"What's going on?" Christine burst through the room's doors, scanning the room frantically as she caught her breath. "William!"

"Mommy!" Jason threw himself into his mother's arms, his face streaked with tears. He sobbed, clutching Christine tightly as she bent down and held him in a tight hug. "It's ok, it's ok. I'm here," Christine said softly, her soft blonde hair settling around Jason's scruffy, brown locks. His wailing melted into quiet sobbing as he clutched his mother's dress, wrinkling its blue folds between his small, sweaty fingers.

"Christine." Christine looked up and noticed her husband, William, sitting at the edge of a stage at the far end of the room. It was Elizabeth's 8th birthday, and so they'd rented out a party room. William had promised to bring one of the animatronics that he and his business partner had been working on for so long. It stood, imposing, on the stage besides William, a huge clown with pigtails and rosy cheeks.

Christine gave Jason a reassuring hug, before getting up and running over to William. A pit in her stomach began to open. Jason's distraught crying, William's frantic call five minutes before, insisting that she drop everything and come. He had been shouting over the phone, and she could hear him banging on the wall from the other side of the line. He never got upset like that, never.

"Where's Elizabeth, where are all the other kids?" The party room was empty, except for her, William, and Jason, who was back by the door, sniffling away tears. "I told them to go home," William said flatly. "They're outside with one of the parents." He rubbed his temple. William stood up, gripping his wife's hands. "Elizabeth is dead."

Christine's face instantly grew pale. She felt like a ghost. She screamed. "Christine!" William grabbed his wife's shoulders, gripping them to somehow reassure her into no longer shouting. "Dead?!" She held her hands over her mouth, shaking her head frantically. "Please, shush!" William blurted out, half under his breath. "Don't scare Jason." Christine whipped hear head around to face her son, standing in the corner, his eyes puffy and red from crying. "Jason, come here!" She said, bending down and opening her arms as he ran into them. What did he see? Did he see what happened to Elizabeth? Dear god, what happened?

"What happened?" She asked William, clutching Jason even tighter. He straightened up. "Not now, not with Jason." Jason… He's so young, he's only six…

"Jason," Christine said quietly. "I need you to go outside for a few minutes, ok? Mommy and Daddy are gonna be right here, we need to have a mommy and daddy talk. Jason nodded slowly, and inched out of the party room into the hallway, his legs shaking.

As soon as Jason left, William turned around and slammed a fist down onto the stage, "Dammit!" Christine spun around in surprise, tears suddenly welling up in her eyes that she hadn't noticed she was holding back before. "What happened?" She began to sob, unable to hold her emotions back. William lifted a finger and pointed to the animatronic standing lifelessly on the stage. "She… ate her." Christine's blue eyes widened with astonishment and horror. "What do you mean ate?! Animatronics just don't eat people! What did-!"

Christine fell to the ground, her limbs shaking. She looked up to the huge, metallic circus clown, it's dead smile and shining eyes suddenly sending a shiver down her spine. "You said they were safe… You knew they were safe…" She settled her eyes on the tile floor in front of her, unable to look at the thing any longer. "How could this happen?"