Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I felt guilty knowing I’d missed Aaron’s “Bring a Friend Day” for Kindergarten. He really wanted me to come too, since parents were allowed. But I’d had an important meeting I couldn’t miss.

I felt guiltier knowing I was glad I hadn’t gone.

That important meeting was interrupted by a series of calls from my fellow parents. After the third one, I had to excuse myself to take the call.

That’s when I found out.

Something had gone wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong. Gas leak was thrown around by a few parents when I got there, while others suggested a small fire that produced hydrogen cyanide.

The official report was a case of mass carbon monoxide poisoning.

My Aaron was gone.

So why weren’t they letting me see his body? I just wanted to bury my goddamn child! Was that too much to ask?

According to the police, yes.

“The building is too dangerous at this stage to enter, it could cost the recovery team their lives as well,” The answer I received, almost robotically from every officer, every secretary, every detective I demanded answers from.
After a week I got sick of it.

I decided I’d take matters into my own hands.

Which is how I found myself prying the doors of Banban’s Kindergarten apart with a crowbar, a hastily bought gas mask protecting me from the supposed leak. Not that I believed that story anyway.

The room I stood in was empty. There should’ve been at least one bloated body. Nothing. Secretary’s desk was empty, so were the chairs. I pulled out the portable carbon monoxide detector I’d also bought online. Nothing.
The gas mask came off, hanging limply around my neck.

I scoffed, gazing at the colorful characters painted on the walls. There smiles were mocking me.

I spat at their portraits, moving towards the doors to the rest of the kindergarten. The door wouldn’t budge. Instead of door knobs, there was a hole in roughly the same spot. No matter how much of my arm I shoved into the gap to get leverage, the door wouldn’t come open.

“Fucking fire safety violation. You’re all scum.” I spat again at the mascots, as if they were somehow in charge of the building being up to code.

The door wasn’t going to budge, so I’d have to find a way to open it. The Secretary’s desk seemed like a reasonable place to look. Although, then again, everything here seemed pretty unreasonable so far.

For instance, the two computers, but only one chair. Why would you need two separate computers here? Was there supposed to be another chair? Did the other secretary get fired? I don’t fucking know. This is dumb. And, they’re those old block computers. It’s twenty sixteen folks, what are you doing running on those old ass machines?

Upon searching the desk, I did manage to find a blue keycard, as well as a bunch of sticky notes patterned like ramen noodles, and a few cat shaped paperclips. Cute.

I looked around the room, hastily. Every moment I spent up here, my child was God knows where deeper in this building. I needed to get further in.

To my right was an open door, it looked like it lead to a lunch room. To the left, was a blue door of the same stupid design as the other. And it had a keycard reader next to it.

I sprinted over, swiping the keycard so fast a few times that it didn’t actually register. I hated these things, but I had to use them at work too.

As the door slid open, I looked back at the yellow door leading to the rest of the Kindergarten. There wasn’t a keycard reader there, so how was I supposed to open it? My eyes scanned the wall, following the green star stickers, up to the ceiling. No keycard readers. There was a section of the wall that looked like a screen, like I was meant to scan something, but I couldn’t imagine what it was actually for.

Sighing, I turned back around to see what was in the room I did unlock.

Nothing. Literally just a pile of boxes and a broken drone.

My hands tensed as I let out a small scream. Why was there a key to this room, when it wasn’t even a passable storage room? How the hell was I supposed to get into the rest of the kindergarten?

With a snort of disdain, I wandered over to the drone, dimly wondering if I could macgyver something to force those doors open with my crowbar and maybe something from the lunch room to give it enough force.

The drone itself was painted a gaudy green color, and its remote did not match. I kicked one of the boxes out of frustration that all that was in this room was this stupid looking drone, and remote. A paper slipped out from under the box.

I quickly scanned its contents. “Drone operation instructions.” Apparently this was the item that you’d scan on the wall. On the strange screen I’d noticed over the door.

The drone was outfitted with a computer chip that gave employees access. There was also supposedly an attachment to allow the drone to grab items, and carry them. Unfortunately that piece seemed to be missing for me, and I didn’t care enough to open all the boxes to check. I just wanted to get into the rest of the goddamn kindergarten.

It was no surprise to learn that the drone’s remote was out of batteries.

Still, I balled the instruction paper in my hand, screamed, and threw it at the wall. The impact was less than satisfying.

“Goddamn, it’s never easy.” I yelled to the open air, before using the boxes to hoist myself up. I figured I’d at least search the rest of the accessible area before I went back to my plan of macgyvering.

No batteries were left in the secretary’s desk. The cafeteria looked empty, but upon inspection, there were a few batteries scattered around on the floor. And a few messes, like the kids had spilled their lunch. Some of the spots were going moldy, suggesting they’d been unattended since the day everything went to shit.

The batteries fit into the drone controller nicely, and I started the glorified keycard up. They must’ve had it because some kids got smart and figured out keycards? That’s the only reason I can come up with. Or it let them put scanners in really stupid and inconvenient places, I guess. Or maybe the building was built by really tall people and now was run by really short people, so they adapted. I don’t freaking know.

With an air of spiteful determination, I maneuvered the drone to the screen area on the wall and pressed the button to activate.

A chime sounded out into the empty kindergarten lobby, accompanied by a scrapping as the doors opened. I glanced back towards the entrance door to the lobby, it was slightly broken, but I’d tried to shut it the best I could. I silently prayed that no one walking by would report it to the cops until I’d found Aaron.

I turned back towards the now open door, an empty hallway facing me. There was a really ugly decoration peering around the corner near the end. I know it’s almost Halloween, but something that ugly really doesn’t belong in a place for children.
It was like a distorted version of the stupid pink bird, what did Aaron call her? Opaque? Ollie? O’Neil? I didn’t know, and I didn’t care, all I knew was that she was a flamingo, and that this decoration was pretty fucked for children.

I rolled my eyes and approached anyway.

Shaking my head, and muttering to myself, I looked over towards the Creativity Area. The mascot, Banban was painted on the wall. Chairs and tables sat around, all nice and neat. I glanced at the whiteboard for a second, then back. “The end is near” was written there.

“What the fuck?” I asked out loud, wandering into the room from the hallway. My eyes narrowed as I scanned the room more thoroughly. There was a corner, fenced off with those like baby gate plastic things, labeled “The Naughty Corner”. Come on, just call it Time Out or something. Near the top of the wall there was another area that looked like it would be scannable. I’ve decided I’ll call them buttons, since that makes about as much sense as the rest of this shit.

The painting of Baban was pretty normal, until I saw the bubble of dialogue someone had given him. “Sharing is caring, your pancreas is mine!”

“What the fuck?” I repeated, staring intently at the wall. What the hell was going here? What fucked up employee thought this shit was okay for children for Halloween. Where’s the cute paper bats and pumpkins? Where’s the little cloth ghosts?
What was this shit? Edgy teenager Halloween?

I shook my head, trying to wander back to the hallway.

The statue thing was gone.

“What the fuck?” I yelled, again. Maybe it had just been like a reflection off a window from a certain angle. I don’t fucking know!

That was where the playground door was, so it’s possible there was some freaky hologram shit going on at the right angle through the weird glass. I’d seen stuff like that before.

My blue keycard from the desk got me through the door, along with my drone.

It was just an indoor playground. Although that fucked up statue was indeed there. Must’ve been like the right angle exactly. Fuck that shit man.

I did always wonder why they’d chosen dead trees for the decorations. I mean, I’m sure it’s easier than making fake leaves, but like, why? We’re in Montreal, not the American Southwest.

This playground was always vaguely creepy. But not in a “I won’t let my child here”, creepy way, more of a “Yikes, I don’t want to be here after hours”, way. Unfortunately I probably should’ve made the first call.

The floor was painted green, with a fake river running through it, and a small wooden house play structure near by complete with a slide. Indoor swings, always a favorite of mine as a kid trying to hit the ceiling by swinging too high, and a boat completed the play area’s attractions.

There was an open door way towards the ball pit area. Well, it wasn’t open anymore. Several boards had been nailed across the entrance.

What had happened here?

Who nailed these boards?

I glanced around, briefly at the fucked up statue before I tried yanking the boards off. The ball pit room beyond was dark. Scarily dark. Glancing around again I realized there weren’t any windows in this room either. Man, this place really was a death trap. What the hell was I thinking letting Aaron go here?

I know what I was thinking.

It was a cheap private kindergarten, and I got a discount since my old friend worked here. I was desperate.

After a few minutes of pulling, I came to the conclusion that I’m either weaker than I thought, or whoever nailed these boards were stronger than I’d anticipated.

Fine, I’d go back to grab my crowbar.

With another glance at the stupid bird statue, I left the room. My footsteps echoed on the floors, emphasizing just how alone I was. The more time I spent messing around here, the longer Aaron was missing.

I wasn’t convinced he was dead anymore. There was no way, there’s no bodies, no toxins, nothing. There had to be something in that ball pit room.

What if some psycho came and kidnapped everyone? Maybe the police are in on a human trafficking ring? I unfortunately wouldn’t put it out of the realm of possibility.

My heart sank as I zoned back into the real world, reaching the end of the hallway. I had been so lost in thought that I didn’t notice; the door was closed again. And there was no button to open it from this end.

I couldn’t get to my crowbar, which meant that there was absolutely no way I could break off those boards. I’d already tried ramming the drone against them repeatedly, and I’m pretty sure that was dealing more damage to the drone than the wood.

I ran back to the playground. Maybe there was something here, anything.

Nothing.

“Opila Bird Mission! Opila Bird is unbelievably hungry! Feed her six eggs to get your prize.” It was a vinyl sticker slapped on the wall above the messed up statue. Well, at least I knew the name of the stupid bird now.

Maybe this would give me something. It was worth a shot, considering that otherwise, I’d have to resort to making a shiv and lever out of the chairs and fences in the Creativity Area.

Desperately, I hunted around the playground. I had seen blue eggs, but hadn’t taken much notice of them.

Although, it was dawning on me that if there was a sticker, and the statue was right there, this was a permanent installment.

Who would make this for the children?

The flamingo mascot’s form was a much darker pink, almost purple. Her open beak curved into wicked points that looked quite intimidating up close. Bulges riddled her neck, and parts of her legs, like she was infected with tumors. Veins bulged beneath the thin coat of feathers near by the tumors. Opila’s eyes were sunken in, only white rings stared at the ceiling as its head was tilted up. The eyes were facing forward too, like a predatory animal.

I shivered, whoever created this fucking thing deserved a special place in Hell. I am absolutely the type of person to believe in traumatizing kids a little, it’s good for them. I showed Aaron Coraline, and he’s five, he enjoyed it.

But this is messed up. This is something I’d see in a haunted house for adults.

I finally found all the eggs across the playground. I spent longer than I’d like to admit searching for them. I approached the statue, afraid to even be near than thing. One by one I inserted each egg.

Also, who makes a bird eat eggs for children? Like, obviously I know birds will eat eggs, I’ve had chickens, but kids might be bothered by that, y’know?

The final egg slid down the statue’s throat, and for a moment, it shuddered. Then, with a wet noise, it spit out a yellow keycard.

Fucking great, that’s not helpful. I mean, I’m not sure what would’ve been, but not that.

Fine, fine, whatever.

“You stay here demon.” I raised my fingers to my eyes, motioning to Opila’s. Maintaining the best eye contact I could as I backed myself to the door.

The two other doors at the end of the hallway had purple and orange doors, not yellow. What was I supposed to do with this?

I wandered back to the Creativity Area, maybe I could use it there. There was a desk over there, maybe this was meant for the computer.

Upon entering the room, I spotted a keycard reader over by the Naughty Corner.

I raced over, frantically scanning the stupid yellow card.

All I was greeted with was a beep at first, until I looked up to see the button on the wall was glowing. Excitedly I maneuvered my drone over, scanning it on the sensor.

There was a brief creaking sound as something activated. I spun around on my heels, trying to figure out what had changed. To my embarrassment, there was a closet door that had swung open. I had somehow completely missed it on my initial pass. I guess I was too focused on the pancreas quote, my bad I guess.

The closet was mostly empty, but on the top shelf was a piece of paper, and a hammer! I could totally make usage of the hammer!

I grabbed the hammer so fast the paper fluttered to the floor.

Before leaving, I grabbed it, “Distraction at one.” Distraction? Who’s distracting who? This better be for a party and not for something sinister. The note went into my pocket along with the keycards.

Brandishing the hammer, I ran into the playground, screaming, just in case that stupid statue had moved.

It was still sitting patiently in the corner, just as fucked up as ever.

I was about to spit at it, when I decided it would be best to not provoke the hellspawn. Instead I turned away and began attacking the boards like a madwoman. Soon enough, there was a hole big enough for me to force my way through. Fabulous.

I squeezed through, not bothering to take care of the boards above and below me, as long as I could fit.

The ball pit was empty.

Chapter Text

The ball pit was empty.

Where it should’ve been was a complete void. A pit into nothingness. God only knows how deep.

The blood drained from my body, leaving me cold and still. This was horribly wrong. What the hell had happened?

I hadn’t thought to bring a flashlight, which was admittedly rather foolish of me, so I couldn’t illuminate the room any more. Some lights had flickered on at my motion when I was entering, so it wasn’t completely dark, but still. The lights faded into the darkness of the literal ball pit. Devoid of balls, but a full on pit.

Why was this here? Who would’ve built a place for children over a void? What sicko was running this place? I know my friend worked here, but I didn’t know his actual job here. Just that he was one of the administrators.

There was another painting of the Opila Bird on the wall, encouraging children to smile. I grimaced, flaring my lips, as I glanced at the picture. It felt like a mockery of my plight.

I guess I at least knew why the ball pit had been boarded up. Because it didn’t fucking exist anymore.

A scowl settled on my brow. My breathing was heavier now, powered by rage. But I knew I couldn’t give in just yet, since I needed the energy. I couldn’t waste my adrenaline just yet.

Calming myself, I took note of the room’s contents. There was a lack of balls, a giant pit in the middle of the room separating two sides of walkways. On my side there was a button labeled as an emergency stop.

Emergency stop for what? The ball pit? Maybe there was a mechanism that moved the ball pit out of the way for like, I have no fucking clue, maintenance in the hole?

Pictures of the mascots of the kindergarten decorated the far wall, as well as some sort of button for my drone. Maybe there was something of use over there. Anything, at all. If there was nothing, I guess I’d call the cops. It’d be my best option if I was about to hit a dead end.

I scanned the keycard reader on my side of the room.

A lift activated. I guess I was right, this pit was for maintenance. Why else would there be a lift that took me from this side of the room to the other. Otherwise, I’d have been out of luck, since the ball pit itself was gone.

I wasn’t a fan of being suspended over the abyss, but I had no other choice, and climbed onto the lift. My hands didn’t leave the pole suspending it until I’d reached the other side, and by then my knuckles were white.

My legs wobbled beneath me as I stumbled towards the wall. Breathing shakily, I leaned my body against it.

There was another closet door here. I wondered how I was going to open it.

Once I had caught my breath, I ran over. I didn’t even care if there was some sort of puzzle this time with or without my stupid drone, I just wanted whatever was in this closet.

Using my hammer as a crowbar of sorts, I smashed through the closet door. I prayed to the universe that all this noise I was making wasn’t going to attract the cops too soon and get me arrested, rather than getting them to help my child.

I eventually had made a hole big enough to force my hand through. My fingers frantically closed on some sort of card, and I yanked it out. Another goddamn key card.

At least this one was orange. I knew were orange went to.

A mechanical sound brought me out of my thoughts as I turned back to face the other side of the pit.

The lift was active again. There was something on it, slowly approaching me.

Quickly I pocketed the keycard, and brandished my hammer. Maybe it was just a cop, and I was going to be arrested for attempted assault, but I’d take that over being kidnapped myself.

Instead, to my abject horror, it wasn’t a person on the lift.

It was that bird.

Its head tilted at me, the white rings of its eyes fixed on me.

My blood ran cold. Holy shit, holy fuck, holy shit.

That thing really was alive.

I watched, my body numb with shock as the bird dismounted the lift, stepping onto my side of the area.

What was I supposed to do?

I panicked, looking around me as Opila cautiously approached me, almost like she was curious. I hoped the old, “animals are more scared of you than you are of them” held true here.

There! On the wall, it was another of the buttons. I think I’d seen it before, but of course, panic makes you forget everything, ever.

I frantically controlled the drone, my hands nearly slipping off the controller. The drone thumped against the wall. I had no idea what this would do for me, but the bird seemed to be done with her investigation phase, and seemed to be eager to see me up close and personal.

To my relief, a platform slid out from the wall, must’ve been another way for workers to cross in case the lifts were inoperable. I jumped, vaulting myself over the railing, onto the still moving platform.

The fear of the abyss was replaced with adrenaline as I ran, slipping and very nearly falling into the pit, across the gap. I could here Opila’s footsteps behind me. She was too close.

I was nearly at the end, I could see the emergency stop button. Maybe that would do something. It was the only thing I could come up with.

Attacking this thing with my hammer wasn’t going to do much.

I leapt from the platform, sailing over the railing on the other side, and hitting my ribcage wrong. A surge of pain went up from below my arm as the corner of a step hit my abdomen. I screamed, out of instinct, and hoping it would intimidate the bird.

Scrambling, I pulled myself up, and slammed my hand onto the emergency stop button. I readied my other hand just in case I did need to resort to the hammer.

The platform jerked to a stop, throwing the bird from it. Opila fell into the darkness, having lost her footing.

I let out a shuddering laugh of relieved panic.

“Oh God, oh God,” I ran my hand through my hair, still shaking.

I collapsed to the floor, my back against the wall. There was an actual monster in here.

An honest to God monster. That thing wasn’t a fucked Halloween decoration. It was a fucked creature.

Oh my God, is that what had happened to the children? Had they fallen down the pit when this thing attacked? What the hell?

With another shuddering laugh, I left the room.

This was it, I was calling the cops. I didn’t even care if I was about to be arrested for breaking and entering, someone needed to do something about this. And that sure as hell wasn’t going to be me.

I reached into my pocket for my cellphone.

It was gone.

“Goddamnit!” I groaned, realizing the phone had probably slipped from my pocket when I fell on the moving platform. My phone was probably in the abyss with that monster.

It was fine, fine, I could see if the secretary’s desk had a phone. It was fine.

I made my way to the front of the kindergarten. I ignored the orange door down the hall for now, since my priority was calling the police.

The front room was the same as I’d left it. Mostly.

Instead of a phone on the secretary’s desk, there was a cassette recorder left. One of the ramen noodles sticky notes had been placed on top, labeling the tape as “For you”. Which of course meant me.

My curiosity got the better of me, and I pressed play.

The sounds of children playing filled the empty room for a moment, before it was shattered. A huge crashing sound played on the tape, simultaneous with a chorus of screams. Then the tape cut off.

That had to have been the of ball pit. It collapsed.

What sicko had recorded this, and left this for me?

Who, or what, in this goddamn place was taunting me?

With disgust, I wandered towards the door, I’d just use a payphone to call the cops.

But would they really do anything?

I knew they wouldn’t. Besides, if someone left this for me, maybe they knew why I was here. They knew where Aaron, or his body, was.

I let out a deep breath, and turned back around. I’d use my orange keycard to open that door, and maybe use my hammer to get into anywhere else I needed.

Back down the hallway I went, until I reached the end. Banbaleena’s portrait smiled warmly at me, “Kindness is free, so sprinkle it everywhere.”

I sneered, scanning the keycard. The door opened slowly.

It was an office. A nameplate on the desk identified it. But I didn’t need the name plate. There was a boarding pass with his name on it. For the day everything went to shit.

Was he planning on abandoning my child? Is this what distraction at one was for? So he could get to the airport on time? And leave the country?

I thought Dr. Adam was my friend. He’d been the one to recommend me this facility.

I crumpled the pass in my sweaty hand. It was an almost vindicating feeling when I realized the pass was still here, which means Dr. Adam had probably died in whatever mess had happened. At least he didn’t get to complete his plan.

Who else had been planning on leaving with him? The ticket said one of two.

I turned back towards the door. I’d break into that purple room too, see if that gave me any more information.

Using the hammer, I managed to smash a hole through the tinted glass, and forced my body through.

Sure enough, there was in fact another pass. This one for a Weaverly Mason. I didn’t know who that was admittedly.

But it was the second ticket.

I sagged my shoulders. Maybe it was as simple as Dr. Adam was having an affair with Mrs. Mason, and they wanted to get out of the country for a holiday together. Or maybe my friend was married and he hadn’t told me.

I hadn’t really kept in touch with him in a while. The last time we had a conversation before he’d offered me a discount on the tuition here had been nearly five years ago.

It wasn’t a good day.

But now was worse.

I wandered back to Dr. Adam’s desk. There was a keycard reader hidden below it. Absently, I scanned my card, wondering if my old friend really had planned to leave my kid, or if his plans had gone to shit too.

A beep notified me that one of the wall buttons was active again, and I brought my drone over. I had no idea what this was going to get me, if anything at all.

I took a deep breath, trying to process everything I’d just been through in the past ten minutes. As I did, the floor on one side of the office started to descend. I walked up, peering into yet another abyss as the floor sunk lower, and then under the portion I was standing on.

Out of the darkness emerged another lift, although this one wasn’t suspended from the ceiling.

“You know what, Fuck it. Might as well.” I shouted to no one in particular before landing the drone on the lift and then joining it.

I pushed the button I assume activated it, and the lift jostled to life.

Slowly, it went down and over. I looked up, realizing that I was beneath the ball pit area now.

“Oh God!” I leaned over the edge, realizing that this was where I’d dumped the bird. She had to still be down here. Even if she was dead, I didn’t want to encounter her again.

My worries about that were short lived though. Instead I had a new problem.

The lift jolted, and I spun around to see what had caused it.

A huge green furred hand was grabbing part of the railing. I watched in horror as a huge green gorilla emerged from the darkness, giving me a toothy grin, as he attempted to climb onto my lift.

Like Opila, he was covered in tumor like growths, although his eyes were friendlier.

I cowered away from him, on the other side of the lift.

Alarms started blaring, clearly this thing was not built to take this guy’s weight. And it was only a few seconds before the lift collapsed. Taking me and the green gorilla deeper into the abyss.

Chapter Text

It was a miracle I survived that fall.

I woke up, God knows how long later, in a heap at the bottom of the broken lift. My drone was next to me, and the green gorilla was pinned under the wreckage.

Where was I?

And how far had I even fallen?

It could’ve been a hundred feet, or five. I had no way of knowing, since I hadn’t been paying attention to how far down I’d been before it’d collapsed. Since you know, I was kind of focused on the green monster approaching.

I’d say attacking, but that seemed unfair. He just seemed curious.

Didn’t matter me though. I was pissed. Thoroughly and properly pissed.

I pulled myself up, from the floor. Everything I’d been carrying was scattered across the floor.

At least the gorilla was still here.

I genuinely couldn’t tell if he was dead, or just unconscious. Part of me really did hope it was just unconscious, after all, it didn’t seem like he was actually trying to attack me, more of just, he was curious.

I grabbed my key cards that were scattered, my hammer, and the drone’s remote.

The antenna was damaged, and I had no materials to repair it with. I mean, I’m not fucking Violet Baudelaire. I can’t create a antenna out of whatever the hell was around me like she could.

With a large sigh, I grabbed my drone and dragged it with me.

There was a single light illuminating another orange door. At least it made some level of sense in that regard.

Walking was harder than I thought it was going to be. My leg must’ve been pinned under me or something, I’m not sure, all I knew was that it hurt, quite a bit trying to get to that orange door.

I scanned my card, and was greeted with a smaller hallway, with another orange door at the end.

What was this bullshit? Why did we did an airlock in the kindergarten’s basement? In fact, why did the kindergarten need a basement?

Is this were the monsters came from?

What the fuck man?

I sighed again, and opened this next door.

In front of me was a large, open room. I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at in all honesty. There was a platform in the middle of the room, with more abyss on all sides of it. But then, the walls of the room were actually decorated like they were apartment buildings. And for all I knew at this point, they were.

It looked like that one backrooms image of that weird indoor hotel courtyard.

There were three areas labeled as “Sectors” on the three walls, not including the wall to my back.

What the fuck was going on?

What was this place?

I walked forward, unsteady in both my stride and intent. Maybe I should’ve just left and called the police. This was clearly way too much for me to handle.

As I thought this, the image of Aaron giving me puppy dog eyes to come with him came to my mind.

I couldn’t leave my son here. And who knows who else’s kids were still alive too.

With shaking legs, I shambled onto the central platform.

“What do you mean Medical Sector? What kind of kindergarten is this?” The confusion dripped from my voice as I looked around the room. “How do you explain this?”

There was a key card reader and small button at the end of this godforsaken platform. It was pink though, not a card I had.

In fact, I think I only had orange. I think the rest fell out of my pocket when I was either running, or maybe when I fell into Hell on Earth.

A low growl emanated from me as I took breaths to calm myself.

“Time to fucking find the pink keycard.” I snarled.

I took a step forward, only to see the card on the floor near me, along with a paper, “Oh look, the fucking pink keycard.”

I grabbed the paper as well as the card, trying to read it while walking over to the reader.

“This is it. The things we’ve done have finally come back to bite us. Everyone’s gone, and the whispers from the abyss just keep getting louder. I think I even saw a face or two looking up at me from it. We were told everything that gets throne into the abyss dies, but it appears we were tricked. If you’re reading this, take my advice and leave. Everything here should be erased from history. ” The note was written in neat handwriting, but the message was insane.

Uh huh. The whispers from the abyss? Sure bud.

Also, what kind of things are you doing here that you need a whole ass abyss to throw things into. Because I’m not sure that’s how the abyss should work.

I turned back around and scanned my new card.

A bridge emerged from underneath the platform I was standing on. It extended straight out until matching up with a section labeled, “Testing Sector.”

Sounds lovely.

I limped my way across the bridge. “Sure, sounds great.” I rolled my eyes. The floor below me, after the bridge, was painted with colorful circles, leading a path up too the door.

So was this a place for children to be or not? What was going on here?

I reached the end. The card reader wasn’t even active, so I had absolutely no idea what color I was supposed to try and find.

I screamed into the emptiness.

There were certainly monsters around, but I did not care at this point. I’d beat their ass with my hammer. I’m not stuck down here with them, they’re stuck down here with me.

Back to the main platform I went, dragging my feet. I used the keycard again, because heaven forbid they make it efficient, and the bridge shifted towards another section to my right this time.

“Sure, great, let’s go to the Comms Sector. That sounds fantastic.” I shook my head as I crossed the bridge. At least the door to this one was open, and I could see that from here.

I tilted my head as I approached, someone had written something on the wall, but I couldn’t quite make it out from all the way over here. At least my limp was improving.

As I got closer, I could make out what was written. Also there were tables piled up, like a barricade in the corner. Like when you’re a kid playing pirate or something and need a ship to hide behind when you play fight.

The text on the wall read, “The spider is real.”

Oh God, were they referring to the stupid blue mascot on the wall up there? See, normally, I’d be fine with that thing. Like I said, I believe in a healthy dose of terror for a kid. I grew up in the eighties and nineties. Things were pretty fucked back then, and it was awesome.

But I’d seen the bird and the gorilla, and I really really did not want to see whatever the hell the spider had turned into. I think his name was like, Nabnab or something, it was something dumb like that. One of the other names reversed.

I rubbed my face groaning. “I don’t want to deal with any of this shit. I just want to bury my goddamn child! Is that so hard?”

There was some sort of decal on the wall by the stairs, but I ignored that. I didn’t need to see whatever painting of a cheerful character it was.

The top of the stairs had another message, “The spider is real, and it’s coming.”

“I don’t think I need to know that.” I made a face at the wall, and turned away. There was another keycard reader. At least this one was pink. Thank God.

The door dinged, and slid open. It opened into actually a cute little office space. No windows, so still a fucking fire hazard, but cute actually. There was several desks off to the right, as well as a few doors.

A large, circular structure in the middle-ish of the room was painted with the logo of Banban’s Kindergarten. Off to the right as well, was a mural of the various mascots. Plus a few that I’d never seen before. Since when was there a snail, and toad? Excuse me?

The room itself was kinda cute though, light green walls, and orange accents.

I started wandering, wondering if any of the doors were going to open for me. I mean, if it came down to it, I could always use my hammer and see if I could break the glass like last time. That worked okay. I only got a few cuts from it.

A chime took me out of my thoughts.

I straightened up, “Hi?” I looked around, despite knowing the sound had to have come from some sort of intercom. This was the Comms Sector after all.

“Hey! You there, I can see you on the cameras. I am so happy to see you, and I need your help with something.” A cheerful enough voice sounded through.

Oh my God, another person. What a relief.

The voice was familiar, but not like I could identify it. I was always bad with voices in all honesty. Maybe this dude just had a really generic voice.

“Wait, can you even hear me? Hello?” The voice had paused for a moment, and was seemingly deterred by my lack of response. “Listen, if you can hear what I’m saying, wave at any camera.”

I took a deep breath, and walked over towards one of the security cameras placed around the room. I raised my hand carrying the remote and waved.

“Oh thank God, I’m so glad you’re here. I thought this was the end.” Another chime accompanied the voice. “I was looking around and walked into the security room, then the door shut behind me. And now I’ve been stuck inside since. It needs a light blue keycard to open, but I don’t have one.”

“Well that was fucking stupid of you to walk into a room without a way to get out.” I gave a sarcastic sneer to the camera.

The chime sounded again, “So you can talk. You don’t have to be so rude about it. We all make mistakes. Anyway, I know why you’re here, and I can help you, but you need to get me out of here. If I recall correctly, only maintenance works had a light blue keycard, so you’re going to have to go down to the maintenance room and check there.”

“You know where Aaron is?” I shouted towards the camera. Who was behind it? I needed to find my child, and it sounded like my prayers had been answered.

It seemed like whoever this was was choosing to ignore me however, as he just continued on, “The door there is probably locked as well, and I can’t open it from here, but I do have control over the breakroom door. Here, I opened it for you, see if you can find anything useful in there.”

Wow, this guy is just exposition the person, now isn’t he? Well, the breakroom door opened, so I guess I’ll go in.

The room was actually pretty okay for a break room. Or maybe I just have low standards thanks to shitty fast food jobs as a teenager.

There was a molding cake that had started to emit that horrible sickly sweet rotting smell, but nothing else really.

Except for a new antenna for my remote. Hell yeah.

And an emergency alarm button, that was slowly pulsating. It seemed to have already been activated. By who, I had no idea.

I replaced the antenna and booted up my remote again. Hell yeah my little drone was back in business.

Together I left the room with my drone. Intrigued by a desk to my left now, I wandered over there. There was a paper left on it. I of course snatched it up, what other crazy ramblings did I get to listen too while trying to find my child?

“ ‘Case Update Report?’ ” I read out loud to myself, quietly. What case, what were they doing here? “ ‘Case number six, genomes; human, givanium, Case type two?’ What the hell is all this? ‘Alias, the Devil?’ What the fuck? ‘Summary, communications with case six have provided invaluable information that may explain why previous cases have sorely failed, as well as improve the creation of future cases’ .”
A chime interrupted me briefly, “ ‘Despite being seemingly incredibly intelligent, it–’ ”

“Oh, the good old drones. I lost mine a couple of weeks ago.” The voice started back up again.

I grated my teeth, stopping my reading mid sentence, my breathing intensified. It was so small, but it was just enough to push me over the edge, I didn’t even care what this dude was saying.

“I was reading.” I hissed out rather loudly, “You interrupted my reading.” I stared straight at the camera nearest to me, “I will strangle you, with your own intestines.”

The voice stopped. There was silence for a moment before the chime sounded again.

“I’m sorry?” The tone was questioning. “I didn’t know you were actually reading the paper?”

I breathed heavily, holding the hammer up, still staring at the camera. “Well I was, so leave me alone.”

“Can I finish what I was saying?”

“Fine.” I hissed.

“Just, take a look around and see if you can figure out how to get into the maintenance room. I’m unsure if I can be of much help, but wave at the cameras, or I guess shout, if you need my insight.” The intercom clicked off.

I nodded, gritting my teeth, “Yeah, uh huh, thank you very much. Anyway,” I continued reading, “ ‘A meeting between case six and its human genome donor.’ Is, is that a sperm donor? I don’t like where this is going. Uh, ‘Case six describes a constant immense pain that is present in the entirety of its body. Despite the human genome of case six being a doctor, it has failed to give a more detailed description than the pain having to do with blood flow. Case six has no blood in their system, only Givanium.’ ”

I shook my head, okay, what the fuck.

Anyway, back to wandering around I guess. The other desks provided nothing of interest, but I did decide to check out the wall mural.

“Meet the family.” I read from the floor. “And the spider.” I noticed the blue spider, Nabnab off to the left. Like he was excluded. That’s kind of rude.

“Slow Seliene, Jumbo Josh, Banbaleena, Banban, Opila Bird, Captain Fiddles, Stinger Flynn, and Sheriff Toadster.” I read the names from beneath each mascot. “Toadster seems like a pretty cool dude, despite having apparently been rejected from upstairs.” I rolled my eyes.

Nothing in this room was useful.

I was pretty sure this baby poop green colored door was going to lead into the maintenance room, but I didn’t have a card for it yet. Time to figure that out.

Looking around the room showed a single wall button that I immediately scanned my drone upon. It dinged, but nothing happened.

I smiled, waiting for something to open, but nothing did.

Letting out a deep sigh, I looked around further, and found another of the closet doors I’d already broken through once upstairs. Well, breaking it down it was. I used the pointed end of my hammer to bust another similarly sized hole into this closet.

Low and behold, I pulled out a baby poop green key card.

“Oh, well I guess that’s one way to do that. Uh, now you can get down to the maintenance room. Remember, you’re looking for a light blue keycard. Thank you so much, and good luck.” The intercom chimed in as I opened the door.

I looked back the camera, giving it a thumbs up along with a patronizing smile.

Inside was a blue stairwell, with more cute pictures.

I looked to the one on my right, “It’s okay to have no friends and be miserable like me.” Said from a dialogue bubble above a picture of Nabnab.

I burst out laughing. Really? That’s what they were going to put in here for the employees. That’s fucking hilarious.

I turned to walk down the stairs, reading Sheriff Toadster's quote this time, “Treat others how you’d like to be treated, with respect!”

“You don’t know that.” I taunted.

Last up was Slow Seliene, “I may be slow, but I’m always quick to help anyone in need.”

“I doubt that, you’ll be slow to save my life.” it was said with a grumble, but I wasn’t sure why. Still, these mascots, apart from the bird, didn’t really do anything to me yet. Did they do something to the children and the other workers? I just wasn’t sure.

At the end of the stairwell was a large room covered with shelving units. It reminded me unpleasantly of the back of the grocery store I used to work at.

I glanced at the wall. There was a sign that caught my attention.

“Work in groups no smaller than two. Carry flashlights at all time, flashlights are in the equipment room. In in direct confrontation with the spider, make as much noise as possible until help arrives.”

“What the fuck? Hey, you on the cameras, you listening? Why the hell is the spider attacking people enough for this sign to be here?” I waved at a security camera near by.

Nothing. Either he turned the volume down, or he was ignoring me. Fantastic.

I scoffed. “Okay, but I better not encounter that thing.”

I wandered through the shelving units, arranged into a zig zag pattern. Possibly to confuse the spider. It was going to confuse the fuck out of me too knowing my luck. There were arrows painted on the ground, but I wasn’t paying attention to those.

Eventually I reached the end of the maze.

“Oh no.” There was a sign telling me which color arrow meant what. I was supposed to pay attention. Apparently blue meant right, and pink meant left. So, pink meant the opposite way the arrow was facing? Was the spider really that stupid to not understand that? Hopefully I didn’t have to find out.

The end of the maintenance room consisted of two levels, with a closed door on each one. There was a colorful wall art of Banbaleena and Jumbo Josh wearing PPE.

How was I going to open this door? And what happened if I did meet the spider?

I started by searching a few shelves and tables near by, maybe the keycard was on one of these.

My heart sank as I searched. Not because I couldn’t find the keycard, that was discouraging, sure, but that wasn’t it. It was the thick strands of stick white strings that did it.

The spider apparently considered this room some kind of nest, with how much there was.

After finding nothing in the immediate area, I decided to check up the stairs, for a better view of the whole room.

On the second floor, was three more wall buttons.

Now why on God’s green Earth, would they make three buttons in an area that was apparently serving as the den of a spider? What if you needed to open the door quickly? What a stupid idea.

Despite the questionable design of it, I used my drone and hit all three buttons in quick succession.

I could hear the door open below me, and eagerly ran down the stairs.

Only to be greeted with a sickly smell. It was like a cross between bile and mold.

Cautiously, I peered into the room I’d just opened.

Three pallet jacks off to one side, along with something in a large cocoon of the webbing from outside.

I had to hold back vomit as I realized the cocoon was the source of the smell. Some sort of yellowish liquid, along with black goop, that I unfortunately realized was once flesh.

I’d only taken a brief forensics class in high school, but the imagery of the purification of bodies stuck with me. This was unmistakably that.

I averted my eyes from what I hoped was an employee’s corpse and not a child. Finally my gas mask had a usage. With my mask in place now, I searched around the floor and table for a keycard.

There wasn’t anything.

God I hoped the smell of this didn’t attract the spider to finish his meal.

With growing horror, I realized that if this corpse really was an employee, they probably had a keycard on them at the time of death.

Stifling a wave of bile forcing its way up my throat, I used the sharp end of my hammer to tear lightly at the webbing. Thank the heavens above that this person had been clutching the card, and I happened to tear near their hand.

I grabbed the card, thanking every deity I could think of that the hand wasn’t putrefied. I turned and ran out of the room. The gas mask didn’t cover my eyes, and the noxious fumes from the corpse were making them sting.

The main room had gone dark while I’d been dealing with my key card search.

I heard scuttling across the ceiling.

“Oh God!” I yelled out, seeing a blue shape emerge from the darkness. The spider was indeed back to finish his meal.

I didn’t even think about it, I ran into the shelving units. I tried to follow the pink, and blue arrow rules, but honestly, I just vaulted myself through when I reached a dead end. I could feel this thing staring at me, and its footsteps were directly above me. The last few steps I ran, I ran backwards, brandishing my hammer, shouting all manner of curse words at this incarnation of Nabnab.

I made it through the door into the stairwell, and frantically smacked the close button. I heard a thump as the creature slammed itself against the doors.

With a hysterical yelp, I bolted up the stairs.

“Whoever you are, I’m going to fucking kill you for making me deal with that!” I yelled at the cameras, sprinting to the security office. I didn’t even know if Nabnab was following me. I didn’t even get a good look at him.

The man behind the cameras still didn’t respond, and in all honestly, I was starting to get pissed at him.

“You better be in here, you piece of shit.” I lashed out, scanning the card.

I shouldn’t have been so mean, after all, if he really was trapped, it wasn’t his fault I had to deal with that thing.

My sympathies were cut short however, as the door opened on an empty room.

“Friend?” I asked cautiously, “I’m sorry I yelled.” Maybe he was hiding behind the door.

There was a desk right in front of me, with a scrap of paper.

“If you finish,” But I didn’t get to finish reading the note. I had started to turn around at the sound of footsteps, but was stopped. Something slammed down onto my head.

Oh God, this guy was a sicko, I was going to get raped, wasn’t I?

I’d crumpled to the floor, but I didn’t feel any hands on me.

Blearily, I looked back towards the door, trying to figure out what was going on.

A red, humanoid creature stood a few steps away from me. His mouth was curved into a smile, with crooked teeth and chapped lips. Party hats crowned his head, with long tassels from each one.

I screwed my eyes shut for a moment, my head hurting so much. “Banban?” I muttered to myself.

The creature in front of me certainly looked like he would be the fucked up version of the main mascot. He had tumorous growths as well, and his hands and feet ended in wicked looking claws.

“Three birds with one stone. I get all of your keycards, I didn’t have to deal with that thing down there, and I get a fantastic specimen.” The creature smiled at me, leaning forward and gesturing with his hands. “And it’s all thanks to you.”

I groaned, trying to push myself up, “You’re fucking welcome, asshat.” was all I managed to spew out at him.

The creature leaned down further, getting closer to me.

With a delicate, but firm hand, he pushed my shoulder down, preventing me from getting up. “You’ll be fine. I didn’t hit you that hard. Well, maybe I did actually.” He titled his head slightly to the left.

“Either way, it’s best if you take a little nap during our surgery, wouldn’t want you to be in too much pain.” His claw pressed under my chin, not enough to draw blood, but the force made my head look up, slightly.
The last thing I saw before I blacked out was the creature’s eyes staring back into mine. There was something oddly familiar about his gaze.

Chapter Text

With a jolt, I sat straight up.

And immediately regretted it.

My ribcage hurt like hell. And not just from the bruise I’d endured earlier. This was something else.

Frantically I pulled up my shirt to see what was going on.

There was a single, long scar across my abdomen. It had been sealed with medical glue, so at least whoever did this to me was competent.

Did I just get my organs stolen to be sold on the black market? Did the monster want to make some extra cash?

One of my last panicked thoughts came back to me, and I frantically checked my lower area. No sign of trauma, so thankfully that thing had had no sexual intent.

But why the hell did Banban want my organs?

I pulled myself up from the mat on the floor I’d been laid onto.

Was this dude the “Case six” mentioned in that one note? Is that how he knew how to preform a surgery on me, because his genetic donor was a doctor of some sort?

Is this how they got the genetic material for whatever experiments they were conducting here?

“God this day just keeps getting better and better.” I groaned, pulling my shirt back down. Still dizzy, I looked around the room. It was mostly dark, thank God for my eyes. I was pretty sure there was a few buttons on the walls, but right now my vision was so blurry I couldn't make out shit for certain.

I shook my head, trying to clear my vision.

All that did was summon a huge wave of nausea. I leaned over myself, gasping. After a moment, the bile rose up my throat and brought was little I’d eaten in the last few hours with it.

My stomach acid landed on the floor with a wet splat, bringing an acrid smell with it. My eyes watered.

I felt so shaky.

I pushed myself away from the puddle of vomit, and sat back down again, breathing deeply.

“God, why?” I asked to the ceiling.

Who knows how long later, when I’d finally stopped crying from the pain, I managed to stand up again. This time the room was much clearer.

It was filled with boxes and shelves.

On one of the shelves was a drone, a remote, and a hammer.

So Banban was letting me keep this things, but why?

I didn't care.

I just wanted to get out of here with Aaron.

Hitting the buttons on the wall is a lot harder when you’re dizzy from both low blood sugar, and nausea. But eventually I managed it.

A worker lift descended from above, and I was able to step onto it. Dizzily, I pressed the button, and sent myself back up to where it had come from.

The lift stopped at a hallway, painted with with a green-orange gradient. White trees and hot air balloons decorated the walls.

“See, you’ve got these really nice trees, and you’re trying to tell me these are supposed to be birds?” I looked at the mural. “Those are squiggly Ms.”

Down the hallway, appeared to be, another hallway. Oh joy.

“Do not cross, it will trick you.” I read off the wall, it was written in squiggly handwriting.

I looked over to my left, confused on what it was referring to.

Apparently it was referring to a giant cyan monkey creature trapped in a room at the end of the hall. I walked up closer, looking at its face, and an arm shot out of the doorway. His eye was staring at me through the window.

“Get it buddy!” I yelled, commanding my drone towards the creature.

As soon as I did, I was overcome by another wave of sick.

I stumbled back, once again spilling what little contents of my stomach I had onto the floor. God, there had better be something to eat in this goddamn hell that hasn’t gone moldy yet.

Once I was done, I looked over. My drone hadn’t even reached the eyeball.

I sighed. That probably wasn’t going to do anything, anyway.

“Okay, what the hell am I supposed to do here?” I put my hands on my hips. At least I still had my hammer. “Hey, asshat who cut me open. You still watching me on the cams?” I turned towards the security cameras.

Nothing.

But honestly, I wasn’t sure if he was watching and just choosing to remain silent. For all I knew, that’s what he was doing.

With a deep sigh, I started wandering. I busted open a few doors with my hammer, but all that was inside were operating rooms, and some corpses of smaller versions of the monkey creature. In a range of hues.

Bizarrely, they didn’t seem to be decaying, or anything. The bodies looked like they’d just, stopped working. It was hard to determine if they’d even had life at all to begin with.

One was missing an eye ball, but the socket didn’t seem to lead to bones or anything, just a hole in the creature’s head.

There was also a full on eighteenth century cannon in the hallway, behind a small barricade of desks. Because why the fuck not? Why wouldn’t there be a cannon in this godforsaken place?

The hallway circled back around, and the giant monkey’s hand still blocked the hallway. I managed to break into the last room, which was in the middle of the halls.

There was a whiteboard across the door, with a few stools arranged around it. Left on one of the stools was a syringe.

Why?

On the wall was a mural of the various colored monkeys, along with an icon of a green droplet. “Collect the Givanium to finish your shift.” was written below.

That name sounded vaguely familiar. I think I’d read it in the note earlier.

With a sigh, I tapped the syringe, ready to steal whatever blood stand in this stupid shit was from these corpses.

Taking each sample, and injecting it into the receptacle took far longer than I wanted, thanks to frequent puke breaks.

How was I going to get the last of the ooze from that really big one?

Did I just need to hit him with my drone to let me stab him?

That was my best guess, so I sent the drone at his eye ball again. This time it hit, and I quickly drew the “blood” from this creature’s system.

At last the receptacle was filled, and the closet opened.

That’s all I get? I could’ve smashed that with my hammer. I growled as I snatched my prize. A rocket. What the fuck?

I guess I could launch this at the door to leave this place.

Then I could go pummel Banban faster.

But I didn’t have a way to light it.

Maybe I could use that stupid cannon with this? The cannon was pointed at the cyan creature. I guess I could try shooting it, see what happened?

The cannon did have a box of matches next to it. Maybe I could burn this whole place down and end everyone’s suffering collectively. That’d be great.

I inserted the firework, and lit the fuse. I backed up, just in case, not wanting to get killed by shrapnel.

After a few seconds, it launched at the creature across from me.

The cry of pain the monkey let out was ear piercing. It shook the ground as whatever this thing was collapsed. With another wail, it crawled away, into the darkness of the room.

Cautiously, I peered into the room. The thing seemed to be gone. There was a keycard on the floor.

It was red? Fucking red! I didn’t need red! I needed pink!

Fine, fine, I guess I’ll keep this one too. Just in case.

Just past the room the cyan monkey had vacated, was another locked room. I smashed my way in again, and into the room’s closet. There was the pink keycard.

My hands tensed, I was ready to attack anything I encountered with my hammer. This was getting ridiculous. Finally, with the pink keycard, I opened the door, and was greeted with the abyss area I started in, with the moving platform bridge.

Great.

The door to the Comms Sector was still open.

Sneering, I used my new pink keycard to move the bridge over. It was time to pay Banban a visit.

Let’s see how he liked being hit over the head with a hammer.

I cautiously snuck into the main area of the Comms Sector, holding my hammer at the ready. I wasn’t sure where Banban was going to be, but I figured he might still be here.

I didn’t even bother to try and open the security office this time, since I knew he wouldn’t be there.

Instead, I suspected he was hiding in the red door across from it.

And I’d just found a red key card.

Prepping for a fight, I scanned the card, and ran, screaming into the now open room.

There was no one here either.

“Show yourself you fucker!” I dropped down, checking under the desk for anywhere he could be hiding.

As I dropped, I noticed the nameplate on the desk.

Dr. Uthman Adam, my old friend again. What the hell was he doing here?

Two whiteboards on opposite sides of the room were the only wall decorations. One whiteboard had a chart, labeling some of the mascots as a check mark, some an x, and some as Round Fifty Six, whatever that meant.

I noticed Banban and Opila were in the checkmark section, presumably meaning they were finished, or approved. I don’t know what my old friend was thinking, but neither of those things are ready to be anything. I mean, unless he wanted to create potential super predators. In which case, Nabnab should’ve been on that side of the board too.

As it was, Nabnab was on the other side, the X side. Yeah, I would’ve rejected him too. I didn’t even get to see him, but yeah. He’s not acceptable.

The other board had a diagram of some sort of anatomy. The outlines looked like Banban, and the little monkey things, I think his name was Fiddles. I really was not sure what was being labeled.

There were three pieces of papers I shoved into my pocket, I figured I’d read them some time later. They definitely weren’t in my friend’s handwriting. He had a very distinct way of writing, with every letter being a capital except his E’s.
Maybe Banban was in the Testing Sector now.

I mean, he did do some sort of surgery on me, so maybe he was testing whatever he stole from me. Which organ did he even take? I wasn’t dying yet, so it couldn’t have been a particularly important one.

Or maybe my vomiting was the early stages of organ failure.

Good job me, I’ve given myself anxiety.

Picturing myself potentially falling to the ground, dying a painful death somewhere in the hellscape while my son suffered elsewhere motivated me to run towards the Testing Sector.

That, and the feeling of eyes watching me, despite there being nothing I could see. I caught a brief glimpse, that looked like some kind of pale face in the abyss, which could be real, but for all I knew, I was going crazy like the dude in the note.

The sector’s door opened into a green room, with stairs leading to a second floor. Up is good at least. There was even a small reception desk, this one sans cute ramen sticky notes, and a couple wall buttons.

There was another case study summary on the desk.

“‘After recent genetic modifications that were applied to Case Ten, significant behavioral changes have been observed. Aggression towards certain demographics has been completely replaced with protective and motherly behavior. Said demographics include individuals of small stature, high pitched voices, and those with childlike attributes. Individuals that do not fall into said demographics,’ Yeah, yeah, aggression, whatever. I’ve seen that. ‘Oddly said demographics are almost exclusively human, with the exceptions of Cases Ten A-F.’ She has children. Great, I hope they’re not as aggressive as her. ‘Case is not ready for presentation.’ Who are you presenting to?” Reading the note didn’t provide any more answers for me. And now I was more confused.

So did Opila attack the children, or was she cool?

I certainly didn’t fall into those categories, I was always pretty tall, and my voice is average. So it made sense why she would attack me, but would she attack the kids?

And where were her kids? Is that why she was so aggressive towards me, or is she just a bitch all the time?

Shaking my head, I decided to continue on, activating the buttons.

I had to finalize the request for the door to open at the secretary desk, and then I could walk up the stairs.

At the top left of the balcony area, there were three barrels of something labeled with a GV, and a green droplet. What was this stuff? Is this the same stuff I sucked out of those monkey things?

Nevermind, it didn’t ultimately matter at the moment, so I continued through the door.

“Well this looks deadly!” I walked into the new hallway, it was painted in garish colorful wavy stripes. Glad they didn’t use red, because we all know that’s only perfect for a children’s hospital.

My footsteps echoed as I proceeded down the long hallway. God this thing was unreasonably long. Doors were spaced decently far apart too, so the rooms had to be fairly big.

Not that I could get into any of them since our resident asshat had stolen my keycards. I used to have both an orange, and a light blue, but not anymore! Thank you Banban!

For good measure, I located the nearest security camera and flipped it my middle finger. If he was still watching, that should convey my feelings to him.

By the time I’d reached the end of the hallway, I was feeling a tad ill again. Shamefully, I stood in the corner, hunched over. I wasn’t able to get anything up this time, but boy did it still feel horrid.

At least it was getting better in that regard.

After my breathing steadied again, I surveyed the end of the hall. There was a wall button over this door, and no keycard reader. Seemed like a good way to go.

Surely there was another keycard somewhere in there, since employees seemed to generate them as they walked like Pigpen from the Peanuts. Either that, or some of the mascots other than Nabnab had developed a taste for human flesh and ate the corpses and left the cards.

Man, that’d be fun if that was the answer.

I scanned my drone, and the door opened to a dark room.

The orange stripe on the floor continued into the darkness, leading up to a pair of unfortunately familiar eyes.

That couldn’t be the bird, right? It had to be something else with a scary set of eyes too, right? I mean, it’s possible more than one of these monstrosities were made like that.

I took a few steps into the room, half crouching, in hesitation.

The source of the eyes screeched at me.

Yeah, it was the fucking bird.

I spun on my heels and ran out of the room.

A tall white creature, similar in appearance to Banban was walking out of a door, about midway down the hallway.

She turned her head, looking up and down the hallway.

“Quick! In here!” The creature gave me a big smile, gesturing for me to follow her back into the door she came from.

Fine with me, that was away from Opila, who seemed like she really wanted to impale me on her beak.

I turned, skidding a little, and scrambled into the doorway.

It shut behind me.

Chapter Text

The lights flicked on in the room.

I finally got a good look at the creature who had lead me here. When I wasn’t focused on running from a bird, it was very clearly Banbaleena.

Her fur was a little more matted than Banban’s had been, and her slightly yellowing horns were uncovered, although decorated with her regular pink bow. Banbaleena’s lips were also chapped, but had a generous coat of pink lipstick spread over them, presumably in an effort to make herself look nicer. The tumors on her body looked more like cysts, with their yellowish white coloration.

Banbaleena’s eyes stared at me, darkness with a ring of white like Opila. Again, pink eyeshadow had been applied, and she had what looked like mascara tracks down her cheeks, although she’d spent the last hour crying.

“I hate you,” I muttered to myself, making a small groan.

When the creatures weren’t leaning over me, it was a lot easier to make a height comparison. I was roughly eye level with her chest.

I looked around the room, cautiously approaching. Three tables sat angled around a whiteboard affixed to the wall. Each table had a set of objects sat in the chairs around it.

One had basket balls with sunglasses placed on them, one had watering cans, and one had bowling pins.

Each chair was labeled with marker on the table in front of it, along with cassette players for each one.

“REALLY smart kid” I read off one quietly as I approached. “What the fuck?”

I looked back up at the monster at the front of the makeshift classroom.

“Everyone, I want you to meet our newest student!” Banbaleena gestured to me, “You’re late to class. I’ll let it slide today, since you’re new, but be late again, and I’ll rip you to pieces.” She gave me a smile.

I nodded.

“You’re a new and unpopular student, so you’ll have to sit with the ‘unpopular’ table in the middle. Now sit so we can begin.” the creature clasped her clawed hands together.

I craned my head, was the unpopular table this one with watering cans? I looked over to the basket balls, they had sunglasses, so not unpopular?

“Sit.” Banbaleena’s voice was firmer now.

“This one?” I pointed to the watering can table, unsure as to how I should proceed. This woman was insane.

Did she really think these random objects were her students?

Banbaleena nodded at me, and I took a seat with the cans. My knees were up by my chest, since these were child sized furniture items.

“Okay class! The first lesson of the day is math!” She wrote ‘MATH’ in all caps on the board. “Over the course of this semester, how to annihilate others, how to safely extract the human brain for eating, and, yes?”

I had my hand sticking up, “Um, miss, what does this have to do with math?”

She smiled, “Oh, I think I made a mistake, those were for lesson four of today. Silly me. For math, you’ll learn how to add, subtract, multiply, divide, and so much more! I am so excited!”

Banbaleena turned towards the whiteboard, writing stuff out. “Before we start, let's revise some of the basics. What is six billion, eight hundred seventy four million, one hundred twenty three thousand, six hundred and twelve, plus nine hundred eighty one million, nine hundred thirty nine thousand, nine hundred and twelve?”

I scrambled to make the math easier for myself. What the fuck?

“Really smart kid?” Banbaleena asked expectantly.

I looked around, there was no one else here but me. I gave her a shrug.

Banbaleena motioned to the seat to my right, labeled as the ‘REALLY’ smart kid.

I nodded slowly, and pushed the button on the cassette player.

“Seven billion, eight hundred fifty six million, sixty three thousand, five hundred and twenty four.” A recording of Banbaleena’s voice played back.

She was recording herself answering her questions, so she could pretend to teach a lesson? That’s pretty fucked up, and kind of pathetic. None of the other monsters here would be willing to play pretend with her?

“Correct! You kids are really paying attention today!” Her smile returned, and she erased what she’d written on the board. “Next question is one that I wrote myself. What is two plus two?”

I stuck my hand up.

“Smart kid?” Banbaleena asked.

I looked down before I spoke, my spot was labeled as weird kid. I sighed, and pushed the button on the cassette to my left.

“Four.” Her voice, slightly deeper now, played through the cassette.

This roleplay was bizarre. I didn’t want to try to speak out of turn, since I wasn’t sure what she was going to do to me. Every other creature here had harmed or tried to harm me at some point after all.

“Correct! Wow, I thought everyone would get it wrong. Alright, last question before lunch break.” She erased her writing again, “What is misery plus disappointment?”

I didn’t even wait for her to ask, I knew it had to be the “dramatic kid” tape across from me.

“My life.” A flat version of her voice recited.

Banbaleena smiled at me this time, apparently happy I was getting this. “Correct! Unfortunately that’s all the time we have for math today. Go to your lunch break, and we’ll start the next lesson when you get back.”

I stood up, and tried to walk towards her.

“The playground is that way.” Banbaleena pointed to an area behind us.

I nodded, “Yeah, uh, I just have a few questions. I’m–”

“All questions can wait until after the school day ends. Go enjoy your lunch.” She cut me off, shooing me away with her hands.

She only had two fingers, and a thumb. Interesting choice for her creators.

“Go.” She nodded at me.

Fine, I guess I’m leaving.

There was another indoor playground behind this classroom. It’s attractions included a raised platform with three slides, and various objects representing the “students” scattered around.

And two closet doors.

I ran towards them, and busted open the first one with my hammer again. I hoped miss teacher wasn’t offended by all the noise I was making. I was just using my lunch break productively. Since there wasn’t any fucking food down here.

I got through the door just as a familiar chime sounded.

“Attention everyone,” Banban spoke, “This announcement concludes your lunch break. Please return to your classes.”

Inside the closet was a pair of sunglasses. I grabbed them while asshat kept speaking.

“Also teachers, please keep in mind that we are on the lookout for a very very naughty student, believed to be accompanied by a drone. If you catch them, call Principal Banban’s office immediately.”

“Asshat. You’re still out there, I knew it. What did you want with my organs?” I hissed at the speaker on the wall. No idea if he could hear me or not, but it made me feel better.

I let out a snort, and turned to go back to the weird roleplay game. I’d placed the sunglasses on my head, since it would be too dark to wear them inside.

“Hey, you didn’t see that person they were talking about, did you?” Banbaleena tilted her head at me as I reentered her classroom. “Oh, what am I saying? You’ve become one of the cool kids, they don’t make friends with gross unpopular kids like that. Go ahead and take your new seat at the cool kids table where you belong.”

I gave her a thumbs up and toothy smile.

This seat was labeled as “Sealife Lover.”

Well, I am a big fan of seafood.

Banbaleena turned back towards the board, again writing something. “Okay kids, the next lesson is science.”

She really needed to spice up her teaching method, if these were real kids, they’d be bored out of their minds.

“Like we did for math, since this is the first lesson of the semester, it will only be a review lesson. But let’s take a moment to review our classroom rules first. No eating, no drinking, no talking out of turn, no breathing, no moving, and no washroom breaks. And please no questions until the end of class.” Her eyes fell on me.

I gave her a slight shrug.

I had to get out of here. Who knew how long her lessons would go on for. I needed to find Aaron. But if I just got up and left, who knew what she was going to do to me.

“I will have to punish misbehavior very severely. But, let’s get back to the review.” Banbaleena clasped her hands together. “How hot is the sun?”

I looked over my table. Sealife lover wouldn’t know that. Loud kid maybe? It seemed like Banbaleena was waiting for me to figure it out. None of these were good options.

Hesitantly, I pushed the “Popular kid” button.

“Nothing’s as hot as me!” A snotty sounding version of Banbaleena’s voice played back.

I looked over at her, hoping it was correct.

Banbaleena motioned like she was laughing, but the sound that came out was closer to choking.

“I’ll allow it, but only because it made me laugh, and you’re a cool kid.” She titled her head, talking to the basket ball.

The spider was bad, but at least I could just run from him. This one thought she was being reasonable. This was a scene straight up pulled from a horror movie, wasn’t it? Did she really think these things were alive, or was she so far into her delusions that she didn’t care?

“Next question, how many hearts does an octopus have?”

I smiled, pressing my button.

“Stinger Flynn!” The tape recorder shouted excitedly.

My smile fell, that couldn’t be right.

“Correct!” Banbaleena reflexively responded, apparently I’d hit the right button, but the answer was unsatisfactory, “Well, actually it’s half right. Since Stinger Flynn is close to an octopus. He’s a jellyfish. But I’ll allow it, since you are a cool kid.” She gave me a wink.

Why did that feel so nice? Did I actually like her praising me? What is wrong with me?

She continued on, “Normal octopi have three hearts, we humans have one, and Stinger Flynn has, uh, I’m not actually sure. But let’s move on.”

I raised my hand.

“No questions.” She shook her head.

“Actually it’s more of a comment.” I protested.

“Fine.” Her voice was harsh.

“Jelly fish don’t have any hearts.” I offered. “So, Stinger Flynn wouldn’t have any.”

Banbaleena shook her head. “Thank you very much, but please refrain from additional comments.”

I made a hrumph noise, and folded my arms. I was just trying to be helpful.

“Next question, we have five senses. Sight, smell, taste, touch, and?” She continued with her lesson.

I rolled my eyes and pushed the “Loud kid” button in front of me. It had to be that one, it was supposed to be loud.

And indeed it was, I was rewarded with a recording of Banbaleena screaming.

“Oh! You just made me use my fifth sense. Close enough, I’ll allow it.” She was back to smiling, this time looking at me, despite it not being ‘my’ turn. “Unfortunately that’s all the time we have for science today. Go to your second break, and we’ll start the next lesson when you get back.”

I nodded, this time heading straight to the playground. She wasn’t going to talk to me anyway.

Nothing had changed in the playground.

Time to attack the second closet door before Banban ruined my life further.

There was a red sweat band inside. I put it over my head, I guess this was meant to make me look like a bowling pin? Like the red stripe? No idea.

Guess I’ll be a cool, mean kid now.

Right on cue, the breaks were at least consistently short, Banban’s announcement came on, telling everyone to return to their classes.

“Oh wow! You’re moving right on up!” Banbaleena exclaimed, seeing me walk back into the room. “First you were unpopular, yuck, then you made friends with the cool kids, and now you’re one of the mean kids. Great job! Go ahead and sit at this table,” She gestured to the one closest to her.

“Uh, yeah,” I took the seat. Apparently I was playing the role of “Pain Giver”

“Okay kids, the next lesson is health and kindness. Like we did for math and science, it will only be a review lesson.” She turned and wrote on the board again.

I had to get out of here. I couldn’t keep going on with this. I needed to get to Aaron.

I took a deep breath, bracing myself for whatever was about to happen, and stood up.

“Excuse me, sit back down.” Banbaleena turned back towards me.

“Look mam,” I shook my head, “I’m looking for my own kid. I can’t stay here.”

Banbaleena gave me a glare. “Sit down, or I’m going to have to punish you. Severely.”

I pushed my chair away, and took a step. “I’m really sorry mam, but I have to find my son.”

She moved shockingly fast. In an instant she was with me, one of her clawed hands at my throat.

“You’ve been a bad student.” She hissed at me, pressing hard into my throat. Her other claw was poised to rip off my cheek.

“Ooh.” I muttered to myself, realizing that I was feeling things, “Wow, what I way to find out I have a punishment kink.”

She apparently heard me and dropped me.

Banbaleena’s face was twisted in disgust. “Excuse me?”

“Look, we all have something.” I shrugged at her. In any other context, realizing that I’m both a bit of a monster fucker, and a bit into punishment would be fine. But here I was just as horrified as her.

She shook her head at me. “Get out of my class. You’re disgusting.”

I nodded, this was honestly the best outcome.

A door behind me on the wall opened. It wasn’t the one to the hallway, which was fine, since Opila was probably still roaming.

I walked through it, taking one last glance behind me.

Banbaleena was staring at her hand, I swear I could see tears sparkling at the corners of her eyes.

Chapter Text

Hey guys, I’d like to say thank you guys for your support on this silly little fic of mine I decided to post. Unfortunately, I will be discontinuing it.

The old ‘tism made me hyperfixate on Banban, but I also thought it was a brilliant piece of satire on the mascot horror genre as a whole. Unfortunately the Euphoric Brothers’ other games made me realize that no, it’s not a satire (for the most part), they’re just that jank in their game/character design.

Having said that, it will always hold a special place in my heart regardless of what I think the brothers’ other works show.

I’ll be orphaning this work, so that you guys can continue it if you guys want. (: I’ve been trying to make myself return to it for a while, but haven’t found the motivation, but I don’t want it to die.

My original plan for the rest of the story was to go up through chapter 4, then go off on my own trajectory. Our Main Character was going to team up with Banban who believes that he is Adam Uthman. They were going to find her son together, and eventually our MC was going to slowly fall in love with Banban, since the real Uthman was the father of her child, and she realizes that Banban is actually what she liked about her friend all those years ago. Eventually angsty shit that I never actually planned out would happen and MC and her son would escape, but Banban and other friends they made along the way would all die. To what, idk, I didn’t get that far.

So having given you what my original prompt was, if you are interested, feel free to take this story off my hands and continue it!

Again, thank you guys all for all the support for my very first posted fic!

I might do some more fics for other hyperfixations in the future, I’ve been really into Poppy Playtime lately and want to write some platonic Doey and player stuff. (I really just want to give the guy a hug T_T)