"I guess the place really is opening. It feels a bit weird having all these people here suddenly," Timothy said to Nathaniel and Katie as the three of them stood by the door and watched a group of workers sweeping the floor and putting up new posters for the grand reopening of Freddy's. After almost six weeks of waiting, the new owner had decided that it was time to get some profit from his investment and open the remodeled pizzeria's doors to the public. With his reputation as the owner of a rival franchise, a super kid-friendly one that could boast being accident free, his new management gave the pizzeria a fair chance at staying open despite all that had happened in it.
Lights and music erupted from the stage area. The three ghosts turned to see an employee desperately trying to find the power switch on the shiny new Freddy robot who had started up a preprogrammed series of dance steps. The worker managed to flip the off switch and the motion died down with a mechanical whirr. The excitement over, the rest of the employees went back to what they had been doing. "Those new animatronics sure are something," commented Nathaniel.
"They're ruining Dad's place. The new Freddy is too fat, Bonnie looks weird, and there's something creepy about Chica's body. Why can't everything just stay the way it was?" Timothy glared at the new Freddy and Co, who were currently being admired by Brian, Lucy, Joey, and Suzy. To the kids, once their initial sadness had worn off, they had turned their situation into an adventure, a forever escape into a fantasy world of play with no adults to give orders. For Timothy, however, the new management and animatronics had turned a world that was familiar and through that, comforting, into some strange mockery of his father's restaurant.
"I really like the new Foxy. She kind of reminds me of Vixie," Katie let them know her opinion. Timothy sighed. If his sister liked it, he couldn't hate it completely.
When the pizzeria had its grand reopening to the public, the new Foxy proved to be liked by more than just Katie. Nate and Timothy rushed to the source of their friend's screaming, thinking that someone was in trouble, and instead found her pointing at a swarm of toddlers pulling the pink and white fox apart. "They're ruining her! She looks horrible now!" cried Katie. Nate grimaced. The animatronic that had once been a cute remake of Foxy was now a mangled pile of wires and scrap metal. An employee walked in and began to yell at the toddlers, but one of his coworkers pulled him away. "Let the kids have their fun," he shrugged. The irony of the statement hit Nathaniel harder with Katie standing next to him and the rest of the murdered children playing somewhere nearby. Apparently, some children were allowed to have fun here while others had everything torn away from them. "Let's get out of this room," Nathaniel said with disgust.
"Dad never had someone watching the place at night," Timothy scowled as all seven ghosts hovered next to one of the room's air vents.
"Well, the new owner did put a lot of money into the new robots, so I can see why he wouldn't want to risk them getting stolen or something," reasoned Nathaniel. "He can't see us, anyway, so I'm sure we'll be fine."
"Still, it's a bit creepy having somebody watching us," Timmy folded his arms.
Nate felt a tug at his sleeve. "Um, Nate, is it ok if we play hide and seek?" asked Joey. Nate nodded and the excited kids ran off to start their game.
He noticed that Katie was still with him and Timothy. "Aren't you going to play with them?" he asked.
"I don't feel like playing," she shrugged. The three of them watched the guard take another look at the camera monitor screen. "Hey, Nate," she began, "I was just wondering, if you did something to Timmy and now he can control Fredbear, and then you did something to me and my friends so now we can control the other robots, then did someone do something to you and let you control anything?"
Surprised, Nathaniel didn't know how to respond. "Maybe if nobody let you control one specific robot, you can control them all?" Timothy suggested.
"That would be amazing!" Katie clapped her hands with excitement. "Please please pretty please try it!"
The two children pushed their older friend to the nearest animatronic: a puppet-like robot that was supposed to come out of its box with a plastic present in hand when its music box was playing but through some mixup in programming instead only came out in the absence of sound. The new owner was planning on getting it fixed once the place proved to be successful enough to invest more into. "Ok ok I'll try it! Just give me a second!" Nate tried to stop the assault his two little friends were giving him.
Nathaniel found himself sitting inside of the box. He tried to blink, but found he couldn't. He felt so… strange. Unsteadily, he stood up and found himself looking over the edge of the open box. Katie and Timmy stood side by side, staring at him. "It's like you but at the same time not," breathed Timothy.
Nate closed his eyes and found himself on his own two feet again. The Puppet stood in its box behind him, staring blankly ahead. "That has to be the strangest thing I've ever done," muttered Nathaniel. He found himself admiring the kids for being able to do that without so much as flinching.
Speaking of the kids, Lucy started shouting, "I found you!" Nate, Timmy, and Katie heard Brian's hysteric giggles as he came out of his hiding spot.
"Let's go play with them," Timmy suggested. Katie nodded, feeling up to it. She skipped off to find a place to hide.
"You guys have fun," said Nathaniel. He turned to face The Puppet. Nate had gone through a lot, but inside, he was still a middle-school boy with a sense of pride that would not allow him to let children younger than him play with these robots with ease while he felt nervous doing the same. No, he was the oldest, so he should be the least afraid and he was going to make himself face this. If that meant spending some time trying to make himself feel comfortable possessing a robot, then that's what he'd do. Besides, it kind of felt good to have a body again, even if it was very little like his old one.
Timmy wandered around, searching for a good place to hide. The back room looked like a good option. Quickly, he surveyed the room. Nobody was there but Fredbear. Good. Timmy ducked behind the large costume just as Suzy entered the room. "Hello?" she called. "Is anybody here?" She glanced around the room. Finding nobody standing out in the open, she shrugged and left to search for a less hidden player.
"I think this is the best hiding spot," whispered Katie.
Timmy nearly jumped. "How long have you been here?" he whispered back. Surely he would have seen her when he had first entered the room.
The little girl gave a mischievous smile. "I'm a good hider."
Her brother frowned. Katie smiled and disappeared. A second later, Fredbear gave a little thumbs up. "Katie! That's cheating!" Timothy scolded. Katie appeared next to him again and put a finger to her lips. "Don't give away our hiding spot," she giggled as she faded away.
"Come on, Katie!" a frustrated Timothy demanded. He received no answer. "If you don't get out of there right now, I'm going to have to get you out," he warned. Still no reply. Quietly seething, the little ghost had to act on his threat.
He found that controlling Fredbear was a lot different when two kids were trying to do it at the same time. Their movements became jerky and erratic as Timothy attempted to sit them down while Katie wanted to run away. Under conflicted control, the golden bear stepped over his own paws and threatened to tip over. "What's happening?!" Timmy heard his frightened sister scream inside their shared head. Feeling completely out of control, he was terrified as well. Now he, too, just wanted to get away. He started trying to run in the same direction that Katie was pushing them to go.
The moment their desired courses merged, something happened. Suddenly, neither child was in control. Katie and Timmy both screamed, unheard by anyone outside of the costume, as the room around them began to fade to darkness. In its place, another scene faded in. The man in the new room stared at them for a few seconds of shock before jumping out of his chair and screaming hysterically. Nate sprang out of his box and sprinted toward the source of the screaming, not bothering to leave his new body.
He found himself in a room with Fredbear and the first night watchman of the pizzeria's short history. He looked from the bear to the frightened man. Timmy and Katie looked from their friend to the man. The man looked from one robot to the other, reasonably concluded that the demons of hell were out to get him for not helping that old lady cross the street that morning, and after an impressive jump over the desk to get past the two animatronics, took off like a shot out of the room and building. Sure as heck he wasn't going to come back for another night.
Edit: The message in the next paragraph might sound accusatory. It is not meant to. I am sorry that it was and everybody who thought that is sorry as well now that they know that the review in question was not saying anything harmful. Let there be peace.
Ok. I, um, I don't really know what to do. I received a review from an anonymous user and I really want to respond to it but I don't think I'm allowed to reply directly because that is probably violating the no interactive stories rule. Instead, I will generalize the message as an author's note because I guess it kind of applies to everybody anyway. First off, thank you for reviewing. I really appreciate it that you all enjoy this story. I have to admit something, though. If I look like I am into the lore, I don't know if I am. In all honesty, I have pretty much no idea what the lore is supposed to be. I was introduced to this game two years ago and didn't even think that it had a story until a lot of people told me that it quite obviously did. Logically, I started looking over the games again and trying to find a story. I probably messed up because my brother said his classmates looked at him weird when he told them my version of the story. Anyway, I took it, added personalities to the characters, had them interact, and came up with this. It probably isn't what the story to the games is supposed to be and there are definitely some parts that I know aren't in the reality (such as two kids possessing Golden Freddy), but it is what I am going to write.