Chapter Text
“Alright morons, you know the deal. This is the first stage test for the Glamrocks. If this doesn’t go well because y’all don’t have your shit together, the opening’s gonna get delayed by at least another month, and the higher-ups will be pissed. So, get the robots on the stage in an hour, send them up to the atrium, and pray to God everything works. Got it?”
The crowd of technical workers murmured replies in the affirmative. Charlie could feel her throat getting tight already. She slid into one of the employee elevators in the still under-construction Fazbear Entertainment’s Pizzaplex, a giant mall full of brand-themed attractions, gift shops, and vendors to snatch people’s money. “It will be a perfect way to rebrand and wipe all that dirty history behind us,” the CEO had declared in a company-wide meeting. “The public will be so busy admiring the place, they won’t have time to pay attention to the old Fazbear locations!”
The elevator shifted around, Charlie’s unease growing as it did. The doors opened to the utility tunnels behind Rockstar Row, the Fazbear version of a meet-and-greet, with the robots’ green rooms lined up for the public to gawk at. They would have to pay for special passes to even be back here, of course. Charlie wound her way through the halls, dodging spare instruments, robot parts, and other junk, and got to Freddy’s door. She held her watch up to the digital padlock, which scanned her barcode and let her inside.
Inside, a bright orange bear was abusing his personal arcade machine, one dull-clawed hand juggling the joystick and buttons while the other held one of his magnetic earrings, which occasionally fell off if he moved his head too fast. He was about seven feet tall and towered over her like a giant, rocking a black-and-blue top hat and a matching bowtie. A diamond-colored lightning bolt painted across his chest gleamed in the humming light.
“Freddy! What are you doing?!” she asked, on-edge. “You’re supposed to be on update mode!”
The lead singer looked over at her and gave her a toothy smile, one with fangs as sharp as the ones on his giant lookalike plushie, which sat sideways on his shiny red couch. “Charlotte, my update has been complete for five hours, twenty-seven minutes, and thirteen seconds.”
“Oh thank God, you’re amazing.”
“Thank you, Charlotte. You appear pale. Please sit down and have a drink.” He stepped closer and knelt down to Charlie’s height, his blue eyes glowing as he scanned her face. “You are not well. You have a temperature of 100.3 degrees. Let me get you some water.”
“Thanks Freddy, but we don’t have time. I have to make sure you’re in working order.” She checked her watch as she felt the pain in her head shift to the back of her eyes. Charlie hoped it wouldn’t turn into a migraine. “The show starts in fifty-five minutes.”
“But Charlotte-”
“Freddy, please. And don’t call me Charlotte.”
“Okay. But know I will be required to bring you to the nearest first-aid station and inform your supervisor and emergency contact if you collapse and/or faint. This applies to you along with everyone else in the Pizzaplex.”
“Maybe remove my emergency contact for me,” she said absentmindedly as she reattached his earring, increasing its magnetism. “I’m gonna screw something up…”
“You are the third best technician in the history of Fazbear Entertainment according to company records. I can access the company databases and see so. You will succeed.” Just when she began to smile, he continued, “Why would you want me to remove Vanessa as your emergency contact?”
“Is that a company-mandated question…?”
“It is not. But I am curious.”
It still surprised Charlie how human these robots could seem, despite their state-of-the-art designs and programming. This was a prime example; curiosity was not an easy thing to code. “It’s nothing, Freddy,” she finally replied as she went through test after test. “If I told you, it might interfere with your performance.”
“Your avoidance is currently affecting my ability to perform. I worry about you.”
“Don’t worry about me, big guy. You’re the real star, not me.”
“You have been my best technician. I know you as well as my bandmates. You are my friend. We have even spent time together outside of your regular work hours. No other human has done that besides Vanessa. I will not fail you because you have not failed me.”
“But what if I fail you today?”
“You will not Charlie. You will not.”
“Thanks, Freddy.”
“You are welcome.”
Thankfully, he didn’t ask anything more about Vanessa. Charlie really didn’t want to think about the last few days here at the Pizzaplex.
—
After she made sure Freddy and the rest of his robot friends made it to the stage and it was lifted up a floor to the atrium, Charlie and the four other main technicians raced up the stairs to the sound booth, located on a balcony just above the stage where they could observe the test show. After mumbling hi to the sound director, Charlie whispered a prayer and waited, shaking.
The silver stage slowly rose into view, and the neon lights immediately turned toward the animatronics standing on-stage. Pre-filmed clips of the band played on a gigantic screen that spread across the whole back wall as the DJ announced through his booming microphone, “Welcome, one and all, to the performance of a lifetime! Put your hands together for the Glamrocks!”
The employees below cheered. They had been told to come to simulate a small crowd, making the experience feel more legit. It only made Charlie feel sick to her stomach.
“On the guitar, there’s our lovely valley chick Chica,” the DJ announced. Chica, her body painted a chrome white and with her pink hair bow and green triangle earrings, joined in on the techno instrumental with an admittedly awesome riff on her star-shaped electric guitar. Charlie saw out of the corner of her eye the other technicians giving the bird’s technician high-fives. She couldn’t take her eyes off the stage long enough to do the same, too focused on the show.
“Next, let’s riot for our hardcore drummer, Montgomery Gator!” The sleek green alligator ran his webbed fingers through his red mohawk and began to play, his drumming slightly off-beat, maybe even a bit wild. That was intentional; he was supposed to be the band’s hothead. Charlie didn’t think about it too much, but she knew once this place opened, Montgomery would be the subject of all sorts of questionable fanart. Maybe the executives were banking on that?
She nearly hurled at the possibility as the titan-like speakers spat, “And of course, how dare we forget our beauty queen and keytarist, Roxanne Wolf?” On the opposite side of the stage from the gator, Roxanne closed a makeup compact, threw it into the crowd, and started playing, whooshing around her thick silver-and-green mane and wagging her tail. The wolf blew a kiss toward the audience, and a few started cheering louder. Gross, Charlie thought. Very gross.
“And here comes our loyal lover boy, bass and all, Bonnie!” Hopping around his co-stars to Freddy’s side, the baby-blue rabbit took the bear’s hand and did a little twirl before playing his bass guitar. Charlie had to admit Bonnie took a strong second place as her favorite robot (first place went to Freddy, of course). His dopey little tuft of hair sticking out from his purple headband was so ridiculous how could anyone not love him?
“And last but certainly not least, let’s give a big hand for the one and only Freddy Fazbear!” The bear pumped one fist in the air and waved toward the audience, showing off his ruby and cyan face paint as the lights consumed him. He then threw his hat into the air and managed to land it right back on his head, just as they’d rehearsed. Freddy pulled his microphone up to his metallic muzzle as a grin spread across Charlie’s face. She couldn’t believe their stunt actually worked!
The cheering continued, but Charlie’s joy faded as she realized something was off. Freddy was supposed to be singing some Elton John song. He loved Elton John, why wasn’t he singing?
Her heart raced as she took note of Freddy’s half-closed eyes and twitching head. The crowd’s cheering began to fade. “No… Freddy, no! Please,” she whispered. The technicians and DJ all looked toward her as the bear’s joints began to shake.
It kept getting worse. His animatronic bandmates were beginning to halt their performance, staring at the lead singer. By now, the lights behind his eyes were glowing so brightly that at any moment the tiny bulbs behind them might shatter. His microphone slipped from his hand, and then, after a momentary stutter, he collapsed to the ground, hitting his head on the hard metal stage. Charlie barely withheld the urge to scream, whimpering instead. I’m screwed, she realized.
As the crowd went silent and the other animatronics gathered around Freddy, Charlie bolted down the stairs before anyone could stop her, booting up her watch again and sending out internal repair signals to the bear. She ran through a pair of doors and found herself on the main stage, running straight toward him. “Out of the way!” she yelled, shoving Chica aside.
“Hey!” Roxanne grabbed Charlie’s arm and barked, “You are not the only one here kid!”
“Don’t call me kid!” Charlie shouted back, and almost escaped to Freddy when Bonnie and Monty held her back. “Let go of me!”
“Calm down little lady!” Monty said. “You cannot help him anymore!”
“I’m his technician, of course I can!”
Freddy’s body suddenly sparked and nearly shocked Chica, who was checking on him. Bonnie asked, “How many volts can a human handle Charlie? Because that is probably more than you can handle.”
“Let go of her.” Charlie’s blood froze as Monty and Bonnie suddenly released her before a cold woman’s hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back into the utility tunnels. “So, Charlotte, would you like to explain this?”
Charlie looked behind her and saw her boss, looking pissed. “I-I can,” she whispered, knowing no other answer would be acceptable.
Who was her boss?
The head-honcho of Fazbear Entertainment, that’s who.
—
Jennifer Diana Emily was not your ordinary CEO. She was a CEO who would step over dead bodies to save her company’s ass, and she definitely had. That was the rumor at least. Either way, you could say she was tougher than a diamond.
And she could definitely scratch like one, Charlie knew that better than anyone. “You better tell me every single damn second of your day, because if you do not, the only thing of yours that will be leaving this establishment is your corpse heading towards an incinerator!” Jen shouted, spitting in her face.
Charlie barely kept it together as she sat in Jen’s office, avoiding her boss’s hateful stare. “I-I came in right at eight instead of nine, just like you requested,” she said, shaking and white-knuckled. “After I went through security, I did my usual checks I do everyday and attended the all-staff meeting. Then I went down to Rockstar Row’s utility tunnels, checked into Freddy’s room, and performed all his necessary diagnostics. We rehearsed his movements to make sure they worked, and-”
“Well that sure worked out, didn’t it?” Jen grabbed Charlie by her shirt collar and yanked her out of her seat. “Clearly you fucked something up. And don’t you dare think that little security breach last week is leaving me with any sympathy for you. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. What I hate more than a whiny bitch is a whiny f-!”
Charlie heard the office door slam open and felt any remaining warmth drain from her face when she saw who came in. Jen, however, was much less fazed. “Funny, I was just about to mention you,” the CEO cooed. “You two seem joined at the hip. One’s never far behind the other… Sit down, Vanessa.”
“No, thank you. For your information, Freddy contacted me to come here immediately.” Vanessa tied her sandy blonde hair into a ponytail, her expression uncertain as she looked at Charlie and Jen. The exhausted cybersecurity head was tall, scrawny, and had bags under her eyes from sleepless nights in the Pizzaplex. Yet, even in the face of conflict, she always looked like she was on the verge of a smile; it was impossible for Charlie to ignore her contagious hope.
“How long ago?” Jen asked.
“Five minutes. I live nearby.”
“I know, I gave you that apartment. Well, Freddy’s emergency contact system being back online means he’s functioning to some extent. Congratulations Charlotte, you didn’t fuck him up too horribly.”
Charlie stared at her feet, unable to meet either woman’s gaze. Vanessa, meanwhile, glared at her boss and said, “Whatever happened, I’m sure it wasn’t Charlie’s fault. The security breach was an issue with the privacy of our servers. The animatronics here are better protected, but that doesn’t mean someone didn’t-”
“I’m not an idiot, Vanessa. I know Freddy could’ve been hacked. But I doubt it. The fact Charlotte failed to spot anything wrong in the diagnostics doesn’t mean a whole lot. She may be a good technician, but she can’t pay attention for shit.” Jen glared at Charlie again. “I should put you out of your misery and fire your ass…” However, both Jen and Charlie knew she couldn’t get rid of such a good asset, or the board would throw a fit.
Jen sat back down and wrung her hands together, staring at Charlie, and then she smiled. She only smiled when she was scheming. “We still have that very first location open in Hurricane,” Jen gleamed. “Should have closed it years ago, but I guess I’ve got a bit of nostalgia for it. I’ll cut you a deal, Charlotte. You’re being demoted, but not fired. I’ve got something better for you to do.
“You are going to travel down to Hurricane, Utah. The company will pay for your expenses given your impressive prior services. We’ll even set you up in an apartment down there. I am going to pair you up with the two best-performing Fazbear employees from the location. I want you to help shut it down as I should have all those years ago, gather all the scrap the company requires of you from the facility, and ship it back here. If the board and I find your work satisfactory, I will hire you back onto our team here at the Pizzaplex along with your two Hurricane teammates. Just have it done by…” Jen glanced at her calendar. “September the 15th. That gives you two months exactly. I think even a moron like you can handle that. What do you think?”
Charlie didn’t hesitate, blurting out, “Yes. Of course.”
“Good. Now get out of my sight. Vanessa, escort her out and to her vehicle.”
Vanessa looked as if she were about to clock their boss in the face, but said nothing as she walked Charlie out of Jen’s office and through the utility tunnels. After five awkward minutes of walking, they reached a backdoor and began cutting through outside construction toward the parking lot.
“I’ll try to get you rehired,” Vanessa said, breaking the silence.
“I don’t want to go back there.”
Vanessa didn’t speak for a moment. “It’s the breach, isn’t it?”
Charlie nodded, and she couldn’t bear to look Vanessa in the eye. “The one time I put more personal info than usual in my profile, and then… How could anyone get into our damn systems anyways?” Charlie nearly pulled her hair out. “You know you shouldn’t be around me anymore. They’ll all make shit assumptions, and Jen will believe them. She probably already does. She already treats you worse and it’s only been a week!”
“Charlie, even if they make assumptions, I can deal with it. I’ve got tougher skin than you think.”
Getting into her car, Charlie resisted the urge to punch the steering wheel, sighing, “I know, but… Just keep that one promise. Please.”
“Of course.”
Charlie hesitated to hit the gas, looking back at Vanessa one more time, and she saw the innocence on her face. She didn’t have a clue. Charlie blinked away the tears, hoping Vanessa hadn’t noticed, and muttered, “Thanks.”
She drove away, not noticing Vanessa was crying too.
—
Charlie remembered the first time she heard someone talk about Hurricane, Utah. Specifically, it was her very first day as an intern in one of Fazbear’s office buildings, just south of Salt Lake City. She was just a lowly sixteen-year-old repairman at the time, her potential not realized by her higher-ups yet. Charlie remembered sitting in the break room nibbling on a candy bar when an IT guy said, “What’s with the long face, kid? You aren’t working in Hurricane.”
“I’m just tired, and… What do you mean, not working in Hurricane?”
“You haven’t heard? That story’s a rite of passage in this place!”
“Look, I’ll listen if you promise that afterwards you’ll leave me alone.” The man stared at her, shocked by the mild disrespect. “Are you gonna get on with it or what?”
“Yeah, whatever kid.” The man sat down across from her and said, “Jen Emily, our CEO-”
“I know who she is.”
“Well, first off, she founded Fazbear Entertainment in Hurricane. It’s a little rinky-dink town as far south of the state as you can get. Desert country, basically. That’s where she grew up, born to a poor mom and a dad who went to go get milk.
“Apparently, Jen was a mechanical genius. Started making these little animal robots when she was young and just couldn’t help but make them bigger and bolder the older she got. She was creative too and made up the first few mascots we used. Of course, we kept quite a few, like Freddy. Meanwhile, she also knew business like the back of her hand. She saw an opportunity to make a living off her creations, scrape in some money giving the community entertainment. So, she did. Went around the whole town, and then a few others. Word began to spread fast, and the money flowed in. By the time she was your age all of Washington County knew about her. Her and her friends traveled around like the Ringling Brothers, pleasing the crowd with her animatronics’ tricks and raking in all that dough. A perfect scheme.
“When Jen turned twenty, she finally bought out an anchor store in some abandoned mall in her hometown, putting all the money she had earned into refurbishing it. She named it Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. Jen picked her best four animatronics and got them to perform and sing, and soon enough, the place was more popular than anything else. Ever heard of Chuck-E-Cheese? Showbiz Pizza?” She shook her head. “Exactly. They used to be the big boys in the kids arcade and restaurant industry. Freddy’s got popular enough that those other places started failing. Jen would then swoop in and take over the space as soon as they declared bankruptcy, rebranding them to Fazbear Entertainment’s liking. That’s how they got all those experimental locations. Jen couldn’t keep up with the production sometimes, so she had to use older projects. The first model of Montgomery Gator, for example.”
Charlie smirked. “I remember him.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. His older model used real gator teeth, and he bit down on an employee’s head and took out their frontal lobe.”
The man’s smile quickly faded. “Right… That… Good thing they don’t use those old models anymore! Anyways, business was going great until she hired a certain new guy to work as a performer at Freddy’s. His name was William Afton.” The man pulled out his phone and showed Charlie a picture of Afton. He definitely looked off-putting, tall and lanky with hollow amber eyes. “He wasn’t very pleasant, and had quite the police record too apparently. But Jen believed in second chances and allowed Afton to get in one of their new wearable mascot costumes and entertain the kids. That was a big mistake. Soon enough, four kids were missing, all taken from by some guy wearing a yellow bear costume.”
“A yellow bear? There are no yellow bear characters.”
“Exactly. That suit was inspired by Jen’s favorite design, the bear before she created Freddy. Never gave it a name though, so we just call it Fredbear. But anyways, Jen wasn’t the one kidnapping the children obviously, it was just Afton trying to throw the cops off. And then, one night, William offered to cover for the regular night guard. Jen came in the next morning and found him dead. He was in the Fredbear suit, his wrists slit, right in the middle of the office. He had left a suicide note explaining everything he had done, and that was that.”
“Yikes.” The man nodded in agreement and turned to put money in the soda machine. “Where were the kids?”
He looked toward her, but his eyes never met hers as he nervously shuffled his feet. “Uh… Well, Afton stuffed their remains into the mascots of the restaurant.”
Charlie suddenly felt too sick to speak. The story seemed so familiar, but she didn’t know where she had heard it before. Probably gossip and urban legends. Out of morbid curiosity, she gestured for him to continue the story. “After that, the original location stayed open, but it hasn’t been the same since. It’s our lowest-performing location now. No clue why anyone would still go there. Some people say the place is haunted, but-”
Their boss then walked into the break room, looking for Charlie before she could ask any more. She never heard anything else about that first location.
And now here she was, in Hurricane and heading straight to Freddy’s.
Hurricane was just as rundown as she expected, maybe more. The ground was split open with miniature Grand Canyons, maws waiting for the next drips of rain. The few plants that had sprouted up were already dying in the merciless heat. What she assumed had been farmland was abandoned and rough, and the only life she noticed were starving vultures and a single deer, stumbling erratically in the distance. Chronic wasting disease, she thought.
The town square was perhaps the most lively part of Hurricane, but that wasn’t saying much. Astroturf lined the sidewalks, and in the center was a fountain that looked like it hadn’t been turned on in decades. People still gathered around it as if it would suddenly spout water and provide a little relief. Scars seemed common among the clusters.
Cyclone Mall stood tall to the south of the area, casting a shadow on the rest of the town center along with its massive parking garage, now mainly used by the homeless. She sat her vehicle on the side of the road and headed into the mall, which once inside looked like a dilapidated hospital. The cream-colored walls were dirty and stained, and most of the shops inside were vacant. In one corner of a blocked-off hallway, she could see paramedics and detectives standing around a body.
Finally, at the end of a leg of the mall where the fluorescent lights had begun to flicker and mold clung to the ceiling, she saw Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. Its branding was fading and worn down from about three decades of aging, and the neon sign that hung above the locked doors and rainbow-tinted windows looked like it was about to fall. An advertisement in one of said windows offered a birthday party discount for the coming weekend, their last weekend of business.
Charlie checked her watch, thinking, The email said we would all meet outside Freddy’s at three. It’s already five past, where are they?
Then, right on cue, the doors behind her swung open. She jumped out of the way and nearly out of her skin, but tried to keep the rest of her composure. A girl, maybe a year older than her, stood in the doorway, one eyebrow raised.
“Are you Charlie Schmidt?” the girl asked.
“Yeah.”
“Great. I’m Jessica Dunn, assistant manager. Come on in.”
Jessica wasn’t rude, but her icy blue gaze crept through Charlie like frostbite. The mechanic couldn’t help but think she looked like a colder version of Vanessa, her complexion watered down to a frigid pastel. Ironic, considering the heat, even in the air-conditioned mall.
Except for the two young women, Freddy’s seemed devoid of life. “Seems like you guys closed a bit ago?” Charlie nervously joked, the atmosphere wriggling under her skin like maggots.
“No,” Jessica sighed, and Charlie noticed the bags under her eyes; she looked like she hadn’t slept or eaten for a while. Stress had consumed her. Charlie knew a similar fate would hit her sooner or later, she could feel it coming. “We have one more birthday party this weekend. Had one taker on the discount.” She offered Charlie a piece of gum as she continued, “Dude must be one cheap bastard. Anyways, the other guy’s waiting for us in the kitchen.”
“Let me guess, your manager?”
“Nope. Our chef and occasional medic.”
Charlie, lost in thought, barely paid attention to her surroundings until they reached the kitchen. As soon as the door inside opened, she was blinded by the light. In the background she could hear something hissing, like a ringing that wouldn’t leave your ears. The kitchen was clean, but it was lifeless. This was not a place of warmth or life; it was more like a morgue.
A teenager was washing his hands, his red hair and emerald eyes striking against the cold environment. He couldn’t have been older than seventeen. “Hey!” He waved excitedly. “You’re the scrapper from upstate, right?”
Charlie noticed the kid’s arm right away; it was hard to miss. She had seen cases like his before, mostly at the Pizzaplex, but none as severe as this. The mechanics and technicians at the complex, no matter how good or experienced they were, still worked with the most advanced technology in the world. When it became unstable, it was dangerous. She had seen coworkers lose fingers and a whole hand once quicker than anyone could process. Charlie was lucky she hadn’t lost anything yet. Many employees had robotic digits and hands, which was a guaranteed benefit for employees in the Fazbear Entertainment contract. It was one of the few good perks the company offered.
However, the teenager standing before her was missing more than just a finger or a hand. His whole left arm was gone, replaced with one made of a sleek, water-proof titanium.