Janet was exploring the house, after her great aunt had died and left it to her.

It was massive, staircases everywhere. The paperwork really didn’t do it justice.

As she walked about, she came across a room with some toys sitting on a shelf, including a massive brown teddy bear.

“Wow, you’re big! In such good condition, too. You must have been really loved and looked after…”

Absent-mindedly, she stroked the bear. To her surprise, it felt warm…

“Must be a bed warmer, left on charge”, she thought. “Still, I’d better unplug it; I’m not moving in for a while, but I’ve got to take the bills over, and I need to save electricity.”

She started searching on the shelf for a plug but couldn’t find one. As she rummaged, she accidentally fell against the bear.

To her amazement, the bear tried to grab hold of her.

“What the hell?”, Janet said, jumping back.

The bear tried to reach for her…

“Oh my god! Is there someone in there?”, Janet cried.

The bear nodded, weakly…

Janet frantically tried to find a zipper, and eventually did so, but she could only undo the bear’s head. The bald head of a young woman came into view; she was firmly gagged, however, and Janet couldn’t undo the gag.

She then saw the ‘bear’ was trying to point at a drawer under the shelf.

In this drawer, she found the keys to the gag, as well as some bottles of water and powdered food.

She unlocked the gag and removed it.

“Oh, thank god!”, the woman said, weakly. “I’ve not eaten or drunk for days! The bitch has left me on my own!”

“My aunt is dead”, Janet said. “So, it’s not surprising that she’s left you alone. Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?”

“My names Terri”, the woman said. “I was your aunt’s bookkeeper. I missed something in the annual report last year and cost her a lot of money. This was her way of punishing me.”

“There must be some way of getting you free”, Janet said.

“Don’t bother, just give me some water mixed with my powdered food. I can’t live without this costume anymore, anyway; she removed my arms and legs.”

Terri started crying, quietly. Janet made up a bottle of her feed and gave it to her.

“The drawer is refrigerated, to stop everything going off; there’s also a small pump that ‘cleans me out’ once a day. Please don’t unplug me.”

“I’m going to get you some help”, Janet said, as Terri carried on sucking her feed from the bottle.

“Don’t bother, please”, Terri said. “When she removed my arms and legs, she did something to my head as well. If I’m left ungagged too long, or without my hood on, I just start screaming until I pass out. The rest of the suit is all glued on, anyway, you’ll never remove it without killing me. What you can do, if you like, is use me as a hot water bottle. I don’t go cold; if my gag and hood are in, I can be unplugged from my fitting for up to 12 hours; enough time to give you a warm night’s sleep.”

Janet just stared at Terri in disbelief…

“Please. It’s too late for me. Gag me and put my hood back on. Please…!

“I can’t…”, said Janet.

Terri just started screaming…

As she had said she would, Terri screamed until she passed out. Sadly, Janet realised she had to do what Terri had asked, and she gagged and hooded her.

In a daze, she accessed the internet on her phone and looked up about Terri. It seemed that her aunt’s bookkeeper Terri James had been killed months ago in a car crash…

Her aunt must have put the arms and legs in the car, then deliberately crashed it. Indeed, it was mentioned that the only survivor of the crash was her aunt, who had been travelling with her.

What was she going to do about Terri, and what other surprises had the house got in store for her…?