Mechanical Heart

Chapter 7: No Management

        My little talk with the manager yesterday proved to be completely pointless. He doesn’t even know what he should do to fix the problem arising at Freddy’s! He seemed way too concerned with other matters rather than his own employees disappearing. Two things had been running in my mind from what has been happening. I felt like this was all happening for a reason and was part of some weird plan unknown to me or anyone else. This whole situation still did not make any sense to me, even after I read the whole folder. I almost got caught by the manager when reading it too. The history of Freddy Fazbear’s was all very confusing for me, but some of it made sense in terms of the animatronics. No wonder they seemed so life-like and creepy…

            I desperately wanted to tell my parents and Hunter what has been going on, but at the same time I felt like it wouldn’t change anything. Work wasn’t just work anymore, this was something that was real and serious occurring in a mere pizza restaurant. I was eager but at the same time very afraid of what new news was in for me today at Freddy’s. For all I knew everyone disappeared and nobody’s working now. Or for all I knew, Freddy Fazbear’s burnt to the ground in a fiery “accident”. No matter what the outcome would be if I continued to work there, I was very determined to get to the bottom of this… whatever it was…

            I drove over to the restaurant for my fourth day at work. The parking lot was mostly empty, but some cars I recognized as being some fellow employees’ cars. It had been snowing the night before and so the roads were getting a little slick from the ice melting again. I walked in to see that everyone wasn’t gathered in the kitchen as usual. This was surprising to me and I thought for a moment that everything had gotten back to normal. There was still an eerie, disruptive feeling in the atmosphere at Freddy’s that did not allow me to relax at all. I looked over at the stage once more to see that it was completely empty. No Bonnie, no Chica, and no Freddy. I casually continued into the kitchen into the back room to put my uniform on. Nobody seemed to want to talk, or socialize at all for that matter. They were all just doing their own thing. I began walking over to one of the pizza chefs who I hardly knew and made small talk with him. He was preoccupied with assembling all his ingredients that he was stumbling through his own words. I finally worked in a question about what had happened today. He remained completely quiet at first and did not look me in the eye once. Then he finally managed to speak:

            “The manager did not come in today.” He mumbled while preparing pizza dough.

            At first I was very confused. How could this happen again?! Was this a joke? Was I being pranked? Our manager always comes in every day. He’s never sick and he is usually the first one here almost every day! How could he not… My train of thought was quickly interrupted when the soft, cheery theme of Freddy Fazbear began to emanate from the empty stage directly ahead of me. There was no animatronic left on stage to perform this ballad and do their robotic dance. In that moment a sudden realization of these happenings came to me. It was the animatronics! Something was happening between the employees and the animatronics when they are left alone! I was so blind to not see the connection between the missing people and the disappearing robots. Before I knew it customers began bursting through the doors and demanded pizza. I of course had to continue with my job, but I did not let my insane theories slip my mind at all throughout that day.

            At times when I was returning orders back to the kitchen I overheard some kids from one of the dining tables complaining that the animatronics were not on stage. It seemed kind of funny that the only thing that the kids worried about was the fake little band on stage. I knew this wasn’t a joking matter, but couldn’t help finding some light in the situation. At least I didn’t have to listen to the stupid, repeating songs of happiness.

            By the end of the work day I felt a little accomplished in figuring out certain mysteries within Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. I couldn’t wait to inform the other employees of my theory. But that would have to wait until the next day. I was going to get to the bottom of this mystery, or curse, or whatever it was!

            I was extremely happy to be heading home after my long work day. I, of course, still had my homework to do; that was going to be fun to work on until one in the morning. But as I began getting ready to leave Freddy’s I felt a sudden sadness rush over me. I didn’t quite understand what it was, but I got a horrible feeling in the back of my mind. For whatever reason I decided to look over to the empty stage and realized… they aren’t all gone! I quickly glanced over to the pirate cove to see the giant purple curtain still concealing the fox behind it. I decided to step over to the big curtain and open it. Fear and curiosity both flooded my mind with ideas of what to expect when that curtain opened. I caught sight of a tuft of his red fur behind it. When I finally managed to see all of him, I noticed that the employees decided to keep him standing up. He was deactivated but he still managed to keep his balance. I stepped into the small room and had my face right up next to his. He almost seemed to only be sleeping; his eyes were closed and his head was down. He actually looked really warm and soft despite the stains and torn fur on certain parts of his torso which revealed the inner workings of the animatronic. I lifted my hand and patted him on the head. I realized how late it was getting and all the other employees had already left. I quickly stepped out of the cove and closed the curtain. But as I began walking away, I heard a familiar voice emanating from behind. It was muffled and faded in softly…

            “Ahoy there, laddy! And welco-welco-welcome to the pirate’s cove!” His voice was rough and skipping as he spoke his opening lines.

            “Hey, Foxy…” I said as I turned around smiling.

            That night, despite having so much homework, I felt the urge to call Hunter and tell him all about my plan for finding the missing people and animatronics. He seemed surprised at all these ideas that I had been formulating in my mind, but he was all for it. I was glad for the fact that he supported me in trying to save Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. I was willing to do whatever it takes to save the place that meant so much to us when we were kids. The music, the games, and the adventure; I wanted it all to come back to life again. Maybe one day I could become the CEO of the Fazbear Company. Now I was just kidding myself, but I could tell in my boyfriend’s voice that he knew how ambitious I was. It was getting extremely late, especially for a school night, but I didn’t want to say goodnight to him. I wanted to keep talking about random nothingness and laughing. He was what kept me sane this whole time. When we both managed to say goodnight and I hung up the phone, I was a little sad. Even though I knew it would be lame saying it through the phone, I really wanted to say ‘I love you’ to him. There was always a better time to say it the first time, but I guess it wasn’t going to be that day. I couldn’t fall asleep…