Chapter 3
Fear continued to grip me, though I worked hard not to let it show... I hated when I had panic attacks that people SAW, it was humiliating. Once the show ended, and the curtains closed, I grabbed my two empty bottles, and fled the night club.
Trying to calm myself, I focused on the boring details as I walked. I passed through the open doors to the club proper, went past the blacked-out door beneath the curtain. Then a left turn, short passage, then a right turn through a set of doors that opened the wrong way –a violation of the fire code, for sure- then one last left turn and I just had to walk a dozen steps, past the elevator to leave the building.
My heart pounded the whole way. For some reason I felt the need to discreetly check behind me to see if I was being followed. Of course, nobody was even looking in my direction. Still, I did not calm until I was not only out of the building, but down the street and at the bus stop to take me home.
My phone was still dead, so I didn't know how long I'd have to wait for the bus. But as I waited, my thoughts turned into a swirl of confusion, shame, and anger. Confusion at my fear, Shame at giving in to it, and Anger at myself, for leaving without even catching a glimpse of Eric!
It wasn't much like him to flake out completely... he was probably just really late. I also wouldn't put it past him to show up and then get to partying hard before even finding me... especially if he saw another of his multitude of friends first. Instead, I'd been the one to flake out, because of some stupid panic attack. And for what?
Nobody else was anywhere near me, so I began to speak aloud to myself, "For what, huh? What was I so scared of? Some animatronic hottie walking past me? Why?"
I let my words hang in my ears for a moment, but then a thought occurred. I spoke it aloud. "Because she never went down those hallways... either one. She went in that black door, and then came out somewhere else somehow. That's weird."
"But!" I counterpointed myself, "There could be some hallway that goes all the way around!"
It sounded like a stupid premise. "Yeah, I don't buy that one either... but! What if there are two Fexa's? Nothing to say an animatronic has to be unique!"
I mulled the idea over for a moment. A distant bus turned onto the street. A quick glance confirmed: not my bus. It was a bus that passed near my workplace though, that was an interesting coincidence. I dismissed it, and returned to my self-conversation... I wanted to wrap it up, or at least finish my thought, before the bus got here... just in case somebody disembarked. I didn't want to look crazy.
"Perhaps there are duplicates, but if so, why in different areas? Also wouldn't the expense be incredible? And why does Fexa seem oddly familiar?"
I shut myself up, as the bus slowed down. I stepped back, so they wouldn't think I wanted on, but it stopped anyway.
A woman about my age rushed off the bus. She was absolutely gorgeous.
Her hair was the color of mahogany and chestnut, tied up into a long ponytail. Full red lips, vibrant blue eyes that sparkled with intelligence, soft cheeks accented with just a hint of blush.
Perhaps an inch shorter than my own 5'8" frame, she had a figure that put the animatronics I'd just seen to shame... because she was REAL. She wore a black leather jacket and skintight jeans, and was filling them both with ample assets... currently concealed, but still alluring.
Her every step let out a sharp tap from her tall red high-heeled boots, and she was walking fast, nearly running. In one hand she had a single sheet of paper... a poster? In the other hand, she held a stack of more papers, and a large metal stapler.
She ran up to the telephone pole next to the bus stop, and stapled a poster to it. She ran back to the bus, but it was already driving off.
"BASTARD!" She screamed at the bus, with a vehemence and rage that shocked me.
She stared after the bus for a moment, before turning to walk past me. Her anger expended, she seemed suddenly exhausted, worried. She glanced at me for a moment as she passed, and then looked up the street, to the distant neon sign of Frenni's Night Club.
Looking at the sign, she paused, before looking at me again, seemingly sizing me up. After a moment, she approached.
"Could you help me with something?" She asked in a soft rich voice, her eyes pleading and desperate... I couldn't possibly say no.
"Uh, I'm.... uh I mean... I'll help however I can..." I trailed off.
She smiled gratefully, and gave me one of her posters, "Could you just... keep an eye out for this girl here? And call me if see her? Or if you have seen her, or know anybody who's seen her... in the last two- no, three weeks?"
Her voice cracked a bit as she spoke. She was clearly deeply upset, but she shed no tears. Her eyes were determined, but her posture was tired.
I looked at the poster.
In large font was emblazoned, 'MISSING WOMAN. GLENDA aka "GOLDIE". AGE 21.', along with a contact number above what looked like a family picture; Two women in front of a fountain that I recognized from a mall in my city. One woman in the picture was clearly the same as the one standing in front of me, but a little younger. The other in the picture, circled in red, had a similar face and figure, but had bright blonde hair that spilled down her shoulders. She was also gorgeous, easy to recognize.
"She went missing about ... nineteen days ago?" An edge of panic crept into her voice, "and I'm just... SO scared." A single tear rolled down her perfect cheek, and my heart broke.
"I'm sorry... I haven't seen her." I hesitantly replied, hating myself for disappointing her, "B-but I'll keep an eye out." I tried to make it sound hopeful. She gave me a thin, but grateful smile, and wiped the tear off her face.
She went to lean against the telephone pole, and closed her eyes. I wanted to say more to cheer her up.
"You're a good sister, for doing this. Your parents must be proud."
She looked at me, and her face was tight with anger. "Our parents don't give a shit about us. If they DID we wouldn't BE here."
I kicked myself for making assumptions, and tried to mutter an apology... but the dam of anger had broken, and she had more to say.
"-And it's not like the COPS care! Hooker goes missing, they don't give one solitary FUCK about it, they're too fucking busy ARRESTING US for EXISTING!" She glared at me suddenly, "And then all around, the Johns who never seem to have seen anything."
I blinked in surprise.
"C'mon man, you clearly came from Frenni's." Her voice was no longer angry, just tired. "I never did it, but other girls work the patrons in there all the time, everybody knows it."
"Wha- but...I didn't!" I stammered, perhaps more indignantly than I should have, "I was just trying to hang out with my friend!"
I thought about Eric for a moment. "My friend... who once lost his phone in a night club in Nevada... " I mused aloud. I nodded with what I hoped was a comforting confidence, "Who has hundreds of people on his contact list, and who goes to clubs all the time! I'll show him your poster, I'm sure he'll want to help."
She was quiet for a moment, then flashed a wan smile and nodded. "Thanks. Sorry about the rant, I guess I misjudged you. Actually..."
She bit her lip a little, then put her papers and stapler on the ground, and got VERY close to me.
"If you bring my sister to me..." There was suddenly no hint of exhaustion or anger in her posture, her eyes filled with carnal lust, her lips were a sensual, cunning grin, "I promise you..."
She leaned in even closer, her lips nearly touching my right ear... she opened her jacket to reveal both breasts, which seemed to glitter in the night air. She continued in a whisper, "…that I'll give you a night you'll remember forever…"
"And another..." she purred, rubbing her chest against me, one of her hands gently massaging the growing lump in my pants, "and another... and another...."
She whispered, almost too quietly to hear, yet it still electrified my senses, "... as many as you could ever want..."
She abruptly closed up her jacket, and turned away, taking her papers and stapler as she went. I felt like I was about to pass out, I was so turned on! I watched her walk down the street... the sway of her hips was captivating.
Another bus turned onto the street. This one WAS my bus. I put in a mighty effort to deflate my boner before it arrived. After that experience there was no chance I'd be one hundred percent successful, but at least I had two bottles and a sheet of paper to help hide it.
On the way home, I pondered her situation. As electrifying as her come-on had been, it was also deeply tragic. What had driven her and her twenty-one year old sister to prostitution? And were people really so awful nowadays, that they could not be trusted to help without the promise of sexual favors?
I looked again at the poster. The younger sister had a mischievous grin, and there was a small pin on her purse that I dimly recognized... though I wasn't sure from where. The pin was a small green rectangle with some lines on one side.
What interest would I have in common with a young woman? Perhaps, anime? I ran through all the anime I was familiar with, and dismissed all of them. I couldn't think of anything else that might be a shared interest that would leave a point of recognition... not unless she had very non-typical interests.
I was still pondering it all when I entered my apartment. I was so distracted, I didn't even count the carpet stains on the way up, though I did check the lock three times. I looked at the microwave clock, since my phone was still dead. It was later than I thought, but not as late as I'd made contingency plans for.
Plugging in my phone to charge overnight –I really had to do that more often- I went through my nightly routine to go to bed. I had trouble sleeping at first due to nightmares about something chasing me, but eventually sleep claimed me.
Chapter 4
The buzzing of my alarm awoke me from a very pleasant dream where I was about to get laid. Blueballsed by the alarm clock... typical. I groused that it'd probably be weeks before I was lucky enough to have a dream like that again... but, that was my lot in life.
Work at McRonald's was shitty, but no more so than usual. I worked in the back end, making the burgers… and helping out with the nuggets and fries and whatnot when someone else inevitably dropped the ball. I just kept my head down, followed procedure, caused no waves. Only Aaron, one of the cashiers, liked me at all. Most of the rest didn't care. A few disliked me, I wasn't sure why.
Of course, Manager Ross hated me. He was the worst sort of Manager... so, he hated everyone. The trick with him was to give him as little reason to pay attention to you as possible. If he didn't see you, he didn't yell at you. On good days, we wouldn't see him leave his office at all!
During lunch break, I showed Aaron the poster... leaving out the backstory. I didn't know how he'd react to it. He knew nothing. And then Ross yelled at us for taking our breaks at the same time.
After work, I did a bit of research at home. News had nothing to say about missing women. General crime and fatality statistics for 'missing person, 20 days' were NOT encouraging. Still, if the odds weren't zero, there was a chance.
I tried to call Eric, but it rang and rang without going to voicemail... It would be a classic Eric move to just forget to set up voicemail. Or to forget paying his bill for a few months.
Google didn't help me much with the pin... though I had to admit that searches by general description were a poor place to start. I considered doing a search about Fexa's eyepatch, but that seemed a silly diversion from the important stuff.
The pin nagged at my mind. I knew I'd seen it... in fact, I was increasingly sure I'd seen a BIN of that kind of pin, a white basin just filled with little green rectangles.
"Where would I see a BIN of pins?" I asked myself.
"I don't really go anywhere or do anything... wouldn't be from McRonald's... so, where? How? When? What?"
When I went to bed, I'd found no answers. I dreamed of Frenni's Night Club.
Another day, another work shift. I considered bringing the poster again to show to my other coworkers, or even asking Ross to post it somewhere, but I figured he'd probably just yell at me. When I arrived, I discovered that The Woman -Why didn't she tell me her name? Why didn't I ask?- had already put a poster on a tree just outside the restaurant, before we opened.
Ross removed it, and threw it out. What an asshole.
I tried calling Eric again, after work. Some random guy picked up, and said Eric forgot his phone. He'd meet Eric tonight, and tell him I'd called. I thanked him. I was glad to see SOME progress.
My old highschool yearbooks caught my eye, and I decided to go through them. I might not have any interests in common with a young woman, but perhaps the teenage girls who'd been on the yearbook committee might have? It ended up a bust, though.
Keeping in the same vein, I went through my University stuff, and this search paid off. In one of the brochures, I found an image of it: it was a pin for the Computer Science Master's program. So, young Glenda was working to get a Master's degree at my University! She looked eighteen on the poster, and was already in the Master's program? She was a lot smarter than I was, that was for sure.
The mystery of the pin didn't really help solve the mystery of the disappearance, though. So she was working on a Master's degree... could that give a clue to how she disappeared? I logged into the university website, and tried to find pictures from the past year or so, focusing on computer science. It took a while, but I found a picture of her accepting an award for Outstanding Performance from the Dean... dated from just last semester! What HAPPENED to her, for her life to change so quickly?
Answers eluded me, questions surrounded me. And Eric never called.
I had trouble sleeping at first. I plugged in my phone so as not to drain the battery, and put on some relaxing gentle background noise. When I drifted off to sleep, I dreamed of sexy animatronic women.
Work was hell. A morning shift, and Ross was fuming. Apparently over a dozen posters got stapled directly to the building and to the drive-through menu sometime in the night.
I felt him glaring at me until somebody dropped a tray of nuggets on the ground. Ross didn't yell at them, just went to the office and got an assistant manager to send the offending party to the office. That's when you knew you were REALLY in trouble. The guilty party left the restaurant in tears, without their uniform.
Everybody kept their head down after that, but it didn't matter: today Ross had decided that we shall be berated, so we were.
After work, I tried to call Eric again, and this time it was him who answered.
"Whazzup." He sleepily slurred. For anyone else, being asleep at four in the afternoon would have seemed strange… for him, it was unsurprising.
"Hey, Eric! Where were ya the other day? You missed out!" I had tactfully planned this opening line, to get right to the heart of it, yet not be too accusatory... guilt him a little in case he'd never showed, but also let him know I'd been there in case he had. After this opening line, I had a few loose plans, but I knew I'd mostly be winging it: Eric was unpredictable.
"Ohh sorry Big T! I didn't see you there!" His voice was a little hoarse.
I frowned. Something about how he said it smelled fishy to me. I tried to play it cool. "Yeah, I got there early and didn't see you there either. Got in a bit after 10, didn't see you inside."
There was a pause on the other side of the line. Was it a suspicious pause, or was he just tired? "Man, I'm glad you got in, dog, cause those bouncers... they're hard-ass, man! Or maybe they just didn't like me?" He chortled sleepily, "Plus I was super late... I figured you musta gone home after gettin' bounced! I guess you ended up cool after Uni, eh? I knew you had it in you somewhere, man!"
His sleepy laughter was infectious, I couldn't stay mad... and, his compliment reinforced that elation I'd felt when they'd let me in. I didn't think of myself as cool but... it was nice to hear, for sure! I'd been a fool to doubt him.
I was upbeat as I asked, "Well, do you want to try again sometime? I'd really like a chance to chat about stuff, catch up, you know? Plus I could use your help on something... if you're up for it" I winced... I hadn't meant to add the 'if' clause, but it just slipped out. Much as I wanted to catch up, this poster business was more important, and I didn't want him to slip out of it. Couldn't be helped now, though.
"Man, that sounds cool, dog! I'm a bit fucked up today, but how 'bout tomorr- nah not tomorrow... when is my...? Ok, day after that, I'm CLEAR BABY! Frenni's Night Club at Ten, Big T and Me!" He mustered up some frat boy hoots, and I echoed them back with a chuckle.
"Peace!" His departure was as sudden as it always was, without even a chance for me to get in another word.
Day after tomorrow, Frenni's Night Club. I was actually excited to go back. I'd thought about my first visit quite a bit, and come to the conclusion that I had overreacted. Surely, that one burst of fear was just an irrational response to a touch of the "uncanny valley" effect, magnified by seeing a duplicate animatronic.
I had reasoned that it had to be a duplicate. Costly as they might be, extended downtime could be even costlier! I was pretty sure Eric had once told me something about financial leverage, and how having more costs up front was more profitable... or something like that, I forgot the details. I wasn't a business major and he was, so he'd know better than I.
Changing gears to research Glenda, Google revealed something, but not something encouraging. In the News, a couple women were reported as missing. Even though none of them were Glenda, it was disheartening. One missing woman could be a misunderstanding, a fallout, a fling, a... anything! Several was a pattern. A disturbing one.
It was too depressing to contemplate. I busied myself with chores... I'd fallen behind on a lot of them. It had been weeks since I dusted, and some of my collectibles were delicate: I needed to focus on my task.
The new bottles had been cleaned and dried the first day... no prism like I hoped but they still looked cool on my shelf beside my anime figures and my rock collection. My old TTRPG books had a thick dust coating on them... I resolved that someday I'd get back into it. My magazines were likewise coated, so I was grateful that they had covers on them. Not that they'd be valuable someday... pretty sure the shop owner had sold me a lie on that front.
I had two bookcases full of random knickknacks and whatnots, mostly quite firmly in the nerd/geek sphere, but also some classic literature, a few old game consoles that I couldn't bear to throw away, a balsawood tower, an old Godzilla action figure, a couple old stuffed plushies from when I was a kid (I named them Azlan and Foxie)...
FOXIE. It hit me like a truck. That one friend's pizza party I missed because I had Chicken Pox. They felt bad that I couldn't make it, but they bought me a plushie to make me feel better. FOXIE. Red fox, pirate eye patch, hook hand.
Exactly like Fexa. This was more than coincidence.
Wait... Foxie had friends... other mascots. What were they? I couldn't remember, but I was sure they'd show up if I searched for Foxie.
Googling 'Foxie' led to almost nothing. An obscure dictionary entry, some random cartoon foxes, a cosmetics company, an instagram model... nothing that seemed related. I tried the classic spelling, instead of my childhood-granted one. Foxy.
Immediately, a massive deluge of results. Foxy, an animatronic entertainer for children at a pizza chain. Alongside Foxy, was a blue bunny, a brown bear, and a yellow chicken. So similar to the nightclub! Even the names were virtually identical.... Foxy, Bonnie, Freddy, Chica.
It probably meant nothing of substance... nothing related to finding Glenda, anyway... but I had to know more, I couldn't stop myself.
Apparently the pizza chain got really popular for a bit. The corporation, Fazbear Entertainment, got to be kind of a big player. There was a whole corporate financial drama around its rise and fall, they almost made a movie about it.
Fazbear Entertainment got big, and then there were a bunch of lawsuits. By themselves, the lawsuits were nothing, apparently F.E. had a huge legal team... but the stock price dipped. There was a massive short attack, and the price kept dipping. Then MORE lawsuits rolled in... anti-trust suits, personal liability suits... there was a long list.
The company might have gotten back on its feet, but it had become poison to advertisers and investors. It was forced into bankruptcy several years ago.... I was about to read further, but my eye caught a word back in the lawsuit section: Murder. There were murder charges filed, but nothing stuck... the article didn't explain that detail any further.
New tab, new search; Murder plus Fazbear entertainment.... oh my. There were a LOT of results. Hunting through them for the best ones, eventually I found some old ReadIt post that linked to another post that had a list... including citations from news outlets.
There had been a LOT of murders around Fazbear Entertainment. There were dozens of mysterious deaths, even more missing and presumed-dead children, at a multitude of locations. The names blurred together... Fredbear's Family Diner, Fazbear's Pizzeria, Chica's Party World, Circus Baby this, Funtime that... a bunch of locations and animatronics, owned by Fazbear Entertainment, all connected to missing children, dead workers... and more than one mysterious fire.
There were almost no convictions... few mistrials, bunch of mysteriously dropped charges, bunch of 'settled out of court' resolutions. The only convictions were for lesser liability claims, despite an enormous amount of really suspicious circumstantial evidence.
However, Fazbear Entertainment hadn't taken it sitting down. They'd filed defamation counter-suits against basically everyone who accused them, and the media. F.E. never seemed to win the defamation suits though, usually dropping the counter-suit when their accuser dropped their suit… which of course only made F.E seem more suspicious.
Terrible stuff. And now they, what, owned a nightclub? What happened to the bankruptcy?
An article about the bankruptcy indicated that the entirety of Fazbear Entertainment was liquidated, so... who bought the animatronics? To my surprise, it wasn't a company, it was some guy, whose name I recognized.
"Goddammit, Trusk!"
Dolan Trusk was some weird super-rich guy... He did a lot of bizarre things; bought houses that had no walls, just windows; spent millions on useless rescue vehicles, and then insulted the team that actually did the rescuing; blatantly lied about real estate values. Stuff like that. And apparently at one point he'd bought a bunch of animatronics and proprietary tech from the Fazbear Entertainment bankruptcy auction... but NOT any of the intellectual property, so he couldn't even use it.
There was some pretty valuable tech, too. Apparently Fazbear Entertainment was a global front-runner for robotic technology, which made sense. More surprising, was that they had also made great strides in advanced polymers, optics, acoustics, and there was even something about computerizing intelligence. Great tech to get a hold of... but only if you can use it.
Dolan Trusk ended up selling the stuff to someone else... apparently at a HUGE discount, since he needed money immediately in order for his real-estate empire to avoid bankruptcy. Since it wasn't a public auction, he didn't disclose to whom he sold it. Apparently he was supposed to, though, and Dolan was currently embroiled in several lawsuits over it, including one in which he was claiming that he still owned it and all the intellectual rights, somehow.
Fazbear Entertainment was not actually associated with Frenni's Night Club, which actually explained the unusual names for the characters... the term 'legally distinct' leaped to my mind. It also relieved me that the connection between the two places was so loose and tangential... Fazbear Entertainment's history was so dark, it felt cursed. The less of a connection, the better.
Further searches clarified the legal status of Frenni's Night Club. Apparently this state was one of many whose definitions of prostitution or indecent exposure used the term "person" to describe the perpetrator. Since animatronics were objects, not people, they skirted around the issue... nobody had expected such realistic sex bots to ever exist when they wrote the law.
Apparently some lawmakers were frothing at the mouth to expand the definition, but seemed to be losing the battle for even keeping the current usage... expanding the law was just not in the cards for them.
Still curious, I wondered: who got the rest of Fazbear Entertainment's stuff?
Some person whose name meant nothing to me got most of the intellectual property. Land and buildings went all over the place, even to the federal government. Some of the tech went to some 'Reverend Small' for a church group or something, which was kind of interesting.
None of it helped find Glenda, though… so it was all a waste of time, albeit an interesting waste.
Sighing, I glanced at the clock. It was late, but there was some time left in the day. I was mentally exhausted though. I'd done a lot of searching, and a lot of reading. No more, my brain was toasting.
I thought about Frenni's Night Club. Did they have a YouHube channel?
One more search… oh wow. Yes, they did have a YouHube channel... absolutely filled with high-quality adult content.
I eventually went to bed tired, but satisfied. I drifted off to sleep... and I dreamed of having sexual escapades in Frenni's Night Club.
Ross was in a comparatively good mood for once, perhaps because there were no new posters anywhere.
The day was actually pretty quiet, so we actually got some calm downtime. Of course, with Ross there, you could never look like you were doing nothing... the trick was to look busy, when you weren't really doing anything.
I was glad it was a slow day. I couldn't get Frenni's Night Club out of my mind. It was at times hard to hide my erection. I really didn't want to have to explain why I had an erection while cleaning a hot grill!
At the end of my shift I noted that one of the other back-end people would be on vacation for the next few days. There was no replacement. Also, I now worked tomorrow. It didn't even surprise me; Ross seemed to have a supernatural sense for what was the worst scheduling he could give you. Well, he'd have to work harder if he wanted to upset me. Tomorrow, I was going to Frenni's Night Club, nothing could spoil my mood!
When I got back to my apartment, I wanted nothing more than to go straight to YouHube... but I restrained myself.
I decided to start writing something new, with Fexa and Bonfie and Frenni, and also a handsome man named Alfredo, who found the girls naked in a hot tub. I typed up ten pages at a blazing pace, and then went onto YouHube.
I almost regretted spending so much of my evening on YouHube. Almost.
As I drifted off to sleep, I had this vague sense that I was forgetting something.
Chapter 5
Groggily, I woke up the next morning to the sound of my upstairs neighbors fighting. I guessed they were back together again. A shame, it had been quiet when it was just one of them. I tried to get back to sleep, but the light from the window... wait. Light? From the window?
I went to check the time on my phone. It was dead.
Cursing my failure to charge the device I used for my alarm, I raced out of bed to get ready for work. The clock on my computer monitor told me I had precious little time before I'd be late. I skipped breakfast, and it was a good thing, too... I arrived at my bus stop just a few seconds before the bus.
Being without my phone would make it harder to meet up with Eric, I would have to charge it at work. It was a bit risky to do so, because it wasn't strictly speaking allowed... but there was a bare outlet from before the renovation, hidden behind one of the sliding cabinet shelves in the break room. If someone else was already using it, I was out of luck.
Luck smiled on me, it was not in use when I arrived. Still, I had to be careful. If Ross ever found out about this outlet, he'd surely remove it. In fact, I had a contingency plan if someone ever lied to get me fired... I'd tell Ross about the outlet on the way out. Anyone screwed me over, I'd screw them over.
I managed to get my phone charging, and had a minute to spare before my shift started. I was feeling good.
The shift started fine. Ross seemed surprised to see me there. I guess he'd been hoping I didn't notice the schedule change, so he could fire me. I didn't call him out, I didn't call attention to it... I did nothing, refusing to give him a target.
We were down one person in the back end, but I was a good enough worker to make up for it. I'd be tired tomorrow -in fact I'd be beyond exhausted, if I stayed late at Frenni's!- but I could do it.
Halfway through the shift, we had a little slowdown. Apparently it had begun raining at some point... according to one very loud customer, it was expected to rain all week. This was apparently hilarious somehow.
Slow periods never last, so I made sure to finish up my cleaning as quickly as I could. And then I just looked busy. But my mind wandered... to Frenni's. I was getting aroused... REALLY aroused. And the slow period lasted.
Thinking hard, I came up with a plan, and immediately set it in motion.
I poked my head around the nugget fryer to look at the assistant manager, "Hey, could I take my fifteen?"
"Yeah. You, then Dave, then Penny. Take the break while we've got the flex." The assistant manager's voice was totally flat. Dead inside, I guessed.
Clocking out, I immediately went to the bathroom, and turned on the fan. The sound insulation was really good in the bathroom, but I was taking no risks. I stealth-busted as quickly as I could, and then made sure there was no trace of the evidence. I hoped the quick bust would control my libido for the rest of my shift.
I was back at my station right as my 15-break ended. It was still slow. In fact, a couple of my coworkers were at the drive-thru windows, watching the rain pound down. I could actually hear it even from the grill. A flash lit up the trees outside, followed several seconds later by rolling thunder.
It remained slow. An hour ticked by, but the storm did not relent. Once Ross realized that some of us were slacking, he starting finding things for us to do, getting more inventive as the backlog of tasks slowly diminished.
Despite my earlier bust, I was having difficulty focusing my thoughts. I was very pleased when my lunch break came. I ate, a welcome meal after skipping breakfast, retrieved my phone... and then I stealth-busted in the bathroom again.
As I again made sure there was no evidence, I was baffled, what was wrong with me? I never used to be such a horndog, but now I could barely control myself. Was it porn addiction? Was that what I had? I hadn't thought it really existed, but, here I was... wanking in the bathroom at work. Twice in one day!
After lunch, every time the orders ran dry, I was sent to the back to grab re-stock supplies. First, General Purpose Cleaner. Then De-greaser. Then Window Cleaner.
The tasks were too menial, my mind began to wander. I tried hard to focus on work. But Fexa... Bonfie... Chiku... Frenni... I couldn't stop thinking of doing lustful acts with them. Sex positions of all kinds ran through my mind, making my pulse race.
And then I was sent to the freezer to get more fries. I rushed over, taking advantage of speed and the surrounding equipment to hide my boner. I didn't think any of my coworkers noticed, and I quickly opened the freezer. Perhaps the cold would deflate me?
I was so distracted, I forgot the safety rules for the freezer, and my foot slipped on some ice. I didn't fall to the floor, but my right foot shot forward, directly into a loose steel wire on one of the racks. The steel went into my right shoe, and under my big toe nail.
Pain DEFINITELY made my boner deflate. I was doubled over on a box of fries, clinging to the rack with both arms, rocking forwards and back, groaning in pain. After a few moments, the pain subsided enough for me to trust walking on the foot again. I carefully avoided the ice I'd slipped on, and exited the freezer. The first-aid kit was right near the freezer door, so I pulled off my right shoe and sock, and examined the injury.
Honestly, it didn't look as bad as I feared, it was almost nothing. I wedged some antiseptic gel under the nail, and put a big adhesive bandage tightly over the toe. It couldn't have done much, but it seemed to hurt a bit less. I could walk on it, at least. I closed up the first aid kit, and went back into the freezer. After all, I still needed the fries.
I came out with the fries, just as another person came by to get toppings for the ice cream treats. They gave me a strange look.
"Have fun in there?" They asked, with a raised eyebrow.
I wiggled my right foot, showing off the hole, "Yeah, tons. I even had to...." I waved with one hand at the first aid kit. This was a big box of fries, so I had to do an awkward half-wave, supporting the box for a moment with my leg.
They stared at me strangely, but I had no time to inquire. I awkwardly walked around them to the fry station. I put down the box, and then started the task of opening the box of fries, to get the bag of fries, to put in the hopper. As I pulled out the first bag, one of the front-end cashiers walked up to me.
"What were you DOING back there?" She demanded of me, taking the bag of frozen fries from me.
I considered telling her, that I had just gotten the fries she just picked up. The frozen fries, from the freezer. That's why I'd just come from the freezer, and why these fries were frozen, you see; I'd just been in the freezer getting these frozen fries from the freezer. These were the frozen fries that she couldn't be bothered to get, so I was ordered to get instead, had gotten, and had just given to her. That's why she had fries that were frozen.
As much as I wanted to deliver such a sarcastic tirade, actually saying it would probably result in a reprimand. I couldn't even think of a way to dismiss her question, without being offensive.
So, I opted for the safest option: I ignored her. Still offensive, but I could claim to have not heard what she said. Although, she wasn't a manager, and the managers we had didn't seem to care what happened to non-managers... so maybe it didn't even matter.
I returned to my station, and she marched off in a huff. I ignored her. There were more burgers to make, and my injury had put me behind a bit. Not only had I missed some time, but I was also working slower. I adjusted my stance, so I wouldn't have to step so often. It would suffice.
I was a bit behind our target time for these burgers, but the front end was somehow further behind, so it wasn't my problem.
"Trevor. Ross wants you in his office."
I didn't even register who said it to me. What?! I began to panic, but then I remembered... yearly performance reviews. I had a vague notion that they were overdue to be done, but it was just like Ross to make you sweat waiting for it, and then make you sweat again when he finally did it.
So I went to his office, and tried to stay calm.
He just stared at me as I walked in. He didn't even glare. It actually threw me off.
"Is. It. True?" He asked, in a dangerously calm voice.
"Is WHAT true?" I replied.
"DON'T FUCKING PLAY WITH ME!" He roared, suddenly furious. My anxiety soared. This volume was unusual, even for him. "Don't you fucking DARE. Do you think I'm stupid? You think we don't have cameras in there?"
My blood froze. No... even Ross, scum though he was, wouldn't dare to put a camera in the bathroom... would he?
"We have to have them in there. For safety." His voice was now a simmer, threatening to bring back flaming rage.
Shit... he HAD done it. I could even imagine his justification. 'Oh, isn't it terrible, all the drug use in this city? What if someone shot up in there, and died?' He'd leap at the chance to watch us every second of the day, to make us fear him, with only the flimsiest excuse for doing it.
"You can admit it to me here, now. Or I can get the police involved. Now, Trevor. Tell me. Did you jack off on the premises?"
Ross knew all our weaknesses. I was sensitive, it was easy to make me upset. Also, I was no good at lying, at least not spontaneously. No chance of my lying here, I couldn't even speak, I was just one word away from breaking down into humiliating sobs. But I nodded.
Ross nodded, slowly. He reached into a desk drawer, and pulled out a check. He spoke to me, uncharacteristically softly, as he wrote on it.
"I'm telling you what's going to happen. You're going to give me your uniform, your employee card, your nametag. I'm going to give you your final paycheck right now, instead of on payday. You will take this check, and you will leave. You will NOT." Fire returned to his eyes and voice, "I repeat, you will NOT argue. You will NOT say a single WORD on your way out. Or else I will take the video recording of this conversation, and I will take it to the police."
Ross really covered all his bases. He was an asshole, but he was thorough.
"If you do all this, then I will NOT go to the police. A man as young as you doesn't need a Record like that following him. And one more thing." He leaned in close, "I strongly recommend that you do not jack off in a freezer ever again."
I blinked. In a freezer? In a confused daze, I gave him all my work stuff, and took the check. I barely registered leaving the building. I didn't even feel the rain. He said... in a freezer?
After thinking for a few minutes, I pieced together what had happened. My pain, in the freezer, mistaken as pleasure... whether honest mistake or deliberate misinterpretation, it didn't matter. My sarcastic joke about the first aid kit, also misinterpreted. My ignoring that cashier... all of it, everything, just a miscommunication that spiraled out of control.
Did Ross even know, what I did in the bathroom? I mean... how could he? If stripping was illegal in the state, then bathroom cams HAD to be as well. I had to assume he didn't know. If he knew, he would've said 'bathroom'.
But my damn literal brain had hanged me. I'd been on the premises, but in a fully private and almost sound-proof space. Technically I had masturbated on the premises, yes, but with such privacy and secrecy, I could have safely answered 'no'. Too late to correct that mistake, though.
How was I going to pay rent now? I was already barely afloat. No apartments were cheaper to rent, in the whole city... none that were legal, anyway.
I was almost in a trance. I entered my apartment, still holding my check in one hand. I could have cashed it, but why? It seemed hopeless. As I sat in my bedroom staring at the paltry check, a strange thought occurred to me… I could probably buy Premium Membership.
Fuck it. I was screwed anyway... might as well get fucked in an enjoyable way, before Life fucked me raw.
So I used my phone's electronic check-cashing feature, to put it into my account. I couldn't find a way to buy Premium Membership online, though. I'd have to do it in person. That was fine. I felt strangely calm... at peace, even. I put the day behind me. This would probably hit me like a train tomorrow, but tomorrow was going to suck anyway.
Might as well enjoy today.