4
It had been another two weeks before the first crate from Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental arrived at Rockstar Pizza. By this time, Mike was well adjusted to his role as the security guard and had gotten familiar with the regular deliveries that he had to check in and inspect. There was a constant stream of incoming goods containing bulk food products and ingredients, along with replenishments of merchandise and gifts that could be won at the prize corner, including plush toys of the animatronic band members.
Business boomed steadily since opening day and once the profits rolled in Tim awarded himself a bonus by buying himself a brand-new black luxury car, which he parked proudly every day out the front of the restaurant in the newly-created 'manager' parking spot.
"No more hiding my car out the back!" Tim exclaimed to Mike that morning as he showed it off to those who stopped to stare. "If this keeps up, you'll all have brand new cars in the next few months!"
Reality came crashing down upon him when he weighed up the expenses against the profits a few days later as he ran the numbers and saw that there were more upcoming expenses than he had initially thought.
"It's okay, it's okay…" Tim muttered to himself. "I'll just wait for those assets to come in from the sister location and I'll see what they're worth."
The day that the crate arrived had been a long, busy one. Mike had to rush out to the stage as he spotted on the camera a small child climbing up to dance with the animatronics. He spent the next several minutes trying to gently coax the small boy down without giving the sense that the boy was in danger. He did not want people to start thinking of the old days. Once the boy was back down on the tiled floor and back with his parents, who didn't see why it was a big deal, Mike walked quickly back towards his office while fighting down another panic attack that the image of the child on the stage with the animatronics had created. When he got back to his office, Tim was in a huff about having to direct a truck that had come in with a delivery of cleaning supplies. Tim's stress with the budget was playing on his mind and he had been short-tempered for the last few days.
Later that night, when it was nearing closing time, Mike saw on the schedule that there was still one more truck due for delivery that hadn't come in yet. He called the transport company and was told that the freight was booked for a late delivery, expected by 11:00pm. Mike hung up, angry, and quickly entered Tim's office next door and told him of the situation.
"Oh, yeah. Didn't I tell you? Yeah, the deliveries from the sister location will be coming in after-hours. Some insurance thing. I don't know all the details. I guess they're really valuable." Tim stroked his chin as a new wave of excitement washed over him. "Let me know when it comes in. I want to see this thing. Oh, that's right… We have to inspect them when they arrive and do some kind of test on them, and we're not supposed to be alone when we do it. Another insurance thing… Something to do with unknown programming and the fact that our guys aren't too familiar with the Afton animatronics."
"Uh, Tim?" began Mike, not happy at the prospect of staying back for another hour. "It's nearly closing time. I'm supposed to be leaving in a few minutes! The cleaner's almost finished for the night."
"Just take an hour as time in lieu," replied Tim dismissively. "I'll mark it on my calendar."
Mike said nothing to him and stalked back towards his office. There was a piece of advice that he had heard every now and then over the years, warning against working with friends or family, and he was now beginning to see why. He and Tim went way back and had always been there for each other when one of them was in a dire situation, but now, seeing Tim slowly become lost in his own stress from inexperience and the sense of self-importance that he was developing was becoming hard to deal with. He had come to Mike personally with an offer of a new career together and had gotten him out of a job that he hadn't realised he hated. Mike couldn't just bail on him when the business was just starting to thrive. He sat in his office and brooded, and with nothing to do until the truck arrived, he wasted his time scrolling on his phone and occasionally checking the cameras.
Finally, a pair of headlights appeared on the camera feed from the driveway down the side of the building, heading towards the roller door at the end. Mike stood and left his office and stepped out into the carpeted hallway, turning left towards the door to the back room. He entered the dark room and turned on the light then pushed the button next to the exit which opened the metal roller door. The light from the storeroom slowly rose from beneath the lifting door to reveal a small truck that had parked with the back facing the building.
Mike spoke to the driver and confirmed the delivery and where it had come from. 'Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental' was printed on the sender details and on the crate itself. Once signed, the driver lowered the hydraulic-powered tailgate on the back of the truck and opened the back doors. Using a pallet jack, the delivery driver wheeled out onto the tailgate a large crate that stood upright and was as tall as he was. Once the tailgate was lowered to the ground, he wheeled it backwards into the storeroom and left it in the middle of the floor where Mike had directed him to. The man then closed up his truck and drove off as Mike lowered the roller door and set the door alarm for the night. Mike looked up at the large crate, wondering what was inside, but before he could even turn back around, Tim had barged into the room with an excited look on his face.
"Alright, let's see what's inside this thing!"
With a crowbar that he had grabbed from the nearby bench, Tim pried open the front of the crate with a forceful pull. The wood creaked and crackled in the cold, silent room and was followed by a loud bang as the panel came off and landed on the floor. A stream of white packaging foam spilled out onto the floor like an avalanche, revealing from top to bottom, the head of an animatronic that they had never seen before. Both men wore expressions of curious excitement but were both quickly replaced with confusion and shock as the packaging poured away lower and lower.
Its appearance started off normal and bore the appearance of a Fazbear-designed cartoon bear, but from the shoulders down it was a twisted amalgamation of too many parts, hydraulic hoses, internal wiring, and framework, all bunching together at the bottom of the crate like thick tangled fishing cables. The intact metal coverings on its head and arms were the only things that gave any indication to what it was or used to be. It had been a white bear animatronic seemingly based on the titular Freddy Fazbear character model, with pink trimmings detailing its face and arms. Its left arm was torn off from below the elbow. It was missing an eye, but the one that remained, shiny and blue, stared straight ahead down into the storeroom, past the two men that were staring at it. Its mouth hung open as if fused into a twisted scream at some unknown horror that had befallen it.
The two men were silent for a moment, taking in every detail of the metal creature as they both tried to visualise what it was supposed to look like.
"Hang on," Tim began as he pulled his phone out from his pocket. "Head office e-mailed me about this a few days ago. There's sound files I've got to play near it…"
Mike didn't look away from the thing as Tim scrolled through the e-mails on his phone, and he could feel his hands getting clammy and was struggling to regulate his breathing. He couldn't shake the sense that the being that stood slumped in the crate was awake and thinking as it stared past them at a world only it could see.
"Oh, here it is!" exclaimed Tim as he opened up a file on his phone. "'Regarding the inspection of the recovered animatronic designated 'Funtime Freddy', please follow the step-by-step checklist provided'. Okay, let's see… Here we are. Three audio files to be played in order, one after the other."
Tim continued to read the finer details of the e-mail, skimming over the insurance jargon and reading aloud the parts involving the actual inspection.
"So, it says here that we're not meant to do it alone. They're pretty strict about always having someone else with you. Looks like we just have to play these files and see if it responds."
"Responds? It looks pretty out of it to me," replied Mike, who still hadn't looked away from the thing in the crate.
"Yeah, and we have to let them know if it responds or moves or anything. Well, here goes."
Tim played the audio file on his phone and the two men stood silently as the grainy sound of carnival music and laughing children played out into the empty room, echoing off the walls. It was a haunting sound, like listening to a vinyl record that wasn't quite at the right speed, as though it was a white noise recording of a hellish otherworld. The file was ten seconds long and when it finished, Tim spoke up.
"Did you see anything…?"
"I don't think so. It's hard to tell," replied Mike. Though he indeed thought that he saw a glimmer appear in the single blue eye, it could very well have been his imagination.
The second file was similar, but more intense. The children in the recording sounded overly excited as they squealed and screamed with joy at whatever was taking place at this long-forgotten party seemingly recorded many years ago. Still no reaction was detected from the mangled animatronic.
The third and final audio file was different. It was much quieter and there was only the sound of one child against a muffled recording of party music, as though from behind a thick wall. The child sounded scared and was sniffing occasionally. The two men noticed a change pretty quickly. Tim had been looking down at the phone as the file played, confused at the unexpected content of it, and when he looked back up, he was sure that the animatronic had changed.
Its blue eye, which had been staring across the room at the opposite wall, was now focused on Tim. The animatronic's head was turned slightly as if to look at him more directly, though it's change was so subtle that it was hard to tell if it had actually moved at all. Without taking his eyes off the creature, Tim turned his head towards Mike and held his phone out to him.
"Here," he spoke quietly. "You play it and see what it does."
Reluctantly, Mike took the phone from his hand and tapped on the third audio file on the screen. The sounds played again, conjuring an image of a lost child locked in a room somewhere, alone and separated from the rest of the party that was going on in the background. Mike had heard a sound like it before, in his office on a particularly stressful night when he was a night guard at the old place. A soft whimpering from a child who was scared that the monster she was hiding from was right there in the dark with her.
The mangled animatronic in the crate turned its head to look at Mike now that the sound was coming from him. He raised the phone in his hand and moved it in the air, left to right, but the thing did not follow it. It had seen him and had locked on to him, and Mike had an ominous feeling that it was trying to make a decision about him. Tim cleared his throat loudly, making Mike jump.
"Well, that's definitely a positive response," he said, reaching for his phone. "I'll e-mail them back and let them know that this Funtime Freddy still has some life in it."
As per the instructions from head office, the two men placed the lid back on the crate and roughly tacked it back into place with the hammer, then drew a large tick on it. Using the pallet jack, Mike moved the upright crate against the wall while Tim waited by the storeroom door. Neither of them spoke as they locked it behind them and hurried on down the hallway. It was late—almost midnight—and Mike was glad to be climbing into his old car.
On the drive home, Mike couldn't shake the feeling he got from the creature. After only a few turns, Mike stopped the car and opened the door to vomit in a gutter. He stepped out of his car and sat, catching his breath and thought. Something was very wrong with that character. Its mangled appearance was frightening enough, but Mike suspected that even if the bear were in perfect condition, it would have had the same repugnant effect on him. It was the same feeling he had felt from the four animatronics at Freddy's many years ago. He had never forgotten it. But this was somehow different.
Those characters had always felt like they were trapped, desperate, and alone. All they wanted was freedom and they were enraged at their earthly bindings. This creature, Funtime Freddy, was something else. There was a presence within it, but it felt like a tangled mess of voices all trying to be heard at once. Simply put, it felt evil. It was as though someone had captured the purest essence of it and poured it through the joints and seals, a fluid that powered it long after it should have perished. Tim had felt something too, Mike was sure, though he would never say so.
Cold and shaking as he sat on the ground in the dark night, Mike slowly stood and got back into his car. Perhaps it had just been a long night. He put the car into gear and drove the familiar roads back to his house.
-xxx-
The target value was 1. There were many other factors that came into play which also needed to line up for the hidden function to activate, but first, the target value had to equal 1. One person in the room. One person alone with it. A child, just the right size. A perfect set of circumstances that only occurred once in a blue moon, but the program was always running, waiting for it. Ready.
Funtime Freddy had been the most well-known animatronic character in the Funtime series. Circus Baby was the main face and name of the rental company, but for many, the favourite was him. The familiar design, the cheery smile, the advanced interactive capabilities it possessed made it a hit with children everywhere. The Funtime range had included all of the original characters. There was a Funtime Chica, a Funtime Foxy, and Bonnie was even included as a hand puppet worn by Freddy.
The Funtime range was created in the eighties by the sister company known as Afton Robotics, made a few years before the revamped 'toy' versions of the original characters, which included Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica. A Funtime Foxy was present at the new restaurant as a form of advertising for the new range, whereas the original characters existed solely to entertain in the restaurant. The Funtime range was designed to be hired out to large functions and special occasions exclusively to those who could afford it. After the tragedy of 1987 however, popularity for the characters took a sharp dive and the business slowed to a halt, threatening the closure of the indebted company.
A restructure was needed, and the Funtime range was pulled from the public eye while the two humanoid characters, Circus Baby and Ballora were put front and centre. In an effort to distance themselves from the familiar Fazbear animal style, the two human characters were advertised constantly to the broader public, steering the Afton brand away from Fazbear Entertainment. Circus Baby was made to look like a little girl. A child. She was a clown in a red dress and with red hair tied up in pigtails, her cheery face and less intimidating appearance made her more approachable to many of the children and they took to her immediately. The other character, Ballora was similar, and was made to look like a tall, slender ballerina. The redesign was a success and Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental and Afton Robotics continued to thrive and do business well into the nineties.
Over time the five animatronics, Baby, Ballora, Funtime Freddy, Funtime Foxy, and Funtime Chica were leased out to conventions and to shows all over the country. Every event passed without any known incident. Due to budget restrictions, Chica was retired and decommissioned as she proved to be the least popular amongst the children. Though interest declined over the years and the company was fading away into obscurity by the 2010's, Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental was still operational and maintained by the Afton family's successor, Michael, who inherited ownership of the company after his father, William, disappeared in the mid-nineties.
The value had to equal 1. It was present in all of these Afton animatronics. Every year in the U.S, more than 800,000 children are reported missing. Over the twenty years of operation, the Afton animatronics were responsible for four of them. It was an extremely rare occurrence that ensured that the missing children wouldn't possibly be linked to the characters or the company. In a room crowded full of children, they waited for the number to dwindle down to just one child. Then, the hidden function would activate. Inside each animatronic was a cavity accessible from the front of the torso which opened when the value was met. Inside was a metal arm which would extend rapidly and seize the curious child, pulling them in. Once their task was done, the animatronics were rendered harmless and they continued to serve and entertain children across the country, never once suspected by the general public of their horrible, hidden feature.
The dark reason behind this function was never known and died along with the designer, William, but there could be no practical use for it. It was simply an extension of a serial killer's technical genius and a desire to find out if his twisted ideas could actually be achieved.
Little by little, business slowed and the Afton family could no longer afford to operate the company. Each of the characters were retired and left in storage in the old, dark factory, and it was only recently that the family had given it up. The place had been essentially abandoned for many years and Michael Afton had been the only to person to ever venture there alone and walk amongst his father's creations. Nobody knows what he had done down in that building, and his family members reported increasingly strange behaviour from the man. Only recently, when the factory was cleared out after its acquisition by Fazbear Entertainment, were there any clues as to the happenings inside the old building.
The four animatronics, the ones that had each taken a child in the years of their operation, were found in the same room together, away from their proper display rooms. Three of them, Freddy, Foxy, and Ballora, had been mangled together in a grotesque amalgamation of parts and hydraulics. It was as though someone had tried to build them together into a single being, with the features of Freddy dominating the other two. Curiously, Circus Baby was found propped up sitting against a wall opposite the thing, seeming to stare at it joyfully. Michael Afton wasn't available for comment on the matter and the strange happenings within the empty factory and his night-time visits there remained a mystery.
The presence that Mike Schmidt had felt from the twisted Funtime Freddy hadn't been only one. It had been three. Three souls trapped in an endless maze of parts that didn't belong, looping endlessly like veins through a metal body amateurly put together in a dark room in an old silent factory. But there was something else. Another essence had tainted the combined others. A fourth soul, filled only with rage and cunning, had left its mark on the other three as it temporarily merged with them. The remaining three could always feel this mark, lingering amongst them, and they were afraid of it.
It was after midnight when Mike arrived at his home. He was walking from his car towards the front door when he stopped and looked around the dark street, the cicadas chirping in the distance. He was listening for something, but he didn't know what. After a few moments, a chill ran up his spine and he hurried into his house, locking and double-checking the front door as he closed it.
Tomorrow was another day.