The Year I Missed the Spring

A Five Nights at Freddy's story.

Summary: I don't know what happened. It started out as February, and I woke up mid-June. My little sister was dead, and I didn't know why; all I knew was 'the bear' and 'the chicken' were involved. Every time I took my medication, I took a step further away from finding out the truth, until the day came where I arrived as an applicant to the new and reopened Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. I didn't know I was screwed when I walked through those doors. I was just ready to get paid.

Warning: rated T for language, violence, and horror.

Chapter One: Look at Chica's Eyes

I don't know what happened that day.

I refuse to remember. It started out as February, and when I woke up it was mid-June. I've heard stories about how those missing months blotted from my memory were hell on earth for me, but I couldn't remember why.

It feels funny really, standing at the foot of my sisters grave, unable to remember what happened to her, let alone recall if I had been to her funeral or not. My parents always were evasive about the subject. On occasion, I would hear their hushed whispers in the next room over, and when I would put my ear to the door I could make out 'the bear', and sometimes 'the chicken' before a pregnant silence would separate my parents' conversation. If anything could get any more cryptic, it would be those months I can't remember.

The thing is when you forget a few months, you incidentally become the outcast of your school. There's no longer the worry of getting to class on time; the halls are always cleared when I come around. Former friends take off the other side of the cafeteria when the first day of school rolled around, and even teachers who had never seen my face before let alone knew my name made a B line out of the room when I would stay after class for help.

My parents weren't the only ones talking behind my back either. There was always murmurs, all around me, and they too would be saying 'the bear' or 'the chicken', and even in the rare instance of 'the bunny'. Why are these people talking about animals? Did I miss and alien invasion or something?

I used to have a best friend. His name was Conley and we would do everything together. Maybe the aliens took him back with them, because by the time I woke up, my mom said he moved four states over and didn't bother to leave their new address to his long time best friend. There was never an explanation giving for their sudden disappearance. My dad tried to play it off as if Conley's dad got a promotion and moved, but I didn't buy it for a second.

Everyone knew Conley's dad didn't work.

Not only was I rejected by every social outlet in school, the one person who would be there for me had suddenly disappeared. My life wasn't so great when some of the gears that made it turn went missing.

It didn't get any better when my parents removed me from the school system to teach me at home. They would always handle me like I'm broken, and when we would go to my sister's grave they would talk in a pathetic, childish voice like, "You know she's up in heaven now with all the other kids right?"

At the time, I had just assumed they meant all the other dead kids in the world and that they were being overly annoying to me; turns out, like most of my sixteen-year-old assumptions, I was wrong. They were really talking about 'the others' who died during 'the Incident' because of 'the bear' and 'the chicken'. Whatever those code words meant, my sister and four other seven-year-olds had been a victim of them.

Even now, when I stare at the pale limestone of her meager grace, I imagine the stone as a book; a mystery book. I always hated that type of genre. Buried beneath the context of the mystery was everything that was missing; but it died with my sister. I'll never get it back. Not when my parents will never tell.

Even for humans, months can't simply fade away into none existence. They're always buried somewhere deep, and it would take a greater percentage of brain power to uncover them. We can only achieve this state when we dream. I haven't completely forgotten what had happened, for it plagues my dreams nightly. Always, I would wake up in a cold sweat, my eyes burning, screaming "Stay away!" with the faintest echo of a melody imprinted in my eardrums.

When my parents would run in frantically, begging for an explanation, it would be only then that I would realize I could not remember the dream at all. The only thing I could grasp onto was the melody that reminded me of a child's wind-up box.

Dun dundundundunddun dununun.

It took about three months to compile all I could on the story of my missing spring, and it didn't amount to much. For some reason, my little sister and I went to a place still unknown, with a whole bunch of other kids I didn't know, to hear a song? I'm not sure how the music ties in, or the animals for that matter. It still needs some work.

My parents have started taking me to a therapist named Dr. Kelver. Dr. Kelver always told me to lie down and talk about my feelings. I always said I was confused, and when he would inquire why, I'd say I wanted to know what happened all those months ago. My parents didn't get their money's worth from those sessions, because after that we wouldn't talk again.

I was there now actually; waiting in silence for my hour to be up. Dr. Kelver was more than likely reading the newspaper like he always did, while I got to sit on the couch covered in plastic, trying every moment not to sigh. The TV was turned to some kid's channel, probably for the younger patients who sought his services.

I wasn't going to lie, I felt pretty angry that my parents would take me to such a ridiculous place, forcing me to watch SpongeBob with some creep of a doctor who just sat their silently for the hour. This is exactly how I wanted to waste my Wednesday.

When the program cuts to a commercial, I nearly groan. It was kinda growing on me, the whole sponge living at the bottom of the sea kind of thing; stupid toothpaste commercial. I glare as it goes by, silently mocking the inadequate technology of its advertisement, before an orchestra of bright, circus colors crowd the screen. My curiosity is suddenly peaked.

"Hey kids are you ready?" The narrator spoke, a group of kids whooping and hollering their agreement, jostling each other before a set of close doors. "Are you ready for Freddy?"

"Yes!" The chorus screamed.

A bell chimed, and the door flew open, spilling the children into what appeared to be an arcade, with long strips of dining room tables. Dr. Kelver raised his head.

"Welcome to the grand reopening of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria!"

Sounds like a fun place, I thought, as the kids settle themselves before a stage instead of in the chairs, their eager bodies squirming in anticipation for whatever was behind the velvet curtains. Dr. Kelver suddenly jumped from his chair and violently dug through his drawers for the remote. He's done stranger things so it didn't really bug me. I soon tune him out.

The screen cut to a time lapse, as the lights in the room slowly dimmed, and too the children's utter delight, the curtains were pulled back, revealing three animatronic characters. There was a bunny, a chicken…..and a bear. The bear opened his mouth to speak, but all I hear is the background music as my eyes settle on the chicken.

Dun dundundundunddun dununun.

I screamed so loudly that I depraved my body of all the oxygen reserves in my lungs and passed out on the couch. It was engraved into the back of my eyelids, imprinted on my soul, so everywhere I looked, all I could see what the eyes of my dead sister, glued into the sockets of the chicken animatronic.

00

I woke up in the hospital the next day, my parents sobbing at my beside, promising I would never have to see Dr. Kelver ever again. I don't care though, even though I had always rued the hours spent with that man. I know Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria was where Gabriella and the others were killed. They couldn't hide that from my anymore; not when I saw her bright, lilac eyes buried in the costume of a chicken mascot.

"What happened?" I asked, but they avoid the true answers by playing coy.

"You passed out, remember?" My mother folded her hands in her lap, but I shook my head.

"What happened to her" I reiterated, but they close up, like a flower blooming in reverse, and refuse to answer the question.

"You can't hide it. I know it happened at that place." My dad tried to pretend he was confused, because that's all he was capable of doing, and even though I was lying in a hospital bed, my voice was never as strong as it was now. "Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. Where Gabriella died."

They seemed alarmed that I would even know her name, and that made me furious. I just couldn't remember 'the Incident', but they made it seem like all my memories were impaired. "He's a special child." They would say when others asked. "And he needs special attention ever since the Incident."

"Shawn… What's in the past needs to stay in the past. There's no need to go diggin' up trouble." My dad said, always a man for a wise voice but not for the words.

Any conversation nowadays was nothing but déjà vu with my parents. I would always receive the same response, as if they were those dumb animatronics too, and couldn't think of anything better to hide the truth from me.

"The bear, the chicken, and the bunny; I may not remember them dad, but I know. I know they were a part of it. Her eyes are in the chicken!" I hissed, but my dad doesn't stir from his slumped position.

"Chica…" My mother breathed, her eyes swollen and her face damp. She was much thinner than a stout woman should be.

"Son—Son that's just crazy talk. You're tired. Doc says you need some rest then—then ya gotta take your pill."

Ah the dreaded pill. The magical blue capsule of wonder to suppress the effects of a traumatic experience. Must be taken with food before every meal. Call your doctor if any strange symptoms appear.

Before this whole thing, Gabriella had been the one taking the medicine. It's funny, how I remember that now of all times. She had an irregular heartbeat the doctors had said; and even though it wasn't deadly, it still needed to be monitored and medicated. She was always a trooper when it came to her heart. She'd screw on a brave face and never whine when she had to take a massive pill. Not like me, who always complain when that capsule is pushed my way.

It's weird, knowing she's the one dead. She was only seven, but she had her whole life planned out ahead of her. She was going to be a nurse and she was going to give all her patients red roses. Then she was going to get married to a super star and live in the London and meet the Queen. Honestly, I have no idea how she came up with that one.

Why would someone murder her? What about me, the kid that's one year away from graduating and still has no clue what he will do?

One thing I never asked Dr. Kelver, although I kinda wanted to, was why the good people get killed and the bad people stay. I don't know if the man that killed her got persecuted or not. There was never any news reports, and naturally my parents would never tell me.

"He's a pirate. He's the bad guy. He's gotta catch all the good people to win. You can't let him do that okay? You can't let him win. Run Shawn run! He's coming!"

Slowly, I turned my head to the window, seeking the voice, but seeing nothing that could have produced it. What was that?

"Help me Shawn! He's gonna get me!"

Was someone in trouble…? I slowly pushed myself up, freaking out my parents even more.

"Shawn please take your pill." My mom pleaded.

"Who is that talking…?" I ignored the hand that held out the pill, and look around, but there was no one but the evasive beings I called my parents.

"Son take your pill now."

I hate that pill so much, but when my dad puts in my palm, and the voice does not continue, I swallowed it. The moment it settles in my system, the effects begin to work. I fell into a deep slumber and forgot everything about that Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. I didn't remember the voice, or the chicken's eyes. It all floated away from me, probably to join the colony of my other lost memories, so I can awake again stress free.

I never realized what that pill really did; and as a result I never heard the name Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria again.

Until the bite of '87.

-Soul Spirit-