The Heretics from Up Above [🄿🄾🄿🄿🅈 🄿🄻🄰🅈🅃🄸🄼🄴]

Chapter 6: Fly In A Web

A hand grabbed Huggy. He was being pulled across the floor before being pulled up into the darkness. A female voice spoke. Sirens blared. Red light flooded my view.

"Wake up."

The lights were out. Charlotte yawned and sat up, stretching. I also got up, removing my GrabPack temporarily to stretch. "So... Where did Poppy go?" Charlotte asked.

Oh crap. She was gone. I led my sister out of the room, and as we exited, we stopped. The dresser had been moved. Last time, after we watched Huggy fall into the abyss, it was blocking the door. Charlotte opened the door and we began walking through, seeing that the walls were more beat up than the walls on the upper levels. The lights flickered as we walked, checking for any sign of Poppy. "Doors are locked..." I thought to myself.

There were paintings of two different characters; Bron and Huggy Wuggy. I always wondered when we would see Bron in the actual game. But he's only there as a minor character. HOWEVER, we learned that he was part of the Bigger Bodies Initiative. His human self had been a worker at Playtime Co. and was on the verge of dying. And so he brought himself in to be part of the Bigger Bodies Initiative. As Charlotte and I made our way to a 3-way hall, we stopped. In front of us was a red door with a golden sign on the top; Elliot Ludwig's office. Charlotte eagerly ran to the door and tried opening it, yelling angrily. "Why do we have to do things the HARD WAY??? I wanna bust the door down and MOVE ON!!!" she yelled.

I giggled and slapped her with my GrabPack. "Come on. We gotta go right," I said.

Charlotte exhaled and followed me, looking up to see something to swing on. I grabbed onto the bar first, channeling my inner Tarzan as I swung across the gap. Charlotte did the same and almost fell on her face. "If only Ryan were here to see that," I snarkily said.

"Hey!! At least I made it!" Charlotte argued.

As we passed under the slightly flickering lights, I could see a cardboard cutout. It was Huggy Wuggy, and he was wearing a GrabPack. Charlotte quickly moved some colored barrels out of a door's way, opening it. She walked in and soon came back out with a key. It was dark red and had a poppy flower on the posterior end. "Oh– I almost forgot the key looked like that," I said.

"Girlie, you need to brush up on Chapter 2 as well!" Charlotte shouted.

"I told you to brush up on Chapter 1, and now I have to remind you of the second chapter! How long have you been hyper-fixated on Chapter 3?"

"A long time. Ever since the first teaser trailer," I responded.

"Good God, sissy..."

I smirked and followed her across the gap to the 3-way hall. Entering the red-doored office, I was amazed to see it was nothing like the game. Although Charlotte was quick to locate the small golden statue of Daisy. "Woah... Look at this place..." I breathed.

"It's nothing like how MOB made it in the game," Charlotte said.

Sure, it looked better, but the layout was the same. Charlotte went to sit on a cushioned chair while I walked and looked at the children's drawings on the walls. They were so cute. There wasn't a sign of anything cryptic like in the 2nd Chapter 3 teaser trailer. I also couldn't help but notice an eyeless CatBee toy sitting in the corner. "Oh God... poor thing..." I mumbled.

"Hey, sissy. Remember the VHS tape in the office? Do you know where it is?" Charlotte asked.

She was still in the chair, doing nothing as she let her feet dangle. On Ludwig's desk was the gray tape. But under that was a paper. It explained, in bullet points, about an experiment. Experiment 814, involved a live rat and the poppy flower. I took the paper, quickly folded it, and put it in my pocket. Then I took the tape and inserted it, sitting in another one of the plush chairs. The TV came to life in black and white; fitting that this place opened in the 50s. But it's not so fitting when you realize Disney started using color on July 30th, 1932. "Playtime Co. is the product of a great man, by the name of Elliot Ludwig. Divorced, but a family man at heart, his sights were always set on bringing amazing toys to amazing children around the globe."

"So– wait– what? Are we watching the whole thing?" Charlotte asked.

"It'll increase the run time! I wanna speedrun this bad boy!!"

"First of all, we did NOT speedrun the first chapter. And second of all, my lovely gremlin of a sister, we gotta collect a bunch of secrets; not all of them, but some of them," I replied.

Both of us turned to look at the TV again as Charlotte groaned in frustration, crossing one leg over the other. "Ludwig spent countless hours in the factory, working overtime relentlessly to continuously innovate and surprise. In the 1960's, an unfortunate family death had pushed Ludwig down to his lowest," the narrator continued.

A lot of people assumed the death mentioned could be Poppy, who they assumed was Ludwig's daughter. But we'll never know. "But with so much ambition, he rose back up and continued to fulfill his vision for the Playtime Co. toy factory. Ludwig could never be content leaving a project unfinished. But how did just one man come to create such an astounding empire? How did he manage to stay determined, even after suffering such a tragic loss? It all began in the faithful year of 19–"

Static played. The tape was cut. Charlotte and I stood up and readjusted our GrabPacks, pulling at a ventilation wall. It fell, and I led my sister to walk through. But then we slipped. "Hold onto your butts!" I exclaimed.

We slid down, hollering in excitement and fear. That's when we landed in yet another warehouse-looking area. There was another cardboard cutout of Huggy as we took in our surroundings. A box sat by a vent door, and as we looked, which meant taking our eyes off of it, the box fell. Charlotte clung to me as we yelped. "Oh– uhh, sorry! I didn't mean to scare you! I was just... trying to get the power back on," Poppy said.

"Well, it didn't work," Charlotte added.

"Agreed. Ever tried using a GrabPack?" I asked.

Poppy blinked, then giggled and moved to the side. An outlet. Charlotte launched her hand and began walking around poles to turn the power on. She then launched her red hand at the opposing outlet, turning the power on, thank God! Poppy clapped her hands lightly, seemingly joyed that we did it. "Um... I wanted to thank you girls for freeing me. I was stuck in there for so long. Thank you," she said.

"Girl, you're welcome," I said.

I stepped on top of the box and shook her little hand. Charlotte climbed up as well and did the same. "Now, I'd like to pay you two back. But first, can you tell me your names?" Poppy asked.

"Charlotte."

"Virginia."

Poppy nodded and began walking through the vent door, but not before turning to try and look at us through her big blue eyes. "There's a train station nearby. It needs a code, and I have it. We're gonna get out of here as soon as you get up here!"

And SOMEHOW, she was on the other side of the vents. She looked down at us with a little smile, which I and Charlotte interpreted as she was trying to fuck around with our brains. "WHEN DID YOU GET OVER THERE?!" Charlotte yelled.

"YOU WERE JUST OVER THERE!!!" I exclaimed, pointing to where the outlet was.

"I can't tell you, sillies! It'll ruin the secret," Poppy said.

Oh, gosh. I never get the logistics of this game, to be honest. I launched my red hand to a bar, being propelled upward where my foot caught onto the floor. I walked forth a bit as Charlotte followed me through a red-lit ventilation duct. Now we walked back into Ludwig's office. "Hey, I'm up here!"

We looked to see another vent, and there was Poppy. I always wondered; how does she move around so quickly?? "I see you~" she sang with a little laugh.

"And we see you!" Charlotte responded.

All three of us giggled. "I should be able to follow you through the vents. This way!" Poppy said and left.

Now Charlotte and I had to walk out of the founder's office and swing across ravines, busting down a door to find Poppy standing in front of a giant hole. Now, for veteran Poppy Playtime fans, we all know what this means. "Listen. I'm going to need you to trust me–"

CUE THE BETTY SPAGHETTI MAMA. A long pink hand grabbed Poppy, dragging her down. Charlotte and I gasped at the sudden movement. In the game, it was planned. But this?? This is WAY scarier than the game. "We gotta go get her!!" Charlotte exclaimed.

"Right! Even if that's part of the stinkin' game!" I added.

The two of us jumped into the hole, being engulfed by the darkness.