Chapter 2: Acquainted
Alex slowly emerged from deep sleep as his alarm blared on his bedside table. As per usual, he reacted to his rude awakening with a grunt. He slammed his hand down on the clock's snooze button and the ear piercing alarm ceased blaring at once. Right off the bat, Alex noticed something seemed off about this morning. It seemed a bit barren. A bit empty. A little too quite.
He opened his eyes to a squint, and to his surprise, his room was flooded with moonlight. He sat up in his bed to get a look out the window across from him. And strangely enough, it was still dark out. He sluggishly grabbed his alarm clock and stared at the time displayed, puzzled with the situation. The thing read 11:15 PM. His first guess was that he might've set an alarm for PM instead of AM, but after being conscious for a couple more seconds, he remembered Summer vacation had just begun. He usually wouldn't dream of setting an alarm.
He didn't really care why it went off, as long as he didn't wake up his mom or brother. He carelessly threw the clock back on the bedside table and was happily ready to sink back into his cozy bedfolds until he saw a key glinting in the dark alongside the alarm on the table. "Oh...shit...," he tiredly whispered, letting an irritated sigh as it all came back to him. Tonight was the first night of his new shift.
He remembered he'd gone to bed early and set an alarm for 11:15, so he could get some sleep before his all-nighter shift. Before he could somehow convince himself to fall back into the warm comfort of his bed, he threw off his blanket and switched on the bedside lamp. Yawning as he stood up, he trudged over to his closet and thoughtlessly grabbed and threw on the first t-shirt he saw. It just so happened to be the only stainless white shirt he had. Letting out an even bigger yawn then the first, he slowly finished getting dressed.
Alex always found it strange to get up in the middle of the night when the rest of the house was asleep, but it was also weirdly exhilarating. It reminded him of that one time he snuck out in the middle of the night to meet Brian Anderson, his best friend, at a distant neighborhood's public swimming pool. It was closed, but the meaning of the word is lost to teenagers like them, so they just hopped the fence and swam the night away. The most exiting part of it all was narrowly avoiding getting caught.
The hardwood floors of Alex's room creaked as he tip-toed into the darkened hallway with his family's good-night's sleep in mind. He rubbed his eyes and threw away the whole tip-toeing thing when he stealthily ran back into his room to power down the lamp he'd forgotten to turn off. Alex also grabbed the supply-filled backpack he'd lazily thrown on the floor before he went to sleep. He quickly sped back out of his room as quietly as he could and into the hall. Speeding out the front door, he looked back to see the tiny house he lived in. Was still a damn shame that his father left them in this hell-hole of a neighborhood. The dusty old bike propped up against the front of the house was hopped on by the newly-employed teen and freely driven out into the dimly lit street towards Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.
Alex couldn't say he was very exited to work this job through his precious Summer break time. Especially since it was the night shift. He'd already dumped his truckload of pissed-off onto Mathew Burns, his new employer, for landing him the graveyard shift, so he just sighed to express his anxiety for the job and freely drove through the car-ridden roads of the night, the midnight chill happily whipping through his long brown hair. At least he'd gotten a job and would be able to help support his mom. Or at least get her to stop nagging him to do so. As he swerved out of a lonely car's way, it occurred to him that he could probably get his mom and brother discounts for when they visited Fazbear's as often as they did. Tomorrow he'd plan on hassling Mathew into giving him some. The guy didn't seem very assertive, so it had to be easy to convince him of anything.
Alex yawned once more as he started to approach the end of his street. Boy, was this place dead at night. It was already pretty empty in the daytime, but only when he went out at night did the boy realize just how lonely this slum really was. He'd be happy to be rid of this place forever. As long as he lived, he would never be able to truly call his neighborhood home, and yet, he'd never lived anywhere else. Where the hell did he want to be so badly other than here? After all, this was all he ever knew. He guessed he just wanted more for his family, but where was it? Where was his faraway home-
Shit. He stopped his train of thought in it's tracks. Alex hated when he got all philosophical with himself. He also stopped his bike in it's tracks and took in a deep breath as he stared at the darkened pizzeria in the distance, his new night home. The big sign on the roof with the cartooned versions of the Fazbear band loomed over the whole parking area like an ancient Roman monument. Except a whole lot less impressive. Only imposing. At least to Alex. It read: 'Freddy Fazbear's Pizza! Where Fantasy and Fun Come to Life!' How lovely. Alex somehow didn't think the 'fun' part of the ad could apply to night workers. He continued riding through the large empty parking lot towards the building.
A quick shiver shot down the teen's spine when he quickly glanced at the sign again as he regrettably noticed the sign's cartoon Bonnie stare him down like a turret protecting area fifty one. Wonderful. Just wonderful. He'd almost forgotten about that dickbot's malfunction when he first visited the pizzeria. That thing had almost torn off his arm. Or at least the pain reflected a force of that sort. Anyways, now he was reminded of Bonnie's aggressive greeting and had to go inside alone at night with the Fazbear Band as his only frighteningly malfunction-prone company. And don't even get him started on that fucking puppet thing. That thing was straight up unsettling. It honestly kind of freaked him out in a way. Ever since he was born, Alex had fears caused by his reeling thoughts. One creepy event and his brain would run horribly terrifying scenarios over and over in his head. At least these guys stayed stationary at night...And yet he couldn't help, but wonder.
The wind stopped blowing in Alex's ears when he finally reached the glass doors of the darkened pizzeria and halted his rusty old bike. Since this place was obviously prone to drunk teen break-ins, the new night guard realized leaning his bike against the wall next to the front doors might not be the best thing to do if he ever wanted to see his bike again. Or at least in one piece. And he assumed Mathew wouldn't appreciate Alex lugging his dirty bike into the building. So instead he just walked his bike to the back of the building, a narrow passageway between Fazbear's and another building in the mall leading to a small square-shaped dead end. The small back alley was dimly lit only by a small lamp connected to one of the brick walls. The clearing's fabulous decor included a luxuriously over-flowing vibrantly green-colored dumpster along with the classically grey trash-can straight out of skid-row! Anyway, Alex leaned his bike against the aforementioned dumpster, which reeked of cat-piss and molding pizza, and looked once more at his slummish surroundings. Holy hell this place was like the perfect area to murder someone secretively.
Upon his mention of murder, Alex remembered the two missing kids. Nervous goosebumps emerged when he remembered that he had to watch out for him. His reeling thoughts ate away at him once again and he suddenly sprinted as fast as possible away from that dead end and back in front of the building. There is no real reason the killer would arrive here in the middle of the night, but even so, the thought of someone in the alley lurking in the shadows, the child-napper cornering him, it was enough to make Alex sweat.
Alex bent over to catch he breath when he reached the front of the glass doors. Damn he wasted all his energy because he got wimpy again. Standing back to his full height, he reached deep into his pocket and wearily fished around for a key. He felt the cold metal in his hand as he grasped it and pulled it out of his pocket. The lonely silver key unaccompanied by a jangling key ring, was placed inside the door lock on the glass doors. Alex slowly turned the key, preparing for whatever might await him with this insane new job. With thoughts of the creepy puppet and the murdered kids fresh in the night guard's mind, the key completed it's rotation. Click. The door unlocked and Alex apprehensively pushed through into the darkened pizzeria.
Shit. Alex wasn't expecting to feel this unsettled. He found the place to be actually pretty nice looking in the day, but night-time was a whole different story. The cute pictures of children's drawings neatly stapled on a bulletin board above the door to Ronnie the day guard's office, now looked disorderly and twisted like a strange fever dream nightmare. Straw covers and napkins and other things of the sort were strewn about all over the reception counter to his right, remnants of yesterday's working hours. Besides a few littered wrappers here and there, the floor seemed pretty clean in general.
Alex looked at his watch reading, '11:49' and decided it was a little too dark to feel his way to the office Mathew was so graciously letting him use instead of Ronnie's. He didn't really know the layout of this place too well in the first place, so he abandoned the idea of trying to navigate his way to the office without light, so he threw his bag on the reception counter and zipped it out. He scavenged for his flashlight among a sea of random snacks, books and things to keep him entertained during the shift. At last he pulled out the small little torch from the bag and zipped up, throwing it on his back once more. He switched it on and began traversing through the midnight halls of Freddy's.
He could barely remember anything from the tour that Mathew's most 'loyal employee' gave (probably because of the whole traumatic experience with Bonnie), so it seemed he would just have to look around until he found it. Hopefully avoiding that damn Puppet's room. Jesus, did Alex find that thing to be the epitome of his childhood fears.
From this reception area he could either enter Ronnie's office or go left to reach a long hall. Alex chose left because he assumed the office would be a dead end and he also promised himself he would avoid anything to do with that assaulter.
Alex stared at a poster of Foxy the Pirate plastered on the wall behind the counter. Foxy was his little brother's favorite character here, so he couldn't help, but give a small smile as he thought of that little tot. Like most little brothers, he could be annoying as hell, but he could be very sweet when he tried. But he also realized, unlike most brothers, he could be strangely violent at times, and say sadistic things while performing said violent actions. He was getting treatment from doctors and a diagnosis on these strange behaviors had not been delivered yet. Nothing Alex could do about it yet.
The guard stopped stalling by staring at random drawings on the wall and actually started making his way down the first hall lined with party rooms, flashing his light through every open doorway, just to ease his emerging paranoia/curiosity that something might be lurking in the shadowy party rooms. He hadn't seen anything so far. Mostly just, empty tables with party hats in front of each seat. Nothing unusual yet.
Reaching the end of the hall and into the main party room, he instinctively pointed his light immediately towards the show stage expecting to see the three main band members. Only he didn't see them. Although, he did see a large curtain closing off the stage. He assumed they were locked in position behind it. Flashing his light in that direction, he noticed a blocked off entrance to the right off the stage. Alex apprehensively and quietly walked through the hauntingly quiet dining area to inspect the newly-noticed door. It was surprising that he'd not noticed this before as 'DO NOT ENTER' was marked in bright-red. In fact, there were many signs plastered all over the door to keep out of this section. Well, that seemed like a dumb idea. If you're trying to get kids to stay away from something, don't constantly throw 'STAY AWAY FROM THIS' in their faces or they'll just get curious.
Before he continued the search for Mathew's office, he noticed the main DO NOT ENTER sticker on the door peeling off. It was covering the original words that had been painted on the door. Out of that same childish curiosity in all of us, he carefully peeled off part of the sticker, making sure he would be able to stick it back on, and was able to see the original writing on the door. 'STAGE 01,' it read. That was quite peculiar to Alex. Was this the original stage? What performed on it? Why was it closed off? All these questions he wanted answered, so as a result, he impulsively tried to open the door. He expected it to be locked or at least a little jammed, but it slowly creaked open when he lightly pushed it.
The night guard only poked his head through and shined his flashlight into the room. As he suspected, the room was only a smaller version of the main dinning hall only with an empty stage at the far end of the room. He realized he probably shouldn't be messing with this room. He didn't want to get in trouble for snooping around in places he shouldn't on his first night. He quickly poked his head back out and shut the door. Okay. Back to the office. 'Oh damn' was his first reaction as he swiftly ran back to the door and replaced the DO NOT ENTER sticker back the way it was. Okay. Back to the office for real this time.
He slowly continued tip-toeing through eerily silent pizzeria, keeping up his newly-developed habit of flashing his light into every room he walked by. Occasionally he would also flash the light towards the show stage. Just to ease his paranoia. He also noticed that the dinning hall seemed a lot bigger when it was empty. Or maybe that was just because of the painfully slow pace he was walking to get through it.
Alright, so Alex remembered walking down a long hall lined with even more party rooms to reach the office last time he was here. He also remembered meeting this weird kid who was shooting some kind of mystery movie. Alex also remembered the guy temporarily falling into a trance of some sort. Scott was his name. Scott Parks. And speaking of a long hallway, Alex could one straight ahead of him, so he made he was towards it, assuming it was the correct way to go.
Passing by the bathroom hall, he once again shone his light into the darkened area. Next, he passed by some kind of janitor's closet with the door standing ajar. He reluctantly pushed the door fully open and shone his light in there. Nothing interesting. Only mops and buckets. He shut the door, closing it properly this time, unlike the janitor who was most likely using the closet before Alex arri-
THUD!
Alex practically jumped out of his skin, then proceeded to frantically flick his light all around the room to find the source of the loud banging noise. "Shit! Shit! Really!? On my first night!? I'm not even in the goddamned office yet!" He muttered under his breath, realizing it might be one of those stupid break-ins the neighborhood teens are practically obsessed with. He was just a tiny bit too tired to deal with one of those juvenile ass-hats. But his new job called for it. He had to protect the pizzeria at night and protect the pizzeria he would. And unless it was an adult, Alex assumed letting whoever broke in know the pizzeria had a night guard now would probably scare them off. And then they would hopefully tell the rest of their buddies waiting outside of the place's new midnight protector.
Alex actually liked the sound of that! 'Midnight protector! Roaming the darkened corners! Fighting crime! Destroying all villains who attempt to enter his shadowy domain!' Great superhero title!
Alex deepened his voice and began to yell the robber...before he thought of something intimidating to say. "Don't come any further into this restaurant! The Midnight Protector will destroy you! Or, uh, I mean the, uh, the police...the authorities...Just, uh, just get out of here you, uh, you-you fiend!" He yelled, his stupid comments echoing through the silent pizzeria. Well, any chance of him being intimidating were now gone. Oh my God, he must of sounded so fucking stupid! Who the hell says, 'fiend.'
His only option now was to find the office and call the police. But after staying still and listening to the quiet for a bit, he realized the pizzeria was filled with just that; quiet! No footsteps other than his own could be heard. And no matter how silent a dumb teen tried to be, Alex still would've heard something. There's no way any criminal could be that silent. So, the sound was most likely something he'd accidentally knocked over. And yet, even though it wasn't the sound of a criminal, Alex would definitely be more on edge for the rest of the night. More focused than any other night guard should have to be on their first night. Looks like the first night wasn't going to be all about getting acquainted with his new workplace, but more about staying focused on his actual job. Which was definitely not a bad thing, but if he wasn't actually any good at defending himself against anyone who breaks in, being focused didn't really mean anything.
Whatever. He'd figure out what to do later, but for now, Alex just really wanted to get comfortable in his new office. So, he continued walking towards the corridor leading to the office. 'Oh great. Just great,' Alex thought as he saw there was one more entrance he'd have to pass by before getting to the hallway. And it wasn't just any old party room or storage closet. Oh no, no, no. This room Alex remembered. It was the arcade, which is also known to him as the Puppet's domain. The last time he walked by the arcade and looked into the room, the first thing he saw was that fucking puppet scanning his soul from the inside out.
Alex decided he was just going to run by the entrance. He wouldn't even stop to flash his light into the room. He wasn't really in the mood to be creeped out by that thing. He didn't want to know if the Puppet was staring at him from the darkness or not. Ignorance is bliss. Truly. Then again, Alex couldn't deny that he was just little curious to see if the Puppet would know if he was there and stare at him once more. Then again, curiosity killed the cat, so they say.
Ah, screw it!
Alex jumped in front of the doorway and shined his light into the room and was exceedingly disappointed he had done so. Because the first thing he noticed upon the dim illumination of the room was the Puppet's box, which had been swung wide open, with fallen smaller gift boxes strewn all about the floor in front of it. The worst part was the severe lack of a Puppet inside the giant box. Alex shuddered.
The now frightened boy took two extremely apprehensive steps into the arcade room, trying to be as silent as possible as not to alert anyone or...anything...of his presence. He only wanted to get a look at the rest of the room. He quickly flicked his flashlight around the corner of the arcade and only saw rows of arcade machines lining up the long room.
Okay. Nothing here. And after second thought, Alex realized the Puppet was probably just curled up at the bottom of the present. But that didn't explain the open box and the gift boxes on the floo-
Then he saw it and was immediately paralyzed by fear. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed it. Staring at him from on top of an arcade machine against the back wall in the far corner of the room. It didn't move. It just watched. It lay down on top of the row of machines, like a right-side up sloth. Alex wanted to make a run for the office, he really did, but he didn't want to make any sudden movements. And after seeing what these things were capable of, he didn't want to screw with this guy. Running might only entice him to give chase.
Alex took a very slow step backwards to see how it would react. It moved it's head along with him. Following Alex's movements with every step he took. This told the night guard two things:
1. This Puppet obviously had some control over it's movements.
2. Alex would be right to say this thing was straight up scary.
As if things needed to get any worse for the terrified guard, the Puppet began emitting a low humming noise. Alex began to sweat, further gluing to the floor as the creature then pointed with it's long flimsy arm to something sitting on top of a shelf near the big gift box. Alex slowly turned his head to see what he was pointing at, still making sure he could see the Puppet out of the corner of his eye. The teen saw a small box with an even smaller crank jutting out the side. A note was crudely taped on it's front side. 'Take it. My gift to you. You have thirty seconds. Go.'
What the hell did that mean!? Did the Puppet write this!? How the hell does a fucking Puppet do that!? Alex began to realize he didn't time for all these questions. The note told him he had only thirty seconds. Thirty seconds until what, he didn't know, but he surely wasn't going to stick around to find out.
Alex's time was ticking and he still hadn't done anything. He looked back at the Puppet and it was starting to crawl along the top of the arcade machines, towards the boy. Fuck. Alex was done with waiting.
The teen swiftly ran to the shelf, grabbed the small box and ran for his life back out the arcade. He pointed his flashlight in all directions around him, just to quickly regain his bearings, seeing the office at the end of the long hall. Bingo.
Not having the luxury of time at his disposal, Alex ran faster then he'd ever had to in his life, past the darkened party rooms, praying some kind of demon wouldn't pop out and pull him into the dark as he ran by. Obvious to see Alex wasn't thinking rationally anymore.
Shit! Why does it feel like the hall will never end. And just as he dared to look behind him to see if he was followed, he rammed into the wall at the end of the hall.
Despite the pain, he swung the office door open and shot himself inside, tripping as he stumbled into the room. No time. He's got no time left. Alex jumped to his feet and accompanied with that recognizable sound, slammed the east hall door shut.
...
...
...
Alex took slow, steady breaths to calm himself down as he sullenly sat down at the office chair. Damn. Thirty seconds had obviously passed and nothing crazy happened, so what he assumed the Puppet wanted from the night guard was probably right. He was supposed to get to the office in thirty seconds.
Alex was still having trouble catching his breath. 'What the hell?' was all he had the energy to tell himself, as he threw his bag and the 'puppets gift' on the table. His brain was having quite the time trying to explain what just happened to itself. He noticed night guard supplies and a folded uniform on top of the desk, along with a small tablet seemingly displaying a layout of the pizzeria in the corner.
He picked up the tablet first. The camera feed was already switched to the show stage, where Alex saw all of the main band members deactivated and silent behind the curtain. He then noticed 1:03 AM displayed on the top right corner of the screen. Damn. He'd wasted that much time walking around the place.
Alex chuckled to himself as he looked back at the three frozen robots. They weren't able to move at night, so why the hell was Alex worried another malfunction could happen. Bonnie wasn't just about to waltz on over to the office and nearly break his arm again. His brain also seemed to find the solution it was looking for as Alex realized he was probably just hallucinating all that crap with the puppet.
But then again, the strange box he was told to take was still sitting there on the desk along with the threatening note. Speaking of which, he could probably just check the arcade CAM and see what the puppet was up to. He looked down to the bottom left of the screen and scanned the digital map layout of the building for the arcade. This place definitely seems much smaller on the outside. No wonder Alex got lost. Freddy's is actually pretty big. Monitoring all these camera feeds would not be very easy.
Static filled the screen as the arcade video feed started to come in to focus, occasionally blurring as static covered the screen for a couple seconds.
"Well, shit," Alex thought as he saw the Puppet's box still standing wide open. He wasn't having vivid hallucinations. That crap was real. And very strange. The guard took in another deep breath upon this realization. He was definitely going to approach Mathew Burns about that.
Alex decided to continue staring at the camera feed until he saw something happen. Just quiet now. He tried to listen for any sort of movement throughout the restaurant. He couldn't hear a thing...Or could he? Was that breathing? Was that a footstep? Or just wind? Or maybe-
RING! RING! RING!
"Shit!" A startled Alex yelled, as an old phone blared it's ring throughout the office. Who the hell is calling at this hour!? Oh yeah. Mathew told Alex he'd be getting a message from the guy who first showed Alex around the pizzeria.
RING! RING-
"Shut up! I'm getting it!"
Alex picked up the phone and was fully expecting to hear the man who showed him around when he first got here.
"Alex Lane?" Said the voice of a young boy. He sounded around 12.
"H-Hello?" The confused guard responded. Okay, so it wasn't a message from the guy he expected. But what was even stranger was that it didn't even appear to be a message at all, but an actual phone call. This late a night. From a child? Who knew his name. "Who is this? How do you know my name?" Alex attempted to ask sternly.
"I'm not obligated to answer that," the kid sassed.
"Why are you calling here this late? Isn't it, like, passed your bedtime or something?"
"Excuse me, Lane, but I do not have a bedtime. And I'm calling to get you ready for the first show." As the kid talked, the troubled guard noticed a hint of an English accent.
"Hey, kid! Tell me how you know my name!" Alex shouted into the speaker.
"Why? It doesn't matter at the moment."
"Is this a prank call? Who the hell are you? Where are your parents?"
"Lane, you must know, all those questions you ask get very annoying very fast. I'll answer the three you asked, but then I insist you do away with all the question marks for now," the child said frankly. Shit, this kid had quite the attitude.
"Listen, kid, I don't know what the hell your-"
"One, this is not a prank call. I can assure you of that. Two, many know me as Edward, but you can refer to me as what you will. And three, my parents are both dead and they have been so for many years."
Alex didn't believe for one second this wasn't a prank call after that. And what the hell kind of prank call was this. It wasn't very funny.
"Hey, kid, or, uh, Edward? Try proving this isn't a prank call. 'Cause if you can't then I'm just gonna hang up," the teen challenged.
"Simple. Look at the desk in front of you. On it, you will find supplies and a uniform you have not yet touched. You will also see a security tablet that you have been staring at to monitor the Puppet, whom graciously gifted you the music box also sitting on the desk," Edward snarked.
"How the hell do you know-"
"Furthermore, look to your right and then to your left. Notice how you no longer have regular doors, but giant metal doors. You might want to open them up using the buttons beside them. You know, to conserve power."
Alex seriously began to think he was dreaming this as he saw exactly what Edward was describing on the walls. As the child continued, Alex thought it best to just comply with what he was asked to do. Whoever he was talking to obviously knew exactly where he was. And that scared him.
"Below the door buttons, you will find another marked 'light.' This will grant sight into the halls on either side."
Alex pushed the button on both sides, and doing so resulted in a portion of the hallway to be illuminated.
"These buttons and doors are your close partners. Your camera monitor too. Look down at the monitor and you will find a new display presenting you with how much power the pizzeria has left. Running out of power will result in both your doors opening. Conserve power and make sure to always be surveying this bloody place," Edward explained.
"Uhhh, o-okay," Alex managed to muster. He was starting to feel rather inferior. Being talked to like this by a kid. A snarky kid who obviously knew way more than he did right now.
"Failure to conserve power will result in the end of enjoyment."
"What the hell does that mea-"
"Stop! Lane, what did we say about those question marks? They will not help you now. They can and will always lead to insanity. Stop trying to explain everything to yourself. For your own good," the boy interrupted.
Alex was starting to get annoyed and was about to lash out at Edward, but managed to stop himself and simply grumbled, "fine."
"Lastly, the music box the Puppet gave you. Wind it up. Make sure the music box's song never reaches it's end. Those are the rules. Follow them. Or don't. It's your choice. Goodnight."
Edward then hung up, leaving Alex alone in the office with a bewildered look on his face. And just like the events with the Puppet. All he was able to tell himself was, 'what the hell?'
No. Enough questions. Alex couldn't afford to lose his sanity trying to explain everything. He had to trust this was a dream.
Alex had always thought, along with a good chunk of society, the supernatural as something of fiction. Well, he thought that maybe ghosts existed, but things appearing out of nothing like that, changing before his very eyes, that was definitely outside his realm of belief.
And yet, despite trusting he was in a dream, there he was, winding up the Puppet's music box on the desk. He was absolutely not first in line to find out what would happen if the song stopped. Monitoring the cameras, flicking through every video feed in the restaurant. But, other than listening to that stupid song from the music box over and over again, nothing had really happened since Edward called him. It was 3:45 AM.
He also noticed the Stage 01 camera didn't seem to be working, every time he would switch to it, he'd only see a bunch of static. At least the rest were working, so he could do what Edward told him to. Alex still hadn't really figured out why he had to survey said cameras or wind up the music box, but he couldn't say he wasn't a little bit spooked at the mystery of it all. But Alex had already convinced himself all this was a dream and he'd probably just wake up in the office at 6 AM, so there was no point in asking questions now and just in case he wasn't dreaming, he'd be following Edwards orders. Manage power. Monitor cameras. Wind music box. And don't keep the doors closed unless you have too. Alex didn't really get the last one. He didn't see why he'd ever have to close 'em. He'd probably just be waking up soon anyway. He'd probably just fallen asleep in the office.
But if that was the case, then why was he getting so sleepy, all of a sudden. Alex began yawning as he lazily wound up the music box once more. As he attempted to carefully analyze the dinning hall cam, he stopped being able to fight his heavy eyelids. He jostled his head a bit after briefly closing his eyes and slumping back in his chair. Blinking non-stop, the night guard retrieved a water bottle from his bag and attempted to lightly splash his face, but ended up accidentally dropping the bottle and completely soaking his face. Shit. At least that'll probably hold him over for another 30 minutes or so.
The tablet displayed 4:13 AM and Alex was practically a zombie now. Winding the music box and flipping through cameras can do that to you. Not to mention, his fatigue getting worse. He had to splash his face again to keep him from passing out. Alex seriously didn't expect it to be this hard to stay awake. And based on his theory that he was dreaming, he shouldn't be falling asleep like this. Or maybe he could. Would he have a dream in a dream?
4:26 AM and Alex was starting to lose control of his eyelids. He kept falling in and out of consciousness, while still attempting to wind the box. In his fatigue, he was starting to see strange things in the cameras. He saw party hats multiplying in the dinning hall. Posters of the animatronics disappear and re-appearing in front of his very tired eyes. He could've sworn he saw somebody entering the building through the front entrance cam. Somebody young. Maybe he should go investigate-
NO! He couldn't trust anything he was seeing. He was either really tired and was hallucinating things. Or the strangeness of dreams was starting to come into play. Alex rubbed his heavy eyes and blinked a couple times, then he looked back at the tablet. Whatever or whoever he'd seen was no longer in his sight. Ah whatever, he was probably just seeing things anyway...
Alex's consciousness was beginning to fade. He was afraid he would doze off pretty soon, so he flipped through every video feed quickly before he fell asleep, even though he wasn't really processing what he was seeing. Although, he did notice something very strange on the show stage cam. He saw Bonnie and Freddy's heads staring straight at the camera, their eyes completely blacked out. Seeing something like this earlier in the night would scare the hell out of him, but he was way too tired to even care anymore. He was falling asleep and that's all there was to it. He was gonna be fine.
Alex used every last bit of his energy to give the music box one final wind to fully restart it's song before collapsing in his chair. He'd fallen asleep.
Alex woke up to the sound of heavy footsteps walking in his direction and upon emerging from unconsciousness, felt he wasn't in the office anymore based on the surface on which he was sleeping on. It was on a cold floor somewhere in the pizzeria. He'd fallen asleep in his chair. He finally shot his eyes open when he felt his leg being softly nudged.
He saw his boss standing over him, looking surprisingly amused. Another surprise was Alex finding himself lying on the floor in the middle of the dinning hall. Mathew offered a hand to Alex to help him get up. The guard excepted and accidentally yawned in Mathew's face. It didn't faze the manager, though. He simply grinned and jokingly said, "So, uh, it's obvious how your first night went..."
"Sorry, sir. I, um, I-"
"Oh it's fine. No need to apologize. Just, uh, don't let happen again, okay? Even though I'm desperate for good workers, I'd still like you to do your job. Tomorrow morning I don't want to find you here again at 7:00 AM," Mathew Burns chuckled lightly.
Alex grinned along with the fortunately forgiving Mathew, but realized he should defend himself a little bit. "I know what this looks like, but I was honestly working, uh, hard." He hesitated as he remembered all of the unreal details of his night. He still wasn't sure if he was dreaming that or not. He decided it best to just pretend he was having a normal night.
"Alex, don't get me wrong. I've worked a night shift before and a little snooze is fine, but why out here and not in the office? I trust you were using that one?
"I was, sir-"
"You don't need to call me 'sir'."
"I was...dude? And that's where I fell asleep! I honestly have no idea how I ended up out here. Maybe I was sleepwalking. I'm not sure," Alex attempted to explain, shifting awkwardly in front of his boss.
"And another thing, Alex. Who is that? I trust you know him?" Mathew pointed at a table in the far corner of the room. The night guard turned around and was extremely dumbfounded to see none other than Scott Parks, the only kid whom he'd met upon his last visit here. He was sitting alone at the table, his hands shaking nervously as he vacantly stared at the video camera in hand. Why the hell was he here?
"Some cooks who came in early this morning found both of you passed out on the floor here. He woke the younger one and called me up so I could deal with you. And here I am. That kid wouldn't say anything. He's just been staring at his camera over there. So mind explaining who he is?" Mathew asked. It was actually more like a demand. Alex caught on to Mathew's subtext very easily.
"Ummmm...I-I don't know," Alex lied. He thought about telling Mathew the truth, but ultimately decided against it. He didn't want to be linked with Scott was dealing with.
"Well, that obviously means he somehow entered the building last night. Most likely while you were snoozing away. I gotta get to work and see how much of a mess you made of my office, but before you leave, would you mind talking to the kid? See if you can get some answers out him?" Mathew asked. Demanded.
"Sure thing, boss," Alex said with fake enthusiasm. All the teen wanted to do was go back home and hop into bed.
"Just call me Mathew," he said while walking down the west hall.
Alex stood still for a moment, took in a deep breath and walked over to Scott's table. He was taking a seat next to him when Scott suddenly faced him and said, "So you're the night guard here, then. Alex Lane if my memory serves me well?
"You got it. And you're Scott Parks. With the camera. I met you a few days ago when I came here to apply."
Scott finally put his camera down on the table and slowly rubbed his hands together.
"Y-Yeah, I'm the s-same guy," Scott stammered.
"Hey, dude. You seem nervous. You okay?" Alex asked out of genuine concern. If this kid came here last night, then he might've been subject to strange disturbing happenings as well. And if that were true, then he wasn't dreaming all that shit. The puppet. Edward's call. The doors appearing out of nowhere.
"I'm getting in t-trouble for b-breaking in, aren't I? You t-told 'em didn't you?"
"No! Of course not! I didn't tell them anything. I don't think I even saw you come in at all. No, wait. Actually, I might've seen you come in right before I fell asleep, but, uh, if I'm being honest, I didn't really care at that point. I was too tired," Alex responded, trying to make the obviously troubled boy feel better.
"Oh. Well, um, d-do you know what happened last night?" Scott asked fiercely, a dark tone suddenly taking over the question.
"N-No. I was gonna ask you."
"Damn. A-All I remember is picking the front door lock, then s-s-sneaking in here. Filming every step of the way. I walked slowly d-down the corridor leading to this room here. Then all I remember is hearing some kind j-jingle playing from off in the d-distance. Then something attacked me from behind. I turned only to see some kind of b-black figure. Then the next thing I know, I'm on the floor being woken up by some cook. With you passed out as well." As Scott explained, Alex could tell he was having a hard time re-telling the story. He was legitimately frightened.
"But why'd you break in in the first place?!"
"She was calling to me. And she wouldn't stop!"
"Who!?"
Scott pointed to the show stage.
"Lucy. Lucy Mayfield. I met her the same day I met you. She hasn't stopped calling to me since."