TW: includes (heavy) cursing, drinking, mild violence and descriptions of blood
Two hours earlier
Children were running around in groups, cheerful music was playing, entitled parents were complaining to the staff, and somewhere the co-manager was yelling at a couple of teens for making out in the storage closet. It was a small children's restaurant called Fredbear's Family Diner that sat in the little town of Badgerview, Utah. The diner was predominantly made up of an open party room with red leather chairs and wooden tables that were always sticky. A small stage showcased two bulky animatronic mascots, a yellow bear and rabbit. Kids would run up to the stage to admire them as they sang and performed. A couple of run-down arcade cabinets and Skee-Ball and Whac-A-Mole games lined each wall.
Jason leaned against the prize counter, stoned out of his mind. He was waiting for a kid to figure out how many cheap toys she could buy with all of her tickets.
"Kid, just take the whole case, we've got plenty," he sighed, handing over a box full of figurines.
"But that's stealing," the girl responded with a confused look.
"It's only stealing if you get caught."
"Jason! Don't encourage that!" Kathryn reprimanded Jason and knelt down to help the kid count her tickets.
"What?! She probably has enough tickets to pay for it anyway, besides who's gonna care?"
"Seems like you're forgetting what happened last time a kid went home and told his mom your...philosophy on rules."
"Yeah, yeah, that lady shoulda been grateful! I saved her son from years of stressing over things that don't matter."
"Yeah sure, grateful."
"Kat, have I ever gotten myself into something I couldn't get out of?"
"Yes! On multiple occasions!"
"That's besides the point." Jason waved his hand at her dismissively. "I just think kids deserve to know that caring about 'being your best self' is a waste of time."
Kathryn sighed, "Amanda, please help me out, he'll listen to you."
"I mean they're just hunks of plastic, I don't see why it's that big of a deal," a girl with bushy black hair in a mustard yellow sweater replied while carrying boxes to the kitchen. "Just maybe stop telling kids that stealing every once in a while is good for them."
"But it is! If they stay all goody-two-shoes, they'll turn out like Kat, stuck-up!"
"Hey!" Kathryn playfully smacked Jason's arm. "I'm not stuck-up! I'm actually concerned about you getting fired."
"Awwww, you care about me, how sweet," Jason teased, making a heart with his hands.
"NO, I just don't like people throwing away opportunities willy-nilly."
"Opportunities? Yeah Kat, colleges love to see 'Teen employed at a children's restaurant; cleans up vomit and hands children toys'," Jason's voice dripped with sarcasm.
"Could you stop being an *sshole for a sec?" Kathryn gave him a quick glare, and continued, "I'm just saying it's better than no job at all, okay?"
"You sure about that? This place is a nightmare. The only good thing about it is the fact that we can pretty much do whatever we want here after-hours."
"Oh god, don't remind me. I had to look in the ballpit this morning for something, it was disgusting."
Amanda chimed in, "Pretty sure they haven't cleaned that thing since the restaurant first opened." At hearing this, a woman sitting nearby made a disgusted face, grabbed her things, and left. "Hah, well anyway, Kat how are the college applications going?"
"Honestly, I'm terrified. I've worked so hard to go to this school, but my entire life could be ruined if I mess this up. I mean what am I gonna do if they don't accept me?"
"Kat, I'm sure they'll accept you, your grades are flawless, you do a ton of community service, and the college essay you showed me was really impressive." Amanda continued, seeing that the anxiety on Kathryn's face hadn't reduced at all, "And even in the tiny chance that you aren't accepted, I'm sure you'd dust yourself off and figure something out."
"I guess so," Kathryn sighed and nervously bit her lip.
"Hey, me and a couple of the other staff members are going to hang out here after-hours. You should come, it might help keep your mind off things for a bit."
"Thanks for the offer, but I should probably busy myself with work."
"At least think about it?"
"If it will make you happy, I'll try to pop in for a bit." Kathryn gave Amanda a quick smile before spotting a 15 year old boy serving pizza to a table of kids. He had curly dark hair and wore a red plaid shirt, blue jeans, and ratty Nikes. "Oh hey Jamie!"
"Hey guys," he waved back, tucking the pizza platter under his arm and walking over.
"Are you staying after hours to hang out?"
"I can't, I have a big chem test tomorrow that I was supposed to study for yesterday."
"Oh, good luck! Let me know if you need help, I'm sure I could lend you some of my notes from last year."
"And I could always bribe Mr. Keenan for you," Jason winked at Jamie and gave him a mischievous look.
"I'll pass. Besides, doesn't he hate your guts?"
"Eh, that's just water under the bridge...but yeah you're right, that guy would never accept a bribe from me unless it was like a million bucks."
An energetic girl with wild jet-black hair and a large gap between her front teeth ran over to the group. She wore a Bugs Bunny t-shirt and a purple and white leather jacket. She lightly tapped on her brother's arm, "Jamie, I need to go to the bathroom."
Jamie spoke in a disinterested tone, "Okay, so go."
"Mom said I can't go alone."
"I'm not going in the girls' bathroom."
"But Mom-"
"I don't give a sh*t what mom said," Jamie snapped, "You're ten years old, you can go to the bathroom by yourself."
"At least wait outside for me."
"Em, I have stuff to do!"
"I'll be super quick, I promise!"
"Jesus, fine! But you better not bother me for the rest of the night, got it?" Emmy shook her head in agreement and ran across the room to the hallway with the customer bathrooms. Jamie turned around to make a frustrated face at his friends before running after her.
Jamie could hear shouting coming from the dining room, followed by the sound of glass shattering and bodies tumbling to the ground. When he peeked out of the doorway, he saw two men wrestling each other on the floor. Jamie recognized one of the men as Jack Gardener's father. He was currently drunk and throwing things at the other man. Amanda was trying to get between the two, and Mr. Gardener started shouting in her face.
"Sir, I'm going to need you to either calm down or leave the building," Amanda spoke in a calm and assertive tone.
"Fff-f*ck you! Don't tell me what to do!" He slurred his words and pointed accusatively at the other man, "Why the hell are you b*tching at me when *hic* he attacked me?"
"Are you serious?!" the other man, who was clearly more sober than Mr. Gardener, snapped back. "You came up to me and started yelling in my face, I was just defending myself!"
"B*llshit!"
"You're f*cking b*llshit! Getting drunk at a kid's restaurant? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?!" his voice thundered as he slammed his hand down on the nearby table. Amanda stepped between the two once more.
"Mr. Gardener, please calm down or I'm going to have to call law enforcement to get you to leave," she warned.
"You can't m-make me do sh*t! I'm not leaving," the drunken man growled as he grabbed Amanda by the collar and dragged her face inches from his own glaring one, "and I'm not *hic* calming down." It took everything in Amanda's power not to sock the asshole square on the jaw, but she knew she'd most likely be fired for attacking a customer, even if they were begging for it. Jamie, seeing the situation, abandoned the bathroom door and rushed over, "Hey, get your f*cking hands off of her!"
"Jamie I've got it handled." He knew damn well that she could handle herself, but she was choosing not to. It boggled his mind that she chose to handle jerks like Mr. Gardener peacefully even though she could probably win in a fight against every single adult in the building. But he could see how upset she was and immediately felt guilty.
Amanda wiggled out of the man's grasp as the manager Mr. Emily walked over and dragged Mr. Gardener out of the building.
Jamie reached a hand out for her shoulder, "Are you okay?"
She pulled away and spoke in an intimidating tone, "Don't." Jamie had never heard her talk like that before. He ran after her.
"Amanda, look, I'm sorry. I was just trying to help."
"James, I don't need you to defend me! I can handle myself, I'm not f*cking fragile."
"I- that's not what I meant! Amanda please," Jamie paused for a second, trying to find the right words. "I know you can handle yourself, okay? I just can't stand there and watch you get pushed around. I mean seriously you need to stand up for yourself. You and I both know you could've beaten that guy to the ground, but then you chose not to!"
"Because, I don't like hitting people. I mean, how does that make me any better than him?"
"Well one: you didn't get drunk at a kid's birthday party. Two: you don't make racist comments all the time. Three: oh yeah right, you're not an *sshole," Jamie listed, hoping to get Amanda to understand, or at least cheer her up a bit. He continued, "I'm really sorry, okay? I didn't mean to make you feel weak or anything."
Amanda took a second to absorb the apology, and her angry demeanor started to cool off. "...it's fine, just don't get involved next time." She gave Jamie a small smile, until her expression shifted as a thought popped in her head, "Aren't you supposed to be waiting for your sister outside the bathroom?"
"Crap, I forgot. Be right back," Jamie grumbled and jogged over to the bathrooms. It hadn't been that long, only a couple minutes, Emmy was probably still in the bathroom. Jamie leaned against the black-and-white checkered wall and waited another ten minutes in vain. "Jesus Em, come on I have to get back to work," he muttered to himself, before knocking on the bathroom door and calling inside for her to hurry up, yet there was no response. He cracked the door open an inch and spoke again, but still nothing.
"Hey 'manda, do you have a sec?"
"Yeah, what's up? Are you gonna give me another 'stand up for yourself' lecture?" Amanda teased.
"Haha, no um, I kinda need you to go in the girls' bathroom and get my sister. It's been ten minutes and she hasn't come out."
"Sure."
As Jamie waited outside the bathroom, he tried to rationalize what was happening. The only thing he could think of was that Em had eaten some shitty pizza and was too nauseous to talk, or maybe passed out from the humid, poorly-ventilated bathroom stalls.
The door opened, and Amanda stood in the doorway, alone. "She's not in there."
"What? Are you sure? Did you check all the stalls?"
"I checked. Maybe she went back to the dining room while we were talking?"
"Yeah, maybe," Jamie sighed, the more concerning possibilities beginning to flood his mind.
"Hey, it's gonna be okay," Amanda put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "She's only been gone for fifteen minutes. Little kids do this all the time. My brother gave me a heart attack last week when I couldn't find him at a friend's house. He said that apparently it didn't dawn on him that his friends weren't playing a five-hour game of hide-and-seek." Jamie chuckled at this and went back to work with Amanda. He frequently looked around the dining room for his sister, growing more anxious by the minute. Oh god, he thought to himself, I'm acting like mom.
Jamie searched every inch of the party room, looking behind each arcade cabinet and under each table. He even took a dive into the ball pit and checked both of the bathrooms again. Yet his sister was nowhere to be found. He was beginning to panic, the other kids from Emmy's party were leaving with their parents and the staff was already preparing for the next party. He even started searching around the rest of the building, desperate to just find his sister and go home. He checked the storage closets, backstage, the kitchen, and now the employees-only safe room. But what he found in there made him stop dead in his tracks.
Jamie had read about maniacs in the newspaper who killed people for fun, but that didn't really happen in real life. It couldn't. It was too insane to be real. And yet there it was, Emmy's purple and white jacket laying on the ground in a massive pool of blood. It made him nauseous how much there was, splattered on the walls, the door, the shelves. What happened here was the most gruesome and violent thing Jamie had ever dealt with in his life.
He was suddenly shaken from his thoughts by the sound of shoes squeaking. His head shot up from the floor and Jamie saw the shadow of something, someone, running right at him. In that moment, all he could think was He's going to kill me. I caught him red-handed and now he's going to kill me. Jamie was so panicked that he froze in place as the man shoved him away from the door and into the storage shelves. Jamie's back made a loud thump against the metal shelves, and he fell to the ground in pain. The man booked it down the hallway, leaving a trail of bloody shoe prints behind. "HEY!" Jamie yelled, finally snapping out of it. He got up off the floor so fast that he nearly slipped on all the blood, and chased after him.
