Teddy Bear

This story is by Gigi Guan and was part of our 2022 Fall Writing Contest. You can find all the writing contest stories here.

Lorie was lying on the bed, trying to fall asleep. Suddenly, a raspy voice sounded in the stillness, as if speaking to her.

“Hey Lorie, do you remember me?”

She opened her eyes, and a teddy bear was suspended in the air.

She wanted to yell, but there was something in her throat that stopped her.

“How… how come you can talk and fly?” She clutched the blanket.

“I was your favourite teddy bear when you were five years old. Don’t you remember?“ He gave a vicious smile.

Memories flashed through Lorie’s mind.

It was her five-year-old birthday and her mom bought her a brown teddy bear. She was thrilled and named it Berry. Since then, she slept with it every night.

“You are Berry. Why are you here now?”

“You want me to remind you again?” Berry flew to Lorie and gnashed his teeth.

“What did I do? What did I do?” Lorie thought hard.

It was that day when her cousin Bob came to visit them. Bob liked Berry very much and asked if Lorie can give it to him. Lorie said no at first but when Bob took out some candies from his pocket, she agreed.

“You are mad at me because I traded you for candies?”

“No, this is not it. You know what Bob do to me?” Berry turned his whole body red as if it was covered in blood.

Lorie rolled her eyes and looked at the wall instead of Berry.

“Berry, I seriously don’t know but I am assuming it must be something unpleasant.”

“Unpleasant? It was appalling.” Blood shed from Berry’s eyes. “Bob punched me everyday. He stabbed me with a pencil when he was mad. He eventually twisted my head off and dumped me in the garbage can.”

“What? This is unbelievable. Bob was a nice little guy. How could he have done that?”

“Well, he’s actually an evildoer. You want me to show some of those scenes?”

“No, no.” Lorie closed her eyes tightly. Then she slowly opened one eye and Berry disappeared.

The next morning, Lorie just took a small bite of her sandwich and told her mom she was full.

“Lorie, you aren’t hungry?”

“No mom. I am still full from the supper last night.”

“Hey Lorie, look at my teddy bear I got from my friend yesterday,” Her little brother, Fred holding up his teddy bear to Lorie.

“Stop, take it away.” Lorie took a few steps back, looking terrified.

“It’s so cute. You don’t like it, Lorie? Mom told me you used to have teddy bear when you were five.” He said.

“Well, I am 15 now. I don’t like kids stuff anymore.” Lorie took her backpack and went to school.

——

“Lorie, did you study for the math test yesterday?” Her classmate, Mandy, asked.

“Yes, I did.”

“So did I. Good luck to both of us.”

“Ok everybody, let’s put away your stuff now. It’s time for the test.” Said Ms. Paulo, the math teacher.

But when she got the test, she didn’t remember everything she studied.
She hit her forehead with two fingers, trying to remember but it was no use.

Lorie’s heart started beating fast. She stared at the test paper, didn’t know what to write. After 30 minutes, she looked around and every body was already doing the last page. She looked down at her test and started writing random answers, and Berry appeared on the test with a creepy smile. Lories yelled and threw the pencil.

“Lorie, what are you doing?” Ms. Paulo asked, looking confusedly.

“There’s a teddy bear on my test.” Lorie shivered.

Ms. Paulo went up and looked at the test paper and all that she saw were just math questions.

“I am not seeing any teddy bears, just math questions. Behave yourself please.”

Since Lorie didn’t have anything to prove Berry’s existence, she didn’t say anything anymore.

—-

It was raining after school, but Lorie wasn’t aware of it. She walked home in rain.

“Why didn’t you use the umbrella?” Lorie’s mom asked.

“Oh, I didn’t realize it was raining.”

She looked at Fred, who was watching the TV show “Adventures of Two Bears”. She picked up the remote and was about to change the channel. Suddenly, one of the bears turned into Berry.

Lorie screamed.

“Why are you screaming?” Her mom asked.

“Berry… Berry is coming out from the TV.” She pointed at the TV.

“Who’s Berry?”

“The bear I had when I was five. I traded it for candies. Now it’s back for revenge.”

“Stop talking nonsense, Lorie. You must be stressed from your math test.”

“Mom, I am serious. He’s so scary.” Tears ran down Lorie’s face.

“Ok, Lorie. Don’t be scared. Mommy is here and will protect you no matter what.” She patted Lorie on the back. “Now go take a bath.”

——

It was ten o’clock at night. Lorie sat on the bed and wondered if Berry would show up again.

Suddenly, a pencil came out of Lorie’s backpack and started poking Lorie on the shoulder.

“It looks like somebody is in pain,” Said Berry, who was sitting on the desk. “But that’s just one-tenth of what I went through.”

“You messed up my test, right?” Lorie asked.

Berry gave a loud laugh. “You aren’t that stupid.”

“What do you want?”

“To make you suffer.”

“Berry, I am very sorry. I shouldn’t have traded you for the candies. But… but I wasn’t the one who did those terrible things to you.”

“What can I do to make up to you?”

“Oh yes,” Berry stuck out his hand and made it long to touch Lorie’s chin. “Let me take possession of your body.”

Lorie curled up into a ball, shaking.

“What am I going to be then?” She asked quietly, in a trembling voice.

“A soul, which I am right now.”

“Do I have other options?” Lorie asked.

“No,” Berry pulled Lorie’s hair. “Now tell me option one or option two?”

“Option one, wait no two, I mean one, no two…”

“If you can’t make a decision, I do it for you.”

He flew to Lorie and made her look at him for 30 seconds. She then closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, they were red.