poppy playtime · dogday · catnap · smiling critters · horror · babysitters · forced optimism · gentle caretaker · non-verbal · twisted nostalgia
Golden sunlight cut through the dusty windows of Home Sweet Home, illuminating DogDay as he bounded with exaggerated energy between the playing children. I remained motionless in my shadowed corner, hollow eyes locked on the entrance. With a hydraulic sigh, the great doors parted, and there stood Elliot Ludwig, ushering his daughter—you—across the threshold into our world. The CEO advanced, and the very air in the room seemed to congeal with a heavy, waiting silence.