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"Ge-Get ready for a surprise!"
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“Grady's fear of being trapped in small spaces makes working as a Pizzaplex technician extremely challenging.” |
Cleithrophobia is the third story in Tales from the Pizzaplex 3: Somniphobia and chronologically the Tales from the Pizzaplex series' 9th story. It was written by Andrea Waggener.
Characters[]
Humans[]
- Grady's Family
- Grady
- Grady's Mother
- Grady's Father
- Grady's Grandmother
- Ronan's Family
- Ronan
- Rhonda
- Ronan's Mother
- Tate's Family
- Tate
- Tate's Father
- Kim
- Alicia
- Cole
- Eric
- Francis
- Boone
- Hank
- Karen
Animatronics[]
Locations[]
Plot[]
Kim is a seventh-grader visiting Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex for the first time. She’s incredibly excited to ride Fast Freddy, but her friends Alicia, Cole, and Eric want to scope out the place. They start at the bumper cars and a giant swing, and make their way past the Urban Legend Role Play Auditorium. Eric points out Freddy’s Fortress, and Kim sees H.A.P.P.S. inside. They pass the Tilt-A-Whirl and a shout draws Kim’s attention to the AR booth, which has smoke coming out and Pizzaplex workers desperately trying to open it. They pass shops, food, the carousel, and the arcade. The only thing left is the theater and the kid’s play area beneath it, but Eric points out that "Ballora's Fitness & Flex" is listed as an attraction in the index but isn’t on the map. Confused, Cole suggests that it was part of the original plan but wasn't finalized. Kim puts the map in her pocket to investigate later and heads toward Fast Freddy.
Five months earlier, 27-year-old (soon to be 28) Pizzaplex technician Grady is finishing up his inspection of the carousel. 23 years ago, Grady was left with a new babysitter since his usual one was busy and his parents had to attend a dance studio. This babysitter invited her boyfriend over, and he proceeded to throw Grady into the linen closet for six hours and thirteen minutes. His parents arrived home early and saved him, but the experience resulted in him getting cleithrophobia, the fear of being trapped in small spaces. His parents began letting Grady eat whatever he wanted, resulting in his addiction to junk food. By high school Grady’s fears began to soften up, as he was only afraid of situations if he didn’t know the way out. Grady applied to Fazbear Entertainment expecting to be a programmer rather than a troubleshooter, and he would later be a maintenance tech once the Pizzaplex opened.
Grady’s approached by his coworker Ronan, a bodybuilder who knits in his free time. He informs Grady that Tate is ready to leave ten minutes early as he has a date planned. Tate and Ronan agree to finish the safety checks in the morning, but Grady has plans to play with his online friends tomorrow. Protocol states that no one is supposed to be at the Pizzaplex alone, but Tate refuses to stay and Grady refuses to leave. Eventually Grady tells them to go, with Ronan being forced to leave since he’s Tate’s ride. Now alone, Grady looks up at the security system. It’s not functioning yet, and apparently the internal computer network was dumping employee records, meaning they need to keep them in physical files. He has to check the arcade to make sure Skee-Ball and the hoops are working before moving on to Ballora’s Fitness & Flex, a vertical attraction where players must squeeze their way through tubes to reach the bottom as a form of exercise. Grady points out that only this attraction and Freddy’s Fortress extend below the Pizzaplex, and both have their own animatronics designed to keep them safe, although Grady doesn’t trust them.
Grady eats a candy bar as he thinks about his options, and he decides to go through with testing out the attraction to make sure no child would ever undergo the same trauma he did. When he enters, Ballora appears, telling him that if he gets stuck she will help him out. Grady manages to reach Checkpoint #1, which is only a third of the way down. He notices that the tubes are getting narrower, but with no way back up he continues his descent. Grady gets stuck and he calls for Ballora, and she makes her way to him. At first she encourages him to try flexing, but once it’s clear he’s stuck she grabs his hands tight and pulls him down the bend, with so much force that his entire upper body hurts. Once they reach Checkpoint #2, Ballora quickly leaves and Grady leans against the platform wall, rubbing his injured shoulders.
Grady tries to think back to the specs for the attraction and realizes that there’s only one way out, which is to make it past the final third. He thinks about Hank, an engineer who was stuck on the Tilt-A-Whirl and got sick, becoming the laughstock of Fazbear Entertainment once word got out to the press. Not wanting to be known for getting stuck in the tubes, he makes his way down but they get even narrower and he gets stuck. He stays quiet, but eventually Ballora asks if he needs help when she doesn’t sense movement. Grady accidentally makes a noise, causing Ballora to rush to his aid. She forcefully grabs Grady and pulls him through the narrow tubes. Grady’s shoulders dislocate as his fingers are crushed and his wrists snap. Ballora notices this and grabs ahold of his forearms. He gets stuck again, so she grabs his elbows and forcefully wiggles him out, crushing his ribs. His legs and hips get dislocated and Grady realizes that because he is facing downward and the blood is pooling in his head, he can’t pass out. Ballora repositions her grip again, stabbing Grady’s left eye.
Ronan and Tate return to the Pizzaplex because Ronan left his keys there. Tate complains the whole ride back, not wanting to be late for his date with Karen, but Ronan’s the driver so he insists on taking the trip back. As Ronan’s looking for his keys, Tate runs off to compare his report with Ronan’s and Grady’s and discovers that he’s at Ballora’s and decides to check on him. Tate reports that he would have taken Grady’s place, incorrectly assuming he has claustrophobia, and as Ronan is explaining the difference between the phobias Tate explains how excited he is to check out Fazbear’s Fright Haunted House in the Role Play area. They make their way down to Ballora’s when Tate stops dead, and Ronan looks on in horror at the disfigured and mutilated Grady within the pipes.
Ronan begins to feel sick and Tate tries to comfort him. Tate notices that Grady is blinking. Ronan wants to call 911, but Tate argues that Grady or his family would sue Fazbear Entertainment for injury. The pipes are clearly too narrow for a full-sized man, so an argument could be made that the injuries are intentional, and Fazbear Entertainment would fire them for breaking the protocol. Tate then reasons that Grady wouldn’t survive being rescued from the tubes, and Tate hopes that Grady is paralyzed and can’t feel any pain. Ronan and Tate leave, coming up with a story that Grady came back after everyone left. Grady overhears their conversation and doesn’t blame them for leaving. However, Grady laments that they are wrong about him being paralyzed and that he is in unimaginable pain. Ballora, who’s been there the whole time, and continues trying to pull him down the tube. Grady welcomes it, wanting anyone, even Ballora, to be there with him when he dies in his worst nightmare.
Trivia[]
- The map the children view make references to locations from other stories: the Urban Legends Roleplay Auditorium from Pressure, Freddy's Fortress from HAPPS, and the AR booth from Under Construction.
- The AR booth’s smoke may have connection with the story Under Construction.