[Halloween 2024 Special]
*Note: Contains a light horror aspect of Plushification (Plush TF).It was the last day of October, marking the start of the spookiness I was excited about as a ten-year-old. While I was in an orange cat costume with childish enthusiasm to collect my annual stash of candy, my parents were discussing something that caused me to shudder a little. There were rumors of children vanishing on the early evening of Halloween, trick-or-treaters disappearing from the streets one after another. Several Amber Alerts were currently live and my parents hesitated whether I should be getting candy alone. Since my parents did not wish to go out in costumes, they sighed and gave me an hour to enjoy myself in the neighborhood and come home directly when done.

Clutching my plastic jack-o'-lantern in hand, I happily skipped through the doors onto the streets where few still dared to roam in costume. As the feline tail of my cat outfit swayed behind me, I sauntered down the neighborhood, almost immediately spotting a blinking street lamp a few steps away. Out of curiosity, I went under the light and stared at its enigmatic lights, changing colors slightly with every flicker. It was almost hypnotic even and my eyes were entranced by the unique light display of a faulty lamp.

After staring vacantly at the light, I shook my head and blinked my eyes, snapping back to my Halloween candy-collecting spree. To my horror, all the houses in the neighborhood were missing, replaced by trees and an ominous fog. I was transported somewhere else other than my familiar neighborhood, like I was thrown into one of my friend’s spooky legends. The only house I could see was an unlit abandoned one just a stone’s throw away. Upon getting closer, I could see that the paint on the walls were weather worn and peeling off, and most of its exterior was dilapidated. Its door was left ajar as though welcoming me inside to get candy.

However, upon setting foot inside, the door slammed shut with a loud bang, startling me out of my skin and causing me to drop my plastic candy bucket. I struggled to twist the knob to escape, but it was stuck and would not budge. I sighed, turning away from the door to examine my new surroundings. The living room had a surprisingly well-maintained interior like someone was still living inside. There were shelves of pastel-colored plushies along the walls, but each was oddly free of dust. I dipped my head to see empty costumes strewn all over the wooden floors of the living room.

I bent over to inspect the costumes. Every costume was still zipped up, some covered in dirt and mud, but they all had one thing in common. Bits of cotton seemed to be spilling out from the sleeves and hood of each empty outfit, and speckles along the outer layers of fabric. I lifted a green dinosaur costume and gave it a shake. Wads of cotton fell out onto the floor like snow. I picked up a bit of cotton and gave it a squeeze. I identified the cotton as the stuffing inside typical plushies, but the mystery deepened. Why was there stuffing in the costumes?

Everywhere I gazed, there were more abandoned costumes and stuffed animals. On the other side of the living room, I sighted a flight of stairs and wondered If I should explore the house further. “H-Hello?” I called out, but no one was home, except for some faint, wooden creaking behind me. The plushies that had previously sat on the shelves had hopped onto the floor, marching toward me. One sprinted for me and bit on my ankle painlessly. I ripped it off my leg, hastily punting it away like a football and sprinted for the stairs.

As I ascended the stairs, the sentient plushies stopped on the third step and watched me from below with their plastic bead eyes. I paused, too, staring back at them for a few seconds before they began to clamber up the stairs like a swarm of zombies. I resumed my escape from them diving into the first room I saw and locked it without delay, hearing the persistent thuds of plushies outside. I held my breath, hoping they would go away. The rate of thumping slowed down and eventually ceased. I heaved a sigh of relief, believing I was out of danger until…

I glanced about the room I was hiding in and saw the motherlode of costumes and plushies. The empty costumes were placed in neatly folded stacks and motionless plushies slumped against the walls. On the bed in front of him was a sitting giant orange cat plush, having a white belly and white paws like my costume. In fact, it had an uncanny resemblance to my outfit. The cat had a sewn on smile and a pair of yellow glass beads as eyes. It looked so soft and fluffy, irresistible to me as I poked at its white belly.

Throwing caution to the wind, I embraced the plushie, wondering if I could carry it out of the room all the way back to my home. I then felt the plush hug back, but far too tight to be a friendly hug. My instincts were screaming at me to flee, attempting to squirm out of the hold of its stuffed arms. Every endeavor seemed futile in its ironclad embrace. I was trapped and at the mercy of the giant cat plushie. Its sewn mouth began unraveling, revealing its stuffing filled interior with the same soft cotton I had seen earlier.

Before I managed to scream, it shoved my head into my mouth, muffling my cries for help. With each soft “chew” of its mouth, I was progressively forced deeper and deeper into its plush body through a silky tube. It lifted its head, letting gravity do the rest, dropping me into a soft fleece-lined chamber filled with cotton stuffing. I “swam” to the surface of the pool of cotton, gasping for breath and realizing it reached my neckline. All around me were various empty costumes swishing in the cotton like it was water. Connecting the dots together, I have been swallowed by a haunted plushie and as for the other costumes… It was what remained of the missing children. I was going to be food for the plush cat.

I struggled to my earnestness in the belly of the plush, banging my fists at its stuffed fabric walls but to no avail. Soon, I could feel my shoes dissolve and turn into more stuffing, the warm cotton surrounding my feet like a thick woolen sock. At my hands, the cotton stuck to my fingers and formed thick, silky mittens. I bit at the cotton in an attempt to rip it off my fingers but it was stuck like glue, only leading to the cotton getting stuck onto my cheeks. It spread like fire, engulfing every part of my face with cotton. I could still breathe through the cotton, but just barely. There was a prickling sensation all over my face, hands, and feet, wherever the cotton stuck to.

I knew it was the end for me and accepted my demise, my body dissolving into cotton food for the cat plushie. I had unknowingly solved the mystery by being part of it myself.

[Epilogue]
Hours later, the orange cat plushie huffed and heaved its body forward, coughing out an empty orange cat costume in the living room along with an orange cat plushie. It picked up the new plushie and placed it onto an empty section of a shelf, adding to its collection of souls bound to its will. Another set of footfalls could be heard approaching the house. Leaving the empty orange cat costume on the floor, it returned to take its position upstairs in the bedroom. The giant orange cat plushie transformed into a cuddly blue teddy bear, waiting for its next victim to appear in the room.