54An update?! After all this time?! WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!
... Sorry about that, I had to get it out. Anyway, yes, I'm back, and with a little something I've been thinking about for quite a bit. I've been rewatching a few Let's Plays on YouTube while I was bored, and I came up with this little idea after re-watching Markiplier's playthrough of an absolutely amazing FNAF fan game.
The Joy of Creation.
For those of you who don't know, The Joy of Creation is a somewhat well known fan game created by Nikson, in which it follows the story of Scott Cawthon himself, along with his dear family, as they try to survive an endless cycle of insanity and horror as they are attacked by demonic copies of his animatronic creations. The Ignited Animatronics. How it goes is, Scott's son returns to his family home years after it was destroyed in a fire caused by the animatronics, and recalls old memories of what happened that fateful night.
This particular fan game introduced the idea of free roaming in a game like FNAF while at the same time keeping the series' original charm, and eventually, this idea came to mind. Consider this to be a little experiment to test if my skills are up to par, and i'll be continuing the actual story shortly after.
Sit back. Relax. The horror will now begin anew.
If Ruby had any way of knowing why this was happening, she'd look for it relentlessly and try to stop it.
Unfortunately, ever since she woke up here, she never had a chance to question it. She remembered falling asleep next to her sister, eager for initiation the next day, and began dreaming that she was back in her bed at home, raindrops pattering at her window. But she only had to take one look around to realize that something was very wrong here. For one, her bedroom door was locked from the outside. She knew that she had not once ever locked her bedroom door, and yet, no matter how hard she tried to pull the door open, it hardly even budged. The fact that she checked to make sure that it was unlocked in the first place added to her unease and paranoia.
The second thing that helped her realize how wrong her situation was, were the clocks. Ruby had two clocks in her room. One standing on her dresser, and another on her scroll. Both clocks were set at Midnight, and neither one was counting. It was as if time was standing still, and wasn't at the same time.
But the final nail in the coffin was definitely the strange audio files that were left on her scroll. Recordings that she had no memory of ever making.
"I... I don't know how long it's been." the message began, and Ruby's breath hitched as she recognized her own voice, "Minutes, hours, I can't tell anymore. The clock on my dresser hasn't been working right since I got here, and my scroll's clock is stuck at 12 a.m. I recorded this for myself, I can only remember some things but not others. I wish Crescent Rose was with me. Actually, I wish Yang and Dad were with me, where are they? Why is this happening?!"
"I don't know." Ruby don't know why she tried to answer her own question, but it just made her feel better to be able to say something for some reason.
"Okay, okay, I just need to stay calm. I want to be a Huntress, I've been training my whole life to fight monsters. But this... this is different. I know that I just need to make it to 6 o'clock. How I know, I don't know, but I do. I'm not sure how long I've tried, but I'm still here, so I haven't made it. They always managed to stop me." Ruby shivered at the word 'They'. Hearing it sent brief flashes through her mind, of nightmarish robots, all burnt and broken down as they shambled towards her, their cold, glowing eyes filled with evil and hatred to rival that of a Grimm. With each flash, one word kept repeating itself in her mind: Ignited. The recording continued, bring her back from her thoughts.
"Anyway, Ruby, if you can't remember, listen. The lamp is the key here, it keeps your mind from just falling apart, leave it on when you start feeling weird. Don't leave it on forever though. The door only opens for the bunny robot. He always knocks before it comes in. When it does, shut off your lamp and lie down. You don't have to pretend to sleep, just lie down and he'll go away. The bear robot is wandering around outside the window, When he comes near it, hold the curtains shut, DON'T open them until you hear him walk away, he'll kill you on the spot. The fox robot, oh God, he's always hiding under the bed." Ruby's heart stopped. That monster was hiding under her bed?! Right now?!
"Oh no." She said, terrified, "No, no no no no!"
"It's okay, it's okay, don't panic!" Her past self said, as if sensing her fear, "He has a pattern, like the others. Whenever he tries to come up, he scratches the bed first. As soon as you hear scratching beneath you, get under the covers and pretend that you're asleep. If he thinks you're sleeping, he'll leave you alone, just wait for him to crawl back under the bed. Finally, there's the Bird. I can still see her, even when I close my eyes. She's hiding in the closet. She doesn't want you staring at her, but she doesn't want you to ignore her either. If she's angry, she'll come right up and scream at you! That horrible scream... It's worse than nails on a chalkboard! When she screams, you can't even think straight for several seconds. For some reason, though, she won't kill you. After she screams, she just disappears back into the closet. Look, if you see her peeking out of the closet, just, lie down and face her. She doesn't mind you looking, just don't look her in the eye."
Ruby was still very much afraid, to the point of tears. "Why?" She said, "Why is this happening?! This has to be a nightmare!"
"Okay, that about covers it." Ruby desperately wished for the recording to continue, but luck was not on her side. "Close the curtains for the Bear, turn of the light for the Bunny and the Bird, and pretend to sleep for the Fox. When 6 a.m rolls around, everything should go back to normal. I think. I hope. Good luck, Ruby." With that, the recording ended, leaving Ruby in silence.
Ruby just couldn't take it anymore. She curled up into a ball, crying. "Oh my God, this isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't-!" She stopped. The words of her past self rang through her mind. All she had to do was survive until dawn, and she already knew how. Steeling her nerve, she sat up on her bed, wiping her tears away. "No. I can do this. I'm not scared. I can't be." She looked at her clock and was stunned. The hands were moving. The seconds hand was spinning in a rapid pace, the minute hand moving every ten seconds. She looked down at her scroll and sure enough, the minutes were counting faster than normal there as well, "Time's moving. It's moving!" Before she could celebrate any further, there was a knock at her door. Moving quickly, she turned off the light and lied down under the covers, leaving only her eye exposed. The door quietly clicked open, and her eyes widened at what she saw.
The Bunny was peeking in. It looked like some kind of animatronic, like the ones she used to see at fairs. However, this was nothing like the ones she saw long ago. Most of its costume was destroyed and what little of it remained was burned, revealing the metal endoskeleton underneath, which was also missing its left arm. Its eyes glowed red like that of a Grimm, looking all the more like a monster, but what really scared her was its face. Or lack of one. Everything above the jaw had been ripped off, nothing there except for the robotic face of the machine. The bunny looked around the room for a few more seconds before it left, the door clicking shut behind it. Ruby wanted to sigh in relief that he was gone, but she still felt too scared, and she knew that it would be back eventually.
The closet doors quietly opened and the Bird peeked out. Once again, Ruby was lying down, unable to move as she faced the demon. Much like the Bunny, its costume was damaged and badly burnt. Much of it was torn or removed, and it was missing both of its hands. Its jaw was also gone, leaving only the upper part of its face. Its cold, silver gaze locked onto Ruby's, and the two stared at each other for minutes on end, neither of them moving. Then, without a sound, the closet doors slammed shut. The Bird was hiding again. With a sigh, Ruby glanced at her scroll. It was half past 12.
Ruby's head started feeling strange, and she wanted to turn on the lamp again, but ultimately decided against it. She didn't want to run the risk of one of the animatronics seeing the light and killing her. Her vision was beginning to distort slightly, but she ignored it, too afraid of what might happen to switch the lamp on. "I can't..." She said, "I can't turn the light on. They'll get me." She turned around so she could focus on the rain hitting her window, and nearly screamed.
The Bear was standing right outside, staring at her.
Ruby jumped up and hastily pulled the curtains closed. "Oh my God, it saw me!" The Bear was knocking at the window, as if asking her to let it in, but she didn't listen. The pounding sensation in her head was getting worse as the minutes ticked by. Finally, when it seemed that the monster was going to try and break the window down, she heard footsteps.
'mmmmooooaaaannnn'
It was leaving.
Ruby just couldn't take it anymore. She finally caved and turned the lamp on. Slowly, but surely, the pounding in her head was growing duller and duller, and her vision was returning to normal. The clock now read 1:12.
"Oh my God, I so want this to be over already!" She took one last look around, searching for something, anything, that could protect her somehow... and was once again caught in the Bird's gaze. "Oh no."
'SCREEEEEEEEE!'
Without warning, the Bird was already in her face, and let out a piercing scream that drowned out Ruby's own. As quickly as it happened, it was gone. Vanished.
Ruby held her head in agony. The scream was still ringing in her ears, and she couldn't see straight. The pounding in her head had returned full force, and she could hear a loud ringing in her ears. She could barely make out the sound of her heart beat.
Ruby couldn't take it. She turned on the light and began violently shaking her head, trying to make the ringing go away. "Oh God, MAKE IT STOP!" Blearily, she open her eyes... and locked onto the shadow at the end of her room.
It looked like a silhouette of the Bear. Its entire body was as black as night, its eyes and teeth glowed a bright white, making them stand out against the pitch black darkness. Lightning flashed outside her room, and the shadow disappeared. Ruby frantically searched the room for any sign of it. What was that thing? Why was it here? Before she could ponder these thoughts further, the bunny was knocking on her door once again, and at the same time she heard scratching under her bed. 'No. Oh no, two of them?!' She quickly turned off the light and lied back under the covers, pretending to sleep. 'I hope this works on the Bunny too.' She could hear the door swing open, and the whirring of mechanically limbs beside her. She knew what it was. The Fox was here, looking at her.
'Please! Please, go away!' She forced her breath to remain steady, trying to appear unconscious so that the Fox doesn't kill her. She hear the door close, indicating that the Bunny had left the room, but the Fox was still there, staring at her. Eventually, as if tired of waiting for her to wake up, it crawled back under the bed.
Ruby's heart was beating at a mile a minute. Nothing about what is happening here made any sense. The monsters, the pattern they followed, the warped version of her own home, all of it was just pure insanity. And that shadow... The recording said nothing about what it was. She figured that either it was something new, she couldn't remember it, or, possibly, she never survived long enough to see it appear... None of those possibilities sounded good at all.
After she opened her eyes, she could tell that her vision was starting to distort all over again, so she turned off the light and checked the time again. It was now 2:17. "Huh. Time really does fly." Ruby couldn't believe how fast time was passing. At this rate, it'll be 6 o'clock in no time.
She can see the Bear looking inside again, and closed the curtains, not even bothering to turn the light off. If it can't see through the curtains, the light wouldn't be any issue. At least with the light on, she felt a little better, though it did nothing to calm her rapidly beating heart. The Bear moaned as it walked away, allowing Ruby to open the curtains again.
"I wish Yang was here with me." She said tiredly.
Another hour had passed, and the terror was beginning to take its toll on Ruby's state of mind. Her heart was beating so erratically, she thought that she would never be able to calm down. She was constantly shaking, as the frequent attacks from the animatronics left her nerves shot, and the constant paranoia and fear of death wasn't doing her any favors either. The ringing in her ears almost downed out all other sound and her vision was getting worse as time passed, so it was getting harder to hear when one of the metal monsters was about to come in. Twice she was almost caught by the Fox. She could not hear its telltale scratching, and just barely managed to catch sight of its hook before it pulled itself out from under her bed.
The shadowy figure had returned as well.
Looking at it closely, even with her distorted vision, Ruby saw that it somewhat resembled the Bear, if it had its bottom jaw. On multiple occasions, she watched as it walked from the other side of her room towards her bed, disappearing just before it could get to her. Every time it appeared. Her head hurt even worse, to the point where the light was barely helping anymore, all it was doing was letting her limp along with her decaying sanity. Ruby thought that the shadow was a hallucination. Just another sign of her mind coming undone, so she barely paid any attention to it anymore.
The Bunny knocked on her door again, forcing her to turn her light off again, but that did not mean that she was safe, as the Bear had also returned to her window, forcing her to hold the curtains closed and hope that the Bear would leave before the bunny came in. The machines' visits were getting more and more frequent. They were getting smarter, and more impatient. By now, Ruby was certain that she only survived this long by pure luck alone.
'mmmmooooaaaannnn'
And it seems that her luck was holding out, as the Bear's moan told her that it was gone, and not a second too soon, as the Bunny chose that time to enter. She quickly lied down, thinking about her situation. Or at least as much as she could with the massive headache she had.
'Come on, come on, turn to 6 already.' she thought, 'It hurts so much to think. I must be seeing things.' The Bunny left once again, and Ruby turned the light on. That's when she felt something wet on her bed. 'Wait, what is that?'
Looking up, she saw some kind of liquid dripping from the ceiling, but it was hard to tell what it was in the pitch black darkness. Holding her hand up, she caught some of it and held it up to the lamp. Its crimson red color told her exactly what it was.
Blood.
If Ruby wasn't already beyond terrified before, she was now. She quickly shook the blood off of her hand and curled up into a ball. Things just kept getting worse and worse. Ruby felt that even if she did make it to 6 a.m, she wouldn't be sane enough to realize it.
And as if to prove her point, the shadow was now standing over her, staring deep into her eyes.
The ringing rose to a fever pitch, but Ruby couldn't tear her eyes away from the being, as if entranced. Her vision was now darkening, and she felt that it was the end.
'No... No... I don't want to go...' With that last thought, she fell back onto the bed, closing her eyes one last time as the darkness claimed her.
Ruby opened her eyes to find herself in the middle of a forest, but felt like she couldn't even be bothered to focus on anything. All she could do was gaze vacantly. Her eyes were no longer the vibrant and youthful silver that she was known for. Instead, they now matched those of the monsters. Her mind was only filled with two words that kept appearing in her head.
COME BACK
Ruby awoke in a cold sweat with a short scream, waking Yang.
"Ruby! Ruby, what's wrong?!" Ruby didn't answer as she took a look around her surroundings. She was back in Beacon, the room absent of everyone but Yang, Freddy and Foxy, who immediately rushed to the young girl's side. Ruby almost screamed again. The two Faunus siblings looked like the Bear and the Fox robots from her dream for a second. Then she remembered what was going on. It was just Foxy and Freddy. Today was Initiation Day.
"Are ye alright, lass?" Foxy asked, looking as worried as Yang. Ruby had to take a few breaths to calm herself down.
"I-I'm okay, I'm fine." Freddy and Yang didn't look too convinced of that.
"You don't seem fine. You look like you've seen a ghost." Freddy said.
"Ruby, tell us the truth. Are you sure you're okay? Yang asked.
"I'm fine Yang." Ruby said, waving her off, I... I just had a bad dream. At least... I think it was a dream. It felt so real. I was being attack by these evil animatronic things, I felt like I was going insane." She could still see those grey eyes in her head. Freddy and Foxy stiffened at the mention of animatronics while Yang gave Ruby a hug to make her feel better.
"It's okay, Rubes. It was just a nightmare, that's all." She said, patting her sister on the back.
Foxy was still a little thrown off but tried to help out anyway, "Uh, yeah, it's just a nightmare, nothing to worry about." He said, putting a hand on her shoulder. Ruby did feel better with their support, and smiled lightly to show it.
"Thanks guys." She said, "And hey, you dropped your pirate accent, Foxy." Foxy smiled awkwardly while cursing himself. He only ever dropped his accent when he was seriously bothered by something. "Aye, lass, it seems I did." Just then, Chica and Bonnie burst through the main doors. Chica seemed unusually worried while Bonnie held his guitar readily as they looked around.
"What happened?" Bonnie asked, "I heard someone screaming from the bathrooms!" Freddy calmly walked over to talk to him.
"Everything's fine, Bon. Ruby just had a nightmare." Chica seemed to perk right up when she heard that there was no danger. Bonnie, on the other hand, just sighed in annoyance.
"Seriously, Red?" He said, irritated, "You had a bad dream and screamed like a baby?" Yang, Freddy and Foxy didn't take kindly to his tone. Chica gave him a smack on the shoulder, "Leave her alone Bonbon, everyone has a bad dream once in awhile." She said. Freddy pulled Bonnie close and whispered into is large bunny ears.
"She was dreaming of being attacked by animatronics!" That made Bonnie shut up real quick.
Foxy decided to explain Bonnie's attitude, and keep Yang from hitting him, "Don't mind him, lassies. He hates mornings" Bonnie sighed and apologized, mumbling something about coffee. Chica was getting tired of standing around, eager to get to Initiation.
"Come on! What are we waiting for, I want to get to Initiation!" She said as she all but skipped out of the room, pulling Bonnie and Freddy along with her. Foxy gave Ruby one last reassuring smile before following his brothers and sister.
"She's right, Rubes." Yang said, helping Ruby up, "We still need to get ready. Come on, maybe we can get you some cookies." Ruby perked up immediately at the mention of her favorite food. It looks like the nightmare had finally worn off. "Okay!" She said happily. The two of them packed their things, got dressed, and ran out to catch up with the others.
Neither of them noticed the small yellow bear plushie in Ruby's bag.
And CURTAIN!
There we have it folks! My first original chapter in this story. Granted, it's not really relevant to the actual plot of the story, but hey, you gotta star somewhere.
Oh, and for those of you that don't know about that plushie... actually, I don't want to spoil the surprise. Let's just say that we haven't seen the last of the Ignited. That whole TJOC thing is going to be a small little side project in this story.
Well, that's it for this chapter then. Please leave me your thoughts on this, and expect another chapter by Halloween.
Adios!