A/N: Hades' December challenge
21st Dec Prompt from I'm Nova: A child's toy.
Toy
Tucked away in a criminal mastermind's lair,
Is a balding and ancient one-eyed teddy bear.
He is hidden so nobody knows that he's there.
A remnant from gentler and happy times,
With games and tin soldiers and nursery rhymes;
Instead of the vilest, most dreadful of crimes.
~0~
His fur is in patches, his ears are well-worn;
The pink felt which makes up one paw is quite torn.
He appeared on the day when his owner was born,
When morning's weren't seen as the worst time of day,
And sunlight and music and laughter held sway;
Before light and colour had faded to grey.
~0~
He still has a gleam in his one silk-stitched eye,
As though he remembers bright stars and blue sky,
And the warmth and affection of days long gone by,
Till all hope and good fortune and joy disappeared,
And all toys and reminders of childhood were cleared,
And his owner transformed from most loved to most feared.
~0~
The bear sits for decades in a tired threadbare state;
No choice but to watch all the shadows and wait,
While a criminal mastermind ponders the fate
Of the souls tangled up in his web of deceit,
And arch enemies pick up the trail to defeat
His network before evil plans are complete.
~0~
And, once in a while, the old patched teddy bear
Understands that his owner remembers he's there
And briefly returns his forlorn one-eyed stare.
And beneath gimlet eyes in a shade of grey frost
There's a sense, for a moment, of what it has cost
To pursue such ambitions, and all that was lost.
~0~
Moriarty moves on from the bear's steady gaze;
Dismissing this relic of happier days.
~0~
A simple child's toy, only fools would display.
He cannot quite bring himself to throw it away.
~0~