Chapter Text
The glow from the squat building was bright and with the sky cloaked in night, it demanded attention from the few out at this late hour. That was mainly just you.
You parked your car in the nearly empty parking lot and killed the engine. You were somewhat excited. Freddy Fazbear's. The budget Chuck E Cheese's of your childhood.
This would be the third job you’d made a grab for in the two weeks. You couldn't keep having your application declined. You were lucky that you’d come across their ad. It was in a newspaper of all things. For the first time, you weren’t upset that your dad had started taking them from your neighbor’s door.
After all the rejection, acquiring this minimum wage job felt like winning the lottery. It was about time too; money was running low and at this rate, you’d be late on your rent. Dad had been living with you for a while and he didn't exactly bring much to the table. After quitting your last job due to management issues, you were on the hunt for your next paycheck.
You’d applied yesterday, and they’d hired you on the spot without even the most cursory of interviews. You’d realized they were desperate for workers, and you gladly filled the spot. It was a little suspicious, sure, but you couldn't afford to pass up this opportunity. Money was money and with your bank running so close to empty, you were going to get all that you could.
The job description was simple enough. As night security, all you had to do was check the cameras now and then to make sure that no-one broke in.
As if. If this place ever had a threat of intrusions, you’d eat your shorts. Not even this town’s small population of teenagers wanted anything to do with this place. You knew you could rest assured that your job here would be uneventful. That was just as well. They’d never really told you what to do if there actually was a break-in.
When you'd shown up here earlier today to finalize everything, you were greeted by one of the employees. You never learned her name. She gave you a heap of paperwork to sign--legalities, she'd called them--and assigned you your very own security uniform. She'd then shown you to the door and told you to be back at 11:45 that night.
So here you were. You punted yourself out of your car and started for the door. As you approached, you saw movement from inside the windows. It took you a second to realize that it was the same woman who'd you met with earlier today. As you opened the door, you realized you were earlier than the time agreed on 11:30. You'd misjudged how long it would take to get here. Oops.
The door beeped cheerfully as you stepped into the building. The woman looked up from the table she was wiping down and gave a somewhat tired smile.
"Oh! You're here early."
"Yeah sorry,” you said, rubbing the back of your neck. “I didn’t realize what time it was when I left home.”
You didn’t like to admit it, but your sense of time might as well have been nonexistent. You were often varying degrees of late when it came to pretty much any occasion, and it didn't help that you had a nightmare of a memory. Recently, you’d taken to setting alarms to remind you of your various deadlines. You tried to leave yourself some extra time in case of the worst. Sometimes you overcompensated.
"Oh, it’s no biggie. Better early than late.” She tossed the towel she was working with into a bucket on the floor beside her. It already had a pile of used towels inside.
“I guess you can come with me to start up the generator." She said and picked up the bucket. She motioned for you to follow her, and started down a hallway.
You frowned. "This building runs on a generator?"
The door she stopped at was marked 'Parts and Service. Staff Only' She struggled briefly with the door handle while holding the bucket, then nudged the door open with her hip.
"Only at night. During the day we're on the grid-like everyone else."
"Why?" you asked as you followed her into the dark room. She hit the light switch with one hand and cursed as the bucket slipped from her grip. It clattered to the ground and she sighed.
The light flickered on and you flinched despite yourself. The room housed a table, a couple of shelves on the walls and most notably a variety of animatronic parts. What you assumed to be spare masks and casings for the robots occupied the available surfaces and at the end of the table sat what looked like a powered down endoskeleton. Yikes.
The masks and assorted animatronic parts were so much bigger than you remembered them being, some of them rivaling the size of your entire torso. In addition, a few of the masks still held their plastic eyes and feeling watched from several angles did not help quell your unease.
"We use the generator at night because our higher-ups insist that it saves money. I personally don't see how, given gas prices, but I don't make the rules." the woman said as she made her way to a distinctly dingy little generator in the corner.
“Yeah,” she continued, seeing your apprehensive expression. “This room is definitely in need of a little love. I’m pretty sure most of the staff try to forget that this room even exists. No-one wants to be in here long enough to clean it, me included. Anyone who can enter this room without being at least a little bit creeped out should not be trusted.” she said with a laugh.
You shared her laugh nervously, eyeing the bare endoskeleton.
She kicked a couple of crumpled papers away from the small generator. "Alright, buddy. Let's see what you can do today," she said to it, grabbing a gas tank from the meager collection beside it. She pulled the cap from the fuel tank and started to fill it with the gas.
While she worked you inspected the small room a little more, taking notice of the layers of dust on practically everything, and what you assumed to be oil stains on the floor and walls.
When she was done, she pulled the engine cord and the generator started up with a coughing whirr. Immediately the steady fluorescent lights began to flicker. It appeared that the generator wasn't very good at its job.
The impromptu light show made the already eerie atmosphere of the room skyrocket and you were quite ready to leave. Apparently, your other staff member--you still had to figure out her name--felt the same and quickly led the way back out into the hall.
“Alright, the generator fuel will last about six hours if you conserve your energy. Conveniently, that’s how long your shift is.”
“Wait, conserve energy? I thought I would just be watching cameras. Do they really take that much power?”
“Uh, I’ll explain everything when we get to your office. It's kinda complicated.” She checked her watch. “It’s 11:45-ish. You really don’t wanna be late getting to your office.”
Why, was your first thought. You decided not to pester about it. You figured it was just a behavior standard or small rule. “I get an office?” You asked as she led you down the hallway.
“Yes, but actually no.” She said with a smile. “It’s really the security office. There are two other guards that work shifts in rounds. You'll just be joining that rotation.”
She stopped in front of an irregularly large doorway at the end of the hall. A grated window looked into the room the frame led into. There was no door.
“Anyways, this is where you’ll spend most of your time.” She said, leading you into the room. ‘Room’ may have been too generous of a term. ‘Closet’ probably fit better. It was probably around the size of the one jumbo bathroom stall every public restroom held.
A large desk took up the entirety of the north wall, stacked high with various monitors and assorted trash. A matching window and doorless frame stood on the wall opposite the one you’d entered through. You were pretty sure that door led out the building’s other hallway. A battered old office chair stood among the collection of crumpled papers, food wrappers, and indistinguishable debris that decorated the floor of the tiny room.
“Well, this is it!” She said brightly, “Lovely, isn’t it?”
“Very.” You agreed, lightly kicking a discarded child’s shoe on the floor.
“Anyways, here’s the rundown. This tablet is connected to the security feed.” She reached over to the desk and produced a thin black tablet from one of the drawers. “All you have to do is check the cameras every now and then to make sure everything is in order.”
She tapped the doorframe you’d come through. “These buttons here control the doors.” Just beside the empty frame were two large buttons stacked over each other, labeled neatly as ‘Door’ and ‘Light’. There was a matching set on the other wall.
Before you had time to question, she pressed the door button to demonstrate and suddenly a thick metal slab fell from the top of the frame. It slammed into the ground with a resounding crash, disturbing some of the discarded papers on the desk.
You startled violently, stumbling back with a curse. You looked at her incredulously. “What was that?!”
She smiled a little. “The doors here are pretty powerful.” She noticed your questioning look and continued, smile slipping off of her face. “It’s a safety precaution. Make sure you use them.” She pressed the door button again and the metal flew back into the ceiling just as fast as it came down. You didn’t have time to process her change of tone and advice before she continued on without missing a beat.
“Now here’s the important part. The generator has six hours’ worth of fuel, right? Run through that and the entire building goes out. The power’s going to drain regardless because it’s going to the lights and whatnot through the whole building, but two things make it drain faster.” She said and counted off on her fingers. “One: Using the cameras, and Two: closing the doors. You can see the power percentage here on the tablet.”
“Wait, what kind of doors need power to be closed? Also, why would I even need to close the doors?”
She shrugged. “I think the doors stay open to make sure people don’t get locked in or something. Not really sure.” She didn’t acknowledge your second question and moved on before you could inquire further.
She checked her watch and her eyes widened. “Well, it’s about time for me to leave.” She said, words a little more rushed than before. “Around five to midnight. I hope I see you in the morning.”
She backed out of the room with a quick wave and turned out of your view. You looked out the door and she was already halfway down the hall. “Bye!” You called to her retreating figure. You heard her respond but you couldn’t make out her words.
You shrugged and turned back into your office. She probably had somewhere to be. You left your concern at the doorway. Something about this whole situation was off, but since you couldn’t put your finger on it you decided to worry about it later. Besides, money was money. No time for doubt. After all, what’s the worst that could happen?
You carefully sat in the beaten chair and cringed as it groaned loudly in protest. The hardest part about your night may be ensuring that your chair didn’t break. You glanced at the little alarm clock on your desk and found that the display was glitched out. You checked your phone and noted that you didn’t have any reception. Neat.
You put your phone away and looked around the room a little more. There wasn’t anything noteworthy save for a pink plastic cupcake on your desk. It was gifted with a candle and large eyes that blinked slowly every few seconds. You had a brief staring contest with it before deciding that was not okay and turned it around.
You pulled the tablet from its home on the desk. You curiously looked through each camera in turn and watched their full pan, noting that the kitchen feed was audio-only. You startled as something in the drawers of your desk chimed midnight.
Your shift had began.