She felt cold. Disturbingly so.

Worse yet, everything was way too quiet.

Layla looked around, deciding it was okay to sit down against a wall. She didn´t feel like lying on the ground any longer.

However, much to her surprise, he wall was even colder than the ground. She had never leaned against or touched such a strange thing.

The rock-like surface of the wall was not only uncomfortable and devoid of any warmth, but it was also pulsating. Expanding and contracting in little intervals, as if it was a living organism. Layla did not need to be a scientist to know walls were not supposed to do that.

“What the hell is this place…”, the young girl mumbled, embracing her own knees. She knew she was far away from home. She could feel it, as every fiber of her being kept reminding her that she did not belong inside this nightmare.

Layla was in a small room with no windows and a single entrance. The only source of light was a torch in which blue flames glowed and danced menacingly. She had never seen anything like it, but then again, these were far from the most shocking thing she had saw recently.

Why was she here?

What did they want to do to her?

Why not eat her or drink her blood immediately, like in a horror movie? There were so many questions, and she didn´t even know if the answers would change anything in the slightest.

Was she asleep? Was she just having a bad dream?

No.

This was a nightmare, alright, but she was very much awake. At first, Layla wondered if she had died and this place was some kind of strange Afterlife, but the girl quickly dismissed that notion: she had said bad words and lied to her parents a handful of times to escape being grounded, but only a truly horrible person would end up in such a scary place after dying.

I´m alive. I´m alive! I really think so.

This positive thought kept her head in place. As long as she was still alive, she could go back home. She was confused and the memories of being dragged to this awful place were certainly painful, but… as long as she was alive, there was still hope.

He will find me.

She was almost 13. She was not a kid anymore.

But honestly speaking, these last events had thrown all the “common sense” and “judgement” of the adults she knew through the nearest window.

They weren´t so dependable after all, huh?

Her parents kept telling her for years that there were no monsters lurking in her bedroom, and that there was no reason to feel afraid in the dark.

They were wrong. So wrong.

And if they were so utterly oblivious about a thing any kid could figure out easily, what else were they wrong about?

Maybe after you grow up you become blind to it?

She didn´t know the answer to that question… but what she did know was that, in an horrible moment of absolute despair, Sir Teddy spoke to her.

His voice was firm and kind, just like she had always imagined.

She remembered it clearly. His fluffly body got torn to pieces by the enemy, and she screamed while being dragged through the room towards her own bed… but when she tried to grab onto the carpet, she picked something up, and at that moment Sir Teddy´s voice invaded her head once again:

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Don´t worry.

I´ll find you.

I´ll bring you home.

Those were the last words she heard before losing consciousness. The girl blushed, feeling embarrassed, and felt her eyes tear up a little.

She wanted to hear that voice again!

“You´ll come… right?”, she whispered, wiping out her tears with the sleeve of her pajamas.

She hoped so. And if that was the case, she couldn´t just sit here doing nothing. Layla was scared, but… she needed to find out more about this place and understand her situation better, otherwise it would be too hard for Sir Teddy to find out where she was.

I don´t know anything about where I am.

Maybe there´s a way to send a message to him!

Did this place have phones or computers? She doubted it. But maybe they had their own magical ways of communicating through long distances! Wasn´t that how things worked in games or movies?

The girl took a moment to fix her hair up and build up the courage to get up. Layla had learned to tie her twintails high up just a few months ago, but as with anything her Mom taught her, she repeated the process several times until she was satisfied with it. She was stubborn about doing things correctly.

Layla swiped some of her own light-brown strands of hair that had gotten stuck over her small lips. Then she got up and grabbed something from the pocket of her pants: the small object she had picked up from the bedroom´s floor as she was being dragged away against her will.

It was round and pretty, a jet-black sphere made of glass.

It was Sir Teddy´s left eye.

I wonder if he can see me through this thing?

She blinked, trying to smile at the small object. She then waved at it, like you would do in front of a webcam.

What the hell am I doing?

She laughed out loud, amused at her own antics.

This whole situation has really turned me back into a child.

But was that really a bad thing?

At least her fear had evaporated, and she started to remember all of those times she went on adventures together with the neighbourhood boys into the woods that surrounded their small suburb. They barely did anything remarkable, but to small kids like them every weird noise that

made your heart race and every tree you were brave enough to climb ended up becoming a great adventure.

I lost him once. Sir Teddy. I left him behind.

As she put the small round eye back in her pocket, she started to remember that old story that happened years ago. The other boys had already gone back home, and it was already late in the afternoon. If she had gone back home to ask for help, she knew her Mom would tell her to wait until the next day, but she could not let Sir Teddy spend the whole night alone in the forest!

The sun was almost going down when she went back into the woods, alone, to search for him.

It was the kind of stupid thing only a kid would have done, but Layla loved her friend very much.

She was so scared! The sunlight was fading quickly, and she couldn´t remember where she had dropped him. Even now, years later, Layla could visualize it so vividly: that little girl leaning back against a tree, closing her eyes to hold back tears, learning for the first time the meaning of being disappointed with herself.

If only I hadn´t brought Sir Teddy along today…

He will get sad and think I threw him away, but it´s not true!

If I find him, I´ll take better care of him! I promise!

When the little girl opened her eyes, there he was.

Easy to spot, dropped on the top of a big rock.

Layla screamed in joy, running to the teddy bear and embracing him.

“There you are!”

She was so silly! He was standing in a place that was so easy to notice! She probably had missed him several times as she walked by! Was she not looking properly? Maybe she was too nervous?

Wrong.

There was another explanation for what happened on that day.

Layla knew the truth now.

You found me, didn´t you?

On that day, Sir Teddy went to where I was and stood in an obvious place so I could see him.

Thanks to that, we went home before it got dark.

You were protecting me!

“Even though I had forgotten about you and left you in that forest all alone…”, Layla whispered to herself, biting her own lips.

She wanted to tell him she was sorry, and she wanted to thank him.

Not only that.

Honestly, there were so many things she wanted to tell him...

Layla left that strange room. She was walking slowly and cautiously as she entered a long and dark corridor. Its walls, just like those in the room she had just left, seemed to be made of pure rock. She wondered if they pulsated like living things as well, but had no intention of finding out. Torches full of blue flames created small checkpoints of visibility across the pitch-black corridor. Layla shuddered, unable to move a single step.

Look at this.

And I used to think MY KITCHEN seemed vast and scary when the lights were turned off…!

“No, no!”, she shook her head, trying to focus.

I can´t back out now.

She took a long breath and closed her eyes for a moment.

I was scared that day too, when I went back into the woods to look for Sir Teddy. But I did it! And I was much younger!

For some reason, amidst the confusion and fear, she remembered that little moment on the previous day when she was home alone and decided to go down the stairs to drink some water.

For a few seconds, her hand just wouldn´t find the kitchen´s light switch. At that moment, she was completely alone in the dark.

No. That´s wrong.

She wasn´t alone back then, and she wasn´t alone now.

Layla started to walk, step by step, creating shadows in the walls as she moved slowly. The girl smiled and slowly slid her hand inside the pocket of her pants. Her fingers touched the small black orb of glass she was keeping there.

That´s right. You´re here with me.

Her small body was completely swallowed by the darkness, but she kept moving forward.