Hey all! I'm not 100% sure how to start an authors note so… here goes nothing! And yes, if you just want to read on the don't let me stop you Fnaf awaits in the pages that follow. I just wanted to let you guys know that this is my first fanfic, so there's probably going to be some errors throughout. I'll do my best to catch them but if anyone wants to point out where I went wrong that'd be greatly appreciated. Also as this is my first time writing… in about 5 years, it might take a little while before I get into a rhythm that works best. Either way though thanks for taking the time to read this and hope you enjoy chapter 1 of FNAF Rebuilt! :D
"What do you mean you quit?"
The owner of Freddy's exclaimed in apparent surprise. He had caught Marcus storming out to his car and stopped him at the door, towering over him with his slim if not tall frame. The man was wearing a tailored suit that seemed to have seen it's fair share of use, being that it was the same one that Marcus had seen him wearing when he applied for the job, and just before his shift started the night prior. Still unshaven -both men had that in common- the owner had slick unkept black hair; Marcus wrote that off as the fact that he appeared to be here every day at 6am, the hung look and bags under his eyes seemed to confirm that. Marcus stared in shock.
"You can't honestly believe that I would work here more than a single night?!" Marcus shouted. "I was almost killed! Those robots of yours are lethal, but you don't seem to care about that" This gained the attention of the other members of staff that had just entered the building. The owner glanced at them but continued to address Marcus.
"Please Mr Rose, keep your voice down. You're causing a scene here" His voice sounded almost genuine, which made Marcus even more angry.
"A scene?! I'll show you a fucking scene!" Marcus barged pass the Owner, knocking him into the doorframe on his way out, and took strides towards his car. His car may not have been much to look at, but he made do, it worked when it needed to and that's all he could have asked of it. In the early morning sun Marcus could still see the worn look of the car, the peeling paint and dented body panels didn't do it any favours. But he still loved it, being that it was his first out of high school probably helped with that fact.
He could hear the other man's shoes hitting the asphalt behind him. Why didn't I park closer?
"Marcus please-" Marcus turned on a dime.
"No no no, don't you dare 'Marcus please' me. If you're going to kill someone let it be the next poor sap that comes here for work because I am leaving"
"You're seriously set on going?" The owner asked under his breath. Marcus wasn't sure why he needed to ask the question; he had been painfully clear about his intentions as soon as they saw each other.
"Okay, now I'm know you're messing with me. You've barely listened to a word I've said!"
The man adjusted his suit a little, trying to make himself more comfortable in the growing heat of the morning sun but Marcus could tell that it wasn't working. Some sweat was visible under his collar.
"Then please Mr Rose, enlighten me now that we can talk more-" He looked over his shoulder at the restaurant "-privately" Marcus noticed the slight delay in his voice, but decided to ignore it. He can't keep me here. He thought, I know my rights.
"Those things of yours are killers! They tried to murder me last night, and I only figured that out when they tried to get into my office and stuff me into a suit" Marcus threw up his hands for emphasis. "I mean, what the fuck is that about?! You said nothing about this when I signed up"
The owner shifted slightly in his shoes, massaging one of his cuffs while still taking in what Marcus was saying.
"Well, it is true that we've been having some… trouble, with the animatronics-"
"Some?!" Marcus interjected.
He straightened, "-but I assure you that we have things under control"
"Like hell you do!" Marcus closed the distance between them before looking the man dead in the eyes. "How many employees have you lost because of those things? It must be quite a lot considering you fast tracked my resume and hired me on the spot"
It was true, though his employer was almost ashamed to admit it, the pizzeria had fallen on tough times. No one was applying to work there and the people who were employed seemed just as likely to jump off the nearest bridge compared to working another shift with those… things. So, when Marcus applied fair to say he jumped at the opportunity to sign him on. But he needed to keep this man on for more shifts, if he didn't then he'd need to go on the night shift again and with how tired he was already… he wouldn't make it one night.
So, almost reluctantly, the man pulled a certain section of paperwork that he had in his breast pocket and handed it to Marcus.
"What's this?" Marcus asked, he took the paper and frowned at it. A lot of the writing was foreign to him -legal speak about this and that- but there was a single highlighted area about halfway down.
"This, Marcus, is your contract" He pointed at the signature at the bottom of the page. "That you signed"
Marcus began to read the highlighted area:
Upon the beginning of the employee's work time with us he/she is required to work through at least a one-week probation period. Failure to complete this probation period for any reason will lead to the termination of the employees' contract and an immediate fine of up to $50,000 due to damage to the image of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and any physical damage done to the establishment in which the employee is currently a member of the Fazbear family.
"50…" Marcus said hoarsely.
"It… goes on" Replied the owner.
The employee is not allowed to, under any circumstances, avoid shifts, take sick leave for any reason, leave early, or mention any happenings that occur on the premises to any non-Freddy staff due to previous damage to Freddy Fazbear property and the brand as a whole.
"This can't be…", Marcus looked up from the contract, "This can't be fucking legal!"
"I'm afraid it is" The owner smiled a tired smile.
No… no no no no
"I'm sorry Marcus, but I seriously need all hands-on deck right now. So, I can't have you jumping ship just yet" The owner took the contract from Marcus' hands. This can't be happening. "Go home and get some rest, you'll need it for tonight"
He turned and headed back to the restaurant. This left Marcus to stand, dumbfounded, in the middle of that parking lot. I'm really going to die in there, the thought creeped into his head. Staring into the distance he turned to head back to his vehicle. He fumbled the keys in his numb hands and took longer than normal to unlock the driver's side door, but when he was inside, he just sat there, keys in hand, staring at the restaurant that would become his grave.
No, He thought, I'm not going to die, I can beat this. I'm not going to get killed by some Chuck-E-Cheese wannabes. I'm going to expose this place. Raising his head, he watched the owner enter through the glass double doors and disappear into the pizzeria, and then I'm going to burn it to the ground. He needed a plan on how to finish his week first though. If things got worse he'd be dead that night, so gathering information about what he was up against soon became Marcus' main priority.
With the keys in the ignition the car turned over and Marcus was on the road away from Freddy's. He didn't live too far away from the pizzeria- which was both a blessing and a curse now that he thought about it -and arrived just after all the other residents had left for their normal 9-5 jobs.
The apartment complex wasn't much to look at, a standard 10 story building with bricks lining the walls and fire exits flanking the sides. The complex had seen it's fair share of bad weather being that the bricks had turned alternating shades of orange and red, and most of the protection from the wind had been baked away in the harsh summer sun the year it was built. The city didn't care though, Hurricane had developed a bad habit of building what would've been good places to live if they weren't left to their own devices by the end of the first year. Shops either side of the building were still open though, managing to retain what little foot traffic and good will the residents of Hurricane had for each place.
Marcus drove pass his apartment and pulled into the nearby near empty parking lot which was also owned by the same people as the apartment building. He didn't need to pay to park because of this, a nice perk of the place, and probably the only reason why he still lived there. Marcus grabbed his Freddy's branded purple jacket and utility belt before he walked the hundred or so yards back to his building, his light purple cap low to block out the morning sun.
The front windows were a little cracked but surprisingly still intact considering everything that they had been through, the reinforcing still doing its job years later. Marcus took out the main key from his pocket and opened the heavy main door, stepping inside he clicked the door behind him closed and took the first lift to his place. Using the only other key on his keyring he entered his room and locked the door.
When Marcus was looking for places to live, he had enough money to live somewhere reasonable, considering this was his first time living away from family he was doing quite well. An okay sized apartment with furnishing was what he decided on in the end, anything larger and he wouldn't be able to have some of the comforts he liked from when he was younger. Like a good bed, and sofa with a tv. The place he was currently renting was split into four main rooms, a living room that he was currently standing in, a kitchen that had a wall knocked through so that the place appeared more spacious, a washroom, and a bedroom that came off of the living room on the far side.
Marcus sighed, dropped what he had in his hands on the coffee table in front of the sofa and walked over to the bulky computer he had in the corner. It had been left over from his parent's house when they also moved out and he jumped at the opportunity to have some form of entertainment that didn't require watching re-runs of tv shows that he had never heard of.
Maybe that was another reason why he took the job at Freddy's. With multiple completed jigsaw puzzles in the corner of his bedroom and more finished books than he knew what to do with Marcus was running out of ways to stay occupied. His school life was good because when he needed to do something there was always a new club he could attend or a talent show he could go watch, within reason of course. The voice of his parents echoed in his mind still, "Grades first, then you can worry about the rest". Marcus smiled and shook his head. Fat load of good those grades did me. What are they good for if there's nothing worthwhile in Hurricane in the first place?
He sighed again and booted up his pc, he needed to stay focused if he was going to survive another night in that hellhole he called work. Immediately going online, he searched for anything related to Freddy's and trawled through as many forums that he could find. Most were useless, the main results coming up were people reminiscing about 'the good old days' when Freddy's was actually a respected establishment, making the hollowed-out shell of a company Marcus was now a part of look like a sick joke.
He did find a couple of things though. Multiple people mentioned something about a few other locations that served under the Freddy's name or something like it, peaking Marcus' interest. He followed these and found there was a Freddy Fazbear's JR location that opened up sometime during the mid-80's as some sort of reimagining of the brand, trying to make the place more kid friendly. Marcus laughed at the irony. Another place sort of related to Freddy's was somewhere called Fredbear's Family Diner, this one was even harder to track down because this one had apparently closed down sometime in the late-60's in the middle of nowhere. Only one person remembered it existed and had tried finding others that went there in the past, with no luck.
"But why did both close down…?" Marcus thought aloud. There must be some reason, right?
As it turned out he was correct. While trawling through old newspapers that some sad sap had archived years prior he found what he was looking for. The headline read "The Missing Children", immediately gaining Marcus' attention. Details were spare from what he could tell, but the information was there:
5 Children missing during Freddy's party, Suspect on the Run, William Afton Missing
Marcus stared at the screen.
5 Children? He thought, Why does that sound important?. Reading on he found out why. The police were sure that the kids had been killed, blood on the scene and around the building confirmed it, but no bodies had been found. No items of clothing, no -Marcus grimaced at the thought- pieces of them ever turned up, it was as if they vanished into thin air. Looking through the newspapers Marcus found something more disturbing, the same incident had happened twice. Once in Fredbear's Diner, and another in the reopened Freddy's.
"Okay, now this is definitely beginning to stink of something" And Marcus wasn't the only one to think so. After searching through the missing children incidents there was page after page of conspiracy theories that claimed they know what happened to the children. Some thought they were buried in the desert never to be found, some thought that they were thrown in the reservoir north of town and sank like a stone, some even thought that they were stuffed into the animatronics. This one seemed to gain the least traction though. Although many people -Marcus couldn't count how many, the list went on and on seemingly forever- complained about the smell of the animatronics in later years the company as well as the police wrote this off as paranoia and just bad hygiene.
Marcus began to think differently.
Okay, say the children were hidden in the animatronics, so what? It's not like they could be- Haunted? Marcus shuffled in his chair uncomfortably. It would explain why they moved at night, and how he heard Bonnie talked before the night ended. This was going to far and Marcus knew it, he got up and decided to take a shower. Maybe I can think more clearly after cleaning up. But the thought of haunted animatronics didn't fade like he hoped they would. Instead, they grew stronger.
By about midday Marcus was flagging. He knew he should sleep before his next shift, but how could he? All these questions about what was going on had him wired in the worst way possible. He printed off the important newspapers from the archive and pinned them to the wall, placing them in chronological order from left to right on the empty wall near the opening to his bedroom. I never could think of what to put there, He mused.
Trying to keep the atmosphere light was difficult though when talking about almost 40-year-old child murders. So, Marcus tried to occupy himself with what he knew he could do, find out more about what the hell happened all those years ago. It was crazy, no doubt about it, even if the truth was still out there no one would care enough to remember details. But Marcus couldn't give up, maybe if he learned what happened he could find a way out of his job, or at least live long enough to quit at the end of the week.
So, Marcus was set on finding out the truth of what happened all those years ago, even if it killed him.
He was dead if he didn't, so what did he have to lose?
"This is all your fault you know"
What? No, I didn't do anything wrong. Four kids stared at her from the darkness, they were looking past her, but she knew who they were talking to. They addressed her as one.
"Keep telling yourself that. You couldn't even save us from that monster, now you have the audacity to say you saved us by putting us in these bodies"
Charlie took a step backwards, something in her gut told her that this wasn't right. Her friends would never say this stuff to her. They all loved her…
That doesn't mean they don't think this way.
"Of course we think this way, we're all trapped here and it's your fault"
No nononono it's not true! Charlie covered her ears and sunk to the floor, she had experienced this before, the self-doubt, the confusion, but she never got used to hearing her friends like this. I did what I thought was best! I SAVED YOU FROM DEATH!
"What? Sentencing us to live in this hell hole? How is that saving us?"
She didn't see them move, but Charlie could feel their stares burning into the back of her skull. She could almost see their shadows looming over her on the black ground.
"Charlie…"
Charlie looked up at the sound of the familiar voice. It was warm, and much more soothing than what the others had been before, she realised who it was instantly.
Dad? Dad where are you?! Charlie stood as fast as she could, the other children had gone, and she was glad for that. But she knew they'd be back soon enough, so she tried to find where her dad was speaking to her from.
"Charlie listen to me-" She turned around to see that her dad wasn't talking to her, instead he was on one knee talking at head height to a little girl. She couldn't have been more than a year or two old, with long brown hair and a light green coat on Charlie took a few steps forward to see what was going on. "-no matter what you keep this bracelet on okay?"
Her dad gave the little girl a green bracelet that he clipped over her wrist, to this Charlie began to realise what was going on.
All those years ago her dad had given her a bracelet that looked exactly like the one she saw now.
That- that can't be me… can it?
"This will help my friends and I to locate you if anything happens"
Oh god, it is!
"What friends?" The younger Charlie asked. To this her dad gestured behind her and both Charlies turned to see where he was pointing. In a box still surrounded by darkness was an animatronic, it was suspended by strings that came from the ceiling and gave off a vibe the younger Charlie didn't like. Its face was made from recently cleaned porcelain, almost too clean in Charlie's opinion, with purple tears and rose red cheeks painted on it was obvious that her father had tried to make it more human. This had failed when he made the body a deep black and too skinny for even kids to enjoy…
"I made him specifically to be friends with you" The younger Charlie immediately hugged her dad, burying her face into his jacket to avoid eye contract with the puppet. Her dad gave a defeated sigh and smiled a little bit.
Charlie could only watch from afar; this was the last time she was with her dad before… before….
"Mari?" A new voice came from behind her. She turned to face it but saw two lights rapidly approaching her. She didn't have time to move before the cold steel hit her and she woke with a start in her box. She was awake, but her eyes were wide with terror. She hurriedly pat herself down to find the tire marks that had been left from the impact but found nothing. The thick fabric that made up her body was still intact, no damage to her except that of age. Then feeling her face, she could tell that she had been crying in the night; dark purple paint had already stained her hands from where she had unconsciously been rubbing.
Fatigued, even after sleeping for longer than normal, she rose from her cold music box to see the party room surrounding her. It still pained her to call it that considering it had been decades since she'd last seen gleeful children running these halls, and those years had not been kind; The storms had managed to break through the high windows within a couple months of the pizzerias closure, so dust from the outside had made its way in. Her and the others had tried their best to repair what they could, but that was to no avail. Tables had been overturned during weekly fits of frustration from the others, and no one had the energy to upright them again. Hardly anyone moved anymore. From her box Mari couldn't see any of them anyway.
The Puppet had managed to keep herself relatively intact over the years. The fabric that made up her body had been easy enough to clean, with the taps in the restrooms still working -Thank god for that, she thought- she had cleaned herself weekly to conserve what water was left in the pipes. Her mask and make up had been another matter though. With no spare paint to speak of in the building her signature teardrops had faded over time, her mask was just as bad with it slowly cracking with her decaying mental state. She was forced into this body at a young age and had adapted quickly, so she knew that this wasn't a good sign. The only thing that kept it from fully splitting was the memories she had.
She held onto the pictures that children had once given her band mates in confidence. This, mixed with the fact that she could almost hear their laughter through the image, kept her going. It seemed to fix the cracks that formed on her face and allowed her to live another day.
But this couldn't last.
"Mari?"
Marionette looked down to find Balloon Boy, standing just outside of her box she was shocked that it had taken her so long to realise he was there. Still holding onto his single balloon on a sick, BB looked a little worse for wear. Although like most things the colour had faded from his panels and his eyes, he still managed to move around the building, looking for a way-out Mari supposed. There wasn't one. They all agreed on that silently years ago. No one was coming. They locked eyes and Mari could tell that he was worried about her again.
"Hey BB…" Marionette managed to say. Her voice was out of use, and with the dust penetrating into her music box she wouldn't be surprised if she couldn't speak at all within a year or two.
"Are you okay?" He motioned to her tears and Mari wiped them away dismissively.
"Yeah yeah" She sniffled, "I'm fine" Mari never liked to lie, but talking about her dreams again wouldn't make her feel any better.
"Dreams again?" Mari turned with a start to face him. She never talked about her dreams anymore. Every animatronic in the building had nightmares from time to time, although Mari had to admit that she had them more than the others.
"…yeah" She hovered a little out of her box and placed her legs gently onto the cool tiled floor. "I just need some time to myself today"
"Okay" BB responded, he stepped out from behind the prize corner to let her past. "But if you ever need to talk then you know we're here right?"
Mari chuckled a little in more sombre tone than she wanted.
"Don't worry I know" With that she decided to make the rounds of the building, hoping to get to a sink and wash off the paint before it stained permanently. She moved quietly through the halls, hovering off the ground did help with movement and kept her quiet when she wanted to be alone, but it sapped energy from her faster than she liked to admit.
She glanced into the smaller party rooms as she passed them, these used to be rented out for more personal birthday parties, kids would normally ask for a specific character to bring cake and to sing to them and overall they were a huge hit as far as Mari could remember. The favourite that people would ask for was always Freddy. Something about his voice and overall friendly demeanour had kids flocking to him in droves. Chica was a close second, followed closely by Bonnie and then Foxy. No one asked for her specifically during those years.
Sat in the corner of each of the rooms was one of her friends respectively. Chica, Bonnie and Foxy all sat there and didn't notice her presence, but Freddy lifted his head to see what she was doing. She gave a small wave, and he gave a laboured one back. Their endoskeletons had begun to rust away so movement was difficult for them all. Luckily Mari's had been protected by the fabric around her, another one of the things she had to thank her dad for when she saw him next.
Whenever that would be.
She moved on towards the only working restroom in the building. Although water still ran in the pipes, the ones in the kid's toilets had rusted shut, so she moved towards the restroom situated just behind the security office where the pipes had remained intact. Passing through the office she looked at the newspaper clippings and other documents she had managed to scavenge together that rested on the desk. Most were maintenance manuals, trying to see if there was a way to get her and her friends to last longer had always been a priority.
They had all lasted much longer than what anyone thought was possible, with no official maintenance from the company they had expected to last five- maybe ten years at a push. They had doubled that easily with Mari's check-ups. As there wasn't much to do each day had moved by at a snail's pace, so keeping track of the time had been a bit of a challenge. Mari had tried to keep a mental note of each day passing by but that only lasted the first few months before she lost track. There were now scratches on each of the walls, each one representing one day. This had worked well for a couple of years but now that they had passed twenty or more years no one wanted to count how many scratches they had made along the halls.
Putting this out of her mind, Mari opened the restroom door and made her way inside. The restroom was mostly intact, still having the same decrepit feeling as the rest of the building the mirrors had all shattered and become murky with the dust and dirt plastered across them. Mari made her way towards one and rested her hands on the sink. She wiped away a little of the dust so she could see her mask clearly and it was exactly as she expected. Tears had been plastered all over her mask in the night, not like she could do much to stop it while she was asleep, it was still irritating to go through this routine.
Giving a laboured sigh she turned the tap on and began to work away at the drying paint. What am I doing? She thought. I should've left this place long ago and tried to find out who killed all of us. But what would she have done if she did leave? It's not like would've had anywhere to go, no one would take in a living animatronic, and if anyone did actually see her then she'd be shot on sight. Maybe the sewers would work out? At the thought she looked herself over. The fabric would absorb all of the smells and… it would just be more hassle than it's worth.
"Besides-" She said to her reflection, "-I wouldn't even know where to begin"
Her dream resurfaced at the thought, she didn't even see the car that hit her, it had all happened so fast that… she just didn't know anymore. They had gone after some of the night guards that had worked here in the past but that was only on the hunch that the murderer was guard here. It had made sense at the time. Guards had access to the maintenance rooms to hide the bodies, and no one would bat an eye as to them entering and leaving at a moments notice.
Mari turned off the tap.
"What use is this anyway? It's not like I'm going to be able to find the bastard that did this" She said at her reflection. Staring at her mask in the mirror she could feel her frustration beginning to take hold. That's right, what point is there to any of this? She gripped the sink harder. We can't even take care of ourselves. No one is coming for us. We've been left to rot for decades like fucking SCRAP!
At this, and before Mari realised what she was doing, the last of the mirror she was standing in-front of fell off its mount and shattered on the ground. She didn't know that she was using her telekinesis at all, in a lapse of concentration she broke something else. Mari sighed.
"…damn it all" She whispered.
Just as she was about to leave the restroom and head back to her box she heard something. Stopping dead, she listened closer. It was muffled, almost like it was coming from outside, and it was getting louder. Mari hovered out of the room and down the corridor towards the main party room. The others had heard the noise too and were leaning out of the smaller party rooms to see what was going on.
Chica gave Mari a worried look but all the puppet could respond with was a shrug. This can't be what I think it is. It can't be. She moved faster towards the front windows to get a better look at the outside. There's no way someone has come back here after all this time-
But they had.
Outside the building a car had pulled up, and someone was stepping out.
Marcus arrived at the Freddy Fazbear's Jr location faster than he thought. The building was still out in the sticks, with the roads worn away by the wind and sun it was difficult to find, but in this case following the map he had drawn -as well as some blind luck- Marcus had arrived with time to spare. To what he wasn't sure.
The building was decrepit. All the outside walls were crumbling, paint from the original opening of the pizzeria apparently had peeled off probably before Marcus was born leaving the bare brickwork exposed. With the windows boarded up and multiple 'for closure' signs littering the surrounding area Marcus knew that it was long abandoned. He pulled into the empty parking lot, avoiding the many potholes littering the asphalt, and turned off the engine. Watching the building he didn't leave the car for a second.
"This doesn't feel right" He said to himself. His gut wrenched thinking of going into the pizzeria, he didn't tell anyone that he was going out this far to old location on a hunch. Who would have told? His family? They would say he was crazy, that no animatronic could move the way he had seen them move. Any friends he had from school would think he was just playing an elaborate joke on them, and his boss… well maybe he would care. If he didn't come back who would do the night shift?
He saw something move in one of the dirty windows but didn't get a good look at it before it darted into the building. Great, He thought. I'm seeing things already.
Opening his car door, he walked across the lot to the glass double doors that once were the main entrance to the building. He cupped his hands to the remaining glass and tried cleaning some space with his sleeve, this only gave him a glimpse into the main room. It looked as if a hurricane had blown through the place. Tables tipped over and party decorations scattered over the floor near the entrance, everything was bleached with sunlight and dust still hung in the air. Marcus leaned away from the door and began to shift from one foot to the other.
"Okay okay, this is either the best idea you've had in your life… or the worst" He stepped towards the door and braced his arm against the glass. "Time to find out which it is"
In one motion Marcus slammed his elbow against the glass and it shattered on contact, shards fell to the ground as he covered his eyes. He paused for a second and then entered through the hole he had made.
The glass cracked under his foot as he entered the building. Somehow it was worse than he imagined, with holes high in the walls and a deathly stench still somehow filling the halls the once lively building was nothing more than fit for demolition. I guess there are somethings people just want to leave to rot, Marcus thought. And with the missing children Marcus was sure this would fit the bill.
Overall, the building seemed to be about twice the size of his current place of employment, but it still seemed small. To his immediate left seemed to be some sort of prize corner where staff would give out gifts to kids. Prize tickets still littered the floor. There appeared to be a main stage to his right, curtains closed, and a smaller play area to his left past the prize corner, in between them were more tables and chairs than he could count.
"This place must've been packed in it's heyday to have filled out so many chairs" Marcus said to no one. Past the stage to his right Marcus saw an unlit hallway that led further into the building, so, feeling adventurous, he unclipped his torch and began stepping past the tables towards the hall.
He was so focused on what was ahead of him he didn't notice that he was being watched.