The Steps of Horror

The Pasta
It was early December, places all around the world were getting into the festive spirit of Christmas. Children everywhere began to write their Christmas lists and their letters to Santa (which of course just went straight back to the parents). One such child, was a little girl, aged nine. Her name was Lucy and she was an avid collector of plush toys. Just like many girls her age, she was in possession of many plush cats, bears and all sorts of animals. The one animal she did not have in her collection, however, was a dog. One of the most common plush animals available and little Lucy did not have one. The reason for this?: it was simple; dogs terrified her. Despite wanting a plush dog to complete her collection, she could never bring herself to buy one, due to her immense fear of them. Lucy's mother constantly tried to show her the cutest plush dogs available but Lucy never accepted or liked them; in fact, she would often cry at the sight of them. This all changed in this December.

Living in a small city, Lucy and her family had to travel a ways to get to the town centre where all the shops and stores were located. It was a short car journey, seen as boring by many other children. Lucy, however, loved the car ride because of the plush animal shop located a short distance from the town centre. She always gazed into the shop window to see the newest and best plush animals available. This December, Lucy and her mother were on their way to the town centre, when Lucy looked over at the plush toy shop window. She noticed that there was a plush dog in the window, a cute Yorkshire Terrier. Instead of being immensely frightened by the sight of such an animal, Lucy became struck with love. She called out to her mother:

"Mummy! Mummy! I want that dog!"

Lucy's mother was shocked to hear the words come out of her daughter's mouth. Her mother looked over to the shop window to see the Yorkshire Terrier dog, a happy expression on it's face. She saw the sign next to it:

"One of a kind! Adorable plush dog, only £19.99!"

Lucy's mother was astounded by the price but noticed that there were no other dogs like it. At least, not in the shop window. Sighing, her mother parked up near the shop's entrance and took her daughter inside to have a look at the plush animals. Strangely, there were no other dogs like the one in the window available in the shop. Maybe they had sold out, or maybe this dog was a one of a kind animal. Lucy kept begging her mother to buy the dog and eventually she gave into the pressure. She bought the dog, handed it to Lucy and then went off to do the rest of her shopping in the town centre.

When Lucy and her mother returned home, Lucy's mother said to her daughter that the dog was an early Christmas present and that she was extremely lucky to have gotten it. Lucy nodded and went upstairs to her bedroom to play with her new dog. She played all through the afternoon, running up and down the stairs carrying her new plush dog. Eventually, when Lucy grew tired, her mother ordered her to bed. Lucy headed upstairs and left her new plush dog on a table, near the stairs. As she slept that night, Lucy began to have strange dreams of the dog and her running in a field. The dog was able to talk in her dreams, although the voice was not pleasant. The dog had a voice of horror, speaking in a high-pitched, angry tone at all times. Lucy came spiralling back into reality after a few hours of sleep. It was three AM, although Lucy was not aware of this. Checking the window, Lucy came to the realisation that it was still night-time and she attempted to sleep some more. That was when she heard it. A voice, a familiar voice.

"I'm on the first step."

The voice was fresh in her mind from the dream that she had during her sleeping hours. Lucy decided to shake the feeling off, the feeling of nervousness, by awaking her mother and resting in her bed. Lucy slept for the rest of the night.

In the morning, Lucy headed straight downstairs to eat her breakfast. As Lucy headed down the stairs, she noticed that her new plush Yorkshire Terrier dog was on the first step of the staircase. Lucy felt slightly unnerved after hearing the voice in the night but just thought that she accidentally placed him there during the evening. Lucy picked up her cute dog and ate her breakfast with it as a companion. The rest of the day was filled with hours of playing with the plush dog. However, during these hours, Lucy had noticed that the dog's expression had changed since the day before. The day before, the dog's expression had been happy, on this day, the dog's expression was slightly more stern... more serious. Lucy began to get more and more nervous around the dog and began to believe it was alive. Deciding that the dog was bad, Lucy placed the dog on the table near the stairs and played outside for the remainder of the day.

Night-time came once more and Lucy was tucked into bed by her mother. Lucy expressed her concern over the dog to her mother:

"Mummy, my doggy is kind of... scary."

"Dear, don't be silly. He's just a cute little doggy!" Lucy's mother sounded comforting.

"Okay mummy..." Lucy replied and soon after, she fell asleep.

Lucy had another strange dream that night. Her and her new plush dog were running in a field together. After a while of running, they came to a large staircase. Lucy watched her plush dog jump up the stairs, proclaiming each time that it was on a new step. On the last step, Lucy awoke but the dream didn't seem to end. She was staring at her bedroom ceiling when she heard the demonic voice.

"I'm on the final step!"

Lucy was concerned and frightened but remembered what her mother had said a few hours earlier. She shut her eyes tightly and tried to return to the land of dreams.

"I'm at the door."

Lucy's heart was beating extremelty heavily. She was frightened more than she had ever been. Lucy wanted to look at her door, to see if anything was there but she was frozen in place. She couldn't open her eyes anymore and all she wanted to do was scream. She attempted but nothing came out. She squeezed the duvet and her eyes even tighter...

"I'm here!"

...

The next morning, Lucy's mother went into her daughter's bedroom to wake her up. She opened her bedroom door and screamed. Blood pasted the walls and floor of Lucy's bedroom. Her daughter's arms, legs and head were separated from the rest of Lucy's body. Sitting on top of Lucy's armless, legless, headless corpse was the new plush dog, an expression of ecstacy was plastered on it's face.