Somniphobia is the third installment of the anthology book series: Tales from the Pizzaplex. Written by Kelly Parra and Andrea Waggener with Scott Cawthon, it was released on December 6, 2022.
Summary[]
Five Nights at Freddy's fans won't want to miss this collection of three chilling stories that will haunt even the bravest FNAF player...
What are you running from?... Sam is afraid of just about anything and everything that's unhealthy ever since his father died. Something about the Springtrap costume in the roleplaying area of Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex chills Luca to the core. And Grady's fear of being trapped in small spaces makes working as a Pizzaplex technician extremely challenging. But in the world of Five Nights at Freddy's, our deepest fears have a way of chasing us...
In this third volume, Five Nights at Freddy's creator Scott Cawthon spins three sinister novella-length tales from uncharted corners of his series' canon.
Readers beware: This collection of terrifying tales is enough to rattle even the most hardened Five Nights at Freddy's fans.
Plot[]
Somniphobia[]
A married couple look on at a yard sale. The family running it have to move out of state to get help for their son Josh, who had somehow ended up in a coma. It happened seemingly out of nowhere. The couple notice an odd-looking sphere with a jester-esque character on it. They decide to purchase it, then donate it elsewhere.
Sam and his friends sit at the bleachers near the football field, talking about their greatest fears. Sam is generally anxious about everything and whether it is safe or not after his father died when he was in third grade. While the others never really understood it, Raad was the only one in the friend group who didn't mind how paranoid he was. The group plan on going to a party. Sam chooses to go for the sake of his friends, despite not really liking parties anymore.
Sam sat by himself at the party while the others made conversation with the guests. A girl named Lydia came by and sat with Sam. She compliments his glasses, which were his dad's old glasses. She offers a drink, but Sam turns it down, not wanting to take a chance of the drink having alcohol in it. Jules forces Sam to take the drink and lighten up. Lydia talks about cliff diving, with Sam talking about the risks of bodily harm if you land in the wrong place. Lydia leaves. Jules yells at Sam for being cynical. Raad tries to defuse the situation, only for Jules to throw Lydia's drink in Sam's face. Panicked, Sam shoves his way into the kitchen to drink water and get the taste of the punch out of his mouth. He leaves the party, embarrassed. The others leave shortly after.
On Sunday, Sam, Raad, Larry, Bogart and Jules went to Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex for Raad's birthday. After playing on some of the main attractions, the group focus on their main goal; to get a Moondrop Dream Sphere to help Raad with his physics exam. They head to one of the gift shops, seeing that the sphere costs a thousand tickets. The group play high-end arcade games, scoring high amounts of tickets until they have enough to purchase the sphere.
As the group heads to Raad's house and prepare to use the Dream Sphere, Raad gets his dog Brudis out of the room. The packaging states that the Dream Sphere should only be used 10 minutes per day. Sam sets a 10-minute timer on his watch as a precaution to snap everyone out of their trance. The group opened their notebooks and activated the Dream Sphere. At first, Sam felt nothing as the lights flashed all around. Moondrop appeared and waved at the group. Then, he felt lightheaded and stretched. Words and numbers on the notebooks floated off of them and turned into pictures.
The group could see perfect recreations of the pyramids of Giza, along with feeling the heat of the desert. They saw an old airplane, along with an equation calculating its takeoff while also feeling the plane's vibration. They also saw the kitchen of restaurant with a pepperoni pizza in the oven and a recreation of Romeo and Juliet. Sam could hear the alarm going off and turned off the Dream Sphere. Raad was happy with the results and wanted to use the sphere again. He was even willing to trade it around with the guys. Surprising himself, Sam volunteered to have first dibs.
The next day after school, Sam uses the sphere again for his upcoming exams. He sees a recreation of Hamlet and swims in a simulated ocean with fish and humpback whales. After the study session ends, Sam feels genuinely happy or the first time in years and even makes food for his mom. He uses the dream sphere again the next day, deciding to use it for 15 minutes. He witnesses various historic moments in America, only to end up in a park. The 15-minute timer rings, but Sam snoozes it. Sam turned into a child and saw his dad. His dad wants to play a game of tag and runs away. Sam tries to catch up to him, but he is too fast. He notices something gray in the corner of his eye, only for his dad to pop up from behind a tree. The two laugh as the alarm rings again and Sam wakes up. Before he goes to bed, Sam listens to music on his dad's old CD player, wanting to find more memories of him.
Jules becomes impatient, wanting his turn with the dream sphere. Sam stands up to him, refusing to give it to him. Sam decides to not hang out with his friends, opting to go home and use the dream sphere again. He takes some random study notes and sets an alarm for 20 minutes. After seeing the ocean and the anatomy of an apple, Sam is taken to various memories of his life. He relives trips to the zoo, beach and an amusement park. He felt like he was actually there, being able to smell and feel what was being simulated. The next night, Sam's mom inspects the sphere. Sam ensures her mom there was nothing to worry about and that he wasn't using it too much.
In the middle of the night, Sam felt drawn to the sphere. He stared at Moondrop, whose red eyes appeared to glow. He couldn't relax without being near it. Sam decides to ignore these urges, unplugging the sphere and putting it in the closet. The next morning, Sam feels disconnected. He couldn't focus on school, and he felt broken and angry, wanting to distance himself from everyone. The tension reaches its breaking point as Sam and Jules nearly fight before the others split them up. Sam storms off, wanting desperately to return to the sphere. Sam had promised to his mom and his friends that he wasn't obsessed with the sphere, but now, he didn't care.
Sam skips school and goes home, with his mom noticing Sam's weakened state. He isolates himself from his mom and uses the dream sphere. He is sent to a memory with his dad immediately. Sam and his dad are having a picnic, and dad gives him some advice. He tells him not to be afraid to try new things and step out of his comfort zone, as well as make responsible choices when he is older. Sam realizes that he hadn't followed his dad's wishes and he was depriving himself of potentially happy experiences.
The alarm goes off. Sam tries to turn the dream sphere off, but he is too weak. He's forced to relive his dad's death all over again. With the last of his strength, he finally shuts down the sphere. Sam had escaped, but he was broken. His sense of reality was blurred. Sam decides to return the dream sphere to Raad. He calls Raad and they make up. The guy's plan on using it again for another study session, telling him to wait at his place for them to come back. Sam sits the sphere down but is allured by it again. Moondrop appears, and Sam chooses to have one last experience. He asks Moondrop to give him one of his best memories. Moondrop obliges, taking Sam to his dream world. His dad was alive, and the family was together again.
The guys end up changing their plans, wanting to go back to the Pizzaplex and play a new arcade game. Raad texts Sam, but he doesn't respond. In the dream sphere's world, Sam conquers his fears. He beats Jules in an arm-wrestling match. Raad's house phone rings in real life. Sam wanted to wake up and turn the phone off but couldn't. He realized he hadn't plugged the sphere in, yet it was active. While he was at school in his dream, Raad's dog Brudus was attacking him reality, tearing half of his face off. As he dies, Moondrop appears and all his terror fades away. He walks out the door and Sam follows behind.
Pressure[]
Luca, Asher, Nolan and Maddy are roleplaying in the Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex's "Urban Legend Role-players Auditorium." The Roleplay Area had various scenarios for people to roleplay, with both human and animatronic costumes as props and various recreations of locations. Luca believed that the Roleplay Area was made for people to re-enact the various horror stories of Fazbear Entertainment, and that the company was capitalizing on the tragedies. Luca had read about the conspiracy theories of kids being murdered and their ghosts haunting the animatronics, alongside Fazbear Entertainment creating video games based on the deaths. The four decide to play the scenario of "Green-Eared Killer," where security guards at Fazbear's Fright try to survive Springtrap.
Luca grabbed a Springtrap costume, which was a perfect caricature of the original. He didn't want to be the killer, but the others started peer pressuring. Maddy suggests that being Springtrap would be a good way of venting anger. Luca doesn't want to play the killer, believing that no one was thinking about the actual murders these roleplay stories were based on. He remembers a childhood friend named Kenny, who he treated like a little brother. Kenny had been kidnapped and murdered. His friends didn't know about Kenny, nor his moral reasoning for not wanting to be Springtrap. Luca is ultimately peer pressured into wearing the suit against his will.
As the group made their way to their area, Luca noticed a group of girls dressed up as the core band members. He also saw an employee named Earl, staring intently at all the children running around. Before he could confront him, Maddy noticed that Luca was behind and told him to come along. Earl had disappeared, and Luca was worried. The four friends arrived at the roleplay set of Fazbear's Fright. While all the others have to find an escape door out, Luca has to tag them using a fake knife. The person playing Springtrap is locked in the Safe Room for the grace period. The game begins, and Luca makes his way throughout the recreated pizzeria. The suit feels tight, poking his body in multiple areas.
Luca runs into Maddy, and she runs off into Pirate's Cove. The Foxy statue starts swiping his hook, being operated by ropes and pulleys. Luca feels something grab his thigh, not letting go. Luca realizes that he's bleeding. He continues hunting in spite of the pain and finds his friends in the Parts and Service room. Nolan tries to attack Luca with an animatronic leg, but he grabbed it. Nolan, Maddy and Asher run into a security room with Luca close behind. He deduces that the only other way out of the security room was a vent. As he bent down to check, something snapped in the suit. Luca yelled in pain, wanting to quit the game.
Luca tries to find everyone and tell them he forfeits. He moves quick, only for the suit to pierce his stomach. Luca tries to loosen the suit's fastening, only for mechanisms to activate and poke his ribs, hips, thighs and torso. He realizes that despite not being the original suit William Afton wore, it was a springlock suit. Luca eventually found everyone and tried to tell them he was stuck, only for them to run away as the Springtrap head fastened onto his, impaling the skin around his face and scalp.
His mouth had been punctured as well, with blood spilling out. The others just assume this was Luca being committed to the character. He ran towards them as more springlocks activated, drilling into his limbs. As everyone ran away again, Luca gave up. Even if he could get out of the suit, his body was beyond repair. Luca sculked down the hallways until his mind went blank, taking him into his memories. He saw memories of his life in quick succession, ending at a camping trip that happened several months earlier.
Luca's senses adapted to the vision, hearing the campfire crackle and smelling its smoke. He remembers his dad giving him advice. When in groups, a person's individual moral compass is skewed. People listen to others instead of taking their own morals into account and thinking about what they thought was right. Luca snapped back to reality, collapsing to the floor in pain. Nolan, Maddy and Asher leave the area without him, assuming he can find his way back to them on his own.
Luca woke up, still locked in the suit. Despite being in pain, Luca tried to get back up. He had a strange feeling that he wasn't alone. Other kids were in the area. Luca needed to get to the exit, but the suit refused to move there. It felt like the suit itself was holding him back from escaping. Luca looked backstage and saw Earl, the employee from earlier. He was putting an actual Springtrap costume, unlike the springlock suit Luca was in. Luca prepared himself to lunge at Earl, but he disappeared. Knowing his friends weren't coming back for him and that he didn't have much time left, Luca focused solely on stopping Earl. Earl was hiding under the stage speakers and grabbed a girl named Amy. Luca hunts him down and attacks him, giving Amy time to escape. He grabbed onto Earl and strangled him until he died. Once the deed was done, Luca accepted his fate, glad that he made his own choices in the end.
Cleithrophobia[]
Kim and her friends visited Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex. As they used a map to explore the various attractions, they noticed a venue marked on the map that wasn't physically present; Ballora's Fitness and Flex.
Five months earlier, Grady is testing the Pizzaplex's various attractions before its grand opening. His other two co-workers, Ronan and Tate, left early. Grady hated Tate because he reminded him of Boones, a friend that one of his babysitters Francis brought over when he was five. When Grady was little, his parents were dancers. They weren't home all that often, leaving him with various babysitters. When none of them were available, Francis was brought in, and she brought Boones over without telling Grady's parents. Boones locked Grady in a linen closet for over six hours during a game of hide-and-seek. Grady developed cleithrophobia as his parents pressed charges on Francis and Boones.
Grady goes inside of the last attraction he needs to test; Ballora's Fitness and Flex. It was a series of narrow tubes that people had to twist and squeeze, which was considered a form of exercise. The entire venue lied underground. Ballora, whose body was attached to a mechanism that moved her along the walls, was designed to help anyone who got stuck in the tubes get out. She welcomed Grady. Despite being scared of the tight tubes, Grady pressed on, not wanting any other child to suffer through the same trauma he did.
Grady starts crawling through the tubes, pushing his fears and reminders of the linen closet aside. Eventually, Grady is able to reach the other side. Ballora congratulates him, stating that he has reached one checkpoint out of three. Grady still had two more sets of tubes to travel through. When he peeked into the next set, he realized that the tubes were getting narrower. Grady dives into the tube and is able to crawl for a little while until he gets stuck. He calls out for Ballora to help him. Ballora obliges, extending from the wall into Grady's tube to pull him out. Ballora's force was too hard for Grady to handle, with his shoulders hurt from all the pulling.
Ballora brings Grady to the second checkpoint, disappearing immediately after. As Grady makes his way through the final set of tubes, he concludes that this venue was poorly designed and that something needed to be done about it. Suddenly, Ballora returns. Her sensors are glitched, so she is unable to sense Grady in the tubes. She calls for him, insisting she wants to help. Grady stays silent whenever she's nearby, not falling for the trick. He tried to remain as stil as possible, but Ballora found him and grabbed him. Grady's shoulders are impaled by a blade as Ballora drags him along. The force of being dragged causes his wrists to crack, his arms to break and his head to bleed. Grady passed out as his body started to twist itself.
Ronan and Tate return to the Pizzaplex. Feeling guilty for leaving Grady all by himself, Ronan wanted to go back and check on him. They head down to Ballora's Fitness and Flex to find Grady at the end of the tubes. He was sitting paralyzed, but still alive. Multiple bones were broken and one of his eyes was gone. Ronan tries to call 911, but Tate stops him. Grady's injuries would be on them for leaving him alone. Fazbear Entertainment would fire them and Grady's family could even sue them. Ronan tears up, hating that they had to choose between their lives and Grady's. In the end, they choose to save themselves, leaving Grady to die and sealing off the attraction the next morning.
Grady watches his co-workers leave, not blaming them for their choice. Ballora, who was still pulling, said that she would help him get unstuck. Ballora pulls one last time, mercy-killing him. Grady welcomes this, settling for Ballora accompanying him as he dies.
Epilogue[]
The animatronic continued making its way down the hall, stopping right at the door of the storage room. Everyone tried to remain as still as possible. The light in the room started to flicker. The animatronic moved away from the room. Adrian opens the door and the group slowly move out. Lucia looks back at the room to see that the light wasn't flickering anymore. She wondered if the animatronic was controlling the lights to startle everyone out of hiding. The group start planning on how they can escape the pizzeria.
Adrian proposes that everyone split up into pairs and search for potential exits. Jayce had brought a portable drawing tablet with him, which the group uses it to map out the pizzeria and choose which rooms each pair will search. Adrian and Jayce search the dining, arcade, lobby and party rooms. Joel and Wade search the employee's lounge, storage closet and furnace room. Hope and Nick search the stage/backstage and kitchen. Lucia and Kelly search around the main entrance, office and the bathrooms.
Lucia and Kelly look around their designated spots, seeing posters of first-gen Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy. Wade finds a vent in the employee's lounge and tries to unscrew it while Joel keeps watch. Joel repeatedly makes noise, annoying Wade. The two hear a screeching noise. Assuming it's Joel, Wade turns around only to see him staring wide-eyed. Joel didn't make that noise. The screeching noise starts back up, as the duo realize that it's metal scraping against a wall. Joel and Wade quickly sneak out of the room.
Hope and Nick are about to go behind the stage, but are stopped when they hear a slamming sound from one of the party rooms. The two assume its just Adrian and Jayce searching and continue backstage. The lights start flickering, and they see three costume wardrobes. Nick made his way to the wardrobes, but Hope stayed back, feeling like they were being watched. Whoever was watching was nearby. Despite both of them being scared, Nick comforts Hope as they both go open the closets. One of the cabinet doors opened by itself, revealing spare costumes of the animatronic characters. Nick noticed that the wardrobe went deeper. Hope's paranoid feeling resurfaced. She tries to warn Nick, only for him to be grabbed by an unseen force into the closet.
Hope tries to go after him, as Nick is suddenly shot back out and onto the ground. His arm was gone. Metallic hands shot out of the closet and strangled Nick. The animatronic, with its black endoskeleton eyes glowing white, decapitated Nick. It held Nick's head in front of Hope, taunting her. It lets Nick's head go and roll on the ground. Hope runs away in terror.
Lucia and Kelly find a vent in the office, only for it to be covered by the concrete. They make note of it as a potential exit and head back to regroup. Lucia and Kelly hear Hope's screams. Hope tells everyone to run, despite nothing chasing after her. Lucia wonders where Nick is, as Hope fell to the floor and screamed. She tells everyone about that Nick was dead. As the group processes the news, a grinding sound echoed through the pizzeria. No one can pinpoint where it came from.
Lucia tells everyone to head to Parts and Service, which had metal parts that could be used as weapons. Everyone huddled in as the light in the room flickered. They turned and saw several empty animatronic suits. Hope explains what had happened leading up to Nick's death, as well as the animatronic itself. It was a skeleton-like figure with big eyes, big teeth and was covered in dry blood. Lucia realized something. If there were empty animatronic suits, and the robot chasing them was a bare endoskeleton, the endo could easily slip into one of the suits. She saw an critter in green overalls, an orange cat and two dogs. One of the dogs moved and grabbed onto Hope's bicep as the light went out. The animatronic, now in a dog disguise, ripped off Hope's arms, legs and head. Horrified, everyone else scattered to escape.
Characters[]
Humans[]
Somniphobia[]
- Barker Family
- Sam Barker
- Mrs. Baker
- Mr. Baker
- Raad Dawson
- Larry
- Bogart
- Jules
- Bill
- Mildred
- Misty Salazar
- Lydia Gomes
- Davis
Pressure[]
- Luca
- Asher
- Earl
- Maddy
- Nolan
- Amy
Cleithrophobia[]
- Grady's Family
- Grady
- Grady's Mom
- Grady's Dad
- Alicia
- Kim
- Eric
- Ronan
- Tate
- Francis
- Boones
Epilogue[]
- Lucia
- Jayce
- Adrian
- Hope
- Joel
- Wade
- Nick
- Kelly
Creatures[]
- Brudus the Dog
Animatronics[]
Somniphobia[]
- Glamrock Animatronics
- Glamrock Freddy
- Glamrock Chica (advertisement only)
- Montgomery Gator (advertisement only)
- Roxanne Wolf
- Others Animatronics
Pressure[]
- Classic Animatronics
- Freddy Fazbear (costume + statue)
- Bonnie (costume + statue)
- Chica (costume + statue)
- Foxy (costume + statue)
- Golden Freddy (costume only)
- Others
- Balloon Boy (audio)
- Springtrap
Cleithrophobia[]
- Ballora the Ballerina
- Happs (poster)
Epilogue[]
Locations[]
- Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex
- Fazer Blast
- The World Celebrates You! AR Unit
- Freddy’s Fortress
- Tilt-A-Whirl
- Urban Legend Role Players Auditorium
- Chica's Swings
- Ballora’s Fitness & Flex
- Marina High
- The Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt
- Pennsylvania State House, Philadelphia
Trivia[]
- "Somniphobia" is a phobia for fear of falling asleep, while Cleithrophobia, the fear of being trapped, which is often confused with claustrophobia, the fear of enclosed spaces.
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