"I can't believe I used to like this place when I was a kid." Pat said.
The animatronics made Kaylee uneasy. They had always looked so cheerful when she was 9. Now though, they were just staring off into space like one of those creepy paintings whose eyes followed you wherever you went.
"C'mon man, where's your sense of fun? This place makes me feel all nostalgic." Gabe answered.
"Clunky songs and pasty pizza makes you feel nostalgic." Carla said.
Kaylee's brother Lee seemed less bothered. He was looking around the restaurant excited, whether it was from the thrill of breaking into a store at night with the upperclassmen or from being somewhere where he had spent so many happy days as a kid.
"Kid, keep your head down, we don't want to get caught." Pat said to him at the front of the line that the five of them made, crouching through the dining room tables.
"Yeah, yeah." Lee answered, Kaylee knowing that he wished people would stop calling him a kid now that he was 14.
Kaylee tried to ask the obvious question.
"What exactly are we trying to do here anyway?"
Gabe looked over his shoulder back at Kaylee.
"We're just having some fun, you don't need to worry."
"You didn't have to come with us." Pat said.
But Kaylee did have to come. Gabe was here. Whether it was just to spend time with her boyfriend, or to make sure that he didn't get into more trouble with Pat and his girlfriend, Kaylee had agreed to come along when Gabe offered. Lee, threatening to tell on them to their parents if they came without him, had come along with them.
Carla whispered to the group.
"Wait, I think I see the camera."
"Oh s_, do you think it's got us?" Pat said.
Of course it had us, Kaylee thought to herself. The night guard had probably seen them a long time before now. What would her parents say to her when they were caught? How mad were they going to get at her for bringing Lee along? They were in so much trouble.
"Hang on; I think we can get around it." Gabe led the group in an indirect path around the tables, which got them to the stage, in front of the animatronics.
"Alright, I think we're good."
Had Pat known that Gabe couldn't see the camera to Bonnie's right he might have hit him in the arm harder than he did then.
"Nice one, man."
Thinking that they were out of view of any more cameras, Carla got up on stage to look closer at the animatronics.
"Hey, this one's Chica, right? I kept on thinking she was a duck when I was a kid."
"Yeah." Gabe said, looking up at Bonnie. "I used to always think that Bonnie was Bugs Bunny."
...
"What do you think you're doing!?" I scream into my tablet. "Don't say that in front of them!"
...
Pat pulled himself on stage next to Carla on stage, smiling at Freddy's face. He looked back at Kaylee.
"You having fun yet?"
"They're animatronics. Did you expect them to sing and dance for you?"
Pat shrugged. "Maybe."
Lee tapped Kaylee on the back.
"Lighten up, sis."
Gabe had gotten up on stage too, looking around it.
"Shouldn't there be an on/off switch somewhere?"
"I don't see anything." Pat answered, looking up and down the stage.
Carla walked in front of Freddy, looking out into the Dining Area from his perspective. She smiled, probably imagining herself on stage. Her grin turned into a smirk.
"You guys heard about the kids that were killed here?"
Gabe rolled his eyes at Carla and waved his hand in dismissal. "Oh, pfft."
"Everyone knows that story, Carla." Kaylee said. "Some guy dressed up in a Freddy Fazbear suit and lured some kids into a back room."
"They caught the guy…" Carla went on, grinning maniacally. "But they ne…"
Lee interrupted her. "Never found the kids, yeah, we know. And they say that people started noticing bad smells coming from the animatronics, and that they noticed blood and mucus leaking from their faces." He recited automatically.
"And they say that sometimes, if you go into a bathroom with the lights out, look in a mirror, and say 'Golden Freddy' three times, he'll appear and stuff you inside a spare suit."
Everyone stared at Carla in disbelief.
"You just made that up." Pat said in finality.
Carla sighed in disappointment and looked at Freddy with her hands on her hips. Lee got up on stage, grinning back at Kaylee, as if saying "Beat you." Pat walked up in front of Bonnie, strumming his guitar. Carla leaned in, looking inside Freddy's mouth, nose wrinkling.
"Guys, this thing really does smell."
"Yeah. Sure." Gabe said dismissively.
Carla's prank was so predictable. Kaylee didn't bother paying attention to her, instead looking at Freddy's face.
Which meant she was the only one to see him blink.
"Guys, I'm telling you that I smell…"
Carla's insistence was cut off when Freddy's jaw slammed down on her face, removing more than her frontal lobe.
The other four stood transfixed at Carla, whose body twitched slightly, and then fell off the stage. Kaylee was about to scream when someone beat her to it.
Bonnie dropped his guitar and grabbed Pat around the neck, screaming in his face. Pat screamed the second later, followed by everyone else.
Fueled by sisterly instinct, Kaylee grabbed Lee by the back of his belt and pulled him off stage, just before Chica could grab him, screaming an ear-splitting screech.
Pat cried and screamed for his life, trying to fight off Bonnie's grip. Freddy grabbed Pat's legs, and he and Bonnie picked up Pat. Gabe, Kaylee, and Lee all ran for their lives, Chica in pursuit.