Something was wrong.
Marcus thought this as he stared blankly at the static filled screen. Did that thing just move? It was a stupid thought, of course they couldn't move. They were simply animatronics that stayed on stage and sang to children. Nothing to worry about. He tried to calm himself by thinking rationally. But the purple bunny thing- Bonnie, that was the name Marcus remembered- certainly looked like it had moved, now with its head looking closer towards the camera.
He shook it off. The others appeared to stay in place, so Marcus took that as he was just imaging things. In the dark of night and with three withered looking characters in the building he was bound to be a little jumpy. He changed the camera feed on the monitor to look around the pizzeria, attempting to settle into his new job, but he caught himself checking his watch more than he liked. 1am… okay this is going slower than I thought it would.
At this rate he was going to die of boredom rather than the stuffy atmosphere he found himself in. He mentioned this to the owner of the restaurant, but the tall unshaven man had just brushed it off. "Ah you'll get used to it, just another perk of working at Freddy's!" He had said in an all too chipper voice. But the man had obviously taken some heed of what Marcus had said and installed a fan that gave some relief to the night guard. The constant buzz of the motor didn't help him relax, but it did give him something more real to focus on.
He leant back in his chair, which gave a small squeal of disapproval to the movement and thought through why he was sitting in this situation at all. He still had enough savings to live in his apartment for a couple of months before he really had to find a well-paid job, but this one would do for now. Marcus was never one to bring things down to the wire, always having something to fall back on when things went sideways. Which they often did for him.
Seeing the night guard position in a rundown chain pizzeria did have it's allure though. Marcus had heard about Freddy Fazbear's Pizza a couple of times over the years, most of the things he heard though were…. Mixed, at best. He tried to shrug these rumours off as nothing more than competition trying to spread misinformation about the wildly successful pizzeria, but that didn't help the growing feeling in his gut that something was wrong here.
And that he should run.
Before he could ponder more about the situation though the phone on his flimsy desk sprang to life and began ringing like it was the only thing it could do. Marcus reached over and pressed the button labelled 'speaker' on the keypad, leading to a long bit of static before a voice emerged.
"Hello? Hello? Uh, I wanted to record a message for you to help you get settled in on your first night" The man on the other side of the phone sounded middle aged, a little nervous but nice enough. He sounds like he's worried about something though, Marcus thought ominously. The message continued.
"Umm I actually worked in that office before you, just finishing up my last week now, as a matter of fact" Okay, so how did you survive without any A/C in this place? I'd like to know that first please. Marcus chuckled to himself. Still listening to the man on the phone he began to flick through the cameras, trying to keep his eyes open after just over 20 hours awake.
"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" That… didn't help. Marcus tuned to the main party room camera where he thought he spotted something moving.
"-to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. A magical place for- ". Okay, I definitely saw that bunny move. Bonnie's head was now tilted towards the camera, eyes staring blankly into the lens. That's… not right. Well at least it can't see me… Can it?
"-upon discovering that damage or death has occurred-"Marcus shot a look at the phone, "-a missing person report will be filed within 90 days, or as soon as property and premises have been properly cleaned and bleached, and the carpets have been replaced"
Okay, very funny guy. Marcus thought to himself, Now tell me this is a joke and carry on. Somehow, he knew this wasn't a joke.
"-animatronics do get a bit quirky at night, but do I blame them? No. If I were forced to sing those same stupid songs for twenty years and I never got a bath? I'd probably be a bit irritable at night too. Just remember the characters do tend to wander a bit"
"They WHAT?!" Marcus shouted. His eyes were now locked to his computer screen where he remembered Bonnie was. He's not there anymore. Marcus' blood ran cold at the thought.
"They used to be allowed to walk around during the day too, but then there was The Bite of '87-"
"Okay you can shut up now" Marcus muted the message and continued searching the cameras for the missing bunny. This turned out to be more difficult than he first thought, a 7ft tall dark purple bunny couldn't have gotten too far while he was listening to the message. Could it? Hearing a slight creek from his left Marcus slammed his fist against the large red button, causing the door to slam shut with a metal twang that reverberated through the building.
Marcus stood to look through the window next to the door. I'm overreacting, He thought as he turned the light on, It's not like that thing's going to-
Bonnie was staring back through the glass at him.
Lurching back Marcus tripped over his chair and landed flat on his back, knocking the wind out of him and forcing him to think for a second.
"What. The fuck. Was that?" He managed to say through gritted teeth. Rubbing the back of his head Marcus managed to stand; up righting and leaning on his chair as he did so. With the left door shut and the bunny still -presumably- outside trying to get in Marcus looked out of the right door just to make sure the others weren't trying to get to him. The thought sent a shiver down his spine.
The hallway was exactly how it was when Marcus had come in for his first shift. Oddly clean; the smell of bleach still hanging in the air from the cleaners earlier in the day, with children's drawings and old posters lining the walls that seemed to be at least a couple of decades old. It was hard to see down the hall, so Marcus turned the light on from inside his office. To his relief he didn't see anything- or anyone- out of place from the doorway so he turned the light off and ducked back inside.
"Okay, calm yourself Marcus. You can make it through this" He tried to convince himself. His hands were still shaking from seeing Bonnie so close, but he steeled himself and checked the cameras to see outside the left door again. Like the right hall the left one appeared to have been cleaned recently; with the floor reflecting some light from the flickering bulb nearer to the party room and the absence of any cobwebs or spiders that Marcus had expected. He had thought he heard the owner talk about a birthday party this weekend, so he was renovating the place a little more. But that didn't matter to Marcus, he would be long gone by then.
But with the thing he had expected to see- Bonnie the Bunny- gone Marcus let go of a breath he didn't know he was holding and opened the door. With both doors open and Marcus finally knowing that he not only had to watch for thieves but also survive against animatronics that wanted him dead, the stuffy room had never felt so large and cold. He checked his watch again. 3am, I'm fucked.
The power readout underneath his monitor read 60%, At least I have enough power, Marcus thought. Too bad I'm going to be too dead to use it all. As if hearing his thoughts, a loud clanking sounds echoed down the right hall, Marcus flicked over to the corresponding camera to see what form death had taken at that moment. The large chicken- Chica, Marcus was good at remembering their names- waddled down the hallway; with a large beak and a pink cupcake with eyes on a plate in her hand, her bib with large writing that read "Let's Eat!" had more sinister connotations now.
She was far enough away that Marcus didn't immediately shut the door, he knew better than to waste power when he didn't need to, but instead he checked the other hallway to see if Bonnie had followed his bandmates lead.
Which he had.
Standing with one foot out of the door to the maintenance room Bonnie was looking dead at the camera again. Through the dark Marcus could spot that the eyes on both animatronics had turned dark with white pinpricks for pupils, he couldn't shake the feeling that they knew he was watching them. He still waited though, with how they were built they couldn't run so he was in relative safety.
"Who am I kidding?!" He screamed at himself, "I'm stuck in a building with three murderous animatronics with no way out. How in the hell am I safe?!" He closed both doors and watched as the power slowly drained from his reserves. Looking through the cameras to keep his mind off that fact he spotted a closed curtain with a sign labelled "out of order". This whole place should be 'out of order'.
Something was off though. As he blinked Marcus thought he saw the curtains move a little, Probably just static, he calmed himself. There isn't another one of those things out there… but I wouldn't be surprised. As if reading his thoughts, a single white light shone for a split-second behind the curtains and then vanished, the curtains waved with the sudden absence of the thing behind them.
"There's four?!" Marcus stood, his chair skating backwards until it hit the back wall with a dull thud. "Nobody said there was a fourth one!" After thinking for a second however he did remember when he was hired the other employees tended to avoid those curtains, as if going too close to them would mean certain death. Now he knew why.
Looking at his watch again he was almost relieved when he saw it read 5am. Oh thank God! He was almost home free, with enough power he was going to make it home in one piece, and never see this goddamn place again.
Maniacal cackling from outside the door froze Marcus in place.
"You may have won this time, but make sure to come back again for more f-f-F-FUN" The voice said. After that Marcus heard both animatronics retreat back down their respective halls, leaving him with both doors still shut tight.
"What…" He was cut off by both doors opening and a loud gonging noise filling the building. His watch said 6am but Marcus didn't check it, he just stared at the security camera that was now focused on the stage. The three animatronics were back in their places, eyes staring out to a non-existent crowd and joints motionless, as if nothing had happened. But Marcus knew.
"I want to go home"