- Were you looking for Blackbird, the titular animatronic from the sixth book of the same name?
Fazbear Frights: Blackbird is the sixth volume of the Fazbear Frights series from the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise. Written by Andrea Weggner and Kelly Parra with Scott Cawthon, it is the sixth book in Scott Cawthon and Scholastic's original deal for the series.
Summary[]
Five Nights at Freddy's fans won't want to miss this pulse-pounding collection of three novella-length tales that will keep even the bravest FNAF player up at night...
Haunted by the past . . .
To avoid confronting an ugly truth, Nole falls prey to a monster that punishes past transgressions. Growing weaker by the day, nine-year-old Jake looks back on the time before he was sick, imagining life as if he were well again. And, forever desperate to prove his worth to his arrogant brother and distant father, Toby chases victory at an arcade game with horrifying consequences. But in the unpredictable world of Five Nights at Freddy's, sometimes the past can take on a life of its own.
In this sixth volume, Five Nights at Freddy's creator Scott Cawthon spins three sinister novella-length stories from different corners of his series' canon, featuring cover art from fan-favorite artist LadyFiszi.
Readers beware: This collection of terrifying tales is enough to unsettle even the most hardened Five Nights at Freddy's fans.
Plot[]
Blackbird[]
Nole and Sam are working on a short horror film for their filmography class and are the only pair in the room that still hasn't got any idea of what their film would be about. Sam thinks what the film needs is the creep factor, but Nole insists that horror is all about the blood, and he wants the film to be bloodier. Eventually they decide on the plot: a person confesses their darkest secret to the blackbird, and it punishes them. The two base the Blackbird on both Fazbear Entertainment and the Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.
Sam creates a blackbird costume and puts it on, while Nole confesses his darkest secret: that he bullied a girl in high school name Christine, who was poor and wore secondhand clothes. The whole class would whisper "Shhhhh" to her (SH for second hand). He even went as far as putting a mole in her locker as a prank. Sam is angry, due to him also being bullied for his long legs, not wanting to wish the pain of being bullied onto anyone else.
Sometime after, Nole is informed by his new girlfriend, Amber, that Sam had gotten run over by a train, while wearing the costume. Nole visits the scene and finds blood on the tracks, which uneasily reminds him of the plot for their movie. Nole also starts seeing black feathers floating everywhere, almost as if they were following him. At night he has awful nightmares where the Blackbird watches him from the corner of his room. He even has nightmares of being taken into another realm and tortured.
He runs to the middle of his college campus, yelling out to the wind about how regretful he feels, and is caught by a policeman. Nole comes up with an excuse, telling the cop that he was worried for his friend. Nole, with the help from Christine's father, finds Christine and apologizes for bullying her. Christine forgives him, stating that she ended up stronger and more confident after overcoming the bullying.
Sometime later, Sam is found. He reveals that he didn't die, but rather had broken a leg. Nole apologizes to him as well for mocking him the other day. Sam then reveals to Nole his darkest secret; he too was a bully once, plotting revenge against people who wronged him. Nole and Sam start to tease each other, reflecting about how much they've grown, and then decide to go eat some pizza. Nole states that he hasn't eaten since before noon, and Sam questions him. Nole simply says that it's a long story and he will tell Sam about it sometime. However, Sam replies that "the Blackbird will make him tell." Nole remains shocked by the statement and Sam laughs it off.
The Real Jake[]
Jake has a tumor in his brain, which severely weakens his body due to his young age. He spends most of his days bedridden and under the care of Margie, a close friend of Jake's family. Evan, Jake's father, is serving the military and is overseas. Despite being miles apart, Evan is still able to communicate with his son.
Every night at bedtime after Margie leaves, Jake talks to Simon, a "friend" of his who lives in the small cabinet in Jake's room. Simon asks what Jake had done that day, to which Jake talks about the mundanity of life stuck in bed, however Simon clarifies he wants to know what "the real Jake" did that day, to which Jake makes up stories based on things he had wished he could have done, which Simon says he did as well. Jake has never seen Simon, since Simon has told him he can only open the cabinet once he is well enough to walk.
In reality Simon was made by Margie with inspiration from Evan to help Jake stay positive through his treatments. The doll contains a baby monitor through which Margie has Evan on the phone speak through using vocal distortion software to sound like a child. After Jake falls asleep, Margie quietly enters the room and alters Simon, adding elements from the conversation such as a chocolate stain and pizza sauce around the mouth, so that when Jake finally sees Simon he will appear as what the "real Jake" looks like.
The next day, Jake's friend Brandon convinces him to sneak out of the house and go to the arcade while Margie is preoccupied, however Jake barely makes it out the window before collapsing and vomiting, creating enough noise to alert Margie and Gillian, their neighbor, who get Jake safely back inside. At the end of the day Margie receives a phone call from Evan's brother Michael who tells her that Evan was killed in an accident, and as executor of Evan's will, informs Margie that Evan had named her as Jake's legal guardian and left her the house. Margie is crushed by the news, coming to realize that she had fallen in love with Evan and loved Jake as her son. Unsure of the best way to tell Jake that his father was dead and knowing that Simon no longer had a voice, Margie revealed to Jake that she had heard him talking to Simon and that he wouldn't be able to visit that night for vague reasons, disappointing Jake.
In the morning, Jake is worse than ever, and Margie decides with comforting guidance from Gillian to have Jake moved into hospice care. When the ambulance arrives, Margie takes them to Jake's room, but immediately knows upon seeing his body that he too has died, which the hospice nurse confirms. Unnoticed by anyone, Simon's cabinet is wide open.
Hide and Seek[]
Toby works at the local Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. Toby's brother tends to stop by and frequently play all of the arcade games, to the point where he has the highest score in every single one. Toby tries many times to beat his brother's record, only to fail miserably.
One day, a new game is installed into the arcade, titled "Hide and Seek." The game is self-explanatory; the player is the seeker, while an 8-bit Shadow Bonnie is the hider. Toby plays the game, failing to find Shadow Bonnie several times. He goes as far as to hacking the game and cheating, but even that doesn't work. Toby destroys the arcade game in anger, inadvertently releasing the creature inside of it. Going home in a fit of rage, Toby goes to bed and has a nightmare that he's stuck on a table, and something is emerging from his back, cutting it open.
The next day, Toby discovers that his shadow looks different, now having rabbit ears and sharp teeth. He realizes that Shadow Bonnie escaped the game when he destroyed it and has now attached himself to him. Toby desperately tries to get rid of the shadow by drowning it in a pool, to the point where he almost drowned and had to be saved. The shadow, growing in power, chases after Toby and eventually corners him. The shadow even begins to start leeching onto Toby's skin. Toby calms down and accepts his fate, but by doing so, the shadow is weakened. He realizes that Shadow Bonnie was powered by his anger.
Toby arrives to work and discovers the Hide and Seek game is fixed, and that his old save file is still there. Toby plays the game one final time in order to defeat Shadow Bonnie once and for all. He is able to complete the game and slams himself into the wall nearby. Shadow Bonnie is released from Toby and sent back into his arcade game, where he belongs.
Epilogue[]
Larson arrives at the mysterious factory with a bag of evidence from the department annex in hand. He takes out his gun and quietly sneaks into the large expanse. He notices the Stitchwraith next to the trash compactor, emptying objects from a large bag. The Stitchwraith dumps the items from the bag and reveals a disassembled Foxy. The parts were thrown into the chute of the compactor to be pummeled. Larson makes himself known to the Stitchwraith, pointing his gun at the endoskeleton.
Andrew is able to take partial control of the Stitchwraith, with Jake trying to resist and preventing Andrew from doing anything. Andrew wants to kill Larson and prevent him from getting in the way, but Jake refuses to cause another innocent person's death. Jake takes full control of the Stitchwraith and presses the compactor's start button, throwing itself into the chute, much to Larson's surprise. Larson watches as the Stitchwraith begins to be squished and contorted in a cube of compacted trash, discovering that the other items that were being collected are caught as well. He witnesses the destruction of the Stitchwraith, and its infected items.
Jake is brought back to the memory of his dad and the baseball game, but tries to head back to Andrew, in an attempt to pull him into the memory as well to keep him safe. Andrew grabs onto Jake but is tugged down from some unseen force. A mysterious, colorful blob was pulling Andrew toward it. As the two forces tugged Andrew around, the blob took physical form, resembling the form of a burnt skeletal man, similar to the patient in The Man in Room 1280. The body continued to grow, creating working organs in its bones and rabbit ears on its head. The creature attacked the Stitchwraith as it was deuterating in the compactor. Andrew was released, but vanished, while the human-like creature engulfed Jake in darkness. The fate of the two boys is left unknown, but the Stitchwraith itself is completely destroyed.
Larson, having witnessed it all, leaves the factory and drops the bag of evidence he was carrying. He records his findings, despite how outlandish they were. Larson states that all the items from the compactor came from the Fazbear Entertainment Distribution Center, the same place that the infamous serial killer William Afton died. He goes further as to believing that the Stitchwraith was haunted by the ghosts of dead children, and even Afton himself.
The junk, now a cube of crumpled trash inside of the compactor begins to rise, merging with the burnt skeleton. The Stitchwraith endoskeleton is ejected, while the broken animatronics that make up Andrew's infected items start to shift around. William Afton, fused with the infected remains of Foxy, Fetch, and the Plushtrap Chaser, rises from the ashes to form a mutated monster nearing 15 feet tall, and lunges towards Larson.
Characters[]
Humans[]
Blackbird[]
- Markham Family
- Nole Markham
- Nole's Nephew
- Nole's Dad
- Nole's Grandpa
- O'Neil Family
- Sam O'Neil
- Paul
- Molly
- Wilbur Family
- Christine Wilbur
- Earl Wilbur
- Mr. Grimley
- Darla Steward
- Amber
- Floyd
- Ian
- Steve
- Lois
- Frat Guy
- Campus Cop
The Real Jake[]
- McNally's Family
- Jake McNally
- Evan McNally
- Michael McNally
- Roxanne McNally
- Margie
- Gillian
- Brandon
- Patty
- Davey
- Vick
- Ellie
- Evie
- Kyle
- Garrett
Hide and Seek[]
- Billings Family
- Toby Billings
- Connor
- Toby's Father
- Reggie
- Tabitha
- Dan
- Headphone Kid
- Mr. Petrick
- Mr. Dillanhall
- Officer Huminez
- Tech Guy
Epilogues[]
Classic Animatronics[]
Shadow Animatronics[]
Electronic Toys[]
Amalgams[]
Other Animatronics[]
Locations[]
Blackbird[]
- Fazbear Entertainment (mentioned)
- Wilbers' Eats
In the Flesh[]
- Neapolitan
- Ye Olde Steakhouse
- Gus's
- Good Deal
The Man in Room 1280[]
- Heracles Hospital
- Glendale Hospital
- Fazbear Entertainment Distribution Center
Trivia[]
General[]
- The book was initially going to be released on September 20, 2020, four weeks after the release of Bunny Call. However, it was changed to December 29, 2020.
Blackbird[]
- This is the third story where a new animatronic debuts, the first being Fetch from the second book and Ralpho the Bunny from the fifth book.
- This is the fourth story to have an ambiguous ending, after Count the Ways, Fetch, and Dance with Me.
- This story may show how Afton uses illusion discs in action. The Blackbird is often accompanied by screeching sounds and low whines. It also takes place at a college, which mirrors the setting of The Twisted Ones and The Fourth Closet, where the illusion discs were introduced. It may show that the disks can adapt to your own fears and problems and turn them into horrid monsters of your own creation.
- Alternatively, the story has a strong connection to the lore of Ultimate Custom Night, which is about William Afton's eternal punishment orchestrated by Cassidy. Nole was stalked by the Blackbird and even had nightmares of being sent to a different realm, which could parallel William and Cassidy's relationship. However, unlike the story where Nole is redeemed for his actions, William never repents.
- This story has a similar plot structure to Dance with Me, where Ballora keeps stalking Kasey until she returns the glasses back to the woman and her daughter that Kasey had stolen earlier in the story.
- Nole's girlfriend is named Amber, the same name of Stanley's ex-girlfriend from Room for One More.
- Interestingly, she uses the phrase "Do you have room for one more?" in a conversation with Nole.
- The art of "Blackbird" on the cover, originates from Scott Cawthon's own sleep paralysis demon.
The Real Jake[]
- This story features both Jake and Margie, who made their first appearance in the epilogues.
- This story also officially debuts Simon, the unnamed doll from the epilogues, technically making this the fourth story to introduce a new animatronic.
- The Stitchwraith's mask is revealed to have come from Simon, with the mask actually being his head. It's also revealed that the red stain around the mouth is actually dry pizza sauce rather than blood.
- This is the second story to be a prequel to the epilogues, the first being The Man in Room 1280.
- This story introduces a character named Michael, who mostly appears in flashbacks and appears only once at the end of the story.
Michael happens to share the same name as Michael Afton, which some believe mean that Jake is an Afton, although that may not be the case and instead just be another reuse of the name Michael. Judging by his overall description, it is very likely that Michael in this story is just a parallel to Michael Afton, but not exactly him.
- Jake's last name may be McNally, since a character named Jake appeared in the story Fetch, which also takes place in the same universe as the epilogues.
- This is the first story in which there is no true antagonist.
- This is also the second story where there is no animatronic or mascot serves as an antagonist, with the first being The Man in Room 1280.
- This and "The Breaking Wheel" are currently the only stories with no mention of or implication towards Fazbear Entertainment.
Hide and Seek[]
- This story features RWQFSFASXC/Shadow Bonnie, making him the first Five Nights at Freddy's 2 character to appear in the Fazbear Frights series.
- The plot of this story is similar to the plot of Jump for Tickets where the protagonist tampers with an unfair arcade game to win.
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