Michael Afton's P.O.V

1983

Night 2

"So? Did you find any problems with that Circus Baby animatronic and Hand Unit?" I asked on the phone while pressing the button for the elevator to go down. "Well, Hand Unit's system was in fact glitched and I was able to fix it. As for Circus Baby nothing was wrong with her, as far as I could tell. No signs of her even leaving her stage," responded Dad on the phone. "I don't know about that animatronic. I have a bad feeling about her. Even by hearing her name again makes me wish she was dismantled," I responded. "Well, there's a good chance we might dismantle her. Might do the same for the other animatronics. No point when we have our first pizzeria making enough profit and attention," he responded. "Enough attention and publicity to bring in our guests to never leave." "Right..." I responded. "Anyways. If there's any problems with Circus Baby or Hand Unit, let me know ahead of time. We wouldn't want any... incidents to occur with them. Besides, we don't want to risk alerting our plans to the authorities or anyone else," said Dad. "Am I right, Michael?" "Right..." I responded softly. "Good. I'll see you when we meet each other again. Don't let your fears about Circus Baby consume your thoughts," he responded before hanging up. As I put my phone in my pocket, the monotone and too relaxed voice of Hand Unit boomed through the speakers. Something about him made me think he functioned too normally and questionable, and the thought of him being designed that way further secluded that thought from other thoughts. 

"Welcome back for another night of intellectual stimulation, pivotal career choices, and self-reflection on past mistakes. We're committed to creating a unique and fulfilling work experience. One part of that commitment is ensuring that you don't get tired of the voice that you're hearing right now," said Hand Unit suddenly. The keypad opened on the side of the elevator as I walked over to it. "Using the keypad below, please select a new companion voice. For male, press one. For female, press two. For text only, press three. For other options, press four." "That would be nice if there was any god damn numbers!" I exclaimed. I looked at the keypad as I pressed the letter 'O' to see if I was able to input a number. Only, the screen read 'error' due to this faulted system. "It seems you had trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type, and I will autocorrect it for you," he said. "Thank you for choosing 'Angsty Teen'." "You didn't fix everything Dad," I said softly while sighing. The booming sound of a buzz ensured I knew the elevator had reached it's destination as the elevator stopped. That weird carnival music played again like yesterday, as I pressed the red button for the doors to open, rewarding me a gateway into hell it felt like. "The elevator's stopped. You know the routine... You can get out now, or whatever. Stay here if you want," said Hand Unit with the angsty teen voice. "I rather not listen to that voice all night," I responded. "Kind of reminds me of myself when I was a junior in high school. That phase was the worst for me to endure." I walked out of the elevator as I got on my hands and knees to crawl through the vent. "So... Funny story. A dead body was found in this vent once. M'kay. So... not that funny. But... it's a story," said Angsty Teen. "What the hell? Dad, what the hell happened this time," I said as I crawled through and made my way to the vent door, while exiting it completely. "Okay, let's start with your nightly chores... You should check on Ballora and make sure she's on her stage, but... Whatever," said Angsty Teen. I walked over to the control module for Ballora's stage as I pressed the button for the light, as it revealed nothing but an empty stage. However, I could see the silhouette of Ballora near the window, or maybe it actually was her close to the window and the darkness was hiding her for the most part. Either one was possible, but it was hard to tell. "Huh. I guess Ballora has better things to do," said Angsty Teen. "Let's zap her. That should be fun." "What the hell is wrong with this thing? Gotta do it anyway's before I end up letting myself become a dead body in front of a pizzeria," I responded pressing the button for the controlled shock. Her gallery lit up close to the window from the shock as I went to reach for the button for the light. But I was stopped to the gargled, distorted noise, and talk coming from Ballora's Gallery on the other side. I couldn't make out what it was saying, but just by the tone I didn't want to decipher something that sounded pissed. The unnecessary silence seemed it was only here to fill the gap created by the fear now produced by this event, something that didn't ease my concern. Fear wasn't here in me yet, but it was boiling to be finished. "Let's check on Funtime Foxy. Make sure he's ready for showtime tomorrow," said Angsty Teen. "He's just going to ignore it?" What happened to getting Henry to fix this?" I asked myself while looking at the panel for Ballora's place. The panel was deactivated now but Funtime Foxy's was active, which meant Hand Unit locked it down manually. I knew I had no other option as I walked over to her panel and pressed the button for her light, revealing her shadow near the window just like Ballora. "Great- Great- Great-" said Angsty Teen with his voice malfunctioning by repeating itself. "There seems to have been a problem with the voice synthesizer. Default settings have been restored. Please proceed through the vent ahead of you to Circus Baby's Auditorium," said Hand Unit. The vent for the place opened as I looked down, not wanting to enter in it. "I already have the feeling that things are going to go worse in there," I said getting on the floor to crawl through the vent again. As I made me way through I heard the same female voice from last night, most likely detecting my movement. "Motion Trigger: Circus Gallery Vent." I made my way out of the vent as I walked into her room again, feeling like I walking into uncharted territory. "Circus Baby had a busy day today! Let's check the light, and make sure she's in proper working order," said Hand Unit. I walked over to the panel as it once again lit a dim illumination in the room. Of course, no animatronic was present as well. "Oh, Circus Baby, we aren't here to play Hide and Seek. Let's encourage Baby to come out of hiding with a controlled shock," said Hand Unit. "Right..." I said not sounding encouraged to do so as I pressed the button. Only, there was a strange noise from the panel as nothing happened. "Let's try another controlled shock," said Hand Unit in response. I looked at the panel with concern as I pressed it again, only for the results to reoccur. "There seems to be a power malfunction that is affecting our ability to properly motivate Baby. Please standby while I reboot the system. I will be offline momentarily during this process. Various other systems may be offline as well, such as security doors, vents locks, and oxygen," said Hand Unit. "Commencing System Restart." Out of nowhere everything went completely dark, the vent fan near me stopped going around, and there was no light anywhere. Now the darkness was hiding me, except only my fears. I looked around, having no idea what to do now. "Dammit! I gotta call Dad," I said getting out my phone. Luckily, my phone did provide some light. Only barely. Only it showed I had no signal, probably because this place is underground. "Son of a bitch," I muttered. "Motion Trigger: Entryway Vent," said the female voice. 'How is the security system still active?' I asked myself in my head. "Funtime Auditorium Maintenance Vent opened," continued the female computer voice. "Ballora Gallery Maintenance Vent opened." From behind the window I could hear movement, mechanical movement. And then, I hear her. "I don't recognize you. You are new. I remember this... scenario... however. It's a strange thing to want to do... To come here. I'm curious what events would lead a person to want to spend their nights... in a place like this... Willingly. Maybe curiosity? Maybe ignorance." I wanted to say something, but I just couldn't. I was frozen in fear. I had never heard one of these thing talk, as if they were alive. Were they programmed like this because of Dad? Circus Baby to be exact. I assumed this was her talking since I was her in place. If this really was her. "There is a space under the desk. Someone before you crafted it into a hiding place, and it worked for him. I recommend you hurry though. You will be safe there. Just try not to make eye contact. It will be over soon. They will lose interest, "she continued. I walked towards the desk, knowing there was no other option. I know I was blindly listening to something I didn't know, but who knows what might happen if I didn't listen. As I was about to get under the table I noticed a flash light on top of it as I grabbed it while quickly getting underneath the table. Next to me was a metal cover that had holes in it, most likely being the thing Baby was referring to. I knew it was going to benefit and cost me at the same time but it was my only source of protection. I grabbed it and pulled to cover the space under the desk to block my sight, while doing it as fast as I could. Now all I could do was wait, for either my demise or accept my restless life to continue with. I could hear footsteps approaching the room as I stayed completely still, trying to minimize the amount of noise to alert my presence to whatever was out there. "Hello in there..." said a voice. It was for sure not Circus Baby, rather something else. What it was I couldn't guess what, but going out to check out what it was didn't seem worth it. I could hear a metallic scraping, though I wasn't sure what was causing it. I was shaking and breathing uncontrollably because of fear; I don't think I had been this afraid in my life. "Someone is inside," whispered the same voice. "Is it the same person?" whispered the same voice, however it was coming from a different part of the room. It was possible there were multiple of these things, which didn't make the situation any better. All of a sudden I heard a tapping as I tried looking constantly at all of the holes made. I stopped to see an eye peering through one of the holes as I looked away immediately. My breathing was starting to increase, as well as my fear in which I had to cover my mouth to silence my breathing from it being heard. I was sure these things knew I was here now, what I wasn't sure of was what their next course of action was. I jumped a little in shock to the cover being pulled to the side to uncover me as I quickly grabbed it to pull it back to cover me. These things combined strength were superior to mine because they were managing to move the cover at a moderate pace. All I could think and do was pull the cove back as I tried by best to keep it in my power. Finally, I was able to pull it back as I got it to fully cover me again. "We always find a way inside," said one of the things again. A moment later, after sitting with nothing happening the cover started to move again. Quickly I grabbed it to enforce my protection from these things. Now I was starting to loose my grip as I tried my best to pull it back towards me. 'Don't loose grip, don't loose grip!' I thought repeatably as I did my best to not let go. Finally, those things gave up right when I was at the verge of letting go, as I pulled the cover back towards me. "She's watching us," said one of the things. "We have to leave," said another one in response. "We'll see you again soon!" Those were the words of farewell to those things, as I could hear them scrambling back towards the vents with their footsteps fading away from this room. "When your 'guide' comes back online, he is going to tell you that he was unsuccessful. That you must restart the system manually," said Circus Baby's voice out of nowhere. "He will then tell you to crawl through Ballora Gallery as fast as you can to reach the breaker room. If you follow his instructions, you will die. Ballora will not return to her stage anymore. She will catch you. The power will be restored shortly. When you crawl through Ballora Gallery, go slowly. She cannot see you and will only listen for your movement. When you hear her music become louder, she is growing near. Listening for you. Wait. And be still..." As she ended her instructions I opened my mouth about to ask her why she was helping me, only for that to not become reality. "Thank you for your patience. It seems the power system cannot be restarted automatically. You will need to restart the power system manually. Please return to the primary control module," said Hand Unit. I pushed the cover out of the way as I got out from under the desk and walked over to the vent, getting down to make my way through it again. 'How the hell did she knew Hand Unit instructions before he was even back online?' I thought. "Motion trigger: Circus Gallery Vent," said the female voice. "How do I even know if I should take her words into consideration?' I finally got out of the vent as I got back into the room, ready for my next set of instructions. "You will now be required to crawl through the Ballora Gallery, using the vent to your left, to reach the breaker room. It is recommended that you stay low to the ground and reach the other side as fast as possible as to not disturb Ballora. I will deactivate myself momentarily, as to not create any auditory disturbance. Deactivating." After he deactivated myself, the vent for Ballora Gallery opened as I walked towards it. "Thanks for nothing but more trouble," I said to myself while going through the vent. "Ballora Maintenance Vent opened," said the female computer voice as I got onto the other side. It was dark as hell, so dark I felt like it would be the cause of my demise. I grabbed the flashlight out of my pocket while turning it on, hoping to at least be able to see my surroundings. It didn't do much but provide enough light to see at least five feet in front of me, guess it was better than nothing. I walked at a moderate pace, not speeding up unless I really needed to. Suddenly, I stopped to the sound of music growing near the right side of me. It wasn't far off, but who knows if it would come closer to me at some point. The music drifted further away from me as I started walking faster now, just trying to avoid Ballora the best I could. Not even ten seconds later the music starting growing near me increasingly, as I stopped just to see if Circus Baby's advice was liable. I could hear the music feet away behind me as the music shifted over to the left side, as all I could do was breath heavily in fear and wait. Finally, she was further away as I continued walking. The noticeable light and door enclosing further to me hinted that I was close to the maintenance room, thankfully to ease all the tension. As I was closing in on the maintenance room, I stopped again to the sound of Ballora's music dwindling my fear into a pile of nothing. I waited once again, hoping being a sitting duck wouldn't assist the prey on its hunt. As the music felt loud enough to me close to my ear, I witnessed the dancer of eternal hell. Spinning across in front of me was Ballora; she was close enough that I could almost touch her. Though that would be the equivalent of me provoking an untamed beast. She looked a lot more humanoid than what I designed her to be from the rough sketches I designed, and her appearance was of a ballerina. She had blue hair, outfit, a pink skirt, and a blue slippers. And the only position she was made and designed for was her dancing. Finally, she passed by me as I waited for her to get far enough for me to run the rest of the way. I was close enough and even then I didn't want to bother and wait; I just wanted to reach the room. As soon as the sound of her music was completely invisible to my ears I darted with everything I had to the maintenance room. I could hear her music reaching for my ears to flood my mind with, the sounds erasing any feelings or thoughts I had. The music was increasing in distance, but so was the amount of ground covered to reach the maintenance room as I ignored the pull of her music to draw my fear in. The cold metal handle of the door was almost too real to feel as I swung the door opened while closing it quickly and locking it. For my sake, Ballora could drown in her own music for all I cared. "Motion Trigger: Breaker Room," said the female voice as I entered in. I looked around to see the controls of the power and a couple wires hanging, reminding me of the wires in the animatronis that were twisted by the impure of their programming. "You may now interface with the breaker control box. Using the interface may disrupt nearby electronics. If you feel you are in danger, feel free to disconnect the interface temporarily, until it is safe to reconnect," said Hand Unit. The flash of light from above almost made me jump as it revealed an animatronic standing alone. Almost the protector of this room, or my doom. "Funtime Freddy. I remember sketching you as one of the animatronics. Dad, never told me the company made you and the others," I said looking at him while noticing the hand puppet on his hand. "Can't forget Bon Bon." I noticed where the control and the monitor for the systems were, there was a tape recorder next to them as I grabbed it. Curious to what it held I pressed the play button as a voice played in command. "Go back to your stage, everything is okay," said a female voice. "Ha, ha, ha! Well, hello again!" I turned to the sound of the voice from Funtime Freddy; he was concerning me. His voice sounded crazy almost, insane to be exact. That's a feeling I don't ever want to experience. "I gotta get this power back up or else I won't be able to leave. And waiting it out for Henry or Dad to arrive is risky," I said softly to myself. I walked over to the monitor for the systems as I opened it up: It showed me the whole lay out of the place and everything that needed to be reset. There was: Circus Control, Circus Gallery, Funtime A., Ballora G., Parts & S., Elevators, Obsv 1., and Obsv 2.. "Gotta get this done as fast as I can," I said while resetting the system first for Circus Control. As I was resetting it, I could hear movement near me, almost mechanical. As soon I was done resetting that part of the system I quickly closed it to see Funtime Freddy was off his stage now. "Dammit. He moved," I muttered as I started to reset Circus Gallery. As it was resetting I shifted my eyes quick enough to noticed he had moved again, only closer towards me. This wasn't going to work. Right when I was finished resetting that section I turned to see he was almost inches away from me. "Shit! How the hell do I keep him away," I said looking around, paranoid of looking away again. Then, I stopped to the realization of why a recording of Bon Bon would be laying around with no purpose, only for it to be a tool to ward off this insanity. I grabbed the recorder as I pressed play, almost like a way to ease the sleep of a child. "It's bedtime! Let's go back to our stage." I stared at Funtime Freddy, waiting for him to crawl back to his rightful place. As the flicker of the faint light illuminated for a second, Funtime Freddy was back on his stage. Just like how the nightmare of a bad dream is sucked back into your imagination. "Alright, just gotta does this over and over until I reset every system," I said to myself. "And I'm not looking forward to hearing this lunatic for the amount of time it takes to reset the system.

Over and over, with the constant active system being completed, and to the shuffling of Funtime Freddy at every minute, only to retreat back to his momentary slumber, it was done. At last every system was complete; I had survived. "Great job. This complete your tasks for the night. Please proceed back through the Ballora Gallery with care. And we'll see you back here tomorrow," said Hand Unit as I put the monitor down for the systems. Funtime Freddy was back on his stage, even though I heard him move before I restarted the systems for Obsv 2., whatever that meant. "About time. Better get home before Dad arrives. Wish these things would maybe end my torture and his will," I said. I walked over to the door, as I opened it while walking out and shutting the door behind me. I turned on my flashlight while looking around, just to see if I could spot Ballora anywhere. Now that I was trying observe my surroundings, I didn't hear her music at all. Had she finally returned back to her stage? Didn't matter to me, all I wanted was to get out of this place for the night. I walked at a medium pace, just to ensure she was still wasn't active. "Is someone there?" I stopped to that voice, sounding almost monotone and lifeless. Almost dead eternally. I aimed my flashlight at every spot, but now the darkness was hiding her. Something the light was consumed by. I did my best to block the thought of her hiding any where as I started to walk fast now. "I can hear someone creeping through my room..." I stopped again frozen now, looking around anxiously. There was a moment of silence, no sound but constant repeating sound of me breathing. "Perhaps... not," she said. Quickly, I ran towards the vent without even bothering to look around or near me as I crawled through the vent door, while it shut behind me as soon as I entered in. "Oh my god," I said laying against the wall breathing heavily repeatedly, drowning in my own stench of sweat. "What did you make attend Dad?" 

"He better be at his office or else," I said while dialing his number on the phone. "As the sun sets, so also does another chapter in the saga of the love lost between Vlad and his distressed mistress. Can they be reconciled? Can their love rise again? That and more, happening now," said the TV in the background. The phone rang over and over as I impatiently waited for him to answer. "Dammit, pick up," I said softly. "Hello?" said a voice in return, only it wasn't dad. It was Henry. "Henry. It's me, Michael. Is my dad there?" I said. "No. I haven't seen him since we closed down Freddy Fazbear's Pizza for the day. Why?" he responded. "There's, uh... a glitch at the underground location," I said. If I told him the specifics, my dad for sure would know. He's got a good tracking system to ping my every movement. "Again? Damn. Alright, what is it this time," he responded sighing. "The power was having some malfunctions. I had to reset the system manually and that seemed to work before I left. That's about it," I said. "Huh. That's odd. I'll go check it out after I finish some paperwork here. I'll let you know when your dad shows up. If he does," he responded. "Alright, thanks," I responded. "Alright. Bye!" He hung up as I put the phone back, as I grabbed my bowl of popcorn. "Where the hell is he? He never said he was going out tonight," I said as I took my hand and dug it into the bowl of popcorn to scoop a whole bunch into my mouth. "I just wish I could get Henry to help me." I rubbed my eyes as I picked up the remote and turned the TV off. "I need to go to bed," I said sinking my body in the couch. "This task of visiting that place every night is draining my sanity and mentality. And the only thing arising back up with me is my fear. Their source of fear fueled by mine."