a haunting

Snow's response was somehow unnerving and comforting at the same time. Hal could never understand how on earth he could feel two opposing emotions at once but he knew that that was definitely the answer he was looking for. Though he didn't expect that he would be answered so forwardly. Normally that would be a huge secret but, well, looks like it wasn't? Unless... the secret was the evening part of things.

Hal forced a smile as he nodded to Snow before she turned to get his drinks. Could it? No. She seemed really... nice. She? He? Okay, Hal could never really tell what gender ghosts were and a mechanical voice box didn't make that any easier. While he pondered on his discovery, he'd already started eating. Still, Snow was too nice to be the killer ghost that was in the story, he thought. What if there was someone else that she herself wasn't aware of? He almost choked on his food for that.

Snow came right in time to bring his drink and all he could muster up was a smile and a muttered "thanks" before she left him for the kids. Look, she was playing with the kids, how is that a bloodthirsty monster? Thinking about it only made him even more curious.

He just had to know.

Hal finished most of the pizza and his drink when he decided he should really ask from her directly. But now he was debating whether to call her or approach her himself. There was a lot of kids playing with her and he wasn't sure if it was a good idea to just waltz up to her and suddenly ask her for ghost stories. Well, then the most logical thing was the first option then. But... Ah, fuck it.

Hal abruptly got up from his seat and walked to Snow, tugging on her fur. "Um, excuse me...?"

Hal stood there in awe, just staring at the other animatronics that started up on cue. That wasn't coincidence. Hal was smart enough to know that this wasn't chance. This was Snow's doing; he just knew it. It didn't need to take a group of ghosts to do this sort of feat. All you needed was a really strong ghost and...

Hal swallowed the lump he had in his throat. This made things complicated that now Hal was even more curious about the ghost. Snow's robotic voice snapped him out of his trance. "A-anything, everything; I want to ask about the ghost, okay?" he managed to utter. in a hushed voice

Well, that was what he managed to say; he already knew Snow was the haunted robot. That had already been established. "I-I mean-- well, yeah that's pretty much the gist of it and all but-- I just really want to know why there's a ghost in a family pizzeria, and why an animatronic and," he paused to look around if anyone could hear before leading to Snow, "the rumors about late night ghost activity."

Every instance Snow was acting really nice to Hal made him really confused about the whole ordeal of the haunted animatronic. People are ridiculous. This snow leopard was way too nice right now to be a killer. He might as well assume there was another one if ever the rumors were true so for now, he might just hang out with this one before he scared himself later when he tries to sneak in.

At least, that was the plan until Snow's warning came. "Just don't come here at night," came her mechanical voice. Though glitch as it was, he could feel her seriousness in those words it send a chill down Hal's spine. But it was all the more reason for him to grow even more curious about the danger.

"W-why?" he stammered out, "I-is it that bad?" He was curious yes, but he was also very terrified at how even Snow was making it out to be. "If it's really as bad as I heard then... I don't think I'll mind hearing the long story instead."

Hal noticed Snow's expression drop at him asking about the evening occurrences at the pizzeria and realized maybe it wasn't such a good topic to have. Yeah, he was so curious but what if Snow was just as equally terrified of that ghost all the same? Hal thought of the idea of just telling her to forget about him having ever asked.

But the moment she started talking again, Hal decided he could probably set that aside for now. He just stood there in front of her as she began her story.

“Well, se-e-everal years ago…something happened in a-a-a pizzeria, the first o-o-one with these animatronics, there were-e-e only two at that time. The llama and…well, the sno-o-ow leopard. I-I-It was a normal night and the-e-e night guard was just chilling-ing, doing her job…”

Hal breathed in. The snow leopard. He'd take a guess that it was probably this exact one standing in front of him then. But then that would mean that the killer ghost could have been... nah. Save the theories for later. Hal's gaze flickered to his side, "We should probably go to a table so people we're not at the center of the crowd," he muttered tugging at her fur as he led her back to the table. Hal almost hesitated to ask again, "So... what happened then?"

@"Silver"

Hal had his full attention on Snow by now a she continued to tell her story, his mind visualizing as much as he could. But with this sort of visual imagery, he could pretty much picture everything, save for Snow's real face. Hal was completely engrossed by the sequence of events, somehow feeling the anxiety and chill that could have only been felt by Snow during that night.

And then Snow's voice trailed off. Hal wanted to know what happened from her, but by how things were now, he'd have guessed that could have been her final moments before she became what she was now. He wanted to ask her so she'd just tell him but something at the back of his mind told him "no, just keep things as they are".

"H-how bad was it?" were the words that tumbled out of his mouth. How bad was what? Hal wanted to know how brutal was the murder. If he knew enough about ghosts, he'd be able to accept that the malevolent spirit that haunted the pizzeria was indeed the one in front of him. If she had been killed just as brutally, then he'd understand why the ghost would be so vengeful.

"Y-you don't have to tell me in full detail if you can't. That--" Hal tried to swallow the lump that had made its way into his throat, "If you just tell me that it was bad, I... I think... I think that could be enough."