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"Ge-Get ready for a surprise!"
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“Pete lashes out at his younger brother in the wake of his parents' divorce, falling prey to a gruesome curse.” |
Step Closer is the first story in Fazbear Frights 4: Step Closer and chronologically the Fazbear Frights series' 10th story. It's also the first story in the third graphic novel collection and chronologically the graphic novel series' 7th story. It was written by Kelly Parra[1], with illustrations done by Didi Esmeralda and colors done by Ben Sawyer.
Characters[]
Humans[]
- Dinglewood Family
- Rodriguez Family
- Mr. Watson
- Leather Jacket Guy
- Duncan Thompson
- Mr. Sanchez
- Mr. Berk
- Unnamed Freddy Employees
- Unnamed Butcher
- Unnamed Construction Worker
- Unnamed Suited Man
- Unnamed Fisherman
- Unnamed Student
- Unnamed Surgeons
Animatronics[]
- Foxy
- Freddy Fazbear (Graphic Novel)
- Bonnie (Graphic Novel)
- Chica (Graphic Novel)
Locations[]
Plot[]
Pete is having a hard time dealing with his parents’ divorce, no longer having a way to let his anger out after quitting football. Being forced to look after his younger brother, Chuck, makes him feel worse. One day, while at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, Pete overhears an employee talking about Foxy the Pirate being in the maintenance room. He’s then invited to hang out later with his crush, but he’s unable to since he needs to watch Chuck. Infuriated, Pete grabs Chuck and drags him to the maintenance room, knowing he’s afraid of Foxy. The two find dark melted candles and strange, black symbols, but Pete doesn’t care. He restores power to a small stage with purple curtains but Chuck runs away. Pete’s shirt gets stuck on a nail and he’s entranced by Foxy’s performance. The old animatronic gets stuck on the same lyric, “–first you'll have to lose an eye and an arm! Yarg!”
At home, Pete is upset to learn that his mother is planning to sign the family up to be organ donors. Pete has strange dreams, and the next morning Chuck finds him throwing up in the restroom. Chuck tries to deal with his parents’ divorce by keeping himself busy, which is why he always wants to go out. When Pete leaves the restroom, he looks incredibly ill but refuses to stay home. He arrives late to his bio class and joins a kid in a leather jacket to dissect a frog. Pete slips on his backpack and accidentally kicks Leather Jacket Guy, launching a scalp right towards his eye. He manages to swat it away and makes it through the rest of class. After school, Pete’s mother has him pick up pork chops from a butcher shop. Once there, he looks around and a huge meat cleaver barely misses his wrist.
At home, Chuck informs Pete that their mother filled out the organ donor paperwork for them. Chuck begins to describe the process as Pete storms off to his room. Pete has weird dreams again but doesn’t throw up, and while walking to school he passes by a construction site. Making sure nothing dangerous will fall on him, he decides to go right under the scaffolding. Pete hears a strange sound and a shout, and looks just in time to see a circular buzz saw blade flying straight towards him. He tries dodging but the blade still cuts just above the wrist. Paramedics are called and Pete returns home, where his mother rushes to his aid. She calls his father and he decides to take Pete out fishing. At the lake, wind blows a fishing line close to Pete’s face. He argues with his father, and when he stands up a gust of wind launches a fishing hook into his cheek. His father quickly removes it before it can pull Pete’s skin off.
Pete returns home with bandages on his face and Chuck begins pondering where this streak of bad luck came from. He points out it all began when Pete tried scaring him at Freddy’s, but Pete doesn’t believe in superstitions. Later, Pete tells Chuck about the first two incidents and Chuck concludes it’s some kind of curse, and while Pete claims to not believe in them he forms a truce with his brother and apologizes just in case. Pete and Chuck bond over the weekend, and when Sunday rolls around Pete feels well enough to return to school. That night, Chuck shows Pete a chart he made about all the incidents and links it back to Foxy. Pete tells Chuck about Foxy’s song and Chuck forms a connection, but Pete refuses to believe it and yells at Chuck to leave. Pete then has a nightmare where Foxy breaks into his house and attacks him, popping his eye and ripping off his arm. When he wakes up, he realizes this is the same dream he’s been having for the past few days.
After telling his mother that everything will be fine and she’s a good mom, Pete walks into his high school and discovers today is the Homecoming festival, which is pirate-themed. At the festival, he comes across his crush who has him stick his hand in a hole for a prize. The hole is revealed to be a large Chinese finger trap, and Pete freaks out when he’s unable to get it off. His crush cuts it off and Pete storms off as the circulation returns to his arm. He’s shoved inside a mirror maze by a crowd of kids, where he sees Foxy in the mirrors chasing him. At the exit the pirate fox jumps up, but Pete punches him in the nose and runs away. Panicking, he runs into a booth with balloons and gets darts thrown at him, with one hitting beside his eye. Pete then runs into a tent with exotic birds and yells at a parrot after hearing “Lose an eye! Lose an arm!” A teacher tries to calm him down, but Pete decides he needs to face Foxy and runs away.
Pete runs out of the school and leaves a voice mail for Chuck, telling him to meet at Freddy's to finish it once and for all. He rushes off the sidewalk right as a truck is speeding down it, which sends him flying down the road until everything goes dark. Receiving Pete’s message, Chuck sneaks out of school, hiding when he sees a police car. When he makes it to Freddy's, Pete isn’t there and Chuck tries to start Foxy when his father calls, revealing there’s been an accident. The two arrive and Chuck finds his mother standing by a gurney. Chuck’s last bit of hope is crushed when his father confirms Pete is dead. He watches as Pete is sealed in a large canvas bag.
Pete finds himself frozen and surrounded by darkness. Then, he hears a zipping sound and sees two doctors express sadness over how young Pete is. He tries talking to them as they place his body on a table. One of the men is unable to close Pete’s eyes, which isn’t uncommon but still upsets him. The other informs him that Pete is an organ donor, and they need to work fast. Pete desperately attempts to communicate with the men as they begin to play music and talk about taking their kids to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, but before they cut into Pete they stop. There’s an urgent case in need of the eyes and one hand, and since Pete’s an exact match they decide to do them first. Foxy’s song plays in Pete’s head as the men begin taking those organs.
The grief of losing Pete reunites his parents, and his father moves back in after the funeral. Together, they clean out his room and close the door, never opening it again. Chuck continues to play Pete’s last message over and over, writing notes on what happened to Pete and how they could have stopped it before he died. Four weeks later, Chuck finally decides to bike to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Returning to the maintenance room, Chuck heads straight to the small stage and hits the start button on the control box to face Foxy and beat him for Pete. He waits, but nothing happens.
Graphic Novel Differences[]
- The flash forward sequence at the beginning with Pete and Foxy is omitted, and the graphic novel instead starts at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.
- Several more things were omitted, such as Pete going to the butchers shop, Pete in the mirror maze at the fair, the scene with Pete getting his hand stuck in the finger trap was changed to Pete not getting his hand stuck and Maria instead of being remorseful, was instead in a joking manner, and the doctors at the end never specify that they need a eye and a arm.
Trivia[]
- At the end, Chuck goes back to Freddy's and tries to activate Foxy to fight the curse, but Foxy remains inactive. It is implied that the curse Pete got only happens to one person.
- In the book, Pete is said multiple times to be chewing gum excessively, which is a bad habit that Michael Afton wants to break in the Survival Logbook.
- At the beginning of the story, there are strange black markings and melted black candles in front of the stage, implying that there was some kind of ritual performed on Foxy.
- There was an illustration made for this story, but the illustrations were ultimately scrapped for the whole series. Although it was reused for its own page in The Ultimate Guide.
- The illustration shows Pete grabbing Chuck, in front of an out-of-order Pirate's Cove where curtains reveal Foxy with his hook raised up.
- This is the seventh story that is connected to Stitchwraith Stingers, the others being To Be Beautiful, Out of Stock, The Real Jake, 1:35 A.M., Fetch and The Man in Room 1280.
- In the #6 epilogue, Foxy's remains are dropped into the trash compactor by Stitchwraith.
- In the #10 epilogue, Detective Larson in one of his hallucinations sees Pete in a hospital room and surgeons preparing to take his eye and an arm, Eleanor is also hiding under the table holding Pete by his shoulders.
- It's implied that there was no actual curse and Eleanor was simply causing chaos.
- The story begins with a flash forward scene that happens later in the story, similar to Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes.
- In fact, both scenes feature Foxy attacking.
- Leather Jacket Guy in the Graphic Novel changes hair color between purple and white in two pages.
Gallery[]
