Jeremy Fitzgerald looked up at the building before him, his hands in his pockets. Bathed in the orange evening light was Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. The sign above the door stated the building's name in large, brown letters and featured the establishment's cast. There was a bear, rabbit, chicken... duck thing, and a fox.
Jeremy dug into one of his pockets and produced a newspaper clipping, showing a black-and-white photo of the place. Over the photo were the words "HELP WANTED". Jeremy flipped his gaze between the building, then the clipping, then at the building again.
Hmm. Seems like the place.
He had gotten the job the day prior in a surprisingly quick and easy fashion. All it took was one phone call. That was it. He supposed that, thinking back on it, it was kinda weird, but...
Eh. Money's money.
And money's something Jeremy doesn't have right now.
The man jumped a little as he heard the click of a lock and the light jingling of bells. He looked ahead as the front door was pushed ajar slightly a man's head peeked outside. The man looked around before noticing Jeremy. The man frowned.
"A little late, aren't you?", he asked. Jeremy looked away slightly, rubbing the back of his neck. He was never the punctual type of guy...
The man in the door, on the other hand, groaned. Not even the guy's first day on the job and he's an hour late...
"...Alright, well, come in," the man then said. "I'm gonna give you a tour of the place. My name's Fritz, Fritz Smith. I'm the technician. The manager, Mr. Fazburg, isn't here, what with it being Sunday 'n all," Fritz said, slipping back into the restaurant and beckoning Jeremy to follow. The soon-to-be-guard did just that, wondering just what the inside looked like as he opened the door. He heard stories about it – that it was quite different from your run-of-the-mill pizza place...
And saw, he did! Jeremy ooh'd, looking around at the interior around him. The walls were a warm shade of cream, augmented by the slightly yellow-tinted lights. And the black -and-white checkered tiles seemed like they were just cleaned. I mean, he could see his face in 'em!
But then, he looked at the show stage. He arched a brow, noticing that it was actually rather empty. For a pizzeria that hosts animatronics, he would've thought that – well – there'd be some animatronics for him to see.
"So there's the show stage," Fritz said, pointing at the wooden platform. "That's where three of the robots usually are. The fourth one's usually over there, in the Cove," he then said, turning and pointing at a rather small room a few feet away. Its interior was a light shade of pink, but still had the white-and-black checkered band that seemed to run across all the walls in the establishment. Over the rather large doorway was a wooden sign with the words "Kid's Cove" emblazoned upon it in a rather silly font. Jeremy hrmmed. Nice design.
"Looks nice, right?" Fritz asked. "Alright, moving on. C'mon," he said. Jeremy blinked, watching as Fritz began to walk down the hall leading away from the main room. The man seemed quite direct, Jeremy had to admit, like he just wanted to get this over with.
Eh. He didn't blame him.
The rest of the tour was actually kinda bland, Jeremy had to admit. When he asked about the weird metal door at the end of the hall, Fritz said that it was "just the parts room" and that he "shouldn't go in there".
Bogus.
Fritz also showed him the party rooms, which looked largely like the rest of the establishment aside from the balloons and such. They had cream-colored walls, with that checkerboard band running through them. There were four tables in each room – basically the usual stuff you'd find in a normal dining room. Jeremy began to lose interest as the tour dragged on, and sort of stopped listening to what Fritz had to say.
One thing Jeremy did notice, however, was that near the floor in one of the rooms, there was a vent. Just, an open vent.
Once again, Jeremy arched a brow. Weird.
Soon, however, they reached the office. It was a rather large room with bluish-purple tinted walls. Drawings were also tacked to the walls, depicting the children with their favorite characters. There was also a desk with various supplies on it.
"And this is there you'll be staying tonight," Fritz said. "This's your tablet, your fan, everything you'll need. There's also a phone there. We had one of our employees record some messages on it about a month ago, which you should listen to. They'll help you ease in to your new job."
Jeremy watched as Fritz reached into one of the drawers in the desk and pulled out a few sheets of paper.
"Now, all you gotta do is sign, and the job's officially yours," Fritz said. Jeremy looked down at the paper and sort of glossed it over before signing. I mean, there probably wasn't much to it, considering the job he was signing up for.
...Though, he thought that it'd at least be nice to see what he was supposed to be guarding before he signed this...
"A-And, sorry about the, uh, lack o' robots," Fritz continued, as if he was reading Jeremy's mind. "They're in the backroom right now. Y'see, Mr. Fazburg has a bit of a habit of keeping things a bit... secret with new employees."
Jeremy blinked.
"...Secret?", he asked. Now this was interesting...
"Yeah," Fritz curtly replied. "Y'see, the last guard we had ran out on us. He... found out a thing or two, and tried to make that information public. Since then, we've been a bit more secret with things. Like right now – The robots are sealed in the back, where you can't see 'em, and we have an non-disclosure agreement that you need to sign if you want this job. We can't risk you running off with any information that our competitors can use, without us being able to take any legal action. You understand?", Fritz asked.
Jeremy blinked. Now he really began to wonder why there'd be an NDA... He was just gonna be a night watchman at a pizza place, right? What's so secret about that?
Sounds shady.
"I... guess," he reluctantly said. Fritz nodded.
"Alright, good," the technician said. "Your first night's tomorrow. Be here at 11:40 PM sharp. If you're late again, like you were today, then we'll have to consider laying you off. Alright?" Jeremy nodded.
"Alright. Good. Now, c'mon, let's go. I gotta lock up for the night," Fritz said, heading back up the hall and beckoning Jeremy to follow. "Besides, we need you all rested up for tomorrow."
Fritz then snickered, before making one last remark.
"You're gonna have one heck of a night."
Kinda-Longish A/N: Wow, BGBNDR, the heck is this? This isn't A New Start 3! You tryna pull a fast one on me, huh?
Well, I'd never, Hypothetical Outraged Reader! I'd never try to fool you or anything! C-Calm down! Jeez! Stop breaking things!
Basically, the point is, I noticed how long it's been since On The Fritz ended and – well – ANS 3 isn't nowhere to be seen.
That'sbecauseI'mstilltryingtothinkofagoodplotforit. And since I still want to actually write things 'n such, instead of sitting around thinking of plots all day, I decided to bring out an old idea I've had lying around for about a month now! This has no connection to the ANS "canon" whatsoever.
And I know this is just a prologue and all right now, but please tell me what you guys think of this! Expect the first real chapter (but really a very long second chapter) tomorrow night!
Until Next Time!
Also, Title-Dropping is an art. A sacred one.