My best friend Kyle, my girlfriend Samantha, and I all decided to drive down to Disney World in Orlando, Florida during the March Break. We were all pretty excited, relive our childhood once more before our last high school year got tough, and then we all split and went to college. It was a long drive but well worth it when we pulled into the spacious parking lot early Monday morning, the spots were quickly filling up but we managed to score a spot fairly close to the entrance, considering.
And where else to start but the Magic Kingdom? We hopped out of Kyle's car and helped each other
get sunscreen on, after the Myrtle Beach day last Summer, we weren't taking any chances. We gathered up our things, made sure we had our wallets and sunglasses, cameras too. I noted the concerning black cloud off to the east, despite the weather report of 100% sunshine with a clear blue sky.
We made our way toward the entrance, and I was surprised at how many children weren't smiling with anticipation for the day. I looked around at sorrow expressions on every kid I saw. Once we got past the entrance, I was even more shocked, some kids refusing to go on rides while their parents tried to coax them to have fun. The mickey shaped balloons flying away from the children refusing to hold them, just staring mundanely at the sky. I looked at Samantha with a concerned expression but then shrugged and suggested we grab a bite, we'd been in the car since early morning.
We found ourselves at "Casey's Corner" on Mainstreet USA getting hotdogs and a large fries to share. More and more children around us seemingly uninterested in anything going on around them, all of them seemed sad. I was growing increasingly uneasy, and confused. I tried to shake off the feeling as I finished my hotdog and started getting into the excited Disney World mode I should be in. I took my girlfriends hand, "And where to Madam? Ladies first!" And without a doubt she chose the Town Square Exposition Hall, she was highly into photography and was eager to check the place out. Me and Kyle followed as she led the way, map in hand.
Samantha handed me her things as we walked inside so she could explore freely, I said nothing and searched for a place to place my load of things, I saw a separate room, empty, with no exhibits inside, and decided I could set the things down in there, as no one would go in there due to the emptiness. When I walked inside I noticed a very lanky old man sitting on a chair in the corner. I set my things and then I saw the man had no eyes, sunken in eyelids. "He's old," I thought, "Probably lost 'em in the war or something." I cleared my throat, "If you're gonna be here, could you watch our stuff?" I coughed awkwardly, remembering the man had no eyes, and I piped up, "I won't be long sir, is it alright if I leave these things here?" The man said nothing for what seemed like hours, then suddenly coughed, and I jumped. The man cleared his throat, "Go on then, I'll make sure no one steals yer stuff." I shrugged and walked back to find Samantha.
She was staring at old stills from some Disney animation I hadn't heard of, "Hey there." I said smiling. She looked at me, "Where's our stuff?" I brushed my hand through my hair, "It's just in the other room, it's safe." She eyed me for a few seconds, she seemed worried, but she went back to studying various things in the building.
About twenty minutes passed when Samantha said we should probably go get our things. I told her to wait with Kyle and I returned to the room. Our stuff was gone, and so was the man. "Hello?" I said loudly, wondering if maybe he had to check something and brought our stuff with him just in case. I got no response but the slight screams of children, I just believed it was akin to the fact we were at Disney World and people were on rides. But it sounded like it was quiet and close, not loud and far. The lights suddenly switched off and the door slammed shut behind me. I jumped in surprise and let out a little yelp. "Very funny!" I shouted, "this isn't the tower of terror you know!"
I just realized the screaming had ceased and I was in complete solitude. But that only lasted a few moments for I heard scampering above me, as if large rats were in the ceiling. "Hello?" I said once more, walking backwards feeling for the door. When I felt the doorknob I firmly grasped it and tried to turn it, it wouldn't budge. I pulled out my cell phone, no signal. I turned it around to use as a light. A faint glow cast across the room, illuminating the empty room with its tacky wallpaper. Illuminating all but the corner. I tilted it up and looked at the ceiling, the tiles were bending out of shape, as if the upstairs room had sprung a leak, and the space above the tiles were filling with water, they grew a few shades darker, and redder, but they didn't appear to be red. I was growing frantic, still grasping the doorknob twisting it in different directions for dear life.
A sudden bang occurred and run in my ears, as a ceiling tile fell to the ground, I looked back up, a small arm hung limply out of the hole. It was blackened and dripping blood. I started banging at the door with my foot, too afraid to look away, much less turn around. Something else fell from the hole, our stuff. It was covered with blood. I didn't move a muscle, and I'm glad I didn't because more and more things kept falling out, limply, children. Dozens of charred, bloody, and disfigured children, falling into one heap in the center of the room. The stench of blood filled my nose, and then my phone's back light turned off. I fumbled to turn it back on again, starting to cry. When the light flooded the room again, all the children's heads were turned toward me, staring at me with their blank mundane expressions. I screamed, and did not stop screaming for probably half a minute. When out of the until corner, came a shadowy figure, tall and lanky, as he stepped toward me he grew a bit taller. It was the old man from before. He opened his eyelids, revealing the empty sockets. I collapsed to the ground, pleading for life, "Please don't kill me."
"He won't kill you," the children said in unison, making me jump again, "He's a nice man, he only wants to make you happy. Let him make you happy. He made us happy. We were lost, and our mummies and daddies did not come for us, so we stayed here at the lost and found, and he made us happy." The old man closed in on me, his mouth opening to inhuman proportions, his jaw dislocating till it hung down to his chest, I tried backing up, pushing myself against the door, he got closer, then grabbed me, holding me up in front of his face so I could see into his eye sockets. He then raised me above his head, holding my arms and legs so I could not escape, and he slowly pushed me down his throat. I looked at the children pleadingly as the watched with their cold dead eyes, until I was completely inside him, and could see no more.
They found me, not long after, lying on the ground, eyes open, staring at nothing, crying silently. The door to the room was plastered over years ago, Disney refuses to acknowledge the children lost and found at the Town Square Exposition ever existed, not after they discovered the employee who worked their, killed the children that were never claimed, and shoved them into the ceiling. They tried to erase what happened, but I will always know.