Some Things Are Better Left Buried

By: Miss-DNL

Chapter 11: During the Day

Clifton Schwartz had been sitting in the driver's seat of his navy blue truck for a good few minutes now. Wearily he turned his head to his place of work. It was almost amazing how fast a place he used to look forward to working at had become the worst thing he knew of. He'd actually arrived a few minutes early for his shift, but was now running late. The mechanic and technician just didn't want to go into that place. Not when he knew what lay within the place, a killer's body and possibly ghosts of his victims. The latter thought pulled roughly on all of his heartstrings. His family needed him though, they were more important.

He smiled down at the lunch that had been packed for him by his wife with help from his daughter. Seeing another employee arrive and park prompted Clifton to grab his lunch and get out. The faster he got to work the faster he could lose track of time and get the day over with. Getting out of his truck he gave a customary greeting to one of the cooks before they headed inside.

Inside the smell of cleaning materials hung in the air, seemed the janitor was doing her deep clean of the week. He wrinkled his nose at the smell and dismissed the fact. The smell would dissipate into the background once the cook got cracking in the kitchen. Soon after entering Clifton checked into his shift and said his good-bye to the cook. The cook gave a well wish to his dual job and Clifton returned the favor.

As he headed down the back hall, towards the parts and services, he slowed his pace a little. He was beginning to pick up on a tune in the background. It wasn't the Puppet's or Freddy's melodies, but it was similar to the pizzeria's jingle.

"Is someone whistling?" Clifton whispered quietly as he could to himself. Approaching his workplace, the man began getting a feeling that something was off. The air was unnaturally still, the casual whistling ringing very clearly yet seeming distant. Along with the whistling Clifton heard the sound of his tools being used. Noticing the door was left cracked open Clifton quietly peaked inside. To his surprise he saw no one and the whistling stopped.

Carefully Clifton pushed open the door and checked around the room. He felt like something was still in here with him. Yet he could see nothing, not even his tools looked disturbed. The only thing different was the smell of cleaning supplies in the air. Checking around the room he saw it was practically spotless.

"That woman is thorough." Clifton noted, then he stopped. There was something off about the room. Previously a corner that had been filled by a slumped over empty suit was now completely vacant. Clifton stared, bewildered by the disappearance. Where could a whole suit have gone? Had it just gotten up and walked away? Then again, with the way the pizzeria was at night it might have actually happened.

A knock at the door of the room brought Clifton's attention away from the empty corner. Seeing Gregor at the door he frowned, not fond of seeing Herald's right hand man. Clifton huffed dully, "you wouldn't to know what happened to the suit I had prepared, would you?"

Gregor nodded, "That's what I came to tell you. Don't know why, but it was badly damaged when I came in this morning. I haven't been able to get ahold of Cole for an explanation."

"Probably had enough and left." Clifton guessed bluntly before muttering, "Good move for the kid honestly."

"Maybe." Gregor answered, ignoring the fellow employee's bitter after comment. He glanced around the room, "I'll see about getting replacement parts. Another thing, we need you to fix Mangle. Parts of her suit have come off."

"Sure thing." Clifton said dismissively, only really paying half attention to what Gregor was saying. Further his dislike of the man just urged him to get the conversation over with as soon as possible. "And don't bother. I have plenty stocked up." Clifton dismissed.

At the back of the room he opened up the suit storage room and pulled out a Freddy torso. As he placed the brown bear torso onto the metal table with a thud a thought occurred to him.

"Gregor why did you get rid of the whole…" His voice drifted off when he saw the guard was gone. He rolled his eyes and finished what he was saying anyway, "thing."

The German American shook his head and readied to start his work, it didn't matter. Now he two jobs to do. First off he he'd have to go get Mangle, which meant he'd have to wheel the fox all the way over here. Mangle was the lightest animatronic they had, had to be for the little kids, but hoisting her all the way over to his workplace by hand would be tiring. Gregor had said parts of its suit came off so that meant he'd have to go back and get those after.

The halls of the pizzeria were vacant of costumers for the time being. It wasn't opening time just yet but it would be soon. For now, only employees were moving around, preparing the place for work hours. He could hear the cook, and what sounded like another, working in the kitchen. Passing by one of the party rooms he saw the janitor mopping and in the main party room there was a "wet floor" sign.

Once he saw Mangle standing on the stage, stripped of its limb covers, and Petey being completely exposed, he scratched his head. What had caused this? Clifton shook his head he honestly didn't know anymore. Freddy's was a nightmare afterhours and he didn't know what happened each night. He only had an idea of what went on, six hours of a poor night guard fending off killer animatronics. Still he had no clue why that would lead one of the animatronics to remove parts from itself.

Having no answer to that Clifton scooted the animatronic onto the dolly and wheeled it back to the repair room. He paused a moment before entering to listen for a sign of anything strange going on again. Hearing nothing he left the animatronic parked in the corner of the room. Mangle stood on the dolly, staring blankly head with its jaw partly hung open while Petey hung from its connecting point on Mangle's shoulder. Clifton examined the robot to see if anything else was missing but spotted nothing.

Again he left the room, this time with a spare cardboard box to hold the suit pieces. As he headed back to the spare room Clifton planned out his day. He'd start prepping the extra Freddy suit as it'd take longer. After thirty minutes he'd quickly get Mangle suited back up and wheel her out before the pizzeria opened. In no time Clifton was back in Kid's Cove with a stage littered by empty shell pieces. One by one he picked up the faux furred suit parts, placed them into the box then headed back to his work room.

Clifton deposited the box of suit parts onto a shelf once he returned to parts and service's. As planned Clifton set to work on prepping the Freddy suit. He picked out the tools he needed and pulled on a pair of thick gloves, which he needed to handle the beams and wires. Clifton grabbed a bunch of the thin but sharp beams, turned on some music, and set to work. He didn't know how long he'd been working but a noise invaded his room again. Clifton stalled in his work, the whistling had returned. The same tune from before intermingled with the industrial metal his cellphone was playing.

Ignore it, keep working. Clifton told himself as he got his hands to resume what he was doing. Carefully he screwed in the beam into a connecting spot along the side of the suit. The whistling didn't seem to mind being ignored and continued. Clifton felt his stomach tense up when he noticed the sound was moving around the room. At times it sounded right next to him, other times it was by the shelves. On occasion there was slight sounds of items being shifted around. Curiously the sound seemed to be doing its own thing.

At times, if he focused on the sound a little more, Clifton could hear shoes just below the whistling. Whenever the whistling was nearby the man had to fight himself not to freeze up. The presence of whoever or whatever that was in the room with him was not pleasant. It brought with it a bitter coldness and it seemed to dig right into him.

Eventually the whistling faded away and the presence vanished along with the cold. Clifton let out a relieved but shaky exhale. The mechanic rubbed his arms, trying to further rid himself of the chill. As he did so Clifton looked around the room again, as if to check and see if the presence had really gone.

Feeling almost dazed Clifton headed over to a shelf and checked the time on his phone. His eyes widened when he noticed that it was almost time for the first show of the day. Clifton looked back to the Freddy suit he'd been working on and to his surprise saw he was almost done setting up the insides. With so little time to spare Clifton didn't question what had happened. The man left in a hurry to get to the main stage's control room, leaving the door behind him ajar. As he headed up the steps to the back stage he didn't notice the door shutting behind him with a quiet click.

From the backstage Clifton could hear that people were milling about the place. He looked out to the stage and saw the red curtains were closed so that the trio could be dramatically revealed to their awaiting fans. Clifton didn't linger too long and ducked into the hidden room behind the animatronics.

Door shut behind him Clifton went about the necessary startup. Steadily the room came to life with a steady hum coming from the console. Looking at one of the monitors Clifton saw the people gathered in the party room. Clifton pressed down on a button to activate the intercom and spoke into the connecting mic. Outside the room the speaker gave a brief moan as it awoke. The sound was short lived but drew the attention of the adults, teens, and children present.

"Welcome one and all to Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria! Where fun and fantasy come to life! We like to thank you all for coming today, and hope you enjoy our top notch pizza. In just ten minutes Freddy and his friends will begin their first show of the day! In the meantime, enjoy our food or have fun in the two play rooms and or our arcade. Thirty minutes after the show Captain Foxy will put on one of his own in Pirate Cove! Unfortunately, Fun Time Foxy won't arrive until a little later today. See you all next time when the show is about to begin."

His announcement over Clifton took his finger off the button and took the moment to try and relax. With a sigh he looked at the camera monitors in front of him, not much else to do now but wait.

Author's Note: Still on some transition, but I felt like glossing over this would've been lazy. Also gave me a chance to have another ghost moment. Anyone care to guess who was in the parts and service's room? Not really hard to figure it out, lol.

Would have had this uploaded yesterday, but it was Thanksgiving and I wanted to spend time with my friend's and family. Upside is I have plenty of parts stocked up! So, for now, regular uploads will be a thing unless something comes up. Anyway hope you had a greath 24th regardless if you celebrate Thanksgiving or not. :)

Hope you enjoyed!