Chapter Two: "Discovery"
Freddy Fazbear's Pizza – August 5th, 2023;
Leo stared at the empty shells of his old friends. For nearly thirty years, he's been trying to fix them. He'd repaired the suits as much as he could, but they still refused to come to life. Their eyes still blazed strongly after all of this time...
Leo sighed and put his head in his paws. Maybe he'd just been wasting his time. Maybe they just couldn't be fixed. He'd spent so much time in this room over the years, and it was all for nothing. He got up, ready to leave the room when he heard a voice.
"Save him." The voice said. It sent a chill up Leo's spine. He'd heard that exact same voice before, and there was only one person that voice could belong to...
"Fritz." Leo growled, turning around to face him. However, the voice didn't belong to Fritz. Rather, it belonged to a purple bear that looked almost exactly like Goldie. The shadow bear pointed at the lion, a look of anguish upon his face.
"Save him. Save them." He said, still pointing.
"Save who?" Leo asked, a little set off by the appearance of the creature.
"Save him." The figure faded into shadows.
Leo blinked. Was he hallucinating? What was that? Who did he have to save, and how would that save the others?
The lion turned around. He'd been standing in front of the door to the back room. Maybe if he walked in that direction... Leo put his paw on the handle and twisted it.
"Any change?" A repaired Mangle asked as soon as he left.
"No." He said.
"Oh..." She said, walking back towards Pirate's Cove. The Toys had all taken the positions of the originals during their stay. Mangle was in Pirate's Cove while Fred, Bon, and Chi took the stage. Leo stayed in the back room most of the time while Amanda resided in Puppet's room. Puppet... Well he hadn't taken Goldie's 'death' too well. The slender being refused to leave the bear's side, and got angry at anyone who tried to move the body to where Leo could work on it.
The lion made his way over to the bathrooms, the shadow bear's words echoing in his mind. Who was he supposed to save? How would he save them? Why does it even matter? Why is he even considering taking advice from a shadow? He stopped when he reached where he'd discovered the bodies. He looked around, wondering if there was anything he had missed all those years ago...
The doors to the bathrooms were boarded up. To the lion's right was a dead end, but to his left was a door. He'd seen the door multiple times, but he'd never even thought of checking what might be behind it. There was just no reason to. Until now... He walked up to the door and held his breath.
The heavy door swung open noisily on rusted hinges. Leo peered into the dark, foreboding room. In the corner of the room were a trio of arcade machines that were rusted and battered from age, much like everything else in the abandoned Pizzeria. Mold had formed where puddles of toxic water had sat for decades unchecked, giving the room a musty odor.
The curious lion set foot in the room, being careful of where he stepped. Through the thick darkness, he could barely make out a shape. He slowly crept forward until he could finally see what it was. When he did, his eyes widened.
"Are you okay?" He asked. There was no response. He shook the rabbit slightly, but it was still as a statue. He sighed and tried to pick it up and drag it out of the room. When he did, it opened its eyes and screeched.
Garrus' Apartment – August 12th, 2023;
Garrus gasped as he flung straight up in his bed. He breathed heavily before looking around. He was still in his room, not in an abandoned pizza joint. He sighed deeply as his black Shih Tzu jumped on his bed and licked his face.
"I'm alright, Farley." He said, chuckling. He pet Farley a few times before glancing over at his clock. His shift was going to start soon anyways.
The new night guard stood up and went to his dresser. He grabbed his usual attire since Percy hadn't mentioned any kind of dress code for workers. Then, he took a quick shower and tried to tame his hair, but failed. He got dressed and went to the downstairs kitchen. He sighed as he thought about his parents.
"Dad's the only reason I have this place." Garrus said to himself. It was true. His father was a talented artist and had made a moderate amount of money for his works. He'd even created a couple of games that people played in their spare time. His mother was the owner of the local daycare and preschool. She loved caring for the children, but it was an expensive business. It was a miracle that they had enough money before Garrus moved out, yet Dad still managed to get him an apartment.
He sighed and grabbed the keys to his car. It was at least twenty years old, which made Garrus surprised that it still worked. His father had passed it down to him when he moved out. It had tons of memoirs from the past, including an inflatable Batman based off of the animated series from when his father was a child. Dad always mentioned having a friend who would ask how Batman was doing every time they met, but would never say anything else about this friend. That was a shame, Garrus had wanted to meet him.
He started the car up and drove to the attraction. He had to admit that it looked creepy in the dark, but looked perfectly average during the day. Garrus shivered at the thought of having those heads stare at him all night. The fact that they had been in his dream didn't help anything.
He parked the car and got out, glancing around nervously. He had a bad feeling about this place. He just passed it off as nerves. It wouldn't look good on his resume if he had been fired on the first day of the job.
He went inside and reached the office. He slid down onto his office chair and tried to avoid looking at the heads. Almost as soon as he made himself comfortable, the phone began to ring. It rang three times before going to voice-mail.
"Hey-hey! Glad you came back for another night!" Garrus frowned. This was his first night. "I promise, it will be a lot more interesting this time. We found some... Some great new relics over the weekend, and we're tracking down a new lead right now! So uh... Lemme just update you real quick, then you can get to work."
"Okay." Garrus sighed. So far, this job seemed boring.
"Like, the attraction opens in like... A week. So we have to make sure that everything works, and nothing catches on fire!" Percy said it as if it were some sort of joke. "Uh... When the place opens, people will come in at the opposite end of the building and make their way towards you, then past you, and out the exit."
"I kinda already figured that out." Garrus remarked. Luckily, Percy couldn't hear him.
"Uh... Yeah. You've officially become part of the attraction." Percy continued. "You'll be starring as...The security guard!"
"Hooray." Garrus said flatly.
"So not only will you be monitoring the people on the cameras,you know, to make sure no one steals anything or makes out in the corner-"
"Because that's the worst thing that could happen." Garrus joked.
"But you'll also be a part of the show." Percy continued like Garrus had said nothing. "It'll make it feel really authentic, I think. Uh... Now let me tell you about what's new. We found another set of drawings, always nice, and a Foxy head! Which we think could be authentic! Then again,it might just be another crappy cosplay..."
"It probably is." Garrus said, thinking about how easy it was to fake something. Dad had to deal with a lot of his work being forged.
"And we found a desk fan. Very old school, metal though,so watch the fingers. Uh heh... Uh... Right now the place is just, you know... Flashing lights, and spooky props." He sounded irritated, as if displeased by the turnout. "Uh... I honestly thought we'd have more by now. Uh... If we don't have something really cool by next week, we may have to suit you up in a furry suit and make you walk around saying 'Boo!'"
"How about no?" Garrus asked while Percy chuckled.
"But you know, like I said, we're trying to track down a good lead right now." He said. "Uh... Some guy who helped design one of the buildings says there was like, an extra room that got boarded up, or something like that."
"Already told me." Garrus said, rolling his eyes.
"So we're gonna take a peek and see what we find. Uh... For now, just get comfortable with the new setup. Um... You can check the security cameras over to your right with a click of that blue button." Garrus presses the button and a monitor moves in front of him. To be honest, it made him jump a bit. "Uh... You can toggle between the hall cams and the vent cams."
"Why are there cameras in the vents?" Garrus asked, but Percy couldn't hear him.
"Uh... Then over to your far left, uh... You can flip up your maintenance panel! You know, use this to reboot any systems that may go offline." Percy chucked. "So in trying to make the place feel vintage, we may have overdone it a bit." He chuckled again. "Some of this equipment is barely functional. Yeah, I wasn't joking about the fire. Tha-tha-that's a real risk."
"Well that isn't terrifying." Garrus said, squirming in his seat a little bit.
"Uh... The most important thing you want to watch for... Is the ventilation." Percy continued. "Look, this place will give you the spooks man, and if you let that ventilation go offline... Then you'll start seeing some crazy stuff man. Keep that air flowin'. Okay, keep an eye on things, and we'll try to have something new for ya tomorrow night."
With that, Percy hung up and left Garrus in stunned silence. Maybe he should've listened to his parents. He looked up at the clock and his eyes widened. His shift was almost over! How could Percy talk for that long?! Garrus fiddled with the cameras and maintenance panel for the rest of the night until the bell chimed for him to leave.
Percy walked into the burned Freddy Fazbear's. Just last weekend, the team had come to this location in search of relics. That day had quickly turned into a nightmare. And now, just a few days later, he was back.
"This way." Mike said, motioning for Percy to follow. The two made their way towards the remains of the bathrooms. Not much had been damaged in the explosion other than the back room and most of the dining area. Still, fire had spread after the explosion and the bathrooms were in pretty bad shape.
"Is this it?" Percy asked, pointing to a door to his left. Something about it gave him the creeps.
"Yeah." Mike said. Percy opened the door and his worried face melted into one of joy.
"Call the others." He said. "This is almost too good to be true..."