She holds her breath, her blue eyes scanning the distance for the slightest suspicious movement; in the dark, she has very little chance of escaping against the other toys, which are too numerous for her. Clicking her tongue, she resumes her silent walk through the ventilation ducts.
When the train crashed, she thought her last hour had come...then Andy protected her from the impact by taking her in his arms. When she awoke, she tried to wake him, in vain. Then, listening to the sound of stones being scraped, she knew who was coming. Panicked, she hid, cursing herself for cowardly abandoning the only kind person in this hell. Helpless, she watched the faithful servant grab the human and take her into the waste compactor. At first, she wanted to join him, but Catnap's presence made her abandon the idea.
(...once again...I ran away...once again...forgive me Andy)
~P~
Getting used to being plunged into darkness must be the first sign that his psyche is not well but at this stage Andy Smith doesn't care at all, his limbs tense and ready to run if he sees the slightest killer purple cat, bending down he presses himself against the console while taking the phone to contact Ollie.
"Ollie? Can you hear me?" he whispers, constantly looking from right to left.
"I hear you Andy...I'm sorry I...I didn't see it coming," the little boy apologized in a choked voice.
"It's not your fault, okay?" the human said quickly, licking his now dry lips. "Tell me, is there any way to restore feeding?"
"Yes, but it won't be easy; all the backup generators would have to be connected to the one under the statue to get everything working again."
"Well, at least there's a solution."
"Yes, but it's risky..."
"Don't worry about me, I've been risking my life since I arrived," he assures, straightening up.
"If you say so, I'll send you the key to Home Sweet Home under the statue, good luck!"
Turning on his flashlight, Andy inspected the area in search of the Playcare predator; not seeing him, he got up and started to head towards the center of Playcare to retrieve the key he desired.
(I wasn't exactly discreet, Ollie knows I want to get in but he doesn't know why, anyway I don't know what he's trying to do with that gas...it bothers me to distrust him but it would be stupid to believe everything he tells me without question...well Poppy will tell me if he's really on our side...as soon as I've had a real conversation with her)
Between their meeting, her disappearance, and her evasive answers, Poppy doesn't inspire complete trust in him; he would like not to doubt her because she helped him, but he can't help thinking that she's hiding something from him. In any case, all the toys seem to avoid telling him what happened ten years ago, why they didn't escape from the factory, who controls the place in the shadows, or... what his mother did.
Upon returning to Playcare, he had the unpleasant surprise of discovering the place plunged into darkness. Fortunately, the streetlights and some string lights were still working, allowing him to see Home Sweet Home in the distance, standing like a haunted mansion with all its orange lights strongly reminding him of Halloween and also that children's film announced a few weeks ago, Monster House. Regaining his senses and advancing cautiously in the dark, he retrieved the key from the control room under the statues, a magnificently crafted key and a house-shaped keychain. Clutching the object to his chest, he took a deep breath to calm his nerves. There it was, after hours of surviving in the dark facing toys wanting to kill him, he had finally arrived at the place where Sonia Smith had been ten years ago.
Advancing in a crouched position, he strains his ears, knowing that Catnap cannot be completely silent with his size and sharp claws.
(I don't know what worries me more...Catnap or...what I might find out about you, Mom...)
Having finally arrived at the door, he opens it gently; the creaking doesn't worry him too much. His eyes take in every detail of this corridor that he remembers having crossed so many times before. The only difference is that today he is alone, locking his purple fur behind him to avoid any unpleasant surprises. He slowly descends the stairs, looking with fascination at the interior decoration, which is now outdated. At the same time, Ludwig built it in 1976, so it's normal that thirty years later it's out of fashion.
The wallpaper is peeling here and there, spiders have taken over every dusty corner, the wood has unfortunately aged, which explains the sinister creaking he hears with every step he takes. Then there are the photos of the adopted children that hang on the walls. Andy looks at them, his eyes lost in thought, when he thinks about his children. How many ended up being transformed? The calculation isn't complicated in the end. According to the report found in Ludwig's office, the rat was the 814th experimental subject, and Marie was the 1222nd. That makes about 408 more subjects, but does that only concern the animals, or did they have to start from when they began using children?
The question gives him an indescribable feeling of powerlessness; in absolute terms, he knows that he was just a child and that it is not his fault that the outside world never discovered anything, that the children around him suspected nothing themselves while their friends disappeared from one day to the next only to return in the form of a toy created in a laboratory, yet he feels bad to see their innocent faces immortalized here, running his hands through his hair he pulls them back while breathing deeply, his blue eyes fix on the door in front of him, the last barrier between him and the truth, he grasps it.
...
"Ten years..." he murmured in a stifled voice, a bitter smile playing at the corners of his lips, "...sorry for keeping you waiting..."
Finally turning the handle, he barely had time to blink before he was engulfed by a cloud of red smoke that made him cough violently. Using his t-shirt to protect his nose and mouth, he coughed to expel the gas until his eyes watered. Regaining his senses, he watched the last traces of red smoke fly into an air vent. Coughing one last time, he removed his makeshift protection and looked at his hands, opening and closing them. He frowned and then violently pinched his left forearm.
"Ouch! Okay, I'm not asleep...so it wasn't the smoke from Catnaaaaaa..." he felt dizzy, grabbing himself against a wall, he shook his head and moved into the next room.
Looking around, he was quite surprised to see that the room was in better condition than the corridor he had just left. Moving cautiously, he began to descend the stairs...
...
Then he feels light...too light, his feet lift off the ground, panicked he thrashes with his arms to try to regain contact with the ground but he very quickly finds himself upside down, dazed he stands up trembling on his two legs, he looks around him looking for an explanation for this reversal of gravity.
"Still with your head in the clouds, my angel?"
His whole body froze, his hands placed on his chest to check that his bag was still there, in place. Slowly raising his head, he only had time to see a hint of white disappear behind a wall before he started to chase it, sending his questions about gravity into the distance. Turning left, he stood speechless at the sight of a circular staircase invaded by water... even though it was above his head. Slowly but surely, he pulled himself up... or down, honestly, he wasn't quite sure anymore. Taking a deep breath, he plunged into the staircase.
"Are you still sulking?"
"Okay, fine, I'm the one who counts, but you do it after, okay?!"
"I didn't say that!"
Voices, dozens of voices echo in his mind, cheeks puffed out as he looks around, faint bluish glow illuminating his path but also pieces of broken toy floating around him, Huggy arms, Mommy Long Legs broken in two, Poppy with hair torn out or face broken into a thousand pieces, eyeless Bunzo staring at him, he clings on as best he can to move forward in these nightmarish waters while the voices around him continue to turn.
"Lying is wrong, isn't it?"
"Why can't we go out?"
"I miss Lucas...how could I see him again?"
"YES! Look, I got a toy!"
"And how do you love me?"
"I'd like to go out..."
"Andy...Andy...Andy...Andy...Andy !"
The voices stop when the human finally emerges with a desperate gasp for air, coughing as he slowly catches his breath while shaking his now-damp hair... his eyes widen in horror as he sees himself in a pool of reddened water... half-dead toys floating around him and bleeding, horrified he sits up and tries to remove the blood from his hands but it is so sticky that he only spreads it.
"Good heavens...it's not possible..." he murmured in horror.
Walking in the ankle-deep water, he suppresses his shivers of disgust as he trudges forward despite the pieces touching his leg. The faint glow of the lights shines under the water and illuminates his path, which he follows while trying to understand what is happening to him. Then the thread of his thoughts breaks when he hears a voice humming... a voice far too familiar to be forgotten. His steps lead him to a door, but instead of being made of wood, Andy thinks he is touching skin. Swallowing the bile in the back of his throat, he opens this damned door and regrets it within seconds.
The entire room is plunged into darkness except for a bright white spotlight illuminating a chair like those found at the dentist's office. Lying on it is Poppy, her eyes are vacant, and her half-open mouth shows the absence of teeth because...they were violently torn out. Behind her, the doctor is poking around in the open wound while continuing to hum happily despite the task she is performing. Then her eyes meet those of the only other human present in the room, who feels as if he is in a nightmare.
"Oh hello my angel! Wait, I'm just finishing this up and!"
With a sharp jerk she pulls out what looks like a larynx which she looks at critically before sniffing it and throwing it into the water as if it were not important, her blood-covered fingers fluttering, covering her once immaculate blouse with the vital liquid.
"Well, that's disappointing...I thought I understood...and you Andy? Did you understand?" asks Sonia Smith, who walks slowly around the armchair while throwing Poppy into the water.
The blond boy didn't know what to think anymore. His eyes watched his friend's body sink, and he tried to save her by plunging his hands into the water, but no matter how hard he searched, he found nothing. He pushed his hands so far down that his shoulders ended up in the water. Furious, he stood up and faced that thing! Yes, that thing that dared to use his mother's face!
"That's enough!" he yells, straightening up, anger blazing in his eyes as he spins around. "I know it's you! Can you hear me, Catnap! I know this isn't real, so get out of here and face me, you filthy flea-ridden bastard!"
"Tc tc tc," Sonia said gently, a disappointed expression on her usually beautiful face. The blood covering half of her only made her more frightening as she approached her son, who recoiled. "Come on, darling, why are you getting so upset? Aren't you happy to see me again? After all this time, surely you want to se-"
"Shut up! Shut up, stop talking! You don't exist, all of this doesn't exist!" shouts the human, revealing the teeth of the abomination in front of him.
"Oh really?" she feigned surprise, pressing a finger into her cheek. "So...why?"
He doesn't respond, maintaining his sullen expression while she crosses one arm and waves her index finger around them.
"Why all this?" she asked with a gentle smile. "Andy, if all this is just a dream then...explain it."
His eyes widen, his breath catches, and the walls around him creak; the wood crunches under an invisible pressure as Sonia's teeth become sharper.
"Your dream...it's your doubts, isn't it? You don't know...oh no! You don't know what I've been doing here, huh?! Hahaha!" She burst into laughter, hugging herself as her eyes darkened. "It's true, Andy! Playtime! Poppy! All the toys! Me! You don't know anything at all in the end! And it's eating you up inside."
(Don't listen to him! Don't listen to him! Don't listen to him! It's just a dream! It's just a dream! It's just a dream!)
"But you want to know, don't you?!" she cries, stepping forward as the joints of her arms crack and twist with an infernal sound of bones breaking and being instantly reassembled. "YOU'RE DYING TO KNOW!"
She throws herself at the human who wastes no time in fleeing from the nightmarish image of his mother who began to hunt him down, the lights turn on and off as he passes, he watches half-dead toys stare at him and gurgle complaints about their suffering.
"...I'm broken..."
"Aide beautiful..."
"I'm in pain...help us..."
"Help us...help us!"
The young man's panting breath caught as he felt something touch his shoulder, stumbling he fell forward and crashed against a door which opened under his weight, groaning he straightened up ready to run, then he stared blankly at the flashing place, one second he was in the world of horror with the creature behind him hunting him, the next second he found himself in the small infirmary where his mother worked.
He sat up, supporting his forehead, and gasped as...images flashed in his head.
"Hey, you...you'll feel...better afterwards!"
"Mom, I..."
"Yes, I know that you...promise you understand-"
"Wh-what?!" he grits his teeth, seeing himself as a child sitting on one of his beds with an IV drip in his arm. "Pou-
His question dies on his lips when the creature grabs him and violently slams him to the ground. Andy helplessly watches as this monster with his mother's face brandishes a syringe filled with blood, then for another second the image flashes and he sees his mother holding a vial of blood against her.
"I'm sorry, my angel."
Then the creature planted it-