Hot tea bubbled in a pot on a lime green plastic table, around which were seated small stuffed animals. A lion with a stringy golden mane, a bear with beady mismatched button eyes, a gray hare with ears twice as long as its body, and a monkey with a grin that seemed to grow with every passing second.

A young girl with chin-length chocolate hair pranced around the table wearing a frilly pink apron. Soft whispers floated from her half-open lips and her sickly yellow eyes remained fixed on the table she circled.

It was only when the door to the dark dilapidated room opened that the girl turned her attention away from the gathering of the toys on their four chairs. Her eyes went wide and a wide grin stretched across her face, showcasing her bone-white teeth.

"Hello..." Katie murmured as she walked through the door, taking in the peeling wallpaper and dancing shadows cast by the single yellow lightbulb illuminating the playplace. Katie's lips parted of their own accord and she continued absentmindedly, "What's your name, kiddo?"

"I've been waiting for you," the young girl started, her voice like a sugary sweet knife that flew from her lips to Katie's throat, "what took you so long?"

Katie opened her mouth to respond, but her response was silenced as she noticed the fifth chair at the neon green plastic table. The young woman blinked and rubbed her eyes, frowning to herself as she turned back to the girl, who carried in her hands a metal teapot that shakily exhaled steam and gurgled a high pitched whine in strained breaths.

Everything was moving too quickly. Katie realized she had sat down in the fifth plastic chair long ago. In her hands was a bubbling, half-drunk glass of tea. The young woman took a sip, and recoiled as the heat burned the roof of her mouth. It tasted like perfectly normal herbal tea.

"You were just telling me about your father, Katie." The girl said, her soft, icy hands wrapping around Katie's shoulders and holding them in place.

"I-" Katie's breath hitched as the girl's touch sent a shiver throughout her whole body. The child's breath against the top of her head made Katie's fur stand on end.

Fur?

Katie suddenly felt very small.

"Shh, Katie," The girl patted Katie's furry head with a soft, gentle hand.

Katie's breathing had stopped. The young woman's mouth wouldn't open. Her eyes darted from left to right. Her nose was blocked by something.

The stuffed animals around Katie suddenly felt very real. The lion's mouth hung open in a silent scream. The bear's hollow eyes seemed to point in two different directions. The hare's ears twitched with every sound that reverberated throughout the trashed room. The monkey no longer smiled, but bared its very human teeth at Katie.

Katie couldn't support her own head. It hung down and the young woman's eyes landed on her teacup, still clutched in her blue paws. Instead of tea, she saw a disc of flesh, stuffed into the bottom of the cup. Its face twisted in a permanent cheerful grin. The face Katie saw in her bathroom mirror every day in the morning.

A soft, pale-skinned hand plucked the teacup out of Katie's hand, and although she couldn't see the child's face, she- despite herself- knew it bore the whimsical smile of a dreamer.

"I hope you liked your tea, Katie,"

No response came from the blue cat plushie that sat in the fifth chair.