Hello and welcome to this story. If you have read my other work, The Desire for Family, then you are probably curious as to why I've made this one. Well, I have lately been caught in a writer's block for that story, and I just can't seem to get anything on paper yet. So, to help me break out of that while also writing something related to that plot, I give you The Desire for Work, the prequel to that story. For the past couple months now, I've planned to write a prequel, so I thought why not go ahead and write it so that I knock myself out of this block.

How I'm going to be writing this going to be different from my either stories. These chapters are going to be shorter than my typical chapter (approximately 2000 words vs 6000 words) so that they are much quicker to write. Also, with the way I'm going to be writing this, people don't have to read the first story to get into this. If you are brand new, you can just pick up with this chapter and move forward.

Chapter 1

~The Job Interview~

Jeremy Fitzgerald stood alone on the sidewalk as he gazed nervously at the building in front of him. The restaurant's childish vibe made the man uncomfortable, immensely as a matter of fact. There were tons of bright colors and cartoonish animals decorating the sides of the building, and it felt somewhat offsetting for the young man to be standing in front of a children's restaurant without being with any children of his own.

The young man was a mixed bag when it came to his appearance. Jeremy had taken the time beforehand to get a haircut for his blond hair, making it short and more professional, while also spending at least twenty minutes to shave away any facial hair. As for his clothes, they were about as professional looking as he could afford. He didn't have a whole lot of money to be spending with, so he had to compromise with the cheapest looking pair of professional clothes: a pair of tan khaki pants and a white long-sleeved button-down shirt.

Jeremy was shaking with anxiety, for this was his fourth job interview in the past three weeks. The last three jobs he had applied, each one varying in careers, were a lot more academically driven, which was something that he lacked. While he was lucky enough to get a high school diploma, Jeremy didn't have the necessary job experience that his interviewers were looking for, so he was forced to go out and apply for a much less extravagant job career: a night guard for a local pizzeria joint.

The man glanced down at his watch, and he saw it was five minutes before his interview was to begin. He took in a deep breath and waited a few seconds to collect his thoughts. Then, he opened the restaurant's door. As soon as the door was wide enough for him to walk through, Jeremy flinched at the sudden sound of screaming, yelling, and music. Lots and lots of music.

Jeremy walked inside, and he immediately saw well over a couple dozens of children standing in front of a large show stage, where five colorful looking animatronics stood. Two of them were bears, one of them was a bird, and the remaining two were rabbits. The animatronics, who were giving kids beaming smiles, were either carrying an instrument or a microphone as they sing. Jeremy saw a few more colorful figures move to the right of him, just outside of his peripheral vision. When he glanced on over, he saw one more animatronic, who was surrounded by another group of children. Unlike the animatronics on stage, this red one looked more like a canine of some sort, like dog or fox. The red animatronic also seemed to have a pirate aesthetic to it.

"Mr. Fitzgerald, I presume?" a voice stated right in front Jeremy, causing the young to shoot his face over towards an older looking man in his early fifties. The man had a brown bushy mustache just above his lip, and his eyes bore down into the younger generation with age and experience.

Jeremy paused for a moment, seemingly caught off-guard before clearing his throat, "Uh-Yes sir, I'm Jeremy Fitzgerald. I'm here for the interview."

"Hmph," the older man grumbled, "You're an hour late."

"Wait for what?" Jeremy asked in surprise as he glanced back down at his watch to look at the time. The watch readout, "2:55 PM", which was five minutes before his interview, so how was he late? Suddenly, Jeremy's heart dropped. He remembered what time of the year it was. He had forgotten about daylight savings time. "O-Oh gosh, I'm sorry sir! I forgot to adjust my watch, so I thought I was still on time!"

The mustached man blinked his eyes, unimpressed and disinterested. He grumbled something underneath his breath before waving a hand and saying, "Well it's too late now. You're late, and nothing is going to change that. My name is Franklin Smith. I'm the owner of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. If you would please follow me, Mr. Fitzgerald, so we can get started with your interview."

Jeremy felt increasingly nervous about the situation, and he quickly nodded, "Yes sir."

Frank wasted no time and started walking away, and Jeremy followed suit as the older man passed by several large party tables, which was filled to the brim with either kids or their parents. At that point, the animatronic band had just finished their song, and the whole crowd of kids in front of the stage got even rowdier than before. Jeremy glanced over towards the stage as he walked by the tables, eyeing over the animatronics again.

The four furthest from him was too busy waving at the crowd of children to notice his gaze, but the one closest to him, a light blue animatronic bunny, saw it. The bunny's bright green eyes stared back towards him somberly, as if something was upsetting it. Jeremy, upon realizing the animatronic's stare, hastily shifted his gaze back to Frank. The older man turned left into an open hallway, and Jeremy hastened his pace to catch up to the man. The blue animatronic watched in solemn silence as the man disappeared from its view.

The young man followed behind Frank as he was led down the hall. His footsteps echoed against the checkered tiles, and his eyes nervously glanced around at the white wallpaper, which was lightly decorated with purple triangles that were made to look like confetti. Once the pair made it halfway through the hall, the lively sound of cooking could be heard emitting from a room towards the very end of the hall.

In a few short moments, a yellow animatronic bird exited the kitchen doorways. This animatronic was a bit bigger than the other bird Jeremy saw a few seconds ago, and it was carrying a large pizza dish pan above its head. Franklin didn't bother glancing back when the bird passed by him, and he kept moving forward. Jeremy did the same as well, but he turned his head slightly around to study the animatronic a bit more.

When he turned his head though, he noticed the animatronic suddenly turned its head away from him, as if it was studying him. Jeremy watched hesitantly as the animatronic disappeared into the main dining hall, and he slowly turned back around to continue down the rest of the hallway.

The pair reached the end of the hall and turned left, where another hallway stood. This seemed to be the last hallway to Jeremy though, for it had an office at the very end of it. Frank led the young man by a couple more rooms, which looked to be private party rooms for guests. In one of the four rooms that the two passed, Jeremy noticed another animatronic, this time it was a white fox, which looked to be a lot similar to the red animatronic he saw before. It too had a pirate theme to it, just based on how it was wearing a pirate-like bandana around its neck. The vixen seemed to be pre-occupied with the group of kids that was surrounding it, so it didn't notice him when he and the older man walked into the room.

The two finally made it to the security office once they reached the end of the hall. The security room was rather small compared to the private party rooms that Jeremy had just passed by, and it mainly consisted of the large wooden desk and a few metal cabinets standing against the walls. Franklin went ahead and sat down in the office chair, and he motioned Jeremy to sit down in a smaller chair, which looked like it was pulled from one of the empty party rooms. Jeremy obliged though, and he sat himself down atop the cushioned seat.

"Alright Mr. Fitzgerald," Frank said with a heavy sigh as he opened up a vanilla file. He shuffled aside a couple of papers before lifting up one for Jeremy to see it, "I have here your resume and with it your family/employment history. However, I noticed that you left the family section blank."

There was a slight pause afterward, and Jeremy cleared his throat once he realized the man was waiting for a response. "Uh-yes sir, I did leave it blank."

"And why's that? Did you forget about it?"

"N-No sir," Jeremy shook his head, "I left it blank because I have no immediate family or guardians."

"None?" Frank said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, sir. I've been an orphan my whole life."

"I see." the older man said in an uncaring tone before looking back through Jeremy's papers. "I also see here that you have no prior experience in security, let alone a job, so let me ask you this." Frank lowered the papers and gave the young man a blank look. "What exactly made you want to apply for this job?"

This was a question Jeremy had prepared himself for dozens of times beforehand, so he immediately snapped to attention and said off memory, "I hope to gain essential work experience from this job, sir. While it is true that I have no prior experience in any career, I had participated in several school clubs before I graduated, one of which was the math and astronomy club. For my senior year of high school, I had acted as vice-president of the club while also maintaining a 3.0 GPA in school. However, I know school isn't everything, so I decided to try and learn some relevant knowledge, such as work experience."

Franklin nodded his head. "And what made you decide to make the jump from pursuing an interest in science or math to security ?"

Jeremy paused for a moment and said, "I am unable to financially support myself to go to college yet, so I thought it would be fitting if I were to seek out a full-time job and take a couple of years to save money."

"And do you see yourself working here long?"

Although deep down Jeremy had no interest in staying as long as he needed to, the youth nodded his head. "I do, sir."

Franklin nodded his head and thought for a moment, and as he did, he gave the young man a quick look over. "Well, so far everything seems to be in order. Aside from being late, you seem to be a good kid. I understand people make mistakes so that I won't hold that against you. Now, it says here you live on Applewood Road, which isn't too far from here if I'm correct?"

"Yes, sir. I live in an apartment complex along that road, and it takes me about fifteen minutes to get here from it."

"I see. Well, Mr. Fitzgerald," Frank said as he stood himself up from his chair, giving Jeremy a look that seemed like he was unimpressed, "I think I've seen enough. Thank you for taking the time to come by."

Jeremy felt his heart stop when he heard the man's words, but he quickly got up from his chair and shook Frank's hand. "T-Thank you for taking your time to interview me, sir."

He turned himself away from the older man and made his way towards the hallway again. Jeremy's back slouched over as he walked further into the hall. He had hoped he would get this job because it was one of the last few places he could apply for. There weren't that many businesses left to look for a job, and he was so sure he would get this one. Nonetheless, the young man trudged on, turning the corner to the secondary hall.

Jeremy could hear all the children yelling and screaming in the main room, but he just ignored it all for he was too busy staring at the floor in defeat. All that went through his mind was the look he saw on Franklin's face. The old man didn't seem to be impressed.

Suddenly, Jeremy felt himself bump into someone. He immediately raised himself back up and was just about to apologize when he stopped short. Instead of knocking into another person, or worse a child, the man had crashed into the blue animatronic he saw beforehand on the stage.

The bunny had a shocked expression when it ran into Jeremy, and it quickly shifted its hands off the straps of its guitar. It spoke in a gentle, feminine voice, "Oh gosh! I-I'm sorry, sir! I didn't see you! A-Are you alright?"

Jeremy felt a paw rest on top his left shoulder, but he didn't pay much attention to it as he only nodded his head in response. "Ye-Yeah, I'm fine. I'm sorry... I-I wasn't paying attention." The man shrugged off the animatronic's paw and continued on walking, ignoring the animatronic's stare. He was too upset about not landing the job to even bother in looking back at the animatronic.

As for the bunny, it watched the man slouch his way to the main dining hall, where he was soon drowned away by children and adults. It observed him exit from its sight, all while wearing a saddened expression. Something didn't feel right...

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Like I said before, these are going to be coming out a lot more quickly than The Desire for Family, but please don't feel like I'm abandoning it. This story will help motivate me to push forward.

As always, if you liked what you've read and want to leave your thoughts, or if you have a critique, please feel free to leave a review as well. Reviews don't hurt my feelings, and I'm always appreciative of what you have to say.