Bunny Call | In the Flesh | The Man in Room 1280
He always comes back...
"He has to be warned," one of the nurses said.
"He won't believe us," the second one said.
The head nurse's face was hard as stone. "Then he'll find out the hard way."
Father Arthur Blythe is called to the rundown Heracles Hospital, where he's to give the last rites to a man on his deathbed. Once he gets there, though, he gets some confusing information: this man has already been taken off life support, but seemingly refuses to die. And he really should be dead– upon seeing him, nothing that looks like that should be breathing. But believing everyone deserves redemption, Blythe asks the man for his last request... and slowly, he gets that request, and becomes determined to complete it. Meanwhile, the nurses are sure that the man is evil incarnate, and that he cannot get what he wants under any circumstances. Add to that some weird little ghost boy running around, and we have a recipe for a wild day at the hospital.
The fifteenth Five Nights at Freddy's: Fazbear Frights story, and the last of the fifth book, Bunny Call. While many stories are connected to the Stitchwraith Stingers, this serves as the first one to be absolutely inseparable from the Stitchwraith story, as the Stingers provide context for who Andrew and the Man are, and this story gives a backstory to said characters.
Tropes related to “The Man in Room 1280”:
- All-Loving Hero: Father Blythe is kind and generous to everyone he meets, even the man in room 1280. Not that he deserves it.
- Animal Motifs: Andrew's ghost is seen wearing an alligator mask. It's currently unknown why, as the children in the games who wear masks wear those that represent the animatronics they haunt, and Fazbear Entertainment didn't have an alligator character until a few years after this story would have happened. Andrew is also confirmed to mainly have been haunting Fetch, who was a dog. Nevertheless, it sure gives Andrew an iconic look.
- Battleaxe Nurse: Head Nurse Ackerman is a short, snappy woman with the singleminded goal of making sure the evil in room 1280 doesn't succeed in whatever it plans.
- Big Bad: This story introduces us to the Fazbear Frights version of William Afton, the big bad of the original games and Andrew's killer.
- Body Horror: The titular man is burned so horrifically that any normal human body should have long since shut down… and yet he remains alive, his organs still functioning against all reason. The story goes into gruesome detail about the visceral horror of the man's not-quite-corpse, especially when Arthur first sees him. He is little more than a charred corpse only held together by supernatural malice. It's mentioned that you can see his lungs expand and contract, and his black heart beating in his chest.
- Break the Believer: The story ends with Blythe, for the first time in his life, believing that everything is not okay.
- Candlelit Ritual: Nurse Colton tries to light candles to keep dark spirits away as she tries to give Afton an air embolism. This doesn't stop Andrew, who launches the syringe at her, and then blows out the candles.
- Canon Character All Along: After tons of implications, Epilogue 6 confirms that the Man was William Afton. However, whether or not he's the game version of William or a different version is up in the air.
- Creepy Child: Andrew's ghost, who runs around the hospital scaring the nurses and preventing them from killing Afton.
- Dark Lord on Life Support: The years have not been kind to Afton. This continuity's equivalent of the Pizzeria Simulator fire has left him little more than a burned corpse, kept alive only by Andrew's direct intervention; furthermore, the years of psychically battling Andrew have led to his spirit being severely weakened.
- Dies Differently In The Adaptation: In the games, Afton was killed by the Springlocks long before he got fire damage. In this short, the fire damage is the only thing anyone notices, so seems to be what actually killed him in this universe. Or, well, not killed him, since Andrew keeps him alive. Instead he blows up when he finally dies. You know, like you do.
- Evil Tainted the Place: The nurses are convinced that everything in the room has been affected by the Man's evil.
- The Extremist Was Right: The nurses sound insane when they tell people that the dying Man in room 1280 is actually pure evil incarnate. They're right, though.
- Giggling Villain: The only noise the nurses hear from Andrew's ghost are childish giggles.
- Good Shepherd: Blythe fully believes in his religion and wants to do good for others
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Mia Fremont, a kind and shy nurse.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Between Arthur and Mia.
- I See Dead People: All of the nurses end up seeing him at some point, but Nurse Fremont is the one who sees Andrew the most, and he seems to be leading her places at times.
- Monster of the Week: Andrew mainly serves as this, antagonizing the nurses in attempt to keep them from killing the Man. But, really, the Man himself probably counts.
- Murder Into Malevolence: While not specified in this story, it's clear with the epilogues that Andrew was a victim of the Man, and is tormenting him solely out of a desire for vengeance.
- Mythical Motifs: The hospital is themed around Greek Mythology, being named after Heracles and having Cerberus as a mascot.
- Naïve Newcomer: Nurse Fremont, who is on Arthur's side until the other nurses finally let her see inside Room 1280.
- No Full Name Given: Nurse Ackerman and Nurse Colton.
- Outliving One's Offspring: We learn that Nurse Ackerman is so rude and dismissive due to her pain from losing her son.
- Saintly Church: Blythe fully believes in his religion and wants to do good for others.
- Sickbed Slaying: Three different nurses try to do this, at least.
- Spontaneous Human Combustion: When Afton is finally taken to the Fazbear distribution center, he actually blows up.
- Stealth Sequel: This turns out to be a Stealth Prequel to almost all the other stories, showing us how the various Fazbear products throughout the series became infected; by extension, it also serves as a possible Stealth Sequel to Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, as it's all but confirmed in later epilogues that the Man is William Afton, with his burns likely from said game. (Though likely an Alternate Continuity version, as the games' William Afton had already decomposed inside his Springlock suit.)
- It's also somewhat connected to Ultimate Custom Night, which explains William's purgatory as a nightmare rather than actual hell, like the game implies.
- Vengeful Ghost: Though he's mainly vengeful against Afton, Andrew is giddy to mess with the nurses who are trying to kill his prey.
