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“Shoot!”
Oswald hastily ran towards a table as he heard the loud footsteps of that horrifying yellow animatronic, looking out for any of its… friends along the way.
He knew should have waited for another minute before activating a noisemaker!
Oswald quickly found a long table with a purple tablecloth covered in a birthday sprinkle pattern and crawled under it, breathing in a lot of dust in the process. Hopefully he found his dad soon, so he wouldn’t have to deal with this kind of thing anymore. Large black spiders immediately started falling on top of him, and he frantically swatted them away from his face as he watched the ground for any signs of that yellow rabbit.
Oswald heard the sound of his own heartbeat as he waited for the rabbit.
Badum. Badum. Badum.
He heard the footsteps of the animatronic while he saw golden feet walk towards the right, from under the table. Oswald held his breath.
Badum. Badum. Badum.
He shifted his feet, accidentally squeaking his shoes against the floor.
Please don’t hear it! Oswald thought.
The rabbit was silent as it listened for the sound.
Please, please, please!
The yellow feet turned and walked towards the left, away from the table.
Badum. Badum. Badum.
Oswald waited until he heard the sound of the door creaking and finally let out a breath.
“Whew, that was close,” Oswald whispered.
Oswald got up from under the table and shakily stood on his feet. He looked towards the door on the far end of the hallway. He didn’t remember seeing the door before. Maybe he just missed it?
Oswald turned the doorknob and opened the door to be greeted by… a lot of posters, balloons, and other birthday-related things.
“Jeez, did someone just have a birthday party or something?”
At the corner of the room, to the left of the table, was a vent. Sweet!
He quickly walked over to the vent before spotting something in front of the vent.
“Huh, what’s this?”
Oswald crouched down to pick it up.
It was… a photo?
“Looks like it’s pretty scratched up,” he said.
It was a square-shaped photo of two men inside a strange office. On the right, there was a man with long, blonde hair and was wearing a yellow and purple plaid shirt and a pair of overalls. On the left, there was a man with black hair, wearing a golden vest over a purple dress shirt, completing the look with a yellow dress tie. Both of the men looked happy and content as they smiled towards the camera, almost as if they were sure they’d keep this happiness with them for the rest of their lives.
“Maybe this was taken in Freddy’s?”
If so, who were these two strange men? Maybe two customers? Maybe two parents? Maybe they were the owners of the Pizzeria?
It kind of reminded him of a picture he once saw of his mom and dad when they had just started dating.
Hmm…
Oswald shook his head before putting the photo in his pocket.
“What a weird photo.”
Oswald helplessly watched the golden rabbit drag his dad towards the ball pit, before shaking himself out of it. There’s no way I’m letting it take Dad!
The animatronic shook his dad until he could see his dad’s eyes roll backwards into his head.
“You’re not taking my Dad!”
The bunny threw his dad into the ball pit before turning around and lunging at Oswald.
From its wide open mouth, he could see two rows of teeth. The outer row was wide and blunt, almost like human teeth. The inner row was sharp and thin, like the fangs of a snake.
Okay, seriously— What the heck was this thing?!
Oswald gathered all his strength into his right arm and struck the rabbit against its face. It fell against the floor and tried to quickly get up.
As Oswald hurriedly ran towards his dad, something quietly dropped out of his pocket onto the ground. While Oswald dived into the ball pit and began dragging his dad with him, from the corner of his vision, he saw the golden rabbit tilt its head down towards the photo.
The animatronic slowly crouched to the ground and gingerly picked up the picture, staring at it with a look of… anger? Sadness? Longing?
It stayed still and stared at the photo for a few long seconds, and it probably would have kept staring if Oswald didn’t accidentally knock the picture out of its hands while he was trying to drag his dad away. The rabbit started convulsing and twitching erratically, before angrily snarling at him. Okay, no time to figure out what the heck just happened, he had to get himself and Dad out of there!
As Oswald dragged his dad through the ball pit, he could faintly hear the rabbit’s snarls getting louder and louder. Shoot, shoot, shoot!
He just about managed to peek his and his dad’s head out on the other side before he turned around to see the yellow bunny growling and screaming at him.
Oswald couldn’t do much to stop it as it sunk its teeth into his left arm.
“Holy Jesus, that freaking hurts!” he shouted.
Oswald desperately tried to ignore the pain as the rabbit continued to bite his arm; red blood staining its teeth and the sleeve of his hoodie. He brought up his right fist and—
BAM!
He hit that stupid bunny in the face, again, and he had hit it hard!
So hard, in fact, that it let go of his arm and it didn’t even realize it was tangled up in the ropes surrounding the ball pit. The yellow animatronic struggled and pulled at the ropes, trying to untangle itself from the knots it had trapped itself in, all the while snarling at Oswald and reaching out towards him.
But Oswald was out of the ball pit and too far for it to reach, and the rabbit’s movements were getting more frantic.
Please don’t get out, please!
With one final roar, it swiped a paw in Oswald’s direction—
But it failed to catch him, and it slumped over, unmoving.
Oswald breathed in and out, waiting for any sign that the rabbit was still alive. But it didn’t move.
“Oh my God,” he said in relief.
He walked toward his dad, who was still slumped over the side of the ball pit, and pulled him out.
“Dad, Dad!”
Oswald shook him over and over again, desperately trying to wake his dad up.
“Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead!”
His dad opened his eyes and slowly stood up.
“What the— Oswald?!” his dad shouted. “And— What the heck is that thing? What the heck happened?!”
Oswald scratched his neck. “So, uh, long story… I hid in the ball pit to play a prank on you, which I shouldn’t have done. You came to look for me and slipped on a ball, and must have hit your head pretty hard when you fell.”
His dad looked at him and blinked. “Right, because that—” he tilted his head towards the rabbit, “had nothing to do with it.”
Oswald shifted nervously. “Well, umm…”
“It’s alright, Oswald. I knew you didn’t mean for anything to happen when you hid in the ball pit.”
“I’m sorry, Dad, it’s just… you and Mom have been so busy, and you’ve been leaving me at Jeff’s so often that I just felt like I was just a burden to you guys…”
His dad scrunched his eyebrows together. “Oh, Oswald…”
His dad quickly brought him into a tight hug. “I’m the one who should be sorry. Things haven’t been fair to you lately, and me and your mom should have listened to your opinion more often.”
“So…” Oswald asked, confused.
“So I think it’s time your mom and I talked about moving somewhere better.” His dad smiled. “For all of us. Even Grandma.”
Oswald’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really?”
His dad chuckled. “Really. Now let’s get you patched up and out of this place.”
“Oh, shoot! I forgot about that— freaking thing!” Oswald gestured to the bunny still hanging in the ropes. Luckily, it still didn’t move, but he wasn’t willing to take any second chances with that yellow thing.
“Right, uh— almost forgot about it,” his dad sheepishly said. “Do you know what it is?”
“Not really, no. I think it’s like an animatronic rabbit? If animatronics could breathe, and if rabbits had long sharp teeth and glowing eyes, I guess.”
“Umm… let’s just leave it to Jeff, I’m sure he’ll know what to do with it…” his dad’s voice trailed off. “It reminds me of something…”
“Oh, look!” Oswald pointed to the picture in its left hand. “I didn’t even realize it still had it…”
“Must have been pretty important to it,” his dad mused. “Do you know what the picture was?”
“It was just two guys with yellow and purple clothing, and I think they might’ve been in the Pizzeria when they took it?”
“Yellow and purple… like the rabbit.”
Oswald blinked for a few seconds. “Yeah, I guess…”
“....Do you think it might’ve been the owners?”
“Uh, I don’t know…” Oswald remembered seeing another photo of them in the room his dad was tied up in, but was too busy worrying about his dad to take a closer look. “I kinda felt a weird vibe coming from them.”
His dad grinned mischievously. “So… lovers?”
Oswald made a disgusted face. “Eww, Dad— gross!”
He laughed. “Come on, son— You’re going to have to learn about love sooner or later!”
Oswald pouted. “Yeah, but it doesn’t mean I want to hear about icky adult stuff all the time!”
“Did I tell you about the time your mom and I met for the first time?”
Oswald rolled his eyes and started walking towards the door. “Yeah, yeah, it’s not like I haven’t heard it a million times before…”
“It all started during the summer of ‘88…”
As they walked out of the room, neither of them noticed the rabbit twitching in the corner and curling into itself— almost like a faint mockery of a hug. A hug that would never be returned by its other half.
In its left hand, the photo stayed crumpled; never to be seen again by anyone else.