Richie pretty much gave up already. He didn't want anything to do with this pizzeria and when Eddie called, it only made him miss being home more. If his only job was to check to make sure the animatronics were there, only to find out that they have been lazy enough to not show up on their stage, then what the hell is the point? He should be given a raise for one week of the worst job possible.
He was in the elevator once more, riding down into the depths below. "Great.. the second night of the weirdest job I have ever been in," he grumbled. "I should be earning more from this shit. I only get around thirty dollars per day. I fucking risk my life being down here.."
"Daddy, you let the other children go see her, why don't you let me go?" it was the little girl's voice again. Instead of ignoring it, Richie had decided to decipher what it meant. Maybe it could give him the answers to this place.
However, there was no way in knowing who the girl was, what 'her' is, and who her dad was unless Richie asked someone once his shift was done. Why was there even a little girl's voice here, when no one is here? Unless the girl is dead, Richie thought. If she is, I just need to find out who killed her. Heck, the fact that I'm Christen, trying to believe something quite impossible, like a ghost or spirit roaming around on earth, is pretty ironic. Though I've dealt with dead and demonic shit before, so what's the problem with this?
Soon enough, Richie heard HandUnit on the speaker once more. "Welcome back, for another night of intellectual simulation, pivotal career choices, and self reflection on past mistakes-"
Richie scoffed. "Like coming here?"
"-We're committed to creating a unique and fulfilling work experience. One part of that commitment is ensuring you don't get tired of the voice you're hearing right now. Using the keypad below-" the keypad popped up in front of Richie once more, and the boy sighed. "-please select a new companion voice. For male, press one; for female, press two; for text only, press three; for other options, press four."
"If I click 'other options' is there a chance I could have Eddie's voice for HandUnit instead?" All Richie wanted was something that could be normal around here, to comfort him while he worked. He glanced at the options he had on the keypad, and was disappointed when he saw there were no numbers at all on the keyboard. Instead, he typed in 'four' incase he could use it that way, but again, when he clicked enter, it didn't work the first couple of times.
"It seems like you were having trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type, and I will autocorrect with you. Thank you for choosing: Angsty Teen," soon enough, after the elevator stopped on the floor Richie was supposed to arrive on, another voice came on. It sounded like a seventeen year old who was very depressed or lazy.
"The elevator stopped.. you know the routine," the voice muttered. "You can get out now or- whatever. You can stay here if you want."
Knowing that he would be fired if he did stay in the elevator, Richie decided to press the red button and get out, going into the vent in front of him to get to the Primary Control Module. While he was crawling through the vent, the new voice of HandUnit spoke once more.
"So, funny story. A dead body was found in this vent once," it informed Richie. Yes, this was a creepy ass vent where he had no flashlight to see with, but this was not something he needed to know about. Too much information for a thirteen year old who'd just survived a town of dead children corpses. "Okay.. so, not that funny, but it's a story."
Richie scoffed, "Yeah, nice story you've got there. I can make up some better fucking stories than that. I mean.. if it was like, what, a dead corpse doing the Macarena, that'd be better than that." he chuckled at himself, appreciating his own type of weird humor.
Richie reached the end of the vent and tumbled head first into the Primary Control Module. Getting up, he examined the room, just noticing that there was a empty clown mask hung up over the vent in front of him, between Ballora and Funtime Foxy's showrooms. He cringed, knowing that the mask had brought back memories of Pennywise and the clowns at the Derry fairgrounds.
"Okay, let's start with your nightly chores," HandUnit said.
Richie knew what to do. He pressed the button to his left to see if Ballora was in her showroom, but it was already clear to him that she wasn't, and he was right. Her stage was empty. Reaching for the red button beside it, he pressed it, hoping for a nice flicker of the lights. Though this time was even worse than the night before; there was weird warbling noises instead that echoed in the room. Ballora was still not there, however HandUnit had instructed Richie to move onto Funtime Foxy instead.
He reached for the light button again, but there was suddenly a low buzzing sound. Richie froze, not moving. Something was bound to happen, but he was not ready to have his live be taken away just yet.
"Great.. great.. great.." a deep voice sounded over the speaker, or maybe it was from somewhere else.
Finally, HandUnit's normal voice came back on. "There seems to have been a problem with the voice synthesizer. Default settings have been restored. Please proceed through the vent ahead of you to Circus Baby's auditorium."
Richie did what he was told, taking a couple steps towards the vent in front of him and squeezed his body into the small vent. Whilst he was crawling, he felt a weird feeling flow through him. He could feel it everywhere; his head, his chest, the way his back tingled. Richie realized what the feeling was; it was the feeling of unease. He'd felt it before, when he was in the Neilbolt house.
A robotic female voice echoed through the vent, "Motion trigger. Circus Gallery event."
Once he reached the end of the vent, he quickly got out, making sure he didn't fall this time. He was quite disturbed; mostly by the fact that a dead body was found in the vent he crawled through before.
Richie was told to check the light to see if Baby was in 'proper working order', and he pressed the button. Again, the animatronic was not there, and he pressed the red button beside the green to shock her, before checking the light once more. He was instructed to do another controlled shock, and hesitated before pressing it again, but the button pretty much didn't do anything at all.
"There seems to be a power malfunction that is affecting our ability to properly motivate Baby. Please stand by, while I reboot the system," HandUnit announced. "I will be offline momentarily during this process. Various other systems may be offline as well such as security doors, vent locks, and oxygen-"
No oxygen? Wasn't that what humans needed to breathe? Richie needed oxygen to stay alive; he couldn't just suffocate and die. Quickly thinking, Richie gasped and pulled his shirt over his nose and mouth, which hopefully could allow him to breathe for a little bit before the oxygen runs out.
"Commencing system restart."
There was a quick buzzing sound as the speaker turned off and the lights slowly turned off one at a time. Richie stood in silence, breathing heavily as he waited for further instruction.
"Motion trigger injured wave end. Funtime Auditorium maintenance vent opened," a robotic female voice said.
Richie felt his heartbeat growing faster; knowing that things could crawl through there to where he was did not make him feel any safer than he already was. He already felt like he was going to die any minute.
"Ballora Gallery maintenance vent opened."
The boy stood in silence for the next few moments. He was hoping HandUnit would come back online and Richie would be able to carry on with his tasks, without any trouble. Baby would be back on her stage, and Ballora and Funtime Foxy would still be on their stages.
"I don't recognize you," a robotic girlish voice whispered suddenly. Richie fell backward, his eyes wide with surprise and shock. Could this be Circus Baby? Could this be the animatronic that was the face of this horrific pizzeria?
The voice continued, her voice was slow, somewhat between a whisper and a shout. Richie found that it had some sort of creepy vibe to it as well. "You are new. I remember this.. scenario. However, it's a strange thing to want to do.. to come here," the voice whispered. Though Baby was not in sight at all, Richie could hear her like she was whispering in his ear. "I'm curious what events would lead a person to want to spend their nights in something like this willingly."
Well, Richie was forced to come here. He wasn't willing at all; he was terrified, but he wanted to cover it up with his stubbornness. He was truly sure that when he ended his first week here, he would get payback on his friends.
"Maybe curiosity; maybe ignorance," the voice paused for a moment before continuing. "There is a space under the desk; someone before you crafted it into a hiding place and it worked for him." Richie spotted the small desk, and underneath there was a small shelter that was big enough for someone to hide in. Though what was he hiding from?
"I recommend that you hurry, through. You will be safe there.. just try not to make eye contact. It will be over soon.. they will lose interest."
Nodding, Richie quickly took a few steps forward before squatting and sliding himself under the desk. He turned back around, spotting the vent in front of him, and shivered. Whoever was coming for him was going to be coming from that vent in front of him. Taking a deep breath, he looked to his left and spotted some cardboard he could use to hide and conceal himself from what Baby was talking about. He leaned forward and slid it to the right until the crack was sealed.
He grabbed his flashlight from his pocket, and turned it on. The cardboard was full of holes, and the boy became disappointed. Though he ignored the disappointment, and started to peek through the holes, and waited in silence.
Moments later, Richie could hear something in the vents. He fell silent, daring to even blink or breathe. "Hello in there.." something whispered in a creepy little playful voice. "Someone is inside.."
"Is it the same person..?" Richie noted that there must have been two of these things, which spoke to each other. There was a clanking sound, which seemed to be hitting a surface, and kind of seemed to become a small pattern. Could this is be Morse Code? The boy moved his flashlight to another hole, and the light revealed an eye which was looking at him. Richie quickly pulled his flashlight away. "Knock knock.."
For a quick moment, everything was quiet. Richie relaxed, thinking everything was alright. Suddenly the cardboard slide was being pulled to the left; Richie gasped, and quickly grabbed the cardboard, and started to pull it to the right.
"Please don't kill me, please don't kill me." Richie whispered, grunting as he was pulling the slide to the right. He felt like he was playing tug-of-war with whatever was pulling the slide. Except he was playing for his life. Using all of his muscle strength, he was able to pull the slide all the way to the right again, and sighed, his arms aching.
Richie could still hear the animatronics outside of the desk, and he started to panic as he found that they never left. "We always find a way inside.." the voice whispered.
Again, the slide started to be pulled to be left again, and Richie grabbed the slide, trying to hold his grip as pulled the opposite direction. However, the animatronic kept on pulling, until he could at see a corner of the vent in front of him. Gripping the bottom of the desk behind him with one hand, he pulled as hard as he could with the other.
Suddenly, a small face appeared from the side of the slide; it seemed to be an animatronic version of baby face. It launched itself towards Richie, but the boy quickly used his right leg to kick the animatronic in the face, sending it flying backwards, hitting the wall behind it. "Fuck you!" Richie grabbed the slide and slammed it to the right.
"She's watching us.." a voice said, and Richie knew there was more than one in the room with him.
"Oh, we have to leave now!" another whispered.
"We will see you again soon.."
There was more sounds coming from outside of the desk, but they faded into the vent as they got farther away from Richie. Sighing, the boy leaned his head against the back of the desk, and fixed his glasses.
"When your guide comes back," Baby spoke again. "He is going to tell you that he was unsuccessful; that you must restart the system manually. He will then tell you to crawl through the Ballora Gallery as fast as you can to reach the breaker room. If you follow his instructions, you will die."
"Oh, shit." Richie commented quietly. At this point, he didn't know who to believe. Should be believe an animatronic, or a clueless guide?
"Ballora will not return anymore. She will catch you. The power will be restored shortly; when you crawl through Ballora Gallery, go slowly," Baby instructed. "She cannot see you, and can only listen to your movement. When you hear her music become louder; she is growing near, listening for you. Wait and be still."
After a moment, there was a buzz and HandUnit had returned once more. All Richie had to do was crawl slowly towards the breaker room, and if he could hear Ballora's music start to become louder he had to stop moving and be absolutely still. It was quite simple.. however, it was life-threatening, and he could die from this. There was a possibility that Baby was right. After all, Baby had told Richie the truth about the animatronics that came for him just moments before, and had almost killed him.
"Thank you for your patience," HandUnit said. "It seems that the power system cannot be restarted automatically. You will need to restart the power system manually. Please return to the Primary Control Module."
Baby's voice remained in his head. Taking a deep breath, Richie decided to consider what the animatronic had said. The power had turned back on at the time, so Richie turned off his flashlight and opened the desk back up, sliding the cardboard back to the left. He got back to his feet, and got back into the vent to head to the Primary Control Module.
"Motion trigger; Circus Gallery event." the robotic female voice said.
Richie crawled back into the Primary Control Module and got out. At this point, he was directed to crawl through the Ballora Gallery to reach the breaker room. Included with the instruction, HandUnit told Richie to stay low to the ground and reach the other side as fast as possible to not disturb Ballora. Which will kill me, Richie thought. I've already decided to follow Baby's instructions.
"I will deactivate myself momentarily as to not create an auditory disturbance," HandUnit said. "Deactivating."
Soon enough, HandUnit was not saying anything else. Richie felt a wave of relief flood through his brain as he realised that he didn't have to put up with anything more from his guide.
Turning to the entrance of the Ballora Gallery, he crawled inside, into the darkness that unfolded around him. Taking a deep breath, he crawled forward slowly, keeping his chest close to the ground and his knees skimming the surface of the floor. He used his flashlight to see where he was going, which luckily, Ballora wasn't able to see him.
The sound of ballerina music became slowly louder, and Richie assumed that that was Ballora's music. He slowed to a halt and stayed absolutely still as the music became louder like the music was being blasted into his ears. Though the sound source seemed to be moving, and it got farther away from him again. Thinking it was alright, Richie began to move forwards. At this point, he was about halfway across the Ballora Gallery.
"It seems you are taking a long time," HandUnit suddenly said. Richie gasped quietly and stopped, knowing that Ballora would hear his movements and would find him. Even though an animatronic didn't function like a human brain does, he knew that somehow they would figure it out. They were made to. "Please proceed as quickly and quietly as possible."
Richie wasn't going to. He was surprisingly smart enough to know that Ballora was sound-activated; the faster he went the more noise he would make, therefore getting caught and dying. Wow, he thought. I'm actually doing something smart.
Starting to crawl again, he knew that he was getting closer to the breaker room. He was still very cautious and even terrified - what if Ballora just found out that he was in there, and killed him right on the spot? This was very risky, even if Richie was close to the exit of the Ballora Gallery. In regards of the distance Richie was at this moment, he was only a few feet away from the door, and he slowly slid himself into the room.
The breaker room was dark, and Richie had to use his flashlight to see around the room. However, the power of the flashlight was low, so he had to use it very mildly to keep his battery power up. When Richie looked around, he noticed that the room was filled with cabals and wiring, which Richie had assumed that this controlled the entire resort.
HandUnit turned back online, and Richie groaned in annoyance. "You may now interface with the breaker room control box. Using the interface may disrupt nearby electronics. If you feel like you are in danger, feel free to disconnect the interface temporarily until it is safe to reconnect."
Richie nodded, and decided to start his task. He noticed a control box on the left of him, and pressed one of the buttons on the surface of it. Immediately, something like the bottom right of the security camera's on the bottom left - a map of the building - like the ones in Freddy Fazbears Pizza came into view. It was full of options, but the first one that was on the top of the list was the 'Funtime A. Restart' button. Thinking fast, he clicked the button, and the screen of the box started to show a loading sign right beside of the button he'd just clicked.
Looking up to the top right corner of the screen there was a 'danger level' bar, and it was currently red. Richie quickly put the screen down and glanced around to see if anything was there that he could see in the dark. Nothing. Glancing back down at his flashlight, he fiddled around with the device to switch the flashlight on. The boy held onto his flashlight and quickly put it in front of him, and scanned the room with it. Suddenly a huge white and pink bear animatronic with a smaller Bonnie-like animatronic puppet on it's hand was revealed in front of the boy. Richie screeched in surprise and fell backwards, not expecting it to be there.
The boy had noticed that there was a button that used another voice to lure the animatronic away, and he pressed it. Smart, Richie thought once the audio had played. Soon enough, after a few seconds the bear backed off until it was none other than a shadow in the room, Richie clicked the restart button for the 'Obsv.1', and waited until it was fully loaded at 100%.
Realizing very quickly, the bear animatronic looked so much like Freddy from his last job. The only difference was that this Freddy wasn't brown, and did not have red circular cheeks at the corners of it's mouth. This one also was more narrow and had a Bonnie-like puppet in place of one of it's hands. Assuming this was a 'Funtime', too, Richie named this animatronic Funtime Freddy in his head.
It was not until long that Funtime Freddy began to speak in a weird, rasping high voice that giggled while he spoke, "Hello, hello again!" he said. Richie pulled down the screen and flashed his flashlight around while spamming the audio he used to lure the animatronic away with the other hand.
Pulling the screen back up, he clicked two things to get online. Richie was working very hard now, sweat dripped down his forehead as he knew he was almost face to face with an animatronic that could kill him. This wasn't fun at all. Those kids who came here during the day certainly did not know what they were really coming to see.
"Bon-Bon, say 'hi' to our friends!" Funtime Freddy giggled.
Richie jumped as he put the screen down, flicking the flashlight over to where the voice of the animatronic came from with one hand. The other hand was pressing the audio button a few times, before the boy could hear the fading couple of steps from Funtime Freddy indicating that the animatronic was farther away from Richie, now.
He pulled the screen back up, and saw that the 'Funtime A. Restart' button was now back online. Clicking the next thing on the list, the Circus Gallery restart button, he waited until it reached 100%. Checking the danger level again, he saw that it was at an orange level now, and put the screen down to check where the animatronic was. Clicking the audio button a few times, he realized that the bear wasn't going away. Eventually giving up on the bear he pulled the screen back up and examined what he had left.
The Circus Gallery was back online, and after a while the parts and service room was back online as well. Richie's next goal was to get the Ballora Gallery online. Only a few things left, Richie thought. Then I get to leave this shitty place. Though another thought crept through his mind, like a dark side of him had taken over almost immediately. This felt familiar; like what he had felt like when he and his friends had experienced Pennywise. No, Richie. This is not over yet. You still have three nights left. You either make it to the end or not. This is a life or death situation, here.
"I see you over there!" Funtime Freddy's voice echoed through the room.
Having that kind of feeling that Funtime Freddy had moved - supposedly closer - frightened Richie. The Ballora Gallery wasn't online yet, and the danger level was flashing red. Fuck, oh fuck! Richie thought. The boy pulled the screen back down and spammed the audio button. Can't this stupid ass button go any slower? I need to get out of here! Due to the Ballora Gallery not being online yet, Richie tried the elevators. Hopefully this could load faster.
"I know you're over there somewhere." Funtime Freddy whispered. Pulling the camera back down, he saw the animatronic coming at him - literally reaching its hand towards Richie like it was going to kidnap him and choke him to death - and the boy scooted backwards into the wall behind him. Extending his leg out, he kicked the animatronic in the chest lightly, but hard enough to push it backwards and have some time to be able to click the audio button to lure it away.
The animatronic finally disappeared again, and Richie, regaining his calmness, looked back at the controls. The elevator was now online. Trying the Ballora Gallery again, and waiting for a couple of moments, it was online again. The next few minutes were quite odd. The animatronic was moving into different places every time Richie flashed the light at it. One of those times the bear was standing directly over him, but then it was gone. Richie eventually clicked on the Circus Control, and pulled the screen back down.
"I see you over there!" The bear exclaimed. Richie flashed his flashlight over to the bear, and saw that the bear was closer. The boy pressed the audio button again, and Funtime Freddy eventually backed away. Richie quickly looked at the loading screen once more, and checked the danger level. It was low once more. Glancing over at the Circus Control button, Richie was relieved to see that it was online.
Richie sighed in relief. "Great. One last thing to put online."
Finally, Richie felt a huge wave of relief when he heard HandUnit's voice again on the speaker. "Good job, this completes tour task for the night. Please proceed through the Ballora Gallery with care, and we'll see you back here tomorrow."
Obediently, he turned around to go through the Ballora Gallery, but turned his head and lifted his hand to raise the finger at Funtime Freddy, who was in the breaker room behind him. He exited the breaker room, and started to crawl through the Ballora Gallery like he did before.
Surprisingly he only heard a faint ballerina song when he was crawling for the first minute or two. Though suddenly, a voice echoed in the room, "Is someone there?"
Richie stopped crawling, and kept his breathing at a minimum. This was Ballora's voice. She was still there, and somehow realized that something was moving in the shadows of her stage. Well shit, Richie thought.
When everything was quiet again, a couple of minutes later Richie started to slowly make his way through the gallery towards the Primary Control Module. I'm almost there.. Ballora needs to fuck off and stop trying to find me.
"I can hear something creeping through my room," Ballora whispered, and Richie slowed down until he barely even knew he was moving. After a moment, Ballora spoke once more. "Perhaps not."
Not hearing Ballora speak for the next five minutes, Richie was able to see the Primary Control Module, now, and he started to crawl again, and reached the vent finally. Not even stoping, he escaped the building, and headed towards his bike which was parked on the bike rack.
"Goodbye, Baby pizza place, I'm going to McDonalds! You can go suck a dick!" Richie screeched, and turned to his bike, getting onto it. He rode home at once, a couple of times almost falling due to it being dark and the sun hadn't risen yet.
Once he arrived back to his house, and stormed inside, turning around and locking the door behind him. He was unaware of the figure standing in the hallway behind him.
Turning around, he literally jumped at the sight of Eddie staring at him from the hallway. "Eds! When the fuck did you come here?!" Richie gasped. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "How did you even come in here-?"
Eddie shrugged, and held out his hand, which held a walkie-talkie inside of it. "The door was unlocked," he explained, his cheeks flushed. "Bill thought that maybe you could bring a walkie-talkie when you are doing the night shift to help you feel more comfortable when you are working."
The thought of talking to his friends while working seemed nice to Richie. The boy nodded and took the object from Eddie's hand, and hooked it onto his belt. "I'm not sure if I want to go back. I nearly got killed by an animatronic less than an hour ago," Richie admitted.
Eddie sighed, cringed, and put one arm on Richie's shoulder, staring into Richie's eyes. No, he wasn't going to kiss Richie. Richie already seemed uncomfortable with this position, let alone Eddie's determined and serious stare. Suddenly, when Richie started to gaze off at something else, Eddie quickly raised his hand and slapped Richie on his cheek. It wasn't painful at all; it was just to get Richie back in focus.
"Eggs Benedict, you will get through this," Eddie snapped. "You'll be fine; you'll have Bill, Stan, and I talking to you. Just be Richie Trashmouth Tozier - but don't be stupid."
Richie grinned. "When did you start doing pep talks? Y'know, that could be your job," he then started to speak in his reporter impression, making an arc in the air with his hand. "'Pep talks with Eddie Kaspbrak! Come now and get a pep talk from your favourite man, only now for $0.50!'"
The small boy rolled his eyes and took his hand off of Richie's shoulder. "Beep beep, Richie."
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