#it's MY roughly 900 word response to promptober and IM going to make it SPOOKY

[midnight-mourning]

DCA Promptober Day 4: Bells

Content warning: a little spooky/paranoia based, small mentions of injury

Realized I could make the jack o'lantern emoji my dividers so now I have to standardize it across all the promptobers >_< anywho, enjoy!

Word count: 912

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Quiet. It's near silent in the closet. Save for the sound of your own breathing which you're desperately trying to muffle with your hand. 

You need to stay calm, you need to focus. Panic will do you nothing in this situation.

Your arm stings from the slash you'd recieved earlier from Monty. Had you known the animatronics were going to go batshit, you probably wouldn't have come in tonight. Or ever again, really. 

There's no way to secure the door, not without making excessive noise and you can't afford that. You just have to hope, to pray to whatever god is listening that your silence and the closed door is enough to save you. With your walkie smashed and seemingly only staff bots around for security, you have no means of getting out of here soon.

You don't even know what time it is, not that it matters at this point. You're nowhere close to morning, and even then you don't know if that'd make any difference. 

Well, it would for one animatronic. 

You can't even remember how it happened. You'd come in to spend the evening with Sun to plan out arts and crafts for the next day. He'd been acting weird these past few weeks, very insistent on no naptime, and because of how upset the topic made him, you relented despite the tired kids you were dealing with.

So, you thought it would be a good idea to try and spend some one on one time together, maybe see if you couldn't get it out of him what was bothering him so bad. When you arrived, he was incredibly, off. Happy to see you yes, but wanted you out of there immediately. You had foolishly refused, wanting to get to the bottom of things like the curious cat that you are.

You'd taken his skittish, almost aggravated, tone for him not wanting to talk about the problem. You now realize it had been fear, instead. 

"Sunny, this is ridiculous!" You say, arms crossed at the sign on the big doors in front of you. Which had been put up after he pushed you out of the Daycare moments before. 

You can hear him loud and clear over the wall, "Sorry, Sunbeam! Rules are rules!"

"You made the rules! You're actively making them right now!"

No response. Just the quiet sound of bells as-you're assuming-he fidgets on the other side. You sigh.

You put your head to the wood, voice a little softer, "I just wish you would tell me what's going on."

"There's nothing going on, friend! Everything's fine, fine, fine! Really you should just go home, and not worry about aaanything at all!" His laugh is awkward, "Really. I mean it."

Deflecting. He's always deflecting. It, hurts. To say the least.

"You know you can trust me, yeah?" You ask.

More jingling. But that's not really an answer.

"I'm serious, Sun. I just want to help."

You're about to give up and call it a night when you feel the door opening, you step back in time for it to open just a tad. 

Sun's rays peek through slightly, along with one of his optics "You want to help? Help me?"

"Of course I do," You smile, "I'd do anything for you, bud."

The door opens a little further, he's still hesistant, however, "I-I, Sunshine I don't know if this is, is something you can help with-"

"I can try," You interject, putting your hand over his which still remains on the door, "I can promise you that much."

Sun's rays spin and then he nods, "Okay, I, I suppose you can come in for a few minutes-"

It's then that the power suddenly cuts inside and out of the daycare, the emergency lights very rapidly becoming your only way to see.

"What's going on-Sun?"

He jumps back from you, looking around wildly before gripping his faceplate, "No, no, no! Not good, not good!" 

You reach a hand out, wanting to comfort the poor bot, "Sun-"

He stops his moments long enough to look you in the eyes, and while his face is stuck in that giant grin, you can sense the sterness, the fear, in the singular word he utters. 

"Run."

A few reckless and terror-driven decisions later, you wound up hear. You're best guess is that your stuck here for awhile, but semi-safe for time being-

A soft sound down the hall sends your heart to your throat. In any other context, you'd associate it with joy, laughter, days of fun, and even hummed bedtime melodies. 

Bells. 

With each twinkling noise they get ever closer to your position, and you shrink more and more into yourself. 

Clink. Clink.

For some reason, some of your happiest memories start playing before your eyes. 

Clink. 

Clink.

You think of Sun, with his goofy demeanor and sweet words that always make you laugh, make you smile. Make you feel so warm.

Clink.

You think of Moon and his bedtime stories, his calming presence, his cheeky laughter that would make your thoughts just a little fuzzy.

Clink. 

Right outside the door now. One loud bell jingling as the animatronic surely debates on whether to open the door. 

Clink-clink-clink-clink-clink. One way.

Clink-clink-clink-clink-clink. The other.

You're suddenly gripped by the realization that you still have that flashlight you found earlier on you. Your shaking fingers grip for it.

The door starts to open.

You turn on the light.

And brace for the worst.

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Man everybody's got such fun and cute stuff for promptober and I'm out here making this (by choice mind you) shoutout to everyone browsing the tag and getting whiplash from my posts, ur a real one for that

You can find my other promptober posts here if you so choose

Thanks for reading!