Attention! There have been several chapters that I have been worried would force me to change this story to an M rating. This is one of the worst. If any mods or however FanFiction works want me to change it, just send me a message and I'll do it. For all of you, this chapter gets a little violent. Proceed with caution.

Marcus closed the door to his apartment, sluggish from his shift. As much as he enjoyed hanging out with the animatronics at Freddy's, their antics certainly left him more tired than when he thought they were out to kill him. The confines of his home were just as much of a sanctuary as they had ever been, even if the reason was different. He set his keys down and began trudging his way towards his bedroom.

He fell forward onto his bed, desperate to get some sleep before his next shift. Unfortunately, rest would have to wait just a bit longer, as Marcus dragged himself out from the sheets to get out of his uniform. Freddy's didn't pay well enough for him to frequently get it dry cleaned. He wriggled into a t-shirt and a pair of shorts he used as pajamas, slipped back under the comforter, and closed his eyes, finally ready to drift away.

The ringing of the phone in the living room tore him away from his slumber once more, eliciting a groan from the night guard as he reluctantly got out of the bed. As much as he would rather leave it for his answering machine, it might have been something time-sensitive, something he couldn't afford to risk. He picked up the phone and held it up to his ear, awaiting whatever the person on the other end had to say.

"If this is a telemarketer, I'm gonna be pissed," he muttered, softly enough that it failed to be registered by the phone.

"Uh, hello?" Scott's voice came from the earpiece, "Hello hello?"

"I'm here," Marcus growled, yawning to make it clear that the call had disturbed his sleep, "What do you want?"

"Oh, well, uh, would you be able to take the day shift for a few days? I know that you're used to the night shift, but the guy who normally takes the shift said he would be unavailable for the time being. Something about a vacation, I think. Uh, normally I would take the shift, but management would rather have me take over for the night shift instead, for whatever reason. I don't exactly agree with it, but unfortunately, what they say goes."

"Fine," Marcus sighed.

"Great!" Scott replied, "Uh, I can handle today's shift, so you can get some sleep. I know the night shift can be…taxing. Well, in any case, I'll talk to you tomorrow!"

Marcus returned the phone to its resting place before turning to return to his. Once more he attempted to fall asleep, but once more, something deprived him of his slumber. This time, however, it wasn't something external, but internal. This new turn of events bounced around inside of his head, prompting an avalanche of questions to spring forth.

Why would they want him on day shift? He had no experience, and suddenly they were dragging him to a different shift. Why wouldn't they put Scott on it? He probably would do a better job than Marcus likely would, so why him?

And even if it was just Fazbear Entertainment's incompetence at it again, how would the animatronics fare during the night shift? The last time they were forced to remain still, they were miserable, or at least the toys were. Besides, he had no idea what their relationship with Scott was. Would they behave the same as when he was there, or would Scott panic if they tried to interact with him?

Slowly, his exhaustion began to overpower his concern. He would worry about it in the morning. Next morning, anyway, as the rays of sunlight peeking through the blinds of his window served to remind him.


"Marcus! Good, you're here," Scott said as the novice night guard burst into the establishment, "I was worried you'd overslept."

"Sorry I'm late," Marcus replied, clearly out of breath.

"Late?" Scott checked his watch. "You got here right on time."

"I just—I-I didn't know if I needed to get here early, so you could show me what I had to do, and—" Marcus fell silent as the veteran guard began to snot into his hand. "Are you laughing at me?" he asked.

"Sorry," Scott said, "I'm not used to seeing someone so dedicated to this job."

"Well, I guess you could say it's become an important part of my life," Marcus replied.

"I know what you mean." Scott gestured for Marcus to follow him as he made his way down the hallway. "The day shift really isn't too different from the night shift. Just keep an eye on the customers and alert the other staff if someone tries to steal anything or gets a little…contentious. Freddy and his friends onstage will try to help, too."

"I'm sure they will," Marcus chuckled.

"Yeah. Well, uh, that should be everything. I'll let you have a few minutes to get situated before everyone else gets here. See you on the flip side."

With that, Scott turned and started to head towards the door. Marcus waited until he was gone before stepping back into the dining room. He turned towards Kid's Cove, intending to speak with the animatronics, only to find Mangle's snout inches from his own. He lurched backwards, shouting in surprise as he tripped over himself and fell onto the tiles.

"Marcus, are you okay?" Mangle asked as the others ran over.

"I can't feel my arm," Marcus said, clutching at his chest.

Mangle cocked her head to the side and raised the eyebrow over her empty eye socket. "You didn't fall on your arm."

"You nearly gave me a DAMN HEART ATTACK, MANGLE!" His raised voice caused the damaged animatronic to flinch away from the source.

"Sorry," she whimpered, "I didn't mean to, I just was coming to talk to you and I didn't expect you to come around the corner."

"Honestly, lad, ye probably gave her a good scare yourself," Foxy added. The corners of Marcus' mouth curled upwards as he raised an eyebrow at the pirate. A month ago, the fox would have been at his counterpart's throat, and yet now, he was coming to her defense. Perhaps the salty sea dog wasn't so salty anymore.

"Good point," he said as he accepted Mangle's offer to help him to his feet, quickly adding, "Sorry I snapped at you."

"You're forgiven," Mangle replied, her smile returning just as quickly.

"Thank you," Marcus said, then began to address the group as a whole, "I'm assuming you want an explanation for my absence last night?"

"Maybe just a bit," Freddy said.

"Well, I've been moved to the day shift, for God knows what reason," the guard began, "The normal guy is gonna be gone for a few days and the company has decided to assign me as his temporary replacement. And—"

"Let me guess," Freddy interrupted, "The guy on the phone took your shift?"

"Yeah, how did you—" Marcus cut himself off as he pieced the answer together himself, "He told you, didn't he?"

"He told us," Bonnie replied, gesturing to himself and the other three original animatronics, "The Toys overheard from the hallway, and we had to fill Charlie in afterwards."

The bunny's comment caused Marcus to glance over at the puppet's box, where she was visibly sulking. "Yeah, I remember one of his messages mentioning how he wasn't a fan of her," he said, "Who would've guessed the feeling was mutual?"

"We would've," Chica replied, "We know her, after all."

"Yeah, yeah. It was a rhetorical question, Chica," Marcus sighed, then added, "What were you guys up to last night, since I wasn't here? You said Scott was talking to you, right? He knew you were alive?"

"Ye catch on fast, lad," Foxy said, grinning at the guard's astute observation.

"He's been around long enough to know some of the details," Freddy explained, "He knows we're more aware than normal mechanical characters, but he doesn't know why. He just assumed that it's part of our main programming."

"Does he know about Cassidy?" Marcus asked.

"Well, yes and no. He knows about the results of her possession sprees. Actually, he's the one they called in whenever they really needed a night free from murderous animatronics. That's what Charlie told us, at least. It would probably be a safe bet to assume that he's the one who found out about most of the tactics he recommends to the new guys."

"Damn," Marcus remarked, "Now I feel kinda bad blackmailing the guy."

"You probably should," Toy Freddy replied. Marcus opened his mouth to reply when the sound of a car door being thrown open. The animatronic's eyes widened as they turned to look at the doors of the establishment, through which they could see someone stepping out of their car and moving to close the door.

"The other staff are here!" Mangle hissed.

"What do we do?" Toy Chica asked.

"Uh, shit, um…" Marcus fumbled over his words as he raced to come up with a solution. "Mangle, get back to Kid's Cove," he ordered, pointing at the white and pink fox, who immediately did as she was told, before shifting his gesture to the Toys, "You three distract the staff."

"Distract them? I-I don't think we can do that," Toy Bonnie protested.

"Just act like you do in the day, but don't let them get to the hallway! We need enough time to hide the others!"

"Why can't they just go back to Parts and Service?" As they argued, Marcus saw the employee reach the front door.

"There's not enough time! They'll see the older models moving around, which they're not supposed to be able to do!" Marcus gestured for the original characters to get out of sight as the doors began to open. "Just stall them for as long as you can!"

"Okay, fine!" Toy Bonnie finally surrendered to the man's commands and the Toy animatronics turned and began walking out towards the dining room. As Marcus darted down towards his office, he could hear the doors closing behind whoever had just entered the building.

"Where're we supposed to go, lad?" Foxy asked as the guard reached the animatronics' position. Marcus's head snapped around, scanning for a hiding place for the large mechanical animals. His eyes fell onto the open vents to his left and right.

"The vents!" he whispered, "Crawl into the vents!" Foxy and Freddy looked at him incredulously, but Chica and Bonnie each grabbed one of them and began to shimmy inside the air ducts. The guard held his breath as their shifting around caused the metal to audibly bend, but let it out once he was sure no one else had heard the disturbance.

"Guys, enough!" he heard a woman's voice say in the distance, "I need to get the day started, okay?"

"Come on, now." Toy Freddy's speech patterns were no longer as fluid as they had been during the night, though his voice retained its lifelike melody. "Everyone's entitled to a little fun here at Freddy Fazbear's!

"Right, well, if I try to have 'fun' during my shift, I'm going to get fired. So, if you would be kind enough to get out of my way, I need to work on restocking the prize shelves before we open."

"Stay here," Marcus hissed to the hidden animatronics.

"What else are we supposed to do?" Foxy hissed back. The guard ignored the comment and ran down the hall to relieve the Toys of their distraction duty.


Marcus cycled through the cameras for what felt like the millionth time before checking his desk clock. Only six hours had passed since his shift started, and he was bored out of his mind. During his first week, he would have thought that the day shift was preferable to the nights of terror. Now, however, he would have rather had six hours of seemingly murderous animatronics than more than twice that length of absolutely nothing.

This was why they chose him, he realized. He knew Freddy's had it out for him ever since he elected to blackmail them. He knew he would likely have to pay for it. This wasn't quite torture, but it was the closest thing they could legally do.

Maybe that was a bit of an overreaction. It was his fault he had nothing to do, after all. Had he had the foresight to realize the length of his shift, he could have probably brought along a book. As it was, he'd just have to find a way to keep himself entertained for the next of the day.

He slumped down over his desk, bracing himself for the hours he would have to endure. As his arms slid across the surface, his fingers brushed against something made of paper, something that hadn't been there the last few nights. He sat up and cautiously picked the envelope up from his desk. He peeled open the seal and flipped the envelope upside down to dump the contents onto his desk.

A handful of arcade tickets and a lone pizza voucher fell out and landed in front of the monitor. Someone had clearly taken care of Marcus' lunch for his shift. The guard felt around inside the envelope, finding one last piece of paper stuck inside. On it was scrawled the words "No hard feelings."

"No, I guess not," he whispered with a smirk, knowing exactly who had left the package. He elected to save the tickets, which were probably for candy from the prize corner, for later. The pizza, however, would quiet his growling stomach very soon. Marcus pocketed the items and stood up to go redeem his prize.

As he stepped inside the main area, he noticed that once again, Charlie had her eyes locked onto him. It would seem that no effort in trust was enough to suppress her paranoia, he figured, shrugging it off. He continued on his path to the counter, doing his best to ignore the puppet's stare. As he reached his destination, another employee came to greet him.

"Hi there," she said with such a big smile Marcus wasn't sure if it was truly genuine, "What can I do for you?"

"Lunch, please," Marcus replied, setting the voucher down, "Cheese, if it's not too much trouble."

"Coming right up!" the woman said, her words doing little to disperse her unnatural-looking grin. As she walked off, Marcus wandered over to be in view of Kid's Cove. The area came into sight just in time for the guard to get a good look at a little tyke shoving one of Mangle's arms into her empty eye socket. He winced at the sight; he heard that she had been repurposed into this kind of attraction a long time ago, but to see the innocent brutality in person was not what he was expecting.

He broke off his gaze from the scene, shifting his gaze to the stage where the other Toys were performing. All the while, the feeling of Charlie's eyes on him kept gnawing at him, keeping him uneasily shifting from one foot to another. Finally, he turned around and met the puppet's stare, demanding an explanation without saying a word. Her wide smile began to flicker, switching from one form to another, forming words meant for Marcus, and only Marcus.

Parts and Service, she mouthed, causing Marcus to freeze. Did she know that the room of parts was abnormally empty? Was that why she was treating him so coldly?

They're safe, he mouthed back in an attempt to reassure her, I hid them in vents. They're fine.

"Who're you talking to?" the waitress asked, causing the guard to jump. He turned around to find the woman carrying his pizza, her eyebrows arched in curiosity.

"Oh, no one," he lied, "I just have a habit of thinking out loud."

She seemed to buy it. "Well, here's the pie you ordered," she said, handing him the warm plate. "Have a nice day!" she added as Marcus turned to leave.

"Thanks, you too!" he replied. As he returned to the hallway, he could feel Charlie's eyes on him once more. His words to her seemed to have failed to put her at ease. He shrugged, as there was nothing he could do about it, and proceeded deeper into the pizzeria and out of her sight.

As he passed the party rooms, he heard a little girl say, "Mommy, I can see something in the little hallway!"

"Honey, I told you you're not allowed in there," her mother said in response, neither of them noticing Marcus panicking outside. He ran over to his desk, set his pizza down, and returned to the room after recomposing himself.

"Is there a problem here?" he asked as he stepped inside.

"I wanna say hi to the people in the little hallway!" the girl said, pointing into the vent.

"Well, I don't think there's actually anyone in there," he replied, hoping that the animatronics would be able to scoot out of the way without alerting anyone. He took his flashlight from his belt and switched it on. He knelt down and aimed the beam of light into the vent, illuminating to reveal…nothing. "See? No one there," he said as extinguished the flashlight.

"Jess, what have I told you about trying to get in there?" her mother said.

"But Mommy, I saw it!" the girl insisted as Marcus excused himself from the room. As he fell back into his chair, he reminded himself to do one more check of the cameras before he got started on his pizza. He began switching through them with one hand as he used the other to navigate a slice into his jaws. As he chewed the admittedly subpar piece of pizza, he came to a stop on the Parts and Service camera, whose feed was replaced with a black screen and the words "CAMERA DISABLED."

Marcus swallowed, then switched to the main hallway feed. As the feed appeared, he saw the door to the restricted room gently swing closed. He rewound the footage to get a better glimpse of the culprit, no longer mindful of his hunger. As he reached the footage of a minute ago, his eyes were met by the form of a golden rabbit.

The guard"s heart came to a stop. The figure was different to what had been described by Charlie and the others; it was lanky and wore a purple vest, while the Spring Bonnie he heard of had the bulk of the other animatronics and wore no clothes. Yet Marcus was certain they were one and the same. The man who had taken the lives of seven children before was here once again for more bloodshed.

Marcus turned back the tapes by a few seconds, dreading what he would find. Sure enough, the man in the Spring Bonnie costume waved five more children into Parts and Service. The guard grabbed at the stun gun under his desk and stood up, knocking his chair over in the process. He ran over to the door for Parts and Service and grabbed the handle, then twisted his wrist and yanked the door open.

Except the handle didn't budge, and consequently, neither did the door. "Shit," Marcus hissed under his breath, "Shitshitshitshitshit!" Of course he'd think to lock the door. He brought up his foot and kicked at the handle. He had hoped that it might jiggle the locking mechanism loose, but the handle remained static.

"Excuse, are you the security guard?" a woman asked as she came up behind him, "Can you help me find my little girl?"

"Ma'am, call the police, now!" Marcus barked back, jerking a thumb at the locked door, "I think your child could be trapped in there with a very dangerous man. There's a phone on my desk. Hurry!"

"What?"

"JUST CALL THE POLICE!" The woman nodded and ran down the hall as Marcus turned and sprinted into the main area. He shoved his way through the crowd of people amassing as he made his way into Kid's Cove. Mangle watched him damn near tear the closet door off its hinges as he threw himself inside. Marcus picked up the crowbar that lay inside the closet and ran back to the door.

"Excuse me!" Marcus didn't bother looking back at what was likely a Freddy's employee as they came up behind me. "Do you have any idea how much it'll cost to replace that door?" she asked.

"Bill me," Marcus spat back as he lifted the crowbar above his head. He took a deep breath, then swung the tool into the door as hard as he could. The wood splinted around the bottom hinge, and the top hinge quickly came free as well. Marcus motioned for the bystanders to get clear of the door before planting his foot on it and pushing off.

As the wooden slab fell, Marcus made out a flash of silver flying out of the yellow rabbit's hand. Instincts took control as he raised his arms to protect his face, realizing what was headed his way. The point of the knife came out the other side of his right arm, the impact causing him to fall backwards onto the tiles. The landing pushed the blade deeper into his arm, forcing a pained cry out of his lungs.

He expected it to hurt more, but all that the knife had left him with was a dull throb. Adrenaline began to kick in, giving him the strength to get to his feet as everyone else began to scatter in a panic. He grabbed his weapons and charged into the room with a roar, his crowbar wound up for a retaliating strike. The rabbit turned away from the back door he was trying to escape through just in time for the swing to connect with the face of the mascot costume.

The weight Marcus put into the swing caused him to stumble backwards. He glanced down at the crowbar, finding the face of the rabbit staring up at him. He looked up in time to see the man tackle him to the ground, his face contorted into a look of rage. The killer wrapped his fingers around the knife and pulled it free, freeing the blood that had arrived at the scene to repair the initial damage.

Marcus swung at his murderous attacker, bloodying his nose and freeing the guard from his weight. As the man fell to the floor, stunned, the guard looked around. Strewn throughout the room were the limp, crimson-stain bodies of the kids that had been lured inside. It was too late. They were already dead.

Marcus felt something pierce his stomach as the man threw him to the floor with his free hand. He tried to get back up, to make the bastard pay, but his strength was finally beginning to abandon him. He tried to trip the man as he returned to the door, but the killer kicked his good hand aside and stomped on it as hard as he could. The man finally managed to open the door and fled the scene, the growling of a car barely audible as he sped off.

The guard let his head roll back as sirens grew louder in the distance. It was already over, so why waste his strength? His eyelids grew heavier and heavier until he could barely keep them open. Just a few minutes. All he needed was some rest.


"He has to be alive, right?"

Charlie looked over at the carousel, where the animatronics were anxiously discussing the same topic they had always come back to over the last few days.

"I mean, whatever you did to him brought him back once, right?" Toy Chica continued, "Surely, it'll save him again, right? Right?"

"I…don't know," Freddy replied, "I don't know how much we gave him, or how it works. For all we know, it could have just been a one-time deal."

Charlie blocked out the rest of the conversation. If she listened to any more, she might let slip that some of the Fazbear employees discussed visiting Marcus. That tidbit of information would only give them false hope or further worry them, depending on if they were referring to a hospital, or a graveyard. In any case, she didn't want to think about the murders.

For a moment, her thoughts drifted to the remaining endoskeleton in Parts and Service. Maybe, just maybe, she could put Marcus' soul in that. Bring him back. She banished the thought just as quickly as it appeared. He wouldn't want to be like the others, that was clear.

"Don't put them in the suits. Let them move on. Let them…rest."

His final words had been dismissed by the paramedics as unconscious rambling, but Charlie understood just what he meant. The children would be laid to rest, peacefully. No returning. No coming back.

As for Freddy's, the pizzeria would be closing its doors soon. Whether it was permanent had yet to be determined, though the restaurant had never been able to stay down for long. It would open its doors again. It always came back, but so, it would seem, did the man who plagued it.

Several thuds brought her attention to the present and to the carousel, where all of the animatronics had collapsed onto the floor. She flew out of her box and landed next to Freddy before trying to shake him awake. His eyelids fluttered, then shot open, revealing Cassidy's tiny white pinpricks. Charlie stumbled backwards, trying to distance herself from the animatronic, watching all of them rise in unison, their eyes all painted over by a void and faint light.

"I-I-I-I'm sorry," Toy Freddy said, static filling his voice like it did with all the others, "Freddy and his friends are unavailable, and will be for quite some time. Please be patient. Your wait will never be rewarded."

"No, it won't, will it, Freddy?" Cassidy replied as her form materialized between the animatronics. Charlie tried to banish the rival spirit like she had done twice before, but her concentration was broken when Balloon Boy's sign struck the back of her head, knocking her to the floor.

She tried to get up, but her limbs refused to move. She looked down at the tiles, seeing her reflection looking up at her. The mirror image's white dots met with her voids, neither one in control. The animatronics securely in Cassidy's possession grabbed the paralyzed puppet and dragged her back to her box. Music came from the box meant to pacify Charlie for the first time in a month, dragging her back to slumber.

"Sweet dreams," Cassidy whispered once more. Charlie was too far gone to respond.


I'm expecting some of you to be pissed about this. Before you pick up the torches and pitchforks, however, please let me explain myself. First of all, I always had this chapter planned. This was not an attempt to kill off this story. Second, this is not the end of this story. Although, this is the beginning of the end. I took a break because I wanted to give you more before the end, but I was having trouble thinking of anything. I came back because you deserve a finished story. More will come soon, I promise.

Edit: I realized I forgot to format the chapter with the lines. It should be fixed now.