It began on that day.  The day he decided to grow up.  It was mid-summer when he got the news that he’d been accepted into a prestigious school from out of state.  The rest of his summer was spent preparing for the move. He began to think about his new life away from his hometown.  Everyone there knew him as “The School Weirdo.” This started when the kids in his high school found out about his habit of talking to his action figures and stuffed animals.  They ridiculed him for years, destroying his chances at a normal life. Suddenly, a thought came into his head. This would be his chance at a new life. A chance to start over and begin anew.  

He looked down at his action figures in his moving box and came to a conclusion.  He decided to give up on his childhood and get rid of his toys that he had grown so fond of.  He proceeded to put his toys in a big, black bag. One by one, he placed them in the bag, reminiscing of the innocent days of his childhood.  He started with his stuffed lion Tommy. Whenever he was scared, he would always hold Tommy close, and all of his fears would suddenly melt away.  He struggled a bit before finally gaining the courage to throw him away. Next, he threw away his action figures and toy soldiers, followed by his giant stuffed monkey that he won at an amusement park.  Finally, after a long day of packing, he finished putting the last of his toys in the black bag and dragged them out to the curb for the garbage man to dispose of. As he walked back to the house, he dragged his feet on the ground, wondering if he could really go through with this, but as he reached the door, raindrops began to fall, and he decided that going back was not worth the hassle.  He closed the door, and as the rain slowly began to hit harder and harder, he decided to go to bed.

As the hours passed, he tossed and turned trying to get comfortable, but the feeling of losing his old friends and the thunder constantly pounding from outside kept him from finding peace.  Suddenly, while he was facing the wall, he heard the bedroom door slowly creek open. Surprised, he jolted out of the bed to investigate, but found nothing but the ominous gloom of the hallway lights.  As he began to head back to bed, the thunder from outside came crashing down creating a loud “BOOM!” followed by complete darkness as the power went out. He began to feel uneasy and frantically looked for a flashlight through his nightstand drawer.  His hands were shaking and when he finally discovered the flashlight, he struggled to turn it on. Once he was finally able to turn it on, he faced the bright light from the bulb toward his bed, which he was facing, to find his stuffed bear Tommy sitting there staring back at him.

He let out a terrified scream and dropped the flashlight in fear.  He fell to the floor and scrambled towards the light. As he reached out to grab it, he felt a cold plastic hand grab his wrist.  He looked over to see his action figures crawling towards him and clinch onto his clothes. He panicked and jumped up, shaking his body around in an attempt to throw them off.  Once free, he dashed towards the bedroom door. Right before he gets to the door, it slammed shut, and from behind the door walked his giant stuffed monkey menacingly looking into his eyes, filing him with despair.

Frightened, and with nowhere to go, the boy slowly started to walk backwards, looking around his room trying to find a way out.  Unfortunately, all he found were more toys coming out from his drawers, closet, and from underneath his bed. As he continued to walk back, he steps on a sharp piece of plastic and falls over from the pain.  He inspects his foot to find a green army man with a sharp bayonet sticking out of it. Before he had a chance to get up, he was surrounded by his toys, pinning him to the ground while he struggled to get out, but the toys only got closer.  Inches from his face, he then closed his eyes and let out a loud, terrified scream.

The boy opened his eyes and sprung up out of his bed, frantically looking around his room at all of his toys sitting right where he left them before he threw them out.  At first, he was petrified and didn’t realize what exactly happened. Then, his eyes opened wide as he realized that he had just awoken from a nightmare. He sat there and looked at all of his toys and decided that he was not going to throw any of them away.  He came to the conclusion that, if people are going to ridicule him for what he liked then fine, that’s just who he was. He grabbed Tommy and snuggled him into his arms, and as he slowly slipped away into his slumber, he felt something soft grip his arm tightly.