Chapter 5: Eyes Wide Open

Just as Mommy was about to pick up the bag, she noticed the Hoppy toy Elli had dropped and held it up.

"It seems a child was near this body not too long ago," Mommy speculated.

"Should I look for the child, Mommy?" asked CatNap.

"Yes," Mommy smiled. "And bring them to Mommy when you find them."

CatNap nodded obediently and took off on all-fours, his paws silent as a whisper. Elli and Rez waited till Mommy raised herself into the ceiling before sneaking back to the Home Sweet Home house. Inside, they motioned to Nathan to follow them into a closet and closed the door. The closet was completely dark inside except for the small trail of light coming through a gap in the door from a lamp in the hallway.

"Why are we meeting in the Secret Closet?" Nathan asked. "Did something happen when you went to bring Hoppy to Kayla?"

Elli fought the urge to vomit as she said, "We…weren't able to catch up with Kayla before the cable car left."

"Oh, that's too bad," Nathan said sympathetically.

"But we found something else," Rez whispered as he was shaking. "There was a body, in a bag."

"A body?" Nathan was confused. "What kind of body?"

"It looked like Kayla, but…parts of her were missing," muttered Elli.

"Like what?" Nathan asked.

"Organs, pieces of her spine, her eyes," Rez answered quietly.

"That's…hard to believe," Nathan reacted with an uncertain look on his face.

"But that's not all," said Elli. "We also saw a doll with red hair, and she talked to us."

Nathan paused. "Based on your description, that doll sounds like Poppy Playtime."

Elli looked confused. "Poppy—

"Playtime?" Rez finished.

"You know, the very first toy made by Playtime, Co.'s founder Elliot Ludwig?" Nathan said. "Don't you two pay attention to Miss Delight's History class?"

"No," Rez and Elli said while shaking their heads.

"Okay, so you found a Poppy Playtime doll," Nathan recounted. "Then what?"

"Mommy and CatNap came out of a door, with a red light," Elli described. "We hid from them as they were talking about the body, because Mommy was mad at CatNap for not getting rid of it. She then found Hoppy, which I must have dropped by mistake, and sent CatNap on a search."

"Were you guys caught?" asked Nathan.

"Luckily, we snuck past CatNap on the way here," Rez said. "I just hope Mommy didn't see us from the ceiling…."

"And the Poppy doll?" Nathan wondered.

"She hid as well," replied Elli.

"Odd," Nathan said. "It sounds like this doll is alive, much like Mommy and the other large toys in the factory. But since neither of you knew Poppy before this whole thing, I guess you're telling the truth. Which means Kayla—

"Really is dead." Elli then cried while Nathan and Rez tried to comfort her.


The next morning, Elli woke up in her bunkbed in time with the morning announcement. She was squeezing the tail of her small DogDay toy, which caused an invisible gas to squirt out of its mouth. Upon smelling the gas, she instantly felt calmer.

"All right, time to get up!" Elli said to the other kids who didn't wake up right away.

Once they got ready, the kids marched into the dining hall where Mommy was waiting for them. Upon seeing Mommy, Elli was reminded of last night's events and froze in place.

"What's wrong, Elli?" Mommy asked, stretching her head across the table. "Are you not feeling well today?"

"No, Mommy, I'm okay," Elli lied, putting on a fake smile. "I just…had a hard time sleeping because I was upset about Kayla leaving."

Mommy didn't look convinced. "Did you have your Smiling Critter toy in bed with you?"

"Yes, I did," Elli said.

"Then you should have been able to sleep peacefully after pulling its tail. Do you want Mommy to check the toy to make sure it's working right?"

"Um, that won't be necessary. Maybe I wasn't pulling the tail hard enough."

"If you say so!"

From there, the day progressed normally. Though Elli found herself watching the workers more carefully, wondering what kind of notes they were taking and how that pertained to the kids who did get adopted—assuming they were killed in the same manner as Kayla. Meanwhile, Rez was more tense than usual which made him lose all the games at the Game Station.

"Something is bothering you, Rez," Mommy said to him before everyone boarded the train. "Care to tell Mommy what's the matter?"

"There's not much to say," Rez fibbed. "Like Elli, I wonder when I'm going to get adopted. I mean, I'm almost twelve years old."

"On June 28th!" Mommy smiled. "We should throw a party for you when that day arrives!"

"Yeah!" The kids agreed.

"Sure," Rez agreed. "Though I hope it's before my adoption day."

"It will be, Rez. You can trust Mommy on that."

Rez didn't like the way Mommy spoke, but he hid it with a shy smile. Meanwhile, Nathan seemed lost in his own thoughts when Elli approached him on the train.

"Hey, what are you thinking of?" Elli asked.

"About that Poppy doll you found," Nathan said. "What did she tell you?"

"Just that the body in the bag was Kayla, and then she hid."

"Do you know where she hid?"

"Behind a bush near the door with the red light."

"And where is this door?"

"Next to the cable car stairs, on the right side."

Keeping this in mind, Nathan decided to look for the Poppy doll during the school's recess period where Miss Delight allowed the kids 30 minutes to go anywhere they wanted around the Playcare with the cable car being off-limits. Elli and Rez followed Nathan reluctantly. But much to their disappointment, the Poppy doll was nowhere near the door with the red light.

"This doll is smarter than I thought," Nathan muttered out loud.

"What do you mean?" Elli asked.

"If the Poppy doll didn't want to get found by Mommy, she wouldn't stay in the same place," Nathan said. "That means she's hiding somewhere else."

"But where?" Rez questioned. "A tiny doll like her could get around the entire factory without being spotted."

"True, and yet she chose to come to the Playcare. Why is that?"

Elli then thought back to the conversation between Mommy and CatNap. An idea came to her.

To be continued…