11/2/19
You sat at the top of the castle setup in distress, sobbing to yourself for a short few moments. It was impossible to try and get rid of the many heightened emotions that began to consume your porcelain frame. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn't even calm them in the slightest. You were a massive wreck.
However, you heard a small tinkering noise that pulled you from your suffocating despair. You expected the noise to have come from one of your friends, but that's not what you had seen at all. Instead, a cute little telephone toy was carefully peeking out at you. His red phone rang once more, the tinkering sound you had just heard.
The phone quickly scooted over to you, allowing his red phone to come flying off him as he screeched to a halt. When you sent him a curious look, he glanced at his phone before looking back to you expectantly. Giving him a look of peculiarity, you heard his voice come through the red phone as you lifted it to your ear.
"Hurry. Follow me." He told you in an urgent manner.
"Wait, why?" You asked quietly, feeling very uneasy by how wary the little telephone was acting. He knew something, something bad. It wasn't hard to tell.
"Just do as I say, quickly." Once you placed his red phone back into place, he instantly sped off into the far corner of the castle top. You quickly followed him, although very suspicious. He led you into the shadows towards the very edge, which was buried in pillows and beanbags.
As the telephone forced himself past the pile, through the small gap left between the pillows and the railing against the wall, you followed him to see the tops of some bookshelves. They were very close to the castle, allowing the both of you to traverse across. He rolled up a slanted book, using it as a ramp as he landed in a clear, plastic container full of craft supplies.
You quickly hopped in after him, situating yourself right beside the little telephone. Picking his phone back up, you nervously asked, "Why did you bring me here?"
"Just watch, and keep quiet." He hissed. "You'll thank me later."
Hearing both his statements and his tone, you sent him a narrowed glare before placing his phone back down. Sitting up straighter to clearly look over the top of the container, you eyed everything on the ground below. How every last toy scrambled for shelter beneath stands, inside containers, and in the far corners hidden by shadows. The only toys left out and about were your friends.
Suddenly, a shrill bell sounded, its harsh ringing resonating through the entire room, and you watched in horror as a million toddlers burst into the room. The lights flashed on. Hyper footsteps like the deep thunder of a stampede sounded. Shrieks and cries of crazed and immature joy broke free. This wasn't a child's playroom. It was a war zone!
Your face was fear stricken, your eyes wide and pupils shrunk as they jittered with uncontrollable fear. It was every toy's nightmare come true, right before your very eyes. These kids didn't understand playtime. They weren't even kids at all. They were utter monsters! Savage beasts! The scene before you was traumatizing, rendering you paralyzed.
All you could do was watch from way up above, from the safety of the plastic container atop the bookshelves where kids could never reach. You watched as your friends were treated like mere objects, not like toys. There were thrown, trampled, tugged, you name it. Jessie's hair became a paintbrush. Hamm was turned a decoration made of glue, noodles, and glitter. Bullseye was trampled by a kid mindlessly pushing around a ball-popper. And you had to say, those were among the most tame of the toddlers' mass destruction.
Better yet, the torture lasted for a good few hours. It was a mild sunset by the time the kids first burst into the room. By the time they left, as did every other kid on the daycare campus, the sky had turned very dark shades of reds and oranges. The sky would become enshrouded in complete nighttime darkness in a mere hour, if not minutes less.
You looked to your left as you heard rustling. The telephone had gotten out of the plastic container, using some of the supplies as a ramp just as he had done with the book earlier. "Wait, wait!" You called as you quickly scrambled after him.
Making your way back onto the top of the castle set as you followed the telephone, you continued to try and reach out to him. "Hey, what in the world just happened!? What's going on in this daycare?"
He stopped in his tracks and turned to you, flicking off his red telephone once more. You grabbed it without any second thoughts and listened intently. "That is the true nature of the Caterpillar room. It's not what Lotso cracked it all up to be, is it?"
Your face fell. "No, not at all!"
"That's what they all say." He scoffed, eyeing you. "You're lucky I found you up here. You would've been shattered to a million pieces in seconds."
"And I sincerely thank you for that from the bottom of my heart." You tried to give him a gracious smile, but it seemed forced as your body was still overwhelmed with panic. "But what am I supposed to do here? And what about my friends?"
"I'm sure they'll survive. But you? You'd best keep your head low. That's the only way you'll survive." He replied grimly.
You gasped. "No, no! That's not an acceptable answer!" You gripped the red phone tightly in fear. "There must be a way to fix this. If not, then we have to find a way out of here!"
"Yeah? And what then?"
His sarcastic, mocking tone troubled you.
"You mean to tell me that everything will magically be alright if you leave? Where will you go? All toys came here for a reason, even you and your friends. And what about that cowboy? He won't be there for you this time."
His words stung as reality came flooding back to you. Andy didn't want you guys anymore. There would be no point in returning to him, so where would you guys go then? And he was right.... Woody was gone, and he was never coming back. You would never see him again, and you would never be able to apologize. There was no resolution to be made. He was always the leader, always seemed to know what was the best for everyone when situations really became dire. Who else would be able to take on that role, and further fulfill it as well as he always did?
"So you figured it out?" The telephone sighed after your moment of silence. "There's nothing left for you guys. No kid, no cowboy, no way out."
"Is this really it? This is what it's come down to?" You whispered sadly, your grip loosening on the phone you still held.
"Better get used to it, doll. This is how things are now. Just keep your head low and stay hidden." He then glared at you as his voice turned threatening. "And no matter what you do, always stay in line. Follow. The. Rules. It's best for you, your friends, and everyone else to keep Lotso happy."
You sent him a worried look of confusion. What did that mean? You didn't have to think about the telephone's warning too long, though, as your answer came quicker than you expected. Not only that, but it was even worse than you expected.
Once nighttime came and the daycare faculty had long left, your friends made the decision to allow Buzz to go find Lotso and try to reason for a transfer to the Butterfly Room. You knew things were going to go downhill. However, you didn't have the heart to approach them yet as you were still overcome with guilt for the way you openly treated Woody earlier.
But when Buzz returned, the last light of hope and relief was lost. Something happened to Buzz, and from what the telephone foretold, the Space Ranger's new nature had to have been the bear's doing. He attacked your friends and rounded them up. From his words and actions, he seemed as if he believed he was a real Space Ranger once more.
Staying hidden in the darkness caused by the black veil of the night sky, you watched as Buzz, Lotso, and the rest of the bear's gang began to lock up your friends. They were all thrown into metal baskets, each one looking exactly like a prison cell. And no matter how desperately your friends fought, they were simply too outnumbered.
Once every last one of Andy's toys was locked up in a metal basket, you heard Lotso's voice boom throughout the otherwise silent room. "Listen up, folks. We got a way of doin' things here at Sunnyside. If you start at the bottom, pay your dues, life here can be a dream come true! But if you break our rules, step outta line, try to check out early, well...." You watched him throw something on the ground in front of your friends. "You're just hurtin' yourselves."
A sharp gasp escaped your lips as what it was. It was Woody's hat! His hat and nothing more. The cowboy wasn't there. "What did you to him?" You heard Jessie demand loudly, voicing the exact distressed thought that had just burst into your head.
"You all get a good night's rest. You got a full day of playtime tomorrow." Lotso cackled, his allies joining him as they all sped back to the Butterfly Room in the bear's toy dump truck. Buzz was left behind to monitor your friends throughout the night.
As you continued to stare on in horror at what had just transpired, you heard a thump beside you. "Welcome to Sunnyside Daycare." The telephone's voice hissed through his red phone that he had dropped beside you.
"More like Suicide Nightmare." You whispered sadly, pulling your knees in to your chest as you tried to rock yourself back into a calm state of mind. Let's just say you had a very hard time falling asleep that night.