June 8, 1978
The representative from Fazbear Entertainment sat down at the small desk in the office, clicking his pen. "Alright, we'd like to get this report done as soon as possible."
He shifted in his seat to get more comfortable. He hated these sad, wooden chairs they used in the offices. They really made the workers feel like dirt. "No," he answered, "what you want is to ensure no one uses the word 'lawsuit' right now. So, you want to make sure we don't say anything."
The representative took a deep breath to regain composure. "We take the health and safety of our workers and customers very seriously at Fazbear Entertainment. An unfortunate incident such as this is extremely upsetting to us. We merely want to get all the facts straight before taking drastic action. Now, to begin, how did you know the victim?"
He shrugged. "Evan was a coworker of mine. That was about the extent of it."
"So you two rarely communicated."
"Honestly, maybe a few words here or there between shifts."
The representative only made a few scribbles in his notes." How would you describe Evan's work?"
A new look came over his eyes. Disdain perhaps? Hatred? "Evan was...careless. He never really took the job seriously. In fact, I'd say he even hated it. No one is really thrilled to go around in a bear costume entertaining screaming kids all day."
Except for him, he knew. It was his place to make kids smile, and idiots like Evan had to go and ruin it for everyone else.
The representative took a few more notes, grinning slightly. "You say he was careless? You mean that he didn't take proper safety precautions seriously?"
He grimaced. These executive types were all the same, trying to find a way out of having to pay for any damages.
"I don't know about that," he said. "It was more that he only wanted to come in, earn his pay, and get out. He never thought much of the job beyond that."
"I see, now, in your own words, please explain to me what happened this afternoon."
It felt weird having to think about it again. It was not so much that he had been horrified. Actually, he hardly felt anything about it. It was shocking, to be sure, but one would feel that about anything that took them by surprise.
"We were working a large birthday party. Normally, it only takes one of us to handle these sorts of things, but it was a bigger group. Needless to say, we were both a bit overwhelmed and exhausted. So, I noticed Evan was taking a short break. I noticed he had a bottle of water, but he had not taken off his springlock suit."
"And you knew this was going to be a problem," the representative interrupted. He seemed to be watching him closely for his answer, as if he was investigating him, not the incident.
"Yes, I was the kind of employee who bothered to read the manual when we got these new suits. I knew that water was going to be a problem. Normally, we always had time to take off the suits before we go on break. But we were busy today. By the time I spotted Evan, it was too late. I tried to stop him, but the damage was already done.
"Water must've splashed inside the head area. There were a few seconds of pops and then this powerful snap, like a gunshot. I couldn't see Evan's face under the mask, and I suppose I'm lucky I didn't. All I saw was when the blood and...well, the inside of his head splattered out the openings. It...it wasn't pretty. It was almost surreal. He...his body just sort of slumped over after that. Nothing else."
The representative started taking more thorough notes as he spoke. "And what did you do after that?"
"Well, some of his...head matter was on me."
"Did that upset you?"
He tried to read the representative's tone before answering. It was almost as if he was the one on trial here. He did not like that feeling.
"I think I was mostly in shock. It did not really register until later, you know? Still, I at least recognized that I couldn't just go walking through the dining room looking like that. I made my way to the back room to call for help. The manager secured the area so that none of the kids saw."
The representative was finishing up his report. "Well, you and the manager did do everything according to protocol. It seems like everything lines up."
"So, what happens now? The restaurant won't close, will it?
The representative began straightening papers to put them back in his briefcase. He hardly looked at him all the while.
"Highly unlikely. We may have to shut this establishment down for a few days to get everything cleaned, but this was just an unfortunate accident. We should get everything up and running again."
He breathed a sigh of relief. But the representative continued, "However, there have been several reports of near-accidents much like this with the hybrid suits. Afton Robotics has done some testing, and they've decided to recall the models."
He tried to contain his smile. Looks like there was indeed a silver lining in all of this. Those cursed suits would be gone.
"So, I take it that we'll be going back to the old cloth mascot suits?" He tried to mask his excitement in his tone.
The representative shook his head. "Probably not. Freddy Fazbear's does hold a reputation of being the most advanced in children's entertainment. Going back to such an archaic method now would hurt that reputation. Rather, we at Fazbear Entertainment have decided to go in a different direction. We will be going fully animatronic. Afton Robotics has some pretty advanced models out there that should provide all the accommodations we need."
As quickly as his excitement had bubbled over, it now vaporized. No costumes at all?
"B-but, sir…"
He waved him off. "Now, don't worry. We won't be throwing you out on the streets. We always try to accommodate our loyal employees. It may mean you'll have to work at a new position, though. I believe here they have an opening in the kitchens."
The rest of the meeting was short after that. He hardly heard anything else. He was essentially losing his job. He would no longer be Bonnie the Bunny, not in any form. His purpose was gone. Everything was gone.
His drive home was not quiet, at least, not in his head. Everything was wrong. Stupid Evan had to always ruin everything. He never took his job seriously. He never even liked his job. And despite all of that, everyone loved his character more. Everyone loved Freddy more than Bonnie. He was the mascot, after all. But how could such a horrible person inhabit this suit. How could kids love him more when he hated kids? And what was he? Just a sidekick. He could not stand it. It was like his brother all over again. Why did everyone have to love him more? Evan deserved what he got. Good thing he was stupid. He never even saw him coming with the water. But now, even in death, Evan had to ruin everything.
Author's Notes: I debated how I wanted to handle the "springlock incident" as there never were any official details on what the incident was exactly or what happened. Still, as I was drafting out the timeline for this story, I thought this would be a nice touch to get further into the head of our killer and give readers a way to see their spiral downward.
