Chapter Text
Huddling in his sad box in the alleyway, Gregory grew increasingly cold as the night went on. The brightly lit street and the Mega Pizza Plex that he was leaning against seemed to only bitter him as the thought of the prospect of the warm buildings in comparison to the cold box that he was currently situated in, was truly a strong and petty bite to the ass. His living situation was not the only issue as his stomach ached with both hunger and pain.
'Tch, privileged bastards, fuck it, fuck it all' he thought, standing up, he walked around, in hopes of warming up a bit. Touching the cold bricks, he tried his best to shake off the light breeze that came into contact with his arms and legs.
'Hah...the cold's a bitch, but it ain't any different from the orphanage', Gregory thought, grimacing at the memory, 'same cold hard sleeping surfaces, lack of food, cold ass rooms, speaking of which, something that I'll never get used to', he grumbled a bit at his unsaid remark.'Only thing different is the freedom'.
As he quietly thought to himself. Reaching the end of the alleyway, a door creaked, Gregory's train of thought abruptly ended as fast as the movement of his legs.
In his alarm, he could hear the murmuring behind the door. Without hesitation he acted swiftly, instinctually sprinting to hide behind a dumpster. 'Why did they have to come out now, damn it!', he held his breath carefully as to not make noise.
Instantaneously after, two men walked out of the door holding trash bags. "Stupid corpoate, stupid Freddy Fazbear, they never pay us enough! At this point I might as well sell a kidney or something to get some sort progress on my car payments!" said the first man with clear frustration.
"I know right! Not to mention the animatronics keep making the damn job even harder, the amount of times I had to replace Montgomery's stuff, why do animatronics even need stuff, they aren't alive!" complained the other man who was also carrying a trash bag. "stupid AI" he grumbled
"Anyways, I'm gonna need a drink afterwards, wanna come with?" The other man said as he put the trash bag into the dumpster that Gregory was hiding behind, making the poor boy momentarily flinch.
"Hell yeah! Count me in, oh you know me so well!" His pal said ecstatically while slapping his shoulder, as they both walked in debating how to spend the rest of the night. Conveniently they left a slit in the door, enough for a small child to open and slip through.
Gregory sat still for some moments. Looking at the crack in the door. He stared at it even longer, at this point the two men must've gone away. 'Okay, so if I go in, I'll be able to get food, shelter, and hell, even entertainment, but on the other hand I might get blacklisted for all I know'. Debating the options took no more than a moment, 'why do I even care, I might not get an opportunity like this again'. He determined as he got up from behind the dumpster. Carefully approaching, he opened the door, while taking extra precautions when stepping in.
Standing in the room that greeted him on the other side, he instantly noticed some differences.
Compared to the magical exterior of the establishment the staff rooms took more or a monotonous and depressing tone. The room was very bare and overall lacked color. 'Just the alleyway' thought Gregory as he cautiously glanced around, ears keen trying to hear for any footsteps.
Gregory walked as stealthily as possible, wandering around the staff rooms. Eventually Gregory made it to the areas that are actually presented to the customers. He looked around in amazement, just sucking up the 80s neon goodness mall had to offer. The classic arcade carpet flooring, the huge crowds of people, and the smell of pizza grease everywhere.
"Please Take a Map"
As he was looking around, his tracks were stopped once again, only difference was that this was a robot speaking directly to him, offering a map.
"Please take a map. Please take a map"
Gregory looked curiously at the robot giving him a map, the robot giving him a map really obnoxiously. All be it Gregory was a bit annoyed, but it was necessary, since the layout wasn't something that he was well informed about. He reached his hand out and took the map. The moment he took the piece of paper out of the Map-Bots hand, it wandered off. Returning to whatever hole it came form despite having more maps at the ready. 'What in the fuck was that?', Gregory said shaken up a bit from the interaction.
Gregory opted to walked away rather than to dwell any longer in the same position, going out to explore the rest of the mall. Treading throughout the entire Mall and blending in with crowds, he watched in awe and wonder at the attractions offered to the consumers. Countless arcade games, bunch of robots, and plenty of leftover food from birthday parties.
Eventually, Gregory resigned from the commotion and sat under one of the many tables, holding a relatively warm pizza slice. Gregory sat, fully satisfied with the night. 'Man, these people have it truly great in life', he thought lazily taking a bite out of the slice. 'Damn, this is really good'.
About 10 minutes or so, an announce echoed throughout the entire mall. "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE HEAD TO THE MAIN STAGE IN 5 MINUTES"
As soon as it was announced bustling crowds of people gathered in order to head in one direction. Gregory, looked from under the table. His interest began to grow, 'It wouldn't hurt to find out what they mean', he thought as he slowly crouched up and began to once gain blend in with the crowd.
Eventually the movements of the herd of people did stop, and whatever commotion that was being created on the stage, Gregory could not see as the people in front blocked whatever was meant for the customers to observe and the room was incredibly dark. So as any kid, heck anyone would do is push through the crowds a bit. Just as Gregory was able to see, the magical show had begun, reaching the peak of the night for the boy.
There on the stage, the smoke produced from the smoke machines and the flashing neon lights spread all throughout the stage as the music had also began. Gregory could only watch in absolute awe, and the cherry on top, is when the animatronics walked out. Of course he was no stranger as he lived beside the building, but to see it in person was amazing. Their movement was fluent and full of personality. Gregory stood mesmerized from the extravagant display, carefully naming all the members and cheering alongside the rest of onlookers. 'That's Freddy, and that one's Chica, wasn't his name Monty, and I think that one's Roxy!'
How do you explain it really, the warm feeling that developed in the pit of his stomach at that very moment? I guess you could say that he felt, like an actual kid for once, full of anticipation, extenstive amount of energy, and no care in the world!
Suddenly, an arm pulled him out of the crowd. Replacing the wonderful feeling from merely moments ago with alarm and dread for the boy.
'Dammit, did security already find me?!' Gregory thought as he pulled away from the contact swiftly, ready to run, instanteously the hand once again gripped on his shirt, but even harder causing a yelp. In some strained pain and unease he glanced behind him, with widened eyes he stared in horror, it was a woman in a rabbit suit, holding a knife, attempting to drag him to who knows where.
Panic washed over, giving Gregory the initiative to kick the armed rabbit lady. After various attempts of kicking, punching, and even screaming, he looked at the crowd with pleading eyes, no one seemed to have noticed the kidnapping attempt over the loud music. Leaving the distressed boy with no reassurance. Gregory continued to kick the rabbit lady, at this point far from the crowd and being lead to an unknown part of the Mega Pizza Plex. With one more desperate kick, Gregory was able to break free and sprinted off, relief and shortly after paranoia set in. For goodness knows for how long and goodness knows how far he ran. He ran past many unfamiliar posters, merchandise, and repetitive hall designs. Eyes darting behind him, speeding up at the slight glimpses of anything bunny or human like.
An announcement echoed throughout the mall once again, breaking Gregory out from his frenzied running, "DEAR CUSTOMERS, WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE ON STAGE MALFUNCTION, PLEASE HEAD OVER TO THE EXIT AS WE ARE PAST DUE CLOSING TIME".
Immediately after listening the announcement, Gregory stood still, with enough stress to bring an old man to cardiac arrest. At once his priority was changed to find an exit instead and get out of this forsaken place. Sprinting all around, taking turns, looking into rooms, and even looking at the map that he had received, he was getting nowhere aside from unfamiliar areas of the building.
Stopping momentarily to catch his breath, realization washed over him.
He was lost.
Dread piled in his stomach. He didn't know where he was, no one would care to look for him, and now it looked like somebody wanted to kill him. 'Why did I even come here in the first place' he thought regretfully.
Slumping down against the wall, Gregory took a deep breath, as he had just started to become aware of his exhaustion and his existential crisis. His adrenaline had faded away and the world had just started to collapse upon him.
He brought his knees up to his chest and covered his face, he felt vulnerable, exposed, and paranoid. Tears had then started to roll down his face before escalating to quiet cries. The only thing Gregory could hear at the moment were his own quiet muffled sobs, this was not how today was supposed to go.
"Please Take A Map. Please Take A Map"