“I’ll cover the screens,” I told her. “You keep closing the doors.”

“Gotcha,” she replied.

We didn’t talk except for calling out instructions. Nine… no, eight percent battery was just not enough to last a full hour. I knew Christine could tell that I was on edge, but I don’t think she was aware of exactly how bad things were.

7 percent. Bonnie and Chica frequently charged up the hallways. Christine ran between both doors several times. By the end of their constant blitzing, we were down to three percent. I prayed to every god I knew, hoping one of them would listen.

Two percent. It was only 5:43. We wouldn’t last seventeen more minutes. We would be dead before sunrise, stuffed into costumes… crushed while we were still living and screaming for mercy.

“God damn it!” I yelled, pounding a fist on the desk. My sudden outburst upset Christine.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“We’ve run out of time.”

Christine looked over my shoulder at the screen that showed how much battery was left. “One percent! We’re at one percent?” I shut off the monitor. “But it’s not 6 AM yet,” her voice suddenly got much higher. Mine felt tight. What were we going to do?

“Christine, when the power goes out, I want you to run to the supply closet and shut the door.” I stood up and looked her dead in the eyes. “At least then you won’t be out in the open. The door doesn’t have a lock so you’re gonna have to hold the handle.”

“What about you? What’re you gonna do?”

“I’m gonna stay here and make some noise. Then at least one of us will be able to survive the night.”

“No, you can’t do that! Come in the closet with me.”

“Then who would be making noise? They’ll find us eventually. At least I would be giving you some time.”

Christine adamantly shook her head. “There has to be a way for both of us to get out of this.”

“If we had time to think of a better idea, I’d be all for it,” I started talking faster. “We don’t have more than thirty seconds of power left. The instant the power turns off, I want you to run as fast as you can to the closet. Bonnie likes going in there, but he’s in the employee’s only room right now. Just don’t let them in.”

“No shit, Sherlock!” She yelled at me. With so little time, I let the comment slide.

“If they do get to you, play dead. That’s what the guy on the phone told me to do once. Go limp. They may not think you’re an exoskeleton.”

“The guy on the phone? The guy on the phone!” Christine started going wild, my brows furrowed. What was she carrying on about? She needed to get near the left door and be ready to make a run for it! “Your tape recorder!”

“My what?”

“The tape recorder! Rewind it and put it on the desk. It’ll make the noise for both of us! I don’t want to see you killed.”

With shaking hands, I yanked the recorder out of my pocket and slammed the rewind button. “I hope you’re right.” I also hoped the guy on the phone talked long enough for us to make it to sunrise. The rewind button popped back up, signaling it made it to the beginning of the tape. “I got it! Now get ready.” I placed the device next to the monitor and hovered my finger over the play button.

Not a second too soon. The power went out with a resounding boom. I hit the play button and the sound of a ringing phone started to play. I hit Christine in the back when I made my way to the door. She had waited for me. If I wasn’t so scared to death, I might have smiled at the kind gesture.

“Uh, hello! Hello?” called the guy on the phone.

We shuffled down the hallway in the pitch black darkness. I ran a hand on the wall, over posters and kids’ drawings until I felt a doorframe. It had to be the supply closet. It was the only room on the left of the hallway.

“Uh… well, if you’re hearing this, you made it to day two. Uh, congrats!”

Almost soundlessly, Christine turned the knob and pulled the door open. We filed inside the small room. Closest to the door, I left a hand on the knob. Our last defense was keeping the door barred. I felt Christine lean against it, sitting on the floor to prepare to push all of her weight against it. I laid a shoulder on the door close to the handle, muscles tensing. I heard Christine hit something that rustled for a moment, sending terror through me. Luckily, she instantly muted the sound.

“I – I won’t talk quite as long this time since Freddy and his friends tend to become more active as the week progresses.”

We didn’t dare to breathe. Shuffling noises came from the main party room. My heart started to pound loudly; it was probably protesting the fact that I hadn’t taken a breath since entering the closet.

“Umm… it might be a good idea to peek at those cameras while I talk, just to make sure everyone is in their proper place, ya know?”

I really wished the door locked from the inside. They install a camera system and invulnerable metal doors (only when they were connected to power), but they don’t put locks on the inside of any of the doors? The Fazbear Entertainment Company must be seriously disturbed… this might be all just some cruel joke they play on unsuspecting night guards. They must think it’s hysterical to see them screaming as the animatronics stuff them inside mechanical costumes.

“Uh… interestingly enough, Freddy himself doesn’t come off stage very often. I heard he becomes a lot more active in the dark, though so… hey, I guess that’s one more reason not to run out of power, right? Heh.”

Yep, this is definitely a cruel joke. And the guy on the phone was in on it, too. I was starting to doubt my suspicion that he died on night four. I concentrated on the situation at hand. An animatronic could come in at any moment, and it would most likely be Bonnie. I had to be ready to keep the door closed.

“I also want to emphasize the importance of using your door lights. Uh, there are blind spots in your camera views and the blind spots happen to be right outside your door…”

Christine let out a shuddering breath beside me. The scariest part was not knowing when the characters would realize we weren’t in the office.

“So if – if you can’t find something… or someone… on your cameras, be sure to check the door-lights.”

Someone was walking in the hallway. The metal-on-wood thumping assaulted my ears, becoming louder as the animatronic slowly made their way up the hallway. They sounded right outside the door. How much longer until they tried the handle?

“Uh… you might have only a few seconds to react, but… not that you would be in any danger of course… I’m not implying that.”

I bet the company got him to say that. Whose side was this previous night guard on? Mine, or the company’s?

“Also, check on the curtain in Pirate Cove from time to time.”

A music box version of the Toreador March started playing, and it wasn’t coming from the tape recorder. My heart jumped into my throat and I tried to swallow it back down. My throat was too dry. The chiming song seemed to come from everywhere. By the tone of the song, I knew it had to be Freddy. He seemed to be gloating. He had won. Even though I had only heard him play the song on the previous night guard’s fourth phone message, I just knew in my heart that it was Freddy Fazbear who had walked down the hallway.

“The character in there seems unique in that it becomes…”

I had stopped listening to the tape recorder. My mind was racing as fast as my heart. Just come in the closet already, Freddy. You don’t need to play with your food; we’re already scared to death! Get it over with!

Around the sixth or seventh measure into the far-too-happy song, it slowed to a stop. I regripped the door knob, ready to push back on the door as hard as I could. Christine and I didn’t move for what seemed like forever. Freddy was completely silent.