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Oswald was having a terrible day. His father got replaced by a giant murderous golden rabbit but nobody else could see it. All he could do was act like it was all normal until he could come up with a plan to get his dad out. All while hoping it didn’t kill him like it killed the man at Fazbears.
And then he realised going into that pit was a horrible idea for two reasons. Whatever was in there had gotten him sick. So he had to push through his illness to try and get to his dad. Perfect.
He was about to get ready to head out when the rabbit came into his room. Dammit.
The rabbit walked up to him and Oswald prepared to run when it squatted in front of him. “What are you doing?” He asked it, his voice wavering.
The rabbit put its hand on his forehead, frowned, then stood up and walked away.
What?
It didn’t matter, Oswald decided. He just had to make his way out. So after the rabbit sounded far away enough he headed for the front door. It didn’t take long for the rabbit’s footsteps to be heard again so he hid in the cupboard. And then started coughing. Hard and loud.
The footsteps came closer, fast. And he fell out of the cupboard with how hard he was coughing.
He saw the rabbit and thought that this was it, this was how he was going to die. He braced as it came up to him. Then it touched his shoulders and he started crying. He didn’t want to die. It pulled him close to him. He assume to eat him. It held him tight, he wondered if it was trying to squeeze him to death. It wasn’t doing a good job but he wasn’t about to say that.
It wasn’t killing him as fast as Oswald thought it would. Then he realised it was rubbing his back. Why? He didn’t get what was happening. He got the courage to look up at it.
It put its hand on his cheek and wiped his tears. Why isn’t it killing him?
It spoke in a distorted voice , “are you okay?” He was surprised it could speak at all. He thought it just made gargled sounds.
“Why are you asking? Weren’t you going to kill me?” Its eyes widened and it frantically shook its head. “Then why did you replace my dad? And why have you been chasing me around the house? Why did you kill that one guy?”
“ You were angry at him. You hated him, I tried to help you.” Oswald didn’t hate his dad. But didn’t want to cut the rabbit off until it had finished speaking. And I chased you because running around in the middle of the night is dangerous. You have been awake for too long, if you had passed out you could’ve died. ” That seemed…reasonable actually. Oswald was surprised. As for the man I killed, he was abusing his kids. Nobody was doing anything to stop it, so I did. I got too…aggressive and everybody freaked out.” Oswald was silent for a moment. Thinking about everything the rabbit told him.
“So it’s my fault he’s gone?” He finally mumbled. “I don’t hate him. I was mad yeah but I don’t hate him. And I don’t want you to replace him.” The tears came close to falling again.
“ Oh, I see. I misunderstood. I will bring him back then. You don’t need to cry anymore.” It pulled him closer again and stood up. It carried Oswald back to his room. “You just rest. I’ll bring him back.” it repeated, trying to reassure him.
After everything that had happened it didn’t take long for Oz to fall asleep.
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He awoke to a scream. “Mom,” he whispered.
He jumped out of bed and ran to see what was wrong. He hid behind a wall and peaked past it.
It was the rabbit holding his father like a baby, his mother had fallen on the ground with wide eyes. She was backing up until she hit a wall. She could finally see him.
“ It is okay, he is mostly uninjured. ”
Oswald started coughing again, damn illness. It looked over at him. It set his dad down on a chair. As it walked over to Oswald his mother screamed “RUN OSWALD.” It reached him before she could finish. It once again held him gently. Just as gently as it had last night.
“ You’re okay. You’re okay.” It kept repeating as Oswald fell on his knees. It went down with him and held him close until he stopped coughing.
His mother was still as stone. She didn’t know how to react to this. Her son didn’t seem afraid.
Oswald leaned into the rabbit. “Thank you,” he mumbled after the coughing stopped.
His father started making noises. He was waking up. His mother rushed over to Oswald and pulled him away from the rabbit. It let her do so.
“I don’t know what that thing is but we’re getting out of here.”
“Mom, it's fine. He’s not going to hurt us.” Oswald tried but his mother wasn’t having it. She kept walking over to his father just as he opened his eyes.
“What happened?” He mumbled.
“No time to explain, we’re getting out of here.” She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him up. He looked over and saw the rabbit.
He screamed. And ran out of the house with Oz and his mother in tow.
The rabbit slowly followed them. “ I meant no harm,” It said. “ I just wanted to help Oswald”.
His father stopped. “How could you possibly help him? I don’t even know what you are.” He was terrified but he needed to understand. And the rabbit wasn’t chasing them yet. He stayed ready to bolt in case he had to.
“ He was angry with you, I took you from him to help. I thought I was helping but I see I was mistaken.”
“But he’s been here the whole time. When could you have possibly taken him?” Oswald’s mom asked. None of this made sense to her. Some rabbit shows up holding her husband when she just saw him the last night?
“Three days ago,” Oz answered. Everyone looked over at him. “I was the only one who could see him. I don’t know why but I could. Everyone else just saw dad. I tried to escape and get to where dad was being kept but then I got sick because of that damn ball pit.” His mother was about to scold him for swearing when she actually processed what he had said.
“That doesn’t explain the giant rabbit though.”
“ My existence is not something so easily explained. But I will give you this, I am from the past. 1985 to be exact. Oswald went into the ballpit and it sent him back in time. I wished to help him but I suppose I only made things worse.”
His mother and father were silent. Not knowing how to respond to that. So Oswald spoke up, “I thought he was going to kill me, I was worried that dad was already dead. I didn’t know what to do. I had no clue he wanted to help me.”
His father walked up to him and put a hand on his cheek. “What were you so angry about?”
“I was mostly angry at everything going on. Everybody left me, Ben left me. And I took it out on you cause I didn’t know what else to do. I’m so sorry dad. None of this would’ve happened if I just did what I was told.” His dad pulled him close and wrapped his arms around him.
“Loss is hard…I know that well. I should’ve spoken to you about it sooner. The fault isn’t yours alone. If you start feeling like that again let me know. And I’ll do what I can to help you. I’m sorry it got this far.” Oswald was crying by the end. He was crying a lot today, he guessed the sickness was messing with his head.
“So what do we do about that?” His mother asked, pointing at the rabbit.
“Could he stay with us?” Oswald asked, wiping his tears with his sleeve.
“I don’t know how I feel about that Oz.”
“ It is alright Oswald. I cannot stay anyways. I have other things I need to do.” He walked over and put his hand on the back of Oswald’s head. “ If we run into each other again then I will say hi.”
He was quiet for a moment. “I just, I miss having friends and I can’t go back into the ballpit.”
“Is that why you seemed happier before? You made friends in the past?” Oswald’s father asked. Oz nodded.
“ I’m sure you can find Chip and Mike in the present. I know they’re still around, if not…a bit banged up.”
“Chip and Mike?” Oswald’s father’s eyes widened. “Oh my god.”
“What’s wrong dad?”
“I know those two. We were friends.”