Hommer.wmv

My friend passed away recently. His will said I was to get his journal. Most of it ended up being sketches he did for The New Yorker, but the last two pages were about a video he once saw called Hommer.wmv. Most of those pages described what happened in the video.

"April 19;

I downloaded a video called Hommer.wmv today. It had a few errors, but I managed to fix them. The episode started with a logo that looked like something from The Simpsons. It was badly drawn, too. The clouds were jagged and had straight edges. The logo itself said 'Hommer Simpson' in purple and black text. The latter half of the Simpsons title theme started, but ended up cutting off.

After the intro, it showed the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. The outside was busy as always. After a few seconds, it cut to Mr. Burns and Smithers, with Burns sitting at his desk. They were watching Homer, who was being lazy, through the security cameras. Homer was staring at a donut-shaped button. After some time of this, Mr. Burns spoke. 'Who's that man staring at the button?' Smithers replied with, 'That's Mr. Simpson, sir.' The camera went to a close-up of Burns saying, 'Homer, you're fired.' I thought it was a bit out-of-character, but I decided to think about it later.

It cut to the Simpson's house, then to Lisa's door. Sounds of a saxphone being played came from inside the room. Homer stood in front of the door while thinking, 'Lisa, stop playing the saxophone. It's too loud!' He showed realistic feelings of anger and sadness.

It suddenly cut to the Simpsons sitting at the kitchen table. A pig head was positioned in the middle of the table. Homer, with some anger, said, 'Marge, where is my beer?' Lisa was arguing with Marge, saying, 'I don't want to eat pig!' Marge replied with, 'Then you can have some cold soup!' While Marge began pouring the cold soup, she said, 'Homer, Bart got bad grades at school.' Homer said, with an angry tone, 'Bart, you're my son. Why did you get bad grades at school?' Bart replied with, 'Eat my shorts.' Homer almost strangled his son before saying, 'Bart, I hate you.'

It cut to Homer crying in his room. The sobs sounded realistic. There was a knock at the door, followed by Bart's voice. 'Hey Homer, when are you going to Moe's?' Homer looked up and replied, 'Soon.'

After this, the file is too corrupt to continue. I'll need to fix it more later."

The second page is incomplete.

"April 20;

I watched Hommer.wmv again today. Oddly, it started where I left off. Bart was, like usual, prank-calling Moe's tavern. When the phone was picked up, Bart said, 'Is Hommer there? Hommer Simp-' Moe cut him off. 'Listen, you. Stop prank-calling me. Hommer is not here!' In a twist of fate, Homer entered Moe's tavern. He thought something, but all the words were reversed. I reversed them later and it turns out Homer said, 'I wish I could have a donue with Lenny and Carl. They hate me now.' After a few seconds, Moe finally said, 'I'll get you drunk. Where's the money?' Homer shook his head and replied with, 'I just want food." Moe's mouth began moving as if he was saying something, but the sound of his voice was muted. Eventually, Homer picked up the TV remote and turned on the TV. It turned on to show Krusty the Clown just as he pointed a gun at his head. The channel changed, but the scene changed so fast I couldn't tell what the next channel was. Homer was now in Maggie's Room. After a couple of minutes with the sound of buzzing flies, it showed Maggie in her crib. She had apparently died. Blandly, Homer said, 'DOH! Maggie died in her sleep.' Afterward, the file ended."

I watched Hommer.wmv after reading the last two pages of the journal. The description was...overexaggerated, to say the least.

SPONGEBOB MIST SUICIDE LOST HIDDEN LOST TAPE MOUSE.avi

ONCE IWUS MAKIN A EPISDE AND STAN CAME AND SEID

SPUNGEBAB SUXS!!!! AIR THIS ISTEAD!!!!!!!'

N HE GAVE MEH A FLOOPY DISC OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! I POOT IT IN MAH COPOOTER

AND THEN MAH COPOOTER SEID DOO NAWUHT AIR DIS AND I WUS LIEK NO!!!!!111 SO I CLCKED ON TEH AVI FIUL N ET CAEM OWN AND I SAHW TEH TILE CERD N IT SEID

SPONGEBOB MIST SUICIDE LOST HIDDEN LOST TAPE MOUSE.avi

IT BUGUN WITH SPUNGEBAB SAING HEH HAETES HES LIF N WAHNTS TUH COHMET SUEASIDE

SUH DEN HEH WUNT UN TUH THU RED MIST AND HE LIEKEDIT N HEH STEYD N DEAHR 4 2394839449037589479857932 HOURS N I WUS LIEK OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AND DEN HEH FLUH TUH TEH MUUN N DEID UH HOARABULL PAENFOOL DEFF WIDH BWOOD N GOOTS EVEWEWEH

N IHT SEID TEH EENSD

N I WUS LIEK PMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Red Mist

(This is a sequel to Squidward's Suicide, so if you haven't read that yet, read it!)

Red Mist is a controversial real-life bootleg tape featuring an unaired episode of Spongebob Squarepants. Like the long-lost but recently discovered "Suicide Mouse" tape, Red Mist was purportedly created by a now imprisoned Scottish animator for the series who intended to pass the tape off as the season four premiere episode and featured the death of Squidward.

Red Mist begins with Squidward preparing to practice his clarinet in his room as Spongebob and Patrick play merrily outside. Squidward wraps his mouth around the clarinet and is only able to play one note before being interrupted by someone knocking on the door. He walks down and opens the door and discovers that a traveling salesman is at his door.

The salesman, a giant Scottish fish, asks if he could have a moment of Squidward's time. Squidward tells him that he isn't interested and slams the door in the man's face, walking back to his room. The salesman begins knocking again, and Squidward opens the door angrily. The salesman, looking very upset, tells Squidward that "the red mist is coming" and precedes to walk off, confusing Squidward. Squidward walks back to his room and finally begins playing the clarinet.

After performing several off-key notes, Spongebob and Patrick begin laughing outside, interrupting Squidward yet again. Squidward walks over to the window and shouts at the two, telling them he needs to practice for a concert he will be performing at. Spongebob and Patrick apologize with tears in their eyes and walk back to their houses. Squidward, unsure of himself, walks back over and begins playing his clarinet again, this time uninterrupted. The scene then fades to red over the course of twelve seconds.

Perhaps by glitch, the same scene is repeated once more which is somewhat common in rough cuts of animation. However, this time, the eyes have been replaced with new, more realistic eyes with red pupils, clearly not real but more realistic than CGI or animated. The audio is also completely absent from this scene, save for occasional clicks.

After the repeat of the previous scene, a new scene begins with the same red eyes, but at the theater where Squidward is playing his clarinet. The frames in the animation skip every four seconds, but the sound remains synced. After an unruly performance of a song he dubbed "Red Mist", Spongebob and Patrick are seen in the crowd booing Squidward, very uncommon for them.

The scene pans to reveal the same Scottish salesman sitting next to them, also booing, as Squidward walks back to his home with his head in his tentacles. What's odd is that the scene actually shows him walking to his house, with nothing happening in the background, for three minutes and fifty seconds before abruptly cutting to red for another twenty seconds, just as he arrives at his house.

A new scene appears, back to the original cartoon eyes, with Squidward sitting in a chair in his room that night, with a blank look on his face for roughly thirty seconds before starting to sob softly. Again, the audio is completely missing for most of the scene, until the sobbing begins. This is when the sound of a slight breeze through a forest can be heard in the background. It also begins very mildly zooming in on Squidward's face, only noticeable if you compare ten seconds of frames side by side. The sound of him sobbing can suddenly be heard, very loudly and severe as the screen twitches in on itself briefly. The salesman's laughing can also be heard echoing in the background.

After another thirty seconds, the screen blurs and twitches violently and a single frame flashes over the screen. Upon pausing it exactly on the frame, the viewer can see a real-life photo of a deceased six year-old boy laying in the forest in his underwear, whose face has been mangled, eye has been popped, and stomach cut open with entrails laying beside him. Next to him, the shadow of the photographer is clearly visible with part of the photographer's hand appearing to the right of the screen.

After this photograph is seen, it cuts back to Squidward sobbing, much louder than before with what appears to be blood running from his eyes instead of tears and the sound of the salesman still heard. The sound of the wind in the forest is also played at a much louder volume, but now with the sound of branches snapping and the screams of a young boy heard. After twenty more seconds, another single frame appears, this time of an eight year-old girl in the forest laying on her stomach in a pool of blood, with her back cut open and entrails piled on top. The shadow of the photographer is also visible.

The scene reverts back to Squidward, now with the same realistic red eyes from before, completely silent and no longer sobbing. The sound of the forest can no longer be heard. Another three seconds later and it cuts back to the sobbing, this time piercing loud and with the sound of the forest heard. The screams of both a young boy and young girl can be heard mixed together as the song "Amazing Grace" plays on both the clarinet and the bagpipes. During this, seven frames are seen in black and white of the boy from the first photograph laying in the woods. Over the course of the seven frames, the hand of the photographer reaches in and grabs the boy's entrails, as his remaining eye focuses on the man's hand and even blinks once.

This cuts back to Squidward again, this time staring at the viewer as the sound of the salesman echoes "DO IT" and "the red mist is coming" repeatedly. After forty seconds of this, the camera quickly pans out to reveal Squidward holding a realistic gun, looking as though it were Photoshopped into the scene. Squidward lifts the barrel into his mouth and fires, with blood shooting out from his head and then the screen cut to static.

On November 7, 2004, after the initial animation of the storyboards were completed in Fife, Scotland, the tape was delivered to the lead animators and sound editors at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California during the middle of the night. The tape was taken into the editing room where it was watched by said animators and editors, as well as two sixteen year-old interns. The tape, which was supposed to feature the rough cut of "Fear of a Krabby Patty", instead began with a title card using the name "Red Mist". While thrown off at first, the animators continued watching, discovering the tape had been heavily tampered with as some sort of cruel joke.

As a result, three animators (Barry O'Neill, Grant Kirkland, Jr. and Alyssa Simpson) were sent to the hospital, one editor retired (Fernando de la Peña) and one intern (Jackie McMullen) committed suicide. The tape was sent to the police, who determined that it had been made by Andrew Skinner, a disgruntled animator from Fife, Scotland, who has since been charged with nine counts of murder, including the murder of the two children seen in the tape. Oddly enough, after going through the data on the VHS, police discovered that the last edit to the tape had been made exactly twenty four seconds before it was watched by the Spongebob staff.

One copy of the tape was made (before police confiscated the original) by Chaz Agnew, writer of this article and the sole surviving intern from that night. Agnew has made various attempts to distribute copies of Skinner's tape and hopes to secure clearance rights to release it on several online auction websites soon.

The video below is to a snippet from the pentultimate scene of the episode. It shouldn't be watched by children or the faint of heart.

(There's another video on the same channel (here) that shows the actual Red Mist tape, and another scene from the tape here.)

Cry Baby Lane

In 1999, I was twenty-two and I had just graduated from Emerson University in downtown Boston, majoring in Screenwriting, specifically in cartoons and children’s programming. My debt was pretty bad, so when Nickelodeon Studios offered me an internship at the studio in California, I accepted immediately. I jumped at the chance to get away from dead end job at Benjamin Franklin tour guide.

Many of you ask to see Cry Baby Lane but if you want to see the original Cry Baby Lane, you never will, even if Nickelodeon somehow consents to releasing it to you. You won’t be seeing what was shown on TV, and you sure as fuck won’t be seeing the original that Lauer made.

I don’t even think Nickelodeon HAS the original cut of the movie anymore, and if they do it’s in only back-up copies; if the back up copies exist they must be locked away in some vault along with all the deleted episodes of Ren And Stimpy and the never-before-mentioned episodes of Spongebob Squarepants. I’m pretty sure the director, Peter Lauer, has the original copy and it’s probably on his mantle next to his snuff films, that creepy ass fuck.

Anyway, I was hired in 1999 and immediately I was put on a creative production team for the movie Cry Baby lane. It would be almost a year before the movie was due to be broadcast; all in all, it was a pretty low effort kind of thing. There were only four people on the creative team and I was the only steady one; Lauer would replace them on a whim. He said it was to keep it fresh. I thought it was because he was hiding something...and I was right.

We had a little over a year to make a made for TV movie - not just to write it and cast it but to film it and get it edited. Lauer didn’t work fast at all; after the first three weeks we only had the ideas for the first 15 minutes of a 85 minute movie. Lauer, even at this point, was a weirdo. He was tall and lanky, and he carried himself awkwardly - he stuttered when he talked and sometimes, when you were hunched over a piece of paper during those endless ‘brainstorming sessions,’ you’d look up and you'd catch him staring at you, smiling.

He’d look away when you caught his eye, and I guess that was the creepiest part; he always looked like he had something to hide. The brainstorm sessions, at first, were alright. We got the premise of it down pat: two bothers unleash a demon and they get into mischief trying to get everything back to normal. Not exactly daytime Emmy stuff, but you know, it was an alright start. I thought the movie should be goofy and spooky, kind of like a Courage the Cowardly dog sort of deal. However, from the very beginning, Lauer made it clear that he wanted the film to be as scary as possible. He didn’t want it to be cheap thrills, with a good wholesome ending. He wanted to push it farther than Are You Afraid of The Dark ever dreamed of...and I guess he did.

It was about 3 weeks into production when I first noticed something: Lauer had the absolute power of persuasion over everyone else in the creative production team. No one fought him and by the third week, he was already suggesting some morbid things. I remember he said he wanted the the little brother to die halfway through the movie, getting hit with a dump truck. I immediately shot it down. I was the only one who said anything, and it stayed that was until I left the studio entirely and never came back.

At first, cannibalism other fucked up shit was kept to jokes and tasteless comments but as time went on, it became more and more overt. I’d give him an idea idea (which most of the time he would end up using) like “How about the movie starts with a morbid undertaker who reads them stories,” to which he’d reply, “Yeah...and then he can cut them up into little pieces and force-feed them to his dog!” He made those jokes a few times in the early stages. Then he got serious.

He’d stand up like he was Jesus or something, clear his throat loudly, and proclaim his idea. I’d be the only one to shoot it down. Every-fucking-time.

One day near the end of our brainstorming sessions, Lauer cleared his voice and stood up. We all fell silent, and looked at him, like we normally would. He stood up, and said,

“Gentlemen and females, I have an idea.”

I remember what he did - he paused, and looked right at me as he said,

“The story will revolve around the legend of a pair of Siamese Twins. Have you ever heard of the Donner Party?”

Everyone nodded, except for me. I didn’t like where the conversation was going.

“They ate themselves when it got cold. They ate each other.”

Everyone nodded again. I closed my eyes.

“What would Siamese Twins do if they had nothing to eat? Would one wait until the other twin dies, then consume her own sister’s flesh? Would they claw out each other's eyes until one of them died, then dine upon them like a vulture tearing at the skin of a dead deer? I do not know. It is interesting indeed.”

I didn’t know what the fuck I was hearing. I opened my eyes and looked around the room; no one was fucking moving. Everyone’s eyes were on Lauer except for mine, and when I looked at him, he was still staring at me.

“Children like violence, they revel in it. Children like to be scared. So we’ll scare them, wont we, Jonny?” He leaned over the table, getting pretty damn close to my face. His breath smelt like decaying shit. I stared back at him.

“I think your fucked up, to be honest.”

He smiled, then backed away.

“Oh, I’m fucked up alright, but you have to be fucked up to survive in this cutthroat world!” His grin expanded.

“Literally. Right now, I’m going to show you some pictures that will spark some of your imaginations.”

He got up, and locked the door from the inside.

I stood up, and said, “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Let’s not make any...errors in judgement, Jonathan. Sit down.”

“No-”

“Sit.”

For some reason, I did; Lauer pulled out one of those shitty overhead projectors. He turned on the switch and he speak-shouted, in a unusually high and semi-frantic voice,

“This is the fucking MUSE we NEED to CONTINUE with THIS PRO-FUCKING-DUCTION!

THIS IS WHAT EVERY CHILD SHOULD SEE.”

His eyes bulged in his head.

He put the image down on the glass surface of the overhead.

It was silent.

The image was in black and white, but it was grainy. I could vaguely make out a boy lying on a brick floor, his arms cut off and his bloody little nub black dots. The only thing that was clear was his face. He was bleeding from the mouth.

Lauer almost threw the paper off the overhead, slamming down another one.

It was a zoomed-in shot of the boy's face. It was in color. The blood trickled from his open mouth onto the brick floor, his eyes shut, grimy blood underneath his eyebrows and eyelashes.

Then, his eyes opened, and I screamed. No one else in the fucking room did, and it died in infancy, the shrillness ringing in the air.

The pupils were completely black. The rest of the eye was normal.

The longer I stared, the more the eyes opened, widening and widening untill it looked like the skin above his eyebrows and eye sockets was going to rip in half.

Then they started to bleed. Blood started as a trickle, and I swear to god I could hear it. More, now it was like a full blown stream. More. More, until the brick on the floor was a lake of blood. I could hear it, like I was hiking and I came across a stream, and now I could smell the kid. I could fucking smell his rot.

I leaned underneath the table and vomited. When I rose back up, the images were gone. Everyone else in the room was expressionless. Lauer turned on the lights.

“You may go,” he said, unlocking the door.

I walked through those fucking doors, and I never came back.

This happened near the end of the brainstorming process and by the time I left the casting was done and the script was almost fully written. They were desperately behind schedule; I think Lauer planned it that way, so there wouldn’t be time for proper editing. I never watched the real thing when it aired, but I heard from a friend who was working at the editing department that they had to cut a good 15-20 minutes of ‘disturbing’ footage from the film before it was fit to be released, and it was only fit to be released. They didn’t have enough time to check the footage frame by frame.

I guess he got his wish, unless they cut every single scene that had the pictures in them. Every child watching Crybaby Lane has an unconscious memory of those pictures, and I weep for them, I really do; they fucked me up, and as I write this to you, it will be last thing I’ll ever write before I slit my throat and before blood spatters all over this fucking computer screen.

There’s something I should tell you first, though.

Early on, Lauer posed an idea of the two brothers capturing a squirrel, putting said squirrel in a jar, and slowly drowning it before filling the jar with sand and dropping it into the bottom of a pond. Soon after this was suggested, Sandy from Spongebob Squarepants appeared in ‘Tea at The Treedome.’

Lauer also suggested, in one scene of the movie, for a man with a ‘squid-like-nose’ to take off his pants in front of the two boys and rape them off camera, but heavily implied. Squidward soon appeared as a major character in Spongebob Squarepants.

It was suggested that the two be stepbrothers, forced to live in the same house after the first one’s mom was found dead in a shallow grave, her body heavily cannibalized by her own husband, a local weatherman. A show with the vaguely premise, Drake and Josh, started in 2004, and the step-father is indeed a weatherman.

Lauer also suggested the younger brother have a dog house in which he keeps various animal fetuses incased in acid that he regularly uses to poison his mother to have sex with his abusive stepfather. As Told By Ginger debuted soon after.

A man who captures the soles of children in a vacuum cleaner and sends them to hades? Danny Phantom.

A robot who goes insane on the two brothers, kills one of them wears his skin, pretending to be the dead brother at highschool? My Life As a Teenage Robot.

The list goes on and on. Nickelodeon knows, and they’re continuing the legacy of Lauer, sometimes subtly, and sometimes overtly. And there’s nothing you and I can do about it.

That creepy-ass fuck.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Wheelie Breakers

I still remember that day around a year ago, the day that I had gone onto eBay. Around that time, a game not set for US release was coming out in Japan, so what I needed was a Japanese system; I’m terrible at modding things so I don’t even try.

Going to the best site that I can come up with, eBay, I went online to find a good priced Japanese Wii. As I went through the auctions, everything seemed to be a bit too pricey to me until I came across one that came across my eyes one that peaked my interest.

What I came across was a little more expensive (an estimate of ¾ more if I recall), more than the cheapest that I came across. Along with the Wii came two Wiimotes, a nun chuck, a classic controller, and 20+ games, most that I couldn‘t make out as they were strewn about. Now, like anyone else I was suspicious as I checked out his profile; it even said he had a 100% positive feed back.

Thinking back now, I shouldn’t have done it, but I remember leaning back in my chair thinking it over. “It sounds a little fishy,” I said to my self, but in the end curiosity won over me. I went over to my “fun” funds to check if I had any to waste. Seeing that I did, I went back to my computer and went to auction; oddly, I was the only one bidding, despite the time being almost up.

Upon winning the auction, I proceded to the check out and after that all that was left was to play the waiting game (I always lost that damn game). A couple of days had gone by and as I went to my email to clean out spam, I noticed an email from my auctioneer, which is odd as I don’t usually get that from many people. I opened it up, and began to read.

To XXXXXX

Thank you for buying my product, I have been wanting to get rid of it for a long time. I’ve been putting it up quite a few times, but no one wanted it, thanks once again.

From XXXXXX

As I read that, I thought it was weird; I kept asking my self why would anyone pass up such a great deal when someone has such a great background. Then it passed as I thought, “well, their loss.”

After a week, the UPS truck was pulling up my driveway and I came out and retrieved my package.

Upon opening the large box, it seemed very weird: in the box were two smaller boxes (more than likely with one holding the Wii and the other holding the games). It's not that it was weird, it's just that I wasn't expecting it. Opening one of the inner boxes, I found the system itself. Taking a quick look over it, it seemed to be in near perfect condition with a couple of smudges and a scratch - nothing that I couldn’t fix. Opening the second box, what I saw was what really took my breath away in shock.

In the box were the 20+ games that was promised, but more then half of them were still in the original packaging plastic. Picking up a couple of games, I carefully looked them over, as I thought they were brand new games still in their seal.

Looking at the pile of games that were in the small box, I had a real bad feeling for some reason. Looking over the games I saw a couple that I already had and some that I had wanted but never bought. Going down the list, one game caught my attention: “Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Wheelie Breakers." I easily recognized it as that I already had an English version. For some reason, I was looking over it a few times - why I don’t know. I figured it was that Lightning Bolt that appeared over the stadium it just always catch my eye.

Worried of some kind of mistake, I had try to email my auctioneer.

To XXXXXX

Hey, XXXXXX, if you remember...a week ago I had ordered some stuff from you from eBay. Now, I’m not disappointed with my purchase, but there seems to be a mistake. I had ordered used games from you, but I think you may have sent me some new games. It just feels odd, that is.

From XXXXX

A week went by, but after sending many messages and receiving no replies I gave up.

So, taking out the games, I began playing. A few weeks had gone by, and I was playing numerous hours on the Wii. Getting bored, I got up to switch out games. While going through the box to look for another game, that game once again caught my attention. Picking up Wheelie Breakers, even though I completed the English version, I finally decided to play it.

Looking over the game itself, the disc was probably the best condition of all the used games. I knew people didn’t like the game, but come on. Booting up the game, I came across the “press a button” menu; at this time it was strange. Out of all the used games, this was the only one without a save file on the system. So, starting a new game, I used my name from my English version: Breaker.

Playing the game, it was how it was when you usually play this game. Completing both sides of story mode, I worked my way up through the cups of the tournaments. As I unlocked all the cards in the shop, I began to buy them, in order to make my deck. After collecting three of every card, I noticed that buying a certain number of a card causes them to become "SOLD OUT," so I decided to make all the cards be sold out.

Officially completing the game, this took me about a couple of months to do that (maxing out DP as well). Because I was finished with it, I wanted to do something big that I’ve never done before. I came up with an idea beat both paths of Story mode and complete all 4 cups, all within one setting to finally beat the game.

Upon completing the credits of the Fortune Cup, something came up that I didn’t expect. A message came up, like those that would pop up for when cards would unlock in the shop. I couldn’t read Japanese, but I recognized one symbol: “4.” I found that weird, but pressed a in order to continue; everything faded to black as usual.

As I was getting up to turn the game off, the screen faded back to normal. Instead of it going to the main menu, my character was at the starting line of a race. As this had never happened before, I sat down and waited for the starting countdown. A few seconds had gone by and nothing, so I took the controller and saw that I could move.

So, on Boron, I began riding off. Passing the starting line, I noticed something immediately: my screen was nearly blank. I looked over the screen and the icon which showed my life points wasn’t there, and the icon that showed my deck was also missing along with my hand. The only thing that was there was the map and the lap number but instead all it showed was “1/,” with no indication of the number of laps needed.

Going through the track, I noticed right away that the track I was on was the one where you duel Rua in story mode. Aside from moving the bike, I couldn’t do anything else that you would normally do; even when going over the AP or DP icons nothing would happen. Looking over at my map, I noticed that there was the only the red dot that represented my character. The track was eerily quiet.

Starting the next lap, I could have sworn that I heard something; of course there was no battling so it may have been part of the game. Going through the empty race track once more, I came across something else that was strange. Stopping so that I could “Check it out,” I could see Satellite across the water. It was different; the smog/fog that use to cover the city was gone and it looked different then I remembered from other times that I passed by.

Continuing through, I reached the start of the “3rd” lap and that time I could have sworn I heard something, but I wasn’t so sure. There wasn’t anything that I noticed this time around, except for that is was just as empty as when I passed by earlier. It was about half way through this track when something different happened.

According to the map, all the way back at the starting line a blue dot appeared and began moving down the track. The speed of the dot it self was moving faster than any other of the characters would, especially Jack, and it was quickly closing in on my very own dot, closing the gap in between us.

Coming up to the finish/starting line, the blue dot was just about on me until it began to slow down as it got closer. Reversing my view, the blue dot drove into my sight. A white motorcycle was behind me. The guy riding had white hair and was wearing a long coat that blew out with the wind; I couldn't make out his face.

For one reason or another the blue dot man wouldn’t pass me. He would stay behind me. As I crossed the line, the screen changed again; this time everything was there, except that the lap icon reset itself to “1/.” The life point icon showed that the man behind me was wearing some kind of mask, one with a scar over the left eye.

The duel started. I kind of felt a chill, but with my dragon deck I quickly special summoned Stardust Dragon from my hand. I spun around - I was going to meet who ever this guy was head on. I had Stardust attack the man. The man reversed the damage to my monster with magic cylinder, then summoned a monster I was shocked to see.

“Blue Eyes White Dragon.” I recall saying to my self, but I noticed there was something being said. This was not new, as the MC spoke in the game, but I couldn’t make out what he spoke of. I was caught off guard and my opponent had his monster attack. With the combined damage of his attack and the reversed damage from earlier, Stardust was destroyed. I felt something as, once again, that voice spoke. All could make out was, “My.”

I came across AP, as I wanted to go on the offense. I summoned Red Daemon Dragon and I placed a trap card on the field. Coming across another AP, I had RDD attack blue eyes. It connected and destroyed one of the cards in my opponent's hand. I heard some laughing from my Wiimote. The masked man attacked with Blue-Eyes, activating my trap “Scrap-Iron Scarecrow.”

“Stupid AI,” seriously. I had RDD attack once again, destroying Blue-Eyes White Dragon and destroying another card in his hand. “Hatred,” the voice came again. Suddenly, he activated a spell card, destroying RDD.

Following the destruction of Red Daemon Dragon, we came up to the second lap. A lightning bolt appeared in the back ground sky, which I didn’t think this game had. I saw a couple of cards under his icon. I wanted to get rid of his cards, so I summoned Black Rose Dragon.

At the time I summoned Black Rose Dragon, the man behind me summoned a monster of his own, Stardust Dragon. I gritted my teeth. He protected his cards. I quickly had Black Rose Dragon attack my opponent's Stardust. I heard a laugh again as I ran into a trap. He activated his own Scrap-Iron Scarecrow. “Our future,” he once again spoke.

The guy had Stardust attack my monster, taking out half of its health. He, once again, had Stardust attack my monster, which destroyed it. “4 to 4.” This I didn’t understand. Was he referencing what the game said before this started? I had aimed to get the next AP icon, but for the first time, he cut me off, causing me to go into a wall.

After spinning out, I got myself back on the track, but not before that guy attacked my life points. “Desperation.” This time, I was getting irritated; I was being mocked by a video game character. I summoned my own second Stardust, but this time the animation was different. His wings were more drooping and didn’t seem to be flapping as fast. I ignored it, placed a trap on the field, and a spell to recover some life.

The two of us attacked each other simultaneously with both Stardusts, and as both attacks hit eachother both our trap cards activated. My trap negated its attack and sent the damage at him. His trap, though, didn’t stop my attack. The damage was sent back at my monster. In the end, his Stardust was destroyed. At that, he lost a monster, he lost speed, and I passed him. My Stardust animation changed again, its limbs and tail drooping and its color slightly faded.

“Pain of others.” Okay, by now this guy was really getting on my nerves. He activated a spell card, which destroyed the rest of Stardust’s life. The destruction animation seemed a bit more dreary then what it was before.

Trying to get the upper hand, I quickly special summoned one of the Synchros in my hand and my second Black Rose Dragon. This time the animation was also different; a few of the petals were missing and others looked like they were wilted. Using Double Attack, I had Black Rose Dragon attack the masked man with no need of AP.

“Hesitation makes four,” the voice once again came from my Wiimote. He activated a trap; he must have placed it between my summon of BRD and its attack. It didn’t negate my attack, but damage was sent against my monster. He did take direct damage, though. He just laughed.

We came across the third lap. “A door has opened,” he spoke of he summoned a new monster.

“That’s not right,” at least, the monster isn’t among the 126 cards available. “Rainbow Dragon!”

I remember the winged serpent dragon even had its own roar. Getting some AP, the man attacked me, destroying BRD and its petals seemed to of burned away.

“Damn it,” I can recall myself saying.

“…the others…” was what I could make out from what came from my hand.

As I was ahead of the man, I activated Nightmare Steel Cage, causing my opponent to not attack. Using Dragon’s Mirror, I special summoned a dragon from my hand. My 2nd Red Daemon Dragon appeared; its appearance was different as well. It seemed like the red began reaching around its body and its wings seemed deteriorated. Having Red Daemon attack, he destroyed CED in one hit, probably the fact of its small defense.

We were coming up to the end, attacking once again. I reduced the person’s life points down to zero, but my attack didn‘t reach soon enough; he used a card to destroy RDD. Spinning out, I took this second before he recuperated, using a speed spell too get the upper hand.

I then crossed the line, I remember the sudden change in the field as the words “SURVIVE!!” came to the screen and the lap number once again reset to “1/”. The sky itself had became darker. The buildings around us seemed to become ruins with the side of the roads seemingly covered in flowers.

I remember knowing it was odd. I looked up at the map and saw that the blue dot was once again on the move, which was too soon for him to recuperate. I could hear his laugh coming from my hand.

The duel seemed to turn into a survival. Looking at the life points, he was at an advantage since his life points reset back to 4000. Looking now, I realized his mask was gone. I could barely make out his face, but it just seemed his one visible eye was just staring blankly ahead, as if at me.

Realizing what has happened so far, I needed to get ahead and destroy more monsters. Crossing over a long path of AP’s, I spun around, this time summoning Black Rose Dragon, destroying his trap cards on his field. Looking at Black Rose Dragon, there was a significant change this time: there were no roses. It looked like a Root and nothing more. Its own body seemed to be barely moving at all.

I didn’t know what was going on, but at the time it was exciting. I had Black Rose attack this man directly, but the attack animation seemed slower than usual if I remember correctly.

I looked up into the corner to see that he indeed took the damage. I was sort of relieved, until he summoned his own monster. He summoned Red-Eyes black dragon.

At that point, I wasn’t surprised. I knew I had played games before where the AIs could use moves that the regular player wouldn’t be able too. The man proceded to attack me with Jounochi’s rarest card, with my withered Black Rose Dragon barely hanging in there. That was until the guy played double attack to strike once more. I remember seeing what was like pieces of its body hitting the screen.

“Life” the voice once again spoke up through the speaker. With the extra stored up AP, he was able to attack me one again.

At that point, I was on my last batch of life, down 7 monsters and only having taken out 3. Thinking it over, how could my perfect Power House deck not work in this game? I knew I was going to beat this guy one way or another. I wasn’t going to reset the game at any cost.

Drawing a spell card, I activated it, special summoning one random Synchro monster from my hand. With only the one in my hand, I brought out Red-Daemon Dragon. Looking at the summoning animation, the once powerful Daemon had its head lowered down, its wings were completely gone, the dark part of its body seemed to be missing as it was filled with red, and its claws hanging to its side. Placing one card down, I had my Dragon begin my counter-attack.

“…help it…” I can’t put my fingers on what he said exactly though. He tried to attack me, but I was able to dodge. He just laughed. Waiting to bring my AP, I was able to strike while my opponent began his attack, canceling its attack and destroying Red-eyes.

“Reachable!” he spoke playing a magic card, special summoning a monster from his hand.

The monster he summoned was Cyber-end Dragon. I still remember its mechanical shriek. The man brought the battle close, having all three heads attack my monster, at the same time activating my trap, though not negating the attack. It sent damage back at his own monster.

Little more then half way through the track, I did something that really screwed me over: not looking where I was going. I ran over one of his field spells, Dark Hole, destroying the rest of Red-Daemon Dragon’s life, with what seemed as dust blowing into the air.

“Hell!” he once again attacked me, but with negate attack it was nullified. Looking at my hand, I saw my last monster in my deck. I needed to make the last monster count.

Coming upon the next lap, I was capable of summoning my last monster: my third and final Stardust Dragon. Looking at its animation, my breath was stolen. The color was gone. The wings were to the floor. It was as if it was not looking forward to what would happen to it, almost sorrowful. Of course the opponent would not allow me to wait as it stuck at my monster, taking away more then half of its life.

Finally making it to the last lap, the track once again changed. The field itself wasn’t too different, but the sky had become more lighter. It seemed as if there were wavy shadowy figures on the side of the road. My character's animation had once again changed. The white color seemed to have vanished, turned transparent. Attacking my opponent's monster, I took notice of its life points. My icon’s image had changed, as in itself the picture seems to have been disappearing. Noticing this, I soon saw that the background was getting lighter and whiter.

I tried to pay no more attention, for I had a duel to win. Coming across the long row of AP once more, I was able to attack again, causing more damage to the mechanical hydra. The masked man attacked me as well, causing me to use my last defensive trap card in my deck to protect my remaining monster. When I used rear-view, which I hardly ever used, I noticed that a trail of red tears were coming from his now being transparent face.

I came up to what would have been my monster’s last attack. Using it, I connected with CED, destroying it for good. It was then, at that moment of destruction, a new monster took its place. As that happened, Double Attack was activated, wiping out my last monster, the shock messing with my speed going forward.

“Future,” He was laughing, as if knowing that at this point I had nothing left to beat him with. Looking back to see the monster, it was a long serpent dragon. It felt like it was like Rainbow Dragon. Noticing my characters facial expression, the trails of red were flowing more like a river at this time.

We were half way and, at this point, I had nothing left. I just had to make sure that I got first place and that was it. Continuing on, I had immediately noticed that the background had definitely gotten whiter. It was even more so that the black shadows on the side were even more noticeable in their movements,

Looking once more at the life points, I noticed that my icon was nothing more than just an out line, but in it, too, there was the river of red in full color. That facial image above it was still staring...still seemed the same.

At this point, all I was doing was dodging. The monster behind his attack was like a large Synchro with its summoning animation, but purely black. It was simple to tell exactly when it was attacking and where it was from. The person was close to me, following right up behind me. I used a maneuver, using my spinning animation to make him crash out, making sure that he would not cross in front of me.

Using my last speed spell, I gained one final speed boost, hoping that this would be all that I needed to win. Noticing that the blue dot behind me was still far away, I figured that I could still be able to beat it.

I was coming up on the last bit of the track. At this point, there were more shadowed figures...as if they were all just watching me. At this time, I could see the finish line ahead of me. The background behind it was white, as if there really wouldn’t be anything left, but what was surprising was what was at the starting line.

At the starting line, every character that you could face off against were on the other side of the finish line. All the riders themselves were standing by their motorcycles like in the character select screen. All of them, from Yuusei to Jack, from Jaeger to the gold knight guy, from Ushio to Fat Albert police man. All around them were a group of those shadowed figures that were along the road, as if they were all waiting for me to cross over the finish line.

Well I wasn’t just about to disappoint them and lose my perfect winning streak on the game today. It was then that I was seconds from the end. I was going to win. I was going to show my awesomeness in front of everyone, but...

With one dark blast, my life points reached zero. I had lost. My motorcycle spun out of control, just in front of the finish line. Looking at my life point counter, there was nothing. Inside the emptied red box was nothing, as if the river of red was overflowed.

“All Gone” the voice once said. At that point, I saw the map as the blue dot came up closer to my red dot. As the dot reached me, it just disappeared. No one appeared beside me, behind me, or in font of me. All I saw ahead was the warm white light that I almost had.

I won't ever forget what happened next: everything that was on my side of the finish line suddenly turned black...except for my character. What was remaining of light suddenly shrunk away, leaving. I could feel as if everyone was leaving me, going on to where ever they were going. I was left alone in the that lonely dark.

After a few seconds, I was about ready to turn off the game, but I stopped as I saw what then happened on the screen.

My character’s motorcycle had burst into flames, engulfing him alive. He made no movement to even try to get out the fire, as if he wanted this to happen to himself. The river of red from his face was visible as the sound of 3 monster destruction noises could be heard over and over again.

The cries continued for a little while, until they began to fade away themselves. As the sound of their cries disappeared, my character was all alone again, burning, crying. I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him, and maybe a little bit for myself.

It was then that the flames began to die down. The animation itself began to die down, fading away into the background of darkness. He faded until he was no longer visible. I was finally about to go to finally turn off the game, but a lightning bolt once more covered the screen, turning to a high bright.

As the light faded away, I came a little closer to the screen to see if anything else were to happen. Nothing happened, except that as the light faded, a part of it didn’t. As everything else was dark, I could see the reflection of myself in my TV. The light below my image once again read that word “4”

The screen once again turned black. I waited for it to do anything else, but it didn’t. Eventually, the game returned to the “Press a button” menu. Just out of curiosity I continued and went onto the loading screen, but as I got there a new message popped up, one that I have seen in many video games that I knew what it said.

“The game data has been corrupted!”

Seeing that, I knew exactly what that meant and, turning off the game, I sat down to think about what I had just played. A few minutes had gone by, and I wondered if this was what that guy wanted to sell really badly that no body wanted. Going off to my computer, I brought up my email in order to talk to him, of what exactly just happened. Though there was still no reply to my message to him.

A few months had passed. I still ended receiving no replies from him, even after sending another message to him. I had gone to see his eBay account, only to have found that it was deactivated. Going to the forums, I had found a topic about him. It apparently spoke of how he deactivated his account and how during the middle of some his auctions he dropped them, even some that already bought stuff from him. People were complaining about never receiving their things, along with the normal death threats against his life.

I had gone over to my Wii, never once touching it since then, and those images came to my mind.

Looking down, I had seen that game. I never got rid of the game, it just didn’t feel right to me to just get rid of an already used game.

Picking it up and looking it over once more, I remember saying to my self, “Just what was happening.” My eyes once again went to that lightning bolt over the stadium, as that it seemed to still stick out to me. I was about to put it down when I noticed something. Taking the box once more and looking at that lighting bolt, I saw it once more.

Behind the lightning bolt, I saw it. I saw that man’s face, its same glassy stare that I never got out of my mind, only this time, it was no longer staring at me, as if there was no need too stare at me.

After time, I spoke to others about this game and about the image that I had found. People that had the game thought I was imagining it. Many people couldn’t even see the image that I was speaking about. Then that is when I came here, to share my story. Along with this writing, I had also placed the image that I had found on my box. Perhaps someone knows...

(I've edited this a bunch to fix the grammar as best as I could so it wouldn't be nightmare retarding the story.)

Tom and Jerry

The thirteen Tom and Jerry shorts made by the Czechoslovakian director Gene Deitch are infamous for their poor quality and rather disturbing nature, featuring badly done sound effects and animation and having a more realistic feel to the violence. Some have speculated that Deitch didn't like the concept behind Tom and Jerry and was pressured into making them, and wanted to make the people who watched his take on it feel bad for liking the concept.

What many people don't know is that Deitch was originally signed on to make more than the thirteen episodes the public has access to. Desperate to get out of his contract, Deitch made one more Tom and Jerry short that few have ever seen.

The short was called "Tom's Basement." It opened with Tom in a typical Tom and Jerry house. His owner was the fat, angry guy from other Deitch shorts. Tom's owner seemed even angrier than in his other appearances; the first scene is him stomping on Tom's tail in a very realistic and painful looking way because Tom is sleeping by the basement door.

The owner yells at Tom to never go down there. Tom is clearly terrified and runs away to another room. Our view stays in the room by the basement door and we see Jerry come out of a mouse hole. He looks truly grotesque, far more off-model than in the other Deitch shorts. He gets an evil look on his face and follows Tom into the next room.

The next few minutes are fairly formulaic. Jerry repeatedly manages to trick Tom into chasing him to the basement door a few times, but each time the owner catches Tom he inflicts a painful looking injury on him, which stay with Tom even after the scene ends. After three beatings, Tom is bruised all over, bleeding in a few places, and limping on a broken leg.

After this, Tom starts to literally beg Jerry not to bother him any more; he's not really talking, but he's crying and mumbling, and you can tell what he's doing by his body language. Jerry just laughs at him and pushes him back to the basement door.

The owner catches Tom again and goes ballistic. The camera zooms in on his face - it changes color and distorts as he yells at Tom in a much louder voice than any other sound in the cartoon. I can't post most of what he said on here, but it's definitely vicious and furious. It seems like Jerry has finally decided to take pity on Tim, though. Jerry picks up a knife that was lying around and stabs the owner in the leg, quite graphically.

Tom opens the basement door and they carry the owner's body down the stairs. There are dozens of other bodies down there, decaying and showing signs of their violent deaths. Tom and Jerry shake hands and it seems like they've triumphed over the serial killer...but Jerry gets an evil look in his face again and Tom says, in that ghostly, deep voice...

"DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT!"

Jerry stabs Tom, killing him, and throws his body into the pile. The last shot is Jerry putting up a 'For Sale' sign on the yard of the house, laughing, clearly planning to do it all again.

(This story is by a person called KI Simpson.)

Bob Ross

Before Bob Ross had a career television show, he shot his own home videos from his basement. This was even before he was in the Air Force. His brother, Jim Ross, recovered most of the tapes from Bob's ex-wife's home in 1995 before the fire that burned it down. There was one particular home video that disturbed him greatly, which he describes in the following text.

Most of Bob's tapes were almost generally the same as The Joy of Painting. They were fun to watch as this was an earlier version of his work and he had more of a cartoonish style back then.

I remember the last tape I watched. The video was labeled 'Joy of Painting' so I assumed that's where the title for his show came from. The tape started the same, typical way you'd see on the real show. He was smiling in his basement with a blank canvas and a cart of paints, ready to spill his imagination and make it come to life.

I noticed most of the paints on his palette were of dark reds and blacks; there were no blues, yellows, or any 'happy' colors.

Bob started out by saying, "Today is a surprise! You should all follow along as you watch this video, which will make the surprise your very own!"

He didn't say much after that, just dipped a small brush into black paint and went to work. The rest of the video has no sound. You could see his mouth moving and he would pause to point out certain techniques he was doing, but you couldn't hear what he was saying.

He continued to paint this huge mass of red and black, and it looked like nothing at all. By now, the whole canvas was covered with this spew of garbage and I never recall my brother painting anything this way, ever.

Twelve more minutes into the video, I noticed he seemed very trance-like. He kept painting and painting and it never really went anywhere. Then his brush strokes would get faster and his movements and smiling were becoming more crazed.

This went on for another ten minutes until Bob just dropped everything. The paint and brushes crashed to the floor and Bob furiously punched a hole in his canvas. Bob was smiling, but then he started to scream.

I don't want to tell you what happened in the next nine minutes, but I suppose I have to anyway. I pulled up to the house about seven or eight and I yelled to the cabbie, "Yo homes, smell ya later!" I looked to my kingdom, I was finally there, to sit on my throne as the prince of Bel Air!

Stick Stickly

Stick Stickly may be one of the least creative characters ever made, but he still holds a very special place in the hearts of 90s children for his several years of hosting Nick in the Afternoon. Most information on Stick Stickly says he hosted Nickelodeon's summer afternoon block from 1995-1998, but I always swore that I remembered seeing him on TV earlier than that. I thought I was crazy for quite a while, but recently I found a small fan-site for Stick Stickly that mentioned him hosting a 1993 afternoon block during the school year called Afternoon Snack with Stick Stickly. To my joy, the website even had videos of Stickly's segments. I watched one marked "First Ever Stick Stickly Appearance."

Stick Stickly was in front of a chalkboard with Afternoon Snack written on it in normal writing. His design was a little different; his eyes were smaller, he had no nose, and his mouth was a straight line instead of being curved into a smile. He made a couple of corny jokes, then said Rugrats was coming up. The video ended at that point. I watched the next one - there were six of them and none had dates, but I could only assume they were in chronological order. The second one was called "Stick Gets Injured."

Stick Stickly had the same face from the first video, but his body seemed a little worn; there were a few splinters sticking out of his side. His full dialogue:

"Well, the dog next door buried me, but I managed to get it, the show you all voted to see! Hey Dude is up next, and don't forget to send in your post cards to vote for the special guest show you want to see! And remember, that address is..."

He sang the classic song about writing to him, but the tune was different than in later versions - much slower. After he sang the song, he just stood motionless for a few minutes before the video ended.

The third was called "Hang Stick." Stick Stickly was hanging in the air by a piece of string tied around his waist. A little boy who looked about five was also there, and the chalkboard had six dashes on it, representing a six-letter Hangman word. The kid was guessing letters and each time he got one wrong, the string around Stick's waist would move higher. The game would be over when it reached Stick's "neck."

The kid kept guessing letters and when the rope was one incorrect guess from Stick's neck, the letters filled in were C_NDLE. It was obvious what the word was, but the kid wasn't taking the game very seriously. Giggling, he guessed x. The rope moved to Stick's neck and his eyes flashed out of existence and were replaced by two X's. There was no sound for about thirty seconds; the kid stared at Stick's "body." Then, Stick's eyes flashed back to normal and he laughed, said he was fine and that Wild and Crazy Kids was on next.

The fourth video was called "Stick Quits." Stick was ranting about something that presumably happened in a segment the site didn't have a video of, saying no one respected him, that he was treated like a toothpick, how his father was a mighty ship, and complaining about how the dog kept burying him. The complaints seemed like jokes, but his tone was more serious than you'd expect. A little kid appeared - not the same as in video three - and told Stick that all the children loved him. Stick was silent for quite a while, then sighed and said he would stay. He reminded us to vote in the guest show contest again and said it was time for Rugrats.

The fifth video was marked "Stick Gets Mad (No Sound)." Like the description said, it was silent. Stick was moving very quickly, with body language indicating he was yelling. A little girl was cowering from him, clearly afraid. The girl eventually left and Stick just faced the screen; his animation was so simple that I couldn't tell if he was talking.

The sixth video was called "The Winner Revealed." Stick had a dark red stain on the top of his head and one of his eyes was an X. Stick made no mention of his appearance and announced that the votes were in. It was time for the special guest show to air. His last bit of dialogue:

"It's been a long contest and the vote was close, but you, the kids, have decided! Coming right now, the classic  you voted for, Candle Cove!"

(This story is credited to a person called KI Simpson.)

Sunlit Nightmare

John Weldon isn't one of the better-known names in animation, but those who saw his rather dark animated shorts tend to remember them. A Canadian, Weldon is best known in the United States for his shorts that aired on Cartoon Network's compilation show "O Canada." His best known short is the disturbing "To Be," a cartoon dealing with the ethics of cloning and individual existence. 

Other examples of his work are "The Lump," a bizarre story about a growth deformity changing a man's life for the better, and "Special Delivery," which dealt with murder, adultery, and even had full frontal nudity. Despite what he got away with, there was one short Weldon made that only a few people have seen or heard of: "Sunlit Nightmare."

The exact year it was made isn't known, but indications point to the early or mid 1980s. Weldon had suddenly started to show signs of narcolepsy, falling asleep suddenly at work. He would wake up screaming and refuse to say anything about what he had been dreaming about. When he wasn't asleep, he worked with feverish devotion on a new animated short, the aforementioned Sunlit Nightmare. Skilled at nearly every aspect of animation, Weldon made the entire short himself, or at least seemed to. He said his newest short was for children, something to air in-between shows on kids' networks.

He showed it to some executives at his company, who were terrified and couldn't believe Weldon wanted to show it to children. Weldon didn't seem to care and went to work on another project, his narcolepsy gone. It isn't clear what happened to the original copy of the short, but O Canada somehow got a copy and aired it once, one night in the summer of 1999. Recently, someone who apparently recorded the sole airing uploaded it online and the short was finally seen.

The short began with a pure black screen; there was no title. What sounded like a small boy was singing.

The shadows at night don't scare me

The sounds in the dark I can let be

I close my eyes and let the darkness come

But the fear isn't there until I feel the sun

I can't tell which one is real

I can't tell apart the feel

Of the nightmares in my head

I don't understand how I'm not dead

After the song, the short transitioned to a small boy in a living room. The animation was very simple; the boy and the furniture were drawn in a squiggly style by a black pen. The background and non-outline parts of the objects were paper white. The boy was nervously looking around the room and was very jittery. While he looked, there was a voice over.

"I used to be afraid of the dark. I would stay up all night, afraid of the monsters that were hiding in the shadows. One day, I was tired from not sleeping the night before. I lay down on the couch and thought I could sleep when it was sunny out. I had the scariest dream ever. I couldn't even remember it all; all I could remember was that a beam of sun was shining on me when I woke up. Ever since then, I haven't been afraid of the dark..."

The boy kept looking and the view changed to behind the couch. A glob of black clay was behind it - real clay. It started to grow and turned into some kind of insect or spider. When it was taller than the couch, it jumped out from behind and started chasing the boy. They ran through several rooms of the house. The drawing quality of the rooms improved with each new one until they were in a bedroom against a live-action, completely frozen backdrop. The monster cornered the boy, grew a gigantic mouth, and swallowed him.

The next part is hard to describe. It was all claymation, clay insects, people, and transforming shapes were dancing, warping, and morphing. It was very fast paced, but the music was very slow, played entirely on high-pitched bells. The boy eventually fell out of one of the shapes; he was curled up in fear, sobbing.

The view shifted back to the room from the beginning of the short. The boy was lying on the floor, a yellow beam of sunlight shining on him. The singing started again.

Every day it's the exact same thing

'The monsters roar and bite and sting

No one is home, no one can help me

I wish I could leave, but outside I see

The burning, dry glare

The brightness in the air

I used to fear the dark, but now I'm the only one

Who had to deal with an endless, hopeless fear of the sun

(This story is credited to a person called KI Simpson.)

Not Long Enough

Until recently, it was thought that Matt Groening had completely recovered from whatever was making him act so strangely during the Dead Bart incident and that it had affected his normal life afterward. Recent claims from the employee who found the Dead Bart video, however, indicate that Matt Groening went through another, similar, incident ten years ago.

It was the summer of 1999 and Futurama had recently premiered. Matt was working on two shows now and had started showing signs of stress...when he announced that he was working on another episode that would be 100% of his own writing. This terrified some of the staff who worked on both shows, but they were hesitant to bring up Dead Bart and the Futurama crew saw no reason to reject Matt's idea. An early version of it was made and the employee who found Dead Bart managed to make a digital copy of this as well. The episode was called "Not Long Enough."

The episode started with Fry, Leela, and Bender making a delivery for Planet Express. They never revealed exactly what they were delivering or where they were going, and everyone seemed to be upset about an unexplained event that had happened recently. Leela and Bender were angry at Fry, who kept apologizing but was coldly rejected by his friends. They eventually reached a planet that seemed to have only one house surrounded by empty, desolate fields on all sides.

They knocked the door and a grotesque alien that seemed to be very old answered. They took the box without a word. He opened it, took a knife out of it, and stabbed himself. The Planet Express crew didn't seem to find this odd or surprising; they simply left the body on the ground and walked back to their ship in silence.

The next scene was of the Planet Express ship flying through space. A dissonant piece of music made of extremely loud instruments playing a very slow tune played in the background while the ship flew through an empty, black space. They finally reached Earth and landed in a deserted New New York. Fry started apologizing again as they walked through the empty streets (there was no sign of the Planet Express building), but Leela and bender glared at him in silence. 

Fry gave up and separated from his friends. He walked for quite a while, never encountering a single person. He reached the cryogenics building where he had been frozen, looked inside, and began to cry. The crying went on for a few minutes before he entered the building. Fry went to one of the tubes, set the timer on it to a huge number with more zeroes than I could count, and locked himself in.

The screen faded out and when it came back in the view was entirely on Fry. The machine must have partially stopped working, as parts of Fry were decaying; bone was poking through his skin in several places. Fry mumbled, "It's what I deserve," and climbed out of the freezing device. He was in a surreal, indescribable place. There were a huge variety of shapes and colors, but it wasn't bright or fanciful. 

It was closer to the faint colors you see if you close your eyes too hard. Fry started walking, the surreal void he was in seeming to go on and on. He kept walking for a few minutes. The colors kept making shapes you could kind of make out, but none of them were pleasant.

After his long walk, Fry found a picture on the ground. It was completely out of place in his new environment; it looked like something drawn in the normal Futurama style. It was a photo of himself, Leela, and Bender. Fry looked at it for a few seconds before beginning to cry again. The picture soon turn to dust and Fry continued walking. 

The view zoomed out until Fry couldn't be seen until the colors all blended together and turned to solid black. The view continued to zoom out and we see that the black was a tiny fragment of the pupil in Fry's eye. His frozen body had fallen out of the freezing unit and was lying in an abandoned room. He was drawn in the same hyper-realistic style as Bart's corpse (from the Simpsons episode, "Dead Bart").

Bender and Leela walked into the room. They saw what Fry had done to  himself and Leela said, "He got what he deserved." She checked her watch and said, "Looks like we need to leave for our next delivery." She took a knife out of her pocket, put it in a plain cardboard box, and headed to the ship.

(This story is credited to a person called KI Simpson.)