Prankster by Scott Cawthon

Author:Scott Cawthon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

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The partial moon dripped the palest of white glows above the tall mountain peaks east of town when Chief Montgomery’s SUV rounded the corner and stopped just inside the stone-marked Glenwood Fields entrance. His radio squawked as soon as he turned off his engine. He picked up his mic, keyed it on, and listened.

“Chief,” his dispatcher said, “I just got confirmation from that Glenwood resident that the strange man he saw was headed toward the entrance.”

“That’s where I am,” the chief responded. “I’ll check it out.” He put the mic back into its holder and got out of his SUV.

The angle at which the moon brushed the mountain range told the chief it was about 3:00 a.m. or so. Night still wrapped its blanket around his town.

A surprisingly small man whose personality and authority didn’t match his short stature, the chief grabbed his hat and pulled it over thinning brown hair. He hefted his flashlight and got out of his vehicle.

Chief Montgomery held his flashlight stiffly as he aimed it around the subdivision entrance. He’d been tense all day, ever since Jenna Bell had called him in the early morning hours the day before. The long hours that Caleb had been missing had taken a toll on Montgomery and his officers. He felt like he’d aged at least five years since that call. Several times during the day, he’d told Jenna everything would be all right. But he wasn’t sure he believed it.

The chief turned in a slow circle, scanning the areas illuminated by the glow of his flashlight. He didn’t see anything at first. But then he did.

He froze, concentrating on the strange shape hunched in the shadows just beyond the range of his flashlight. He stepped forward so his light would land directly on the form.

Montgomery gulped and took a step back. He immediately felt silly. His response had been ridiculous. What he was looking at was nothing to be upset about.

The chief’s flashlight beam lit up a large, misshapen plastic boy positioned right at the edge of the road. The plastic figure had a mostly featureless face—no nose, no cheeks, no chin. All the face had was two bulging black eyes and an open, darkness-filled mouth.

Montgomery had seen a few figures like this around town. It was part of some Freddy Fazbear public safety initiative to deter reckless drivers in areas where kids were running around. Most of the figures he’d seen were much smaller than this one, and this one was oddly contorted, as if some of the plastic had been deformed in the molding process.

For some reason, the shape disturbed the chief. He was spooked, but he couldn’t possibly have explained why if anyone had asked him.

He shook his head. He was just overtired; that was all. Too much stress. The chief started to move on and search beyond the bizarre figure, but then his light landed on something piled up on the ground. He tilted his flashlight downward and frowned in confusion.

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