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I'm a Cast Member at Disneyland and I Have Some Horrifying Secrets to Share
Teddy and I had been working at Disneyland for years. The two of us had seen hundreds, if not thousands, of young cast members come and go, heading off to college or to better jobs and brighter futures. Meanwhile, the two of us stuck around, and became a running joke to some of the younger employees, since we were never promoted to management.
Most of the lower level cast members were young - in their early twenties or late teens - and to them it was just a part time gig. A way to raise money for college or to pass a bit of time until their real lives and careers began. But Teddy and I were lifers. And, some would say, losers. Although I would never attach that label to myself willingly, I’d heard it whispered enough times to know it was what other people thought of us. We’d both been there for nearly two decades and had worked on pretty much every single attraction, but had never been deemed responsible enough to be promoted to supervisor status.
Over all that time, I found out a lot of secrets about the place. Some things that are known to the public, but also some revelations that aren’t talked about anywhere.
Did you know that cast members who work as mascots have to wear communal underwear? Yeah, that’s right. They all share the same underoos and they get washed in between uses (at least, in theory.) Who knows what pervert came up with that idea.
Or how about the fact that the skeletons on The Pirates of the Caribbean ride were originally constructed out of real bones? Despite the park’s insistence that all of the bones were removed, a few still remain. Management lost track of which were real and which were fake, and they just left the real ones in there along with the imposters. But when you’re up close, it’s easy to tell them apart. The real ones are a little more yellow, and they’re heavier than the plaster ones.
There are plenty of morbid secrets like that. People scatter the ashes of their deceased loved ones in the park so frequently we actually have a not-so-subtle codename for it: White Powder Alert. The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean are the most common places, but it’s done all over, and who knows how often people get away with it without us noticing. Code 101 means a ride is temporarily shut down, while Code V, or a “protein spill” means that someone has vomited on a ride and it needs to be cleaned up. Those spills are often the cause of ride shutdowns, rather than mechanical issues.
Oh, and if you hear yourself or someone else being referred to as a “Treasured Guest,” it doesn’t mean you’re a VIP, it’s actually our code word for saying you’re being an asshole.
There are stories of ghosts, some told by people who never believed in such things before witnessing them in the park. The specter of Walt Disney himself has been seen at times, outside Sleeping Beauty’s castle just on the other side of the drawbridge. Or sometimes he is seen at night, just outside his old apartment on Main Street, where occasionally you might smell a whiff of cigarette smoke, despite the fact that such things are banned inside the park. Walt and his family once lived there, so they could spy on visitors and listen to their opinions about the park - they would eavesdrop on their conversations from their second floor apartment, just above street level.
George, a dead electrician, supposedly haunts the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and every morning cast members must call out “Good morning, George,” at the start of the day - otherwise the ride will mysteriously have issues all day long. Unexpected shutdowns and other strange occurrences are commonplace if George isn’t given his proper morning greeting.
And have you heard about how the animatronics in It's a Small World run all night long? Yep, those rumors are true too. In fact, quite a few of the life-like robots stay in motion 24/7, even throughout the lockdowns and park shutdowns a couple years back.
If you ask management about this, they’ll tell you it’s because the attractions are cheaper to maintain this way. They break down less frequently if they’re in constant motion. That’s the excuse we get, anyways.
But I’ve come to realize there might be a far more terrifying reason for this. Something so disturbing and twisted that I wouldn’t have thought it possible, if I hadn’t witnessed it for myself.
Teddy and I were on our lunch break when we found the storage room. We were looking for somewhere private, since Teddy had brought a bit of homegrown greenery and his favorite piece of glassware that day.
The park has miles and miles of tunnels crisscrossing underneath it, and Teddy and I had explored most of the labyrinth over our years of service. Like everything in the park, there was a stupid nickname for these underground tunnels - they had been dubbed "utilidors" by some management type in the distant past. Most of the cast members just called them, "The Tunnels" and they were so vast that we often used golf carts to get from one end to the other. There were odd dead ends and some tunnels seemed to intentionally lead to nowhere. We were currently in one such useless utilidor when we noticed an odd-looking door which appeared to be at least a half century old, if not more.
It had a rusted placard hanging on its surface which read: Obsolete Animatronics Storage.
“Hey, didn’t there used to be a vending machine here?” Teddy asked.
“Who cares, let’s see if it opens. We’ve only got twenty minutes left,” I said, looking at the time on my cell phone.
The door knob turned in my hand and the two of us went inside. I looked for a lightswitch on the wall to my right, but didn’t find one. It was pitch-black and impossible to see anything.
Using the flashlight on my cell, I cast a beam of light around the room, trying to see what kind of space we were in. There were people-shaped forms all around us, draped in tarps and tablecloths. The room was as long as a football field, but it was narrow - only about fifteen feet across.
“Creepy,” Teddy said, taking the words right out of my mouth. “Well, I guess it did say this was animatronics storage. These must be really old.”
He wandered away from the door and it clicked shut behind him. Something about that made me nervous, but I ignored the feeling. The door had been unlocked, and that meant we’d be able to get out again. Still, I reached for the door knob to check it.
My hand was about to touch the polished brass when Teddy called out, making me jump.
“Whoa! Check this out,” he said, sounding excited.
I left the door, turning around to see what he was looking at. He had his cell phone flashlight on now as well, and was lifting up one of the tarps to look at what was underneath.
“Man, this thing is freaky looking!”
He pulled the tarp all the way off and I saw what he meant. The thing hidden underneath was very creepy.
It had the goateed face of a young man but the ears and nubby horns of a goat - looking far too real. Its lower half looked like it also belonged to a goat. The thing reminded me of a satyr - those drunken, lustful half-goat gods from Greek mythology.
I tried to figure out why it was making me feel so uneasy, and realized it was the eyes. They were too lifelike. Far more real than the animatronics out in the park. And the look of the skin, the way it reflected the light and everything about it… It looked like this was a real creature. Or, more likely, a man who had been sewn to the body of a goat in a very thorough way, making the seams blend together perfectly.
Teddy was already moving onto the next one, looking under another tarp. He left me alone with this one, and I looked back down at it as I let go of the cover and let it fall over its face again.
Flinching backwards, I nearly screamed, as I could have sworn the eyes of the thing were looking up at me, just as I dropped the tarp over its face again.
My heart was beating fast now, and I tried to tell myself it was a trick of the light. Or that the eyes had been looking up that way the whole time, and I just hadn’t noticed.
“We need to go,” I heard myself say, but Teddy wasn’t listening.
“Holy shit! This one’s even more jacked up! Dude, you gotta check this out.”
I opened my mouth to say, “NO, let’s get out of here,” but the words caught in my throat.
The satyr creature under the tarp was clearly moving now. Its head was still draped in the plastic sheet, but I could see it turning to look up at me, as if its gaze could penetrate through the tarp.
“Dude, come check this out!” Teddy was saying, pulling the next sheet off and dropping it to the floor.
I saw what he was referring to, my eyes drawn to it despite my terror of the draped creature just in front of me.
This one was tall, standing nearly ten feet. It had one large eye instead of two.
“Man, whoever made these things was trippin’ on acid or something. Look at this! It looks like they jacked an eyeball from an elephant and stuffed it into some dude’s forehead. I think they were trying to make a cyclops!”
I could barely hear him, as now the thing in front of me wasn’t the only figure in the room which was moving. To my left, the entire row of covered forms were beginning to stretch and turn as if waking up from a very long sleep. Some were tall and some were short like the satyr-thing on my right, but all of them were alive.
I realized I was very cold all of a sudden, and breathed out to see my breath steaming in the air. A compressor groaned to life and I saw a nearby vent cough out a frosty plume, as if something had been jammed or broken and was suddenly operating again.
The temperature in the room began to plummet, and a second later I was freezing cold - the rushing air chilling the back of my neck.
Finally I was shocked out of my stupor and managed to get out a word.
“Teddy,” I croaked, but too late.
The giant cyclops’ hand shot out and grabbed my friend by the throat. It lifted him up into the air, while his legs kicked and his arms thrashed, trying to break its grip.
He was choking and sputtering, flailing madly as he tried to free himself. The cyclops held firmly onto his throat, and I heard the sounds of cartilage and bones being crushed. His spine popped and his head bent back at an impossible angle, his skull lolling backwards like a broken Pez dispenser.
And then the giant dropped him to the concrete floor of the room, and his phone clattered and turned over, casting half the room in darkness again.
I backed away, feeling like I was moving in slow motion but unable to go any quicker. Reaching back for the door knob, it felt like the tunnel had grown by a hundred feet. It was further away than could be possible.
I kept backing up, taking slow, quiet steps.
The figures were moving toward me now. All of them were closing the gap and slowly walking in my direction. Their forms were covered, draped in bed sheets, tarps, and tablecloths - as if this place had been thrown together in a hurry. Hastily constructed to house these possessed animatronics, or whatever these creatures were.
Cold air was filling the room, making it even more difficult to move. My skin felt like it was being stabbed with pins and needles, the freezing wind going right through my summer clothing.
There was a sound of tearing flesh and blood being spilled, and I looked to see several of the monsters were tearing the skin from Teddy’s face - peeling it from the bones with some difficulty, like trying to open an under-ripe orange.
The worst part was, it looked like he was still alive. He was opening his mouth and closing it like a fish out of water - his eyes wide open as if he would be screaming if he were capable of it.
I tried to tear my eyes away from this but could not, and found myself staring at him as they took the flesh from his face.
I backed up hard into something and realized it was the door. In the darkness I felt for the door knob behind me, but couldn’t find it. The creatures were still moving toward me, all of their faces covered by the sheets, except for the massive cyclops which had killed my friend. Its one huge eyeball was fixed on me, and it moved in lockstep with the other creatures, as if they all shared one hive mind.
As they approached, a few stepped on each other's coverings, tearing them away and revealing their hideous faces. I saw a woman's upper body sewn onto the legs of a deer, and a man with the hindquarters of a bull - their faces full of mute anger.
My hand groped for the door knob desperately, and after several long moments it settled on the smooth brass. It was SO cold, almost frozen.
I spun around, expecting the door knob to turn easily again, but this time it was stuck. I couldn’t tell if it was locked or frozen solid, but either way it wouldn’t budge.
Feeling like there would be icy hands around my throat at any second, I was too terrified to turn around. I heard the sounds of shuffling feet moving closer, the icy wind blowing through my clothes and raising goosebumps on my skin.
I began to pound against the door with my fists, banging on it as hard as I could as I screamed for help, pleading for someone to save me.
“HELP! OPEN THE DOOR!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
The corridor we had entered from was a dead-end, rarely used by anyone.
Of course this door would be locked only from the inside, I thought to myself. Who would offer an escape to these animatronic demons? If they had ever been imbued with any form of failsafe, it was long out of commission and useless. These creatures had no mercy and no respect for human life. They wanted blood and fresh faces to create more of themselves, to raise an army of undead, robotic soldiers.
Manic thoughts were racing through my head as I tried to think of another way out. There had to be something. Some other way.
I turned around, hoping for some other exit to present itself, but instead I just saw hundreds of shrouded forms, stepping closer, until they were just a few feet away.
A gurgling, wheezing sound could be heard from behind them, and I realized it was the labored breaths of Teddy slowly dying. If I didn’t find a way out, it would be me next.
With one desperate move, I kicked out toward the head of the nearest shrouded figure - the satyr. My foot connected with its face and as it did the entire crowd fell back a step, as if hurting one of them would hurt them all. I lashed out with another blow, punching it in the gut, and the crowd took another wounded step backwards.
I used the newfound space to my advantage and took a short running start towards the door. Kicking it hard with my boot, I connected squarely with the spot beside the door knob. It rattled in the frame, but didn’t budge.
Taking a quick look back over my shoulder, I saw the crowd of animatronic creatures were now coming at me again with renewed anger. They looked furious at me for assaulting one of them, and apparently injuring it. The satyr was slumped forward, its joints making creaky noises as it made its way toward me - its movements jerky and disorganized.
I kicked the door again, harder this time, using every ounce of force I could muster. I heard something splinter and break, but it still didn’t budge.
Icy hands gripped my throat from behind and I threw an elbow backwards to try to break free. It connected with whatever had grabbed hold of me, but it didn’t let go. Instead, its grip tightened, choking me and squeezing my throat until I couldn’t breathe.
I let out another strangled cry for help, but no sound came out this time. The grip on my windpipe was making it impossible to call out.
My feet were going numb from the cold, which seemed to have intensified even more somehow. I hadn’t thought it was possible to feel any colder, but realized whoever was controlling the temperature of this place was doing this on purpose. These things did not like the cold, and it put them into a state of hibernation. But for some reason this place had been almost room temperature when we entered, bringing these creatures back to life.
With one more desperate effort, I lifted my leg and kicked as hard as I could, my heel connecting with the door just beside the latch. Something shattered and broke loudly, and the door swung open on its hinges.
The momentum brought me forward and I found myself tumbling back into the corridor. Whatever had grabbed hold of me from behind came with me, the icy hands frozen around my neck.
As I landed, the thing’s fingers broke off like icicles, shattering on impact. The shrouded creature was writhing on the floor, looking as if it wanted to get up to chase me but wasn’t quite capable of it yet. It was still too cold.
I stumbled to my feet and ran from there, not really thinking about my mistake until I was far away from that spot.
When it occurred to me what I had done, it was too late. I had let those things out. I’d opened the door, freeing them. And I had allowed the warm air inside, so they could come back to life and escape.
I was too terrified to stay in the park. I went home immediately without saying a word to anyone, then called my boss and told him I was sick with a stomach flu. I apologized, saying I had been throwing up in the bathroom and didn’t want to cause a Code V while “on stage”.
He told me that was okay, since he knew I was a dedicated employee. A trusted cast member who had been with the park for years. But he did ask if I had seen Teddy. And I had to lie and tell him no.
I’m supposed to go back to work tomorrow, for the first time since all this happened.
The worst part about it is, nobody has reported Teddy missing. His family hasn’t called to say anything either. It’s almost like none of it ever happened, except I’ve got the marks around my neck - the bruises that prove I didn’t imagine it.
I just got a strange text message from Teddy’s cell phone number.
See you at work tomorrow, buddy, it said, accompanied by a mouse emoji.
Me and some other cast members have a BIG surprise for you. https://youtu.be/J6QsVVLLqcQ
Teddy and I had been working at Disneyland for years. The two of us had seen hundreds, if not thousands, of young cast members come and go, heading off to college or to better jobs and brighter futures. Meanwhile, the two of us stuck around, and became a running joke to some of the younger employees, since we were never promoted to management.
Most of the lower level cast members were young - in their early twenties or late teens - and to them it was just a part time gig. A way to raise money for college or to pass a bit of time until their real lives and careers began. But Teddy and I were lifers. And, some would say, losers. Although I would never attach that label to myself willingly, I’d heard it whispered enough times to know it was what other people thought of us. We’d both been there for nearly two decades and had worked on pretty much every single attraction, but had never been deemed responsible enough to be promoted to supervisor status.
Over all that time, I found out a lot of secrets about the place. Some things that are known to the public, but also some revelations that aren’t talked about anywhere.
Did you know that cast members who work as mascots have to wear communal underwear? Yeah, that’s right. They all share the same underoos and they get washed in between uses (at least, in theory.) Who knows what pervert came up with that idea.
Or how about the fact that the skeletons on The Pirates of the Caribbean ride were originally constructed out of real bones? Despite the park’s insistence that all of the bones were removed, a few still remain. Management lost track of which were real and which were fake, and they just left the real ones in there along with the imposters. But when you’re up close, it’s easy to tell them apart. The real ones are a little more yellow, and they’re heavier than the plaster ones.
There are plenty of morbid secrets like that. People scatter the ashes of their deceased loved ones in the park so frequently we actually have a not-so-subtle codename for it: White Powder Alert. The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean are the most common places, but it’s done all over, and who knows how often people get away with it without us noticing. Code 101 means a ride is temporarily shut down, while Code V, or a “protein spill” means that someone has vomited on a ride and it needs to be cleaned up. Those spills are often the cause of ride shutdowns, rather than mechanical issues.
Oh, and if you hear yourself or someone else being referred to as a “Treasured Guest,” it doesn’t mean you’re a VIP, it’s actually our code word for saying you’re being an asshole.
There are stories of ghosts, some told by people who never believed in such things before witnessing them in the park. The specter of Walt Disney himself has been seen at times, outside Sleeping Beauty’s castle just on the other side of the drawbridge. Or sometimes he is seen at night, just outside his old apartment on Main Street, where occasionally you might smell a whiff of cigarette smoke, despite the fact that such things are banned inside the park. Walt and his family once lived there, so they could spy on visitors and listen to their opinions about the park - they would eavesdrop on their conversations from their second floor apartment, just above street level.
George, a dead electrician, supposedly haunts the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and every morning cast members must call out “Good morning, George,” at the start of the day - otherwise the ride will mysteriously have issues all day long. Unexpected shutdowns and other strange occurrences are commonplace if George isn’t given his proper morning greeting.
And have you heard about how the animatronics in It's a Small World run all night long? Yep, those rumors are true too. In fact, quite a few of the life-like robots stay in motion 24/7, even throughout the lockdowns and park shutdowns a couple years back.
If you ask management about this, they’ll tell you it’s because the attractions are cheaper to maintain this way. They break down less frequently if they’re in constant motion. That’s the excuse we get, anyways.
But I’ve come to realize there might be a far more terrifying reason for this. Something so disturbing and twisted that I wouldn’t have thought it possible, if I hadn’t witnessed it for myself.
Teddy and I were on our lunch break when we found the storage room. We were looking for somewhere private, since Teddy had brought a bit of homegrown greenery and his favorite piece of glassware that day.
The park has miles and miles of tunnels crisscrossing underneath it, and Teddy and I had explored most of the labyrinth over our years of service. Like everything in the park, there was a stupid nickname for these underground tunnels - they had been dubbed "utilidors" by some management type in the distant past. Most of the cast members just called them, "The Tunnels" and they were so vast that we often used golf carts to get from one end to the other. There were odd dead ends and some tunnels seemed to intentionally lead to nowhere. We were currently in one such useless utilidor when we noticed an odd-looking door which appeared to be at least a half century old, if not more.
It had a rusted placard hanging on its surface which read: Obsolete Animatronics Storage.
“Hey, didn’t there used to be a vending machine here?” Teddy asked.
“Who cares, let’s see if it opens. We’ve only got twenty minutes left,” I said, looking at the time on my cell phone.
The door knob turned in my hand and the two of us went inside. I looked for a lightswitch on the wall to my right, but didn’t find one. It was pitch-black and impossible to see anything.
Using the flashlight on my cell, I cast a beam of light around the room, trying to see what kind of space we were in. There were people-shaped forms all around us, draped in tarps and tablecloths. The room was as long as a football field, but it was narrow - only about fifteen feet across.
“Creepy,” Teddy said, taking the words right out of my mouth. “Well, I guess it did say this was animatronics storage. These must be really old.”
He wandered away from the door and it clicked shut behind him. Something about that made me nervous, but I ignored the feeling. The door had been unlocked, and that meant we’d be able to get out again. Still, I reached for the door knob to check it.
My hand was about to touch the polished brass when Teddy called out, making me jump.
“Whoa! Check this out,” he said, sounding excited.
I left the door, turning around to see what he was looking at. He had his cell phone flashlight on now as well, and was lifting up one of the tarps to look at what was underneath.
“Man, this thing is freaky looking!”
He pulled the tarp all the way off and I saw what he meant. The thing hidden underneath was very creepy.
It had the goateed face of a young man but the ears and nubby horns of a goat - looking far too real. Its lower half looked like it also belonged to a goat. The thing reminded me of a satyr - those drunken, lustful half-goat gods from Greek mythology.
I tried to figure out why it was making me feel so uneasy, and realized it was the eyes. They were too lifelike. Far more real than the animatronics out in the park. And the look of the skin, the way it reflected the light and everything about it… It looked like this was a real creature. Or, more likely, a man who had been sewn to the body of a goat in a very thorough way, making the seams blend together perfectly.
Teddy was already moving onto the next one, looking under another tarp. He left me alone with this one, and I looked back down at it as I let go of the cover and let it fall over its face again.
Flinching backwards, I nearly screamed, as I could have sworn the eyes of the thing were looking up at me, just as I dropped the tarp over its face again.
My heart was beating fast now, and I tried to tell myself it was a trick of the light. Or that the eyes had been looking up that way the whole time, and I just hadn’t noticed.
“We need to go,” I heard myself say, but Teddy wasn’t listening.
“Holy shit! This one’s even more jacked up! Dude, you gotta check this out.”
I opened my mouth to say, “NO, let’s get out of here,” but the words caught in my throat.
The satyr creature under the tarp was clearly moving now. Its head was still draped in the plastic sheet, but I could see it turning to look up at me, as if its gaze could penetrate through the tarp.
“Dude, come check this out!” Teddy was saying, pulling the next sheet off and dropping it to the floor.
I saw what he was referring to, my eyes drawn to it despite my terror of the draped creature just in front of me.
This one was tall, standing nearly ten feet. It had one large eye instead of two.
“Man, whoever made these things was trippin’ on acid or something. Look at this! It looks like they jacked an eyeball from an elephant and stuffed it into some dude’s forehead. I think they were trying to make a cyclops!”
I could barely hear him, as now the thing in front of me wasn’t the only figure in the room which was moving. To my left, the entire row of covered forms were beginning to stretch and turn as if waking up from a very long sleep. Some were tall and some were short like the satyr-thing on my right, but all of them were alive.
I realized I was very cold all of a sudden, and breathed out to see my breath steaming in the air. A compressor groaned to life and I saw a nearby vent cough out a frosty plume, as if something had been jammed or broken and was suddenly operating again.
The temperature in the room began to plummet, and a second later I was freezing cold - the rushing air chilling the back of my neck.
Finally I was shocked out of my stupor and managed to get out a word.
“Teddy,” I croaked, but too late.
The giant cyclops’ hand shot out and grabbed my friend by the throat. It lifted him up into the air, while his legs kicked and his arms thrashed, trying to break its grip.
He was choking and sputtering, flailing madly as he tried to free himself. The cyclops held firmly onto his throat, and I heard the sounds of cartilage and bones being crushed. His spine popped and his head bent back at an impossible angle, his skull lolling backwards like a broken Pez dispenser.
And then the giant dropped him to the concrete floor of the room, and his phone clattered and turned over, casting half the room in darkness again.
I backed away, feeling like I was moving in slow motion but unable to go any quicker. Reaching back for the door knob, it felt like the tunnel had grown by a hundred feet. It was further away than could be possible.
I kept backing up, taking slow, quiet steps.
The figures were moving toward me now. All of them were closing the gap and slowly walking in my direction. Their forms were covered, draped in bed sheets, tarps, and tablecloths - as if this place had been thrown together in a hurry. Hastily constructed to house these possessed animatronics, or whatever these creatures were.
Cold air was filling the room, making it even more difficult to move. My skin felt like it was being stabbed with pins and needles, the freezing wind going right through my summer clothing.
There was a sound of tearing flesh and blood being spilled, and I looked to see several of the monsters were tearing the skin from Teddy’s face - peeling it from the bones with some difficulty, like trying to open an under-ripe orange.
The worst part was, it looked like he was still alive. He was opening his mouth and closing it like a fish out of water - his eyes wide open as if he would be screaming if he were capable of it.
I tried to tear my eyes away from this but could not, and found myself staring at him as they took the flesh from his face.
I backed up hard into something and realized it was the door. In the darkness I felt for the door knob behind me, but couldn’t find it. The creatures were still moving toward me, all of their faces covered by the sheets, except for the massive cyclops which had killed my friend. Its one huge eyeball was fixed on me, and it moved in lockstep with the other creatures, as if they all shared one hive mind.
As they approached, a few stepped on each other's coverings, tearing them away and revealing their hideous faces. I saw a woman's upper body sewn onto the legs of a deer, and a man with the hindquarters of a bull - their faces full of mute anger.
My hand groped for the door knob desperately, and after several long moments it settled on the smooth brass. It was SO cold, almost frozen.
I spun around, expecting the door knob to turn easily again, but this time it was stuck. I couldn’t tell if it was locked or frozen solid, but either way it wouldn’t budge.
Feeling like there would be icy hands around my throat at any second, I was too terrified to turn around. I heard the sounds of shuffling feet moving closer, the icy wind blowing through my clothes and raising goosebumps on my skin.
I began to pound against the door with my fists, banging on it as hard as I could as I screamed for help, pleading for someone to save me.
“HELP! OPEN THE DOOR!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
The corridor we had entered from was a dead-end, rarely used by anyone.
Of course this door would be locked only from the inside, I thought to myself. Who would offer an escape to these animatronic demons? If they had ever been imbued with any form of failsafe, it was long out of commission and useless. These creatures had no mercy and no respect for human life. They wanted blood and fresh faces to create more of themselves, to raise an army of undead, robotic soldiers.
Manic thoughts were racing through my head as I tried to think of another way out. There had to be something. Some other way.
I turned around, hoping for some other exit to present itself, but instead I just saw hundreds of shrouded forms, stepping closer, until they were just a few feet away.
A gurgling, wheezing sound could be heard from behind them, and I realized it was the labored breaths of Teddy slowly dying. If I didn’t find a way out, it would be me next.
With one desperate move, I kicked out toward the head of the nearest shrouded figure - the satyr. My foot connected with its face and as it did the entire crowd fell back a step, as if hurting one of them would hurt them all. I lashed out with another blow, punching it in the gut, and the crowd took another wounded step backwards.
I used the newfound space to my advantage and took a short running start towards the door. Kicking it hard with my boot, I connected squarely with the spot beside the door knob. It rattled in the frame, but didn’t budge.
Taking a quick look back over my shoulder, I saw the crowd of animatronic creatures were now coming at me again with renewed anger. They looked furious at me for assaulting one of them, and apparently injuring it. The satyr was slumped forward, its joints making creaky noises as it made its way toward me - its movements jerky and disorganized.
I kicked the door again, harder this time, using every ounce of force I could muster. I heard something splinter and break, but it still didn’t budge.
Icy hands gripped my throat from behind and I threw an elbow backwards to try to break free. It connected with whatever had grabbed hold of me, but it didn’t let go. Instead, its grip tightened, choking me and squeezing my throat until I couldn’t breathe.
I let out another strangled cry for help, but no sound came out this time. The grip on my windpipe was making it impossible to call out.
My feet were going numb from the cold, which seemed to have intensified even more somehow. I hadn’t thought it was possible to feel any colder, but realized whoever was controlling the temperature of this place was doing this on purpose. These things did not like the cold, and it put them into a state of hibernation. But for some reason this place had been almost room temperature when we entered, bringing these creatures back to life.
With one more desperate effort, I lifted my leg and kicked as hard as I could, my heel connecting with the door just beside the latch. Something shattered and broke loudly, and the door swung open on its hinges.
The momentum brought me forward and I found myself tumbling back into the corridor. Whatever had grabbed hold of me from behind came with me, the icy hands frozen around my neck.
As I landed, the thing’s fingers broke off like icicles, shattering on impact. The shrouded creature was writhing on the floor, looking as if it wanted to get up to chase me but wasn’t quite capable of it yet. It was still too cold.
I stumbled to my feet and ran from there, not really thinking about my mistake until I was far away from that spot.
When it occurred to me what I had done, it was too late. I had let those things out. I’d opened the door, freeing them. And I had allowed the warm air inside, so they could come back to life and escape.
I was too terrified to stay in the park. I went home immediately without saying a word to anyone, then called my boss and told him I was sick with a stomach flu. I apologized, saying I had been throwing up in the bathroom and didn’t want to cause a Code V while “on stage”.
He told me that was okay, since he knew I was a dedicated employee. A trusted cast member who had been with the park for years. But he did ask if I had seen Teddy. And I had to lie and tell him no.
I’m supposed to go back to work tomorrow, for the first time since all this happened.
The worst part about it is, nobody has reported Teddy missing. His family hasn’t called to say anything either. It’s almost like none of it ever happened, except I’ve got the marks around my neck - the bruises that prove I didn’t imagine it.
I just got a strange text message from Teddy’s cell phone number.
See you at work tomorrow, buddy, it said, accompanied by a mouse emoji.
Me and some other cast members have a BIG surprise for you. https://youtu.be/J6QsVVLLqcQ
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