Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

If you were to ask Erica afterwards how it started, she would say it wasn’t really with the VHS tape but more like when she lost her job. Not through any fault of her own, mind you, more like the company had shut the factory down out of nowhere a month before she received the tape.

A tape that started off normal, a commercial for the company’s most famous toy (a little red-haired doll named Poppy who could speak) and an advertisement for factory tours before an image of a painted poppy flower appeared and the tape ended. There was a note that came with it, saying that everyone thought the staff had just disappeared but there was more to it, encouraging her to ‘FIND THE FLOWER’ and essentially the truth along with it, and she was quick to spot a blood splatter in the corner of the note.

Erica was reluctant to return to her old place of employment, not just because that tape was sketchy as shit but because Kylie had only just disappeared a couple of days ago, leaving behind letters of apologies and how she "just knows Ike is alive" and "won't stop until I get my brother back", leaving the brother she had left and her mom similar notes too but it felt like her friends were suffering more, especially Kendra who she claimed to love but still left.

Okay, she knew she wasn't being fair but she couldn't imagine doing that to Stacy, which was why she almost burned the mysterious note and smashed up the tape, look into who might have sent this, check the packaging for a return address or one underneath hers, written over or crossed out…

Nothing. There was absolutely nothing to show who had sent this to her, nothing but the Playtime Co. logo on the envelope and that damn message both on the tape and letter about secrets back in the factory, about whatever happened that caused almost every last employee to go missing and leave the place shut down.

That was how Erica left a shorter note of her own, the contents of the envelope, and drove off into the night to uncover things she used to be perfectly fine with leaving unknown, shrouded in mystery, all thanks to this fucking letter and whoever the fuck had sent it.

…

It still looked the same. Familiar, unsettling since it was quiet for once, and the last time she'd seen it had been when she walked out and didn't plan on coming back. One of her old coworkers, one of the few who wasn't here that day when the others vanished, warned her about the factory and the company itself. "It's not safe here, okay? I can't say anything or they'll sue me, the bastards, but please listen and get out while you can."

After a hysterical customer had freaked out on her over…whatever, despite Erica saying she just worked in the gift shop and didn't have any access to the lower levels but it escalated, to the point said coworker stepped in then got fired. Good timing because she was certain that woman was going to hit her.

Anyway, the lights had either turned on when she came in or they were already on, despite this place being shut down for two months? Maybe longer? Definitely a few months had passed, she knew that much, and she found herself heading towards the gift shop, hearing the familiar chug of the train that circled the ceiling. Just give her that ugly yellow uniform and it would be just like the old days, except back then the place wasn't trashed with ripped open empty boxes, shelves knocked over and…

Was that blood? She didn't want to know, backing right out and back to the reception desk, where a green VHS tape was sitting by a matching player. One of the lower level workers would prepare it before everyone left at the end of the day, supposed to be a diversion to trespassers if they were smart (or bored) enough to play it, and she found herself slotting it in, out of curiosity.

"Hi, I'm Leith Pierre," a voice spoke, "and I'm the head of innovation here at the Playtime Co. toy factory."

There were many names that Erica had heard in her time here, he was one that she had no face to match with, like a lot of others. "If you're seeing this, then you're trespassing. Yeah, we play this little tape on loop whenever we close the factory for the day. So, trespasser, just to make you aware…while we pride ourselves primarily on our high-quality toys and excellent childcare-"

What? What did he mean by that?

"-we also pride ourselves on our security. For example, this facility is full of hidden motion triggers which, once set off, will turn on the factory's emergency alarms and directly contact the authorities. And…that's one of the more tame aspects of our security system. No spoilers!"

Oh, joy.

"So, you've got my warning. It's not too late to turn around…I just hope that you're certain whatever you're doing is worth it."

It definitely was now. What the hell did he mean by childcare? As long as she'd worked there, no one ever came in with children, but…hadn't that crazy lady been screaming at her about taking her child away, something like that? A child she never even came in with? Any part of Erica that had been telling her to leave and just keep this place as a distant memory was now saying the opposite, to dig deeper, to find the flower and hopefully with it, some answers.

Now, she was setting her sights on the security office, on the multi-colored pad which she already knew how to solve, a perk of befriending a lower level who then got randomly assigned to work up with her in the shop and between rambles about whatever he'd seen down there, he explained how the train that chugged along its tracks every day right above her head also held the security code.

And sure enough, when she pressed red, yellow, pink, blue, green, the doors opened. With shut off security monitors on the right but a mysterious glass cabinet and object in the middle alongside another VHS, it was obvious what she went to, right? The tape explained how the gadget was called a 'Grabpack', to be used only on small objects and boxes, never on other employees along with a graphic visual of how it could seriously hurt people and could also rewire power, the cabinet opening once the tape was done.

Erica slipped the device on, finding it only had one of its two hands for the time-being, but she found it easy to use and now it was time to go further into the factory, jumping over the turnstile past reception and using the Grabpack to open the door, walking into a much larger room with a 'Welcome to Playtime' sign over a large Huggy Wuggy statue, one of the most popular toys in the factory.

There was no turning back now, it had only just begun.

Chapter Text

Around the statue were a lot of different doors; some needing powered by the Grabpack, the cafeteria, a power room, a testing room and an innovation room. In front of it was a display of information and a button that when pushed, played the song from the commercials about Huggy, which she hated. Large windows on the ceiling showed how dark it was outside, since it was the middle of the night and everything, with the only light coming from the ones above the statue, somehow making it look even more intimidating.

Erica tried to open the only door she could, the only one not locked with a key but by the hand of her gadget, only for the power to cut out. A jangle sound came from behind and she turned to see the key being held by Huggy, a key that was definitely not there before. When she swiped it out of his hand, she half expected him to come to life but that was…that was crazy.

The power room was dimly lit, essentially a maze, a poster in the middle of the room with a list of rules alongside a drawing of Huggy's pink female companion, Kissy Missy. Some she thought were reasonable, like being kind to others, don't misuse company time or tamper with machinery, but the 'Don't stay past 8PM' one was raising a few alarm bells for her before she moved on to where the power source sat, carefully rewiring it with the Grabpack as the tape had instructed, trying not to think too hard about the fact this might kill her if she does it wrong, wielding a device that can hold thousands of volts of electricity.

But she did it and within moments the rest of the lights had flickered on, so she could go and open the other door now and-

The statue was missing. Just an empty space left behind along with the blocks that made up his name, empty toy boxes with blood splattered on them that she was really trying to not notice and now the fucking statue was gone, but maybe…maybe this was just part of the security stuff, right? A large thing like that suddenly vanishing would absolutely throw her off robbing a place so there had to be some kind of trapdoor or whatever, just activated by the power coming back on, she wasn't worried.

Or at least she wasn't for about fifty seconds, when she opened that unnamed door with the Grabpack in time to see a blue arm slink around the corner further down. The thing is…one of the only things she let herself take with her on this trip was a small weapon, a knife that she could stash on her person in case shit got real and it seemed like that was becoming a bigger possibility the longer she was here so with that in mind, she had it in her hand as she followed.

Past the door was a hallway and another door at the end, a Huggy in construction gear above it but inside was darkness, boxes and just nothing relevant aside from another tape player and no tape to go with it. Up the stairs was a power grid with a battery, below was a conveyor belt and a door that when opened, put her back where she started, finding another battery nearby along with the missing orange tape.

It contained a conversation between two workers, Avery and Rich, criticising the company and something about orphanage junk? Seemed to be part of a program but her suspicions were growing because what did a toy factory have to do with that and orphans? The place just kept getting weirder but she pushed on, finding the rest of the batteries and slotting them into the grid, activating a claw mechanic that sped down to the end of the belt and picked up something at the end before bringing it over where she could reach.

Another Grabpack hand, the red one she needed to open the door back there and here too, despite the Do Not Enter sign. Erica climbed into the vent, crawling through, sliding down and using both GP hands to open the next door even if she wondered…if these were both marked with a Do Not Enter warning, then why was there a power source here to begin with? Either way, the conveyor belt carried her up along with a few dozen doll parts before arriving at the Make A Friend station.

She couldn't leave without handing over a toy, hence the machine, but it needed power first, leading her to climb up the stairs at the back and finding another tape player before anything else, pink now. It had an interview for a woman named Stella, reminding Erica of her own interview at the factory, but she didn't go off the rails talking about death and growing older like this woman did, so no wonder the tape ended there.

The power source and poles were further ahead, along with a platform that had to be moved a few times to get it done, all while she hoped the red on the walls was rust and not more blood before the machine was powered up and ready. Three different stations whirring away as the parts rolled down the belt to them, the whole process able to be seen before the completed toy stopped at the end of it due to the vent's door being closed.

At the main door, the toy was scanned and accepted, letting her walk out into the dark hallway and-

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT!"

Face to face with the very much alive, the very much real, Huggy Wuggy. His mouth opened to show his razor sharp teeth as he advanced on her, alarms blaring as she ran back into the room and upon seeing that vent door open, ran inside there. The danger wasn't in the vent, it was fucking right behind her.

And then it was in with her, in another section but it would find her, and her mind was racing just as badly as her heart because what the fuck was this? How was this real? How was it alive and bloodthirsty? What the actual fuck had this company been doing? Don't say this was why that tape got sent to her, so they could make her disappear too. Fuck, is that what happened to everyone? Why there's blood? Shit.

She just kept running, just kept going, especially when she could hear the thuds as it gained on her, she was determined not to die, not like this. Random turns and corners brought her to another one of those goddamn doors that opened right before it grabbed her and she kept going, even as the walls had crayon scribbles on them saying the complete opposite but whatever was waiting couldn't be worse than literal fucking death!

The belt spat her out onto a walkway and above the opening, a massive box that the GP pulled down on Huggy as he got out, falling over the edge and onto a pipe then down, down, down until she couldn't see him anymore but he was gone. She jumped down to the second walkway below and spotted patches of blood where he'd landed on the pipes, so was…was he actually alive then? Like a living, breathing, fucking full of blood thing? How the hell had they done that?

But it didn't matter, because she turned around and saw it, the flower from the original tape, further along the path and standing out through the darkness. On her way, she found yet another tape sitting there, a black one, which was somehow already unsettling but did not compare to what was on it. In the background was banging and screaming, as someone made a final log on something called the Prototype. A mention of other experiments like it, and how it went missing after whatever was going on, further details of science before the tape abruptly ended, something clearly happening to that man.

Erica could see toys hanging in front of the poppy door, warnings around it saying to stop, go back, but she pushed it open anyway. She wanted answers now more than ever, seeing a hallway ahead that was unlike the usual ones, instead decorated like it was part of a house with wallpaper and lamps and wooden floors, all leading down to where music was playing, a longer hall ending with a small area, cushions scattered and a dollhouse in the corner, a door behind a wardrobe she couldn't budge.

The final, shorter hallway, the end bathed in red lighting. She opened the glass doors as the music finished to reveal a large bedroom, a glass case sitting in the middle of…

"Poppy."

The doll from the commercial that came with the tape. Was this what the mysterious sender had wanted her to find? It must have been. She reached out with the GP, took hold of the handle and pulled it open. The doll's eyes blinked awake.

"You opened my case," she spoke.

Chapter Text

She told Erica to follow her back through, but the girl must have zoned out for a minute because the doll seemed to be long gone by the time she finally moved. There was just a lot to take in, okay? All the cryptic weird shit on the tapes, the fact Huggy had come alive and tried to kill her, never mind Poppy being alive too and for some reason under much tighter security, but why?

Fuck, the questions just kept coming, she was giving herself a headache. Back down the hall in that small area again, she saw the wardrobe had somehow been knocked right over to the opposite end, leaving the door fully accessible while the normal way out was blocked off, so only one way forward from here. Through it was the type of hallway she'd gotten used to, painted with random colors and characters, full concrete top to bottom.

"This way," whispered a voice as she trekked down, leading her to a door with the name 'Elliot Ludwig' above it, which felt familiar but she couldn't remember why. The two other paths were either locked with a cage gate or an open entrance, so obviously she picked that one.

"Keep going," Poppy encouraged, from wherever she was. Erica used the GP to swing over a gap in the floor and found a smaller boarded up entrance, a cardboard cut-out of Huggy and another door blocked by barrels that shifted easily when she pushed them. A key with a poppy on it was inside, the only thing of note, and she headed back to that door with it, trying to ignore the blood splatters.

She got the door open and stepped in to find an office, a desk in the middle with a tape on it, an open vent on one wall and a larger, closed one on another. Drawings on the walls of Huggy, Kissy, all sorts of characters, obviously drawn by kids, and when she picked up the tape there was a piece of paper about Experiment 814 but it just talked about a poppy and a rat. And considering how poppies seemed to be a massive deal around here, she wasn't too surprised about this but what did it all mean?

Maybe the tape had something. It began with a picture of the factory, explaining how it started because of a man named Elliot Ludwig whose focus was bringing "amazing toys to amazing children" around the globe, detailing how he worked overtime in the factory to "continuously innovate and surprise" before explaining how in the 1960s, a death in the family pushed him to his lowest but he relented. Somewhere after that time, all of this started but the tape ended before it gave a specific year other than 19-something.

Erica wasn't getting any answers so far, just more questions. She pulled open the larger vent and climbed inside, ignoring both the deja-vu and the faint feeling of hunger mixed with dread before making it out unharmed and unchased. She yelped as a box suddenly fell over, only to be relieved to see it was just Poppy.

"Oops!" the doll spoke. "Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. I was just…trying to get the power back on, here."

She stepped aside to show the source and Erica made quick work of fixing it. "Um…I also wanted to thank you for freeing me. I was stuck in there for so long…thank you. I'd like to pay you back; there's a train station nearby, it just needs a code."

The brunette could see a bigger vent and headed over as Poppy went back through hers. "A train station? Here? You're kidding."

"Nope! Just get on up here and I'll show you, then we'll get it working. I can follow you through the vents, don't worry about me. Come on!"

Back through Ludwig's office and to the other entrance she could now unlock, while pointedly ignoring the toy at the side with a large blood puddle underneath. A much bigger gap in the floor was behind it but she managed to swing up over, pushing the door open at the end to find Poppy standing by a another hole, a locked entrance beyond it for Game Station along with Production and a couple others she couldn't make out.

"Listen," the doll said as she turned around, "I'm gonna need you to trust me-"

Then she was the one screaming as a hand suddenly reached up and grabbed her, leaving Erica scrambling back away from it as Poppy disappeared, screams fading into the distance. So, there were other things here worse than Huggy…fucking great. It was a really long looking arm that grabbed her, another thing that looked familiar. Elliot's name she could now recognise, having seen that tape when she was first looking into a position here, but why was there so much she couldn't remember?

Whatever…there was still only one way to go from here, and she jumped down into the hole.

It was a long and dark journey before rings of blue light surrounded her, right before she fell out a tunnel in front of the Game Station entrance. She'd came out of one of three tunnels, the other two for Leith Pierre and Stella Greyber, which was hopefully (no offence) not the Stella whose interview tape she'd found. A fourth tunnel was hidden in darkness, the name unreadable, so she set her sights instead on getting the gate open.

The power rooms were only getting trickier but she did it. revealing a hallway where at the end was another GP activated door for the red hand in particular. Just as she reached it up to get scanned, another hand grabbed it from above.

"A new playmate!" a voice cried, and Erica screamed as she looked up to see a spider-like pink thing climbing down on the walls. "It's been so long…isn't this exciting, Poppy?"

Her long arm reached out to show the doll in her grip. "'Very exciting, Mommy!' Mommy heard that Miss Poppy was going to just GIVE YOU the train code to escape! Now how is that fun?"

As she spoke, she twisted and turned herself upside down, and suddenly the brunette could remember this toy's full name was Mommy Long Legs, and for a reason. Instead, why don't we make a game out of it? The Game Station is still working…it will be just like old times! 'And if you win all three games, I'll give you the train code!'"

She gasped as if she wasn't the one speaking the whole time. "Mommy loves that idea, Poppy! Oh, you're going to have so much fun! Head to Musical Memory and Mommy will get it started!"

Then, she leaned in real close. "Obey the rules…or I'll tear you apart, and eat your insides while you're still alive!"

With a laugh, she retreated into the darkness with both Poppy, and the Grabpack hand.

Erica knew she hated spiders for a reason.

Chapter Text

Game Station's door did open, at least, and Erica stepped in to find a much larger door with a lever, a mural painted on the wall of all Playtime's best known characters, including Poppy and Mommy, while the other wall had…

Children, so many children, all in what had to be the area she was about to step in, and another dead, bloody toy underneath it. She didn't want to look at any of it anymore and pulled the lever to reveal what was essentially a massive playground on first glance, with bright colours and drawings and sure enough, a train in the middle of it all. The control panel had a blinking red light that went green when she pulled it, and a woman started speaking.

"Hi, kids! Welcome to the Game Station! I'm Stella and we've got three super duper fun games for you to play! These little tests will show us just how cool, crazy strong and smart you are! Follow Mommy Long Legs down the stairs and we'll start by playing Musical Memory! See you in a bit!"

Huh…so looked like Stella somehow did get the job. But as much as Erica could understand how Elliot might want to have an area for kids since he was so freaking passionate about them, why was it so far down here? Could have been for workers with kids since most, if not all, worked in lower levels but there couldn't be that many to fulfill this purpose, right? It didn't make sense, and her mind went back to that comment about an orphanage.

Would it have been in character for Ludwig to have one? Yes, but as far as she knew, that never got to happen. Whatever Rich was talking about, he must have been mistaken, he had to be, and she set off again, the section for Musical Memory lighting up as the stairs were revealed, a blood-covered room below. The door to the side was locked and the entrance wasn't open but a hole in the wall got her through to a different area, shrouded in darkness.

She turned the lights on and it was revealed to be the Molding Room, with more of these strange machines and a control panel for the different features with another tape sitting on top, the player at the side. It was a guideline for the green GP hand, which could hold an electric charge for ten seconds and power similar systems for the same amount of time, so be careful of injury. "God, they don't need to be so graphic with it…"

It was an easy enough process, including when the machine needed fixed or another button needed pressed, even when it ran out of paint so the lights in the back switched on and the spare paint was automatically sent over to put in. Once the hand was finished and equipped, she was able to use it to open the exit door and leave, finally making it to Musical Memory.

A platform, multiple screens and buttons surrounding it…this shouldn't feel familiar if she had never been here before. "Welcome to Musical Memory! This advanced memory and cognitive recognition test is designed to stimulate several segments of the brain, allowing us to see how quickly and efficiently your brain works. A sequence of colours will be shown and you must recreate this exact sequence using the buttons around you."

She shuddered at the next image of a bunny and almost screamed again when she looked up and saw him. "Bunzo will be slowly lowered towards you. When you complete a colour pattern correctly, Bunzo will rise back up. When you input a pattern incorrectly, Bunzo will lower towards you faster. If Bunzo reaches you, your test is over."

And in Erica's case, her life would be over, literally. "The test will become more difficult as it continues with longer patterns in quicker succession. That's all…good luck!"

"Oh, fuck this shit."

"Isn't it amazing?" a familiar voice purred from a room nearby. "Mommy hasn't seen the place up and running in so long! Mommy can only imagine how excited Bunzo must be! It's been such a long time since he's been able to play…to cheer…to eat…"

The symbols in his hands crashed together and the brunette did scream now when she saw he was just inches away from her. "Oh! That's the dinner bell! Good luck!"

…

It was hell, to put it lightly. That constant fucking noise only getting louder as it went on, five fucking rounds of colours and symbols and moving buttons, all with Bunzo looming over her and she was half tempted to stick her knife in his goddamn face but then it all crashed and she managed to shut it off.

"Oh," Mommy was disappointed, "it broke. That's no fun…for doing such a splendid job, Mommy has decided to give you PART of the code for the train. Look up."

In Bunzo's place was her arm, and a piece of paper. "Take it."

Erica did, stashing it, as the villain went on. "Mommy was hoping the game could last a little longer…it's okay, though. Mommy knows other ways to play with you…"

On that ominous note, she crawled out of sight. A platform appeared for the exit only to collapse when stepped on and once again, the brunette was forced to take the vent. She ended up in a store room with damaged toys or rejected items. Some of the shelves had fallen over but it was mostly managable to get around, she even found a cyan coloured tape in the mess next to a Mommy Long Legs toy which she kicked over.

The tape made it sound like Rich had done something similar, apparently having pitched an idea for a new toy, definitely one of these rejected ones, and got demoted as a result. Close to the player was a lift into a small tunnel but it wouldn't work due to a massive dinosaur statue on top that exceeded the weight, leading to Erica pulling the claw on the ceiling over and figuring out it needed power.

She was through in no time, then solving a puzzle to open a well-hidden door in the resulting tunnels, walking until she found a stairway and opening the door to find she was back at the Game Station entrance. The second lever at the control panel was pulled upon its insistence and Stella started up again, as expected.

"Woah! You did fantastic! Who gave you permission to be this smart? Mommy is super proud of you, but I'm sure she's already told you that herself."

'I wish…'

"Our next game is Wack-A-Wuggy! Head downstairs and have fun!"

It was a sand-filled, hole-filled nightmare and it hadn't even started yet, that was just what she felt like it would be. There was even a GP storage room on the way here so had they just expected kids to borrow one of these and just cross their fingers they don't get hurt? The tape started playing before she could think about it anymore.

"Welcome to Wack-A-Wuggy! This advanced test is designed to test the extent of your reactionary abilities. A dual-palm Grabpack will be provided to you for this test. Around you are eighteen sizable holes, and an adorable Huggy Wuggy toy could appear out of any of these holes."

So exactly what she thought, a fucking nightmare. "If one comes out, hit it with your Grabpack. That's all, good luck."

She didn't like this, especially with what could only be blood across one of the walls, top to fucking bottom. What happened here?

"The toys in this game used to have strings attached," Mommy explained from the observatory room above, "so they could be pulled back when they got too close to the children. Hm…have fun."

…

Never mind Bunzo and his stupid symbols, that was worse. The lights dimming, the sound of them getting closer, the way they all knew how much those things would love to tear her apart, it was awful. She could have collapsed with relief into the sand when the lights finally turned back on and they all retreated.

Obviously someone wasn't happy. "Oh…you did it…hooray! Mommy is so…proud of you! Here, Mommy has another hint for you."

Another part of the code, slipped in underneath a door before she shut it again. "Only one game left to play…hmm, sad. Mommy was hoping you'd stay here forever…though, it's never too late to change your mind."

As fucking if. The door opened at last and she bolted before those little monsters might come back, the hallway bringing her to a colourful set of stairs that were unfortunately broken, but a bar at the top could be reached by her GP and she pulled herself up. From there, another boring hall and after that, a track. An actual honest to God track going through a different area but no train or cart or anything with it, further paths blocked off by gates and-

And the stupid fucking lever to open it was on the other side because of course it was. Then the door in that part opened and for a few horrifying seconds, she thought Huggy was back from the dead, or one of those puppets that tried to maul her face off back in that room, but Kissy Missy stepped forward instead.

She titled her head, then looked at the lever and tried to pull it, tried again, the gate opened and she just turned and left. Erica called after her, a simple quiet 'thank you' that made her turn around very briefly, before she kept going. The brunette found the cart soon after, a cutesy little thing named Barry, pulling him along the track when she could create a path.

A blue tape was on the ground right next to the player, and she gasped when a familiar face appeared on the screen. Marcus, the loudmouthed Irish fellow she'd had the pleasure of working with after his abrupt transfer to the gift shop before he was fired following the incident with that woman, the one who warned Erica about this place and urged her to leave too.

Leith seemed to be interviewing him on a separate incident since it was dated around right before, about how he forgot his wallet in the cafeteria when leaving for the day and then saw a mop handle lodged in the Innovation wing door, but it moved on its own when he reached for it before he got the fright of his life seeing some fifty-foot thing with a thousand legs. Leith basically said it was just his imagination then asked if he'd told anyone else about it, which he hadn't, suggested security could skim the cameras and told him to get out.

Then called him back in to remind him that "we make toys, not monsters" and maybe he should just "help out the new girl in the gift shop" for a while. A reminder that Marcus was on a thin line here, keep his mouth shut and his head down, now he was dismissed. Obviously Erica had no idea about the real reason for his transfer until this moment but she knew Leith Pierre was in on this shit.

She kept Barry moving along the track, then sent him hurtling down into the wooden planks that had been blocking her way forward. He rolled off into the darkness while she ended up back in the Wack-A-Wuggy hallway, getting back up to the Game Station and pulling the final lever.

"Geez!" came Stella's voice. "Have you played these before?"

She was starting to feel like she might have, but that didn't make any sense.

"You're so good! Seems like you're ready for the final game: Statues! Follow Mommy down the stairs one last time, I hope you had a fun day at the Game Station! See you next time!"

Hopefully not. The door ended up malfunctioning so she had to pull it open herself and almost immediately wished she hadn't because that hallway was painted with who she could now remember was PJ Pug-a-Pillar, who must have been what Marcus saw, a mix between a dog and a caterpillar but despite being a dog person, Erica always hated it. She thought the colour choice was good and that was the only positive thing she had to say about it.

She had to open the door to this area herself and upon hearing the sound of those hundreds of feet, she wanted to run away already. Even when the tape started playing, she coud still hear it, it made her feel sick, finally pushing away that hunger feeling.

"Welcome to Statues! This advanced obstacle course is designed to test your physical endurance and strength. The rules are simple: the lights will turn off, you can move through the obstacle course at this time. However, when the lights turn on, you can look around but cannot move, you may move again when the lights go out. The lovable PJ Pug-a-Pillar…"

He was crawling out of the darkness now and she hated it, she hated his stupid fucking face and how close he was getting already, the game hadn't even fucking started, she hated this.

"-reaches you, your test is over. That's all, good luck."

She backed as far away as possible from him, right up against the gate that once opened, she'd be bolting through.

"It was always so sad to see the kids go," Mommy admitted. "They called me Mommy because I was the cloest thing they ever had to one."

Further confirming the orphans thing like Rich had said, but…but they wouldn't have actually…no way, right?

"But they come for games…and never come back. They left Mommy to die alone, Mommy didn't deserve that. But you…you worked here."

And wow, did Erica not like that she knew that, not one bit.

"So if anyone deserves to die alone…it's you."

The lights went out and the gate swung open, and she ran like fucking hell.

…

She cut the game short, grabbing a pipe at the side and crashing through a window into another office where she found not only a way out, but a fucking assessment form with blood on it, a few more along with it. That thing was still crawling around when she dropped through the floor, into an underground tunnel system.

"Where did you go?" Mommy wondered. "The game is over! You WON! Come back and Mommy will give you the code! Pinky promise!"

Yeah, like she was falling for that. The music and crawling noises finally stopped as she swung across the chasm into the next tunnel, then pulled herself out.

"Mommy knows the game was real hard, but Mommy has just decided you've won! So come back! Mommy doesn't like cheaters!"

She kept moving.

"The rules are so simple! You die, Mommy gets to watch!"

Wow, she switched up fast, huh?

"COME BACK TO ME!"

The yelling continued as Erica pulled herself up again, having to climb into a vent once more and knowing she would be harder to find if she kept moving. If she had to, she could probably just use the knife and cut off all her limbs one by one or something, just an idea.

She ended up in the Water Treatment section which had a door leading to Bay 2, another back to Game Station and another which needed a toy to open. At the control panel was a transfer request for Mommy but underneath that name was 'Subject: Marie Payne' and Erica cursed, loud and long. Because that confirmed some of what she'd been starting to fear, that they were experimenting on people, on children, with these bullshit tests disguised as games and the assessments?

The tape also found in the area was an interview with the company's chief marketing officer Jimmy Roth, talking about how he makes it look easy but it really isn't, and how that's what Playtime Co. should be known for rather than toys. He might not know what was actually going on within the company but whatever, she didn't trust him either way.

Back at the control panel, she just had to turn the top and bottom levels until she had a path to get to Bay 2 and once that was done, she was off. As long as it wasn't the Game Station where Mommy would be waiting, she just had to keep moving and find another way around. In the middle of conveyor belts carrying stupid little Bunzo plushies was a lift that she used until she managed to grab one. She changed the levels above the water again to create another clear path and shoved the shitty thing into the scanner.

From there, it was back into the vents before ending up in another weird room with trippy power puzzles and another tape in the middle of it all, but she managed to both get out and find the player for it too. It was an announcement from management clearly trying to cover up the fact that Mommy Long Legs exists, trying to reassure workers there was nothing to worry about and they'd send specialists to look around the place.

Clearly, that supposedly non-existent spider had made life hellish not just for Erica, but for all of them too and maybe they deserved it for what they were doing to children. She moved on, managing to open a gate in another area but the vent broke when she tried crawling through and she ended up somewhere else.

"Fuck my life…"

At least at the end of here, there was another handle to pull herself-

"AAAAAHHHHHH!"

But the spider had found her. "I ASKED YOU TO PLAY FAIR! AND YOU CHEATED! I HATE CHEATERS! Now…we're going to play one…last…GAME!"

Her eyes went black as she readied herself. "It's called…hide…and…SEEK!"

The doors opened behind Erica, who hadn't realised she'd backed right into them.

"Ten…nine…eight…"

She turned and ran, oh did she fucking run.

"Seven…six…five…four…"

Don't stop running, do not stop fucking running.

"Three…two…"

Don't.

"One…"

Chapter Text

If this job wasn't already over, Erica would be quitting the second she could, the second she wasn't running for her goddamn life. She just kept moving, going through the dark and the tunnels and between the pipes, she fucking hated hide and seek, she always had, this just might be the worst game out of them all. This would be how she died, wasn't it? A fly caught in a spider's web.

The hallways kept going, then Staff Only doors that led her to a dead end, or at least that was what she first thought. The coloured levers had an order she didn't understand until she saw the bar up in the ceiling, pulled herself up to see the numbered power boxes. Whoever designed this place must have been having a real shit day to do this, but she got it in the end and a gate opened up with more darkness and hallways and-

"FOUND YOU!"

A fucking spider. Erica ran back down the halls, back to that area and hurriedly pulled herself back up into that space as the monster ran around underneath. She covered her mouth with her free hand, shaking, tears falling, hearing the roars and the groans and seeing her run around searching but never once looking up.

Even when it went quiet, she still waited a few extra minutes until she could calm herself down, gradually lowering. She made it through to the next area without issue, where there was a large locked door, a furnace and a claw machine. The main gear for the door had broken and had never been replaced according to the note, but for whatever reason this involved someone having to walk into the fucking furnace when it was not on and set the mold?

No wonder no one wanted to replace it. But Erica didn't have a choice if she wanted to get that door open and keep moving, keep outrunning this thing, and it wasn't actually as bad as she thought when she got the gear replaced, even if the door just seemed to open another fucking vent yet again.

She heard the laughter before she saw it climbing up the wall, pulled the gear out the machine and ran into the furnace, shutting the door behind her. Mommy might think she's tough but it didn't make her anything less than sentient fucking plastic, as much as she still terrified Erica with that sinister laugh as she looked around, but never trying to open the doors. And when she left again, the girl made a run for it.

Only to find the path blocked by webs, and the spider that created them crawling back up.

From there it was a chase, having to take random turns as parts of the ceiling caved in to try and trap her, webs strung up too. "JUST FUCKING LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Laughter was all she got in response, arms reaching for her but always just missing-

"NO!"

"OW!"

Until Mommy got her by the hair, but the brunette had her knife and jammed it into her hand, forcing her to let go. She made it back up to familiar hallways and there, the noises stopped, she might have finally lost her, moving up the hall where a GP powered door was waiting at the end and just like that, the peace ended.

Because she was coming, storming down towards her and the door wouldn't open fast enough, she practically dove under it the second she could and watched as when the beast followed, she got her hand stuck in the machine waiting. Erica wasted no time in pulling the lever, starting the grinder up as Mommy screamed.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" her eyes focused on her. "YOU'LL MAKE ME PART OF HIM! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!!!"

Then it was over. A claw hand came out from the shuttered door and took her decapitated head before another door opened, but Erica didn't leave just yet.

Mostly because…what the actual fuck had just happened? What was THAT!? Was that what she meant by "you'll make me part of him" but who was…what…fuck! This was NOT what she thought she'd be getting into! This terrified her even more than the fucking spider and now the fear was fading, what was she left with?

Hunger…and part of the body hadn't been completely destroyed. Erica cut into the plastic and not only did she find blood, but flesh, confirming what she already suspected, and she ate it, everything but the shitty plastic covering it.

She wiped her mouth, licked off any last bits of blood, and moved on.

…

The stairwell in Bay 2 brought her up some levels before she found the next tape, which contained an experiment log of 1006, otherwise known as the Prototype. It detailed a close call where he almost breached containment by taking apart some kind of digital alarm clock in his room to create a fucking laser pointer that disabled the security camera and he was unmonitored for just under thiry seconds.

A surveillance specialist was sent in when the room was thought to be empty but the Prototype had hidden in a blind spot and tried to escape before a second specialist locked the door, despite his colleague still being inside. It went on to say how the experiment had a high level of intelligence unlike the others and an alarming willingness to commit violence, while Huggy Wuggy (Experiment 1170) had sufficient intelligence but maximum obedience.

Erica kept moving, the stairs bringing her back to Game Station, the upper level Control Station where she finally found Poppy along with the last part of the train code, quickly freeing both from the webs. "Mommy's dead...can we get out of here now?"

"Yes," the doll agreed, "we need to leave."

On the desk was a formal request form that the brunette picked up, about the area needing windows, even fake ones, to get the kids in the right headspace for games, bring some life into the place, but it looked like the whole place shut down before that could happen. She ripped it up a few times before she found another one, a list of instructions for employees about when the children would arrive, order of games, don't get too close to Mommy Long Legs…

She ripped that up too, the slide at the end of the walkway taking her down to the train where she got in front via her GP and input the code. A light blinked above a lever and when pulled, the door shut and the horn blew, and they were off.

Game Station would be left behind and Erica felt like she could breathe normally again, the shaking had finally stopped too, it looked like eating something had helped. She couldn't really bring herself to feel bad about what happened to Mommy, it wasn't like she deserved anything else, right?

"I was so afraid she'd put me back in that case," Poppy said over the loudspeaker, "but you saved me…you're perfect, too perfect to lose."

Up ahead, the direction changed from forward to right, and the train turned that way. "I'm sorry, I can't let you leave. Do you know how long I've been stuck in that case? Too long…I had so much time to think of what I would do when I was free, so I'm going to set things right but I need your help. I promise, I'll-"

An alarm sound cut her off. Suddenly they were speeding up, going faster and faster down the tracks, and Erica didn't like that at all. A warning came that the speed was unsafe and the train had to be stopped, so she pulled on the brake and it started to stop but-

But it was too fast and went right off, tipping over onto the side. Everything started to fade, get dark, but she could see out the other door, a sign.

'Playcare'…this was not over.

Chapter Text

The sound of purring, the sight of blood on the floor as the paws stepped over it was enough for her to keep quiet, keep limp like she was still asleep. One reached out to open the chute before she was tossed in but she was able to turn and see that face, one that she could remember in her fucking nightmares.

No wonder she was a dog person. Erica managed to climb out as the walls started closing in to crush her and the rest of the trash, even as her hands shook trying to work the Grabpack to pull her up to an unsteady walkway but at least he wasn't following her. Somehow, she was never able to forget CatNap, the purple feline who had been permanently removed from the toy sales following several incidents with allegedly giving kids bad dreams.

And now it looked like he'd been on the hunt through this place, leaving his dead bloody prey everywhere. She just kept moving, having to travel other fogs of mysterious red smoke as she did so, pulling her sweater up over her mouth and nose just in case until the vents took her to an empty but trashed room, where the cat had brought her, another tape and player waiting. It had an unnamed person talking to a 'Ms Harper' about an incident with the children, mentioning CatNap and something about red smoke which made her glad she'd been cautious with it moving about.

The child in question had much more than just a nightmare, Ms Harper insisted, that the girl, Marie, had seen something, a monster. Ms Harper didn't accept that they would be taking care of her and begged, screamed, that they bring her little girl back. Erica was glad it ended there, because she wanted to move before that thing found her again but this lower level needed batteries to power its doors. She had to follow a blood trail through the next hall but a distraction came when she heard…a phone.

Only a phone would make that ringing sound, she knew it, and she also knew it could be a potential trap but what if it wasn't? And she hated being alone down here, and the room the noise was coming from was locked by power, so she doubted the cat would be in there anyway and just opened it. Empty as she expected and the device was on the wall.

She grabbed it, held it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hey," a voice, "hey…can you hear me?"

A young boy's voice, it sounded like. "You look kinda lost."

And she almost laughed at that. "Yeah, I guess I am, never been here before."

"Well, I don't want you to die, so I'm going to help you!"

Reassuring. It was at this point she had just realised she'd locked herself in, yes. "How will you help me? Where even are you?"

"Doesn't matter, just watch that tube thingy at the back wall."

And just like that, a battery fell through, allowing her to get out another door but coming face to face with the burning wreck of the train. "Oh my god…"

"Woah…did you do that?"

She was offended. "No! It sped up on its own, I almost died!"

"That's where CatNap found you…look, I know you're probably mad at Poppy for not letting you escape-"

'What was your first clue?'

"-but she does need you, we all do. Together, we can save everyone left behind, and in return we'll get you out of here. Playcare is straight ahead, it's CatNap's home…and the Smiling Critters, when they were still around."

Erica climbed down onto the track, going the opposite way. "And he was one of them, so makes sense, yeah."

"But now it's just him. Playcare is his church, his hunting ground, whatever he wants it to be."

She came to a stop. "And I have to go there?"

"It's the only way forward. With the train gone, you can't get back to the Game Station, and I don't think you'd want to anyway."

Fair. "I'm Erica, by the way, just if we're gonna keep in touch."

"I'm Ollie, nice to meet you."

…

'Elliot's Express' sat at the top of the stairs at the station she found, a tram behind the entrance which seemed to be the only way in that didn't involve falling to her death. Hopefully, this wouldn't go as badly as the train ride. As it started up, the TV in the top corner switched on.

"Hello," it boomed, "my name is Elliot Ludwig. When you look around at the world today, what one thing do you think it needs more of?"

She didn't even know what to say to that, so good thing he answered anyway: "I asked around, once: "Money, I never have enough." "Understanding, I can never get any." "Faith, the common man has lost it." Each answer was different…and I could perhaps see some truth in each, but I think each was also missing something. Something simple."

The tram was moving through a large cave now, towards some sort of dome. "You see, not one of them could muster a smile. A smile is hope, a smile is love, a smile is understanding. And there is nothing more gratifying to my soul than being the reason for a child's smile, to be the spark that ignites all their hopes and dreams, for it is only through hopes and dreams that we may create a better world, one where our children need not be afraid, one where they are protected."

Getting closer. "After all, this company and its toys are nothing without them. These children deserve to smile, they deserve to love, and they deserve a safe home."

Inside. What. The. Actual-

"That is why it is with enermous pleasure that as the founder of Playtime Co., I announce…"

Fake clouds, fake skies, a collection of statues in the middle, buildings surrounding the place, against the edges. "PLAYCARE! Our very own onsite orphanage."

So Rich had been right, huh? This was fucking crazy, but it was on brand with the level she'd been working with.

"But it's not only that; it's a school, a playhouse, a place to belong. Our very own ecosystem beneath the surface, dedicated in every inch and detail to ensuring a child's smile."

And now it was a fucking hunting ground to a massive, deranged cat. The tram was coming down which was great because she was about to throw up not from the heights, but about how goddamn insane this all was.

"May Playcare bring joy, inspiration and smiles to all who enter these doors. For what gives life its meaning, if not a smile?"

It ended there and the door slid open, allowing her to step out on shaky legs and down the steps towards the middle as the phone rang before she could think too hard about the bloodstains nearby. "H-hello?"

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

Not the word she would use. "Sure…"

"The kids used to live here, now look at it. Anyways, do you see that statue in the middle of the room?"

"Looking right at it."

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

Good, so then she wouldn't have to keep looking at the rest of this place. That sick feeling was not going away, a bad feeling stirring in her gut. A map just before it showed all the buildings including Home Sweet Home, School, Playhouse, Counselor's Office and Toy Store. Around the statue were information boards about the Smiling Critters, but CatNap had apparently torn his out and threw it aside, doing her a favour long before she even came by.

Forget Huggy Wuggy and Mommy Long Legs, the cat was much worse.

Chapter Text

Ollie had the key sent down shortly after she arrived. "So, you've got the key…now the question you're probably asking yourself is where does it go? Well, head back out and you should find a door just to the left of the cable car you took down here."

Pretty easy to spot but very nerve-wracking to actually walk into, especially with the claw marks and the poster about how employees should be wearing a gas mask whenever the red smoke is present because she did not currently have one, and the unease only grew when she saw the large machine in the center of it all.

"Welcome to the Gas Production Zone, the beating heart of the whole evil Playcare system. All that gas you see coming from the machine is made right here in the factory, it's called-"

"The Red Smoke," she finished.

"Yes. Right now, it's all headed off to the right, but we need to make it go left instead, then we can get to him. The machine will probably have a few dumb safeguards for you to work around, but I think you can do it. I'll call you once it's done."

She was struggling, especially right now, to process everything she had found out. Playcare was the orphanage Rich mentioned, the childcare program Leith mentioned, so children really had been at the heart of this place. CatNap now used it for his hunting grounds or whatever the fuck else he wanted it to be and now Erica was lurking in this place essentially being told what to do by Ollie, who was either a human child like her or something like Poppy.

But it was better than being alone, trying to figure it out herself, even if this was another building built like a fucking multi-level maze. She managed to get into a small room where she found another Grabpack hand, a purple one this time. The tape that was beside it explained how it was a prototype GP 2.0 with longer wires, able to swap hands easily and even air jets to break long falls but you had to watch where you land.

Just outside the room was a matching purple pad and when pressed with the hand, it launched her into the air and up to the next room. Erica let out a startled laugh but she was seriously impressed, it definitely beat trekking up stairs and they could go pretty far too, over holes in the floor and…a red river which she definitely didn't want to fall in.

It flowed through into the next room filled with power circuits, so not ideal but she persevered, grateful that the new hand had a longer wire which made getting the power on easy, even opening another door to bring her back to the machine and transporting the gas into the middle chamber and-

The power went out. She suddenly hated this place again.

"Someone killed the power," Ollie stated the obvious. "I sent you another key, use it to get into Home Sweet Home. Once you're inside, find the building's backup generator. Good luck."

Everything was shrouded in darkness with only a few stray lights guiding her back, then having to use the map and just go in that general direction until she could see it, the house, and get inside. Down a large spiral staircase then a hallway much like the one before Poppy's case, her prison, but behind this door was red smoke, and Erica still didn't have a gas mask.

She tried calling Ollie but he didn't answer and she didn't know where to even look for one, so her sweater would just have to do, running through the room and down the other set of stairs until the gas was gone and then she pulled it down. What awaited was another long hallway, doors lined in either side that wouldn't open and at the end, a radio blasting static with a child's photo sitting next to it.

Both right and left looked the same, but she charged down one anyway just to find a radio that did work. "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 toymaker and originator of the Playtime company."

"What the fuck…"

"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 is unknown at this time whether this extraction was, in fact, the cause of death."

Oh, she was actually going to be sick now. Claw marks on the floor as she ran when the frequence turned to static only to end up at another one: "Following recent events, Playtime Co. was asked for any comment regarding the discovery. 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 eye of the law." STAY TUNED FOR MORE."

Erica jumped at that last part and just bolted off back in the direction she came, then heard that familiar ringtone. She went to grab the phone from her pocket but it wasn't there, never mind her knife or…or the Grabpack, that was gone too, what? Now she did have to get to the phone, she had to tell Ollie something was wrong.

It stopped just as she got to it, but he still spoke. "YOU NEED TO RUN."

And in the doorway was CatNap, hurrying away the moment he was spotted, as she screamed at the sight of him. "FUCKING LEAVE ME ALONE! GO AWAY!"

"Despite Playtime's proclamation of Ludwig's innocence," the radio blasted, "many believe his reclusive and mysterious nature displayed over the previous decades lends suspicions to this claim. When questioned, Ludwig's neighbours indicated that he would often return to his home at strange hours in the night, and depart again before sunrise. Some believed he was sick, others that- DON'T MOVE. DON'T MOVE AN INCH."

The tears were back, she couldn't help it. "Oh, god, please…"

"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."

More static, then music from the next one she found in this seemingly endless labyrinth and endless repeating hallways. More claw marks appeared on the floors, on the walls, ripped wallpapers, someone banging on doors and him…staring at her from a distance and walking away, almost like he wanted her to come, to follow.

Distorted messages that went to silence as finally, there was a room ahead, an office with a closed door and…'GUILT HAUNTS YOU' written on the board. "I don't understand, I don't understand, WHAT!? WHAT DO YOU WANT!? WHAT DO YOU FUCKING WANT FROM ME!?"

Crying sounds, the wallpaper peeling, just endless running but she didn't want to stop, she didn't think she could even if she wanted to, claw marks and a blood trail leading her into a fucking makeshift hospital room. 'THERE IS NO SAFETY HERE' was scratched into the floor and a tape sat on one of the beds, so she dutifully put it into the TV, ignored the blood that stained the sheets.

Huggy's face appeared on screen. "Greetings, employees! And welcome to your first day here in Playtime! 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."

She hugged herself, wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Now, every one of you has your part in that future, so should you come back tomorrow feeling unhappy for where you are, or what you've done…or not done…worry not, for your supervisor is here and happy to listen! And…"

The screen started fading to black. "Should you come back…years later…your conscience finally getting the better of you…"

A much more sinister Huggy appeared on screen, eyes pitch black and mouth wide open, filled with sharp, sharp teeth. "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…"

Her stomach churned at that reminder.

"…watching and waiting patiently for their turn at a warm welcome. Or perhaps they won't allow you such time to figure out your place in the world you'd left…a world that's theirs now."

It started to blink. "Welcome home."

And then it was real, the monster, and she screamed as it climbed out of the screen at her. She couldn't look away from it as she ran back down the hall, then falling and backing away with her hands. "Please! PLEASE, NO!"

Screaming all the way as it grabbed her and swallowed her whole.

Chapter Text

Gasping, sobbing breaths as her eyes opened. Slowly realising it wasn't real, just another horribke fucking nightmare but they hadn't been that bad in so long and even when she pushed herself up on shaking legs, checked to see that her knife and her Grabpack and everything else was there, she didn't believe it until that door was opened and what awaited her was not another endless hallway, instead the main room of the house.

Power lines and a top floor with more rooms, possibly bedrooms, three locked doors on this bottom floor and a hole in the middle of the floor but a gas mask was hanging on one of the broken floorboards so she grabbed it. No more terrifying nightmares for her, she thought as she jumped down, seeing traces of the stuff already as a Playtime go-kart sat there in front of a pile of boxes with a pull-string at the back that when pulled, sent it flying into the next room and cleared her a path.

Equipping the mask, she went in, climbing over the rubble until she found a jump pad and pushed herself back up to the main floor and into a laundry room with several washing machines and piles of clothes. Not to mention cleaning supplies shoved into a corner and an ironing board, plus an open door and a hole in the wall giving her two new paths to go. The second brought her to an observation room right beside one of the bedrooms and she moved from there, unlocking the Grabpack powered door and heading out into the hall.

An office next, with a tape and player. Observing one of their 'subjects' and how they had pulled him from Home Sweet Home for something but being interrupted by one of the other kids before they could elaborate, instead lying that Kevin was very sick and that Joseph didn't need to worry before escorting him back to bed. Erica didn't like where this was going, not one bit, still refusing to accept this.

She had to stop herself making a noise when she saw the cat again, shifting quietly through the rooms and finding a power one that was void of batteries. In one of the others, over a pile of boxes, she could see Kissy Missy looking down at something, so intently that she didn't react when Erica tried to get her attention and just moved on. Up on the next floor were cribs, some destroyed but most still standing, familiar claw marks scratched into the wood and the brunette really hated it now, the idea of them experimenting on children was bad enough but babies? So much worse.

A battery was in the next room in the back of a destroyed giant animatronic plushie, but something shattered downstairs that made her jump. In that hallway were boarded up or chained up doors while the power room nearby was still untouched and she put the second battery in, powering up part of the system and allowing a new door to open, leading up a set of stairs. Every noise made her scared now, every creak or step or anything that she knew hadn't been her, but she pushed onwards.

She caused another cart to race off and clear a path, crashing into the railing and allowing her to check out these other rooms she'd seen, one being a kind of living room with another tape inside. This featured the sounds of children in the background and immediately she felt sick, one of the adults announcing that a boy named Samuel Lee would be leaving, and Erica doubted it was a good thing. In one of the more destroyed bedrooms, stacked top to bottom with bunkbeds, she could see another battery in the next room over, in an animatronic that was still standing.

When she did make it through, it was staring at her. Where she moved, it did too in a circle but otherwise couldn't move, which was great but she wished it wouldn't move at all because how was she supposed to get the battery? The vents caught her eye and she sighed, pulling the gate open and climbing in, managing to find the other power room but also get stuck in that section too until finding a staircase leading back up where she managed to grab the battery.

Getting to the next room from there was a bit tricky since it was powered by two green outlets, but she made it in and broke both the door down as well as cleared a path with the go-kart inside, checking out the rooms along that hall and found one filled with red smoke coming from the vents, the cat that caused it staring at her through the fan inside before slinking away, almost like he wanted her to keep going.

She didn't have any other direction and just stayed on track, managing to find a part of the house without the gas and even better, a battery. With the second smaller power room sorted, back in the main area the generator room had opened and allowed her inside to the back of the building. Turrets sat waiting to send the power to open the shutters, leading to a lift and back where she started, and she wasted no time in running up the stairs and out the door.

Erica did yelp as she was grabbed, pinned down, and she shut her eyes so she wouldn't have to see it rip her apart and-

"No, no! Let go!" a familiar voice cried. "She didn't do anything wrong!"

Kissy and Poppy, a flashlight in the doll's hand illuminating their faces. "We're actually here to help."

The girl stood as they backed off, the doll sitting on the pink thing's shoulder so they could see eye to eye, so to speak. "Help…you want to help now?"

"I know…I'm sorry. And I'm sorry about Kissy, this place makes her tense, but I'm glad Ollie has helped you get this far, he's the reason we found you at all. I know we've put you through a lot, and you deserve an explanation, so come on."

Basically right next to the house, on the wall, was a small panel with a poppy flower painted on it and Poppy herself had the key, unlocking it and pulling down a lever inside which caused a lift to come up out of the floor. The three boarded, the doll continuing the conversation as it started to go.

"Listen, I'm not your enemy, but I couldn't just let you leave."

"Did you send that tape to me?" Erica asked. "The letter about how the staff haven't just disappeared…I don't understand."

"You will, soon enough, but what's happening down here is bigger than all of us. And I need you so we can get revenge on those monsters who tortured you…who tortured us…they didn't act lone. They're disciples of the original: The Prototype…do the honours?"

The lift had brought them up to a platform where a bright red button sat on a control panel that once Erica pushed, turned the lights back on.

"He'll know we're coming by now," Poppy continued, "The Prototype. If you try to escape, he will 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…you have no idea the things he's done! So let me help you kill him, let me help you save everyone who can still be saved."

Erica wasn't sure. "I don't…"

"We've all seen how capable you are. You killed Huggy, you killed Mommy, you freed me. You are perfect for this."

The lift was back on the floor. "CatNap is coming…he's the final obstacle The Prototype has placed against us. We can't stay here, just keep yourself safe and wait for Ollie to call you, and we'll see you soon, I promise."

"…okay, you stay safe too, both of you."

Kissy waved her off as they left, and the brunette waved back.

Chapter Text

The phone rang as she walked back to the house. "Hey, hey…it's me again. It seems like Poppy explained everything now and she even turned on the dome's backup power! Now, the plan from here is pretty simple: we need to restore power to the gas production zone using the other buildings, starting with Home Sweet Home."

"So like, use their generators for the power?" Erica guessed.

"Yes! There should be a big power chord somewhere around the porch, take it and plug it underneath the statue."

Good thing the cable was practically endless. "There you go! Remember that generator you turned on inside? It was a backup just for that building, all of them should have one."

Next to the plug points was the system monitor detailing how the power was only up to 50%, with only HSW and the sky dome supplying power. "Rerouting it to where we need it…where do I go next?"

"That's the thing…everywhere is pretty dangerous around here, especially that yucky playhouse, so your best bet is probably the school. CatNap usually leaves that place alone, I'll send you the key right now!"

"Wait, why does-"

'Why does the cat avoid the school?'

An answer she was most likely going to find herself.

…

You know, if you just looked in at the stairs going down, you could fool yourself into thinking nothing was wrong with the place. Right behind the double doors at the end was blood, ceiling tiles on the floor, just a mess in general that had her stomach turn even before Ollie called again. "Okay, make this quick; just turn on the generator, leave, and plug it into the statue!"

"Thanks, I know how to do this," she hissed. "Why did you tell me to come here if it was so bad? Why does CatNap avoid it?"

"I can't connect to you on that side of the dome but there's someone else in there too, in with you and they're not-"

It was probably good that it cut to static before she started swearing. Why the fuck did he tell her now when she was already inside!? It wasn't too late to leave but she didn't have any other key and what if CatNap was waiting right outside or even maybe hoping she would go into another building where he could stalk and terrorise her some more? Obviously she'd rather stay the hell away from him, and he apparently avoided this place like the plague, so…

Hopefully whoever was in here wasn't worse than him.

The intercom suddenly came to life. "This is Miss Delight speaking, please excuse the interruption. Students, remain in your seats until the bell has rung and no going in the halls without a hall pass!"

She had a very unsettling voice, despite how cheery she sounded. Erica was further disturbed when in the middle of the room where a freaking piano sat, there was a note on the bench that might have been by this Miss Delight: '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 that was terrifying, outright stating there was more than one…teacher in this place but Ollie would have said if there was more, right? And what was she talking about? What was the Hour Of Joy? Part of her didn't want to know, but wouldn't it be the answers she was looking for? Either way, she still had to fire up this generator and go further into the school.

The classrooms were empty, as expected, nothing more than the usual blood spots and toys hanging from the ceiling. What was new was the words on the walls, 'HELP' or 'JOY' being the most common as well as 'RUN', making her want to work fast and get out. On the windowsill beside where she picked up a battery was a blood-splattered note: '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.'

And wasn't that just further motivation to keep going? She then had to crawl under a stack of desks to get through another hallway but froze as she saw what could only be Miss Delight, stumbling through a room up ahead and vanishing when Erica caught up.

Then, she spoke through the intercom. "Wait…I recognise you…yes, I remember. You used to be here! How are you…alive?"

It made her freeze, but the teacher continued, adressing someone. "Hm? What's that, Barb? Oh…Barb says you might be looking for something, but CatNap wouldn't like that you're here. I think you should leave…for your own safety."

Her questions were only increasing the longer she was here. In the computer lab, she found a vent with a pole the GrabPack could latch onto, and right underneath was another bloodstained note: '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.'

So there had been other teachers here, just like her. Erica dreaded to think what might have happened to them, locked in this fucking building with others just like them, starving…she knew some things about being desperate enough to eat anything. The vent allowed her into the closed-off area where she grabbed the other battery and kept moving, landing back in the original room and slotting it in, having to move quickly with the electricity gained by the active source to open the gate further down and get in those other rooms.

Inside was another VHS tape, yellow, Miss Delight asking where the children were, if they were in the same place as the employees? A conversation with herself, a recap of what 'he' had told her, "all he had told me…probably because he knew I'd kill them all!" and manic laughter that made Erica shiver as it shut off. When the teacher passed by the door when she was about to leave, she almost jumped back and hesitated to go out there into the halls, but they were empty as expected.

Across from an empty battery slot, a computer room with another toy in the ceiling had another note that only added to her anxiety: '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.'

So that was why there was only one, because she did kill, she killed all of her fellow teachers and whoever locked them all in here did it because they knew they would give in to it, their need to eat, just like Erica had. It was the only explanation, even more incentive to get the fuck out before Barb encouraged Miss Delight to eat her too.

The vents were actually the place she felt safest now, since the teacher couldn't seem to climb up into them and preferred just stalking the halls which was fine, as long as she didn't find the brunette with all her stalking, especially when she walked right underneath the broken parts just before Erica crossed over. Looked like they were heading in the same direction but lucky for her, not the same room.

"Not a good listener, are you?" the teacher asked over the intercom. "You're a lot like the other humans in that way…I wonder if your screams will sound like theirs too! Mmm…I look forward to finding out."

The brunette obviously did not. She pulled a small set of shelves away from the nearby door and found herself back in that hallway, but the new room she found had a power source to open the locked computer lab. Another note was in there, just barely decipherable scribbles on the page: '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.'

Well, that confirmed what she already knew. Miss Delight was the only one left because she ate the rest of them to survive, driven mad by hunger, and the school stayed locked with just her and 'Barb' inside now, probably waiting for her next meal. But Erica had no interest in being that, she would rather start the generator up then take the next exit.

Luckily, what she needed was right next to the lab and very easy to power on…too easy.

She came out of the darkness. Ran in and used her shitty little weapon to smash it to pieces, knocking a battery out before turning her sights to the brunette who had at that point screamed and backed out of the room but otherwise did not look away, because looking away would be how she died and they both knew it and she had to give herself time to get up, to plan.

Erica didn't want to look away but she had to run, open the gate in the hall and figure out where to go from there without being caught. She managed to shove the battery in, turn around in time to stop the teacher at the other end, even as that laugh echoed through the halls as the chase resumed. They ran through hallways, classrooms, only stopping to wait for doors to open and now the brunette could understand why 'RUN' was painted on these walls.

The lights would flicker and Miss Delight's eyes would glow in the darkness, the bottom half of her face seemed to be gone, or ripped off. Her breathing could be heard as she got closer, deep and heavy, then suddenly they were locked in a room with multiple gates to open before the main one but would she do it in time, without getting caught?

There were a lot of close calls. She barely stopped anymore, even when she was looking this monster right in the face, she just wanted to get out. The main gate opened, another fucking hallway and she bolted down it, only looking back when she was at the end and pulled the lever to shut the door.

Miss Delight pounced for her…and was crushed underneath. As brutal as it was, Erica just let out a sigh of relief, then a laugh. So much for the school's generator, but at least she was still alive, unlike someone.

A final note was nearby: 'The door opened today, and I heard something enter my hall. Together, Barb and I found CatNap waiting. ALL THIS TIME, ALL THIS AGONY. It was HE WHO LOCKED THE DOOR, I know it. I wanted to KILL HIM, but I knew better than to believe I could. He seemed oddly glad to see I was all that remained. We made a deal. We take care of each other now. Report what we see to the other, and to HIM.'

"That fucking cat," she muttered, tearing the paper to shreds, "should've fucking known."

If that damn teacher wasn't dead already, her knife would be going up against Barb, but now, she walked away.

Chapter Text

At the end of the hall was another GrabPack accessory, automatically opening the next gate when she attached it as it was apparently required. From there, a bridge and a Restricted Access door that opened with a battery from another door and after that, a cave. Somehow even down here, in this type of area, was a fucking VHS tape.

Rich was back, coming into Playcare with someone else with a shipment, cutting off the Elliot Ludwig tape that came in the shuttle. He wasn't a fan of the place and Erica could relate after all this shit, talking about how the kids deserved real sunlight and just how unfair it was, his colleague Stuart sounded like a good guy. She kind of scoffed when Rich spoke about how "nice to know not everyone here has it out for me" because she was not having that same experience.

It was easy enough to get around, though, the caves, so she couldn't complain there. Nice to not be chased for once, but she was starting to get that familiar feeling, one that Miss Delight knew quite a lot about. In the meantime, she still had to get out of here and get back to Playcare, which seemed to involve more complicated power tricks to get an elevator working and send her up to the next walkway and-

She could see CatNap down below, slinking up towards what could only be a shrine, made out of dead toys. She hated now knowing they could die, be killed and made into this fucked up fucking thing, it had to be for the Prototype. Poppy said that dumb cat worshipped him, right?

Then he stood, front legs raised, held up in a pose that looked very uncomfortable. By the time Erica had climbed down some of the collapsed walkways and closer to the shrine, he had disappeared, probably a good thing if all she had to defend herself was a knife, gas mask and flare gun.

She found a locked door for the Playhouse, unlocking it and heading in, where something almost immediately came for her. A small little red elephant thing, she couldn't be bothered remembering the names, but it was tiny and crawling towards her and now she could see why they needed a flare gun.

Them, not her. She was going to take a page out of Miss Delight's book on eating, standing very still even as the hand behind her back reached for the knife.

It wouldn't be the first time, they were hardly big enough as one, but there would be more.

…

Near the door that Erica had come in was another TV, its matching tape a little ways away underneath a tent. Surprisingly, it was about CatNap…or Theo, his real name was. Leith Pierre spoke, mentioning an unavailable Dr Sawyer and how this was Theo's fourth year in his new body and the progress he had made. How he had improved with the kids, with that (fucking awful) red smoke, and-

"The Prototype will save us," it spoke, and the brunette shuddered. For a second, she had been ready to throw up at Leith basically confessing to what had been right in front of her since she'd arrived at Playcare, not wanting to believe it, but now she was just terrified again, of this fucking cat.

Then Leith turned nasty, said nobody would save him and this prison was where he belonged, his home was there and the Prototype's was in the labs. This was his life now and he better get used to it, and it ended there.

Erica didn't want to think about it, she just moved on, back through the hall where the ceiling had started to crumble, through the rooms now dirty in blood and bugs and claw marks, probably the entire building made for kids to have fun in, to mess around and not get hurt. She only added to the blood as she hunted the toys trying to hunt her, sometimes just scaring them away with the flares but other times, carving them open.

It wasn't like they could sneak up on her, they were noisy when they appeared, easy to spot as they crawled out of tunnels and vents and holes. In a maze of tunnels she could hear them in every direction but they only led her in the direction she needed, down a slide and through another tunnel, through a maze that reminded her of one of Mommy's games, finding a giant button that powered something she hadn't seen yet.

She'd fire flares at the toys or just into the darkness where she'd see their shadows and anticipate their useless attempts at an attack, found the other button and activated it, then the control panel that opened the door. Wiped her mouth of the blood and slammed that thing behind her, heading down a coloured spiral staircase into an empty swimming pool, where water could still be heard dripping and a bloodtrail led her through to…

A fucking cell block. The carnage there was the worst she had seen so far, it had to have been CatNap's goddamn handywork, no one left alive-

"You."

And she shrieked. "WHAT THE…"

"I'm sorry," the voice came again, "I'm so sorry. It's…you're Poppy's angel, come to save us."

Now she really was going to throw up. "D…DogDay?"

If the cat was her least favourite Smiling Critters character, this one was the complete opposite and the sight broke her heart. He was hung up by his arms in the open cell with his legs gone, all the life completely gone from him. "No use trying to save me, there's nothing left here to save…you're in CatNap's home, angel…THEIR home. A million pairs of eyes are on you now…watching, waiting, hungry."

'So am I,' she thought, 'I'm fucking hungry too.'

"They want nothing more than to crawl beneath your skin and eat away at you bit by little bit-"

"Stop!" she put her hands over her ears, even as she approached, knife in hand. "Please…"

"I'm sorry, angel. It's that thing, CatNap, the Prototype is his god and this is what he does to heretics…just put me out of my misery before they do. They only follow him to avoid this very fate and in return…they are fed."

There was still blood on the knife from her last kill, a kill she made only five minutes before stumbling across this place by pure accident, this prison. But this wasn't…could she really kill him too?

"We tried to fight it," he explained, "the Prototype's control. I'm…the last of the Smiling Critters…there's no hope anymore. You have to get out while you still can, you need to live, you and Poppy can fix this. End it."

Fuck it. "No…not without you too."

She cut through the restraints with ease, catching him before he hit the ground even if he was still quite heavy but she pushed them up, moving so he was on her back like the GP, holding onto his arms and running as the toys caught up to the cell.

"Angel," DogDay tried to get off, "I'll only slow you down-"

"I don't care," she pressed on through the tunnels. "You try and fucking leave, I'll come back for you, okay? Just…just hang on, we're both getting out of here, I promise."

"…they're right behind us."

"So I'll make sure they don't catch us, not my first time having to run away from something."

He'd give her directions when the tunnels would randomly shut but another would open, which way she needed to go to find the lift out, which slide to go down when they all looked too similar and she could practically feel those toys on her ankles. He got her through the door and into that lift where they both got out and away, from death, from those horrible little nightmares, from this fucking prison.

…

"Angel, you can put me down now. I promise I'll follow you right out."

She lowered herself to a sitting position, letting him get off and taking the GrabPack off too, sighing as she shifted her sore shoudlers. "It's okay, I kinda need a minute…lot of running, even before that."

"You've done well to make it this far, I can't even imagine what it's been like."

"Fuck, sorry, you've…you've been here the entire time, I…I'm so sorry."

"Angel, you just risked your life to save mine, don't you dare be sorry. I was ready to give up, I was ready for them to take me as long as you weren't there, I was going to tell you to run and you just…you didn't want to go without me."

"Well, I really fucking hate CatNap and everything he's done to me, you, everyone else…and you were always my favourite character, I've seen…quite a lot of death since coming back and I really didn't want to see you die, by them or anything else."

A small laugh. "Thank you again, Angel."

Erica smiled, putting the GrabPack back on. "I better head back…you're right behind me?"

"I promise."

She headed down the slide that took her back out to Playcare, feeling like maybe, maybe this might actually turn out okay.

Chapter Text

Pretty much the second her feet were on the ground, the phone rang. "Hey, are you alright? No ouchies or lost body parts?"

'Not for me anyway'

"I'm fine," she replied, a half-truth, "can't be kept down for long anyway."

A sigh of relief. "I'm really glad you're okay…I don't wanna lose any more friends to this place. Hey…did you see the shrine?"

She hoped to never see it again. "Yeah…it's something."

"CatNap made it for the Prototype, since before he 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. In CatNap's eyes, the Prototype is a hero, and he saved this place. So CatNap treats him like a god, killing everyone who opposes him."

Yep, she'd seen that already. "Uh-huh…"

"Us included, if we're not careful."

Great.

"That shrine…did it scare you?"

Of fucking course it did. "Kind of."

"If you thought that was terrifying, just wait until you see the real thing."

No thanks, she quite liked being alive.

"Anyways, we're really close to the end. I sent you a new key, you're going to the Counselor's Office instead. It's not ideal, but it should have enough power if you can get the generator going and plugged in, then we'll be done!"

Good, she wanted out of here.

"And keep your eyes open for CatNap…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. Good luck, talk soon."

Erica almost smashed that phone but instead her hands went into her hair and pulled, only briefly before letting go but goddamn it, it was all starting to get to her. The stress and the fear, being stalked, being chased, being fucking here in general, she just wanted to-

"Hey, angel, wait."

She hadn't realised she'd started walking away, and turned to see a familiar face coming out of the Playhouse's now open main doors. "Hey! Wow…you're tall."

DogDay laughed as he approached, on his legs. "I can't believe they were still in one piece! It's a little weird to be standing and walking again…it's been so long, and even longer not being out here. I can't thank you enough for getting me free, angel."

And she smiled, nodded, started walking and he fell into step just behind her. "How much do you remember about this place?"

"Enough to know that underneath the statue is the control panel for the buildings," he replied, staying at the entrance while she made her way down, returning quickly after with a key.

"I tried to kickstart the generator in the school but it got broken, and unless the Playhouse has one I don't know about, the Counselor's Office might be our last shot. We need to power the Gas Production Zone and move the Red Smoke, give us a fighting chance against CatNap, I guess."

"Then I'm coming with you. He'll be on the hunt after you, but he won't expect me to still be alive, never mind standing, and I can take him by surprise."

She just liked not having to go alone.

…

The hallway in the entrance led them both through to two locked doors, one with a battery and the other just plain locked, but filled with gas, as 'YOUR TOOLS WON'T PROTECT YOU' was scratched into the wall.

"He's been here very recently," DogDay noted, "might still be here."

Erica didn't pay it much notice, climbing up onto the chairs at the side to get the Grabpack to reach into the hidden shelf and grab the battery. "We'll just keep moving where we can."

In the office was a grey VHS tape which blared an emergency alert before a message to all Playtime Co. employees was announced about an "unknown hostile force" in the facility and to activate emergency evacuation protocols which included leave all personal belongings, exit as soon as possible, if unable to exit then hide, cover your body, don't look out any windows, don't make a noise or speak to a hostile individual, don't let them in, don't-

The audio cut out, only words appearing on the screen; 'OPEN THE DOORS NOW. THE HOUR OF JOY HAS ARRIVED' before it finished. Not the first time that the brunette had heard about whatever the Hour Of Joy was, but…

"Are you okay?"

"…I'm fine," her companion replied. She didn't push, instead reaching with the pack to grab the battery from the other room to open the door in front of them. The hallways had more offices, one belonging to a Maria Ashokan, the head of the school, and ending with another locked door but through it she could see a small toy collapse to the floor right before CatNap came and snatched it up, charging through the place.

"Angel? Are YOU okay?"

She hadn't realised she'd started shaking, brushed it off to grab the battery from the room with the pack. "Yeah…it's nothing, I'm fine."

Another hallway was open now, much messier with claw marks, blood, papers and shelves and whatever else littering the floor. An office for Eduardo Gala, head of the Toy Store (one all the way down here…unbelievable), a dead end at the end with only a vent above to get through.

"I'll find another way around," DogDay assured her, "see you on the other side. Stay safe, angel."

"You too."

The vent from there brought her back out to the caves, another fucking power puzzle with jump pads that just wouldn't stay on when she needed them, but she did manage to get the other entrance open and get back inside. An office full of cubicles right beside the head of Playcare's, Stella Greyber of all people, and a purple VHS tape sitting on the desk. It featured her too, that grating positive voice seeping through as she spoke to a couple, Mr and Mrs Hartmann.

They talked about the journey down, how they "felt right at home" the second they entered and how you open that door and "just know you're never going to leave"…what a great choice of words, Erica thought. The couple were looking to adopt an orphan named Jeremy but it quickly fell apart when there were complications, Stella being unable to elaborate aside from the form saying 'Testing', ending with her apologising to the distressed couple.

'I think you know damn well what kind of testing', the brunette thought, bitterly. She turned away, ready to get out of there, but the door was locked and it seemed that only the vents would get her back out, except the key fell right out of it. It was down the hall and a small set of stairs before she did have to crawl through the vents again, hitting another dead end that she pulled herself out of once more.

It led her to the gas-filled room, pretty much dropped her right in, but the mask was equipped before she was put back in that never-ending hall of nightmares.

"Angel! Are you alright?" DogDay called from behind one of the doors. "Do I need to break through this?"

She quickly shook her head. If that fucking cat was still about, she did NOT want him to figure out where they were and come running, fuck no.

"Okay…that door in the middle will take you further into the building, you just need to power it with the three points in the offices, one has the source if you unlock it with the battery."

Thank god for some actual help and not just making her further fear for her life. It was easy work when she knew what to look for, what to do, and the sooner she got out of this gas the better anyway. The door was open and she slid through with a quick wave, a promise to meet him again at the other end.

She whipped the mask off with a sigh of relief, not even caring about all the weird power shit in front of her now and just glad to be out of that room. At least the jump pads in here could actually be switched on, a tricky triple jump getting her to the top floor where one of the two batteries needed sat nearby in a glass case. So of course, Erica wasted no time in kicking it down to the floor and breaking it open.

Another door downstairs was opened by it and gave her the second battery, of course in a case too, leading her to change the power flow to the elevator and send her up with it to make it easier. Once both batteries were obtained, she wasted no time in getting back upstairs and plugging them in, but the door wasn't opening just yet.

It took some more maneuvering with the power and finally, she heard it slide open. The generator was now powered up, a stack of boxes giving her access to the vent but it looked like CatNap had been around and pumped it full of gas, so she had to crawl through the dark with not great vision thanks to this damn mask, thanks to that fucking cat.

"Angel," DogDay was relieved to see her when she dropped out, "we better get out of here, you just need a battery to open the door."

Knowing her luck, there would be one nearby and waiting and sure enough…

"ANGEL, NO!"

It happened so fast. Banging on the door as he tackled her, ripped the mask off her face and threw her into another room before being…

"I WON'T LET YOU DO THIS!"

She did try to get up, she did, but she was…

So…tired…

Her surroundings faded to darkness.

Chapter Text

"Find the flower."

Poppy's voice kept whispering that sentence as her surroundings shook, a road in the middle of a forest, the drive she'd taken to the factory each time when she worked there and then when she returned.

"This isn't a place you come back from," the doll then whispered, the red smoke rolling in and bringing her to the reception area. "Do you have any idea what you're doing?"

Changing again, a tunnel of smoke bringing her to Home Sweet Home, the sounds of children playing as their shadows flickered. "Do you know what's happened here?"

Distorted laughter giving way to screams, giving way to Miss Delight's classroom. "Do you know who we once were?"

The playhouse, the tunnels. "Do you see why we have to end this?"

The counselor's office. "Do you even know what's real?"

Huggy Wuggy, standing there with one arm up and that terrifying, teeth-filled smile like he wanted to just rip you-

"No. You don't."

…

She didn't wake up sobbing, at least, but it wasn't to the wrecked counselor's office either or a hard floor. No, she woke up on something soft, in the darkness of Playcare just outside of the building she'd been attacked in.

"Angel?" came a soft, low voice as she sat up. "Are you okay?"

"Think so," she nodded as DogDay helped to pull her up onto her feet. "Did you…"

"I chased him off before he could do anything else. You haven't been sleeping long but I couldn't wake you, I'm sorry."

The phone started ringing and she scrambled to grab it out her pocket. "You saved my life, don't you dare be sorry for that, okay?"

"Something's gone wrong," Ollie said, and then didn't elaborate. "Grab the cord from the Counselor's Office and plug it in quickly! We need to reach a hundred percent!"

"Helpful," she rolled her eyes, moving to do so. "Sorry…did CatNap kill the power?"

DogDay followed close behind. "He must have, it was like this when we got out but I haven't seen him since he ran away. Who was that?"

"Ollie, he's a friend. Helped me since the train crashed, Poppy knows him."

"Wait…Poppy? She's- she's alive?"

And Erica stopped to face him, suddenly being hit with the realisation that he might have thought only he, CatNap and the Prototype were left, especially after she'd killed her way down to this level. "Yeah, Poppy and Kissy Missy, they're both alive. And Ollie, and you and me, probably a lot more than we even know."

"…I hope so," he nodded, following her right down into the statue, "I really hope so."

It wasn't the hundred percent they hoped for, but despite not getting another call, Erica got sent what should be the final key, a poppy keychain attached and immediately she knew where to go. DogDay kept by her side all the way, extra eyes and ears looking out into the darkness surrounding them in case that damn cat came back.

"Here it is," she whispered, pulling the poppy-covered door open to reveal a cord waiting that she quickly took back down. At long last, the screen showed 100% as Ollie called again.

"Okay, that should be enough power, now take that battery to the Gas Production Zone and we can get out of here!"

"What- WHAT THE FUCK!?"

Because how, in the everloving hell, was a huge fucking battery suddenly sitting there?

A small laugh that to be fair, DogDay did try to smother. "It- it came out of the side after you plugged the last cord in, angel."

She rolled her eyes but grabbed it with the pack. "Then let's end this."

Unfortunately, they were separated soon after when the shudders started to come down and he pushed her inside before they'd both be locked out. "I'll catch up with you, angel, go finish this for us both."

From there, of course things went wrong. Erica was about to plug the battery in when he appeared again, that damn smoke pouring out of his mouth as she ran, ran to the elevator ahead because it would be death to her and DogDay to try and leave. CatNap was a lot bigger than the last time, his skeleton visible through the fur as he looked right through her, long limbs climbing up the metal cage that separated them, his jaw long and loose.

Even when he was out of sight, she was still shaking.

…

Seemed fitting that right after getting off, a tape was nearby. A log about the Prototype, how even with being so stubborn and silent, Dr Sawyer then being interrupted by a series of noises and then the thing actually spoke. Slowly, one word at a time in different voices, to ask if he felt anything after what he did to them. And Dr Sawyer only responded to talk about a valuable secret inside of the experiment, how he was getting closer to finding it, and the Prototype thanked him because it too learned something new about him every day.

Down the maze of halls, Erica found an open plan room. Batteries, jump pads, a computer screen and a power terminal for the green glove, and a message: 'CATNAP IS COMING, BE READY.'

She thought she was ready, and then he'd taken her by surprise like he always did. How could she ever be ready for him?

'THIS ROOM CAN PROTECT YOU. IT WAS A SAFE ROOM BEFORE, AND IT MIGHT BE WHAT SAVES YOU NOW. FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH IT.'

Around the screen were four battery slots. 'THE ROOM SHOULD STILL HAVE BATTERIES. USE THEM TO POWER WHATEVER YOU NEED TO AROUND YOU.'

She was starting to gather them already. 'YOUR FLARES CAN REVEAL WHAT'S REAL AND WHAT IS NOT. YOU'LL WANT TO USE THAT AGAINST HIM.'

Good point. 'THERE SHOULD BE A GREEN POWER TERMINAL IN THE ROOM DIRECTLY BEHIND YOU AND TO YOUR LEFT. YOU CAN USE A BATTERY TO TURN IT ON. SEE FOR YOURSELF.'

When plugged in to certain points, they caused smoke to cover some of the halls and the power terminals helped to power the other two, so hopefully it would be enough to stop him for a small while. 'PLACE A BATTERY INTO ONE OF THE FOUR RECEIVERS BEHIND THIS TERMINAL. BE ALERT. HE IS NEAR.'

The countdown began. The fight began.

She had to determine when the cat stalking the halls was the real deal or trying to trick her, had to keep putting the batteries into the main receivers and leave herself more defenceless as the timer ticked down, even having to pull the roof hatch down whenever he would try to fight his way inside.

It was dark, it was hard to see through that and the fucking red smoke he'd sprayed everywhere as he tried to creep in towards her. The flares didn't seem to hurt him but the steam did, it kept him away even if she had to keep powering the terminals herself when the batteries needed moved but it was something. This room was keeping her alive even as she dreaded to think what might have happened to the last person to use it who might not have been so lucky.

But she wasn't dying today, fuck no. Not after everything she'd been through at his hands, at everybody's, being tricked and lied to, brought down here, chased and attacked, she wasn't going to fucking die like this, not today, not ever preferably.

The final battery was plugged in.

Just as the green hand met the terminal, he managed to break through into the room, and Erica wasted no time. "Fuck you, you fucking MONSTER!"

He burst into flames, trying to reach for her but she scrambled back and watched him throw himself around, crying out, struggling. Briefly, for a few seconds, she remembered his name was Theo and he used to-

Then he was still as the hatch opened, that same skeletal hand reaching in and now she knew this was the Prototype, by how CatNap pushed himself up and offered himself to it…and she screamed as he was killed by it.

The Prototype made him bleed, then lifted his still, dead body up and away where she could no longer see it, and they were both gone.

Chapter Text

She felt numb going back down the elevator, her Grabpack now down an accessory since the green hand was wrestled off. Why was that so different from what she'd done to Huggy, to Mommy, to Miss Delight, to the critters that have taken over the Playhouse? Was it because she knew the truth now about what they were? Because she knew who he used to be before this?

But why had he looked so monstrous stalking those halls but not when he fell in? It could have been another side effect of the gas, she definitely wasn't asleep right now but she had been exposed to quite a fair bit at this point. It didn't matter…she was awake and alive, and he was dead, it didn't matter anymore.

Through the darkness, she could see DogDay waiting and the numbness gave way to overwhelming relief that was mirrored with him when he saw her. "Angel!"

He met her when she stepped off the elevator and pulled her into a hug which she happily accepted. "You're okay?"

"Yeah…he's dead. I shocked him, the Prototype finished him off."

"It's what needed to be done, angel, it's okay."

They stayed like that for another minute before she let go. "Gotta plug that battery in…I dropped it, he took me by surprise."

She put it into the receiver and kickstarted the machine again, finally moving the gas over to the third cylinder and the lights all flickered on. DogDay called her attention to another door that had opened, leading the way through where Poppy's voice greeted them.

"Good, you're here, and you've done it again, the impossible. Just like I knew you would. CatNap's gone, the Red Smoke is diverted, everything is falling into place thanks to you, and you even saved DogDay. We can get out of here now."

In the middle of the room was a cover that lifted up to reveal an elevator, with the doll emerging from the vents to the side. "But if we're to keep going…you deserve to know the truth."

She had a tape in her hands. "You came back because you were promised an answer, to know what happened to this place, your coworkers, and why…this…this is your answer. We called it the Hour Of Joy."

Erica had heard it before, and that bad feeling was stirring up in her gut again but she needed the truth, even as DogDay tried to speak up. "Angel, you don't have to-"

"I do," she told him, "I have to know. Just don't look at it, okay? But I didn't fight my way down here to not get what I came for. Play it."

The TV in front of her flickered to life, the title displaying briefly before beginning. It was the factory how she remembered it, or what she could, filled with people and busy, a peace that didn't last long as it began. Huggy Wuggy was the first to attack, lunging out at the people around the 'statue'. Mommy Long Legs at the Game Station, pulling whole groups of kids up to the ceiling and dropping them.

A lower level, a man being swarmed by mini critters and eaten alive.

The school, Miss Delight and all of her sisters cornering an employee in a classroom.

Even Kissy Missy, breaking out of her restraints and attacking the people surrounding her.

Something that the brunette didn't even know how to describe, like a fucked up music box or some shit, stomping over people.

Playcare…the aftermath of CatNap's hunt.

Their bodies littered the place, every floor, every surface. Even the walkway before the giant poppy on the wall, not to mention the blood of them, the children too.

The tape ended but it still repeated in her mind, over and over as she sat there, shaking, silent tears running down her cheeks. She could have been a part of it had she not left when she did, trying to take some time to think about what Marcus had told her and maybe yes, look for something else, but…

She never thought it had been something like this, even when it started to unfold, slowly, before she knew the full horrible truth.

"I remember hearing every moment of it," Poppy spoke. "It went on so long…so agonizingly long. They tried to hide, to run, anything to stay alive…I remember their cries: 'What's going on?' 'Why is this happening?' 'What are those things?' Senseless slaughter, that's all it really was. They killed everyone. The guilty, the innocent, it didn't matter."

Children's lives didn't matter. They never had, not even to those who knew full well what it felt like to be used, experimented on, turned into something unrecognisable. Part of her wanted to believe they did it to free them, as sickening and tragic as it was, but she knew there was no justifying what had happened, no matter who they really were.

"All that death…it didn't fix anything. And then, once it was all over, they dragged those corpses down below where they'd never be found. And they…ate the bodies-"

She threw up. The dam burst and everything came out, the vomit and the tears, the reminder of what she had done too, she was no better than them. DogDay tried to step closer and she held a hand out, she shook her head, because she didn't want to be comforted when she deserved this. "Sorry…I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

"This is why the Prototype has to die," Poppy continued as Kissy Missy joined them, "for this, for everything. Even now, he's still hurting people, hurting you. We won't let him get away with it anymore, I promise."

The sobs wracked her body for a while before she calmed down, but it seemed the shaking would take longer. "DogDay? I can't…please help me up?"

Because she didn't trust her legs to carry her but she trusted him to. Getting out of here wasn't an option, they could only go further down.

"We'll be going somewhere we can rest," the doll promised as the three of them settled, leaving only Kissy. "As soon as we're down, we'll send the lift back up."

They were moving soon after. "We still need to be cautious, there's something-"

Noises from above, a series of what sounded like almost roaring, mechanical noises too, but Erica couldn't really make them out. She just knew they sounded bad and were definitely not the ally they just left behind, and Poppy knew it too from the way she started to panic.

"No, no, NO! We're coming! Just hold on!"

"It's closing," the brunette noticed as the elevator stopped, started to go back up, "we won't make it."

"Don't say that! We…we have to! Come on, come on, go faster!"

The noises continued as they were plunged into darkness as the lid shut.

"KISSY!"

Chapter Text

They had to keep going down. Or rather, Erica had to while Poppy and DogDay went back for Kissy, still stuck with whatever the fuck was up there.

"Just go on ahead, don't wait for us," the doll insisted, "I won't leave Kissy behind and I won't sacrifice our plan. Be careful down here…it's not like anything you've seen above, it's not trying to hide what it is, it's hell in plain sight. Playtime wanted it to be like this but we still have allies down here, get to them and they'll keep you safe, they'll help you until we can catch up."

"Will you be okay, angel?" DogDay asked as the elevator stopped and she stepped off, obviously still worried about her after what happened up there.

"Yeah, I've got this," she nodded, putting on a brave face when it moved again, going back up, and she waved. "Just stay alive, all of you!"

"Follow the Red Smoke!" Poppy advised. "And be careful!"

Obviously. The control room she'd been left in contained large crates with coloured squares painted on and a sign nearby saying the door led to the caves if a battery was placed in the receiver to activate the Grabpack scanner, which she was quick to find and insert then of course scan. Just before the next door in the hallway was the Foreman's Office, a rubble and blood-filled mess with nothing of note besides a printed email on the desk about that damn Red Smoke; the Science Staff were basically advising other workers to be mindful of using heat and flames and high temperatures around the stuff because turns out, it's highly flammable and explosive.

Maybe Erica was lucky to be alive if electrocuting the very thing that made it and setting him on fire hadn't also killed her in some big explosion. She put the paper down, kept moving, went into the caves and made her mind focus on the potential what-ifs like what if she never found their allies, what if this very cave came crashing down onto her, what if…

What if she died like they all had? What if the allies she thought she had turned against her? What if-

"Stop it," she hissed at herself, crawling through the tunnel. "DogDay would've left you for dead…Poppy might've thrown you over the railing and killed you…they need you, she said so herself, just shut. Up."

As if her mind had ever been quiet for a second since she came back, but it could at least agree with her body about just keep moving forward. She squeezed through a gap between the wall and a pile of rocks, coming up to Checkpoint 1A where a side room had a VHS explaining how the flare hand could light the way and also set certain substances alight but could also be deadly if you shoot the wrong thing, such as Red Smoke.

The ropes that tied the main doors together were easily burnt off and slid open, revealing massive piles of rubbish among the rocks and that square again in the distance. Erica could remember back at the control room, there had been a sign with something about a prison, but she was a little preoccupied at the time. Even now, when she could hear faint laughing and see what looked like another small critter running past, right next to a barrel with a…journal entry?

'Two weeks since the fire' was crossed out at the top, replaced instead with 'August 8th, 2014. Riley, age 12' before it began: 'First week at Playcare. I didn't know what to expect, I didn't know what I wanted it to be. There are a lot of people here and they've given a lot to me; a room, a roof, a big pink bed, girly toys (I'm a little too old for that), and a journal. The adults encourage me to talk to the other kids, but I'm not sure what to say to them. Most of them have been here almost their whole lives, or at least they were young enough that they can't remember what they've lost. My parents loved, protected and taught me, and I'm not sure the others even remember what that's like.'

Yeah, neither did Erica, or at least her biological parents. Put up for adoption right after she was born and adopted at the age of seven, and she did still love her adoptive parents, but…it just didn't compare. 'They don't know what they don't have, but I do. I remember a lot. I try to be kind to them, even if there's very little I can say. Right now, I think I prefer it like that. The nice counselor who said I was quiet told me that I could say whatever I wanted in my journal and it would only be for me. Make two lists, she said, one with what's important to me right now, in this moment, and the other being why. She said it might help me, I'm going to try it.'

The brunette couldn't remember much of anything when she was younger, just when she found out about the whole adoption thing right when Kylie did too about herself, then the discovery of secret families and siblings in South Park. Moving there, she could remember that well, but nothing really before.

'What's important to me:

- That the nice counselor cares enough about me to try to make me feel at home

- Trying to get comfortable here. Even if it's not home, it's all I have now

- That my life matters, since it can be lost so quickly

- That my parents' lives mattered too

Why:

Because I'm scared. Anything can happen in an instant and leave you with nothing, and because of that, I'm scared that nothing matters. But I want to feel happy again (really, I do) and it's important to me right now, in this moment, that someone here cares that I feel at home, even if I'm not.'

She found a second journal entry further down, dated a year later. '"Being chosen." The other kids talk about it a lot, I still don't know what that's about exactly. If it means being adopted, I'm not sure I even want that.

What's important to me:

- Figuring out if I even want to be adopted

- Trying to feel what the other kids seem to feel day in and day out

Why:

If I was happy like them and could feel it like that, maybe I'd appreciate everything more. Maybe I'd get chosen too.'

Erica doubted it was anything other than the sick cruelty to these poor kids and when she saw the next part of the entry was only a month later, her stomach dropped. 'I've been chosen, Dr White chose me. For a while, I didn't know I wanted to be, or how I'd feel if I was. But really, I think I'm happy! There were interviews, of course, but I didn't think any of those couples actually liked me. Too anxious. Too quiet. Doesn't get along with the other kids. And good test scores don't always make a good kid, they'd often say, but I guess somebody liked me.'

That didn't sound like a good thing. 'I asked if I could take my journal, they said yes, but I wanted to write this out before I leave. I haven't felt like this since before the accident, since my parents. The lists Ms. Harper told me about have helped me a lot in recent months and now, I think I have more for the first list than ever.

What's important to me:

- That I still try to be the girl my parents raised. Live by their values so that a part of them is still here, so that their lives mattered

- Being good to myself, and whoever takes me in

- Staying happy

- Finding more friends

- Getting used to a new home. Growing up to help kids that were like me

- Start an orphanage, like Elliot Ludwig, and fill it with toys and good people'

Considering the girl's journal pages were scattered down here, Erica really didn't want to think about where she really ended up. Moving further along where the Red Smoke passed in a pipe above, the critters seemed to be getting a little braver even as they shied away from the flares she'd shoot at the sight of them, like usual, and the prison entrance was soon right in front of her even as the bright lights threatened to blind her.

An alarm rang out, the gate opened, but that was when they attacked.

Chapter Text

Miniature Huggys, jumping at her from all around. If she wasn't that little bit faster and obviously a lot bigger, who knows what they might have done if they'd taken her down?

She found more of Riley's journal, undated entries as her worst fears were confirmed. 'This wasn't what I thought, what ANYONE thought. They took me somewhere, not out but under, down deep underneath EVERYTHING. They gave me a shot and I went to sleep, maybe that was days ago, maybe it was weeks. I remember images, my skin opened up like it was flower petals, a man who looked like a doctor digging around inside me, taking things out. I remember feeling his touch through my ribs and into the back of my spine. I remember hearing a snap. Everything was red.'

Oh god. 'When I woke up, everything hurt, so I screamed. Hours and hours of screaming. I stopped once I knew no one was listening. I'm not me anymore. My body is not my body. My hands are not my hands. I try to brush the hair I still feel at my shoulders and touch nothing. I can't separate my fingers, even though I can almost feel them move. It's like nothing of what I can feel actually is. Maybe that's been true for a while now.'

Why did she keep reading? 'I'm in a room that isn't so different from the one I had in the orphanage. Everything's nailed down. I've been here a long time. I'm trying to write the lists that helped before, but I've dropped the pen three times, I don't know what else to do. Why did I survive if this was all I'd get? What did it all mean if this is where it put me? This can't be all there is.

What's important to me:

- Waking up from this nightmare

- Getting out

- Getting back to being me

Why:

Because I'd started to like life again before, and none of this should be real'

Erica knew before she'd picked up the next entry that it was not going to be a happy ending for poor Riley. 'The room started moving, I'm not sure what that means or where I might be going, I'm scared but I'm trying to-

Something happened, everything is upside down. There's a hole in the room, but everything outside is so loud. There's screaming everywhere, I'm better off in here for now. I'll cover the hole with something.

It sounds like everything is quiet now. Don't think it's even been an hour since it all started. No one's tried to get in here. I think I'm going to head outside.

THERE ARE BODIES EVERYWHERE PILES AND PILES THEY LOOK LIKE ME OH GOD OH GOD WHAT'S HAPPENING-'

Her knuckles went white from how hard she clutched the paper, recognising exactly what had happened and what the girl had seen, or at least part of it. What Erica had seen on the tape of the Hour Of Joy was only the upper levels, never mind the hell down here. 'Finally calmed down. Have to be calm. Have to think clearly. Have to get out. I'm going to see if anyone is around. There's a man inside the construction vehicle. I tried banging on the glass. I don't think he can hear me, and he isn't moving. Have to get back to my room where it's safe. figure out what happens now.'

And she had to do the same thing. The main gate wouldn't open but there seemed to be another way at the top of one of the piles, so she climbed until she found the hallway and the caves, worked her way through with the Grabpack and structures and the phone started ringing when she made it to the next room, where it looked like a small train was sitting, made out of squares like the logo of this place. "Hello?"

"Hey. It's me again, Ollie. I wanted to…I wanted to talk to you, before you go inside. Everything you've seen out here, the piles, the dead, they ALL came from inside. Believe me, everything Poppy said about this place is true, it is hell. But she also hasn't seen it like I have, it's worse now, worse than ever."

"It won't stop me," she promised. "Huggy couldn't…Mommy and Miss Delight and CatNap couldn't, I'm gonna go in and face whatever's waiting for me."

"Just try and stay safe, please. Don't let your guard down for even a second. I'll try to help you when I can."

Another journal entry was next to a bloody skeleton. 'This place is a prison. I don't know what I thought it would be, but it wasn't this. I mean, what did I do wrong? They made me into this and put me in a cell. There must be hundreds, maybe even thousands of others here. How could this happen? There's no food here, only the bodies, and I refuse to eat them. The train, that's what takes everyone here. The conductor's dead, but he has a key, a key that makes the train move. I don't know if there are people elsewhere, or if they intend to come back here with more like me. I'll take the key, make sure no one else can come here. I'll put it where no one can find it.

I don't know how little or how much my life mattered, but I can do this. This one thing. Maybe it'll save someone. Anyone. Even just one person. That would be enough. Nobody else should hear what I've had to hear inside this place. Nobody else should know hell like this, or the demons that live there.

What's important:

- That I helped someone the way I wanted to someday when I thought I was adopted.

- That my life mattered to someone.

Why:

So that I'll know, wherever I go now (hopefully to my parents) that I fulfilled a little of what I said I would, and made life just a little better for someone else, even if this place took everything else.'

Erica had to wipe her eyes, swallowing the sobs that threatened to take over. She had to undo what Riley did, find that key and get in, climbing up over the train as she followed a blood trail to a container and when she saw what was inside, she had to hold back tears and vomit. That thing was no longer the girl who'd written those journal entries, the girl who hoped for so much and instead had to endure a horrific fate before dying in this fucking place.

She had to pry the key out of its stomach and opened the utility room below, a warning painted in blood on the wall to 'LEAVE THIS PLACE ALONE', the VHS nearby also giving her more reasons to just…not. Two prison guards talking about their blocks, one complaining about the toys who banged on the walls and cried for their parents or counselors, just no compassion but that hardly surprised her anymore. The other talked about how in the north wing, they had things, no longer people and their cells might as well be cages, as if that wasn't already what they were.

"They're animals," he said, "sick, twisted, just instincts and anger. That's all that's left of them."

So when the Hour Of Joy happened, that weird box-y thing she saw must be one of those. It made a lot of sense, right? Would it be waiting for her when she gets inside?

The screaming and banging they had mentioned could actually be heard right before the tape ended, cutting their break time short. Erica moved on, using the breaker in the room to power up the train, an alarm blaring as one of the doors opened and she stepped into what was essentially a padded cell, the door closing on its own and the train took off as she sat with her knees to her chest and just…

Tried to breathe for a minute. Tried to not have a complete breakdown like it was getting more and more tempting to do the more she found out about this place, about the way children had been getting treated, how Riley had been treated and what happened to her, how many more times it might have happened over and over and fucking over. That lady who screamed at her about her kid, the incident that got Marcus fired for defending her, even though Erica had swore on her fucking life the woman never came in with a kid, it was because he'd been one of the 'chosen ones' for treatment and the adoption fell through.

She doubted that was the first time it happened, since this company seemed really used to covering shit up.

The train grinded to a halt and the TV in the top corner flickered on, the lights dimming as…an eyes appeared. "Hmm…now what's this? Do I feel something squirming its way beneath my skin?"

What. The actual fuck. Now she had really seen it all.

"An invasive, foreign little germ?" the voice continued. "After all this time? Ah…but I see…you."

And the cart started to shake and move. "Well, little germ, let's make a game of you. You've blundered along the shadows above, and only managed to squirm all the way down here but by the barest skin of your teeth. There are no shadows here that would be of any use to you, not even the ground beneath your feet is yours."

Falling backwards onto her ass seemed to prove his point. "There are no places you can hide, not anymore…not from me."

He laughed as the TV and the lights went off, plunging her into complete darkness.

Chapter Text

Her feet found the door before her hands did, kicking then pulling it open. Another train crash, it seemed, but at least this one hadn't knocked her out and allowed something to find her because she wasn't expecting whatever else was down here to be as mercifcul as CatNap had been, who just dumped her down a trash chute. No, since she could see a body at the top of the elevator shaft, pinned to the wall and bloody, she knew they would have a much more violent approach.

The vents gave her a little window into what the prison looked like and she managed to reach in, use the Grabpack to open one of the doors then used it again to lower herself back down, squeeze around the crashed train and-

A critter ran past the now opened door, her nerves immediately skyrocketing with it. Didn't help that it looked exactly like CatNap because of fucking course the discontinued toys of him would be here. A familiar unsettling laugh sounded, the two exits leading downstairs sliding shut and a cell door opening on its own to show…some unfamiliar critters with evil expressions and sharp teeth trying to come for her before she shut it.

So turns out the Smiling Critters had secret evil counterparts that never got released and instead were put down here! Great! One of the rare empty cells had a hole in the floor from where it caved in that got her down to the bottom floor, where piles of dead critters lay but some were definitely still alive.

The smell got to her more than anything. She got around the blockades through the makeshift tunnels in the cells and in the locker room, picked up a new Grabpack hand from a dead body and saw it had a flashlight, that was its only purpose aside from unlocking the gate, but better than nothing. That same voice from the train came on through the intercom while she was still looking around, seeing a few bunk beds in the corner and thinking anyone who had actually slept down here must be out of their fucking mind.

"Despite being out of ideas, the subject scrambles for an advantage, appearing lost and disorientated. Heavy breathing is indicative of fear, and rightly so…let's test the response to said fear when pushed into action."

And the doors started opening.

…

Those little fuckers sure could jump, but still ran from flares like the others had. Erica shot at them, chased them back into their cells and slammed the doors shut, even as they just opened again and the vents were also wide open too, it was a lot. A couple managed to get her arms, ripped her sleeves but she'd throw them against the wall and they would cower back to their cells, the stupid things.

"I have seen enough," the voice finally spoke and at once, the critters stopped, calmly going back to their cells or the vents. "Thank you, you may proceed."

Damn right she could fucking proceed. Upstairs in the control room was a keypad and a computer waiting for a code to open the door at the end of the hall, a whiteboard next to it with a game of Hangman drawn on and right beside it, a table of Assignments 1 to 6 with letters, and four of them written in red. When she typed the corresponding numbers into the computer, the computer screen lit up and the button could be pushed, causing an alarm to blare as the door opened. She had to wrestle some rusty bars off another one to get into the next area but the Grabpack was strong and the second she'd climbed in, Ollie was calling.

In the static she heard: "Hear me? Too much inter- make your way to- there's something- doctor-"

'That's what he's calling himself, Doctor? Whatever…'

Aside from where she'd come in from, there was a number of other doors spanning from the desk in the middle and one right behind it for the Warden's Office. Only one of the scanners was active and opened up another door but she thought, just while she was there and the corridor to the Office was open, she might as well check that out first, even if the security system to get into it was weird as shit.

Erica could see the plaque above the door matched the one inside, just without the part in the middle which she soon found a match for in one of the surrounding offices, so not very secure anyway. A cassette tape was on the desk and she could tell almost immediately that it was the Hour Of Joy, the warden heard panicking through the alarms, roars, everything else before it got quiet…suspiciously quiet before she heard that voice again, the Doctor who had been tormenting her.

And he seemed proud of it, proud of the Prototype for doing this. The warden didn't understand how security measures and failsafes hadn't kicked in but the Doctor implied that it wasn't just the experiments rebelling, encouraged him to use his executive access to keep himself alive and it was clear the man had seen things, horrific things, and the Doctor could help him as a banging noise started up, and it didn't sound good.

"My body's stuck here, sure, but my mind…the Omni-Hand. If you give it to me, I can get you anywhere, I'll have control over everything."

Like the prison cells, the gates. She didn't trust him at all, she doubted the warden had made it out like he'd been promised, but of course it ended after he freed the Doctor. This was all that the office had and so she turned back around to the gate she'd opened, a vault that wouldn't budge and a…a blood trail leading to a hallway where bloody bodies lay all over.

Human bodies, for once, spread out all the way down and-

"Oh…oh god."

Around the corner too, but worse. Impaled on pipes, a makeshift tunnel she had to squeeze through, holding back more tears and vomit, if she even had any left. Pulled a card out of one of their hands to slot into the device back at the reception desk, shifted her way back past them and ran out of there. Another scanner activated, another gate opened and she hoped, prayed even, that it would be just a little bit better than that.

The vault then opened to show more cells, and she almost wished for bodies again.

"Don't fight it," the Doctor spoke, "fighting only makes it work quicker."

Red Smoke. Of fucking course. It was being pumped into the room through the pipes on the lower floor and she just managed to get down there but without a pipe wheel, she couldn't stop it or open the gate. Surely this was another one of his sick fucking tests, right? He wanted her to find one.

Her body wanted to rest, a feeling that the gas encouraged and made her vision swam as she grabbed it from the locker room, starting to hear voices as she crawled underneath the rubble, everything going dark as the wheel attached to the pipe and she turned it but still had enough energy to get upstairs, get the shit out of her and get into the office where she could see it just continued to spread but she wasn't breathing it in anymore, the symptoms clearing.

Another computer needing a code, another whiteboard with the fucking thing plastered on it in the form of a calendar. Letters E, C, G and A across the top row, a post-it note in the bottom corner reading 'Check the CAGE' with CAGE in the same red as the letters, so she input the matching numbers once more and they were accepted, the button being pushed right after but the results were different this time.

On one hand, the Red Smoke dispersed entirely but on the other, not before a massive build-up right outside caused the window to break, giving her an escape and a new path to follow. The Doctor didn't have anything to say as she bailed and she was glad, crawling under shutters and picking up a Prisoner Profile made by a familiar name, Dr Sawyer, about a monstrous-looking thing dubbed Experiment 1166, also known as Yarnaby.

Erica found the whole thing to be creepy, the way he wanted to take advantage of its loyalty towards some security staff and have it bend to his will, do whatever he wanted by isolating it and being the only one it has contact with. The way he talked about how large and strong Yarnaby was, though, that made the brunette hope she would never be unfortunate enough to run into it.

The hallways and jump pads led her to another vent but the place shook as something opened up, something she couldn't even see. Wires were present in the vent, a lot of them that went on the further she crawled, leading to two more control rooms and a closed shutter, most of the main room there closed off by rubble but she soon figured out how to progress with the two large boxes also at her disposal.

In each control room was a Grabpack panel that closed the other's door but if both were activated, they would open the shutter. She manouvered the boxes underneath each door and sure enough when she scanned both panels, the main door opened and there was another just beyond it. One door shut so the other could open, revealing what she knew had to be more cells…more fucking cells.

Seven of them, most shut but with bloodstained doors, others with broken furniture and huge dried up puddles of blood, all shit she'd gotten used to seeing. The glass was even broken, letting her reach in to grab another Prisoner Profile for Experiment 1163, Pianosaurus, which Dr Sawyer called a failure because "whatever's left of the 'bright, joyful, bundle of laughter' (per the Counselor's report) appears limited, or altogether depleted" and that just made her even more angry at this whole place because it still used to be a fucking child.

Her hands shook from more than fear at this point.

Number 3 was the only one left she could enter, and the door shut the second she stepped inside, as she should have expected.

"You know, I never thought I'd see another like you," the Doctor said. "Certainly not an employee like you, but you're different…I can't say exactly why that is, though, not yet anyway."

He chuckled. "The others you've faced, 1170, 1188, 1222…been there, done that. I say we try our hand at something a little more challenging. Oh, Yarnaby!"

Now she shook from fear, oh now she was fucking shaking from fear as that damn door opened and-

Thank fuck the glass was there because he ran at it as she screamed and backed right up to the fucking door behind her, watched him paw and pace and-

Fucking hell, his face really did split open to reveal his mouth, okay! He disappeared through a hole in the wall but she didn't dare move, not even when a door at the side opened.

"Oh please, do keep making this enjoyable for me," the Doctor added, "I'll be taking notes…"

Chapter Text

Fuck this shit, she thought as she pushed herself up, forced herself to move. Fuck this fucking place, it can fuck right off to hell and so can the Doctor. There was only one battery for the four receivers but not all of them needed powered, she realised, just the one that powered the scanner to the other door. Down the hallway was a locked gate and she considered for a second just using her knife and either cutting through or whatever but…

But a fucking hand reached down and unlocked it. A yellow arm from wherever the hell in the ceiling it came from before quickly retreating, leaving her standing there completely dumbfounded. "Uh…thank you?"

The gate and an unlocked door brought her into a battery room where she narrowly avoided Yarnaby as she crouched underneath a collapsed shelf, watching him climb into the room and roar, sniffing around trying to find her. She could get a better look now, saw how his body was covered in large bits of yarn all colours of the rainbow and how above him was a vent she could swing into but not while he was standing right in front of it.

"Psst," came a whisper from a smaller vent in the corner, that same arm again sticking out but with a flare in hand, getting the beast's attention as he went over, giving Erica a clear shot to her escape.

It brought her through to machinery, gates, a note and VHS that she picked up while listening out for Yarnaby who sounded very close and sure enough, she only had a split second to hide before he'd broken in, started stalking around again. When he turned around, she made herself move into a smaller space as he started tearing down the gate, then running out through the shutter and it closed behind him.

Erica found the tape's player not long after as she climbed out. It contained a conversation between Stella, Leith and an Eddie Ritterman about the Doctor, his lack of regard for safety of the facility or the staff, never mind the children in Playcare. He doesn't listen to any of them anymore and is behind schedule, they had to get rid of him and "it's not like it's the first time we've made someone disappear" but they couldn't exactly kill him because they still needed him.

The name Sawyer came up and the dots started to connect. Leith mentioned a few incidents like "Huggy going loose in the woods, that business with CatNap, the whole Stoll thing" and most likely a lot more, including the Theater Incident, and the tape ended with them finding a solution to their problem.

She couldn't believe it for a second, that Dr Harley Sawyer was this mechanical maniac targetting her, or that they apparently killed staff members just to keep everything all fucking secret, even going as far as to turn them into experiments. Just for a second, before she remembered what they had been doing even before that, everything they got away with before death seemed to come for them all, except a lucky few.

In her pockets when trying to find the note she had just picked up, there was actually a few she'd completely forgotten she grabbed. One was a Weekly Checkup for Experiment 1172, another Weekly Checkup form but for Experiment 1424, and two journal pages for Cole Vaughn whose name she recognised as one of the prison's security guards.

The first entry read: 'Reassignment. Ol' Cole isn't a "Resource Extraction Specialist" anymore, he's a "Shelf Keeper" (basically a prison guard). I don't know how I should feel about that. The letter they sent me seemed nice enough, commending me for fixing their mistakes. I should be grateful, I suppose. But I know I'll wake up tomorrow, and the reality will hit me as it has every morning since the Incident. My friends are gone.

Dozens went to clean up their mess, but only a handful came back. That guilt ate me up. Probably always will. Those of us left got a pat on the back for doing what was expected and were promptly dropped into whatever new role Playtime could find for us. Me, they put down here with them: the things that killed my friends, that would kill me too if they had their way.

I've sat alone in my apartment for countless nights now, thinking it all through. The faces of my friends and my co-workers, their families, they all come to me. And in the morning, I'm there with the monsters who killed them. Maybe I'm exactly where I need to be. I can make sure they stay down here in the deepest, darkest hole imaginable. Right where they belong.'

She bet the Incident he mentioned was one Leith had listed and started the second entry:

'Last week, Stanley was attacked on duty. He's one of the nice ones down here. Even feels bad for those things. Tries his best to sneak candy and toys to them between shifts. He thinks most of us don't notice, but we do. The soft-hearted idiot thought he could sneak food to Boxy after hours. Just walked right into the cell. Had it not been for a few other guards stationed nearby with tranquilizers, he wouldn't have made it out. I visited him in the infirmary the morning after it happened to see if he was alright. I always knew the guy was a bit of an airhead, but to walk into a cell like that? And with one of the big ones, no less? That's just downright stupid.

I asked him why. Why risk it? What's it to him? Why does it matter? He was quiet for a little like he was afraid to tell me.

"They're not just beasts, Cole." He finally said. "They were... MORE than that, once."

I asked him how he could believe that.

"Been watching." he said. "Paying attention to things. Reports. Eyeing some of the stuff the scientists pass between one another."

After a while, I got him to keep that crazy talk to himself, and made him promise not to snoop like that again. Told him to get some sleep. But ever since our talks, I haven't been able to get anything he said off my mind. It can't be true. I've seen what those things can do. I mean, they're 12 feet tall for goodness sake, how can they be anything other than monsters?

It's silly. It's stupid. And whatever Stanley's trying to say, he's wrong.'

"He was more right than you think," Erica muttered, crawling into the vent and coming back out into a box storage room where another of Cole's entries sat on a shelf. So maybe she hadn't been totally correct about everyone knowing what was going on, what these things really were…it wasn't like she'd wanted to believe it either.

'I couldn't get the thought out of my head. What Stanley was implying. I always believed they were homegrown. Maybe animals or something, but not PEOPLE. I mean, what about a giant toy with an appetite for men and women screams "Yeah, I'm a person"?

Snooping around documents for the eggheads is a punishable offense. And if the rumors about punishments here are true, then that means being careful is a must. But too many people have lost their lives to these things for the rest of us to be blind and accepting that we can keep them under control and that we can trust Playtime at their word. I've looked into things a little bit. I know the guys that guard the Archives Room. They keep a tight ship, but in the right setting with the right type of mood, their lips get real loose. They let slip the process and code for getting in.

While security feeds were down one night, I went in. Didn't get very far, but I grabbed a few prisoner profile documents. The observations were from one "Dr Harley Sawyer." Not a name I recognize. But the observations mentioned people...

I'll be investigating further. But I'm starting to worry that Stanley might have been on to something.'

She wondered how much he'd managed to find before everything went to shit, before they got loose and most likely killed him, the very things she now had to run from. Between the shelves was…it was dough, actually, a lot of it. Colourful, stretched out from floor to ceiling and a really fucking weird place to put the stuff but…almost familiar?

Just as she squeezed her way through and moved past it, going down the room, there was a noise behind her and she wished she hadn't turned around when she saw Yarnaby pulling himself up onto the shelf.

"Oh…shit."

With a roar, he pounced, and she took off.

Chapter Text

Why the FUCK did the only path out of there have to be filled with boxes!? It was bad enough getting chased, never mind having to weave herself around shit!

"Hey," a voice called out, that same arm reaching down to open the door for her and allowing her to rush through into the vent. Yarnaby could be heard roaring and crashing against it but as far as she knew, he couldn't break through concrete and metal just yet, soon heard rushing off again while Erica dropped down into what must be the Archives Room but there was actually quite a few of them.

Weird noises could be heard in the distance but she wasn't too worried as she looked around, finding a green VHS tape and its player, of course. Leith and Stella talking about the testing and she mentioned feeling bad for the kids, not liking to see them hurt but then called the work that had been done a miracle, of all things, what?

Dr Sawyer was named as the project lead, he'd had his doubts about Stella at first with how close she was to them, but obviously that was no longer the case. Erica hated it, hated all of it because was helping kids in the future worth hurting all o them down here? No, no it fucking wasn't!

She had to keep going or she'd lose it. That noise was only getting louder, a kind of moaning noise behind a sealed door, but she had found the keycard for it along with another of Cole's journal entries, the last one: 'It happened again. The experiments broke free. I don't remember much. All the doors opened, and I was pinned to the floor by something big. Everything went black. I woke up in one of the same cells the experiments were in. I could hear other guards next to me. Above me. They were screaming, pleading. It reminded me of the experiments. The way they'd smash against the walls, bearing their teeth and trying to act like they weren't afraid.

It's funny that I haven't thought of home yet, locked in this cell. Honestly, I haven't thought of home in a long time. That was another life, another me. No, the only thought that comes to mind is how inevitable this all was. They hurt us, and we hurt them back. We hurt them, and they hurt us in return. Over years and years and countless incidents, this is the way it's been. Nobody cares to stop it, and nobody's innocent anymore. We MADE them, and they've made US. We've been prisoners to a cycle down here in the dark, and I don't think any of us deserve to see the light anymore.

If you ever find these notes, please, whoever you are, never let another hell like this exist. Otherwise, it'll consume you and ALL your good intentions.

If you ask me, all of us, we're in the deepest, darkest hole imaginable. Right where we belong.'

Well…it wasn't like she thought it would end any differently for him, but it was unfortunate all the same. She could hear something else when the door opened, the sounds of chewing and she really hoped it wasn't as bad as it sounded, seeing only the observation windows for what must be another cage and the noises coming from below but she couldn't see anything, not from where she was standing.

The ledge looked stable enough would be her later argument. In the moment when it sent her falling, she could only mutter a swear and cry out, landing with a thud and getting the attention of the beast whose cage she'd fallen into. In the dim light she saw it stand up on its back legs, the soft sound of music coming from it as it moved.

Pianosaurus didn't look as big as Yarnaby, but it didn't mean she wasn't still scared, especially when he charged at her and she could only scream, close her eyes, throw her arms up and wait for-

Nothing. Nothing for her, anyway. A thud from further away and she looked in time to see that something else had grabbed the musical dinosaur, throwing it against the ground, the walls, the ground again before pulling it into the darkness. When the sound of chewing came with bits of his body being spat out, she covered her ears and cowered, shaking, especially when its fucking head was then sent flying over.

"Now that hit the spot!" a familiar voice boomed, a figure coming out. "I haven't eaten in weeks!"

She barely suppressed a flinch as it came over to her, moving quickly. A figure made entirely out of dough, in blue and yellow and orange, a small hat at the side of his head with a cheery expression on his face as he spoke. "Well, hiya there, pal! Don't worry, I won't eat YOU!"

He seemed to giggle at the very idea, then tipped his hat. "I'm Doey…I was told to expect you, but I apologise that this is how we meet."

When she tried to stand, the shaking seeming to calm down, he helped to pull her up and she managed a smile. "Thanks…and thanks for the help. I'm Erica."

"It's nice to meet you! Now, let's get out of here. This way! Follow me…"

He was quite cartoony, the way he could stretch his body, and she found it amusing. Whatever type of form he'd taken against Pianosaurus wasn't one that would be used any time soon, and she was just glad to have some company again. She had to take a longer way around since she couldn't exactly squeeze through small gaps but he didn't go too far as she pulled herself up, hearing him sigh when she came to the rooms, the…

"Interrogation Rooms," Doey explained, "they'd question us in here after watching us, those of us who could speak at all. I always answered, but I never gave 'em an answer they liked."

More storage rooms beyond them, mostly locked, a yellow VHS in one. Erica found the player down another hallway, a group of specialists cleaning up after what must have been one of the incidents, over sixty visitors dead and who knows how many staff. They mentioned that someone in particular was the culprit but never named anyone specifically, then talked about how there was plans to avoid this happening again, somewhere to put them.

After the corridors was another gate that the dough creation slipped through easily before breaking the bars so she could pull them apart and climb through into the caves, where Doey had stretched himself out over a particulaely large gap. "There's some nasty falls in this place, but I can get you across!"

On the wall was a marking that read SAFE HAVEN and SECTOR 4D but the 'safe' had been crossed out with what she hoped was paint and the words 'BUT FOR HOW LONG?' added above it, her new companion speaking up before she could.

"So…have you seen Poppy anywhere? Ollie said she was around…somewhere."

"Not for a while," Erica sighed as they kept moving. "I was told to go ahead and find our allies down here, just ran into a lot of trouble."

"Yeah. You get used to it, but I'm glad I could help you out. Ollie said we can trust you, and I really hope that's true."

They'd made it to the Prison Utility Zone where the doors ahead were locked and Doey managed to squeeze through a crack in the wall. "There's a safe place up ahead, it's not too far from here. You check your side to see if these doors will open and I'll check out here!"

One thing she did find were hooks scattered to attach to them, the levers all over the place and the final not on the floor with the rest. She headed up into the towers to search, finding a keypad-guarded locker and the whiteboard with the answers, as usual. The towers all had a colour and a number, the order on the board and the numbers on the sides of them, giving her the last lever.

"This was once a workyard, you know," Doey told her through the wall as she headed back down. "A dozen of us, maybe two would be here at any given time. During the day, they'd have us work. Whatever they wanted us to do, we'd do it. And for those of us who couldn't, or wouldn't…at night, when no one was watching, they'd take them, stick 'em in here. "We only got food for one of you this week," they'd say. "Which of you will it be?" They'd watch from up there. It was usually over within minutes. And the guards, they'd be hysterical."

"Fucking hell," Erica whispered, "I'm so sorry."

"…it's alright, I was always the strongest anyway. Can you get through?"

"Just a sec."

He might be the most confusing character she'd encountered so far, just from how he'd be so joyful one minute and then sinister, even depressing the next. The type of…she didn't want to call him a monster but he'd grabbed Pianosaurus just inches away from her and then tossed him around like a fucking ragdoll before eating him, even if out of pure necessity and you know, saving her life.

She had to remember the kind of company she kept could kill her quite easily, even if they hadn't done anything to make her fear for her life…much.

The doors were opened and she saw that Doey was quite a bit ahead now, big piles of rubble separating them as he headed off through a door with a wave. "See you soon!"

Good thing the surrounding rooms were somewhat connected, especially with the holes in the walls making it a bit easier to get around, soon finding a Reconaissance Report in an office that was assumably written by one of the other allies: 'Elevators? All shut. Can't escape. Construction Tunnels? Could lead on forever. Easily lost inside. Probably has the same freezing traps that No Man's Land does. Can't do that to Doey. He's all that keeps us safe. Doctor knew that when he had them planted.

Cell Blocks—
North - the worst of the worst there. Doc uses that. Nowhere for us there.

East - Guard station and barriers appear intact. Strictly within the Doctor's control, and rabids are everywhere. Lost too many to them already.

Northeast - the doors on all sides are barricaded. All my usual tricks can't get me in. Feels... off.

West - Skeletons and claw markings in all the cells. Seems people were kept there after the Hour. Can't let the littles see this.

Northwest - too many bad memories. We need hope, not hopelessness.

Barracks - Might run on its own emergency power. Security designed to kill us (might be turned off)

It's a choice between what we KNOW will kill us, and what MIGHT. For me, that's easy. Little choice. No path out. Casualties high. Only one place left. I hope we can live with it.'

She hoped they'd found the safe place Doey was talking about, that they were okay and not just more dead bodies to be eaten or whatever the fuck. A sealed off vent brought her through to where Doey had made it. "Our generator's in a pretty bad state, so we try to keep the power off in here but I'll turn it on for you, it'll open a door downstairs."

The 'downstairs' he pointed her towards through a hole in the floor was a maze, an empty battery receiver being the first thing she saw, but not empty for long as he passed one down to her. "Here! Use this!"

"Thank you," she replied, seeing the gate open when she put it in and finding a mechanism with several cogs missing and scattered about the place. Once they were all put back in, the shutter at the side opened up.

"Should be a straight shot from here, bud!" Doey called down. "I, uh…should probably go turn off our defences for you, huh? Guess I'll see you inside?"

Obviously it wasn't so easy for her, she had to take the longer way through the kitchen and could see right away, some critters were here too. What she also found on the counter was a letter: 'Dear Mr and Mrs Ayers, we can give him back to you. Your son Jack can live. Show this message to no one. Six weeks from the time of receiving this letter, return to the Playtime Co Factory. Someone will be waiting for you there. A Friend'

Great, more shady stuff this shitty company had done to keep their experiments under wraps, right? What the hell was this? Because it sounded alarmingly similar to the fucking Gift Shop Incident as she was calling it now with that woman who she thought was crazy, but it turned out this place was fucking crazy. Except this was more than an adoption falling through, these were parents who lost their child to this place, it was something Erica couldn't even imagine, had no idea about until now.

She couldn't crawl underneath the fridge that blocked the exit and the Grabpack wasn't strong enough to move it either, so hopefully the claw was. The lever was in the shut-off freezer but inside was a critter a bit larger than the ones she'd faced so far, a weird rat thing that wasn't immediately scared off by her flares, it took quite a few actually.

Didn't help that it had been eating a smaller critter, most likely dragging it in there judging by the blood trail. Anyway, the fridge was moved and she was staring down a long hallway with a double set of doors at the end, only making it halfway down before it grabbed her and pulled her into a space between the walls.

As much as Erica had stood up to monsters like Mommy Long Legs and CatNap, she froze as this one covered her mouth to muffle her screams and then she just couldn't move, something else had grabbed her and this was it, wasn't it?

This was how it ended for her.

Chapter Text

He did tell them it wasn't the best idea to just grab her, but Poppy had insisted upon it ever since they heard her and Doey getting closer. "If we get there without her and the defences go back up without her inside, it'll be a lot worse, okay? Everything else is blocked off and…HE is close, I can feel it. You'll be saving her again and- here she comes!"

Kissy's hand over her mouth wasn't enough to fully muffle the scream, the narrow gap wasn't enough to stop her struggling and trying to lash out so DogDay had to do it before she hurt herself, even as she was clearly crying and scared. "Angel, please, you need to be quiet."

It was either him or opening her eyes to see Poppy sitting on Kissy's shoulder, but she did settle, she did stop moving. Erica knew the whole thing had only lasted a few seconds, feeling like eternity, and just calming down only to be fucking terrified all over again at what went past them, what had almost got her instead.

Probably the one thing in this entire fucking building she was more afraid of than anything else, than Yarnaby and maybe even CatNap, the one who she had a feeling Dr Harley goddamn Sawyer would answer to as well. Crab-like legs stopped right where they were hiding, a tense few seconds passing before they moved again, loud and mechanical sounds when he walked with his many, many legs.

The brunette didn't miss how Poppy looked away with bloodshot eyes, how Kissy was trembling even as her hand stayed where it was, how DogDay pulled her a little more into the space and did let go of her but when she reached out, he immediately took her hand. They waited until the noise was completely gone before he led them out the other side.

"Through the showers," the doll whispered, "we should be able to make it to Safe Haven from there."

Stopped once more to look around the corner in case he was still near. In the light as they moved quickly into the shower area, even as she grabbed the VHS off the shelf in the corner, she could see now how worse for wear they were, Kissy especially with her other arm in a makeshift sling. DogDay had some extra scratches but thankfully still standing, and Erica knew she must not look much better.

She almost flinched when she saw one of the smaller toys in a stall, and they seemed just as scared of her, definitely not the same type that chased and terrorised. A double set of Staff Only Doors was at the end of the corridor that opened when Kissy pounded on them, the group hurrying inside and Poppy instructing some little robot to close it, Erica feeling like she could only breathe normally again once it was done.

"What's going on?" Doey said as he rushed over to them. "Oh my…what happened? Poppy, is that…DogDay too? How?"

"Kissy needs help, now," the doll replied, almost pleading.

"Right, right. Take her to one of the beds and I'll check the defences, see if anything's still outside."

"Not just something, it's him. He's out there."

"You BROUGHT HIM DOWN-"

He sighed a long, exhausted sigh as he calmed down. "We'll talk about this later…for now, I'll make sure "out there" is where he stays."

"Locking down Safe Haven," the little robot spoke up as he ran off again, "reactivating the defences."

While Poppy got Kissy to sit down, Erica took the Grabpack off and turned her attention to DogDay. "Are you okay?"

"I am now that I know you are too, angel."

The doll joined them soon after and the brunette could see a crack along her face. "I…I didn't know it had gotten this bad…I need to make this right. Down below us is the Labs, the Prototype's home. You remember how you re-directed the Red Smoke from Playcare? It's an accelerant, so if we give it a little spark…"

"It ignites," the girl finished. "That's how we kill him? Blow him up?"

"Exactly. The plan is this: we fill the foundation with the smoke and line it with old mining charges, us four get out of here and our friends blow the place sky high."

"But what about everyone else?" DogDay asked. "The toys, Doey, whoever else Angel might want to keep alive?"

"This is our revenge for what's he's done to us! It's-"

No," Erica shook her head, "hell no. I'm all for revenge, but not at the cost of someone's life, an innocent life, never mind hundreds, no. There's gotta be another way."

"…see what Doey needs in the meantime, I'll be here with Kissy."

Yeah, that conversation was NOT over, but she had no energy for it. She could finally get a look at the place anyway, at the blankets strung up across the ceiling, at the blanket forts and the drawings on the wall, the-

The drawing of CatNap and children under his Red Smoke made her regret looking around and of course, DogDay noticed. "Angel?"

"I'm fine," she lied, wiping her eyes. "Just gonna talk to Doey…you sit too, okay? I'll be right back, I'm okay."

He didn't believe her but he didn't push, stepping back and lowering himself into a sitting position where he could still see her.

"Let's talk in here," Doey suggested, the doors to the power room opening as he led her inside, closing behind them. "I heard what you did up there, what you survived, and how you've even saved one of our own as I've seen, so it must be true. We need your help…the voice out there, the one in the prison, they called him-"

"The Doctor, Dr Harley Sawyer."

"You've heard of him?"

"Yeah…he created you, right?"

"Yes…all of us. He was the scientist in charge of that and we don't know what he is, how he's still alive, but he works with the Prototype. Hunting us, starving us, making us sick and…"

He was getting angry again, quickly reigning it in. "He controls it all with an Omni-Hand, we think. The executives used them. It's a battery, a key, the master control to everything in the entire factory and with it, he commands everything down here…everything but this, our generator. Runs completely on its own grid, away from the prison, kept us safe when we needed it the most. Now…I need you to stop the Doctor, take his Omni-Hand for our generator, and if you want Red Smoke in the Foundation."

"…I don't want to blow the factory up and kill more people," she admitted, arms coming up to hug herself. "I hate that I had to do it at all, I hate that so…so much death happened and I had no idea, I can't do that again even if I want the Doctor dead."

"I understand," Doey nodded, "those toys in Safe Haven are my family…I know what Poppy wants, what she believes is right, but I ask you to consider: if we throw everything away, everyone, just to kill the Prototype…how much do we waste? The others might believe it's right, that we should bury everything, but let's just think about it."

She had been, and her mind was practically made up already.

"The infirmary has sewer access inside to get you to No Man's Land, where he is. But I do encourage you to stay and catch your breath, alright? Our Safe Haven is also yours."

…

Erica found a storage room, a secret room with a tribute set up to those who had passed, photos and candles and poppies scattered over it but the doll herself painted on the wall and then crossed off. The main area had spare batteries, a Goods stall of miscellaneous tools, a door leading through to toilets and fairy lights hanging all over too.

She came to sit with DogDay after a while. "You have to stay here, no matter how long I'm gone, okay?"

"Angel-"

"Please. Please, I am asking you to stay and stay safe and alive, in the best place to try."

"…I wish you would stay too."

"I know. I just want this to be over but it can't until they're dealt with, we can't leave otherwise, they'll kill us."

"Okay…okay, I'll stay here."

"Do you promise?"

He looked at her. "As long as you promise to come back."

"I will. I promise I'll come back."

She shifted to hug him and he let her, he clearly needed it too, then helped her put the Grabpack back on. "Take care, angel."

"Always."

Chapter Text

The infirmary was right next to the CatNap painting which she pointedly ignored, going right inside past where a couple toys sat in the corner, a makeshift waiting room and a couple beds behind curtains with only one taken. A piece of paper on the counter nearby had information about Safe Haven because it was originally for employees, typical, a room down the hall with another group of injured toys and a VHS tape on the side.

At first, just the sound of crying, a phone ringing, then picked up. Ollie calling Poppy, a conversation about 'bad men' and how much it hurt, the experimenting, the surgeries over and over that they'd both gone through, how she wasn't herself anymore and just a thing. Erica could understand why she would just want to blow this entire place sky high after everything she'd been through at their hands, but it still didn't mean they could just kill everyone else in the process.

Right before the exit was another tape. Eddie Ritterman and a man named Darwin Silva whose company was responsible for a lot of builds in the factory, like Game Station and Playcare, but this was drawing the line for him and he needed to know this was the same company that Elliot Ludwig had created, to do good.

That assurance never came. Eddie just put him in his place about the contract he signed when the factory was first built, about doing whatever was asked of him, then the renewal years later with a clause that "any and all directives will be accomplished in the appropriate time, and with appropriate compensation should the project be completed to satisfaction." So basically, he was to do the work as directed or else.

She really wasn't surprised anymore with what they did to cover up their shitty actions, but it still hurt that they knowingly did it and threatened people to stay quiet, despite them not even knowing the full truth, ironically it made her sick. The tunnels that led her out of the infirmary were lit with fairy lights strung all along, coming out to the sewers where she could see the Red Smoke in the pipes above, leading the way.

"I just think you might be wrong, Poppy. What you want…"

"It's the best for everyone, Doey," the doll replied, their voices coming out of the grate, "that no trace of this place was left. We agreed on that."

"But us…everyone in there, we're not just things gone wrong, we're people. How can she see that and you can't?"

"I can, and I'm sorry but-"

"They look up to me, I've looked after them the best I've could while you left us, you disappeared. We looked and looked, there was nothing, no sign of you. Can you even tell me why? You just come back like nothing's happened with her, Kissy injured, DogDay- you said all the Smiling Critters had been picked off. He says you told him to keep quiet about her…she doesn't even know?"

"…I had to leave, I had no choice."

"It's not good enough. We've starved down here, we've been hunted, and now you're asking us to burn everything? ALL of us? We've made our life protecting these toys and they've…they've saved us in more ways than one. We-"

"Poppy," the little robot interrupted, "she needs you. Done what I could."

"I wish there was another way, Doey…I just don't see it. We'll talk about this later."

"We have a lot to talk about later."

Yeah, with Erica too because what the actual fuck? More secrets? Poppy keeping one from her was one thing but DogDay? And something about her specifically too? 'Unbelievable' didn't even begin to cover it, but she would confront them later, after she was done with the Doctor.

Down one side was a dead end, a glimpse into the rest of the caves and nearby, a more well-lit room with an elevator, the gas pipe travelling up the wall. The waste water plant had a large vat in the middle, a bridge going across it that led her to find a report on Subject 1322C, or Matthew Hallard. 'For all intent and purposes, Matthew Hallard is a DREAM child.

He's thoughtful, kind, considerate, understanding. And while maybe not as intelligent as some of the other children (averaging only B to C level work in School), nor as physically gifted, he MORE than makes up for it in his charm and charisma.

There's NOBODY down here who isn't fond of the boy. It's just a shame that he came to us already a boy of fifteen, well into his puberty. Most parents look for a child a lot younger. He understands.

Though he rarely speaks on it, I know Matthew suffers from DEEP insecurities. I've read the reports on the accident that put him here. He blames himself for the family he couldn't save. I believe he's on the road to healing, but the way is long. And nobody mourns the same.

He's become something of a leader to the younger children though, even reading them books LATE into the afternoon (we allow it, sorry). "The Adventures of the Word Wizard" is his favorite. They listen to him when he breaks up fights in the Playhouse, and hang on almost every word he says. And seeing him like this, assuming this role, I think it's what he needs. Should he age out, I might even request bringing him onto staff.'

Claire Harper had signed it and Stella had added a note: '(He IS a good candidate for 1322C, should his personality mesh with the other two. But please, be gentle if you pick him. He's a fine young man. The future we're fighting for would be a waste if we sacrifice too many like him. -Stella'

God, what the hell had they done? A VHS tape nearby had more on whatever 1322 was, mentioning a 1322B they took from Home Sweet Home, for Project Doey. They noted his behavioural issues but his physical test results were a much different story, and Dr Sawyer had called him perfect for the Project. They had to be careful that one consciousness wouldn't throw the other two off and end up with "nine hundred pounds of dough that can shift however it pleases and can turn on those it trusts." Still, Sawyer had the final say and they were preparing to gather the other two in the next morning.

Doey being made up of three people did make a lot of sense, considering the different aspects of his personality that Erica had seen. His joy, his anger, his empathy, not to mention the yellow, orange, red mixed in with the blue to show this as well. It definitely helped to explain what happened back with Pianosaurus, she thought, but hopefully it wouldn't happen again.

A door leading out of the plant brought her back to the caves and the phone started ringing soon after. "Hello? Ollie?"

More static again. "Hey…hey, can you hear me?"

Barely. "There's some- when you get the- hopefully nothing- might not be-"

Among the bloody tents were mining tracks and another Reconnaissance Report: 'Prototype's been finding ways past the traps. Don't know how. Have to keep changing the setups to keep him away. He was right outside the door last night. Just staring and tapping at the wall. All I can think about since is that clanking of metal, those spidery legs, that face. We've double checked every entrance, made sure this place is good and locked down. Still, who knows how long these defenses will last. We're completely surrounded now. All sides, even above and below. Nowhere left to run to, no place left to hide; end of the line.'

She did wonder what his face looked like, if it would end up being worse than what CatNap's had been at his worst. The tracks had several carts with a body inside each, a power source nearby along with more of the poles, also on carts, and the shutters opened once activated.

Past the dead toys and truck, after swinging over to another set of doors, the Grabpack's blue and red hands were set to open it. The regret only started to come when those familiar claws started to swipe through the gap and she ran to the next door that had opened further down, just managing to squeeze herself into a hiding spot.

This next part was going to fucking suck.

Chapter Text

The only good thing was that Yarnaby was loud, she would hear him coming and duck into one of those spaces scattered throughout the zone. A red keycard got her onto a conveyor belt and another area where she found the main computer to open the door, but it required power of its own through a number of machine stations that needed the Grabpack.

Sounded simple enough until she heard it again, his steps, unable to finish the first scan in time before needing to hide, going as far as covering her mouth in case he might hear her breathing and stick his claws through the gap. When she did manage to get it done, she found the next machine just upstairs from it but had no idea where the last one might be, especially since she was trying to avoid being killed.

'They just can't make it easy for me, right? Has to be so fucking difficult'

She did eventually spot the third and final in the corridor between the other two, in probably the worst place for it since her 'hiding spot' wasn't so close now. It couldn't even be considered a place to hide, it was literally just a small gap and if Yarnaby was a little bit smarter, he might have figured out that he could run around and get her. At least when the power turned on, she could follow the cables back to where she started, less risk of running into him again.

He was still hunting her but at least now when she hid, it was a proper place to hide, picking up an odd bit of paper on the way. A flier, it turned out to be: 'POPPY LEADS YOU TO THE GRAVE

YOU FIGHT NOT TO SURVIVE

BUT TO DIE

SEE WHERE THIS HAS GOTTEN YOU

IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO CHANGE YOUR MIND

JOIN US

AND WE WILL SPARE YOUR LIVES

YOU HAVE 24 HOURS

WE WILL NOT MAKE THIS OFFER AGAIN'

The handwriting…it looked familiar. Did whoever write this send her the tape that started it all, write that note? And if they did, then who wrote it to begin with?

In the meantime, she still had to get out of here. There was still some things that needed to be switched on, one last computer that had an alarm blaring in her ears and obviously earned her some much unwanted attention. She could only evade him for so long before he either caught up with her or found the way around she'd been taking advantage of, and the alarm was making it harder to hear where he was.

Finally, fucking finally, Erica got the Exit door open and started scanning the pads with both Grabpack hands again, just relieved to be getting out and not having those goddamn alarms blaring.

That just meant she heard the roar loud and clear when he was right behind her.

…

She had seen a lot of crazy shit in this place, the very thing chasing her included, so how was a fucking lava pit the so far craziest thing? They were going up the walkway right towards it and if it wasn't for the chain hanging that she was able to grab onto and swing from, she would have had to just jump it and that would not have ended well.

It didn't for the yarn-covered beast who tried to grab her, caught himself on the chain instead and fell right in, but didn't die. He clawed desperately at the floor, burning, on literal fucking fire, and Erica…she was brought back to when she did it to CatNap before the Prototype finished him off.

If the Grabpack was strong enough to apparently pull off a person's head, this should be nothing, right? It grabbed onto his paws before he fell completely and as she backed up, he got pulled back up onto the concrete, still engulfed in flames but alive to panic about it. She let go and took off the pack, took off her sweater and swatted them with it, putting them out and leaving the tassles a little worse for wear, but it was done.

Now, she stood just about defenceless with a literal killing machine in front of her, like a fucking idiot. She wasn't a person who broke promises and yet here we are, and who was even going to tell DogDay that she didn't mean to break it but she couldn't just let him die?

Except…he wasn't moving. He was alive, she could tell, just not moving in general, to attack or to flee or anything. And she was well aware that what she was about to do would probably be the reason she loses her hand or more realistically, her entire fucking arm, and yet she still did it. Reached out, slowly, to put her hand on top of his head and pet him.

When he did move again, standing on shaky legs, she took that hand right back before his face could open and take it, even taking a few steps back just to be safe, other hand reaching for the blade which might not be enough but could give her some advantage to get the Grabpack back on and…

He just left. Scrambled up over some rubble and disappeared, left her completely shocked but obviously unharmed and unmaimed so she took the win. Her sweater wasn't too badly damaged, just a few burn marks that fit in with the dried blood, it still did its job of keeping her warm as she progressed onwards. A lift brought her up to another room where a red VHS was waiting, the sounds of crying and moans of pain as Doey asks Hoppy what happened. They were trying to bring back supplies and got jumped, had everything stolen and one of their own was greatly injured as a result.

The Medic said he would live, at least, and Doey advised them to stay for the night and let things settle down, then he'd find more supplies for Playcare. How long had the bigger bodies managed to survive before CatNap got them all, never mind the smaller ones?

Out the door was a corridor and only one way to go with the others blocked off, a strange blue substance running through the pipes as Erica actually ran into the dough man and resisted the urge to ask one of the burning questions she currently had. "Hey…what are you doing down here?"

"Gathering parts for the generator," he sighed, "just until-"

He cried out as that substance burst out from the pipe, turning him into ice, literally. She found the handle to divert it, at least get it off of him and did so, watched him 'melt' for lack of a better word and return to normal, clutching his chest as he stumbled away. "Hurts hurts hurts hurts…he's made it impossible for me to get around here, traps like this are everywhere!"

Slowly, he regained the ability to move. "It's the cold that hurts…the big mean doctor knows that…it's okay, it's okay, you're okay, it's all okay…"

Despite the part of her that was mad, knowing he knew whatever this secret was, it didn't stop her from stepping over, arms open in invitation and he welcomed it. All things considered, he was a good hugger. "Thank you…you really are an angel, you know?"

"Hm…you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah. Doesn't last very long when it's over, just hurts. It's time to make him hurt."

That was one thing she could agree with. "Let DogDay know I'm okay, please. I'll be back as soon as possible."

"Good luck in there, pal."

Chapter Text

The doors brought her through to an empty, locked area, but that familiar voice soon came through. "Ah…and here you are, just as I expected. It appears you are every bit what the Prototype fears, to think Playtime had someone of such rare quality and just gave it up. Funny…why come back? It can't be that a vague letter was your only reason."

So he knows about it? Could it be…?

"You wouldn't have returned if you remembered why you'd want to stay away, so was it the pain of not knowing for sure what brought you here so many years later?"

What the fuck was he talking about? Did he know too? He had to, the way he spoke about her, and she hated it. A couple boxes got her up to a ledge that led up into an area where that blue gas flowed through several pipes and had to be diverted before she could look around, snagging a blue keycard that got the door open to a kitchen area.

Inside a locked room was a strange machine, something within it that looked almost alive but when she tried to get in, the blue gas started to fill the room as the Doctor spoke. "You know, the experiments killed everyone, and it would have included you if you stayed. You aren't special just because you managed to get Yarnaby on your side…that useless thing might have just wandered off into another pit, you simply delay the inevitable for all of us, for you."

She got to work on the Grabpack turret nearby as he continued. "And Poppy's been hiding the full truth from you, selling you her story, of course. Innocence is bliss and isn't she just oh so innocent? Did she tell you her part in the Hour Of Joy? That she knew it was coming? It wouldn't surprise me if she left out that crucial detail, so that she could string you along, betray you, have you do whatever she wanted."

The hand on the turret helped to stop the gas, stop the freeze. "Erica…you've seen what they do to each other…all they want is violence, the evidence is everywhere. Once they had choice, once they were "free", THIS was their creation. They've made hell real and trapped us BOTH there, don't you see it? They know that if you found out the truth, you would turn against them and they can't have that…but I'm willing to give it to you."

Inside the machine was an organ, a pair of lungs it looked like, seemingly powered by the Red Smoke from what she could see. Was this part of him? Underneath was a plug outlet and over at the temperature control panel was the plug, and she connected them. A grunt could be heard before the organ froze, was destroyed before her eyes as the machine shut down.

"…I understand. It's hard to accept the truth, I couldn't either. But you do realise the futility of this, don't you? Meat rots and loses its function, it's as replacable as anything else so you're accomplishing nothing."

'Liar. It hurts you and you won't admit it, but I'll fucking make you'

She kept going, making it to a makeshift surgical room with an actual human fucking body on the table. A broken gas mask sat on its face, the monitors in the background displaying five experiments to match the five numbers needed on the computer but they didn't actually have them on screen so she'd have to look around some more. And as much as she really hated to wear a mask worn by a dead person, she needed to because the halls were filled with Red Smoke.

Fitted into the mask were small air filters that dispensed out of machines scattered throughout the lab rooms as well as a tape and seemingly more of those organ holders but they all looked empty, then what she hoped were more tapes started playing, just the voices of orphans being afraid and scientists lying out their asses. She thought she was going crazy as her oxygen levels dropped but they were still there even when the filter was replenished so it had to be that, right? It had to be.

A Secondary Lab Mission Statement was found on the next floor: 'Dr White, this letter acts as acknowledgement of your new position, as well as a restatement of your goals and expectations. As the Head of the Secondary Laboratory, it will be YOUR responsibility to maintain your staff and adhere to pre-established guidelines. You will present each week's findings in the Primary Laboratory during our pre-established executive viewing times. You will maintain the pre-established code of conduct regarding company secrets, and ensure ALL under your purview adhere to the self same codes.

I believe, if you've the mind your resume infers, that you're sensing a trend here.

You've now seen tragic examples of men who let ego blind them to the Project's actual goals. Who let perceived personal gain overwhelm good sense. You will be better than this, Dr. White. For now, the Secondary Lab's mission is as follows:

Make something useful out of the experiments who won't cooperate. Rip them open again and again until you've salvaged something. Whatever knowledge you still require, you are to extract it from what remains of Dr Sawyer . He will fight you, but it will do him no good. Everything he knows and thinks is only ever a matter of button presses away.

Good luck. And whatever else you may require, reach out to me personally.

With regards,
Eddie M. N. Ritterman'

That asshole Eddie strikes again. She found two of the experiments pictured on the monitors, took notes of the numbers written on their tags and unlocked a door into a new area where Harley finally spoke to her once more. "Why do you submit to their whims? Playtime hurt us, my experiments hurt us…do you think Poppy even cares about you? She'd sacrifice you in an INSTANT if it meant getting what she wants, and the only difference between her and I, the ONLY difference, is that what I fight for actually gains humanity SOMETHING."

"At the cost of children's lives?" she snapped back, not actually expecting a response as she got back to where she started, the monitor's empty numbers slowly filling in and one number in the experiments being highlighted as part of the code.

"…is that what this is about? I should have known, you were always so emotional. But I ask you anyway, would you simply have all that sacrifice be meaningless?"

He played more of the tapes while she found more of them, wondering what the hell he'd been talking about. Emotional? Crying because she got her nose broken by that crazy woman was justifiable, everyone felt bad for her and she couldn't be blamed for being upset, she was a fucking seventeen-year-old part-time worker. Harley was a computer now, they must have put the whole incident on her damn file or some shit, she didn't know, but she hated him calling her emotional over kids dying like it wasn't fucked up.

The VHS player was finally found and she shoved it in, finding the Doctor when he first became the machine he is now, observed by the one and only Dr Bruno White. Leith Pierre spoke too, the one who gave the order, who called it better than being eaten by Boxy and that Harley was only still alive for his mind to give orders and do procedures when they wanted him to and nothing else.

Erica almost felt bad for him, key word being 'almost'. She made her way back to the monitors once all the experiment numbers had been found, input them all and then put the singled-out numbers on the keypad, successfully restoring the power and clearing the hallways of the Red Smoke. A secret passage had opened that led up to the Vital System Centre, where she destroyed another of his organs.

She ripped the gas mask off her face as she moved on, climbing up to a ledge that overlooked some construction thing, a long way down. The Doctor laughed as she made her way into what might be his lair but it broke her purple hand in the process, giving it an electric spark she couldn't shake and-

Being shocked, literally, falling. Falling right into his trap. "Just like all of them…a blind, scurrying little rat, even after showing so much potential, it's almost disappointing. As if Yarnaby was my only pet…you know far less than you believe."

The exits were shut off as the cage opened, a massive lamb coming for her. It could jump far, chasing her around the area, around the other, bigger cages that held critters far smaller than this devilish thing but inside those cages were batteries to get her out of this fucking hellhole.

And then she was on the ground, crying out as its teeth sunk into her leg before she zapped it with the electrified hand and it scurried off. "Fucking…thing…"

Her vision swam for a few seconds as she stood, trying not to let this slow her down too much as the Doctor came back on. "Impressive…I've seen what Baba has done to others, how they flee back to those liars you care about so much, but you do not let it stop you. I always knew you would be something great, if only I had been able to make you into it."

Buttons opened the cages, only a small grate so the Grabpack could get the battery, but there were pieces of paper attached to each one too that she couldn't get a proper look at in the middle of everything going on but shoved into her pockets. It was only after she managed to finally get a door open and jump inside before it shut that she pulled them back out, but not before Harley spoke up.

"Do you still believe you're taking the moral high ground? After everything you have done? You think I don't know? This might have all been avoided if you had remembered where you come from…if only they hadn't let you get adopted out of Playcare, I might have been able to improve your memory. But how is it now, Erica? Do you remember now?"

She couldn't speak. Couldn't move, couldn't think, just frozen. The papers dropped from her hands that started shaking because she was looking at her fucking file but not as an employee, as a fucking kid.

A kid, a child, in Playcare.

It was true.

"Yes...the truth hurts, doesn't it?"

She opened her mouth and she screamed.

Chapter Text

He had the nerve to laugh at her. "Survival necessitates choices, difficult choices, such as keeping a very big secret from someone, wouldn't you say? That might have been why they made me into this…I was not happy they let you go, I was going to make you into one of my best creations. It was a difficult choice to make, they said, but the higher ups were applying the pressure before people got suspicious. I was surprised to learn you hadn't regained your memories when you returned years later, but to work for us."

The file included her Game Station results ('excellent reaction time, uses the Grabpack well, a great performance') and a Counselor's Report ('she has some issues with going to sleep, does not react well to the Red Smoke or CatNap in general but otherwise seems happy here' with a note from Stella: 'Definitely someone to consider') before a letter about her adoption ('The couple is insistent on taking her and we do not want to reject them after what happened with the Hartmanns. Dr Sawyer will be disappointed but this is for the best, there will be other children like her, perhaps even better'). It just…

It didn't feel real. Okay, so she was seven when she was adopted, but how could she just not remember any of this?

"Difficult choices are necessary," the Doctor continued, "and now…it's time for yours. If you want to leave this room, it will come at a cost."

Only now did she see the machine, see what was inside. "This little thing's life, or your own, you know what you have to do. Just the slightest pull and you snuff whatever minuscule bit of life still flickers behind those faraway eyes. That brutish blob of clay would do it, Poppy would do it, I know you've already done it, many times…I have eyes everywhere. This is YOUR choice, that door will open, or is maintaining the veil of your "morality" more important? Act quickly."

She could see the rest of those little beasts had been let out, pounding on the door and the windows around it, but could she really do this? Kill one of the only things that wasn't trying to kill her first? Fuck, she'd even saved Yarnaby from burning to death and he's the one who chased her to that point but…but what if Harley was right? She HAD done it before.

Then, she looked up, and saw another way. The vents gave her an escape and a set of bandages for her leg too, god knows how they got in there but she wasn't complaining.

"Fine…have it your way. Now come on in, the Doctor will see you now."

It brought her back to where she'd fallen, only this was the other side where she could unlock a new door and leave that awful maze behind, probably stepping right into another trap but if this was how she'd confront him face to face and hopefully kill him, then fuck it. What else did she have to lose?

(That fucking file of hers seemed to weigh more than it actually did if she thought about it too hard, so she tried not to)

"Do you hear it like I do?" he asked as she boarded the elevator. "Off somewhere. Somewhere far. Beyond this place. Beyond any place. A bell. For whom does it toll, you think? A wounded little pup lifts it head beneath the shadow of the master's raised foot. For whom does that bell now toll?"

It stopped at a hallway lined with monitors that switched on to show the same eye from the train carriage, all going back to static as she made it to the doors at the end. They opened to show what must be the main computer, his brain, surrounded by more monitors and sparks of electricity that shot out periodically.

"Not even the ground beneath your feet…"

She only just realised it was coming from right beside her before she was grabbed, staring down a large mechanical body, its monitor head with a bright red eye staring her down as it threw her down the stairs then waved as she fell through the trap door.

Another goddamn maze. The area she'd been put in had various receivers and monitors that could power the otherwise locked gates, but only one battery was in with her. It got two gates open when she picked a receiver, only for more of those robot bodies to be in every corner and-

"SHIT! NO! NO, FUCK OFF! GET AWAY FROM MEEEEE!!!!!"

…and they came alive to chase her, or at least if she got too close and triggered their sensors, but it was still terrifying.

"Elliot's machines mean nothing to me," the Doctor spoke, thankfully not bringing it up, "the childish fantasies of a naive, broken man. They won't serve you here, NOTHING can."

One of the bots held a keycard that she just managed to grab before another could slash her, running back to her safe area and locking them out in case they got that far which they never really did, but just in case.

"I'll bury myself so far down that no one will ever find me! Not you. Not the Prototype. Not anyone!"

It was so hard to see, even with the flashlight, going around in circles, dodging the seemingly endless amount of bots that just seemed to multiply, but she was doing it. She was finding the batteries and taking them, she was fucking doing it.

"It was going to be MINE! It was ALL going to be MINE! MY discovery! MY recognition! I was the one who paved the golden path!"

All the batteries were found, plugged in, lighting up the cables and leading her back to where she started, to all that Harley Sawyer was now, just a brain in a jar. The system was overloading thanks to her efforts and when she put the keycard in, it started to implode as he fucking screamed, the few bots around it coming for her, looming as the sparks multiplied…

Then darkness as it shut down, as the screaming stopped, as he spoke one last time.

"You've…saved…no one…"

It was over. The Doctor was no more.

Chapter Text

Before she found the Omni-Hand, Erica found Harley's office and a VHS tape. It contained a conversation between him and the Prototype, about needing more time for something and how he was the best shot at uncovering some secret even when threatened if he did not come up with a solution quick enough. Must be a pretty damn big secret, and she wondered if she'd get to know whatever it was before she'd kill the Prototype too.

In the meantime, she had a hand to collect. The monitor called the keycard the Omni-Chip and once inserted, the Omni-Hand was upgraded into a physical Grabpack accessory rather than a digital one and she used it to get out, leaving the lair behind at last. Her file had managed to stay together despite all the running and panicking, and with Harley dead with one of the only things he gave her being the truth?

How could she not think about it? She was going back to Safe Haven, back to the so-called friends of hers that had technically lied to her because they all fucking knew, even Doey had known because DogDay told him! DogDay…one of the two Smiling Critters she could remember and didn't question why, thought she just memorised the plaque on the statue but no, she'd remembered his name for another reason.

CatNap too, who she saw as a monster before he died but he had never been, she just remembered him like that from nightmares years ago, and the Red Smoke made her see him like that again. He'd been manipulated by the Prototype like Yarnaby and the Doctor, and maybe she could have saved him too if she knew she didn't have to be so afraid.

Or maybe he always had to die, she'd never know.

A ski lift similar to the one that brought her to Playcare was waiting and when she got on, the phone was ringing almost immediately as she sat in the corner, knees against her chest and repressing a sigh as she answered.

"Yes. Yes! My signal's coming through! Finally!" Ollie could be heard. "The Doctor…he's dead…I never thought I'd be able to say that. You, my friend, are a hero."

She didn't feel like it.

"Again and again, you do the impossible. You got us here, and the end is coming. All that's left-"

"Do you know who I am?" she spoke up all of a sudden. "Who I REALLY am? Did Poppy tell you?"

"…she did, but-"

Erica hung up. He didn't call again. The lift came to a stop near another one, a building one, leading down to a storage room with one of the toys and a VHS tape. Rich made an appearance again, dealing with a report about his worker who got vaguely threatened with 'disappearing' and was obviously spooked, resulting in him yelling about the guy who said it, the company, whatever else, on the factory floor of all places. Rich did agree with him that the company was messed up, even if it wasn't the smartest idea to start screaming it in such an open area, but he'd have their backs no matter what.

She could see Safe Haven in the distance, through the clay and barricades that stopped her or anyone from just walking in, but the vent was a different story.

Obviously their attention was on her the second they spotted her stepping up out the tent, DogDay even getting up but stopping either when he saw the look on her face or when she threw her file at them.

"What. The fuck. Is this?" she spat, taking the Grabpack off. "You lied to me, you and Poppy, and I know Doey knows too, even Ollie…all of you fucking lied to me!"

"Angel-"

"DON'T!"

It was like she'd pulled the knife out. "Don't…fucking call me that. Don't say anything unless it's an explanation for why you didn't tell me about this the second you knew who I was."

"…we agreed it would be best," Poppy finally spoke up, "so we could focus on what actually matters here and-"

"Because I don't, right? You probably would have taken anybody, anybody who got that fucking tape and was stupid enough to come here, but you had to get the fucking girl who was a Playcare orphan, got out and then got a fucking job here years later. You were never going to tell me about this and you know it."

"Fine, and I was right if this is how you're reacting."

"Harley told me about it, the Doctor, and I fucking killed him, so you haven't seen goddamn reacting from me, you little-"

She almost cried out at the pain that shot up her leg when she stepped forward, quickly taking a few steps back when DogDay almost came to help. "Don't…I'm fine, I don't want your help, okay? Don't."

"…I'm sorry," he said, "I wanted to tell you."

"But you didn't, did you? When did you even figure it out? It had to be before we got split up, right? Was it when I found you?"

From the way he seemed to shrink back, she knew she was right. "Seriously? Are you fucking kidding me right now? THAT was…you…"

She had to laugh, honestly, it was better than crying. Did she even have anything left in her to cry? Who knew anymore.

"What's going on in here?" another familiar voice spoke up.

Doey was back from the lower levels again, he also knew about her and had the opportunity to say something and didn't, but he did mention what she hadn't noticed. "Hey! You're bleeding, are you okay!?"

Oh…that explained a lot. She wasn't really feeling so…

Panicked cries rang out as everything went black, just the vague feeling of falling before she was out.

…

Already moving when he saw the blood, Doey was able to catch her and lead the way to the Infirmary. DogDay was close behind along with Poppy and even Kissy, concern clear in her otherwise unchanging face as Erica was put up on a bed, the bandages on her leg unravelled to show the damage.

"Did the Doctor do this?" the doll asked. "Or Yarnaby?"

"He would have taken the entire leg," Doey replied, wrapping a fresh bandage around it. "And it's a bite mark, so not him either, but one of his other pets. They won't get in here, they're locked up the rest of the time...it must have happened after I saw her."

"Is it bad? Will she be okay?" DogDay fretted.

"Honestly? I'm surprised it was just the one bite, Baba can be vicious…it can make you sick for a while, I've heard, but I don't think-"

Her sudden noises of distress caught their attention, the whimpers and movement but all while she was still unconscious. Kissy reached out with her good arm, hand coming down to her head and almost immediately, the noises stopped as she calmed down, as the hand went across her hair until she was content, almost happy, and…sound asleep.

(Nightmares almost stirred her awake but now there was just calm, a more familiar environment as memories replayed in place of dreams)

"…I don't think this is anything other than some much-needed rest," Doey finished. "This is a Safe Haven for all of you, including her, so the best thing we can do is leave her to sleep and wait. We've held out this long, a few more hours will be okay."

Chapter Text

She didn't have much of an opinion on the place yet, just knew it was far enough away from South Park and so not a lot of competition for it. Everyone wanted either work-from-home type jobs or if they had to be in-person, then no further than Tegridy Farms with the added bonus of sneaking as much product as you could home because Randy and Towelie were usually too high to really notice and there was so much, it hardly mattered.

The Playtime Co. Toy Factory wasn't really Erica's ideal choice if she was being honest, her friends mentioned how rumour had it the place wasn't as nice as its workers made it seem, but the pay was good for just working in the gift shop. "Suspiciously good" as Kylie had put it, "almost like they're trying to make up for something", even when she went in for her interview and could find nothing wrong.

"Probably 'cause they know how to hide it if there's tours happening there," Kendra said, also buying into the whole 'Playtime is evil' or whatever thing they were on. "Why does a toy factory need to have tours anyway?"

"Go ask them yourself," Erica rolled her eyes. "And what, no "congrats on the job" or anything?"

Even Stacy didn't like it, some supportive girlfriend she was. "The place is shady…they seem a little too eager to have you, it's weird. Just be careful, okay?"

And she thought they were overreacting, she didn't listen, she started her new job at Playtime and didn't think anything of it.

…

Poppy was the only one against what Doey had recommended and she kicked up quite a fuss about it before he made her leave the Infirmary.

"We can talk about this elsewhere but you're leaving her to rest before I drag you out myself."

"But we have to-"

"No we don't, now get out."

DogDay obviously wouldn't speak in her defence, Kissy was more of a surprise in how she didn't move from her spot at the bedside as the doll left, followed by the doughman close behind and going into the generator room.

"The whole point in her defeating the Doctor and getting the Omni-Hand was to clear a path to the Prototype, this wasn't part of the plan. We can't waste any more time."

"You ended up wasting months of our time when you left us," he pointed out, "time that we didn't have either but we dealt with it. You basically caused this…she wasn't supposed to find out the truth from anyone but you, especially not him, and I told you to tell her before it was too late and you didn't."

"There wasn't a right time!"

"There's never a right time. She was going to be angry and upset no matter what but it wasn't supposed to be out there, when she's already vulnerable to attacks, where I can't reach her if the worst happened and he got the upper hand."

"She came back! She's fine!"

Doey was holding back his anger, trying to. "Poppy…she's injured, she's tired, she's hardly slept and when she has, it's been thanks to Red Smoke that's clearly had a long-lasting effect. She isn't like us, she's still…"

He sighed. "Just leave her alone, okay? Even if there's a genuine emergency, do not go in there again and I will deal with it. Do not go in, do not wake her up, just wait. Do you understand?"

She was mad, but she had no choice. "Fine."

…

Erica's first impression of Marcus was that he didn't like her, or that he didn't like working out here in the shop. Leith had brought him over, they'd shook hands and that was about it, he mostly let her deal with customers and she was fine with that, it gave her something to focus on that wasn't thinking she'd somehow done something wrong despite literally never interacting with this guy before today.

When it was lunch hour and she sat down, pulling her stuff out from under the desk, that was when Marcus spoke to her. "Don't you eat in the cafeteria?"

"Don't have clearance," she replied.

"Wha- how do you not have clearance? Everyone gets it when they start here."

"Not me, I got a clock-in card and keys to the shop and register, but I'm too young to be allowed into the rest of the building."

"But the keys to the fuckin' shop? You're jokin'."

"You wish," she grinned, holding up the sets of keys all on the same keychain. "Look, I'm sure the security office has a spare if you want but I just got told it's my responsibility everything here is locked at the end of the day, I'm not gonna question it."

"Fine. I'll be right back."

He didn't go to the security office but rather past reception to the back, to wherever the cafeteria was as Erica just settled and kept eating her sandwich. She wouldn't be surprised if Marcus ended up asking to be moved elsewhere, because clearly working together was not happening, he didn't like her or whatever so-

Then he was indeed right back. "Here, try this."

It was a burger, and almost immediately she wondered what else they had if this was so good, suddenly more annoyed than usual at not being allowed clearance.

But hey, at least Marcus wasn't so bad.

…

Doey returned to the infirmary with a sigh. "I'm sorry you had to see that…how is she?"

"Sound asleep," DogDay spoke softly, "I think the bleeding stopped and there hasn't been any more nightmares."

"Good. Do you mind if I stay, just sit with you?"

"Yes, please. And thank you for everything, it means so much to us."

"Anything for those who need it, especially old pals like you. I've got a lot to thank your friend here for too, not just taking down Harley Sawyer but saving your life, defeating CatNap, getting us the Omni-Hand. But most of all, she's kind to us, a kindness you know we've never really had, so it's no wonder you care about her."

"…I hurt her, though. Poppy said she was better off not knowing the truth and I believed it, I kept quiet and she found out anyway, then found out we all knew. She told me to stay here where she knew I'd be safe and she wouldn't have to worry, but I always worry about her and I just…I wish I could do more, to keep her safe. I could do it when she was at Playcare, not so much now."

"I know the feeling," Doey nodded. "It's easier to keep the toys safe when they stay here, away from whatever Harley or CatNap might do. There would be some that tried to take supplies back upstairs but they'd come here, injured and afraid, sometimes…one carrying the other and not wanting to let go, even if they know it's too late. I always worry, especially when I never see them again and can only wonder."

"It was like that when kids would leave and you wouldn't know if they were being adopted out of the factory or experimented on, forever trapped here. When she was taken, I knew I was never going to see her again but in a good way, they made such a big deal about her adoption that it was hard not to know about it. I didn't think she'd come back in a different way, but…I can't lie, I was honestly relieved the angel was her all along."

He felt horrible thinking it, but it was true. "Just to know for sure she was okay, that she had the chance to grow up, even if it just led her back here. I knew she couldn't remember so much of this place but she knew my name, she remembered me, and then she saved me. I tried to keep her safe in return but CatNap got her anyway, terrorised her with nightmares and whatever else he might have done if I hadn't chased him off. You've seen her, she's still affected by what he did."

"And you blame yourself because you couldn't stop it, but it's not your fault. What's important is that right now, you're both safe, okay? It wasn't your fault what happened, or that you kept quiet like you were told to, or…that you care about someone who throws herself into danger because there's no other choice. She'd tell you the same and we both know it."

Of course she would, but DogDay might just worry anyway and that was okay, as long as she was okay.

…

The breaking point came with a broken nose. Marcus picked the worst time to go on break but it wasn't like Erica knew she'd be the next target of this crazy woman, breaking through the hold security had on her and running right into the gift shop yelling about how they can't take her kid away and not even allow her the chance to say goodbye, to do anything and how the company's corrupt, evil, whatever else.

When the brunette tried to deescalate the situation or at least try and calm the woman down, that was when she attacked her. Said she was just as bad as the rest of them as someone finally tried dragging her away, as Erica just sank down behind the desk with a bloody nose and watery eyes just hearing more yelling but at least she wasn't hit again.

("Get her out! Get her fuckin' out before I hit her myself!"

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Fuckin' try me! You've got no problem hittin' a fuckin' girl that's only seventeen! She ain't done nothin' wrong to you and you come in here, swearin' and hittin'? I should fuckin' hit you for that but I'm givin' you a chance to get outta here and outta my face before I sock you in yours!"

"Fine! But I'll be telling your manager about this!"

"Good! Be sure to mention how you hit a fuckin' minor!")

Footsteps came up to the desk and she flinched, hands occupied with holding tissues against her nose but it wasn't a psycho lady coming back for round two, just Marcus. He didn't come much closer than maybe a foot away at least, didn't even say anything for a good minute. When he did speak, it was much different than how it had been with that woman, of course.

"There's…a first aid box in the security office, you wanna get your nose looked at? I'll lock up and be along soon 'cause Leith's gonna want to talk to us both…you okay?"

She reached up, used the counter to pull herself to her feet. "I wish…thanks, though, for dealing with her."

"Fuckin' bitch, should be the last time she's allowed in. Anyone does that shit again, hit 'em back, alright? Can't just walk around thinkin' they can get away with it, fuckin' bastards."

It was one of the last things he said to her because Leith let him go that day, the two yelling over each other while she got checked out at the security office, the staff seeing to her soon confirming her nose was broken and she'd have to go to the hospital.

("I'm sorry, Marcus, but we can't have this happen again. Considering your previous incident-"

"It wasn't a fuckin' incident, I know what I saw! You tried sendin' me up here to keep me quiet but fuck this! What the fuck was she doin' back here? How'd she even get in!?"

"Hey! I had you assigned to the gift shop to help out, it wouldn't have escalated this far if you had been at your designated post!"

"I was on my fuckin' break like I'm fuckin' entitled to! Not my fault security couldn't do their job and then I had to step in when she hit Erica, why the fuck am I in trouble? I didn't do nothin' to no one, check the fuckin' cameras!"

"You are a liability to the company! I gave you a second chance and you've blown it so, I'm sorry, but this is your last day.")

He was able to see her before he left, before Stacy came to pick her up, and she apologised for basically being the reason he'd been fired and he waved it off. "Bound to happen at some point, it's my own fault. Just…remember what I said, okay? They can't keep getting away with it. But Erica? I wouldn't stay here much longer anyway. It's not…it's not a good place, trust me on that."

Part of her did, but she ignored it in favour of the bigger part that longed to know the secrets hidden underneath the surface, and paid the price for it. Now, she opened her eyes to a medical bay that was part of a place literally named Safe Haven, surrounded by sentient toys and larger counterparts, one of which she considered a very close friend, who quickly approached.

"Angel…are you alright?"

"Better," she replied honestly, "a bit sore. How long have I been out?"

"A few hours," Doey spoke up. "You needed it, clearly, so don't worry. I hope it's okay, I put fresh bandages on your leg and the bleeding's stopped."

She sat up to move the blanket draped over her, pulled the injured leg closer to see the work he had done and sure enough, hardly any blood was on them now. "Thank you…Doey, I really appreciate this, but would you mind-"

"I understand," he smiled gently, "take all the time you need. I'm nearby so just call, okay?"

Then there was just her and DogDay left, and she spoke before he could. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't…I did but not like that, not everything. I was hurt, I still fucking am because you…you did lie to me, and I get it, but it hurts."

"I understand, angel. I'm sorry that I didn't come clean before, I'm sorry that you had to find out from Dr Sawyer, I'm sorry you got hurt out there."

"I'm always gonna get hurt, that's nothing new," she waved it off as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed. "I just didn't expect you to be keeping things from me, that honestly hurt more than anything else."

She was slow to let her feet touch the ground and even when she stood, it was like they were both waiting for that leg to buckle again, but it didn't hurt anymore. "I have to go, I f back out there, I think, or go work that Omni-Hand or whatever else."

"Angel-"

"I feel fine, I'm not gonna pass out again. I actually…feel better than I have in a while, so."

"I believe you, just…please stay safe if you go back out there, is all."

Now she looked at him and could see it, see the worry that was just barely visible in a face designed to be permanently smiling. And she stepped forward to hug him, the action immediately returned.

"I'll always come back," she promised, "no matter what."

Chapter Text

"Hey, pal," Doey greeted her as she left the Medical bay. "Feeling better? Don't let Poppy pressure you, take as long as you need. I…I'm so sorry for how you've been treated here, that we hid the truth from you and didn't say anything, and how you found out."

She nodded, picking up the Grabpack. "Would've came out anyway, somehow, but…thank you. I'm ready to help now if you want to show me what needs done."

Poppy was waiting for them in the generator room. "Losing the Doctor will have gotten the Prototype's attention, he'll be scared knowing he's got hardly anyone left on his side. Now is the time to get to the foundation and get everything ready."

"Can we not talk about this?" Doey said before Erica could snap out a response. "We've already discussed that it's a bad-"

The generator went off and he sighed, annoyed. "Just give it a second…"

She was already alarmed, the feeling only growing when ten seconds passed and nothing changed because if it was down, didn't that mean so were the defences? You know, pretty much the only thing keeping everyone inside safe? A phone started ringing and out of habit, she reached into her pocket only to find nothing because she'd left hers in her car and the one from this place was in Poppy's hands now.

Must have taken it to tell Ollie what happened, how she freaked the fuck out on all of them and then had the audacity to collapse and delay the fucking process or whatever, why does Erica even care what they think?

"Ollie, you there? What's-"

"He's outside!" came the panicked cry, warped in static but still loud and clear, enough to make them all freeze and hope, maybe even pray, they misheard.

"Ollie!?"

"He's OUTSIDE!!!"

Fuck. That obviously wasn't good, especially with the previously mentioned defences being down, now at the exact worst moment it could have happened, of course.

Poppy seemed to have an idea. "You need to distract him, Doey! Please! Keep him away from here!"

"But without the generator-"

"I'll fix it," the brunette stepped up. "We need the Omni-Hand for it anyway, right? I promise I'll get it up and running again, you just have to buy us time. Trust me, Doey, I won't let anything happen to this place, to any of them."

"…I know. Just get the generator working, please."

He ran off, the doors shutting behind him as Erica then turned to Poppy. "Try and get everyone away from the main door and if it comes down to it, get out through the Medical bay into the mines, ONLY if it gets that bad."

The doll nodded and passed her the phone. "Ollie, give her a hand here in fixing it, okay?"

"Aye, aye, cap'n!"

"Hey," she spoke again before the doors closed, "you've got this."

Erica hoped she did.

"Alright, so start with opening the access panel on the generator using the Omni-Hand," Ollie instructed. "It's a little door on the outside to the left."

Once the scan was completed, the main door flew open to reveal a number of switches and buttons. "Now whenever you're ready, flip the breaker switch but you'll need to move very quickly from here as it means Safe Haven's defences will be down."

She was used to moving quickly anyway, at least, even if the pressure was on.

"Okay, now grab an external resister and attach it to the capacitor bank. There should be a spare on the desk behind you, it's a circular device, just slot it in."

"Done."

"Good. Now use the Omni-Hand to override the generator's chipset protocols and yank out the busted surge protector."

Replacing that was even easier and once done, the door swung shut. "Is that it? Did I do it?"

"You did it," Ollie sighed in relief. "Good…you've done good."

Poppy returned just as he hung up. "Oh my gosh…at this point, thank you isn't nearly enough, but thank you."

"Of course…is Doey back yet?"

"No sign. Whatever happened out there, it must have been…it must-"

"Hey, he's a lot stronger than he looks," Erica pointed out. "This place is huge, he must have ran him off pretty far, bought us plenty of time."

"Yes…yes, you're right, he'll be okay. In the meantime, we can go ahead with our other plan, if you can go down to the Foundation and plant the explosives. They should be scattered in the mines nearby but-"

"Um, excuse me? I JUST fixed the generator that might have killed us by either letting a threat in, or exploding and killing us all in a fiery explosion but now you want to make sure we die by knocking down the entire fucking building?"

The doll had the audacity to look annoyed. "I thought you would eventually agree with me that this is the right thing to do, for all for us, for you, especially for DogDay and Kissy."

"Oh please, don't act like you give a shit about anyone other than yourself, you just want to take down the Prototype because of whatever idiotic grudge you have against him because I highly doubt it's from the Hour Of Joy or just locking you in a box."

"Don't…you don't know anything about what I've been through, how dare you. You don't understand what I'm trying to do here, this is for all of us! We've all suffered because of what he's done, even you! Why can't you just…why can't you just do as I say?"

"All I've been doing is what you've told me, but this draws the fucking line. Doey cares about everyone here, including us, but also a lot who are too weak to move and might not make it out the building as much as I hate to say it. So what, we leave them behind to die? What if the Prototype figures out what we're trying to do and comes after us, picks us off one by fucking one?"

"That's why we need to take care of him!"

"I agree, but not like this. You want to go fucking nuclear? Fine, but do it yourself. I'm going out to find Doey so he can tell you we're not doing this, so why don't you do what you always do and stay put, out of danger, so I can do the hard part again?"

Poppy didn't have a response for that one, and Erica left while holding back some even harsher words that thankfully didn't come out.

Not yet, anyway.

Chapter Text

She made her way back to the mines, having to solve a tricky gears puzzle in the lab to open the door and soon running down the minetracks searching for Doey, looking in every direction, every tunnel, everywhere she could fit. How do you find someone who can go where you can't and was also leading away your biggest and worst enemy?

It was no surprise that she ended up at the Foundation anyway, purposely avoiding the explosives and heading into the office where a blue VHS tape sat. It featured Mr and Mrs Ayer, finally returning to the factory to see what their child had been turned into, heavy breathing as the woman spoke before Erica could hear Doey's voice too, cautious and angry as the conversation quickly derailed.

"The gentle voices lie!" he insisted, stomping. "I know what they do! They lie…and they poke…and they hurt!"

Growling as Susan, Jack's mother, tried to calm him down while her husband banged on the door, growing more desperate when she went quiet and soon he screamed as Doey killed him too, the sound of crying all that was left before the tape ended.

And it wasn't like she didn't already know how bad he could get, her first impression had been seeing him throw around Pianosaurus then drag him into the shadows to rip apart and eat, but he'd emerged nothing like that, more the friendly version she knew best. If Poppy knew he could get this bad and just let her leave to find him with no warning, she would actually kill that doll if anything happened.

Either way, the Foundation only had Red Smoke flowing through pipes, various empty tunnels and more tiny Nightmare Critters roaming around. She got the lift back up to the mines, hoping to try another path, when something grabbed her, only for a familiar dough face to appear in her vision.

"The Prototype, I lost track of him in the tunnels," Doey explained as he put her down. "Have you seen him? Was he at the Foundation?"

She shook her head. "It's empty, I was looking for-"

BOOM!

"Oh…oh no."

"Oh, shit."

They could see it from where they were standing, Safe Haven, and saw when it exploded. He took the short way through a pipe while she struggled with the long way, panic threatening to swallow her whole because they had to be okay, they had to be fine, this wasn't how it was supposed to go, it was meant to be fine, she had promised.

She'd made so many promises but it wasn't enough, hearing Doey's screams and cries as she got closer, dead toys littering the tunnels and the med bay but it was nothing compared to what was waiting in the main area, a sight that brought tears to her eyes because there was no more denying what she already knew.

The whole place had been blown to bits, they were all dead. DogDay, Kissy, Poppy, all the little toys including the one that Doey was cradling as he wept, all of them. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…"

"You should be."

His voice was harsh as he put the poor thing back down to the floor. "You told me I could trust you, you promised me none of them would get hurt! LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE! It hurts…everything hurts…hurt back. ALWAYS HURT BACK!"

She backed away as he took steps towards her. "Please…please, I'm sorry!"

"Parents," he continued, "scientists, everyone! Have to-"

A full-body shake, his personalities clashing, a sob. "My friends! He killed my friends!"

Then, he pointed at her, sharp teeth starting to become noticable. "YOU! This all started with YOU, and HER! It was YOU who ruined everything!"

Another clash, another change. "No…no, she kickstarted the generator, she-"

Again, one last time. "DESTROYED EVERYTHING! SHE LIED! First POPPY, and now HER TOO! I'LL KILL YOU!"

He hit one of the pillars and what was left of Safe Haven rained down. Erica managed to get out of the way but watched him get buried by the rubble, and couldn't bring herself to move.

Foolishly, she still had hope. This was dashed when it emerged, no longer Doey or the three kids that made him but now a twisted mix of both, of heads and hands and a large mouth that roared at her and finally got her to get the fuck out.

…

They ran through the mines, through tunnels and labs until Erica managed to ditch it for a brief minute and find the courtyard she'd only briefly spotted before. A spiral of a path with defences of the blue smoke and saws to gradually cut off pieces of it and weaken it, all while it would cry out in Doey's voice.

"Everything HURTS!"

"I couldn't save them, I couldn't save anyone!"

"Play, play, play!"

"I HATE YOU!"

"Everything's too loud! TOO LOUD!"

Some were more hurtful than others but at last, she pulled down the last saw and its frozen form burst into a puddle of clay. She knew it hurt and she hated doing it but she wasn't dying now, even if she knew she would deserve it, even if she was starting to wish for it. What was the point? Everyone she cared about was dead, against her or missing.

The alarms brought her to two scanners, one for the blue hand and the other for the Omni-Hand, so she-

"YOU!"

-screamed as it grabbed her. "NO! NO, PLEASE, I'M SORRY!"

"YOU AND POPPY! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"

Behind it were three more canisters of the blue gas, more on the other side, and she shot at them when it put her down, still yelling. "Want to KILL YOU! Want to kill EVERYONE WHO HURTS ME! RIP YOU TO LITTLE PIECES!"

And above it was a large crusher. There was no other choice, this thing wasn't Doey anymore, he didn't trust her anymore, but she had to keep going, even if it meant doing this. "I'm sorry…"

It tried to stop it even as its body was freezing. "CAN'T TRUST ANYONE! THE GENTLE VOICES LIE! YOU LIE!"

"I didn't!" she shouted back, pushing the Grabpack to take the handle on the crusher and pull it down. "I never lied to you! I meant what I said, I did everything right! I don't know what happened but I'm sorry, okay!? I'm sorry!"

"I tried to be better…to be what they needed. Not smart enough, not good enough. NOT-"

It screamed but she screamed louder. "YOU WERE GOOD ENOUGH! YOU HEAR ME!? YOU WERE GOOD ENOUGH FOR THEM, DOEY! KEVIN! JACK! MATTHEW! YOU WERE ALWAYS ENOUGH!"

Everything went still as he was completely crushed, his hat falling off to the side as he sobbed one last time. "I'm sorry, pal…I'm…sorry…"

Then he was gone. And Erica clutched his hat and screamed in agony, in grief, in pain, in all of it as she sobbed. She didn't move for the longest time but before she left, she put his hat back on his head. "I'm sorry too, pal."

…

A red VHS tape was tucked away in the corner and as much as she was tempted to just walk away, she just needed to sit down for a minute.

"It was awful," Poppy spoke. "So, so awful. I didn't want…this isn't what I…"

God, she actually missed that doll now. Unbelievable.

"I thought we were gonna leave. Leave the factory. Not this…a-all those people…"

A pause to take some deep breaths. "Prototype says we can't leave, not now, not ever…I hate him. I hate him and I hate this place, and I hate that he's…right. He explained everything and he's right, we can't leave, it's too risky. What they did to us…we can't ever let it happen to us or anyone ever again."

Interesting. So why was she now so determined to kill him, because it was the only way to get out from under him? A lot of questions that would have to go unanswered.

"Doesn't make me feel better about the bodies, though, what he was saying about them. I know there's not really another option, the toys will starve otherwise, they'll die…but it's still disgusting."

Erica knew a thing or two about all that, unfortunately.

"…I wish you were here, Dad. I could really use one of your talks right now, you always knew just what to say. When you were running this place, you always knew what to say...I miss you."

"What the actual fuck," the brunette muttered as the screen went blank. "You're fucking kidding me right now, you fucking…"

She'd heard that loud and clear. Poppy was potentially related to one of the bosses, maybe even Elliot Ludwig himself, never mind apparently being the Prototype's former partner-in-crime and knowing they were going to act out that day, even without the finer details. Of course she'd kept more secrets from them, why wouldn't she?

If the doll wasn't dead, Erica might have killed her herself for this. She got back up and moved on, down a long hallway where the room at the end had another tape, with a voice she never thought she'd hear again speaking.

"I, uh…I'm not sure if this thingy is on, but I need to talk and…I can't talk about this with anybody else."

Doey let out a sigh. "For the past few monts, the fighting's been bad…real bad…I've seen a lot of stuff I probably shouldn't, it's been hard to keep my head straight. And the others, they look to me for what to do, to know where to go. For a long while, we had Poppy to tell us, go here, go there, do this, and it all made sense too, Poppy was nice…I can't find her anywhere."

He was scared. "I don't know what happened or where she went, but it's scary here without her. I think maybe she ran, just like I have…I'm here, outside the Prison, in front of…I'd almost forgotten it was all here. And seeing this again, it's giving me reason to think that I could just make for the exit, all I've wanted for the longest time. But there are others inside, others that aren't like me, they can't go where I can. They mean a lot to me, a lot more than I thought, and seeing what I have, knowing how they see me and how much they need me…"

A sigh. "I'm going back, I wanted to make this in case I ever doubt or forget that. Just play this and remember. Yeah…yeah, that's all. See ya."

She didn't want to break again but it was hard after that one, knowing he deserved so much better than what he got, all three of them actually. And there was nothing she could do now but-

There was a sound. So quiet she just managed to pick it up, coming from behind a pile of boxes that when moved, revealed a vent. Quiet again but she knew it had been something, someone, and it wasn't like she had any idea where to go from here anyway, so what was another wrong turn in her journey?

Or more like just the right one. "Angel! You're okay!"

He had her in a hug before she could even start questioning if this was a dream but still had to stop herself from breaking down again. "More importantly you're okay! How…I thought…"

"We knew something was wrong and we had to get out. The toys…they wouldn't leave without Doey but I promised you I'd stay safe and alive, no matter what."

"And I promised you I'd always come back," she remembered, holding on tight. "Fuck, we're alive, we're okay…we're okay."

"Where's Doey?"

Oh, but of course they couldn't just be the only ones. Erica wondered if DogDay could feel her anger start to rise and he must from the way he let go, put her down as the relief shifted to something nasty, something ugly when she turned to face the doll.

"He's dead. Like everyone else in Safe Haven."

Poppy climbed out of Kissy's hold, the phone in her hand but no answer yet as her face fell at the words. "No…no, no, no! What did you do!? What did you do!?"

"What did I do!?"

Here it comes. "Are you fucking serious!? What I did was fucking defend myself! It's all I've done this entire goddamn time while you, as usual, just hide away and bark orders and expect me to obey! You hide shit about me and just when I think you can't get any worse, I find your fucking tape!"

If it was possible, the doll paled. "I…I can explain, it's not what it sounds like!"

"You knew what the Prototype was going to do! You knew he would make them all rise against their captors and cause absolute chaos but that's not even the worst part…the worst part was when you mentioned your dad, Poppy. Your father…he was Elliot Ludwig, wasn't he? The one who founded this place? This whole fucking idea to turn CHILDREN into toys?"

She could hear DogDay start to growl and Kissy even backed further against the wall in the vent they were in, away from her. "Please…I'm sorry, I never meant for any of this to happen!"

"Well, it did. Safe Haven is gone because of you, Doey's dead because of you. None of those toys would have died if he hadn't left when you told him to, we probably wouldn't even be stuck here if it wasn't for you. How do we know the Prototype had even been following me back there? Doughman himself said it, you led him right to them."

"No! I cared-"

"Don't even try it, you only care about yourself. It's been like that since I met you, just about you getting back at the Prototype even if it means everyone else has to die. So what's your plan now? Hide again or try to find someone else to do your dirty work? Because it's not gonna be me, not ever again, I'm fucking done."

The doll had nothing else to say and instead turned to the phone in her hand. "Ollie? Ollie, please, are you there? Ollie!"

Static was the only response and with a roll of her eyes, Erica snatched it. "Probably not even doing it right…come on, Ollie, fucking pick up."

Finally there was that familiar ringing, Poppy jumping to speak when she answered. "Ollie! We need your help, everything's gone horribly wrong, Safe Haven's-"

"Shelf Ventilation Block B6," a chillingly calm voice replied. "Is this where all of you have ended up? You, Kissy, DogDay? Erica too?"

"What the fuck…"

"Just stay where you are—and listen closely," it changed all of a sudden. To a voice that the brunette had heard in a VHS tape back in Harley Sawyer's office, and she dropped the phone as she realised the horrific truth. "You're not going to run, you're not going to fight, the charade is over."

Kissy was trembling, backing herself further into the corner, and Erica could feel DogDay's paw shake even as he pulled her behind him while Poppy still didn't get it. "Who…who is this?"

"An obvious question with an obvious answer," the Prototype sighed.

"You…what did you do to Ollie?"

The anger overpowered her anxiety, briefly. "Fucking christ, don't you get it!? There was NEVER Ollie! Only him, this whole fucking time!"

"No…no, it can't be!"

"I'm afraid so."

"But…the Doctor, CatNap, Huggy and Mommy, they're all dead! You have NOTHING! NO ONE! And soon, you'll have even less than that!"

He just laughed. "Come now, Poppy, you don't need to pretend anymore. You don't need to play at being stronger than you are, you can come home."

She shook her head, turned away. "Was…was there ever really an Ollie? Before…"

"Yes. But that was a very, very long time ago. So now, let me tell you what comes next."

Rumbling. "I'm going to come up there and I'm going to find you, all of you, and kill the few you have managed to keep alive. I'll start with DogDay and take his legs again…maybe let the Critters take what's left…"

A whimper.

"Break Kissy's other arm, then her legs…then something else. Piece. By. Piece."

The shaking only worsened as she curled up.

"Erica…if Harley was still here, I would have handed you to him, finally let him put you into the creation he made especially for you so the rest of the toys could have a new plaything to tear apart. Thomas didn't last very long before the scientists took him away to fix, but they won't have to worry about that with you…at least this way, they can eat."

Perfect karma in her case after what she'd done to them, but she was still terrified.

"What about me?" Poppy asked. "What are you going to do to me?"

"You…I have something very special in mind. I've prepared it just for you, and this one? Oh, you'll never want to leave."

"No…no, no no. This entire time…this entire time, you've LIED to me!"

"And now you know how it feels," the Prototype replied, "after you did it to Erica, but I only did it because you've just kept missing the point."

More rumbling. "I've taken the explosives from the Foundation, so thank you for not blowing the place up when you had the chance. I've put them to good use but I must admit, I'm actually quite disappointed in you, Poppy. All that time in your case, I hoped you'd see things differently. Don't you understand? It's always been about you and me, what we ARE. That's not a truth that can be burnt away, not when it can mean so much more."

"Prototype…please, I-I-"

"It's time to come home."

She shook her head as her breathing got erratic. "I can't…I can't go back in that case, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

The beeping started as the doll left, slipping through a small gap in the fan and the Prototype just sighed again. "Some friend, huh? Not surprising at this point after all she's done to us, but don't worry, I'll find her. As for you three…"

It increased in speed and volume as he laughed. "Try to land on your feet!"

And a loud boom split the ground from right under them. Kissy jumped and DogDay turned to grab their human companion but Erica could only grab a pink furry arm that she remembered too late was fragile, then she was falling into the darkness.

"NO! ANGEL!!!"

Chapter Text

"So she just…stormed right in and started yelling at you?"

Another memory in a dream then. Or was this just a part of dying?

"Then punched me when I couldn't help her, finally got kicked out and banned because that wasn't even the first time. Now Marcus is fired for defending me and I don't even know if I want to work there anymore after this."

Even when not looking at her, she could see Stacy's shrug. "Not the worst idea, that place seems to be nothing but trouble. Have you seen the news reports? People going missing, some of them being literal kids, even this guy who worked there and fucking…Kylie found out he was terminally ill and gave them his body. Why would a toy factory want a body unless it's some creepy shit?"

"Marcus did mention some things," the brunette admitted, "how it's not a good place."

"And he got fired just for defending you?"

"On top of something else, but I have no idea what. Can't have been to do with customers, he worked behind the scenes and mostly on his own, he's a good guy."

She hummed, thinking. "Who also told you the place was fucked up? And was mysteriously fired for some bullshit reason?"

"Real subtle, babe."

"If you still want to go back, I won't stop you. I'm just worried there's gonna be a day you don't come back out, and I'll forgive myself if that happens."

Erica reached for her hand, squeezing it. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

She quit the next day and of course, the whole place shut down days later anyway with no explanation, and they were both relieved she'd gotten out before then, only for her to walk right back in when that weird tape told her to.

In this version, in her mind, she stayed in the car as it kept on going.

…

He'd looked death in the face when CatNap left him in the Playhouse, strung up with his legs gone and that cold, dark stare before his former friend was gone, disappearing into the shadows. When Erica came, Poppy's angel, she brought life with her as she gave him back his own, regaining his freedom with his legs and soon, his enemy's demise.

But Angel was human, she could be hurt more easily, could be taken down by the Red Smoke and by the Doctor's pets even if he tried to protect her, to keep her safe. Then there was watching her fall into the darkness, hearing the distant but loud thud as she landed somewhere down there, and he didn't know if she was even still-

No, she had to be. He had to get to her. Kissy managed to pull herself up out of the way and he felt terrible leaving her after Poppy already had but she just nodded, saying it was okay because she must know by now how much he cares about her. And because this couldn't be happening again, not after Safe Haven when they had to leave and he didn't know if she'd find them, if they'd even find her. Or after she went off on her own to fight the Doctor and came back with not just a bleeding bite mark but tears, anger from finding out the truth before collapsing of pure exhaustion. Or when they got separated twice in Playcare and CatNap took advantage, trying to kill her.

He dropped down into that hole and it was the exact same as the Counsellor's Office but also much worse, so much worse. "Angel! No, please no…angel?"

Death wasn't something he was a stranger to, but it always hurt. The Critters, the toys, all the children who died on that awful day, before he was left to wait for his own. And the same girl he watched be able to escape this place, escape death or permanent imprisonment in a body that's no longer your own, years later coming back to save him, save them all…

But here she was now. Yet again, he couldn't save her and she's fallen, lying dead at what had to be the very bottom of this place and she looked so peaceful, like she was just asleep again, but he knew better. He could only hope it was quick, as painless as can be because she didn't deserve to die slowly, in agony, like he had been.

She hadn't deserved to die at all, of course, but he hoped the best for her.

…

"Where are we going?" Erica finally asked after what seemed to be an eternity in the car, nothing in sight, just surrounded by brightness.

Actually, how had she even gotten here? This would have been before everything, so this couldn't possibly be-

"There isn't much time," Stacy replied as the vehicle finally came to a stop. "They still need you, you know you're stronger than this. You have to get up now."

"I'll die in there if I haven't already, you said that, or I'll die trying to get out."

"Death isn't the end. Not for them and certainly not for you, and I know you won't want to leave them to do this alone, would you?"

She could hear noises start to fade in, more specifically muffled sobs, but instead turned to face whoever this was, disguising themselves inside a memory. "Who even are you?"

It might have looked like Stacy but that smile was too unsettling. "Where would the fun in that be? Now. Get. Up."

The door opened, she was pushed out, and woke up.

…

She woke up. Against all odds, gasping and coughing, scaring the life out of him and apparently herself from the way one hand grabbed at her chest that was rising and falling in a way it hadn't been just a minute ago, the other still holding onto Kissy's dislocated arm. He'd backed away with the sudden fright but now inched closer as she was trying to push herself up.

"Angel? Are you…is this-"

"Very much real, very much alive," Erica responded with a groan, "and very much in pain."

DogDay helped to get her back on her feet, even as her entire body ached and she stumbled before managing to stay upright. "Don't push yourself, angel, please."

"I'm fine, I'm used to it."

Not so much dying as being hurt, bruised and battered, but he didn't argue. "How'd you even get down here?"

He only had to look up at the hole and she understood. "Fucking hell…you hypocrite."

"I needed to know, and it didn't hurt me, it takes a lot more for that. Angel, you…you weren't-"

"Don't. Is Kissy okay?"

"She got out of the hole, she knew I was coming down here."

The brunette nodded, immediately regretted it, and dropped the arm with another groan. "Gotta be fucking kidding me…I wish I never came back here, you know that? I'm sorry but this just keeps getting worse, I can't fucking take it."

Crying wasn't helping her headache and the pain doubling only made her sob harder as she hugged herself. "I'm not an angel, I never was, I'm a selfish fucking bitch and a murderer who's no better than the Prototype. I killed Doey because he was going to kill me, same with the Doctor and CatNap and Mommy and Huggy, but what about everyone else? What about the toys in Playcare who would get scared off by a flare gun but I killed them slowly, to eat?"

She laughed then, a bitter, angry sound. "The Prototype took Mommy's head and I carved out what I could from underneath that plastic, ate what little I could find. Told myself I was hungry, would starve if I didn't eat something, but I wasn't fucking hungry, I…I just wanted to do it. Even if she was dead, rightfully deserved, it wasn't enough for me. If I couldn't force her to do half the shit she put me through, I could always make sure there was even less of that stupid body of hers left."

If he could still look at her, she wouldn't know it, gaze fixed firmly to the ground. "Maybe it wasn't even about what Mommy did to me, maybe it was just about this place, how I do just want to forget I was ever here, both times. I should have died back then-"

"Angel-"

"I should have died as a kid and if not, I should have died in this fucking fall. I don't deserve to be alive, don't you get it!? Why didn't you just leave me here to be dead!? Why do I have to stay here!? Why…why can't I just…fuck!"

She was just sobbing at this point, words failing her, and all DogDay could see standing there was the young girl she had once been. The one who would seek him out, in tears because CatNap scared her and all he could do was hug her until she was calm, so he did the same thing here and she let him, surprisingly. He didn't think it would work but it was all he could think of.

It was all Erica needed.

…

They knew they couldn't stay there for long, both because the Prototype would know where they had landed and also because the smaller Nightmare Critters were closing in based on the noises so she quickly led the two of them away.

"Lanterns everywhere. They'll have another way out, always do, just gotta find it."

It came as a set of doors that opened up to reveal a walkway lined with poppies, because of course it would be that flower, and another door at the end.

"Where do you think she went?" the brunette asked, unfortunately now thinking of that little traitor. "I know she's small but there's only so many spaces you can squeeze into, especially with that thing hunting you down.

He wasn't sure if he cared about Poppy anymore, not after she left them there to die. After she hid more secrets, tried to bring everyone down along with the Prototype, tricked him into keeping things too. "I just hope Kissy's alright."

"Fuck, yeah, we've gotta find her. So who else is still alive? Yarnaby's ran off somewhere, I think there's something called a Boxy Boo…the Doctor's other pets might have escaped but hopeully not…is that everyone?"

"That we know of. And if any of them try to hurt you again-"

"I get it," she managed a smile, "you've got my back and I've got yours."

The Omni-Hand opened the door at the end and set off a short alarm before it shut behind them, the only other way out also firmly locked. "Never is that fucking easy, is it?"

A grey tape and its matching TV were nearby and the voice that came on made her roll her eyes hard. "Hi! My name is Leith Pierre and I'm the Head of Innovation here at Playtime Co. If you're seeing this, you must be very, very lost. Well, rest-assured, friend, our state-of-the-art laboratory is just up ahead. Why dontcha just go inside and tap one of our scientists on the shoulder? Tell 'em you're lost, they'll be glad to help."

Another eyeroll for his shitty sarcasm. "Alright, alright, let's be honest. You're not supposed to be here, this is the single most high security, high clearance section of the entire factory. When someone finds you down here, you will be shot. And before you get any ideas, don't think you can just sneak away either. No, the second you put that tape in, it set off an alarm so if anyone's home, they know exactly where you are. Pretty nifty, huh? Security is very important to us here."

Over the alarms currently screeching, she could hear DogDay speak. "Angel? We aren't…alone anymore."

"If I were you, I'd start running," Leith continued, but her focus was now on the window, on the impossible sight of…of…

Of Huggy fucking Wuggy. Alive, one arm down and limping, coming right for them.

"Get the other door open, now!" she ordered. "Right fucking now!"

And as the bangs rang out from behind her, she jumped as the monster suddenly ran over, looking in through the window and screeching. Paralysed in fear, Erica could do nothing but scream back.