43 : The Outlier

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The sweet smell of vanilla cake filled her nostrils from a nearby birthday party. There was the sound of children's laughter as they jerked the handles of arcade games and ran around on the checkered tiles around her. When she opened her eyes, she found herself in a place she didn't recognize. A restaurant of sorts, one that she has never seen or heard of before. Party tables lined the floor and bright, rainbow lights hung and spun on the ceiling. Maybe it would've been exciting to be in a place like this to her, but for some reason, she felt hollow and empty.

But at the same time, she felt more open to herself. She couldn't quite entirely grasp the incredibly complex situation she was in, especially at such a young age, but she doesn't need to understand it to not come to terms with how she felt about all of it. She understood that it was inherently wrong on all levels, especially if the 'game' that's being played is won, but she couldn't quite grasp on who was the villain and who was not, perhaps only time would tell. She resonated with the fact that many unfortunate souls would suffer the same fate if she didn't try to stop it from happening.

She saw the many children play games around her. They ran past her to the multiple attractions in the area, she simply stared at her feet in somber acceptance. The curtains were closed on a big stage near the front. She felt like an outsider. A ghost compared to these smiling faces. She stood, with a solemn look in her dull eyes, in a crowd of joyous laughter and families. It felt like everything she was before was lost... Everything she took for granted was taken away from her. Now, she didn't know what she was anymore. A child? She dreamed of feeling like it. Has it only been a few hours? That can't be right, why does time stretch so long into infinity?

The children nor parents did not notice the lone girl who stood still and silently in the middle of the building. They were all constantly on repeat while she was in stasis. Did she deserve this? She thought numbly to herself. She doesn't know what she's done wrong to deserve this. But in some other thoughts, she knew it had nothing to do with whether she deserved it or not. She knew it was always going to be some twisted form of fate that tied her to this again and again. Tonight, she knew somehow, it had been planned for years. She was planned to be put here, as the victim who was unprotected and defenseless, to be murdered. She was meant to be another missing child on the paper, never heard, and never seen from again. But she knew she somehow drifted to become the outlier of it all, the one who would be cursed in the end if the game was won. When was she put in such an awful position? Since golden eyes laid on her, she was already placed far on top of the marble pedestal. But the major problem was, there was no way down but to fall.

Her blank eyes flicked upwards as she heard children screaming in excitement. Music began to play through rustic speakers. Cheery and happy music it was. But it simply echoed through her head like distant bells. Large red curtains opened up, it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the bright light that shone on everyone from behind, but then she saw them. It was two figures, a bear and a rabbit animatronic. They sang and danced on the stage with simple music boxes playing in their chest. She stared at them with a strange sense of weariness. Something wasn't right.

They both looked identical. They had soft green eyes and lush, golden fur. The bear strangely looked like Freddy, and the rabbit looked like the depictions of the purple rabbit she's seen before, Bonnie, whom she never met. They sang innocently, they swayed and moved stiffly, so unlike the Glamrock animatronics. She never met robots such as these ones, but it felt like she had seen this a million times before. The scene suddenly faded out, and next thing she knew, she was faced in another direction of the building, the back of it. A birthday party was being celebrated, kids sang happy birthday and cheered. But it all faded out into the background when she felt a cold stab of terror as she watched some children break away from the group and run, laughing and squealing, to a tall figure who stiffly stood beneath the lights.

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