There were congratulations and cake, applause and presents, but those weren't what Mikayla Schmidt was most excited for about her birthday. No, she was looking forward to getting the job she had been so far prevented from taking. It was the only way to find out what happened to her sister, and therefore well worth any risk involved. She hoped.
Rolanda Harris and William Afton were the co-founders and owners of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, which had briefly been a chain from about 1977 to 1984, but there was only one location left, as repeated scandal had scared off customers and the place had fallen on hard times. One of those scandals had been the 1983 disappearance of six children, three of which had been either Rolanda or William's, two of which had been Bensons, and the last of which had been Mikayla's older sister Katie. The only clues to their whereabouts were Rolanda's keys, pilfered by her daughters, left in the door, and Katie's beloved Chica plush, stained with blood.
Ten years later, with three more scandals come and gone - six more missing children and a disastrously public bite, both in 1987, and William's son Michael vanishing while doing the nightshift just the year before - Mikayla was going to take the ever-open night shift at Freddy's herself, in order to learn what had happened a decade prior. Okay, so it maybe wasn't the most logical plan, but quite frankly she'd never been able to come up with a better one, and had no-one who would hear her out long enough to agree to let her bounce ideas off them.
"Ms. Harris?" Mikayla lilted her voice questioningly as she approached the woman.
"Hm? Yes, Mikayla?" Ms. Harris clutched at her disposable coffee cup, seemingly desperate, as she always appeared ever since her daughters disappeared.
"I was just wondering… is the night shift still open at Freddy's?" Mikayla attempted her best winning smile, but it probably looked more sheepish than she meant for it to.
"Why? You know somebody fool enough to take the position?" Ms. Harris scoffed and took a sip of her coffee.
"Uh, yeah. Me," Mikayla shrugged and rubbed the back of her neck nervously.
Ms. Harris choked on her coffee. "What? Mikayla, you more than anyone ought to know how dangerous the position is! What could possibly make you want to seek it out? On your birthday of all days!"
"Well, I thought if I took the position, I might be able to find out what happened," Mikayla admitted. "Ms. Harris, please, I want this, I promise!"
Ms. Harris sighed. "You know, you used to call me Rolanda."
"And if you hire me, I'll call you Boss," Mikayla shrugged. "Change happens. But sometimes, you have to force it."
Ms. Harris chuckled. "Well, alright. I'll have to talk it over with my brother, but as far as I'm concerned, you're hired, Miss Schmidt."
Mikayla grinned as her new boss turned away to look for Mr. Afton. A few minutes later, the man in question approached the birthday girl with eyes full of mirth.
"So, you want the night position," he said with raised eyebrows.
"Yes, sir," Mikayla stood up straight and stared him in the face, trying to convey her conviction without saying another word.
"Congratulations, Miss Schmidt, you're hired," Mr. Afton clapped her on the shoulder. "Be at Freddy's tomorrow at Eleven-Thirty to receive your uniform and begin your first shift."
"Thank you so much, Mr. Afton!" Mikayla grinned. "You won't regret this!"
The main room of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria was unkempt from a lack of funds, but showed signs of its previous grandeur in the meticulately patterned floors and walls, and fine but now long stained tablecloths adorning the party tables. The place once buzzed with activity and happy children enjoying their days, but now customers were rare and parties rarer, with people scared of losing children to the hapless restaurant.
But if she hadn't lived here for a whole decade, and come here since she was born, she wouldn't know that. She wouldn't know to look at the beautiful sculpted light fixtures and remember them as remains of a bygone time. She would have no reason to remember how the posters on the walls once looked when they were new and gleaming instead of old and ratty.
But truthfully, what had changed the most about the eatery were the owners. William and Rolanda, she remembered so clearly, had once been so happy and joyous about this place, their children, everything! William truthfully had a rather Frankenstein-esce obsession with the wilder side of science, but Rolanda kept him in check as best she could and was always kind to even the rudest people she met without ever once allowing them to steamroll over her.
Now, William went about his destructive scientific pursuits unabated by his sister, who had so much trouble sleeping she seemed to live with a coffee cup permanently affixed to her hand, and running of the Pizzeria itself seemed to be only patchily done, and honestly mostly by neither of the owners. Both of them were too distracted by science and woes, respectively.
So she did most of the backstage parts of running the restaurant, along with her friends. It was a wonder really, that no-one in the past five years had looked up and noticed the tightly-knit net of wires that spanned the whole restaurant about three feet below the actual ceiling. Or that it had gone unnoticed that they hadn't had to change the lightbulbs themselves in nearly thirteen years. Or that one stall in each bathroom was permanently "Out of Order" because they had converted it into a shower.
They didn't want a nightguard around for a reason, after all. They didn't want to be bothered any more. The golden rabbit in the safe room was bothersome enough as it was.
But Rolanda was saying they would have a new night guard starting the next night. She almost pitied the fool who would take the position, but that would distract her from feeling annoyed that they would have to take the time to deal with the idiot.
She couldn't wait to get rid of them again.
"What do you mean, you took the night shift at Freddy Fazbear's?"
"What I just said, Liz, I took the night shift," Mikayla shrugged while attempting, rather successfully, truth be told, to grin at her friend.
"You have got to be kidding me, Mikayla, you know how dangerous that place is! I lost both my brothers to that place, and my older sister, and my younger sister has bite marks around her head! I'm the only Afton who was lucky enough to not be touched by that disaster my father and aunt created!" Liz snapped at her older friend.
"Liz, I have to find out what happened! You understand. There are too many questions," Mikayla smiled sadly at the blond girl.
"That doesn't matter! Your safety is more important! Is it really worth it, Mike?"
Mikayla began to grin, opening her mouth to say something, then her brain caught up with her mouth and her face quickly fell as Liz clapped her hands over her mouth. "Sorry," Mikayla sighed. 'I'm sorry, Liz. But I have to do this."
Liz didn't say another word, just turned around and disappeared into the traffic of people moving about the school hallways. Within the blink of an eye, the blond dancer had completely vanished from Mikayla's view. It could be assumed that she would continue unseen for a while, at least a week or so, until she was certain Mikayla wasn't going to up and vanish.
Mikayla only wished she felt as confident of her safety as she had sounded to Liz.