Happy Birthday, Amanda!

Happy Birthday, Amanda!

Riley puts the tape into the VCR and it shows Amanda kicking her feet in her bed in excitement. She quickly notices Riley watching and smiles.

“Hi, friend! I’m Amanda!” She says, hopping off her bed.

“Do you know what day it is?”

A moment of silence passes.

“That’s right, it’s my birthday! This is one of my favorite days of the year!”

Riley smile softly at Amanda’s excitement. It’s been a while since they’ve seen her this happy- last time wasn’t so pleasant for Wooly…

“Eeeeee, I’m so excited! C’mon, let’s head downstairs!”

The tape then shows Amanda excitedly running down the stairs, but then stops in her tracks in confusion.

“No decorations? That’s weird…”

She walks into the living room and starts examining it, struggling to find a spec of anything birthday-themed.

Riley looks behind them and sees another children’s toy on the table- it features a giant pig with big eyes laying on a disk with 3 holders in the front, and beside it are several plastic foods.

They walk over to it and tap on its nose.

“Hi, there! I’m Hungry Hog! Put some food on my tray to feed me!”

Riley observes the toy for about a minute. ‘Looks like this is the next puzzle…’ they ponder.

They walk back over to the TV and sit back down in their chair.

Amanda is now looking through the kitchen, trying to find a cake. Being unsuccessful, she stands in front of the table looking defeated.

“No decorations, no cake, no presents… what am I supposed to do now?” She says.

The screen momentarily fills with static before Amanda perks her head up with an idea in mind.

“I know! I’ll get birthday stuff myself, and YOU can help me!” She exclaims, pointing to the screen.

“Sure.” Riley responds. ‘Anything to keep that freaky demon thing away from me…’

The screen then switches to show Amanda in the same neighborhood as shown in other tapes, with a store, a bakery and a gift shop.

“Alright, the first thing we need to get is decorations. Where can I get those?”

Riley, choosing not to get on Amanda’s nerves, chooses the store.

“Great job! Let’s get those decorations!”

The video then shows Amanda in one of the isles in the store.

“Which is of these can we use as decorations?” Amanda asks, pointing to a shelf with a rolled-up birthday banner, a box of crayons and a dusty rag doll.

Riley picks the banner.

“Awesome, these are perfect!”

The video goes back to the neighborhood, now with the store being closed.

“The next thing we’ll need is a cake, where can I get that?” Amanda asks.

Riley chooses the bakery.

“Good job, now let’s get that cake!”

The screen then shows the interior of the bakery, with a figure similar to he butcher with a chef hat and a pink apron. The figure watches Amanda as she looks at various cakes on the counter- one being strawberry- flavored, one being chocolate- flavored and one being blueberry-flavored.

Riley notices the cakes and quickly pauses the tape, rushing back to the pig toy. Memorizing the cake flavors, they pick up the plastic strawberry, blueberry and chocolate and put all three on each of the placeholders.

Fortunately, placing the toys on the placeholders causes the pig’s mouth to open, revealing a new tape.

“That was easy.” Riley mutters under their breath.

They walk back towards the TV and unpause it.

“This time, I’ll let you choose. Which cake should I get?”

Riley is pleasantly surprised at this gesture, but finds it heartwarming. They pick the strawberry cake.

“That looks so tasty! Now, we only have one more place to go!”

The video goes back to Amanda out in the neighborhood, now with the gift shop being the only store that’s open.

“Now, all we need is a gift. Where can I get that?”

Riley picks the gift shop.

“Good job! Now, it’s time to get that gift!”

Amanda walks into the gift shop and into an isle full of all sorts of gifts.

“I’ve been looking forward to this! Which gift should I get?”

She points to the shelf next to her with a wind-up duck toy, a book with a skull on it and a music box designed like a carousel.

Riley ponders for a moment.

‘This is a tricky one…’ they thought. ‘Does this one have a single answer?’

They hesitantly pick the duck toy.

“Nope, not that one, hehe!” Amanda giggles.

‘Damn it.’

They pick the book.

“Nah, I already have that. It’s a fun read!”

They finally pick the music box.

“Yes, this is exactly what I wanted! This’ll make a perfect gift!” Amanda exclaims.

She takes the music box from the shelf and smiles ear to ear.

“I’ve always wanted something like that is! You wanna know why?”

She winds up the music box from the bottom and it starts playing a lullaby. Amanda’s smile weakens as she listens to the somber music.

“I’ve had someone I loved give me this once and it played the same tune. He’d always wind it up when I was scared to go to bed… and it always put me to sleep.”

There is a moment of silence.

“I wish I could go back to that… life was happier with him by my side…”

Amanda stares at the music box as the music slows down before she quickly snaps out of it and looks back at the camera with a smile as if nothing happened.

“Well, now that we have everything we need, let’s go back home and set everything up.”

The screen switches back to the kitchen being fully decorated with the banner hanging from the sides of the room. On the table in the middle of the kitchen is the same cake Riley picked with one too many lit-up candles that are almost toppling over. Amanda is standing behind the table and looks… sad. She looks around the room and furrows her brows in disappointment.

“Guess I’ll sing by myself…” Amanda says.

She clears her throat and goes back to putting on her infamous fake smile.

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear… A-Amanda… happy birthday to… to…”

Amanda trails off, struggling to finish the song.

“To…”

…

“I can’t do this.”

Amanda pushes the cake off of the table as it splatters all over the floor, the candle’s being put out from the cold frosting covering it. She climbs onto the counter and rips off the banner, throwing it to the floor. She walks over to the music box and picks it up. She looks at it for a mere moment before she throws it to the floor, mashing up.

She stomps back to the table and places her head on it, covering her head with her hands.

“This isn’t fair… this isn’t fair at all!” She mumbles, her voice breaking. “I can never get a happy birthday anymore… i-is it even my birthday? Does it even matter anymore…?”

Sniffs and sobs can be heard from her, now fully crying.

“I can never be happy…”

Riley’s heart aches at the sight of this breakdown. ‘Poor girl… should I say something?’

They ponder for a moment of what to say to calm her down. After a while of thinking while hearing Amanda cry, they take a deep breath and turn to the TV.

“We can still celebrate.”

Amanda stops crying and looks up at Riley with reddened, teary eyes.

“Ah- I mean, I can sing you happy birthday instead.”

Amanda looks down at the table and puts her head back down in despair.

“What’s the point? I don’t care anymore…”

“Well, uh… i-if it’ll make you feel better, I’d be happy to.”

Amanda looks away for a moment before looking at them once again.

“Why are you being so nice to me? I’ve… only been bad to you…”

“…bad?”

“Yelling at you, making that thing go after you, putting you in… danger…”

Riley keeps their mouth shut. They HAVE been chased ever since they starting watching these tapes… Regardless, they take a moment before talking again.

“Look, I’m very sorry, for what happened to you, what Ham- AGH- I mean… they did to you. I know I’ll never understand what it feels like for you, but I’m willing to do something as small as this to make you happy.”

Amanda sniffs and her eyes fill with even more tears at the sound of something she never knew she needed to hear. She tries to rub the tears away, but to no avail. Unable to stop crying, she gives up.

“T-thank you…” she whimpers, her voice small.

Riley takes a sigh of relief. ‘Thank god…’ they thought.

“Well, you want me to sing for you?”

Amanda makes an attempt to smile at them, still full of tears.

“Y-yeah.”

They clear their throat, preparing themselves. “Okay, Riley, don’t fuck this up.” They mutter under their breath.

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear… Rebecca-“

Amanda’s head perks up at the sound of that name- her real name.

“-Happy birthday to you!”

Riley looks away in embarrassment. “Sorry if I sound bad, it’s been a long time since I’ve sang.”

They suddenly hear a giggle from the TV. Looking back, they see Amanda with her hand over her mouth, hiding a slightly wider smile.

‘Seems like it worked.’ They thought.

Amanda rubs her eyes, no longer having more tears flow. Her eyes are still very red, however.

“Haha, thanks. I really needed that.”

There is a moment of silence.

“You’re… really nice to me, after me being so bad to you…”

“Hey, it’s okay, I understand why. I just want to help you.”

Amanda looks at them, slightly surprised. She smiles back at them.

“Thank you, Riley… for being my friend.”

The tape finally ends and falls out of the VCR. Riley sighs and rubs their eyes. They didn’t even know they had tears in their eyes as well.

They set the tape aside on one of the shelves and stare at it for a while, now having a gloomier expression.

‘She deserves so much more…’

Authors Note: Yayyyy, new fanfic! And just in time for the 2nd anniversary of the first game! This one took a lot longer to make- I’ve been really busy and I’ve had some good ol’ writer’s block. Than god I finished this in time, though.

Anyway, feel free to criticize my work, I’m all open for suggestions and recommendations! Tell me if I wrote the characters in-character or not! Don’t worry, I won’t be offended.

That’s all I have to say, have a good day, evening, or night!