Between The Lions

Have you ever been afraid of The Boogeyman as a kid? The nightmarish entity that's life goal is to scare the bejesus out of bad children? But you may of not heard about, THIS one. It may sound crazy, I know. But after my experience, I may never look at myself as a normal person. My family and friends never believed me though, calling me confused, a liar, etc. etc. Maybe, I was only ten at the time.

I live in a neighborhood that you may have seen in old 50's movies such as Grease, and loved with my younger sister, Emily, and my dad. Our mom was sometimes at work till 10:00. I was watching Sesame Street with Emily till we saw a bumper of a new show, "Between The Lions". Between The Lions is basically a show similar to Sesame Street, but it was about how to read, and spell. We watched the episode about a book of Abiyoyo. But, what we saw, seemed bizarre.

The characters who played the lions seemed to be normal like in the series, but around the lion family was indescribable: humanoid lizards crawling on the walls, pale bald people spider walking down the stairs and in the halls, men in black hooded cloaks stood with the children as if they were their teachers. Emily asked me about the hooded men, and the creatures. I told her that it's a Halloween episode. But after checking the calendar, I saw that it's not October. I thought this must of been a re-run. But as I was about to walk into the living room, I heard my sister call my name.

"Kyle? What are these words their using mean?"

I looked, and saw the lion parents Theo and Cleo were saying and spelling the words, Fire, Blood, Murder, Destruction, and Evil. I was unnerved by this. So I went to turn the channel to Emily's dismay, but notices something that caught my attention. The set was similar to our library that was right across our home. I thought the library was usually C.G.I and not real. But it was actually filmed in the library in our hometown. And that's not even the scary part, as I looked through the window, I saw children playing in the front lawn, and I looked back at the Television and saw in absolute shock, the children was there being filmed. And they were playing with one of the lion puppets Lionel, and Leona. It was as if, they were filmed LIVE.

My eyes widened, and Emily noticed that I was pale as a sheet. She asked me what's wrong, and I already started to breath heavily, feeling my chest go up and down. I told her to go in her room and watch SpongeBob, she nodded, and went to her bedroom. What was going on, why was the children at the library, and how is it that I'm not loosing my mind over something, a pair of little children couldn't understand? Being only ten years old and barely mature enough to understand these types of predicaments, I was both confused and terrified.

But I had to keep it from becoming more of an issue. Even if it brings me to my downfall.

The next day after I got off the school bus, Emily hugged me and said that the lions were following her to her school. My mind went in all directions,

"Who followed you?" I asked, not letting her know I was horrified.

"The lions from that show, silly!" She chirped.

Now I was starting to panic, my heart was beating like a galloping horse, I started sweating bullets, and I was on the verge of breaking down into panicked screams! Cause now she was telling me what sounded something a madman would say in an insane asylum! But thank God this was going inside of me. Because, I didn't want to frighten her, and let her know, this was a very scary situation. Me and Emily went inside and she was already watching Between The Lions. And they showed something that made my blood turn cold. It showed the four puppets inside my own house. And I was in frame. I looked at the TV, and back at were the cameraman would of been. I ran out of the house screaming for my mom and dad as they pulled in the driveway, tears in my eyes.

I was literally going insane... But I had to be strong for my family. And most of all... I had to be strong for Emily. But, who's going to be strong for me?

I had no other choice, but to ward off this, evil entity that's stalking Emily at school, and scaring me to death. Later that night, I crept out of my house and ran to the library with nothing but a flashlight. I remembered the people who owned the library locking the doors and windows. I might regret doing this, but I had no other option, I picked the lock and entered the front door. Good thing the game Skyrim taught me how to pick locks. I searched through out the entire library and found a book upstairs in the middle of the kiddie section.

It was a book called, the Necronomicon. A book on how to raise the dead. I know this cause I accidently took a peek at my dad watching Evil Dead. I knew that if I took the book to my parents and show them what the library was doing, they would believe me. So I grabbed the book and looked at it in my ten year old hands. Suddenly I heard the office door nob shaking, and I turned and called out, "Who's there?!" And every fiber of my being froze in unimaginable fear. The door slowly creaked opened, and I heard the most God awful sound I've ever heard. Then, I saw them crawling on all fours, pulsating eyes looking at me. Their hideously grotesque, and sharp teeth gnarling, their pointed ears down, obviously angry at what I've done. But, what the hell did I do? All I did was grab this- this book on how to raise the fucking dead.

I shined the flashlight on the creatures, but it vanished. I turned it off, to see it still there. I flashed it on and off, realizing, it was invisible when in the light. I went to run downstairs, but I saw two creatures similar blocking the entrance, my only escape. The monster on the other side had a hat and T-shirt similar to Lionel in the show. I just figured it out... the truth behind Between The Lions...

It was them... These things I was confronting, this was them, the lions in the show. In the show, the lions were little puppets. But, in real life, it was there little game of Russian Roulette with reality. They were brain washing us... tricking us into becoming there victims before killing us, and eating us. The meats that the puppets were eating... those were parts of children. I didn't want to think that- I did- I did NOT want to think of something like that. I just couldn't. My childish mind was too feeble for such nonsense.

I wanted out of this hellish place as fast as I could, but I was stuck in one place, too scared to move. Then I felt the creature grab my shoulders from behind, biting into my shoulder. I let out a gut wrenching cry as the pain shot from my right shoulder down my arm. The thing that supposed to be Lionel let out a demented, clown-like cackle as I cried out in both pain and terror. I elbowed the monster off my back and punched it in the jaw. I ran downstairs, by passed the two monsters, slammed the door shut and ran home.

I was beginning to feel dizzy from the amount of blood-loss. And I tried crying out for mom and dad. I thought I wasn't going to make it. So I collapsed in the middle of the front lawn, and blacked out.

I woke up in the hospital, and heard Emily chirping, "Look mommy! He's waking up!"

"Emily...?" I asked quietly.

"Kyle thank God!" My mom said with tears in her eyes.

"I'm glad your ok, thank you doctor." My dad smiled, shaking hands with the medical professional. And happy that, I WAS going to make it out alive.

"Where did you find this weird book?" My dad asked.

I look, and saw the Necronomicon in my dad's hands.

"Uuh... I was in the library last night."

With that said, I told them everything. But, they wouldn't believe me. They said that the librarian told them that I was breaking into the library and stealing a book. And was attacked by a guard dog that was just doing it's job.

But I swore on the holy bible that these were no guard dogs. Some of the things I saw were standing on they're hind legs, and doing movements that I recall as, Marionette-like. And they didn't run towards me, instead, they were flown towards me as if hands were inside they're backs, that made their facial movements. This reminded me of the new IT movie, like how horror movie reviewers described Pennywise was puppet-like in Bill Scarsgard's performance. Because of my traumatizing experience, I might as well be in the new IT movie. These creatures I saw in the library on that night, was just like the new and improved Pennywise. Maybe WORSE than Pennywise.

I grew up paranoid and skeptical of that library, so I moved out of that country and ended up living in a suburban home in Newport News Virginia. I still watch Between The Lions on YouTube. But after what happened during my childhood, made me think twice about things.

Let this story be a warning to ALL of you out there reading this. Be extra, extra, EXTRA careful. About what you watch on PBS kids. They maybe cute and harmless to kids. But. What lays behind that innocent disguise... Maybe the last thing you'll ever see.