Sarah blinked down at the toy, having not seen it there before when she entered.
"I swear... this wasn't here before...." she said to herself.
Mickey chose to poke his head out again. Sarah picked up the authentic doll noticing something different. Slowly, she picked up the doll. Mickey started squeaking as she did while the knitted hat fell off the doll's head. She was confused but was goosed when the elevator door opened to a family wanting to come in. Too nervous already, she picked up the hat and decided to just get out onto the highest floor of the hotel. The high ceiling the decorative chandeliers were dead ahead as she tried to escape into the wide hall. So far, this area had to be the quietest. Everyone was down below, it seemed. Sarah cautiously looked over the railing just prior to sitting weakly in one of the sofas.
Unknown to her though, something was slinking along the ceiling and lighting fixtures near them. This was an unwanted visitor to the doll that was starting to get wedged into the cushion. Sarah felt a pinch on her palm and she gasped when the Woody doll suddenly began to move. Very fast, in fact!
"Sssh! Ssh!" Woody began to encourage her to stay calm.
"Ah!! You— You're — !!"
"Don't! Don't!" Woody rose his arms, fervently with his brown eyes full of panic as well. "Don't... scream..." he slowly mouthed silently.
Sarah was standing up and almost dropped her backpack with the mouse still inside it. Prone to hyperventilating, she saw one of the cleaning ladies walking by. She only got an odd look but the woman kept on with her job. Sarah looked back down at the talking doll. She started to laugh, feeling like she was going crazy again. This was worse than the computer.
"Another one!"
"Yeah! I know, you've never seen a talking doll before but you gotta listen to me —"
"Listen to you? I'm going crazy here! I —" she had to keep from venting out of frustration. She could not endanger Mickey, if this was the real Woody or not.
Woody looked a little saddened yet he was relieved. He shifted his eyes around though, hearing that familiar rush of air nearby.
"We gotta talk... but we can't talk here." he started to reason.
"How — " she almost yelled, but she stopped and started to whisper. "How do I know I can trust you...?"
Woody seemed to cringe at that question even when it was truthfully logical.
"...that's a good question." he pointed out, grinning uneasily.
He wasn't asking for all of this either. No one did...but time was short. That dark shadow was getting close and he saw it.
"Listen to me... we gotta go now." he said urgently.
She looked to where he was looking and she knew, for certain, that was not there before. Of course, she wasn't sure about this, especially now that Mickey was flipping out again. Woody was too frustrated for this and got hold of her pant leg and pulled.
"Aw geez, come on!" he had to yell.
Being on the highest floor, there was currently no one else witnessing this girl speak to a toy while trying to tame a mouse. Which was lucky for them.
"Where are we going!?" Woody overheard.
"Keep it down! It can hear!" he tensely whispered back in midrun. "Follow my lead!"
This was wonderful for a first meeting, but introductions had to come last in this fondly situation. He too was chased by this thing before and he did learn well to the point that spotting it was easy.
"What is that!?"
"Someone who really wants to find us! Quick, this way!"
Woody made a sharp turn into one of the open suites, which awaited cleaning. She didn't waste any time and closed the door, quickly. Woody rolled over on the carpet after leaping in. She had to throw her bag down and pinned against the door, panicked. Seeing Woody get up, he pressed a finger to his lips, telling her to stay quiet. Telling him with her eyes, that may have been a hard task. Especially when they both heard a chilling sound on the other side of the door. Her eyes widened and she felt frozen. Woody felt the same way. Mickey looked out. After a moment of silence...the thing passed the room. Sarah slid down to the floor, almost hard. Woody saw Mickey try to come out.
She went to pick him up and Woody tried his chance to catch him, but the addled little mouse dashed into room's bathroom.
"No! Come on... really? Right now?"
"Ssh...ssh, ssh... keep it down. It's okay! He's in the corner!"
"Can't lose him..." she panted as she got onto her knees to crawl in after Mickey. "Almost did once..."
"I think I got this... You keep my back..." Woody said, hatching an idea.
"...okay!"
She had only just basically ran into this all too familiar doll, but she for one could not explain. He was willing to help her right off the bat.
"Hey there, li'l fellah... Don't go... stay right there..." Woody softened his voice for the scared mouse. "I ain't gonna hurt ya..."
Mickey kept himself curled in the corner, against the cold wall of the tub.
"Yah!" Woody yelped as he made a quick jump.
Mickey gave a panicked squeak and tried to struggle out of the cowboy's grip but he couldn't free his tail.
"Doh, hold it hold it, just stow it!"
Sarah ran and got one of the emptied waste baskets and tore the bag out of it. It would have to do for a temporary cage. Woody was able to drag and throw the poor mouse into it, out of breath himself.
"...th-thanks..." she uttered, grateful.
"...heh, thought Bullseye was bad." he chuckled as he fixed his hat.
She felt guilty of snapping at him before. Everything was starting to hit her right now that... which was unlike the whole thing with the laptop. This ... was this — ? It couldn't be....
"Oh... oh God... Oh my God... You... You are ... who I think you are... Are you?" she stuttered.
He had to take a step back, but the fact that she wasn't screaming was relieving.
"... yeah. Yeah." he humbly nodded. "You can call me Woody. Of course, ya probably already knew that." he chuckled.
"I can't believe this.... First it was him, then the whoever hacking the laptop... that th-thing a-and ... now you!"
Woody rose his hands to her, hoping to calm her down.
"I know you're scared, but just calm down, okay? I'll explain —"
"My parents are gone and he's trying to — Oh, I don't know what to do..."
"Kid, you've got to calm down." he tried to practice his patience by speaking slower.
"Sorry, I'm sorry..."
After a moment, Woody began to look a little melancholic. None of this was wanted, and no child deserved this. It was actually not supposed to wind up this way.... All that really mattered was that he found them, finally! It seemed that all the mess down below was enough distraction for them to settle on things for now. He had to break a very important rule though...and he was not very happy about that. Now it was time to tell her a view rather crucial things. Sarah sniffled and wiped her eyes after relieving some stress.... She wanted her family back and she wanted to go home. Yet, she was scared for Mickey, even more than before.
"You okay?" he had to ask.
She nodded.
"Yeah, yeah... I'm okay.... Woody, please... You have to tell me what's happening! Why is it happening... and if it's really him... than... why did he come to me...?"
"Yeah, it's a very long story...and it seems that you're apart of it now. Just as I am."
"But I still don't get it.... Why me? A-and you're here too... How did you get here?" she asked, moving to sitting on her knees.
"Hah hah, well... I had some help.... But one thing's for sure, you need help getting in."
"How do you know...?"
"Hey, I know of that mouse of yours too.... A lot of us do."
"Us?" she had a scary feeling.
"I'm getting too deep here already. But I was sent here to find you two. What you just saw out there was sent the night before to keep us from getting back."
"You mean... that shadow?"
"I need to know, you mentioned something happening to your computer?"
"Y-yeah, it turned on by itself. It went on the internet, to a video... and words started appearing in the comment box."
"Wh-what did they say...?"
"It said my name. It typed out my name and said something about Mickey, that I needed to keep him safe. And I need to get into the park at midnight. Then it just stopped. All that happened when my parents didn't come home...so I was scared. It happened before but I tried to tell Dad. He didn't believe me...."
"It's gonna be okay." Woody reassured, stepping closer calmly. "I've found ya now. I'm gonna help you. It's apparent that he talked to you."
"Mickey?"
"No, the computer. My guess is that it was magic that did it."
"Magic..."
"Either it was the Wizards or the Queen. Queen Minnie who might've talked to you."
"Minnie??"
Now she was even more shocked, be it the one Minnie everyone knew. There was so much happening!
"It's all a little crazy I know.... I thought the same when..." Woody then grew sad. "... when Bonnie disappeared."
"Bonnie? Oh... she's your ..."
"Y-yeah..." he cleared his throat. "It's not just your parents." he said, moving passed the pain for now.
"Oh, I'm sorry..."
"I-it's ... it's um — It's fine, we gotta get you two to the apartment."
"Oh yes! Right!" she nervously agreed and looked to the mouse in the bucket. "Mickey? You okay?"
He scurried around and then looked up at her. She then looked to her new companion, determined this time.
"Okay! We gotta get going. I have an idea that can get us in."
"Oh! Um... I have ... o-okay. In you go..." she painfully said, having to stow the mouse away again. "H-how...?"
"Gonna have to break some rules, but... the Monorail's the best bet."
"Ah... that's... there's a station by the Disneyland hotel. Not that far."
"Perfect."
*
Stowed in the bag, Woody was with Mickey hopefully to keep him calm during this. Sarah opened the hotel room door and peeked out. There was still an issue being taken care of from the shadow's mischief and the sighting of a live toy down in the lobby.
"Just act casual..." Woody whispered.
"Sure. Can't be that hard, right?" she replied with a lump in her throat.
Settling her bag, she walked out of the room and merely walked to the elevators. Woody settled quietly inside but then looked over down at the mouse, who seemed to recognize him. Sadly, Woody smiled. It was worth to try, but seeing the one and only Mickey cursed like this was painful. Maleficent sure thought this through very well. If Mickey was entirely lost, something awful would happen. Who knew in what sort of way? Right now, he had to think of how to get them onto that monorail.
To her, the walk was excruciating since she basically had two characters in her bag. Alive and real, for one thing. It was like she was stowing away a bomb or something. Just as she did before, she just walked along the halls until she got back to the start, the entrance from the District. It was just as crowded as before and the honk of the all too familiar Monorail caught her attention. There was the green roof of the station. Feeling somewhat more confident, she continued to walk towards the Disneyland Hotel.
"This better work..." she whispered under her breath.
Woody was nervous too as he overheard some whining of children and families complain about rides being closed down. In truth, many were shutting down. Radiator Springs, Soarin', the Fantasyland dark rides, Pirates of the Caribbean and lastly...the Haunted Mansion. Each one with no true reason. It was now or never.
Sarah saw the station's stair being watched by two cast members and she proceeded to the neighboring pin trading station.
"Okay..."
Woody peeked through the zipper. Just as he thought, always on sharp watch.
"What do we do now...?" she whispered.
"Nah nah, keep your cool, keep your cool. Go by the wall and I'll jump out."
"Are you so sure about this?"
"Now or never, am I right?"
She turned her back to one of the walls near the register and he was quick to jump out and hide. Now he had to save this one gifted spell, so he had to wing this the best he could. The kindly old Cast Member greeted Sarah to see if she finding things fine which was enough for him to climb into one of the pin fixtures, throwing pins down to the floor. Only Sarah was able to him dodge down behind the wall behind. What happened next though was something she did not expect. Out of hiding, Woody sprinted and he landed atop one of the fixtures. He took a bow to the lady.
"Hey Howdy hey!"
The woman screamed and so did the others. A few young teens looked on in shock. Sarah covered her mouth in shock. But he ushered her to go when he saw the two other castmembers from the Monorail entrance come and look at what was going on. Taking that chance, Sarah had to move to get passed them. She had to be fast to get up the stairs, trying to make it seem like she was holding a ticket. People began to crowd.... But during that chaos, Woody slipped away, under the wall once again. Hat and all. He cringed, hating to do that again, but it seemed to work. Security calls were going on everywhere at this point. There she was going up the stair and he ran and hopped fast after her. Sarah hid against the wall to catch her breath.
"I-can't-believe-we-just-did-that!" she panted.
Woody jumped to her side, just as frazzled.
"I can't believe we did that!" she tightly whispered.
"And that happened..." he panted and took one last look down the stair.
"What if they know... what if the cameras —"
"Don't jinx it!"
"I know, sorry — Just ... we actually did it..."
"We did, kiddo..." Woody managed to smile up at her before the two heard the blare of the horn.
They had to hurry and with that distraction done, she wasted no time and got Woody back into the bag. Among a few of the people and family above, she kinda squeezed into the little group up front in the gathering queue, just to keep out of sight. There was a scary moment though when a security guard came up the stairs looking angry. It seemed that the cameras did catch something. Sarah hid behind a mother's carriage and went along with the crowd when the door was opened.
"No, no, no..." she dreaded and tripped inside the cabin and sneaked to one of the seats in the back of it. "Please no no no..."
Woody looked through the zipper, just as tense, but the door shut before this guard could investigate further.
"He saw me... He saw me!" Sarah panicked and sunk down on the hard seat.
"Take it easy..." he tried to help. "Act casual, it'll be okay..."
"We're... we're sneaking in..."
"Ssh... Once we get off, we hide. Take it easy..."
"Okay, okay..." she sighed, trying not to hyperventilate among all these other people.
Meanwhile, as the train was starting to slowly go along the track, something slick and dark was slipping through the District towards the entrance of the front gates of Disneyland. Not one guest realized that they were treading on a dark creature. The security was on call when someone sneaked on, but it wasn't sure...so they were taking precautions. Luckily for them, the ride was calm enough but there was an announcement stating that the Monorail had to close...which frightened her greatly and she wanted to get off right away. When they reached the station, she was the first to get off right when the door opened. The station they were at had to be Tomorrowland, which happened to be the most crowded area currently, so she could just get lost in the crowd.
They were inside and she wasn't being chased.... It was remarkable!
"... I — oh my God! We did it... we actually did it!"