I could feel myself starting to sweat as the manager stared at the white piece of paper I'd given him. "So, let me get this straight, Mr…"

"Smith," I answered. "Justin Smith."

"Mr. Smith. You graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Criminology, worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for two years as a profiler. According to your references, you're a model employee and you've never missed a day of work. I even have your IQ test here, and it says...well, I think you know what it says already."

"Yes sir. I am legally registered as 'gifted'."

"Quite," he sniffed. Already my mind made a thousand calculations about this guy. Left-handed. Wears a button down because it's mandatory, but knowingly keeps half of it untucked as a sign of disdain for his job, but not far enough that he couldn't deny it being an accident. His breath reeked of cheap booze that brought me back to my hay days here at Freddy Fazbear's. It was actually kind of sad to see the way even the staff taken a dive alongside the restaurant. "If I may ask you, Mr. Smith, why exactly do you want to work here at Freddy's? Surely with your accreditations you could find something better."

Better than this shit hole? Definitely. "I wasn't in that line of work for the money, sir. I always wanted adventure and excitement. Now though, I'm kind of sick of it all. I think I'd prefer a job where I can just relax and not worry about getting shot at."

"Well, I suppose you came to the right place then. Nothing ever really happens around here. It's a pretty sleepy little town."

"Yes, sir. This is actually my hometown. I grew up here."

"Ah. Well, welcome back. Anyway, if you're absolutely sure you want to work here…"

"Oh, yes sir. I think this job would be perfect for me."

"Well, you'll be on the graveyard shift. I'm afraid that the pay isn't much either. About 100$ a week is all I can afford."

100 a week?! That's highway robbery! Still I maintained my polite smile. "That'll be fine sir. I trust that covers my uniform?"

"There ain't one."

"Training?"

"Nope."

"Orientation?"

"No can do. Sorry hoss, but you're flying solo on this job."

We both stood as he offered me his hand. I shook it firmly. "When do I start?"

He smirked. "Tonight."

As the daytime guard passed me, he gave me a tip of his hat and vanished into the night. The door swung closed, causing the small bell hanging above it to ring sweetly. Turning the deadbolt, there was a heavy 'chunk'. I was officially locked in now. Alone.

Perfect. Now was my chance to get some answers. Flicking on my flashlight, I began to patrol. It was astounding how little had changed during my absence. Everything was just as I remembered. The same old tables with kids names scratched into it. The dirty greasy ball pit that you could have sworn was home to at least a thousand different infectious bacteria. And most importantly…

I stopped, looking up at the stage. Standing there was the whole gang. Freddy, Bonnie, and Chika. Man they really swapped out her model for something more...feminine. "C'mon guys," I murmured. "Were the tits and hips really necessary?"

With a sigh, I turned away from the stage, and continued towards my post. I knew in there I'd find the archives I was looking for. The newspapers had called him 'The Freddy Flayer'. Almost a dozen kids went missing shortly after the incident in 1987 when a small boy was practically lobotomized by Freddy. A few showed up dead, missing their flesh and tortured. Others didn't.

While I wasn't so concerned about the boy who suffered from the bite of '87 as others had taken to calling it, my worries hit close to home. There was a girl. You could say she was my first love. Her name was Casey and we used to do everything together. She was the literal girl next door. She'd had a summer job here at Freddy's when she was sixteen. Then one night, she just disappeared.

While she had a bit of a troubled home life, I knew in my heart that this wasn't a runaway. Something or someone took her. I spent the rest of my young adult life doing everything I could to get to this point. The point where I'd be able to track down my first love, dead or alive. This was my first step.

Taking my keys I opened the security room. Sure enough, just as the manager had described, everything was on a power grid. A shoddy one at that. Thankfully, I'd turned off most of the non-vital electrical functions: spring-loaded locks, anything but the safety lights, and most importantly the video recorder. Without that, no one would have any idea what my real plan was.

Nodding in satisfaction, I set to work. Grabbing an old box from the archives labeled 'June 1987' I blew the dust from the top, opened it, grabbed the first tape and popped it into the VCR that was beneath the TV.

Sure enough, the screens flicked on, showing the CCTV footage from all those years ago. My eyes zoomed in on the images, searching for her face until finally, there she was. My heart skipped a beat as I watched her reach up to get a prize for one of the children.

Even now I thought she was beautiful. Without a thought, I reached for the screen. My fingertips brushed against her image and I could feel tears starting to form. Damn it. It'd been so long and I still couldn't even stomach looking at her without breaking into tears. "I swear to you Casey," I whispered. "I will find you and I will bring you home where you belong." To be honest after so long, I didn't know what would be worse: finding out she was dead...or finding out she wasn't.

I watched the tape on fast forward for at least an hour. Nothing spectacular happened. She came in for her shift. She worked. She left. That's it. While normally many would think to start on the tape dated for when she disappeared, I knew better. People who pulled off long streaks of crimes like this were smart. They planned for things: problems, surprises, issues. But planning took time. Thus, it was better to start earlier that month. Find the guy making the plans, find Casey.

Having finished the first tape, I ejected it and placed it back in the box. Standing up, I went to the bathroom. I wanted to relieve myself before I started the next tape. After washing my hands, I stepped outside, only to hear a heavy 'clunk' further down the hallway.

The hell? I turned my head to look at the source of the noise and my blood ran cold. Standing there, eyes aglow, with his big, stupid, grin was Freddy Fazbear himself. "Haha! Funny guys," I called out. "Freak out the new guy, right? You're going to have to do better than that. I'm not a six year old, you know?"

There was no sound. Freddy took another step as a haunting melody began to play through the air. He was moving by himself. The animatronic was moving towards me by himself. "Hello, kids!" His voice box greeted. "Remember: No running! When we run, people get hurt." He took another step, and I was done. Immediately, I bolted for the office. I could hear the clanking of his heavy footsteps behind me.

Shit, shit, shit! I didn't care if this was a prank. I didn't care if people laughed at me and mocked me. There was no way I was going to let this thing catch me. I slid into the office at break neck speed, flipping all of the switches I could to reactivate the power. Just as he reached the office I slammed my fist into the switch and the door shut with a heavy crash.

My chest rose and fell as I backed away from the door. I could hear his fists striking the steel again and again. "Don't play in the restricted areas kids! That's just for me and the crew!" he echoed through it.

That's when I heard another clanging behind me. I whirled around to come face to face with Bonnie, arms outstretched towards me. "Hey little fella! Want to play with me? It's dangerous in there!"

I hit the button so fast his arm was nearly caught in the door. Part of me wished it'd taken it off of him. Turning back, I could see that the power grid now read 80%. FUCK! The power! The moment it went out these doors would open and I'd be a sitting duck.

I immediately flipped off the lights, bathing everything in darkness. I sat there, breathing heavily as I listened to the sounds of the animatronics shuffling around outside. What the hell was going on?

That's when the phone rang. I nearly jumped out of my skin, but still I reached out to lift it off its cradle and put it to my ears. "Hello? Hello?" the voice called.

"H-hello?" I replied.

"Hey there, sport. Sorry to interrupt. I heard that Freddy's got a new night watchman. Now I doubt that nincompoop of a manager told you, but there's something you need to know about the job."

"You don't say?" I panted.

"Sounds to me like you've already found out. Listen up, kiddo. Those animatronics are out to get you. Once they get their hands on you, they plan on putting you into a costume. Those are the rules, you see? Cast members all gotta be in costume. Problem is, the costume they want you in is filled with about half a ton of steel and wires, and they're not too gentle about making you fit, saavy?"

"Well, then what the hell am I supposed to do?!" I demanded. "No one told me anything about killer robots!"

"Welcome to the family, kid. Your best bet is to conserve your power. Shut off the lights, and anything else you don't need. Fan in the room works better than using the A/C. And be sure to check the CCTV's regularly. You don't have enough power to keep those doors shut all night, so I'd recommend watching the animatronics through the TV and shutting them only when they're around."

Sure enough, I couldn't hear them shuffling around anymore. I pulsed the lights quickly to make sure they were gone, and when I'd confirmed they were, I opened the doors again. "Anything else?"

"Yep. Look at camera 11."

I tilted my head and peered at it.

"You see a music box?"

"Yeah, I see it."

"Use the remote. Keep that sucker cranked! You don't want to know what happens to the poor sod who lets it completely unwind."

"Wait...why?"

"Anyway, I gotta go now. Don't want to waste your power by hogging up the line. Especially keep an eye out for Foxy. He don't take kindly to strangers."

With a click, the line went dead. I wound up the music box quickly, allowing it to continue its tinny melody. Grabbing a flashlight from the drawer, I peered outside, shining it down the first hallway. Nothing.

Peering down the other, again, there was nothing. This was insane. Absolutely insane. Killer animatronics? Music boxes? What in the hell was going on?

Chika's eyes whirred as she stared down at the new night watchman. A sense of familiarity was forming in her chest, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. "What's wrong, Chika?" Freddy asked once the man had left.

Her yellow head swiveled to regard her friend. "I'm not sure," she admitted.

"It's about time we got a new plaything," Bonnie commented, also beginning to move his joints. Each of the Animatronics shuddered as they stretched their mechanical limbs, working out the stiffness from standing still for so long. "What's the plan, boss bear? The typical dash and crash?"

If Chika was capable of changing facial expressions, she'd have frowned. "Do we have to?" she asked. "This one's kind of cute."

"You know we do, Chika," Freddy told her. "Do you remember what happened when he was the nightguard? We have a sacred duty to the children to make sure they're safe."

"Yeah...okay."

"I'll take first advance from the right. Bonnie you take the left. Chika wait here if we need backup," Freddy said. "Let's see what this guy's made of." With that, Freddy tugged his top hat down on his head and began his rigid march towards the hallway,

"What about Foxy?" Bonnie asked.

"Foxy will come if he pleases, but you know how he is."

"Yep. He hates being watched. I wonder why he's so shy."

"Probably because of how the kids messed with him when they put him on that hands on exhibit," Freddy mused. "Anyway, let's go pay our new 'friend' a visit."

Chika gave a mechanical sigh, closing her large metal eyes and entering into her standby mode. While it was technically against the rules to go into standby mode while someone else was in the restaurant (as there always seemed to be), she couldn't help herself.

A few days ago, something strange had happened when she was being checked for maintenance. Something that had never happened before. She saw...pictures. It was like a story being laid out in front of her, one still image after the other.

There were picnics and walks in the park. There was even an image of Freddy's, though the picture looked far different than it did now. Something strange also came with these pictures, something she couldn't really describe. It was as if...her programming was trying to comprehend some sort of formula, but the right words to describe it just weren't there.

The first image was of an endless expanse of blue that rolled up to a long stretch of white. The picture came with a word: 'ocean'. Her programming readjusted, filing it into her memory banks. And then another word: 'beach'. Understanding followed closely behind. The blue was called 'ocean', the white was called 'beach'.

You're beautiful…

Chika's eyes snapped open and she quickly turned her head to regard her surroundings. Strange. There was a voice just now, but when she looked, she didn't detect anything. Had the voice come from the picture?

It seemed she was experiencing all sorts of new things as of late. "What is 'beautiful'?" she questioned to herself. Her memory banks informed her that the voice was one she'd observed before, but when she tried to recall its source, all she received back was a solid null.

After a few more failed attempts, she surrendered. With a whir, her mechanical joints went into motion, and she stepped off the stage. Perhaps it was best she join the others.

I tapped my forehead over and over again. Think, Justin, think! There had to be some way out of this mess. Grabbing a blueprint of the building, I began examining the layout. Show stage, dining hall, backstage, pirate's cove, west hall, east hall, restrooms, kitchen and...the supply closet! Yes! There had to be something there. The only question was how I could get there without getting caught by the animatronics.

Looking around, I couldn't find a way to protect myself that wouldn't damage the mechanical monsters. That should have honestly been the least of my concerns, but I needed to keep this job and I knew that the manager would probably save himself a hundred bucks by firing me for even laying a finger on them.

Taking a peek at the cameras, I could see Freddy and Bonnie in the Dining Room, but there was no sign of Chika. Foxy it seemed was still behind his curtain, so that was a relief as well. My way was clear. Best I take the shot.

Charging out into the hall, I came to a screeching halt as I nearly bowled straight into the mechanical chicken. She tilted her head, regarding me for a moment before raising an arm and walking towards me.

I ducked under her grasp as she turned to follow me. "Wait, don't run," she instructed, trudging closer.

Yeah, like hell!

I ran anyway, bursting into the supply closet and slamming the door shut behind me. It was tiny, just a dimly lit room that was barely six feet by five feet. I locked the door and backed away from it.

I could hear Chika pounding on it with her fist. "Come out of there!"

"Shove it up your servos!" I snapped back, scrambling for anything that could help me. Aha! Animatronic user manual. Rolling it up, I tucked it into my pants to keep it safe.

On the other side of the door, Chika paused from my come back. "Well that was rude," she commented to herself. "Come out," she repeated. "It's dangerous in there. I won't hurt you. You just need to be put into your costume."

"I don't need a costume," I retorted. "I'm not an animatronic!"

"Ani-ma-tron-ic?" Chika pronounced herself. She had no idea what the heck an animatronic was or why that mattered in the slightest. Rules were rules, and he had to be put into a costume, end of story. It didn't help that the costumes were too difficult to do by themselves. Sometimes, others needed a little help getting into them.

As I scoured through the supplies, I shoved cleaners and brooms aside before finding the key to my salvation. A large air duct that I was certain could be used to navigate my way back to the office.

Grabbing a spare screwdriver that was laying around, I removed the screws holding the cover in place and began my crawl.

Outside, Chika could hear the rhythmic thunking above her in the vents. Tracking the sound with her eyes, there was a moment of confusion followed by recognition. Sure enough, when she burst down the supply closet door, the watchman was no longer inside.

More new things. This one was clever, though she still couldn't be sure as to why he wouldn't just put on the suit. It'd make things much easier for everyone.

With a heavy kick, I popped the vent out of its holster, allowing me to safely climb back into the office. The screen's image was still frozen from the tape, but for now, I moved aside the box of videos to unroll the user manual.

"Hello. Welcome to the user manual for Freddy Fazbear Entertainment's automated bipedal animatronics, produced by William Afton," I read from the first page before flipping through the book.

The animatronics had some safety features. Specifically, there were rooms they weren't allowed into. One such room was the restrooms, for obvious reasons. The other was a 'safe room'. I paused, looking on the map beside me. I didn't see any safe room there.

Ignoring it, I continued. Some of the suits were spring loaded, allowing people to disengage the metal endoskeletons and wear them as normal mascot suits. What sent chills up my spine however was the warning attached to the page.

"CAUTION: Moisture on the spring locks or any sort of vigorous movement may cause them to unexpectedly release. This can result in permanent injury or death for the user."

That's when the music stopped. Oh God, the music box! I'd forgotten all about it! I hurriedly pulled up the CCTV screens. I could see the marionette that hung above the box starting to stir.

"Oh hell no!" I snapped, quickly winding up the music box. "Evil murderous animatronics is crazy, but I'm not fucking around with some sort of demon puppet!"

"Knock knock?" a voice called to my right. The moment I saw Chika, my fist slammed hard into the button, causing the door to slam shut just in front of her beak. There was a heavy thudding knock against the door. God, they just wouldn't go away!

Looking at the clock, it read 3:30. God, almost through with my shift and not only had I not gotten anywhere in my investigation, I was fighting off a death squad of killer robots. Worse, I was running out of power. It was now at 30%.

"Excuse me," she called through the metal door. "The rules say all staff has to be in costume. We're just going to put you in something. I think it's an older Fredbear costume. That was Freddy's Dad once upon a time."

"No way," I shouted. "If you put me in one of those it will kill me. Do you understand? Dead!"

Chika scratched the side of her head in confusion. Dead? Kill? More words she was not familiar with. "Regardless. You have to follow the rules. Otherwise, we'll have to dismantle you."

"Right, because that's so much worse than being crushed to death," I grumbled under my breath.

After a few more cycles passed, Chika once again surrendered the issue. It was only Monday after all. She always felt worn down after the much busier weekend. As the week continued on though she'd gain her energy back. For now, however, she elected to leave their new friend to himself.

As she returned to the dining room, she found Freddy and Bonnie looking at her expectantly. "Well?" Freddy asked.

"No. He says it will dead him...whatever that means."

"Maybe his processor's broken," Bonnie commented. "That's affirmative action for you. Next thing you know, they'll be trying to make the vacuum cleaner get on stage."

That's when all of their audio sensors picked up the ominous sound of metal against tile. "Looks like Foxy wants to give it a shot," Freddy said. "Maybe he'll be able to talk some sense into him."

In the office, I could hear the screeching from down the hall as well. Opening up the CCTV, I saw that pirate cove was now empty. Switching to the camera just outside of the hall, I saw an orange shape dart past.

Oh God! Foxy was a lot faster than the others! I dove for the button, hitting it and sealing him on the other side. His face appeared in the window, slamming hard on it with his hook. His eye glowed with anger at being locked out, and every time he struck the lights would flicker.

Turning away, I saw my power dwindling quickly. This was bad. If Foxy could drain the grid, then there was almost no point in even trying to survive anymore. To my shock however, he vanished from sight, returning to pirate cove before shutting the curtains in front of him in a huff.

Freddy, Chika, and Bonnie all approached Pirate's Cove. "Any luck Foxy?" the bear asked.

"No," he stated plainly, not even bothering to open the curtain.

"Well that's okay," Chika tried. "Maybe he's just shy like you are."

"Or...special," Bonnie suggested. The other two looked at him, causing him to change subjects. "Why do we even need a 'night time' entertainer? It's not like anyone ever comes in this late anyway."

"This is how it's always been," Freddy explained patiently. "As my old man used to say, why isn't important. Doing it is what matters." Somewhere in his head, an alert informed him that his program template was due to change soon. He needed to be on the stage before that point to prepare for the day time hours. "Well gang, it's about that time. How do you want the sign, Foxy? Out of order or open for business?"

"Out of order," Foxy said. "Little hooligans took my eye out last time. Had to use a ball from the ball pit until I could find it. Between this new guy and that, I don't think I'm ready to handle more customers just yet."

"Maybe in a few cycles?" Chika suggested.

"Yeah...maybe," the pirate agreed. "Good luck you three."

With that, the performers returned to their stage, taking their proper positions. As the clock struck 5:00, their bodies automatically adjusted, prepared to deal with the tasks of the day.

To be continued...