Rule 4 - Craven

ALWAYS BE ON THE LOOKOUT.

" I want to go with you this time." I turned my head to stare at her from the passenger's seat. Tanis flicked her eyes down and turned the wheel.

"You sure? I know it's tempting to talk to people, but last time you did, I had to stuff you under the table and gaslight the girl for twenty minutes into thinking she'd imagined it." She put the car into park and turned to me.

I crossed my arms. "I can't trust you to pick a body for me. That last guy"—I snorted—"looked nothing like me."

"He was handsome."

"He had a big cock, which would be nice," I relented. "But I need to be able to look in the mirror and feel comfortable in the body I take. You're gonna give me body dysmorphia or some shit."

"Craven." She sighed. "I promise I'll find someone perfect."

"It's been three years. My balls itch. You know how hard it is to itch balls that aren't there?" I kicked my stubby legs. "It sucks."

"Fine. You can come, but I'm putting you in the glass box, and you can't move. Promise me you'll be good."

I turned away from her.

"Craven," she warned. "Promise me, or you're staying in the car."

"Aren't you worried a collector will steal me?"

"You're a bit too raggedy for anyone to want you."

My mouth fell open. I unbuckled my seat belt and stood. Even now, I still couldn't see out the window. "You bitch! You said you wouldn't make fun of my fur anymore!"

Tanis bit her cheek and shrugged. "I forgot. How about you promise to be a good little bear for me today, and I'll take you to a dry cleaner after this. You'll get the full treatment. I'll even ask them to shine your button eyes."

It was patronizing, but I did like a good button shine.

She reached for me, squeezing me against her beautiful tits. I missed how it felt to squeeze them with five fingers. It wasn't the same with my paws. Nothing was the same like this. I hadn't had any action that wasn't from myself in three years. Tanis got out of the car with me in her arms. We went inside the hotel, where she flirted with the door hop as she grabbed a baggage rack and dragged it back to the car to unload her convention gear.

"We need some sort of signal. If I like a body, I'm going to fall forward in my glass case."I whispered to her.

"Fine. Now stop talking. People are pointing at me."

I returned to my unmoving,unassumingbear self, as she went back to the hotel with her things, where she was stopped by her fans. They gushed about her collection, her social media, and asked for photos and autographs. Tanis greeted them all humbly and cheerfully, as if this were all such a surprise to her that people liked her. How could they not? She was perfect.

Despite the bitterness over my circumstances, I still loved every inch of her. She had this positive glow about her that flowed through any room she was in. People picked up on her bright energy and they fell in love with her, as I had years ago.

She set up her booth. She was a special guest for this convention. Men put up red velvet ropes around her table and a sign at front stating that photos cost money and that people had to wait patiently in line for their opportunity to see her.

For her final touch, Tanis took me off the tablecloth and set me inside my glass case at the edge of the table. She smiled at me, pressed two fingers to her red lips and then to the glass. That was as close as we'd ever get unless she found me a body to inhabit. I'd do anything to feel her lips on mine again.

A line began to form the moment the convention opened, and I sat patiently, still as stone, as she signed autographs and talked with avid collectors of the vintage toys she'd become an expert in since the accident.

At first, we traveled aimlessly, telling people I was from her childhood. Which worked for a while, but we weren't finding many potential bodies at truck stops. It was only after she got bored one evening and decided to google what kind of bear I was that things really took off. In a month's time, she was an expert in everything Furrniture Friends .

I was ‘Cocktail Bear'. I came with a little martini shaker and had a suit similar to the bartender from The Shining. The commercials showed me being gifted to cocktail enthusiasts and placed on the shelves behind the bar, besides bottles of tequila and rum. However, once I was in production, they realized that I could potentially encourage kids to drink alcohol, and they discontinued me after a year. Very few of me exist, despite them continuing the Furrniture Friends line to this day.

I listened to Tanis explain my origins all afternoon to those curious enough to peer into my glass. I was a rare find, and the bear that started it all, to quote her directly.

"Without Craven, my childhood bedtime bear, my life would be totally different," she gushed.

"He's creepy." An adult woman with large braces and snot-green hair stared at me with disgust. "Why don't you keep him home? Lock him up somewhere he can't traumatize kids. Does he still talk?"

Tanis came around the table, and for an instant, a scowl flashed across her beautiful face. She gently pushed the lady past the line and gave me another fingers-to-glass kiss.

"Oh, don't talk about my Cravey-poo that way. No, I haven't replaced the batteries for his voice box in years. Who's next?"

A tall, extremely good-looking man stepped forward. "I think that'd be me." He flashed a perfect smile and pointed to me. "I personally like the bear." I eyed him up and down. Not only was he tall, but he was built. The guy must work out regularly. A full head of hair, bright blue eyes, dimples in his cheeks and chin.

Tanis was just as enthralled in him as I was. Carefully, I leaned forward, my head hitting the glass with a soft thud, giving her the signal.

"Oh!" Tanis gasped and hurried to open my case and put me back upright. "Craven, what are you doing?" She laughed nervously. She turned back to the guy in line, who was drinking her in.

"Tanis, it's been too long."

They knew each other?

My girlfriend blushed deeply as she tried to straighten her tight dress over her thighs. She giggled nervously. "Why yes, yes, it has." She brushed a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. "How have you been, Damon?"

Damon. Did I know that name?

"Good. Very good actually. I saw your name on the panel list and talked my way onto it beside you."

Her mouth fell slack. "You're doing the panel with me?"

He grinned, and when she grinned right back, I was jealous... but for different reasons than normal. Usually, I was jealous merrily of the fact that the man she was flirting with was human. This jealousy was... more primal. It was clear they knew each other, and he wanted what was mine. I fell forward again and Damon saw me first.

"I think your bear is getting jealous of the attention I'm getting," he joked, but he was right. Tanis laughed nervously and hurried to take me out of the case completely.

"Probably. It's been a long morning too. I think I'm going to close my table for now, to prepare for the panel this afternoon."

Loud groans rang out throughout her line.

"There will be more time, I promise!" she said. "Plus, I've already stayed a whole hour longer than scheduled," she added to Damon.

"Can I walk you to your room?" he asked.

No.

"Yes, I'd very much like that."

As the three of us took the elevator up and started down the hall to Tanis's and my room, it was decided. One way or another, this asshole was dead.