The Pizzeria

I never thought I would see the day I got hired for a creepy old restaurant, yet here we are. I’m Axel, and this is the story of how I began working the night guard shift at the deadliest place on earth. I was just walking home from college in my graduation suit, still wondering what my occupation was going to be. Was I going to be an office worker working in a sweaty slow-paced environment writing stories about pizzerias and submitting that file my boss always wanted on his desk in ten minutes? Was I going to work in retail? That might be fun, bagging groceries, maybe stocking the occasional shelf, sweeping those everlastingly dirty floors, but then I would have to deal with the inevitable Karen, and that would most definitely tick me off, in possibly more ways than one. Maybe I should work at a weirder job, like a zookeeper, librarian, or maybe even a blackjack dealer if I was feeling lucky. No, none of those sounded fun. I was almost home by then, when I saw a hiring poster on the lamppost on my neighborhood corner. It was advertising a weird looking pizzeria, with a dog as its mascot. And it was even high paying! Which was weird seeing that it was a night guard shift for only a few hours. I went back home and talked to my mom about it. (Yes I know, 18 and still living with my mom, pretty pathetic, but that’s besides the point.) “Mom, I’m home!” I yelled to my mother, Linda Sterling, who was inside my one floor house, with only four rooms. “Have a seat at the table honey!” She yelled back, “Dinner’s almost ready!” We sat down at the table and talked about the job. She said I should take it, and that it would help pay rent, especially with Dad leaving a few months prior. I knew I should take the job, but I didn’t really want to. My true passion was being a youtuber, but it seemed like I might have to put that aside for the time being. I decided to sleep on it, and I laid down, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the job, it was just too good to be true, and I wasn’t sure how to be a night guard. It seemed simple enough, like I just go there and look at cameras for a few hours, maybe play some video games and eat some donuts, but I wasn’t sure that demanded a $100 dollar an hour paycheck, why would somebody pay that much to hire one person to look after a shop? The next morning, I checked my email, and someone had emailed me the job application for that weird pizzeria. I wasn’t sure who emailed me, but it seemed kind of weird how I was looking at the poster, and now I get an email from the same people. It’s almost like they wanted me specifically to work there. Now that I think about it, I feel like I may have seen a person wearing a dog costume staring at me on the way home from college, but that didn’t have anything to do with these ads, right? I decided to drive over there and apply. They were within walking distance, but I didn’t feel like walking anymore, especially since there was that weird dog guy yesterday, and I didn’t feel like getting jumped. I was welcomed in with eagerness, and asked if I was here for the job. It was weird because I never met these guys in my life. They introduced me to their “buddies” who were the animatronic freaks, and the animatronics all stared at me with looks that were threatening to kill if they could. I gulped hard when I saw the one in the middle, who looked eerily like the dog man from yesterday. I was that close to just up and leaving, but they convinced me to stay when they said “You’re hired!” My heart soared and sunk at the same time. I was actually doing it. My first job! Of course I was excited, but I was also terrified. Looking after a store is one thing, and having animatronics staring at my every move is another. I drove home with terror and with joy in my heart. I tried on my new uniform: A stupid blue jacket that read “Hi! I’m Axl”, (How do you even misspell that name) a hat that had a slice of pizza on it, and navy blue jeans that had pizza sauce on them. At least, I thought it was pizza sauce. What else could a sticky red liquid be? I went back there later that night, and found a sticky note on my desk that read: “Dear Axel, I was the previous night guard and I’m leaving this note to warn you about this job. A, there is a week long contract that you have to stay for; B, keep the doors locked at all times, and C, don’t let the animatronics in. They’re forced to go back in their spots when the sun comes up, so as long as you don’t let them in you’ll be fine. Well, I guess we’ll see if you survive the week! Bye-bye now.” I swallowed nervously when I read C, “Animatronics are just robots, right?” I thought as I read and re-read it multiple times. That’s when I noticed something. I had cameras set up to watch the outside rooms, but I also had cams on the stage next to the animatronics, and they were all watching me. I looked away to look at the note again, and when I looked back, the dog was gone. Just gone. A scream threatened to leave my throat, but I didn’t let myself let out a peep. I knew that if I let him get to my office, it would be game over for me. I locked the door, and held my breath in anticipation. I looked to my side and noticed what looked like a hand grenade? I thought that was just a soda bottle when I came in. “At least I have a good line of defense if they get in”, I thought to myself. That’s when the banging started. I heard noises coming from outside the office, like intense shouting and metal scraping against the fancy wooden floors. I knew I was dead if they got in, so I grabbed the grenade and rolled it under the door after pulling out the pin. The sounds stopped. The scratching stopped. I heard it’s metal joints leaning down to pick the weird object up. “BOOM” The grenade exploded and my eardrums threatened to explode. I knew it got him because I heard the metal falling and landing against the cold, unforgiving floors. I went the rest of the night without an accident, and when the morning came, I couldn’t have been happier. The boss came in and congratulated me on a successful night, and the only thing I would have to do then was pay to replace the floors, and do the rest of the week’s shifts. I knew it would be tough, but I persisted to keep up the job. Eventually I finished off my week, and thought, “You know what? I’m going to keep working here, it’s not that hard!” That’s the day I decided to keep working at this murder shack. The animatronics have come and gone, with the current one being a nice bear. Want to know the best part? I’m privileged to work at the famous “Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria”!