A FNAF Reality
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Chapter 5: Choices
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The hours seemed to pass by very fast the longer we stayed at the pizzeria. Eddie was about to call it a day and head home, but I wanted to stay and see if they were going to announce the winners for that contest. Even if I didn't win, I still wanted to see what it was all about.
After we had eaten our pizza, we went off and played the arcade games. The arcade games showed off their colors and made strange sounds to entice the guests. The games accepted tokens. Eddie bought us a good handful of gold tokens, which had Freddy's face stamped on them. It was a pretty awesome detail for the pizzeria. We played for a couple hours till we got a bunch of tickets.
"I wonder if they have those plushies," I said out loud. Sure enough, the prize counter did. The prize counter was kind of small, but was stuffed with a bunch of FNAF items with shelves that went up to the ceiling. The cool thing was that in the middle, against the wall of shelves, was a statue of the Marionette from the second game, coming out of its' box. I took a picture of it on my phone.
On the shelves of prizes, there were the usual FNAF tshirts, keychains, bracelets, and phone cases I usually saw at Hot Topic stores. Then there were the action figures, the security baseball hats, the posters, and the plushies.
The plushies were the ones they made to look exactly like the ones from the second game; and you could usually win them and place them on your desk. Unfortunately in reality, they are forty dollars each; and at the prize counter, they are forty-five thousand tickets each.
I sighed and looked down at our fists full of Freddy stamped tickets. We only had three hundred and thirty-four tickets. The only thing we could get was maybe two Freddy pencils and a plastic Bonnie Bowtie.
"Maybe if we played a couple more games, we could get a Bonnie Guitar," Eddie suggested as he pointed up to the plastic, red and white guitar on the middle shelf. I smiled at Eddie.
"It's not a real guitar, Eds. It's most likely a Guitar hero guitar they painted red," I pointed out. Eddie smiled back and shrugged. "So? It's better than getting a pair of underwear with Freddy's face on it," he said and pointed to the basket of rolled up Freddy underwear.
Me and Shy both laughed. He did have a point. I turned to my sister. "What do you think, Shy? You ok with getting the Bonnie Guitar?" I asked her. Shy gradually stopped laughing and shrugged. "I don't care. It's your birthday. Whatever you want," she responded.
I sighed and looked back up at the shelves of toys. Everything up there was so expensive and tough to get. I wasn't really that good at winning games, even arcade games. Shy and Eds did pretty well with a couple of them, but overall it was going to take us another set of hours to at least make it to five hundred.
"Oh hey look, there's your Bonnie sweater," Shy pointed out. I looked over to where she was pointing. It took me a while to find it since it was hidden in between a bunch of big boxes holding FNAF themed scooters and bikes in the big ticket area.
Sure enough, there it was. There were a couple animatronic designed sweaters. A brown one of Freddy, a yellow one of Chica, a red one of Foxy, and a purple one of Bonnie, just like the one I was wearing. I smiled up at the cool sweaters. Just then I felt my hood go up over my head.
"Hey!" I giggled as I blindly turned around. Eddie laughed and pulled me into a hug. I pushed my hood off of my head and tried to give him a glare, but couldn't do it and just smiled. I hugged him back.
I let go and turned back to the prize counter. The Bonnie Guitar was only four hundred and fifty tickets, and according to Eddie, we only needed one hundred and sixteen tickets more to get it.
"Ok. Let's go play more arcade games," I said smiling. Eddie smiled softly. "We don't have to if you don't want to. It's your choice," he said. I sighed. I was starting to wish I didn't have a birthday. I always hate having to make so many decisions. It was bad enough I had a hard time deciding things in life already. Every choice changed my future. I want to be successful and do well, but I wasn't sure if I was going the right direction.
"I want to play that one game again," I said. My favorite games were the zombie, shooter games. Eddie knew which one I was talking about and smiled. "Ok, your choice, birthday girl," he said. I felt like a little kid when he called me that, but I didn't let it get to me and smiled. "Yay," I said and began to lead the way to the arcade game I wanted to play. Eds and Shy followed right behind me.
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Me, Shy and Eds sat at the tables with our prize, the Bonnie Guitar. Eddie played around with it for a while. It was close to wing an actual guitar, except for a couple things that were missing that made it work. Eddie liked playing with it. He strung the guitar and played Happy Birthday for me. I smiled and clapped when he was done.
The announcer didn't come back till around five pm, when parents were already leaving with their screaming children. The lights went out once again as the colorful lights flashed and rotated around the room.
"All right everyone! It's what you've all been waiting for! The names of the winners for the Survive the Night contest!" The announcer said. Everyone cheered as the colorful flashing lights flashed around us. I looked over to Eddie who gave me a smile before sticking his tongue out. I did the same before angling my head upwards slightly towards the ceiling.
A bunch of little kids screamed and jumped at the round disks of light every time they passed along the floor. The curtains to the main stage were still closed, except Pirate's Cove, which gradually lost its crowd of people and I was able to take a picture of Foxy.
The announcer spoke again. "Ok! The Survive the Night Contest is just like the games, except in real life. Kids who are eighteen or younger must have their parent or guardian with them during the span of time they are in the security room..." he went on.
He also talked about that no one in the office will get hurt, but also should not hurt "Freddy and his pals," which I assumed were adults in costumes. The announcer also went on that the people playing as the security guards must stay inside the office throughout the game and cannot leave till they either "survive the night" or "die." If any of the players get too scared, they have to yell out "Pizza," and someone will come and take them out of the pizzeria, and not be able to come back.
Finally, he got to the part where he called off the names of the winners. The first person who won was from a little town in Massachusetts, according to the announcer. "Jason Sparks!" the announcer called out.
A young kid at around age ten screamed happily as a spot light went on him and his younger brother and mom. The kid, named Jason, had pale skin and dark brown hair. He wore a blue and green striped shirt and small blue jeans. His younger brother had blonde hair, and wore a red and blue striped shirt. The mom had sandy blonde hair and was quite tall. She seemed very surprised and confused at what was happening. Jason didn't seem to notice as he jumped up and down in front of her. Jason's younger brother screamed and jumped up and down as well.
Next came someone from Arizona. "Alfredo Madero!"
A teen, I'm guessing a couple years younger then Shy, was given the spotlight as he and his brother and sister screamed and shouted excitedly. They all had jet black hair and brown skin. Alfredo wore glasses and wore a Foxy shirt. His older sister had a pink sweater on and a purple shirt with a flower pattern design. Alfredo's younger brother had a plain red shirt on with black jeans.
Another name was called, someone named Steve Montagu Scott. No one screamed or shouted in excitement. The announcer said something funny, making almost everyone in the pizzeria laugh before continuing on down the list of winners.
Then, the final name was called. The person was from Texas. "Stephanie Queen!" The girl and I'm guessing the other girl she was with was her friend, screamed and gripped each others arms excitedly.
Stephanie had blonde hair and tan skin; while her friend had dark brown skin and black frizzy hair tied up in a tight bun. They both wore tank tops and skirts.
I smiled and clapped for those who won the contest.
Then the announcer told the winners to come to the prize counter and receive their "security guard badges." The winners immediately ran to the prize counter, ignoring the employees' warnings to not run inside the pizzeria. The young kid, Jason, was the first at the counter.
The lights in the pizzeria turned on and the usual music came back on.
Eddie yawned and stretched his arms. "Welp, I guess that's that. Ready to go home?" Eddie asked, looking over at me. I nodded my head. "Yeah. This day was fun." I turned to Shy, who also nodded. "Yep. This was pretty cool." With that, all three of us got up and began walking to the exit.
When we got close to the exit, we slowed down our pace when we heard the sound of a little kid screaming.
I turned my head and saw Jason being pulled by his angry mom. Jason screamed a high pitch scream as he tried pulling out of his mom's grasp. His mom gripped his hand tighter as she continued to storm across the pizzeria. Jason continued to scream as tears came down his face.
"Mommy! No!" he cried loudly. She told the kid to be quiet while she carried Jason's younger brother in her other arm. Jason's brother was quiet, hiding his face in her shoulder. The three headed towards our direction.
I took a step back so I wasn't in the mom's way. She came closer to us, heading for the exit. When her eyes landed on mine, she began to slow her fast pace. Her eyes moved down at my attire, then she quickly pulled something out of the pocket of her shirt. She spoke over Jason's screams and tossed me something that flashed gold in the light.
"Here, you look like an honest fan who would play this sort of thing," she said. I tried catching the item she tossed to me, but missed. It fell to the ground. I picked it up and looked down at it. It was a plastic security badge, spray painted gold. I looked up at the mom to say something, but her and her two kids were already gone. Eddie and Shy looked down at the badge. "Isn't that what they are handing out to the winners?" Shy asked. Eddie nodded.
"Yeah. It is. I saw the one girl holding one just like that," he pointed out. I hesitated. "What do I do with it?" I asked. Shy shrugged. Eddie did the same. "I guess you could go back to the prize counter and tell them what happened," Eddie offered. I nodded. Sounded like a good idea. I made my way around people, with Eddie and Shy right behind me. We weaved our way around till we made it to the prize counter.
I placed the security badge on the glass counter and waited for the man behind it to notice me. The man was in his thirties. He had light brown skin and curly brown hair on his face and head. His eyes were hazel behind a pair of thick, nerdy glasses and wore the usual employee work outfit. He turned to me after answering a woman's question. He smiled down at me warmly. "Hello, what can I help you with?" he asked nicely.
I looked down at his nametag. It said his name was Macx. I always liked seeing people's unique names on nametags. "Hi, Macx... said like M-A-X. Right?" I asked him. Macx nodded. "My mom thought it would be fun to spell it differently," he answered. I nodded and spoke again.
"Um...the kid who won...um...his mom gave me his badge and left," I tried explaining to him. Macx looked down at the fake security badge, then his head went back a bit in realization. "Oh. The Jason Sparks kid. Yeah. Apparently he found the contest online and began filling out the information on the site without his mom knowing. He also lied about his age," he added as he pointed to the computer next to him.
I looked back down at the security badge. "So...what do I do with this then?" I asked him. Macx smiled and leaned down. "Well, you could give it to someone else...or you could actually go and play the irl game. If I were you, I would play. It's not everyday you get an opportunity like this; also I can see that you are a big fan of the games. You can play it in real life."
I was about to tell him that I wasn't really a gamer and only played the first FNAF game, but he interrupted me. "Also, you are technically of age to go in and play."
"She just turned twenty today," Eddie said. I gave him a glare. Macx gasped. "Oh! well there you go! Happy Birthday!" He placed the badge back into my hands. "Don't worry. You wont get in trouble if you didn't win and got the badge anyway," he explained. I looked over at Eddie and Shy. "What do you guys think?" I asked them. Shy and Eddie exchanged glances.
"It's your choice," Eddie said. I sighed and looked down at the badge. Great. Another choice. There were so many possibilities and ways this could happen: If we don't go, we miss out on the opportunity, but then we don't have to stay up till six am; but I'm not one hundred percent sure if they really were making us stay inside the security office till six am. If we did go then we would be too tired to be able to drive back home, and Eddie most likely had work tomorrow-
"Ren?" Eddie asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked back up and found Eddie, Shy and Macx all looking at me. I felt my cheeks burn. "Um..." I started, pushing my glasses up. Macx did the same, pushing his thick glasses up to the bridge of his nose.
" You don't have to decide now. The game doesn't start till around Midnight. While you wait, you can tell the guys at the food counter over there that its your birthday and get some free ice cream," Macx said. Eddie's eyebrows went up. "Free ice cream?! Hell yeah!" he said happily as he grabbed my arm and pulled.
I quickly thanked Macx as I was pulled towards the food counter. As we came up to the other counter, I braced myself, hoping that the people at the food counter wont ring a bell or announce that today was my birthday and make a whole huge deal out of it. The lady at the counter was young and looked really perky and happy. I started to get nervous.
"Hello," the lady said in an overly cheery voice. The name on her name tag was Heather. Eddie stopped in front of the counter and pointed to me with a big smile on his face. "Today is my girlfriend's birthday today, and we would like our free ice cream," he said. Heather gasped loudly as a huge smile began to form on her face. I felt the blood drain from my face. Oh no. Please no.
Heather grabbed from a stack of cardboard crown hats with a cartoon rendering of Freddy and the others and placed one on my head. Then she pushed a button next to her, causing the lights to go out and the colorful lights to come back on and flash everywhere. A strange blaring sound went off, making me wince and push my shoulders up to my head. I wanted to run out of the pizzeria and keep running.
Heather grabbed a microphone, just as the spotlight came on to her. "Attention everyone! Today is this young lady's birthday!" Heather said excitedly. Everyone turned their attention to me as the blinding white spot light came on to me. I winced and felt my whole body tense up and a huge wave of heat go over me. Eddie squeezed my hand and slowly leaned over to me. "Sorry," he said.
I was about to say something back to him, but Heather's voice went over mine as she asked me what my name was and how old I was turning. My voice suddenly disappeared mouth when the micropone appeared in front of my face.
Eddie spoke for me and told name and how old I was. Heather told everyone to clap and asked out loud if Freddy and the others were back up and working. Apparently they were. The stage curtains went away and the animatronics slowly came back to life.
"H-hey kids!" Freddy announced as he waved his arm in a jerky manner. Everyone screamed in excitement. Freddy stopped waving. "Welcome to F-" he stopped in mid sentence. Freddy and the other two were quiet for a minute, then Bonnie flicked his rabbit ears and strummed his guitar with his free, movable hand. He opened his mouth and finally spoke.
"H-hey, Freddy! A little b-b-b-birdie told me th-that today is s-someone's birthday!" he said. Chica tilted her round head over to Bonnie and waved. "W-w-wwas I that little b-b-irdie?" she asked, giggling. Bonnie laughed and shook his head.
"N-n-n-no, Chica." Freddy laughed his deep, booming laugh. "Who's b-b-birthday is it?" he asked. Bonnie turned to the audience. "Ren's!" The white spot light came back onto me. I felt tears coming to my eyes and my heart beating fast. Why was this happening? This felt like a nightmare. I stood there awkwardly.
Everyone cheered and clapped. Freddy lifted his fake microphone back to his mouth. "Hey everyone! L-let's all sing Happy Birthday to...R-R-Ren!" he said in his slow, paced, cheery voice. "O-o-o-one...tw-tw-two...three!" he counted. Music came out of the speakers while Bonnie pretended to play from his guitar. Everyone chimed in and sang "Happy Birthday" to me. I stayed close to Eddie and hid my face under my hood. This was so embarrassing.
After that horrific moment was over, everyone clapped and shouted happy birthday to me. Then Freddy and the others slowed to a stop and went still. The lights came back on. I jumped when something flashed in front of me.
"Here you go," Eddie said as he held a small cone of ice cream. I accepted it with shaking hands and just held it. Eddie gently pushed me to the tables. "Come on, lets go sit at the tables," he said. I nodded and slowly shuffled over to the nearest table and sat down. I continued to hide my face under my hood as I ate my ice cream.
"I'm sorry," Eddie said again. "I didn't know that was going to happen."
I didn't say anything as I slowly ate my ice cream, trying to calm myself down.
