After the restaurant finished another working day, Scott had to sit down with the four animatronics to discuss Goldie's circumstance. A table was taken from the rows in the dining hall and arranged in what could have been mistaken as a 'board meeting' set-up.
Scott was faced opposite to Freddy, who had Bonnie on his left and Chica on his right. Foxy was stood patiently near the hyper-ventilating employee, in order to protect him incase the two latter animatronics let their fury get the better of them.
Silence made its presence known, Scott couldn't bring himself to form any words as all four animatronics set their eyes on him. It felt like they were staring directly into his soul, like this would be the 'ultimate' judgement that decides whether he will be able to leave tonight living and breathing...
Or in a body bag.
It was incredibly ironic how he believed that his fate, the fate of his organic, living, breathing life. Would be decided by four, non-organic, mechanical creatures, who couldn't breath, who couldn't truly live.
"Well..." Freddy broke the silence, a dark, cold tone accompanying his words.
"Scott, we have all night, take as much time as you need"
Scott took a deep inhale of breath before responding, his hands were shaking. Despite Foxy remaining within arms reach to help him feel safe, it wasn't helping too much as Foxy was the scariest looking of the four.
"I... I didn't know that was what happened... To him" He stuttered uncomfortably.
His short statement allowed him to receive an emotionless stare from Bonnie, the purple animatronic's rage ever present. Chica kept her head firmly burrowed into her giant hands, her emotions ran rampant since discovering Goldie in the back-room earlier that day.
"The boss said that he'd... He'd fit him with the new, uh, additions that you guys got. B-but then told me that he was... Was gone" He quickly finished his explanation, Scott had never been in such a predicament, nor did he want to be. He was certain that he wouldn't go home alive, but he had to be brave.
Freddy looked over to both Bonnie and Chica, exchanging glares with the emotionally twisted animatronics. It almost looked as if they were communicating through just, looking. He then exchanged glances with Foxy, their golden and crystal blue eyes shining like beacons through the dark party room, before bringing his attention back to Scott.
"It seems that this 'incident' wasn't your doing. Therefore, we're not going to hold you accountable"
The head of security breathed a heavy sigh of relief. However, once he was about to make his leave, he was abruptly halted by a large metal hook being pressed against his face.
It was Foxy.
"Listen 'ere bildgerat" Foxy's voice almost sounded demonic, somewhat menacing.
"We be a family, us four. An' tha' Golden Fredbear in der' be family too, if ye' or ye' boss cross us like ye' did the bear..." He grabbed Scott's chair and forced the employee to face the animatronic fox dead in the eye.
Something was wrong, Foxy's eyes weren't their usual golden colour. They were... Like Goldie's eyes. Black, devilish looking, with his endoskeleton's white pinpricks shining through his eye sockets.
"Ye' be walkin' the plank..." The demonic voice threatened viciously.
Panic began to take over Scott, he looked back to the other three animatronics. They were all the same.
Just black, evil eyes staring back at him with the white pinpricks glowing through their soulless eye sockets. At that moment, a new sound entered the room, and it terrified Scott to no end. The hairs on the back of neck began to stand.
A small child's sweet giggle echoed through the building.
However, in the dark, it was the most terrifying thing he could have heard.
A thunderous sound crashed through the room, Scott snapped his head to the source, to find the door to the back-room had been completely ripped out of its hinges. What came next could only have been the stuff of nightmares.
Goldie came lumbering through the doorway, his eyes soulless, without purpose. The golden 'zombie' locked onto Scott and released a deep, mechanical screech before making a b-line towards the head of security.
He tried to get up and run, but he felt the force of Foxy hold him down. He tried to scream but nothing would exit his mouth, as if all of his air had been sucked away from him, Scott heard the child's giggle repeat over and over, louder and louder as Goldie made his approach. He tried to locate the source of the giggling...
It was coming from the four animatronics, they stood around him, giggling menacingly. The mechanical screech bellowed through one more as Goldie lunged towards Scott, he finally managed to scream before his vision cut to black, pure emptiness.
Scott jolted up from his desk, he looked around in a blind panic before quickly examining to see if he was still in one piece. He closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.
It was all just a nightmare.
He checked the clock. 11:00pm. He realised that his new night guard would be starting tonight, it was about time they managed to find someone to look after the place. It wouldn't take long before someone would try and rob the diner, potentially damaging the four expensive characters.
A loud thump disturbed his thoughts, his office door slowly opened to reveal Bonnie on the other side. The animatronic rabbit seemed less furious than earlier, but Scott could only remember the horrific nightmare he just had, bracing himself for the worst.
"Scott... I'm, I'm sorry. Okay?" Bonnie apologetically choked.
"It wasn't your fault what happened to Fred.. Erm... Goldie. Me and Chica... We're sorry"
Bonnie's ear drooped as he turned to make his out of the door.
"Wait!" Soctt cried.
The purple animatronic looked back to Scott, who hadn't mentioned the new night guard to the animatronics yet.
"There's a new night guard starting tonight, he's working from twevle until six. Let the others know, and try not to make his shift difficult" He sarcastically remarked the last part.
Bonnie gave a solenm nod before finally making his leave out of the office, leaving Scott to process fiction from reality. His nightmare couldn't truly happen, he was certain that Goldie wouldn't actually be able to move, let alone activate in his condition. He chose not to press on the matter any longer and head home before he out-stayed his welcome.
The animatronics watched on stage as Scott quickly made his exit from the diner, Foxy stayed within his boundaries at Pirate's Cove, he never usually came out of Pirate's Cove at night. He prefered his solitude.
"Guys" Bonnie addressed Freddy and Chica.
"We've finally got a night guard, he's starting tonight" Bonnie whispered.
Freddy and Chica gave an understanding nod, before the animatronic bear peered over to Pirate's Cove. He checked the clock, 11:15pm, there was more than enough time for him to talk to Foxy. He slowly clambered off stage and made his way towards Foxy's domain, leaving Bonnie and Chica on stage.
"Hey, Bon?" Chica whispered, she didn't want to attract Freddy's or Foxy's attention.
Bonnie looked over to make eye-contact with Chica, their similarly coloured eyes shining through the dark towards one another.
"What is it, Cheeks?" Bonnie remarked.
The two animatronics always enjoyed teasing one another with nicknames. Although Chica did almost take Bonnie's head off with a steaming hot pizza when the purple rabbit accidentally referred to her as a duck. Let it be remembered, she's a chicken.
They were enjoying life together, but there was always something holding them back, they didn't feel right after Goldie 'left'. But now that they knew the truth, they needed each other more than ever.
"It's just... I still can't believe what happened to Freddy... Well, Goldie..." She choked.
She looked down to her little cupcake, viewing the little goggle eyes. She quietly chuckled as she remembered the memories of Goldie, Bonnie and her together, her mind began to drift towards the picture taken of the three animatronics with young Sophie. Such fond memories, but that's all they are now.
Memories.
Bonnie walked over to the emotional animatronic, placing his hand gently on her shoulder.
"It's okay, I know how you feel... Don't worry, we'll get him back, somehow" He reassured her.
Before he could say anything else, Chica pulled Bonnie into a tight embrace, finally releasing all of her angst and crying into Bonnie's fur. The purple rabbit wrapped his arms around the animatronic chicken, and attempted to soothe her distress before the night guard came.
Bonnie was sure that Goldie could be fixed, he had to believe it. But he knew that one thing was truly certain.
Mr. Forrester was going to pay.
Freddy slowly pulled apart the curtains of Pirate's Cove, he and Foxy never truly saw eye to eye. With Freddy being a sort of leader of the group whereas Foxy always acted on his own terms, but with the recent events. The animatronic bear thought best to try and talk with the pirate fox.
"What ye' be wantin' Freddy?" Foxy snapped.
"Woah, now take it easy. I'm just here to talk." Freddy placed his hands up in defeat before it began.
Foxy glared at the brown bear, his golden irises meeting Freddy's blue irises.
"There be no need fer talkin' lad" The animatronic fox scoffed.
"Foxy, I'm just here to tell you that we're having a night guard starting tonight. Okay?" Freddy sounded sincere, he wasn't trying to start a fight.
"Aye lad, now leave me to me business" Foxy sneered.
The animatronic bear turned and made his exit through the curtains, heading back to the stage. Foxy took a moment to think about the events that had transpired over the day, he couldn't shake the horror of how another animatronic was left to rot.
He was determined to find a way to help Goldie, he understood how important the golden bear was to Bonnie and Chica. But there was only one way he could get Goldie fixed, and he'd need everyone's help.
Including Mr. Forrester.
The four animatronics patiently awaited the arrival of the night guard, Bonnie remained with Chica to comfort the animatronic chicken whilst Freddy and Foxy kept to themselves until 12am struck.
When 12am finally dawned, the sound of the main doors being unlocked disturbed the peaceful silence in the building. The sound of the doors slamming shut and the lock sealing the building once more followed soon after.
Footsteps echoed throughout the building, getting louder and louder as the night guard made his way into the party room. The animatronics retained their positions, nobody else was completely aware of their sentience, thus they tried to maintain a low profile whenever they could.
They finally saw the night guard enter the room, he was quite short with light blond hair and glistening blue eyes, it contrasted well against the dark halls and rooms in the diner. His uniform consisted of a dark purple t-shirt with formal, jet black trousers and shoes. A small, darker shade of blond goatee and sideburns accompanied his face.
He pulled out his flash light and shone it at the three animatronics on stage, glaring at the three animatronics, the new guard was fairly bewildered by their somewhat intimidating appearance at night.
What he failed to notice was that the animatronics were extremely sensitive to bright light, and would get disoriented easily. His curious actions caused a system restart on the three mascots, rendering them completely inactive and unaware for a brief period of time.
Foxy peered out of Pirate's Cove to watch the new guard, he was well aware of the system reboot, it had already happened to him before. Unfortunately, it was during one of his shows, management eventually decided to stop illuminating Pirate's Cove during shows in order to stop Foxy from restarting again.
The night guard then pointed his flash light over to the cove, only to see a faint ruffle of the curtain as Foxy ducked behind it to prevent himself from being seen. The guard shrugged off as the wind and proceeded to start making his rounds around the establishment.
As he wandered around the building, he noticed the back-rooms, the new guard was curious to see exactly what he was supposed to be guarding. Scott only introduced him to the party rooms and his security office, he did notice that he had two giant, metallic doors that he could close on either side.
In case of robbery, supposedly. But he wasn't quite sure what to think, they even gave him a small tablet that was connected to security cameras throughout the diner. But that would be boring, he wanted to see exactly what he was guarding besides four giant animatronics.
He continued to investigate the back-rooms until he stumbled upon a locked door. He placed the flash light on the table beside him and pulled out his keys for the building, surely he should be able to open the door. He attempted to insert the key into the key hole, and tried with twist the key either way to try and unlock the door. But to no avail, there was only one thing he could do.
Smash the door down.
Loud thud after louder thud haunted the hallways as the night guard threw himself against the door repeatedly, the door's hinges were beginning to get visibly weaker as he continued to barge the door with his body mass.
A sickening thud bellowed through the halls, followed by complete, utter silence. He'd broken through, the new guard grasped his flash light and began to look around the once locked room. His attention diverted to something in the corner, it was limp, dirty and somewhat contrasted against the dark...
It was Goldie.
Freddy felt himself begin to reactivate and gain his awareness once more. As he began to regain steady vision, he heard the faint laugh of a young child, but he noticed that it didn't sound right. It sounded distorted, almost evil.
"Something isn't... Right." The animatronic bear's thoughts swirling around as he reactivated.
He finally regained consciousness only to be met with Goldie, standing right in front of him, his eyes were black, he couldn't even spot the little pinpricks of white in his eyes. Goldie stared at Freddy, with Freddy staring back, horrified. Goldie looked rebuilt, new even. The golden bear's jaw hung open, as if he was offline.
But it didn't feel like it to petrified bear.
He slowly rotated his head towards Bonnie, to find the animatronic rabbit staring right at him. His eyes were also missing, demonic. Bonnie's jaw hung open too, but it seemed as if he was taking a hostile stance towards Freddy.
The animatronic bear began to panic, he couldn't move his body or release even the tiniest squeak. He turned over to Chica, to find the animatronic chicken too staring at him. No eyes, just darkness. Her jaw hung open, her teeth becoming prominent as she too appeared hostile towards Freddy.
Freddy began to feel trapped, his eyes constantly shifting between the three animatronics as the child's laugh became more frequent and demonic. He couldn't do or say anything as it felt like the three animatronics were closing in.
Foxy was nowhere in sight, and Freddy couldn't yell for the pirate fox's help. The laugh started to become more prevalent as Freddy's vision became distorted and filled with static, he tried to maintain his vision but he couldn't fight back the blackness that surrounded him or the force that was preventing him from moving his body or uttering any form of noise.
His vision finally became nothing but pure, red static before the blackness consumed him. Before he shut back down, two words appeared in Freddy's mind, two words that he couldn't understand.
"It's me"
Author's Note: It's been soooo long! I'm sorry for the delay, but it was Christmas and it only comes once a year! :D
Again, if there are any mistakes or concerns you have, please feel free to let me know. I will try to address any new reviews as soon as I can.
I've seen some great fan-art and reviews come along for this story, thank you all so much for your kind words and love for this story! :)
As always, I hope you've enjoyed this instalment of Fredbear's Family Diner, and I'll see you in Chapter 7!