Where Cancelled Cartoons Go

Author's note: This story is based on a real life experience I had on a Tuesday night, and it really freaked me out ever since - I am not kidding you when I say this. Now, I want to present this experience into story form, and as you'd say, get this off my chest. Hopefully you guys understand what I dreamt that night, and if either The Shadow Reader, Shadow Lioness, SkyRunner SG-1, or any narrator on YouTube is reading this, get ready for one hell of a story.

By the way, this story is not for younger audiences, so reader discretion is advised.

Where Cancelled Cartoons Go written by TheDarkCat97
I had a weird nightmare last night. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. I relived the same anxiety inducing events over and over. While it's true nightmares are more common among children, one out of every two adults has nightmares on occasion. And between 2% and 8% of the adult population is plagued by nightmares. But this one, really did make me think, even at work I can feel it picking at my brain.

It was on a Tuesday around 10:00 at night, I was on the internet looking up one of my favorite cartoons growing up while I should be in bed cause I had to get up in the morning to go to work. You see, I'm practically 22-years-old and has ADHD Asperger's Syndrome, routines like this is never easy. I usually burn out my energy by pacing around the room listening to music before growing drowsy and finally hitting the hay. My job at the hotel is, sure enough, like having a job at a local prison. My two co-workers rather have the last person who worked here than have me in their midst, in other words, they hated my guts because of my disability. Everyday, they'd scold me for the tiniest things, and when I scribble my one mistake on the piece of paper, one of them would replace the piece of paper with a new one, write the same numbers on it, and throw the old one in the trash. The other thing is that there is a Spanish old woman who works here. Talk about ugly as sin! She has that mole on her neck about the size of a nipple, and is covered in hairs. Every time I see this, I'd want to wash my eyes out with bleach. The thing with her is that she is extremely annoying; constantly walking past me making weird whistling noises. She'd also walk in where my co-workers are at, trying to talk to either my manager, or one of my dumbass co-workers. It's like, I don't want to see her disgusting, grotesque, vomit-inducing mole on her wrinkly neck. Why she didn't get that thing removed, God only knows.

After another day of finally getting home from that hellhole, getting dressed into my pajamas, watch YouTube videos, and draw a few pictures before my mother gets home around five in the afternoon. After eating dinner, I got in the shower, then got back on YouTube before 10:00. But, due to my ADHD, I wind up staying up late. I stayed on a picture of the Canadian cartoon, Kid vs Kat, in one page and watched a livestream on the other until I slowly drifted off to sleep around one in the morning.

What I dreamt about was one of the most bizarre things I've had ever had.

I suddenly appeared in what looks like a lobby of some sort, everything around me appeared to look like it's drawn in a 2D animated style. I even looked at my hands and body, and I saw that I'm a cartoon. I look around, and the lobby-looking area was dark and only lit by one candle behind the desk. Not to mention that it was so quiet that the sounds of my breathing were audible. The walls had faded wallpaper that has slashes and tears on them, there was even drawings of stick figures drawn in colored markers. Down the halls through the double doors in front of me, I heard the most gut-crunching sounds I've ever heard. It was like the Wails of the Damned, except more haunting and melancholy. The lobby was empty, and the halls continued to be filled with these unnerving sounds, I entered through the double doors as I saw the halls having a damaged looking interior: children's toys scattered all over the floors, some of the paint on the concrete walls having faded and sometimes covered in mold, and the lights were either broken, or just simply flickered.

I heard the sounds grow louder and louder until I came to a large area surrounded with iron doors, like a prison cafeteria. The stairs had alphabet blocks scattered around, and the lights around here were the same way, broken, or flickering. The air had this fowl, copper smell that burned my nostrils. As for the sounds, I now hear them distinctly. It was the sounds of pained moans and sobbing, and it all came from behind specific iron doors that is up the stairs. I walked up the stairs and looked at the pieces of paper that is taped to the other side of the iron doors. One was for an individual named Jake Long, the door had a rusted lock on it and the window was shut. The piece of paper had red hand writing on it that reads, "Jake Long: ALIVE".

I never got to see what Jake Long looked like since the window was shut, but the next one has it's window open, and Arnold can be seen inside what looks like a dark room with only one dangling light bulb enveloping the room in one, faded light. His ankle was chained to the wall and looked absolutely miserable. His body was so thin that his entire skeleton can be seen through his pale, gray skin. His clothes were tattered and torn, and his eyes were bloodshot from crying. His hair was messy and his teeth were rotted and decayed due to not having good hygiene for what looked like years. Underneath his torn clothing, I can see gruesome scars and critical injuries that looked extremely painful to look at. He didn't due anything but sit there and rocked back and forth, babbling incoherently. Through his gibberish, I can vaguely hear him say, "There has to be a way out... There has to be..."

The piece of paper near his door reads, "Arnold: ALIVE".

The next door was the most creepiest, the window was shut, but the writing says it all... "Johnny Bravo: DECEASED". I was quite blown away when I read that. Questions bubbled in my head, how did Johnny Bravo die? Who's doing this to these characters? Why are they here?

Suddenly, I heard something enter the room, and quietly ran down the hall and hid in one of the empty rooms. There I saw the most horrific thing I've ever seen. It was a lean, long-limbed, gray skinned creature with long black tendril-like hair jutting from the top of its head down its back. It's face has large, gold-colored eyes; a small, flat nose; and a mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. It's hands contain five digits tipped with razor-sharp talons, and had a long, whip like tail. It walked on it's hind legs as it stalked down the hall and stopped at the far end of one of the iron doors. There it opened it with a long, grinding sound, and entered as the sound of a cat meowing in a heart-wrenching way along with the sounds of chains clattering. I watched as it walked out and dragged Mr. Kat from the Canadian show I looked up, chained from his neck, and practically clawing at the concrete floor. I can see tears in his black eyes as he pleads and begged for it to let him go.

It dragged the poor alien animal down the hall as the sounds of Kat's crying echoed down the halls as I silently followed it all the way to a large room that resembled those operating rooms you'd see in a hospital. Around an operating table in the center, there was splashes of gore all over it, and puddles dry blood were all over the floor. There was a table of saws, knives, nails, and meat hooks next to the table, and on the opposite side was a head piece and an electrical device; no doubt used for shock therapy. The creature straightened the table so that Kat would be strapped to it by his wrists and ankles, and got ready for whatever tortures he would inflict on the poor beast.

Kat breathed heavily as streams of tears rolled down his purple face as the monster picked up two small cinderblocks, and placed them underneath Kat's elbows, then picked up a hammer. My eyes widened as I watched from behind the large door, and the creature got ready to swing the weapon at Kat's right arm. As the hammer met with the feline's flesh, a loud crunch echoed off the walls, and the room was filled with the sounds of Kat's pain-filled shrieks and yowling. I saw the bones of Kat's arm dislocate and go limp as the beast cried up a storm. The cat was in so much pain, but the monster just carried on as it swung the hammer at Kat's left arm, a loud, sickening crunch echoed off the walls again as Kat began shrieking in pain again. I wanted to run down the hall and get the hell out of there, but my feet were glued to the ground, I was too scared to move.

Tears were running down heavily from the cat's eyes and it began sobbing like a fool, and the creature wiped away the beast's tears and licked it, smirking with demented pleasure. It then took out a mouth brace and placed it inside his maw, making sure it exposed his teeth. It then picked up a pair of pliers, and painfully yank out every fang in his mouth. Kat's screams were mixed with gurgling as blood began to flow. Kat is now missing a few teeth and begged for death, but the monster was having none of that. He then placed the headset on Kat's head, and placed a metal mouth piece in his mouth. He turned the electrical device on, and watched as Kat convulsed as volts of electricity surged through his body. This went on for minutes before Kat was finally dragged back to the room he was dragged out of, and locked the door.

I peeped through the window as Kat began softly crying again, and I got his attention by knocking on the iron door gently. "Hey, you okay?" I asked.

"Go away..." Kat said softly through sobs. I have never heard Kat speak before, usually he'd say Millie's name from the show, but, never in my life has he ever spoke like a human being.

"Please, Kat, I'm begging you. Let me help you. You don't deserve this, none of you do."

Kat just looks at me with the most miserable look anyone can give, "You don't understand. This isn't a place you can easily escape from, this is where all the cancelled characters go when they have nowhere else to go. And when their usefulness isn't needed, they are left here to suffer in the hands of these creatures of unknown origin, who guard the facility and torment us until we die from our inflicted injuries. We're not here to wait 'till we return to your idiot boxes, we're here to rot and decay, forever forgotten by viewers around the world, left in obscurity and slowly fade away into your subconscious train of thought. It's best if you leave us to die, we tried begging for help, but how can you call for help when no one can hear you scream? It's critical. Believe me when I say, there's no escaping these unholy walls, it's absolutely impossible."

I was left speechless. Looking back at it, I can see why, but I'll get back to that in a minute. I tried reasoning with the poor feline, but he'd tell me that it's impossible. By that time, I woke up.

I didn't know what happened, nor the reason why I came up with that. Maybe it was some kind of morbid message or some fucked up dream that turned into a gritty nightmare. Either way though, I keep remembering that dream during my time at my job. I haven't told anyone this because I don't want to ruin your childhood like most stories on the internet. And that's the thing, don't take this as just your standard "CreepyPasta story", consider this as an awareness. Because if you have dreams like this, they have a meaning behind it. Who knows, maybe the dream I had was a real thing in the cartoon world, or it was about ghosts going to Hell when they have nowhere else to go... or it might be something more sinister.

So, I'll end my story on a good note. My job went smoothly, I had very little linen to pick up and deliver, and there was no annoying workers to deal with. But still though, that fucking dream... Whatever it meant, it really got me spooked. And it's connection with cancelled cartoons has gotten me scratching my head, is this really where cancelled cartoons go when their shows are booted from the animation industry? That question alone remains a mystery.