Chapter Text
You held back a sigh as you finally found a parking spot in the crowded parking lot in front of the famous Fazbear Theme Park. You were a YouTuber, making a living exploring abandoned sections of theme parks, or even whole abandoned theme parks. You had been doing it for a while, since using that stupid engineering and mechanics degree you got from college hadn’t worked out for you. Now, for your 100k sub special, you had made a poll to let your subscribers determine where you went to celebrate for that.
And of course, they chose this one. The one no one had dared to try before. The one with multiple murder and serious injury allegations, both past and present. The one whose company was infamous for being able to push missing persons cases under the rug like it was nothing, and who was known to be able to sue or pay off anyone into keeping quiet about things. It was the most dangerous option possible.
So of course, here you were, about to enter it and break into the most well known theme park in broad daylight. Yup, this was a great life decision.
You were honestly more nervous about getting sued than you were about getting injured or murdered because you did not have enough money to come back from that. And maybe livestreaming and posting about you doing it wasn’t technically the smartest idea, but it was the only way you would make a profit after buying a $115 ticket.
God this was such a bad idea.
Oh well. You were curious as hell about what actually happened, had been for a while, and this was the straw that broke the camel's back, or so to speak. Curiosity killed the cat, but it hadn’t killed you yet! So you were going to keep testing your luck till the day you died.
Which might just be today. Well, at least you’d get a sick livestream out of it.
You got ready to begin said livestream as you climbed out of the car, a backpack of stuff slung over your shoulder. It was full of mechanical equipment bits and pieces, like screwdrivers and of course, WD-40 to oil any hinges so doors didn’t squeak. Nothing that could be considered a weapon, you had made sure of that (after many denied entrances to parks).
Just as suspected, you entered without a hitch, showed your stupidly expensive ticket, and then you were in! You started the livestream, announcing your easy entrance to the camera.
“So like, if I die, you guys’ll call the police, right?” you asked the chat as you walked to find a quick bite to eat before you started. People gave you odd looks, but thankfully, you had a good few years of experience of ignoring them and filming yourself in public. It used to be super embarrassing, and still kinda was, but you had gotten better at just pretending it wasn’t.
The food you grabbed was actually pretty good for a theme park, although it wasn’t healthy in the slightest. Who really cared, though? Not you.
You were about to drag out the maps you had when you spotted Freddy Fazbear himself walking your way and stuffed them back into your bag. Thankfully no kids were currently running up to him and screaming, but that was also to your detriment when, due to the lack of a crowd, he spotted you slowly shuffling away with your camera. His ears twitched as he shifted course and walked over.
Oh no, oh shit, what were you supposed to do?! It would look really rude to just turn and walk away when you had basically made eye contact and he was clearly walking towards you. You sucked it up, trying not to stare as he got closer because holy god he was tall.
Oh, you had seen him and the others in videos, so you technically knew how big he was. He was just about 8ft, apparently, towering over you as he neared. His body was also big… big enough to fit a human inside.
Look! Not that you wanted to take away the magic for the kids, but you were half convinced the animatronics were just people in big mech suits, like they did with other mascots most of the time. Robots were getting more and more advanced, especially Fazbear stuff, but it seemed so impossible to have robots be this… human. You had watched countless videos to research these guys, and the way they interacted with children was so real and varied, barely ever the same responses twice unless it was something super generic or their catchphrase. Their responses to questions were always specific and tailored to their own way of speaking and their personalities. So advanced compared to just a few decades ago that it really didn’t seem possible.
Then again, there was more and more news going around about possibly sentient animatronics and such. It was interesting, and not to say you exactly doubted those animatronics… You just doubted these giant ones built for a theme park and to entertain kids, using basically the same model for decades now, were entirely sentient--if they weren’t just humans in there, that is. You weren’t going to rule that out for them till you got solid proof. Not that you said any of this to Freddy, who had stopped in front of you.
“Hello there!” Freddy greeted kindly, waving. You gave a little wave back. “Are you recording?”
“Oh! Uh, yeah, it’s a livestream. Is that okay? I thought it was allowed,” you explained, nervous you were going to be banned just for this. Thankfully, Freddy waved his hands.
“Yes, that’s quite alright, no worries!” he assured you. You let out a tiny sigh of relief. “I apologize for making you nervous. I was just curious why. I always see families recording their time here together, it’s so wholesome! Are you here with someone?”
Feeling a slight heat rise to your face, you shook your head. “No, not really. Just… have a sort of family online, I guess, and so I’m live streaming to show them as I walk around.”
“Why, that’s just extraordinary!” Freddy exclaimed, his smile seeming to widen, ears perking up. Damn, they really made him expressive. Must’ve cost a fortune to get all those little parts and reactions down. “Do you mind if I say hello?”
“Oh, not at all!” You turned the camera around to face you, then stood in front of Freddy. You were barely able to fit your eyes into frame, having to tilt it up high to get all of Freddy, even while he crouched--likely a habit from working with children.
You showed him the little chat and where to look on the phone, and he waved. “Hello internet family! It’s so lovely that you’re spending time online with your friend here, even if you can’t be in person. I hope I can meet you all someday.” He seemed genuinely excited as his eyes flicked over the rapid chat, all of them saying hi and excited. You barely caught half of them, but Freddy, with his robot vision and whatnot, was probably able to see them all.
Before he could say anything more, the telltale signal of kids gasping and yelling Freddy’s name got his attention, and he stood. “Oh! I’m terribly sorry, but duty calls. I hope you have a faz-tastic rest of your day!” With a friendly wink and a wave, he was off to greet the hyper children who ran to meet him.
You chuckled as you watched him go, turning back to your phone. “Well, that was… something. They really just programmed him to be the most likable guy ever, huh? Not sure why he’s so damn tall though. Guess that’ll forever be a mystery, unfortunately. One thing doesn’t have to be, though…”
Finally, you dragged out the map you had printed of the old layout of the theme park. The new one you also grabbed, just to orient yourself and compare, had since omitted the little kid area and the daycare. Comparing the two maps, it wasn’t hard to figure out where the closed off entrance was now. The actual problem was getting in there without looking super suspicious.
As you found, the entrance and wall surrounding it had been blocked off with grass, bushes, trees, and a railing. People were constantly milling around, though this was thankfully not directly next to any attractions, so it wasn’t super crowded. No cameras that you could see faced you directly, though knowing this place, there was almost definitely one hidden one somewhere, and it was probably on the wall you needed to get over.
Your chat offered ideas--some just making fun of you of course--which you hesitantly explored, looking around and getting as close as you dared without looking like you were looking, y’know? You leaned against the rail as you talked to your phone.
You had arrived at noon, and now it had been a full hour of eating food, drinking a soda, and pacing back and forth like a crazy person as you talked to your phone. Your feet were starting to hurt and chat was getting impatient.
So you decided--fuck it. When it seemed like no one was really paying attention, you hopped the fence and ducked behind the bush. You sighed in relief, then chuckled at yourself. That had been… really easy. You were hyping it up for nothing, evidently.
You crawled forward, squeezing between the pine trees and bushes that hid the entrance. There was a small bit of mostly clear grass in front of a huge brick wall. Lovely. To your left, you could see the big double doors of the old entrance, but it was probably locked, and you didn't want to bother with trying to pick the lock. Plus, it could very well be triggered to set off an alarm, and that would be very unhelpful to your plan.
You temporarily put your phone in your jacket pocket, zipping it closed, before hauling yourself over the wall. It took finding some foot and hand holds and a lot of precarious boosting yourself up, but finally you made it.
You sat up on the top of the wall, pulling your phone out and breathing a little gasp of awe.
Not that it was pretty, exactly. This area, full of mainly sun-themed kiddie rides and old, closed up food and drink stands, was incredibly worn down, some parts slowly being taken over by nature. But with its warm, almost sepia toned everything, it was beautiful in its own right. Right out of an apocalypse movie, really, almost like it was color graded to be like this.
The blue sky and clouds sort of ruined the illusion, but it was still cool as hell.
You pulled out the old map after admiring the view, hopping down from the wall. You pointed the camera at the map and asked, “Alrighty, I’m in! Now, where do we wanna go first?”
Surprisingly, Pirate’s Cove and the little dig site ended up winning, so that way you went. Almost right at the entrance was the ‘Superstar Daycare’, which you decided to save for last. To the left were a few rides and food stands, but also, further down, a little pirate themed mini-section.
There was one of those rocking ship ones, made to look like a pirate ship, that swung on a big pendulum. Tame enough for the little ones.
“Weird. I saw one of those in the main area, too,” you mused. A glance at the chat reminded you of the events you had researched for a long while in your free time. “Oh, shit, right. Yeah, for anyone not caught up, Foxy used to be for kids in this area, but was moved to the main area because his popularity was going down or something. Didn’t work though, he still got decommissioned. Plus, people theorize that the real reason he was decommissioned was because of some incident in pirates cove--the one in the main area, not this one. It was well hidden, but it was definitely the straw that broke the camel's back, at least in my opinion. And with Fazbear's history, I wouldn’t even be surprised if it was because a kid ‘went missing’ or something,” you snorted wryly. They had a very shady track record, yet still they were one of the biggest and most profitable corporations around.
They were also annoyingly good at covering stuff up--minus the past stuff that had gotten out--so you were left to theorize based on very little provable evidence. That was part of why you were here. You wanted to see if you could find any evidence that might lead to a more definitive answer.
As you looked around, you found there were still little cartoon versions of him around, little posters and cutouts. But what really caught your eye was one sign indicating a certain location. “Oh hell yeah, they still have the dig site!”
You hurried over to it, jumping over the rope that sectioned it off. It was basically just a sand pit with random items and ‘treasure’ buried in it, but you couldn’t care less. Maybe it was childish, but you haven't had something like this since you were a kid. It brought up a childish sort of fun in you.
Figuring you could spare a few minutes, you crouched down and dug into the warm sand with a hand, the other one holding your camera. Thankfully, you didn’t find any bugs or weird items. Instead, you pulled out a golden coin. “Hell yeah! I’m gonna be rich, guys,” you snickered, holding it up to the light. It was rusted, unsurprisingly, but still shiny in places. You stuffed it in your pocket, deciding to clean it up later.
Brushing off your pants, you stood with a huff. “Guess I should actually investigate stuff now, huh?” Chat responded with a resounding ‘yes’. You stood, wandering back to Pirates Cove.
It was a narrow path lined with big--likely fake--rocks that led to a big open play area with that weird squishy, rubbery playmat stuff. It sort of looked like gravel and was rough, but also rubbery. You had no idea what the name was, but at the same time it was a viscerally prominent memory from your childhood for some reason.
Said area was meant to look like, well, a cove. It had the playmat colored blue, with fake little waves, that led to a sandy area surrounded by palm trees and a mini rowboat. There was a treasure chest off to one side, but when you tried to open it, it was locked shut. Unfortunately, the lock wasn’t rusted enough for you to be able to just yank it off. You brought out your lock-picking stuff, but the ten minutes you spent yielded no results. Sadly, you backed off. It was stuck to the ground, too. Probably just a prop, and you wasted your time on nothing.
Sighing, you stood and looked around. It was a cute area, perfect for kids to play make believe, likely with dress up stuff, too. The back of the cove area was a tall stretch of rock, with plants creeping over the top. Like Disney, Fazbear was pretty good at the ‘forced perspective’ thing to make the cove seem a lot bigger to kids than it actually was. “I would have killed for something like this as a kid,” you muttered.
At the back of the cove wall was the open mouth of a cave inside the wall. You flicked on the flashlight you kept in the open pocket of your bag, peering in. The cave was wide inside, but absolutely covered in cobwebs and dust.
That didn’t bother you. If it did, you wouldn’t have made it as far as you did exploring abandoned parks. The squeamish part of you was long beaten out by your curiosity. Your flashlight glinted off the still mostly shiny pile of coins in the corner and the old brass of candle holders on the walls. There were a few old cot looking things, basically just thin mattresses on the floor with a blanket thrown over top. You assumed it was for kids to sit on, but man did those look uncomfortable.
There was a big chair at the front of the little cave, most likely for the Foxy animatronic. You mumbled your thoughts out loud. “I guess this would’ve been some kind of meet and greet room? Or maybe just another room for kids to chill with Foxy.”
You looked up, surprised to find a ceiling full of fake stars. Huh. Cute. It was meant to look like an open skylight in the cave, you guessed, though why it was night you weren’t sure. Maybe just for the vibes, which was fair enough.
Feeling around the walls, poking at things--and maybe pocketing a few more coins because they looked cool--was how you discovered a slight lip along the wall. An uneven spot, where the fake rock of the wall had a long line down it. It was hidden well in the dim lighting, and only the close proximity and your flashlight revealed it.
“Ooh, sure do love secrets,” you murmured, excitement sparking in you when you pressed on the lip and a door popped open. “This is what I’m talking about!”
Safety be damned, you hurried inside, flashlight swinging around. It was a small room, likely a closet used just for storage. They almost blended in due to the dim lighting and dull colors, but your flashlight caught on something far bigger than some mops or first aid. You froze, the camera automatically trained on the same spot, and you felt like you couldn’t breathe.
There, sitting up against the wall, motionless, were Foxy and Bonnie. "Holy shit," you breathed. They were big, even sitting down. However, they were a significant amount shorter than the other animatronics, who all stood around 8-9 feet tall. You couldn't tell their height, but they certainly didn't look as tall.
Unlike Freddy and the others, there was no way a human could wear these 'suits.' Their legs were curved, anthropomorphic in a way that couldn’t be worn by a normal human. Plus, Bonnie was half destroyed, poor guy, and you could see the endoskeleton inside him. His covering of fur, dusty and dirty, had missing patches that revealed his insides.
That only confirmed the rumors of Bonnie being destroyed and decommissioned. However, he didn't appear to have claw marks on him that would indicate Monty had been the one to do it, as some had thought. Still possible, but unlikely. Parts of him were torn off though, so maybe…
Then there was Foxy. He was unharmed, though his signature hat and hook were gone. "Why's his muzzle tied up?" you wondered to yourself. That seemed excessive for an animatronic with no power in an abandoned area of the park. "Poor guy…"
Slowly, you crouched down and carefully untied the rope. When your hand brushed his fur, it was surprisingly soft for being so old. Then again, when it wasn't being touched or used, you supposed it would stay relatively the same. You patted his face. "There ya go, buddy. Prolly more comfortable that way."
You didn't know why you were talking to him, or why you felt compelled to remove the rope. It just kind of happened. Plus, leaving him tied up like that felt… Wrong.
You stood with a little groan. "Okay, okay, I know you all want to explore more. I got it," you sighed, though you were excited to explore, too.
The bright light of day was a little jarring from the dim insides, and you blinked rapidly as you navigated back to the main area. Honestly, though this was made for kids, it was a shame it was closed. It looked like it would be a lot of fun, if it was in better condition. Everything likely would be, although the rides were clearly aimed towards kids, simple and easy.
You circled the perimeter, determined to explore every option first. Everything was closed, and investigation into the rides was uneventful. Cool, but not particularly interesting.
Finally, you made it almost back to the start, off to the right from the entrance. This was where the old planetarium was located. You had only been in one one time as a kid, and it was way smaller and dinkier than this one, but it was the coolest thing ever. To lay down on your back for a while and watch the stars and constellations move above you and around you, with a soothing narrator explaining how it came to be and the names of each star and planet... It was magical.
You went up and tried the door, disappointed to find it very firmly locked. There was a chain with a lock around the long handles, and the doors themselves were locked up. Double disappointment. You circled around the big dome building, finding nothing but weeds, trash, and old posters. Most, as you saw, were for Moon, or Moondrop, the one this planetarium was for. "Damn it… And I really wanted to see him, too. I can try to pick-lock it, but these locks are super rusted and old, so I dunno if it'll work. I am nothing if not persistent though!"
So you did try for a while, until your hands got tired and began to cramp. Yeah, not going to happen. Reluctantly, you backed away from the door, disappointment weighing you down. One less mystery to investigate, and one you were super curious about.
The videos you saw of Moon made him seem like a chill robot, telling stories, singing lullabies and narrating the planetarium when it was his designated showtime, at which point more kids of all ages tended to gather. He always sat on his stage, though, like he wasn’t able to stand. Since you never saw him outside, it stood to reason that he simply never got the walking update like the others. Didn’t need to if he was only in one building.
And his incident--harder to find than the others, only really speculation--was interesting, almost as much as Sun’s was. According to speculation and forums, he, like Foxy, had someone “go missing” in his area. No details, as was the Fazbear way, covering it as him being shut down because of budget and wiring problems. And maybe that was true, to some extent, but everyone honestly knew it was a murder case of some kind, or at the very least, an injury. The most popular--but unprovable--theory was that Moon went haywire and killed some kids one day, and had been shut down ever since. You were really hoping that being here would help you discern whether or not that was true, but for now at least… You had nothing.
However, you still had the main mystery in the Superstar Daycare. It was a colorful building--or had been, anyway. It was faded and grungy now, the paintings of flowers, clouds and the sun dull instead of bright like they used to be in every video you watched. The roof was a cone shape around one area, styled and painted to look like an old circus roof.
Apparently, Sun even used to wander around at times, too. It was a far more ‘robotic’ looking walk than the main 4 had now, since he was an older model. The best you could compare him to were those Chuck-e-Cheese animatronics that would sing on stage. He told stories and entertained the kids, along with a human daycare attendant or two that actually did the work of talking to and surveying the kids with more detail. His movements were smooth in that robotic way, sharp and angular twists and arm movements, but there were a few exceptions.
From what you saw, he had a few ‘programmed movements’ as you had come to call them. Foxy had had them, as had all the others in super old videos of them all before they had been upgraded (or in some cases, scrapped and left to rot). For example, he did this big wave where he would balance on one foot, leaning into it and waving one arm really high in the air super dramatically with a loud, “Heeelloo!” It was smoother than the stuff following or preceding it, almost like a video game character when made to pick up an item or something.
Point was, he was older and his AI and movements were more robotic than even Foxy and Bonnie were up until they disappeared, despite being around for about 5 years longer. It was like the company didn’t care enough to upgrade him. To be fair, he wasn’t entirely meant to be a walk-and-talk or meet and greet type of mascot. He was just an entertainer for the really little kids, not even meant to walk around originally.
It was like a throwback, watching those videos and then seeing how advanced they were now. It was such whiplash. Sometimes, you wondered what the old animatronics would look like, all spruced up and advanced, but with the state of things, that would never happen, no matter how cool it might be.
Chat was practically screaming at you to go in now, so you finally pushed open the door. A bell above the door chimed faintly, the sound almost audibly rusted and sorta sad. Most decorations were gone now, and the check-in area looked depressingly empty. The desk was entirely empty save for some cobwebs and scattered papers. Some empty potted plants stood guard by the door, having died off decades ago. It was a desolate welcome, that was for sure. It was all warm colors, sprinkled with bits of random rainbow colors, but with the light spilling in the stained windows, it gave it an almost dream-like feel, unreal.
To your left was a sort of waiting area, most likely for parents based on the bigger tables. There were also bathrooms over there--which you were not willing to brave. Possibly haunted abandoned parks was one thing, but public bathrooms in a daycare for little kids that had only been left to fester… yeah, no thanks.
A search of the desk provided nothing. The papers were just check in/out forms, along with some for if a kid got injured, and a sheet for if kids had any allergies. Right, this place used to provide snacks for the really little kids who didn't want to or couldn't eat somewhere else.
Unfortunately for you, that didn't help in telling you anything that happened here, with the incident or otherwise. There were some maintenance report forms for if Sun had any issues, but they were all blank. Either they never had any issues, or all filled out ones were taken away. How annoying.
With a defeated sigh, you headed to the left, through an unlocked, glass door leading to the main daycare area. It was a bit darker in here, at least around the edges. Pillows and kids toys were still strewn about, never properly picked up, as if someone had left in a hurry and with little care. Given how sudden Sun's malfunction reportedly was, it was highly likely.
The walls were a soft blue with big, cartoonish clouds painted on the walls, peppering the ‘sky’. The ceiling was styled like a circus tent, red and yellow fabric draping down and coming to a point in the middle. A circular skylight was positioned above a little stage. Little fairy lights were strung up all around the ceiling and edges of the room. There was a little wall around the edge of the small stage, like the top of a typical cartoon castle, and a big sun was coming out from behind some clouds that were stuck on the wall. It could be called the centerpiece of the room, though technically it was against the wall in the middle, not in the direct center. Either way, this place might have been cozy, if not for its decrepit state.
And that’s when you register it. Under the broken skylight, softly illuminated by the sunlight streaming in, standing in all his 8ft tall glory, is the creepy-ass looking animatronic: Sundrop.
The sunlight coming from above him put almost a spotlight on his stage, perhaps intentional given his role as an entertainer. Despite the warm glow, there was something almost uncanny about him and seeing him here. His colors were desaturated and worn out, and there was a decent amount of rust in places, that and dirt making streaks along his metal body and face. He was frozen in place, clearly deactivated, but you felt like you were being watched. You chose to attribute that to the all white, blank eyes he had--not to mention the wide, unmoving smile. It made you appreciate Freddy’s advancements in that area even more now, seeing in person the opposite side of that.
Carefully, you inched your way forward, still keeping your flashlight on, just for comfort. There was something truly unsettling seeing the giant animatronic--made even taller by the stage--just… standing there. Motionless. Lifeless. His arms were frozen as if he had been in the middle of telling a story. Maybe he had been.
While you may have been suspecting the other animatronics were humans, there was absolutely no way any human ever fit inside this guy. He was tall, just like Freddy, but didn’t have the advantage of bulk to fit someone inside. He was gangly and thin as a stick, not to mention his almost entirely flat faceplate.
You circled closer, finding him even more decrepit up close. Being under the broken skylight gave access for all weather to hit him full force, plus the stage and room, leading to a concerning amount of mold and plants creeping along the walls, most from the skylight. A few were even winding slowly over Sun's feet. You would almost call this little area apocalyptic looking, where the place had been reclaimed by nature, crumbling and sad.
The faded but still bright colors offset that, but you kept the camera still as you backed away because this would make for a hella good thumbnail. You made sure to get a few of you in there, too, though your shock and awe wasn’t fake. This was cool as hell, seeing what was basically a relic up close.
You turned away, beginning to scour the room for clues as to what may have happened with the fatal injury you heard about. Or, maybe heard was the wrong word. More so people had a whole bunch of theories and rumors, but nothing had ever been confirmed. Unfortunately.
It was quiet, empty, yet almost peaceful in the little space. Nothing else felt real. Just this one room in this one time, in a place no one had been in decades and being the first one to explore it. You wished you could gush about this to more people without sounding crazy, and you had already talked at your stream enough to bore them all about the build and all that of the animatronics, you doubted they wanted to hear more.
You hummed a quiet tune to yourself as you scoured through old kids drawings, most of them of the kids and other animatronics, but a few had drawn Sun. Cute.
“Heellooo!!”