I was more exhausted than I ought to have been after my first real work shift. But when I returned home from Fazbear's Fright early that morning, I found that sleep continued to elude me. Constant exhaustion seemed to be the case as of late for me. I wasn't entirely surprised by this, considering my nightmares, and since I didn't want to dwell on what caused them, I found something to occupy myself with.

The decision to do research on past Freddy Fazbear's Pizza locations likely wasn't the best idea, but it was a distraction. Besides, that ugly, beat-up animatronic rabbit that my boss had found surely had to come from one of those places, right? There had to be some kind of information I could find that wasn't a hoax or misinformation. There couldn't be that much to sift through, I figured, as I booted up my computer.

I was wrong.

Very, very wrong.

There was so much more information than I could have possibly imagined finding while delving into the past of the place Fazbear's Fright was based off of. The rumors made up a large chunk of the information I ended up coming across, as did the online speculation about what had happened at the old pizza chain locations. Each Freddy Fazbear's had its own set of rumors, and with each location that opened and then was subsequently closed, even more rumors and incidents rose up.

The Bite of '87.

Missing children back in '83.

A possible serial killer on the loose.

There were so many missing children, whether they were rumored to be killed, or never seen again. I even found discussions on different forums about some of the old places, where people speculated over what could have happened to the children. Some thread discussions went as far back in their speculation to a place called Fredbear's Family Diner. According to the timeline I was slowly piecing together, the diner had come before Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.

Upon further digging, I found that there were two co-founders of the diner.

Henry Emily and WIlliam Afton.

I kept glued to to the computer as I dug further, feeling compelled to learn as much as possible. I don't know what made me soak up so much information, but told myself that I wanted to know as much as I could before going back to work that night.

Hours passed, and even if there was a lot of information and not a lot of answers, I knew at least one thing for certain now.

The animatronic that was in Fazbear's Fright was most likely Spring Bonnie, since old photos would have matched the suit when it was in better condition. How my boss had located such an old animatronic was beyond me, but at least I could like of it as something other than that 'rabbit animatronic.'

Spring Bonnie.

Looking at those older photos, I noticed that the fur was nearly non existent, since it was so close to the animatronic body.

Well, shit.

My boss would notice the difference, and might not be happy with my terrible patch job.

I sighed as I clicked away from the photo of Spring Bonnie. I would just have to bring in a portable razor that I could get in a store on my way into work that night. I'd just shave down the fur and hope the gold fur blended together, and finish up by giving the ears a bit of a scrub.

Problem solved, hopefully.

Shaking my head, I opened up another window on the computer. I resumed reading about William Afton, and made a point to avoid pictures of the guy while I was at it. There was just something very unsettling about the man's smile in the photographs, and I eventually stumbled across a potential reason why. There happened to be quite a lot of speculation over the idea that Mr. Afton was behind the kids being abducted, but there was no proof.

No bodies.

No blood.

Nothing.

Not even reliable witnesses.

And then there was talk about one of the Freddy Fazbear's Pizza locations in particular. The one where there were rumors of the animatronics wandering around the building at night. From the sound of it, that wouldn't have been out of the ordinary, but what wasn't was the fact that the animatronics tried to get to the night guard. There were even rumors of the animatronics attacking people, which was attributed to their programming being messed up at some point, perhaps by a tech who made an error.

It was all very confusing, and had me concerned that Spring Bonnie might activate while I was on shift. But that was unlikely, wasn't it? Spring Bonnie really ought not to turn on at all. It had been so beaten up when I first laid eyes on it, even if it was during the day. I was only somewhat worried now because one of the forums talked about beaten up animatronics that had been used used for parts activating and moving around at night as well.

Maybe looking too closely at the rumors was a bad idea. I might start imagining things that weren't there when I went back to work tonight. I glanced back at the computer screen, accidentally focusing on a photo of William Afton, and felt a sense of unease roll over me. What a creepy motherfucker, smiling like he was in that photo. He seemed far too happy to be dressed up in the Spring Bonnie costume, holding the head under an arm.

Was it the same one that was in Fazbear's Fright?

Nah.

That was an animatronic, and the one in the photo was clearly being worn by a person. It had to be two different suits, because how else would one fit into a costume meant for an animatronic to move around on its own?

I checked out the photo again, and landed on just why I didn't like the photos of William Afton that I was running across.

It was his smile.

That smile...it didn't reach the man's eyes. With every year that passed by for each of the photos, there was less and less of a spark in those eyes, until it looked like no one was home inside.

This guy wasn't still around, was he?

I typed in another search, and found information that I really did not want to see.

William Afton was missing, and had been for over 30 years. It looked like he was lost from the public eye a few years after he had been released from being held for questioning in the disappearance of children, both at Fredbear's Family Diner, and a few Freddy Fazbear's Pizza locations after the diner was closed.

That was...odd, and no one seemed to know where he could have gotten to, while others were certain he was guilty and merely hiding away.

It made me wonder what had happened to Henry Emily.

A search showed split results.

One half thought Henry was dead because of the loss of his daughter, but the other half of the results indicated that Henry was still alive. At least as of the date on some of the articles I had found, dated between 10-20 years ago. Which meant if Henry was still alive, he would have to be at least 60 years old by now, give or take.

I couldn't find an actual age for either Henry or William, either because no one knew, or because the information had been removed for whatever reason. I read for a little while longer before deciding that I needed to stop for now. If I read any more of the speculation, I wouldn't be able to even think about getting some sleep. I certainly wouldn't get any rest if I let my mind drift to the old Freddy's location that was in my nightmares.

The whispers.

The sense of being watched toward the end of my first actual shift before I had gone home around 6:15 AM.

I had to close my eyes and push it all away for as long as I could. I would have to go in for work tonight whether I wanted to or not.

Demons of the past possibilities haunting the props my boss had brought to Fazbear's Fright was not a valid excuse to not go in to work.

Pushing away from my desk, I logged off of the computer and left the small room, before collapsing onto the couch. Flinging an arm over my eyes, I let out a slow sigh and attempted to shut my thoughts off to nothing.

It didn't help.

The panic and slowly-rising anxiety from the near fatal accident began to spiral out of control with nothing to occupy my mind. It was affecting my attempts to doze off, which only made my body act out more in response. It was only when the sheer exhaustion finally sank in that I was able to rest. I drifted, not quite fully asleep yet out enough that I was unaware of my surroundings. Because I really should have been concerned by the sensation of a hand slipping into my own to give it a gentle squeeze, as if someone was trying to reassure me.

That was...nice.

I could really use someone telling me that everything would be all right. That the nightmares would lessen and that I would be able to get on with my life eventually, even if there was an occasional night where I couldn't sleep, when the memories were too much.

The hand that held mine seemed larger than my own, with no warmth coming from it. Spindly fingers held my hand firmly, as something warm settled around my neck, almost like necklace where a pendant rested on my chest, increasing that sense of warmth and peace. I relaxed, feeling myself fall into a deeper sleep than I had been able to. The hand within my own grasped mine for a short while longer, before it withdrew. I slept on, thinking nothing of the odd experience that had just happened.

Whispers followed, but none audible enough to make out the words.

-x-x-x-

I woke feeling refreshed, and oddly not at all worried over the idea of someone holding my hand in an otherwise empty apartment.

Likely just my imagination, and desire for someone to be there for me.

Alone.

I was alone, and if my boss didn't contact me again, I would continue to be alone, apart from crossing paths with random strangers outside my apartment.

Had I been alone before all of my memories became scattered and distant?

Giving my head a firm shake, I slid off the couch and headed for the front door of my apartment. I wasn't very hungry right now, and figured that I could always eat after I came back from getting that cordless battery operated razor. I left my home, even though it didn't feel like my actual home at times. I had a store to get to, and a meal to eat before going in to work. The hours passed by quickly and soon enough, I was due to go back for my second full shift at Fazbear's Fright. Regardless of how prepared I was that night, I still hated the idea of having to share the space with that horrid animatronic, broken-down rabbit.

Spring Bonnie, I reminded myself.

Irritatingly enough, my boss continued to be oddly silent, even after I had sent several emails and texts to him. I decided to give him some more time to get back to me, as it was likely that my boss could be deep inside of another old Fazbear's location trying to find more animatronics.

One was enough, in my opinion.

Spring Bonnie might have looked okay when it had first been made but right now, after not seeing the light of day for probably decades, something just seemed off about it.

Yes, I had scrubbed the animatronic clean and patched it up, but that was during the day.

Would Spring Bonnie have moved in the time that I had been gone?

I shoved open the front door of Fazbear's Fright, and knew that I would find out soon. I made my way to the 'security office,' only to stop dead in my tracks the sight of Spring Bonnie. The animatronic was right where it had been left earlier, slumped on the ground, but what it hadn't had before I left earlier was a bow-tie.

My boss must be fucking with me, trying to get in my head for whatever reason.

Well, it wasn't going to work.

"Time for a shave." I told Spring Bonnie, as I pulled out the cordless razor to shave the fur down that I had sewn on. "This does look pretty bad when it is all different heights." I added, careful to avoid inhaling the floating pieces of synthetic fur as I made my way from the top to the bottom of the animatronic, and then shoved it forward to get at its back in. At one point, I shut the razor off, as I could have sworn I heard a muffled groan, as if someone were upset about something.

But there was no sound apart from my quiet breathing.

Evening out the longer patches of fur went decently well, and so the animatronic didn't look too terribly patchwork by the time I was finished, except for its upper back and sides.

Damn.

Maybe there was some kind of clothing I could slip onto the animatronic to hide the...discrepancy?

The storage room did have a lot of odds and ends, so I went there to go rummage around.

I got lucky.

There was a faded purple vest that would match the bow-tie Spring Bonnie was already wearing. The vest had stars sewn into it, though even they were faded with time. But the article of clothing looked like it was big enough to hide the mistakes I had made while sewing in those patches of fur.

Back to Spring Bonnie, I guess.

Carrying the purple vest back to the animatronic was uneventful but I honestly didn't expect to see Spring Bonnie sitting upright in a rigid way. Its arms were slightly raised, as if it had been in the middle getting up to stand. I squinted at the rabbit. Had I left Spring Bonnie upright like that, or leaning forward? I gave a disgusted shake of my head and stepped closer, shaking out the vest from how it had been folded up. This place was gloomy and was most certainly fucking with my mind. The animatronic wasn't moving, and I hadn't been gone for all that long.

Everything was fine.

"I think the vest will distract people from staring too hard at my sewing job." I muttered to Spring Bonnie distractedly, as I slipped the right arm through the vest. I went to stand behind the animatronic to get the the vest against its back. I leaned up against Spring Bonnie's left side as I struggled to tug the arm through the vest. I bit the inside of my lip when I jostled the animatronic, which made Spring Bonnie lean into me, its arm following suit. But I was able to maneuver the vest on, and moved away as quick as I could from the anmatronic, watching it warily.

Spring Bonnie remained leaning over sideways, but that wasn't what bothered me.

"Guess that worked out, even if I wasn't expecting you to move like that." I went to go grab the scrub brush and a bucket of water, telling myself that the animatronic just naturally fell over from me pushing against it. But...if that was the case, shouldn't it have leaned in the opposite direction?

This place really wasn't good for my psyche.

"Fucking hell." I breathed mutinously under my breath, when I came back with bucket and scrub brush in now-gloved hands, sprouting a mask over my mouth.

Spring Bonnie was upright again.

"That is just not right." I waited to see if it would move, but when it didn't, I approached and reached out to seize the less broken left ear. "Time to finish your bath, you ugly fucker." I scraped the mold off as best I could, and used the suds in the bucket to go over the ear several times. I let go of the left ear to go on to what was left of the right ear, and had to be more careful due to the wires and metal that were exposed.

It went a lot quicker than cleaning up the animatronic earlier in the day.

I eyed the ears after I was finished with them, before disposing of my cleaning supplies for the night. I would deal with patching the ears up tomorrow, if I was feeling kind toward Spring Bonnie. It kind of depended on whether or not the animatronic remained more or less motionless. With a final suspicious look at the motionless animatronic, I headed for my office, and I got my equipment ready so I could settle in for the night. I let out a low, aggravated sigh when I chanced a glance at the clock and found that it was only 12:15 AM.

Why had I come in so early, apart from coming soon enough that Spring Bonnie didn't come to life to bite my head off?

I really shouldn't have read so much about those past Fazbear's locations.

There was no reason for Spring Bonnie to activate when it had been in such poor condition.

I hoped, anyway, as I began to half-heartedly poke at the buttons to scroll through the static-filled camera feed. I was in for another boring night, wasn't I? An hour passed in relative silence as I continued to causally scroll through the screens, both inside the halls and rooms, and inside the vent for something different as I passed the time. But motion out of the corner of my eye caught my attention, causing me to miss hitting a button as I hit the desk hard with my hand.

There was something moving in the static of the monitor.

Impossible, unless..

Was that…was that Spring Bonnie slowly getting to its feet?

I could see, even on the small screen of the monitor, the way the animatronic's jaw open slightly in a facade of a wide, happy grin before snapping shut.

What the hell?

I squinted at the monitor through the static.

No way.

That animatronic had been in such terrible shape. There was no way that Spring Bonnie should have been able to move. It hadn't made so much as a twitch yesterday while I worked on it, or an hour earlier. But...it had moved, in a way, when it seemed to have sat upright on its own when I wasn't looking, and then again, when it had leaned in my direction.

Something wasn't right.

I stared at the monitor again, and saw Spring Bonnie adjusting the vest in a rather fastidious way to make it fit on its frame.

That was...odd. Would the animatronic even be aware of clothing that was put on it? Spring Bonnie appeared to be aware, and that right there was rather concerning.

Animatronics weren't supposed to be self-aware, at least according to old documents and articles I had come across.

I stared hard at the static-filled monitor, and watched with a sense of trepidation as the animatronic dropped its hands to the side. I watched as the rabbit's head turned one way and then another, before tilting back to face the camera. To my surprise, Spring Bonnie slowly raised one of its hands and gave the camera a little wave.

It was done in a rather mocking manner, if that was even possible.

Spring Bonnie jerkily lowered its hand to its side before slowly beginning to shuffle down the hall.

"Oh hell no. You did not just wave at me like that, you motherfucker." I uttered in disbelief at the monitor. "You shouldn't even know I'm here, let alone know what a camera is." I took a moment to reset the ventilation, before I went straight back to the monitors to track Spring Bonnie's slow progress. I watched as the animatronic cocked its head to the side, twitching a little, before it stopped and stared up at another camera. It almost seemed like Spring Bonnie was be able to…see through the monitor to me, even though I knew that was impossible. There couldn't be any way that the animatronic knew there was someone watching it.

I was proven wrong.

Spring Bonnie again raised a hand, this time much more fluidly, to give the camera what was definitely a mocking wiggle of its fingers. The faint whispers making their way back to me made the sight worse.

He knows you're here.

Be careful.

Don't be fooled.

Don't get caught.

Spring Bonnie swayed from side to side as if listening to music that wasn't there as the animatronic made a turn down another hall and headed straight for the office.

What the fuck?

Was that thing attempting to dance its way to me?

That was creepy as hell.

Static monitor it may have been, I didn't like the way that thing had looked at me. Spring Bonnie's gaze was almost too sentient, even if I knew better. The animatronic must have really fucked up programming after so much time being neglected.

Fuck this.

I wasn't going to stay here and wait for that thing to slowly stagger to my office and corner me inside of it. I didn't know if Spring Bonnie was trying to be friendly, like the animatronic had been in the past when it was supposed to entertain children. To me, at least right now, it felt as if I was looking at an animatronic that was too far gone and when it found me, it would see me as something to…attack.

Spring Bonnie was not walking around Fazbear's Fright aimlessly.

The animatronic was headed right to the office without any hesitation.

I had heard the stories, and read up on them earlier, but I'd taken those rumors with a grain of salt. The speculation over the children who disappeared, the possible murders and the way animatronics had attacked. I didn't know what to believe, but I wasn't about to spend the rest of my shift without something to protect myself. Not that anything short of a flame thrower would protect me from a metal endoskeleton beneath that suit of the rabbit.

A broken guitar in the box of the office would just have to do.

I dropped into a crouch to huddle to one side of the door to my office, and waited for the animatronic to come to me. Soon enough, I heard Spring Bonnie get close enough to hear its heavy, unsteady footsteps and the terrible grinding of gears, along with what sounded like an aggravated sigh.

Who the hell had just sighed?

Me?

It couldn't possibly have been the animatronic.

I pressed my back to the wall, crouched low, and poised the guitar in a way to maximize the swing. Spring Bonnie lurched into the room, but I held off, waiting with bated breath.

The animatronic needed to come in a little bit more.

I warily tracked the way the animatronic's head swung to one side and then the other. I was certain that it had seen me, but when it faced forward again with that horrid sighing sound, I relaxed ever so slightly.

Spring Bonnie took a few more steps inside the office, and that was when I struck.

I swung the guitar, while apologizing internally to my boss over the damage, as I connected with the back of the exposed knee of the animatronic. I was honestly surprised that I ended up knocking the animatronic off balance.

Spring Bonnie pitched forward with what almost sounded like a grunt right before it crashed noisily to the ground.

I didn't stick around to watch, instead taking the guitar with me as I ran out of the room. I cursed as I briefly stopped to peer through the long window that showed the office.

Spring Bonnie was attempting to right itself in order to get to its hands and feet.

What the ever loving fuck was this bullshit?

I was going to kick my boss' ass, job or not, as I ran my ass as fast as I could to the back door. But when I reached the exit, and turned the handle, my stomach dropped, a little nausea rising within me.

The door was stuck fast, and upon closer inspection, there was a timer.

I was locked in.

Great.

What was I supposed to do, survive until 6 AM? Trapped in this place with Spring Bonnie waltzing around like it was perfectly normal for a supposedly broken-down animatronic to suddenly be in motion? I heard a distance crash, of expensive equipment being knocked off my desk, probably. The sound made me wrap my hands around the upper part of the now half-broken guitar.

Fine.

I would just have to take Spring Bonnie's feet out from under it again and sit on the damn animatronic or something until the exit decided to unlock for me. I was not being paid enough to deal with a malfunctioning mascot character of an old pizza chain, or rather, of an animatronic from Fredbear's Family Diner, that had long been out of business.

The ventilation went out five minutes later.

I let out a put-upon sigh.

Lovely.

The reset button was in the office where Spring Bonnie currently was, and from what I had heard, the animatronic wasn't happy over being knocked down. And if I didn't want to pass out, I would just have to deal with possibly getting in close contact with Spring Bonnie.

Wasn't that just the icing on the fucking cake?

I held the guitar firmly and began to stalk toward the office, and hoped that Spring Bonnie wasn't going to do that creepy caper from the hallway when it spotted me. If that was how the animatronic was programmed to gain little kids interest and put them at ease, I didn't want to see what Spring Bonnie would do to someone who wasn't going to deal with the act.

Act?

Not really, I guess, since that weird half-dance sway was likely set within the AI's programming.

I reached the long window outside my office, and carefully peered through. Spring Bonnie was still on the ground, awkwardly trying to get up, but then seemed to sense my stare. I stood rooted to the spot as the animatronic raised its head to look at me, before a hand lifted to be level with its body, the other hand trying to push it upright.

Spring Bonnie gave a little wave, and I could have sworn I heard a terribly raspy laugh.

Fuck.

Nope.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

Not going in there.

I would risk passing out until Spring Bonnie got the hell out of my office. At least, that was my thought, until I turned around and came face to face with a disintegrating, dirty see-through green colored Freddy Fazbear.

A phantom, or a figment of my imagination that came with the alarm going off?

Don't let him catch you. We can't help you here.

The whispering from before was more audible now, and for some reason, this particular whisper seemed to come directly from Freddy.

To my surprise, the Freddy phantom dropped the tablet that reset the ventilation right in front of me. I didn't think anything of it, and merely dropped to my hands and knees to hit the reset button immediately. When the ventilation was back to normal, and the alarm stopped blaring, I quickly glanced back up to look at Freddy.

The phantom wasn't there any longer, but Spring Bonnie in my office was, still presumably trying to get up from the sound of it.

I took the tablet and ran back the way I had come, taking the broken guitar with me. If I could remotely reset the ventilation, there was no reason to go any closer to Spring Bonnie until I could figure out the animatronic's intentions. But according to the whispers I had heard tonight, I should probably keep my distance. There wasn't anyone else in the building with me apart from the single animatronic, after all, and if those voices I was hearing didn't want me to go near the creepy moving rabbit, then maybe I shouldn't. Hell, for all I knew, the whispers could be my own subconscious telling me to keep my distance.

"One big...happy family" A voice from the distance seemed to say in a sing-song way. "...but where have they...all gone?"

The voice was too faint to figure out where it was coming from, but I thought it sounded...distracted, but soon, the light sounding tone changed with the next set of words, sounding focused now.

"Nowhere...to hide and nowhere to...run to. No escape." A laugh sounded, an ugly, disturbing sound. "So familiar and yet...so different. How very...interesting."

An involuntarily shiver ran up my spine.

Was Spring Bonnie's AI spitting out some of its lines as it attempted to get back up to its feet? Or had someone managed to break into the building? Because those words sure as hell didn't sound like they were being spoken at random, nor did the voice sound like it was emitting from an animatronic.

I lingered near the exit of Fazbear's Fright, my back pressed against the nearest wall as I waited for Spring Bonnie to begin to move again. My thoughts began to crowd in on themselves before I focused on the two most important questions I had.

Where were those whispers coming from, and just whose voice had I heard speak so faintly?

Another, more important question rose to the forefront of my mind.

What the hell was going on?