1:35 A.M. | Room for One More | The New Kid
If you'd just set the alarm clock right, none of this would have happened.
The doll was still nearby. She had to be. And she was functional. She just wasn't functional in a helpful way.
Delilah is a waitress with a desperate desire for love. Having lost her parents at a young age and been recently divorced, she attaches herself to a doll she finds at a garage sale, which advertises itself as also functioning as an alarm clock. Hoping it will also help her with her oversleeping, Delilah sets it for 1:35 P.M. to awaken her for work. When it doesn't function, she throws out the doll in anger... only to be awoken by a strange feeling at 1:35 A.M. When she awakens at the same time every night, with each night an increasing feeling of danger growing within her, she becomes desperate to either find the doll or find a place where the doll can't find her ever again.
The fifth Five Nights at Freddy's: Fazbear Frights story, and the first of the third book.
Tropes related to “1:35 A.M.”:
- Abandonment-Induced Animosity: A possible reason for Ella's haunting, as Delilah swiftly threw her in the dumpster when she didn't work correctly.
- Adaptational Villainy: In the original novel trilogy, Ella was simply one of Charlie's childhood toys, but "1:35 AM" turns her into something far more sinister.
- Agent Scully: Delilah starts as this, refusing to believe in Harper's more fanciful worldview as her Agent Mulder. Even when Ella begins tormenting her, she tries to find a logical explanation for how she could still be hearing her.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Delilah is pretty introverted, but becomes more and more isolated as her Sanity Slippage continues.
- Always Late: Due to being a Sleepyhead and having an unusual schedule, Delilah continuously ends up late for work.
- Baby Fever Trigger: While married to Richard, Delilah was convinced that they were going to live Happily Ever After and have a baby daughter, who she'd already named Emma in her head. After the divorce, Delilah felt that Emma was lost to her forever... until she found the Ella doll, who looked suspiciously like the daughter she'd always wanted. This prompts her to buy the doll, setting off her nightmare.
- Best Friend: Harper, who's always there for Delilah and has been since they were in the same foster home.
- Cassandra Truth: When Delilah admits to Harper that the doll is torturing her, Harper obviously doesn't believe her.
- Harper also apparently advised Delilah to not sign a prenup prior to her marriage, so that she could get something if it didn't last. Delilah didn't listen, and ended up with nothing after her husband abandoned her.
- Creepy Doll: Ella's appearance is creepy enough, but she becomes even creepier as the story progresses.
- Cynic–Idealist Duo: You might think that world-weary Delilah is the Cynic and Genki Girl Harper is the Idealist, but it actually turns out that Harper has a more direct and thoughtful view on life, while Delilah is one to throw herself at any sign of affection.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Delilah's parents died in an accident, and she was then bounced between foster homes, at least one of which she was physically abused in. Her last foster home was at the very least psychologically abusive, and she and Harper became poor after aging out of the system. She married a man right out of high school, only for him to divorce her and leave her with nothing.
- A Day in the Limelight: Ella, who had previously appeared as a toy doll in Charlie's collection in Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes. In the third book, she's revealed to be a base for the robot Charlie's body, but is still a simple toy when the ragdoll isn't inside of her.
- Downer Ending: Delilah ends the story inside of a vent, trapped and unable to escape. She believes herself at least safe from Ella, though this is unclear.
- Driven to Suicide: Delilah gets herself stuck in a vent trying to escape Ella, and decides to stay there forever as she no longer feels Ella pursuing her.
- The Eeyore: Delilah is trying to be more positive in life, as she constantly falls back on pessimism.
- Foreshadowing: Delilah sees that some man named Phineas Taggart is offering a large price for the doll online.
- Gaslighting: Seems to be Ella's goal in tormenting Delilah. In addition to constantly waking her up in the early morning and causing her to become more and more frightened, she also imitates sounds from Delilah's past and causes her to begin to believe that the people around her are conspiring against her.
- Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: Harper and Delilah.
- Granola Girl: Implied with Harper, who's often in wild vintage outfits with her hair up in interesting ways, and is really interested in numerology and signs from the universe.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Harper, Delilah's sunny-haired best friend.
- Hidden Depths: When digging through her cheery neighbor's apartment, Delilah finds out that Mary actually had quite a tragic past.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: Delilah, who has been desperate for affection ever since the death of her parents.
- In Love with Love: Delilah thought of her ex-husband as her Prince Charming, and was convinced they would be together forever. Until he met someone new, that was. Turns out she was just desperate for anyone to love her.
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Not exactly a shop, but the house in where Delilah bought her doll at a garage sale ends up completely empty several days later.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Is the Ella doll genuinely supernatural, or is it simply equipped with an extremely advanced (and spiteful) AI and technology such as illusion disks and the invisibility devices from Special Delivery?
- Monster of the Week: Ella.
- Nervous Wreck: When Ella's alarm reaches her even while awake, Delilah has a panic attack in the parking lot of her work, which ends with her being fired.
- No Full Name Given: Basically every character in this short goes without a surname.
- Numerological Motif: Harper suggests that the number 135 may have spiritual significance, which Delilah refuses to believe. In numerology, the angel number 135 is a sign that positive change is on the way, though it may seem scary or daunting. While Delilah's supposed death seems to subvert this, this also ties into Delilah's references to trying and failing to stay positive in other aspects of her life.
- In a Day/Month calendar, 13/5 is also May 13th, which is Charlotte Emily's birthday in the novel trilogy, Ella's original owner.
- Orphan's Ordeal: After the death of Delilah's loving parents, she was bounced between abusive foster homes, which left her with lasting trauma. Harper is implied to have gone through similar.
- Perverse Puppet: Ella torments Delilah for weeks, eventually driving her to suicide.
- The Pollyanna: Delilah's neighbor Mary, who sings every hour of the day and drives her insane with how happy she is.
- Sanity Slippage: Delilah slowly grows more and more paranoid as Ella continues to alert her, beginning to think that anyone she knows could be hiding the doll. She tries to flee town, only for Ella to follow her. This ends with her trapping herself in a vent, likely where she dies.
- Stepping Stone Spouse: Poor Delilah, who was abandoned by her husband after he found a younger and prettier woman.
- Uncertain Doom: Delilah finds herself trapped in a vent, where she feels that Ella can no longer follow her. Whether or not she dies in there is left uncertain, as is if she was right and the alert won't follow her, or if she'll hear it even then.
- Waiting for a Break: Harper lives in an apartment full of struggling actors, all hoping to eventually get further in their career.
- Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: Played for Horror. Even after Delilah gets rid of Ella, she continues to hear the alarm no matter where she goes, including when she attempts to stay awake. This slowly drives her mad.
- Working-Class Hero: Delilah and Harper are both poor after aging out of the foster system, and live in crappy apartments.
- World-Weary Waitress: Delilah, big time.
