Tales from the Pizzaplex: Happs

* Current Cover
* Original Cover

**Happs** is the second installment of the anthology book series: *Tales from the Pizzaplex*. Written by Elley Cooper and Andrea Waggener with Scott Cawthon, it was published on September 20, 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...***

*Have you ever wanted something badly, even though you shouldn't?... Steve's dream of a video game programming career and starting a family lead him to take a job that seems too good to be true. Aiden and Jace can't resist scaring some young kids in the tube maze of Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex. And all Billy wants is to become the perfect ideal of what he knows he really is—an animatronic. But in the world of Five Nights at Freddy's, be careful what you wish for...*

*In this second 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

### *Help Wanted*

Steve works as a janitor at a gas station. He thinks his job is mediocre, and he wants to use his digital programming expertise in the gaming industry. Steve wants to get married, have a good life, and have two kids. When Steve's shift ends, he heads home to continue work on a fetch-quest game starring cartoonish chipmunks. He also starts to talk to Amanda, a pre-school teacher that Steve had met on a dating app.

The next day, Steve is approached by a rich-looking man named Brock, a talent acquisition agent for Fazbear Entertainment. Steve is initially nervous, having heard of the company's various scandals and even rumors of murders. Brock explains that he had found two prior games that Steve had released and took a liking to his work.

Due to Fazbear Entertainment's plummeting reputation, he wants to enlist Steve to make four horror games based on the accusations as a way to rebrand and move on from them. Steve would also need to be moved to a remote location, but it would be a more spacious and luxurious home with personal servants to do his chores as an added bonus for his work. While Steve is excited about getting out of his dead-end job at the gas station, he was hesitant on taking the offer given he would be making games based on events that were most likely real. Ultimately, Steve decides to turn the offer down. Aside from working with a potentially dangerous company, he also didn't want to become distant from Amanda.

Later in the night, Steve suddenly gets a text message from the dating app by a girl named Victoria. Seeing her profile picture, Steve was taken aback by her looks that matched his ideal dream partner. Despite believing that he might be being catfished, Steve initiates a conversation. The two agree to meet in-person at her house the coming Saturday. Steve remembers that he had date plans with Amanda on the same day and begrudgingly cancels them. Sometime later, Steve talks about the situation to his college friend Matt, who is surprised by her looks as well.

On Saturday, Steve makes his way to Victoria's house. It was in the middle of the woods and the interior was completely empty. Steve suddenly began to hear a painful high pitched ringing sound. The noise came to a stop when Victoria showed up. Victoria plans on having a lunch date with him. The ringing starts back up again. Steve looks up to see the sound was coming from the smoke alarm on the ceiling. Steve tries to disable it but loses his footing and loses consciousness.

Steve woke up confused. He was still in Victoria's house, which was now fully furnished. Victoria walked into the room, and she was wearing casual clothing instead of the dress she was just wearing. The last thing Steve remembered, he and Victoria were about to go on their first date. Victoria reveals that a few years ago, Steve had been in a car crash which caused him to have temporary lapses of memory loss. Victoria was actually his wife and they had two kids: Abigail and Avery.

Time passes and despite Steve still having a job at the gas station, the family isn't doing good financially. One day, Brock returns, still willing to go through with the deal he offered Steve all those years ago. Steve agrees to develop the games in exchange for money to help his family. But all four games need to be completed first. He is allowed to work on the games from home, his attic being turned into an office.

A snowstorm has arrived in the town, trapping Steve and the family indoors. As Steve works on developing the games, paranoia strikes. Steve was having night terrors and woke up in horrified every time. He even starts to see the walls throb and release oily substances, despite Victoria not seeing any of that. He even saw a metallic snake creature and felt it bite into his arm, poisoning him. Yet, he was perfectly fine when Victoria came in the room. He tries to avoid sleeping because of these night terrors, pouring all of those emotions into his games. Three out of four games are completed. The only other connection to the outside world is broadcasts from Steve's local radio station, hosted by DJ Dan the Music Man.

On Valentine's Day, Steve's paranoia reaches its breaking point. The walls start pulsating again and the ringing in Steve's ears returns, as a spider like creature breaks through. It hatches thousands of spiders from its abdomen, which start crawling over Steve's body. When Victoria comes into the room, they're all gone. Steve tries to leave the house, but the ringing comes back. Thinking that it's the fire alarm, Steve grabs a fire poker and breaks it. The ringing stops and Steve notices that his surroundings have changed.

There were tread marks all over the house, and trapdoors across the ceiling and walls; places where the creature he had seen came from. Steve hears the sounds of gears and wheels. He hides in the closet. Steve sees Victoria and his kids, who are all animatronics with plastic faces on them. They're calling for him, their voices starting to turn aggressive. DJ Dan comes on the radio, telling Steve to surrender. Steve refuses and continues to run.

DJ Dan argues that Steve's fabricated life was better than his real one; that he was happier this way. Steve tries to retort and say that it wasn't real, but DJ Dan was right. DJ Dan offers to give Steve control. By pressing a red button on the radio, he can create whatever reality he likes. Steve falls for this, pushing the button. The ringing in his ears returns and the room starts to spin. Steve awakens to see Victoria in human form. He hugs her, feeling happy again, only for Victoria to stab Steve through the heart.

### *Happs*

Aiden runs out the laser tag arena with a swollen eye, some girls from his school recognize him and laugh at him. Jace, who tells him to ignore the girls, only for Aiden got elbowed in the eye by some guy in Fazer Blast.

Aiden and Jace love H.A.P.P.S. and when they first encountered him, they wish they could have adopted him. When Aiden and Jace explore Freddy’s Fortress, a mirror maze that has shifting passageways, Aiden sees some kids in the maze and suggests to Jace they go and scare them with Jace agrees.

Aiden and Jace scare a group of 5 year olds by screaming and lunging at them, most of them scatter but one isn’t scared by them and says they’re mean and stupid and threatens to punch them. Feeling bad for being jerks, they decided to leave, only to see HAPPS in a tube near them and say hello, H.A.P.P.S. turns around and says “Hello, I’m H.A.P.P.S. are you lost?”

Aiden says they’re fine and HAPPS is happy that they’re fine and gives them a thumbs up before leaving. Aiden and Jace wanting to find H.A.P.P.S. again decided to follow him around for a bit, only to go down a tube towards an area and a dead end. Aiden notices a partition and starts trying to force it open by kicking it, after a few moments H.A.P.P.S. appears behind them and asks if they’re lost, they say that they’re fine but H.A.P.P.S. grabs them and starts dragging them despite their protest. H.A.P.P.S. says “You are lost, I will lead you out of Freddy’s fortress. Please come with me” over and over.

Aiden pushes H.A.P.P.S. away and tells him to shut up, H.A.P.P.S. looks at them as both of them begins kicking the robot, who doesn’t defend himself, and just keeps smiling. Then the pipe breaks loose and falls to the ground that is a cut off place and discovery that H.A.P.P.S. has disappeared, taking the opportunity to explore the abandoned pipes.

They climb through the tubes to the highest point they can find and go down another slide together, only it started dawn on them that they’re now cut off from the rest of the pipes and they can’t get out. So, they decide to systematically explore the pipes for an exit. They look through the entire area twice and then realize that they’re trapped, and they start getting scared. They sit next to each other in the tube with Auden wants to cry, they hear something scraping towards them so they start trying to find the partition into the main area, hoping they can break it down and bridge across the fallen segment.

They get to the partition and Jace begins sawing at it with his Swiss Army knife, Aiden notices stress fractures on the partition, so begins kicking at it again. It takes 6 kicks to break down. They notice one of the mirror partitions has been put up on the other side and there is no way past it. Then they head H.A.P.P.S. coming towards them. The robot appears from around a bend and is badly damaged. His voice box isn’t working properly anymore, he can only manage “Lost out with me” in a guttural voice. H.A.P.P.S. reaches towards them and they start running, During the fall H.A.P.P.S. lost his friendly gloves, exposing large pincers beneath. H.A.P.P.S. chases the boys down a slide, Jace spots a ladder, and they go toward it to escape him.

They get to the top of the ladder and H.A.P.P.S. tries to climb up but can’t. Aiden sees that Jace has been crying so puts an arm on him and feels Jace’s muscles relax when he does. Then one of the mirror partitions closes at the top of the ladder, cutting H.A.P.P.S. off as Jace starts panicking and screams for help while pounding on the walls of the tubes. Aiden joins in. They figure that if they stay long enough that someone will come and repair the broken tube and that they’ll have to wait until then. They decide to keep moving until they do so that H.A.P.P.S. doesn’t catch them, only realize that H.A.P.P.S. has been closing the partitions on the pipes as they travelled, making the space they can hide more limited. Thinking that thinks he wants revenge as H.A.P.P.S. shows up near then and they go up another ladder tube. This time H.A.P.P.S. has figured out how to climb after them.

They hurry down a pipe and realize it’s cut off; they quickly turn around and hurry back the way they came. H.A.P.P.S. is waiting for them at a junction and the climbing pipe closes, locking them in with the robot. As H.A.P.P.S. reaches out for Aiden, but before he can Jace lunges at the robot and starts stabbing him with his knife. They knock HAPPS into the dead-end pipe and push him over.

Aiden wants to pull out his circuitry, so they move towards HAPPS who then slashes at widens cheek, HAPPS rights himself and they start going towards a second tube to escape him. The pipe leads to a slide and Aiden grabs on to Jace as they go down it, HAPPS enters the ball pit too and goes for Jace, who then dives into the pit to hide, HAPPS grabs a hold of Jace’s ankle and hacks off his right foot. HAPPS cuts the other one off too and Jace starts screaming Aiden reaches for Jace trying to pull him away but HAPPS slashes through Jace’s shoulder, Auden manages to pull him out the pit before it’s fully off and carry’s Jace into the closest pipe, not knowing if he’s too late to save him or not HAPPS chases Aiden down the pipe trying to grab Jace. Aiden tried to pull Jace away from HAPPS but is too slow. HAPPS slashes at Jace and blood pours out his mouth.  He blinks one then his body goes limp.

Aiden hold on to Jace’s body in shock for a few moments before HAPPS comes towards him. He lets go of Jace as he hurries down the tube filled with grief, crying and wanting to be sick. HAPPS chases after him, Aiden runs up a ladder pipe and HAPPS begins reversing over Jace’s body. Aiden realizes HAPPS has gone to find another way towards him.

Aiden goes down a slide and HAPPS is waiting for him at the bottom, he dives into the ball pit and into another pipe as fast as he could to put distance between him and HAPPS. He goes up a climbing pipe and HAPPS follows. Aiden goes down a slide into the ball pit again, HAPPS shoots out behind him and falls over, Aiden sprints to the closest pipe.

He gets into the pipe and starts running, but soon notices that all the junctions in the maze are partitioned and he is stuck going in circles with HAPPS chasing him, he realizes he’s been bearded into a kill zone. He looks through a 1-way window and sees kids having fun, he’s finally got his wish. He’s invisible and people are leaving him alone.

### *B-7*

At age 3, Billy is put into intensive care. He has to be given shots constantly by doctors. At age 5, Billy starts watching the *Freddy and Friends* TV series and becomes fixated on acting like an animatronic. He starts acting like an animatronic in front of everyone. He sees sleeping as recharging, his senses as sensors and learning as computing knowledge. He starts getting in trouble at school because of it and has to be taught separately from the rest of the class, isolating him from his peers.

By the next school year, Billy has to start seeing a psychologist and be sent to a private school. After hearing about how robots need oil to lubricate their joints during a robotics class, Billy starts to drink oil and poisons his body. His doctor is able to steer him away from oil, telling him to drink olive oil instead.

Four years later, Billy's parents Dan and Vera divorce. Ever since Billy watched *Freddy and Friends* as a kid, his life had turned upside down. Dan wants to put Billy in an institution, despite Vera's disagreements. Dan divorces her and abandons the family. By the time Billy reaches 7th grade, he decides to drop school entirely and learn solely through checking books out in the library. He sleeps on a steel table instead of a bed, eats white food as he believes color will overload him and celebrates a "creation day" instead of a birthday. Vera and Dr, Lingstrom, Billy's psychologist, attend. Vera gives Billy a laptop as a present.

Despite being 18 in human years, Billy sees himself as a 13-year-old. He considers his "creation day" the day he watched *Freddy and Friends* and learned of animatronics. Billy's psychogist has also had enough of him, wanting to institutionalize him as well. Vera continues to refuse, and eventually, the pressure breaks her. The next day, Billy wakes up and notices his mom is missing. He sees that the bathroom is locked. When he unlocks it, he finds his mom dead in the bathtub submerged in water, with the medicine cabinet wide open. Billy calls 911. The paramedics avoid talking to him as they carry Vera's body away. Before her death, Vera put files on Billy's laptop to teach him about finances, spending money and other knowledge that would help him in adulthood.

The next year, Billy falls into a state of cognitive dissonance, feeling human despite knowing he was an animatronic. He decides to replace his limbs with prosthetics. After several rejected requests, a mad doctor who lost his license due to malpractice lawsuits offers to help him. Billy believed that getting robotic enhancements would make him stronger. In reality, they made him slower and clumsier. At the same time, he meets a girl named Malilah over a chat room and they get in a relationship over time.

Billy continues to get surgery from the doctor, having metal plating on his face and his eyes dyed black. Despite Malilah not minding Billy's behavior at first, him becoming less and less human-like is causing them to drift apart. The final straw comes when Billy's hair, ears and most importantly, tongue are removed, and he can only communicate through a computer. Malilah breaks up with him, but Billy understands.

At age 21 (in human years), Billy finally realizes his delusions. He was human all along, and his denial had ruined his life. Everyone around him had left him. The surgeries that were done on him are irreversible. One night, Billy puts on his dad's old clothes and heads to the junkyard. He breaks in, gets inside an old car and falls asleep. When he wakes up, he realizes the car is about to be crushed, with him inside. Billy is reminded of his humanity as he falls into the compactor.

### *Epilogue*

A group of high schoolers are attending a local carnival. Lucia and Jayce are going on a double date with Adrian and Hope. Nick and Kelly are also there on their own date. Two guys named Joel and Wade are trying to intercept the double date because of their crush towards Hope, despite already being in a relationship.

The groups discuss the Pizzaplex that is being constructed. While everyone else is excited, Lucia and Nick are apprehensive, having heard of the incident at the old pizzeria the new Pizzaplex was being built over. Noel had observed the construction site a couple times, seeing that the new animatronics were already delivered to the premises. Fueled by curiosity, the group decide to investigate.

They notice that the entrance has been sealed up with concrete, but there is a vent opening in the roof that they can go through. They land in the storage room and go out into the main area. Endoskeletons laid all over the place, along with the growing presence of an odd stench. Everyone looked down to see eleven dead workers, decapitated and disarmed.

Terrified, the group try to escape, only for the chute they came in from to be crushed. With every other door or window sealed shut with cement, everyone will have to wait for the construction crew to return. Suddenly, the group hears the sound of metallic footsteps coming towards them. They barricade themselves into the storage room, now knowing that they weren't alone.

## Characters

### Humans

#### Help Wanted

* Steve Snodgrass
* Amanda
* Gilbert Hurlbutt
* Brock Edwards
* Matt
* DJ Dan the Music Man
* Saylor Thrift

#### Happs

* Aiden
* Jace
* Nora
* Landon
* Unnamed Girl
* Bobby
* Arlo

#### B7

* Billy's Family
	+ Billy
	+ Vera
	+ Dan
* Clark
* Peter
* Sadie
* Mrs. Foswick
* Dr. Lingstrom
* Dr. Reynolds
* Doc
* Norma
* Maliah

#### Epilogue

* Lucia
* Jayce
* Adrian
* Hope
* Joel
* Wade
* Nick
* Kelly

### Animatronics

#### Help Wanted

* Victoria Snodgrass
* Avery Snodgrass
* Abigail Snodgrass
* Snake
* Spider

#### B7

* Freddy Fazbear (*Fazbear and Friends* animated form)
* Bonnie the Bunny (*Fazbear and Friends* animated form)
* Chica the Chicken (*Fazbear and Friends* animated form)

## Locations

* Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex
* Gas Up
* Cap'n Ernie's Fish Boat

## Trivia

* One of Steve's games *Chip Off the Old Block* is a reference to Scott's old game *Chipper & Sons Lumber Co.*, respectively.