Animatronic Eyes

Though I never actually saw any weird occurances, I did, however, feel them. This swelling darkness around me left me constantly looking over my shoulder and keeping tabs on all three of the animatronics.

As Jess and Cyrus had told me, I helped serve the first three families that came through the doors, I watched Cyrus carefully as she wrote down their orders on a paper pad, and then followed her to the kitchen to get drinks.

"Hold it like this." She instructed me, adjusting my left hand on the bottom of the black platter, holding seven cups. It wobbled uneasily on my palm.

"I'm gonna drop it-" I insisted before it almost did fall off onto the floor. Cyrus shrugged, and carefully took the platter away from me. "Takes practice, that's all. Give it a few days and you'll have it."

She ducked out the doors with the platter, and left me with a wonder. I could volunteer for a few more days. Nothing that will make it look any different on a collage application. I shook the thought away and went after her.

"Alright, next family is all yours." Cyrus said, pushing me lightly towards the door. I panicked and planted my feet. "What?!"

"Don't worry." She said calmly, brushing a strand of my hair off my shoulder, "I'll be right here if you need me."

It made me feel a little better and a little worse. A little worse knowing that if I did mess up, Cyrus would be there to see me do it, and she'd probably laugh at me. And I felt a little better knowing she'd help me clean up and fix the problem after she was done laughing at my expense.

It was then, almost on cue, the door opened, and a tidal wave of families came in. Short, pudgy, greedy kids screaming at each other about who was going to play the pinball machine first, and for a minute it started looking like an about-to-happen fist fight, until their parents finally realized their hostility and pulled them away from each other with a brief, uncaring scold.

"Go to it," Cyrus nudged me forward in encouragment. I took a deep breath and faked a smile to hide my trembling lips.

"Welcome to Freddy's. Table for how many?" I asked in the softest, sweetest voice that could possibly come from my mouth. It sounded foriegn, it didn't sound like me.

Fifteen minutes later I saw Blake walk off towards the animatronic's studio, and then walk out with the three of them following him like loyal, unfazed guard dogs. He paused and turned to Freddy who walked right behind him.

"Play the Freddy Fazbear Themesong." He instructed the bear firmly in a way a mother tells her child to only go to the store and home.

Blake must have accepted Freddy's lack of response as a yes, because he walked away after. And then, the animatronics stretched their limbs and looked at each other with twitching eyes, then began walking towards the stage.

"Ohhh Welcome! Welcome! To Freddy's! We've got pizza, candy and arcades. Ohhh Welcome! Welcome, meet Bonnie, Chica and Foxy, too. Lurking in Pirate Cove and on stage. Welcome to, this big, fantastic place! Freddy Fazbear Pizzeria!" Freddy sung in a warm voice, his limbs twitched as he moved about the stage, eyes following each child.

When they finished that song, a boy, a punk, who sat closest to the stage smirked. "Hey Freddy!" He shouted, and Freddy's ears turned towards him, and eventually his entire body.

"Hi little boy!" Freddy exclaimed with excitment.

"Do you know what rhymes with pizzeria?" The boy taunted, his eyes narrowing.

Freddy looked thoughtful for a moment, well... As thoughtful as a robot can look. "Hmmm, I don't know! What?" His smile resumed, and the punk boy's became wicked.

"Diarrhea." Th boy snickered, then broke out into a fit of laughter. So did some of the parents and other people around the building.

"Ain't that the truth?" Cyrus laughed quietly from beside me.

Freddy's face confused, eyes narrowing, his muzzle pulling up a little "Oh, well that's not nice." He scolded, then stood up straight, turning to face Bonnie. "Let's play a song about being nice" He said, and Bonnie began playing artificial chords on his red V guitar, Chica nodded her head slowly from side to side. Her purple eyes almost appearing to glow.

"I'd... Better get back to work." I mumbled and turned away, when the eyes of the rabbit flashed up at me, and locked there. I ducked my head, tendrils of my hair falling in a curtain around my face as I walked out of view into the kitchen.

"Are you ok?"

I jumped and noticed Jack had been following me. I put my palm to my forehead. "Yeah, I'm good. Are you?"

He nodded, smiling. "Yeah, I'm good. But you... You look like you saw a ghost."

I laughed weakly. "I feel like I might as well have." I admitted shakily.

"What's going on?" He lowered his voice and we looked around ourselves. Cole had the radio up too loud in the kitchen to hear us anyways, and we were in the wash room.

I bit my lip hard. "I... I just have a bad feeling, I, I dunno, it's just been there all day."

Jack shrugged. "Maybe it's nothing? You know what they say, old habits die hard. So you're dislike for the mascots is something you've aqcuired and gotten used to over the years. You'll shake it when you start to feel comfortable here."

I peeked up at him and tucked some of my loose hair behind my ear. "Do you really think so?"

"I know so." He answered confidently.

"Hey, what are you guys doing? Everything ok?" Cyrus barged in the door behind us, holding a small pile of empty metal trays littered with pizza crumbs.

I nodded and gave her a thumbs up. "Everything's good. I just needed to talk to Jack."

"Oh, ok. Well, not to be rude or anything, but you might want to wrap that up. Table three is getting needy." She patted my shoulder as she passed back out the door.

"I'll be right there!" I called to her before it closed.

"Ok." He paused awkwardly, and punched my arm playfully. "get out there, get to work, get your slip signed and get the fuck out of here!"

We high fived just as Cyrus walked back through the door with a black tray of empty glasses. "No cussing, this is a kid's place." She said with a smirk.

I laughed and headed out the door to wait the tables.

After the lunch rush, the crowds didn't dwindle like I hoped they would. In fact, they seemed to multiply. I watched Jess and Blake carry multiple trays of pizza back into the party dining hall for some big shot rich kid's birthday party. And as it turns out, the kid was the same one having a bitch fit over the pinball machine earlier.

"Freddy is gonna sing me a song." I heard him say in a highpitched voice, and I looked over as I washed down a table with bleach water and a rag. The kid gripped Blake's arm with greasy fingers, and big, unbelivable pleading eyes.

Blake rolled his eyes and jerked his arm away. "I'll see what I can do..." He said extra sweet. As he walked away from the table, he made a face. I laughed and he grinned at me, approaching the animatronics preforming a song on the stage.

"Blake is the best with them." Jess noted, materializing out of thin air beside me. Her hair pulled back into a ponytail now, her eyes thoughtful.

I looked at her in confusion. "Who? The kids?"

She shook her head. "The animatronics. They just respond better to him asking them to play kid's songs. Even though that is their job and only mission in life, they're just different if I or Cyrus ask them... It's weird." She shook her head, looking down at the table top.

"It make me wonder something..." She paused midthought, contemplating it in her head.

"What?" I asked nonchalantly, smearing the wet cloth around on the red and white tiled top.

"It makes me wonder if they'd treat you the same." She said with a shrug. Then her eyes lit up with an idea.