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We'll Never Forget Phone Guy

*click*

“Uh, hello? Hello? Uh, well, if you're hearing this and you made it to day two, uh, congrats! I-I won't talk quite as long this time since Freddy and his friends tend to become more active as the week progresses. Uhh, it might be a good idea to peek at those cameras while I talk just to make sure everyone's in their proper place. You know...”

Yes, he did know.

Mike nodded grimly as the recording of the guard before him spoke the words he'd already heard once before. Of course, he didn't need to actually check the cameras this time around, but the recording couldn't have known that. Still, he was sorely tempted; relistening to these old messages was a lot creepier than he'd thought it would've been, and it dredged up a lot of bad memories.

When Mike had come back to work that night he hadn't been intending, at least not at the time, to listen to the messages that his predecessor had left him. He wasn't even aware that they were still around; for all he knew they'd been erased from the phone by management long ago. Still, Mike had never been the type of person to so quickly dismiss such ideas – he wouldn't have befriended the animatronics if he was, after all – and so despite the odds screaming in his face not unlike four certain robots that he could name, Mike had opened the phone's voicemail box.

It was largely empty, which made sense – the only phone calls Mike had received since his first week were from his mother, and he'd made sure to delete them the instant he came across them. There actually were a few messages that Mike had never heard before, and he could make out a couple of the voices as people from management. They probably had something to do with the daytime guards, so Mike hadn't spent too much time on them. Scrolling back to November 8th, the date of his first night on the job, the guard had been quite surprised to see a message from that day waiting to be played.

Mike held his breath ever so slightly and pressed the 'play' button.

“Hello, hello? Uh, I wanted to record a message for you to help you get settled in on your first night. Um, I actually worked in that office before you. I'm finishing up my last week now, as a matter of fact.”

Mike exhaled, only then realizing in full that he hadn't been breathing. So no one had erased Phone Guy's messages, good to know. At least, they hadn't erased the first one, but Mike was pretty sure that if one was intact, then the rest would be as well.

After Mike had finished listening to the first message, he'd moved on to the second, which was currently still playing. “Also, check on the curtain in Pirate Cove from time to time. The character in there seems unique in that he becomes more active if the cameras remain off for long periods of time. I guess he doesn't like being watched. I don't know. Anyway, I'm sure you have everything under control! Uh, talk to you soon.” The phone beeped, awaiting further commands.

Foxy not liking being watched? Mike knew that couldn't have been farther from the truth. He knew that Foxy wanted more than anything to be seen, to have someone around who wouldn't be afraid of him. Someone he could call a friend.

But then again, Foxy was still malevolent back when Phone Guy had been operating in the pizzeria, so as far as Mike knew that wasn't exactly relevant. Unless Foxy's desire for attention existed even before his reprogramming... ah, well. It didn't really matter in the long run. Just some random musings.

The guard tapped the 'six' key, moving on to the next message.

“Hello, hello? Hey you're doing great! Most people don’t last this long. I mean, you know, they usually move on to other things by now. I'm not implying that they died. Th-th-that’s not what I meant.”

Of course not.

“Uh, anyway I better not take up too much of your time. Things start getting real tonight. Uh... Hey, listen, I had an idea: if you happen to get caught and want to avoid getting stuffed into a Freddy suit, uhh, try playing dead! You know, go limp. Then there's a chance that, uh, maybe they’ll think that you're an empty costume instead.”

Playing possum, huh? That wasn't too bad an idea; Mike had even done it once or twice before, when the power had run out and Freddy had been playing his jingle outside the doors. Whether or not it actually helped prolong his life, Mike wasn't entirely certain, but either way he was still alive now.

“Then again if they think you're an empty costume, they might try to... stuff a metal skeleton into you. I wonder how that would work. Yeah, never mind, scratch that. It's best just not to get caught. Um... Ok, I'll leave you to it. See you on the flip side.”

Stuff an endoskeleton into him? How would they go about that? Mike had an idea or two, but he preferred not to think too hard upon either of them. It made him feel squeamish.

There was still one message left – two, technically, but only one that Mike intended to listen to. With a heavy dread settling deep within his belly, he pushed the 'six' key once more time.

“Hello, hello? Hey! Hey, wow, day four. I knew you could do it,” Phone Guy started again, but unlike all of the previous times Mike could detect a very nervous undertone in his voice. “Uh, hey, listen, I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow.”

*bang bang bang*

The sound of a loud banging cut through Phone Guy's monologue, and even with foreknowledge of it Mike felt himself jump a little. It had absolutely terrified him the first time he'd heard it, and it was still plenty scary now.

“It's-It's been a bad night here for me. Um, I-I'm kinda glad that I recorded my messages for you, uh, when I did,” Phone Guy continued, even as the banging continued in the background.

“Uh, hey, do me a favor.”

*bang bang bang*

“Maybe sometime, uh, you could check inside those suits in the back room?”

*bang bang bang*

“I'm gonna try to hold out until someone checks. Maybe it won't be so bad.”

*bang bang bang*

“I-I-I always wondered what was in all those empty heads back there-”

Mike was quite familiar with the song that began then, interrupting Phone Guy's monologue in the process; Les Toreadors from the opera Carmen, as performed by Freddy Fazbear. His body froze in chilled anticipation. Any second now...

“Oh no.”

An animalistic roar pelted Mike's ears before swiftly changing into static as the message ended. In response, the guard's body rippled with a forceful shiver, one that seemed to originate from deep inside of himself. That roar... he'd never heard any of the animatronics emit a sound that even resembled it. But it had to be one of them that killed the guard... right?

Mike shoved the thought out of his head before it drove him mad with paranoia, and then he exited the phone's voicemail box. There was one more message, one that had come the day after the death of Mike's late mentor, but he refused to listen to it again. He would never make himself listen to it.

Spontaneously, Mike lowered his head and whispered internally a prayer for the fallen guard that he never got to meet, whoever he'd been in life. Mike wasn't sure if anyone was listening, but he could feel that it was the right thing to do.

And with that burden lifted from his chest, Mike Schmidt, the guard who lived, opened his laptop and got to work.