♪ No matter what you are ♪
♪ I will always be with you ♪
“… Doesn’t matter what you do, girl, ooh girl, with you.” I sang while driving on the highway alone with my radio on.
It was a perfect night for yet another delivery. Fourth this week.
Being a truck driver has its benefits. You get to enjoy the beauty of America and earn a decent amount of money while having a personalized routine.
This model even has a cabinet with a bed and curtains. That means I also get to look at the stars out the window until I fall asleep. I continue my journey in the morning fully rested.
Stargazing has always been my favorite thing to do. Something about stars and galaxies was calming to me. Once, I was lucky enough to see the Aurora Borealis, the northern lights. The best experience I’ve ever had.
I guess I like to imagine myself exploring every planet, every star, and every galaxy. To me, the night sky is the most special, most beautiful thing in the world.
I never regretted my decision to get a C1 driving license. Even though I spent too much time studying theory, it was worth it because I now work my dream job.
My parents had tried to talk me out of it but I followed my heart and succeeded.
“Mike, anyone can drive a truck.” They used to tell me, “You’re better than that.”
The truth is, I’m probably not. I’m far from being an athlete and I wasn’t the best student in the class. Somehow, though, my parents could always see something in me, a hidden genius.
They wanted me to become a doctor, a scientist. My mother was sure I was gonna find the cure for cancer.
“My lollipop will win the Nobel prize in medicine.” My mom would say, “He’s gonna cure his mother…”
Mom was depressed because of her condition and my father was doing everything he could, but it just wasn’t enough.
The chemo totally destroyed her, both mentally and physically. She was once a beautiful woman…
Doctors gave her a year, but she decided to take a shortcut to make the painful ride end quicker.
My father and I were devastated when it happened. Though, I had to move on. My life wasn’t perfect anyway, why make it worse by sorrowing?
It’s been 7 years since my mom left me. I never completely moved on. I still miss her. Sometimes, I remember the optimism that she used to have… While I was still just a kid who believed in a happy life.
My night routine started as I turned off the engine.
I tangled the seatbelts and checked if the doors were locked, and then I drew the small curtains covering the side windows.
I lay on my bed and positioned myself nicely so I could look at the stars out the windshield.
I successfully fell asleep after a short amount of time. I needed the rest; a long road was ahead of me.
I don’t fully remember what I dreamed of, but I do remember seeing my mother.
In my dream, she was as gorgeous as she used to be.
I woke up to the sound of my alarm - September by Earth Wind And Fire.
I mindlessly looked at the time - 5:03 AM.
I let out a sigh when I realized my dream was just a dream. I’m never gonna see my mom again.
I started doing my usual morning routine: Brushing my teeth while untangling the seatbelts.
That’s when I noticed something in my peripheral vision.
I didn’t pay attention at first, probably because it was 5 AM so I continued with my routine.
I rinsed my mouth and made my bed. I was ready to continue my journey.
I was about to sit in the driving seat when I finally looked at the thing from my peripheral.
“A teddy bear?” I said out loud.
Seemingly made of thick, black leather. It had glass eyes with a sewed “X” representing its mouth. The snout and paws were light-colored, in contrast to the rest of the toy.
I was more than confused.
The doors were locked, as always. The windows were all the way up. Nothing was broken.
How the hell did you get here?
I lifted it, trying to find something that would explain how, and why it was in my driving seat.
I found nothing underneath. No messages, no letters… Just a teddy bear.
I observed the stuffed toy again. I wanted to know where it came from, at least. That’s why I looked at the label next to the small, round tail:
The Finest. KGC Production
Serial number: 00001
Bar code: ║█║║│║▌║▌█║
My name is: Charlie
Below was a poem that I rushed to read.
No matter what you are
I will always be with you
No matter where you are
Forever, there, I’ll be.
What needs to be seen, will be seen
Keep me, and you shall remain
Forget me, and you shall regret
Memento mori
I was shocked. I didn’t even know what to think.
Memento mori? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Was it a Latin saying? I had no idea what it meant.
And why did the first two lines sound familiar?
No matter what you are
I will always be with you
I must have been sitting there for quite a while, thinking about what had happened and what to do next.
After ruling out every possible explanation, I started the engine and threw the toy out the window.
“Kids…” I muttered.
After an hour of driving, I turned on the radio again. It played Highway to Hell by AC/DC.
While mindlessly looking at the empty road, I heard a loud thud on my windshield.
At first, I thought that I had just killed a bird. But, what I hit wasn’t a bird…
…It was a teddy bear.
The same teddy bear I had thrown out an hour before.
“W-what? How?” I stuttered.
I tried to find a logical explanation, so I stopped the truck, letting the stuffed toy fall to the ground.
I unlocked the door to get out. I approached the toy and bent over to pick it up. That’s when I felt a piercing pain in my back.
“Son of a…” I yelled. Getting old is not fun.
I looked at its blurry eyes again, wondering how on earth it had found me again.
I decided to bring it with me and talk to someone about it. I needed to know more about KGC and the mysterious toy called Charlie.
I was driving for some time when I heard a sound coming from the phone in my pocket.
A message. From my employer.
It read: “Pick up location changed.”
And below was a new address. Even better, I was thinking. The new location was close.
When I arrived there, all I could see was a huge kids’ store.
Ding
Another message:
“150Kg of stuffed toys, dolls. Talk to the manager, the load is ready.”
Wow. 150kg of stuffed toys? Who the hell needs that? I was thinking.
Though, I did the task anyway. I talked to the elderly manager who seemed friendly, then I filled my blue Freightliner with stuffed toys.
Everything went smoothly.
“See that, Charlie?” I asked my partner in the front seat.
“There are some people that like you guys… They like you very much.”
I said as I started the engine.
Shortly after, I got another message from my employer containing the delivery address.
After 10 minutes of driving, I remembered I had forgotten to do something.
I had the perfect opportunity to find out more about my stuffed friend. Managers of toy stores must know something about toys, right?
That’s why I went back. It still wasn’t too late.
When I arrived at the store again, something felt off. I don’t know why I had that feeling.
I entered the store looking for the manager. I couldn’t find him on the ground level.
No one was there, actually. Strange.
I climbed upstairs to look for him.
There, among the shelves and dolls, I saw him lying on the floor.
“Sir? Are you okay?” I asked.
“M-my legs.”
“Don’t call the ambulance.” He said as I pulled out my phone, “I’m just getting older.”
I helped him get up and told him why I had come back.
The manager was old with grey hair and a beard. But then… Somehow, he looked… Older. Even though we met 20 minutes before, it seemed as if he had gotten older in the meantime.
When he finally looked me in the eyes, he asked: “Who are you?”
I was confused.
“We met 20 minutes ago? You helped me load the truck.” I said.
He nodded his head but I could tell he was(?) still confused.
“Can I see it?” He said.
I showed him the black stuffed toy. And when I did…
…His eyes went wide.
“Where did you find it?” He asked.
“I hit it, with my truck.” I didn’t want to explain the first encounter.
He sighed, “It was there yesterday. Here, among these shelves…” Then he looked at me.
“I just don’t know why you would steal it.”
“What?” I was dumbfounded.
“Why do you care about it so much?” The manager asked.
“Sir, I did not steal it, I hit it with my truck.”
He laughed. “Do you really expect me to believe that?”
I didn’t say anything. He took the teddy bear and looked at its face.
“Serial number - one. Charlie. The first Fluffy Friend…”
“The first what?” I asked, confused.
“During the Beanie Babies craze, a cheap, knock-off line of stuffed animals, Fluffy Friendz, was made by a small company called KGC.”
I was carefully listening.
“Under strange circumstances, the factory shut down. Some say the reason was understaffing, the others say it burnt down. We’ll never know.”
“I thought that they had gone extinct. Imagine my shock when I found one on the shelf yesterday. This one.”
He looked at the toy again.
“I remember buying one for my daughter on Christmas Eve, a lot of years ago…”
He let out a sigh, “She didn’t have to leave us like that… What have I ever done to her..?” He said in a trembling voice.
“Hey, it’s okay.” I tried to comfort him, “I lost my mom the same way… It sucks, but we kind of have to move on.”
I sighed and sat on the floor. He did the same. We were sitting in complete silence for at least 10 minutes.
“You can keep it.” He finally said.
“Thank you. And also, thank you for telling me all that, it helped me understand some things.”
He nodded.
Ding
My employer messaged me again:
“4 deliveries, same load, same location, all today. Hurry up.”
Wow. 600Kg of stuffed toys? To the same location? That was past weird…
Though that is my job and it’s not on me to judge.
I got up, “I have to get going, but I’ll come back for 3 more deliveries. Thank you again and take care.” I said and left the profound store.
After an hour of driving, I finally reached my destination. It was a small white house with a backyard.
I knocked on the door. A familiar person opened it.
“Hey Miss, the toys have arrived, you’ll need to sign here.”
“Ohh, thank you, lollipop.” She said and took the pen.
After completing the first delivery, I headed back to the store for the second one.
While driving back, I was thinking about her and the way she said “lollipop”.
She looked like my mom, and she used to call me lollipop. It felt funny.
I parked the Freightliner near the store and the manager helped me load the stuffed toys again. This time, too, he seemed older.
It was the same every time. With my partner Charlie, I’d drive to the house of the woman who looked like my mom to deliver a batch of stuffed toys. The manager would help me load them while looking older every time.
During my fourth and last delivery that day, it got dark. It was 9 PM and I was hoping for a bonus from my employer since I had never worked that much before.
I entered the store for the last time, expecting to see the manager inside.
But again, he was not on the ground level.
I climbed upstairs. Nothing. Just, now almost empty shelves.
It was dark in the store too, I could barely see. I climbed up the stairs again, hoping to find the manager.
Nothing again. Since I was on the highest floor, I decided to go down. I might have missed him?
I managed to find a light switch on the first floor. And that helped me find him…
There, behind the empty shelves, I saw him lying face-down. I ran to his seemingly dead body.
He looked… Dried. Old. He seemed like a ninety-year-old.
After a lot of unsuccessful attempts to revive him, I finally gave up.
I felt sorry for him. He didn’t deserve what he got. He didn’t deserve it at all.
I felt the need to do something, at least, before calling 911. That’s why I went back to the truck and gave him my teddy-bear partner. After all, it kind of belonged to him.
After putting Charlie next to him, I noticed something was written on the manager’s left arm.
At first, I couldn’t tell what it said. It was poorly and hurriedly written.
I rotated my head to read it from the right perspective.
When I finally made out what was written, I froze. On his arm was just one word:
“EVIL”
Just that. Evil.
I had no idea what to think. Who’s evil? Me? It didn’t make any sense.
I left the store wondering what the deceased manager was trying to tell me.
I loaded the truck for the last time that day and got in.
After an hour of driving, I parked the blue Freightliner in the backyard for the final delivery.
I was considering asking her about the nickname “lollipop”. It was kind of too specific to be a coincidence. Maybe she was my mom’s friend?
I knocked on her door again.
To my surprise, nobody answered.
“Hey, it’s me, last delivery,”
After saying that, my vision suddenly got blurry.
I started rubbing my eyes when I noticed an unusual amount of grey hairs on my arms. Strange.
“Miss, are you alright in there?” I asked, worried.
“I’m coming in, okay?” I warned.
I lifted my leg to kick the door open when I felt a sharp pain in it.
“God, my leg!” As I was rubbing my knee to make the pain go away, I heard the door open.
“Lollipop! Sorry, I was busy making you a cup of tea. I knew you’d be back. Come on in!” The lady said.
I entered the small house that smelled like fresh paint. She told me to sit at the table so she could finish preparing the tea.
“So, the last one, huh?” She asked.
“Yeah. Do you mind me asking why you’re calling me lollipop?” I rushed to say.
She turned around. “I’ve always called you that.”
I was confused.
“Sorry, what?”
She brought two cups of tea and sat at the table with me. God, did she look like my mom.
“So, do you like your dream job?” The lady asked.
I said nothing.
She took the first sip of her tea.
“How did you know it was my dream job? I’ve never told you that.” I got to the point.
She looked me in the eyes and smiled again.
“Ohh, you told us.”
“Us?” I had to ask.
She took another sip of her drink. It seemed too dense to be tea. And too… Red.
“Mike, don’t be delusional. You didn’t disappoint us.” The lady said.
“You were just… Too stupid.”
I looked up at her. What?
“What do you mean?” I stayed calm.
“Oh, lollipop. You were always so silly and stupid… In the end, that’s why you’re just a truck driver.”
I was shocked. Was this lady drunk?
She stood up and walked to the drawer.
“I ordered a new chandelier. It’s beautiful.” She said as she was searching through stuff in her drawer.
“Why are you not drinking your tea?” She asked.
I remained silent.
“More for me.” She said and closed the drawer with a rope in her hand.
“Found it, finally. Now, I need to attach it to the ceiling so my chandelier can sparkle.”
She took one of the chairs and climbed on it to reach the ceiling.
“Can you believe how stupid this whole thing is? They forgot to ship me the chain. Hey, the chain! I mean, how the hell am I supposed to hang it? Luckily, I have this rope…” She said.
I looked at her as she was making a knot. Then, I looked around the house. No empty boxes, no bubble wraps… No chandeliers.
“Mike, I need to tell you something. You’re a waste. You were always the third wheel for us…” She said after tying the knot.
“Mike… I never loved you.”
I watched in terror as she knocked down the chair with the rope around her neck.
I screamed and jumped back.
My mom was hanging and smiling, looking at me as blood poured from her eyes.
I was screaming my lungs out.
Then, a billion spiders started crawling out of her mouth.
I didn’t have time to run. The spiders crawled on me in a matter of seconds. They got in my mouth and silenced my desperate screams…
… Then, everything stopped.
I found myself lying on the cold tiles and I could hear the occasional sounds of machines coming from all directions. A factory?
I immediately stood up and looked around. The hallucinations stopped. I wasn’t at my mom’s house… I was in a factory…
… The KGC factory.
I could see people at the other end of the factory. Workers?
They were seemingly repairing Fluffy Friendz using regular toys and dolls that I had brought. The lady never existed. I was delivering the toys to the factory all along.
Then I remembered the line from Charlie’s poem:
What needs to be seen, will be seen
The toy made me see things that weren’t real. Like some kind of curse. And… It made me age… Rapidly.
The evil my boss tried to warn me about… He figured it out before me.
I pulled out my phone to check the time, and that’s when I noticed 7 new messages from my employer.
“Where are you?”
“Why are you off the course?”
“Mike, what is happening?”
“Pick up the phone, now.”
“Mike, I can see you’re online just pick up the phone.”
“Last warning, Mike. If you don’t respond with a viable explanation you’re fired.”
“That’s it, you’re fired. Drive the truck back and mail me the keys. I hope whatever you’re doing was worth it.”
Obviously, the messages telling me to deliver 600Kg of stuffed toys never existed…
… And it was all Charlie’s fault. Or whatever evil was living inside of it.
I left the factory unseen. The pain in my legs and back was killing me. I noticed that, when you’re near Charlie, the entity inside makes you see things that aren’t real, and when you’re far from it, you age rapidly.
I don’t know which is worse.
While I was walking to my truck, I noticed something on its hood.
A teddy bear. The damned teddy bear.
I approached the truck and took the black toy. I knew its blurry eyes were filled with evil even though it was dark outside. I could feel it.
I also knew there was only one way to kill, or at least hurt the entity living inside of the first Fluffy Friend. I needed to get rid of the toy, once and for all.
I unlocked the truck’s door and took the lighter from the glove box.
I set the damned thing on fire. I watched as the black leather melted away in front of me. The foggy eyes popped out of the cursed Fluffy Friend.
After it decomposed, I saw a red spirit exit Charlie. The surreal scarlet flame rose to the night sky and faded away.
Though, it couldn’t be over. The entity escaped and is now looking for a new host, probably.
But it was over for me.
Having that in mind, and knowing that I’ll age rapidly because of the entity’s absence, I let out a sigh and looked at the truck.
My only true friend was there, patiently waiting for me. Though not knowing that we had already been on our last ride.
Realizing where I’d like it all to end, I unlocked the door of my blue Freightliner and got inside.
I placed my old hand on the steering wheel, patting it with affection.
I was back where I belong.
I looked out the window to admire the stars one last time. They seemed prettier than ever.
I decided to write everything down to make this story immortal, but above all, to warn:
If you or someone you know has one of the Fluffy Friendz, please, DESTROY IT.
It might have something to do with the entity not wanting to be forgotten again. So, if we all work together and destroy every single Fluffy Friend, we might stop it.
Until then, I’ll stargaze in my favorite blue truck, waiting for the universe to take over this ride.