David carefully stepped around the tapered off area and sighed, wondering why there wasn't a back up office since these animatronics had to be watched "Every night, no exceptions." He sat down and scooted up to the desk, noticing a yellow sticky note attached to a paper bag.
"Dear David, good luck on your first night, I made you a peanut butter sandwich so you won't get hungry and try to eat the cupcake on your desk, trust me, it's a bad idea. You can still call me if you want, and remember, only close the doors when absolutely necessary. P.S. That cupcake's not even real, you WILL break your teeth. —Ariana" a couple phone numbers were listed, one he recognized as Ariana's and another was unfamiliar to him.
A long ring of a phone cut through the stale office air. "Hello? Hello?"
David froze, staring straight at the phone, one million thoughts going through his head, mostly how it was possible that he was receiving a call from a ghost, but the call continued.
"Uh, hey, listen, I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow." David shivered a bit, hearing loud banging coming from the phone.
"It's-It's been a bad night here for me. Um, I-I'm kinda glad that I recorded my messages for you" He coughed and continued on "uh, when I did."
David felt a pit in his stomach, he knew what was coming, and considered slamming the 'mute' button as hard as he could, but he felt glued to his chair, entrapped by his old friend's words.
"Uh, hey, do me a favor. Maybe sometime, uh, you could check inside those suits in the back room? I'm gonna to try to hold out until someone checks. Maybe it won't be so bad. Uh, I-I-I-I always wondered what was in all those empty heads back there." David noticed he was stuttering more than usual, indicating that they were both aware of what was coming. The peppy music box rendition of the Toreador March began to play, each carelessly plucked out note feeling like a harsh prod at an old wound. "You know…" The phone began, realizing the low moaning that was the kiss of death for every night guard, was coming from dangerously close to his right ear. "Oh no…" the sickening screech of the malfunctioning animatronics drowned out whatever he was about to say.
David sat silently for a few seconds as the recording cut off, trying to organize his thoughts and emotions, what a great way to start a first night. David decided to push these thoughts out of his mind for later and focus on not making the same mistakes of his coworker.
David thought about Ariana's note, remembering her offer, despite the grim reminder of what would become of a night guard who let the animatronics get to him, knew there was no going back now, and resolved to deal with it. He had gotten a good half a day's sleep and was extremely jittery from the 2 energy drinks he had chugged down on the way. He payed enough attention to Ariana's raving to have a basic idea of what was going to go down tonight, save power, check pirate's cove, watch out for the 'demon bear'.
He looked speculatively at the peanut butter sandwich, deciding it would probably be healthier than the whole bag of cheese puffs he had brought. He sat down in the cushy chair near the desk, and picked up the tablet. He scooped up a handful of the orange snacks and devoured them, licking the cheesy dust off his fingers. He surveyed the desk, and noticed something missing, why wasn't the clock on the desk? David pulled open the drawer to see if this "Mike" guy had put it away, but it was definitely gone. He was slightly shaken, but it didn't really matter, his phone had a built in—
He rummaged through his pockets, finding them empty, except for his car keys and wallet.
"Ugh!" He remembered leaving it to charge at home, and debated going outside the office to get it back, or at least figure out where that alarm clock wandered off to.
The sound of padded footsteps on the linoleum floors somewhere outside the office almost made him choke on a cheese puff. He kicked himself for doing something so dangerous and resigned himself to picking up the tablet, it could be three in the morning or midnight for all he knew. He switched to the show stage, noticing that Chica had already disappeared. He soon found her in the party room, so there was that, at least. No one else was moving, so he sat back and took a bite of his peanut butter sandwich. It had always baffled him how peanut butter sandwiches could exist without jelly, he wondered for a moment if Ariana had just given up halfway and settled for a 'PB'. He digressed, she could be pretty scatterbrained sometimes, but she could at least be bothered to finish a proper PB&J. Then again, maybe this was all a ploy, she did say not, under any circumstances, to try to eat the cupcake, but maybe she was using reverse psychology, and just packed the unsavory peanut butter sandwich to make the cupcake seem even more enticing…
He stared lazily up at the cupcake, thinking if it was ever used for anything other than looking creepy. He remembered being told it was held by one of the animatronics down at the old place. He wondered why they bothered keeping it, if the animatronic that held it was scrapped.
Animatronics…
His head snapped up from it's position resting against the back of the chair. Here he was calling Ariana scatterbrained, and he had just spent who knows how long day-dreaming about the likelihood of Ariana conspiring with his dentist to get him to eat a ornamental cupcake, without sparing a second thought to a certain animatronic that hated to be left alone. He drew up the cameras and tapped furiously at CAM1-C with the sinking feeling that he had doomed himself and would soon be sharing a suit with "Mike".
"Phew." The curtains weren't even open, yet.
Foxy didn't feel like going outside, what's the point? His last lead was dead. He watched the curtains sway slightly in the drafty cove, moonlight and stage lights intermingled and flowed through the cracks between the curtains, being cut off with each swish of the fabric like a pendulum in a grandfather clock. Strangely, most of his distress came from the fact that the night guard was actually dead. He didn't look like a particularly optimistic soul, but he didn't need to die, he wasn't like the night guards Freddy warned him about, then again, most of them weren't.
Foxy was almost positive Bonnie was the culprit, he was the only one not in the room at the time, so it had to be him. But something was off about everything, from what Foxy had seen, the night guard was stabbed in the back and left on the floor to bleed out. Bonnie and the others usually just carried a subdued night guard to the storage room for stuffing. He thought about it, and wanted to try getting into the office, but knew it was a long shot. There was no way the new night guard was going to let him in, and if he tried to explain himself, it would no doubt fall under breaking Freddy's precious programming. Then again, he really didn't care what that compulsive bear thought, anyway, with his paranoid stories of getting the whole band shut down and scrapped. He pondered sticking his snout out a little and waiting for the opportunity to move, maybe if he moved really fast…
David took a few deep breathes, and smiled.
"That wasn't so hard…" David whispered to himself. "I knew she was just being overly dramatic…"
David switched off the camera, then switched it back on, dropping the tablet on the floor in shock with a "clack". He picked up the device, gaping at Foxy's face poking out of the curtains.
"Oh, crap." David clutched the tablet for dear life, turning his knuckles white in the process. In addition to the pirate fox's eagerness to ram the door, the sound of pots and pans being knocked over piped in from the kitchen cam. David checked every camera, desperately searching for the animatronic rabbit and bear. He found Bonnie in the storage closet and Freddy still on the stage. This was no way to show Ariana he could handle malfunctioning animatronics, he made a silent promise to himself to do his job better, getting distracted and losing track of the animatronics could be his downfall. He switched off the camera, swiveling over to the lights and checking each side. He didn't really need to, but he hadn't all night, and who knows? There could be some mystery animatronic lurking in the hallway.
No, no. that's impossible. Maybe the best thing for a good night guard to do was sit quietly and not waste power, occasionally checking on Foxy, and keeping an eye on the other three.
David sat, wondering how far into the night he was. By this point, he was willing to settle for a sundial. He had checked Pirate's Cove a couple more times to find Foxy was still leering lazily at the camera, Bonnie had come a bit closer, but Chica was content to hang out in the kitchen doing who-knows-what. David bided his time by spinning around in his swivel chair, and seeing how fast he could make it to each door, without tripping over the big, white tarp, both as a way to relieve the extra energy the monstrous amount of caffeine he had ingested was providing him, and to practice, should he need to use the skills he was developing. He didn't need Ariana's 'training'. He was a natural, despite the total space cadet moment he had experienced a little while ago, but he was a new man now, with a resolve to be the best night guard the establishment's ever seen, or at least, best living.
David returned to his desk and checked the cameras, Foxy was still showing his furry face as if he wasn't sure whether to go or not. Bonnie had gotten around to the camera in the West Hall. Chica seemed to be wandering around pointlessly, and he was pretty sure Freddy was sleeping with his eyes open. Maybe Ariana was just unlucky with Freddy's patterns, because it didn't seem like he was that incredibly aggressive bear that she loathed tonight, now that he got a good look at him, he was kind of…adorable.
David opened the drawer with his cheese puffs in them while staring at the tablet, looking down he realized he had over-shot and opened the drawer one below the cheese puffs, he had never had very good hand-eye coordination, but really? What if he had to keep an eye on a animatronic and wanted cheese puffs? He promised to practice that as part of his training later, then again, he really wasn't in a completely sane state of mind, so he decided to allow it.. He shut the drawer and surprisingly, the sound of things knocking around inside was heard. He opened the drawer again and peered in, there were numerous pill bottles stuffed inside the empty drawer. Intrigued, David pulled the drawer out fully and began to examine the contents, every pill bottle was completely empty, but the labels on them read things like "Schizophrenia" "PTSD" and even some "Anti-Depressant" medication, but printed on every bottle were the words "M. Schmidt".
David discerned that they probably belonged to the previous night guard, he cleaned out the drawer and laid them out on the table to be gotten rid of later, Mike obviously didn't need them anymore. He noticed an odd bottle in the pile, there was something inside, hidden by the distorting orange window.
He screwed open the cap and a scrap of paper fell out onto his lap. In black ink scrawl "it would be worth it." all the words around the paper this scrap once belonged to were cut off...creepy. He put the scrap back into the bottle and set it away from the pile.
Bonnie couldn't stand being near Freddy tonight, he needed to get out and blow off some steam. Killing a night guard always relaxed him, but that was something that Foxy and Freddy always used to argue about, sometimes he and Freddy would even argue that way with Chica. She was becoming more and more like Foxy every day, but that brought unfortunate implications to Bonnie's mind that he really didn't want to think about. At least, he knew that if anything went wrong, it was his responsibility to keep Chica out of harm, just like it was Freddy's. Of course, there was no way he'd lose the only duck-en he had a smidge of authority over. Bonnie knew there was something odd going on with Freddy, he was contradicting the rules he had set himself, and no doubt lying to him. Bonnie wanted answers, and even if he couldn't ask Freddy, there was one other animatronic he could ask, but he wasn't sure he'd comply.
Bonnie waited for hours in the west hallway, concealing himself in darkness, which wasn't that hard to do, since it was the worst lit area, pretty much in the entire building. In fact, Bonnie had the suspicion that Freddy preferred the East path for this reason. Bonnie didn't mind, anyway, it was actually kind of comforting, in a way, it was kind of a calming…wholesome feeling that reminded him of the atrocious lighting of the old place, it was a place that he had seen for only a couple days, but it was a place he always wanted to return to. Now that he thought about it, Bonnie wasn't sure if it was really that dark, or it was the fact that he lacked sight…and a face, at the time, so he was used to it.
Bonnie's built-in microphone detected the pitter-patter of soft, lightweight feet on the linoleum. He was aware his body was much bulkier, and he would easily be able to overpower the swift, streamlined fox. He saw the red blur coming out of Pirate's Cove and leapt out, catching Foxy off guard.
"A-arrgh!" Foxy yelped, completely ambushed, "G-git offa me, ye scurvy dog!"
"Foxy! I need your help…" Bonnie got up, holding Foxy's wrist tightly so he didn't run away.
"I-I'm tryin' ta' d-d-do somethin' important, Laddie." Foxy tried to explain, "A-and I'm certainly not gonna help ye i-if ye hold me captive like this."
"But it's about Freddy…" Bonnie pleaded, hoping the fox wouldn't continue to struggle, or worse, decide to put his needle-sharp teeth to use.
"That old salt is the l-last thing I want to be t-thinkin' about right now!" Foxy snapped, he knew full well that Bonnie had been told over and over to fear his bite, right now it would be the only thing that would scare him enough to release him. He pulled back and opened his mouth wide, lunging at Bonnie with a shrill screech. Bonnie let go and jumped back in fear. Foxy ran as fast as he could, not waiting for Bonnie to reply.
Foxy felt the stale air of the restaurant become a fierce wind, rushing past him with every step. He swiftly turned a corner, seeing the light of the office and with one final step…he crashed into a thick, metal door. Argh, he cursed Bonnie for keeping him for so long, he knew he could have had a chance if he hadn't been ambushed like that. He began to bang on the door in anger.
In his rage, he heard the sound of a night guard, "Foxy, stop, please!" there was fear and helplessness in his voice, that brought him a kind of sick joy, even though he really had no intension of hurting the kid, he just needed to enter the office.
"What do you want?!" Ha, he was trying to communicate, rookie mistake. Frankly, he was lucky he tried with Foxy, instead of any of the others that could care less what he wanted to say, every night guard to them was scum.
"M-MIIIKE!" Foxy screamed, that was his name, right? He read it off the name tag on his body. Foxy hoped for the one-in-a-million chance that the guard would hear him, and the even smaller chance that he would understand what he meant.
"Okay, just please leave!" The muffled voice came out through the steel door. Foxy growled, he was only pretending to hear what he said, he was already beginning to despise this one. Just then, he heard the clicking of keys, human footsteps knocking on the tiles. Foxy didn't have time to wonder why the chimes of laughter didn't play in advance, he just left as quickly as he had come, hoping he still had time.
Ariana hadn't slept at all that night, waiting for David to call. She felt awful for putting her friend's life at stake, and then challenging him like that. She crossed her fingers that he would still be there. As she sauntered down the hall, she wondered if David ever felt like that. He visited her every morning whenever she had her job, even though he didn't have to come in until the place actually opened. She felt extra guilty as she realized that she had been worrying David every morning for years, and he had come to greet her every day with a smile…hoping he wouldn't be smiling at a corpse. He did the same for her replacement, but things didn't work out so well with him.
After that, he decided not to visit the night guards anymore.
Ariana realized she was standing in the center of the hallway in her own world. She picked up the pace and prepared her smile for David, ready to pretend nothing in the world was wrong.
David listened closely, before carefully opening the door and sighing with relief that the manic fox was gone. He felt incredibly lucky that he heard the screeching noise and realized Foxy was on the move. That fox had knock down almost all of his power, he was done for. He swore he had said something that sounded like "Mike" like he could really understand what he was saying, and then after he promised to help…he left. He realized he was in quite a pickle, making a promise he had no idea how to fulfill, and if he didn't, he knew he'd be in for it tonight.
What was he thinking? They didn't hold grudges, he was starting to sound like Ariana. He looked around the room for a solution to his problem anyway, and saw something that would surely solve his predicament.
Suddenly, something leaned in through the door. By instinct, David curled up in his chair, terrified that Foxy had returned, he grabbed one of the pill bottles to use as ammo.
"Good morning, Sunsh—" Ariana dodged the flying bottle expertly. David looked up, hearing Ariana's voice, thank God. He uncurled himself and stood up.
"Uh…hi." He waved sheepishly.
"Did you have a nice first night? I noticed you didn't call me." Ariana still had that uncanny smile plastered to her face.
"I was fine, Freddy didn't even bother me at all." David smiled confidently, as Ariana's grin faltered.
"Oh…I guess you don't need my help, then." She felt partly defeated and partly proud that David could manage on his own, after all, when she started, she hadn't been given any guidance other than a "go get 'em". Then again, she hadn't been plopped straight into the fourth night like he was.
David looked stricken "No, no, I didn't mean that!" He waved his hands wildly, making Ariana giggle.
"It's okay, I won't make you call me 'Grand Master', I promise." She assured him. "Also, why did you make such a mess in here? And why are there pill bottle all over the table?"
"Oh, yeah." David trailed off "They're Mike's, he left them here."
"I'll send someone to clean them up, later." Ariana mumbled. "Are you going home? You should go get some sleep."
"Wait...If you're going to go check on the animatronics, I could go check on Foxy for you, if you like." David offered.
"I guess you could go visit him…but I'm the only one that can possess the clipboard." She warned him.
Foxy slumped against the wall in the backstage of his cove, thinking of the little twerp inside the office and the bigger twerp that kept him from making it in time. He heard the manager's footsteps down the hallway and he tried to stay perfectly still despite the anger churning inside him.
"Foxy?" The voice was male, sounding like the night guard. The curtains fell apart and he approached.
"Hey, I-I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot tonight." He said, despite sounding like a crazy person to anyone watching from the outside. Foxy stayed perfectly still. "I…um…have something for you." He continued, placing something cold and plastic into his metal claws. He left soon after.
A/N: Ugh, I'm sorry for completely betraying my schedule...I had serious writers block and I have realized that I may have been biting off more than I could chew with a 5 day deadline. (I got the second chapter done in 5 days, so I thought I could do all of them) Maybe I'll return to a schedule some day, but for now I will update when I update (I PROMISE, it won't be obscenely late like this one) I wrote a super long chapter this time, so I hope that makes up for it.
P.S. Happy Holidays! :)
