Stay Calm-Night 3
Before his third night's shift at Fazbear's Fright, Riley decided to do a little digging into the history of the pizzeria chain. He knew that there had been a few... problems in the franchise's long history, but he never expected anything as gruesome as the things he came across. While looking through old newspapers dated "1987," he came across a few articles that described an incident in which one of the animatronics "malfunctioned" and bit someone on the head, actually severing their frontal lobe. From what he could tell, the person survived, but that incident got that particular establishment closed down.
However, while this was definitely an unfortunate circumstance, the chain of events that Riley came across next sent a piercing shiver straight through his heart. At the very first pizzeria, the one that the tapes detailing how to use the animatronic suit had come from, a child had gone missing. It was presumed that the child had been murdered, but nothing had ever been proven. A few years later, at a new location, five more children went missing. The police pieced the two events together and assumed that all six children disappeared at the hands of the same person; one of the security guards was even arrested and charged for the crime.
But, due to lack of evidence and a convincing testimony, the police concluded that they had arrested the wrong man and set the guard free. No one ever found out who the killer was (and the term "killer" was used a lot, for everyone assumed that those children were definitely deceased), and he was supposedly still at large.
As soon as he finished his research trip to the library and downed a cup of coffee, Riley gave his friends a call.
"So, were you ever going to tell me that six kids were murdered at the freakin' pizzeria?!" Riley exclaimed as soon as the line was picked up on the other end. His friend laughed nervously.
"Dude, I thought you knew!" he said. "That's the draw of the place; the fact that the killer was never caught, and people say that the souls of those dead children used to roam the halls of the pizzeria late at night... It's a horror attraction, after all!"
"...Seriously, man?" Riley sighed exasperatedly. "You know that stuff creeps me the hell out..."
"Yeah, but it's not like any of that is true; I mean, come on-dead ghost kids? Get real, Riley."
"Yeah, well, even if the kids themselves aren't roaming around, that damn rabbit thing was!" Riley shivered as he remembered the animatronic's grotesque face. "Why was it on?! You know I'm the only person in that place!"
There was a pause on the other end of the line. Riley was beginning to wonder if the phone call had been cut off, when his friend said:
"Riley...we didn't turn it on."
Riley frowned.
"But...it was wandering around. I heard its footsteps all around the attraction, and it actually came to my room and stared at me for a good few minutes...That golden rabbit was what you wanted me to see last night, right? The thing you said you picked up yesterday?"
"It was, but I'm telling you the truth, man; we did not turn that thing on." Riley's friend sounded mildly concerned, and Riley himself could feel his heart rate beginning to speed up. This was all getting too weird.
"Could it have, I don't know, maybe turned on by itself?" Riley asked.
"I suppose...," his friend replied. "I mean, we did have to transport it; some of the wiring could've gotten knocked around in the back of the truck and re-booted the animatronic's systems or something."
"Oh, speaking of re-booting the systems-"
"Oh, hey, I gotta go, man," Riley's friend cut him off. "I'll play another one of those tapes tonight. If you see that rabbit walking around, would you mind taking a look at it and trying to turn it off? I don't want it to run out of juice before the attraction is open to the public!"
"Wait, I wanted to-"
"Thanks, man! Bye!" There was a click, and Riley was left with nothing but silence and growing sense of frustration. Why was it his job to make sure everything, including the creepy animatronic, were working properly? He was only the security guard after all... and he wasn't even a real one at that.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Riley realized that he would only have to sit through this for three more nights (four, if he included this one), and then he could politely decline the offer of continuing to be the security guard when the attraction actually opened.
Stopping at the nearby sandwich shop in the way, Riley headed off to his third night at Fazbear's Fright.
When he eventually made his way to the security office, Riley noticed that the rabbit thing had moved. This didn't concern him, however, because he assumed that his friends must have stopped by and moved the animatronic back to wherever it had come from.
Hopefully, it would stay off that night.
Setting aside his sandwich for later on during his shift, Riley glanced at the SYSTEMS log. As of that moment, everything seemed fully functional; he wondered how long it would take for things to start failing again. He also wondered if the rabbit animatronic would pay him another visit... If that thing stayed out of his way, Riley saw no point in making an effort to go find it and turn it off.
Now that he knew what had been making that creepy thumping noise, Riley actually felt a little better about not being completely alone in this place. To add to the feeling of having more people in the attraction, Riley's friends had promised to play one of the old audio tapes detailing how to work the ancient animatronic suits. Sure enough, a few minutes after twelve the phone began to ring.
"Uh, hello, hello? Uh, for today's lesson we will be continuing our training on proper suit-handling techniques," the voice on the speaker said. Riley rolled his eyes; great, just what he needed to learn- how to operate a suit that was already moving on its own. He settled back in his chair and listened.
"When using the animatronic as a suit, please ensure that the animatronic parts are tightly compressed and fastened by the spring locks located around the inside of the suit. It may take a few moments to position your head and torso between these in a manner where you can move and speak. Try not to nudge or push against any of the spring locks inside the suit!
"Do not touch the spring locks at anytime. Do not breathe on the spring locks, as moisture might loosen them and cause them to break loose. In the case that the spring locks move while you are wearing the suit, please try to maneuver away from populated areas before bleeding out, as to not ruin the customer experience."
"...What the hell is this?" Riley said, staring at the phone with a mixture of confusion and horror on his face. "Who in their right mind would design a suit that could kill you if you breathed on it?!"
"As always, if there is ever an emergency, please go to the designated safe room," the phone guy continued, despite Riley's comments. "Every location is built with one extra room that is not included in the digital map layouts programmed into the animatronics or security systems. This room is secret to customers, is invisible to animatronics, and is always off camera.
"As always, remember to smile; you are the face of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza!"
The message clicked off, and Riley was still staring at the phone, slightly open-mouthed. He heard a beeping noise and glanced at the tablet- all the cameras were now online.
"'Please try to move away from more populated areas before bleeding out,'" Riley quoted as he checked the ventilation systems. "They definitely had some messed-up priorities at this place...no wonder it got shut down, like, three times."
Leaning back in his chair and placing his feet on the desk, Riley set the tablet in his lap and got to work checking the cameras. After about half an hour, as expected, the systems started to fail. Rolling his eyes, Riley re-booted the AUDIO, and then played that creepy laugh in the farthest room away from him.
According to the phone call from the night before, the animatronics responded to sound; this must be why had had been equipped with that old audio from one of the previous mascots. If the rabbit was getting too close for comfort, he could simply play the laughter in the other room to fool it into thinking that that was where the children were, and it would leave him alone.
It wasn't until three am that things began to get very strange once again. Riley had come to expect the demented child-like thing to occasionally pop up every now and again when the ventilation began to fail, so it came as no surprise when he saw the withered face staring back at him from his tablet screen. Shutting his eyes, he quickly placed the tablet back on the desk and, ignoring the inhuman screeching from the child hallucination, felt around for the control panel. Grasping it firmly, Riley opened his eyes and pressed REBOOT ALL.
Sighing with both relief and annoyance, Riley shifted his gaze towards the window and let out an involuntary yelp.
On the other side of the window was what appeared to be a large bear, wearing a small top hat and holding a microphone. It was walking slowly, with very jerking movements, and did not appear to notice Riley's presence- something that the false security guard was extremely grateful for. Holding his breath, fearing that any sound might attract this bear's attention just like it would the rabbit's, Riley gripped the arms of his chair and waited for the animatronic to leave.
When it got to the center of the window, the bear suddenly ducked down and out of sight. Riley frowned and slowly released his breath.
"Is it over...?" he questioned to no one in particular. Then, suddenly, the bear appeared directly in front of him and launched itself at Riley's face, screeching in the same way that the child-thing did. Riley screamed and instinctively covered his face. However, also just like the child-thing, the bear disappeared instantly without causing any damage to Riley or his surroundings.
"W-what?!" Riley said, cautiously lowering his arms. Glancing at the systems, he noticed that, surprise, the ventilation was once again failing. Pressing the REBOOT button a little harder than was necessary, Riley let out an annoyed growl and mumbled: "Eff you, Freddy."
A little over two hours later, it was just past five-thirty am and Riley was about ready to give it up for the night. He had tried his best to remain calm and not let the hallucinations get to him, but soon after Freddy Fazbear appeared, his lovely friends Chica and Foxy also paid Riley a visit. For the past few hours, the four hallucinations had been alternating who showed up when the ventilation began to fail.
This constant source of stress was taking a serious toll on the false security guard. Because he was afraid that he would be scared and choke the moment he tried to take a bite of his sandwich, Riley was starving and running very low on energy. This was the main fact that he attributed to the arrival of the rabbit-animatronic.
When Riley placed the tablet down to check on the systems, he realized a few seconds too late that he had forgotten to play audio in a far-away room of the attraction. He quickly pressed the button that allowed the child's laughter to echo throughout the building, but it was too late; within a few seconds, he heard an ominous thumping noise. Trying to control the involuntary shivers that had begun to wrack his body, Riley turned towards the doorway as the rabbit animatronic peered around the corner.
"...H-hello?" Riley said in a rather questioning tone. Though he knew it was merely a robot (well, half-robot according to the audio tapes), this thing still gave him the creeps. Its eyes glinted in an unnerving manner, and its smile set Riley's nerves on edge.
The last thing he expected the rabbit animatronic to do was to respond to his greeting, which is why Riley nearly fell out of his chair when the half-missing teeth parted and from the mouth came a soft:
"Hello."
Riley gulped. The voice sounded distinctly not-robotic...
"Uh, can you...can you actually understand me?" Riley asked. Obviously, the animatronics had to be programmed to respond to the customers in some way, but there had to be a limit to their pre-programmed responses. Maybe this thing would sound more robotic if it talked some more- after all, it had been locked away for years and years. Something had probably happened to its voice box.
"That's a silly question, young one," the animatronic responded. Riley's eyes widened; this thing actually appeared to understand him. This was more unsettling than the fact that it was walking around on its own.
"I-I'm not that young." Riley said this quietly, but the rabbit's large ears picked up on it.
"To me, you are." It straightened up so that the entire suit was illuminated in the doorframe by the lights in the hallway behind it. The rabbit tilted its head slightly. "May I come in? I do adore being around people..."
Riley vehemently shook his head, quickly glancing at the clock. It was five-forty-five; he had to last another fifteen minutes with this thing.
Suddenly, the animatronic twitched violently, and Riley saw a few sparks come out of the exposed wires. After a few tense seconds in which Riley's hand hovered over the phone, ready to call 911 at a moment's notice, the animatronic stopped twitching and focused its gaze on the false security guard.
"Forgive me," it said. Riley noticed with slight confusion that the animatronic's tone was very...soothing wasn't quite the right word, but it was close enough. Riley gripped the flashlight tucked into his belt; he had a sneaking suspicion that if he let his guard down, the rabbit could somehow convince him to do something he didn't want to do...like let it into the room.
"My systems are a bit...rusty. I've been locked in that room for so long-"
"What's your name?" Riley cut the rabbit off; he wasn't in the mood for a recount of the past few decades. The rabbit flexed a hand and then brought it up to touch his chest, with surprisingly fluid movements. Riley thought that being locked away for years and years would have made the animatronic jerky and hard to move about, if anything.
"You may call me 'Springtrap,'" it said. Riley raised one eyebrow.
"What kind of name is that for a kids' character?" he questioned.
"I created it myself."
Riley shook his head slightly; there was no way this animatronic could be thinking for itself. When it was made, the idea of artificial intelligence was no more than a sci-fi dream. Even in the present day, there had yet to be an AI invented that could respond in the manner that Springtrap was responding (at least to Riley's knowledge). It unnerved him how much the rabbit seemed to be thinking on its own.
"...And why did you pick that name?" Riley questioned. He figured that he might as well keep the thing talking. The one complete ear atop the rabbit's head tilted downwards.
"Let's see if you can figure that out," Springtrap responded. Riley finally stood up and walked around to the front of the desk; he still had an ample amount of space between him and the animatronic, but that didn't change the fact that Springtrap was blocking his only escape route. He looked at the clock.
Five-fifty-five.
"So, um...what's your specialty?" Riley asked; if he kept the animatronic talking, he just might be able to make it to six am without it coming into the room. Springtrap tilted its head slightly, as if he did not understand the question. Riley tried to explain. "You know...Like, Freddy is the singer, Chica is...well, the back-up singer, and Bonnie plays the guitar. I'm not really sure what Foxy does, but...uh...what do you do?"
Springtrap let out a barking noise that Riley assumed was meant to be a laugh; it made the false security guard wince.
"I don't have a particular talent," the rabbit animatronic responded. He slowly glanced down at his feet and then locked gazes with Riley, sending a shiver up the boy's spine. "This suit has always been too...problematic to do anything special with."
"Oh." Riley frowned; something about that sentence didn't seem right. He took a step closer to the animatronic and then froze, realizing that it was probably not a good idea to go any closer until he could scope the thing out. Still, he couldn't let that careless comment slide.
"Did you just talk about the suit?" he asked. Though Springtrap was both an animatronic and a costume, the "costume" aspect was certainly not in use at the current time; this meant that whatever the rabbit was doing was based solely on its animatronic programming.
So why would it refer to itself as a "suit" instead of an "animatronic?"
Springtrap was silent for a few seconds, and then started making that disturbing, barking laughing noise. Riley quickly backed up so that he was directly in the center of the room and far away from the animatronic. As the laughing grew louder, the rabbit began to shake; the movement began in the shoulders, much as a human would move if they were laughing very hard. The shaking then spread throughout the rabbit's body until each limb appeared to be twitching with a series of jerky movements.
Just when Riley was debating whether he should test his luck and try to push the animatronic out of the way and run, it suddenly froze and dropped to the floor. A half-second later, a familiar chime rang throughout the attraction, signaling that it was now 6am.
"Thank Freddy freakin' Fazbear," Riley muttered, exhaling the large breath he had been holding and gripping the fabric of his shirt over his heart. Not taking his eyes off the rabbit laying on the floor, he grabbed his things and cautiously stepped over the unmoving animatronic. When he was safely over the threshold of the doorway and out into the hall (with a clear escape route), he gave the rabbit a light kick and then jumped back, holding his flashlight out in front of him threateningly.
However, Springtrap was completely still.
Shaking his head in confusion and sheer disbelief at the situation he had gotten himself into, Riley spared the animatronic one last glance as he left the building.
Just as he was rounding a corner that would put Springtrap out of sight, he could swear that he heard the robotic noise of the rabbit's eyes turning to follow him.
A/N: Chapter 3 is in-progress and should be up soon! Please let me know what you think of this fanfic so far! :)