You Belong Here

Just my luck. Now I'm stuck down here with something watching my every move until help arrives. How long is this going to take? Several hours is my guess. I'm not going back through that vent again. I'm staying right here where it's safe. William checked more of the surroundings of the security office. There seemed to be a system of small pipes connected to the wall leading to somewhere, a large, built-in light grey speaker, probably used for announcements or something, a fuse box, and a seemingly random button pad. What does this thing do?

He tried pressing in a random code, but nothing happened. There must be some kind of activation code lying around here somewhere. He also noticed that there were three large red button, one next to each door and one right next to the open vent above the desk. Hmm, wonder what this does. He pressed the button to the right doorway, and immediately, a steel door blocked the door. The door didn't seem to have a handle, rather, it seemed to be activated by pressing the red button.

The same thing must go for the other buttons, I'm guessing. He pressed the red button again to reopen the door. Let's see what I can work with here. This desk is disgusting! Whoever worked here clearly didn't clean up after himself. There were several crumpled up pieces of paper and an empty soda bottle on the desk, so William just shoved them over to make space for himself. Then he decided to take a better look at the animatronic that was lying near the monitors.

The little bear animatronic didn't look like he was activated, so there wasn't much need to be worried. It seemed to be much more friendly-looking than Bon-Bon was. The little bear's suit felt like a combination of both metal and plastic. It had the same color pattern and body design as Funtime Freddy did: white and purple plating, and the same black tie and top hat. Unlike Funtime Freddy, this bear lacked a hand-puppet on its right hand, leaving it with two four-fingered hands. The bear was a bit chubbier than Funtime Freddy, too. He also seemed to have small buckteeth, circular pink cheeks, and large blue eyes.

William picked up the little bear to see if there was any way to turn him on. He weighed a bit more than Bon-Bon did, but it wasn't too much of an inconvenience. There seemed to be some kind of button on the bear's back, so he decided to press it to see what would happen. Almost immediately, the bear reacted, jumping out of William's hands and landing on the desk. What was odd with this animatronic was that instead of just attacking William, he seemed to be rather excited to see him. The bear jumped with excitement and began to introduce himself.

"Hello there! I am a model three assistance and entertainment animatronic companion. But you can just call me Helpy for short! I am programmed to help whoever activated me for any job task questions you might have. So, what can I help you with?"

The animatronic had a very high-pitched voice, but unlike Funtime Freddy's annoying voice, Helpy's voice was very adorable and funny to listen to. He seemed to have a very good and cheerful attitude. To be honest, other than Baby, this little guy is the friendliest animatronic I've met all week so far. He's actually offering to help me out! Maybe he knows if there is any other way out of this place or not. William responded to Helpy.

"Hello, Helpy, my name is William. I need some help with, uh, the structure of the building here. You see, I'm in an unauthorized room and I can't get out until the cleaning crew comes to pick me up. Do you know how long that's going to take?"

"One moment...okay, I see. According to my memory logs, the cleaning crew arrives here at 6 A.M sharp."

"And do you know what time is it now?"

"Let's see...what room are we in?"

"I think we're in some kind of security office, Helpy."

"Oh, good! My memory logs tell me that there should be a clock in this room somewhere. We just have to look around to find it."

Apparently, there was a round clock near the back of the room, hung up on the wall. The time read out approximately 12:34 A.M. Are you kidding me?! I have to sit down here for five and a half hours until help arrives?! What am I supposed to do until then? I know there's still something else down here, but I don't know how I'm supposed to fend off against it for five hours straight! Wait...maybe there's another way out of this place? I think Helpy can help me with that. He returned his attention to Helpy.

"Do you know of any way I can get out of this place before the cleaning crew arrives?"

"Well, technically, that is a risky move that could cost your job, but it's definitely possible. There are two elevators located in this facility: one for the technicians and the other for the visitors and other employees. If you wish to get to the technician elevator, you will have to-"

"Uh, no thanks, Helpy, I don't want to do that. But please tell me more about that visitor elevator."

"Why is that? The technician elevator is certainly an easier alternative."

"It's...complicated. I feel like there's someone here after me, and I think that going into either of those areas is a very dangerous idea."

"Wait, is there an intruder here?! If that's true, then according to my memory logs, this security office is the safest place to be in case of a break in. The steel doors and the vent cover here are impenetrable to gun-shots, weapons, crowbars and other tools, so there's no need to worry about someone breaking down the door."

"Not even an animatronic?"

"While that should not be in any of the animatronic's programming, yes, it has been tested that none of them are able to break through the doors. So if you want a safe place to hide from whoever's out there, this is it!"

Well, that doesn't exactly solve my problem, but it's a start. I just need to figure out how to escape this place. He continued talking to Helpy.

"So how do I get to the visitor elevator?"

"Hmm...given that we're in the security office, I'm not sure which way would be the fastest. Maybe we should check the security cameras and try to map our way out of this place."

"Of course. How do I check the security cameras? Do they have something to do with these monitors?"

"Those three monitors on the desk? Oh no, those are used for a separate security system. Even if we did look at it, there wouldn't be anything showing on it that could help us. But I think I can access it for you if you really want me to."

"Why not? We've got five hours to wait out down here, might as well make the most of it."

"I need you to carry me so I can reach the button pad. I'm a bit too short to reach it."

"Oh, sure, Helpy."

He picked up Helpy by the chest cavity and held him towards the button pad. Helpy seemed like he was trying to remember the password for it.

"Okay, one moment...checking memory logs...ah, here we go! My programming was installed with access to many of the security passwords in case someone forget. One, nine, eight, three!"

Helpy pressed each numbered button in that order slowly, and when he was done, the monitors stopped showing static and began showing much clearer images in black and white. What was shown on the monitors, though, made both William and Helpy very confused. The security feed on these three monitors didn't look like they were recording anything inside the building at all.

The top monitor showed a somewhat blurry large house room, with an open doorway to the far left and a large table with a few chairs around it in the far right corner. The feed was very dark, so neither of them good get a good look at it.

The second monitor showed something similar, but this one was showing blurry feed of a hallway in a house. The camera was positioned behind some kind of bookshelf, maybe, so part of the view was cut off. There were, however, two more open doorways on the left side of the wall, with an empty and seemingly random wooden chair at the end of the hall. The textures on the walls looked very similar.

The third monitor showed the oddest feed of all. It was blurry like the others, but it seemed that this camera was placed onto the ceiling. The feed showed the camera looking down on a small bed, with some lattice-patterned blankets covering it. Near the pillows seemed to be something sitting down on the bed. It looked like it was some kind of teddy bear, but there wasn't anything else that seemed important.

What is this? Who's house even is this? It's weird enough that there are cameras scattered across this house, but why keep the monitor feeds in here of all places? What does it mean? They tried thinking of what these images could be, but they had no idea. Someone had this system installed in their house, but why anyone would keep the feed here was beyond William. I guess that didn't do much to help us.

He then asked Helpy for some more technical support.

"This doesn't help us much. Do you know where the feed for the security cameras of the building are, Helpy?"

"Yes, of course! The security monitor screens are located underneath this desk right here. Just open up the large cupboard and you'll find it there!"

William followed Helpy's instructions and bent down to reach the bottom of the desk. In front of him were the cupboard covers Helpy mentioned. He opened them up to find the feed for all of the security cameras laid out across the building. Alright, this can help us! I don't know my way around the place, but maybe these cameras can show us the way out of here! As he was tried to turn on the monitors screens, Helpy gave him a friendly warning.

"Oh, but if I were you, I wouldn't use that too often. Especially if you have the doors shut. You see, when you press any one of those three red buttons, it uses electrical power from the facility. Now, using them isn't a problem, but if you use too many of them at one time, there is a high risk of overloading the circuits. If that happens, all power to the doors, the vent-cover and the camera feed are cut off, and you won't be safe anymore. So if you ever have to use anything in this room, use it wisely. Gotta conserve power."

"Alright. Thanks for the tip. But we have to start planning our next move. I'll try checking the footage and see if I can map out the quickest way to the visitor elevator."

"Okay! Just let me see it so that I can help you."

William turned on the security feed under the desk, and saw that there were seven different feed images. Each was labeled by its camera number. Cameras one and two showed the views of the hallways outside of the security office, each one watching right outside of the two open doorways. So if anything would try to come near them, they would now. Camera three didn't show too much, other than an extended hallway with a lightbulb on.

Camera four showed the kitchen area of the building, which William didn't even know was down here. There was a wide variety of stoves, ovens, work-desks and a refrigerator near the back. I guess this place needs a large kitchen to supply its customers. Camera five was actually placed inside of the vent that connected to the open vent way above the security desk, and it was surprisingly large for some reason.

First of all, why would anyone design an air vent this large, and second, why would anyone even need to put security cameras inside of the vents? Did some kind of robber break into the vents or something? Seriously, I don't know who designed this place, but they definitely should have double checked their blueprints.

Cameras six and seven were placed much further than the others. The sixth camera showed feed of some kind of large machine. It wasn't for power since that was controlled by the breaker room, but it looked rather important. Maybe it helped ventilate the building. Camera seven was not much different, showing a smaller room with a mini-stage, covered up by a purple curtain. The curtain had many white stars textured on it, and the stage seemed to be empty at first.

Doesn't look like this is going to be much help in planning our way out of here. Perhaps Helpy's already calculating our next move. William turned to Helpy and asked him for some help.

"I didn't get too much out of this, Helpy. Do you have any clue where to go?"

"Hmm...interesting. I don't think the cameras cover the entire place down here. You see, there is a long hallway that leads to the backdoor to Ballora Gallery, but I can't tell where to go with these images. All I do know is that if use this backdoor, you need to be sure to check Ballora's stage for the exit door. Behind that is the visitor elevator. But it's much easier said than done."

"Doesn't look our odds are too good, then. We still have plenty of time left to figure this out, though. By now it's probably, uh, twelve forty-five A.M, so I guess we burned eleven minutes already. We just need to-"

"William, wait! I think I see something moving on camera seven!"

He instantly shut his mouth and checked to see what Helpy was talking about. Now there seemed to be some kind of large animatronic hiding behind the purple curtain on the mini-stage. It looked a lot like Funtime Foxy, but it had a much different color pattern. Whereas Funtime Foxy's metal suit was colored white and pink, this one's was colored white and orange, with a purple tie and circular purple cheeks. But the key difference was that this animatronic had some kind of sharp hook attached to its right hand, like the kind a pirate would wear.

Whatever this thing is, I just hope that hook isn't as deadly as it looks. The animatronic didn't seem to be moving yet, but there was something else on camera five that caught his eye. Near the dark depths of the vent were around seven Minireenas, slowly crawling down. Those are the things from last night! I need to close that vent door now! He quickly rose up from the ground and slammed the red button, activating the vent seal.

Some slight banging could be heard coming from the vent, probably the Minireenas trying to get inside. It didn't look like those little dolls could break through steel, so William and Helpy soon calmed down for a bit. After a minute or two, the Minireenas gave up, and the security camera feed showed them walking back into the dark depths of the vents. Looks like that got rid of them for now.

But as he checked camera seven again, the Funtime Foxy look-alike animatronic was gone, the mini-stage completely empty. Oh God, where did he go?! The other security monitors weren't picking up any traces of the look-alike. Did he just leave? Where the hell did he go?

William decided to briefly take a look outside both of the two doorways, to see if this animatronic was getting closer. The good thing was that there didn't seem to be any sign of the animatronic anywhere. The bad thing was that he could hear a very quiet but still familiar voice speaking. The sweet, adorable and innocent tone of this voice was instantly recognizable, and even though William couldn't see her, he knew it was Baby speaking to him.

"Why didn't you trust me, William?"