I never thought a simple childhood passion would become a living nightmare. Growing up, I was an avid fan of cartoons. My room was filled with posters, action figures, and DVDs of my favorite shows. But as I grew older, my obsession with animated characters never waned. Little did I know that my innocent love for cartoons would lead me into a world of terror.
It all began when I was 19. I was living alone in an apartment by myself. Broke college kid. One day I saw a garage sale and thought to go look. While I was there, I discovered a mysterious DVD. The cover depicted a cheerful cartoon character, one I had never seen before, with a bright smile and wide, innocent eyes. I was feeling nostalgic that day, and was bored with the cable television so I purchased it and rushed home to watch.
The cartoon started off like any other. A colorful world filled with singing birds, anthropomorphic animals, and cheerful music. I chuckled at the amusing antics of the characters. But soon, something felt off. The storyline took a darker turn, characters began to whisper ominous messages to each other, and the once-jovial music turned into eerie, discordant notes.
I shook my head, thinking it was just a strange episode and continued to watch, eventually getting on my phone and getting distracted with something else.
Then it happened.
I was half-paying attention to the cartoon while i was on my phone, when I swear the main character, the one with the innocent eyes, suddenly turned to the screen and addressed me directly. His voice, once so sweet, now dripped with malice. “I see you,” he whispered. I laughed it off, thinking I was imagining things, then a couple seconds later, it happened again. “I see you, Charles.” It knew my name. His eyes bore into my soul.
My heart pounded, and I yanked the power cord from the TV, plunging the room into darkness. I felt safer with the t.v. off, thinking I had stopped it, i was wrong. Suddenly, a faint glow illuminated the corner of the room, and there it was, the cartoon character, reappearing on the television screen.
It was surreal, the creature had somehow turned the t.v. back on, it was back. But it wasn’t innocent or joyful; it was a grotesque mockery, with sharp, jagged teeth and eyes that glowed with a malevolent light. It grinned, a sinister facsimile of the character I had seen earlier. “You can’t get rid of me that easy”. It said, its voice sounding like a mix of t.v. static and jumbled up human voices.
Before I could react, the character emerged from the television set. It lunged at me, claws outstretched, and its mouth opened impossibly wide. I stumbled backward, knocking over furniture in a desperate attempt to escape. The thing pursued me relentlessly, its unholy laughter echoing through the room.
I finally burst through the door, fleeing into the night, my heart racing and my mind struggling to comprehend the horrors I had witnessed. I knew I couldn’t return home; that thing had invaded my sanctuary, and there was no safety there anymore.
As I wandered the streets, haunted by the malevolent creature from the world of cartoons, I realized that my once-beloved passion had become my greatest nightmare. It wasn’t just a DVD; it was a gateway to a nightmare realm, where animated innocence twisted into monstrous malevolence. And it would stop at nothing to claim me as its own, a living character in its demented storyline.
I had lost it, and was now wandering to the local police station, trying to come up with some way for the cops to believe my story, when I looked down at my leg and realized I was bleeding. The creature had bitten me while I was escaping.
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It’s not healing. The bite. In fact, I think its getting worse. Its been days now and I cant seem to remember where I’m going… I think I’m gonna lie down for a while….
The police found me. They took me back to the station. Of course they didn’t believe me. I don’t know what good it would do if they did.
They say I keep passing out, but i don’t remember… Its all so foggy…
They say I have some kind of bi polar disorder… bullshit. I know what I saw. I…
They’re dead. I fell asleep, then the next thing I know they’re all dead. They locked me up in a cell to “keep me in check” Now I’m trapped. Theres a t.v. outside my cell though, so I can at least be entertained while I wait for help.
No help has come yet… I don’t know how long its been, I’m hungry. This cartoon is pretty entertaining though…