That wasn’t supposed to be there

The Laundry Room Discovery

Picture this. I am doing laundry at my boyfriend’s place on a lazy Saturday afternoon. The machine is already humming, the smell of detergent fills the air, and I am trying to separate what is clean from what is questionable. Nothing out of the ordinary. A few mismatched socks, some tangled shirts, and a heap of towels that probably belong to his roommate. It is the usual shared-living chaos that makes you question whose laundry you are actually doing.

And then I see it.

At first, it is just a flash of grey between a pile of clothes. A small object, oddly shaped and slightly pointed, sticking out like something that does not belong. I pull it free, curious. It is about the size of a carrot, wrapped in soft fabric, but the shape is strange. Not quite an animal, not quite a toy. It almost looks human, in that unsettling way that old handmade dolls sometimes do. The fabric is smooth and pale, the form a little too deliberate.

For a moment, I freeze. It looks like something you might find in a ghost-hunting show, or maybe a voodoo prop from a late-night horror movie.

I squeeze it gently. It is soft, plush even. But inside, hidden under the fabric, I can feel something firm and rectangular. It is small, about the size of a razor blade, though it is not sharp. Still, it is solid enough to make me hesitate.

I call out to my boyfriend. “Hey, did you lose something weird in the laundry?” He looks over from the couch, confused. “No, why?”

“Because I found… this.”

He stares, laughs nervously, and says it definitely is not his. His roommate denies it too. Now I am holding a mysterious object that nobody claims, and my imagination starts sprinting. I half expect it to start moving.

I turn it over in my hand again. That shape. That stitching. That tiny cone-shaped point at the end. Something about it feels familiar, like a memory tugging at the back of my mind.

I sit down, open my laptop, and start typing. “Grey plush cone toy rectangle inside.” The results make no sense. Then I add one more word. “Game.” Suddenly, it clicks. There on my screen is a photo that matches perfectly. The Hollow Knight Plush Nail.

If you have ever played the indie game Hollow Knight, you know the character is a small, silent bug-like warrior who explores the crumbling kingdom of Hallownest. His weapon, called a Nail, is basically a sword shaped like a long needle. The company Fangamer made official plush versions of the Knight, complete with a detachable soft Nail that connects by a small magnet.

Mystery solved. Not cursed. Not haunted. Just clever and slightly misplaced game merchandise.

Still, the question remains. How did it end up in the laundry room? Maybe the plush itself was lost somewhere in the house, and its magnetic weapon slipped into a laundry basket. Maybe it belonged to a past roommate who moved out months ago. Or maybe, in some tiny way, the Nail found its way to me on purpose, a quiet reminder of a game world I once loved.

After the initial scare, I could not stop smiling. That small discovery pulled me back into the memory of countless late-night gaming sessions, the haunting music of Hallownest, and the stubborn satisfaction of finally beating impossible bosses. I even reinstalled the game that same night.

So, if you ever find a soft spiral-shaped toy with something magnetic inside, do not panic. It is not a spell or a curse. It is just a tiny piece of Hallownest visiting the real world.

Although, it never hurts to check for hexes. You never really know.