The dim pizza parlor seems pretty normal. Of course, at night, it's not. Normally, you'd walk right by it, only noting how abandoned and dark it appears, like all buildings seem to be at midnight. The nightwatchmen always know better. Why else do they disappear every week, only to go insane a bit a few days before?
The animatronics are why.
It's eleven forty-five AM. The nightwatchmen is due to arrive in fifteen minutes, the Marionette reminded itself. Slowly, it whisked around the corner. Holding the music box it treasures dearly, The Marionette made its way to the Show Stage.
Three creatures stood in position: a bear, blue bunny, and chick. The bunny and chick had excessive amounts of makeup, but otherwise remained still. Good. They won't activate for a while. The Marionette walked soundlessly to Kid's Cove. The pink and white fox animatronic lay in a mangled heap on the floor. An extra endoskeleton head lay on the ground. When the Marionette walked past, it made several weird noises, like a radio.
Quiet! The Marionette screeched at him. You'll wake your second head, idiot.
The endoskeleton didn't reply, just made a quieter noise similar to the one before.
The Marionette, winding up its music box on instinct as it neared the end of "My Grandfather's Clock", replied, Yes, I'm visiting them again. What's wrong with that?
Endoskeleton Head made another warbled noise.
There's nothing wrong with me, I just care for them. The Marionette crossed its black-and-white plastic arms.
More warbled noises came from that direction, sounding more urgent. A human being would probably find the mangled endoskeleton pretty funny at that time, with no face and only bulky teeth and eyes. Of course, all who did were dead now.
They are too technically children. I can act cold another time.
The endoskeleton shut up, put its metallic head on the floor like a dog, and stared at The Marionette until it left. Only then did it settle down, staring at the drawings multiple children made the day before. The last day. The metal head gazed at the pool of drying-up blood on the ground. Boy, did he pity the guy who was coming tonight.
Four animatronics lay in a heap in their own room: a bear, a bunny, a chicken, and a fox. Just like the one from before, they weren't moving. However, these animatronics were much different.
The bear didn't have happy clown cheeks, and was torn in several places. A few loose wires that were torn from "The Incident" were sticking out. It sported a top hat and bowtie, like a creepy gentleman.
The bunny was purple instead of blue, and appeared more masculine than feminine like it's blue counterpart. A bow was around its neck. It was hard to tell what it looked like before, since its face been torn out, with thread and spare wire hanging loosely, much like the bear had.
The yellow chicken was disturbing. It lay on the floor, its eye loose in its mask, and three pairs of wire-filled teeth were visible. A bib was wrapped around its neck, with the words, "Let's Eat!"
The fox was a not much different than its three friends, torn and broken. It had more of a pirate theme, however, and razor-sharp teeth. If this was secretly a dangerous weapon, whoever made it was not very secretive.
As soon as The Marionette was in the room, it approached each of the animatronics and flipped the switches to "ON". Then it sat down in the corner and waited, fiddling with the music box like a child would with a piano. Discorded notes flooded the room.
"Cut out the noise, Jack," said a distorted southerner girl voice. When The Marionette looked up, it saw the chick abomination glaring down at it.
He gave a creepy smile, bigger than the one he had on for twelve hours of the day. Hello, Chica, how was your final day in sleep mode?
"HORRIBLE," rasped Chica in a more demonic way than before. "THEY TORE MY FINGERS OFF TO GIVE TO MY COUNTERPART, AND MY TOES ARE RUSTED TO THE POINT WHERE I CAN'T FEEL THEM ANYMORE."
They've been rusted for quite a while, actually, The Marionette calmly corrected.
Chica gave an inhumane screech from heck back.
This, of course, was offensive in their "culture". The Marionette glared at the chicken animatronic and got up. It looked ready to pick a fight, but when he neared Chica, who backed up into a wall, something grabbed him by the shoulder. The Marionette whipped around to see Freddy the Bear.
Good evening, Fazbear. I'm glad to see you are well, The Marionette bowed with respect, as if it were Freddy Fazbear who were in control of it. How are the pizzas?
As her AI had programmed her to do, Chica randomly exclaimed, "PIZZA," in the least intelligent way possible.
Freddy put his arms on his waist, which shed some fake fur that was attached to his suit, "Marion, Marion, Marion, what do you want today?"
The Marionette, though its face was naturally in a smile, actually appeared to frown. This was impressive, as was its ability to get small white pupils at will. It sighed and scolded the bear, How many times have I told you, Fazbear? My name is not Marion or Jack. It's The Marionette.
"And I'm actually Freddy," the bear animatronic growled with a hint of sarcasm. If one were to listen carefully, you could hear a difference between his voice and the one he was programmed to speak in. His statement, if looked into even more, was actually true: He wasn't actually Freddy Fazbear of the Freddy Fazbear's Pizza place.
The Marionette, ignoring the commentary, questioned the bear, Now, where's Bonnie at?
A perky voice came from behind the trio, the most corrupt of them all, "IT'S ME, Bonn-ie-ie B-Bunny! Wouuuld you lik-k-k-ke to here a special birthday son-ong just for you-you-you-you-you-"
The Marionette turned around and sucker-punched the purple critter in what was left of his face.
"Thank you for clearing that up, Marionette," beeped Bonnie, holding his malformed head. He spoke like Mickey Mouse a bit, but much lower and sometimes even demonic when he wasn't on day-shift mode. "I keep getting my recordings stuck."
The Fox randomly peeked out from behind Bonnie. He croaked like an old pirate tape recording, "Then it's good yer current host be gettin' scrapped, lad."
You do not need to continue using pirate, Foxy. You are getting scrapped in the morning, about six hours from now, and it is the evening now.
"A' know, Mar'nette, a'm jus' kinda used t' it," Foxy shrugged.
The Marionette, not paying attention to the fact that its music box had unwound a while ago, glanced about. Finally, Goldy? Where's Goldy?
Freddy looked pretty bored, as if everything was old news. To be fair, nothing was good except for freedom. "Golden Freddy was shipped out to be scrapped earlier in the day. I'm guessing you were busy preparing the music box?" Freddy Fazbear answered, pointing to his contraption.
Realizing it was off, The Marionette quickly wound it back up with superhuman speed. It then looked up at the unimpressed animatronics. What? It is the only object that gives me comfort.
"Yer a bigger child than we were, Jacky-lad," Foxy said.
The Marionette was silent.
Fortunately for him, 11:59 PM bell rang. Without another word, the animatronics dispatched to their starting positions and awaited the final night of their eternal torture.