Burn

'A Five Nights at Freddy's Fanfiction'

By C.G. Wicks

Recommended Reads:

1. High Turnover

2. Burn

3. The Back Room

1

A bell rang out through the still air from Hurricane High School. A large, blocky building of red brick and grey render, its large black windows looked out across the landscape towards the rocky mountain range that surrounded the town. A mob of students began making their way out of the building into the large parking lot in front of it towards the awaiting cars and buses. With their eyes squinted in the bright sunlight as they passed through the doors, four of the students walked out together and looked across at the brightly lit mountainous landscape that was visible from all directions. It was Friday afternoon and they were in the middle of making their plans for the weekend. One of them, Scott Burke, a pale boy with curly red hair and a sly smirk on his face, looked slowly from the blocky building to the distant red hills speckled with shrubbery and watched as they rippled in the heat from the bitumen of the parking lot.

Scott's girlfriend, Amber Jameson, was standing next to him. Her blonde hair and cheery face seemed to shine in the sunlight as she spoke animatedly with the other two students who were with them, working out their plans. She was always energetic, brightening up the people around her. The other two students, Ryan and Darcy Sheppard, were twins who were new in town and were glad that they had managed to make friends so quickly. They both had freckled faces and straight brown hair, Darcy's tied back and Ryan's fringe always covering the top of his glasses.

Scott wasn't paying much attention to the other three as they spoke. His hands in his jacket pockets, he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, the sly smirk never leaving his face. Amber turned to him and spoke.

"What about you? Any ideas?"

"Oh, I might have one," Scott replied, taking his time to speak as a few more students passed them by. Once he was sure they wouldn't be overheard, he continued. "You know that Fazbear's Fright that's opening up next week?"

Ryan frowned slightly. "That horror house or whatever it is?"

"Yeah, that's the one. I think I can get us in early…" Scott smiled at them all, savouring the attention as he waited for one of them to ask him to elaborate. Amber only regarded him with a knowing suspicion, trying to work out if she was right about what he was going to say next.

"You mean, break in and sneak around," she raised her eyebrows at him as she spoke. "Maybe steal a few things?" Scott acted shocked as he looked around them again, presumably to make sure that there weren't any stragglers that would overhear them.

"Woah, woah. I never said that! But if that's what you want to do, then I'm up for it."

The twins gave each other a blank look. Being new to town, they had no idea what Scott was talking about or why he would want to sneak into a horror funhouse a few days before it opened. Amber was still watching Scott closely as though she couldn't decide if this was a joke or not. He was always trying to be funny, but his sense of humour never quite landed properly. Scott, however, seemed to be gauging their reaction to his idea before deciding whether or not he was joking. Darcy spoke up.

"Why would you want to go there? Isn't it for kids or something?"

"Oh, no…" Scott's face lit up as he spoke. "It's not just some kids' thing. It's based on these old murders that happened like thirty years ago." When the twins continued to look at him blankly, he added, "It was a huge thing at the time. These kids all disappeared at this pizzeria and they were never found again." He pulled out his phone and checked the time. "Okay, I have to get going. My dad will be waiting for me." He started to leave. "Come to my house tomorrow night and I'll tell you all about it. But don't mention it to my dad. He doesn't like to talk about it."

The three of them stood there watching him leave, then Ryan turned to Amber, whose face had become a scowl.

"Are we really going to sneak into some kids' horror house and steal things?"

"Well, if I know my Scott," Amber was staring past him, still watching Scott as he walked away, "he'll be doing it with or without us. So, we may as well try to stop him from hurting himself while he's doing it." She looked at them. "And well, he seems to like you two."

With that, she left them as she crossed the parking lot and disappeared into the mass of cars glinting and rippling in the air rising from the hot bitumen, her blonde hair gleaming in the sunlight.

-x-

The four teenagers were sitting around the dining room table at Scott's house. A board game lay between them, the game half played as they waited for their pizza to be delivered. Nobody had yet mentioned any more about Scott's idea, and enjoying the anticipation in the room, Scott was in no hurry to explain further. The other, more pressing reason for being quiet about it was that his father, Carlton Burke, was in the next room watching TV. Scott was careful not to let him know about his idea, especially as the last time he asked him about the new attraction, Fazbear's Fright, Carlton had reacted badly.

Carlton Burke was usually a very jovial man. His hair as red and as curly as his son's, he was an accomplished voice and stage actor and locally known comedian. His great sense of humour was a trait that his son admired and tried to live up to, but unfortunately, he usually just came across as crass and awkward. Carlton's demeaner changed quite suddenly one day when Scott had asked him about the attraction. The light mood in the room had changed, and the air seemed to thicken. This was not a topic that was to be breached often. Carlton only responded that it was being built on the deaths of his old classmates and the grief of the families.

"Kids died, Scott. And now, one generation's tragedy is another's amusement. Just bastards in suits trying to make a buck."

There was a shadow behind his eyes that Scott had never seen before. Whatever this new establishment was, whatever history it was built on had obviously affected his father in a profound way. He knew not to bring it up again.

The truth was that Carlton had been good friends with two of the children that had gone missing in 1987. Two boys, Gabriel and Jeremy, were with him at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza celebrating another child's birthday, when his attention had been drawn from them for only a moment. When he looked back over to where they had been, they had simply vanished. Had he remained with them, he might have vanished with them, too.

Carlton Burke remembered it all too clearly. He remembered waiting for them to come back. He remembered they boys' parents become more and more agitated and scared as they looked for them. He remembered clearly how they kept their worst fear inside, but the façade slipped more and more as the minutes ticked on. He saw their parents' worst fear become reality that day. It was a memory that had stuck with him as he watched his own son grow to the same age that they had been when it happened. Sometimes when he was alone, he would look through his old school photos and see the portraits of his friends and himself grinning up at him, some of their baby teeth having just fallen out.

The worst part was the dreams. Often, he would see them again and again in that party room and he would try to warn them. Would try to tell them to come with him so that they would be safe. Each time, he would turn around and they would vanish. Other times, they appeared to him as adults, smiling at him as they hung out as old friends talking about their families that never were. At some point he would confess to them that he believed that they had died. They would laugh and say to him that no, they were fine. They were happy.

Carlton preferred those dreams even though he would wake in the early hours with tear streaks wetting his pillow. It was dreams like those that made him understand how ancient cultures came to the conclusions that there was an afterlife. They were so real, and so comforting. In those small hours of the morning, Carlton believed quite easily that wherever they were now, they were happy.

Ding-dong!

Scott stood up from the dining room table and walked towards the front door to collect the pizza. When he returned, he was carrying them as though they were on a silver tray, his nose in the air like an old butler.

"Pizza… is served!"

He sat back down and the four of them ate as they continued to play their game and have idle chit-chat, all the while keeping an eye on Carlton in the other room. Finally, Carlton turned the TV off, got up from the couch and picked up the script that was on the coffee table for his reviewing and withdrew into his office to read over it, passing them by at the table with a glance. They heard the door close and the latch click into place. This was Scott's chance.

"Okay," he whispered as they all leaned in closer. He was speaking more to the twins as Amber already knew the backstory. "Thirty years ago, there was this pizza restaurant called Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. It was really famous. They had all of these robots walking around that served the food and they would play songs up on a stage and all that. Lots of money went into this place. Other places at the time only had animatronic puppets that were part of the stage, but these things would walk around and interact with everyone. It was all going great, and then these kids all went missing."

He stood up and walked over to a bookshelf in the corner and pulled out an old folder that he had hidden there earlier. He opened it and placed it on the table in between them. In it were several newspaper articles that were cut out and slipped into plastic pockets. Each of them was about the case of the missing children.

"Yeah, it was big news. No-one quite knows what happened to them. Grandpa Clay was the police chief at the time and was on the case. I asked him about it. He said it was really personal to him because my dad was at the party with the kids that went missing, and he had already taken him there a few times. So, it really scared him. It scared everybody. The only clue they had was some footage of someone in a yellow rabbit suit who was seen on each day a kid disappeared." He took a mouthful of cola before continuing, completely aware of the undivided attention he was holding.

"Years later, people said that the place was haunted. They said that the robots on the stage smelled like dead bodies and that there was all sorts of mucus and gunk coming out of their eyes and mouths. Real horror movie stuff. That place got shut down and it looks like this new place opening up soon is full of old relics from back then. I've been looking into it. There were four characters. I want to see if we can get a piece from each of them. Hopefully, each of us can get a head. Think about it! How great would that be!"

He looked at them expectantly, eyebrows raised and a faint smile on his face. The twins didn't seem to know what to say. They were staring down at the faded images in the newspaper articles, looking closely at a photo of the four characters. There was a bear, a rabbit, a chicken, and a fox. They then looked back up at Scott and seemed to be having a hard time deciding if they actually like him that much or not. But they were currently nobodies at their school. The thought of all four of them collecting a head each and being a part of the story that Scott was sure to tell everybody was quite tempting. Amber, however had other thoughts.

"I just think it's disgusting," she spat. "That whole place. They're celebrating a bunch of murders! Those families are still here! I wonder how they felt when they saw this place being advertised. It's being made up to look like the old restaurant. The whole thing is sick!" Scott turned to her, his face more serious.

"Well then, what better way to show them how we all feel about it? Right before opening day, they'll probably go in there and find the place all torn up. That might give them the message."

There was a determination in his eyes that Amber recognised. He seemed driven to know more about the incident that affected his father so much. Carlton had shown his disgust at the new funhouse already, maybe Scott wanted to do right by him? Or maybe he just wanted to be a school legend by stealing the four mascots heads and showing them to everybody at school the next week. Either way, Amber knew that there would be ne talking him out of it. He would either be doing it alone or they could all share in his glory. And at least this way they could possibly keep him out of any real trouble.

-x-

They finished their pizza, all of them in deep thought about what they were planning to do. A noise from down the hall snapped them all back to reality and caused Scott to jump up and shove the folder back into the bookshelf as his father made his way through the dining room. It was getting late. The four teenagers called it a night and Scott walked them to the front door.

"I'll message you all tomorrow. I should be able to pick you all up, but worst case, we may have to sneak out and meet up somewhere."

Amber gave him a hug and walked off towards her car. The twins said goodbye and followed her and climbed into the back seat. Nobody spoke as Amber reversed the car out of the driveway and headed for the twins' house. They were all thinking the same thing: this was a bad idea. Something about the hushed nature of the planning and the tragic story behind it left a dull pit in their stomachs. It was a mix somewhere between dread and excitement but tinged with guilt at the idea of disrespecting a dark chapter of the town's history.

The night air was still, the silence punctuated by chirping cicadas as the car pulled up in front of the twins' house. The twins climbed out and thanked Amber for the ride. She drove off and they walked towards the front door, listening to the sound of her engine fading away into the distance. Darcy rifled through her pocket for the keys before speaking.

"This feels wrong…"

"I know," replied Ryan, his eyes indiscernible behind his glasses in the dark. "But it does sound kind of fun."

"What if we get caught?"

"What if we don't? What could happen, really? We go in there, look around, see what we can grab and then leave again. Plus, I bet it'll actually be really creepy with no-one else around. It'll probably be better than when it's open, anyway."

Darcy pursed her lips and frowned as she slid the key into the lock and opened the front door but didn't mention it again as they walked in and closed the door behind them. Their parents, who were in the living room scrolling through their phones while the TV was on in the background, glanced up as they walked in.

"Hi, kids," said their mother. "How was it at Scott's house?"

"It was fine," replied Darcy, taking off her shoes. "We're thinking of hanging out again tomorrow night. He said there's a good pizza place in town that we need to check out." Ryan looked at her. She seemed so against the plan that they had for the following night, but she was already making up a cover story for it.

"Well, tomorrow's a school night, so don't be out too late. Do you need a ride?"

"Oh no, Scott said he was going to pick us up."

"Okay. Just let us know if anything changes."

"Sure thing. Goodnight." Darcy left for her bedroom as their parents turned their attention back towards their phones, ignoring the television that was on in front of them. Ryan took off his shoes and ambled along past them towards his room, not quite able to look his parents in the face.