After wandering through Playcare, Yazmina was assigned to supervise the children, ensuring they settled down for the night.

With Doctor Greyber still occupied, she would also be responsible for appointing the next day's on-duty doctor.

In Playcare, the presence of both staff and a head supervisor was essential-any unforeseen incidents or urgent concerns regarding the children needed immediate attention.

Having the doctor on-site prevented the inconvenience of traveling back and forth via the cable car.

The large size of Playcare was overwhelming. Yazmina hadn't expected it to be this vast-unlike in the game, where she could simply jump across locations in seconds.

Here, every step felt heavier, exhaustion creeping up on her.

All she wanted now was to collapse onto her bed and drift back into her much-needed beauty sleep.

As she finally made her way to her quarters, the dim glow of the overhead lights cast long shadows along the hall. The quiet hum of machinery and the occasional murmur of the night shift staff were the only sounds accompanying her.

Just as she reached for the door handle, her communicator buzzed. A message.

She groaned.

Reluctantly, she glanced at the screen. The message was brief but urgent.

"Report to the main office. Now."

Yazmina let out a sigh, her plans for sleep slipping further away. With weary steps, she turned back down the hall, wondering what new responsibility awaited her this time.

Dragging her feet, Yazmina made her way to the main office, her mind already conjuring worst-case scenarios. Maybe a child had fallen ill. Maybe Doctor Greyber finally had time to address whatever "matter" had been keeping her busy. Or maybe-just maybe-someone had made the mistake of assuming she had the energy left to deal with another crisis.

As she reached the office, the automatic doors slid open with a soft hiss.

Inside, the head supervisor, a stern-looking man, Leith Pierre was seated behind a sleek metal desk. A dim blue light illuminated the room, casting eerie shadows across the walls.

"You took your time," Leith Pierre remarked, barely looking up from his tablet.

Yazmina stifled a groan. "I wasn't exactly expecting a midnight summons," she muttered, stepping inside. "What's going on?"

Pierre finally lifted his gaze, eyes sharp with something unreadable. "A child is missing."

The words sent a jolt of energy through Yazmina's body, exhaustion instantly forgotten. "What? How?"

"One of the newer arrivals. A boy named Theodore Grambell. He was accounted for during evening check-in, but when the night staff did their rounds, his bed was empty. Security is reviewing the footage now."

Yazmina's heart pounded. "You think he wandered off?"

"We don't know yet," Pierre admitted. "But we need to find him before morning. If a word gets out that Playcare lost a child under our watch..." He trailed off, the implication was clear but there's another meaning behind his words.

Yazmina straightened, her fatigue replaced by a growing sense of urgency. "Where do you need me?"

Leith Pierre handed her a small wrist device, a personal tracker connected to Playcare's security network. "You'll be part of the search team. Start in the lower sectors-storage rooms, maintenance tunnels, anywhere a child might hide."

Yazmina nodded, securing the device on her wrist. The thought of crawling through dimly lit hallways at this hour wasn't appealing, but she didn't have a choice.

A child's safety was on the line.

Turning on her tracker, she took a deep breath and stepped back into the corridor. The night had just begun.

Yazmina tightened the strap of her wrist tracker and stepped into the dimly lit corridor, her exhaustion now replaced with a mix of concern and determination.

A missing child in Playcare was bad-very bad.

The facility was massive, with winding halls, hidden maintenance tunnels, and locked sectors that even some staff didn't have full clearance to enter.

She tapped the tracker's interface, bringing up a basic map of the lower sectors. The blinking red marker labeled Theodore showed his last recorded location.

"The sleeping quarters. But where had he gone from there?" she murmured.

She knew about the game but it doesn't provide the exact details of what happened to the kids so she has to find out.

She pressed the comm button. "Security, any luck on the footage?"

A crackle, then a voice came through. "Still reviewing. Last sighting shows him leaving his bed around 11:42 PM, but then he disappears off-camera. No recorded exits from the main hallway."

Yazmina concluded "So, either the cameras glitched, or he found a blind spot."

"Or something else found him," the guard muttered, his voice barely above a whisper.

She knew something but she still set off toward the lower levels of Playcare. The air grew colder as she descended, the usual hum of Playcare's life-support systems quieter down here.

Most of these rooms were storage areas, filled with spare bedding, unused play equipment, and stacks of supplies waiting to be sorted.

Her footsteps echoed as she walked, the tracker's screen flickering slightly.

The signal was weaker down here.

She clicked her communicator again. "I'm in the lower sector. If he's here, I'll find him."

No response.

Playcare's comms were stable almost everywhere. The only places with dead zones were-

"A noise." she heard.

Soft. Barely there. A scuffle against the floor, like small feet moving quickly.

"Theodore?" Yazmina called out, her voice steady but gentle. "It's okay, kid. You're not in trouble. Just come out, and we'll get you back to bed."

Silence.

Then-

A whisper.

Faint. Too faint to make out the words.

Yazmina's breath hitched.

That wasn't Theodore's voice.

She turned slowly, scanning the shadows. The dim emergency lights flickered overhead.

Then, just at the edge of her vision, something moved.

Something's watching.

Something evil and eerie.

Just as the unseen presence inched closer, a voice cut through the silence.

"Doctor Yazmina?!"

Theodore's small figure emerged from the dimly lit hallway, his wide eyes reflecting unease.

A flicker of recognition passed through her. He was the same child who handed her a flower not long ago.

"Theo? What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice softer than she intended.

"I-I got lost," he stammered, clutching the hem of her coat before wrapping his arms tightly around her waist. "I can't find my way out."

She knew he was lying. She could see it in his eyes, hear it in the unsteady rhythm of his breath. But she didn't press further. It didn't matter how he got here-she had known this moment would come.

No matter what she did, the game would follow its course. And Theo...

Theo would always be led by HIM.

Taking a slow breath, she crouched down and embraced him. "It's okay. Let's get you back to bed-it's been a long day."

She lifted him effortlessly and carried him upstairs. But as she ascended, that heavy, suffocating sensation never left her.

Eyes-cold, calculating, patient-followed her every step.

And somewhere in the darkness, HE was watching.

(Theo's image at the top 🔝😍)