SeeSaw

Many people can agree with me; they have had a few bad moments in their childhood that they wish to forget. Unfortunately, it is these things that are so easily burned into people's memories. Have you ever had a time in your life when you would try to remember the good things in the past, only to remember something embarrassing or shameful? Sometimes, people go for years without even thinking about anything of it. That is, until they find something that triggers that particular memory they never wanted to come back to, and with it come feelings of nausea and paranoia. That is what happened to me.

On this particular day, it was raining. You would walk down the street to see pedestrians taking shelter under bus stops or in big coats, holding an umbrella. I myself was holding one, frustrated by countless strong winds blowing it back. I was strolling down the market place looking for some cheap groceries. I wanted to get home quickly as the weather wasn't the best.

As I was bagging some goods, I turned my head to see a table covered with old stuff. Taking a closer look, I could see it had boxes filled with VHS tapes lined up on their sides. Most of them were rather old children's shows such as Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine. None of them looked pirated; to be honest. One video case I saw was labeled: "Teletubbies."

I know I am too old to be interested, but for some strange reason, I had the urge to buy it. I picked it up to look at it. What I saw made me jump slightly. I saw the image of a bear. As previously mentioned, some things really bring back bad memories almost instantly. As soon as I saw that bear, so many things had gone into my mind. Horrible things. Things I just can't even get myself to say. These thoughts made me really shaky and nauseated.

Despite my feelings, I gave the cashier his money and put it in a bag with all my other things. When I looked back up, the cashier just smiled at me. Not a "have a nice day" sort of smile, but more of a "I'm glad you bought it" smile. I didn't smile back; I just walked away, trying to get to my car. As I drove home, all I could think about was that bear. I would go on to one thought then just end up thinking of it again, each time bringing that sudden feeling of fear. When I got home at about 6pm, I put the tape to the side while I sorted my food out. Once I was finished, I knew that the only thing I could do was watch the tape. After setting up my old VHS recorder, I stood and stared at the tape again.

This time, I noticed features that I previously gave no attention to. There were no company logos or symbols on the case, and no information on the back. I opened the case to see that the tape had nothing on it but the word "SeeSaw," written in black marker. I rushed to put the tape in, hoping to get it over and done with. I saw that the tape was almost half way through, so I rewound it to the beginning. When it was done, I pressed play to see that it was nothing but black. I fast forward the tape until it was on the same place it was before I rewinded it. Strangely, this was right before the images actually appeared on screen. I grabbed a chair from my kitchen and placed it in front of the television. I sat down, and pressed the play button.

What was clearly the opening for the Teletubbies had begun, with the theme music playing quietly. The music was filled with static noise and a high-frequency buzzing. I noticed that it must have been cut, skipping the sun baby and the logo. I couldn't help but notice the image had horrible quality and appeared as if the tape was decades old. The image was shaky and had a layer of static that constantly fuzzed. The color was also really bland and grey. As the Teletubbies ran down the hill, the film suddenly cut to them staring forward at the camera. It cut again to view an empty field with small hills. The music stopped suddenly. An image of a seesaw flashed onscreen, with a little boy on each side, moving it up and down. The field then came back into view. The only thing you can hear now was that buzzing. A small figure appeared in the distance of the field.

The buzzing noise became louder. The seesaw image flashed on screen again. The buzzing momentarily silences, as an echoey voice of a laughing woman could be heard slowly getting louder. The image flashed again. The screen slowly zooms in to the distant object as the buzzing noise came back. The woman's voice slowly echoed, "I'm coming, I'm coming!" A high-pitch screech was audible as it slowly zoomed.

A face briefly flashed on the screen. Things started to get tense. At this point, I was too frightened to turn the volume down.

"I'm coming...I'm coming to get you."

I looked behind me and quickly looked back. As the screeching became louder, more static could be heard.

Random images of children flashed on the screen every few seconds, as the camera finally zoomed in until the figure filled the screen.

"I am the bear...and I am coming!"

The horrific sound of children crying could be heard. The camera began to zoom into the bear's face as the seesaw flashed on screen again.

"I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming to get you!"

The image flashed on screen again. The seesaw had stopped, and the children were just staring blankly at each other. The camera had finally zoomed in to full view of the bear's face. Its mouth moved up and down as it echoed, "I'm coming, I'm coming to get you....and I will get you!" The bear's eyes began to spin around. The image flashed on screen.

A now blood-covered seesaw appeared, and was surrounded by what appeared to be human remains. Two dead bodies of young children appeared out of nowhere and caused the seesaw to slowly move up and down. They were just laying there, their clothes soaked in blood. The sound finally stopped. I sat and stared at this image for a minute, before it went black.

Needless to say, after that minute had passed, I immediately grabbed the tape out of the machine and threw it in the bin, along with the case. That night, I couldn't sleep. I couldn't stop thinking about what I saw. I had to frequently check my windows. This couldn't have lasted all night, as when I sat down to try and calm myself, I must have finally fell asleep.

The next morning, I had work I needed to finish on my laptop. As I was checking my emails, I stared at my desktop background. It was a photo of me and a friend in a field. I saw a small figure on it that I don't remember being there before. I found the original image in my files and zoomed in on it.

It was the bear.