Horror Fan Fiction ❯ Five Nights At Freddy's: The Hidden Souls ❯ The Fifth Night (Part 1) ( Chapter 7 )

January 19, 1976 - 5:00 PM

Yes! I’ll finally meet her in person, thought Elizabeth, overwhelmed with joy. She approached the small stage where Circus Baby was standing, singing some song Elizabeth wasn’t familiar with but enjoyed anyways, trying to savor every bit of this wonderful moment with her. Come on, ask her to make balloons! Or scoop some ice cream for us! You know what she can do, now’s your chance to see it, she thought. Elizabeth’s head was going through so much joy that she just couldn’t think straight, and finally decided to talk to her. 

Elizabeth: “Hello! You have no idea how happy I am right now! I have been waiting forever to get to see you! Please don't tell daddy that I'm here. I don't know why he won't let me come see you, you're wonderful!

As soon as Elizabeth said this, Circus Baby stopped singing. In fact, she stood still, her green eyes focused completely on Elizabeth.

Circus Baby: Would you like to have some ice cream?

Elizabeth didn’t even have to think about this one before answering. 

Elizabeth: “YES!! I would love to have some ice cream, please! Make it strawberry, that’s my favorite!” 

Circus Baby’s stomach opened up to reveal a scoop-like handle coming out of her, as she walked away from Elizabeth to one of the tables in the room, on which was a pint full of, conveniently, strawberry ice cream. Elizabeth got to see Circus Baby open the pint by herself, scoop some ice cream out of the pint and place it into a small bowl, holding it in her hand. 

Circus Baby: “Here you go. Come and get it!” 

This is incredible! I’m finally getting to see her in action, thought Elizabeth. Why would Daddy think she’s dangerous? She looks lovely to me. She didn’t really care about what her father thought at this point because she completely forgot about him at this point. She walked closer and closer towards Circus Baby, eager to have the ice cream she made for her. As she got closer, though, she noticed something off about Circus Baby. Her green, lime-like eyes turned pitch black in a manner of seconds, and she dropped the bowl of ice cream she made for Elizabeth. Then, like a flash of lightning, Baby’s stomach opened up again, but instead of pulling out a scoop-like handle, there was instead a giant, metal claw coming out of her. Elizabeth got scared, not understanding what this claw was for. Wait, what, what are you--

As soon as Elizabeth was freaking out, the metal claw inside of Circus Baby extended out and grabbed her by the chest tightly. The metal claw then went back inside of Baby’s body, along with Elizabeth. These last few moments of Elizabeth’s life were filled with more terror than imaginable, as she kept screaming for her father to come save her as the metal claw’s talons around her sank deep into her skin, begging for someone to come save her. 

March 7, 1976 (Present Time) 

Ah, back at it again, thought William as he waited for the elevator to bring him down to his workplace. My God, I hope I find out what’s causing those animatronics to glitch out soon, because if this past week was supposed to be the regular basis for my job, I don’t want any part of it, even with the promotion and raise up for grabs. He hoped that this raise was worth it, because there was no way William would be putting up with this shit without getting a decent payment. That’s for sure. 

Hand-Unit: Welcome back to your last day on the job. That is, the last day of your first week. Some of the most valued qualities that we like to see in new employees are determination, fearlessness, and a genuine disregard for instinctive self-preservation, and clearly, you’ve got all of those qualities. You've earned your one week bonus which will be given to you in the form of a delightful gift basket, the cost of which will be taken out of your next paycheck. We have gift baskets containing fruit, nuts, flowers, and of course, the ever-popular cash basket. Using the keypad below, please enter the first few letters of the gift basket you would like to receive.

This better not be costing me much, William thought. Well, which one should I get? What happens if I get the cash-basket? Do I still have to pay it out of my next paycheck? He was curious to find out, so he tried typing in cash, but, yet again, the Hand-Unit glitched out. 

Hand-Unit: It seems you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type, and I will autocorrect it for you. Thank you for selecting: Exotic PIZZA! 

William was in a state of confusion, as if several fans instantly facepalmed, crying out in anger and misunderstanding...

Hand-Unit: I’ve detected a small error in that autocorrection, and I am sorry for putting this wrong. What I meant to say was; Thank you for selecting: Exotic Butters. 

Well, at least it’s better than the basket of flowers, thought William. 

Hand-Unit: Please be aware that there are still two technicians on site today. Try to avoid interfering with their work, if possible. Also, feel free to ask them why they are still there, and encourage them to go home.

Wait, why the hell do I have to tell them to go home? Didn’t you just say they were doing work, thought William. He was also wondering if these were the same technicians from yesterday who saved, which in this case, William was more than grateful for that. William thought it would probably be best to just go with it and head to his job. As the elevator reached a stop, William exited the elevator and once again went through the entrance vent. 

He crawled through the vent way and into the primary control module, where he was waiting for the next set of instructions from his hand-unit. 

Hand-Unit: Let's check on Ballora, and make sure she's on her stage.

William presses the blue button on the power module. As the lights came on in the Ballora gallery, what William saw next would make his stomach sick. There was a dead body, hanging on a rope around the neck in the middle of Ballora’s stage. William couldn’t see too much from where he was standing, but he recognized this man. This was one of the men that saved him from the springlock suit just the other night ago, and the left side of his face seemed to be covered in blood. What the hell is happening here, thought William. Wait a minute...did that guy in the mask do this? 

Hand-Unit: Great. Now, let's check on Funtime Foxy.

William was scared to check the Funtime Auditorium, as he wondered whether the other technician the Hand-Unit spoke of was also lying dead on the stage. Anxiously, he pressed the blue button on the power module. Just like on Ballora Gallery, there was another dead technician, hanging by the neck on a rope in the middle of the stage, but this one seemed to have his throat slit, as William could see a lot more blood around the neck-area of this technician. He could recognize this man, too: he also helped William escape the springlock suit, and the thought that both of these men who tried to save him died tonight gave shivers down William’s back. There is clearly someone else down here with me, and whoever it is, they must’ve killed those two technicians, he thought. Those poor guys. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure their deaths won’t go unavenged. 

HandUnit: Great. It looks like everything is as it should be in Funtime Auditorium. Your task today will involve more maintenance work. Circus Baby had a rough day, and is in need of repair. You will be required to reach the Parts & Service room by once again sneaking through Funtime Auditorium. As always, please proceed with caution.

This basically confirmed for William that this Hand-Unit of his clearly was either broken or wasn’t properly programmed. And, once again, William made sure to get out his little flash beacon to make sure Funtime Foxy didn’t try to kill him. As he pulled it out and made sure to grab his flashlight, just in case, he crawled through the vent way into Funtime Auditorium. 

Hand-Unit: Great job reaching Parts & Service. Circus Baby has been deactivated for an unknown reason. It's your job to make sure she's structurally stable and secured to the conveyor. Our technicians will take it from ther-

Something is seriously wrong here, William thought. First it was the dead technicians, now they don’t even know why Circus Baby’s been deactivated. Not to mention that the Hand-Unit just cutting off like that without glitching out made him feel uncomfortable, too. Most of the time it usually just glitched out, but it was never cut off like this. He pulled out his flashlight to take a look at Circus Baby, right in front of him in person. He checked her metal plating for any signs of damage, leaks, or a malfunction, but there didn’t seem to be anything particularly wrong with her. Other than the fact that he couldn’t see where her eyes were. 

Baby: Can you hear me? 

William: “Yes, I can hear you.” 

Baby: I'm pretending. Remember how I said I could pretend? Well, the cameras are watching. I must be careful not to move too much. Something bad happened yesterday. Something bad always happens around here. I don't want it to happen ever again. 

William: “Are you talking about those dead technicians I saw earlier, or was this something else?” 

Baby: What? Dead technici- nevermind that! They found something bad... inside of me! I'm broken. He said I just can't be fixed. I'm going to be taken to the scooping room soon, so they can try to repair me, but it's not going to fix what's wrong with me. What is bad is always left behind. Will you help me? Please?

William thought about this for a moment. He remembered Mr. Cunningham mentioned that there was something wrong with these animatronics, but he never got a definite answer on why they were malfunctioning, and Dave never gave him an entire explanation, either. If he did choose to help Baby now, he could perhaps find out what exactly it was that was making these machines malfunction. Not to mention Baby saved William’s ass several times before, and now it seemed to be time to help return the favor. 

William: “Yes, of course I’ll help you.” 

Baby: Thank you, William. I knew you had it in you. I want you to save what is good, so the rest can be destroyed and never recovered. But you must be careful. Ballora is here. In the room, with us. Ballora will not return to her stage. Ballora will not return to her body. You must be careful. You must remain calm, and listen to my voice.

William: *whispers* “Wait, what?! Where is she? And what do you mean by ‘not return to her body’?”

Baby: Remember last night when you saw her get scooped? Well, her metal plating was removed, but her endoskeleton underneath escaped, and she’s still as dangerous as before. 

There seemed to be something off with Baby today. She seemed a bit more mysterious than before, and for some reason, William wasn’t trusting everything Baby told him. 

William: *whispers* “So what am I supposed to be doing?” 

Baby: There is a button located on my cheek. You must find it, and press it. 

William looked around Baby’s face, trying to search Baby’s cheeks for any sign of the button she was referring to. Eventually, he came across a small button, right underneath Baby’s left eyes, and pressed it. As soon as he did, a small part of Baby’s metal plating came off, revealing some sort of combination lock inside, behind her ear. 

Baby: There is a passcode that you must enter before you can retrieve me. Enter the code carefully. 7. 1. 7. 4. 4. 5. 7. 2. 9. 3. 

William did his best to press each tiny button on the pad slowly and efficiently. 

Baby: Good. A hatch should have opened. Take the card that you find inside.

William looked around Baby, and found on the right side of her face, a hatchet opened up, dropping what seemed to be a tiny card on the ground. William bends down and picks it up. 

Baby: Now you must turn back. I will guide you through Funtime Auditorium so you can reach the scooping room. When you are there, I want you to destroy this body. Don’t worry, my endoskeleton will be fine. I just need them to think that I broke down. Besides, I’ve got a much better suit, anyways. Put the card into your handheld device, and I can continue to speak to you. It works like a… what’s it called, oh yeah, a walkie-talkie, I think. Now, press the green button to your left. This will send me to the scooping room.

William was skeptical of this. He did not like this plan at all, considering his moment of terror last night being trapped in the scoop room in a springlock suit. So, he decided it was best that if his gut thought that anything seemed off, he would listen to it. He then proceeded to press the button. As he did this, Baby was carried away by the same automatic railings that took Ballora yesterday, slowly and creepily, inside of the scoop room, vanishing from William’s sight. 

Baby: You must follow my instructions in Funtime Auditorium. Ballora is going to follow you. She will try to catch you. I will help you avoid her. She will not follow you inside the scooping room; she is afraid after what happened last night. Now, go back.

He exited the parts and service room and re-entered the Funtime Auditorium. As he did this, something odd crossed his mind: why would Ballora even be in the Funtime Auditorium? Did she escape the scoop room or something? And why didn’t Baby mention anything at all about Funtime Foxy, since this was her assigned room? It didn’t make sense to him at all, and his gut was telling him that something was definitely not right here. 

Baby: Go forward... Stop. Go forward and left... Keep going... 

William continued to follow Baby’s instructions through the Hand-Unit, 

Baby: Stop. Be silent. 

William waited for a few moments, just to make sure. 

Baby: Go forward and left... Stop. Go forward. You are almost there... 

William continued to crawl along the floor. 

Baby: Stop. She is right in front of you. Don't move.

William stood paralyzed, wondering how the hell she could’ve snuck up on him so quietly. He waited for a few moments...still keeping still…

Baby: He is here to help, Ballora. He is not here to hurt us. Ballora, he is here to help us... Go forward again. Ballora is behind you. She is afraid of the scooping room; she will not follow you.

None of this makes any sense, thought William. Ballora was in front of me a few moments ago and now she’s behind me all of a sudden? Why didn’t she just kill me when she was in front of me? It was right here and now that, unbeknownst to Baby, William decided to use his flashlight to make sure Ballora was right behind him. When he turned it on, he couldn’t see any sign of Ballora in the room anywhere. He checked for around three times just to be sure, and he still couldn’t see her. Baby is definitely lying to me, he thought. But why? What does she want? He couldn’t think of too many options, but he still wasn’t going to trust Baby without whatever it was that she wanted him to do. So, he did the sensible thing and looked around the Funtime Auditorium with his flashlight to see if there were any other rooms here, and he found a doorway not too far away from the door to the scooper. William wasn’t keen on waiting for too long, so he thought it was best to enter the room, and hoped that Baby didn’t notice. As he tried to enter this room, the Hand-Unit started acting up again. 

Baby: Where are you, William? I told you, Ballora won’t follow you into the scooping room, it’s safe to go now. 

William disobeyed Baby and decided to go into the new room he found instead. He got another message from the Hand-Unit as he went inside. 

Baby: I feel like you are not trusting me enough. Do you not trust me, William? Haven’t I gotten you this far already? Wasn’t I the one who helped you survive the past couple of nights? Why should you not put your faith in me now? 

William was starting to get cold feet, and decided to deactivate the Hand-Unit momentarily. As he did this, he also took out his flashlight and explored the new room he was in, trying to find a light switch since it was dark in there. He was luckily able to find one on the left side of the room near the corner, and flipped the switch. The lights instantly came on, revealing the inside of the room William was now in. As he looked around it, William was confused and intrigued by what was inside of this room. There was a large work desk, with several different mechanics, tools and a purple woolen face mask lying on it, and on the walls he could see several large investigation boards on both sides, each one with different photos, newspapers, and some odd sketches. He took a good look at what information was on these boards: there was a newspaper report about the alleged child death at Circus Baby World, another report about how Dave Miller invented the springlock suits, and several others relating to missing workers and children that allegedly happened right here at Circus Baby World. He could also see a photo of what seemed to be a little girl, probably around eight, with red hair and a cute, little red bow in her hair, right next to her mother, probably in her thirties, William thought, with long, blonde hair and green eyes. Right next to them was perhaps the father of the red-haired girl in the photo, but all William could see of the father was his hand on the blonde woman’s shoulder, with the rest of the photo seemingly torn away. Above the photo was a little piece of paper that read out the following words: Angelica and Elizabeth. William didn’t understand any of this at first, given that he didn’t recognize either person in the photo, but then he started looking at some of the other things on the investigation board. There was one in particular that caught his eye: a report about a woman seemingly kidnapped around two months ago, and her photo looked exactly like the blonde woman in the picture. Her name, according to the newspaper was "Angelica Warner." This report also mentioned that Angelica was assumed to be dead given that she disappeared without a trace, and the authorities state that her husband didn’t have a single clue about what happened to her. What was even more confusing was that the name of the husband was never stated in the paper, anywhere. William tried checking the other things on the investigation boards. Most of them were images and newspapers of events or people related to Circus Baby World, and involved some sort of tragedies and accidents. Jared Pietmond reported missing, an old technician getting an arm dismembered, Elizabeth Miller...is she related to Dave Miller? But I thought Harold said Dave's wife and daughter left him a few months ago. Why would she be mentioned here, William wondered. As he searched the investigation boards for more clues on what was going on, he came to the end of the room to find four, ominous doors at the end of it. 

The first of these four doors was already opened, seemingly with nothing inside of it. William was curious to see what was inside of these closets, and why someone would build four separate closets right next to each other in a single room. It seemed like such a stupid idea to William. Nevertheless, he carefully opened the second door, revealing something...rather strange inside. It seemed to be a Circus Baby suit, but unlike the regular model, this one seemed a little older, looking like a ten-year old child instead of a little girl like Circus Baby. The design wasn’t too much different: they both had red, mechanical hair, had the same red dress, a few pins sticking out of its arms and legs, but this one’s face was all too different. While Circus Baby’s face seemed more round, this model seemed to be much more humanoid. William decided to check the other two doors to see if there were any more suits inside. As he opened the third and fourth closet doors, he saw two more animatronic suits that resembled Circus Baby, but these ones were also vastly different. The third suit seemed to be the most unique out of all of them, as it seemed to have a much more humanoid appearance, with thinner legs, arms, and a thinner body than the original Circus Baby model. It definitely looked more human than the other three suits. She had the same hair, but this one seemed to have much more hair curls and design than the other suits, and she looked around as old as a teenage girl. The final suit looked like an adult version of Circus Baby, slightly larger than the third model, but other than that, not much different from the others. What the hell is all of this stuff, thought William. Why make four different suits for the same robot if you’re not even going to use them? And why do they look so...creepily human? 

As William was thinking about this, he heard the sound of footsteps coming somewhere from the Funtime Auditorium. They didn’t seem to be the footsteps of an animatronic, but rather that of a human. Shit, someone’s here, he thought. He didn’t know if whoever it was outside was friendly or not, so he did some quick thinking and hid inside one of the large counter drawers in the room, just barely holding enough space for him to hide. Thankfully, it was not a moment too soon, because at that moment, William could hear someone opening the door. He couldn’t see who it was that opened it, but he could hear some footsteps getting closer to him. 

???: “What the- Who the hell opened the closet doors? I told these people a million times to leave my private work alone.” 

Wait, William thought. I think I recognize that voice. Where did I hear it from before? 

???: “Ugh, I need to get rid of those dead bodies before someone notices them. Who the hell even killed them? I don't see the animatronics anywhere, so what happened? Nevermind, I'll deal with it myself.” 

He didn't kill them? But if he didn’t murder the technicians, then who did? And why? Guess I'll need to wait for him to leave before I find out what's going on. If he's getting rid of the bodies, then he's definetely got something suspicious going on here.