Outside the thin walls of your gaudy Freddy Fazbear themed van the wind bellowed and screamed its way through trees. A streetlamp flickered in the distance, offering momentary glimpses of dancing ginger leaves and a discarded soda can rolling across the asphalt. To your right you stared into the carpark of your first position with the company. The lights inside were off, but the fluorescent sign outside the establishment glowed softly into the night.
“Well, ladies, we’re here.” You spoke up, remembering your time spent here. It seemed a little different than how you’d last left it, but you couldn’t quite put your finger on how.
You’d managed to convince the whole fox gang to get together. Roxanne wasn’t exactly a fox, but being a canid you felt she was close enough to count. Firstly you drove to the sister location to pick up Lolbit and Funtime, and now you were on your way to find Foxy who should be waiting just inside. You’d been planning this for a little while now and were excited to see it moving into fruition. Roxanne still hadn’t seen any of the other locations yet, so what better a place than where you started with the company?
“This is where you worked?” Roxanne piped up, leaning over a seat to catch a glimpse out of the window. She was curious about the outside world, still being new, and hadn’t had much of a chance to wander like some of the foxes had.
“This is where I started, yeah. Nasty little place, really. I’d only be here at night though.” You swung around to see your skulk of foxes in the back. They seemed ready to get out after a long journey.
“Ready to go in?” you asked, affirmative noises responded.
You got out and opened the back, checking around to make sure there wasn’t actually anybody around. You weren’t sure if there was a security guard for the night shift, but they’d surely not mind another security guard around. They must have seen the animatronics too; Foxy wasn’t exactly shy. One by one they all bailed out, the suspension on the rear tyres lifting as they left.
Roxanne and Funtime were chatting away about why humans like pizza so much as you made your way to the front door. You gave it a quick pull to see if it was open, but with a thunky rattling noise you were denied.
“We’ll have to go around the back; I know a way in.” You told them all, tossing your head to the side to indicate the direction. It was even worse lit than the front and had the unmistakable smell of months old vomit and urine that had thankfully been mostly taken by the wind. The rear entrance was littered with discarded cigarette butts from the kitchen staff and had a few grease stained pizza boxes stacked up on an air conditioning unit. This door was a rear exit for the kitchen staff to throw away garbage, and had been slightly broken for months. Unwilling to funnel money back into the business, the shareholders and therefore the managers had taken the choice to use the budget for other things.
You had a secret trick you’d used once before when you’d left your keys in your company provided trailer. Taking out your wallet you produced a credit card and held it aloft for all to see.
“What is that thing?” Lolbit asked, but the others weren’t far behind.
You hadn’t thought that they would lack the context for this, but they were genuinely asking what a credit card was. The bemusement on your face soured into exasperation.
“You know what, don’t worry about what it is.” You didn’t have the time to explain the finer points of economics to animatronics.
You took a step back and rushed into the door with your shoulder, holding it in place as far back as you could. Taking the card, you wiggled it into place and pushed open the lock. Now, you had to pull. This was the tricky part, so you removed your weight from the door and tried to use the card to tease it open. There was no handle; there was no need for a handle. You were never going to let that stop you.
“Wow!” a few of them exclaimed. “That was pretty neat. I never knew you did party tricks!” Said Funtime, amazed at your small showing of skill.
“Come on in, it’s cold outside.”
You should have brought a jacket, you reasoned, but it was a little late for that now. The heating was off in the building too, potentially meaning nobody would be around. First thing to do was check the security booth. The girls all made their way in and started eyeing around in the dark.
“This is the kitchen? It’s pretty dirty.” Roxanne mentioned, running a finger along one of the stainless steel tables that, ironically enough had become stained with something sticky that simply refused to move. Scratches on its surface around the mark indicated that somebody had once attempted in vain to remove it.
“Yeah, this place is a lot older than your location. It’s seen a lot more use, and a whole lot more neglect.” You answered. “Take a look around, I’m going to check the security booth.”
You made your way into the dining room. You were used to seeing it set with balloons and party hats for the following day, but this was different; they’d gone all out for Halloween decorations. Atop the tables were different hats, Halloween themed ones; there were Frankenstein hats and bat hats and what appeared to be Halloween themed party hats of the animatronics in various states of disarray. The tables had candelabras on them, electronic of course, with little strips of light fabric flapping to emulate flames, and jack-o-lanterns littered the area all with different expressions from fear to ecstasy.
Foxy’s cove in the corner sat closed. She should have been out and about nonetheless, but you’d have to check on security before you went looking for her. The hallways had been changed, decorated with more Halloween stuff than you knew they had. Perhaps they’d put some money back into the place after all. You hadn’t been there long enough before to see what they’d usually do, but you’d never seen all this packed up in boxes either. That sort of stuff usually wound up in your office, piled up in a corner.
Somebody had taken the liberty of propping up planks of wood outside the windows of your security office, and there seemed to be strobe lights on a tripod at the end of each hall. A little different, but you were sure it was a welcome seasonal change.
Peering inside through the gaps in the wood you could see that it was empty. For a moment you thought that maybe this place did need someone to guard against teenagers after all – you made your way in without any problems. Hoping to see your familiar station you strode inside and eyed around. Even your former office had been given the Halloween treatment and a wide-grinning pumpkin eyed up the seat. The controls were a little different, but the CRT monitor was still there. That thing must have been at least 25 years old.
Something was new though; a lever situated left of the monitor. It seemed to be hooked up to the power supply somehow, maybe they’d put in a new generator for emergencies since you’d last been there? It didn’t matter either way, you weren’t there to work.
“Foxy?” you called out. You’d been through most of the establishment by this point, but it was eerily quiet. It seems the other Foxys in the back hadn’t heard you though. You left through the other doorway, not taking the time to enjoy the fresh set of décor, and back into the dining room. Thankfully the sound of animatronic girls chattering away still emanated from the kitchen. You could just make out Funtime playing around with a pre-made pizza base, throwing it to Lolbit like a frisbee. At least they were having fun.
You made your way up to Foxy’s corner, her usual starry curtains taken down and temporarily replaced with a jack-o-lantern covered black sheet. “Foxy?” you repeated, quieter this time. Slowly you poked your head through the curtains to see if she was there.
Sure enough, there was the silhouette of an anthropomorphic fox – the pointed ears, the hook hand, and those same old shorts as always. Something didn’t quite seem right though… through the twinkling darkness you could tell Foxy wasn’t her usual self. It hadn’t even been all that long since you’d last seen her but she appeared to be missing a lot of her body. Looking her up and down from her back you could tell her entire midsection was missing save for an aluminium spine, parts of her ears were missing from the middle leaving metal bars exposed and her entire jaw seemed to be unhinged.
“Foxy, is that you?” you asked quiely. This didn’t seem like the foxy you knew. You tried to quietly back off as the beast began to shudder to life. You could hear the whirr of servos as she began to turn her head towards you. The body stayed put, though seemed to be attempting to move as it writhed and twitched like a dying spider. Two luminous eyes lit up and beamed through the darkness and the mouth opened wide to release a terrifying screech that echoed off the walls. You didn’t try to be quiet anymore. You turned and ran as fast as your feet would take you, slipping on the tile floor. You scrabbled and scrambled your way back up and continued running in the direction of the kitchen. Having heard the screams from you and this other Foxy the girls had poked their heads out to see what was occurring.
“Run!” you hissed, hoping they’d get the message and follow you. Thankfully, they did. All four of you scurried your way down the west wing hallway and slid around the corner into the security office.
“What’s happening?” Funtime questioned.
“What was the scream? I heard you scream too?” Roxanne asked. She seemed worried.
“I, uh… I think it was Foxy? It looked like Foxy, but not? I don’t know!” You tried to answer their questions but you didn’t really have the answers yourself.
“So what’s actually going on? I thought we were here to have fun.” Lolbit asked. She didn’t seem quite as scared as the others, and seemed to think this was all one big Halloween joke.
You didn’t have time to formulate a reply. Quickly, you began flicking through the cameras one after the other to find the right one that would show the Pirate’s Cove. The curtains were open, and Foxy, or whoever they were, had gone.
“There’s a Foxy on the loose. It didn’t look like any of the others I’ve met, and it didn’t seem… tame.” You told them all.
“Well what do we do?” Roxanne asked you. You don’t know who put you in charge, but you’ve been around longer than they have. You paused for a minute to think on it, intermittently flicking through the screens to see if you could find Foxy while formulating a plan.
“I’m going to have to do what I do best. We stay put – Roxanne, watch the left door. Funtime, you watch the right. Lolbit, take a look around for anything useful.” You told them all. The two moved to the doorways, peering out the gaps in the wood.
“What’s ‘something useful’ going to be when I find it?” Lolbit chuckled. She wasn’t taking this seriously at all.
“I don’t know - a weapon… something you can turn into a weapon. A hammer, a pole… anything.” You didn’t have time to be telling her how to do this.
“Wait, a weapon?” Funtime asked, looking away from the window for a moment. “Why do we need weapons?”
“Why would we need weapons!?” Roxanne queried, her short and sheltered life showing through. Her naive mind had never needed to understand the concept of such a thing. There was too much going on at once, you needed to focus. Leaving their questions unanswered you figured you’d try the switch next to the monitor, seeing as there was no sign whatsoever of Foxy.
Everything fell dark. Everything fell silent. The only light left in the room was from two emergency lamps and the grinning pumpkin next to you. That wasn’t quite the effect you were expecting.
“What did you do?!” Roxanne screamed. She sounded scared.
“I don’t know, I don’t know!” you stammered out, panicked and frustrated.
“How am I supposed to find something in the dark like this?” Lolbit laughed to herself, still feeling around in the darkness for something that could be used.
From the darkness of the hallways came the sound of shunting mechanics and grinding gears. Two eyes beamed through the dark, peering around abruptly from place to place, juddering and jerking around.
“What is that?” Funtime asked panickedly. The eyes locked in the direction of the voice and fell dark.
You shushed everyone and listened as the noise grew closer. There was precious little else you could do in the dark.
With no warning, everything flickered back on. A suddenly startled Fox on the other side of the wall stared at you momentarily, and you smashed the button for the hallway strobe lights. With a pop a bright light filled the room and blinded you for a second, but it seemed to have a greater effect on the dishevelled animatronic coming for you. The light’s capacitor started charging again with a whine that increased in pitch, and your seconds of advantage were slipping away.
“Everyone, out the left door!” You shouted, urging everyone to run to Roxanne’s door.
You made your way back to the dimly lit dining area, the silhouette of the nightmare fox had turned and staggered your way. Its mouth still sat agape and bore its teeth; row after row of jagged rusty metal fangs that would sink into you with ease.
“What do we do now?” Roxanne asked, standing behind you.
“We fight, or we run.” You answered, spying around for something you could use to hold back the beast. Lolbit seemed eager to fight, taking on a stance with a smirk.
The menacing machine started making pained sounds now, screeching what sounded like words but too static and too garbled to make out.
“Can we run? Please, I just want to get out of here.” Funtime whined. She might have been right.
“Ok, we get to the van. Take the kitchen, let’s go!” You shouted, running your way through the kitchen.
Nightmare Foxy started to run after you now, though her gait was uneven she could get some real speed. Metal grinding sounds approached as you all made your way through the kitchen door the right way this time, slamming it quickly behind you. It was made to open from that side though, so it wouldn’t hold.
You started making your way quickly to the van, pulling out your keys as you ran. You managed to swing by the back door to open it for the girls and dash around to the driver’s side before Nightmare Foxy emerged from the darkness, strips of fabric and a twinkling hook hand darting in the fluorescent light.
“We need to go right now. Close the door, we’re getting out of here!” you ordered, Lolbit closing the door as she got in. You backed up the van as fast as you could, but the broken down Foxy leapt onto the bonnet, screeching at you through the windshield. Her claws sunk into the metal as she tried to scrabble her way further onto the hood but you swung the car around in a circle backwards to try to throw her off.
At this point the girls in the back were leaning in trying to see what was happening, screaming back at the Nightmare creature and holding on for dear life as they were flung around from the momentum.
It was no use. The claws dug through the metal on the bonnet like paper and you knew you needed a change of plan. You put the van into drive and floored it, aiming straight for the building in front of you.
“Hold on tight!” You screamed as you gritted your teeth and gripped the wheel as hard as you could, bracing for the incoming impact.
The windows shattered into tiny fragments of sparkling crystal and everything was flung forward as you crashed your way through the entrance of the pizzeria, pinning Nightmare Foxy against the wall of your security booth. For a second it was silent, and billowing plumes of grey smoke filled the air from the van’s now silent engine. Everyone sat still and caught their breath.
“Is everyone ok?” you asked, swinging around to check on them. Before you could receive a reply, a sharp pain sank into your shoulder and a scream echoed in your ear.
“Blake!” Roxanne screamed from the passenger seat. Foxy had become detached from her lower half and now dragged her way across the bonnet, sinking her hook hand into you.
Instinctively, Roxanne grabbed the creature’s neck and pulled it off you. She threw it back out of the window and climbed through herself, jumping on its skull repeatedly with a hollow thunk each time. She took it by the base of its exposed spine and swung it around, striking it against the floor head-first again and again, pieces of metal and plastic flying off and bouncing on the floor. Finally she stopped and fell to the floor, tossing the remains of the animatronic aside.
One by one everyone stepped out of the van and checked the remains of the animatronic, their first time seeing what they looked like inside.
“I think we got it…” you sighed, catching your breath.
Lolbit couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “I don’t know about the rest of you but I think I’m ready to call it a night.”
“And how are we going to get home?” Asked Funtime, motioning to the van.
Everyone stared at the mess around them. Corporate wouldn’t be liking this one bit.