1

Bell and whistles scream from the machines of the Aurora bear factory. With everyone excited for the holidays, accidents have happened more and more often. Joe, the inspector, whom was recently hired on, has been having a rough start to his new job. He thinks he has been pranked on all day; people switching his black coffee with decaf, little things that keep him on edge. He’s waiting for the big prank to happen, the one that will hopefully be the last.
Walking back to his work station to retrieve his forgotten lunch, he notices a bear in his chair. From a distance he can tell the bear has its arms behind its back. He goes to pick it up expecting a prank; but when he picks up the bear he can feel the cold serrated steel on the bear’s back. In a flash, the bear jumps at him. Plunging a knife deep into his eye causing him to drop the bear into the pipe marked; “PACKAGING.”
Holding his eye, with the knife deep in the retina, he screamed for help. No one answered to his pain. He ran for the doors blind, and unaware of his new surroundings. He tripped over a cable to a machine, and fell to the ground. The knife pierced through the back of his head. He lay still for the other workers to find him after lunch was over.
2

“What are you going to get me for Valentine’s Day?” Rosie asked Scott from across the lunch table.

“I don’t know” Scott replied still looking at the snow slowly falling outside.

“There must be something you have in mind for your one month.” Jane snarled from Rosie’s side.

Yeah, Valentine’s Day is a special time for couples, at least in high school it is.” Julia stated from Rosie’s other side.

“Guys its ok, Scott doesn’t have to get me anything. I just wanted to know if he had any intentions of trading gifts with me,” Rosie said, smiling toward Scott as the lunch bell rang. Scott quickly shot up, quietly walking away; Rosie trailed and soon caught up. “Do you want to trade gifts?” Rosie restated.
Scott shook his head yes saying, “Of course I do. I just don’t know what to get you.”
Rosie thought for a minute, “Ok, how ‘bout this, we keep a price range of ten dollars. Ok?” Scott agreed and hurried off to class.
3
After the final bell, Scott ran to his car and drove to the local general store to look for a Valentine’s gift. Though he searched the store for an hour, nothing caught his eye. Until, that is, he walked down the stuffed animal aisle. He saw lions, seals, birds, and bees; but his favorite was the bears. “Yes” he thought, “Rosie will like these for sure, but which one?” There were some with hearts, some dressed as cupid, some holding flowers, and some holding chocolate. The one that stood out the most though was a solo brown bear still in its Aurora box, neither holding nor wearing anything. “Why would this be the only one,” Scott thought. “Maybe I can personalize him with things that mean a lot to her.”
He made up his mind; he wanted this bear. He grabbed it and looked at the price, twenty dollars, two times more than what Rosie and he agreed on. He wanted to keep his word, but it will mean so much to her that she won’t care if he used his entire savings to pay for the bear. So with that he paid the twenty dollars for the bear and went home happy about his find.
4
Scott woke up in the middle of the night. Eyes wide palms sweaty, he felt his sheets, soaked. The stench of urine pierced his nose as he stood up from under his covers. “That damn clown dream.” Scott murmured to himself as he changed his boxers. He then striped his bed as if it were routine. He took his soiled sheets and clothes to the basement to be cleaned in the morning.
On his way back to his room he heard little footsteps running around in his room. “Todd?” Scott whispered for his little brother hoping for a response. None came. He crept forward inching toward the door, “Mom?” Scott pleaded for a response before putting his hand on the door handle. Again no response came. Scott twisted the handle, slowly nudging the door open. He saw his room was a bigger mess than normal, his lamp was on the floor broken and the garbage can was turned over, which made him think a rodent or some other small animal had made its way into his room. That is until he saw the thin rope tied from the footboard of his bed dangling out his window. It wasn’t a rope. It was his shoelaces tied tightly together. Between both of the laces was only about four feet, it hung out the window fifteen feet off the ground, nothing could have made it that far. Scott looked down on the front yard. There was nothing there but the tiny footsteps in the snow, no bigger than rabbit’s tracks.
Scott quickly closed the window to prevent a shiver. He looked around his room and noticed his closet door was open, and the bag that held his bear was tipped over, the box shredded into a million pieces. “Who stole my bear?” Scott questioned in frustration. Calming down a bit, he thought of multiple scenarios, none of which made any sense. “How could anything get up here, and why would it need my shoelaces to get back down?” he murmured and closed his eyes before drifting off to sleep.
5
The next morning Scott fumbled to get up out of the bed. He stumbled as he made his way down the stairs to the kitchen table. As soon as he sat down with his Bran Flakes, Scott received a text from Rosie to quickly turn on channel 14, the local news station. He clicked on the television, barely catching the ending of the broadcast.
“Jane Brown, a local student at St. John High School, appeared to have been forced to choke and gag on gummy bears, the investigation is still in progress, but we do not have any suspects. However, the victim’s parents are in custody for further questioning.” the slim deputy stated to the cameras.
“No further quest-“ Scott clicked off the TV quietly. “How could Jane be dead?” He thought. Although Scott never cared for Jane, she was still a friend, and she did introduce him to Rosie. “Rosie!” He remembered he never replied to her text. Scott dialed her as he got up from the table, forgetting his breakfast all together.
“Hey, yeah I saw it,” Scott said as soon as Rosie’s voice could be heard.
“Who could have done this? And how gruesome to die from candy…” Rosie spoke softly. Scott could hear that she was crying.
“Babe its ok just be glad it wasn’t you,” he spoke equally soft in response. Rosie wept louder.
“I’m just glad that it wasn’t you,” Rosie choked out. Scott chuckled,
“If anyone tried anything on me I’d just beat ‘em up,” he responded playfully. She laughed back. Sniffing she said, “You wish. Anyway, I am home alone all day. I could use a strong man like you to protect me from the gummy killer.”
“Yeah, I can do that. Then we can trade Valentines gifts too.” He suggested.
“Sure we can do that,” Rosie giggled.
“Ok, love you babe. See you in a few,” Scott said hitting the end button.
Scott put his phone down on the nightstand, and searched his room for clean clothes. He felt his toes had gone numb. He could feel a breeze on his shoulder, as he looked up from his search. The breeze whipped across his neck sending a shiver down his back. The window was wide open, his shoelaces still dangling. Scott quickly pulled his now frozen shoelaces into his room and closed the window for a second time.
Scott looked at his shoelaces, “So it wasn’t a dream…” Scott thought turning to his closet, the door was closed, but he remembered it being open… As soon as Scott opened his closet door he saw his bag from the store now upright and his bear on the bottom. He reached in for the bear to get a closer look.
Scott could feel the bear was sticky, but didn’t have time to worry about small details. He was still in his boxers! He threw the bear into an old shoe box, tied a ribbon around it, and got ready himself.
6
Scott arrived at Rosie’s doorstep, the box under his arm as he rang the doorbell. About five seconds later Rosie arrived at the door, her eyes were still puffy and red from crying. “Come on in,” Rosie motioned, “you look nice”
“Thanks,” Scott said walking in. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
“Thanks,” Rosie said leading him into the basement.
Scott set the box next to the table leg. Rosie hugged him as soon as he spun around. She kissed him, pushing him onto the couch, falling on top of him pecking his neck with her soft lips.
“Maybe we should exchange gifts first.” Scott fumbled his words in nervousness. Sitting up he reached for the box. Scott paused, it was lighter in weight. “That’s odd.” Scott spoke to himself.
“What’s odd?” Rosie asked puzzled.
“You don’t have any animals in this house right?” Scott said showing Rosie the hole.
“No, what happened?” Rosie asked looking at the hole. “Did you get me a puppy or something? You know my parents will never allow it.”
“No I know, I got you a teddy bear, but it’s not here anymore.” Scott spoke breathlessly “The real question is where it went, because I know I had it when I walked in.”
“Is this a joke?” Rosie questioned.
“No, help me find it,” Scott said searching the room.
“I don’t even know what it looks like why am I searching for it?” Rosie asked.
“Did you want a Valentine’s gift or not?” Scott said angrily.
Just then the bear ran across the room and up the stairs into the kitchen. “What was that?” Rosie asked. “It looked like a rat.”
“I think it was the bear!” Scott answered running after it.

Scott tore up the stairs after the bear, taking the stairs two at a time. The bear ran from the top of the stairs down the hallway into the kitchen his stuffed paws slipping as they hit the wood floor. As Scott ran down the hallway after Rosie's supposed Valentines present Scott heard a high pitched skidding noise, soon followed by loud crashes of breaking glass. As he turned the corner Scott came into the kitchen to see that the bear had pushed a chair over to the counter to get onto the counter. The bear had just pushed a newly cleaned stack of plates off the counter as it made for the knife holder. As the bear grabbed a knife and turned around to point the tip in Scott's face he reached out and ripped the knife from the bear and held the bear to the counter. Scott stabbed the bear repeatedly, tearing out the cotton stuffing. Scott carried what little was left of the bear to fireplace and struck a match. The bear was soon consumed in flames and its beady eye melted as well.
“Why did you kill my bear?” Rosie asked staring into the fire.
“It killed Jane. I wasn’t sure at first because it never moved and didn’t make any actions to kill me, but after I saw it run across your floor and grab the knife. I knew it had to have done it.” Scott stated. “When I woke up this morning the bear was gone, but when I came back after eating breakfast and watching the news report it was back in its box. It had a gummy bear stuck to it and it was wet. I assume from walking in the snow.”
“Where did you even get that bear, some voodoo gypsy tent?” Rosie asked jokingly.
“I got it at the store in town,” Scott said seriously “it was still in its Aurora box.”
Rosie paused, “I recently saw a news broadcast of Aurora, they had a murder where an employee got stabbed in the eye, and no one was around to see it.”
Scott thought quietly for a moment. “Do we tell anyone?” he asked aloud.
“It is best not to tell anyone,” Rosie said as they both walked away from the fire silently forgetting everything that just happened.
As they walked away the fire still flickered distorting their shadows an old log that had been in the fire place shifted. The cotton stuffing was nothing but grey ash, but the cloth of the bear remained unburned.