Turns out my solution to "there's a new Five Nights at Freddy's video and I'm absolutely terrified" is to write. A lot. It helps that this Starlight Challenge prompt showed up on my dash.
Contains spoilers for FNAF3 - at least as far as TV Tropes knows and cares to imply - and the most shameless of crossovers, because as far as I'm concerned, Death just can't keep his nose out of anything.
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"Well, that was a fuckin' letdown."
It was an odd sort of perspective, witnessing a conflagration from above. Usually he saw these things on TV, or on the ground. (Hell, he'd set one or two occasionally.) The bird's eye view was something new.
It was also probably the last thing he was ever gonna see, so might as well make it count, right?
I BELIEVE YOU REFER TO THAT AS 'GOING OUT WITH A BANG.'
"Only if there's an actual bang involved," he shook his head. "Faulty wiring? Bullshit, man. Death's supposed to be a whole lot better than that."
YOU DON'T SAY.
He turned around to see his conversation partner, and wouldn't you know, it was the big guy himself. After all the weird stuff he'd seen and been through, he couldn't say he was surprised that old scythe-and-crossbones had showed up for the occasion. "Well, yeah. Helps if there's strategy or something. It's really great when you can scare the shit out of them beforehand. Pretty sure I sent a few people to you like that, huh?"
YOU DID.
"Yeah, well, kids are pretty easy to scare." He looked back at the fire, casually talking over the wail of the fire trucks that were only just now showing up. Who'd have thought traffic at 6 AM would be this bad? "Kinda sad I broke my streak, though. Thought I'd get to go out on a high note before the whole place came down." But no, the security guard had survived and was flagging down the fire trucks, coughing and shaking but still very annoyingly alive. Well, he'd done his best, and they'd made a fucking horror attraction out of it. As far as he was concerned, he was a winner.
Death was also looking at the guard. HE IS NO CHILD.
"Nah, but I'm still damn good in a yellow suit."
EVIDENTLY HE WAS BETTER.
He shrugged. "Can't win 'em all. Five's pretty good, though."
I THINK THEY WOULD DISAGREE.
He blinked, watching five figures emerge from the smoke. They almost looked like- yep, totally them. The little girl in the yellow shirt (she'd hid out in the kitchen, would've given him a run for it if she hadn't knocked over those pots and pans), the angry little boy in the black baseball cap, turned sideways like he'd forgotten he had it on (hiding in the spare parts room behind a Freddy head half as big as he was, almost like he knew what was coming), the little pigtailed girl in the purple dress (turns out under the tables in the party room had been a pretty terrible hiding place to anyone older than, oh, seven), the boy with the shock of bright red hair, half-hiding behind Death's robes (he'd been a little sprinter, run right down the hall to security - might've even gotten away if the door hadn't been locked), and there in the front - yep, that little kid with the big eyes, way too pale and all in black. That kid was the one who got his focus, his smirk - after all, that kid had been the first to go. "Hey, kiddo. You like the cupcake?"
(That kid had choked, collapsed outside the room where his friends were playing - cyanide wasn't exactly subtle, but it didn't have to be when you had a good place to stash a body.)
The kid grimaced, cheeks flushed with what he could only imagine to be anger - after all, no kid likes losing. Death reached one bony hand out, placing it on the child's shoulder. THEY ARE NOT HERE TO SPEAK WITH YOU - ONLY TO WATCH.
"Watch what?" He laughed, gesturing down at the fire, at the white smoke billowing around them, growing thicker as the fire below began to die. "They already missed the fucking show. Hell, they missed everything." He turned his grin, wide and ugly - at least they'd gotten that right in the suit they'd shoved him into - back to Death. "Nobody remembers them. They remember me- no, they remember what I did. Hell, they love it so much they built a whole theme park after it! Don't you get it? I'm not gonna die - I'm a fucking legend! I'm the guy with the hook hand on the car door! I'm the guy who's in the fucking house asking if you've checked on the kids! You can't kill a legend!"
"We can't." The kid in the front spoke up - chatty, for someone who'd suffocated to death. "They can."
"They?" He laughed again, loud and derisive, because that was possibly the dumbest shit he'd heard in a long time. "What, is Bonnie gonna come get me? I was there. I don't believe in any of that shit."
YOU DON'T HAVE TO, Death replied. PLENTY OF OTHERS HAVE DONE ALREADY.
A low laugh - almost a slow chuckle - echoed through the smoke. He stiffened.
(Years earlier, Mike Schmidt had learned to slam the door on the right shut when that laugh rumbled through the corridors. He'd survived.)
IT TAKES A LOT OF BELIEF FOR SOMETHING TO COME TRUE, Death continued as the smoke thickened. HUMANS SEEM TO HAVE AN EXCESS OF IT. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU BELIEVE, MISTER SPRINGTRAP, AS LONG AS ENOUGH PEOPLE BELIEVE IT FOR YOU.
The laugh faded. In its place, the first tinkling notes of a child's music box wafted through the smoke.
(Jeremy Fitzgerald had heard it wind down only once. He'd hummed along with the familiar tune on his way out the door at 6:15 AM on a Saturday - not that he'd remember it later. He wouldn't remember much of anything after that afternoon's shift.)
"That's," he tried, the music muddying his thoughts. "That's not my name."
BUT YOU'RE A LEGEND. Death's head tilted, ever so slightly. He couldn't see the children anymore through the smoke - just vague grey silhouettes, and two pinpricks of blue fire where Death gazed back at him. AND THIS IS THE LEGEND OF SPRINGTRAP, IS NOT NOT?
"No- No, it-" He turned, desperately searching to see what was left of the fire through the smoke, to remind himself that something was real-
The fire was gone - put out, or just not bright enough to be seen through the smoke, he didn't know, he couldn't find it-
What he did find were four silhouettes standing before him, all his height except for one - the ears made that one taller - eight points of white light where their eyes should be. No, they weren't real- they weren't real-
But they were part of his legend. He'd made them, after all.
The music box wound down.
It was difficult to say which screamed louder: the Marionette, as it stretched out of the smoke between two of the silhouettes, quick as a striking cobra; or the human who had been Springtrap who had been human, as the Marionette latched on and dragged him back into the smoke, where Freddy and his band were ready and waiting for him.
The silhouettes faded. After a moment, so did the screams.
POP GOES THE WEASEL, Death intoned.
Jordan fidgeted, pulling on the sleeves of his black sweatshirt. "I never liked that song."
Harry tugged gently on Death's robes, face still half-hidden in the cloth. "We're real sorry about the phone guy," he whispered, wearing the expression all small children have when they know they've done Something Bad.
"Yeah," Kelly agreed, pulling at the hem of her dress. "He sounded nice."
I AM SURE HE WILL FORGIVE YOU. AFTER ALL, YOU WERE NOT YOURSELVES.
"If you say so," Kelly replied uncertainly. Harry just pressed his face further into Death's robes.
"Now what?" Thomas had pulled his cap off and was tossing it from one hand to another.
NOW YOU MOVE ON.
Thomas took a moment to process that, then glanced at Jordan. Death still couldn't quite quantify that understanding that passed between people, children less so - whatever it was, it seemed to work for the both of them, and Jordan nodded.
"Cool," Thomas said, taking Melanie's hand as the smoke in front of them began to clear. She grinned, took his cap, and pulled it on her head, gesturing for Harry and Kelly and Jordan to join them.
STAY TOGETHER. That was what children on journeys were supposed to do, right?
"Don't worry, we will!" Thomas waved back at Death as the group started walking, growing with every step.
"Hey," Melanie called back, "d'you think they have pizza in heaven?"
WHY DON'T YOU GO FIND OUT?
Evidently that was good enough for Melanie. "Pizza party!" she cheered as the children faded into the smoke.
Death let the echo of her cheer ring for a moment, taking the time to make sure they had all well and truly passed through. They had been difficult to extract from the legend that had grown up around them, but not impossible. It was well past time that they rested.
As far as Death was concerned, Springtrap could stay in the legend he'd worked so hard to build. It was not his place to mete out punishments, but he would not interfere with something Fate had so beautifully crafted. Springtrap would be stuck with Freddy and his ilk so long as the stories lived.
And according to human wisdom, legends never truly die.
I was refreshing Markipliers page like the nerd I am just waiting for the video Q A Q
I was so not prepared for the first jump scare. Like Holy crap Y HOW WHEN!? AND THEN IT DOUBLE WHAMMIED.
There's so many things to check it's unreal ; 0 ; You can do it Mark!
