When Melissa woke up, her mother had vanished from the freezer. The only sign she had ever existed was the rotten brown ice still coating its insides.

Honey, are you alright?

Melissa’s breath wheezed from her throat. Something in her chest didn’t feel right, like a bruise that wouldn’t go away. “I don’t know.” Her stomach remembered last night as well. Vivid bursts of pain. “Tummy hurts.”

Teddy hugged her. You don’t have to go to school today. Just rest.

There was breakfast on the table, a can of peaches soaked in fruit syrup. Melissa’s eyes lit up as she snatched the metal can and drank the soft, nectarine juice. Her fingers dipped into the cold, pulling out chunks of bright orange fruit. At that moment, nothing had ever tasted as sweet as the flesh between her fingers.

After she finished breakfast, the girl licked her hands, basking in the sugary aftertaste. Melissa decided she liked fruit much better than brownies.

Let’s go to school. Pack your homework.

Melissa popped her fingers from her mouth. “I have to?” She vaguely remembered Teddy saying she could rest today.

Daddy left a note for us.

A torn piece of paper lay on the table. It was a note left by her father.

[Go to school. I didn’t call you out. Tell anyone and I’ll kill you.]

“Mm,” Melissa said. She quietly packed her bag, stumbling out the door. She was glad her father didn’t hit her face so the nurse wouldn't fuss over her.

Melissa kept silent as she walked. Last night’s memories still lingered in her mind. She wasn’t sure what to feel about her mother in the freezer, and thinking about it hurt. She knew the true reason now. The reason why her mother left wasn’t because she didn’t love her, but because she was in the freezer.

Or was it because her mother stopped loving her, so he put her into the freezer?

Melissa was glad.

Are you happy? Teddy asked. Her voice cracked with bitterness, dripping through her words. Does breaking promises make you happy? Did seeing your mother’s rotting corpse in that freezer make you happy? Are you fucking stupid, Melissa?

Melissa froze, standing against the crowded street. She saw patches of her mother’s lifeless gray face sewn onto the concrete beneath her. The taste of peaches rose to her throat. What was she thinking? Daddy put mommy in the freezer. “A-ah…” But the smiling man said he could have fixed her. Mommy could have sang to her every night, even if she didn’t love her. Not anymore. Now she was chopped in a million pieces.

If you just kept your promise, your father wouldn’t need to hit you! If only you had listened to me!

Melissa swallowed back the taste of peaches. Teddy’s screams buzzed in her ears. She didn’t like the voice.

Teddy’s sharpness softened to a whimper. He could have gotten carried away. He could have made a mistake, just like he did with mommy. And then he could have…

Teddy’s voice crumbled. I just want you to be safe, Melissa.

“Mm,” Melissa said. Someone shoved her from behind, reminding her to keep walking.

Teddy didn’t speak again. As the minutes passed, Melissa longed for Teddy to break the silence somehow, to talk to her just once, even if it was to scream at her again, but she didn’t. The silence filled Melissa with a dreadful emptiness, far worse than the pain in her chest.

“You walk to school, too?” a voice called behind her. Daan jogged to her side, his breath light and painless. She envied the way he breathed.

“Mm.”

They walked quietly for a few blocks, but the silence wasn’t as stifling as Teddy’s. When Daan finally spoke again, his expression was serious. “You alright?”

Melissa coughed violently, swallowing tangy red spit. It felt like her chest was a tube of yogurt, squeezed and squeezed through her throat, if yogurt had salty bits too and tasted kind of gross. It hurt unlike anything she felt before, but she didn’t know how to answer him. She didn’t know if she was alright, or what that meant in the first place. Luckily, they reached the front gates before Daan could ask any more. She walked with him until they reached his class.

Daan pointed at Teddy’s stains. “Did you try using water? It didn’t work, right?” The other students eyed them with fascination as they walked past. Melissa’s dress was tattered and stained, but Daan didn’t seem to notice. “If you wait for me after school, I can teach you how to clean those stains off Teddy. It wasn’t fair you got called up yesterday,” Daan added.

With everything that happened last night, Melissa had almost forgotten about Daan’s offer. As the school bells rang, everything had returned to normal, as it always did.

“He can clean you. Did you hear that?” Melissa asked.

I did, honey. Teddy’s voice returned, sweeter than peach juice. The toy pressed her cheek against Melissa’s chest, and her fur trembled like leaves in the wind. And I love you, Melissa. I will always love you.

The girl’s lips curled into a faint, vacant smile.

The morning passed. Melissa wasn’t a bad student—her mother, and later Teddy, made sure of that. The little girl could read and count just fine, and none of her teachers thought particularly negative of her. So, it puzzled them why she always got into fights with the older children.

The homeroom teacher leaned down, catching a glimpse of Melissa’s drawing. “What do you have there?” he asked. The girl drew two rectangles on top of each other. Inside the top box was a tangle of red and black scribbles, covering a happy gray smile. “Is that a shelf? What are the scribbles?”

Melissa looked up. “Mommy.” Her lips tilted upward, but her eyes were dreadfully hollow. Mommy in the freezer.

The teacher felt his hair raise. Something about the girl’s smile, combined with the incomprehensible picture, terrified him. “I-I see,” he managed. There was one other impression the teachers had of Melissa, though they didn’t dare say it in front of her: the girl was creepy. She was best left alone.

The lunch bell rang, and Melissa was forced to follow the other students. The aroma of salt and fat staining the cafeteria tables reminded her that breakfast wasn't nearly enough. Unfortunately, school lunch needed money she didn’t have. The other students gave her a wide berth, whispering and glancing at her every so often, and Melissa knew a few days would pass before they became brave enough to tease her again with more than just words.

Someone patted her head. “Can I sit here?” Daan asked, sitting before she could respond. Various colors of lunch covered his tray. “You don’t have lunch?”

Melissa shook her head. Her gaze wandered. His lunch was next to her, and it smelled good.

You could ask him for some, honey.

Ask him? She wordlessly reached for a carrot. Teddy’s suggestion didn’t make sense. Her father taught her to stop asking for food a long time ago. She grabbed a fistful of white lunch, scooping it into her mouth. She snatched the plate away from Daan, lapping the leftover paste. The girl closed her eyes, realizing what was in her mouth. Mashed potatoes. The salt on her tongue, Melissa decided, was more delicious than anything she had tasted before.

What are you doing? Stop!

The lunch monitor’s voice overlapped with Teddy’s. “That’s disgusting, girl! Who taught you manners?” the woman called from across the room.

Daan snatched her wrist, calming her down as she struggled against him. “A fork. Use a fork, Melissa.” He placed a fork in her hand. “Eat my lunch,” he ordered. His expression left no compromise. Not that Melissa wanted one, anyway.

The giggles around them grew as Melissa ate in starved silence. The older boy from yesterday approached their table with newfound confidence. He glanced at her hunched figure and laughed. “You didn’t have to give her your lunch. You know she eats anything, right?” The boy’s grin widened as he reminisced what ‘anything’ was. “Wait, don’t tell me you like her or something?”

The students oohed as they waited for Daan’s response. At their age, that was the worst verdict they could imagine.

Melissa glanced up from her lunch, her eyes darting around the crowd, searching for thieves. Daan replied with a simple frown. “Keep eating, Melissa.” The girl lowered her head again. The other students muttered complaints, disinterested by Daan's lack of reaction.

Before the older boy could respond, the lunch monitor broke up the crowd. “What are all you crowding around for? Where’s your lunch, boy?” Daan shrugged, and the monitor turned to Melissa. “And your hands, girl, don’t eat with your hands again!” She pulled Melissa from her seat, dragging her to the bathroom to wash her hands.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

You shouldn’t do that, honey. Ask him politely next time.

Melissa washed her hands under the lunch monitor’s gaze. Afterwards, she returned to her seat and ate the rest of her apple in silence. The apple core crunched in her mouth, disappearing into her stomach.

Soon, only the lunch tray remained. The girl rubbed her stomach, caressing her first lunch in a long time. The tight, nauseous feeling, the pain which stretched her skin apart, made her giddy. She felt lightheaded, in a good way. The pain in her stomach distracted her from the pain everywhere else, if only slightly.

“Tch. Boring,” the older bully scoffed. As if on cue, the lunch bell rang, dismissing the students to their classrooms.

After school, Melissa made her way to Daan’s class. She placed each step in front of the other, following the trail of ants beneath her feet. Ever since yesterday, the girl couldn’t stop thinking about her mother, whose corpse she found in the freezer.

Melissa thought about Teddy’s first lie, which maybe wasn’t a lie after all. Teddy said her mother always loved her. So if she wasn’t in the freezer, she would have stayed? Because she always loved her? Melissa couldn’t understand. Her head hurt. Then, why did her father put her there? Her father said mommy didn’t love her, but Teddy said she did and always did.

Daan shook her from behind. “Melissa.” He wasn’t smiling, but somehow his expression cared for her.

Melissa stared at the boy blankly.

Daan glanced away. “Are you…alright? How do you feel?” His lips paused with each word, as if he didn’t know what he was saying himself.

The girl opened her mouth. She felt different. Yesterday, she found her mother in the freezer. Then, her father hit her twice, in her chest and stomach. Now, she realized her mother might have always loved her, but daddy put her in the freezer anyway, and that hurt Melissa the most. “Bad,” she finally whispered. Saying it aloud made everything hurt worse.

Daan pursed his lips. “What happened?”

Don’t tell him. He’ll misunderstand, Teddy said. Then they’ll take daddy away from us.

“Mm,” Melissa said. She felt something in her chest tear apart as she forced her words back down her throat. “Clean Teddy.”

“Alright, I promised I would,” Daan said. The boy grabbed her hand, squeezing it tight as he led her away.

Neither of them spoke as the scenery around her shifted into crowded streets and towering brick apartments. At first Melissa recognized the route Daan took, until they turned left where she would normally keep straight.

“Where are we going?” Melissa asked.

“We’re here.” In front of them was a tall building, red and bricky. Across the street, Melissa could pick out her own home, a metal-gated window in the smoky gray distance. They lived a few minutes close. Perhaps they had seen each other before, before Melissa bothered to remember his face.

Teddy bristled in her arms. This building reeks of misfortune. I can’t imagine living here.

Melissa sniffed the air. She didn’t smell any misfortune, nor did she know what misfortune smelled like. She imagined herself living here, away from her father, lying flat on the concrete steps. It wasn’t too bad. What was Teddy talking about?

“My mom does laundry with bleach,” Daan said. “She says it cleans off dirt stains like they’re nothing. I’m sure Teddy will appreciate it.”

Melissa nodded. A shiver crossed her neck as they entered the building. She felt the bricks watch her with eyes that didn’t exist. The unsettling sensation grew as they climbed the stairwell, but Melissa didn’t know why. Teddy was quiet. Melissa could feel her stained fur bristling at attention.

Daan knocked on the door numbered three-nine-five. “Mom?”

Something shuffled behind the door, watching them through the peephole. A few minutes passed before the door swung open, revealing a human smile. “Daan!” A tall, tall woman with blond hair like Daan’s pulled the boy into her embrace. Melissa stood still, not sure what to do. The woman hadn’t noticed her yet.

“Stop it, mama! It’s embarrassing,” Daan muttered, his ears turning pink. “Cuz, people are watching.”

The woman opened her eyes. She scanned the hallway with clouded blue pupils, scanning directly past them without a second glance. “It’s not the neighbors, is it?”

You’re blind now, Teddy remarked. Her voice was sad. May I enter?

The woman’s smile faltered as she looked in Teddy’s direction. “I wasn’t expecting guests, but of course.”

Melissa was shocked. This woman could also hear Teddy’s voice? Why could some people hear Teddy while others couldn’t?

She pondered the thought as she sat on the couch. The woman returned from the kitchen with juice boxes, setting them on the table. Her smile was back, though now with a note of confusion. “So,” she began. “You know me from somewhere?”

“I don’t,” Melissa interrupted.

Bewilderment crossed the woman’s expression. “A girl now? What’s going on?”

“Clean Teddy,” Melissa said.

Don’t be rude, honey. She’s my friend.

Melissa blinked. She had never seen this woman in her life, so how could Teddy know her? She was certain that Teddy had never seen the woman before.

Daan tried to mediate the conversation. He handed Melissa a juice box. “Mom, this is my friend, Melissa. She brought Teddy over because it got dirty. I promised I would help clean Teddy for her.”

“Well, that’s nice of you, baby.” The woman’s sightless eyes wandered around the room, gazing at nothing in particular.

I’ll explain everything, Teddy offered.

The woman nodded enthusiastically. “So, how do you know me?”

Melissa placed Teddy on her lap, letting her presence fade into the background.

I guess you wouldn’t recognize my voice now. I was the girl you saved ten years ago, in that festival.

Ten years ago? Melissa didn’t exist ten years ago, much less Teddy. She wanted to ask how Teddy was so old, but she sensed that interrupting now wasn’t a good idea.

The woman’s face lit up with recognition. “Oh, the festival girl! I thought I’d never see you again. It was a bit chaotic back then, so I didn’t catch your name.”

Me neither, Teddy said with a light giggle. Introductions?

Daan glanced at Melissa. He was the only one who couldn’t hear Teddy’s voice, so from his perspective, his mother was speaking to nothing. “Teddy’s talking,” Melissa explained. “Your mommy can hear her.”

“I’m Charlotte. And you’ve met my son, Daan.”

My name is… Teddy paused. Call me Teddy. I’m looking after Melissa.

The two of them fell silent as a sense of nostalgia permeated the air. Teddy’s stitched smile seemed to curve higher than usual, but the illusion faded as she spoke again. What happened to your eyes?

Charlotte sucked out her juicebox before laughing. “Just some genetic thing. My son helps out, so it isn’t all bad. But what are you up to now? Did anything change on your end?”

Teddy didn’t answer. Hand me over, Melissa.

Melissa complied, placing Teddy into the woman’s arms.

Charlotte froze. “Y-you…” She squeezed the doll in her hands, disbelief flashing past her expression. “So you—”

Yeah.

The woman covered her face, laughing faintly. “So you’re ‘Teddy’ now? A teddy bear? Seriously?” Her voice trembled.

Mhm.

“How did it happen? How did you…”

I fell down the stairs, Teddy said. That’s it.

Charlotte narrowed her eyes. “You’re lying. That isn’t nearly enough to make a conscious spectre. And we both know people like us don’t get endings like that. Was the smiling man involved? What actually happened?”

He wasn’t. I got into an accident. Her tone didn’t invite further questions.

“I see,” Charlotte said figuratively. She put Teddy back on the table, and Melissa sensed she was allowed to speak again.

“What’s the festival?” Melissa asked. Teddy mentioned a festival, like the smiling man did yesterday.

“Oh, that?” Daan piped up, eager to rejoin the conversation. “My mom said you can wish for anything at the festival. That’s why I’m gonna go there this year to wish for—” Daan paled as he met the toy’s stare, beady black buttons. Even without Teddy’s voice, the boy sensed something vicious in the air, a sixth sense. The air shimmered. His mouth closed with a clop.

Charlotte?

Charlotte rushed to explain herself. “Those were just random stories of mine. I’ll make sure to knock those silly thoughts out of him, I swear.”

“Wait, mama, didn’t you say…” Daan began, quieting as Charlotte glared at his direction.

Teddy’s eyes stopped trembling. Her voice was sugar-sweet. Melissa, honey? Don’t listen to them, alright?

But Teddy was too late.

”I can wish for anything?” Melissa whispered. If she could wish for anything, what would she wish for? “A-ah…” If only she could forget everything that hurt, just like mommy did, and put herself in the freezer with mommy too, wrapped in her arms and limbs and flesh again…

Melissa, pull yourself together! Teddy screamed.

Melissa flinched at the voice’s piercing lash. “Clean Teddy,” she mumbled. Teddy’s screams filled her with a wretched sense of warmth.

“Oh, right,” Daan said, cold sweat beading on his skin. “Some bullies made Teddy dirty. I wanted to help her clean the stains.”

“I’ll do that,” Charlotte said. “You two wait here. There’s snacks in the fridge.” The woman cradled Teddy in her arms, leaving them before Melissa could react.

Daan disappeared into the kitchen, returning with pretzels and chips all in colorful crunchy bags. As Melissa busied herself with food, the boy sank into the couch cushions. “That was scary,” he sighed. “It felt like I was gonna die. Did you feel that pressure? It was from Teddy, right?”

Melissa shrugged. “What’s the festival? Tell me more.”

The boy shook his head rapidly. “No way. Ask your bear.”

With all her strength, Melissa punched Daan in the stomach.

“Ow! What did I do?” Daan curled into a ball. “That’s not fair,” he groaned.

Melissa’s expression was blank as she looked at her hands. She wasn’t sure why she hit him, but the way he guarded his stomach reminded the girl of herself and her father. “Okay.” She resumed eating.

Daan settled down, rubbing his stomach. “You said you felt bad today,” he remembered. “And I noticed you were coughing weirdly. Is something wrong?”

The girl chewed faster, savoring the taste of salt. She swallowed. Teddy wasn’t here to stop her from saying what happened yesterday, so she told him.

“Daddy hit my tummy and stomped me,” Melissa said. She licked delicious flavors from her fingers. “Now tummy and breathing hurts.” The girl scooped more pretzels into her mouth, closing her eyes in satisfaction. “And mommy won’t ever come back again.”

Melissa poured the crumbs into her mouth. Her gaze wandered to Daan’s pretzels. For some reason, his eyes were wide like coins, and he didn’t say anything when she took his pretzels.

Soon, the girl finished the meal, which she counted as yesterday’s dinner. ”Is your mommy done yet?” she asked.

Daan stared at her plain expression, utterly lost for words.