2:30pm, 20th March 1996. Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.
Two men sat in a room, one was a man in his mid-forties, he had short slicked back hair, despite its majority of black colour grey streaks of hair found their way in. He was dressed in navy suit with a grey shirt and black tie. The other one sat as he leaned back in his chair, he was dressed in a pair of jeans, skate shoes, a t-shirt which depicted some anime character and flannelette shirt as an over-shirt. He was clearly much younger, he seemed to be in his early-twenties. The older one continued to speak "Now, our last security worker; Mike Schmit, was found murdered while he was working his shift. I am legally obligated to inform you of that."
The younger one flicked his brunette fringe and laughed "I feel that it bears mentioning that back where I came from, I used to be a competitive fighter. Not only that, but I'm a little different to everybody else in the sense that everyone is born with a part of their brain which restricts their strength for their own safety, I however do not have such a part. Therefore I have unrestricted human strength." His accent was not that of an American, it was a New South Wales Australian accent, so when he spoke in a room full of people, he always stood out.
The older man began to stand up and the younger man jolted up, the elder extended his hand "Thank you Woolie, I'll let you know if you receive to job."
Woolie grabbed the other man's hand and shook it "Cheers." He replied in his foreign accent. Woolie showed himself as the only other applicant for that day entered the room.
3:00pm, 20th March 1996. Woolie's Apartment.
Woolie slid the key into the keyhole of his apartment's door, he twisted the key and the door slid open. He grabbed his key and shut the door, then walked over to his lounge and fell back, letting it catch him. He sighed as he looked back at where his life was two months prior, he finally built up the courage to ask his best friend out and she'd agreed, but it was only two weeks of being a couple that she died, leaving him lonely once more. He couldn't take living where he was so he moved to America in the hopes that he'd feel better, nobody would know him, it'd be a fresh start. He saw in the paper that a local pizza restaurant was looking for a security guard to work the graveyard shift, he thought about the years he'd spent training in Martial Arts and thought it'd be a good idea, one way he'd be able to put it to use. He grabbed his blanket and pulled it over him as he fell backwards and closed his eyes, wanting to drift off to sleep.
12:00pm, 6th February 1996. Jill's House.
Woolie sat around a table, next to him was his best friend, Jill, it was her eighteenth birthday "Finally one of us." He said reminding himself of their one year gap in age "So, how's it feel to be old enough to drink?" he asked,
She smiled "I don't really feel all that different." She answered.
They shared a laugh, she held a beer in her hand while he had a bottle of whiskey, they clinked bottles as he told her "Happy Birthday Jill" and they began to drink.
4:00pm, 20th March 1996. Woolie's Apartment.
Woolie jolted up as sweat dripped from his forehead, he knew it was all a dream, but that didn't lessen the blow of knowing he'd never see Jill's beautiful face ever again. He threw his blankets off his sweating body and stood up as he dawdled over to his shower, he stubbed his toes against the raised tiles "Ouch." He said, but he didn't feel anything, it was more of a reaction. He stepped up and began undressing, first his over-shirt and shirt, then his shoes, socks and pants. All his clothes bar his underwear were removed, he reached for the hot tap and twisted, then as his hand came back he pushed his underwear down his legs. He stepped into the shower and as the hot water burned his skin he twisted the cold tap until the water became warm enough. He cleaned his body and hair, taking special care with the conditioner.
6:00pm, 20th March 1996. Local Supermarket.
Woolie walked into the supermarket and he grabbed one of the baskets as he headed off into the first aisle, he wandered down the aisle as he grabbed what he thought he'd need. After walking through three more aisles, he reached the end of the fifth one and without looking, he bumped into somebody, they fell back from his force while he fell back from the surprise, he stood back up and noticed it was a woman "Sorry about that. I wasn't looking where I was going." He bent over and helped her pick everything that she dropped, she stood up and looked at him, she was only about five foot and six inches, her brown hair was tied back into a ponytail, she looked somewhat familiar to him but he couldn't be sure "Claire?" he asked,
She seemed a little shocked "Do I know you?" she quizzed in an accent like his own.
He smiled "Well, we went to school together."
It was clear her brain was searching for who it would be "Woolie? Is that you?" she asked,
He smiled "The one and only."
Claire laughed "I never expected to see you here. What are you doing with yourself?" She asked him as if they were still at school,
He scratched the back of his head "Well, I got interviewed for a job as a security guard for this little pizza place." He answered nonchalantly,
She was impressed "Well, good luck with that. So do you come here often?" she asked with interest,
Woolie got confused "By here you mean?" he questioned,
Claire was quick to clarify herself "This store." She explained to him,
He realised how she meant it after her explanation "Oh, yeah. I shop here since my apartment is just around the corner." He answered,
Claire smiled "Well, that's good." Time passed as they looked at each other until Claire piped up "Well, I should get going. See you later Woolie."
He nodded before responding "Bye Claire." As they parted ways they continued their shopping.
7:00pm, 20th March 1996. Woolie's Apartment.
Woolie walked over to his fridge with plastic bags in his hands, he laid them down next to the fridge as he placed them inside it, calling them out to himself "Milk, chicken, beef, cheese, pumpkin, fruit." He then walked over to his cupboard and continued to name the products as if checking them off a list "Bread, cordial, Red Bull, noodles." He grabbed the bags and tied them up before chucking them in a basket for further use. He sat down at his lounge and thought about Claire, about how she used to be a straight-A student and that he scraped along the C-range, how she looked and she hadn't changed still as pretty as ever. As the night went on he realised what tomorrow held and thought it was for the best to fall asleep soon, and with that he kicked his feet up and closed his eyelids.
6:30am, 21st March 1996. Woolie's Apartment.
The alarm clock blared, Woolie's eyes shot open as he swung his feet off the lounge and dashed to the alarm and turned it off. He walked back to the lounge with a small notepad and pen and he looked over the plan for the day "Dye hair, do laundry, practice fighting…man I could have worded that better, get lunch, come home, prepare dinner, eat dinner, half an hour on the PlayStation, bed." He got up once again and walked into his bathroom, although this time it was only a quick shower. As he dried off he put on his clothes for the day; a yellow jumpsuit with a black strip down the side and a pair of yellow joggers. He walked over to his fridge and pulled out the milk and placed it on the counter next to him, he kneeled down as he grabbed a bowl from the cupboard, then turned around grabbed a box of cereal and placed it on his bowl, he grabbed the milk and the bowl as he carefully balanced the box of cereal on top while he made his way to the table. He sat down and poured his cereal before his milk, the American cereals were so different to what he grew up with, for one they seemed to focus heavily on sugar another thing was that they called Rice Bubbles 'Rice Krispies', not to mention instead of having the amazing block called 'WeetBix' the was a flaky thing named 'Wheaties', but on the plus side there was still Froot Loops.
6:50am, 21st March 1996. Woolie's Apartment.
Woolie grabbed his flip-top phone, his wallet and his key before he left his apartment and left as the chilly morning weather touched his face he took a deep breath in and exhaled, prepared for his day ahead. He jogged down the steps, jumping over the last two and kept jogging until he reached the end of the block, but when he crossed the road he went back to jogging.
7:00am, 21st March 1996. Ols Liberty Park.
Woolie reached the park and looked about, although he couldn't see anybody, he thought it would be a good time to start shadow sparring, so he did. Staring off with his Muay Thai, he threw combinations of kicks, knees and elbows. And as the time passed people walked past and stared at him, but he payed them no mind since they were bound to leave eventually. He took a break from it and looked at his little list, "Well, there's one down." He said, and as he thought about it he noticed that his clothes were covered in sweat "Crap, now I've gotta take another shower. This list has already gone to shit." He seemed angry at himself.
7:55am, 21st March 1996. Woolie's Apartment.
Woolie squirted a twenty cent shaped piece of shampoo into his hand then ran it though his hair and scrubbed and scratched thoroughly, then moved his head under the water, face towards the plug, he watched as the soapy water travelled down the drain. He pulled his head from the water as he applied the conditioner, repeating his steps from before. Once he was fully washed he twisted the taps until the water quit dripping and stepped out of the shower onto the bathmat as his hand reached towards his towels, one for his body, the other for his head.
8:20am, 21st March 1996. The Scissor Sisters' Hairdressers.
Woolie slid the door open, as his first foot went inside, his back foot launched him inside where he was hit by a barrage of odours from the hair products, some pleasant, most weren't. He pushed himself though towards a desk, the lady at the desk asked him "Do you have an appointment, sir?" he stared into her bright blue eyes,
He broke back to reality "Uh, yeah."
She asked him "Name?" she looked down at the book
"Woolie." He stated, unwilling to mention his last name.
The woman gestured towards a seat "Sure, Jane will be with you soon. Please take a seat while you wait." He nodded as he walked over to the seat and sat down and pulled his phone out as he went through his contacts and looked at his message bank, no texts or missed calls, that didn't surprise him. Ten minutes later the lady, Jane as he recalled, walked over to him and she spoke "I'm ready for you now." Woolie stood up and followed the woman to a spare chair after he sat down she asked him "So, what are we doing today?"
He responded "I want you to bleach it blond."
The lady seemed surprised but willing "Okay, sure. But you have such nice brown hair." He smiled, nobody had really complimented him on his hair before.
10:00am, 21st March 1996. Clocktower Café.
Woolie sat at a small round table with the table number, it was a little white card reading '2' placed in a metal stand, a girl with a country twang to her voice put a plate down on his table then a saucer with a teacup filled to the brim "A chicken schnitzel burger and black tea with milk and three sugars. Was that all?"
He nodded as he answered her "Yeah, thanks." As she walked away he sipped his tea, it was sweet enough, he picked up the schnitzel and took one bite, he put his fingers inside his mouth and pulled out some tomato, he then open his burger to remove the rest of the tomato. He finished his burger and began sipping on his tea, it wasn't the best one he'd ever had, but it was far from terrible.
12:30pm, 21st March 1996. Ols Liberty Park.
Woolie had been watching the birds come and go for two hours, he pulled his phone out, he flipped it open and looked to see if he had messages. He didn't, he wasn't surprised, although he thought he'd have heard from the pizza place by now, there was only him and the other guy applying yesterday. He considered what he just thought, only them that day, he didn't know if he and the other guy were the last of the lot, maybe twenty other guys applied.
12:40pm, 21st March 1996. Local Supermarket.
As Woolie walked into the automatic doors he felt something collide past him, he looked back to see what it was, he knew who it was "Claire!" he called out to his old friend and the short woman turned around
"Woolie? You dyed your hair! You're blond again!" she remarked with a smile on her face,
He walked up to her "Yeah, I thought I'd make a more intimidating guard if I was blond." He noticed she didn't have anything in her hands "So what were you in there for?" he asked as his curiosity grew,
She laughed "Oh, I was just getting interviewed."
Woolie asked "Interviewed? For a job?"
And Claire was quick in her response "Yeah, I almost felt inspired by you when you said you went for that security job." She said as she began to ramble,
Woolie asked her "Almost?"
For a moment she was silent but the silence was broken with a giggle "I don't know why I said 'almost' I meant 'completely', slip of the tongue I guess."
They both shared a laugh "I never thought I'd inspire the school captain to do something." After about ten minutes Woolie said "Listen…I gotta get these groceries soon, but did you want to hang out tomorrow or something?" he suggested, Claire pulled a notepad out of her handbag and wrote something on it, as Woolie flipped the paper around he noticed that it was Claire's number and address, almost flustered Woolie managed to say "Well, I'll call you tonight." And with that he left her company.
1:00pm, 21st March 1996. Woolie's Apartment.
As soon as Woolie packed his groceries away he picked up the basket full of his dirty clothes and walked to his door, as the door swung open the sun hit his eyes and for a moment he was blinded, he walked down his stairs and walked into his shed where his washing machine and dryer were. He swung the washing machine's lid up and chucked his clothes inside it, he reached for the powder, carefully measuring the right amount before he tipped it into the part of the machine, after all that was done, he closed the lid and pressed the power button.
4:00pm, 21st March 1996. Woolie's Apartment.
The washing had been done and he crossed it off the list, all that remained was dinner and his gaming. He looked through his cupboards and pulled out the udon noodles and the Asian sauces, he placed them on the counter and looked in his fridge and pulled out the chicken. With all his ingredients out he pulled out his utensils and started cooking.
5:30pm, 21st March 1996. Woolie's Apartment.
After his time spent cooking his noodles, he put it in a bowl which was placed on the table that he ate at, as he sat down he began using his chopsticks to eat the noodles. But by the end of it all, there was too much for him to eat "Leftovers for tomorrow night." He commented to himself. He approached his TV and switched it to AV1 and turned his SNES on, the Punch-Out! cartridge still sat in the machine from the last time he used it, "Tch. I've played so much Tekken lately, I just wanna play something different." He said, almost as if there was someone with him that he had to justify it to, he looked over his shoulder to see his empty apartment, as he grabbed the controller he walked back over to his lounge and slumped into it and sighed.
6:05pm, 21 March 1996. Woolie's Apartment.
Woolie had spent about roughly half of an hour playing the game, but for the past twenty minutes he was still stuck on Narcis Prince, as he tossed the controller to the ground he raged "Fuck you, fuck this, fuck everything! I can't beat him." He stood up and walked away from the TV as he went to the sink for a quick drink. After his drink he sat back down and looked to his flip-top, he reached over to it and as he grabbed it he flipped it open, he pulled the scrap of paper Claire gave him from his pocket and put her number in his contacts list. He debated whether he should call her or not, he decided he'd put it off for about half an hour.
6:30, 21st March 1996. Woolie's Apartment.
The anticipation was maddening, he couldn't hold it back any longer, he pressed the call button as he hoped Claire would pick up. The phone had rung three times and she hadn't picked up, he had given up and as he was about to hang up, a voice shot out "Hello?" It was Claire,
He felt relieved "Hey Claire, it's me"
She sounded happy as she replied "Yeah, I know. So I was wondering if you wanted to hang out tomorrow? I mean if you don't want to, I won't force you to." Claire said as she seemed to be nervous,
Woolie laughed "No, no, I'm free then. Besides, you could show me around since you've lived here longer than I have."
Claire had seemed calmer than she was before "Sure, we could do that. I bet I know of a few places you'll love."
Woolie thought about how considerate she was being "You don't have to make this day all about me, fit something you'd like to do in there too, okay?" he said, making sure she'd enjoy some of it,
She laughed "Alright then. So, you good starting this at eight o'clock?" she asked him,
He told her "Yeah, it fine with me."
She seemed happy "Alright, so I'll see you at eight tomorrow morning. See you then."
He smiled "See you then Claire" he said as he hung up and put his phone back on the table next to him. With that out of the way, he laid down on the lounge and once more drifted off to sleep.
7:00am, 22nd March 1996. Woolie's Apartment.
Once more, Woolie got up from the lounge where he slept, swinging his legs from the armrest and as they hit the floor he launched himself from the lounge and made his way towards to bathroom. The events of the day had escaped his mind, all he knew was he thought it was important, he twisted the taps and stepped in as he vigorously scrubbed his body with his bodywash coated on a loofah. He washed his hair again, it was beginning to feel dirty again, then again it did most mornings. As he stepped out of the shower he dried himself off and sprayed himself with deodorant, he walked into his bedroom with his towel wrapped around his waist and as he opened his wardrobe he pulled out his jeans, alongside his t-shirt and zip-up jumper. He went into his kitchen once he was dressed, yet he was still dazed in his sleepy state, the event of the day still slipping from his conscious, the more he tried to force it the more he pushed it away. He opened his fridge and pulled out his Red Bull and cracked the can and began to drink it. He looked at his clock and saw the time was 7:40am, and the reason he did everything he did sunk in, he was meeting with Claire at 8:00am, at a café halfway across town. He downed his drink and grabbed his keys, wallet and phone before bolting out of his apartment.