The screams, the terror, the nightmares…
All that was invisibly carved into the domes' walls of Play care, a place that was once the complete opposite of those three words: laughter, fun, a child's hope… back in the day, before the hour of joy, Benjamin Bandicoot was one of the many others like Wuggy Huggy, Kissy Missy, Poppy Playtime, Mommy Longlegs and the smiling critters that had one goal: be a reason for a child to have a smile on their face.
That's what the main goal of Playcare was, or so Benny thought before everything went downhill, which all started when Stella Greyber went looking for Benny, when at the time was coloring with the kids along with Craftycorn in the Home Sweet Home site, a worried expression on her face that her co workers noticed though didn't get the chance to ask if she was ok due to that she went by them so fast.
Their relationship was like a true friendship, for as Stella felt she could tell Benny anything and Benny felt the same, though except for asking why there wasn't any other toys like himself: which he had no clue that he's a discontinued line type of toy that never made it to the public eye, she couldn't bring herself to say that to him, yet despite that he'd felt as though her answer at the time wasn't quite right he still accepted it.
Though this particular day Stella didn't know who else to turn to as the information she had just discovered had disturbed her to her very core, her core of always wanting children to experience joy and happiness through playing with toys that playtime co have created, she made her way inside home sweet home and asked one of the children she crossed path with where Benny was, the child answering that he's with other kids and Craftycorn she walked over there with such a pace, a pace with importance.
With Benny however, it was a peaceful and calming time with a few kids and Craftycorn as coloured pencils and paper were scattered across the table they were on, peacefully colouring away with someone from time to time asking for a certain colour that would be next to someone else, whether it was the red pencil that was next to Craftycorn or a green that would be next to Benny, that was until Stella's usually cheerful voice now coded with an attempt to hide the shakiness when she called for Benny.
"May I talk with you for a second?" Ms Greyber asked, her hands almost noticeably shaking while holding on to a yellow folder that Benny recognised as information about a child that lives in this orphanage.
"Yeah of course! I'll be right back guys." Benny replied cheerfully as he always was with his Irish accent in his voice box, as the kids continued with their drawings with Craftycorn, Stella and Benny went off somewhere a little quieter for their conversation.
"Have you by any chance, seen Jeremy at all today?" Stella asked, now no longer hiding concern in her voice, Benny realising that something isn't right.
"I have not unfortunately, I'm sure that he's around somewhere and maybe I've just haven't properly noticed him." He replied as helpfully as he could, this didn't seem to calm Stella however.
"It's just… his supposedly adopted parents and I have just found something… horrible." She then opened Jeremy's file and showed Benny the very thing that turned everything upside.
Jeremy's file had been stamped as [testing].
"Wait… what does this mean?" Benny worriedly asks. "And so where is he now?" Stella then closed the file and held it close to her chest.
"I don't know and Mr. And Mrs. Hartmann are just as concerned as I am, I don't know what to do…" she placed her face in one hand while the other still held the child's file. "Do you think… there's something going on that both you and I don't know?"
"I mean… I really hope not because I've known this place as a joyous place for as long as I can remember since, the labs I believe they're called?" Benny replied, his Irish voice so innocent and pure, though Stella picked something from what he said.
"Wait, labs?"
"Yeah, labs! That's what I remember waking up to when I first showed up here." Benny responded, though now noticing her face expression. "You ok Stella?"
Due to Benny's overly trusting nature, he had always shared small information like that, though in the past she kinda brushed those off thinking that he might've been talking about something else, though now with everything else happening…
Has there been a secret operation going on right under her nose this whole time? And if that's the case… What even is Benny if not a normal toy with amazing responses?
———
As your eyes were flickering awake from the concussion of the train wreck, heavy thuds of steps echoed your ears as you gained each of your senses, you could feel that you were being carried by something big and purple based on its huge claws, the cause of the thuds that awoke u in the first place. Your eyes began to dart from one detail to another, from the filthy tiles that would have dirt and dried blood on it to the blue buckets to then a flickering yellow light which sat on top of a hatch of some kind, which now the purple beast placed its claw on that hatch lid and begun to swing it open, metallic squeaks rung out from this action.
Just as you realised what was happening you got dropped into the tunnel, seeing the massive smiling purple cat as it watched you fall to the bottom of the tunnel, with trash breaking the damage to your fall, red lights mostly flooded your eyesight as you got up on your feet, dusting yourself off afterwards. An alarm began to ring loudly as the red lights continued to light up around you, many questions circled your mind, heart pounding in your ears, adrenaline already rising by the second just as you realised that the two walls on each side began to slowly close in on you, holy shit… you've just ended up in the trash compactor!
Frantically looking around, you saw the familiar grab pack that you had with you since the very start of this already hellish nightmare, now chipped and filthy, as you grabbed it and got it on your back you were really hoping to god or anyone up in the skies to help you right about now. You needed a way out but you felt as though all hope was almost lost until you noticed something amongst the blaring red light, just to your left was a warm yellow light shining down on an old gymnasium ramp which led to a hole in the wall, it was like your prayers were answered.
Immediately you ran up to it, adrenaline pumping through you as you climbed up the ramp and went through the hole, now seeing mechanics of the trash compactor and noticing now that the hole was created due to one of the panels that was made with poles on the other side which usually were designed to slowly push the walls to crush any rubbish that found its way here now malfunctioning, a small sigh of relief escaped your lungs as you carefully climbed down and made your descent to the in between part of those, poles? Pistons? You probably should've remembered this, then again you were more thankful that you didn't get turned into a sandwich than anything else at this moment, now to properly get out of here.
You got to a dead end, looking around for anything that would help you get out of this hellish pit that you now just remembered was Catnap that got you in here in the first place, looking up is where you found a handle way up high, absolutely too high for you to grab but would not be a problem for you trusty grab pack, despite it being a little cracked it was still in almost perfect order! Once the blue hand got a hold of the handle you then ascended up to a higher platform and made your way to the bigger pistons, from there you parkcored across them to another platform and wandered into an area with cat walks, you noticed something red under the cat walks but you didn't feel the need to investigate right now, you were more focused on finding Poppy since she's the reason that Catnap found you at all!
Oh if only she had just let you leave this nightmare Catnap wouldn't have found you! But no, because she thinks that you're "perfect"! Ha! Perfect for what? A sacrifice?! Just being in this facility made all your old memories of working here come flooding back to you, especially the rumors and theories all about catnap, ever since that cat was removed from all promotion materials some said it went nuts, no one knew why, but he did. That was the last you heard of him before you left Playtime co. Just remembering those last moments before the train crashed made your blood boil and became somewhat a mission to stay alive, so you can find that doll and confront her about her changing the tracks like that.
Returning to the present moment, you were almost to the vent that was just straight ahead of you, underneath the platform you were standing on had red gas which acted similarly to red dyed water, as you looked up you saw a pair of very familiar purple claws that slithered up like snakes into the vents above, sending you a shiver down your spine. But you knew you needed to get going, you knew that nothing should be stopping you because you won't allow that. You then activated the blue hand to grab the platform on the other side and pulled it to in front of you, to then let go and allow it to slide across on its own.
Now crawling through the vents, you observed toys around covered in their own dried blood, as much as you did take a little time to take that detail in, you had no time to take in what could've happened to them as their still bodies silently screamed at you to leave and not end up like them. Cockroaches crawling around as you pushed a vent cover open leading you to another room, on guard for in case the cat returns as you crawled out of the vent and got yourself on your feet.
The static of the TV on your right hummed its static tune as you took in your new surroundings, followed from the direction of the sound now you noticed a red 1980's TV with a blue tape player beside it, it surrounded itself with two couches facing towards them with their colours matching the tape recorder, between the couches and the TV stood a tape lied there on quite possibly the filthiest carpet you have ever seen, then again you assumed that that's what would happen to anything if no being taken good care of. You picked up the tape and placed the tape into the taper player and it begun to play a recording of two women talking to each other.
Almost immediately recognizing that this was a recording of an incident, one of the women addressed as Ms Harper explained that a child she was with had a terrible nightmare about a colourless monster, usually it's normal for a child to have nightmares but how a child that Ms Harper reacted to her nightmare was something that Harper probably never experienced before based on how she described the child. When Harper wanted to talk with the child to see if she was ok the other lady adivised her not to do so, yet despite that she said they'll continue to monitor Ms Harper flipped a switch inside of her as she screamed "pardon me if I'm not comforted by that!" You felt sorry for the poor women, perhaps that the child Ms Harper was with was actually her daughter, that makes the uneasiness of the tape itself more sad if it was true.
The tape ended as it returned to its static tune, turning to you left made you feel the feeling of familiarity as you recognised that corner of the room, taking a few steps closer and you realised that the hatch was the same hatch that Catnap opened and threw you into! Now noticing more details that you missed before, like the familiar old cracks in the concrete walls and the pipes that were behind the hatch, following up into the ceiling. Looking around some more and you came across a blue hand pad and battery holes, which meant that you needed to find batteries, a sigh of annoyance escaped you but luckily a battery was right next to you on the floor, so you picked it up and placed it in the hole that it needed to be in, now to look for another one.
Turns out another battery was in the bathroom… jez that was not a pleasant looking bathroom, however you still needed it, after placing that second disgusting battery into the other empty hole the blue hand pad lit up, just as you placed your grab pack blue hand on the pad, you suddenly could hear a phone ringing.
"It must be coming from a room beyond this roller shutter…" you spoke to yourself as the shutter opened up and you made your way to the phone, fast walking passed the Bubba Bubbaphant cardboard cutout.