I Just Wanna Be Yours

War and Pizza

        ~Normal POV~

     "April!" I popped up behind the girl who was standing worriedly by the claw machine. "Keep an eye out. I'm already watching the kids for you, but the big man is gonna come check up on you," I gave her a heads up before heading back to the main party area to stop a couple of boys who were rough-housing.

     It's not that I work here at Albearto's, I just like helping my girl out, especially when she's never made it through the birthday song. I worked here part-time when I was younger, and managed to make it through my first shift as party captain.

     "Get hyped, kids!" the dark-skinned girl slid onto the stage. "Coming to the stage to sing 'Happy Birthday', give a big 'what up' to the Cheese Master of Bear-imonies, Albearto and his Fun Time Band, Cheery Tomato, and President Pepperoni!" She cheerfully introduced the animatronics. I don't know what it was, but I would never trust a pizza restaurant with animatronics, especially if the leader was a bear with a hat.

     "Buongiorno, kiddies!" the bear spoke happily. "I hear someone's a year older today, and I'm not just talking about my underwear," he said earning a chuckle from one of the kids. I stood in the back, giving April a thumbs up as she stood anxiously in front of the stage. "Okay, sing with me, kiddies! Happy-"

     "Hey, Albearto," the song was cut off quicker than any other time it had been for April. A kid chucked a glass of root beer at the animatronic, causing it to glitch and fizz out, the bear falling flat on its face. "Boo!" the boy yelled as chaos ensued.

     "Go call your boy, April, I can handle this," I winked at her and started to round up the children who were screaming and jumping around. A few minutes had passed and I kept peering around hoping our boss wouldn't walk in while April was M.I.A., as I tried to pull a kid down from some rafters. After at least five minutes had passed, April barged through the curtains, tugging the sting to reveal Albearto now wearing sunglasses and carrying a pizza-shaped guitar.

     "Buongiorno, kiddies!" he greeted once more after holding a cord on his guitar.

     "Is he gonna break again?" one of the boys asked and I ruffled his hair.

     "I think he'll be all right," I eyed the animatronic cautiously.

     "Hold on to your birthday hats, kiddies," the band started playing rock music, the bear head-banging as he played his guitar. "Check me out, I'm shredding this guitar like it's mozzarella," he held the instrument behind his back as he played. In the middle of his guitar solo, the bear started to glitch out again and I watched in worry.

     He spun across the stage, the kids all watching in awe, but I never let my guard down, ready to get the kids to safety if the bear decided he wanted to up and stuff them into his suit. The solo ended when the bear raised the guitar and slammed it into a stage light, electricity running through his body and he powered down. The power in the whole pizzeria cut out, plunging us into darkness, it took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust.

     "Okay, so that happened," April's shoes squeaked against the stage as she tried to hide the fried robot. "But, we can still sing 'Happy Birthday' without him. Happy birthday. . ." my eyes widened as a single, glowing yellow eye shone from her and the bear stood up once more. One of the eyes was missing, leaving a glowing red speck in the hollow socket. The groan it let out was gut-wrenching and all the kids started screaming.

     "Hey diddly ho, kiddies," the broken animatronic took slow, taunting steps towards them as I stood in front of the protectively. "Time to pump this party up," he hopped off the stage and landed in front of me. I swallowed my fear as I met eyes with him. "Let's play!" he roared out and the children ran off in fear.