The Third Night

Back at it again, I guess, thought William. My third night working here and I nearly died just two days in. Ugh, why did I accept that raise and promotion to keep on doing this? I could've just quit and found a much safer job… but then again, I do need the money. Things aren't exactly going too great at the moment. Damn it, guess there's no turning back now.

William was back inside of the employee elevator, preparing his way down to the facility. He brought up his Hand-Unit to see what needed to be done tonight, but he still didn't forgive it for nearly getting him killed twice yesterday.

"Welcome back to another pivotal night of your thriving new career, where you get to really ask yourself; what am I really doing with my life? What would my friends say? And, most importantly, will I ever see my family again?"

Hmm, seems like the Hand-Unit read my thoughts. I never thought this job could get so therapeutic. Most of his other friends have either moved away to start their own careers elsewhere, or somewhere closeby to St. Paul, Minnesota, precisely the reason why William tried to visit them at least a few times during the year. Come to think of it, I haven't heard too much news from his mother, either. Not to mention his younger brother Vincent was also out of town, so it wasn't like he had spent that long away from his family. I still miss all of them, though.

"We understand the stresses of a new job, and we're here for you! To help you reach a more stable and relaxing frame of mind, we offer several musical selections to help make this elevator ride as relaxing and therapeutic as possible."

I was actually wondering about that. It's pretty boring just waiting here for like two minutes, so I guess some calm and relaxing music is just what I need. The Hand Unit continued.

"We offer contemporary jazz, classical, rainforest ambiance, as well as a wide selection of other choices. Using the keypad below, please type the first few letters of the musical selection you would prefer."

I'm going with jazz, I guess. I just really enjoy it. He brought out the Hand-Unit's keypad to try to tipe in jazz, but just like the past two nights, the keypad still was glitching out, and he couldn't even type it in. Please, Mr. Cunningham, get this fixed properly soon enough. I hate having to deal with this every night.

"It seems you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type, and I will autocorrect it for you. Thank you for selecting: Casual Bongos. Please enjoy the rest of your descent."

"Casual Bongos?", he said to himself, laughing. The musical beat of bongo music started playing through the elevator speakers. He was rather enjoying the sound of this music, as it was catchy and relaxing to him. He certainly didn't expect this option to come up. The rest of the elevator ride down wasn't too bad, where he once again had to crawl through the vent at the entrance to get to the primary control module. As he was crawling through the vents, the Hand-Unit resumed it's instructions.

"Due to a couple of, uh, unforeseen malfunctions from today's shows, your nightly duties will require you to perform high maintenance tasks that you may or may not be skilled enough to perform.

Well, I mean, I was able to reboot power to the rest of the place yesterday. I mean, how much harder can it get?

"It became necessary for the technicians to attempt to disconnect Funtime Freddy's power module; however, they were unsuccessful. Allowing them to try again would be an inefficient path forward, as we would need to allow six to eight weeks for full recovery and physical therapy."

I do not like the sound of this at all. That Freddy robot is probably the most aggressive out of all of them. Well, I already made it this far, didn't I? Maybe taking on another one of these guys shouldn't be too difficult to manage, I hope.

"You will need to reach the Parts & Service room on the other side of Funtime Auditorium to perform the procedure yourself. Let's check on Ballora first and make sure she's on her stage."

He reached the end of the vent-shaft, and crawls out back into the primary control module. The lighting and the desks were still the same, nothing too much different. Alright, let's see how Ballora's doing today. He went over to the Ballora Gallery touchpad and pressed the light button, only to find that Ballora was standing completely stil on her stage. She looked like she was powered down and lifeless. Well, I guess it's time for your controlled shock now. Before he could press the power button on the touchpad, the Hand-Unit replied, "Looks like everything is as it should be in Ballora Gallery." So I don't need to shock Ballora then? Okay, I guess.

"Let's check on Funtime Foxy. It's important to make sure she's on her stage before entering."

He went to the right touchpad for the Funtime Auditorium and pressed the light button. When he did this, though, there wasn't any sign of Funtime Foxy to be found anywhere in the Funtime Auditorium. She wasn't on her stage, and he couldn't even see her shadow. Okay, now I think we have a problem here.

"Great. It looks like everything is as it should be in Funtime Auditorium."

I'm sorry, what? I can't even see where she is. This thing is definetly broken.

"There is no need to check on Baby tonight. Please refrain from entering unauthorized areas. Proceed directly to the Funtime Auditorium."

Maybe this thing isn't programmed for specific specialized situations, or maybe it's just busted. One of the two. Great, now I have to move past another deadly animatronic that will probably try to kill me just so I can get to where I need to be. Seriously, what idiot designed this place, anyway? And why shouldn't I go check on Baby? I had to do that the last two nights, but not today? Then he remembered something he mentioned to Dave, that he told Dave that Circus Baby was talking to him freely, and that maybe it was for this reason they didn't want him to see Circus Baby for the time being. Maybe they're getting her repaired or something. Either that or there is nothing wrong with Baby at the moment. Well, I guess it couldn't hurt to at least check on her before going through the Funtime Auditorium. Besides, she already saved me from getting murdered by Ballora last night, but she could've at least warned me about Freddy. Why not? Maybe she can give me some tips about dealing with Foxy.

He climed through the Circus Gallery vent-way to reach Baby's control module, but when he entered inside, he saw that the room was as pitch black as it was last night. The lights were still out, and the only source of light he could see was coming from underneath the desk. The touchpad was out of power, so he couldn't check the lights to see if Baby was there. Good thing I kept my flashlight from last night. At least I can see better in here. He turned it on, and tried to see if Baby was anywhere behind the glass panel.

There didn't seem to be anything inside the gallery. He didn't know how to get Baby's attention, so he decided to knock on the glass. He knocked twice, and waited for a few seconds. Nothing. He knocked again, then three times, just to make sure. He waited again. There didn't seem to be anything. Then he heard a bump. Then came two more, followed by her glowing green eyes appearing in the dark, until he could see Circus Baby up close near the glass. She was surprisingly much taller in person than William first remembered her, as he mainly saw her from a distance last night. She was taller than William, and seemed to be around seven feet high, maybe more. Then she started talking to him.

"Thanks for the light. It gets so dark in here. Wait, William? Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me. You know, the guy you helped out last night?"

"Oh. Well, it's good to see you alive."

"No thanks to you. But why didn't you warn me about Freddy? Last night he tried to kill when I was in the breaker room."

"I didn't know they placed him in there. By 'they' I mean the other employees. I am so sorry to hear about that. You're lucky you got out of there in one piece. Freddy is know for dismembering some of the employees."

"Dismembering? You know what, it's better that I don't ask."

"Probably for the best. Though I'm surprised you decided to come back for another night here. Most people would've probably quit or run away after such an experience such as last night's. Why did you choose to stay?"

"Well, my boss gave me a quarter-raise in my salary and promised to give me a promotion if I stick with this."

"Is that really worth risking your life for, William? I mean, I'm not in charge of your life, but working here is much more trouble than it's worth."

"I know, but times have been a little hard recently, not to mention I do need the money to pay off my bills."

"You know, I just remembered something. I thought that the technicians said I didn't need to be checked on tonight. Why did you come back to see me?"

"You knew about that?"

"I overheard them talking to each other."

"I mean, you did save my ass last night, so I figured I should have at least checked on you just to be sure nothing was wrong. Also, I was wondering if maybe you had any more tips you could give me."

"You're a lot more caring than most of the other people here. They mainly just shock me and check to see if I'm working properly or not. Other times they might just shock me over and over again until I respond. Getting shocked hurts more than you might think. I tried to tell them, but they didn't listen to me. They don't even treat me well. But not you, William. You're different. You actually listened to me. You seem to care."

Baby's words were kind of heart-warming for William. Although now he did feel bad that he did give her a shock last night, it was still nice to hear some nice words coming from her. It was confusing, though, how a programmed robot seemed to be able to have feelings, and a slight personality at that. She really is a lot different than the others. The others just want to kill me, well, Bon-Bon is a slight exception, but I feel like she wants to help me. Really unique.

"Thank you, Baby. I appreciate it. But tonight I need to go into the Funtime Auditorium. Are there any tips you could give me to get past Funtime Foxy?"

"Funtime Foxy, eh? I do know that during after hours they keep her in complete darkness to avoid activating her. Her eyes can only see with the light, but she has incredibly good memory, so if you shine a light at her for a few seconds and immediately turn it off, she'll remember exactly where you are, unless you move fast enough."

"How am I supposed to go through if I can't even see where I'm going?"

"Don't worry. Your Hand-Unit will probably tell you about your flash beacon. I'm not sure if it comes with the security outfit or if there's one lying around the primary module."

"Hold on, let me check."

William checked his pockets and suit to see if there was anything that could've been this flash beacon. Near his backpocket he found a little cup-sized gadget. It was like one of those mini police-lights you would see at the top of a police car, but it was much smaller, and there seemed to be a small blue button on the bottom. I was wondering what this thing was for. I know Mr. Cunningham told me to bring it along last week but he never mentioned what it was used for.

"Is this it, Baby?"

"Yes, I think it is. There should be a little button on it somewhere. Try pressing it."

William pressed the blue button on the bottom, and instantly a light shine of blue light filled the room for only a brief second before turning off.

"Well, I guess we know that it works, but how am I supposed to get past Foxy?"

"Her eyes are sensitive to bright lights, especially if they are very close to her. If you can hear her coming near you, try to turn it on when you feel that she's closest to you. She'll probably lose focus, giving you some more time to move on. Just make sure you time everything right and you'll be fine, because that flash beacon has a cool-down every time you use it. Understood?"

"I guess that makes sense, yes. Thanks, Baby. Is there anything else you would like to tell me?"

"Well… I do remember something that happened a while ago, but if you want to go back to your job, you don't have to listen."

"Don't worry. I got some time left. You can tell me if you really want to."

"Did you know that I was onstage once? Not cramped in this tiny room with my little stage, no. I got to perform on the Funtime Auditorium. It wasn't for very long - only one day. What a wonderful day it was, though. I was in a large room with balloons and a few tables. No one sat at the tables, though, but many children would run in and out. Some were afraid of me. Others enjoyed my songs. Music was always coming from somewhere else, down the hall. I remember counting the children inside. First two, then three, then two, then three, then four, then two. Then none. They usually played together in groups of two or three at a time, or just ran around. I was covered in glitter. I smelled like birthday cake. I could hear their happy laughs as I sang and danced for them. There were two, then three, then five, then four. Then I was able to give some of the children ice cream. It's a special thing I can do - did you know that? I can scoop ice cream. Although I only did it thrice. There were four, then three, then two, and then one. Something happened, I can't remember what it was, though, and there was one kid, alone with me. She was a little girl, with silky blondish-red hair and a cute little red bow in her hair, standing in front of me, holding a little Circus Baby plushie. She was full of so much joy and energy just by seeing me. In a way, she reminded me of, well, me, I guess. She told me she was waiting forever to meet me. I felt rather amused. But, at that moment, something happened. I was no longer myself. I don't know why and I can't explain how, but all of a sudden I stopped singing. My stomach opened, and there was ice cream. I placed it in a bowl in my hand, and the little girl stepped closer to me. Then I blacked out for a moment, and when I woke up, the little girl was gone. Nowhere to be seen. All I could find was her little plushie lying on the stage. Then the other children rushed in again, but I wanted to see where the little girl went. It's odd, though, that I remember all of this. There has been one question that always struck my mind since that day: Why did that happen?"

William didn't know what to say. He was thinking about what Baby told him, mainly about the little girl she mentioned. She was nowhere to be found, seemingly gone, without a trace. She also said that she blacked out all of a sudden and stopped being herself. I don't understand what is going on. She also said that it was her last time on the Funtime stage. Why? I'm definitely going to have to write this down. He knew that he already spent a great deal of time talking with Baby, and he wouldn't get done with his job if he kept talking to her.

"Well, thank you for the interesting story, Baby. I'm sorry, but I need to get started with my job now. Thank you for the tips, too. Goodbye."

"I hope to see you again soon, William."

William crawled back through the Circus Gallery vent way to the primary control module, still thinking about what Baby told him. What does it all mean? Something is going on, I just don't know what. I can think about this all I want once I get done with today's shift. Right now I need to make sure to follow Baby's instructions.