Teddy Newman and the Great Bedroom Escape

Even thirty minutes pass slowly when you’re stuck, unable to so much as blink or turn your head. John was left with his own thoughts and **** to stare straight ahead, at his own reflection. The teddy bear he found himself trapped in was either incredibly old or abused enough to require regular repairs. The ‘repairs’ were shoddy at best, a patchwork job using whatever material the sewer had on hand. What was once a single, fluffy brown coat had gradually turned into a matted array of browns, whites, pinks, and purples. One of the bear’s eyes had fallen out, replaced with a button, which was a shame because the one good eye was a spectacular black gem that gleamed even in the low light of the room.

Why Tower, as he’d decided to call the mysterious goddess for brevity’s sake, had decided to place him in some girl’s teddy bear was beyond John. As far as he could tell, neither the girl that currently cuddled him, Acedia, nor the woman wearing the porcelain mask were Tower. The fate of Lorelei was also a mystery. Although, having nothing else to do but stare ahead, he was beginning to suspect that the porcelain figure sitting in the dollhouse’s dining room might be her. Unfortunately, he had no way to confirm his theory.

Finally the cooldown ended, and his mana began to slowly regenerate. Another 22 minutes passed before John tried to test his plan of escape. Using the mirror as a guide, John cast Possession on his teddy bear reflection and attempted to shift himself. His perspective rolled slightly as the bear lurched forward briefly, before the spell dissipated. He was out of mana again, but at least he was sure of a few more things. Firstly, he was stuck inside the gem that represented the teddy bear’s eye, not the bear itself. Second, given enough time and mana, he could probably explore quite a bit of the bedroom, maybe even find a way out.

The only problem was that maintaining a Possession spell was draining. Even at level 19 it cost 6 mana a second to maintain. If he wanted any chance of escape, he’d probably need to level it up a few times and hope the cost gets reduced. So that’s exactly what he did. He sat there for hours, exercising the Possession spell and watching it crawl up in levels at an agonisingly slow pace. Acedia would occasionally toss and turn in her sleep, but she never woke. The music box chirped a soothing melody.

John quickly lost track of time, but it seemed that Gaia was willing to throw him a bone. When Possession hit level 25, the spell became slightly more nuanced, but the mana cost changed from seconds to minutes.

Skill Level Up - Possession is now level 25
The Gamer may possess a non-living object that he can see, weighing up to 30 kilograms. The weight of the possessed object affects the speed at which it can be moved. For example, an object weighing 30 kg can be moved up to 10 cm/s, while an object weighing a kilogram or less can be moved up to 1 m/s. The spell costs 1 mana per minute.

‘So I guess you aren’t just gonna leave me alone, huh?’ John directed his thoughts towards his godly benefactor. Still, it had been Tower that had saved him, not Gaia. He still wasn’t sure how to feel about that. It would probably take a while to process. But he had no shortage of time on hand.

With a full mana bar, John would have about an hour and forty minutes of time to work with inside his cuddly form. ‘Well, I have definitely missed the meeting with Detective Lee.’ John would have sighed bitterly had he possessed a mouth. ‘And if it’s already Monday, I doubt I’ll be making it to my appointment with the Witch Doctor.’

John sourly stared ahead for the next few hours as his mana bar regenerated for the umpteenth time. This imprisonment was driving him mad. The Tower goddess had promised they would talk soon. John certainly had some choice words for her.

When the time finally came that his mana bar was full, Teddy Newman sprung into action. The spell gave life to the stuffed bear, allowing him to float across the room to where the dollhouse rested against the wall. He moved through the open wall and took a close look at the porcelain doll that sat at the table. It was a chunky, old Victorian looking thing, with frazzled black hair and a smile, probably intended to be sweet and innocent, but in reality was a malevolent grin. It was the kind of creepy thing John would have avoided had he not suspected his friend was stuck inside it. The doll’s eyes were smaller and fit the doll better than Teddy Newman’s own mismatched pair, but one shone with a glimmer. John reached out a soft paw and touched the gem. He felt nothing. Yet the eye definitely had a strange gleam to it, as if beckoning him. He shifted slightly so that his own crystalline eye touched the doll’s.

“John!” Lorelei’s cry immediately resounded in his mind.

“Thank fucking christ,” John replied. “Are you alright?”

“Confused, disoriented… scared,” Lorelei murmured back. “I-I can see… but I can’t move. Where are we? Why are you inside a teddy bear?”

“We’re trapped in soul gems, I think,” John replied. “They’ve been fitted as eyes in some girl’s toys. We’re in her bedroom. But where that is, I don’t have a bloody clue.”

“How are you able to move?”

“I have a spell that lets me possess other objects,” John explained quickly. “Hopefully, with it, I can carry both of us out of here.”

“Please,” Lorelei said eagerly.

“One more thing,” John said. “It seems like we’ll only be able to communicate while our stones are touching, It might be that we won’t be talking for a while.”

“Okay,” Lorelei replied in understanding. “I wish I could be more help… but good luck.”

“We’ll both need it,” John mused as he pulled away and attempted to wrap his soft paws around the doll’s figure. It was awkward; with no thumbs to speak of, his plush toy form had no grip. He had to alter her stance into a slight T-pose and bear hug from under the arms to lift her. Still, together they weighed far less than 30 kilograms, meaning his movement under the Possession spell was only mildly inconvenienced.

Cautiously, John turned to glance towards the sleeping Acedia. She showed no signs of waking. The music box still chirped melodiously. He took the opportunity to cast Observe on the girl.

Well, it seemed that whoever she was, she was far stronger than John to be outside the field of his Observe. It would definitely be best not to wake her.

John moved them across the room, carefully hiding behind cover and sticking to the shadows, just in case the sleeping girl awoke. There was no telling what would happen if she caught two of her toys trying to make a break for it.

Looking around the room, the only exits seemed to be the bedroom door the woman with the porcelain mask had stepped out of and the large window, which beamed a gentle moonlight into the room. John tried the window first. He could not see anything outside, not even the moon which cast doubt on the authenticity of the moonlight. The window had a latch, but he couldn’t exactly use his paws to get it open, so he tried possessing it. John felt his perspective begin to shift before suddenly snapping back into the gem with a splitting pain.

‘Fucking ouch.’ John shuddered as he tried to shake off the ensuing nausea. It felt like a throbbing migraine, only it encapsulated his soul and not his brain. But as far as he could tell, he had not taken any damage. Tentatively, he tried possessing a nearby lamp and succeeded, before trying the latch again. And again, pain spiked through his soul. ‘Got it, no leaving by the window.’ He grimaced and turned towards his second route of escape. ‘The door then.’

Thus began another careful trek across the room. John traced a path along the side of the bed. He looked up to see a small hand slightly twitch as it hung limply off the edge. Soft snores still filled the room, along with the soothing lullaby of the music box.

The area around the door was open to the room, with no furniture to hide John as he crept with Lorelei. Hanging back at the foot of the bed, John tried possessing the door to see if he could **** it to swing open. Pain cracked like a whip against his soul. ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck.’ John winced.

He peered at the door again. Light shone out from the cracks around its frame. Perhaps he could fit something smaller under the door frame and use that to take a look around outside? John searched the floor of the room, finding a hair clip that had, at some point, fallen out of sight under the bed. It was perfect. But John did not get the chance to hatch his plan.

The soft light in the room seemed to dim, and something in the shadows at the far corner of the bed stirred. John’s toy form reared back in alarm. There was something alive under the bed. How had John not seen it before?! It reached out towards him. Except it was no arm that reached. It was shadow. Shadows crept forward, reaching for John… and passing him.

The shadow ignored him. It did not see him, or did not care for him, the difference seemed trivial. The shadow skulked to the bedpost, and begun to coil like a snake up and onto the bed, where Acedia slept.

John stepped out from the bed, unsure of himself, but curious to get a better look at what was happening.

The shadow was crawling along the bed covers, up Acedia’s body. It stopped on her chest and the girl’s body stiffened, but did not wake. She began to shudder, and the shadows swelled and gained substance as if it were absorbing something. The girl’s face contorted in pain and she cried out between sharp and shallow breaths.

The soothing rhythm of the music box stuttered and faltered to a chilling silence. The shadow swelled still. It was larger than the girl now. The bed frame creaked as if a great weight was pressing down on it.

And then the girl violently erupted awake, shattering the quiet and stillness. As she hunched forward, her body broke through the oppressive shadow. Its form scattered silently, unnoticed by the girl as she screamed and heaved. The bedframe let out a low moan as the weight upon it lifted.

Acedia curled up into a ball at the foot of the bed, sobbing. With one hand, she blindly grasped around her, looking for something. “Stitch… St-stitch!” she gasped between deep breaths. “Where are-” She raised her head slightly, looking for where she had misplaced her stuffed companion.

Her eyes fell to where the teddy bear hugged the Victorian doll on the floor. Last she recalled, she had been hugging that same bear to sleep.