12:08 AM - Freddy FazBear's Pizza - Security Office
"...at Freddy FazBear's Pizza, the magical place where..."
'Left. Up. Around. Get the cherry'
"..hold a special place in the hearts of children..."
''Down. Power Pellet. Up'
"...tend to wander a bit..."
'Haha! Run you little bitches!'
"...and remember to close the doors only if absolutely necessary..."
"Ahhh SHIT!"
Restraining himself from throwing his phone at the wall, Mike Schmidt sighed in frustration, sitting his phone down on the desk as the 'Game Over' screen on his Pac-Man app flashed.
"Serves me right for trying to listen to that dumbass recording while playing Pac." he said out-loud as he propped his feet up on the desk to try again.
Tonight was the first shift of his new job as a security guard in the employ of Freddy FazBear's Pizza. To children and their parents, it was a place that offered an unlimited pizza buffet, arcade games, tickets that could be exchanged for prizes, and, most of all, an animatronic "band" staring Freddy and his sidekicks Chica Chicken, and Bonnie Bunny.
To Mike though, the place looked like a half-ass rip off of Showbiz.
When the voicemail finally ended, the guard glanced at the clock on his phone in slight irritation.
"Twenty after twelve? Jesus why does that guy have to drag things out? He could have just left a note." he complained to no one in particular. Getting his flashlight, he yawned loudly as he left the office and made his way to the front door. Although it was not stated in the voicemail, one of the managers had specifically asked him to check on the main entrance and back door to ensure the closing staff had locked it securely.
He didn't know why, and frankly he didn't care why. If the hardest part of his job was walking a few hundred feet to be sure a locked door was still locked, he wasn't going to complain.
Finding the back door secure, he crossed the Dining Hall and walked past the Show Stage on the way to the front entrance. Finding it properly locked, he pulled his phone out to start up a new attempt at beating his high score.
He was half-way through the Dining Hall when something to his right caught his attention.
Or rather, a lack of something.
"Ok theres the chicken and the bear but wasn't there...?" he said out-loud. Moments later, it occurred to him that the purple bunny...thing... was gone.
"What the..?" he said in confusion. He crossed the room and climbed on stage, thinking for a moment maybe his manager was pulling a prank on him, or maybe even that the earlier shift didn't return it to the stage before going home.
Looking around with his flashlight, he soon spotted the animatronic (Bunny, or was it Bobbie or Bonnie? He didn't really know or care truth be told) over near the corner of the room. Satisfied, he turned to leave and had just hit start when a loud whirring noise from behind startled him so badly he dropped his phone and nearly fell off the stage.
The chicken animatronic was looking right at him. "What the...?!" he said out-loud before remembering his voicemails earlier pre-recorded words. "Oh yeah...I forgot these things roam around at night..." he said with a nervous chuckle. Composing himself, he picked his dropped phone up and made his way back to the office. With his back to them, he was completely oblivious that the animatronics silently watched him until he was out of sight.
Back in the office, the night guard propped his feet back up on the desk and resumed his ghost-eating quest. His sole reason for taking such a boring job was because, as a college student, any employer that could or would work with his hectic class schedule was worth checking out.
Never being much of an early bird, all his classes were either in the afternoon or at night. A midnight to six am job fit perfectly with him and though it was mundane and didn't pay much, it was still extra money that required almost no effort on his part.
Except for watching the cameras.
Remembering his managers insistence, he slid the security systems laptop over to him and opened it up to have a look.
"Pretty sweet security system considering how poor this place looks." he mused to himself. Along with the importance of watching the cameras, his manager had stressed that budget cuts were forcing them to scale back on utility bills. During the day this apparently didn't apply but once they reached closing time, the power usage was tightly regulated to save money.
Mike boredly took his time flipping through the video feeds until his phone beeped, signaling an incoming text message. It was his roommate Lucas, jokingly asking him to bring back pizza when he came home. Mike laughed and was typing a reply when the sound of dishes and cookware falling over caught his attention.
"The fuck...?" he said out-loud. Reaching for the monitor, he looked for the feed that his camera directory told him was assigned to the kitchen.
"Great..." he muttered, irritated to find that the kitchen feed was audio only. After a few seconds of debating, he shrugged and decided he'd simply tell his manager whatever it was that fell must have fallen after he'd left that morning. Smiling at his own cleaverness, he had just started Round 3 on his phones Pac Man game when an even bigger crash was heard.
Sighing in frustration, he closed the laptop and got up, resigned to the fact that this time he HAD to check it out. Mike didn't care if the animatronics trashed the place since that could easily be explained. The opening manager coming in and finding an animatronic broken because it wasn't watched, however, wouldn't be near as easy.
He clicked the flashlight on and was surprised when all he got was a dim, barely functioning light. "Oh come on, how can the batteries be dead when I just used this?" he said out-loud, hitting it against the palm of his hand a couple of times. When that failed to help, he gave up and just set it back down on the desk.
Next he tried using his phone as a makeshift flashlight but to his irritation found that it was barely better than the mostly-dead flashlight. Looking over at the wall, he suddenly remembered the hall lights his manager had mentioned. 'The kitchens pretty close to the hall, so maybe it'll be bright enough to at least see if one of them fell over or not.' he concluded mentally.
Using what little light his phone gave off, he searched until he found the small button labeled LIGHT. He clicked it on and got a sudden, much closer view of the stores large chicken animatronic Chica than he'd have liked.
"OH SHIT!" he yelled, backing up in a panic. He tripped on his own feet and hit the floor, his phone flying out of his hands upon impact. Looking up in surprised fright, he stared at the lifeless creature standing a few feet outside the offices right-side door. If he hadn't known better, Mike would have sworn the chicken was looking at him directly.
Remembering the little bit of the voicemail he actually payed attention to, Mike got to his feet and slowly approached the doorway. He felt with his hand until he felt the switch for the hall light, then the one for the door a little below it. As if somehow sensing his intent, Chica jerked her head to the left, shifting her gaze from looking through the office window to staring at Mike directly.
He slammed his hand down and the right-side door slid securely into place. He leaned against it, taking deep breaths to get his racing pulse under control. Turning back to look at the chicken, he watched with a cold chill crawling up his spine as the bird slowly turned her head to follow his movements.
He clicked the hall light off and sighed, berating himself for being so afraid of something so childish. Somewhere in the back of his mind, it dawned on him that if the chicken was moving around, the rabbit probably was too. He crossed the dimly lit office to the hall light on the other side of the room, feeling until he felt the same small panel with the controls for the hall light and door.
He hesitated, part of him convinced that when he hit the light switch he was going to find the purple bunny had moved and was now right in his face. Gathering his nerve, he pressed the switch and found, to his relief, that the hallway was empty. Sticking his head out the door, he looked all around but there was not an animatronic in sight.
Making his way back to the desk, he flipped the laptop open and began flipping through cameras until he found the rabbit. He was right where he'd seen it earlier, still in the Dining Hall. Looking over to his right, he noticed Chica was no longer standing at the window. A quick look at the right-side hall cameras failed to help find her but that hardly bothered him. If she wasn't in the hall nor the cameras blind spot, he could care less where she'd wandered off to.
A sudden, loud beeping sound from the laptop began going off along with the appearance of an error pop-up which read: "UTILITY USAGE EXCEEDS MANDATORY MINIMUM!" with a prompt telling him to deactivate the doors and hall lights.
"Oh my God are you serious? It costs extra power to turn on a light or close a door? No wonder this place looks so run down." he said to himself. Getting back on his feet, he picked his dropped cell phone up off the floor, a little surprised to see it was after 5 am already. Crossing to the right side of the room, he shut off the hall light and opened the door. Seconds later the beeping ceased and the error box disappeared.
Reclaiming his seat, he unpaused his game and carried on as if nothing happened. After another couple of minutes though he decided that, if for no other reason than preventing another freak out like the one he'd just had, it'd be in his best interest to open the laptop and keep an eye on his new "friends".
"Ok...the bears still on stage. And the chicken and bunny are.." he mused out-loud, clicking through the feeds until he found them. Fortunately, both of them were back in the Dining Hall and that made watching them a hell of a lot easier.
Mike left the laptop up and the channel untouched. Confident that the rest of his night was going to be a cakewalk, he propped his feet back up and unpaused his game. About every 30 to 45 seconds or so he'd glance at the monitor to be sure both animatronics were still visible.
Then it was once a minute.
Then every minute or two.
Then every three minutes or so.
Then once every five minutes.
He paused his game to reach for the bottle of soda he brought with him and a strange scraping noise caught his attention. It was faint at first, barely audible over the noise of the small desk fan. He reached over and shut the fan off, straining his ears to listen carefully.
To Mikes confusion, it sounded like someone was dragging something heavy down the hallway. A couple of seconds later he heard it again and this time he got clear confirmation that it wasn't just his imagination. Something did indeed sound like it was being drug down the hall.
And it was without a doubt coming his way.
He looked at the monitor in confusion. The feed was still on the Dining Hall and Bonnie and Chica both were clearly visible through the camera, ruling them out as the source of the noise he was hearing.
Unless...
He switched to the Show Stage and found the bear right where he'd been earlier. He switched back to the Dining Hall and his blood froze instantly.
"The cameras not real-time, theres a delay!" he realized in horror.
Glancing nervously around the office, he started flipping through the camera feeds. Starting with the ones nearest to his office, the night guard quickly but carefully checked every feed available but came up with nothing. The fact that the scraping noise was growing louder certainly did nothing positive for his increasing anxiety.
"Not there...not there...not there...ok they have to be here somewhere! Its not like they could just up and-" he started saying outloud before the scraping noise suddenly increased in volume.
And then the noise disappeared entirely.
A million questions started running through Mikes head; Should I stay behind the desk? Is there something in here that I could use as a weapon? Should I try and call someone for help? Could I make it out the back exit if I run quick enough?
Shaking his head to clear the fog of fear from clouding his mind, Mike stood up and very cautiously made his way to the left side door. He couldn't see a thing but he could feel someone or something there. For a long moment he just stared, squinting his eyes and trying to see if he could make out anything in the darkened hallway. He heard a faint metallic clink and reached for the door controls.
At that moment, a hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. He yelled in fright and jerked away wide-eyed as the figure stepped inside the office.
"I've been knocking for the last five minutes! Why the hell didn't you open the door? Too busy screwing off or something?"
It wasn't the rabbit or the chicken. It wasn't even an animatronic. It was a petite, angry looking blonde girl in a managers uniform.
"Who are you?" Mike asked, having forgotten all about the terror he felt just seconds ago.
"I'm Shelli the opening manager. I asked you a question and I'd like an answer: Did you fall asleep or something or did you decide to just be lazy and ignore me?" she repeated.
"No, I just didn't hear you, thats all." he explained.
"Its a hollow metal door and I've been beating on it constantly, how did you NOT hear it?" she retorted.
"Look...I didn't ignore you on purpose, ok? I heard a weird noise coming from down the hall and got a little..." he said but trailed off, thinking of the right word to use.
"Chicken-shit?" she offered rudely.
"I was going to say concerned." he answered, "I was about to go check on it right before you came in."
Sighing in irritation, she dropped her purse on the desk and turned to the watchman, "Well come on, lets go check it. God forbid you see a mouse or something and end up pissing yourself."
He didnt' argue with her (despite the fact that every horror movie he'd ever seen in his entire life told him whoever goes to check out a mysterious noise dies horrifically), and just followed along. Flipping the breakers in the back of the restaurant, Shelli turned the rest of the stores lights on before going into the Dining Hall.
Mike followed her in and a look of confusion crossed his face. Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy were back in their usual places. Giving him an impatient look, the obviously irritated manager proceeded to chew him out about his lack of attention.
"Of COURSE they wander up and down the halls! Why do you think you have hall lights and cameras? If you notice them about to come into the office just hit the damn door control and they'll go away! I don't know how old you are but its old enough to not be scared of the dark don't you think?" she ranted.
"You know...I realize you're a manager here and I'm just the night guard, but you're behaving like a total bitch to a new employee thats only known you for three minutes." he told her simply.
She just glared at him, unsure whether she should be pissed about his comment or not. After a moment to think it over, she decided to ease up a little and told him in a somewhat calmer tone that because of the animatronics free roaming mode, he should expect the occasional strange noise or encounter.
"If they're on free roaming mode why are they back on stage?" Mike asked. Making a "follow me" gesture, Shelli climbed onto the Show Stage and walked around to Bonnies backside. Unzipping his back, she pointed out a small electrical timer of some kind that Mike could clearly see read 0600.
"They're programmed to return to the stage at six every morning because we open in a couple of hours. Leaving them off until we open isn't a problem but if we just turned them off at closing time their servos would lock-up and its expensive as hell to replace them." she lectured.
Seeing his obvious discomfort, Shellis attitude softened a little bit. "Look.." she said as she unzipped the seam around its neck. She carefully pulled the costumes head off to expose the endoskeleton underneath.
"I know its probably a little creepy here at three in the morning with these guys walking around but seriously, take a look. Its not alive, and its not possessed or anything silly like that. Its an animatronic that plays music, thats all." she told him.
"You're right... sorry." he said while holding his hand out, "I'm Mike."
She shook it with a slight smile, "Shelli...obviously." she replied, "Come on, I'll let you out."
She zipped Bonnie's rear zipper back up and was about to reattach his head when the new employee suddenly asked about a small attachment located a little below what could be considered the point where the neck and head meet. It was small, roughly the size of a U.S. quarter, with a green and red LED light that at the moment was green.
"Huh... you know, I don't think I've ever noticed that before, but its glowing green so I guess it means everything's working like it should." She re-attached the head and asked if he was ready to go.
He nodded, coming back to the office with her to clock out. "Oh I almost forgot, one of them knocked something over earlier in the kitchen."
She turned without a word and Mike followed her to the kitchen. Looking around for a moment, she turned to him with a slightly confused expression, "Where?"
"Thats...I could have sworn I heard something crash in here." Mike said confused.
"Theres usually noise going on here at all hours, so sometimes your mind may play tricks on you. No big deal." she answered dismissively. While he collected his things, the petite manager waited for him beside the back door with an expression of obvious discomfort.
"Listen...you're right, I was being bitchy for nothing." she offered as a sort of half-apology, thankful that he just accepted and didn't complain or drag out the issue.
"Don't worry about it, we all have bad days at times. By the way, I'm just curious but if you're a manager and have copies of the store keys, why did you need me to open the door?" he asked.
"Well...to tell you the truth...its because they're on a separate key ring and I really didn't want to dig through all the crap in my purse to find them." she admitted sheepishly.
"Now who's being lazy?" he teased.
A loud knocking on the back door signaled the arrival of one of the morning shift employees. Leaving the store, Mike politely said good morning to the employee and good night to Shelli. Driving out of the parking lot, he suddenly felt very foolish about his overreactions earlier to such a non-issue.
"Shes kinda cute. Little bitchy, but still cute. God shes got to think I'm the biggest wuss to ever have this job." he said outloud to himself on the drive home. The sun had risen over the horizon by the time he arrived at his apartment, and it would set long before he left again.
