A/N: For those who read the original Chapter 4, there are some major changes at the start. Not immediate, but you'll know it when you hit it. Hopefully, it's a lot better than before.

Chapter 4: Nowhere to Run

Jessie wasn't sure how she was getting out of that house, but she could at least try to hide and buy some time while she figured out a plan. Unfortunately, her options were limited. She couldn't leave the room; the door was closed and locked, and the overhead vents were bolted shut. And even if she could find a way out of the room, the doors to all the rooms on her floor were closed. The cowgirl had no choice. She'd have to hide in Sid's room and either find another way out of the room, or hope for Sid to slip up and leave the door open the next time he left.

She got up off of the table and, using the docked chair, jumped down to the floor. Scared out of her wits, she scurried to the baseboard of her captor's divan.

"I obviously can't hide under that thing for long- it'll probably be the first place he'll look." Jessie concluded. Naturally, the Toy gods had it in for her. Not two seconds after having said this, Jessie could hear Sid's feet stamping upon the hardwood planks of the staircase. He was coming back and fast. Without a single thought, she dove under the bed. Sid walked in. Jessie poked her head from under the bed lining just enough to see what he had with him. She saw a small wooden cross made of what looked like popsicle sticks, a hammer and some nails.

Jessie's stenciled brows bobbed downward from their original flat-line position. "What does he think this is, a crucifixion?" Now at the table, Sid tossed the items onto his table and ducked into one of the collection bins beneath his study. From this bin, he retrieved a welder's mask and blowtorch. Being mindful to keep the torch a few feet's distance away from the wooden items near him, he tested the torch, an evil grin sweeping over his face as the small blue razor of flame illuminated his eyes. Jessie shuddered at the blue glow on Sid's features. He was turning out to be even scarier than that guy in the phantom's mask from the Scream movies, and that was saying something, because Jessie didn't usually scare easy.

Sid had now arose and looked back to at the table. His eyes scanned the space delicately from left to right, taking mental inventory of his stock. Nearing the middle of the table, he noticed that something was missing. His most important item.

"Where's that stupid doll? I know I put that stupid thing right here!"

As his brows dug hard into his face, Sid went into a twitching frenzy as he searched for his victim. He jerked himself under the table again, yanking the bins from their places and into the middle of the floor. He threw everything out of the bins. Old "failures" of gruesome toy disconfigurations spewed out all across the room. As they flew into the air and smacked the ground again, each of the incomplete abominations exploded with gears and screws and other attachments. Soon, the entire space was saturated with toy dismemberments.

From her spot under the bed, Jessie was in a convulsing trance. She was terrified at the playtime gore that surrounded her (all that was missing was an explosion of red dye). It had a train wreck effect on her. She couldn't bear to see this wretched, barbaric display of toy mutilation, yet her eyes couldn't be torn away from it.

I have got to get out of here! Now!

Jessie crawled to the front edge of the bed, looking from under the baseboard towards the front-left corner of the room where the door was. To her elation, the door was wide open. She knew it was a long shot, and the chances of being seen were almost absolute, but there was no way in the world she was going to stay in this horror show of a room!

She ducked from under the bed and made a mad dash for the exit. She was almost halfway there within a short matter of seconds, but that's when things went from hopeful to "God Dangit!" in a flash. From what looked like nowhere, a horde of items came crashing down onto the floor before her. She let out an instinctive yelp as she jumped back from the enormous projectiles. Standing frozen in trance, it took her a few seconds to register what'd just happened, and then it hit her.

She'd just screamed. In a room with a human in it. With no other soundsto possibly buffer it. Jessie snapped her head behind her and looked up to see Sid staring down at her, mouth agape.

The cowgirl stared back at him, mouth also agape and eyes bugging out of their sockets.

Gadburnit…

"Okay, so let me get this straight: Your plan consists of us ringing the door bell, waiting and hoping for someone to answer the door and walk outside, and us just slipping on in?" Woody confirmed, speaking in a sadistic tone. "Buzz, don't get me wrong. You have had some great ideas in the past, but this has got to be the dumbest plan I have ever heard in my life!"

Buzz looked at Woody with annoyance written all over his face. "Well, what have you thought of, oh wise one?" Buzz replied sarcastically.

"Oh, I don't know… We could try the doggie door, an open window – ANYTHING BUT THAT!" Woody screamed in retort.

"Oh yeah, that's smart. Just waltz into a random window where someone might see us, or walk into the backyard where that pitbull could eat us."

"It's a pug, Buzz", Woody flatly replied.

"What's the difference?"

Woody shoved the breath from his lungs and his shoulders slumped. "Whatever- forget how we get in. What do we do when we do get inside?"

"What do you mean, what do we do? We find Jessie and get out of there!" Buzz replied sardonically.

"Huh. And you were slapping me for not having a plan?" Woody replied, returning in kind the Space Ranger's sarcastic tone. "I mean how do we find Jessie without getting caught?"

"Well, it'll help if we can concentrate our search in a specific area," Buzz concluded.

"Sid most likely would have Jessie held in his room, which I would guess is upstairs."

"Hmm…that's a start. Do you know how to arrive the milieu, where the staircase would be in association to the entrance?"

"…You really need to lay off the dictionary reading, Buzz," Woody droned. "And no, I don't know where it is. The last time I was at Sid's house was when I was rescuing you, and that was back when Andy and Sid both lived on El Paso Drive, remember?"

"Well in that case, we should-"

"Buzz, I don't mean to sound brash, but let's face it," Woody sighed, cutting into Lightyear's statement. "We don't know how long Jessie's going to last in Sid's house. It'd be our luck that when we finally have a strategy mapped out, Jessie will already be on a rocket headed straight into the moon. We just can't afford to wait any longer- we have to go. Now!"

"Again, I understand, Woody, but we can't just go in there blind. We'll only make things worse for Jessie," Buzz replied.

"But if we wait too long, it'll be too late! We can always work on the plan as we go along- besides, that's how it all worked out the when you rescued me and Jessie last time, isn't it?"

Buzz sighed. As much as he hated to admit it, the cowboy was right. Both during his rescue of Jessie and Woody, and the sherriff's…grudging rescue of him, they were determining their moves as they went along. Besides, he was also starting to get the feeling that they should get going soon. Thinking on their feet may be their best chance of reaching Jessie before Sid had her blown up, or worse.

"…Alright Woody, you win. Let's go." Buzz finally yielded to his Western compadré. "Slinky Dog, get into position. Woody and I have a toy to save."

Jessie stood ever still as she and Sid exchanged baffled stares, but her mind was in a state of unabated panic. This cannot be happening! All these years, I've never been seen alive, and the first person who does is the one guy in the entire world that makes a hobby out of crucifying toys?

"I knew it. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! Toys really are alive!" Sid was all but jumping for joy at realizing he wasn't a crazy, hallucinations seeing freak, all the while holding that evil, Grinch-like grin. "Oh man, and all I was gonna do was burn off your face. But now I'ma burn all of you! It'd be just like burning a real person, only without the possibility of prison. Hmm, I wonder if toys scream like real people…"

Jessie simply gawked back at him. Great. He hates toys and he's a homicidal nutcase!

"…I'm gonna need some gasoline, a slab of concrete so I don't burn up the lawn-"

"Oh, the heck you will!" Jessie finally yelled as she interrupted Sid. Everything was telling her to shut-up, but anger was building and consuming her fear. Besides, the boy already knew she could move and stand up on her own. Why hold back on the voice modulator? "Why the heck do you wanna do this to me anyway? What do you hope to gain from this?"

"Satisfaction, enjoyment, pleasure- take your pick." Sid's aura seemed to get blacker with each passing second, and Jessie could sense it.

"What kind of satisfaction could you possibly get from destroying toys?" Jessie's anger was growing stronger. Her face was turning beet red, and her fists were balled. Her arms were stretched at her sides.

"The kind most teenagers get when they're bored playing with you stupid useless sacks of cloth. I just happen to have more of a passion for destruction and death than other kids."

"You're nothing but a monster…" Jessie replied through her gritted teeth, her voice beginning to quiver. "You can't possibly have a soul. Nobody with a soul would treat a toy like this."

"And your point is…what?" Sid replied with a roll of the eyes and a dismissive shrug. "My mom tossed out her old doll back when she was in her teens. In fact, she told me that she was embarrassed to be with that stupid thing by that time. She just dumped it in the donations box and drove off, merry as can be."

Jessie's frown leveled off. The cowgirl felt like she'd just been punched in the stomach as all her breath left her body. She stood motionless at this revelation. No, he-he's lying. There's no way this brat is telling the truth, s-he thought. I know Emily left me in that box, but...

Jessie was hurt to the core. Part of her didn't want to figure out if this really was Emily, but at the same time, her curiosity wouldn't coincide with her fears. She finally gave in.

"What's her name?" Jessie asked in a fierce demanding tone, her voice still choked up.

"What?" Sid asked, confused.

Her anger was still high as she snapped the question at Sid again: "What is her name?"

There was a moment of silence before Sid responded.

"Emily. My mom's name is Emily." Sid had one eyebrow raised as if to say what does it matter?

Upon hearing the name of her old owner, Jessie's knees buckled. Upon hitting the ground, she began to quiver uncontrollably. Her brain went completely blank. She tried to stand back up, to speak, to do something…anything, but to no avail. Her bright, green eyes were enveloped by a sudden explosion of darkness. Her cotton-stuffed limbs fell to numbness. The oxygen in her nonexistent lungs went into full retreat… And then…nothing.