Return to Sender

I'm not sure how many of you have ever watched Postman Pat, but I can tell you that I used to be quite a fan of the show when I was little. Growing older, I soon moved on to more exciting things. But try as I might, I still had a soft spot for the show, even in my adult years.

Postman Pat doesn't really air often (if at all) these days where I am, so what little remains of the series is now on websites such as YouTube.

One day I was browsing through YouTube and decided to take a look at some of these Postman Pat episodes - if only for the nostalgia value.

To my surprise one of the Featured Videos was "Return To Sender" - showing a bad quality, black and white image of Postman Pat and Jess the cat.

"Cool, a Postman Pat 'Lost Episode' tape," I thought to myself, knowing about the craze and deciding to check it out. I knew real well that these were hoaxes and not too many creeped me out. Nevertheless, I looked forward to seeing what some demented soul had done to my Postman Pat.

To my surprise, when I clicked the video I noticed an abnormally long timer; 12 hours to be precise. This was pretty unusual but not totally unheard of for more TV shows. For a "Lost Episode" hoax tape, however, such a long timer was almost unheard of.

There was no way I was going to sit through the entire 12 hours, I decided to watch as much as I could before I moved on.

The video began with a bad quality black and white intro to the show, the cheerful music playing in reverse. Other than that, the intro remained the same and soon cut to the beginning of the "episode".

The video showed Pat standing outside a house with Jess sitting in a basket nearby, the bad quality still apparent; Pat held a parcel in his hand and there was nothing but silence for a good few minutes as Pat stared lifelessly at the parcel.

Quickly growing bored of this I clicked on another video, which played as normal and I began to dismiss "Return To Sender" as a really bad trolling attempt by some bored idiot (having seen a few in my time).

Then things started to get weird, the video I was watching suddenly broke into static and changed to a picture of Pat staring at the parcel in silence - the timer once again changing to 12 hours.

I was absolutely awe-struck. This was impossible - not even a virus could explain something like that. I quickly closed the window entirely, not wishing to continue any further.

However, the window soon popped back up and I found my mouse unable to work. Even using my keyboard did nothing as the screen showed Pat staring at the parcel again, the 12 hour timer still counting down.

I tried to switch my laptop manually off at this point but the button just wouldn't work. It was then that the image finally started to change as the video zoomed in on the parcel. The quality was still really bad but I could see a label on the parcel stamped "Return To Sender".

The video just remained focused on that parcel as I heard the sound of weeping, growing louder and louder. The parcel dropped to the ground in slow motion as the sound of a cat hissing then crying in pain was heard in the background.

The video kept focusing on the parcel laying on the ground as images began to flash on and off the screen: pictures of mutilated cats, real and in color, each image only staying on screen for a few seconds before disappearing.

After a while this stopped and the video switched back to Pat, who was standing in place staring at the parcel - which had somehow appeared back in his hand. I noticed the basket and Jess were now missing from the scene entirely.

Pat opened the parcel and broke down on the spot, falling to his knees as he covered his face and wept horribly, the parcel falling once again to the ground. A small fuzzy paw poked out from inside, lifeless.

The video ended at that point, turning to black. The 12 hour timer still going as my laptop finally switched itself off.

To this day I'm not sure what happened or what the video was about. In truth, I don't really think I want to anyway. If you should see such a video on YouTube or any other site I'd advise you to just let it be; it's not worth it. You know what they say, right?

Curiosity killed the cat.