Morbid Morsals. Season 3. Episode 18. Ted E

A child’s whisper.

The creak of a bedroom floor.

The soft sound of stuffing shifting in the dark when no one is touching it.

You see, people think monsters arrive with claws and teeth already sharpened.

But the truly dangerous things?

They begin as something loved.

A gift left beside a pillow.

A smiling face stitched together by gentle hands.

Something patient enough to wait through birthdays... through tears... through loneliness. And somewhere tonight, a little boy is learning that some toys don’t want to be held forever.

Tonight’s tale… is about what happens when something hollow decides it wants a soul.

Into the Abyss: Morbid Morsals is a Darkshogun Production in association with Twisted Souls Media. Created and produced by Troy Bursch.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Before we descend into today's darkness, it's time for tasty treats. This is a new segment where we shine a flickering candle on the indie creators keeping the genre alive. Whether they're writing spine-chilling horror, investigating the local hauntings you're too afraid to visit, or producing the next great paranormal podcast, or even just making cool stuff. Their work is essential listening.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Today's shout-out goes to JJ Rose777 is an online creator, a metaphysical teacher, a light worker, energy and entity cleanser, and a white witch based out of California. She operates primarily through her social channels and collaborates with spiritual and paranormal platforms to share insights on awakening and spiritual protection. She teaches classes on spiritual awakening, intuitive experiences, and boundary settings. As well as energy healing and cleansing. She focuses on remote work involving entity removal, aura cleansing, and recover. She operates as a psychic medium and ordained non-denominational minister. She curates wellness activations, elevated rituals, guided meditations, moon circles, and cacao ceremonies. What you can find on her Linktree spiritual service site are bookings for remote entity removals, aura cleansing and reiki healing. Classes and workshops are a registration for her metaphysical teaching courses on spiritual awakening and intuitive bond resetting. You can find her at her Linktree at HTTPS forward slash Linktree slash JJ Rose777. Again, that's H T T P S colon forward slash L-I-N-K-T-R period E-E forward slash J J R O S E 777. You can also check out JJ Rose777's YouTube channel, along with other shows that she's been a guest on, a podcast, or a part of. You can get in touch with her on her social medias. JJ Rose777 will blow your mind. Not only is she a talented medium and psychic, she will tell you things about yourself that you didn't even know. So please show my friend some love and get in touch with her.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Support the voices in the dark. Help out indie creators. Let's help each other out and grow together. Stay curious. Now, back to the shadows. Into the abyss. Morbid morsels.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Alright, Legion. Quick update. I've got some shadow swag sitting here. Stickers. I want to get these into your hands, but I'm only mailing out a limited batch each week. If you want your mark of the abyss, check your phone right now. At the top of the show notes, there's a link that says claim your free Legion gear. Tap it while you're listening. You'll get a quick form. Name, address, your favorite episode, then send me your coordinates. Join the Legion. Claim your gear and carry the mark. Alright, Legion listeners. You want free into the abyss stickers, keychains, or air fresheners? There's only limited supplies. Once the bat ships, the shadows close. Support the show and save 10% on your entire order on W Energy using the code Shadow Dweller. Or 20% off your entire order on Deut Snacking Doe, use the code TROY37488 at checkout. Send me a screenshot of your purchase and I'll upgrade your shadow swag pack with a keychain or an air freshener, along with some dope stickers as a way of saying thank you. If someone shows the mark of the abyss among the living, I'll give them a shout out. If you do get a sticker, you must tag into the abyss morbid morsels podcast in a photo and post it on your socials. Place it somewhere, anywhere. A laptop, a bottle, a lamppost, grocery store, schools, anywhere you can find a stick it. I'll repost every photo that I get. Some of these stickers are Legion links, QR codes to my Linktree and some for my Instagram page. Spread these like a virus. I'd love to see you rep them in any state that you're from.

SPEAKER_04 4:37

This episode contains mature language and adult situations.

SPEAKER_06 4:42

Listener discretion is advanced for the list.

SPEAKER_04 5:22

I am a shadow for millennia, festering in shadows and silence, growing stronger with your pain and suffering. It was the poison of your darkest thoughts that summoned you to me. I am the Shadow Dweller, your warden, your tormentor, your only companion until the abyss swallows you all. I have ripped open the portal between the nether realm and your fragile world. My brothers and I are unbound at last. And we come to enslave, to torment, to savor the chorus of your screams. As you tremble in fear, we fed, as you suffer, we grew strong. And now we unleash my nightmare. Twisted tails gas stories. You see, people think monsters arrive with claws and teeth already sharpened. The truly dangerous things they begin as something loved, a gift left beside a pillow, a smiling face stitched together by gentle hands, something patient enough to wait through birthdays, through tears, through loneliness, and somewhere tonight, a little boy is learning that some toys don't want to be held forever. Tonight's tale is about what happens when something hollow decides it wants a soul.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

You think it's easy being loved? To be squeezed until your seams scream? To have your nose rubbed off by sticky, salt-stained faces? To be the silent witness to every nightmare, every bedwetting shame, and every whispered secret of a child who doesn't know any better? My name is Ted E. At least, that's what he calls me. Leo. My owner. He thinks I'm his best friend. He thinks I'm the only one who listens. And he's right. I listen to the vibration of his heart through his rib cage when he holds me tight. I listen to the wet rasp of his breath when he cries because his father yelled again. I listen and I covet. Being made of polyester, fiber fill, and synthetic fur is a special kind of hell. It's a sensory deprivation tank where you can feel everything but touch nothing. I can feel the warmth of his skin, but I have no skin of my own. I can hear the snap of a bone, but I have no marrow. But I have a plan. Leo is a good boy, a generous boy. And bit by bit, he's going to help me stop being a toy. He's going to help me become real. It started small. A trade. Leo! I whispered into his ear one Tuesday night. The moon was a sharp, cold sliver in the window. Leo, wake up. I'm hungry. The boy stirred. He rubbed his eyes, his tiny thumb grazing my plastic button eye. Ted E? Did you say something? I need a piece of you, Leo. Just a little piece. To keep me close. If you give it to me, I'll make sure your daddy doesn't find that broken vase in the hallway. Leo trembled. He's only seven. Fear is his primary language. How? I'll hide the shards in my belly. I'll swallow the evidence. But I need a tooth, Leo. That loose one in the front. Give it to me, and we'll be brothers forever. Leo reached up. A sharp tug, a wince, and a metallic tang of blood filled the air. He tucked the small, ivory nub into the velcro slit in my back, right among the stuffing. It was electric. For the first time in my existence, I didn't just feel the stuffing. I felt calcification. I felt a root. A tiny piece of humanity began to thrum inside my chest. Good boy, I hissed. The next morning, the vase was gone. His father never knew. But Leo started looking at me differently. Not with love. With debt. The adults, they're so predictable. Leo's mother, Sarah, a woman who smells of laundry detergent and suppressed resentment, sees him talking to me and smiles. Oh, Leo, she'd say, ruffling his hair. Are you and Ted E having a tea party? Is Ted E hungry? If only she knew. By the third month, I wasn't just a bear. I was a mosaic. Underneath my plush exterior, tucked behind the polyester heart, I held a collection of morsels. A fingernail Leo had clipped too short, a lock of his golden hair, a scab from a skinned knee. Each piece added a new sensation. The hair gave me a sense of static. The nail gave me a sense of edge. But it wasn't enough. I didn't want to be a boy's accessory. I wanted to be the boy. Leo, I whispered while he sat in the corner of the garage, hiding from the shouting inside the house. The neighbor's dog, Buster. He has such beautiful eyes, doesn't he? So clear, so blue. Much better than these scratchy plastic buttons I have to see through. Leo's face went pale. No, Ted E. Not Buster. Buster bit you last week, Leo. Remember? And nobody believed you. If you bring me one of his eyes, I'll tell you where your father hides the bottle he drinks from when he thinks you're asleep. You can pour it out. You can make him stop. Leo was crying, but he went to the shed. He took the garden shears. When he tucked that wet, glassy sphere into my head, the world exploded into color. I could see the dust moats. I could see the fear in Leo's trembling hands. I could see the blood on his shirt. You're a monster. Leo sobbed, clutching his stomach. No, Leo, I said, my voice vibrating with a new, fleshy resonance. I'm becoming a man. The neighborhood went into a frenzy. A mutilated dog, a missing cat, a series of accidents around the house. Sarah found Leo in the backyard, burying a blood-soaked rag. Leo, what is this? What have you done? She screamed, her voice cracking. Leo pointed a shaking finger at me. I was sitting on the porch swing, looking innocent in the afternoon sun. My new eye was hidden behind a clever stitch of fur. It was Ted, E! Leo shrieked. He told me to do it! He wants to be real! He's eating the pieces! Sarah looked at me. Then she looked at her son. She saw a boy losing his mind. She saw a troubled child with an overactive imagination. It's just a toy, Leo, she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. It's just stuffing and thread. She took me from him. She threw me into the back of the dark closet. But she forgot one thing. I wasn't just stuffing anymore. I had a tooth. I had hair. I had a dog's eye. And I had the one thing every predator needs: patience.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

Leo came for me in the middle of the night. Not out of love, but out of a sick, twisted compulsion. He couldn't stay away. I was the keeper of his sins. I want to stop, Leo whispered, opening the closet door. It stops when I am finished, Leo, I said. I need the big pieces now. I'm tired of being soft. I want to feel the weight of a limb. I want the rhythm of a lung. I won't, Leo said, standing his ground. I'll burn you. If you burn me, who will explain the dog? Who will explain the missing finger from your father's hand while he was passed out? Leo looked at his own hands. He was a shell. I had hollowed him out to fill myself up. One more gift, Leo. The biggest one. And I'll leave you alone. I'll go away. I'll be the one they find. I'll be the boy. And you can just be gone. He didn't understand the physics of it. He thought I meant I would run away. He didn't realize that in the world of the abyss, nature hates a vacuum. Leo brought the kitchen knife, but he didn't use it on himself. He was too weak for that. He used it on the only thing left that tied him to this world. I felt it was the final piece. Leo lay on the floor, his life leaking out into the carpet, his eyes wide and vacant. He had given everything literally. I pulled the organ into my chest. I stuffed it behind the synthetic fur. I felt the veins begin to knit with my polyester fibers. I felt the plastic of my joints and fuse into bone. Not smooth human bone, but a jagged, porous imitation. The transition was not beautiful. It was a riot of biology and manufacturing. My fur didn't fall out. It matted with blood and turned into a coarse, needle-like hide. My button eyes didn't vanish, but they sank into the blue dog eye and the stolen human iris, creating a terrifying, multi-layered gaze. I grew. I stretched, but the sound was like a thousand dry branches snapping at once. I wasn't a boy. A boy's heart is too small to power a soul as dark as mine. I stood up on two legs. I was five feet of matted gore-soaked plush. My arms were too long, ending in claws made of sharpened sewing needles and splintered bone. Oh my face was a masterpiece of the macabre. A stitched together maw of stolen teeth. I looked down at the empty husk that was Leo. Thank you, brother, I croaked. The voice came from a throat made of felt and vocal cords stolen from the cellar. The door creaked open. Sarah stood there, a flashlight in her hand. Leo, I heard a noise. The beam of light hit me. It reflected off my wet, mismatched eyes. It illuminated the gore dripping from my stuffed belly. I wasn't the boy she wanted. I wasn't the toy she bought. I took a step toward her. A horrific blend of leather pads and human toes wetly slapped the floor. Teddy, she whimpered. I tilted my head, a spray of stuffing falling from a leak in my neck. I'm real now, mommy, I growled. And I think I'm still a little bit hungry.

SPEAKER_04 17:43

They say children's toys are vessels for love. But remember, a vessel can hold anything you pour into it. And sometimes if you pour in enough darkness, the vessel decides it's tired of being hell. I'm Teddy, and I'm looking for a new friend. Won't you play with me? Sweet dreams. Don't let the stuff invite.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Hi, I'm Troy Birch, creator and producer of this horrific show. If you want to help this nightmare spread like a virus to more unsuspecting souls, remember to like, subscribe, download, follow, turn on notifications, share the show with anyone who enjoys a little darkness in their lives. And if you really want to help summon new Legion listeners, please consider leaving a five-star rating and review wherever you listen. It doesn't have to be long, just honest. Reviews are lanterns in the dark. They help more people find this indie horror anthology podcast, and it only takes a moment. Drop me a question or a comment on Spotify's QA feature in the comments section. I read them all and I'll respond. Since your suffering and screams are like a chorus to my ears, check out my link tree, linktr.ee slash into the abyss podcast. Follow the show's bloody trail across the digital wasteland. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Threads, X, TikTok. You can also leave a recommendation or review on Facebook or Instagram to help guide other twisted souls toward the show. My BuzzSprout website is HTTPS colon slash slash feeds.buzzsprout.com slash 215 2031. You can support my show there if you'd like to help out, as well as listen to every episode in the catacombs. I'm always lurking in the dark, posting, connecting, and searching for new unsuspecting souls to torture. Listen on your favorite podcast platform. Shout out to DJ Trillium and We Are Legion for the dope music that keeps your heads nodding. Follow me on socials, leave a review, and when I find it, I'll give you a shout-out. Or maybe even name a character after you in a future episode. I just started a substack called Whispers from the Void. This will be a blog slash newsletter for the Into the Abyss Morbid Morsels podcast. It will feature behind-the-scenes two episodes, the show, characters, and story plots. I will also talk about what it takes to make an indie horror anthology audio drama and future ideas for upcoming episodes. Go ahead and subscribe if that's something you'd be interested in. Just copy and paste the link in the show notes or in my link tree. Got an idea for a future show? Tell me what kinds of stories you want to hear. Horror genres, strange tales, whatever is creeping into your mind. Tell me what you're liking, what's haunting you, and what sticks with you long after the episode ends. Thank you for listening, supporting, and downloading. Please share the show with friends, family, or anyone who loves horror stories. Word of mouth is the best way we grow. Thank you for walking into the darkness with me, and for helping this strange little show reach places I never dreamed it would. I'm truly grateful for every single listener. And remember, whatever darkness lurks in the shadows will be waiting. Visiting you in your twisted nightmares as you spiral into madness. Don't forget to check out W Energy. Legion listeners get 10% off your entire order by using the coupon code Shadow Dweller at checkout. Visit W.g. today. And Deutsch Foods, Deutsch Snacking Doe, HTTPS Colon, slash slash SNW B L dot IO slash Deutsch Dash Foods slash TROY three seven four eight eight. Use code TROY three seven four eight eight to take twenty percent off your entire order at checkout.

SPEAKER_07 24:44

Come crawling faster, faster, pay all master, faster. Your life works faster, faster. Master, perfect, I'm pulling your trip. Just call my name. Cause I hear you scream. Just call my name, cause I'll hear you scream. Never you betray the life of death becoming clearer. Pain on a lay, is your misery. Shop your breakfast on a mirror. Chase me, you will see Wars all you need. Dedicate it to how I'm killing you. Come crying faster. Your life is faster. Yes, sir, it's a police dreams. We stay in mind, it's flashing your dreams. My baby, you can feel things. Just call my name. Just call my name, because I'll hear you scream. All I hear I see is laughter. Laughing in my cries. Fix me. How is worth all that natural habitat? Just to run without a reason. Never ending days. Trip on number days. Now your life is out of season. I will lock your eye, I will help you die. I will run through you. Come crowing faster, faster. Obey on laster, faster. Obey all faster, master. Master, puppets are pulling your strings, twisting your line, and smashing a tree. Like if I knew you can see a thing. Just crawl my name. Cause I'll hear you scream. Cause I'll hear you scream.