Don't Leave the Office

My name is Mike Schmidt, and I'm pretty sure I'm crazy. Two reasons: First reason, I've worked at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Second reason, I'm still working there. My job is as the night watch security guard. If I was working anywhere else, that would mean that it was my job to keep an eye on the place and keep intruders out. That's not really a problem at Freddy's. I guess you could say we've got a real kickass security system. Not like anyone would ever want to break into a kid's pizzeria. Good for them. Not good for me. I go to work every night at midnight, and for six hours, I keep an eye on the animatronics. They keep an eye on me too. But there's only one of me, and there's four of them…though sometimes it's five. Don't ask. Just don't ask. In the day, Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken, and Foxy the Pirate Fox all stand on stage playing corny rehashes of whatever's on the radio to entertain kids eating pizza that tastes like paste spread on cardboard. At night though, they get put into free-roaming mode. Apparently it's to keep their servos from locking up. Keeping an eye on a bunch of animatronics walking around would be weird enough, but I could deal with it, if wandering around was the only thing they did. Every night, I watch those things go from their stages, working their way throughout the store, trying to get to me. If they ever got to me, they'd stuff me inside a Freddy Fazbear suit, which is already stuffed with crossbeams and wiring, making it so that whatever of me that was left would look like hamburger. The guy that worked before me told me in a phone message that it's because they think that I'm an endoskeleton without a suit, which is against store policy, but I'm not so sure. I know that they follow programming of some kind that includes that kind of rule, but I think that there's more. Sometimes, while I watch the animatronics through the security cameras with my tablet, I can see newspaper clippings, stories that talk about the store, about bad things that happened to the store. Kids have been lost here, kids that were never found, though I'm pretty sure that if the owner of the store, Mr. Faz actually cared, he'd find something in those animatronics. Some of the parents have mentioned it, weird smells coming from the animatronics, sometimes leaking blood and mucus. Sometimes, when those things get close enough to the cameras, I can hear them, singing, choking, or laughing. The boss knows. I know he knows.

So why the hell am I still working here? I think that I first started because I needed a job, or I needed the money, or whatever, but those are piss-poor reasons for me now. Besides, I've been doing this for months. It's weird, but apparently you can get used to this kind of thing. After a while, you pick up patterns that the animatronics take. Foxy always starts from behind the curtain, and he works his way from there, and runs to my office. The others are harder, but I've gotten pretty good at getting down a pattern so I get all my bases covered with the cameras. I mean, it makes sense. They're robots, right? They should be predictable. I bet that's what Phone Guy thought. I never really found out the guy's name, so I just call him Phone Guy. He was the guy who left me messages in my first week. Even though I know that guy was a toady for the owner, he did leave me the messages that got me through the first week. Well, he left most of them. He had been working for a while. I bet he was like me. I bet he had gotten used to the job. But every now and then, those things remind me that they aren't just glitchy animatronics. Sometimes they surprise me. A few times, I've run out of power, only pulling through by the skin of my teeth, just making it to 6 AM. I must be crazy to still be working here. Well, maybe I am. But someone's got to do this job. I don't know if those things would ever try to get out, but I don't like to think about what would happen if they did. Not that I could really do anything to stop them if they tried, but maybe just the fact that I'm here keeps them in the store.

But that's not the only thing. People have died here. This store, this entire damn franchise has killed people. Kids have been killed here. I don't care what the management says, they were killed. Kids, and at least two other night guards. I know there was some guy before Phone Guy, at least. People have been killed, and the guys in charge haven't done a damn thing for them. They've just covered it up, hushing up the parents of those kids. If there was anything left, Fazzy's lawyers cleaned it away. That's what I've been doing here. I've been collecting every scrap of newspaper I can get, every memo that's been thrown away, every recorded message I can get my hands on. By this point, with all that the work that I've done, I could seriously pass as a P.I. I don't have enough to sink the company, but I know I've got enough to make Fazzy sweat.

That's what keeps me going, the hope of someday making Fazzy pay. Wish that was the only thing keeping me going, though. My doctor says my lungs look like a worm's dug in and died. Twenty bucks of my pay check goes to the 7/11 down the block. Want to take a guess when I took up smoking? As I'm driving to work today, Freddy shows me something else I've picked up over the past few months.

"IT'S ME."

I only swerve a bit. I'm used to recovering fast enough from the Freddy flashes, but I've never really gotten used to them. Bonnie neither. I don't know why I never see Chica or Foxy. The Freddy Flash snapped me out of something I was humming. Wanna bet a million bucks it was the Toreador March? You'd win that f_ing bet. The thunderstorm that's going on while I unlock the doors doesn't help things either.

...

The animatronics are off their game for a Friday. It's been easy checking up on them. That probably means they're going to try something tonight.

I switch to the East Hall Corner. Chica's glaring up at me.

"Hey Ducky, how's Bugs?"

She doesn't respond, but I know she heard me.

Supply Closet. Bugs Bunny's mirroring Chica.

"What's up, doc? Camera dusty or something?"

Restrooms. I can just make Freddy out.

"How you doin', Freddy? How many kids did you traumatize today?"

Pirate Cove. Foxy's head is peeking out. I don't say anything to him. I kind of want to be nicer to him. He creeps me out the least, maybe it's because I've actually seen him move. I think it's more that I think he's as freaked out by the other animatronics as I am. Part of his endoskeleton is showing. I think that's why he hides and runs. Doesn't want the other animatronics to find him. Still though, that doesn't stop him from trying to get to me.

Still waiting for them to pull something. Friday night's usually the big night. TGIF my ass. I check the West Hall Corner again, keeping my eye off the poster. I've learned you don't want to look at the poster. Ever. I check my left hall light. Nothing. I check my right hall light. Nothing. I check on Foxy. He's not in the Cove

I don't think so Foxy!

I go to the West Hall, but he's not there. I reflexively close the door anyway. No knock. Still at 70%, which is good, but where's Foxy? I check on the Restrooms. Freddy's not there.

"No you don't!"

I check down the route, the Kitchen, East Hall, East Hall Corner. Where the hell is he? I check everywhere. I check the Show Stage. Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica are all in position, staring out over the Dining Area like they're waiting for a show.

"What the?"

They've never done this before. They've never gone back to the stage, at least not all at once. I check the Pirate Cove. This time, I can just make out the tip of Foxy's hook in his starting position.

"What are you bastards planning?"

I keep my eye on them, but they don't move. This has got to be some kind of trick. I put my tablet down, needing to conserve power and take a breath. They're messing with me. I know they are. I look up. The damned fan isn't helping. I look back on the tablet. They're still there. Why are they still there? I check all of the cameras. Restrooms. Nothing. Kitchen. Don't hear anything. East Hall, nothing. East Hall Corner, nothing. West Hall Corner, nothing. West Hall, nothing. Pirate Cove. Foxy. Backstage. Maybe Phone Guy's still there somewhere, but nothing. Dining Area. Something.

Oh sweet Jesus something.

At first I don't register what's going on, because I've never seen anything but Foxy move on these screens. Then I realize that there are five teenagers walking around the Dining Area. They're grinning at each other and giggling. I'm staring at the tablet with my mouth hanging open. Five teenagers broke into the restaurant for fun on their Friday night. Broke through windows that are actually pretty weak on the outside, but strong on the inside to keep anything from getting out. They're going to die.

"No! No! No! No! No!"

What the hell do they think they're doing there? Don't they realize that crouching behind the tables doesn't hide them from the security cameras? Shouldn't they at least realize that they could get arrested for breaking and entering? Shouldn't they realize that they could go to jail?

Can't they realize that they're right in front of three animatronics that want to kill them?