After we got our popcorn and headed back to our seats, none of the toys have moved. They were talking incoherently but would stop speaking when we walked by them. It felt like they were glaring at me from under their smiling masks… As we sat down the curtains came up the same man stood under a dim light, he was still on the side.
“A few years went along perfectly for some, the daughter has aged healthy and well, she wasn’t young, but she wasn’t old either. Toys that were meant for babies she has gotten rid of.” Some of the audience started to boo and hiss. The man put his hand up to ask them to stop politely. They fell silent, “but she was still friends with her imaginary friend.”
Another light turned on that barely showed the scene of a melting bedroom with a broken bed and a broken dresser. A girl that looked to be nine sat in the middle of the room. She was drawing again. “Oh! How about his name be Captain Cold Eye? Because he has one icy blue eye.” The girl said, looking up at the darkness that surrounded her and the room.
“The daughter still loved to draw and still loved to make an adventure story. With her best friend right beside her. Yes, she made a few friends at school, but none of them compare to the first one she ever made,” the man explains.
“And we can make his first mate name be Fire Starter!” a voice spoke from the darkness, the daughter’s mouth moved, but the only sound that came out was that painful screeching sound. I had to cover my ears again, but as I stare at the girl that was sitting beside me. She was staring back with that smiling mask like she was happy to see that I was in pain. She slowly turned her head back to the play.
“Why Fire Starter?” the daughter asks, giggling a little but sound a bit unsettled by the comment. The voice chuckles. “Opposites. Fire and ice.” The lights turned off, leaving the stage in darkness.
When they turned back on, the scene was a melting living room. Four girls sat on the floor, one of them being the daughter. The girls were wearing different colored PJs, and they were all playing an unknown board game. The daughter looked older now from the last scene. She’s maybe twelve or thirteen.
The man cleared his throat before speaking. “Too old for toys now,” before he could continue, the audience started to throw popcorn at the girls who just sat still as the buttery food bombarded them. “The daughter got rid of them, but there was one toy she couldn’t give up, and that was Mr. Bunny. Sadly, she had him hidden away in her room. Until one of her bratty friends found him.”
Just then, a fifth girl ran in from the darkness holding a stuffed rabbit, that was nothing but scraps of fabric. She held it up, giggling and making fun of it. “Look at this old ratty ugly thing I found! Why do you even have this?” the fifth girl mocks. The daughter stood up, rubbing her arm lightly and shifted her weight on her feet.
“Trying to come up with something to tell her bratty friends, the daughter finally did. A lie that got the poor dog in trouble for something it didn’t do and got poor dear Mr. Bunny killed!” the man shouts before bowing as the light turned off over him.
The daughter spoke, trying to sound annoyed. “My aunt made me the ugly thing, and my stupid mom told me I had to keep it!” Another light turned on, showing a fake wooden dog that was beside the couch. The fifth girl handed the daughter the toy.
“I dare you to rip it to shreds and blame it on the dog.” She laughed as the other girls giggled. The daughter stares down at Mr. Bunny as its bright shiny black eyes stared back like he was begging for his life.
Putting one hand on the toy’s head and the other on his small body, the daughter begins to pull on him. A sickening noise came from it that sounded like a rabbit in distress. The more she pulled, the louder it got. I covered my mouth, dropping the popcorn as my eyes started to water.
Before the toy’s head came off, the lights turned off, but I saw small bright red cotton fall onto the floor, and the scream of a rabbit ringed out into the night’s air. It only lasted for five seconds, but it felt longer…
The lights were off for a while as I weep. The girl looked at me. “It’s okay. It was just a stupid toy,” she said mockingly and almost sounding like the fifth girl.
When the lights were back on, it was now an older girl with a boy that was around her age. Both were in the living room sitting on the broken couch, but in the darkness behind them was a figure. It was twitching and rocking with both hands on its head as it watched them, not making a sound. The boy has his arm around the daughter’s shoulder as she was leaning on him. Both were looking out at the audience.
“Aww! Young love. How sickening!” the man growls, “getting rid of toys, killing Mr. Bunny, wasn’t bad enough already? Now, she’s forgetting someone. Someone she made a promise to be friends with forever! How will this play out!?” The curtains dropped with a thud.
