Miss Cuzzle: The First Victim

In religion, angels save the day against demons that wish to torment the living on a daily basis. Those that believe in such beings lean towards God to protect their children from evil and destruction. However, God can only accomplish so much, and sometimes, protection cannot come to those that need it most. On the day of January 30th, 1921, the world became still after several mysterious child disappearances took place over a week. Those disappearances were frequent, almost never-ending. At first, they blamed the parents, mostly because they would go missing as well, but then, that also became frequent. Many adults were too frightened to let their children go out to play after a certain point in the day. Adults also locked all of their doors in an attempt to keep out those with bad intent. Fearing the outside world became normal for many aware family groups, but in reality, there was something much more sinister gathering its power inside of their very own homes, something that not even God could prevent.
One of the more well known missing children is Justin Patty, he was the very first child to vanish from his home one afternoon. Justin Patty was a cheerful child with a very big, shining smile. The household was rather small as well, only consisting of him and his two parents. His mother worked at the house and would often sew, while his father would often help out on the farm with other men. Nothing could break this boy’s cheerful smile, but was that smile actually real? When he disappeared, many of their neighbors felt chills go through their entire body. They had assumed that he vanished on his own terms to try and find his parents from his uncle’s house, but Justin wasn’t known for sneaking out from anyone, especially from his uncle that had taken him in for a few days before the disappearance. The search to find Justin’s body was rather short, they could find nothing leading towards him, not even a single speck of detail. Justin slowly became forgotten through time, and child disappearances that were rapid became more infrequent, but nobody will understand the terror that young Justin felt moments before he had vanished. 
It all started on January 23rd of that very same year. Justin Patty had just gotten out of his 1st grade class to go home. His father would pick him up at the usual closing time, but this time, he was late to pick Justin up. His mother had to come and grab him from school instead. It was a rather quiet ride home that day. Justin couldn’t wait to go and run to his barn to play outside with the neighborhood stray cats, but when he got home, his father had just arrived there, as well. Justin’s father, Sullivan, was not a cheerful man by any means. He was often very strict and expected way more from his son according to various sources. Justin’s mother, Tawna, was the exact opposite, and often tried to expand Justin’s mind to become more creative and thoughtful of others. As soon as Sullivan exited his vehicle, he went inside of his home without even looking at his wife and son, he just wanted to sit down and relax. Tawna looked at her son and told him to go and play, and Justin did. 
Justin ran to the barn to go and visit with the cats, as Tawna went to confront Sullivan about not picking his son up. He loved those cats, he even gave them names. He would often talk to them and play with them, but Sullivan only saw them as varmints. In the barn, there wasn’t a single sign of life except for the cow that faced the other direction. Justin tried to search for those two cats for hours, he even ended up getting very emotional and ran to his mother’s side to ask about them. Sullivan spared no time at all to tell Justin that he had disposed of the two, since they were not pets, but filthy barn rodents. This fact broke him and caused Tawna to get furious with Sullivan and take the crying Justin to his room. Justin had lost his only two friends thanks to his father’s unsympathetic lifestyle, and that sadness kick-started the events that would eventually unfold, especially as he heard the couple screaming at each other.
A day later, Justin went to school like the other children and he continued to keep that cheerful personality above all of the pain that he was feeling deep inside. Nobody knew about how he felt, he was brilliant at keeping it all hidden. After leaving his classroom for a restroom break, he felt a chill go down his spine. Nobody was around him at that moment, not physically at least. He walked into the restroom with that chilled feeling still going up his spine, as if someone was watching him. He chose to ignore it for the rest of the day, especially as class had started to come to an end. Before he left the school, a teacher grabbed him by the arm and tugged him towards the office. He was terrified of what that had meant, but luckily for him, the teacher had supposedly found something that belonged to him, it was a teddy bear. The teddy bear had blue buttons for eyes, brown fur, and a soft smile. It also had a pink bow on its head, this threw him off very quickly. He tried to explain that it wasn’t his, but the teacher said that it was and to take it home before he got in trouble, so he did. 
His father didn’t know how to react towards the teddy bear after picking Justin up. It was deemed too feminine in his eyes, but something else made him feel unsettled about it. According to their neighbors when they asked Sullivan about the bear, he said that he felt watched by it, like it was staring at him. They all viewed Sullivan as being physically exhausted, so those feelings were dismissed. Justin didn’t feel too comfortable about having a teddy bear either, but the teddy grew on him as the day went on. He started to show the teddy bear around, started to play with it, and then even gave it a name. Izzibear, that’s what he named the teddy, it was a cute name, but seemed too cute for a name that he would make. The family observed their son with the teddy as the day progressed into night. Sullivan started to become more paranoid of the teddy bear, as Justin talked to it frequently. Tawna guessed that it was because Justin lost his two furry friends, but Sullivan never stopped feeling that paranoia. 
The next morning, Sullivan confronted Tawna about events that occurred over night. He explained to neighbors and to her that he had heard voices coming from Justin’s room that night. The voices were sinister-sounding according to him, he believed that the teddy was the cause of them. He swore up and down that the teddy was plotting against him and his family. Everyone thought that Sullivan was going mad, including Tawna who started to get furious with her paranoid husband. Justin remained asleep in his bed for most of that time, as Sullivan continued to spew out nonsense. Justin later woke up to find Izzibear supposedly gone and to his horror, he quickly found out that Sullivan had grabbed Izzibear from him as he slept. Downstairs, Sullivan had the bear in his hand and was about to throw it into the fireplace, but Tawna was attempting to grab Izzibear to prevent Justin from losing something else. 
“It’s alive! I swear, it’s been staring me down! It knew my name, Tawna! It said that it knew who I was! I’m not crazy! I’m getting rid of this bear!” Sullivan yelled. His voice was so loud, others documented that he could be heard all around the neighborhood. Tawna screamed at Sullivan as he threw it into the fireplace to burn. Justin screamed in visible pain from the sight and Sullivan had enough. Tawna grabbed the burning teddy from the fireplace and rushed to put it out before it was too far gone. Sullivan had stomped towards his son and started to spank him out of pure rage. 
“You need to grow up! You’re a boy, stop playing with a girl’s toy! You have no idea where that thing even came from! Stop being so stupid!” Sullivan screamed. Justin’s screams of pain could be heard from the next door neighbor. The neighbor had enough and went to the house to separate the family from each other. She also had Tawna contact Justin’s uncle to pick him up the next day so he could have a break from the insanity. Justin sobbed through it all, he was shaken up to a horrific point and wanted to stay as far away as possible from Sullivan. When being told about the burned teddy by Justin, the neighbor responded in confusion. There wasn’t a burned teddy on the counter where Tawna had placed it. This caused Sullivan to lash out again.
“Look, I told you that I’m not crazy! I had to dispose of it, but you stopped me!” Sullivan said, according to the neighbor. The neighbor chose to ignore the insane rambling coming from him and instead brought Justin over to her house for awhile to let everything simmer. Everything was quiet for Justin then, but he could still hear the angry yelling between the couple a few houses over. The neighbor started to ask questions towards Justin about this teddy, but to her shock, Justin had the exact teddy in his arms soon after she asked. The teddy had no fire burns, it looked just as it did before.
“Is that the teddy that your daddy supposedly burned?” She asked. Justin then said a comment that made her feel very uneasy.
“Yes, but she said that the fire couldn’t hurt her. Izzibear is an angel, she would never let fire hurt her.” He explained. The neighbor decided not to question further because Justin’s uncle would eventually pull in. Once Justin’s uncle, Tim, arrived, Justin hopped inside and the neighbor walked over to Tim with a fearful expression. She explained the situation in greater detail and told Tim that the family wasn’t exactly safe together anymore, since she thought that Sullivan’s thoughts were getting into Justin’s head. Tim was rather responsible and listened, especially after hearing Sullivan screaming in the background. He took Justin to his house for the night, but that’s when something changed. 
Through the night, Justin couldn’t find Izzibear at all, and accidentally forgot her in Tim’s truck. He was too afraid to go and get her out, so he slept alone. At the same moment, the Patty household was very quiet, all except for Sullivan who was wide awake at all times. Tawna was fast asleep, but he remained with his eyes snapped open. As Tawna rolled over, Sullivan did as well, but he felt something breathe down his neck. He froze up as something moved against his back, almost to the point of grabbing him. He jerked upwards very rapidly and encountered nothing on the other end. As he turned back to hold onto Tawna, he was greeted by a fuzzy form, sharp teeth, and two pitiless eyes staring right back into his eyes. The rest of the neighborhood heard only silence, but in reality, Sullivan and Tawna’s screams were silenced by a force stronger than their own. 
A few days had passed, and the neighbors finally realized that Sullivan and Tawna never left their house. After investigating, they were never found inside. This resulted in the law being brought over and a search began on the household. All that they could find was a very scribbled note detailing how they went to a different state. This did not match up at all, especially since their vehicles were still there and nobody saw them leave. Once Tim was contacted, Tim expressed concern and struggled to tell Justin about his mother and father. Tim eventually gained the confidence to tell Justin, but Justin’s words made Tim stare in shock. 
“Your mommy and daddy are missing, I need to know if you’ve heard them talk about leaving.” Tim said. According to Tim’s report that very same day, the day before Justin went missing, Justin looked at him with a smile and held up the teddy.
“Mommy and daddy are okay, Izzibear took them to a place that is fun and very warm.” Justin replied. Tim’s unsettled feelings grew as he stared at the teddy and started to feel the same sense of paranoia. 
“Izzibear? That name was the nickname that my father gave our deceased sister.” Tim explained. Justin looked down at Izzibear and held her to his ear, then giggled. 
“I’m going to call her Miss Cuzzle, now. She also said that I will see where she took them too, I’m so excited!” Justin said. The very next morning, Justin suddenly vanished from Tim’s house without a trace. Justin was the first of many victims, and sadly, all of their bodies were never found.
Category:Animals
Category:Ghosts
Category:Demon/Devil
Category:Disappearances