I walked into the building, my body buzzing with fear and adrenaline. It felt like it had been days ago that those beast had taken my brother; had it really only been a few hours? I didn't bother giving myself a response, I knew the answer.

The inside of the building was clean and beautiful; the shelves were intact, the building was orderly, and everything looked ready to be put to use at any moment. I went to the supplies closet intent on ruining it. When I opened the closet door, however, I was met with the smell of decaying flesh and something... cold. Just the smell made shiver, not just in revulsion, but because of a sudden icy chill down my spine. Whatever was in there it was not worth facing whatever beast lay hidden inside. I quickly shut the door.

I turned around and stiffly walked away from the small closet, blood rushing through my ears as my heart pounded heavily, hoping that I couldn't, or hadn't, woken them up early. My pace quickly lead me from the entry hall through the common room, the one with the light fixtures me and Paul had escaped on, and into the main party room. Merely thinking his name made flinch in pain, guilt attacking me with renewed vigor; despite this, I kept walking until I reached the stage that Lyra and Bryan stood on. I watched them for a moment, staring into their inactive eyes and searching for any hint of what was to come, until the memories from earlier washed over me. Tears started forming in my eyes as my knees grew weak and shook from the effort of holding myself up; Paul had been stuck inside one of these two things all day, and I couldn't help him. I forced myself to leave the room and head for the security guard offices.

As I entered the office, a chill ran down my spine; It felt like someone was watching me. I made myself walk over to the desk, fear about what I would find gripping my mind. Thankfully, nothing was there; nothing except the chair and the drawers. I sighed, my chest feeling lighter from relief. I sat down and looked at the desktop in front of me. There was a computer with a sticky-note labeled day-guard, a small tablet connected to a charging station on the desk, and a phone with a blinking red light. The light on the phone meant that there was a message... why hadn't it been listened too? In curiosity, I clicked the play button and listened to the man that started speaking.

"Hey there, friend! You're probably the new night guard, am I right!?" The man on the phone was overly cheery, almost creepily so; I started to regret my decision to listen to it. To deeply regret it. "That's wonderful! You're going to love working here at Simons Bakery and Party House! Trust me when I say that you'll be dying to come back every night!" I blinked. had the man just used sarcasm? He wouldn't have, not on a welcoming tape; unless this was a distraction. I glanced at the clock as he kept talking. "But that's the welcoming stuff, let's get to the important bit." The clock said 8:49, I was still safe for another four hours, right? "Now, the rumors are the first thing I need to clear up. No, the animatronics don't want to eat you. They're machines, how could they eat you? They don't even have a digestive tract... I think they don't, anyway." I chuckled slightly, like that was going to comfort anyone. "Now, on the other hand, yes; they do want to kill you. But please trust me when I say that they have a perfectly reasonable explanation." I sat straight up, my eyes widening in shock at his words. What excuse could they possibly have for killing people!? And why would they outright tell the night-guard he was on a hitlist?! "Unfortunately, I don't know what it is and I couldn't share it if I did. Company policy and all, you probably know how they are about not letting their employees know the reason for their deaths. That aside, I think it's time you learned how to work the cameras; give you a chance at survival or... something..."

His tone went from jovial to a more natural annoyed sounding voice, probably tired too. " The welcoming sheet isn't very informative at this point, so I'll just tell you what I remember from my three nights as night-guard. First you have to pick up the tablet and turn it on, fully disconnecting it from its charging station. After that, you should automatically see the activation sequence... er... activating it. Don't return the tablet to the charging station until your shift is over, otherwise you'll wind up with half the charge you thought you had left, and you'll have to start the thing up again." I shivered and glanced at the clock again. 9:37, the clock face read. I started to get worried. time definitely didn't pass that quickly. That meant I had far less time to prepare than I had thought. "Now, to click through the cameras is easy, simply tap the corresponding camera on the minimal in the lower left corner of the screen or tap the left or right side of the screen. I'm gonna give you a pro-tip since its your first night and we can't really afford to lose another night-guard so soon. Don't look at the cameras until two tonight. they like to wait until your panicking and using more battery power than you should." that was a good thing to know. "A pro-tip..." I whispered to myself, "didn't Sean say he'd left some around here somewhere?" I shook my head slightly, ridding my head of the errant thought. I had to focus right now; I made myself focus on the recording again.

"Good! That's all I can tell you tonight, another policy or something, you know how it is!" he was back to his overly jolly voice; it was getting very annoying. "Well see you tomorrow night! And don't forget, stay calm or your death is assured!" Then the mans voice sounded like it was whispering. "They can smell your fear, it's like blood for sharks! It drives them into a fury! Don't let them make you afraid or they will become unpredictable and all the more dangerous! I'll see you tomorrow, just hold on! hold-" the phone buzzed with white noise and clicked, signaling that the call was over. I turned off the phone, not wanting to hear the white noise the entire time. Then I glanced at the clock. The numbers were slightly blurry, which confused me. So I rubbed my eyes. The numbers flashed two thirty and a phantom scream echoed through the building.

Panic exploded inside my head and I snapped my eyes to the computer's screen and started to flip through the cameras, searching desperately for the animatronics. My panic rose with every camera I flicked through as I saw empty room after empty room until something made me freeze. Something very near me smelled extremely strongly of rotting meat. I slowly looked up, cold sweat forming on my forehead, and saw the creature who'd given me the note last night. It moved closer to me, deliberately slowly, and my muscles locked into place more and more tightly, preventing me from moving. My eyes were as wide as physically possible, fear blocking every thought except the need to flee, and it stared into my eyes; the dark pits of its eyes seemed to pull at something in my chest and I tried in vain to move, to run away from the unnatural beast in front of me. The animatronic made a sound that resembled a chuckle, instead of a cheerful, human sound, a sound like metal scratching against a chalkboard came from it, setting my teeth on edge. Then it spoke. "Hello, little nightguard." Its voice reminded me of my own after someone had been choking me; rough, scratchy, and dry. "I'm Simon, welcome to the bakery." He then screeched and dashed forward.

I finally unfroze and jerked away from it in terror causing my chair to fall backwards and letting out a scream of raw fear. As I landed, I shut my eyes in terror, not wanting to see my death take me, unable to admit I'd failed paul. Nothing happened. I slowly opened one of my eyes, then the other; the animatronic was gone. I sat up and glanced at the clock, confusion and fear crawling into my skull when I saw the number flashing on it. 11:59.

I slowly stood up and looked around, hoping to see exactly what I wound up seeing; everything was as it should be, nothing was out of place, and no demonic robots were inside the room with me. It had just been a hallucination. I would have felt relieved, but if I had a stress or lack-of-sleep induced hallucination this early in the evening then I would have many more before the night was through. I settled back into my chair, and then I watched the clock, waiting for my shift to start. the moment the clock changed from 11:59 to 12:00, a scream echoed through the building. It wasn't the scream I'd heard in the hallucination; instead it was the scream of a little girl, terrified and in pain. The sound was even more unnerving than the ghostly wail I'd been expecting, and I tightened my grip on the desk as my teeth ground together; it took everything I had in me not to run out the door and try to help her, until I thought of paul. I didn't need to fight myself after that.

I pulled the tablet off of the charging station and booted it up, a symbol I didn't recognize appearing on the screen. It looked like a rose, but it was a deep purple-black instead of red, and it looked like it was in a cage. A chill ran up my spine as the screen switched to the camera feeds- apparently that being the things only function- and I was immediately greeted with the sight of a squirrel entering what I recognized as the night-guard hallway. I dashed to the door and pressed the button just as the beast came into view, it's screech of rage and disappointment bringing other howls from various areas of the bakery; including the vent above my chair. I all but flew over to it, glancing in to identify what was there. Lyra the Lioness gazed back at me, freezing at the sight of a night-guard idiotic enough to run toward the sound of a killer robot instead of away. That gave me enough time to reach in and pull one of the vent covers out from under her and fasten it to the vent in front of her face. Her scream of anger sent a chill down my spine and made me glance behind me. Simon the squirrel, or whatever its name was, was in the doorway. The thing flew forward, almost literally, and I barely managed to leap to the side in time. A loud thump and the sound of screeching metal told me it had hit the wall, but I didn't look behind me before I grabbed the tablet and sprinted out the door. One of the guard rooms at least was compromised and I needed a safe place to hide; luckily for me there were three other guard rooms. I dashed into the one directly across the hall from my own and immediately turned to slam the button next to the door. It wasn't there.

I jerked to the side just in time to avoid being trampled by the lioness that came barrelling in after me, avoiding another confrontation as she managed to stop only to be knocked over by Simon as the squirrel blasted in after her. I stifled a relieved laugh at the tangled mess of robotic limbs on the floor and ran out of the room, making a mental note to explore the other guard rooms and figure out how they worked as soon as this night was over. I leaped back into the first guard room and slammed the door shut behind me, holding it shut with my back while I checked the tablet. Simon and Lyra were just getting up and looked like they were avoiding eye contact, angry glances and jerky movements displaying their anger at having lost me, the creepy guy who'd given me the note was no-where to be found, and there was a fox sitting on the stage; it looked like it was guarding something.

I kept flicking through the cameras; if that was where they were keeping paul, I'd have no chance to save paul tonight. I'd have to wait until this morning to look for paul, if there was even a chance I could find him during the day. He'd been taken at night and everything had reset when the day came, so it was possible he couldn't be found during the day. The thoughts sounded illogical in my head, but I shook off my doubts, I was dealing with the supernatural after all. I stopped when I reached the camera for the supplies closet I'd tried to enter earlier. the screen was mostly covered by some kind of cloth, leaving only a small amount of the screen visible; through that I could see the leg of a teen wearing a pair of jeans. The audio icon lit up and I pressed it to listen to the room on the screen; if it was paul...

I listened and heard a faint whisper over the audio, along with the sounds of someone sleeping and an occasional whimper. I was starting to get freaked out by the sounds when a new sound reached my ears; that of a large metal object dropping to the floor on the other side of the room. My head whipped up and I saw the fox from the stage getting to its feet. Instead of running for me, like the others had, the thing calmly began to walk to where I was standing, leaning against the button on the doorway.I didn't understand why it didn't run, but it was getting all too close for me to be comfortable. I pushed off of the wall and jumped onto the chair, managing to fit my upper body into the vent in the same motion. Behind me all I heard was a surprised grunt before a clang of metal told me another beast had run into the room at full speed and hit the fox. I pulled myself all the way into the vent and began crawling through it with the tablet to light my way.

Whoever had made that recording was an absolute idiot, unless he was a liar. Either way, I was going to wring his neck when we met tomorrow.

I saw a turn up ahead and crawled to it, surprised to realize that the ceiling there was gone. Bending my back up until I could stand up, I found another vent system above the one I had been using. It seemed like there was a second set of vents closer to the ceiling that would let me surprise the things. I pulled myself into it and began crawling again, pausing as I heard a harsh scraping behind me. I was beyond grateful that the animatronics couldn't bend like humans could, that simple fact made reaching this vent shaft almost impossible for them; or so I thought until I felt a scratch mark in the floor of the vent. Apparently no-where was safe from them. I kept moving.

After a few minutes of crawling through the vent my arms began aching and my head began pounding. My breathing was heavy and it felt like the air was getting staler with each breath, so I took a deep breath and held it as I pushed myself harder than before. I saw an opening ahead of me just as I was forced to take another breath and I felt my hope surge, until a deafening screech rang out from behind me, near enough for me too feel the movements it made as it began trying to move faster and catch me. I burst through the vent and landed on the floor seconds before I was sure it would have gotten me. I pushed myself off of the ground and prepared to run, but nothing came through the vent after me. I glanced back at the vent and saw a pair of eyes darker than the blackness surrounding them watching me. The fact that it didn't follow me could mean only one of two things, either they couldn't enter this room, or something that scared even them was in here.

I whipped my head around, expecting someone or something to be in here with me; nothing was. The room was empty except for a few chairs, a small table, some shelves, and a life-size doll that resembled a teenage girl. Something about the way she was sitting and the familiar smell of the air made me check my cameras again. I flicked through them- Lyra in the kitchen, the fox back on the stage sulking, Simon in the main party room- until I reached the camera for the supplies closet. Everything looked the same except for a pair of legs in the upper right corner of the screen, legs that were wearing pants eerily similar to my own. I started walking over to the doll and the person on the screen imitated my movements perfectly, proving to myself that that was where I was. I needed to get out of here and back to the guard room, whatever was in here was not worth facing whatever was trapped here; only it seemed like nothing was here at the moment.

I shook my head and slowly crept towards the door, reluctant to go back out with the monsters that roamed the halls. About a foot from the door I heard the sound of wood scraping against metal and turned to see what had made it. The doll was standing, one hand forcing its way into a metal arm from one of the shelves. As I watched, the doll shoved it's hand even into the metal arm until its hand- its bleeding hand- popped out of the opposite end of the arm. I made some kind of strangled noise, similar to a whimper but more like a yelp, and its face slowly turned to look at me. the painted smile was creepy enough, but its eyes were solid black; voids against pale skin of its face. I ran from that room as fast as my legs would carry me, knowing that it was getting ready to chase me even as I ran away.

Once I was outside, the color of the sky outside caught my attention. This close to the front doors I could see that the sky was black, there were no stars or moon in the sky. Stars were one thing, but there was going to be a full moon before the end of my week working here, I should have been able to see something. I shivered and kept running. As I sprinted past the main party room I remembered the fox; the stage it was guarding was directly across from the night-guard hallway. I was already breathing harder than I would have liked, and I knew it would get much worse much quicker if I was trying to outrun some demonic creature that could run faster than me longer than me. I'd figure it out if need be. I ran, sprinting as fast as I could through the turn and using the wall as a temporary wall to keep my balance. I heard a clang and then a chiming sound echoed through the building, sending a pleasant chill down my spine.

I kept running, not trusting my senses after the hallucination I'd had earlier, and made it into my office without incident. Once inside, however, the world went blurry again. Almost against my will, I rubbed my eyes, and when my vision cleared I saw the the one that had stolen my brother. He chuckled at the step back I took and walked closer until he was inches from me. "Congratulations, you survived your first night." His voice still sent shivers of panic down my back. "But please remember, we're still here waiting for you, and you can't get lucky forever." He began to walk past me but stopped and turned, facing me. "How did you move? When Fera was trying to grab you." At my confused, but still mostly afraid, stare, he clarified, "The fox." I didn't know what he meant, so I tried to shrug. the exercise was exhausting. "I-I... I d-don't know what y-you mean." He sniffed and left, an itch in my eye making me blink reflexively, and he was gone. I shivered; why had this had to happen to us?

I glanced at the clock, reassuring myself that it was, in fact, actually six o'clock. The relief I felt at that had my knees shaking, my brain finally letting itself acknowledge exactly how scared I'd been. I collapsed to my hands and knees, my breathing skyrocketing as I felt my pupils dilate and my heart beat out a frantic rhythm, and I let out a sound halfway between a groan and a whine. I fought the panic down and forced my breathing to slow down, I had to make a good impression on my new boss.

I just wished I didn't have to deal with a lack of sleep on top the rest of it off.

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(A/N) I'm not dead! To those of you that were excited to see this thing continued, You've finally gotten your wish; to those that are curious as to why I hadn't updated in awhile, it's because of three things. First, my parents sent me off to a camp for two weeks; Second, due an idiotic mistake on my part, my electronic privileges were revoked; Third, writer's-block. A plain and simple lack of ability to write anything worth a scrap of your attention. I have planned out more of my story now, so I should be able to update again after a shorter period of time than this took.

It will be at least a month or so before I can update again, though. I'm in the middle of a move, so that's taking up a lot of my time. thanks for waiting on me as long as you have.

And in case you're wondering, the fan is the creepiest thing in FNaF. I thought it deserved an honourable mention. ;P

Till next time!

Your Scribe,

ShadeFinder~