cage like a trapped animal as I stare wide-eyed at Van abusing my radios dial, “Heh…” He clicks it off, “Sorry I startled you from your sleep, Flare…” Van looks at me twice, “You okay there?”

My body shivers as I swallow, whincing at the slight pain of my throat and sinking back into the grayish seat of the truck, “Y-yeah… just… scared me…” I trail off, my eyes on the road in front of us. We head down a 2 way street as tall trees and sparse houses zipped by. The dim orange streetlights blink by with bands of darkness in between. My over used eyes bounce around the inside of the truck noting the passed time and looks through the rearview mirror when we suddenly hit a deep pot hole in the road making the truck rock violently. Van spits out a surprised curse word as I regain my attention to the road. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch something poking out the back of my truck through the rearview mirror. I squint in the dim light to focus on it. A heavily ragged and a dull colored thing pokes out from the back, swaying with the bounce and movement of the truck. Just then, a band of darkness passes over us and whatever I saw disappears as the light once more fills the bed. I rub my eyes with balled up hands. I was about to open my mouth and say something when we pull into a dark driveway. Van turns off the truck and sits back.

“Well, here we are.” He sighs smoothly as he clicks his seatbelt.

‘Home? I can’t remember…’ I lean into the dashboard and gawk at the partially blacked out two story house, whining, “I don’t… I don’t remember!” Tears annoyingly try to push their way out again. I cup my face to hide my sudden confused mood swing, feeling my face hot against my cold hands.

“Don’t- heyyy, don’t worry Flare.” His hand rubs my back, “It’ll be fine… I’ll stay with you until you feel comfortable if you want.” Van tries to reassure me in my fragile state. I sniffle and lift my head to give him a fleeting smile; it’s still awfully dark. “Come on now…” He awkwardly smiles back as I reluctantly nod. It’s so frustrating not being able to remember where you lived even though you can remember where you came from. Home is suppose to give you a safe place to retreat to at the end of the day

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but something so simple as that, something we all take for granted, I just couldn’t find that same retreat. I take the metal handle to open my trucks door when it stubbornly refuses to comply, alarming me. Feeling a great need to escape, I jiggle and push against it frantically. Van bounds and opens the troublesome door, throwing me off balance and onto his chest. “Hey hey, calm down silly. It’s okay heh… Your door sometimes does that.”

I look up at him; my face tingles as I try composing myself, “I’m still a little frazzled.” I sheepishly explain away. ‘Was that another panic attack?’ I thought, dreading if this will be a new thing for me to deal with in my already stressful life. I carefully step down from the truck and onto the concrete driveway. Sliding off of the seat, I glance over into the trucks bed. A large blue plastic tarp covered the whole of the floor while a few random items were strewn about it. I remember laying on that tarp and looking up at the stars when I was waiting for David to show up last night. As I turn my head, I thought I saw the plastic shift slowly up when a sudden blast of cool air gusts out of nowhere, making my long orange hair blow all over the place. “Let’s g-get inside, I’m freezing…!” I rub my bare upper arms. ‘Where’s my jacket?’ I wonder to myself. Van shoots me a weird look as he swings the trucks door shut.

“Let’s go then.” He says lightly as I follow close behind him.

The 26-year-old unlocks the wooden door to the house I supposedly live in and helps me through the darkness of the entrance. Van guides me in the stillness of the house until he stops and turns on a lamp light, which did a poor job of lighting up the wide open living area. I stand in one spot, not knowing what do to, like one would when visiting a stranger’s home. “Go on Flare, sit and get comfy, I’ll make you some tea.” Van calmly coos, grabbing a black remote and turning on the not so flashy TV planted against a bare wall. He disappears from my side and leaves me alone in the room. I look about myself as the TV somewhat helping to illuminate the furniture. A small wooden table stands in front of the television while a 3-seater crème colored cloth couch stood behind it where other matching ez-chairs accompanied it. I chose to park myself on the middle couch. Its soft cushions cup my worn out body and allowed me to melt into it. I can vaguely remember this place though it didn’t bring back anything worthwhile, just lazy days on Sundays. Wetting my lips, I tilt my head down and stare at my jeans noticing some fluff on the sides of my inner thighs. I pick at the tiny and numerous fibers off of my jeans distractedly.

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Van returns with a welcoming cup of green tea. We chat a bit and talk about nothing as I sip my hot refreshment and settle into the weird house. “So… can I ask you a question?” Van asks in a mild tone as he sits up in the easy chair next to me. I blow on the steam rising from the mug.

“Sure.”

Van takes a while to start talking again, shifting and fiddling with his rings, “Well… What was it like?” He quietly questions. I pause mid sip. “You know… When you were-”

“Dead?” I finish. With a tight shrug, I continue, “I don’t really remember much of it… I know that it wasn’t like anything people say it is. I didn’t see a light at the end of a tunnel or memories of my life playing. I was…” I dawdle, the right side of my head pulses sharply as I try to force an unwilling memory come back to me. “I was just in a dark place but I could still feel things, not solid things. Just changes in space… It was cold and- and I remember hearing a voice…” Van was leaning into the arm of his chair now, obviously curious and enthralled in my recollection.

“Was it God?” He elongated, making my throat tickle with laugher. Van clears his throat of his humor and asks, “Do you remember what it said or…?”

I reach over to put the mug on the clear coffee table. Even with a good laugh, my appetite was still unstable. Rotating the glistening white cup in the constant slew of changing colors from the quiet TV, I examine it empty mindedly. I open my mouth, “I heard… ‘It’s me’ or something like that.” I lean back into the couch, feeling a troubling out of place comfort warm my heart as the pain in my head moves between my eyes and nose.

“Was it scary?” He inquires.

I turn and offer him a believable smile; “I don’t remember feeling anything other than emptiness and coldness. No fear, no loneliness, nothing.” The stabbing ache in my head came back with a pulsing vengeance as I rub my forehead and groan. “Hey?… Is it cool if we not talk about this right now, please? My head is starting to pound…” The longhaired man nods his head and suggests letting me be.

***

In the upstairs bedroom I called my own, I cuddle with my purple body pillow as I run my eyes around the room, looking at decorations that adorn its walls. Desks and dressers had little stuffed bunnies on top of them and pictures accompanied their presence. Old rock posters lined up on the wall as I remember the times I had been to their concerts with my friends long ago. Lying in bed, I relate the conversation I had before Van took his leave.

“Are you guys going to go back to the Pizzeria?”

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“Of course. David will be there before me but I’ll update you with what we find tomorrow.”

“Good… Cuz I think I left my jacket in there and heh, as much as that place wanted to kill me, we need that animatronic. David said he’s like worth more than a quarter million dollars! I can remember that much!”

“I heard.”

“Ha! Don’t let that thing get to you. He’s one hell of a freaky looking MOFO! Let’s hope he hasn’t just walked away.”

“It would be a shame if it did, but if you ask me… That thing’s not worth the trouble it put you through…”

“Please…! With how much he could be worth? I’m sure I would be willing to suffer through much more than that to get $350,000 in cash any day!”

“Well please, get some rest. I’ve already taken care of informing your boss of your tardiness… Unfortunately she said it would be counted against you as vacation days…”

“Ugh… To hell with that place… Might as well look for another job while I’m house bound.”

“I’m sorry Flare… But hey? You have mine and David’s number in your homes speed dial. If you need me just call me. I’ll be here for you…”

“Hehe, I will and thanks again for helping me… Heh, see you tomorrow Van!”

“G’night Flare.”

***

I turn to my side as the memories about this place trickles back to me piece by piece. Sighing, I close my eyes in the soothingly dark room and curl up in warm blankets. My body was fighting my brain to fall asleep but my mind kept churning about what had transpired that day at the Pizzeria. ‘How come I can remember so vividly about the place before David left me alone to go get help?’ Images of the rundown establishment play through my numbing head as I desperately search my brain for explanations. ‘Why do I keep getting a weird uneasy and comforting feeling when I try to recall all of this?’ The animatronic rabbit had scared me good a couple of times but still. A deep tense and hollow feeling carves into my chest as I remember that old Golden Bonnie but I feel fuzzy inside too. It’s maddening! Like trying to recall a familiar yet out of reach memory of a dream. ‘I’ve been here before but what happened?’ I bring my body pillow closer, holding it between my legs as I lightly rock against it.

47

From behind the darkness of my eyes, I faintly hear a light hissing sound that was slightly pulsing around the room as a cold draft of air licks at my bare arm and cheek. ‘Must be the AC kicking on.’ I think to myself, still not sure how the house actually sounds. As I slowly lift up my heavy eyelids for no particular reason, a chilling shutter spills over my body. One of the rock n’ roll posters that adorns the wall had changed into a black portrait of a fringed looking figure with small white dots for eyes and white blockish teeth that curved into a disturbing smile. Petrified, my chest tightens up and a light sweat covers my body. It frighteningly stares at me for the longest time before some car’s headlights travels in through the window behind me and passes across my room, seemingly erasing the unnerving image from the wall. For a few tense seconds, I intensely watch the poster with wide eyes, as it now resembles more of a punk rock group than something nightmare conceiving. “I’m so tired…” I remark to myself as a soft warbling noise whistles in the background. I thought I heard something shift beside the bed so I hastily roll over to the far side of it closest to the window. My back tingles and heart pounds as I try to sink into my mattress, ‘It’s just a panic attack…’ Balling up my fists up in my covers, I bury my nose away from an awful sweet odor as I anxiously wait for my consciousness to finally drift fall to sleep.

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“... I am still here, sweetie..."

(end)