Alex woke up with a startled yell. He looked around to see where he was, and found out he was still in the room where he had fallen asleep before.
The first thing he noticed was that Catnap didn't hurt him at all, which he didn't know was good or bad.
The second and most important thing he noticed, however, was that his GrabPack was gone.
Did he take it?
He didn't care. He didn't care at all.
Alex ran towards the exit door, trying his best to escape that building that was still filled with the Red Smoke, haunted with the memories of long gone children.
However, he found out that the stairs that were supposed to go up went down instead. The stairwell was very long, and Alex spent at the very least five minutes running down the stairs, seeing various carved messages on the walls like 'IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT', 'YOU CAUSED THIS' and 'ARE YOU PROUD OF YOURSELF?' until he finally arrived at the bottom.
What he saw made him let out a quiet gasp. A seemingly infinite hallway was in front of him, locked doors to each side. This is a dream. This… isn't real.
Alex was on the verge of having a mental breakdown. He didn't know whether that was because of the gas or because of the truth he had just found out a few… however long it had been.
Alex ran across the long path ahead, before he gave up and went back to walking at a normal pace. Children. They are all children. Was all that Alex could think about.
He just couldn't believe it. He really, really hoped this nightmare wouldn't last too long and he could wake up.
I'm a monster. I helped them make this crazy idea possible.
Alex felt himself cry again, but stopped when he unknowingly bumped into a wall. It seemed the infinite hallway wasn't actually infinite. There was a small table with a radio that only let out static, so he didn't pay it too much thought.
Alex was met with two possible ways to go to, left or right. He decided to go right, since there was something in the distance. As he walked, he took notice of the claw marks all over the walls and floor.
When he reached the end of the hallway, he was met with the same table and radio as before. He groaned. Is this going to be it? Walking around in circles until I go crazy?
Before Alex could keep walking, however, the lights flickered and the radio began playing something.
"Tragic news this morning. As of 9:45 AM, local authorities report that the body of a young boy has been found on the estate of the late Elliot Ludwig, an esteemed toy maker and originator of the Playtime Company."
Alex remembered this broadcast. He had listened to it while he was driving to work a long time ago.
"At this time, an identity for the child awaits official confirmation. Found in an upstairs bedroom in a large duffle bag, officers on-scene report that the remains appeared to have been disturbed. Organs as well as key bones from the skeletal structure were reported missing from the body. It's unknown at this time whether this extraction was, in fact, the cause of death."
Alex didn't know what kind of sick pervert would have done that to a child at that moment. Now, however, he knew exactly who had done it, and why.
He decided to keep moving.
Alex looked at both of his sides, and found two identical hallways to continue. He took the left one this time, and saw the familiar table with the radio again .
Before he could even get close to it, the lights suddenly turned off.
"Following recent events, Playtime Co. was asked for any comment regarding the discovery." The radio said. "This is what they had to say, quote:
'It's sickening. Elliot Ludwig was a great man, and those who knew him understood that he was not capable of violence, let alone what others now claim. He had a deep love in his heart for children like this one, making the actions of whoever planted this body all the more sick. We look forward to clearing his good name, both in the public eye and in the eyes of the law.'
STAY TUNED FOR MORE."
Alex flinched at that last sentence. It was more of that same broadcast, and while the last line was indeed in said broadcast, the tone and volume of the speaker was eerie and really ominous, and very distorted too.
As if they were talking to Alex directly.
He walked a bit faster. The more he ventured inside the labyrinthine hallways, the more claw marks he could see on both the walls and floor. And he didn't like it. It's just a dream, Alex. Everything will be alright…
Yeah, as if.
As he once again found himself in front of the same table and radio, Alex suddenly heard a familiar sound coming from the distance.
A phone ringing.
As if his life depended on it, Alex ran through the hallways, following that sound. He found himself inside a pretty small room, with some covered furniture and a few framed photos.
The source of the ringing was a small telephone on a table. Alex picked it up.
"Hello?!" He yelled.
"Alex, YOU NEED TO RUN!" Came Ollie's agitated voice from the other side before he hung up.
"Ollie?! Buddy, are you there?!" He tried to make him reply, before he turned his head around.
From the entrance to the room, a familiar face was looking at him. Catnap's head peeked from one of the sides of the door, glaring at him with that forced smile of his before he disappeared once Alex noticed him .
"Wait, no!" He cried, running after him.
When Alex got out of the room, however, there was nothing there. Alex groaned again. Shit. Come on, Alex! Focus just for this once, damnit! Nothing here is real!
Alex went back to trying to find an exit to the labyrinth he was in, finding yet another radio. It immediately switched on and began broadcasting something.
"Despite Playtime's proclamation of Ludwig's innocence, many believe his reclusive and mysterious nature displayed over the previous decades lends suspicion to this claim." More of the same broadcast as before.
"When questioned, Ludwig's neighbors indicated that he would often return to his home in strange hours of the night, and depart again before sunrise.
Some believed he was sick, others, that
DON'T MOVE. DON'T MOVE AN INCH."
Alex tensed up and quietly gasped when he heard that distorted voice. That was not in the broadcast. He stood still as the broadcast resumed as if nothing happened.
"Playtime Co., it seems, intends to keep Elliot's name within its brand regardless.
What is sure to be a long legal battle will follow ."
The radio cut to static. Alex stood petrified, waiting for something to happen. When he once again remembered he was dreaming he shook his head and now started running through the hallway.
I have to wake up or I'm going to end up crazy.
He didn't care to listen to the weird and impossible to understand broadcast of another radio. He just wanted to get out of there. Of that twisted copy of Home Sweet Home. Of whatever that Red Smoke was making him hallucinate.
Lights flickered, and the claw marks on the floor and walls kept increasing in number. Alex didn't stop running, not until a sudden bang on the door next to him made him flinch and trip, falling to the ground.
Alex winced and tried to get up again, but his body didn't answer. He just laid there for a couple of minutes, trying to stop his thoughts from wandering back to the truth of the building he was in.
Like pigs to a slaughterhouse, the 'orphanage program' was nothing but an excuse to experiment on children. Innocent and orphaned children.
He stood up. The walls were now wooden planks, the wallpaper having disappeared. It was a short, but curved hallway. Alex saw a message on the floor, carved like the rest.
'GUILT HAUNTS YOU'
And it couldn't be more right. There was a small sensible part of his brain that kept telling him that he was innocent. That he didn't know what he was doing. That there was no possible way to know the truth of the company he had worked for.
But he knew it wasn't true. Even if he hadn't realized it, he had still worked for the company. He was still an accomplice of all the toys being brought to life.
He stopped dead in his tracks when he came across the same message on the same spot on the ground after a while. He hadn't even realized he was going in circles.
He groaned, which almost sounded like a whine. He was tired. Tired of everything. Why didn't Catnap just kill him? He should be sleeping on the floor back in the real world, so why was he still in here?
After who knows how long, Alex finally saw the hallways change, turning into yet another almost infinite hallway.
Alex simply sprinted, giving his all until his legs burned from the strain. He was met with an open window that let him see a room on the other side. Alex gasped.
It was his old office.
The desk, the papers, the computer. Everything was exactly as he remembered. But there was one key difference. The blackboard where he has written so many things before had another message carved.
'GUILT HAUNTS YOU'
From the corner of his eye, he noticed something on one side of the room. It was an arm. A human arm. Laying on the ground, not connected to anything. Alex gagged when he realized it was too small to be an adult's arm.
He immediately ran away from there, turning to his right, finding that the hallways were now even more broken down than before. Decaying. He found a radio halfway through.
"Get up." It said.
"Get up." The radio repeated.
Get up from where?
"Get up."
And then static.
Alex didn't know what was happening. Why this was happening. Why did he have to trust that letter?! Ignorance is a bliss, or so they said.
The hallways were now almost falling apart. Wooden planks from the ceiling laying on the ground, the wallpaper falling from the wall, and frames barely hanging from the walls.
Alex saw it in the distance. A room. He entered inside, seeing another office with a TV, and a Huggy cutout. To his left, another message.
'HAPPY AND FUN, WHY WAS IT DONE?'
He looked away, focusing on the TV. The room was a dead end, but the TV had a player with the tape laying on it. Not even wanting to imagine what that tape would contain, Alex inserted it and watched.
He was met with the face of a familiar figure. Huggy smiling to the camera.
"Greetings, Employees, and welcome to your first day here in Playtime!" Alex remembered this tape. His supervisor had played it for him the first time he went to work at the toy factory.
"We're certain that in the days to come you'll find your new family here every bit as loving and supportive as your own. Feel free to wander the halls! Sit in the mess for lunch. Or watch our children play and learn to their little heart's content. Join the Innovationists, where the bounds of science are continuously pushed. Or join the Counselors of Playcare, whose diligence and care for our children will help shape a brighter future, just you see.
Now, every one of you has your part in that future, so should you come back tomorrow feeling unhappy for where you are," The tone suddenly shifted. "or what you've done…" Now it went back to normal. "Worry not, for your supervisor is here and happy to listen!"
Suddenly, Huggy's face inside the screen began to distort. His eyes turned black, and his smile stretched to an impossible degree. The tone of the recording also changed. The cheery voice gave away to a more ominous one, as it kept talking.
"And... should you come back... years later... your conscience finally getting the better of you…"
Uh oh. Alex found out he couldn't avert his gaze from the TV.
"May you descend into the dark and the dust, finding all that awaits you are incomprehensible horrors... each hungry for your return, each eager that they might find you.
Perhaps they'd smile at you from a shadow, their smiling mouths full of teeth and meat and plastic, watching and waiting patiently for their turn at a warm welcome. Or perhaps they won't allow you such time to figure your place in the world you'd left. "
"A world that's theirs now."
"Welcome home."
The moment the TV let out those words, the unsettling and distorted face of Huggy suddenly crawled out of the TV, followed by one of his hands with stretched fingers, and then the second hand, until he came out of the TV fully. His smiling mouth full of sharp teeth were enough to make him even more terrifying.
Alex let out the loudest scream he had ever let out ever since he arrived at the factory and then ran away from the room. If the loud footsteps and roars from behind him were any indication, the nightmarish Huggy was hot behind his heels.
He ran and ran through the infinite hallway, until he was met with a wall. With no way to escape. Alex turned around to look at his impending doom, who simply wrapped his arms around his body and lifted him up.
Huggy opened his mouth, and Alex was shoved inside, feeling every single teeth and fang puncture his skin.
And yet, he didn't scream. Because he knew he deserved it. The last thing he heard was a loud crunch before everything went black.
Alex let out a scream as he suddenly woke up on the floor, his heart hammering inside his chest.
He immediately raised to a sitting position, looking at himself. Nothing. It was all a nightmare, just as he had thought. He still had his GrabPack, and the only difference in the room was that the documents he had read before were now torn to shreds and that all his food and water had been stolen.
However the moment Alex scanned himself and saw he was completely fine, he got on his feet and ran away as fast as possible, unaware of a certain someone watching his every move.
He kicked the doors of Home Sweet Home open and immediately ran outside. He didn't make it too far before something hit him from behind and pinned him to the floor.
Alex couldn't make out exactly what was the thing that attacked him, but its grip kept getting tighter and tighter until Alex was barely able to breathe.
"No, no! Let go! He didn't do anything wrong!" A voice suddenly yelled.
A really familiar voice. "He's actually here to help."
From the corner of his eye, Alex saw Poppy putting herself in between his attacker and him. It turned out the toy was Kissy, who was looking between her and Alex with a confused look before slowly releasing Alex, causing him to gasp for air.
It was then that Alex could actually look at the doll. Her dress was ragged in various places, and her smooth porcelain head had a few cracks, most likely from the train crash.
Poppy sighed as she got down from Alex and let him stand up. "I'm sorry. This place makes her tense... I'm glad that Ollie could help you get this far. He's the reason we found you at all." She explained.
Alex was still stunned from a lot of factors, something that Poppy didn't seem to notice as Kissy helped her get on her shoulders. "Looks like the train crash hurt us both…"
She sighed. "You've been through so much... You deserve an-" She stopped herself when she finally realized the look Alex was giving both her and Kissy. "Alex?"
After a few seconds of him not reacting, Poppy shared a look with Kissy, who just shrugged. "Alex, can you hear us? What happened?"
Alex slowly turned his head at them and muttered the three words he disliked most ever since a few minutes ago. "You are children."
That caused both of them to tense up. " I knew letting him go inside that place was going to be a bad idea… " Poppy groaned under her breath before sighing again. "Do you see why we hid the truth from you now?"
Alex slowly nodded. It was then he felt a sudden urge to cough, and he saw how his breath came out slightly red.
That couldn't be good.
Poppy gasped as she saw that. "Oh no! Did Catnap gas you while you were inside?" She asked him.
"Right after I found out about the truth." Alex plainly stated.
"No wonder you're so shaken… That gas is not something pleasant to go through. I know a few toys that can confirm…" She slightly giggled before her face fell.
"Come on. We know a place where you can recover."
Alex stood stunned for a few more seconds. "Hey." Poppy said. "You'll be okay. Everything will be okay." It wasn't as reassuring as she had thought, but Alex appreciated the intention.
"I wish I could share your optimism." Alex plainly replied, following after them.
How can you even be optimistic after… everything?
Alex shook his head. Yes, he had found a really disturbing truth and had gone through the worst nightmare he had ever gone through, but he knew that he couldn't keep dwelling on it.
He didn't know why Catnap chose to spare him while he was unconscious, but he knew that if he did try to go for him, thinking about the experiments wouldn't let him focus on surviving. It wasn't even letting him focus on walking in the first place!
So Alex simply took a deep breath and tried to calm down, sitting down on the elevator Poppy and Kissy had guided him to.
"Just take a couple of deep breaths. That should boot the remaining gas out of your lungs." Poppy told him as she manipulated some wires.
Her and Kissy didn't take too long to make a light light up on top of the wire box, followed by them getting on the elevator with him. They pressed a button and it slowly started to rise up.
"Listen... I know that you're tired of everything, but I can't just let you leave, even if it was with all of us!" The doll told him. "What's happening down here is bigger than all of us."
"I think I could tell…" Alex bitterly chuckled.
"The point is, I need you alive, so we can get revenge on that monster who's tortured you... Who's tortured us!"
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying none of the toys you've met acted alone. They were disciples of the original: the Prototype. He told them all to try and kill you."
The elevator reached its maximum height, stopping on a platform from which one could see the entirety of the Playcare.
Or they could, if it wasn't completely dark.
Poppy pointed to a big red button on the control pannel. "Do the honors?"
Without even standing up, Alex fired one of his hands at the button, hitting it and bringing the light back to the Playcare. He switched his flashlight off, sighing from the relief of finally being able to see past his nose.
"Elaborate what you were saying a bit more, please." Alex told the doll as she flipped a switch on the elevator, making it go down.
"The Prototype convinced all of the bigger toys that you only came back because you were arrogant, but his plan failed." She explained.
" He knows we're coming by now. You try to escape, be it alone or with a toy, he'll kill you before you ever reach that front door. He's the reason I was trapped in that god awful case for so long. You have no idea the things he's done…"
She then looked dead serious at Alex. "Let me help you kill him . Let me help you save everyone. We've all seen you, how capable you are. You saved Huggy, you saved Mommy, you freed me… You may think otherwise, but you are perfect for this."
Sure. Great. Now I have to kill that bastard. It's not like I don't want to, but…
"I can't do that."
"Wha-"
"Come on, Poppy. Are you seeing me? I'm on my last leg here. I'm hungry, thirsty, exhausted, and bordering on madness. I can barely walk, much less kill a toy that's apparently two times bigger than the biggest one I've seen yet. I can't do it, Poppy. I'm not a hero. I'm not some guardian angel. I'm not some protagonist in a story who always manages to save the day. I don't know how I've survived this far, but my hypothetical plot armor is running out."
The elevator stopped, the ground just a step away, but Alex was still sitting down. Poppy looked at Kissy, and the two nodded to each other. "Wait here." Poppy told him, before the pink giant walked away.
And now you leave me alone. Nice play. God, why won't that cat come kill me already.
After a few minutes where Alex tried his best to fall asleep (failing miserably because of the adrenaline), he heard the familiar footsteps of Kissy coming his way.
He glanced at them and saw them carrying a ceramic cup full of water and what looked like some sort of canned food.
"Here. These are the emergency supplies of the former workers. No one apart from us knows about them." Poppy explained, before Kissy carefully handed him the water cup.
He looked at them with a look of disbelief. "I can't accept this. You need it more than I do, and I have my own supplies."
"Alex, you're shaking from starvation, and we can see your pouch empty." Poppy stated. "I don't need to eat, and Kissy already had her share. Don't make us force you."
With a last look, he reluctantly got the cup and took a small sip, before he gulped the rest of it down. He really needed that.
He used his swiss knife to open the can and found out it was canned peaches in syrup. His mouth watered, and Alex gave one last look at the toys before he dug in for the food.
Once he was done he sighed, and leaned back on the wall. "I really needed that." He sighed.
"Are you feeling better?" Poppy asked, to which he nodded.
"But I still can't win against the Prototype, Poppy."
"Not with that mindset, that's for sure."
She suddenly looked somewhere in the distance, her face turning into one of worry. "Oh no…"
"What's wrong?"
"CatNap is coming, he's the final obstacle the Prototype has placed against us." She said.
"We can't stay here, we have to move!" She then told Alex, more worriedly. "Alex, you need to get away from here."
"What?! To where?"
"I don't know! Just away from this specific spot!"
"But what about you two?"
"We'll be fine, worry about you!"
Kissy flipped the switch on the elevator as it raised up.
"Keep yourself safe! Ollie will call you!" The doll told him.
"Be careful!" He yelled back, running away.
As Alex made his way back to the main part of the Playcare, he heard loud footsteps going to the same place he had just ran away from. He didn't need to look back to know who was the one that caused them.
Alex hid somewhere safe, waiting for Ollie's call as he watched what Catnap was doing.
Catnap picked the empty can from the floor, sniffing it. The human had touched and eaten from it.
He knew the interloper and his so called 'allies' were looking at him right now. He just needed to sniff the area around him to find the exact spot those heretics were hiding behind.
He was really tempted, but his lord wouldn't have liked it if he killed the human like that. He knew he wanted to see him suffer, even if he hadn't told him directly, and so did Catnap for that matter.
That arrogant demon thought that he could just come into his territory and mess around without any repercussions.
Catnap loved the moment that human fell to his Red Smoke. He was unaware of the exact thing he had dreamt of, but the way he ran away from Home Sweet Home was the most amusing thing that had happened to him in a long while.
He left the can on the ground again, turning around. It was time for the daily sermon, and he was not going to miss that.
Maybe his lord would show up this time.
Alex didn't like how Catnap disappeared without even giving a glance in his direction. He knew he had picked that can and sniffed it. He saw it with his own eyes! So why did he choose to ignore him?
What game was that toy playing?
'Rowdy nature', huh? Some things never change, it seems…
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a phone ringing. Ollie was calling him.
"Hey, hey... It's me again." The voice spoke. "Seems like Poppy helped you get a bit better. And she turned on the Dome's backup power!"
"Yeah. Still don't know how she did that." Alex laughed.
"I'm surprised too. Regardless, the plan from here is pretty simple. We need to restore power to the Gas Production Zone."
"Okay. How do I do that?"
"First, go back to the Home Sweet Home building you were just in. You should be able to find a big power cord somewhere around the porch. Grab it and plug it in underneath the statue."
Alex shuddered at the thought of going back to that building, but nodded regardless. "Sure. Hold on a second."
Alex walked to the porch of Home Sweet Home, and saw a small plug connected to a power chord, just as Ollie had said. "This?"
"Yeah!"
Alex grabbed it and began pulling the cable towards the statue, finding it harder and harder as the distance between him and the building grew.
"Ollie, are you sure the cable is long enough?" Alex asked.
"I mean, it wouldn't make sense to install a backup chord that's not long enough to connect anywhere, right?"
"Yeah, good point."
Alex reached the statue and entered the control room, plugging the chord in. The light next to it lit green, signaling that the current was reaching its objective.
"Awesome, look at that! Remember that generator you turned on inside of Home Sweet Home? Well, that was a backup generator for just that building. And every building should have one! Now you've just taken Home Sweet Home's backup power and routed it here." Ollie explained.
"You know quite a lot about this, don't you?"
"Thank you, but now it's not the moment. We're already halfway done!"
"Yeah! I hope we finish soon."
"Hmmm, but where to go next... everywhere is pretty dangerous around here. That Playhouse especially. Yuck!"
"What's wrong with it?"
"That's where children usually went to play. But now? It's where Catnap and his cult of devotees to the Prototype live."
"He has a cult?!" Alex blurted.
Remember when you said 'what's next, a satanic cult?', Alex? Well, better shut your mouth next time.
"That's exactly why you should avoid that place completely, so... your best bet is probably the School. Catnap usually leaves that place alone." Ollie suggested.
"A school? Well, if there's nowhere else to go, I suppose it'll have to do." Alex sighed.
"Okay! Sending you the key now!"
A metallic sound was heard, and Alex saw another key hanging from the same spot as the last one. He grabbed it and put it in his pouch.
"Be careful inside that school, Alex."
"I will be. Thanks for the advice, Ollie."
He hung the phone, sighing. More running around. Alex just wanted to rest for a bit. To sleep naturally without getting gassed by Catnap. Was that something that big to ask?
He shook his head. He had a mission to complete. Alex got out of the control room and walked to what seemed to be the School building.
Alex inserted the key into the lock and heard a sound, signaling the doors were unlocked. Despite that, it seemed like they were not in a very good condition, as the simple task of opening them immediately became a hard thing to do.
Once Alex was inside, he found out the culprit were a lot of debris and some trash laying next to the doors, difficulting their opening. Nonetheless, Alex pushed on.
The hall leading to the inside of the school was full of drawings of the various Playtime Co. mascots, and there were a few models of the solar system hanging from the ceiling.
Something that would have brought a smile to Alex, if he didn't think about why the School was empty in the first place.
As Alex ventured deeper and deeper, he found that he was already inside the building itself. There were open and torn backpacks laying around, and lockers everywhere he looked at, some locked, and some not so much.
He heard his phone start ringing shortly after. "Okay, make this quick. Turn on the generator, leave, and plug the school's power cord into the center." Ollie said, clear worry in his voice.
"What's wrong, Ollie?" Alex asked him.
"It's just… I don't think I can connect to you on that side of the dome. And you won't be alone." He explained.
"What? What do you mean?"
"There's someone else in there too. And they're not your-" The phone suddenly cut to static before the call ended abruptly.
Not alone? Not my what? What did he mean?
Alex took a step forward, another static sound suddenly sounding over all the hallways, making him flinch.
"This is Miss Delight speaking, please excuse the interruption! " A feminine voice talked. It seemed it was the intercom system of the school that 'Miss Delight' was speaking through. " Students, remain in your seats until the bell has rung, and no going in the halls without a hall pass!"
A click was heard, and then silence. Well, that's the other person that's in here with me… Person? Or toy? Why am I even asking that?
Ignoring the strange warning that voice had given him, Alex headed to his left, into a classroom.
It was the typical room you'd find in any school, though a lot more messy and with toy pieces laying around the area. There was not too much to note, so he headed inside the classroom just in front of him, finding it almost the exact same, but with a piano in the middle of it.
He also saw a note hanging from it. At first, Alex thought it was just a black paper, but looking closer, he noticed really faded out letters written.
"Just a few weeks ago now was The Hour of Joy.
Today, there is only silence in this school. I don't think any of us here know what to do with it. The hallways without the children carry even the smallest sounds as if they were shouts. The other teachers and I startle each other constantly. We'll have to get used to it.
Something locked the front door this morning.
We haven't been able to open it."
Okay, so 'The Hour of Joy' is an event. But what exactly is it? And who wrote this? It's written in first person, so I guess it was a teacher. That 'Miss Delight' maybe? But the note says there were others…
Wait, does that mean it's not a fair fight?
Alex shuddered and looked around the room. The only notable thing he could see was a green outlet and some windows, leading to a fake exterior.
Knowing what was truly going on in here makes it ten times worse…
Alex decided to keep advancing.
The way forward was blocked by a grated metal door, which had a green receiver just next to it. Alex knew what to do, but decided to check the rest of the rooms in case there was something interesting.
Long story short, there was only junk and bloody writing in the walls, but nothing useful.
He quickly made his way through the gate, finding two possible ways to go. He decided to go to the left side first.
There was just a classroom, full of various school materials, toys (thankfully from the non alive kind), and faded drawings in the walls.
It, however, contained two important things. Another note and a battery.
Judging by the handwriting, it was written by the same Miss Delight that wrote the first note, and this one had a dried out bloodstain on it.
Alex shuddered and tried to decipher the faded letters.
"I heard a knock at the door today. I heard it breathing. Whatever it was, it wouldn't speak when called out to.
I spent hours after it went silent wondering if this was what locked us in here. I've made a weapon of sorts. Pencils and rulers and tape and twine.
I've taken to calling it "Barb". It's crude. But if that door opens, I need to be ready."
"You can't be serious…" Alex groaned. "On top of having to face a toy, they're gonna have a weapon?!"
He shook his head and grabbed the battery, going for the right side of the hall.
He found a door leading to a room full of computers, though none worked. Surprisingly, there was another note laying in there.
"No food for days. The others argued with me over what was left.
They started glaring. Judging.
They blocked the kitchen doorway with their bodies.
I think they've singled me out to die first."
Alex resisted the urge to sigh. Trapped and hungry, knowing that your sisters have agreed on letting you be the first one to die so they can eat you later.
This is getting darker by the second.
Alex left the room and headed for yet another door, leading to a hallway blocked by tables, chairs and other furniture, with barely some room for Alex to crawl under.
He decided not to do that, however, and check another room to his right. He found another outlet with two battery holes needed to activate it, and a second battery just behind a metal fence.
Alex inserted the battery he had in one of the holes, and tried shaking the fence to see if something would happen, to no avail.
He did manage to see an open vent on the ceiling, so he guessed there had to be a way to get in that area.
Finding no other way to keep going, he went back to the pile of furniture, only for the lights to switch off for a few seconds, in which Alex saw something walking in the distance.
When the lights went back on, there was no trace of the figure anymore.
Did I imagine it? I don't think it was fake…
Whatever it was, Alex had to be as silent as he could so he wouldn't get caught.
There wasn't anything else on the other side, just a big room with a receiver connected to another door and some lockers. There was a room to Alex's right, but something caught his attention.
In between the lockers, there was a yellow VHS tape. When Alex went to pick it up, he saw that the label had been torn off, so he didn't have a clue about what the tape would be about.
There wasn't a player anywhere nearby, not even in the other room, so Alex saved it for later.
Inside the other room's ceiling, however, there was an open vent with a handle he could latch onto, which would hopefully lead him towards that closed off battery.
Before he could try it, however, the speakers began functioning again.
"Wait, I recognize you…" Miss Delight spoke again. "Yes! I remember! You used to work here! How are you…" There was a long pause, where the teacher was apparently trying to find the right words. "...alive?"
"I wish I could tell you…" Alex said, groaning.
He didn't even know the answer himself. That train crash should have killed him, and even if it didn't, the fall to the trash compactor should have.
Yet, there he stood, bandage on his head.
"Hm?" Delight suddenly spoke . "Barb?"
Barb? Who's-
Alex remembered the note.
Wait, she's not talking to that weapon, is she?
"Oh... Barb says you're looking for your co-workers."
Damn right she is.
Wait-!
"Yes! Do you know where they are?" Alex didn't know why he even asked that. No toy had told him, even after they had realized he wasn't trying to hurt them.
Delight hummed. " Who knows~? "
Alex flinched at the tone. It definitely didn't sound… sane.
"Barb and I have heard about your 'promises' about the outside." She said. "Catnap wouldn't like that you're here! You should leave… For your own safety!"
"Uh…" Alex was taken aback by that last part. "Thanks for the warning?"
Alex had a hunch the danger didn't lie in just Catnap finding out where he was.
The speakers let out a sound of static, signaling that Miss Delight was no longer behind the microphone. The words had shaken him slightly, but he still had to keep going.
She's heard about me saying I'd get them all out of here? I don't think I've said that to anyone here yet…
How does everyone find out about stuff that fast?
Nonetheless, Miss Delight still counted as a toy, so she was still in the 'busting out' list.
Alex obviously ignored the warning and went straight for the handle in the vent, propelling himself upwards and inside a very narrow passage.
He crawled until he saw a hole he could drop into, finding himself on the other side of the fence, next to the battery.
He used one of his GrabPack hands to hold it and reentered the vent, another hole visible that let him fall just in the room with the outlet.
Alex sighed, immediately inserting the battery, seeing electricity appearing in the outlet.
Knowing where exactly that charge went, Alex fired his green hand and quickly crouched under the pile of furniture, arriving at the gate and opening with a simple press of the trigger.
The room seemed to be some sort of mini cinema, as there were a bunch of chairs all facing a TV, which had a yellow player next to it.
Alex took out the VHS and inserted it, eager to find out what it contained.
"Where are the kids?" The feminine speaker began. It sounded a lot like the Miss Delight he had been talking with before.
"Please, where are the children? Are they... in the same place as the employees?" She sounded desperate.
"No." Delight almost… groaned? He didn't know what that sound was. Was she trying to mimic another voice?
"Are the children safe?" She asked again.
"Yes."
Delight sighed with relief. "Can I see them?"
"No."
There was a long pause, where only the TV static could be heard. "And that was it. That's all he'd tell me." Delight spoke.
He? Okay, so she is mimicking someone's voice… Whose though? Who could have that kind of growly voice?
…
Could it be Catnap? I haven't heard him talk yet, but he's the most likely to have that voice.
But wasn't he crazy? Insane? The number one worshiper of the Prototype? Why would he be trying to protect the children? And why from Delight?
His question was quickly answered as a slight giggle sounded from the TV.
"Probably because he knew I'd kill 'em all."
That phrase was followed by the craziest sounding laugh Alex had heard in this factory. Not even Mommy's could be compared. If hers sounded crazy, Delight sounded outright insane.
Alex just stood there, frozen, gaze empty as the tape ended.
"Where the hell has Ollie sent me to…" He asked, mostly to himself.
He didn't want to come across Miss Delight before, but now he wanted to bolt out of that school and try his luck at that Playhouse.
He didn't know what he preferred, a crazy cat able to breath gas that would send him to sleep, or a crazy teacher with a weapon made of pencils, yarn and a ruler.
He supposed that ten years trapped in an abandoned factory would turn anyone insane.
Exiting the TV room, he found himself in another small hallway, with a battery hole connected to another door.
He really didn't know how a school was supposed to be running on that many batteries and GrabPack only puzzles, but whatever.
The other side of the hallway was blocked by more furniture, but this time, there was no room for him to move or cross it all, so Alex tried entering more classrooms.
He stopped dead in his tracks when the first thing he saw inside was a Bunzo toy hanging from a rope on the ceiling.
Hanging , as in, hung . From the neck.
What the absolute…?
He realized there was another note hanging from the corpse, so he used his GrabPack to get it, shivering when the toy began swinging.
Thank god the actual Bunzo is not here to see this…
The note was as illegible as before, and Alex's eyes were starting to hurt from all the squinting.
"The pit in me howls for FOOD.
I CAN'T THINK about anything other than how HUNGRY I AM.
HARDLY HAVE THE STRENGTH NOW TO PICK MYSELF OFF THE FLOOR. Barb speaks to me though. SHE GIVES ME STRENGTH.
I've found that if I stand still, COMPLETELY STILL, everyone thinks I'm DEAD. BARB says I need to EAT, AND THAT THE OTHER TEACHERS would never see me coming.
ANYTHING TO STOP THE HOWLING. "
Alex winced. I mean, if her sisters didn't let her eat, this was bound to happen, but what happened then?
Alex kept walking, finding another door with another receiver on it, in front of it, a door, with an outlet visible on the other side.
However, even if he tried, Alex couldn't open the door.
There's gotta be another way…
Alex returned to the other room, seeing another vent he could use. He lifted himself up, once again ready to crawl through the passage.
Once he reached the end of the vent, he saw a hole in the way, but just before he continued, he caught a glimpse of the same figure from before walking around below him.
He instantly froze, and waited at least two minutes before continuing.
Once he reached the end and dropped down to the floor, he winced as pain flared from his legs. All that falling was causing him to hurt.
Before he could dwell on it too much, the speakers suddenly let out a sound again.
"Not a good listener, are you?" Delight spoke. "You're a lot like the other humans in that way… I wonder if your screams will sound like theirs too!"
Alex shivered.
"I look forward to finding out."
"Yeah, can't wait to meet you either…" Alex rolled his eyes.
He took the opportunity to ask something before Delight went away.
"Do you mind if I ask you why this school needs so many batteries to get doors open? I mean, I'm no engineer, but it can't be practical, can it?"
Delight stood silent for a while before she let out a giggle. "Good question! That's a golden star for you for managing to make me unable to answer a question!"
God, she's truly gone insane.
"Yay? Does that mean that when we inevitably come across each other, you'll make it just a bit easier for me?" Alex asked with the most polite tone he could muster.
Delight didn't reply, instead letting out that crazed laughter, just like in the tape, before the speakers turned off.
I'm gonna take that as 'I'm making it harder just because you asked that'.
Alex grabbed a charge and exited the room from the previously locked door, raising the gate and entering another wide room.
This one had another cutout, this time of who Alex guessed was Miss Delight. The drawing wore blonde hair with a red dotted dress, and an unnaturally wide smile.
Alex had a hunch the real Miss Delight wasn't going to be like that at all.
He pressed the cutout button to see what it had to offer.
"Hello, students! Find my sisters and I to learn facts across a variety of subjects. Press my button to hear some facts on anatomy!"
"I don't know what else I was expecting from a cutout of a teacher." Alex sighed.
" Did you know that there are sixty thousand miles of blood vessels in the human body? For comparison, the Earth around the equator is almost twenty-five thousand miles! "
"Huh. I'd forgotten about that little fact."
"The smallest bone in your body is the stapes in your ear. Still, damage it, and you risk losing your hearing!"
"Want to learn more about human organs? Pay close attention in class!"
"I'm in my thirties, cutout." Alex chuckled, leaving it alone.
He began looking around the room, finding only old computers. He also found yet another note.
"I'M SO SORRY.
I HAD TO EAT.
I HAD TO SURVIVE.
I ATE THEM.
I HAD TO
I HAD TO
I HAD TO
I HAD TO "
Alex frowned, horrified. "So that's why she's alone…"
The fact he remembered all of those Miss Delights were children only made it worse.
When I find that Prototype, I'm going to show him what's good. Forcing children to cannibalize each other is very fucked up.
He entered an adjacent room and gasped when seeing what was inside. The generator.
It seemed he wouldn't need to find that battery after all.
Alex saw a pair of outlets and a pole, and he immediately got to work to restart the generator.
Wrapping the cable of his GrabPack and then firing one of the hands at the second outlet, he flinched when the lights turned off.
"Meh. Nothing I can't fix with my fla-"
The moment Alex switched his flashlight on and aimed it at the generator, he found out he wasn't alone anymore.
From who knows where, Delight had appeared and was standing in front of the generator, holding 'Barb'.
When he realized what she planned to do, it was too late. Delight smashed the whole thing a few times, breaking it into pieces and causing a battery to fly out of it.
Silence filled the room as the lights turned on and the teacher simply stood there, looking at the destruction she had caused.
As silently as he could, Alex grabbed the battery from the ground, and gave a few steps back.
Delight's head immediately whipped towards him.
Alex recoiled when seeing her face. The lower part of her head was completely broken, revealing the flesh and teeth underneath, and her hair was completely unkept and knotted.
The weapon she carried also had some red stains on it, and he didn't like to think about where they had come from.
"Umm… May I leave the classroom?" Alex asked, barely above a whisper.
Delight lunged at him.