Mechanical Heart

Chapter 5: The Crew and the Sinking Ship

        The next morning I of course had to get up and get ready for school. I had somehow managed to sleep through my alarm even though it’s the loudest, most obnoxious thing in the world. I was running a little late in getting ready but I still managed to arrive to my first period class on time. The whole day I could not stop thinking and anticipating what my second day at Freddy’s would be like. Some of my teachers actually called me out in the middle of class just to make sure I was still connected with reality. It’s not like I could really help staring out the window and allowing my mind to drift somewhere far from this awfully boring subject. I could not stop daydreaming about Freddy’s and last night with my boyfriend, but I still managed to survive the school day.

        Right after school I drove myself to Freddy’s ready to start my new day. The outside seemed pretty normal; there were only a few cars in the parking lot which I assumed were all employee cars considering no one wanted to come that early just for ‘family fun’. I walked into the building only to be greeted by a bunch of my fellow employees yelling and fighting over something that was unknown to me. They did not seem to notice my entrance until I walked into the kitchen where they all gathered. As soon as one caught glimpse of me they ALL had to speak their mind to me. I could not make sense of all the voices at once. It was like a jumbled mess of vocabulary that began to sound foreign after being molded together. Soon enough I managed to calm them all down and have one tell me what was going on. I asked Sarah, who was a waitress like me, to inform me on the whole incident. But of course others decided to butt-in at random times.

        “Sarah, tell me what happened! Why is everyone going crazy?” I asked very concerned.

        “Okay, so last night you remember how Jake was supposed to be the last one to close up, right?” She said trying to jog my memory.

        “Yeah I remember, why? What happened?”

        “Well that’s just it! He never closed up!” I was still listening but completely dumbfounded by this. “It’s as if he was here and then completely disappeared without doing what he was supposed to! And he never ordered the new shipment of ingredients to make the pizza, so we’re really low on supplies now.”

        “Well, have you tried contacting h…?” I was cut off as they all began to try talking at once again.

        “Yes! We tried everything and he won’t pick up his phone. Al was the first one in this morning and he noticed the front doors were still unlocked as well as all the lights on in this place. And that was nine o’clock this morning! Jake was supposed to close up at ten last night!”

        I was so completely confused about all of this nonetheless all the thoughts going through my head about what could have possibly happened to him. It took me a second to process this and respond to them with another question.

        “You guys have checked everywhere right? And he’s nowhere in this building?” I asked as if I had become the leader all of a sudden giving orders.

        “Yes. He is literally nowhere and we don’t know what to do now. We thought about calling the police but we haven’t even checked his house yet.”

        “That would be ideal. Someone should stop by his place to see if anyone is home. But for now I just want to take a look around to see if I might be able to find anything.”

        “Okay, sounds like a plan. But remember, families could be coming in any moment and we have to be ready.” Sarah reminded me.

        I was aware I still had a job to do, but I just wanted to see for myself if anything was amiss here. When it came to picking out the smallest differences in certain places, I was the one for the job. I began to search around the dining area to find anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. I caught sight of the animatronics on stage and came to realize that one of them was missing! It was Bonnie who wasn’t on the stage. I asked one of the employees about it and he said that they couldn’t find Bonnie either since last night! This became all very confusing for me. How could an employee and an animatronic disappear at the same time? I wanted to investigate even further on this only because I found this particular situation very interesting. I got closer to the stage to see the imprints on the wooden stage where Bonnie had stood for years in the same spot. It didn’t seem like he had been forcibly removed considering there weren’t any scuff or scratch marks around where he stood. It was as if he just decided to walk away! The mere thought sent a chill running down my spine. These animatronics were creepy enough without having them coming to life on their own! I decided to remain near the stage though even though I wanted to get as far away from those freaks as I could. I noticed something I wished I hadn’t when I was near the stage. I looked closely to see that the others seemed to have moved from their places too! The imprints on the stage did not match up to where they currently stood. This completely baffled me because no one had the intention of moving these guys let alone be strong enough to actually do it. Before I could continue my ‘detective-work’ I saw a family of three walk in and head to the front counter. I suppose I had to begin my actually job as a waitress…in a pizzeria. I continued as if it was a regular work day and hoped that everything would manage to sort itself out.

        By the end of the day, all the chaos and concerned had died down. Everyone chose to believe that Jake had just simply forgotten to shut everything down, went home, and overslept. No one had actually gone to his house to see if he was home, they were just hoping to see him here the next day so he could get a firm talking-to. I, however, had a horrible feeling about this whole situation. I felt as though this whole thing happened on purpose and there was someone, or something, responsible for the disappearance of Jake and the old animatronic bunny.

        That night I went home and told my family, including Hunter, everything that had happened that day. My parents did not seem to think much of it. They simply considered the possibility that there was a mix up and Jake did not understand what he was supposed to do and slept in. They reassured me that whatever I was thinking that was so horrible most likely did not happen. That did not however slow the gears that were cranking out the bad scenarios that continued to play through my mind all night. Hunter comforted me more than my parents did. He simply made jokes about it in saying that perhaps Jake stole Bonnie so he could run around town yelling “I’m a bunny! I’m a bunny!” No matter how worried or scared I was in a situation, Hunter always lightened it up for me.