A Call for Concern

  Left light. Right light. Close right door. Check cameras. Open right door. Lather, rinse, repeat. Always repeat. I've been doing this for years, so I've got it down to a damned science. Which is something I've had to do, in order to keep this job. I'm what you would call a Security Manager, I guess. It's, uh, well it's a simple enough job I suppose. It's essentially just being your everyday security guard most of the time, with the added bit of making training tapes for the new blood. Er- well, new blood's a poor choice of words on my part. That's not right, I mean, just, like, the new guy. Or new girl (God, I hope not.). The point is, I have to leave these tapes so then they can settle into their new job just fine. And not screw it up. Unfortunately, the kinds of people that Management seems keen on hiring tend to mess up sooner or later. I've been thinking lately that maybe they're simply trying to look for people who won't be missed. But then what does that say about me?

  Check cameras. Open right door. Remembering to repeat. Tonight would be my final night here at the Pizzeria. Over the years I had been subtly changing my phone messages to hopefully make it so my replacement would be aware. Aware of the dangers here. I try to tell myself that it's not really that bad, that the danger is just a bit of bad programming. But some of the things I've seen here, there has to be a better explanation for. Usually, a guard who failed is just found in one of the spare suits with their neck snapped (possibly from the force of the headpiece being shoved on). The cleanup crew was used to that kind of thing. One time however, we found something much worse. In the back maintenance room, there's a storage closet. Inside, we found... them. Abominations. Poor mishmashes of machinery and flesh, as though someone had been tinkering with the suited guards. Taking them apart and putting them back together again. Like someone studying them. The stench of the room was never fully removed no matter how much bleach and other solutions were used. I always tried to stick up for the machines here, trying to say it wasn't their fault, it was just bad code. But then I saw the security footage. No video feed mind you, as the camera in the maintenance room has been faulty for awhile, but there was an audio one. Over the screams I could hear an animatronic's voice. Speaking to whatever poor guard was being tortured that night. I do not know which animatronic, as they all have the same voice box, so it's up to their own discretion what settings to use to try and sound different from each other. This unfortunately means that they could easily sound like each other whenever they wanted if needs be. Man, I really hope it wasn't Foxy. I always liked him the most.

  Left light. Right light. Lately, I think this job has been getting to me. That's why I'm finally hanging it up after all these years. I've been starting to see things that I'm not quite certain they're actually there. Usually things in the camera. Posters being moved around, Foxy's sign in the cove being changed, little things like that. Though they're little things, I've been getting a strong sense of unease since it started. I'm the one with the camera system, but I think I'm the one who's actually being watched. Eyes on me all the time at night, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Even tonight, despite this feeling of being watched, I can't find any of my charges on the cams. After switching to another camera feed I suddenly see that Foxy's sign has been changed again, now saying IT'S ME. Images of those horrible victims from the storage closet flash through my head, but my body still knows what to do. Instinctively, I hit the left door button. Sure enough I soon hear banging on the door. Foxy. While this is going on, I try to leave my final message for the new guard. Trying to warn him, along with making a request to check that back room for me if he gets a chance. As I do, I hear a low groaning noise. Without looking up, I immediately push my arms out in front of me, and then bolt for the right door controls, slamming the right door shut. It seems to have worked, as I can see Chica staring at me through the window, the bird's bib being ruffled from where I pushed the animatronic out. I found myself crack a smile as I read the bib, which read "THAT'S HARASSMENT." and then in a blink it changed to "LET'S LAWSUIT!". Yes, I was definitely losing it.

  Check the cameras. I'm running out of power, and Foxy's still banging on the door. To my horror I begin to hear the Toreador march play from my tablet. Chica's still standing outside my right door. From the banging, I can tell that Foxy is still there. I can't seem to find Freddy on any of the cameras, so I can't pinpoint why the music is coming from the tablet. It's at this point I notice something on one of the cameras. Something I haven't seen in years. An old poster featuring the discontinued Golden Freddy character. An unknown dread awoke inside me, and I looked up only to see it sitting across from me. I backed away from it in fear. The suit was clearly empty and kind of slumped in its sitting position. Clearly meant to be an omen of what was in store for me if I let them in tonight. I closed my eyes and tried to shake my head clear of these images. That's when I felt something grab me by the shoulders. My eyes shot open and I was face to face with Golden Freddy. I immediately screamed in fright. As I did, a horribly gut wrenching sound emitted from the suit. The sound it made scared me silent. I was only dimly aware of the tape recorder clicking to signify running out of tape. Instead, I was much more focused on what had essentially just screamed right back in my face. To my surprise though, it then spoke.

"IT'S ME! Sorry about that! It's been awhile since I tried this, so I hadn't compensated properly. Lemme try this again: Hiya."

  What. This was the strangest hallucination yet. The suit let go of me and backed away a couple of steps. As it did so, it told me that what I should probably focus on right now was breathing. I was pretty panicked, but that certainly didn't help. I wasn't about to start talking to a hallucination. My eyes darted as I checked the cameras again. All the posters had gone back to normal, even Foxy's sign had changed back.

"Hey, I'm right here. It's rude to ignore people." the suit suddenly spoke again. I sighed and replied.
"Look uh... Golden Freddy... Goldeny, Goldie whatever, I'm in the middle of something important here. I'm not about to let my broken psyche stop me. It's literally life or death here."

  Suddenly, the tablet was grabbed out of my hands. In one clean break, the empty suit snapped it in two. I'll admit, that was very convincing. Also, terrifying. I screamed again, only to have it be muffled by the suit clamping its hand down on my mouth. It immediately threatened me, saying that it would have to kill me if I kept breaking the No Yelling rule. The suit went on, explaining that that would be no fun at all. I didn't have any other choice, so I did just that and fell silent.

"Good! Very good. Now then, we're going to play a game. Admittedly it's a bit of a children's game, but it'll have to do." the suit said, as it approached me and grabbed me by the shoulders again. I cringed and tried to look away from it. I don't know why, but it gives me a really queasy sort of unease when I look directly at the face of suit's headpiece. Maybe it's because its eye sockets are completely empty, they were just holes. There's not even a pinprick of light like the other animatronics sometimes displayed. I was dealing with something possibly much more sinister, and that scares me more than anything. The mouth on the headpiece of the suit had now twisted up into a sort of Glasgow smile, which did nothing to ease my fears. I gulped and attempted to reply.

"Uh... what game?" I asked. The suit replied with a simple one: Hide & Seek.

  Goldie explained it to me simply enough. I had to hide, with my life on the line. It informed me that all the exits were sealed, but if I made it to 6AM I would be free to go. I couldn't believe how casually the suit told me of this. I told it that it was crazy, that it would have to be some kind of monster to get any kind of fun out of a sick game like that.

"Words hurt, you know." the suit replied. It was at this point that the power suddenly went out. Dim blue emergency lights stayed on, but the doors shot back up, leaving me incredibly vulnerable. Until I noticed that no one was standing at either door. Smiling that horrible smile again, Goldie told me that the others won't be playing. Then it removed its top hat, and covered its face with it. Then it gave me fifteen seconds to run and hide. I tried pleading with it, hoping that maybe such an entity would see reason. However, it only told me I had ten seconds. So off I ran.

  The first thing I immediately tried was the exits. I couldn't just take the suit's words for it. But it was telling the truth, the doors were sealed. I don't know what was keeping them shut, but they wouldn't budge. Also true to its word, I couldn't see any of the other animatronics anywhere. I immediately then thought of a place to hide. It was risky, but if the animatronics weren't something to worry about, then I could hide in Pirate's Cove. Running towards it, I dove past the out of order sign, and pulled the curtains shut behind me. I was plunged into darkness, but I hoped this would work. And then I heard a voice as though right behind me: "Ready or not, here I come.". Freaking out, I stumbled out from the curtains, pulling them off as I did so. In the dim light I could make out an inactive Foxy still sitting there. Had I not also noticed that the robot wasn't active, I definitely would have screamed. Instead, I tried to be incredibly silent as I listened for the golden suit's footsteps while trying to think of a better hiding place. Then I heard the sound of movement, though it wasn't footsteps. I heard the camera move. Staring up at the camera, I wildly guessed that Goldie was somehow using the camera system to track me, ironically doing my job. If that was the case, there was only one place safe to try. The kitchen.

  Gunning it, I headed for the kitchen as quickly and silently as I could. Upon opening the door, the first thing I immediately saw was Chica making a mess of the pots and pans in the corner. I had to risk it, so I ducked in and closed the door quietly behind me. The chickenbot didn't seem to notice (or care) though, so I began sneaking towards the cold room. The robot seemed too focused on clanging pans together. Oh, I guess that's what that sound was whenever I was trying to see what was going on in here. I wonder if that's the case. Snapping back to what I was doing, I reached the cold room without incident and hid inside. Moving to the back, I opened one of the fridges and left it open. I figured this way, if the suit came by it would think I was hiding there and subsequently decided to find a better hiding place. Then I hid at the opposite side of the room behind a large row of hanging meat strips. Hopefully, I could swing one into it in a last ditch escape attempt.

Y̞̱͍͍̭̙̰O̤̮̹̰̞͕Ư͕̥̙̘̬̱̖ ̡͍A̞̥̣̮̺̼R̫̮̮͖͎̩͠ͅE̵̙̦͙ ̼̝͚̟͈̰͞A͓͈̟̫ ̛͙D̴̗̯Ę̫̱̗̤̫T͞E̝͈̦͕R̠̼͇M̠͍̰̕I̱̬̣̲̼̝͎Ń̰̘̯E̷̟̖̯͈̙̮D̖̮̗̱̹̠ͅ ̣̹̼͖I̯̹͔̱̜̻͕N̺̜̬̗͚D̷͖̖̤͇I̗̼͖̼̺̭V̧̠͎͉I͇͎̥̝̜͙͝D̷̤̼͙U̮͡A̧͉ͅͅL̙̟͠.̀ ̼̼̞͓̖͓̥I'̖̥̤͍̠M ͖̖̭̣͞G̘̘̬͕LA͎̥̣D̶̝̦ ̰̼̩͖Y̙̩͝O͏̦͎U̳͚̦̠̙͉̬͞ D̞̝͖̣E͈̤͓̱̞C͕̬ͅI̸̺̥͚͈͔̝̤D͏̝̰̣̼̰̭͉E̝̜̠̣̹̥͚D̺͎͝ ̢̖̠T̬O̮̫̙͡ ̳̘̜͞P̞L͈̘̤̞̖̳A͓͉͟Y̼̜͇̺ͅ ̖̠̳͘W͇͕͡IT̝͚̥H̩͖̘ ̴̭̻̳̣̭M̦E̷̼̬͖̘͔.̯̻̞̞͇͍̲

  What the hell was that? It sounded like it was in my head. My head began to pound, bringing me to my knees in a matter of moments. What was happening to me? OH̹̟̪͇̲́,͚͙ ͟N̹̦͉̺̱̣͜O̴͕̥̦̠̟T ̛̺̰̞M̻̘͉̺̳̩̲͜U̲̻̲̯͓C̡̼͕H̠̩̙̝̲̗͟ͅ.͉̪̼́ ͚̺͙̰̭̻͎J͖̩U͉Ș̟̠͟Ṯ͡ ͚̼̻̬O͇̞U̖͖͕͓͡R̷̺̥͇̩̙̣͇ ̹ͅG͔͍̞̮͚̝̱A͔͢M̰͎̺̤̘͔E̯̠̪̮̹͈ ͈E͚̭͡N̦D̥̪̥͓̹I͙͙̺̥N͉̹̯͇̲G̢̰̱̘̣. I couldn't focus my thoughts very well, and soon found myself coughing up blood. Through blurred vision I could make out the golden sheen of the suit, looming over me. Just trying to look at it caused me physical pain, so I looked away. Had to get my bearings. I tried to stand but could not find the strength. I found my voice however, and asked how I had been found so suddenly. Y͡OU̢'V̧E ͢G̛O͞T͞ I̛T̵ ÀLL W̧RON͘G̴.̀ I̕ DIDN͜'T́ S͜UDD͠E̛NLY FI͏ND YOU,͡ I̢ SIM͜PLY ̵S̢TO͝P͏P͘ED ͘P̢R̡E̴TENDI͠ŃG̢ TO ͟LOO͢K.̨ BUT͜ ͟Y̕O͠U͟ HAD͟ ͠Á ̶GOO͜D͘ PLA͘N̡ A̛T ͠L̵ȨAS͡T͠,͟ A͘LL TH͡INGS CO̢NS͟I͟DE̴RED. Everything was starting to go red, blood was leaking out of my eyes and ears. Even not looking at the suit, the words alone enough seemed to cut into me like knives. I don't think I even got a reply from the suit as it grabbed me by the shoulders again and stood me up, bringing me face to face with it again. It and that accursed smile.

A͕͚̪͞S ͞A̲͍̥̪͉̺̯ ̦͕͍͈̜̰̠R͚E̙͖W̛̟̭͍̲̱A̩̪R̦̬̯̟͖̩ͅD͍͉̝̫̦̝, ̯̝̫I'̘̣ͅͅL̹͜L̺̰̺͈̕ ̛̦M͚͞Ạ͕͙̫̬̼K̼͍͎E̲ ͚Y͖͖̘̰̯͚̦O̮͙U̲͉ ̹̳̰͕̤̝͞L̯̖͔̯̯͎̣I̼͍͓̪K̜̝͓̣E̥̙͓̣̘ ͘M̢̜̫̠̟Ḛ͔̥̀.̫̝̰̮̗̠̕ ͖̞̙E̝͇̗̲̮̗M͉̖̗͎͜P͎̯̫̰Ț̺͈̺͙̭Ý̲̭̦͉ͅ ͖͈̭̳A͟NḐ͇͖̣̻̩ ̤͇F̹̫͙̮͇̕ͅR̤̲̤E̘̫̬ͅE̫̠̤̣̟͢.̜̮͕̤̞͝


  When the cleaning crew was called in this time, they were truly surprised in how they found things. Foxy was still in the cove, nothing unusual there. But Freddy and Bonnie were found in the security room, facing the defunct monitors, as though they had been watching something on them. Chica also wasn't on stage, no, the chickenbot was instead found in the kitchen among a mess of pots and pans. It was their finding of Chica that enabled the crew to find that the door to the cool room had been left open, and... a thing was found inside. Even now the crew is not certain as to what exactly it was. From its silhouette it seemed to be an animatronic Foxy suit. When brought into the light, what they found had chilled even them. The frame of the suit was clearly made of bone, with what looked like skin stretched across it. The headpiece was also shaped like a human, contorted into a horrible screaming face. But where the eyes would be, were only holes, one covered by an eye-patch. The head also wore a pair of small kid sized party hats that were a deep red colour, which was what the crew mistook for the suit's ears. There was also a name-tag slapped on the chest of the suit, but all it said was IT'S ME.