The seconds pass by me like time itself is traveling through tar as I lay there, letting myself rest for just a few moments before forcing myself to my feet. My legs still feel weak and I can feel the sluggish haze of a brain fog roll over my mind. I push it aside as I make my way to the bathroom to just focus on something mundane, the cleaning up that comes after being violently sick.
I trudge my way to the bathroom, leaning over the toilet slightly to reach the bucket and mop, and as I place the bucket into the bathtub to fill with floor cleaner and hot water I can't help but wonder to myself. Why did I even get sick? Was it something I ate? Maybe I did too much today. I decide to myself.
While I'm lost in thought, the bucket overflows with water for a few seconds before I notice it and shut off the faucet. With a deep sigh I lift the bucket and mop and trudge back to my room, and when I look to the puddle of chunks and bile on the floor, I feel a sharp ping of disdain in my chest, absolutely hating this part of living, the mundane, the boring, the dull.
I grit my teeth and get to the cleaning anyway, since it needs to be done. The feeling of the mop's head against the wooden floor is horrible, the absorbent textiles and fibrous synthetic blends sticking and clinging to the splinters and textures of the hardwood. The back and forth of the mopping leads my mind to wander once again and as I'm in my haze I notice a shadow flash past my doorway. What was that? I wonder to myself for a few seconds Get real, Ophelia, it was just a trick of the light. Its been a long night.
Unfortunately, even though I know that its probably just exhausted pulling at my mind, the words I tell myself don't seem to stick and my anxiety starts to creep up my spine once again. I finish my mopping and return the bucket and mop to where I had gotten them. While I pass the mirror in my bathroom, for just a second, I see a shape behind me in the reflection. Pale and short, only coming up to my shoulder, I see it only for a split second before I jump and turn around, stumbling backwards into the countertop of the bathroom sink, but as my eyes focus on the space that's behind me, I see nothing. I really need to go back to using my glasses... these contacts and all the stress isn't good for my mind.
I try to reassure myself again as I take a deep breath and go back to my bedroom, taking out my contacts. I rummage around the drawer of my bedside table before finding my glasses case, it has a thin layer of dust on it from disuse and I open the case. I let out a soft sigh of relief as I put on my glasses and the world comes back into full focus, the glass working much better than the contacts.
I sit down on the edge of my bed, feeling the mattress give under my weight and hearing the springs creak give me a much needed reminder as to what is and isn't reality. I take a deep breath to ground myself and I look around my room, making sure everything is in it's place, but when my eyes look over to a small shrine that I keep to remember the tragedy that occurred 15 years ago and I see that some things are out of place.
I stand up to replace what was moved around on the shrine, but the world starts to spin again as the shadows converge in on me. Vertigo consumes my head, making the world spin and the feeling of nausea returns, my mouth filling with saliva and my jaw growing tight. The room gets darker, the noises louder, like a drum line is standing behind me while in the eye of a tornado. The world spins more and more, my vision blurring and everything losing focus as the shadows swirl more, surrounding me, but it's not like before.
This doesn't feel like a panic attack, this feels like the world is coming in on me, disorienting me, trying to consume me. In the swirling void, or maybe just outside of it, all I can see is the faint visage of a white mask with purple stripes falling down the eyes like the clouds themselves were crying for what was lost and would never be found again.
I try to keep my footing as the blood rushing in my ears starts to sound like rushing white rapids, threatening to drag me away downriver into inky dark depths that are waiting for me at the end of the river. I cling onto the posts of the bed as I feel a scream start to bubble in my chest but as soon as it escapes my mouth it's consumed by the whirlwind around me. I shouted into the void, directly into the abyss, and this time, it chose to shout back.
My head feels as though it's being crushed under a hydraulic press as it's flooded with visions of what happened 15 years ago, watching my friends get taken away by The Golden Rabbit, not watching them come back, the screams I heard when I went looking for them. The feeling of my tiny feet slamming against the linoleum tile as I desperately ran away, ducking under tables and behind arcade cabinets.
I feel something grab my leg, and when my eyes shoot downward, I can see both black tendrils slithering out of the space beneath my bed like snakes made of midnight and the golden yellow hand of the man in the rabbit costume threatening to pull me out from behind an arcade cabinet, dragging me over thick cables and multi-plug adapters. The smell of old greasy pizza fills the air again, invading my nostrils like diesel and crude oil, making it hard to breathe.
I get pulled down to the ground, my leg getting pulled out from under me and my head hitting against the floor with a sharp crack of splintering wood and the pain that shoots through my body snaps me back into reality, even though my vision goes black for nearly half a minute. I can feel something drag me back up to my feet before the world stops and everything goes quiet.
As my vision finally returns to me, I find a new object that was placed on the shrine. A newspaper from when I was a teenager, and right on the front page sits an ad for Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. My hands are shaking as I pick up the old, aged paper, a mixture between anxiety, fear, pain, and dread. My fingers struggle to hold onto the newspaper as I look over the yellowed pages.
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HELP WANTED - Freddy Fazbear's Pizza
Family pizzeria looking for security guard to work the nightshift.
12 am to 6 am.
Monitor cameras, ensure safety of equipment and animatronic characters.
not responsible for injury/dismemberment.
$120 a week.
To apply call,
1-555-Faz-Fazbear
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On the left hand side of the ad is a picture of Freddy Fazbear himself, the star of the show, the lead of the band, and the titular character where horrible secrets hide in wait to be found by someone who already knew what happened there.