Fazworld chapter 1

You are Mike Schmidt. You are a security guard responsible for doing the night shift at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.

It's your last night.

 

A hollow, ear-piercing bang comes from your right, your entire body recoiling back instinctively as you brace for an impact that never strikes you - the door was still in one piece.

 

BANG

 

The lights flicker overhead, the already hazy lighting of the little security shack sending a shudder down your spine that was only magnified as the security monitors all cut to black. Whatever was happening, it draining your power. Fast.

 

BANG

 

You're almost afraid to flick the right light on, terrified that it might be enough to completely short circuit the generator and leave you at Freddy's mercy.

 

BANG

 

You do a quick cycle through your camera feed. Nothing pops up until you switch over to Pirate's Cove.

Bonnie, Chica and even Foxy, all together. All slumped in a fully opened cove with the faint glow of the emergency light accentuating their ragged features. Their expressions were blank, staring dead ahead. They all looked more lifeless than they usually were.

 

BANG

 

"DON'T DO THIS, MIKE." The voice was full of unbridled rage, screaming at you at the top of his lungs. "DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE US, MIKE."

 

BANG

 

"THIS ISN'T HOW IT ENDS, MIKE." You realize that behind the mask of anger, there was a hint of fear. Sheer, unadultered fear. "YOU KNOW THIS ISN'T HOW IT ENDS."

 

Fear of what?

 

BANG

 

You had already sussed it out that the voice was Freddy.

"DON'T LEAVE US, MIKE."

You go to check your power.

15%

What time was it?

 

BANG

 

BANG

 

Something started to bang against the left door in conjunction with Freddy.

 

BANG

 

BANG

 

You go back and check Pirate's Cove.

 

BANG

 

BANG

 

All three were still there.

"DON'T GO."

-------------------

 

The sudden silence of the living-room after waking up from such a chaotic nightmare was enough to put you on edge. You were anticipating Freddy to just leap out at you from the murky darkness any second now, spare suit in hand. Thankfully, it was just a dream.

 

But the offer for employment wasn't. It was on the coffee table on top of about half a dozens sheets worth of reject novella ideas (You couldn't profit off writing, it turns out.) With the same cheery red-blue-and-yellow outline, the same smiling - almost condescendingly so - faces of the familiar characters and the same flowery scrawl:

 

" WE HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU VERY SOON !!!!

-FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT©"

 

Was it really worth checking?

 

You lurch up from the couch, checking the clock: 4:03PM. You've only been asleep for half a hour. That's how it normally goes when you have your usual night terrors. You were sweating like a pig, a mixture of the cold sweat of the bad memories that were haunting you and the lack of air conditioning.

 

You reach for your cracked, outdated cellphone, pressing your thumb down on it to bring it to life. You can barely make out the text on the display from the lack of light as it helpfully brings up today's date.

 

June 13th, Friday.

2:30PM - 12AM

Should you go? Do you really want to go back to the animatronics after you finally got away?

But you need the money. You take a look up at the room around you. The dismal, dreary apartment that you had called home since last year.

 

You could do better than this. You NEEDED better than this.

You need the cash.

 

Fuck it, it was worth the risk.

 

You throw on the only clean dress shirt and slacks you could find slumped over the hooks in the wardrobe - same underwear, sadly - and smear yourself in a variety of deodorants until you could easily pass as being flammable. You had the time to take a shower, yeah, but the sick, twisted feeling of bewildered excitement was struggling free from your ribcage, jerking and twitch inside your body and begging you to take it to Fazworld as soon as possible.

 

Your shower's broken, anyhow.

 

Fazbear Entertainment - or more likely, the bored intern being paid to copy-paste their invitation of employment - was kind enough to include a map with directions to the site where the park was located. You were rather surprised to see how close it actually was to you. You had no idea they were building this place all this time - although, you did stop paying attention to the news lately. No wonder.

 

A light jog down the hall and down to the ground floor lead you straight to the parking, jumping into your car - one of the few belongings you had managed to retain since your marriage crumbled - without thinking twice of what you were doing.

Engines rev, vehicle hums - the slight rattle coming deep from within the chassis helps to clear the edge of the tension you were experiencing. You just hope you're not gonna start hyperventilating or have a panic attack halfway there and cause a pileup on the highway.

 

Traffic was sparse, thank god. You didn't have the radio on, the rumble of the wheels underneath you serving as the sole source of ambiance accompanying you on this journey. Mentally, it was a whole other story.

 

So many questions. So many expectations. Were you seriously going? Going back to the place you vowed never to be a part of again after it kicked the bucket two years ago? What was going to be in store for you?

Fending off animatronics in a dingy, low budget restaurant was one thing. Fending them off in a place as large and open as the theme park was going to be an entirely new experience in itself.

 

It felt just like your first day on the job at Freddy's all those years ago.

 

You soon roll up into the miles-wide parking space while the surging anxiety nibbling at your brain plateaus and locks itself in place. The entire lot was barren, save for the small cluster of vehicles huddling sternly around the entrance. You were afraid to even stop, lest some hypothetical mechanical abomination smashes through your windshield and rips you to shreds. It was possible.

The walls of the park limits stretched on for quite for some distance, curving out of sight. From where you were, you could see the faint glimpses of a spindly roller-coaster tapering around the park. A ferris wheel at a standstill. The tips of structures whose main bodies were obscured by the thick walls encasing them into Fazworld.

 

As colorful as the walls were - complete with the beautifully painted visage of Freddy and Co. leading cartoonishly excited families towards the main entrance - there was a sense of intimidation behind them. Threatening, even. It felt like somebody had tried to fancy up the walls of a prison.

 

The sickly orange of the lights overhead stir you out of your nervous stupor, cautiously rolling your car down towards the center - the main entrance. A larger-than-life statue of Freddy himself had been erected just outside, surrounded by patterned flowers arranged in the form of the rest of the gang. His paw was raised up, microphone in the other, beckoning (Or luring, you figure.) the crowds of kids and parents that would soon be swarming over the place like flies to a garbage tip.

 

Attached to the large arch of the entrance - hanging just over the Mega-Freddy's head - was a sign with a goofy, childish font that quite simply read out:

 

"FREDDY FAZWORLD !

 WELCOME ALL !"

 

A banner had been tied together underneath it, proclaiming a 'GRAND REOPENING' complete with stock-art balloons and confetti hugging its borders.

 

 Just to the sides - past the ticket booths - were smaller sculptures of the other three. But for a few seconds, they had looked dangerously like the real deal.

 

You hadn't even gotten into the park and your mind was already playing tricks on you. Fun. You make a quick check of your watch as you climb out into the humidity of the June afternoon: 5:39 PM.

 

Well, you may as wall get to it. Linger around any longer and the grief thrashing about inside you may as well rip you apart.