Five Nights

Chapter 1: the first night

"All done."
Sam stepped back and looked at all the furniture, finally moved into his new apartment. He smiled. "Phew, what a load of work." he plops down on the couch. "I need a nap after that." he smiled and fell asleep.

After his nap, he got up and stretched. He decided to go down to the street, picking up a newspaper from the kiosk near the building and looking through the job ads. "I should really get a job and make some income if I wanna pay rent." he sat on a bench and looked through the ads. "Hmm..." cashier, banking assistant, office accountant, nah. All those jobs sounded boring. But there was one that caught his eye.

In the middle of the page was a help wanted ad for a security night watch guard. "Pizzeria huh?" he reads more. Apparently the night guard for a local pizza place that featured animatronic children entertainers had just quit, and they needed a new one asap. Sam smiled. "Sounds interesting."

He drives over to the pizzeria, parking and getting out. He walks in, the little bell above the door ringing. The receptionist looks at him. "Welcome." She said with a smile. Sam nods to her. He looks around. There are a few kids, a few annoyed looking parents, lots of pizza, and of course the animatronic entertainers on the stage. The receptionist smiled. "Table for one?" Sam shakes his head. "Oh no." He holds up the newspaper. "I'm here about the night guard position?" the receptionist nods. "Oh yes!" She steps over to him. "Follow me."

Sam follows her as she gives him a mini tour of the place, showing him the security office. "And here's where you'll be staying most of the night." Sam nods. She explains what Sam does as a nightguard. "Basically, you just have to hang out here all night and make sure nobody breaks in." Sam nods. "Am I allowed to walk around?" She looks to the side. "Well, technically yes, but I don't think you'll want to." she shudders. "This place is a lot creepier at night when all the lights are off." Sam laughs. "I'll be okay, I'm not afraid of the dark." the receptionist nods. "If you say so.

Next, she shows him the animatronic entertainers. "And these guys are our star attraction!" Sam smiles, pointing to the white bunny. "That one's my favorite." she smiles. "Maxie? Oh yeah, he's real popular with the kids.'' Sam smiles. "I can see why, he's adorable." He looks into the bunny's glassy brown eyes. He feels an odd emotion, but only for a moment, following the receptionist.

"Well, that's basically the whole place." Sam smiles. "Seems cool." she smiles. "Oh yes! The happiest place on earth!" she giggles. "Oh! There's one more thing." she turns to him. "What are your shirt and pants sizes? I've gotta get your security uniform." Sam sighs shakily. "Men's xl..." she smiles. "Perfect." She goes to get the uniform for him, handing him his shirt, pants, belt, hat and badge. "Your shift starts at 12:00 sharp." Sam smiles. "Cool." he turns to leave. The receptionist smiles. "Welcome to the family."

At 11:15, Sam gets all dressed up in his security uniform. He looks in the mirror, smiling. "Wow, actually makes me look slimmer." he laughs, putting on his badge and getting in his car, driving to the pizzeria and arriving at 11:59. He parks and walks in.

"Wow..." Sam says, looking around the now dark and silent restaurant. "The receptionist wasn't kidding about this place bein' creepy..." he walks to the show stage, looking at the bunny animatronic, smiling. "Hey there 'Maxie.' Looks like I'm gonna be hanging with you guys for a while." he turns away.

Little did he know that midnight had struck, and the animatronics eyes followed him as he walked away.

When Sam got into the office, he turned his fan on and relaxed a bit. He then looked at the cameras on the little screen. Everything looked normal. Then he looked at the show stage.
"Wait, what..?"

The max animatronic was staring right at the camera.

"Wh-why is he..." suddenly the screen flickered and Max was gone. Sam jumped a bit. "W-where'd he go?" He checks the rest of the cameras, but Max wasn't there, he had just moved out of frame. He heard some sort of footsteps outside the right door, but when he looked, there was nothing.

Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

He slowly looks to the left of him to see those brown glassy eyes.

"Hi there!"

Sam squealed and jumped, falling off his chair. The bunny laughed. "Haha! Scared you!" he kneels down next to Sam, still on the floor. Sam looks at him. "M-max...?" Max smiled. "That's what they call me." he helps Sam sit up. Sam was still mesmerized. "Y-you're... alive..?" Max nods. "Yup!" Sam looks him over. "H-how.." Max giggles. "It's a long story." Sam sits cross legged.

Max starts. "Basically, I don't know why we come to life, but me and the other animatronics are free to roam around the pizzeria from 12 to 6." Sam smiles a little. "Huh, how about that." Max nods, then looks away. "Buuut I have some bad news." Sam frowns. "That is..?" Max rubs behind his metal neck. "The others, they don't get along with security guards as well as I do.." he looks at sam. "So they wanna try to kill you." Sam's eyes go wide. "W-why? What did I do?" Max shrugs. "I don't know. They never told me why they hate security guards." He holds Sam's arm and smiles. "But don't worry, I'll protect you!" Max stands up. "Hold on, wait right here." he plods out of the office and down the hallway.

Sam stands up. "Wow... no wonder this position was open..." a few minutes later, Max comes back. "Good news! I've managed to distract them!" Sam smiles at him. "Good! For how long?" Max smiles. "They should be distracted for a good while."

He hops up on the desk. "So, you already know me, but I want a proper introduction." he sticks his hand out to sam. "Hi! I'm max!" Sam smiles and shakes his hand. "Nice to meet ya max. I'm sam.'' Max smiles. "Cool! So, Sam, what is your favorite color?" Sam thinks. "I'd have to say my favorite color is orange." Max smiles. "Cool! My favorite color is pink!" Sam smiles. "Like your bowtie!" max giggles. "Yeah." Sam thinks. "Do you have a favorite song you like to sing?" Max thinks. "I think the cupcake song is my favorite actually." Sam smiles. "Ah, I know that one." Max tilts his head. "Really?" Sam nods. "One Christmas my friend gave me an album of all you guys songs." he giggles. "I think it was a joke gift, but I kept it, and listened to it." he smiles. "You have a lovely voice." max blushes a little. "R-really?" Sam nods. "Yeah!"

For the rest of the night, Max talked with sam. The two got to know each other, and enjoyed their friendly bonding.

At about 5:58 am, Max got off the desk. "Well, I guess I should be getting back to the stage." Sam frowns. "Do you have to go?" Max nods. "Unfortunately. But hey, you're gonna come back tonight, right?" Sam nods. "So I'll see ya then!" Sam smiles. "Okay." Max walks out the door, waving to sam. Sam waves back as Max walks away.

Suddenly, the lights came on. It was 6 am.