11 The Deal

After William finished his little chat with Dave, he found his way to Mr. Cunningham's office. Take a deep breath, just don't lose your cool too much, and at least try to explain it to him calmly. Of course, considering everything that's happened to him just last night, it didn't look like it was going to be easy. He knocked on the door to the office, patiently waiting for a response. Mr. Cunningham was a busy employer, so William was fine with waiting outside his office for a few minutes. Then, his boss gave him the okay signal.

"Come on in."

William opened to the door, and walked into Mr. Cunningham's office. He saw him sitting at his large desk in a grey swivel chair, working with his typewriter. There were several tax files and documents visible on the desk as well, including a large blue lava-lamp that seemed a bit random. Mr. Cunningham didn't take notice of William for a few seconds since he was busy typing, and once he was finished typing around a few seconds later, he turned to William.

"Ah, good afternoon, Afton. Sorry about making you wait, there was just some very important work I was working on. I'm supposed to be getting a call from Mr. Emily shortly, so I'm kind of rushing some things today."

"That's fine, sir. I've been waiting quite a bit this morning to get to speak with you. I'm somewhat of a patient person."

"Patience is a good quality, Afton, remember that. Well, I'm happy to see you this morning. Anyways, is there, uh, anything you want to talk to me about?"

William thought about how he should bring the situation up to his boss. Sure, he felt like going on a rant about what happened last night with him nearly dying, but he didn't exactly want to get fired just yet. Not until he knew if Mr. Cunningham could do anything about changing his work conditions. William also didn't want to sound like he was going mentally insane in front of his boss, so he tried a more calm approach instead.

"Yes, I do, sir. For the past two nights, I certainly found out many more things than what you told me during the tour I got last week. I have...many certain complaints relating to my... work environment."

"Oh, really? Could you please be a little more specific, Afton?"

"On my first night working here, there weren't many problems with my job. In fact, I was starting to enjoy it until last night. That's what I wanted to talk about with you, sir."

"Well, I'm happy to see you enjoyed your first night here. Anyways, uh, did you happen to have anything to do with the power outage here last night?"

"Wait, you heard about that?"

"Yeah. I just got the report in from Dave. It seems that main power to the facility failed to reboot last night, and that it seemed you were able to restore it manually, right?"

"Yes, that's true, sir, but the only reason the power went out was because-"

"Don't worry. I've heard from some of my other technicians here that there have been a few problems with the Hand-Unit recently. So I'll try to get that all sorted out so that this little incident doesn't happen again."

"Ok, but can I get to what my complaints are finally?"

"We still got some time left before Mr. Emily calls. Go ahead."

I can't hold this in anymore, thought William. I have to tell him what happened. But if I do, will I just sound crazy? Didn't Dave said they knew the animatronics were aggressive? Then it shouldn't sound too crazy.

"Ok, last night I practically went through hell just to reboot the power. I had to deal with two little robots trying to kill me, I had to crawl on the floor just to get past the Ballora, and then Freddy and his little puppet attacked me! And not just that, but my piece of shit Hand-Unit nearly got me killed twice, in the same night! I don't know what the hell is going on around here, but all I can say is this is insane! And all of this happened in one night!!"

Once he was done with his angry rant, William started taking a few deep breaths, feeling happy that he finally got that off of his chest. He calmed down for a minute, as he could see Mr. Cunningham looked at him surprised, and in a kind of annoyed manner.

"Are you done, Afton?"

William took a deep breath in and out before giving an answer.

"Yes."

"Look, Afton, I am truly sorry for what happened to you last night. Believe me, you are not the first employee to come in here and explode like that. I know that Dave is aware that the robots here are a bit aggressive-"

"Oh, and that's another thing, Mr. Cunningham. I just talked with him outside your office a moment ago. He told me that the only reason he couldn't give me the heads up was because you didn't tell him that you hired me! You realized I could've died last night, right? My Hand-Unit was practically nothing but trouble down there!"

Mr. Cunningham let out a big sigh. He didn't respond to William for a few seconds, before trying to talk to him again.

"Mr. Afton, I think you should sit down for this. Do you know why I hired you?"

William took the seat in front of Mr. Cunningham's desk.

"You needed another technician here on the night shift, right?"

"Well, yes, but… there was another reason I assigned you to the night shift."

"What's that, sir?"

"For the past few months, we did know that the animatronics were acting aggressive, and for the record, yes, Dave did mention the whole 'glitch' issue to me. The thing is, though, is that I don't exactly believe he's telling me everything."

"I kind of got that sense, too, sir, but I just don't understand why."

"I know Dave's been through a lot in the past few months: his wife and kid left him, and he's been a suspect in the 'alleged' child death incident and kidnappings, but I think there's something more to this. To be honest, I don't think these animatronics were even having these kind of problems up until that incident occurred. Even I don't know what the hell is causing it. There's something he isn't telling me, or anybody else here for that matter."

"So where do I come in with all of this?"

"I needed someone who Dave had no connections to, and I needed a technician with the right training and robotics knowledge, like you, to try and find the real reason these animatronics are acting so aggressive. Fazbear Entertainment is grinding me to come up with an answer to this soon, and if I don't bring any results, I could get terminated. And not only that, this place could get shut down along with me."

"Let me get this straight: you sent me down to work with robots that you knew were dangerous and would try to injure me because you wanted to know why they were behaving that way? Why couldn't you get someone else to do this?"

"Afton, I tried. Last week I hired a brand new technician Jared Piedmont. But after he, uh, was heavily injured in an accident with Funtime Freddy, most of my other technicians wanted to work a very safe distance away from the animatronics."

"And why the hell should I continue helping you? I'm not risking my life down there for nothing. "

"I'll give you a quarter-raise of your salary."

William considered this. He didn't want to work at a job he could easily die at, but he also needed some more money to help pay off his bills.

"Eh… I'm not sure."

"If you are successful, I'll also throw in a promotion for you."

Ok, this could work out. Sure, this is very risky, but it will all be worth it in the long run.

"Well...okay, Mr. Cunningham. I'll stay."

"Wonderful, Mr. Afton! I knew you had it in you! Well, anyways, I wish you the best of luck. Hopefully, we can get this done by the end of the week, at least. Have a good day, Mr. Afton!"

"You too, sir."

As William walked out his boss's room, he started questioning his decision about staying. Should I have just quit, he thought. It would certainly be safer for him, but since he needed more money, he thought it was just best to stick with his job for the time-being. Besides, he already had been through a lot last night, so he figured he would be prepared for whatever came next for him. William got his security uniform, put it on, and walked out through the front door of Circus Baby World, and returned to his car, driving back home so he could relax before his shift began again.

__________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, Mr. Cunningham was having a conversation with Mr. Emily over the telephone. Mr. Emily worked for Fazbear Entertainment, and his job was to make sure every one of their chain restaurants in the county was running smoothly. Although, given the last few months, there have been some covered-up reports of dismemberment and other issues relating to the animatronics at Circus Baby World, which Henry was not happy with explaining to his CEO.

"Alright, look Henry, I know things look bad right now for Circus Baby World, but I'm telling you, there's nothing to worry about-"

"Don't give me that bullshit, Harold, I've heard the reports! I know about those kidnappings and dismemberment incidents that have occurred recently, and let me just tell you, my superiors are very pissed off with you right now!"

"Give me a moment, Henry! I've already got a new guy hired to find out what is causing all of these problems. Don't worry, I promise, we'll find it out in no time."

"You better find it out soon, Harold, because I'm not happy explaining this to Fazbear Entertainment. You know what? The next time one more of these little 'accidents' happens, I'm coming down there to investigate myself, and let me tell you, you do not want to know what happens if we do find any evidence against you."