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When Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza had closed down, the management had left the animatronics on stage while they figured out what to do with the old bots. Maybe it was nostalgia, or just the unwillingness to part with such a big deal of entertainment manufacturing. In any case, Freddy and friends waited in their abandoned building, motionless save for the few moments the spirits within would rouse and “wake up.”
Nobody came here anymore. No families for parties. No kids with eager grinning faces. No night guards to try and frighten. Nobody. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, home of entertainment and dancing animals, was now a slowly decaying tomb.
In that sense, it was rather depressing. Nobody could be blamed for steering clear. But for some, the abandoned pizzeria still had something to offer.
Freddy Fazbear was the star of the show. the leader of the band and quick to greet customers and make kids feel welcome in "his" pizzeria. Now, there were no guests to greet. No birthdays to announce or shows to put on.
Gabriel woke up, making Freddy’s body jerkily move to the right, before picking a prerecorded voice clip to play.
“Hey, there folks! Are we ready for a show?”
It was the only way to ignore the boredom of abandonment and the looming anxiety of what came next. Playing pretend that they were the characters they’d been stuck inside of. That they really were the Fazbear band and cohorts.
Jeremy didn’t seem too awake. Gabriel huffed silently. Freddy looked around. Left, then right. Nobody. Of course-
Wait. There was somebody. An Animatronic. A purple one, a bear! Gabriel spoke again.
”What’s your name, fella?” Freddy asked in a deep baritone. He had an almost southern drawl to his voice. Gabriel always thought it made him sound big and in charge.
The purple bear shook its head, lifelike in its motion. Not jerkily like usual. It held out its left hand.
”Follow me.”
Freddy looked left and right, then began to follow the strange bear. Gabriel didn’t know what it was, but there was something almost hypnotic about the bear’s voice.
It led Freddy to a room that the animatronics weren’t allowed to enter. Gabriel pushed against the programming, to no avail.
“Stupid thing…!” He whined, before turning around.
So much for that. He began to head back to the stage, only for the sound of running footsteps to get his attention. What happened next became a blur of actions.
There was a shock. Then the feeling of motionless falling down onto the floor, and then the purple man with his axe. Killer, murderer.
”Don’t worry, I’d be doing you a favour.”
The axe swung downwards, splitting through the animatronic costume piece by piece. The jaw dislodged, the arm severed, until all that remained was a collection of strewn pieces that used to be Freddy Fazbear.
From inside Freddy’s dislodged upper head, a silver glow peeked out from the left eye.
Bonnie The Bunny was designed to be Freddy’s co-star. While Freddy led the band, Bonnie was the guitarist who played the music to complement the singing voices.
Now, there was no audience to play for. No songs to sing. Inside the purple rabbit, Jeremy was rather frustrated by that. He’d been the one who found the slightest semblance of peace by simply trying to play the guitar.
He remembered Bonnie playing birthday riffs with his guitar. It was the coolest thing, and it we’ve now made Jeremy feel a little less horrible about his situation.
When Gabriel had gone wandering, Jeremy took that as his excuse to do the same. He partly enjoyed going to the parts and services room. Seeing the empty heads was… interesting in an eerie way.
Bonnie lifted up a head that was a bit… purpler? Was that a word? It was now. Jeremy wondered why the difference, before putting it down.
This wasn’t very interesting.
As he turned Bonnie’s body, there was the sudden sight of a purple bear with pinprick white eyes. It beckoned to be followed.
Almost hypnotically, Jeremy was compelled to obey.
Entering the next room north from the party room, Jeremy looked down to find… pieces of Freddy. A silver light blinked behind the head. If Bonnie could gasp, that would be precisely the thing which would exit his mouth.
“Is everythin’ alright, buddy?” Jeremy used Bonnie’s voice clips to try and rouse something from his friend’s disassembled self.
Suddenly, there was an overload of voltage. Bonnie clattered to the floor, Jeremy now in a motionless body. He was left to watch as the man in the purple suit raised a fire axe and swung it down.
Maybe he should’ve just minded his own business.
Chica The Chicken was the backup singer of Freddy’s band, and back when the animatronics were allowed to free roam, would occasionally be a server to birthday tables. She’d give them cupcakes and tell them to have a fabulous day.
Susie missed parties. She missed being able to just sleep and let the programming handle the daytime. Even playing pretend as Chica didn’t make her feel less unhappy with what she was now.
Jeremy and Gabriel hadn’t come back yet. Despite her worry, Susie moved to follow the shadowy bear. She used Chica’s voice.
”Is something the matter?” A high voice, almost country but not cartoonishly so. The kind of voice means to be warm and make a kid feel safe.
The shadow bear didn’t respond. But rather than immediately follow, Chica took a detour, heading to the kitchen. Back when the restaurant was still open, Susie used to move around the pots and pans as something to do and fill the silence.
Now that this place was going to be closed down, she probably wouldn’t be able to pretend anymore. One last time, she spilled the pots from the shelf, then slowly picked them up and placed them on the bench. She dropped a spoon into one, to complete the look.
Then, there was a voice.
”Follow me,” spoke a voice, deep yet almost hypnotic. She willed Chica to follow once more. Out of the kitchen, past the right party room and north where the shadow bear suddenly vanished into thin air.
Confusion filled Susie’s thoughts, until there was the sound of running footsteps. Chica’s body turned slowly, just in time for a fire axe to connect with the character’s head. The force brought Chica to her back, Susie trying to move as the axe began to swing down again and again.
Finally, of the four headliners of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, there was Foxy the Pirate Fox. He’d been out of order for a bit, but back in his heyday, he was a side attraction for the crew.
Kids would gather around Pirate’s Cove and wait for Foxy to come out and regale them with tales from across the seven seas.
There were no more little buccaneers to tell stories to. No more noises outside the curtain. If Foxy was out of order before, he was now out of business too.
Fritz had used the stories to soothe himself during lonely nights in solitude. Slowly, he willed Foxy to peer out of the curtain, turning left to find no other animatronics.
Peculiar. He left the pirate cove stage, looking around before making a running start. Fritz ran right, then north, then right again, almost stepping on someone’s eye-
Oh, oh no.
Pieces of Freddy, Bonnie and Chica littered the floor. Disassembled by force, clearly.
Suddenly, there was a harsh metal swinging against Foxy’s exposed endoskeleton legs, tripping him to the floor. In comparison to the other three stars of the animatronic crew, Foxy’s costume was a bit lighter, even with the out of order damage.
Which made the act of being torn apart by axe an almost merciful blur for Fritz’s consciousness.
In the back room of the Pizzeria, the staff kept old and decommissioned suits. One of them was a golden almost-replica of Freddy. Based around Fredbear from the original restaurant of Fredbear’s Family Diner, the “Yellow Bear” was intended to be a Halloween attraction, to tell spooky stories.
The lack of dedicated audience had relegated it to be forgotten. But like the other suits, a spirit was within.
Cassidy, bereft of the game of pretend play her fellows were gifted, could only stew in rage at how she had perished. How she could only move Fredbear with her own paranormal nature, rather than having an endoskeleton to move.
That wasn’t even mentioning the second presence in the suit, which made the act of movement a constant tug of war.
The door opened. Someone was here. Fredbear’s hollow eyes glowed a pinprick silver, spying a man with an unforgettable smile. It was him.
Her killer. The man in purple spoke to her like before. All proud and self assured in his presence of power. Cassidy had dreamed of a chance like this.
The mouth of the yellow bear hung open as it released a jumbled scream of death and memory. He would know what he had done. What he had caused.
The way the usually unflappable murderer flinched and groaned at the psychic maelstrom made Cassidy giggle. Good. Let him squirm. Let him-
A loud sensation of pain broke the ghost’s concentration. Nobody had ever tried to attack Cassidy’s suit, so this was a revelation that physical damage was in fact a problem.
The axe was painful, but Cassidy still tried to act, only stopped when she precisely realised what had occurred.
The suit’s head had been severed. The thing connecting Cassidy to the rest of the body, confined to tug of war, had been separated.
Silver light glowed from within. And if one listened closely enough, they might even hear a child giggling.
The fire axe clattered to the floor of the back room as William Afton threw back his head with a sigh of relief and satisfaction.
It was done. Five murders. Five animatronics, now disassembled. William had this nagging feeling when Freddy’s closed down. That he needed to make one last visit to truly let this all slip into the past.
The animatronics, the children within, they had failed to learn. Still falling for the old tricks and were now in pieces.
Whatever happened to them now was none of his concern.
In the back room was an old yellow rabbit suit. Spring-Bonnie. Afton’s design alongside Henry’s original Fredbear. Walking over, he rushed the rabbit’s head with his fingers.
“My favourite… it’s been a long time…” he whispered with almost fondness.
The yellow rabbit was like his second skin. It would be a shame when this place got torn down and everything in it was gone.
As the old saying goes: All good things come to an end.
Turning to leave, William froze in place at what he saw. Five children in ghostly complexion. They all wore masks of their characters. The fifth one, with the yellow bear, began to walk.
”IT’S ME,” A girl spoke in Afton’s mind.
No, no! Not now, they couldn’t be here! The fifth spirit chased him. And he paced away like a cornered animal. Whispers played around him.
”It’s you.”
”Face us.”
”He’s so scared.”
”Miss us?”
Backed against the wall, William noticed the spring-bonnie suit again. The suit he used to slay them, to lure them. Spirits were often frozen in their strongest memories.
They were likely still afraid of the yellow rabbit. The purple suited man raced past the fifth spirit, slipping the suit onto his body with hurried speed.
The mask was last and Afton watched the spirits freeze from behind it. Fear. He grinned from inside the suit.
He was still in control. He was still their monster.
”What’s wrong, kids? Come here, it’s me, your old pal, Spring-Bonnie!"
They didn’t move. William started to laugh. He couldn’t help it. He had won, he was so sure of it.
Then, he felt something wet drip against the shoulder joint. The spring lock suits were notoriously twitchy with the locking mechanisms holding the animatronic parts in place. And with how worn down the current suit was, it would be even looser.
No.
Afton heard the snap of metal fail to contain the pieces. Then, all he felt was pain piercing his skin deeper than before. He couldn’t scream, but he knew he was dying.
Slumped against the wall, William was forced to stare at the children he had killed. They watched him twitch and shudder.
Until finally, his vision went black.