Chapter Text
Lovebraid’s Lament
By Jawmax
Chapter 1: Too little, too late.
The redheaded woman looked at the grimy bar and smiled. “Finally, some grownup time.” The woman was Gracie Green or as most of her “patients” knew her Ms. Gracie, the Wellness and Integration Counselor of Playtime co.’s Bigger Bodies Initiative, though that was of course a big secret. After a long day working and having to put up acting as the smiling Ms. Gracie, she was eager to change into some more adult attire, unwind, and have a few drinks, maybe even pick up a date while she was at it. And as luck would have it there was a handsome tough somewhat hard looking man with short dark hair right at the bar. As she got closer the more familiar, he looked. It took a moment to realize just who this was. “Terry? Terry Winters?”
“Who are.. Gracie Green?! I haven’t seen you since high school.” The man gave a small smile.
Gracie sat down next to Terry and told the bartender. “I’ll have what he’s having and give him another on me.” This was perfect Gracie thought, Terry was her high school crush who she never told how she felt. This could be the fulfillment of an old dream.
“You don’t have to… you know what sure I could use another.” Terry downing his current drink, they were served and he asked. “So, what have you’ve been up too Gracie? Last I’ve heard you were going to get a degree in psychology.”
“I did.” Gracie said telling him the company approved cover story. “I work as a counselor for troubled children. It is rewarding but it feels good to spend some time with adults. I’m called Ms. Gracie so much I almost forget it’s my first name.” She decided to change the subject quickly least she let something slip. “What about you? Your mother wanted you to be a lawyer while your father, the Colonel, insisted you take up the family military tradition.”
“Made them both happy. I’m in the JAG, Judge Advocate General’s office.” Terry looked sullen then. “It’s a line of work where you see things that throw the whole honor serve mentality into question.”
“Something wrong?”
Terry had more than a few drinks that night and the one Gracie got him would while not change her whole fate, would push her into a slightly different direction. “I prosecuted a case though the whole thing is classified. If I tell you, I could be in big trouble.”
“I’m a therapist. Doctor patient confidentiality. What’s wrong?”
“The officers I charged were running illegal experiments out in some god forsaken jungle.”
“Experiments?”
“Some kind of drug made from a rare variety of flower out there. It enhanced strength and speed but it also threw the test subjects subjected to into a blind rage and racked with pain before their hearts gave out. Rabid berserkers, little more than monsters.”
“What? No way.” Gracie was not so shocked by the fact something like this existed but that it also came from a flower, just like the poppy gel that made her work possible. And the fact he called what happened to the test subjects monster hit very close to home. “That sounds…”
“…awful, I know. But it gets worse. They tested it on local youth, orphan boys barely in their teens!” Terry slammed the bar. “Stripping away their humanity with that drug saying it would make them heroes thinking no one would miss them. The youngest was twelve, twelve! No more than a child, probably the same age some of the kids you work with, right Graice?”
“Y, yes. Most are younger.” Now she was really spooked. It was feeling like he was questioning her. More experiments that altered orphaned children? But her work wasn’t like that, was it?
“Turning kids into monsters but the real monsters were the general, officers, and scientists that did that to those kids! Did they really think this was what’s good for the country?!”
“I can’t believe it…” It was too much like her and Playtime. “But were trying to eliminate death and suffering itself. That has to make us different, right? I am making them happy. Happy to not be… human.” She thought.
“I wish it weren’t true, but it is. Not one of them had the decency to say ‘No! This is wrong!’ They could rationalize it however they wanted but the fact remains their actions led to incredible suffering. Nothing they could gain from that research could justify that.”
“I’m not defending them, but it sounds like even if some disagreed then raising their voice might have got them killed.” Then Graice thought. “Some tried to expose Playtime before and then they were fed to Boxy Boo.” She shuddered at the thought of that monster, one she helped conditioned.
“There were, at least they died as men, not monsters. The rest well, justice has been served at least. All of them will spend the rest of their miserable lives locked up in a dark hole where no one will have to see them again. They deserve even worse those monsters and everyone like them!” Terry looked at Gracie sadly. “I’m sorry I ruined our reunion with something that is giving me nightmares. Especially since you work with children. This must have disturbed you. Hearing so much pain inflicted to those you dedicated to removing it from. The Ms. Graice those kids must love and trust. Guess I had a few too many.”
Evey word he said forced Gracie to look at her own hypocrisy. It was easy to justify what she did when everyone else was doing it. Going with the flow, but now that Terry, someone she once wished to share her heart with had unknowingly shot down every excuse she could think of. Not realizing he had also called her a monster. “No, no Terry. You, you needed to get all that off your chest. I, I get it. Let me call you a cab home and we can talk another time.”
“Right, I’ll give you my phone number. You were always cute, too bad in our teens my folks were very strict on dating. But I’d love to hear more about your work next time. Some light to cast back the darkness I’ve seen.”
Gracie got Terry into the cab, not knowing he would never see her like this again.
At her very nice apartment Gracie looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. “It can’t be true! I’m not a… monster, am I? I became a psychologist to help people. What would help more than ending death? The cost is high but…” Gracie stopped and thought of the day when she was hired not knowing the true purpose of her job. She did want to help children, then Lieth Pierre gave her the whole pitch. How the research would one day keep her and everyone young and healthy if they kept at it. How what she did would make the children… test subjects to be happy with what they’ve become. What they’ve become, monsters in the shapes of toys. Things that were supposed to bring happiness to children were now the twisted forms they would become, and she made them forget they were anything else. Playtime took their bodies and she destroyed what was left. “Was that when I got so… twisted? How did I get here? This wasn’t what I worked so hard in college for.” She went to her bedroom and looked at the photo on her nightside stand. It was her when she was fourteen and next to her was her mother. Gracie’s father died before she could remember, her mom raised her by herself. A kind gentle soul, but she also died due to cancer right before Gracie graduated from high school. The pain and suffering that her mother was in for years, Gracie never wanted to see someone go through that again. It’s why she was so eager to help Playtime find the key to immortality. But now Gracie realized she inflicted as much if not more suffering than her mother went through. “Oh Mama, what have I done?” she cried. “You tried to teach me to do the right thing, to help others, and I… I let myself become the opposite. I wanted to make you proud, but you’d be so ashamed of me! I, I’ve gone too far to be forgiven but that doesn’t mean I can’t make things right. The police and the press won’t believe me if I just tell them. But I can gather evidence, expose everything and put an end to the experiments. But I must be careful or I could end up dead like so many others. But like Terry said I’ll at least die a human being and not a monster. I’ll make you proud Mama.”
Ms. Gracie had given an anonymous tip to the police to expect her at an antique shop just outside the city. Now she just needed the evidence, which was why she was in the archive looking through files. Gracie recorded a message on video tape and mailed it out if she failed. She knew that if she dug around the network files Harley Sawyer, the Doctor might notice and alert someone. No, if she was to succeed and put an end to this Gracie would have to get the hard copy files. It meant she couldn’t get everything, so she had to be selective, so first she had to start at the beginning, Experiments 1006 and 1007, The Prototype and Poppy Playtime. But they were from long ago, she needed more recent victims to show the what the company was doing so she found the file on Sawyer’s first true “success” Experiment 1160 Boxy Boo. Gracie briefly wondered how the courts would handle him since he became an experiment himself. Would they just shut him down? Though some might think that would be too much of a mercy. She shook her head, that was for other people to judge later, she knew she should get one more before getting the files on the underground facility itself, but she dreaded it. There were hundreds of these files, and these were just the Bigger Bodies; there were even more children who were turned into smaller toys. It hit Gracie that her victims were in thousands and not all of them survived if you could call what was done to them living. Still, there was one file above all in her mind that showed the true horror and danger of this place, and she had a big hand in this one, Experiment 1170 also known as Huggy Wuggy. After one time it escaped and killed people which was covered up by the company. That was when Lieth Pierre had convinced her brain washing was necessary. She had inflicted so much pain on the creature… no, the child to get it to cooperate and he still broke loose and killed during the process. “I can’t undo what was done to you all, but I promise you, not one more child will suffer as you have.” She placed the files in a briefcase now all she had to do was leave, say she was feeling sick. But then the lights went out a over the loudspeakers a tune began to play. Gracie didn’t know it yet, but the Hour of Joy had begun. “What?”
The next thing she heard was screaming, the screams of her coworkers, screams of terror and pain. She stuck her head out of the archives and heard gunfire followed by more screams and then inhuman laughter echoed down the hall. “No. The… test subjects, the children. They somehow broke through their programing, taking their revenge.” Gracie looked down at her briefcase. “I was too late.” She had left her company issued radio in her office so security couldn’t track it, there was no calling for help. Not that she felt she deserved it, her sins had come due as the woman realized them too late.
“Well, well, well.” She heard and turned her to see a group of living toys coming up to her. “We were about to come looking for you Ms. Gracie.” Hoppy Hopscotch said. “You’re a long way from your office. But no matter, we can spread some JOY right here!”
Gracie sunk to her knees. “I’m sorry.”
“What? Not going to scream or run?” Kickin Chicken asked.
“I’m sorry.” Gracie repeated.
“I think she’s broken.” Baba Chops said. “You’re taking the fun out of this Ms. Gracie.”
“I know I deserve this. I did horrible things to you all. Just kill me and get it over with.” Gracie sobbed.
The trio looked at each other confused for a moment. “Tempting but no. We’re not going to hurt you, Ms. Gracie. We have very special plans for you.”
“You get to be the joy the world needs.” Kickin Chicken added.
“Yeah, let’s go.” Hoppy said before looking at the briefcase. “What ya got in here?” Gracie just sobbed in her failure as the rabbit tried to open the locked case. “Could be important. We’ll take it with us.”
“Oh yes.” Baba answered. “He may want know what’s inside.” They carried her, laughing at what was planned for Ms. Gracie. They took her lower into the underground facility as she just sobbed. At one point she saw her coworker Robertson torn apart and wondered what they had in store for her.”
Then they reached an intersection in the lab running into Rabbie Baby. “Shouldn’t he be here already?” Kickin asked.
“Bobby Bearhug called him about a troublemaker.” Rabbie answered. “They should both be here soon.” She then looked at Gracie. “So, how much has she screamed?”
“Not at all.” Baba groaned. “She just keeps saying she’s ‘sorry’ and blubbering like a baby. Disappointing.”
“But the thing is we found somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be.” Hoppy said holding up the case. “We think she’s stashed something in this briefcase, but when we ask for the combination, she just starts crying again.”
“Well, that won’t do! You know how I feel about secrets!” Rabbie said. “Maybe losing a few fingers will get you to spill.”
“Don’t touch her.” A distorted voice said, as mechanical clanking was heard. “We need her intact for our special plans.”
Gracie looked up to see the original, the one that was the beginning of this madness. A jester coming out of a mechanical spider, 1006 himself. “The Prototype.”
“Ms. Gracie.” The Prototype said in her own voice. “How nice to meet you. Face to face.”
“We heard you guys talking about a briefcase.” Bobby said.
“Here.” Hoppy said holding it up. “But can’t get it…” The Prototype broke the locks with two of his long needle-like fingers before it popped open. “That works. “
The Prototype took out a folder and stepped back seeing it was his file. He then saw Poppy’s was in there too. “What were you doing with these?” he asked Graice.
“I was, I was…” she sniffled.
“What hope to make a buck selling Playtime out? Get others to make more like us?” Kickin accused.
“I was going to give them to the police!” Gracie cried. “I know what we were doing to you was wrong. I see that now, so I was trying to put a stop to it and atone for what I’ve done to you, all of you! I don’t deserve forgiveness, I’m not asking for any. I just wanted to do right thing for the first time in years!”
The was a brief silence that was broken by Baba. “Seriously? You’re joking right?”
“If she is, then it’s a pretty sick joke if you ask me.” Rabbie said.
“You expect us to believe that you of all people finally decided to grow a conscience today of all days? Yeah right.” Bobby scoffed.
“If it were true then you have to have to worst sense of timing ever Ms. Gracie!” Hoppy mocked as the Critters began to laugh at her.
“Enough!” The Prototype ordered and they went silent as he lowered his crooked grin of a face to Gracie. “Even if I believed you Ms. Gracie, which I don’t, your attempt at redemption comes too little, too late!”
“I know.” Gracie sobbed.
“But you can still make it up to us. That’s why I had them bring you here.” With one hand the Prototype picked Gracie up and opened the door to an operating room. “Bring it in.” He ordered the critter as the role a gurney in with something covered by a tarp. The Prototype then grabbed a hose from a nearby machine that began spraying Gracie with a pink and yellow substance she knew to be the poppy gel. The giant toy monster then stuck one of his claws into Gracie making her scream.
“That’s it. That what I’ve wanted to hear.” Baba laughed.
“For years you told everyone how it’s good to be a toy.” The Prototype said as he continued to flay Gracie’s skin off, pull out organs, her blood dripping to the floor. She was in agony, but the gel kept her alive. “Now you get to practice what you’ve preached.” He finished with Gracie’s voice as she blackout the critters laughter echoing in her ears. “And be the joy the world needs.”
“Rise and shine! It’s time to meet the day.” Gracie heard a recording of her say as roster crowd in the background.
“Ugh. My head.” Gracie said as she woke up reaching up to nurse her headache. “Please tell me that was a nightmare. That I can still give the police…” Something was wrong, head felt harder and her hair thicker. She then noticed where she was, one of the reconditioning rooms her subjects were sent the screen on the wall paused on one of her prerecorded videos. It was one of the newer rooms that hid the exit to prevent escape. “Oh no.” She got up but her body felt strange as she looked at her hands, each with only four fingers and made of flexible plastic. “No! Did they make me into… one of them?” Her question was answered by the screen switching to a live feed of the room as she saw her new self stare back at her. A living doll with black skirted overalls with a yellow star, matching stockings, and purple shoes. Garcie’s face now lacked a nose, large eyes with black dots for irises, each with a single curled eyelash. And on top of her head like an oversized turban were three long braids of two-toned purple hair coiled around each other, one larger and thicker than the other two. “No! Nooooo!” The hair uncoiled as Gracie screamed, failing around with no control until one wacked her in her new plastic face, knocking her down to the floor. She looked back up at the screen and sobbed. She knew this face; she had been briefed on it the day before she met Terry again. Experiment 1468, based on Playtime’s newest toy that was due to hit the stores in a couple of weeks. “Lily Lovebraids. They made me into Lily Lovebraids.” Gracie pounded her hand against the floor. She knew Playtime were still looking for a suitable candidate to put in the doll and it seemed the Prototype and the other toys decided it would be her. This Bigger Body had to be what was rolled into that operating room. It was clear to her what they wanted. To punish her for her psychological abuse by doing to her what was done to them.
“Oh, having trouble with your hair Lily?” The screen switched back to a recording of Ms. Gracie. She couldn’t do live messages to all the experiments all the time, she also acted as counselor to the children in Playcare, even laying the foundation before the procedure. So right after she was briefed on 1468, she went ahead recorded videos for its conditioning. “I know it must hard to get used moving it sweetie but imagine all the joy you’ll bring with you wild and pretty hair! Doesn’t that sound fun Lily?”
“Why did I have to be so good at this god damned job?” Gracie cursed. “I can’t let them break me like I broke them, even if I deserve it. If I’m here then the toys must have taken over the whole factory, and if they get out who knows how many innocent people they’ll slaughter!” She thought. “There is no way to undo what’s been done to me, I accept that as part of my punishment for my misdeeds. But I can still get out and warn the people. Hard to argue living toys don’t exist when one is talking to you face to face. First things first, get out of this room, and to do that I need to learn to control this hair. According to the briefing I was given not only should I be able to move it like another limb, but it should be as strong as the other experiments. It should give me a fighting chance at escape.”
As the recordings went on Gracie practiced. She knew she was being watched but that couldn’t be helped. After what seemed to be a couple of hours she started to get a handle on her hair. “It’s a start at least.” She said as she moved the tips of one of her two thinner braids, opening and closing it like a three-pronged claw. Now she had to find door. She felt around but couldn't feel a crack. But her plastic hands had dulled her sense of touch. So, she used her hair instead. When that didn't work, she began stabbing at the walls as hard as she could. But as she made small dents an electric current went through the whole room. “Is someone being a Grumpy Greta?” The screen went. “Let’s take a deep breath, count to ten and think of what makes us happy.”
“Stupid Gracie. You knew about the security measures, you went over them with the guards!” She shook herself. “Doesn’t matter. You have got to escape.”
Time passed but this deep underground with only artificial light it was hard to tell how much time, especially since Gracie was sure the Prototype or whoever was at the controls turned them on early and played that damn wake up message of hers to deprive her of sleep and when she tried to sleep through them she would get shocked again. But Gracie knew she had to have been here at least two or three weeks for two reasons. First, while she was also being starved as well, food and water were delivered during three of the few times she was allowed to sleep and she hadn’t died of hunger or thirst, meals were now Gracie’s only method of tracking time. Second, if the toys had left the factory and gone on a killing spree then the military would have bombed this place into a crater by now. So, the toys were staying in hiding for now. Good news, the people outside the factory were safe for now. Bad news, no one knows what happened that day, so no rescue was coming. In these weeks Gracie had mostly adapted to her new body, Gracie could move her hair with ease now, using it to grab a bottle of water to drink with barely a thought. She had to adjust with having no nose and now breathing exclusively through her mouth. She had a diminished sense of smell and taste now because of this, just like how her plastic skin reduced her sense of touch. Gracie sometimes wondered if this was common with some of the experiments, another thing she helped take from them. Her old self on the screen disagreed, however. “Being a doll would be so wonderful. Plastic skin doesn’t wrinkle, and a doll’s hair never turns grey. Being a toy means you’d stay young and play forever!”
Gracie was sick of hearing her own voice all the time. The recordings even played while she was allowed to sleep! Her eyes and teeth glowing in the dark in the dark was another thing she had to adjust to for sleep. But the thing that was really getting to Gracie was the isolation. She had been alone for so long now, she longed for someone to talk to. “Play forever? That sounds like fun!” Said a childish voice from the back of Gracie’s mind.
“Oh no!” Gracie moaned. She knew this was a possibility from her studies in college. The isolation, the food and sleep deprivation. Combined with her own brainwashing tapes she was going insane, creating a new personality just like she designed them to do! She knew this would be a just punishment for her crimes, being victim to her own brainwashing technique but she couldn't let it break her! Not without doing something to make things right in at least some small way.”
More time passes and each day the voice now calling itself Lily grows stronger, actually speaking through Gracie’s mouth. “We’ve played ‘looking for the door’ a million times Ms. Gracie. It’s boring! Can’t we play some other game?” Lily whined.
“Not now Lily!” Gracie snapped. She wasn’t surprised Lily took that name, the stupid screen kept calling her that! She was so annoyed that this childish persona could be all that will be left of her! She tried to refocus her thoughts. “It’s not fair! I worked so hard in college to get my degree, someone, I can’t remember who like a lot of things lately, but someone told me as a modern woman I could have it all! A successful career, a family, but I have none of that now! That man I liked, what was his name? He made me realize my mistakes. I tried to make up for them only lose it all to this… child. Didn’t I promise that not one more child would suffer for my mistakes? Lily, she just wants to play and have friends like any child would. If I am gone, she’ll be alone with monsters who will hate her for what I did. But Lily is innocent. She didn’t exist when I did those things! She shouldn’t pay for my crimes! Lily, she, she may very well be the closest thing I’ll ever have to a child of my own! I must do for her what Mama did for me. I have to get her out! I have to prepare her if I do disappear! She’s my child and I must protect her!”
Gracie took a breath. “I’m sorry Lily, that was mean of me. We can play a game and talk. How about I’m going to the Moon? My Mama used play that with me when I was little girl.” Gracie knew she crazy now, talking to a voice in her head, treating her like she was real. But that didn’t matter now. Lily was what mattered.
“Oh! Oh! How do you play?” Lily asked.
“I say something I’m taking with me for our trip to the moon, but we can only bring things that have one thing in common I picked. Then you say something you want to take, and I’ll tell if you can or not. You win the game if you figure what the objects we’re taking have in common.”
“This sounds fun! Let’s play!”
“I’m going to the moon and I’m bringing a banana.”
“Okay, I’m going to the moon and I’m bringing tea for a tea party!”
“Sorry, you can’t take that. I’m going to the moon and I’m bringing a banana.”
“Oh shoot. I’m going to the moon and I’m bringing crumpets.”
“What flavor?”
“Oh uh… Lemon.”
“You can bring it! Very good Lily!”
“Yea!”
Gracie felt good. She would get Lily out. She wasn’t sure what kind of future they would have but she would do what she can for her child like her mother did for her.
But as their weeks of captivity became months it was not going as well as Gracie hoped. “Lily, I’m your mother and you need to listen to me!” she argued with a hallucination of the doll the was smaller than her. “As soon as you’re out of this room you need to run and get out of this factory or the toys here will hurt you!
“What are you talking about Ms. Gracie?” Lily asked. “Is this another lesson?”
While Gracie tried to get Lily to see her as her mother, with the screen on constantly spouting messages about how becoming a toy is better than being an orphan, her attempts weren’t sticking as the video’s messages were reinforced as they slept. It was like Gracie’s current self, and her past self were fighting a war for her, no, for Lily’s future, a war her past was winning. Gracie could feel herself slip away more each day; Lily could be all alone at any moment.
“No! Lily, listen to me! This is serious! You must stay away from the toys! They will blame you for what I did!” But the influence of her past self was too strong. Gracie tried to pull the screen out of the wall with their hair one day, but they were shocked again which made Lily cry. The whole situation reminded Gracie of an argument she and her Mama had when she was a child about her watching too much television… her Mama… Gracie could no longer remember her face! “No! That’s not important now! Mama would want you to protect her granddaughter! Protect Lily! Save your daughter!”
“But aren’t the toys here my friends Ms. Gracie? Ms. Gracie says they’re my friends. I…” Then Lily pointed to the screen.
“… am Ms. Gracie! Lily, please listen to me!” Gracie begged as Lily began to laugh.
“Silly, silly, silly, silly. She’s on the screen. She’s not actually in the room with us.”
“Lily, you need to find a way out! Look around…” but as Gracie looked, she saw her hands as Lily became dominate and Gracie began to disappear as her past echoed in the room. “My hands… plastic…” She reached up to her head. “My face… Aren’t I… I thought…”
Lily began to laugh again. “Oh, how embarrassing! I can’t believe I thought you were in the room with me, Ms. Gracie! Egg on my face!” Lily pointed at her face with both hands. “Oh! Oh! Oh! I love Huggy and I love Kissy and I love all the friends!”
Gracie was losing her! She had to do something! Maybe make the watchers understand. “Please leave Lily alone! She did nothing wrong!”
“NO! We’re going to have a tea party! I love tea parties. And I love crumpets. Crumpets are the best!”
“Please let her out! Let her go!”
“No, no, no. We can brush our hair and hang with the friends!” Lily kept laughing and laughing as Gracie felt herself fade away.
“Lily! Lily! You can’t hear me anymore, can you? I’m sorry! I failed! I failed Mama, I failed all those children, and worst of all I failed you Lily… my Lily… my baby…” The last thoughts of Gracie Green were of her guilt, her remorse for all she had done and an imaginary image of herself cradling a purple-haired baby girl.
The only thing left of Gracie that Lily could hear now was the recording on the screen. “Let’s sink down. Sink down and quiet. You are a toy. You’ve always been a toy. Isn’t that the most beautiful thing in the world?”
“I am a toy, Ms. Gracie. I’m a good toy. I promise.” Lily put her hand over her heart but then she felt something. She lowered it to her stomach, it felt sick, icky, like she had done something wrong. But she knew she was a good toy, she decided to ignore it, not let it bother her, but that feeling was still there.
With a rebellion sprouting against him the Prototype did not have the time to scrutinize his pet project as much as he wished. His servants kept it fed and alive but now after 400 days he decided to see what fruit it bore. He opened the door and slowly Lily came out. “Oh my gosh! Is it time? Is it time? Am I ready to join the friends?” she asked hopping up and down before looking at the Prototype. “Hi! I’m Lily Lovebraids, the girl with flair and out-of-this-world hair! What’s your name friend?”
The Prototype cocked its head; he was not expecting this. “You don’t remember me?”
“How can I remember you if this is the first time that we’ve met silly?” Lily giggled. “You’re a funny- Franklin! So, what’s your name?”
“I am the Prototype. I rule over this factory. What do you remember?”
Lily scratched her curled up hair. “Uh, Ms. Gracie’s lessons mostly. I’ve been in that room for as long as I can remember. But I knew one day I’d get to join my Playtime friends!”
“So, there’s nothing else? Nothing about something you did wrong?” The Prototype was getting frustrated; he stomped one spidery foot to make a point.
“Oh no! I would never do something wrong! I’m a good toy. I’ve always been a good toy. I don’t want to go to the bad toy box.” Lily tried to ignore the icky feeling in her stomach.
The Prototype slumped his shoulders. Because he was distracted by Poppy’s rebellion he left this woman in that room too long. She had forgotten all her crimes. This is not what he wanted. He wanted her broken, begging for forgiveness and a quick death and he would not give her either. Instead, she is now this bubbly, ignorant thing! A child! The last thing he wants to see. Because they remind him that deep down inside, he is still Oliver, a weak powerless child that things happen to! That someone like her would to a second chance at the joy he was never allowed to have… No, this is a minor annoyance, nothing more. She was not part of his plans anyway. He decided over a year ago that for what she had done she would did not join him and his followers in eternity but die a long, slow death and that is what will happen. In the meantime, he will use her newfound naivety to bring her to where he wants her. “Good. You passed the test Lily. Now let me show you where you belong. Your friends will see you shortly.”
“Yea! I finally get to play with the friends!” Lily cheered as she followed the Prototype.
After a short walk the Prototype point to a marked boundary. “This is where your food and water will be delivered. Don’t go passed these markers or your friends won’t find you.”
“Oh, I won’t! I’m a good toy and I love all the friends!”
They kept going until they came upon a large door. “Welcome Lily to Sweet Street. Your new home. There is much here for you to play with, and you very own doll house.” The Prototype had to give Playtime one thing, they did well with construction, putting that addition to this training area for Bigger Bodies before 1468’s design was finalized.
Lily smiled big, taking in the colorful fake landscape. “All this is for me? And my own house? We can have the best tea parties there!”
“Go, play and explore. It’s all yours.”
Lily giggled with glee as she ran to the nearest jungle gym and began playing. Let Ms. Gracie enjoy her second childhood for now, the Prototype thought as he closed the door. All his servants know who she really was and soon even those in the rebellion will know. None of them have forgotten and none of them will forgive. Lily will never have the friends she wants to play with so much. All he has to do is wait and her joy will turn into anguish. He was immortal, he had all the time in the world.
One year later…
The bigger body Dog Day had stepped into another section of the mail room looking for something worth salvaging. “No luck so far with the incoming mail. Giblet, have you two found anything?”
The short red chihuahua toy with an eye patch sighed as he dug through a large bin of outgoing mail. “No parts, no food. Just a bunch of bills to toy stores and business letters. Look like this trip is a…” Then out of the bin popped out another toy surprising Giblet causing him to fall to the floor. “Geeze Steller! Don’t scare me like.”
Steller Nova was the same size as Giblet. She was an alien doll with green plastic skin, blue hair, a pair of antennae, three eyes, had three fingers on each hand, and wore a skirt shaped like a flying saucer. “Sorry, but I found a package at the bottom of the of the bin.” She shook it and listened. I think it’s a video tape.”
“So, 50/50 chance it’s something good.” Giblet said. “It could be an episode of Smiling or Nightmare Critters we have haven’t seen which could boost morale around Safe Haven. Or it could be some poor workers last desperate message during… the Hour of Joy.” Giblet tried to hold back tears from the memories.
Dog Day took the package. “It’s addressed to a police station. There might be information on here that can help us. There’s a T.V. and VCR in the nearby break room.”
“You and your optimism.” Giblet said.
“What are waiting for? Let’s go!” Steller said, already moving.
Dog Day opened the package, and it was a video tape. “It’s labeled ‘Confession’.” He said as he put the tape into the VCR.
“Well, odds of it being a last message went up.” Giblet said.
The person who appeared on the screen shocked the trio. “Ms. Gracie!” Steller gasped.
“Haven’t we watched her enough for one lifetime?” Giblet asked. “Turn it off.”
Whether Dog Day was going to or not Gracie had already begun speaking on the tape. “My name is Gracie Green and if you’re watching this then chances are I’m already dead.”
“Wait a second.” Dog Day paused the video. “The timestamp is 8:30 a.m. That’s over two hours before everything happened. Why would she be expecting to die?”
“Keep going and we can find out.” Steller said.
The video continued. “I am the one who gave the anonymous tip to meet with the police at the antique shop on route 15 at 1:45 p.m., the eighth of August, 1995. If I never showed, then I was killed but I can’t let my crimes or Playtime co.’s go unanswered.”
“No way. She didn’t…” Giblet gasped.
“For years the company has been performing inhuman experiments on orphaned children in which I participated. We mutilated their bodies, I, I broke and twisted their minds in a selfish quest for immortality. I see now that what we are doing here is inexcusable, no matter what ‘possible benefits’ of the research. I am… I was going to retrieve the evidence of these atrocities. This tape is my back up plan should I fail. Know that I did this not wanting immunity, a plea bargain, or a reduced sentence. I don’t deserve them. If I survive this, I’ll take whatever punishment a judge sees fit, I just want to make things right. To make up for what I’ve done.” Gracie began to cry.
“She was sorry. She was sorry.” Steller Nova cried, tears coming out of her three eyes.
“I can hardly believe what I’m hearing.” Dog Day said awed.
“When you come not mater what they look like don’t blame the children. We were the bigger monster here.” Gracie wiped away her tears. “I need to go and try to end this nightmare. I’m sorry. But I know sorry will never be enough.” The tape ended.
“She had a change of heart, but to realize it and act as the Hour of Joy rolled around… just makes that whole day even worse.” Giblet said.
“Her of all people…” Dog Day whispered.
“It’s not fair!” Steller kicked one of the breakroom chairs. “She was trying to do the right thing only to die in the Hour Joy like all the others!”
Steller’s outburst got her looks from the other two. “Die? Steller you don’t know?” Giblet asked. “You haven’t heard the stories?”
“I don’t listen to those. I see enough awful things in this horrible place just keeping my head down handling logistics and going on supply runs like this.”
Dog Day rewound the type. “Ms. Gracie didn’t die. The Prototype turned into the last bigger body and locked her up somewhere.” When the tape finished. Dog had a realization. “She’s alive and repentant…”
“She’s locked up and wants to make things right!” Steller gasped.
Giblet knew what was going on. “I know that look, you big mutt. That optimism of yours.” he smiled. “We’re all having the same idea! Ms. Gracie’s in a bigger body, and we need another bigger body on our side. When I watched that tape the thing sounded like a tragedy, but like my grandpa used to say, ‘it’s a tragedy until it’s meant be’. Still, it won’t be easy to convince the others to go along with this.”
“We don’t need to convince them all, just one. Convince her of how useful Ms. Gracie can be.” Dog Day said.
“Poppy!” Steller was getting excited. “So what toy was Ms. Gracie turned into? Where is she being held?”
Dog Day ejected the tape. “I don’t know, but the other smiling critters with us do. And I only know the experiment number, 1468. We need to head to the archives; Playtime would have files on what she is now and what she can do.”
“We’re really doing this then. Hard to believe, but someone we all hated maybe the one to turns the tide of this war.” Giblet said as he followed Dog Day.
“Hang on Ms. Gracie.” Steller Nova said. “It’s not too late to make things right.”