A haunted toy

Maggie loved her son, Jason, more than anything in the world. So, when his seventh birthday rolled around, she went all out. The house was decorated with streamers and balloons, and the cake was the biggest and best she had ever made.

As presents, Jason got all kinds of things – a bike, a few books, some games, and even a yo-yo. But the one that stood out – both to him and to Maggie – was the antique toy car that his great-great-grandfather had passed down to him.

The car was made out of metal and had the kind of wheels that didn't spin all that well anymore. It was the perfect collector's item, but Jason didn't care about any of that. All he knew was that it was the coolest toy he had ever seen.

For the first few weeks, Jason played with the car non-stop. He would race it around the house and make engine noises with his mouth. It was genuine happiness for Maggie to see her child so happy.

But then strange things started happening. It all started with the car. Every morning, when Maggie woke up, she would find that the toy had moved to a different spot in the house. At first, she thought she was imagining things – her memory of where she had left it wasn't as reliable as it used to be.

But then she noticed something else. She would check on Jason in his room at night and sometimes find him talking to the car as if it were alive.

When she asked him about it, he just shrugged it off.

"It's my new friend," he said. "He tells me stories."

Maggie was starting to get a little freaked out. The stories Jason told didn't make any sense, and he was starting to become more and more isolated.

One night, she decided to watch Jason play with the car from the doorway. What she saw chilled her to the bone. The car was moving on its own, and Jason was just staring at it, eyes wide.

Maggie rushed to the toy and picked it up, but it wouldn't stop moving. She shook it, trying to make it stop, but it wouldn't.

That was the night Jason started having nightmares. He would wake up screaming and crying, claiming that the car was chasing him.

Maggie knew she had to get rid of the toy, but Jason wouldn't hear of it. He had formed an intense bond with it and wouldn't give it up for anything.

No matter how much Maggie tried to convince him, he was adamant about keeping the toy. It was his best friend, and he loved it more than anything.

As the nightmares got worse, Maggie noticed dark circles under Jason's eyes, and he started falling asleep in class. She put her foot down and took the car away – even if it meant that Jason would hate her.

She called her father-in-law, who was an expert in antiquities, to come take a look at the car. When he finally arrived, he told her that the car was cursed. It had been owned by a wealthy family in the 19th-century and had been responsible for the deaths of several children.

Maggie couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had to do something to end the curse, or else her son would never be the same again.

With her father-in-law's help, they performed a ritual that cleansed the house of any negative energy. They also burned the toy car in the backyard, releasing the curse once and for all.

After that day, Jason never had another nightmare or spoke of the car again. Maggie was relieved to have her happy child back.

But some nights, when the house was quiet and the wind was blowing, she could swear she heard the faint sound of an old engine revving. She shuddered, not wanting to think about what could have happened if she never got rid of the haunted toy.