The Genius of Playtime Co.

Chapter 3: Whining in Playcare

Playcare, the only place, apart from the morgue, where I don't like to be.

All the kids who come here, screaming and having fun, only to be turned into a Toy of nature without understanding by me in the end. The best examples are probably the Smilling Critters, actually a project of mine and Elliot to test if the experiments with human beings work. Not like Huggy Wuggy or Mommy Longlegs, but rather with children. That would open up lots of completely new perspectives that could be explored. And that was the thrill of Playcare, lots of children being taken to labs week after week on a fixed schedule and being sent to the morgue by me afterwards.

The lift doors open slowly, 'too slowly' but eventually I see the large area I am now in. In the Caverns. Despite their jobs, many of the workers have no idea how big the company actually is. All the puzzles to stop anyone who even dares to talk makes everything even safer. But down here, sooner or later, everyone will get lost, everyone who isn't at my level... Well, everyone except me, because I know the whole factory down to the last square metre by heart.

I walk past a couple of workers, who also greet me, but I just nod slightly in return. I've already arrived at the yellow door with the large inscription, "MAIN HUB". I slowly feel the handle against my cold hand, still trying to block out the news. But I should slowly change my mind.

I slowly walk up the stairs that take me to the centre of Playcare, just below the meadow. Once I've arrived, I take a look around, a 'dirty room' in here that doesn't get cleaned often enough, plus the old cables lying everywhere. If anyone comes in here and touches anything, it's the end of them. But I don't have to look here, if there is a place where people disappear 'Seen from my lab' it would be in the direction of the school as I climb dirty stairs again and open the shaft door to put my foot on the grass that was laid here for the children.

RING RING RING 'Crap'

Kids...everywhere, 'It's recess right now?

It's noisy...No 'They're noisy' Groups of children who, without climbing down the stairs of a building, start playing tag and throw themselves on the grass. Others who grab a ball, drop it straight down at their feet and start kicking it around. And that's where I see the first of the bunch:

Kickinchicken... the one I can't stand the most, that was one of the reasons why I turned him into an idiot. Barely as tall as me, he thinks he's the coolest, and cried the most during the operation, betting everything he had on me not removing his organs slowly and painfully. 'You can't work with people like that'. But he doesn't care for now, because he's from the Playhouse after all.

I move very quickly towards the school with my head bent to the ground, not because I'm afraid of them, no, they already know it's hell and keep trying to protect the Children from the scientists'. And I have no desire to start any unnecessary stress here, only to end up slowly beating someone to death with a pair of tools.

But just outside the school door is another critter, 'Hoppy'... she was just as annoying a kid as Kickin, but she didn't cry as much as he did. She was a sporty girl who often spent her time alone on the sports field, often getting into trouble with... *because* of other children. And so it was very easy to gain her trust and take her on a 'little trip' one evening.

"It must be bad that the Devil comes down here" What a stupid comment, if only she knew what was going on here... I wouldn't be the devil by a long shot....