Some Things Are Better Left Buried

By: Miss-DNL

Chapter 24: Day Guard

Leroy O'Conner arrived shortly before nine am. He wanted to make a good first impression on his first day of work. In all honesty, he was feeling a little excited! There was a mix of relief in his joy, he'd nearly panicked when Gregor had called him. When Gregor told him he had changed the schedule Leroy thought it meant he'd hired more people, meaning less hours for him. Thankfully, it turned out that he was just moving people around. Then, he made a sudden proposal.

"Would you mind being moved to the day shift?"

Leroy took a moment to process the sudden question. Last he saw they hadn't been hiring new dayshift guards. He prompted for some explanation, "Um, what for?"

"Our manager, Griffith, isn't feeling well and I'm filling in for him. So, I need someone to watch the pizzeria while I handle management. And, your personality doesn't seem to be fitted for the night shift."

Brows furrowed at the emphasis on "personality". Leroy took it that he thought he was too sheepish to handle a job that could cause him to encounter danger. Leroy admitted to himself that he probably wouldn't handle encountering a criminal well. Yes, he'd gone to shady places in the past when he indulged his addiction…but that didn't make him brave. He was developing an athletic build through exercise; however, a fighter he was not. It especially worried him to encounter an intruder with a gun. At best, he'd figure he'd hide in the security room after calling the police. Perhaps he was selling himself short, but he didn't want to overstate himself either.

"Are you fine with the dayshift? You'll still be full time, only difference is that you'll have to help with costumers." Gregor continued.

"Yes, I'm okay with that." Leroy answered, he'd felt some apprehension ebb out of him. His worry about his job fading. After talking to some people, that he was kind of acquainted with- he'd spoken briefly with them while out on runs-he'd heard some concerning things about Freddy's. The missing night guards, rumored to have been killed by the very animatronics they were supposed to guard, had been rather unsettling.

"Good, you'll start tomorrow."

That was today. Leroy adjusted his black tie that he'd dug out from his shirt drawer. He'd worn it to last interview he'd gone to before Freddy's. He'd forgotten where he'd left it so he'd been unable to wear it to his interview with Gregor. Leroy nervously fixed the sleeves of his dark purple shirt. The fabric was still stiff from never being used, it felt like he was wearing a thin layer of cardboard! The pants were no better either.

How much starch did they use on these? Leroy mentally shrugged. Oh, well, they'll loosen up eventually.

The pizzeria had a different feel from when he'd first come in for his interview. There weren't any songs being played or costumers milling about the building. The air held a thick almost unwelcoming feeling. Leroy's smile dimmed briefly as he entered, he perked back up a little as he waved to the woman at the front desk. As he walked to the security room it quickly died back down. The air had a subtle chill to it that seemed grow as he went deeper into the building. Something he realized when he saw Gregor wasn't in the security room, now he'd have to look for him.

Leroy was about to head down the right hall when he recalled Puppet. Quickly he avoided going down that hall and instead headed down the left one. As he entered the main party room he stopped and noticed Pirate Cove. The starry lavender curtain closed around the small stage. Leroy had been told that this was Foxy the Pirate Fox's home, so to speak. Leroy felt a bit of curiosity poke at him and he examined the outside of the stage. Up at the front of the stage was a wooden sign with the animatronic's show times.

The new day shift guard stepped back, looking up and down the stage. Leroy walked up to the stage and peeked behind the curtains. He didn't attempt to hide the fact he was doing so, he worked here after all. What harm could looking do? Wasn't like he aimed to touch the animatronic or mess with it in any way.

As he pulled back the curtain Leroy was treated with the sight of Foxy the Pirate. The animatronic's head was down, like it was sleeping standing up. The robot seemed to be slouching forward a little. Longer tuffs of red fur sat on its slumped shoulders. It was a little awe inspiring to see one of the animatronics up this close. He hadn't been able to get a good look at any of them before.

Quickly Foxy's hook caught Leroy's eye, it looked like it was actually sharp? That couldn't be right.

Leroy moved his position to try and get a better look at the fox's face. Just as he leaned forward to try and angle his head a little he felt a couple of taps on his shoulder. Startled Leroy jumped and turned around in surprise. He was met with the sight of the janitor with her mop.

"Oh, hello." Leroy greeted clumsily with an awkward smile. He hadn't been doing anything wrong yet he felt like he'd been caught, like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar.

"What're you doing?" Karen questioned with an arched brow. This was one of the guard's she was supposed to get the contact information of. Information she'd gotten while being left alone to clean up Kyle's death. Though now she wasn't so sure if that information was needed, seeing that he'd been moved to the day shift.

Leroy pointed back to Foxy as he faced the janitor, "I was just getting a look at Foxy."

Karen looked at him then to Pirate's Cove. Her eyes lingered on the cove for a moment before she finally looked back to Leroy. The man seemed a tad confused but she ignored it, "You looking for your supervisor, Gregor?"

Leroy nodded, "Yeah." He glanced about, the chill in the air was more apparent now. He disregarded it, they'd had rain last night only naturally there'd be a nip in the air right now. "Do you know where he is?"

"Yeah, he's in the manager's office right now." Karen explained as she motioned for him to follow. While she led Leroy out of the main party room Karen glanced back. From the cracks between the curtain she saw Foxy had raised its head a bit, just enough to glare at them both. Slowly the curtain shut, blocking the fox from view.

Karen forced herself to look back forward, but she could feel the eyes of Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica following them. She made sure she didn't check to see if the three animatronic's heads were turning in time with them. This was the first time she'd actually seen something paranormal. It made her wonder how her parents put up with it for so long. Then again, she'd always thought they were crazy. This further confirmed it, she'd never seen a glare so full of hate before.

Leroy was led by janitor to the staff room where she excused herself back to her duty. He watched her as she briskly walked down the hall towards the left end. He blinked, she seemed to be in a rush but they had an hour till opening. Leroy shrugged, it wasn't any of his business what end of the party room she reentered through, or if she was in a rush to get work done. He could understand the last one especially.

The sharp toxic smell of cleaning chemicals was the first thing Leroy noticed as he entered the staff room. He reeled back as he felt his head spin for a moment once his senses registered the scent. Leroy rubbed his nose as if that would rid it of the foul odor. He shook his head to regather himself and headed over to the manager's office.

There wasn't anyone else present at the pizzeria other than him, the janitor, and Gregor. That's what the vacant staff room suggested anyway, Leroy was certain that the rest of the staff would be arriving soon. He had arrived early after all, in hopes of getting a little extra time to learn how to do his job. No better time than to talk to his supervisor while no one else was around.

The doorway to the manager's office was cracked open, to allow the noxious fumes to air out. Leroy leaned his head into the doorway, checking if his supervisor was indeed present inside. There at the desk sat Gregor, which Leroy noticed looked exhausted beyond belief. Hard not to notice the dark bags under his eyes, visible due to him not wearing his security cap. Leroy hesitated entering now. He didn't want to disturb the man when he looked so worn out. Leroy knew he wouldn't want to be bothered when he was so tired. Maybe he didn't need to ask for tips on his job. After all, how hard could staring at a security monitor for several hours be?

"Are you going to just stand there or come in?" Gregor grumbled as he typed away at the manager's computer. He fought against rubbing his eyes as he looked at the monitor. It felt like the dull light was acidic to look at, stinging his eyesight. His head was stuffed full of what felt stiff cotton as he turned his attention drearily to Leroy. Gregor ignored the concerned look he was receiving, that Leroy was vainly trying to cover up by looking slightly off to the side. He knew he looked like shit. He'd hadn't gotten a good night's sleep since Freddy's had opened. What was barely a week had blurred into one increasingly bad nightmare. Undoubtedly, that much stress and lack of sleep didn't make one look to easy on the eyes. Not like Leroy would find out what was going on anyway.

"I just wanted to ask if you could give me a bit of a rundown on how to use the security tablet…?"

Gregor looked at him with the expression of someone that'd been rudely woken from their sleep. "It's not hard. You can figure it out just by looking at it. All you do is press the camera buttons."

Not wanting to upset his supervisor on the first day Leroy swallowed any insistence and nodded, "I'll just go look it over before we open…"

"You do that." Gregor muttered as he turned his attention back to the computer screen. He was just about done managing the money and getting Karen her payment. It took longer than he wanted to get the money sorted out, the fumes from the cleaning supplies and lack of sleep didn't help. Gregor knew he'd have to come back and double check later, preferably after getting some coffee in his system.

"Right." Leroy said to himself as he turned and left. He pensively thinned his lips as he headed back down the hall. First day on the job and he'd already managed to annoy his supervisor. Way to go, Leroy. He thought to himself with a mental groan. Leroy shook his head, dispelling any negative thoughts, he was getting himself worked up for nothing. Gregor was just tired. He'd caught him at a bad time. This was nothing that'd jeopardize his job.

Satisfied with that assurance Leroy straightened his posture and headed to the security office. He sat down in the chair and took a moment to get aquatinted with the room. The Freddy Fazbear paraphernalia was welcoming and friendly enough. Leroy reached over and picked up a six-inch figure of Bonnie holding his guitar, the hard plastic feeling lightly textured to the touch. He gave a soft laugh. Leroy had to admit it was a cute and well-made figure. He placed it back down and turned around in the swivel chair and gave the posters a look over, he noted they looked worn at the edges.

Must be from the original pizzeria chain, He thought. That was kind of interesting, helped with the authenticity Leroy figured.

The strangest thing he saw was the large gaping hole of a vent that was above the security desk. Leroy stared at it, trying and failing to figure out why the pizzeria would need such a large ventilation system.

Below it Leroy spotted the security tablet. Putting his confusion about the vent aside, and put his focus on what he'd arrived early to do. When he picked up the thin device he was surprised to find a thin crack going down the screen. He also noted that the tablet was currently attached to a charge cord that stretched down underneath the tablet and to the electrical socket. Leroy pressed the power button at the side of the screen and the tablet started to boot up.

"Oh good, it still works." Leroy said to himself as he pressed on a camera button. Gregor hadn't been lying when he said the security system was simple. Then he noticed something odd, a button reading "vent".

With a blank look Leroy pressed it, to his surprise it showed a camera point-of-view from inside the vent! Leroy was flabbergasted. Why would a pizzeria need a camera inside of a vent? It's not like a child would be able to climb up into it, the vent was too far up. Leroy stared at the camera as if waiting for it to reveal the meaning of its presence. He received no answer but continued to stare, perplexed. In the end, he leaned back in his chair, lifted the security cap off his head, ran a hand through his thick red hair, and shook his head. Leroy had no clue what to make of the camera.

Leroy turned away from his confusion when he heard the front door opened. Whoever had arrived talked with the woman at the front desk a bit, some laughs were exchanged, and headed off. Leroy saw it was what looked to be a chef, who exchanged a friendly wave with Leroy, as he passed by the security office.

Looks like the others are arriving, Leroy looked back to the security tablet. He toggled the vent cam and began to look through the other cameras. The curiosity of the vent cam could be questioned later. He had a long shift to get through anyway.

The day had turned out to be more relaxed than Leroy anticipated. Costumers were coming but the worse issue Leroy had to deal with was a kid who played hide and seek with a bit too much determination not to be found. He'd, of course, had been sitting in the security office monitoring the cameras when a concerned parent approached him. Worry flited through his stomach when he saw the look of concern on his face, he worried it was something he wouldn't be able to handle. The father explained that he's son had gotten stuck on top of the indoor jungle gym.

The father was out of shape, to put it lightly, and couldn't climb up to get him. The other parents in Kid Cove weren't sure what to do in the tense situation. This left Leroy as the only one he could turn to.

Leroy's gut tensed up, worried about failing and something going wrong. He anxiously rubbed his arm out of old habit. He shook it off and nodded. Leroy followed the father to Kid's Cove and as they headed down the hall he quickly took note people were moving out of the way. Either they knew what was going on or it was impressive what wearing a uniform could do. In the Cove though everyone was focused on the top of the colorful structure next to the ball pit. Leroy quickly spotted the small boy, about four, five, or six at the most, fearfully clinging to bars.

"Can you get him down?" Leroy heard the father fretfully ask.

The space between the boy and the room's roof was spacious enough Leroy knew he'd be able to sit on top of it. After that it was just a matter of, getting the kid, and hoping down. No problem. Is what he tried to tell himself, but his worry remained. He managed to swallow, felt like he'd forced himself to swallow a lumpy rock, and nodded to the father.

Leroy nodded. "Yeah, I'll have him down in a minute."

He could feel the nervous eyes of not only the father but also the other parents, and their kids. Pressure to succeed building on his shoulders, Leroy approached the front of the playground. His shoes cushioned by the matting under the structure. He turned his attention up to the frightened child.

"Hang on, I'm coming to get you down." He said as he climbed up the bars. It wasn't too hard and didn't take too long with him being a full-grown adult. Leroy was glad it held his weight perfectly well, but then again it was meant to support multiple children running around in it at once. Leroy hoisted himself up onto the top and looked to the child still clinging to the bars a foot or so from him. Oddly, Fun Time Foxy, standing poised having been stopped mid-show, caught his attention. The white and pink Foxy seemed to be watching him? Leroy dismissed the thought, focusing on his job. The boy easily let go as he grabbed him by the waist and then immediately clung to him like a baby monkey.

Briefly surprised Leroy wrapped an arm around the boy to secure him then carefully lowered himself back down. He was greeted with applause and a very thankful Father. Leroy handed the boy over then tried to keep himself from looking too shy about the praise, his success was mixed at best. The father, while relieved, gave his son some stern words before leaving- after giving another thank you to Leroy. The guard watched the two leave, the crowd already dispersing back to whatever it had been that they'd been doing, before his gaze turned to Fun Time Foxy. He'd felt the animatronic watching him, it's plastic eyes pinned right on him the whole time.

Leroy recoiled. Fun Time Foxy was staring at him with its lower jaw hanging open. One of its eyes was missing, leaving a black empty socket. Leroy blinked, and it was back to normal. He did a double take. Still normal.

"Gather around children!" Fun Time Foxy announced suddenly, slightly snapping Leroy from his bewilderment. The animatronic came to life, moving and shifting in an almost natural fashion. It's invisible puppeteer recontinuing the show. Fun Time observed the children as most of them sat in front of the stage. White angular ears swayed back and forth as it seemingly decided whether it had a good enough audience or not.

"Before I get to the story, I'm going to teach you about safety!" Fun Time announced to the kid's chagrin.

Leroy laughed softly and left the room, leaving what he'd seen as his mind playing tricks on him. The stories about the pizzeria were still lingering on the edge of his mind. That's all it was. He told himself the pizzeria wasn't haunted as he sat back down in his rolling chair. He exhaled, calming himself, and turned to his security tablet. Nothing better than staring at a screen for hours to calm himself.

Besides, he'd just done a good job! Leroy smiled as he focused on that. He tapped at the tablet screen, yeah there was nothing to worry about. No ghosts, ghosts weren't even real. Probably. Leroy really didn't have an opinion on that. Shook his head and refocused on his job. First day on the job, no getting distracted.

With his Chica hat on his head Ethan excitedly entered Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria. Behind him was his sister's boyfriend Mitch, who had three of his friends with them. He'd been surprised that Mitch and his friends wanted to Freddy's, but he didn't question it. Mitch and his friends were talking amongst themselves but Ethan didn't care what they were talking about. He was in the best place ever! Ethan look around excitedly, wondering what he should do first. He'd already done just about everything, but it was still so awesome!

"Ethan." The boy turned to face Mitch, a dark brown brunette with freckles, who held money in one of his hands. Ethan took it and listened as Mitch continued, "You go play. Me and my friends are going to go get a table, order some pizza."

"Okay!" Ethan chirped before immediately running off.

The boy eventually found himself in the arcade room near Pirate Cove. In hopes of getting a toy before he left Ethan decided to win tickets. That was why his pockets were stuffed with the tickets he'd won on his last two trips to the pizzeria. His aim, winning a Chica plush doll. For that he needed to win a lot more tickets, about a thousand or two. He could do that, especially if he kept playing ski ball. Ethan already had a long ribbon of tickets coming out of the ski ball machine he was playing at! Long enough that it was curling in on itself!

Ethan was just about to put another Fazbear token into the ski ball machine when he saw something lumber by the nearby entrances. He stopped and turned his head all the way to it but by then it was gone. Curious he tore his ticket ribbon from the dispenser and stuffed it in with the rest. The paper crumpled and crunched but the child didn't care as he hurried to see what large thing had passed by.

A gasp of awe came from Ethan as he laid his eyes on a golden version of Freddy Fazbear. His awe turned into confusion as he saw other people didn't seem to see the bear! Some even walked right through the golden mascot! Ethan knitted his brows under the bill of his Chica cap, he didn't know how that was possible. Unless, he was seeing those things his mother told him not to tell anything about.

Ethan watched as the Golden Freddy placed something onto the wall and kept walking. The bear didn't seem to mind the fact people were walking right through it. As it walked Ethan noticed the Freddy was damaged, missing an ear and was riddled with small holes. Ethan frowned the bear was hurt, but if it was one of the things he could see but no one else could then, there was nothing that could be done. His mom had said so.

Still, Ethan was curious about what the bear was up to. He followed behind the Golden Freddy, the bear not seeming to notice. The Freddy went headed into the main party room and into the back halls. Ethan stopped, he knew he wasn't supposed to go back there. When Golden Freddy turned the corner and out of sight Ethan felt a surge of urgency. If he didn't keep up who know when he'd see the bear again! These things always came and went at random.

Ethan went into the hall, hoping the golden furred bear hadn't disappeared yet.

Author's Note: Day shift chapters aren't my favorites to write, that'd go to the nightmares, but it didn't help I wasn't sure how to go about this one. Anyhow, sorry for the gap in updates. Been really getting back into drawing. The next couple of chapters I'm eager to get to, so, hopefully I'll get those out faster than this!

Guest Review:

Drakeon: Thank you for your confidence! And yes, I have heard of Bendy and the Ink Machine. I do enjoy the game, namely the theme. Sadly, as you saw with my Gravity Falls story (glad you thought it was good btw), but I'm pretty full at the moment. I plan on doing more 5NAF fics (expanding my au) and currently revising my GF story, which is planned on having a 2nd part. That and I just don't feel the urge. Thanks for the thought though!

Hope you enjoyed and stay tuned for the next chapter!