Beady Little Eyes

I wasn?t exactly close to my Grandmother, so when I heard that she had passed away I honestly didn?t know what to feel. Yes it was sad that she had died because she was family, but she was a stranger. My Grandfather had passed away a long time ago so it was just my Grandmother, Mom, and Uncle. I?m not sure why, but growing up I never once saw her. I knew that she was at least alive because my Mom would go visit her. I always saw my Dad?s parents and my Mom would always preach about the importance of ?family.? Why was her mother exempt from my life?
When I was around 13 years old I stopped my Mom at the door one Saturday afternoon. I knew she was going to go see my Grandmother so I asked her if I could come along. I won?t forget the look on her face when she turned her head towards me. My Mom and I have always had a good relationship, even now, but at that moment I saw her face twist with disgust and hate. I?ve never seen her look that way, so I instinctively took a few steps back as if her hand would strike me. My Mom saw my reaction and composed herself, after a minute or so she finally told me something about my Grandmother.
Apparently my Grandmother didn?t have the soundest of minds, but my Mom had left it at that. I spent the next few years just?going about my life without any other knowledge of her. Now I?m almost 30 and the next bit of information I had about my Grandmother was her death. My Mom had called me, she was crying and I could barely understand what she was saying. After a few minutes I finally understood that her mother, my Grandmother had passed. I was already living alone in an apartment but I was close by so I immediately went to my Mom?s side.
When I got to her house I saw my Uncle with her, both of them were quietly sobbing in the kitchen. Their feelings were somewhat alien to me, I mean I didn?t know the woman so I couldn?t share in their sorrow. I just sat with them and did my best to offer whatever help I can. They decided to not have a funeral and to go ahead and bury her alongside my Grandfather. That was a pretty straightforward decision but I?m sure they?ve been thinking about this for a while.
They asked for me to go to my Grandmother?s house to pack up her belongings while they dealt with burial arrangements. Honestly I was ready to do it, by going through some of her things I could learn something about my Grandmother after all this time. I agreed and they gave me the address to the house, it was much closer than I thought it would be, only a forty minute drive. They thanked me and my Uncle told me he would send one of my cousins over to help.
So I went home, cleared my plans for the weekend and the next morning I headed over to the old house. It was a worn down house, the paint all around it was grey and chipping, the grass was so tall that it was almost up to my knees, and there was trash scattered around the property. I went to the front door with a stack of cardboard boxes, I unlocked the front door and finally entered my Grandmother?s house.
I flipped the lights on and stood there in shock at the threshold of the door, trying to take in what I was seeing. As soon as you opened the door there was an old bookcase completely filled with?stuffed animals, on the floor were even more stuffed animals. I slowly walked past the shelf to find all down the hallway leading towards the bedrooms?stuffed animals, in the kitchen?more stuffed animals, and in the living room?more and more stuffed animals. I know people would collect things, but all of the stuffed animals were far from even ?good? condition. Each plush was disgusting, old and weathered more so than the house itself, I didn?t want to touch them.
I was going to call my Uncle and ask what was up with all of this but I remembered that they did say she wasn?t all there so I refrained. I shook my head to focus and began to look around the house a bit. Plushies aside, the rest of the home was filled with the bare minimum of furniture. I even went into the other bedrooms and all of them were?you guessed it, had more plushies. Each room had a large pile of assorted stuffed animals in different colors stacked atop each other.
The sheer numbers of them weren?t what unsettled me, I?m sure it was just a coincidence but in every room I entered their eyes?all of their eyes were fixed upon me. Their eyes seemed so off to me, they were all hazy and cloudy. It made me feel so uncomfortable so I decided to make a little joke about it. I was going to take a picture of a huge pile of plushies and send it to my cousins?until I saw something move in the camera. I pulled my arms down to look back at the pile, it looked unassuming. I was sure that something had moved across my phone?s screen.
I jumped when a sudden noise came from behind me. It sounded like bones popping, like someone cracking their fingers. I went back into the hallway to look for the noise, but there was nothing. I looked down at the plushies that filled the hallway floor and they were all face down. I was so sure that they were facing towards me when I first got here. My phone began to ring and I lifted it out of my pocket to see my Uncle was calling me.
?H-hello?? I uttered, still a bit shaken up from what I heard.
?Hey?so are you at the house already?? he asked, his voice sounded a bit?sad,
?I just got here actually..?
He paused for a moment as if trying to find the right thing to say..
I broke the silence, ?Hey, so, about the dolls..?
?Oh. Right. Haha?Mom was a bit obsessed with those things. She said they had the prettiest eyes??
My Uncle?s voice stuck on that last word and he paused again.
?Listen, don't worry about packing up those things,? he suddenly said, ?Every single one of them can rot there, you hear me??
?Uh, right. No problem.? I assured him..
I heard his breath?it was shaking.
I asked him if everything was alright, but he just responded with a low, ?Yeah..? and hung up. I didn?t want to waste any more time and linger here any longer, so I quickly got a stack of boxes I had left near the front door. I decided to start in the bedroom at the end of the hall. I opened the door and I immediately started gagging from a sudden burst of foul air. The smell was a mix of something rotten mixed with **** and chemicals. I was actually brought to my knees from the smell and I forced myself not to vomit.
Inside of the bedroom was a dirty blanket where I assumed she slept along with a dozen small cat litter boxes, all of them were filled with excrement. Enough was enough, I didn?t want to stay here any longer. My Grandmother was absolutely nuts and there was something wrong with this house. I made my way back to the front door and called my Mom. I love my mom so much and not once have I disrespected her but as soon as she answered my call I just couldn?t hold back.
?What the ****!? I yelled into the phone.
I could hear my Mom holding back a cry. ?She?she needed help..? she said sorrowfully.
I composed myself, ?What was wrong with her? Do you know what this house is filled with?? I asked.
?It was that thing..? she said with a hint of anger in her voice. ?Ever since she got that Thing, she started to change.?
?Yeah there are a lot of old stuffed animals here, is that what you mean??
?There?s one, it was really old and it looked handmade. I don?t know why but my mother said that she found it outside and decided to keep it..?
She took another deep breath, ?She wouldn?t say where she found it but she kept it by her side. It was really old, an off white with black beady eyes and a stitched mouth. It had no clothes, no hair, no other features really besides the fact that it was old and had the shape of a small child.?
I ran through my brain trying to remember if I had seen a doll like that, but I wasn?t sure if I had found it yet. My Mom told me that as soon as she got the?Thing, my Grandmother started to collect stuffed animals. At first she didn?t think anything of it with my stuffed animal or two, but then more and more of them began to fill the house. My Uncle was sure she was no longer there and tried to get her some help but apparently she would have an absolute meltdown and even threatened to kill him.
?We didn?t know what else to do, she didn?t want us and she didn?t want any help.? my Mom took another deep breath, ?All she wanted was that damn Thing and those animals.?
She then began to cry. I tried to comfort her but what she told me next made me regret ever wanting to know about my Grandmother.
?The reason we didn?t let you see if..? she started to sob as the memories began to fill her mind. ?It was after you were born and I hoped that seeing you would bring some light back to her. I stepped away for a moment, I swear it was just a moment and as soon as I looked back?she..?
I was on the edge listening to my Mom tell her story, she was sobbing inconsolably at this point.
?She had her fingers over your eye..and she tried to take them out!? she finally let the memory out. ?She said that you had pretty little eyes and that her friend wanted them too..?
I felt my stomach begin to turn as I imagined an old woman with bloodied fingers over a baby?s body. I took a few minutes to console my Mom, I felt bad for bringing up such a terrifying memory for her. Ever since that day my Mom refused to let her see me again, but still..she took care of that crazy, old woman. After she had calmed down my Mom gave me a new task..
She said with a stern voice, ?I don?t care about what?s in that house, there?s nothing good inside there anymore. Find that Thing?find it and burn it.?
I was surprised to hear that from her but I understood. Whatever that Thing was, they blamed it for everything that happened to their Mother. I searched everywhere inside the house, even forcing myself with my shirt tied around my face inside of my Grandmother?s bedroom, but there was no trace of a small child-like doll. I stepped into the kitchen and grabbed a handful of water from the sink to drink it. I didn?t realize how long I was there until I noticed that it was now night.
I couldn?t find a trace of that doll and decided to get ready to leave. As I turned the faucet off I heard a scratching noise. It was very light, but very distinct so I followed the noise to the door leading towards the backyard. I flipped the back porch light switch and of course it didn?t work. The scratching sound was coming from this door and it was going faster. I wasn?t going to open the door unless I could confirm what it was until I heard a ?meow.?
I laughed to myself, ?Thank God, it was only a cat..? I must?ve let the story my Mom told get to me. I opened the back door and was met with nothing but a light gust of wind. I thought the cat must have ran away or something and that?s when I saw the backyard. My Grandmother?s backyard was pretty spacious and there was absolutely no grass, just mounds and mounds of dirt.
Sitting atop the center of the backyard was?an antique looking stuffed doll about the size of a small child. It was just sitting there, with its stuffed arms propping itself up. It stared at me with two small black beads for eyes and it had a mouth stitched into a smile. I stepped closer towards it and I began to hear another meowing sound?then another?then another?then a few more. My ears were filled with the screeching of countless cats.
I looked down at my feet that began to sink and I saw?tiny bones underneath the soft dirt. Slowly mounds of loose dirt began to rise and I saw small cats pulling themselves from the earth. The cats were missing bits of their body, slowly decayed and rotten. There were dozens of them gathering around the doll..that Thing and every single one of them were missing their eyes.
They turned to look at me and all I could do was stare into the abyss of their rotten empty eye sockets. I did what any sane person could do and ran?I ran back into the house. I crossed the threshold of the backdoor and I tripped on some of those damned stuffed animals. I was on the floor completely surrounded by them?that's when I noticed a sound coming from them, a familiar sound..a sound I just heard?cat meows.
I stared into the eyes of each of the stuffed animals and finally realized?their eyes were very realistic. All of the stuffed animals had the same?hazy and dull cat?s eyes. Was it my Grandmother?or was it that Thing that scooped the eyes out of those poor cats and placed them inside of these disgusting things. I felt a pit form in my through and my stomach turned as I had a thought?that whatever that Thing was wanted my eyes for itself. I looked through the open back door and realized that?the doll was gone.
I didn?t waste any more time and I ran, I ****ing ran through the front door and went straight to my car and I left. I sped into the night, glancing into my rearview mirror as if something was following me. As soon as I got to my home I received a few texts from my Uncle and Mom but I didn?t want to answer them?I didn?t want to tell them what I had experienced in that damn home.
I didn?t really talk to anyone for a while, my cousins ended up clearing out the place?there wasn?t much to clear out apparently. I asked if they experienced anything but nothing?they were just met with a disgusting old house owned by a crazy lady that loved stuffed animals. A few days ago I called one of my cousins to ask them a few questions about the house.
I asked about the backyard to which they confirmed that there was nothing there but a grassless old backyard. Then I asked my cousins if they noticed the cat eyes on the stuffed animals?and they told me that none of the stuffed animals had eyes at all. Each stuffed animal inside of that house had stuffing coming out of areas of their eyes. It took me a moment until I finally asked if they had seen a doll there?they had no idea what I was talking about.
After that I was sure that I had gone crazy, I finally talked to my Mom about it and she told me that she even felt crazy when she visited my Grandmother. She told me that she would hear noises and footsteps other than hers and my Grandmother. I spent a few days after that just confused?I even considered seeing a shrink or something. That was until late last night...when I heard a scratch coming from outside of my front door.


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