And Charlie woke to a scream.
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Mialee’s scream.
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Her daughter’s scream.
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Her eyes shot open, taking in her surroundings. Everybody had noticed, she was not the only one awake. “Did you guys hear that…?” Martin asked, looking just as panicked, toward Charlie.
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Although Charlie refused to believe it was Mialee’s voice, she had heard, and there was no point in denial. She descended unsteadily from her podium, the other’s charging stations to her right and the diamond fountain’s mechanism to her left. She walked over to Mialee’s, each step getting her closer and closer to what was Mialee’s fate. Right there, in between Martin’s and Reliviana’s podium, was Mialee’s. And though denial screamed otherwise, she was truly
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Gone.
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Not a single hint of a person was there. Not a single warning, not a single hint as to where she was. Mialee was gone.
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Martin and Reliviana stood there, staring at the point where Mialee should have been, with distress on their faces. Where was their daughter? Their niece? Their good friend? Why did this happen? What- what was going on?
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All those thoughts ran through the inhabitants' heads, no end in sight. Then, abruptly, they ceased to exist, when another hint of Mialee was heard. Another scream of Mialee’s was heard.
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“Get Away From Me!”
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Mialee’s voice fluctuated at the beginning of each word, like when she was crying, and her voicebox refused her screaming. This time, however, it seemed like her voice box was scared too, oddly enough.
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Charlie’s head snapped to the double doors at the end of the hall, the fountain’s mechanisms gleaming to the right of it. “...Alicia? Could you follow me please?” The blocky sibling hopped off her podium and did as told, following Charlie toward the door, nothing but their footsteps being heard. The others looked after them as they walked toward the lower facility doors, Charlie being the one to open them.
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They entered, Alicia lagging slightly behind, nervous herself. The hall, long with seemingly no end, had doors that led to rooms that contained who knows what, all of the random things the companies that owned The Village would do when they still cared.
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Charlie’s heels clicked down the hall, noticing nothing until door fifty nine. It was left ajar, open. Charlie took a look inside it, her database telling her there was something supposed to be here, but reality whispered otherwise. There was a lone light, flickering above, and a splatter of oil, a robot’s equivalent to blood, on the floor.
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Charlie’s breath constricted, her panic being further induced. Someone else had hurt Mialee, but who? Charlie ran down the hallway, Alicia struggling to keep up, before coming to a halt at a point where the hallway forked off in three directions, forward, left, or right. Charlie stood there, breathing hard. She listened carefully, standing deathly still. Then she heard it.
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“AHHHhhhHh…”
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A defragmenting scream was what they heard, from the unmistakable direction of forward. They took off once again, putting every ounce of what they had into it, Alicia’s footsteps and Charlie’s heels clicking being the only noise.
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There were multiple doors left ajar, but Charlie kept running. Her daughter had to be here somewhere! She knew the noise came from here, so she just had to keep going! Mialee had to be okay! She had to be okay. She had to be okay. She had to be okay.
She had
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to be
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okay.
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They reached the end of the hallway, and came upon an elevator. They had not found a trace of Mialee but her blood, and that was not a good omen. Charlie stared at the elevator, of which she hadn't been in in years. It led to the Decadent Facilities, unused laboratories and scrapped animatronics, discarded motherboards and dismantling chambers.
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She was always forced to be present when somebody had to ‘go’.
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Ignoring the fact the elevator was in use, she clapped her hands, and it moved aside, revealing a staircase upward. Perhaps Mialee was up there, maybe just stuck to something? Perhaps she was being chased by rats, or maybe the alligators the executives still had to get rid of.
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Charlie and Alicia together climbed up the stairs, finding another puddle of oil, a black and white bow being soaked in it- but not any black and white bow, Mialee’s black and white bow.
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Charlie picked it up, her hands being stained. If she had been blessed with the ability to cry, she would, but she was made physically unable to. Alicia reached out a hand in an attempt to comfort, speaking. “I-I’m so sorry-” “Don’t say that!” Charlie snapped, an unnatural rise in tone. Noticing what she’d said, her face softened, sadness lining her features. “Sorry about that, but she-she has to be okay, right?” Alicia looked her in the eyes, then looking away, unbelieving. “...Right.”
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The two walked back down the staircase and back into the charging station, met with people with hope in their eyes, but greeted with sad prospect.
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Mialee was gone.
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Reliviana descended from her podium, giving her shaky sister a hug, successfully calming her down. “...Thank You.” She said, eyes more empty than usual, but nonetheless better than what could be had she had nobody. She ascended her charging podium, her husband taking her hand. “Hun, don’t worry, It’ll be alright, and so will Mialee. I promise you, we’ll find her. She couldn't have gotten far…” He said, faltering on the last part, his hope waning.
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Nonetheless, though, it had the intended effect of calming Charlie down, so holding hands, they took to a pose they had not struck since Mialee’s making, drifting into the closest thing they had to sleep.
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They had all failed to notice Jalquones was never at his podium.
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