It was yet another bleak day for me, Blake Nicely, a resident in the small town of Beaversville, located a few miles southeast of Rowley County. I work alongside my friend John at Mr. Hops’s Family Diner, a restaurant located in the very center of the town. The diner provides entertainment for its customers in the form of an animatronic mascot that sings and plays his banjo for all the children to enjoy. Despite its name being Mr. Hops, it is not a rabbit, but rather a dark blue beaver. It was one of the first additions when the town was under construction. The town’s name was undecided, but it gained its official title once Mr. Hops arrived. It is a fairly large establishment, with a spacious dining area, a kitchen, three restrooms, a storage closet, two birthday party rooms, an arcade, and finally an office fit for two people, which is where John and I come in. We work the day shift guard position. Our job is to watch the security cameras that are posted up around the building and make sure everything is going smoothly, and one guard must do a quick sweep of the residence every half hour. In the office, John has just spilled his orange soda on one of the monitors.

“Dangit!” John exclaimed.

“Big man is gonna kill you if you screwed it up,” I told him as I chuckled under my breath.

He rushed to grab a towel to soak up the drink that was now seeping into the edges of the monitor. “Boss won’t know if he don’t find out,” he said as he hurriedly wiped all around the corners of the screen, using his fingernail to get in the small crevice between the frame and the screen.

“If you say so.” I shrugged and continue playing on my phone and checking the cameras every so often. There was only an hour left till closing time. A few moments later, I stood up and told John I was going to patrol real fast. “Hey John! Yo! John!” I walked over and smacked him on the back of the head. He had headphones in and hadn’t heard me calling his name.

“The heck was that for?”

“I’m going to patrol.” I pointed at the clock on the wall. “I’ll be back in a minute” He nodded his head and went back to his music. I walked out of the office and partly down the hall, into party room A, located on my right. There were no parties today, so I just glanced over the room. Everything was in order, and the same could be said for party room B. After checking both of the party rooms, my next order of business were the restrooms. I checked the male bathroom only, as the handicap bathroom was occupied and the female restrooms were going to be checked by me on my next patrol shift, immediately after closing time, to make sure that no kids are hiding out and no teenagers are making out in there. Restroom was clear, so I made my way through the dining area and past the kitchen, towards the storage closet. I opened it and poked my head inside. I jumped back in fear. There was something looking at me from inside! I stood there for a second, contemplating what to do, and I decided that I would slowly poke my head in. I let out a sigh of relief. It was just a kid hiding from his parents. “Come on you gotta get out.” The boy protested but I told him, “I’m sorry but you’re not allowed in there.” He shuffled away, off to hide under a table I presume. After doing a quick sweep of the arcade, I made my way back to the office. John had been watching me on the cameras, and when I walked in he spun his chair around to look at me.

“That boy scared the heck out of you, didn’t he?” he said to me while laughing.

I looked at him crossly told him to shut up. “I didn’t even have time to turn on the light, there was just a figure in the dark, okay? I’d like to see what you would’ve done.”

“Guess we’ll never know” he said as he spun back around and put his headphones on his head once again.

“Guess not” I retorted.

The next 45 minutes went by as normal. He went on patrol 20 minutes after we talked, and till now we were just doing our own things. The store closed, and I went on my last patrol of the day. Everything was in order. No teenagers in the bathrooms, no kids hiding. The janitor would be here to clean the place up before the diner opens at seven thirty in the morning. I returned to the office and sat back down. We had to wait for the night guards to arrive before we could leave. We watched on the cameras, waiting patiently, then impatiently. Ten minutes after closing… twenty… thirty… yet still no word from either night guard. We tried calling, but both people’s cells went straight to voicemail.

Another half hour passed. “Well, looks like no sleep for us. We can’t just leave the place empty,” I said to John.

“Yeah, I reckon you’re right. Sucks though. Why do ya reckon neither of them are answering?” John wondered.

“No clue, but boss is gonna hear about this. I never did like those two. Maybe we can get them fired?” I grinned at the thought of it.

“I don’t know. It’s possible. Be quiet for a second, I gotta call my girlfriend and tell her what’s happening.” he said.

“Alright.” While he was on the phone I was staring blankly at the monitor, knowing that it was going to be a long night. He hung up, but I did not move. Suddenly, some movement caught my eye. It looked like… no. It can’t be... It appeared as though Mr. Hops was exiting the stage. Am I this tired already? “Hey… uh… John?” I said quietly. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“What? Oh, Mr. Hops? Yeah, he has a sort of night mode where he roams the place. Why you so pale? What’s got your panties in a twist? Scared of a robot beaver with a set path?” He snorted.

“No, I’m not scared at all.” I tried to put on a fake confident voice, but I’m terrified out of my mind. I never liked the thing anyways, but it never came near the office. If it’s freely roaming the building, I know it’s going to. I watched it follow its path throughout the diner. I swear I saw it stare at the camera one time, but I know it must be my imagination. Then, I heard it’s loud, clunking footsteps approach the office. I sat, rooted to my chair as it came into view. There it stood. Eight feet tall, dark blue and holding his banjo, poised to strike up a tune at any time. Its eyes swiveled to look at John, then look at me. I shuddered. It appeared as if its eyes were bearing into me, even looking straight through me. It walked off, but I didn’t move for a good two minutes after it approached us. I reflected on how its eyes seemed unnaturally large, making the beaver appear as if it were a crazed person. It made me question what to do, but I finally stood up and slowly walked over to the door. I started to peek my head around the door frame. Nothing was there. I let out a sigh of relief. I sat back down, and this same cycle repeated for the next few hours. A few times after the first encounter, I stopped checking the door after the beaver left. The janitor showed up an hour and a half before opening, meaning that he would be here at six in the morning. It is currently four forty-five, and both me and John are incredibly tired. The robot approached again, and I didn’t even bat an eye at it. At least, not until it stood there for quite a bit longer than it had before now. I looked at Mr. Hops, and while his eyes still bored into and through me, they were oddly unfocused. He stood there for another fifteen seconds and then slinked off. I thought about how it looked the first time I saw it all those hours ago. It was definitely off. So, I yet again walked over to the door and poked my head around to look at the animatronic. Something hard hit me in the side of the head. I cussed as I hit the ground. I tried to make out what was happening, but my vision was blurry, and my ears were ringing. All I could see were two little red lights. Suddenly, I could see and hear again, and I wish I couldn’t. Mr. Hops’s eyes were bright red and glowing, a maniacal grin spread across his animatronic face. “JOHN RUN!” I yelled as I backed away and stood back up. John ducked the robots second attempt to incapacitate us. “This way!” I gestured and sprinted down the hall, into the party rooms. I slammed the door behind us. “Under a table, quick!” We both dove under a table just as white light flooded the room through the window. I guess his eyes were back to white again. We caught our breath as the light disappeared and I whispered to John. “Holy crap! What the heck was that?”

“I-I-I don’t know it isn’t programmed to attack anyone” he sputtered. His eyes were as wide as tennis balls, and I could tell this was a great shock to him. Then, there was a loud bang from the door. We both jumped and yelped. We heard the door thump as it hit the ground. Mr. Hops had busted through the door in an instance. Neither of us made a peep. Luckily, the tables had long, draping tablecloths on to provide some means of concealment. Then, we heard the robot pick up a table and chuck it across the room. I flinched when it hit the ground. I prayed that my tablecloth wouldn’t be lifted. I knew that the beaver was across the room, so I whispered to John who was under the table on my right, nearer to the danger than I was. “We run on three, okay?”

“Okay,” he whispered back. We both stood up from under our tables and sprinted as fast as we could towards the door. The animatronics head whipped around and its eyes turned red once more. I miscalculated where the banging was coming from, and it was closer to the door than I thought. It swung at John and barely nicked him. I tried to run past it, but I wasn’t so lucky. It swung out at me and then there was blinding pain in my right arm. Not only was there a deep gash on my upper arm, but it appeared to be broken. Blood spattered the walls. Nevertheless, adrenaline kept me going, although I knew it was going to hurt later. Mr. Hops gave chase, and I followed John’s lead as he ran into the arcade and ducked behind a machine. The robot’s white light yet again flooded the room. This time, the beaver was just peering it’s large head in between the arcade machines. The, the worst possible thing that could have happened in that situation happened. I let out a sneeze on accident, as it was very dusty in this room. The robots eyes immediately turned red and it sprinted over to our machine. “RUN FOR IT!” I shouted at John. We ran, but the animatronic grabbed me. “JOHN!” I yelled. The robot spun me around, and then opened its wide mouth, really emphasizing it’s large buck teeth. It lowered it’s mouth down to my shoulder. John had ran back and was trying to free me from it’s clutches, but his attempts were fruitless. The beasts jaw started closing, and the pain was immense. I started screaming as it sunk its teeth into me, as I struggled to get free. It was halfway done with biting through me when the clock rang six. As quickly as it had started, it ended. Mr. Hops slowly and painfully removed its teeth from my shoulder and trotted back to the main stage. John and I immediately went to grab our belongings from the office. I had to get a little help from him, but it still took no time at all. He wrote a note on the desk reading the words, “We both resign.” We left without speaking to each other. My wounds weren’t fatal, and I decided that I would just let them heal, as I would no explanation for the creature that did this to me. On our way to the now unlocked doors, we passed the janitor.

“What in god’s name happened to y’all? You lot look like you just got into a fight with a bear!” he exclaimed.

John and I looked at each other, then back at the janitor and walked passed him without acknowledging him in the slightest, out the exit, got into our cars, and left without a single look back.