The girl pokes me in the back.
"What's wrong? Can't you open the door? Isn't this it?"
Yeah, this is it. This is it in a lot of ways.
"…No…You're not supposed to open them from this side. They're supposed to keep stuff out."
"Why are they closed though?" The kid's close to hysterics. Got to admire that he's not already there.
"She…she must have closed the door when I saw her go down here."
"She? That…Chica thing?"
"Yeah."
"What the hell are we supposed to do now?" The kid asks. He asks a lot of good questions that I don't have the answers to. What the hell are we supposed to do? "We were fine before you came along!"
They're both crying now. Can't think of people with a better reason to. Somehow I have enough sense to know they can't do that now though. I grab them by the shoulders.
"We're…we're going to need to go around the other way…"
"The other way?" The girl asks.
Yeah. The other way. On the other side of the store, right by Chica, Freddy, Foxy, and Bonnie, in that order. I thought that those animatronics didn't know what they were doing, just searching around the restaurant aimlessly. I should have known by now that they're a lot smarter than that. Maybe they didn't know if I was going to go out after the kids, but when they did, they blocked off the exit they'd know I'd take, making me turn around and right in their sights.
"The West Hall. We just need to go back up and go along the back wall of the Dining Room, and go down the West Hall to get to the other side."
"What if they've locked that door too?" Damn, this kid's a genius. He's getting a much faster picture of how screwed we are than I would have in his position.
"They…they wouldn't have had enough time to do that yet. Bonnie hasn't gotten to the corner yet." Has he? Last I saw him, he was still in the West Hall. Blocking my brilliant escape strategy. I'll just have to get these kids to hide in the Kitchen again until we make a break for it. With Chica in the room. I'll just have to get these kids to hide in the Restrooms again until we can make a break for it. Right back where they started.
"You can't know that!" The girl says. "Why can't we just go out the front door?"
Why didn't I think of that? Oh, right.
"The entrance is locked from the outside, and Freddy will never let us get that far."
"I'm not going out there with you." The kid says. "You're crazy, you'll get us all killed."
Probably. I grab the kid by the front of his shirt.
"Look, if we stay here, we will die. We can't leave the store, and we can't stay in one place too long unless it's the office. It's the only place that the animatronics can't get into." At least for a while. "If the two of you want to live, you need to trust me on this."
The two are pretty p_ed at me, but they're more scared. At least I can work with that. I check the tablet again. I'm at 40% power and dropping fast with that door down. Pretty soon I won't be able to check the cameras at all. It's 3 PM. We still need to make it 3 hours. What we can do once we get in the office with less than 40%, I don't know, but it's our only shot. Chica's still in the Kitchen. How long has she been in there? Is she just having too much fun? I know better than that. Probably as soon as we come out the East Hall, she'll start chasing us. Bonnie, still in the West Hall. Still blocking our way out. Freddy, still on Show Stage. I'm starting to think that he just wants a good vantage point to watch us all kill ourselves. Foxy; Pirate Cove, with whatever's left of Gabe.
Got to keep it together. Can't just book it into the Dining Area. Got to wait out Bonnie somehow. Got to still keep it quiet and slow.
"Alright. We're going to go back to the Restrooms or Backstage and wait for Bonnie to move." Hopefully he won't move into wherever we're hiding. They don't raise anymore objections. I hope they haven't given up on us yet. My plan's stupid, I know, but it's the only one I've got.
Back down the hall. I kind of expect Chica or someone to break in while we're making our way out, but no one comes. What are they planning? I know they've got something. They're letting us through, I just know it. I open the door into the Dining Area. No noise. I hope that these two can keep it together. I'm not sure if I'll be able to for them. I go in, followed by the girl and her brother. We're prone, keeping our head below the tables.
I hear pots and pans banging together in the Kitchen. I move further away from the wall opposite from the Show Stage in case Chica sees us.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
I look up at the stage, towards Freddy's laugh. He's looking at us. He's been able to see us this whole time.
The Kitchen door slams open. We look back, and Chica's staring at us, cock-eyed. The girl whimpers a bit, or maybe that's me.
F_ stealth. They see us. I'm just going to run down the West Hall, and maybe we can duck under Bonnie…
Bonnie's in the West Hall entrance. His eyes are black.
They all see us.
We move into the center of the Dining Area. I look from animatronic to animatronic. Each time I look at them, they come closer, phasing or blinking through the rows of tables covered with party hats. Freddy's finally off the stage now. I never actually see them move. It's only when I take my eyes off one animatronic that they move closer. That gives me an idea.
"Stop! Don't look away from them, no matter what!"
When I have the kids stop, we're standing back-to-back in a triangle in the very center of the Dining Area. I'm facing Freddy, the kid's facing Bonnie, and the girl's facing Chica.
"Don't blink. Don't take your eyes off of them. They only move when you're not looking."
The two kids hold as still has statues at first. Freddy's grinning at me. The kids hold out as long as they can, but they start shaking again, pushing their backs against me. They're pushing too much and I try to hold my ground. My foot touches something. I steal a look down and see a can of hairspray. It probably fell out of that other girl's purse when Freddy killed her. Got to look up. Freddy's gotten closer. I try not to blink. I hope the kids aren't either. Those animatronics can make a blink last a long time.
I think I finally get it now, why they've been holding out where they were instead of hunting us down. They want this to be a big party. Three endoskeletons, one for each animatronic to play with. Freddy laughs again, without blinking or moving his mouth. The kids stir next to me.
"Don't look at him!" I say with my teeth gritted. "Don't look away from them!"
I don't want to die like this. Just watching these things get closer and closer until they're screaming in my face. I need to do something. The magnets are in my pockets. I don't know if they'll actually hurt these things, but at least they're something. I put my hand into my pocket, keeping my eye on Freddy. There are two magnets in my right pocket, next to my lighter. Maybe if I rush Freddy, I can put them on his face or something like that. But the kids will still have to deal with Bonnie and Chica. That won't work.
My life really is flashing before my eyes, but all I can remember is my job here. I remember my first night, not sure if the message that Phone Guy left me was a joke. Second night, thinking I could just keep the camera on the Show Stage all night until Phone Guy told me that there was a fourth animatronic. Fourth night, realizing that I'm all alone. Fifth night, the animatronics speaking to me for the first time. Weeks spent buckling under, hanging on to the hope of getting justice for Phone Guy and the others for the boss's indifference. Is this my life? Just fighting for life in this hell? It can't be! There's got to be more! I don't want to die here! My mind is racing. My thoughts keep going back to the hairspray. Why? Phone Guy's message seems to be mocking me.
"They'll most likely see you as a metal endoskeleton without its costume on. Now since that's against the rules here at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, they'll probably try to…forcefully stuff you inside a Freddy Fazbear suit."
"Against the rules."
The hairspray.
Whatever these things are, animatronics, or robots possessed by demons, they follow rules. If they see an endoskeleton without its costume, they have to put it back in a suit.
I try to keep my voice as quiet as possible. I don't want the animatronics to hear what I'm planning.
"Guys…listen. I'm going to try something. When I do, I want you to run to Freddy's right and left. Get away from here. Got it?"
The kids stop shaking.
I'll need to distract Bonnie and Chica somehow. Chica came out of the Kitchen before Bonnie got into the Dining Area, so she's probably gotten closer by now. Eyes still on Freddy, I reach behind me and unzip the backpack. I've got my hand on the flour.
"Go!"
The girl and his brother shoot past me as I spin to my right. Chica's right there, screaming as I smack the bag of flour in her face and spin around again. Her jaws bite down right where my head was. Bonnie runs into her the next second, blinded by the flour. I reach down and grab the hairspray with my right hand, my lighter in the left. Freddy's almost within grabbing distance when I flick the lighter on in front of the hairspray, spraying out its accelerants.
Freddy's engulfed by flames. For a brief second, I feel bliss, finally getting back at that bastard. Then Freddy screams at me. I realize that I've got a giant p_ed off flaming teddy in front of me.
No matter how mad he is, getting set on fire at least distracts him long enough for me to jump over one of the tables. I flip it over, trying to buy time before I'm grabbed by Freddy and burned alive.
The animatronics aren't just staying still anymore. This might be the first time I've ever seen them actually moving. For robots that are always so clunky on stage, they are moving so fluidly now, like their bodies are organic instead of mechanical. Chica kicks the table at me, which knocks me over the next table. Freddy picks up the first table and throws it away. I run and climb onto the stage, hoping that I can buy some time while they're trying to climb up it.
What the hell am I looking at? I've learned that there are two kinds of fear. Up until now, I've been experiencing one; watching and waiting while predators get closer and closer to their prey. Now, I see the other, watching monsters that are tearing apart anything in their way to get to me and tear me apart, and in front of them is Freddy, his suit on fire and his eyes glaring up at me. They jump on stage, faster than I did. I back into the wall.
The smoke from Freddy's suit finally activates the sprinklers. The animatronics stop when the water hits them. Freddy's fur is finally put out, but I've done what I wanted to do. The water from the sprinklers has put out the fire, but it's also peeling away at the damaged remains of his suit. I think the sudden cold that followed the extreme heat has done more damage to the suit then the burning does. Freddy's features begin to rot and fall away. He looks at his hand, and the fur falls off. Soon, his entire face falls away. I see now what's underneath. It almost looks like a human skeleton, but blockier. It still has eyelids though, and that's how I know how angry Freddy is now. Whatever high I felt I had gets blasted away as the endoskeleton grabs me around the throat and starts to squeeze.
But then Freddy's arms are pulled back, by Bonnie and Chica. Freddy writhes and screams at me for a few seconds until he sees that he's being pulled back. He looks to his right and left and sees Chica and Bonnie holding him. I notice white swelling appearing all over them; dough made from the flour they're covered in and the water from the sprinklers. They scream.
They're like wild animals, clawing and screeching at each other. Bonnie and Chica are dragging Freddy away, to Backstage.
I can't believe it. I finally got him. I've killed Freddy, using his own friends.
Somehow I still have the sense to realize that as soon as Bonnie and Chica re-stuff Freddy into a suit, they're going to come after me and the kids again. While the animatronics are distracted, I dive off the stage and hide behind one of the tables. I try to look around for the kids. I don't see them, and they're not coming to me.
"Guys? C'mon, we've got a chance now!"
No one answers. Bonnie and Chica have gotten Freddy to the door to Backstage. He's clawing at the doorway, trying to hold on. I don't have much time. I do what comes by instinct by now and turn on the tablet. It turns automatically to the Show Stage. I flip to the Dining Area, hoping to get a better angle. I only see myself, and I look up at the camera. I flip through the Restrooms and Kitchen. Nothing. I go to the Backstage camera, partly just to watch Chica and Bonnie prying Freddy from the door. Oh God.
I see them, hiding behind one of the tables. They're right in the same room as the animatronics. I didn't think to tell them to not go to the Backstage. F_ing stupid!