Pete the Cat and the Djinn

"Pete the Cat and the Djinn" written by TheDarkCat97
There seems to be a plethora of internet stories about Lost Episodes and Haunted Games like: Ben Drowned, Squidward's Suicide, and Sonic.EXE. Typically, a "Lost Episode"-style Creepypasta is written as an anecdote by the author about an unaired or missing episode of a television show they unintentionally found- catching it late at night during its first and only airing, finding it on an old VHS tape, or even being part of the production crew or studio that aired the show. The show itself can be real or fictitious, and are typically animated and/or aimed at child audiences. The episode described is almost always crude/low-budget in appearance and disturbing in nature, deviating heavily in tone and subject matter from the original show.

Themes of death, murder, torture, suicide, depression and other macabre topics are common. If the show is animated or made with puppets, they are often described as either being low-quality or "hyper-realistic" (a vague and rather over-used term that typically implies that the characters/events are somehow "real", or just way more detailed than a typical TV show budget would allow).

Sometimes entire seasons or whole shows can be "lost", along with commercials, infomercials, and made-for-TV movies. Any evidence beyond the author's words has either been destroyed, hidden, or hadn't existed at all (implying the episode was created by supernatural means).

In recent times, these pastas have been considered somewhat cliché, and have fallen out of fashion on sites such as the Creepypasta Wiki. Please note that the wiki no longer accepts lost episode pastas, and become blacklisted subjects.

The following is a list of what are generally considered to be overused clichés. That doesn't mean to avoid them at all costs; in fact, some of these are overused because they are prevalent in a number of stories and movies. But if the story you're planning on writing incorporates many of these, that should be a warning sign, as they tend to bring the reader out of the story, and will more than likely interfere with their suspension of disbelief. And remember: this is a list of actual clichés, not complaints or opinions (no matter how valid they may be). If you have a complaint that isn't about clichés and more about things that generally tick you off in pastas, try making a blog post about it instead. However, these aren't always to be avoided. If you can work one into a story well, then for God's sake make it.

But, there was one thing that avoided such fables... the humble novel.

When I was a kid, I thought of myself as one of the big boys, but in reality, I was only eleven. The reason for this was the fact that I read Pete the Cat. He's a fictional cartoon cat best known for his starring role in his own New York Times bestselling children’s book series. There are currently over 60 Pete the Cat books with more being released every year. Pete the Cat’s character is the creation of artist James Dean. My favorite being Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes. The synopsis says that Pete the Cat is out for a walk, singing about how much he likes his new white sneakers, when he steps in a pile -- more like a mountain -- of strawberries. His new shoes are dyed red, but Pete doesn’t let it bother him. He sings about loving his red shoes … until he steps in a pile of blueberries. Then mud. Then water, which washes away the colors but leaves Pete with soggy, wet sneakers. But Pete remains unruffled.

On a Friday afternoon, I went to my nearest Barnes & Noble to check out some Stephen King novels, but then I wound up walking towards the kiddie section. There, I saw some Pete the Cat books among countless others, like: Where The Wild Things Are, Goodnight Moon, The Giving Tree, and the iconic Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I looked at the titles like, Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, Pete the Cat and the Bedtime Blues, Pete the Cat Saves Christmas, and Pete the Cat and the Cool Cat Boogie. After moments of searching, I saw something that... really made me think. There was a Pete the Cat book with a picture of Pete with a weird looking Rubik's cube, the squares in the puzzle had these ancient pictures, like hieroglyphics or Voodoo symbols. I have no clue what those symbols are. I read the title.

"Pete the Cat and the Djinn".

Now, you're probably wondering, "Is this gonna turn into shit since a paranormal figure is in a children's book?" And the answer is... no. It's actually quite interesting, and somewhat unnerving to say the least. If you took your time and read through it, it will literally give you chills, despite you being intrigued by the book's enchanting, child-like charm.

The book started with Pete walking down the street as black text appeared above Pete read: "Pete the Cat was walking down the street with his brand new green shoes!" It was like the beginning of Rocking With My School Shoes, but instead of the shoes' usual color from that book, it was changed to green instead. The next page beside the first showed Pete at a stop sign, and looked as if he was waiting for the bus, but it clearly shows that it was something like the weekend off from school. But the strangest part was... it was night outside. Now, it wasn't out of the ordinary for it being nighttime, take Bedtime Blues and Pete the Cat Saves Christmas for example. The black text continued: "He loves them so much, he sang his song!"

The song was nothing unusual, it was your typical song about Pete's shoes, till Pete sees a black and grey cube-like shape near the stop sign. It was the same Rubik's Cube from the cover.

I looked as Pete picked up, curious as to what kind of puzzle this was. The black text says: "Wow! Pete has found a mysterious puzzle! I wonder if Pete can solve it!" Pete tried desperately to solve it, but he couldn't. But he never gave up, just like in the countless novels. When he finally solved the puzzle, the thing began to shake, and in astonishment, Pete dropped the ominous looking Rubik's Cube and a cloud of red smoke steamed out of it. And then in a flash of crimson red light, came a creature that resembled an anthropomorphic cat like Pete. At first I thought Pinhead was going to appear, but, that wasn't the case. This character was kind of cool to be honest, he was a deep shade of red with black eyes with slit red pupils (sounds cliched but really, that's what I saw), he wore similar attire to that of Mola Ram from Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, and most of all, he had the tail of a scorpion, and the wings of a bat. He looked at Pete with a death stare and an evil grin that stretched his face like a Cheshire cat, and the black text says: "POOF! A scary looking genie appeared from the puzzle! He says to Pete in a scary voice, 'I am Abu Nuh Maimun! But just call me Abu. State your wish, I only grant three.'"

I partake that this was the Djinn. Pete states that he wants fame and fortune for his musical talent, and that's what he got for his first wish. His second wish was to have his friends even more famous as himself, showing me the selfless nature of the blue cat.

But his third wish... was one that frightens me more now, than the appearance of the Djinn himself.

Pete tells Abu that he wishes for world peace, and when the wish was granted... It showed the world descending into madness; The Antichrist revealed to the world, violence and sexual immorality, the rise in spiritualism, mass animal deaths, natural disasters, earthquakes, and even Christians turning away from God himself. Instead of world peace, the third wish was changed to the events of Armageddon. It turns out that Abu had tricked Pete, and the same black text said: "Oh no! Earth is being hurt really bad! Abu had tricked Pete!" The demonic genie vanished, letting out a chilling laugh. Then the next page showed Pete surrounded in mass destruction. The black text asks: "But did Pete cry?" Now, this is what shocks me the most. Usually, the text would say 'goodness no'. But in this...

Pete... cried.

At least, that's what the picture showed. It showed Pete with a single tear in his eye, with a doleful look on his face. His ears were down, he looked extremely miserable. This was the first time Pete felt sad, hurt, betrayed, and distraught. He couldn't help by whimper as everything around him combusted into flames. It hit me, right in the gut. Like a cannon ball.

This time. A few blood red text was shown above Pete, saying... "You bet he did..." Nothing whimsical, nothing child friendly in the text. It looked, dead serious. No moral was told, it just showed the abominable chaos that swallowed everything and everyone.

I turned the page one last time, and saw on the back matter of the book showed some more text covering the glossary. But it was revealed to be not text, but lyrics to a song! It said,

"Quamvis de poenis innocentum cras quisque indiget paulo carmen. Aurora doleat kiddies parum, parum kiddies currat. Currere per."

The lyrics confused me, since it was clearly in Latin. But, despite all of this, I closed the book, and tried to figure out what the fuck I just read. I put the book away, got up, and continued to go back and look for some Stephen King novels. And came up with my favorite book, The Shining. But I still remember the book; Pete meeting the Djinn, him granting three wishes, and everything destroying itself into nothing. I bought the book and went back home, still remembering that twisted Pete the Cat book. I should've bought it, but I don't think I want to ruin my childhood even more. I checked the Pete the Cat website for anything related to Pete the Cat and The Djinn, but nothing came up. Just the remaining 60 books made by James Dean. But why would James write something so strange, messed up, and absolutely bizarre? I wanted to ask him that question for years now, but what I discovered made me even more puzzled than I was before.

After the book's release, the new 2017 series of Pete the Cat was on Amazon Prime.

Now, I know what you're thinking throughout my story, the whole "Demon Card" being thrown in. Turns out, that whatever had inflicted James through the years -- I don't know what it is -- but it must've got him to do some freaky shit. No doubt about that. It's only a matter of time before it happens again. Only this time, on another children's story.

And that, is what makes this thing, absolutely, haunting.