Into the Shadows

~Chapter one - Late~

I rush around my room grabbing my keys, wallet, and jacket. Almost tripping over my own feet. "Fuck, fuck, fuck! I'm gonna be late on my first damn night!" It's Monday, the first night of my new summer job at Freddy Fazbears Pizza. I grab my phone and send my friend, and now co-worker, Kyle, a text saying I'm running a bit behind but that I'm on my way now though. I take one last glance at myself in the mirror and sigh as I smooth my hands over my chest. My binder isn't as good as it used to be. Damn. I'll have to get a new one soon. I check the time on my phone. Fuck 11:45. My shift starts at midnight. I run down the stairs and into the kitchen, shouting to my parents before I go. "Bye, mom! Bye, dad!" I hesitate for a moment. "I love you guys!"

As I pull up to the restaurant and park my piece of shit car, it hits 12:22. I get out and slam the car door before locking it and jogging up to the building. Kyle is waiting just inside the door for me, and when he sees me his face lights up. I throw a lazy wave at him with a smile that looks more like a grimace. "Spencer! My man, what took you so long?" He says with a grin plastered across his face. "You're 20 minutes late." He finishes his greeting with a tight hug rather than a wave and I tense up a little as I feel my face heat up at the contact. "Yeah, I uh, I overslept. Sorry dude." I finish my sentence as he pulls away from the one-sided embrace. "Nah It's cool Spence. No biggie." There's that stupid nickname again. With his chill, no-worries attitude. "Thanks." I respond as casually as I can. "So, what did our boss leave for us to do? Like, Other than general security." He grabs a clipboard from the front desk behind him and reads over it. He looks so confused before reading out loud. "Uhm, it just says go to the elevator in the back of the staff room and take that down to the basement. HandUnit will explain everything?" He pauses for a second and looks up at me from the clipboard. "What the hell is a HandUnit?" He asks as he sets the clipboard down. I shrug as I speak. "Hell if I know. I guess we'll figure it out eventually." I've already started walking to the staff room by the time I'm done talking.

We Just got in the elevator and I can't help but notice the weird interior. There's a couple of posters on the walls along with a bunch of wires and tubes. I open my mouth to say something about it but I get interrupted by the elevator making a loud CA-CHUNK and the lights start flickering as we start our descent. Just as soon as I'm about to speak again a loud electronic voice cuts me off. "Welcome to the first day of your exciting new career. Whether you were approached at a job fair, read our ad at screws, bolts, and hairpins, or if this is the result of a dare, We welcome you. I will be your personal guide to help you get started. I'm a model five of the handyman's robotics and unit repair system. But you can call me HandUnit." What the fuck is this? "Your new career promises challenge, intrigue, and endless janitorial opportunities." Me and Kyle give a confused glance to each other as a dinky yellow keypad pops up out of nowhere. "Please enter your name, as seen above the keypad. This cannot be changed so please be careful. " Dead silence. We both just stare at the keypad that was glitching so badly we couldn't read it. Kyle is the first to break the silence. "Uhm...besides the fact that I can't read that shit, why does it want us to enter the name Dave?" I shrug as I respond. "I have no fucking idea dude. Maybe just-" I hesitate for a second as I think about what to do. Before I can even say anything else he just shrugs with a stupidly cute smile and starts tapping away at the glitching screen. The screen immediately says Error and the voice comes back on. "It seems that you had some trouble with the keypad." yeah no shit sherlock. "I see what you were trying to type and I will auto-correct it for you. One moment." Again dead silence as we wait for the stupid thing to load. "Welcome- Eggs benedict" The keypad disappears as fast as it popped up and Kyle starts giggling. "Okay then guess we're Eggs Benedict now." I roll my eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. "Great, now we have to tell our boss that we fucked up the name thing. Just what I need after being late today." Kyle just nudges my shoulder. "C'mon Spence it's not that bad. It's just the name. I'm sure it's an easy fix." How does he just not care? How is he so cute and so sweet AND so carefree? A loud beep cuts off my train of thought and then some cute little tune starts playing as the elevator slows down. The lights go completely dark and the only thing illuminating the small elevator room is the red glow from the button on the wall. "You may now open the elevator using that bright, red, and obvious button. Let's get to work!" Immediately, Kyle is pressing the button. The large elevator doors clunk open and reveal a sealed door with yellow danger tape all over it. Right below that is a small vent. We'd have to crawl on our hands and knees, one at a time, to get through there. Kyle grips my arm. "Man, that's kinda freaky. What's all the danger tape for? Not like-" He hesitates for a second as I look at him. "Not like we're in any real danger right?" He finishes with a nervous laugh. I try my best to reassure him. "I'm sure it'll be fine. It's probably just a prank from the day workers." Though I said that, I'm actually kinda scared. I just really don't wanna worry Kyle because if I say I'm worried he's sure to freak the fuck out. "Well, might as well get this over with." I shrug and pull out my flashlight before begrudgingly heading for the small opening.

We had checked on Ballora, and Funtime Foxy, and now we're checking in on Circus Baby. I thought it was really weird how we had to give the animatronics a controlled shock to "motivate" them but other than crawling threw those tiny ass vents, everything seemed to be fine so, we kept moving on. Baby's room was different though. It had an ominous feel to it. HandUnit came back on. "On the other side of the glass, is Circus Baby's auditorium. Let's check the light and see what Baby is up to." I go to press the stupid button for the light when Kyle grabs my wrist. I look at him confused. "Dude what are you-" He cuts me off. "Spence I don't like this. It doesn't feel right. I don't like that we're the only ones here, I don't like that we have to shock the animatronics, and this room feels off to me." Fuck, he looks genuinely worried about this. I pull my wrist out of his grasp as I respond. "Kyle, listen, it's been fine this entire time. You're just paranoid okay? Promise." He seems to calm down at that and I hit the button so the light comes on. This time only like..a single light or two comes on. Again, HandUnit decides to grace us with his voice. "Quite a few of the lights are out, but we can fix that later. Let's encourage Baby to cheer up with a controlled shock." I scoff at what it just told us to do. "Surrre because shocking her will definitely cheer her up." I roll my eyes and go to press the button. As I click the button Kyle holds onto my hoodie sleeve. After the shock is over I try the light again. Still nothing. "Let's try another controlled shock." So again, I press the shock button. And again, nothing happens. I'm sweating bullets. It's starting to get unnerving. I press the light button and we still can't see anything. "Let's try another controlled shock." I glance at Kyle and he isn't looking at me, but he looks sick to his stomach. I just decide to barrel through this last bit so he can get out of here soon. I press the shock button again and immediately after the shock is done I press the light button. We still don't see anything but before either of us can comment on it, HandUnit fills the silence. "Great job Circus Baby, we knew we could count on you! That concludes your duties for your first night on the job." Kyle visibly relaxes and lets go of my hoodie sleeve. "We don't want you to leave overwhelmed. Otherwise, you might not come back. Please leave using the vent behind you, and we'll see you again, tomorrow. I sigh and rub a hand down my face. "Christ, that was weird." Kyle shakes his hands out. "You're tellin' me, man. That shit was freaky. I'm ready to get the hell out." I sigh lightly. "Alright, let's go. Do you wanna be first in the vent or should I go first?" He seems to think about it for a second. "No way am I going second. I want to know you'll be behind me and not some freaky fuckin animatronic." He crawls in with the flashlight and I follow close behind. Just a few seconds after we start crawling we hear the motion trigger go off for us and then there's a moment of silence before we hear a second motion trigger. We keep crawling as I say. "It probably just sensed both of us this time." As soon as the last word leaves my mouth we hear a loud bang from behind us and we both freeze. Neither of us talking. Just listening in fear. Kyle looks back at me and he looks absolutely petrified. Then we hear it. BANG BANG BANG. Something is crawling in behind us. FAST. I can hear the blood rushing in my ears and my heart thundering in my chest. Tiny vent, weird animatronics, and HandUnit being creepy. Fuck when will this end? BANG BANG BANG. We both kick it into high gear and crawl as fast as we can.

As soon as we make it out of the other end of the vent the banging stops and we take a moment to breathe. Kyle is freaking out. "What the fuck was that?! What if it was dangerous?! We could have died!" Without thinking I grab both of his hands and look up at him in the eyes. Though I'm freaking out I try to comfort him. "KYLE. Listen. We're out now. We're alive. We're safe now." I hesitate. "Promise." He freezes staring down into my grey eyes with his chocolate brown ones. His heavy breathing slows and he nods his head. "Yeah, yeah we're okay." He glances to the side before leaning down to hug me. I reciprocate the embrace and rub small circles on his back with my thumbs. "You're good now man. We'll be fine." I really wish I was able to believe that.

With that all over with we leave the building and go our separate ways back home. When I get back home and check the time it's 6:57. Christ that felt like forever. I get changed into some pajamas and make sure to take my binder off before laying down and passing the fuck out.