You sighed as boredom washed over you. At this time of night, you would usually listen to the couple in the room beside you bicker and argue. Tonight, though, they seemed to have gone to some fast food place. Speaking of fast food, that was all you could afford for the time being. About two months ago, you had moved out of your parents' house and into a hotel--deciding to become an independent person. You started working at Walmart, just to make a little extra money. The first hotel you stayed at was too expensive, and by the time you got into this one, you were running low on money. Despite knowing that college gives you money to help you through this kind of stuff, you just didn't have the motivation to stress about tests or people. You worked as a stocker at Walmart, so you were usually on your own. You had requested some unpaid time off so you could let go of some of your stress.

You finally sat up from your bed--stretching out a bit, as you had been lying there for almost an hour--and headed towards the kitchen. You opened up the small fridge and stared at the--nearly empty--shelves. There were only beverages and condiments. You sighed, slamming the door shut and opening the freezer.

"Guess it's Kid Cuisine again," you muttered to nobody.

You heated up the tray of food and sat on the couch. You ate the nuggets, the macaroni, and the corn. You opened the packet of sprinkles and sprinkled it on your pudding. You finished up and threw away the tray.

Although you knew you couldn't be picky in a situation like this, you couldn't stand another cold chicken nugget. Either you would need to get a new job, or you would have to juggle two at the same time. You sighed, propping your feet up on the couch. You didn't know of any jobs near you that paid enough, though.

'Maybe I should start looking for another job,' you thought to yourself.

You grabbed your laptop off the coffee table and pulled it into your lap, starting your search for job choices. There had to be something.

~ ~ ~ ~

After searching throughout the internet for some time, you came across an ad that talked about a place you hadn't heard about in years: Circus Baby's Rentals and Entertainment. Originally, they were supposed to have a pizzeria named 'Circus Baby's Pizza World,' but due to gas leaks, they never opened. Now they rented out the animatronics for children's birthday parties. You remembered that you would've had them on one of your birthdays, but they were too expensive. Instead, you were just given merchandise. You'd never really seen the animatronics in person before, just from posters and such, so you didn't care how much the pay was. Besides, you could always get a different job later.

After making a few phone calls, you were satisfied. Although you were working as a late-night technician, and the building was in the middle of nowhere, you were excited. They gave you a code, telling you that you would need it, but not saying anything else of it.

Surprisingly, you started tonight. You looked at the time at the corner of your screen: 10:30 PM. You still had until midnight. Since you had nothing better to do, you decided to browse the internet to pass the time.

11:30 PM came around, and you shut down your laptop. You grabbed your car keys and the keycard to your room. You rode the elevator down to the first floor and headed out the front doors. You hopped in your car and headed off to work.

~ ~ ~ ~

Upon arriving at the building, you noticed that it seemed to be deserted. There was a sign hung on the front of the building with a cartoon-styled picture of the animatronics and the logo on it. The rest of the building was painted white and red. There were glass doors that pushed open.

You walked through the doors and looked around. The place was dark, only lit up by the streetlamps outside. There was a counter to your right, with a cash register and numbered tent cards on it. Behind the counter was a door.

"Hello? Is anybody there?" you called out into the darkness.

No answer. You walked past the counter, where there was a room with a door labeled 'Clothing' to your right. Farther into the room, following along the right wall, were two more doors, that presumably led to bathrooms. One was labeled 'Girls,' the other, 'Boys.' Across from them, were swinging doors--those that you'd find in a restaurant--that led to the kitchen.

You walked farther, through a large archway parallel to the front doors. There was a huge room with a bunch of round tables set out. A stage was across the room. It was round and was only as high as your knees. In the center of the stage were podiums, differing in size. There were two doors on either side of the stage; you assumed they were closets.

"Hello?" you yelled, hoping to get an answer.

The echo of your voice was the only response. You sighed, looking around the big room. You walked over to the stage, getting ready to sit down, when something behind the podiums caught your attention. You stepped up onto the stage and saw windowed doors that read, 'Staff Only.' Next to the doors was a small keypad.

"This must be why I needed the code," you muttered to yourself, taking your phone out of your pocket.

You pulled up your notes and opened the memo you typed the code in. You slowly punched in the numbers, not wanting to know what would happen if you got it incorrect. You pressed the 'Open' button and the doors slid open. You stepped inside cautiously, the gate floor rattling under your feet. Along the walls were a few pipes, some of which having valves. Lights running around the edges of the circular room gave off a warm purple glow. To your right was a poster of Ballora that said 'DANCE!', a vent, some switches, another keypad, and a red glowing button. While to your left was a poster of Circus Baby and her Bidybabs that said 'CELEBRATE!' and what looked like a speaker. It all looked rather odd for an elevator.

You pressed the red glowing button, and the door closed. The elevator shook as it started to descend. Shadows danced on the floor as the fan above you spun. Every few seconds, the lights would flicker.

"Welcome to the first day of your exciting new career. Whether you were approached at a job fair, read our ad in Screws, Bolts, and Hairpins, or if this is the result of a dare, we welcome you. I will be your personal guide to help you get started. I'm a model 5 of the Handyman's Robotics and Unit-Repair System, but you can call me Hand-Unit.Your new career promises challenge, intrigue, and endless janitorial opportunities," a robotic voice said through the speakers.

You jumped when a keypad flung off the wall to hang in front of you. Letters glitched around on the screen.

"Please enter your name as seen above the keypad. This cannot be changed later so please be careful."

You carefully typed in your name, trying to time the glitches right. An error sign popped up when you were done, and Hand-Unit said, "It seems that you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type, and I will auto-correct it for you. One moment . . . Welcome: Eggs Benedict."

You laughed, "What? That's not at all what I was trying to type."

The screen turned off, and it laid back against the wall. A few seconds later, there was a buzz, and the elevator started to rumble. The elevator clanked as it came to a stop.

"You can now open the elevator using that bright, red, and obvious button. Let's get to work!"

You pressed the button and the doors opened. You became a little worried when you saw police tape labeled "DANGER"--across the wall and a vent.

You paused. "Am I supposed to go through there?"

You sighed and got on all fours. You started to crawl through the small, dark space. You mumbled to yourself about how the pay better be good.

"Allow me to fill this somewhat frightening silence with some light-hearted banter. Due to the massive success and even more-so the unfortunate closing of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, it was clear that the stage was set--no pun intended--for another contender in children's entertainment. Unlike most entertainment venues, our robotic entertainers are rented out for private parties during the day, and it's your job to get the robots back in proper working order before the following morning."

"Yup," you said.

You reached the end of the tunnel and stood up, dusting off the front of your pants. You got chills as you studied the small room you were in. A yellow glow came from some lights above you. There were large windows on both sides of you. On the wall in front of you was a fan, a mask, some televisions that produced static, a Circus Baby clock, a speaker, and another keypad. Against the wall, and to your right, was a freaky looking toy with hands atop a small filing cabinet. To the left was another filing cabinet with three heads: the one to the left was blinking with its mouth open, the one in the middle was blinking with its mouth closed, and the one to the right had both its eyes and mouth closed. There was a camera on the wall, some buttons on stands on both sides of you, and three vent-sized doors with the same "DANGER" tape you saw earlier.

"You are now in the Primary Control Module. It's actually a crawlspace between the two front showrooms. Now, let's get started with your daily tasks. View the window to your left. This is the Ballora Gallery Party Room and Dance Studio, encouraging kids to get fit and enjoy pizza. Let's turn on the light and see if Ballora is on stage. Press the blue button on the elevated keypad to your left." You pressed the button and a light shined onto a stage with Ballora and the Minireenas dancing.

"Yoooo," you gasped as you stared in awe.

"Excellent. Ballora will be ready to perform again tomorrow. Now, view the window to your right. This is the Funtime Auditorium, where Funtime Foxy encourages kids to play and share. Try the light, let's see what Funtime Foxy is up to." You pressed the button to your right and a light shined on a stage.

"This is so cool," you whispered, watching Foxy move about.

"Looks like Funtime Foxy is in perfect working order, great job! In front of you is another vent shaft. Crawl through it to reach the Circus Gallery Control Module," Hand-Unit said as the vent door in front of you opened.

"More?" you whined, but started crawling through the darkness anyway.

About halfway through the vent, a womanly voice spoke, "Motion trigger:--"

You jumped in surprise, hitting your head on the ceiling and wincing, "Ow."

"--Circus Gallery vent," she continued.

You entered a room that had a panel with buttons, knobs, and other important looking controls on it; you decided that it would be wise not to mess with anything, as you had no clue what anything did. A doll sat on the top of the panel and another hung from the ceiling. There were four colorful lights above you: blue, green, red, and orange. In front of you were three large windows. There was also the poster of Circus Baby and her Bidybabs on the window.

"On the other side of the glass is Circus Baby's Auditorium. Let's check the light and see what Baby is up to." You pressed the button, expecting to see Baby, but a light shined into darkness. "Great job, Circus Baby, we knew we could count on you! That concludes your duties for your first night on the job. We don't want you to leave overwhelmed, otherwise you might not come back. Please leave using the vent behind you, and we'll see you again tomorrow."

"Wait, that's it? I just press some buttons? Wow, that was easy. Hopefully that's all that's to it," you said, heading back.

You left the building and went home. You went to sleep that night excited for the next day.

Photo is by FallingWaterx on DeviantArt