Mike drove sleepily along the highway towards his current residence, a block of flats on the edge of town. The night guard pulled into the garage at the bottom of the building, which was underground and brightly lit, accessed from a steep incline that went from the road to the base of the garage. The white markings that formed parking spaces were spread along the walls, with another group of them in the centre. A few were coloured yellow to signify disabled parking, the distinctive symbol in the centre of these spaces. Two identical grey pillars stood on the edges of the island spaces to support the ceiling above. Several cars sat scattered around the garage's floor.
Mike's Ford Ka pulled into an empty space, its plastic front bumper scraping the concrete wall, earning a curse from its driver. The night guard stepped out wearily, slamming the door shut and trudging sleepily across the concrete floor. He reached the door and pulled it open, before ascending a narrow, spiraling set of stairs.
He strolled along the corridors to his apartment on the second floor of the building. He stood before the door to it, a brass number 21 nailed to the wooden door. Mike pressed on the doorbell, as a high pitched buzzing echoed around him. The door was pulled open by a tall man in a security uniform, with his eyes half open and lazily munching on a half-eaten piece of toast. "Oh. Hi, Mike." he said in an annoyed voice.
"Hi, Jeremy," said Mike with a huge grin, "how was your night?"
"The usual," Jeremy replied, "animatronics pissing around." While the two men were talking, a short person dressed in a similar uniform emerged from the doorway, sticking his messy blond-haired head under Jeremy's arm. His eyes were wary, darting from left to right. "Fritz?" Mike asked, "what the hell are you doing?" Fritz straightened up, this time poking his head around Jeremy's shoulder. "Just seeing who was outside." the short man said, his voice incredibly unconvincing.
"You know it's me, you short imbecile, not Freddy."
These two men were Jeremy Fitzgerald and Fritz Smith, who lived in the same apartment as Mike. The three were close friends, who had met during high school, and had somehow stuck together despite their incredibly different personalities. Mike was always the troublemaker, Jeremy the goody-goody two shoes and Fritz the guy who was constantly picked on.
As a result, the three held pretty much the same job: a security guard at a Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Mike was the night guard at the location a few miles further towards town, and Jeremy and Fritz were night guard and day guard respectively at an older location further away. The two would switch positions every other day. Jeremy was much more competent at his job that Fritz; the former reportedly had never made a mistake, and was set, serious, and stony-faced for six hours straight. Fritz, on the other hand, was reportedly terrified of holding the position, cowering behind the desk for his whole shift, but kept going as he needed the money.
Both had worked longer than Mike had, and when the night guard was told tales about the animatronics there coming to life at night, he had passed it off as something akin to a cruel joke. But when Mike had experienced the same thing during his shifts, he began to think that the two restaurants were somehow connected - other than the name and basic premise, of course. Then Mike's two friends had told tales about them befriending their animatronic companions, where Mike had stopped believing. He had passed off every comment about the pizzaria from then on as a lie if it came from their mouths.
But, after the events of that morning, Mike finally realised that Jeremy and Fritz were somehow telling the truth. The night guard made it his mission to inform the others as soon as possible. "Hey, Jeremy," Mike said, "I need to tell you somethi-"
"Is it important?" Jeremy interrupted. The emotionless man was watching TV at that moment, his cold eyes fixed on the screen.
"Well, yes." Mike said, "You know how the robots at your place are friends with you and Fritz?"
"Yeah..." said Jeremy, confused.
"Well, the same thing's happened to me." Jeremy snapped his head towards Mike, smiling slightly. "Well, great, you believe us." He went back to the TV, indifferent to before Mike's 'shocking' reveal.
"What are they like at the other place?" said Mike as a door slam signaled Fritz's departure.
"Well," said Jeremy, "there's the same set of characters that your place has, plus two others." This did not answer Mike's question, but did help, as he hadn't been to the other location.
"I mean, what are their personalities like?" Mike pressed.
"To put it bluntly, varied. Freddy's a violent Cockney, Bonnie's a flamboyant male and Chica's a perfect example" (Jeremy used a hand effect to emphasise) "of a dumb blonde." Mike sat and thought. "What about Foxy?" he said.
"There is a Foxy there, but we don't refer to her as that anymore." Jeremy said as Mike raised an eyebrow. "'Her'?" he said, very confused. "Mm. She's a female version, coloured white and pink. She was battered by kids until management turned her into a 'take apart and put together' attraction. So now," Jeremy said with a grim smile, "we address her as 'the mangle' or just 'Mangle'." Mike stared in disbelief, thinking over how badly the other location's robots were treated. "As for her personality," Jeremy continued, "she's always in a bad mood and very irritable about her treatment. She has her own area, so nobody bothers here unless allowed."
"What about the other two?" Mike asked, still curious.
"Well, there's a really short animatronic that I refer to as 'that little prick' who gets on everyone's nerves. He goes by the name of Balloon Boy, or just 'BB'. But I call him by his nickname that I have for him."
"And the other?"
"This puppet thing that's always confined to his box. He never speaks unless absolutely necessary, and always creeps me out. I have to wind this music box to make sure I don't piss him off."
Mike sat in thought for a while more. "Interesting," he said, "doesn't sound like a very likeable group, but I'd like to meet them nonetheless."
"Hold on, Mike. I've got an idea to satisfy your needs."
"What?"
"How about we switch jobs?"
Mike sat back and pondered over this for a while. "Well," he said, "obviously not tonight, as you're on day shift, and we haven't asked our bosses yet."
"Okay," Jeremy said, "we ask our bosses tonight, and if they agree, then we switch the next night. Deal?"
"Deal." Mike said, and shook his friend's hand to cement the decision. Mike sighed. The night at the other location was sure to be a long one. He walked off to his bed, thinking of what could happen that night.
Yay. Chapter 4. Here, we meet Fritz and Jeremy, or at least my interpretations of them. The next chapter is sure to have much more action, I can tell you that.
As a side note, this fanfic officially has 700 views already. And 8 follows. I am incredibly humbled and very, very thankful for this support. I never expected this to be that popular (well, it is Five Nights At Freddy's, so it's bound to happen).
Five Nights At Freddy's belongs to Scott Cawthon.
This is arseyman, signing off for the night.