School Days

Chapter 3: Voices Speak to Deafened Ears

Content warning. This chapter contains the deaths of the missing children. I tried to write it in a non-graphic manner but it does still mention blood, being stabbed and so on. If that bothers you, skip from "Eyes shifted, views warped." to "Bloodstained walls melted into smudged wax as the crayon drawings came into focus." I will most likely update more to tone down the language if it's too much for the rating. I think it's OK right now but you never know.

-----

CLICK

P-U-R-P-L-E G-U-Y

CLICK

Late Tuesday night? It didn't matter, at least not right now. Evan wanted to get a few answers at least before he lay comatose for 8 hours. The ghost kids had brought that mystery man up for a reason, and he wasn't liking the feeling it gave him. Ever since Five Nights at Freddy's had released, rumors spread of players being haunted by the very same spirits from that fateful day. New stories crept up here and there of people acting like rabid animals, searching for something unknown in a manic frenzy before burning themselves to death. Overall, a pretty grim picture had been painted in his mind.

Thousands of pieces of information yet only a handful was useful. Most of it was just a bunch of true crime podcasts milking the story for money. Typical. The M.C.I., Purple Guy, Bite of '87, that head-crushing in '83 and The Stitchwraith were practically a monetary feeding ground for those vying for extra bucks.

Not willing to sit through several hours of idiots spouting nonsense, Evan was content to suffer through an agonizingly long blog post detailing the incident. Whoever wrote this barely possessed any skill diction, but the gist of the article was easy to grasp. The Purple Man was a nickname given by the public to the perpetrator of the murders as he was a worker at Fredbear's Family Diner, a location that used purple uniforms in the 1980s. And...that was it. That was all that they knew. The man arrested for the murders? Innocent. The Purple Man simply appeared and disappeared like a ghost.

If the previous days' events told any sort of story, he would be back. Evan was less and enthused about such a prospect.

-----

Another Wednesday at school, another day that 7th Grade had to queue at Salado Blue. Ever since Fazbear Ent. had sponsored and undertaken the renovation of the lovely Aemulus Jr. High, the disasters just kept piling up. First, the ventilation. Clearly, old designs from the pizzeria in the late 80s had been dug up and reused because there was no conceivable excuse otherwise for putting such absurdly large vents on the bottom of a wall. Each one practically screamed "climb inside me", and quite a few students were stupid and brave enough to do that. Animatronic of course, no other Faction fancied themselves to be that...wild.

Second, and who could forget it, the cafeteria fire. A cafeteria kitchen is meant to be many things, but flammable is not one of them. One late night, a pan with just a little oil in it and Fazbear Ents. disastrous electrical wiring job. The perfect storm had been forged. Flames licked and danced throughout the kitchen, inviting the cafeteria, the gym and a few hallways to join it in a fiery demise. Thanks, Fazbear Ent.

Of course, the leeching company only sponsored such repairs out of the desperate need for a PR boost. Expecting them to put real effort into anything was a pipe dream. When Henry Emily had died, the company lost its soul, replacing it for greed and a lust for money. They expanded on every market there was: food, TV, toys, even trying real estate, but nothing could save their reputation after those kids died.

Everyone knew that Five Nights at Freddy's was no work of fiction. Fazbear Ent. could claim that the game was a "completely fictitious scenario" until the cows came home; every soul in Salado knew the truth. And that truth is what Jason dreaded being true.