"Have you heard the news?"

"I did. It's weird to think that with how successful this company has been with its toys, they suddenly mess up this bad. Like, come on, violent nightmares? That's kind of fucked up if you ask me."

"Hey guys!"

Alex walked to the table and sat down with his friends, taking out his sandwich

"Hey Alex! We're talking about the news about the Smiling Critters." Alan told him.

"The Catnap recall?"

"Exactly!" Grace replied. "Do you know anything about it? You know, being the nerd you are and all that?"

"Hey, shut up! And to answer your question, no, I don't. And it's weird that the nightmares only happen with the Catnap plushie and not with any of the others."

"I know, right? Maybe people just don't like the color purple and they get so scared that they have nightmares!"

"Alan, how do you joke with that?!" Grace gasped.

"Yeah that's in bad taste man. It's of course because the people with nightmares are scared of cats, and have spooky dreams because of it."

Grace tried to frown, but couldn't bring herself to do it, instead letting out a chuckle.

It was then when the group noticed Stella walking next to them with a worried face, mumbling something to herself. That was a regular occurrence ever since she had been given a promotion, and Alex thought it could be because of a lot of stress.

"Stella!" Alex called, causing her to gasp and turn to look at them, sighing when she saw them.

Stella walked to their table and sat next to them. "Hi."

"Is there something bothering you?" Alan asked her.

"No, I'm fine, really."

"Come on, girl, we can tell. You can talk to us!" Grace told her.

Stella let out a deep sigh. "It's just... one of the kids at Playcare."

"Did something happen?" Alex asked, worried.

"I... don't know how much I can tell you, but..." She seemed hesitant to talk about it. She simply sighed. "One of the orphans, Theodore Grambell, was transferred to the emergency room a few days ago because he got electrocuted."

"Jesus!" Grace exclaimed.

"Yeah, I know. Apparently, he stole a GrabPack from somewhere and tried using the green hand, but it ended up horribly."

"Poor kid..." Alan sighed. "Do you know why he did that?"

"Apparently, they told me that he has an 'imaginary friend' that keeps telling him to sabotage us, for some reason."

"Man, that's tough..." Alex said.

"Does he have... schizophrenia or something?" Grace asked.

"That's the problem. It's not an 'imaginary friend' like we thought. That friend is actually real."

"What?! Who's that friend then?" Grace exclaimed.

Stella seemed to tense up. "I... can't tell you."

"I hate this company's secret policy." Alex groaned. "Is the kid alright, at least?"

"He's been… hospitalized. Yeah, hospitalized for a few days now, and I have heard nothing since."

"Geez... Well, no point in worrying about it for now, is there?" Alan tried to reassure Stella. "How about you sit down with us and we can talk about something else?"

Stella nodded. "Okay. That's... yeah, I think I'd like that." She smiled, genuinely this time.

As the four sat down and talked about various things, Alex couldn't help but smile. He always loved spending time with Alan and Grace, and Stella too, whenever she was free from whatever she did down at the Playcare.

If only he had known the atrocities they did.

YOUR REST IS OVER

GET UP

Alex slowly fluttered his eyes open, trying to wince from the pain that surged through all of his body.

He tried to make a sound, a groan, a moan of pain, anything, but he couldn't. He could barely look around. He felt something warm fall from one side of his head, accompanied by the taste of metal.

It made sense. He remembered the train. He remembered how it had suddenly started speeding up. He remembered trying to stop it, causing it to derail itself and his head to hit something, which was most likely the cause of the warm sensation on the side of his head. He was bleeding.

He realized that he wasn't inside the train cabin anymore. In fact, he couldn't see the train, nor anything that looked like one. In fact, he wasn't even touching the ground.

He didn't know what was going on, but the flickering light wherever he was let him see that he was floating a few meters above the ground while also moving forward.

W-What...

It was then that the ringing on his ears started to stop, letting him hear the sound of loud footsteps coming from just in front of him.

He managed to move his head to look at the source, but he only saw two claws covered in purple fur. The feeling of something squishing him from his stomach then reached his brain, and Alex saw that there was... something wrapped around his torso, covered in the same purple fur as the claws.

He tried to squirm or wiggle out of that prison, but the only thought of doing it caused his body to ache even more. He gave up almost immediately, instead hoping that whoever was carrying him wasn't hostile.

His hopes were quickly shattered as he saw that he was being taken to a big hatch next to a wall, as the creature used one of his claws to open it, before moving Alex to the opening, letting him see the fall.

In other circumstances, he would have screamed, but he couldn't even widen his eyes that time.

As the appendage keeping him from falling started to loosen, his body involuntarily turned around, letting him see the responsible. He couldn't make out all of the details, but what he could make out were two eyes as black as the void with a pair of white pupils and a wide and creepy smile, the feline face of the creature having the same purple fur as before.

Alex was surprised enough that his mouth opened. "Wait-!" Was all he could say before he felt himself sliding down a metal tube.

He didn't know how much he fell, but when he suddenly hit his back on the ground, he let out a loud cry of pain.

He stood laying there, whoever knows how long, until he felt the least bit of strength return to him and he was able to grab onto the wall to get on his feet.

The first thing Alex did was check the side of his head, finding that he was indeed bleeding. Remembering the medical supplies he had packed before coming into the factory, he found a few bandages, and wrapped one over his head. It wasn't a permanent solution, but he didn't have anything better at that moment.

"Alright Alex, pick yourself up and analyze the situation." He said to himself. "Another toy wanting to kill you has dropped you through a pipe..." He looked around. "...that leads to a room full of trash, apparently."

He took a few steps away from the wall without stopping glancing around the room, finding it weird. A room full of trash accessed through a pipe?

It was when alarms began flaring and the walls began closing in on him that he realized he wasn't in just any ordinary room.

He was in a trash compactor.

Panicking, Alex saw a section of the wall that wasn't moving and began making his way up the trash. It was hard, considering his body was still aching from the crash, and he was a bit dizzy from the blood loss, but he wasn't keen on dying without a fight.

Finally, once he realized the walls wouldn't crush him where he was, he started looking around for a way out, seeing a handle he could grab to lift himself up.

He almost forgot he had the GrabPack on him, or he would have, if it wasn't the main cause for the fall from the pipe to hurt as much as it did.

He came across a hallway that led him out of the trash compactor, finding another room with pistons moving up and down.

Seeing that there was another way he could go, he sighed, realizing he was going to need to jump from piston to piston. He barely managed to reach the other side of the room, crouching through a hole in the wall, arriving in an even bigger room, with the floor covered in blood and the rooms full of claw marks.

There was also a single word written on the walls: 'Run'

Alex shuddered and kept moving, arriving at yet another room with yet more pistons. At the other end of the room, he caught a glimpse of the same purple claws and tail walking away from his sight.

He was glad the toy hadn't seen him.

Anyway, he jumped over the pistons onto the broken down catwalk at the other side, moving forward. It was always that in the factory. Keep moving, never stop. When was he going to have any sort of rest? His body was demanding him to just lay down and take a nap, but he knew he couldn't do that when there was another toy looking for him.

He pushed his thoughts aside and kept walking, finding a swing hanging over the void. Crossing to the other side, he got into yet another vent, crawling through it until he found himself in the same room where he had been dropped onto the trash compactor.

He heard the familiar sound of TV static as he found one of those things with a tape laying next to it. He inserted it and it began playing, Alex sitting on the couch in front of the TV.

" Alright, Ms. Harper, please explain the situation. Spare no detail. " A voice said

" Well, like any night, all the children are getting to sleep. " Clare Harper. Yet another employee Alex had heard about. Protective of the children inside the Playcare, especially of one of them, though Alex didn't remember the name.

" It was peaceful, quiet. Catnap had the red smoke in the room. Then, suddenly, there's this scream. Nightmares happen, I know, but this... I mean, dilated pupils and quivering lips? The way her eyes darted around the room? And I swear, her hand in mine, it felt like her blood was boiling beneath her skin... She saw something too, something horrible! She- I-I'm sorry, I don't mean to... "

Alex widened his eyes. Those symptoms... Weren't those the ones that the children suffered after sleeping with the Catnap plushies? And what the hell is that red smoke they're talking about?

" Ms. Harper, we'll provide the very best care we can offer, you have my word. " The other voice said. Alex assumed that was another scientist. " But this is important. Did Marie happen to describe what she saw? "

Alex froze. Marie?

" Yes, a monster she said, said it was...colorless... Gosh, I could feel her poor little heart pounding. For her, it was right there! A-And her movements, they were wild! Arms flailing, legs kicking... "

" Hmmm... "

" I...I wanted to talk to her. See how she's doing. I just... I really need to hear her voice right now. "

" That would not be advised, Ms. Harper. There are many concerns we must address at this time. But vitals show normal, and we'll continue to monitor. She'll be okay. "

" NO! Well, pardon me if I'm not comforted by that! Just bring my little girl back to me... "

The tape ended.

Alex couldn't move from his spot. Did Claire say... Marie? It can't be the same Marie that...

Alright, let's go over all I know of this factory. They used people to make toys that were alive, and those toys didn't like the people because they treated them poorly... But if they used people to make the experiments, and that Marie the tape talks about is the same Marie I know, then that means-

No. NO. NO . He refused to even think of the implications of that. He simply decided to think that it had to be another Marie. It's not like it couldn't be a possibility.

And yet...

I said no, brain. Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you.

To distract himself, he walked over the door that most likely led forward, only to find out it was locked, and connected to a pair of holes with green lines and a green lightning symbol next to a GrabPack hand scanner.

Alex tilted his head in confusion. "What? Do I need... batteries? For a door? "

If this is another one of those 'innovations', I will go insane.

Looking around the room, he came across a bulky, rectangular battery with the Playtime Co. logo on it, which seemed to fit perfectly into the hole. One down, one to go.

Alex couldn't find the battery inside the room he was currently in, so he instead peeked his head into the blocked door to one of the sides of the room.

Sure enough, there was a battery laying on the sink, so Alex fired his GrabPack to get it and inserted it in the second hole. The GrabPack scanner lit up and, after scanning, the door lifted, letting Alex continue.

He realized the floor of the last few rooms he had been in was practically full of blood, and he could swear some of it looked recent.

He wished he could access that bathroom, because he really felt like he was about to vomit.

The door opened a narrow hallway with an exit to his left, though the cutout at the end of the path took his attention. It was a small anthropomorphic blue elephant with a light bulb pendant, waving at him with a wide smile.

"Ooooh, you're one of those toys! How were they called... Smiling Critters, yeah! Heh, your cat buddy made a really good mess, didn't he?" Alex chuckled, pressing the button.

" I'm Bubba Bubbaphant! "

"I'm sorry, Bubba Bubbaphant? " Alex asked, raising an eyebrow. "Were all of your names this weird?"

"Hey, I remember you! " The cutout kept speaking.

Alex froze. "Seriously, first that Bunzo cutout and now you? Are you going to tell me my full home address instead?"

He remembered the elephant was the smart one of the group, so he really regretted saying that out loud.

He pressed the button again. " An elephant always remembers! "

"Remember what?"

Alex was starting to freak out a little bit. Regardless, he pressed the button again. " Want to know what I remember about you? "

"Yes, please." Alex pressed the button one last time.

He immediately regretted it when the cutout began letting out a terrified and loud scream as the audio glitched before stopping.

Alex looked at the cutout, scared. "I have a feeling you guys are not just cutouts."

Alex tried pressing the button again, but was only met with the first phrase repeating.

Maybe... it's trying to tell me something. How whatever this cutout is remembers what the workers here did to all of the toys.

Alex turned around and walked away, looking back a lot of times until he couldn't see the cutout. Amazing. A giant blue monster and a pink elastic spider don't scare me but a cardboard cutout saying a few phrases freaks me out. I'm going to need serious therapy if I get out of here.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a sound coming from ahead of him. Something he wouldn't have expected down here.

A phone ringing.

He immediately ran forward, opening another door with the green hand's electrical charge, finding yet another room that required a battery to open. However, there were no batteries in the room as far as Alex could see.

He instead decided to check the ringing sound, which was surprisingly coming from a conveniently placed telephone in front of him.

He picked it up, bringing it close to his ear. "Hello?" He asked.

"Hey, hey! Can you hear me? You look kinda lost." A voice spoke from the other side. It sounded very young, like a child.

"What?! Hey, who are you?"

"Relax! I don't want you to die, so I'm gonna help you! Check this out. Look at the tube thing on the back wall."

Alex did just that, turning his head. "Ready? BUH-BOOM!" A battery dropped from somewhere. "You can use that battery to open the door!"

"What the- How did you...?"

"I'll explain it to you, but you have to keep moving!"

Alex groaned. Again, more hiding things from him. Maybe that kid was a toy, considering how he too didn't seem to want to tell him things.

Alex grabbed the battery and used it to make himself an exit. What he found was something that made him widen his eyes.

The tunnel from which he had come from was now blocked by rubble and the remnants of the train, which were on fire, blocking his exit.

It was a sight to behold, that was for sure.

"Woah... Did you do that?" The voice from the telephone asked him.

"I made a train derail, kid. I'm surprised this is the only thing that happened. I'm not even sure how I'm alive either." And then he remembered. Poppy was with him on the train.

"I suppose you are right. This must be where Catnap found you..."

Alex didn't wait for him to say another thing, as he jumped down to the tracks and ran to the train, yelling Poppy's name.

"Hey, where are you going?" The voice yelled.

"Poppy was inside that train! She's got to be here still!" Alex replied, looking inside the cabin, only to find nothing.

"Hey, calm down! I know you're probably worried about Poppy, but she's alright!"

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm in the security room, you silly! I saw her walking away from the trainwreck after Catnap took you away. Also, I can see that bandage from here. Are you okay?"

"Catnap?! So that giant purple thing that dropped me into the trash compactor was Catnap? And yes, I'm alright, thanks for asking." Great, so if the scandal with that toy wasn't enough, now he's alive too. And three meters tall at least.

The voice hummed in affirmation. "I'm not sure if Poppy has told you this already, but she needs you. We need you. You are our mission! Together, we can save a lot of people. Including you, and the toys you befriended before!" He said.

"She told me something like that already."

"Good! The Playcare is straight ahead. It's the home of Catnap, one of 'The Smiling Critters'. There used to be... eight of them, I think? Now, it's just him."

"Just him? What happened to the rest?"

"They began disappearing one by one until there was nothing left of them. I don't know what happened, and considering it was most likely Catnap the one responsible, I don't wanna know."

Alex didn't like the way he said that. "How is it possible they disappeared like that?"

"The Playcare is Catnap's church. His hunting ground. Whatever he wants it to be."

"Oh, great- Wait, did you just say 'church'?"

"I did, yeah."

"What does that mean?"

"..." The voice stood silent. "You better get moving quickly... We'll keep in touch."

I hate this fucking place. Alex sighed. "Fine. See you soon."

"See you! Oh, and by the way, my name is Ollie. Nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you too, Ollie. It would be nicer if you answered some of my questions, hm?" Alex replied, a bit annoyed.

"I know you must be mad at all of us for keeping things from you, but you have to understand it's for your own good!" Ollie told him.

"Yeah, that's what they always say. And then I find out stuff, and they just go 'yeah, you're right. Oh! And we're keeping even more stuff from you. Good luck finding it out by yourself!'" Alex was getting angry.

"I'm really sorry, Alex. Seriously. I have to go now, but I'll call you soon."

"Wait, how did you know my name?" Alex asked Ollie, but he had hung up. He groaned. "Well, at least it wasn't a cutout."

Alex began walking. The tunnel for the train was huge, and there were a few lights that illuminated the way, making Alex see the platform where the train should have ended.

He used the debris to get up onto it, ready to keep moving. He saw it was a sort of train station, with a statue of a toy. He couldn't go through the turnstile, because despite how hard he tried to move them, they wouldn't budge. He instead saw a yellow door to his left, and decided to walk inside.

It was what seemed like a security room, with lots of TVs that only displayed static. Alex looked around to see if maybe there was a switch that could unlock the way forward, but he didn't find anything other than another door that led through a hallway into what looked like a power room.

He thought that because he saw a pair of outlets and a weird looking pole with handles and what seemed like a handprint for him to launch his hand at, but nothing happened when he did.

He saw a paper next to the poles and so he grabbed it to read it.

"

Electricity diverting instructions.

1-Use your GrabPack to grab the handle. A small laser beam should shoot out of the pole, indicating its orientation.

2-Rotate the pole until the laser beam is pointing at the receiver outlet. You can release the GrabPack hand from the handle at this time.

3-Launch one of your GrabPack hands at the emitting outlet, charging your GrabPack cable.

4-Launch your other hand at the glowing handprint. The cable should wrap around the pole and then launch itself at the receiver outlet."

Alex squinted his eyes at the instructions. "Seriously? Now the way to divert electricity changes?! Ugh, I hate these stupid innovations!"

Seeing no point in complaining, Alex used his GrabPack to grab one of the pole's handles, indeed seeing the laser shooting from it and into a wall.

Alex rotated the pole until the laser pointed more or less at the receiver outlet, and then let go of it. He then did as he normally did in these situations and launched one of his hands at one of the outlets, and then at the handprint hanging from what looked like a sign hanging from the pole.

The hand went right through the handprint and wrapped around the pole, before ultimately hitting the other outlet, before a sound was heard.

"That's it? I gotta admit, that was cool."

He noticed an open gap in one of the walls, and realized it was a quick way to get back to the train station.

He saw that the turnstiles had a glowing green light on them, and when Alex tried to make them move he managed to turn them around and keep advancing.

He came across another vehicle called 'Elliot Express' with 'See the world through the eyes of a child on Elliot's Express' on top of it, a cutout of what Alex assumed was another Smiling Critter to the right.

After the last cutout, he didn't want to press the button, but pushing the thoughts aside, he headed for it and made up his mind.

" Hey, I'm KickinChicken! Want to go outside and hang out? "

Well, at least this wasn't creepy. "I wish I could, buddy."

" It's lookin' pretty rad outside! "

" I've... never been outside before. "

Oh. Well, here was the creepy stuff. He was sure these cutouts were telling him something.

" Will you come with me? I'm scared... "

" Here, follow me. I'll step out first. "

Now Alex was feeling sad. What happened to the actual Kickin? If this cutout was to be believed, he just wanted to go outside, which was for some reason scary to him, even suggesting to go first just so someone would accompany him.

Alex pressed the button one last time. Another scream, more loud and distorted than the one from before.

Alex tried again, to see if there was anything else, but the cutout rolled back to its initial phrase.

He didn't know what to think of what he heard. "What really happened to all of you?" He asked himself, before leaving the cutout alone.

He couldn't enter inside the cabin, so he decided to find a way to make it move, as there was apparently no power. He soon found out that outside of it, to both sides, there were a pair of levers reading 'Let's go!' on top of them.

Alex took notice of the writings and markings on the wall. Next to the left lever, 'JOY' was written, and next to the right lever, there were several deep and big claw marks. Alex had a hunch as to who was responsible for the markings.

However, what mostly took his attention was the big bloody writing. "The hour of joy?" Alex read out loud. "What does that mean?"

Whatever it was, the door to the cabin was open now, so Alex got inside as the door closed behind him and the cable car began moving.

Suddenly, the TV that Alex hadn't noticed before sprung to life, playing a recording.

" Hello. " The recording began. It was Elliot Ludwig's voice. " My name is Elliot Ludwig. When you look around at the world today, what one thing do you think it needs more of? I asked around, once. Money, I never have enough. Understanding, I can never get any. Faith, the common man has lost it. Each answer was different... and I could perhaps see some little truth in each. "

Alex now realized his surroundings were changing. The previous concrete tunnel had given away to a huge cavern, full of stalagmites and stalactites. It was a beautiful sight, and Alex couldn't take his eyes off it. A whole factory built on top of a cavern... Holy shit, this is amazing.

" But I think each was also missing something. " The recording continued. " Something simple. You see, not one of them could muster a smile. "

There was a pause, as Alex once again entered another tunnel. " A smile is hope. A smile is love. A smile is understanding. And there is nothing more gratifying to my soul than being the reason for a child's smile. To be the spark that ignites all their hopes and dreams. For it is only through hopes and dreams that we may create a better world. One where our children need not be afraid. One where they are protected. After all, this company and its toys are nothing without them. These children deserve to smile, they deserve to love, and they deserve a safe home ."

Alex knew what he was talking about, but the sight of it made his mouth hang open. An impressively tall area, painted blue with fake clouds hanging from the ceiling was ahead of him. It contained a few buildings and a big statue in the middle, but Alex didn't have time to look at any of the smaller details. Oh. My. GOD. THIS IS THE PLAYCARE WHERE STELLA SPENT HER TIME?! WHERE THE CHILDREN LIVED?

" That is why it is with enormous pleasure that as the founder of Playtime Co., I announce our very own onsite orphanage... "

The cable car reached the end and Alex walked out of the cabin.

" PLAYCARE! "

AN

Man, this website is full of bugs.