Poppy Playtime ~ An Angel's Bleeding Heart

Chapter 23 : Underneath the Crooked Moon

With a creaking stop, the mechanical lift meets its end at the top of the elevator shaft, jolting Gabriel up from where he is standing. With dry yet teary eyes he takes in his surroundings, he immediately notices that the room he has found himself in has been built with security in mind, no railings, no windows, nothing but concrete walls all around.

And much to Gabriel's chagrin, the Red Smoke is everywhere. Across the floors, in the ceiling above, even the air itself is tinged red like blood. How he has not fallen over and passed out even he doesn't know, but the drowsiness, the stinging in his eyes, the burning scent in his lungs, it's all still there.

It had been but a mere moment ago that he had barely escaped Catnap after he had transformed into that, thing. What even was that? How could the Red Smoke just, do that? Did Catnap somehow literally hijack his mind and altered his perception so he'll appear like that? Is that even a possibility? But then again given all that he has seen thus far, it doesn't seem to be an impossible assumption.

But if that is so, then what really is real about this place anymore?

There is no time for him to ponder however, Gabriel knows Catnap is on his tail, and it won't be long for him to catch up to him. After all, wherever their's Red Smoke, there is Catnap.

He then finally steps off the lift and ventures into the concrete corridors. And it seems he was right about earlier, this place was definitely designed for to keep any staff members safe, it almost feels like he's in a bomb shelter of sorts. This may actually be the best place he could have even find himself in, though the Red Smoke is still present here, he has at least grown a tolerance to it. This shelter may actually keep him safe from Catnap hunting him.

However as he closed in on an open clearing in the center of the shelter and set his sights around the room, any shred of security he may have felt was then sunk like the sinking of his gut.

The center room was not like anything he had seen thus far, there are dead carcasses of toys, yes, but everywhere he looked their bodies are impaled by sharp wooden spears or rusted rebar, pulled together into bunches like wheat bales till they stood upright with the tips pointed straight up. Any corpse that is not impaled was instead hanging from the ceiling with nooses around their necks.

He can see claw markings all around on the walls of written mantras phrases, and in the center of the room is a small cubic structure of black-painted cinder blocks laid on top of each other with critter plushies tied around it with barbed wire and their hands glues holding each others, and given the copious amounts of dried blood that has flowed from it's flat top, down its sides, and in all directions across the floor, Gabe knew what he is looking at is an altar.

Just then the phone on his side rings, and upon picking it up, he is surprised to hear more than just Ollie on the line.

"Gabe! Can you hear me?!" Poppy cried from the other side.

Gabriel on the other hand couldn't keep his eyes off the altar. "Y-Yeah, I'm here." He stuttered, still reeling by the gruesome display of occultism before him.

"Oh thank God! You had me so worried!" Poppy chastised but yet so happy to hear from him. "Why didn't you go find Dogday and Kissy?! They could have helped you! And what were you thinking facing Catnap alone!? Don't you know how dangerous he is?"

"Poppy, please." Said another, more feminine voice in the phone. "I'm sure Little Angel knows that by now." She said with a hint of sarcasm.

"That voice..." Gabriel said. "Is that...is that Mommy with you?"

"She is." Says Dogday begrudgingly alongside Poppy's groan. "And along with Bunzo, PJ, a whole crew of other toys, and even Huggy."

"Huggy?" Gabriel repeats almost astonished to hear about him again. "What are,...what are you all doing?"