"Hello, Gabriel." The Prototype said. "I told you I will find you."
Both human and abomination held their gazes towards each other, the quietness was so silent that a pin drop would be heard yards away. Each unmoving and unflinching as Gabriel beheld the Prototype in all his unholy splendor whilst the Prototype himself leered down with calculated eyes.
The Prototype then grabbed onto Gabriel's shoulder with his amalgamous right hand, the many tips and blades of the tool-like fingers gently grazing the human's skin in an effort to move him without cutting him.
"Up. You will not find dignity down there." He said lifting Gabriel off his knees and onto his feet.
"I wish to speak to you about your journey throughout the factory." The Prototype said as he then took the now dead Huggy doll and with his free right hand, began dissecting it with the many sharp medical and sowing tools that make up his fingers.
"R-Really?" Gabriel replied hoarsely, more tired than actually surprised. "You came all the way up here, to chat?"
"Three days, Gabriel." The Prototype emphasizes as he finishes stripping the meat from the dead toy's body and the begins sowing the skin onto his cowl. "You have been trapped down here for three days. You must be eager to tell at least somebody of your 'adventures' down here? For multiple times you have grabbed my attention. I simply believed it was about time we formally introduce ourselves."
Gabriel couldn't help but wince as the Prototype kept talking, as if the amalgamation of voices wasn't discomforting enough, he was using the voices he was familiar with. The voices of his friends. Gabriel knew the Prototype is here simply to rub salt into the wound on how hopelessly lost and defeated he is. He honestly wanted none of it.
"Why are you doing this?" Gabriel asked, clutching his head as a piercing headache rattled his mind.
"Doing what?" The Prototype replies, his voice changing to a soft toned woman as if to make himself out as oblivious.
Gabriel however saw through this. "Look. I get it, alright? You got me, I lost. And if I'm being honest, I don't want to play this game or whatever it is that you call it anymore. So please, let's just get whatever this hugely creative death you have in mind over with and just end me."
"End you?" The Prototype tilted his 'head' curiously.
"Oh, you know what I mean."
"No, I mean, end you, for what? Do you, want to die, Gabriel?"
It was at once that Gabriel snapped, lunged forward and grabbed ahold of the Prototype's claws and pointed the very tips of it directly at his throat.
"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!" Gabriel shouted with furious anguish.
The Prototype didn't move, not even twitch. All he did was merely gaze into the human's bloodshot eyes. Studious, calculated, as exhausted and tired as they are, he can see a fury buried within them. Burning and yearning to reach forth and burn him alive. And the Prototype, he wants nothing more than to stoke it.
"Ten, years, ago." He said, pausing between each word with a different voice.
Gabriel knew where the Prototype is heading with this. "Yes…"
"Ten years ago you worked here." The Prototype reiterates as he begins pacing around him, the spacious area of the hall offering him room to do so. "Sometimes you assembled toys, other times you inspected them. It wasn't a means to make a living, nor a devotion towards a good cause, but rather a simple means to make money. A summer job to put extra paper in your pockets. Oh but it didn't take long for that to change, didn't it?"
Gabriel still said nothing, not even acting like he is there. Even when he is then behind him and felt the cold, metal hand on his shoulder he didn't bother to flinch. Even as those incredibly long, sharp fingers drape over across his chest and his blackened, grotesque face close beside his own.
"In less than a month, the farm your family worked fell to hard times." The Prototype continued, his disgustingly rancid breath nearly making Gabriel retch. "The market wasn't favorable, and the yield was poor. All of a sudden you were then put within a position where you have no option to refuse. All of a sudden you became their source of income for months since then, your parents even going as far as to cancel the next semester of your high school education in order for you to work more."
Gabriel knew it couldn't be any farther from the truth, his parents had canceled his education for the sake of making more money. But then, a cold realization sparked in his mind…how did he know that? He hadn't told anyone about that part yet, much less to him. He didn't even say it out loud. And yet that raises another question, had he been watching him? Spying on him this whole time? Just how much does he know?
"And then, one fateful day, just as you were off for lunch, you decided to take the scenic route, and saw something you shouldn't. You did not know what they were doing, or why, but you saw Catnap as he was in the middle of one of his 'Re-education' sessions. You watched as they were beating on him so hard that you got to watch him bleed. Did you call for help? Did you take initiative and sought answers? No, you instead quit, right then and there."
Gabriel still said nothing as The Prototype continued. "Ah! But that is not the full story isn't it? Tell me, were they really worth it? Did your parents respect your decision to leave the company? Did your siblings defend your choice? Surely they must have been so disappointed that their only source of income has been tossed away. And that was just the beginning. First your friends, then your parents, then your siblings. Even acquaintances seem to vanish as the years go by."
Gabriel couldn't even bring himself to look at the monstrosity before him, The Prototype can see nothing but guilt self evident in the human's darkening face, his averting eyes trying to hide the glint of something behind them. Something burning. "And it all leads back to here. Everything that you have tried to avoid has always come back to this factory, including yourself…"
There is something within Gabriel beginning to stir the more he listened to the Prototype talking. A festering of a nameless rage, like a hot plasma bent to consume and burn. Seething within his gut, bubbling up like magma.
"Yes…" The Prototype goaded on. "Make no mistake, I am not here to kill you. Not yet. Not until you show me your last secret. The one thing that you have so desperately tried to run and hide from for years. You may have confessed to your friends what you have done, but you haven't told them yet what it is that is within you. What you are. And I want you to show me. Here and Now."
Then slowly, methodically, The Prototype leaned in towards Gabriel's ear. His hot, rancid breath tickling the hairs on his nape. He then spoke in another voice, no, a cacophony of them all at once. Gabriel's eye went wide as by some miracle, the Prototype spoke the voices of his friends, his parents, his brother, and sister.
"This isn't fair! Why would you do this to us? WE NEEDED YOU."
"RRRAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Gabriel at once screamed as his vision was engulfed in nothing but red. Then before he even registered his own movements, his body moved by itself out of sheer will, his fist then colliding with the Prototype's jaw.
A resounding crack was heard that echoed through the corridors, the Prototype's massive head was sent back by the force of the impact. Then just as Gabriel regained some common sense, he looked at his handiwork to find the Prototype's fleshy jaw hang loosely from his skull. He was so absorbed in the moment that he almost couldn't fathom the fact that he had just successfully dislocated the Prototype's jaw.
But then the Prototype, seemingly unfazed by the punch at all, then returns his piercing gaze back at him, and then with a sickening sound of shifting flesh, the Prototype's jaw was then pulled back into place. Both human and experiment then began another staring contest, their gazes locked in anticipation.
"Oh no…" Gabriel muttered wide eyed.
It was then at that moment that Gabriel knew, he had f**ked up.
Terror gripped his legs, causing Gabriel to immediately sprint down the other direction away from the Prototype. Panting like a madman as he ran as fast as his legs can carry him.
The Prototype on the other hand merely stood there, watching as the human made a mad dash around a corner. If he has any lips left, he would be grinning ear to ear. It has been so long since he had done a proper hunt, this is a special occasion after all, he wouldn't mind adding some dramatic effect to their little game, now would he?
Then by command, the lights then began turning off.
<<<<<<<<<<~>>>>>>>>>>
Huffing and panting, Gabriel ran down the corridor's of the depot like a man possessed. With some of his wits returning from the nauseating grip of grief and rage, he didn't want to think about how close the Prototype is behind him.
He didn't know why Prototype didn't kill him at any point in their brief encounter, he literally had him dead to rights. Then again he did see this kind of behavior from a number of toys that hunted him down here, specifically the Bigger Bodies. Huggy, Mommy, and even Catnap. They all had an easy chance to murder him but yet chose not to, or are just too absorbed in the thrill of the hunt.
As he was busy contemplating however, Gabriel then heard the noise of electric flickering behind him. Gabriel dared to look back, thinking it might be the Prototype, but instead it is something just as worse. The lights are beginning to turn off. Like a shroud of darkness closing in on him, the fluorescent lights flicked off letting the dark close in on him like a hungry predator. He put two and two together, he now knows what is happening.
The Prototype is officially hunting him.
On and on he ran, the darkness catching up to him like an all encompassing void, until it finally over took him. Gabriel still continued to run, the light now only ahead of him, but even then as the pale yellow lights flashed off one by one, the light yet ever so slowly slips away.
Soon enough, there is now nothing but darkness, the dark so potent that he can't even see his own hands in front of him. He stops, there is nothing he can do find his way. He knows the Grabpack has an attached flashlight on, but he dares not to light it, not unless he wants to draw in the Prototype's attention of course.
As far as he is concerned, he is trapped.
Dread seeps into the very core of his being, the Prototype is lurking somewhere, hiding in the all consuming shadows just looking for him. The darkness obviously his element and not Gabriel's. It won't be long before he finds him.
This must have been what the Prototype wanted, isn't it? He wanted him to draw away from his group, his friends, and flee when the pain and paranoia finally crash down on him. Oh how he already misses them all already. He wanted to know them all, Poppy, Kissy, Dogday, and everyone else. It stung him that they are once again left alone because of him, he had so much he wanted to do for them. Fix them, feed them, care for them, and now, because of his ever redundant cowardice, he will never have that opportunity ever again.
He collapsed to the cold floor, the mere thought of what he is losing stung him worse than any pain he has endured so far. Some tears began streaming down his cheeks, the people he would have come to know, now only hate him. Perhaps it is for the best that he dies like this, just as he has always been.
Alone.
…
…
…
No, wait, there is one other thing he can do. The very least he could do for the friends he has wronged.
Wiping the tears from his face, his face scrunched into a determined glare, he pushes himself back up the floor, and begins walking. He soon ends up against one of the walls, to which he places his hand against and continues walking, feeling the wall scrape by his fingers letting it guide him. If he continues on, he may soon reach somewhere where there is light, and from there, he will do what he has set out to do.
He will kill the Prototype.
But there is only one burning question in his mind, how?
Then as if on queue, the phone on his side rings. Immediately Gabriel picked it up to prevent more noise, he focuses his ear in, listening for whomever is there. And then, Ollie's voice whispered through, and he couldn't have sounded any more serious.
"Up ahead, there's a crack in the wall big enough to hide." Ollie said hushed and direct. "Hide there, now!"
Gabriel didn't even protest. Picking up the pace, his hands carefully threading the wall for any gap Ollie mentioned. And then, almost missing it, he feels a noticeable absence of the wall he was feeling. It must be the gap. He then quickly shoves himself inside, the Grabpack making it hard for him, but he manages to fit inside.
He sits there, still as a statue, and Ollie warns. "Don't. Breathe."
At first nothing happens for the first few seconds. Then ten seconds have passed, then twenty, but nothing. And then, he hears it. Clicking and creaking of metal, gears, and bone echoing through the hallway outside. Rhythmic thumping of steps coming closer and closer, louder than the noise of his own beating heart. It then stops, the Prototype standing just outside of the crack Gabriel is hiding in. Whether this monster was expecting him there he doesn't know, until he spoke.
"Don't be scared little angel." The Prototype said with the fake comfort of a mother's voice. "You know there is no use hiding from me."
And then just as soon as he came, the sounds of metallic thumping resumed, with the Prototype's footsteps echoing deeper into the halls.
When the coast was clear, and not a sound to be heard, Ollie then spoke.
"Alright Gabriel, listen carefully. I'm gonna get you outta there, but you have to do exactly as I say." Ollie said with upmost tension. "Keep doing what you did and feel along the wall, and I'll direct you where to go. I'll keep an eye on the Prototype, but when he gets close, I'll tell you where to hide. Do you got all that?"
Gabriel felt the fear and adrenaline coursing through his veins, awake and alive more than ever, but his heart is gripped with the prospect of brutal annihilation. But with trepidation and anger flowing from his guilt ridden heart, he steels himself.
"Yes." He replied.
"Alright, keep the line open. Good luck."
Then with some struggle, he edges himself out of the crack in the wall, entering once more into the darkness. His hands then lay flat on the wall, continuously feeling along as he hurriedly heads his way through the depot's cold depths.
On and on he trudged, each foot fall carefully stepped to ensure he makes the least as much sound as possible.
"Left." Ollie said, and his fingers then felt the corner of the wall. He then does as instructed and makes his way to the left wall, and heads down the hallway through it.
"Right." Again Ollie said, and again Gabriel moves.
The only sound he hears are his softened footsteps and his batted breath. So far so good.
But then, a familiar sound approaches.
"There is a pile of crates ahead to your left." Ollie hastily whispered. "Hide!"
Gabriel made no protest nor hesitation, he immediately made his way for the other side of the hall, and thankfully he finds a pile of wooden crates and cardboard boxes. The footsteps of the Prototype are getting closer, the urgency building in his chest, he needs to find a spot to hide in now!
He then feels a large gap within the pile of crates, a nook just large enough for him to fit in. At once he dove in, careful not to let the Grabpack remain outside as he hid underneath. Soon enough, just seconds as Gabriel hid, the Prototype was there, out of sight, but definitely there.
Just then, as if by command, the fluorescent light overhanging them flickered on. Gabriel dared to peek out through the crevice, and sees the Prototype's shadow looming over him, and his clawed hand sifting around the cardboard boxes.
Then yet again, the Prototype spoke in a familiar voice. "It's okay big bro." The Prototype said with his sister's voice, Sophia's voice. "You don't have to be the big, strong adult anymore. You can come home."
Just then, the Prototype's many spear-like fingers crashed right through one of the cardboard boxes. Gabriel had to hold his mouth to prevent him from gasping, the Prototype must have been expecting him to hide in one of them out of swift urgency, thank God he decided to hide in the crates rather than the box. The Prototype then lifts the now skewered box, now stuck through his fingers, and flicks it off.
At once then the Prototype leaves, letting the lights flicker back off, leaving him in darkness.
A few moments later, Ollie gave him the all clear, and he emerged to continue on his way.
Gabriel's blood boiled in his veins as the Finn lent voice of his dear late sister echo in his mind. Another act of desecration by the Prototype, he doesn't care how the hell he figured out what her voice sounded like, how dare he use his sister's dead words with his disgusting mouth.
His thoughts burned within him, even as he carried on in the dark. "I'll kill him. I'll kill that f**ker!" Gabriel cursed within his head as he grind his teeth to the point they hurt. "I'll kill him. I'll kill him. I'll kill him! I'LL KILL HIM!!"
But once those thoughts were nearly uttered into words, he refrained himself. Not just out of quietness for the sake of his survival, but rather because he is still trying to hold himself back. To keep that burning anger he has held for so long in his chest. All those times he has been yelled at, all those times he was let down, the darkness in the back of his head seethed. When his parents abandoned him, when his brother took his sister away, to all those days he toiled in the sun and the isolated nights he spent alone in the house.
He burned, he always burned.
But he never, never wants anyone to ever see it.
He continues moving on, his hands pressed against the wall, dust and age old debris building up in his sweaty palms. Ollie still yet continues giving instructions for where to go, the only break from the ear-ringing silence. But even then one small peep, one slight mistake, and it will be enough to alert the Prototype where he is. And an even worse outcome, is that there will be no place to hide should he end up coming around.
But then, out of the corner of his eye, something glowed down at the end of the hallway. Immediately he rushes for it, any sort of light a sense of safety. However he stops midway, knowing that the Prototype could be nearby, easy pickings for an obvious trap.
But Ollie said otherwise. "Don't worry, I checked, the Prototype is a bit somewhere else."
With reassurance, Gabriel made his way over to the light. He soon finds himself in a small storage room that sits in a junction between two other corridors. Tall shelves carrying bulk amounts of packaged toys neatly wrapped in clear plastic wrap. There is even a forklift in there, though it has seen much better days. And there is definitely signs of carnage and death, if the various blood splatters were anything to go by.
However, what caught Gabriel's eye the most were the lockers, tall yellow lockers that look big enough to fit inside. There is a written label on top of it as well saying, "Port-a-Lounge". An interesting choice of words, perhaps these lockers were designed for something else other than storage?
"Wait, hold on." Ollie said through the phone. "Oh crap! He's coming! Quick, hide!"
Panicking, Gabriel looked all around for any spot to hide in, unfortunately there isn't one place that can truly keep him hidden effectively enough. Unless… Gazing at the lockers, Gabriel immediately scrabbles over and yanks the door open, thankfully there isn't nothing inside, and so he slips in and waits there, holding his breath in like it is his last.
The rhythmic thumping and telltale creaking of metal approaches in softly from one of the halls, Gabriel dared to peer through the narrow openings of the grated slits on the locker's door. He can see the Prototype outside, shifting around the cargo with extensive scrutiny.
Gabriel controlled his breathing with utter diligence, careful not to let a single breath even be inwardly heard as he watched the monstrous abomination scan about. He heard bone rattling inside the Prototype's frame, the slithering of flesh, and shifting of gears and pistons as it moved about with the elegant movements of a serpent. Every movement of his massive body deliberate and concise. Gabriel knew it wouldn't be long until he ends up taking notice of the lockers.
"Gabriel." The Prototype whispered, this time with many different voices behind it. Soft and elegant, yet carry an eerie weight, like a chorus of devils pretending to be angels. "Gabriel, Gabriel." The Prototype said, over and over again, repeating his name as he continued sifting through the rubbish.
Then just as Gabriel feared, the Prototype then begins to inspect the lockers, his sharp fingers gently scraping along the line of lockers drawing deadly closer to the one he is hiding in. The sharp noise of metal peeling was hard on his ears, and yet he resisted the urge to shut them, fearing his reaction is what he wanted. Gabriel used all his mental might to prevent his breath from hitching as those claws made their way across the door's surface, he can even see those black eyes as the Prototype continued along.
Soon afterwards, once he was done, the Prototype took one look at the lockers, and then left. Once again those mechanical footsteps echo off into the dark.
After a couple minutes, Ollie speaks. "It's safe now." And without a word Gabriel exits the locker. "This is getting too risky. You need to get out of there fast."
"I know." Gabriel whispered. "But I can't go back to the Gas Production Zone, the others are there, and half of them can't even walk. The Prototype will follow me and kill them all."
Ollie hummed to himself, he knew that Gabriel was right about one thing, if he lead the Prototype back, he'll most certainly kill them all. First starting with Gabriel, killing him in front of everybody, and then going down with the others one by one from strongest to weakest. Making their deaths instill as much hopelessness as physically possible, in order to break his last victim, Poppy, and take her away.
"Hmmm, there is one other place you can go." Ollie said. "And if you're careful you might be able to lose him in there."
"Then where is it?" Gabriel asked, his voice almost a bit too loud for his liking.
"I'll lead you to it, but be quicker. I think the Prototype is getting impatient."
"Got it." Gabriel answered. "Lead me there."
And so he did just that, heading back into the dark expanse of the transport corridors, he felt his way around in the pitch black. Weaving left, right, and forwards in every direction that Ollie tells him to.
Yet what is strange though, is that even though there is the overwhelming feeling that the Prototype could be just lurking around any corner at any given moment, throughout the entire time since he hid in the locker, that evil creature hasn't yet shown his face yet. Perhaps he thought he was looking in the wrong direction and decided to take a different part of the depot, Ollie is looking out for him, so it stands to reason he isn't nearby right now.
But then he heard it, deep in the dark. Voices. Not close but yet not so far, voices softly crying out for him. Echoing from the walls and in the dark, noises of the damned calling for him, whether this be the Prototype or the real voices of ghosts long past he could not tell, but for though fear gripped the young man's heart he still carried on.
On and on he went, carefully muffling his footsteps and pacing his breath silently. Then as he turned around a corner, he sees something in the distance, a distant yet bright light down the end of the tunnel, a burning glow like that of the hot sun. Gabriel even felt wafts of heat pouring in from the light, along with a strange yet distinct smell. The scent like that of burning materials and fresh, hot metal.
That must be his destination.
But then, he hears Ollie mumble something through the phone. He sounded terrified.
"Say that again Ollie?"
"Gabe…don't look back."
Too late. By reactionary instinct, he turns his head. At first he sees nothing there in the dark, but when he dared to finally light his flash light. He sees the Prototype's misshapenly smiling face staring directly at him from around the corner.
"OH GOD!" Gabriel screamed. That was all he needed to take off running.
He can hear him behind him too, the hard pounding of the many mechanical legs of the Prototype pursuing him. Running as fast as his legs carried him, Gabriel couldn't tell if what he is feeling on his back is his hairs standing on end or the needle points of that monster's hand just pricking at his nape.
"Come home Gabriel!" The many voices of the Prototype cried at once, like a choir of the dead. "Come home! Come home to us! Come home! Come home! Come home! Come home!"
This repeated on and on, Gabriel's heart beating furiously as the legs that are carrying him, panting as hard as he could to pump as much air into his body as he could. The voices of the damned getting closer and closer, the Prototype's arm outstretched, ready to take him and pull him back to the void from which he is running from.
As Gabriel raced for the light, he knew he can't out run the Prototype like this, he needed something to slow him down. Then, just when hope was lost within him, he sees something glowing above the entrance to his escape. It looked like a handle, an it seems to be attached to some massive, iron shutter door.
The idea quickly formed in his head, firing off his Grabpack hand, he latched onto the door handle, and then kept it there. He still kept running, but yet timing is everything, too late, then the Prototype will come barreling through, too early, then he'll get crushed to death. Either way, he dies.
The anticipation became palpable as the cold metal fingers then graze his back, and still he kept running, getting closer to the gate.
Then closer.
And closer.
Until finally, at the very last second he pulled, the door careening down to the floor with much force. Then with as much precision and agility as his body gives, he tucks and rolls under the door, just as it slammed shut behind him. Separating himself from the Prototype, whom crashed into the door with such force that it nearly sent Gabriel over.
Gabriel can hear the Prototype roar from the other side, an unholy cacophony between static and flesh. Then once again the Prototype slams himself back into the door, trying to break it down. And given this monster's size and strength, it is only a matter of time before the whole thing comes crashing down.
But there is still yet time, Gabriel knew this, so he has to do something in order for him to have a chance against this manmade eldritch nightmare. But for now he has to take in his new surroundings.
The place he was in isn't like anything he has been in the factory thus far. It looked far more industrious and less friendly compared to all the signature Playtime marketing the upper levels were decorated with. But now as his vision refocuses to the bright fiery glow of this new place, recollection returns. He knew someone awhile back that once worked here, it is both an on site metal refinery and incinerator.
Destroy-A-Toy.
Piles of metal slabs slumped all over the conveyor belts, some of them still hot and fresh with bright orange glow. Large hanging crucibles full of hot, Liquid Metal being transported to who knows where, trolleys of carts full of broken or discarded toys just sitting there waiting to dump their contents into the massive cauldron-like incinerator in the middle of this enormous warehouse.
This place must have been left running on auxiliary power from the grid for a whole ten years! How is it possible that it is still managing to forge raw metal after all this time? But for whatever reason, this place is certainly worse for wear, everything looked either run down or backed up into a rusted, disorganized mess.
Gabriel's train of thought was then cut short by another loud crash from behind him, he can now see the bolts holding the iron door in place starting to come loose. The Prototype is starting break through.
He then picked the phone back up again and tried to call Ollie.
"Alright I'm here!." He shouted nigh frantically. "Now what?! How can I stop him?!"
But there was no response, only static.
"Oh come on!" Gabriel yelled. "Out of all times you…AGH! Damn it all! I need to figure something out!"
And so, with no clear direction in mind, he ran off into the fray of sparks and fires. Just as soon as he did, the metal door groaned and shook as it started to become undone against the Prototype's might. The frame ripping apart just enough for him to grab onto the edges, and start pushing harder. Bolts snapped or were sent flying from their sockets, until at last the door collapsed.
The Prototype lurched forward, his growling loud enough to overcome the noise of metal and fire. The many hearts beating within the monster's chest beat in hateful unison as fresh ichor dripped from the slick flesh. His eyes burned with indignation and rage as the red hot glow reflected against them. And yet, he finds the situation he is in quite amusing.
How fitting that this confrontation, should take place in the burning halls of Playtime.co's Hell.