October 6th

"Goodnight, sweetheart," his mother said as she left the room. She closed the door, something he hated but had never requested of her to refrain from doing. The nightlight still glowed dimly from where it plugged in on the wall, but the darkness was still scary. He hated the shadows, the way his toys looked at night. Those he played with all day became terrifying once the light went away.

He closed his eyes and held his teddy bear tight. His mind wandered, forgetting about his fears in the dark room and drifting off into the unpredictable dream world, when he awoke back to reality.

"Addison," the voices whispered. "We're going to get you."

His eyes shot open. He looked around. When he had gone to bed, his room had been messy. The toys were scattered. Now that he looked, they were all gone. The floor was clean and he couldn't see any of them. This was worse than when he imagined them with red, glowing eyes, claws growing from bear paws, horns growing from the skulls of action figures. Now they had disappeared. This meant it wasn't his imagination. They could move where they wanted. His mom was wrong. They could hurt him. They were real, and they were alive. He looked to his window and saw an unexpected face staring at him. It was a jack-o'-lantern, its face leering and waiting. The face was of his teddy bear with sharp, pointed teeth in its smile. The detail was so precise the child wanted to scream. He looked at his stuffed bear, found it to be completely normal, and finally decided to close his eyes and go to sleep.

There was a tickling on his foot. When he looked, it was one of his action figure soldiers using his plastic knife to stroke him. He giggled, but then the figure used his other hand, pulled out a tiny, real knife, and plunged this into the soft flesh at the bottom of Addison's foot. The child cried out. The bear he'd been snuggling with turned to face him. It bared fangs and revealed sharp claws.

"Let's make this fun," the bear said. He waved the other toys towards him. "Addison is ours now."

All of the toys descended. They tossed the pillow over the child's head before he could scream. 

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