Spoiler Warning: The following contains spoilers and plot points for the video game series Five Nights At Freddy’s. [Edit 7-29-15] With the release of FNAF 4, we know this to be inaccurate conjecture (or do we?), but I’ll leave it up just the same. Reese and Stone are growing on me.

November 13, 1987
As soon as Detective Stone pulled up, she knew the scene inside of Freddy’s had to be bad. Two ambulances stood by in the firelane, as EMT radios could be heard, calling for a level one trauma center to stand by. The front entrance was crossed with police tape, but the rookie who had been assigned to secure the perimeter was doubled over, hands on his knees as he openly retched into the shrubs. Above him, the marquee lights flickered, illuminating the cheerful illustrations of the characters who welcomed patrons to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Rain continued to softly fall, pattering on the back of the rookie’s jacket.

“I think my niece had her birthday here,” Stone’s partner, Sergeant Reese, turned his head to regard the detective as she parked their cruiser near the front of the building. “It’s really dingy in there on a good day. But isn’t this the place where that kid–”

“No, similar name, though.” They unbuckled in unison as Stone turned her attention away from the entrance. “That was, like, 20 years ago, and I think they called the place ‘Fred’s…Fredbear’s Family Diner.”

“Right. Still a bear, though.”

“Good point.”

Their approach was noted by the coughing rookie, who began to slowly stand, revealing a name tag reading “Simms”. Stone couldn’t help but note the tears in his eyes which he seemed determined to stem for his superiors.

“Bad in there, officer?” Stone cocked her head sympathetically, as Reese reached into the pocket of his overcoat, offering Simms some tissues.

“It’s…it’s terrible.” Simms attempted to stammer his report, but the effort only made his tears fall harder, his words gasped between growing sobs. “She…the birthday girl…she was just sitting there…There’s so much blood in there, Detectives…”

As Simms turned, once again folding his body over into the bushes, Reese rested a comforting hand on his back and nodded to Stone. Leaving him to collect the report, Stone turned, lifting the tape to open the door.

And entered Hell.

Children’s decor should never be spattered in blood like this.

Her years in the field hadn’t come close to preparing her for the gore that had sprayed across walls and pooled in odd patterns across the greasy checkerboard floor. The cheerful prize counter was askew, the glass shattered, with blood and greyish bile smeared across the smiling plastic face of the animatronic, and down the front of the sign he held, which read “Balloons!”

That’s brain matter.

The blood smeared the floor, but it had been disturbed. Stone finally remembered to breathe, and blinked several times, not realizing her eyes had been shocked wide by the sight. She looked up, and down a hall to the party rooms, where she could see EMT’s milling, entering and exiting rooms – contaminating the scene even further.

“Hey!” She called testily down the hallway. A tall EMT with a rakish fringe of sandy hair in his eyes turned to regard her. He might have been handsome, but his face was drawn from the sight, his eyes hollow from what he must have seen in those rooms. Nonetheless… “I need to preserve the scene! Did you move this body?”

“Wasn’t a body.” The rangy medic walked toward her as the other EMT’s moved down the hall.

“Someone was alive here? I know grey matter when I see it.” Stone shook her head in disbelief, looking back down at the mess near her feet. Who could leave this alive?

“The other bus just left with her. From what I hear from the security guard and the staff in the back, she got bit in the face – took off half her head. We stopped the bleeding, but half the girl’s brain is just gone.” The medic clenched his hands, as though trying to focus himself away from the memory.

Stone shook her head, closing her eyes, her feet rooted to the spot. “How…what could have bitten her? And how did she get over here?”

“It was the Mangle, Ma’am.”

Stone opened her eyes, looking toward the sound of the voice. From a corner labeled “Kid’s Cove,” a shivering young woman approached. Her yellow, blood spattered Freddy’s t-shirt identified her as an employee, her nametag reading “Christie.” Her messy brown ponytail was askew, presumably from a day of being tugged by excited children.

“I’m sorry,” Stone took a step toward the girl, mostly to remember how her legs worked. “What is the Mangle?”

“It’s another one of the puppets, ma’am.” She motioned behind her to the corner, where dangling wires hung listlessly from the ceiling. “It usually sits over there, for the kids to play with.”

“They would play *with* the animatronic?” Stone blinked a few times.

“Yes, ma’am, they would take it apart and re-kajigger it, you know, learning about electronics. Nobody ever got shocked or anything, but today at the party, the birthday girl was…I guess she was kinda hitting him with his own leg, and he stood up. I didn’t know he could…”

“That’s when he attacked, we surmise.” The medic pulled off his rubber gloves, shaking his head “He lunged at her with one of his heads…he had two heads…and the other one just bit right into her forehead. Didn’t even knock off her birthday hat.”

Stone gulped in air, visibly paling at the retelling. Christie nodded dumbly, the girl clearly going into some kind of shock.

“He threw her over there, into the prize counter. Then he went…went back in the rooms…so fast…” Christie pointed, blinking blankly. The medic motioned to another EMT, who came to collect Christie, already reaching for a pen light to check the girl’s blown pupils.

“When I got there,” the medic continued, “she was sitting up, with her back against the Balloon Boy puppet. She was missing an eye, but the other one was blinking, like she didn’t know what happened. The side of her face…the front of her head was just gone, but she looked up at me…and she said ‘Hello.’ And then she laughed.” The medic paled, shuddering himself “This…cheerful laugh. Delighted, really.”

“We’ve got another problem.”

Stone started at the sound of Reese’s voice, and looked over her shoulder, to where he already stood in the mouth of the hallway. She didn’t remember when he’d come in past her. “What’s that?”

“There were four other children at the party, and they’re all gone.”

Party hats littered the floor, strewn between abandoned mylar gift bags. A striped table cloth hung askew from an overturned banquet table, surrounded by scattered folding chairs. A banner fluttered, half escaped from its mooring, colorful letters spelling out “LET’S PARTY!!!” as it draped from the checkered floor to the flickering fluorescent lights.

Stone’s eyes narrowed as she took in the scene. “Those air vents…they don’t look screwed on properly.”

Reese nodded as he approached. “The security guard says those vents are only screwed on when there is a party in this room. Something about management cutting costs on the filtration system.”

Stone shook her head. “Cost cutting…wait, there’s a security guard?!?” Her head snapped up so quickly, Reese winced at her potential for whiplash.

“Yes, he’s still in the monitor room down the hall.” Stone nodded, leaving the room with Reese to head for the security office as he continued. “He says he saw the attack on the girl, but in the commotion to see where Mangle ran off to, the children just disappeared–”

“THE PUPPET!!! WHERE IS THE FUCKING PUPPET?!?”

Reese and Stone lifted their heads to the sounds of struggle from the security office, and rushed toward the shrieking. Their bodies crowded the narrow doorway of the dingy, tiny office, already filled by the two EMT’s who worked to restrain the frenzied young security guard. One of them reached for his radio, calling for backup and sedation, as the guard’s eyes went wild, staring unblinkingly at whatever was on the monitors. The medics grappled with his arms as he struggled to reach for an abandoned animatronic head next to his chair.

“I wound the box…” The guard was babbling, beginning to hyperventilate as his voice choked on sobs. “I wound the box…where is the puppet? THE PUPPET TOOK THE CHILDREN!!!” His hand finally broke free, grasping the mask of Freddy Fazbear from the floor and shoving it over his head, as though it was his only salvation from whatever horror this puppet might bring. Mercifully, a needle of something was shoved into his arm, rending the guard unconscious, the mask slumping eerily down on his shoulders.

Stone finally took another breath in, as Reese scrubbed his hand over his mouth, muttering “Jesus.”

“And what is that smell?” Stone shook her head, coughing. “We’ve got to get out of here.” Reese nodded in assent, offering Stone a tissue to cover her mouth.

As the detectives exited the office, Stone turned to another uniform who had come in to replace the puking rookie. “Have the EMT’s transport him to the trauma center, but keep him in custody. Right now, Mr…” Stone checked the guard’s name tag as the EMT’s lifted him onto a stretcher bound for the hall, “Mr. Fitzgerald is our only real suspect, until we get the feeds from these cameras…”

“One of the staff said she doesn’t know if the security feeds actually record.” Reese pointed out as they walked past the darkened repair room.

“Right, because that would cost money.” Stone shook her head in disgust, then blinked, looking into the darkness of the repair room. Had there been a movement out of the corner of her eye? It had been so fast…

The spare parts on the table looked…off, shifted, as though they were unbalanced somehow. She took a step toward the room, when another wave of the ever present stench nearly buckled her knees.

“I’m dizzy. We’ve got to get out of here.” Stone shook her head to clear the growing fog and the tracers in her periphery. “Get a tape over that doorway,” she motioned to the repair room, “and lets get the whole thing locked down.”

The Local Times – Friday, November 21st, 1987

ROBOTS SCRAPPED

“After being open only a few short weeks, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza is closing it’s doors.

“The new animatronics will be scrapped due to possible malfunctions, however the original characters are being kept in hopes of a possible reorganization of the company.

” ‘It’s a minor setback. We are confident that we will reopen someday, even if it is with a much smaller budget.’ – CEO Fazbear Ent. ”

My special thanks to Scott Cawthon, the creator of Five Nights At Freddy’s and its sequels; to the many contributors to the FNAF Wiki; and to Markiplier on Youtube, for playing these scary, SCARY games through so I didn’t have to. ^.^