Shannon Burton

Soldier Boys

Prologue:

Michael let out a hefty sigh, wondering if he should even write this story; knowing that no one would believe him. He looked at his arm, wondering why it felt so heavy all of a sudden, not noticing the blood trickling down from a cut. He turned back to the blank paper; his mind turning back to that horrible night. ‘If only Brian had listened to me and thrown those things away’, Michael thought, not knowing how to begin. Once again thinking ‘What’s the point? No one is going to believe me anyways”, with heavy arms and a heavy heart, Michael began to write his story.

Chapter 1

It was Christmas morning and Brian, being the younger of the two brothers, was much more excited than I was. I was almost an adult now, turning 21 in just two months, too cool for these family functions; even Christmas. But deep down inside I was just as excited as Brian was; I wanted to rip open all the brightly covered packages, already knowing what was in each one. I had always had some sort of sixth sense like that; people always found it really hard to keep secrets from me. It was like I knew if something was malicious, evil or morally wrong, and even though presents were not malicious, they were still considered a secret so I knew what the secret was. There was one gift in particular that seemed to be pulsing and I did not want to open it. Whatever it was I wish we would just throw away and forget about it. I walked over to it while the rest of my family started on making the coffee, Brian trying to help as much as he could, and pushed the gift back behind the tree, hoping that with everything else going on, no one would notice it. Finally! It was time to open gifts! As usual I was trying to play it cool as Brian was tearing through is gifts, opening two at a time so he wouldn’t have to wait, but eventually the spirit of Christmas got to me and Brian and I started racing to see who could open their gifts faster. We all appropriately exclaimed over each other gifts and everyone was very happy with their haul. And then my mom said the words that will haunt me for the rest of my life:

“Wait… I know there is one more around here somewhere! Brian! Look behind the tree… there should be one more for my little guy!”

“Mo-om! Don’t call me little guy! I am a teenager now!” He tried to pout, but he was so excited about the prospect of another gift that the pout did not last long. I tried to will him to not find the gift but my will was not strong enough. He found the gift I had hidden, exclaiming over the size of it and the paper it was wrapped in.

“What can this be?!” He shouted, tearing the paper away before he had even sat back down. I cringed as the paper started falling off and I saw the words “Toy Soldiers” on the side of the container. What could be so malicious about toy soldiers, I wondered. Another set of words I would regret for the rest of my life.

“Toy Soldiers??” Brian exclaimed. Our mom started to explain:

“Now, I know you are a teenager now, but your dad has soldiers like this until he was an adult! And you loved the movie ‘Toy Story’ so much and these were your favorite characters in that movie, I thought they might be fun for you to play with!”

Brian looked at the box skeptically for a second then shrugged his shoulders. I knew he would find something to do with them; he was an imaginative kid and always loved new toys; even if they seemed too young for his age group.

I stood up and stretched, looking happily at my stuff, trying to think of a way to get Brian by himself so that I could tell him to throw those soldiers away. “Well… I am going to bring all my new stuff to my room and start putting things away… hey Brian want to come with me to test out this new video game I got?” Brian’s eyes lit up and he forgot all about his toys; it was a wonder when his big brother asked him to play! Brian leapt up and ran into my room before I even had a chance to grab the video game. I walked slowly to my room, wondering what exactly I could say to him so that he would throw those things away. I was his big brother after all; he should just listen to me. But he was a stubborn kid and those were new toys, so I had to try and be subtle about it. We started playing the game and talking about all our new stuff and then I brought it up; “So… toy soldiers huh? Do you really want those? I mean, aren’t they for babies? You should just give them away… better yet just throw them away… I mean, who wants toy soldiers now and days anyways? They are just cheap plastic and I bet you can’t even play any fun games with them.” I kept playing the video game, noticing Brian giving me a sidelong glance… I knew I had blown it already. I had said too much and I think the baby comment had hurt him.

“Dad played with toy soldiers when he was a kid and I think I like them. I can play a lot of games with them! I am not a baby just because I like toy soldiers. They were cool in the movie!” Brian put his controller down and stood up. I sighed and also stood up.

“Look… I just don’t like the feel I get from them. I am sorry but I just don’t think you should keep them. They are… how do I say this… hiding something from you…” I shrugged, hoping he would just understand and get rid of them. Then I saw the look in his eyes; oh great… I lost him.

“Hiding something? They are just toys! You’ve told me about your ‘sixth sense’ thingie, but you are probably just using that to get attention from girls! They are toys! They can’t hide anything! You probably want me to throw them away so that you can take them later! You’re the baby!” With that he stormed off, going into his own room to play with his new Christmas toys. My mom came in, wondering what had happened. I just told her that I kept beating Brian at the video game and he had gotten upset and stormed off. She scolded me about that, telling me he was my little brother, I should let him win sometimes… blah blah blah. I closed the door to my room after she left, flopped on my bed and thought of what I should do.

Chapter 2

After constantly trying to tell Brian to get rid of the soldiers and failing, school started up again and I forgot about it for a time; especially since I lived on campus. I would think about it every once in a while, but when I didn’t hear any stories about anything happening to Brian, it slowly left my mind. Then spring break finally came and I went back home to stay with my parents for my weeks’ vacation from school.

When I got home I said my hello’s to my parents and went to see Brian. When I opened his door a wave of maliciousness hit me like a blast of wind. It knocked the breath out of me and caused me to take a step back. I tried to regain my composure and then looked around his room; on every surface there was a toy soldier. On each bookshelf, nightstand, dresser; everywhere you looked there was a toy soldier. To me, each one seemed to be pulsing, each one red when they should be green. I knew I was the only one that could see this and it terrified me. I finally say Brian amidst all his toys, in the center of his room.

“Hey buddy… still playing with these toy soldiers I see.” He looked up sharply, his face taut; an ugly face, trying to see if I was making fun of him or not. When he saw that I was not, his face relaxed into a smile. That initial reaction had scared me, however. It was a face I had never seen my brother make before. Were the toy soldiers doing this? Brian ran up and hugged me and pulled me into his room.

“I’ve missed you, Michael! I don’t have anyone to play with when you are gone! No one but my toy soldiers of course. They are so fun to play with and we play so many games together and I don’t let anyone else touch them or play with them; they don’t like anyone else…” Brian rambled on like this for a while as I looked around his room again, afraid the toy soldiers had surrounded us and were about to start attacking. To my relief they were in the same place they had been in when I had first opened the door. I didn’t like the way Brian was talking about these soldiers, but decided to let it go for now; that first face he had shown me still scared me and I did not want to see it again. I sat on Brian’s floor and let him explain his soldier games to me as well as his other toys and games. After a couple hours that way, I told Brian it was time for bed. The pulse from the toy soldiers was wearing on me and I didn’t want to feel it anymore; I needed to rest.

That night, lying in bed for what felt like hours, I tried to think of what I could do to either have Brian get rid of those soldiers or just get rid of them myself. There was obviously something wrong with them, even if I was the only one that could see it, and I needed to get them away from my family. I finally fell asleep thinking these thoughts and trying to come up with what to do. A few hours later I woke up covered in sweat, not sure what had woken me, but knowing it was a bad dream of sorts. I lay with my eyes open, trying to remember the dream when I realized I could feel the pulsing that I felt from the soldiers when I had been in my brother’s room. I looked around and saw that two of the toy soldiers had been placed on my chest and a few more on the floor around my bed. I groaned, not wanting them that close to me. I was going to kill Brian in the morning. I grabbed the two on my chest, stabbing my finger on the one who was carrying the bayonet. “Ouch! Stupid toy soldiers!” That made me even angrier at Brian and I grabbed the rest of them as quick as could and threw them in the trash. ‘Stupid things!’ I thought again; well at least I threw some of them away. Maybe Brian won’t notice these few missing. I looked one more time at the soldiers in the trash can, holding my finger to my mouth to make sure it wasn’t bleeding, not sure if I wanted to have them in my room overnight. I took the can and set it on the other side of the room, as far away as possible, but not in a spot that Brian would notice them in the trash.

The next morning the first thing I did was look in the trash to see if they were still there; they weren’t. I saw that my bedroom door was opened as well. ‘Brian…’ I went to his room set on yelling at him, but he wasn’t there. In fact, none of the soldiers were either. That was a relief and I thought that maybe he had finally listened to me. When I got to the kitchen, however, I saw that Brian had the whole bucket with him and was playing with them on the table. The pulsating once again bothered me so much that I didn’t want to eat the pancake breakfast our dad had made. I just sat at the table and drank orange juice, eyeing the soldiers, scared they were going to make a move at the table.

“Brian… I would appreciate it if you would not sneak into my room at night and place the soldiers around my bed. I just… don’t like toy soldiers so please just keep them out of my room.” I said this calmly, trying not to sound scared. Brian looked at me, for a split second that scary expression back on his face, then smiled and said “But… Michael, I didn’t! After you left my room I put all my toys away and went to sleep!”

“Well then how did they get into my room? And how did they get out of my room?”

“Well I don’t know… maybe they moved by themselves…” He gave me an evil grin, then went back to playing.

“Brian! Don’t lie to your brother. They are toys and they can’t move by themselves. Just leave the soldiers out of Michael’s room”, our mom chimed in.

“But! I didn’t do it! I swear!” Brian looked at me pleadingly, trying to convince me.

“I don’t know why you are lying, Brian, just don’t do it again or I will take them away!” Brian looked scared at that prospect then whispered under his breath so low that only I could hear, “she can try.” I didn’t know what had gotten into him and I stared at him playing so intently with those toy soldiers, so insistent that he didn’t put them in my room. I kept staring at him until I realized that my mom was trying to talk to me.

“Earth to Michael! Your dad and I would like to go out Friday night and since you are here, would you mind watching your brother so that we don’t have to get a baby sitter? Before you protest Brian, I know you are old enough to be on your own but we just feel safer having someone else here, so now if your brother agrees, we don’t have to hire anyone and you can have a fun night with your brother!” “Uh… yeah that should be fine… I didn’t make plans with anyone and I am seeing all my friends during the next couple of days, so that’s no problem.” Mom looked really happy and with all that out of the way, we went our separate ways.

Chapter 3

The next couple of days went by without incident, and even though every time I passed by Brian’s room I felt the pulsing, they never ended up in my room again and they started to slip my mind. I had fun with my friends while I was in town and paid as much attention to my family as I could while there. Then when I thought everything was once again going to be fine, things went to hell and worse.

On Wednesday night, I had just gotten home, late, from a day and night out with my friends. I tried to ignore the pulsing as I walked by Brian’s room but it seemed to be worse than usual. I peeked into his room and what I saw frightened me; Brian was sleeping soundly in his bed, but all the toy soldiers were covering him from head to toe. It looked like they were trying to hold him down for some reason; but they were just toys, right? Despite all the signs I had seen, there could be no maliciousness in them… right? Either way it scared the hell out of me so I crept into the room and started gathering the toys up. Brian stirred a little bit thankfully did not wake. I put them all in their bucket and took it out to the big garbage can in our back yard. I buried it under all the other trash and closed the lid tight making sure to hear the click that let me know it was locked in place, certain that it was taken care of and that I would never see the soldiers again. I went back to the house, tried to get the image of the soldiers out of me head and tried to fall asleep.

Just like that first night, I woke a few hours later covered in sweat, this time I knew it had been a bad dream about the toy soldiers that had woken me. I felt a weight on my chest and looked down. I gave a little yelp, not sure what I was expecting but not expecting this; about 20 toy soldiers were on my chest all facing my way. If I hadn’t known better, I’d say they were staring at me. They were all glowing red again and it was a darker red then I remember. Was there a reason for the changing of color? Were they getting more evil, more powerful, what? Despite the fact that these were little toys, I was terrified. I had buried them with at least ten pounds of garbage and clicked the lid shut; how did they get out? What was wrong with these toy soldiers? I sat up and they all fell off my chest but they all fell face up onto my lap, still seeming to stare at me. It was very unnerving so I grabbed them all and threw them in the trash outside again. I was awake for the rest of the night, not being able to get their stares out of my head.

The next morning, there was Brian sitting at the table, playing with the toy soldiers again. I was really starting to be afraid for him and I did not want my parents to leave us alone. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I had a feeling it was going to happen that night they left the two of us alone. The deepening of their color, because I could see it, made me think they were getting more evil or gathering their evil in some way to make something happen; I wish I knew what it was. And if I could not get rid of them by throwing them away and practically locking them in a garbage can, how was I able to get rid of them at all? I stayed by Brian’s side that whole day and the next day, waiting to see if they would make their move and dreading that time when my parents said they were heading out. Nothing happened during those two days I was playing with him, Brian was just so intent on playing with them and them alone, never going to other toys or even video games when I promised to let him win. I had no idea what I would do if they tried something with him.

The time came when my parents had to leave for their night out. I tried to think of a way to ask them to stay home without sounding crazy, but couldn’t think of one so I kept my mouth shut. After my parents left I did not let Brian leave my side. He started complaining that he was bored, that he didn’t want to play with me, that he would have more fun with his soldiers, but I made him stay. I told him he had to listen to me because I would tell Mom if he didn’t and he begrudgingly accepted that reasoning. Finally around ten, Brian started yawning and couldn’t keep his eyes open so I let him go into his room to sleep, but not before I took the container of toy soldiers out of his room. The container was vibrating like a hive of bees would and I could feel their anger towards me. I didn’t want to accept it, but I had to; they were angry at me for trying to stop them from doing whatever it is they were going to do, but I had to, they were not going to hurt my little brother. I took them into the garage, found an old lock box we had in there, put the container in the lock box, but the box into a cabinet then locked the garage door on my way back into the house. There was no way they could get out of that!

Back in the house, I sat on the couch and vegged in front of the TV. After an hour and a half or so, I was so engrossed in the TV that it took me a few minutes to notice the moaning noise coming from my brother’s room. I jumped up from the couch and ran to his room. The door was blocked by something heavy and I could not get in right away. I could see a little into the room but could only see the color red; it was like a living thing in Brian’s room, touching every corner and seeming to breathe. I shoved as hard as I could against the door and was able to slowly nudge my way into the room. When my eyes had adjusted to the living being that was the red color, they focused on what was happening in the center of the room. I dropped to the floor, not able to stand or breathe, not unable to un-see what I had just seen. My breath came out in rages gasps as I tried to comprehend what was happening in front of me.

My brother… my dear sweet, wonderful younger brother, was in the center of the room. There was a huge cut down the center of his chest and toy soldiers were pouring into that cut. They were filling up his body with their own little bodies. There was a cut on his left arm and I could see toy soldiers filing into that cut as well… I saw his left arm move once that arm had been filled with soldiers; they were moving it, not my brother. They were overtaking his body, controlling it with their bodies. These… toys… these creatures were taking over my brother! I then realized that the moaning had stopped and I looked at my brother’s face. He was gone… I started to cry out but stopped myself. They were so busy filing up my brother they hadn’t noticed me. I had to stop them I had to stop what was happening.

I ran out of the room and back into the garage. It didn’t register in my mind that the door wasn’t locked; I was focused on getting what I needed and getting back into that room. I found the bottle of lighter fluid and ran back into the house; into the kitchen where I got the lighter we always keep there for when my mom wants to light candles. I then walk calmly back to my brother’s room, not wanting them to hear me. I almost don’t make it all the way in because when I look into the room again, I see that the soldiers have filled up his legs and have now started to move his limbs so that he will stand up. ‘I can’t do this… I can’t kill my own brother’, I think trying to frantically come up with some other plan. And then, I hear it; “Michael… come play with me. We just want to play. You can’t hurt us, Michael.” It is a mixture of Brian’s voice and a darker, more evil voice. I can’t stand hearing them use his voice to talk to me and tears start streaming down my face.

“Don’t cry Michael… just come play with us. We can play forever and ever.” The Brian creature is saying. He is flailing around, as if he doesn’t have bones… or as if the toy soldiers don’t quite know how to use a human to walk. It is this flailing around walking that gets me moving again. I walk into the room and stare at this creature that used to be my brother. Tears are streaming down my face as I start to spray the lighter fluid on the body. The toy soldiers don’t have control over Brian’s limbs yet so they can’t try to attack me, they can only try to walk towards me. I empty the bottle on Brian’s body and whisper “I am so sorry Brian” as I light his body on fire. I clasp my hands to my ears as a hundred screams fill the air and my head. I am sobbing now as I watch my brother’s body burn and turn black. The last thing I notice before I run out of the room is wax bubbling up from the cuts in his body.

Epilogue

Michael cries out as he finishes the story. It is the next day and his parents have not been home yet. They called him to tell him they had both drank so they were spending the night and would be home late Saturday afternoon. Michael does not want to be here when they get home and is planning on leaving now that the story is complete. But why is his arm so heavy? Through his tears he focuses on his arm again and this time notices the blood trickling down. ‘Why am I bleeding?’ He thinks, and traces the blood to it’s source. “How did I get this cut?” He thinks out loud and sits, staring at it. After a while he notices something poking out of the cut and goes to grab it. Whatever it is, it’s stuck in his arm. He pulls at it, yelling at the pain and it finally starts coming out. Once he has the whole thing pulled out he starts screaming.

“We told you Michael, you can’t hurt us…” he hears in that evil voice, this time Brian’s voice is not mixed in with it. The toy soldier that Michael had pulled out of his arm turns his head to face Michael, “You will never be rid of us…” toy soldiers start to fill the gap that is Michael’s screaming mouth and his voice is soon cut off by the laughter of a hundred toy soldiers.