Entrant 1: Mario

Night 1

12 AM

"Hmm..." hummed the portly, mustachioed plumber, sitting in the creaky swivel chair. He roved his sky blue eyes between the two open security doors, the monitor, and the whirring desk fan, and then rested his glove on the antiquated phone as it rang.

"Hello, hello?" the message began. "Uh, I wanted to record a message for you to help you get settled in on your first night. Um, I actually worked in that office before you. I'm finishing up my last week now, as a matter of fact. So, I know it can be a bit overwhelming, but I'm here to tell you there's nothing to worry about. Uh, you'll do fine. So, let's just focus on getting you through your first week. Okay?"

Mario didn't pay much attention to the phone caller as he droned on, instead focusing more on the battery indicator blipping at the lower left corner of the monitor. "99%," it read.

The monitor itself showed three human-sized anthropomorphic animatronics: a brown bear with a black top hat, a lavender bunny with a red bowtie, and a yellow duck-like chicken with a white bib that read "LET'S EAT!" in bold, yellow type.

"Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica, I'm guessing," muttered Mario.

A crude, 8-bit mini map of the entire building adorned the lower right corner, which Mario tapped with his white-gloved finger to flip between views of each room. As he flipped back to the view of the show stage, he noted that the bunny animatronic had begun to move.

"So, just be aware, the characters do tend to wander a bit," continued the man on the phone. "Uh, they're left in some kind of free roaming mode at night. Uh...Something about their servos locking up if they get turned off for too long."

"I know where this is going," muttered Mario as he turned off the monitor and stood up from his chair. Trotting to the doorway to his left, he peeked out of the office and stared down the dimly lit West Hall. The lone fluorescent light bulb at the far end flickered with a series of buzzing noises, barely illuminating the crude drawings adorning the walls.

"Uh, now concerning your safety," continued the man on the phone as Mario walked to check the similarly lit and decorated East Hall, "the only real risk to you as a night watchman here, if any, is the fact that these characters, uh, if they happen to see you after hours probably won't recognize you as a person."

"They'll-a try to kill me. I know," said Mario to himself. "It always-a happens." With that, he returned to his chair and roved his head between the security doors flanking him. Beside each one, he saw a pair of large, square buttons, a red one labeled "DOOR" and a white one labeled "LIGHT".

"So, you could imagine how having your head forcefully pressed inside one of those could cause a bit of discomfort...and death." continued the man on the phone.

"Yes, I've dealt with homicidal everything-a you can imagine for more than-a 30 years," said Mario. "This is nothing new to me."

"Y-Yeah, they don't tell you these things when you sign up. But hey, first day should be a breeze. I'll chat with you tomorrow. Uh, check those cameras, and remember to close the doors only if absolutely necessary. Gotta conserve power. Alright, good night."

The phone clicked into deathly silence save for the electrified hum of the monitors and the whir of the desk fan.

"Normally, I'd just-a torch those animatronics if they attacked me," said Mario, "but that's against the rules here...and...why am I talking-a to myself? Am I going-a crazy?"

His nervous laughter trailed off as he reactivated the monitor and viewed the Dining Hall, where Bonnie had begun his slow trek to the office. "98%", the power indicator read.

4 AM

"21%," the power indicator read as Mario glimpsed the purple cylinder curtain of Pirate's Cove through the monitor. Staring back at him was the face of a crimson fox with an eyepatch flipped open above his right eye.

"Foxy's looking to start his attack, I see," said an unnerved Mario, lowering the monitor just in time to see Chica outside the East security door. He pressed the red button to lower it and then about-faced to lower the West security door as Bonnie approached. He conjured a small fireball in his palm to illuminate the office and peek outside each window until Bonnie and Chica had retreated. He then clenched his fist and doused the fireball.

"That's-a funny," he said. "No fire alarm." His eyes fell on the assorted garbage-including soda cups, napkins, old papers, and rejected drawings-lying about the office desk and floor as he raised the security doors. "Hey. That-a gives me an idea!"

He scooped up some of the garbage, lowered the West security door, and set his pile in a crude pyramid at the near corner of the East Hall. With another fireball conjured, he set the garbage pile ablaze.

"Got to make sure the building doesn't-a burn down," he said to himself as he repeated the process in the West Hall, seemingly taking only passing notice of the deep, maniacal laughter of Freddy.

Returning to the monitor, he glimpsed Freddy standing at the far end of the East Hall. Nonchalantly, he shut the East door yet again. His eyes fell back on the monitor and then widened.

Foxy was gone.

He hurried to the West door and slapped the button to shut it. A second later, he heard a series of loud thuds through the door as Foxy tried in vain to enter. Looking out the window to see Foxy retreating, he wiped his brow with the back of his hand. He looked to the monitor again but found himself face to face with a lifeless golden bear animatronic suit similar to Freddy slumped in front of the desk. He shut his eyes and shook his head, but when he opened his eyes, the Golden Freddy suit disappeared.

"Mamma mia," he said as he checked the power. "What was that?"

"5%," the power indicator read.

He raised both doors to check the fires, both of which were burning low. To his dismay, he found nothing else he could burn to stoke them. Freddy's low, maniacal laughter rang through the halls again, forcing Mario to check the East Hall.

5 AM

"0%," the power indicator read.

The lights turned off, the doors sprang open, and all the animatronics stopped in their tracks. The balefully cheerful chime of a music box rang through the halls, heralding Mario's imminent doom. For the first time in what felt like over 30 years of besting dragon turtle, ape, alien, virus, moon, spike, demon clown, and all other manner of nasty the video game multiverse had thrown at him before, he felt helpless.

"No," he whispered, steeling himself to hurl a fireball into the face of whichever animatronic would dare attack him. "It's-a me, Mario, and I won't-a go down without a fight."

But then...

6 AM

The doorbell of the morning signaled the end of Mario's first-and only-night at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. He quit on the grounds of not being paid enough to put up with the animatronics.