11:45 PM
Gerald Franklin sighed as he approached the pizzeria; this had been completely normal for the past twenty years of his life, having been working for the company that owned the rights to the pizzeria long before Fazbear Entertainment had even owned the rights to the characters. During the final years of Fredbear's Family Diner, when the ancient Springlock animatronics were condemned and replaced by the versions inside of the closed pizzeria nowadays, and the diner was closed. Due to him being a recommended member of staff, he had been hired by Fazbear Entertainment when they had reopened their short-lived pizzeria.
Of course, this time he was arriving with a different mindset; when Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria had been closed to the public, the new 'Toy' animatronics scrapped, and the old ones moved back to their old diner, he had at first been the member of staff in charge of the Night Shift. He had been the only one capable, since all of the other members of staff from the Pizzeria had all either died or had gone off the grid. The well-known 'Bite of '87' had claimed one mind—and eventually life—of one. The Golden Shadows killings claimed the rest.
Not directly, of course; the Golden Shadow killings had been the horrifying murders of five children who had been carefully captured one by one before being murdered all at once. It had been the victim of the bite who had been the one to be labelled as the murderer. Even to that day, Gerald doubted the conclusion of the investigation. Unfortunately, as a friend and fellow employee of the convicted suspect, his views had been dismissed at court. As the convict had been brain-dead during the court case, there had been zero defence for the defendant. Justice wasn't always fair.
After a year of being the guard in charge of the Night Shift—which he had taken over from the man who was later convicted as the Golden Shadow killer—he had been moved back to the day shift when the pizzeria had been privately opened by the board of directors to keep their shares in the business alive. Charles Garfield, who was the CEO of the business after 'inheriting' it from his father, had likely expected to be the one in charge when he took over; he quickly learned that it was the Board that were really in charge.
Which led to him being there on the doorstep of the pizzeria at night; it was his last week until retirement and his pension getting closer. However, due to the fact that since the previous month no one had come asking for the job for Night Shift, it had been on him to take the role again. He had served the night shift for three whole weeks and his last was in sight. He knew that he could not openly talk about the threat that the animatronics portrayed, but that did not mean he was oblivious to the danger produced.
It had been Charles himself who had told him that he would have to take the Night Shift position for his last month working at Freddy's; Mr. Garfield had always been an upfront sort of guy. He had taken the position of CEO when his father—the previous CEO—had met his end at the tip of a blade by an armed assailant in an alleyway. Many of his co-workers believed that it had been Garfield who had hired the killer to murder his father, without leaving evidence.
Some even believed Charles had been the one to wield the knife.
Whilst the rumours certainly had grains of truth within them, Gerald had always ignored them; he couldn't afford losing his job, not when his pension was the only thing he had for the future. Whilst his cousin was doing well for herself, she would not have enough to spare for a forty-year-old man who had only achieved a glorified minimum-wage job. At that point, the only thing that had kept him with the company for so long—excluding his pension—was the animatronics themselves. He had always kept a connection with the four, ever since seeing them twenty years before.
It was because of that that he was accepting the night shift without complaint; back when he had only just taken the night shift when the animatronics had been moved back to Fredbear's, there had not been a problem. They had moved around, but not once had they tried to attack him. In fact, at one point the Bonnie animatronic had gone to his doorway, spotted Gerald sitting there on his chair, and turned the other way. Whatever happened between then and at this point had turned them aggressive; Freddy's was one big mystery.
