It's Lovely Down In The Woods Today

If you go down in the woods today
You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go down in the woods today
You'd better go in disguise.
For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

A certain magic lives in the youth of the world. Their ability to imagine anything and experience the stuff of fairytales and legends just like real life. Children are so impressionable. Their vulnerability makes them easy to trick, easy to... Disappear.

I know that because I was once a child of the Forest. Our home was deep in the woods, my mother preferring isolation and fresh air to the business of the stuffy city. We were self-sustained, and we had no need for schooling, so I grew up as a rather lonely child. My father had died in a woodcutting accident a few acres away from our small cabin, but it had sounded like the tree had collapsed on him merely a few feet away from our home. His resounding cry of pain always got to me the most, the sound of the bark splintering into his skin being a close second.

Now, only my mother and I live together, our bond greater than I could have ever imagined as a child. I was my father's daughter, back then, always looking up to him and wishing to be a woodcutter once I was strong enough. But that aspiration ended along with my father's life.

Picnic time for teddy bears,
The little teddy bears are having a lovely time today.
Watch them, catch them unawares,
And see them picnic on their holiday.
See them gaily gad about.
They love to play and shout,
They never have any cares.
At six o'clock their mummies and daddies
Will take them home to bed
Because they're tired little teddy bears.

Ever since my father had died, I could hear the song he used to sing to me playing at the back of my mind, like a constant loop. It was exactly how I remembered, as though papa was there with me every day, every week, every year of my life after his death. I only could hear his voice for only a second each day at first, when I closed my eyes to fall asleep, but now my mind was flooded with his melody, and I could no longer shut it off.

'What's the matter, dear?' My mother approached me as she spotted the stress ridden on my face. 'Is it the song again?'

'It's getting worse and worse, as every day passes,' I bowed my head, failing to stop myself from crying. 'I miss him, momma, and I am constantly being reminded of him.'

'You've been in this house for days, my dear,' my mother told me with a concerned smile. 'Maybe some fresh air will make you feel better.'

I listened to my mother, walking out of my home, wrapped in my warmest cloak and heading towards the depth of the woods. The greenery of the leaves calmed me, the orange glow of the setting sun shrouding me with calm.

As I ventured further passed the clone-like trees and the still breeze lingered around the scenery, I could hear a tune from around the left of me, in a part of the woods I had never come across before. It sounded beautiful, but hauntingly familiar, and I was immediately drawn to the jingle.

Every teddy bear, who's been good
Is sure of a treat today
There's lots of wonderful things to eat
And wonderful games to play.

Further and further down the rocky path, I stumbled across a clearing, the lyrics I knew so well becoming louder and louder as I stepped into the location. Without warning, small creatures materialised from the surrounding trees all around me, their form being identical to small teddy bears, drinking from china teacups and eating cucumber sandwiches. They were just like I had imagined the bears from the song to look, from when I was a child with an odd imagination.

And then I saw him. He was in the middle of the clearing, stood feet away from me with a vacant stare. He was my father, looking the same as he did when he left the house on that fateful day.

It couldn't be. How was he there, right in front of me, as real as can be?

'I have been waiting so long for this day to come,' he smiled, his voice sounding as soft and caring as it used to be. 'I wondered when you would find this place.'

Beneath the trees, where nobody sees
They'll hide and seek as long as they please
Because that's the way the teddy bears have their picnic.

'Whatever do you mean?' I wondered. 'Have you been alive, all this time?'

'No,' he shook his head, removing his hands to expose a rip in his stomach, where the tree had punctured his skin and bled him to death.

'You're... Dead?' I asked with a gasp, reliving his death all over again. 'Then, how are you here?'

'Your father isn't here,' my father transformed into a dark, evil creature, the bears now all wearing wickedly red eyes and showing sharp, jagged teeth. 'But you fell for our trap. And you will join us, forever.'

I screamed as the bears attacked me, until I was nothing of my former self, but no one heard me. No one cared.

If you go down in the woods today,
You'd better not go alone.
It's lovely down in the woods today,
But safer to stay at home.
For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.