Snatch

Jeremy hopped out of his car with a flourish and whistled a jaunty tune as he walked into Freddy Fazbear’s, keyring spinning on his finger and a small paper bag filled with his lunch in the other hand. The night was cool and calm, stars speckling the inky black sky above, and the only sounds piercing the tranquility came from the monotonous hum of streetlights and the croaks of frogs in a nearby creek.

The front door was, as always, locked up tight, and Jeremy spent a moment juggling his food and keys before popping the door open and closing it behind him. A quick flip of the nearby light switch – management didn’t want to waste money on frivolous things like wasting electricity at night, but what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them – and was greeted by the sight of the building’s largest party room, still somewhat messy from the day’s celebrations. Three animatronics stood as still as statues on a stage near the entrance.

Jeremy tipped his cap at the stage as he walked by. “Evening, everyone. Good day today?” And with that, the animatronics came to life.

All three began moving, running their joints through standard mobility routines while they greeted Jeremy back. “Hey there, Jer Bear. Great to see ya again!” The speaker was Toy Chica, who managed to fit in a short wave at the security guard while rotating her torso. Beside her, Toy Freddy was lifting and lowering his arms, and on the other side of him Toy Bonnie was tilting his head and flapping his jaw.

“Anything interesting happen today?” the guard asked, speaking up slightly in order to be heard over the gentle whir of mechanical parts.

Toy Bonnie’s rolled eyes were answer enough. “You can say that again,” the blue rabbit said. “I’m not the one who had to be forcibly put into sleep mode by a day tech because I couldn’t stop talking about it.”

Jeremy turned to Toy Freddy in mock surprise. “Why Fred, I didn’t take you for the type.”

Toy Freddy’s grumbled response was smothered by Toy Chica’s enthusiasm. “It was so cool, Jeremy! We had a ton of regulars show up and they started singing along to one of our songs and everyone got in on it and it was really cool and-“

“Whoa, slow down,” Jeremy said, putting up a hand. “I’m here until six, you’ve got plenty of time to tell me all about it.”

The yellow animatronic pouted back at him, trying and utterly failing to look upset at the interruption. “I’m gonna hold you to that, mister.”

Jeremy laughed. “I’ll look forward to it.”

“No tapes today?” Toy Bonnie asked, drawing Jeremy’s attention back, and the guard only offered a shrug back.

“Nope, sorry. VHS rental place was picked pretty clean so no movie night tonight. I was lucky to get all those romcoms last week, honestly.”

Toy Bonnie sighed. Movie Night was a burgeoning tradition for the night shift, all those monitors piled up in Jeremy’s office finally put to good use, and the rabbit probably looked forward to them more than anyone else. There was some disdain for the romance flicks, or so Toy Bonnie claimed, although everyone knew better. The rabbit’s eyes were firmly locked on the screen the moment one began to play, after all. Toy Chica, meanwhile, preferred lots of action, and Toy Freddy had a weakness for thrillers.

By that point all three animatronics had fully run through their mobility routines and were about to start the final test: a mock performance of one of their songs. There was no music playing, and seeing them move around in silence like that, playing for a crowd that wasn’t there, always gave Jeremy a bit of the heebie-jeebies, so he tipped his cap once more to them and wandered away. A lazy “Have a good night, Mr. Fitzgerald,” from Toy Freddy saw him off.

The Puppet was still in their box with the music playing, something they normally only did if they were tired, so Jeremy left them alone for the time being. The prize counter was looking emptier than it had in ages, and the neon blue remains of what looked like a spilled slushie that hadn’t been fully cleaned up were visible on the floor. Definitely a busy day.

On the opposite side of things, Balloon Boy and JJ were already hopping around and playing some inscrutable game with strange rules and too many props – as he watched, JJ was hopping on one leg while trying to pat her head and rub her belly but instead had managed the reverse, while BB was doing something with some jacks – and just looking at them go was exhausting him, so he left them alone.

The whistling made a return as Jeremy left the party room and entered the hall leading to his office. A new chart-topper from some guy named Rick this time, it had been playing on the radio on the way over and was stuck in his head. A quick peek in Parts and Service revealed it to be mostly empty, although that wasn’t much cause for concern. The old animatronics that stayed there kept to themselves for the most part, and the quiet murmur of conversation out of sight satisfied him.

One more animatronic and his nightly “Check on the equipment” duties would be done, although if Jeremy was being truthful with himself he wasn’t quite looking forward to the last one. Funtime Foxy, aka Mangle, was an odd one, a bit of a loner and overly gloomy most of the time. She didn’t seem to get along with the others very well, which worried Jeremy, but he could understand why. He tried to be polite and show interest in her, which always made her perk up, but she was just so awkward that every interaction threw him off a bit.

Case in point, the animatronic in question was already in his office when he walked in. “What’s up, Fox?”

The pink-and-white animatronic jerked up in surprise from where she’d been rifling through the papers on his desk. She smiled, although it looked concerningly like a grimace, and held up an old newspaper. “I-I was just solving this c-crossword you left last night.”

“Oh yeah? Get anywhere with it?” Jeremy said, smoothly sliding beside her to peek over her shoulder. He didn’t notice her stiffen up, too busy looking at what had been filled in since he left. “Fourteen across, 10-1: ‘badreception’. Good job, I never would’ve gotten that one.”

“Th-thank you,” she said, puffing up what would have been her chest if she were in one piece in pride.

Jeremy set his paper bag down and plopped into his chair, pulling out a pencil to continue working on what few spaces were let unfilled in the puzzle. “So, you got any stories from today? Chica was telling me that it was pretty wild.” Eyes locked on the paper, he missed seeing the fox’s eyes narrow.

“I’m sure she w-would say that. Thanks to her e-egging on the crowd, I got taken apart and put b-back together more times than I did all last w-week!”

Sensing the explosion about to take place while he was still at ground zero, Jeremy looked up and placed a soothing hand on Funtime Foxy’s head, rubbing her smooth plastic between the ears until she mollified. “There, there. I’m sure that wasn’t her intention.”

“Hmmph,” was the only response, although the way she leaned into his hand was promising.

A distant clank brought both of their attentions down the hall, and Jeremy quickly checked the camera feed on his tablet only to tsk when he saw Toy Chica still crouched from her leap off the stage, apparently finally finished with the test routine. “I keep telling her not to do that, management got on me last week about the cracked tile.” Then the yellow animatronic was off, and as soon as Funtime Foxy saw it so was she.

“I’ll t-talk to you later, Jeremy,” the fox called back as she slithered into a vent on the wall next to him.

“See ya, Foxy,” Jeremy called back, before putting his tablet down and awaiting the inevitable. Surely enough, it was only a few seconds later that he saw Toy Chica slide around the corner at the end of the hall and come running for him, beak already detached and dropped off who knows where.

“Jeremy, Jeremy!” she said as she ran into the room. The animatronic windmilled her arms as she came to a stop, scratching up the tile floor in the process as she slid over to the desk. “So anyways, like I was saying earlier, the party was super huge and everyone was having a good time and then, like, out of nowhere some people started singing along! It was really cool, you had to be there!”

Jeremy smiled and nodded, well used to letting Toy Chica talk herself into being all tuckered out. He picked his pencil and paper back up, one ear on the bird, making sure to nod his head every time she paused.

The night passed, as always, uneventfully. Toy Freddy dozed in one of the empty party rooms – the bear swore when asked that sleep mode just wasn’t the same as a proper nap and would take the latter over the former any day– and so wasn’t any trouble at all. Toy Bonnie swung by a couple times during the night for some light conversation before heading to the bathroom to practice one-liners in the mirror. Toy Chica, of course, stayed by Jeremy’s side, babbling the night away and gradually working herself down into something approaching calm.

“Hey, Jeremy?”

The guard hummed back at Toy Chica, glancing down at his side. The chicken was sitting on the floor, legs stretched out, back and head resting against his legs. “What’s up?”

“What were you and Mangle talking about, anyways, when I got over here?”

It took a moment for Jeremy to figure out what he was talking about. “Oh, she was showing me how she’d helped me with my crossword.” The puzzle in question lay off to one side of the desk, completed at some point during the avalanche of words Toy Chica had unleashed upon him.

The bird seemed to slump against Jeremy’s legs just a bit more at that. “Oh, cool.” The silence stretched on for a while after that, comfortable rather than awkward. Toy Chica shifted against Jeremy’s legs. “Hey, Jeremy.”

“Hmm?”

“You remember those movies we watched last week? All those sappy ones that Bonnie kept crying at the end of?”

Humor colored Jeremy’s voice. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone sob that much over a kiss in a movie, but yeah, I remember.”

Toy Chica squirmed a bit against Jeremy’s legs. She seemed at a loss for words, which left Jeremy confused. Well, there was certainly a first time for everything. “Uhh, well. Dating, right?”

“Dating. Right,” Jeremy confirmed, half-chuckling.

“Right,” Chica seemed to firm up. “Do you want to?”

Now Jeremy was even more confused. “Want to what?”

Toy Chica seemed to deflate at that, still not facing the guard. “I, umm, I mean… Do you want to date?”

Jeremy was at a loss for words. This was… unexpected, to say the least. His brain went into overdrive as he frantically tried to sort through his memories and see if there was something he had missed; some sign he hadn’t seen. Oh god, this was just like the time a girl had told him she’d had a crush on him in high school two years after they graduated.

Then, something clicked into place, and Jeremy’s frazzled nerves settled down. She was asking him, right? She was serious, right? The more he thought about it, the harder it was to find reasons against it.

So, when the silence had stretched painfully long and tension was visible in Toy Chica’s shoulders, Jeremy made his decision. He gulped hard, throat oddly tight. “Yeah, sure.”

Toy Chica squealed hard, spinning around to finally face Jeremy. The LED lights in her cheeks were lit up like beacons, burning bright red, and she threw her arms around the guard. Jeremy awkwardly hugged her back.

Neither of them noticed the eyes watching from the vent.



The next night was similar to the first. Like always, Jeremy hopped out of his car. Like always, he had lunch in one hand and keys in the other. It was overcast that night, but the forecast hadn’t predicted rain so Jeremy wasn’t worried.

Like always, Jeremy was whistling something from the radio. Like always, he unlocked the front door. Like always, he flipped the light switch as soon as he got in.

Unlike always, the main party room was in a mess and the animatronics weren’t on stage.

Jeremy was instantly on guard. He cautiously walked across the room, eyes sweeping from wall to wall. Chairs were knocked over, popped balloons and streamers were scattered around the floor, and tables had been pushed around all over the place. The lid to the Puppet’s box was off but the marionette themselves were nowhere to be found.

BB and JJ were in their corner of the room, but neither were moving, slumped side by side behind an upturned table. Jeremy made to pick his way over to them, when the soft rumble of conversation caught his ear. He turned in the direction it was coming from. Parts and Service.

When Jeremy finally made his way over, silent and alert, he saw the door was cracked open and leaned in to hear better. The muttering was still indistinct, but he could still recognize the voices of the animatronics. Relief flooded him at the confirmation that it wasn’t robbers, but that was quickly washed away by concern. What had happened?

There would be no answers if he waited out in the hall, so Jeremy pushed the door open and walked in.

Every eye in the room snapped to him as soon as Jeremy entered. He was surprised to see the old animatronics showing their faces for once. He was even more surprised at the uncharacteristically sharp look on Toy Freddy’s face. Toy Bonnie leaned against a wall, both arms crossed and brow furrowed. Even the Puppet was there, silently standing guard in one corner of the room.

Then Jeremy’s eyes landed on Toy Chica laying on a table in the room’s center. He gasped and rushed to her side.

The yellow animatronic was a mess. Her plastic costume was damaged almost beyond repair, cracked and shattered in multiple places and outright missing in some. Her endoskeleton hadn’t escaped whatever had happened to her, either; frayed wires, leaking coolant, and damaged joints were visible just from a glance, and there was no telling what else was wrong with her. When Jeremy finally brought himself to look at her face, it was to see a tired smile.

“Hey there, Jer Bear. Great to see ya again.” Her voice was crackly, her speakers damaged.

“Chica…What happened?”

Toy Chica tried to wave an arm dismissively, ignoring how it clicked it protest at the movement. “Just some rowdy kids, nothing to worry about. I keep telling everyone I’m fine. Management told me they’d have some new parts in to fix me right up in the morning.”

“Rowdy kids my ass,” Toy Bonnie muttered darkly. “Those little terrors were on the war path.” Toy Chica shot the rabbit a pleading look, and was rewarded with a sigh and uncrossed arms. “Chica wanted a repeat of yesterday and right when she got everyone hyped up a bunch of kids stormed the stage and tackled her. They were so uncontrollable it looked like they were trying to take her apart.”

“I’ll be fine,” Toy Chica reiterated. Jeremy wasn’t so sure.

Everyone trickled out after that, one by one. The Puppet returned to their box, no longer feeling the need to be there now that security was present. The old models retreated into the back of the room, away from the others. Toy Bonnie perked up a bit after talking with Toy Chica some more and then left to clean up. Toy Freddy left shortly after to help with the cleanup, too tense to be his usual lazy self. Then, after one last assurance from his new maybe girlfriend – were they already official even though they hadn’t had a first date yet? – Jeremy left to attend to his duties.

Funtime Foxy was waiting for him in his office.

“H-hey, Jeremy. Busy night, huh?” the fox asked nervously.

Jeremy ran a hand over his face. “So I heard. How the hell did this happen?”

“S-some of the children were in my room before things k-kicked off. I g-guess they weren’t satisfied with just me, because they tried to take Ch-Chica apart and put her back together.” The animatronic’s response was delivered in a way that sounded almost guilty, and Jeremy couldn’t blame her. The poor thing was probably blaming herself for this whole mess.

“Listen, Fox” Jeremy said, clasping a hand on top of Funtime Foxy’s head. “It’s not your fault, so don’t beat yourself up over it, okay?”

Funtime Foxy visibly brightened at his words. “H-hey, with her out of commission, you two can’t do any d-date stuff tonight. M-maybe you could do some of it with me?” The animatronic sounded hopeful, eyes locked onto Jeremy’s face as she waited a response.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the one she wanted to hear. “Sorry, but no,” Jeremy said, frowning.

Funtime Foxy deflated at that. “I’m sorry, that was s-stupid of me. I shouldn’t have asked.”

Jeremy privately agreed. He put his lunch down on his desk and sat down, pulling out a new crossword to work on. The scratch of pencil on paper broke the silence. The seconds dragged on awkwardly, animatronic fidgeting and night guard writing and erasing.

“C-can I help?” Funtime Foxy offered meekly.

Jeremy waved his hand dismissively. “Maybe next time.” He didn’t notice the animatronic slink away, too absorbed in reading clues.

Time passed slowly, and the unusual amount of silence unnerved Jeremy. Even his lunch break failed to bring any relief, as Jeremy found that himself unable to finish his sandwich and left it half-eaten on the desk. So used to Toy Chica rambling by his side was he that eventually he couldn’t take the quiet anymore and decided to stretch his legs.

A quick peek in Parts and Service showed Toy Chica had entered sleep mode to pass the night faster, which Jeremy couldn’t blame her for.  He popped his head into the main party room, feeling slightly guilty that he had left the animatronics to clean up by themselves and ready to offer his help, only to blink at how spotless the place was.

Toy Bonnie and Balloon Boy were standing off to one side, and JJ was a bit further away. From the look on her face she was waiting expectantly, and as Jeremy watched he saw Toy Bonnie give BB a shove towards JJ. BB puffed his little chest up, uncharacteristically serious look on his face, and he marched over to JJ. Jeremy sidled up next to Toy Bonnie, observing as BB said something to JJ only to get a hug in response.

“So what’s that all about?” Jeremy asked out of the side of his mouth, eyes still locked on BB and JJ as they danced around.

Toy Bonnie seemed visibly smug at that even from the corner of Jeremy’s eye. “Well, that little Casanova heard about Toy Chica asking you out and came to the expert for some advice so he could do the same?”

Jeremy couldn’t stop himself from blurting out, “And he asked you?”

Toy Bonnie’s glower was so hot Jeremy could feel it burning the side of his face. “Yes, he asked me!”

“Well, it’s just you’re kind of a dork, is all. You’ve struck out on every Mom and Pop you’ve dropped a pick-up line on, and not for lack of trying.”

“Whatever,” Toy Bonnie grumbled and looked away.

Deciding a change of topic was necessary lest he further damage his workplace relationships, Jeremy looked around the room. “So how did you guys get cleaned up so fast, anyways?”

“Freddy. Turns out the guy can really get work done when he’s motivated. I think he figured the sooner he finished the sooner he could go back to doing nothing.”

Jeremy chuckled. “Yeah, that sounds like him.”

Having had his fill of workplace interaction for now, Jeremy bid the animatronic farewell and returned to his office. At this point, he was thoroughly unsurprised to see Funtime Foxy there. What was surprising, though, was what she was doing.

“Is that my sandwich?”

The fox animatronic jumped in shock and spun around to face Jeremy, crumbs coating her snout and the remains of Jeremy’s lunch in her hands. “S-sorry! I just wanted to see what it was l-like, is all!”

“Can you guys even eat,” Jeremy asked, then shrugged. “Ehh, you can finish it if you want. I wasn’t going to.”

Funtime Foxy scarfed the rest of the sandwich down, blushing heavily as she did so, and then scurried into the vent. Jeremy sighed and dropped his forehead to his desk. Toy Freddy was probably onto something. A nap sounded good right about now.



Jeremy didn’t whistle as he climbed out of his car the next day. Instead, concerned as he was, he made haste to the front door of the restaurant. One hand held the keys, steady instead of swinging. The other held two bags, one filled with food and the other with VHS rentals. He unlocked the door, walked inside and flipped on the lights, and was relieved to see everyone in their usual place.

“Hey guys,” he called as he walked across the floor.

The only one to respond this time was Toy Chica, who popped open her eyes. “H-hey, Jeremy! Ready for our d-date tonight?” Her voice was a bit odd, probably from the reconstruction of her speaker.

Jeremy raised the bag with the tapes in it. “You know it,” he said, biting back a chuckle at how nervous Toy Chica seemed. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you stutter before; you must be looking forward to this even more than I am. How about the rest,” he asked, gesturing towards Toy Freddy and Toy Bonnie with his head.

“Don’t mind them,” Toy Chica responded. “Freddy said he worked too hard last night so he’s staying in sleep mode, and he managed to talk Bonnie into it, too.”

“Sounds about right,” Jeremy shook his head. “Well, let’s not wait any longer.”

Toy Chica made a sound of agreement and carefully climbed down off the stage and rushed to Jeremy’s side, and the two walked arm-in-arm to the security office. Funtime Foxy wasn’t there this time, thankfully, and Jeremy and Toy Chica got comfortable.

“I managed to score a pretty good one this week,” Jeremy said as he put the first VHS in. “This one’s got fighter jets.”

Toy Chica frowned. “Don’t you have any horror?” At Jeremy’s bewildered expression she hurried to explain herself. “I-I mean, isn’t that what couples normally watch on dates?”

“I guess,” Jeremy shrugged. “Unfortunately, I didn’t bring any. I’ll grab some next time.”

When they finally got settled and the movie started, Jeremy noticed something odd. Toy Chica curled up against his side while they watched the intro to the movie together, which meant he could get a close look at how ill-fitting her suit seemed to be. The new pieces of her costume were subtly out of place, as if they weren’t made to her specifications. Management being cheap yet again, probably.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Hmm? For what?”

“Your costume. Nobody deserves to have something like that happen to them.”

Toy Chica’s response was oddly high-pitched. “Oh, it’s not too bad. They didn’t rip me to pieces or anything.”

“I mean it,” Jeremy said. “That sort of stuff shouldn’t happen, period.”

“Well, Funtime Foxy gets worse all the time and you don’t apologize to her!” Toy Chica snapped back.

Jeremy raised his hands placatingly. “Yeah, but that’s her and you’re you.”

Toy Chica rounded on Jeremy, oddly annoyed. The movie was now being fully ignored. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

That’s when Jeremy noticed Toy Chica’s eyes were yellow instead of blue.

“Wait… Fox? Is that you? What the hell is going on?”

Toy Chica, or Funtime Foxy wearing her costume, finally exploded at that. “W-what’s going on is that you and I are on a d-date!” She yelled at him with her normal voice, no longer trying to change how she sounded to hide who she was.

Jeremy stood up, which prompted the same from the other. “What? No! That’s not how this works!” He took a step back.

The animatronic in front of him moved quicker than he could see, hand grabbing a hold of his wrist and pulling him closer. Jeremy’s wrist creaked ominously as he grit his teeth, grip far too tight to be comfortable. He tried to pull away, but no matter how hard he yanked his arm he made no progress.

“Listen here,” Mangle hissed. “I’m the one that deserves you, not that hussy,” the word was spat like a curse.

“You can’t do this! The others-“

“The others aren’t going to interrupt us. I made sure of that,” Mangle said sweetly. “Now sit back down,” her grip tightened. “And let’s continue our date.”

Jeremy was breathless. “You’re crazy.”

That drove Mangle past the tipping point. She burst forth from Toy Chica’s costume, breaking the parts of plastic shell that she couldn’t immediately slip out of. Before Jeremy could even blink all of her limbs were wrapped around him.

Then her second endo head stoopped down and bit his ankle. A wet snap echoed in the room.

“You’re not going anywhere,” she hissed, muffling Jeremy’s shout of pain with a free hand.

The endo head moved over, jaws clamping around his other ankle. It bit down, shattering the bones.

“You’re going to stay here with me,” Mangle said, ignoring Jeremy’s scream of pain. “You’re going to stay here, and you’re going to fall in love with me, and we’re going to be happy forever.”

Jeremy was sobbing at this point, in terror or pain he didn’t know. Mangle wiped his tears away with a happy hum, ignoring Jeremy’s flinch as she did so. One of her long limbs snaked over to Jeremy’s paper bag, pulling out the sandwich inside and offering it to him.

“Here, honey, something to snack on while we watch Top Gun.”