Living in the Shadows

Chap. 1

It was afternoon. The sun was shining upon a town that goes by the name "Haysville". Its reasonably quiet there. Everybody knew about the haunted animatronics. But in order to keep their side of the deal, they say nothing to other towns and let outsiders become the "Weasel's supper". As they called it. Normally outsiders would come in cars so they could pop it with road spikes. But this time, the outsider was walking. Willingly. The outsider seemed to be female. Pretty tall, and looks physically fit. She was walking on the side of the road. Until a tow truck drove by and saw her. The driver stopped as she did. "Need a lift?" He said. The woman was hesitant but accepted the offer. "Alright, I'll ride ya to Haysville." He had a country accent in his voice. "My name's Jed. I'm the repair guy of the town. What's your name stranger?" She climbed into the truck and shut the door. As soon as that door shut, Jedi didn't feel safe anymore. She looked at him before saying, "Casey." He smiled awkwardly, "Casey huh? Heh, pretty nice name." "Its not country, its Irish. It means 'brave in battle'." "Oh." The drive was silent. Jed noticed something about her. She does seem very... Scary.. She had blue eyes, short black hair, pale skin, and didn't wear any shoes. He didn't question her though. They arrived in town. "Are you looking for a job?" He asked. "Yes." Casey said. "Well I have some good news for you. There's an abonded restaurant that wants to come back to life. And guess what? Its free. You only need to do a little cleanin', and you'll get paid. If you want, I can call up the owner." "Sure."

The owner was called and Casey and Jed were waiting for him. A sheriff car and a Cadillac drove in. The owner and sheriff came out to greet her. The sheriff was a female and the owner was a male. "Hello there stranger, my name's Tex. I own this place." The cowboy looking one said. The sheriff spoke up. "I go by Sheriff Lund here. And I'm glad that you agreed to work here." Her smile didn't seem genuine. Casey could see right through it. She nodded. "I'm Casey." "And her name is an Irish name. Just so you don't get confused." Jed said. "Well, here she is." Tex said. Casey looked up and saw a sign that said "Willy's Wonderland' and a weasel above it. She guessed that was Willy. She sensed something was off about the place though. She felt her throat rumble as she silently growled. "This place used to bring joy and wonder to kids all around. But we're gonna bring it back to life. Spark joy in kids again." Tex said, distracting Casey from her growl. "... I was planning on moving here. Of course once I got the money to get a place." "Oh, well I guess its perfect timing when we showed up." Lund said. "Yeah, haha. How bout this? You clean the restaurant, and we'll pay you extra. For you to get a place faster of course." Casey hesitantly nodded before herself and Tex walked through the doors of Willy's Wonderland. He turned on a small TV and it turned onto Willy's Wonderland commercial. "Hi kids! Its Willy the Weasel! Come on down to meet the gang! We have Arty the Alligator,  Siren Sara, Gus Gorilla, Knighty Knight, Cammy the Chameleon, Ozzie Ostrich, and Tito the Turtle!" They started sing their version of a birthday song. In Casey's ear, she heard something that almost sound like crickets, but a growl at the same time. She turned to see animatronics standing on the stage. She stared at them. The weasel stared back. The atmosphere surrounding them almost felt as terrifying as Casey's. Tex turned off the TV and gave Casey a tour. She wrinkled her nose in disgust. She could smell so much blood and mucus. "Well, that's the end of the tour." He slammed a door open. "Heh, sometimes you just gotta push it." He grabbed a t-shirt and showed it off to Casey. She stared at it. "Congratulations, you are officially on staff." He flashed her a smile before giving the shirt to her. Tex walked out if the door and wrapped the door handle in chains. All the while she was changing in the girl's bathroom, she heard it all. After she was done, she hung her shirt on a rack, grabbed a trash bag, and went to work.

While she was cleaning trash of the tables and ground, she was thinking of memories. She remembered her sister. She was in the military. On the Army branch. Casey was beside her the entire time. Her and her sister weren't afraid to risk their lives for their country. But Casey gave up on the military too early because of one tragedy. Her sister's death.
She was walking in Arabia. Watching every Arabic person she saw. She was in front of a military vehicle, while her sister was behind. Casey sensed something. "Hold on." She spoke into her walkie talkie to the other soldiers. They stopped. Casey sniffed the air. Listened closely. She could hear her sister ask, "You got anything?" Casey opened her eyes. And a bullet was shot through her shoulder. She pushed herself to the ground. Turned her eyes into wolf eyes. Searching for the attacker. She saw the attacker. She told the coordinates, and one of the hidden soldiers fired their machine gun to the coordinates. "You alright?" Casey heard her sister ask through the talkie. "Yeah, I'll be fine." She walked. They moved forward. They went back to base.
Casey was snapped back to reality when she heard the same cricket sound and glanced behind her. She saw the animatronics were now staring at her.
The animatronics expected human eyes to look back at them. But they saw her eyes glowing in the dark. They didn't know what to think of it. This made them skeptical and think she isn't a human. They heard her watch beep, signaling it was time for her break. She put down the bag and sat down on one of the chairs. Still staring at them. Casey, and the animtronics knew, tonight was gonna be strange.