Chapter 4, guys! We're chugging right along through this story. Just a warning: this chapter is a bit long, but things start getting real this chapter. As always, any and all constructive criticism is always appreciated. *P.S: I will probably start updating this on a consistent schedule. It will probably be updated once a week on Saturdays or Sundays.
Elaina refused to be late for her first day on the job. She was stubborn like that. Another thing that was interesting about Elaina, was that the universe seemed to be out to get her. She was the most unlucky person she knew. Perhaps she had smashed a mirror using an open umbrella in her living room all while carrying a black cat. But not only was the universe out to get her, but also it's inhabitants. Not many people seemed to like her very much, but then again, in all her nineteen years, she didn't seem to like many people either. She believed herself to be the very definition of a hardened person and she wasn't exactly thrilled about this.
Elaina lived in an apartment alone near the campus of Hilmak University, where she was studying in mechanical engineering. Right when she turned eighteen, Elaina got the hell out of her old home. Her sister was probably the worst sibling you could have. Her parents loved her, but rarely showed it because they were too busy with their precious Vanessa. The only thing Elaina had over Vanness was her expertise in building machines. Robots specifically.
So you can imagine how happy Elaina was when she learned that a diner using new technology in the industry was opening up in Hilmak. She applied for a job there and they accepted her quickly. She was excited to work with their animatronic and see how it worked, even though she wasn't a big fan of smaller children.
She was very angry at herself for arriving late. She found a parking spot and walked towards the surprisingly grey building. For a kids place, she thought the outside looked rather dull, other than the colorful sign reading "Fredbear's Family Diner" and a cardboard cutout of Fredbear next to the door. She read the words on the sign aloud. She got a weird feeling from this place. A part of her brain said she shouldn't go in and if she did, she would eventually regret it. But the other part of her brain told the spooky and mysterious part to shut up.
She went inside to see a young employee behind a counter with a drink in his hands. He had long brown messy hair going in many different directions. He had blue eyes that matched his red and blue uniform. Elaina found that the guy looked more like he worked at roller rink than at a diner. "Hello there! How are you doing! Have you come to reserve a birthday?! Or are you one of those weird people who lures children away!?" Said the man.
"Ummm, no I'm actually-"
"Just pulling your leg! I totally got you! Hahahahahaha!" The worker said while cracking up. Elaina found this to be a bit unprofessional and she was told by her "therapist" to avoid people like that.
"My god, Flash!" said another similarly dressed worker who came rushing after seeing what…"flash" had done.
"Sorry…" said Flash quietly.
"Sorry about my friend here! He's not usually the one greeting customers. His high energy is reserved for the kids," apologized the employee.
"Now go make yourself useful and get back in there, Flash!" said the boy sternly.
"Sorry, Nightly…" Said Flash on his way back to the group of kids being served by Fredbear. Elaina found that bear to be very well crafted and extremely ahead of it's time.
"Welcome to Fredbear's Family Diner!" Nightly suddenly began. "A magical place for kids and grown ups alike, where fantasy and fun come to-"
"I'm here to see Fred Leymour," interrupted Elaina.
"You could of let me finish the intro I can up with…," mumbled Nightly.
"I love it!" Piped up a voice from the doorway behind me.
"Hello, Fred," said Nightly nervously.
He was accompanied by two other men. Fred was on the shorter side. He had red hair and brown eyes and was dressed in clothes that seemed a bit too casual for the owner of the entire establishment. He wore a simple blue sweater and grey Khaki pants.
"It's just the slogan we need!" Said Fred happily.
"Why thank you," said Nightly proudly.
"And you must be Elaina!" Spoke up another one of the men as he shaked Elaina's hand.
"My name is Hector and this is my other brother, Jake, but he goes by Mr. Leymour. I must say, it sure is a pleasure to meet someone with talents such as yours."
Elaina wasn't used to compliments, so instead of saying "thank you", she just nodded her head awkwardly. Hector and Leymour were dressed more like two guys at an office job, completely contrasting with Fred's constant "casual Friday" look.
They both wore business suits, Hector's being blue and Leymour's being grey. Hector had a long and bony face, but with a plump and round looking nose. His hair was covered by his blue fedora. Leymour was tall and looked to be a somewhat sombre man. He had no hat on, so his dark brown hair flowed down into bangs which covered one eye. His eyes were a very dark shade of brown, almost to the point of looking pitch black.
Elaina found it strange how many of his genetic features did not match those of his brothers. Elaina didn't catch the rest of his facial features, because, after Hector's introduction, he ran off into the main room, glancing at Fredbear carefully before making his way to a door labeled "OFFICE."
Suddenly, Leymour's quick escape from the conversation was stopped, when a police officer came into the building. He ignored Elaina, Hector, and Fred, but instead started asking Leymour questions about some runaway orphans.
"Yes Mr. Leymour, it is quite troubling. I've been searching for him and his brother ever since I saw the older one STEALING food from a drugstore," he said. The cop didn't get any useful info from Leymour, so he began searching around the place. Fred walked into the party room, dodging kids left and right, towards Leymour as Hector and I followed.
"What was that about!?" Asked Fred in an extremely worried manner.
"N-nothing," started Leymour.
"He was j-just asking about s-s-some orphans who w-were last seen in this area. He's j-just looking around," explained Leymour in a strangely nervous way.
"At least a police officer will make the kids go wild. They like that kind of stuff," explained Hector optimistically.
"How do you know him?" Elaina asked after pondering whether or not she should speak on the matter.
"W-we were old friends. Hector, I know you've met him b-before. R-remember? He's good 'ol Joe T-tameshi," said Leymour.
As Hector was trying to remember "good 'ol Joe Tameshi", Fred decided to change the subject.
"We're already losing publicity….," started Fred with a sigh. "We don't need a cop coming in here! If people see him, they'll assume the worse!" Explained Fred, stressed.
"He doesn't handle stress well," whispered Hector to Elaina.
"Fredbear helped us get through our first few years, but now we need something more….," continued Fred.
"Elaina," he said while shifting his gaze towards me. "I need you to get to work on making Fredbear better. The more advanced he is, the more publicity we'll get." He pointed towards a room next to the stage. "That's where you'll be spending most of your time, but today, I want you to see how Fredbear works. Take notes and find out what can be improved." ordered Fred.
As Joe came back out of the employee's lounge, Leymour continued his brisk walk towards the office, as if Joe was a predator and Leymour was prey.
Elaina sat at the table closest to Fredbear's stage. She felt kind of weird being bunched up with a bunch of kids. She watched as Fredbear told cheap jokes and sang songs on his own. The first thing Elaina wrote down in her "improvements journal" was a note about how Fredbear could use some bandmates or at least another character to keep him company.
Fredbear abruptly turned his head in Elaina's direction and said: "How are you enjoying your food!?" Elaina found the technology to be pretty good for a small diner. But then again, Fredbear's movements were still very robotic. Sometimes he would stay lifeless while he would keep talking and singing. It caused somewhat of a disconnect. It reminded customers that Fredbear was never actually alive. He was only a cold and lifeless machine.
Elaina wrote something about better mouvement, but she didn't think this was a thing she could fix. The technology just wasn't there yet.
Elaina suddenly heard the sound of a bell ringing through the restaurant as all of the workers headed towards the employee's lounge door. Hector took a seat beside her and said; "The bell means that it's time for Fredbear to work his magic. When all employees hear the bell, they get out of the way so they can let Fredbear do his thing," Hector explained as he got up to join Fred in a discussion. Fredbear began to sing happy birthday to a lucky birthday boy as he got off the stage and, in a set direction, walked towards the kid.
Suddenly, Elaina had an abrupt idea; free-roaming. What if Fredbear could move whenever and wherever he wanted too? If she was going to do this, she would have to make Fredbear a bit more…..intelligent. She would also need lots of time, but she was certain that this would make not only Fredbear known, but also Elaina's name. Her lifelong dream was to be recognized for something she had done, or at least be acknowledged for it. She refrained on telling Hector or his brothers before she had more of a plan.
Elaina continued writing in her journal about more of the technically complicated inner workings of the golden bear.
"Why, hello there," spoke a voice from behind her, half startling her. Elaina turned around to see a scruffy-looking guy wearing the diner's uniform. His dark brown hair was short in the back, but was messier and longer in the front. He had a round and soft-looking face. Elaina had to admit that he looked pretty attractive.
"What're doing?" Asked the guy curiously.
"Do I know you?" Elaina addressed.
"I'm Jack. Mind if I sit next to you?" Announced the guy confidently. Before Elaina could kindly answer "no", he sat right down next to her.
"So...whatcha working on?" Asked Jack. Elaina was starting to lose her patience with this guy. "I must say, you do look beautiful," stated Jack. If it were any other guy, Elaina would be thrilled to be recognized, but Elaina found Jack to be obnoxious and straight up annoying.
"I'm working. Please go away. Now is not the time for flirting," Elaina stated.
"Alright, alright. I'll leave…..as soon as you show me what you're up too." He said with an annoying smirk on his face.
"No! Just leave me alone, I'm trying to watch!" Elaina raised her voice.
"Watch what!? Fredbear?!" Quizzed Jack.
"Yes! I am trying to-"
"Shhhhhhh! I'm trying to watch the show!" Interrupted Jack, obviously trying to mimic Elaina.
"Could you just cut it out. Go away and-"
"Shhhhhhhh!" He cut-off Elaina again, but this time, he was twice as loud.
After about a minute of trying to ignore Jack, Elaina finally noticed that he was reading her "improvements journal" from over her shoulder.
"That looks like some pretty complicated stuff. I gotta say you're pretty smart," said Jack kindly.
"If you were smart, you'd leave me alone," Elaina threatened.
He snatched up the book and ran to employee's room. She angrily chased him into the room. She found him skimming through the pages of the notebook on the round couch. "This is really good stuff. If you published this, I'm certain it would become a bestseller!" He said sarcastically.
Elaina marched over to the couch and forcefully grabbed the book out of Jack's hand's. "Stay away from my stuff and leave me alone!"
"Seriously though, free-roaming is a pretty cool idea….What's your name?"
"Elaina," she answered with a sigh.
"I like you, Elaina."
"Ummm...thanks…"
"Are you the one who built Fredbear or something?" Asked Jack.
Elaina wondered if Jack only stole her book to get them alone together.
"Ummmmm...no, I'm new here. I got this job new job so I could work on Fredbear."
"I'm…. also kind of new here," Jack explained.
"Why are you talking to me?" Asked Elaina. She was genuinely confused that a stranger was actually curious in what she was doing and who she was.
"I guess I just wanted to talk to-"
The rest of Jack's sentence was drowned out by a large crash coming from the backroom.
"What was that!?" Said Elaina, startled.
"I dunno!" Replied Jack. Jack began tiptoeing towards the backroom door. Apparently, Elaina and Jack had been the only ones to hear the sound. Jack slowly and carefully touched the doorknob as if he had been electrically charged and was trying not to get shocked.
He decided to finally swing open the door. Jack fell over when a tall black-eyed puppet tumbled out of the doorway as if it had been leaning on the door, listening to our conversation. "What the hell IS that!?" Elaina yelled.
"It's thing again!"
"Just this morning, I saw this thing on a shelf, but who the hell moved it to the door?!" Questioned Jack.
"Maybe it moved on it's own," said Scraps as he walked through the lounge door.
"Apparently, that thing belonged to Fred's grandfather. We've got a lot stories to tell about that thing," he continued.
"I'd better go," said Elaina. She always got nervous when she was involved in a conversation that included more than one stranger. In fact, she got nervous around any stranger. That's when she realized she had been talking to a complete stranger for the last ten minutes. She ran out of the room and back to her front side table.
"See ya later then!" Yelled Jack before she left.
On her way out, she bumped into Mr. Leymour. He stared at her for a while then looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was listening.
"I've been looking for you," he said quietly. "You've got to leave while you still can…"
"Please help me. If you care about the souls of many people, you would consider listening to me. Meet me in this office here, tonight at 12:00. You're part of it all," he said, panicked. He ran off while muttering something about losing hope and not being able to escape your fate.
Elaina didn't know what to make of what she'd just heard. Leymour had to be insane. She tried to make sense of what he'd told her during the rest of her workday. She was so distracted, that she only managed to write one more note about Fredbear before closing time. All the kids sadly left the restaurant. Leaving her and a couple employee's left in the building. She didn't see Jack leave the diner, so she waited a bit for him to come out. She felt bad for running off like that and she also wanted to tell him about what Leymour had told her. After a while, she concluded that he'd already left. The lights turned off as she left the building. Hector, Fred and Leymour were probably the only people left in here. Elaina left the building while pondering whether or not she should meet Leymour.
Leymour sat in the office of Fredbear's Family Diner. A place so full of happiness during the day, turned into an activation ground for paranoia and insanity at night. A place where a pin drop could be heard. A place where something much more sinister than anyone would expect was about to happen. While Davey and Jack stayed quietly in the lounge, Leymour waited for someone to show up. There was a knock on the office door. Leymour opened it up to find Elaina standing out in the darkened hallway. "Tell me what you meant by "You're all part of it,"". He began to explain.