/February 13, 2016/
/8:56 PM, EST/
//Userblog Created or Updated//
Hello, my name is Toby Desmond. I’m 27 years old, and my occupation consists of research on historical phenomenon. If you aren’t entirely sure what that means, it means I’m required to examine artifacts/items recovered, that are believed to have been crafted many years prior. Normally whenever I receive something that needs professional examination, the objects aren’t too out of the ordinary, at least in my perspective. Although I will admit, there are some objects that generally creep me out, such as slightly decimated dolls and artificial limbs that tend to bear a putrid smell.
However, once again, those only come close to being out of the ordinary for my taste, but, I guess since I’m writing this blog for journalistic purposes, I suppose I should share an experience of mine that is, yes, out of the ordinary. My experience comes from a rather uncanny VHS tape I had received during my first few months on the job. Yes I know, how generic, a spooky VHS tape. Even if it is considered generic, it still exists, and there isn’t much I can do about that.
The tape was sent in by an anonymous member of the online community I share my work on. He found my page not too long ago, and started taking a bit of interest in my work. He eventually confronted me privately, and told about a few items he had stocked up on just recently, which he thought could have held some revenue. To his surprise, nothing he showed me beared anything of value, except for one thing, of course. A tape he had bought at a local video store a long, long time ago. I had asked him a few questions about the tape out of interest. What were the contents like, who was the manufacturer, things of that sort, to which he replied that he hadn’t actually watched it, however, he did know who made it.
Disney, one of the earliest animations made, in fact. At least, that was his description, but it intrigued me. Not only because it’s not often I get to check out anything remotely close to that, but because I had a son, Max, who loved that kind of stuff. I thought it would make some great father-son time, to just sit down and watch some old cartoons.
After our chat, we arranged a shipping schedule, and went our separate ways for the time being. A week passed, and a package finally came in the mail, a small cardboard box, with the tape inside. The text on the label read “Disney” in black marker, but nothing else. Not much to look at, but I was eager to get to the contents themselves. I gathered the rest of my mail, and went back inside.
“Hey Max!” I called, “I got an old Disney cartoon in the mail, if you wanna come check it out with me-“, to which he replied by storming into the living room and jumping on the couch excitedly.
After I got everything settled, I popped the tape into the VCR, sunk into the couch, and grabbed the remote. I turned on the TV, to be met with raving static, which didn’t last for too long, then slowly faded to reveal a classic Disney title screen, with Mickey and Minnie standing on opposite sides, and the title in the middle of it.
The name of the episode: “White Noise”.
The episode started with Mickey walking down a dirt trail, toward what seemed to be a small warehouse, with an old plane in front of it. Mickey skipped and danced merrily as he inched closer to the plane, with a silly, yet catchy tune playing as he did so. The scene then changed to the warehouse, as Mickey slowly waltzed on screen. He took a few more steps, then stopped in front of the plane, placed his fists on his hips, and tapped his foot with a rather concerned expression on his face, as the scene slowly faded back into raving static.
“Damn”, I said to myself, as I grabbed the remote, and attempted to eject the tape, nothin’. Tried to turn off the VCR, nope. Tried to turn off the TV, not happenin’ either, how strange. I sighed, as I got up, and took one step toward the TV. The static then slowly faded back to the scene, and I scratched my head. It was odd to say the least, but I really didn’t care, I was too interested to check out what else this thing had in store for Max and I. I sat back down, and watched once more.
Mickey eventually stopped tapping his foot, as he slowly started to lower his hands to his sides, and stayed frozen in place. The music came next, it started to grumble and growl as it slowly faded to dead silence. Soon enough, absolutely nothing was happening.
“Great, another waste of time…” I said to myself, as I lowered my head onto the cushion behind me.
“But it isn’t over yet.”
I jolted my head up to find Mickey staring at the screen with a dark smirk on his face.
The tape then began to rewind, as it put itself back to the beginning, and played from the title screen, but instead of both Mickey and Minnie standing on opposite sides, this time there were two Mickeys. A plain white Mickey, which looked to be a sketch, yet to be finished, and the normal colored one. The episode’s name remained the same, however the text was marred and smeared in random places. The scene then changed to the same as before, with the dirt trail and the warehouse, but instead of Mickey skipping and dancing, he immediately started to have, what appeared to be, an epileptic attack as hysterical laughter accompanied him in the background. The scene didn’t even move, it just stayed there as he twitched spastically.
Eventually he “collected himself” and started sprinting toward the warehouse, clawing at the air in front of him, as he turned his head and stared dead into the screen. The scene changed to the warehouse for a split second with the plane’s engine ignited, and the propeller spinning as Mickey dashed toward it head first, prepared to have himself torn to shreds. Luckily for us, it was quickly cut off by the screen progressively marring and cutting to black. Then it displayed a small line of text:
“Are you enjoying the show?”
I looked at Max, he was in utter shock just as much as I was. He looked up at me and asked me what was happening, but my mind drew a blank. I couldn’t tell him, as I didn’t know either. I told Max to leave, I didn’t want him to watch any more of it. He’d seen enough.
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to keep watching myself, but I had to. I HAD to. Not out of idiocy, and it certainly wasn’t because I wanted to write some cheesy campfire story, but for the sake of curiosity. It was literally pulling me in, I had to finish it, there was no way I could stop it. The episode then cut to a straight line of text, which sped across a jet black background:
“Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha”, then it halted and displayed another, this time at the bottom-left of the screen, “I can see you.”
“I can see you?” I whispered to myself, I didn’t know what could see me, but I found out about as quickly as I had asked. Almost immediately after I had said what I did, something began exposing itself in the center of the screen, accompanying the text. A blank white Mickey Mouse head emerged from the blackness, only showing two massive, empty eyes and a wide blackened grin. Soon enough it was completely visible, and it didn’t even look like a drawing. It looked real, and considering everything that went down before, it felt like it really was, and my mouth hung open because of it.
“What the hell…” I said, whispering to the screen. Mickey smiled even wider, sporting a large grin, split in multiple spots at the seams of his lips, along with disgustingly grungy teeth. It heard me.
“I can see you”, it said in a stern, deep voice, repeating the contents present beside it.

A series of haha’s then flashed rapidly in front of the static along with a loud, almost deafening screech. I had to cover my ears it was so damn loud. The remote was right next to me. I could’ve at least tried to end it, but the horrid sound made it hard to move my hands from my ears.
A moment passed, and it didn’t stop. I didn’t care anymore, and I didn’t care if I went deaf just to stop it. I reached for the remote, and shut it off, rescuing most of my sanity. My ears rang for a good few minutes, but, luckily they didn’t f*****g explode. I looked over to the doorway, to find Max standing there. I scolded him for not listening to me when I told him to stay away, but he didn’t hear me. His eyes were glued to the screen and he was frozen solid.
“It’s not over yet”, he said, still staring at the screen.
“What?” I asked him, “What do you mean?” But he didn’t respond. Then the TV turned on. The TV turned itself on.
I looked back to the screen, to find what seemed to be a recording of the front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle straight out of a snuff film. Then I looked back over to Max, he gave me a quick glance, then redirected his attention to the screen. How the hell did he know it wasn’t over? How the hell COULD he know?!
The episode then cut to the park versions of the mascots in what seemed to be a dank basement, standing perfectly in line, facing the camera. I urged Max to get out once more, as if I could predict what was going to happen. But he wouldn’t move. He just stared.
The mascots started to laugh. It started out quiet, but then it got louder. Soon enough, they were screaming, full on crying and screaming. Some of them started to break down onto their knees as they continued, some of them just grabbed their heads and started thrashing around in place, but they didn’t stop. They just f*****g screamed, on and on and on, and Max was just standing there perfectly still, staring at it all without batting an eye. I attempted to get up and get him out of the room, but I couldn’t move. I literally couldn’t move, I was paralyzed.
“Max, can you hear me?!” I yelled at him, to attempt to break him out of his trance, but he didn’t respond. He didn’t even flinch.
“Get out Max! You’ve seen more than enough!” I attempted to yell once more, but he just stared at that damn screen. It didn’t even look like he was breathing at this point, his chest wasn’t moving at all.
Then the mascots stopped screaming, as if they were forced into silence. I looked back over to Max to find him crying. Streams of tears rolled down his face, but he remained motionless. The mascots turned their heads toward the screen, then froze for a few seconds, until they eventually got up and stood in the same, perfectly straight line they had before. They then slowly reached for their sides, and in the same manner, raised several assortments of stained, rusted knives.
“GET OUT, MAX!” I practically screamed that time. He started to cry even louder, as if he knew what was going to happen. The mascots then raised the knives up to their own throats, and started to saw into them harshly.
“MAX!”
They started thrashing around the room, as pools of crimson started drooling from the cavities in their necks. All the while, Max just stared at the bloody mess, while I tried desperately to hold back vomit. The episode then abruptly ended with a still shot of the now lifeless costumes lying sprawled out on the floor, with one of them holding a plain white card with the words “THE END” scribbled onto it in the Disney font. I looked over to Max, he wasn’t crying anymore. Instead, he was staring at me now with a wide, unnerving grin on his face. He then raised his hands from his sides, and placed them on his chin and scalp.
“I can destroy you”, he said. With a firm grasp, and little to no hesitance, he then broke his own neck with such force I didn’t even think he had, then dropped to the floor with his stare and smile still remaining.
Everything was silent for a moment.
Eventually I gathered what was left of my sanity, and rushed over to him, trying my hardest to talk to him through the sobs and screams, even when I knew he was already gone. I looked over to the TV, and in the middle of the screen I saw the plain white Mickey face, laughing, staring at me. Then it spoke to me once more.
“The darkest of secrets,
lie within the brightest of smiles. Do you see that now, Tobias?”
My mouth went agape, as the TV shut off, and I was left alone with my son’s lifeless body. I started to cry, as I buried my face into Max’s chest, holding onto his hand, as it all came to a close. But my crying ceased, and I let go of my son’s hand as I looked up to the screen, and another small line of text met my gaze:
“Your turn will come soon.”
//End of Userblog//