Trick Or Treat

A crisp breeze blew through the parking lot, carrying with it the sound of children’s laughter, and Jeremy bundled himself deeper into his coat. Dry leaves crunched underfoot, streetlights buzzed overhead, and Jeremy reminded himself to smile as he approached the festively-decorated front door of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.

Halloween had arrived, and the whole town was in full swing.

A long line of patrons stretched out the front door of the restaurant, children and parents alike in a wide variety of costumes. Some looked anxious, some bored, and some were bouncing on their feet in excitement and talking to anyone nearby. It was Freddy’s first Halloween, and the outlandish promises made by the Fazbear marketing team meant that this one was surely one to be remembered.

Jeremy shrank into his coat once more when another breeze rolled past him. The chill in the air was unusual for this time of year, and as someone who greatly preferred the heat of summer over the icy touch of winter, it was yet another reason for Jeremy to hate getting out of bed.

The usual routine was simple. Wake up long after the sun goes down, get ready for his security, and make his way to Freddy’s just in time for the night shift. It was repetitive and probably unhealthy, but Jeremy preferred it that way. This, though, was practically Jeremy’s worst nightmare. He had to get up earlier than usual, which he hated. He had to trudge through crowds of people since the nearby parking spots were taken for once, which he hated. It was cold, which he hated most of all.

Having to constantly slap on a grin and put up a friendly demeanor didn’t help anything, either; the whole reason Jeremy even got his night shift job was so that he didn’t have to interact with people. Years at a grocery store had drained him of any desire to talk to people long ago. Yet, here he was, called in early to help out with the crowds of costumed kids.

Definitely not a good day.

Shrieking laughter was the only warning Jeremy had before he was nearly bowled over by one of the aforementioned kids. The guard stopped himself from snapping at them just in time, choking down a grimace to instead force a smile as he looked down at the young girl – some kind of dinosaur? – at his feet. “Well hey there. Enjoying yourself, little lady?”

Apparently, the smile wasn’t very convincing, because the little girl barely managed a squeak before she started bawling. To Jeremy’s relief, a mother separated herself from the crowd and quickly made her way over to him, deftly scooping the girl up with practiced ease.

“I’m so sorry about that,” she said, plainly used to apologizing considering the way she balanced it with soothing her daughter. “I lost track of Lizzy here in the crowd, and she never watches where she’s running no matter how much I tell her to. Isn’t that right, little Lizard?” the last sentence was directed to the daughter clutching her shoulder and accompanied by a quick tap on her nose. The girl, Lizzy apparently, giggled and then hiccuped as she came down from her crying fit that was over just as quickly as it came.

The smile on Jeremy’s face began to hurt his cheeks so he quickly waved them off. “Oh, it’s not a problem at all. I used to be the same way when I was her age.” The guard gave the woman a short nod and then turned to walk away, throwing a quick “Enjoy yourselves!” over his shoulder as he left.

Jeremy’s face smoothed over once nobody was looking. He sighed and stamped down the building irritability. It wasn’t like he hated kids or anything, and it wasn’t fair to them for him to take out his frustration on them. Especially on a holiday that every kid looked forward to all year like this one. He could pretend to be festive, at least for one day.

The inside of Freddy’s was a shock to Jeremy’s senses. The children were loud, the decorations were extravagant, and the cloying smell of far too many sweets in one spot hung in the air. Every corner of the main hall had child-appropriate spooky games to play in order to win candy prizes, games which had crowds huddled around them. A long line stretched from the hallway on the far side of the room, and Jeremy briefly recalled the plans to turn the party rooms into miniature haunted houses. Really, the only place that wasn’t excessively decorated was his security room, and even he couldn’t stop fellow employees from putting a few jack-o-lanterns in his domain.

Jeremy carefully picked his way across the large room, avoiding the many children racing from game to game. A brief glance at some of the other employees showed just how harried they were and Jeremy picked up the pace. He definitely didn’t want to get roped into helping. Walking past the lines waiting for the haunted house meant the guard was met with grumbles before people got a good look at his uniform, and Jeremy shrank away from the attention.

When he finally reached the end of the hall and brushed past the black drape separating his office from the hallway – the only concession he could get from management, since his “ergonomic and modern” doorless office would have left him feeling far too exposed – Jeremy couldn’t help but sag in relief. Thin as it was, his curtain was invaluable in cutting himself off from the crowds. It didn’t take much more to get set up like usual, and Jeremy could almost pretend like it was a normal night. Almost, because the mass of figures on his camera feed was far outside of normal.

A quick glance through a drawer for some spare batteries for the flashlight stopped Jeremy short. A bag of candy, likely one of his nicer coworker’s attempts at getting him into the spirit. Despite himself, Jeremy felt it work. There was a plastic skeleton hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room and a small cardboard box shoved into the corner, and Jeremy gathered them up and got to work. It wasn’t much. Placed just outside the cloth barrier between his office and the rest of the restaurant, the small skeleton and box full of candy was just festive enough for Jeremy to feel satisfied. At the very least, he could now claim to have made an attempt to get into the spirit of things.

After that brief distraction, though, was work time. Jeremy put on his game face and began checking the cameras. Each room had something new and interesting to see, and he quickly felt himself getting lost in the atmosphere.

One of the nearby party rooms had turned into a hospital horror scene. Nothing too scary, otherwise the parents would complain, but what it lacked in scare factor it more than made up for in enthusiasm. Specifically, the enthusiasm from the pink and white fox animatronic having fun spooking kids. Mangle was giving it her all, visibly enjoying herself as she made customers shriek and shiver.

Across the hall, Bonnie and Chica had a haunted maze. It was a tricky setup, not much room at all to create a proper labyrinth, but the two animatronics were hustling like mad to make it work. With help from some of the employees, they were making sure everything went smoothly. The animatronic’s costumes weren’t the height of frightening, however. Neither cheerleader nor hair metal band member were particularly hair-raising, although the thought of how Chica managed to get Bonnie into a skirt was a bit spine-chilling.

The other two party rooms didn’t have any animatronics in them, just boring old human employees. Still, the frights were abundant in both rooms, and Jeremy couldn’t help the grin that creeped across his face at the ideas his coworkers had come up with. The guests seemed to be enjoying it, as well, if the delighted shrieks were anything to go by.

Out in the hall the groups of people still waiting had started to dwindle. A group of kids clutching bags of candy were huddled next to the storage room, and Jeremy was just barely able to make out the girl that had run into him outside if he squinted. Hopefully her mother knew where she was.

The main hall was all fun and games, no spooks to be found. Balloon Boy and JJ were in one corner supervising some kind of pop-up target shooting game, the Marionette was out of their box and handing out candy to any children in costumes, and Toy Freddy was up on stage performing seasonally-appropriate-yet-legally-distinct songs. Something told Jeremy that “Fazbusters” wouldn’t get any playtime on the radio, but that was probably for the better.

The camera feed froze at that moment, the last image frozen on the screen. Jeremy wacked his tablet against the desk in front of him, prompting several static-filled pictures to flash across the screen. The brief flashes of an actually functioning camera went by like a slideshow, and Jeremy took it as a sign to take a break.

Some giggling voices from just beyond the curtain dragged the guard’s attention up, and Jeremy listened carefully. It sounded like a small group of children had braved the fearsome skeleton guarding its spoils and were grabbing some candy from the box, and one in particular was talking up a storm the whole while. The curtain was just enough to muffle the exact words, but Jeremy got enough of the gist to not be surprised at all when a freckled face poked into the room.

“Hey, mister!” The kid had a wide smile that revealed a missing tooth, which contrasted nicely with the fake plastic fangs he had in his mouth. “It’s alright if we take this candy, right? It was just sittin’ out here, is all, and we figured it was for us, and I reeaaaallly love candy so I wanted to know if I could grab some.”

Jeremy waved his hand, a bit amused at how much of a motormouth he could already tell this kid was. He was pretty sure the little vampire hadn’t even taken a breath in-between all those words. “Sure, that’s what it’s there for.”

The kid’s face lightened up. “Thanks, mister!” Without any preamble, he shoved a fistful of candy into his mouth, and it was then that Jeremy noticed the kid’s bag was completely empty. The thought that this kid had such a sweet tooth that he couldn’t even hold off long enough to fill his bag was a funny one, and Jeremy chuckled as the black curtain settled back into place. He could almost see why people loved this holiday so much now.

In what was perhaps a moment of weakness brought on by his jovial mood, Jeremy got up and stalked out of the office, almost looking forward to seeing how things were going with his own eyes. A mixed group of children and adults burst out of one of the party rooms, shrieking and laughing all at once. Liz and her friends were no longer by the storage room, so Jeremy couldn’t say hey to them. The main hall was still bustling, and the guard’s attention was briefly drawn to the prize corner.

“Please come forth,” the Marionette beckoned. “Show your worth. Only the scariest costumes get my prize: piles of candy, each as tall as the skies.” That was a lie. Jeremy knew for a fact that each and everyone in a costume would get a fistful of sweets no matter how poorly they were dressed. It worked, though, children swaggering away in groups with confidence after getting their costumes complimented.

Jeremy couldn’t keep watching the Marionette work their magic, however, as they were distracted by a familiar face. Liz’s mother, worriedly wandering through the crowd and craning her neck this way and that. Jeremy walked over to her, this time smiling more genuinely, and greeted her. “Hello, ma’am. Can’t find your tyke again?”

The mother shot him a concerned look before recognition and relief passed across her face. “Oh, yes! I’m trying to find my little darling but she’s up and vanished on me again. You wouldn’t happen to have seen her, have you?”

Jeremy shook his head. “Sorry. I saw her earlier waiting for the haunted houses but I haven’t seen her since. I can check the cameras in the back for her if you’d like, though.”

“If you would,” the mother responded, face pinched with worry.

A bit of walking and crowd-dodging had Jeremy in the main hallway on his way back to the security room. Halfway there, though, he stopped. The door to the storage room yawned open, what little light from the hallway’s decorations spilling into and subsequently being swallowed up by the room’s darkness. Jeremy grabbed his flashlight, poked his head into the room, and flicked it on. Liz probably wasn’t in here, but at the very least he should check on things before closing the door again.

The flickering yellow light of Jeremy’s flashlight swept across the storage room. Dust danced in the air, as though freshly disturbed, but nothing seemed out of place. Cardboard boxes with peeling labels were piled against one wall. The old Freddy animatronic lay across the room from it, hunched in the corner. A table with yet more boxes was in the middle of the room, with yet another old, red animatronic curled next to it. A few empty shelves here and there, a few spare costume parts, the old rabbit, some cleaning supplies, bits and pieces of machinery and circuitry for repairs. All the usual stuff. Jeremy closed the storage room door once more then hurried back to his security office.

The camera was thankfully working this time, and Jeremy wasted no time dillydallying. The employee-ran haunted houses were still causing scares aplenty. Mangle was on a gurney, limbs scattered around the room. Bonnie and Chica were standing over some employees laying on the ground, and a family stumbled upon them and then ran away. Jeremy took all of this in and then immediately discarded it, focused on finding a missing girl.

When he finally spotted a familiar, vaguely dinosaur adjacent costume, Jeremy felt nothing but relief. The girl carefully picked her way through the many guests in the main hall, calmly avoiding people as she searched for what Jeremy presumed to be her mother. Once he saw her, Jeremy swept out of the room, but not before grabbing a handful of candy just in case she was distraught. Then, he jogged out to the main hall, and caught the still-worried mother before directing her to her child.

The reunion was tearful on the mother’s side, a weight visibly lifted from her shoulders, although Liz just looked confused. Brushing off the mother’s thanks, Jeremy gave himself a pat on the back as he walked back to his office.

The freckle-faced little boy stood stock-still next to the storage room, eyes locked on Jeremy as he walked past. Jeremy stopped and gave him a smile. “Hey again.” Jeremy dug into his pocket and pulled out some candy. He had it with him, after all, and he felt like doing something else nice. “Here, how about some more candy?” The young boy took it without saying a word, put the candy in his bag, and smiled before taking off at a run into the main hall.

The warm feeling in the middle of settling over Jeremy vanished when he noticed the storage room door was cracked open. The guard grumbled to himself, heart no longer in danger of growing three sizes, as he went to close it. A thought tickled at the back of his mind, however, and he glanced inside first.

Dust in the air. Cardboard boxes. A table with a fox collapsed against it. Shelves and parts and a rabbit and cleaning supplies. All of it exactly where it was minutes prior. Jeremy racked his brain, unsure as to why it was screaming at him that something was wrong.

The old Freddy and Chica were gone.

It hit Jeremy like a freight train, and he spun around in place, fruitlessly looking around the hallway for the missing machine. He ducked into both bathrooms to no avail, and poked his head into each of the party rooms with no luck. At last he went into the security office and checked the cameras only to find nothing.

Frowning and worried he would take the blame for this – he was the security officer, he should have been on the lookout, how did someone sneak an eight-foot-tall robot past him – Jeremy grabbed a walkie-talkie off of his belt and brought it up to his face.

“Uhh, hello? Jeremy here.  We’ve got a bit of a problem.”

After a moment a voice crackled through the speakers. “What seems to be the problem,” one of the managers asked, audibly at their wit’s end already. Jeremy gulped.

“Umm, we’ve got two animatronics missing?”

Jeremy cringed back from the radio even before his manager exploded on him. “What? We’re missing animatronics? You’re the security guard, dammit, how did you let someone sneak a robot past you?”

Jeremy rushed to explain himself. “I’m sorry, sir, I was just assisting with a lost child. It’s not two of our current performers, it’s two of the old ones we kept for spare parts.”

A moment of silence, and then the manager came back over the radio. “Well, that’s not as bad as it could be. You’re lucky you’ve got a good excuse. See if you can find them, though, or otherwise corporate’s gonna be on my ass. And if they’re on my ass, then I’m gonna be on yours. Got it?”

Jeremy swallowed hard. “Yes, sir.”

The camera feed was up before the words even fell from the air. Jeremy flicked through as fast as he dared. Nothing out of place in Mangle’s room. Nothing in any of the haunted houses at all, actually. The main room was still a sea of movement, and Jeremy squinted at the tablet as he tried to make out details, praying that something would pop out at him. The only thing that did, however, was Liz and her mother leaving, the little girl apparently back to normal and racing around without a care in the world. She shot a look at the camera right before she ran out the door, and for a moment it felt as though she were looking through the camera directly at him.

Then Jeremy flicked back to the hallway camera just in time see a child wander through the suddenly open storage room door. In the same instant, the old Bonnie came to life and the storage door slammed shut.

Jeremy didn’t think. He raced out of his room and down the hall, speeding past groups of guests waiting for the haunted houses. He skidded to a stop in front of the storage room and pushed the door only to nearly slam his own face into it. It was stuck. Jeremy fought down the rising panic, shoving as hard as he could. It was no use, however; the door resisted everything and remained in place.

“Shit! C’mon, open. Open!”

Jeremy couldn’t hear anything past the door, but that was practically meaningless. The door was thick and heavy by design, made to isolate the storage room from the rest of the restaurant in case an emergency repair needed to take place. The guard slammed his shoulder against the door, trying and failing to get it to budge.

“Open! Up! Dammit!” Each word was punctuated with another slam, the guard completely uncaring of the building pain in his shoulder as he bashed against the door. Then, with one last grunt of exertion, the door finally opened.

The little boy stood on the other side and looked up at Jeremy curiously. Jeremy dropped to one knee immediately, rushing to check the boy over for injuries. “Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?”

The boy tilted his head, visibly confused. Then, he squirmed out of Jeremy’s grasp, and Jeremy let the child squeeze past him and back out into the restaurant proper. Still worried, he flicked on his flashlight and surveyed the room.

The rabbit was gone.

Jeremy spun around, but the boy had already vanished into the crowded main hall. Dread crawled up Jeremy’s spine, icy cold and heavy. A thought pierced through the haze of panic and terror in his head, one that was completely outlandish and yet seemed to make perfect sense. The guard reached for his radio.

“Hey! Anybody listening? We gotta end the event, lock the place down and-“

Red-hot pain blossomed in the back of Jeremy’s head before he could get any more words out, the moment accompanied by the screech of rusted metal. Jeremy’s legs collapsed beneath him. His vision swam, his ears rang, and he felt incredibly dizzy. Bile rose from his stomach but couldn’t quite reach his lips. Something wet trickled down the back of his neck.

The radio clattered to the floor, and a muffled voice spoke up from its speakers. Jeremy couldn’t hear it, though, too overwhelmed by pain. It felt like there was cotton in his mouth and ears, and his thoughts were too muddied and disconnected to make any sense.

A jagged piece of metal, cruely curved and wickedly sharp, tore through Jeremy’s shoulder.

Distantly, Jeremy heard an announcement come on through the restaurant speaker even as he was dragged deeper into the storage room. “Attention Freddy Fazbear Frightfest attendees. We apologize for the inconvenience, but we must ask for guests to vacate the premises in a calm and orderly fashion as we are now closing. Thank you for your cooperation”

The voice brought some lucidity back to Jeremy’s thoughts, but all he could do was curse to himself. No, no, they needed to keep the guests in the building! They had to stop that boy from leaving! The only solace he had, as the sound of a hundred feet marched past the door, was that Foxy wouldn’t be able to make his own escape.

The storage room door opened. A young face popped in.