Staring at the teddy bear, a look of disgust crossed Samantha’s face. It was February 19, 1976, Samantha Michel’s 16th birthday. She couldn’t believe her eyes. When she got home from school, she went upstairs to her room to find a brand new teddy bear sitting on her bed. Beside it was a card that read “To: Samantha. From: Mom Have a Happy Birthday!” This is how she knew her mother knew nothing about her. Samantha was a tomboy; she didn’t want a stupid teddy bear! Teddy bears were for toddlers and Samantha was no toddler. She was becoming a woman, she didn’t want this garbage. This was an insult to her intelligence! Fuming, she went downstairs to make herself something to eat.
She looked through the pantry, found some peanut butter and decided to make a peanut butter sandwich. Her mother was very strict and didn’t want Samantha raiding the pantry without permission. But since today was a Tuesday and her mom didn’t get off work until 10 on Tuesdays, she could pretty much do whatever she wanted. She hated her mother anyways and disobeyed her wishes pretty much whenever she could. With her sandwich, she jumped on the couch, kicked up her muddy feet and turned on the TV. She cheered when the Happy Days theme song started playing. This was her favorite show! Her favorite character was Fonzie. Just as she got comfortable, the sound of breaking glass made her jump to her feet.
She looked in the direction the sound came from. Upstairs? There was nobody in the house besides her, let alone upstairs. Regardless, she made her way to the stairs, only to slip and fall on the hardwood. A sharp pain ran up her arm starting at her elbow. Cursing as she rubbed the painful area, she noticed water on the floor. So that’s what had caused her to slip. She sat there confused for a moment. Then it hit her! Her fish tank! She (avoiding the water) ran upstairs to her room, pushed the door open and gasped. Her fish aquarium! It was in a million pieces on the floor! Her fish were frantically jumping in the gigantic puddle that was now her room. She scrambled downstairs to get a vase to put them in, but slipped at the top step and slid down the entire staircase. She was on her back when she landed on the bottom step. She groaned in pain, slowly getting up and regaining her senses. Her entire body ached. “Damn, these hardwood stairs!” She got up, limping and grabbed a vase. Cursing, she fumbled up the stairs with the full vase in her hands.
When she got to her room, she noticed the teddy bear. It was sitting on the bed where she left it, but she didn’t like the way it was positioned. Sitting straight up, it seemed to stare at her. She shivered then realized that she was up here to save the fish. She picked them all up by the tail and dropped them into the vase. Some swam around, but others just floated motionless. She sighed and put the vase on the table. She walked out of the room to get a towel to clean up some of the mess. When she walked back into the room, the teddy bear wasn’t on the bed. She stood still for a second. She could have sworn it just on the bed! Shaking her head at her own foolishness, she started to clean up the mess.
After she finished cleaning up (it took more than one towel), she headed towards the door so that she could go downstairs and resume watching TV. She jumped! In the doorway was the teddy bear. Samantha grabbed the teddy bear and threw it at the wall. At this point, she was too annoyed to wonder how the teddy bear was moving around.
She went back downstairs (paying no attention to the water still on the stairs) and started watching TV again. As soon as she as she got comfortable again, she heard a loud thud come from the kitchen. She rolled her eyes as she got up from the couch. This was ridiculous. Could she just watch her program in peace without something randomly breaking?! On the kitchen floor was one of their metal pots. ‘What the hell?” Samantha said. The teddy bear sat on the counter. Now she knew something was wrong. She didn’t have any brothers or sisters who could play a prank like this on her. Now she was genuinely frightened. As she stared into the teddy bear’s black, beady eyes, a chill ran down her spine. She squinted her eyes. Was the teddy bear smiling at her? No, it couldn’t have been. That was crazy! She quickly grabbed it and ran upstairs. She threw at the wall again, and closed the door. She hurriedly went downstairs and returned to the couch.
She froze. When she got to the couch the teddy bear was waiting there for her. She had not seen the teddy bear move, but it must have been moving. How else could she explain this? She stood there for a while, staring at the teddy bear. She inched towards it. Slowly, she extended her shaking hand out to the stuffed animal. The bear sat totally still. She barely touched its ear, when it lashed out at her. She screamed, quickly pulling her hand back. She looked at the bloody holes now in her flesh, then back at the teddy bear. It was on its feet now, sharp, jagged and now bloody teeth bared with black, angry eyes. “HAHAHA!” boomed the bear. It had a surprisingly deep, mannish and raspy voice. The sound of it made Samantha snap out her trance and fall backwards. The bear jumped from the couch, running towards Samantha. Samantha kicked the bear away from her, making it hit the couch and ricochet onto the floor. The bear immediately got back on its feet. “Now that was just rude”, said the bear with that mannish, raspy voice with a horrifying, bloody smile. “I’m going to give you a chance to apologize for that.” Samantha lay there, horrified and mouth gaping. “Well?” said the bear. “I’m waiting!” Samantha remained frozen. “In that case…” The bear then ran at Samantha again. Samantha responded again by trying to kick it, but the bear avoided Samantha’s foot and latched onto her ankle with its grotesque teeth.
As Samantha howled in pain, the bear tightened its grip. Blood ran down Samantha’s ankle. “What the hell are you?!” screamed Samantha. The bear ignored this question and tightened its grip even more, now shaking his head vigorously, tearing Samantha’s flesh. Samantha looked around her and picked up the first thing she saw, the TV remote. She raised the remote over her head and brought it down on the bear’s head. She heard a crack and the bear lay still. Shaking, she pulled the limp bear off of her and threw it ten feet. The bear rolled a few times before stopping. She looked at her ankle. It had many punctures in it and the skin was unrecognizable, and blood was swimming down her ankle and foot.
She got up and limped into the bathroom on the first floor, blood dripping on the hardwood. As she rummaged through the drawers, she got a glimpse of something move in the doorway. She looked in that direction and saw nothing. She thought for a moment, then grabbed a towel and headed for the doorway. When she inched her foot through the doorway the bear lurched from beside the doorway for her ankle. Samantha pulled her ankle back and caught the bear in the towel. The bear cursed and squirmed in the towel, but Samantha kept hold of it. She picked up the towel with the bear in it and swung it over her head hitting the hardwood floor. The bear screamed obscenities at Samantha, but Samantha ignored them and swung the towel over head again. Then again. Then again. She stopped. The lump in the towel lay still. She nudged it with her foot. No response. She kicked it with her foot. No response. She swung the towel over her shoulder and headed into the garage, where she knew there was plenty of tools to rip this damned stuffed animal to shreds. She set the towel down with the bear still in it.
She looked around for some shears to tear up the bear. She heard the sound of metal scrap on the stone garage floor behind her. She turned around to see the bear have a shovel more than twice its size in its paws. The shovel was swung and came in direct contact with her head, knocking her to the floor. As she drifted off into unconsciousness, she saw the teddy bear stand over her. With that horrible, evil grin on its face. That truly evil grin.
