Poppy Playtime: Buddy's Little Journal

March 16, 1999

Journal Entry #3 - 4:55 a.m., Tuesday

Playtime Co. used to be a global sensation, a corporate powerhouse that sold toys in every corner in the world. And only one incident was able to bring it all down to the ground.

The Hour of Joy is one of the moments in one's life where they wish they were dead before they could ever experience it. Only a demented mind would believe it to be something to be celebrated... Or a mind who has been plagued with so much pain...

I can remember a fragment of how everything that Playtime Co. had worked to build had gone to hell on that fateful day. I was roaming the halls of Home Sweet Home, a building inside Playcare, escorting and comforting a distraught child who was fussing about a nightmare she had about CatNap. What was her name... Charli, that's it. Charli. She was a shy, but clever girl, around nine years old. She had strawberry-blonde hair and bright emerald-green eyes. She wore a green hoodie everywhere she went, even in her sleep. I was always fond of her...

I was talking to her when it happened. A scream. Then another scream. Soon, it was a chorus of screams, all coming in and out of Playcare. It is very clear in my mind. Like a movie...

"W-What's happening, Buddy?" asked a terrified Charli. I replied worriedly "I don't know, kiddo. I don't know." We jumped into a room, and I barricaded the door with my body. We hid in there for nearly an hour, hoping that whatever was happening out of the building would not come to us. Finally, when the cries and shrieks finally died down, I took her petite hand and practically dragged her out of the little building. As we went out the front entrance, I caught a glimpse of CatNap, staring at me ominously. Mouth gaping wide and that red gas spouting out like a fog. We locked eyes for a moment until I looked down at the purple monster's feet. A body, bloody and mutilated. When I saw that corpse, I knew what was going on. I just didn't want to believe it at that time.

Charli and I rushed into the main dome of Playcare, a nightmarish scene meeting us. Employees scattered the grounds, their bodies with fresh blood that layered their usually pristine uniforms. I covered the little girl's eyes and led her out of Playcare and to the tracks leading to the Train Station. The train was not there, and I became dejected. I knew that it would take around thirty minutes to an hour to get to the Station on foot, which meant there was not enough time for us to escape the area before the Factory went into lockdown.

When I told her about what I knew, Charli was devastated. She begged incessantly and clung to me tightly, horrified out of her mind.

"P-Please don't let me d-die, Buddy... Please... Oh please..."

I nodded quietly as I tried to put a reassuring arm around her shoulder. My appearance during that time was not as comforting as my former self. But I tried my best, because I realized that I was her only hope of getting out of here alive. There was no other way since I couldn't trust the other toys, knowing that they must have been the source of all this fear and chaos. And I couldn't rely on the workers in the Factory, as I started to understand that this may have been their unruly end.

We ran straight through the tracks for several minutes until a pack of Wuggies tried to harm my friend. That was the first time I ever killed something. We continued at a faster pace until we finally reached the opening to the Train Station. The lockdown barricade was barely being held up by a dead worker, who I assume was trying to escape. This allowed us passage into the Train Station, and then the rest was a blur.

We maneuvered through the many rooms and sections of the Factory, slowly losing hope as we found each exit blocked by the barricade doors imposed by the lockdown. That was when Charli saw it. A small opening in the roof. A way out. Our salvation...

I thought we were about to make it. I thought Charli would survive, find a good family, and live a good life. But the Prototype... he did not want her to leave. He... He pushed her. Back to the cold floor of the Factory. Where... where the Wuggies were waiting. I heard her wailing and crying as they dragged her into the lower levels of the Factory. I still hear them... to this very day.