Trapped in PlayTime

Friend

Three
Friend

    Alli wanted to throw up, the fear was making her heart beat out of her chest. She glanced around, trying to figure out where it might have gone, how it could have moved. Images flashed in the back of her head and she put her hands to her temples, pressing into them with the heels of her hands. She fell to her knees, going dizzy with the images flashing across her vision, her ears starting to ring.
    She didn't understand the things she was seeing versus what she was remembering: the tests, the scientists, the sounds; everything was the same yet none of it made sense. There had been points where Alli thought she had made up the fact about the giant living toys, how she had seen them and no one else remembered. Maybe she had just been different, or maybe that had been part of her training the entire time.
    She remembered someone, a voice, a girl, about her sister's age. Lilly. Lilith had been her name, she had been there at the factory, she had been with them. There was something about her, something different- Lilly had seen the toys too.
    Alli was gasping, her vision completely gone, she had no idea where she was except for the dusty tile under her hands. She pressed her palms into it, centering herself, trying to calm down. She didn't know what had happened to Lilly, but she had seemed scared when Alli had talked about leaving, something Alli had said made Lilly look over her shoulder, eyebrows creased in fear.
    Marie had known Lilly, they had been roommates. When they all went down to PlayCare together, Lilly and Marie had been side by side, directing the kids. Alli remembered them, the way they had acted, like they were the mothers of all of the other children.
    There was a memory digging at the back of Allison's mind, digging at the walls she had put up to protect herself from those memories. It wanted out, it wanted her to remember. Something had happened to Lilly, then something had happened to Marie. Lilly had gone, her sister had died, something had happened to them. The experiments became worse after that.
    Alli held her jaw shut, forcing down the lump rising in her throat, trying to breath past the restrictive nature of her chest. There was something terribly wrong with this place, something that Alli didn't want to let herself remember.
    Footsteps were the only thing that brought Allison back to reality, her eyes peeling open slightly as she looked up from the floor. She sat back on her heels, pulling the Kissy Missy doll to her chest, and putting her hand to her gun which she still kept concealed under her jacket. It was better to look unarmed and harmless, then give anyone the impression that you were there to hurt them; she had learned this the hard way.
    "Allison?" called a voice that echoed down the halls.
    Alli froze, then she became angry. Rage and irritation bubbling up in her chest. "That fucking–" she stopped, putting a hand to her mouth, "Excuse my French," she muttered, standing slowly. "Janson!" she called, irritation evident in her voice.
    Janson, the other detective that had been assigned to the missing children's case, entered the large central room, ducking under the accordion door. "There you are," he said, breathing a sigh of annoyed relief, "I told you to wait for me-"
    "I told you I didn't want to get stuck in here overnight!" Alli said, interrupting him, "You were off who knows where and said you'd meet me here at five, well, five wasn't good enough!" she glared at him, "I'm running this case along, thank you. You can go,"
    Janson was looking around the central room, and whistled slightly, obviously uninterested in Alli's outburst. "Look at this place," he breathed, "I remember when they were still making toys here,"
    Alli swallowed, slightly glad that her deadbeat partner had decided to show. "Me too," she said, then let out a shaky breath.
    "You remember those toys, the uh- the-" he snapped his fingers, trying to think of the name, "The little green robot thing?"
    "Boogie Bot?" Alli supplied, trying to remember if there had been anything else remotely like what Janson was thinking about.
    "Yeah!" He said slowly, "That was it," He smiled slightly to himself, "Loved those things,"
    Alli let out a slight breath, "Yeah, well-" she glanced around, freezing as she saw the slithering hand of a blue doll disappear around the corner of a hallway. "Uh- Caleb," she said, voice wavering.
    Janson turned around to look at her, his hands in his pockets, "What?"
    "We uhm- we-" she couldn't finish the statement, she was going to throw up. "Merde," she breathed, "Excuse my French," she said again, using actual French to swear. Something about the place made her want to be as unassuming as possible.
    Janson studied her, his face falling into a slight frown, "You okay, Al?"
    Alli swallowed, nodding, "We need to get out of here," she breathed. "There's something not right with this place,"
    Janson glanced around, "It's just an empty building-"
    "Nothing about this place is empty!" Alli said sharply, the warning bells in the back of her mind going wild. Get out! Get out! Get out! "There's something here,"
    "Did you see someone?" he asked, walking towards her as he looked in the direction she was staring, down the hall where she had seen what she could only pray wasn't real.
    "No," she breathed, trembling all over, "Not someone," she said, teeth chattering.
    He looked at her, eyes wide and brows furrowed. "You're really not okay, Al,"
    She hugged Missy closer to herself, rubbing the doll's hand gently, the fabric soft despite how much it had been through. It felt warm close to her like that, as if the factory had breathed life into every toy it made.
    Alli froze, "Breathed life-" she said breathlessly, "They breathed life into–" tears burned the backs of her eyes, her mind no longer unwilling to remember.
    "Al, we should go," Janson said, holding out a hand to edge her towards the accordion door. "This place isn't good for you,"
    Alli shook her head, "I know what happened here," she said, voice weak. "I remember,"
    "Woah, Al, listen," Janson said softly, trying to calm his partner, "You- weren't here. What could you remember?" She had episodes like this often enough, he was used to them now.
    "I was here," Alli breathed, stepping past him in the direction she had seen Huggy going. "I was here, such a long time ago," she looked over her shoulder at her partner, "You remember when they made toys here," she said, "So you remember the Game Day Project?"
    Janson thought for a moment, "Y-yeah, I do,"
    "I was there," Alli said softly, "I was apart of the Game Day Project," she glanced down, "So was my sister, and we- so many things happened to us,"
    Janson watched his partner. Alli was younger than him by almost eight years, her history and scattered past had never been of much concern to him, although there were bits and pieces that hadn't made sense, that had made him suspicious. "You were... an orphan?"
    Alli nodded, "Although, not legally," she looked towards one of the tunnels again. "But they brought us here, and so many people died- it was horrible,"
    He frowned, "How did they die? They have protocols for that-"
    "They killed them," Alli turned back to look at him again, "I was there. I watched it happen," her eyebrows furrowed as the memory unfolded itself, "I watched what they did to my sister, I couldn't let it happen to anyone else. We ran away," she looked down at Kissy Missy. "I left them here to die," she breathed, guilt washing over her like water. Janson didn't believe her, she could tell when she looked at him again, her eyes blurry with tears.
    He didn't not believe her, on the other hand. He had been made aware of the Game Day Project, every kid in his day had wanted to be a part of it, but it was very exclusive. Invite only, he had imagined. It was only after coming on one of the factory tours as a child that he had learned that the factory adopted kids to attend the Game Day Project, and that he would never get the chance to experience it. It was probably a good thing.
    "I have to find out what they did to my sister," Alli said finally, her voice stronger than it had been. "I need to find out what happened to everyone here," she looked back towards the hall that Giga Huggy had wandered down. "I need to find closure,"