Playtime with Percy; Before Playtime

Near Midnight; A New Pal

June 1, 11:31, 2002

It was nearly midnight and Percy couldn't sleep. Even though Percy had been tucked in, fed, and even sung by Marylin, he couldn't sleep.

It was like someone- or something- was keeping awake.

He just stared at the ceiling, closing his eyes every once in a while to try and sleep. It never worked. Whenever he was close to sleeping, something made his eyes open again.

Perhaps it was the chirping of the crickets outside. Perhaps it was the feeling of the Playful Poodles alone. Maybe it was something that Percy couldn't understand.

He replayed the good memories that had recently happened- playing with Devon and Marie. He and Charlie doing karaoke. The discs with the episodes from the cartoon series. Johns apology. He even thought of the bad memories, just in an effort to go to sleep. The fight with John. Nearly losing his glove. The second fight with John. Getting kicked out of the storage room by that... thing. All the other stuff Percy didn't care so much about.

He thought about the discs the most. He remembered all the discs they watched- Most of them were episodes from the cartoon series, but some of them were footage of him and his friends performing. One of the footage discs even included Rowan. He remembered his favorite episode, " Hallowed Hijinks", a special Halloween episode.

That made Percy think about when Felix woke up in the middle of the night to check on Rowan. He remembered Felix's eerie footsteps going out of the room and the door closing and opening. They were oddly loud.

Percy tossed and turned in his bed, banging his head on his pillow. At first, he thought that he was just too hot in his blanket, but after waiting nearly an hour without it on it still didn't work. He waited and waited and waited but there was no sign of falling asleep for him. He definitely felt tired, but he thought probably not tired enough to sleep.

By the time it was 11:30, Percy had enough. He sat up on his bed and slid off it. He stood standing for a few seconds, thinking.

What am I going to even do? I can't just walk around and expect to suddenly get sleepy from it. He thought. And I don't think eating will make me sleeper either. Not like I have food to eat anyway.

He tip-toed to the door and as quietly as he could, he opened the door. He slowly shut it and tip-toed downstairs. Once he was down, he stopped tip-toeing and started to walk out of the employees-only room. It was incredibly dark.

Percy looked around the show stage. The show stage was also incredibly dark, Percy could barely see a thing. He walked forward and lifted his arms to feel anything. He tried directing himself towards the stage but ended up getting himself banged by a table. He winced out of pain and froze from the sound of him banging into the table, which was much louder than Percy thought. Much louder.

Percy started to tip-toe again and tried directing himself to the show stage again. This time he moved his arms around to feel anything. His eyes started to adjust to the darkness and found himself walking towards the hallway next to the show stage. He immediately stopped.

How am I here? Percy questioned himself in his head. He turned and now tried to walk towards the Rat-Cade. He widened his eyes and walked towards the hallway leading to it.

The darkness got thicker. It got so thick it almost looked like black smoke or fog. Percy had to squint to see better and soon, Percy felt more claustrophobic, like the dream from last night. Percy's breathing quickened as he started to walk faster.

Percy thought for a split second he heard a whisper. He immediately stopped and listened. He didn't get what the whisper was saying, but he entirely believed in himself that there was a whisper. Everything was dark for him.