Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I was trembling as I lay awake in bed, staring up at the ceiling above me. It wasn’t anything special, but it was enough to distract me from the distant thundering of my heartbeat… and the screams, the god-awful screams that kept echoing through my mind every fucking moment. I squeezed my eyes shut in some sort of vain attempt at falling asleep, but right as my eyes began to grow heavy, I heard it. 

“Why did you kill me, Mikey? I thought that you loved me. Did I do something wrong? I’m really really sorry,” That voice… 

I didn’t dare open my eyes when I heard that voice. No… no this couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. He was gone. 

“Go away, you aren’t real,” I tried to say. My heart nearly stopped as I realized that I couldn’t open my mouth at all. I struggled, trying to turn to pull my pillow over my head, but it felt like my arms and legs were made of lead. I tried to scream and call for Father, but that too was useless. Fuck-fuck, am I dead? Is this Hell? 

The only thing that there was left that I could do was open my eyes, so I did. A sob tore its way from my throat as I saw him there. I’d left my window open in case I decided to run away, so a bit of moonlight shone through the curtains. He was sitting right in the fucking light. Right fucking there. 

He looked just like he had the last time that I had seen him. Not the waxy and sickeningly perfect version that they had put in the casket during his funeral… No, it was just-just him. Just Evan. The same fluffy brown hair, the same black striped shirt, the same barely there freckles across his face just like Father and I had. He even still had his knees all scuffed up from the day that we had played football together outside. 

“Does Daddy love you more now, Mikey? Is it better that you made me go to be with Lizzie? How about Mommy?” Evan asked. He was facing away from me, but I could tell that he was smiling. I could hear it in his voice, still soft and innocent. 

He turned to face me. I felt my insides tightening. If I could move, I think I would have thrown up all over myself and the bed. 

Evan’s green eyes were trained on me, practically glowing. Where Fredbear had bitten him, I could see bright bone white peeking through his hair. Chunks of brain still stuck to the skull, giving it all a messy gooey look and deep red blood was streaming down his face, falling to the bed. I couldn’t look away as much as I wanted to. 

That smile never left Evan’s face for even a second as he started to crawl up my bed. He curled up right beside me with his head on my pillow like he used to on the few nights that I would let him into my room the nights that our parents would fight. 

Actually… I could hear them yelling downstairs right now. I squeezed my eyes shut again, trying his hardest to ignore the bloody hole that was right in front of my face. If I had been able to move, I honestly would have hugged him even if he is a ghost.  

If I focused hard enough, I could almost will myself to feel his presence beside me, sending a shiver down my spine. Maybe some part of me… wanted to have him there. 

“Don’t worry, Mikey! I still love you a whooole lot,” He giggled. His laughter bounced around the room, echoing off of the walls. I kept my eyes shut and slowly, the laughter stopped as I drifted off to sleep, falling into the inky black well of unconsciousness. 

~

I groaned as I heard the alarm on my phone blaring beside me. I made a grab for it, but my fingers couldn’t find the screen to shut it off. 

Damn that useless fucking thing. I didn’t even know why I had it at all. It’s not like anyone called me anymore. My entire body was heavy as I sat up and grabbed the piece of crap, finally silencing it’s annoying ass noise. I was starting to regret setting ‘Heat of the Moment’ as my ringtone. 

It’s ironic really… heat. Especially when I thought back to the last time I had encountered it. I glared down at the screen as the words on it seemed to taunt me to no end. 

“𝟙𝕤𝕥 𝕕𝕒𝕪: 𝕄𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕡𝕚𝕫𝕫𝕒-ℍ𝕖𝕝𝕝”

As soon as I saw those words, I just about wanted to throw my phone across the room again, but I simply grit my teeth and put it back on the bedside table. I was wide awake now, so I saw no reason to lie back down, instead I headed to the bathroom to get ready. After all… First day of work, I gotta make a good impression.

When I got to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror, I was honestly kind of taken aback by what I saw… Geeze, after all these years as a purple corpse, it would be easy to forget what I actually looked like. 

I cringed a bit as I looked myself over in the mirror and ran my fingers through my dark hair. For a moment, I was tempted to style it the way that I used to back when I was in high school. At least with the waves, I would look a lot less like him. 

I tried not to look in the mirror much after that. 

It wasn’t long till I pulled up outside of the huge mall. I couldn’t stop staring up at the bright neon sign above me displaying all of the characters… Huh, no Foxy. Quite a shame actually. As scary as he was, he was always a good one. I tried not to flinch as I remembered the old Foxy mask that I had left in my childhood home. If I thought too hard about it, I could still smell the blood. 

I shook my head to get the thought out of my head before heading inside. I was approached by a way too peppy young teen dressed in an 80’s style outfit. 

“Hey! Sorry to inform you but we’re actually not open yet, We open in just a few hours though,” He said. His voice grated on my ears a bit, but I kept a straight face. 

“Hey man, I’m actually Mike Schmidt, new night guard. I wanted to come in earlier today to see how this place ticks. Sorry if I’m a bit early. I can always swing by again later,” I said coolly. Honestly, I should have known that they would be closed at seven in the morning. Force of habit I guess, “I was just hoping that I would be able to get a look at the animatronics before they had to get up and running. I wanna know what I’ll be working with.”

“I mean… Wait here, I’ll get Vanessa for you,” I watched as the kid scurried off and let out a sigh. 

Maybe I could have waited for tonight to take a look at the bots, but y’know. It’s probably a whole different ball park when they’re powered down… At least I hope they’re powered down. I let my mind wander for a bit back to the first time that Father had shown me one of his creations. 

~

I was walking right behind Father, trying to keep my head down as I went. He hadn’t spoken to me since we had left the house to come over to the pizzeria. I didn’t really want to look around too much, so I just focused on the linoleum floors passing under my feet. Absent-mindedly, I tried to hop between just the black tiles. 

“Isn’t there something more interesting for me to write about then a dumb kiddie pizza place?” I asked, swinging my arms a little bit. 

Father looked over me, chuckling softly. He smiled just a little bit. 

“Oh C’mon Michael, you used to love this place back when you were small. Besides, it’s so much more than just pizza that I’m going to be showing you,” Father said, “You’ll get to write about these,” 

He moved aside so that I came face to face with a tall and scruffy golden rabbit suit. Father gave an over exaggerated wave towards the suit. I stared at it for a bit. 

The last time I had seen the thing was back in England when Father had been operating a pizzeria of his own there. I remember that the rabbit had towered over me back then. I remember the way that Father would scoop me up into his arms and I would bury my face in the soft yellow fur… 

Now, I don’t think I even want to touch the thing with how moldy and musty it looked, not to mention the fact that I could see some areas where there was metal poking through the fabric… that was new. I was quiet. Father must have taken that as amazement as he started to prattle on about the suit’s new features. 

I wonder if he even noticed the fact that I wasn’t paying any attention to him at all by then.

~

“Hey! New guy, you alive over there? Dick told me that you wanted to get a look at the animatronics,”  Said a bored voice. I turned, noticing a blonde woman standing beside me. This must be the Vanessa the squeaky-voiced kid from earlier mentioned. 

“I- um yeah sorry, just got lost in thought,” I chuckled, offering a hand for her to shake, “Schmidt by the way, Michael Schmidt. You can call me Mike though.” 

I wasn’t too surprised when she didn’t shake my hand. She just started walking into the building with the command to follow her. I did so. My jaw nearly dropped when we got inside. This place… was HUGE.

“Okay, so this room is an area we have for the animatronics to just hang out other than their green rooms. I’d be careful with what I touched if I were you,” Vanessa said as she brought me to one of the rooms in the back. I went pale as I stared into the room in front of me. I recognized all of them from the sign outside. Freddy got to his feet and walked over to us. I was almost completely frozen as I came face to face with the hunk of plastic and metal.

I just stared at the thing in front of me in disbelief, unable to get the image of the old Fredbear out of my head… Then again, this one didn’t look anything like that golden monstrosity. Instead of the golden fur caked with red and soulless black eyes that constantly haunted my memory stood something that almost looked… kind. 

“Hello there, you must be very special if officer Vanessa is allowing you back here into our quarters. I hope that we can be friends. I am Freddy,” He said with a bright smile. His ears started to twitch just a bit. Damn… he would have loved a plush of this thing. 

“This is Michael. New security guard. You all better play nice tonight. I don’t want Moon chasing another newbie off by creeping around, got it?” I turned to look at Vanessa who was standing with her arms crossed. 

“Ah! Of course Officer Vanessa, I can assure you that there will be no mishaps tonight. Most of us will be resting after our show and-”

“Yeah yeah, can it. That’s what you said last time. I’m serious this time. Any mishaps and I’m gonna have that creepy thing scrapped,” It almost sent shivers down my spine how coldly Vaness spoke. For a moment, she almost reminded me of Mom. 

“Hey now,” I cut in, “I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’ve dealt with creepy robots before. It should be no biggie. No need to scrap anyone now. Be too hasty and it could all blow up in your face.” I tried my best to defuse the situation, chuckling weakly. Vaness just looked at me. 

“Well, you can go ahead and get acquainted with these guys. I’m gonna finish up the last bit of my duties before the day shift comes in,” She mumbled a bit, leaving me alone in the room full of animatronics. 

What the fuck have I gotten myself into… 

Chapter Text

I let out a shaky sigh as I stared up at the animatronics… Well, now that I got a proper look at them, they weren’t exactly that much taller than me. No matter how different they looked from the pointed markers of my childhood trauma, I couldn’t stop picturing golden fur and deep red dripping from razor-sharp silver teeth. Fucking hell…

“Officer Michael, are you all right?” Asked a voice above me. I jumped a bit as the call knocked me out of my dark thoughts. Freddy was looking at me with a puzzled expression and a look in his blue eyes that I just couldn’t place. Goddamnit, these things almost looked… human. Well, I’d hope not. 

“Yeah… yeah, M’ fine, just thinking is all I um… had a lot of memories at the- at the older pizzarias is all. Um, I used to go there a lot when I was a kid- yeah,” I replied, rubbing the back of my neck. Damn, what I would give for my pack of gum right now. With how much I was chewing my lip, I was almost surprised that it hadn’t started bleeding just yet. 

“Ah, well it is nice that after such happy memories, you’re able to join the Fazbear family,” Freddy rumbled, smiling brightly. I almost laughed. Happy? 

“Guess you could say that,” I mumbled, “So, I know you Fred, and of course I know Ms. Chica over there and Bonnie, mind telling me what happened to Foxy?” To be honest, I was genuinely curious. Despite how buggy Foxy was, people had really loved him… Of course, he was also really special to me. It’s not every day that someone’s dad makes an animatronic just for them, right ?...

A shiver went down my spine as I remembered overhearing Eliza pestering Father to allow her to see… that thing. Fuck, couldn’t she have at least designed something less creepy?... heh, ironic. 

I didn’t realize that I had probably spoken out of turn till I noticed that none of the animatronics had said anything since I had asked about Foxy. They didn’t need to say anything for me to get the picture. I knew that heavy, sad, silence all too well.

Y’know… you don’t have to explain if you don’t want to. I can tell that it’s a touchy thing. I know how that sort of thing goes. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I was just kind of wondering,”  I chuckled weakly, picking at my sleeve. 

I knew that they weren’t human, but something inside me felt a sense of pity towards them. I couldn’t help but put my hand on Freddy’s shoulder with a bit of a lopsided smile. 

“It is… it is all right. It is just a lot to remember… Oh! How about I introduce you to Montgomery and Roxanne! That- that should be good,” Freddy interjected, chuckling awkwardly.

The alligator that was sprawled out on one of the couches gave a bit of a wave and a shrug of his shoulders.

“Fred, I told you just to call me Monty. Y’ don’t gotta be so formal all the time. We’re all friends y'all know that. I don’t want the new officer to think that I’m some stuck up piece of shit,” The alligator- Monty, said with a soft laugh. 

“Um… You guys can call me Mike actually, I don’t really want things to be too formal between us either. I’ve never liked my full name too much,” I replied. Monty shot me two thumbs up before leaning back with a loud yawn and throwing an arm over his eyes. 

“Why don’t you come sit over here. It’s too early for this socializing shit. You don’t have to mind me too much,” I chuckled weakly at Monty’s words and tentatively went over to sit by him. He did sort of have a point there. I’d take a wild guess and say that they probably didn’t interact with any humans much until the pizzaplex opened. I’ve gone crazy just looking after two children, I can’t imagine how it would be having to deal with hundreds of kids a day. 

“I’m guessing that Foxy was your favorite,” Hummed a wolf who was checking her hair in the nearby mirror. I stopped, almost afraid to answer… Oh god, what was I going to say to that? I thought that I had just been able to get the conversation off of Foxy! I didn’t want to bring him up if it was just going to upset anyone. 

“How um… How did you figure that one out?” I asked curiously.

“You look like the type that would like him honestly. I’m used to people asking me about him, honestly. Thanks for not calling me a replacement, by the way. I’m Roxy,” She added on.Her voice was a little bit of a purr. The more I looked at her, the more I thought that he looked like Foxy.

“Nah, that just sounds like it would be rude, y’know… I mean, you aren’t him, so I don’t think that anyone should ever call anyone a replacement,” I replied, leaning back. I couldn’t keep my ‘Big brother mode’ as Eliza had called it at bay. 

She flashed me a little bit of a smile before she went back to doing her hair without a care in the world. I felt something in my chest tightening as I watched her… Speaking of Eliza, I wonder what she would have been like if she had lived. I had the strange urge to braid Roxy’s hair as I watched her. 

“I think that I’m going to be your favorite now, y’know,” 

“Wait I um, excuse me? What do you mean by that? I mean I barely know you at all, and you seem like a totally different person than Foxy was,” I asked, still watching her. Roxy giggled just a bit, spinning in her chair dramatically to face me.

“I’m everyone’s favorite after all. I don’t see why someone who’s favorite was my mentor wouldn’t have me as their favorite. I already know that you’re going to love me just like everyone else does,” She replied.

Monty rolled his eyes behind his glasses as he glanced at her. 

“Oh c’mon now, Rox, you know that I’m the absolute best around. After Fredbear, I’ll always be the second, but I know that people love me a WHOLE lot more,” He yelled. 

“That’s not true! You’re not!” Roxy snarled. I couldn’t help but laugh at the two of them arguing. 

I stayed with the animatronics for about half an hour, just chatting with them. It felt… nice, honestly. Since I had lost contact with Henry, it had been way too long since I had been able to have a nice conversation with anyone at all. I decided to leave when it was finally time for the pizzaplex to open. 

~

I wasn’t exactly ready to be in the pizzaplex for too long, so I decided to head out into Hurricane to just… explore a bit. I wanted to see exactly how much the town had changed since I had left. 

I dropped my car off at my apartment before taking a walk through the town. As I walked through the town, I tried to pull up some of my old memories from my younger years. If I tried hard enough, I could almost hear the laughter of me and my friends as we used to bike through the street. If I focused hard enough on the streets, I could almost see us as well. 

I wonder what had happened to those old buddies of mine after highschool. Even after the bite I at least saw them around the town and even more around the school. Father had moved us not long after I had taken my final exams my senior year, so I had never been able to say goodbye to any of them. 

Out of utter curiosity, I turned down a few odd corners that I still knew extremely well till I came across exactly what I was looking for. Fuck, it was way… way too long since I was able to come back to a place like this. 

The gray structure of drywall loomed over me. Broken windows peered down at me like bright eyes. I took a deep breath and went up to the front door. I still remembered exactly which rock on the porch that my parents used to hide the house key under it. 

There was a low creak as I opened the door. Honestly, I was kind of shocked that this place was never closed… I wonder if anyone else knew about what Father had done. Had it made this place unsellable like so many other murder-houses? 

I slowly walked into the house, looking around in curiosity. There were still empty picture frames hanging on the wall. The walls were covered in crumbling wallpaper decorated with little trees that still made me cringe a bit as I looked at them. 

I ran my fingers along the railing of stairs as I headed up to the second floor where all our bedrooms used to be. Fucking hell this place was dusty. Each step I took felt like it bounced off the walls, almost seeming to echo in my mind. 

“Looks like I’m home… took me long enough,” I mumbled softly as I made my way down the hall, just… listening to the distant sounds of old memories.

~

“Mikey! Mikey! Can you please do my hair, pleeeeease! You always make it look so nice & Mom is still asleep so she can’t do it, & Daddy always gets my hair all tangled when he tries,” Eliza yelled, knocking loudly on the bathroom door. 

I rolled my eyes as I ran my fingers through my own hair, fixing it the last bit before turning my head just a bit to examine my newly-styled do. 

“Gimme just a sec, shrimp! I’m almost done with mine and I’ll fix yours up, okay? Shouldn’t take too long!” I replied, adding a last bit of mouse to the style and putting in my favorite eyebrow piercing, tongue piercing, and earring. Once I was done, I opened up the door and grabbed the hairbrush that I had sitting on the edge of the sink. 

“Took you long enough! You take longer than I do to do your hair, & you STILL look like a rat!” She giggled. I followed her to her room and sat her down at the little vanity that she had in her room. 

“I do not look like a rat! If anyone looks like a rat, it’s Dad, you know that!” I replied jokingly before starting to style her hair. Halfway through styling, Evan ran in suddenly. 

“Mikey! Lizzy! Help, I saw something in my closet!” He sobbed, entire body shaking. I sighed softly, looking over to him. 

“Come sit over here by us, okay? Ugh, you’re such a fucking crybaby. There’s nothing in there. There never ever is. You should know that by now,” I replied, trying my best not to snap back. I watched as he clambered onto Eliza’s bed, still in his Pj’s. 

“You’re such a scaredy cat, Ev! No wonder you don’t got any friends. No one wants to be friends with a whimpy baby like that,” Eliza chirped, “Mikey! Don’t forget to put my bow in, okay? My head will look naked without it!” 

“Yeah yeah, I got it! Don’t gotta tell me twice. Oh, and Even once I’m done I’m gonna help you get ready, okay? You can’t wear that to school just because you’re scared of some shit in your closet,” I said as I carefully clipped Eliza’s bow into her hair and moved back. 

“I don’t wanna go back in my room till I know that the monster is gone! Mikey, pleeease, I’m scared!” Evan started to cry louder. Fucking hell, Mom and Dad are going to fucking kill me if they hear him crying this early in the morning!

“Hey hey, look! What if I get Foxy, hmm? Would that work?  I know that Foxy scares you all the time, I’m sure he’ll be scary enough to chase away any monsters,” I offered. I noticed how Evan hesitated just a little bit, but he nodded softly. 

“Foxy and Fredbear will chase the monsters away…” He mumbled, giving a tiny smile as he held the Fredbear plushie out to me. I smiled a bit and gave a little chuckle. 

“Yeah… yeah, that’s right, squirt. They’ll always always be here to chase the monsters away from you.”

~

I could feel the tears prickling at my eyes as I stared right into Eliza’s room. Nothing seemed to have been moved since she had been in the room. The vanity was still standing there with all of her accessories, jewelry, and makeup as if they were just waiting for her to come back home.  

“Fucking hell, Liz… so much stuff that you left behind…” I mumbled, smiling weakly as I went and sat in front of the mirror. For a moment, I heard a noise from the closet that almost made me jump. I looked up all too quickly, staring at it. Surely, there wasn’t anything in there, right? Right. 

I got up and headed to my own old room. I didn’t bother looking into his room. I didn’t deserve to remember much more happy things with him in it. 

I tried my best not to think about it… 

That proved to be a failure, however. Once I opened the door to my childhood room which was SUPPOSED to be empty, I noticed a Foxy plushie resting on my old bed. 

Nope… nope. Nevermind, I can’t deal with this. Not today. I turned around and decided to leave the house as quickly as I could, locking the door behind me. I walked away from the house quicker than I probably should have. I didn’t want to look suspicious after all. 

Emotionally exhausted, I decided to just walk around the town till the sun began to set. Every now and then, someone would say that they recognized me, but whenever they did, I simply shrugged them off. 

‘I think that you’ve got the wrong guy.’

‘I have no idea who you’re talking about.’ 

‘Sorry, I think you must be mistaken.’

Most of the time, it was enough to make them leave, but every now and then, it wouldn’t be enough, and I would have to think up some crackpot excuse for why I was back and using an alternate name, but I suppose it worked. 

As the sun began to set, I headed home with a little sigh. I checked through my entire closet before I grabbed my new uniform from the hangers… That was stupid, right? A grown man thinking that there was a monster in his closet or something…

Finding nothing, I just sighed and shrugged, getting dressed. The drive to the pizzaplex was silent. I didn’t even have the urge to listen to any music. I was silent the entire time till after I had clocked in. I didn’t notice Vanessa approaching me along with a blonde man with an odd scar on his face. 

“Good, you’re here. Look, I’m going to head out in a bit. I pulled an early shift, so I can’t afford to pull an extra one. I won’t be here to show you the ropes, but this idiot over here’s got you covered,” She said, gesturing to the blonde. 

The blonde flashed me a bit of a smile and waved at me.

“Hey there, buddy. It’s good to finally meet you. By the way, I’m Jeremy.”

Chapter Text

I looked at Jeremy and gave a little weary wave. Something about him seemed a bit off- a bit weird. He was slurring his words, and something about the way that he moved seemed strange. I wasn’t about to say that though. Being rude to one of my coworkers on the first day didn’t seem like a very good idea. 

“No need to be scared of this idiot, he won’t bite. At least I think he won’t. He’ll show you your duties, Try not to destroy anything before morning, got it?” Vanessa sighed, watching me with keen eyes. 

“C’mon boss, he’s in good hands with me,” Jeremy chirped. He went over and threw an arm around my shoulder. Let me mention again that I haven’t had any proper human touch in MONTHS now. Just that simple gesture made my entire face go red. 

I could practically hear Eliza’s voice in my head teasing me about how easily I had gotten this flustered. 

Vanessa looked the two of us up and down a couple more times before turning and leaving without another word. After she left, I heard the doors of the pizzaplex immediately locking. I reached into my pocket and got out a stick of gum, starting to chew it to alleviate some of my stress. 

“I’ve been a night guard before, there’s no need to show me the ropes, I think that I’ll um- um just head to the security office and you don’t have to worry about me from there on out,” I said, hoping to get some distance between me and Jeremy. 

“Oh c’mon man, what’s the fun in that? This place is full of interesting things to explore while no one’s here. Nothing ever happens at night. As long as Ness doesn’t catch us slacking we should be fine, c’mon,” He laughed. Oh god, his laugh… this is going to sound cheesy as fuck, but it was like a bell. I found myself unable to speak as he grabbed my hand and dragged me off.

“W-wait! Wait! I don’t think that’s a- woah,” I let out a breath as he pulled me through the back to the kitchen. The room was huge, full of different machines and robots still whizzing around. 

“Anything we get’ll come out of my paycheck, not that I mind too much. Call it a ‘Welcome favor’ from a new pall,” I felt myself relax a little bit. This was actually kind of nice. At all the other Fazbear locations, I had basically been alone for most of the night. It was honestly really refreshing to have someone else with me to share in the nightmare. 

“I’m not really picky, honestly, you can go ahead and pick whatever’s gonna taste the best, um… I’m not great with picking out food,” I chuckled, sweating a bit. Fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck! Why am I so nervous right now? I’ve talked to people before, just today in fact and yet… here I was. 

“Don’t worry man, anything will be good as long as you don’t get pineapple! Blegh, that stuff is an actual abomination.!”

“Wha- hey! I happen to like pineapple on pizza! It’s… fun. different.”

The two of us hung out together for quite some time, just happily chatting and getting to know each other. 

Jeremy made me really truly laugh for the first time in what would have had to be… years. It was such a vibrant laugh that I could feel deep within my chest like a fire. It bubbled up more and more the more that he spoke. 

“There was one time that I got chased around the kitchen because I refused to give Chica the last slice of pizza. I slipped on some water that the staff bots hadn’t cleaned up just yet. I don’t remember what happened next because I slipped and hit my head on the table,” Jeremy laughed. 

I whipped the tears of laughter out of my eyes and chuckled weakly as I watched him. 

“Hey, is that how you got that mark on your head? That’s a pretty big scar there,” I commented. He stopped laughing, stopped smiling as a whole as he cleared his throat a bit. 

It didn’t take too much to realize that I had messed up bad. Oh no… not again. 

“I’d rather if we didn’t talk about that… sorry man, it’s a heavy thing. I haven’t talked about it at all since it happened. Old workplace accident,” He said, that cheery tone from earlier having completely disappeared, leaving something scared and weary in its place. 

I nodded. Working with animatronics, I would expect something like that to happen. It made me sick to my stomach as I remembered the day that Father got trapped in the springlock suit the first time. 

God, there was so much blood… I really thought that we were going to lose him that day. I still remember his echoing screams as I tried to keep Eliza and him from getting too close. That was the day that he stopped liking animatronics, the day all three of us had learned to fear Father’s creations. Though… how could I have ever known that it wasn’t just sudden pressure that set those things off, how-

“You okay over there? You look like you’re about to shit your pants! Don’t let my stupid-ass mistakes scare you too much. Most of the animatronics now are completely harmless by all standards. I really like them, in fact. One little incident that happened back when I was a stupid teen isn’t going to change that,” Jeremy laughed. 

I must have been staring for way too long because he grabbed my shoulder. 

“Hey! Why don’t we take a trip to check on the cameras for a second then we can go raid the arcade for a bit Monty or Roxy might be down there. Gaming against them can get REALLY intense,” He said. The cheery tone was back in his voice, as if it had never vanished those few minutes ago. I nodded hesitantly and cleared my throat a bit. 

After seeing that I agreed, he took my hand and started to lead me to the office. Damn, this guy was really touchy… I didn’t pull away, letting him drag me along. Honestly, with all the twisting halls and dark back area, I think that I would have gotten lost anyway if he wasn’t leading me. 

When we finally got to the security office, I scanned my security pass and the two of us went in. Holy fuck, this is not what I was expecting… I looked around the room. There were more computers than I had ever seen before, huge tv monitors that flipped through each room in the plex, tons of scanners… It was like I had stepped into some sort of sci-fi movie or some shit. 

“Go ahead and pick a computer. I think management should have had you set up a password and profile when you first got the job. Once you log in and confirm that it’s you, you should get access to the entire system,” Jeremy instructed. I nodded again and started to input my login. 

I waited for a moment, watching the screen flash once I had submitted my login. It took a couple minutes before anything started to happen, but suddenly the screen flashed red.

User: M.Schmidt8814 

User not recognized. This username is not found in our files; Access denied. Please enter a valid username and password for your Fazbear Family file. 

I let out a groan, leaning back. It took everything inside me not to slam my fists down on the keyboard. Not this shit again! I swear, if this stupid computer somehow without my knowledge managed to save me as eggs benedict again or something, I would throw it across the room. How is it that Father could create such advanced animatronics and yet let his company use use stupid fucking computers!? 

“Just my fucking luck! Why does this happen at every job that I get?!” I yelled in frustration. Jeremy sat beside me and clicked on a few things on the screen. 

“Damn it, looks like it’s doing this again… Here hold on and let me- aha! There, you can go ahead and try it again,” He said triumphantly after typing a few things in. He leaned back to give me some space to type, but we were still really close… so very very close… Damn it, brain! Focus, you can’t be doing this right now!

I turned back to the computer again and started to put in my login once again.

User: M.Schmidt8814

User not recognized. This username is not found in our files; Access denied. Please enter a valid username and password for your Fazbear Family file. 

Warning! 

Error! 

Error!

RG8geW91IGxpa2UgaGltLCBFZ2dzIEJlbmVkaWN0PyBJIGxpa2UgdGhpcyBvbmUsIGhlJ3MgdmVyeSBmdW5ueS4gWW91IG5lZWQgdG8gbGVhdmUuIEZhdGhlciB3aWxsIG5vdCBsaWtlIHlvdSBiZWluZyBoZXJlLg==

I cried out, backing away from the computer as the text flashed across the screen in big red lettering. My eyes were wide as saucers, but I knew that there wasn’t anything that I could do. The damn thing looked fucking fried.

Jeremy reached over me and shut the computer down with a sigh. 

“I’ll call IT to check that out tomorrow. Doesn’t look like you’ll be getting in with your file anytime soon. We can go ahead and use mine for now. No issue with that, right? We’re all okay as long as we’re able to check out what’s going on around the Plex, we should be fine,” He dismissed everything that had just gone on with a little wave. 

I moved to sit closer to him as we flicked through the cameras. For the most part, everything seemed normal. Just as we were about to shut down and head to the arcade, I noticed something out of the ordinary on one of the cams. 

“Wait! Wait! Flick back to the daycare… I- what the fuck is that thing!?”