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Chapter 22 - Chapter 22 : Clipped Angel Wings

There wasn't even so much as a single step that Gabriel gave leisure for. Even as he is exiting from under the central statue of Playcare carrying the Master Power cord in his hand, his every thought that seethed in his mind burned with a fierce desire. 

While traveling up the slope of fake grass, a single goal is kept dead in his sights. But if he were honest to himself he has no idea what he is doing. All that he knows is that when he plugs this cord in he is literally one more step closer to the object of his mission.

His mind flared with burning rage the very moment the thought about the Prototype came to his head. Ever since he had left the halls of the Councilor's Office, his head has been filled with callused imaginations, smoldering with a passion that darkened his heart. Brimming with emotions, old and familiar, from the same night he had lost the two people close to him.

This seething, dark desire, seemed to give a peculiar strength to his already battered and worn body. Tiredness barely seemed to slow him, his worn lungs heaving with nauseated air, the pain of aching muscles only adding fuel to the fire, and the empty pit in his stomach became but a footnote even as it roared for nourishment.

Reality begins to bend around his agonizing perception as the Red Smoke still yet lingers in his throat, the edges of his vision darkened as he was focused on nothing ahead but the open hallway to the production zone in front of him. He has become to feel everything that there is to hatred, and yet he has come to feel nothing at all.

He'll find the Prototype, and kill him.

And God help anyone who stands in his way.

 

<<<<<<<<<<~>>>>>>>>>>

 

The Gas Production Zone was just as dark as he had left it, not a single light to be alit in sight. The only sign of any indication of power running through here is the faint, eerie glow of the monitor screen displaying the lack of power in the control's systems.

Gabriel has yet to pass through the threshold of the double-sided door leading into the facility, he merely stood there with cable in hand as he gazed on at the dimly lit monitor screen with a certain uneasiness as it pulled on his very self from taking yet another step inside. He knew, he just knew with absolute certainty that there is something about to happen once he takes the first step within. He can feel it like the dead-cold air on his skin.

His gaze then lowers to the from the monitor to the rest of the control console. He can see the empty outlet for the backup power cord just directly below the restart button, the utter simplicity of completing this task nearly overpowers his sense of self preservation. All he has to do is to just plug a cord in and press a button, just one, simple, singularly annoying button to push, and his time in Playcare will be over.

He weighs his circumstance with thoughtful judgment. He could find another way, maybe even regroup with his friends and then complete his mission here. But what are the chances of Catnap finding him before he does for his friends? After all, for whatever reason, they left him. Perhaps he is going to deal with this alone after all, just like he always did.

There is only one way forward now.

He breathes in, then out. And went inside.

And no more than reaching a few steps inside. A voice calls to him.

"GREETINGS, GABRIEL." 

Gabriel froze in place as his blood suddenly ran cold, the distorted voice of Catnap cut through the background noise within Gabe's mind with such intensity that his senses remembered the still, ear-ringing quietness that fill the production zone with silence.

"YOU TOOK YOUR TIME." The giant feline said with a hint of displeasure as if he was disappointed in him.

Gabriel couldn't see the giant cat anywhere, even when he tried to listen in his voice seemed to reverberate everywhere within the room. He knew Catnap could be hiding in some crevice or in a dark corner, for all he knew he could be above or even behind him.

But despite the sudden sensation of Catnap's presence sending chills up his very being, Gabriel couldn't help but feel too tired to care. He almost felt numb from the constant terror that this monstrous feline has and could inflict on him. He could feel the Red Smoke still settled in his lungs, like he is dead inside.

"Get out of my way." Gabe replied with words so clear yet with a voice so hallow.

"AND WHY, MUST I?" Catnap retorted, still concealing himself in whatever shadowy corner he could be in.

Gabriel responded with an answer barring words clear as crystal and yet as blunt as dead stone. "I'm going to kill the Prototype." He just felt so tired.

Once those words left the human's mouth, a rather strange silence prolonged between them. Either Catnap is figuring out what to say next, or is processing what Gabriel has said down to the last note of his voice.

"WHAT HOPE DO YOU HAVE…AGAINST HIM?" Catnap replies. "YOU KNOW…NOTHING OF HIM. THE PROTOTYPE KNOWS ALL…SEES ALL…KILLS ALL. HERE…THE PROTOTYPE…IS GOD."

Gabriel however, felt nothing for it. "I don't care. He killed my friends."

Even Catnap could hear the it, behind those somber words, a mountain of pain and anguish holding back a flood of blood curdling violence. It was as if the pain he is inflicted with could crack through and lash out to kill any weaker soul at any moment. As if underneath the human's skin, there is a monster ready to rage.

But then again, in Catnap's mind, why should this human bother hiding it?

"YES…" Catnap hissed. "I HAD ALREADY KNOWN…JUST AS THE PROTOTYPE KNEW…JUST AS HE KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU…"

By now frustration begins to creep in and amplify Gabriel's words. "I don't care what that thing knows! The Prototype knows nothing about me!"

"DOES HE?" Catnap retorted. "HE HAS SPOKEN…MUCH ABOUT YOU. JUST AS YOU…AND THE FILTHY HERETIC POPPY CRAWLED DOWN HERE…HE HAS TOLD ME THINGS…THAT I DOUBT EVEN YOUR 'FRIENDS' KNOW."

And then in a hushed tone, as if Catnap was leering in on Gabriel's ear, he told Gabriel something that he was never prepared to hear.

"I KNOW WHY YOU LEFT." Gabriel felt as if the entire room was threatening to collapse on him. "YOU QUIT…BECAUSE YOU SAW ME…YOU SAW MY SUFFERING…AND YOU LEFT…YOU SAW ME…AND YOU DID NOTHING. YOU LEFT ME ALONE HERE, TO SUFFER…TO DIE."

Gabriel felt so numb, and yet the implications of what Catnap is telling him is sending shockwaves through every corner of his being. Catnap knows, he knows of Gabriel's dirty secret, the one thing he hasn't told anybody, not his friends, not the toys, not even his own family. And with these old, gaping wounds in his heart, waves of shame began oozing over him like festering, painful infections.

Once more Catnap speaks. "I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE NOW…YOU PRETEND TO CARE…BUT REALLY…IT IS SIMPLY YOUR GUILT. YOU ARE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF…THAT IS WHY YOU ARE HERE. YOU ARE NOT AN ANGEL…YOU ARE LESS THAN HUMAN…ALL YOU ARE…IS A COWARD."

The words cut deep, bringing a heart wrenching pain that burned his nerves. He could feel the strength in his legs waning, the weight in his gut pulling him down to his knees on the cold concrete floor, his knees landing in a puddle of stagnate water, soaking his legs in waterborne rust. There was no denying it anymore, Catnap saw him for who he is. The others may have told him otherwise but they do not know his dirty secret, Catnap however, made his deepest regrets true. Proving his guilt in front of him.

He can't deny that he is a coward anymore.

"BUT THERE THERE…" Catnap hissed. "IT IS…AS THEY SAID…YOU…WERE BUT SEVENTEEN THEN. YOU HAD…NO ANSWER…NO RESPONSIBILITY. AFTER ALL…SINCE WHEN DO US KIDS HAVE A CHOICE?"

But yet within something stirred, if he simply sat here and quit, giving himself up to his guilt, it will only make his friend's death meaningless. And that, that is something he'll rather die instead. He set his sights on his objective since the moment he left the Councilor's Office. Catnap is just an obstacle, another threat to put away, he's not the real enemy.

No, his enemy is sitting just underneath his feet. Deep in the bowels of whatever this hell they had created. He will look for the Prototype, he will find them, and he will kill them. He will make justice for his friend's deaths. After all, Gabriel thought, if he can't do this, then what good is he?

However, despite endowing himself with resolve, the guilt is still there. There are amends to make, to Poppy, to Huggy, Mommy, Kissy, Dogday, and yes, Catnap. Especially to Catnap.

And that is why, with a downcast voice, he says. "You're right." Gabriel said, his head hanging low. "About me I mean."

Though while Gabriel couldn't see Catnap, there was a certain growl that sounded as if he was surprised by the human's answer.

"I knew something was, off, but what it is I didn't know." He explained, his darkened, bleak eyes fixed on his reflection in the puddle of stagnate water. "But I was, too scared out of my mind to find out, so I did what any average employee would do, and just ran. It was only a few days afterwards that I finally gave a damn about what could be going on here. Yet by the time I started wondering, the Hour of Joy happened. I thought to myself that maybe whatever it is that may be wrong might have fixed itself out. But deep down, I knew what I saw, and it hasn't for a moment left my mind since. I could have gone back here then, but even after ten years, I was just simply too scared."

Catnap the hoarsely chuckled, mussing over Gabriel's pitiful confession like caught prey. "SO YOU…ADMIT IT THEN?"

But Gabriel wasn't done speaking. "Want to know something you don't know, Catnap?" He said, his head still bowed over the puddle of water. "I was taught at a young age that being good is hard, really hard. I hadn't known just how much of that was true until the day I quit Playtime.co. No matter how hard I tried, one by one, my family left me alone in this world. All the while people around me told me that it wasn't my fault, that I did my best for them was good enough."

He said this all the while viewing his dim reflection in the dank puddle of water, a seething anger rising from his chest the longer he stared at it. His teeth clinched and nails clawed against the concrete. There was nothing but disdain and loathing within those lackluster eyes. "But who am I kidding?!" He bitterly yelled as he slammed his fist into the reflection in the water. "I am never good enough!"

"HMMM…IS THAT…WHY YOU CAME BACK?" Catnap replied. "TO RELIEVE YOURSELF…OF YOUR GUILT?"

"No." Gabriel answered. "It is because some part of me knew, that if I don't come back, then I will never be forgiven."

Catnap pauses for a moment, thinking long and hard about what he has said. "…HOW STRANGE…" Catnap muttered. Analyzing the human with scrutinized judgment. "NOT OFTEN…I HAVE SEEN A HUMAN…HONEST. WHICH IS WHY…FOR THIS…CONFESSION…I OFFER YOU…AN IMPUNITY."

Gabriel wondered what he could have meant by that, is Catnap seriously giving him a chance to make recompense? Can he even trust him with something like that? Or is it something else more fitting for Catnap's convenience? However he soon realized, it was neither.

"LEAVE…" Catnap rasped. "LEAVE PLAYTIME…AND NEVER COME BACK."

He is giving him a chance, to escape? Can he even trust this monster to not turn back on his word and suddenly attack him when he's not looking? But the more he thought about it, he eventually remembered something. The Prototype explicitly wants him dead, and if Catnap lets him go, the Prototype will have no one to do his dirty work for him. He'll have no choice but to confront Gabriel himself. Something the Gabriel himself so earnestly seeks to happen.

If he agrees, facing the Prototype will be all the more easier, and he will have his revenge.

However, just as his lips parted to give his answer, he realized something. His friends, what will they feel about this? Poppy, despite seeking revenge just as much as he is, he saw in her eyes that she has come to care for Gabriel. And if he were honest, no matter the horrors he went through just for that tiny, living porcelain doll, he felt the same way for her. Maybe even greater than he realized.

Poppy, Dogday, even Kissy, they all sparked something within his heart that he hasn't felt for anyone for a painfully long time. Even if it is but a short time since he has known them, and they him, they counted each other as friends. But perhaps to Gabriel, something more. Maybe it is his grief and loneliness speaking to him, but that same warm feeling he has for these living toys has felt the same as the flame he once lost in his family. And the more he felt like that, the more he wanted to know what it is that they wanted.

And if he accepts Catnap's deal, how will they see it? Cowardice, abandonment, betrayal? If they see him leaving they would think of such things, and their already tortured hearts will be broken at the sight of him leaving them. 

Is revenge really worth so much as breaking the trust he found with his new friends?

No, not at all.

He then stands up. "Sorry, but no." He declared, gripping the master power cord even tighter. "I made a promise. I made some friends down here, and they need me."

"…"

Then there was nothing but silence, as if Catnap wasn't even there in the first place. Gabriel scanned the room, expecting some response of any kind, but nothing came. Has Catnap decided to leave, what is he thinking?

Suddenly he hears a noise, a continuous hissing noise akin to rushing air escaping a valve. Like a gas leak. His ears narrow the location of the noise up ahead of him, high above the control panel and in the steel I-beam rafters. He then sees it, cascading down in copious amounts is the dreadful haze of Red Smoke, falling like a narrow waterfall onto the monitor, all over the control panel, and slithering it's way across the floor.

He dared himself to let his eyes drift further upward, and then to meet the gleaming white eyes of Catnap, perching on the rafters with a predatory gaze with his tail swishing side to side with ironically cat-like behavior. Then slowly but surely Catnap descended from the ceiling, carefully placing one paw at a time on any thing that can hold him, all the while his eyes are still fixed on the human, like he is trying to tease him.

Soon enough Catnap then descended till he was then behind the control monitor, the machine itself large enough to hide his giant feline body. More of the Red Smoke the starts to fill the room, and sure enough Gabriel inadvertently breathes some in. But instead of falling over into a nightmare filled coma, he is still wide awake and aware. But there was no denying that while he may be immune to the affect of sleep, he could literally feel as if the entire world is shifting around him, until everything in the room is covered in a sheen of red haze.

"̷G̸A̵B̷R̶I̴E̴L̵"̴ Said the voice of Catnap, so darkened and warped to such a profound degree that it sounded boarder-line eldritch.

And then from behind the control panel, a massive clawed hand covered in pale skin emerged. The thin, skeletal fingers griping the top corner of the monitor till the tips of the claws puncture the glass screen. Then what rose above the control panel, is something that only nightmares can create. Catnap's body, seemingly transfigured by the warping effects of the Red Smoke, has transformed himself from the massive, malnourished, cat monster, into a figure that represents who he truly is, a true specter of pure unadulterated fear.

His purple fur is now gone, instead replaced by bleached, leathery skin, so thin and tight against his skeleton, that it looked more like bones than actual flesh. His arms elongated so far out, that he is practically splayed out wider than he is tall. There is so little muscle within them, that it looked impossible to carry his own weight. And his face, a face so horrifically hideous, that only demons can contend. His pale face shrunken against his skull, his wide grin, now grown into a twisted madness with his bottom jaw stretched to far downwards that it almost touched the floor. And his eyes, the once burning white irises have now thinned out till they looked like glowing white rings.

But that wasn't all, the Red Smoke, also seemingly transfixed and amplified, now wreathed itself around Catnap's skeletal visage. The smoke, condensing itself so densely, that it darkened to look like blood colored flames. But what struck Gabriel was not just how the Red Smoke is interacting with Catnap's body, but rather, within the writhing masses of gases, glimpses of figures can be seen. It was then to Gabriel's shock, that these figures within the smoke, are actually figures of children. From infants, to young teens, ghostly figures of innocent kids whisked and then faded, all of them with hollow faces engraved with sadness and fear. This is a cruel reminder of what the mad scientists of Playtime made the Red Smoke for. To inflict suffering, on children.

A reminder of the fact, he worked for such people.

Gabriel couldn't move, hardly think as the demonic giant leered down on him. And then braking his trance, Catnap yet finally spoke his final judgment.

"̷͔̅Ÿ̵̘́Ö̷̱Ǘ̵̳ ̸̻̄Ẅ̵̢́I̴̼͆L̷̙͌L̸͚͐ ̶̳͆F̴̒ͅI̷̼̅N̴̛͕D̴̩̽…̷̘̐N̸̲̓O̸̦͊ ̵̡̆F̴̝̅O̸̽ͅR̴̩̉Ḡ̴̩I̸̲͒V̸̤͒É̵͇N̵̩̉Ȅ̶͎S̸̎ͅS̸̀ͅ ̵̳̈H̴̆ͅẼ̷͔R̸̗̀Ë̵̝́.̶͉̀"̴̛͕

Gabriel's heart beat like a drum in his chest, so hard in fact it threatened to burst, and all the while Catnap slowly crawled his way down towards him. He was stuck, frozen in the sheer terror of the moment. If the Red Smoke isn't putting him to sleep, then it is surely numbing every muscle in his body while setting fire to every nerve in his system. There was hardly anything he could do in the moment. He couldn't move, couldn't think. All he could do is watch as what is essentially his death closing in on him with predatory intentions.

But then a still, small voice broke through the madness.

"Turn left."

He suddenly came to his senses.

"Turn left, now!"

Without even so much as a thought, he then suddenly bursts from his trance and then sprints off to the left. Catnap was actually surprised about this, even with an immunity to the smoke, any normal human would have succumbed to its mind altering effects, and so he went after him. But then soon enough Gabriel found himself in an lift, and with a press of a button, the grated gate then closes, separating them between man and monster.

Gabriel is then taken upwards, with Catnap climbing up the grated mesh after him. Their eyes meet, gazing into one another's soul, and before long, Catnap disappeared from Gabriel's sight as he was then taken upward through the roof, leaving his to his lonesome.

He knew what this meant, the time for talking is over, words are meaningless now. Catnap has officially began his hunt. Which means…

Either Gabriel lives to see his friends, or dies.

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