Teddy bear teddy bear turn around

My mom loved rock hounding, exploring desolate places for rocks no one else in the family cared about, but we enjoyed getting out anyways. To entertain myself, I would read maps and learn about the history of the places we visited. I especially enjoyed visiting places near home, because I enjoyed discovering petroglyphs, abandoned mine shafts, arrowheads, rusty metal; these things represented a tangible history for me.

One day, my mom had suckered some friends into rock hounding, and their son and I were beyond bored with staring at the dirt all day, so we looked around for something to do. We happened upon an old abandoned cabin; my mother was staring at the ground nearby (doesn't rock hounding sound fun?) and she decided to rest her neck and explore the old cabin with us.

yeah I'm a little creeped out now

We saw it had been vandalized, covered in graffiti. We walked in where there was no longer a door and explored the living room and decided to climb the stairs by the fireplace. On the mantle was a dusty teddy bear, which I found strange since there was nothing else in the home but broken glass and torn up wood. We explored upstairs, discovering more graffiti, creepy pentagrams and the like. We were a little spooked by the graffiti so went back down and headed towards the back door to leave. We walked past the fireplace on our way out and that's when I saw it.

The teddy bear was now hanging from a rope off the mantle, the rope like a noose around the bear's neck. I didn't want I say anything right then, instead I whispered to my mom and friend that we'd best leave quick. Once we left, I told them what I had seen. They didn't notice it, too preoccupied by the need to watch their step for fear of glass and rusty nails, but they didn't doubt me.

I was covered in goosebumps on this hot summer day, because there must have been someone in the home while we were there, hiding, watching. I felt like the teddy bear was an ominous warning to us, and I am glad we didn't stick around one second more.