The Trap

"Alright, Helpy, we need you to show us the way to the employee elevator. Lead the way," William said, hoping to finally get out of this place soon. I've already gotten a black eye, a scratch and a huge bite mark on my shoulder, all in one night. The only reason I'm happy I stayed down here was connecting with Elizabeth on a deeper level. And getting to know the truth, too, I guess, but that's not why I don't entirely regret staying down here. Helpy took a moment to search his memory logs, and answered him.

"You got it! But I should tell you all know that it's going to be a somewhat long walk. If we want to go the safest route for William, we'd have to go down the hall on our left," Helpy pointed to the left open doorway, "and continue on until we reach the room shown on camera six. There's another, longer hallway that reaches out to the Funtime Auditorium and the Ballora Gallary. For now, let's just focus on what we need to do right now. I'll explain on the way."

And so they all set off. William's wound was less severe right now, so he didn't need Baby to help support him. Helpy lead the way, as they all left the security office for the left hall. There wasn't too much to be seen so far: everything looked like what he saw when he ran down the right hallway, only in this one, there was a small area where several drawings were taped against the wall. Judging by the artwork style, these were the drawings that little children made. Some of them were pretty creative, though. They were mainly drawings of the animatronics, so he didn't bother to look at them for very long.

Along the way, Bonnet tended to get a bit sidetracked, as Baby had to remind her several times to keep up with them. They eventually arrived at the room on camera six, and there, they found a small piece of Lolbit's facial suit torn off, probably from his encounter with Ennard. There weren't any signs of the Minireenas so far, and they came across that other long hallway Helpy mentioned. He said, "This way!", and continued walking along.

Unbeknownst to them, a single Minireena spotted them, hiding behind a large box on a small desk in the back of the room. The doll knew it couldn't go after them: the odds were stacked against it. Instead, it stayed behind, and crawled away, hoping to find some of its other partners and alert them.

This new hallway they were walking down wasn't anything too special. It still looked the same as the one they just got done with, but now the little lattice pattern at the bottom of the walls weren't appearing anymore. The lighting seemed to get better, as now it was brighter than before, and the floor tiles were still checkered colored. A long silence filled the area, which, after a while, made William feel awkward. Now that I think about, there's still one more thing I don't understand. I think Helpy interrupted me before I could get a chance to ask Baby before. Might as well do it now. It's getting pretty boring now, anyway. As they continued their way, William told Baby what was on his mind. She turned her attention to him.

"Hey, Elizabeth? I know there's a lot of crazy things I just learned about, but there's still something I don't understand."

"What is it?"

"I've been thinking...you said you all were possessed by the spirits of little children, well, excluding a few animatronics, but regardless...I don't get it. Why did the animatronics try to kill me? If they're possessed by children, then why did they seem so angry and vengeful?"

"Oh, I see. Yeah, I was confused by that at first, too. When I possessed Baby, not only could I remember her memories and my own, and feel emotion...I felt that there was something missing inside. A part of my human self that was gone. I wasn't as careless or cheerful or happy as I was when I was still alive. Instead, I felt a lot of inner pain and frustration, like nothing really mattered. The technicians shocking me and repeatedly mistreating me only made things worse. I felt...not just anger, but I felt lonely, too. None of the technicians here really talked to me, except Dave, that is, until you arrived."

"I can see why that would make you feel this way, Elizabeth. But why would the others try to kill me?"

"It's not that they don't like you in particular, William. Over time, the others experienced what I had, but they often had it much worse. They started to fear the technicians, and their hatred for them grew whenever they forcibly shocked them, or through other techniques. The technicians didn't treat us nicely. Eventually, some decided to fight back. They didn't see the employees as human anymore. To us, the employees were practically guards, keeping us trapped here inside of this labyrinth. It filled us with anger, and drove some of us to the brink of insanity, like Funtime Freddy. We wanted to escape this place so badly, to get away from these horrible people, find a place to hide from them. So we tried to fight against them, but the technicians soon found ways to prevent us from fighting back."

"Yeah, Dave said told me something about that. Like how they locked Ballora's eyes and kept Funtime Foxy in the dark."

"Yes, exactly like that. I wasn't punished, because unlike the others, I still had hope. I had hope that maybe one of the people here could try and help us, and listen to us. I usually pretended that everything was alright with me. It turned out to work very well. Though I started losing hope as day after day went by, and I felt much lonelier and insecure then before. I kept waiting, and one day, there was a man who did seem to care, but he didn't take my advice. I never saw the man again. But then I met you, and when you came back the next day after you took my advice, I had hope again. And I also felt happy that there was someone else I could talk to if times got lonely. Someone who cared."

"So they thought I was just like the other technicians?"

"Basically. They didn't trust you the moment they laid eyes on you. Some of them are more violent than others, as I'm sure you already know. In all honesty, I wasn't entirely sure about you the first night we met. After I got to know you a little better, I knew you were trustworthy."

"I didn't entirely trust you at first, either. I guess I did grow to trust you after you helped me out. "

"Nice to know. Hey, I just realized something. It might sound a bit random, though. I don't think I've asked you about my new suit. What do you think of it? Do I look good?"

"Yeah, I like your new look. It's different, but you look fantastic."

For a moment, Baby's expression seemed kind of shocked, in a flattered way. Almost like she would've been blushing. She smiled back at him and replied.

"Thanks. I'm glad you like it. This one is personally my favorite out of all my other suits. It's so much more flexible and elegant than my original suit. Although I don't know why Dave ever made it for me. Nor the other three different suits. I don't think I could've fit in the first two, they were much too small for me. But I was creeped out that it looked so much like me, my old human self to be clear. And I didn't understand why the fourth suit looked so much like my mother."

"Yeah, I didn't understand it, either. I guess there are secrets down here not even you know."

"There are very few that I don't know, but sure, I'd say that's true. I don't even know why Dave wanted to murder children in the first place. Not even my mother understood why. It's one of the few things I never found out. I'll have to remember to get him to tell me that."

There wasn't much conversation after that point, because Helpy was still trying to map out the correct way to the customer elevator. The hallway didn't look like it was getting any shorter, until they came across a steel door to their left. The words above it read out in bright pink words, "Funtime Auditorium: Customer Entrance". Helpy knew this wasn't the way to the elevator: they needed to get to Ballora Gallery and behind the stage to reach it. But this was a good sign for them. Ballora Gallery should've been right on the other side of Funtime Auditorium, so hopefully they would just have to keep walking until they found the customer entrance.

William didn't want to go back into Funtime Auditorium, and neither did anyone else. If Ennard was currently scooping out Lolbit, then going inside the auditorium would be a bad move. The scooping room was right next door, so that wasn't the way to go. He knew even if they did come across Ennard, Baby could tell him to stand down, but he just wanted to avoid him. They continued walking down, while a slight, quiet, and repetitive banging could be heard coming from inside the air-vents. None of them noticed it, but right above them, there were several Minireenas tracking them.

The doll's small sizes proved to be very useful to getting around quickly, and for sneaking around without causing too much attention. They got word from the spy from before, and ever since then, a few more Minireenas started tracking William's movement. They thought about what to do for a moment. They knew they wouldn't have a chance at attacking because despite their numbers, they didn't make up for Baby enough. So they thought the better thing to do was to alert the others immediately. They could definitely take care of this situation if they had enough in numbers. One of the Minireenas ran off from the others, crawling back through the vents to find the quickest way back to the scooping room. Meanwhile, the others went to get into their positions.

Meanwhile, Helpy was busy, keeping his eyes open for any sign for the door to Ballora's Gallery. They had to keep walking for only a little further until they found another door to their left, with large words in purple stating, "Ballora Gallery: Customer Entrance". Well, we're finally here, thank goodness for that. Helpy started talking again.

"Okay, everyone, this should be the backdoor I was talking about! Now, once we go inside the gallery, we need to get onto Ballora's stage. Behind the stage wall, there is the door that leads to the customer elevator. Make sure to keep watch! We don't know if Ennard is prowling around in there or not, so we need to stay quiet and walk slowly. Okay, William, we'll be right behind you. "

Baby looked at William and nodded, and he went along with this plan, too. Bonnet seemed to finally stop running around and took this seriously. Helpy got out of the way so that William could twist the door handle for him, since the little guy was too short to reach it. He made sure to twist it slowly and carefully, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention.

Inside the Ballora Gallery, the room was very dimly lit, but just bright enough to see its surroundings. Each one of them entered through slowly, and waited until they were all inside the gallery. It turned out that Ballora's stage was to their left. William hadn't been this close to the stage before. The stage was fairly large, actually a bit large then the Funtime Stage. There was a small, wooden staircase on the side with a few steps, with two large, wrinkly, purple curtains covering the sides of the stage, while the center was still exposed. There were many tables that stretched out across the gallery in front of the stage, neatly organized and decorated, with a ballerina theme to fit Ballora.

Something doesn't feel right here, William thought. It can't be this easy to leave. Can it be? This must be some kind of setup. Ennard wouldn't just let me leave without Baby ordering him to. He told what he thought about this to Baby.

"I feel like something's wrong here, Elizabeth. There's just a part inside that's telling me we shouldn't be here. It just feels too easy."

"Now that you mention it...I guess it was a bit easy. Too easy, actually. Maybe you are right. Let's keep our guards up. Those Minireenas could be in here, watching us."

William took her advice and kept looking around, making sure there wasn't any sign of those dolls. It seemed like there were plenty of great places for them to hide in here. Those tables, on the ceiling...the thought of it made him even more paranoid. Bonnet wasn't running around like a carefree child anymore. She was acting much more nervous than usual, sticking very close to Baby. Helpy lead the way, and they prepared to get onto Ballora's stage.

The small wooden staircase made it easier to get on, so Bonnet and Helpy didn't need to be picked up. They moved through the large curtains, and walked onto the center stage. There were a few puddles of dried blood on the wooden-plank stage floor, most likely from that dead technician William saw hanging there previously. It looked like what Dave had told him was true: when he looked at the stage ceiling, he could see that there was a piece of rope cut off, with the technician's body missing. Baby, why did you have to leave these men hanging of all things? The image he saw previously tonight still left him terrified.

The back wall of the stage was decorated in a combination between navy blue and dark purple. Near the far right side of the stage was an oddly wide steel door. Helpy exclaimed that this must be the door to the customer elevator, so Baby walked over and tried twisting the handle. However, she quickly found out that it was jammed. Even though she persisted, the door handle wouldn't budge. Is it locked? Or is there an extra key down here somewhere? There must be something!

While Helpy was trying to get Baby to let go of the door handle, Bonnet was staring directly at the ceiling, like she noticed something. She screamed with excitement.

"Hey, guys! I can see two bright dots on the ceiling!"

At first, William thought Bonnet was just playing around, but when he looked up, he saw that she was right. Directly above him, there was a pair of two incredibly small, bright, orangish-yellow dots, staring right down at him. I guess the little rabbit wasn't entirely joking around. He thought it didn't seem to matter much, until something very odd happened. The two dots started moving, but the distance between them still stayed the same, like a pair of eyes.

Then, not too far away from it, another pair of the same colored eyes popped out.

Okay, what is this? He didn't know what to make of it. Bonnet just seemed to enjoy looking at them. Then another pair showed, followed by another, and another, and another. Over the course of several seconds, there were several pairs of these strange dots staring down on him, scattered across the ceiling like stars in the night-time sky. Bonnet started counting how many dots she could see, which was kind of adorable, but William was scared now. There is something very off with this...

Before he knew it, something jumped down from the ceiling and landed on top of William, grabbing onto his back. It happened so fast that he couldn't get a good view of what attacked him, and it was so sudden that he started freaking out immediately. Whatever it was that landed on him was now climbing over him, trying to grab ahold of his head, but this thing was quite light and quite small, so William quickly tried to grab ahold of it and get it off of him.

He threw the creature off of his back and it landed on behind him. He turned around to see what it was, and apparently, it was a Minireena. Bonnet immediately lashed out at it, trying to naw at the doll's head. The sudden realization made William's face as pale as snow. All of those dots...are Minireenas?! Baby and Helpy looked above them, and then one after another, all of the Minireenas on the ceiling came down.

The good news was that none of the other Minireenas managed to land directly on top of William, or Baby for that matter. The bad news was that now he was surrounded by more than what seemed to be fifteen Minireenas, enclosing around him like a circle. One of them actually landed on top of Helpy and was trying to fight him, but Baby quickly picked up the doll and threw across the stage like a football.

"Helpy, listen to me. Just stay here. I'll handle this."

The little bear listened, and stayed put. The Minireenas surrounding William didn't go in for the attack. Instead they just stood there, watching his every move.

Baby quickly rushed in to protect William, but the Minireenas didn't seem to mind her. In fact, she managed to get to him pretty easily. She gave all the Minireenas a warning.

"All of you, stand down, now. Trust me, you'll regret it if you don't."

The Minireenas didn't seem to pay attention to her, and were still standing still. Baby knew they wouldn't listen, but she figured it would at least be worth a try.

"It was a set-up! You were right, William. It was too easy. But how did they-"

She was interrupted when, all of a sudden, the lights in Ballora Gallery came on, brightening the entire place. And when William took a look to his left, at the glass panel where the primary control module was, he could briefly Ennard standing behind there, operating the module.