Find the Teddy Bear

Chapter 2

The girl stared at the old lady in pure terror. Why did her eyes turn red? Why did she hide Belle's teddy bear?

She felt as if her pet just died- empty. The comfort of having the teddy bear in her small hand was gone, and she felt herself starting to panic as the lady kept smiling down at her wickedly.

"Go along now, child. You will get a great reward when you get your bear. The longer you wait, the worse it gets." She spoke, and Belle took a step back in fear. She looked down at her feet, to find the pink rug empty- the white cat, Jerry.

She looked around her to realize that Jerry wasn't the only cat that disappeared- all of them did, leaving the room feeling empty and sinister.

Wishing to just get away from the creepy lady and be reunited with her toy, Belle gave her one last look before opening the living room door and walking into the hallway.

The stairs were there, and Belle dreaded what was waiting for her upstairs. She'd never been up there before.

Taking a cautious step onto the first stair, she got startled by how loud the creak was. She was also unnerved by the fact that there we no cats in the hallway anymore.

As questions and fears swam through her mind, one thought was above all- find the teddy bear.

She felt that there as a certain importance to that- she had a strong feeling that something bad was going to happen if she failed to find Mr. Rose.

Mustering up courage, she looked up at where the stairs would take her. To pure darkness.

She couldn't see past ten steps, and couldn't help wondering why there were so many. She knew that she was young, but she was pretty sure that the house wasn't that tall.

She had no flashlight or any sort of light to guide her way, since her parents deemed her too young for a phone, so she had to resolve to stumbling around blindly until she could get her teddy bear.

Belle took a deep breath and pulled her other foot onto the second stair, already prepared for the loud sound she knew it was going to emit.

And it did just as she expected. It was the only thing she could hear.

The air still smelled of cats and lemons, although cats obviously moved to another room, or somewhere where Belle couldn't see them.

Her heart was now calmer, but as the stairs took her deeper into the darkness, it began speeding up again.

After the ten visible steps, she had to hold onto the railing and feel her was with her feet slowly, as if she was blind. At that moment, she decided to never go blind, because it seemed really difficult to her.

The young girl kept walking for a long time, each stair making a unique creak. Each one was higher pitched, and by the time she reached the twentieth one, the creaking sounded like screaming.

The twentieth step was also the last one, and she sighed gratefully when her foot felt no obstacles. She focused strongly on what was in front of her, and was able to make out faint outlines of objects.

She was on a small platform, and the only thing she could see was something that looked like a door on one of the walls- but it was a lot smaller. Like a door made for cats.

The smell of lemon was lesser there, as the strong smell of cats was overpowering it. I need to crawl through...

Belle went down on all fours and crawled over to the little door. Upon closer inspection, she saw that it looked just like a regular door, and even had a doorknob. How could cats use such a door, anyways? She kept wondering about that as she put her hand onto the cold, metal doorknob.

She twisted it, and heard a click from the door, signaling it's opening. She pushed it, and it swung open with a terrifying creak. It sounded as if it hadn't been used or oiled for centuries.

She pulled her head inside first, checking if she could see anything- but again, it was as if she was blind.

She pushed her upper body inside, and crawled easily the rest of the way. She then proceeded to stand up carefully, feeling a loss of balance due to the lack of visibility. She felt slightly dizzy, and she felt like throwing up once the full smell of the room hit her.

There was no smell of lemons there anymore. Just a fresh, strong smell of cats and the food they ate a day before.

Belle wrinkled her nose in disgust, hoping she wouldn't step on any of the cats' poop. She brought her arms out in front of her in order to orientate easier. Just then, a bright light appeared, blinding her momentarily and making her stumble. She was forced to take a step back to regain her balance, and she opened her eyes slowly.

There was a single lightbulb in what appeared to be a long hallway. Belle looked around curiously, noticing pictures of cats on the walls, and noting that the wooden floor and its red carpet were perfectly clean, despite the awful stench of cats.

She approached a wall carefully, smiling when she saw a picture of two cats touching noses. Then her thoughts wandered off again, and she began thinking about how could a small house have so many stairs, a weird door and how did light turn on by itself.

And why were Mrs. Johnson's eyes red.

And that's how she remembered her main mission- Mr. Rose. She immediately turned away from the photo and marched towards the other end of the hallway, approaching a normal wooden door, designed for normal humans.

Belle was quite short, but she had no trouble reaching the doorknob, luckily, since she had a feeling she was going to open many more doors. This doorknob was just as cold as the other one, and the door was just as creaky.

The light behind the door was turned on, and Belle pushed inside after opening the door slightly, since it was too rusty for her to be able to open it fully.

Her eyes widened in surprise as she found herself in a yet another hallway, completely identical to the one she came from. As she was about to inspect it further, the door behind her creaked and she heard a loud bump.

As she turned around in panic, she realized that the door had closed when he entered, and that was what made the noise. Her heard was beating rapidly, and she gripped the doorknob tightly, pulling with all her might.

But the door didn't budge.

Letting out a sigh of fear and frustration, the girl turned around, back to the new hallway. The stench was even worse than in the hallway from before, but the floor was still clean.

There were still cat pictures on the wall, but they were slightly different.

Belle decided to approach one, and gasped in shock when she saw that it depicted a cat carrying a dead bird. She walked over to another one, and her heart threatened to beat out of her chest when she saw that this one was carrying a dead animal, this time a mouse, as well.

Her eyes were wide in fear, and she turned back towards the first picture. She let out a high pitched scream when she saw that the eyes of the cat depicted were staring straight at her, the slits focused on her as if she was prey.

She started shaking, and she attempted to convince herself she was only imagining it. She turned around, and looked at the rest of the pictures. She was completely mortified when she saw that eyes of all cats were pointed straight at her.

She let out a silent scream again, and willed her body to move. It obeyed, and the girl ran as fast as she could, reaching the door on the other side and pushing it open.

She burst in, her sandals creating faint echoes along the way. She managed to trip, and fell onto her knees inside of the new room. She was grateful when he heard the door slam behind her. That hallway had truly horrified her.

She closed her eyes, waiting for herself to stop shaking and for her heart to calm down.

Deep breaths. I'll be fine.

It took her a few minutes to recollect herself, and when she did, she stood up with a new burst of confidence.

But when she looked around, she wished she stayed down.

For the wall was decorated with pictures of dead cats.

//We're slowly getting to scary stuff ;)