The teddy bear dragged the hammer along the floor as it moved closer, the soft scrrrape of metal sending chills through the room.
“I’ve been watching this house all week. Every shout. Every slap. Every night you locked your boy in his room just so you wouldn’t have to deal with him.”
It said. The couple thrashed harder, muffled sobs filling the room.
“You call that discipline?”
The figure in the teddy bear disguise scoffed.
“Where I come from, that’s how you raise cowards… or corpses.”
It stopped at the foot of the bed.
“You see, I speak for the ones who can’t. The neighbors who hear the crying through the walls. The teachers who see the misdeeds of your boy and look away out of fear of what you two will do. The community that’s tired of pretending not to notice the disrespectful behavior of your boy.”
The bear leaned in close, its cracked eye inches from the father’s face.
“So tonight, I corrected the problem.”
The mother let out a broken, wail behind her gag.
“He screamed for you,”
The bear went on calmly.
“Kicked the door. Cried himself hoarse. But you were both too busy sleeping, weren’t you?”
It straightened and gestured lazily with the hammer.
“Don’t worry. He doesn’t feel anything anymore.”
The room seemed to shrink around them.
“I’m not here to kill you,”
The figure said.
“That would be too easy. You’re going to live. You’re going to do better next time. Because if another child in this house ends up like him…”
The bear raised the hammer slightly.
“I’ll come back. And then we’ll talk about your ears.”
It reached into a sack slung over its back and pulled something out. Two small, blood soaked shapes. It tossed them onto the bed between the couple. They landed with a wet plop. The mother convulsed in her restraints. The father’s eyes locked on the tiny severed ears, his breathing turning into frantic, gagged gasps.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that, you kept saying the boy never listened, right?”
The figure said almost cheerfully before it gave a low, rumbling chuckle.
“So I figured… he wouldn’t be needing these anymore.”
The bear stepped back toward the shadows.
“Sleep tight. And remember, parent better else .”
It said. Then it was gone. Only the blood, the ears, and the sound of two broken people screaming into their gags remained.
