The Factory

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One
The Factory

Detective Allison Payne looked at the abandoned PlayTime Co factory out of the rain splattered window of her car. The pounding of the drops made a white noise that was easy for her thoughts to get lost in. The factory was dark, the windows boarded over, the walls stained, and the parking lot scattered with debris from the crumbling building and growing weeds. It had been a long time since she had been there, since her last investigation, of which she found nothing.
More and more kids were going missing by the day, more and more of them disappearing into the depths of the PlayTime Co factory, only for them never to be seen again. They were probably all dead, from what Allison could guess. No one went into a building that ragged and made it out alive.
She let out a heavy breath, strapping her flashlight onto her belt, covering her gun with her shirt, and pulled the hood of her windbreaker up and over her head. She slid out of the cop car, locking the door and closing it behind herself. She left the keys in the middle console, knowing that if she lost them in the factory all hell would break loose.
Allison looked up at the building past the rain, making one final note to herself about what her purpose there was, then walked towards the gate.
It was chained shut, but the bars had been forced apart enough for a small person to climb through. Allison wasn't one of these people, but she slid past the bars without too much trouble; struggling to squeeze her belt past the bars but not running into any other issue after that.
Her steps were soft, but the sound was wet as she trekked along the slick pavement. She stepped over boards and weeds, chunks of cracked concrete, glass and cardboard soaked by the rain, posters that were sunbleached, and papers that were slicked to the ground. She hurried along the worn path towards the building, climbing the few steps up to the front doors of the building, pushing them open with her shoulder.
The front room was dark, the sound of the door crunching against the linoleum loud and echoing around the space. Allison pulled her flashlight from her belt, clicking it on and sweeping the spot of light around the room. It was littered with paper and cardboard, with the skeletons of chairs and tables. Counters lined the far end of the room, monitors behind them, doors behind those. The air was still and stagnant, dust filtering slowly in front of Allison's light.
She took a breath, the sound echoing hallowly around the space, and she stepped into the room. Her steps were as silent as she could make them, the light sweeping the floor as she tried to find any sign of the missing kids.
T-shirts and toys were thrown around the room, piled up in corners collecting dust, crushed or shredded or pulled into pieces. Allison glanced at these things, something about the abandoned building pulling at her chest. She remembered the toys this place had produced, how amazing they had been, but it was over now, and nothing was left.
She pointed her light at the ceiling, then at the halls on either end of the building, then at the doors behind the counter. She stopped, hearing rustling nearby, and turned her light towards it. She was silent, knowing better than to call out in unfamiliar circumstances, but she searched the direction the sound had come from, not seeing anything and turning away again.
Allison bent down slowly, a stuffed animal laying face down on the floor; one of the only ones left intact. "Hey, Huggy," she said softly, brushing the dust from the toy's fur, smiling at it slightly. "I didn't think I'd ever see one of you again," she let out a small breath, coddling the toy in her arm like it was a baby. "This might sound silly," she said, not noticing as the toy's smile became manic, "But I feel better with you here," she let out another anxious breath.
The Huggy doll froze, it's innate nature to kill whatever crossed it path, put on hold at the words that were uttered with such familiarity.
"I never thought I'd have to come back here," Allison said, walking farther into the factory. "Not after they shut this place down," her mind flashed back to her time at the factory; the tests they made her do, the scientists that came and went like rabbits, the toys she was told to treat as extensions of herself.
Alli glanced around, "They killed my sister here," she said softly, jumping over the counter and landing on the other side, reaching for the grate covering one of the arched doorways, "And I want to know why,"

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