Find the Teddy Bear

Chapter 3

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Belle stood still, completely frozen in fear as her eyes remained focused on a picture on the wall.

A black cat was lying on the grass, seemingly asleep. The only way to tell it was dead was by the fact it had a knife going through its belly.

Her knees almost gave out under her when she saw disturbing imagines of dead kittens. The stench was even worse than in the hallway before, and Belle was barely holding her stomach together.

She closed her eyes tightly, deciding to walk ahead blindly instead of being subject to such awful imagery. She put one of her arms in front of her and held her other hand at her nose, to block out some stench.

The young girl coughed, trying not to gag. She took a few wobbly steps forward, moving slowly as she felt the soft surface of the carpet beneath her feet. She was shaking violently- she was afraid. She didn't know what was happening. Mrs. Johnson seemed like a cat murderer to her now.

Belle kept going forward for a few minutes, successfully keeping her breakfast in her stomach. Finally, her hand touched a door, and she felt her heart flutter.

If she was to know what lied behind that door, Belle would stay in the room with awful pictures rather than continue.

But Belle did not know.

She felt for the doorknob, and turned it urgently, opening her eyes as she ran inside. The door slammed behind her, leaving her to stand in a new hallway. She, again, wondered how could such a small house have so many hallways.

The stench was unbearable, and she pulled her shirt over her nose in an attempt to make it bearable. Her eyes scanned around the room, and joy consumed her once they landed on a hairy creature on the floor.

A cat! It was a brown cat, and Belle almost cried out in joy when she saw it. She was glad for another living creature in the house with her.

"Here, kitty, kitty!" she called out, but she knew the cat would ignore her, so she approached it carefully, still holding her shirt over her nose with one hand.

Each step created a loud echo, but Belle didn't care now that she found a cat. Once she was close enough, she crouched behind the cat slowly. The cat was lying down, turning its back to the girl.

She reached her hand out slowly, making contact with the cat's fur. The cat didn't move, and Belle smiled- she expected it to scratch her.

She pet its fur softly, but became worried upon receiving no purr of approval. She took hold of the cat's side and rolled her over to face her.

A loud scream came out of the girl's mouth, and she let go of the cat. Her eyes produced tears as she became unable to turn away from the cat.

The reason for her outburst was the cat's face.

It would make even the strongest scream.

The cat's ears were normal enough- fluffy and nice. Except for the dried blood that stretched from inside and reached along its face.

The cat had no eyes, leaving a bloody mess in the sockets, as if someone put the eyes in a blender and then attempted to return them to the poor cat.

What was even more disturbing was the fact that there were small black buttons in each of the cat's eyes, carelessly thrown in and covered with blood mixed with eye liquid.

Its nose seemed to be smashed, as if a car had hit it. There was a shard of bone peeking out of the cat's skin. Its mouth was stuck slightly open.

A yet another scream escaped escaped the girl's mouth. This time, it wasn't due to the cat's face.

It was due to the fact that Belle noticed the cat was breathing. She could hear shallow breaths as the ruined creature kept itself alive, suffering every second. The cat was thin, and Belle could easily count its ribs, along with one rib that was broken and had pierced the skin.

But the cat still lived. A sensible thing to do would have been to end its suffering, but Belle was just a poor, innocent girl- she couldn't kill another creature, especially a cat.

Belle jumped back to her feet, feeling her heart beat wildly. She couldn't take it anymore, and she doubled over, remains of her breakfast flowing out of her mouth from her belly.

She heaved, the stench and the sight urging her to keep gagging after she was empty.

She fell onto her knees and took deep breaths. Was she dreaming?

She knew the answer was no, but she pinched herself nonetheless. She remained kneeling in the room instead of waking up, and tears slid down her face faster.

"Mrs. Johnson!" she yelled out, just wishing for this nightmare to end. She didn't like it.

Upon getting no reply for a few minutes, she tried again, this time louder. No reply. The third time, she screamed her name at the top of her lungs, and the stench entered her quickly, forcing her to gag once more.

She took heavy breaths, staring at the floor as her tears dropped from her face, creating a stain in the red carpet.

"Mr. Rose..." Belle whispered, wishing that her bear was there for her.

"I'm afraid your bear isn't in this hallway, little Belle." Belle heard a voice suddenly. She lifted her head in surprise at the voice that reminded her of a male voice, but sounded like someone purred it out.

Right in front of her, on the other side of her vomit, stood a white cat. The white cat. Jerry.

And he was talking.

"Did you just talk?" the girl asked in confusion, the images of the tortured cat she was staring at minutes ago slipping off her mind.

Jerry raised his whiskers in what appeared to be a smile, and he opened his mouth.

"Yes, that was me. I possess the ability to speak, child. And I have taken it upon myself to help you out on this grand adventure. Walk through that door- you will see your dear bear. I will come in after you, I have some business to finish in this room." He said, lifting up his front paw and giving it a lick.

Belle stared at him wide-eyed, and she felt happiness when Jerry told her hear bear was close.

"Thank you." She told him as she walked around her pool of vomit. She didn't know what Jerry had to do in this room, nor did she care.

She approached the door quickly, noticing that the awful stench was slowly getting replaced with the smell of lemons, soothing her stomach.

She opened the door, and heard no awful squeak- the door was well oiled. She peeked inside, and saw that the walls were colored light pink and had white flowers painted all over them. The ceiling was white with pink flowers.

Her interest spiked, and she took a step inside onto polished wooden floorboards. The room smelled softly of lavender.

There was a purple carpet in the middle of the room, and a huge bed in a corner. The bed had pink covers with princesses drawn on them.

There was a big dollhouse in the other corner, and it was as tall as Belle herself. There was a toy box next to it, too.

But what caught Belle's attention was a teddy bear. And not just any teddy bear- Mr. Rose.

He was put on a simple wooden chair that gave off a smell of old. Belle squealed in joy as she ran into the room.

The door slammed behind, but she didn't care- she had Mr. Rose.

As soon as she was about to snatch him, he vanished, and her hand passed through thin air.