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Elizabeth had always been a quiet child. Reserved, clingy, more of a follower than anything else. She enjoyed things that most girls her age enjoyed, playing with her dolls and bears, drawing, all the things that a child her age was expected to like. She was a good child, followed orders from her father without a peep, her green eyes round and bright in admiration and awe. She was his little shadow, and for the first few years of her life, William put up with having her as a shadow, as long as she was quiet and didn't pester him. She didn't. She stayed quiet, handed him tools and watched him with careful, watchful eyes.
For the first four years of her life, Elizabeth saw her family as near perfect. Her father was very busy, yes, but he still let her watch him work under the condition that she stayed quiet and didn't bother him. Her mother wasn't as busy and often let Elizabeth and her brother help with various activities, gardening and cooking. She remembered her oldest brother, Michael, pulling a stupid prank and putting dirt in her other brother, Evan's shoes. She remembered her mother scolding him once she'd found out, and Mike giving his little sister a playful wink.
She remembered on her third birthday, laying in bed with a new stuffed animal and her brother creaking through, motioning for her to stay quiet. She remembered feeling naughty, like she was a spy in one of her parent's movies going to find hidden treasure or lost diamonds, keeping her giggles to a stifled minimum as her brother plonked onto her bed with a quiet creak of the bed.
"You're gonna break it!!" Elizabeth had squealed with an amused giggle, to which her brother had hushed her with a shake of his head.
"Quiet, Lizzy," He had said before holding out his hand with a cheeky smile on his face. It had been late, late enough that the house was quiet and Elizabeth was starting to fall asleep, late enough that the moon was shining through pink curtains, creating a sliver of light on the carpet, the only thing waking her up from her exhaustion being Mike sneaking into her room. She took his hand, biting her lip to suppress her giggles of excitement.
"Where are we going?" Elizabeth had whispered into his ear, holding on tight around his neck as he hoisted her up into his arms, tiptoeing down creaking stairs in the dead of night. He hadn't answered, and so Elizabeth took that as a request to stay quiet. Her father did the same thing, when he didn't want to talk to her, or if he just wanted her to be quiet. It hurt sometimes, but she was always good at respecting his wishes.
Once they'd reached the bottom of the stairs, Mike placed her on the ground, "We need to be quiet, Liz. Yeah?"
Elizabeth nodded, a serious look on her face that made Mike snicker.
She felt like a super spy, a secret agent treading through the corridors of a secret facility to find something valuable, like crowns and gold, or gemstones and gold coins. Earlier that year, her mother had done an Easter egg hunt, and Elizabeth remembered sneaking through the house to find golden coins filled with chocolate. It felt like that.
Another door creaked open, and Mike finally switched a light on, blinding Elizabeth for a brief moment before she regained her sight.
"It's the kitchen!" She pointed out, triumph in her voice, "Why are we here?"
Mike stood on his tiptoes fumbling around in a cupboard before bringing down a small container, one that the young girl recognized nearly immediately as the cake tin from earlier that day, their mother had stored it away where Elizabeth and Evan couldn't reach it, while making the mistake to trust that Mike, as the eldest, wouldn't take any for himself. Although, to be fair on Mike, it didn't really seem like he was taking any for himself at that current moment. He took out a knife and cut out a thin slice, one small enough that it was barely noticeable that he'd even touched it unless you were really looking for it.
"Get me some paper." He ordered and Elizabeth quickly obeyed, pulling some kitchen paper off the roll and handing it to him with a curious grin.
He put the container back, sliding the cake slice onto the paper before shutting the cupboard and sliding down to sit on the floor, with Elizabeth following quickly along. He passed the cake over to her, ruffling her hair with a warm smile.
She looked up to him, somehow having got icing on her nose, "This is good!"
He laughed at that, moving to steal a bit of cake off her plate, much to her annoyance.
"Hey, Liz?" Mike turned to her, watching her spoon up more cake with a smile, "You know I'd never let anything hurt you, right?"
Elizabeth swallowed harshly before nodding, "I know!"
"And I've got your back, no matter what?"
"Ewww, Mike, you're acting all mushy."
"Seriously, Liz, anyone hurts you, come to me, yeah? I've got you."
"Big brother Mike to the rescue."
Big brother Mike to the rescue.
When she turned four, that's when she noticed things started to change. Every weekend, Elizabeth could remember getting put in the car alongside her older brothers, her mother and father in the front seat, driving to a location that Elizabeth soon came to look forwards to. It was a friend of the family, she came to learn, and his name was Henry, Uncle Henry, she and her brother's called him. They loved seeing him, his wife, a lovely woman who Elizabeth remembered smelled like freshly baked cookies and bread. There were two other children too, a girl, Charlotte, who was just a little younger than Elizabeth, and her twin brother Sammy.
When she turned four, those weekend trips stopped happening. Her father grew distant, withdrawn, he was always too caught up in his own work to even give any of them a second glance. His trips to his office became longer and more reclusive, he would come upstairs to get his food from his wife before disappearing off back downstairs. It was where everything went wrong. Her father and mother would argue for hours every night, to the point where it was weird if they weren't arguing in the dead of night, when everyone was trying to sleep. Their neighbours would send noise complaints, to which William would completely ignore until the night their mother left.
It was a winter night, Elizabeth remembered because the heating was broken and she was trying to stay with Evan for the night. Mike was distant now, always trying to get involved with their parents arguments, often fighting on his sibling's behalf, so she couldn't use him to stay warm and comfortable, and Evan always said yes to her, always left her sit in bed with him, giving her a distraction from the noise downstairs for a good few hours.
That night was different, it only took an hour before the shouting stopped, and the front door slammed shut, with the house falling into silence for a few empty moments before Elizabeth and Evan shared a nervous look.
The next morning, they found out that their mother had left, drove off in the middle of the night with a bag of clothes and essential items, mailing William a divorce letter a few days letter. Elizabeth remembered walking downstairs for a glass of water in the middle of the night not long after the letter arrived, when it had become clear that her mother wasn't returning and finding William hunched over the counter with a half empty glass in his hand.
"Daddy?" Elizabeth peeked around the corner of the door, not stepping any closer until William turned to face her, his face pale and eyes bloodshot, like he hadn't slept in days, surviving completely off of coffee and sheer force of will.
"Beth." William stood up, moving off the counter to face her with an eyebrow raised, "You're up late."
"I wanted some water." She said quietly, meekly, as if she were afraid of getting some kind of punishment for her disobedience. Nothing happened though, and William just sighed, not noticing Elizabeth flinch back at the evidence of annoyance before moving past her to push a glass under the tap. They both stood in silence. Elizabeth out of nervous anxiety and William out of habit. She missed when they were closer, when William wouldn't mind her sitting in his office as long as she stayed silent and out of the way, as long as she acted as if she wasn't really there.
He held the now full glass out to her to take, which she did with a mumbled thank you, taking a sip while they both stared at each other.
William moved past her, walking to go upstairs before Elizabeth spoke up again.
"Why did mummy go?"
He stopped in his tracks and Elizabeth felt her heart drop down to her stomach. Maybe she shouldn't have brought it up. Maybe that wasn't a good idea. Maybe. He's going to be angry now, he's going to yell, he's going to-
"She wanted something new." William answered the question calmly, much to Elizabeth's surprise. She expected yelling, expected upset and disappointment, she expected a snapping remark that would leave her wondering what her worth really was, "She was fed up with the life we had. Fed up with us."
"Us?" Elizabeth questioned, confused, "Like, like, me and Evan and Mike?"
He nodded slowly, with a sad smile before kneeling down, "She called you whiny brats. It's why we were fighting when she left."
"Oh.. She did?" That didn't sound like her, not their mother, "Maybe you misheard her-"
"Oh, Eli." William laughed sadly and Elizabeth flinched as he rubbed her shoulder, holding onto her glass, "I know you don't want to believe it, I didn't believe it, but she did. She called you lots of mean names."
"Me?"
He nodded, "She said she never wanted you, Beth. I had to stand up for you, what kind of father would I be if I didn't?"
Elizabeth felt herself almost deflate, staring up into her father's eyes with a sad expression, much like a dog who had been kicked and pushed out into the rain for the night. It felt like somebody had just kicked her in the stomach while laughing, towering over her while she was clutched over in pain. Her mother, the same person who would clean up her wounds when she'd trip over and scrap her knees, who would brush her hair and put bows in her hair while telling her she looked like a princess, that same mother, never wanted her. It didn't feel right, it didn't feel true. Yet Elizabeth knew her father, he wasn't a liar, and their mother had just disappeared in the dead of night, leaving her children with their father.
"Do- do you want me?" She whispered the question, blinking back tears. She had heard in stories that the truth hurt, but she never thought it'd hurt this much.
"Of course I do, Elizabeth." William patted her shoulder, "I'm still here, aren't I?"
That was true. He was here, and their mother was nowhere to be found. Her father wasn't a liar.
"I'll tell you a secret too Lizzy," He smiled at her, "You've always made me proud."
She liked the feeling she had when she made him proud. She just wanted to make him proud. That made her happy.
Everything changed after that, she remembered. She was almost six years old now, and everything had changed. They had completely uprooted, moving to a small town, not too far away from where they had been previously living in all honesty, but it was still a change that scared Elizabeth, moving to a house not too different in size to where they had been living before, but instead on the edge of town. They didn't have any neighbours, living in a small field, about a half hour walk from the centre of town.
"We're going to be seen as the town freakshows." Michael had complained, "I liked where we were before."
"It's a nice change." William had stated, "Beth likes it, don't you Beth?"
She nodded, "We can play dolls outside, Mike!"
He'd just groaned in response.
Mike had settled in pretty alright despite everything though, he'd made a group of friends pretty quickly, with three other people who lived near the outskirts of town. Elizabeth didn't really see him too much from him after that. It made her sad, but she liked that he had friends now. She was just afraid he was going to forget her.
Evan started keeping to himself, locking his door at night after Michael had taken to jump scaring him on the days that he'd woken up before the younger, which meant Elizabeth couldn't sneak in at night to lay with him if she'd had a bad dream or if she was lonely. Mike had started acting like he was also too cool to hang out with his sister, preferring to be with his new friends.
Elizabeth took to following William around after that, the only one in her life who hadn't changed despite everything. He was the only one who was around most of the time and Elizabeth often found herself sitting on the basement stairs, watching him work with eager eyes to the point that William picked up on her staring with such interest.
Maybe that's what inspired her sixth birthday gift. It must've been a few weeks before her birthday when the reveal took place, when he took her hand and guided her to a new building, one that smelt like grease and cake icing, just like the old pizza place did. Elizabeth adored it when William took her and her brothers along to work with him, getting to see the animatronics and the way they moved. Her favourite was always Chica, the only girl of the group, and she remembered Michael making a joke after their mother had left that Elizabeth was like Chica now, due to her being the only girl.
He was Foxy, of course, already growing attached to the pirate fox, Evan was Freddy and their father was Bonnie. She remembered laughing and agreeing. She always thought that it must be so wonderful to be a performer just like the animatronics.
She remembered her father turning the lights on and seeing the most beautiful animatronic ever.
"She's so pretty!" Elizabeth gasped, clasping her hands together, "What does she do, does she play?"
"She sings." William flicked a switch and the animatronic sprung to life, going back and forth, and side to side as Elizabeth watched in awe, "She will give out ice cream and do a few other things but it's not done yet."
Elizabeth stepped forwards, reaching her hand out to touch the silky metal of the animatronics' arm before getting pulled back, yelping out as she looked back at William who gave her a stern look.
"You can't touch."
"But she's so pretty."
"She's not finished, Beth," William explained, "I don't want her to malfunction and hurt you."
Elizabeth sighed, stepping back with her father, "Okay, I guess. She's so pretty, daddy, what's her name?"
"Circus Baby." William answered, "Of course she's pretty, she was made for you."
Elizabeth gasped, "For me!?"
He laughed and nodded, "Yes, Elizabeth, for you. Happy birthday."
She giggled, rocking back and forth on her feet, as she stared at the animatronic. Made for her! How special!
All she ever wanted to do was play with the animatronic. She didn't understand why it had to be so difficult! She bothered her brother to go to Circus Baby's Pizza World every single day, almost begging him to take her there after school, just so she could catch a glimpse of the animatronic. Every time, there were children surrounding the sleek robot, laughing as the animatronic created balloons, singing for the children.
It was supposed to be her gift! Why can't she just go and see her, just once? It was proof of how dearly her father cared for her and she couldn't even go and see it! How was that supposed to be fair? Even Mike didn't let her near it, not that he understood, he didn't get how much Elizabeth cared for this gift, something that was supposed to be for her! All these other children got to go and see her, talk to her, get balloons from her, why couldn't Elizabeth. It wasn't fair.
One night, she'd had enough and decided to go down to William's office in the basement. He was busy, as per usual, but he never seemed to mind her coming in to sit before. Yeah, he'd snapped more than a few times, said words that hurt her but she'd always forgiven him. He was her father, after all, how could she not?
"Daddy?" She'd creaked down the stairs, clearing her throat to try and get the man's attention, "Daddy, I wanna talk to you?"
He groaned, and she flinched. Usually he didn't mind that she was coming to talk to him, maybe he was just in a bad mood today. Usually that would be enough to influence her to turn around and leave, leave him to his own devices and come back when he was in a better mood, but Elizabeth was set on trying to convince him that she could see the animatronic.
"Elizabeth." William sighed, "What do you want?"
"I wanted to ask you something."
"Make it quick."
"When, uh, when can I see Circus Baby-"
He groaned, turning around to meet her gaze, "You know you're not allowed."
"But it's not fair! All the other children get to see her! She makes balloons, daddy! I just wanna see her, just once, please!"
"No."
"But, daddy-"
"Elizabeth."
She should've taken that as a sign to shut up and stop talking, but she didn't. Instead she just glared at him, one of the worst things she could've possibly done.
"It's not fair! You said she was just for me and I never even get to see her!!"
A sharp pain shot through her cheek and she stumbled backwards. She clutched her cheek with her hand, the area throbbing and her breath trembled as she stepped away from her father. William, for his part, just turned back to what he was working on. She blinked quickly, trying to avoid the tears that were threatening to escape. It would just annoy him further.
It wasn't the first time it had happened. She remember a separate time, when he had been working on the animatronic and Elizabeth had made the mistake of talking just a little too much and her father used his hand to shut her up. She remembered how he snapped at her that she would never amount to anything. How, really, she would never make him proud.
That she would never bring him the pride that his creations did. That hurt. It hurt that all the things she did. They would never be enough.
It was a few days after her birthday when Elizabeth finally had enough. She'd accepted that William would never take her to see Circus Baby himself, so she decided to take matters into her own hands. She was six, she could be careful! William took her to work with him, it had become a regular occurrence for him to bring Evan and Elizabeth to work with him after Mike had made it clear that he didn't want to waste his time babysitting. It hurt, Elizabeth missed when her brother would spend so much time with her that they were practically inseparable. She learnt to accept it though. She had to.
William took the pair into work with him, giving the strict orders not to touch anything that looked expensive or delicate and to stay behind the line if they were going near any animatronics. Elizabeth perked up when he started talking about the animatronics, and he seemed to notice because he quickly added that Circus Baby was still off limits until he said otherwise.
Evan agreed, and Elizabeth just huffed her own acknowledgement. Looks like she would still have to take things into her own hands, unfortunately. She didn't like disobeying her father but she wanted to see her. Just once, and then she'd be happy.
She waited for Evan to leave her alone, when he said he was going to the toilet, leaving her alone for a few precious seconds. That was all she needed and she sprinted off, running down the corridors until she found a familiar looking door, left unlocked and closed. She pushed it open, pulling it shut behind her. There were no children around, all of them run off in groups to go and look at the other animatronics, leaving her all alone to see Circus Baby.
This was too easy! She was going to see Circus Baby! She was actually going to see her! Wonderful!
"You're beautiful!" Elizabeth exclaimed, walking towards her with wonder in her eyes, "Daddy said not to go near you, so you can't tell him I'm here, okay?"
She giggled to herself, feeling a warm bubbling feeling in her stomach. She was so happy! Overjoyed! It felt like there were butterflies in her stomach from the nerves of disobedience. If she was caught now, she would no doubt be in trouble, but she was being so careful and she was so close to the beauty in front of her. Elizabeth wondered why her father didn't want her to see it so badly? She was here now, and nothing was happening, maybe it was just him being a meanie again, promising things that he had no intention of keeping to.
Mike said he did that sometimes.
She didn't believe her brother, their father wasn't that type of man. Yet, it made the most sense right now. Elizabeth shook her head, no time for that right now. She was going to say hello to Circus Baby and get back before her brother found out where she'd run off to.
Then it came to life and Elizabeth gasped with delight as a small claw ejected towards her, holding an ice cream cone, vanilla with rainbow sprinkles. A gift!! Maybe her father was just playing with her, and he was behind all of it this! After all, it made no sense for it to move without some kind of input.
Elizabeth smiled and stepped closer to the robot, meekly holding a hand out to grab the ice cream once she'd gotten close enough. She clambered up on the stage. She stepped closer.
A tight grip startled her and she screamed out as a painful ache shot up her body. It only took a moment, she couldn't even register what had happened before she was plunged into darkness. It happened so fast. Too fast. Nobody seemed to notice. Of course, there was nobody there to notice as she was pulled into the internal workings of this thing. Elizabeth felt her breathing speed up as she started banging on the walls of her new cage, each punch bruising her fists more and more, as she started to scream for help.
Nobody could hear her, children were flooding the room again and their laughs and delighted screams drowned out Elizabeth as she banged and screamed for help as loudly as she could, tears starting to stream down her face as the reality crushed down onto her.
What happened. Was this on purpose? Maybe William had done this because he'd known she'd disobey him, done it to teach her a lesson and he was going to come and get her, he was going to save her. She would be in deep, deep trouble but he'd save her. It was so dark in here. She could barely move, and the air felt thin, compressing her as she cried in the dark.
She only wanted to see her.
It took days before the dark took over. It took days before the reality swept her up. William was never going to come and save her. It took days before she was trapped in the reality.
She was always a quiet child, more of a follower than a leader, and she would've done anything to make her father proud of her. To gain his approval. She was usually so obedient. She just wanted to say hello.
Maybe it was her own fault. She was only six. What a way to go.