The morning light came through the blinds in pale strips. Mike got up with the usual bored expression, as if he already expected the same uneventful day. He changed into whatever clothes he had and went to where the others were.
"Morning, Mike."
"Morning, Yenndo."
Ever since Yenndo started living here, he'd become sort of a butler of the house—not that anyone was complaining. This morning he was adjusting the blinds, which had been slightly crooked for days.
Mike sat on the couch and turned on the TV to look for something he hadn't seen a dozen times already.
Beside him, Bonnet kept drawing; the only thing that could be heard besides the TV was the sound of crayons on paper. After a while, she set it down and held up the paper.
"Guys, look at this."
He leaned forward to look at the drawing of all of them: Yenndo, Lolbit, Bonnet, and Mike.
"That's a nice drawing of us," Mike said, getting a closer look at the childish sketch.
Lolbit spoke from the computer. "Hey. Why does my face look stupid?"
"I thought that's how it always looked," Mike said.
"Very funny."
"You're welcome."
Lolbit's screen flickered. "Bonnet, how about you draw Mike smiling? If you can figure out what that looks like."
"She's had years of reference," Mike said. "She'll manage."
"Years of reference and still nothing," Lolbit fired back.
"My face is plenty expressive," Mike muttered. "You're just blind."
"You know what," Lolbit said, "if my face looks stupid, I want a chance to defend my honour."
"Meaning Yenndo's going to draw for you. Like he usually does." Mike leaned back. "At least this way it prevents you from cheating like you usually do."
Lolbit's screen flickered. "That was years ago."
"And yet the memory is still fresh."
"I've grown and evolved."
"You got caught. That's not evolution; that's just you refusing to acknowledge your actions."
"I'll just be coaching Yenndo more; he still hasn't improved." Lolbit's screen flickered.
"Didn't you already say something like that?" Mike said.
"He drew something that looked like a bus and called it a cat."
"What's the theme?" Mike asked.
"Self-portrait," Bonnet said. "Draw yourself. Or however you see yourself."
"What about Lolbit?" Yenndo asked. "She doesn't have a body."
"Then draw what she would look like if she had one," Bonnet said.
"I want to look confident," Lolbit said.
"You always want to look confident," Mike noted.
"And yet so few people capture it."
Yenndo picked up a crayon and started drawing. Lolbit's voice crackled beside him. "Make sure my face actually looks beautiful this time."
"Don't worry," Yenndo murmured. "I think I got it."
Mike picked up a crayon and looked at the blank paper. He'd always been able to draw. Not like some people he knew, but he had a steady hand and a good eye.
Lolbit's voice drifted over from the computer. "Yenndo, give me better posture."
"Make up your mind already," he said. "You keep making me erase it. It's ruining the paper."
"Art requires sacrificing the paper."
Mike glanced over. Yenndo's drawing was a mess of erased lines and smudged crayon. Lolbit's face had been drawn, erased, and redrawn three times. She looked less confident and more like she was vibrating.
"You're overthinking it," Mike said.
"I'm providing direction."
"You're providing a headache."
"Animatronics can't get headaches; besides, you wouldn't understand it," Lolbit said.
Twenty minutes passed. Bonnet set her crayon down. "Time."
She collected the drawings and laid them out on the floor.
Yenndo's drawing was first. He'd drawn Lolbit. It looked something like Funtime Foxy, but with different colours. And beside Lolbit was Yenndo.
Mike's drawing was next. There wasn't anything crazy to it; he just kept it plain and simple.
Her own drawing was last. It was childish, small, and pink and round, with her big green eyes, but it was good enough.
"First place," she said. "Me."
"You're always giving yourself first place," Lolbit said.
"I'm the best artist."
"That's biased, but hey, at least we beat Mike this time."
"I like to think she felt sorry for you," Mike added.
Mike, who was still seated on the couch, switched through a couple of channels. Then he stopped. An advertisement filled the screen with bright colours, cheerful music, and a familiar logo spinning onto the screen. Freddy Fazbear's Pizza: the new location opening tomorrow.
The commercial showed kids laughing, animatronics on stage, a voiceover promising a safe, family-friendly experience. "Come join the fun at the all-new Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Where fantasy and fun come to life."
Yenndo stopped what he was doing. He stood very still, watching the screen. When the logo faded, he turned back to the bookshelf and resumed adjusting the spines.
Mike let the commercial finish with a final shot of Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica waving at the camera, the logo fading in over their smiles. Strangely enough, he recognized these animatronic designs from his dreams.
"Didn't you say you're going to be working at this new location?" Lolbit asked.
"Yes, they said something about getting familiar with everything a few weeks before it actually opens to the public," Mike said as he watched the screen now playing some other advertisement.
Bonnet had stopped drawing. She was watching him from her spot on the floor, her green crayon still in her hand. "Are you nervous?"
"I'm already used to dealing with animatronics. But this time I'm working the morning shift. Shouldn't be too bad."
Lolbit replied, "Famous last words."
Bonnet picked up her crayon again. "Just be careful."
"I am already dead. It's not like I can get into a situation worse than being dead."
"Well, you could stay dead for good," Lolbit said.
Mike looked at her screen. "Yes. But that's the whole point of what I'm trying to do. So that everyone dead can move on."
"But what if some of us aren't possessed?" Lolbit asked. "Or what if some of us don't want to move on yet?"
"We'll see when it comes to that." Mike leaned back into the couch. "I don't want to talk about this right now."
Lolbit chimed in, "The universal signal that someone wants to change the subject."
"I'm sure you have a better idea of how not to die of boredom."
"I have several. Whether you'll agree to any of them is a different question."
"Let's hear it."
Lolbit's screen flickered. "We could do another round of drawing."
"Pass," Mike said.
"Fine. Then how about we watch a movie? But I choose this time."
"Sure."
"Then let's watch Scream."
Mike turned his head toward her monitor. "That horror movie?"
Yenndo looked toward them. "What's it about?"
"Someone in a mask stabs people," Lolbit said cheerfully. "It's very fun."
"That doesn't sound fun," Yenndo murmured.
Mike leaned back into the couch. "Sure, let's watch it."
"I thought you'd appreciate the educational value." Lolbit's screen flickered. "Rule one: never say you'll be right back. You won't be."
"Are you really spoiling the movie by quoting something from the movie already? Besides, that rule didn't stop me from literally coming back from the dead."
Lolbit paused. "That's different; you're an exception. Besides, the rule only applies to people without a remnant," Lolbit added.
"Sometimes I wonder if bringing a comic relief fox into my house was really a good idea," Mike muttered.
Bonnet tilted her head. "How come we've never watched this before?"
"Because I was saving it," Lolbit said.
"For what?"
"For a special occasion. And then Mike announced he was working at a haunted pizzeria, and I thought, perfect."
Bonnet looked at Mike. "She didn't plan this."
"No," Mike said, "but she's acting like it. Besides, I've already seen all the Scream movies."
"Well, you're going to watch it again."
Halfway through the second movie, Bonnet was asking questions nonstop while Lolbit would just reply with horror movie logic. Eventually, it was somewhere around two in the morning.
"It seems Ghostface is going to be my favourite horror slasher, just next to Jason," Lolbit said.
"You do realize Ghostface isn't a single character, right?" Mike asked.
"Then who is your favourite Ghostface?" she countered.
"Definitely Stu Macher because his face reminds me of William's, and I like how it gets crushed by the TV."
By the time the end credits rolled, the sky outside the window was beginning to lighten.
"I should get ready."
Yenndo turned his head. "Already?"
"Work starts soon."
Mike walked to his room, changed into clean clothes, grabbed his jacket and keys along with his bag of illusion discs, and headed out to his car.