I woke up when the sky was still dark. Still? There was no way it was morning. I checked the time; 09:42 p.m.
Ah, shit. My shift begins at 10. I quickly brushed my hair, put on my uniform and went straight to the car. I got to Circus Baby’s just in time.

…

This night, HandUnit told me to choose a new voice for it. “For male, press 1. For female, press 2. For text only, press 3. For other options, press 4.” Everything sounded perfectly fine, except that there were no numbers on the keypad. My awful attempt to type anything was autocorrected to “Angsty teen”. Wonderful.

I crawled through the vent. Like yesterday, I checked on Ballora and Foxy, everything was fine. Then HandUnit’s voice started glitching, so it reset itself to its usual. However, it was time to check on Baby now.
I got into the module. Like yesterday, I turned on the light, and… nothing. This time, the controlled shock didn’t even work. HandUnit told me that it will have to restart the system and I started panicking. What was going to happen? I had an awful feeling.
As I watched the lights go out, I heard a voice.

…

“I don’t recognize you. You are new. I remember this scenario, however. It’s a strange thing to want to do, to come here. I’m curious what events will lead a person to want to spend their nights in a place like this. Willingly. Maybe curiosity, maybe ignorance. There is a space under the desk, someone before you crafted it into a hiding place and it worked for him. I recommend that you hurry, though. You will be safe there. Just try not to make eye contact. It will be over soon. They will lose interest.”

I knew that voice. William was right.
Like she said, there was a space under the keypad, barely big enough for me to fit inside. As soon as I closed the hatch, I heard something coming. A second later, I saw an eye peeking through the hole in the hatch. I looked away, but I was too late. The hatch started opening. Why was this happening? I got a firm grip of it – damn, these things were strong. In the awkward position I was in, I didn’t think I could hold onto it any longer. “She’s watching us,” one of the voices said and the hatch closed again.

…

“When your guide comes back online, he is going to tell you that he was unsuccessful, that you must restart the system manually. He will tell you to crawl through Ballora Gallery as fast as you can to reach the Breaker Room. If you follow his instructions, you will die. Ballora will not return to her stage anymore. She will catch you. The power will be restored shortly. When you crawl through Ballora Gallery, go slowly. She cannot see you and can only listen for your movement. When you hear her music become louder, she is growing near, listening for you. Wait and be still.”

I didn’t even get a chance to think. HandUnit started speaking right away and it told me exactly what Circus Baby said. How? How did she know that? Did this happen to everyone that worked here before me?
Did someone die here already?

…

I was back in the Primary Control Module. Did I really have to do that? I didn’t have a choice.
I got in the left vent and crawled into Ballora Gallery. It was dark and I could only hope that I wouldn’t bump into anything. I didn’t hear the music yet, so I quietly continued to crawl and sure enough, Ballora heard me. I stopped, holding my breath and waited until she danced away. I continued a little quieter, but HandUnit decided to be a jerk and literally yelled at me to hurry up. I can’t describe how terrified I felt when I heard Ballora come from across the room in less than two seconds. This time, she wasn’t dancing. She couldn’t have gone so fast. In the dim light coming from the Breaker Room entrance, I caught a glimpse of her. It was terrifying – her hips were twisted the wrong way, making her able to crawl like some kind of a spider. I had no time to think. I had no chance of surviving if I just stood there. I threw a pen that I had in my pocket across the room. She heard it and stopped for a moment before she continued to crawl towards the pen. I crawled towards the breaker room as fast as I could.

…

Alright, I got inside. Now the only thing I had to do was press a button and restart the system, right? Oh, no. It wouldn’t be William’s restaurant if you didn’t experience at least two near-death situations. Per shift.
In the middle of the room, there was a monitor with a map of the facility and a restart button for every part of it. The room was dark, but every now and then there was a spark that lit up the room. They revealed the wires that hung from the ceiling, a few pipes and…
Oh, shit.
Behind all the wires, there was an animatronic. It was at least six feet tall. From what I could see, it was white and purple bear with a black top hat and a hand puppet.
Funtime Freddy. He was my favorite when I was a kid. He used to have his shows with Funtime Foxy. Did they still do that?
My daydreaming was once again interrupted by HandUnit’s instructions. If it was right, resetting the system made noise that triggered Freddy which, I figured out pretty quickly, meant death. To prevent that, I had control of BonBon, Freddy’s blue bunny hand puppet. I could make him say things to calm Freddy down. Easy enough, right?
As soon as I started restarting, I heard the monitor’s loud beeping, followed by Freddy’s loud, glitching voice. I activated BonBon’s autoresponse and the room went quiet again. This went on for what felt like hours. I finally reset the last part of the facility and looked up. What I saw, was probably the most terrifying thing that I’ve seen since 1993 – Freddy was inches from my face, his faceplates opening and closing one by one. I jumped back and got out. I wasn’t going to deal with that.

…

I had to crawl back through Ballora Gallery. This time, I heard Ballora’s voice for the first time. I didn’t remember her having a voice in 1980.
“Is someone there? …I can hear someone creeping through my room.”
I stopped, but her music was quiet.
“Perhaps… not.”

…

I made it to the Module and closed the vent. I crawled to the elevator and while I was going back to the surface, I thought about what the hell just happened. If things went down that much in just a day, what was going to happen tomorrow?
Will I even get to the end of the week?