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It was supposed to be a good day. And it was! It was a great day, even! How could it not be, when she was roaming Disney World hand-in-hand with her number-one absolute bestest bestie of all time? (Shh, don’t tell Roxy she said that!)
She still couldn’t believe this had happened in the first place. Fazbear Entertainment had organised a business trip for its top level executives and employees. They said it was to “study the technological engineering of a fellow children’s entertainment business and gain inspiration for their own attractions.” …Which everybody knew actually meant “we’re gonna ride a few rides and blatantly plagiarise their ideas for the Pizzaplex.”
But hey, a trip to Disney was a trip to Disney, and as the head technician at the Pizzaplex, her dad had received an invite. What’s more, they had extended that invitation to the employee’s families.
Cassie’s mother was…out of the picture. Had been since she was baby. This meant that Cassie would have nobody to take her around while her dad was off doing his “work”, and she wasn’t old enough to roam around the parks on her own…
It had taken a fair bit of persuasion and compromise on her dad’s part, but he’d managed to convince management to take a certain bubbly young security guard and her little brother along in place of biological family. That aforementioned “little brother” just so happened to be Cassie’s best friend of three years.
As far as Cassie was concerned, they were family. Her dad being a single parent, the times she wasn’t at school she’d have to tag along to work with him—which was quite possibly her favourite place ever. Then, a few years ago, a new security guard had been hired, a young woman named Vanessa. Whom nine-year-old Cassie thought was like, the coolest woman ever. Rainbow streaked hair, uniform dotted with pins and badges, dangly earrings always in the shape of some little trinket or toy, and nails always painted some fun colour (or a multitude of colours). She had also brought along with her a young, bandaid-covered, brown-haired boy.
Apparently, their parents had died in a car accident, leaving Vanessa as the sole guardian to her little brother Gregory. Which is why she needed this job at the Pizzaplex, to support them.
This put Gregory in the same situation as her. What happens when you introduce two kids of the same age who had near-free-reign in the Pizzaplex while their respective family worked?
Well, they had hardly been introduced to each other before they were off, happily playing together and overjoyed at the prospect of having a friend to spend their days with. They became inseparable, despite the differences between Cassie’s calmer, gentle personality and Gregory’s louder, higher-energy and mischievous tendencies.
“Dad?” Young Cassie had piped up one day from the backseat as they were driving home from work.
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“I think Gregory and Miss ‘Nessa must be pretty lonely, without their mom or dad here anymore,” she said, with that peculiar mix of innocence and surprising intuition that children seemed to have.
“Yes,” her dad said heavily. “I can only imagine how that must be for them. Why do you ask?”
Cassie swung her feet against her seat thoughtfully. “I don’t remember mom, so I guess it doesn’t really make me sad. But I know I’d be really sad if you weren’t here,” she sniffed, tears welling in her eyes at the mere thought.
“Oh, sweetheart…don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”
“I know,” she nodded, blinking back her tears. “But I don’t want Gregory a-and Miss Nessa to feel sad!”
“I know, Cass, neither do I.”
“I think Gregory would be a great brother. And Miss Nessa! She’d be the coolest big sister!”
“You and Gregory might as well be siblings, with the way you’re practically attached at the hip,” her dad had chuckled.
Cassie brightened at that. “Then why don’t you adopt them?”
He sputtered in surprise. “Cass, I love your generosity, and that you’re trying to help out your friend, but it’s really not that easy,” he told her gently.
“I’d share my room with Gregory!”
“I know you would,” he smiled. “But that’s not exactly the issue here either.”
Cassie frowned, sucking in her lower lip. “But I wanna help them…”
“I know you do, and so do I. But you being such a good friend to Gregory? And so kind and friendly to Vanessa? That’s already helping them a whole lot, I’m certain.” He gave her a reassuring smile in the rearview mirror. “Just keep doing what you’re doing, Cassie. Anybody would be incredibly lucky to have you as their friend.”
He seemed to invite Gregory and Vanessa around for dinner more often after that conversation, though.
That was three years ago now, and the two families had only gotten closer since. So, yes, as far as Cassie was concerned, they were family, and she didn’t see why Fazbear had to put up such a big fuss about taking them along, how was it any different than if her dad had three biological children? But in the end they’d had to relent, and although scummy, Cassie thought the vacation days being unpaid and the four of them being crammed into a tiny hotel room was a pretty good trade-off to have her best friend along for the trip.
They’d already been there for a few days now, having already explored Magic Kingdom and Epcot, and now Hollywood Studios. So far that day they’d been to the Star Wars land (Gregory was a huge fan of the franchise) and had ridden the rides there, especially enjoying the Millennium Falcon one. It was like a video game! Then they’d been to the Toy Story area, where she’d gotten a picture of Gregory in his 3D glasses proudly posing in front of the monitor that had his Toy Story Mania score listed as “Best this month!”
But Cassie’s favourite ride at that park by far had been Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. The thrill of the launch, the corkscrew, the rock music blasting... it was all so cool; like racing! She had a feeling Roxy would’ve loved it too.
However… herein lay the problem. Vanessa was prone to motion sickness, and that latest ride seemed to have been what pushed her over the edge. She was currently sitting on a bench in the shade, green in the face and a water bottle clutched weakly in her hand. “Urgh…” she groaned.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Nessa?” Gregory fretted, gently bumping his shoulder against his sister’s.
“Yeah,” she said, breathing heavily. “I just… need a minute. You kiddos can go off and ride the next ride by yourselves, I’ll be waiting right here.”
The next ride… the idea of it made something squirm in Cassie’s stomach.
It was currently looming over them; the tower’s terracotta facade was streaked with faux lightning damage and boasted a lopsided marquee. Periodically, screams would echo out from it. She couldn’t tell if they were artificially pumped out of the attraction or real.
The Hollywood Tower Hotel, or, as the ride itself was called, the Tower of Terror.
Cassie really, really did not like heights. Or elevators. Or elevators that dropped. Which was exactly what this ride was.
Gregory knew she didn’t like heights, but she’d forced herself to swallow that fear and ride other rides with him over the past couple days (…even if Astro Orbiter had made her want to pass out).
She didn’t think she could handle this one, though. It hit too close to home, for reasons she hadn’t mentioned to him. Her plan had been to feign illness and encourage the two siblings to ride it without her. But as luck would have it, Vanessa was actually sick, so she couldn’t use that as her excuse too…
The words were on the tip of her tongue, the desire to simply smile and say, “oh, I’ll stay behind with Vanessa to make sure she’s okay, you go on and have fun!” But she didn’t want to make Gregory go on it alone either. Or, knowing him, he’d offer to stay out too and forfeit the chance to ride it altogether, even though Cassie knew he’d been looking forward to this one all day.
Vanessa seemed to interpret her hesitancy differently however. “Seriously, I’ll be fine here by myself, you two go and have fun!”
“Yeah, c’mon Cass!” Gregory grinned, grabbing her hands. “It’ll be fun! I’ll even let you hold my hand if you’re scared!”
One thing she knew about Gregory was that, despite his mischief, he could pull a mean puppy-dog face. His eyes were shining, and he was bouncing up and down slightly in his excitement as he clutched her hands. And he had that grin on his face, that wide, bright grin that revealed his missing tooth.
Well, she’d be a terrible friend if she let him down.
Before she could think twice about it, she nodded, and Gregory’s excited rambling became nothing but a faint buzz amongst the dread pooling in her gut as she let her best friend drag her towards the entrance of the attraction.
If Cassie wasn’t so damn terrified of the thought of the ride itself, maybe she would’ve been a little creeped out by the queue. The theming was that of an old, rundown, glitzy hotel, with fake cobwebs and dust and odd eerie trinkets galore.
The wait time in front of the queue said thirty minutes. A whole thirty minutes to psych herself up for this. A whole thirty minutes of agonising waiting.
Despite being in the air conditioning, sweat dripped down the back of her neck. She didn’t think it was just from the Florida heat.
Somewhere in line behind, she could hear a child throw a fit, crying and screaming until his frazzled parents took him out of the queue and were escorted to a so-called “chicken exit”. She could sympathise with that kid. Too bad she was too old to throw a fit.
Gregory was in front of her, and he looked back, catching her eyes with a look of concern on his face. She gave him a weak smile and a nod, trying to communicate the fact that she was fine, and that he didn’t need to worry about her. He grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. She hoped he couldn’t tell how sweaty her palms were.
After a while, they were ushered by the “bellhops” into a smaller room, all crowded in with a bunch of other people. The room looked like a library, with a vintage sort of TV in one corner.
“Pfft, they call this creepy?” Gregory whispered to her, rolling his eyes.
Cassie pretended like his sudden whisper didn’t make her jump. “Aha, yeah…” Her smile looked more like a grimace. “How…lame, right?”
There wasn’t time to see if he bought her nonchalance or not, as the doors closed behind them, the lights dimmed, and the television crackled to life, displaying a black-and-white film.
“You unlock this door with the key of imagination,” the narrator began eerily. “Beyond it is another dimension. A dimension of sound—” Admittedly, Gregory’s flinch and tiny yelp at the loud noise of shattering glass on the screen made her feel a little better. Try as he might to boast otherwise, he was on edge too. “—A dimension of sight. A dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into…The Twilight Zone.” A dramatic horror stinger punctuated the end of the sentence.
The narrator then went on to showcase the “backstory” of the tower, depicting one stormy night at a bustling, glamorous hotel in the early 1900s, when an unassuming family enters the elevator, only for that part of the building to be struck by lightning and vanish completely, taking the family with it.
“Tonight’s story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction,” the narrator continued, now showing a man standing in front of a set of elevator doors. “This, as you may recognize, is a maintenance service elevator still in operation, waiting for you…”
Somehow, Cassie’s heart sank even further than it already had, the rest of the pre-show becoming nothing but a faint buzz in her ears.
It being a falling elevator was bad enough, but she felt like the universe was playing some kind of cruel trick on her because why did it have to be an old maintenance elevator specifically.
The memory flashed through her head before she could stop it...
She was seven when it happened.
Little Cassie was bouncing with excitement, as it was one of the rare days where her dad would let her “help” get the animatronics ready for the day before she had to go off to the daycare. And if that wasn’t enough, Roxy would be the one to personally escort her there after she’d said goodbye to her dad!
Her dad was working underground that day, working with a team to fix up the ruins of an old pizzeria that was apparently buried under the Pizzaplex and turn it into a museum showcasing the company’s history. Or something, she didn’t really care all too much.
“Bye, daddy!” She squealed, giving her father a big hug. His dingy jumpsuit smelled like oil and rust and sweat but to her that was the smell of home.
“Bye, princess!” He beamed, planting a kiss to the top of her head. “You be good today, alright? And make sure you listen to Roxy.”
“I will!” She chirped, skipping back over to the animatronic wolf, wrapping her whole hand around just one of the wolf’s metallic, green-tipped claws.
Some of the other employees were teasing Roxy for always becoming such a softie around her, but young Cassie didn’t notice, too excited at the prospect of having Roxy all to herself while they walked to the daycare!
She always waited until the elevator doors closed in front of her dad to leave, and this time she would walk extra slowly, she decided, so that she’d have as much time with Roxy as possible.
So that was why they hadn’t made it very far when it happened. Cassie felt a faint shuddering underfoot, followed by a jarring crash. Despite not understanding what had happened, her little heart seemed to drop too. Then people were yelling, some swearing, and suddenly the rest of the workers were in a frenzy, crowding around the elevator doors or rushing out of the room.
All the commotion hurt Cassie’s ears. She didn’t understand what was going on, just that it involved the elevator her dad and his coworkers had just gone down in. She tried to run towards somebody to ask if her dad was okay, only to find that Roxy had kneeled down and wrapped both her arms around her like a protective cage, keeping her from going over.
“W-What’s going on?” She turned to look at Roxy, but the hard plastic of her face rendered her expression unreadable. Yet her synthetic eyes held a strange tightness. Cassie’s mouth wobbled from fright, tears rising in her large eyes. Something was very wrong. “Roxy, what’s going on? Why is everyone yelling? Is daddy okay?”
“Hey, my little Cassie-bo-bassie,” Roxy said with a smile amidst the chaos surrounding them. She sounded…weird. Too gentle, like Cassie was something fragile and about to break. But Cassie wasn’t the one who broke, something else clearly did. Why wouldn’t anybody tell her what it was?
Roxy’s ears kept flicking towards the direction of everybody else in a true wolfish manner. Did she know what was going on? “Whaddya say I take you back to my green room for a special VIP hangout, just us two number ones?”
If it was any other day, Cassie would’ve been ecstatic, this was the kind of thing that would only happen on her birthday, and even then she’d only get maybe ten minutes tops with the animatronic. But now she was just…quiet, confused, and let her beloved Roxanne Wolf pick her up and tuck her in her arms with little resistance or excitement.
She buried her face into the robot’s shoulder pad, focusing on the gentle swaying as they walked, the sounds of commotion fading away as Roxy carried her out of the raceway. Out of the scary, confusing chaos.
“Roxy?” Cassie whispered as they walked.
“Yeah, kid?”
“My daddy is okay…right?”
There was a telling beat before she replied. “Of course he’s alright! Why wouldn’t he be? Your pops is a tough one, that’s for sure.”
Roxy was lying to her. Even at seven years old, she could understand that something bad had happened, and nobody, not even Roxy, would tell her what it was.
She cried. Only a couple of quiet sniffles at first, not wanting Roxy to think she was a baby, but the tears kept coming, and she couldn’t hold back the sobs any longer. Roxy just held her tighter, one hand wrapped under her knees to carry her and the other braced behind her head, and whispered gentle reassurances to her—or at least in the best way she knew how.
Cassie wasn’t sure how long she cried, just that at some point they’d made it to her green room and now she half-sat half-lay in Roxy’s lap with her face buried in her plastic stomach and arms thrown around her torso, as the animatronic gingerly ran her claws through the child's curls.
Then… she must have exhausted herself so much that she fell asleep because the next thing she remembered was waking up laying on Roxy’s chest, with her dad gently shaking her shoulder.
And then she was crying again, sliding off of Roxy and into her father’s arms and her dad was hugging her and telling her that he was okay and everything was okay now and she didn’t understand why she was crying because her dad was here and okay and she should be happy but she had just been so frightened and worried and—
Her dad had gotten to go home for the rest of the day, so once back at home, Cassie snuggled into her dad’s side, and at her insistence he gently explained what had happened.
The elevator had malfunctioned. It was old, they’d known that, but hadn’t truly realised the extent of disrepair it’d fallen into. And it seemed it’d taken one trip too many and finally broke. Thankfully, they were only about three stories from the ground when the cables snapped, and nobody sustained any injuries worse than a couple bumps or bruises.
But Cassie refused to use elevators after that. Didn’t matter how many flights of stairs it would take, she would always pick that over an elevator. And if she absolutely needed to use one, she would grip the handlebars tight enough to leave imprints on her palms and would pay attention to every little shudder or noise the lift made, barely breathing until the doors slid open again.
As she’d gotten older, she’d done her research. She knew exactly the different ways elevators could malfunction (however rare each scenario may be) and the position you should put yourself in should it freefall for the best possible chance of survival (flat on the ground, limbs out like a starfish). She didn’t care that statistically going for a walk on the sidewalk was infinitely more dangerous than riding in an elevator, and that all the modern ones had countless failsafes to make something like a fall virtually impossible.
She was still terrified of them, plain and simple.
“Cass, Cass?” Gregory’s voice snapped her back to the present. The preshow had apparently ended while she was lost in her thoughts. “Earth to Cassie? C’mon, everyone’s leaving.” He gently tugged on her hand to get her to follow the crowd out of the room.
She shook her head to clear it, swallowing thickly. “Sorry, Greg. Coming.”
Yeah, Gregory could definitely tell something was wrong. Her hand was shaking in his; her breathing rapid and shallow. Keep it together Cassie, she berated herself internally, you’re not going to have a panic attack here, don’t ruin this for Greg—
“Hey.” Gregory twisted to face her, taking stock of her obvious panic. He furrowed his brows. “You’re…really scared, aren’t you?” He realised softly, and squeezed her hand. “It’s not too late if you wanna back out. We can go find a Cast Member to let us out, it’s okay, I promise.”
Cassie just shook her head. Nope, no way, she’d gone this far, she wasn’t going to ruin this for her best friend. What kind of friend would she be if she couldn’t get over this stupid, dumb fear for his sake?
It was fine, it would be fine, this was a dang theme park, there would be seatbelts and it was a completely controlled intentionally engineered fall she knew they wouldn’t construct anything even remotely dangerous but, but—
With great difficulty, she managed to speak through the lump in her throat. “I’ll be fine,” she whispered, voice sounding pathetic even to her own ears.
Gregory gave her one last concerned look, before turning back to face ahead of them.
And then it was their turn.
If not for Gregory leading her along, she didn’t think she would’ve even been able to walk into the ride vehicle. She understood now what people meant when they said their legs felt like jelly, and that their blood seemed to run cold. It was then that she also realised how lightheaded she felt and oh my god Cassie you are NOT passing out here.
The “elevator” was, thankfully and obviously, much bigger than a real elevator, outfitted with rows of seating. As luck would have it, her and Gregory were in the front and centre. Wonderful…
She fumbled with her seatbelt, fingertips numb, but eventually managed to click it into place. Lifting her head, she found Gregory looking at her again, who slipped his hand back into hers. “Thanks for riding this with me, Cass, you’re really brave.” He beamed at her. “It’ll be fun, I promise.”
Brave? He thought she was brave?
Okay. Maybe… maybe she was brave. She knew there was no world in which she’d enjoy this experience, but maybe it at least wouldn’t be as bad as she thought and could calmly get through it?
That resolve fizzled out the moment the doors slid closed in front of the bellhop and the elevator was plunged into darkness, with eerie music echoing throughout the darkened chamber.
“Cass, you’re gonna break my hand,” Gregory snickered, oblivious to her onslaught of terror.
With a squeaked out “sorry,” she marginally weakened her grip, just in time for the narrator’s voice to begin play, and the elevator started going up.
“You are the passengers on a most uncommon elevator about to ascend into your very own episode of… The Twilight Zone.”
Cassie whimpered. Up… up was wasn’t too scary, but up was bad because going up meant they would have to go down at some point and—
The doors opened, showing an empty hotel hallway. A handful of figures flickered to life in front of them; ghostly apparitions of the missing family from the story. They waved, and with a loud crash of lightning, flickered out of sight again.
The lights dimmed, and suddenly the hallway morphed into a black void dotted with stars. It was… almost pretty. If she tried hard enough maybe she could convince herself that this was just Fazer Blast? Except for the floating window at the centre of the void which shattered loudly, and the elevator doors slid shut again. Back into darkness they went.
And continued going up.
“One stormy night long ago, five people stepped through the door of an elevator and into a nightmare.”
The doors opened once again, revealing what looked to be a maintenance tunnel.
“That door is opening once again, and this time it’s opening for you.”
And with that, their elevator did not go up, but nor did it go down. It went forwards, slinking into the tunnel. With another crash of lightning, the warm-orange lighting dimmed in favour of an eerie blue, and strange imagery of clocks and eyeballs floated around them. At the end of the tunnel was nothing but darkness, a darkness so thick she couldn’t even see Gregory sitting right next to her.
“Gregory…” Cassie whimpered, tightening her grip on his hand again. She tried to breathe, only to find that she couldn’t.
This was a mistake, she should’ve never agreed to this. The rational side of her knew she was going to be okay, but the irrational, louder side of her screamed, “I’m going to die!”
“You are about to discover what lies beyond the fifth dimension, beyond the deepest, darkest corner of the imagination… in the Tower of Terror.”
There was a quiet pause after that, one long enough that Cassie was able to force a breath into her. Only for it to be ripped straight from her lungs as the elevator shot upwards. Because what goes up, must come down.
They dropped. And with it, Cassie’s heart felt to plummet to the depths of her stomach.
She was not holding Gregory’s hand anymore, she had grabbed his entire arm and flung it across her body, wrapping both of hers around it.
They rocketed upwards again, and suddenly light hit her eyelids—she hadn’t even realised that she’d closed her eyes. She forced them open only to wish that she hadn’t, as she found that the doors had opened to reveal a window to the outside, giving them a breathtaking (in multiple senses of the word) view of the entire park sprawled out beneath them. They were so high up.
They dropped again.
The people around her were screaming gleefully and laughing; she could vaguely hear Gregory cackling like a maniac beside her. She thought he must be a maniac to find any sort of enjoyment in this. Because Cassie was certainly not laughing, but she wasn’t screaming either. In fact, she didn’t think she’d be able to make a sound even if she tried. Her fear had simply rendered her mute.
The elevator kept climbing just to drop again in a seemingly random pattern. Sometimes small “bounces”, sometimes terrifying plummets.
Every time the elevator shot upwards, as would her heart, seeming to lodge itself in her throat. And every time it dropped, her heart followed suit, making her feel sick to the pit of her stomach.
Silent tears streamed down her face. This sucked, she wanted off, she wanted this to end. She wanted her dad.
The universe had at least some mercy for her it seemed, as the elevator paused, music tinkling back to life, and with a shudder the elevator began moving—on a horizontal plane again.
“A warm welcome back to those of you who made it and a friendly word of warning; something you won’t find in any guidebook.” Cassie had never been so glad to hear that dreaded narrator’s voice, though she couldn’t find it in her to actually register the words, only being a ringing in her ears. “The next time you check into a deserted hotel on the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know just what kind of vacancy you’re filling. Or you may find yourself a permanent resident of… The Twilight Zone”
They came to a stop, a complete, final stop. People around them were laughing and chattering as they unclicked their seatbelts.
Unclicked their seatbelts…? Wait, that meant they were leaving. That meant she could leave. With a strangled gasp, she rapidly jabbed her fingers into the release button and snatched her bag and hat from the compartment underneath the seat, stumbling to the door and out towards the exit without even waiting to see if Gregory was following behind her.
“So… what didja think?” She heard Gregory’s voice from right behind her as she followed the crowd into the gift shop, and he clapped a hand on her shoulder. “Wasn’t that so fun? I heard that the pattern of drops is randomised, so you get a different experience every time! I wonder how many possible combinations there are…”
…
“…Cass?” His voice was quieter now. Anxious.
Her face crumpled, shoulders shaking, unable to keep it together any longer.
She broke down.
Gregory gave a gasp of surprise as she turned and pressed her face into his shoulder and fisted his Grogu shirt in her hands. She’d tried so hard to keep it in so she wouldn’t ruin Gregory’s fun, but she just… couldn’t. Stunted, hiccuping, sobs wracked her body.
“Wha…?! Cassie? H-Hey…” She felt a pair of arms wrap around her back. “…You okay?”
She shook her face on his shoulder, smearing tears into the fabric. “I-I’m sor-r-ry…” she hiccuped. “I didn’t— I didn’t wa-a-nt…”
He gently guided her down to the floor with him, kneeling next to the wall out of the walkway. “Nuh-uh.” He shook his head, hugging her tighter. “Remember what I said? We don’t apologise for crying. It’s alright, I promise.”
So she just nodded, knowing that trying to argue with him would be pointless. Not just because she was crying too hard to be coherent, but also because it would make her a hypocrite, as she had been Gregory’s shoulder to cry on many times in the past, just like he had been for her. They had long ago made an agreement to never apologise for one’s emotions.
So she let him hug her as she got all her tears out. She heard a Cast Member approach them, asking if she was alright. But Gregory waved them off, assuring that he had it all under control. Which she was glad of, she didn’t want to cause a scene more than she already was, or—god forbid—have somebody call her dad.
Honestly, she didn’t even know why she was crying in the first place. The ride was over, she was fine; she was being ridiculous!
Stupid.
A baby.
Cassie wished she could stay there forever, there in the security of Gregory’s shirt with his arms hugging her, and not have to explain herself. But it was impossible to stay upset for long with her best friend around, and so when she’d calmed down some, Gregory gently released her, looking into her puffy eyes.
“Hey, Cass… talk to me. What happened?” He asked softly. For all his energy and chaotic tendencies, he knew how to be gentle when the situation called for it. “I know you’re afraid of heights, but you’ve been so brave on all the other rides. So what happened?”
She didn’t reply, only choosing to avert her gaze out of shame.
Unfortunately for her, Gregory chose to not let the matter drop so easily. “…This wasn’t just a fear of heights, was it?” He deduced, reaching out to grab her hands.
Cassie sighed, fidgeting with his hands in hers as she thought about how to begin. Damn him for being so perceptive… “Did I ever tell you the story of why I’m afraid of heights?”
That was a bluff, she knew dang well she had never told him. And she had wanted it to stay that way.
“No?” Gregory said, furrowing his brows. “I guess I just assumed it was a fear you always had. I mean, not every phobia has to have trauma behind it or whatever.”
“Yeah,” Cassie acknowledged with a nod of her head. “But this one does.”
He was silent, but gave her hand a gentle squeeze of encouragement.
“Remember that story I told you, of what happened to my dad when I was seven?”
He nodded. “Yeah? Of the…” he faltered, realisation and horror dawning on his face. He slapped his forehead. “…the elevator. Shoot, Cassie, I didn’t think—! But you said—”
“That it wasn’t very bad? Well, I lied,” she admitted with an exhale. “Greg, that— that terrified me. I didn’t know what had happened. All I heard was a crash, and people yelling, a-and Roxy acting odd, and—” she swallowed thickly. “I thought he could have been really hurt. Or dead.”
She could practically see the gears turning in that head of his, thinking back to all those times she’d come up with some excuse to avoid using an elevator. Because the line was “too long,” because she wanted to race him by seeing if she could run up the stairs quicker than he could get there in the elevator, because the “Faz-Facts” they’d play were getting repetitive and annoying… the list went on.
“Oh Cassie…” Gregory said sadly, “why didn’t you tell me?” There was a look of hurt on his face.
He had every right to be hurt; they’d promised to tell eachother everything.
“Because it’s stupid!” She burst, another hot tear squeezing out of her eye. “What kind of twelve-year-old is afraid of elevators? I know elevators are safe! And my dad ended up fine! I wasn’t gonna whine about this when you actually have dead parents—” she slapped a hand over her mouth. That part slipped out without thinking.
To her surprise, Gregory only replied by giving her another hug. “Shut up. Stop it. You’re not being fair.”
“I know,” Cassie said miserably. “I’m sorry, that was a horrible thing to say—”
“No,” he interrupted her. “You’re not being fair to yourself.” Sensing Cassie’s confusion, he continued. “What happened to my parents doesn’t change what you’re allowed to feel. I know if something like that happened to Nessa, I’d be terrified of elevators too. Besides, you know how scared of the dark I used to be. Does that make me stupid?”
“No way,” she replied instantly, shaking her head.
It was true, Gregory used to be petrified of the dark, a fear not at all helped by Moon. She remembered a time when they were both nine, not long after they’d met. They were hanging out in the daycare, and everything was fine. That was, until nap time came. When the lights turned off, Gregory froze up. And when Moon slinked up to him, calling him a naughty boy for not lying down like the rest of the kids…
Gregory lost it, running into the play structures and screaming and sobbing like Moon was trying to murder him. This only made Moon more agitated because he wasn’t listening, and began to chase him through the tunnels. Which, of course, only frightened Gregory more.
It was a mess, and it was only because Cassie managed to convince Moon to let her make a little blanket fort with nightlights for them in one of the play tunnels, away from the rest of the sleeping children as to not disturb them and out of eyesight from Moon, that she was able to calm Gregory down.
As he’d gotten older, he’d learned better to manage his fear, but that didn’t mean it’s gone away completely. At least now he only jumped slightly when Moon approaches him, instead of screaming his head off. But in any case, Cassie had never blamed or judged him for it. Being scared of the dark—and of Moon—was an entirely reasonable fear, and it’s not like he had any control over it.
“But that’s…” she struggled to justify herself. “…different?” She knew the moment she said it that it didn’t make any sense, and Gregory knew it too.
“How so?”
She didn’t respond, accepting defeat when it came to this argument with a sigh.
“…I’m really sorry, Gregory,” she said finally, thunking her head against his shoulder as they sat with their backs to the hard stone wall, watching as people trickled out of the attraction. “I didn’t mean to cause such a fuss, and spoil your day.”
“Huh?” He turned to look at her in surprise. “No way. If anybody should apologise, it’s me, for dragging you onto that ride when you were obviously scared.”
“What? But how were you supposed to know, when I insisted I was fine? It’s obviously my fault,” Cassie countered.
“Because I’m your best friend, and I’m supposed to know these things!”
“That’s dumb,” she replied affectionately.
“Nuh uh”
“Yuh uh”
“Fine, then we’re both at fault, happy?”
“If you say so,” she finally conceded, still not entirely convinced.
“Still, I feel really really bad,” Gregory insisted with a frown as he helped her up off the ground. “Is there something I could do to make it up to you? I’d do anything!”
That caught Cassie’s attention. She looked over at him as a small smile tugged at her lips. “Anything?” she repeated slowly, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. Even if she didn’t feel like he was in the wrong, she simply couldn’t refuse such an offer, practically handed to her on a golden platter.
“Yes, anything—” he paused upon noticing her expression, and swallowed nervously. “…I’m gonna regret this, aren’t I?”
The grin on her face only grew.
“I hate you,” Gregory grumbled, glaring, as he walked over to Cassie.
“No you don’t!” She replied cheerfully. “Besides, you look adorable!”
“I am going to kill you. Murder. Death,” he deadpanned. “They’d never find your body.”
“Hey, you said you’d do ‘anything’! No take-backsies.”
“Well— I dunno, I thought you’d force me to buy you an ice cream bar or something. Not this! ”
The “this” in question was the current state of his face. Taking advantage of his oh-so-generous offer, Cassie had insisted they both get their faces painted at a nearby stand. This was something Gregory perhaps would’ve done gladly anyway, if not for an additional stipulation she added into the bargain: that she got to choose what design he got.
Cassie opted for a purple one with crisp black swirls and music notes curling around her eyes and cheeks for herself. As for Gregory…
She thought that a pink princess tiara painted on his forehead complete with sparkles, eyeliner, and blush, was too priceless to pass up.
“Hey Greg, smile for the camera!” she said, throwing an arm around his shoulders and whipping out her phone to take a selfie before he could protest. Predictably, he was not smiling, the camera capturing a surprised and indignant expression on his slightly-blurry face next to her own grinning one. She then swiped to the direct texting chats she had with the Glamrocks (yet another benefit of having a dad as a higher-up at the Pizzaplex!) and began quickly typing. “I’m so sending this to Freddy.”
“Wha—! CASSIE, DON’T YOU DARE—!” he screeched, lunging for her phone.
But Cassie anticipated this, swiftly ducking away from him and holding her phone up over her head and out of his reach. Her greater height was something she often tended to hold over him (pun intended). “Annnnnd, sent!” She sang with a self-satisfied grin.
She was pretty sure this was the most pissed she’d ever seen him—towards her, at least. He looked like he wanted to make good on his promise to murder her for real.
Luckily, she was saved from a potential homicide attempt by the beeping of Gregory’s watch, and she watched as her best friend’s face turned from furious to bright-red in embarrassment.
“Aww, what’d he say?” she cooed, trying to keep her laughter in check.
“...He said that I looked very pretty,” he mumbled, barely audible, hiding his face in his hands.
Cassie couldn’t hold it in any longer, and she burst out snickering, clapping a hand on his shoulder to steady herself.
“It’s not funny!” he grumbled. “He probably thinks I’m so lame!”
She snorted. “Are you kidding? I don’t think that’s even physically possible. Knowing him, he probably thinks you’re being very brave for ‘challenging gender stereotypes’ or something.”
“Oh my god, that is absolutely something he would say," he huffed amusedly, lowering his hands.
Cassie gasped. “Is that a smile I see on your face, mister?” She asked, poking him in the cheek.
“No,” he replied, trying to quell the smile that was obviously on his face.
“So you admit it! It is funny!”
They stared each other down… and promptly burst into giggles.
Really, she had only been giving him such a hard time because she knew he wasn’t actually mad at her, and she was happy to be proven right. Gregory knew how to take a joke, even when it came to his own reputation in front of his idol/unofficial father figure.
“I suppose I do look pretty fabulous, don’t I?” Gregory said finally once they’d stopped laughing, posing dramatically.
“Heck yeah you do,” Cassie giggled in agreement. “Pink is definitely your colour.”
He stuck his tongue out at her playfully, then said, “Y’know, Nessa’s probably wondering why we were gone so long. Think we can convince her to get her face painted too?”
She grinned at him. “I like the way you think.”
Before she could react, he took off running. “Race you back to her bench!”
“Hey! No fair!” she called as she scrambled to sprint after him, laughing.
In the end, the three of them did indeed end up leaving the park that day with painted faces.
And despite everything, Cassie thought it turned out to be a pretty great day after all.