Pizza Party

Do you remember what you saw?

What did you see?

What did you see inside?

Who did you see inside?

What happened to you?

Who did this to you?

Can you hear me?

Max?

Max?!

Max!

MAX!

"GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Max violently darted awake as he frantically swung around, nearly striking a worried Alice, who had been sitting across from him on the queen-sized bed in his room.

"You... You're not... Where... Where's the officer..." Max said while hyperventilating and feeling around his chest area.

"Max! Max! Come here, alright? You're okay now, you're okay," she reassured him as he began holding him in her arms, laying him down on her chest so he could hear her heartbeat in hopes it would calm his nerves.

"I...I–I-I saw... I don't... I don't remember that..."

"Shhh... Shhh.. Shhh... It's okay... Take your time. I'm right here for you, okay?"

"I'm... I'm really sorry... I don't know wh–what happened; I just..." Tears began streaming down onto Alice's black and white pajamas from Max's face as he began crying in fear and confusion.

"I saw something... I remembered something..."

"Was it those nightmares you have about your family again? It's okay, alright? Those times are going to be over soon, remember?"

She gently asked as she moved his head enough to the side to show him the ring he'd gotten her.

"No... I'm sorry... It's just..." Max lifted himself off her bosom and began wiping the tears off his face with the sleeves of his long black shirt while she kept on holding onto him with one hand and gently caressing his tangled black hair with the other.

"I remembered something that I... Something I didn't even have a single clue happened."

"What do you mean?" she asked while readjusting her shirt before holding him once more.

"I've been there, Alice... I've been to Freddy's," he said after finally having finished wiping all the tears away.

"What? But... Wait, I don't understand. I don't remember that ever even happening or you ever talking about it."

"I... I just, I forgot it immediately after it happened. I don't know, but I was taken to the hospital."

"You don't mean..."

"Yeah... That's where I got this."

As he finished his sentence, he grabbed onto the bottom of his shirt with his right hand and raised it up as high as he could.

Throughout his entire chest, there were scars of varying shapes and sizes, incoherently displayed alongside a prevalent gash going across diagonally from his right shoulder to his bottom left abdomen.

Max had never once forgotten the origin of each and every scar.

All except for that one.

"Max..." Alice bit down on her right hand as she attempted to hold back the tears she could feel trying to escape from her glands.

"I remember it... I remember it all now."

"It's true. All of it. The murders, the disappearances, the spirits, the building. All the rumors are true, aren't they... I mean... I know what I saw!" Max couldn't keep himself still; the tingles up his spine that were now spreading across his entire body wouldn't let him.

"Max!" Alice yelled out, holding him in her arms as he tried to stay composed for his sake.

"Do you... Do you want to know... That day at Freddy's. Do... Do you want to know what I saw?" Max asked as he backed away from her only moments after she'd grabbed onto him.

"Wha..." Alice was originally going to disagree. She couldn't see Max in such a state, not ever again. She'd promised to keep him safe. She'd promised he would never have to face such nightmares ever again. She swore that he would never have to endure such painful memories as long as she was around.

But when Alice looked into his eyes, her worries dissipated. Max wasn't the same anymore. He wasn't the kid who would always be picked on at school. He wasn't the kid who would spend his days alone, ostracised and afraid of the world around him.

He had grown up; he was strong, and he was now more than ready to face his fears. Now all he needed was for her to be there as his shield, and she would gladly abide by his invitation.

"Max... Tell me everything you need to tell me."

"From beginning to end."





※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※





Max's sense of time had become distorted alongside his sense of hearing and sight. He hadn't even realized it in the commotion, but the lights on the stage had begun shining so brightly that when they all collectively shut down at once, it had completely crippled his sight.

The drastic change in lighting was extremely hard for his eyes to adapt to, so in the moment all he could see were the hands that were desperately rubbing at his eyes in an attempt to regain at least a little of his perception.

Realizing that he could not speed up the process of regaining his lost senses, he began feeling around, looking for something to hold on to so he could get back up on his wobbly legs, which had also been crippled by the commotion.

Eventually, he ended up grabbing onto one of the nearby trash cans that were molded into the shape of the titular mascot, with a top hat and ears being the only things differentiating it from a regular trash bin.

Seeing as no lights were on in the building, visibility was as bad as it could have been. To combat this, Max took out the flip phone in his pocket and held it up in front of him, hoping it would help light up his surroundings.

To his dismay, that was hardly any help.

"Shit... What am I doing..."

Abandoning his first plan, he instead began attempting to call the police, but his second plan was fumbled because he had been too lazy previously to charge his phone before making his way to his aunt's, thinking he would have been able to do it once he'd gotten there.

"What did I do to deserve this..." he asked as he looked up at the starry ceiling before putting his phone away.

"Okay... I'll be fine... I just gotta make it to the exit, and I'll be alright!"

Max had at some point developed a habit of talking to himself ever since he was a child. Kids and adults around him tended to find him weird for doing so, and it would be a big part of the bullying he went through in his early childhood, but he would continue to do so anyway in situations where he had no one else to rely on.

However, despite it almost always being a surefire way to calm his nerves, he found himself still shaking and stumbling around as he made his way through the dining room.

As he stumbled around past the broken plates, dropped utensils, abandoned purses, and small pools of blood on the floor, he found himself wondering what had caused such a major malfunction to distract himself from the splitting headache.

Sure, the place had terrible budget allocation, but a disaster of that magnitude didn't just happen. He wasn't the most technologically knowledgeable about modern technology, but he knew enough to understand that all of those things happening at once were one in a million.

But before he could continue debating what had caused such an event, he was stopped in his tracks as the double doors in the zig-zag hallway refused to budge open.

Click! Clack!

Click! Clack!

"You can't be serious..."

Click! Clack!

Click Clack!

"No. No. No. No! NO! NO! NO!"

Click! Clack!

Click Clack!

"This can't be real! This can't be! No, please, NO!"

Click! Clack!

Click Clack!

"SOMEONE! SOMEONE PLEASE! I'M STILL INSIDE! I BEG OF YOU, SOMEONE, ANYONE, PLEASE!"

By then, Max's vision had finally returned to normal, and he could see the people outside through the door's window and through the buildings in the lobby.

BANG! BANG!

BANG! BANG!

His attempts at bringing attention to himself ended in failure as the injured customers continued moving away from the building and towards their vehicles, with some on their phones, likely calling the police.

"Please... Someone..."

Despite that, Max continued to plead as the pain continued to intensify, eventually leaving Max grovelling on the floor after an entire minute of banging on the door. Tears uncontrollably flowed from his sorrowful eyes as he wiped the blood off the sides of his head before standing up once more.

"I need...to get...out of here."

Swiping away the last of his tears, he solidified his resolve and began walking back into the dining room.

Despite the low visibility, Max continued trudging on, making sure to avoid stepping on the mess that had been left behind in the chaos. He passed by the dining area until he arrived in front of a second stage he had seen before.

Pirate's Cove, that's where Foxy is, he thought to himself, yet again trying to avoid succumbing to the pain which had stubbornly refused to back off from torturing him.

The stage was similar in design to the main stage, with the main differences being its size, the color of the curtains being purple accompanied by silver stars, and the sign on its right reading 'Out of Service'.

Alice's father had previously worked at Freddy's but had been part of the mass layoffs the company underwent only a year after its original opening. Business hadn't exactly boomed as much as they thought it would.

During his short time there, he had apparently told her that Foxy had undergone maintenance since before he'd arrived, as they'd planned to have him as a main attraction. However, for some reason, he would keep dismantling in the middle of shows and would be found with his shell torn apart during the night shifts.

At first, management blamed the guards for the damage, but changed their tune when said guards would 'abruptly quit,' as they'd allegedly put it, and yet still open shop to find the shell of the fox's chest and legs torn open.

After hearing the story, he resorted to calling Alice a dummy for believing in her father's tall tales and, for a week straight, ignored her insistence that he wasn't the type to lie about his work. Thinking that he was being a dickhead for no reason and because he refused to apologize, she ended up ghosting him for an entire week after that.

What she didn't know was that her constant vouches for him were never necessary. Max had already known the old man long enough to know better than to believe he was the lying type.

So as he stood at the doorstep of the thing which had frightened a man much braver than himself, he couldn't help but dread what fate awaited him if he continued to be in its proximity any longer.

Fearing the worst, he began increasing his pace dead ahead down the west hallway towards an exit he had previously seen when he'd first entered the dining room. He paid no mind to the sounds of scraping coming from beyond the curtain.

It's just the ventilation, he said to himself as he continued down towards his only escape.

Making his way into the west hall, which was similarly labeled as 'Employees Only', he found himself nearly tripping over the mix of trash and wires which were strewn across the unmopped floor.

Had it not been for a light that had suddenly begun blinking in the room, he feared he would have bumped and slipped on one or more of the safety hazards that were seemingly across the entire room.

"What a shitty janitor," Max commented as he continued trudging down the hallway at a noticeably shorter pace than before.

Aside from the mess of paper balls, wires, and the other assortment of items, there were also storage shelves and tables placed throughout. Some, like the first he passed by, were devoid of contents, while some others had boxes of many sizes stored inside and on top of them. Some of the bigger, likely heavier ones, were laid on the floor, and some of the extra smaller boxes which couldn't fit on the shelves were placed on top of them to spare as much of the little room left as possible.

"How the hell do people even walk through here?" he asked himself as he passed by, noticing a blue and black arcade cabinet behind the first shelf blinking on and off, providing him enough light in intervals to prevent him from hurting himself.

"Thank you for the help..." he quietly said before passing by his savior.

As he nearly made it to the end of the hallway, Max glanced over to his right towards the two corkboards which rested above two large wooden tables placed directly next to one another.

Had it not been for the couple of words he had read on the only paper which had been puzzlingly put in the center of the board closest to his exit.

Had it not been for his cat-like curiosity.

Had it not been for the sudden appearance of dozens of other papers exactly like it across the entire wall before him.

Then maybe, just maybe, he may have continued onwards and without contest made his way out safe and sound.

But as the light of the arcade machine began rapidly blinking on and off, and more and more replicas of the original paper flooded the wall he had turned to, his curiosity to indulge in its scripture began overtaking his primal instincts.

RUN MAX.

MAX.

RUN.

RUN.

RUN.

THE EXIT IS RIGHT THERE.

PLEASE.

JUST GO.

MAX, LISTEN TO ME.

MAX.

MAX.

MAX!

"Fazbear's claims five more lives... Residents now dub the string of missing children's cases as 'The Hurricane Five'"

Max didn't know what had compelled him to read it out loud.

Had it been his dying curiosity to know what it was that the building wanted him to see?

Or was it his recurring response to fear of doing nothing but observe?

Or maybe, maybe, just maybe, had something else forced him to do so?

Max didn't have an answer to any of those questions. But the one thing he would soon know was that...

SMASH!

His savior had been taken from him.

All he had was the grey push-door which rested at the end of the hallway, awaiting his escape.

But he couldn't move. He could hardly breathe. He could do nothing but sit and wait, just like always.

Just like when his father would beat him.

Just like when his father would beat his mother.

Just like when his father nearly killed them.

He just sat there, motionless, unable, unwilling, to do anything.

Not to save anyone.

Not even to save himself.

SCREEEEEEEEAAAAAAK!

From the direction he'd come from, he'd begun hearing a metal object scrape on one of the grey, now suddenly grotesquely tattered walls of the dark, dingy, crowded hallway.

SCREEEEEEEEAAAAAAK!

The yet again continued for exactly a second before coming to a halt yet again as the sound reverberated inside his head.

I'm going to die here, was the only thing he could muster up the courage to think.

Calank!

DING!

At the end of the hall, a tall, largely built figure with a top hat began emanating a bluish-white light from its head, revealing the form of a thin red fox only a dozen or so feet away from it.

The fox stood deathly still, with one of its hands, replaced by a hook, laid stationary on the wall to its right, with a trail starting from the back of the wall to its current position, revealing the cause and effect of the startling sound.

Not knowing what to do, Max only stood still, keeping his eyes trained on the two large figures, refusing to take his eyes away in fear that they would move the moment they did. He'd seen enough movies to know how to survive; surely he would be safe, he thought in vain.

SQUEEKCH!

BTZZ!

CRASH!

Startled by Max, the large, fuzzy bear behind the fox opened his mouth so fast that sparks flew off it as it came off its hinges and fell onto the floor, making a loud crash that echoed across the entire building.

Sqrrueak!

The fox rotated its head in a fast motion, moving its eyes in tandem to keep Max within its direct line of sight throughout the entire movement.

"Please..." Max pleaded to the six-foot mascots as tears began welling up in his eyes.

"I beg of you... Just... Let me–"

DA-da-da-DA-DUM!

Before he could finish his cry, a melody began to engulf the entire room. At first, Max figured it had been coming from the speakers which were placed across the building, but not long after that thought, he realized that it had been instead coming from the bear across the hall.

DA-da-da-da-da!

"No..."

As the melody went on, the light coming from it began blinking just like the arcade had only moments beforehand.

Sqrrueak! Sqrrueak!

"Huh?"

Too distracted by the bear, he hadn't even realized that the fox had changed positions.

At first, the fox was slightly bent, like it had been trying to stay out of sight with its hook on the wall where he'd previously been dragging it.

By then, he was no longer making any attempt to hide his stature as he laid one foot in front of the other and arched into a running position.

DA-DA-da-da! DA-da-da-da!

"No... No... No. No! NO!" Max yelled out as the song came to an abrupt end, killing the light alongside it.

"Please... Just let me go"

"GO! GO! GO! FOXY! GO! GO! GO! What sounded like all the speakers across the entire pizzeria blared at once with the cheers of what sounded like half a dozen children, all encouraging the fox to make its move.

To Max's dismay, it seemed like it would comply.

SCRAAAAAAAUGH!

The fox swiftly raised its head ninety degrees up, then right after brought its whole torso down ninety degrees and opened its mouth as wide as it could, letting out a demented screech directly at the horrified Max.

Knowing it was do or die, Max broke himself free from his trance and sprinted towards the only exit available to him.

"SOMEONE! SOMEONE PLEASE! I'M STILL HERE! HELP ME! SOMEONE!"

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Unable to push the door open, a desperate Max began banging fruitlessly at the door in the hopes that somebody, anybody, would hear his cries.

"NO! NO! NO!"

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Believing his attempts at getting help to be fruitless, he began ramming his body into the door, but because of his scrawny figure, his attempts at barging the door open had seemingly been for nothing.

"Ready?"

The voices of the children returned as a deafening static noise played alongside their haunting voices.

"NO! PLEASE JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

BANG!

"Steady?"

BANG!

"FUCK! COME ON! JUST OPEN! DAMN IT, OPEN!"

BANG!

"SET!"

BANG!

"STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!"

BANG!

"GO!"

SCRAAAAAAAUGH!

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

The fox yelled out as it began violently flailing its arms like a feral animal as it charged as fast as it possibly could towards the helpless, weak, and powerless boy.

"DAMN YOU! RAAAAAAAAAH!"

BANG!

SQRRUEEAAAK!

In his final, last-ditch attempt to bust the door open, he managed to, by some miracle, get it to open.

SLASH!

"AHHHHH!"

However, as he tumbled to the floor, he realized that the ground, which should have been rocky and grey like it was across the entirety of the restaurant, was instead a continuation of the black-and-white tiles of the pizzeria.

"Wha... No... No, this isn't... This isn't right, this is..."

This isn't how it went.

Before he could grasp his current situation, the large, gaping wound, which was rapidly bleeding out, suddenly shocked Max into attention. He had been ignorant of the pain for only a few seconds before the agonizing feeling of having his skin and muscles torn apart began making its effects known to him.

"Gah... AHHHHHH! AH! HA!"

Max screamed out in pain as he crumpled up on the floor, attempting to cover the hole in his shirt and chest with his unscathed black and white track jacket, staining it with his blood as he pressed it down in a worthless attempt to stop the bleeding.

What the hell is this, what the fuck is going on? I was supposed to end up on the pavement; I was found! I was...

FLASH!

For a while, the entire room he resided in was devoid of any light; however, in one striking moment, all the lights of the enclosure he found himself in turned on at once.

Blinded by the neon, multicolored lights, Max rubbed his eyes individually with his left hand while keeping the other hand held tightly onto his jacket, the only thing preventing him from bleeding to death then and there.

Then, as his retinas grew used to the lighting, he began analyzing the room to distract himself from the pain which had now spread across his entire body.

He realized that he was in an office of sorts with two doors on either side, one shut away by a lattice door and the other left open into the hallway he had been in before.

Somehow, he had exited through the back exit and entered from the back of the office where, instead of a large grey push-door, was a ventilation shaft in its place.

This can't be real, he thought to himself as he skimmed over the wall that was covered in posters, a calendar, and a Freddy Fazbear-themed clock.

"This... What is this place..." Max could hardly speak through his excessive hyperventilating. The pain had begun subsiding, which he credited to the sudden adrenaline spike. He, however, somehow knew he couldn't just sit there. If he did, he would surely die, though he wasn't sure how he knew it.

It's all a dream, is it not? So why, why does it feel so real?

Knowing that the moment the pain returned he would surely crumble and succumb to a cruel fate, he grabbed onto a table with a blue rotary phone on the southwestern side of the room and pushed himself back onto his two shaky legs.

Exiting the office, he found himself yet again in the hall he had been in only minutes beforehand. However, it hadn't looked the same as it had beforehand. Many of the decorations, trash, and other features of it had oddly been no longer present.

At the doorway that connected the office area to the west hallway was previously a cutout of the pirate fox who had cut open his chest, but it was now replaced by a stack of identical boxes. The doorway which had been on the other side of the doorway was also gone and replaced by a window which allowed him to see into the dining room.

"It's...how is this..."

Seeing such drastic changes in that area alone, he concluded that the entire layout of the pizzeria had changed, and so his previous knowledge of the front exit was no longer to be trusted.

"I'm so fucked..." he whispered to himself as he continued down the hallway, which was mysteriously also completely barren of all the obstacles that had previously stood between himself and the mascots.

BANG!

As Max reached the end of the hallway, the lights all once again shut off, which left him in complete darkness.

Click! Click! Click!

BANG!

For better or worse, the darkness quickly subsided as the lights flickered and burst to life yet again. This time, however, a familiar voice and melody began ringing throughout the entire enclosure.

"Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, get yer pizza by the pound!"

The bear had begun singing his song once more. However, unlike last time, Max had no wish to stick around to hear the end of it.

"No... Fuck! I... I have to get out!" he desperately stated as he increased his pace into what he recognized to be the building's bathroom hallway.

Similar to the hall he had just exited, the bathroom hall was devoid of any obstacles in his way aside from a stack of monitors and a wet floor sign that were haphazardly placed between the appropriately labelled women's and men's restroom entrances.

"Freddy Fazbear's Pizza!"

Seeing as his path was split into both said rooms, he chose to enter the women's first, as it had been the closest one from the way he'd entered, but found himself with no further path to go down, as the second doorway, which would have led into the room, had been completely sealed off by the same checkered patterned and dingy grey wall that encompassed the rest of the area.

"Fuck sakes..." he scowled as he grabbed onto the doorway he'd entered from and began making his way down the hallway as the song continued blaring through the misplaced speakers.

"Where kids are safe and sound!"

Yeah, fucking right, Max thought as he entered the men's bathroom, which, to his luck, had not been sealed off as the other bathroom had been.

However, as he walked into the bathroom, he noticed that it had been completely empty of any stalls and urinals and was instead completely empty aside from four large mirrors on the right and a row of sinks across the wall below them.

Directly in front of him was yet another misplaced doorway, that one leading into what seemed to be an overly cramped kitchen with utensils and plates all scattered and shattered across the floor.

Had it not been for the six-foot-tall robotic chicken adorned with a white bib with the words 'Let's Eat on it, who, in one hand, held a pink cupcake with a face directly next to the doorway, he would have already made it to the other side.

He figured since it seemed to be off, he could maybe squeeze past it and make it safely across into the other room, but decided not to test his luck and instead thought of going back and trying to find another way out.

"Fazbear Entertainment offers absolutely no guarantees regarding guest safety."

Almost to mock his predicament, the robotic voice of the announcer returned before the song continued onto its next verse.

"Hey, I'm Chica! The lady of the group!"

The animatronic went from completely stationary and then roared to life as it began rotating its torso and performing to a crowd that did not exist.

Disturbed by the suddenness, he made his way back into the hallway, only taking his eyes off of the chicken when he entered the small hallway in between the large one and the back room itself.

"My singing is a treat!"

As he was doing so, the chicken continued to perform to its invisible audience.

"So sweet!"

"AHH!" Max yelled out as he bumped into something that stood between the doorway into the bathroom hallway.

Swiftly turning around to see what had stopped his retreat, he looked up to see that the rabbit had at some point arrived there, likely having awaited his attempt to escape.

"No... How... When..." Max cried out as his heart rate dramatically increased, leading to more and more blood spilling out of his wound.

He knew that keeping the jacket pressed to him was hardly doing anything as it had been completely soaked by then, but still he pushed it even harder onto his chest as he quickly returned to the men's bathroom.

"But keep an eye on your pizza!"

The song's volume increased in intensity before suddenly dying out as he re-entered the space where the chicken was putting on her part of the show.

BZZZZZT!

BZZZZZT!

BZZZZZT!

The lights in the room dramatically began blinking on and off in rapid succession and changing colors as they turned back on, completely distorting Max's sense of sight in the process.

CLINK!

BANG!

However, through the epileptic flashing, he could see that the chicken had returned to her previously stationary state before dropping both her hands to the floor, making the cupcake crash onto the floor.

Then, as the lights flashed faster and faster, getting duller and duller each time, the chicken slowly lifted her arms up to her head, stopping only when they reached her beak, aligned with numerous metal teeth.

"What are you–"

In one swift motion, she grabbed onto both parts of her orange beak and swung one arm up and the other downwards, ripping her beak and jaw into numerous pieces. In doing so, she revealed a hideous metal inner skeleton with its own set of top and bottom teeth.

Though the flashing lights made it hard to see at first, Max noticed that protruding from the bottom of the mascot's mouth was an extremely pale arm with painted fingernails that, based on its size, could have only belonged to a child.

"No way..." Max whispered in disbelief at the scene before him, paying no mind to the epileptic lighting nor the horrific clamping of metal and wiring of electronics that was slowly increasing in proximity to him.

SWOOSH!

CLASH!

BANG!

Then, a second hand shot up from the chicken's mouth, causing the head to come off its shoulders, and grabbed onto the shell.

THUD!

The head dropped to the floor before suddenly the lyrics of the song began to be sung once again.

"Cause I'm a bird who likes to eat!"

Unlike before, the song had not played through any of the twisted building's speakers, but instead was maniacally uttered by the voice of what he presumed to have been the young girl inside the metal creature before him.

"Hehehehe!" A giggle echoed throughout the room.

Then, before the sound had time to dissipate, the arms retreated quickly back into the suit, and the chicken's arms lifted up in unison as it began sprinting towards the frozen boy.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The sound of its metallic footsteps on the tiled floor bounced around inside Max's head as he began contemplating his next move.

If I run around it, could it reach me?

I can't run backwards; the rabbit is there, isn't it?

What happens if they catch me?

It's a dream, isn't it?

It's not a dream.

I need to run.

I can't die here.

I need to get out!

GO! GO! GO!

MOVE MAX!

RUN.

I SAID GO!

SCRAAAAAAAUGH!

Breaking from his trance, Max, in the last possible second, dodged the chicken who had screamed and lunged at him in an attempt to grab hold of him and devour him.

Max couldn't die there; he wouldn't allow himself to die there. Finally, for once in his life, he had a future worth living for, and he wouldn't let the nightmares of the past take everything away from him.

He came here to face his fears, not to cower in fear of them anymore. He wouldn't sit still and allow the world to bring him down. Not ever again.

"AHHHHH!" Max screamed out as he charged into the kitchen with his resolve once and for all solidified.

SCRAAAAAAAUGH!

Max didn't look behind him to see which of the two robots had screamed at him.

He wouldn't look behind, not ever again; that was why he was there after all, even if it wasn't the memory he had expected he'd be facing off against. But he knew that if he made it out of that horrid place, he would be strong enough to face anything else that would stand in his way.

All he had to do was keep moving forward and find his way back home.

Back to Alice.

No longer paying any attention to the hot, piercing pain which had stalled him for so long, he dashed down the maze-like kitchen while making sure to avoid the shattered glass and utensils which threatened to pierce him dead if he took even the slightest wrong step.

Max attempted to shove the dozens of pizza shelves out of his way to create a clear path he could walk down, but was unable to do so as they seemed to have been all somehow nailed into the floor.

"Couldn't make it any harder for me, could you!" He yelled out as he continued down, running into dead end after dead end of the maze of a room which only seemed to increase in size the longer he spent inside of it.

Max attempted to grab hammers and knives that were adorned on some of the tables, but to his dismay found them to be stuck in place, unable to be altered in any way. He surely wouldn't have stood any chance against any of the robots, but he figured having some kind of defense was better than having none. Maybe if he'd struck them in the eyes, they would be unable to see him, but then he shook off the thought when he recalled the girl inside the chicken.

"Of course they would still see me; what kind of stupid thought is that!"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

SCRAAAAAAAUGH!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Max could hear behind him as the animatronics were quickly closing the gap he had created in his initial head start.

He had hoped that the tight spaces would have drastically decreased their speed, considering their height and width, but figured that this space would have given them some sort of advantage.

He would have turned around to check, but considering just how close they sounded to be getting, he instead continued running and running in hopes that he had cleared enough ground between them to get to the exit in time.

"Ah! There!" Max yelled out, exasperated as he passed by a large brick furnace and table which were in front of a set of grey double doors.

CRASH!

Max took no time to catch his breath as he continued running forward straight into the doors like a bullet, making a loud crashing sound that echoed throughout the building.

SQRRUEEAK!

BASH!

"Ghss! Shit!"

Unfortunately for him, he had underestimated the weight of the door, which led him to slip on the tile floor and crash into the wall in front of him, blowing the wind out of him in the process.

"Where do I?" he asked the void as he regained his stature.

Max presumed himself to have been in the east hallway, considering the similar size and layout. Seeing another doorway at the opposite end of the hall, he looked towards the maze and saw the two mascots were sprinting towards him through the now completely empty, seemingly endless on all sides, room.

"God...damn it!"

As he continued catching his breath, he looked down the end of the hallway in desperation. There he saw, past a trio of posters each showcasing one of the main band members and dozens of cardboard boxes, the entrance to the dining room.

"No way..." he gasped as a tired smile formed on his face, but only for a second as the sounds of the robots approaching grew louder and louder.

"Fuck you!" he yelled out as he took in one last quick breath and began darting towards the next room.

BSTTZZTZTZT!

"F-Fr-Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, where fantasy and fun come to life!"

As Max ran into the room, he paid no mind to the return of the egregiously loud music coming from the speakers and noticed he had exited from the back of the room where the arcade should have been.

"Shit, shit! Where is it!" he yelled out as he ran to the middle of the room where he'd get the best vantage point, since he'd known that the next room would likely not be where it was in reality.

Then, he saw it: where the entrance to the bathroom hallway should have been, door bright red double entry doors.

"That's..."

"Freddy Fazbear! Freddy Fazbear! Freddy Fazbear, pizza!" The singers of the band all continued singing louder and louder, and in the process, hid the presence of a second figure other than Max.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

SCRAAAAAAAUGH!

Max had ignored all his other senses and instead spent all his focus on finding the doors, and he hadn't even realized that the fox had snuck up on him until it had jumped across the dining room towards him.

"AGHHH..."

Max jumped onto the table nearest to him, yet again narrowly avoiding his demise.

"Freddy Fazbear! Freddy Fazbear! Freddy Fazbear, pizza!" the song continued, getting ever more distorted as it reached its climax.

"NO YOU–"

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Seeing as the other two animatronics had arrived, Max knew that he was running out of time. If he wanted to get out alive, he couldn't spend any more time sitting still.

"COME ON!" Max yelled out as he grabbed onto his arm with the other and readied himself to ram the door open just like he had the previous ones.

"Freddy Fazbear!"

SCRAAAAAAAUGH!

The three robots each harrowingly screamed out in unison as they began charging one last time towards Max.

The animatronics each bared their fangs as they wildly, like animals, lunged over and lunged at him. All the while, parts of their shells and even limbs began falling apart, each making loud thuds as they landed on the hard tile floor.

"AAAAAGGHHHHHH!"

"Freddy Fazbear!"

BANG!

"Freddy Fazbear, pizza!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"





※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※





Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Had Max told any of that to anyone else, they would have surely laughed at him right to his face. More often than not, people would have left the millisecond he uttered anything of the supernatural.

But there sat Alice, in tears, not able to say anything nor move an inch after having heard such ridiculousness come from his mouth.

Something about that made Max happy in a way he had never felt before. He felt liberated.

"Alice..." Max took hold of both of Alice's still hands with his own.

But he knew that telling her all of that wasn't enough.

"I know... I sound crazy, but..."

Something deep inside his heart told him as much.

"Max..." Alice finally broke her silence, as she worriedly anticipated the words she knew were next to come.

"I'm going back to Freddy's."