Five Nights At Batty's - The Second Night

Tuesday night was very stormy, with thick sheets of rain coming down, making visibility drop to practically nothing. He had to drive slowly in order to make sure he didn’t crash into anything, as his old pickup’s headlights were very dim and in dire need of changing. He didn’t know what had happened to them, as they worked just fine the night before, but now they barely were enough to light up a foot in front of his vehicle.

Devlin, a white bipedal artic wolf, sat behind his truck’s wheel as he did his best to navigate the road in the storm. He was on edge tonight, not just because of the storm raging as he drove, but for equally out of his control. Devlin wasn’t an ordinary wolf, but a werewolf with a twist. He wasn’t a human that turned into a wolf. No, he was always a wolf, and was part of a group of creatures called furries, who were humanistic animals that walked and talked. Normally he was a skinny, short with a sad wispy beard and messy mane. However, on nights when the full-moon was out, his unassuming body transformed into something a tad more powerful. When asked about it, he didn’t like to talk about his transformations. In fact, he preferred not talk at all, as he found that he never had anything to say, while everyone else wouldn’t shut up.

What had him on edge tonight was that it was the first full moon of the month, and the astronomers had predicted that the moon would stay waxed all the way through Sunday. This meant that it was more than likely that he’d transform while on duty at Barry Bat Burgers and Fries. He was the night guard at the famous family eatery, and worked there from midnight to six in the morning. Tonight would be his second night at the restaurant, despite his phone calls and pleas to the manager to switch him over to the day shift.

His only consolation was the storm itself. As long as it raged above in the night skies, the moon’s light would be blocked from shining down upon him. He was fine when the sky was cloudy, but being inside a building did nothing to block the moon’s power over him. Devlin could never understand how the science behind his curse worked, but then again it was a curse. It could just be some sort of big cosmic joke. Back when he was in college, he had tried to figure out everything he could about his curse of being a werewolf, but he never came up with a solid answer except for ‘just because.’

Finally, at five of twelve, Devlin spotted the restaurant up ahead, its dark sign a shadowy mass in the rain. He would have missed it entirely if it hadn’t been for his excellent night-vision. Devlin made his turn into the nearly empty parking lot and parked as close as he could to the front doors. He didn’t waste any time running from his car to the restaurant’s entrance, as he didn’t want to get his fur soaked in the downpour. The front doors were under a large sign stating the name of the restaurant and featured the smiling face of the Barry Bat, the cartoonish yellow fruit bat who was the mascot of the franchise. Tonight, he didn’t have time to take in the plastic sign’s features as he was running a tad late due to the storm. Devlin had originally left his home early but the storm had gotten worse on the drive over, so he barely had any time before his shift began.

Upon fishing the keys out of his pocket, the white wolf unlocked the restaurant’s entrance and slipped inside, pulling the steel and glass doors shut behind him, sealing himself off from the storm. Inside, the lobby of the restaurant was the same as it had been the night before. The plastic statue of Barry Bat, wearing his silly red scarf and holding his ‘play safe’ sign, greeted Devlin upon his entrance to the restaurant. Despite the thing being solid plastic, Devlin had a strange feeling that it’s painted on eyes were following him as he hurried over to the door that was partially hidden behind a fake potted plant beside the reception counter.
So far, Devlin hadn’t seen hide or lavender dyed hair of the guy who had the shift before him. This didn’t bode well for his plans as he wanted to trade shifts with him. He was even willing to give the other guard part of his own paycheck, just to secure an earlier shift. It wouldn’t be forever, just for the days in which there was a full moon.

As Devlin turned the knob on the door leading into the staff hallway, he thought he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning to look, the wolf saw nothing out of the ordinary, though he could have sworn that the plastic bat statue had held its sign a little higher earlier. Not that it really mattered, he convinced himself, as he entered the private hallway of the burger joint, after all, it was just a single piece of plastic. It wasn’t like it could actually move as it didn’t even have any working joints.
Just like the night before, Devlin made his way down the dim hallway, retracing his steps to the door to the security room. Again, he took notice of the fist-size dents in the steel door. He still wasn’t sure what had caused them, and none of the other employees were willing to talk about it. Regardless, the door looked strong despite the dents, though that didn’t help put his mind at ease.

When he pushed open the door, Devlin was surprised to see the previous guard, sprawled out in the chair in front of the computer monitors. The wolf hadn’t caught the kid’s name, as he hadn’t asked, and frankly didn’t want to learn anything else about the guy than he already knew. The guard was in his late teens, and had dark circles under his eyes, that made him look almost like a raccoon. His hair had been dyed a bright purple, which served to make his pale skin look even paler by comparison. His uniform, as all guards working at Barry Bat’s had to wear company approved shirts and paints, was stained with food he had probably stolen from the restaurant’s kitchen. Currently, the guard was asleep in the chair with his feet propped up on the computer desk, mere inches away from the central keyboard.

Devlin didn’t have any other choice but to wake the guard, so he reached out with his furry hands and gently shook the sleeping teenager’s shoulders.
“Huh?” asked the kid as he started to wake up. When he saw Devlin’s lupine face looking down at him, he jumped in shock. His feet slipped off the desk and he fell over backwards in his chair, his back hitting the floor with a painful thump.
“Hey,” said Devlin, standing as still as a statue, unfazed by the guy’s tumble. “You okay down there?”
The teenager swore as he stared up at the wolf. “Don’t’ do that!” he spat out, before shaking his head to regain his wits, causing his purple hair to swish about like a cheerleader’s pom-pom.
“Your shift’s over,” explained Devlin as the kid picked himself off the floor. He then glanced at the time stamp on the camera display on the computer, and upon seeing it was one past twelve am, his eyes went wide.
“Holy crap, you’re right!” he exclaimed as he headed for the door, not bothering to right the chair. “Look, I’ve got to go. Catch ya tomorrow, furry-dude.”
“Wait,” called out Devlin, but the purple hair guy was already out the door and running towards the hall to the exit. The kid was much faster than he looked, and by the time Devlin had moved to chase him down, the kid had already exited the door at the end of the hall.

Upon deciding to let him go, Devlin sighed and closed the security room door and bent down to pick up the fallen chair and place it back down on all five wheels. As he started to sit down on the black cushion, the wolf happened to notice that on the main monitor a view of the parking lot was being displayed. As Devlin watched the screen, the previous guard ran out the front doors of the building and headed for his car, the only other one in the parking lot other than Devlin’s. The kid’s legs were pumping away as if he was running from a serial killer.

Devlin groaned to himself, realizing that the kid probably hadn’t bothered to lock the front door behind him. The teen had done that last night, and he hadn’t been in nearly as big a hurry then as he was now. What’s more, it was likely that he hadn’t even bothered to close the doors behind him on the way out. This wouldn’t do, so Devlin reluctantly exited the security office and made his way down the staff hallway and back to the lobby.
When Devlin opened the employee only door, the white werewolf was startled to see that waiting for him on the other side was the plastic statue of Barry Bat. It was planted in the middle of the doorway as if someone had tried to use it to block the way, despite the door opening into the hallway, and not out into the lobby.

“Is this some kind of joke?” snarled Devlin out loud as he looked at the smiling cartoon bat. It couldn’t have gotten there on its own, so someone had to move it. Devlin didn’t think that the purple-haired kid could have done it, with how fast he had fled the restaurant, but there wasn’t really any other explanation. Unless there was someone else in the restaurant, but who would be here at this hour screwing around with the plastic props?

Devlin quickly moved the statue out of his way, picking it up and setting it down beside the fake plant. It was made of cheap plastic, which made it surprisingly light, but also very fragile. For a moment, Devlin fantasized squeezing the statue until he punched a hole in it with his thumb, but quickly dismissed the notion. The last thing he needed was the management docking his pay for damaging the decorations. Besides, he had better things to do, and so he proceeded across the carpeted lobby and found the doors had indeed been left wide open, the swing lock having caught on their hinges.

As he reached out to pull the doors closed, Devlin noticed that the rain outside was lessening up. Since it was night, he couldn’t quite tell how thick the cloud cover was overhead, however, it was still thick enough that he couldn’t see the moon in the sky above him. The white werewolf could only hope that the clouds would stay thick enough till morning so his change wouldn’t occur. He took one last worried look up at the dark sky as a few stray drops of rain fell on his muzzle, before grabbing ahold of both doors by their handles and pulling them closed. He quickly locked them up for the night before turning around and heading back to the security office.

It was an uneventful walk through the building back to his seat in front of the computer monitors. Yet, Devlin was feeling a tad on edge, and it wasn’t just because it because of the full moon. He just couldn’t get the bat statue out of his head. Someone had to have moved it since he came in for his shift, but could it really have been the purple-haired kid? No matter how he looked at it, there hadn’t been enough time from the point he saw the teen exit the hallway and when he had seen him in the parking lot for him to have moved the statue. Logic stated that if it hadn’t been the other guard, then there had to be someone else in the restaurant with the wolf, and that someone would eventually get caught on camera. After all, Devlin reasoned to himself, all the doors were now locked, and there was a camera in almost every nook and cranny of the building. Including right behind him, he reminded himself as he turned to look at his shoulder at the mask of Larry the Lion.

The lion was one of the four main mascots of Barry Bat’s Burgers and Fries. He was supposed to represent the ‘cool dude and bad boy’ demographic with his dark sunglasses, wild brown mane and black leather jacket. However, the mask that held the wolf’s attention on the wall behind him only featured the lion’s face and glasses. Behind that mask, Devlin knew, was a small hidden camera. He had discovered its existence last night while browsing the security feeds. He was still unsure why there was a camera in this room, of all places, but it did make him feel a tad uncomfortable.

“Hmm,” Devlin muttered to himself as he turned his attention back to the screen. Despite the hidden camera’s feed being accessible from the security monitor, the wolf had a feeling that the purple-haired kid had no idea that it was even there. After all, the kid had fallen asleep on the job and had stolen food from the kitchen, things that someone probably would have avoided doing if he knew they were being watched by the company.

Devlin was about to ponder more on this before he switched to the feed showing the main dining room. At the end of the large room, just beyond the gathered tables and chairs, was the animatronic stage, where Barry Bat, Larry Lion, and the female member of the crew, Carlie the hamburger serving cowgirl should have stood. Each member of the Barry Bat band had their own instrument to play on stage. Larry the Lion had the electric guitar, Barry had a banana for a microphone, and Claire got the keyboard, which she played with one hand. The other was used to hold up her serving tray which held a fake burger.

Devlin realized something was wrong the second the dining room feed came on screen. Carlie had vanished from the stage, leaving her keyboard unattended.
This wasn’t anything to get worked up over, Devlin reminded himself as he thought back to his shift the night before. When he had first met the purple-haired kid, he had told him a rumor that the animatronics at the restaurant moved at night. Devlin hadn’t believed him until he had seen them move on the security feed. At first, it had been subtle, such as the characters twitching and shaking, as if they were trying to hold in an angry outburst. Then, towards the end of his shift, the machines started to disappear from where they should be, and reappear elsewhere in the restaurant. There hadn’t seemed to be a real purpose to their wanderings, as they would pop up in the strangest of places at the strangest of times. Devlin thought back to how Horsey had moved right before six am, going from one party room to another, and how Carlie and Larry had swapped places on the stage.
However, having one of the stage animatronics up and leave the main stage all together was a new one for the wolf. So far, only the black-hatted Horsey had shown such mobility. Since there was still the possibility that some joker had moved the animatronic from the performance stage, Devlin quickly went through the all the camera feeds, searching for the missing robotic cow and the uninvited guest.

It wasn’t in the lobby, not in the game arcade or near the prize counter. There wasn’t any sign of the cowgirl near the restrooms or in any of the four party rooms. Devlin did find Horsey again, though he was all alone in the same western-themed party room that he had been in when the wolf’s shift ended the day before. The horse had his back to the camera, leaving the white lupine with a view of the robot’s backside, which allowed Devlin to see the horse’s tail, a sad and frail looking tassel that had been taped to Horsey’s rear end as if it had a last minute fix for a broken part.

Although Horsey wasn’t looking at the camera, like he had when Devlin had first found him on the security feed, just seeing the tall dark robotic horse made the wolf feel uncomfortable. There was just something about the chestnut brown horse, with his large black hat, white vest and super shiny sheriff’s badge, that made Devin uncomfortable. Maybe he had seen too many old westerns with crocked law officials, maybe it was the black hat, a troupe of the bad guy in many genres, or it was just the fact that he couldn’t see Horsey’s face.

Suddenly, as quick as a wink, Horsey turned around and faced the camera, as if sensing Devlin’s unease. His glowing yellow robotic eyes seemed almost be looking through the lens all the way to the white werewolf in the security room. Then, before the wolf could react, Horsey opened his mouth wide and made and made an ear piercing shriek, which was so high pitched and loud that Devlin recoiled in pain. The wolf covered his ears in an attempt to block the horrible sound from hurting his brain, but all he did was make it slightly muffled.

“MAKE IT STOP!” screamed Devlin as he tried to find the computer’s volume controls, but he couldn’t use them because any deviation of either one of his hands from his ear’s allowed the sound to become too much for him to bear. After a few minutes of the painful wail, it cut off as quickly as it had begun, leaving the poor white wolf curled up in his wheelie chair, shivering from its after-effects.
“Wh…Wh…” stuttered Devlin as he forced his body to straighten itself out. “Wh… what was that? Why… Why did they make that damn thing able to do that?!” he asked of the empty air. He took a moment to brush his shaggy hair out of his eyes before taking a deep breath to calm his nerves.
It had to be a malfunction, he thought to himself as he looked down at the ancient black cord phone sitting on the desk beside the keyboard. There was no way that the horse was supposed to make that terrible noise, since such a horrible sound would definitely keep the kids away, thus defeat the purpose of having the animatronic in the first place.

As Devlin contemplated using the antique to call someone about the robot’s actions, he heard another noise from the security monitor. Fearing it was Horsey getting ready to shriek again, Devlin quickly reached out to lower the computer’s volume. However, he stopped in mid-motion of reaching for the mouse, with his eyes glued to the monitor.
The camera feed had automatically changed and was now showing the inside of the backstage store room. This was where the restaurant kept its supply of spare animatronic parts, boxes of brand-new paper and plastic eating utensils, extra chairs and more. It was what was standing in the center of the room, framed by the shelves of spare parts that had caught the wolf’s attention.

It was none other than the missing cow animatronic, Carlie. It stood beside a table on which a strange skinny robot sat along with a large open box. The cow was doing something to the frame work of the odd robot. It looked almost like she was assembling it or dissembling it from the way her arm jerked up and down, like she was operating a screw driver.
“Okay, that’s not normal either,” Devlin said under his breath as he reached forward to the old telephone and picked up the mouthpiece and brought it to his face. Before he could even dial, he realized that there was a strange beeping comping out of the handset. It sounded almost like the line was busy, but Devlin hadn’t even called anyone yet.

“Does anything in this restaurant work right?” groaned Devlin as he put the phone down and picked up again, hopping that the phone would have fixed itself. However, the beeping was still there.
As he watched Carlie on the screen, Devlin dug into the pocket of his pants with the intention of using his cellphone to call somebody about the situation. However, to his surprise, he found only lint and a few coins in his pocket. Changing hands, he dug into the other one, and came up with just a packet of tissues his keys and some hand sanitizer.

“Oh this is just fantastic,” groaned the white wolf when he realized he had left his phone in his car. He didn’t remember when he had taken it out during the drive over to Barry Bat’s, but it had to have come out at some point. He knew he had it when he left the house, and he clearly didn’t have it now. As he pondered if he should try to go out to his car to get his phone, Carlie stopped fiddling with her little mechanical project and started to slowly turn around.
Devlin watched her with wide eyes, fearing that she too, would start to scream like Horsey had done. Acting before she had the chance to open her wide mouth, he quickly muted the sound from the security feed, which caused a red exclamation point to appear on screen.

Thankfully, the cow didn’t scream. Instead, she smiled widely at the camera, as if trying to be friendly. However, this quickly changed as the animatronic started to twitch as if it was starting to have a seizure. Then, her grin spread wider, her mouth falling open, exposing the rounded doll teeth that lined the top and bottom of her jaw. It opened so wide that it was as if the pistons that opened and closed it had broken, letting it hang off her head like a strange beard.
Then, in one swift motion, the cowgirl reached over to the table and scooped up her signature burger on a tray. The movement caused the robot to spin about on her black metallic hoof as if she was a ballerina dancer, before she righted herself by grabbing ahold of the table with her free hand. Before the wolf could watch any more, the camera feed changed yet again, this time showing the exterior parking lot, with Devlin’s lonely truck.

“No, no, no, no,” muttered Devlin to himself as he rapidly clicked the screen forward onto the next camera and the next, trying to get back to the one in the storeroom. As he flipped through the feeds, he briefly caught sight of the stage in the main eating room. It was only on screen for a second, but that was enough for Devlin to see that Larry had moved. The lion animatronic was now standing on the floor in front of the stage, the guitar resting atop his shoulder in the same way a troll would carry its club when not in use. And then it was gone, and Devlin was again looking into the storeroom.

Much to the white werewolf’s dismay, the feed on the screen now showed an empty room, save for Carlie’s robotic project. With fear quickly rising inside of him, Devlin again cycled through the camera feeds, searching for any hide or hair of the cowgirl. There were a few times he thought he had caught glimpses of her backside, or the edge of her serving tray, but whenever Devlin tried to focus on where he thought he saw Carlie, she wasn’t there. However, he did discover rather quickly that she wasn’t the only one what was moving about.

When he checked the restrooms, he found Barry Bat just coming out of the men’s room door. Devlin had no clue what the yellow animatronic was doing there of all places, after all it was a robot, it didn’t even have the equipment to use the restroom. The wolf was just about to change to a different feed when the bat stopped in its tracks, just an inch away from being out of frame. As quick as a wink, its triangular head twisted around 180 degrees to look right into the camera, its eyes glowing, not yellow, but a bright blood red. It didn’t scream like Horsey had. Instead, the bat, with the biggest goofy grin on its face, gave the camera a wink, which sent a shiver down Devlin’s spine.
There wasn’t anything threatening about the wink, but it was the mere act of it that put Devlin even more on edge. It was as if Barry Bat knew how anxious the wolf was getting, and knew he was very close to going into a full blown panic attack.

“Screw this place,” groaned Devlin as he flipped through the feeds to the restaurant’s lobby. Despite it being only slightly before one in the morning, the werewolf wasn’t going to stand for this any longer. He didn’t care if it was the only job he had managed to land after moving to his new place, or if they were accepting of furries like him. He just had to get out of there, even if it was just long enough to get his cell from his truck and call somebody about all of this. However, as Devlin soon discovered, leaving was not an option.
He actually gasped when he saw the feed for the restaurant’s entrance. In front of the main doors was a huge pile of tables and chairs from the main dining room. It would take him all night just to clear the mess away so he could leave. Devlin had a sinking feeling that he wouldn’t have nearly that much time to do the job before one of the Barry Bat crew came for him and…

And did what? Devlin paused to think that over. What would the animatronics do to him if they caught him? Until just now he had been so unnerved by their actions, mostly those of Carlie, he hadn’t had time to think over what the robots were ultimately trying to do to him. Surely they wouldn’t kill him. After all, they were designed to entertain children at the restaurant, not maim and murder. Then again, the thought to himself, as Larry the lion walked into the camera’s view, the robots have been doing plenty of things tonight that had to be way outside of their programing.

Devlin could only watch as the lion walked towards the barricade and sat down atop one of the many chairs in the cluster. The robot crossed its arms across its wide chest, looking to the entire world like a bouncer for a v.i.p. night club, with his leather vest and dark sunglasses. Only his obvious joints and plastic guitar ruined the image. Just before the video feed automatically moved on to the next one, the lion lifted his head and snarled at the camera, sending a threat through the screen to Devlin. The message was clear, he wasn’t going anywhere.

Devlin tried to think over his options. He could try for one of the emergency exits, but he had a feeling he might meet a similar resistance as the front entrance held. He’d just have to wait out the night, and hope that at six am everything would return to normal and he could leave. At least the security room had only one door, so there was only one way that the robots could come from if they came for him. However the dents did not help put his mind at ease.

It was then that a realization hit Devlin like a load of bricks from the sky and the mysterious fist-sized dents took on a whole new meaning. Could it be that they were the result of animatronics trying to break into the security office to do horrible things to the night security guard? Breaking out into a nervous sweat that made the hair his shaggy mane stick to his face, Devlin rose from the swivel chair and moved to the metal door. Nervously, he reached out a hand and felt the budges in the door’s surface. Each one had to stick out at least an inch from the door, long enough that one could hang a coat from the inside of the door.

Under his touch, the door jiggled in its frame, and Devlin had another horrible realization. He reached out to the door’s handle, and without bothering to turn the knob, he found he was able to easily open the door. With a swear repeating under his breath, the wolf reached into his pants pocket and pulled out his key ring and found the key for the security door.
As he fumbled with the right key, trying to get into the lock, he questioned himself over and over as to why he hadn’t locked the door the instant he had returned to the office. Soon, the key slid home and he turned it and heard the tumblers engage. With a sigh of relief, the werewolf tested the handle of the door, only to find it still opened as easily as before.

With wide eyes and a fluttery breath, Devlin tried the lock again, twisting the key back and forth, but nothing happened. The lock wasn’t doing squat. He didn’t know if he had the wrong key, if the lock was broken, or if all of the dent’s in the door had warped it so it no longer fit properly in its frame. Nor did he care what the reason was, as it was clear that the door would offer him no protection from the roaming machines, unless he actively kept it shut with his body pressing against it from the inside.
However, despite the small size of the room, Devlin found he couldn’t see the central computer’s screen from the door. This meant he couldn’t see the camera feeds, and tell where the animatronics were in the restaurant. Hell, because he forgot his cellphone, he couldn’t even tell what time it was without checking the monitors. It was only now that Devlin saw something that made him groan in exasperation.

Across the room from him was another door. He hadn’t even noticed it the night before, or even when he came in for his shift today. It was almost exactly the same as the one he now leaned against, dents and all. In front of it was a messy pile of coats and plastic bags. It was then that he realized that he hadn’t seen it earlier because the coats and things had been hanging from the dents, blocking most of it from view. They must have slipped off at some point while he had been occupied with the camera feeds.

“Please let that be a way out,” Devlin muttered to himself as he headed to the other door. Behind him, he heard the other door squeak as it slowly drifted open without him holding it shut. He tried to ignore it as he grabbed the second door’s knob and twisted it open. Beyond it was a similar stark hallway to the one he had to go through to normally reach the office. However, he didn’t have long to explore it as running down from one end of the dim hall was Carlie the cow, her eyes wide and yellow, her jaw opened even wider.
Devlin barely got the door closed in time to prevent the crazy cow from capturing him. He leaned his back against the door and held it shut with his weight, fearing that this door was too, broken and would open without the added support. His suspicions were soon proven to be correct, as he could feel the metal sheet bounce against him as Carlie pounded against it from the other side, each hit making the metal ring out in protest.

“This can’t be happening!” Devlin said through gritted teeth. His only consolation was that despite her ferocious pounding, Carlie didn’t seem to be doing any more damage to the door itself, which meant that the wolf didn’t have to worry about the thing breaking apart against his back. He looked away from the door behind him and over to the one on the other side of the room, which was now a third of the way open, showing the dim hallway beyond. For a moment, he pondered making a break for it, but then he realized he didn’t have anywhere to run to.
What’s more, he again, couldn’t see the computer screens from where he stood. He had no idea if there was another robot heading his way from the other hallway. Not that he could do much if there was, as it was taking all his normal strength to hold the door behind him shut.

Suddenly, the pounding stopped. Carlie let out another ear piercing shriek that made Devlin cry in pain. The noise was far worse now than it had been when emitted from the computer speakers. It was like nails on a chalk board, combined with screeching breaks, high-pitched whistles and the squeal of insane fan-girls all rolled into one horrible sound. To his canine ears, it was the worst possible torture.
When the scream ended, Devlin was left panting and moaning in pain, cradling his head in his hands. He didn’t care that the pounding hadn’t resumed, all that mattered was enjoying the blessed silence that now filled the office.

After a few minutes of sitting by the door, Devlin shook the cobwebs out of his head and turned around and opened it, to make sure the cow had really left. The hallway beyond was completely empty, save for a few cardboard boxes and fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling.
Despite the quiet and emptiness, Devlin didn’t feel like trying to escape that way. After all, that crazy cow thing could come back at any moment. It was then that he had a terrible thought and hurried back to the desk to check the camera feeds.

Currently the screen showed the parking lot, with the time in the lower left corner of the screen. Devlin did a double take when he saw it was only ten past one in the morning. He could have sworn that Carlie’s attack had lasted for at least double that long. He also noticed with a start that it had stopped raining outside. At first, he was wondering if the clock was wrong, since things were considerably brighter outside, until the werewolf remembered that tonight was a full moon. The fact he could see better outside must have meant that the clouds were clearing up in the sky above, allowing more of the moon’s light to filter down to the earth. However, he noticed as he checked his arms and his fur, there wasn’t enough of the moon showing to trigger his transformation. Not yet, at any rate.

“The one time the change would be useful,” he groaned to himself as he started to cycle through the camera feeds, seeing that the barricade was still in front of the entrance and that the main dining room was now mostly empty of furniture. It was an eerie sight, the room feeling much larger without anything in it, save for a chair or two and the main stage, which was also vacant.
Devlin only stared at the feed for a few more seconds before cycling through to the employee hallway outside the security office. It was only then that he realized that there was a camera for the one behind the other door as well. The hallway looked so similar to the other one on the computer that he had just assumed it was the same one from a different angle. As with the other hallway, it was just as empty at the moment.

While he had some time, Devlin decided he’d try to block the doors if he could. He first tried to move the desk out from the wall, but it wouldn’t move an inch, no matter how much he tugged and pulled. With a growl, the werewolf bent down to look under the desk top and found to his dismay that the thing was bolted to the wall with thick screws and nuts. It would take far too long to unscrew it, so he turned his attention to the cabinet behind him.

For a moment, his eyes settled on the mask of Larry Lion, and he remembered the security camera. He still wasn’t sure if anyone was watching him, but it was possible that he could get help from that direction. So, with an idea in his head, the wolf turned back to the desk and started to search through the drawers until he found an old notepad and a couple of pens. Wasting no time, he wrote out a short message: Help, trapped in security office, animatronics are out to get me, send help!

With that done, he moved over to the mask and lifted it off of the wall, revealing the hidden camera. Devlin wasn’t sure if the thing got sound, so he held his hand-written message up to the camera and tried to hold it steadily enough for someone on the other side to read, before speaking as loud and clearly as he could without shouting, the same words. For all he knew, this was a pointless action, but it was better than doing nothing.

Once he was satisfied that he had gotten his message out there, Devlin turned his attention back to the cabinet beside the masks. It was taller than he was and had two doors on the front that opened outward. Devlin didn’t bother to open it. Instead he just stood beside it and tried to push it to one side of the room. However, just like the desk, the cabinet wouldn’t move an inch. Fearing the worst, he took a peek inside it and found that it was empty, save for six large bolts that held it firmly in place to the wall.

“Why is everything bolted down in here?” the wolf demanded as he kicked at the cabinet in frustration. “This isn’t a damn cruise ship or an insane asylum!”
Turning around in disgust, he spotted out of the corner of his eye the computer’s screen. It was still on the hallway outside, which was now occupied by Larry the Lion, who was walking slowly down the hallway towards the security office.
With another swear, Devlin ran to the door and slammed it shut, pressing as hard as he could against it to keep it shut. The wolf may have been enough to keep the cow out, but he feared that with Larry’s larger upper body, that the animatronic might be capable of breaking the door down if given the chance, with or without Devlin keeping it shut.

Devlin just happened to look up at the other door across from him, and saw to his horror, Carlie standing in the open doorway. She held her serving tray out from her, like she was inviting Devlin to take the burger. However, her expression was anything but welcoming, her jaw hanging impossibly open, the fabric skin of her face pushed back to show her metallic jaw bones like a damaged terminator. From her horrible mouth came her inappropriately sweet voice.

“Hey-hoo,” she said as she took a step into the office. “What do we have here, a new member for our Bat Band?”
Devlin couldn’t say a single word, partly due to fear. The other reason why he remained silent was because he could hear footsteps from the other side of the door behind him. It had to be Larry, coming up behind him to sandwich him in.
“Gee,” continued the cow as she took another step inside. She paused to use her left leg to shut the door behind her. “You are in a sorry state, aren’t you, honey? Your suit is all worn out and raggedy! We simply must get you a new one!”
“Er?” mumbled Devlin before clearing his throat. He looked down at his uniform and then back at the cow standing ominously before him. “My suit?” he asked dumbly.
“Yes indeedy, Honey!” said the cow, her jaw not moving at all with her words.
“But, my security uniform is fine. It’s not even dirty,” Devlin said, hopping he could convince her to leave.
“Oh no,” giggled the cow, her loose jaw jiggling as her body shook. “I’m not talking about your clothes, although those have to go too! No,” she said as she used her free hand to pull her serving tray off her other hand, “you need a new suit. That white fur is simply terrible, all clumps and lumps!”
“Wait,” Devlin said, the gears turning in his head, “my fur? What, are you going to skin me and put me in… oh. Oh lord you are.”
“Yeppers,” she said as she stepped closer, the tray discarded onto the floor as if it was a piece of trash. “Don’t worry! It only hurts like the dickens till you pass out!”
Before she could get any closer, Devlin started to feel a familiar tickle in his throat. Almost against his will, the wolf let out a deep throated howl that lasted a full minute.
“Goodness,” said Carlie, her words breaking up with bouts of static. “What are you doing?”
“I’m about to hand you your ass,” snarled Devlin, a large grin spreading on his face as the tickle spread out over his body, making goosebumps spread over his skin, causing his white fur to stand on end.
“Such language!” the cow tutted as she reached out for the wolf again. “We’ll have to make you a drummer. Can’t have the kids hear such words, the poor little darlings.”

Before she could wrap her metal hands around his throat, Devlin’s fur started to glow, almost as if he was being lit by moonlight. The glow grew brighter and brighter till the point that Devlin was just a silvery blur, his features indistinct. Slowly, he pushed away from the dented door, no longer caring about the lion on the other side, or the cow before him. The glow around him could only mean one thing, the moon was now fully exposed outside, and his transformation had at last, begun. Never had he been happier to have his curse take effect.

First, Devlin’s body started to creak and groan as his muscles started to change and his bones grow. Slowly, he inched taller, rising out of being just barely shorter than average height up to six feet tall, and above. His uniform grew tighter on his body, the threads straining against his expanding mass. Slowly, the tail of his shirt pulled itself free of his pants, and his belt began to tear as his waist expanded larger than the belt was buckled for.
This is new,” said the cow as she took a step back from the swelling, glowing wolf. “You must be a new model or something.”

Devlin didn’t speak; he only smiled wider as he rose higher. With just a twitch of his arms, the sleeves of his uniform burst apart as if they were made of wet paper, unable to hold back his bulging biceps. The buttons on his shirt were the next to go, each one shooting off to parts unknown when the pressure of his widening chest became too much for them to bear. He would have ruined his shoes too, if he hadn’t kicked them off just in time when he felt the transformation overtake him.
As he continued to expand, Devlin’s fur began to change as well. It became thicker, and fuller. All of his tangles undid themselves and his mangy mane became lush and smooth. His wispy beard thickened out into something that even the proudest lion would be jealous of. Soon he looked as if he had just walked out of a spa after just having a full-body grooming.

His growth only stopped once his head brushed up against the ceiling tiles, meaning that he was now roughly ten feet or so tall. He towered over the cow girl animatronic by several feet, his muscles now more than enough to take care of not only her, but any of the other animatronics as well. However, getting violent with the machines was the furthest thought from the massive wolf’s mind. As Devlin had grown, his attitude had changed as well. No longer was he the rude, socially inept wolf he had been. Now, his smile went from wicked to friendly, his eyes were not clouded with suspicion but clear with affection.

Once he had finished transforming, the glow left his body, revealing that his fur was not just white anymore, but silvery, as if someone had polished each and every single strand of fur on his body to a perfect shine. He almost glittered as he moved, taking one step towards the stunned cow animatronic.
“Hey there,” he said with a smile.
“Hey…ho?” asked the cow nervously. “Honey, how’d you do what you just did? Hydraulics? Pistons? Inflatable sacks?”
“Naw,” said the wolf as he looked down at the tiny cow robot before him. “I’m just a loveable werewolf.”
“Werewolf?” asked the cow as she took a step back, “Aren’t those supposed to turn from being human into a wolf?”
“That’s how it usually goes,” Devlin chuckled as he waged his now full and bushy tail. “I’m a special case though.”
Carlie shook her head and then took a step forward, the shock wearing off from what had just happened. “We’ve never had a werewolf in our crew before. You’re bound to be a big hit once we get you a Barry Bat approved suit.”
“Aw,” Devlin sighed, his head drooping. “Don’t you like my new coat?”
“It is fine enough,” said the cow as she reached out with her hands, “but it isn’t company approved. We all have to follow the rules here, Honey. It’s just the way things are. Now, don’t make this harder than it needs be.”

With hardly any effort at all, Devlin reached out with one of his massive hands and picked the cow animatronic clear off the floor. She wiggled about, trying to get free, but his grip was too tight for her to slip out of.
“Honey, put me down,” she pleaded as she shook and squirmed.
“Naw,” said Devlin with a smile as he looked over his wide shoulder at the door behind him. It was slowly drifting open again, but he pushed it shut with a large foot-paw. He wasn’t sure where Larry had gotten off too, but he didn’t feel like taking any chances. Devlin may have been much larger and stronger now, but there was power in numbers. If the other four robots came at him, he wasn’t sure if he could keep them from wearing him down.
“Honey,” said the cow again, drawing Devlin’s attention. “Please put me down. I’ll make sure you get the best suit we’ve got. It’s got sparkly glitter fur and doesn’t have a single rip or tear. You’ll just love it, I promise you really will.”

“That’s nice of you,” Devlin chuckled before changing his grip so he held the cowgirl in one meaty hand. “But I am pretty happy with the skin and fluff I was born with.”
“Put me down NOOOOW,” she screamed, her voice rising in octaves, getting dangerously close to that painful screech that had made Devlin’s brain want to shatter earlier. However, unlike then, Devlin found that in his transformed state, the noise was about as painful as a paper cut.
“I don’t think so, miss,” the massive silver wolf said as he reached out with his free hand and with surprisingly little effort, ripped the desk away from the wall, the bolts snapping one by one under his strength. “See, it’s nothing personal, but I can’t have your buddies joining you to try to take me down.”

“BUT ITS FOR YOUR OWN DAMN GOOD,” she screamed, her voice as high as it could go. Devlin for a moment had a mental image of every single glass object in the building shattering all at once.
“It really isn’t,” argued the wolf as he used his impressive muscles to effortlessly drag the desk in front of the door with all the discarded jackets. As he moved it, the computers stayed put where they were. As it turned out, they, along with nearly everything else in the room, were bolted to the wall. “You may not realize this, but this fur ball isn’t a robot like you and your buddies.”
“LAAAARRRRY!” She screamed, her voice breaking up into static as she stretched out the syllables. “SOMEBODY, HELP!”

She would have kept screaming if Devlin hadn’t taken his other hand and used it to force the bottom of her jaw shut against her skull. With as much ease as one would pop a zit, he used his fingers and thumb to pinch her loose metal jaw shut.
“That’s just enough out of you, missy,” he said with a sigh before turning to glance at the computer screens. At the moment, the monitor was showing the feed from the camera hidden behind the Larry Lion mask. This meant that most of the screen was taken up by Devlin’s large fluffy white back and muscular arms and legs. He wagged his tail, and watched it move on screen, the effect almost hypnotic to the big silvery wolf.

For a moment, he wondered if anyone had seen him transform. A tiny part of his brain, that was still the same small meek wolf as he was when he was his normal self, hoped that the footage would be enough to get him on the day shift, and not grounds to get him fired. After all, he just damaged one of the restaurant’s animatronics. Devlin pushed that thought down, as he turned to the other door in the room. There would be more than enough time later, he reminded himself, to deal with the problems of his employment schedule.

He turned to look over at the cabinet behind him. Despite being far stronger now, he’d need use of both his hands to move the thing, as unlike the desk, the cabinet was big and bulky. Much like himself, he thought with a giggle.

With it free of the wall, Devlin pushed it over to join the desk. This left him with nothing else to block the other door. With no other option, he walked over to the unsecured door and parked himself down in front of it. He had to change how he was holding Carlie, shifting her from a one handed grip into a bear hug. It wasn’t that he was getting tired of holding her up; on the contrary, he could have held her aloft all week. It was just that it wasn’t very comfortable holding her up like a torch.

Of course, she still struggled against his hold on her, like a pissed off child having a temper tantrum. But she was no match for the wolf’s muscles, and stayed put. With nothing else to do but sit before the door, and keep the cow from causing mischief, Devlin decided that now would be a good time to take a nap. Sure, it was a crazy notion, but other than staring at the desk across from him for four hours or so, there wasn’t really anything else he could do. So, like a child with a large teddy bear, Devlin squeezed the cow even tighter and got comfortable on the floor. In nearly no time at all, he was fast asleep.

He was awoken at around three am by the sound of music. Looking around in curiosity, he realized that some of the noises were coming from Carlie, who, with an angry scowl on her face damaged face, was bobbing her head up and down, looking left than forward.
“What’s wrong with you?” Devlin asked, before remembering what happened last night. Around this time, the machines had spontaneously gone through their pre-programed act, the same one they would have put on for the kids during business hours.

Carlie’s body struggled to go through the motions of her routine. Her motors whirled and groaned with the effort of making her limbs move. Her fingers twitched about as she played a phantom keyboard, her other hand tilted this way and that as if it was balancing her serving tray. Despite her mouth being pinched shut, she still tried to open it to say her scripted words. The only result, however, was Carlie grinding her teeth, with little sparks lighting up her dark face.

“Sorry you can’t go do your usual thing,” Devlin apologized as he kept his grip tight on the robot. “Although,” he said, looking over at the computer monitor sticking out from the wall, “no wonder all of you have gone crazy. If I was forced to perform that silly show all day, every day and at night when no one was even around, I’d go nuts too.”
Carlie could only glare at him as her body continued through its act.

“Oi,” said Devlin with a frown. “Don’t look at me like that. I gave you a few chances to turn around and leave, but you just wouldn’t get. I don’t know how you got into the habit of trying to stuff folks into suits, but I do hope this has taught you not to try it again.”

As the show went on, the monitor changed to a feed from the main dining room, filling the security office with the pop song that the Barry Bat crew was supposed to be preforming. Although he was much bigger now, the computer’s screen was still just out of sight for the big wolf. He was worried about where the other robots had gotten to, but he felt fairly safe with the desk and heavy cabinet against the far door, and his even heavier bulk against the other. He did wonder if the full moon would last till morning, but there really wasn’t anything he could do about that, even if he hadn’t been trapped in the small security room with a very unhappy robotic cow girl.

Devlin tried to fall asleep again, but a pounding at the other door caused him to rethink taking a nap. Unlike the cow, these punches were clearly taking a toll on the metal door, causing new dents to appear and the desk and cabinet to rattle.
“Hmm,” hummed Devlin. “I wonder if that’s Larry or Horsey? Can’t be the Bat, he’s much too thin to do much.”
Carlie by now had stopped struggling in Devlin’s arms. Her body had gone limp as if whatever force that had been driving her had left her body. However, her glowing eyes told the wolf that she was still with him, so he didn’t dare let her go.
“At least you’re behaving,” he chuckled as he gave the robot in his arms a playful squeeze. She retaliated by trying to kick him in his privates, but her little black hoof did nothing but tickle the big wolf.
“Peh,” he said as he squeezed her till something inside her metal frame snapped. “So much for your good behavior, that didn’t last very long did it?”
It was then that a bronze fist broke through one of the dents in the far wall.
“That settles it,” said Devlin with a small grin. “That has to be the lion.”
The fist tried to pull out through the hole it made, but it was stuck fast. As it clanged against metal door around it, the werewolf wondered briefly just how bad the door’s hinges were. Would it open outward, allowing the lion to get in?

Thankfully, the door didn’t budge, holding firm against being pulled the wrong way. The lion on the other side became more and more frantic as it continuously tried to pull its hand free to no avail. Finally with a loud pop and a snap, the bronze hand broke off the lion’s wrist and fell with a clank onto the desk’s top.

“They sure don’t make them like they used to,” Devlin chuckled as he stared at the damaged hand. “At least I wasn’t the one that broke it this time,” he said as he looked down at the cow in his arms. Usually, when he transformed into his were state, he tended to underestimate his own strength. He had torn through so many clothes, pulled thousands of doors off their hinges, and crushed so many bones that it was a very real worry that he’d end up breaking something without meaning to. Heck that was the main reason why he had to move out of his home town. No one would hire him despite his kind demeanor in his were form.

The thing was, he could transform into a massive wolf whenever the moon was full, which wasn’t limited only to night time. There were several cases while he was in school in which he was taking a test, or doing a presentation when suddenly he’d balloon up and out in size. More often than not, this had resulted in him getting caught with his pants down, so to speak. He had learned from that to always wear clothing that was a tad too big for him, and to always wear a belt.

The only reason why his pants hadn’t given out when he had transformed in the security office was because they were actually the largest size available, quadruple extra-large. Even now, he could feel the fabric tight against his swollen leg muscles, but no so tight he was worried of ripping them. His shirt wasn’t so lucky. That had been company regulated, with a little bat logo on the lapel and everything. He’d have to spring for a new one at some point, if he decided to come back to work the next day.

It was by now that Devlin had realized that the pounding had stopped again. “I wonder where he’s got off to now?” he asked the cow, who of course, only grunted in reply.
“Maybe he went to get a new hand? It’s what I would have done.”
At his words, the cow stopped struggling as hard and gave the big silver wolf a hopeful look.
“Sorry, missy,” Devlin said with a loud yawn. “I am still not interested in going into show business with you folks. I am perfectly happy with the way I am.”
The cow’s face drooped, before she started to try to wiggle free once again.
“You’re a feisty little thing, aren’t ya?” the wolf asked before yawning again. “I guess you have to be to put up with kids all day long. Too bad you are so thick headed.”
And with that, Devlin curled up and went right back to sleep. It was almost six when he woke up, his body telling him that it was time to get going.
“Morning, Carlie,” Devlin said with a smile, looking down at the cow. Her eyes were dark and she had stopped moving once again. “Hello?” asked the silver wolf as he sat up and gave her a squeeze. “Anybody home?”

The robot didn’t respond at all. It was as if her battery had been drained dry. At that thought, Devlin broke into a wide knowing smile, for that was what had happened. She was just an animatronic, after all. It wasn’t like she had a cord plugged in somewhere, and she had to run on something in order to move about.
“I guess I don’t have to worry about you anymore, missy,” said the wolf as he got to his feet, the robot now loose in his hands. “I do wonder about the others, though. I haven’t heard boo from them since that lion lost his hand. I wonder what they’re up to.”

With a single step forward, Devlin brought himself in sight of the computer and took a look at the screen. The first thing he took note of was the time. It was now just quarter of six in the morning. As he cycled through the camera feeds, Devlin saw that the barricade in front of the main entrance in the lobby had been disassembled and all the tables and chairs were back where they belonged in the main dining room. All the tables were so neatly lined up in their rows and columns that it was hard to believe that they had been moved at all.

“How nice of them to clean up their mess,” said Devlin as he turned away from the screen and used one hand to drag the desk back over to where it belonged. “It sure saves me the trouble of having to do it. Not that I would have minded much.”

With the door clear, the silver wolf exited the security office, with the downed cow slung over his shoulder like a sack. He kept an eye out for the other animatronics, but he met none of them as he walked. Soon, he came upon the door leading out of the small staff hallway. He wasn’t sure where the door opened out to, but one thing was for sure. In his current state, he’d have to be extra careful when he went through it, as to avoid getting stuck in the frame.

Upon opening the door and taking a peek through it, he saw that what lay beyond was the main dining room. Both Larry and Barry were back on stage where they belonged. Each one turned to look at the big wolf as soon as he opened the door, their faces frowning at him as their eyes angrily glowed a bright red for Barry and a sickly yellow for Larry.

Devlin just stared back at them, sensing something was off with the robots, other than the way they had been acting all night. It was only after staring at them for a minute that the wolf realized what it was. The glow in their eyes was slowly dying, growing dimmer and dimmer by the second. As it did so, their faces slowly relaxed and their heads started to forcefully turn away from Devlin, and look out at the tables and chairs in front of the stage.

“Guess you guys can’t do a thing after six, can you?” asked Devlin as he approached the stage with Carlie still over his shoulder. “Good, I’d be worried for the kids otherwise.”
Once he was right in front of the stage, Devlin put the cow down, and set her up in her proper pose, standing beside the bat, with one hand resting on her keyboard, and the other upraised for her absent burger tray. He finished up by using his hands to effortlessly pull her mouth apart. As he turned to fetch her burger platter, he thought he heard Carlie hiss at him, but it was so soft and quiet that it could have been his imagination.

Devlin only got few steps away from the stage when he started to feel as if he had horrible gas. With a sigh, he picked up the pace and passed back into the staff hallway. He knew this feeling, building up inside him, all too well. Whenever the power of the full moon lessoned, or was blocked by clouds, Devlin’s body would start to get gassy. Already, a slight bulge was appearing at his midsection, as if he had one too many beers to drink last night. His tight pants groaned under the added mass, and he could feel them threatening to rip apart at any moment.

The gas was a sign that he was about to transform back into his small and weak self. Although he never liked becoming his huge silvery werewolf alter-ego, Devlin always felt more like himself when he was big and buff. It was as if all the negativity in his life was washed away, leaving behind only the good stuff. He just felt jollier when he transformed. However, if he chose, he could stay in the were form even when the moon was no longer effecting him, though it came at a bit of a price.

The longer he went without the moon’s light over him, the more bloated he became. He was only halfway down the hallway to the security office, but already he had to unbutton his pants and unzip his fly to give his belly room to grow.
“Not now. Please, just a few moments more,” he pleaded with his body as he squeezed through the door to the security office. However, his body had other plans as he simply couldn’t keep the gas inside him anymore.

With a massive belch, so loud that it caused everything in the small room to vibrate, Devlin began to transform back. All that muscle, all that size that he had gained blew out of him as if he was a balloon that was deflating. He could force the power to stay in him, as he had in the past, by tying his muzzle shut, but that had never resulted in anything good. He could still remember the one time back when he was in college that, on a dare, he had tied his muzzle shut with a belt to prove he could go all day without turning back to his wimpy self after a full moon. He had gotten so big and bloated that he had filled his entire dorm room and then some with his silvery mass. The campus staff had to cut a hole through the neighboring room just so they could reach his face and remove the belt so he could deflate. This didn’t mean he hadn’t kept trying, but in the end it was always best just to return to normal before things got out of hand.

Within moments Devlin was back to his usual scrawny self. Since his belt was ruined, he had to hold up his pants with one hand just to keep them from slipping off his now narrow waste. Of course, Devlin had a spare set of clothes in his truck, for just an occasion as this. One didn’t transform every other month like this without learning to take a few precautions. Taking a moment to scoop up Carlie’s discarded burger platter, Devlin took a moment to go through the camera feeds on screen. Since it was now just a minute past six, he wanted to know if the guy who replaced him when his shift was over was here yet. He wanted to avoid a confrontation with the man if he could help it. It wouldn’t do to be seen in public like this, a torn shirt and pants that were clearly way too big, especially after working the night shift at a place like Barry Bat’s. This was the stuff that reputation ruining rumors were made of.

Thankfully, there wasn’t a single sign of other guard, an elderly man by the name of Ramon Guy, anywhere on the camera feeds. The only car in the parking lot was Devlin’s old pick-up, and there was no one in the lobby except for that stupid plastic statue of Barry Bat.
“The old coot must be running late today,” muttered the white wolf under his breath as he turned away from the computer screen and scooped up the pieces of his former outfit from the floor. There wasn’t anything he could do for the hole in the door or the new dents, but Devlin had a feeling that the restaurant was used to dealing with such damages to their building. After all, when he had first asked about the dents, no one was willing to tell him what caused them. It must have been company policy to play dumb about the killer animatronics.

“I am so not working here another night,” grumbled Devlin as he left the security office and hurried down the hall back to the main eating room with the serving tray under his arm and his ruined clothes in a garbage bag in his other hand. It was a good thing that the office had a few empty bags just lying around for him to take advantage of. His only worry was the hidden camera’s footage, but something told him that whoever was watching that feed didn’t care about the actions of the guards or the machines. Maybe, they just got off watching the robots murder the night security guards or something, Devlin simply didn’t know. What he did know that was even after sending out his S.O.S. over the camera’s feed, not once during the entire night did anyone come to help him.

It only took a moment for Devlin, once he got back to the performance stage, to reattach Carlie’s tray to her upraised hand. With everything back the way it should be, he turned tail and made a beeline to the exit of the restaurant, stopping for nothing except to unlock the front doors. Like the purple-haired kid before him, Devlin didn’t bother to lock the door behind him. Instead he just moved as fast as he could with his oversized beltless trousers would allow to his car. He unlocked the driver side door and slid into the seat. As he did so, something fell out onto the pavement of the parking lot, but he didn’t pay it any mind. His truck was a tad messy on the inside, littered with garbage from past fast food dinners, so it was possible that it was just a plastic cup or something.

Devlin took one last look back at the restaurant, taking a moment to take in the large cartoonish face of Barry over the front door. In the light of day, it looked like any other fast food mascot, just another simple cartoon character with a large goofy grin, smiling at all patrons as they entered the restaurant with their children for a day of fun and food. Devlin could only hope that during operating hours the animatronics were truly safe, for the kid’s sake.

With a snort of disgust, Devlin put his truck in gear and exited the parking lot, making his way back home at long last. However, unbeknownst to him, the thing that had fallen out of his truck started to ring. It was only when he got back to his apartment that he realized that his phone had fallen out at the restaurant. He would have driven right back then and there to retrieve it, but he was so overcome by exhaustion due to his busy night, that all he could do was head inside and flop own upon the nearest couch. His last thought, before he passed out, was that he’d have to try to go back before his shift started. There was no way he was going to spend another night at that cursed restaurant.

End of night two.