Are You Scared of Charles the Bear?

[Music] this video contains content that some might find disturbing viewer discretion is advised it's funny the meaning humans assign to objects or things at the end of the day they're lifeless only existing how we want them to be and yet we attach emotion to them and even personalities so when our narrator receives an antique teddy bear for her birthday she immediately casts the bear in the role of friend a quick harmless judgment that may come with dire consequences i'm ryan bergara and this is are you scared a show where i tell my friend shane midday the internet's scariest stories that may or may not be true now i have not read this story before and neither has shane so lock your doors turn off the lights and let's see if we can make it until the end charles the bear i had always loved unique things for as long as i can remember it was almost like a hobby collecting things from victorian era gas lamps to authentic saddle shoes from the 1950s so you can imagine how elated i was when for my 25th birthday my boyfriend eric surprised me with an antique teddy bear can we just comment really quickly on the i i victorian era gas lamps pretty sweet yeah oh yeah i was going to go a different route i guess i was going to say lame but swedish lame what about authentic saddle shoes what does that even mean i don't know i don't know it sounds fun though i got to be honest i was surprised when you said 25 years old because i was imagining this person was 60 easy the bear itself looks like it's at least 70 years old if not more eric to my dismay asked for no information about it from the shop owner so i didn't get any specifics about it the bear's fur i'm assuming was once a golden color but with time has faded to a sort of muddy beige and feels more like sticky leather than fur it has long stiff limbs that have clearly each been sewn on over and over again he's missing his right ear and his left is also crudely sewn to his head his once black nose was all scuffed and he was missing an eye the other eye must have been replaced at some point because it seemed to be in very good condition compared to the rest of him what a pleasure to own an object like that truly awful i mean i actually personally think a bear like this uh has character i used to have a very uh strong affection towards items that hadn't been clearly worn like i when i was growing up i always wanted a beat up car like a very beat up junkyard van or something like that i don't like the idea of a super old object because it knowing that it's passed through hands of people who have probably lived long full sometimes painful maybe lives and then they've died and gone into the dirt and here i am with this teddy bear that the instant i picked up the delicate and stiff body i just had such a strange urge to call him charles since i was so excited about him i placed charles in a spot of honor on my dresser across from my bed i set him on a small satin cushion between my collection of 1920s perfume bottles a decision i would later come to regret it's very funny to describe a teddy bear is stiff yeah that's true days went by as normal until it was an exact week from my birthday i woke up at around 2 50 in the morning to the sound of my cat hissing at the foot of my bed i flicked on my phone's flashlight and got out of bed i found audrey sitting in front of my dresser looking up i scanned my light around and noticed that charles had slumped forward thinking he may have just naturally shifted as things do i pushed him back and picked up audrey and went back to sleep the movement probably just scared her so again i let it go just to check in here you're letting this go even i'm like yeah things fall over in the night sometimes the air conditioning i know i get all like every time something happens on a haunted investigation but this is me living in my home so i'm willing to kind of chalk a couple more things up to chance in this especially here in kwaki la you know what i'm talking about yeah that's true yeah any little tremor sleep through half a dozen earthquakes every night the next morning i woke up to eric not so subtly complaining about me letting the cat sleep in the bed when i asked what the issue was he complained that audrey scratched him and now he had these long claw marks on his arm i'll admit that this freaked me out a tiny bit since audrey is pretty small for a full-grown cat and the scratches on his arm looked more like they should have come from a large dog i'm not a cat owner is this normal to find scratches on yourself from a cat sleeping absolutely not eric doesn't know what he's talking about by the way where are you at uh barometer rice where's the wind starting to blow in this in this story supernatural real fake well it could also be supernatural and real i don't think it can fake a few more days passed and we both almost forgot about the scratching incident but things started to become off in an almost indescribable way eric was a bit more irritable than normal and i'll admit i was as well we almost never fight so it was weird that we would get into little arguments over the dumbest things around this time was also when the nightmare started i would wake up in a cold sweat at roughly the same time each night and each night i would hear audrey doing something in the bedroom like hissing or scratching things she would never do before it sounds so crazy but it felt like i was being watched by something in the darkness it was unsettling eric started sleeping on the couch around that same time claiming that the way i was talking in my sleep was keeping him up i pressed him for further details now feeling solidly unnerved and he just said it was gibberish like gibberish like i love it i don't think she's sleeping and scatting at the same time she wasn't there with like a fedora and then the cat on the uh on the cymbals teddy bear comes in with a horn this prompted me to call my mother to ask if sleep talking was something i did as a child and she said no not that she could recall at this point i was now dreading going to sleep and wanted to know what was causing these new nocturnal issues i convinced eric to sleep in the bed that night and hoped i could somehow force myself to have a normal night's sleep however i woke up at nearly four in the morning to find eric gone not only that but audrey was pacing at the foot of the bed and there was a very strong powdery smell in the room i turned on the light finding that audrey wasn't actually on the bed at all but rather sitting looking at the dresser i told myself she hopped down while i was turning on the light what was really alarming was the state of my dresser the powdery smell was coming from the several smashed perfume bottles that charles was laying haphazardly in the middle of i stared at the scene in disbelief i was sure i would have heard something like this happening but apparently i slept right through it any rational person was going to blame my cat or maybe even eric for this hell i wanted to blame them for this but the second i saw everything the first thought that struck in my head was one word charles i know that sounds insane but i wanted to blame the teddy bear i love the the little funny teddy bear you know he was like well i'll scratch up eric and then i'll just be a little stinker that's true uh i'm not gonna lie pretty freaking creepy that she's like i wish this cat would stop walking by my legs turns on the light cast's not on the bed that means that charles like you were saying was just being a little [ __ ] just like stomping around the bottom of your little stinker is all sure looks like you're trying to catch up on some z's try doing it while i jump on the bed he's a little stinky one the next day while eric was at work i heard a knock at the door i opened it to find my new neighbor who i had yet to speak to she was an older lady who just moved in with her son about a week ago across the hall i figured that maybe she was just coming over to introduce herself but she instead said something that shocked me to my core she started out by saying i know it's none of my business but i really don't think you should let your son wander the halls at night i politely told her that i don't have a son she didn't seem to buy this however she went on to tell me she's watched the past three nights as a little boy around seven years old comes out of my apartment walks up and down the hall for about 20 minutes then goes back into my apartment at this point i felt like vomiting i asked her if she was positive that it was my apartment to which she said yes she said she had been watching for several nights wondering if she should say something apparently the little boy looks rather sickly and she was concerned for his well-being no one likes a nosy neighbor i'll say that no you keep things on your side of the fence and i'll keep mine i'd be like you watched my doorway for three nights you sicko there had to be some explanation nothing like this had ever happened before but i wasn't going to be thinking with a clear head while in the apartment so i put audrey in a carrier and decided to go spend the day with my parents since i had the day off anyway while i was away i got a text from eric saying he would be out late on a business dinner so when i got back home i knew he wouldn't be there walking into the apartment my entire mood shifted i walked into the small kitchenette and flipped on the lights only to find charles sitting at the small kitchen table like a little person i love charles he's a funny guy it's a funny thing for him to do he has a sense of humor i'm still scared shitless by this but i would also start to think maybe there's something else at play here in terms of like maybe eric just moved him there and thought it would be cute like there's a world where this is like cute what if eric is just like really good at sick pranks i took a step back and tried to rationalize but i couldn't even if eric had come home he wouldn't have moved charles like this he had no idea i suspected there was something off about the bear and moving things around like that just wasn't his sense of humor i took a deep breath feeling the fear tightening in my chest charles i had said in what i hoped was a stern voice are you doing this obviously i got no response i turned away determined to do something to set my mind at ease i picked him up finding that he felt like he had been sitting in the freezer and shoved him in the closet by the front door i'm imagining just picking up the bear and then just setting it down somewhere in your hands just being like looking like you've just like wiped the bottom of a car just grease just gas seeping out of this bear's belly button it's gross it's a gross situation feeling slightly better with him out of sight i flipped on the tv and tried to zone out for a few hours but then the scratching started at first i just thought it was audrey scratching at her post but then i looked to the side and saw that she was curled up asleep on the arm of the couch i muted the tv thinking maybe it could have been something in the hall but no it was coming from the closet if you're the kind of person who believes this and you've really got it in your head that this stupid little teddy bear is the devil or whatever set it on fire take it out to a field douse it in gasoline and set it on fire do it right away what you're too attached to this shitty beef jerky teddy bear to the point that it's going to scratch it scratched her boyfriend well a couple things here she's still not sure if it's the teddy bear she seems to be the type that is very skeptical and is trying to rationalize what is actually going on also this was a gift from her boyfriend who she's having a little trouble with right now i don't know if setting it on fire and saying well i think he was possessed is the best course of action i mean it seems like a lot of the trouble is stemming from the bear issue so well now it sounds like you might be a bit of a believer yes i believe this teddy bear is the devil i picked up audrey and took her to the bedroom wanting to put a bit of distance between us and the hall closet flipping on the lights to my bedroom i ended up facing down the impossible charles was sitting smack in the middle of my bed his head turned slightly so his one good eye was aimed directly at my face i was sure i started screaming at that point i mean that's scary i'm just imagining someone opening a door and seeing a teddy bear on a bed and going the next thing i knew there was a knock at the front door i all but ran away from my bedroom to yank open the door hoping it was eric so i wouldn't have to be alone with whatever this was instead it was my neighbor again looking rather cross i saw your boy again is what she said clearly oblivious to the state i was in i thought you would keep a better eye on him i tried explaining once again that i didn't have a son but she didn't believe me what she did do still gives me chills to this very day she pointed behind me he just ran past you don't have to lie just keep an eye on him she left leaving me to face whatever the hell was happening on my own after a good five minutes of just standing frozen i said charles there was a long stretch of silence until i heard footsteps to my left which was the hallway leading to the bedroom i was paralyzed with fear i didn't move away from in front of the door until eric walked in a half hour later why is she even chilling just leave oh yeah why is she waiting why she would you would you stick around no i'd be hitting westfield i'll be going to the mall and trying to take my mind off of this kid clearly i was in a state and he asked what was wrong so i told him everything i thought and everything i experienced instead of understanding i got an eye roll you're crazy is what he said i got you a little teddy bear something children play with if you don't like it take it back i wanted to argue and scream at him but it wouldn't have done any good eric had been in a mood for a week and i now knew deep down it had something to do with charles i asked eric if the person he bought charles from told him anything strange to which he of course said no he got settled to yet again sleep on the couch and i begrudgingly took my cat and went back to the bedroom charles was still on my bed so i yet again picked him up and put him in a different closet if you could see your partner's clearly upset maybe don't say you're crazy like that's uh not the best but who knows he could be under the trance of charles here the trance of charles what do you think his vibe is do you think he's more like like classic trance like kind of like a hypnotist like yes feel me in my leathery skin oh you got perfume i love perfume let me lay around in it yeah i'm imagining a very 1920s sort of uh hey there skipper uh you look like a enterprising young little kitty cat hey wouldn't you mind scratching that boy eric up there trance of charles keblanc i kept on my bedside lamp and tried in vain to go to sleep to my surprise i must have dozed off because i woke up at around 3 30 to the unmistakable sound of my closet door opening audrey had jumped up and was hissing in that direction from where i was i couldn't see into the closet only that the door was now open when it shouldn't have been stop it charles i said in a firm voice once i was actually able to speak if this was somehow a kid like my neighbor thought i figured getting tough might work even though i was petrified i stared at the door for a long amount of time and nothing more happened i knew i had to get up to check it out so on shaking legs i tiptoed across the room my imagination getting the better of me as i thought of what i could possibly find in my closet to my relief charles was where i left him his singular eye burning a hole in my chest i pushed the door shut and moved my small trash can in front of it in an attempt to pin it shut no sooner had i got back in bed than the scratching started it was faint at first but started getting louder and louder until it sounded like someone was using sandpaper on the other side of the door as the scratching seemingly reached its apex i felt something tap my shoulder i let out a small scream and whipped around only to find absolutely nothing behind me but thankfully the scratching stopped after that though i was not able to sleep for the rest of the night i feel like charles really needed to maybe workshop his haunt approach here a little bit more it's sloppy yeah he was really uh hidden hard in the first couple innings here but now i feel like he's kind of dropped off maybe at the top of this he was planning on going full scratch just like i see that big tall eric man i'm gonna scratch him i'll scratch him till the cows come home suddenly eric's pissing out and sleeping over there on the couch and he's like well i guess he doesn't want to be a part of this so uh what if there's a boy yeah he's got the yips here and i feel bad for him kind of reminds me of mike and sully in monsters inc they got their mojo taken away and they can't scare these these people funny guys yeah once an acceptable morning hour hit i gathered up the courage to take charles out of the closet i all but threw him on eric which startled him awake i told him to take it back to where he found it and not take no for an answer he yet again called me crazy but he agreed i could have sworn as i watched him walk out the door with the bear i heard a little kid crying somewhere the bear glared at me with its glassy eye until the door was shut then the crying stopped i felt like i could breathe again things went back to normal almost instantaneously even eric seemed to be back to his normal self once he came home maybe i was crazy maybe i blew something completely out of proportion but the nightmares and the irritability and the talking in my sleep all stopped audrey was no longer hissing at things and my neighbor never once asked me about my son again while i was relieved things were normal once again i couldn't help but feel slightly guilty i couldn't help but wonder if someone else bought charles and if they experienced the same things i did maybe i should have done more than let him go back on the market if you've recently purchased an antique teddy bear and things in your home no longer feel right i am truly sorry maybe take this as a warning you aren't crazy it's the bear get him out of your house so are you scared so now we find out if this story is experienced or imagined charles the bear was submitted to us for this show by haley golaszewski and is an imagined story sorry if i butchered your last name there so this was uh this was fictional not real what a relief you don't have to worry about a little bear out there with some big ideas stomping around your room asking for bacon in the world where this was real in the funny little make-believe world where where possessed bears are a thing i gotta be honest i'm rooting for the little fella yeah he seems like he has a promising career of haunting to come he didn't really do anything too crazy he terrorized without really physically harming anybody which i appreciated that is sweet of him if you wanted to really physically harm i could see maybe chewing off someone's uh belly button would be kind of funny or uh chewing off a thumb would be funny there's some crazy imagery in here that i would like to not think about as i go to sleep especially just a sickly little boy running around my apartment that i didn't know about just don't like it anyways that does it for this tale yeah good night good night don't let your teddy bears bite [Music] you

Channel: Watcher

Views: 756,306

Rating: 4.9811554 out of 5

Keywords: Ryan Bergara, Shane Madej, Are You Scared, BuzzFeed Unsolved, Horror, Creepypasta, Scary stories, Supernatural, Watcher, No Sleep, Reddit, Are You Afraid of the Dark, Dark Web, Creepy, Scary, Spooky, Comedy, Dark, BFU, Unsolved, True Crime, Demon, Ghosts, Cold Case, ryan and shane

Id: Y_JrFAa6C80

Length: 23min 26sec (1406 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 13 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/spockkitty]

Audrey the cat was the real mvp of this story. Huge kudos to the author for making a main character who takes the pet with her, highly relatable

[u/archisengupta]

I think i agree with the Ghoul Bois that the story progressively got not scarier. Like, it started off scratching the shit outta Eric... And then it just scratched the doors. Idk, I've been creeped out in other episodes, this one was pretty... Meh. 10/10 would rewatch it for the boys though.

[u/loracarol]

This week's Are You Scared ft. spoooooky teddy bears.

It looks like this one cannot be found online (in English, at least?) as it was submitted directly by the author. :)

[u/[deleted]]

They don't know what saddle shoes are?!