Chapter Text
Dear Father, if he's out there, alive and breathing. Please. Guide him, to me. Save me...I despise this place. I hate it.
"Interesting...", Andy held the 'mail' firmly, eyes scanning the scribbled red words abruptly ended with a sketchy red flower that looked like a child had drawn it hastily, and the entire paper was written- no, more like 'decorated', - with crayons. All of that was enough to infuse skepticism into his core, the only reason he read this was because his co-workers sent it.
Kinda weird how they worded their letters. After some more nitpicking at the childish 9-year-old-worth of drawings, he settled it beside the commercial tape and looked outside the windows, stars of every brightness reflected on his blue iris, which he swore one of them just grew brighter the moment he wasn't looking.
Let's see, got nothing to do this evening, other than that cricket match I never enjoyed. Guess...I'll pay my buds some visits why not, has been ages since I departed from the company anyways.
And with that thought in mind, and a car's key in his pocket, Andy was ready to set for the night.
The engine whined at a high pitch, then felt dead silence when the key was pulled out. The only sound was the ticking of the cooling engine and the distant hum of the woods around him, completely submitting to the eternal quietude of the night. It didn't take him long to get through the military; in fact, it took zero struggle as there were none active. Sure, who would like to guard a toy factory with the payment of a peanut?
His eyes shifted from the keys to the main entrance. By all accounts and probably human eyes, it was normal-looking outside at first. The doors, with the least dirt and rust he would ever expect in an old factory. The windows, some noticeable cracks on the surface but nothing too out of the picture, perhaps the maintenance is running low on budget. Its once vibrant paint peeling in ghostly patches, now that Andy picked up some heavily rusted metals on the light poles on two sides of the doors, examining it for exactly half a second before leaving where it was. The handles of the door? Cold, untouched. Weird, were they even here? He put his weight against the door and pushed hard, palm jamming down the handle. For once, his movements were much slower than all the moments before in his life, not because he was scared, it was because the damn door was heavy as shit.
The door twisted inward, a sound like fingernails across a blackboard screamed from the rusty hinges, he squeezed himself in when there was enough space...and he was finally inside. A flood of cold, rusty air rushed into his lungs, a biting sensation crawled beneath his company clothes, sinking invincible fangs into his flesh as he fought to adapt to the new, almost dreadful, atmosphere. Right in the corner of his eye, a green tape was placed on the desk. He hesitated, the VHS tape clearly was out of place here. There was not much label or a single apparent hint of what it might contain, only an unconvincing color green that barely indicated anything important.
Carrying nothing heavy in his mind, he made his way to the desk and the tape was quickly scooped up. With a little push, it was secured inside the VCR, and a voice rang:
'Hi, my name is Leith Pierre, and I'm the head of innovation here at the Playtime Co. Toy Factory. If you're seeing this, then you're trespassing! Yeah, we play this little tape on a loop everytime 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, 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 alarm and directly contact the Authority and...that's one of the more tamed aspects of our security system, no spoiler!...So! You got my warning, it's not too late to turn around, I just hope that you're certain that whatever you're doing is worth it.'
The voice came to an end, but then statics. The noise immediately swallowed the room after his voice ended, loud enough to hear through multiple walls. More 'tamed' aspect? Damn, I'm curious about what the 'less' ones look like.
"Leith Pierre?" he furrowed his brows, his voice barely a whisper "Damn...can't remember his face.". Leith Pierre, speaking of the names reminded Andy of how great the man he was, an ideal role model businessman who came across as a dedicated man to his work. Pride and hard-work were his surnames. Despite his short and unpredictable temper, whenever Andy was caught in technical trouble with security, Leith was the man he will reach first, if Leith wasn't conveniently available inside the company, Andy would knock his co-workers up for a call, but then they would just slap him with the usual "Ask Leith." or any other fancy variations of that line out there, then continued whatever they were doing. Old time.
Andy snapped back to reality—enough talking, time to get inside. His buddies had to be in there, waiting for him to show up and throw cheap confetti at his face.
One problem, though. The door was shut tight, and from the looks of it, the only way to open it was by registering the glowing blue handprint on top. He smirked. So we’re doing the whole adventure thing, huh?
Now that Andy had gathered all the evidence of what the hell he was here for, he could only tell this was some kind of prank skillfully set by his co-worker to greet his comeback after a whole decade, and oh man, Andy admitted they were bustling in their creativity this time.
"Okay, guys! I'm convinced, you can all come out now."
Silence.
Deadpanned, he tried to slap a twisted smile onto his face while still looking back and forth in the room, "I'm not kidding! I'm- very nervous now, so come out, guys. You got me, y'all got me real good."
Again, the only answer was the static of the VCR, seemingly mocking his futile attempt to call out into nothingness.
"Well, if...none of you gonna come out, I'm coming in, alright? And I dare any of you sue me if I'm gonna land a punch right in the middle of your sorry face when I find y'all."
No answer. The VCR continued to flood the whole room in static.
'Morons', Andy thought 'I swear, something gotta stop me REAL quick now before I get in there and start breaking stuff. And hah! There seems to be nothing!'
On all possibilities, Andy wasn't speculating anything bad that will happen to him, screw it if some 'wild aspects' were going to creep up and chase him down, he was feeling brave tonight. And now his attention drifted to one of the rooms with a locked door. On the left, a combination of nine colored buttons lined up perfectly to show the parents proof that their place was 'kid-friendly'. Inside, the emergency Grabpack sat dormant behind glass in case the workers forgot about it.
He took the cues from the toy train and pressed the colors in order: Green, Pink, Yellow, Red. Opened.
Another VHS tape, lazily existing on the desk. Blue. To this point, Andy was already pretty convinced all of this was intentional, no way some supernatural entities put these in obvious places for him to 'see and use' like he was in some kind of makeshift RPG game. The tape was quickly put into use, and a short instruction clip showed the workers how to use the Grabpack as a handy tool to get around the facility. The design was very straightforward, even a kid knows how to make creative use of it. Andy suddenly chuckled, it was ridiculous if you think of it, workers have to wear these all the time they're active in the factory, like just casually working in the line while wearing heavy-ass toy hands. It was straight out of a Looney Tunes show, but the appendage worked perfectly fine somehow, the funny appearance made the workers more appealing to the children and put a constant trusty smile on their parents' faces.
The glass quickly lowered, letting the Grabpack fall to the floor. He immediately picked it up and wrapped it behind him. He even pressed the triggers a few times to see how fast the hands were shot out before feeling himself ready to enter the main entrance.
Andy rushed back to the door, and fired the blue hand at on top of it. Scanning...The heavy metal door elegantly made a 'kachink' and slid upward to reveal a giant statue of Huggy Wuggy - the face mascot of the company. Easily three times taller than him, stood proud in the very center with all the lights revolving around him. Cubes with words that spelled "HUGGY" scattered around him.
"I'm in! Ready or not, I'm gonna find and fucking beat all of you up!" Andy raised a fist, eyes wandering around the large area
But how, exactly? The place was like a maze, and the eyes of that giant fur creatures were starting to creep him up on his toes. Andy made his way through the thick air, into one of the doors labeled "Power". Slammed down the handle. Locked. Huh, of course, dunno what I expected.
Then, his eyes caught a suspicious line, followed then it revealed another blue handprint that had its wire connected to the door. Knowing what to do, he shot his blue hand up and a jolt of electricity zapped through the wire, sending a key from the ceilings down on top of the tall Huggy Wuggy. Andy used the other red hand to grab it mid-air and inserted it into the entrance, opening it.
"You guys even set a key for me to get to y'all quicker," he casually took a slow pace, finger-swinging the key ",talk about self-harm."
He kicked the second metal door open, the force made the frame tremble slightly. The next scene forced a groan from his mouth, mechanics' work. Electricity. Wires. Stupid switchboards. Taste of busbars, bronze. The whole parade of embarrassing memories of him messing up with blue and red wires, Andy had to slap himself a few times to chase the memories away...sometimes. But most of them were already pinned in his mind, practically stuck up with him. Well, not everything was bad, he had a few good talks with Leith, though it mostly happened through radios and retold from his buddies. Yet, he couldn't ask for more, where he was standing in the hierarchy of the company didn't offer him a lot of opportunities to meet Leith in person, so he felt lucky enough to send a few words to him.
...Crap. I'm lacking again. He didn't realize he was staring subconsciously at a worker's poster of Kissy Missy the entire time, until the unmistakable pink hit square in his eyes. Andy shook the thoughts around his head for a bit, before turning to the extending rows of electric boxes spreading throughout the rooms. Suddenly, his eye caught a specific box with colorful handprints on it. Now it was obvious as daylight where the adventure wanted to lead him to, a single click, and the plastic hand shot forward and opened it, revealing a power source constantly producing small bolts around its spherical head. He shot the blue hand, and like a brushstroke of dawn, a current of electricity surged through the cord connecting the hand, flooding the room in blue from the spectral brightness of the cord.
Now, what?
He began paying more attention to the room, eyes bouncing from corners to corners, and stopped at the bronze shafts, that were placed in a specific place. An idea. Andy shifted a leg back and pull the glowing cord maneuvering through the rows of boxes and stopped at a final wrap around the shaft. Just as he expected, the moment the plastic met with the metal, another violent jolt rang across the room. Snapped. The hand shot back to his Grabpack at a blinding speed, forcing him to bend backward and almost lose balance if he didn't fall on his knee.
He took a glance at his work. Well done, Andy, you...actually did it, in your first try. A smirk tugged in the corner of his lip, the power was on giving him more vision. He turned and left through the door, leaving his proud work behind.
Andy's smirk vanished.
A chill ran down his spine, his eyes bulged. The statue, it was gone. No traces, nothing, as if the thing just disappeared into thin air. "G-Guys?" his grip on the Grabpack's triggers tightened, his breaths ragged "I- I- don't even- Okay, this ain't funny anymore." his steps were heavy, slowly approaching the place where the statue once resided "Okay, okay. Please, I'm-...my god! Why y'all so quiet? Maybe give, I don't know, clues? A small damn subtle clue that all of this was a sick joke to give me heart attack?"
He rolled a cube off the stage, as if the very action could somehow make the Huggy Wuggy appear again. His breaths accelerated, eyes refusing to believe his co-workers would take things this far. "Y'all fucking morons, you know that?" he jabbed a finger to the air "All of you. I'm here, pissing my pant, and y'all probably laughing your ass off behind one of these doors!"
Silence.
Fuck this, ghost ain't real. Ain't gonna stand here and let the damn nutheads use me like a puppet in their freak show. Almost right after his line of thought ended, he stormed right at the door with no label on it, while aiming the blue hand for the glowing handprint on top, bullseye's, the door, in a blink, groaned as it began to slide up. Desperate. With a sharp inhale, Andy adjusted the grabpack and made a low-dive through the little opening, his back brushing against the dusty floor and the rough concrete hit the edge of his grabpack with a sharp clang and hit his elbow lightly, and he was finally on the other side just second before the door opened up fully.
He was on the floor, brushing off a few dusts, but he quickly got up on his feet. Then, in the corner of his eye, something slithered. Before Andy could even see it, it had disappeared behind one of the doors at the hall's end. He chuckled, "Hey, I see you!" Andy readied his pace "Come back!" and made a full sprint to the door.
Bam! He jumped and his feet collided with the door, completely tearing it off the hinges, the metal door crashed against the left, then the right wall. Yet, nothing. Absolutely nothing, besides a few pipelines and a creepy door at the end, which was lit by a single flickering lightbulb.
He arrived at a smaller section of the Manufacturer, where the machines were working tirelessly to produce a variety of toys from Cat-Bee to a red dinosaur. One of the machines had a moving eye, giving him a new sense of creep right next to a burning passion to break everything in this room.
And most importantly, still no sight of his co-workers, besides the machine. The mail he received must have been some kind of joke, they weren't even here!
At this point, he was pretty much done. If his co-workers were refusing to show up, neither him to have the patience left. Wrapping for the night was the final action of kicking a nearby conveyor, hard. His boot met with the metal, it echoed throughout the large chamber, the machines were still working in unison to manufacture Cat-Bee, and the eye from one of the machines never left him alone.
His sandals clicked against the floor, and he was already on his way back to the exit. Something weird happened however, the light was off outside, he could swear just minutes ago the room was still well-lit.
Andy's eyes widened, as he instinctively dashed back at the sight of a furry blue arm, reaching out from the darkness. Then its leg reached out, Andy felt his blood leaving his face, cold, as the whole creature emerged. Huggy Wuggy, in a slow pace, as if he was playing with his food, appeared from the darkness and made its way to the defenseless ex-worker. Its eyes locked into him like prey ready to be devoured.
He took a step back, and another, eyes never leaving the creature. "You guys...in ther-" his question was cut short by a hand swinging at his side, making him fall back half a meter.
His instincts screamed: run. His breath caught his throat. Muscle fibers went rigid, and his heart slammed against his rib. Run, run, RUN! He stood up. In a flash, the rapid sounds of his boots pounding against the concrete were heard, he wanted to breathe so badly but the monster wouldn't let him. Just as he started to run, the monster also adapted and ran at an unimaginable pace, its effort to catch him was clear.
Piercing his ears, a continuous flow of sirens echoed across the room. Only one word in his brain: Run! Anywhere!
The red light of the siren penetrated his eye, just as he dodged a close sweep from the monster - the massive hand knocked over a pile of boxes. He dashed between the stairs, but Huggy Wuggy just simply approached him from the other side, its hand slipped right past his shoulder, grazing him but not quite catching the speedy employee. Andy climbed over the toy's conveyor, but the monster was reckless - it bulldozed through the toys, and the siren never stopped. He took a glance at the siren, and the conveyor's door had opened. The conveyor's door, screw the big fat sign saying "Beware" type shit, he must live.
He stormed into it, the echo of the monster left behind, the siren was left behind. Everything was too loud a moment ago...now it was louder. The winds from the turbines punched into him from every direction, occasionally his Grabpack pumped into the metal, making the noise louder. Ounces of air rushed in and out of his mouth and nose, his eyes were blurry as he felt the adrenaline was practically the only motor keeping him running this fast. His breath exploded when he approached a seemingly dead end, but something caught his eye - paints, colorful handprints. Not thinking, he followed it into the dark path.
"This can't be real, this can't be real. This can't be fucking real." he made a sharp turn "God fuck. No...no no no, all of this ain't real." the turbines blew dusts into his face, as if mocking him, though temporarily blind, his vocal cord wasn't stopping "All of this!". he swept a single bead of sweat across his face and the dust away from his eyes.
As if god hated him so much, the moment he swept the dust away, another sound approached in the opposite, and an inhuman scream vibrated. Huggy Wuggy appeared on the opposite side and was squeezing its way to him, and it was already dangerously close. He made a left turn, yet, he couldn't find any solid ground, and before he knew it he already fallen down a steep line of conveyor, the Grabpack constantly smacking against the rolling cylinders.
He hit head-first into the metal beneath, but he didn't feel pain at all. Blood poured down, but he didn't care, he must live. His legs ramped up their effort and he was on his feet again, sweeping the blood on his forehead away, his eyes worked hard to adjust to the scene before him, a collapsed bridge. The roar was heard, and the creature was near. He quickly jumped to the other side, but it didn't stop roaring. Huggy Wuggy crashed down at the base of the conveyor a second later after he got to the other side.
This was it. His final moment, the blood was leaving his body already too much, and his eyes gave up looking at the monster and instead fixated into the ceilings above or even there was a ceiling. But the damn beast was such a menace, it knew he had given up on running so now it was the most enjoyable moment of its game - slowing approaching him, not with caution but amusement, it wanted to break him entirely.
He looked at again, smiling, the blood dripped down on his lip, "I'm here...kill me already, you...goofball ass looking-" Andy's eyes drifted "...huh?"
He saw it. A box, with colored handprints on top. Then, as if time froze. He shot both hands upward and pulled the box down.
Bam!
The box fell clean down at the monster's head.
Time froze, aswell as all the noises seized, as if only two figures were left in this world: The monster and Andy. The monster looked up to Andy, who was poking his head out from the bridge to see the beast for the last time. Andy saw it hit a pipe, but what surprised him that it kept staring at him. He couldn't feel or see how the monster felt, really, though he was confident that he was a 'people' person and knew exactly how others felt. The eyes. They weren't judging him, definitely not. Also not burning with rage, it was its last moment anyways so feeling angry wouldn't solve anything in particular.
...Can we...count the monster as, well, something more human? We keep addressing it as a 'monster', is it? Yes, because it IS a monster, no debate apparently. However, the question remains until the end of this series. Let's wait for Andy to answer.
His eyes met with the monster's black expanded pupils for the seeming last time, and he finally got an answer to the question. Huggy hung in the air before it realized it, the giant toy already stopped falling to the abyss, and the ever-expanding void beneath stopped growing, as Andy gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on the railings, pulling the heavy blue giant up with the two hands from the Grabpack.
For minutes now, the two only sat and stared at each other. Andy occasionally got butthurt and had to switch place, though he only move, at the best, inches away, or just exchanged with Huggy. The path was small they were sitting on, and staring further down is an endless void of fog and pipelines. Andy tended the wound on his forehead and exhaled in relief when the blood had stopped, his shoulders were sore also but it wasn't enough to bother him. Next, he checked the furry giant's arm, it was convincingly broken from the missing fur patterns, and the blue fur was tainted red...blood? For now, he won't even question it.
But now he thought of it, where the heck was the security measure anyways? He was breaking the insides of the factory like strolling through a midnight park. Then, it came to his mind, Huggy was probably the security measure, it sounded hell-torn crazy but literally, there was nothing out there to stop him except for this giant dude, who was now doing something similar to a dog nudging at its wound
Just seconds ago, they were playing the most dangerous hide-and-seek game in the entire damn world, and now they were sitting on opposite sides like two old friends haven't met for decades.
The longer they stared at each other, the weirder the atmosphere got. And Huggy decided to break the silence, by unleashing to what seemed like a painful growl.
"Don't," he raised a palm at it "even think about it. My eardrums just 'ploded, give it some rest."
Huggy growled anyways, as if daring him to attack it. Then, it lightly smacked the side of his ribs, perhaps judging him.
"Oh now, you're blaming me?." he shot a stare "Hey hey, look at me, then look at yourself, who got it worse?
The blue monster suddenly backed away from him slightly.
"Yeah that's right, feel bad about yourself!" he pointed a finger "I should just lowkey be a couch potato and stick to pop and TV tonight, but I'm here, talking to you about everything and nothing."
Andy didn't expect that sudden burst of semi-anger to be so effective, the giant finished looking at him and was quiet now. Yet, the silence was suffocating for even a fraction of either of them not talking, and they both swiftly broke it apart.
"Hey, you understand me, right?"
Huggy nodded.
Andy's smirk faltered slightly, he felt a bit uncomfortable knowing that all his insults were registered inside the monster's mind, but he fought to gain composure, "Well, have you seen anyone before me?"
It shook its head.
Noone. Wait, what the fuck? Then...who sent that mail? Wha- What's the whole point of all of this running? What's the- Why am I even here?
A soft sensation swept across Andy's cheek, temporarily pulling him out before the amount of questions could accumulate - Huggy's soft paw. The other good hand Huggy had left decided to comfort the twenty-six-year-old manchild. True, it was meant for hugging, thus the name, but Andy couldn't believe his own gut that the sensation could be this warm. He pushed the paw away, faking a smile, "Alright, you big goofball, now you finally felt bad for me?"
Huggy tilted its head. "Yeah, you should be.", he stuttered like something caught his throat "Now...wait, let me get ready-" he tore apart a piece of white cloth underneath his uniform and wrapped it around his head to form a temporary bandana, quickly the fabric soaked red. Stupid. He should have done this way earlier on. Next, he inhaled a rich amount of air inside his lungs, his eyes widened for a moment when he realized he already gotten used to the air in this place.
The red flower. There it was, out of place than ever, located right in the center of the thick pipeline system, a huge drawing of a four-petal red flower, and in the center, was a wooden door between thick metal walls.
Andy gritted his teeth and focused all the strength onto his legs, powering himself upwards while the pain was still evident on his forehead and the red was still on the edge of his eyes. He must move, he must not stay here. Each step was heavy for him, but with the help of his newly found pal, he continued.
On the way, he found a tape, this is one was empty on the outside. Quickly, he inserted it in, and Leith Pierre's voice rang again.
"Final Log: In relation, Experiment 1006, The Prototype. Coordination and cooperation are evidently within his skillset, aswell as the skillset of all other experiments of his type."
The first two words were aimed right at his heart. Final Log, a sugarcoated understatement for "final moment". Despite so, Andy picked up his pace and marched towards the flower. Now it was clearer, words, colorful words surrounding the innocent wooden door. GO BACK. RUN. RUN. NO. DANGER. Despite so, the door never stops appearing closer and closer to him after every steps he landed down. With just a light click, the door welcomed him in.
"Though still missing, today's events are, no doubt, in relation to him. His absence was a flawed scientific project which should have, under no circumstance, been left unaccounted for...that's why I'm making this log...so the same mistake won't be made twice. In the future, experiments must be contained and disposed of in a secured location. I'm not worrying about myself."
Despite so, Andy didn't stop.
"One breakthrough, and I'll be back."
He kept going.
"We must forge onwards in the name of science."
He kept going.
"Those who are beneath us, understand it or not, end up-'
He-
The tape abruptly cut short, leaving a confused Andy to stop mid-step before the stair. However, Huggy Wuggy didn't catch up, and it bumped lightly into his grabpack. The term 'Project 1006' lingered beside his ear was no louder than a whisper, he didn't look back to know Huggy was tilting its head in confusion, "H- Hey buddy, friend." his voice shaking with unfiltered dread "You know that...'toy' that was named Prototype, right? He's your friend?"
For once, Huggy didn't respond...at all, there was no subtle movements either, infusing even more mixed emotions into his gut. He glanced an eye at him, then turned away just as quickly and opened the door, "Friend or not. I already don't want to see that damn thing with my own eyes."
Andy made his way down the wooden stairs. It was cold, unexplainably cold. He felt it from the inside though, not outside.
And he reached it for the final entrance, literally the final one, often there were additional doors on both sides, here there was none, as if...none of this was real, the halls as if stretched infinitely, all pointing towards the door at the end of the hall, like fingers of death itself guiding him. The creaking of the old wood beneath him was enough to send him shiver from legs up. The ringing of warnings beside his ears: GO BACK. DON'T. If he did want to go back, which ways? There was no way back, and he knew it. He knew it, too well.
Creaked. The door was pushed inward. The smell of dust here was the thickest he had ever seen, pardon for the red light. Then there she was, Poppy, the porcelain doll. She looked so peaceful...but why the dread feeling around Andy?
For a fraction, he felt it. Biting. Gnawing. Crunching. Of something big beneath him, beneath all these woods and stones. It sank deep beneath his flesh, chewing what was left of his conscience. His heart was beating at a rate that even Huggy outside could hear. His breaths stopped, he had nowhere left to go, he knew it so damn well. With the final bit of conscience finally faded away, he yanked the case open.
"You opened my case..."