I put Christine on camera duty while I manned the doors. It wasn’t long before I reopened the right door, since Chica retreated back to where the bathrooms were. I reclined against the wall, trying to keep from looking nervous in front of Christine. She seemed scared out of her wits, but was doing a great job scanning the security footage. With a great eye for detail, she could make out any shape on the low-resolution feed. The best part was she could switch through all of the cameras fast, turning them off when she finished a sweep.

I made her check the power status, walking over to look at the monitor over her shoulder. “See that little battery icon? Click on it.”

“47 percent. What does that mean?” She sounded panicked, just like she did when she first saw Bonnie walking off the stage.

“That’s the remaining power we have left.”

“I know they want to save money on the electric bill, but why is there only a limited amount of power?”

“At night, this place runs on a little generator. It charges during the day and kicks on at night. Remember when the lights went out? The building automatically switched from using the city’s electrical circuit to the generator.”

“What happens when the generator runs out of power?”

“We’re screwed.”

“And you didn’t mention this before?” Her panic was turning into anger. The last thing I wanted now was her to be mad at me. Couldn’t she have been angry with the manager for putting her on closing duty? Or the company for making the building run on a stupid little generator at night? Like come on, I’m a freakin’ cop. I’m supposed to be the good guy!

“I didn’t mention it before because you were already freaked out,” I said slowly. I backed up a step and opened my hands in a not-threatening gesture. “I didn’t want you to be even more scared.”

“Even more scared? How could I have been any more terrified after you told me I’d never see my parents again? You could have just explained the generator! That would have been a lot better!”

“Believe it or not, 47 percent is great.” I quickly changed the subject. We were wasting time by arguing, which added to my nervousness. “Yesterday, I was down to 42 percent at 3 AM. You’re doing a great job by watching the security footage, Christine. You really are. But we haven’t checked on it for about three minutes and we should probably do that right now.”

Christine’s eyes widened and she whipped around to face the screen. She zoomed through the entire feed before giving me an update. “Bonnie’s coming.” I closed the left door, then took a deep breath. Good thing she didn’t start screaming like she did when Chica made her way towards us. “Uh, what’s with Foxy? He’s kinda peeking out of the curtains at Pirate Cove. Is he gonna start running again?”

“He might. But he won’t do it anytime soon. He likes to creep out of the room first. Once he hits the party room, he’ll go full speed towards the left door. Just keep an eye on that camera. Make it the first and the last camera you view each time you turn on the monitor.”

“Is he looking directly at the camera?”

“Yeah. I don’t think he likes being watched.”

“It’s like they have minds of their own.” Christine turned the camera system back on to check again. “Bonnie’s in the employee’s only room. You can open the door again. Foxy hasn’t moved. I don’t see Chica.”

After turning on the hall light, I informed her that Chica was in the kitchen, where the camera was disabled. “If you listen really hard, you can hear her shuffling around. She’s always had this fetish with food.”

“Well she is holding a cupcake.”

“She used to help serve cake to the kids.”

“She walked around the restaurant?”

“Used to,” I repeated. “They all used to.”

“That’s pretty creepy. I wonder why they…” she trailed off.

“Wonder why they what?” I asked her after a second of silence.

She pointed to the computer screen, which was focused on the main party room. “A… a kid just ran past the tables.”

“What? That’s not possible.” I came over and leaned in close. “I don’t see anything.”

“Of course you don’t! They moved off camera! They were just there! I don’t know if it was a boy or girl. I couldn’t make out that much detail.”

“Here. I’ll sit and see if I can find them. And please keep your voice down.” I gently pressed on her shoulder to get her to move out of the chair. She complied, but still had her eyes on the monitor. “Why don’t you watch the doors for a while? It’s easy. You just press the buttons. They’re labeled.”

“But he or she was right there at this arcade game,” she pointed past my head. “And then they ran past the tables.” With one glance at me, she could tell I wasn’t buying it. It had been five hours since closing time. There was no way we wouldn’t have noticed a kid left in the building. “I swear,” she whispered. Shaking her head, she went to stand in between the two doors, just like I had been doing. “I am so sure I saw someone. You look. You’ll see!”

Toggling through the camera screens, I didn’t see a single sign of a kid still in the restaurant. Christine’s mind must have just been playing tricks on her. This place got to me at times, too. Once, I swear I saw a different poster in the hall. Well, I mean it looked like the same exact picture of Freddy Fazbear, except he was bright yellow instead of brown. But it must have been all in my mind because the next time I did a camera sweep, he was back to his original brown. “Look, I don’t see this kid, alright? And I still don’t see Chica. Why don’t you turn on the light to check and make sure that she’s not in the hallway?”

“No,” she said with certainty. “She’s still in the kitchen. I can hear her.”

“I don’t hear anything,” I replied seriously.

“Wait. I don’t think that’s Chica. It’s not the same shuffling noises.” Christine walked closer to the door on her right. “It’s more like… like crying…”

I closed my eyes and concentrated only on my hearing. The restaurant was dead silent. “I don’t hear…”

She turned on the light and her eyes went wide. “Oh my god!”

She ran out of the room.

“Christine!” I yelled, stumbling blindly to get to the door. “Christine, what’re you doing?” It didn’t even occur to me that I could have been attracting more animatronics. “Christine!” Why the hell would Christine bolt out of the safest room in the restaurant?

I turned on the light to see Christine near the end of the hall. “Christine, get back here!” I knew she could hear me, but she didn’t even turn around. It looked like she was talking to someone. Beckoning them to come to her. I couldn’t hear her; she must have been talking softly.

All of a sudden, Christine jumped back, turned around, and sprinted back down the hall. My heart skipped a beat when Chica’s bright yellow suit came into view behind her. Although she wasn’t Foxy, Chica was sure running fast. What was most chilling was the fact that her head was malfunctioning – twitching back and forth in a very disturbing manner.

Once Christine got close enough, she made a lunge for my outstretched arms. I caught her by the shoulders and yanked her through the door, hitting the “close” button with my elbow. Holy shit, I thought she wasn’t going to make it.

“Don’t you ever do that again!” I said between breaths. I looked down at her alarmed face. Being held up only by my arms, she was trying to regain her footing. My heart was beating a mile a minute and I could feel her racing pulse under my hands. She was shaking like a leaf.

“The… the kid! I - I saw the little boy,” she stammered. “H – h – he was crying. In the hall. Huddled against the wall. When I ran out… out of the room, I scared him into the kitchen.”

“Christine, there was no kid!”

“Yes there was!” Tears started pouring out of her wavering eyes. “He was right there! I tried to get him to come to the office but he wouldn’t come closer. I couldn’t get him. I ran out of time! Chica…”

“Yeah, I know. Chica almost had you. God damn, Christine you almost got yourself killed! What’s the matter with you?”

“What’s the matter with me?” She started banging on my chest. “How could you not see the boy? How could you not care about the boy? He was terrified! He…”

She was cut off by a deep laugh that seemed to come from everywhere. Neither of us moved.

“What was that?” she asked. I sat back at the desk and clicked over to camera 1A. Damn it, I had left the monitor on all this time.

“That was Freddy. Open that door, would you? It’s gonna be a long night.” I didn’t mention that we had lost 22 percent of our power within the hour.