The Laughing Kangaroo

It was pretty innocent. A small soft toy kangaroo, the ones young kids cuddle in bed. This one was a little bit different. When you clapped or made vibrations by stamping your feet a 'voice box' inside the toy would make a laughing noise. I thought it was funny at first as Louise put it on the floor than clapped over its head. "So how much did you pay for this one"? I asked my sister. "20 dollars! From the market"! My sister panted after all the laughing.

I never suspected anything out of the ordinary would happen. It was in the school holidays, I was pretty bummed out as it was right in the transition from summer to autumn, which meant horrible weather (I live in Australia). I spent most of my day inside, messing around on my computer or feeding my snakes. That night I picked myself up and moved towards my bedroom. I quickly fell asleep. At around 2 in the morning a great flash illuminated the room and I heard a smash. I looked to the corner of my room to see my camera lying on the floor in a million pieces and the soft toy kangaroo sitting in the spot where my camera should have been. A shiver went down my spine as my stomachs fell. I slowly picked up my camera. Wasn't it in its bag.? I looked up at the kangaroo. It was sitting on the camera case.

I decided the next day to see if I could still remove the SD card from my camera, and save all the photos I have taken over the year. My parents weren't too happy as I showed them what was once my camera and apparently 'Louise's toy did it' was not a reasonable explanation. Anyway I removed the SD card, inserted it into the computer and started uploading all the images. I knew it would take afew hours so I went out with some mates so I wouldn't be waiting around.

We had a pretty good time. In fact I think I forgot all about it. I got back to my computer and what I found made my vomit. I VOMITED!. The last image taken was a JPEG image of the kangaroo toy, yet it was disturbingly real and different. It's eyed we're pure black, blood poured out of its eyes and it was smiling with bloodstained teeth. I was really scared. I showed my Dad and he dismissed it as Louise having a little prank. He reassured me that he would talk to her the next day. I felt a lot better... Until I realised she was eleven!. I didn't know how to use photoshop when I was eleven. I decided to save the image so I could show it to my friends. It was gone, wiped off the computer. The image was gone.

I was shitting bricks all night, hoping the kangaroo wouldn't try or get me. I fell asleep and woke up without anything happening in the night. I was wrong. I usually check my pythons every morning, just to see how they are getting on. In the enclosure closest to the door is my favourite black headed python. I lifted her hide box and I almost cried. She was stone dead, bloody slowly trickling out of the cavities in her body. I was devastated. That thing cost me almost $600!. I looked around to see if anything was different in the room. I heard a laugh. The mechanical laugh of the kangaroo. My skin prickled with goose bumps. It was sitting in the chair opposite where the dead snake was lying. My body almost shut down, just glued to the floor with fear. It started laughing again, but it didn't sound as mechanical. More real. More human.

I knew it had to be stopped. I didn't care if Louise was upset if I ruined her toy. It had done too much. I came at it with a pair of scissors. The laughing didn't stop. I stuck the blades of the scissors and ripped stuffing out of the stuffed animal. The laughs got louder. And louder. It stunk like a dead animal as I kept ripping the stuffing from it. It's eyes started bleeding, and it's lips turned to a smile. It kept laughing. I finally found the soundbox within it. But... The laughing wasn't coming from it. What the fuck... I ripped the small black box open to find a beating heart.

The laughing stopped.