"These clothes are so horrid."
"I think they look good enough."
"Do you seriously think it's a good idea for me to walk around with a bright yellow shirt with this place's logo? I'm trying to make toys listen to me, not give them more reasons to kill me!"
"You're right. Maybe…"
Poppy had been searching for a replacement for Alex's clothes ever since Dogday had fallen asleep. He had refused at first, but he later realized that the more covered his body was, the better (goodbye, favourite shirt).
However, they had been at it for at least twenty minutes, and nothing that fancied Alex's taste could be found. Where were they searching? Surprisingly, there was a small closet inside the room they were in that contained spare clothes just in case the scientists replacing body parts needed it, and seriously, whoever they belonged to had the worst taste in history.
"Maybe try this?" Poppy showed him a wool sweater. "No wait, bad idea, I know." She quickly shook her head, searching again.
"Seriously, can't I just use my current clothes and look for new ones when we're done in Playcare?" Alex sighed exasperatedly.
"You could, but having the chance, it's better if we get you new things to wear." The doll replied, tossing a pair of black sweatpants and a dark grey shirt with a rather corny phrase. "What about these? Dark clothes will help you stay hidden in the darkness."
Alex eyed them up to down before sighing. "They look plain enough. I'll take them."
Muttering a 'finally', Poppy closed the doors of the closet while Alex changed clothes. He had to admit, getting rid of the wet pants was a blessing, and he felt much warmer with a shirt that wasn't full of holes, but he wouldn't admit it out loud. He didn't want to give Poppy that satisfaction.
"Quite comfortable." Alex admitted. "I think they are a size too big, but not like I can choose."
"Alright, let's go back to Kissy and Dogday now." The doll rolled her eyes.
While the two had gone off on their search for clothes, they had left Kissy looking out for Dogday in case he woke up, but they could clearly see that wasn't the case.
In fact, they could hear the dog snoring if they listened closely.
Alex chuckled. "Well, it seems we didn't need to hurry up that much, huh?"
Kissy perked up at their arrival, looking at Alex thoroughly. She finally let out a chirp of what seemed to be satisfaction. "She likes it." Poppy clarified.
"I think I could tell…" Alex replied. "So how's Dogday? Nothing happened, right? No nightmares?" He asked.
Kissy shook her head. "Good. Hopefully he won't have to go through any of those again." Alex sighed. "Though, that's really unlikely, isn't it?"
The room then fell silent while they waited for Dogday to wake up. Not even five minutes passed before Alex sighed. "Man, I regret not bringing a deck of cards with me…"
"Who in their right mind would carry a deck of cards to a supposedly abandoned factory?" The doll chuckled.
"Yeah…" Alex widened his eyes. "Unless…"
Poppy's look turned dead serious as she saw Alex searching his pouch. "Please, tell me you didn't bring a deck of cards to a supposedly abandoned factory."
Alex smirked as he opened a small, secret pocket inside his pouch, taking out just that. "Oh, goodness. He brought a deck of cards to a supposedly abandoned factory…"
"Hey, this is the same bag I take when I go on any long trip, and cards are a must in those cases! I forgot I even had them until you said that!"
The doll shook her head in disbelief. "You are full of surprises, Alex."
"Yeah, that's what some of my coworkers tell me from time to time." The human chuckled. "The new ones, not the boring scientists of this place."
"Well, I'm not going to comment on it. Let's play something, at least!"
"Worry not, my dear porcelain friend." Alex smirked. "For I have something much cooler than simple card games."
—-
"Is this your card?" Alex asked the pink giant, showing her an ace of hearts.
He could almost see the stars in Kissy's eyes as she slowly nodded in awe at Alex's magic trick. "Heh, still got it." He mused, putting the card back in the deck.
"You were right. That was much cooler." Poppy nodded. "How many tricks do you know?"
"Only that one…" Alex rubbed the back of his head. "I started practicing barely two weeks before coming here because of a favor a guy at work asked me. He told me if I could look out for his son in the park while he had to do something else, and he was doing magic tricks. He was actually the one that taught me, and I practiced it at home in my free time."
"I thought you said you didn't have anything other than a job to go back to." Poppy interrupted. "Sounds to me like you have a few friends out there."
"I mean… I wouldn't say we are friends…"
"Someone that trusts you enough to let you alone with their son is not your friend?"
"...Fair enough, I suppose."
Kissy interrupted the two with a sound. Alex looked at Poppy. "What did she say?"
"Kissy says she wants you to do the magic trick again." The doll translated.
"Oh, sure! Just let me-"
"Nathan!"
Alex immediately stopped talking as three heads immediately whipped to look at the source of the sound.
Dogday was breathing heavily as his pupils darted around frantically, rubbing his forehead with both his hands as his fearful expression turned pained. "Owowowow…" He mumbled.
"Dogday!" Both Poppy and Alex exclaimed while Kissy let out an alarmed sound. The three rushed to help the toy straighten himself on the bed.
Once that was done, he opened his eyes to look at them. "Poppy? Kissy? Angel? Ugh, how long have I been out for?"
"Forty something minutes?" Alex guessed. "You feeling alright, bud?"
"My head hurts real bad, and my legs feel sore… which is a sentence I'd never have thought I'd say again." Dogday replied with a small forced smile. "I prefer that to not feeling them at all."
"I meant it as in 'why did you wake up like that?'."
"Oh. It was just… another nightmare. Bad memories, that's all." Dogday replied, forcing a smile.
"I see…" Spoke too soon about him not having nightmares…
"Seems like you healed quite fast." Poppy commented, interrupting them and changing the topic. "Can you stand up, Dogday?"
"I can try…" He seemed more than happy with it.
Moving to the edge of the bed, Dogday took a deep breath to ready himself before he used his hands to push himself up.
Thankfully, Kissy was standing in front of him to catch him, or else he would have gone straight against a wall.
With her help, Dogday managed to stand still on his own, though his legs were shaking a lot.
"Are you sure you don't want to rest a little bit more?" Alex asked.
"It's fine, Angel. I can take a step no proble-"
Alex's fast reflexes made him fire his GrabPack hands at the exact time Dogday lifted his foot to step forward, almost falling again. He caught him and straightened him once again.
"With no problem, alright." The human smirked.
"Maybe try leaning on the wall first so you can get used to it?" Poppy suggested.
The next few minutes were spent on helping Dogday walk and catching him if he fell. After what felt like hours, the dog could finally walk on his own, though running was out of the question, at least for now. They would have to work on that in case they came across Catnap and he wanted his prisoner back.
"Well, let's get out of this closet already!" Alex exclaimed, walking towards the exit.
"This feels surreal. Walking on my own after all this time? It makes me so-" Dogday suddenly perked up and looked behind him. His look suddenly fell. "Oh. That's why I felt weird."
"What's wrong?" Poppy asked.
"Yeah, what's the matter? Don't tell me the stitches are coming loose already!" Alex added.
"No, it's not that." The bigger toy replied.
Kissy looked at where Dogday had glanced before and gasped.
"What's going on here?" The doll asked, annoyed.
"My tail is missing."
Alex and Poppy looked at each other and then at Dogday. "Turn around." Poppy simply told him.
True to his words, they had missed one appendage, and instead of a dog's tail, there was simply a small hole in the fabric of Dogday's coxis.
"You have to be kidding me…" Alex groaned. "How did we miss that?!"
"Dogday, lay on the bed again, please." Poppy sighed.
"Poppy, I can live without my tail-"
"I'm not giving you a choice, Dogday. We said we were fixing you, and that means all of you." The doll cut. "Now lay on the bed with your back upwards. It shouldn't take long."
"Angel, please say something!"
"I'm with her." Alex replied.
"Not that something!"
After a sigh from Dogday, he finally laid back down on the hospital bed, his back facing upwards. Thankfully, Poppy hadn't gotten rid of the thread she had used before. They just needed to find a tail in between the box of spare parts.
Something that turned out to be easier than what Alex thought at first.
After a few more minutes of surgery that would most likely not pass any official inspection, Dogday's tail was attached back to his body.
Surprisingly for Alex, the moment the dog was up on his feet, he was already moving the limb around, as if it hadn't been sewed just mere seconds ago.
If he didn't know better, he would have thought all the toys in the factory were made with magic.
"Is it weird I missed having my tail?" Dogday chuckled. "Something tells me it is."
"And here you didn't want us to give it back to you…" Kissy handed the doll a small leather belt, and gave it to Dogday. "Put this on your stomach. It'll probably help with healing your torso."
Dogday seemed confused, but nonetheless got the belt and did as Poppy told him.
"Man, what is with you guys and leather belts? There's stuff called ornaments for a reason!" Alex laughed.
"I think it looks good on me." Dogday commented.
Poppy rolled her eyes as she put the thread on top of the box with the parts.
"Aren't you going to put that on a safer spot?" The human questioned after he saw the doll.
"Well, we still have six other Smiling Critters to help out, don't we?" Poppy smiled.
She said six… It's clear she doesn't expect me to save Catnap.
Alex mentally shuddered at the thought of telling Poppy (or any of the other two toys, really) he was on a mission to find Catnap to try and talk to him.
He could already imagine her words. "You're crazy! I'm not going to let you do that! You'll just get yourself killed!" Or something like that.
Oh, and Dogday would surely tie him somewhere if it meant he wouldn't look for Catnap.
"Right…" He said after a while. Alex didn't know why, but he had a hunch they would regret not hiding that thread later. "I think it's better if you just leave it somewhere not accessible."
"Why?"
"I don't know. Call it a gut feeling."
Poppy looked around, finding a tall shelf nearby. "Kissy, can you leave this on top of that shelf?"
With a nod, the giant toy grabbed the thread and hid it on the shelf. Poppy looked at Alex. "There. Are you happy now?"
"Yes."
"Come on, let's get out of here."
"I can't wait…" Dogday chuckled. "Walking around Playcare, just like the old times."
"If you ignore the current state of the place, of course." Alex muttered.
The group exited the closet and closed the door behind them, making sure to lock it properly. No sooner had Alex done that, his phone immediately started ringing.
"Hey Ollie! Welcome back." He spoke.
"Alex! You're in big trouble!" Ollie didn't even greet him as his worried tone made Alex recoil in surprise.
"What? What did you find out?"
"While you were focused on helping Dogday, I took the liberty of planning ahead an alternative route to fix the power without the School's generator. But while I was doing that, I saw some of the cameras in the Playhouse, and…" Ollie took a slow breath. "Let's just say Catnap isn't in the mood to play games anymore."
The happiness Alex had left from moments prior was immediately taken away from him as Ollie's words took him back to reality.
Right, he had helped a 'heretic' escape from his 'redemption'. Of course the 'priest' wasn't happy.
"I knew it!" Alex heard Dogday groan.
"Dogday, I'm not repeating the same thing again!" Alex shot back, sighing. "What does that mean, Ollie?"
"It means that next time you see Catnap, he will kill you with no hesitation!"
"Shit…" Alex groaned. "There goes my plan…" He muttered, trying not to be heard.
It didn't work.
"What does that mean?" Poppy told him before she suddenly widened her eyes. "Alex! Don't tell me you were thinking of trying to go and talk with Catnap! "
Alex groaned. Why did I have to say anything…
"Okay. I won't tell you."
Poppy simply stood there, dumbfounded. "I…" The doll tried to say, but the only thing she could muster was a tired and long sigh. "Please, someone grab me because otherwise I'm going to do something we will all regret…"
"Hey, I thought you were on my side!" Alex exclaimed.
"Which side are you on?!" Poppy said.
"What she means, Angel…" Dogday interrupted. "...is that there's no point in trying to talk to Catnap. He will listen to the Prototype, and the Prototype only."
He looked away with a sad look. "There's… no way to save him." It seemed those words had hurt him more than anyone else.
"Yes! Thank you, Dogday!" Poppy shouted, calming herself with another deep breath. "Look, Alex. I don't know how you have saved Huggy, I am still astounded you have spared Mommy, but Catnap is a different thing. He won't hesitate to kill you if it means pleasing him …"
Alex shook his head, looking away. "You don't understand…"
"Understand what exactly , Alex?" Poppy sounded annoyed.
"Please, calm down, you two." Dogday tried to tone down the situation while Kissy just seemed worried.
Alex thought this was a good moment to tell them about Catnap's diary, but his first thought went another way. Before he realized, he whipped his head at the doll.
"Understand that, as far as I know, every single toy I've saved has tried to kill me at least once! All! Even some I hadn't even met yet! Do you want me to tell you what was the first thing Hoppy said to me?! Do you think I don't want to beat Catnap's ass for torturing me with that goddamn red gas?! Yes, of course I want to! But I can't! Because he's just like you all! He's suffered torture too! I get it. I've seen what he's done. But I still think that, at the very least, he deserves a chance! So for the love of God, just let me do my thing!" Alex yelled back, furiously.
Everyone stood silent for a good few minutes, before Alex slowly realized what had just happened.
"I…" He tried to speak, but words simply didn't come out.
He finally sighed. "Listen, I won't go look for him, but if he is the one that finds me, I am going to try and talk. There's something about Catnap none of you know, and I plan to use it to my advantage." He talked.
Alex then looked at Poppy. "Sorry, Poppy. I… am still not fully recovered from the Playhouse."
The doll frowned but let out another sigh too. "I'm sorry too." She apologized. "I just don't want you to kill yourself by trying to save someone that simply doesn't want to be saved."
"Those that most need help don't tend to ask for it. Or did you think Dogday even mentioned getting him out of the cell when we first talked?" Alex smiled weakly. "Sorry again. Really. That wasn't an 'angelic' move on my part."
Poppy looked down in thought.
"Angel…" Dogday interrupted, curiously. "What do you know about Catnap that we don't?"
Alex looked at him, thinking hard. "I'm sorry, Dogday. If I told you, you wouldn't believe me. At least not now."
He looked confused for a second before nodding. "Okay. I trust you, Angel."
Alex followed suit. "I promise I'll tell you all later, but for now…"
Alex raised the phone back to his ear. "Sorry for this, Ollie. You're still here, right?"
"Yup!" He replied.
"Great. So, what was your plan to restore power?" Alex told him.
"Well, it's not the best, but it's the only thing we have! Don't worry though, we're really close to the end." Ollie exclaimed.
"Hey, that's great news!"
"I sent you a new key. You're going to the Counselor's Office. It's really far from ideal... but it should have enough juice. If you can get that generator going and plug it in... I think we'll be done!" The boy explained.
"The Counsellor's Office…" Dogday muttered. "Can't say I've ever been there."
"Me neither." Poppy added.
Kissy nodded with another sound, probably meaning something similar to what they already said.
"Well, I guess I'll be going in blind…" Alex mumbled.
"Sorry to interrupt, but that's not the only thing!" Ollie said. "Poppy, I need you to go back to the dome's control panel to do some fixes in case the generator is not enough! You know what I'm talking about?"
"Fixes?" The doll said, before nodding. "I think I get what you mean. Me and Kissy can do that alright!"
"Okay, then I'll go with Angel to make sure he's alright." Dogday finished.
"I don't know if that's a good idea, Dogday… Your legs are not in good condition. If Catnap finds you both, you likely won't make it out!" Ollie told them.
"It's fine, really. And I know Poppy and Kissy work best as a team. It wouldn't be okay to separate them." Dogday insisted. "I'll be fine."
"I hope you're not doing this because you think you owe me one." Alex spoke.
"Yes and no. I do feel the need to repay you for helping me all this much when you didn't have to, but I also don't want you to go alone into the Counselor's Office if I can help it." He explained.
Alex sighed. "I guess there's no way an 'I can manage on my own' changes your mind?" He laughed.
He really didn't want Dogday to risk it that much by being with him, but what could he do?
"Dogday, I don't think you understand." Ollie suddenly cut. "It's not that I don't think you can't manage on your own. It's that you quite literally can't go with Alex. The hallways of the Counselor's Office are real short in some places, and there's some parts of the path that are broken down. Without a GrabPack, you can't follow after him! Not to mention the place is filled with the Red Smoke and we only have one gas mask."
Dogday flinched at the sheer mention of the smoke, but he looked mostly sad that he couldn't go with Alex. "Darn it…" He muttered.
Alex smiled, looking at him. "It's okay, bud. Don't worry, I'll be fine. Nothing bad will happen to me as long as I have you to come back to!"
"Are you sure , Angel?"
"He's faced near-death experiences before." Poppy told him before smirking. "What's one more, hm?"
"You're not helping with the anxiety factor, here…" Alex rolled his eyes. "Point being, don't worry. Stay with Poppy, and I promise I'll come back and meet up with you at that elevator."
"It seems it's decided now." Ollie spoke, full of determination. "Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for Catnap, Alex. Every shadow and every flickering light is a hiding spot. He always stalks his prey first. He'll take away anything you have to defend yourself, and when you're at your most vulnerable... he'll kill you. Catnap lives for the hunt."
"Okay, what's with you all making going into the Counselor's Office even more dread-inducing?" Alex gulped.
He really didn't like the way Ollie talked about Catnap.
"We'll be going now." Poppy told Alex, climbing onto Kissy. "You be careful Alex. We don't want to lose you."
"I'll be fine! Promise!" He waved as the toys began walking away.
Dogday waved too, but he seemed worried to leave Alex on his own, judging by him looking back constantly and his low hanging tail.
Man, for not being an actual dog, he sure acts like one sometimes…
…
I don't like that.
Shaking those thoughts off his head, he turned his attention towards the statue. "You say you sent me a key to the statue?" Alex asked Ollie.
"Yes! It'll unlock the Counselor's Office so you can enter it." He replied.
"Okay, I'll go for it."
As Alex made his way down the stairs of the statue, there was a pause in which none said anything. After some minutes, Alex grabbed the key before Ollie spoke again. "Hey, by the way... Did you see the shrine?"
"Shrine?" Alex hummed. "You mean the weird and eerie looking toy corpse amalgamate?"
"Exactly!" Ollie replied with a weirdly cheery tone. "Catnap made it for the Prototype!"
"Yeah, kinda figured that one out when I saw him praying to it…" Alex shuddered at the memory of seeing Catnap stand in two legs. He hoped he wouldn't do that when going after him.
"You see, before Catnap turned into... Catnap, I guess there was some pretty serious accident. He almost died but... they say that the Prototype saved his life, giving up his own freedom in the process. But I think you already knew something about it."
Alex stopped dead in his tracks. " That's why he follows him?! Because the Prototype was the one that saved him?"
"Yup!"
If that was the case…
Wait.
Oh no.
Alex pieced everything together. The Prototype hadn't saved Theo because he cared about the boy. He had done it just so he would later see him as a savior. So he could make Catnap think he cared about him. So he could do everything that led to the very moment he was living through right now.
So the Prototype had a loyal puppet that would obey his every command.
It made Alex's blood boil, and what Ollie said next didn't help.
"In Catnap's eyes, the Prototype is a superhero, and has saved this place, so Catnap treats him like a god, killing everyone that opposes him. Us included, if we're not careful."
Alex clenched his fist.
He had already pictured the Prototype as an awful person, but this?! It was just sick and twisted.
Something suitable for a monster.
"For the face you're making, I can tell you are really desperate to speak with Catnap." Ollie sighed from the other end of the line. "That, or go look for the Prototype right now."
"Are you not even a bit, I don't know, angry at what that bastard is doing to him?!" Alex shouted. "He's manipulating him! Making him think he cares about him when he hasn't had the gal to show his face to him in years! I already thought that whatever was in that diary was bad, but added to this, it just makes it ten times worse! This is… ARGH! He tore his friends' limbs apart because Catnap feels he has to be loyal to that… I don't even know what to call that fucker!"
"What diary?"
Out of all I said, that's what you notice?
Alex sighed. "Forget I said anything."
He wanted to kick down those doors and begin shouting Catnap's name until he came to get him so he could then say why the Prototype was lying to him, added to a few colorful words not suitable for any children, but he knew better.
He had to think of a way to make him see the truth without being too direct. If Catnap was that obsessed with the Prototype to the point of thinking he was responsible for him not showing up, it wasn't a good idea to start by insulting his 'god', no matter how much he wanted to.
Plus, Alex wasn't sure how Catnap would react to him reminding him of the moment where he got electrocuted and turned into a toy.
"Speaking of the Prototype…" Ollie thankfully brought him back to reality. "That shrine, did it scare you? If you thought that was terrifying, just wait until you see the real thing."
"I thought the shrine was nauseating. Now I know it was quite an accurate representation of the Prototype…" Alex almost growled, as he arrived at the Counselor's Office entrance.
"Well, whatever you do now, Alex, be careful. I won't be able to talk to you in there, but I'll still see you through the cameras. Good luck!"
"Thank you, Ollie. Good luck to you too."
And the phone call ended.
Alex took a deep breath. He was ready to face this new obstacle and finally restore power. Sooner or later, Catnap was bound to appear before him, and he had to have a plan to talk to convince him that his supposed savior was nothing but a fraud.
Which he could think of while he was restoring the power.
With a deep breath, Alex inserted the key into the lock and opened the relatively small wooden door to enter.
Inside, he was met with a small board where a few drawings made by children were taped. One of them was a drawing of Huggy cartoonishly wriggling his long arms around, another one of Poppy with a few poppy flowers and the word 'shhh' scribbled over it, and lastly, a smaller version of a Catnap plush smiling at the viewer with the text 'BFFFFFFFFS' written next to him.
Alex thought they looked cute.
As he was about to turn around to continue, he saw that a drawing had fallen off the board.
Alex crouched to grab it, finding an empty page. He flipped the paper and saw two stick figures holding hands and smiling, one purple and the other one orange.
Alex felt something inside him break when he saw the bottom corner of the drawing.
'To my best friend, Damian. Hope your new family treats you well. - Theo'
…
Alex wordlessly put the drawing on his pouch, trying not to lose his composture.
So your name is Damian, huh…
Alex debated whether he should show the drawing to Dogday or not. If it was done when Theo thought this 'Damian' had been "adopted" (heavy emphasis on the word), there was a good chance the recipient didn't even know it existed, and Alex didn't want to make him sad by showing him the paper, if he was right about Dogday being this Damian guy.
However, he also knew it was something he had to do, and maybe, he could also show it to Catnap and make things easier.
Or worse. It would all depend on the cat's mood.
And with that (and the Poppy drawing, just so he could make fun of the real Poppy later on), Alex marched onward.
He found himself in a small room with two doors and an open vent, which he couldn't access because it was too high.
One of the doors was closed and connected to a battery hole, Alex guessed he had to find one to open it. The other door seemed like a normal door, except the other side led to a corridor absolutely filled to the brim with the Red Smoke. And next to it, there was a message left by a certain feline.
'YOUR TOOLS WON'T PROTECT YOU'
Not a message. A warning.
Deciding to ignore it and get back to work, Alex readied his gas mask and tried to open the door, but found out it was locked too.
"Huh?" He exclaimed. "How am I supposed to keep going?"
His gaze slowly drifted back to the vent. He couldn't reach it to enter inside, but maybe he could see if there was something inside?
Stepping back, he fired one of his GrabPack hands into the duct, and heard how it latched onto something. He pulled back the hand and found a battery was now there.
Perfect!
Once the battery was inserted, the door automatically opened, leading to another office, completely disorganized. There was another door that required a battery to open, apart from a TV connected to a white VHS player.
"There's no way everyone used batteries to open doors when this place was still up and running." Alex groaned.
He walked behind the desk, finding the tape sitting on the table. As always, he grabbed it and took a moment to look at it before continuing forward.
The tape was labeled '8/8/95 Emergency alert'.
August 8th, 1995…
Alex quickly went and inserted the tape into the player. The TV sprung to life, immediately letting a loud alarm sound fill the room as some text was displayed. After some time, the black background became red, and the alarm stopped.
"The following message is for all Playtime Co. employees." A really distorted voice spoke. "At 11:01 AM, Eastern Standard Time, an unknown hostile force was declared present inside the Playtime Co. facility. Personnel are to begin enacting emergency evacuation protocols immediately."
Alex was confused. Unknown hostile force? Emergency evacuation? On August 8th of 1995?
Is this… the Hour of Joy?
"Leave all personal belongings." The tape continued. "Do not engage with any hostile individuals. If no exit path is available, seek shelter in a hidden location. Use blankets or pillows to cover your body, and remain silent. Do not open any windows. Do not open doors for any individuals. Do not make eye contact with-"
The voice suddenly stopped talking, and all the text disappeared from the screen. Alex thought something had happened with the tape, but then he saw different text appear on the TV.
"Open the doors now. The Hour of Joy has arrived."
And then the TV shut off.
Alex frowned in thought, trying to make sense of the tape. Obviously, whatever the Hour of Joy was had been something huge. Otherwise, there wouldn't be such an alert broadcasted anywhere, and they wouldn't ask everyone to 'evacuate'
However, the exact details of the event and who the 'hostile force' was eluded him, though he had a small hunch. The only thing he knew for sure was that after that event, everyone inside the factory disappeared with no trace.
Once again, he gulped, realizing it could have been him as well, had he called in sick just one day later.
Shaking his head, he shoved the thought aside, and got back to looking for the battery. There was none in the room.
Alex looked back to the first battery and then at the hole in the room. He knew what to do, but if he did, he wouldn't be able to go out that way.
Hoping he wouldn't get stuck there, he used his GrabPack to get the battery from the last hole and then insert it into the other one.
The door opened, and Alex walked forward.
He was in a long and dimly lit hallway with some doors to both of his sides. Surprisingly, the first door he tried to open was unlocked, but the inside was a simple office with nothing interesting, so he walked out of it.
The next door was already open, but blocked by something that made Alex jump in surprise. Wooden spikes, one of them going straight through the head of a Bunzo toy's chest.
Who the hell is brutalizing him this much?
Behind the spikes there was a table covered in a white cloth, which Alex guessed had been the hideout of someone during this 'Hour of Joy'.
The hallway didn't have anything that could be useful, so Alex didn't stop until he came to a turn, finding another battery powered door to his left, and a regular door with a hole on the right. There was also another door with something written in the glass.
'Head of School. Mariah Ashokan'
Alex decided to enter that first, but it was just another office, and there was nothing of use except papers and hanging letters.
With no other thing to do, Alex approached the door next to the hole trying to open it. It was locked.
With a groan, he looked at the other side. A room filled with Red Smoke, difficulting his visibility, but even then, he caught a glimpse of another battery powered door with a battery just sitting there. He couldn't open that door, but if he aimed correctly, he could probably get the battery with his GrabPack.
However, before he did that, there was a sound that snapped his head to the left side of the room.
From within the red mist, something ran to the middle of the room. It was a tiny Bunzo toy, clapping his cymbals as he tried to run from something, but ultimately tripping and falling to the ground face first once he reached the center.
Alex wondered about the strange display and tried to guess who the toy could be running from.
Of course, not even five seconds after the toy had tripped, another, much bigger figure came running from the left, snatching the toy and disappearing somewhere into the smoke.
Alex recoiled back as he saw that figure. It wasn't just any figure. It was Catnap.
He was in the same building as him.
Alex wasn't sure if Catnap had seen him, but if Ollie said he was going to kill him, he doubted he had. Otherwise, he wouldn't be pondering those things at the moment.
Without any delay, he shot his GrabPack hand and got the battery, running back to the door he could access and inserting the battery.
He saw a message on the wall just next to him.
'TURN AND GO HOME'
He resisted the urge to comment on it and just kept moving.
It was another hallway, even darker than the last one, with a simple thing that stood out on the walls. A big bloody 'RUN' written on all the walls.
That place was by far the one with the most eerie atmosphere.
The difference with the last hallway was that all the doors to the sides were either locked or blocked by more spikes with even more toys that were either impaled or in a poodle of blood on the floor.
And the blood wasn't dry.
Along the hallways there were more bloody messages, like 'THE HOUR OF JOY', 'HELP US' and so on.
Another message for him. 'THE PROTOTYPE HAS SAVED US ALL'
Alex scoffed, but didn't stop to ponder about it.
As he approached the end of the hallway, he saw the walls getting increasingly covered in claw marks and blood, and the red light that was illuminating the end wasn't helping with anxiety.
Come on Alex, get it together! You can't fail now!
The hallway ended in a 'HELP' made of blood and a pile of debris. Alex already knew what to do, so his first move was looking up, finding a handle to grapple onto.
Once he was up, he came across a small vent that wasn't even his height in length, but it led to a small broken catwalk with a jump pad and another catwalk on the other side.
All pending over a black and misty void.
Alex gulped and dropped down, getting his purple hand ready.
With a determined sprint, Alex used the jump pad to fly into the air, barely making it to the other side and avoiding a most likely fatal fall.
He sighed and moved forward, finding something that made his mouth open agape.
He was back at the cave he had visited when he escaped the School, but it was definitely a different location, judging by the broken catwalks and the different and complex structures in front of him, some of them barely visible due to the darkness.
Alex jumped down only to find a rocky floor with no exit, as the stalagmites and stalactites blocked any path into the cave.
Sighing, Alex went up again, walking through the catwalks before he stopped in front of a powered down purple jump pad.
Looking forward, he found a platform a good distance away from him with a pole for a circuit, but with nothing to swing on, he couldn't make it across.
He refused to believe it was a dead end. For some reason, there were none inside this factory.
Alex's first thought was to look directly above him, and with a smirk he found just what he wanted. A handle to lift himself with.
"Heh, classic Playtime Co… When in doubt, look up." Alex ironically said, reaching another platform.
He found an electric pole and a receiver, and he now realized the outlet was hanging on the wall.
Trying to figure out the puzzle, Alex launched one hand at the outlet and wrapped the cable in the pole. Immediately, the previously unpowered purple jump pad raised until it was in front of him.
He calculated he could make it across to the other platform if he sprinted. He made it just fine.
Once he landed, he wrapped the other pole and another jump pad lit up. He then realized there was no way he could make it back to the upper platform.
Frowning, he retracted the cable back, and tried to start over from his current position. He aimed one hand at the outlet again and wrapped the cable on the pole.
The jump pad lit up and Alex squinted, trying to see if he would make it to the now lowered platform.
With a deep breath and a dream, Alex ran forward and launched himself up, barely reaching the other jump pad. With a relieved sigh, he once again lifted himself upwards and finished the puzzle.
With an electrical sound, a pair of platforms Alex hadn't noticed before raised, letting him continue forward.
He jumped and moved, not wanting to waste any time, especially when Catnap was somewhere around there, waiting to strike.
At the end of the path there was a door labeled 'Office', and on the other side, a really dark office.
He didn't know what other things he was expecting, really.
The room was filled with desks full of disorganized papers and indistinct grime, added to the dried blood color that filled the walls.
Alex thoroughly investigated the desks and tried to switch on the computers, but nothing worked.
"You're really telling me there is nothing useful?" Alex groaned, making a ball with the paper he had. "Not even anything about any toys?"
With another sigh, he walked towards a door that didn't even open, making Alex huff and turn his head away.
His eyes landed on something that was inside a trashcan. It was a small VHS type barely peeking out from below a ripped piece of paper.
He grabbed both the paper and the tape.
It seemed to be a document, with almost nothing legible, but still, Alex could make out the words '1166' and 'Quinn'.
Well, at least that was something. He left the paper back on the trash can and looked at the tape label. It was apparently a recorded broadcast titled 'Catnap recall'.
He had already seen that. About the nightmares and hallucinations that the Catnap plushies caused the children and what Playtime Co. did to counter it, which was deleting all instances of Catnap plushies from their production lines.
But you couldn't erase the three meter tall one, could you?
Alex wasn't in the mood to watch the cursed Smiling Critters episode that the tape contained before the news broadcast, especially after talking to the real Smiling Critters, so he returned the tape to its rightful place.
With that, his search for an exit resumed.
And he found something else. Another door with colorful letters, labeled 'Stella Greyber, head of Playcare'.
His blood froze.
Stella, the woman that had shared so many meals with Alex and his friends. Her office and all the secrets it contained just a few steps away.
He gulped.
If she was the head of this place, she had to know about the experiments. But… It's Stella. She wouldn't… let this happen.
Would she?
The door opened without any resistance, and Alex found a really spacious office, with its own vending machine and couch.
He walked towards the desk, finding a tape, and a lot of ripped papers.
He didn't even look at them as his hands trembled while he grabbed the tape and walked towards the tape player, inserting the tape labeled 'Hartmann incident'.
She wouldn't do it. She wouldn't do it. She wouldn't do it.
Those words were the only thing bringing him comfort.
The TV sprung to life, as the sound of a door creaking open sounded from within.
"Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Hartmann?" Stella's unmistakable voice spoke. "Come on in! Please, have a seat!"
There were footsteps and sounds of chairs moving.
"How was your ride down? "
"It was... nothing like we were expecting." A masculine voice said. "Mr. Ludwig's speech was… Well, it just confirms for us that you're the orphanage we want to go through."
"It's a truly magical place. I felt right at home from the second I entered. You open the door the first time and you just know, you're never going to leave… Kind of like finding a home as a child, and always thinking of it when you want to feel comforted." Stella laughed before clearing her throat.
"I understand you want to give Jeremy that home."
"Yes, and we would like to adopt." Another feminine voice replied.
"Amazing!" Stella clapped her hands. "He's a really smart boy! I'm sure you'll be perfect for-"
Stella suddenly stopped talking. "Oh…"
"W-what?" The woman worriedly asked.
"Well, it appears there's... been some complications." Stella told her, with a voice uncharacteristic of her.
Tired. Empty. Dead inside.
"Complications?... W-what kind of complications?" The man demanded.
"I-I don't know. Uhm... The form says 'Testing'." Stella replied.
…
Testing.
"She knew…" Alex whispered in disbelief.
"What does that mean!?" The woman shouted. "Tell us, what does that mean!?"
"Ms. Greyber, we deserve a better explanation than that, don't you think!?" The man added.
"You're in charge of all this, how could you not know?!"
"And why are we only finding out about this now?!"
"I-I don't…" Stella stuttered. "I'm sorry."
And the tape ended abruptly.
Alex stared emptily at the TV. He couldn't believe it. Stella, the one he least expected to be in this mess. And yet, she knew, and didn't do anything.
Or maybe… What if she couldn't? I mean, she definitely didn't sound happy.
W-Well, at least I know that some of the children were adopted now…
He tried his hardest to keep his cool, but a few tears appeared in his eyes.
With nothing else to do, he decided to look upwards to make sure he hadn't missed anything. He found a vent cover.
There was no other way to keep walking other than the vent, and so, Alex opened it. What he didn't expect was a key dropping from it.
He picked it and ran away from the office, opening the other door and stumbling into another hallway.
I hate this place so fucking much.
Please, when is it going to be over… I don't want to have anything else revealed to me…
He let out a loud yell when a figure suddenly appeared behind a corner. Alex immediately pointed his flashlight at it and saw that it was just another cutout.
He wasn't sure if that helped, especially considering it was a cutout depicting Craftycorn.
With a gulp, he walked towards it, before stopping to see two messages at the cutout's feet.
'TURN AND GO HOME' and 'YOUR TIME IS RUNNING SHORT'
For once, Alex agreed with Catnap.
He pressed the button of the cutout, seeing what it would say.
"Hmmmm… Everything's been so boring ever since Dogday went away…" The cutout mumbled sadly.
Alex had a hunch that was not a regular dialogue line.
"Oh! H-Hi, I'm CraftyCorn. Can you help me with my painting? Pass me the blue please!"
Alex was so paranoid he actually looked for a blue crayon to give the cutout before he realized he was being stupid.
"Thanks! Now, can you give me some red?"
"More red, please!"
Seems normal for now.
"Out? But we can't be out..." The tone of the cutout didn't sound sad. It was something else.
Paranoid?
"You're hiding more red from me... I know you are!"
The cutout's voice had raised, and if it wasn't made out of cardboard, Alex would have thought it was about to jump at his throat.
Definitely paranoid.
"GIVE IT HERE!" The cutout yelled before a loud and distorted scream was heard, and was that… the sound of something getting sliced?
Alex pressed the button once again, and he heard the sound of… oh god. It sounded like someone choking on their own blood. " Ah! Now that's much better ." Crafty's voice said after, as happy as ever.
Alex was horrified to hear that, but then he remembered Picky's words back at the prison. "Catnap's gas made it lose it completely! And I wasn't the only one… "
Could it have been what happened with Craftycorn? Was that why her hooves were bloodstained?
He shivered, the unpleasant image of the giant unicorn painting something with blood as red paint now permanently on his mind.
I hate these cutouts.
Anyway, the way forward was a set of stairs leading down, so Alex quickly made his way towards yet another hallway full of cabinets and doors, most of which were locked or led to more empty offices.
The end of the hallway was blocked off by debris, so Alex tried looking up and, unsurprisingly, he found a handle.
Once he was up, though, he saw there was no other floor, and instead there was a ventilation duct broken in half.
Groaning as he swung to the only open vent, he squeezed inside, making his way through the duct.
He had been inside vents so much Alex could almost sprint inside them.
Nonetheless, after nearing the end of the path, he caught the smell of something familiar. It smelled something akin to poppy flowers, and the more he sniffed, the dizzier he felt.
That could only mean one thing.
Quickly taking out his gas mask before it was too late, Alex looked down to the drop before him.
The vent lid was closed, but he could still see some Red Smoke seeping through.
He jumped down and used his weight to break down the vent cover, falling into another room, which, as he suspected, was absolutely overflowing with gas.
Watching it more closely, Alex realized the room was the same as the one where he had seen Catnap snatch the Bunzo toy, which immediately made his heart beat faster.
Trying to calm down, he looked around where he was and found a few doors, with one battery hole.
There weren't any batteries inside the room, but when Alex looked behind him, he saw the same hole he had used before to grab the battery, and he could see it still inside one battery hole really far ahead.
He got it with his GrabPack and inserted it where it was needed, but he wasn't sure it did anything.
With a confused hum, he began trying to open doors, finding some that opened, which were offices belonging to some employees, but Alex couldn't read their names properly with the gas mask on.
Like before, the offices didn't contain anything too special, only a green receiver each, which meant that Alex had to find an outlet to power his green hand and… do something.
However, as he exited the third office, he caught a glimpse of another drawing.
He could barely distinguish it, but he could very well see a bed, and a purple human figure sitting on it. Under the bed, there were some grey scribbles and a weird and pointy looking hand coming from that grey area.
On the right corner of the paper there was a name written. 'Theo'.
What is that hand thing? Could that be Theo's imaginary friend? Or… wait, isn't that the same metal claw that was shown in the TVs that talked about the Prototype?
Wait, don't tell me his imaginary friend was…
Alex thought it could be a good idea to take this drawing too.
After a long ten minutes of futile search for the outlet, Alex was beginning to lose his patience. Especially considering he was in a room where he could be attacked rather easily.
He gave another quick look at the walls, and it was this time he saw a weird looking handle coming from somewhere near the battery hole. He used his GrabPack to latch to it and he opened it, revealing the outlet.
Alex didn't face palm right there because he had his gas mask on.
Once that was over, Alex grabbed a charge and ran towards one of the receivers in the office. It took a few tries to get the timing right, but in his third, he finally put a charge on each receiver, causing a door behind him to open.
The next area didn't seem to have any red smoke, so Alex entered through the door and then closed it, taking off the mask and inhaling deeply.
"Ugh, I hate wearing this…" He groaned, looking around.
It seemed to be a huge warehouse-like area with metallic walls and poles for yet another electrical puzzle.
Great… I can't wait for more puzzles…
There was a turret aimed at one pole, seemingly controlling a small elevator, as Alex could see after he powered it down.
Using his long GrabPack cable, he first depowered the turret and ran towards the elevator, jumping inside and then firing a GrabPack hand at the turret's lever, making it fire and raising him up once the receiver was hit.
However, he was met with a grated gate, which didn't let him cross, but he could see the other side. It seemed he would need to find two batteries to fit in the holes.
With that, he depowered the turret again and got back down to the ground.
"Okay, how could I get that to open…?" Alex wondered out loud as he explored the room.
There wasn't much else to see, only poles and what seemed to be a way upwards using purple launch pads, but they were all off.
Since the elevator was useless, he tried to move the poles and see what would happen. After adjusting the lasers and firing the turret, the hand hit another receiver, and the previously deactivated launch pads sprung to life.
With nothing else to try, Alex prepared his purple hand and began making his way upwards.
He hated to admit he fell quite a few times, and that if it wasn't for the GrabPack's air jets, he would have most likely broken a leg by now.
Anyway, once Alex was up, he realized he was on the other side of the gate. He saw a lever next to the door, and after pulling it, it lifted, revealing the elevator shaft.
With a satisfied nod, Alex then noticed what looked like a battery, but encased in a glass box with concrete on its base.
He tried to pick it up, but it was too heavy for him. The GrabPack seemed to be able to drag it just fine, but it too didn't seem to be able to lift it off the ground.
Alex knew that he had to get that battery out of the glass somehow, and after confirming there was no way to open the box, he tried the second best option.
Moving the box next to the platform's edge, Alex gave it a gentle push. A few seconds later, there was a sound of glass shattering.
Alex dropped down and found the battery in between a lot of glass shards. He picked up the battery with his GrabPack and was ready to go forward.
Moving the poles again until the laser aimed at the first receiver, Alex stopped before entering the elevator. He needed two batteries, and he only had one.
He hadn't seen any other battery anywhere else, so he looked around the area to find one.
The only thing he found was a garage door needing a battery, so Alex tried his luck with it as he inserted the battery.
It seemed someone up there really wanted him to keep going, because there was another glass box encasing a battery inside the small closet behind the door.
Alex moved it to the elevator and then got the battery out of the blue door, going upwards.
He inserted one battery and pushed the other one down before once again raising to the platform and inserting the second battery.
But the door didn't open.
Alex cursed under his breath, giving the room a last glance. The cables of the door were connected to the batteries, but there was one more Alex hadn't noticed before. As he followed it, his eyes landed on a third receiver.
"Ugh… I hate these puzzles…" He groaned, firing his GrabPack to try and correct the circuit.
It didn't take long, but it was still tricky to rotate the poles from his position. Nonetheless, after a while, it was done, and Alex fired the turret.
Now, the door began lifting.
There was just a small, white room behind it with an orange machine that was inoperable.
Alex was about to lose it.
Thankfully, before that happened, there was a sound akin to something walking on a vent, and it was coming from just in front of him.
"Pssst! Demon! I mean… Human!"
Alex widened his eyes when hearing that name.
No way that's what I think it is.
Without a second to waste, Alex used whatever was available to reach the vent cover on the wall.
Looking through it, he could see a pair of small white irises looking at him, along with a wide and empty smile.
A mini critter.
"Shit!" Alex immediately exclaimed as he switched to his orange hand.
"Nonononono! Wait!" The plush quickly stammered, sounding scared. "Keep quiet!"
Alex raised his flashlight to get a better look at the mini critter. The light shone brightly on him as the plushie tried his best not to run away from it.
It was the same mini Dogday that had tried to attack him last time.
"What the-?! What are you doing here?" Alex suspiciously exclaimed.
"I came to warn you!" The mini Dogday told him, nervously looking back.
"Warn me? From what?" Alex said before he narrowed his eyes. "Or more importantly, why? You and your friends tried to kill me and Dogday, remember?"
"Hey! For your information, we weren't trying to kill him! We were just going to borrow his body so we could catch you!"
Alex deadpanned. "You are really not helping your case here…"
"It doesn't matter!" The plush interrupted. "Listen, I'm helping you because when I jumped to kill you, you simply just let me go with a warning! So I came here to warn you back!" He explained, as his tail swished slightly.
Alex looked deeper into the vent duct, looking for any other white pupil that could reveal another one of those crazy minis.
Surprisingly, nothing.
"How can I trust you?" Alex asked.
"You seriously think a toy like me would come alone to see you after what you did to protect Dogday if I didn't have a good reason?" Mini Dogday shot back.
Alex frowned at the plushie.
On one hand, he was still furious at them for doing what they did, and he was resisting the urge to open that vent duct and slap the hell out of that plush.
On the other hand, however, the plush looked really worried as he constantly looked back, as if he really shouldn't be where he was. Was it just a well performed act?
With a sigh, Alex gave in. "Fine, spit it out. And it better be good."
Mini Dogday perked up and immediately his stress seemed to go down slightly.
"Okay, great! I just wanted to say that… Catnap knows where you are right now. He knows you'll come out of this vent duct, and he knows what you're looking for." Mini Dogday spoke.
"You're telling me… He's set up a trap?" Alex's face went pale.
"Yes! Exactly!" The toy's ears then flopped down. "And there's no way you can avoid it… There's no other way to go other than where that trap is."
Alex's heart began beating faster. "Shit. Shitshitshitshit!"
He looked away as he tried to come up with something. "What do I do?" He asked the plush.
"I… don't know." Mini Dogday replied. "I don't even know what he's planning to do or what the trap is about. I just wanted to tell you about it so we're even." He added. "I'm sorry."
"Hey, listen." Alex sighed. "Don't be sorry. You've given me really good information right now. Thanks."
The plush definitely didn't expect that from him as Alex saw the faintest of smiles appear in his face. "Catnap was really wrong about you…" He muttered before his ears snapped up and he whipped his head back.
"Human, I have to go!" He spoke. "Be careful! And don't tell anyone about this!"
"You too! And I won't!" Alex told him, seeing as the plush sprinted away from him and somewhere into the vent duct.
…
Well, that was something. Out of any toy that could have helped me, a mini critter was not in my list.
But he didn't think about it too much, mostly because there was something more important to think about.
Oh right. The trap. I guess I know why I didn't see Catnap for so long. He was waiting for the perfect moment.
He gulped.
He couldn't do anything other than open the vent duct and continue forward, hoping he could somehow avoid that trap that apparently had been set up for him.
He didn't know why, but he trusted that mini Dogday. He hated the fact that he trusted him.
This vent was far more cramped than any of the ones Alex had gone through in his time at the factory, but he still managed to slide through it.
Not too long after, Alex could see there was something red in the distance, and without wasting a second, he took his gas mask and put it on again.
The duct only got harder to traverse from there. It was long, and it had quite a lot of turns, all of that added to the smoke and the gas mask making it really hard to see which way he was going.
Alex wished Ollie could guide him forward.
After a long while of crawling, Alex suddenly stopped feeling the duct below him and he fell down through a hatch and into a room.
He groaned as he stood up and looked at where he had fallen from. Thankfully, it hadn't been a long fall, otherwise, he could have risked getting hurt, or worse, his gas mask getting broken.
With a sigh, he observed the room. There were three doors, one connected to a battery hole, another one locked, and the last one open, and of course, the room filled to the brim with the cursed Red Smoke.
Alex was worried about the sheer quantity of gas that was in the room. He couldn't even see past his nose, and yet, it seemed the gas mask did just fine.
Was this the trap set up for him? Did Catnap simply fill his way forward with Red Smoke thinking he'd fall for it?
No, it couldn't be. Catnap wasn't one to overlook something as crucial as Alex having his gas mask on him. The smoke wasn't the trap.
But then, what was it?
With no other things to do, Alex entered through the unlocked door, finding an office that was just as empty as the other ones.
Thankfully, there was a battery on the floor, so Alex immediately went for it and grabbed it with his GrabPack.
He was decided to beat Catnap in his own game. It couldn't be that hard!
Just as he was about to leave the office, however, he noticed a paper laying on the desk.
I swear if it's another drawing I'm ripping it.
Alex went to pick it up, finding it wasn't a drawing, but a sheet of paper with a message written by someone that looked like they hadn't touched a pencil in years.
Alex squinted, trying to see the message through the cloud of Red Smoke in the room. It read…
…
'BEHIND YOU'
A squeal of horror left Alex as his blood froze and his eyes widened. As slow as possible, Alex turned his head to see behind him, expecting the giant purple cat to be breathing just on his neck.
But there was no one there.
Alex frowned in anger. "Oh, real funny!" Alex crushed the paper into a ball, throwing it away. "Is this just going to be like this? Red Smoke and fake notes? Just to intimidate me?!" He shouted, turning and walking out the office.
Then he scoffed. "You'll need more than that to scare someone like-!"
Alex was interrupted when he bumped into something solid. He immediately recoiled back, trying to see what it was.
"Hey, the wall wasn't here before."
He then made the mistake of looking up.
Even from behind the smoke, Alex could see it. Two big and shining white pupils floating above a wide and open mouth still letting out some of the Red Smoke.
Catnap.
Alex then looked at the thing he had just bumped into, finding it wasn't a wall, but one of Catnap's legs.
Alex quite literally stopped breathing as his throat tightened and his gaze involuntarily shifted upwards.
"Scared yet, rat?" The toy spoke with his low and raspy voice.
There was a second of silence as the two stared down at each other.
Then two.
And then three.
And then…
The silence was broken when Alex shrieked in terror, trying to turn around to get inside the office again.
Before he could even react, however, Catnap raised one of his claws and swiped at Alex, ripping through the shirt he had just gotten (SERIOUSLY?!) and part of his face, which the gas mask thankfully protected him from.
However, the force of the impact was enough to send Alex flying back into the office, hitting the desk with his head, stunning Alex and giving the gas mask yet another hit, causing it to sound like broken glass.
Alex didn't have time to think about it, as he immediately turned around to find Catnap banging the door of the office closed, with only his permanently smiling face being able to be seen on the other side.
What…?
Alex didn't know what kind of plan that was.
Then, he began to cough and felt his legs begin shaking.
H-Huh?! What about-?
Alex took off his gas mask and half gasped when he saw its state. One of the filters had been torn away, and the glass in one of the eyes was cracked, along with deep scratches on the fabric of the mask, turning it useless.
Alex understood everything.
The trap wasn't simply killing him by cornering him. Catnap had broken his gas mask and then trapped Alex inside a room full of Red Smoke so he couldn't defend himself while he was murdered.
N-No!
With every little bit of strength he could muster, he ran up towards the door and began tackling it, and punching it, and doing anything he could to get it to open. Alex did the onl thing he could in that situation.
"HELP!" He called for help. "SOMEONE! HELP!"
…
…
But nobody came…
His coughs began to worsen, and the door received one last tackle, as Alex then stood leaning on it, slowly sliding down to the floor as his eyes closed.
"N-No…" He muttered, feeling his body hit the floor. "It… It can't end… like this…"
He tried one last time to force his body to get up, but the Red Smoke had already entered his lungs.
A thud later, and Alex was back on the floor, coughing violently, almost vomiting.
"Po-Poppy… Kissy… Dogday… Everyone…" He mumbled as his eyes started closing on their own. He didn't even have the strength left to shed a tear. "I'm… sorry. I… couldn't keep my promise…"
The last thing Alex heard before he lost consciousness was the sound of the door in front of him creaking open and the same low voice from before talking.
"Sweet dreams, demon."
And then everything went black.
Who knows what horrific thing he'd have to face this time?
…