The two girls separated from the rest of the group, thrilled at the idea of doing something so forbidden. Their parents had reluctant to let them attend Tami's birthday party, something about the Pizzaplex not being safe. That was silly; it was just a big mall. But their parents made them promise to stay with the group. They'd agreed at the time, but secretly planned to wander off to prove their parents were just being silly.
Dorianne and Emerson were eight now, after all. The twins were old enough to take care of themselves. What was there to be scared of in the Pizzaplex, anyway, besides the Map Bots?
Trying to stifle their giggles, they ran further from the scene of the party. They would explore a little, maybe try to sneak into the green rooms, and then they would go back to the party, having proven their parents were just scaredy-cats.
Dorianne paused at the top of the stairs. "Hey, who's that?" she said, pointing.
Leaning against the wall was a woman in a rabbit costume. Dorianne could only tell it was a woman because the costume accentuated her curves and reminded her of their twenty year old babysitter. The costume was mostly white, but there were pink patches in some places, and she had huge red eyes that were kind of creepy looking. The woman seemed to be looking around at the crowds of people passing her by. No one else looked twice at her.
Emerson paused, looking at the rabbit lady. "I don't know."
As if she sensed them watching, the bunny's head turned and the creepy red eyes met theirs. The woman waved at them.
Awkwardly, Dorianne waved back.
The rabbit lady skipped over to them. "Hi!" Her voice was weird, kind of distorted sounding, and Emerson grabbed Dorianne's hand, looking nervous.
Dorianne wasn't scared, though. She was fascinated with the strange bunny woman. "Hi, Miss Bunny."
The woman laughed-a high pitched, childish sounding giggle. "My name is Vanny. You two look alike, are you sisters?"
"Twins," Dorianne said. Emerson looked too nervous to speak. "I'm Dorianne, and she's Emerson."
"Pretty!" Vanny said. "I wish my name was that pretty!"
"I...I think your name is pretty," Emerson stuttered.
"Oh, you're sweet," Vanny said. "Where are your parents?"
Dorianne could feel Emerson squeezing her hand so tightly she thought her hand might pop off. "At home," she answered. "We're at our friend Tami's birthday party. But we decided to go do something else."
"Oh?" Vanny said. "What are you going to go do?"
Dorianne shrugged. They hadn't decided that yet, too caught up in the thrill of sneaking off.
Vanny tapped her finger against her chin. "Hmm...hey, do you guys want to meet the band? I could show you the green rooms."
Dorianne perked up. "Really?"
"Sure!"
"We don't have a Photo Pass," Emerson said quietly, and Dorianne wanted to kick her. This was their chance to go do something cool like they talked about.
Vanny laughed. "It's okay, you don't need one if you're with me."
She held out her hand, and Dorianne took it without hesitation. Emerson still looked uncertain, but she followed the rabbit just the same as Vanny led them through a side door.
"Where are we?" Dorianne asked.
"The tunnels," Vanny said cheerfully. "You can get anywhere in the Pizzaplex through the tunnels."
Dorianne's eyes widen. "Anywhere?"
"Mhmm." Vanny continued to lead them through the tunnels.
Dorianne was excited, especially when she thought about how jealous their friends would be when they returned to the party and told them about their adventure. Dorianne grinned, thinking about how popular they would be. They might even be more popular than Tami, and it was her birthday!
It was only when Vanny suddenly stopped, without having arrived anywhere, and pulled out a knife that Dorianne and Emerson realized how much danger they were in. As Vanny approached them, Dorianne wished desperately they had listened to their parents.
-
Lilly checked her phone and sighed. Damn. The twins still hadn't been found, and after a week it wasn't likely they would be.
Lilly really needed the extra money she got from babysitting her neighbor's children. Especially now. She'd lost her waitressing job three weeks ago. She'd thought she'd be able to scrape by for a bit on her babysitting money. But then Dorianne and Emerson went missing.
There was nothing else for it. She was going to have to get off her ass and look for a job. With a sigh, she opened the Google tab and typed in, hiring near me.
The top result, ironically, was the very place the twins had gone missing at. Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex.
Lilly paused, staring at the ad. She'd grown up hearing stories about Fazbear Entertainment. It was an urban legend in this town. Her parents had been teenagers in the 80s, when those children went missing.
Five children in total, all of whom vanished from a Freddy Fazbear's restaurant and presumed dead.
Someone had been arrested, Lilly was pretty sure. It was hard to separate the truth from the myth at this point. In middle school, she and her friends would dare each other to sneak inside the abandoned Freddy restaurants. It had been a joke, none of them believing in the stories about killer animatronics and the ghosts of dead children roaming the halls, seeking vengeance on their murderer. It was all just nonsense. Lilly was pretty sure the guy who did it was dead now.
And yet...
Lilly bit her lip. Five children had gone missing at the Pizzaplex over the course of six months. Dorianne and Emerson were only the latest victims in a string of kidnappings. Five children, just like back in the 80s.
No one in Hurricane believed it to be a coincidence. Some thought the original killer had come back. Others thought it was a copycat. Whatever the case, it was happening again. Dorianne and Emerson were probably dead. That thought made Lilly's heart hurt. They were such sweet kids, even if they were little troublemakers.
Her finger hovered over the ad for the Pizzaplex. She could apply. Maybe she would be able to find out what happened to them. Their parents were a wreck. The not knowing was the worst part. Maybe she'd be able to give them answers.
Or maybe she was deluding herself into thinking a college dropout could play detective.
Whatever the case, Lilly clicked on the ad.
There were three job listings available, for security guard, technician, and cashier at El Chips's. After a little deliberation, Lilly decided to apply for the security guard position. That would give her access to most of the building, and if she wanted to find out what happened to Dorianne and Emerson, she needed to be able to look everywhere.
Lilly smiled to herself and began to fill out the application. This was the most tedious part of job hunting, filling out applications. She sighed as she typed in her rather shitty job history. She did have a little security experience, having worked as campus security for a few months before she dropped out of college. Then there was her waitressing job, which she'd gotten after she left school, which ended when another waitress got jealous of how many tips Lilly got and told the manager Lilly was stealing money from the register. There was her first job serving ice cream when she was 16, and, of course, babysitting.
Lilly didn't think her chances were too good.
But she was good with kids, had a little security experience, and she had beennbsp; taking self defense classes since she was eleven, so she thought that might help her case at least a little bit.
Lilly pushed her blonde hair out of her face and went to the next part of the application. She frowned. Why did a pizza place need to know her medical history? Organ donor?nbsp; Were they serious?
A little uneasy, Lilly filled out the information. She didn't know why a potential job needed to know so much about her medical history. Why on earth would they ever need to know her blood-type?nbsp;
She finished the extensive questionnaire about her medical history and moved onto the following page, which was asking for her emergency contact information. She blinked twice and reread the short paragraph.
Who is your next of kin that we should notify in the event of your death or injury while employed with us? While Fazbear Entertainment strives to create a safe environment for all, accidents do happen and we will do our best to return you to your family in one piece.
"What the hell?"
Even more uneasy now, Lilly put in her mother's contact information. In one piece? Were they expecting their employees to get ripped apart or something?
The next page was a damn waiver, agreeing not to hold Fazbear Entertainment responsible for anything that may happen to her while in their employment.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Lilly signed the stupid waiver and moved on. Thankfully, the application moved on to more normal questions after that. Lilly sighed in relief. She finished filling out the application, hit submit, and turned off her phone. That took way longer than she thought it was going to.
She closed her eyes. It was getting late. She should get some sleep. She wouldn't be hearing anything back from the Pizzaplex tonight, and she was exhausted.
Lilly reached over to turn off the lamp on her nightstand, and then let herself sink into the land of dreams.
-
Vanessa sighed, sinking into the desk chair in her security office. Everything was as it should be for the night, which meant she could relax for a bit before she had to go do anything for him.
Luckily, he hadn't demanded another victim yet. It was too soon after the last two. Vanessa couldn't remember their names, even though she'd been following the news on them. There hadn't been much on them, and the police didn't have any leads, as usual.
Vanessa turned on her work computer and checked her emails. There was a notification for a new security guard application. Eyebrows raised, Vanessa opened the email. She'd been looking for another security guard for ages, and was beginning to think no one was ever going to apply. With the disappearances, it was getting harder to find people willing to work at the Pizzaplex. But it needed to be done.
Vanessa's eyebrows nearly raised into her hairline when she read the name on the application. Lilly Masterson. She'd heard that name somewhere recently, but where?
Her eyes widened as she remembered. It was on a news segment about the two girls. Lilly was their babysitter. The media had interviewed her about how she felt about the girls disappearing.
Why would she be applying at the very place those kids disappeared at?
Something about this didn't sit right with Vanessa. She started to move her arrow to the exit button.
"Wait."
She paused instantly, her arrow hovering over the screen.
"Hire her," he said. "We can use her."
Vanessa bit her lip. "Are you sure? She knew those kids..."
"You dare question me?"
Vanessa's face paled. "No. No, sir. I'm sorry."
"Good. Invite her for an interview."
"Yes, sir."
With a sigh, Vanessa began to compose an email.