It’s me again, Sam Rockmore, the guy who made Echoes of the Fallen, and ranked Chocolate Milk and every month of the year. This, however, is a bit different. This is based on a true story, yet it fits halloween.

I think there’s a demon in my basement.

This story is how it got to this point.

April 15th, 2012, State College, PA

I opened the tagless present and found it. The tickle-me Elmo. At first, the demon spawn was civil with us, functioning how it should.

October 15th, 2013, State College, PA

“H-h-hug m-me…” cried out the demon spawn in that robotic voice that toys running out of batteries would make.

I was just sleeping in a chair, with the tickle-me Elmo under the chair. This talking woke me up, and I started screaming (I was 3 ½ years old). I did only the most feasible thing; I threw it into the basement. As I closed the door, I noticed something. It was pushing itself upright. I slammed the door and locked it.

July 17th, 2018, State College, PA

For the past five years, this thing would talk from the basement and tap on the door, trying to get back out from the basement. I went to get an Ice Cream Sandwich from the freezer in the basement, and brought a knife for self defense. It was a very large chef’s knife, and it was the sharpest knife in the house. When I went to get the ice cream, two glowing eyes were fixated on me. I immediately knew it was Elmo, so I grabbed him by the throat, took the knife, and stabbed him to the wall. I took my ice cream, and went back upstairs, thinking I had killed him. I did not.

November 12th, 2020, State College, PA

That slowed it, but didn’t stop it. It barely talked in summer, but spiked in winter, especially around Halloween, Day of the Dead, Christmas, and would even sing happy birthday, on my birthday. Every. Single. Year. Today, it let out a garbled scream, so I went into the basement with a knife. I eventually found it, chopped off everything below the chest, diced that, and spread it across the basement. Well, except for the voice box and batteries, which I kept in my room so Elmo couldn’t get it, even if it survived.  I chucked the other half into a bunch of spider webs.

December 2nd, 2021, State College, PA

It’s been talking still, even though it doesn’t have its lower body, which contains the batteries, and the voice box. I even tried mailing it to my neighbors, but to no avail. I know what I have to do.

January 3rd, 2022, Stockholm, Sweden

This part is purely theoretical. I don’t actually know what happened when it arrived in Sweden.

The demon spawn crawled out of the box and onto the street. It needed to get back, at any cost. It crawled back into the airport and was about to get past the TSA when one of the TSA people grabbed it. Its sharp metal slashed at the guy, allowing him to escape and get back to Pennsylvania.

April 1st, 2022, State College, PA

He’s back. I taped him inside his box, but he got out and returned to the basement. I don’t know what he’s doing down there, but it cannot be good.

September 23rd, 2022, State College, PA

I was in science, telling everyone at my table this story and one of them suggested sending it somewhere dangerous. Elmo won’t know what hit him.

October 15th, 2022, Pyongyang, North Korea

I have even less of an idea of what happened here, so I’m not even going to guess.

October 23rd, 2022, State College, PA

I was just checking UPS to see if stuff for Halloween was coming … He’s on his way back … UPS says that something is on its way from Pyongyang. I know for a fact that this is Elmo. What will it take to kill this thing??