My Night At Freddy's

Chapter One: Help Wanted

Okay, so it turned out that working as a Janitor at the local Community College didn't pay as well as one would hope. Sure, the insurance and benefits sounded great, but after taxes and paying for the before mentioned insurance - let's just say that it wasn't quite enough to make ends meet. All this put together basically left me with two options: Apply for assistance, or get a side-gig. Long story short, I was denied assistance because they looked at what I made before taxes and insurance for some reason, which led me to the Help Wanted section of the local paper.

At this time the economy had been down the toilet for a number of years, so there wasn't exactly a plethora of vacancies to choose from. That is, unless I wanted to make less than minimum wage picking oranges or standing on the sidewalk holding a sign for a local business. The local Temp Agency had nothing for me, and the Unemployment Office wouldn't touch me because I still had a regular job, so this went on for about a week until I opened the paper one Friday morning and saw a new ad. It read:

HELP WANTED

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza

Family pizzeria looking for security guard to work the nightshift. 12 am to 6 am.

Monitor cameras, ensure safety of equipment and animatronic characters.

Not responsible for injury/dismemberment.

$120 a week.

To apply call: 1-888-FAZ-FAZBEAR

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, or simply Freddy's, was a local place just a few blocks down the road from my house, actually. It wasn't a bad place to go, so long as the eater wasn't bothered by things like cold pizza, a lousy band that played the same three songs every day, and a bunch of screaming children getting sick at the next table. The place had been around for a while, too, but personally, I hadn't been there since an accident back in '87 when I was just a kid.

Apparently the father of one of the birthday-kids had gotten into some kind of disagreement with Bonnie Rabbit, one of Freddy Fazbear's sidekicks along with Chica Chick and Foxy Fox. Anyhow, all I remember was them getting into a scuffle, and somehow the guy's head got injured on the character's teeth. Needless to say the party was over, and the kid's father was in the hospital for about a month after surgery.

I just sat there looking at the ad for several minutes, thinking it over in my head. The hours were fine, since they would give me about an hour after my shift was done to get from Freddy's to my regular job, which was only about ten minutes away. The pay wasn't stellar, though, with $120 a week breaking down to about $24 a day, which ended up being a whopping $4 an hour before taxes. On the other hand, I didn't sleep much at night, so getting paid to wander aimlessly and look at security monitors was better than lying in bed watching the alarm clock.

My cell phone had been cancelled to save money, and this was fine because my wife still had hers and she did most of the talking anyway, so I picked up the house phone and called the number on the ad. The state I lived in required that all Security Guards be licensed, and thankfully I had gotten mine a few months before through the college I worked at. I got it because it the training was free for employees, and nothing was going on that weekend, but to be honest the training they put me through was really easy.

The phone rang a few times, and it was the owner who answered. I told him that I was interested in the job, and I expected him to say that it was already filled or that interviews would be next week. However, to my surprise he got really excited and asked me when the soonest was that I could come down to his office for an interview. I told him that I could do it that same day if he wanted, and the man was delighted to hear that.

I hadn't expected to land an interview just like that, so I was in a bit of a rush as I got cleaned up and dressed. My wife was happy to hear that I was maybe going to get a second job, so she made breakfast for me while I got ready, and I headed out after we ate together. As I said, Freddy's was only a few blocks away, so a couple minutes later I pulled into the parking lot. The place didn't really get busy until the kids got out from school, so there was hardly anyone inside as I walked through the front doors.

The owner had already told me where his office was; down a short hall next to where the restrooms were and clearly labeled Management. I was nervous and trying to think of ways to sell myself aside from what was on the resume that I had printed off before leaving the house, but it turned out that I would not need these things. All he did was ask me if I could handle the hours, and then he shook my hand and officially welcomed me into the Freddy Fazbear Family. He then told me two things: That he was relieved to find someone so quickly after the last guy had quit, and that I started on Monday.

I was overjoyed, since this job would give me the little bit of extra money I needed in order to both pay my mortgage and eat every day, and I thanked him while shaking his hand a second time. He also gave me a used Freddy's Security uniform to wear, once I washed it a few times anyway, and then he said that everything else I needed would be in the office waiting for me. My final question was about a key, and he replied that he didn't want anyone else having one besides him. His final comment before I left the office was that he would lock the doors after I was in, and then he would let me out when my shift was over.

This policy might have made other people nervous, but not me. I might have been a Community College Janitor/Pizzeria Security Guard, but I had also done tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, so I knew how to handle myself. But there really didn't seem to be any reason for me to be concerned. After all, how much trouble could someone possibly get into while alone inside a pizza place in the middle of the night?