Chapter 4: The Second Shift
Benji groggily woke up slowly today. He picked up his phone to check the time. It was only 3:30 pm. Benji groaned in frustration, he just wanted to get his second shift over with. He got up out of his bed slowly, stretched out his arms, and headed downstairs. After starting a cup of coffee, Benji walked into the laundry room. He switched his clothes from the washer to the dryer. While that was going, he went to go grab his cup of coffee off the machine and he started making his brunch. Even though it was close to 4 pm, he had made himself some pancakes and an egg sandwich. Benji ate while thinking about what to do until eleven pm. He's already been to the mall this week and even the grocery store. That's a no for both of them.
"Maybe I should just lay around and watch movies, or something", Benji muttered to himself while washing his dishes in the sink. He put them in the dishwasher to start later.
DING!
Benji looked down at his phone to see that he had gotten a text from someone. He did a double take when it the person was his boss! The text was saying that he was needed to cover the rest of the day guard's shift because she had fallen ill all of a sudden.
"I hope I can get overtime for this", Benji rolled his eyes.
DING!
As soon as he said this to himself, Scott had texted him that he would definitely get overtime for this extra shift. He responded to his boss that he'll be on his way as soon as possible. Benji got into the shower, changed into his outfit from last night, and headed out the door. On his way to the pizzeria, Benji grabbed two iced coffees from the coffee shop down the street from his job. He was going to definitely need them to get through the rest of the day shift and his upcoming night shift.
Benji had arrived to the pizzeria around 5:00 pm. The pizzeria closes at 9 pm, even though everyone else leaves before midnight. Benji walked into the pizzeria and into the security office to set down his bag and iced coffees. After putting a straw into one of the drinks, he grabbed it and walked out of the office to find Scott. He was sipping on his iced coffee while he was walking around. Benji eventually found Scott in his office.
"Hey, what did you want me to do until my night shift?" Benji asked him curiously.
"Oh hey, Benji!", Scott smiled, "You just have to watch the cameras for any suspicious activity and just walk around every hour or so."
"Okay, I'll be able to handle that!", Benji replied enthusiastically.
"I knew I'd count on you", Scott nodded and Benji walked away.
While Benji was sipping on his coffee and walking back to the office, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye! Noticing that Freddy was giving him the stink eye, Benji hurriedly went back into the quiet space of the security office. He really didn't want to find out anyway.
"That was really weird", Benji muttered to himself while booting up the tablet.
Hour after hour, Benji either looked through the cameras back and forth, or just scrolling through every platform on his phone. As he was about to put the straw into his second cup of iced coffee, his alarm on his phone went off! He almost spilled the coffee everywhere. Luckily, he caught it just in time before it had tipped over. Benji put the straw in and turned off the alarm. That alarm was a timer for when he had to get up to do his routinely walking around the pizzeria. He got up from the desk chair and walked out of the left door. Walking around the outside of the dining area, he found a spot to just lean up against the back wall to just keep an eye out for anything to happen.
While he had his back against the wall, while holding his iced coffee in his left hand, Benji pulled out his phone because it made a noise from him receiving a text from someone. He looked down for a second to see that Aurelia had texted him!
That's odd, she hasn't personally texted him in a long time. Why now? Benji pondered to himself while sipping on the coffee.
"I better get back to my job, I don't have time for this", Benji quietly mumbled to himself while putting his phone back into his pocket.
"You're right, you need to keep yer eye out for the lil mateys!", a metallic pirate voice popped up out of nowhere to his left!
Benji slightly jumped from the sudden voice. He quickly looked to his left, it was that pirate fox animatronic!
What was his name again? Benji asked himself, trying to remember, Oh! It was Foxy!
"I-I'm so sorry Foxy", Benji stuttered a bit.
"Aye, it's okay matey, you're new", Foxy formed a smile towards Benji and walked back to Pirate's Cove.
Benji sighed a breath of relief, looked down for a second, and then quickly looked back up. He started scanning the dining area again with his eyes, but they widened when he saw the bear. Freddy was staring right back at Benji! When he noticed the same stink eye from earlier, Benji quickly averted his eyes away to pretend to look at something else. The bear animatronic turned to face Benji, and before he could do anything, Benji quietly high-tailed it back to the office.
Hours went by and before Benji knew it, it was already 9 pm. He saw through the cameras the last of the families and groups of teens leave the pizzeria. Benji's stomach rumbled from not eating during the last four hours of the day shift. Benji's body was toned and muscular, but he had a high metabolism. He knew he'd definitely needed to get something to eat before he started his second night shift for the week. Benji was going to walk out of the pizzeria to go get food, when Scott came up and approached him.
"Benji, where are you going?" Scott asked with a confused expression on his face.
"Oh", Benji started to say, "I was gonna get some food before I started the night shift."
"There's no need for that", Scott chuckled.
"Huh?" Benji was confused from the response.
"We are a pizzeria, you could've asked for some food", Scott smiled at Benji with reassurance.
"O-Oh yeah", Benji sheepishly smiled.
"Head into the kitchen before they start cleaning it up and tell them that I said that you can get a free small pizza and whatever else you'd like", Scott exclaimed as he went to go pack up his stuff to leave.
Benji nodded in response and headed to the kitchen. He was nervous about asking because he hasn't really talked to any of the kitchen staff before. While slightly fidgeting his hands nervously, he walked through the kitchen doors. All of the kitchen staff looked over at Benji when the doors made noise swinging back and forth. He froze like deer in the light of headlights of a car in the night. There was a slight awkward silence for a bit before anyone said anything.
"H-Hey there", Benji stuttered with a smile.
"Well hey there, partner!" the what looked like to be head chef replied with a wink, "What do you need?"
"I'm here to order a couple of things to eat before I start my night shift", Benji answered nervously.
"Did Scott tell you that?" the head chef asked with a confused expression.
"Y-Yeah", Benji stuttered and sheepishly smiled.
"We can do this favor for you since we haven't started cleaning up yet", the head chef smiled.
"Thanks", Benji smiled quietly.
"What did you have in mind?" the head chef pulled out a pen and a small pad of paper.
"I'd like a small sausage pizza, a small order of parmesan bread bites, and a water please", Benji nervously smiled.
"We'll get that order out as quickly as possible, okay?" the head chef smiled back with a wink.
"Okay", Benji replied and headed out of the kitchen doors.
He quietly walked back to the security office to wait on the food. As he was about to go through the door, he saw a piece of paper taped up on the end of the east hallway. "Kids vanish at local pizzeria - bodies not found." was the big headline for an article that was from the year of 1985.
When did that get there? Benji asked himself warily.
Benji took the newspaper clipping to the office and sat down in the chair. He continued to read the article, and he was appalled at what had happened. "Two local children were reportedly lured into a back room during the late hours of operation at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza on the night of June 26th. While video surveillance identified the man responsible and led to his capture the following morning, the children themselves were never found and are presumed dead. Police think that the suspect dressed as a company mascot to earn the children's trust.".
"What in the actual fuck?!" Benji muttered to himself in disgust, "Why would someone do that? Especially doing it with a mascot costume!"
Benji folded the newspaper clipping and put it in his bag for later. He was then startled by a knock on the doorframe and fell out of the chair. Benji stood up, looked over to his left, and it was just the head chef standing there with his food.
"Sorry for startling you like that", the head chef chuckled a bit.
"I-It's okay", Benji stuttered quietly in response while dusting his pants off.
"Your food was done, but I decided to bring your food to you", the head chef smiled and winked while handing him his boxed food and water. Benji took it and blushed a bit, but the chef didn't notice.
Is he flirting with me or is he just being nice? Benji asked himself hopefully.
"T-Thanks again", Benji sheepishly smiled.
"Anytime, uh", the head chef began, "What was your name again newbie?"
"I'm Benji", Benji smiled as he set his food onto the desk.
"Nice to meet ya! I'm Hayden! I'm the head chef in the kitchen", Hayden grinned with pride.
"That's nice! Of course you know that I'm the new night guard", Benji chuckled nervously.
"Yeah", Hayden smiled, "Well, I got to get back to finishing cleaning up the kitchen, just let me know if you need anything before we leave!"
"Okay, I will if I do", Benji replied softly while nodding his head and smiling.
Hayden smiled, turned right out of the office, and headed back towards the kitchen. Benji sighed a breath of relief and sat back down at the office desk. He opened the pizza box and it smelled absolutely delicious! When he opened the box of his parmesan bites, it smelled good, but they also smelled a bit off. However, Benji just shrugged it off to the cheese's smell, grabbed a slice of pizza, and took a bite. It tasted like how it smelled, very delicious. Benji realized that he didn't have any napkins though because of how greasy the pizza was.
Crap! Benji thought in annoyance to himself, I have to go grab some napkins!
He quickly ran out of the office towards the dining area. Upon seeing a napkin dispenser on the closest table to the hallways, he looked around to see if anyone was watching him because he didn't really want to talk to anyone about the napkin situation. He did see the trio of animatronics on stage, not moving but looking out to the empty dining room area.
I hope nobody minds me taking these napkins, it's not like we don't have enough of them. Benji thought to himself while grabbing a handful of napkins from the dispenser. After getting the napkins he needed, Benji scurried back to the office to finally eat his food.
While eating his pizza and bites, Benji decided to do some research on the newspaper clipping he found earlier. He pulled up a web browser on his phone and typed out "Freddy's Missing Children Incident". When he had hit enter, Benji almost choked on a bite of his pizza when he saw that there were a bunch of results. He drank some water when he swallowed the food so he would stop coughing. There were hundreds of links and articles, so he just clicked on the first one he saw and started from there. Of course the gist of the clipping was everywhere, but the online articles went into more depth of the incident that happened many years ago.
11:50 PM
It was a couple of hours of Benji finishing eating his food and him researching on the missing children incident. He looked at the clock on his phone and it read 11:50 PM! Since there was no trash can in the security office, Benji quickly cleaned up his mess and briskly walked out to the dining area. He threw away all of his garbage and then he looked up to see Hayden turn off the lights to the kitchen. Hayden also saw Benji and waved goodnight.
"Have a good night and stay safe!" Hayden smiled and walked out of the pizzeria.
"Yeah, thanks, hopefully I'll be here tomorrow", Benji quietly said to an empty dining room.
Before he was going to go back to the office, he looked over to the animatronic trio. Again, they stood there motionless. For now that is. Benji nervously thought to himself. He walked back into the office before it turned midnight.
12 AM
On the dot, the phone in the office rang like it did the previous night. Benji cautiously answered the phone.
Uhh, Hello? Hello?
"Hello, again", Benji muttered to himself.
Uh, well, if you're hearing this and you made it to day two, uh, congrats!
"Um, thanks?" Benji replied weirded out a bit.
I-I won't talk quite as long this time, since Freddy and his friends tend to become more active as the week progresses. Uh, it might be a good idea to peek at those cameras while I talk, just to make sure everyone's in their proper place. You know.
When the guy on the phone stopped talking, Benji booted up the tablet and started to look at each of the cameras. The animatronics were still on the stage.
Uh, interestingly enough, Freddy himself doesn't come off stage very often. I heard he becomes a lot more active in the dark though, so, hey, I guess that's one more reason not to run out of power, right?
"I hope I really don't run out of power this time", Benji shuttered a bit.
I-I also want to emphasize the importance of using your door lights. Uh, there are blind spots in your camera views, and those blind spots happen to be right outside your doors. So if you can't find something – or someone – on your cameras, be sure to check the door lights. Uh, you might only have a few seconds to react. Uh, not that you would be in any danger, of course. I'm not implying that.
"Oh you're implying that! OF Course I'm In Danger!" Benji exclaimed a bit too loud that it kind of echoed in the office. He clapped a hand quickly over his mouth once he realized it.
I hope they didn't hear that! Benji frantically thought to himself.
Also, check on the curtain in Pirate Cove from time to time. The character in there seems unique in that, he becomes more active if the cameras remain off for long periods of time. I guess he doesn't like being watched. I don't know.
"To be honest, I don't like being watched either, so I understand him for that", Benji chuckled nervously.
Uh, anyway, I'm sure you have everything under control! Uh, talk to you soon!
"I hope so", Benji muttered.
He looked down at the tablet again after the call had ended, and Bonnie was gone from the stage!
"Great, he just can't get enough of me, just like Hudson", Benji chuckled a bit even though it wasn't funny at all.
3 AM
The power was at 85 percent and Benji was getting really annoyed at the fact that Bonnie was constantly at the left office door. Chica had only showed up once because he had heard the noise of clattering pans all night. Foxy hadn't showed his face yet, which was kind of fortunate for Benji.
"Can you please stop acting like one of my clingy exes?!" Benji shouted as he had to close the left door on Bonnie yet again.
He sighed heavily, but he wasn't in the clear yet. Benji looked at the Pirate's Cove camera and saw that Foxy was about to run towards the office! He blinked and saw that Foxy was not in front of his cove anymore!
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Benji frantically cried.
Before Foxy could get to him, Benji shut the left door as fast as he could. He heard the fox animatronic bang his fists on the door. The power flickered for a bit, which kind of scared the night guard. He heard Foxy walk away from the door and Benji reopened the left steel door. Benji looked over at the power meter and luckily it only went down to 80 percent.
I think I'll be okay tonight. Benji sighed and thought to himself with confidence.
5 AM
I was totally wrong! I'm going to die! Benji cried to himself.
The power meter read 60 percent and Foxy was about to run towards the office again. Benji blinked, yet again, and didn't see Foxy where he was supposed to be! He heard the clank clank clank coming closer and closer down the the west hallway. Benji waited until the animatronic was really close and then he quickly shut the steel door on the fox.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The power to the pizzeria flickered again, and it made the power meter go down to fifty-five. The night guard huffed at the sight of the battery percentage. Foxy finally walked away from the office again. Benji opened the left door and sighed. However, he heard a noise coming outside of the right door! He quickly turned on the door light to reveal that Chica was standing right there! Benji yelped and closed the right steel door down in front of the chicken animatronic. He checked the cameras on the tablet and saw that Bonnie was in the corner of the west hallway! The night security guard quickly closed the left door so now both of them were down.
Half an hour had passed and the animatronics haven't left the end of the hallways yet! Benji was starting to freak out over it.
"Why won't they leave?!" Benji's voice got higher a bit from freaking out.
At last, he heard the footsteps from the right walk away from the door and then he heard the ones on the left leave. Benji could finally pull the doors up so he could save power. Speaking of which, he glanced at the power meter and his heart dropped so fast.
"Fuck! It's at 40 percent!" Benji was getting frustrated and looked at the time, "I literally have twenty minutes left!"
He knew that he could only use the tablet for Pirate's Cove, otherwise he would be dead just like the building's power. Looking at the Cove camera, he saw that Foxy was starting to peak out from the purple and starry curtain.
"Oh Hell No!" Benji shouted and pointed directly at the screen, "You keep your pirate head-ass in that cove!"
He quickly shut off the tablet. Of course, nobody but him heard it because the instant he turned it back on, Foxy was standing outside of the cove! Benji just grunted and groaned in frustration. Just like the other two previous times, Benji blinked and Foxy was heard coming down the west hallway for the third time.
clank clank clank
Benji shut the big, metal door just in time as soon as he saw a shiny hook come into his peripheral vision. He thought he heard the fox mumble something, but shrugged it off as nothing.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The power flickered and the meter went down to twenty-five percent. While listening to the fox leave, Benji almost dropped the tablet! When he caught it, he sighed a big sigh of relief and leaned onto the nearby wall. However, when he heard the door quickly open, he soon realized he accidentally leaned onto the button of the door! Benji saw the fox quickly whip around from the noise of the door! The night guard's eyes widened as the animatronic make its way over to him. Benji quickly shut the door just in time again.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The power meter was now at twenty percent! Benji held his breath as if it would trick the animatronic into thinking that he wasn't there.
"Come on out yer scallywag! We have something for you!" Benji quickly froze in place.
Did that fox animatronic just speak to me?! I'm definitely not going out there! Benji was now freaking out a lot on the inside.
As if he was saved, he finally heard the fox walk back towards Pirate's Cove.
"Suit yourself, mate", Benji heard him mumble sadly down the hallway.
The night guard was going to retract the left door, when the power went out!
"Shit! What time is it?" Benji quickly pulled out his phone.
The time read 5:56 AM! He only had to wait four more minutes. However, he heard heavy, yet brisk footsteps coming down the west hallway! Benji's heart was pounding so loud and fast, he thought that whatever was approaching him could hear it. He looked down at his phone, 5:58 AM! When the footsteps stopped right outside of the office, the security guard held his breath, not to make a noise. When he thought it was about time, he felt something pick him up by his wool sweater! Benji looked up and right into Freddy's glowing light blue eyes!
"H-Hi", Benji whimpered in fright.
Before Freddy could say anything, the both of them heard the bells ring for 6 AM! However, for some reason, Benji could only hear the children cheer for him? Freddy set Benji down on the ground as soon as the power was restored, and just walked back to the stage without saying a word.
6 AM
Benji just stood there in disbelief. He wanted to cry because of how his life just flashed before his eyes, but he didn't though. After grabbing his bag, Benji just hurriedly walked out of the pizzeria and got into his car. He buckled up and drove back to his house, with a blank and tired mind. The night guard couldn't even form a thought at all. Maybe whatever just happened triggered his PTSD from the incident with Trevor. Whatever was happening now, everything in Benji wanted to just shut down.
Benji got home and wanted to just sleep. However, he did have to throw his outfit into the washer before he could. While on his way upstairs to the bedroom, he felt like he wanted to throw up. Benji quickly ran into the master bathroom, opened the toilet, and just vomited into it. When he was done, of course, he brushed his teeth so he couldn't taste it in his mouth anymore. Benji finally got into his bed and pulled the covers up. While he was drifting off to sleep, he thought he saw something tall with a golden hue standing at the end of his bed! Benji ignored it because his body was just too tired and just fell asleep.