Stitched Anomalies

•Chapter One•

In the eerie silence, accompanied by flickering lights in the lab, their creation had come to life. Sitting around a table were a group of scientists, mysterious figures who wore uncanny, animal-like masks that concealed their identities. After a quick observation, they agreed that it was a successful experiment.

The scientists were fixated on the fears of children and desired to extract the fears into a vessel that could keep hold of it. Their first creation was mainly made up of cotton and thread, but it was partly an organic and self-aware creature that had human-like thoughts, feelings, and emotions. For the scientists to be able to install their experiments into the homes of children, they needed a way for them to look appealing. The scientists knew that children liked cute things such as Teddy Bears. That is what they made him out of.

The scientists called him "Experiment01," They had inserted consciousness into him which is what gave him his own emotions. Behind his fluffy, brown fur and his small, dark eyes was an innocent soul. Before sending their creation out to the public, the scientists needed to give him an appropriate name. They also needed to create more bears. The scientists had decided on the name "Bruno" for him, it was short, sweet and fit him well.

Bruno had seen what the scientists had done, injecting real bear DNA into him, and stuffing the remains of a brain in his head. Although his goal assigned by the scientists was to harvest the fears of children, the bear already had fears of his own. Each fear the bear had would make him more aggressive to the scientists. Every time he would attack the scientists, they would gas him out and would remove portion of his brain, however, his conscious stayed no matter how much they removed. The scientists planned on making many more bears, hundreds and thousands to further test the hypothesis.

Bruno, being the first one, knew the truth. What the scientists were doing was inserting consciousness into Teddy Bears and using brain wave technology to get the fears out of minds and into them. The scientists planned on placing one Teddy Bear into each child's home. They would sit on their bed like a normal Teddy Bear, the children wouldn't suspect a thing. But while the children would sleep, the brain wave technology would drag the fears out of the children's minds and into the bear, making it live inside them instead. The Teddy Bears had to have some level of conscious to be able to do their job correctly, the scientists figured as the bears needed to know what the fears were and if they were correctly extracted. The real bear DNA was purely for survival instinct purposes.

Little did the group of scientists know, too much fear inside the bears would cause them to completely lose it, and even become the fears themselves. They kept Bruno locked up most of the time to keep him safe and secured. In the same room, Bruno could see many other cages for the new bears these people would put them in, if only they knew how the bears felt, but the seemingly mad scientists were inhumane beings. In the dim lights of the laboratory and the cold floor, Bruno would sit. The smokey air would fill the room as the scientists would research in the other room, being able to hear them whisper to each other.

Although the group of scientists were the ones who created him, Bruno saw himself as an entity. He did not understand how consciousness could be injected into him, after all there were remains of a brain in his head but it surely would've been dead. Considering Teddy Bears aren't expected to be alive like Bruno is, he liked to refer to himself as something. He was an alive bundle of cotton and thread which is usually not normal. He called himself the "Stitched Anomaly."

The scientists came back after a while with their new creation. Expectedly, it was just like Bruno, an alive Teddy Bear. He was somewhat different; he had soft, yellow fur with a larger nose and eyes, his paws were more detailed, and he had a different name. This was "Experiment02," but his nickname was Bailey. The fearful bear was shoved inside a cage, right next to Bruno, who saw him as a potential friend.