Timmy bounded forward with glee, joyful at visiting his favourite place to eat out. It was his birthday, and his family and a few friends were joining him there.
Each time he went, there was something new to discover. He just couldn't wait. He could see the pizzeria entrance ahead. The others were taking too long.
"Timmy…" a female voice called, warning him to stay with them.
"Yes, Mum," he replied mournfully, pouting as he waited for the other parents to take their children out of the car.
The afternoon was an exhilarating one. Freddy Fazbear himself had come over to their table, and led the other animatronics in a chorus of Happy Birthday. Bonnie even waggled his ears for him, leaving Timmy giggling with delight. He just couldn't get enough of this place. He wanted to know ALL the secrets about it. What new and wonderful things could he discover?
Slipping away, he peeked down the aisle, ignoring the 'employees only' sign. It didn't seem as happy as the main area, but I guess that was to be expected.
He could hear some loud sounds coming from a room. Peeking through the double doors, he saw a man in a purple chef uniform using a meat cleaver on a piece of salami. Timmy didn't know much about cooking, but it seemed that he was using a lot more force than was necessary to cut the meat, and the man had an intense expression on his face which was unsettling.
Timmy jumped as the metal knife made another clack against the wooden cutting board.
Turning around suddenly to grab another piece, the man saw him. His appearance was gruff, his face showed no sign of accommodating a younger person.
"What are you doing here?" he growled.
In terror, Timmy fled back to the main area.
He went into the closest empty booth and huddled there, hoping the scary man wouldn't follow.
A person walked up to him. "Hi there," the man said warmly. Timmy looked at him with trepidation.
The man continued. "My name's Mike. I actually am an employee here, although my shift is later so I'm not wearing my uniform. Looks like you had a run-in with the 'beast'," he said, chuckling. He reached into his pocket and showed his Freddy Fazbear 'badge'.
Timmy let out a sigh. It was nice to have a friendly face. "He was very scary," Timmy said miserably.
Mike laughed. "Yes, he is. And I'd even say he's one of the reasons I'm hired as a security guard. I even caught him in the security room once, looking at the recorded footage, and that's not even his job. I wouldn't trust him."
Timmy shook his head, glad that he was understood and that someone also felt the same way.
Mike smiled. "Well, you're looking a lot better now. That's good to see. And if you thought that was scary… things can get really wild around here at night," he said, laughing bitterly.
Timmy's ears perked up. "Wild? What do you mean?"
Mike's face fell. "No no, kid – that's not for you to know! Erm… ah… please just enjoy your stay."
"But I wanna know!" Timmy said, whining.
"Er, maybe when you're older you can apply for a security job here. I'm sure they'll still be hiring." Mike left with a smile and a wave.
Timmy pouted. There was something warm and friendly about Mike that he felt he could trust. He smirked. He was right – there was more to discover about this place.
Wandering back, he perked up. His Mum gave him a kiss on the head. "Don't go wandering off now, Tim," she said, reprimanding him.
"Yes, Mum," he replied meekly.
His Mum's phone rang. "Yes?" she said, and her expression sobered. Once the call had ended, she leaned over to Maisie, a neighbour that lived about a block away. "Maisie, I've got to go. Will you be able to take Timmy back home?"
"Sure, Dee, and he can even stay for a sleepover if he wants to."
Timmy cheered.
His Mum smiled. "OK, then," she said, kissing him on the head. "Be good," she said, concerned.
Timmy nodded reluctantly. Giving him a final kiss, his Mum left.
Looking around, it seemed that Bonnie was looking in his direction. He wandered over and gave Bonnie a quick hug on his leg, which earned him a mechanical pat on the head, to Timmy's delight. These animatronics were so interactive, so much fun! And if he were able to stay, he could have them all to himself, plus find out what secrets the place held. As long as he didn't run into that purple guy again. But Mike said he would still be there, so Timmy felt better. He liked that guy.
-0-
It was coming to the end of the evening and Maisie was battling to get her four children into the minivan. Timmy watched from the entrance as they kept undoing their seatbelts and scampering off. Maisie was furious. "GET IN THE CAR!" she yelled.
Had she forgotten about him? It looked like it, as she stormed around to the driver's side and activated the child lock so the doors wouldn't open. For a split-second, Timmy thought about calling out to her, but this was his big chance.
He slipped back into the restaurant.
It was closing time, and he skilfully avoided the gaze of the remaining employees, even though it looked like they couldn't care less and they just wanted to get out of there.
Standing on tippy toes, he opened a door that was next to the stage that said 'employees only'. No one seemed to be going there. When he opened it, he saw a treasure trove of empty animatronic heads.
But he had to wait for the employees to leave before he could explore. He knew he had to be silent.
He slumped against an empty suit. It was so soft, and the room was so dark.
He fell asleep.
-0-
Timmy awoke to hear loud voices coming from the main party room.
"What the hell are you still doing here?"
"What's the matter, Schmidt? I am an employee here, after all."
"If you don't leave right now, I'm arresting you for trespassing."
"Arrest me?" Timmy heard a laugh which left no doubt in his mind that this person was the purple guy. "Get real, you dumb rent-a-cop. Your shift doesn't start for another 20 minutes anyway. Well, I was about to leave, so stuff you."
"Ugh."
Timmy heard two types of footsteps, and a door slamming. Good. That guy must have left, and it was only Mike here.
Timmy opened the door gingerly and peeked through. He could see light coming from a room at the very end of the hallway. It must be where Mike was. But he didn't want to make his presence known just yet.
He tiptoed around the tables, and was startled when a man came from under the table and grabbed him, covering his mouth so he couldn't scream. He was dragged back into the room with the heads.
The man shut the door and released him, motioning for him to be silent. To Timmy's horror, he could see it was the purple man.
"You know you shouldn't be here, kid," the man said gruffly. He looked angry.
"Are- are you going to kill me?" Timmy asked, terrified.
The man chuckled, and to Timmy's surprise, it seemed genuine. "Of course not. I'll contact the police to get you back to your parents. Consider this your lucky day. This is one case where you should have definitely listened to your parents as things can get dangerous around here."
He opened the door only to stop short, seeing someone standing there. "Schmidt," he growled.
"Where you do you think you're going?" Mike replied in a monotone, dropping all acts of friendliness.
"Looks like I'm not the only one who knew that a kid stayed behind. Where do you think I'm going? To return the kid to his parents!"
"Well, that will only cause a problem, won't it?"
"I knew something was off with you, Schmidt! I just never had any proof before now."
"You still won't." Mike revealed a baseball bat and started to swing. Despite his best efforts to block, the purple man was stunned and was struck to the head. He crumpled to the ground, groaning, then stopped moving.
Mike turned his attention to Timmy.
"M-Mike?" Timmy squeaked.
Mike looked at him coldly. "Stupid kid. I hope you're going to be prepared for a wild night. I'll even show you all the secrets here. All the dead bodies. So you know how you'll look when I kill you."
Timmy started to whimper.
Mike moved closer, sneering evilly at him. "You're yet another kid who thinks they know everything, and can't see through a simple mask of friendliness. I am going to enjoy beating you to a pulp, one bone at a time. You can scream all you want. No one will hear it."
He grabbed Timmy. Timmy struggled, but was no match for the adult's strength.
Stepping out into the hallway, Mike stopped short. Timmy could feel his grip lessen, and pushed with all his might, breaking free and running for the main entrance.
It took Timmy a split-second to realise that Bonnie was standing there. But he couldn't think about that now – he had to run for his life.
After the initial shock, Mike collected himself and sprinted after Timmy, but to his horror, Bonnie moved and gripped him. Timmy reached the door, and his tiny fingers managed to turn the lock and push through.
He could hear a metallic screech and agonizing shouts from Mike. "Keep away! Don't come closer! Nooooo!"
He didn't look back.
Fortunately, he came across a cop car that was patrolling the area, who agreed to drop him back home.
His Mum answered the door, startled. Seeing that he was rattled, she hugged him tightly. "What happened, sweetheart?"
"I was at Fazbear's Pizza, and there was a nice security guard and a scary purple man, but it turned out the purple man was trying to help me and the guard was trying to kill me. But then Bonnie saved me," Timmy said, sniffing.
"Sounds like you've had quite the nightmare," she said, picking him up and giving a nod to the officer, who left. "Let's give you a nice warm cup of milk and get you to bed."
END
A/N: Even though I think the Purple Guy is officially the killer, I wanted to play around with preconceptions that we have. The 'clues' for Mike were that he was at the pizzeria outside of his normal work hours (which should send red flags off!) and that he's scoping for victims. He'd psychologically manipulated Timmy into staying back, using reverse psychology.
The other and more important reason for writing this is because stranger danger is very real – hence the whole "cannot judge a book by its cover" deal with Mike the killer appearing friendly and trustworthy, and the good Samaritan Purple Guy appearing gruff when in this story he was upset about kids not following rules and therefore putting themselves in danger.
Unfortunately I've heard stories in real life about kids being taken even when they're standing in a public bathroom while their parent is going to the toilet. It's hopefully a rare thing, but the DANGER IS REAL. One of my friends said that when he was a kid he trusted this guy and went to his apartment, then the guy tried to rape him. But he managed to run and escape. Kids need to get in the habit of reporting things. There's a reason we can't trust strangers, and that's because these pedophiles actually know how to act to get kids to trust. It's scary. Also, when I was younger, a friend's parents forgot to pick me up from school one day and I was just left there. So that can happen too. xD KEEP SAFE, DON'T TAKE CHANCES, SPEAK UP FOR YOURSELF KIDS. People don't mind if you don't talk to strangers – if they actually want you safe, that is. And I remember this pedophile trying to pick me up when I was a schoolkid. On a public bus, too. Kept asking me questions like what's my name and where I live. And other people kept silent. :/