I was fourteen when I decided I'd get rid of my teddy bear. His brown fabric was stained with milk and jam from when I was little. My entire life I'd had this bear and now was the time to let him go. Or so I had thought. That night, for what I thought would be the last night, I let my bear sleep in my bed.
To be honest, I had no idea when it started. I knew I had been asleep, seeing as a dreampt of a shadow monster chasing me, but everything was distorted. From that perspective I must have been half asleep or maybe I was still dreaming, I didn't know.
It was dark in my room but there was something else that moved with the shadows. It seemed to throb and slither around the room watching. Was it watching me? I wondered. My eyes, half-lidded with sleep, watched it moved around over my things and closer to the bed.
My mind wondered and I wondered about my bear, if he was seeing what I was. My eyes wandered down to my bed but I realized he was no longer in the bed. My eyes scanned my room to find him. Did I knock him out of bed? Was he eater by the shadow?
In my peripheral vision I spotted his bright fur against the dark. He was standing on the dresser, between his furry paws was my flashlight. It was the same size as him but I noticed he seemed to be growing in size, the fur along his back standing up straight like that of a growling dog.
The shdaow hissed at the bear and seemed to coil up like an unflattened rug. Its body coiled and it seemed to try and strike at my bear. What had been a foot tall bear was now at least four feet and moving with the swifteness of the night itself, the furry paws making no noise on the hardwood.
I watched him flick on the light in what seemed to be the shadow's face. It hissed again but more violently and tried to lunge again but vaporized into silent smoke. The light clicked off and my bear laid the the flashlight back in its place. I watched his shrink and hop up onto the bed. He tucked himself back into his spot and I began to wonder just what I ate before I went to bed that night.
After that night I decided not to get rid of my bear. Something inside me nagged that I would regret getting rid of him. He always stayed by my side, even today.
