[EN] FNAF X: After the Emergency Stop Ep. 4

 

Her legs felt like lead, every muscle ached, yet a sudden rush of adrenaline surged through Elara's body. With a pained gasp, she threw herself to the side, away from Freddy, who now took another menacing step. His huge, dark shadow fell over the desk as he crossed the office doorway.

Her gaze was fixed on the red button under the desk. It seemed to wink at her, a small glimmer of hope in this claustrophobic nightmare. Elara pushed herself off the floor, her fingers digging into the dusty carpet. She crawled, scrabbled, dragged herself forward, while the metallic scraping of Freddy's feet grew closer.

A deep, guttural grunt escaped Freddy's throat as he bent down. His glowing eyes, previously fixed on Elara, now focused on the floor, as if searching for her like a toy. She felt his foul breath, a mixture of rotting metal and sickly sweet decay, stealing her air.

Her fingertips brushed the cold metal leg of the desk. The button. It was so close. Just a few more centimeters. She felt the panic rising within her, the fear that she wouldn't make it. She heard the soft grinding of the servos as Freddy extended his arm to grab her. Just a few more millimeters.

With a final burst of strength, Elara stretched out her arm. Her fingers twitched. A cold, hard press.

CLICK!

A loud, deep HUM filled the room. The lights flickered wildly, became glaring, then dark, then bright again. A deafening shriek erupted from the speakers throughout the building, a distorted, static noise that sounded like a thousand torn nerves. Freddy froze. His arm, outstretched towards Elara, became rigid in mid-movement. His glowing eyes abruptly extinguished, receding into dark, empty sockets. The mechanical giggle fell silent.

The silence that followed was not threatening, but an absolute, terrifying stillness. Only the distant hum of the fan could still be heard.

Elara let out a sharp breath, her body saturated with adrenaline. She had done it. He was powered down.

But then she heard it. A faint, scraping sound from the West Hall. And an even softer, almost inaudible giggle. It wasn't Freddy.

Someone was still there. Or something.

Elara gasped for air, her lungs burning. The stench of old metal and decay seemed to have settled in her nasal passages. She was still half-under the desk, staring at the motionless Freddy, whose dark eye sockets now looked like two black holes into nothingness. He was powered down. Dead. At least for the moment.

A fleeting sense of relief washed over her, brief and ephemeral as a dream. But it was immediately swept away by the new sound. The scraping. It was rhythmic. And it was getting closer.

She lifted her head, her eyes darting to the monitor. Camera 4: West Hall.

The hallway was a long, shadowy passage, lined with more party rooms that vanished into darkness. The image was grainy, riddled with static. Yet, amidst the grayscale, Elara could see it. A figure.

Not as large and massive as Freddy. Thinner, more fragile. A figure that didn't seem to move on two legs, but rather dragged itself across the floor. A metallic clanking accompanied every movement, as if loose wires were being pulled over the concrete.

A giggle. Louder this time, higher-pitched. It wasn't a mechanical laugh like Freddy's, but a ghostly, malicious cackle that made Elara's neck hairs stand on end.

It was Bonnie. The Bonnie from the photo, the Bonnie from the logbook, the Bonnie with the missing face.

His form slowly emerged from the hallway's darkness. His violet remains were torn, his limbs appeared unnaturally twisted. And where his face should have been, there was only a tangled mess of wires, bare endoskeleton, and glowing red eyes. One of his hands was missing, the arm ending in a stump of shattered metal.

He moved jerkily, his motions uneven and unpredictable. He didn't seem to walk, but to glide, a creeping nightmare advancing towards her.

Elara's eyes widened. Bonnie had seen her. His glowing eyes, peering through the wired chaos in his head, were directed straight at her. He was slower than Freddy, but his presence was far more disturbing. The mere fact that he could move without a face was proof of the bizarre and malevolent nature of these creatures.

She couldn't scream. She couldn't run away. Not now. Her limbs were still numb from the adrenaline that had coursed through her body. She was trapped, watched by a faceless animatronic rabbit who knew only death.

The scraping sound grew louder as Bonnie came down the hall. The lights in the office flickered again, dimmer this time, as if all the power of the establishment was being drained by these murderous machines.

Elara needed a plan. But her mind was blank, filled with nothing but the fear that settled over her like a cold blanket. The night was still young. And she was the prey.