Logical thinking has driven everything in Tim, Sydnee, and Charlie’s lives, and it’s never failed them- till now, that is. Desperate to disprove a small town urban legend, Tim ends up face to face with it. Science has served Sydnee well her whole life, but a strange encounter will leave her superstitious- if she survives it. And Charlie desperately tries to keep her new friends from descending into madness, only to realize she’s being dragged down with them. All too often in the alarming world of Five Nights At Freddy’s, insanity prevails.
Story 1: Lights Out
The town sign declared itself Breaker’s Ridge, Utah, with a population of 4,000, but to Tim it was Nowheresville.
He drove down the quiet Main Street and groaned. He really hadn’t wanted to come here, but apparently his old friend had wanted to show him something. Why that thing was out here, he didn’t know, but he owed Kenny one.
Finally, Tim reached the address he’d been told to come to. He pulled his car over and stepped out.
Kenny, who had been pacing excitedly on the sidewalk, stopped and beckoned him over. Tim really didn’t need further guidance, though, as what Kenny wanted to show him was pretty obvious.
Behind him was a building that stood out among the drug stores and greasy diners. It had a coat of fresh red paint, and looked brand new. Windows revealed flashing lights of every color from inside the building, and the sound of children laughing mingled with some poppy upbeat music.
And on the roof, an enormous sign proclaimed: FREDDY’S PIZZA PARLOR.
Tim walked over and Kenny immediately wrapped him up in a hug.
“Personal space, Kenny.”
“Sorry.” Kenny responded, backing up. “I’m just really glad you’re here. It’s been a while.”
He gestured at the sign. “So…what do you think?”
“Is this place your’s?”
“Yep.” Kenny pointed at his shirt. Over his breast pocket there was a pin that identified him as Kenny McIntyre, Manager.
“Isn’t this exciting?” he said as they walked in. “I’ve always wanted to start my own business, and be my own boss.”
Tim looked around the restaurant. “Well, not your own boss, exactly.”
Kenny frowned. “What do you mean?”
Tim chuckled. “Come on, I can see what’s going on here.” He nodded at the main room which was filled with arcade machines, rowdy kids, and a stage with fancy, plasticky looking animatronics. “This is a Freddy Fazbear franchise, obviously. It even has that animatronic bear’s name!”
Kenny grimaced as they sat down at a table. “Um, no…the truth is that the Pizza Parlor is sort of a bootleg.”
Tim raised an eyebrow. “Wait, really? Aren’t you afraid of Fazbear Entertainment suing you?”
“They probably won’t hear about it- it’s so far out in the sticks. Besides, they’re so busy trying to rebuild the brand and construct that Pizza-Mall or whatever it’s called east of here.”
“Eh, good point. They wouldn’t care what happens in this ghost town.”
“Well, no need to be mean.” Kenny said. “Sure, it’s small, but it’s still a really great community.”
Tim smirked. “Settle for this if you want, Ken. Me, I’ve got bigger and better places to be.”
A young boy ran up to Kenny. “Mr Kenny! Mr Kenny!”
Kenny smiled at the kid. “Hey, Rodger, glad to see you back again. What’re you so excited about?”
Rodger smiled back. “The Power Ghost snuck into my house last night! He stole our TV remote’s batteries. I saw him walking away into the field! I can’t wait to tell all the kids at school!”
Kenny gave a hesitant grin. “Uh, OK. I’m glad you’re excited, I guess?”
Rodger ran off into the arcade area, already excitedly telling the tale again to another group of kids.
Tim stared at Kenny. “What was he going on about?”
Kenny shrugged. “Oh, that? Just a local urban legend.”
“An urban legend that steals batteries?”
“Well, yeah. The Power Ghost is apparently the spirit of a chubby little kid. He never hurts anyone, or even causes property damage. All he does is steal a physical power source once a night- usually a battery. I know it sounds crazy, but a lot of townspeople believe it.”
Tim cringed. He had figured these yokels wouldn’t be the cleverest folks, but he hadn’t imagined a story this ridiculous would be this widespread.
“What about you?” Tim inquired.
Kenny hesitated. “I wouldn’t…but I’ve seen it.”
“You have!?”
“Yeah. I’m not fully convinced, but enough people have seen it that I probably wasn’t just imagining things.”
“You really don’t think it’s some kind of fake?”
“I never said that, but it’d have to be a really good one. Rodger isn’t the only one who claims to have seen it walk around.”
“What does it look like? Are the descriptions consistent?”
“Trying to solve the case, Detective Tim?” Kenny laughed.
“I’m not a detective. I’ve spent the last two years working in biochemistry, and if that’s taught me anything, it’s that there’s always a logical solution- or at least a more logical solution then ghosts.”
Kenny thought for a moment. “Well, like I said, really chubby. He’s also got skinny arms and legs, big feet, a propeller beanie- oh, and a weird ball on a stick.”
“A weird ball on a stick?”
“No one’s quite been able to figure out what it is.”
Tim rubbed his temples. What kind of weird ghost story was this?
Then, something caught his eye.
“Does it look anything like that?” Tim asked.
He pointed to the corner of the Parlor. There, doing a little dance, was a rotund child animatronic with a propeller beanie. Beside him sat a barrel that had several balloons tied to it with a piece of paper taped on that read ‘Take One’.
The kid robot waved a sign that exclaimed ‘Balloons!’. And in his right hand, he held a fake balloon- a long white stick with a striped ball shape on top.
Kenny looked at the robot, and mused on the idea. “I mean it sort of looks like the ghost…but that’s just Balloon Boy, or BB. He has really limited movement.” He pointed at a cord that connected the animatronic to a power outlet. “I doubt he could run all over town, breaking into people’s houses.”
Tim sighed with an air of superiority. “Kenny, I’m not saying this Balloon Boy of yours is doing this. Clearly someone has been using it as the ghost. Maybe they set it up that when someone sees it, they can pull it out of sight with a rope or something. People probably just think they see it actually moving its limbs, and another person starts believing the stupid story.”
“I guess…” Kenny muttered. He tensed up. “But does that mean someone’s broken into my restaurant every night, stolen BB, and put him back? All for an elaborate prank?”
Tim shrugged. “People do complicated things for dumb reasons.”
Kenny tapped his fingers nervously on the table. “Should I call the cops? I don’t like the idea that someone’s managed to break in so often without me noticing, even if they don’t steal money.”
“I get the feeling that in a place like this, the news that the ‘Mystery of the Power Ghost’ might be solved would spread fast. The prankster would hear about any police stakeout and wouldn’t show up. We need to catch this weirdo if we want to stop them for good.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“I’ll do a stakeout of my own.”
Kenny giggled, then stopped. “Oh, you’re serious.”
“Yep. You said you didn’t have any spare rooms in your house, anyway.”
“I mean, there’s a motel.”
“Either way I’m staying overnight in a cockroach infested room in a ghost town, and I choose the one I don’t have to pay for.”
“Hey. At Freddy’s Pizza Parlor, we follow health and safety codes!”
“Sorry.”
At 8 PM, the Parlor closed. The arcade machines went dark, and the animatronics waved goodbye, shutting down once the kids were out of sight.
Soon after, Kenny walked out of the building, his day’s work done. He looked back at Tim, still inside.
“Sure you want to stay? You’ll be locked in from the outside.”
“I’m not a child, Kenny. I can handle this.”
Kenny shrugged. “Alright, see you tomorrow.” He closed the door and locked it.
Tim watched him get in his car and drive off.
He sipped from a cup of soda, and began staring intently at BB, as if looking away for a moment would give the thief ample time to snatch the robot.
The rays of sunset that had snuck in through the glass door began to fade, and within the hour there was no light left in the restaurant.
Undeterred, Tim flicked the switch on the flashlight Kenny had given him, and kept his gaze fixed on BB.
Still, Tim kept catching himself drifting off. He’d quickly shine the light in his eyes, and get back to watching, but that didn’t last long.
Tim woke with a start after one particularly long lapse, and checked Balloon Boy in a panic.
It wasn’t there.
Tim said some words that really weren’t welcome in Freddy’s Pizza Parlor as he rose up and jogged around quickly, still wiping the sleep from his eyes.
“Hey, you jerk! If you’re here, you better come out, and return BB. I’m gonna put a stop to your stupid prank!”
He entered the hall that led to the backrooms and screeched to a stop. There, standing just around the corner, was BB.
He wasn’t quite able to stop fast enough, though, and crashed into the creepy kid. It fell over, and Tim heard something crack.
“Crud.” He focused his light on the animatronic to see the prop balloon it was holding had shattered. The stick was fine, but the bright red balloon itself was in pieces.
“Where did Kenny get these things? They seem cheap.” Tim muttered.
He cupped his hand around his mouth and yelled, “Whoever you are, you’re paying for that!” Flashlight in hand, he snuck around the shadowy backrooms, searching for the prankster.
After ten minutes, he gave up, and returned to the hall.
“I don’t know where you’re hiding, but I’ll find you, and this whole town will know the truth.” he grumbled.
To his shock, BB was gone again.
“Oh, so is this the game we’re playing?” Tim shouted. “Can’t mess with everyone but you can mess with me? As if you’d ever even begin to fool me into thinking the ‘Power Ghost’s’ real.”
He set his head on a swivel. “Where is that stupid balloon robot now…”
Something behind him caught his eye. He turned to see BB, standing there, eyes right on him.
“Aghhh!” Tim screamed, stumbling backwards and falling onto the dusty checkered floor.
“How- how did someone do that? I didn’t hear a thing…” Tim whispered, trying desperately to catch his breath.
Tim looked back up at the robot. Something about it just seemed wrong. It seemed bigger, and not just from his low perspective. Its colors were slightly off, with the blue stripes on its red shirt looking more purplish in hue. And its eyes- they hadn’t just been posed to look up at him. While the movements were too subtle for him to see, he could tell the eyes were following him, focused on his chest.
Tim forced himself off the ground. Through his continued panic, he decided to use the flashlight to get a closer look at BB.
With another burst of shock, Tim realized the light wasn’t in his hand.
“Must’ve dropped it when I tripped…” The light was still on, though, and Tim easily traced it back to its current location.
Balloon Boy’s hand.
Its sign, Tim could now see, was resting against the wall, put aside to make room for the glowing light that was Tim’s one line of defense.
Balloon Boy’s eyes shifted, now focuses on the flashlight. It looked back at Tim for a moment, and laughed.
From its ball-like hand, a bony finger emerged, and flicked the switch.
And the lights went out.
Tim desperately felt his way out of the hall, following the wall back into the main dining room of the Parlor. All the while he racked his mind for explanations, for some kind of solution that could account for everything he’d just seen.
Maybe the prankster had found a way to control it remotely. Maybe this was some kid in a costume. Maybe the robots were supposed to walk around at night and Kenny had forgotten to mention it. Yes, he was reaching, but anything else made more sense than BB really being alive and haunted.
From every direction, that laugh echoed. Balloon Boy had made the sound during the day, every time someone grabbed a balloon. Then it was irritating. Now it was mocking and maddening.
Finally, Tim made his way to the front door. He tried to break through, banging against it with everything he had.
It was no use. It was reinforced, and refused to even crack. There was a little bit of moonlight pouring through it, letting Tim see just a few feet into the otherwise pitch black building.
“Ok…” Tim said to himself. “I’m probably- probably fine. It’s just trying to scare me.” He chuckled nervously. “And Kenny said it never hurts anyone anyway. It just steals batteries and junk like that. I’m good..I think.”
Then Tim facepalmed. “Wait, it? What am I saying, it’s a fake!”
The resonating laughter stopped for a moment, then continued, though different. It was deeper and more guttral than the ones before it.
Then, from in front of him, Tim heard footsteps. They were solid and heavy- definitely not that of the small plastic Balloon Boy.
“Ha! That you, prankster?” Tim grinned confidently, trying to act like he hadn’t been terrified moments ago. “Good job with the ‘Power Ghost’, but I think we should be done here, right?”
A shape moved into the moonlight.
It was Balloon Boy.
But it had changed.
It had gained an extra foot of height, and gotten a bit fatter. Its clothes were now red-and-purple striped. It had an enormous mouth that opened wide, full of teeth the size of toothpicks. There were five of those cadaverous fingers on each hand, each ending in a sharp point. And its eyes, once sky blue, had turned red and bloodshot.
The light may have been relatively dim, but Tim still got a good look at the monstrous machine. And it was that moment he finally realized: it was real.
He couldn’t even scream. He could no longer hide behind his doubts. A real monster marched towards him, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
The nightmarish animatronic raised its emaciated claw high over its head. In a moment, it thrusted back down- and sunk it right in Tim’s chest.
Unimaginable pain shot through Tim’s body. He felt the crack of rib and the puncture of lungs. The hand continued to move, rooting around in its bleeding stomach, like a child searching a cookie jar for the last chocolate chip one.
Finally, Tim felt its horrible mitt grab something triumphantly, and pull.
There was a spurt of red liquid and a disgusting squishing sound.
In the thing’s hand, there was something crimson and pulsating. The creature laughed in delight.
That was the last thing Tim heard before his light went out.
The kids cheered as Kenny pulled up in his car. It was 9:00, and that meant Freddy’s Pizza Parlor was opening for business!
As he stepped onto the sidewalk, he thought about what he’d heard about while getting breakfast at the local diner: no Power Ghost sightings or missing batteries last night. It appeared Tim had been right. Kenny wasn’t completely happy about this, since it did mean someone had really broken in on a regular basis (he should probably upgrade the security, maybe hire a nightguard). It was also a bit of a bummer that the ghost wasn’t real. In most cases such a discovery would be a relief, but the ‘Power Ghost’ wouldn’t have hurt a fly.
Still, maybe it was for the best. Kenny figured Tim was more than ready to get out of there, so he rushed through the small crowd of families, and unlocked the door.
Within seconds, kids swarmed the place. Some employees followed quickly behind, frantically trying to get to their workstations.
Kenny smiled. Felt nice to make kids happy. He just wished Finn would come here sometimes. But he was afraid of the animatronics, something Kenny didn’t blame his son for. They were definitely a little creepy…
A scream rang out from the back of the Parlor.
Kenny sighed. Had a kid thrown up in the ballpit already?
It was quickly followed by dozens more screams, some from adults.
Confused, and beginning to worry, Kenny followed the sounds.
Kenny gently pushed through the crowd gathered in the corner, and saw what everyone was looking in horror at.
It was Balloon Boy. He was dancing around as normal, cheerfully laughing at all the kids. However, every movement he made sent drops of blood splattering onto the checkered floor and the children’s faces. It wasn’t hard to see the source.
Balloon Boy’s white stick was no longer topped with the large fake red balloon. Instead there sat an imperfect, but seemingly satisfactory replacement- a disembodied,oozing human heart.
Kenny, like many were starting to do, vomited. It was disgusting and horrifying- how could Tim have allowed this?
Then Kenny gasped, realizing whose heart it probably was.
In a terrified daze, Kenny stumbled over, and unplugged the robot.
Behind Balloon Boy’s eyes, the lights went out.
But the laughter didn’t stop.
Story 2: Sydnee’s Unlucky Day
The ringing doorbell echoed through the house. From her room, Sydnee smiled. Lauren was here.
She quickly dashed out of her room, keeping a firm hold on her messenger bag full of textbooks and homework. Her mom had already opened the door to see who it was. “Ah, Lauren! How are you, dear?”
“Hi, Mrs Tanaka!” Lauren smiled, exposing her braces. She, like Sydnee, was 15, and was one of the only kids in their grade to still have them. It was just one of the things that made her easy to recognize, like her short curly blonde hair or her insistence on wearing combat boots all the time.
Sydnee walked up and casually grabbed her shoulder. “Hey, Lauren. No time to stick around- we have a test to study for, right?”
Sydnee’s mom frowned. “I still don’t see why you girls have to do it at the park. That place is way too close to the abandoned warehouses downtown. You know lots of kyōaku-han hang out there.”
Lauren awkwardly glanced at Sydnee.
“Thugs…” Sydnee whispered.
“Why don’t you just study here?” Sydnee’s mom asked. “We’re having tempura and udon for dinner!”
Sydnee hugged her mom. “Thanks, Mama. But there are just some things that are easier to do at the park.”
Kissing, for example.
Sure, there were some drawbacks. There was always the risk of being hit by a soccer ball from the mob of kids that played every day. Sometimes there were geese that would fly in and take the park over. And sometimes, yes, people did give awkward looks, and sometimes say rather cruel things to them. Still, Sydnee and Lauren sat on that bench overlooking the small pond, and smooched.
Eventually, they pulled away, though not for a while. It had been a while since they had been able to kiss.
Lauren sighed contentedly. “It’s nice whenever we don’t have to pretend that we’re just friends, cutie. We should do it more often.”
Sydnee blushed at the first sentence and raised an eyebrow at the second. “I thought you said you’d shut up about it for now.”
“Well, I guess I lied. If we just told your parents about us- about you- we wouldn’t have to hide anymore. You’ve admitted yourself that they’re the only reason we’re keeping this whole thing secret.”
Sydnee shrugged. “I’m just not sure how they’d react.”
“I thought my dad would push back, but he was pretty ok with it.” Lauren smiled. “Your parents are really cool. I know they’ll accept you.”
“I will soon.” Sydnee promised.
“You said that when we first got together six months ago.”
“Which, on the geological time scale, is nothing.”
Lauren gave her a strange look. “Is that your idea of a good comeback?”
“No, it serves as an opening for us to start studying.” Sydnee grinned.
“What?” Lauren groaned. “I thought this was a date, not a study session.”
“It’s both. We have that big test next week, remember?” Sydnee responded, pulling her textbook out of her bag. “Besides, you know I love science. Maybe this is my ideal romantic outing.”
Lauren groaned jokingly. “Such is my love for you that I will endure, nerd girl.”
“Whatever, jock.”
And so they studied. Lauren quizzed Sydnee on questions both knew that she could easily answer, Sydnee explained to Lauren what the lithosphere was, and they both fed the ducks stale bread Lauren found in her backpack.
It was perfect.
So naturally, it was interrupted.
Sydnee saw a familiar face in the distance.
“Crap…” she muttered.
About a quarter of a mile away walked a small group of boys ages seven to ten, holding kites and chattering excitedly. One led the group- Sydnee’s little 8 year old brother Kai. The group hadn’t seen them yet, but they would soon.
“Study time’s over, Lauren, we gotta hoof it!” Sydnee said, frantically packing her school stuff back into her bag as she got up.
“Wait, why- hey, isn’t that your brother? What’s the worry?”
“I promised Mama I wouldn’t sit this close to the warehouses yesterday. We had to come here since less people go to this area of the park. He’s a little blabbermouth. He’ll tell my parents, and they might find out the whole truth. I’m just not ready!”
Lauren raised an eyebrow. “You’re quite the pessimist.”
“I’m prepared for the worst case scenario. C’mon, let’s get out of here!”
The pair ran across the park, eventually reaching the far end. Kai and his friends still advanced, not stopping for anything.
“They’re probably coming to fly their kites in this field.” Lauren said. “Let’s just act casual. We don’t have anywhere else to run to, anyway.”
Sydnee stopped and looked around frantically. Her eyes caught on something.
“Yeah we do! There!”
Lauren turned to see where Sydnee was pointing, and her jaw dropped.
“There!? Into that warehouse!?”
“It’s our only option.” Sydnee argued.
“But-”
“Please, Lauren. For me.”
“Fine.”
They dashed across the street, and into the decrepit old building.
Honestly, Sydnee was kind of disappointed.
Not that she’d hoped to run into a long abandoned warehouse during her date. But if she had to, she’d prefer it if it went all the way- broken, rusted machinery, stringy cobwebs, utter darkness- in general, a better atmosphere.
Instead, the place was in relatively good condition, assuming that it had been left to rot as long as the other buildings. The machines weren’t damaged, just powered down. Even stranger, there wasn’t any graffiti inside, despite how much there had been on the building’s outside (and on all the others). Though the sun was starting to set, there was still a good deal of light pouring in. Overall, kind of a disappointment on the spook front.
Lauren seemed to be relieved, though. “This place isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it’d be.”
She turned to Sydnee. “So, how long are we staying in here?”
“I think there’s another exit that borders on the road back home.” Sydnee recalled. “Kai won’t be able to see. I’m meant to be back within half an hour anyway.”
“It’ll be a while before we can go on another date.” Lauren said wistfully. She gave Sydnee a look. “All this secret keeping- it’s just hurting all of us.”
An awkward silence filled the warehouse. Sydnee coughed. “Let’s just focus on getting out of here.”
As they walked through the building, it began to dawn on both that the building was still kind of creepy. It being so undamaged, clean and lit made it seem like there should be people there, hauling boxes and driving forklifts. Now it felt empty and far too quiet.
“What kind of stuff do you think came through here?” Lauren asked, trying to break the silence.
“Who knows? Lots of stuff, probably.” Sydnee shrugged. Then she saw something odd.
Between two tall shelves there sat a large, industrial size cardboard box. There was a huge logo emblazoned on its side: a smiling robotic bear’s head, with the words Fazbear Entertainment wrapping around it.
“Oh!” Sydnee exclaimed, satisfied at Lauren’s question being answered. “This was a Fazbear Entertainment Distribution Center.”
Lauren suddenly looked much more nervous. “You mean the company with all those dead-eyed robots!?”
Sydnee ignored her, and got a closer look inside the box.
There was only one item in it: a smaller cardboard box with a clear plastic window, like a Barbie doll would be packaged in. But rather than an irrationally skinny blonde woman, there was a robotic black cat.
It was constructed of shiny plastic, with all sorts of little decorations: stiff wire whiskers, articulated ears, and green LEDs in its eyes.
It was a little too realistic, though. Sydnee had never heard of an uncanny valley effect for an animal, but this creepy little thing fit the bill.
“Don’t worry, sweetie.” Sydnee laughed. “Looks like they made toys here, not full sized animatronics.”
She handed the small box off to Lauren, who turned it over in her hands, and began to calm again. “Well, it’s still slightly horrifying, but I could probably take this thing.”
Lauren began to read from the back of the box. “Following 1985’s successful Fetch™ model comes another Fazbear Entertainment toy sure to knock your socks off. Blake the Black Cat™ will serve as a great robotic companion to any kid, especially around Halloween. Just be careful of bad luck!”
Lauren chuckled, expecting Sydnee to laugh along. But Sydnee seemed a bit annoyed.
Lauren casually tossed the small box back into the big box. “Hey, is something wrong?”
“What, no, it’s fine. It’s just…it’s fine.”
Sydnee looked around, and gasped in relief.
“There we go.”
Even though it wasn’t lit, the red glass in the exit sign made it easy to find.
The door had been barricaded from the inside with a few cinder blocks, but Lauren cleared them away with ease.
“So…” Lauren said hesitantly as they left the building. “See you later?”
Sydnee pecked her on the cheek. “Yeah.”
They each headed off to their houses.
The warehouse was silent.
But not for long.
Soon enough the sound of ripping cardboard echoed through the empty building.
And a monster broke free.
“Bad luck.”
Sydnee laughed to herself as she walked down the quiet street, though it was still irritating her.
If Sydnee’s experience with science had taught her anything, it’s that there are few things too far fetched to consider. A statement that seemed foolish now could be seen as concrete fact within the decade. As long as a hypothesis could be tested, it should be tested. Ghosts? Maybe. God? Worth considering. But superstitions?
They just felt so…superficial. So interchangeable. Clearly each served a product of their own cultures, with no consistency. Sydnee honestly couldn’t believe anyone still believed in them, though things like the message on the box might have something to do with it. That’s why it had annoyed her so much. Superstitions were so hammered into kids at a young age, some might grow up really believing a plant with an extra leaf or a broken mirror could change your destiny.
In fact, Sydnee was walking through a perfect example: 13th Street. An old family friend, Mr Cooper, has once owned an apartment block here with rent that was pretty reasonable for this city. But a lot less people had rented than he’d expected. Clearly fear of the unlucky number the street was named for had something to do with it.
Still, over the last year or so, the area had become a lot more populated. The older buildings had been torn down, and in place came modern apartments and quaint little shops.
Sydnee was happy to see it. Another example of logic triumphing over needless fear.
She heard creaking metal and looked to see a lamppost falling right towards her.
She screamed and dived out of the way.
The post crashed through the window of the Turn Up the Volumes Record/Book Store, sending glass flying into the store and cutting the new releases to ribbons.
Sydnee crashed to the ground. A streak of pain surged through her body as she felt her knees and hands get skinned against the rugged sidewalk.
With some effort, she pushed herself up. She stared in shock at the scene before her. Luckily the store seemed to be closed.
Her eyes fell on the lamppost’s base. A hunk of concrete had been pulled up with the pole. It was practically like the thing had yanked itself out of the ground. In the hole it left behind there was a black stain, with greenish lines carving through it that Sydnee could swear were glowing, if barely.
What on earth had just happened?
Five minutes late- of all the things to be lectured over.
Oh well. Better that than her parents learning she was hanging out so close to the warehouses- and, y’know, dating a girl.
A restless night followed. Her dreams were a landscape of inky black with glowing green veins forming a corrosive web. She would run across the nightmarish terrain, and see a way out, but an enormous shadowy figure appeared in her way, its viridescent slitted eyes gleaming with hatred. Everytime Sydnee would wake up in a cold sweat, and every time she’d fall back asleep and the dream would repeat.
Normally Sydnee preferred to sleep in, but today she was relieved to see the sun rise over the horizon, though it was mostly obscured by heavy clouds.
Sydnee hauled herself out of bed and stumbled downstairs into the kitchen, catching the attention of her mother and brother, who were already eating. “Dear, did you sleep ok?” Sydnee’s mom asked, looking concerned at the dark circles under her eyes.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Sydnee yawned.
Kai laughed through his mouthful of Choco Chomps and milk. “You look like a weird zombie.”
“Whatever.” Sydnee poured herself a bowl of the cereal. She couldn’t help but be wary as she ate. What if Kai had seen her, and was going to blurt it out any second?
She hastily ate her breakfast, and dashed upstairs to finish preparing for school. About twenty minutes later she came back down, grabbed her bag and was about to dash out the door when her dad stopped her.
“Just a minute, Sydnee-Chan.” He pointed outside, alerting Sydnee to the mist of rain that was beginning to fall outside.
“Oh, shoot. Thanks, Papa.” She reached for the coat rack, and grabbed her umbrella. It was brand new, purchased only a few days prior, and not yet used.
“Have a good day. Study hard.” Her father said, before walking back into his home office.
Sydnee walked outside, as the rain began to fall harder.
The monster watched, waiting for another chance.
It could wait a very long time.
It didn’t think it needed to, though.
Sydnee closed her umbrella as she entered the school. She looked around the halls already crowded with rowdy high schoolers, scanning their faces for Lauren. Nothing. She sighed. Lauren’s homeroom was on the other side of the school, so she usually had to start getting there as soon as she arrived at the building. They didn’t share any other classes, so the only time they usually got to talk after school, and even then one of them or the other often had a place to be. Being with her had just been easier back in middle school.
From behind her, she felt a tap on the shoulder. She turned around quickly, and maybe a little startlingly, causing her friend Susan to step back. “Whoa, there, Sydnee. You seem a bit high strung today. Everything alright?”
“Wha- Oh, yeah. Just sort of a bad night of sleep.”
“Sorry about that.” Susan’s eye caught on Sydnee’s umbrella. “Wow! Girl, I love the pattern on that!”
Sydnee smiled tiredly. “Oh yeah, I think it looks really good. Here, I’ll give you a better look.”
“Allow me.” Susan snatched the umbrella and opened it up in front of herself, causing a dome of opaque nylon dotted with colorful triangles to burst out.
Susan admired it. “Nice, what store did you-”
From above her there came a cracking sound. Sydnee looked up just in time to see a chunk of the ceiling break loose, and hit Susan right on her shoulder, banging her head as well. The umbrella fell out of her hand, and tumbled to the ground at Sydnee’s feet.
Susan crumbled to the ground like a sack of bricks, as blood began to burst out of the raw wound dented into her head. Nearby students gasped, some gagging at the gory display.
Sydnee was frozen, unable to move from pure confusion and fear.
She managed to look at the ceiling chunk to see more of that green-black corrosion pulsating on it.
That green color…now that Sydnee was getting a better look, the shade looked familiar. It was the same color as…
No. The idea that these weird accidents had something to do with a toy black cat Sydnee had just stumbled was unacceptable. A theory too stupid to begin considering, as dumb as-
As dumb as the number 13, or an umbrella opened indoors, or a shadow-coated cat changing destiny? Sending a lamppost or a chunk of concrete tumbling down on an innocent person? Because those things had just happened.
All of these thoughts raced through Sydnee’s head as kids stared at Susan with panic, and teachers came out of their classrooms and began carrying her outside. One was on the phone, frantically calling 911.
Sydnee herself pulled out her phone, walking down the hall half in a daze.
She began texting: [Sydnee: Lauren, meet me at the warehouse tonight. I need to check on something].
9:00 PM. It was showtime.
From what Sydnee had heard, Susan was in stable condition. Good news, but Sydnee could hardly celebrate. If that cat was really behind all this, it was still out there, and it seemed to be after her. It would hurt more people she loved if she didn’t stop it.
The sound of her mom snoring echoed through the halls. Her parents were asleep after long days of work.
Sydnee pushed open her window and hopped out. Lucky she was on the first floor.
She began the trek to the warehouse, careful to plan a route that went around 13th Street.
Sydnee sighed. She couldn’t believe it’d come to this.
If she hadn’t been distracted, she might have noticed the shadowy figure following just behind her.
Lauren paced awkwardly in the warehouse, on guard for an animatronic ambush.
She instead got a kiss.
“AGHH- oh, uh, hi Sydnee. How are you doing?”
Sydnee gave a tired grin. “A little better now.”
“Me too, sweetie. Sooo, why’d you call me to this probably not haunted warehouse? Did you forget a textbook here?”
Sydnee got serious. “No. I want to make sure of something. Just come with me.”
It took a bit, but eventually the pair found the large box at the center of the maze of shelves. Sydnee quickly looked inside.
The small box had been reduced to a mangle of clear plastic, tape, and cardboard. There were teeth and claw marks covering the whole thing.
Lauren laughed nervously as she picked up the destroyed box. “Is this some kind of weird prank, Sydnee? Cause it’s- it’s not funny.”
Sydnee stepped backwards, stunned. The idea had been in her head, that this thing was alive and roaming free, but seeing it missing from its box made it so much more real.
From behind them, someone yelled “HI!”
Panicked, Lauren threw the box as she turned. Luckily it was cardboard, so it bounced harmlessly off the head of Kai.
Sydnee gasped, then groaned. “Kai, what are you doing here?”
“I was getting a drink when I saw you go. Mama said we shouldn’t go out the window, or go out after they’re asleep. Why are you here?”
“Why are you here?”
“To ask why you’re here.”
“Well, you did, so you can leave now. See you, love you, don’t mention this to our parents, or else. Lauren, back me up here.”
Silence.
“Lauren?”
Sydnee looked at Lauren, annoyed. Lauren was petrified, staring upwards at the top of the shelves. Sydnee and Kai followed her horrified gaze.
There, sitting and watching from the high shelf, was Blake the Black Cat. Its eyes, once dim, no glowed with a fiery green light that looked not at all mechanical in origin. It made subtle movements with surprising grace. Scariest of all, it seemed to be grinning- as much as a cat of any kind could, anyway.
Rather than be angered at being noticed, the thing seemed happy, taking joy in the fear on the trio’s faces. It hissed in a way that sounded far too real- and leaped down towards them, jagged claws out.
Lauren broke out of her stupor to pull Sydnee out of the way, who in turn grabbed Kai’s hand, tugging him along as they started to run.
“The cat thing is alive!?” Lauren asked Sydnee, fear pervasive in her voice.
“Um, yeah.” Sydnee said as they rounded a corner. “I think it cursed me- and it somehow makes bad luck real! Bad things happened when I went on 13th Street and when Susan opened my umbrella in school, and it has to be to blame.”
Kai puffed out air, starting to get winded, though he still seemed very excited. “A real monster? That’s awesome!”
“I’d think the same way if it wasn’t trying to kill us!” Sydnee looked over her shoulder and saw no sign of it. “Maybe we lost…”
The cat raced around the corner and ran into the shelf. It wasn’t damaged, but the shelf was, with claw marks from Blake’s paw-first collison etched into the metal.
Quickly the three continued to run, as sounds of whirring and scurrying echoed from behind them.
Up ahead there stood a stepladder that went across the entire aisle. Lauren prepared to slide under it, but Sydnee stopped her. “No! Bad luck, remember? We have to go around it.”
Kai clumsily stepped over the bottom step, with Sydnee and Lauren crossing more gracefully. It still slowed them all down, though. The cat ran towards the ladder, but slowed down as well before leaping over.
Right in front of them, Sydnee spotted a set of stairs leading up to an elevated office. “C’mon, guys, up there!”
Sydnee, Lauren, and Kai dashed up the stairs. The metal door into the offices was open, so they ran inside. Lauren grabbed a nearby filing cabinet, and pushed it down in front of the door.
The door resonated when something slammed into it from the outside. There was an annoyed growl, and the sounds of claws scratching metal followed.
“Do you think it can scratch through the door?” Lauren looked at Sydnee nervously.
“Probably not.” Sydnee said, trying to convince herself as much as Lauren.
A earsplitting SHRIEK screamed out from the door as a small rift got cut into it. The cat stopped scratching for a moment and peered through. A greenish spotlight shot through the hole and focused right on Sydnee before the sound of tearing metal resumed.
“OK, maybe.” Sydnee set her head on a swivel and saw a door out of the room. She ran over to open it. To her dismay, all that lay behind it was a dirty bathroom that seemed to be the most ravaged place in the factory.
For the first time, Sydnee truly began to panic. “I- I don’t know what to do!” she cried, slumping against the wall. “If we fight it, it’ll cut us to pieces. Even if we escape from here, it’ll keep following me, giving me more bad luck!”
“Well maybe it’ll eventually get bad luck, too.” Kai offered.
Sydnee glared at him. “Don’t think that’s how it works, squirt. I’m the one who’s cursed, not it.”
Kai frowned. “But then why didn’t it go under the ladder?”
“Wait, what?”
“Climbing over the ladder slowed us down. If the cat had just gone under, it could’ve caught up. But it didn’t. Maybe it’s vulnerable to bad luck too.”
Sydnee stared at him, surprised. Lauren chimed in next.
“Oh, yeah! And Sydnee, didn’t you say Susan was the one who opened the umbrella at school? If you’re the one who’s cursed, why would bad luck affect her?”
Sydnee tried to process this. “So…what you’re saying is it’s like…a radius around the cat? And it’s in it and could be affected too…I think you guys are right.”
Kai grinned. “Heck yeah we are!”
Sydnee smiled back and pulled both of them close. “We don’t have long, but I think I have a plan.”
With a resonant shrieking noise the monster finished cutting a hole in the door. It slinked through and looked around the small room. There was a desk, some filing cabinets, and a long dead houseplant, but not the girl and her allies.
A foul odor ensnared the monster’s senses. It saw the entrance to the bathroom, which was open just a crack, allowing the sound of subdued, scared breathing to escape.
She was there.
The monster snuck towards the door and poked its head through the door. The girl sat on the gross tiled floor, looking terrified as she saw its glowing eyes.
Glee filled the twisted monster’s mind. Easy prey.
With one agile leap it flew at her, claws out.
There was the sound of movement from behind, and the sight of movement from in front. Then, the monster saw the strangest thing: itself, flying right back at it.
That was the last thing it saw, as the shattering of glass ushered it into darkness.
“Wow, Syd. I did not think you were capable of playing pathetic and defenseless.” Lauren said, as she tossed aside the frame of the mirror Blake had slammed into.
“I even impress myself sometimes. Great coordination getting that thing right in front of it.” She looked down at the cat. The grody old glass had been covered in that black-green corrosion. All of the shards had lodged into important places: head, joints, and those two creepy eyes, which had now gone dim. She chuckled. “Seven years of bad luck for you, jerk. Though it only took a couple seconds to finish you off.”
Lauren laughed. “C’mere, you!” She pulled Sydnee close and kissed her on the lips.
It was perfect.
So naturally, it was interrupted.
“Kissing? Gross.” Kai groaned.
Sydnee turned with a start. Kai! He’d been hiding against the wall, and she’d forgotten he was here.
“Oh, uh, Kai! We were just…” she stopped. “You know what, whatever. Me and Lauren are in love, and we’ve been dating for months. Please, I’m begging you, for once in your life keep this quiet for now.”
Kai mused on this. “Ok. So you were kissing on your birthday sleepover? I was never sure.”
Sydnee and Lauren stared, stunned. “Wait…” Lauren said. “You saw us?”
“But that was at midnight.” Sydnee argued. “Everyone else had gone to bed- including you!”
“I was getting a drink of water when I heard you. You kiss loudly.”
“No, we don’t- wait, do we?” Sydnee looked at Lauren, who shrugged in response.
“But why didn’t you say something to Mama and Papa?” Sydnee asked.
“Just didn’t seem like my business.” Kai responded.
Sydnee smiled at him and ruffled his hair. “Thanks, my guy.”
She looked at Lauren. “Hey, you want to come to your house after school tomorrow?”
“Why? To study.”
“No. Well, maybe, if there’s time. More importantly, I think I’m ready to tell my parents about us.”
Lauren got excited. “Really!?”
“I think I’m ready- as long as I’ve got my girlfriend and little bro backing me up.”
“With you all the way, nerd girl.”
“Me too!” said Kai.
“Well, with that settled, I think I’m ready to go home. Destroying demon robotic cats really takes it out of you.”
The trio walked out of the factory, back under the watch of the beautiful nighttime sky. Sydnee sighed contently with one hand in Lauren’s and the other one gripped by Kai.
How lucky she was.
Story 3: The First Year
MAY 13th, 1983
The rain was so cold.
This was supposed to be her special day. Her birthday.
And she was spending it outside, hands pressed against the window, watching her party go on without her.
“What, you think just because your dad owns the place you can tell me what to do?” Robin had asked, mockingly raising the cup far out of reach.
“This isn’t about my dad, it’s my soda, give it back!” Charlie had pleaded.
“Wah, wah, wah. Like I’m going to be bossed around by some three year old.”
She’d been so angry. Birthdays only came once a year, and he was ruining hers. She charged into him, headbutting him in the stomach.
He’d fallen back, spilling the soda and ice all over himself, much to the amusement of his bully buddies Fred and Jane. “Wha- don’t just stand there you morons, grab her!”
They’d quickly complied, each grabbing an arm. They were less than ten, but easily old enough to get the better of a toddler.
“You think you’re hot stuff, huh, Charlie? Maybe you need to cool off!” Robin opened up the heavy metal EXIT doors and gestured to his cronies. They wordlessly tossed Charlie outside, into the muddy alleyway.
“We’ll let you back in a little- however long it takes for you to get who’s boss. Until then, happy birthday!”
The doors had slammed shut, and Charlie had been out there ever since. The door wasn’t locked, but was too heavy to move. It’d been almost ten minutes, and she was freezing. The kids had made their way to the arcade room, and were nowhere in sight.
Her dad said he had made something, he’d said. Something to keep her safe, that would work as long as she kept her green bracelet on. But it wasn’t helping her. She was stuck.
There was the sound of muddy footsteps behind her. She turned to see William Afton, dad’s friend and business partner, walking towards her.
He’d changed a lot over the last few months. Once, he had been a kinder man, more heavyset and with more life in his eyes. Ever since the deaths of Elizabeth and Evan, though, he’d lost weight, and just seemed more tired and angry.
“Charlie?” he grumbled. “What’re you doing out here?”
“Some older kids did this. They threw me outside.”
“Hmm.” he said. He seemed to be thinking, like he was wrestling with something difficult. Finally he responded. “Alright. Follow me.”
She moved to follow William, but something caught her eye in the window. She swore she saw some lanky shadowy figure moving behind the door. Honestly, it was creepy.
Seeing William already several steps ahead she plodded after him.
Within moments, Charlie realized that they were going deeper into the alleyway. She was pretty sure it was a dead end.
She looked up at him. “Hey, why-”
He grabbed her by her throat and slammed her into the brick wall. Again. And again. And again.
Pain shot through Charlie’s increasingly bludgeoned form. Her blood mingled with the rainfall as her skull cracked.
Finally he released his grip. She fell onto the ground, her limbs ragdolling.
His face, now splattered with blood, was a twisted mosaic of a million emotions. Sadness, anger, horror- but they all eventually conglomerated into one horrible expression of victory.
Whistling, looking more alive than he had in months, he walked back onto the street, letting the rain wash the blood away.
Charlie laid there on the ground. She knew she was dying.
A figure appeared over her. It was the one she’d seen inside the pizzeria. Through her haze, she recognized it as an animatronic of sorts, wearing a white mask with rosy red cheeks. It had eyes that glowed green, which focused on her bracelet.
The rain was doing something to it. Sparks were flying out of it, and it seemed to practically be coming apart at the seams. It was breaking down, just like her.
It curled up around her, trying to comfort her. It was warm, while everything else was cold. Charlie leaned into the robot, trying to put everything she was into it, hoping she’d be warm too.
She succeeded, but she only got colder.
TWO YEARS LATER
JULY 24th, 1985
There were five of them. Five little souls, all so different, but all united in death.
Charlie couldn’t control her body at first. It was, after all, the new programming of the Puppet: give gifts to the children, especially if they were looking sad.
So the animatronic prodded them with the box it carried, waiting for them to wipe the tears from their eyes and grab it.
They didn’t.
Finally, the Puppet’s programming gave in to Charlie’s influence. She stretched out her lanky limbs, and peered through the mask’s small eye holes at the bodies before.
Rather than giving gifts, she began to give life.
First, a young girl. The squashed cupcake in her hand and yellow hair on her head made her just right for Chica.
Next, a boy with darker skin. He wore a fake tuxedo t-shirt and held a branded Freddy Fazbear™ toy microphone. He certainly seemed worthy to be the leader of the band.
A pale boy with fiery red hair was splayed against the wall. He wore a t-shirt that proudly displayed Foxy the Pirate, and had an eyepatch to match. He’d be content with his new form, if this was anything to go off of.
Beside him there was another young man, with olive skin and an action figure of Bonnie in a literal death grip. That one was easy enough.
Each she evaluated, and each she took, forcing them into the powered down animatronics on stage. Blood and flesh oozed out of the pushsuits as the animatronic parts pierced their bodies. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was necessary. Perhaps their families would prefer them as they had been (relatively unmutilated), but for what? So they could preserve them in a casket, giving them the illusion of living. Charlie was giving them the opposite: they didn’t look alive, but they were.
Within seconds she could feel it, the remnants of their souls sinking into the metal. It would take a while, but the results would be eternal.
Finally only one child remained: a girl with warm beige skin and black hair. She wore a pretty yellow dress, and held an old Fredbear plush.
Her vessel was easy to decide (especially since it was the only animatronic left), but something felt odd- namely, the plush. It was worn and well loved, which made sense since these things hadn’t been produced since the Diner shut down. But why would she bring it here, since Fredbear himself wasn’t on display?
Besides that, the plush itself had a strange feeling about it. Its plastic beady eyes caught the light in a way that made the toy look aware. Even outside of physical appearance, Charlie felt an aura that just seemed inexplicably off emanating from it.
Perhaps it was just the girl, or her emotions powering it. Either way, Charlie wasn’t taking any chances. If there was a piece of her in there, then she couldn’t leave it trapped.
She dragged her into the backrooms, and heaved her into the suit. She gingerly placed the plushy in after.
Charlie returned to the prize counter, and settled into her box. She could feel the Puppet’s powerful daytime programming taking over, and it was easiest to get whatever kind of rest during that time.
As wrong as it was, though, Charlie couldn’t help but be a little excited about the nights to come.
Now she had someone to share them with.
JULY 25th, 1985
They woke in the order they were placed.
First the blonde girl winced at the light shining in her eyes. She tried to rub them, only to feel unyielding plastic instead of squishy eyelids.
Startled, she bumped into Freddy, waking up the darker-skinned kid. He snarled. “Hey, knock it off…” He too stumbled backwards in surprise, because the voice that came out of his mouth was not his own- though neither was his mouth.
In the distance, a ragged cry of confusion echoed out. Charlie guessed it to be that of the red haired boy, all alone in Pirate’s Cove.
Finally, the last child on stage yawned, and scratched his head. The path of his hand across it was interrupted by two protruding ears.
The children eventually all entered the main dining area, where Charlie sat, waiting patiently.
The Foxy animatronic lunged at her. “Who are you?” it growled. “Did you do this to us?”
“Yes and no.” Charlie responded.
“Um, pretty sure you can only say one of those.” the Chica robot said.
“It’s complicated. First off, let’s introduce ourselves. I’m Charlie.”
“Susie.” responded Chica.
“Jeremy.” Bonnie said nervously.
“Gabriel.” Freddy contributed hesitantly.
Foxy gave her a cautious look before answering. “Fritz.”
He continued. “With that out of the way, why are we like… this?” He gestured at himself and his friends with his hook.
“Well, you’re dead.” Charlie figured it was best to rip that band-aid off quickly.
The silent pizzeria grew even more quiet, as if the building itself was stunned.
Susie looked around, and fearfully eyed her fuzzy robotic hands. “Is this heaven?”
“My dad said there isn’t heaven- or anything after.” Gabriel countered.
“Clearly he was wrong.” Charlie said curtly. “But this isn’t heaven either.”
Jeremy gasped. “Is this…the bad place?”
“No. It’s Earth.”
Fritz stared. “But we’re dead.”
“You’re sort of in between. You’re dead, but not all the way. The animatronics are your new bodies, since your old ones are worm food.”
“How long will we be here?” he pressed.
“Don’t know.” She briefly worried. “You aren’t in pain, right?”
All of them shook their heads. “I don’t feel hurt, I just barely feel anything.” Gabriel whispered.
Suddenly, he gasped. “Wait, where’s Cassidy?”
They all swiveled their heads, scanning the room for a fifth animatronic.
“Oh, her.” Charlie smiled as much as her mask would allow. “Just follow me.”
“See, she’s fine!” Charlie pointed at the limp furry form splayed against the back room wall.
They all stared in shock.
Fritz roared in anger. “What’s wrong with her?!”
Charlie calmly explained. “This is a springlock suit. It’s an animatronic whose insides can be retracted so the suit can be worn. Right now it’s in suit mode.”
Jeremy frowned. “Can we get her in the other mode?”
“We’d need a springlock crank to do it. No dice right now.”
“If the robot isn’t working, can she even… think?”
Charlie paused. “I’m pretty sure…but I can check to be certain.”
She gently placed her hand on the thing’s dusty forehead. It was easy to hear the voices of spirits, if you listened enough.
Sure enough, the sound of a young girl speaking quickly echoed through her head, as if the noise was verberating up her arm, into her robotic mind.
What she wasn’t expecting, though, was another voice. It was a young boy’s, tinged with a slight British accent. Vaguely familiar, but she just couldn’t place it.
She fell backwards in shock. Another soul, somehow lurking inside the suit?
“Hey, you OK?” Susie asked.
Charlie considered telling them, but decided against it. These poor souls were so worried, and were looking to her for guidance. It would terrify them if there was something she couldn’t explain.
“Um, yeah. Don’t worry, I heard your friend’s voice. She’s fine. Or, y’know, as fine as anyone can be under these circumstances.”
Gabriel smiled. “Well I’ve been thinking, maybe this isn’t too bad. We can spend as long as we want at Freddy Fazbear’s!”
The other kids agreed. “Race you to the arcade!” Fritz challenged.
The four possessed animatronics ran off laughing.
Charlie sighed. One day at Freddy’s was magical. One eternity, not so much.
She’d learned the hard way.
And they would too.
AUGUST 27th, 1985
The month had been a whirlwind of arcade games and pizza, of fun and games. They didn’t need to rest (though the arrival of day forced them to). Every night was an unending barrage of childhood fantasy- and that’s where the trouble began.
You can only get the high score so many times before it begins to lose its exhilarating effect. Pizza’s flavor was dulled by the mechanical middlemen it had to go through. No matter how much fun anything is, it becomes trite and boring given enough time.
They lasted longer than Charlie had before apathy began to set in. Of course, she’d spent much more time here than them in life, and had been all alone. It took a lot of work to keep from going crazy in these circumstances.
Nevertheless, it was on this day that they finally asked her for help. She had offered it a few times, but they had always denied needing it, as children were prone to do.
They all gathered around the stage, Charlie sitting on its edge.
“Ok, the most important thing about living like this is that your emotions become incredibly powerful. They govern the way you think and act, since you’re no longer restrained by your mind or body.”
Fritz raised his hook.
“Yes?”
“What kind of emotions? Just bad ones?”
“No. Good feelings can affect you for the better.” She hesitated. “But negative emotions are more dangerous than good ones are helpful- especially since the former are more likely to leak out.”
Susie gave an incredulous look. “Leak?”
“It’s something that happens all the time, but us being stripped down to spirits made it much more powerful. When those emotions get out, they can infect objects.”
“What kind?”
“Anything. A toy, a doll, candy- anything it can latch on to. Though, when given the opportunity, it’ll grab something with some kind of intelligence. Usually artificial, like an animatronic”
Gabriel gaped. “How do you know all this?”
“It was something my…dad’s friend…used to study. My dad helped out sometimes, though he was never as obsessed as him.”
“Could we get his help with all this spirit-feelings stuff? I know we can’t leave the pizzeria, but maybe he’ll come in!”
Charlie chose her words carefully. “I don’t think he’ll be helping us.
“For now, we just need to try to stay calm- keep our emotions in check. Otherwise, we could lose ourselves. Now, let’s just try to relax. How about some breathing exercises?”
Jeremy frowned. “We can’t really breathe…”
“Well, it’s really more like flexing your joints for us. Just- try not to let your servos lock up. Doing nothing can only worsen your mental state- make your emotions more volatile.”
As Charlie said that, she couldn’t help but catch the empty eye sockets of Fredbear- of Cassidy- through the barely opened Backroom door. They bored into her, like two shadowy spotlights.
Even though there were no eyes, Charlie could tell they were watching.
She excused herself briefly and went in to look.
The bear sat there, surrounded by discarded robotic pieces.
“Everything ok? Or, ok as it can be?” Charlie asked.
She didn’t know why. It wasn’t like Cassidy could answer.
One thing did stick out to her. From the left socket, a single drop emerged, streaming down the suit’s cheek. It was a sticky black substance, like runny tar.
Charlie wasn’t sure what it was. She tried to wipe it off, but the moment she touched the liquid, a streak of pain ran up her lanky striped arm, like a needle had been jabbed through it.
She quickly pulled it back, shocked. That black ooze…it was some kind of slurry of emotional energy. There was rage, sadness, and confusion, all of which were bound together by agony.
Even now the substance was evaporating, turning to black steam in the air.
In a panic, Charlie pushed all of the animatronic parts away from the bear. If that emotional energy got a hold of them, horrible things could happen.
Keeping an eye on the mascot, she left the room, closing the door behind her.
NOVEMBER 3rd, 1985
“I have a surprise for all of you.” Charlie said excitedly.
The four animatronics had all been sitting at one of the long dining tables, looking rather downcast. While morale could be worse, it was nowhere near the level of energy and enthusiasm present during that first month.
Jeremy raised his head off the table. “Yeah, what is it?”
“Tah-dah!” She pulled out a small mechanical box from behind her back. The cube had lots of strange wires and cross beams sticking out of it.
“It’s a voice box- more specifically, a voice box I designed to work for an open springlock suit. Since we can’t get the suit’s parts to compress, I figured giving your friend the chance to talk might be the next best thing.”
(For you guys, and anyone who doesn’t want to be killed by agony infested robot scraps) Charlie thought.
Susie stood up, excited. “That’s awesome! I’ve been missing Cassidy so much.”
“Just follow me to the backroom.” Charlie grinned.
Quickly enough they had all crowded into the small space.
“Hey.” Fritz asked. “What’s this black stuff on the ground?”
Charlie looked to see more of the agony energy pooling around the golden bear like blood.
“It’s- it’s just oil. Try not to touch it, these suits stain easily.”
Careful Charlie leaned forward, balancing on her pointed feet to avoid the ‘oil’, and began to rewire the animatronic to allow the voice box to be put in.
It took some time- the animatronic systems were split apart by the springlocks- but she succeeded.
“Alright.” she said. “Let’s get her talking!”
She flipped the voice box’s switch.
Nothing.
“Hmm.” Charlie muttered.
“Maybe she just doesn’t feel like talking.” Jeremy suggested.
“She hasn’t talked to anyone for over three months.” Charlie said- though her mind turned to that second voice she had heard long ago.
“I might have just wired something wrong. Let me try to fix it.” She reached for the box.
As she did, the thing sprung to life, and started to produce a sound- but it wasn’t words.
The noises from the box were unearthly- a mix of muttering and screams that were heavily distorted. It wasn’t the voice of a child- it was closer to the whispers of the devil.
All of the others began backing away, scared.
Gabriel gulped. “I’m not a robot expert, but this isn’t supposed to happen, right?”
Charlie was stunned silent. She looked at the box, trying to see if she’d forgotten some important part.
The box was complete, but it was falling apart. That agony energy was pulsing right through it, bursting through the seams- like that distorted audio was it trying to escape.
The noise finally crescendoed at one last scream, and the box exploded.
Dark liquid splattered over all. Charlie’s mask was marred with the shadowy substance, and the other animatronics had black spots over the torsos.
Within seconds, the substance seemed to be sucked into their plush skins.
“Oh my gosh! Guys, are you ok? Do you feel- well- any more murderous?”
Susie frowned. “No. That black stuff is gross but we’re fine.”
The three boys all affirmed that.
“But is Cassidy ok?” Susie said timidly. “That doesn’t seem normal.”
“I guess I don’t know.”
There was silence for a second, then Gabriel screamed.
“Hook! Hook!”
Fritz sighed. “Yeah, I know. I miss having two hands.”
“Not your’s! That one.”
Gabriel pointed at a robotic Foxy arm in the pile. It was rather unremarkable- except that it was moving.
Charlie stared in horror. More of the agony goo had splattered onto the part, and was being absorbed into it. Now it was alive.
It wiggled out of the pile, and dragged itself towards them.
“Everyone, out!” Charlie yelled.
The five animatronics dashed out of the room, and Charlie slammed the door behind her.
“Wait! What about Cassidy?” Jermey asked, concerned.
Charlie leaned against the door. She tried to calm down.
“I think your friend will be fine.” Charlie muttered. She heard scratching from behind the door.
“What do you mean? There’s an evil robot arm in there!”
“It won’t hurt her. She made it with her own emotions. It’s like an extension of her.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure!” Charlie snarled, balling her fists. “Who’s the expert here? You all should trust me more- and so should she!”
Gabriel got angry. “She’s just scared and confused! We all are!”
“You shouldn’t be! I’m here to keep you safe.”
Susie raised a robotic eyebrow. “Well, you’re not making me feel safe right now.”
The four walked away, leaving Charlie alone at the door to keep the monsters at bay.
FEBRUARY 13th, 1986
Cassidy was evil.
Charlie knew it. The others kept trying to defend her, but they were wrong- blinded by their so-called friendship.
They had quieted down about it over the last few months, but they’d quieted down about most other things too. They seemed more somber, more hopeless. Once or twice Charlie had caught them with agony dripping off their endoskeletons.
Cassidy had to be doing this. Infecting them with her agony, trying to turn them into her dark minions. It was so obvious, why couldn’t they see it?!
She was already causing damage. One day while Charlie gave out presents to the children, she’d seen an employee carrying a box full of animatronic parts, including the Foxy arm. He had brought it outside, put it in the back of his truck, and drove off.
She assumed it had been taken to repair a Foxy at another location. Who knew what monster the animatronic would turn into once the agony infected the rest of the body?
All of these things she thought about as she paced around that night. The others were hanging out in a party room coloring pictures, leaving her alone in the main dining area. She’d kind of forgotten what it felt like to be the only person here at night, and it wasn’t pleasant to remember.
“If they would just listen to me…” she muttered to herself, “everything would be better. But they keep taking your side.” Charlie added that last part as she glared at the backroom where Cassidy sat.
She opened the door, just to show how angry she was to her.
The bear was gone.
Horrified, Charlie glanced around, scanning the area for the suit.
It wasn’t too hard to find it.
It was behind Charlie’s Prize Counter, a spot that had been empty when Charlie last looked moments before.
Charlie walked over, stunned. Her surprise quickly turned to anger.
“What are you doing here? How did you even get here!?”
Anger morphed again into horror when she saw more of that agony goo spilling out onto a box of toys.
It was an odd collection, with no particular theme- or that’s what most people would think. In reality, these were some prototypes of toys her father had designed.
The most simple was a plastic doll of a chubby child holding a sign and a balloon. It was apparently based on some plans for a future character. A robotic dog and rabbit leaned against each other, as if comforting one another for being sent back to development for the same reason: too-sharp teeth. Lastly, and most personally to Charlie, a porcelain Ella doll like the one Dad had designed for her laid limp against the box’s cardboard wall.
All of them absorbed the goo, practically drinking up the shadowy stuff.
They began to move.
Charlie was beyond furious. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?” She screamed at the golden bear. With all of her animatronic strength, she heaved the suit out of the Prize Corner. It slammed against a table, its limbs ragdolling.
Charlie grabbed the box and dashed into the kitchen. Quickly she opened the oven door and put the box inside. Slamming the door shut again, she turned it up high.
Fire filled the window as the box and everything inside caught ablaze.
Charlie sighed in relief. She prepared to go outside to confront Cassidy, but something stopped her.
Her eyes caught the oven’s digital clock as she fell over.
6 AM. Her animatronic programming took over again, and she blacked out.
Alex stared at the strange scene. He’d seen some strange stuff as the first person in for the opening shift, but nothing like this. The Puppet animatronic laid there, splayed out on the kitchen floor, and the oven had exploded open, seemingly short circuited from the heat. Strangest of all there were the remnants of cardboard inside the oven, most of the box burnt to a crisp- but the objects that had been inside, an odd looking collection of toys, were barely touched.
“Ok, let’s see here…”
First he dragged the Puppet to its proper position in its box. He grabbed the phone mounted on the wall nearby and dialed in a number.
“Uh, hello? Hello, hello? Yeah, we’re gonna need an appliance repairman by- um- soon. We open in a couple of hours, so if you could- oh, yeah? Great. Uh, see you then.”
Alex hung up.
Finally, he scooped up all those toys, and dropped them in the dumpster out back. Even if they looked mostly fine, their wiring might be burned.
He sighed, “What a morning…” and walked back inside.
Of course, the toys didn’t stay put for too long.
But their stories have been told.
FEBRUARY 27th, 1986
Charlie was not feeling so good.
She’d spend most of the last two weeks staying up all night to watch Cassidy. If she took her eyes off her for even a second, she might teleport again to who-knows-where and infect more objects. Charlie was pretty sure she’d destroyed them- but what if next time she didn’t?
She didn’t really need to sleep, but there was something about doing nothing that was exhausting.
It didn’t help that she was conscious during the day right now. Normally she’d fall sort of asleep when the animatronic systems took over. But for some reason she was awake- probably out of stress, or something Cassidy was trying to do to confuse her.
Nevertheless, she was aware of every present she gave out, and saw every kid’s smiling face.
It was kind of nice, to be honest.
Until she saw a face she recognized.
Robin’s.
He looked different, sure. He looked paler, and had dark circles under his eyes. Only two years had passed, but he looked older, like something heavy weighed on him. Still, it was unmistakably him.
He looked nervous as he reached the front of the line- no, scratch that, he looked petrified.
His mother (Charlie assumed) put a hand on his shoulder and smiled kindly.
“It’s ok, honey. The Puppet isn’t mad at you. He just wants to give you a gift.”
But she was wrong.
Anger coursed through every thought of her mind, filling her soul with hatred. She tried to reason with herself: Robin had been a jerk, but he never wanted her to be murdered. William was the one to blame.
But Charlie’s defense of him crumbled before the overwhelming persuasions of the darkest part of her. Robin put her through this. If he had been a better person, she would not be suffering through this painful prison, free from this twisted form of metal and wires.
He took her happiest day from her.
Now he’d get what he deserved.
Alex kept an eye on the Puppet while he scrubbed the tables. Ever since that strange scene he’d come inside to a few weeks ago, he’d been wary of it. If there was a glitch in the system, and it struck during the day while the robot was surrounded by kids, that would be bad.
That nervous looking kid (Robin, Alex recalled. He was the older brother of the birthday girl) stepped up to the Puppet’s box.
It looked him over. Then it behaved just like normal- it turned ninety degrees, grabbed a wrapped-up prize from the shelf, and turned back. It extended its arms towards Robin, encouraging him to grab the gift.
Looking relieved, Robin reached for it, but the box fell out of the animatronic’s hands.
Alex sighed. Were the finger joints loose again?
Apparently not, because the Puppet grabbed Robin by the throat and began to strangle him.
Everyone watching began to scream. Robin’s mother tried to hit the robot with her handbag, but it knocked her away. Two of the kid’s friends kicked at the box, but the Puppet raked its long fingers across their faces, drawing blood. It lifted Robin off the ground, keeping a firm one-handed grip on his neck.
The boy was panicking, trying to draw breath, but the Puppet’s hand was like a vice, squeezing tighter and tighter.
Horrified, Alex considered running over to grab the kid, but had a better idea. Dashing through the arcade, he came upon a small control panel built into the wall. He fumbled his key into the lock and turned it, causing the glass covering to raise.
In one quick movement, he pulled the lever labeled PUPPET EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN.
Across the room, the Puppet’s eyes glowed a little brighter. In that moment, Alex felt like he saw something behind them far more than artificial, like it was aware and thinking. However, that lasted only a moment, after which they blinked into darkness. Its limbs and fingers went limp, and it released its hold on Robin. He tumbled to the floor and scooted away, tears running from his eyes.
Alex sighed with relief.
After the hubbub calmed down, Alex made another call.
“Uh, hello? Hello, hello? This the Fazbear Entertainment animatronic repairs department? We‘ve got some, uh, serious problems over here.”
FEBRUARY 28th, 1986
Charlie woke up.
She was in her box.
She tried to lift up the lid. It wouldn’t budge.
She kept trying, but no luck.
She began to scream.
JUNE 1st, 1986
Hours had turned into days.
Days into weeks.
Weeks into months.
Charlie woke up once again. As was her ritual she pushed against the lid.
For the first time in months, it opened.
Shocked, she crawled out of her box, stretching her limbs out.
The other kids were chatting at the table, and were surprised to see her.
“Oh- uh, hey, Charlie.” Gabriel muttered.
Then Charlie realized: they were surprised that she’d come out now, but not surprised that she’d been in there.
Charlie pounced at Gabriel, stopping an inch from his metallic muzzle. “You all knew I was in there? Why didn’t you get me out?!”
Gabriel was stunned silent. Fritz glared. “Why? Because you tried to strangle an innocent kid!”
“That ‘innocent kid’ was responsible for my death! If he hadn’t locked me outside the restaurant, William couldn’t have gotten me!”
The four kids stared at her. “William?” Susie echoed. “Is that the man who killed us?”
“Yes, ok? But that doesn’t matter.”
All of them seemed to chew on that information, that name, as if filing it away for closer inspection later.
“Alright.” Jeremy admitted. “But he didn’t mean for that to happen.”
He was right, of course.
“I know.” Charlie conceded. “But it’s not my fault! It’s her’s!” She pointed into the backrooms. The door was open, so it was easy to see Fredbear, shaking around in his sitting position.
“Why’s she doing that?” Gabriel asked.
“Because she knows she’s been found out!” Charlie walked over and picked up the suit, as if by its collar.
“You think you’re so smart? Well, you never fooled me!”
The others all leaped up from the table.
Fritz growled. “Hey, what the heck are you doing?! And what do you mean it’s Cassidy’s fault?!”
“She infected me with her agony!” Charlie held the suit out at them. “Can’t you see? She’s evil, and she’s trying to make us evil, too! She’s trying to infect all of us.”
Black agony dripped from the bear’s mouth as she said that. “See?”
Gabriel balled his fists. “If this is about that ‘agony’, or whatever, that was leaking from us, I’m pretty sure that was our own. And even if it was Cassidy’s, there’s no way she did it on purpose.”
He pointed at her face. “I mean, there’s some coming out of you right now!”
Startled, Charlie stroked her face. Her hand came away covered in shadowy emotional energy, tears that leaked right out of her own eyes.
She hesitated for a moment, but then doubled down. “I don’t know how she’s doing this, but I know it’s her. Maybe her infecting us has turned us into her own evil factories! I mean, why would you be experiencing these emotions?”
Susie gaped. “Why? WHY!? We’re dead. We’re trapped in bodies that aren’t ours, and we don’t know if we’ll leave tomorrow, in ten years, or never!”
“I had to deal with that prospect, too. Did I create bucketfuls of negative energy? No!”
“This is an insane situation. Everyone would react to it differently!”
Charlie ignored her, continuing her rant “I tried to help her, but she rejected me. I wish I’d left her dead!”
A stunned silence fell over the room. What she had just said fully sunk into her. “I- I’m sorry, that was…”
Jeremy couldn’t take it anymore. Roaring, he ran at Charlie and swung his fist at her. She instinctively slapped him across the face, the force sending him flying backwards.
He skidded against the wall and yelled in…pain?
“It hurts,” he whispered.
She had hurt him- something that shouldn’t have been possible.
Her vision shifted, and her perspective altered. For just a few moments, she didn’t see the dead-eyed robots- she saw the kids.
She saw Jeremy trying to prop himself up against a wall, holding his knee as if he’d skinned it. Gabriel and Susie both tried to comfort him and help him up, their skinny arms interlacing with his, even though their physical bodies couldn’t. And Fritz gazed at Charlie, the freckles on his face squeezing together as he glared, daring her to try something.
Finally, Charlie turned around, to look at the suit she’d dropped when Jeremy charged.
A vaguely familiar boy with a striped shirt stood there- holding the Fredbear plush she’d put in the suit so long ago. She didn’t dwell on that too long, though. He was standing in a defensive stance, his arms in a ‘stay back’ position.
Said position was directed at the figure nervously peering over his shoulder- Cassidy.
Charlie stared at Cassidy, who cringed in fear.
Part of Charlie desperately wanted to find proof of what she’d suspected for the better part of the year. But she soon realized there wasn’t any.
Cassidy wasn’t evil. Her eyes weren’t filled with malice, they overflowed with tears of confusion and fear. She was scared and lost.
Charlie looked down at the hand that wiped her own shadowy tears, and her vision snapped back to normal.
Only now did she realize what she’d done- the monster she’d become, pinning her own flaws on this innocent girl.
While she had been looking at Cassidy stunned, Fritz went over to help Jermey. His knee was covered in the agony goo that had coated Charlie’s hand, which explained why it actually hurt him.
It began to dissolve into nothingness. Confused, Fritz asked, “You ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Jeremy said, in a way that suggested otherwise.
Fritz turned back to Charlie and snarled. “What on earth is-”
She wasn’t there. He looked out the door to see her slinking down the hall.
“What’s going on with her?” he asked.
Susie sighed. “Maybe she just needs to be alone for a little while.”
Alex stared blankly at the security camera footage. These robots had been acting weird, but this? Actively attacking each other? He really thought that they’d fixed whatever was wrong with the Puppet- though the awareness he’d caught in its eyes continued to haunt him.
He came up with a new idea. As soon as possible, he’d hire a nightguard to keep an eye on them and record their behaviors. Maybe then they could fix them properly.
What could go wrong?
JULY 21st, 1986
Charlie had spent most of the month on her own. Whether pondering in the bathroom, meditating in the closet, or simply hiding away in her box like now, the time had been used to think.
She partially thought about what she could do to make things up to the others, especially Cassidy. Not that she was even sure she could…
But the main thing that troubled her were Susie’s arguments. How long would they be stuck here? Charlie had always taken it one day at a time, but now that it wasn’t just her soul at stake, she truly realized the insanity of the situation.
Before, she’d thought she knew everything that could be useful to her. That, really, was probably why she’d blamed all her and their problems on Cassidy- she was the unknown factor. That other presence, which had thrown her off so badly whenever she sensed it, especially so. Now she knew it was that familiar boy, and that both him and Cassidy were not intentionally hurting them.
Charlie twisted and stretched her way out of the box, only to see Jeremy walking around looking agitated. Well, she thought, I have to say something eventually.
“Um, hey, Jeremy.”
He jumped, only to relax once he saw her. “Oh, hi.”
“Listen, I wanted to apologize for how I treated you, and Cassidy. I was-”
“Yeah, sure. There’s no time, you have to follow me.”
Confused, Charlie lightly stepped out of her box and followed him through the darkened halls.
He walked into one of the party rooms and removed the covering of a large vent.
“In here.” he growled. “You won’t believe this.”
“Um, this vent goes to the old office.” Charlie said, now completely baffled. “There’s a hallway that leads right there, why not just take that?”
“Too risky. He might see us.”
“Who!?”
Jeremy didn’t say another word, and began to crawl through the metal tunnel.
Charlie continued after him.
The vent was open on the other side. Jeremy pointed out. “See?”
Charlie gazed through the square window to see a bored looking security guard clad in the Fazbear security guard purple uniform. He had some sort of tablet he was looking at, and was occasionally writing something down in a notebook beside him.
He didn’t notice them since the vents were dark, but he had a flashlight. If he heard something, he could look and see them.
“It’s him.” Jeremy whispered, pure anger dripping from his usually collected voice. “The man who killed us.”
“What?!” Charlie muttered incredulously. She quickly pushed him back through the vent, into the party room, following closely behind.
She grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. “What do you mean? That’s not William. Besides, how could you even recognize him? He was wearing that Springbonnie costume when he killed you.”
Jeremy gazed at the wall, as if trying to bore a hole directly into the office with his eyes. “He took it off while he was aranging us into that stupid party scene. It’s the same uniform, similar face- even the way the shadows cover his face. It’s him. There’s no doubt.”
Briefly the image of the man flashed through Charlie’s mind. Jeremy was right, there was an uncomfortable resemblance…
She shook her head. “That’s just the security guard uniform. William was probably working here when he killed you. I think you’re just imagining the rest.”
Jeremy paused. “Do you really think so?”
“Yes.”
Silence. “Then we should probably tell the others.”
“They think it’s him too?”
“Yeah.” He hesitated, as if wondering whether to add anything. “Oh, yeah, they are trying to kill him.”
Charlie gasped. “THEY’RE WHAT!?
Where are they?” she demanded.
“Close.”
Charlie ran into the hall, only to see Fritz and Gabriel creeping down it, staring intensely at the security guard. She dove forward and grabbed both of them, quickly pulling them into the party room across the way.
Needless to say, their clanging metal bodies made a bit of a ruckus, causing William- no, the innocent security guard, Charlie reminded herself- to look into the hall with his flashlight. By then, it was empty. He nervously jotted something down.
“What are you doing?” Charlie asked, enraged. “How can you not tell who it is!?”
“It’s William.” Fritz snarled.
“No doubt.” Gabriel agreed.
More metallic sounds echoed through the room, this time from this room’s vent. Charlie caught Susie’s legs disappearing into the vent. Grabbing them, she yanked her out.
Susie shrieked. “Why? I was so close to avenging us!”
“That man didn’t hurt you. Listen, I get that you’re mad, but that’s not your killer. It’s not fair for you to kill someone for looking like a person who wronged you.”
Charlie spun around to make sure Jeremy wasn’t trying anything funny. Instead, sitting in the middle of the hall, she saw Cassidy and the familiar boy, their suit body in its normal slack-jawed position.
She reached out and pulled it into the room as well. As she did, more corrosive agony dripped out of its joints.
The others were overflowing with the black stuff as well. For a moment, Charlie wondered if she’d been right about Cassidy all along, and the others were all infected.
But she quickly understood the truth. They were all equally at fault, all too weak to keep their own agony and hatred from flooding their minds- including Charlie.
The faces of William and the security guard began to seem more alike. The beads of sweat dripping down his brow blended together with the raindrops that had freely flowed over William that stormy evening. The freckles that dotted the guard’s face may well have been the blood droplets that splattered him as her body cracked open. Those teeth- slightly yellowed, with one crooked- matched with the ones exposed during William’s final smile of twisted, murderous joy.
Luckily, the morning arrived within minutes, and they all fell down, limp. But Charlie just wasn’t sure she could hold the others off much longer.
JULY 22nd, 1986
The night was like a dream.
A half asleep, groggy stumble through a dark restaurant. Charlie tried everything- reasoning with them, distracting them, fighting them- but it was hard to convince them not to kill someone she half-wanted to as well.
She couldn’t make out the name on his tag, but she couldn’t help but read it as William. His midwestern accent morphed into the British one that was present in every deceptive word her murder had lured her away with.
The day arrived, but Charlie was barely holding on. She felt her true self receding into mindless, murderous madness more with every second.
Finally she succumbed, and the world grew a little darker.
JULY 23rd, 1986
Walter clicked through the security cameras frantically. Where were the animatronics? They’d only begun to get more erratic over the last few nights. The day technicians claimed they were getting closer to a solution, but they were clearly lying.
He’d seen them peek out from around the corners at him, heard them skulking through the halls, smelled the disgusting rotten odor that clung to their cartoonish animal bodies.
Walter was a logical person, and he knew how ridiculous the idea that they were hunting him sounded. Still, if things got much worse, he might quit. He could certainly get better pay than $3.35 an hour.
Groaning metal echoed from the right vent. Nervously, Walter shined his flashlight at it.
A robotic bunny’s face stared back.
Startled, he flashed the light at it. “Wha- go- go away!”
He flashed the other vent quickly, only to double take as that chicken robot climbed out of it.
Fear turning to horror, he began to back out of the office, into the hallway. He was about to break into a sprint when he saw Foxy and Freddy marching towards him, with aggression and purpose.
Walter tried to get back into the office, but Bonnie and Chica blocked the way. He was surrounded.
He frantically grabbed his taser from his holster and zapped Freddy with it. It knocked him backwards, and seemed to stun him.
“Leave me alone! Or else…”
Before he knew what happened, the taser was smacked out of his hand. It skidded between Bonnie and Chica, back into the office.
The hand that had done that grabbed him by his collar, and heaved him high in the air. It was that Puppet thing Alex had warned him about.
It examined him, looking at his face from every angle. He screamed and kicked at it, but to no avail.
Finally, it waved Foxy and Freddy aside. They cleared the hallway for it. Behind them sat another bear animatronic- though the way it was slumped against the wall, it looked more like a suit. Walter was pretty certain it hadn’t been there before
The Puppet walked Walter over and began to force him into it. To his confusion, he felt his body scrape against mechanical parts- and then begin to be pierced by them.
His screams of pain rung through the otherwise silent halls.
He looked at the animatronic in its eyeholes. “Please…” he managed, as blood began to clog up his throat and sharpened cross beams pushed into his skull.
The mask shifted ever so slight, for just a moment. From its small smile, a scared girl’s voice whispered, “I’m sorry…”
But it didn’t stop pushing.
One last horrible crunch sent a streak of unimaginable pain through Walter’s body. He shrieked one last time.
The light consumed him.
Alex dumped the bloody mop water down the drain. He was still shell shocked at the scene the manager had called him to check out an hour before.
Speaking of him, Mr Verter stood in the entrance of the supply closet. “I informed his family,” he said. “Told them it seemed like a freak accident.”
“It wasn’t.” Alex insisted, trying not to vomit from the awful memory. “Walter was stuffed into that suit intentionally. There’s something wrong with the animatronics- something that we can’t fix.”
“I know.” Verter said. “We’ll be closing down for a while, but Fazbear Entertainment headquarters is working on some new models- real advanced technology. Nothing like this- or like the incident from a year ago- will ever happen again.”
Alex nodded numbly. “And the old models?”
“They’ll be kept for parts. Company policy.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“We won’t use any of their mental processors, just their body parts. There’s no way any glitch could transmit from those. Trust me Alex, I know this year sucked, but it’s over.” He walked away.
As much as he wanted to, Alex didn’t believe him.
In fact, he felt like it was only just beginning.
Trace Thompson's Guide To Monsters 