Blackbird, p.17
Blackbird, page 17
Toby swallowed hard. “You don’t even know what you’re talking about. So stop.”
“Whatever, Tobes, you know it’s true. But I’m not going to argue with you when you’re practically ready to keel over at any minute.”
“Do you even know how stupid you always sound about being the best at everything? There has to be someone out there better than you. You know that, right?”
Connor shrugged a shoulder. “Whatever, Tobes. Listen, I told you, I’m not going to—”
“You listen.” Toby pointed a finger at Connor, ticked off and tired of all the dumb things that came out of his mouth. “Just so you know, there’s a new game at Freddy’s and I’m playing it right now, and I’m winning.” Yeah, it was a half-truth. Toby was still playing this hide-and-seek game with the shadow. He’d just taken the game home with him. He was pretty sure the rabbit was definitely winning, though. But Connor didn’t have to know that.
Connor tossed his sandwich on his plate and crossed his arms. “Oh, the truth finally comes out. There’s a new game at Freddy’s, and you didn’t even want to tell me so that you could try and beat me at something. News flash, little brother: It doesn’t count until I’ve played. And once I do, I’ll beat it and take my rightful spot at the top.”
Toby smiled as an idea dawned on him. “Sure.”
Connor saw his smile and frowned. “Sure, what?”
“Sure, you’ll beat me.” Toby walked out of the kitchen and down the hallway.
“Of course I will, little brother.” Connor followed him. He always had to get the last word. “That’s the reality.”
Toby walked into the bathroom. He turned toward his brother, crossed his arms.
Connor stood outside the door. “So, what’s the game called?”
“Hide-and-Seek.”
“Perfect. Sounds like a kid’s game, so it’ll be easy. I’ll go there after work tonight and snag the top spot. Not a problem.”
“No, you won’t,” Toby told him.
Connor just stared at Toby. “Why not?”
Toby nodded toward the mirror, finally wanting his brother to see the truth. To see this awful shadow that wouldn’t leave him alone. Toby had been the ultimate player by battling the shadow, and he wanted Connor to finally know.
He looked back at Connor. “Because I’m still playing and I’m going to win it if it’s the last thing I do.” He pointed his finger at Connor. “I’m going to beat you, Connor. You just wait and see. I’ll be the winner and you’ll be the freaking loser! It’s going to be the best day of my life! Do you hear me? Best. Day. Of. My. Life!”
Connor didn’t look at the mirror. He just stared at Toby with wide eyes. “I see.” Then he simply shook his head and raised his hands as if surrendering. “You know what, Tobes. Fine. Go ahead. Beat me. I want you to.”
Toby’s mouth dropped open. “Wh-what?”
“I give up being the best. It’s getting old, fighting with you all the time. I mean, dude, have you looked at yourself lately? Really looked at yourself in the mirror? You look sick and exhausted and you’re still fighting with me, like it’s all that matters in the world instead of your health. This whole competition thing has gotten way out of hand, and it’s time to stop. So, if it takes you winning and me losing, then I’m done.”
Toby didn’t know what to say.
“Anyway, I got to get to work. If you need to stay home, do it. I’ll tell Dad you were really sick. Just get some rest, little brother.” Connor turned away.
Toby watched Connor walk down the hallway and disappear, then heard the front door shut. Connor didn’t care to be the best anymore. After all the games, all the competitions, all the fighting for years … and he had practically conceded to Toby. In a daze, Toby turned toward the bathroom mirror.
Toby stared at himself in the mirror. Really stared at himself. His skin was paler than he’d ever seen it. His cheeks were sunken in. His eyes looked like dark pits in his face. He finally moved his gaze to the shadow.
Clawing and scratching at his skin must have really ticked it off. Not only had it grown in size, but its eyes stared at him with a chilling glare. Then something moved within its face, and that’s when he noticed the shadow had formed a mouth.
A row of spiked teeth flashed into a smile.
Toby’s eyes widened in shock, and he started to pant in short breaths. The shadow radiated fear and anger, and just like in his dream, the shadow loomed behind him, a predator waiting to strike.
Toby felt the urge to cower into a ball on the floor. The shadow was too powerful. Too strong. And Toby knew he was too tired and too weak to fight it anymore.
“Why are you doing this to me?” he yelled at the mirror. “I just want this done! Over!”
Exhausted, Toby leaned his elbows on the bathroom counter, placing his face in his hands. Silent tears streamed down his cheeks. He finally accepted that he was never going to be rid of the shadow. It was going to stay attached to him forever. He’d tried everything he could think of to get it off. Nothing seemed to hurt the darkness. The more he tried, the bigger, stronger, and more horrifying it became, and the worse it made him feel.
Maybe the shadow had attached to him so easily because he’d been in a bad place emotionally. He’d been wrapped up in some crazy competition with his brother all these years. Nothing Connor or anyone did had made him a loser. It had been his own sense of competition and messed-up beliefs. True, jealousy of Connor and Dad’s relationship had made him think of himself as an outcast, like he didn’t belong even in his own home. But if he was being honest, he was the one who had slowly separated himself further and further from his dad and brother because he wanted to win. All these years, he wanted to be a winner just like Connor. But none of that seemed to matter compared to the torture he’d endured with the shadow for the past few days.
He raised his gaze to the shadow’s and took a cue from his brother. “Okay,” he said. “You win. You beat me. I give up. Whatever. I don’t care anymore.”
At that moment, Toby blinked as he felt the heaviness of his back lighten. Surprised, he slowly stood up straight in front of the mirror. The shadow was still there, but it had gone back to the size of when he’d first seen it in his bedroom. The eyes and mouth had disappeared into the darkness. All he felt was a little tickle in the middle of his back once again.
With that realization, it was like something clicked inside of him. A veil had lifted, and he saw everything with sudden clarity.
Just like Toby, the shadow had only wanted to win.
Toby walked out of the bathroom to change, and his cell phone rang. He looked at the screen and read Tabitha’s name before answering. “Hello?”
“Hey, how are you? Do you need any more saving yet?” she asked.
“Nope.”
“Meet me before school behind the bleachers. I have some more ideas to run by you about the shadow.”
“No, I’m not going to school today.”
“Why? What’s happened?”
Toby rubbed his face. “Look, I’m ready to end this once and for all. It’s time.”
“What do you mean, Toby?”
“Just don’t worry about it. I know what I have to do now.”
“What? What do you have to do? Does it involve reiki healing? ’Cause that’s at the top of my list.”
“What?” Toby shook his head. “No. Gotta go, Tab. If I forget to tell you, you’re a good friend. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Wait!”
Toby clicked off the call, then turned off his phone. It was time to go back to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza and Games. It was time to finish Hide-and-Seek.
* * *
Toby walked into Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza and Games with a cool determination. A deadly calm had come over him. He finally knew what he had to do to finish this. It had come to him suddenly. How he cheated Hide-and-Seek and then the shadow rabbit had followed him home. How the technician said the game was still in play. It wouldn’t reboot because Toby had to finish the game. The darkness had wanted him to concede because Toby had cheated. It was all clear to him now. He’d been so fixated on the fact that the shadow was on him that he hadn’t focused on the end game. This wasn’t like Ultimate Battle Warrior, where you beat each other senseless. This was a strategy game.
The toughest one he had ever played in his life.
He walked into the restaurant, and there were only a few little kids playing in the play area and arcade since it was a school day. He walked through the arcade, and of course, Reggie was there. Toby realized Reggie was always there, and he wondered if the kid even had a home.
This time Reggie just stared behind Toby, as if he couldn’t take his eyes off the shadow.
“Guess, uh, you never got rid of the shadow,” Reggie said. “At least it’s small again. Dude, last time I saw you, it was massive.”
“I have to complete the Hide-and-Seek game.”
Reggie blinked. “I thought it was broken.”
“It’s in play, and I’m going to finish it.”
“That’s the game that started all of this? But how are you gonna do that when it’s all busted up?”
“I’ll figure it out.”
Reggie nodded and held out his fist. “Respect, dude. The fire’s back within you. Do what you gotta do.”
Toby tapped his fist to Reggie’s and walked passed him.
“Hey,” Reggie said, and Toby turned back around.
“Can I have that girl Tabitha’s digits?”
Toby just shook his head and made his way to the game, stopping at the door of Hide-and-Seek. The OUT OF ORDER sign was still taped to the door. It was locked, so Toby put in coins to open it and entered the room.
There were fresh white patches on the wall, where Toby had busted open a few holes. All the broken pieces were gone off the floor. The small barricade was completely torn down. There were no new cutouts on the wall. The pegs were still bare.
Taking a breath, Toby went to the control box and turned on the power. Instrumental music blared through the speakers. After it completely booted up, Toby saw his name still in play.
Toby dug out a peppermint toothpick from his pocket and slipped it into his mouth. He adjusted the beanie on his head.
A voice bellowed from the speakers, “Are you ready to continue? Or do you forfeit the game?”
Toby’s finger hovered over the “Forfeit” button. Once he pushed the bottom, he knew everything would go back to normal. The shadow would be gone, and the rabbit would return to Hide-and-Seek. He could go back to his life of being in control of his own body.
And he’d be free.
Toby bit his bottom lip as a familiar feeling spread over him. You see, he couldn’t really get over the fact that the shadow had attached to him. That the shadow had played the ultimate cheat on Toby by making him hurt himself. By making him believe he was going crazy just so it could win the freaking game.
The shadow had wanted to win.
And Toby had let it.
Toby shut his eyes, trembling with anger. “You thought you could beat me,” he said. “You thought you could turn my own cheating back on me. Well, I got a surprise for you. I’m not a loser. You’re the loser.” He opened his eyes, punched down on the “Continue” button with heated determination, then turned his back to the park wall. He felt the shadow’s anger slam over him.
Jaw tight, Toby rushed backward toward the pegs where the tree was supposed to hang, and rammed himself onto the sticks. The pegs stabbed through his back. Toby’s body stiffened as he gasped. His toothpick dropped from his mouth. He felt the shadow release. The dark energy faded away from him as if it never existed.
“I won,” he whispered as blood dripped from his mouth. He smiled right before his eyes gently closed.
The instrumental music restarted through the speakers.
“Welcome to Hide-and-Seek! Enter your name to try to find Bonnie, and let’s begin!”
Scott Cawthon is the author of the bestselling video game series Five Nights at Freddy’s, and while he is a game designer by trade, he is first and foremost a storyteller at heart. He is a graduate of The Art Institute of Houston and lives in Texas with his family.
Andrea Rains Waggener is an author, novelist, ghostwriter, essayist, short story writer, screenwriter, copywriter, editor, poet, and a proud member of Kevin Anderson & Associates’ team of writers. In a past she prefers not to remember much, she was a claims adjuster, JCPenney’s catalog order taker (before computers!), appellate court clerk, legal writing instructor, and lawyer. Writing in genres that vary from her chick-lit novel, Alternate Beauty, to her dog how-to book, Dog Parenting, to her self-help book, Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise, to ghostwritten memoirs to ghostwritten YA, horror, mystery, and mainstream fiction projects, Andrea still manages to find time to watch the rain and obsess over her dog and her knitting, art, and music projects. She lives with her husband and said dog on the Washington coast, and if she isn’t at home creating something, she can be found walking on the beach.
Kelly Parra is the author of YA novels Graffiti Girl, Invisible Touch, and other supernatural short stories. In addition to her independent works, Kelly works with Kevin Anderson & Associates on a variety of projects. She resides in Central Coast, California, with her husband and two children.
Larson pulled his brown sedan just inside the gaping doorway of the abandoned factory. He turned off the engine and looked around. A murky twilight was beginning to slip down the mountains on the far side of the lake, threatening to swallow the remainder of the day’s light. Larson figured it would be dark in about an hour. Looking in the rearview mirror, he noticed a couple security lights mounted on tall poles, standing like sentinels guarding the factory and the dock extending out into the lake beyond. Some of that light would make it in through this door, he figured. And he’d need the light if he didn’t start moving.
“Get on with it,” Larson commanded himself.
Picking up his portable radio and tucking it in his jacket pocket, he reached for the plastic garbage bag into which he’d stuffed the evidence he’d purloined from the evidence locker. It had taken some fast talking to get it past the sergeant on duty. He couldn’t explain what he needed the evidence for because he hadn’t quite convinced himself that he actually needed it. His intuition said he did. His logical mind was laughing hysterically.
Getting out of the sedan, holding the garbage bag, Larson looked around again. He waited and listened. Unless a situation was pressing, he always liked to take a minute to assess where he was. Take it in. Feel it.
It wasn’t going to require a minute to assess this place. In just five seconds, Larson had felt enough. What he felt was so strong it hit him like an invisible force, and he had to grab the open sedan door to steady himself. Larson wasn’t sure he believed in evil, but if evil did exist, he’d have said it resided here, or at least it was visiting.
He cocked his head and listened for another few seconds. He heard nothing but the sound of cars passing on the street beyond the building and a couple crows cawing from atop a corroded shed about ten feet from the factory’s outer walls.
Wait. Was that movement he’d seen? He turned to look at a yellowed, dirty window in the shed. No. Nothing was there.
Larson quietly closed the sedan’s door. The space he was in looked big enough for two more cars like his, and beyond it, another larger room beckoned.
It was dim inside the old factory, but Larson could see well enough. He could hear, too, and what he heard told him where he needed to go.
From the far side of the expanse that opened up ahead of him, scraping and rustling sounds warred with plinks, thuds, and clatters. Someone was in there.
Larson stopped and wrapped the plastic bag’s ties around his wrist. Once it was secured, he drew his gun. Extending the automatic in front of him, he crept forward.
A whisper came from what felt like a few feet away, just up ahead. Larson went rigid. Someone was close enough that he could hear them whisper? Why couldn’t he see them?
He took a breath, steadied himself, then strode to the edge of a huge room dominated by a massive blue trash compactor. The compactor contained a pile of electronic and metal debris.
And next to the compactor’s chute, his quarry stood.
“A strange cloaked figure,” Larson muttered. Yep, there it was.
Larson pivoted left and right, trying to find the source of the whisper. But he was alone on a wide concrete platform that encircled the factory floor.
Alone, with the strange cloaked figure.
The figure didn’t seem to care about Larson’s presence, though. It looked to be sorting trash. It was emptying a large garbage bag. Larson watched gears, hinges, and tangles of wire drop from the bag. Then he saw the bag let go of the distorted face of a fox wearing a pirate’s eye patch. The disconnected arms of a fox followed, one arm ending in a hook.
Foxy. Larson recognized the animatronic from Freddy’s. He was on the right track.
The broken Foxy and what looked like other robotic debris slid down the compactor chute into the square belly of the steel beast. When the remains hit the sides of the compactor, the clang brought Larson to his senses.
“Stop!” he shouted at the figure.
The figure turned and took a step toward Larson. Larson raised his gun and squared his stance.
* * *
“Leave him alone,” Jake said to Andrew.
Jake had no sense of himself as an individual body now, but he could still act like one when he tried really hard. Like now.
He threw his nonexistent shoulder into Andrew’s equally nonexistent chest, and the two of them began fighting for control over the animatronic container that held them. The animatronic lurched back and forth in what Jake was sure must have looked like a spastic dance to the detective who was pointing his gun.
“Let me take care of him!” Andrew shouted. “I can … stop … him.” His choppy words reflected the effort he was expending trying to wrest control of the animatronic from Jake. Andrew had already proven he could command it at least a little, because Jake hadn’t taken the step toward the cop.
