“Ah, so glad that you could join us today!”, Mark said enthusiastically to Caleb, barely paying attention to the man. They walked down the production line of animatronic parts and plushies. Caleb didn’t mind the racket of the loud, whirring machines. Eventually, the two men arrived at the VR section of the production center. “I promise you, once you get to see our latest attraction, your outlook on Fazbear Entertainment will never be the same!” 

Caleb mostly focused on his self-image. Years of being an online influencer made him prioritize that. In his early days he recorded song covers, gaming videos and vlogging that didn’t give him much attention until two years later, when he got into the acting business. His first film wasn’t exactly well received, and his second was more of a production nightmare, but the third, the latest slasher reboot of Screech, sparked the positive recognition he desired, and his channel blew up to levels he couldn’t imagine. 

Yet, despite that, Caleb didn’t feel happy. He wasn’t satisfied. He wanted more: not mere recognition, he wanted to be known for achieving something to remember. His channel was starting to bore him out, and he would much rather work on finishing his college degree. It annoyed him to spend time answering his fan’s questions. However, the profits from his channel were the main thing paying that tuition. So he decided to take time out of his day to dedicate to his online appearance, a task that was both tedious and energy-draining. 

Recently, his assistant, Claudia, received news that an advocate from Fazbear Entertainment wanted to invite him to test the latest horror attraction they’ve been designing. Caleb didn’t exactly want to take the offer, mostly because of the...company’s fanbase reputation. And he was tired of the games they produced. It was only when Claudia mentioned the revenue it could produce that he took the offer. It’s not what I’d prefer, but if it gets me enough attention to give me a break for a while, then I’ll take it. 

Caleb noticed engineers building some kind of virtual reality headset on his left, with another employee using it to give a test run. I guess this is how they design their VR games, he thought, as Mark brought him to the door at the end of the hall. Mark opened the door and Caleb stepped inside. 

The room wasn’t anything like Caleb expected. It looked like an entrance you would expect at a suburban house. The walls were colored in a dark green coating, while in front of him, there was a dark oak door, well-crafted, with the numbers “101” signed above it. “So this is what you wanted me to see?” he grumbled to Mark. 

“No. What I wanted you to see is the simulation, Caleb. Once you walk through that door, with the right equipment, you’ll be experiencing our newest take on the Five Nights At Freddy's gameplay,” Mark explained. Mark was a tall, well-built man, with a black-haired mustache and beard, and oddly red-dyed hair combed over to the right.

“One of our game's biggest criticisms was that it was too focused on jumpscares. After a while, jumpscares don’t frighten people if they know what to expect. But with the VR entry, we learned that players tend to be more frightened when the jumpscare is coming at them like it’s the real thing. So we decided to explore a new concept: What if we made a virtual reality simulation, but one where you can run around and interact with the environment? That’s what this program is all about,” Mark said. “It will be like you’re living inside a Five Nights at Freddy’s game, except there’s much more than jumpscares to be afraid of.” 

“So basically it’s just the same game but it’s interactive?”, Caleb asked him, disappointed. 

“Oh no, the simulation setting might be like the games, but this is going to be a bit...different than what you’re used to. I won’t give it away, but...it’s going to get really stressful, really fast,” Mark said, in a weirdly creepy tone this time around. 

“Well, let’s get this over with already,” Caleb said. “So are you sure this is safe?” 

“First, you need to wear this,” Mark told him, handing over a large helmet. Caleb put it over his head, and it looked like an oversized VR headset. It covered his eyes, face, and ears. “That will allow the simulation to come to life. Once you’re inside, you’ll be interacting with an office-like area. You know, the cameras, the power button, the doors? All that’s there. Don’t worry about getting injured. Our last tester experienced some...complications, but we’ve improved that to make this experience safe for you. Lots of blood, sweat and tears went into it, I assure you. Try doing what you might normally do in a Freddy’s game, but don’t forget you can run,” Mark said to Caleb before opening the door. The inside looked dark and empty, like an endless void. 

“Alright, I get it. Nothing too much to worry about,” Caleb grumbled before walking through the door, hearing the door slamming immediately.

---------------------

His eyes saw a quick flash of bright static, the kind you would see on a glitching TV screen, before his surroundings were brought to life. Wow...this...this actually looks pretty real, Caleb thought. He was in some kind of security office. The walls were made of strict concrete and steel, with metal pipes connected to the ceiling. It was dimly lit, with only a single glitching lightbulb above to grant him some light. The desk had a series of camera feed monitors on it. There were two doorways on each side of the room, and a large vent above the desk. The clock read out 12:00 A.M. Better get started, he thought. He sat down at the desk and searched the security monitors. 

“Well, hello agaaaaain! Are you re-ready for round two?!” The mechanical high-pitched voice made Caleb jump instantly. On camera four, he could see the face of what looked like a white-and-pink version of Freddy, only more smooth-looking. His eyes felt like they were staring right into Caleb. On camera seven, he saw a white-and-pink colored version of Foxy, that was currently leaving its stage and walking away. Okay, so those two are still far away from me. I might want to keep tabs on Freddy, though. 

“Ready or not, here I c-come!”, the high pitched voice spoke again. Caleb heard a series of speedy, stomping footsteps. He looked out of the doorway to see Freddy making a beeline for the office. Without hesitation, Caleb panicked and pressed the button and locked the door with only a few seconds to spare. He waited until Freddy stopped banging on the door to open it once more. That was close, Caleb thought. Usually, things like that don’t scare me, but when it’s up close and personal...it’s a whole different experience. 

Caleb made sure to repeat the pattern he learned from the previous games: he watched Foxy regularly, but not too often, and kept eyes and ears on Freddy if he made a move. After what felt like a few minutes, he turned to the right of the desk to see how much power was left. 89%. 1:00 A.M. Okay, not too bad, he thought. Could be worse. 

A few moments later, one of the security monitors began to glitch out into static. Caleb tried to figure out if there was a way to reboot it, but the image changed from static to the face of an animatronic mask in a split second. It looked very similar to the Foxy animatronic, but this one was colored differently. While it still had the white color like Foxy, this one had orange coloring around its top snout and its eyes, with purple cheeks and lips to match. Those eyes - if you could call them eyes - were black and empty, with silver pupils. Caleb felt anxious just by staring at them.

“ᖴIᑎᗩᒪᒪY. ᔕOᗰEOᑎE'ᔕ GIᐯEᑎ ᗰE ᗩ ᐯIᔕIT”, the screen spoke. The distorted, mechanical male voice was completely unnatural. Soon, another monitor screen glitched and showed another image of the same fox-like animatronic. “ᒪET'ᔕ GET TᕼIᔕ OᐯEᖇ ᗯITᕼ. Iᖴ YOᑌ ᔕTᗩY ᗯᕼEᖇE YOᑌ ᗩᖇE, YOᑌ ᗰIGᕼT ᔕᑌᖇᐯIᐯE. IT ᗯIᒪᒪ ᗰᗩKE TᕼIᔕ ᗰᑌᑕᕼ EᗩᔕIEᖇ, I ᑭᖇOᗰIᔕE YOᑌ.”

What the...what the hell is going on?! Caleb tried everything he could. He started giving the monitor a good whack. Nothing. But he couldn’t let this distract him from the other animatronics. He desperately checked the security camera footage again. Only this time, something...odd was going on.

Neither Freddy nor Foxy were showing up anywhere on the footage. Nowhere. Caleb checked again to see if it was some kind of error or not. He even checked outside of the office doors to see where they were. Still no sign of them. Not even their footsteps could be heard. Where the hell did those two go? Caleb was trying to think of something to make sense of the situation. Maybe it’s a bug in the simulation.

Then, one by one, all of the monitors began showing that cursed fox robot. The screens began to speak in unison. “TᕼE OTᕼEᖇᔕ ᗩᖇE IᗰITᗩTIOᑎᔕ. TᕼEY ᒪOOK ᒪIKE TᕼEY ᑕᗩᑎ ᕼᑌᖇT YOᑌ, ᗷᑌT ᗩᖇE TᕼEᖇE ᗰEᖇEᒪY ᖴOᖇ YOᑌᖇ TEᖇᖇOᖇ.” Caleb watched dumbfounded before deciding the only way to stop was to cut the power off. The other robots weren’t around, so what was there that could hurt him? The voice only spoke again, this time much deeper and antagonizing. 

“ł, ⱧØ₩ɆVɆⱤ, ₳₥ VɆⱤɎ ⱤɆ₳Ⱡ. ₳₦Đ ł ₩łⱠⱠ ĐØ ₥Ʉ₵Ⱨ ₥ØⱤɆ ₮Ⱨ₳₦ JɄ₴₮ ₲łVE ɎØɄ ₳ ₣Ɽł₲Ⱨ₮. ₴₮₳Ɏ ₮ⱧɆⱤɆ, ₳₦Đ ₩Ɇ'ⱠⱠ ฿Ø₮Ⱨ ₲Ɇ₮ ₩Ⱨ₳₮ ₩Ɇ ₩₳₦₮.” 

Immediately, the monitors began to glitch out again, and the light began to flicker nonstop. A painful scream came from the monitors and before Caleb knew it, everything went dark. He felt like he was in an empty black void. Why would he turn off the power himself? That doesn’t make any sense, Caleb wondered, trying not to panic. Everything around him was dark, and his paranoia began to grow by the minute. There is no reason to be scared of this stupid game! It’s all fake, all of it!

Caleb kept trying to talk to himself to calm down, only making him more frustrated. He felt goosebumps crawl up his arms. There’s probably going to be a jumpscare sooner or later. After that, this nightmare will be over and I can burn these memories from my head, he thought. But the jumpscare never came. He waited for five minutes, then ten minutes. Nothing. 

“Screw this, I’m done!”, he said to himself. Caleb had enough of this terrible game, and wasn’t going to pull up with it any longer. He took off his VR helmet to break free of the simulation. 

The world around him turned from a black void into a bright, glitching mess of a maze. The walls and floor kept glitching between green and red static, flashing lights, and an annoying, high-pitched sound was all that Caleb could hear. How...I am still in the simulation or not? 

There wasn’t any equipment from the office in the area, but there seemed to be what looked like a taser. It was the only thing that didn’t seem to be glitching. Why wasn’t this here before? Caleb grabbed the weapon and decided to wander around to look for the exit door. Come on, it’s got to be around here somewhere…

While walking down the hallway, Caleb could hear footsteps coming behind him. He quickly turned around to see that he wasn’t alone in this glitchy maze. Fifteen feet from him stood the silver-eyed fox animatronic, its orangish-purple scheme replaced with greenish-blue. Creepiest of all, the robot looked shockingly real, its suit looking both smooth and polished. Run. 

Caleb instantly ran away as fast as his legs could carry him. He heard the fox charging behind him like a rhinoceros, its feet stomping as it hurried after him. He didn’t have to turn around to know the creature was approaching him, but he certainly didn’t want to look back, either. 

“ł ₩₳₦₮ ₮Ø ⱠɆ₳VɆ ₳₴ ₥Ʉ₵Ⱨ ₳₴ ɎØɄ ĐØ! ฿Ʉ₮ ɎØɄ'ⱤɆ ₮ⱧɆ Ø₦ⱠɎ ₥Ɇ₳₦₴ Ø₣ Ɇ₴₵₳₱ł₦₲ ₮Ⱨł₴ ₳₲Ø₦łⱫł₦₲, ₲ØĐ₣ØⱤ₴₳₭Ɇ₦ ₱Ɽł₴Ø₦ ɎØɄ ₵₳ⱠⱠ ₳ ₲₳₥Ɇ!”

In an instant, Caleb was thrust to the ground, as he hit the hard concrete floor of the room. He tried to rise up, but felt something heavy on his back pushing him down. The fox had caught him, and it wasn’t keen on letting him go. He looked at the creature in its silver pupils with fear, and he could swear that for a moment, the creature’s appearance glitched again, reverting back to its original form for a split second. The creature’s sharp teeth were exposed as it began to open its jaws, and sank its teeth into Caleb’s right hand. He could feel the sharp pain of the monster’s metallic teeth drilling into his flesh, as well as a new pain, one that caused the rest of his body to shake and squirm around uncontrollably. What’s happening to me?!

“ᗪOᑎ'T ᗯOᖇᖇY. I'ᗰ ᑎOT GOIᑎG TO KIᒪᒪ YOᑌ. I ᑎEEᗪ YOᑌ ᗩᒪIᐯE. TᕼE ᑭᗩIᑎ Iᔕ OᑎᒪY TEᗰᑭOᖇᗩᖇY, ᗷᑌT OᑎᑕE IT'ᔕ OᐯEᖇ, I'ᒪᒪ ᕼᗩᐯE EᐯEᖇYTᕼIᑎG I ᑎEEᗪ TO ᗷᖇEᗩK ᖴᖇEE Oᖴ TᕼIᔕ ɢɦǟֆȶʟʏ քʟǟƈɛ.”

Caleb felt his entire body becoming numb, watching as the creature began to release an inhuman laugh. But judging from the one, it sounded less like laughter and more like something crying out in anguish, like a caged animal desperate to break free of its bonds. He was defenseless, unable to move his arms and legs as the creature bent over him and prepared to bite down on his neck. With one final chance, however, Caleb tried to use whatever strength he had left, to grab ahold of the taser.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mark waited outside of the room near the door. I wonder what’s taking him so long, he wondered. He’s been in there for almost an hour now. 

Almost like his thoughts were answered, the door opened again, and he saw Caleb walk out of it. His eyes looked baggy and bloodshot, like he was dead tired.

“Can I finally go now?! I’ve been through enough pain for one day!”, he yelled at Mark. Mark looked at Caleb’s right hand and noticed some kind of scar that he didn’t see before he entered. It looked like some animal had bit him, but it looked more like a brand mark than an actual bite. 

“Say, was that scar on your hand before we walked in?” 

“Oh, don’t mind that, sir. Anyway, could you show me the way to the nearest exit? I’d really like to go now,” Caleb told him. 

Mark looked back at him confused. “I...showed you around the place an hour ago.”