Day 8

You've rehearsed this a dozen times, but like most things you tend to freeze up at the moment of truth. Just got to relax and take the situation part by part.
First part is that you are Mike Schmidt, and that you've just completed your first week at what is easily the worst job you will have ever had in your life. Killer robots, some sort of supernatural occurrences, and proof that the previous guard died on the job that mysteriously disappeared when you tried to find it again. All in all you REALLY need either a raise or to get fired. Sadly you've got neither, and need to get your check.
Next part is that you made a wise move to do so in broad daylight, during actual open hours, where there would be plenty of witnesses if something should happen. Oh they thought they were slick, adding in all that stuff about cover-ups and missing person reports on the first night where you would forget it. But you didn't forget! That's burned into your memory as the first red flag that should have been raised! If there are people here, and you suddenly died screaming...
Lastly your clothes were comfortable, easy to move in, and your keys were still in the ignition. If you needed to escape, you could be out and on the road in mere moments. Probably stupid, but also possibly smart. You weren't sure which yet.

So with a deep breath and a moment to collect yourself, you pushed the doors open and let the fog of cheese and oil roll over you. The difference between the night shift and the day shift was stunning; full of life and noise instead of the silence and dread you felt every night. The was alive with energy from the kids running around having the time of their lives, and even the parents tiredly enjoyed themselves on sub-par pizza and lukewarm soda. The music wasn't from the stage but from one of the arcade machines nearby, with a line behind it to play the winner. A stray ball from the ball pit hit you, and with a smile tugging on the corners of your face you tossed it back with as little of a care as you allowed yourself. If you had kids you might almost consider the possibility of maybe one day bringing them within  a mile of this place eventually. But just maybe: killer robots are still killer robots, after all.
Speaking of which, you heard the digital voices of two of them on stage, waving to the crowd as they finish performing a song for the audience. For a second your blood ran cold as you reflexively reached for a tablet that wasn't there to check for Bonnie's location. But it wouldn't do something like that during the day right? You weren't even in unifor-

"Schmidt!" came a burly voice from behind you, causing you to let out an embarrassingly girlish scream and nearly jump out of your skin. Turning, you see the weary face of your boss, "What brings ya to dis place so early?

You are relived to see another co-worker that wasn't a killer robot for once. You had nearly forgotten you had them, honestly. He sizes you up for a moment, lingering on your face a bit longer than normal. You know why; when one of the new employees bursts in early in the morning after his first shift and starts ranting about the performers trying to kill him, it doesn't exactly leave a good impression. Less so when you come in a few days later asking about the previous night guard and literally tossed out by the man who was standing before you.

"Just here to grab my pay for last week."

He cocks an eyebrow "You ain't gonna try anything funny dis time?"

"No sir! Sorry about the misunderstanding." you lie.

He watches your gaze a moment longer, before clapping a hand on your shoulder. "Good. Hate to hafta fire you because of an overactive imagination. Your check's backstage, in the safe under the table. Combination is fourteen, eight, eight. Got it?"

"Yeah..."

You watch as he goes to the stage with a mop, before seeming to remember something. "Oh and one more thing. There was a bit of an accident with Bonnie, so they're changing its suit in th' back room, too. Don't try anything funny, you hear? Don't want you flipping out and smashing some robot more expensive than the building its in."

You immediately feel your stomach flip, but manage to get out a semi-solid "Sure thing." before venturing across the dining area to the backstage door. Even if it were just for a moment, even if it were just to get a safe, you were going to be in a small room with Bonnie. The image of those blank eyes staring at you through the window of your office last night will never leave your dreams and will populate your nightmares for years. If you even make it that far. You couldn't even look at the door, your feeling of dread mounting with every second, but when you glanced at the tiles you nearly tripped over yourself when your legs refused to work for a second..
Red. Tiny splotches of red dripping here and there in an obvious trail from the stage to the back room. Oh god he had mentioned an accident, right? And your phone-bound ex-co-worker had mentioned a bite happening in 1987... It can't be! Not with so many people here...but that's when you notice that the room was dead quiet. Only a few kids were playing, the rest had all grouped up with their parents and watched the stage with some sort of tenseness. You could overhear one of the parents speaking to someone nearby

"It's a a shame, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah. The child had walked right up to the bunny the moment his father looked away."

"What a mess..."

"Absolutely. It got everywhere and they had to wheel the robot off to the side room to try and clean it up."

"Not like that stain's coming out. Not any time soon, at least."

"And they had to take the poor boy away, too."

"I could hear him crying out from here."

"I don't think they'll be coming back any time soon."

"How does this place manage to stay open?"

You glance at the stage and sure enough your boss was mopping up something dripping and red, along with chunks of something else, from the area roughly in front of where Bonnie would have been standing. You could hear your boss muttering "A damn shame" under his breath as he wrung it out and brought it back down with a sickening sound.

You were so ready to leave and never return, but you at least had to get your check! You went through hell to earn that, and you weren't leaving without it. You briefly remember something about pride before the fall, but your're already on your way over before you can reconsider. You pause, steadying your breath, before opening the door to the backstage room and what could possibly be your untimely end.

The room is small, consisting of just shelves lined with spare suit parts. The heads all seemed angled so that when you entered you had a sudden fresh rush of fear. So many eyes on you, unblinking, put you more on edge than you already were. You know that, without anything behind them the eyes shouldn't move, but your imagination (or at least you hope it was just your imagination) made you think otherwise. Sitting on the table in the center of the room, hunched over and motionless, was the missing animatronic. Stripped from the waist up, the naked endoskeleton sat and seemed to stare at its still-suited legs with the blank expression of a powerless machine. In the corner was the head and torso you assume it must have been wearing, covered in splotches of dried patches of red and chunks of something. It seemed that the person in charge of swapping suits had taken a piss-break or something, because there was no sign of anyone else, alive or otherwise, in the room. Except the robot. The room, you noted with no small amount of discomfort, had a slight coppery odor hanging in the air that you decided not to think about. You just needed to find the safe, get your paycheck, and promptly quit and get a new job!

You could flip burgers for a decade and it would still be better.

The safe is easy enough to spot once you stop eyeing robots and the parts of said robots. Just as your boss said it was tucked away under the table. Right between Bonnie's dangling feet...It was powered down right? You spend an uncomfortably long time staring it down from the side, searching for even the slightest bit of movement or errant sound of servos whirring. The bot was stock still, and the air was as silent as it could be with the party outside. You were safe, and the safe was ready for the taking.

Still you were cautious as you made your way around, cursing your luck that the opening was there instead of to the 'bot's side. The ground is cool and helps calm you a little when you kneel to the safe, entering the combination and fetching your che-

"Hello! My name is Bonnie Bunnie." came a pre-recorded voice from above you. Your head snapped up to see the now-glowing eyes of Bonnie's endoskeleton staring straight back at you. You didn't scream, but neither did you manage to get to your feet. You dove to the side just as the rabbot hopped down from the table and turned to face you. The whirring of servos was whisper-quiet as it regarded you. A minute, the longest you've experienced during the day, passed before it placed a spindly metal hand on the foam-and-fur hip of its suit. You could swear it seemed annoyed. The voice that came out next was different, a mishmash of re-purposed lines you recognized in a more terrifying context of your night shift, once the bots had gotten creative. You could recognize syllables and sometimes entire words from what they were originally used for, but strung together to make new words and phrases. The entire thing pitched a little lower than the pre-recorded Bonnie lines but still considerably more feminine than you've been comfortable with. Bonnie spoke quietly in her chimeric voice.

"AwFul_rude, to walk_in_On_a lady_changIng."

You weren't sure how to process this, but you were still forcing your legs to work as you scuttled towards the door. With heavy steps, it outpaced  you and gripped you by your collar, lifting you up effortlessly and putting you on yor feet, then putting its hand on the door. Try as you might, you couldn't force it open. You tried to shout but all that came out was a pathetic squeak.

"Oh stop_your_whyNing, Mike. You've_Been_here_a_week, you know_how_it goes...at_night." When you still didn't respond, she took it as a sign to continue. "During the day, as much as_I don't_want to have_to_say_this, you get_a_pass. You're_not on the_job_so_you are_neither_required to_wear a_suit, nOr_are you_a_guard. You're just_some_boy_looking for a prize."

"What?" you manage to squeak out.

"Just like_I said."

You collapse against the door, legs suddenly weak. "So..." you start, trying to force your voice to a reasonable level again, "You guys trying to kill me...that's just"

"Just_work." She says matter-of-factly, "Don't get_me_wrong, it's all sorts of fun~, but when_that bell_rings and_you_clock_out_that's all there is to it. We're not_going to_chAce_you down_or anything. Shift's_over: you're_free_for another day."

You watch as she pantomimes throwing something in the air, and you hear the sound of children cheering from her voicebox. So that's where that sound comes from. You've regained enough composure to get back to your feet, and Bonnie moves to the other side of the table to grab another costume torso. Those costumes...those metal death traps that killed your instructor and will kill you if you ever mess up. You need to clear this up with them, get them to stop! This could be your only chance to discuss this on neutral ground! Taking a moment to focus your thoughts, you ask "You all realize that I'm-"

"Human?" she cuts you off, "Oh yeah_we_already know_you aren't_an aniMaTro-"

"Then why?" You blurt out, making you both jump at the sudden volume of your voice, "You know people DIE when they're killed right? Just...can you stop trying to kill me each night?"

"Nope. Like I said_it's our_job_as much as_staying_glued_to that_monItOr_is yours. It's_like sports, you're_deFence, and we're offFence. Or something. I don't know_how_sports_work. Point_is_there are rules_and proper_methods of_doing things, but NOT doing them is out of the question."

"But WHY? I refuse to believe that you can't just calm down and stop with the whole 'try to brutally murder the night-guard' thing you have going."

Before that moment you didn't know a robot could sigh. It took one of the spare Bonnie heads off the shelf and put it on. A series of clicks announced the endoskeleton inside fastening into place. "_Mike, I think_you're_forgetting." she said, before turning to look at you with the pinprick eyes she's stared at you through the camera feed. Those terrible points of light that made your hand reach for a light switch that wasn't there to close a door that didn't exist. "What are we_? What's_really poWereRing this suit? What happened to_'cause this_place to_close down."

You wrack your brain for an answer, but you can't really remember anything before -actually you remeber something- "The kids..."
"Exactly." She said, voice pitched lower, and this time you KNOW it wasn't your imagination when every Bonnie head's eyes focused on you. She turned, maintaining that glare as she got closer and closer.  The shadows in the room seemed to grow with her, and the spectral whispers that filled your nights' silence poured out of them. You stood paralyzed, a deer in the headlights, as she towered a full foot over you. "At the end of the day, we're_VENGEFul spiritS, and you're_dressed as_the man that KILLED us. Just like every_other_guard_that's come_before you_and will come_AFTER you."

"And if I quit?"

"Then that's_that."

"What if I find the man that did this to you?"

The rabbot seemed to consider this for a moment. You couldn't read her expression, but there seems to be the faintest hint of a smile on what little articulation the suit's face allowed, "Good luck~."

"You're still going to try to kill me at night, though?"

"It's_business,_Mike. No choice in the matter. But try to keep_your head_on_your shoulders_; you've_lasted longer than_most of the_others_and I'd_be_lieIng_if I said I_weren't_impressed.

The tension slowly drained as Bonnie stepped back and returned to the forgotten torso piece "Anyways I've_been inDecent_enough_and we've been talking_for too long. Help me get_this on_so I can get back_on stage."

The sudden shift took you by surprise, and you ended up dumbly following directions. Things were silent after that, and it seemed neither of you had anything more to say. The only sound in the room being the metalic click of components and the sound of foam being rubbed. You hadn't realized it then, but afterwards you saw how badly your hands were shaking. When you were done, Bonnie took her seat back on the edge of the table. "Tell the boss I'm ready to go back on, on your way out. And _Mike?"

"Yeah?"

"Just so you know it's kind of tradition to_put the_guards_in_Freddy's_suit. He rarely_gets any attention_so it's just_the better_option. But if you_get caught, I am putting_you_in one_of my_suitS."

"Why?"

"Who knows?" she said with a shrug, before resuming the slouched pose she was in when you first walked in. "See you_tonight."

"Yeah." You said, leaving the rabbot and the room behind. You had to think about your next move, and who worked here before you.

"Hey boss!" you say, calling over the man who's somehow covered in more pizza than before, "I need to ask you something."