Chapter Text
“Freedom!” Yizhen exclaimed once the two stepped out into the November air, both of them shaken yet highly amused at what went down in the establishment. Ashley wondered if she’d even get away with the things they did but with Yizhen wrecking the cameras temporarily while they carried out their prank, it was unlikely. The jukebox was on a time delay so that when the actual prank went off they’d be long gone and would have an airtight alibi when questioned. Not that anyone would know Yizhen was there in the first place thanks to his ability to move through layers of perception.
“You alright?” Yizhen asked her, concerned. Ashley just yawned in reply instead of speaking and Yizhen grimaced in concern. “I need to consult my journals, I’ll leave before your mother comes to pick you up.” He continued, “Tell no one but your mother about what we both saw but don’t mention me. I’ll meet you after school so we can go over what just happened.” Ashley nodded her consent to the plan, she’d have to make an excuse to her mother for the time being and hopefully delay the catch up dinner between them and Yizhen. Yizhen saluted her as he spotted Rachel’s car and quickly made himself scarce, opening a gold rift in space as he did so, then closing it behind him once he’d jumped through. Leaving Ashley alone to anticipate the coming conversation.
-
Ashley raced out the front doors of her high school as soon as the bell rang, avoiding her classmates as she darted into the school yard. Unfortunately she had to wait a few minutes before she spotted Yizhen who walked inside the gate tapping on his phone, which was glamoured to look like a Gameboy console. “Hey Ashley,” He greeted her once she got close, “Apologies for being late, want to go get something to eat?” Ashley thought for a minute before nodding, she’d need all the fuel she could get for the coming conversation. “Call Rachel first, or she might get antsy due to all the rumours going around that you informed me of.” Ashley almost complained but restrained herself and pulled out her brick of a phone from her pocket. Yizhen eyed her phone with amusem*nt and she gave him a sour look to which he placated her. “Relax Ashley, they’ll become more modernised once you’re in your thirties, things are still picking up around this decade and will take off around the 2010’s.”
Glaring she phoned her mother to tell her she was meeting up with Yizhen in town so he could help her with her project, mainly the presentation. She had hated lying to her mother when she’d picked her up and asked about her shift so she’d told half-truths, she did report what had happened at Lake’s Funland but made no mention of Yizhen. Once the conversation was underway she tried to contain her giggles as her mother sounded rather frazzled, apparently the prank with the jukebox had hit during a time where all the staff were present and using it to play tunes to kill their boredom. Even the animatronics got annoyed at the musical line up to the point that one of them, Alice it turned out, ended up expressing that irritation by putting her fist through the jukebox itself. Ashley had to hold the phone away from herself so her mother couldn’t hear her or Yizhen’s suppressed laughter.
With the all clear to catch up from her mother, and the dinner postponed to tomorrow, Ashley said her goodbyes to her mother and followed Yizhen through Montreal to one of the local cafes dotted around the inner city. Once there Ashley claimed a table while Yizhen went to the counter to order them milkshakes and sandwiches. Yizhen paid using money he got from somewhere (Ashley never knew where he got it from and she was wise enough not to ask) and brought over the food once his name was called. When he sat down Ashley jumped on the food with all the grace of a starving wolf and asked the question that had been bothering her the entire day. “Have you figured out what’s going on?” She asked, stifling a yawn as she did so, the night shift was really sapping her energy. “You’ve been cagey on the details since you admitted you figured it out.” Yizhen pinched the bridge of his nose, leaned back in his chair and took a fortifying sip of milkshake.
“Okay, so yes, I worked it out.” He began, the look on his face was reminiscing and not in the good way which unnerved Ashley. “Someone caused a problem. A problem that it seems we…” He emphasised them both, “Have to solve. Unfortunately, you’re not going to like it.” Ashley swallowed a mouthful of milkshake, “Lay it on me Yi.” She told him and the Spirit King winced slightly. “Remember that inter dimensional trip I took you on when you had your seventeenth birthday and we went to that pizza place with the singing animals? Then I showed you the games?” He said slowly and Ashley choked on her next mouthful as the realisation hit her in the face, her blood turning to ice. “Oh don’t tell me,” She asked in disbelief, terror and a sense of utter done. Yizhen nodded miserably with a pained smile, “Oh yes, we’re dealing with haunted animatronics.” His smile became more pained as he said the next words, “And I’m pretty sure those murdered children you’re investigating are possessing them, though I don’t know which ones are which.” Ashley groaned and lightly banged her head on the table, Yizhen reaching over and patting her shoulder in deeply unhappy sympathy. “f*ck… Give me the facts Yizhen. How screwed are we?” Ashley’s muffled voice spoke and Yizhen rolled his eyes, “Not so screwed if we know things in advance, we have options to defend ourselves but the main difficulty we might have is freeing the spirits of the kids from the animatronics. They’ll only get more active during the week so that puts pressure on the defences we have at our disposal. We might have to carry extra batteries for the lights, an audio recording device for Haiden and the spotlight for Lake. Among other things to aid in misdirection and distraction.” They both grinned at one another in remembrance to how Lake reacted, no one liked having a spotlight shined in your face and it was a mainly harmless way to deter the animatronic.
They finished their food and sandwiches with an air of melancholy about themselves. Ashley lamented on how complicated the situation had gotten, Yizhen meanwhile, debated on whether he should tell Ashley of Lake’s personal obsession towards her. He decided not to at the moment but resolved to tell her in the future, in the meantime he was going to make sure that Lake wasn’t getting anywhere near his old friend anytime soon. The duo then laid out their options, making notes on the animatronics behaviour and brainstorming possible distractions. Actually going out and free roaming the establishment was out of the question unless they were properly prepared and stuck together to watch each other’s backs. Yizhen provided a technicians map of Lake’s Funland that he stole from the front desk and the duo laid out their plans for the coming night. The only problem was how to sneak by the animatronics in order to set up the defences, from what Ashley had heard from her mother the animatronics had facial recognition and integrated cameras tied into their vision. Though a few of them did seem to be malfunctioning. Yizhen’s solution once she informed him of this was simple, “We just wear either a paper bag or a cardboard box on our heads, cut some eye holes and we’d be able to see where we’re going and the animatronics won’t do sh*t to us. I need to get to the maintenance room, the blueprints and safety manuals should be stored in there. We want those if we need to set traps that either inflict maximum damage or some minor inconveniences. Let’s go for the minor inconveniences.” Ashley protested immediately, “This is a terrible idea, there’s no guarantee it’ll work.” Yizhen gave her a look, “Freddy’s Toy Animatronics.” He enunciated carefully and Ashley groaned in response, fully aware that she wasn’t going to convince him otherwise.
The rest of the day was spent shopping for the supplies they’d need, making sure they were cheap and easily cleanable if they wanted to hide the evidence. Yizhen had suggested they blame it on the customers that came in during the day if any evidence was found but Ashley protested vehemently to that idea and suggested vandals instead. They ended up coming across a huge, abandoned box in the back alley behind one of the shops they visited, Ashley opened the box to discover a ton of different fireworks. “Oooh! Jackpot!” Yizhen exclaimed, his eyes lighting up in glee once he peered into the box. “Aren’t these banned in this state?” Ashley commented warily and Yizhen shook his head dismissively, “Not anymore, we have a use for them that definitely warrants as self-defence.” Ashley shook her head in exasperation but gave up, “This is a terrible idea… I approve.” She conceded reluctantly. “We’ll only need the firecrackers for now,” Yizhen reassured her, “Save the big ones for later in case we need to abandon subtlety, remember we only need to cause the animatronics minor inconveniences. Even if watching them go up in flames might be cathartic. Remember, there are children haunting them.” Ashley fixed her friend with a combination of a side eye and a gimlet stare, “Even though I know you’re over three hundred years old, technically dead by all accounts that matter and am fully aware you’re morally ambiguous. I still question whether you’re insane or not.” She deadpanned and Yizhen just shrugged, “There’s method in my madness Ashley, if you live as long as I have your morals tend to become flexible. I’m just unique due to the fact I keep in touch with my humanity more often than the other Spirit Kings, therefore I do actually have both morals and standards.” He paused, “Thank you very much.” He then added as Ashley rolled her eyes with an exasperated groan, but bent down to retrieve the box.
-
Ashley met Yizhen at the front door of Lake’s Funland two hours before midnight, the elder having to vanish back home for the rest of the day to work on the disposable devices they’d need and catch up on some more paperwork. Ashley sympathised with him, knowing his hatred of bureaucracy, but he was on his own in that respect. They both nodded at one another, hefting backpacks that they’d both packed as they opened the door. “Boxes out.” Yizhen remarked grimly, and Ashley pried the folded box out of her bag, unfolding it and putting it on. Adjusting it until she could see through the eye holes carefully cut into one of the sides. Yizhen gently took her hand and lead her through the rooms until they were in the main stage area. “This is not going to work.” Ashley hissed under her breath so only Yizhen could hear her as they got closer to the animatronics.
“Relax,” Yizhen encouraged, “This worked at Freddy’s back in 1987, fooled their facial recognition. Just keep quiet and let me do the talking.” Ashley tugged at her friends hand in reluctance, “But that was Freddy’s, they didn’t exactly have good OSHA regulations there. This is Lake’s, they did things better and actually have health and safety standards.” Yizhen shushed her as they got close to the main stage and both of them froze as the animatronics turned to them, their eyes assessing the duo. When nothing happened Yizhen tugged on Ashley’s hand and lead them past, “Gentlemen, and lady.” He addressed them casually and Ashley almost whimpered as they passed by, the animatronics turning their eyes back to where they used to be, ignoring them. Once they reached the maintenance room unmolested they both pulled off their boxes, Ashley breathed out heavily as she calmed down from the tension, “Holy f*ck.” She panted. Yizhen smirked in a self-satisfied way, “Told you it would work.” He reported smugly and Ashley aimed a light kick in his direction, trying to calm her racing heart.
Yizhen started poking around the maintenance room while Ashley kept an eye on the time, he seemed to know what he was looking for and soon pulled out a box of files and papers. He rummaged carefully through, took some photos and then used a spell to copy the entire contents of the box into an odd floppy disk with arcane runes drawn on it. “I’ll need to go over it all with a fine toothed comb back at the resort, the photos are for the most important bits we need to know in the near future.” Ashley gave him the thumbs up in response. Yizhen gave a signal and both of them put their boxes back on and snuck out, making sure to never put their backs to the animatronics, heading over to the office. They got settled quickly as the clock struck midnight, Yizhen unpacked their backpacks while Ashley booted up the cameras. “Thursday,” she griped while Yizhen pulled himself into the vents to attach extra batteries to the camera audio devices as well as cover the surfaces in cling film, chewing gum and strategically placed blobs of industrial strength glue. “The more I concentrate myself, the faster I get through this bullsh*t. Let’s see what mom has to say.” Ashley muttered as she shot the ringing phone a look of judgement, ignoring the evil giggling coming from the vents.
Yizhen wiped his hands on a rag he’d stuffed in his trouser pocket once he was done sticking the annoyances in the vents. He then fiddled with the audio devices wired to the cameras, attaching the tiny power packs he’d made back at his home as he listened out for the recording Rachel had left.
“Hello, hello. Uh, hey Ashley, you’re doing great there! Night four! Um, look, uh. I-I’ve been thinking a lot about what Michael has shown me and uh… the things you’ve told me too and so, I’m checking the old recordings right now, there’s one that got my attention.” Ashley groaned unhappily and ignored Yizhen’s yelp as he hit his head on the ventilation ceiling. The clanging sounds of him scrambling back to the office nearly made Ashley loose concentration but she persisted. “You know Chick the Bird, right? Well, uh, I’ve spotted her inside the ventilation in some of the old recordings. I honestly have no idea how on earth she got there, or, how she could even leave the stage. As far as I’m aware of, that should be impossible.” The scraping sound got more frequent as Yizhen picked up the pace and he all but launched himself out of the vents, barely avoiding the shock trap he’d rigged to the vents opening. Ignoring the spirit king, currently face down on the floor and groaning in mock pain, Ashley continued to listen. “But hey, the audio player should have some effect on her I believe. Her vision isn’t functional at all, must’ve been the… must’ve been the incident from four years ago.” Yizhen narrowed his eyes, “She left the location, and we found her in the back alley during the middle of a snowstorm. U-um, well I assume the snow damaged some of her circuits and uh, it’s been impossible for the engineers to get her fixed, no one knows why, y-you may remember that incident I’m talking about; it was on the newspaper…” Yizhen looked at her in askance but Ashley shook her head and mouthed ‘Lorraine Wilson’ at him to which he gained a look of realisation and nodded in acceptance. “Uh, by the way, that reminded me. Um, I don’t want to sound nosy, I mean it and I’m really sorry if I do. You left some of your notebooks on the table a couple of days ago.”
Yizhen side eyed Ashley, “Why did you leave your notes lying around Ashley? More importantly, what did you write in there?” he asked calmly and Ashley shrugged in confusion. “I thought hiding them in plain sight would be the easiest. It’s just the starting notes of my project and the interviews I’ve done, nothing about bringing you into it thankfully.” Rachel continued, “I-I picked them up to put in your drawer, but uh, I noticed your notes… you know, that investigation you’re doing for school, about the missing children and their possible connection to Lorraine’s assassination. I-I-I mean you’re doing great, it’s just-it’s just that I don’t think, you’ll get anywhere with it.” Yizhen eyed the phone suspiciously and scoffed, “Of course we won’t, we’re dealing with haunted animatronics and no one will believe you if you put that in a report.” Ashley shushed him, “Like, it’s been about four years since that, and there’s barely any information on the case. Whoever you ask will probably lead you to simple rumours; there’s a bunch of them out there. I don’t know I suggest you find another case. There's plenty of interesting cases you can work on, what about the robberies at the Redpath Museum? That sounds interesting enough, I’m sure you’ll get a high grade!” The two both eyed one another in suspicion, “Sounds like a cover up to me, I really hope your mother isn’t in on it.” Yizhen commented and Ashley shot him a betrayed look, “Mom wouldn’t do anything like that!” She protested and Yizhen raised his hands in surrender.
Rachel’s sigh was audible through the recording device, “Listen, I just, I-I just think it may not be safe to do an investigation on such a serious case.” Yizhen snorted in reply, “We’re in too deep Mrs. Waters, we can’t go back now.” Ashley nodded in agreement. “At least if you’re not a professional certified detective but you do what you think is best.” Ashley glanced at Yizhen, who coughed pointedly. “Alright, that’s all I had to say, take care and good night.” Ashley put the phone down as the recording ended, “That was… weird.” She said slowly, Yizhen scoffed in response. “Weird? That was borderline sus if you ask me.” Ashley glowered at him, “Why would she be so nervous? I mean… I know I’m not working on the least serious case but that was… interesting. Could be that… Darren’s suspicions about Mr. Magwood are… No, no, no… I’m just imagining things. Mom’s gotta be worried. That’s it.” Yizhen huffed and Ashley turned to him with a scowl, “In an investigation you don’t discard any possible suspect Ashley, even if some of the suspects are your own family. I taught you this after all.”
Ashley just frowned at him for a minute longer to convey her displeasure and turned back to the cameras, the animatronics hadn’t moved at all until the recording stopped but once it had she saw that Lake moved first this time. Glaring at the main mascot, Ashley blinked and Haiden and Alex both moved into the same shot. Muttering colourful curses under her breath, she thumbed the janitor closet audio and lured away Haiden before shining the flashlight in Lake’s eyes as he moved to the middle of the camera. Yizhen watched, intrigued, as the animatronic twitched paranormally before fleeing back into the shadows, “He could have just covered his eyes. Why he hasn’t considered leaving his glasses on I will never know.” He grumbled softly and Ashley hummed in agreement, briefly hoping the animatronic hadn’t heard what he said.
“Check the ventilation, I have a feeling that Jon Kun and Chick might run into some problems soon.” Ashley switched to the ventilation warily and saw that the two weren’t there yet but she could faintly see the cling film, gum and glue placed around the vent. “Hopefully this night won’t be as hectic but if all else fails we’ve both got tasers, animatronics don’t react well to electricity.” Ashley gave Yizhen the death stare, “I think, my friend.” She told him sourly as she rewound Alice’s tape, “That you have just jinxed us.” Yizhen just shrugged noncommittally as if unconcerned with the threat of their imminent demise and handed her a soda bottle. “The caffeine will help in the short run but you’ll likely crash after this, drink up because this is going to be a long night.” He warned.
It indeed felt like a long night, though the usual antics of the animatronics seemed to have toned down from yesterday the hours seemed to drag on. Ashley found another odd 8-Bit minigame around two in the morning, this time by clicking on an odd paper plate doll that appeared in the janitors closet. It was themed after Alex this time and she played it while Yizhen gave the animatronics closest to the office the run-around. She could hear his laughter and the animatronics angry screaming as well as the telltale bang of the firecrackers, she silently wished him luck with a mock salute. Like before she saw a crying child icon replacing one of the sprites on the third game, shot at it and was taken to another minigame that once again had her move through the 8-Bit world to find another sprite of a crying child. Ashley had a suspicion that the three children who were lured to Lake’s Funland were a part of these minigames and her playing them did something to them. She hoped it was something good but she put it out of her mind as the tablet glitched back to normal. Once again she had to contain her laughter as it appeared that one of Yizhen’s traps had been triggered, Jon Kun had become trapped in the vents by a combination of the cling film and glue. The rabbit was frantically pulling at the quick drying glue which seemed to hold the danger of tearing part of his costume. The chewing gum had also stuck to the plastic and was clogging up the Rabbit animatronics joints, preventing movement. She suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for the child spirit likely trapped within the mascot. The traps were mainly there as an inconvenience, only meant to slow them down with no permanent damage, but she couldn’t help the vindictive thrill that ran through her at the mascots irritation.
“Woo! What a workout!” Yizhen exclaimed as he skidded to a halt in the office, he’d been beefing with both Alex and Chick while Ashley was preoccupied and had barely managed to escape. This resulted in Alex tripping over a wet floor sign and Chick running into a wall due to her poor vision, they weren’t getting up anytime soon so that would buy them both precious time. Yizhen settled himself beside Ashley and noticed something on the table that wasn’t there previously, “This place is definitely haunted.” He grumbled as he picked up the paper plate doll of Alex, turning it around in his hands to see the words ‘Martin is safe now’ scrawled on the back of the head in black marker. He put the doll in Ashley’s bag, with the goal of burning it during the weekend with the game stick representing Joshua. “Two down, one to go. I think.” He remarked blandly, “Though I wouldn’t be surprised if there was one for Lorraine.” Ashley just grumbled under her breath, she hated being here but it was necessary for the paycheck, to find out who killed the children and if possible free the kids trapped within the establishment.
“There’s one thing I didn’t tell you about. Last night, when I was investigating the animatronics gossip huddle, I heard something unusual.” Ashley turned to Yizhen and was about to ask what it was when the lights flickered, then the entire building went dark. “That can’t be good…” Yizhen commented mildly into the pitch blackness as he flicked on his flashlight, handing Ashley one and connecting a small power pack to the tablet. Remotely activating the temporary ones on the cameras as well. “We need to get the power back up and running. I placed small power sources on the cameras and tablet, they’ll harmlessly self-destruct at seven, so they’ll be fine and you can still lure Haiden and flash Lake. Get the tablet up, I have a feeling one of the animatronics is to blame.” Ashley obeyed and quickly flicked through the cameras at a rapid pace while Yizhen pulled a toolbox out of his bag. “Found it!” She reported, “Looks like the generator in the maintenance room is broken. Since you basically OHKO’d Chick for the moment we can probably use the left side ventilation ducts as a shortcut to avoid the others. You’re going to have to warn me where you put the glue, cling film and chewing gum though.” Yizhen nodded his consent to the plan and boosted Ashley into the vents, following after her with his toolbox in hand. “About the traps, don’t worry, I got it.” He whispered and tapped the side of the vent, faint gold veins emanated from his fingertips and Ashley watched as they raced ahead. Covering the walls of the vents in a faint gold glow before they faded as abruptly as they came. “I cleaned the ventilation ahead, you should be okay to move. Just try keep quiet so you don’t attract attention, I’m not sure if Jon Kun has either freed himself or is still stuck.”
Ashley took that into account and used the temporarily upgraded tablet to view the map of Lake’s Funland so she knew where she was going. “Will you please stop that?!” She hissed behind her after a few seconds. Yizhen was busy humming a theme song from an old spy movie she once watched with her friends at the theatre last year. He pouted and muttered “Spoilsport…” but fell silent as they crawled precariously though the vents, keeping an eye out for any trouble as they came up to the exit. Ashley halted in front of the ventilation opening, it was sealed shut but she figured that one good push could get it open. She was about to when she saw Lake standing in the middle of the room talking to Alice, she could feel Yizhen halt behind her and she nudged him to retreat slightly. She carefully peered into the room, laying low down in the vents in the hopes they wouldn’t be able see her, as she strained her ears to catch what they were saying.
“The generator should be down until morning,” Alice reported, “Ashley cannot defend herself but from what Alex reported the other one is still there with her. Heard Ashley refer to him as a friend, his name is Yizhen. Sounds foreign.” Lake turned to look down the corridor to the office, “No matter. This Yizhen is unimportant despite his friendship with Ashley. They both have plenty of tricks up their sleeves but I doubt they can repair a generator.” He spoke and Ashley shivered at his vocal capacity; it sounded like two people were speaking through him, which freaked her out a little. She heard Yizhen scoff at the idea that he wasn’t smart enough to repair a generator as she watched the two siblings converse a little longer before walking off to the game area together. She breathed out in relief, “I think they’re gone… can you get the grate off without making too much noise?” She heard Yizhen hum softly in reply before more gold magic surged in front of her, taking a tangible form to carefully push the grate off and hold it steady to allow her to climb out. Ashley carefully manoeuvred herself out of the vents as quietly as she could, landing lightly on the floor with a sharp smack of her shoes against the vinyl flooring. She twitched and stepped forward cautiously, trying to see if the sound attracted any attention as Yizhen scrambled out after her, swearing quietly under his breath at the design flaw of the spacious ventilation. “I don’t think boxes will work this time… they’re too aggro, to use your future slang.” She whispered urgently to him as they snuck across the two stage rooms, Yizhen pausing at the empty second stage to discreetly place a temporary formula of fast drying contact cement in the place where Alice usually stood. Much to Ashley’s ire as they both had a job to do and they couldn’t afford to waste time beefing with the other animatronics, “Yizhen, come on!” She hissed as loud as she dared and Yizhen packed the cement away before following her.
“The animatronics must think this too inconvenient for me to fix, jokes on them, I made four semi-sentient automatons.” Yizhen mumbled unhappily as they crossed Stage Room One for the second time that night, crept up to the maintenance room and carefully pushed the door open. “Say I have no idea how to fix a generator why don’t you? Hah! Just wait until I get that sucker up in five minutes!” He uttered indignantly as he shone his flashlight around the generator, locating the problem immediately and sighing in aggravation at the damage. “Pass me the tablet would you? I need to see if I can keep an eye on the other animatronics.” Ashley dutifully handed the tablet over and watched as he placed it on the table in front of him as he worked, his flashlight held up with his magic to free up his hands.
As Ashley watched Yizhen work she forgot to look behind her, so she jerked in alarm as rapid footsteps echoed out behind her. Recognising the danger as the only animatronic that was that fast, she dived to the side as Lake came crashing down where she previously stood. Yizhen looked up from where he was unscrewing the cover of the ruined generator port and squinted slightly at the titular mascot. “Think you can distract him Ashley? I need more time to fix this!” He called out and Ashley swore heavily as she dodged a swing that likely would’ve broken her nose if it was allowed to make contact. “How am I supposed to do that?!” She demanded indignantly, “Any chance you could help me?!” She screamed as she dived under a nasty kick, how could an animatronic learn to fight anyway?! “Oh, you’re doing just fine, he seems to like you.” Yizhen commented dismissively, pulling the ruined part out of the generator. Ashley vaulted over a table as she dodged a full body tackle from Lake, “Yeah! Lucky me!” She exclaimed angrily as she tipped one of the party tables over to try block the violent animatronic, then a thought came to her. “I thought only four kids haunted this place?!” She picked up a chair and thrust it at Lake, like a circus actor would shoo away a lion or tiger during a performance, in order to keep some distance between them.
Yizhen unhurriedly searched through some boxes, comparing fresh parts to the ruined ones he had in hand, seemingly ignoring the carnage happening in the other room. “Then how do you explain his aggressive behaviour apart from a particularly nasty malfunction?” He questioned in admonishment as he found the right parts and took them out their wrappings, “I taught you better than this Ashley.” Ashley was about to retort but yelped as she felt Lake duck under her chair and grab her by the ankle. She fell over and briefly got the wind knocked out of her as she collided with the ground with a loud, “OMPH!”. Recovering quickly she kicked at the mascot’s hand and grabbed at one of the tables as she was dragged across the room. “Then that would make Lake-” She huffed out with a grunt of effort as Yizhen then finished her sentence, “A haunted animatronic. Precisely.” He remarked cheekily as he connected some wires and plugged the new parts back into the generator. Ashley scrabbled in panic for something to hold onto as Lake dragged her away, “Are you going to help?!” She snapped out and Yizhen abandoned his work with an eye roll; stepping back into the stage room, his eyes glowed gold as he telekinetically lifted a table and, with a simple gesture of dismissal, sent it hurling right at Lake. The animatronic went down under it with a screech of anger and pain as Ashley scrambled out of his grip, taking refuge behind Yizhen. “Well,” she hissed in slight pain as she gingerly tested her ankle, “You certainly took your time.” Yizhen just shrugged and they both shone their flashlights at Lake, who was now standing up. The animatronic took both flashlights right in the eyes and snarled angrily as he retreated out of the room hastily, covering his eyes in pain. Yizhen just threw a rude hand gesture at Lake with a look of contempt as the possessed mascot vanished into the darkness.
Ashley glared heatedly at Yizhen who just patted her on the head and went back into the maintenance room, letting the pissed off girl steam for a bit. A few minutes later there was a curse, a splat that sounded like grease being dumped on a solid surface, then the low hum of the generator as it started up. Yizhen came back out wiping his dirty hands on a rag with a distinctly smug air about him, looking up to see Ashley’s eyes twitching. “What? You were doing fine distracting him.” He told her in confusion and Ashley huffed, “You could’ve helped sooner.” She spat crossly Yizhen winced a little as he took in the slight limp she had, “Just be thankful none of the others came into this commotion.” Ashley conceded the point begrudgingly and shivered slightly, “You’re an asshole sometimes, you know that?” She asked, wincing as she tried to put weight on the foot Lake had grabbed. “Never said I wasn’t.” Yizhen retorted blandly as he bent down and Ashley lifted her foot for him to inspect, “Sprained.” He reported after a few scans with the same gold magic he used in the vents, “You’ll be fine with some rest but we don’t have a lot of time, the others would’ve heard that commotion. I can fix this but it’s going to feel really weird.” Ashley nodded miserably, “Do what you can, I don’t want to stay here anymore.” Yizhen nodded and more gold magic circled her foot which suddenly felt very hot, then very cold, then erupted into pins and needles.
Giving a nod of thanks to Yizhen, who went to collect his tools and the tablet, Ashley lightly kicked at the ground to rid herself of the pins and needles. When Yizhen came back in they both carefully snuck into the shadows of the main stage and sat down in completive silence to catch their breath. They both wondered how they were going to get back to the office as well as reeling from the revelation that there might be five kids, not four, trapped in the animatronics. Ashley checked the cameras and was amused to find Alice back in her place with her music playing as normal, the next time she tried to get off the stage would be met with a nasty surprise. Yizhen smirked, “The contact cement I used is a temporary formula. Most of the evidence will be gone by morning, but we’re going to have to clean up any lingering evidence and edit the footage first.” Ashley side eyed him but nodded reluctantly, there was only so much they could blame on teenage vandals after all, no matter how uncomfortable she was with it. “Relax, it’ll be fine Ashley. If someone asks you can just say you called in a friend of yours to fix the generator before the usual technicians arrived.” Ashley dipped her head in acknowledgement but didn’t say anything else. The duo proceeded to sit in silence for a little longer, pondering on what to do next whilst brushing dust and dirt off their clothes and faces.
“We have to deal with the animatronics now, they’re getting more aggressive than what Rachel said they would and I don’t like it.” Yizhen finally spoke and Ashley nodded rapidly, adding in her own opinion on the matter. “I have to agree, Lake is the more aggressive one so we’ll have to neutralise him first. The others we can hit with something temporary which will do no lasting damage yet only deactivate them for a bit. Judging by animatronics weakness to electricity, a high enough voltage could deactivate them, we just need to get them in a position to do so.” Yizhen nodded in agreement, “We’ll have to do it in the Party Room, no other room is big enough and we can easily clean up the mess afterwards. I’ve still got some oil and dish soap left, how long until dawn?” Ashley checked her watch, “We’ve got four hours, that’s enough time to set everything up and deal with Lake.” “Agreed but we’ll need the supplies we bought from the office, are the vents clear?” Ashley checked the cameras and nodded, “Left vents are still clear but I can’t see where Chick is so we’ll have to be careful.” Yizhen then sighed, “This is intense.” He commented in a mild tone, Ashley proceeded to give him a look that was so dry it could’ve turned a rainforest into a desert. “What gave you that idea?” She retorted sarcastically and Yizhen gestured around them with a pointed look to which Ashley nodded decisively. “Fair enough.”
After resting for a few more minutes Yizhen went ahead to check the coast was clear, Ashley following closely behind him as he did so. When the way seemed clear the two made a break for the vents again only for footsteps to sound out. Panicked Ashley looked around for a solution before Yizhen whistled quietly and gestured, Ashley quickly darted over and Yizhen yanked them both under a covered party table. They turned off their flashlights and waited in the semi darkness with bated breath as Haiden and Alex came into the room, looking around. Ashley clamped her hands to her mouth as Yizhen brought out the tablet and checked how the audio for the janitors closet was, he held up one finger and Ashley cursed internally. One use left, they would have to make it count. They waited for Alex to leave and Haiden to get close to the janitor’s closet before Yizhen tapped the audio button. Haiden snapped his head around at the sound and trotted off, the two immediately slid out from under the table after checking the coast was clear.
Yizhen boosted Ashley into the ventilation again and followed behind, replacing the grate as he wiggled into the spacious vents, muttering more curses under his breath to which Ashley kicked him lightly. They clambered through the vents as quietly as they could and hoped that the animatronics were fooled into thinking it was one of their own. Once they got to the office Ashley peeked in and hastily retracted her head with a quiet, “sh*t.” Jon Kun was peering out of the other vent, they couldn’t enter the room as the light was on and if they did they’d be jumped instantly. Ashley cringed as she noticed that some of the rabbits rubber covering was torn, missing or hanging off and she wondered if they’d be able to clean it all up in time before the day shift got here. She heard Yizhen count down and just as he said one Jon Kun inched forward into the office and set off the taser trap, he screeched in pain at the shocks and retreated down the vents to which Ashley quickly scrambled out of her own. Yizhen hopped down beside her, “Excellent.” He mused as he eyed the other vent, rubbing his hands together in glee. Ashley side eyed him, “You did check the voltage on that trap?” Yizhen nodded, “I set it to a low voltage just to overload some of their minor systems, we need a higher one to temporarily deactivate them.”
“Let’s get this over with, they won’t be gone for long due to the commotion we made and Lake is probably pissed as to how we’ve been able to repel him.” Ashley reminded her friend, rummaging in their bags to make sure nothing else had been taken. Yizhen just smirked, “Leave Twitchy to me, I think he views me as a threat so I’m going to use that.” Ashley looked at him in disbelief, muttering “Twitchy?” Under her breath as Yizhen pulled out a can of silly string and a camera, “I plan to blind him and shove him someplace he’ll have a hard time getting out of. You just sit tight and watch the show on the cameras.” Ashley mock saluted him in response, she knew Yizhen could take care of himself but she was mildly concerned about how much he enjoyed pissing off the animatronics. The spirit king replaced the batteries on his flashlight and disappeared into another plane of perception as he tore down the corridor to the party room, a look of malicious glee on his face. Looking at the monitor Ashley saw Lake hanging out in the shadows of said room and felt a sense of foreboding. She wasn’t disappointed by what happened next.
“YIPPEE KI-YAY MOTHER FU-!” The rest of the sentence was cut off as Yizhen caught the titular animatronic in the back of the head with a powerful drop kick, landing on the floor he turned around to see Lake picking himself up. The animatronic let out an inhuman growl as he turned fully black eyes with white irises a little to the right of where Yizhen was standing. Yizhen’s laughter echoed as he ran circles around the animatronic, flitting in-between planes of perception in order to appear like a flicker to the possessed mascot. “I can’t believe you can’t catch one human! How disappointing! In the words of M.C Hammer, Can’t Touch This!” Ashley facepalmed and groaned in exasperation as Yizhen moonwalked back into the restroom hallway and she knew him well enough to know that he had a manic grin on his face. Lake pursued him looking furious and Ashley watched with trepidation as the two disappeared into the male bathroom. The foreboding feeling got stronger and Ashley heard more than watched the resulting scuffle; crashes, bangs, water splashing, distorted screams and Yizhen’s loud cackling echoed out before it was silenced.
Yizhen exited the restroom, whistling cheerfully and wiping his hands on a paper towel, looking rather self-satisfied and somehow having acquired Lake’s hat. He quickly booked it once he heard screaming and Ashley realised, with some horror, that she’d forgotten to wind the music player that kept Alice at bay. Flicking momentarily to the second stage she watched a fully awake Alice try to get off the stage and fail, apparently not realising her feet were glued to the stage. Twenty five kilograms of animatronic toppled over and didn’t get up again, judging by the glitched screeching that eventually fell silent. Facepalming again, Ashley turned to the ventilation and saw Chick making her way to the office, she rolled her eyes before sounding the vent audio for the first time that night, luring the red bird back to a safe distance.
Yizhen slid to a halt beside her, breathless from either exhaustion or laughter but Ashley was mostly betting on laughter since his face was screwed up in mirth. He simply handed her a polaroid photo, set the hat on the desk and then collapsed over it, wheezing quietly. Ashley looked at the photo and had to stop herself from choking on her own saliva, the photo was a selfie showing a proudly grinning Yizhen giving the camera a victory sign while wearing Lake’s hat. Meanwhile, Lake had been covered in silly string and had, unceremoniously, been shoved headfirst into one of the toilets. By the look of how tightly he was wedged in there he wasn’t coming unstuck for the rest of the night unless he had help. Ashley couldn’t contain herself, curling into a ball and falling off her chair in joyful hysteria. Yizhen eyed her with smug satisfaction, glad that he’d made his friend laugh in these difficult and often terrifying times. Yizhen was also pleased that he’d gotten one over on Lake, some might think it childish to be beefing with an animatronic but said animatronic was haunted and had a personal obsession with Ashley. Therefore, it was appropriate to beef with him considering these circ*mstances.
“Right then, let’s go disable the others before your shift is over.” Yizhen suggested and Ashley gave him a feral smile that hid her anxiety once she got over her laughter.
