You ran as hard as your little legs would carry you, the cool night air stinging your skin. Your [h/c] locks were a mess, mussed from the close encounter you'd just faced. Tears stung your eyes as you gasped for breath. Your bare feet screamed in pain as they hit the pavement harshly. This was like a nightmare...!



All you'd wanted was to find your favorite toy in the car... You couldn't sleep without it, your little Freddy bear. You'd gotten it as a present when you'd been to your favorite pizzeria for your birthday a year before. But your mother said no, that she was too tired to find her keys and get it for you... So, being the ever-adventurous child that you were, you decided that you'd just get it yourself!



You waited for your mom to get quiet after she went to bed and crept downstairs to nick the keys from the hall table. Keys in hand, you hopped down the porch steps and poked at the key button that said 'unlock'. With a mischievious glint in your [e/c] gaze, you clambered into the car and began searching around for the teddy bear. Finally you found it wedged under your seat and you pulled it free with a smile.



But when you hopped out of the car, there was a man standing there at the car door. A terrible grin was on his face as he stooped to grab you. Panic gripped your chest, you didn't know who this man was! So you did what everyone told you to in this sort of situation. You bolted down the road as fast as you could go, dropping the keys without another thought. You could hear the man shout and thunder after you.



Clutching the bear to your chest, you ran. You weren't sure where you were running, but you ran. Hot sticky tears poured down your face. Why hadn't you listened to your mother? WHY?! You ducked beneath a gap in a fence and felt the sting of sharp metal at your small arms and back. Still you scrambled beneath it, leaving the man behind to curse and attempt to climb over the obstruction. Dirty and scared, you looked up to find that by some miracle you'd managed to run to Freddy Fazbear's itself.



That's it! Freddy and his friends would help you! They had been so nice last year at your birthday party, you were sure they could help you! You sprinted across the almost-abandoned parking lot, the rattling of the chain-link fence behind you forcing a shout from your lungs. You scrambled past the lone car in the parking lot, running up to the doors of the pizzeria.



You slapped the doors to the restaurant in a panic, shouting at the doors. "Freddy, Freddy! Please let me in, Freddy!" Your tiny palms were stinging, the teddy bear at your feet forgotten temporarily. Thick tears began to choke you, your throat tight in terror, "I don'wanna die, please!"



There was a click at the door and you paused only briefly to pick up your bear before practically throwing yourself inside. You landed on the dingy carpet with an 'Oof', holding your bear like a lifeline. You looked up to find three sets of eyes looking down at you, their glowing eyes shuttered in concern. "Th-There's a bad man chasing me!" you gulped past harsh tears, hoping they would understand.



There was a moment of silence in the dark pizzeria as the three animatronics looked between you and the man who was now crossing the parking lot towards the restaurant, ire clear in his gaze even from this distance. Freddy's expression turned dark, a shiver running down your spine. "Don't worry," Freddy's voice rumbled above you, "We won't let him get you."



Bonnie glared at the approaching man. "Not again," he muttered darkly.



"Hide," Chica whispered to you, flicking her fingers towards a back room, "I'll get Foxy."



You felt gentle paws pick you up onto your feet and press to your back, urging you onward. You needed no further coaxing, bolting towards the door. You pulled at the doorknob and the heavy door came open, just as you heard the front door open again. You darted into the room in front of you, your pulse pounding in your throat. There was a click as the man locked the door behind himself, trapping you in here with him.



You looked up at the shelves lining the walls. There were heads lined up on the shelves, replacement heads of the mascots you loved. You shuddered at the image, spotting a metal man-thing laying on the table above you. It made no effort to move, you didn't figure it was a problem. Over in the corner was a full costume, slumped almost formlessly. As you stepped closer, you realized it was Freddy! But Freddy was...! No, wait. It wasn't Freddy, this Freddy was a different color. Its' bow tie and top hat were the wrong color, too...



"Little kid?" you heard the man's voice call out into the empty restaurant, "Hey, little kid? C'mon out, I ain't gonna hurt'cha." He started to walk towards the room where you stood, your nerves making you forget how to breathe. "Just wanna have some fun with ya, right?" You tightened your arms around your precious bear, fear quaking through your small frame. What now...? What now?!



It was then that movement in the corner caught your eye. You looked up to see a limp, empty arm of the Freddy costume raise and beckon you over. 'Here...,' you heard a gentle voice in your head, echoing and quiet. Your heart jumped in fear when you saw the empty costume move, but... What other choice did you have? You walked forward to the bear suit, trembling so bad that it was hard to stand up.



'In here...,' the voice echoed again. The costume gestured to its empty unzippered chest, 'I will hide you... Quickly, child.' You were hesitant for a brief moment, but there was a thump outside of the doorway. The man cursed again after having tripped over a chair. You stepped forward, reaching out to climb into the suit.



A soft paw pushed at your back, helping you into the costume. The soft material was all around you, the paws poking and shifting you gently into place. The zipper went up by itself, your tiny form fitting easily into the torso of the costume. The faint smell of old pennies and something sweet invaded your nostrils. Everything was dark now, the dim light coming in from the eyeholes of the costume was too high up for you to see out of. 'Don't move,' the voice urged you.



You squinted your eyes closed, tears leaking out of the corners of your puffy [e/c] eyes. Footsteps entered the same room as you and the costume. You held your shaky breath as he walked into the room. "Ugh," you heard him mutter, "Kids LIKE this crap?" There was a quiet moment where you worried that the man was going to find you. Something crossed in front of the light coming in from the front of the suit.



After a long, tense moment, the man walked out of the room. "Hey kid...?" he called out as he walked away, "You like games, kid? We can play together, you and me..."



You still held your breath in terror, your head growing fuzzy and light. 'Breathe, he is gone,' the voice echoed in concern. You drew in a shuddering breath through your fingers, large tears rolled down your face. Your body refused to stop shaking, a whimper being forced out of your mouth. You hugged your teddy bear for dear life, sitting in the dark of the suit.



"I-I'm so scared...!" you whimpered to the voice as quietly as you could manage, "All I w-wanted was... my bear...! And then he...!"



'Calm yourself,' the voice pleaded with you softly, 'Trust us... We will keep you safe...' Something clattered in the quiet of the restaurant, your tiny body jumping a mile in response as you yelped. Curling your legs to your chest in the dark of the costume, a sob tore itself from your chest.



There was a sigh as the suit drooped downward on its own. Suddenly, there was the sensation of coolness in the stuffy suit. You gasped as what felt like cool arms wrapped around you from behind. 'Don't worry,' the voice cooed at your right ear this time, 'What happened to us... won't happen to you...' Gentle fingers not much bigger than yours tucked a stray lock of [h/c] behind your ear. 'The least we can do... is give someone else the chance... we never had...'



Your shaking subsided quite a bit in the cool embrace. It soothed your ragged nerves in an oddly comforting way... But how, you were the only one in this suit...? The voice laughed gently, then you felt cool lips at your temple for the briefest of moments. 'I have been in this suit... a long time now...' Two pinpricks of light in the darkness of the suit caught your attention. 'This suit... is me.' The two lights slowly went dim and then strengthened and that's when you realized that they were eyes...



There was a loud shout from somewhere in the pizzeria followed by a crash. The two pinpricks of light disappeared and the voice turned a bit more stern now. 'Keep still.' You fell still as the voice told you, biting your lip in silence. The shouting began getting even louder and more frantic. As it got closer, you recognized it as the man that was trying to find you. You tensed up, fear draining back into your veins anew. But then you realized that he wasn't shouting because he was mad...



"OH DEAR GOD, someone help me!" he screamed in the distance. "Oh Christ- Oh please! PLEASE LET ME GO OH GOD! Help! HELP!" The screaming entered the room with you eventually, flashes of color and movement visible through the eyeholes of the mask. You leaned up to see all three of the mascots file into the room with the man in tow, as well as a fourth fox mascot you'd never seen before. Freddy held the man's legs and Chica gripped his arms, all of the animatronics wearing fearsome expressions. The man cried out as he thrashed, tears now running down his own cheeks. Bonnie and the new animatronic pulled a rigid Freddy suit from a closet, the suit looking ragged and well used. It dripped something on the floor, the suit looking overstuffed as it was. Bonnie removed the head of the suit and the fox undid the back zipper.



Suddenly light-colored paws covered the eyeholes of the costume, blocking your view of the scene in front of you. 'You don't need to see this,' you heard the echoing voice in your head, 'Just listen to me... and it'll all be fine...' You heard the man's scream reach a blood-curdling pitch and terrible crunching and squelching until the voice in your head began to hum. The voice hummed a slow tune, drowning out the gurgles and cracks of the animatronics at work. You didn't recognize the tune, but the soft notes were soothing anyways. A smile finally cracked on your face as you listened in the darkness.



'What is your name, child?' the voice asked finally as you lowered the teddy bear in your grip gently.



"I-It's... [y/n]," you replied quietly, hearing a final crunch as the animatronics finished... whatever they were doing.



'[y/n]...' You could almost hear a smile in the voice's tone, 'Don't worry anymore, [y/n]... Our friends made sure that that man... won't ever bother anyone again...'



After so long in the darkness, the paws covering the eyes of the suit were lowered finally. The zipper in the front of the costume you were hiding in opened, a paw reaching out to the gap that you could now peer out of. Carefully, you reached out of the costume and took the furry hand.



As you emerged from the costume, you noticed that it was Chica's hand that pulled you free. You looked up at the four mascots. There were splashes of crimson all over them, mainly on their hands and bodies. They looked down at you in relief, the fox reaching down to pat your head. "It's safe now," he crooned to you, "Ye don't need t' worry anymore. 'E's gone now."



You looked down to find a thick pool of the same crimson, the floor completely awash in it. It pooled at your bare feet, the smell of old pennies even more heavy in your nose. You supposed that the redness could be blood... But nobody had that much in them, right? So it couldn't be blood. The spare suit seemed to be the place where most of the liquid was coming from, the overstuffed seams leaking the thick liquid.



Somehow these friends of yours had gotten rid of him...



You shook in relief, tears once again rolling down your cheeks. A smile curled on your face and you gave a hiccup that turned into a sob. "Thank you..." you murmured, tears running down past your smile. "Thank you everyone... Thank you..." You reached out and threw your arms around the closest animatronic, which happened to be Bonnie. The thick, sticky red liquid began to get smeared on your skin, but you were too relieved to care.



Bonnie quietly picked you up as you cried in joy. "Thank you..."



-----



You woke the next morning in your own bed, all traces of the ordeal you went through gone. Had it been a dream...? But, it had felt so real... You told your mother about the dream and she sighed in quiet exasperation. "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you about Freddy bear," she patted your head, "You had a heck of a nightmare without him."



Freddy bear...! You didn't have him when you woke up! You looked and looked for the bear. Under the car seat, in the toy chest, in your bed... You couldn't find him! You were inconsolable for days, never able to find him. Your mother reassured you that Freddy bear would turn up, but it wasn't until a week later that you finally unravelled the mystery.



Your mother had taken you back to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza after many many MANY times of you begging her. It had taken a lot of convincing, since she didn't really seem to like the place as much as you or the other kids your age. You'd walked into the pizzeria, vivid memories of the dream flashing in your mind. It had to be true, it had to! You set forward to find out.



Luckily, it seemed your mother was easily distracted by some guy taking seating assignments. Pffft, and grown-ups called kids scatter-brained. The band played on stage while the other children cheered and cried and screamed and begged. You walked forward to look up at the animatronics. You were sure that Freddy, Chica and Bonnie had helped you, along with that other fox robot... As their song wrapped up, some of the children applauded behind you. A pout spread across your mouth. Maybe you HAD dreamt it and Freddy bear was just lost forever...



A distant rattle caught your attention as you whipped around to look. A familiar red muzzle poked from behind a purple curtain in a secluded corner of the pizzeria. Your eyes lit up in hopeful wonder as the fox peered out at you. Only you. Carefully, the fox rotated his eyepatch upward to give you a wink. You looked back up at the band to find the three of them staring down at you, something akin to relief on their faces. Freddy smiled and almost imperceptibly nodded his head to the backstage room, accompanied by a sharp whirr. Instantly it was like it had never happened and the animatronics swung right into their nexy ditty.



Your smile widened, your little legs carrying you over to the room you had hid in. You watched for the adults wearing work uniforms to look away from you before you cracked the door to slip into the back room. It was just as you remembered it, the creepy replacement heads and the crazy metal man... The overstuffed suit and the lake of crimson were gone, though. But the one thing that you had been looking for was still hiding in the same corner as before.



Now that it wasn't so dark that you could barely see, the suit that you had hidden in was colored... Gold? Yeah, that's it. This Freddy suit was golden-colored in the light. Its' top hat and bow tie were a dark color that had faded in patches, but if you tilted your head the right way you could see the glint of blue shining on the old material. You approached the costume quietly, wondering if the costume was really alive or if you'd imagined it. You licked your lips to speak and leaned forward. "G-..." you stuttered, not used to hearing your voice easily over the din of the other children, "Um... Goldie...?"



There was a long pause of quiet, one in which you contemplated how silly you must look talking to an empty suit. Your cheeks flushed in embarassment and you turned to walk away. 'Goldie...,' the voice in your mind echoed with a lilt of happiness. It laughed, making your cheeks even redder. 'I think I like that...'



"Goldie...!" you breathed, hopping forward to wrap your arms around the empty costume. Another laugh echoed in your mind as a paw came up and gently patted your back. "I was afraid... that..."



'That you'd dreamed the whole thing...?' You nodded, a smile scrunching up your [e/c] eyes. 'To be perfectly honest... I think it would've been better that way...' You frowned, not understanding the meaning of the suit's words. 'But if you had... I would not have been able... to give you back something you lost...'



The zipper of the suit slid down by itself, revealing the emptiness that was the inside of the bear costume. Except that sitting in the torso of the bear was- your Freddy bear. You gasped, reaching forward to grab it. But something had changed it from how it normally looked. The blue glass eyes were still the same, but the once beige fur was now faded to a shade similar to Goldie's fur. The top hat and bow had taken on the hue of Goldie's hat and bow tie as well.



You lifted the bear to examine it, a bright smile lighting up your face. "Goldie bear," you redubbed your stuffed friend immediately. You looked it over for a moment, spotting the frayed tag from the trips through the washing machine. Definitely your same bear... "How?" you asked the voice.



'It was Freddy's idea,' the bear explained, 'Just... don't worry about how he did it...'



You're not sure what compelled you to do it, but you leaned forward to the prone costume on the floor. With a very careful but inexperienced touch, you kissed the tip of the bear suit's nose. The echoing voice in your head was silent for once. Apparently you'd shocked it. "Thank you... for everything," you murmured as your cheeks flared red, "Tell everyone else thank you too."



'Y-You...' The voice was finally at a loss for words. 'You... ah...'



You giggled, hugging your improved bear to your chest. "Don't worry," you smiled at the suit, "I'll visit as much as I can with you guys..." You rocked on your toes. "And my birthday's in a few weeks. So I'll see you then too." Your cheeks were growing increasingly hotter by the moment, fiddling with the ends of your [h/c] hair.



'Then...' the echoing voice started, 'Then I will see you.'



You smiled. "I'll keep coming here, no matter what." You paused for a moment, then reached up on your tiptoes to adjust the top hat upon Goldie's slumped head. "Thank you for my second chance."