Trapped in PlayTime

Huggy Wuggy

Two
Huggy

The halls of the factory were tall and bland and quiet. Alli felt like her steps were too loud, the multicolored tiles under her feet looking dull compared to what she remembered. The blocks in the hall felt smaller, the posters seeming more forced and less chipper, the doors looking more ominous now that she truly knew what happened beyond them.
Alli held the Huggy doll closer to herself, watching the ceiling warily. "Don't worry," she muttered, more to herself than anything else, "I won't let anything happen to you, 'kay?" she glanced down at the doll, giving it a small, reassuring smile. She didn't know why having the doll with her made her feel safe, she didn't know why she wasn't more afraid of this place.
"Find the kids," she muttered, "We have to find the kids," she took a breath, "Their parents are worried, they shouldn't be in here-" she let out a slight huff, "No kids should have been in here,"
She tried every door in the hall, each one being locked until she reached the last one. She opened it, looking inside, eyeing the electrical boxes. "Right," she muttered, putting her flashlight back on her belt and pointing it in front of her, leaving both of her hands free. "Alright Huggy," she said, sitting the doll on the floor against one of the electrical boxes, "I'm going to see if I can figure out how to get that door open-" then she paused, "How would kids have gotten that door open?" she muttered, glancing over her shoulder and the electrically locked door at the other end of the room. "Why do I even need to open that door?" she looked back at the Huggy doll, tipping her head at it. "Right, well- to save the kids, we'll have to go through that door, will we not?"
Alli stood, putting her hands on her hips, "Don't move, I'll be right back," she turned, beginning to open the doors of the panels, looking at what all the fuses connected to, their parings written on paper on the inside of the door. She was muttering to herself as she worked, noting that the power boxes went from left to right, the front of the building first and the rest of it following. "PlayLand," she muttered, "PlayCare," she shook her head, the sound of that word making the back on her head hurt, "PlayTime Office, Play Cafe, PlayRooms, Naptime Nook," she frowned slightly, not remembering a lot of these name, nor the places they correlated with.
"Hey," she said, "You wouldn't happen to know what these are, would-?" She looked over her shoulder, looking for the Huggy, but it was gone. She glanced around, "Huggy?" she asked, only the echo of her own voice answering her. "Well, okay then," she whispered, trying not to feel shaken by the doll's disappearance.
"Hall A," Alli read, pulling open the door of another electrical box, "I think this is it," she read through the list on the paper, "Accordion door," she said, nodding to herself as she flipped the switch left to start the circuit, then right to complete it.
There was a grinding sound from outside the electrical room; not the door she had wanted. Alli paused, unsure what to do now that she had opened the wrong door, but she doubted she was going to find the right switch after all, and called it good. She paused before the door, searching the room again for the Huggy, but she didn't find him. She paused once again outside of the room, looking back.
"'Kay," she muttered to herself, going back into the room and flipping all of the fuses that said 'Accordion Door', in hallways B-G11. "That should give me a good way out," she nodded, brushing her hands together before finally leaving the electrical room again.
Crouching under the accordion door she blinked up at a skylight, with a sign for PlayTime Co hanging from the tall ceiling. There were doors surrounding a hexagon shaped room, blocks and balls of all sizes and colors were in the corners of the room, 'Maker Station,' 'PlayCare,' 'Offices,' and 'Play Cafe,' were written above rolling doors in the walls. Other doorways were blank and empty from the looks of them, the halls dark and abandoned, and their signs having fallen to the ground and shattered.
Alli's eyes widened at the statue in the middle of the room, surrounded by worn velvet ropes and podiums was a large sized Huggy Wuggy. She stood, mouth open, at the sight of him, memorizing flashing back to her. "I remember," she said, voice low and bouncing around the space. Everything was so empty there, so hollow, it made Alli feel very alone, like no one would ever truly believe their suffering.
She was lucky. She was one of the few to have gotten out of the factory alive, in one piece, with their sanity still slightly intact. It was harder to say for the others she had left with, two of them had instituted themselves, one was missing an arm, and the other was blind. Alli had gotten the best draw of the lot, and she was sickened by how grateful she was for it. What they had witnessed there- it was hard for them to talk to each other let alone think about it all.
It had been proposed as such a great thing, The Program. It had gotten Alli and her sister off the street, Marie being older than Alli by four years, Alli being only twelve. They had been sisters by name, only half by blood. From what Marie had said, their mom hadn't been around much, and from Alli remembered that was true. They had left after their mother's fourth boyfriend became a raging alcoholic, and as most protagonist stories start, they had been on the move ever since.
Alli didn't ever quite feel like the protagonist of her life, she felt like a random side character, sent on random quests, to help the actual protagonist move along faster in the game of life they were all forced to play. She was often left behind, bullied, or forgotten; that wasn't a very 'main character' life in Alli's own and biased opinion.
She looked around the room, turning in a slow circle, taking it all in. She didn't remember any of this, she had never seen it before, she had never been here. She had never known this part of the factory even existed. She had been here before with other cops, when they were chasing out the squatters, but she didn't remember this part of the factory existing before that point.
There was movement behind her and she froze, turning slowly and pointing her flashlight in the direction of the noise.
"Huggy?" she asked, the doll she had been carrying was slumped lifelessly on the floor, its fuzzy blue body bathed in the dim light that was pouring through the windows. Rain was dripping into the room, the skylights obviously not as water tight as she had first noticed.
She glanced around, sure now that someone was messing with her. "Hello?" she asked, the noise echoing loudly, making her flinch. She looked back at the Huggy doll. "I'm either going crazy," she said, stepping closer and picking it up again carefully, "Or you moved," she raised an eyebrow at the doll, studying it. "Right?" she asked, knowing it wouldn't answer her.
Metal jangled above her head and she jumped, holding the smaller Huggy to her chest as she looked up at the large Huggy Wuggy statue in the middle of the room, a large gold key hanging from its raised hand. It was waving at her, mocking her ability to leave whenever she wanted, unlike when she had been younger.
Alli felt her heart racing, her nerves starting to fray. She shouldn't have accepted the case, she shouldn't have come back, she wasn't ready to face this place again. She wasn't ready to face the memories and the demons this factory had produced. Her heart was beating not to keep going, but her head was in the mission, her head wanted to find answers, she wanted to know what happened.
Don't go. Don't go. Don't go. Her heart pounded. But I want to. But I want to. But I want to. Her mind said in reply.
She eyed the key in Giga Huggy's hand. "Tsk," she tisked, "I'm not gonna be able to reach that," she muttered, glancing around, eyeing the blocks stacked against the wall. "Excuse me, for a moment," she said to Mini Huggy, "I need both hands free," she set him carefully on the floor propped up so he could see her as she works, then went over to one of the stacks of blocks.
She put her back to it, shoving it across the tile and towards the Huggy statue, lining it up with his hand. The three stacked blocks looked high enough for her to grab it, and she looked down at Mini Huggy. "If this is a bad idea I think I prefer to know now," she said, waiting. "Right then," she sighed, then glanced over her shoulder once more. She stopped, turning around fully, looking at a wad of pink fur.
With her attention momentarily distracted, she walked over to the pile and picked up the doll. "Missy," she said, smiling slightly in adoration. "Well then Huggy, looks like we've gathered another friend," she put the pink Kissy Missy doll down next to the Mini Huggy Wuggy, and looked back up at the key. "Right, right," she ran her tongue over her teeth, "Back to business," she climbed the stack of boxes easily, taking the kay from Giga Huggy carefully, giving him a small high five. "Teamwork," she said, brushing the dust from his fur slightly. "Awe, you sweet thing, you're dusty," her lips parted in a soft smile. "That's okay, once I figure out if those kids are okay, I'll come back and clean you up. Alright?"
Alli descended the boxes and pushed them back to their corner, looking back for Mini Huggy and Mini Missy. "Huggy?" she asked, looking around for the small doll again. The factory no longer felt right. It no longer felt safe. Alli glanced around, the key in one hand as she picked up Missy with the other. "He seems to do that a lot," she said, looking down at Missy, "We'll find him again eventually, right?"
She didn't get an answer.
Alli moved farther into the factory, the halls feeling wrong, either too tall or too long for the size of the factory from the outside. She had Missy cradled in her arm, trying every door, the key far too large to open any of them. "What should we do?" she asked softly, sighing as she found herself at the end of the hall, unable to go any further. "Just try another hall, I suppose,"
She started back down the hall, the circle of her flashlight casting strange shadows on the walls. They emerged from the hall and Alli froze, her breath catching in her chest as bile rose to the back of her throat. The Giga Huggy Wuggy, was gone.