The Dark Rebirth: A FNAF Security Breach AU

Chapter 15: In the Vents

Location: Ventilation System

Time: 11:45pm

Henry and William had just left a vibrant carnival and were waiting for their parents to fetch them from a road curb. Henry was 12 years old while William was 10 years old. This was the last Summer they would ever have together for a long time.

"Will, I've been meaning to ask, how come you got free rides at the Carnival while I had to keep paying for tickets?" Henry asked.

"That's because I told them I was 6. Children under the age of 6 get free rides, you know."

"And they believed you?"

"Yep. All I had to do was make Goo Goo eyes at them and they fell for it. Also my erm height kind of helped." William gestured to their height differences. Henry had a bit of a growth spurt recently so obviously, he'd gotten taller. William meanwhile hadn't changed much at all.

"Are you upset that you haven't gotten taller yet?"

"Upset? Why would I be upset?" William scoffed, "Being this small helps me to crawl into narrow spaces, look younger than I really am and I even read that short people live longer."

"That's interesting..."

The memory ends as Gregory crawls in the tight, claustrophobic space of the vents.

Where's the damn exit? Gregory whined. He wasn't sure how long he had been in here. He was making left and right turns blindly aiming to discover an exit but there was none at all. It was like a maze.

However, the boy doesn't give in to hopelessness and forces himself to keep going but suddenly, making a right turn, he hears the gentle sound of a music box echoing in the narrow vents. Worse, it was playing a tune from his past life...

It's Christmas and he's sitting with Henry on a carpet in his home near a warm fire. On Henry's lap is a small baby girl, probably no older than 3 and in his hands is a metallic blue box with intricate patterns around it. Henry pushes it gently into her hands and opens the box.

There's a ballet dancer in a blue dress inside that spins to the tune of "My Grandfather's Clock".

"Look Charlotte, Uncle William and I made this for you. Isn't it beautiful? Here, I'll show you how it works...there's more than one song in it..."

Gregory remembers Charlotte Emily, Henry's daughter. William did something awful to her but...he can't recall what. Then again, maybe it was for the best for now.

In a narrow path that only goes straight forward, Gregory crawls while listening closer to the sound of the music box. The more he listened, the more he realised that the sound was coming from inside the vents. Not outside. And worse, he could hear that it was right behind him.

For now, Gregory doesn't turn around and keeps worming forward since he can't turn his head around anyway in such a cramped space and was determined to verify where the noise was coming from once he could get enough headspace.

More time passed but the music box still didn't stop. In fact, it was just getting nearer and nearer. Then, he starts to feel minuscule vibrations coming from behind him as well. However, it wasn't coming from one direction but all over the vent's surfaces: Top, bottom, left and right. That's the pattern it went in. They were like a spiral. Then, they stopped...but Gregory could still hear that damned music playing.

Eventually, Gregory enters a path in the vents that gives him more room to move and two directions to choose from. He gets up from a crawling position and into a crouching one as he picks the left path. However, upon going in, he stopped in his tracks.