Play@YSDC

The room is empty but for a long, metal cord that clacks against the wall occasionally.

Show,sorry about that. Yes, it is Kathy the Kitty then. You have all four.

The room is empty but for a long, metal cord that clacks against the wall occasionally and a crowbar propped up against the outer wall near a failed attempt to pry open one of the windows.

Show,sorry about that. Yes, it is Kathy the Kitty then. You have all four.

Perfect! thinks Murray, snatching up the crowbar in his left hand. Just what I needed, and in the last place I looked too! Of course, there's no reason to keep looking once I've found it, but I was out of places to explore without taking the stairs to another floor. Now I can get into the ICU. He retraces his steps to the padlocked door and uses the crowbar to try to pry off the lock.

It takes a bit of time but soon enough the padlock is lying broken on the floor and the door is easily opened.

Too bad I had to break the lock, thinks Murray. If I'd managed to pick it, I could have taken it with me, and it might have been useful later. Oh well. He scoops up the stuffed animals, two under each arm, and makes his way back to the ICU door. He sets the animals down and then gets to work using the crowbar to lever open the door.

Show,I'd make you roll but you're not on a time limit.

The wooden planks come away after some struggling with the crowbar, the nails slowly popping out one by one until finally Murray finds his way clear. Checking the door handle he finds it unlocked.

Murray holds his gun in one hand and cautiously opens the door slightly to peer inside.

The door to the ICU is somewhat dented and splintered (from the outside) and it creaks loudly on its hinges when he starts to pull it open a few inches. The beam of his flashlight stabs through the gap, revealing the edge of a bed with a wide variety of now silent machinery sitting beside it. The saline drip seems filled with something blotchy and nasty, like some aborted chicken foetus floats within the plastic bag. He can't see the rest of the room without opening the door but he can vaguely make out a shape lying beneath the sheet and the edges of a few letters carved into the wall.

Creaking the door open wider he sees, No one likes to be lonely is carved into the wall above the beds in jagged lines.

There are three beds in the I.C.U., each surrounded by machinery, one surrounded by the ward curtain that wraps around the bed on its little rusted rails. Two of the beds have child-sized mannequins dressed in pyjamas lying beneath the sheets, each with their left arm out-stretched as though hugging something, and each has a Get Well Card on the bedside cabinet. The third bed seems to have a slight glow coming from behind the curtain and he can dimly make out the silhouette of another figure standing over that bed, oh so still, as though waiting a silent vigil forever more.

Murray pushes the door open the rest of the way, gathers up the stuffed animals, and steps inside. He reads the Get Well cards by each bed, hoping that will give him a clue as to which animal goes with which child. Three beds, but four animals, he thinks. Hmm...

A store mannequin of a woman dressed in smart casual business attire stands over a bed that contains another little girl mannequin that has her left arm stretched out as though around some sort of teddy or other toy. The mannequin woman seems to be clutching something in one of her hands, and her other arm is crooked as though with a space to hold something. The Get Well card beside the girl's bed is the only thing on the bedside cabinet but for three white flowers. There's no sign of what is causing that glow - it just seems like some sort of vague ambient light.

We went down to feed them every day,
And in the park you had your play,
Fed them bread on Saturday,
Chased them all along the way,
Now they're here and sweetly see your wonderful little gift from me.

The other two mannequins' cards also have poems.

A little boy whose lying on two big pillows has a card that states:

I'm so sorry you're so sick but that's okay,
I got your favourite huggy to play with today,
It's not scary like it looks,
It sits well with the cooks,
And we can go back there for more in May!

A little girl mannequin whose fake hair is in pigtails also has a card:

You've been asking for one for every Christmas,
Get better and I'll hire a home for her, little miss,
It's loyal, little miss,
And kind, little miss,
And we'll find a place to keep it, little miss!

Well, the first one's easy enough, thinks Murray. The only one of these critters that gets fed in a park is a duck. He places the stuffed Dawn the Duck in the left arm of the girl mannequin in the first bed.

There's no response.

Perhaps by the strange logic of this town there'll be no response unless all are placed.

Hmm, thinks Murray. The second one's a bit harder. I know the third one has to be the cat, as that's the only female animal left. That leaves the rabbit and the horse. Neither of them looks particularly scary, but after you've been facing down grotesque abominations I guess you get a little bit jaded. The only one that would sit well with the cooks would be the rabbit. Cooks only use horse meat when they can't get anything good. And rabbits reproduce like...well, rabbits, so that would explain being able to go back for more. He goes over to the second bed and places Robbie the Rabbit in the boy mannequin's arm. "Here you go, kid," he says. "Somebunny loves you." Then he heads to the third bed and puts Kathy the Kitty in the pigtailed girl's left arm. "And here's one for you." He turns his attention to the woman. "And you must get the horsey, since it's the only one left." He puts Huey the Horse in her open arm.

An ear piercing scream tears through the room and the woman's skin seems to waver like a burning candle, skin bubbling and splitting to reveal bloody tear stains down her cheeks. Perhaps that was the wrong combination.... If so, he has little time to get it right. He can hear handprints beginning to beat against the wooden door although thankfully they haven't yet tried the door.

Certain that he was right about the duck and the cat, Murray snatches the horse back, runs over to the second bed, switches it out for the rabbit, then darts back and puts the rabbit in the woman's arm.

The melting wax continues to bubble and the ambient glow in the room slowly changes to read. He doesn't have much longer to choose the right combinations....

Murray suddenly realizes his error.