Ever wonder if toys come to life? Just like in that animated movie with the cowboy and the space ranger. What if they can see everything you do? Like a fly on the wall. They know your everyday routine and all of your secrets as they sit still…and watch you. They come to life when your not around and might even blink at you when you catch a glance. What if the toys wanted to murder you? Sounds crazy right?
It all started when I bought my son Dylan a gift for his birthday, he had just turned seven and he loved collecting toys. He had them all. He had a pink hippo mayor named Happy who wore a tux and a hat, he loved collecting all the movie monster action figures such as Dracula and the wolf man, he even had some old retro looking robots that looked like they came out from the 70s, he was a weird kid but he loves toys. I will also have you know that I am a divorced single father who only sees their son on the weekends.
He would always ask to take his toys to his moms but I would always tell him no since I wanted him to have something to look forward to when he would come over. I had wanted to get him something he hadn’t had in his collection so I found an old toy store near the down town section, I had never seen this shop before but it looked like they had some retro looking shit in there so I decided to take a gander.
My son would love this place, it had toys from all decades, I swear I wanted to get most of the toys in the store but I had to only choose one, didn’t want to spoil the little critter. That was when I found it. War hero’s, a section for toy soldier action figures, one stood out in particular, an 8 inch tall, pretty sturdy looking, with a sword and a scabbard, his name…Sergeant Axel Reinhard. Pretty awesome name for a toy soldier. I took him straight to the cashiers, an old man with a pipe in his mouth, smoking away inside a toy store, he even looked retro himself with the wardrobe he was wearing.
“That toy belong to my brother, the old man exclaimed through the smoke in his mouth. “Take care of him, he’s special. He let out the creepiest smile, as if he hasn’t smiled in years. “take your money I’m out.”, I replied as I rushed my out of there hoping not to hear another word from him.
I had the toy in my hands and placed it on the passenger side seat, I smiled knowing my son would love this new addition to his toy collection.
Welcome to the family, I told the toy knowing stupidly well he wouldn’t reply back. Boy, would I be wrong later.
The next day I picked up my son from his moms house and drove straight home, picked up some food beforehand because I was too excited to stop anywhere. We arrived home and I had his present wrapped up nicely standing on the kitchen table. He looked beyond excited once he saw it. He quickly grabbed the present and began to tear it open. There it was…Sergeant Axel Reinhard. My son held the toy up in the air and began shouting from excitement.
“I LOOOOOVE IT!!!!”
My heart stung with happiness. I love seeing him happy and excited. Then out of no where my son stops jumping up and down and gets serious. He puts the toy in his ear and listens to it as if it was talking to him. I took as a joke at first. Innocent kids play.
“What is he saying?” I asked laughing at the thought.
“He says he wants to meet the other toys in the house, I’m going to go show him around”, he leaves euphorically carrying with him his new toy. Mission accomplished I thought. As a father seeing your children happy is the world, my son is my world.
That night I go to my sons room to tuke him in, when I enter the room he has most of his toys sitting down in a circle formed right in the middle of the room.
“What’s going on here”, I was curious, his imagination can sometimes be wacky.
“Sergeant Axel wanted all the toys together for a BIG meeting”, he told me.
“Oh yea what type of meeting?” I asked.
“Don’t know, Sergeant Axel said it’s a secret meeting.”
“We’ll tell that Sergeant Axel its past your bed time, you need to hit the hay”
“Can I take him to bed with me?”
Like any new toy he gets he always wants it beside him when he sleeps.
“Just as long as that Sergeant Axel doesn’t keep any more secrets”, I told him.
He put the toy in his ear again as if it was talking to him.
“Sergeant Axel says not to patronize him”.
I thought it was silly but where would he hear such a word, he barely even knew what it meant.
“Dylan, do you know what that word means…patronize?”
“I don’t know but thats what Sergeant Axel said.”
He might have heard it watching his YouTube videos, I didn’t think anything of it, he’s only 8 years old.
“Alright then let’s go to bed”
He took that Axel toy with him to bed, shut off the lights and that was that.
I went to bed that night and I sleep in the complete dark, I hate seeing any sort of light on, in the middle of the night around 2 I was woken up right away by the hallway lights, I knew I had turned them off before I fell to bed, if not I wouldn’t of gone to sleep. I got up and went to the hallway, I peaked in to my sons room and he was sound asleep as he should be, as I was about to turn off the lights I heard the sounds of a toy dog barking, it was Arnold my sons plush dog standing by the hallway. He must have left it there last night. It was barking on its own, you usually pull the string behind it’s back to bark but I assumed it was broken. I turned off the lights and went to bed still hearing the yapping of the broken toy then suddenly it stopped. A good nights rest finally.
That morning, waking up I stepped out of the room and noticed Arnold with its head torn off and it’s voice box on the ground next to it.
“What the hell? Why would he do this to one his toys” I thought.
Dylan stepped out and he also had a confused look.
“What’s wrong? What happened to Arnold?”, he yelled out.
“Dylan, it’s not nice to break one of your toys, these things cost money”, I told him.
He had a look of disappointment, but I can tell he look confused.
“But I didn’t hurt Arnold, Sergeant Axel doesn’t like broken toys, he said that Arnold was weak and brittle, so he told me to throw him in the hallway”, he told me.
I don’t know where he’s getting these ideas from but it’s becoming more disturbing that he’s blaming it on a toy. I needed to put my foot down and set some rules right away.
“Dylan, it’s one thing to destroy your toys but lying is something I won’t tolerate, you know that very well young man.
“Dad, I’m not lying, I didn’t hurt Arnold”
“I don’t want to hear anymore from Sergeant Axel, next time you take accountability for your actions, is that understood?”
“Yes dad”
He looked sad, a part of me wanted to believe him but I would be crazy if I believed a toy would have actually talked to him.
Later that night, I decided to take a hot bath to relax while I had put Dylan to sleep. While I was in the bathroom I saw some of Dylan’s toys by the toilet and the faucet, I thought it was kind of weird that he would leave his toys in the bathroom of all places.
The other part about it was that while I was already relaxed in the tub the toys all sat there with their fronts facing me as if they were watching, creepy but what can I do. I was about to light up a cigarette to relax some more when I noticed a strange smell, like something rotten, I got up quickly since I hadn’t noticed it before. It was coming from the kitchen, I even heard a hissing sound coming from the stove.
It was a gas leak, I called my landlord right away and me and Dylan evacuated the place as soon as possible. The maintenance guys showed up and managed to fix it within the hour while me and Dylan waited inside the car.
“It looks like something had poked the pipe behind the stove, that’s what caused the leak”, the maintenance guy told me. I knew it couldn’t have been Dylan, I figured the pipe might have burst open but the poke is a different thing.
“Could have been anything but the puncture was deep”. It’s a good thing I didn’t smoke my cigarettes inside, me and Dylan would have been dead. I hadn’t noticed but my son had brought along that Axel toy with him.
“I hadn’t seen you take Axel with you,Dylan”.
“I hadn’t taken him dad.”
I stayed quiet. To avoid confrontation I just kept shut. It all sounded so crazy but there was no way a toy could just do all this.
The next day me and Dylan went to Spirit Halloween to look for a costume since Halloween was just 5 days away, his mom had allowed me to have him for that night. I was fascinated by their costumes, especially their masks, I wanted to wear something terrifying and I saw a Frankenstein mask exactly like Boris Karloffs face from the movie. Dylan wanted a soldier costume but it just didn’t sit right with me since all the shit that has been happening at home with the fucking doll. I couldn’t say no to him since this is what he wanted so I got him the soldier costume along with the amazing looking Frankenstein mask for myself.