1987 (First Draft)

Chapter 1.2

Saturday
11,07,1987
10:00 pm

The once lively halls of the restaurant now laid abandoned. The table decorations, laid out perfectly like no kid ever tried to eat them. The once vibrant walls, now laying still, as the shadows of Philly's gang grew on them.
The only thing breaking through the suffocating darkness, was the bright column of the heavy flashlight, which laid coldly in my hands.
The pathways in between the tables, once impossible to get through amidst the avalanches of customers, now were devoid of life, with only the sound of my sticky footsteps echoing through the building.
Well, I wish these were the only sounds, but now, after hours, it seems that the spirit of this place has begun to invite the ghosts of the night. Distantly you can still here the quite sound of frying oil, of laughing children, of Mae screaming orders and the parents muffled small talk.
The echoing, mainstream music of the animatronics performing behind the closed curtains of the stage, accompanied by the rhythmic drumbeats of the downpour falling onto the roof of the restaurant, one by one.
The lights may be off and the doors may seem closed, but the spirit of fun and liveliness seemingly never leaves a place, as the party continues, even after it's over.

Having fought through the ghost of the party, I have finally reached the dark, wood door adorned with the simple words "Employees Only".
I reached for its cold, metal handle, opening it with a faint click, before being greaten by a gust of air. I could taste the dust the air held in it, but despite, I continued forwards, past the coffee smell of the break room, and the grease smell of the kitchen, straight towards the end of the hall.
"Security Office" the sign next to the plywood door read, signaling that I am right where I needed to be. But still, despite arriving where I was supposed to be, I still felt the lingering thought that I was doing something wrong... Just couldn't I pinpoint if it's a deed I have forgotten, or the simple fact I even decided to come this far without rethinking my choices.

I grit my teeth, and with a quick move, opened the door. Inside I sighed in relief. I didn't know what I expected, but I was happy with what I was met: Much of nothing.
My eyes scanned the room, as I saw a small, white, light switch suffocating in between two metal shelves. The ones used to store documents.
It was a tight squeeze, but I forced my hand inside the tight gap and flipped the switch.
.
.
.
I don't exactly know what I was expecting here either, but this time I was slightly disappointed that it was nothing. Not a flicker, nor a faint crackle, just nothing.
Even the spirits of the place have stopped with their sounds, silently laughing at me.
But then it hit me, as if the switch zapped me with an electric shock. The breaker box is off. John told me they deactivated the electricity at night...
But as I laid down my suitcase, and was ready to embark on a journey, a question arose... Where even is the breaker?
I looked around the security office, and there I saw it. Hanging to the right of the table, stacked to the brim with TV monitors, hung a blue map of the building's layout. The entire one thousand square yards, and indeed: The breaker box was marked in thick red, in the delivery bay, on the other side of the building.
I had a choice, take the faster way through the kitchen, or the slightly longer and oh so more terrifying way through parts and service, where all the animatronics are stored, like demons waiting to be called...
Well, there's only one sane answer to that question, I thought as I went back into the hallway, and began to follow the greasy smell of pizza. The hall was filled with darkness, and the faint crustiness of the carpeted floor, and eventually I reached it.
The swinging, metal doors you'd see at every dinner ever, were incredibly light, despite their full metal look.
With a slight metal creaking, the doors swung open. It was pitch black, but my flashlight cut through the darkness like a sword... Or something less majestic, like a knife cutting a pizza.
<God, this job got me in its grip, I even think in pizza metaphors.>

The shiny metal surfaces reflected the flashlight across the entire room, throwing sparkling stars into the darkened sky called ceiling.
Dishes and cooking utensils were piling up, like chrome trees searching the light that will never come.
But surprisingly, considering the rest of the location, the kitchen floor was very clean, scrubbed until shiny. No pieces of pizza or other culinary mishaps that sought the floor, just a shiny, black and white, checker tiled floor.
But slowly a humming filled the air, as I got closer to the room leading to the storage.
It was the walk-in freezer, with its heavy metal door looming ominously to the right, right next to a row of pizza ovens.
<How many bodies they got in there?>
A cold feeling shuddered through my body, so I quickly pushed that thought away. I don't care how many corpses there are, but it must be enough to feed multiple hundred kids every day.

In contrary to the door I entered through, the door to the storage was not swing-through.
Metal, no window at all, bars to push it open.
I took one. Long and cold, as expected. I pushed.
"Oh, fuck you," it didn't budge. I pushed again. Nothing again, except for a slight metal creaking.
Now I got desperate: I leaned with my whole body against the door, and slammed myself against it.
Once, twice. My side started to hurt, and the door still didn't budge, like someone decided to push a shelving unit in front of it.
"I swear by god, if I find the asshole that blocked the door, I'll kick his ass."
I sighed. No fast rout, I guess. I have to take the Parts and Service route now...

As I walked back, thebuzzing of the freezer seemed to be more pervasive. Cutting.
And the metal utensils' spark seemed more dreading.
The floor felt almost wet for some reason, like someone turned on the sinks.
I didn't want to go through Parts and Service. Even at broad daylight, at peakcustomer hours the place seemed dead. Lifeless.
And yet filled with life. When I had to go through to get coffee for the breakroom, because the kitchen was too busy to traverse through, the shut downanimatronics seemed to... Watch me with their ceramic eyes, behind their rubbermasks.
It was eerie, even with the technicians hanging out there, or the establishmentposters plastered all across. All the robotic parts, limbs, heads, eyes, teeth,fingers... It felt like I was intruding on a catacomb.

The door to the main hall felt... Light.
Just a mild touch and it creaked open.
"You walked through her before, you can do again, Jeremy."
And so I did. I took a step, and the sticking sound began to follow me again.But except for the exit, which I should probably chose, I walked to the left. Pastthe tables, past the price counter. Straight to the stage:
It was a foot higher than the rest of the floor, made of some form of wood,which already began to crack at some parts. Atop of it, normally theanimatronics stood, strumming their instruments and singing their cold heartsout, but now their showtime laid behind a purple curtain, adorned with sparkly,yellow stars and moons.
I slowly walked up to it. Step by step, until I entered the stage. It creaked,like it was threatening to fall apart under my weight, but I still continued.
I took an edge of the incredibly soft and heavy curtain, and...
Pulled it open.