Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Ballad – Chapter II

I hate the noise. It’s merely just a relentless assault on my senses in this chaotic realm, but one that is certainly effective enough. It distracts me from my thoughts, it distracts me from what i’m supposed to be doing right now. The luminosity of the pizzeria doesn’t assist my case, either. It’s all a tad bit bright, a tad bit colorful, it’s too much for my brain to process. My mind wrestles with the incessant clamor that permeates every corner of this whimsical yet tumultuous place.

I was distracted when I exited the bathroom. I was confident that Ted would not suspect a thing about my hunt, unless he saw the blood on my hands, but the lights… they prevented me from focusing. The yells and screams of children, having the time of their lives, simply makes me desire to silence the noise, to quell the exuberance that grates against my nerves.

Suddenly, a voice behind me pierces the words… “Heya”. I turn around, still dazzled by the lights, as I see a child… the child is small, around the same stature as the girl. He’s fat, clearly overeating… an ugly human. Making him uglier, his black irises and brown hair, which looks to have been smashed all the way to the back. I simply say… “Good Afternoon.” Suddenly, the child pulls out a balloon, saying, “I like balloons!” The child’s typical innocent gesture.

Is this kid retarded or something? What’s on his damn mind while saying this? Making him look even more retarded, he pulls out a Balloon Boy mask and puts it on. Fitting, because he looks just exactly like him. By merely hearing him speak, I feel like he’s wasted some of my precious, unrecovered time. Out of pure spite, I simply feel the need to kill him. From my pocket, I pull out the “Exclusive Birthday Party” card.

“Tomorrow, you’re invited to an exclusive birthday party! Meet me tomorrow as soon as possible outside the room near Pirate’s Cove!” I hand the boy the card… and his eyes widen, and so does his mouth. “Whoa..” He says, in awe. He begins jumping in pure excitement, with his fat stomach, wiggling along the way… i’m excited to rid this sick human off of the world. I’m excited to begin this new hunt. “Have a good day, kid!”

I had felt as if my time had been wasted by some idiotic utters of a child. And, yet, my mind continues thinking back about Ted… what if he did see me? What if he finds my prey? I had to search for some way for people to see me, to discard me as a possible suspect. I had to get the suspicion off of me, especially once things really picked up. And, then, it hit me…

Just today, the company was having a board meeting. I couldn’t exactly remember what it was, but, as Head of Accounting, I had the obligation to be there, and listen to what would be on the table at those very few moments. It was the perfect excuse, and also the perfect way to detract suspicion off of me. Why, I was in the meeting while the kidnapping had occured… I had never left, and they had remembered me clearly.

I headed straight towards the East Hallway, all the way towards The Boarding Room. The room itself nestled at the far end of the corridor, beckoned with its promise of strategic discussions and pivotal decisions. As I entered the room, several board members, sponsors, higher ups and Kevin himself, were on the table, sitting down, whispering as they waited patiently for the meeting to come to a proper beginning.

I sat down, and waited for a few more minutes, before we finally began to discuss. “Gentlemen.” Kevin states, in this deeply intimidating voice, being that of the company’s future. “It’s time we discuss the possibility of a new section added to the pizzeria soon.” I immediately know what he’s talking about. I remember having overheard him talking about the idea with some other guy… financially? This wouldn’t be a great decision… but I want to hear what he has to say nonetheless.

“Earlier this week, we had the idea for a possible new area for the pizzeria… because, let’s be honest, kids are always craving for something new. If we don’t give them anything new, they won’t have any reason to come back to the location, and we’re going to begin slowly losing more customers, and more finances, in that case… which is why I propose a new idea.”

“What’s the most outdated area in the entire pizzeria? The Pirate’s Cove. It looks extremely outdated… back when the pizzeria was still aiming for that cabin feel. However, we’re trying to be more appealing to the families. And, thus, you’ve noticed how the architecture has changed to be much more soft, colorful, with goofy artwork everywhere. I want to give this same treatment to Pirate’s Cove.”

“My idea for this restructure of Pirate’s Cove is to give it a much more sea-like theme to it. Make Foxy’s stage that of an actual Pirate Ship, for example. Or even add another animatronic! Make an octopus, or kraken animatronic… or heck, maybe even give Foxy a parrot or something, that could work too! It’s all just to renovate the cove to look much more appealing… and it might work, eh? What do you guys say?”

The room is quiet for a moment, as all the sponsors, higher ups and representatives process his words for a moment. After a silence that felt like an eternity, a representative from our parent company speaks up. “First of all, no more animatronics. I liked the parrot idea, though, but no Octopus animatronic… we can barely keep the lights functioning at this point. I like the new style of architecture, though. The more, the better.”

I speak up. As Head of Accounting, I feel the need to give my own thoughts about how it could financially benefit the company and business. “New animatronics are too expensive. The architecture idea could work, but that would mean putting Pirate’s Cove Out of Order for weeks, maybe even months.”

Suddenly, the Head of Technology, a guy called Kyle Anderson, speaks up, and clearly expresses his disinterest in the idea. “Honestly, I don’t like this idea. I think Pirate’s Cove, compared to the rest of the pizzeria, looks much more unique… definitely much more unique.” Suddenly, a representative of our parent company speaks up, too. “… I think you’re missing the point of why we require this change. It isn’t stylized, it looks outdated.” I agree with him.

“He’s right.” I state. “Pirate’s Cove is in dire need of an update, we can’t leave it like this… it’ll continue looking older, and older, and older, until things look more worn out, and we’re going to be forced to pay some sort of exterminator to clean up all the bugs. Besides, the theming and architecture won’t appeal to our wider audience.” Kyle then speaks up, somehow taking it personally. “Well, it’s like our uniforms, they look great but many consider them ugly.”

The atmosphere within the boardroom shifted dramatically after that. People began arguing about their uniforms and dress attires… something that had absolutely nothing to do with the topic of Pirate’s Cove, with each growing word making it much more apparent that the argument was being fueled by ever growing egos.

Eventually, things got much more heated, with Kevin having to resolve all of it by firing Kyle due to his comment. Despite the discord, we all agreed to add the structure in the end, and we all walked out, as we seemingly decided to forget that this conversation had happened in the first place.

As I began walking through the dining room, I was stopped by a loud voice, that of a young female, a child. “You!” She exclaimed. I stopped in my tracks, as a little child got in front of me. Great, another white child. Female, taller than the previous two, maybe a year older. Wearing an all black dress with a skirt, similarly to how my prey was wearing it, only difference being the color. She had two pony tails on her sides, which looked disgusting, and had black, curly hair.

“Me?” I’d say, clueless. I won’t lie, I was quite confused as to why this random girl would out of nowhere want my attention. “Where’s Susie?!” She’d exclaim. Susie… that must have been my prey’s name. Usually, I rather not identify my prey with names, make them sound too humanly… and the only purpose they truly fulfill is to be my way to gain satisfaction and adrenaline anywhere I go.

I pretend to act dumb, however. It’s the easiest way to escape the situation. “I’ve got no idea who Susie is.” From the look on her face, I can tell she doesn’t buy it… she’s certainly much more clever than anyone else in the building, that’s for sure. “The girl”. I try my best to make a face as if I had just remembered who she was talking about. “Oh, right! I saw her sneaking backstage. As a matter of fact, i’ve got a guard looking for her-” She interrupts me. “And the party thing, what’s that mean? And why wasn’t I invited?!”

As I prepared to counter her accusations, a gentle tap graced my shoulder. I turn around, expecting another kid to begin fucking with me again. However, disrupting the claims, i’m surprised to see Ted, who I had previously sent to look for my prey, who had supposedly sneaked up backstage. “What happened?” I whisper to him. He whispers back. “Yeah, no one was there. Just some empty suits.” I look at him, before ushering… “Let’s check it out tomorrow.”

He nods in agreement, before fading into the bustling backdrop of the pizzeria. I turn back to look at the girl. However, once I did, she had inexplicably vanished into thin air. However, just seconds later, I spotted her, walking away with her family, towards the entrance of the pizzeria… that’s one more problem up in the air, then.

As I navigate through the corridors, I walk into the main generator room, located just behind the main stage. Usually, in that very room, they keep our lockers inside… and thus, I went to go get some of my things, whilst also to hide everything for tomorrow’s hunt. However, unlike yesterday, where I was alone, a technician is sitting down on a chair, just alongside the generator… interrupting my solitude within this quiet hour, this quiet time of peace.

It’s Henry. Henry Emily. The local freak on town. Henry is wearing this terrible clothing, that makes him look like the typical spoiled brat. He has a white polo shirt on, and a red bow tie. Henry is white, has some light brown hair that is combed, and makes his right eye be covered by his hair, and is wearing some glasses. I never did meet him before, but I never expected him to look this ugly, with all those freckles and pus grains all over his face.

I’ve heard alot about him. I’ve heard he always stays locked up at home, and nobody ever knows what he does once he’s in his home. I’ve heard he’s a virgin, supposedly a pervert, and i’ve heard he even sexually assaulted Olivia once… that, I don’t believe. That just sounds plainly stupid and made up, because he would’ve already been fired.

“Working late, Will?” He says. “No, no, just picking up my stuff for the night.” Henry frowns. “How disappointing. It sometimes gets lonely here, you know. Just me and the mechanical wonders of the generator. It’s intriguing, truely, how such a thing could pump up life all over this place… almost like a heart to a body.” I smirk. “Indeed.” I place my cleaned up knife in the locker, cleaned from the blood, before grabbing my backpack, and closing the locker. “Good night, Will.” I say nothing back to him, before I bust the door open.

However, tonight isn’t over just yet. I surround the building, circling it three times, to make sure everyone has left by then. I might sometimes notice a person or two leaving, and i’d say goodbye to them, and i’d reassure them to look forward to tomorrow… and they really should, actually, because tomorrow is going to be just as thirsty and thrilling as today.

Eventually, they all leave after I circle the entire building three times. I make my way to the back of the building, ascending through a flight of stairs. Through every step I take on the stairs, it lets out a metal creak. The creak sometimes reminds me of the screams of the girl… her screams of mercy to me. That feeling of her, bowing to me, begging to do anything for her life, wanting mercy towards me… it made me feel satisfied, satisfied and content. It’s what i’ve always wanted… why would life deserve to be lived if it weren’t for things like this?

I leave my backpack behind the ventilation entryway, and pull out some things… specifically, a card. I bring out an empty envelope, and pack the card inside the envelope. And thus, I jump down to the vents, and land on a vent door. I make sure to hold myself, before jumping on it repeatedly, before it falls down. I jumped down, and quickly hid inside the Supply Closet. No one comes out of the Security Office though. I slowly make my way towards the Backstage, before locking the door behind me.

On the Backstage, there is a computer. I turn on the computer, as a Security Camera to the Security Office turns on, as i’m able to see a blurry, but still somewhat clear visual. I look at it for a few moments, before Ted enters the Security Office, with his nightshift supposedly starting soon. I take out a soda I brought along with me, and hide the envelope on an animatronic head, before I sit back on a chair, and watch the footage.

I have to make sure that Ted doesn’t do anything sudden, anything he’s not supposed to do. If he does something along the lines of that, things will go wrong for my huntings. I’m able to make out Ted saying… “Just watch for my power meter. It seriously needs an upgrade… ” Suddenly, i’m able to hear Kevin’s voice. “I don’t have the budget for that, Ted. Sorry… ” It seems as if they are in a phone conversation between one another. Ted checks the left security door.

“Like… dude! My power is already at thirty six percent, and it’s fucking twelve in the morning! Only eighteen minutes have passed since midnight!” Kevin responds. “Whatever, not my damn problem. If your power goes out, just go to the generator room and kick the generator or something, hell if I care what you do with it… just know that if you break it, you pay it… okay?!” Ted responds, “Yeah, yeah, I know, Mr. Drew.”

I’m getting thirsty. I take out my soda, and begin drinking it, all while I watch. It’s like seeing the perfect movie… the potential prey, just living their life, as they were meant to do so. “What the fuck are with the creepy designs of these characters, anyways? Aren’t they supposed to be made for children?” I can hear Kevin scoff, even on the phone. “Oh, please, they have names, Ted.” Ted responds, “You know, it’s great that someone hasn’t done any horror movie about folks like these… otherwise, we’d be losing customers real fast.”

Kevin chuckles. “Yeah, we would.” Ted then proceeds to ask a question… “Say, what the hell is up with these doors? Why would I need these big, metal, large steel doors? Couldn’t I have had… I don’t know, just some normal doors?” Kevin gives an answer to his question, “What, would you have been more comfortable and feel safer if they were normal doors?” Ted remains silent for a moment. “Yeah, good point. I probably wouldn’t have.”

Naturally so, the night goes by. I check my watch frequently, before seeing the current time… it’s five o’eight in the morning… meaning that I should get going soon. I reach out to a small, black telephone, on the wall of the Backstage room, before dialing 911. I wait for a moment for the police to pick up, and eventually, they do.

“911, what’s your emergency? Please state your full name, address and-” Before they’re able to finish their sentence, I cut them off. “I want to report a murder. Outside the Hurricane Café over at Ricci Avenue, you’ll find the body of a female, with a pink dress and yellow hair, thrown in the trash. Once you do, you will not say a word about this phone call, or I will commit another murder. Goodbye.” I hang up the phone, before I begin walking towards the exit of the establishment.

I make my way to the back of the building once more, and through the long, large flight of stairs. I search for my backpack, and I eventually find it. I put it on, and wait until it turns into six in the morning. I wait some more time on the roof, before the clock turns six, and I descend my flight of stairs. Surprisingly enough, I can already see various employees entering the building, ready for their next day of work. I’m not entering ready for my next day of work, however. I’m entering ready for my day of hunting.

However, once I step outside the front entrance of the building, I begin to hear the distant sound of sirens, wailing and rapidly approaching with every step I take nearer to the front entrance. Lights flash upon me, but not an oversaturated white and yellow… it’s a bright red and blue… the color of a police car.

Two Police Officers stand in front of the building, looking out for anything remotely suspicious or strange. My curiosity piques, as I approach one of the policemen, to ask them about the source of their coming. “Hey, what’s going on here?” I ask. The Policeman turns to look at me, before he blurts out the answer. “We got a report from a parent… a child went missing, a little girl. We’re here as we wait for the police chief to give us a word from the manager of the building.” They’re searching for the girl. With this in mind, I know I must be stealthier, much more careful with today’s hunt.

Once I enter the building, I immediately stumble upon Johnathan… somehow, the bright lights make him even whiter, even paler. His oversaturated skin color disturbs me, but I still try to act gentle around him, for him to not suspect a single thing. “Good evening, Johnathan!” Jonathan doesn’t respond, however, and heads straight to the bathroom.

After the usual routine of packing my bags on the locker, putting on my uniform, getting to work and opening the restaurant for the day, I wander around the dining area again, to make sure that Kevin is satisfied with the lie that the customers are sharing the same satisfaction he is by merely stepping foot on the restaurant. Suddenly, I get a gentle tap on my arm. I turn around, and it’s the fat kid from yesterday, who is just simply smiling at me.

“Heya, the man who invited me!” There must be another level of retardness in this child for him to have said that out loud. I can not wait to finally hunt this little sick sack of shit. However, I must still try to act as calm as possible to everyone around me, as I must create the illusion of my innocence to my hunts. “Hey.” I simply respond. The kid wanders off elsewhere, and I remain vigilant to where he seems to be going.

I see their table, located around a corner in the dining room, with a table that really seems to be for three people, but with two more seats added. Including the boy, the family has three children, with two of them being male. The family looks as if they’re… overweight. I see the mother taking a bite out of a cheese pizza, as I see the cardboard box of it, in the tip of the table, with a pizza that seemed to have fallen off… it’s disgusting.

As I was going to continue moving, however, I noticed a teenage boy who sticks out among the crowd. It takes me a minute, with all these customers all around me, but i’m able to see who it is… it’s Micheal, my son. Some have said that Micheal is very much my son, as the two look, and sound, identical. We are both equally… ugly humans. Micheal, however, is walking alongside the girl from the black dress… the one from yesterday. I can hear him say… “He’s almost like the owner of the place, you can’t miss him”.

He finally approaches me, after walking through the crowd. “Hey, dad!” He calls out to me. “Hey, Mike”. Mike bluntly gets to the point, saying… “The kid’s missing her friend.” I take another look at the girl, to verify it’s still her… and it is. The girl with the horrifying ponytails and curly, black hair. Mike nods to the girl, before looking back at me. “Yeah, we’ve been trying to find her… as in her friend, I mean. We’ll get her soon, don’t worry.” Mike suspiciously eyes me. “Alright… hey, where were you last night?” I had a response to this in mind already, aswell. “I was over at Joe’s, stayed over at his place.” He simply responds with an angsty “Okay.”, before leaving, and taking the girl with him.

As I was about to walk away, however, the noise once more continued… disturbing me. As I turn to my left, I see a commotion. Henry, Olivia and Kevin, are all gathered up near the stage, arguing. I approach the circle, yelling… “Hey, hey! What’s going on?” I look at Bonnie, and stare directly into his bottom part, as I see a white drink, maybe juice, spilled onto him. “This dipshit just spilled some milk onto Bonnie’s… no-no square!” Henry exclamates.

Olivia responds to him, not letting herself be let down. “Hey, you’re the one that made the animatronics! Maybe make them… I don’t know, just bounce off the liquid?!” Henry responds. “What the fuck – how am I supposed to do that? I better never see some shit like this ever again, you understand?” Olivia interjects, “Well, then what am I supposed to do?” Henry responds. “Well, I don’t know… maybe stay off the damn robots?!”

Henry walks away, pointing at Olivia. “Hey, this shit better be cleaned up by midday!” Olivia grumbles, and I follow Henry. I gently tap on his shoulder, attempting to garble his attention… I do. “What do you want?!” He barks. I try keeping a stable tone of voice around him, as i’ve heard he’s a very… intense fellow. “Hey, hey! I just came to ask you… I heard you were working on some new stuff on the animatronics. What’s that about?”

Henry takes a deep breath, before he begins talking about the current modifications. “Well… i’m working on an extension within the endoskeleton parts of the animatronic characters. See, the animatronics have the ability to walk around the restaurant, which is a good thing! However, I heard some customers had the complaints that Freddy delivered their pizzas very slowly. So I looked to find a way to solve this criticism.”

“See, I had this idea. The animatronics can walk… but they can’t run. Since they can’t run, they’re… slower. What if, somehow I added an extension of sorts, which could function specifically on their legs? This function could attach them to chords and wires that are connected onto the floor, which could create the illusion of them running. This could help with our current situation with the food… it’s delivered too slowly. But, with this? Boom! Solved.” I raise my eyebrows, impressed. “So… that’s why you’re pissed at Olivia? She spilled juice on the prototype?”

Henry chuckles. “First of all, I was pissed at Olivia for just… overall, spilling the damn juice at Bonnie, she just can’t do that.” That comment makes me laugh a little… it’s funny, really. How pissed someone can get due to something like this. “And, two, Bonnie isn’t my prototype. Considering that i’ve heard from Kevin that Pirate’s Cove is receiving some modifications, I could use that opportunity to test the extension with the Foxy animatronic.”

“But… isn’t Foxy just an on-stage performer?” I ask. “Eh… yeah, but we could get him to do so much more.” I nod. Henry doesn’t seem to be the freak everyone was talking about… sure, his appearance is still ugly, but he doesn’t act like a sociopathic freak like everyone said that he was. I follow him to the Backstage, as he’s supposedly going to give me the rundown for his little experiment.

Entering the Backstage, I’m able to notice this tall, towering endoskeleton figure sitting down on the desk. The figure seems to have some much more synthetic and mechanical legs, and also has some tiny ears, resembling that of Foxy’s. As I look around, something that catches my attention is the spare Bonnie head on the desk, with its eyes twitching, and blinking, but blinking very, very sparsely and mechanically… not as natural or magical as most of the robots work. It sends a small tingle down my spine, it looks chilling… ominous, even.

Finally, I take a few deep breaths, before I look at my watch… midday. It was time for my next hunt to begin. I say my goodbyes to Henry, giving the typical board meeting excuse, before retreating towards the general Dining Room. I search around the dining room, trying to find the easily identifiable fat kid with the red shirt, before I eventually find him, holding a balloon… again. “Hey, kid. How are you doing?” He looks at me, enthusiastic, and eagerly. “I’m doing great today! Thanks for asking, mister!”

I simply smile at him. However, for a brief moment, his face of enthusiasm turns into a worrying one. “What’s wrong?” I ask, he responds… “I heard a girl vanished yesterday. Do you think she’ll be okay?” I smile at him. “Why, of course she’s going to be okay! Why do you ask?” He responds, “Well… ” his face turns red. “I kind of have a crush on her. She’s just so pretty, and so kind… I like her. Honestly.” I smile at him. “Well, there’s nothing to be worried about, kid. She’ll be fine.” He looks at me, now with his face enthusiastic. “Well… where are we going?” I tilt my head further towards him, as all I let out is one, quiet, but simple… “Follow Me.”

(FNaF, William Afton and Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria by Scott Cawthon)

(Story by Radio Pontoons and RefEhiy)

(More to come)