Tom's driving. I'm in the front with him, Lee and Kaylee behind us. Every now and then Tom and the kids exchange looks, uncertain of each other. At least they all trust me. I look at my watch. 10 PM.
"I think we should put them on now."
No one is happy as I pull the box out and open it. Freddy's face stares up at me. I've decided to bite the bullet and take Freddy's mask. Makes sense anyway, me being sort of the leader here. I pass the Bonnie and Chica masks back to Lee and Kaylee, respectively. Foxy's mask is one of two left in the box. I don't want Tom to put it on until we make it to the restaurant, don't want him to get into an accident. Lee and Kaylee are both staring at their masks awkwardly. I don't feel too comfortable about this myself, but Fazzy can't recognize us at the party, and everyone is going to be wearing these masks.
Guess I can't expect anyone else to be willing to put their masks on if I'm not. I take one more look at Freddy's face until I flip it over and put it on. I don't look at the kids. I don't think that they'll want Freddy to be looking at them. I hear Lee taking a breath behind me, like he's about to jump into the pool. I can see Bonnie's ears sticking up in the rear view mirror. Kaylee puts Chica's mask on next. I glance over at Tom, but he's looking determinately away. He probably doesn't want to think that he's in the car with three animatronics at once. I look in the back seats. For a second, I think about jumping out of the moving car, seeing Bonnie and Chica staring wide-eyed back at me. I look away. Don't want to scare the kids. One thing I make sure I don't do is look directly at myself in the mirror. I don't think that I'd be able to take seeing my eyes sticking out of Freddy's face.
"We're here." Tom says.
We pull into the parking lot. Inside the store, there are multicolor lights blaring out in poor rhythm with whatever Freddy and the band are playing. There's commotion coming from inside the store from the racket all the spoiled kids are making. If you want to get into the opening night, you either had to get a special invitation, like Tom got or the ones he scrounged up for us along with our fake name tags (I went with Peter Ganes), or have parents rich enough to get you a VIP ticket. I can't imagine how bored those parents are in there. I wonder if any just left their kids behind to avoid listening to those cheesy animatronics.
We get out of the car. I offer Tom the box. He looks at it apprehensively.
"You need to put it on now, Tom."
"Do…do I have to?"
Yes. We need the full band together. I think I had a good reason earlier, but that's the only reason I can think of right now.
"It'll be over soon."
Tom's hands are shaking as he pulls out Foxy's mask. He puts it on. We're all together. I put the box in my backpack with the bottle that I got from the chemical supplier and the rag.
We head into the store, Tom first. We need to make it looks like we're some friends Tom's invited. Fazzy meets us at the door, clapping Tom on the shoulder.
"You're late, sport! Thought you weren't coming!"
Tom tries to stutter out something, but Fazzy's not really paying attention. He turns to us and smiles.
"These your friends, sport? Glad you all could come. Come and have some pizza, on the house!"
He says nothing else and walks away. I'm certain forgetting about us the second he moves on. We don't say anything else to each other. We just go into the Dining Area.
What I see nearly breaks whatever sanity I have left.
Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, everywhere. Climbing over tables, screaming, eating pizza. They have the same shrieks…
No. They're kids, just kids having fun with those creepy masks. I look to my right, though, and I see the genuine articles. Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie all on stage, perfectly restored, singing out kid-friendly versions of "Can't Touch This." My three friends tense up next to me when they see them. Lee takes a step back.
"I can't do this…I just can't do this."
I grab his arm. There's no going back now.
"Just get to a table, and don't look at them. They're not dangerous now."
I'm not certain I believe myself, but I have to.
We manage to get to a table in the back East corner, away from where all the kids are crowding. Some of the parents that have taken shelter from the food fights look at us. I smile through the mask and wave. They look away. Don't worry about us; we're just Freddy and his pals. Ignore the fact that I've got a rag and a bottle of chloroform in my backpack. I can't believe it was so easy to bring this thing in. The fact that I was able to do it just shows how little Fazzy actually cares about the well-meaning of these kid's lives. Those kids that Golden Freddy got, were they the only ones? They were the only ones that I've heard about, and that probably means Fazzy covered up ten others.
We're attracting too much attention to ourselves. I go and get a pizza to blend in more. No one wants to eat it.
"C'mon, guys. We got to do this."
I lift my mask up just enough so that my mouth isn't covered and take a bite of cardboard. For some reason, it's not as bad as I remember.
"Guys, eat the pizza."
The others follow suit, grimacing as they force the pizza into their mouths. They have to really struggle to eat, sometimes just holding the pizza in front of their mouths, not wanting to take the bite. It's just as well. The fact that our taste buds have developed beyond the level of kids at least lets any other parents know that we're just normal people. We look like a bunch of teenagers that came here because we didn't know what else to do with ourselves.
An hour passes by before parents get fed up and drag their screaming kids out. Fazzy's last to leave besides us. He comes up to the table.
"Hey kid, your friends are going to have to leave soon."
Tom/Foxy nods. I get up.
"Say, thanks for the party. It was nice. Hey though, we accidentally got an extra mask, do you want it?"
I don't give Fazzy a chance to reply. I take the last mask out, the Golden Freddy mask. I hold it over his face, with the chloroform-soaked rag inside. He struggles a bit, but is conscious enough for us to fake him being able to walk down the hall. Part of me asks why, but of course, I don't want to animatronics to know what's going on.