Marcus pushed open the doors to Freddy's and stepped inside the pizzeria. Normally he would have gone straight to his office, but this time he made a beeline for Kid's Cove. As he passed the Prize Counter, he heard the sound of a ball bouncing off of something in quick succession, but ignored it and continued into the next room. Naturally, the lights were off, so the guard took out his flashlight and switched in on. The beam of light illuminated the corner where Mangle resided, revealing...nothing. The animatronic wasn't there.
"Mangle?" Marcus called out, sweeping the flashlight across the room and onto the ceiling.
"I'm over here!" Mangle replied, her voice coming from behind the young man. Marcus turned and walked back into the dining area and pointed the flashlight towards the Prize Corner on a hunch. As expected, the spotlight shone onto the damaged animatronic, who was playing around with a Fazbear-branded paddle ball. He couldn't help but smile.
"Is this what you usually do to pass the time at night?" he asked, walking closer to the metal fox.
"Ah! Not in my eye!" Mangle said, raising her free hand to block out the light. Marcus lowered the flashlight in response. "I see why Foxy hates that thing, it's really bright!" she added, "And to answer your question, no, I don't usually rummage around through the prizes, but I've always been curious about what's in here, so tonight I decided to have a look around."
"That's nice," Marcus said, determined to find answers to his questions, "Hey, Mangle, when I was listening to the original animatronics, I couldn't help but notice that Chica and your voices sound kinda similar."
The paddling stopped. "Oh," Mangle said, "Are you sure? I mean, I don't know how our voice boxes are programmed, but maybe we're just voiced by the same person or something."
"That would make sense, but I could have sworn that Toy Foxy was designed as a male animatronic. You know, like the original Foxy."
Suddenly Mangle's static erupted from her torso, causing Marcus to jump. "Oh, sorry," Mangle said, "Sometimes I can't control that. I'm thinking it might be because my voice box is damaged or something."
"What be that accused racket?" Foxy roared, leaning out from the hallway.
"Oh, uh, sorry Foxy!" Mangle shouted, "My voice box is acting up, I think."
"Oh, that's okay," Chica said, popping out behind Foxy alongside Freddy and Bonnie.
"No, it's not!" Foxy cried, "We be trying to sleep!"
"What're you up to?" Bonnie said, shoving the irritated pirate fox aside.
"We're checking out what's behind the prize counter," Marcus replied, "You guys interested in joining us?"
"Yeah! That sounds like fun!" Bonnie said, running over.
"Uh, I don't know about this," Chica said, "What if Marcus gets in trouble for accessing areas he's not supposed to? He could get fired."
"Aye, Chica be right!" Foxy said, "So why're we following the whims of this lass?"
"You know what? Let's do it," Chica corrected herself, walking over to the Prize Counter.
"Freddy, are you in?" Marcus asked.
"Well, I think we should be careful not to get you fired," the bear said. He turned to the present box next to the counter. "Hey, uhh—" He awkwardly turned to look at the Toy animatronics watching from the stage.
"They know already," Marcus said.
"That simplifies things," Freddy said to himself before turning back to the Puppet's box, "Charlie, would you have any idea if there are some prizes we could take a look at without getting Marcus in trouble?"
"I would rather he got in trouble," the Puppet replied, barely peeking out of her box. Freddy gave the Puppet a stern look until finally, she gave up and said, "Sometimes people take some of the prizes down and take them away. I think they put them in a storage room on Kid's Cove. I doubt he'll get in trouble for messing with unwanted toys."
"So that's what's behind that door," Mangle said, "I always wondered what was in there."
"Foxy?" Marcus called over to the fox still sulking in the hallway, "Do you want to join us or are you going to stay here and pout all night?" Foxy stood there for a few seconds before finally walking over to the group.
"Beats sitting around with Balloon Boy," he mumbled. As if on cue, the little animatronic let out a giggle, revealing himself to be standing behind Marcus. The night guard reached for a chair and prepared to swing it at the annoyance when he felt the gaze of the Puppet on his back.
"Remember our agreement?" Charlie said, "That includes him, no matter how bothersome he can be."
"I hate you," Marcus groaned as he set the chair down. Then he had an idea. "You know what?" he said, lifting the balloon-dispensing animatronic with a grunt, "If you care so much about him, why don't you babysit?" He turned and walked over to the prize box, the Puppet still inside.
The Puppet's wide smile seemed to disappear, even though the mask was the same as it had ever been. "Wait—" she tried to say, but Marcus dropped Balloon Boy on top of her and closed the box.
"Take care of our little angel," Marcus teased as he stacked another box on top, just to be sure they wouldn't bother him, "We thank you for the opportunity to finally get some time to ourselves."
"Marcus!" Charlie screamed as the group left for Kid's Cove. Sure enough, there was a door on the wall where the camera couldn't see. Marcus grabbed the doorknob and twisted. To his surprise, the door was unlocked. He pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The room wasn't very big, and what was there wasn't that interesting, save for something covered by a tarp at the far wall. Boxes full of plushies and action figures lined the walls. Some of the toys had spilled out of their containers, lying scattered on the floor. The night guard glanced up at the cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, betraying the illusion of cleanliness in the room.
"Marcus, can you bring them out?" Marcus heard Freddy say, "We're having some…difficulties." He turned around to see that the animatronics were too large to get in.
"Sure," Marcus said, grabbing a bunch of toys and dumping them outside. The room was too small to fit all the animatronics anyway.
"Alright, what have we got here?" Bonnie said, sifting through the stuffed animals with his hand. He grabbed a bunny out of the pile and lifted it so his sensors could register what he had. "Hey, this is from the old location!" he said. Marcus took a closer look at the plush, realizing its "fur" (in reality it was nothing more than fabric) was the same color as the partially dismantled robot holding it.
"Was that you, Bonnie?" the guard asked.
"Yeah, it was," the bunny replied, "Well, I mean, I wasn't a tiny stuffed animal, but more or less, that was what I looked like before...well, you know." He gestured to himself, being sure to showcase his state of disrepair.
"You've certainly seen better days," Marcus agreed.
"I think I got the worst of them scrapping us for parts. I mean, what were they gonna do with my face?"
"At least you don't have a face to screw up," Marcus remarked, holding up a Chica plush and whispering, "I think they somehow made Chica's beak even bigger!" The two of them snorted as Chica whirled around to face them.
"You know, Marcus, maybe you'd like to find out how Bonnie feels without a face," she said, glaring at them.
"Uh, no thanks. I'm good," Marcus chuckled nervously. He decided to change the conversation and picked up a plush he hadn't noticed earlier. "Who's this?" he asked, holding the yellow bear for everyone to see. The original four froze, staring at the plush. For a second, Marcus thought they had shut down.
"Are you guys okay?" Mangle asked, poking Foxy's shoulder with one of her paws.
"Don't poke me, lass," the fox growled.
"Okay, so they're still functional."
"What's the big deal about this plush?" Marcus asked.
"...Nothing," Freddy finally said, "It's just, that character is even older than we are. I thought they would have thrown those out."
Marcus shrugged, then looked down at an action figure. "Oh hey, Mangle, look!" he called over, holding up a white and pink fox, "It's you!"
"Oh boy," Mangle muttered.
"You know, I think I know why these were taken off the shelves," the guard continued, "They look nothing like you! There's no extra head, there's only two legs, it's almost like you were completely different when these were made!"
"Marcus, just let it rest," Mangle said, static beginning to come from her.
"I knew it! I knew you were faking a malfunction! You've pestered me with that for a week; did you really think I would think it was accidental?"
"Marcus, give it up!"
"No! What are you hiding?"
"I'm not hiding any—" Mangle froze, her eyes wide. She whipped around, searching for something in the shadows.
"Mangle?" Chica said, staring at the animatronic with worry.
"Did you hear that?" Mangle asked.
"Oh, no," Marcus said, "I'm not falling for that."
"No, someone's talking!"
"There's no one else here!"
"They're talking to me!"
"Mangle, I'm not hearing anyone but you. So, I'm going to assume that you are full of sh—"
He stopped. He wasn't hearing a voice like Mangle claimed, but a low growl was coming from the storage room. He slowly shifted to face the door, cautiously peering inside. The tarp had moved, and was now lying discarded on the tiles. What hid underneath was wrapped in shadows, except for its glowing yellow-orange eyes. The thing in the shadows flashed its sharp teeth, and let out a louder, more aggressive growl.
Yeah, yeah. Cliffhangers every chapter aren't interesting. In my defense, this one wasn't supposed to be a cliffhanger. I planned for this to be part of a bigger story, but I felt like I had to section it off before it got too much longer than the rest of the chapters. Well, anyways, I can't believe this story has already gotten 100 total views at the time I'm writing this. I expected it to take more than a week to get that many, let alone less than three days. Maybe it's not actually that impressive, but I greatly appreciate that people are checking out my story. More chapters to come, with plenty of (hopefully) interesting stuff! Maybe I'll do more of these notes, but I don't know. I did quite a lot of them in other stories that I'm…personally less than satisfied with. (Don't look for them, not worth your time)
