Chapter Text
Forum: Unknown
Thread: "Freddy Fazbear's Pizza needs to be exposed"
Date posted: August 15th, 2004, 12:52 AM PST
The following is a recounting of my experiences over the past few weeks at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, and animosity created outside the place by Fazbear Entertainment. I'm writing this so people can figure what happened if one day I wind up dead or missing. If this thread and maybe even the whole fucking forum gets nuked, well, hopefully others will remember this and can spread the word. I won't be able to write the whole thing in one sitting, but I will be as quick as I can to keep you posted. Anyway, let me get into why a dying restaurant which recently shut down for good, likely because of my involvement, is much darker than people think and needs to be exposed.
My name is Mike, I'm 21 years old and live in Sacramento. There's a restaurant here called Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, it's kinda like Chuck E. Cheese's, it has animatronic mascots and serves pizza and other shit, I don't remember nor care what else. Anyway, the difference is Freddy's is just one restaurant and isn't super well known outside of here. It opened in the 80s and it's been in some scalding water ever since it opened, it seems. There was two horrible incidents at the restaurant, both in the same year, 1987, and it caused urban legends of the place to sprout. I'll explain just a tad for anybody who's unfamiliar with it and doesn't wanna research on their own:
On June 26th of that year, five children went missing in the building and were never found. They were lured out of a party room by a person wearing a mascot costume. THAT whole situation is really bizarre; first off, those kids went into the building and never came out. They just fucking vanished; investigators turned the place inside-out and didn't find even the tiniest lead on what could've happened to them. Second, they caught a suspect the morning after and eventually sent him to prison, but like the children, he vanished. On what was the first or second day of his sentence, guards found an empty cell. Cops searched the prison from top-to-bottom and he wasn't there. They launched a local search party outside the prison and not a single lead.
It was, much later on, found out the man was not the actual suspect, and also had never once been near Freddy's. Too late for that though, right? The cops developed tunnel vision on him because he was an ex-con with a history. And once this was found out, nobody gave a shit about that. They (the public and the authorities) didn't care about the wrong guy being framed and they didn't care about the real suspect still being out in the world.
Anyway, after the "Missing Children's Incident" happened, the pizzeria shut down for a couple months; they also got an inspection from the health department after reports of "blood and mucus" leaking from the animatronics, but nothing was found. Strange, to say the least. They reopened in October 1987, and with a few changes; for starters, they abandoned the basement party room, which is the room the children were lured out of. They upped their security a bit. Their safety changes didn't seem to make it safer though, because right on the relaunch day, there was another incident; only this time, it was in front of damn near everybody in the building.
Foxy, the pirate fox animatronic on his own little stage called Pirate's Cove, "malfunctioned" and attacked a random employee. The employee survived, but lost her frontal lobe. Freddy's went through another couple month hiatus, meanwhile her family sued the place. It didn't go to court though, because it was settled outside of court. She passed away in April of 1988, the day before they reopened. When they reopened, they shut down his stage and began not showing him in official Freddy's media. Frankie "Fred" Magpie, the original founder of Fazbear Entertainment, stepped down and the co-founder took his spot. Nowadays nobody knows what Frankie's up to; other than he seems to have become a hermit. It's a real shame, Frankie wanted to bring joy to people and it became corrupted. I can't say the same about the people who came after his resignation, but... not right now.
Afterward, they just entered a downward spiral. Throughout high school I'd hear from classmates about some of those legends, such as animatronics moving around after closing. But I never paid much mind to them until earlier this year when I fell down the rabbit hole after some curiosity. I'm a sucker for conspiracy theories, stuff like the Annunaki, the new world order, Area 51 and the Dulce base; just can't seem to get enough even though most of, if not all of it is bullshit, but anyway, I was interested in learning more about the Freddy Fazbear's shit so I could finally have some context to all the gossip. One of my friends, let's call him "Jesse" was really helpful in telling me where to look in terms of sources. He knows the legends inside-out and was more than happy to help. So thanks Jesse.
Going in, I thought it was gonna just be comical urban legend bullshit, and some stuff was, but to my surprise I found out they really do deserve their reputation. It's insane that this place was only investigated by the health department, and not, say, the FBI. Aside from the stories of wandering animatronics, one thing nobody seems to talk about is the amount of employees that have gone missing. Specifically security guards. They're last seen walking into the building and they just... vanish. Of course. A few got some coverage, but their disappearances were attributed to something unrelated to the pizzeria. It appears the rest didn't have any close family or friends, so they were just forgotten about and the general public moved on; a common cycle with all of Fazbear Entertainment's bullshit.
My rabbit hole dive was back in February. Fast forward to June, and the CEO of Fazbear Entertainment announces the pizzeria will be permanently closing at the end of this year. The only surprising thing here is it not only remained open for so long, but continued to have a decent flow of customers; not nearly the amount they had back in the 80s, but still enough to barely keep them going. I went "oh well" after seeing it in the news and practically forgot about it by the end of the day.
Fast forward to exactly July 23rd, I was looking through the local paper and came across a big "HELP WANTED" advertisement; in big bold text right above a picture of Freddy Fazbear himself. I began reading: "Family pizzeria looking for a security guard to work the night shift. 12 AM to 6 AM. Monitor cameras, ensure safety of equipment and animatronic characters. Not responsible for injury/dismemberment. $120 a week." At the bottom of the ad was a phone number.
All these years, at least from my recollection, they never once put an ad like that out in the paper. They must really be desperate for workers, or just willing to do anything to get good press before they go six feet under. "Maybe they'll do one of those EVERYTHING MUST GO' sales too." I thought while looking at the paper. But while lost in my own world, a thought popped up like a lightbulb in a cartoon.
What if I applied for the job?
Sure, it could be stupid or maybe even downright suicidal, but... I would have full access to the building, nobody else would be there since it'd be night, I could walk around and see the kind of fucked up things they might be hiding behind closed doors. No, I didn't expect to find dead bodies or recovered UFOs, but maybe something really juicy, like old documents. And even if there wasn't anything worth seeing, maybe it'd be an interesting experience; I always like a good adventure. Yeah, I don't have anything productive to do, call me a lowlife or whatever, fucking sue me. The $120 pay is atrocious, but I'm not working right now and could always use a bit of cash to get groceries or just fuck around with.
I grabbed my phone and pushed the buttons for the number from the ad. Almost right away, they answered the call. "Thank you for calling Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, where fantasy and fun come to life! This is Jill, how may I help you?" Said the friendly voice of the woman on the other end.
"Hi, I'm interested in the help wanted ad about the night security position. Is it still open?" I asked. For a few seconds there was silence, until she confirmed "Yes it is! Do you want to schedule an interview?"
I said "yeah" and we managed to schedule the sit-down meeting with the manager for the next day's afternoon. All she needed was my full name, date of birth, and home address. I knew it was bizarre as fuck from the beginning, but it should've been a lot more concerning in the moment. Yet it wasn't. I wanted to go in as a skeptic, due to the aforementioned rabbit hole diving.
The following day, I got ready and left the house an hour before the interview, even though it's about thirty minutes away. I tried to dress "professional" AKA putting on a black button-up tee while wearing the jeans and shoes I wear all the time. After getting through horrible drivers and trying to find the joint, I pulled up about fifteen minutes before the interview and decided to just walk in early.
It's funny, in the eight years of living in this city, I had never once been to Freddy's or even driven past it. This part of town though, it creeped me out and still does. It looked average and innocuous, yet deeply unsettling. Allow me to describe the area from the best of my memory: Freddy's is sat on a four-lane street. Across from it, is a dull-looking office supplies store, and next to the supplies store is some tiny restaurants and a salon. All of which had little to no cars in their parking lots. Next to Freddy's, is a separate parking lot with a Subway, a Blockbuster, and an autoparts store.
I pulled open the door, walked into the drab lobby and approached the woman sitting at the desk. One glance at her nametag, Jill, which by the way is not her actual name and I will be using fake names for certain people.
"How can I help you?" she asked. Obviously, same woman on the phone from yesterday. She looked to be around my age, and also looked as if she was either high or just really annoyed and would rather be doing something else. Probably both. "I'm here for the interview at two." I said. She asked my first and last name, date of birth, which I gave to her. She did something on the computer, then said everything was all good and to sit and wait.
Within what had to have been only two minutes, a man walked into the room and said my name. I looked up at him and was a little taken aback, as he looked, how do I say this, way too fucking fancy for this dying family pizzeria. He wore a generic black suit, an American flag tie, and shiny business shoes. Pale skin and with dark brown eyes, just like me. Sporting black slicked back hair with truckloads of gel. Gangly too, towering over my 5'10. He looked to be in his early or mid thirties.
"Hi, my name is Nick Henderson. But just call me Nick." He said as we shook hands. "It's nice to meet you, Mike. I'm the manager here at Freddy's." He led me out of the lobby and into the dining room, which had a surprisingly large amount of guests; families sitting at tables with their kids and eating pizza while watching the animatronics performing. I could vaguely see into another room, in which people were playing arcade games. Looking around, it certainly was bigger than it looked in photos. The most glaring problem, though, is the dining room looked dreary and heavily outdated; it clearly hadn't been changed up since at least the early 90s. We walked past a "STAFF ONLY" door, and entered a separate door into Nick's office. His office seemed to be even more dated than the dining room; beige fucking everywhere.
We sat down at his desk and he asked a few basic questions about things like skills, goals, and I gave generic responses back. I lied and said something ridiculous along the lines of "This place meant a lot to me back in the day" and I wondered if he knew. After our small talk, we shook hands again and Nick, in a flamboyant tone, said "Well Mike, welcome to Freddy's family, because you got the job!"
"Really?" I asked. No fucking way the hiring was this quick. "Yep!" He answered, in the same tone. "Thanks! So when do I start?" I asked. "Tomorrow night. Just show up before 12. And if you want, you can come by a little earlier and hang around a little. You can get a tour and meet our daytime security team." he said. I was about to say something, but he chimed in with the confident tone returning. "By the way! All security gets free food while on the clock. You can grab a slice or few if you want." We both stood up. "Sounds nice! I'll be here a little early then." I said. It was probably the only entirely honest thing I said to him; I genuinely was interested in meeting the others and maybe getting a few slices.
We continued our bullshit small talk until we got to the lobby. He formally introduced me to Jill and told her I'd be here early tomorrow night. Back in my car, I pulled out my phone to check the time; it was exactly two. I hadn't even been in there for long and yet it felt like such a drag. On the drive back home, I thought about the whole thing and it began to feel even more fishy. Me; a person who was practically a stranger, made a call, walked in the doors and got hired for a fucking security position on the spot. Nobody, not even Nick, asked to look at my ID.
Oh, yeah, Nick. Right from the start I didn't like his goofy ass at all. First was his attire; sure, he was a manager, but there was really no need to dress like that for a shitty restaurant on life support. What bothered me most though, was his attitude. He was way too nice, and comically so. I may be only 21, but I've met enough people like that. He kinda reminded me of Christian Bale's character in that "American Psycho" movie.
A little under thirty minutes, I pulled back up to my aunt's house. Yes, I'm 21 and living with my aunt, haha very funny. It's a long story, I moved in after graduating high school because of some shit with my parents, but that's not important. Anyway, I told her I'd gotten a job. She asked where, I lied a little and told her it was a night time janitor position at some place; also told her the 12 AM to 6 AM schedule. I'm normally out of the house a lot anyway, but just wanted her to know why I'd soon be leaving very late and returning in the morning. She congratulated me and didn't pry any further.
The only bad part about doing this is I would have to upend my sleep schedule. I stayed up late that night and fell asleep at around nine or ten in the morning. I woke up in the late afternoon, had a snack and went to get ready for my first day of work. I decided to go with the same exact outfit as yesterday, but now with my favorite jacket; it's a black leather jacket my dad gave me about two years ago when I visited him in Vegas. Also chose to bring a backpack with some goodies in case I got bored in the night.
About a quarter to ten, I pulled up to Freddy's, walked in, said hi to Jill, and went into the dining room. There was a surprising amount of people, considering how late into the evening it was. But it is summer, after all. Amidst the crowd, I spotted Nick, walking around and looking the exact same as he did the prior day. He then spotted me, and began approaching. "Hey Mike! Decided to come in early?" he greeted. "Yeah, just wanted to get a few slices and get a head start, y'know." I replied. "Well it's a good thing you came early, otherwise I wouldn't of been able to give you this." He said, as he pulled out a ring holding a bunch of keys and handed them to me. "You're gonna need these." He said, and began explaining which keys go to where, like locking and unlocking the gate for the front door, etc.
I thanked him, and stuffed it in one of my jacket pockets. Of course they'd give me these, but it just made my goals a lot easier. This ring had nearly thirty keys on it and they could really go anywhere, since he only explained about ten of them. I headed toward the direction of the break room, which is right next to the kitchen, and walked in. The first thing which jumped out, was the cramped size of the break room; all white walls, one window with bars on the other side of it, a small counter with a fridge sitting next to it, and a big table up against the wall with one guy drinking his coffee. He introduced himself. Let's call him "Hank"
Hank is 36 years old and worked as one of the daytime security guards. He reminded me of a funny relative you occasionally see once every few months. He had this confident attitude, almost like a comedian, and it didn't seem phony either, unlike Nick. I sat across from Hank, and when he asked me which role I got hired as, he went completely stonefaced when I told him "night time security". He pulled out a pen and note, wrote something and handed it over. A phone number. "This is my number. If something comes up here, feel free to call." He said, in a serious and more quiet tone. While stuffing the note in my bag, I asked him what he meant, and he paused for a moment before saying "This job ain't what it's all cracked up to be. A lot of fucky things happen here at night and-"
The break room door unexpectedly swung open and caught both of us off guard. A random employee walked in and Hank greeted him with a casual "hey" as the employee went to the counter for something. Hank brought up the free pizza and asked if I wanted any, I nodded and so we went to the kitchen. I expected it to be just as cramped and drab as the other rooms I'd seen, but it wasn't. It was decently sized and looked really well maintained. Hank greeted one of the chefs, let's call him "Mark" and introduced me to him. Mark asked what we wanted, and we replied with the same request, a regular cheese and pepperoni. Mark pulled out some dough, and within fifteen minutes a large pie came out of the oven.
Hank and I returned to the break room, sitting down with some slices on these paper plates with the character's faces on them. I took a bite and it was alright; there's better and worse pizza than this. It tasted like decent food you'd get from a gas station. While eating, he didn't bring up anything related to the restaurant and neither did I. We just had a conversation about some movie or TV show we both like. After eating, Hank stood up and in his normal tone said "be careful" before leaving to go home.
I left the room to go check out the pizzeria, or at least the dining room, since I'd soon have all night to snoop around. I stood by the soda machine while holding a cup of root beer, watching Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica performing on stage. It was my first time seeing them perform in person, and it was more impressive than I thought it'd be. Can't say the same about the other technical stuff for the stage, all they had was one yellow light and a big red curtain which would close during intermissions. Maybe there was more on the technical side back in their heyday.
I walked over to the Pirate's Cove room, which was available to walk in but had nobody present, and right in front of the little stage there was a wooden sign which said "SORRY! OUT OF ORDER!" and behind it, a giant purple curtain concealing the stage. I turned around to leave the area and was immediately taken aback when I came face to face with somebody who snuck up on me. He looked to be either a rough 21, or in his thirties. Same height as me, had long black hair going past his shoulders, he wore black, baggy sweatpants and what looked like winter boots with fur on the inside, which is odd since this was a few weeks ago, back in late July with 90 degree temperatures outside. On his long sleeve, white button-up shirt with visible armpit stains, he had a nametag; Fritz. Yes, his actual name.
"Hey, how are ya?" Fritz asked, in an almost whispery tone. "I'm good. The names Mike, by the way." I answered. We shook hands, and he kept a strong grip for a brief moment until I had to yank it away. "Mmmm, cool. Ya know about Foxy over there?" He asked, still whispery. "Yeah, I know a little. What do you know?" I said, now with a bit of attitude to give this fool the hint that this conversation was now over, but he either didn't understand or was being an ass, I think both. He giggled, leaned in a little closer than I'm comfortable with, and said "Glad you asked! I know all about the dude! Sometimes I like to go behind his curtain and hang out with him... He's a real goof I tell ya... You oughta-"
I cut him off, saying I had to use the bathroom. It wasn't an excuse, only to wash my hands after shaking his. Who knows where his greaseball hands have been. While walking towards the bathroom, I just... felt his eyes glued onto my back. By some miracle, he didn't come in too. After coating my hands in soap and running them under scalding hot water a few extra times just to be sure, I returned to the dining room, looked around and Fritz was nowhere to be seen. "Good." I thought. It simultaneously was and wasn't too surprising to encounter at least one serious creep working there, seeing as they're so willing to hire complete strangers.
After this, the next hour was a complete blur, I don't remember doing anything other than standing next to the soda machine and watching the animatronics. Customers slowly left, one by one, until eventually, the place was empty and almost quiet, with the exception of 80s songs playing on the radio, until it shut off and drowned the building in silence. The stage curtain didn't even close, so the animatronics just stood there motionless for everybody to see. I guess it didn't matter since it was just me and the janitors present. They also turned off the stage light.
The janitors spent a few minutes cleaning up, and as they did, I began having this weird, anxious sinking feeling. A feeling I hadn't re-experienced in almost twenty years; having once been a little kid with an overactive imagination and being scared of getting left behind at school by the buses. "I'm goddamn 21 years old; I have my own car and can legally get a drink." I kept mentally repeating. After my experiences from yesterday and now this evening, I tried to make sense of it to calm down; but the events just kept adding up too much for me to ignore.
My sinking feeling only got worse when, as the janitors were leaving, the last one came up and told me something I haven't forgotten and never will. "Respect yourself bro, run while you still can." He quietly and quickly said, before turning and exiting via the lobby. From all the way in the dining room, I heard him pulling down and locking the gate, then the front doors, even though it was supposed to be done by me.
I stood frozen, now accompanied only by the silence and the three giant animatronic characters on stage.
"No turning back now, I guess." I blurted out to myself. Shit was about to get serious and the only way I'd be able to understand is to see it.
Alright guys, I've had enough writing for the night, but I will continue posting to this thread as quick as I can, because I have to. As stated in the beginning, these events already occurred within the past three weeks and only ended just a few days ago.
Until next time.
- Mike