I’ve no way to know if this will actually reach anyone, I managed to access the internet and my reddit account, still everything feels like it’s a tiny bit dislocated from reality. Also, time is going by strangely, speeding up and slowing down in a haphazard fashion and because of this, I’m constrained to writing sporadically so bear with me. If you are reading this, there’s not much anyone can do to help but at least some suggestions might be the difference between life and death for me.
Growing up, Disney played the same significant part in my life that it does for many children. However, I could never have predicted that it would become an unforgiving obsession during my adult years, especially not in the way it has over recent months.
Before I begin recounting the details of what happened, I need to lay some foreground for why I did what I did. Once this is all off my chest I’m sure I’ll feel better, for the fear of what may happen next is crippling me more and more with each passing hour.
On a tranquil, spring evening, bored from bingeing multiple Netflix true crime docu-series and overplaying the same old video games, I found myself scrolling through some subreddits based around chilling, true horror stories. As per my inclination to follow all that is criminal, conspiratorial, supernatural and anything in-between, I wound up reading this stuff for weeks. I enjoyed it immensely, but I do have one regret, the reasoning for which will become quite obvious as this recital progresses, I regret delving into a certain topic that I really did not anticipate stumbling upon, although after reading the title I chose, it’s unlikely to shock you.
What I found was Disney, but not the Disney I’d known throughout my childhood with its sweet, animated characters and their enchanting stories, its ‘parallel-to-ours’ universe of magic and wonder where everyone, young or old, can immerse themselves in any adventure imaginable. Excuse me for sounding like an advocate, I can assure you this is not the case. No, I had discovered for myself a twisted, frightening Disney where the animated characters are symbolic representations of Satanic worship and antisemitism, their parallel universe filled with dark subliminal messages that seep into our world and corrupt our subconscious. Most chillingly of all though, in my opinion, were the accounts surrounding Walt Disney’s haunted and cursed theme parks.
I lived with my girlfriend, Kate, in the south of England, in a town not far from the English Channel. We mortgaged our first house a couple of years ago, and shortly after, we became fast friends with our next-door neighbours, Natasha and Rob. We got on so well with them, in-fact, that we were spending nearly every other weekend together. Rob is a freelance web designer and Natasha works at the product development headquarters in London for Disney, bear in mind that when I first met her, I hadn’t yet discovered Disney’s alleged dark side. Her day-to-day is innocent enough, she manages a team of people who approve clothing, accessories and other merchandise sent from designers to be distributed to all the major retailers in Europe… “A never ending f*cking story.” was her satirical description. Nothing sinister there, but since becoming entwined with the tales of her corporation’s clandestine underbelly, I spotted an opportunity.
This opportunity quickly materialised in the form of a ticket: as part of Disney’s employee benefit scheme, every year Natasha receives four free passes to any Disney park around the globe. You can probably guess where this is going, I of course couldn’t help my selfish tendencies and decided to exploit my friend-with-Disney-related-benefits.
It had been a while since we last talked about the tickets, so I had to find a polite way of bringing it back up in conversation. The day Natasha first told us about it, we exchanged some throwaway comments; “We should definitely all go!” and “We’d have a great time!”. A bottle of gin later and we’d forgotten all about it. By the time I had managed to reintroduce the subject in conversation, it was late May, meaning that booking any kind of summer vacation at such late notice was going to cost a pretty penny, even with free attraction tickets. The cost of a trip would have been playing on Kate’s mind whilst we made our plans, but all my childish brain could ponder was: “which park should we choose?”.
My preference stemmed from people’s first hand experiences that I had read and the news articles surrounding the deaths and injuries that were sustained by guests and park staff. If you’ve done your research like I had, my choice will come as no surprise… I had to go to Florida. This was, and still is, the resort with the highest number, in any Disney attraction, of tragic incidents resulting in the hospitalisation and, in many cases, death of guests or staff members. It also seemed to be the most commonly mentioned destination in the online communities who focus on Disney’s ‘darker side’.
Now I had made my decision, all that was left to do was make my case to the others. I’d have to be convincing enough to get everyone’s agreement on Florida, which might have been difficult, as Disneyland Paris is only a 2-hour train Journey from our home, and that would mean a hell of a lot less work and money than Florida. That work week lasted what seemed like a year, but the weekend had finally arrived, and we were heading out to dinner with the neighbours. Luckily enough, Rob and Natasha had already set their hearts on Florida as they had grown bored of frequenting Paris over recent years. I knew I would have a disgruntled girlfriend to deal with when we got home that evening since we couldn’t sensibly afford it but it was worth the win and the four of us ended up talking about our trip for the rest of the evening.
We booked for early September and I had to put my obsession to one side during the lead up to the trip, it would have likely consumed me if I hadn’t. Until then, I buried myself in work and thankfully the time flew by. August’s end was upon us and 10 days remained until our departure, I felt the timing was appropriate to reignite the flame that was my fixation on the reason I wanted to go on this trip in the first place.
During my research I unearthed a news article about one suicide, the story of which rocked me to my core, primarily because the authorities’ official details prompted more questions than they provided answers. According to media outlets, in the early 90’s, a 37-year-old man from New York, strolled up to the Epcot main gate, shortly after the park had closed on 12th September. He was met by a security guard and informed them of his intention to find his ex-girlfriend who worked at the park. By now two more guards had begun approaching from behind the first to provide assistance. The initial guard started questioning the man before witnessing him brandish a shotgun and begin firing at them. He shot 3 times at the first guard, and fired another round toward the two who were approaching, missing every shot. He then proceeded to take two out of three guards hostage and led them 150 yards at gunpoint to a bathroom near the ‘Journey to Imagination’ pavilion. Meanwhile, the first guard somehow had the opportunity to run off and summon local sheriff’s deputies by radio. Armed Police arrived and surrounded the bathroom entrance, he let the hostages go and appeared from bathroom clutching the shotgun to his chest, begging to be killed. His final words were “Shoot me, shoot me. You’re going to have to kill me.”, after which he turned, walked toward the pavilion, raised the barrel to the side of his head, and pulled the trigger. Officer’s and paramedics at the scene say he was still alive and able to struggle briefly, even enough to reach for the gun again. He was loaded into a helicopter and died either en-route or shortly after arriving at hospital.
I’m sure you already have a few questions of your own, but the ones that intrigued me the most were as follows; Firstly, how did he not manage to kill or injure the guards, or at least the first one? He was supposedly standing less than 10 feet away! Secondly, how did the first guard get away? Where they were standing was open ground, nowhere to take cover, and nowhere to run. Lastly, what happened in the bathroom that completely changed his end goal? Suddenly the gun was intended for him, and not his ex or the guards? In my opinion, he experienced something in that bathroom that made him give up the fight and let his “hostages” go. Or maybe by this point, I was just going crazy, nevertheless I was going to find the truth about the stories like this one.
Over the final days leading up to our trip, I familiarised myself with the layout of each attraction. I took note of every notable incident and anything relevant enough to warrant investigating, then meticulously plotted them out on printed maps. I re-read all the stories that had been posted online, ensuring that I knew every intrinsic detail that could lead me to something of interest. Finally, my plan and I were ready.
We flew to Orlando International and I managed to keep myself in ‘innocent holiday mode’ for the whole journey. I should mention, the reason I didn’t discuss my real intentions with Kate or our friends was because they did not share the same interest in this subject as I do, especially Natasha as bar her earlier statements she was actually very committed to her job. Also, I didn’t want them to think I was pre-occupied for the whole vacation, this would have probably put a downer on everything. After arriving at the Boardwalk Inn, where we would be staying for the next week, a huge sense of what I can only describe as guilt washed over me. I gazed around and witnessed exactly what Disney was supposed to be; families and friends enjoying an enchanting experience together, and here I was, selfishly probing for what dark secrets may lie beneath. I was snapped out of my ashamed state when the receptionist checking us in requested my credit card, followed by the sharp realisation that I was standing alone, my friends had abandoned me. Whilst the receptionist pre-authorised my card, I span 360 degrees searching for any sign of my companions, I assumed they had wandered off to look around. Upon completing my spin, I gazed back to the lady behind the desk, who was now staring directly at me with an uncomfortable, almost disturbing smile, her arm locked out straight in front of her with my credit card clamped between her fingers.
“Have a pleasant stay, Sir.” she remarked in a polite yet painful tone.
“Thanks…” was the best response I could muster in a light state of shock before glancing back to where we had temporarily piled our luggage. I walked a few steps before I began feeling uneasy, as if the receptionist’s eyes were still burning into the back of my head, with that creepy grin. I turned back, almost sure that I would find exactly that, but she was gone. I scanned around the desk for a few seconds before spotting her in the back office through a window, it looked like she was hunched over and when I focused in, I could see she was talking to a man sitting at a desk, whispering informatively in his ear. Intrigued, I stepped closer and could see she was still wearing that maniacal smile while she spoke, suddenly they both shot their heads up and looked right at me. I instinctively spun back around and was filled with relief when I saw Kate and the others now standing by our bags.
“Where did you run off to?” I barked, promptly assessing how my harsh tone might come across and reactively forcing a relaxed smile, hoping they wouldn’t take notice of my gradually dissipating panic.
“Where do you think?” Rob responded rhetorically and pointed through the hall at an opening that led out onto a beautiful boardwalk. The sun was beaming, and the water glistening with it, then the sound of calm trickling water, chatter and innocent laughter breezed through.
“Let’s get unpacked so we can head out and enjoy it properly” said Kate before turning to the others, “meet you down here in an hour?”.
“Perfect, we’ll go check-in then. Did you get your key alright?” Natasha asked me.
The receptionist hadn’t given me a room key. My earlier state of panic started to rise again as I knew I would have to go back and retrieve it.
“Bugger, no I forgot” I said. Trying to act natural, I began making my way back over to the desk before being halted by someone grabbing my arm, I shot around to find it was Kate looking at me like I was an idiot.
“On your wrist, d*ckhead.” She chuckled, pulling my arm up to head height. I glanced along my forearm and just before reaching my hand, I spotted it, a rubber band around my wrist. It had a rectangular bulge in it, and thankfully it didn’t take long for me to understand what it was, the electronic key for our room. I let out a laugh and a sigh of relief at the same time, in my head I was thanking the powers that be for not making me go back to that desk.
We headed up to the room, number 2298 was written on the bottom-side of the wrist band, I pressed it up to the locking mechanism and we were in. Chucking our bags down before the door had even closed behind us, we both darted for the balcony. Natasha had pulled some strings before our arrival and got our rooms upgraded to the best suites in the hotel. While we took in the incredible surroundings and enjoyed the moment, something started twigging at the back of my mind, a thought that I had shrugged off until now and although maybe insignificant, I couldn’t help but let it come to the forefront of my brain. Something troubled me about this band, the one on my wrist, but it wasn’t its purpose or functionality, what troubled me was how on earth it got there. For the life of me I couldn’t remember putting it on, or having it handed to me, or even its existence before Kate blatantly pointed it out to me back in the lobby. The possibility of this being attached to me by the odd woman who checked us in - without my knowledge - gave me some serious chills. Maybe I was being silly, at least that’s what helped me shrug-off the thought again and snap back to the room.
After showering and changing our attire to something more fitting to the Floridian climate, we strolled back down to reception. Rob and Natasha were sat in the lounge waiting for us, and shortly after we reached them, a tall, young bartender appeared with a tray of drinks.
“Oh… I don’t think those are for us” Rob explained.
“Not at all, a welcome drink for you, on the house” the bartender responded, “welcome to the Boardwalk Inn”. His manner and smile were much more pleasant and sincere than that of the receptionist I met earlier. “Have you made plans for this evening?” he continued.
“We’ll probably go for a walk around and see where we like the look of.” said Natasha.
“That’s a great idea” the bartender smiled “but in case you need any inspiration, Big River Grille has some amazing specials on tonight, it’s on the left side of the boardwalk”.
The conversation continued as we had our drinks, the girl’s chatted about what they wanted to do and see throughout the week and the bartender was very accommodating to answer all their questions. Meanwhile, I felt my concentration drift again as the eerie feeling of being watched arose once more. My back was turned to the reception desk on the other side of the main hall and I knew… I was horrified but this time I just knew I would catch that woman staring at me. I turned my head slowly, not wanting to create any suspicion. When my sightline reached the desk, I was delightfully surprised to find not only was the desk empty, but in the middle of the lobby floor sat a small black cat. I smiled, reassuring myself that I was just being paranoid about being watched and admired the cat while it seemed to study me, after all I was holding a brightly coloured drink that it was probably just looking to get a taste of if I left it unattended.
I turned to the bartender, accidentally interrupting the conversation that I should have been focusing on: “Do you get a lot of strays here in the resort?”. He seemed startled, “Every now and again, yes, but we have a strict policy to keep stray animals out of the hotel and grounds, they’re usually collected by animal control as soon as we report them.” He looked over my shoulder to where the cat had been sitting, then looked back at me now with a confused look “did you see one?” he asked before I turned back to find the cat had vanished. “There was a black cat right there, only seconds ago, it must have run off” I thought nothing of it though, cats can be pretty quick.
“I’d better let maintenance know; they usually deal with this sort of thing.” Said the bartender, “Please excuse me… enjoy the rest of your evening!”. He collected some empty glasses and walked back to the bar.
Kate and the others had finished their drinks and began to exit out towards the opening that led onto the boardwalk. I stayed back a few seconds while I took the last sip of my cocktail and turned to see the bartender pass me, presumably on his way to see maintenance. I called across the few feet between us and apologised for interrupting him before, I felt bad about ending the conversation so abruptly.
“No problem, I’m glad you let me know, would want the cat to up in one of the restaurants or someone’s room!” he chuckled, I smiled back.
I turned to re-group with the others before hearing him one last time “Have a good night, Mr. Green.”. I struggled to continue smiling and quickly thanked him, all the while my heart felt like it was about to come up my throat along with the cocktail I had only just swallowed. Our room was booked in Kate’s surname, Bainet, and the card I used on check in was also in her name. But this man knew my name, and I didn’t know how, in fact at that moment, I didn’t even want to know how. As I power-walked in an effort to catch up with my friends, I tried to convince myself that I was being stupid, maybe they did have my details somehow, and maybe that receptionist from earlier was just having a bad day and was forcing a smile that wasn’t genuine, god knows we all have bad days.
I caught up with Kate and the others at a margarita stand on the edge of the boardwalk, they had clearly enjoyed our first drink so much they jumped straight in to get another. We took our plastic cup cocktails and strolled along the boardwalk, verbally noting to each0ther all the shops, bars and restaurants that we wanted to visit throughout the week. As the sun set over the horizon, silhouettes of some of the more distant attractions were gradually becoming more recognisable. Looking across the water, I could make out one very obvious landmark, Spaceship Earth, a giant metal ball that sits in the centre of the Epcot attraction. Seeing it reminded me of reading the police report on that suicide, how he marched those guards past this magnificent scuplture, only to end his life moments later.
I decided that tonight should be investigation-free, and that I was just going to relax, after all my research didn’t point to the boardwalk as having any supernatural or conspiratorial significance. So, we ate in the Big River Grille, as the bartender had suggested and all in all it was a great evening. Later, we ended up in the hotel’s bar and continued drinking until they closed. By the time we got to our rooms, we were, for want of a better word, twatted, and getting to sleep couldn’t have been easier.
From there on out, it got scary, starting when I woke up this morning. I hadn’t planned on waking up at 4am, but I guess the jet-lag must have thrown me off. Then the hangover kicked in before I could even open my eyes to squint. I dragged myself out of bed and over to the bathroom, ran the cold tap and splashed my face. Returning to the bedroom, with my eyes still adjusting to the dark, I walked across to the mini bar to grab a bottle of water. When I brought my head up to take a sip, something caught my eye. Looking through the thin net curtains I could see the sharp edge of the horizon begin to give off a glow from the early morning sun. There was something standing in the way of what should have been an uninterrupted view, it didn’t alarm me though, as it was small and seemed to be balanced on top of the balcony’s rail. I carefully opened the curtain as to not wake up Kate and to my surprise, it was a cat, the same one from the lobby. It was perched, eerily still with its eyes fixed on mine, without context this sight wouldn’t cause concern for most people, but this very specific cat knew exactly where to find me. I continued to stare back, wondering how long it had been waiting, watching me sleep. I got up the courage to open the sliding door and confront my feline stalker, unsure whether it was friend or foe. I stepped gradually closer until eventually I came face to face with the creature. Suddenly, as if someone had pressed ‘play’ on a remote control, the cat unfroze then began waving its tail and grooming itself. My demeanour changed instantaneously, and I raised my hand to pet it. As I began carefully stroking the cat’s head, my heart only just returning to its normal pace, a voice crept out from the shadows on the balcony adjacent to mine.
“He’s been sat there for hours” the voice croaked. My heart raced back up to maximum BPM and I froze on the spot, feeling the cat shudder from under my hand, I flicked my wide-open eyes back to find it had disappeared yet again, as if by magic. There was nowhere it could have gone other than taking a long drop off the second story balcony where it had been sat, but there was no time to concern myself with the seemingly unnatural speed of a cat, so I reverted my gaze back in the direction from which the voice had come. The figure of a man slowly appeared from the darkness and into the still faint light of the sunrise, separated from me by a foot-wide gap between the two balconies and large wrought iron handrails. He was an older man, a little shorter than myself and dressed in basically the same clothes as me, pyjama shorts and a vest top. In my defence, I had only just woken up, so I would have assumed the same for him if he hadn’t pointed out the length of time he had been observing my new furry companion as it monitored me. Still frozen, I found myself unable to respond in time before he spoke again.
“Didn’t wake you, did I?” he said, “I don’t sleep much these days”.
His words helped calm my nerves and thus I responded in an attempt to seem less startled than I really was. “No, no I just… woke up. Bit of a heavy one last night”.
“Ah right!” the man let out a short and quiet laugh which brought me a little more comfort, “I thought I heard someone struggling with their door quite late, and don’t worry, I was already awake.”
“Right… yeh that was probably me…” I said, “I’m Daniel by the way”, the man seemed pretty harmless and by this point I had regained control of my senses enough to feel I was in a safe space.
“Michael, but everyone calls me Mick,” he stuck his open hand over the rail toward me “good to meet you.” I shook his hand and smiled.
I remember how I felt at that moment; so comfortable and trusting of a man I had met only 30 seconds prior. I’m not sure why I felt this way, but I didn’t question it, it just felt… normal.
I could tell from his accent that he was English, and likely from the south, he actually sounded similar to my dad. “Where’d you fly in from? Been here long?” I asked.
“Flew in from London, must have been, what… 26 years ago now if I recall correctly” he let up a smile along with raised eyebrows as though he’d just surprised himself with the answer.
“Crikey, you must really love it here!” I joked, knowing he likely didn’t actually live at a Disney resort, he probably lived in the US and brought his kids to Disney for the weekend or something.
“That would make my life a hell of a lot easier”, he said “no, permanent residency comes as part of the job”.
This came as a real surprise, I thought about it for a second and recalled that during my research, I found out that all the park staff with permanent residency are provided with purpose built accommodation nearby, it wouldn’t make sense to fill up your hotels with staff.
“What is it that you do, if you don’t mind me asking?” His situation intrigued me, so I continued prodding.
“No, I don’t mind at all” he replied, “Specialist maintenance, mostly for the rides but really anything that Management needs me to look at.
“Specialist?” I enquired “like an engineer?”
“Not quite,” he returned, “I don’t fix things when they break, more preventative maintenance after the parks close… for some reason that qualifies me as a specialist, keeps health and safety from going nuts, important titles make people sound competent I suppose.”.
“Sounds pretty fun,” I remarked, “though it must a bit creepy to work in the park at night, no?” I kept my cool, despite my excitement knowing that this could be my best chance to get some real insight into what goes on behind the scenes.
“Gets me by I guess…” he said “pretty much stuck in it now though so might as well enjoy it…” he went to continue before being interrupted by a beeping sound coming from his room. Mick gestured me to wait, raising his index finger and mouthed “sorry” before hurrying inside, only to appear a few seconds later holding a pager. Whilst returning to his previous position, he examined the pager and the message on it. His expression made it obvious that whatever message he received was inconvenient.
“Sorry pal,” he said as he looked back up toward me, “I’ve been called in, something to sort before the park opens.”
“No worries”, I replied, disappointed “I’m sure I’ll see you around again whilst we’re here”.
“Tell you what,” he quickly snapped into an excited tone “I’ve got some rounds to do during opening hours today, how about you come find me and we’ll talk more then?”
I nodded and smiled as he handed me his business card;
Michael Souris – Maintenance Specialist - Disney Resorts
“I’ll be around ‘Mission: Space’ in Epcot at midday, meet me there” he said before regressing to his room and sliding the balcony door to a close behind him.
I thought about his offer, it would be a bit weird to drag my girlfriend and our neighbours over to meet a random old man I met at stupid o’clock in the morning, just to have a chat. I decided either I would have to leave it and hope I would run into him again at the hotel, or, find some excuse to get away and meet him on my own. I favoured the latter, of course, as I said; this could be my best chance of getting some real information.
We headed downstairs to meet the others for breakfast, by this point I had nothing on my mind other than food, my hangover was getting worse and I was dealing with it on an empty stomach. It’s funny how quickly you can forget about how your body feels when you see something unsettling though, for me it was when we approached the elevator, half-way down the corridor. Kate had already reached it, pressed the button and was now facing me, but she must have seen the gloomy expression on my face because she immediately asked if I was okay. I wasn’t looking at Kate, I was fixated on something down the end of the corridor. Stood in a clean pressed skirt, bright blouse and immaculate suit jacket, the receptionist. She was standing there with the exact same posture as she had the first time we met, with her skinny arm stretched out towards me, though this time her inhuman smile was even wider than before. I quickly diverted my gaze back to Kate, “Yeh… yeh, I’m fine.” I said, probably in the most unconvincing way. She seemed to accept my answer though and looked back down to press the elevator call button again in an attempt to make it arrive quicker. I wrenched my eyeline back to where the horror stood, to a hallway with nothing but a used room service tray on the floor. My heart pounded in my ears and I could feel sweat start to build on the back of my neck. My focus was promptly rebooted by an unusually loud bell as the elevator arrived followed by the doors shuffling open.
On the way to breakfast, we passed the lounge where I spotted the bartender clearing glasses from tables. It was like he knew I was looking at him, when he leaned down to pick up his tray, he spun his head in my direction and waved right at me. Without hesitation, I waved back, though I couldn’t quite manage a smile given what I had just witnessed upstairs. Quickly moving on, we finally made it to the restaurant and found Natasha and Rob sat, already having plates full from the buffet. Somehow no-one had noticed my shaking hands while I had nothing but one bite of a toasted bagel before we headed out to the boardwalk and began our first full day. The boardwalk led us to the path toward Epcot.
I have to say, even now, Disney world is astonishing. It’s innocence is exuberated through the people that visit there and I could see how easy it would be to miss anything out of the ordinary, especially when ordinary is what people come here to escape from.
As we strolled through the park, I had a heavy feeling of being watched, every security guard, ride operator or shop assistant would at some point glance in my direction and if our eyes met most would quickly look away. I could tell at this point that none of it was a coincidence, they knew why I had come here and I felt fear unlike any I had experience before in my life. One particular security guard even started to approach me from across a crowd of guests, but I hurried us away before he could wade through the sea of people. To feel this unsafe on day one was awful, my emotions ran from fear, to anger, back to fear and then eventually I was in survival mode.
I’d made it to midday without getting captured, or arrested, or… whatever. I had to make an excuse to get away from the others and find Mick, although he was technically park staff, I had a feeling that he wasn’t the same as the other ones I had met so far, regardless I had no other choice but to seek him out. Thankfully Kate had asked again if I was feeling okay, and I took the opportunity to separate from my group.
“I’m gonna rest for a while, back at the hotel” I told them “I’ll join you later when I’ve gotten rid of this jet lag.”. Although they seemed disappointed, I knew their surroundings were enough to lighten the mood shortly after my departure.
Now alone, I could move freely through the park and thanks to my printed maps I found Mission: Space in no time. Mick was standing behind a chain link fence, having just finished working in one of those freestanding electrical enclosures and putting the gate’s padlock back in place. I jogged over to the fence and called his name “Mick!”, without turning around he gestured me to come around the side of the fence and join him. I definitely wasn’t allowed to be there but there was something comforting about Mick and having a fence between me and any pursuers was a bonus at this point. I found a small gap in the chain-links and made my way over to him, a thousand questions, or rather pleas for help ran through my mind as I approached.
“Mick…” I began, in a worried tone. He stopped me before I continued “Not here” he said.
Instinctively, I followed as he led me deeper into the park’s off limit areas. I started questioning my judgement of trusting this man, but there was nothing that could stop me now, I had to stay with him. After a few minutes of walking, we reached a small administration building, the sign on the door read “Authorised Personnel Only”, Mick swiped his key-card and we entered. Thankfully there were no personnel inside, it seemed to be a standard maintenance room, windowless, with server cages on one side and janitorial equipment stacked-up on the other. Mick stopped and turned to face me, “We’ve got some catching up to do…” he said with what felt like an inappropriate smile on his face “and no one knows you’re here so you can relax, only my key works for this room.”
“Mick, I think their coming for me! What am I supposed to do?” I barked at him, guessing that he knew what was happening, undoubtedly more than I did.
“Unfortunately, yes. Not much you can do about that now and you’ve done well to avoid them so far.” Mick was explaining things so casually at first, completely disregarding the horror film that I had found myself in before his expression became sour, and his voice turned to that of disappointment “There’s something you should know…” he continued, I was still frozen with fear “you can’t leave, the park I mean.”
“Why?” a sense of anger started to build in me “are you asking me or telling me?” I added.
Before he could respond, there was a knock at the door that we had come through. “Sh*t” Mick whispered and glared at me with a look I hadn’t seen before, serious, and clearly calculating the situation “hide quickly.”
Without hesitation I scoured the room for somewhere to hide, as per his direct order. Around the side of the server cage there was a small desk underneath which I could just about fit. A bulky plastic office chair was on hand and I pulled it in front to cover me. Seconds later, Mick had opened the door to a tall security guard, neither of them said a word as he entered the room. Mick remained silent and I watched them both through a small horizontal gap between two of the server hard drives. The guard who was already holding something in one hand, continued to say nothing and lifted his other hand, palm facing upward in expectation of receiving something. Mick reached to his belt and unclipped his key chain, handing it to the guard without question who then turned and began walking to the server cage. I stealthily retreated my head back under the desk, thankfully not making a sound. The guard’s footstep matched the volume of my heavily beating heart as I listened to him get closer to the cage. Using one of the keys, he entered to where the server equipment stood and was now only a few feet from me. A few minutes felt like hours as he fiddled with the equipment, “How long?” Mick asked the guard sheepishly but received no response. My sense of relief was overwhelming when the guard finally exited the cage, locking it behind him. I remained hidden as to not risk accidentally making any sound. I heard the keys being exchanged once more then the door handle squeaked as the guard made his way out from the room. I brought my head out from under the desk to check he was definitely leaving but my view was now blocked, there was now a new hard drive in place of the gap I had been spying through. The door closed and Mick quickly made his was to the desk, grabbing my hand and helping me back to my feet.
“What was that? Tell me what’s happening, please!” I pleaded.
“Don’t worry,” Mick responded “I’m here to help you I promise.”
I believed him, after all he hadn’t given me away to the guard but taking into consideration their lack of communication the whole time I knew there was something else going on and Mick was deeply involved.
He took too long to say anything else so I barged passed him and stood in front of the cage door staring at the stack that the guard had been interfering with. My gut wrenched and my eyes widened in terror as I read what was written on the new hard drive: ‘Green. D’. I couldn’t look away, my brain was still trying to process what it had just read, my own name.
“Stay here!” I heard from the doorway, my neck twinged as I was so fast to turn and see Mick now closing the main door behind him and leaving me inside. I sprinted toward the door which closed before I could get there, my body crashed into it and I fell backward onto the floor. Immediately I got up to my knees and lunged for the door handle but it was no use, I was trapped and there was no other way out. I know I barely knew him, but the betrayal I felt when Mick left was harrowing.
So here I am, all caught up, waiting for what I guess is my inevitable demise. I don’t honestly know how long I’ve been in here now, physically it feels like maybe 10 or 12 hours I’ve been trapped, but I’ve since discovered something that makes me doubt my own perception. There’s an old analogue clock that’s hung up on the wall above the desk, maybe it’s broken but it keeps speeding up, slowing down and even sometimes coming to a complete stop. If I trusted that clock, I couldn’t even count how many times the hour hand has gone round the whole way. The desk has a PC which I guess belongs to Mick, in the classic old-man fashion there is a sticky note with the entire login details written out and stuck to the bezel of the desktop monitor. Username: M-SOURIS. Password: curiouscat123. It has a plain windows set-up - although the time and date are missing. I’ve managed to login to reddit but all social media sites are otherwise blocked. I’m not sure why my first instinct was to record all of this, I’ve just had an idea to check the date and time on Google, hold on…
Today is supposed to be 6th September 2021, Google says 25th April 2022…