"Okay well now that we're all here, what did you want to talk to us about?" A shorthaired brunet kid of average height asked a significantly shorter blond youth. The teen's white T-shirt was tucked into his dark blue jeans; one hand in his pocket and the other placing a cigarette into his mouth before extracting a silver Zippo lighter.
"Hold on, we're still waiting on April and M." The blond says, sitting down in an office chair and tapping his hands on the dark, oak desk. "What did I tell you about smoking in my room? My dad is gonna freak out when he gets home; he's got the nose of a bloodhound, at least wait until we head out."
"Yeah yeah, whatever." The brunet says, slipping the cig back into its pack and rolling it into his sleeve like a 60's greaser. He looks around the other boy's room, its walls littered with posters for Dragonball, Ghost in the Shell, Nirvana, The Ramones, and The Sex Pistols, underneath the rather large TV in the corner sits a brown VCR that is next to a brand new Super Nintendo Entertainment System that the blond received as a gift for his 14th birthday. His gaze fixes on the other two boys sitting on the blond boy's bed. One of the boys is dressed in a black T-shirt with a very direct and to the point "fuck you" printed in bold red letters across the front; a rather large pirate hat mostly covering his died jet black hair. Beside him sits a huskier kid with longer, shaggy brown hair, a small white Gameboy in his hands. "Who are these guys anyway?" He asks, leaning against the desk.
"You know, you could introduce yourself." The boy in the pirate hat says in a loud, demeaning tone that is followed by an even louder cough." Fucking bronchitis." He mutters to himself, wiping his face with a cloth.
"Danny, be nice." The blond sternly remarks to the kid in the pirate hat, throwing a crumpled paper at his head. "James." He continues, looking at the brunet with the cigarettes. "I've told you about Danny and Hunter before; it was actually Hunter's idea that we go out and do this tonight."
"Still would be nice to know what we're doing." Danny says, annoyed.
"Like Tobie said, I will explain everything when the girls get here." Hunter explains, turning the Gameboy off and slipping it into its carrying case, and into his bag.
Just as Hunter sets his bag aside, the doorbell rings. Tobie walks to his bedroom window, looking down and seeing two more teenagers standing at the front door, speaking to one-another. He opens the window, sticking his head out and snapping his fingers.
"April, M, up here!"
A tan-skinned girl with wavy black hair looks up at the window, waving up at Tobie and giving a nod.
"One second!" She declares, turning to the boy standing beside her. "I guess we're supposed to climb up."
"Um, Hell no! I am not going to ruin this top!" The boy says, dramatically accentuating his bright pink, skin-tight v-neck shirt. "It was like $40; I'm just gonna wait down here, you go up and get them girl." He finishes, giving her a playful push.
"Okay." She replies, turning around and climbing up the trellis, reaching her hands through the window before being pulled in by James and Tobie.
"Hey April, M on his way up?" James asks, looking out the window and spotting the boy looking into a pocket mirror and checking his bouffant. He looks up at the smoker, blowing him a kiss. "Hey Jay Jay, y'all just get started without me!"
"Alright…" James says, turning around awkwardly. "Let's get started; he's doing his make-up."
"Okay, well I bet you're all wondering why we summoned you here." Tobie says, his voice projecting throughout the room like a true showman.
"All right! Getting theatrical!" Danny says with a chuckle, "Gonna finally tell us the results of your HIV test? It's critical isn't it?"
"Fuck off Danny." The blond responds, face-palming. "Hunter, just get on with it."
"Gotcha, well Danny, Tobie and I were talking about shows we used to watch a few years ago after Shop class a couple of days back, you know, Thundercats, He-Man, Loony Toons, etc…"
"Reading too much into kids shows again eh Tobie?" James asks, interrupting Hunter with a smirk, putting a toothpick in his mouth.
"Anyway." Hunter continues, extremely annoyed. "We got on the topic of 'The Real Ghostbusters" you know, that cartoon continuation of Ghostbusters 2?"
"Pfft right, The Real Ghostbusters; Ha!" Danny chuckles.
"What? It's a solid show." Tobie says, defensively.
"You're joking right? Dude the animation was shit, the writing was awful, and since when is Slimer a good guy?" Danny continues, berating the cartoon.
"He's right, it's a pretty shit show." James agrees, twitching the toothpick.
"Would you guys stop interrupting and just let them finish?" April places her hands on her hips. "Continue Hunter."
"Thanks." Hunter says, clearing his throat, "So anyway, we were discussing the idea behind a group of professional paranormal investigators and how fun it would be to be a part of one."
"As well as how financially unstable they are, I mean think about it; there is nobody in their right mind who would actually pay a group of assholes to look for ghosts. Even if there are a lot of religious nutjobs who think ghosts are serious business; there is no way anyone who hunts ghosts could afford to live in that big a building or be allowed to use that siren on their car."
"You want to tell the story Danny?" Tobie asks sharply.
"No, no I'm good."
"Good, I'll take it from here Hunter. We thought it would be fun if we gathered a few friends and made our own paranormal team!" Tobie cheers, raising his fist in the air to get everyone pumped.
"Paranormal team eh? Sounds pretty lame." James remarks, honestly.
"It could be fun I suppose…but how are you going to do this Tobie? You're barely allowed to hang out sometimes, much less go out at night to hunt for ghosts." April inquires.
"Well, as long as I keep my grades up I'm sure my dad will allow me to hang out with friends, go to "football games", etc. I'll find ways."
"Right, or you could just be your dad's bitch forever." Danny teases, smirking.
"You know, has anyone ever told you you're an asshole?" James asks the pirate hat-wearing boy.
"All the time! Splendid feeling is it not?"
"I like you already." James laughs, looking at Hunter. "So anyway, the team is going to be the six of us then? If we include M that is; right?"
"Don't forget Rose!" Danny says, standing up.
"Right, right, we can't forget Rose." Tobie says, looking at James. "Our friends Rose and Keanu are also going to be joining us; they're going to be meeting us there actually."
"Wait, meeting us where?" April asks.
…
The sound of gravel crackling and crunching beneath about a dozen pair of warn out bicycle tires as a gang of mountain bikes pulled into the parking lot of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. The rider of the head bike pulled off his helmet and turned to face his compatriots.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza! An enchanted wonderland of fun and excitement!" Tobie says, raising his arms in the air like PT Barnum.
"Seriously?" James asks, sitting on the edge of his bike seat and rolling his eyes, reaching into his shirtsleeve and popping out a cigarette; placing it between his lips and lighting it. "Wasn't this place condemned or something?"
"No, but the health department apparently gave them one more warning to shape up or they'll have to close down."
"Isn't this the place those kids went missing at?" April asks, taking off her helmet.
"Well, technically those were those other locations ten years ago…from what I know the only people to go missing from here were those two guards." Hunter walks up to the brick wall outside of the building, placing his palm on the cool mortar and getting a little shiver. "M, what time is it?"
"You know, you should really get a watch honey; I can't be with you all the time." He responds, looking down at the hot pink "Barbie Girl" watch on his wrist. "10:30 exactly."
"You guys sure we should do this? I mean never mind the ghost thing, but this is breaking and entering…it's illegal." April says, having second thoughts.
"Of course it's illegal, anything fun always is!" Says Danny, cheerily as he walks to the door. "Just waiting on Rose and Theodore Logan."
"I told you to stop calling me that dude, just because Keanu Reeves starred in a movie, doesn't mean that I'm one of his characters!" Says a boy about Danny's height, running his hand through his combed-back black hair. Behind him is a rather short girl with even shorter, bleach-blonde hair.
"Sup Losers?" Asks the girl, pulling on the bottom of her Astro Boy T-shirt to stretch it for all to see. "Check out my shirt Danny!"
"Ah, very nice! So how's the job hunt going?"
"My Aunt's still trying to make me get one, she keeps insisting that people will hire me at 15. I even suggested working at this place, but she won't even let me apply here. She wants me to get a job, yet won't let me put in an application. She'd totally freak if she knew I was here right now."
"Wait, why? I remember you, Danny, and I used to go to that old restaurant all the time. Remember how we used to build things out of Foxy? Come to think of it, was it even supposed to come apart like that? Seems weird that a company would allow kids to touch the insides of such expensive machinery." Tobie says, stroking his non-existent beard. "Oh Rose, this is James; James, Rose."
"Nice to meet you Rose."
"Same here, you know smoking is bad for you though right?" She informs, pointing at his cigarette.
"So is breaking into crappy restaurants to search for 'ghosts'." He responds with a smirk.
"True."
"So what exactly are we trying to accomplish tonight guys? I'm missing out on some serious sleep because of this; you're lucky it's a Friday." Keanu asks, walking to the door. "And how do we intend on getting inside?"
"Well, from what I saw last time I was here scouting, this place doesn't seem to have any sort of security system. I don't think they've hired a new guard since the last one disappeared so I don't see any problem with us just breaking the lock." Hunter walks up to the door and gives it a firm tug, falling on his back, as the door swings open.
"Wait, it was unlocked? That's weird…" April thinks aloud.
"Yeah, someone is definitely getting fired." Tobie responds, hesitating for a moment before slowly setting his foot on the floor. A cool rush of air sends a chill down his spine as he takes a second step in, his foot sinking into the thick, red entrance mat. "Looks like the coast is clear."
The rest of the teens follow the blond inside the dark restaurant, barely illuminated by the few lights left operating in the main showroom. To their left lie two hallways, both with signs that read the words "HALT! STAGEHANDS ONLY BACK HERE, SORRY KIDS!" To the right is a doorway with another unique sign: "PIZZA IN THE MAKING, CATERERS ONLY!" Directly in front of them lies a set of three columns of tables, six rows each that lead up to the show stage.
"Wow, this is actually a little spooky at night…" M says solemnly.
"Sure is; so what do we do first? I mean we have the arcade to ourselves, pizza in the kitchen over there; hell we can even see what's so special about the "Stagehand-only" area." Hunter grins, excitedly.
"Dude, you do realize it's probably just a security office and a broom closet…right?" Keanu gives the brunet a disapproving look for being so excited at something so mundane.
"Oh yeah…"
"I never thought about it, but how exactly do we ghost hunt? I mean it's not like we have any equipment or positron packs." Rose thinks aloud, sitting down at one of he tables.
"I don't know, but we really do have a lot of people here don't we?" April remarks.
"Well let's split into groups then, shall we? Let's see: me, Hunter, and Keanu will take the security hallways, Danny and Rose can explore this main area and the arcade, James, April, and M will take the kitchen and bathrooms." Tobie says, looking at the restaurant map on the wall. Everyone got it? Good; break!"
"Wait, why are you in charge?" James asks, folding his arms.
"It was all of our plan." Hunter weighs in.
"Well I am the one who organized it and navigated us here."
"Whatever, who cares." James says, walking outside and tossing his cigarette butt on the floor. "Let's just get going; I'm hungry and that cardboard pizza's surprisingly sounding good right now. April, M, after you." He finishes, following the two to the kitchen.
The blond, Keanu, and Hunter take a left, going down the first hallway and disappearing into the darkness. Rose looks over at Danny, a little annoyed.
"Why didn't we get partners?"
"Who cares? We got partnered up together; we're just too cool for that."
"Ha, yeah, well speaking of cool…Pirate Cove is right over there." She says, pointing to the purple curtains in front of her.
"Oh right! I almost forgot about Foxy; Yargh!"
"Well let's go check him out then!"
The two best friends make their way to the purple curtains, each taking one and trying to move it aside.
"Looks like it's stuck…" Rose says, disappointed.
"It's probably operated mechanically with a switch or whatever turns him on for a show."
"Right." She sighs
"Oh well, guess we can't; but the arcade is still here and I believe I'm still beating your high score at Mrs. PacMan." Danny teases, "Race you there!"
"Oh you're so on!" She says, chasing him back to the arcade and letting the curtains billow till they come to a still, dead rest.
…
"That has got to be the loudest fucking fan in the world." Keanu states; obviously annoyed and pacing back and forth the dingy 10-foot wide room.
"Just shut it off then. It's not like it'll kill you or anything." Remarks Tobie, looking at the monitors on the desk.
"I'd rather not risk forgetting to turn it back on when we leave. I'd rather they didn't know we broke in during the night."
"Well the door was open, it's not like we broke it down or even picked the lock or anything."
"You know what I mean though." Keanu finishes, patting Tobie's back "My turn." The blond nods in agreement.
"This is a really small security office; it doesn't seem like it's fit for more than three people." Hunter says aloud, examining the broom closet of a security room.
"Probably because they only ever hire one night guard. It's a small pizza place; there's no need to even have one person here; much less a team of them. I wonder what's keeping the pizza so long though…it's been an hour already." Tobie says, getting out of the office chair.
"James is probably busy making out with April." Keanu teases, putting his hand on Tobie's shoulder and taking the seat from him.. "You have failed for the last time."
"Oh shut up Reeves, you're just jealous that I got a girl to even come on this trip."
"Whatever, doesn't mean you'll make it with her though; and what did I say about comparing me to him? Besides, didn't you flirt with girls here when you were younger? Jeez you're creepier than I am man."
"At least I didn't spend my time thinking of Bonnie and Freddy as a couple, despite not having sentience and being, you know, fucking robots."
"Hey, you've got to admit the drawings I made of them were pretty adorable!"
"Yeah, I guess I'll give you that…weirdo"
"Goddammit…"
"Ladies, you're both pretty. Let's just go check on the pizza already; okay?" Hunter interjects, placing his hand on the doorframe.
"You guys can go ahead, I'm just going to keep checking out these cameras." Keanu says, waving them off.
He flips through each screen till he arrives at the kitchen, only to find that the display's feed is cut, allowing only audio to go through.
"Damn, oh well, let's see what other channels this thing has." He continues to cycle through the different feeds before resting on the camera for Pirate's Cove.