Cuddl: The Teddybear

Prologue

The old house stands silent, cloaked in shadows that stretch long before dusk. An unsettling stillness permeates the air, thick with the scent of dust and a deeper, indefinable wrongness. It arrived unannounced, packaged in brown paper and twine: a child's toy, a black bear with button eyes. From the moment it crossed the threshold, a creeping dread began to coil through the house. The bear never moves when watched, its stitched smile a mask of frozen innocence. But in the periphery, in the seconds between glances, the subtle shifts begin. A new position. A different room. An impossible nearness. Sleep offers no escape, only a canvas for nightmares made real. The darkness breathes with a presence that chills the bone, a feeling of being watched by something ancient and hungry. The house has become a cage, and the bear is the jailer.