I'm Not Her (Petscop AU)

Chapter 2

The hallways were getting a little bit repetitive.

Care had been walking for what felt like hours; despite only twenty minutes having passed. Her legs were tired and her feet ached. One of the chocolate bars, now unwrapped, was clenched between her teeth as she 'admired' the hyper-realistic paintings of various buildings that were hung up along the wall.
They could've been pictures, too, but Care didn't deem that as a necessary thing to dwell on.
The house was probably her favorite. It had a nostalgic feeling to it, the saturated turquoise color surprisingly welcoming. She takes a bite of chocolate, chewing thoughtfully.
She wasn't in a hurry. Nothing was following her. Besides, the fear from before had been replaced with curiosity.
Now that she was older, everything seemed less scary and more... unsettling. Not that that was any better, but she didn't feel threatened. It could've been the lack of noise and sunlight that made her surroundings more unnerving than they really were. She decided to keep that mindset.
The picture next to the house was a school. She didn't like that one. A faint, ominous sound played in the back of her head when she looked at it.
It was also an overall ugly design. There didn't seem to be any front doors, and the windows looked like they were poorly photoshopped onto the brick walls.
Then there was the windmill. Care had no feeling towards it. It was a greyish windmill; nothing more, and nothing less.

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After walking through a few more pointless tunnels and halls, Care found herself outside a small shack.
A gravestone stood a bit further in front of it. That was the unpleasant part.

"Michael Hammond," Care reads, trying not to make eye-contact with the oddly silly face that was plastered on the front of the stone, "1988-1995. Mike was a gift." She shakes her head, taking another bite out of her chocolate bar.

"Yikes..."
She would have to keep moving soon. The Newmaker Plane wasn't paved at all. No paths, no maps, no nothing. It was hard to keep track of where she had been and where she hadn't.

"Navigating this dump is a hell in itself." Care mumbles to herself, now turning her entire body away from the gravestone. She didn't fully remember this part, either. Six-year-old-Care must've been far too exhausted, hungry, and traumatized to pay attention to where she was going.
Care was looking for something. A building, to be specific.
The last time she had fallen down, someone helped her. She never got a name, so she just called him the Shadow Man.
He had taken her to a building, some sort of apartment, where she stayed for days before snapping and running away. She had gotten food and water there, which were two human necessities.
If she found this apartment, maybe she could find the Shadow Man too. Glancing back at the shack, she shrugs one shoulder.
That could be saved for later.

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"Good Grief, and Alas!" Care exclaims, snickering a bit. That's what was written on the wall. Something about the formality of the sentence was amusing to her. It sounded like something snatched straight from a Dr. Seuss book.
She was also in a good mood, because she had found the building she was searching for.
But no Shadow Monster man.
She had searched the surrounding area, double checking every corner and gap, but he was nowhere to be found. Eventually she had given up, and came to the conclusion that he'd show up when he felt like it.
Unless he was no longer there.
Care bites her bottom lip nervously, suddenly feeling more vulnerable than she had before. Shivering a bit, she quickly makes her way inside the building. She was greeted with a reception, a small chute, and a separate small room with a canvas.
Now this was all familiar.
Feeling pleased with her sudden burst of knowledge, Care strolls up to the canvas and picks the paintbrush up from the easel. The door closes behind her.

"What was it again..."

She quietly draws a pair of almond-shaped eyes and a small nose. The face had no eyebrows.

"Poor guy, I'd be upset if I had no eyebrows." Care says. She had started talking to herself more. It filled in the uncomfortable silences. Putting the paintbrush down resulted in the entire room starting to rumble, Care letting out a shocked yelp as she topples backwards; landing on her rear end with a rather vicious 'thud'. The room continues to jitter for a while before abruptly stopping as if nothing had happened. Care stares blankly at the wall in shock, the sound of the door opening behind her bringing her to her senses. She gapes at the opening for a while longer before gasping.

"Oh! It works like an elevator." She stands up and brushes her knees, "And rather violent one at that. I shouldn't be wearing shorts..."
She peeks into the new room; which was a bedroom. A bedroom she remembered staying in. Care grins victoriously.
The notes hung up on the wall were a new addition. Either that, or she had just never noticed them before.

Your wife says, "Care isn't growing eyebrows."
You say, "That's a puzzle."
You're secretly very excited to hear this news.
You're in the bathtub thinking about her.
I have a guess at which child you'll pick next.
When you find her room, the passage to my right will lead to her.
She'll appear from the darkness, limping, and I'll shoot her in the head.

Care grimaces. What a vile, unwanted ending. No, scratch that; what a vile, unwanted passage. The fact that her name was part of it didn't help at all.
Quite frankly, the note made no sense. She did have eyebrows the last time she checked, and she had no clue who the wife was; let alone the person going 'that's a puzzle'.

"Damn right it is." She huffs in response to the mystery-character's statement, "A wild ride from start to finish." The second sheet of paper wasn't any less confusing.

Tiara says young people can be psychologically damaged "beyond rebirthing".
A young person walks into your school building.
They walk in with you. You're holding their hands.
They come out crying into their hands, because nobody will love them, not ever again.
"Nobody loves me!"
They wander the Newmaker Plane.

Care scratches her forehead. That seemed to fit her much more than the previous snippet of writing, but it still made little to no sense. Tiara was a name she had never heard before.

It was pretty, to say the least.

Care's body goes tense, her fists clenching. Something was watching her. She slowly turns around and is met with a familiar face; if you could even call it that. She lets out a heavy breath, wide smile spreading across her face.

The Shadow Man held out a plate with a slice of cake.

"Welcome back, Care."