Chapter Text
The familiar scent is what hits you first. Then you open your eyes to the worn, checkered tiles you’ve grown accustomed to. Your head feels weighted when you lift it to look to the front of the room, your view of it slightly obscured by your blurry vision but this doesn’t make you afraid. In fact, the opposite, you feel comfortable and excited.
Blue red and yellow flash and move across the room, the lighting is low, save for the huge stage in the center of the scene.
On it is the lovable animatronic band playing their song which kids at the base stand in awe staring at, mouths ajar and necks craned to look at freddy bonnie and chica perform the same repetitive robotic motions and 10 set songs.
You can now hear everything around you: the adults talking somewhere behind you, the kids which fill the whole room laugh and chatter loudly as they shoot across your view. You grow closer to the stage, pulled by some natural sense, like you know that’s where you’re meant to be, like you're falling into routine.
Freddy gets bigger and higher up as you grow closer to the base of the stage, his brown body moves from side to side stiffly, his eyes blink from time to time, as he “sings” into the microphone.
Though this scene is far from new, you can't help but feel the same enchantment as every other time you’ve been to Freddy's. Without you meaning to, a little giggle escapes from you- and then it’s cut short by a shrill scream, something that sounds pleading and guttural even though it clearly comes from a child.
Your vision is blurred and slow now. You search for where it’s coming from, and through a thick bustle of frantic people you find the origins of the sound. Time slows and the music distorts as you watch a parent uncover pirate cove, peeling back the purple starry curtain to reveal a large, partially twitching shape covered by shadow which you can barely see over the crowd of heads gathering.
The overwhelming red disco lights fall directly on what has caught your eye. You hope and pray that the red which now soaks foxy’s matted fur is just the light- that the small, barely squirming thing which is lodged between his teeth is not-
someone switches the stage lights on and pirates cove is fully revealed. You hear muffled screams and unbelieving gasps echo through the room, but all you can do is stare.
The now still shape, no, child suspended in the air by foxy’s jaws is wearing a pink sweater with blue and green stripes which you can barely make out of the overwhelming blood still seeping from her skull. Annie’s favorite sweater. The sight is overwhelming you but you have to know.
Pushing through the crowd of horrified people who you ignore, your eyes never leave pirates cove. You escape from the crowd, now at the front and directly standing before Foxy as he stares almost directly at you. Seeing her now, your sister- you let out some sort of broken sob but you force yourself to look at her.
You stare through heavy tears up at Annie, her head wedged deep into foxy’s mouth, her body dangling limply above the wooden stage floor where blood is pooling. On foxy’s teeth are strands of her long hair, muddied by her blood and… bits. You simply watch, eyes impossibly wide, hand plastered to your face.
Annie’s once pink sweater is growing redder, becoming almost fully soaked with blood. You watch as a drop rolls from off of her leg and down her white sneaker, pausing dramatically at the tip of her shoe before finally dripping into the puddle. And then you startle awake.
You sit upright, the image of the puddle of blood still seared into your head from the dream- the same dream you’ve been having for years.
Not every night, but most, you visit your sister on the night she died.
Though now you've forgotten her voice and her laugh, her scream has never been forgotten. You take a deep breath, and for a moment, forget that you’re not in your old apartment but your new home.
You shift over to the side of the bed, watching the morning sun come through the windows, tainted a light greenish by the sheer, vintage curtains. You watch as Lilly, your dog, still sleeps peacefully at the end of your bed.
A stiff thought passes through your head as you stand up to go to the bathroom
did you really expect to stop having the dream when this is what you do with your life?
Yeah, what do you expect?
—-
You’ve begun thanking the grandma who you only met once for the load of money she left you after her recent death. She also left her house too, along with everything inside. Sometimes, when you wander through the aged house filled with her old furniture and trinkets, you get a sense of comfort which eases the loneliness that creeps at you.
If you let the loneliness linger, you would recall the truly saddening amount of people who have been taken out of your life. Though you try to not let it sit in your mind, the knowledge of how little you have in this world is always somewhere rotting in the back of your head.
But in some strange way, grandma wards it off with her little dog salt and pepper shakers and funky collection of spoons.
Anyways, thanks grandma for the house and money because I would probably be broke by now.
After getting coffee and feeding Lilly who was perched energetically before her food bowl, you sit down at the little round farmstyle table; the surface of which is currently occupied by thick yellow folders and overflowing cardboard boxes stuffed with papers and whatnot.
You haphazardly place your coffee mug on a stack of folders and uncover your agenda from somewhere beneath all the mess.
What am I doing today… oh yeah. That guy I wanted to talk to… What time was that again? You quickly glance at your watch: 9:24am.
You scour all across the table… you must've put it somewhere… ah there.
You pick up the thin sticky note pad with a location and time scrawled on it: xxxx cherrygrove ct. Hurricane, Utah. 7:00pm.
Alright… that means if i’m able i can pick up a shift at the diner since he wants to meet kinda late…
You decide to go into work. You only work part time at Papy’s Diner, the hours and pay aren't the best but they were the quickest to hire you. That and apparently Hurricane seems to not have had a solid job opportunity since the late 80’s. Maybe this really is a ghost town....
You get up, stepping past Lilly 7:00pm… you repeat to yourself quietly as you dial in your job’s number to ask about a shift.
—-
You listen to Lilly yelping inside the house as you fumble with your keys, trying to balance the takeout containers that are about to tumble out of your arms, and then finally succeed in opening your front door. As soon as you do, Lilly leaps up to you and ferociously sniffs the containers which have nearly cascaded out of your arms
After recovery, you continue your balancing act with Lilly trailing close behind, until you arrive at the kitchen, allowing the containers to fall onto the counter. You take a deep breath and then check your watch: 5:50pm.
Okay, good. I can eat, get ready and drive there just in time.
You go through a quicker version of your usual post-work routine: shower, change, eat and then go on with whatever it is you’re doing for the night, which usually includes doing some kind of sleuthing. But tonight you have actual plans which, you check your watch, are soon enough that you gotta get on the road.
The engine rumbles to life and you shift into reverse, backing down your gravel driveway and onto the road. Thankfully this guy happens to live in the same neighborhood as an old friend so you know how to get there without a map. You enjoy the night drive, the sky is still slightly light and you can faintly see stars hanging above the dark ridges in the distance. You let the random radio station quietly drone in the background.
—-
The headlights of your old pickup fall on a small house tucked behind some trees as you turn up the driveway. A couple lights are on in the house but aside from your headlights shining on the little porch, it is now fully dark outside. You park but don't kill the engine quite yet, instead taking a deep breath, a small thought of is this sketchy? crossing your mind. Well… he sounded chill over the phone. You shrug to yourself a little, now taking the key out, a lead is a lead and plus you do have a pocket knife and taser with you so there's that.
You wrap a couple solid times on the white front door, well kind of white since the paint is chipping. You patiently hold a couple of seconds after hearing a muffled “coming!” from inside. Multiple locks are undone on the other side as you can hear and then the door swings open and in front of you stands a tall, broad man with a kind smile on his face. This was the guy who introduced himself as Jake over the phone.
“Hello, you must be the reporter, (your name), wasn’t it? come on in” he says with a smile, moving out of the way and gesturing you inside. He already strikes you as a nice guy, you place him at somewhere younger than 30, and he seems like someone patient and easy to talk to, which is great for you since that’s what you're here for.
Stepping inside you are immediately warmed by the interior of the house. “Thank you!” you say politely, “but I wouldn't call myself a reporter… more of an investigator, I guess” he smiles and shrugs at that and says “doesn’t matter either way”
He closes the door and makes his way past you towards what appears to be a little kitchen and you take it as your cue to follow him.
He clears some small clutter from the little dining room table and asks, “tea?”
You accept the offer and he puts a kettle on the stove. Taking a seat at the table, he gestures to the spot opposite him in a sort of ‘make yourself comfortable’ way.
“Again, sorry for the late hour, my mom is sick and I've been having to help her out alot recently…sorry that probably isn't very relevant. Either way, I hope it wasn’t trouble for you.”
“Oh I'm sorry about your mother” you reply a little awkwardly and he responds with a smile and a nod as a curt ‘thank you’.
“No trouble at all, it was actually more convenient for me this way, I have more free time later at night.” you say with a polite smile.
“I'm glad to hear that then! Anyways, I guess we can get started. So what exactly do you want to know?”
—-
By the time the tea was ready you had gathered that Jake had been an old night guard of a Freddy’s location years ago and since working there, has always had a bad feeling about the place.
“What specifically gave you a bad feeling?" you ask as he hands you a hot cup of tea.
“Well everything about the place seemed… I don't know, haunted?” he replied with an awkward laugh, returning to his seat, his own cup in hand.
“I mean sure, I was a guard at night so of course a dark restaurant full of robots is gonna feel kinda creepy. But then I found out about the franchise's past.” he says, growing stoic.
“Apparently five whole kids had gone missing on the same night at one of Freddy's locations…It was this whole thing yet still… nothing really happened. They simply couldn't find the kids or their bodies and the case was kind of written off.” he explains with a solemn shrug.
After a pause to sip his tea he continues, “well to be honest, what really got me were those suits or robots or whatever they were. They were just so…” he trails off and then picks up again, his eyes now back to you “well they were strange. And the smell, gosh, it was… really potent for just some suits, you know?
Like, when I asked my boss what that was about he said it was just because they couldn't wash em due to the metal or something, so they stayed pretty dirty, but like man… I don't know” he says, again seeming more lost in thought, like he's thinking about something he isn’t saying
“Anyways, I don't really know much else, just the thing about the kids and weird suits… I hope this hasn't been a waste of your time, I just put the flier up in case there was anyone who could use my info or something”
You picture the flier you found a couple days ago which was stapled to some random lamp post outside of town, it said something like “info on Freddy’s scandal… call for more” and a number at the bottom. At the time you had debated if it was even real but now you're glad you called anyways.
“Nono this really has been helpful” you reply, “especially since I've only ever gone as a kid. Trust me, anything helps”
He thinks for a moment, looking into his tea then asks, “what is it that you're doing exactly? Over the phone you only really asked for a meeting- not that it's an issue or anything…”
“Oh yeah I guess that's true” you say with a small laugh “honestly… I'm not doing much. I barely have much information outside of what I've found researching, and even the newspapers hardly say much, I mean, I've barely found anything out about the sole owner Mr.Emily… i'm sorry, I guess I should start from, the beginning"
He prompts you to continue with a nod
“My sister died at a Freddy’s when we were kids, she was… we assume she was messing around with an animatronic and it malfunctioned…” you don't really want to detail further- he understands enough which is obvious by his now very serious expression
“Anyways, of course I know it was an accident, but only years later did I think more about Freddy’s itself.
As a kid, I simply saw it as my sister had died. There wasn’t much more to think about, in fact for basically my whole life I tried so hard to forget. But it eventually occurred to me, once I was prompted by moving back into town, just how strange the whole situation was. The way the company covered it up… only when I did some digging was when I realized that they were never even shut down, not even that specific restaurant.
And then i discovered that my sister’s was apparently not the only death covered up by Fazbear Entertainment” you take a breath and finish
“Well basically, since then I've found out about more scandals and mysteries surrounding Freddy’s and I'm just trying to… I don't even know, really… maybe solve what happened in any capacity to ‘make up’ for all the tragedy caused by… whoever is responsible…” you say, feeling a little embarrassed.
You get the sense that Jake doesn’t find it silly by the reassuring expression on his face which is nice.
—
After some more conversation you check your watch: 8:45pm. You decide it's about time to get out of his hair so you thank Jake again for the tea and after returning the mug, you gather your things. He offers his apology for your sister and you awkwardly accept and tell him you hope his mom gets better.
He walks you back to the front door but pauses a beat before opening it. He seems to think for a moment before eventually saying
“Look, so I didn't want to mention this before because I didn't want you to think I was like a schitzo or something for suggesting but… I know where you might be able to find some more info about… well, all of it.”
You urge him to continue, “I might know a way to get into one of the locations that is still standing and I can give you a map…”
This definitely surprises you “Wow um, thank you, yeah that would be helpful” you say, feeling oddly hopeful.
He smiles in return, opening the door and letting the chilly night air in, but adds “but hey… if you really do go,” he pauses like he's debating continuing but does anyways “check out the suits… if you can.”
—-
You call goodbye to Jake who’s standing on the porch as you get into your truck and head back home.
Wow, that had actually been quite successful, I actually have some kind of real lead. And even though you admit to being pretty nervous about actually going back to Freddy’s, you’re still glad you at least have some sort of lead.
But man was what he said kinda mysterious… “check out the suits”
for a moment you vaguely get the sense that he still knew more than he had told you, well… I guess we’ll find out.
—-
As you turn onto your street you glance at your watch: 9:00
Listening to the staticy music playing faintly over the radio you think to yourself, Today was actually quite productive, and I'm glad the guy was chill too. Until something catches your attention.
Since moving here, you’ve never been quite sure if you have any neighbors because the houses surrounding you haven't really seemed all that inhabited (grandma lived on the outskirts of town, not many people out here apparently).
There are only a few houses, a couple across the street, one which is about 200-300 yards away on the right side and the one closest which is about 50 yards away on the left. The one that you now see someone walking out of and to their car.
Normally a neighbor or someone going to their car is not intriguing at all, but until this point, you hadn’t even realized someone was living there, well then again you guess you never really had the chance to find out.
Huh, cool, I wonder if i’ll ever meet them. You think before returning to your plans about going to Freddy’s and continuing on past their house and up your own driveway.