Okay, so far things in Orange Springs hadn’t been too bad, and I was hoping it was going to stay that way.

Boy was I going to be disappointed.

When I went back over to Robert’s place the next day like we had planned, I found a note on the door that had been typed and printed out on a computer. It read

“Patrick, meet me at the gas station by the church: Robert” That wasn’t too far away, so I proceeded onward into town…if you could call it that. Orange Springs was incredibly small; all it had was a post office, a church, a park, and two gas stations, one of which was in the same area as the church and post office, so you can tell how tiny this place was.

When I reached one of said gas stations, the one next to the church, I saw Robert leaning against the wall, and he wasn’t alone. Those two people that had been at his house yesterday were standing beside him. I crossed the street in the blistering sun and eventually made it up to them. It looked like they were in a heated discussion about something. As I drew closer, I began to make out a few choice words being exchanged.

“Listen, this is the LAST time I’m moving. I admit I don’t love it here, but it sure as hell beats the alternative,” the girl, Connie, was saying in a hushed tone. I froze in place, and knit my eyebrows. What “alternative?”

“I’m with Connie on this one, Rob. I really don’t want to have to move again, so we’ve got to make a pact right now that we won’t get involved in anything weird,” the boy, Donnie, said just as quietly. And then he added

“Besides, it’s Florida, the sunshine state; it’ll be a great place to work on my tan,” I didn’t get it. Not the part about Donnie’s tan, but-okay well that too, but come on, a dark skinned guy getting a tan? That was like painting over black paint with more black paint: What was the point? But anyway, what I really couldn’t wrap my head around was what he said about being involved in weird stuff.

“Tan? Seriously, Donnie? You’re going to look like my mom’s thanksgiving turkey if you get any darker!” Robert whispered. “But alright, fine. I, Robert Kingett, do hereby swear not to get involved in anything strange and/or weird here in Orange Springs, Florida,”

“I second that,” Connie agreed.

“Then it’s settled,” Donnie said. “And for your information, I liked your mom’s turkey last year,”

Alright, I know it was rude to listen in on other people’s private conversations like that, but are you going to tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing? Because that’s about as believable as Donnie’s tan.

Anyway, I had been standing still there for so long, I was once again unprepared when Donnie grinned and shouted “Blind high-five!”

“Oh shit- SLAM!”

“Ow! Damn it! Sorry Patrick,” Connie said. “And get the hell off of me, Donnie!”

“How’d you know it was me?” I asked, helping Robert to his feet.

“When you’re blind, you have to learn how to recognize things by touch pretty quickly,” Connie replied.

“You never know when you’ll have to act fast.” the way she said it made it sound like she had to act fast often.

“Yeah…I guess,” was all I could say.

“Well, anyway, now that we’re all here, let’s get down to business, shall we?” Robert said.

“And what business is that, exactly?” I asked.

“Finding something to do in this dump of a town,” Connie said, gesturing around her.

“Hmm, well, I haven’t really taken a good luck at what’s here yet. You want to go for a walk and explore a bit?” I suggested.

“Sounds good to me,” Donnie said, raising his hand.

“You’re just happy you get to show yourself off to the local girls,” Connie said.

“You know me so well,” Donnie replied, grinning.

“Alright, keep the snake in the tank, Donnie,” Robert said. “They’re going to be all over me and Patrick anyway, right, Patrick?”

“Um, yeah, I guess,” I said uncertainly.

“What’s wrong, not a ladies’ man?” Robert asked.

“Not exactly, no,” I replied.

“Don’t tell me you’re a men's man,” Robert said quietly.

“What? No man, hell no!” I said quickly. “I’m just not that confident at getting girls, that’s all.”

“How confident are you?” Donnie asked.

“Well, I nearly piss my pants whenever I try to talk to girls. So I’d say about 0 percent,” I said. Both Robert and Donnie burst out laughing, but Connie just crossed her arms and shook her head.

“Oh, shut up, thing 1 and thing 2,” she said. “Patrick, you just have to be yourself. If that doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. There are millions of girls in the world, chances are one of them is going to like you,”

“Ha, thanks for the tip,” I said. “Alright, so, shall we get going?”


Our trek through town was a rough one. For one thing, I had to lead a trio of blind people through a potentially hazardous area, making sure they didn’t fall in a ditch or something like that. Another problem was the heat. I wasn’t used to it, seeing as I had moved here from North Carolina, so the sun was really having a negative affect on me. One fortunate thing about Florida however that we hastily took advantage of was its extensive amount of trees, which provided some much needed shade, though eventually we still found ourselves in need of some rest.

“I’m not going to make it…need…hot pockets,” Robert groaned.

“Robert I think the heat is screwing with your head. It’s got to be almost a hundred degrees out here, and you want hot pockets?” Connie said in disbelief.

“Hey, I don’t tell you how to live your life!” Robert shot back.

“Only because if you did I’d kick your ass,” Connie said.

“Hey, hey guys cool it,” Donnie said. “Why don’t we take a break for a bit?”

“I’m with Donnie on this one. There’s the other gas station, let’s sit in the shade,” I said, pointing to the small diner/gas station. “We can even get some fuel for our stomachs,”

“Oh yes, food!” Robert said, his willpower returning. “Alright, I’m convinced, lead the way,”

As soon as I opened the door, we were blessed with a waft of cold air from the store’s air conditioner.

“Is that God?” Robert asked. The man behind the counter laughed.

“Not unless I got a pretty big promotion!” he said. He looked about middle aged, with short black curly hair that was starting to go gray in the back, and he wore a pair of square-framed glasses.

“What can I do ya for?” he asked.

“Nothing less than $100,” Robert said. This made the cashier laugh even harder.

“Good one, kid! But seriously guys, if you need help with anything you just let me know!” he said.

“Can do,” Robert replied. “For starters, could we get some food? It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it and it’s edible and tastes good,”

“Hmm, well I can make you something edible or something that tastes good, not sure if I can do both.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Connie asked.

“Ha! Of course I’m kidding. You take a seat and I’ll get ya’ll some hot dogs. By the way, the name’s Keith”

“Thank God!” Robert said, raising his hands to the ceiling as Keith went into the back room.

“Do you ever have anything on your mind besides food?” Connie asked Robert.

“Yes, but most of it is pretty disturbing,” Robert said.

“Psh, our whole life is disturbing,” Connie said. Suddenly she raised her eyebrows and froze, like she had just let some big secret slip.

“Wait, disturbing how?” I asked.

“Just a lot of crazy stuff happens to us, let’s just put it that way,” Donnie said. The way he said it made it seem like he was trying to cover up for what Connie had said, but I didn’t push it. If they wanted to keep their secret, who was I to try to yank it out of them?

A very smart guy, because what I didn’t know at that moment was that I would soon be a part of their secret, and I would have liked as much notice as possible.

***

A few minutes later we were all tearing into our food like ravenous zoo animals while Keith tended to customers. The diner portion of the small store was what you’d expect: a couple of small booths to sit in and a bunch of hunting trophies scattered along the walls. Robert must have noticed, because he said

“Why do I feel like I’m being stared at from the walls?”

“Because, don’t get too excited, but a deer is checking you out,” I told him.

“At least I get something mister pisses-his-pants-when he talks to girls” Robert said. I nearly spat out my sweet tea.

“Personal!” I said. Robert cracked up and started choking on his hot dog. I smacked his back and he coughed, holding up his hand to show he was going to live.

“Thank you, karma,” I said, grinning and glancing at the counter. What I saw made my grin falter. A little girl who appeared to be Keith’s daughter was talking to him, only it was more like arguing. I assumed she was his daughter because of her identical long, curly black locks. I tried not to look or listen, but, as I’ve already mentioned, curiosity is my weakness.

“But daddy, he won’t stop!” the girl was saying.

“Kelly, I’m telling you, it’s just nightmares, it’s not real,” Keith said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“No! It’s not bad dreams! He really talks, and moves by himself!” Kelly said desperately. “Whoever says the magic words becomes his target!”

“Now, that’s enough, Kelly. Mister Fluffy is just a stuffed bear, he can’t do anything,” Keith said, a slight edge in his voice.

“You don’t get it; he only pretends to be a regular teddy bear!” Kelly insisted.

“Kelly, look.” Keith took the teddy bear, shook him a little, prodded him in different spots, and held him at arms length, waiting for a reaction. After a couple seconds had passed, he said

“There, you see? He’s just a toy. Now, how about you sit down and I’ll get you some ice cream?”

Kelly looked up at the bear for a moment, then sheepishly said

“Cookies and cream?”

“Sure thing,” Keith said, ruffling her hair. She sat down at a booth while Keith went to the backroom.

“Poor kid, I remember when I was her age and I was afraid of monsters,” I said.

“How’d you get over it?” Donnie asked.

“Simple: I just believed my parents, like little Kelly is now,” I said, gesturing to her.

“So you never believed in monsters or ghosts after that?” Robert asked. I probably should have said I had, but I didn’t want to look like a whack-job.

“Nope, I think they’re total fiction to be quite honest,” I said. Hey, if you had been in my shoes, you would have said the same thing!

“Really? Well, I guess that means you think TAPS is full of shit,” Donnie said.

“Pretty much,” I said with a shrug, even though I was obsessed with Ghost Hunters and watched it every chance I got.

“Oh, us too,” Connie said. “Right, guys?”

“Definitely,” Robert and Donnie said in unison.

“But why all of this interest in ghosts all of a sudden?” I asked suspiciously.

“No reason, just making conversation,” Robert said. Needless to say, I wasn’t convinced. But just then Keith brought us all cookies and cream ice cream cones and said

“Here ya go, guys, on the house,” This drove ghosts out of all of our minds simultaneously.

“Thanks Keith. Um, I couldn’t help but overhear. Is that your daughter?” I asked, pointing to Kelly. His expression became weathered, and I realized the argument we witnessed must have come up before.

“Yeah, that’s my little girl. I’m at my wits end with her, I’m tellin’ you,” he said. I don’t know why I was interested in what was going on in this guy’s life. Something just told me I should be. Call it instinct, intuition, or psychic powers. The fact is this is when my life really hit the point of no return.

“Are you guys okay?” I asked.

“Well, you probably heard. She’s been having a lot of nightmares recently,” he said, looking at his daughter wistfully. “They’re always about that, well, that teddy bear,”

“Wow…I thought I had messed up dreams,” Robert said.

“Robert!” Connie hissed.

“No, it’s alright little darlin’, your friend is right,” Keith said sadly. I had only met the guy a little while ago, but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.

“I know what it’s like to be in her situation,” I told Keith. “When I was young I was terrified of monsters,”

“Yep, me too, kid, me too,” he said. “My monster was the old tree that was near my bedroom window. I could swear that thing had tried to get in through the widow.”

“Mine was the noises I’d hear at night,” I said. “My parents eventually convinced me it was the house settling from the cool air, but it still scared me.”

“Well, I just don’t know how I’m going to convince her,” Keith said. “She just won’t accept the fact that her bear is just a toy,”

“I wish we could help,” I said. I hadn’t really meant it; I was just trying to make him feel better. But he jumped right on it.

“Hey, maybe you can!” he said. “Tell ya what: if you guys can help her, I’ll give ya’ll free ice cream cones for a month!”

“Um, uh, well…guys, what do you think?” I said, looking around at the others.

“I’m down,” Connie said. “Donnie, Robert?”

Donnie nodded enthusiastically, and Robert sighed.

“Alright, we’re in,” he said. “But the ice cream better be consumer’s choice,”

“You got it!” Keith said, beaming. He hurried back behind the counter, and gave us all the thumbs-up.

“Well, I guess we’d better give it a shot,” Robert said. We all walked over to where Kelly was eating ice cream and watching her bear like a hawk.


It’s probably obvious, but I had absolutely no idea how to help this kid. Like I said, I was only trying to be nice when I said I wanted to help. But it looked like we were stuck, so I figured we might as well wing it and see what happens.

“Uh, hey, Kelly, we’re friends of your dad,” I said. “I’m Patrick, this is Robert, Donnie, and Connie,” I said, pointing to each of them in turn. She glanced at us, and went back to her bear.

“We heard you were having some problems with your little friend, um, Fluffy, right?” Connie said.

Kelly slowly nodded, still keeping a sharp eye on her bear.

“Well, can you tell us what’s been going on?” I asked.

“Why should I? Daddy didn’t believe me, so why should you be any different?” she said quietly.

“You’d be surprised,” Robert said. For some reason Robert sounded way more serious than the situation called for. I was starting to really wonder about what their shared secret was. I didn’t have time to contemplate it though, so I put it in the back of my mind for the time being.

“Anyway, we’d really like to help, if you want to let us try,” I said. Now I was lying to a little girl who couldn’t be older than seven. I was doing swell.

“You guys can’t help me…he won’t let you,” she whispered. Is it wrong to say the seven year old was beginning to freak me o“Well, you don’t have to worry about that, because we’re, we’re um…” This is where I nudged Robert’s heel to get him to help me.

“We’re secret monster hunters, and we’ve handled cases like this before,” is what he came up with.

“Yes! I was hesitant to tell you because we’re top secret,” I said. Wow, Robert must be used to pulling stuff out of his ass…I mean with coming up with lies on the spot, not like…oh you get what I’m saying.

“Yeah, but in your case I think we can make one exception,” Donnie said.

“As the leader of our organization, I’ve deemed you worthy of our assistance,” Robert said. Boy, was he milking this.

“Of course. Now, why don’t you tell us all about your experiences with Fluffy,” I said gently. Kelly looked around the diner to make sure nobody else was listening in.

“Well, we got him from an old antique shop,” she began. “My daddy knows someone there, and when I was looking at stuff I saw Fluffy,” she held him up. “I had just lost my other teddy, Mister Snuggles, and I wanted a new one, so I asked daddy if he could get Fluffy and he did.” She took a moment to lick her ice cream cone, and continued.

“That night I woke up and Fluffy was gone. I heard noises from the kitchen, so I hurried in there, and-and,” she then looked at us very seriously.
“Everything from the cabinets and refrigerator was all over the floor!” she cried. “Daddy came out and got mad at me and told me to clean it all up, I tried to tell him it wasn’t me but he didn’t believe me!” Okay, so right about now I’m thinking

Wow, this kid has some serious issues!

“And then after I cleaned everything up and went back to my room, Fluffy was sitting on my pillow with ice cream on his face,” Kelly said. “I knew he was the one who made a mess in the kitchen, and since then he’s done all sorts of other bad things and I always get blamed for them!”

Yup, she’s broken…

“I think it’s all because I said the magic words,” she said.

“Magic words?” I asked, trying to sound curious.

“Yeah, the magic words on his tag that brought him to life,” she said, looking down at her bear in utter horror.

“You think you brought him to life by saying these magic words?” I asked.

“Yes, but that’s not all they do,” she said. “They also make him torment the last person who said the words. So if you said them right now, he would come after you,” It was obvious this kid was off the deep end. But maybe if I could do something about this crazy teddy bear thing, then maybe she wouldn’t have problems anymore.

“Hey, tell you what, Kelly,” I said. “We can take Mister Fluffy and keep him for a couple of days, and turn him into a nice magic teddy bear,” I said. “We can fix him so he won’t do bad things ever again. What do you say?” Kelly’s little eyes widened,

“You could do that?” she asked.

“Of course! So, do we have a deal?” I asked. She nodded so fast I thought her head would come off, and she handed me her bear.

“Don’t worry, we’re going to help Fluffy and teach him to be good bear, right, guys?” I said. We were in this together, so they were going to have to deal with it.

“Yeah, no worries,” Robert said in a happy little voice that clearly said “I’m going to kick your ass for this.”

“Well then, we’re just going to take Mister Fluffy back to HQ and begin our work,” I said. “Come on guys, let’s get going,”

As we were headed for the door, I heard Kelly shout

“Thank you, mister monster hunter!” I looked back at her and saw her clap her hands over her mouth.

“I mean…thank you,” she said again in a serious whisper. I smiled and nodded, then walked out the door with the others.

“Wow, just wow,” Robert said, leaning against a tree.

“I know, Kelly must have had some pretty intense nightmares to be making stuff up like that,” I said.

“I have heard some shitin my life, but that’s just freaky,” Connie said. “I’d be messed up too if I had
dreams like that!”

“I thought we already were messed up,” Donnie said, tilting his head.

“Oh, you know what I mean!” Connie said.

“Well, I think if we tell her Fluffy is fixed, that’ll fix her,” I said.

“Hmm, could work,” Robert said.

“I mean come on, if you could have seen Keith’s face, you’d want to help too,” I said.

“Patrick, you’re alright,” Donnie said.

“Yeah, a real upstanding citizen,” Robert said, grinning.

“Shut up,” I mumbled. “By the way that was great improvisation back there, monster hunters: Brilliant! How’d you come up with that so fast anyway?” Robert shrugged.

“Just a quick thinker, I guess,” he said. “Anyway, you want to hang out at my place tonight, maybe stay over? We’re having pizza,”

“Sounds good to me. What should we do with Fluffy?” I asked.

“Haha, why don’t you say the magic words and see if he attacks you?” Robert joked. I looked at the tag on the heel of Fluffy’s foot and surprisingly found there was something strange about it.

“Hey, guys, there’s something written here,” I said.

“Oh, bullshit, nice try, Patrick,” Connie said.

“No, seriously, there’s something scrawled on the tag!” I insisted.

“What’s it say, tell your friends there’s something here because they’re all patsies?” Robert asked.

I tried to make out the message on the tag, but it was written in some weird-ass language I didn’t recognize. But that didn’t stop me from sounding it out.

“Gaf elt til asi rebeib nitsuj”

“What the fuck was that?” Robert asked with a scrunched up face.

“I told you, it’s on the-.”

A harsh gust of wind suddenly attacked my face, and I dropped Fluffy.

“What the hell…there hasn’t been any wind all day!” I said, bending down to pick up Fluffy. Was it me, or was his sewn on smile bigger than before?

“Hey, Hairy Pothead, you coming?” Robert called.

“Yeah, sorry,” I replied, grabbing Fluffy and joining the others who were already walking away.

***

Dinner at the Ketts’ was anything but dull. Donnie and Connie were also there, but they had other things to do that night, so they weren’t able to stay long. After we had stuffed our faces with pizza, I watched and Robert listened to YouTube videos for the rest of the night. Once we turned in, I was out like a light.

Until…

CRASH

I sat up so fast I was dizzy for a moment. Getting a grip, I listened intently. I could definitely hear something coming from the other end of the house. I checked the alarm clock: 1:30 AM.

“Robert, you awake?” I whispered. The answer to my question came as a loud snore. I would have woken him up, but it might not be anything to worry about, so I decided to go in alone.

I crawled out of my sleeping bag and started to creep down the hall. Something definitely seemed wrong. You know that feeling you get in your chest when you know something just isn’t right? Well, I had that feeling all over my body. I sneaked into the living room as silently as I could, and saw light coming from the kitchen. The door was nearly closed, but cracked just enough for light to get out. The noises became less frequent as I drew closer to the door. When I finally reached it, the noises had stopped completely.

I peered inside from the crack, but couldn’t see much, though I could tell that the light was definitely coming from the refrigerator. Was one of Robert’s parents out for a late night snack? That seemed to be the case. But something in my gut told me they were just as asleep as Robert was, and that whoever was in the kitchen was someone else entirely. I lightly pushed the door open, and what I saw nearly made me faint.

Everything in the kitchen from the canned goods and the cereal, to the more cold-reliant food such as the leftover pizza, was scattered all across the floor, and the refrigerator was wide open. I made a quick observation of the kitchen and found nobody. But how could that be? There was no way out except the way I had come in, and the noises had barely stopped when I reached the door.

I slowly walked through the kitchen, looking at everything that had been tossed on the floor. As I knelt down and picked up a slice of pizza, I heard something scurry across the floor, and quickly looked to see if I could spot whatever had done this. What I saw was the shadow of a small figure running through the kitchen doorway. I scrambled to my feet and was about to go after it, when a taller figure stepped into the kitchen.

“Patrick, is that you?” Robert asked. Oh, just great.

“Yeah, it’s me, but, um, we sort of have a situation here,” was all I could think to say.

“What are you talking about-“ he froze when he stepped on a carrot.

“What is that? Is that a carrot?” he asked. He kept coming, stepping on more food.

“Patrick, what the hell are you doing? Trying to make me think that stupid teddy bear is really alive? Ha-ha, funny! Now clean up this mess!”

“Me? I just came in here and it was like this!” I whispered frantically.

“Mmhmm, yeah, uh-huh, and I have super hearing! Any more bullshit you want to feed me?” Robert said.

“Fuck it, just go back to bed, I’ll clean it up,” I said. He shook his head and went back to his room, muttering something about me trying to freak him out.

It took me a while, but I got the floor cleaned up and everything put away. I then went back to Robert’s room and was about to crawl into my sleeping bag when I noticed that something else had gotten the same idea. I froze in the doorway, waiting for it to move, but nothing happened. I crept up closer and gasped.

Fluffy was sitting directly in the middle of my pillow, pizza sauce all over his snout.