008: After Dark

            I got home from a shift one night. I unlocked my apartment, got inside, and immediately took a shower. My job wasn't necessarily difficult anymore, it was just tedious and nothing was set in stone. Every day was different, and every day revealed more strange things to me. A shower was the one thing I needed. I was completely exhausted.

            When I got out of the shower, I noticed I had a missed call. I didn't even have to check to know who it was. It was my anonymous stalker. There was text there from Jayden, too. It was a simple hey. That was at least something pleasant. Amanda and I texted frequently too, and she'd gone so far as to follow me on social media. She was probably my favorite coworker out of the bunch. The easiest to talk to as well, despite her shy personality.

            I was almost about to get into bed when I heard a knock on my door. I ignored it at first, but whoever it was knocked again. It was a clear set of three knocks each time. One, two, three. So, I quietly walked to the door.

            Looking through the peephole, I didn't see anything at first. I blinked, and I saw an eyeball. It wasn't a human eyeball. It looked like the eyeball of an animatronic, but not quite. It was the eyeball of a costume. Then, it stepped backwards and waved at me.

            It was the Glitchtrap costume.

            I jumped backwards, and then checked again.

            Nothing.

            Slowly, and stupidly, I opened the door.

            Nothing. There was nobody there.

            Either I was completely exhausted, or working at my job was slowly starting to drive me insane.

            I was barely conscious when I found myself roaming the halls of Fazbear's Fright, just like I did every day. Somehow, I'd found the strength to put on makeup before my shift. Ever since I saw that damn rabbit outside of my front door, sleeping didn't come easily to me. The only thing that woke me up was the sound of thumping inside of the vents.

            I called out, "Springtrap?"

            The thumping stopped. It was definitely following me. I just shrugged and kept walking. I almost walked straight into Sam, who was leaving the safe room. I stared at him, and he stared back at me for a moment. There was no denying that costume was in that room. There was no denying that I saw it after I got home. I just stared at him, thinking about the absolute worst. Did he follow me home? Would he have followed me home?

            "Hey, Emma!" His voice was sheepish. "You alright?"

            "Yeah." I sipped a coffee. "Are you?"

            The lights above my head flickered. Sam replied, "Sure am! I see you did some makeup today! It looks nice!"

            I just kept staring at him. There was no denying it. "Thanks."

            He took a step toward me. "What is that, eyeliner?"

            He got closer. He was looking at my eyes, but he was too close. "Yeah, why?"

            "It looks nice."

            Sam's voice dropped a little. I kept staring at him, eyes unmoving from him. His overly positive disposition had rubbed me the wrong way since day one. There was no denying it. "Thanks."

            He stared at me for a moment, eyes peering down into mine. His eyes were dark blue and usually they were friendly, but there was something metaphorically dark behind them. You would think that Springtrap's eyes would be scary, but the eyes of someone with something to hide and nothing to lose are much worse.

            "Well," he just leaned back and stretched out his arm, "I have something to work on, so I'll see you around!"

            "Yeah."

            He walked past me and all I heard was, "Oh – excuse me, buddy!"

            I turned around to see Springtrap, whose eyes were staring at Sam as he walked away. Again, I heard its finger joints snap into a fist, and to my surprise, the robot punched the wall. Quite literally. It didn't do too much damage, but I saw the sheetrock crumble to the ground. I stepped backwards, unsure if it was supposed to be able to act that way or not. I did not need that thing snapping right in front of me.

            "Are... you okay?"

            Its eyes focused on me with a slow turn of its head. Darkly, it replied, "I didn't like the way he was looking at you."

            My hand was shaking ever so slightly. "Me either."

            "I don't like him."

            "Me either." It removed its fist from the wall, which made me relax a bit. "But... please don't do that. You're scaring me."

            It rolled its eyes and relaxed its body. Slowly, I stepped toward it. Anyone else would've thought I was crazy, but I wanted to make sure it didn't damage itself. Slowly, I reached for its hand. It recoiled. "What do you think you're doing?"

            "I'm checking your hand."

            "What?"

            "Your hand. I'm going to look at it?"

            Its voice was short and defensive. "Why?"

            "To make sure it's okay?"

            It looked at me for a moment. Then, it essentially gave its hand to me, extending its fingers. When they moved, they clicked. This was the first time I'd genuinely touched the robot. I'd done it by accident a few times, usually when it would linger behind me, but never on purpose. Deep down, I still believed it would kill me if I touched it. I carefully dusted the sheetrock off, moving my fingertips against its own. Springtrap's hand alone was larger than both of mine. That thing could kill with minimal effort if it really wanted to.

            "Are you done now?"

            I jumped a little, but nodded. "Yes. You can have your hand back."

            It took its hand back, and as soon as it did, I saw Amanda standing in the hallway. She looked confused as all get-out. "Am I interrupting something?"

            "No." She still seemed to feel like she was. "When did you get here?"

            "Just now."

            Springtrap just wandered off, taking the hint that he probably wasn't going to be involved in the conversation. Amanda walked closer, giving me a weird look. "What?"

            She looked in the direction the robot walked in. "He let you touch him?"

            I furrowed my eyebrows. "Yeah, but don't make it sound so weird."

            "Sorry." Amanda looked at the wall. "What happened?"

            "Long story."

            "I have time."

            I ended up telling her everything. We sat in the office, and I told her about the calls. I told her about the costume, and I showed her the picture. I told her that I saw the costume at my house. I told her about Sam's weird behavior. I told her about Springtrap's hatred of the guy. I told her all of it. For some reason, she didn't seem to think any of it was ridiculous. She just sat and listened to me. Getting it out felt good. The only person I really had prior to this who knew about it wasn't even a person, and was even less of a conversation-maker.

            "So, you think all of it is Sam?"

            I was staring at the picture of the costume. "Who else would it be?"

            "I think you're right." She was messing with her fingers. "I didn't want to tell you this because you always seem pretty stressed, but... I've heard him asking the guys questions about you."

            "What?" I almost stood up from the chair. "None of them have told me that."

            "They don't really care too much about it." She looked up at the ceiling. "Except Jayden. He got kind of mad when Sam asked him about you. Something about Instagram."

            "Really?"

            "Yeah. He was like, why do you need to know? And just put his AirPods in."

            I leaned back in the chair. More points for him. "Well, that's promising."

            "What about Springtrap?"

            "What?"

            "I mean," Amanda looked back at the window and then back at me, "have you told him about any of this?"

            "Why?"

            She shrugged. "He seems to like you a lot. You're the only one he even talks to here. He just kind of acts like the rest of us aren't here."

            I just stared at her. I never thought about venting to a robot. It acted like a complete ass most of the time, but it at least was funny about it. "I don't know. He might not care."

            "Well, he might. Everyone knows he hates Sam."

            I almost laughed. "How?"

            "He just... stares at him. It's scary. Like he's about to kill him."

            I'd seen that before. I'd seen it many times, and its anger toward him was getting exponentially worse. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

            My whole shift, I thought about it. I thought, and thought, and thought. I tried not to let it get in the way of my "acting," but it wasn't working. Sam, again, was nowhere to be seen. He never appeared on any cameras. He had to have been somewhere else. Every single damn day. I watched for him the whole time, only stopping to set off the ventilation alarm and mess with customers.

            Right when I was about to clock out, I heard, "Hey."

            I turned to see Jayden. I felt bad. I never replied to him the night before. "Hey."

            "You okay?"

            He seemed a little nervous. I just smiled and said, "Yeah, just tired. I've had a crazy couple of days."

            "Yeah, I feel you."

            I thought about leaving then, but I said, "Hey, question."

            That seemed to make him more nervous. "Yeah?"

            "Has Sam ever asked me about you?"

            "I mean, not too much." He looked up. He was thinking. "He asked me if I knew what your Instagram was. I didn't give it to him or anything. It was weird."

            I looked down at the floor. Amanda was right. "That is weird."

            "You want me to walk you to your car?"

            I blinked. "Huh?"

            "I mean, I don't mind. It's late. You really shouldn't be out by yourself."

            I sighed. He was right. Being out by myself was getting more and more uncomfortable as the days went on. When I clocked out and walked into the hall with Jayden right behind, I could've sworn I saw Springtrap around the corner. I swore I saw his glowing eye. That's when it occurred to me – so long as I was there, I would never actually be alone. That robot was a shadow, following my every move.