Chapter Text
A woman with unkempt dark hair and clothes trudged into a decrepit, gimmicky haunted house through the back entrance as she was instructed, her last resort for any sort of income. It was dingy and, honestly, horrifically musty, but money was money, and rent — or at least a part of it— was due by the end of the week. It was when she discovered her need, that just so conveniently a "friend" of hers from middle school rung her up. It was as if it was just yesterday… Because it was.
"What is it, Jeremy? I'm not up for this bullshit right now, I don't have time for whatever crazy stunt you're trying to pull off, so just get it over with." She groaned.
Through the reciever buzzed a grating Californian accent that was far too sure of itself, "Jane~ No worries, my man! I am fully aware of the situation you're in, and that's exactly why I'm calling you, now! I figured I could give you, and my other good buddies a hand!" Jane adjusted her grip to hold her phone to her ear with her shoulder, skewing the angle she was looking at all her rejected job applications with.
"… Oh yeah? What is it, get it over with."
"So, you know that creepy-ass restaurant with the robot animals Mike's dad established and then got shut down way back?" Jeremy began to explain, but was promptly interrupted by Jane.
"The one with the child murder scandal? No thanks."
"Woah woah woah, wait up, Jane! I swear this isn't what you think it is. Hear me out, dude!" Jeremy urged, just as she was about to hang up.
"What could you possibly say to justify your reboot of it that won't be immediately shut down?"
Jeremy cleared his throat, only giving Jane a hint to guess that he was nervous, "That whole child murder thing was like… Thirty years ago, right? Way in the past, and the kids these days only really know of it as a scary story, right? Some kind of urban legend. I was thinking, Mike inherited all this perfectly good land after his dad passed, and didn't want anything to do with it. So I'm gonna buy it from him and make it into a totally new immersive haunted house!" He paused to wait for an audible reaction, but the silence simmered just a moment too long, "So uh… Yeah. Pretty good business idea, right?"
"Jeremy, I'm hanging up."
"Wait!" Jeremy pleaded, "I'll hire you!"
Jane's finger hovered over the button as she deliberated, looking between the phone and the applications again.
"Listen, this recession's gonna be a dick to you, but me and Mike can help out, alright? Let us take advantage of the resources we have and band together, alright? Mike's already accepted covering the night shift, so we just need someone here during the day while the place is renovated."
"…" Jane furrowed her brows, crumpling her rejected applications and dropping them in the trashcan beside her desk, "What's the pay like?"
Jeremy let out a sigh of relief, "Oh, you'll have nothing to worry about- Er… Well, this is a startup, so I can't pay much right out the gate, but we will be once we have some customers coming in! Halloween is pretty soon, after all. For now, the basic $7.25 an hour, but you'll have bonuses!"
"It's… Better than nothing, I guess."
"Awesome! You think you could come tomorrow morning, then? We can talk plans once you're here."
Jane opened that hardly-decorated back door to find the interior was even mustier than the exterior. A persistent filth seemed to hang in the air, as well as some asbestos, she'd guess. A red, glowing exit sign hung above the door, and just parallel to it was the entrance to the security office, which looked like it was occupied not that long ago, but its resident had left something unfinished.
A console was open on the wall, displaying that many of the systems that seemed pretty important were offline, so she rebooted all of them back up, coughing into her elbow. A certain regret was starting to pester her brain, but she couldn't back out now. Sunk cost and all that. Her coughing seemed to alert someone, who she saw approaching from the corner of her eye, a quick swivel of the head as the ventilation system kicked back on and cleared the air of a decent part of it's filth.
Jeremy met her intense look with a slight frightfulness. "Ah- Jane! good to see you! Glad to see you found the console, managing that will be really important here… Prevent this whole place from burning down— Can I just say, you're already nailing the part! You fit into the environment perfectly!" He tried to elevate the mood. Tried.
Jane looked down at herself, in clothing less clean than optimal, and with a harsh squint of her eye, scoffed, "Thanks."
Jeremy realized his wrong and quickly tried to correct it, "Oh, no- I mean-" But he realized it was pointless, sighing, "Sorry. That came out wrong."
"It's fine." Jane sighed, bringing herself back up to full height, just barely taller than Jeremy. "What do I need to do? Well- I assume you need this." She pulled out a folded up bunch of forms from her pocket and handed them over.
"Oh, awesome. Thanks, Jane-" He took the papers, "Well, it would've been nice if Mike was here too, but it looks like he's taken off… Fair enough, I can guess, he wasn't looking too hot. You're essentially just gonna be doing what he was. The place isn't open yet, so don't worry about any visitors, but you're just gonna do that—" He pointed to the console, "Make sure all the systems are up and working, make sure there aren't any problematic messes or people in here, while I go out and find materials from the old pizzerias."
"The old pizzerias?" Jane raised an eyebrow, glancing around. It was then that she realized she recognized most of the decorations in here already… "Those costume parts… You're stealing them? What the fuck, Jeremy?"
Jeremy urgently shushed, "Keep it on the down-low—Nobody needs to know about it. I'm doing my best to make this place as authentic as possible. Good merit for the release, yeah?"
Reluctantly, Jane clicked her tongue, "You know Fazbear Entertainment still exists, right? And it's bigger than ever? They're gonna get your ass in court."
Jeremy dismissed, "Come on, they don't even have security guards hired half the time. They're not gonna notice. We have Mike as a scapegoat anyways. He can always pull the sympathy card-"
"Jeremy." Jane said coldly, provoking a shiver out of the man. "Stealing from a corporation is one thing, but using a person for your own personal gain is another. Don't pull that shit." She furrowed her brows, "And get a better fucking backup plan."
It was only when Jane looked away that Jeremy let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, "Jeez, don't be such a hardass… Fine. But I'm still going out to retrieve materials, alright? Make sure the building stays in one piece. Can you do that?"
"I can." Jane said plainly, taking her seat at the desk next to her.
"Good… I'll… I'll be back in a little while." Jeremy promptly exited the building.
Jeremy felt a certain weight on his conscience, and a resentment now… Maybe hiring Jane wasn't the right idea. They knew eachother for so long, Jeremly felt obligated to try and help when his Auntie mentioned she was struggling about a month ago. But now, she just waltzed in and tried to dictate how everything was run like she owned the place? Somewhere inside him, Jeremy felt an urge to assert himself as the one in charge, but he knew better than that… And that messing with Jane wasn't something he wanted to deal with the consequences with, social or otherwise.
Turning on the ignition of his car and driving off as he pulled up his navigation app with his other hand. At the very least Mike cooperated with him when he called. Took a little more convincing than he'd like, but Jeremy was determined to make the best out of a bad situation… And handing over the original Fredbear grounds to the big Fazbear Entertainment didn't sit right with him, after everything… He was glad to figure out Mike thought the same.
And that led Jeremy back to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza that day, the old run-down building. Jeremy picked up one out of a couple sets of keys from the coin tray and examined them… Mike had gotten himself hired, and subsequently fired at every place within the last couple weeks just to get the keys for Jeremy. Yeah, this plan had a little more to it, though Jeremy wasn't sure why Mike would roll with such a crazy idea. Or how he pulled it off in the first place. He opened the glovebox and fished around with his hand until he successfully pulled out a flashlight. A very professional one, like the ones technicians use. It'd been in the van for years, Jeremy figured he might as well use it.
Stepping out of the car, he approached the entrance, the remnants of old, withered police tapes fluttering in the wind from their torn ends, and unlocked the front door.
The place smelled just like it had back then… Well, with the odd foul odor or two in the deep corners of darkness, but that was also typical, to Jeremy's memory. The wide dining hall, the stage where currently no characters stood… Now that seemed a little strange. According to Michael, it looked like it had been left almost untouched. Oh well. Jeremy flicked on the flashlight and began to delve deeper into the darkness, into where the light had gone out and a leak somewhere made dripping sounds echo down a poorly-insulated hall. Doors lined the thin walkway, and each time Jeremy reached one, he fished for a key to open it.
A party room, another party room… Kitchen… It was only when he came to the last door at the end of the hall, and the only key he hadn't used, labelled "SAFE", that he opened the door to find…
"Holy shit… Jackpot…!"