Jonothan regretted his deal with his parents almost immediately upon setting foot into the pizzeria. No amount of money was worth baby-sitting his sister and her friends at this dreaded place. It was as if he had stepped into a completely different world than the quiet, serene one he had been in mere seconds ago, as the tranquility of the small town of Hurricane was suddenly replaced with nothing but the deafening raucous of a thousand screaming children filled his ears. The teenager's face took on a grim expression, though his little sister seemed unaffected by the sudden change in atmosphere.
"There they are." Georgia pointed out a table among the others where three children sat. One of them, a chubby boy with a red shirt and short brown hair, Josh, seemed to be telling the other two a story, his hands moved animatedly, and the words left his mouth at a rapid speed.
The girl beside him, Sarah, was listening intently, nodding her head and giggling at times. The other girl, May, had her head resting in one hand, and a placid smile on her face. She wore a clean, green shirt with a heart design on it, and a small, yellow rabbit toy lay on the table in front of her.
"Alright, let's just get this over with," Jonothan said. He tucked his green t-shirt into his blue jeans and shoved his hands in his pockets, slouching slightly as he made his way over to the table, his sister bounding ahead of him. As he arrived to the group, they seemed not to notice him, as Josh continued telling his tale, and Sarah continued to listen.
"...So, I told him I didn't have his yo-yo, but he said he saw me take it. I was super sneaky about taking it, so he couldn't have seen me, so I knew that Jimmy must have ratted on me. I told him I saw Jimmy take it, and then-"
"Hi!" Georgia greeted as she plopped down in a vacant chair no the opposite side of the table. "What're you guys talking about?"
Josh stopped mid-sentence, focusing his gaze on Georgia momentarily before shifting it over to Jonothan, whose solemn air looked out of place in the room full of boisterous children. At his sudden halt, the two other girls also drew their attention to the siblings.
"Hi, Georgia!" Sarah greeted with her usual peppiness. "This place is so cool! The robots are so cute, and-look! I got toys of them from the Puppet!" Sarah produced three small figures resembling the bear, chicken and rabbit singing on stage from beneath the table.
"They look...weird." Georgia reached over the table and wrapped her fingers around the small-scale figure of Chica the Chicken, then turned and held it before her, comparing the figure the real model of the character, standing on stage with the others. "Chica used to be fatter...and her beak is different." She tapped a finger against it, and to her surprise, it simply popped from the toy's face and onto the table-top below it. "...Whoops."
Sarah was not phased. "Don't worry! It broke off for me, too! I can just put it back on." She took the figure and it's detached beak from Georgia's extended hand. "Now all I need is Funtime Foxy, but..." Sarah glanced behind her, to the direction of Kids' Cove "She was all ripped up and broken when I went to see her...poor Foxy."
"Hey, Georgia," Josh said almost quietly, leaning over the table. Although his voice was audible to everyone else at the table, it was as low in volume as it could go. "Who's the tall guy sitting next to you?"
"That's my brother, Jonothan," Georgia whispered back in an amused tone. "He's supposed to be minding us."
"Hey," Jonothan greeted with a weak wave of his hand. Josh leaned back in his chair and narrowed his eyes in response.
Georgia crossed her arms and rested on the table as she spoke to her friends. "So, where's Max? Don't tell me he chickened out because of the robots, did he?"
May shook her head, joining in on the group now. "I think he's just late. He told me he was gonna come when he told me about it. I think he's coming with his big brother."
"That might make this thing a bit less excruciating," Jonothan said glumly. As if on cue, the sound of a girl bawling her eyes out made his head hang lower and his shoulders raise. "Isn't Justin supposed to be here as well? I thought the three of us where supposed to take care of you all." The plan for the outing was that that he, Mike, and May's cousin, Justin, would meet at the pizzeria and watch over the children. An idea that was simple and straight-forward in theory, but one that fell apart when put into action.
"He left a while ago," Sarah informed him. "He went to the store to get something."
Great, Jonothan thought, Trust Justin to shirk off this job and leave me to deal with the bunch of annoying kids. He could only hope that he wasn't left alone with them for too long, in the fear that his sanity would pay the price. He ran a hand through his hair in stressfulness as the younger children kept chatting, anxiously waiting for the show to start.
It was not long before a young woman in a Freddy's uniform approached them, a sizzling pizza held proudly in her hands. "Large pepperoni pizza, extra cheese!" Jonothan noted that her voice was filled with obviously false cheerfulness, but the others simply licked their lips at the sight of the delectable sight.
"That'll be 20 dollars!" She looked expectantly at Jonothan, who was caught off guard by the fee being directed at him. Of course Justin would leave him with the bill.
"Oh, uh..." He reached into his pocket and fished around for a 20 dollar note that his parents had supplied him with to pay for food, and handed it over to the girl awkwardly.
"Thank you! The show will be starting soon!" She turned around, her ponytail whipping in the air, and walk away.
"So, anyway, like I was saying, I told Harry I saw Jimmy take his yo-yo, and he just blamed me on it, but he didn't believe me, and then he got all mad, and he jumped on me, like that-" Josh suddenly lunged forward, slamming into the table with inadvertent force, knocking the table onto its side legs, creating a slope on its surface. May let out a yelp and grabbed her Spring Bonnie plushie from the table with surprisingly quick reflexes, but the other objects could not escape, and tumbled down in an avalanche. Sarah's toy figures fell to the floor in disarray, and the still steaming hot slices of pizza, most of which had been devoured by the children, fell onto Jonothan's leg as he tried to scoot away.
"Fuck!" Jonothan jumped to his feet in reaction to the sudden heat that made now made his leg throb in pain. The legs and crotch of his trousers were stained with cheese and grease from the pizza. His outburst attracted odd looks from some of the parents and other children around him. Georgia was stifling a giggle, while May hid her face behind the golden rabbit's fur. Sarah simply looked on in surprise, and Josh smiled sheepishly.
"Now look what you did, you-" Jonothan stopped himself, shutting his eyes tightly and relaxing his body. He let out a forced breath as he opened his eyes again, with a withheld fury in his eyes.
"I'm going to clean up. You four, stay here, and don't even *think* about moving a muscle." The teenager trudged off towards the bathrooms, leaving the group of four alone.
Georgia let out her laughter as soon as she was sure her brother was out of earshot. "Nice one, Joshie! Even I can't get him to get that angry!"
Josh's sheepish smile had been replaced with a smirk. "I guess I'm just great at annoying people." The negative implications of the statement didn't seem to bother him.
"Your brother's kinda grumpy, Georgia," May said, still taken aback by the sudden occurrence, which had roughly jolted her out of her thoughts.
Georgia nodded, her pigtail bouncing up and down as she did so. "Yeah, he's always kinda grumpy and boring like that. Except when I prank him," She added as a second thought, scrunching up her face. "Then he just gets me back every time..."
Suddenly, the lights dimmed, and the stage lit up in an array of colours, and the new, shiny Freddy raised a hand in greeting: "Hello, boys and girls!" His voice sounded similar to the original Freddy's, though the new bear sounded goofier. "I'm Freddy Fazbear, and these are my friends, Bonnie the Bunny, and Chica the Chicken!"
"Howdy, everyone!" Bonnie said, waggling his ears. His voice was notably higher-pitched than the old Bonnie's. "I'm Bonnie, and I'm here to play guitar for all my friends!"
"And I'm Chica!" The chicken's new voice was squeaky and young. "Let's Party!"
While the audience was entranced by the show, they failed to notice the other mascot stalking up to the table at the back of the room, where four children sat by themselves.
"Hello, kids!" A deep voice whispered from behind them, making the four spin around. There, standing behind them, was a large golden bear, standing in the shadows. It barely bore a resemblance to the bear singing on-stage, but it was undeniably the star of the show himself.
"Is that...Freddy?" Sarah asked the other children at the table.
"I think that's the old one," Georgia replied. "Come on, let's go talk to him." She hopped up from her seat and walked towards the patiently waiting bear. The other children followed suit, with May at the end, clutching her Spring Bonnie plushie.
"Heya, kids! Enjoying the show?" The bear inquired once the party was where it wanted it to be.
The children nodded, apart from Josh. "Who are you? You don't look like Freddy."
The bear chuckled, yet it still kept its voice down. "I'm Fredbear, silly! Don't'cha remember me?"
"Oh, yeah. You were from the old Freddy's, right?" Georgia recalled.
"That's right! But, listen..." Fredbear leaned in closer to the children, who subconsciously did the same. "I've got something really cool to show you! Wanna know what it is?"
"Yeah!" Sarah answered enthusiastically.
"Okay, but you gotta be quiet!" Fredbear brought a large finger to his smiling mouth. "This is only for good kids like you! It's a secret!"
"W-wait," May said hesitantly. "Georgia's brother told us not to go anywhere. What happens if he finds out we're gone?"
Georgia tisked. "Who cares? I wanna see what Fredbear wants to show us. He won't be that mad if he finds out, anyway."
"Well, follow me, then!" The bear lead the children up to the exit of the Dining Area, along the wall, going unnoticed by the crowd, who seemed to be hypnotised by the ongoing show.
They came to the dimly lit, but lit nonetheless, hallway leading from the Dining Room to the bathrooms, with a closed door at the other end. Fredbear kept his back to them, and walked stiffly onward. The children simply followed like sheep, wondering where the bear could be leading them. To their surprise, he stopped at he metal door.
"It's in here, kids! But you gotta be quiet!"
"What is this thing you're showing us, Fredbear?" Georgia asked, tilting her head slightly. "That door looks kinda...scary..."
"If I told you, then that'd ruin the surprise, wouldn't it?" Fredbear chuckled. He pushed the door open slighly, emitting a creaking noise as he did. "Come on in, then!"
They filed in through the meager gap, one at a time. First Sarah, the Josh, then May, and then a sceptical, yet curious Georgia. And, one at a time, they were greeted with the same sight.
They were in a cramped room, inhabited by the remains of the four original animatronics, who lay in tatters on the checkered floor.
"W-what the..." Josh was the first to speak, and, subsequently, the first to be stabbed by the blade clutched in Fredbear's yellow paws. The blade pierced the back of his neck, and he fell face-forward onto the ground.
The three remaining children stood still for a moment, shocked by the scene of their friend lying on the ground, blood pouring from his neck. It had come out of nowhere, and their minds were overloaded now, being forced to work faster than they were supposed to. Then, as Sarah cried out and fell to floor next to Josh, with the same wounds in her back, the remaining girls took action, resorting to their basic fight-or-flight instinct. May screamed and dropped her Spring Bonnie plushie to the ground, but was grabbed by the back of her collar by the sinister bear. Georgia began flailing and thrashing around, kicking and hitting the foot of the man.
"Let her go!" She cried through her tears. The man wordlessly kicked her away and swiftly slit May's neck, throwing her body on the floor next to the others. His lips turned into a slight smile through the mask as he looked over to Georgia's shaking form, whimpering on the ground. As he lowered his knife, the pigtailed girl made for the door, catching the man off guard. For a brief moment, she relished in her success, as she busted he door open, seeing the hallway before her, and walking out of the bathroom, Jonothan, wearing a bewildered expression.
"Jono-!" Her pleas were muffled as a yellow hand covered her mouth, and dragged her back into the room.
"H-hey!" Jonothan ran to the door, but was stopped by the suit of Fredbear, containing the murderer in place of its endoskeleton and wires. Jonothan came to a stop, before the unexpected sight, and was grabbed by the man in the suit, who smothered him with the suit's fuzzy paw, and dragged him into the room, from which he would not return.
Some minutes later, William Afton stepped out of the room, brushing his dark hair back along his head. His face conveyed a subtle expression of satisfaction, as he strolled down the hallway, through the darkened Dining Area, where nothing seemed amiss, and out the door.
Max hesitantly opened the door of the pizzeria and stepped inside, and was soon followed by his brother, who was much more carefree about it all. Both pairs of eyes scanned the Dinging Area, finding nothing.
"I don't see them," Mike said with an arched brow. "We were supposed to meet here at 3. What time is it now?"
Max squinted at his watch through the darkness, holding the plushie Fredbear in his other hand as he did so. "Half-past-three."
Mike grunted. "They must be somewhere else. You go look for them, I'll keep a table for us here." Mike sat at a vacant table, being careful to avoid standing on the slices of pizza that littered the floor.
Max sighed at having to navigate the pizzeria alone, though he didn't ask his brother to come with him; it would only earn him more teasing for being a baby. As he walked, he passed the Prize Corner, the home of the Puppet. Max stopped thoughtfully, and fished out a string of tickets he had been saving up, and hoped to spend on something in the Prize Corner. He surveyed the shelves, looking for something he liked, but that he could also afford. He settled on a Fazbear-brand yo-yo, with the new Bonnie on one side, and the new Freddy on the other.
Max reluctantly pushed the button on top of the music box, bracing himself for what was to come. The Puppet sprung from withing, that permanent smile on its face. It stared at him with those empty eyes for a moment, but then two small dots of light appeared in their centre. Max did not know they could do that, though he rationalised it as a new addition.
"U-um, a yo-yo, p-please," he stuttered. He fed the correct amount of tickets into the slot in the music box, which made the wires connected to the Puppet's limbs begin to move and constrict. It nodded slowly, and its spindly arm rose unnaturally, pulled upwards by the string, and its three fingers wrapped around the boy's desired gift. The wires on its arm loosened, and pulled, causing it to extend its arm to the boy.
"Th-thank you." Max looked up at its pale face, and noticed that the lights had vanished, leaving only darkness in the mask. And then, it descended back into its box.
Max tucked the yo-yo into his pocket, and headed out into the hallway with the intent of searching for his friends. He stopped, clutching Fredbear tight to him.
There at the end of the hallway, the metal door was open, and peeking out from it was Fredbear. The real one: the one that Max knew had been scrapped. In his clutches was a teenage boy in a green shirt, around 14 years of age. Max recognised him as Georgia's brother. He struggled and kicked as Fredbear dragged him into the room. Neither of them had noticed him. He simply stood there, mouth agape, eyes widened. He began to cry.
"Don't worry," a voice said to him. He looked around wildly in fear. The voice sounded as if it had come from right next to him, though he could see no one. "I am here with you. I am your friend."
Max broke out in tears, bawling. He ran from the hallway, over to his brother, earning looks from the audience of the show.
"Max?" Mike got up from his seat at the table calmly. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"F-Fred-Fredbear..."
"Fredbear?" Mike looked down to the golden teddy in Max's hands. "What about Fredbear?"
"H-he-!" Max sniveled, and shook his head, shutting his eyes tightly. "I want t-to go home!"
"Home? Max, we just got here. Look, where are the others?"
Max shook his head again. "Fr-Fredbear!" That was all he said.
Mike rubbed his forehead in frustration. "You're such a baby sometimes. Look, I'm not gonna deal with you crying all the time we're here. If you're so scared of this place, then we'll just go home."
Max nodded wildly, but continued crying, and followed his exasperated brother out the door, holding the Fredbear plushie to his chest tightly.