Vanny laughed maniacally, her voice booming through the speakers. There was still tossing and tussling from outside, but I was blocking it out as I tried to listen to Vanny.

"Gregory! Can you hear me?" Michael shouted. I realized I hadn't said anything since Michael and Vanessa joined me inside the maze.

"Yes! Yes, I can!" I yelled back, touching the wall that his voice was coming from. I heard him out of a sigh of relief.

"Shut up, you two! I'm about to explain the rules," Vanny said. I couldn't see her, but her voice was much clearer compared to Michael's.

"We're not playing your game, Vanny!" Vanessa yelled. Her voice came from my other side.

"Ah, Vanessa..." Vanny sighed. "I'm sorry I have to do this to you. I really did like you." Vanessa stayed quiet, so Vanny continued. "And I know you liked me, too, even if you pretended not to be interested."

"What the? What kind of relationship did you and Vanny have ?" Michael shouted, somewhat disgusted.

"Ignore her, she's just being an ass," Vanessa said. Vanny scoffed through the speakers, but she recollected herself and continued her monologue.

"Michael," Vanny addressed him, "if I could, I'd kill you, but unfortunately that'd probably require incinerating you, and I'm not quite ready to burn the pizzaplex down just yet. Since you're practically invincible otherwise, I had to alter the classic 'first to win lives' move."

"You're gonna make us race to the end?" Michael yelled.

"Yes! If Michael reaches the end first, Gregory will be spared and Vanessa dies. However, if Vanessa wins, Gregory dies," Vanny declared. Michael was essentially playing the game in my place.

"What if Gregory reaches the end first?" Michael asked.

"Haha! He won't," Vanny assured. "Freddy's in the maze to collect him."

Collect me? He was going to put me in that stomach hatch, wasn't he? I could barely stand being in there when he was friendly, I couldn't imagine how awful it'd be if he was under Vanny's control.

"Good luck, you two! I advise you begin moving now. And Gregory; don't keep Freddy waiting," Vanny warned, and her voice dissolved as quickly as it had appeared.

I started breathing heavily as I worried about the possibilities. I didn't want to die, but I didn't want to kill Vanessa to stay alive, either.

"Vanessa, listen to me!" Michael immediately yelled, trying to ask Vanessa for a truce. "Don't fall for this! We can work this out!"

"Easy for you to say!" Vanessa shouted back. "Your life isn't on the line!"

"Vanny isn't going to kill you! She just wants Gregory!" he shouted, but I didn't believe that. I'm sure she didn't believe it either, and I heard her feet shuffle as she debated whether to begin running or listen to Michael.

"Do you really expect me to believe that?" Vanessa screamed.

"Don't you get it? Regardless of the winner, he'll die if she gets her hands on him!" Michael said. "She's just trying to pin us against each other while she gets ahold of him!"

"Well... it's working! I can't take that chance!" she confessed.

"Don't let her trick you! Vanessa!" Michael called out.

"I'm sorry, Gregory," she said quietly, but I still heard her, and I heard her footsteps as she started running away.

"Vanessa!" I called out to her, but she didn't return. My adrenaline kicked in, and I felt my eyes twitch as I started to panic.

"Shit," Michael muttered, but he tried to reassure me. "I'll find you, Gregory! Just avoid Freddy!" he yelled, not having enough time to console me as he worried if Vanessa made it to the end first. I heard him leave too, and I felt like I was going to begin to sob.

"Michael! Come back! Don't leave me!" I cried. I knew if he stayed, it gave Vanessa a head start, but it was scary enough to be on my own. Now, neither of them were beside me, and I was alone in this creepy maze while Freddy hunted me down.

Freddy. He had Roxy's eyes, the ones that allowed them to see through walls. He had a huge advantage over me. If I didn't move now, he would easily back me into this corner. I had to begin my own trek to the end.

I was shaking as I tried to recollect myself. "Bowtie?" I asked, hoping I'd be able to talk to it and that it could calm me down, but I got no response. I turned my head to look, and I saw its head wasn't sticking out of the pocket like usual. I quickly threw my backpack off of me and shuffled through it. I worried I dropped it somewhere, but I eventually found it at the bottom of my backpack, motionless.

It must have run out of batteries! I rapidly took out my flashlight and opened its clasp, tearing out the batteries. It made the flashlight useless, but I was willing to lose my sight if it meant I wasn't entirely alone. With shaky hands, I removed Bowtie's hatch and replaced its dried out batteries with the flashlights, and I waited expectantly for it to turn back on.

Bowtie's ears twitched, and it shook its head and looked around. "What happened? Where is everyone?" it asked.

"We got separated, and–and Michael left, and Freddy's here, and I'm going to die!" I cried desperately. I collapsed to my knees and hugged myself tightly as I started sobbing.

"What? Michael left?" Bowtie shouted, almost not believing it.

"Vanny said... he had to beat the maze... or else she'll kill me..." I said softly.

"That makes much more sense," Bowtie commented. It patted my hand and said, "Let's try to get out of the maze, too."

"Gregory!" Roxy yelled from behind me. I spun around, still on the floor, but she wasn't there. She must still be on the other side of the door.

"Roxy! Open the door!" I said.

"It's jammed!" she yelled. She rattled the door some more, but nothing came of it. "We've got Chica under control. Sun and I are going in through the exits. We'll meet up with you three soon!"

Monty must be the one handling Chica. They must also not know about the game, or if they did, they were hoping to find us before anyone could win. I couldn't yell anything back before Roxy was gone too, and Sun must've followed her.

"We should go, too," Bowtie said. I slowly got up, wobbling a bit as I tried to stand up. I turned and stared into the thin hallway, which split a little further up. I had no sense of direction, and I had a gut feeling I wouldn't be able to complete this maze, but sitting here and waiting for Freddy to corner me wasn't a smart move either.

I didn't have any plan or tactic for when it came to navigating through the maze. I just took turns when I felt like I'd been going straight for too long. The walls felt grainy, and the twists and turns didn't make me feel any better about my choices through the maze. I passed a few of those designated workout areas that Vanessa had described. One was a dead end that led to a room lined with treadmills. I knew you were technically supposed to spend some time working out each time you came across them, but I just whizzed past them. I tried calling out for Michael, but I never got any responses, so after a while I stopped while I kept running through.

The decorations and designs of the walls made me feel dizzy. I wasn't sure if it was some kind of strategy that the maze used to confuse patrons or if it was because of my condition, but either way, it became a more and more difficult task to navigate through the maze. Bowtie would try to help me, but it didn't seem to have a good grasp on direction either.

"I wish I could find those stupid dumbbells," I said to it. For me, my main task was to find Michael, but finding the dumbbells would be a neat bonus and would make the trip into the maze not feel entirely useless. Though, because of Vanny's presence here, I had a feeling there was a possibility that the chip was extracted earlier.

"They're around here somewhere . The maze can't be that big, right?" Bowtie said. I wasn't sure how big it was.

"Gregory!" I heard Michael's voice call out. It sounded close, possibly only a few turns away. I looked around frantically, trying to pinpoint where it came from.

"Michael!" I yelled out so that he could hear me.

"Gregory, where are you?" he yelled out again. I felt my heart rate accelerate as I quickened my pace. His voice came from an area northwest of me, so I took a right turn at the fork in the road and tried to make my way to him. I knew these paths were twisty, but there was no possible way for me to guess the way correctly if I didn't make assumptions.

"Over here!" I shouted out so that maybe he could navigate towards me as well. I maneuvered through the turns and tried to find him. I took one last turn into another dead end room, expecting Michael to be there.

Freddy stood there in his place, staring at the entrance expectantly. His hands had been replaced by Monty's claws, just as Vanessa had said, and he was sporadically moving his chest around as he tried to stay in place. "Oh, Gregory, there you are," he mimicked Michael's voice. He took a step forward while I took a step back.

I didn't realize Chica's voice box could imitate real people, too. I was under the impression that it could only impersonate other animatronics, but Freddy had managed to fool me. Even with Roxy's eyes, Freddy opted to trick me into his trap instead of chasing after me.

"Go, go!" Bowtie exclaimed behind me. I didn't wait for Freddy to approach me any further. I spun around on my heel and ran, and I heard Freddy leap into the wall and crash into it behind me. The vibrations almost made me trip, but I was able to carry on without falling over. I wasn't sure if I could outrun him, and I knew for a fact I couldn't lose him.

I felt the ground shake as he tried to catch up to me, and it slowed me down as I worried I would stumble. I took a sharp turn, and Freddy slammed into the wall once again, not braking himself at the turns. I came up with an idea; take as many turns as possible. It slows him down for a few moments. It's not much, but it's enough to give myself legroom until the next turn. I'd just have to withstand running like this for a while.

That was going to be a problem. I wasn't much of an endurance runner, as evident from the run I had in Roxy's Raceway earlier, and with the walls so close it felt even more suffocating. I tried not to focus on what was to come and tried to keep my mind on what was happening now.

I took yet another turn, and Freddy hit the wall much harder than last time. I wasn't sure if he had just leaped towards me then or if he was simply that much faster now. To my horror, this corridor had hurdles lined up. I didn't think I could jump over them, so I put out my hands and prepared to push them out of the way when I ran by. I managed to push the first one out of the way without a problem, but somehow the second one was stuck, and I lost my balance and fell to the floor with it.

I tried to get up as fast as possible, but I felt Freddy's claws dig into one of my shoes. It drilled into it and reached into my skin, scraping my foot's bone. I let out a yelp and instinctively pulled away, but of course against Freddy I wasn't able to get out of his grasp. With my free foot, I kicked his hands off of me, which only made his claws drag along my skin until he was forced to let go.

I ignored the blood and pain I felt and pushed myself up as swiftly as possible. It was uncomfortable to run with a bleeding foot and a broken shoe, but I didn't have the time to remove it. I kept up my tactic of taking sharp turns. Freddy still continued to run into the wall at each turn.

The next corridor had a piece of rope connected to the ceiling between a giant gap in the floor. Clearly, it was intended to be swung across. With a running start, I leapt into the air and grabbed onto it, and it swung forward with me on it. I didn't want to still be on it when it swayed back to the other side, so I let go and clumsily fell on my back on the other side. I scrambled up, not bothering to stay behind to see how Freddy attempts to make it to the other side. I heard a loud crash, and though I was curious, I stayed on course and kept my pace.

It wasn't long before I realized he wasn't on my tail anymore as I couldn't hear him. I slowed down to take a breather, viewing the hallway behind me to see if maybe he was just moving quietly, but there was no sign of him anywhere. Still, he could probably see me, and if I'm not careful enough, he'll catch up to me again.

"Breathe, Gregory," Bowtie said, as if I wasn't already trying. I was practically wheezing, my lungs feeling tight and cramped, overfilled after I wasn't able to keep my breathing at a comfortable tempo while running. I actually had to sit for a bit, just to recollect my air without worry of passing out.

"Are you okay?" Bowtie asked once I'd returned back to normal.

I nodded, pushing my hair out of my eyes and sighed, "That sucked." Since I was sitting, I took this time to check the injury on my foot, taking off my shoe. The scratching wasn't as deep as I'd expected. It just clawed along the top. My shoe and sock must've played the role of armor protection. It was still bleeding, though, so I tried to apply some pressure on it as I tried to think of what the best option would be.

"The ceiling collapsed onto Freddy," Bowtie said, "and he fell into the ditch. He's probably out by now." I didn't even need to ask it to tell me. I understood it was telling me to continue through the maze. I shoved my bloodied shoe into my backpack, and I took off the other as well. Running with only one shoe on made it easier to trip. I kept my socks on though, even if one was ripped and covered in blood. I didn't want to be completely barefoot.

I was still able to run, but I opted to do a light jog instead, as I wanted to conserve my energy and breath if I ran into Freddy again. It felt like I was running in circles. I had no idea where I was or what was around me, and the only thing I managed to do was get myself hurt even more.

One of the turns I came across led into a noticeably brighter room than the rest of the maze. I mentally prepared myself and walked in. It was half a baseball court with only one hoop. Against the wall was a shelf of basketballs, and a counter was above the basket. In the center of the squeaky hardwood floor, Michael had constrained Vanessa with what looked like tug-a-war rope. She seemed to have put up a fight, as her face looked puffy and let out exasperated gasps on the floor.

"You can't keep me here like this!" she growled up at him, attempting to kick him away.

Michael stood over her, exaggerating his expressions as he said, "I'm not! I'm waiting for you to start thinking rationally !"

"Michael!" I yelled, and he spun around to see me. His face grew a smile and he scrambled over, almost tripping over Vanessa as he ran over to me. He wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug, which was expected, but my mind was racing about what he was doing a few moments ago.

"What– why is– what'd you do to Vanessa?" I finally asked. I felt Michael get tense, and he let me go and glanced around before apologizing.

"I know it looks bad," he admitted, "I just had to stop her from running around."

"He was afraid I was going to make it to the end first!" Vanessa shouted from across the room. She struggled a bit as she managed to get her face off the floor and lean against the wall.

"Not true! I'm protecting you!" Michael argued.

"You think you're so righteous," Vanessa scowled at him. "But you're nothing but a coward. A piece of shit who doesn't deserve an ounce of pity from anybody!"

"I get you're mad at me," Michael said, "but I'm not letting Vanny kill either of you!

"But if it came down to it, you'd choose him over me. Don't even try to argue about it," Vanessa said.

"I'm stopping both of us from 'winning' Vanny's stupid game!" Michael yelled. "Vanny won't care who crosses first, she's going to kill Gregory regardless!" He didn't seem entirely convinced that Vanny would follow her own rules.

"If you thought that was true, you wouldn't tie me up!" Vanessa debunked him.

"Fine! Yes!" Michael finally professed, his voice booming from exhaustion from this argument with Vanessa. "I'd choose Gregory over you! I'm sorry that doesn't help you , but I have a child to protect, and I'm not letting you get in the way!"

Vanessa relaxed her shoulders as she leaned farther into the wall. She sighed, letting ouut the air in her lungs, and said, "You're a fucking hyocrite. You think you're better than everyone else because you've 'sacrificed' a lot, but you're just as bad as William!"

"I am not! I've spent my whole life fixing what he had broken! My family, my friends, myself! I did everything I could to help them! And I did sacrifice a lot to be standing here now."

"Would you let me speak, please?" Vanessa hissed. Michael crossed his arms, but he didn't say anything more. "When you burned down the pizza place, you didn't help them. You didn't free their souls. In fact, you made their suffering so much worse. They're all beneath us, in agony, in this weird purgatory that they're putting themselves through for the sake of justice."

"I didn't burn it, Henry did," Michael clarified.

"I don't care who burned it," Vanessa professed, "but it pissed off everybody down there, and only made William more angry at you!"

"Don't talk to me like you know more than me! I lived through it, not you!"

"But I do know everything about you! The both of you," Vanessa confessed. Michael and I glanced at each other and then back at her. Her head shook back and forth as she started thinking.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You really think Vanny hasn't been keeping tabs on you?" she said menacingly. Her side bang hung in front of her facing, covering one eye completely as the other was darkened by shadows.

"I know you," she said, looking over at me, "struggle to exist under your brother's shadow. And I know you," she said, moving her head to Michael, "were diagnosed with PTSD and schizoaffective disorder."

"I'm not schizophrenic!" Michael refuted.

"Yes, I know," Vanessa agreed, "but what'd you think would happen when you told your therapist everything ? Including hearing the voices of dead children?"

Michael shook in place, clasping his fits tightly shut as he tried not to lose his cool any further than he already had. Vanessa continued her soliloquy, tearing into the deepest parts of Michael's soul.

"And I also know what happened to your wife after you left," she announced. Michael looked down at her weakly, surprised to hear her say anything about his wife. "She relapsed. Thirteen years of sobriety down the drain because you couldn't keep yourself together. She desperately called you, begging for help, and you shut her out during your little tantrum up in Maine. She despised you, and yet, up to her very last breath, she believed you were going to save her, and you never did. You never do. You never save anyone, you just make it so much worse !"

"You don't know what you're talking about," Michael said.

"I think I'm more than qualified to talk about this, Michael. You weren't around to see it!" she yelled at him.

"I did everything I possibly could for her! She recovered!" Michael explained, but Vanessa shook her head in dismay and relayed more information to him.