He felt like he was sinking, his mind swirled with faded and dull memories. Recollections that felt so worn that they feel more like dreams. But Gabe knows that these weren't dreams for the truth cannot be sullied. He dreams of his teen years when he first employed at the factory. It was his first real job, not like the favors he did for his neighbors nor the extra chores he did to help his father with the crops. But a first, real, official job.
Gabe dreamed of his first day there. He was so engrossed with his performance he actually overworked that day. He remembers his first friend, Tyler. A strong guy with a good sense of humor. His sister Joyce, who also worked there with him. And Freddy, the office worker who they regularly meet in the cafeteria. He remembered the jokes they made, the laughs they had together. And despite it all being relegated to the confines of work, their friendship was strong.
But he then dreams of that moment when his view of the toy factory changed forever.
It was but a week before the factory was closed down. During lunch hour, he found one of the doors leading to a facility for authorized staff only has been left cracked open. And him, being the typical seventeen year old teenager that he was, ventured inside there knowing he's off limits.
The halls were stark white, nothing like rest of the colorfully decorated factory. The floors being hard concrete and fluorescent lamps blaring their harsh buzzing. He remembered it being cold.
He then heard it, screams. Or something closely like screaming. He couldn't tell due to how in human it sounded.
Gabe followed the bewailing noise till he found a door. He dared to look inside.
He remembers the crippling fear that clenched his heart when he ran as far as possible, he remembers the shame he felt when he quit the factory that same day, and he remembers the guilt when he hears how the factory was locked down and everyone inside including his friends, have disappeared.
It was dizzying, nauseating, gut wrenchingly sickening. His mind reflected that, as he spun deeper and deeper into his own self loathing.
But then, just as his dreary distress reaches its climax. He can see in the darkness, it was Poppy, gazing at him with worrying eyes. She then spoke, in the same soft voice when they first met.
"Wake up."
<<<<<<<<<<~>>>>>>>>>>
"Gah!" Gabriel gasps, his lungs pulling as much clean air as possible. His hand found its way to his chest, clinching where his heart should be. The subtle yet strong beats can be felt through the rising and falling of his chest as he gazed up to the wooden ceiling. He wondered how long he could have been out for, and how.
Having taken his much needed breaths, Gabe pushed himself back up, the Grabpack feeling heavy on his back. Taking in his surroundings, he red and pink lights that once danced around the room have now gone dark, leaving only the warm yellow lamps from the hallway to illuminate the dim bedroom. He also notices the case that he has just opened is empty, with no sign of that talking doll anywhere. Which can only mean one thing.
"Great, more weird toys to deal with." Gabe said to himself.
Once he brings himself back onto his feet he then leaves the bedroom behind. Then upon entering the living room he sees that the entrance from which he originally came in from before has been blocked, with many debris and random items stuffed into the hallway. How strange. How did all this stuff get there?
Doesn't matter now, he has to keep moving. If he meets that Huggy monster again, or whatever that doll is, he doubts the encounter would be anything but friendly.
He finds a door to his left, heading through it he finds a long stretched hallway. Decorated with the same generic kid friendly colors of red, blue, and yellow. As he walked his way through, not paying too much heed to the murals of the toys decorated around him, his mind wondered back to that Huggy monster that attacked him as well as the talking poppy doll he released.
They couldn't really be toys brought to life, right? How could it be, there is no way that Playtime.co actually made a living Huggy Wuggy. It must be something else. Wait a minute, robots! That must be it! That tape did mention something about experiments, so they must have been experimenting to make giant robot versions of the toys. How else would it be?
But he couldn't get those images out of his mind. The fleshy gums that held Huggy's sharp, animal-like teeth in. The drool that seeped from his red lips. To the way he leered down on him with eyes that held such life in them. But they couldn't be alive, right?
When he reached the end the path he finds the way split in three, two ways branching right and left lead into different halls, while the center path leads into a room. An office with a golden plaque above the doorway, titled Eliot Ludwig. So the office of the CEO of Playtime.co sits just a dozen hundred feet away fro that room with the talking Poppy doll. Interesting.
Opening it, he finds that the room inside looked just like any other office, at least one where a CEO of such a big company could have. A wooden floor with a fine red rug, bookshelves and drawers all around, and a waxed dark wood desk with one of those green hanging lamps sitting on top. But there was more to this room, decorated here and there around the office there are pictures of drawings made by kids. Gabe always knew that Eliot has a soft spot for the children.
Wandering on over to the desk he finds some papers strewn about. Gabe was curious as to what information the papers the late CEO could have, but he felt it was wrong to peer into someone personal documents. But then again the owner of said documents is long dead, as well as his company, and if that letter is wrong including everyone else.
At first there was nothing interesting that these papers offered. Just some legal documents about distribution and pricing. But there is something that caught his eye, but this seemed more like a personal note than any official documentation. Picking it up, he reads the following.
"Experiment 814"
"Notes : This experiment utilizes a live rat.
Said rat was given three servings a day for two weeks.
At the end of the two week period, the rat was killed and submerged in a poppy flower and preservent gel mixture.
After a week, an electric shock was given to the rat (while still in gel mixture) in attempt to revive it.
Subject remained unresponsive."
There was also more following the note, but this seemed to be more about Eliot's personal opinion about the experiment.
"I still believe in the potential of the poppy flower. Its unusual properties lead me to believe that the right mixture and procedure could have life altering effects. The poppy flower has for a long time been tied to heavy symbolisms, and I believe it's not for no reason. Perhaps larger subjects would yield different results."
Having finished reading and putting the piece of paper back down on the desk, Gabe uttered the most appropriate reaction he can possibly think of at that moment.
"….What the actual f**k?!"
Gabe's mind burned with questions. Did Eliot Ludwig really write this? And if so, was he really the one authorizing this? The way he described the flower and the procedure of the experiment, no normal human being just follows through with this kind of work. And just what the hell is with all this talk of "experiments" anyway? This is a toy company, that built a toy factory that builds toys, that's it, not whatever these Frankensteined robot plushies are.
Now he could just stay here longer and keep searching through these files, but the eerie quietness keeps bringing chills up his spine. He feels he should keep moving. Turning behind he sees a large ventilation duct, something he can squeeze through to the other side, he is not feeling like wandering through the other two halls.
He pulls the grate down and proceeds to climb on through. It was a bit more cramped than those ducts for conveyor belts from earlier but it is still manageable. He prayed to God that he doesn't find Huggy in these vents. He eventually reaches the other side, the vent's entrance was high and near the ceiling, but thankfully there are some crates he can safely jump down on.
The room he is in didn't look anything special at all. Just another random room without much function to it. Just some boxes lying around and the same large pipes running along the walls. But there is a large shutter door though, maybe if he opens it he can get out of here.
But before he can look around any further a box from a high catwalk fell. And revealing a toy behind it.
"Oops!" It was the Poppy doll.
"Whoa what are-!?" Gabe stuttered while shrinking back away from the doll, getting ready to run.
"No no no! Wait, don't run!" The red haired doll called back trying to calm him down. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I was just trying to get the power on."
Gabe stood still like a statue, his stance still ready to sprint at a second's notice. "You,..talk?"
"Of course I can talk, silly." The doll said in a playful manner. "Though I know you must be surprised to hear me say more than just prerecorded lines."
"Yeah well, so far there have been a lot of things that surprised me today." Gabe retorted.
The doll couldn't help but giggle at that statement, despite Gabe's obvious chagrin when he overheard it. The poppy doll then tried to look for a way down to get closer to her new friend.
"Hey, mind if you catch me?" The doll asked. "I would like to get down from here."
Gabe wouldn't lie that he does feel skeptical about coming close to what could be another robot toy that could kill him. But then again, she is little, what can she do to actually hurt him.
"Ok then." He then moved underneath the small catwalk the doll was on and held his arms out. The doll then leapt down and was then caught in Gabriel's hands. Despite being a robot she felt strangely warm in his grasp.
"Who are you?" He asked as he put her down on a nearby box.
"Why I'm Poppy!" The small toy replied. "I thought you would know who I am?"
"Oh wait, yeah that is true. Sorry." Gabe corrected himself. "I think a better question would be, what are you really? Aren't you like, some sort of robot or something?"
Immediately the doll's expression changed, from soft and cheery to worrisome concern. "Oh, right. You were only an assembly worker."
"Huh?"
"Listen, I know that this might be very strange and…frightening to you. But you should know this."
Now Gabe is feeling ever more unnerved. "Know,..what?"
The doll thought for a moment on how to best show him without scaring him too much. "Here, put your ear here." She said pointing to her chest.
Gabe felt suspicious about that notion. "You're not going to try and strangle me, right?"
"Really? With these tiny hands?" She replied playfully incredulous.
"Fair point."
He then leaned in, putting his ear close to where should be the doll's chest.
"I'm still not sure where you're going with this." He said. "But if you're gonna pull something on me then I'm going have to…" And then, he hears something, past the light sky-blue dress. A sound of something thumping, rhythmically. It was tiny but without a doubt unmistakable. He then noticed how warm she felt. He knows that that heat wasn't just coming from himself.
His eyes slowly begin to widen as the seemingly impossible implications of what Poppy is trying to tell him. He pulls himself back, and then looks into her eyes. These weren't the eyes of any porcelain doll. The way the pupils dilate in the light with her blue irises. The subtle yet distinct appearance of blood vessels at each eye's corner. Out of dreaded curiosity he touched her face. It's supposed to be pearly white porcelain, but yet when he caresses her cheek it was softly pliable.
"It…It can't be…" Gabe dreadfully muttered.
Poppy looked downwards, somberly, while stroking one of her red pigtails. "Yes. It is true."
"You're…alive."
A long silence followed. Poppy could literally feel the tension within Gabriel as so many words filled with hysteria stifled within his mouth, unable to speak because of how dumbstruck he is from the sheer nonsense of it all. There must be a tumultuous whirlwind of emotions going inside his head, he wasn't even looking at her, just staring blankly out in space.
Poppy tried to snap him out. "Hey, are you okay?"
Gabe's vision then refocuses back to Poppy who is looking at him with concern. Gabe has so many questions that it was hard to sort them through, his mind was so filled with assumptions that needed answers it is almost dizzying. But then he boiled it all down just one question, to just three words.
"What happened here?"
"I'll tell you, but I don't think here would be the best place to." She replied. "We should find our way out of here before someone else shows up."
"Someone else? Wait, you mean Huggy too is-?"
"Yes, he's just as alive as we are."
Gabe gave Poppy a worried look. "And are there uh, any more toys like you and Huggy here?"
"Lots more."
"Oh God." He felt like he could throw up then and there.
"Don't worry. I'm sure they don't know where we are for now." She tried to assure. "I have been stuck in that case for so long. You helped me out, so I'll help you!"
Poppy then pointed up to where she once was on the catwalk. There installed on the wall is what appeared to be some kind of electrical outlet, with a circular rim around a copper nub. "There is a door near where Eliot's office is, it's locked with two hand scanners, but there is no power in them. We need to turn them on if we want to continue."
Gabe wondered how to do he is going to do that, but then he remembers that his Grabpack can be used for electrical work. He begins with the open power socket, the power becoming visible in the glowing blue cords of his Grabpack, and weaves the cords around the electric towers and finishes with the inlet by grabbing it with the other hand.
Poppy then notices how weirded out he is by how the electricity here works. "You know Leith Pierre, the guy in charge of innovation here, he's the one that designed these things so that it would be easier for specialists to restart the power."
"Seriously? They couldn't just, I don't know, flipped on a backup generator or checked the fuse box like normal people." Gabe replied sarcastically. "Then again, they did turn a lovable blue toy mascot into a ten-foot tall bloodthirsty monster, so I guess calling these people normal is a bit of an overstatement."
Poppy giggled, but deep down she couldn't help but feel remorseful, there is so much more to this factory than he already knows. "Alright, now that the power's back on we should be able to unlock that door." She then asked Gabriel. "Say, if it's not too much trouble, can you give me a lift? I'm not sure I'll be able to keep up given how small I am."
"Sure, why not?" Gabe courteously replies. He then picks the little doll up and places her on his shoulder. She kept herself steady by holding on to one of the locks of his hair, she worried that it would hurt him, but he assured that it was nothing. He then asked. "So, Poppy, do have any plans on how to get out of here?"
"Oh believe me, I do have a plan." She replies. "And first things first, we climb back into that air duct you crawled out of."
He then looks to the duct in question. "Sure but, it seems pretty high up."
"Then use the Grabpack." Poppy suggested.
Gabe didn't know what she meant, sure the Grabpack is a bit strong but it couldn't be strong enough to lift him, right? But then when he shot both hands up to the vent he was surprised. "Woah!" The cables were stretched taut as the pulley system began to work it's magic and lifted both him and Poppy of the ground and into the vent.
"Ok! That's awesome!" He gleefully commented as he began to climb on through. "So what next? We can't go back the way we came, so got any ideas?"
"The Game Station is nearby, from what I remember the train should still be stationed there and working." She replied as they made their way out of Eliot's office. "We just head down Eliot's executive slide and take the train out of here."
Upon reaching the door, Gabriel then shot both hands into the scanners. But there was one question on his mind. "Wait, I know they have a train here, but it really takes us out of the factory?"
"Yes, if memory serves me right. They use a whole fleet of passenger trains to get around here faster."
"A whole fleet? I mean, that sounds cool and all but, isn't that excessive?" He said as they passed the opened door. "The factory is big, I know that, but not that big!"
Poppy paused for a second. "Let's,..let's just get to the train. I'll explain along the way." Poppy seemed to be strangely hesitant about that question. What is it about the factory's size that makes her uncomfortable? Or,..or is there something more in this factory. Huggy's existence is proof enough that there is something off about this place, so what is there to say that there is something worse within the rest of Playtime.co?
They ended up coming near to another doorway, this time unlocked, and make their way through. Inside there is another room, but the one glaring problem within it is the massive gaping hole in the middle of the floor. Gabe brought himself closer to the hole's edge and peered in, it looked bottomless, like a sinkhole straight to the center of the earth.
"Can you let me down, please?" Poppy asked him, her tone sounding a bit softer this time.
Gabe complies and lets her down from his shoulder, she then walks in front of him, standing between him and the hole. "The executive slide is just down here, it will take us right to the Game Station. And then-"
"And then what?" Gabe asked concerningly.
Poppy didn't respond at the moment, she simply stared down deep into the hole, almost worrisome, like as if there was some line that needed to be crossed. A point of no return.
"Gabriel." Poppy finally said, still staring into the hole without so much as turning to him. "How much of the factory do you know of?"
"Well there's the manufacturing plant, the cafeteria where we take breaks, the innovation wing, then there's the Game Station and the Playcare for the orphans. And I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of offices around-…"
Gabe stopped at mid sentence as he then realized something, something that he didn't notice up until now.
"Wait, how do you know my name?"
Poppy again didn't respond directly. She kept peering down into hole but her head was noticeably lower. She then breathed in slowly and deeply, and then turned back around towards Gabriel. Her expression disquieted and yet prepared.
"Listen, what I'm about to tell you, it will scare you. But please, I'm going to need you to trust me."
But then quick as lightning a pink hand connected to a long stretchy arm shot up from the hole and grabbed onto Poppy, and dragged her down to whence it came. Gabe fell back, shocked from the surprise, and couldn't help but feel helpless as he hears his new friend disappear into the darkness. Regaining his wit, Gabe launches himself forward and yelled into the hole.
"Poppy!? POPPY!?!"
But no reply came. He knew he had to go after her. Who knows what could have caught her?
Mustering up the courage, he takes one last look at the hole and then jumps in. He panics at first due to the free fall, but then he was met by the familiar feeling of sliding. He finds himself racing down a blue slide, some lights that kept it lit forming glowing blue rings repeatedly. Till then finally, thanks to the momentum from the free fall, he is then launched through the other side, practically rocketing towards the wall.
He then hits the iron shutter door and bursts through it. Tumbling to a stop while clinching his body tight in a cannonball position. That is to say, he didn't come out of that situation painlessly.
"Ooowwwww!" He said groaning as nearly every part of his body aches. "That's gonna leave a mark."
After a few more seconds of painfully groaning and aching, he then begins to pick himself up again. His legs were shaking, feeling like they could buckle in at the slightest breeze. Till after a minute of regaining his bearings, he brings itself back up upright and stable.
He takes in his surroundings, he is in yet another hallway. "Why are so many hallways down here?" Gabe thought to himself. Putting aside his now distaste for excessive hallways, he finds at the end of the hall another shutter door, with a red hand print scanner above it. Knowing what to do he shoot the red Grabpack hand.
Only for it to grabbed by the same hand that took Poppy.
"Oh! A new playmate!" A new feminine voice cries out.
Gabe tries to pull the hand back as hard as he can but to no avail. His red hand was pulled from its socket and is dragged up into the darkness above. Then out of the darkness above comes a new familiar face. A giant pink humanoid-esqe toy, with four arms and four legs, all long and spaghetti-like, with a circular head and curly plastic hair along with a pair of large, frighteningly life-like green eyes.
He knows this toy well, back when he assembled much smaller versions of her, with Playtime.co's patented elastic-plastic.
"It's been so long." The real life Mommy Long-Legs said as she descended closer to him.
Gabe couldn't actually believe what he is seeing. "T-they actually made another one?!" He stuttered incredulously, staring at her wide eyed.
He was prepared to run, that is until he catches sight of someone within one of Mommy's hands. "Isn't this exciting Poppy?" She said holding Poppy in her grasp, there looked to be webbing covering her mouth.
"Very exciting Mommy." Mommy Long Legs said for Poppy in a playful manner.
"Poppy, are you ok?" Gabe asked.
"Oh don't worry, little angel." Mommy replied. "Mommy always makes sure the children are safe under her care."
Part of Gabriel is glad that Mommy so far isn't thinking about trying to hurt her. But the look on Poppy's face says it all, she is not comfortable at all around Mommy.
"Now Mommy heard that Miss Poppy was just going to give you the train code to escape. Now how is that fun?" The pink spider said turning herself upside down. "Instead, why don't we make a game out of it?"
Gabriel doesn't like where this is going.
"The Game Station is still running, it will be just like old times." Mommy said before dangling Poppy closer to the human. "And if win all three games, Mommy will give you the train code!" She said moving Poppy around like a little girl playing with her doll. "Mommy loves that idea! Ooh we are going to have so much fun!"
"Ok, so uh, three games huh?" Gabe said while trying not to appear scared out of his mind. "I can do that. I'm in."
"Wonderful wonderful! Mommy loves a good sport, little angel!" She said turning herself back upright. "Head over to Musical Memory, and Mommy will get things started!"
Suddenly her tone changed, from cheery and gleeful, to more cold and on the point. She then stretched her neck slowly towards him, bringing her face close to his, as what she said next sent shivers down his spine. "Obey the rules, or I'll tear you apart, and eat your insides. While you're still alive."
Gabe now can feel his heart pounding in his chest, the way Mommy looked into him, it was as if she would just carry out the deed then and there. But with a small sliver of courage, he asks her. "And, and will you tell me what happened here?"
Mommy looked at him with a slight glare in her eyes. "What happened? Like you wouldn't-" She stops herself mid sentence and closes her eyes, her strained expression behind that demented mile was as if there was something conflicting going on inside her head. She then stared at him, deep into his eyes. "We'll see. We'll see."
And with wide grin, Mommy then rapidly climbs back up into the darkness, taking Poppy with her, while leaving the human alone. Her mad, cackling laughter echoing through the halls.
Gabriel inwardly cursed to himself for being so stupid and following along with what this pink spider wants. Not only is Poppy, his one and only chance of actually leaving this place, has been taken, but now he has to comply to whatever nightmare this living toy has in store for him. But if he doesn't go through with this, then there willl be no escaping here. And then he will die.
Suddenly the shutter doors then recede upwards, revealing a massive room on the other side. Walking on through, he then readies his Grabpack, as he enters the next step of his decent into the mystery of Playtime.co.
The Game Station.