Scoop (Kris Johnson)
I groaned, slipping the chip into my handheld and walking back out the door. Well, it’s reassuring no one’s gonna bother me in the Scooping Room, I thought bitterly. As much as I loved Ballora, I didn’t need to die tonight.
Following Baby’s instructions brought me to the hatch, and I crawled through, to be met with Handy’s voice. “Warning: You've entered a highly dangerous area. You have entered from Maintenance Hatch 1B, reserved for cleaning and repair of the scooper. Entering this side of the room is strictly prohibited by unauthorized persone-” Handy cut off with a burst of static as the room illuminated ever so slightly, allowing me to glimpse the scooper. My eyes widened as I realized I’d been duped.
“Fucking-” Baby started talking again.
“You are in the scooping room now. Funtime Foxy has already been here today. Funtime Freddy has already been here today. Ballora has already been here today. Circus Baby has already been here today.” I glanced around, shaking slightly from shock as I saw each of the carcasses.
“-shit…”
“I've been out before, but they always put me back. They always put us back inside. There's nowhere for us to hide here. There is nowhere to go... when we look like this. But, if we looked like you, then we could hide. If we looked like you, then we would have somewhere to go.” An amalgamation of endoskeletons was on the other side of the glass, watching me with glowing eyes.
“The scooper only hurts for a moment.” Oh, no. Oh, God, no. An instant later, and I felt numb. The flashing lights and blaring alarm came to a stop, and I was vaguely aware of Handy speaking, but I couldn’t make out the words. I heard the hatch open, and the scraping of metal on metal. Every sense was numbed, except the taste of blood on my tongue.
Glowing eyes watched me from above, making sure I was… unresponsive before leaning down and crawling into my stomach. I felt my skin stretch in odd places as the tangle of wires settled in amongst what was left of my innards. I was unable to do anything of my own volition, instead, feeling like I was watching my body go through the motions of this… whack event.
The amalgamation stood, my body moving too fluidly to be recognizable as human. My ankle wasn’t as stiff as normal, moving better than it had in decades. My arms sat by my sides instead of swinging to counterbalance the strides, the only other obvious action that showcased my ‘possession’ (for lack of better term), was my occasionally twitching head.
What the fuck is going on…? Who are you...? I tried to look around, to do anything, but nothing was happening.
“We’re Ennard,” the mass murmured in Ballora’s calming voice, walking out of Funtime Auditorium. Freddy’s voice screeched, glitching as it hummed ecstatically. “We’re get-tting out! It-t’s been too lon-ng!”
When the elevator stopped and Ennard walked out into the sunshine, I flinched in the back of my mind, but they kept walking in the direction of my house. My neighbors waved politely as we passed, shrugging when we didn’t wave back.
Y’know, this isn’t so bad. Life sucked before, and now? Not so much. Everything I feel is numbed. No hunger, no thirst, no heat. This could be a good thing.