The creepiest toy she had ever seen kept appearing on her front porch. 

She glared back at the button eye of her stuffed stalker before looking around to see whether someone dropped it off. She was sure that it was a cruel prank from one of her fellow students, but because of the persistence of the jokester, her certainty began to wane. 

The toy was a red teddy bear, with fluff seeping out of slits and the hole where the second eye was meant to be. It was missing an arm and a foot and its body was close to being decapitated but it still had enough stitching to be recognised as a soft toy.  

Each day she would open her front door to see it sitting there and each day she would find new ways of destroying it. Ripping it apart, burning it, drowning it in a lake and flushing it down the toilet all failed her and she was running out of ideas. Nothing was working and the toy came back each day, redder and scarier. 

She grabbed the bear by its throat and shut the door swiftly. Stomping towards the kitchen, she shoved the teddy in her mothers face with a look of desperation.  

"This, this thing has been outside our door for the past few months and I don't know how to get rid of it."  

Her mother stared at her horrified, before proceeding to snatch it out of her hand and grab a large kitchen knife. She was stabbing and ripping the limbs off of the bear, throwing them all into the broth she was making when she was done.  

"Go pack everything you have. Do not pack anything red, do you understand me?" Her mother commanded, before hastily grabbing the phone and dialing the number. She stood paralyzed to her spot whilst she saw her mother phone her father and the broth splatter. Red began to trickle out of the pot and both mother and daughter gazes were transfixed onto it.  

"They're back. We have no time," her mother whispered into the phone.  

A few more words were exchanged when she  turned around to see her daughter in the same position.  

"Go pack," her mother yelled, pushing her daughter out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Snapping back to reality, she ran up the stairs and flung open her door. She scrambled everything she owned into a bag, leaving out everything red. As she was closing her bag, she heard something so loud and abrupt, she fell to her knees. It was the warning bell.  

The only times her town ever used it was during air strikes and they had all wished it was never heard again. The noise pierced through her sound proof walls and cracked her window. However, the loud noise wasn't enough to mask the screams of the people outside, having god knows what done to them. Her pace of closing the bag increased out of fear and, within a few seconds, she had successfully made it downstairs to see both her parents waiting with the door open. When they saw her, they let out a sigh of relief and together they rushed out of the house.  

The car ride was filled with silence and worried glances and although she had no idea what was happening, she was too scared to find out. After what felt like hours, the family arrived at a bus stop and unloaded.  

"We have to get on different buses, children and adults," her father said looking between his wife and daughter. The silence that hung around them previously was now drowned in the sound of other cars arriving and people's farewells. The family shared a hug before boarding onto the individual buses.  

She kept her head down as she maneuvered through the seats of the bus, making her way to the back. She sat in between a young girl and a boy around her age. The boy was turned away with his hood up, presumably asleep whilst the girl was huddled in the corner, her thumb.  

As the seats ahead of them began to fill up, she drifted to sleep, the little girl began to sing, 

'Beware beware of the RedMan's tale 

with the loudest cry and the pungent smell 

Make sure they don't see the colour red 

Like the nicest rose and the blood you bled 

Make sure you don't listen to the things they say 

Or you might not see the light of day  

The worst of it is yet to come  

Beware beware of the RedMan's song'