Teddy Force

A teddy bear is nearly killed by the monsters under the bed and is saved by the Teddy Force.

                 Ever since its invention, the teddy bear has been a toy near and dear to children both young and old. Even adults love these staples of childhood. What you don’t know is what they do after you go to sleep. These cute and cuddly creatures hide secrets that no child would want to think about much less believe are true. As they say though, truth is stranger than fiction.

            I should know. I’m Ben. I was bought as a sixth birthday present for a little girl named Maya. She is the cutest little thing. Though thinking about it, comparatively she is much bigger. I think I’m a little less than a foot tall. She is around three feet. Anyhow, it was a beautiful fall day when Maya’s parents turned down the aisle I was on. I remember it well for something that happened so long ago.

            I was sitting on the shelf, a sky blue ribbon tied around my neck. It was an average day like any I had experienced ever since I got there about two weeks ago. I would sit there watching people go by with their carts taking toys down from the other shelves. Orange frogs, rainbow unicorns, pink kitties, and blue dogs were some of the animals I can remember being chosen often. These were all chosen by the children. Every day I hoped some child would look up to where I was on the third shelf and think,” I want that one!” Every day I was disappointed as other animals were pulled off their shelves and taken away. Don’t get me wrong; I was happy for them, but seeing others being chosen was very discouraging.

            I had almost given up hope when one day, a couple came down my aisle. I was confused when I didn’t see a child with them. After all, why would adults be in a toy store by themselves? I listened to their conversation.

            “Look at all these. She would love one of these unicorns,” the man said.

            “Yes but why do they have to be in such outrageous colors. I want her to have a nice old-fashioned teddy bear,” the woman replied. She looked around and finally her eyes rested on me. Her face brightened in a smile. “Oh sweetie, look at this one. This fur is so soft and the golden brown color will be perfect.” She picked me up and put me in their cart. In a matter of minutes I was purchased and on my way to this Maya person.

            When we arrived at their house, my bag was grabbed and taken inside. I was set on a very large bed. I thought it was big for one person. The man came back in with a big roll of wrapping paper and a box. I was placed in the box and then it was closed. I was tossed on my side, head and all over. Good thing I’m mainly stuffing otherwise that would have hurt a lot more.

            I was a bit disoriented for a while. After about an hour or so my box was lifted. I heard a tearing sound and then the box was opened. A pair of tiny hands lifted me out of the box. I looked into the brown eyes of a small girl. She had black hair and wore a pink dress. She smiled and said, “He’s beautiful. Thank you, Mommy!”

            “You’re welcome, sweetie. What is his name, Maya?” I heard the lady ask.

            “His name is Ben.” Maya said.

            “Well why don’t you put Ben over there with the rest of your unwrapped gifts.”

            “Okay,” Maya said.

            Later that day, after some other girls that had been there left, Maya took me and her other toys up the stairs. We were placed on a bed with a purple bedspread. Maya grabbed one of the dolls she had received and played on the floor with her. I smiled thinking I’m going to get to spend the rest of my life with her. This is going to be great! I contentedly watched her the rest of the day.

            Eventually Maya’s mom came in and told Maya it was time to get ready for bed. Maya’s mom helped Maya into a pair of hot pink princess pajamas. Maya left for a few minutes. When she came back in, she grabbed me and hopped under her covers. She squeezed me tight as she wiggled farther down under the sheets. Her mom came in and asked if she had brushed her teeth. Maya told her yes. Maya's mom came in and kissed her goodnight. As she walked out she turned off the light. Maya closed her eyes and went to sleep.

              I had been lying there peacefully when I thought I saw something move. I looked harder but didn’t see anything. I shrugged and continued simply looking around. Then I heard a nearly inaudible whoosh. Now I was concerned. I wiggled out of Maya’s grasp and jumped down to the floor to investigate. I tread around the room carefully. I saw nothing but shadows.

            Well this is peculiar. I thought to myself. I know for sure I heard that whoosh. I looked around once more, hands on my hips. I guess I did imagine it. I turned around to climb back into the bed. That is when I saw the shadow. It was about twice as tall as me and looked a lot like one of those little green alien dolls with the huge bug eyes. This didn’t have eyes though. It was simply pure black.

            I backed away terrified. Not looking behind myself, I bumped into something. I turned around and saw another one. I surveyed the room. There were ten more of these monsters. All of them were slowly walking toward Maya.

            “Hey!” I shouted. The monsters turned, but only for a moment. It then immediately turned back to Maya. I knew I had to stop them. The problem was I couldn’t think of any way to do so. Then I had an idea. I crouched down and leapt to tackle one of the monsters. I flew right through it and hit the bed then fell on the floor. Turning over, I sat against the bed facing the monsters. I rubbed my head and tried to devise a solution to my current predicament.

            Suddenly a bright light came from the ceiling. I looked up into a swirling vortex of color. Then something weirder happened. Four bears fell out of the light. Once they touched the floor, they rolled and stood. It was hard to tell what they looked like in the darkness. The first one was completely black. The second was some type of tie-dye swirl pattern. The third was actually a tiger that stood on its hind legs and wore a karate outfit. The last one had black as its base color with red, blue, yellow, and purple stars over it.

            These stuffed animals’ hands each started glowing. Then suddenly, each of them charged at the monsters. The black one held a gun that fired beams of white light. Tie-dye blasted swirly light orbs from his hands. The starry bear threw white stars at the shadows. The tiger punched and kicked his hands and feet glowing white. I watched in awe as they fought. Monsters disintegrated as the lights connected. Soon there was no trace of any battle save the heavy breathing of the bears.

            After catching his breath, the black bear turned towards me. “What is your problem, soldier? She could have been killed!” He pointed to Maya as he said this.

            I was confused. “Soldier? Do you mean me?” I asked.

            “No, I meant the mattress. Of course I was talking to you!” the black bear yelled.

            “Okay I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, getting slightly infuriated, “But I am not a soldier. I’m a stuffed animal. And yeah, I kind of figured out that she might have been killed.”

            “Then why didn’t you do anything?” the black bear demanded. I had no idea how he hadn’t woken Maya by now.

            “Like what?” I asked sarcastically. I didn’t have any cool powers like they did.

            “How should I know? What’s your name, soldier?”

            “Again, I’m not a soldier. The name’s Ben.”

            “What’s the girl’s name?”

            “Maya. Why do you want to know?

            “Starlight, check for name- Ben, child- Maya.”

            “You got it, sir,” the bear with the stars said. Her voice was clear and crisp like bottled water. I guess that is what bottled water is like since I’ve never actually had any. A holographic screen appeared in front of her. A keyboard also appeared. She made some swipes and did some typing. A red x flashed on the screen briefly. “Sir, there is no Ben with Maya as registered child. This bear wasn’t kidding.”

Um, duh! I thought. “I told you I wasn’t a soldier.”

            The black bear growled. Tie-dye said, “Chill, man. This groovy dude must be new.” His voice was low and smooth. It reminded me of a dirt road. Don’t ask why. I’m not entirely sure either. Turning to me he said,” What’s up, man? My name is Swirlie. The groovy black dude is Blackie. This rad girl is Starlight. Last but not least is Fang. Not the chillest name ever might I add, dude. And now you know us all.”

            I surveyed the group. “Cool. So who are you guys? Like what army are you talking about?”
            This time Fang answered, “We are part of the Teddy Force, an international organization of stuffed animals devoted to the protection of children everywhere. We each use the powers bestowed upon us by our children. We travel using imagination portals which are powered by children’s imaginations. We fight shadows, monsters made purely of darkness. Every child has seen these but have been told by their parents that they aren’t real. We like to keep it that way because ignorance is bliss. If children knew what we really did when they sleep there would be chaos.”
            I tried to process this information as fast as possible. Then I asked, “What do these shadows do to the children?”
            “They used to simply steal their imagination,” Blackie answered. “Merely touching the kids would do the trick. Recently though more drastic things have been happening. Contact has been lost with many animals who defended these innocent children. The children go through the days like zombies. We believe the shadows are now stealing the children’s health too.”

            “Do you have any idea why?” I asked. I may have only known Maya for a day, but I loved her. I refused to let anything happen to her.

            “We have no intel on why this is happening,” Starlight answered. “Other technicians haven’t discovered anything at the scenes.”
            None of us had noticed, but at this time a shadow was crawling from under the bed slower than a snail. At that precise moment though, a hand erupted from the flat pool of darkness, knocking us all off our feet, or in my case in the air since I hadn’t been standing. The hand jerked over towards me. It then flew straight at me. It quickly dragged me back towards the darkness from which it came. I attempted to grab the comforter of Maya’s bed, but completely missed. I heard Starlight call my name.  I blacked out as I was sucked into the darkness.

            When I woke, I was flat on my back staring at a ceiling so far away it seemed to be a cave. I heard a voice coming from in front of me say, “Well, you’re finally awake. Sorry about the turbulence coming through. The darkness portals are usually only meant for shadows.”
I looked to where my feet were and saw who the cold menacing voice came from. I sat up and stared at the most hideous thing I had ever seen. It was three times my height. Its fur was extremely dark grey. Its arms and legs were long and deformed like a zombie. It was also extremely thin. Its head seemed a bit too large for the body. The head lolled some to the side. Its eyes bulged out of their sockets. I sat up continuing to look at this horror. “It is impolite to stare,” it said.

            “What are you?” I asked. I didn’t know anything that even came close to this monstrosity in terms of grotesqueness.

            “I am the bogeyman. Master of nightmares and ruler of the shadows. I destroy imagination and replace it with fear. I am what children truly fear!” he proclaimed triumphantly. This guy was really starting to scare me.

            “What do you want with the children?” I asked standing.

            “What do I want?” the bogeyman asked. He gave a menacing chuckle. “I want anything they can give me. Imagination, dreams, hopes, desires. They hold such power inside their tiny bodies and it all has unlimited potential.”
            “And what do you plan on doing with that power?” I asked. I would have made a plan of escape, but I didn’t know anything about escaping.

            “Rule. What else is power meant to be used for? And revenge. But that is nothing to concern yourself with. All I need you for is the energy inside you. After all, fear alone won’t fuel an old body,” he said smiling.

            The Bogeyman turned to his right and snapped. Two shadows came pulling a strange contraption. It had a hose sticking out of it. I had no idea what the thing was supposed to be, but whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. The shadows set it right in front of me. Then the shadows held me in a grip stronger than a bear trap. For some reason I struggled against their grip anyways. The Bogeyman pressed a few buttons on the device as it powered on. Then he grabbed the hose. He turned to me smiling. “Don’t worry. This won’t hurt. Much.” Then he jabbed me with the hose.

            I screamed in pain. It felt like every ounce of any type of energy in me was being sucked out. The bogeyman laughed. He put his hands on the other side of the machine. I could see the energy being sent into him. I closed my eyes, realizing my short life would soon be over.

            Then the unexpected happened. I heard a buzzing overhead. I opened my eyes and saw the swirly portal. I smiled weakly as I saw Blackie and the rest fall out of the portal. While still in air, Blackie had his gun and shot the shadow holding me. Another blast destroyed the machine and causing the hose to fall from my chest. I fell to the ground, gasping for breath. Blackie, Starlight, Swirlie, and Fang landed in front of me facing the Bogeyman. Starlight turned around and asked, “Are you alright?”

            “Yeah,” I managed to get out. “I’ll be fine.”
            Blackie was scrutinizing the Bogeyman. “I know you from somewhere, don’t I,” he said inquisitively.

            “Yes, probably,” the Bogeyman answered, frowning. He seemed to be taking the ruined plans thing very well. Then he said, “But wherever you might remember me from is inconsequential. I have things to take care of.” He snapped his fingers and shadows swarmed in from everywhere.

            The Teddy Force all went to it with a will. The monsters were thick enough that I couldn’t tell where on ended and another began. Shadows disintegrated left and right. I stood in the center completely useless. I watched the others fight, wishing I could do something. I looked around as something hit me. Where was the Bogeyman?

            “Um guys?” I said.

            “A little busy, Ben.” Fang answered.

            “Yeah, I think that was the point.” I replied.

            Blackie destroyed another shadow before turning to me and asked, “What do you mean, soldier?”
            Though annoyed at being called soldier I went on. “I’m thinking he wanted us distracted.” Continuing as I thought, I said, “I think he wanted us here while he goes directly to the kids to drain their power.”

            “Do you have any idea where he might have started?” Starlight asked.

            “I don’t know. He said something about revenge.”
            “That’s it!” Blackie shouted. “He used to be an agent. His name was Mo. We were on the same squad. His owner abandoned him. And while that’s not unusual, he completely overreacted. He nearly killed his kid. We had to imprison him in the shadow zone.”

            “Wait, that thing used to be a teddy bear? Who was his owner?” I asked.

            “I don’t remember. Starlight, search for Mo and find out who his owner was.”

            “On it sir,” Starlight said. She put up a force field around herself and pulled up the screen. She quickly had results. “Sir, Mo was registered to Maya’s older sister.”

            “He’s going after Maya!” I said.

            “Retreat!” Blackie ordered. He created an imagination portal and everyone went through. Blackie gestured for me to go through. I ran on through.

            Lights flashed around me as I started simply falling. Suddenly the lights stopped and I hit the floor in the living room. Blackie followed close behind. I stood up quickly and ran toward the stairs where the others were. We quickly ran up the stairs.

            We ran into the room in time to see the Bogeyman slowly approaching Maya’s bed. “Stop!” I shouted.

            The Bogeyman turned. “Well, I see you weren’t distracted long.”
            “We know why you’re here, Mo.” Blackie said.

            The mention of the name stopped the Bogeyman in his tracks. “No one has called me by that name in a long time. Not since I was in the Force.”      

            “This isn’t her,” Blackie told the Bogeyman. “This is her little sister.”
            “Even better!” the Bogeyman shouted. “This will hurt her more than her own death!”
            “Abandonment happens to everyone.” Blackie said.

            “She said she would love me forever!”

            “Every child says that. Sadly that never happens. Our job is to be there for them as long as they need us.”
            “What about when we need them?”
            Blackie paused to think. Finally he said, “I don’t know.”
            “See! They don’t truly care! Take note of that, Goldie.” The Bogeyman remarked to me. Immediately he then turned to attack Maya.

            “No!” I screamed. Before I realized I was doing it, I threw myself at him. I grabbed his head and leaned backwards. He lost his balance and started stumbling backwards. We were quickly out the door. He jerked around trying to rid himself of me. I held on as tightly as I could.

            I hadn’t noticed this before, but apparently there is an oil lamp in the hall. So as the Bogeyman stumbled around, we hit the lamp. It fell over and somehow ignited. The oil quickly caught fire. The carpet burned as the fire touched it. The smoke alarm went off. As I heard Maya’s parents coming out of their room, the Bogeyman managed to stumble into an empty room.

            The bogeyman tripped and I flew off his head and rolled. The Bogeyman quickly recovered and stood. He was furious. “You fool!” He said. “You have sealed your own fate as well as your precious owner’s.”

            “You’re not going to touch her!” I shouted. Flames were already spreading across the floor.

            “You won’t be able to stop me once I have disposed of you!” The Bogeyman suddenly grew larger. He was as tall as a normal human. I determined not to be afraid.  He lifted his giant foot and slammed it down beside me. I dodged out of the way. He attacked again, and I dodged. He did this a few more times, and then he did something I didn’t expect.

            He lifted his foot and I dodged. But before he slammed his foot down, he adjusted and aimed right at me. He hit me and I went through the floor. Luckily I managed to grab a board and didn’t fall into the fire below. He lifted his foot. He looked down at me and said, “Goodbye, teddy bear.” He then slammed his foot down for the final blow.

            As I watched in horror, a vision flashed through my mind. I instinctively grabbed my bow. I pulled and it became a light whip. I swung upwards. It caught on the ceiling above and pulled me up. I narrowly escaped the Bogeyman’s foot.

            Because of the force of his blow, he went right through the floor. With the addition of the heat, the floor collapsed below him. His face registered surprise. He yelled as he fell to his doom in the fire.

            I watched briefly. Then, remembering Maya, I started swinging towards the window. After I had gained enough momentum, I released and flew through the window. As I was in the air, I saw fire trucks coming down the street. Through luck and a good breeze, I managed to land right at Maya’s feet. I looked up into her face. She was crying. Then she looked down and saw me. “Ben!” she shrieked in joy. She leaned down and grabbed me. She squeezed me in her arms. Then she said, “Look, mommy! It’s Ben!”
            Maya’s mom had a look of surprise her face. I simply smiled, happy to be back in Maya’s arms.

            I looked around for the Teddy Force. I spotted them beside the house. Blackie nodded. Starlight smiled. Swirlie waved, and Fang bowed. I smiled back, glad to see they were safe. Blackie then summoned up an imagination portal, and they all went through it.

            The rest of my night was spent in Maya’s arms as she followed her parents around while they talked to various people giving an account of what had happened. We spent the night at a neighbor’s house. By the time we actually got back to bed it was four in the morning. Maya was pretty much asleep on her feet. She went to bed and we were not disturbed the rest of the night.

            It’s been a month since that night. We now live in a small apartment a couple miles from the old house. Maya starts school next week. She will be entering the first grade. She’s been so excited, and I feel her excitement in me.

            Her bedroom is white which helps me see the monsters better. I fight them with my light whip. Occasionally I am helped by the Teddy Force of which I am now officially a member. The trouble may not be gone, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Author's Note

This is my final draft. I'd still love comments. It will help with my future writing.

Reviews

[Stan Lee]

Nice story splat! I enjoyed the quirky monologue especially. very imaginative. :) stay inspired

[Splatman73]

Lol, if by inspired you mean a due date, then I'm pretty sure inspiration will keep happening. 😝 But seriously thank you for reading and reviewing. I know my pieces are long.

[D Connolly]

I am a huge fan of teddy bears, and I still have my Toby, right by my bed. So what if I'm in my mid thirties? I can't imagine not having him, though we don't cuddle quite as much as we used to. Your story was really entertaining and I was interested the entire time! Perhaps think about getting some artwork done and publishing as a children's book. Seriously, I think it would do well. Teddy Force!

[Splatman73]

Children's book, huh. Who knows? Maybe someday. I never really thought about that as the only reason I wrote this was I had to do a short story for English and none of my previous material would have been acceptable as far as content (I'm in a private Christian school so my options were limited.) Thank you for your time and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[Jacob Clifford]

Such a creative and adorable story. Although it has its darkness, it's very delightful in concept.

[Howling_Wolf]

This was a very well written story. I will admit it took me twice to read it completely, but I think the characters you created were great. The detail you put in painted a very vivid picture in my head. Job well done.

[Shannon]

This is delightful, despite the darkness. I like the whimsical thought that teddy bears stand guard.

A few suggestions, because I see you are open to them:
Your description under the title gives away far too much!
The introduction for me, about purchasing, goes on too long, particularly for the Café, where readers decide quickly whether to read or click another piece. It is however, well written.

[Splatman73]

Thank you! The feedback is very helpful. Glad you enjoyed it.