Trapped in PlayTime

The Hallway

Five
The Hallway

The hallways seemed to stretch on forever, the more they walked the less they saw, doors becoming sparse and randomly spaced apart. They watched their surroundings, Janson stopping Alli for a moment, motioning for her to look up with the beam of his flashlight. She did, following the circle of light up the wall to a door that was halfway up between the ceiling and the floor, the door swinging slightly as if blown by wind.
"What is it there for?" He asked, looking back down at Alli.
She pressed her lips together, swallowing hard. "It's for Mommy Long Legs,"
"Who?" He choked, pointing the flashlight at her.
Her eyebrow furrowed and her nose wrinkled slightly as she thought, "I don't remember," she said softly, "I just... I know,"
He nodded slowly, "Maybe we should head back and come back later with SWAT-"
"No," she said simply, turning away from him and continuing down the hall, "I'm finishing this,"
"Finishing what-? Allison!" He said, voice sharp as he grabbed her arm, forcing her to turn and look back at him. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"The Project!" Alli said, pulling her arm easily from his grip. "It ruined my life, and I'm going to find out why... and what happened to my sister and everyone else who was-"
"Alli, why the fuck would anything horrible happen? I get your trauma, I accept it, but this... it's honestly so unbelievable," he said softly, his face betraying how hard he was finding it to believe what she was saying.
"Because-" she stopped, "They didn't tell us why. That's sort of the point of being a captive,"
"Why would a toy factory abduct children? What did they do with them, and why? This... this is crazy Al," he said holding his hands up to her but not touching her, "I've seen what happens when you get here, I know the trauma is real for you so I'm not discrediting that, but this is a toy factory. How, ethically, could they get away with everything you claim they did?"
"Pay off an inspector? Hide it deep enough under the factory?" Alli shrugged slightly, "I was a kid, and they weren't into explaining why they did anything, they just did it,"
He took a breath and dropped his hands, "Right, okay. I don't think I can keep going, it's late and I have to get home-"
"So you're leaving?" Alli's worried frown deepened into an irritated one. "We're on a case-"
"Yeah, but this has been a forty-eight hour shift, and I'm salary," he eyed her, "We need to go," he nodded behind himself down the hall.
Alli's breaths were becoming heavy, "But-"
"You can come back- you can sit outside even. I'll send McCarrie over and the two of you can come back and explore, but I have to go," Janson's face was set, his seriousness making Alli resent him.
She took a breath, "Fine," she said softly, clearing her throat with a soft cough, "Let's go,"
He looked relieved, deflating slightly, "Sorry I can't stick around," he said, turning and starting down the hall in the opposite direction they had been going. "But it's not like we've made too much progress, so you and McCarrie will be able to make it back up,"
Alli was glaring at the back of his head, irritated. "Right,"
The hall didn't seem to want to end as they retraced their steps, watching their footprints in the dust travel in the other direction that they were now going. They kept going, the hall not becoming any different, the doors still too far apart, the paint still looking sick in color.
"I didn't think we had walked this far," Caleb muttered after they had been walking for much longer down the hall then up it.
"We didn't," Alli said evenly, "But the factory doesn't want us to leave," she let out a small shaking breath, glancing around quickly, her light darting around the walls.
"That's creepy as fuck, don't say that," Jansen muttered, glancing over his shoulder at her.
"Here," Alli said, ignoring him and walking up to a door with a side plaque that said 'Stairs'. "This way,"
"That's not the way we came-"
"But this is the way out," She looked over her shoulder at him as she jiggled the handle of the door, "This hallway doesn't act like it's ending any time soon, our best bet is to head up,"
He studied her, "I think we should keep going to way we came-"
Alli slammed her elbow into the thin rectangular window in the door, the glass shattering and she reached through, unlocking the handle from the inside.
"You can't-" Jansen started but Alli let the door swing open, soft lights illuminating the hall from inside the stairwell.
"We'll find a way out this way," Alli assured him, "I'm sure,"
He eyed her, shaking his head ever so slightly, "I feel safer in the hall-"
A loud clang interrupted him from behind them down the hall, metal scraping the linoleum, the sharp sound ricocheting against the walls.
Alli reached down, taking Kissy Missy from her pocket and setting her on the floor, something itching the back of her brain. "Alright, Missy, let's go," she looked down at the toy, who was sitting on the dusty floor.
Jansen looked from the pitch blackness of the hall to Alli, then to the doll on the floor. "Al, what the hell-?"
Kissy Missy shifted.
Alli's breath caught in her throat as she accepted the fact that her feelings had been right, even if her memories were lost to her.
"Holy fu-!" Jansen started, but another loud clang shuttered down the hall, the echo vibrating in their bones.
Kissy Missy turned slowly, looking up at Alli, her mouth widening and sharp teeth gleaming out at her. Her head lolled then she rolled, pushing up from the ground onto her plushy feet, looking at Alli with dark glittering eyes. Missy breathed, taking a shaking step towards Alli, her paws reaching for the soft body and the flesh beneath the fabric.
Alli waited, her heart in her throat.
Missy wrapped her arms around Alli's leg, and hugged her.
Alli's breath was almost a sob, her terror settling back into the bottom of her gut.
Missy pulled away from Alli, looking down the dark hall towards the noise that was drawing closer. Her plushy face had settled back into its soft smile and clear eyes, she looked as normal as when Alli had found her.
Alli watched as Missy stumbled into the middle of the hall, facing the blackness, then the stuffy took off sprinting in the direction of the sounds, her feet making soft patting noises on the dusty floor.
A sharp wailing replaced the banging and scraping, a second wailing joining the first.
Chills covered Alli's skin and she slowly backed into the stairwell.
Jansen, whose face was frozen in shocked fear, stumbled weakly towards the open door and Alli closed it behind him. "What- uh... what the..?"
"We have to go," Alli stated, starting to move up the stairs, ignoring his stuttering. "She can only distract them for so long-"
"What the fuck was that!" Jansen shouted, following up the stairs after her. "What the hell is going on?"
"I tried explaining it but you called me crazy," Alli replied, irritated at his slow uptake on the situation.
"No, I said I didn't believe you! That's two completely different things!" Jansen was still yelling.
"Be quiet!" Alli hissed, the stairwell echoing too loudly already, "Someone might hear you,"
"Someone?" Jansen hissed, but quieted down regardless.
"I'm guessing the giant Huggy Wuggy statue I saw earlier is after us," Alli explained, "Sentinel," she muttered to herself, then rolled her eyes with an irritated sigh, "That's what Kingsley was ranting about,"
"Who?" Jansen asked, still behind her.
"They're- there's a support group for the survivors of The Project," Alli explained quickly, "Kingsley was always going on about something called The Sentinel," she let out a breath, becoming winded from her upwards climb, "I understand now,"
"What does that mean?" Jansen asked, also becoming winded, "The Sentinel?"
"The Bigger Bodies Project," Alli stopped on a landing, turning around to look at her partner as she struggled to catch her breath, her chest tight, "One of the experiments done during The Project,"
"What is it though?" He asked, stopping next to her.
"I don't know," Alli said, her irritation evident in her voice, "Like I said, they weren't the type to recount their evil plans,"
"Right," Jansen said softly, taking a chance to look around the hallway, "Well... where are we headed?"
Alli glanced up the next set of stairs, "To find a way out... the PlayStation,"