Horror Fan Fiction ❯ Five Nights At Freddy's: The Hidden Souls ❯ The Technician/The Second Night ( Chapter 2 )

After William's first night at his brand new job, he took the elevator ride back to finally go home and sleep for the night. The employee elevator ride back wasn't too stressful for him, as he was confident that he would most likely get the hang of things by this time tomorrow. Besides, he was getting paid a fairly decent amount for doing this, so at least it's simple to get his tasks done. Anyways, he exited the elevator and went inside of the first floor of Circus Baby World.

You see, the animatronic attractions are hosted underground at Circus Baby World, yes, but the first level is where most of the employee offices, kitchens, finance and management were located. The white plaster on the walls, along with a unique pattern of pink, purple and red lattice covering the middle sections of most of the walls located inside. There wasn't much point in staying here much longer, so William exited the building through the two glass doors in the front. He then proceeded to go to the parking lot area, and pulled out the keys for his car, a brand-new purple Ford F250. It wasn't his preferred vehicle, but it would definetly work fine. He finally opened the door, started the car, and drove back home to rest up for the night.

Meanwhile, back at Circus Baby World, a new car pulled up to the parking lot and parked right inside of the "reserved parking" area. This new car was a bright red Chevrolet Vega, and the driver immediately opened the left door and locked the vehicle, seemingly in a hurry. He was around in his late thirties, and had dark brown hair and a mini-goatee, all together mixed with a British accent. It was notible that he was in his work uniform: a purple button-up vest, dark grey pants, and a golden name tag located on the right side of his chest that had the words "Dave Miller: Head Technician" embedded on it. Dave seemed to be a bit uneasy, not only because he came here in a rush and was frantically trying to get inside, but also because he seemed rather angry. He entered Circus Baby World through the front doors, and walked straight to his employer's office. He was intent on having a stern talk to his boss, Mr. Cunningham, specifically why he hired a brand new technician out of seemingly nowhere, without him knowing.

Harold Cunningham's office looked like it was in prime shape. He was sitting in his grey shivel chair, at his large and widespread desk, with several different documents, a large blue lava-lamp, tax files, a typewriter, and other materials spread out across it. Mr. Cunningham looked like how you would probably picture the average boss: grey tuxedo and vest, black hair, slightly receding hairline, and a large pair of eyeglasses. "Hello there, Miller. So why have you come to see me this late, anyways?", he asked. Dave knew that if he didn't bring up the issue now, he probably would've been ignored, so he tried his best to bring it to him calmly.

"Uh, Mr. Cunnigham, I, uh, recently heard that you hired a new employee here. Specifically a new technician," Dave said, "and since I'm the head technician here, I should have been notified of this beforehand so I could teach him the basic skills of their new job. But I didn't even get the memo until a few hours ago from Randy!" He ticked off by this, mainly because Randy was the human-resources employement handler, and that this wasn't the first time Mr. Cunningham hired a new technician out of the blue without him knowing. "Relax, Miller, I've already told you before, I'm not looking for a replacement. I just need someone else to take the night-shift to make sure that our animatronics are fully functional first thing in the morning," Harold replied. Dave said to him,"Really? Because it seems to me like you are looking to replace me, sir."

He thought this because the past couple of months at Circus Baby World were not going well for either Dave or Harold. Ever since those alleged abductions and that "alleged" child death incident, both Miller and Cunningham took a lot of heat, not only from the authorities, but also from Fazbear Entertainment, too, and Dave became a prime suspect in the incident. The police interrogated Dave and searched his home for any evidence, as well as the establishment for any clues relating to the children. However, the police were unable to identify the dead child, nor find any clues to what happened to the child or the children involved in the abductions. Since there was no evidence to convict Dave, the police let him go, but not without keeping an eye on him from time to time. 

Mr. Cunningham tried to calm Dave down, and reassure him of his usefulness. "Look, Miller, you are easily the best technician we have here. There's no doubting what you've achieved on a technical level. Your designs for the springlock suits were revolutionary for Fazbear Entertainment, and the robots you built right here are clearly state-of-the-art. There are just certain... uh, "design choices" that you made for these robots that we don't fully understand. And to be honest, our new technician William might not understand them, too. By the way, if you're wondering, he's the new guy. Black hair, early twenties...". Dave interrupted him in reply, "Look, if this is about Ballora's body design, I can explain everything...". Before Dave could finish his sentence, Mr. Cunningham shortly interrupted him back. "With all due respect, that wasn't the design I was referring to, Mr. Miller."

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We're back at it again, I guess, thought William. After his first night on the job, he figured the rest of his shift shouldn't be too difficult to manage. All he had to do was shock and check if the animatronics were functionally working, and make sure that nothing went wrong. Overall, this experience was a lot less stressful that William first thought it would be. Wonder what I'll have to do tonight, he thought. He didn't want his job to become boring, but he certainly didn't want it to become incredibly difficult, either. Maybe it's just best to go with the flow and see what happens next, he thought. He brought up his Hand-Unit to check what was required for tonight's shift.

"Welcome back to another night of intellectual stimulation, pivotal career choices, and self-reflection on past mistakes. We're committed to creating a unique and fulfilling work experience. One part of that commitment is ensuring that you don't get tired of the voice that you're hearing right now." William laughed, given that it was true that the Hand-Unit's voice did tend to get irritating after listening to it for a while. At least they're being honest about it, he thought. The Hand Unit then continued, "Using the keypad below, please select a new companion voice. For male, press one. For female, press two. For text only, press three. For other options, press four."

He took a moment to think about which option to choose from.

I wonder what the female version sounds like, but I also want to see what other options they have. Then again, I wonder what the text-only option does. Does it even talk if I choose that one? Oh, whatever, I'm overthinking this. Guess I'm going for number four, William thought. He pressed the fourth button on the Hand-Unit, but like last night, the touch-screen pad was still glitching out, and the Hand-Unit processed the information incorrectly again.

"It seems that 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 choosing "Angsty Teen"."

Oh, God no, William thought. It's bad enough that I'm stuck down here for the night, now I have to deal with an annoying care-free teenager voice? Still, other than the fact that his job was most likely about to get incredibly annoying, he tried considering some of the positives for tonight. At least he wouldn't have to be annoyed by the regular-robotic voice of the Hand-Unit. Besides, he already knew what needed to be done, so hopefully the Hand-Unit wouldn't talk to him as much tonight. As soon as the elevator came to a stop, William pressed the red button to get out of the elevator, opening the doors to the same small room he was at yesterday. He tried getting out, but his Hand-Unit started acting up again.

"The elevator's stopped. You know the routine. Get out now, or whatever. Stay here if you want."

Well, at least they got the 'angsty teen' aspect right, he thought. Even the voice sounded like a care-free teenager. And I thought the Hand-Unit's voice couldn't get more annoying, and here we are. "Well, if I stay here, I don't get paid. Might as well get back to work," said William to himself. He climbed through the small vent way to get back to the primary control module.

"So, funny story, a dead body was found in this vent once. M'kay, so, not that funny, but, it's a story."

What the hell? Stop making me more nervous than I already am! He was already anxious about the creepy-looking vent-way. This was the last thing he needed right now. "As soon as I'm done tonight, I'm switching this thing back to the normal voice," he said to himself. William finally reached the end of the vent-way and entered the primary control module. He waited for the Hand-Unit to give him his instructions for the night.

"Alright, so, let's start with your nightly chores. You should check on Ballora, and make sure she's on her stage, but, whatever."

He goes to the left touchpad and presses the light button, and just like yesterday, Ballora was clearly visible on her stage, powered down, seemingly lifeless.

"Huh. I guess Ballora has better things to do. Let's zap her! That should be fun."

OK, now the module has taken the whole "shock" thing a bit too far here. Last night it wasn't nearly as rude, but the way the Angst-Unit put it just seemed cruel. William pressed the power button on the left touchpad, sending a shock down Ballora. He tried pressing the light button again to check if Ballora was working, but this time, however, after a few moments, he started hearing strange noises coming from Ballora's gallery. The light button wouldn't come on again. The sound was disoriented, as if someone was trying to speak, but it wasn't very clear because it was jumbled. Like something was interfering with it. The closest thing he could approximate was 'He's watching', and as he looked away, he could see the security camera started to blink red. What is that voice? He tried waiting a few moments to see if there would be any more strange noises, but there were none.

"Alright. Let's check on Funtime Foxy, make sure she's ready for showtime tomorrow."

He pressed the light button on the right touchpad, only to see Funtime Foxy's shadow in the Funtime Auditorium. No other sign of Funtime Foxy could be seen from where William was standing. The Hand-Unit then started to talk once more.

"Great… Great… Great…Great...Great..."

Huh? Is this thing broken? He was getting nervous that he might have accidentally broken the Hand-Unit somehow, and didn't know how much would be coming out of his paycheck to repair it.

"There seems to have been a problem with the voice synthesizer. Default settings have been restored. Please proceed through the vent ahead of you to Circus Baby's Auditorium."

Well that's a relief. Least I won't have to deal with the angsty teen voice anymore, William thought to himself. The teenage voice was even more irritating and annoying than the regular Hand-Unit voice. Before he went into the vent to Circus Baby's auditorium, he realized that he forgot to give Funtime Foxy a controlled shock. Sure, the Hand-Unit didn't remind him of it, but he still wondered why she didn't need any controlled shocks tonight. He decided not to bother with it and move on because it didn't even seem that important. As he went through the vent-way, he could hear a female voice saying, "Motion triggered: Circus Gallery Vent." He thought it must have been him because there wasn't anyone else here going through the vents, at least that he knew of. Strange, though, he didn't hear this last night. The employees must've installed this in at some point today, or it was At last, he finally got out of the vent and into the Circus Gallery.

"Circus Baby had a busy day today. Let's check the light and make sure she's in proper working order."

He pressed the light button on the touchpad in front of him, and just like last night, Circus Baby was nowhere to be found, and several of the lights were still broken. I guess they still didn't fix those lights yet.

"Oh, Circus Baby! We aren't here to play hide and seek. Let's encourage Baby to come out of hiding with a controlled shock."

"Again with the wordplay with the controlled shock!", said William to himself. As if the angst teen voice wasn't bad enough. He pressed the power button on the touchpad, and as he checked the lights for Circus Baby, she still wasn't in the room. He decided to press the power button again, and Circus Baby still wasn't appearing. The third time he tried this, however, the touchpad immediately short-circuited, as sparks flew from it onto William's uniform. Oh no, please don't tell me I broke it, he thought.

"There seems to be a power malfunction that is affecting our ability to properly 'motivate' Baby. Please stand by while I reboot the system. I will be offline momentarily during this process. Various other systems may be offline as well, such as security doors, vent locks, and oxygen. Commencing system restart."

"Wait, oxygen?! You're cutting off my breathing supply-". William was interrupted when the room around him turned pitch black. The entire gallery went dark, with the only light in the room coming from the bottom of some kind of work desk. Please hurry up with that reboot, William thought. He never liked the dark, not even as an adult, and was getting very anxious now that he was alone, in a dark room, with no power, and nobody else around.

"Motion trigger: Entry-way vent. Funtime Auditorium maintenance vent opened. Ballora Gallery maintenance vent opened"

He wasn't too scared because this was exactly what the Hand-Unit told him would happen, so he tried his best to remain calm. This is all just a part of your job, William, calm down. No need to be afraid. As he tried to reassure himself, he heard a loud bump coming from the Circus Baby gallery. First it was one, then another, then another, and a few more, continuing in an odd pattern. Clearly he was not alone down here. What the hell is happening, thought William. He was starting to get more anxious with every bump he heard. He didn't know if someone was in there with him, or something. Whatever it is, I'm not giving away my location. I've seen horror movies before, I know where that gets you. Right behind the glass frame appeared a pair of glowing, light green eyes, staring directly at him. Whatever this was wasn't very close to him, as the eyes were only visible near the very back of the gallery. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness that he could finally see that it was an animatronic hiding behind the glass.

William jumped, startled by the animatronic appearing so randomly. He took notice of the design of this animatronic in particular. She looked kind of humanoid, and had the same white metal skin-plating like Ballora, but unlike her she seemed to have the design of a little girl. He couldn't get a good look at the size of this animatronic, though. She had metallic red pigtails, a red dress and a cute little red nose, with two red dots forming at the ends of her lips, while also having a red metal skirt. He also noticed that her arms and legs appeared to have pins sticking out of them. You don't seem so bad, he thought. Not compared to the other two. Then, the animatronic started talking to him.

"Odd. I don't recognize you. Are you new here?"

He didn't exactly know what to respond to her with, and was even more confused with how she was able to freely talk.

"Yes, uh, yes I am."

He waited for her to give a response, and after a few moments, she replied back.

"I remember this... scenario. Not with you, but someone else. It's a strange thing to want to do, to come here. I'm curious what events would lead a person to want to spend their nights in a place like this, willingly. Maybe curiosity? Maybe ignorance.

"Ignorance? Why is that? And why is it so strange for me to come to my job? I don't see too much wrong with it."

He didn't know what she was talking about. Nothing too out of the ordinary seemed to be wrong with his new job. There wasn't anything too bad yet, so what is she talking about?

"No time to explain. 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."

William did not fully trust this animatronic, mainly because he didn't understand why she wanted him to go under the desk.

"Wait, they? Who are they? And why should I trust you?"

"Because I'm your only chance of surviving tonight."

Surviving tonight? What the hell was she talking about?

Immediately, he could hear the female voice say, "Motion triggered: Circus Gallery vent."

Wait, someone else is here? This doesn't make sense, I thought I was the only one working down here-hold on. Hold on-if she can move around and talk, does that mean-, William thought. He could hear loud banging coming from the ventway behind him. This instant realization that the other animatronics could move and follow him made his face pale, and he did not want to know what they would do if they got to him. In a desperate move, he listened to the animatronic's advice and hid under the desk, hoping to God that whatever it was that was chasing him wouldn't notice him.