Nightlight in the Dark (An OC x Catnap Story)

Chapter 10: Can You Feel That?

Song Credits: Protostar - Feel Your Heart (feat. Sam Tabor)

Italic - Importance/Text //// Bold - Emphasis/Phone Call //// ' ' - Thoughts //// ( ) - Memory

Skyelle explores the old Home Sweet Home, and Catnap follows her around secretly. But she knows that she's not alone...

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The old house was very dark inside. I mean yeah, obviously it was gonna be dark. And dusty. Years of being abandoned would do that.

Paintings and framed photos of kids lined the poppy decorated walls. My hand sweeps on the wall. My blue eyes look around.

Jeez. It looked really bad. Giant claw marks lined the walls occasionally, making me wonder what beast caused them.

I don't notice the glowing white pupil-less eyes watching me. Waiting to make a move. Or the deep grin that the giant feline had.

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Catnap was stalking after the all familiar blond. Where'd he see those radient blue eyes from? 

'She seems too occupied with exploring. I need to know what this pull is...'

My ears flick at her heart beat. It was a symbol that she was indeed a living being, not like the ones that layed dead at my claws. 

Children also died that day. They couldn't be saved from our attacks. Everybody was gone. But here, many years later a human was inside.

 Then I hear it. Light humming coming from the female. Her pink and purple clothes choice were something that I liked.

Shaking my head, 'I can't be wrong. Why does she seem... so familiar?' Her blue eyes flick to a certain portrait by a radio that was on.

I was hiding in the hallway, lunched over. My boney back arched. My body was very skinny, it was sickening. I was sickening.

She listened closely to the radio. The static of it unnerving. 

"-tragic news this morning, 9:45 a.m. Local authorities report that the body of a young boy has been found on the estate of the late Elliot Ludwig, esteemed toy maker and originator of the Playtime company."

"At this time, an identity of the child awaits official confirmation. Found upstairs in an large duffel bag. Officers report that the remains appear to have been disturbed. 

Organs as well as key bones from from the skeletal structure were reported missing from the body."

"It is unknown at this time, whether this extraction was Infact, the cause of death..." STAY TUNED FOR MORE.

She shivers. Obviously that was one of the kids that were taken, to be turned into what I was now. It was pretty messed up that that happened to a kid.

Her voice is soft as she speaks. "That's- that's a lot to take in... That's just messed up. Poor child, they probably had a life ahead for them. Now taken from their life like that..." Her fists tighten in anger.

From her point of view, I agreed. That was a terrible crime. But now it's too late to fix everything. To undo history. Then maybe I'd still have my friend. Speaking of, was this her?

The female turns, almost as if sensing me there. I turn back up some, and she almost looks... fearful. Her eyes narrow in my direction. However she looks away.

"Hmm, I swear- Ah nevermind. Probably my fear getting the best of me..." I chuckle quietly. Oh little girl, you have no idea who I am. That face of hers' was all so familiar, yet so far.

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My heart wasn't helping. I swore someone was here with me. I hum again, and look up. It was Theo's portrait. I almost forgot what he looked like.

Touching it carefully, I whisper to him through it. "I miss you my friend. My feelings for you haunt me. Those memories sting..." Tears well up in my eyes.

A creak.

I look back suddenly. Stepping cautiously towards the noise, I almost miss it. A giant purplish figure walking behind boxes. With it's spine sticking out of it's back, like it hasn't eaten in awhile.

I blink slowly, turning away. A phone rings. Dashing to find the source, I pick an old telephone up. "You need to run-"

No shit random mysterious voice. That voice almost sounded like- Theo's. But he isn't here. He was most definitely dead. 

And for years my feelings over time blank in and out again. When I left my hometown, I felt a pull bringing me here. Then again I hear it. My eyes flick to the corner.

A giant looking feline was watching my mental pause take place. I cover my mouth, trying to block my sounds in. Fear filled me.

The thing leaves. "Wait!" I run over to where it was. Why was I so stupid? Going towards the danger, when I should probably leave right now. 

The hallways were empty. Walking through them, the corners feel more and more wider. Claws and words all over. Guilt haunts you. I read. 

Yeah. It does. That's why I came back. To fix my friendship and find my friend. Or, so I thought. I really went into the deep end here.

At some point I find another TV and tape player, finding the matching tape in a cabinet. It was about a kid from my orphanage, Jeremy. And some kid had walked in while the poor boy was given a number. Like a sickening experiment. Worried for his friend, he asks, "Will- is he going to be okay?" The doctor lied that he was "sick. Very, very sick." Liar.

The poor kid didn't even know that might be the last time he ever saw his friend,  just like me. Oh, how naive I used to be...

Eventually I hear whispers of children laughing leading me into a room. Words on the wall say, Happy and fun, why was it done?

Because kids deserved their own happiness? 

A green tape catches my eyes. I grab it, playing it in the correct tape player. I hear my mother's voice speaking to an unknown person. My eyes watered.

She sounded concerned for another girl that wasn't me. She screamed that she wanted her little girl back. Wasn't I her daughter? I feel jealousy bloom. Obviously she loved me, but never said that another girl was taken from her. 

And used for a cruel experiment. At least I was spared. After all of this, I really needed to talk to mom about this "mystery child" that was like her own daughter, long before me.

Spotting another tape player, I find it's matching tape. Hearing about a kid being "adopted". And the kids in the tape were nonetheless excited for their friend to be taken in by a doctor. Who most likely killed them afterwards.

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I feel really fuzzy. I had went through a red smoke room earlier, and my grabpack arms were seemingly missing. Walking though another random doorway, a red tape is needed.

Playing it after finding it on an abandoned bed, the blue thing pops up. He was named Huggy Wuggy. Not a very good name. It sounded like a child named him.

Then he disappears on the screen, fading to a more nightmarish form. The words caught my ears. I wasn't an employee, but living here counted. 

And then it happened. The smiling creature faded, turning into a more nightmarish version of him. He looked so real. Until...

...he comes out of the television, making me back up on the floor after tripping. He was obviously coming out to kill me off.

Screaming in fear, I get up and run, looking back occasionally. He was getting closer. I bump into a wall while running away from it, and he grabs me as it was too late. Screaming into my face. Smiling.

Soon I fell unconscious...