2

Amber Jameson spent most of the next morning with a dull bundle of nerves and guilt squirming in her stomach. Though sneaking into Fazbear's Fright had been Scott's idea, it was her information about the staff schedules that made it possible. Her older brother was friends with the operator there and she was fully aware that it would be empty on Sunday night. In the weeks leading up to the opening day, the staff had had several test runs of the place to make sure that everything was operational. Though Amber despised the funhouse attraction being built on an old local tragedy and would like to see it vandalised or shut down, the dull weight in her stomach told her that it was better to leave it well alone.

She and Scott Burke had been a couple for nearly six months. Though she wasn't too impressed by his sense of humour, she was always drawn to his confidence and sheer force of personality. Deep down she knew that he was a bad influence on her, but him being her first real boyfriend, she didn't really have any reference to compare him against. He had an effect on her. More than once he had convinced her to take part in a prank of one sort or another and she had been left feeling a small degree of shame afterwards, but this latest plan of his felt different. This one felt dangerous. But she just couldn't bring herself to pull out.

Darcy's cover story for the groups' Sunday night adventure had quickly become an actual plan once she had messaged the rest of the group about it. Scott seemed to take the idea and ran with it.

"Well, this way, we're not actually lying to anyone," he had messaged to them with a wink-face. "We really are just going out for dinner… with a slight detour on the way back."

The day dragged on and the plans for the night being messaged back and forth between them all became clearer. They were to wear hooded jumpers and to bring scarves to hide their faces if need be. They would wear empty backpacks to stash any souvenirs they might find. Scott was going to bring a large duffle bag as he planned to steal the four mascot heads.

"If I'm going to look like a burglar," he had texted them all with a photo of himself in the mirror holding the bag over his shoulder, his face hidden behind a black balaclava. "I may as well go all out."

Finally, the time had come when Amber was getting ready in her bedroom, unplugging her fully charged phone, when she heard the familiar sound of Scott's car horn as it honked just outside her house. She called out to her parents that she was leaving and hurried out towards the front door, hiding her empty backpack from view as she strode past. She climbed into the front seat and turned to see Scott suddenly wearing his balaclava pointing his index fingers at her, his palms together like he was holding a gun.

"Give me your wallet!"

"Ha-ha, Scott."

"Well, at least give me a kiss."

Scott took off his mask and pulled back onto the road and headed towards the twins' house. They were standing at the front door, wearing their empty backpacks, waiting for them as they approached. They climbed into the back seat and pulled on their seatbelts as Scott reversed out of their driveway. Amber turned around to face them.

"Have any trouble getting out tonight?"

"No," Darcy replied. "We could have walked right in front of them dressed in black masks with our bags on and told them we were going out robbing people, and they probably wouldn't have looked up from their phones."

"Yeah," Ryan agreed. "So, I'd say we're pretty much free for the night."

"Nice," said Scott. "You guys are lucky your parents don't give a crap. My dad keeps trying to be all involved and wants to know what I'm doing all the time, like some sort of decent parent!"He quickly realised what he said, the silence from them punctuating that last sentence, and he quickly added: "So, where do we want to go for pizza, anyway? There's a few places in town."

They made their way down the flat, wide highway that seemed to lead all the way to the mountain ranges beyond and pulled off towards one of the many options that the stretch of road provided. The sun sank low as they ate in the restaurant, long shadows stretching their way towards them, threatening to engulf their car in the parking lot. They talked, they joked, they almost forgot what they were planning on doing. It was feeling just like an ordinary night enjoyed by four teenagers on the weekend, their only worry being school the next morning. The collective nervousness that had filled the air on the car ride had almost vanished, until Scott finished his slice of pizza and leaned in close over the table to speak.

"Okay, so I've been past this place a few times. It looks like a converted warehouse. I'm not sure how hard it'll be to get in there. But from what Amber has told me, they had to cheap-out on a lot of things. Hopefully, that includes security. But if not, that's what the masks are for. If we hear alarms, then we get out of there."

He was wide-eyed, no trace of a joke on his face now. This was something he was taking seriously. The sky outside was becoming a dark blue, the mountains below them now black against it. Scott checked the clock on his phone. It was 8:30pm. It was time.

They climbed back into the car, their hearts all beating harder than usual as they put on their seatbelts. Nobody spoke as they drove. They pulled off the highway and after a few turns they were driving down a warehouse district. Concrete yards filled with semi-trailers and forklifts lined up in rows were enclosed by chain-link fences. Among them were many tall warehouses built with cinderblocks and clad with metal sheets. Amber's nerves began to swell as Scott slowed the car down. He stopped in front of a run-down looking warehouse on their right and pointed to it.

"There it is. The soon-to-be-opened Fazbear's Fright."

It stood strong against the darkening sky, its name painted across the cinderblock front lit up only by a nearby streetlight. The front door and windows beneath it were dark. Scott turned the headlights off and parked down a side-alley on the building's left between a long brick wall and the chain-link fence that surrounded the front parking lot. Amber watched him. Now would be the only chance to turn back, but nobody protested.

He turned the car off, climbed out and closed the door behind him before retrieving his balaclava and bag from the trunk. One by one, the others followed suit.

-xx-

It was a still night. Only the soft tinkling coming from the car as it cooled could be heard as the four of them stood and stared at the converted warehouse in front of them. Without speaking, Scott pulled on his balaclava and pulled his hood up over his head. The others did the same, though they all only had scarves which they would pull up to hide their faces. Scott led them along the chain-link fence, further into the alleyway until they were right next to the left side of the building.

The fence surrounded the whole building and the empty parking lot in front of it, save for the left wall that ran along the alleyway where they stood. Scott knew from his previous visits that there was an entrance at the front and an exit out the back with a path along the right-hand side leading back around to the parking lot. The attraction was designed as a one-way path, with the customers coming out the other end.

As quickly and as quietly as he could, Scott hoisted himself up over the chain-link fence, trying not to rattle it as he did. He landed softly on the ground and crept his way towards the building, double-checking for cameras that he was sure weren't there. The others watched, holding their breath as he made his way carefully towards the nearest window. For all they knew, there was a security alarm ready to go off as soon as he touched the glass.

Scott peered in. All that he could see were some display tables here and there, like a museum that hadn't been stocked properly yet. It was too dark inside—there weren't even security lights. Amber broke the silence and whispered out across the still night air.

"What do you see? Is there anyone in there?"

"No," replied Scott as he gestured for them to approach. "It looks pretty empty. I can see the horror house entrance, though. Wait…"

Suddenly, he rushed back towards the fence and jumped over it. He began to walk further down into the alleyway and stopped about halfway along the building's grey cinderblock wall. "Down here. I think I see our way in."

They made their way with him down the alleyway until they reached a side door that had been obscured by the dark, the light above it not working. It looked as though there was no power to the place. Scott grabbed the door handle and jiggled it. As they expected, it did not open. Without missing a beat, Scott pulled a small crowbar from his duffle bag and wedged it behind the handle. After some pulling, he felt the handle give and the door push in slightly. They all stood still, waiting for any sound of an alarm or security system. When none came, Scott pushed the door open and slowly stepped inside. Once they were all in, they closed the door behind them and wedged it shut so as to not attract attention. Scott pulled out his phone and turned on the light and began to look around. They all followed suit and explored.

The room was largely empty, everything of interest was hung on the walls and the glass-top display tables that ran along beneath them. On their left—the back of the building—were blown-up prints of old newspaper articles and photos of the old Freddy Fazbear's Family Pizza and the animatronic characters. They were of the cases of the missing children, and later reports of health code violations, citing the company's impending shutdown.

Looking further along, they spotted five photos lined up along the opposite wall. Each one was of a child of about six years old, with information about them printed underneath. There were two girls and three boys, two of which Scott recognised from his father's old class photos. With a pang of guilt, he pictured his father waiting for him to come home, wondering where he was. Further along there was a photo of another girl about the same age, and he could just see the name 'Charlotte' above it. Her story was different to the others. She didn't go missing, she was found dead one night in the back alley of the restaurant—another cold case. Next to her were photos of a man and a woman—her father Henry and her aunt Jennifer. Further along was a photo of William Afton, the CEO who had vanished not long after the franchise closed.

Not wanting to waste any time loitering, they made their way quickly through the long room. They passed a long table in the centre of the room that showed four miniature models of the restaurants, ranging from a small diner to the larger, more established third restaurant of 1987 that everyone knew, ending in a smaller restaurant of the 90's at the end that had been the final location. They hurried towards a door that was on their right near the front of the building. The wall protruded here as the door—which faced the front window—led to a stairway to the horror attraction below.

This door was unlocked. The only barrier facing them now as the door swung open was the pitch-black darkness that the stairs below led down into. Amber checked her phone battery. Still 93% charged. She stayed close to Scott as he stepped through the doorway.

They hardly breathed as they went, the only sound from them was their footsteps on the stairs. At the bottom was another door. Amber reached out and opened it gently, letting it swing slowly away from them to reveal only more darkness. They stepped through and turned right, finding themselves in a long, tiled corridor.

-xx-

The floor beneath them was an endless repetition of black and white tiles, the walls were of grey concrete—though appeared to be actually made of plywood—the tiled pattern running along the length of them in a thick strip about halfway up from the floor. Above this strip, plastered along the walls at odd, crooked angles were crayon drawings of stick figure animal characters—a bear, a bunny, a chicken, and a fox. The four mascots. The teenagers walked slowly, unconsciously listening out for any sound ahead of them, vaguely aware of the glint of the occasional inactive security camera. They shivered—this place felt like a tomb.

The glow of their phone lights didn't reach far, and they had no idea how long the corridor was until they reached the end and came upon a doorway which stood on the left-hand side leading away into more darkness. They passed through it and were turned right again. This corridor looked just like the last, but there was a shape coming into view about halfway along the wall on their right. On the ground was a yellow mascot head of an animatronic chicken. Scott sped up and crouched down in front of it.

"Oh, excellent!" There was a joyous gleam in his eye as he examined it. "This is a Chica head! Well, this one's going straight into the bag…" He reached out to pick it up but found that it was bolted in place. He then rifled through his bag for his crowbar, determined to acquire the head. "I'll just have to persuade it a little—"

"What is that?!" gasped Amber.

All eyes were on her. She had walked past Scott and had reached the end of the corridor where a doorway stood at the end and another to the left. She was backing away towards the others, keeping her eyes on something ahead of her. The others all looked. There was a pile of gift-wrapped presents to the right of the doors, tied off with glittering bows, but that wasn't what she was looking at. Scott stood and raised his phone, willing the small light to fight through the darkness, and stepped a few paces forward. Then he saw it.

A human figure was standing just beyond the end doorway, perfectly still with its head slumped slightly, facing them. Thinking that they had been caught by a security guard, Scott was almost ready to turn around and run, feeling for his car keys in his pocket. They all stood perfectly still, nobody making a sound. The silence pressed against them as they waited for the figure to move, to speak, to make a sound of any kind. When none came, they slowly approached it.

In the dim lights of their phones, features were coming into view. It wasn't a person—it was an old animatronic rabbit. It was tall, its long ears nearly brushing the top of the doorway, one of them missing the top half. It's once vibrant yellow colour was faded into a dull, rotten green. It was very old and worn. Parts of it were torn away and appeared to have gunk spilling slowly out of it from the joints and hinges. Its face was defined by its large, toothy smile that went halfway around its head and two large, glass eyes that sat just behind the dark eyeholes. It looked, and smelled, like a corpse that had stood up and began to walk, only to find itself still locked in its tomb. Ryan walked slowly up to it, fascinated by it.

"Uh, Scott? Didn't your grandfather say something about a yellow rabbit suit?"

"Yeah, he did," replied Scott, his voice quiet. "He said that the only clue they had was that the kids were last seen on the cameras being lured away by a man in a yellow rabbit costume."

They stared at it, taking in its details, picturing against their will the image of a small child looking up and seeing it staring down at them. Darcy now stepped towards it, the same fascinated look on her face as that of her brother's. Amber made a disgusted sound and hung back where she was.

"Okay, that is messed up!" Her voice was fierce with anger. "They want to send people—families with kids—through here to replicate the last moments of those kids, and they even have the animatronic that the guy wore set up here ready to go! Its gross!"

The other three had been looking at Amber, but quickly turned back towards the robotic thing. They all thought they heard it make a faint noise as she spoke. Amber went quiet and stared at it with the others. She thought she saw it move. Thought she saw the tiniest movement of it turning towards her, but as it continued to stand perfectly still, she figured it must have been a trick of the dark and the soft lights of the many phones moving around it. Nevertheless, they could almost feel a tightly wound energy within it, ready to spring loose at any moment. Scott grinned slightly as he turned back to her.

"It's gross, but it's effective. I'm guessing it's a broken old prop that they found somewhere." He looked past the animatronic and saw an arcade machine against the wall of the next room behind it. "Let's keep moving."

They squeezed past the yellow character, careful not to touch it for fear of activating or disturbing it and found themselves in a rectangular room leading left of the door they just walked through. Another doorway stood at the end of the room on the left again so that the whole path they took curved back onto itself in a hairpin. There were four arcade machines lined up along the wall, all inactive. The group moved through the next doorway and looked through the one on their immediate left at the rabbit, the pile of gifts just past it that they had already walked past. They carried on straight.

This corridor had dozens of silver stars hanging from the ceiling by silver ribbons. The walls here had large images of pizzas plastered along them like giant wagon wheels. Amber remarked on this.

"It certainly looks like a pizza place. But I wouldn't want to eat anything in here."

"Oh, I don't know…" replied Scott, looking her up and down, that sly grin reappearing on his face.

"Oh, don't be gross!" She scowled at him before speeding up to join the twins ahead of them.

Their footsteps quietly disturbing the thick silence, they reached a doorway at the end which opened up to another corridor, this one leading both left and right. The four of them stopped and looked around. It was all starting to look the same, the constant tiled floor not helping with their mounting confusion. The air was becoming stuffy and thick. They took another left and found themselves nearly walking into another character.

On a thin stand at the end of the corridor, a doorway leading away to the right of it, was the pale blue, empty torso and head of an animatronic rabbit character. Whether deliberately done or not, this prop had the look of a twisted skull, its unhinged and crooked jaw screaming in silent pain. Once again, Scott approached it and tried to lift the head off to take as a souvenir. This one was also bolted tight. With a frustrated groan, Scott turned and began to walk back down the corridor.

Darcy leaned into the doorway next to the prop and peered into it. The head of a red animatronic fox was bolted to the wall just past it looking down another corridor that was parallel to the one they were in. She turned back and joined the others who had made their way down to a doorway at the end, facing the right. This one led into a large corridor with a long window running along the left wall that looked into another room. They made their way down to the end where it turned left and revealed another frame stand with what looked like a torso and head of a brown bear character. At the end was a set of steps that led up to a door with EXIT written above it. Another door was on their left, leading into the room beyond the long window which they had just walked past.

It was a simple wooden office door with a large window in the top half of it. Scott stepped forward to open it but the handle held firm in his hand. Locked. He again pulled out the crowbar from his duffle bag and rather than forcing the door open, simply smashed it through the window with a loud crash and reached in to unlock it from the inside.

They looked in through the open doorway. Inside was what looked like a security office. A computer sat on a wooden desk in the corner just under the long window, a swivel desk chair tucked in under it. On the opposite side, along the wall to their right was a large metal locker and next to that was a clutter of boxes full of salvaged parts painstakingly scraped together over months of searching. A door opposite them across the room read STORAGE. They stepped in and looked around. A box lay in the corner on their left, right next to the door, full of empty animatronic heads that looked different from the ones they had walked past. These ones were sleeker and smaller. These were from the 'toy' versions of the characters that were only briefly used at the restaurant in 1987.

Scott dived straight for them. These ones weren't nailed down and would fit in his bag easier than the old original ones. He inspected each one closely, a greedy look on his face, before tucking them away in his bag. The others continued to look around the office as he rummaged through the box. Darcy was looking at the other boxes of props next to the locker, holding her phone high up above them. There were more character heads and parts, but these ones were quite damaged and dirty.

Ryan was standing in the far corner on the other side, next to the locker. He had found a switchboard and was looking over it closely, trying to decide which switch the pull.

"Everyone still got their faces covered?"

They all turned to him, wondering what he meant, when suddenly the room was filled with bright light as he powered on the attraction. The air stirred around them as the vents in the ceiling activated, relieving the stuffiness. Amber turned her phone light off, noticing that the power was now down to 64%. She also noticed, with a pang, that she had no phone signal down here. Eyes slowly adjusting to the glare, Ryan saw that the computer now had power. He sat down in front of it an turned it on.

He was looking at a security feed of the corridor they had first walked down at the other end. The picture quality was poor with intermittent burst of static, making it take a moment to recognise what was on the screen. Flicking through the camera feeds, he saw that the corridors of the attraction were now partially lit up by lights placed in odd corners at strange angles, giving off creepy shadows and keeping the place relatively dark. The empty animatronic heads they had walked past actually had lights in them, making them look like jack 'o lanterns with glowing eyes.

"Oh look, the arcade machines are on!" said Ryan, watching the screen.

Scott, now pleased with himself and his haul, took Amber's hand and to lead her away with him.

"Come on, let's see what this place actually has in store for us!"

They left hurriedly back through the corridor and disappeared into the labyrinth, Scott's full duffle bag bouncing behind him. Darcy was rummaging through the steel locker, seeing what she could find while Ryan continued to flick through the camera feeds.

"Wait…"

Ryan paused, staring at the screen. Something was wrong. Darcy walked up behind him to look at it, too. The yellow rabbit animatronic was different, somehow. It was still standing in the same spot just within the doorway to the arcade room, but it looked like it had moved. They watched it closely. It was as still as it was when they walked past it, but now its head looked like it had turned slightly.

It was now facing the direction of the office they were in.