When we were kids, most of us always did something that would be considered “wrong” whether it was pushing your sibling off of their bike, throwing rocks at your friends on the playground, or maybe it was cheating on your math test. The point is, we all made mistakes, and I was no exception. I’ve hit kids with sticks, I’ve tripped my friends on purpose, I’ve even chipped my little brother’s tooth with a basketball at one point, but it’s not my fault. I never acted like that unless there was a reason for me to initiate that response. For example my little brother David, blamed me for not taking out the trash when it was his turn to do it, that is why I chipped his tooth.
Fast forward to last year. Me and my brother, who was 10 at the time, were sitting on the couch after school on a Friday. Our mom and dad walked into the living room and told us that they were going to go out for the evening and instructed me to watch over David and left us $20 for pizza if we got hungry. Being the 16 year old that I was, I obviously pocketed the change and began to text my friends to see if they would like to meet up at the local fast food joint and hang out. That’s when David suddenly gasped. I looked up from my phone to see David with the biggest grin I’ve ever seen on anybody’s face. “What?” I said, confused. “I have an idea!” David yelled. “What is it?”. David stood up and was practically dancing his way over to me as he said “Let’s go to that new restaurant in town!”. “Ziggy’s?” I replied. “Yeah!!” David yelled even louder. “Yeah nice try, that place looks like it is for 7 year olds.” “Oh pleaseeee” David cried. “What is your problem kid, mom took you there like last week, I want to go hangout with my friends.” David began to get emotional as he said one last time “Please.” “Jesus Christ David, fine. I’ll take you to Zippy’s or whatever the hell it’s called.” We climbed in my car and made our way to the restaurant.
When we finally arrived at Ziggy’s it began to rain outside. “Strange” I thought to myself “It wasn’t even supposed to be cloudy today, let alone rain.” David and I walked into the restaurant and as soon as I opened the doors, the foul odor of children, boogers, and cheap pizza hit me straight in the face. “Well that’s appealing” I said sarcastically under my breath, David didn’t seem to mind though. His face lit up with joy as he sprinted inside. “David wait up” I called but he didn’t listen. He ran straight over to the little ball pit they had towards the back of the store and jumped in like he was an olympic diver. Ziggy’s was a strange place, It was sort of a fast food restaurant where you went up to the counter to order your food, then you would go sit down at one of the many tables while your kids could go play in the ball pit, or the big jungle gym type thing they had, or they could sit with you and be amused by the big walking mascots they had.
There were 3 mascots at Ziggy’s. Lancey, who was this guy dressed in a big yellow rabbit costume. Missy, who was a lady dressed in a big white dog costume. And of course Ziggy who was a big stupid looking animatronic white chicken that stood on top of the stage. All Ziggy would do is stand on stage and ‘sing’ dumb made up songs, while encouraging the people to go and order more chicken and pizza. I immediately sat down and put my head in my hands. ‘What am I doing here? How did I let David convince me to come here? I should just leave David here and go hang out with my friends.” I thought to myself when suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder.
“Hey buddy, are you doing alright?” I look up to see Missy, the white dog mascot looking at me. “Yeah I’m doing fine, thanks.” “Can I get you anything?” she replied. “No I’m fine snoopy, thanks.” with extra emphasis on the “thanks”. She walked away without saying another word and I sat there in silence. Then suddenly there were two hands slamming onto the table. It startled the hell out of me and I looked up, it was David and he looked awful. “What is the matter with you?” He sat there panting like a dog. “Water…Drink…Thirsty..Help.” “Goddamn kid, here, sit down. I’ll go order our food, what do you want?”. He sat there for a moment still panting then only replied with “Chicken strips”. “Man” I thought “What the hell is going on inside of those jungle gyms?” I walked up to the counter to order my food. Some lady who looked to be in her late 20’s was working the register. “Hi, welcome to Ziggy’s, what can I get you?” “Yeah can I get a number 4 with a Coke and can I also get a number 2 with a diet coke please?.” “Will that be all?” “Yep” I replied “That’ll be $14.62” “What the fuck?” I thought to myself “$14.62 for some frozen chicken strips and a hamburger they probably threw in the microwave? That is outrageous.” I paid for my food and sat down while they made my order. David was nowhere to be seen. “That’s weird, he looked like he was about to keel over a minute ago, and now he’s gone… He must really love that jungle gym.” I muttered to myself while giving a slight chuckle.
I sat there for the next 10 minutes waiting for my food, and in that time the restaurant began to clear out slowly. I didn’t blame them, there’s not much to this place. As I sat there growing impatient, I finally heard them calling out for my order. “About time.” I said. I went and grabbed my food then sat down and waited for David. “Where is he? He’s been gone for probably 15 to 20 minutes.” I thought… It was getting late, it was almost 7:30 and there was still no sight of David. Employees were cleaning tables, The people in the kitchen were washing their dishes for the night and there was still no David, Where could he have been? I began to get impatient with him. “It has been over an hour since I’ve seen him and he still hasn’t come back?” I finally decided to say “screw it, I’m gonna go find this kid.” As I began my walk to the jungle gym/ ball pit area I was thinking “David really made me drive all the way over here and spend $15 dollars on food that he isn’t gonna eat, and waste my time?” I wasn’t having it. When I found David I was going to drag him by his collar out of the restaurant and bring him home, I didn’t care how much fun he was having. After all, it’s not like it’s my fault. He was the one that wanted to waste my time.
I began my search for him in the tunnels of this jungle gym. If you are familiar with the ones they have at some McDonald’s or Burger King, you would know that they usually have lots of tunnels for kids to crawl through, lots of slides and nets for the kids to play in. The one here at Ziggy’s was similar to those but much larger. As I was crawling through this massive structure shouting for David I went through a tunnel that had one of those clear windows that kids could use to look out into the restaurant, as I passed by I caught a glimpse of something.
It was David. He was standing out in the party area talking to Lancey the big rabbit. “Oh you have to be shitting me.” I said. I quickly exited the structure, completely blinded by rage and I began shouting “David where the fu-” and then I stopped. There was nothing. There was nobody. There was not a single soul in the restaurant, besides me. “Where did everyone go? I was only in there for 5 minutes max, you mean to tell me everybody left within that time?” I was absolutely stunned. I went to find an employee to help me in my search for my little brother but there was genuinely nobody in this restaurant. I began to get worried, I thought to myself “What if something happened to him? Did someone take him? How do I explain this to my mom? She can’t be mad at me though, after all it’s not my fault.” and then it hit me.
Outside. David is outside, he has to be. Maybe he saw all the employees closing for the night and he went outside to wait for me, as to not be in their way. I briskly walked outside to see…Nothing. There was nobody out there. My car was the only car in the entire parking lot. At this point it was pouring outside, there was no way David could be out here standing in the rain. I began to head back inside to continue my search for him, but the door was locked. It had locked itself behind me. “Shit” I said, I began banging on the doors to get David’s attention if he was in there but he wasn’t. I didn’t know what to do. I decided I would try the back door, that would’ve been my only other way in. I ran around the building and got to the back door.
Luckily for me they were unlocked. I walked back into the restaurant and began to call for David…No response. I walked to the stage in the restaurant and sat down on it, Next to the big animatronic Ziggy who was frozen in his current position. I assume he was turned off while I was in the jungle gym. As I sat there, clueless as to what to do next, it hit me. “The bathroom. Holy shit how could I be this stupid, David is probably in the bathroom!”I ran down the hallway and entered the bathroom and I called out “David? Are you here?” No response. I looked beneath the stalls and saw it. David’s shoes. I went over to his stall to knock on the door, when I knocked, it opened. His stall door opened to reveal his shoes. Just his shoes. No David. At this moment I heard a laugh from the next stall over. It wasn’t David’s laugh. It sounded like an older man who had gone insane. It was the most disturbed laugh I could ever imagine. As soon as I heard it I bolted out of the bathroom. I flung open the bathroom door, and at that moment I heard the man’s stall door fling open and hit the bathroom wall. I ran so fast out of the restaurant without a second thought.
I sprinted through the rain and ran to my car, quickly hopped inside and started the car. I sat there for a moment to see what would happen. Nothing. Nobody came through the doors chasing me, David didn’t come outside laughing hysterically because he just pranked me, there was nothing. Until I saw it. On the right side of the building there he was. Lancey, the big rabbit. Peeking from around the corner, holding something. It was a hand. David’s hand. He was holding it in such a way that made it look like the rest of the arm was behind the wall. I felt a moment of relief. “David is okay” I thought, and then he showed me the rest of it. He began to reveal the rest of the hand, then the wrist, then the elbow, then the shoulder and then it stopped. There was nothing connected to the shoulder. I then realized I was looking at David’s severed arm. I immediately threw the car into reverse and peeled out of there. I called the police on the drive home and told them what I had seen. Then I called my parents. They thought it was a sick joke, until they got home that night and saw cop cars parked at our house.
They confirmed to us that David had been murdered at Ziggy’s. He was found “Torn to pieces” in the stall next to the one I had found his shoes in. Ziggy’s was permanently shut down after the incident and an immediate investigation was opened to find David’s killer. He was never found. My parents asked me everyday after the event “Why did you take him there?”, “Why weren’t you watching him closer?” ‘Why did you let this happen?” and I would always reply with “It’s not my fault.” and that’s because it’s not my fault…Right?