Baby 16

If there's one good thing I could say about the day, it was that the birthday party went off without a hitch. If there was one bad thing I could say, it's that we'll probably never get another one.

After Mike and I finished decorating, I glanced at the clock; the kids were supposed to arrive within the hour, and Anondos hadn't come back with extra food. After dismissing Mike and asking him to get back into costume, I retired to the office to look through another guidebook and make sure everything would run smoothly. The first thing I wanted to do was test out Baby's birthday show disc--sure, if I knew Baby at this point, she could fake her way through it. Unfortunately, I still wasn't sure if she was lying or not when she mentioned being 'asleep' while entertaining kids.

I popped the disc into the console and set the show to begin in a few minutes, giving me time to return to the show room and get settled in to watch. As I walked back in, I heard loud banging sounds coming from the kitchen. I ran over and burst into the room, pushing the door so hard that it slammed into the wall. I saw Tricia sitting on the floor surrounded by circular pizza pans and long, metal baking trays. She rubbed her head and wore a grimace on her face, I assume from pain.

"Are you okay?!" I asked, sounding frantic without realizing it. I quickly helped her up and she dusted herself off.

"I'm fine, yeah," Tricia replied. "I was just trying to make it easier on Anondos when he gets back, but I didn't know the cabinets were so crammed full."

"Me neither." I replied. "If you're sure you're okay. Let one of us know if you ever need help." Tricia smiled in reply.

"I know. Thanks." She said, reaching down to pick up the pans from the floor. "I'll be fine. I've done this line of work before, remember? I can be a waitress and cook, too."

"Awesome." I replied. "I gotta get back out there and manage your cousin." She nodded and chuckled; she must be familiar with Mike's laziness, I figure. I walked out of the kitchen and saw that Baby was just starting to perform. Quickly sitting down in a chair at the front table, I watched in anticipation.

"Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza!" Baby greeted me. She looked around, as if looking at the children supposedly in the room. "I hear it's someone's birthday! Someone has a special day today!" Her blushing cheeks lit up and her blue eyes started to shine brighter. Her pigtails bobbed as she continued to move, looking around the room. "Now, where is the special birthday guest? They're my special friend today!"

God, she's so fucking cute. I wished it was my birthday. Baby moved her microphone to her mouth and leaned in close to it, beginning to sing. The familiar melody of the birthday song began to play from her back speaker.

"Have a birthday full of pizza, and our gift to you is fun ...!" Baby started to sing. Just as she had got into the song, another voice rudely interrupted her.

"I'm back." It was Anondos. I turned around, seeing him holding many shopping bags on his arms and a large sheet cake in his hands. "I figured we'd need one of these, too. What's Baby doing?" He asked, looking up at her.

"I got the birthday show in to test it out." I replied. "Good call on the cake. I can't begin to think of where the cake ingredients are in the kitchen."

"We both know you can't begin to think, but that's why I'm here." He said, with a smug tone to his voice.

"Ha-ha. Go write the kid's name on the cake." I said, or more precisely, ordered him. "You'll have time for jokes when we're done."

"I'm on it." Anondos replied. He looked around the room as he headed for the kitchen. "Looks nice in here, good job."

"Yeah, thank you. Mike does good work." I said, standing up from my seat. I had listened to Baby with one ear and Anondos with the other; she sang the song properly, so I had nothing to worry about there. I headed for the kitchen to help prepare the food, but something stopped me in my tracks. The door to the office hallway opened, and something very large was wheeled out. "Uh ... dude?" I called to Anondos. He turned and looked as surprised as I was.

"Yeah, put it up there, next to the clown one." The same smiling man from this morning walked out from behind the large thing being wheeled in on a flatbed. The man pushed it was a 'Stan's' worker and gave me a friendly wave as he headed for the stage. It took some effort, but he dragged whatever he was hauling on to the stage, taking care to keep it covered by an ugly, brown tarp.

"Can we help you again?" Anondos asked as both of us approached the man. He gave us that creepy smile again.

"Nah, I've got it." He replied. "After you told me about your party today, I mentioned it to the big guys. They insisted we give you a little help."

"Help? After you threatened to kick us out?" I asked. I looked up at the stage, seeing the mover had moved under the tarp. I could hear a loud drill. "If that's what I think it is, no. Get it out of here."

"You don't have an option." The man replied. "You work for us, not the other way around. Now then, meet the star of your show!" As if he knew the cue, the mover moved out from under the tarp and grabbed it, pulling it off to reveal a beaten-up, filthy and outright unpleasant-looking Freddy Fazbear animatronic. It wasn't even the 'Toy' one! It looked like it came from the store that got closed down because of the 'mucus and blood' incident.

"I thought you tore these up for parts." I said. "What's it doing here, and when is it leaving?"

"Oh, Freddy isn't leaving." The smiling man replied matter-of-factly. "Actually, why don't we just take the other one with us? That way Freddy can get the spotlight he deserves."

"Get out." I snapped at him. "You so much as touch my clown and you don't get out of here with both hands." Anondos looked surprised at the sudden confidence in my voice. "You take your fucking death bear robot and you get out of my restaurant. Baby isn't going anywhere."

"Pardon me?" The fedora-man stepped back. "Y-You don't threaten your superior, boy. What we say goes, and if we say we're getting rid of that one, we're-"

"You're not getting rid of her." I didn't allow him to finish. "You think I didn't plan on you trying this?"

"You did?" Anondos asked, finally speaking up from his spot next to me. I nodded.

"Keep an eye on him. I'll be right back." I replied, walking back into the office. I knew exactly what I was looking for; I had planned on this since before I had even found Baby in the alley. I stepped into the office doorway and grabbed my 'plan' leaning against the wall and walked back into the show room, brandishing my 'solution' in my hands: a very large sledge hammer.

"What do you plan to do with that?" The man asked. "Certainly not what it looks like, I would hope."

"Every birthday party needs a pinata." I replied. "You provided me with one, unless you want to get Freddy out of here. You have ten seconds."

"Try me." Fedora-man said, locking eyes with me. I smiled and nodded, raising the hammer and turning to face Freddy.

Bam!

The hammer went through the center of Freddy's face. His metal skull fell into two pieces, slamming loudly on the stage as his entire head fell from his shoulders. I lowered the hammer and turned to 'my superior,' giving him a grin.

"How's that?" I asked. "I can do it again, if you don't believe me."

"Well, you ... uh, I ... well!" The man stammered. He walked past me and stepped on stage, looking at Baby. Her eyes flickered, flashing green for a split second before returning to blue. She seemed to stare at the man. "What's got you so set on this one?" He asked. "Circus Baby's Pizza World didn't even last! She was scrap metal like she should have remained!"

"Yeah, but she's not." I said. "She's here, and she's my animatronic. I'm very happy with her, and so are my guests."

"Hm ... whatever." Fedora-man scoffed. "I don't see what's so damn great about this one."

"Allow me." I casually replied. I turned to face my robot, smiling at her. "Baby?"

Fedora-man turned to face Baby once again. In a flash, her face opened and she let out the same loud, frightening hiss that had scared off the movers from before. Unfortunately for me, this didn't phase the man in the slightest. As a matter of fact, he yawned during it.

"Kid, if this is the best you've got, maybe you really aren't Fazbear material." He said, a bit too calm for my tastes. This was supposed to run him off, not make him continue to second-guess me. "We've had guards literally go through worse than that, and live." He put emphasis on 'through' as if that was supposed to frighten me.

"I know you have, that's why I didn't want him here." I replied, pointing at the headless Freddy. "Now get out. We'll have your money like we said."

"You're lucky I don't call and you have fired on the spot, like I should as a professional." Fedora-guy snapped at me, motioning to his mover worker to get Freddy set up. "You're lucky your uncle and I go a long way back. I'll be looking forward to hearing you cry when you call and don't have any money this evening." The mover wheeled Freddy out, holding the bear bot's disembodied head under his arm. "So long for now. I'll gladly help you close this dump up when you get kicked out."

"Promises, promises." Anondos said as the two of us watched him leave. Once we were alone again, he turned to me; he didn't look any more confident than he did this morning. "You really need to quit being a dick to that guy."

"Me?!" I argued. "You're the one who started this shit!"

"Because you didn't have the balls." Anondos replied. "You defended your metal lady's honor, now let's get ready for this party."

"Shows what you know, I was ready like two pages ago." I said. Anondos raised an eyebrow. "Baby's ready, you're gonna write on the cake, and then get some pizzas in the oven. The kids should be here soon, the games work, everything's perfect."

"Let me guess, nothing could possibly screw this up?" Anondos asked with a grin.

"Before we almost had Freddy forced on us, I could say that." I replied. "But yeah, nothing should screw this up." Anondos seemed satisfied with that and retired to the kitchen, holding the cake in his hands. I quickly stepped up on stage, standing next to Baby. "It's me, Baby." I said. "You can talk to me like a grown-up."

"Hello, Anon." Baby replied in a whisper. I was grateful that she could read the room and keep quiet. "That was very frightening. Why did you try to destroy Freddy? Did he do something wrong?"

"I'll explain tonight." I said. "Thanks for listening to me on cue like that, but it didn't seem to help. We gotta figure things out or we won't be hanging out much longer."

"Yes, Anon." Baby replied. "We need to figure out this situation, especially how you are going to explain to Tricia that you're standing on the stage talking to your animatronic."

I slowly turned my head, seeing Tricia staring at us from the kitchen doorway. Shit.

"I'm just testing her responses to kids!" I yelled across the room. Tricia shrugged, nodded, and went back into the kitchen. I sighed in relief.

"If I understand correctly, that was 'smooth,' Anon." Baby said. I wanted to tell her to shut up from that remark, but knowing her, she would take it literally.

"If only the rest of my life went that 'smooth,'" I replied. "The kids will be here soon. We'll talk more tonight, Baby." I stepped off the stage, turning to face her; her eyes had returned to blue and she idly shifted her body around. So not only do I have a sci-fi movie's wet dream of a robot giving me handjobs at night, now I have to worry about that being taken away from me because I was too lazy to run a business. All of that, and the party hadn't even started yet.

Surely the party would go well, I hoped. As long as that went off perfectly, everything would be okay. We had the cake, the games, and the entertainment.

I just never thought that the entertainment would risk the whole thing going downhill.