Lost Child of Hide and Seek

I thought Lily was talking about a dream she had and did not take her words seriously.

When she was packing her schoolbag the next day, I saw the hugging bear smiling widely at me. I was about to remove it from her bag when Lily pressed my hand down nervously.

"He won't be happy if I don't bring the hugging bear with me, Mommy."

I let her be, as I remembered Ms. Channing would be looking into this later.

We were just about to leave the house when the kindergarten group chat kept ringing with notifications.

I quickly tapped into it as I thought Ms. Channing had made another announcement.

However, it was Janice's mom, Gina, who was creating a commotion in the group.

[My daughter was killed by Sparky, Ms. Channing! You have to drag Sparky into the open, or I'll burn down your kindergarten. I'll die with all of you!]

Gina scared everyone with her proclamation. They quickly asked what was going on.

She was sobbing when she sent her voice message to the group. "My daughter took her medication and went to sleep after I took the hugging bear from her.

"She didn’t wake up this morning, no matter how hard I tried to wake her up. That was when I realized her body had turned cold.

"Janice was still hugging the hugging bear when she died!"

Ms. Channing quickly sent a follow-up message.

[I'm sad about what happened, too, Mrs. Talbot, but this is an accident. Don't worry. Our kindergarten will investigate this thoroughly.]

By the time I got Lily to the kindergarten, Gina had already called the police. The autopsy revealed Janice to have died of suffocation from her asthma.

Two police officers came to the kindergarten to check the security footage from the past six months. It proved that there was no boy called Sparky in the kindergarten.

As for the hugging bears that appeared out of thin air, even the police were not able to track the source of their appearance. I was afraid of unprecedented dangers and gave Lily's hugging bear to Ms. Channing for safekeeping.

When I picked Lily up from school, I saw the hugging bear back inside her schoolbag.

"Lily, didn't I give Ms. Channing the hugging bear? Why did you bring it home again?"

She snatched the hugging bear from me anxiously. "He'll be mad if I don't bring the hugging bear home, Mommy!"

"Who'll be mad? The hugging bear?"

Lily shook her head. "It's Sparky. He told me the hugging bear is his present to us. He'll get mad if I don't take good care of it.

"Janice will be in the dark room forever because she didn't take good care of the hugging bear."

My heart sank when I heard that. "Did you see Sparky today again?"

"Yes, I did!" Lily was focused on rubbing the hugging bear's ear when she replied to me, "We played hide-and-seek during naptime again this afternoon."

I immediately logged into the kindergarten's security cameras when I heard her reply.

Everyone was sleeping peacefully in their beds during naptime today. Lily was the only one who suddenly sat up in bed the moment the teacher turned away. She looked at the camera with an eerie smile on her face.

She smiled exactly like the hugging bear in her arms.

I jumped in fright and smacked the hugging bear away from her.

Lily went into a panic as she nervously picked up the hugging bear. Her eyes turned red as she pointed at me accusingly.

"I hate you, Mommy!"

Even my husband, Gavin, thought I was blowing this up. "It's just a doll. If Lily likes it, let her have it."

Was I being too dramatic about this?

After calming down, I went to apologize to Lily.

When I got close to her room, I heard her speaking carefully.

"I'm sorry. Mommy didn't do it on purpose. The first person you caught today was Jonah. You can't take me to the dark room."

A chill ran down my back. I pushed the door open.

"Who are you talking to, Lily?"