This is inspired by Mr. Hopps Playhouse. All characters belong to this.

“Dad, can you take Mr. Hopps tonight?” Ruby asked her father. “He scares me,” She admitted her reasoning for her request to take it away. Her dad looked at her in surprise and said, “Don’t be silly, Ruby. What would Nana think of you saying that?” he asked her, and Ruby felt a pang of guilt for her wish to take Mr. Hopps away. “She made him just for you.” Ruby knew that very well, but there was something off about the said innocent rabbit toy. She glanced at Mr. Hopps, looking demonic and scary, and shivered. Why didn’t anyone seem to agree with her? Everyone said that they toy looked cute and fluffy, but she didn’t see that. She saw a bunny which either looked like it wanted to exact revenge on her, and would stop at nothing in order to do so, or it wanted to harm her, and would laugh about it if it – hopefully not – managed to succeed. Both pretty unpleasant things, right? Which was why she was utterly terrified to keep that toy in her bedroom. To think it was next to her when she slept, when she was in a vulnerable state, sent shivers down her spine. Her father interrupted her thoughts, announcing his decision, “I’ll leave your nightlight on. Try and get some sleep.” Ruby reluctantly layed down on her bed, and pulled her quilt over her head, and shut her eyes tightly. She did that each night Mr. Hopps remained in the room. She had no idea how different this night was going to be.

The nightlight began to flicker and flash, the light glitching back in and out of focus. Her immediate response was to look at Mr. Hopps to make sure nothing bad happened, and saw, right before her eyes, that Mr. Hopps…vanished. “Mum? Dad?” Ruby muttered, terrified for her life. There was no answer. She asked again, louder this time, hoping the simple conclusion as to why she didn’t answer would be that they hadn’t heard her. “Mum? Dad?” Still, no answer. Growing worried, she said, even louder, “Mum! Dad! Where are you?” When she, yet again, didn’t get a response back, she decided to get up and look for them. She had always scorned the main characters in horror movies who always seemed to unnecessarily, albeit unintentionally, lead themselves into trouble they should’ve found very easy to avoid. Now she knew what it felt like in their shoes. The worry, the tension, the what-if scenarios. The stress that they felt, the wish to help deteriorating them from the correct decision to make. Now she felt it all. She gingerly got up from her bed, and, already off to a bad start, bumped into her toy. It sqeaked, and in the dead of the night, sounded extremely loud. She wished she’d cleaned up and picked up her toys from the ground, but, she reminded herself, how was she to know she would be on the run from a frightening toy? She ecited the room as quietly as she could, and made her way to her parents room. To reach there, however, she had to overcome a few obstacles, they toys strew all over the place being the first. She hastened to get to the walls unnoticed; as long as she was by the walls, she was hidden, which could only be good news. She continued with her scheme of avoiding the varieties of toys that lay on the ground: a red car, a doll with a voicebox, an extremely squeaky teddy bear. She continued with her strategy all ath time she spent searching for her parents room. Somehow, she couldn’t find it now, but every other day, she had known its location. But, she reflected, this was not like every other day. Unable to pinpoint its location, her only option was to wander around the house to find the room. Somehow, she managed to reach the attic, of all places. She went straight ahead, hoping that her destination would be situated somewhere near. Alas, that was ot it. Instead, she had the shock of her life. When running to the other side, she spotted…eyes. Big, round, crazy-looking eyes, its pupils shrunken down to the size of a fullstop. “Eyes?” Ruby realised. “But whose eyes could they be?” Ruby wondered. There was no time to think of it now, though, since, whoever’s eyes they may be, only spelt trouble for her. Sprinting back towards the dimmed hallways, she wandered around some more. After 15 minutes, her patience was rewarded, for she finally found what she’d been trying to find all this time. She entered the room, not daring to knock in case Mr. Hopps heard her. It opened swiftly to reveal a horrible surprise. Ruby’s parents were missing! They weren’t in their room, and she’d been to many places across the house and had not caught a whiff of them. “Mum! Dad! Where are you?” Ruby whispered as loudly as she could before it became a shout. Only still and quiet answered her. She wanted to continue searching for them, but she knew it would be of no use. It was up to her, and her alone, to escape now.

Ruby made up her mind to leave the house as quickly as possible unnoticed by Mr. Hopps. She felt guilt churn in her stomach as she finalised her decision. She didn’t want to leave her parents alone; What if they were somewhere else and she hadn’t bothered to look? But this was a time for action, and she knew that, if she didn’t escape, she would be the next one missing. She began searching for the exit, all the while trying to convince herself that what she was doing was for the best. She stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed something. Those same eyes. She recognised them: they were as contracted down as ever, if not more, the same roundness of them, the same sclera. But this time, they were attached to a head. Mr. Hopps head. Ruby couldn’t believe her eyes; Was she hallucinating? But surely not, because even she, as much as she was scared of Mr. Hopps, had not imagined Mr. Hopps grown up to 20 feet, his fingers as sharp as knives, and his feet as large as three laptops lined up together. She shrank back in fear, her heart in her mouth as she flew to the walls. Had he spotted her? No he hadn’t, for he had been preoccupied with another plan: how to get Ruby to fall into its trap. So engrossed he had been that he didn’t even see her, and Ruby was forever grateful for that. Ruby, looking around the room as she nimbly tiptoed and jumped over the scattered toys, wandered around, searching for the exit. Finally she had found the exit amidst all the danger and chaos that had swept over the house. Ruby was just about to turn the handle when she heard something. “Dad?” whispered Ruby in shock. Her dad was crying, her sobs transmitting through the door. Ruby had felt many emotions during the escapade, and now they erupted, like lava from a volcano. Ruby felt tears dripping down her face, and she touched them softly, and realised how much she’d missed her parents. The whole time she had been behaving like an escape artist, from her soft footsteps to finding places to hide. But now she realised, she was just a kid. An ordinary 10 year old kid, who should have no worries in the world. But she did. Enormous worries. She swallowed and went to the kitchen. She didn’t know why she had chosen the kitchen of all places. Maybe it was because it was her favourite place to come to. She remembered fondly one of her memories in the kitchen. She had begged her father to make one of his delicious pizzas for her, and he had finally agreed. Her father was a professional chef in a famous restaurant, and the food made there was simply delicious. She sat on a chair in the kitchen, waiting for the pizza to be finished and cooked. “Do you really want to stay in the kitchen while the pizza is being made?” her father asked her. “It takes a long time.” Indeed it did, 45 minutes to be precise. To while away the time, Ruby sang to Molly, her doll, which she had had since she was 5 years old. Molly was her favourite toy out of everything else she had received. For one thing, Molly had been with her for 5 years already. Second, Molly just seemed to…connect with Ruby. When she first saw her, she immediately liked her, and since then, Molly had shared in quite a lot of memorable times. Her father had grinned at this little by-play, and said, “Soon, the doll will be more important than us.” Ruby had stopped singing, and looked up at her father to say, “Nothing, absolutely nothing, will ever replace you, not even Molly.” “Promise?” “Promise.”

Ruby smiled, quite forgetting that she was in a life-threatening situation where she may or may not make it out alive. She was jolted out of her trance by something which could’ve made the ‘Top 10 Most Terrifying Things To Ever Happen’ list. A murky hand shot up from the solid grey floor of the kitchen, wiggling as they searched for Ruby. No doubt, for the most hidden places in the house were the most dirtiest. Ruby stepped back, terrified, her eyes wide. fortunatelyto look for her Mother. She wandered into the kithen,straight into the basement. She found a sticky note,which read “under the mirror”. Ruby went to find a mirror in her gigantic house. She did find a mirror but there was no tape under it. She went to look for another mirror but she stumbled upon Mr. Hopps. His arm popped up from the mirror.She felt like screaming “AHHHHHHHHHH” but knew she must not give herself away and remained quiet. She knew it was a narrow escape. But she needed to find the tapes. She went along the hallway and came across another mirror,this time something underneath it. “A tape!”,Ruby realised. It read:
Tape 1:September 8th-Emma,Ruby and I went to see Esther yesterday. Ruby loves seeing her grandnother…. Nana she calls her….she’s…not been doing well in recent months.We went round the other weekend and found her staring at the wall. Doing nothing but…just….staring at the wall. We had to shake her to get her to snap out of it. After that she just behaved like nothing had happened. Who knows how long she’s been doing that for…we’ve booked her in for a doctors appointment. I was supposed to be recording ideas for a new novel.
Ruby was shocked. She hadn’t known Nana was ill. She wrang her hands whenever she thought of Mr. Hopps and his glaring,yellow eyes,but,all the same,those tapes were telling an….interesting….story. Curiosity urged her to find more tapes. She walked around a bit more then came across a second tape. It read:Tape 2:September 14th- Emma and I stopped to see Esther again today….the place was filthy….I’m not sure how it could’ve gotten this dirty so quickly. Esther doesn’t seem to be caring for herself and its almost like she doesn’t recognise us. She’s almost forgotten we’re her family. Her appointment is tommorow…Emma is worried she might have to go into care. I’ll keep this doccumented…I hope Ruby doesn’t have to see her like this.
Well,Ruby was seeing this. And she didn’t like this news at all. She hated to see her Nana in pain, and this was horrible. Ruby determined to keep searching for them.
She walked along the corridor,carefully avoiding stepping on the toys on the ground. “Why,oh why, hadn’t she cleaned up her toys from the floor. Now they were getting in the way”,Ruby thought. All the while,she thought of “She was doing this to keep her parents safe.She was doing this to keep herself safe. She was doing this to keep everyone safe. She was doing this to keep….Nana safe” to keep herself going strong and feel comforted,and went on. She went to the attic again and hid behind a couch. She went staight and found yet another tape. It read:Tape 3:September 15th-As of recording this,Esther is in hospital. Her neighbours called the police in the early hours of the morning because they could hear her screaming. She will be there for a few days…we’ve told Ruby she’s had a fall and that she’s okay. We’re waiting on a diagnosis.
Ruby was distressed at the thought that Nana was THIS ill. “I…can’t….believe…..this….This…. is……horrible…” Ruby was dreading finding out more about this. But she must. After she read this she saw Mr.Hopps again….this time with no eyes at all. Hr.Hopps had black holes,black,an endless black void full of notjingness… instead of eyes. Ruby shivered. She walked around her house and found the kitchen. She saw another tape. It read:
Tape 4:September 17th-We took Ruby to the hospital to see her Nana. Esther made a soft toy for her called Mr.Hopp, a small rabbit. Esther always knitted her clothes and toys. Ruby was thankful but I must admit this toy does have a look to it…something quite unsettling.
Ruby remember how thankful she was for Mr.Hopp and shuddered. That toy had put her into this position. This position where she was afraid of her own home. This position where her parents had disappeared. The worst….Nana put her into this position. Ruby felt quite indignant towards Nana now. Her own NANA had done THIS to her and her parents. Ruby felt her blood boiling. “HOW COULD SHE?!?” she thought. Me and my parent’s are stuck with this horrid,huge,dangerous,demonic creature and she MADE it. SHE CREATED IT!!!!She did not want to find anything more but had no choice. She needed to know the full story if she was ever going to escape Mr. Hopps. She was going to walk out when a hand came out of the floor!!! It was Mr. Hopps. She exited the kitchen and went to the attic once again. She was hiding behind a couch when the phone started ringing. “Ring-ring”it rang. It was driving Ruby insane. She longed to answer it but there was the danger of being spotted by Mr. Hopps. Soon she managed to answer the phone,unseen by Mr. Hopps. “Hello? Ruby? Its Mark from next door. Is everything okay there? I’ve bewn trying to call for hours!…” How Ruby longed to tell him what was happening! But Mr. Hopps was around. She couldn’t. Suddenly the call ended. No more words. Just ended. Ruby sneaked out to the attic yet again. And she found tape 5. It read:
Tape 5:September 19th-We just had a call Esther passed away in her sleep. The doctors couldn’t give us a diagnosis and even said this sudden passing is bizarre…we will have to tell Ruby when she gets home from school. This isn’t going to be easy on any of us. Ruby just didn’t know what to feel at this point. She just continued looking for tapes. She went to her parents room again. Mr. Hopp was in there. He was like a spider,with a rabbit head,and eyes bleeding. The creature looked as though it had been waiting for this moment for it’s whole life,with a sharp toothy bleeding grin. It chased Ruby but she managed to get away. She went in again. She swore that she’d seen something glint. It was a tape. It read:
Tape 6:September 22nd-Ruby hasn’t been on her best behaviour since the news. We had to take her slingshot away since she wouldn’t stop firing pellets at the toy rabbit. She said it ‘protects’ her from it…its just a toy. We’ve had to lock the slingshot away since Ruby kept finding it. Emma keeps the key under the houseplant in the hallway, I think. Well,Ruby was right. It wasn’t just a toy. It was a murdering creepy killer demon. Ruby went to find the plant in the hallway. She stepped on a lot of toys but didn’t care. She wondered why she had such a huge house. She really regreted having this house. But this was no time to regret. This was a time to take action. This was a time to survive. So Ruby put the thought to the back of her mind and ran staight down the corridor,quickly checking every plant. It wasn’t there. Ruby entered the kitchen and entered the basement. There was nothing there. She had made a mistake. Ruby exited,or so she thought. She went to the wrong door but found the place she wanted. She found a safe there. It needed a password. She remembered checking the date on the callender. The password was:1804. She entered it and the safe opened. She found her slingshot and took it. This time she stepped on everything. But Mr. Hopp was nowhere to be seen. She knew it was scared to come out of hiding. She was armed now. Suddenly she stumbled upon Mr. Hopps. Now it had blood pouring down its neck. Ruby shot with her slingshot. She missed but tried again. It was coming near her…and nearer….and nearer. Just as she thought it was going to get her,the shot actually hit the “toy”. She won. It was gone. It was actually gone. But her pleasant thoughts didn’t last long,for she heard a voice say,”Ruby!…Come give your Nana a big kiss!”,it said. Ruby recognised the voice. It was Nana. She turned around. She walked cautiously towards her. “Nana!? But…I thought you were…”. But she was cut off. Nana transformed into a giant version of Mr. Hopp. “RUBY! PLAY WITH ME,RUBY!”,Mr. Hopps said in a dark,hoarse voice. Suddenly it stretched out a HUGE hand and chased after Ruby. Ruby ran. She jumped over toys. She jumped over random hands coming out of the floor. She shot at hands so lond that she was unable to jump over the. She ran just out of reach of Mr. Hopp’s hand. Ruby managed to escape. The police was there. “Police!Stay where you are”,she said. She watched from inside the police car. She was safe from Mr. Hopps and her Nana. She heaved a sigh of relief. But that didn’t last long. She found out her parents,unfortunately,weren’t able to escape from Nana,and were dead.
Ruby grew up to be an escape artist.