Chapter Text
In pitch darkness, hands can be heard fumbling over the camera they’re holding. A timestamp in the corner reads 7/21/2013.
More fumbling. “Ugh- okay- there!” The click of a flashlight. A circle of light illuminates a portion of the room the camerawoman is standing in. It’s disheveled, like any abandoned building would be, but not completely destroyed like some of the more popular spots would be.
The voice of the camerawoman, a teenage girl, speaks up. “Um, so…hey. I finally found an exploration spot near my city that isn’t totally fucked up. It’s some kids restaurant from the 90s. It closed in…the early 2000s, I think? If I ever went as a kid, I don’t remember it, haha.”
She begins to walk. Her footsteps are the only thing audible other than her voice and the general fuzzy ambiance of a video like this. “It’s, uh…in pretty good condition, honestly. Some stuff knocked over…” She pans the flashlight around. It’s the main dining area. “Wallpaper and posters are a bit crusty…man, it reeks in here.” She commented as she continued to wander, her flashlight illuminating different things as she went. Plates, and cups on the tables, peeling posters and crayon drawings on printer paper tacked onto the walls, the usual suspects.
The girl hears a shuffling noise behind her. She whips around.
“Jesus Christ, it’s just a rat…” She sighed, pausing to calm her nerves before she continued. She wandered around the dining room a bit more, before finally sauntering up to the stage. The main attraction.
3 figures stood atop it. Each was so big that the flashlight couldn’t illuminate them all at once. All three were obviously animatronics, like the ones you’d see at a Chuck E. Cheese, or any similar place. The one in the center was a fat bear-like one, wearing a suit jacket and bow tie, and a little top hat and microphone to complete the look. He’d probably look friendly if it weren’t for his sorry state.
“Jeez, they just left everything here, huh…?” The girl commented as she paced around in front of the stage. “You’d think they’d dismantle these or something…” The next figure she lit up was the one on the bear’s right-hand side. A big, indigo bunny. He was a little bit slimmer than his friend, and was wearing reddish pants held up by suspenders and held a fake electric guitar in his hand.
“This one’s freaky…” She commented as her camera and flashlight lingered on the rabbit’s face. His empty plastic eyes stared straight ahead, as they’d likely done for over a decade now. She walked over to the bear’s left hand side. A big, yellow bird stood. She looked a bit like an old-fashioned diner waitress. She even had little rollerskates on her feet! Who knows if those actually worked. One of her hands held a maraca, and the other a plate with a cupcake.
“Yeah, these things freak me out. I’m…gonna move on.” She said, walking away from the main stage. Next to it was a hallway. The first door was marked “Backstage Service.” Across from it was what looked to be an arcade. The camerawoman decided that it looked more interesting. It was filled to the brim with classic arcade games- none were functional, of course. “Wow…they just left these? People would pay so much for them…” She said, mildly astonished that so many were left behind. Every quarter-munching high score-based game you could think of was there, along with some staples like Skee-ball and those basketball hoop things.
The girl attempted to make a shot with one of the basketballs with only one hand. An overwhelming failure. It bounced right off the rim and made a loud rattling noise that disturbed the peace of the abandoned restaurant. “Shit! Ugh, damn…”
She figured the arcade would be better left undisturbed. She continued down the little hall. There were two rooms, both with windows to see inside. There were tables in them. Party rooms. Next to those, the bathrooms. At the end of the hallway, there were two other rooms. One appeared to be a little office, and the other looked like a storage room.
The office wasn’t crazy interesting. There was a dusty old beige box computer on the desk, some empty cups, a rusty filing cabinet that she didn’t want to open, et cetera. So, she decided to peek into the storage room.
The flashlight didn’t illuminate anything especially interesting while she peered in, but it made her more uneasy than any other area in the place by a mile. Something about it was wrong. It was musty and disheveled… She felt like she shouldn’t be looking in there.
She turned and walked back down the hallway without a word, the feeling lingering. The flashlight shined ahead, lighting her way, giving her the slightest sense of safety. She was back in the main area, now. She was about halfway to the main door when she heard a noise behind her. A creak from the stage. She whipped around.
The rabbit was in a different position. She was sure.
She kept her light and camera trained on it for about 10 seconds.
It moved again.
“ Shit shit shit shit shit. I need to get out of here-” She turned to make a dash toward the door, and the video ended.