Poppy Playtime ~ An Angel's Bleeding Heart

Chapter 17 : In Light of Uncertainty

Often did he return to this place, even long after the great hour where their agonizing oppressors ceased to be, he can be found here.  A cavernous sanctuary he dedicated to his lord and savior.  A sacred place, a holy ground, a place where serene quietude embraced his meditations, his prayers.

And in the center of this tranquility lies the object of his devotion.  A shrine, whose visage still yet pales in comparison to the original, to the Prototype's opulent divinity.  This is the place of Catnap's holy dreams, hiss sleepless meditations.  Whenever he is not ensuring order within the confines of Playcare, or reminding the heretics of their sins, this is where he is.

Here, every thought, every dream, every prayer that is ushered from his mind and heart in dedicated to nothing else but to the Prototype.  It is here that his dearest and most profound thoughts are culminated, made towards the edification of the Prototype's glory.

Even here and now, kneeling in total submission to his idol, there is not a single meaningless utterance that Catnap wouldn't dare say.  For here there is no room for any doubt, for any discrepancies between truth and the Prototype's words.  Here, there is only one truth, the core virtue of all of Catnap's beliefs.  The Prototype has set them free.

However, then the Interloper came, and to this very moment is ruining everything.

First Huggy abandoning his post, to then releasing of the Chief of Heretics, to Mommy's disappearance, the Interloper's influence has wreaked havoc on the Prototype's domains, shaking his iron rule to its core.  And to further add to these despicable offenses, as if his evil has no bounds, the Interloper attempted to free the heretics from their prisons!  He even managed to leave this place with one!

But then that,...that thing appeared...

When he had the Interloper in his grasp, just when he tasted the sweet savor of triumph, that creature appeared behind the ex-worker.  That thing with wings so massive it was almost boundless, there was hardly a discernible bodily form, even now it is becoming hard to recollect its features due to the seemingly incomprehensibility of it.

And then there was the Interloper.  No matter how hard he tried to shake it from his mind he could not forget the look on his face.  From once there was a mere mortal quivering in fear, to then bear a gaze that burned with such unquenchable rage that demons would tremble.  There was something within those eyes, Catnap had seen it, felt it, and what a strange feeling it emitted.  It was hot enough to melt all that isn't pure of heart, and yet warm enough to comfort those that are.  Those eyes were like fire.

Then just as quickly as he his own gaze met the Interloper's, he was hit, struck.  No one has ever dared such a thing.  To do so would be insanity, madness.  But yet it did. 

By the time he had reawakened, Catnap limped his way back to his beloved idol, a his face stinged with the trickles of blood flowing down his jaw.  His head throbbed with ruthless pain, a sore bruise hidden beneath his purple fur.  He has no idea how long he was out for.  Minutes, hours?  He couldn't tell.  Either way, the reality of what happened sank in.

He knew that the strength behind that punch was unnatural.  And now that his thoughts leaned towards in understanding the human disrupter, underneath the seemingly apparent weakness human flesh, there is something...supernatural about him.

Not just because of the nigh eldritch being that suddenly appeared behind the Interloper, but by the many many times this nobody of a human being has slipped through death's fingers.  Somehow he was able to escape Huggy, even in his own domain.  He miraculously managed to survive Mommy's rigged games, and even when confronted, he slipped through her tangled web of traps.  And even after all that, the Interloper has went on for days without food or a drop of water amidst nothing but endless toil and suffering.