I was afraid. I just wanted to help her. She seemed so lonely, so afraid, like me. I knew something was wrong, but I hadn’t thought of what would have happened.

Everything seems so silly now.

It all happened so fast yet in such long time. Let me explain everything. Maybe I’ll be able to understand more by doing that. Maybe I won’t and I’ll be left with wonder, but maybe you might.

***

It started a few months ago, back when I was still a toy designer. Eric Carly, a single father working on various places and living with his daughter. That’s me. Introductions are always needed for stories like these. They might sound false at times or just silly, but it matters.

“Dad?” Wanda told me one night. I knew she was scared. With my job as a toy designer, I could somehow recognize hidden faces. My daughter was scared, uncomfortable and hiding something. Wanda was beautiful. For such a young age, her features were absolutely glorious. She was precious, soft yet sensitive. At only six years of her life, I always thought that she would have had a bright future.

“What is it? Shouldn’t you be asleep?” I asked naively.

“I can’t sleep. I’m having bad dreams.” She said, frowning. I always liked how polite she was. Wanda selected her words very carefully. Saying ‘nightmares’ would really affect her mood, so she says ’bad dreams’ instead.

“Wanda, we already talked about this. Don’t worry, I’ll make you something.” I told her, as usual. It had been several days now that she was having bad dreams. Wanda never told me what they were, but it was honestly better like that. I was having trouble recently with my work, so adding the reason to my daughter’s problem would have been a bit too much for me.

“Okay… When?” She asked. That, I was not prepared. I didn’t really think of what to do for her.

“If you want, we can make it together on the afternoon? What do you think?” I asked unprepared but surprised at the sudden thought. If I could make something for her, maybe it would be better if I know what could fit her the most.

“Sure. Sounds fun!”

“Alright. Go to sleep now, okay?”

“Okay. Goodnight.” She said before walking away and to her bedroom. After thinking about her briefly, I got back to work. I was working on a prototype for a toy from a TV Show. The show in question was called ‘Froggie’s Wacky Adventures’. It was made by a group of employees who left Fazbear Entertainment, another popular company with animal mascots. I was tasked to design an action figure of the titular character of the show: Froggie himself.

I’ve been working on him for a few days now, but I was adding the final touches. I decided to make him very posable. He had joints on his arms, legs, and head but also on the shoulders, knees, and all. He would also have googly eyes, so that more younger kids, around five to six years old, would also buy them.

These would be more expensive than the ‘regular’ figures who were very simplistic and made for three to four years old kids. Anyway, I was finishing the paint job. Froggie had a rather simple design with few colors, so it was pretty easy. It took a few hours, and when it was around 1:23 A.M., I was done. I put the prototype to rest and decided to go to bed. The next day would be quite a day, as I would need to present the prototype in the morning and then come up with a solution to Wanda’s problems. Wait… Oh yeah, I also needed to buy some stuff for my work. Almost forgot.

The show’s owner and the toy factory’s owner were looking closely at my prototype. I was always so nervous when that happened. What if they would deny? What if they noticed a very bad mistake? It was always a terrifying moment in my head. I tried to keep calm, confident. Both of their faces were serious but curious.

Both of them were very similar, always looking professional, almost ‘superior’. They almost didn’t feel natural, in my opinion.

The show’s owner put down the prototype. “Mr. Carly, this is pretty good!”

“Oh?”

“The mold is accurate; the joints feel really nice and the eyes are adorable!” The show’s owner said, while the toy factory’s owner nodded.

“T-That’s great to hear!” I said, surprised.

“Yeah. There’s only one problem, though.”

That’s when I started panicking in my mind. “That is?”

“You forgot the front small teeth. But, don’t worry, it’s an easy fix we can handle.”

“Oh, okay then. Glad to see that, aside from this detail, the figure’s great.”

“The next prototype offer will be next week, sir.” The toy factory’s owner said.

“Okay. I’ll see you both then, I suppose.” I said. I shook their hands and left the interview room. I felt relieved, but no time for a break. I needed to get new furniture for my work.

Going to the shop was interesting. There weren’t as many people as usual, and I noticed that immediately because I was going there almost every week. I had made a checklist before finishing the prototype the day before. So, I started grabbing stuff.

Cotton? Check.

Popsicle Sticks? Check. (You would be surprised as to how many I need for my work.)

Plastic Sheets? In Multiple Colors? Check.

Paint? Check.

Red, blue, and green felt? Check… But the purple looked nice. So, I grabbed it as well.

Multiple pair of white balls? In different sizes? Check.

And… I was done. I grabbed some last-minute food and bought everything. I got to my car and started driving home. That’s when weird things started to happen. A bit far away, on the road, there were two cars. They didn’t move, and one of them was upside down. As a brave and curious man, I approached the incident. That’s when things started to get… Terrific.

I stopped my car and got out. The front of the upside-down car was absolutely destroyed. It also had a bit of blood. I knew that this was not at all a good sign. The other car was almost perfectly fine, but slightly damaged. I analyzed the scene with wide eyes. A blood splatter was there too. “Hello?” I said out loud, not sure if I was going to get a response. That’s when I heard a sob sound. I started to panic, not in my head, but in real life. I approached the upside-down car, as I thought that the sound came from it. I saw an arm, coming out of one of the car’s doors. I forced the door opened and saw a girl in terrible conditions. The girl didn’t have any major limbs broken, but she was scratched violently. She also appeared to have a stab wound on her torso, which immediately became the biggest problem. “Take my hand!” I told her, so she could grab it and I could pull her out. The girl actually did so, and I managed to get her out. “Stay right there, I’m going to call for help.” I said. I couldn’t leave a damaged person behind, not like that. I got to my car and grabbed my phone. I put on the ambulance’s number and called. It took a few minutes but, eventually, they localized my phone. They would come about five minutes later, but I needed to help the girl first. I tried to find something to use as a bandage. I noticed the purple felt, that I grabbed earlier. It was actually bigger than the red, blue, and green felt. Perfect, I would just cut a strip of the purple felt and use it. I grabbed some scissors in my bag and started cutting. I noticed that the girl was struggling to get up. After I got the strip, I rushed towards her.

“Okay, stay calm, I’m going to bandage up your torso. Sadly, I only have this, so it might hurt more.” I told her.

“O-Okay.” The girl said. Her face was terrified, worried, and painful to look at. I couldn’t help but notice the tears around her eyes, her wide but small eyes.

I started putting the purple felt around the torso as tight as possible but not too much. I did hurt her slightly, but she didn’t yell. “What’s your name?” I asked, thinking of recomforting her.

“Evelyn… E-Evelyn Pattinson.” She said, her voice sounding less painful.

“I’m Eric. Eric Carly.” I responded back. Now that we introduced ourselves briefly, I was feeling more confident on saving her. “The ambulance is coming, do not worry. Everything will be alright.” I said.

“O-Okay.”

While bandaging her, I noticed something very strange that I didn’t thought of at this point. “Huh, where’s the other driver?”

“I-I don’t know… He crashed into me for no r-reason.” She explained.

“Okay. Do you want me to call the police?”

“No, i-it’s fine…” I was starting to get confused but I just thought that she just didn’t want to extend the situation any further. I started to knot the felt.

“Evelyn, are you going to be alright?” I asked, running out of things to say to help her.

“Y-Yeah… I-I’m just scared.” She said. That got me to think of Wanda, how she was terrified of bad dreams. I’ve thought that maybe, Evelyn had one too, but it was a real bad dream. Finally, I was done with my homemade bandage.

“Does it hurt?” I asked her about the bandage.

“N-No. It’s fine.”

“Great. How long have you been there?”

“Not too long a-ago. A-About five minutes.” She said. And, what seemed to be a perfectly timed moment, the ambulance finally came. Before they got out of their vehicles and took her, I noticed something on her. A necklace that was bunny shaped. It immediately gave me a flashback of my wife. “Evelyn… Where did you get that?”

“Huh? Oh, t-the necklace? Someone gave it to me… But that w-was so long ago that I can’t remember anymore.” Evelyn explained.

The ambulance approached the two of us. “Could you contact me when you’re out of the hospital? I need answers.” I asked urgently.

“H-huh for?”

“That was from my wife. That necklace belonged to her.” I told her. Without any time left, I gave her a card with my number and let the ambulance do their job. I had multiple ‘just-in-case’ cards that had my number.

That whole scene was something… Interesting. If this girl… Evelyn was indeed somehow related to my wife, I would have so many thoughts going on in my mind. But I needed to get home for Wanda.

I’m still so shocked as to what happened… Evelyn…

I’m getting off track. Let’s resume.

When I got home, Wanda seemed excited. Can’t blame her. We got to my room and I laid down everything that I bought alongside other stuff I already owned. My workspace was pretty big and rather colorful, which always made Wanda smile. “So,” I started when I and her sat down around my desk. “Shall we begin?”

“Yes!”

“Okay! So… Do you want a toy or a plush?” I asked first, though I already knew her answer.

“Plushie!” She said. Wanda had a ton of plushies, so of course she would ask for more.

“Great! So, huh… What do you want it to be…?” My second question was now asked.

“Mm… I’m not sure… That’s a hard question.” She told me, struggling to come up with a proper idea.

It was my time to think. I tried to think of several ideas. A clown? No, she thought they were weird. A frog? Nah, she already had a ton of my prototypes of Froggie. A girl? Like an imaginary friend? That could work.

“Say, what do you think of…” At that point, my mind was brainstorming. I just had remembered Evelyn’s necklace. It was stuck to my mind… Evelyn was stuck to my mind. “…a bunny…?” I asked, not really in control of myself.

“Yes! That sounds awesome, daddy!” At least she loved the idea.

“Okay. Bunny it is… Wait! I got an idea!” I said before leaving the room. “Stay here!” I yelled while going to my garage. I could faintly hear her say ‘Okay Daddy’. I remembered something. But, to understand it, we need to go back from a bit. About a… Month earlier, I’d say. Let’s rewind, shall we? At that time, I didn’t have any prototypes to make, I was free for a bit. So, I decided to go somewhere that I would usually never go to. An auction.