Five Nights at Freddy's

2. I Have a Job for You

The sound of an alarm clock echoed throughout the room. Mike opened his eyes, clearly bothered by the sound that rang in his ears. He put his hand to his face, hoping it might wake him up, if only for a little bit. He turned around to see the bright green numbers on the clock say 6:00. It continued to ring until he hit the button on the alarm, getting out of bed in a drowsy manner. Mike squeezed his neck back and forth until he heard the familiar cracking sound, before hitting reverse on his tape recorder.

Picking up his sleeping pills, he puts them inside his drawer before slamming it shut. A poster of a forest with the slogan 'Pining for fun? Visit Nebraska' was on the ceiling above where Mike slept. Getting up and trying to wake up any last part of him that was still asleep, Mike dropped down onto the floor to start his morning workout set of push-ups. Heavy breaths were heard coming from each set he could muster.

"Abs, you ready?" Mike asked, barging the door into his sister's bedroom, trying his best to put on his tie. "Abby..." Pushing himself more into the room, he looked around, trying to spot his sister through the mess of a room. Mike's eyes landed on the little makeshift tent he made for Abby. "Abs." As soon as she heard her name being called, she stopped moving. She held her breath to not alert her brother where she was, making it clear that she didn't want to go to school today or ever.

Mike gave up on trying to correctly tie his tie and instead made his way towards her tent. "Come on, I know you're in there. Let's go." Abby squeezed her eyes even harder, trying her best to not show any signs of movement, including her mouth.

"Abby, come on!" Mike ruffles the tent, hoping to get his sister to come out as quickly as possible. He was already late for work and didn't want to get fired from it, too. "Okay. Okay." Abby responds back, poking her brunette-haired head out from underneath the safety of her covers. "You're being a jerk." She says, giving him the stink eye.

"You know I have somewhere I need to be." He responded. "Come on, let's go. Five minutes, I need you dressed." As Mike begins to walk out of the room, he wasn't aware that Abby had grabbed one of her plushies and thrown it at Mike. When he felt that, he stopped midway to the door, turned around, and gave her a disappointed look. Once Abby saw this, she hid deeper inside her tent, hiding away her smile. "Five minutes."

Taking a long, loud slurp of his slushie from the massive paper cup sitting on the table in front of him, he reads through the book in front of him. "And though the dreamer remains asleep," Jeremiah, Mike's friend, sported dreadlocks cascading down the back of his head. His beard lay still, showcasing a few grey hairs that hinted at his age to those who passed by.

Clad in a loose-fitting blue polyester shirt and matching pants typical of mall security guards, Jeremiah's bulky frame contrasted with the strain caused by his broad shoulders and large belly, stretching the seams of his uniform in a matter of minutes. "He walks through memory as if experiencing it for the first time, anew." Jeremiah was an okay guy. He didn't get on Mike's nerves the same way most of the guards did as well as people in general.

"No longer a passenger, but an active participant." As he finishes reading the sentence, Jeremiah closes the book and begins to observe it like a child would to a popsicle. Then once he finally figured it out, Mike's security buddy lets out a little chuckle at the thought of something like this being real.

"This stuff for real?" He says, looking back at Mike. A smirk appears across his face as he does so. Mike shrugged, holding the walkie-talkie in his hands like a frisbee. "Some people think so. Guess it depends on what you believe."

After a few seconds, Jeremiah sighs. "Summer of '82, I traded a mint condition Cal Ripkin Jr. rookie for a used copy of Missile Command. That card's probably worth 800 bucks now." He said, reminiscing that time.