It was a Sunday. Freddys is closed today for the holiday, but Henry still wanted me and William to come in though I never come in on weekends.
"Is this alright?" I ask William, holding the banner.
"Hmm, move it to the side a bit." William gestured his hand to the left. "I'm gonna go get water, i'll be back."
I nodded and shifted a little bit in the ladder above the animatronics.
Tomorrow, an entire family rented out the whole restaurant for a day. When we told them we couldn't do that, they offered $6,000. Suddenly we do that. So Henry asked William and I to help set up the restaurant, and i'm just putting up a banner.
"We're warning you about him. If you could just listen!" a child's voice internally yelled at me.
I quickly let go and covered my ears.
Ever since William confronted me about my dream, this child's voice has been speaking to me, like in my mind. I want to tell somebody about it, but I know it's gonna sound absolutely insane.
This, stupid child keeps telling me to be careful around William and shit, but I don't even know what they're talking about! I'm convinced i'm going crazy, and it's from my mothers continuous nagging about me working here and the kids that went missing.
What happened to those kids is sad, I get it, but god, people need to shut up about it!
"Have you ever tried looking inside of us?" the child asked.
"What?" I very quietly whispered.
"Us, below you. Have you ever tried looking inside?" the voice spoke to me.
I slowly looked at the three animatronics below me. I'm literally going insane.
"Why would I do that.." I spoke a little louder this time.
"You might be quite surprised with what you might find. Please, look inside of us! We need you to!" the child cried.
I started stepping down the ladder as I could feel somebody's stare burning into my neck. I look around to see if anyone is there, but it's just me.
I step off the ladder and onto the stage, standing in front of Freddy, whose standing tall.
"Just there.. right in the chest plate. Open it." the voice suggested.
I felt obligated to do so. I feel crazy, doing what a voice tells me to do. It's only what crazy people do.
I placed my hands on Freddys chest plate, about to attempt to open it when the hairs on the back of my neck quickly jump up, sending me quickly turning around.
"And just what do you think you're doing?" William glared down at me, standing less than 4 inches away and his hands behind his back. He hadn't even looked down, he just glared at me while he faced forward.
"W- Uh- William! I'm just observing Freddy. He has a very unique design you know!" I lied.
William slightly smiled and tilted his head, still looking down at me. "Again with the lying, hmm?"
Why does this man always manage to make someone scared? He won't even do anything, yet he frightens me.
"I'm not lying! Freddy is just my favorite one out of them all." I nodded.
"Seriously?" one of the voices spoke.
It had startled me a bit that it had spoke out of nowhere. But I guess William had seemed to notice, because he now brought his head down to fully look at me, grinning more than before.
"What was that?" William asked.
"What was what?"
"That little jump you did with your face after you said that." William asked. He relaxed his eyebrows seeming to realize. He looked at Freddy, not moving his head from me. "I see. One of them must've gotten offended."
I parted my lips, trying to say something but William cuts me off.
"You'll get to see inside, once I allow you to." he interrupts. "What makes you believe you can open that? What told you to do that.." William looked at chica.
He knew. He knew what it was, but he just wanted me to say it. But how could he know what it was? How could he know everything that goes on in my mind?
"Just, um, curiousity." I shakily responded.
"Curiosity?" William looked down at me from Chica. "This may be cringe but, have you ever heard of curiosity kills the cat?"
"Yeah." I answered.
"Well then. I'd advise you not to be too curious. I don't think you'd like to see what happens next for you, Willow." Williams voice grew deeper.
What?
Why was William acting like this? When I had first seen William again, I had not expected him to be so, scary. When he first started talking to me, he was all, cheerful and excited. But now it seems he's not too happy to be in my presence anymore.
That, or he was a little too happy.
"William, are you okay?" I asked. "Does my presence upset you? Please let me know.."
William looked confused. "I love your presence Willow.. I'm so glad you're finally back! It's been so great having you around here, and it's been so great seeing my friend again. Especially a friend I never got to say bye to." William went from scary and intimidating, to reassuring and comforting and, kind.
It's scary how he just switches expressions like that. I guess you can't assume you know a person after 11 years.
I smiled. "Thank you William, it's been so great having you here too. I'm glad I can finally see you again."
And it was the truth, i'm so relieved to know he's here and he's okay and he's my friend again. But he's different, which is something you can expect after 11 years.
William breathed in. "Do you know why Fredbears closed?"
We were still standing on the stage in front of Freddy, and he was still a little too close.
"No, why?" I responded.
"A little girl. Sarah. She found herself wandering around the building, and someone had snatched her. She wasn't seen again, until a week later. Oh so foul odors coming from a storage room." William explained. "Do you know what it was?"
I gulped. "S-Sarah.."
"That's right. Nobody knows who did it though. No fingerprints, nobody guilty. They suspected it was me, or Henry, and forced us to close." William looked to his side. "But at least we've got Freddy Fazbears now, right?" he smiled, and then frowned.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"Nothing." William looked back at the animatronics. "In my opinion, Bonnie is better." William spun on his heel and stepped off the stage.
-
tuesday
"Is this the.. burger, with tomato and lettuce?" I asked Giuseppe.
"Y.." he checked the ticket. "Yes." he confirmed.
I swooped up the plate into my arms with the coke in my other hands, and pushed the kitchen doors open. I walked into the main room and over to table 3, where a man, his two kids and his brother had been sitting.
"Sorry for bringing your order last out of everyone else at this table." I smiled. "Is there anything else I can do for you?" I smiled at the man.
"Yeah.." the man smirked and looked at his brother, then looked back at me. "You can take a little seat, right here next to me."
My smile dropped a bit. "I'm sorry?"
"You sure a lady like you wants to be here? I think you'd be perfectly okay being somewhere else, if you know what I mean." the man winked.
"Uhh, haha, okay, um, are you sure there is something I can actually get you?" I uncomfortably laughed.
"Oh, love did you think I was joking?" the man tilts his head. He reached and touched my hand. "Come, sit down for a moment.."
I gulp.
Suddenly, an arm wraps around my waist and squeezes it. "Is there something I can do for you sir?" the british accent asked. The mans hand let go of mine.
I look up at the man with his arm around me. It was William. I felt relieved that he had came over here, I didn't want to get rude.
"Aw man, is this your boyfriend sweetheart? Such a shame, you could've had a better life out of a pizzeria." the guy with the australian accent shed a fake tear.
William let go of my waist and turned to me. "Willow, you can get back to your job now."
I nodded, gratefully and willingly I step away from the table and walk back to the kitchen.
I shook off this situation pretty easily, seeing that I dealt with this a lot during highschool and first years of college.
"Oh, Willow, these are for table 5." Giuseppe pointed at the two large cheese and pepperoni pies.
I sighed and lifted one into my right arm and the other in my left arm.
"Don't forget the orange juice for the kid." Giuseppe pointed.
I picked up the orange juice and pushed the kitchen doors back open, approaching table five.
"Here you guys go.. one cheese and one pepperoni pie, and the orange juice for the kid." I smiled at the kid.
"Thank you so much." one of the women smiled.
"It's no problem." I smiled back and turned around to walk back to the kitchen.
I stop in front of the kitchen door, and look over at table 3 where William still was.
He had his hand on the table, and he had been holding the guy by his tie close to his face. William seemed angry, he had been saying something harshly into his face.
William pushed the guy back into the booth and let go of his tie. He turned around and began to walk away.
The old man smiled in disbelief and stood up, following William.
"You think you're such a tough guy, huh? What was your name? William?" the man followed.
The two began walking down the hall. I peeked behind them.
"You're gettin' on my nerves old man!" William yelled.
"I wonder what other nerve I can get onto!" the man shouted back.
Not even a second later, William turns around and socks the man in the jaw. He grabbed the man by his tie once again, to get him closer so he can sock him, again.
I quickly cover my mouth.
William grabs the man by the ankle and drags him down the hall. "I wanna see how much more shit you can talk!"
The man begins screaming, though as they get further down the hall his screams become less and less audible.
"No no no! Don't you scream now! I thought you wanted to see what other nerve you can get to, so welcome to the show!" William violently pushed his door open with his shoulder, dragging the man inside with him.
He threw the man into the room. William could be seen smiling as he reached for the door handle, and shut the door closed.
You couldn't hear anything anymore.
I stared down the hallway in awe with my hand still covering my mouth. What had I just witnessed? And what was William doing to him in there?
And had Henry not heard anything that just happened? His office is right across from Williams too.
I slowly walked down the hall to see what Henry was doing, of course, but to also try to listen in on what was happening in Williams office.
I approached Henry's door, but before knocking, I tried to hear what was going on in the office across from his.
But it was dead silent. Neither William, or the old guy could be heard. I had wanted to knock on Williams door first, to see if everything was alright and maybe they were just having a discussion about the mans behavior, but something told me no, and to just check with Henry.
I turned back around to Henry's door and knocked. "Henry?"
"Huh? Oh, come in!" Henry replied.
I slowly opened the door and let my body through.
Henry had an entire bottle of melatonin gummies next to him, his hair had been messy, his eyes were pink and the corner of his mouth had been wet.
He was sleeping. The whole time.
I found it funny, because usually Henry is on everyone about getting sleep, being on the job, etc. but today he had decided to knock himself out.
I covered my mouth a little, trying to contain my laugh as I leaned against the doorway and looked at him.
"Hey!" he attempted to fix his hair, and wiped the corner of his mouth.
I closed the door behind me and decided to just sit down and chill in Henry's room, since I only really had 10 minutes left of my shift and I know my coworkers would cover for me.