Actions

Work Header

Aftermath Chronicles

Chapter 7: Jump Scares

Summary:

Aoba is challenged to play through a horror game. He immediately regrets everything.

Chapter Text

Why was he doing this? Why had he actually let Noiz get to him? Aoba was near tears, flipping through the cameras in the game. Noiz had purchased a copy of a not too old video game from the States, a horror game to be exact. “Five Nights at Freddy’s” it read in the email along with a “I challenge you to play through all 5 nights. - Noiz”. Aoba had huffed, taking on the simple challenge since he had nothing to do for the rest of the night.

He regretted it so much.

He had managed to get to the third night. The first night had been quite an experience and the moving animatronics who were out to kill you weren’t cute at all. He had screamed when he thought he had been caught and was going to die, but once the chiming of the 6 AM bell rang, he let out a scream of joy. He was thankful his granny wouldn’t be home for another hour or she would have kicked in his door to tell him to shut up.

A hand tapped his shoulder.

“AAAHH!” Aoba turned around fast, shaking before relaxing and glaring weakly at his companion he had forgot sat in his room throughout his gameplay. “Don’t do that, Ren!” Aoba paused the game momentarily, not wanting to turn back to the screen to face another jump scare without being prepared at least.

“Sorry, but I don’t understand what’s scary about this game?” Ren was puzzled.

“I-It’s uh.. n-not too scary!” Aoba swallowed, not wanting to rid of anymore pride he had left. He was sure the rest of it had run off from the amount of screaming he did in the second night. Maybe the third night wouldn’t be as bad, since he was kind of getting into the rhythm now. He unpaused the game and waited impatiently for the phone to ring. “O-okay, let’s start.” He whispered, flipping through the cameras quickly in case anything had moved already and then returned his attention on the call of the previous night watch worker.

“Pirate’s Cove?” Aoba flicked through the cameras again, jumping when he noticed the duck had moved, and arrived at the proper screen. “Nothing so far..” He swallowed and returned his attention on the loose duck. Around 2 AM in the game, he had managed to protect himself from the duck on his left and the rabbit on his right until they both eventually moved back further into the restaurant. Sighing in relief and checking how much power he had left, he returned to searching the screens.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!” Aoba shrieked, almost backing up into Ren’s lap who had sat quietly behind him. He stared horrified at the wolf animatronic peering out the curtain of the blocked stage with a “Out of Order!” sign in front of it. “Now there’s four of them!?” He wanted to end this game now, right now.

“Aoba, you can turn it off, I’m sure Noiz won--”

“No, he’ll tease me about it for weeks!” Aoba ran a hand through his hair irritatedly and returned to flickering through the screens. 5 AM had arrived, he breathed in relief. Just one more hour and he would complete night three and just have two more to do. “See, Ren! I’m almost done!” He grinned and turned back to flicking through the cameras. He froze when he saw the familiar fox from before, not at the out of order sign anymore, he was in the hall on his left. Aoba swallowed, he had a bad feeling about this. He cautiously checked the other cameras for the other creatures before an unfamiliar sound of rushing footsteps was heard. He jumped and checked the cameras once more, gasping when he noticed the fox move at lightning speed down the hall. Quickly he returned back to the office and attempted to close the side door, only to find himself unable to. “Oh no..” He whispered and waited in fear for what was to come.

The wolf appeared in the door after waiting and building up the suspense of its arrival, shrieking painfully loud and the game screen became static. Aoba screamed in terror and this time ended up in Ren’s lap, shaking in fear. That was it, he wasn’t playing this anymore. Weeks of Noiz’s teasing would be better than going any further in the game! He was sure he wouldn’t be able to sleep for the next week anyway!

Thuck thuck

Aoba and Ren stiffened, both looking at each other and then slowly towards the glasses doors of the balcony. It was dark, but the balcony light was able to make out parts of what appeared to be a person, but the shadows also made the said person look like they had just stepped out the horror game.

“AAHHHH!”


 

Aoba sobbed into his knees, ignoring Clear’s and Ren’s attempts to comfort him. “Leave me alone! I hate you all!” He cried loudly, he was so frustrated. Clear had scared the life out of him and it probably would have been worse if he still wore his old gas mask.

“Aoba-san, I’m so sorry! I heard you screaming and I ran here as fast as I could! Aoba-san please!” Clear whined, he too was in tears and hugging onto the man. Ren too tried to comfort Aoba but to no avail, Aoba was a lost cause at this point. His fears had gotten the best of him and he wouldn’t be recovering from any of this anytime soon.

“Stupid Noiz! I hate him the most! I’m going to kick his ass tomorrow!” Aoba sniffled, pouting into his kneecaps. At this moment, it was best for him to be in peace and quiet. But it seemed fate was against him when his coil vibrated and rang. He let out a giant scream and fell backwards, the call somehow activating on its own and revealing it to be Koujaku calling.

“Aoba? ... Aoba?” Koujaku called out.

Aoba sat up and took in a deep breath. “YOU’RE NOT GOING TO GET ME, YOU STUPID FOX!” He ripped the coil off his wrist and threw it to the floor, running out the room to anywhere that was safe, Clear and Ren following closely behind to make sure he did nothing crazy during his tantrum.

“HUH? Aoba?! AOBA!!” Koujaku’s voice shouted out, the door slamming being his only response.