The round reindeer plush toy.
It was around Christmas time when my grandmother passed away. My dad didn't tell me how she died; he claimed he didn't want to frighten me. On Christmas Day, while opening presents, my family was silent. Usually my grandmother was the life of the party. Opening gifts was a bittersweet moment. Afterwards, everyone just went to isolate themselves in their rooms. My grandmother was an important person in all of my family's lives.
When I went up to my room, I shut the door and began to weep. At that moment I remembered I had something my grandmother gave me when I was a child. I went to my closet, looked through a few boxes and found it. It was a cute, round reindeer plush doll she gave me many Christmases ago. I remembered spending hours with this toy just rolling it around and having fun with it. I looked deep into the plush's green eyes and felt a tear rolling down my cheek. I gently put the toy on my dresser to daily remind me of my loving grandmother.
That night I fell asleep and saw my grandmother in a dream. She seemed distressed, but all she did was look down. I looked down too, only to see the same plush doll I have in my room lying on the floor. I was confused in the dream, because my grandma never looked up. She had her sight fixed on that plush doll. Then, before I knew it, she pulled out a knife, stuck it in her neck, and let out a terrifying screech.
I awoke from that nightmare drenched in sweat and horrified. I took a moment to take a breather and calm myself down. I reached over to my nightstand to get my iPod touch, hoping music would calm me down. The brightness of the screen overwhelmed me. While my eyes accustomed to this, I saw a slight movement from the corner of my right eye. I was shaken, but I turned toward that direction.
It was the plush doll, right next to me. Not at all near my dresser where I had left it. I stood still for about twenty seconds. I'm not crazy, and I know that plush doll moved on its own. I decided to just fall asleep and not make a sound. But in the middle of the night, I swear I heard the word "nightmare" being whispered in a ghastly voice.
I awoke to see the plush doll on my dresser. This made me question if I even saw it the night before right next to me. Was I dreaming? No. I know it was real. But I tried to ignore this whole event because I didn't want it to ruin my Christmas break. Despite trying to forget about it, I had to tell my dad about what happened. He didn't believe me, thinking I must have seen a shadow. I wanted to prove him wrong, so I took the damned thing and put it in my closet. I took a photo of it with my iPod touch as proof that I left it in there.
That night, I woke up to a sort of thudding noise downstairs. Something drew me to check out what it was. I turned on the hall light and saw something that haunts me to this day. The plush doll seemed to be rolling down the stairs on its own by some kind of force. How was it able to roll on its own? Could this be some sort of spirit haunting my grandma that drove her to commit suicide? Thinking I was going crazy, I ran to my closet to check if the plush doll was there. It was chilling to see the plush doll was not in my closet. I quickly took out my iPod to make sure I did leave it in the closet earlier that day. I couldn't believe what I saw in that photo. It was a picture of my closet, with no reindeer plush toy inside it.
I felt my fear turn to rage. This plush toy was making me feel insane. I knew I couldn't allow this cursed thing to be in my home. So I ran with heavy steps down the stairs and snatched it while it was rolling. My mind was fixed on the fireplace. I felt the toy move in my hands and then it uttered some sinister sounds. All the more reason I wanted to destroy it. I started a fire and heard evil laughing coming from the plush toy. I felt my body wanting to freeze of fear, but I didn't let that stop me from my goal. The fire roared as I flung the little creature into it. I heard more vile and distorted laughter as the plush toy burned. I found relief in this as I extinguished the fire. I went to bed and slept soundly except for one thing...
I could've sworn I heard something rolling down the stairs.