As the recording ended, the cable car reached the end of its path and the doors opened, Alex took a step outside spinning as he looked around, still amazed.

He heard the sound of the phone ringing, and he answered after a short while.

"Psst. It's me again, Ollie. Cool place, right?"

"You kidding?! This is amazing!"

There was a chuckle from the other end

"The kids used to live here. Now look at it..."

"Yeah, this place doesn't look like somewhere to live."

"Anyways, do you see that statue in the middle of the room?"

Alex looked at the big pedestal in the middle of the dome, with what looked like smaller statues of the Smiling Critters on it, one of them being reduced to rubble.

"I do."

"Take the stairs that go under it. There's a really cool room in there that powers literally ALL of Playcare! I can give you a key down there."

"A generator room? Okay, I'll be on my way."

Alex had the chance to look around, seeing broken down decorations and tons of bloody toy corpses. If he didn't know better, he'd think someone had gone on a killing spree.

Which, if what Bunzo told him about the bigger toys being the strongest was to be believed, had most likely happened.

And I have a pretty good idea of who's responsible.

As Alex got closer to the statue, he noticed how the streetlights designed to mimic Bron the Dinosaur that illuminated the path were still fully functional. He got closer to the big pedestal in the middle.

Below each statue, there was a small panel with information about each critter.

Alex then counted the statues, seeing that there were seven intact, and one of them fallen just onto the path and in front of the panel. Alex guessed the ruined statue most likely belonged to Catnap. He decided to leave the possible symbolic meaning for another time and walked down the stairs as Ollie had told him to do.

Below the statue was what looked like a small control room for all the electricity inside the Playcare, and a big and thick tube with a key dangling from a ring.

Alex grabbed it, and heard Ollie speak again. "So you got the key... Now the question you're probably asking yourself is: Where does it go?"

"Yeah, it's kind of pointless to have a key if you don't know what it is for."

"Well, head back out, and you should find a door just to the left of the cable car you took down here."

Alex rolled his eyes. He had to go back again? It's not like he had never backtracked before, but with all of the Playcare to explore, he felt like he was missing out.

Alex took the opportunity to ask Ollie a few things. "Hey Ollie. What happened to the big statue over there?"

"The statue? I think Catnap pushed one of the stone replicas down and broke it, but I don't know why exactly."

"Is he the reason why there are so many corpses and blood laying around too?"

"Yup!"

"Geez..."

Alex made his way back to the stairs he had taken to come down here, and noticed a door with a bright red light behind it. He guessed that was where he had to go.

He made his way through a few hallways as he came across another room. Alex immediately gasped in shock.

He was in one of the biggest rooms he had seen ever since he had come into this factory, but that wasn't the most important part. In the middle of the room, there was a huge machine with three glass tubes, the right one full of some sort of red smoke.

Just like that tape from before had said.

Alex got the telephone closer to his face. "Ollie, what the hell is this place?!"

"Welcome to the Gas Production Zone, Alex. The beating heart of the whole evil Playcare system."

"Evil Playcare system? What does that mean? And why is there a machine like this in a place where children live?!"

Ollie didn't respond. "Alright, at least tell me what's this red gas."

"All the gas you see coming from the machine is made right here in the factory. It's called "The Red Smoke". Right now, it's all headed off to the right. WE need to make that Red Smoke go left instead. That's how we can get to him ."

"The Prototype?"

"Yes. The machine will probably have a few dumb safeguards for you to work around, but I think you can do it. I'll call you once it's done."

"Okay, but can you tell me if this Red Smoke is dangerous?"

"It's the most dangerous obstacle you'll face here. If you breathe it, you'll fall asleep, and probably have very bad nightmares."

"Shit..."

"Oh, and by the way, Catnap can breathe the smoke too, so be careful!"

"Great! Just what I needed!"

"See you soon, and good luck!"

And the phone hung up.

"Oookay. Time to find out how this works." Alex walked towards the machine, seeing the screen printing a message about the machine having no power. Alex groaned, seeing how he would have to find something to restore the power to the machine.

He took notice of a door to the left. He looked inside, revealing a big room, similar to the last one, with a huge hatch covering something. He didn't know what this room was, and he was about to go back, before he saw something in the distance.

Another cutout. This time, displaying a purple, anthropomorphic cat with a wide smile.

Catnap.

"I'm gonna regret pressing that button…" Alex groaned, getting closer to the cutout. He pressed the button.

The cutout made some sort of weird sound that kind of sounded like snoring. He pressed the button again, only to be met with a slightly different snoring sound.

It didn't seem like the cutout was going to say anything else, so Alex decided to keep looking for a way to get electricity running to the machine. He saw another battery laying around one side of the room, so he grabbed it and then got back to the main room.

To the right side of the machine, he saw two holes for batteries. One was the regular green one he had already seen before, and the other one was a bigger one, blue in color. Since the battery he had at that moment was green, he guessed it had to fit inside the green hole.

Once the battery was placed, a small door opened, revealing another room. Before entering, he took notice of a big and glowing purple handprint on the ground. He didn't know what that meant, so he headed inside the room.

It wasn't too big, especially compared to the other two rooms. Inside, there was only a VHS player and a capsule with a glass pane hiding something behind it. The glass was too dirty to see what was behind it, but Alex saw the VHS tape nearby and he immediately widened his eyes when he saw what it was.

The tape label read 'GrabPack 2.0 prototype'.

Alex inserted the tape inside the player, and the screen cut to a background similar to the one seen in the first GrabPack training tape, before a GrabPack similar to the one Alex had was shown. The only differences he could make out were the colors of the device being different from his, and that the back part being more bulky.

He also noticed that the hands he had were blue and green, and the ones on the screen were blue and purple.

"This looks promising…"

The tape showed the familiar yellow figure with the GrabPack 2.0 equipped, launching a hand, showing the 'extended wire length' of the thing. The tape then showed an image of the purple hand with the text 'swapping hands is easy!' below.

The purple hand was then lowered until it was out of the frames and then the green hand appeared. "I can have more than two hands?! Woah!" Alex exclaimed.

If that wasn't enough, the tape then cut to showing the back part of the GrabPack. 'The prototype has air jets…'. The scene cut to the yellow figure falling from a tall height before slowly lowering its speed and then touching the ground. '...to break long falls!'.

Everything faded out and a small area with spikes was shown. 'But watch where you land…'.

The figure fell in the spikes, getting impaled. 'Not all ground is safe to touch!'

"I don't think having an area with spikes on the floor is a good idea." Alex commented, taking note of that last warning.

The spikes faded and there was text. 'Thank you. Use the GrabPack 2.0 with care.'

Alex then heard a sound. He looked back and saw that the capsule with the glass was opening, revealing a GrabPack 2.0 behind it.

He immediately took off his current GrabPack, letting out a groan. He hadn't realized how heavy it actually was. Alex decided to sit down and let his back relax for a bit, chugging some water. He should look for a way to fill his bottle soon.

Nonetheless, even if his body wasn't cooperating at all, he got back up and headed for the GrabPack 2.0. He let out another groan as he realized it was even heavier than his current GrabPack.

Alex immediately went to try the hand switching function, and he was amazed to see how the GrabPack alone switched from the purple hand to the green one. He tried again and it did the opposite.

Cool.

He still had a problem, though. Alex still had to find a way to get the electricity running, and there was nothing, as far as he knew.

He exited the room, seeing the purple handprint on the floor again. His eyes widened as he thought of an idea. "What if…"

He looked at the purple hand. It wasn't a simple plastic hand like the green or blue hand. This one had what looked like a small chip with smaller wires going from it to each finger in the hand.

If blue scanners need the blue hand, then a purple handprint…

He shot the hand at the handprint, and the section of the floor suddenly sprung up before lowering back down.

"It's just a jump pad?"

Alex looked upwards. There was a small catwalk where he could land with a door leading somewhere. Maybe that was the way.

Alex took a deep breath and walked on the platform. He readied himself for the jump as he pulled the trigger and he was launched upwards, letting out a yell. He thankfully landed where he wanted without issue.

He stood still for a few seconds before he began laughing. "Whoa, that was actually really cool! An innovation I actually like!"

Alex entered the door and he was met with what looked like an area filled with construction material. The walls were full of deep claw marks, and the floor had a LOT of blood spilled. He also saw a few broken down Bunzo toys.

He hoped the blood wasn't coming from them.

As he made his way down the stairs, Alex found himself in front of another launch pad and a tall wall. Alex didn't have the strength to try and climb it, so he walked onto the launch pad and used the purple hand to jump onto the upper side of the wall.

He saw that the path forward had collapsed, but there was yet another launch pad for him to use. He just barely managed to cross to the other side with the jump.

He sighed. Alex kept moving forward, and gasped when he saw the next part of the room. The floor was filled with some sort of reddish… substance that smelled really strong. He didn't know what that red thing could be, nor how deep it was, so he was really not keen on finding out what would happen if he fell in it.

He, very carefully, launched himself to the platform in front of him. Trying to quickly find a way to get out of that room.

Alex found a hanging platform he could bring closer with his GrabPack, so he did just that, but then he realized it was too high for him to reach.

Looking more thoroughly, he saw a handle that could be used to lower the platform. Alex tried it and found out the platform was another launch pad.

He was about to launch himself to the other side, but Alex realized the gap was too big. He wouldn't make it if he just tried to go for it.

He then saw a pipe coming out from one of the walls that could act as a platform so that Alex could move the launch pad a bit more forward.

He didn't know if that was a good idea, however.

Alex was very reluctant to try that, but he didn't see any other option. With a sigh and a prayer, he walked onto the launch pad and hoped for the best before launching his hand to the handprint and flying upwards.

He just barely managed to keep his balance and not fall onto the red sea (trademark pending), before jumping as high as he could and falling to the other side.

Alex groaned in pain as he looked at his surroundings. He was on the other side, but he saw that he needed the launch pad again to get over a sealed gate.

"I'm starting to regret saying that about these things…"

As he made his way to the other side of the door, he found an electrical puzzle connected to a cable that seemed to go towards the big gas machine.

The only problem was the floor was broken in two and he had to use the purple launch pads to cross.

After a long while of moving poles and failed attempts, Alex managed to connect the circuit using his GrabPack and an electrical sound was heard before a door lifted.

Alex quickly made his way outside that room and breathed deep, finally free of whatever that red gel thing was.

He realized he was back in the main room of the Gas Production Zone, and when he got closer to the control panel of the machine, he saw that the screen now read 'Restart'.

"Okay, so I did something."

He pressed the button with two arrows drawn onto it and heard the screen shut down before smaller screens to the side began switching on displaying various data.

Then, the main screen lit up, showing the Playtime Co. logo shortly before a diagram with three cylinders appeared. The left and middle ones empty, and the right one filled.

He supposed that represented the gas inside the tubes. Alex was amazed to see the gas disappear from the right tube, only to reappear back inside the middle one. The screen went in sync with the actual gas, and it didn't take too long before all of it was in the middle tube.

The moment that happened, however, there was a loud muffled bang before the whole room fell into complete darkness.

"Woah, what the-?!" Alex yelled, taking his flashlight out. If it wasn't for it, he wouldn't be able to take a single step without tripping.

He heard his phone start ringing, immediately picking it up.

"Oh no! Someone killed the power!" Ollie told him.

"Yeah, I can see that! The only thing I can see!"

"Let me check the cameras…" There was a pause before Ollie suddenly gasped. "Oh my…"

"What's wrong, Ollie?"

"The main generator's completely broken up! It looks like someone smashed their whole body against it!"

"But who could be big enough to-?" Alex stopped himself. "Was it Catnap?"

"It looks like it…"

"God damnit! What do we do now? The gas didn't reach the left tube!"

Ollie hummed on the other side of the line. "I got it! I'll send you another key. Use it to get into Home Sweet Home. Then, once you're inside, find the backup generator! It's not strong enough to power the whole machine, but if we add enough of them, we'll restore the power back!"

"Okay. I'll do it. See you soon, Ollie."

Alex hung up the phone. He navigated towards the exit of the Gas Production Zone and barely managed not to hit any walls on his way.

He gasped in shock when he realized that the Playcare's main area was completely shrouded in darkness. Alex couldn't see past his nose without the aid of his flashlight.

"What generator did you screw up?!" Alex shouted, the only response he got being his voice's echo.

Going back down the stairs inside the statue's power room, Alex saw the key hanging from the tube Ollie used last time. He swiftly got it and got out of the power room.

A shiver ran down his spine. He felt as if something was watching him. And considering how big the whole Playcare was, he didn't discard the possibility of that being the case.

He quickened his pace just a little.

Once he was in front of a building that looked like it could be 'Home Sweet Home', Alex walked to the door and tried the key, seeing how it was unlocked without an issue.

Alex entered inside.

Little did he know, there was someone watching his every move. A certain purple furred feline whose color made it easy to hide in the darkness he had caused.

Catnap watched as Alex disappeared from his view, feeling his blood start to boil. How did that… human even dare to set foot inside his own territory?!

And if it wasn't enough, he was also accompanied by that doll. The chief of the rebels, mastermind of heretics.

When he had first heard rumors of an intruder entering inside the factory, he didn't give it too much thought. He had more important matters to attend to, such as making sure everything was okay inside his domain. Plus, he was confident Huggy would take care of the interloper.

And not only did he not take care of him, he had let him go . And if that wasn't enough, Mommy Long Legs herself did the exact same.

It seemed that he was the only remaining follower of his God that hadn't fallen into that human's brain washing.

Oh, how he wanted to slit his throat the moment he saw him unconscious in that train… But he knew better.

He didn't want to simply kill him. No. He could do that right now if he wanted to. He wanted to play with him. Torture him, mentally and physically, and see how all the hope disappeared from his being.

And now, the interloper had entered Home Sweet Home. Catnap knew what he would find there. And he couldn't be more eager to go ahead with his plan…

After all, the game had only just started.

Alex looked around what looked like an old-time house interior. It was similar to the rooms where he found Poppy, but the wallpaper was green instead of yellow. There were many pictures of different children hanging from the walls, some of them worn out and almost impossible to discern who the one framed was.

The stairs he had taken to go down had led him to believe the actual places where children used to live were below the main floor's level, but despite that, there were still windows leading to a fake exterior.

Or they would, if they weren't all covered in metal bars.

"Why does a place where kids live need freaking metal bars?" Alex asked himself.

Whatever the reason, Alex kept walking more and more deeper into the building, coming across hallways and many more pictures, blood splatters, and broken toys.

Alex arrived at the biggest room he'd seen since he entered the building, having two extra floors on top of him. He saw that in the other end of the room, there was a metal door connected to two cables, behind it, what looked like a generator.

Alex had to get inside, but he didn't know how, since the two cables led to shut down doors as well. He noticed a cutout of a toy similar to Mommy, but blue and more man-like. Daddy Long Legs.

He pressed the cutout button but was met with static. Weird. All the Smiling Critter cutouts he had come across had worked. Why didn't this one?

He pushed that question away. He had to find a way to open those doors, but how?

Alex then noticed a hole next to a figure of Baby Long Legs, leading to a basement filled with that red gas, a gas mask hanging from one of the broken planks.

He immediately grabbed it, looking down the hole.

He didn't have another way to go, so Alex let out a sigh before dropping through.

He thankfully landed on his feet before looking around. A typical basement with a big racing car facing a pile of boxes.

Before he could inhale any of the gas, Alex quickly put on the gas mask, finding it hard to breathe inside it. At least he would be safe now. The mask made facing Catnap easier! Now he would only need to worry about his claws… and the fact he was three times taller than him.

Well, something was something, right?

Back on topic, Alex knew what the toy in front of him did. He had to pull a pin on the back of the toy and let go of it so that it would be launched forward.

Alex tried it and was delighted to see how it broke all the boxes, making a path for him to continue. He found a dead end, but looked up to see a handle to latch onto and arrive at a laundry room. One door opened to the room Alex was just in, and a hole in the wall led to what seemed like an office.

An office inside a place where children are housed? Why?

Another question for the list.

There was also another hole that led to a room, he guessed a child's. It was completely disorganized, furniture completely torn apart or in places it shouldn't be. Alex tilted his head slightly before seeing a door that led into a hallway.

One side was blocked off by rubble, leaving only one way to go. Before Alex could move, he saw a figure walking behind the rubble and inside one of the rooms before disappearing. It seemed that whoever that was didn't see him.

He quickly walked away, trying to make as little sound as possible. He found out the other side of the hallway was a dead end, leading to the same big room where he was before. Sighing, he went back and looked for an alternate way.

He found an open door among all the locked ones that were blocked by wooden planks, but Alex could simply crouch beneath the ones blocking that one, leading to yet another kid's room.

The first thing Alex noticed was the big bloody 'HELP' written on the walls, making him shiver. The fact it was inside a children's room made it worse.

He quickly went through another hole in the wall, connecting to another room. This one was in a much worse state, with claw marks and ripped wallpaper all over the walls.

He exited it and found yet another corridor. However, in front of him, there was a room with two holes for batteries, connected to a door with a screen that displayed half of a blinking Sun.

Alex guessed he had to get two of whatever that thing behind the door was to restore power, and thankfully, one of the two batteries was conveniently laying next to one of the holes.

Alex put it inside and then looked around. "Where could this battery be?"

Alex went back to the hallway, into the only open door he could find, seeing it was yet another child's room. This one was as disorganized as all the other rooms, and the walls had a pair of drawings of some creatures Alex didn't know, and the word 'HIDE' written in blood a few times, next to the big 'WATCH OUT!'.

As these indications were nothing new to Alex, he exited the room and tried his luck opening other doors. He found one that was open, and entered it, gasping as he saw what was inside.

Or rather, who.

Kissy Missy was sitting on one of the beds, with a picture of what looked like a little girl. Despite the forced smile that was permanently crossing the toy's face, Alex could feel the deep sadness emanating from her. Judging from all the drawings depicting her inside the room, Alex had a hunch that the girl was someone important to her.

He felt sad for the toy, and was about to say something, before he realized how bad of an idea that was. Yes, she may have helped him back at the Game Station, but maybe she didn't help him , but rather the toys that were with him at that moment.

Whatever, he didn't say a word and left the room without the pink giant ever noticing anything.

That way of the hallway seemed to lead to nothing, so Alex ventured to the other side of it. After a long while of walking around, he managed to find a blue hand scanner, and he immediately shot the hand at it.

To the other side, there was yet another hallway, but only one side wasn't blocked. It led to an office, or at least to a room that looked like one.

He found a TV and a tape player on the table, so he knew what to do. He found the tape hidden somewhere inside the room, and he immediately played it.

The video showed what seemed like a child's face, but his or her expression was… weird. The audio began playing, and it was full of cheers and shouts in the background.

"Ah, and here they all are…" A masculine voice spoke.

"Well of course, they'd never miss this!" Another feminine voice replied.

"Who is it, Ms. Brooks? Who's going away?" That was a child.

"Tell us! Tell us!" Another child.

Huh… 'Go away'? Maybe… Oh, yeah! Maybe a child's getting adopted!

The woman shushed and all the noise in the background stopped. "This week, Dr. White here has selected our very own Samuel Lee!" She said.

Screams filled the room as all the children were happy to hear the news. Selected? What does 'Dr. White selected' mean? Doesn't an adoption happen when a parent comes?

Maybe the guy wanted a kid?

"Now, before he goes, let's all give Sam one last goodbye, shall we?" The woman said again. "With me. 1... 2... 3! "

"Goodbye, Sam! " Everyone yelled.

And the tape ended.

Alex didn't know how to feel about it. He couldn't see the child's face too clearly in the recording, but… he didn't look too happy about being adopted. Why? The others looked ecstatic to hear the news, so why not him?

A feeling was forming in Alex's stomach, and he didn't like it. "I'll just… go back to finding the battery."

And just when Alex was about to turn around, he looked inside one of the cupboards and saw yet another VHS tape. He squirmed.

His curiosity was telling him to get that tape and watch it, but after the last one, he wasn't very sure he wanted to do that.

He finally gave in and grabbed it, putting it inside the player.

"Subject is stable, designated #1322."

Subject. This is a log about a fucking experiment.

"Clear neural abnormalities were detected in his recent check-up. Though highly irregular, we've pulled him from the Home Sweet Home just before lights out to perform-"

And then Alex heard something that caused his heart to skip a beat.

"What are you doing with my friend? "

A child. A child spoke.

"I-! What are you doing out of bed? How did you get in here? " The scientist stuttered.

"Is Kevin sick? Why did you take him away? "

Again. Take him away.

"I-I… " And then the tone of the scientist changed, as if an idea had just formed in his head. " Yes... Kevin is very sick. Very, very sick. But we want to make him better. But he can only get better if we take him to where we can provide proper care, and give him proper rest."

"Will... D-Do you think he will be okay?"

"I should think so. We're good at what we do, son. We paid attention in school, learned, and got our proper rest when we needed it. Just like you need it now, I should think. Come now, let's get you back on to bed."

"O-Okay."

"It's been a pleasure meeting you, Joseph. And I promise you, your friend will be alright."

The scientist's tone then changed again, into something scary. Ominous. " When you see him again, he'll never have been better . "

And the tape ended.

Alex stood for a long while looking at the static on the TV. "What the hell is a child doing in a scientific log? And… Kevin, he said? It looked like the child… knew him..."

And then, a very dark idea started forming in Alex's brain. "Children don't usually become friends with people a lot older than them, do they?"

His head ached and his heart was beating harder than ever, but he still didn't want to believe that idea was even possible.

"Get. The. Battery."

Alex quickly went back to the hallway. He searched long and thoroughly, but didn't find it anywhere. Where could it be?

He then spotted a handle visible thanks to a hole in the ceiling. Seeing how there was nothing else to do, he lifted himself up, arriving in another, bigger and empty room.

He turned around to see something in the wall. This time, it wasn't written with blood. It seemed someone had carved the letters with a knife or other sharp object.

And it seemed recent.

"'Why have you returned?'" Alex read out loud. "Good question, kitty."

He turned around, looking at the invisible, but almost certainly watching, Catnap. "Yes, I know it was you! Who else could do it?"

There was no response, and Alex simply sighed. "I'm going crazy in this place…" He groaned.

Alex looked around the room, not seeing anything too useful at first. He entered an adjacent room full of beds and had the great idea to look down to the ground, and he saw yet another message, most likely written by Catnap. Kissy didn't have claws, and he didn't know of any other toy that could be following him.

The message read 'THE ORIGINAL SAVED ME. I REJOICE IN HIM .'

"The original… That name is familiar. Wasn't that one of the thousand nicknames for the Prototype?" Alex hummed. He had other things to comment, but he was scared to insult the Prototype in front of Catnap. He didn't know why he wasn't chasing him down yet, but he preferred to keep that moment as far from the present as possible.

He resumed his search for the battery, but it didn't take too long. Alex found a big plushie statue of yet another Smiling Critter, the bear, laying on the ground, teared from some spots and spilling all the cotton from its inside out.

Alex saw a battery coming from it, so he grabbed it and dropped down the conveniently placed hole back to the floor where he was before.

He walked back to where the battery holes were and he placed the second battery inside the second hole. There was a sound, and the screen now read '50% power'.

Alex pressed the button below it and heard a door opening. He quickly made his way out of the hallway mess.

And then he realized he was only at 50% of the power to do whatever he needed to do.

He groaned when he saw yet another car like the one he had used in the small basement before, and seeing how moving forward would just lead him back to the main room of Home Sweet Home, he pulled the pin, and watched as the car broke the obstacles blocking his path.

Then Alex saw another bloody message with the same four words he was lately seeing a lot. 'The hour of joy'.

He kept walking forward. I don't know when or what that was, but I wish I was there! If there was really 'joy' there of course.

Which I have a feeling there wasn't.

Alex continued onward, finding himself back on the main room of the building, only this time, he was on the first floor, and the car was hanging from the balcony.

He suddenly heard a child giggle, making him jump. He frantically looked around to find the source of the sound, but he didn't see anything. Must have imagined it…

Jesus, those two tapes have shaken me, haven't they? Why, though? It wasn't worse than when he read Marie's report and found the toys were people, so why?

He shook his head and kept walking around the balcony, searching for the second area to restore the power.

It was then he came across yet another cutout of a Smiling Critter. A pink pig this time.

He pressed the button.

"Hi there! I'm Picky Piggy, let's eat!" It said.

Seemed innocent enough.

"Roast beef? Delicious!"

"Grilled chicken? Down the hatch!"

God, what I wouldn't give to eat either of those… Alex thought, his mouth watering.

"Seared elephant? Yum!"

What.

Alex frowned at the cutout. Elephant? That's a fancy dish.

"Flayed unicorn? Mmmm…"

Alex widened his eyes. Now, that raised the alarms inside his head. Unicorn, elephant… Aren't those the species of two of the Smiling Critters? Wait, and the chicken…

That… doesn't imply what I think it does… right?

Alex pressed the button one last time. " Still hungry… " It groaned. Then, the voice's tone changed into an even more ominous one than the scientist from before. "Hey… What do you say you and I be friends…? "

Alex pushed the cutout before it could even finish, causing it to fall to the ground.

It did imply what I thought it did.

The food situation is THIS worse?! Did she really just… eat her friends?

Alex put both of his hands on his face, massaging his temples. He had to restore power before he ended up going crazy.

He found an open door leading to what seemed like a living room that contained a green outlet and receiver. He quickly put a charge into the receiver and saw a door lifting and letting him enter another adjacent room.

He searched for a way to continue for a long time, and after managing to open the last door, Alex was met with yet another hallway.

He walked forward and looked inside yet another big bedroom, gasping and jumping when he saw two glowing white pupils staring at him from the darkness.

Alex didn't dare move, and only watched as whatever that thing was didn't move either. Finally, he aimed his flashlight at it and found that it was simply another statue depicting the bear from the Smiling Critters.

This one was fully functional, and Alex saw how the statue rotated to keep staring at him. It made him nervous.

He realized that the statue didn't detect him if he walked far enough, and began circling it until he saw a battery slightly peeking from a broken seam.

Alex used his GrabPack and got the battery, causing the statue to immediately stop rotating, and its pupils to stop glowing.

Thank God I did that. I was getting anxious.

After even more walking, Alex finally found the holes for the batteries and the screen with the half Sun. He put the battery he got from the statue in one of the holes, and sighed, seeing how he was close to being done.

He went back to walking around the labyrinthine hallways, and spent a very long time finding a door he hadn't been to. He saw it needed two charges to open, and behind the door laid another car and a Huggy cutout.

He spent even more time figuring out how to open it, before he finally found a way and put two charges in the two receivers, causing the door to open.

Alex walked inside the door before something fell just in front of his face. "Fucking hell!" He yelled to the top of his lungs and closed his eyes, before realizing nothing had happened.

He opened his eyes again and saw that what fell on him was a Catnap plush hanging from its long tail. He looked upwards and saw another toy positioned in such a way that looked like it was watching Alex. A Bubba toy.

Luckily, it seemed they weren't alive nor trying to eat him, but rather it was some prank in bad taste someone had pulled on him.

Alex took a deep and exhausted breath. He was starting to think it was better to get killed by whoever was watching him than withstanding more of the psychological torture he was going through.

Even his oddly strong will was reaching its limit, and the hundreds of beds he had skipped only made it worse.

Regardless, Alex got the hanging plush down on the ground and looked inside the room.

He decided to see what kind of phrases the cutout had to offer. Hopefully nothing too bad.

"A hug a day keeps the monsters away!" Huggy's voice claimed.

"If that were true, no one would be chasing me."

"Two hugs a day is better in every way!"

"Hugging forever, hugs are nonstop."

"I'm gonna hug you until you pop."

On cue, a sudden sound was heard behind Alex, and when he looked back, neither the Catnap nor the Bubba plush were where he last saw them.

Alex was just one more occurrence away from crying.

He pulled the pin in the car and watched as it dashed to the other side of the hallway, breaking a door.

Alex followed the car and found another room, with another bloody writing to greet him. 'HI HI HI HIDE'

It seemed that whoever wrote this tried to write the word 'hide' three times before they actually got it right.

Alex didn't see anything interesting in the room, so he kept walking forward. There was a room full of Red Smoke, and Alex quickly put on his gas mask before going inside. He found a vent from which the Smoke seemed to be coming from, and crawled inside it, arriving at something that made a shiver run across his spine.

It was an observation room with a double mirror that showed the room Alex was just in.

Why do they have THIS next to a child's room?! WHAT'S GOING ON IN THIS GOD FORSAKEN FACTORY?!

Alex let out a bitter chuckle. He saw a small folder on the table that read 'Observation notes'.

He grabbed it and decided he would look at the contents when he finally restored power. He found a door that led to yet another observation room that connected to another child's bedroom, followed by even more rooms like those.

He saw a battery laying on one of the tables, and he quickly grabbed it, quickly backtracking back to the room with the battery holes, right after he casted the area one last look.

He inserted the battery inside the hole and pressed the button, hearing another electrical sound. A nearby cable lit up, and Alex followed it back to the main area of Home Sweet Home.

He saw that the previously shut door to the generator was now fully open, letting Alex enter and scan his blue GrabPack hand in the scanner.

Despite what he originally thought, the scanner didn't restore the power, but instead opened another door, leading him to a garage-like area with more electrical poles.

However, this time, he didn't have any outlets he could use to reroute power, so how would he do it?

Alex noticed a device with a canon and a hand at the end of it. It seemed like he could move it to adjust the direction and when the lever was pulled, the hand shot, the cable charged, and when it was depowered, the hand retracted.

It took Alex at least ten minutes of figuring out how the puzzle worked, and after he did, he managed to have all the poles and turrets aimed at the right positions. He just needed to pull the lever and…

A very loud electrical snap was heard and a door opened halfway, letting Alex enter a narrow brick corridor with an elevator at the end. The walls were mostly full of blood, and he didn't like it one bit.

He wanted to restore power already so he could look at the documents he had brought with him. It seemed he had done just that, since when he got back up, he found out that the lights inside Home Sweet Home were all on.

With a sigh of relief, Alex went back to the main room of the building, ready to sit down and open the folder with the documents.

Just as he was about to do it however, Alex noticed a cutout of Mommy he didn't see before. It made him remember something she had said to him back before he boarded that train.

"You may find some of the answers you want down there, and it's not going to be pleasant."

He remembered that sentence all too well. However, after seeing those two tapes, he had a foreboding of what those answers would be.

He opened the folder, and read the first document's title.

"This is a proposal directed to Dr. Sawyer regarding the subjects for the BBI and other experiments."

So this is a log about who they turned into toys? And BBI? What does that mean?

"According to tests done using the Red Smoke and the reports coming from the Game Station's performance of each participant, here are the proposed candidates to form part of the experiments.

Rowan Green - Huggy Wuggy

Shown to care about those held dear and to possess an above average strength, even when under the influence of the Red Smoke. In addition, the subject is shown to be very obedient. It's a good idea to make the subject as some sort of security measure.

Allison Williams - Kissy Missy

Shown to be kind, sweet and act as a model figure to younger children, as the subject usually follows all rules set to her and doesn't hesitate to reprimand those who don't. No proposed assignment yet."

Jesus fucking christ! They were really serious when doing these experiments, weren't they?! Alex grimly thought.

"Marie Payne - Mommy Long Legs"

Hoo, boy. We're finally going to find the truth about this dilemma. Are you, or are you not Claire's sweet girl?

"It's been observed that the subject cares about all children, even some of the older ones, trying to act as a lead figure of sorts despite her young age. We believe the subject is the best candidate for this specific toy.*"

An asterisk was at the of the line. He didn't know what it meant, but the description he just read didn't clear any doubts from him.

There were only two more papers to read.

"Theodore Grambell - Catnap

Finding a good subject for this toy has been an arduous task, with no perfect match found. However, we believe the subject presented above is the closest match we could find. *

Possible subjects for the rest of the Smiling Critters are still being looked into.

(Tom, do your work and turn these documents into something we can present to Pierre, and fast.)"

Theodore Grambell? Why is that name familiar…?

Alex turned to the last document.

"*If this plan is to be carried out, we must be careful. The worker 'Claire Harper' has a fond relationship with Marie Payne, and her sudden disappearance may cause her to panic, as similar events have already been reported. A plan must be formed before this experiment is carried out.

*Without counting the obvious fact that the subject seems to have some sort of 'alliance' with experiment 1006 and the last incident relating to that, we have to be careful of the child's rowdy nature before we can carry the experiment out.

Final observations.

We must realize that the experiments carried out are very dangerous to perform, and we can't have anyone that's not clued into them find out. We must be careful about other workers finding out too, but also about the children themselves suspecting anything."

…

Children.

Alex began chuckling. A chuckling that soon turned into a maniacal laugh that sounded crazy to an outside observer.

The toys are not just people. They are children. That's why Stella wasn't allowed to talk to the children too much. That's why there were so many weird policies.

That's why the toys at the Game Station knew how to be children.

And those children were perfectly healthy too. They just used children to turn into toys so they could be forced to work for them.

Alex began breathing faster and faster. And then, those toys killed each other, cannibalized each other.

Alex fell down on the ground, the crazed laugh turning into sobs. "They are children…" He said, barely above a whisper. "They are fucking children…"

Alex hadn't worked for a toy factory. He had worked for something else. For a bunch of monsters that only wanted to kill and experiment on children.

That's why no one wanted to tell me.

He stood there in silence for a while. A long while, before…

Alex screamed. He didn't care anymore. If Catnap heard him. If Theodore heard him. If anyone else in this god awful factory had heard him. He was starting to think that the toys had all the reasons in the world to kill him.

And then he went back to crying. He knew he wasn't going to like it. He was warned countless times. But that… It was surreal. The children never got adopted. They were turned into the very toys that Alex had been attacked by.

That's why they needed scientists at a toy factory.

Amidst the downward spiral he was going through, Alex smelt something. It smelt like… burnt poppies and something else.

He realized the room was turning red, and he was starting to feel dizzy. He looked upwards, to the balcony, and saw a familiar grin and white pupils watching him from a distance.

It didn't matter too much, since the Red Smoke was already in his lungs. Before he could even let out one last cry, he began coughing and felt his eyes close, drifting off to sleep.

Into the land of dreams.

Or in this case, to the land of nightmares.